I write in reference to your article UAE and India agree to collaborate on African aid projects, starting with Ethiopia's IT centre of excellence (December 5): Daniel Sanderson's article was a good read. In her recent visit to the UAE, Indian external affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj signed a landmark deal providing joint Indian and UAE aid to Ethiopia, one of Africa's fastest growing economies. This move is laudable. It represents one more milestone in India and the UAE's long standing bilateral relationship. And the gesture is very good.
K Ragavan, Bengaluru
The UAE passport: a source of pride to Arabs everywhere
I refer to your article Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed praises team who powered UAE's passport to No 1 in the world (December 5): this makes me very happy. These things make all Arabs proud. Hopefully our Egyptian government will focus on important things like the passport index.
Name withheld by request
Animals belong in the wild, not in zoos or the circus
I write in reference to your article Platinumlist seeks to cut ties with Dubai circus following backlash over use of animals (December 4): it should be banned by law to take wild annimals into circuses, as it is in most developed countries. It's almost 2019.
Fred Inger, Norway
All animals belong in their original habitats. I will not go to a zoo, a dolphinarium, or even a safari park, even if entry is free. We should all instead go to see them in the wild.
Cecillia Zapata, Dubai
You know what, I’d actually take the cost of a ticket for the circus and give it to a local animal welfare charity if they cut ties. It would be worth it.
Anne Van Binsbergen-Hope, Abu Dhabi
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
