Monthly archive : "May, 2018"

Kourosh Ziabari - ODVV: The foreign policy of Trump administration is similarly highly controversial and questionable. He finds himself in a new skirmish with another country every couple of days, while traveling internationally to expand the limits of the United States' influence and strength The different aspects of the U.S. President Donald Trump's presidency are being debated by the U.S. and international media these days intensely. CNN's Brian Stelter has recently talked about a "credibility crisis" Trump's White House is grappling with, saying that despite the pledges he made during the campaign season, he is telling lies to his constituency on a daily basis. For millions of Americans who voted for Trump in the 2016 polls,...

Kourosh Ziabari - Gateway House: United States President Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally decertify the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the Iran Deal – was no surprise to Iranians and the international community. Withdrawal from it was one of the strange promises Trump had made during his presidential campaign, matching in eccentricity his Muslim ban, the Wall project along with the border with Mexico and the decision to negotiate with North Korea directly. Earlier this week, Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech toughened the U.S. stance on Iran. Some of the “sweeping changes” that the U.S. has sought include Iran’s agreeing to pull out of the Syrian war, reducing its...

Kourosh Ziabari - ODVV: A feminist activist and professor of sociology says it is largely hypocritical to speak of the United States' concern for human rights, whether nationally, within the U.S., or internationally, especially when it comes to Arabs or Muslims in general. Prof Nahla Abdo believes the approach taken by the U.S. administration to the Middle East as a "troubled region" is predicated on interventionist attitudes, which largely characterize the U.S. foreign policy. "Any attempts by any Middle Eastern country to defy the U.S. and Israeli interests in the region is punished by military invasion, devastation, destruction and massacres," Nahla Abdo said. Nahla Abdo is a Professor of Sociology at Carleton University,...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: The interrelationship between Islam and the West and the struggles that make integration in American and European societies difficult for the Muslims is a major debate these days. An American philosopher and author says Islamophobia is not a new invention and the difficulties faced by Muslims in describing and spreading their faith and the difficulties imposed on them by governments have together created the misunderstandings that have made the interfaith dialogue an arduous task. Dr. Daniel Tutt (@DanielTutt) is an interfaith activist and philosopher. As a scholar activist, his work addresses Islamophobia and inter-religious dialogue. His writing and work has been published in...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: To diplomats, ambassadors and officials of the Obama administration, President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions are incomprehensible, radical and unexpected as they are to many citizens across the world. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal was one of his eyebrow-raising moves. Tara Sonenshine, who was the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs under President Obama, says the decision by President Trump to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal is a public diplomacy nightmare. Ambassador Sonenshine is one of the many Obama administration diplomats who believe that President Trump has devalued “America’s word.” “You don’t...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: Seychelles is an archipelago country in the Indian Ocean and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. With a population of less than 100,000, it’s the 14th smallest country in the world. Seychelles, however, has a thriving economy and is practicing democracy, attracting international investment and receiving numerous tourists who want to visit its wonders. Seychelles won independence from the United Kingdom on 29th June 1976 and is a member of the African Union. Its vibrant economy developed from a mostly agricultural society to a market-based diversified economy but there are still problems such as unequal wealth distribution. An article in The Telegraph once described Seychelles as...

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: On May 8, US President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran deal, is a multilateral agreement between Iran and the six world powers that was endorsed by the United Nations Security Council. The accord, which was agreed in 2015, caps Iran’s nuclear activities in return for the removal of economic sanctions. It also reconnects Iran to the world’s financial and banking system. Trump’s de-certification of the deal was not unexpected. It was one of his campaign promises in 2016. He has pejoratively called the accord “Obama’s deal,” referring to his predecessor, Barack Obama, and has criticized...

Kourosh Ziabari - Centre For Journalism: The U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to separate the United States from Mexico with a wall on the country's southern border was one of the controversial pledges he made during the campaign season in the run-up to the November 2016 presidential polls. President Trump had repeatedly denigrated the Mexican immigrants and vowed to block immigration from Mexico through this initiative. His wall project is now in the offing and Trump says they are the Mexicans who will pay for its construction. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said the country will never pay for it. The executive order 13767 signed by the U.S. president on 25 January 2017 lays the groundwork for the commencement of the...

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: In his latest interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in February 2017 in Munich, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif made it clear that he doesn’t agree with the description that the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is the “Milošević of the Middle East.” Slobodan Milošević was the first President of the Republic of Serbia charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with war crimes in connection to the wars in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. The Yugoslav politician finally died in his prison cell in The Hague in 2006 without being convicted. Now, a politician who is facing a whole load of similar accusations, including war crimes and...

Kourosh Ziabari - CFJ: Steve Adler is the Mayor of Austin, Texas. He is Jewish but his advocacy for the rights of Muslims and immigrants and his vocal resistance against the exclusion of minorities from important social and political decision-makings have made him a popular politician and lawyer nationally and internationally. He has been a practicing attorney in Austin in the areas of eminent domain and civil rights for some 35 years. A noted member of Democratic Party, Mayor Adler was named by the Foreign Policy magazine as one of the top 100 global thinkers in 2017. I did a brief interview with Steve Adler to ask him questions about President Donald Trump's Muslim ban and how immigrants and minorities are doing these days in...

Kourosh Ziabari - ODVV: Saudi Arabia has recently been severely reprimanded over its human rights violations by international organisations, mostly the Human Rights Watch, which has offered a disappointing picture of the situation in this country. Aside from its heavy involvement in the wars in Yemen and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia is still failing in several areas, including in criminal justice, women's and girl's rights and migrant workers. It's reported that over 9 million migrant workers fill manual, clerical and service jobs in the Persian Gulf country, constituting more than half of the workforce, but many of them suffer different sorts of abuse and exploitation, "amounting to conditions of forced labour." In January 2018, UN human...