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Pakistan
backs quick deal on NATO supplies
ISLAMABAD : Pakistan said Wednesday it had ordered
officials to finalise an agreement as quickly as possible
on lifting a six-month blockade on overland NATO supplies
into war-torn Afghanistan.
Islamabad has stopped short of announcing when the transit
lines will reopen, but has signalled President Asif Ali
Zardari will attend key talks on Afghanistan in Chicago on
May 20-21, after a last-minute invitation from NATO. The
country shut its Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies
on November 26 after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani
soldiers.
As a result, Pakistani-US relations-already frayed by the
US raid that killed Osama bin Laden-plunged into their
worst crisis since Islamabad joined the United States in
the war on Al-Qaeda after 9/11.
Now Pakistani and US officials are locked in talks to
finalise a deal on again allowing thousands of trucks and
oil tankers to carry non-lethal supplies from the southern
port city of Karachi to landlocked Afghanistan.
Asked if there was any deadline for the talks, Information
Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said: "There is no deadline.
All departments have been asked to conclude their
negotiations in the quickest possible time."
The cabinet on Wednesday welcomed NATO's invitation to
Zardari, clearing the way for him to travel to the May
20-21 summit, and it is thought unlikely he would be
willing to risk the wrath of Western leaders if the supply
lines have not been restored.
By going to Chicago, Pakistan hopes to ease its
international isolation and boost its leverage over the
future of Afghanistan, as Western countries pull out their
combat forces by 2014.
But Islamabad has essentially been forced to climb down on
demands for an American apology for the air strikes and an
end to drone strikes targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda on its
soil.
Sources familiar with the talks say transit fees for the
vehicles are the main sticking point and the border will
probably reopen by early next week. Islamabad is looking
to more than double the payments, which could earn the
country up to $1 million a day.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani advised against
"emotional decisions, which do not augur well for us in
the long run".
He told the cabinet that relations with NATO and the
United States were at "a delicate phase where we need to
take critical decisions" for Pakistan's "strategic
importance" in the region and in its national interest.
Analysts say Pakistan had no choice but capitulate to
international pressure to reopen the border, with US cash
needed to help boost its meagre state coffers as the
government prepares to seek re-election.
The State Department said "considerable progress" had been
made on ending the blockade.
"We will continue to work on this throughout the week.
Obviously, it'll be a wonderful signal if we can get it
done by the time of the summit," State Department
spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
But the Pakistani government is likely to face an angry
backlash over the U-turn from opposition, right-wing and
religious parties keen to exploit rampant anti-American
sentiment in an election year.
Nor is lifting the blockade likely to solve other problems
in the relationship between Pakistan and the United
States. AFP
NATO leaders eye final two
years of troubled Afghan war
BRUSSELS : After a decade in Afghanistan, NATO leaders
gather for a key summit Sunday hoping for a show of unity
in the final two years of combat-even though allies are
eager to bring troops home.
US President Barack Obama hosts two days of talks in
Chicago, witht the allies hoping to demonstrate a renewed
commitment to Afghanistan as protesters threaten to flood
the streets to denounce a war which has killed thousands
of troops and civilians.
Obama and his fellow leaders will take other key decisions
for NATO's future, activating the first part of a missile
shield for Europe and announcing a slew of military
cooperation projects to cope with mounting austerity.
Afghanistan however will be the centrepiece of a summit
billed as the biggest in NATO's history, with some 60
nations and international organisations invited, including
Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"I look forward to meeting with President Karzai and my
fellow leaders in Chicago to discuss these critical steps
that will strengthen Afghan sovereignty while responsibly
winding down the war," Obama said on Sunday. The US
president said world leaders would discuss how to
"effectively advance" the transition process, but the
strategy faces growing public impatience as well as French
plans to speed up its own withdrawal.
NATO is gradually handing control of security to Afghan
forces, with the aim of giving them the lead nationwide
next year and drawing a path home for foreign combat
troops by the end of 2014.
An orderly withdrawal of the 130,000 US-led troops is
vital for Obama, who wants to show voters ahead of a tough
November election that he can successfully end combat in
Afghanistan after withdrawing from Iraq last year.
But the new French president, Socialist Francois Hollande,
is set to make waves during his first US trip since taking
office on Tuesday by telling allies that he will bring
troops home by the end of 2012 instead of next year.
"At this stage we're shuttling out of Afghanistan as fast
as we can or even faster," Nick Witney, a defence expert
at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP.
"And Afghanistan is facing an empty future."
NATO leaders, he said, "will try to create the impression
that everyone's timetable fits the alliance pattern."
Hollande is not the first leader to push for an early
withdrawal.
Canada and the Netherlands have already switched to
training missions while Australian Prime Minister Julia
Gillard indicated that her troops could leave next year,
although her government later said they would stay through
2014.
But NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen insists
that the summit will cement the alliance's mantra of "in
together, out together."
The mission has been plagued by other challenges,
including growing cases of Afghan soldiers turning their
guns on their NATO allies and Afghan anger over civilian
deaths caused by alliance operations. AFP
China, Japan hold sea talks
on island row
BEIJING : China and Japan hold high-level maritime talks
on Wednesday expected to focus on a group of uninhabited
islands that are at the heart of an ongoing territorial
row between the two countries.
China and Japan have long had strained relations, often
triggered by rival sovereign claims in the East China Sea
over gas fields and the disputed islands-known as the
Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Officials from
the two countries' foreign and defence ministries, as well
as their maritime affairs departments, will attend the
one-day meeting in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.
"China and Japan reached consensus in December to set up a
China-Japan high-level consultation mechanism on maritime
affairs," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told
reporters Tuesday.
He said there would be "no restrictions on the issues" to
be discussed during the first round of talks in Hangzhou.
In 2010, ties between China and Japan hit a low patch
after Japanese authorities arrested a Chinese captain for
ramming his trawler against Japanese coastguard ships in
the area of the disputed Diaoyu or Senkaku islands.
The crisis was eventually resolved through diplomatic
channels, but there have been a number of low-scale
incidents since then that have fanned tensions between the
two countries.
The Wednesday talks could however be overshadowed by the
annual conference of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) -- an
exile group that seeks to raise awareness of persecution
against Uighurs in China-taking place in Tokyo.
Beijing denies any such persecution and accuses the WUC of
being closely linked to terrorist groups. It is against
any country hosting the organisation and on Monday hit out
at Japan for allowing the conference to take place.
Territorial disputes in the seas surrounding China are
causing growing alarm in the region and further afield.
Several Asian countries have competing territorial claims
to parts or all of the East and South China Seas, most of
which involve tiny island chains such as the Diaoyu or
Senkaku that are potentially resource-rich.
China and the Philippines are currently involved in a
high-profile maritime stand-off over a set of islands in
the South China Sea that both countries claim as their
own. AFP
Suu Kyi in cautious
nod to US sanctions freeze
WASHINGTON : Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi said Tuesday she would not oppose a freeze on US
sanctions but urged caution, warning that her country
could slide back after dramatic reforms.
Suu Kyi, who was sworn in May 2 as a member of parliament
after spending most of the past two decades under house
arrest, spoke via Skype to a rare event in Washington
involving former president George W. Bush.
Suu Kyi gave a cautious nod to a call Monday by John
McCain, a leading senator of Bush's Republican Party, for
a limited-time freeze on most sanctions on Myanmar-similar
to a recent move by the European Union.
"That is a way of sending a strong message that we will
try to help the process of democratization but if this is
not maintained, then we will have to think of other ways
of making sure that the aspiration of the people of Burma
for democracy is respected," Suu Kyi said, referring to
Myanmar by its old name.
"I am not against the suspension of sanctions as long as
the people of the United States feel that this is the
right thing to do at the moment. I do advocate caution,
though," she added.
"I sometimes feel that people are too optimistic about the
scene in Burma... You have to remember that the
democratization process is not irreversible."
Repeating one of her frequent themes, Suu Kyi said that
reforms would only be considered irreversible once the
military-long Myanmar's most powerful institution with a
history of abuses-firmly committed to changing its ways.
Suu Kyi, the winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, enjoys
wide respect across the political spectrum in Washington
and her views are considered critical to any US decision
to lift decades worth of sanctions on Myanmar.
Since taking office a year ago, President Thein Sein has
surprised even many cynics by opening talks with Suu Kyi
and ethnic rebels, allowing by-elections swept by Suu
Kyi's National League for Democracy and freeing political
prisoners.
But Suu Kyi said that Myanmar has not freed 271 political
prisoners on a list handed by her party to the home
ministry.
"There should be no political prisoners in Burma if we are
really heading for democratization," she said.
President Barack Obama's Democratic administration has
championed dialogue with Myanmar since taking over from
Bush but has been cautious about a full lifting of
sanctions, saying it needs to preserve leverage to
encourage change.
Bush was in Washington to launch the Freedom Collection,
which brings together mementos and lessons from dissidents
and reformers. The collection has gone online and will
eventually have a physical home at the George W. Bush
Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University in
Dallas. AFP
N Korea lambasts S
Korean presidential hopeful
SEOUL : North Korea on Wednesday lambasted South Korea's
conservative ruling party and its leading presidential
hopeful Park Geun-Hye, linking her ambitions to the
dictatorship of her late father Park Chung-Hee.
The comments by Rodong Sinmun, newspaper of the ruling
communist party, marked the 51st anniversary of a 1961
military coup by then-Major General Park.
He is credited with spearheading the South's dramatic
economic development until his assassination in 1979, at
the cost of serious human rights abuses.
The North in recent months has mounted an unusually
extreme campaign of personal abuse against current
President Lee Myung-Bak as cross-border ties worsen,
terming him a rat and "human scum" among a variety of
other insults.
It has also been taking aim at Park, seen as a
front-runner in the December presidential election. Lee is
constitutionally barred from a second term.
"Nothing can hide the crimes committed by the yusin
dictator," Rodong said in a commentary, referring to Park
Chung-Hee's rule under which political opponents were
jailed and tortured.
It said the remnants of Park's dictatorship are "shameless
enough" to project his daughter Geun-Hye in a bid to
"gratify the greed for power".
Lurking behind this was the ulterior motive of the ruling
New Frontier Party to stir up nostalgia about the era of
economic development under Park in a bid to rally
conservative forces and stay in power, the newspaper said.
The North has lashed out at Park Geun-Hye, even though she
has distanced herself somewhat from Lee's hard line on
cross-border relations. "A dictator's bloodline cannot
change away from its viciousness," it said last month.
AFP
UN
monitors stranded with Syria activists after blast
BEIRUT : Six members of a UN observer team which came
under bomb attack in Syria were forced to stay the night
with anti-regime activists in the northwest town of Khan
Sheikhun, an activist said Wednesday.
"The monitors had to stay behind after their car was
damaged by the blast," said Khan Sheikhun-based activist
Abu Hammam.
The monitors were safe and evacuated on Wednesday
afternoon, after having witnessed "death with their own
eyes" on Tuesday as regime forces gunned down mourners in
a funeral procession, Abu Hammam told AFP by telephone.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights accused regime
forces of having shot dead 20 people in the procession
which turned into an anti-regime rally. While the UN
monitoring team tried to evacuate the stranded observers
Tuesday, "they were too scared to enter Khan Sheikhun
because of the shelling and gunfire."
The six monitors were successfully evacuated Wednesday
afternoon, after having spent the night in the restive
town.
"The Syrian regime committed a massacre Tuesday during a
visit by UN monitors to Khan Sheikhun," said the
Britain-based Observatory.
The blast came as the observers made their way in a convoy
of vehicles along a narrow street in Khan Sheikhun in the
flashpoint province of Idlib, said activists, rebels and
the watchdog.
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said a homemade bomb exploded
in front of the convoy and that three vehicles were
damaged but no casualties reported. The incidents took
place as Syria's anti-regime revolt entered a 15th month
of relentless violence that has killed more than 12,000
people, according to monitors, amid growing fears that a
UN-backed peace plan will fail.
"The monitors who spent the night with us in Khan Sheikhun
were from Yemen, Brazil, Bangladesh, Denmark, Morocco and
Holland," said Abu Hammam. "Two others managed to flee
just after the blast, but these six stayed behind."
It was the second roadside bombing involving the
observers' vehicles in less than a week, after a convoy in
the flashpoint southern city of Daraa wounded six Syrian
soldiers on May 9.
Shelling on Tuesday night in Khan Sheikhun was so
sustained that media activists fled the makeshift centre
they were working in. "The shelling was right next to
us... We didn't sleep at all last night," said Abu Hammam.
AFP
Iran calls for rallies against
Saudi-Bahrain union
TEHRAN : Iran has called on its people to stage rallies
after this week's Friday prayers to protest against what
it described as a US plan to annex Bahrain to Saudi
Arabia. The Islamic Propagation Coordination Council,
which organises state-backed protests, urged Iranians "to
protest against the American plan to annex Bahrain to
Saudi Arabia and express their anger against the lackey
regimes of Al-Khalifa and Al-Saud." Leaders of the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) discussed on Monday plans to
turn the bloc into a union, starting with Saudi Arabia and
Bahrain.
"This dangerous plot is the result of the
American-Zionist-Britain evil triangle to prevent popular
uprisings spreading into other countries of the region and
to control the internal crisis in Bahrain which has been
caused by the inability of the Al-Khalifa regime to
control the situation," the council said on its website.
"Al-Saud and Al-Khalifa should be aware that with this
kind of plot they will not stop the popular movement in
Bahrain and the movement of Islamic awakening in the
region," it added.
The announcement comes after Tehran warned Riyadh's plans
to form a union with Manama would deepen the crisis in
Bahrain. Saudi Arabia had earlier told Iran to keep out of
its relations with the tiny Gulf state.
"Any kind of foreign intervention or non-normative plans
without respecting people's vote will only deepen the
already existing wounds," Iranian foreign ministry
spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.
Iranian MPs on Monday condemned the planned union between
the two Gulf countries.
"Bahraini and Saudi rulers must understand that this
unwise decision will only strengthen the Bahraini people's
resolve against the forces of occupation," they said in a
letter, referring to the Saudi-led forces.
"These statements represent a flagrant interference in the
internal affairs of the kingdom and an attack on its
sovereignty," the foreign ministry said in a letter of
protest handed to the Islamic republic's charge d'affairs,
according to BNA state news agency. Saudi-led Gulf forces
rolled into Sunni-ruled Bahrain in March 2011 to boost the
kingdom's security forces which a day later crushed
month-old, Shiite-dominated protests. AFP
South says Sudan
stalls on UN talks deadline
KHARTOUM, Sudan : A UN deadline for Sudan and South Sudan
to resume talks on oil and other critical issues looked
likely to pass without action on Wednesday, as South Sudan
accused Khartoum of stalling.
The South's lead negotiator, Pagun Amum, told AFP late
Tuesday that his country is ready to resume the African
Union-led talks.
Sudan withdrew from negotiations after South Sudanese
troops occupied the north's main oil region of Heglig on
April 10, in a conflict that led to widespread fears of
all-out war. Amum said Juba has sent a letter to the AU
mediator, former South African president Thabo Mbeki,
saying "we have been ready to resume talks and we are
waiting."
Sudan has not reciprocated, Amum said.
"I believe it is because the government of Sudan hasn't
been keen to return to talks, which is in violation of the
UNSC resolution and the AU roadmap" underlying the UN
resolution, he said.
The May 2 United Nations Security Council resolution gave
Sudan and South Sudan two weeks-until May 16 -- to
unconditionally resume the talks. The unanimous resolution
threatened sanctions if its demands are not complied with.
It sought to avert a "serious threat to international
peace and security" caused by the situation along the
disputed border between the two countries, after weeks of
fighting. South Sudan's 10-day occupation of Heglig
coincided with Sudanese air raids on South Sudanese
territory, actions which the UN condemned.
Khartoum's foreign ministry did not respond to AFP's
requests for comment about the talks, but it said late
Tuesday that Mbeki would likely be in Khartoum this week
"to discuss the details of negotiations, like the dates
and the agenda."
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, an accused war criminal,
said last week that Sudan "will not negotiate about any
issues" unless security matters are resolved first.
An African diplomat told AFP that Khartoum does seem ready
to negotiate, although "they have their own approach" by
placing security first. "They need to obviously agree on
the specifics of the agenda for their discussion," he
said, declining to be named. Khartoum accuses South Sudan
of backing a major insurgency in South Kordofan state, as
well as in Blue Nile, and also of working with Justice and
Equality Movement (JEM) rebels from Darfur.
The South says it does not back the rebels but suspected
JEM fighters were seen alongside its troops during the
Heglig occupation. JEM denied involvement.
South Sudan accuses the north of backing insurgents in the
South as well. AFP
France’s new prime
minister readies fresh cabinet
PARIS : President Francois
Hollande's new Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault got
straight to work hiring a cabinet on his first day on the
job Wednesday, vowing to get France back on its feet.
Ayrault, a 62-year-old former German teacher, lawmaker and
longtime Hollande ally bade farewell to former president
Nicolas Sarkozy's premier Francois Fillon and said his
first cabinet would meet on Thursday, a public holiday.
"The government will be ready and set up by the end of
this afternoon," Ayrault told journalists before heading
off to the presidential Elysee Palace to put his cabinet
suggestions to Hollande.
"What's essential, and that's why the cabinet will meet
already on Thursday, is to get quickly to work to allow
France to get back on its feet in a just way."
The Elysee said in a statement that the cabinet line-up
would be announced at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT).
Like Hollande, who on Tuesday became France's first
Socialist president since 1995, Ayrault has never
previously held a ministerial post, but he is mayor of
Nantes, a veteran parliamentarian and seen as a consensus
builder.
Hollande has been criticised for naming Ayrault, who has a
conviction for favouritism in awarding a local government
contract, with opponents noting that as candidate he
promised not to work with anyone with a criminal record.
He was named to the job of prime minister over other
potential candidates, including Socialist Party leader and
former labour minister Martine Aubry, who said she had
agreed there was no place for her in a government led by
Ayrault.
"In such a set-up, we agreed, amicably, that there was no
sense in my being in government," Aubry told AFP. "There
was no proposal and no negotiation."
"What's certain is that I will campaign for the
parliamentary election. All three of us agreed that, under
the circumstances, where I can be most useful is at the
head of the Socialist Party to be close to Jean-Marc
Ayrault," she said.
French media have been rife with speculation about other
appointments, with Spanish-born Manuel Valls, 49, mooted
as interior minister and Hollande's campaign chief Pierre
Moscovici mentioned as foreign or finance minister.
Laurent Fabius, a former prime minister in the government
of France's last Socialist president Francois Mitterrand,
could get either the defence portfolio or the foreign
ministry, observers said. AFP
Algerian women claw their
way into parliament
ALGIERS : Algeria's
legislative election saw women take almost a third of the
seats, making the national assembly the most
gender-balanced in the region but activists say the battle
is far from won.
According to a provisional count, at least 145 of the new,
enlarged national assembly's 462 seats will be occupied by
women, up from a representation of only seven percent in
the outgoing house.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed "the high
number of women elected" while UN chief Ban Ki-moon
"welcomed the increased representation of women in the new
parliament."
The May 10 election saw President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's
National Liberation Front recover some of its past
hegemony while Islamist parties lost ground, failing to
ride the religious wave that followed the region's Arab
Spring.
"The Arab Spring may be delayed for the Islamists but its
flowers have blossomed for women, they will bring colour
to parliament and raise their voices in an assembly which
was dominated by men for 50 years," said Samia, an
unemployed woman in her fifties, in central Algiers.
"With this considerable proportion of women in parliament,
we're closing in on true democratic representation in
parliament," said Fatima Mustapha, a university teacher.
Women account for 53 percent of the population, 45 percent
of magistrates and now control around 32 percent of the
national assembly, statistics which place Algeria ahead of
Tunisia and Morocco.
Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia boasted that the number
of women elected last week also put Algeria ahead of the
European Union average.
After ten years of activism by women's rights groups, a
new law imposed parliamentary quotas of 20 to 50 percent
of women, depending on the size of the constituency.
But feminists stress it remains to be seen how effectively
the new women MPs, many of them inexperienced, will work
together across party lines.
"Women now have to prove that they deserved their seats,"
said Nadia
Ait Zaid, a jurist who
runs a centre that campaigned for the quotas and trained
some of the women candidates before the election. AFP
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