Rimmon - News of Qedar

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Rimmon (Pomegranate) is the premier English Language newspaper of Qedar and Eastern Himyar - Since 1975 - 2.5 Dinars
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Pelasgian internal crisis prompts a re-evaluation of the nation's defence capabilities

• His Majesty, Malik Adil II Faisal has visited the Azraq military base​
• General Aviner ben Levi, calls for further funds in the royal army​
• Prime Minister Zeyn Al-Harridi promises security and stability for the Qedari people​

The recent events that have taken place in Propontis have created great concerns in the halls of the Qasbah of Ma'rib, as many fear that the coup might start a domino effect that will create a 2nd Pannonian Crisis in the centre of Himyar. As the economies of both Qedar and Pelasgia as interlinked to a great level, the news of the coup a few weeks ago have stirred many and have created a panic at the Ma'rib stock exchanges, with many fearing that instability might follow, which could be seen in the fall of the value of the Dinar, which has since recovered as it becomes clearer and clearer on a daily basis that the new government in Propontis is there to stay and won't be budged any time soon by any form of political violence that would affect that stability of Eastern Himyar as a whole.​

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Even so, those events together with the ongoing crisis up north in Pannonia have created a sense of pessimism and fear for potential future conflicts, to which the government, headed by his excellency Prime Minister Zeyn Al-Harridi and his royal majesty, Malik Adil II have quickly responded by ensuring their promise to the Qedari people that they will provide the stability they need so as to fulfil their duties in protecting the rights of the common citizen to a peaceful and happy life. ​

In a cabinet meeting, which was headed by both the Prime Minister and his majesty, the government has voted to increase the funding of the Royal Army, and to begin a program to reform and modernise it in such a way to bring it into a shape where it will be efficient for a 21st century style of warfare. General Aviner ben Levi, commander of the armed forces, delegated by his majesty and the minister of defence, has stated that the events in Pelasgia and Pannonia show us that while tensions remain high, because of the way the world economy is interlinked, open warfare like the great war is rare to happen, and even then it will be mostly fought by proxies, in an asymmetrical style, where mobility and rapid response are the most important characteristics of a military deployment.​

While the government has decided on a 3 billion euromarks increase in the budget of the armed forces, General Aviner ben Levi has stated that such a sum would be quickly consumed without offering him the chance to provide with the great reform and modernisation that the government has requested. He went on to call Prime Minister Zen Al-Harridi and request an increase between 5 to 7 billion, something that the government itself stated it won't be possible on an immediate basis, but rather in the long run.​

His majesty has visited the Azraq Military Base, on the outskirts of the capital city of Ma'rib, where the 1st Guard Division, nicknamed the Lions of Judah are based. The 1st Guard Division acts as the garrison of the capital and as a royal guard unit, being seen in the city in their ceremonial uniform, pictured above, and have been in deployed in many peacekeeping operations within the kingdom, from the tribal wars between the nomadic Uroduah living in the Sea of Fire Desert, in the 1940s to the 1960s, to the Emirate of Gedrosia, on the Toyou shores of the Basilisk Sea, where even today anarchist and terrorist groups lay dormant, after the campaigns of the 1970s to the 1990s.​

OTHER NEWS​

MA'RIB DAM RESTORED: An ancient wonder under Qedari patrimony, the Great Dam of Ma'rib has been restored under the careful watch of the team of archaeologists led by Idris al-Pirani, PhD. who is the head of the School of Archaeology within the Royal University of Ma'rib. Built in the 7th century BC, the dam has been used to create a basin that would gather the rain from the periodic monsoon coming in from South Toyou, offering the farmers a chance to irrigate their crops during the dry season.
TOUR OF THE OASES: Singer Ofra Kagan will begin of a tour of the Oasis cities in the dry interior of the country, starting in Sarafand and finishing in Sarif, visiting also a significant number of tent cities. The Oasis tour is the 1st part of her larger Goodbye Tour, after which she will retire. Ofra Kagan has been one of Qedar's most popular singers, transforming traditional Mizrahim and Urudoah songs and offering them a modern vibe. In a career that spanned from 1978 to present day, she is beloved in Qedar, Hajr, Al-Margab, Pelasgia and Filisteia.

 

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Rimmon (Pomegranate) is the premier English Language newspaper of Qedar and Eastern Himyar - Since 1975 - 2.5 Dinars
​

Ex-PM Abdul Shams put under investigation for corruption and influence trafficking

• Abdul Shams has been accused of gaining over 15 billion Dinars in unlawful business
• More than 115 heads of accusation for corruption and influence trafficking have been put together
• The Parliament voted to raise the immunity of the Ex-PM so as to oversee the commencement of the investigation

Abdul Shams, currently a member of the Senate for the 2nd electoral college of Da'ira, and ex-Prime Minister, governing the United Kingdom between 1989 to 2001, has been officially put under accusation by the Royal Tribunal of Ma'rib and the Royal Anti-Corruption Bureau, with over 115 heads of accusation of corruption and influence trafficking, most of the deeds taking place during his tenure as Prime Minister.​

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Abdul Shams has government Qedar during one of its worst periods, where political and economic freedom indicators were plummeting, with many in the 1990s believing that the 1975 Constitutionalist Revolution has failed and the country was heading back into the Years of Lead, characterised by authoritarian rule and nepotism. During this time, Prime Minister Shams has created a clientele around himself that was offered preferential treatment, with many public projects being awarded with little to no transparency to the people close to him. One of the most significant of such contracts was the awarding of the project to construct the Malik Hassan Bridge over the Sous River by the Prime Minister, to his niece, Yasmina Shams, whom was heading a ghost company, that owned only a studio apartment in central Ma'rib.​

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The Royal Tribunal of Ma'rib, together with the Royal Anti-Corruption Bureau have estimated that more than 15 billion Dinars have been unlawfully gained by the Shams family through racketeering, the 12 year tenure of Abdul Shams as Prime Minister transforming the previously impoverished family into the 3rd richest one in the whole of Qedar, and in the top 10 in Himyar. The investigation, headed by chief prosecutor Luca ben Yehiam intends to uncover all the instances of corruption, fraud and influence trafficking, going as far as to confiscate the wealth that was unlawfully gained. Should he lose the trial, Abdul Shams could face up to 55 years in prison, his wife Opal, up to 25, his sons, Abdul, Elias and Yodah, up to 10, 7 and 3 respectively and his niece, Yasmina, up to 15, together with the confication of the family's wealth.​

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The decision to start the investigation comes at the request of his excellency, Prime Minister Zeyn Al-Harridi, whom has headed a special meeting of the joint houses to call for the rising of parliamentarian immunity of Abdul Shams, which was openly accused by the Prime Minister of capturing the state apparatus and subverting it to towards the interests of the Shams family. When the results of the vote came through, with 744 in support of raising the immunity, and 36 abstentions, Abdul Shams started a scuffle (pictured above), calling the meeting a farce. He has been quickly calmed down by the intervention of other members of the parliament and the security guards.​

The result of the vote was received with applauses and joy in the main square of the Qasbah of Ma'rib, where the Al-Abdali Palace, the headquarters of the Parliament are situated. Citizen organisations and ONGs have been campaigning for the investigation on the Shams administration for more than two decades, and see the current result as a first step towards their victory.

OTHER NEWS
NEW RAILWAY ADMINISTRATION: The Ministry of Transport has decided to name a new director for the Royal Qedari Railways, after the previous holder of the office, Avniel Ghattas, has retired, citing a deteriorating health. The new director of the national railway company is Husain al-Dar, an experienced manager which has headed the central station of Ma'rib, then became a trade Unionist and later a Sub-Secretary of State for Transportation.

 

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Rimmon (Pomegranate) is the premier English Language newspaper of Qedar and Eastern Himyar - Since 1975 - 2.5 Dinars​

Is there a spot between Pan-Urudoah and Pan-Judaic identities for a local one?
Opinion piece by Tamir Burki, professor at the Royal University of Ma'rib

In its history, Qedar has gone a different path from the main body of Urudoah peoples, when the Malik of Ma'rib, Badr dhu Nuwas, has chosen to get baptised in the spirit of Judaism in 702, rejecting with this both the influence of the Christian Church of the Southern Tiburan Empire, but also the influence of Islam, emanating from the Hajr Caliphate in western Himyar, while still adhering to a religion of the Book.​

The national narrative of the Marinid Kingdom, officially known as the United Kingdom or the 4th Qedari state in an academic context, states that its identity is specifically Qedarite, blending the Urudoah people with the Judaic culture, influenced by the Tiburan elements from the adjacent Southern Tiburan Empire/Pelasgian Empire, and the oriental Toyou elements emanating from the Emirate of Gedrosia, on the eastern shores of the Basilisk Sea. While this official narative is built to create a civic nationalism where the religious element isn't that important, two main ideologies have influenced the politics of the Kingdom: Pan-Judaism and Pan-Urudoanism.​

The first one, Pan-Judaism, stresses the role of the Qedari people as a brotherly nation to the Israelites, united together under the religious umbrella of Judaism. While the Qedari theology has taken a different role from the classical Judaism, because of the non-Israeli nature of the Qedari, thus there is little to no Zionism to be found in the country, with the exception of the political thought of the Qedarite Jews, but there is a strong element of Pan-Judaism, which is seen in many nationalist circles, which supports Zionism in the name of the Israelites, not for the Qedari Judaics themselves.​

The second idea, Pan-Urudoanism, is supported by the cultural and linguistic links between Qedar and Hajr, Al-Margab and the other Urudoah peoples of Himyar. In this context, many see Qedar as the main Urudoah nation, because of its status as an independent and sovereign state, compared to both the colonial status of Al-Margab, or the mandate status of Hajr, while many other Urudoah live tribal lives scattered around Eastern Himyar. In this position, many nationalists support the idea that the United Kingdom must push for the liberation of Al-Margab and Hajr, and support the creation of free and sovereign Urudoan states in West Himyar too.​

The main issue here is that both camps are striving for this aggressive external policy which either wants to create a Jewish state centred around Hiyerosolyma, or an Urudoan state in Hajr and Al-Margab. As much as there is quite a lot of effort put in this, the question remains if there is a 3rd way too in this, where the national narrative can sit somewhere else than in the doings of Philisteia, Margab or Hajr, but rather in the lands of Qedar itself. But to see something like that build up after centuries of either of the aforementioned narratives, will be a tough and slow process.​

OTHER NEWS
ENTERTAINMENT: Ma'rib's nightlife has become a magnet for young tourists from all over the world, as the prices of city breaks are lower than in Propontis or other tropical cities of the south. While the numbers of such tourists was always lower in Propontis, the thriving party reputation of Ma'rib, continues to grow, with more and more people from Gallo-Germania discovering the gems of the United Kingdom.