الكاتب: kafej

Arakan Army says it seizes military posts in two locations in Rakhine state in western Myanmar as residents in Chin state flee fighting to India.

An ethnic armed group has carried out attacks on border guard outposts in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, and fighting has erupted in Chin state, sending thousands of residents fleeing to neighbouring India.

Myanmar’s military rulers are facing their biggest test since taking power in a 2021 coup due to an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups that started an offensive in late October. The Three Brotherhood Alliance has seized more than 80 military bases and seized large caches of military weapons and ammunition.

One of the allied groups, the Arakan Army, which is fighting for greater autonomy in Rakhine State, seized posts in the Rathedaung and Minbya areas, about 200km (124 miles) apart, AA spokesman Khine Thu Kha said on Monday.

“We have conquered some posts, and fighting is continuing in some other places,” he told local media.

Gunfire broke out before dawn, followed by hours of artillery bombardment, residents said, with the military seen blocking entrances to the area and reinforcing administrative buildings.

Richard Horsey, senior Myanmar adviser for the Crisis Group think tank, said the military has experience fighting in Rakhine state but could struggle as enemy forces probe for weaknesses in multiple areas.

“If combat persists, it will open a significant new front for the regime, which is already overstretched,” he said.

“It will be hard for the regime to focus their efforts across all fronts.”

Civilians flee

Fighting also broke out in Chin State, which borders India, when fighters attacked two military camps, according to an Indian official and two sources with knowledge of the assault.

About 5,000 people from Myanmar crossed into India’s Mizoram state as a result of the fighting, said James Lalrinchhana, the deputy commissioner of a district on the Myanmar border.

There was no immediate comment from Myanmar’s military rulers on the latest fighting.

The alliance, which also includes the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, is part of a coalition of seven armed ethnic organisations that maintain close ties with China and have bases or territories near the country’s borders.

Myanmar officials have sounded the alarm, saying, “If the government does not effectively manage the incidents happening in the border region, the country will be split into various parts.”

Myint Swe, Myanmar’s appointed president, told a national defence and security council meeting this month, “It is necessary to carefully control this issue.”

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The UK’s Home Secretary, Suella Braverman has been sacked over her stance on pro-Palestine marches and criticism of the police for being too lenient with protesters.

At least two people have been killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon, according to first responders and local media, amid growing concerns that the Israel-Hamas war could spread beyond Gaza.

Two people were killed in an Israeli strike on the town of Ainata on Monday, according to a first-responder organisation affiliated with the Hezbollah-allied Amal Movement and Lebanese state media.

It was not immediately clear if those killed were civilians.

The Israeli military said earlier that “terrorists fired towards several locations in northern Israel”.

The army said its artillery struck the source of the fire and hit posts which “terrorists used to carry out launches toward Israel”.

In a separate attack, Israeli forces shelled media teams and journalists in the Lebanese border village of Yaroun, official Lebanese news agency NNA reported.

Issam Mawasi, an Al Jazeera cameraman, was injured in the shelling, and the network’s broadcast vehicle was damaged.

Separately, the Israel Electric Corporation said an employee died on Monday after being wounded in a missile attack carried out the previous day by the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israeli forces from its stronghold in southern Lebanon after Israel launched an assault on Gaza last month in response to a Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Palestinian officials in Gaza say more than 11,200 people, including more than 4,600 children, have been killed since the Israeli assault began on October 7.

Around 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities.

The exchanges of fire along the Israel-Lebanon border mark the deadliest violence in the area since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.

More than 70 Hezbollah fighters and 10 civilians have been killed in Lebanon, and 10 people including seven soldiers have been killed in Israel. Thousands more on both sides have fled shelling.

Until now, violence has largely been confined within a band of territory on either side of the border.

Israel has said it does not want war on its northern front as it seeks to topple Hamas in Gaza. The United States has said it doesn’t want conflict to spread around the region, sending two aircraft carriers to the area to deter Iran from getting involved.

But that has not stopped the escalating rhetoric from Hezbollah and Israel.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that the Lebanon front would “remain active”, and said there was “a quantitative improvement” in the pace of the group’s operations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah on Monday not to broaden its attacks.

“This is playing with fire. Fire will be answered with much stronger fire. They should not try us, because we have only shown a little of our strength,” he said in a statement.

Asked at a news conference on Saturday about what Israel’s red line was, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said: “If you hear that we have attacked Beirut, you will understand that Nasrallah has crossed that line.”

‘Tit-for-tat’

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, in an interview with Al Jazeera on Sunday, said he was reassured by the “rationalism” of Hezbollah so far.

“We are preserving self-restraint, and it’s up to Israel to stop its ongoing provocations in south Lebanon,” he said.

Lebanon took years to rebuild from the 2006 war and can ill afford another one, four years into a financial crisis that has impoverished many Lebanese and paralysed the state.

Israel has long seen Hezbollah as the biggest threat along its borders. The 2006 war killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin characterised the violence as “tit-for-tat exchanges between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israeli forces in the north”, predicting Israel would remain focused on the threat from Hezbollah “for the foreseeable future”.

“And certainly no one wants to see another conflict break out in the north on Israel’s border in earnest,” he told reporters in Seoul.

Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center said: “I can definitely see a wider escalation, but I am not sure about a full conflict that nobody wants.

“Nobody wants one on one hand, and I think the US is playing a strong role keeping things under control.”

Former Prime Minister David Cameron is back in front-line British politics, making a shock return as foreign minister in Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government.

The move comes after Sunak sacked Home Secretary Suella Braverman after she wrote an article that accused the police of bias towards left-wing protesters.

So what does this mean for UK policy – at home and abroad?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Alex Deane – conservative commentator and a former Conservative Party aide

Lesley Riddoch – award-winning journalist, former radio and TV news presenter, and Scottish independence activist

Tim Bale – professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London and former deputy director of UK in a Changing Europe

Delegates in Nairobi mulling two options: a wide-ranging strategy that would target plastics production or a limited approach focussed on waste management.

International delegates have convened in Kenya in the hopes of making further progress towards a landmark treaty to fight global plastic pollution.

Addressing the first day of the talks in the capital, Nairobi, on Monday, Kenyan President William Ruto said that time is running out to reach a deal before the end of 2023, a deadline set in March of last year.

“I urge all the negotiators to recall that 2024 is only six weeks away and [there] are only two other meetings to go,” Ruto said.

The meeting is taking place at the headquarters of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) as leaders try to address the scourge of pollution resulting from more than 400 million metric tonnes of plastic waste produced each year.

The UNEP says less than 10 percent of plastic waste is recycled, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature said at least 14 million metric tonnes of it makes its way into the world’s oceans.

Progress has been slow at previous summits, and delegates in Nairobi will have to decide between a wider focus on the production and life cycle of plastic or a more limited emphasis on waste management.

Countries such as Kenya have advocated for a firmer and more binding agreement whereas the powerful plastics industry and petrochemical suppliers such as Saudi Arabia have pushed for a more limited approach.

More than 2,000 delegates are attending the meeting, including representatives from the oil and gas industry, environmental organisations and civil society groups.

“The vast majority of countries are eager to advance the negotiations to get the job done,” said Pamela Miller, co-chairperson of the International Pollutants Elimination Network, a global public interest group.

“On the other hand, a small group of like-minded countries of mainly major fossil fuel, petrochemical and plastic exporters like Saudi Arabia and Russia are actively attempting to take us backwards,” she said.