Afghanistan to be graveyard of NATO alliance?

Thu Oct 22, 2009

As public support for the Afghan war rapidly falls in NATO countries, the head of the alliance has stepped up efforts to keep member-states united.

On Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen spoke before a meeting with alliance defense ministers in Bratislava on a new approach against the widening Taliban insurgency.

"We all have to achieve more in training and equipping the Afghan security forces," Rasmussen told a security conference before the ministers' meeting in the Slovak capital, which is not expected to announce decisions on troop levels.

Meanwhile, Canada's former top general has said that the setbacks in Afghanistan have greatly damaged NATO's credibility.

Almost eight years on, a continued lack of focus and resolve in Afghanistan will be NATO's undoing, retired general and former Canadian chief of defense staff Rick Hillier warned in a new book.

Hillier wrote in his autobiography, to be published next week, that "Afghanistan has revealed that NATO has reached the stage where it is a corpse, decomposing" and in need of "lifesaving" otherwise "the alliance will be done."

He said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is vulnerable to "any major setback" in Afghanistan and faces extinction unless it can "snatch victory out of feeble efforts."

In the book, "A Soldier First: Bullets, Bureaucrats and the Politics of War," Hillier says no Western country had predicted an Afghan resurgence following the early success of the US invasion in 2001.

When Hillier took command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) years later, "It was crystal clear from the start that there was no strategy for the mission in Afghanistan," he wrote.

"NATO had started down a road that destroyed much of its credibility and in the end eroded support for the mission in every nation in the alliance. Sadly years later, that situation remains unchanged," Hillier wrote.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/109364.html.

In Pakistan, car bomb rocks Peshawar

Fri Oct 23, 2009

A car bomb has exploded, in a latest incident of violence, in main Pakistani northwestern city of Peshawar, as a wave of militant attacks in the country kills hundreds in October.

The blast happened hours after a suspected suicide bomber attacked an air force facility some 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Islamabad.

Sources reported several casualties but details were sketchy so far.

Initial reports said nearly a dozen people were injured in the powerful explosion which took place near a crowded market.

Suspected suicide bombings and militants' assaults on military facilities have left about 200 people dead across the insurgency-hit country in October.

This comes as the Pakistani army has reported killing 155 pro-Taliban militants in the ongoing major offensive in South Waziristan near the Afghan border.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/109386.html.

Strong quake rocks Afghanistan, Pakistan

Thu Oct 22, 2009

A magnitude 6.2 quake has hit northeastern Afghanistan, shaking buildings in the capital Kabul, the US Geological Survey (USGS) says.

The quake struck the region at 12:21 a.m. local time on Friday (1951 GMT Thursday) at a depth of 196 km (122 miles) in the Hindu Kush area, near the border with Tajikistan and Pakistan, the USGS said.

The epicenter reported to be 77 km (48 miles) southeast of Feyzabad, the capital of the Afghan province of Badakhshan and 115 km (72 miles) northwest of Chitral in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province.

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake also jolted the upper parts of Pakistan early on Friday, a Press TV correspondent reported. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Northern Afghanistan and Pakistan are frequently hit by earthquakes, especially around the Hindu Kush range near the collision of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake in northwest Pakistan and Kashmir in October 2005 killed 74,000 people and displaced about 3.5 million.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/109363.html.

Israeli fundamentalists mulling attack on Al-Aqsa

Israeli fundamentalist groups are calling on their supporters to break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the old city of Jerusalem (al-Quds) in the coming days.

The fundamentalist groups are planning a ceremony on Sunday evening, dedicated to the "Temple Mount" day, during which they would call for breaking into the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Al-Aqsa foundation said in a press release on Thursday.

The fundamental Jewish groups are supported by a number of political and religious groups in Israel, the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) reported.

Last week, several fundamentalists broke into the mosque, the Muslims' third holiest site, and left immediately because of the presence of Muslim worshipers — especially those who were staying there to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque from such attacks.

Russia pledges military cooperation with Iran

Russia says it has no plan to restrict its military cooperation with Iran, stressing that Moscow would not allow "competitors a chance to take advantage of the situation".

The announcement came one day after a source, quoted by Interfax news agency, claimed that the Russian government had not received any payments as it had not given its final approval for the sale of the S-300 missiles to Iran yet.

However, Russia's Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation said in a statement that Moscow would fulfill its commitment according to its 'international obligations'.

"The Russian Federation implements and plans to further implement the military-technical cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran in strict accordance with existing legislation and its international obligations," AFP quoting the service as saying.

The source told the Russian news agency "the contract to deliver S-300 systems to Iran was frozen indefinitely due to an array of circumstances practically right after it was signed".

Moscow signed a contract with Tehran in 2007 to supply the powerful S-300 missiles to Iran.

The S-300 surface-to-air system, known as the SA-20 in the West, can track targets and fire at aircraft 120 kilometers (75 miles) away. It also features high jamming immunity and is capable of simultaneously engaging up to 100 targets.

Israeli and US officials have strongly urged Russia not to supply Iran with the missiles as they allege Tehran has military objectives in its nuclear enrichment program.

Tehran, however, says the only aim of its nuclear program is the civilian applications of the technology. Iran says that it has no use for such weapons as it considers them 'obsolete.'

Thursday's statement said that Russia does not want to become an unreliable partner for Iran.

"We can't give comments regarding concrete plans or obligations with regards to existing contracts as it would mean becoming an unreliable partner (and) give potential competitors a chance to take advantage of the situation," the military service concluded.

Hamas sounds optimism for inter-Palestinian talks

The deputy head of Hamas political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouq, says the Islamic Resistance Movement is awaiting an invitation by Cairo to discuss a reconciliation pact with the rival Fatah party.

"Hamas wants to open the new reconciliation paper to match it with what was previously agreed upon. The Movement wants real reconciliation so as not to repeat previous experiences which led to more division in the Palestinian arena," Abu Marzouq told al-Aqsa television station on Wednesday.

The Hamas official also dismissed the allegations that attempts for inter-Palestinian reconciliation deal have fallen short. He blamed 'certain parties' for endeavors to strain the relationship between Egyptian authorities and Hamas officials.

Abu Marzouq underscored that Egypt never rebuked Hamas for its position towards the reconciliation pact, contradicting some media reports.

Hamas and Fatah have long been wrangling with each other over substantial discords which have caused real bottlenecks to mend fences and repair the internal Palestinian divisions. Egypt has, meanwhile, been struggling for months to get opponent Palestinian factions to sign a reconciliation deal. The latest Cairo proposal aims to lay the groundwork for new presidential and legislative elections next summer.

Ever since Hamas won an outright majority in 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, the two factions have pursued bitter rivalry featuring sporadic fighting and tit-for-tat arrests. Most of the fighting has been provoked by Fatah, which remains secular and heavily backed and funded by the US, the primary Israeli sponsor.

Mutual hostility between the two factions boiled over in the summer of 2007, when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from the Fatah faction.

Since then, Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip, while Fatah has continued to control the West Bank from Ramallah. Further complicating the situation, Israel and Egypt, with the blessings of the Palestinian Authority, have both sealed their borders with the Gaza Strip, effectively cutting off the coastal enclave from the rest of the world.

Ethiopia seeks urgent food aid for 6 million

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya – Ethiopia said Thursday it needs emergency food aid for 6.2 million people, an appeal that comes 25 years after a devastating famine compounded by communist policies killed 1 million and prompted one of the largest charity campaigns in history.

The crisis stems from a prolonged drought that has hit much of the Horn of Africa, including Kenya and Somalia.

Drought is especially disastrous in Ethiopia because more than 80 percent of people live off the land. Agriculture drives the economy, accounting for half of all domestic production and most exports.

Mitiku Kassa, Ethiopia's state minister for agriculture and rural development, appealed to donors Thursday for more than $121 million. In January, he had said that 4.9 million of Ethiopia's 85 million people needed emergency food aid.

Ethiopia has long struggled with cyclical droughts, which are compounded by the country's dependence on rain-fed agriculture and archaic farming practices.

In 1984, Ethiopia's famine drew international attention as news reports showed emaciated children and adults with limbs as thin as sticks. The crisis launched one of the biggest global charity campaigns in history, including the concert Live Aid.

This year's drought appears to be slightly less severe than the one last year, which was exacerbated by high food prices. A year ago, Mitiku appealed for aid to feed 6.4 million people affected by drought.

But many humanitarian groups have said in recent years that they believe the number of people affected by hunger is higher than government estimates.

Because of Ethiopia's large size and poor infrastructure, independent observers have difficulty collecting data. The worst-affected areas in the country's east are the site of a fierce insurgency and are off-limits to journalists. Aid groups say their movements in these areas are limited by military restrictions.

In a report marking 25 years since Ethiopia's famine, the aid group Oxfam said countries must focus on preparing communities to prevent and deal with drought and other disasters before they strike, rather than relying on importing aid.

According to the U.N., nearly two-thirds of Africa's agricultural land has been degraded by erosion and misused pesticides. In Ethiopia, where bad farming practices have led to massive erosion, 85 percent of land is damaged.

"The current humanitarian situation underlines our belief that while food aid — much of it donated by foreign donors — is important and can save lives, we need greater funding for longer-term solutions, which can begin to tackle the underlying causes that make people so vulnerable to disasters," said Oxfam's Ethiopia country director, Waleed Rauf.