Tag: InternationalNews

{The United States has suspended all non-lethal assistance into northern Syria after Islamist rebel forces seized armed depots belonging to the opposition Free Syrian Army, a US embassy spokesman said on Wednesday.}

“Because of the current situation the United States has suspended deliveries of non-lethal assistance into northern Syria,” spokesman T.J. Grubisha told AFP.

But he added that the US move would not impact on humanitarian assistance which was coordinated by international and nongovernmental organisations.

The Islamic Front, the largest Islamist rebel force in Syria, seized the depots belonging to the Western-backed FSA near the Bab el-Hawa border crossing with Turkey on Saturday.

The seizure came after the Front announced that it rejected the authority of the FSA command.

The Islamic Front was formed last month when six groups merged and pledged to work towards forming an Islamic state.

AFP

{Large protests continued in Kiev, Ukraine throughout the weekend in opposition to President Viktor Yanukovich and his government following the abandonment of a pact with the European Union. In the most visually impressive show of disdain for their leader, protesters tied electrical cable around a statue of Vladimir Lenin and toppled the statue, then broke it up into pieces with a sledgehammer (which had been blessed by an orthodox priest).}

The statue, first erected in 1946, was replaced on its plinth by a flag of the EU as well as a sign that read “Yanukovich, you are next!” According to Reuters, the Ukrainian leader and Russian president Vladimir Putin “are widely believed to have struck a bargain whereby Ukraine will get cheaper Russian gas and possibly credits” if Ukraine spiked the EU deal.

Meanwhile, state-run media has largely been trying to shift blame for the protests away from the government. According to BuzzFeed, the channel Rossiya “has outstripped its competitors in showing bizarre, paranoiac, and misleading reports.”

One host said Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was an ex-CIA agent who organized the protests to get back at Russia for the battle of Poltava in 1709; another claimed Ukrainians were only angry because of sharp seasonal changes in the weather.

During one report, a protester interrupted a live broadcast to sarcastically present the reporter with a Academy Award spreading “lies and nonsense.”

The Wire

{Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has dropped yet another bombshell allegation: President Obama wasn’t honest with the American people when he blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a sarin-gas attack in that killed hundreds of civilians.}

In early September, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had proof that the nerve-gas attack was made on Assad’s orders. “We know the Assad regime was responsible,” President Obama told the nation in an address days after this revelation, which he said pushed him over the “red line” in considering military intervention.

But in a long story published Sunday for the London Review of Books, Hersh — best known for his exposés on the cover-ups of the My Lai Massacre and of Abu Ghraib – said the administration “cherry-picked intelligence,” citing conversations with intelligence and military officials.

A former senior intelligence official told me that the Obama administration had altered the available information – in terms of its timing and sequence – to enable the president and his advisers to make intelligence retrieved days after the attack look as if it had been picked up and analysed in real time, as the attack was happening. The distortion, he said, reminded him of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, when the Johnson administration reversed the sequence of National Security Agency intercepts to justify one of the early bombings of North Vietnam. The same official said there was immense frustration inside the military and intelligence bureaucracy: ‘The guys are throwing their hands in the air and saying, “How can we help this guy” – Obama – “when he and his cronies in the White House make up the intelligence as they go along?”’

Here’s what Hersh alleges:

The administration buried intelligence on the fundamentalist group/rebel group al-Nusra. It was seen, Hersh says, as an alarming threat by May, with the U.S. being aware of al-Nusra member able to make and use sarin, and yet the group – associated with the rebel opposition in Syria – was never considered a suspect in the sarin attacks. Hersh refers to a top-secret June cable sent to the deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency that said al-Nusra could acquire and use sarin. But the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of the Defense Intelligence Agency could not find the document in question, even when given its specific codes.

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, told a press conference: ‘It’s very important to note that only the [Assad] regime possesses sarin, and we have no evidence that the opposition possesses sarin.’

It is not known whether the highly classified reporting on al-Nusra was made available to Power’s office, but her comment was a reflection of the attitude that swept through the administration.

The administration was learning about the attack at roughly the same speed civilians were. Hersh says the thorough daily intelligence briefings in the days surrounding the gas attack did not make a single mention of Syria, even as videos and photos of the attack went viral across the Internet. He added that there was revealed a sensor system in Syria that had, in December 2012, shown sarin production at a chemical weapons depot arranged by the Syrian army. Though it was unclear whether this was a simulation or not – all militaries, Hersh says, practice simulations of such things – Obama promptly warned Syria that use of sarin gas would be “unacceptable.”

‘If what the sensors saw last December was so important that the president had to call and say, “Knock it off,” why didn’t the president issue the same warning three days before the gas attack in August?’

The media succumbed to confirmation bias in response to a UN report on the attack. That report, which is less than certain in its terms, said that the spent weapon “indicatively matches” the specifics of a 330mm calibre artillery rocket. MIT professor Theodore Postol and other munitions experts later reviewed the photos and said that it was improvised, likely made locally, didn’t match anything in the Syrian arsenal and would not have been able to travel the nine kilometres from the Syrian army base that the media presumed it was fired from.

Postol and a colleague, Richard M. Lloyd, published an analysis two weeks after 21 August in which they correctly assessed that the rockets involved carried a far greater payload of sarin than previously estimated. The Times reported on that analysis at length, describing Postol and Lloyd as ‘leading weapons experts’. The pair’s later study about the rockets’ flight paths and range, which contradicted previous Times reporting, was emailed to the newspaper last week; it has so far gone unreported.

Though a UN resolution nullified the chances of American military intervention, the impact would be significant if the allegations hold up; recall that President George W. Bush’s legacy was deeply tainted by charges that the U.S. had no proof of nuclear weapons in Iraq when they said they did. Hersh hints at the seriousness of the charges himself: “The cherry-picking was similar to the process used to justify the Iraq war.”

The Wire

{The funeral service of Nelson Mandela could be a “trap” for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani because he could run into US President Barack Obama, a hardline Iranian daily warned Sunday.}

The Islamic republic has yet to announce who will travel to South Africa for Tuesday’s memorial service and next Sunday’s funeral for the late president and Nobel laureate.

Hardline newspaper Kayhan warned in an editorial that if Rouhani attends it could bring him face to face with Obama, “head of the Great Satan government”.

“Some domestic and foreign media outlets are using the funeral ceremony as a pretext to push Rouhani towards a meeting with the head of the Great Satan government,” Kayhan said.

Rouhani, a moderate, defeated a pool of conservatives in a June presidential election after vowing to engage with the West.

Since then there has been a thaw in ties between Iran and world powers.

The most remarkable development was a 15-minute telephone call between Obama and Rouhani in September, as the Iranian president was ending a visit to the US for the UN General Assembly.

The call was the first contact between leaders of the two nations since diplomatic ties were severed more than three decades ago over the hostage-taking at the US embassy in Tehran.

The Kayhan editorial, headlined “Satan lays a trap, this time in Johannesburg”, recalled comments by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after Rouhani’s September trip to New York.

“Some of what happened in the New York trip was not appropriate,” Khamenei said at the time, without elaborating.

Iranian hardliners and conservatives took that as indicating the supreme leader was unhappy the telephone chat had taken place.

Since that conversation, Iran has struck a landmark nuclear deal with six world powers including the United States in another sign of a thawing of ties.

The interim agreement reached last month following a decade of gridlock would freeze parts of Iran’s controversial nuclear programme while easing some of the crippling international sanctions against it.

It is not clear if Rouhani will attend services for Mandela, but he sent a message of condolences following the death of the iconic South African.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has also tweeted a message saying: “We in Iran join the people of South Africa in mourning the death of Nelson Mandela, who inspired humanity with his courage&compassion.”

Mandela, who died late on Thursday at the age of 95, had visited Iran in 1992 and again in 1999.

{{AFP}}

{French President François Hollande said that the Central African Republic (CAR) should hold democratic elections by 2015, during an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, Radio France Internationale and TV5MONDE on Saturday.}

CAR, a former French colony, has been gripped by unrest since Seleka rebels seized control of the country in March, ousting former president François Bozizé. Although the group’s leader, Michel Djotodia, took over as interim leader, he has struggled to rein in rebel fighters, many of whom are from neighbouring Chad and Sudan.

“You can’t leave a president in office who has not done anything or who has let things go,” Hollande said. “Earlier we discussed with African leaders [and] the prime minister of the Central African Republic – who belongs to a coalition that no longer exists on the ground – and the idea, and I support that idea, is to organise elections as soon as possible.”

He said that a vote should be held by 2015.

France will not send anymore troops to CAR

Hollande also reiterated during the interview that France was deploying a total of 1,600 troops to CAR, where sectarian violence has claimed the lives of at least 300 people over the past three days.

He stressed, however, that France will not send any more reinforcements to the country.

“There will not be any more [soldiers going], that will be enough,” Hollande said, explaining that the African Union also planned to boost its military presence in CAR to 6,000 men in the coming days.

Hollande went on to say that two of the goals of the military intervention in CAR was to disarm the different rebel groups and ensure the country’s security in order to pave the way for elections.

South Korea declared Sunday an expanded air defence zone that overlaps with one recently announced by China and covers a submerged rock disputed by the two countries as regional tensions soar over competing territorial claims.

Seoul’s defence ministry said its new zone, which will take effect on December 15, would cover Ieodo — a submerged rock in waters off its south coast, which China calls Suyan.

The airspace above the Seoul-controlled rock — long a source of tension between South Korea and China — is also covered by Beijing’s zone.

China last month unilaterally declared an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, asking foreign planes to identify themselves.

But the zone — which encompasses some areas currently controlled by South Korea or Japan — has drawn intense protests from the two neighbours and objections by their key allies and the United States.

“We will coordinate with related countries to fend off accidental military confrontations and to ensure safety of airplanes,” defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said.

AFP

{President Barack Obama on Thursday defended his nuclear diplomacy with Iran before an audience of Israeli diplomats and senior members of the US Jewish community and officials.}

At a White House Hanukkah reception, Obama said that it was important for the United States to test Iran’s intentions, and pledged to keep working for a comprehensive deal to deprive Tehran of a nuclear weapon.

“For the first time in a decade we have halted progress of Iran’s nuclear program,” Obama said.

“Key parts of the program will be rolled back even though the toughest of our sanctions remain in place.

“That is good for the world, that is good for Israel,” Obama said, vowing to keep striving for a final deal with Iran over the coming months that takes care of the “threat of Iran’s nuclear weapons once and for all.”

Obama also said however that Washington must remain vigilant and that its commitment to Israeli security would remain “iron clad” and “unshakeable.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu harshly criticized an interim nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers in Geneva last month.

Obama’s critics on Capitol Hill have also questioned the president’s tactics and are threatening to enact new sanctions against Iran, which the White House fears would scupper the talks.

The interim nuclear deal freezes aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, in return for a modest easing of the sanctions regime that has crippled the Iranian economy.

AFP

{Britain will impose capital gains tax on foreign investors selling homes that are not their primary residence from 2015, Chancellor George Osborne said on Thursday as the government moved to curb soaring house prices in London.}

“It’s not right that those who live in this country pay capital gains tax when they sell a home that is not their primary residence – while those who don’t live here do not,” Osborne said in a twice-yearly budget statement to parliament.

“That is unfair. From April 2015, we will introduce capital gains tax on future gains made by non-residents who sell residential property here in the UK.”

Britons pay capital gains tax – typically at 28 percent – on any profit from selling property that is not considered their primary residence.

Property prices in London have jumped by about 10 percent in the last 12 months and increases in some parts of the capital have been greater, driven by demand from foreign investors hunting for a second home or wanting to tie their cash in the safe haven of London.

About 70 percent of newly built properties across central London are bought by foreign investors, according to Savills, while 30 percent of luxury London homes worth 1 million pounds or more were bought by non-UK residents in the year to June, consultancy Knight Frank said.

Developers that have benefitted or are looking to cash in on this trend include Berkeley and Barratt Developments, who have built thousands of homes in London, as well as British Land and Land Securities that have recently entered the luxury housing market.

“This shows that the government is worried about a London housing bubble, and it is vital that the extra funds raised from overseas investors will be ploughed back into genuinely affordable housing for people on low incomes,” said Paul Hackett, director of left-leaning think tank The Smith Institute.

Property industry players said the implementation of the tax sent the wrong signals to overseas investors, who they say have helped support the city’s rental market. However, they said it would likely only have a marginal impact on demand and pricing as investors came to London for other reasons such as political stability.

“The introduction of this tax may provide the wrong signals to overseas investors, and be seen to discourage their investment into UK property,” said CBRE’s head of residential research, Jennet Siebrits.

“However, while it might cause some disruption at the time of implementation, we do not believe this will have a substantial long-term detrimental effect on the wider residential market.”

{{Reuters}}

{China’s new air defense identification zone over the East China Sea has caused “significant” unease in the region, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday, adding he had stated Washington’s firm objection to the move during talks in Beijing.}

Biden had around five hours of discussions with President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, with both leaders laying out their perspective on an issue that has rattled East Asia. The zone, two thirds the size of Britain, covers an area that includes islands at the heart of a territorial dispute with Japan.

In response, China’s Foreign Ministry said Biden had been told the zone accorded with international law and that the United States should respect it.

“China’s recent and sudden announcement of the establishment of a new air defense identification zone has, to state the obvious, caused significant apprehension in the region,” Biden told a gathering of U.S. executives in Beijing.

“I was very direct about our firm position and our expectations in my conversations with President Xi.”

Beijing’s announcement of the zone on November 23 has triggered protests from the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Under its rules, all aircraft have to report flight plans to Chinese authorities and maintain radio contact.

U.S., Japanese and South Korean military aircraft have breached the zone without informing Beijing. China’s military has scrambled fighter jets on at least one occasion to monitor.

Japanese and South Korean commercial carriers have also been told by their governments to ignore the rules. Three U.S. airlines, acting on government advice, are notifying China of plans to transit the zone.

Xi took on board what Biden said, according to a senior U.S. administration official travelling with the vice president.

“From our perspective, it’s up to China. And we’ll see how things unfold in the coming days and weeks,” said the official.

China has repeatedly said the zone was designed to reduce the risk of misunderstandings, and stressed that since it was set up there had been no issues with freedom of flight for civilian airlines.

“During the talks (with Biden) the Chinese side repeated its principled position, stressing that the Chinese move accorded with international law and practice and that the U.S. side ought to take an objective and fair attitude and respect it,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a brief statement.

Reuters

{Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on Wednesday called on the opposition to stop escalating tensions in the country’s worst political crisis in a decade, as he held the first cabinet meeting since mass street protests began.}

“I am announcing a call to stop an escalation of political tensions,” Azarov said at the start of a government meeting as protesters sought to blockade the government headquarters.

AFP