The rise of violence and brutality committed by terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria poses a threat to the Middle East and, if left unchecked, the world, according to ASEAN.
“ASEAN denounces all acts of destruction, violence and terror in all its forms and manifestations,” the organization of 10 Southeast Asian member states said in a statement posted on its Web site on Friday. “ASEAN renews its commitment to work with the international community to fight against extremism, radicalism and terrorism and address its root causes.”
The US last week expanded its bombing campaign against the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The strikes, backed by the broadest military coalition between the US and its Arab allies since the 1991 Gulf War, seek to rein in militants who have rampaged through Syria and threatened to ignite a civil war in Iraq.
ASEAN supports the UN Security Council resolutions, which call on the international community to suppress the flow of foreign terrorist fighters and financing of such groups, the bloc said in the statement.
ASEAN comprises Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei.
As many as 200 Indonesians and at least 30 Malaysians have traveled to Syria to fight with the Islamic State or other militant groups, according to a report last month released by the New York-based Soufan Group, which provides strategic analysis to governments. This raises the risk they will return to their home countries and carry out attacks, the Soufan Group said in the report.
“Governments and Muslim community organizations must maintain vigilance against attempts by misguided leaders to spread propaganda to recruit Muslim youth to extremism and violence,”said Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
“Governments should criminalize by law its nationals advocating, supporting or participating in fighting overseas,” he added.
Should there be an Islamic State strike in Malaysia, it would be along the Sulu Straits, between Sabah and the southern Philippines, the Star reported yesterday, citing Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.
A meeting is to be held with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to discuss allocating funds to safeguard the country’s waters, Hishammuddin told the newspaper.
The Philippine government has been alerted to the possible entry of Islamic State militants into the country, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported yesterday, citing Philippine President Benigno Aquino III’s spokesman Abigail Valte.
Authorities are tapping into the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has signed a peace treaty with the government, to gather and share information, according to the report.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion