 Senegal is in the throes of what many are calling a constitutional coup as President Mackie Saul is postponed elections. The country was set to hold elections on February 25th after years of protests against Saul who is not eligible to run for a third term. The decision to postpone the polls was approved by parliament which was originally set to discuss another proposal by the opposition for a delay due to alleged irregularities in the process. But this was used by the president to postpone the polls instead and during the parliamentary vote police entered the premises and removed opposition deputies. It's quite confusing and there's a lot of chaos and to understand the situation in Senegal we go to Abdul. Abdul, thank you so much for joining us. Very dramatic developments in Senegal, could you maybe first take us through what has been happening. Many people in fact calling it a coup by the president himself. Well Prashan, this is called constitutional coup because this is something which is you can say at least unique in some ways for Senegalese politics. It has the Senegal does not have a history of the kind of things which has happened in the last few days in which President Macky Sal has basically gotten an extension until December 15th to his term was getting over it on February, sorry in April 1st week and now he will be president till December 15th as per the resolution adopted by the Senegalese parliament national assembly. It basically the resolution which was proposed by the opposition PDS Senegalese Democratic Party which basically supported by Macky Sal's party and got but the resolution was voted in a way where most of the other people, most of the other members of the parliament who opposed this resolution were thrown out of the parliament were not allowed to debate on it and so and so forth and the resolution was adopted. So the way it is adopted and the way it has happened as I say unprecedented development in Senegal that's why it is called the constitutional coup by the opposition members. It means that the election which was scheduled later this month may not happen until December 15 and there are also apprehensions that this may even be further delayed and because it depends and this also means that the opposition which basically it basically it means the opposition which has been opposing Macky Sal's policies and kind of it was sure that he will not be contesting the election this time will basically remain in power in a way as opposition is claiming unconstitutionally for and that basically creates a possibility of kind of some kind of danger to the political stability in the country and the freedom of the people to vote and elect their representatives. So that's what has happened several people who are protesting the move have been arrested and in fact the government has ordered suspension of internet and other in fact some of the media houses also claim that they have been shut down following the reporting they carried out from the opposition point of view. Abdul tensions have been building up in Senegal for a while right now we have seen considerable protests by various sections and a very strong crackdown by Macky Sal's government on these protests so could you maybe also take us through what has been the situation over the past few years what is the kind of opposition why are they are proposing his policies. Well Senegal in under Macky Sal has basically implemented a kind of economic policies which basically are very unpopular among the people. This has led to of course the economic problems in the country and that basically has mobilized people behind a leader called Usman Sonko who emerged very popular and there were a large number of demonstrations which were carried out not only by Sonko but other groups which basically are coalition of different civil society groups and organizations which have been historically opposed to imperialist and colonialist interventions, neoliberal policies and so and so forth and that coalition basically is seen as a threat to the establishment in the country and that's why you will see the coalition which has emerged during the vote in the parliament between the main opposition party and the ruling party in the country. There are also claims that the constitution institutions in the country have been demolished by Macky Sal's government including the courts and the constitutional council which basically oversees the elections in a way and this has led to attacks assaults on all kinds of opposition candidates. In fact one of the major reasons which has been cited for postponing the election by the Macky Sal government itself is that the constitutional council cancelled the candidature of some of the prominent opposition members including Usman Sonko which has seen as the face of the popular movement. But this of course there is a sense that this is used as an excuse because Sonko has basically extended support to another candidate Basirao Faye and Faye seems to be gaining ground in the country because he was standing for the issues which were raised by the popular movement in the country primarily the economic suffering, the colonial interventions, the destruction of the institutions in the country in the last few years by Sal's government. So this is a peculiar excuse made by Sal in basically to retain power and to postpone. In fact there was a speculation that Sal wanted to contest for the third term defying the constitutional provision in the country and that also could be one of the reasons that he now seeks extension through this particular move which is widely considered as unconstitutional in the country. Abdul, thank you so much for that update we will get back to you when there is more news but do stay back because we are going to ask you some questions about our next story as well. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in West Asia again with a variety of aims including trying to finalize some version of a ceasefire and purportedly restricting the escalation of Israel's war on Gaza. However the US itself is responsible for and is a catalyst for this escalation as it is clear from its attacks on Iraq, Syria and Yemen. The US also continues to push for some kind of normalization between Arab countries and Israel. However Saudi Arabia has made it clear that it will not consider this until an independent Palestinian state is established. Meanwhile on Monday the UN Security Council discussed the US attacks in the region. To get a sense of what's happening we go back to Abdul. Welcome back Abdul a very heated debate in the UN Security Council on the situation in the wider West Asia region. Could you take us to some of the major arguments that have come up after the US launched these strikes over the past weeks targeting Yemen, Iraq and Syria? Well the meeting security council meeting emergency meeting was called by Russia and of course basically saying that what happened on February 2 in Iraq and Syria basically constitutes a threat to regional and global security. And the representatives which spoke includes both Syrians and Iraqi ambassadors along with Iranian ambassador and all of these three countries basically raised similar issues which basically rejected US claims that what happened on February 2 was a retaliatory attack in self-defense because US forces have been attacked in the region and three soldiers died in Jordan. These countries the representatives claimed that this is not the root cause for the attack. This actually happened because one of course what is happening in Gaza Israel and Palestine in general US support to the Israeli occupation is the primary reason for the resentment against the US forces across the region one and the second thing is the US presence of US forces in the region itself is illegal and constitutes an occupation. So until the occupation ends both the Israeli occupation in Palestine and the US forces withdraw from the region those attacks will not end and that the similar arguments made by all three countries. Russia in fact said that the US attacks are unprecedented in the sense that this is the largest attack since Iraq invasion in 2003 which US has carried out in the region and this basically is an attempt to drag Iran into the larger regional conflict and basically escalate the tension at the regional level which basically completely is against the US stated policy of not trying to control the conflict and not letting it grow at the regional level. Similar arguments were made by Chinese representative as well and most of the other country except for the UK which basically bought the US argument that this basically constitute a retaliatory action and so forth. Rest of the countries most of the rest of the countries opposed US attacks and basically demanded a much more proactive action proactive steps from the UN Security Council. Of course this constitutes a much more of a kind of intention rather than its action because of course we know Security Council will not be able to act this without US being party to that action and that US will not do such thing harming its own interest in the region. Also where does where do you how do you see things heading in the next few weeks we know of course that they have been attacked by resistance forces in all these countries against bases US continuously retaliating the situation in Yemen is there as well and Blinken now visiting the region so where do we you know how does things seem poised at this point. Well as you rightly pointed out Blinken is in the region again this is the fifth visit he is making in the region not right now he is in Israel and it seems that his visit again has failed to achieve whatever goals he had stated basically whatever where the goals may pointed out earlier. For example he visited Saudi Arabia saying that reiterating the US claims that US wants normalization of relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia in fact if you see media coverage most of the western media seems to kind of hint that Saudi Arabia is ready to normalize relationship with Israel at any moment but if you see the statement made by officially made by the Saudis today sorry on on Wednesday it basically rejects such a claims and says that there will be no normalization of relationship between Saudi Arabia and Israel until there is a Palestinian state and a peace in the region peace in Palestine. So it seems that US is basically what Blinken's visit as well as the attacks which are carried out in Iraq and Syria and Yemen basically shows a very confused US stance at least on the regional situation at this moment they do want to kind of create some kind of situation where Saudi Arabia and Israel come together and there is a larger acceptance of Israel in the region but at the same time they are not able to convince even the Israelis not to do any such a provocation for example there was an attack on Syria the day Blinken visited Israel and and that again I said before goes against the goals of Blinken one of the goals as I said before is the attempt to restrain the conflict from spreading in the region. So and as far as the Iraq and Syria is concerned the resistance in Iraq and Syria is concerned of course both the PMF, Popular Mobilization Forces and what we generally call Islamic Resistance Forces have reiterated their claims and who these of course that they will not stop attacking US forces or the target Israeli targets until there is a ceasefire in Gaza and there is attempts to make a larger peace in the region means the two state solutions and so it seems that US is not getting this primary message and that basically is a fact that even the ceasefire agreement which was which is right now is being discussed in Qatar is also not getting traction for the reason that there is no concrete steps taken by the US to kind of create that confidence where it seems that the the basic concerns raised by the players in the region and the countries are even attempted to address to be right. Thank you so much Abdul for those updates. That's all we have in today's DLD brief we'll be back with a fresh episode tomorrow in the meanwhile do visit our website people'sdispatch.org follow us on all the social media platforms and if you're watching this on YouTube please hit the subscribe button.