Iran says oil ban will not halt nuclear work

TEHRAN: Iran’s oil minister said the Islamic state would not retreat from its nuclear programme even if its crude oil exports grind to a halt, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

But he also called on the European Union, which accounted for a quarter of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011, to review its decision last week to bank Iranian oil imports from July 1.

“We will not abandon our just nuclear course, even if we cannot sell one drop of oil,” Rostam Qasemi told reporters, according to IRNA.

Tension with the West rose last month when Washington and the European Union imposed the toughest sanctions yet on Iran in a bid to force it to provide more information on its nuclear programme. The measures are aimed at shutting off the second-biggest OPEC oil exporters’ sales of crude.

Qasemi said Iran would cut oil exports to some nations in Europe – he did not specify which – in retaliation for the 27-state EU’s decision to stop importing Iranian crude.

“Our oil exports will certainly be cut to some European countries … We will decide about other European countries later,” Qasemi told a news conference, IRNA reported.

He urged Europe to reconsider its ban, and said the oil market is in balance now but would be thrown into turmoil without Iranian crude supplies.

“Unfortunately the EU has succumbed to America’s pressure. I hope they would review their decision on sanctioning Iran’s oil exports,” Qasemi said.

“The international crude market will experience turmoil in the absence of Iranian oil with unforeseen consequences on oil prices,” he said.

However, analysts say the global oil market would not be greatly affected if Iran were to turn off the oil tap to Europe.

The EU’s ban on Iranian oil came after US President Barack Obama signed new sanctions into law on New Year’s Eve that would block any institution dealing with Iran’s central bank from the US financial system.

If fully implemented, these measures will make it impossible for countries to buy Iranian oil.

ALTERNATIVE CRUDE BUYERS
Brent crude prices rose to near three-month peaks on Friday, partly thanks to oil investors covering short positions ahead of the weekend due to the standoff between the West and Tehran over its nuclear programme.

The United States wants buyers in Asia, Iran’s biggest oil market, to cut imports to put further pressure on Tehran, which is scrambling to find new buyers and persuade existing customers to keep doing business with it.

But Iran remains a key supplier for many countries, and some of its major customers are seeking waivers from Washington from the sanctions while they look for alternative sources of oil.

Saudi Arabia, Iran’s regional rival, has promised to make up any shortfall in supply.

Iranian officials have said sanctions have had no impact on it, while the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened on Friday to retaliate against the West for sanctions.

Qasemi also played down the importance of Europe as a market for its exports.

“We have no problem to find other crude buyers to replace the European countries,” he was quoted as saying.

The United States and its allies say Iran is trying to develop weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear programme. But energy-rich Iran denies this, saying it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

Washington and Israel have not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the standoff.

Iran has warned of firm retaliation if attacked, including targeting Israel and US bases in the Gulf and closing off the vital oil shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.

But Qasemi played down the possibility of Iran blocking the crucial waterway.

“Iran is not after tension, and closure of the Strait is a politically motivated issue,” he said.

Isolated Iran is also facing problems over the price it charges neighbour Turkey for its natural gas exports. Turkey said on Jan. 31 that it was taking Tehran to international arbitration over the matter.

Qasemi rejected Ankara’s complaint that the price was too high. “Iran surely cannot decrease its natural gas price (for Turkey) without legal authorisation,” he said.

Iran exports 10 billion cubic metres of gas each year to Turkey, making it Ankara’s second-biggest supplier after Russia.

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Posted in: INTERNATIONAL

US urges international community to fund Afghan troops

MUNICH: US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta urged the international community on Saturday to help pay for strong Afghan security forces despite worldwide economic pressure.

The United States is spending around $12 billion a year to train the Afghan security force (ANSF), which is expected to rise to 352,000 men in order to take over security when Nato combat troops withdraw at the end of 2014.

“To sustain sufficient security, the ANSF requires adequate financial support,” Panetta said in a speech in Munich, recalling that the international community committed to helping Afghanistan at a Bonn conference in December.

The United States has forecast that the annual price tag of training and equipping Afghan security forces in coming years to be around $6 billion.

Washington wants the international community to contribute $1 billion per year after 2014 in addition to the US share, said a senior US defence official.

“I know we face intense pressure to reduce that support given the budget constraints all Isaf nations are facing,” Panetta said, referring to the 50 countries in the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force.

“But even as we will work to find ways to reduce ANSF costs over time, we cannot shortchange our commitment, nor count on other nations to fill the gap. We must do everything we can to support this force.”

The long-term size of the Afghan force and cost of maintaining it will be a key topic at a Nato summit in Chicago in May.

Nato defence ministers voiced hope during talks on Thursday and Friday that Afghan forces can take the lead across the country in 2013, while foreign troops shift to a backup role.

Panetta had caused a stir before arriving in Europe on Wednesday when he suggested that the United States hoped to wind down the combat mission as early as mid-2013.

But he has since insisted that US troops would still be involved in combat through 2014, a point he emphasised on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, a gathering of world leaders and security experts.

“Based on progress in the Afghan forces, we believe they will be ready to take the combat lead in all of Afghanistan some time in 2013. When they do, we will shift naturally to a support role,” he said.

“Of course, Isaf will continue to be fully combat capable, and we will engage in combat alongside the Afghans as necessary thereafter,” he said.

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More than 220 dead as big freeze grips Europe

KIEV: Temperatures have plunged to new lows in Europe where a week-long cold snap has now claimed more than 220 lives as forecasters warned that the big freeze would tighten its grip over the weekend.

A total of 223 people have died from the cold weather in the last seven days according to an AFP tally, with Ukraine suffering the heaviest toll.

People have been found dead on the streets in some countries, while thousands have been trapped in mountain villages in Serbia.

In Italy, Venice’s canals started freezing over and even Rome was dusted in snow.

The lowest temperatures recorded in Europe were in the southwest of the Czech Republic, where the mercury dropped as low as minus 38.1 degrees Celsius overnight Thursday.

The EU executive said on Friday that vital Russian gas deliveries had dropped in nine countries, with Russian giant Gazprom invoking flexibility clauses as it also braves a cold snap.

Supplies fell 30 per cent in Austria and 24 per cent in Italy.

Ukraine’s emergencies ministry raised its death toll to 101 since the cold snap took hold, 64 of whom died on the streets.

Almost 1,600 people have sought medical attention for frostbite and hypothermia and thousands have flocked to temporary shelters.

The chilling temperatures killed eight more people over 24 hours in Poland, bringing the death toll to 37 since the deep freeze began a week ago, police said.

Temperatures plunged to minus 35 Celsius in some areas of Poland on Friday.

In Bulgaria parts of the River Danube froze over, while another six people were found dead from the cold, bringing the overall tally to 16 in the last week, according to local media.

Most of the dead in the European Union’s poorest country were villagers found frozen to death on the side of the road or in their unheated homes, the reports said.

More than 1,000 Bulgarian schools remained closed for a third day amid fresh snowfalls and piercing winds in the northeast.

In neighbouring Romania two more people died, bringing the overall toll to 24, and hundreds of schools remained closed.

In Rome, residents experienced only their second day of snow in 15 years, with white flakes covering palm trees, ancient Roman ruins and Baroque churches across the capital.

Up to five centimetres of snow fell in some districts and ancient monuments like the Colosseum were closed to visitors for fear of damage to the structure.

Canals in Venice, where temperatures fell as low as minus 5 Celsius, started freezing.

However trains resumed normal service across the country except in and around Bologna and on a local line near Rome after days of delays.

Three people have died due to the extreme weather in recent days, including a homeless man found in Milan on Thursday.

An Italian ferry with over 300 people aboard got into difficulties off the port of Civitavecchia, north of Rome on late Friday, hitting a harbour wall and ripping the side of the ship, port authorities said.

Two tugs managed to bring the “Sharden” safely in with all passengers and crew safe and sound.

In Estonia, a man was found frozen to death on a street in Tallinn, the first reported death there.

France also reported its first death after an 82-year-old man suffering from Alzheimer’s wandered out of his home in his pyjamas in the eastern French village of Lemberg and died of hypothermia.

One person died in Serbia, but teams of workers ploughed through snowdrifts to get food, supplies and aid to thousands of residents of mountain villages cut off by the weather.

“To help a woman who needed to reach a hospital we were breaking through two-metre snow drifts, which lasted for two and a half hours,” said Vedran Taskovic, a rescuer in the southeastern town of Vranje.

The cold snap has also killed people in the Baltic countries of Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Austria and Greece.

Swathes of Britain were bracing for snow after temperatures plunged to minus 11 degrees Celsius overnight in some areas, with authorities warning that the cold could catch people off-guard after a warmer-than-normal winter so far.

Further north, about 40 people were injured in about 100 road accidents caused by powdery snow and icy conditions, police said.

The first snows to hit Belgium caused more than 1,100 kilometres of traffic jams on roads and highways, said automobile associations.

The last record was 948 kilometres registered in February 2010.

Algerian officials announced they had cancelled ferry services to the southern French port of Marseille because of the conditions.

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Record civilian death toll in Afghan war last year: UN

KABUL: A record number civilians were killed in Afghanistan’s decade-long war last year, with a dramatic rise in the number of deaths from suicide attacks, the United Nations reported Saturday.

A total of 3,021 civilians died — mostly at the hands of insurgents — up eight per cent from 2,790 in 2010, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) said in its annual report.

It was the fifth straight year that the toll has risen, with a total of 11,864 civilian lives claimed by the conflict since 2007.

The report stands in contrast to an upbeat assessment of 2011 as “remarkably successful” by Nato-led forces, who are preparing to withdraw combat troops in 2014 and hand security over to the Afghan government.

The UN has disagreed previously with Nato assessments, saying in September that the number of security incidents was up 39 per cent in the first eight months of the year, while Nato said they were down two per cent.

The latest UN report also says the conflict caused growing disruption of life for ordinary Afghans last year, with an estimated 185,632 people displaced — an increase of 45 per cent over 2010.

Taliban-led insurgents caused 77 per cent of the deaths last year, up 14 per cent from 2010, while Nato-led and Afghan government forces were responsible for killing 410 civilians — 14 per cent of the total, the report said.

Another 279 deaths — nine per cent — could not be attributed to either side.

The record loss of life was blamed mainly on changes in the insurgents’ tactics, which saw an increased use of homemade bombs and deadlier suicide attacks.

Most deaths attributed to Nato forces were a result of attacks from the air, but there was an overall decline of four per cent in the number of civilians killed by pro-government forces, the report said.

Controversial night raids targeting Taliban leaders were responsible for 63 civilian deaths, down 22 per cent from the previous year.

Overall, “Afghan children, women and men continue to be killed in this war in ever-increasing numbers,” said UN special representative Jan Kubis.

“For much too long Afghan civilians have paid the highest price of war. Parties to the conflict must greatly increase their efforts to protect civilians to prevent yet another increase in civilian deaths and injuries in 2012.”

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were the single largest killer of Afghan civilians in 2011, taking the lives of 967 people, the report said.

The insurgents had increased their use of “illegal, indiscriminate victim-activated pressure plate IEDs” that can be detonated even by children stepping on them, the report said.

The civilian death toll from suicide attacks in Afghanistan “rose dramatically” in 2011 to 450 — an increase of 80 per cent over 2010.

“While the number of suicide attacks did not increase over 2010, the nature of these attacks changed, becoming more complex, sometimes involving multiple bombers, and designed to yield greater numbers of dead and injured civilians.”

The geographic distribution of civilian casualties shifted significantly, particularly in the second half of 2011, as the conflict lessened in intensity in the south and intensified in the southeast, east and north.

The UN report urges the 130,000-strong Nato force to review its tactics aimed at preventing civilian loss of life in all military operations — “in particular aerial attacks”.

It also calls for stronger efforts to prevent civilian casualties in the night raids, which have been widely condemned, including by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

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Posted in: INTERNATIONAL