RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/record-chinese-aircraft-sorties-near-taiwan-prompt-u-s-warning-11633282326

Beijing flew 93 military sorties near Taiwan over three days as China celebrated its National Day holiday, its largest such prodding in the past year, prompting the U.S. to warn against what it called provocative military activity.

On Friday, the Chinese sent 38 military aircraft, including J-16 jet fighters, H-6 strategic bombers and Y-8 submarine-spotting aircraft, flying into Taiwan’s southwestern air-defense identification zone, more than in any other sortie over the past year. The following day, the People’s Liberation Army broke that record by sending 39 more aircraft. On Sunday, China sent another 16 military aircraft, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.

Taiwan responded to the PLA deployment with combat aircraft to keep the intruders at bay, issued radio warnings and deployed missile systems to track their activity, Taiwan’s Air Force said in statements. The Air Force also released a video Saturday in response to such activities, declaring in the text accompanying images of its jet fighters and pilots: “How can we let our enemy’s aircrafts fly over us!”

The aircraft maneuvers coincided with China’s National Day on Oct. 1. Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its territory and has vowed to assimilate, celebrates its own National Day on Oct. 10. The frequency of such aircraft deployments has increased, as China’s PLA has ramped up its presence around Taiwan over the past year, amid closer ties between Taipei and Washington.

Rising concerns about the Taiwan Strait as an international flashpoint are evident from comments by politicians and military maneuvers. President Biden and other leaders of the Group of Seven major democracies in June cited the worry in a communiqué that said, “We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.”

It was the first-ever official mention of Taiwan by G-7 leaders and it has been echoed by officials in individual countries, notably in an increasingly hawkish Japan.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-iraq-wisam-al-hardan-arraf-braude-new-york-times-nyt-israel-abraham-accords-authoritarian-peace-sahwa-sunni-11633287749?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

Advocating peace can be dangerous in the Middle East. My organization sponsored a Sept. 24 conference in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Erbil, which drew 312 prominent Sunnis and Shiites from around the country who urged Iraq to join the Abraham Accords and make peace with Israel. The government in Baghdad dubbed the attendees “criminals” and issued arrest warrants, while Iran-backed Shiite militias threatened to kill participants and fire rockets at Erbil.

The first speaker was Wisam Al-Hardan, leader of the Sons of Iraq Awakening movement, or Sahwa, of Sunni tribal fighters against al Qaeda and ISIS. I helped him prepare his speech, which was adapted into an op-ed for these pages. Shortly before the conference, Mr. Al-Hardan told me he was worried about the threats that would inevitably follow. I urged him to do whatever he felt was right. He steeled himself and took the stage.

In response, Baghdad issued an arrest warrant for him and his son, who didn’t attend the conference; militias threatened to kill his relatives in parts of the country where he couldn’t protect them, and an Iran-backed jihadist moved to take his place at the helm of the Sahwa. A day or so later, he disowned the speech and op-ed piece in a statement broadcast on Kurdish television, in which he claimed to have been “duped.” (He paid me the courtesy of telling me in advance that he planned to do so.)

New York Times Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf was one of several journalists who interviewed me by phone about the incident. I explained how I had helped Mr. Al-Hardan develop the speech from his original draft and served as go-between with the Journal’s editors. I confirmed that I translated the edited English-language version back into Arabic and submitted it to Mr. Al-Hardan for approval.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17829/afghanistan-taliban-terroris

The most worrying concerns, though, about the Taliban’s ability to rein in the activities of Islamist terror groups stem from the composition of the new Afghan government which, far from reflecting the Taliban’s claim that it is pursuing a “moderate” agenda, is packed with hardliners and includes no women, minorities or opposition members.

In particular, the appointment of Sirajuddin Haqqani, a prominent member of the infamous Haqqani network who is on the FBI’s most wanted list and is a designated global terrorist, completely undermines the Taliban’s claim that it wants to curb the activities of Islamist terrorists.

More recently the group has been building ties with ISIS-K. As Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, wrote in a recent article for Foreign Policy magazine, “There has, in fact, been a tactical and strategic convergence between the Islamic State-Khorasan and the Haqqanis, if not the entirety of the Taliban.”

At the time of the Taliban takeover, Pakistan’s pro-Islamist Prime Minister Imran Khan rejoiced at America’s humiliating defeat in Afghanistan. Now he finds himself facing a battle for survival in Islamabad as militant supporters of the so-called “Pakistani Taliban” seek to emulate the achievements of their Afghan neighbours by overthrowing the Pakistani government.

As seen this morning with the bombing of the Eidgah Mosque in Kabul, leaving a reported 8 people killed and 20 wounded, the prospects of Afghanistan once more becoming a safe haven that can be used by Islamist terrorist groups to launch deadly attacks against the West have risen dramatically in the wake of US President Joe Biden’s disastrous decision to withdraw American forces from the country. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday through its Nasheer news agency on Telegram.

Part of Mr Biden’s justification for ending America’s 20-year-old involvement in the conflict was that the Taliban had learnt the lessons of its past involvement with Islamist terror groups like al-Qaeda, and would therefore be unlikely to allow them to operate freely in territory under Taliban control.