Tag: InternationalNews

{The Democratic chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee accused the White House on Wednesday of using “over the top” rhetoric and “fear-mongering” tactics to try to halt new sanctions against Iran after the United States brokered an interim deal with Tehran over its nuclear program.}

Senator Robert Menendez criticized President Barack Obama’s administration for agreeing to the deal under which Iran will accept restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for limited relief from economic sanctions that have damaged its economy and cut deeply into its oil exports.

Many Republicans already have criticized Obama over the agreement, and some Democrats, who tend to more hawkish on Iran than Obama’s administration, have been skeptical about it.

A bill to impose further sanctions against Iran has been stalled in the Senate after Obama’s administration appealed for a delay to allow time to pursue a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear problem.

“What I don’t appreciate is when I hear remarks out of the White House spokesman that … if we’re pursuing sanctions we’re marching the country off to war. I think that’s way over the top, I think that’s fear-mongering,” Menendez said on the National Public Radio program “All Things Considered.”

The White House declined to respond to his comments.

Menendez who often supports Obama, but is a hawk on Iran, said he would push ahead with fresh sanctions measures that would take effect if Iran stops cooperating with Western powers.

The United States and six world powers agreed to the deal with Iran last weekend, but many members of the U.S. Congress, particularly those who strongly support Israel, have expressed concern about the agreement, even though it has reduced the risk of U.S. military action in the Middle East.

“We have to worry about the hardliners in Iran,” said Menendez. “And it seems that the Iranians get to play good cop-bad cop, (Iranian President Hassan) Rouhani as the good cop, the hardliners as the bad cop.”

Democrats and Republicans, including Menendez, said they would work together “over the coming weeks” to pass legislation to impose new sanctions on Iran.

The White House and the Iranian government have said Congress could kill the deal if it enacts new sanctions now.

The Senate and House of Representatives are scheduled to be out of session next week for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

{{Reuters}}

{The Obama Administration is considering destroying the deadliest Syrian chemical weapons at sea in a bid to circumvent the various diplomatic, security and environmental problems that would come with land-based disposal. The plan has not yet been approved but is thought to be in favor as no other country has committed to neutralizing the weapons on their soil.}

Jonathan Lalley, a spokesman for the National Security Council, was keen to stress that no decision had yet been made, but confirmed that discussions were taking place. “We and our international partners are pursuing alternative means of destruction,” he said in an emailed statement to the Associated Press, adding, “We remain confident that we will complete elimination of the program within the milestones agreed upon.”

It is thought that a maritime disposal of the weapons would take place aboard the MV Cape Ray in the Mediterranean Sea, which would be fitted with a special hydrolysis system to render the chemicals unusable as weapons. The vessel would have a civilian crew but would be under the control of the Defense Department’s Military Sealift Command. Nearby U.S. warships would provide security.

Central to the decision would be the verdict of the global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The body recently highlighted the logistical difficulty of transporting the deadly material out of Syria while the civil war continues on the ground.

[Associated Press]

{China “monitored” US B-52 bomber flights in its newly-declared air defence identification zone, the defence ministry said Wednesday, in an assertion of its authority that avoided threatening direct action.}

The flight of the giant long-range Stratofortress planes was a clear warning that Washington would push back against what it considers an aggressive stance by Beijing in the region.

Beijing’s non-confrontational response elicited scorn from some Chinese netizens as weak in the face of defiance, but analysts said it may never have intended to impose the zone by force.

The Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea includes Japan-administered islands at the heart of a tense dispute between the two neighbours.

Beijing’s controversial demand that aircraft submit flight plans when traversing it triggered a storm of diplomatic protest, and the Pentagon said the B-52s did not comply with the Chinese rules.

But in a statement, Beijing’s defence ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said: “The Chinese military monitored the entire process, carried out identification in a timely manner, and ascertained the type of US aircraft.

“China is capable of exercising effective control over this airspace.”

The statement, China’s first official response to the US action, did not include any expression of regret or anger at the flight, and appeared to be relatively mild, while reiterating Beijing’s claim of control.

Under the rules declared by China, aircraft are instructed to provide a flight plan, clearly mark their nationality and maintain two-way radio communication so they can respond to identification queries from Chinese authorities.

Any that do not comply can face “defensive emergency measures”, says Beijing, which portrays the zone as in line with international practice. State-run media say the ADIZ extends as close to Japan as Tokyo’s own zone approaches China.

AFP

{Thousands of Thai protesters have massed outside four ministries, a major government office complex and more than a dozen provincial halls in an escalation of their efforts to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.}

The Department of Special Investigation [DSI] was evacuated on Wednesday as about 2,000 protesters gathered outside, rallying against the prime minister and her influential brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Hundreds of demonstrators also gathered in front of the ministries of labour, energy, health and commerce in Bangkok, along with local government offices in 19 provinces, according to a senior Interior Ministry official.

“We are very upbeat and I think we will win in a few days,” protest leader and former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban told reporters, calling for the creation of an unelected administration to run the country.

“If we demolish the Thaksin regime… we will set up a people’s council, which will come from people from every sector,” he said. “Then we will let the people’s council pick good people to be the prime minister and ministers.”

Anti-government protesters chanted abuse at the DSI as scores of riot police scrambled to put on helmets and hold up shields, with crowds pushing against a low fence.

The DSI, located in a complex of key government offices, recently indicted Thaugsuban for his alleged role in the deaths of more than 90 people in a 2010 military crackdown targeting supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra.

Aljazeera

{US President Barack Obama defended his administration’s Iran policy but said “huge challenges” remained to successfully implement a landmark deal on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.}

Obama has come under fierce criticism from Republican rivals at home and key allies abroad, such as Israel, for pursuing a diplomatic solution to the Iran question.

Israel decried the breakthrough agreement reached in Geneva on Sunday — under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for an easing of sanctions — as a “historic mistake.”

Obama, however, insisted that the US policy of diplomacy twinned with sanctions had been more productive than rhetoric, stating that “tough talk” alone would not guarantee US security.

“For the first time in a decade, we’ve halted the progress on Iran’s nuclear program,” Obama said. “Key parts of the program will be rolled back.”

Obama said diplomacy would continue over the coming months in a bit to settle “once and for all” the “threat of Iran’s nuclear program.”

“Huge challenges remain, but we cannot close the door on diplomacy, and we cannot rule out peaceful solutions to the world’s problems,” Obama said.

AFP

{India is marking the fifth anniversary of the Mumbai attacks with the masterminds still at large, and New Delhi continuing to pressure Pakistan to bring the accused to book.}

The attacks in India’s commercial capital, began on November 26, 2008, and lasted for three days, killing at least 166 people and wounding 308 others.

India says the attacks targeting five locations across Mumbai were carried out by armed groups based in Pakistan.

One of the culprits Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani national, was caught during the attack and sentenced to death by an Indian court in August 2012. He was hanged three months later.

India has demanded from Pakistan that the people behind the attack be brought to justice and that Islamabad waste no more time in completing the trial of the accused.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, at a meeting with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September, promised to take action against the culprits behind the attack.

On Tuesday, a spokesman of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, said it was important that the perpetrators of the terrible crime be brought to justice, according to the PTI news agency.

The agency quoted the spokesperson, Martin Nesirky, as saying that it was a “terrible crime, an awful terrorist attack.”

Source:
Al Jazeera

{Abu Huseyin says he has sent dozens of people from this ancient city in southeastern Turkey to join jihadist groups in northern Syria and vows to continue helping them fulfil what he says is their duty to God.}

Several hundred Turks are estimated to be among thousands of foreigners swelling the ranks of Islamist rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, generating what some politicians say is a risk that, radicalised and battle-hardened, they could one day return to stage attacks on Turkish soil.

“We send those who are in the path of God for jihad,” said Abu Huseyin, a tradesman identified by several locals as a man who helps recruit fighters for Syria from this mixed Turkish, Arab and Kurdish city 50 km (30 miles) from the Syrian frontier.

“Nobody tells these people to go and fight. Most of them meet up in groups of three or five people and make their own decisions to go,” he said by telephone, declining to meet in person for fear of jeopardising his activities.

Turkey has been an outspoken supporter of rebels fighting against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and has assisted them by keeping its border open.

But Turkish opposition politicians have become increasingly alarmed as hardline Islamist groups such as al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have risen to prominence among the rebels and taken control of territory in northern Syria near the frontier.

The presence of foreign fighters from around the Muslim world, including Turks, adds to the risk that the conflict will spill beyond Syria, they say, accusing the government of doing too little to fight the threat.

“This is our biggest fear,” Mehmet Seker, a member of parliament from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in the southeastern city of Gaziantep, told Reuters. “They received training there. Their thoughts have crystallised. These people could quite easily carry out attacks in Turkey.”

Reuters

Locked in a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood since president Mohamed Morsi’s ouster, Egypt has launched a diplomatic offensive against the movement’s foreign backers armed with funds from its old foes.

In their first salvo soon after Morsi was toppled, the military-installed rulers took aim at Qatar — the only Gulf monarchy that openly supported the Brotherhood — by closing the Egyptian channel of Al-Jazeera television.

The authorities also detained some journalists working in Cairo for the Doha-based network.

In addition, officials said Cairo was willing to return to Qatar funds given to Egypt during the Morsi presidency.

But the main confrontation for the new authorities is a diplomatic one that has developed with Turkey.

On Sunday, Cairo expelled Ankara’s ambassador after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the repression of Morsi’s supporters.

The tussle began soon after Egyptian security forces broke up two camps of Morsi supporters on August 14 in Cairo, in what was the bloodiest episode in Egypt’s modern history.

A day later both Cairo and Ankara recalled their respective ambassadors, but while Ankara later sent its envoy back to Egypt, Cairo’s ambassador to Turkey stayed at home.

On Sunday, the two countries went a step further by reducing their diplomatic ties to the level of charges d’affaires.

Karim Bitar, a Paris-based analyst, said the row stems from “increasing Egyptian nationalism and bitter regional setbacks for Turkey, including in Syria, which has seen it lose influence” in the region.

For Shadi Hamid, research director at the Brookings Doha Center, “Egypt’s ruling military leaders are clearly not tolerating any backing to the Muslim Brotherhood, either inside the country or outside”.

“Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE have provided billions in aid to Egypt which is giving it the degree of latitude” in its diplomatic tactics which has even seen Cairo returning part of Qatari funds, he said.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait announced they would give $9 billion to Egypt just days after Morsi’s ouster on July 3.

They even promised to make up for any shortage of military assistance Cairo normally gets from the United States.

In October, Washington suspended its annual $1.3 billion military aid to Cairo amid repeated criticisms of Egypt’s deadly crackdown on Islamists. US officials, however, have refused to term Morsi’s ouster as a “coup”.

The United Arab Emirates, which strongly backs Egypt’s new rulers, also announced it would provide Cairo with $4.9 billion.

Hamid, the Brookings analyst, said Cairo’s public position on the United States or Europe was purely “rhetoric”, with both Washington and Brussels “unwilling to push for any confrontation with Egypt”.

“They don’t have that political will,” he said.

Bitar said many countries had already accepted what has happened in Egypt.

“Most other countries, apart from traditional supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood like Turkey and Qatar, have taken note of the new Egyptian situation and acknowledged the coup in the name of realism and due to their basic hostility towards political Islam,” he said.

Washington too is slowly stepping back from its earlier stance, with US Secretary of State John Kerry recently accusing the Brotherhood of “stealing the revolution” of 2011 that ousted long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak.

For Bitar the real challenge to Egypt is not any diplomatic isolation but the gradual loss of funds from abroad as “some Gulf countries have warned that the economic aid given to Egypt was emergency assistance and not intended to be a steady financial backing”.

“Going forward, the challenges for Egypt will probably be more economic rather than making the legitimacy of the new authorities acceptable internationally.”

Cairo University professor Mustafa Kamel al-Sayyed said it was this that made him feel diplomatic tensions with Ankara were only “temporary”.

Sayyed said Cairo was unlikely to aggravate ties with Qatar “where hundreds of thousands of Egyptians are working as expatriates because ultimately it could be those employees who pay the price”.

FRANCE 24

{Israel reacted with vehement skepticism at the signing of an interim agreement that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vociferously described as the “deal of the century” for Iran because it eased sanctions while allowing Tehran to continue enriching uranium.}

“This is the first time the world’s leading powers have agreed to uranium enrichment while ignoring Security Council resolutions which they led and years worth of sanctions which contain the key to a peaceful diplomatic solution,” Netanayhu said at the start of the weekly Sunday morning cabinet meeting. “These sanctions are now being removed in return for cosmetic concessions which can be undone by the Iranians within weeks.” He followed the criticism with the kind of threat of military action that first brought the Iranian nuclear portfolio to global prominence three years ago. “Israel is not bound to this agreement while Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “Israel has the right to protect itself in the face of any threat. I wish to reiterate that as the Prime Minister of Israel – Israel will not allow Iran to develop nuclear military capabilities.”

The same ominous sounds echoed through the government. “This is the Islamic Republic’s biggest diplomatic victory since Khomeini’s revolution, and the result here will be an arms race,” Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told Army Radio on Sunday morning, as details of the agreement first became known. Recently returned to his job after being acquitted of corruption charges, Lieberman was among the Israeli officials lambasting the agreement for failing to cut back on the number of centrifuges currently operating, which stands above 18,000. The machines produce fissile material that can be used to create energy, or be upgraded to the intensity required to fuel a nuclear weapon

Time World