Archive for July, 2009

L’AQUILA, Italy (CNN) — President Obama argued Friday that the Group of Eight nations had sent a clear message to Iran: The world will not “wait indefinitely” and allow the country to build nuclear weapons. “The international community has said, ‘Here’s a door you can walk through that allows you to lessen tensions and more fully join the international community,’ ” Obama told reporters at a news conference at the end of the G-8 summit in Italy.

“If Iran chooses not to walk through that door, then you have on record the G-8 to begin with, but I think potentially a lot of other countries, that are going to say, ‘We need to take further steps.’ ” Obama met with some fellow leaders to push for a threat of potential new sanctions against Iran, but the G-8 did not issue such a threat. Obama — who has promised diplomatic engagement with Tehran — said offering a “door” has always been “our premise.”

“But we also say we’re not going to just wait indefinitely and allow for the development of the nuclear weapon, the breach of international treaties, and wake up one day and find ourselves in a much worse situation and unable to act. So my hope is that the Iranian leadership will look at the statement coming out of the G-8 and recognize that world opinion is clear.” The G-8 statement expressed commitment “to finding a diplomatic solution to the issue of Iran’s nuclear program” and said Iran “has the right to a civilian nuclear program, but that comes with the responsibility to restore confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear activities.” “We sincerely hope that Iran will seize this opportunity to give diplomacy a chance to find a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue,” the statement said.

Reports said Obama met with some fellow leaders to push for a threat of potential new sanctions against Iran in the wake of the government’s crackdown on protesters following the disputed June 12 election. Obama denied those reports, saying, “What we wanted was exactly what we got, which is a statement of unity and strong condemnation about the appalling treatment of peaceful protesters post-election in Iran as well as some behavior that just violates basic international norms.” The G-8 statement said the group “deplores” the violence.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — After relative success against Islamic extremists elsewhere, Pakistan’s military faces its toughest test yet — a surgical operation against the country’s most dangerous militant in a region of harsh terrain and fierce tribal rivalries. The target of the air and ground offensive now in its early phases is Baitullah Mehsud, the top commander of Pakistan’s Taliban who has ties to al-Qaida. Mehsud is believed responsible for scores of suicide attacks — possibly including the December 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistan considers Mehsud its greatest domestic threat. The U.S. views him as a danger to its war effort in Afghanistan because his base in South Waziristan harbors militants fleeing across the border. The Obama administration fears that a destabilized, nuclear-armed Pakistan could endanger the entire region. In recent months, U.S. missile strikes have increasingly focused on Mehsud-linked targets. For years, Washington has pressed Pakistan to go beyond halfhearted offensives and fragile peace deals to root out militants from its northwest, especially the lawless tribal belt where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden may be hiding. Now it appears Pakistan may be heeding the call following major ground operations against Taliban fighters in the Bajur tribal region and the Swat Valley. But taking on Mehsud and his force of up to 10,000 fighters in South Waziristan will likely prove tougher.

Roughly half the size of Connecticut, South Waziristan is a mountainous, underdeveloped territory. It has a leaky border with Afghanistan, barely any government infrastructure and fiercely independent, heavily armed Pashtun tribes hostile to interference by outsiders, including Pakistan’s Punjabi-dominated army. Already, army officials are stressing that the operation will be limited — focusing on capturing or killing Mehsud and destroying his terror infrastructure rather than targeting other militant groups. Mehsud “is the main center of gravity. He is a leader who has declared himself the emir, the ruler of the other factions, also. He has been the main source of terrorism in Pakistan,” Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the army’s chief spokesman, told The Associated Press.

As it ramps up its offensive, the military is trying to choke off sections of South Waziristan under Mehsud’s control. Major roads are being cleared and potential escape routes sealed off to isolate the militants before the army’s campaign takes off, Abbas said. “We want to create certain effects in the area, like softening the targets, targeting their training centers, their suicide-bombing centers, and also hit hard their logistics. That will reduce their force capability,” Abbas said. By limiting the scope of the operation, the Pakistanis hope to avoid alienating other tribes, whose support — or at least neutrality — would be crucial to eliminating Mehsud.

Key to that effort is to cut deals with other militant leaders such as Maulvi Nazir, who recently agreed to a cease-fire. Nazir’s fighters maintain a significant presence along the Afghan border and could help restrict movements of pro-Mehsud Taliban to and from Afghanistan. “They cannot afford to alienate every single militant,” said Kamran Bokhari of STRATFOR, a private security think-tank in Austin, Texas. “The tribes, the militia leaders, they are adjusting day by day. It’s an issue of sorting out the baddies from the ones who aren’t fighting the Pakistani state.” In February, Pakistan said it had defeated militants in Bajur after a six-month offensive, and it is now winding down a nearly three-month battle in the Swat Valley. But violence occasionally flares in Bajur, which, while also a rugged border area, is smaller than South Waziristan. And in Swat, many insurgents are believed to have fled to the hills.

Other differences add to the South Waziristan challenge. Swat does not have as strong a tribal structure and legally it was a full-fledged part of Pakistan with government presence. Bajur’s tribes are not as well off as those in Waziristan and appear more willing to work with the military, even setting up their own militias to take on the Taliban. Aside from the porous border, South Waziristan’s terrain poses other problems. Pakistan’s army is organized and trained to fight its traditional rival, India, on the eastern plains rather than guerrillas entrenched in mountains. The army, with U.S. assistance, is improving its counterinsurgency capabilities but is far from being as nimble enough. Several factors have contributed to growing public anger against the Taliban, including their foray into a district just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the capital, Islamabad, and a video showing militants flogging a young woman.

Whether the support would survive a long and bloody fight in South Waziristan is unclear. Some analysts suspect the U.S. and Pakistani governments have a secret deal allowing the U.S. missile strikes, even though Pakistan publicly protests them, saying they anger the tribes. Bokhari said the Pakistani military has weeks, not months, to make an impact in South Waziristan because public support for the operation could fade. Even if it never captures or kills Mehsud, the army needs to be able to say it has destroyed his network.”Now you have momentum,” Bokhari said. “You don’t want to drag it out too long.”

TEHRAN, July 9 — Thousands of anti-government demonstrators were attacked with batons and tear gas by security forces Thursday as they tried to gather around Tehran University for the first protests in about two weeks, defying warnings from the authorities that they would crush any demonstrations. The protests were called to commemorate an attack on students at the university in 1999. The demonstrators are using such anniversaries and special occasions to rally people in public. Demonstrators and Web sites said the next possible date is the second-term inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which is expected next month. Several national and religious celebrations also are coming up in the months ahead. At the same time, the authorities also showed their determination to prevent such protests.

An eyewitness said army conscripts carrying plastic shields and batons filled the area in front of Tehran University. Two middle-aged women reportedly walked up to the security forces, asking them mockingly whether it was already 5 p.m., the proposed start time for the demonstration. “Oh, still 20 minutes left,” one woman told them. “That means that you still have time to leave,” she added, laughing. But the mood quickly changed when plainclothes security personnel started shoving people into unmarked vans with blacked-out windows. “A girl started screaming, and three men started beating her very hard with batons as she was lying on the ground, swearing at them, calling them dirtbags,” an eyewitness said. When groups of people started shouting at the men, a young bearded official in civilian clothes ran toward the crowds, pulled out a revolver and started shooting in the air. “Everybody ran away into the nearby alleys,” the eyewitness said. At Ferdowsi Square, a roundabout in central Tehran, teenage members of the pro-government Basij militia stood shoulder to shoulder in a huge circle, wearing oversize black helmets and camouflage vests and carrying wooden handles of shovels and axes.

The security forces managed to prevent large crowds from gathering, by using tear gas, wielding batons and firing shots in the air. “They were constantly coming from both sides, surrounding us. We couldn’t do much,” a demonstrator said. Many shouted slogans in favor of Mir Hossein Mousavi, an opposition leader who has been calling for an annulment of the disputed June 12 election in which Ahmadinejad was declared the landslide winner. As darkness fell, more and more special riot police belonging to the Revolutionary Guard Corps — nicknamed “robocops” because of their black protective gear — flooded the streets. There were reports of people setting trash cans on fire in several neighborhoods. Mousavi did not call for protests Thursday. But the capital had been abuzz with calls for a huge demonstration around Enghelab Square. On Web sites, in e-mails and in fliers, there were calls to meet up along nine routes leading to the square for what seemed to be spontaneous gatherings. The government accuses foreign governments, media and groups of organizing the protests and has asserted that people dressed as members of the Basij were beating protesters.

On one street, a student named Hadi said in a telephone interview, “robocop-style policemen attacked a group of people. The crowd ran off, only to be blocked by a group of Basijis. Instead of turning away from them, the crowd actually charged the Basijis and started fighting and beating them up.” The Iranian government has complained that in the aftermath of the election, several Farsi-language satellite broadcasting stations have been exhorting people to protest, including the U.S.-funded Voice of America Persian News Network and a similar operation run by the British Broadcasting Corp. “The enemies of the Iranian nation are angry with the post-election calm in Iran and try to damage it through their TV channels,” said Morteza Tamadon, governor of the Tehran province and a strong supporter of Ahmadinejad. Meanwhile, the U.S. military on Thursday released five Iranian officials who were detained in January 2007 in northern Iraq on suspicion of aiding Iraqi Shiite insurgents, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Iranian officials said. “We have no information yet about their physical or psychological condition or where they were kept the past two years,” said Amir Arshadi, a spokesman for the Iranian Embassy. “We are still waiting for them.”

The U.S. military had no comment.

Iranian leaders have repeatedly demanded the release of the officials, calling their detention a kidnapping that violated diplomatic protocols. At the time of their arrest, U.S. authorities said the men included the operations chief and other members of Iran’s elite Quds Force, which was accused of arming and training Iraqi insurgents. Officials in Washington and Baghdad maintained that the men had no diplomatic status. The surprise release came a day after unusually positive comments about President Obama by a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said Obama had tried to remain silent on the country’s election outcome. The comments suggest that Iran’s decision makers are still interested in discussing possible diplomatic relations with the Obama administration. “America accepts a nuclear Iran, but Britain and France cannot stand a nuclear Iran,” Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister, said in an interview on state television on Wednesday.

Nick Clegg

In an article in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph, Mr Clegg said he was now questioning the role British troops are playing in the region. Seven British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in the last week. He warned that poor equipment was to blame for some of the deaths. And he said that young lives were being “thrown away” by politicians. Yesterday, Winston S Churchill, the president of the United Kingdom National Defence Association – grandson of the British prime minister during the Second World War – and welcomed the Liberal Democrat’s intervention. He said: “Nick Clegg is the first party leader to draw a direct connection between the scale of losses in Afghanistan and the lack of resources given to our Armed Forces. To be successful the campaign in Helmand requires a much greater commitment by Britain and, as the Liberal Democrat leader says, a new and more robust approach. “I very much hope that other party leaders, on both sides of the House of Commons, will join Nick Clegg in acknowledging the indisputable fact that our Armed Forces are chronically under-funded and over-stretched due to the longstanding squeeze on the defence budget.

“They must give a firm pledge not only to exempt the Armed Forces, while at war, from any general budgetary cuts, but also, at the earliest opportunity, increase the resources available to all three Services.” The British death toll has forced some to again question the reasons why the war is being fought in Afghanistan. A total of 176 British servicemen and women have died in Afghanistan since the start of operations in 2001. There are about 8,300 British troops based in the country. Yesterday, the Ministry of Defence named the latest British soldier to be killed in southern Afghanistan as Trooper Christopher Whiteside, 20, of the Light Dragoons. He died in a blast caused by an improvised explosive device near Gereshk in Helmand Province on Tuesday.

Trooper Whiteside was a talented swordsman who had hoped to begin training for a possible place in the GB fencing team for the 2012 Olympics in London on his return from Afghanistan. His friends in the Light Dragoons fondly remembered him demonstrating his fencing skills with a broomstick at a squadron barbecue. Trooper Whiteside was taking part in Operation Panchai Palang, or Panther’s Claw, a major assault against the Taliban in the central Helmand river valley ahead of next month’s Afghan presidential election. In his article, Mr Clegg stopped short of calling for British troops to be pulled out of the operation in Helmand Province, but he warned that military planners and Gordon Brown had to think again “before it’s too late.”

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth has acknowledged there is “gloom and worry” about the fatalities and also admitted “more lives will be lost”. But he said the Government remained committed to the operation and would ensure troops did have the best equipment. Yesterday, Brigadier Tim Radford, the Commander of Task Force Helmand, said the troops on the ground were winning the battle with the Taliban. He said: “Yesterday I was on the ground in the Green Zone with my own soldiers and their brothers from the Afghan National Army. As ever I was humbled by the experience: they are fighting hard out there, with quite extraordinary skill and courage. “Their morale and dedication are high, and that is because, hour by hour and day by day, they can feel they are winning.”