Iran, Pakistan to sign gas pipeline deal 'next week'

Thu, 21 Jan 2010

Pakistani Federal Minister for Petroleum Naveed Qamar has declared that Iran and Pakistan have finalized an agreement to build a natural gas pipeline.

Qamar said the federal government is taking serious measures to combat the current energy crisis in the country.

He noted that the two countries will sign an accord on the pipeline next week, Dawn newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Pakistani minister's remarks come as the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke had earlier urged Islamabad to avoid the deal with Iran.

Holbrooke said the US would help Pakistan secure liquefied natural gas supplies, should it abandon the planned gas deal with Iran.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116679§ionid=351020103.

Netanyahu attacks Abbas over peace talks

Wed, 20 Jan 2010

Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu has attacked the acting Palestinian Authority chief for his refusal to resume peace talks over demands for settlement freeze in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"The Palestinians are piling demand upon demand upon demand," said Netanyahu on Wednesday adding that "The Palestinians have climbed up a tree …and they like it up there".

He scorned Mahmoud Abbas for his refusal to end a year-old suspension of peace talks as US President Barack Obama's envoy George Mitchell prepared for new talks in the region, Reuters reported.

"People bring ladders to them. We bring ladders to them. The higher the ladder, the higher they climb," Netanyahu said.

The negotiations have been halted due to Israel's refusal to freeze settlement construction in the occupied territories.

The Palestinians have repeatedly called for a clear framework for the talks and a timetable for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and East Jerusalem Al-Quds, which was occupied by Israel in 1967.

Abbas says he won't return to the negotiation table without a complete Israeli settlement freeze which Israel has so far refused to do.

Citing a Palestinian official, Haaretz reported on Wednesday that Abbas had proposed that the Obama administration negotiate the final borders of a Palestinian state with Tel Aviv.

The state would have to be established in the territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War, namely the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem al-Quds, according to the official.

He, however, said "the Palestinians would agree to swap up to 3 percent of the territory to accommodate some Israeli settlements".

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116673§ionid=351020202.

Kashmir capital sees undeclared curfew after boy's death

Srinagar, Kashmir - Authorities on Thursday imposed strict restrictions on movement in Srinagar, capital of India-administered Kashmir, as tensions escalated over the death of a teenage boy. Wamiq Farooq was hit on the head Sunday by a tear-gas shell fired by police during anti-India protests in the city.

The boy's death led to violent protests with crowds throwing stones at police and paramilitary personnel who fired tear-gas shells and carried out baton charges to disperse them.

At least a dozen protesters and several policemen were injured in the clashes Wednesday.

The condition of two young protesters injured by tear-gas shells remained critical, the IANS news agency reported, citing hospital sources.

Fearing further violence at a public ceremony called to mourn Wamiq's death, authorities imposed an undeclared curfew in the old quarters of Srinagar Thursday.

The movements of vehicles and pedestrians were restricted, and additional forces were deployed in the old city.

The authorities also banned gatherings of five or more people in Srinagar.

Two prominent separatist leaders, Shabir Shah and Naeem Khan of the moderate Hurriyat Conference, were taken into custody as a preventive measure, police said. Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umer was already under house arrest.

Separatist groups had called for an indefinite shutdown from Tuesday over the boy's death.

The disputed Kashmir region has seen a violent secessionist movement, which peaked in the late 1980s.

The violence, in which more than 45,000 people - civilians, militants and security force personnel - have been killed, has decreased over the past couple of years.

But anti-India sentiments run deep in the region, and there are often flare-ups directed at security forces, who are present in large numbers.

Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir, and it is divided into two parts administered by the two countries.

India has accused Pakistan of nurturing militancy in the region. Islamabad has denied the charge, calling the militants freedom fighters.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/307475,kashmir-capital-sees-undeclared-curfew-after-boys-death.html.

Iraqi parties protest lifting of ban on 500 'Baathist' candidates

Baghdad - Leading Iraqi political parties on Thursday protested the electoral commission's decision to reverse a ban on some "Baathist" 500 candidates' participation in the March parliamentary polls.

"What is surprising is that the decision applied to all the (banned) candidates, without much thought," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition said in a statement. "Even those criminals and members of (former Iraqi president) Saddam (Hussein)'s militias whose hands are stained with the blood of Iraqis benefited from the decision," the coalition, comprised mostly of Shiite and Kurdish political parties, said.

The statement questioned whether "interference and political pressure were behind this move."

The electoral commission's Hamdia al-Husseini on Wednesday announced that the body had reversed a January decision to ban some 500 candidates from participating in elections now scheduled for March 7 on the grounds of their connections to the former ruling Baath Party.

Under Saddam Hussein's rule, it was difficult to find work in the public sector without belonging to the Baath Party, now banned under Iraq's constitution.

The Iraqi National Alliance, a coalition of parties led by the Shiite Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, likewise protested the electoral commission's Wednesday reversal of its previous ban, noting US intervention on the question.

When US Vice President Joe Biden discussed the controversy over the ban with al-Maliki during Biden's January visit to Baghdad, the Iraqi prime minister told him the ban "did not target any specific party."

"The (Iraqi National) Alliance rejects paternalism or intervention in the work of official institutions," it said in a statement Thursday. "(It) rejects any activity that threatens sovereignty."

The Accountability and Justice Commission, an independent body which replaced the de-Baathification Committee, had last month excluded 511 candidates from running in the polls.

Among the most senior politicians on the list was Saleh al-Mutlaq, a secular Sunni politician who heads the National Dialogue Front.

"Disrupting the laws and marginalizing the role of state institutions threatens the future of the political process in general, as well as the parliamentary elections," the Iraqi National Alliance said.

"The Iraqi National Alliance would like to thank the Iraqi people for their clear rejection of the return of the Baath Party, and would like to assure them that the coalition will not allow the breaking of the law or the constitution," the statement said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/307477,iraqi-parties-protest-lifting-of-ban-on-500-baathist-candidates.html.

China slams Switzerland for accepting Uighurs from Guantanamo

Beijing - China criticized the Swiss government on Thursday for agreeing to accept two Uighur brothers currently held at the US military detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. "The Chinese authorities have expressed their dissatisfaction," said a spokesman for the Swiss embassy in Beijing.

The spokesman said the Swiss ambassador went of his own accord to the Chinese Foreign Ministry to explain his government's decision to accept the brothers from the Uighur ethnic minority group.

Ma Zhaoxu, a ministry spokesman, said the decision would "surely undermine China-Switzerland relations."

Ma said the Uighurs still held at Guantanamo Bay were all suspected members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which is listed by the United Nations as an international terrorist group.

Switzerland said the two brothers - members of a mainly Muslim minority in China that has long complained of discrimination at the hands of the Han majority - would be housed in Jura, a canton in the alpine land's north-west, said a statement from the Federal Council, or cabinet.

Rebiya Kadeer, the head if the US-based Uighur American Association advocacy group, welcomed the Swiss decision, saying it would allow the two men "to live free and productive lives."

"The government and people of Switzerland have made an extraordinary humanitarian gesture, which is even more remarkable in the face of unrelenting pressure from China not to accept the two men," Kadeer said in a statement Thursday.

US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the United States was also grateful to the Swiss for the "humanitarian gesture and for its consistent support of our efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility."

China had pressed the Swiss to not accept the prisoners although the canton, or state, had expressed willingness to accept the two.

Swiss authorities said they discussed the matter with the Uighur brothers prior to making the decision. A security assessment was also conducted.

Switzerland, which considers the jail a violation of international law, has said it would help the US shut down the center by taking in some of the about 190 detainees left at Guantanamo.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/307480,china-slams-switzerland-for-accepting-uighurs-from-guantanamo.html.

South Lebanon residents brace for new Israel war

Lebanese civilians in fear as prospects of another Israeli war on Lebanon seem more likely.

AITA SHAAB, Lebanon - More than three years after the last war between Israel and Hezbollah, south Lebanon residents are bracing for new conflict amid Israeli warnings against both Hezbollah and Syria.

"If you come back, we'll be waiting for you," the Shiite resistance group warns Israel on a billboard near the southern village of Aita Shaab.

It was across the border from Aita Shaab that Hezbollah fighters captured two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid in July 2006, in a bid for prisoner swap to free Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails.

But Israel, which sealed prisoner-swap deals with Hezbollah in the past, decided to launch a devastating month-long offensive south Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburub.

The war killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

"We are afraid, of course," said Hayat, a resident of the southern village of Qana, which came under deadly bombardment in the 2006 war.

"Every day we hear news of a possible new war," she said from her terrace which overlooks the village cemetery.

She said she feared any renewed fighting would see even the heart of the capital Beirut bombed. "Where will we hide?" she asked.

Her neighbor Diba agreed that any new conflict risked being more devastating than 2006.

"If war erupts, Syria and Iran will participate too. Next time it will not be limited to Hezbollah."

Hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accused Lebanon of allowing Hezbollah to develop its stockpile of weapons, which Israel estimates at some 40,000 rockets, a significant rise from the group's 14,000 rockets in 2006.

Last month, Yossi Peled, an Israeli minister without portfolio and a reserve army general, warned Israel was heading towards a new war with Hezbollah.

"We are heading toward a new confrontation in the north but I don't know when it will happen, just as we did not know when the second Lebanon war would erupt," Peled told Israeli radio.

In Aita Shaab, new houses and villas are under construction, visible to Israeli soldiers across the border.

But a third of the homes in village remain in ruins after the 2006 war. Farmer Hassan Srour's house was reduced to rubble.

"We are rebuilding, and if war breaks out again, then we will rebuild again," the 39-year-old said.

"We have got used to occupation, war and destruction. Where are we expected to go? This is our land," he said.

Unlike in northern Israel, villagers in Aita Shaab are not building bomb shelters as they reconstruct their homes.

"What for?" said Srour. "In 2006, two of our neighbors were buried alive in their bomb shelters."

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has voiced fear of another "Israeli intervention" and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the next war would "change the face of the region."

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem warned Israel that war against his country would turn into a wider conflict.

"Israelis, do not test the power of Syria since you know the war will move into your cities," Muallem said on Wednesday.

His Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman retorted on Thursday that any war would cost Syrian President Bashar al-Assad his grip on power.

In the village of Yarin, Khaled and his wife Dima, who run a shop near the border, carry on with their daily lives amid the mounting war of words.

"This time with the first explosion we're packing our bags," Dima said, adjusting her black veil.

Akel Hammoud, from the nearby village of Beit Leef, said Hezbollah's fighters were prepared for any Israeli move.

"Everything is ready," he said. "The weapons and equipment are there. All we need is anti-aircraft defence."

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37040.

Dubai finds new off-shore oil field

New off-shore oil field discovered in Dubai expected to further help emirate to overcome debt.

DUBAI - The government of Dubai announced Thursday the discovery of a new off-shore oil field.

The ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum, "heralds the good news to the people of the United Arab Emirates that a new off-shore oil field has been discovered in Dubai," a government statement said.

The UAE sits on the world's fifth largest proven oil reserves, amounting to 97.8 billion barrels of crude oil. But 95 percent of those reserves are controlled by the leading partner in the federation, Abu Dhabi.

The UAE also has 214.4 trillion cubic feet (six trillion cubic meters) of gas reserves, ranking it sixth in the world after Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Dubai's poor oil reserves, mostly off-shore, are expected to be exhausted within 20 years, while it controls only two percent of the country's gas wealth, according to UAE government website.

Dubai's economy had boomed over the past years on non-oil sectors, particularly real estate and construction, which attracted huge investments, in addition to its prospering tourism.

But its rapid economic growth came to a halt after the global financial crisis hit Dubai in autumn 2008, drying out foreign financing that was vital for the overheated real estate sector.

Dubai had heavily borrowed its way to build its economy, splashing on grandiose projects, mainly man-made tree-shaped islands. It is now facing severe problems in meeting its debt obligations.

The emirate sent jitters throughout world global markets in November when it said it needed to freeze payments on the debt of its largest state-corporate, Dubai World.

The group is now negotiating the restructuring of some 22 billion dollars in debts owed by its troubled subsidiaries.

Dubai's total debt is estimated between 80 and 100 billion dollars, although some reports say it could be as high as 170 billion dollars.

But the emirate has so far leaned on its rich neighbor Abu Dhabi, which together with the central bank, has extended aid worth 20 billion dollars in 2009, to bail out Dubai's troubled companies.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37023.