UNITED NATIONS, Mar 26:  Syria has destroyed three of its 12 chemical weapons production sites but is unable to dismantle three other facilities because of security conditions, the OPCW chemical watchdog said in its latest report.
The report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was released yesterday to the UN Security Council, which is overseeing efforts to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons program.
Syria has agreed to destroy seven aircraft hangars and five underground structures identified by the OPCW as chemical weapons production sites but there have been delays caused by logistical problems.
In the report obtained by AFP, OPCW director general Ahmet Uzumcu said his team of experts was able to verify that three tunnels have been destroyed and that work on dismantling a fourth underground structure was under way.
“Currently, one underground structure and two hangars are not accessible owing to the security situation near these sites,” he wrote in the report dated March 23.
Despite this hurdle, Uzumcu said he expected the destruction of all five underground tunnels to be completed by June.
Concerning the hangars, work has begun on five sites and explosives are to be delivered soon to begin demolishing the structures.
“The Syrian authorities have continued to extend the necessary cooperation” for the dismantling of the 12 sites, the report added.
The Security Council is due to discuss progress in dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons program at a meeting on April 2.
Syria finished disabling the production sites by October 2013, however the structures that house them still needed to be destroyed.
After an August 2013 sarin attack outside Damascus that much of the international community blamed on President Bashar al-Assad’s government, the regime agreed to turn over its chemical arsenal.
The United States threatened military action against Damascus over the attack, but held off following the chemical disarmament agreement.
A total of 1,300 metric tonnes of chemical weapons have been removed from Syria, with the majority being destroyed aboard the US Navy ship MV Cape Ray. (AGENCIES)

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 26:  India has cautioned that the UN should not give “political legitimacy” to non-state actors by bypassing national governments, saying the access to non- state armed groups should be through a cooperation framework between the UN and the concerned government.
“It is important that access of the United Nations to non-state armed groups be through the cooperation framework between the United Nations and the concerned national government,” India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Bhagwant Bishnoi said here yesterday.
“We must be cautious that the UN’s actions should not be such as to bypass national governments and give political legitimacy to non-state actors. It is this legitimacy that they seek the most and which may also, to some extent, be a motivating factor,” Bishnoi said.
Participating in a Security Council debate on ‘Children and Armed Conflict’, he said that 2014 was reported to be the worst year as far as children and armed conflict is concerned. He said it is “most distressing” that the pattern continues.
“Children are innocent and they should not be victims of what is not of their making,” he said.
Bishnoi said the real solution lies in achieving durable peace and the UNSC’s actions should focus on achieving this.
He said India notes the need for military operations, including peace operations against non-state armed groups, to integrate child protection issues into their operational planning in order to minimise and prevent child casualties.
“Drafting up such an important mandate would require the Council to have the full cooperation of the host government of the peacekeeping operation, as well as the member states not represented in the Council who are contributing troops for such operations,” he said, adding that it is unfortunate that such consultation is not the practice in the Council.
The concept note circulated for the debate referred to the need to encourage states to adopt legal measures to prohibit and criminalize the use of children under the age of 18.
“We are not clear how this would help. Illegal armed groups operate outside the law. They kill, torture and maim the innocent. It seems most doubtful that those who resort to illegal armed conflict and terrorism would be deterred from recruiting children if they were prohibited from doing so merely by the law,” he said.
Bishnoi further said that the possibility of sanctions and questions of accountability should not lead the international community to be “blindsided”.
“There are references in the concept note to putting more pressure on non-state armed groups, to holding commanders of such groups accountable for their actions and of raising the normative and political costs for them. We should not end up in a situation of missing the woods for the trees,” he said.
He stressed that the world community should strive to address the broader issue of the economic and social marginalisation that drives millions of children into a childhood that makes them part of the problem rather than tomorrow’s solution. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Mar 26:  An influential American lawmaker feels that the US should applaud Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the series of reforms initiated by his government to improve business climate and attract investments.
“Raising the FDI insurance caps, that is a positive step, you know, something that we’ve talked about for a long time and I think we should applaud the Modi administration for taking that step which will certainly help investment flows,” said Congressman Dr Ami Bera.
“I think tackling issues like introducing a land acquisition bill in India is a positive step, not an easy step, but a positive step. So again, I think we should applaud the Modi administration for that,” he said during a Congressional hearing.
“Looking at some of India’s ascension going from a recipient nation to a donor nation, particularly when I look at some of the work they’re in Africa I think it is something that we should applaud,” he added.
Jonathan Nicholas Stivers, Assistant Administrator of the Bureau of Asia at USIAD, said Modi and President Barack Obama are really taking this relationship to a new level. (PTI)

SINGAPORE, Mar 26:  Former US President Bill Clinton will lead a high-level White House delegation to attend the State Funeral of Singapore’s founder Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on Sunday.
Lee, 91, died on March 23.
He was Singapore’s First Prime Minister. Lee stepped down in 1990, but held influence on local and international political and economic affairs.
The delegation will include US ambassador to Singapore Kirk Wagar, former US ambassador to Singapore Steven Green and former assistant to the president for national security affairs Thomas Donilon, The Straits Times reported.
Notable American statesman Henry Kissinger, who had close friendship with Lee, will also be in the delegation, all members of which have strong ties with Asia.
Donilon was a strong advocate for the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia.
Secretary of State John Kerry had earlier said that the US would be sending a high-level delegation to Singapore because Lee “was deeply pro-American and deeply involved with the US and much of our strategic thinking through that time.”
Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken was also at the Singapore embassy to pen a condolence message for Lee.
“He was a great man, a great leader and a great friend to the United States and we will miss his wise counsel, we will miss his voice, we will miss his vision,” he told reporters.
“We are also grateful because thanks to his labour, the foundation between our countries, the relationship between our countries is extraordinarily strong and it will endure forever and that is a wonderful legacy.”
In Beijing, the foreign ministry said a Chinese leader would attend Lee’s funeral service, without giving names.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is also expected at the funeral service.
Many of the world leaders will be in Singapore just for the day, departing promptly after the public ceremony at the University Cultural Centre.
That will require a high measure of coordination and logistics in security terms, traffic control as well as aircraft departure times, said the daily. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Mar 26:  The United States is coordinating closely with Saudi Arabia and regional allies in the military action against Huthi rebels in Yemen, including providing intelligence and logistical support, the White House has said.
“President Obama has authorised the provision of logistical and intelligence support to GCC-led military operations,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement yesterday, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Saudi Arabia carried out air strikes against the Huthi rebels yesterday, launching an operation by a regional coalition to save the government of embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi as the country teeters on the brink of civil war.
Condemning the Huthi rebels, a Shiite militia that launched a power takeover in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in February, Meehan said Washington had also been in close contact with the embattled Hadi.
US forces were not taking direct military action in Yemen, she stressed, but were “establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support.”
“We strongly urge the Huthis to halt immediately their destabilising military actions and return to negotiations as part of the political dialogue,” added Meehan.
“The international community has spoken clearly through the UN Security Council and in other fora that the violent takeover of Yemen by an armed faction is unacceptable and that a legitimate political transition – long sought by the Yemeni people – can be accomplished only through political negotiations and a consensus agreement among all of the parties.”
Two senior US Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, endorsed the attacks. But they also used the occasion to criticise what they called a lack of US leadership in the region.
“We understand why our Saudi and other Arab partners felt compelled to take action. The prospect of radical groups like Al-Qaeda, as well as Iranian-backed militants, finding safe haven on the border of Saudi Arabia was more than our Arab partners could withstand,” the senators said in a joint statement.
“Their action also stems from their perception of America’s disengagement from the region and absence of US leadership,” they wrote. (AGENCIES)

ADEN, Mar 26:  Saudi Arabia carried out air strikes against Huthi rebels in Yemen today, launching an operation by a regional coalition to save the government of embattled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi as the country teetered on the brink of civil war.
The kingdom’s ambassador to the US announced from Washington that a coalition of 10 countries, including five Gulf monarchies, had been set up to protect the Yemeni government.
Washington said President Barack Obama had authorised the “provision of logistical and intelligence support” to the military operation.
Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE along with Saudi Arabia said they “have decided to answer the call of President Hadi to protect Yemen and his people from the aggression of the (Shiite) Huthi militia”.
Saudi envoy Adel al-Jubeir did not name the other countries involved in the coalition.
Saudi SPA state news agency said Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco and Sudan had all “expressed desire to participate in the operation” against the rebels, which the kingdom dubbed “Firmness Storm”.
Al-Jubeir told reporters in Washington that the operation “is to defend and support the legitimate government of Yemen and prevent the radical Huthi movement from taking over the country”.
He said that for the moment the action was confined to air strikes on various targets around Yemen, but that other military assets were being mobilised and that the coalition “would do whatever it takes”.
“The Royal Saudi Air Force has taken out the Huthi air defences and destroyed numerous Huthi fighter planes,” a Saudi advisor said, adding that air force “has pretty much secured most of the Yemeni air space and is now consolidating a wide no-fly zone.”
Military sources said the raids had hit rebel positions at various locations in Sanaa, including at al-Daylami airbase and the adjacent international airport in north Sanaa, as well as the presidential complex seized by the rebels in January.
Huge explosions were heard in Sanaa as strikes hit the airbase at Sanaa airport and other locations in the capital, an AFP correspondent reported.
In the south, residents reported hearing large blasts at Al-Anad main airbase, north of Aden, which was seized by anti-government forces yesterday.
The rebels’ television station Al-Massira aired an urgent call for medics in Sanaa to head to hospitals. (AGENCIES)

SEOUL, Mar 26: North Korea’s young leader Kim Jong-Un has urged athletes to adopt “guerrila-style” tactics in an effort to boost the nation’s underwhelming impact on the global sporting stage.
In a letter to a national meeting of sportspeople and officials, Kim, who is known to be an avid sports fan, lamented the fact that North Korea was “trailing behind the world” in sports science and strategy.
The message – couched in militaristic rhetoric – said sport provided a crucial opportunity to promote North Korea overseas.
“At times of peace, only athletes can fly the DPRK national flag in the sky of other countries,” Kim said in the letter cited by the official KCNA news agency today.
Promising state support that would turn North Korea into a sports powerhouse “within a few years,” Kim said inspiration should be drawn from the fight against Japanese colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.
“Sports officials and coaches must implement the tactics of anti-Japanese guerilla-style attacks in each sport event in order to take the initiative in every game and triumph,” he said.
North Korea’s official history makes much of Kim’s grandfather Kim Il-Sung’s role as an anti-Japanese guerrilla leader, before he rose to prominence and eventually became the country’s founding father.
While rival South Korea punches above its weight in the international sporting arena, the North’s sporting record has largely failed to fulfil its aspirations.
It has participated in nine summer Olympics since Munich in 1972, but taken home only 14 gold medals.
The four golds it won in 2012 in London – all in weightlifting or judo – equalled its best-ever tally.
Its football team stunned the world by defeating Italy 1-0 on its way to the quarter-finals of the 1966 World Cup, but has only qualified for one other tournament since then, in 2010.
Since taking power following the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in late 2011, Kim has actively pushed sports progress, and personally oversaw construction of a top-class ski resort.
In October 2013, he introduced a new policy rewarding successful athletes with luxury apartments in recognition of their achievements.
In his letter, Kim said priority should be placed on those sports where North Korean athletes have already known success, including women’s football, weightlifting, boxing, judo and archery. (AGENCIES)