Maldives President rejects possibility of early polls

MALE: Maldives President, Mohammad Waheed on Saturday categorically rejected any possibility of early polls.

Rejecting former president Mohammad Nasheed’s demands, who resigned on Tuesday in what he said was a cop, calling for early elections, Waheed said that the current situation in the island nation was not conducive to holding “free and fair elections”.

Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts are on to bring some resolution to the political stand-off in the country.

The US Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs, Robert Blake, meanwhile, is expected to arrive in Male on Saturday to meet President Waheed.

Nasheed rallied hundreds of people outside a mosque here in the capital, Male, in open defiance of an arrest warrant issued against him on Thursday. Later on Friday, he told reporters that the police and military were beating and arresting elected leaders and other supporters of his party and hinted that he would go to the country’s apex court against his ouster.

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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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Pakistan hosts summit involving Afghanistan, Iran

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will next week host the leaders of Afghanistan and Iran at a summit devoted to counter-terrorism, the foreign ministry in Islamabad said Thursday.

The talks come at a time of heightened tension between Iran and the United States, notably over speculation about a possible Israeli attack against Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.

It also comes with Afghanistan keen to start peace talks with Taliban insurgents. Kabul is reportedly concerned about being sidelined by contacts between the US and the Taliban.

“It is a two-day summit, to be held on February 16 and 17 in Islamabad,”ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters.

It will be attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he said.

“The trilateral summit is important for the leaders to get together and discuss important regional issues pertaining to counter-terrorism and organised crimes including drug trafficking,” Basit said.

Despite strong US objections, Pakistan says it is pressing ahead with a multi-billion-dollar project to build a gas pipeline to import fuel from Iran.

“We are looking to complete the pipeline project by 2014 to meet our energy requirements. It is important for our economic growth,” Basit said.

In the deal signed in 2010, Iran has agreed to supply natural gas to its eastern neighbour from 2014.

On Monday, US President Barack Obama unveiled new sanctions on Iran’s central bank in an effort to force it to reverse course on its nuclear programme.

Asked about US sanctions, Basit said Pakistan opposed any new conflict in the region and called for dialogue.

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Af-Pak said to attract fewer foreign fighters for jihad

PARIS: The Afghan-Pakistan jihad is attracting fewer foreign fighters following the death of Osama bin Laden, the growing threat posed by US drones, and lack of funds, Western security officials say.

While no precise figure is available, it would appear that the number of would-be jihadists from abroad has been drying up, according to one security official who declined to be named.

However, more Pakistanis are willing to take up the fight and make up the numbers, he also warned.

“Over the past six months, young Frenchmen there have nearly all left Pakistan. There were 20 to 30 of them, who had either converted (to Islam) or had links to the Maghreb; today there are hardly any left,” he said.

“Other European countries whose nationals used to go to Pakistan to join the jihad have drawn the same conclusion – a drastic reduction over recent months,” he added.

The “Arab Spring” revolts also acted as a magnet, with a number of jihadists moving to Libya to join the fight to remove Muammar Qaddafi from power, he said.

“Fighting in Afghanistan is also less attractive because of the idea that the Afghan taliban want to concentrate more on home fighting and that world jihad is less and less their cup of tea,” he added.

For Frank Cilluffo, who co-authored “Foreign Fighters” for the Homeland Security Policy Institute, “first and foremost, military actions, including the use of drones, has made the environment less hospitable to foreign fighters traveling to the region, by disrupting al Qaeda’s (and associated entities’) training camps and pipelines.”

Direct and indirect accounts by jihadists also speak of disarray within al Qaeda in northwestern Pakistan where activists avoid coming together for fear of being attacked and whose weapons training now takes place indoors because of aerial and satellite surveillance.

In a report, entitled “Militant Pipeline” describing the links between the northwestern Pakistani frontier and the West, researcher Paul Cruickshank quotes one Ustadh Ahmad Faruq, described as a Pakistan-based al Qaeda spokesman who recently acknowledged his network’s difficulties.

“The freedom we enjoyed in a number of regions has been lost. We are losing people and lack resources. Our land is being squeezed and drones fly over us,” he reportedly said in an audio cassette.

“It’s difficult to have reliable figures,” on the number of foreign fighters, according to Cruickshank, who is a fellow at New York University’s Center on Law and Security.

“I think the drone strikes have been a major issue for the militants, the death of bin Laden is going to be a very big challenge as well. He was so important for a lot of these militants – he was the al Qaeda brand.

“By going over there they were joining his cause. The fact that he has been removed from the scene is likely to be a great recruiting challenge for al Qaeda,” he said.

“But the conflict is still going on in Afghanistan and in the radical circles it is still viewed as a very legitimate jihad. So it’s likely that the number of volunteers is going to be diminished, but as long as there are US soldiers to fight, I don’t think it’s going to dry up entirely,” he added.

Hafiz Hanif, a 17-year-old Afghan who trained in northwest Pakistan, recently told Newsweek magazine the number of foreign fighters there was dwindling.

“When new people came they brought new blood, enthusiasm and money. All that has been lost. Now leaders seem to spend all their time moving from one place to another for their safety,” he said.

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Rights violations shame Pakistanis at Congress hearing

WASHINGTON: Guilt and shame were the two dominant feelings that overwhelmed many Pakistanis at a US congressional hearing room on Wednesday as witnesses detailed human rights abuses in Balochistan. Some were also troubled – while some felt elated – as all five US lawmakers who attended this unusual hearing of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations stressed the Baloch right to self-determination.

But this emotive session – which often drew warm applause from Baloch nationalists – offered little insight into how to resolve this difficult issue. Perhaps, that’s not even the intention of those who had organised the meeting. They wanted to highlight Balochistan as a possibly explosive spot close to a US war-theatre and they succeeded in doing so.

There was some score-settling as well, particularly from US lawmakers upset with Pakistan over Osama bin Laden’s discovery in Abbottabad and with Islamabad’s decision to close Nato’s supply lines to Afghanistan.

“They sheltered the man who master-minded the slaughter of 3,000 Americans. Those who still believe Pakistan is a friend, they need to wake up,” said Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican, who organised and chaired the hearing.

Dr. M. Hosseinbor, a Baloch nationalist scholar, assured the Americans that the Balochs were natural US allies and would like to share the Gwadar port with the United States, would not allow the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline through their lands and will fight the Taliban as well.

Ralph Peters, a retired US military officer, urged the US administration to break up its ties with Pakistan and support the Baloch struggle for freedom.

C. Christine Fair, an assistant Professor at Georgetown University, in her written statement, disagreed with the suggestion, saying that given the ethnic diversity of the province, its complicated history, and the existing geographic constraints, an independent Balochistan was untenable.

But such comments on Baloch politics were not what shamed the Pakistanis, and others, in the room. It was rampant human rights violations by both sides that shamed them.

According to the statistics submitted at the hearing, around 6,000 people were displaced and scores killed in 2005 around Dera Bugti district alone.

Estimates of total number of people displaced from all districts range from tens to hundreds of thousands.

After Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s ouster, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry estimated that 1,100 Baloch had disappeared during his rule. So far, the government has only uncovered the fate of a handful of these people.

Armed Baloch groups are also responsible for targeted killings and destroying private property. In the past several years, they have increasingly targeted non-Baloch civilians and their businesses, as well as major gas installations and infrastructure. They have also killed teachers, physicians and lawyers and struck police and security forces and military bases throughout the province.

Militant religious groups also have carried out targeted killings of those Muslims who belong to sects different from there.

It was Prof. Fair, who was the first to point out, that while she understood emotions ran high, targeted killings were also being carried out by the Baloch.

Amnesty International’s Advocacy Director T. Kumar called on the US to “apply the Leahy Amendment without waivers to all Pakistani military units in Balochistan” to prevent the Pakistani military from using US-made weapons against the Baloch.

Ali Dayan Hasan, the Pakistan director for Human Rights Watch, said that Pakistan’s security forces and its intelligence agencies were involved in the enforced disappearance of Baloch nationalists.

He asked the US government to “communicate directly to the agencies responsible for disappearances and other abuses including the army, ISI, IB, Frontier Corps, police, to demand an end to abuses and facilitate criminal inquiries to hold perpetrators accountable.”

Congressman Rohrabacher declared that the hearing was no stunt, and that they wanted to start a national dialogue on what US policy should be in that part of the world.

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Pakistan delays Mumbai prosecution visit

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani investigators and lawyers Tuesday delayed plans to visit India to gather more evidence for the prosecution of seven suspects linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks until later this month.

The visit was scheduled between February 1 and February 10 in a bid to cross-examine witnesses to the carnage that killed 166 people.

Khwaja Harris Ahmad, counsel for alleged mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, made a formal request in court to delay the visit until after February 12.

That date marks the end of the traditional Muslim 40-day mourning period for his father, whom Ahmad has asked to replace as Lakhvi’s lawyer.

“I also submitted my travel documents in the court today to join the panel whenever it embarks on the visit to India,” said Harris.

Ahmad said that there would be further updates about the visit when the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi resumes its hearing on February 11.

Pakistan had wanted Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks, to testify.

But Kasab, who has appealed against a death sentence in India, has not been included on the list of witnesses whom the panel wishes to cross-examine.

India blamed the Lashkar-e-Taiba group for training, equipping and financing the attack with support from “elements” in the Pakistani military.

Pakistan in 2009 indicted seven alleged perpetrators over the attacks but said it needs to gather more evidence in India before proceeding further.

New Delhi says Pakistan’s attempts at prosecution have been a “facade” and insists it has already handed over enough evidence to convict the accused men.

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Five men killed in shooting in Afghanistan: official

KABUL: An Afghan official says a shooting in the southern city of Kandahar has left five dead, including two police officers and three private security guards.

A spokesman for the governor’s office, Zulmi Ayubi, said on Tuesday that a man who was part of a force guarding a checkpoint opened fire during an argument overnight.

Ayubi says the shooter fled. He did not say if the attacker was a police officer or a security guard.

He says four police officers were also wounded in the shooting and that all involved were Afghans.

It’s not clear what the argument was about.

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Maldives vice president sworn in as head of state

MALE: The first democratically elected president of the Maldives resigned Tuesday and was replaced by his vice president after the police and army clashed in the streets of the island nation amid protests over the arrest of a top judge.

Mohammed Waheed Hassan, who previously worked as a top UNICEF official, was sworn in as the new Maldivian president in the afternoon.

The resignation marked a stunning fall for President Mohamed Nasheed, a former human rights campaigner who defeated the nation’s longtime ruler in the country’s first multiparty election.

Nasheed was also an environmental celebrity, traveling the world to persuade governments to combat the climate change that could raise sea levels and inundate his archipelago nation.

Nasheed presented his resignation in a nationally televised address Tuesday afternoon after police joined the protesters and then clashed with soldiers in the streets. Some of the soldiers then defected to the police side.

”I don’t want to hurt any Maldivian. I feel my staying on in power will only increase the problems, and it will hurt our citizens,” Nasheed said. ”So the best option available to me is to step down.”

Maldivians waving flags poured into the streets to celebrate Nasheed’s resignation. Some playfully threw water at each other.

Hassan, who was educated at Stanford University in California, was the first television anchor in Maldives history and the first person shown live when local TV went on the air in 1978, according to his official biography.

He became a top education official in the country, but eventually left under duress after getting elected to Parliament and incurring the ire of the autocratic government ruling in the 1990s, his biography said.

He joined UNICEF and rose to be its representative in Afghanistan, helping rebuild schools and provide health services after the fall of the Taliban.

Hassan’s office denied widespread reports that the military pressured Nasheed to resign in the wake of the clashes.

”It was not a coup at all, it was the wish of the people,” said Ahmed Thoufeeg, Hassan’s secretary.

An advisor for Nasheed, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, also dismissed claims the resignation came under duress from the military.

The adviser said Nasheed was left with two choices: order a bloody military crackdown on the police dissidents or resign.

The latest protests in this Indian Ocean nation known for its lavish beach resorts erupted after Nasheed ordered the military to arrest Abdulla Mohamed, the chief judge of the Criminal Court.

The judge had ordered the release of a government critic he said had been illegally detained.

The vice president, Supreme Court, Human Rights Commission, Judicial Services Commission and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights all called for Mohamed to be released.

The government accused the judge of political bias and corruption, said the country’s judicial system had failed and called for UN help to solve the crisis.

After weeks of protests, the crisis came to a head Tuesday when hundreds of police demonstrated in the capital, Male, after officials ordered them to withdraw protection for government and opposition supporters protesting close to each other.

The withdrawal resulted in a clash that injured at least three people.

Later, troops fired rubber bullets and clashed with the police. When Nasheed visited the police and urged them to end the protest, they refused and instead chanted for his resignation.

Nasheed began his term with great hopes, ending Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s 30-year-reign by winning the country’s first democratic elections in 2008. Supporters danced and cheered in the streets at the victory of the charismatic pro-democracy activist, who had been repeatedly jailed by Gayoom’s regime.

Nasheed became an energetic global environmental crusader, founding the Climate Vulnerable Forum, to coordinate environmental policy among a group of about 30 countries most affected by climate change.

He held a Cabinet meeting underwater in scuba gear to dramatize the threat of rising oceans to his low-lying archipelago nation of 300,000 people, and said he may need to relocate his entire population if nothing was done.

He also announced plans to make his nation ”carbon-neutral,” using wind and solar projects.

A documentary on his efforts, ”The Island President,” won awards at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals and is slated to open next month in New York.

But over the past year, Nasheed was battered by protests in his Sunni Muslim nation.

Maldivians demonstrated against soaring prices they blamed on economic reforms he said were needed to bridge the budget deficit. Islamic activists also protested in demand of more religiously conservative policies.

As the protests grew, there were disturbing signs the one-time rights activist was changing.

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US says Palestinian deal ‘internal’ matter

WASHINGTON:The United States on Monday remained on the sidelines over a deal signed between Hamas and Fatah to end a long-running discord between rival Palestinian movements, saying it was an internal affair.

“As we’ve said many times, questions of Palestinian reconciliation are an internal matter for Palestinians,” said US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

The accord signed in Qatar was welcomed by officials from both Palestinian movements, but Israel warned Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to choose between reconciliation with Hamas and making peace with the Jewish state.

Nuland highlighted that Hamas, an Islamist group which runs the Gaza Strip, was considered a terrorist organization by Washington and stressed the US expectations of the Palestinian leadership “have not changed.”

“Any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to non-violence. It must recognize the state of Israel and it must accept the previous agreements and obligations between the parties, including the road map,” she said.

The so-called “Doha Declaration” is the latest attempt by the rival Palestinian movements to implement a reconciliation deal signed last April.

The declaration calls for a government of “independent technocrats” to oversee reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip and to “facilitate the implementation of presidential and parliamentary elections.” But it comes as the Middle East peace process has ground to a halt since late 2010.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Abbas had to choose to “abandon the path of peace” if he implements a reconciliation deal with Hamas.

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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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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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Security concerns: US warns citizens travelling to Pakistan

WASHINGTON: Spokesperson for United States (US) Department of State Victoria Nuland on Thursday indicated security concerns for US citizens travelling in Pakistan and said that the after effects of the November 26 Nato attack still prevail.

Speaking at a press briefing, Nuland said the attack on Salala check post has raised tensions between the countries.

The US Department of State issued a Travel Warning to Pakistan which highlighted incidents that that have happened in Pakistan or with American citizens in the last six months.

According to the Travel Warning released by the US Department of State, the attacks included one on May 20, 2011, when a US Consulate General vehicle in Peshawar was attacked, killing one person and injuring a dozen, including two US employees of the mission.

Another attack on April 5, 2010 on the US Consulate General in Peshawar killed several security and military personnel. And on February 3, 2010, 10 persons, including three US military personnel, were killed and 70 injured in a suicide bombing at a new girls’ school in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The warning also alerted the US citizens who are currently in Pakistan and advised them to avoid going to demonstrations and protests “condemning drone strikes and Pakistan’s ongoing energy crisis”.

Nuland also commented on Pakistan’s Ambassador to US Sherry Rehman’s statement regarding Pakistan being the ”first casualty” after withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, saying that it underscores the fact that the region is interconnected and that everyone should work together in order to drive out terrorism from the region.

Nuland said that Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Nato-Isaf family were required to make concerted efforts and go after terrorists wherever they are.

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Panetta says Israel may attack Iran this spring: report

WASHINGTON: Israel’s major allies in the West are working hard to talk it out of a unilateral military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, arguing forcefully that an attack ultimately would strengthen, not weaken, the rulers in Tehran.

The United States is leading the persuasion initiative, even though Washington largely has concluded that outside argument will have little effect on Israeli decision-making.

Iran’s regime says it wants to extinguish the Jewish state, and the West accuses it of assembling the materiel and know-how to build a nuclear bomb.

Israel fears that Iran is fast approaching a point at which a limited military strike no longer would be enough to head off an Iranian bomb.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday that the world increasingly is ready to consider a military strike against Iran if economic sanctions do not persuade Tehran to give up suspect parts of its nuclear program. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes.

”Today as opposed to in the past there is wide world understanding that in the event that sanctions won’t reach the intended result of stopping the military nuclear program, there will be need to consider action,” Barak said in Israel.

Israeli officials asserted at a security conference on Thursday that Iran already has produced enough enriched uranium eventually to build four rudimentary nuclear bombs and was even developing missiles capable of reaching the United States.

Much of the agenda appeared aimed at strengthening Israel’s case for a strike, if it chose to make one.

President Barack Obama maintains that the U.S. is reserving the right to attack Iran if it one day feels it must, but an Israeli strike on Iran is more likely than a US one in the near term.

”Israel has indicated they are considering this, and we have indicated our concerns,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday in Brussels.

Panetta would not comment on a published report that he fears Israel already has decided to go ahead.

A Washington Post opinion column by David Ignatius asserted on Thursday that Panetta believes there is a ”strong likelihood” that Israel will attack in April, May or June.

The US and its allies hope to hold off an Israeli strike at least until the latest round of sanctions, the first to hit Iran’s lifeblood oil sector directly, take effect later this year. They argue that a strike would do more harm than good and would endanger Israel and every nation perceived to be allied with it.

Western officials offered several of the arguments being laid out to Israel by the US, Britain, France and others.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to outline the sensitive diplomacy.

A senior Obama administration official said the US and Israel have similar views of the risk of an Iranian bomb and the timeframe in which the world could act. The US, however, sees a clear ”breakout” to nuclear capability by Iran as necessary before military action could be justified, the official said.

The official said the US is making its case publicly and privately but that the ultimate decision will be Israel’s.

The West is appealing to Israel’s self-interest, arguing that a military strike on known Iranian nuclear sites would not completely destroy Iran’s nuclear capability.

The US and others say it would not be effective except in the very short term, and ultimately would strengthen the Iranian regime by rallying Iranian national pride under attack and drawing sympathetic support from other Israeli enemies.

Some of the arguments are well-known, including that widespread and unpredictable Iranian retaliation would seed more violence in the Mideast and make Israel less secure.

That has been a US conclusion for several years.

A newer argument holds that the Iranian regime is weakened by years of sanctions and the implosion of its nearest ally, Syria, so it makes little sense to do something that would build it back up.

Some nations also are warning Israel that it would lose international backing if it should act outside international law.

European nations, especially, are wary of unilateral Israeli action.

US officials are careful on that point, saying the US bond with Israel is unbreakable.

As a practical matter, the United States would be bound to defend Israel in a full war with Iran.

A senior European diplomat said there are signs that some in Israel are receptive to the Western push to buy time with more sanctions that could further weaken the Iranian government. The Israeli government remains divided about the wisdom of a strike, the diplomat said.

Reflecting rising international alarm at the prospect of a unilateral strike, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon warned Israel on Wednesday that the standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program must be resolved peacefully.

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg expressed concern on Thursday that Israel could carry out a pre-emptive strike.

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