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News archives for the week ending 19th February 2010

Pakistan concern at Afghanistan offensive

Pakistan has raised fresh concerns to the US about Afghan refugees and fighters fleeing across the border to escape a major US-led offensive in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani raised the matter in talks with US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, during talks in Islamabad.

About 15,000 Afghan, US and NATO troops are conducting Operation Mushtarak in southern Afghanistan against about 400 to 1,000 Taliban fighters. The operation has been described as the biggest assault since the 2001 US-led invasion.

Mr Gilani expressed hope that 'Pakistan's concerns on account of spillover of refugees and militants from Helmand into southwestern Baluchistan and the northwest will be kept in view by the US and ISAF forces,' his office said.

Pakistan and the US are scheduled to hold talks later this year to discuss and bolster cooperation further in security and counter-terrorism.

RTE 18/2/10

Iraq's oil revival could be a gusher for Houston firms

With Iraq poised to begin the first major overhaul of its energy sector in decades, Houston stands to benefit in a big way from the multibillion dollar effort to redevelop the country's battered oil fields, a project one analyst described as the greatest opportunity in the oil patch today.

A 23-member delegation from the country's oil ministry visited Houston this week, meeting with officials of engineering and oil field services companies and other businesses likely to play a major role in the reconstruction efforts.

Iraq is finalizing contracts for 10 new development licenses recently awarded to foreign oil companies as it looks to convert its tremendous, yet neglected, oil reserves into wealth for rebuilding the war-ravaged nation.

While only one U.S. oil major, Exxon Mobil Corp., has finalized a contract so far, experts say U.S. oil field services companies should gain handsomely when Iraq begins ramping up production. Many of them have principal offices, headquarters or manufacturing facilities in Houston.

Houston Chronicle, 17/2/10

Iran Policy Now More in Sync With Clinton’s Views

If Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seemed especially fired up in criticizing Iran during her visit to the Persian Gulf this week, there was good reason for it: President Obama’s Iran policy is beginning to look a lot like candidate Clinton’s Iran policy.

With the administration’s efforts to reach out to Iran having failed to produce a response, it is shifting to a more confrontational strategy that is tailor-made for Mrs. Clinton, a longtime skeptic of the value of engaging with Tehran.

This, after all, is the woman who once warned that if she were president and Iran attacked Israel, the United States would “totally obliterate” Iran.

As the nation’s chief diplomat, Mrs. Clinton avoids that kind of excess in her statements. But only just. She declared on this trip that Iran was on its way to becoming a military dictatorship, that Iran’s religious and political leaders should seize back the reins of power from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and that Iran could ignite a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

It is a measure of how much things have changed that Mr. Obama, who clashed repeatedly with Mrs. Clinton about how to deal with Iran during the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, has assigned her to drum up international support for a package of United Nations sanctions against Iran.

She has accepted the task with relish.

New York Times, 16/2/10

More civilians killed by NATO...

A Nato air strike against suspected insurgents in Kandahar has instead killed five civilians, officials say. The group was seen digging on a roadside and was thought to be planting bombs, Nato said. A senior Isaf official said he regretted the loss of life, adding that an investigation was underway.

The incident was unrelated to the ongoing operation against the Taliban in Helmand. A Nato rocket strike there killed 12 civilians on Sunday.

BBC News, 15/2/10

...as head of UK forces says accidents 'inevitable'

The head of the UK's armed forces, Sir Jock Stirrup, has said the killing of 12 civilians during Operation Moshtarak in Afghanistan was a "serious setback".

Sir Jock said Britain must focus on regaining the Afghan population's trust but that accidents were "inevitable".

BBC News, 15/2/10

Roadside bombs taking bigger toll in Afghanistan

Winter weather failed to deter insurgents from stepping up roadside bomb attacks in Afghanistan, as both blasts and casualties among U.S. and allied troops in January more than doubled from a year earlier, Pentagon data show.

Coalition troops found 727 bombs in January compared with 276 in the same month of 2009. Blasts killed 32 U.S. and allied troops and wounded 137 others, compared with 14 deaths and 64 injuries in January 2009, according to the data. These bombs are the top killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

In previous years, winter was a slow season for Taliban and insurgent attacks in Afghanistan.

USA Today, 15/2/10

Bangladesh rejects £60m of climate aid from UK

The Bangladeshi government is refusing to accept a £60m donation from Britain to help it cope with the impact of global warming, because of a dispute over how the money will be provided.

Officials in the Department for International Development (Dfid) are insisting that the money is channelled through the World Bank.

Bangladesh has objected to the role of the bank, which it says will attach unfavourable ‘strings and conditions’. A spokesman for the Bangladeshi government said “If the money goes via the bank then it does not go to its real purpose. We want it to go through the UN”.

The Guardian revealed last summer that under the UK plan, known as the Multi Donor Trust Fund for Climate Change, £4.9m of the pledge will not reach Bangladesh but will be siphoned off by the bank as administration costs.

Guardian 15/2/10

Clinton steps up rhetoric against Iran

Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, said on Monday that Iran was becoming a military dictatorship as Washington keeps up the pressure on the Islamic republic over its nuclear programme.

Speaking to students in Doha, Mrs Clinton said Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps appears to have gained so much power that it is effectively “supplanting the government”.

The US has singled out the Guard Corps for tighter sanctions because of its stake in the country’s economy and its involvement in missile and nuclear programmes.

”Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship,” Mrs Clinton said. ”That is our view.”

Financial Times, 14/2/10

More continuity than change in Obama's foreign policy

Last month marked the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s first signature foreign policy initiative: the issuance of three executive orders ordering the closure of the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, the suspension of the C.I.A. interrogation program, and the review of all U.S. government detention policies and legal positions.

The orders met with wide acclaim in Europe and were heralded as the return of the U.S. commitment to international law. But one year later, the Obama administration is having difficulty implementing all three directives and has continued many of the Bush administration’s other counter-terrorism policies, including many that are highly controversial with America’s allies.

In other areas, such as engagement with the International Criminal Court and compliance with rulings of the International Court of Justice, the administration has so far been less supportive of international legal institutions than its predecessor.

Meanwhile, despite the flurry of executive orders, many of the Bush administration’s counter-terrorism policies remain in place. Mr. Obama has emphasized that the U.S. is still in a global “war” with Al Qaeda, and he has continued to use military force to kill (by drone strikes or other means) or detain members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. And the administration continues to assert the right to hold members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban indefinitely, without trial, pursuant to the laws of war, rather than as criminal suspects.

The Obama administration also quietly announced last summer that it would continue the practice of rendition to snatch and transfer terrorism suspects to America, or even from one country to another, outside of judicial frameworks, provided the detainees do not face the risk of torture.

New York Times, 14/2/10

BAE fines 'easily affordable' as war profits grow

Defence company BAE Systems will seek to draw a line under a six-year bribery investigation in the UK and US when it reports 2009 results this week. The two fines of $400m (£255m) and £30m that the company has agreed to in order to settle investigations with the US Department of Justice and the Serious Fraud Office respectively will be paid for from last year's earnings, removing what has been a significant source of uncertainty for shareholders in recent years.

The fines will knock about 8p a share off earnings, which is "easily affordable", analysts at Citigroup said. Analysts are forecasting sales of around £21.5bn, up from £18.5bn and earnings before interest and taxes of £2.2bn, compared with £1.9bn last year.

Orders for new equipment and service contracts in the UK are expected to account for a significant proportion of earnings growth. During 2009, the Ministry of Defence agreed to buy the third block of Eurofighter Typhoon jets, and deliveries of that plane to Saudi Arabia got under way. The company also won maintenance contracts for the Harrier and Typhoon.

Work on the Type 45 destroyer and Astute nuclear-powered submarine have stepped up and steel was cut on the first of two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy. The Government reiterated its commitment to the £5bn carrier programme as part of a defence green paper earlier this month, although all large projects will come under scrutiny in the strategic defence review to be carried out after the general election.

Daily Telegraph, 13/2/10

Iraq election turmoil

A secular Iraqi political coalition has suspended its election campaign over a ban on some of its candidates, as blasts hit political offices across Baghdad.

The blasts late on Saturday, as well as the ongoing dispute over banned election candidates, have heightened tensions during the run up to Iraq's parliamentary vote, scheduled for March 7.

The secular Iraqiya list, which is led by Ayad Allawi, a former prime minister, suspended its campaign for three days while it attempts to negotiate the return of dozens of its candidates.

Hours later a blast struck the political offices of a Sunni politician and co-founder of the Iraqiya list, who is among those barred from the election. Another bomb was thrown into the garden of a building used by Sunni scholars, including poll candidates, in Mansour in west Baghdad, wounding two guards. A third blast damaged the headquarters of the United Iraq list in east Baghdad. Another blast wounded two people when it struck the headquarters of the Moderate Movement list in Karrada in east Baghdad.

Saturday's blasts feed into Iraq's election turmoil, already strained by the back-and-forth over the ban on candidates accused of ties to the outlawed Baath party of Saddam Hussein.

US officials are deeply concerned the ban could threaten Iraq's political stability ahead of the withdrawal of American combat troops by the end of August.

Al Jazeera, 14/2/10

Iran drills for oil in Caspian Sea

State TV reports that Iran has began drilling its first exploratory oil well in the Caspian Sea.

The Sunday report quotes head of Iran's North Drilling Company Hedayatollah Khademi as saying the well is one of the three planned to gauge the amount of recoverable oil available in Iran's territorial waters of the sea. Khademi said the drilling began last week and is taking place at 1,550 meters under the seabed.

The move is the latest Iranian push to take a bigger stake of the natural resources of the sea, which is shared by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.

In 2009 Iran inaugurated its first offshore oil platform in the Caspian.

Forbes, 14/2/10

Israel presses for sanctions on Iran

Israel will step up its diplomatic activity in the coming weeks, in an effort to persuade the international community to launch a fourth round of United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran by the end of next month.

Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, will arrive in Israel today for talks on Iran's nuclear program, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Moscow in a bid to convince Russia to support new sanctions on Tehran.

Israel and the United States will hold strategic talks on the issue next week, the first such talks since Netanyahu took office. A senior Israeli official said yesterday that the U.S., France, Britain and Germany have been updating Israel continuously on developments at the UN and in major world capitals on drafting new measures against the Islamic Republic.

Jerusalem and Washington have held several high-level consultations on Iran in recent weeks. Last month U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones visited Israel for talks with Israeli colleagues, and two weeks ago Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta paid a secret visit to the country. The U.S. officials briefed their counterparts on sanctions the Obama administration intends to levy against Iran, but reportedly asked them to keep a low media profile and to "act responsibly."

Netanyahu is expected to try to convince Russian leaders to implement "crippling sanctions" against Tehran, and to receive assurances that the Kremlin is committed to freeze its supply of advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran.

Haaretz, 14/2/10

Clinton builds case for Iran sanctions

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads Saturday to Qatar and Saudi Arabia to build the US case for tougher sanctions over Iran's nuclear plans in meetings with key Arab and Muslim leaders.

Clinton may ask the Saudis to offer the Chinese increased oil supplies to try to win Beijing's backing for sanctions against Iran. China imports much of its oil from Iran.

China appears to be the sole holdout to sanctions among the five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, which is also composed of the United States, Russia, Britain and France.

Moscow has hardened its stance toward Iran lately.

Turkey, the only NATO member that neighbours Iran, insists the row should be resolved through dialogue, arguing that economic sanctions or military action against Iran would have a damaging impact on the whole region. China has taken a similar stand

AFP, 13/2/10

Sunni candidates banned in Iraq elections

Iraqi officials confirmed on Saturday that appeals by prominent Sunni politicians against a move to ban them from next month's election had failed, opening the door to sectarian recriminations that could mar the vote.

Many Iraqi Sunnis are alarmed by a campaign by the Shi'ite-led government against people accused of links to former Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath party, and a decision by a panel to ban almost 500 candidates because of Baathist links.

The controversy has threatened to reopen old wounds just when the sectarian slaughter triggered by the 2003 U.S. invasion has begun to fade and Iraq has started to attract multibillion-dollar investments from global oil firms.

The furor over the banned candidates has come to dominate the campaign for the March 7 parliamentary election, which kicked off officially on Friday. The election will determine who runs Iraq as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011 and massive oil sector projects kick into gear.

If broadly accepted, the vote could help to heal the rift between Sunni and Shi'ite; if it is viewed as unfair by Sunnis, it could lead to more bloodshed and strife.

The panel that drew up the list of banned candidates is dominated by Shi'ite politicians and its actions were viewed by some Sunnis as an attempt to disenfranchise them.

Washington Post 13/2/10

Civilians killed in Iraq gun-fight

At least 10 civilians have reportedly been killed and many more injured in a gunfight between Iraqi-US forces and anti-government fighters in Iraq's Maysan province near the Iranian border, authorities say.

US and Iraqi forces said they came under fire as they approached the village of Ali al-Sharqi, southeast of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, on Friday.

There were conflicting claims about the death toll. The US said five fighters were killed, while local officials said as many as 10 civilians died.

The troops were searching for weapons allegedly smuggled across the border by suspected Iranian-backed Kateb Hezbollah fighters when the attack took place.

Maytham Lafta, a local official, said at least 10 "innocent people'' were killed, including two women. A provincial police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information, also said 10 people were killed.

A US military statement said security forces detained 12 people believed to be members of Kateb Hezbollah.

Al Jazeera, 13/2/10

Obama backs off China on value of currency

As a senator and candidate for president, Barack Obama urged the United States to take a tough stand against China over its foreign exchange system.

But over a year since taking office, Obama's administration is still weighing whether to launch formal action over China's currency in what could be the biggest -- and riskiest -- challenge by Washington to Beijing's economic policies.

Although there is agreement among Western economists the Chinese yuan is substantially undervalued, labeling China a currency manipulator could backfire on the United States, making it unlikely Obama will take that step soon.

U.S.-China ties already have been put to the test recently over Washington's plan to sell some $6.4 billion of arms to Taiwan, Google's (GOOG.O) threat to quit China over censorship and hacking concerns and an expanding list of trade disputes.

Meanwhile, the United States needs China's cooperation to rein in Iran's nuclear program, "a high-voltage foreign policy and security issue," said Ed Gresser, trade policy director at the Democratic Leadership Council.

China is also the United States' biggest creditor and senior Chinese military officers, in an interview published on Monday, urged the country sell some U.S. bonds to punish Washington for the planned arms sales to Taiwan.

Reuters, 12/2/10