Iran is buying around half of its gasoline imports in July from Turkey and the rest from Chinese sellers, oil traders said.
Many gasoline sellers have stopped trading with Iran due to US sanctions on those that supply the Islamic Republic, making it more expensive for Iran to meet its import needs.
Iran would import around 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of gasoline in July, steady from June, oil traders said.
www.iranoilgas.com,
By Robert Burns
New Zealand Herald
10:57 AM Wednesday Jun 30, 2010
WASHINGTON – The scandal over an alleged Russian spy ring erupted at an awkward time for a White House that has staked its foreign policy record on improved cooperation with Moscow, but it appeared unlikely to do lasting damage to US-Russian relations.
The administration sought to dampen tensions, while the Russian government offered the conciliatory hope on Tuesday that US authorities would “show proper understanding, taking into account the positive character of the current stage of development of Russian-American relations.”
The White House response was notably restrained following the dramatic announcement that 11 people assigned a decade or more to illegally infiltrate American society had been arrested. They are accused of using fake names and claims of US citizenship to burrow into US society and ferret out intelligence as Russian “illegals” – spies operating without diplomatic cover.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs laboured to show that the arrests were a law enforcement matter – one not driven by the president, even though President Barack Obama was informed – and played down any political consequences.
CCID: 31622
Obama was asked about the matter by reporters twice on Tuesday. He declined to comment both times.
Gibbs said Obama was aware of the investigation before he met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the White House on Thursday, although Gibbs said he did not know whether Obama knew then that the arrests were imminent. The two leaders did not discuss the issue, Gibbs said.
Officials in both countries left the impression that spy rings remain a common way of doing business.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered a message of restraint during a meeting at his country residence with former President Bill Clinton, who was in Moscow to speak at an investment conference.
“I understand that back home police are putting people in prison,” Putin said, drawing a laugh from Clinton. “That’s their job. I’m counting on the fact that the positive trend seen in the relationship will not be harmed by these events.”
The administration has made a high priority of improving relations with Russia.
At stake in the short term is a newly concluded nuclear arms control deal, dubbed New START, which requires a favourable vote in the US Senate and approval by the Russian legislature.
More broadly, Obama wants to build the foundation for a strategic partnership with Moscow – to increase security and economic and other cooperation with the former Cold War foe.
Intelligence sources indicate that the biggest arms suppliers of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are allies of Turkey that are also members of NATO. Recently drafted General Staff reports say that many mines planted by the PKK were obtained from Italy and Spain.
Turkey is ready to start a new round of diplomatic initiatives to stop countries that supply the PKK with arms. Turkey has undertaken similar initiatives in previous years.
Over the past few months, the PKK has relied on arms from Mediterranean countries, intelligence reports indicate. The roadside bomb that exploded in Halkalı on Tuesday was of Portuguese origin, intelligence sources said, adding this country to the list of countries that supply arms to the terrorist organization. That attack was carried out by the PKK’s urban offshoot, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK).
The most crucial question is how the PKK is able to bring these arms supplies it obtains from Mediterranean countries to northern Iraq. US journalist Seymour Hersh claimed in 2007 that this was done via Israel.
The General Staff has seized PKK arms and ammunition originating from 31 different countries. However, NATO-member countries have been the biggest suppliers. Most of the arms and ammunition seized are of Russian, Italian, Spanish, German and Chinese origin.
In 2007 Turkey questioned the countries where the arms used by the PKK — particularly the heavy artillery the terrorist group uses — are mostly manufactured on how the PKK could have obtained these weapons. These diplomatic attempts must have produced some sort of a result, as all PKK weaponry seized in the past three years have had their serial numbers erased. The military has noticed that the PKK now generally erases serial numbers, especially on explosives. However, most of the time the origins of the ammunition can still be traced. Turkey is concentrating on finding the sources of not the lighter arms but of heavy artillery such as heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, mines and hand grenades.
According to data from the General Staff, the Kalashnikovs used by PKK terrorists are from Russia and China. The rocket launchers, mines, hand grenades and heavy machine guns so far seized from the organization appear to have been manufactured in Italy, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic and Hungary.
The organization uses a third country to bring the weapons to northern Iraq and then into Turkey. What disturbs Turkey most is that the mines that have killed more than 100 Turks recently were all obtained from Italy.
Another issue is that the PKK, which had been rather sloppy in using remote-controlled mines until 2008, has become more of an expert at such attacks. Terrorism experts say the PKK has been given special training, with many suspecting Mossad agents. In 2009, Interior Minister Beşir Atalay claimed that some Mossad agents had gone to northern Iraq and given training on remote-controlled explosives.
According to documents from the General Staff, 72 percent of the Kalashnikovs used by the PKK are from Russia, 15 percent from China and the rest from Hungary and Bulgaria.
In 2007, it was reported that more than 170,000 weapons donated by the US to the Iraqi army had ended up in the PKK’s hands. The US Defense Department started an investigation after Turkey’s discovery of this fact.
Turkey is making a point to not publicly announce how it suspects these weapons are being brought into northern Iraq. Pulitzer-winning journalist Hersh, in an interview with the Takvim daily earlier this month, said Israel helped the PKK base in the Kandil Mountains bring in arms and supplies on helicopters.
He said that Israel gives extensive support to the PKK and the related Iranian organization Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), especially in terms of arms supplies. He also said that Mossad operatives are active in the area, noting that Jewish Kurds who left northern Iraq 50 years ago returned to the region after the 2003 US occupation. He argued that most of these people are cooperating with the PKK and the purpose of these developments will become clear to all in the near future.
Although this interview has attracted the attention of Turkish security units, there is a visible effort to avoid making any official statements at this point. Turkey recently made a decision to start diplomatically lobbying countries that supply arms to the PKK. If these countries fail to cut the support they provide for the PKK, then they will be warned openly in the international arena.
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| ERCAN YAVUZ ANKARA
www.todayszaman.com, Jun 26, 2010 |
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Ethnic Uighurs accuse Beijing of marginalising them in favour of Han Chinese migrants [File: AP]
Chinese police have arrested more than 10 “hardcore terrorists” who allegedly planned to carry out attacks in the Xinjiang region during unrest between ethnic Uighurs and Han Chinese last year, officials said.
Wu Heping, a spokesman for the ministry of public security, said on Thursday that the suspects were linked to the banned East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).
“The uncovering of this major terrorist group again proves that the ETIM
and other terrorist organisations constitute the gravest terrorist threat
that our nation faces at this present time and in the future,” Wu said at a news conference.
Wu said that the members of ETIM, a banned group that advocates independence for Xinjiang, had fled to different parts of China and overseas after last July’s violence.
Although he did not specify what countries they fled to, he said three of those whose arrest was announced on Thursday were among a group of Uighurs deported back to China in December.
Cambodia repatriated 20 Uighurs in December, saying they had entered the country illegally, but it was not clear if any of them were those referred to by Wu.
Wu did not disclose any dates of the arrests and or any reason for why his statement was issued now.
‘Politically motivated’
Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, which is based in Europe, said the timing of Wu’s announcement was politically motivated.
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“Announcing this now just before July 5 [the anniversary of the ethnic unrest] shows China wants to push the perception that all Uighurs and all Muslims are terrorists,” Raxit told the AFP news agency.
Raxit has also told The Associated Press news agency that “China associates all Uighur causes with the ETIM, although no one seems to know what this group is or where they are located”.
Among those detained were the group’s alleged ringleaders who are accused of launching attacks against against police and paramilitary troops around the time of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.
Wu said those who fled last July had subsequently travelled through China preaching religious “extremism”, recruiting members, raising funds, and rehearsing further planned attacks.
Xinjiang tensions
Simmering tensions between Han Chinese migrants and the Turkic-speaking majority Muslim Uighurs over the government’s allegedly discrimnatory policies spilled over into violence that left at least 200 people dead.
However, many analysts have said that ETIM is significantly less influential in the western region than the Chinese government suggests.
Nicholas Bequelin, a senior Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch and an authority on Xinjiang, said there were some in region advocating violence but that links between individual acts were likely limited.
“It mostly looks like these events [in Kashgar and Kuqa] were the product of very heavy pressure ahead of the Olympic Games prompting people to try and bring attention to the situation in Xinjiang,” he said.
“But it doesn’t mean there is a link behind them, the only link to me is that the government has a theory that it faces separatist, extremist, terrorist groups and lumps it all together to make it look like it’s a conspiracy.”
Britain will stop giving aid money to China and Russia, as “it is not justifiable” any longer, the UK government has said.
International Developement Secretary Andrew Mitchell announced a review into how the UK funds overseas development work in around 90 countries.
“The money will be redirected towards those countries where they can make the most difference,” he said.
In 2008-09, China received more than £40m, while Russia got £190,000.
Britain’s annual bilateral aid budget stands now at £2.9bn.
Mr Mitchell said that, apart from Russia and China, “other country programmes which are less effective will be closed or reduced”.
The news came on the same day as the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Serhiy Lyovochkin, told journalists that Russia had agreed to lend Ukraine $4bn.
China is considered to be the fastest growing economy in the world, while Russia is also among the leaders.
Mr Mitchell said: “I am determined to get value for money across my department’s work and focus on the big issues such as maternal health, fighting malaria, and extending choice to women over whether and when they have children.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10334927, 16 June 2010
2:51pm UK, Tuesday May 25, 2010
Adam Arnold, Sky News Online
The North’s leader Kim Jong-Il is thought to have told his military to be braced for war, as Seoul blares out its own propaganda into the neighbouring rival country.
As part of psychological warfare operations, South Korea is placing loudspeakers at the border and is also using radio to broadcast messages into the North.
South Korea is slashing trade and denying permission for the North’s cargo ships to pass through the South’s waters.
The tensions also spooked global markets, with the FTSE 100 index of leading British companies falling by more than 2%.
Seoul has blamed Pyongyang for a torpedo strike that sank the warship Cheonan and killed 46 sailors on March 26.
A team of international investigators concluded last week that a torpedo from a North Korean submarine tore the Cheonan apart.
The sinking was the South’s worst military disaster since the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
The North denies any involvement and has warned retaliation would mean war. It has threatened to destroy any propaganda facilities installed at the heavily militarised border.
The claim that Kim had told his million-strong armed forces to prepare for combat was made by the South’s state-run Yonhap news agency, citing North Korean observers.
“We do not hope for war but, if South Korea, with the US and Japan on its back, tries to attack us, Kim Jong-Il has ordered us to finish the task of unification left undone during the… (Korean) war,” Yonhap quoted a May 20 broadcast as saying.
Pyongyang is already subject to a number of UN-backed sanctions in response to its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.
The US, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has thrown its full support behind its ally’s moves.
Washington is planning two major military exercises off the Korean peninsula in a display of force intended “to deter future aggression” by the North.
Also, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is stepping up pressure on China to back international action against North Korea over the sinking of the warship.
She said peace and security on the Korean peninsula is a shared responsibility between Washington and Beijing.
Mrs Clinton said the Obama administration expects to work closely with China to “fashion an effective response” to the sinking.
China, the communist country’s main ally, has remained neutral, but the US wants Beijing to support UN Security Council action against North Korea.
Sky News Online