India says missile shield test a success

BHUBANESWAR: India successfully tested on Friday an interceptor defence shield developed to detect and destroy incoming ballistic missiles, a government official said.

Officials from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said an indigenously developed interceptor missile locked on to the targets, two nuclear-capable missiles, and destroyed them in a test in eastern India.

DRDO spokesman Ravi Gupta said radars following the two destroyed missiles detected fragments falling into the Bay of Bengal off the state of Orissa.

“India is the fifth nation to have these ballistic missile defence capabilities in the world,” Gupta said in a statement. The test was carried out at a missile launch site located 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Orissa state capital of Bhubaneswar.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan, with which India has fought three wars since their independence in 1947, has said New Delhi’s missile programme could trigger a new arms race in the region.

A similar test in 2010 by the DRDO was abandoned when radars following a “hostile” missile lost track of it after it blasted off from the launch site.

The system’s tracking and fire-control radars were developed by the DRDO jointly with Israel and France. India last month said it would soon test a nuclear-capable missile with a range of over 5,000 kilometres.

India’s current longest-range nuclear-capable missile, Agni-IV, can travel 3,500 kilometres.

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Two held in death of Afghan peace broker: officials

KABUL: Pakistan has arrested two people in connection with last year’s assassination of a former Afghan president who was trying to broker peace with the Taliban, two Afghan government officials said Friday.

The officials told The Associated Press that the two were detained in the Pakistani city of Quetta, the alleged base of the Taliban insurgency.

The police chief in Quetta and the spokesman for the region’s paramilitary Frontier Corps said they had not heard of the alleged arrests. Officials with Pakistan’s foreign and interior ministries did not immediately answer phone calls seeking comment.

Relations with Pakistan soured after the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, Afghanistan’s former president and head of the government-appointed peace council. Rabbani was killed Sept. 20, 2011 in his home in Kabul by a suicide bomber posing as a peace emissary from the Taliban.

Afghan officials blamed Pakistan-based insurgents for the killing, which sapped hope for reconciling with the Taliban and raised fears about deteriorating security in Afghanistan just as foreign combat troops are starting to pull out.

Afghan Interior Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi went further, claiming in parliament that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency was involved in the killing. Pakistani officials denied the allegation, calling it baseless and irresponsible.

A special commission that Afghan President Hamid Karzai appointed to investigate Rabbani’s death concluded that the attack was planned in Quetta and that the primary assailant was a Pakistani citizen. The commission gave Pakistani authorities the names, addresses and phone numbers of people in Pakistan suspected of being involved in plotting the assassination.

One of the two Afghan officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive case, said two individuals were arrested in Quetta last week. The other official said the two were on the list of possible suspects handed to Pakistani authorities last year.

The assassin, who hid explosives in his turban, gained entry to the former president’s home by convincing officials, including Karzai’s advisers, that he represented the Taliban leadership and wanted to discuss reconciliation.

No one has claimed responsibility for the killing, and Taliban spokesmen have declined to discuss it.

In a separate development, Afghan officials and the US-led coalition were investigating an airstrike that Karzai said killed eight civilians in Kapisa province in eastern Afghanistan.

Civilian casualties have caused serious tensions between the Afghan government and Nato.

The coalition confirmed only that there was a ”situation in Najrab district” of Kapisa province that was being assessed. More information would be released when the assessment is completed, the coalition said in a statement.

A delegation of high-ranking officials appointed by Karzai traveled to Kapisa province on Friday to collect information.

Hussain Khan Sanjani, the leader of the Kapisa provincial council, said seven of the victims were children, aged between 6 and 12 years. The eighth victim was an 18-year-old mentally ill man who was with the children.

Sanjani, who visited the area on Thursday, said residents told him that coalition aircraft were patrolling overhead as coalition forces searched homes.

Fearing the presence of coalition forces, the victims rounded up sheep and cows and moved them toward a mountainous area behind their homes, he said. When they got cold, they gathered brush and lighted a fire to keep warm, he said. One airstrike hit a large boulder and the other struck the victims, who were badly burned, according to Sanjani, who said he took photographs of the victims.

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Iran dismisses reports of imminent Israeli attack

NEW YORK: US President Barack Obama has imposed more economic sanctions on Iran, including freezing Iranian assets owned by its Central Bank in US, amid fears that the Obama Administration may be preparing for an attack by Israel on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

However, Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad Khazee dismissed such reports, saying, “I don’t think that is going to happen.”

Mr Khazee told National Public Radio in an interview: “Iran is so strong,” and “the consequences would be devastating for (Israel) and maybe for whoever helped them.”

“There are wise enough people around the world to tell them not to do such a crazy thing.”

The US and other nations have been tightening sanctions on Iran and have been warning that it needs to be more transparent about its nuclear ambitions. Iran says it is not pursuing development of nuclear weapons.

Another media report here said the world leaders were genuinely concerned that an Israeli military attack on the Islamic Republic could be imminent — “an action that many fear might trigger a wider war, terrorism and global economic havoc”.

High-level foreign dignitaries, including the UN secretary general and the head of the American military, have stopped in Israel in recent weeks, urging leaders to give the diplomatic process more time to work.

Israel seems unmoved, and US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has reportedly concluded that an Israeli attack on Iran is likely in the coming months.

Shortly after the Europeans enacted their embargo, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi told reporters, “We will not abandon our just nuclear course, even if we cannot sell one drop of oil.”

A report said on Wednesday that in a move to bypass the sanctions, India had reportedly agreed to pay for Iranian oil with gold, with China expected to follow suit. Instead of isolating Iran, it appears that the sanctions are pushing the state closer to her top trading partners.

To make its embargo more effective against India’s and China’s dodge, will Washington next move to simply blockade all oil shipments out of Iran? And what are the likely consequences of these actions?

In an interview with China’s NTDTV.com, Chinese General Zhang Zhaozhong was quoted as saying that “China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third world war.” Not very surprising. In the Iran-Iraq war, Iran purchased Chinese weapons.

The Obama Administration has also accused Chinese firms of lending a hand to developing Iran’s purported nuclear weapons programme.

A senior Russian foreign ministry official lashed out at Israel for “inventing” allegations about Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme and warned that such fabrications could entail “catastrophic consequences”. On Wednesday, Mikhail Ulyanov, the head of Security and Disarmament Department at Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denounced Tel Aviv’s hawkish rhetoric on Iran over its nuclear programme as “inventions” that “are increasing the tension and could encourage moves towards a military solution with catastrophic consequences”.

He also described the speculations over Iran’s nuclear programme as “noise” and reiterated that such allegations “have political and propaganda objectives, which are far from being inoffensive”.

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Obama reviews efforts to renew Pakistan ties

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has reviewed efforts to improve ties with Pakistan with his national security team, the White House said on Thursday as media reports indicated that both countries were trying vigorously to reduce tensions that have bedevilled their relations for more than a year now.

At Wednesday’s meeting, President Obama “received an update on our engagement with the Pakistani government on a range of issues of mutual interest, including efforts to strengthen cooperation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border,” the White House said.

US sources told FTNews that the White House had been regularly consulting Pakistan’s new ambassador in Washington, Sherry Rehman, on these issues.

Last week, Ambassador Rehman and a Pakistani defence team met the head of the US Central Command, General James N. Mattis, at the embassy. Soon after the meeting, The New York Times reported that Gen Mattis would visit Islamabad later this month for talks with Pakistani military chief and other officials and he might also convey an official apology on the Nov 26 Nato attack on a Pakistani post that killed 24 soldiers.

Pakistan has long demanded such an apology as an important step towards improving ties.

Another sign that both sides are making serious efforts to overcome their differences came earlier Thursday when US ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter hinted that Nato supplies might have resumed through Pakistani airspace. Pakistan had blocked the supplies after the Nov 26 attack and Washington wanted Islamabad to open both land and air routes as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Ms Rehman is having another important meeting with senior White House officials on apparently accelerated attempts by both sides to rebuild a relationship that has gone sour.

She also met Senator John Kerry, who is considered the Obama administration’s unofficial envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan on Capitol Hill and is often sent to Islamabad for dealing with contentious issues.

Asked for comments on these meetings, Ms Rehman said she could not discuss ongoing negotiations but both sides were eager to leave behind the bitterness of the past year and move ahead with a new zeal.

“Pakistan is still reviewing the full spectrum of its relations with the US in a historic parliamentary review, which will anchor forthcoming decisions in the solid background of public consent,” she said.

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