Malaysia opened an Islamic conference on terrorism yesterday, branding both Palestinian suicide bombers and Israeli soldiers as terrorists and urging the UN Security Council to approve "deterrent sanctions" against Israel.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, recalling the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews during World War II, said Israel should pull its troops out of the Palestinian territories and urged the world to intervene by force if it did not.
"The Holocaust did not defeat the Jews. A second holocaust with Arabs for victims will not defeat the Arabs either," Mahathir told foreign ministers from the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
"Israelis must come to their senses and opt for de-escalation of terror rather than escalating it. If the Israelis won't, then the world must forcibly stop them."
A resolution calling on the Security Council to "take the necessary measures to provide international protection for the Palestinian people and apply deterrent sanctions against Israel" was approved unanimously.
The resolution, adopted at the first session of a conference, said Israel's actions were "posing a threat to international peace and security, and dragging the region toward an all-out war."
Delegates urged the US and Russia, as co-sponsors of the Middle East peace process, the UN Security Council and the EU to press Israel to withdraw its troops from all occupied Arab and Palestinian territories.
The OIC called the conference to dispel perceptions equating Islam with terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks by Muslim radical airline hijackers who killed almost 3,000 people in the US.
Ministers or their representatives from most of the OIC's 57 members -- who range from Albania in Europe to Indonesia in Asia, Guyana in South America and Mozambique in Africa -- were in Malaysia for the three-day meeting.
Mahathir proposed a definition for terrorism encompassing all violence targeted at civilians, which he said included the Sept. 11 attacks, Palestinian and Tamil suicide bombers as well as assaults by Israel in the Palestinian territories.
"I would like to suggest here that armed attacks or other forms of attacks against civilians must be regarded as acts of terror and the perpetrators regarded as terrorists," he said.
Mahathir, who faces a challenge from Muslim radicals at home, said the root causes behind acts of terror could not be ignored.
"We cannot just dismiss them as senseless perverts who enjoy terrorizing people," he added, referring to the perpetrators.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese