Category: Regions

More U.S. Support for Syria Rebels Would Hinge on Pledges to Abide by Law
More U.S. Support for Syria Rebels Would Hinge on Pledges to Abide by Law

By MARK LANDLER and MICHAEL R. GORDON

Published: April 19, 2013
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WASHINGTON — President Obama has agreed to additional nonlethal aid for Syria’s rebels, according to a senior administration official, but its delivery will hinge in part on pledges by their political leaders to be inclusive, to protect minorities and to abide by the rule of law.

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Secretary of State John Kerry planned to meet with opposition leaders in Istanbul on Saturday, as well as with foreign ministers from nations that are supporting them, to discuss both what the United States plans to do to help the rebels and what it expects from them.

“It’s not a quid pro quo, but we want the opposition to do more,” said a senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s strategy. “Secretary Kerry will be discussing what steps we want them to take.”

The meeting in Turkey of the so-called Friends of Syria group is taking place against a backdrop of worsening violence in the two-year-old civil war, dire new worries about how to care for millions of displaced Syrians, and further signs of Islamist radicalization in the insurgency as well as intransigence by President Bashar al-Assad. The special Syria envoy of the Arab League and United Nations, Lakhdar Brahimi, told the Security Council on Friday that “the situation is extremely bad” and that he thinks daily about resigning.

The American package, officials said, includes protective military gear like body armor and night-vision goggles, as well as communications equipment — but not weapons. It comes on top of food rations and medicine announced by Mr. Kerry last February. While the State Department will determine the size of the package, an official said it could be double the $60 million in nonlethal aid already committed.

But Mr. Kerry’s expected announcement, officials said, may not come until after the United States secures a commitment from the Syrian opposition and its supporters that any government that replaces Mr. Assad’s would be inclusive, would protect the rights of his Alawite minority and other sects, and would abide by the rule of law.

Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, Mr. Kerry said his goal was “to get everybody on the same page with respect to what post-Assad might look like — commitment to diversity, pluralism, democracy, inclusivity, protection of minority rights.”

In addition, Mr. Kerry said, the United States wanted the opposition to be “open to the negotiating process to a political settlement” and to “abide by rules with respect to conduct in warfare.”

While the United States and European nations have insisted on democratic principles, American officials have been concerned that some of the opposition’s financial backers in Persian Gulf states have been less particular about the rebel factions they aid.

Among those that Mr. Kerry said he wanted to put “on the same page” are the “Qataris, Saudis, Emirates, Turks,” as well as the Europeans. Nurturing a unified, moderate opposition has been complicated by regional rivalries, with countries pushing their own favorites.

Not everyone in the Obama administration has necessarily been on the same page on policy toward the Syrian resistance. And State Department officials hope that the Istanbul meeting will enable the American side to close ranks as well.

In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, voiced concern about the growing role of extremists among the anti-Assad fighters in Syria, and said identifying moderate members of the Syrian resistance had become more difficult.

“It’s actually more confusing on the opposition side today than it was six months ago,” General Dempsey said.

During his Senate testimony on Thursday, Mr. Kerry, when asked about General Dempsey’s comments, said one purpose of the Istanbul meeting was to identify and reinforce the moderate opposition.

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Reporting was contributed by Alan Cowell from London; Hwaida Saad and Anne Barnard from Beirut, Lebanon; and Rick Gladstone from New York.
April 20, 2013
EU commissioner sees momentum in Turkey bid

By Andreas Rinke

BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Union’s enlargement commissioner said he expected a breakthrough this year in Turkey’s stalled EU membership bid and welcomed Ankara’s peace talks with Kurdish rebels and reforms of its justice system.

Turkey began talks on joining the European Union in 2005 but has only completed one of the 35 policy areas, or “chapters”, every candidate must conclude to be allowed entry due to disagreements over the divided island of Cyprus and hostility especially from France, though that is now easing somewhat.

Commissioner Stefan Fule called on EU states to recognise Turkey’s reform efforts, to open further policy negotiations with Ankara and to show more “credibility” in the talks.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has called Turkey’s wait to join the bloc “unforgivable” and has accused Brussels of not being a fair or genuine negotiation partner.

Fule, a Czech, wants four further chapters to be opened this year, including the one entitled “fundamental rights”, noting this could help steer Ankara’s future reforms.

“This chapter is the strongest transformational element that we have,” he told Reuters in an interview in Berlin.

Turkey’s parliament last week approved a reform of its anti-terrorism laws, narrowing the definition of terrorist propaganda in line with EU demands that it boost freedom of expression.

The changes coincide with progress in efforts by the government and Kurdish militants to negotiate an end to a 28-year insurgency.

Fule expressed optimism there would be progress in talks on easing visa restrictions for Turks travelling to the EU.

Fule urged Ankara to extend a customs agreement with the European Union by opening its ports to goods from Cyprus, one of the key issues hindering its ambitions to join the EU.

Turkey has no diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member since 2004, instead backing a breakaway Turkish Cypriot entity in the north of the Mediterranean island.

Cyprus is currently distracted by its financial crisis after it had to request emergency loans from the EU and the International Monetary Fund to avert bankruptcy, but Fule said he hoped President Nicos Anastasiades would bring “new energy and ideas” to the task of reviving stalled reunification talks.

Anastasiades backed a 2004 U.N. plan to reunite the island, though a majority of his Greek Cypriot compatriots rejected the plan in a referendum shortly before they joined the EU. The Turkish Cypriots in the north backed the plan.

(Writing by Alexandra Hudson, editing by Gareth Jones)

Euronews

April 20, 2013
Irish call to Turkey

DUBLIN – The Irish Presidency of the EU has urged Turkey to comply with its obligation to fully implement the additional protocol and to make progress in normalizing its bilateral relations with the Republic of Cyprus.

Irish European Affairs Minister Lucinda Creighton speaking Wednesday before the European Parliament in Strasburg, during a discussion on Turkey’s progress report, noted that there is no progress as regards the full implementation of the additional protocol, which provides for the recognition of Cyprus.

She also stressed that it is unfortunate that Turkey chose to freeze its relations with the EU during the Cyprus Presidency last July and urged the candidate country to normalize its relations with Cyprus.

Creighton also referred to the need for constitutional changes in Turkey and progress in the human rights issue.

Accession negotiations with Turkey began in October 2005. Turkey has so far managed to open 13 of the 34 chapters.

In December 2006, due to the Turkish failure to apply the Additional Protocol to the Ankara Agreement, the European Council decided that eight relevant chapters will not be opened and no chapter will be provisionally closed until Turkey has fulfilled its commitment.

In addition, France has frozen other five chapters, while Cyprus froze in December 2009 other six chapters. The last time that a negotiating chapter opened was during the Spanish EU presidency in June 2010.

Turkey, whose troops have occupied Cyprus’ northern part since the 1974 invasion, does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus and refuses to normalise relations with Nicosia.

April 20, 2013
Turkey: No Link to Boston Marathon Suspects

Turkey’s interior minister Muammer Guler says one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing spent 10 days in Turkey 10 years ago but had no other links to the country.

Guler said Friday that Tamerlan Tsarnaev had travelled to Turkey with a Kyrgyz passport, along with three other people with the same last name in July 2003. He said they entered Istanbul on July 9, 2003, and departed the country from Ankara 10 days later.

Guler said Turkey has shared all information it has about the suspects with FBI officials.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a shootout in Boston. His brother Dzhokhar is on the run.

Turkey, a Muslim country, has taken in hundreds of Chechens fleeing the conflict in Chechnya.

via Turkey: No Link to Boston Marathon Suspects – ABC News.

April 20, 2013
The Issue is Not Chechnya, It’s Islamic Terrorism

Now that we know who the bombers are and one of them is dead, and that they are Chechen Muslims, the media has gone into “Palestinian” mode insisting that we need to talk about the conflict in Chechnya.

We can talk about Chechnya, but the issue there and everywhere else is Islamic nationalism or Islamism. The bombers could have been from Chechnya or Mali or Bosnia or Iraq or Egypt or Afghanistan or any Muslim country where Islamists are active. And that’s most Muslim countries, especially after the Arab Spring.

There is a conflict in Chechnya and Iraq and Pakistan and Afghanistan and Thailand and Nigeria and the Philippines and India and Israel and France and a hundred other countries.

Where there is a sizable Muslim majority or even sizable minority, there is conflict.

Any talk about pressuring Russia into “resolving” or “appeasing” Chechen Islamists (at least the ones not allied with Russia) is a silly waste of time.

Russia isn’t Israel. It’s not going to be intimidated into making deals with terrorists. And talking about the demands of Chechen Islamists is a waste of time. Their demands are the same as the demands of all Islamists.

Islamism is Transnational. You cannot solve it locally. The situation in Israel has proven that. Giving in to territorial demands always fails because a transnational movement wants more than a few miles here and there. They want a regional and then a global Caliphate.

America had nothing to do with the conflict in Chechnya. That didn’t stop Dzhokar Tsarneav and Tamerlan Tsarneav from carrying out the mass murder of Americans.

To understand Dzhokar Tsarneav and Tamerlan Tsarneav is to understand that Islam is transnational.

“World view” is listed as “Islam” and his “Personal priority” is “career and money”.

He has posted links to videos of fighters in the Syrian civil war and to Islamic web pages with titles like “Salamworld, my religion is Islam” and “There is no God but Allah, let that ring out in our hearts”.

It’s Allah Akbar all over again.

via The Issue is Not Chechnya, It’s Islamic Terrorism | FrontPage Magazine.

April 19, 2013
Why GMR Infra is keen to sell shares in airport biz

Moneycontrol Bureau

GMR Infrastructure is likely to sell shares in a public offer for its airport division. The firm that runs Delhi and Hyderabad airports along with an international airport in Istanbul, has debt of around Rs 4,000 crore in the vertical.

The company is looking at raising around Rs 2,000 crore to boost expansion and help a clutch of private equity investors to sell shares in the company, says an Economic Times report quoting sources. The firm is working out size and other details related to the potential IPO.

The report further says that the listing is mainly to help investors exit as the company does not have immediate fund requirement. Private equity firms together own around 21 percent stake in the company.

Laden with over Rs 30,000 crore debt, GMR has adopted asset-light asset- right’ strategy by which it will offload stake in its power, road and airport projects and re-deploy proceed from stake sale in new projects. This approach will also help it clean balance sheet

Last month, the company sold 70 percent stake in an energy venture in Singapore and this helped the company reduce debt by over Rs 2,000 crore.

Even GMR’s competitor, GVK Power and Infra has in recent past said that it will sell stake in business division to ease liquidity pressures. The firm has a debt of around Rs 16,000 crore with an over Rs 500 crore annual interest outgo.

Considering the fact that the GMR and GVK, both have undertaken big ticket and long gestation projects in all their business verticals, such debt levels is not abnormal, say analysts. GVK is also looking to offlad stake in airport vertical at an appropriate time.

via Why GMR Infra is keen to sell shares in airport biz – Moneycontrol.com.

April 19, 2013