Jembatan ambruk akibat banjir, akses Trans Seram lewat Maluku Tengah putus total. Foto: Dok. Istimewa
Akses transportasi ruas jalan Trans Pulau Seram yang menghubungkan Masohi, Ibu Kota Kabupaten Maluku Tengah, Maluku dengan Kecamatan Tehoru, Laimu dan sekitarnya belum bisa dilalui akibat putusnya Jembatan Kawanoa usai hujan lebat beberapa hari terakhir.
"Dua bentangan di Jembatan Kawanoa ambruk terbawa banjir sejak Minggu(9/7) malam, dan masyarakat tidak bisa melintas baik menuju Masohi maupun sebaliknya ke arah Kecamatan Tehoru, Laimu, dan sekitarnya," kata Kepala Satlak BPBD Malteng, Abdulatif Kelly yang dihubungi dari Ambon, Senin.
Menurut dia, hujan lebat dengan intensitas sedang hingga besar sejak beberapa hari terakhir juga menyebabkan sebuah jembatan di Kecamatan Teon, Nila, Sarua (TNI) Malteng mengalami kerusakan.
Dua jembatan yang mengalami kerusakan akibat banjir ini terletak di ruas jalan utama Trans Pulau Seram.
"Jadi selain Jembatan Kawanoa, ada juga Jembatan Kali Tone di Bumei, Kecamatan Teon Nila Serua (TNS) yang mengalami kerusakan pada bagian oprit, dan tidak ada korban jiwa dalam peristiwa ambruknya dua jembatan tersebut," ucap Abdulatif.
Namun untuk akses transportasi di kecamatan TNS menuju pusat kota Masohi saat ini sudah dipulihkan dengan dibangun jembatan darurat.
Sementara anggota Komisi III DPRD Maluku Anos Yeremias mengatakan, Jembatan Kawanoa yang memiliki panjang 520 meter ini belum bisa dilalui setelah dua bentangan jembatannya ambruk.
"Untuk Jembatan Waetone di Kecamatan TNS sudah dilakukan penanganan darurat sehingga arus transportasinya sudah normal," jelas Anos.
Dia mengatakan, saat ini pihak Balai Pelaksana Jalan Nasional (BPJN) Maluku telah tiba di lokasi Jembatan Kawanoa, namun tingginya curah hujan serta luapan air banjir yang belum surut menjadi kendala bagi BPJN untuk melakukan penanganan darurat.
"Tetapi dari hasil koordinasi kami di Komisi III dengan Kepala Satker BPJN 1, direncanakan akan dipasang jembatan bailey dengan konstruksi rangka baja," tandasnya. Jembatan Kawanoa yang memiliki panjang 250 meter yang menghubungkan Kota Masohi-Kecamatan Tehoru, Laimu dan sekitarnya mengalami kerusakan akibat banjir besar.
Selain di Tehoru, jembatan penghubung yang berada di Desa Waipia, Kecamatan Teon Nila Serua, Kabupaten Maluku Tengah, juga ambruk. Untuk sementara, sudah dibuatkan jalan darurat sebagai penanganan pertama.
"Di Waipia juga [ada jembatan ambruk]. Opritnya (timbunan tanah di ujung jembatan untuk mencegah penurunan jalan) ambruk. Tapi sudah dibuatkan jalan darurat," tutup Abdul Latif.
Berdasarkan video amatir yang diterima Terasmaluku.com, banjir di kali ini meluap dan menghancurkan dua bentangan jembatan Wae Kawanua ini. Terlihat bajir di kali begitu deras sehingga membuat bentangan jembatan roboh.
Cooperation between Russia and member countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), does not seek to hurt anyone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.
"Today’s meeting confirmed that we always lay bare our positions honestly and no one of us is seeking to cooperate against anyone else," he said after the sixth ministerial meeting of the Russia-GCC strategic dialogue in Moscow.
He stressed that neither Russia nor the Gulf countries had ever tried to interfere with each other’s relations with third countries. In his words, this is what distinguishes them "from a range of other relations, which, regrettably, are not equal."
The top Russian diplomat described Russia’s relations with Gulf countries as "friendly, cooperative and based on mutual trust, due account of each other’s interests, and the desire to form consensus approaches to any issues under discussion."
Lavrov met with representatives from the Gulf Cooperation Council nations on Monday. The meeting adopted a joint statement and a joint plan of action for 2023-2028.
Set up in 1981, the GCC includes six countries, namely Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. Its key goals are political coordination and economic integration between the member nations, as well as cooperation to ensure security in the Gulf. The first meeting of the Russia-GCC strategic dialogue, which was established in 2016, was held in Riyadh in 2017.
Russia notes importance of closer cooperation with Saudi Arabia — Lavrov
Moscow thinks it is very important to maintain diplomatic ties and develop cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, on Monday.
"During the sixth round of Russia-Gulf Cooperation Council strategic dialogue in Moscow, we have a unique opportunity to focus on issues of bilateral cooperation. The Russian side once again stresses the importance of maintaining diplomatic relations and expanding cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia," the Russian foreign ministry quoted him as saying.
The top Russian diplomat noted that the positions of the two countries on a range of international issues coincide. "Russian President Vladimir Putin and King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia show solidarity during their regular dialogues within various formats," he stressed.
The US announced last week that it would expedite the delivery of 155mm howitzer-launched cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite earlier characterizing the use of such weapons as a “war crime,” and promising to remove them from US inventories. What other Ukraine-related promises has the Biden administration broken? Here’s a partial list.
The fallout from the Biden administration’s approval on the transfer of M864 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) cluster bombs to Ukraine continues to spread, with US allies, dozens of human rights and anti-war groups, and the United Nations condemning the decision, and Moscow warning that it will result in a further escalation of the conflict.
Cluster Bombs
The US military had previously pledged to eliminate its M864 stocks, and stopped using them in 2016, citing their high dud rate (which can reach up to 20 percent). These particular weapons are reportedly over 20 years old, thus further decreasing their immediate viability as a weapon, but increasing their deadliness to civilians and the surrounding environment over the long term.
In February 2022, then-Biden press secretary Jen Psaki characterized the possible use of cluster munitions in Ukraine by Russia as “potentially…a war crime.” Apparently when the shoe is on the other foot, that’s no longer the case.
Long-Range Missiles
In May 2022, Biden assured that the US was “not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia.” Less than a month later, the US announced that it would send M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, to Kiev. These weapons have a range of between 80 and 110 km. A year after that, Washington’s UK allies announced that they would send long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which have a range of more than 250 km. Now, discussions are reportedly underway in Washington on the possible delivery of a variant of a HIMARS known as the ATACMS, which has a range of over 305 km.
Kiev has already demonstrated its readiness to use its HIMARS and Storm Shadows against civilians in the Donbass and infrastructure in Crimea, as well as Belgorod region and the border with Rostov region, which everyone in the West (apart from former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, perhaps) definitely recognize as Russian territory.
Tanks and Planes and American Crews
When the Ukrainian crisis first began, President Biden expressed caution about the types of military equipment that the US would be willing to deploy, and who would operate it.
“We are showing our strength and we will never falter. But look, the idea that we’re gonna send offensive equipment, and have tanks and planes and trains going in with American pilots and American crews – just understand, don’t kid yourself, no matter what you all say, that’s called World War III. Okay? Let’s get it straight here,” Biden in March 2022.
But in January 2023, Biden announced that the US would be sending 31 Abrams tanks to Kiev, with the announcement serving as a palliative to ease the transfer of hundreds of German-made Leopard and Leopard 2 MBTs. In May 2023, the US greenlit the training of Ukrainian fighter pilots to fly F-16s, even though just a few months earlier Biden promised that Washington would not be sending F-16s to Ukraine.
As far as “American pilots and American crews” are concerned, the recently leaked Pentagon assessment on the status of the Ukrainian conflict revealed that NATO countries already have dozens of special forces boots on the ground, including at least 14 American troops. On top of that, thousands of foreign mercenaries, including combat veterans of US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, have flowed steadily into Ukraine over the past 16 months.
The Russian military announced Monday that it had information that Kiev is working with CIA-controlled private military companies to expand the recruitment of volunteers from the US and Canada to use as “cannon fodder” in Ukraine. If these aren’t the “American crews” that Biden was talking about, what are they?
Defending ‘Democracy’
On the campaign trail in 2019, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden pledged that “as president,” he would “ensure that democracy is once again the watchword of US foreign policy, not to launch some moral crusade, but because it’s in our enlightened self-interest.”
Has he kept his word on that foreign policy pledge in Ukraine? Well, to date the Zelensky administration has imposed martial law, canceled presidential elections scheduled for 2024, imprisoned political opponents, banned opposition parties, and gone after the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Must be a special US ‘export’ brand of democracy.
‘Transparency’ on Ukraine
“If the president were standing here with me today, he would say he works for the American people…But his objective and his commitment is to bring transparency and truth back to government – to share the truth, even when it’s hard to hear,” Jen Psaki said at a press conference in the White House in January 2021.
An often forgotten facet of the Ukrainian crisis is Biden’s intimate involvement in shaping US policy on the country going all the way back to his tenure as Barack Obama’s vice president and the 2014 coup in Kiev. At a Council on Foreign Relations event in 2018, Biden bragged about his personal intervention in Ukraine’s domestic politics to get Viktor Shokhin, a prosecutor investigating a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma on money laundering charges, fired.
Biden jovially recalled how he told Ukrainian officials that the US would withhold a $1 billion loan agreement to Ukraine until the prosecutor was let go. Kiev reneged, and the prosecutor was gone.
Later, it emerged that Biden’s son Hunter was sitting on the board of the energy company. Later still, President Trump got impeached for nudging Kiev to reopen the investigation into Burisma. And just last month, it was revealed by investigators in Congress that the president and his son allegedly received up to $10 million in bribes from Burisma’s owner to court favor with the powerful politician.
Dangerous Lies
As the NATO-Russia proxy war marks its 500+ day anniversary, it’s anyone’s guess what the future holds. Washington’s European allies, pouring in nearly $100 billion in weapons and as much or more in economic and humanitarian assistance to Kiev, are growing increasingly weary of continuing to support a conflict that has thrust their economies into a recession and threatens to leave them deindustrialized husks.
Perhaps in time Biden, his administration, and the Washington political machine will come to the same realization in Ukraine that it did in Afghanistan in 2021, and pull out of the country, leading to the swift collapse of its puppet government.
Or, on the contrary, perhaps the pendulum will swing in the opposite direction, and NATO will entangle itself more deeply in the conflict (as Kiev and some alliance members are seeking), and potentially thrust the world into a global conflagration that could easily go nuclear.
Biden has promised repeatedly that the US “will not fight a war with Russia in Ukraine,” saying he recognizes that “direct conflict between NATO and Russia” would be “World War III.” But his track record on other promises and commitments made to date relating to Ukraine leaves much to be desired.
A senior Taliban leader has admitted that his country is facing dire economic straits because of back-breaking sanctions and lack of recognition by the global community.
Speaking to Katie Jensen in the latest episode of the Arab News “Frankly Speaking” show, Suhail Shaheen said the Taliban had inherited a weak economy and an extremely impoverished Afghanistan when it seized power in Kabul in August 2021.
“The poverty that we are experiencing today was inherited from the past, from the past 20-year-long regime during which foreign forces had a presence in Afghanistan,” he said.
Shaheen said though it was claimed that “the occupying powers” spent billions of dollars in the country, “those dollars went into the private pockets of the warlords. The common people continued to live below the poverty line.”
That situation worsened, he claimed, with the imposition of economic sanctions on Afghanistan after the Taliban took control over the country, as the restrictions led to more poverty.
Shaheen accepted no responsibility for the deteriorating state of affairs in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over, and instead blamed Western powers — “those who imposed the sanctions and those who favored the warlords” — for the economic crisis.
“ No threat is being posed to either military or political employees of the former Kabul Administration. They live in an atmosphere of security and solace in the country. ” Molvi Abdul Kabir, Acting incumbent Prime Minister and Assistant for Political Affairs. pic.twitter.com/utrQ3TgqG8
— Suhail Shaheen. محمد سهیل شاهین (@suhailshaheen1) July 3, 2023
“We are working to tackle these issues and there are some big projects such as road construction that generate internal revenue,” he said.
Shaheen appeared noncommittal and evasive while talking about restrictions on women’s education. At times his statements were full of contradictions and he was on the defensive.
At first, he said there was no ban on women studying. But when confronted with incontrovertible facts about women being barred from attending schools and institutions of higher learning, he attempted to justify the closures, saying: “But it (education) should be according to our rules and values.”
Reminded that all Muslim and Islamic countries around the world provide full educational opportunities for women in schools, colleges and universities, Shaheen responded: “Women should have access to education in an Islamic environment. Ours is an Islamic society (and when there is) a proper environment, they will have the right to have access to education.”
He described the country’s political relations with its neighbors as based on mutual respect, and spoke at length about the recent border clashes between Afghan and Iranian forces, as well as the country’s tense relationship with Pakistan and its evolving ties with the US under the Biden administration.
He argued that the UN needs to look at the situation on the ground, claiming that the decision by the UN and many countries not to recognize the Taliban is “politically motivated rather than based on ground realities.”
Shaheen insisted that the Taliban currently has complete control over all of Afghanistan. “We have secured all the borders. We have control of the entire country. We are able to defend our people and our country. We have the support of the people,” he said.
Turning to Pakistan’s relations with its neighbor under Taliban rule, Shaheen asserted that Afghanistan is an independent country, adding: “We liberated our country. We fought for 20 years against 54 countries.
“We are freedom-loving people. We want peaceful coexistence and ties not only with our neighbors, but with all the world.”
He said the Taliban will not allow anyone to use Afghan territory as a base for operations against neighboring countries or any other nation, including the US.
Shaheen sought to make it clear that the Taliban has no ties with Pakistan’s security forces. “Our policy is peaceful coexistence and positive relations with neighbors in other countries,” he said. “As for their policies, you must ask them.”
When the Americans occupied our country, we fought against them in order to liberate our country. If anyone’s country is occupied, would you not fight for its liberation?
Suhail Shaheen
Responding to Pakistan’s charge — a major source of friction between the two neighbors — that the Taliban is supporting and hosting the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a terror group banned in Pakistan, Shaheen said the TTP is “not in Afghanistan.”
He contended that the TTP operates out of Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas, saying: “They are inside Pakistan. That is their (Pakistan’s) responsibility, not ours.”
Regarding the border clashes with Iran in May this year, Shaheen said the problem was rooted in a 1973 water-sharing treaty between the two countries, referring to an accord under which Afghanistan is committed to sharing water from the Helmand River with Iran at a certain rate.
According to Shaheen, the issue should be solved based on the 1973 treaty, as well as developments, including climate change, that have occurred since its signing.
“But if anyone is using force, we know the history and we will defend our people. That is our right. We are defending. We are not violating anyone’s rights,” he said.
Insisting that the Iranians “attacked our forces,” he said: “Our forces have to defend themselves and that is what has happened. Defending ourselves was our right and no one can impose agreements on us based on the use of force.”
He said that “the seniors” from the Iranian and Afghan sides “came together to resolve the issue through talks.”
Asked whether the Afghans have the means, the army and the resolve to stand up to Iran, Shaheen made a telling comment: “(What happened in the last) 20 years is good evidence and proof of how we defend our country.”
When he said that Afghan territory would not be used to train foreign terrorists, he was reminded of the presence of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who was in Kabul when he was killed in a US drone strike in July last year. However, Shaheen dismissed that as a mere allegation.
“If journalists say there are training centers, then they should tell us where the centers are located,” he said. “If someone is sitting 10,000 km away behind a desk and writing reports based merely on what is in the media, how can that reflect the realities in Afghanistan?
“These reports are not based on the realities in Afghanistan; rather, they are only politically motivated reports. They are mere allegations.”
The Taliban recently welcomed comments US President Joe Biden made on the sidelines of a press conference on June 30 about the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan in 2021. Biden denied mistakes had been made during the withdrawal, saying: “Do you remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said Al-Qaeda would not be there. I said it wouldn’t be there. I said we’d get help from the Taliban. What’s happening now? What’s going on? Read your press. I was right.”
Nevertheless, Shaheen rejected the idea that Taliban is cooperating with the US. “We have the Doha Agreement. Based on that agreement, the Americans agreed to withdraw their forces from Afghanistan, and we agreed not to allow anyone to use Afghanistan against the US,” he said.
“That is our commitment and we honor that commitment. We are operating independently, not with any government — neighboring ones, regional ones or those anywhere in the world — including the US.”
However, Shaheen did indicate that the Taliban’s relationship with the US has changed since “the occupation.”
“When they occupied our country, we fought against them in order to liberate our country. If anyone’s country is occupied, would you not fight for its liberation?” he said.
“That’s what we did, and now we are building our country. We aim to eradicate poverty and to provide job opportunities for our people. For that we need cooperation from all countries, and if they are willing, we welcome them.”
Shaheen made an appeal to the global community to come to the rescue of Afghan farmers who have given up the cultivation of poppies.
“In the past 20 years, they (the foreign forces) spent, according to them, billions of dollars in order to eradicate poppy cultivation, but they failed. They were also trying to prevent drug trafficking, but they failed,” he said.
“Now we have a total ban on poppy cultivation according to the (April 2022) decree by our supreme leader (Hibatullah Akhundzada). And we have succeeded. Independent reports say poppy cultivation is down by 80 percent, but we say it is down more than that. We have achieved this by our own ways and means.”
A report published last month by the geospatial analytics firm Alcis said recent satellite images showed an “unprecedented” decrease in the cultivation of opium poppy in Afghanistan, with cultivation in the largest-producing southern provinces down by at least 80 percent compared with last year.
“It is now an obligation for the international community to come forward and help (Afghan) farmers and provide them with substitute crops in order to make the ban sustainable,” Shaheen said.
“In Afghanistan, farmers have two or three acres of land, which is not enough to feed their families. There should be something from the international community for those farmers who are abiding by the ban and who have stopped cultivating poppies.”
Muhammad Suhail Shaheen is a Taliban member who is currently the head of the Political Office in Doha
Ukraine's much-touted counteroffensive kicked off in early June after months of delays over a lack of military supplies from Western donors.
Russian Defense Ministry said that Kiev has stepped up recruitment of mercenaries in the US and Canada, facilitated by the CIA and private military companies controlled by it.
"Due to a decline in interest in dying 'for the Kiev regime' in Poland, the UK, and other European countries, recruitment activities in the US and Canada have intensified," the ministry said.
The Kiev regime uses foreign mercenaries as "cannon fodder," the Russian Defense Ministry added.
"Foreign mercenaries are used as 'cannon fodder' by the Kiev regime. Their lives are not spared by anyone in the Ukrainian command. Therefore, they have only one choice - to flee Ukraine or to die. The Russian armed forces will continue to destroy foreign mercenaries in the course of the special military operation, regardless of their location on the territory of Ukraine," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Russian defense ministry said on Monday that a total of 4,845 foreign mercenaries have been destroyed during the special military operation, while another 4,801 mercenaries escaped from Ukraine.
"As of June 30, the destruction of 4,845 foreign mercenaries in the course of hostilities, the vast majority from the United States, Canada and European countries, has been reliably confirmed," the ministry said, adding that 4,801 foreign fighters escaped from the territory of Ukraine after mistreatment from Kiev.
A total of 2,029 mercenaries continue to fight on the side of Ukraine military, the ministry said.
"Since February 24, 2022, a total of 11,675 foreign mercenaries from 84 countries have officially arrived in Ukraine to participate in hostilities on the side of the Ukraine armed forces. The largest number of mercenaries arrived in Ukraine in March-April 2022, but after the first losses suffered, the dynamics of their arrival sharply decreased," the ministry said.
Most of the mercenaries arrived in Ukraine from Poland, the statement said.
"The most numerous groups came from Poland (more than 2,600 people), the US and Canada (900 or more people), Georgia (over 800 people), UK and Romania (700 or more people each), Croatia (more than 300 people), as well as from France and the Turkish-controlled part of Syria (200 or more people)," the statement read.
Ukrainian commanders on the front line are not held accountable for losses among foreign mercenaries, this information was reported by Ukrainian prisoners of war, the Russian Defense Ministry noted.
