"US seeking closer military ties with India to counter China"

WASHINGTON, May 26: In a major geopolitical shift, the United States is looking to forge closer military ties with India as a counter to China and to help stabilise the world’s most dangerous nuclear flashpoint, a senior US defence official said.

General Henry Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, next week will make the highest level US military visit to India since the 1998 underground nuclear tests that set off an overt nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan and prompted US sanctions, the official said.

India signaled its readiness for a closer security relationship with Washington earlier this month by responding positively to President George Bush’s US missile defence initiative, the official said.

"It reflects kind of a diplomatic revolution," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity in an interview yesterday.

Never close, the two countries had testy relations during the cold war when non-aligned India looked to the Soviet Union for military supplies and Washington allied with Pakistan to thwart the soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Now, prompted by US concerns about China and the belief that sanctions have allowed nuclear instability to fester on the subcontinent, the administration wants to waive the sanctions and substantively upgrade its military relations with India, the official said.

Lifting sanctions would allow India to receive military assistance and buy US-made weaponry and military equipment.

"People see us and them having a common concern in Chinese power in the far east," he said.

Some in the administration see India as a strategic partner in the containment of China, he said, while others regard it as a coming power that has interests in common with Washington.

"In the abstract you could go down the list of common interests, common threats and you could easily conclude that we and the Indians should be strategic allies cooperating to contain the Chinese threat," he said.

But, he cautioned, "a good part of the Indian establishment probably mistrust us more than they mistrust the Chinese."

The official said it would take at least several months to lift the sanctions but "there is a disposition to get beyond sanctions."

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage informed members of Congress several days ago that the State Department supported a presidential waiver to lift sanctions against India, and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also supports a waiver, the official said.

The debate now centres on whether sanctions should be lifted at once or in phases and whether concessions should be required of India, he said.

A presidential waiver would not help Pakistan because it is subject to yet another layer of sanctions imposed in response to a 1999 military coup.

The official said US military cooperation would likely be aimed initially at building relationships that would be crucial if the United States is to gain influence over the nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan.

"It’s not a big stretch to spin scenarios that end up in nuclear exchanges between India and Pakistan," he said. (AFP)

Iraq maintains verbal salvo against new sanctions

BAGHDAD, May 26: Iraq today maintained a verbal barrage against British-US proposals for new sanctions against it, saying the new policy was aimed at prolonging the embargo and hurting the economies of neighbouring countries.

"Smart sanctions will strengthen sanctions on Iraq, hurt the Iraqi people and prolong sanctions," Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh told reporters after opening an Egyptian trade fair in Baghdad.

Saleh said the new sanctions would also hurt the Jordanian people and the economies of Jordan, Turkey, Syria and Iran. He said deploying monitors at border points would also breach the sovereignty of these neighbouring countries.

Iraq rejects any resolution which perpetuates the sanctions and has threatened to cut off oil to the world if the measure is adopted.

It has also threatened to sever all trade ties, including oil sales, to Turkey and Jordan if they back the sanctions.

Iraq delivers to Jordan annually 4.8 million tonnes of crude oil and products worth around 600 million dollar under undisclosed concessionary terms that ease the burden of Amman’s deficit-ridden budget.

The oil supplies are exempt from the current sanctions while the new proposals would bring proceeds into the UN Escrow account for all Iraqi oil sales.

While most Iraqi oil exports go through the United Nations programmes, industry sources say Baghdad has been smuggling up to 250,000 Barrels Per Day (BPD) to Turkey and Syria and about 100,000 BPD to Jordan.

Britain and the United States are racing against a self-imposed deadline to get agreement among key UN Security Council members for their new Iraqi policy.

Ambassadors from the five permanent Council members with veto power — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — met yesterday on the draft resolution that seeks to lift controls on civilian goods and keep them on military-related supplies.

The United States’ aim is to get the resolution adopted by May 31, before the current phase of the UN humanitarian "oil-for-food" programme expires on June 3.

The five Security Council powers have been divided on Iraqi policy for years and Russia and China appear headed towards opposition of the resolution, either by a veto or an abstention.

Britain and the United States say the proposals, which regulate oil sales and goods going to Baghdad, are meant to ease the impact of sanctions, imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

Key is France, which stands in the middle and has a more conciliatory position. But in December 1999, France at the last minute abstained with Russia and China on a key Iraq resolution, after which Baghdad rejected and ignored it.

The official Iraqi news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz as saying that Iraq rejects a proposal he said France submitted to the Security Council.

"After an initial reading, it seems that the French proposal is the same as the British one but with French cosmetic (changes)," Aziz said.

Iraq’s most influential newspaper, Babel, reiterated official rhetoric that the new sanctions, which Iraq says are stupid, would fail.

"This proposal will end up in the garbage bin of the Iraqi people," it said in a frontpage editorial. (REUTERS)

Arafat blasts Israel, seeks Muslim cash, support

DOHA, May 26: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat today made an emotional appeal to Muslim states to isolate Israel, which he accused of using depleted uranium weapons and poison gas against Palestinians in eight months of violence.

But Arafat, addressing an emergency Foreign Ministers meeting of the 56-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Qatar, also made a fresh call for a resumption of peace talks with the Jewish state.

"There are the monstrous massacres against our unarmed people carried out by missiles and bombs from F-16 warplanes, Apache helicopters, tanks and artillery," he told the one-day meeting, which was called at his request.

"Their missiles and internationally prohibited bombs, including depleted uranium, poison gases, and radioactive material used against our Palestinian people...," Arafat said.

The Emir of Qatar, hosting the talks, opened the meeting by urging the OIC to take practical steps against Israel, not traditional statements of condemnation "which are no longer sufficient".

Arafat told the ministers "the danger...Is grave...It cannot be stopped by statements of denunciation, condemnation and censure. There is no way but to take a firm stand that puts aggression and the aggressors in shackles..."

The Palestinians are asking OIC members to freeze ties with Israel until it stops attacks on Palestinians, in line with action taken by the Arab League last week.

Arafat also wants the OIC, the world’s largest Muslim organisation, to provide strong moral and financial backing for the intifada, or uprising, and to lobby the United States and other big powers to press Israel to return to peace negotiations, delegates said.

"We think the Palestinians will get what they want," one delegate said.

Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, appealed to US President George W Bush to force Israel to stop the fighting, in which more than 560 people, mainly Palestinians, have been killed since the uprising against Israeli occupation erupted last September.

"It is necessary (for Bush) to intervene immediately to put an end to this worsening situation, it is no longer acceptable to remain silent. (Bush has) to pressure the Israeli Government to force it to stop its aggression and return unconditionally to the basis of the peace process...," he said.

The Emir also demanded that an OIC team visit the United Nations and world powers to push for a UN protection force for the Palestinians — an idea raised by the group at a summit in Doha in November but rejected by Israel.

Palestinian Minister for International Cooperation Nabil Shaath told Reuters before the meeting:

"We are demanding resolutions that can be implemented. We have to enforce the isolation of the Government of (Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon, which is launching a dirty, crazy war on the Palestinian people."

Shaath said OIC members should follow the Arab League’s lead and freeze all political contacts with Israel until it halts attacks on Palestinians and "abides by a real initiative for peace built on the Mitchell report and the Jordanian- Egyptian proposal".

The Arab League, whose 22 members also belong to the OIC, called last week in Cairo for a freeze on political contacts with Israel but stopped short of breaking diplomatic relations.

Delegates said the conference was focusing on freezing political contacts with Israel, condemning its settlement policy on occupied Arab land and giving moral support and financial backing to the intifada.

Arafat said Israel was enjoying the protection of the United States and accused the UN of double standards.

"Why this absolute incapacity in the UN Security Council in the face of this war of aggression..? frankly, I say, the Israeli aggressors enjoy complete protection and total support for their aggression from the dominating and hegemonic forces in the international community," Arafat said.

But he also reiterated a call for a new summit in Sharm Al-Sheikh, Egypt, to discuss ways to revive peace talks with Israel.

"Why do we not follow up on this (Mitchell report and a Jordanian-Egyptian intiative) to put a mechanism of implementation in place by convening a new conference," in which Russia should also participate, he added.

Shaath said OIC members should tell US envoys in their countries "that they reject this bias towards Israeli aggression and the use of American weaponry against the Palestinians."

"Not a single bullet fired against us is not US-made," he complained. (REUTERS)

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