UAE recalls ambassador over Baghdad’s sectarian policies

BAGHDAD // The UAE yesterday recalled its ambassador to Baghdad and demanded an end to discrimination against Iraq’s Sunni minority as fighting continued to rage between Islamist insurgents and government forces.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs voiced “serious concern” about “exclusionary and sectarian policies that marginalise essential components of the Iraqi people”.

The UAE warned that the policies of the Shiite-led government of prime minister Nouri Al Maliki would only “escalate political tension and jeopardise security”.

“The only way to salvage Iraq and protect its territorial integrity and stability is by adopting a consensual national approach that brings Iraqis together and does not exclude” any party, the ministry said.

Iraq asked the United States yesterday to launch airstrikes on fighters from ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, who attacked the main oil refinery and seized more territory in the north in a week-long offensive that has brought them close to the capital.

But the Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari admitted “a military approach will not be enough. We acknowledge the need for drastic political solutions”.

The US spent millions of dollars over several years training and arming a new Iraqi army after disbanding the Sunni-led force created by the late dictator Saddam Hussein.

Washington has already deployed an aircraft carrier to the Arabian Gulf and sent marines to bolster security at its embassy in Baghdad, but Barack Obama has insisted a return to combat in Iraq for US soldiers is not on the cards.

However, secretary of state John Kerry has said drone strikes could be used.

The Iraqi security spokesman Lt Gen Qassem Atta claimed security forces would regain full control of Tal Afar, a Shiite town in the north that lies along a strategic corridor to Syria, by this morning.

That would provide a base from which to launch operations to recapture Mosul.

With regional tensions rising, the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic republic “will do everything” to protect Shiite shrines in Iraqi cities against the militant assault.

The crisis, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, threatens to break the country apart, while the assault on Baiji oil refinery yesterday further spooked international oil markets.

The attack on the refinery complex, in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, was launched before dawn.

Gen Atta said Iraqi forces managed to kill 40 militants and repel the attack, but that some tanks containing refined products caught fire.

The refinery was shut down and some employees evacuated on Tuesday because of a drop in demand caused by the militant drive.

The militants’ swift advance has sparked international alarm, with the UN’s envoy to Baghdad warning that the crisis was “life-threatening for Iraq”.

Analysts suggested the country could unravel, surviving at best as a federal state.

John Drake, an expert on Iraq with the British security group AKE, was asked if Iraq could remain united. “I don’t think it’s impossible, but it is highly unlikely,” was his verdict.

Militants moved into the Shiite Turkmen area of Bashir in Kirkuk province yesterday and also seized three villages in Salaheddin province.

In a bid to see off the offensive, Mr Al Maliki sacked several top security commanders on Tuesday evening, then stood alongside several of his main rivals in a rare display of unity among Iraq’s fractious political leaders.

The dismissals came after soldiers and police fled en masse as insurgents swept into Mosul, a city of two million, on June 10.

Some abandoned their vehicles and uniforms when faced with the insurgents, who are led by ISIL fighters but also include loyalists of Saddam Hussein.

After taking Mosul, militants captured a major chunk of mainly Sunni Arab territory stretching towards the capital.

Despite security forces’ initial poor performance, Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said Iraqi troops, with help from Shiite volunteers, were “stiffening their resistance” around Baghdad.

* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse

F1 The Movie

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

Anna and the Apocalypse

Director: John McPhail

Starring: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Mark Benton

Three stars

Sole survivors

Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.

Key facilities

Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
Premier League-standard football pitch
400m Olympic running track
NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
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An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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Sand storm

Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
Travel distance: Limited
Source: Open desert areas with strong winds

Dust storm

Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
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Duration: Can linger for days
Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
Source: Can be carried from distant regions

Married Malala

Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.

The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.

Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.

Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23

UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final

Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final

Company Profile:

Name: The Protein Bakeshop

Date of start: 2013

Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani

Based: Dubai

Size, number of employees: 12

Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)

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THE CLOWN OF GAZA

Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah

Starring: Alaa Meqdad

Rating: 4/5

VEZEETA PROFILE

Date started: 2012

Founder: Amir Barsoum

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: HealthTech / MedTech

Size: 300 employees

Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)

Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Profile box

Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)

Tearful appearance

Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.

Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.

She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.

A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.