The Star Online: World Updates
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- Arab sanctions tighten noose on Syria's Assad
- Rage grips Pakistan over NATO attack
- Arab states cut commercial ties with Syria
| Arab sanctions tighten noose on Syria's Assad Posted: 27 Nov 2011 07:04 PM PST AMMAN (Reuters) - The Arab League approved unprecedented economic sanctions against Syria, isolating President Bashar al-Assad's government over its eight-month crackdown on protests against his rule.
Britain said the sanctions could help enlist support at the United Nations for action against Damascus, which launched the crackdown against protesters calling for Assad's removal soon after the uprising began eight months ago. The United Nations says Syrian security forces have killed more than 3,500 people in the crackdown. Anti-Assad activists said there was no respite and security forces had killed at least 24 civilians Sunday, many in a town north of Damascus that has become a focus for the protests. Others were killed in raids on towns in the province of Homs. "The indications are not positive ... the sanctions are still economic but if there is no movement on the part of Syria then we have a responsibility as human beings to stop the killings," Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, told reporters. "Power is not worth anything when a ruler kills his people," he said after 19 of the League's 22 members approved the decision to immediately enforce the sanctions at a meeting in Cairo Sunday. The sanctions include a travel ban on top Syrian officials, a freeze on assets related to Assad's government and are aimed at halting dealings with Syria's central bank and investment in the country, Sheikh Hamad said. He added that Turkey, which attended the meeting, would also honour some of the measures, which will be another blow to the Syrian economy already reeling from sanctions imposed by the European Union and United States. Arab nations wanted to avoid a repeat of what happened in Libya, where a U.N. Security Council resolution led to NATO air strikes. Sheikh Hamad warned other Arab states that the West could intervene if it felt the league was not "serious." British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the "unprecedented decision to impose sanctions demonstrates that the regime's repeated failure to deliver on its promises will not be ignored and that those who perpetrate these appalling abuses will be held to account." Hague said Britain hoped the move would help break what he called United Nations silence "on the ongoing brutality taking place in Syria" after Russia and China thwarted Western efforts to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria. "To that end we welcome the commitment by the Arab League to engage with the U.N. Secretary General at the earliest opportunity to gain the U.N.'s support to address the situation in Syria," he said. Britain has repeatedly ruled out a military attack on Syria. Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, said in an interview this month that he would continue the crackdown and blamed the unrest on outside pressure to "subjugate Syria." Many Arab leaders have become increasingly concerned by a series of "Arab Spring" revolts that have toppled the rulers of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. MERCHANT CLASS A Western diplomat said Assad could for now count on support from China and Russia at the United Nations but that the two countries may change position if Assad heightens the crackdown and if the Arab League campaigns for international intervention. China and Russia have oil concessions in Syria. Moscow also has a mostly disused naval base in the country and military advisers to the Syrian army. "The sanctions are likely to lose Assad support among those in Syria who have been waiting to see whether he will be able to turn things around, such as merchants who could now see their businesses take more hits," the diplomat said. The president of the Union of Arab Banks, a division of the Arab League, said Sunday the sanctions would hit Syria's central bank, which has "big deposits" in the region, especially the Gulf. Arab ministers were spurred to action by worsening violence in Syria and by the Assad government's failure to meet a deadline to let in Arab monitors and take other steps to end its crackdown on the uprising. Syrian official media quoted an undated letter by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem to the Arab League as saying Damascus viewed the plan for monitors as interference in its affairs. The League has been galvanised by pressure from Gulf Arabs, already angry at Syria's alliance with regional rival Iran, by the political changes brought about by Arab uprisings, and by the scale of the Syrian bloodshed. Along with peaceful protests, some of Assad's opponents are fighting back. Army defectors have loosely grouped under the Syrian Free Army and more insurgent attacks on loyalist troops have been reported in the last several weeks. Officials blame the violence on armed groups targeting civilians and its security forces and say 1,100 security force members have been killed. (Additional reporting by Yasmine Saleh in Cairo; editing by Elizabeth Piper) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Rage grips Pakistan over NATO attack Posted: 27 Nov 2011 05:26 PM PST ISLAMABAD/KABUL (Reuters) - Fury spread in Pakistan Sunday over a NATO cross-border air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and could undermine the U.S. effort to wind up the war in Afghanistan.
Sunday night in Pakistan, more than 40 hours after the incident, many questions remained. NATO described the killings as a "tragic unintended incident" and said an investigation was underway. A Western official and an Afghan security official who requested anonymity said NATO troops were responding to fire from across the border. It's possible both explanations are correct: that a retaliatory attack by NATO troops took a tragic, mistaken turn in harsh terrain where identifying friend and foe can be difficult. "All of this is extremely murky and needs to be investigated," said a U.S. official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Our goal today is ... that the investigation gets mounted in a way that is confidence-building on all sides." Militants often attack from Pakistani soil or flee after combat across a porous border that NATO-led troops, under their United Nations mandate, cannot cross. What is clear is the incident could undermine U.S. efforts to improve ties with Pakistan so that the regional power helps stabilise Afghanistan before NATO combat troops go home by the end of 2014. The attack was the latest perceived provocation by the United States, which infuriated Pakistan's powerful military with a unilateral special forces raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May. Thousands gathered outside the American consulate in the city of Karachi to protest against the NATO attack. A Reuters reporter at the scene said the angry crowd shouted "Down with America." One young man climbed on the wall surrounding the heavily fortified compound and attached a Pakistani flag to barbed wire. "America is attacking our borders. The government should immediately break ties with it," said Naseema Baluch, a housewife attending the demonstration. "America wants to occupy our country but we will not let it do that." Pakistan buried the troops killed in the attack Sunday. Television stations showed coffins draped in green and white Pakistani flags in a prayer ceremony at the headquarters of the regional command in Peshawar, attended by army chief General Ashfaq Kayani. The NATO attack highlights the difficulties faced by the United States as it tries to secure the unruly border area that is home to some of the world's most dangerous militant groups who have mastered the harsh mountainous landscape. Around 40 troops were stationed at the outposts at the time of the attack, military sources said. Militants targeting NATO forces have long taken advantage of the fact that the alliance's mandate ends at the border to either attack from within Pakistan or flee to relative safety after an attack. Three Pakistani soldiers were killed last year by NATO gunships. NATO said then that its forces had mistaken warning shots from Pakistani forces for a militant attack. In the latest incident, a Western official and a senior Afghan security official said NATO and Afghan forces had come under fire from across the border with Pakistan before NATO aircraft attacked a Pakistani army post, killing the soldiers. "They came under cross-border fire," the Western official said, without identifying the source of the fire. The Afghan official said troops had come under fire from inside Pakistan as they were descending from helicopters, which had returned fire. Both officials asked not to be named because the attack is so sensitive. Pakistan has said the attack was an unprovoked assault and has said it reserves the right to retaliate. STRAINED RELATIONS U.S. and NATO officials are trying to defuse tensions but the soldiers' deaths are testing a bad marriage of convenience between Washington and Islamabad. Many Pakistanis believe their army is fighting a war against militants that only serves Western interests. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by telephone early Sunday to convey "the deep sense of rage felt across Pakistan" and warned that the incident could undermine efforts to improve relations, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Pakistan shut down NATO supply routes into Afghanistan in retaliation for the incident, the worst of its kind since Islamabad uneasily allied itself with Washington following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Pakistan is the route for nearly half of NATO supplies shipped overland to its troops in Afghanistan. Land shipments account for about two thirds of the alliance's cargo. A similar incident on Sept 30, 2010, which killed two Pakistani service personnel, led to the closure of one of NATO's supply routes through Pakistan for 10 days. U.S. ties with Pakistan have suffered several big setbacks starting with the unilateral U.S. special forces raid in May that killed bin Laden in a Pakistani town where he had apparently been living for years. Pakistan condemned the secret operation as a flagrant violation of its sovereignty, while suspicions arose in Washington that members of Pakistan's military intelligence had harboured the al Qaeda leader. The military came under unprecedented criticism from both Pakistanis who said it failed to protect the country and American officials who said bin Laden's presence was proof the country was an unreliable ally in the war on militancy. Pakistan's army, one of the world's largest, may see the NATO incursion from Afghanistan as a chance to reassert itself, especially since the deaths of the soldiers are likely to unite generals and politicians, whose ties are normally uneasy. Pakistan's jailing of a CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, and U.S. accusations that Pakistan backed a militant attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul have added to the tensions. "From Raymond Davis and his gun slinging in the streets of Lahore to the Osama bin Laden incident, and now to the firing on Pakistani soldiers on the volatile Pakistan-Afghan border, things hardly seem able to get any worse," said the Daily Times. Islamabad depends on billions in U.S. aid and Washington believes Pakistan can help it bring about peace in Afghanistan. But it is constantly battling Anti-American sentiment over everything from U.S. drone aircraft strikes to Washington's calls for economic reforms. "We should end our friendship with America. It's better to have animosity with America than friendship. It's nobody's friend," said labourer Sameer Baluch. In Karachi, dozens of truck drivers who should have been transporting supplies to Afghanistan were idle. Taj Malli braves the threat of Taliban attacks to deliver supplies to Afghanistan so that he can support his children. But he thinks it is time to block the route permanently in protest. "Pakistan is more important than money. The government must stop all supplies to NATO so that they realise the importance of Pakistan," he said.. But some Pakistanis doubt their leaders have the resolve to challenge the United States. "This government is cowardly. It will do nothing," said Peshawar shopkeeper Sabir Khan. "Similar attacks happened in the past, but what have they done?" (Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad, Izaz Mohmand and Aftab Ahmed in Peshawar, Imtiaz Shah in Karachi, and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Peter Graff) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| Arab states cut commercial ties with Syria Posted: 27 Nov 2011 04:40 PM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - The Arab League approved economic sanctions on Syria on Sunday to try to force Damascus to halt an eight-month crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad that Qatar said may prompt international intervention.
Anti-Assad activists said there was no respite from the crackdown and security forces had killed at least 24 civilians, many in a town north of Damascus that has become a focus for protests demanding Assad's removal. Others were killed in raids on towns in the province of Homs. Nineteen of the League's 22 members approved the decision to immediately enforce the sanctions, hailed by Britain as unprecedented. They include a travel ban on top Syrian officials and a freeze on assets related to Assad's government. "The indications are not positive ... the sanctions are still economic but if there is no movement on the part of Syria then we have a responsibility as human beings to stop the killings," Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, told reporters. "Power is not worth anything when a ruler kills his people," he said, adding that the sanctions were also aimed at halting dealings with Syria's central bank and investment in Syria. Sheikh Hamad said Arab nations wanted to avoid a repeat of what happened in Libya, where a U.N. Security Council resolution led to NATO air strikes. He warned other Arab states that the West could intervene if it felt the league was not "serious." "All the work that we are doing is to avoid this interference," he said. Foreign Secretary William Hague said the "unprecedented decision to impose sanctions demonstrates that the regime's repeated failure to deliver on its promises will not be ignored and that those who perpetrate these appalling abuses will be held to account." Hague said Britain hoped the move would help break what he called United Nations silence "on the ongoing brutality taking place in Syria" after Russia and China thwarted Western efforts to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria. Damascus, where the Assad family has ruled for 41 years, says regional powers helped incite the violence, which it blames on armed groups targeting civilians and its security forces. SYMBOLIC The president of the Union of Arab Banks, a division of the Arab League, expected the sanctions to hit Syria's central bank, which he said has "big deposits" in the region, especially the Gulf. "Once individual countries that have voted for the sanctions issue instructions, Syrian deposits will be frozen, which will affect the financial resources of the Syrian government," Adnan Youssef told Arabiya television. Arab ministers were spurred to action by worsening violence in Syria and by the Assad government's failure to meet a deadline to let in Arab monitors and take other steps to end its crackdown on the uprising. "It is a symbolic but a huge step. The Arab League has tried to stop civilian killings but it failed. Now it is removing the Arab cover from the regime, which could make it easier for the international community to intervene," said opposition figure Walid al-Bunni. "No one wants to see ordinary Syrians deprived of essential supplies. The Arabs are telling Bashar: 'You are killing the people to whom you say you belong. We will not receive you in our capitals. We're freezing your assets. We are not investing in your country,'" Bunni said from Cairo. Even so, the measures could plunge Syria deeper into economic crisis. Syrian official media quoted an undated letter by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem to the Arab League as saying Damascus viewed the plan for monitors as interference in its affairs. "We trust that all Arab countries stand against foreign interference in the affairs of Arab countries. Therefore we hope that the League will issue (a statement) confirming this," he said. The League for decades avoided action against its 22 members. But it has been galvanised by pressure from Gulf Arabs, already angry at Syria's alliance with regional rival Iran, by the political changes brought about by Arab uprisings, and by the scale of the Syrian bloodshed. TANK FIRE Troops backed by armour killed 11 people, including two children, in Rankous, a town 30 km (19 miles) north of Damascus as they raided houses looking for activists who had taken part in anti-Assad rally on Friday that was broadcast live on al-Jazeera television, activists said. "It is difficult to know what is happening in Rankous exactly. The communications have been cut. A couple of Facebook messages that trickled from there talked about heavy tank fire on the town," said one activist, who lives in Damascus and gave his name as Fares. "There were hit-and-run attacks by insurgents on loyalist forced in Rankous last week. The raid today may be also in revenge of that," he said. In the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, security police killed two people and wounded 10 at a funeral of an activist. "The funeral came under fire at the mosque when the crowd started chanting 'the people weren't the downfall of the regime'," Abu Jassem, an activist in the city, said by phone. In al-Ghab plain, northwest of the city of Hama, troops arrested dozens of villagers in the town of Kfar Nbouzeh, burnt six houses belonging to activists and ransacked shops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that 11 people were also killed in the central province of Homs. "Even regular food stores were not spared from the ransacking," said Rami Abdelrahman, the Observatory's director. The United Nations says the crackdown has killed more than 3,500 people. Along with peaceful protests, some of Assad's opponents are fighting back. Army defectors have loosely grouped under the Syrian Free Army and more insurgent attacks on loyalist troops have been reported in the last several weeks. The defectors are drawn from the majority Sunni rank and file. The military and security apparatus are dominated by officers from Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Islam that has controlled the majority Sunni country for the last five decades. Hundreds of people, including civilians, soldiers and army deserters, have been killed in Syria this month, possibly the bloodiest since the unrest broke out in March inspired by uprisings which overthrew leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Alongside the mainly peaceful protests, armed insurgents have increasingly attacked military targets in recent weeks. Officials say 1,100 security force members have been killed. (Additional reporting by Dominic Evans in Beirut, Patrick Werr and Tom Pfeiffer in Cairo, and Patrick Markey in Baghdad; Writing by Khaled Yacoub Oweis; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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