Foreign Digest: Haiti, Kyrgyzstan, United Kingdom and Iran

Haiti: The international force led by Kenya, approved by the United Nations and with support from the United States, has arrived in Haiti to police the Caribbean State that has suffered from armed criminal gangs that have taken over much of the capital and made political demands on the government. Haiti, which has been without a president since the previous one was assassinated in 2021 and without elections ever since, had recently formed a new government after the Prime Minister resigned because of the gang violence. Kyrgyzstan: Two Kyrgyz volunteers have been convicted this year of volunteering to join the Russian military’s aggression against the former Soviet Republic of Ukraine, even though Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet Republic in Central Asia, is an ally of the Russian Federation. I had posted how the Southern Asian State of Nepal, which is led by a Maoist Prime Minister who leads a coalition with Marxist-Leninists and republicans, had also banned its citizens from helping Russia. The East Asian States of Japan, South Korea, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Singapore have imposed economic sanctions on Russia, but other States have been careful to avoid certain sanctions from doing business with Russia indirectly, and as Russian aggression was widely condemned. United Kingdom: Center-left won a plurality of votes and majority of seats in the British parliamentary elections last week, after fourteen years of Conservative rule, oft-times in coalition with smaller parties. The liberal Labour Party had to moderate their previous far-left policies. On foreign policy, they condemn the terrorism of Hamas and stand strongly against Russian aggression against Ukraine, while they are implementing a migration policy more respectful of human rights, as far-right anti-migrant views in Europe and America pull the conservatives more toward nativism and thus the center-right concedes the middle ground that balances security with liberty and economic needs to the center-left. Indeed, a new anti-migrant party pulled votes away from the Tories, allowing Labour to win a much larger majority in Parliament than previously with a comparable vote total. The Conservatives suffered from the scandal of their then-Prime Minister who violated the health restrictions during the Coronavirus pandemic, disruptions from the British withdrawal from the European Union, global inflation, problems with government services, and voter fatigue from their long rule in Westminster. Meanwhile, the center-left Scottish separatist party lost most of its seats to Labour, thus ending any threat of another referendum on Scottish independence. The United Kingdom, a great power, is a strong ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Iran: The Iranian presidential elections last week were not free and fair. In addition to restrictions on human rights, candidates for President of the theocratic Islamic Republic and Parliament are approved by the mullahs, who exercise ultimate power, who do not allow anyone opposed to Islamism to stand for office. A relatively moderate Islamist defeated a relative hardline Islamist, in the low-turnout election. Iran spreads Islamic revolution throughout the Islamic world and is the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism.