Rouhani: Cooperation among Muslim states key to resist U.S. pressure

Mahathir Mohamad: Malaysia thriving to re-boost trade ties with Iran

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has underlined the need for cooperation among Muslim countries to fend off pressures by big powers, particularly the U.S., Press TV reported.

It is necessary for Muslim countries to cooperate in order to counter pressures by big powers, Rouhani said on Wednesday during a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in Kuala Lumpur.

“Many problems facing Muslims are due to the interference of the U.S., including the sanctions against Iran,” he added.

Rouhani, who is in Malaysia to attend the Kuala Lumpur Summit, criticized the U.S. for imposing “unilateral and cruel sanctions” on Iran, saying Washington left the 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and major world powers without any justification and placed bans against Tehran despite UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses the nuclear agreement.   

Stressing that sanctions will fail to dent Iran’s determination to boost ties with other countries, Rouhani underlined the need for Tehran and Kuala Lumpur to shore up ties in different sectors, including science, technology, energy, industry, tourism, information technology and medicine.

He expressed hope that the Kuala Lumpur Summit would come up with solutions to challengers facing Muslim countries, particularly Middle Eastern states.

The Malaysian prime minister, for his part, called for expansion of ties with Iran in all sectors, expressing his country’s strong determination to increase trade ties with Tehran.

He said that sanctions have affected trade ties between the two countries but said his country was thriving to re-boost trade cooperation with Iran.

“We will continue our trade and economic ties with Iran,” he said.    

He also rejected the “illegal sanctions” against Iran as a contravention of UN regulations, but expressed optimism that Tehran will surmount the pressures of the U.S. and Europe.

He said the Kuala Lumpur Summit provided an opportunity for Muslim countries to share their experiences.

Separately on Wednesday, Rouhani met and held talks with Malaysian King Abdullah of Pahang, during which the two sides called for further promotion of ties in different sectors, especially economic and cultural cooperation.

Rouhani told the Malaysian King that the key to settling woes facing Muslims were solidarity and cooperation.

He added that Palestine, interference of big powers in the domestic affairs of Muslims countries and the need for promotion of scientific and economic progress were among the most important issues that needed to be addressed.

The Malaysian King also welcomed the Iranian president’s participation in the Kuala Lumpur Summit, expressing hope that the event will yield fruitful results.

Kuala Lumpur summit points to split in Muslim world

By HASAN ALHASAN

The Kuala Lumpur Summit beginning on Wednesday will bring together the leaders of Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and Qatar with 450 Muslim intellectuals from around the world. It will also raise eyebrows. An initiative of Malaysia’s outspoken prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, the summit’s guest list indicates a clear preference for Muslim states of a certain type: supporters of political Islam who portray themselves as champions of global Muslim causes.

Yet the attempt to consolidate such a group will face stiff resistance from a deeply divided Muslim world. And its credibility as a champion of global Muslim causes ranging from Kashmir in India to Xinjiang in China, especially those that clash with members’ national interests, will be put to the test.

Conceived on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this year, the summit emerged out of frustration with the underwhelming response to India’s clampdown in Kashmir. When India announced its revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and placed the region under lockdown, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation deplored the move and echoed Pakistan’s call for a UN-supervised plebiscite.

However, the OIC’s criticism was hollowed out by a lack of consensus among its members on how best to deal with the issue. So while Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia locked horns with India over Kashmir at the UN, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi toured Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, where he was feted. Despite being a core member of the OIC’s contact group on Kashmir, Saudi Arabia took a subdued approach to the issue outside the organization, calling on India and Pakistan to resolve their disputes peacefully. To Pakistan’s dismay, so did the majority of Muslim states.

Beyond the issue of Kashmir, however, the summit also reflects the violent split between supporters and opponents of political Islam across the Muslim world. Muslim-majority states have backed rival sides in civil conflicts that have often pitted Islamists against secular nationalist forces in the Middle East.

In Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia backed the military’s move in 2013 to oust president Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader whose government enjoyed Qatar’s and Turkey’s patronage. In Libya, both Egypt and the UAE have lent support to Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army in the onslaught against Qatari/Turkish-backed Islamist groups. Iran has long thrown its weight behind Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and more recently the Houthis in Yemen, while recruiting thousands of young men into Shiite religious militias to wage war on its behalf in Syria and Iraq.

Amid such differences, then, Malaysia’s attempt at rallying the global patrons of political Islam faces a host of challenges.

The gathering cannot claim to be representative of the wider Muslim world. The six states invited to the summit make up a fraction of the 49 states represented at the OIC. They include not a single African or Arab state apart from Qatar

For starters, the gathering cannot claim to be representative of the wider Muslim world. The six states invited to the summit make up a fraction of the 49 states represented at the OIC. They include not a single African or Arab state apart from Qatar. Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, was initially put forward as one of the summit’s key sponsors. However, its name has disappeared from recent press statements, casting doubt on its participation.

In addition, key Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia – which considers itself a natural leader of the Muslim world – Egypt, and others will also view the summit with suspicion. The divisive nature of the summit may eventually temper the enthusiasm of Pakistan, Indonesia and Qatar. All three are likely to want to avoid antagonizing Saudi Arabia.

According to a former senior Pakistani official to whom I spoke, Pakistan felt obliged to honor Malaysia’s invitation after the latter’s vocal stand on Kashmir. Pakistan’s participation, he insisted, is not meant as a challenge to Riyadh, which Islamabad considers a strategic partner. In February, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman visited Islamabad, where he pledged US$20 billion in investments.

Indonesia also is keen on attracting investments from Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has announced plans to invest $6.7 billion, a figure that Jakarta would like to see increase. In a signal of closer ties, the two sides signed in 2014 their first ever defense cooperation agreement. Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz led a delegation of 800 people on a visit in 2017, injecting further momentum into the relationship.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have also made progress toward mending ties in recent weeks. Although diplomatic relations remain severed, Qatar’s foreign minister made an unannounced visit to Riyadh in November. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have also dispatched teams to the Arabian Gulf Cup soccer tournament in Doha, although a complete resolution to the dispute still seems elusive.

Finally, the summit’s sponsors face a significant test of their credibility. In contrast to its stand on Kashmir, Malaysia has tiptoed around China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims out of fear of drawing Beijing’s ire. During a trip to Xinjiang in July, Malaysia’s Islamic affairs minister, Mujahid Yusuf Rawa, drew criticism for describing China’s controversial re-education facilities as “training centers.” In September, Mahathir admitted that Malaysia could not afford to antagonize China over the Uighurs.

Likewise, Turkey has dialed down its criticism of China after a visit by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Beijing this year. Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan went so far as to deny knowledge of the Xinjiang issue in an interview with the Financial Times in March. Iran has also taken a soft line on both India and China, on which it relies to weather US sanctions.

Geopolitical realities impose considerable costs on would-be champions of global Muslim causes. The Muslim world is split, often violently, on the question of political Islam. The exclusion of Muslim heavyweights such as Saudi Arabia will inevitably dampen the summit group’s leadership claims, while Muslim-majority states keen on standing up to India over Kashmir, or China over Uighur Muslims, face the prospect of serious repercussions.

KL Summit 2019 is to improve Muslim lives, says Dr M

KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 is aimed at improving the lives of Muslims, overcome Islamophobia and address the shortcomings in the Muslim world, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The Prime Minister said Malaysia wanted to hold the summit because it felt that it had to do something to improve the lives of Muslims the world over.

"We feel that we need to overcome Islamophobia. We need to find a way to address our shortcomings, our dependency on non-Muslims to protect ourselves against the enemies of Islam," he said in the opening address at the opening dinner of the summit here.

"We hope at the end of the summit, we will be able to affirm a few specific initiatives that can be the catalyst to bigger things," added Dr Mahathir, who is the chairman of the summit.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have arrived in Malaysia for the summit while the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is expected to attend on Thursday (Dec 19).

Uzbekistan will be represented by its State Advisor to the President, Rustam Kasimov.

Dr Mahathir said the summit was also an opportunity for countries to get closer "to our Muslim brothers and sisters as enjoined in the Quran that all Muslims are brothers."

"While the majority of Malaysians are Muslims, we have a substantial minority who are from different faiths, cultures, customs and ways of life," said the Prime Minister.

"We will never claim to be the perfect Muslim or the model of a good Muslim nation, but we can attest that we have been able to live with our non-Muslim citizens in peace and harmony for decades and this tradition had existed since our independence," he said.

"Admittedly, there have been minor racial and religious conflicts but they are rare and few, insignificant if we are to compare with the period of peace, goodwill and prosperity. To our mind, that is what Islam enjoins us to do – to live peacefully with our non-Muslim citizens and work together to build a nation that is prosperous, peaceful and harmonious," said Dr Mahathir.

With some 450 delegates from 56 countries of the Islamic world present, issues such as the rise of Islamophobia, the incarceration of Muslims around the globe and mass migration of Muslims due to civil wars are expected to be highlighted at the conference.

The participants of the summit, which carries the theme ‘The Role of Development in Achieving National Sovereignty’, comprise of thinkers, intellectuals, politicians and community leaders.

Discussions at the meeting will be framed by seven main thrusts, namely national development and sovereignty; integrity and good governance; culture and identity; justice and freedom; peace, security and defence; trade and investment; as well as technology and internet governance.

Malaysian PM calls U.S. sanctions on Iran a ‘form of dictatorship’

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has said that Washington’s sanctions against Iran are a “form of dictatorship”.

“We don’t believe in applying sanctions to force countries to accept certain ideologies and to change governments. It is not only the particular country that will suffer, but all the trading partners also will suffer economically. In a way, it is a form of dictatorship. A dictatorship that is worse than that in a country, it is international,” he told Aljazeera in an interview published on Sunday.

He added that Malaysia lost out on a big market when the U.S. applied sanctions against Iran.

He also discussed the state of the global economy and its interconnectedness. He argued the U.S. is leading the world in the wrong direction when it comes to multilateralism.

“Becoming very nationalist is good. But not at the expense of other people. Every country should care about itself but that needing to be protective or secure doesn’t mean confronting others. It’s better if we learn to work together,” he said. 

“We were going a long way towards multilateralism. But now nationalism seems to affect many countries,” he added.

According to Reuters, Mahathir said during a speech at the Doha Forum on Saturday that the U.S. sanctions on Iran violate the United Nations charter and international law.

“Malaysia does not support the reimposition of the unilateral sanctions by the U.S. against Iran,” he said.

“Such sanctions clearly violate the United Nations charter and international law; sanctions can only be applied by the United Nations in accordance with the charter,” he added.

U.S. President Donald Trump quit the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions on Iran as part of the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.

Malaysia says U.S. sanctions against Iran are against law

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Sunday that the United States’ sanctions against Iran are unlawful.

“There is no provision in the United Nations that a country which is dissatisfied with another country can impose sanctions on that country and other countries trading with that nation,” Free Malaysia Today quoted the prime minister as saying in a press conference on the sidelines of the 35th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits.

“When you apply sanctions, it is against the law,” he noted.

He said, “The sanctions don’t apply to one country alone,” he said, adding that Malaysia is now being sanctioned.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that banks in Malaysia were closing the accounts of Iranian individuals and companies because of U.S. sanctions.

According to the news agency, some Iranians and one embassy official said that there were “mass closure” of Iranians’ bank accounts in the Southeast Asian country in recent months.

The Malaysia’s prime minister told reporters on Wednesday his nation was being forced to “make it difficult” for Iranians to live normal lives in the country.

“Our ties are very good with Tehran, but we face some very strong pressures from certain quarters, which you may guess,” Mohamad said, without naming where the pressure was coming from.

“We are forced to do this because if we don’t, they will close our banks abroad. It’s a kind of bullying by very powerful people,” he said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Thursday, “Sadly, a number of Malaysian banks have placed a series of restrictions on opening accounts and offering banking services for Iranians, under the influence of the United States’ economic terrorism.”

“In this regard, our country’s embassy in Malaysia has put the issue on the agenda in constant and intensive arrangements with Malaysia’s government bodies and banking officials, and multiple negotiations have been held with the relevant authorities, and figuring out a solution and resolving the problem is still on the agenda,” he added.

Mousavi also said the banking restrictions have created problems for the presence and activities of Iranians in Malaysia, particularly the participation of Iranian elites and university students in Malaysia’s scientific and academic sphere as well as those involved in the trade and business sector.

“We hope that the friendly state of Malaysia would work out solutions to settle the problem, considering the Malaysian government’s goodwill and clear and recognized stances on the unilateral (U.S.) sanctions, and that the problems that have arisen in Iranians’ bank accesses would be resolved with consultation and on the basis of the legal frameworks available for the issue,” he added.

Mahathir Confirms Malaysia’s Commitment to Belt and Road

Written by Adam Garrie 

Veteran Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has confirmed that he shall lead his country’s delegation at April’s Belt and Road Summit in China. When commenting no the inaccurate claims that he is pivoting Malaysia away from its Chinese partner, Mahathir stated:

“We find that China is now the biggest trading partner for Malaysia. It is also a big investor in Malaysia. Our policy is of course to retain and improve the relationship between Malaysia and China”.

This further affirms the deep and broad relationship between Malaysia and China, one which has both a modern and ancient foundation.

Long before the Federation of Malaya gained independence from the British Empire in 1957, the territories comprising modern Malaysia had a long, fruitful and peaceful relationship with multiple Chinese states. In keeping with China’s friendly trading ties with the majority of south east Asian sovereign entities throughout the centuries, Malaysia’s predecessor states enjoyed cordial relations with China on the basis of mutually beneficial trade.In the early 15th century, the Malacca Sultanate which included Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and a portion of Sumatra in modern Indonesia, signed an important security pact with China’s Ming Dynasty. According to the protection agreement, the Ming provided full military protection to the Malacca Sultanate. During Portugal’s invasion of Malacca in the early 16th century, it was Ming forces that fought against the European colonial power and for a time succeeded in holding off the first of many European subjugations of the territories that would become Malaysia.

Earlier this year, Malaysia’s veteran Prime Minister, the 93 year old Mahathir Mohamad spoke of this long history of friendship with China and explained how this forms the basis of warm relations in 2019. Mahathir stated:

“They asked me, how do you feel about China? I told them Malaysia has been maintaining ties with China. We have bilateral trade and we have been friendly to China”.

He continued,

“There are many Chinese in our country, but China has never colonised us. Who should we be fearful of? China or Europe?

Many Chinese nationals know me. They see me as China’s good friend”.

The Malaysian Prime Minister then turned to an issue of contemporary China-Malaysia cooperation that has been widely misrepresented ever since Mahathir returned to a leadership position in 2018. About these matters, he stated:

“Just because the Malaysian government asked to review the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and cancel the Sabah and Malacca natural gas pipe project, then I am seen as unfriendly?

The Chinese government is aware that we are facing serious financial issues. I told them that we can’t afford (those projects). This is not whether we want it or not. These are bad projects in the first place and we can’t afford them”.

It is well known that the ECRL  (which is set to go forward but on a smaller and more manageable scale) was one of the many bloated vanity projects instigated by Mahathir’s notoriously corrupt predecessor Najib Razak. In cancelling the ECRL as initially conceived along with the gas projects in Sabah and Malacca, Mahathir was showing no malice towards China, but was instead trying to reign in the fiscally irresponsible policies of Najib. This became especially important as global financial trends exerted pressure on many emerging markets throughout 2018.

While projects in which China participates are always aimed at creating win-win outcomes for all partners, it is also true that China approaches its partners not with a patronising colonial style suspicion, but from a businesslike position of mutual respect. Therefore, if a partner nation of China seeks to use Chinese expertise to build something extravagant, it is not China’s duty to meddle in the sovereign decision making processes of another nation. It is likewise not China’s business to police corruption outside of China’s borders. That is of course the job of individual nations and this is what Mahathir’s coalition was elected to do for Malaysia.

Beyond this is the dangerous and defamatory “debt trap” myth regarding Belt and Road connectivity projects. Mahathir’s statement likewise dispels this myth by explaining that the decisions his government took in respect of ECRL and the gas projects were internal responses to the poor foresight of the previous government, as well as being more holistic responses to overall geo-economic trends.

The “debt-trap” myth is flawed not only in terms of the fact that it is based on exceptions which prove the rule that most Chinese projects throughout Asia and Africa result in win-win outcomes for both parties, but the myth is also flawed in the sense that it fails to grasp real world realities beyond the ideological and purely theoretical. In life like in geopolitics there is no such thing as a free lunch. While China is more generous in terms of loans, investments and cash injections than most other wealthy nations, it is not in any nation’s interest to rebuild entire continents without getting anything in return.

In this sense, China is engaging in normal business practices that are international standards when it comes to expecting to be paid back on loans that it readily gives to nations aspiring to further develop their economies and infrastructure and does so at levels that are history making in terms of their forward thinking generosity. Of course, instead of offering loans and other investment schemes or otherwise giving away money for free, China could simply come to a foreign state, build infrastructure and keep 100% of the profits from such projects forever more. This however would totally exclude China’s partner nations from the project and would amount to little more than soft imperialism.

Instead, China seeks to cultivate win-win partnerships by including the partner nation in question at all stages of a joint project. In this sense, China is willing to share the benefits and the responsibilities as is normal in a genuine partnership of any kind. Implicit in such relationships is the reality that every now and then one side will negate some of its responsibilities. In the over-hyped case of Sri Lanka, the government simply bit off more than it could chew and in agreeing to take over Hambantota port, Beijing actually saved Colombo both money and grief.

While Sri Lanka clearly did not think ahead before signing the final agreements regarding Hambantota, the fact is that the port is there and being run by Chinese operations means that it is nevertheless still bringing added value to the Sri Lankan economy. Even if for example China took operational control/ownership of Zambia’s international airport (as totally false rumours claimed in 2018), China would still be working towards making Zambia’s airport more functional and attractive. It goes without saying that having a functional and attractive airport brings added value to any economy irrespective of who owns the airport. This is for example true of England’s Heathrow airport which is operated by a company originating in Spain.

The fact of the matter is whether a Chinese project in a foreign nation goes well (as such things typically do) or whether they require some sort of reassessment as many kinds of projects throughout the world do, China is always blamed by those sowing Sinophobic narratives when in reality China is engaging in normal business practices yet tends to be hated by those infected with a zero-sum mentality because China tends to have a larger success record in foreign infrastructure projects than do rivals including the US and India.

Another problem that arises is that when nations take a step back from deals with China to reconsider – something Sri Lanka clearly did not do though it very well could have done – China absolutely gets the blame here too from those who see the world through a zero-sum prism. When  Mahathir Mohamad looked to suspend some of the vanity projects that his corrupt predecessor Najib Razak agreed to begin building with Chinese companies, he was, according to some hyper-Sinophobic media outlets “Standing up to China”. In reality he was simply revising business deals the way the new head of a private company would do so with a partner company after taking over from a failed predecessor. There was no anti-China malice in Mahathir’s revisions of deals – just normal business practices. This has now been explicitly clarified by Mahathir.

When understood holistically, it becomes clear that Sinophobic governments and media outlets tend to blame China no matter what it does, even when Beijing works to secure bespoke deals on a win-win model with any willing and able partner. The fact that China requires partners to exercise joint responsibility in exchange for sharing in the joint success of a project is in fact the opposite of exploitation – it is geo-economic empowerment. Ironically, those who criticise China the most are those whose records of partnerships with developing nations have been the most historically scandalous.

Of course, Malaysia still has many internal issues to address in respect of affirmative action policies which discriminate against the country’s Han Chinese minority, but this issue which is central to the internal development of Malaysia must not be conflated with Malaysia’s trading relations with the People’s Republic of China.

In this sense, Mahathir has offered an unequivocal reassurance that healthy trading relations between the people of Malaysia and China will continue, just as they had done for centuries prior to the reckless imperialist conquests of Malaysia by Portugal, The Netherlands and finally the Britain.

Mahathir’s attendance of this year’s Belt and Road Summit will add to the deep and historically routed ties between the two countries on a win-win basis.