Bharat Rakshak

Having failed in its endeavours so far to bring Iran’s on-going nuclear programme to a halt, which it believes is not for peaceful purposes, the US is now learnt to be looking to India to persuade the West Asian nation to return to negotiations on this issue.
US deputy secretary of state William Burns is believed to have conveyed Washington’s desire that New Delhi work on Tehran to have discussions on this prickly matter given its close ties to the country.
In his meetings, Mr Burns is said to have conveyed to the officials here that both the US and India share a common goal in that neither wants a nuclear-weapon-armed Iran.
Therefore, it was necessary to ensure that Iran returns to negotiations on the issue.
The US is hopeful that Iran will engage in negotiations with the P5+1; comprising the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia, US and Germany — on its nuclear programme.
Mr Burns is learnt to have conveyed this message during his discussions with both national security adviser Shivshankar Menon and foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai when he met them on Friday. He met both officials as part of the US-India strategic security dialogue. Also on the discussion agenda was the Nato drawdown in Afghanistan.
Mr Burns reached Delhi on Thursday on the final leg of a five-nation tour which also saw him visiting Japan, Korea, China and Burma.

By Craig Whitlock, Saturday, October 20, 2:38 AM

The U.S. government is intensifying its intelligence sharing and military consultations with Turkey behind the scenes as both countries confront the possibility that Syria’s civil conflict could escalate into a regional war, according to U.S. and NATO officials.

The Obama administration has said it wants to avoid getting drawn militarily into Syria and for months has resisted pressure from Arab allies and some Republicans to back Syria’s rebel groups more forcefully.

But as Syria’s internal conflict has increasingly spilled across its northern border into Turkey, the U.S. government has stepped up cooperation with its key NATO ally. In recent weeks, military officials from both countries have met to make contingency plans to impose no-fly zones over Syrian territory or seize Syria’s stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, U.S. officials said.

U.S. intelligence agencies were also the source of a tip that led the Turkish military to intercept and ground a Syrian passenger plane en route from Moscow to Damascus last week on suspicions that it was carrying Russian-made military hardware, according to U.S. officials.

The Syrian plane was carrying “radar and electrical parts for Syria’s Russian-made antiaircraft systems,” one U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the sensitive operation. Syria has relied on Russia for decades to help build its radar and antiaircraft defenses, among the most extensive in the Middle East.

The plane grounding sparked a diplomatic dust-up among Turkey, Russia and Syria and further exacerbated tensions that erupted Oct. 3 when Syria fired shells across the border and killed five Turkish civilians.

Since then, cross-border shelling has continued as the Syrian military has attacked rebel groups along the frontier, with rounds sometimes landing in Turkish territory. Turkey has retaliated with artillery strikes, most recently on Friday, while warning Damascus that the risk of all-out war is increasing.

The United States and NATO have publicly supported Turkey, saying it has a right to act in self-defense. At the same time, they have called for restraint and repeated that neither Washington nor Brussels has any intention of getting involved militarily.

Behind the scenes, however, the border clashes have changed the strategic calculus and led U.S. military and intelligence officials in particular to collaborate more closely with Turkey.

“I can certainly assure you that our militaries, our military officers, are in contact,” Francis J. Ricciardone Jr. , the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, told journalists in Ankara on Tuesday. “This week I know there is a special focus of our military experts talking about Syria. And what militaries do well is plan for every contingency and every eventuality.”

Ricciardone said “no political decision has been made” regarding whether to support or impose a no-fly zone in Syrian territory to protect civilians or opponents of the government of Bashar al-
Assad in Damascus, but he acknowledged that U.S., Turkish and NATO officials were discussing options.

“Will we consider it?” he said. “We consider everything.”

Ricciardone did not provide details about the recent U.S.-Turkish military talks regarding Syria. But his comments came after Adm. James Stavridis, the chief of the U.S. European Command and the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO military forces, visited Ankara and Izmir in early October.

Stavridis did not speak with reporters, but he posted a message on his Facebook account saying that he met with Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz and Gen. Necdet Ozel, Turkey’s top military commander, to hold “important talks considering the events transpiring in the Levant.”

A NATO official confirmed that Stavridis discussed the increasing volatility of the Turkish-Syrian border but said that Turkey has not made any formal requests for military assistance from either NATO or Washington.

For now, Turkey primarily wants statements of public support from NATO and reassurances that the alliance would come to its aid if necessary, said Ross Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey who now serves as director of the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council in Washington.

“A big part of what they’re looking for is that I’d call political support as opposed to NATO sending in fighter squadrons or thousands of troops,” Wilson said. But he added that Turkey also wants the U.S. and NATO to demonstrate willingness to update military preparations and planning in case events along the Syrian border quickly spiral out of control.

“In their eyes, there’s a whole bunch of scenarios that could result in outside involvement, but they don’t see anybody talking about it as much as they’d like,” Wilson said.

The Obama administration has said that it would likely intervene if Assad’s government engaged in chemical or biological warfare, and Pentagon officials have said they are monitoring the whereabouts of Syria’s stockpiles of those weapons.

With a presidential election looming, however, the administration has said it is pushing first for a political solution to the Syrian civil war. It has pressed the United Nations Security Council to take action, even though Russia and China, which hold veto power, have resisted.

With the United Nations paralyzed, Turkey may lean on NATO to intervene even without a U.N. mandate, possibly by imposing a no-fly zone or haven for Syrian refugees if the civil war worsens, said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. More than 100,000 Syrian refugees have sought shelter in Turkey.

“NATO is the new U.N. for Ankara when it comes to Syria,” he said.

He acknowledged that many European members of NATO, distracted by the continent’s economic crisis, would be reluctant to become involved. But he said one alternative would be for select NATO members — such as the United States, France and Britain — to assist Turkey with a military intervention, while other allies remain on the sidelines.

“It could be a ‘coalition of the fighting’ within NATO,” Cagaptay said. That was the approach NATO took last year when it ousted Libya’s former ruler, Moammar Gaddafi.

Greg Miller in Washington and Michael Birnbaum in Brussels contributed to this report.

shyamd wrote:#fsa deploys new anti tank weapons #syria new via #aje http://t.co/ZUNnAjLK

Anyone know what missile is being used in this video?

shyamd wrote:#fsa deploys new anti tank weapons #syria new via #aje http://t.co/ZUNnAjLK

Anyone know what missile is being used in this video?

DUBAI — Bahrain on Sunday announced the arrest of seven people suspected of being responsible for a roadside bombing that killed a policeman during clashes with protesters in a Shiite village. The seven suspects in the attack, which took place amid violence overnight on Thursday, were referred to the public prosecutor, a statement from the Information Affairs Authority said.

The search continued for others suspected of involvement in the attack in which an improvised explosive device was used in the Shiite village of Akar, south of Manama, the statement added. A second police officer was wounded in the attack. Protests in Shiite villages late on Thursday took place after a call by an Internet-based group that wants to topple the minority Sunni Al-Khalifa monarchy.

"Security measures put in place in Akar in the form of checkpoints are aimed at verifying the IDs of those entering and leaving the village. This is part of ongoing efforts to search for a number of wanted suspects," a police chief said on Saturday. The opposition, however, condemned what it called a "siege" of the village. A statement from Al-Wefaq, the main Shiite opposition formation, said police denied entry to activists and doctors on Sunday.

Ten opposition groups and NGOs in a message urged United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon to intervene and "lift the siege on Akar." The message, delivered to the UN office in Manama and quoted in an Al-Wefaq statement, said security forces were denying the village medical aid for the third consecutive day.

Regular unrest and demonstrations have shaken Bahrain since it crushed Shiite-led popular protests in March last year. The kingdom came under strong criticism from international rights groups over the deadly crackdown.

Britain's relations with Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states are coming under strain because of mounting nervousness over the changes the Arab spring has brought to the Middle East. Billions of pounds worth of exports and thousands of jobs could be at risk in rows with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over a British parliamentary investigation and the role of Islamists in a changing political landscape.

Prime minister David Cameron is expected to tackle the issues at a gala dinner of the Conservative Middle East Council on Wednesday. In a report on human rights by the Commons foreign affairs committee (FAC) published on Wednesday, MPs criticise the government for failing to boycott the Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain earlier this year because of concerns over abuses in the island state. The MPs express concern that "political and strategic factors" coloured the decision not to list the kingdom alongside other states held responsible for abuses.

"We find it difficult to discern any consistency of logic behind the government's policy in not taking a public stance on the Bahrain Grand Prix but implementing at least a partial boycott of the 2012 Uefa football championship matches played in Ukraine," the committee said.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which together accounted for £8bn of UK exports in 2011, have voiced criticism of British policy and hinted at reviewing their relations. UK trade with the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is worth over £17bn.

On Monday, Saudi officials told the BBC that their country was "insulted" by a separate decision by the Commons committee to investigate UK relations with their country and Bahrain. The Saudi ambassador, Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf Al Saud, warned that Riyadh would "not tolerate or accept any foreign interference in the workings" of the GCC, which comprises Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and Oman.

In the UAE, a campaign is under way to boycott British trade on the grounds of alleged support for an opposition group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. Victories for the Brotherhood in Egypt and Tunisia and its rising influence elsewhere have jangled nerves all over the Gulf. Britain has softened its hostility to Islamist parties and welcomed the new governments in Cairo and Tunis. In London on Tuesday, the Foreign Office minister, Alistair Burt, told an Abu Dhabi conference that the UK valued investment opportunities in the UAE but he made no mention of the call for a boycott.


In Whitehall, the Saudi statement was seen as "a shot across the bows" to ensure the government takes Saudi concerns seriously. "We are not naive or starry-eyed," said a Foreign Office spokesman. "We are realistic and we will judge people by their actions and not their words." Mike Gapes, a member of the FAC, said: "I am very surprised by this prickly Saudi reaction. I don't know whether this is a misunderstanding or there is some other agenda."

Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British understanding, said: "The Saudis have come out with all guns blazing, but they are totally overdoing it. Now the FAC report will have to be even more far-reaching than it would otherwise have been. Maybe one or two deals might not go Britain's way and someone will quietly make that known. But I don't think it will go further than that."

On Bahrain, the FAC said it was hard to find any "consistency of logic" in ministers' approach. Bahrain should have been included by the FCO on its list of "countries of concern" in the wake of the "brutal" suppression of anti-government protests last year. Saudi Arabia led a GCC force that intervened to help end them. Low-level unrest has continued since then.

Bahrain complains that it is facing Iranian-backed subversion, while the opposition accuses it of human rights abuses. Britain came under pressure to support calls for a boycott of the Formula One in April amid fears that it could be a catalyst for a renewed crackdown. Cameron refused, arguing "Bahrain is not Syria" and that reforms were under way. Last week the foreign secretary, William Hague, met Bahrain's crown prince, a more reformist figure than other members of the royal family. Hague urged him to implement the recommendations of an internal commission of inquiry. On the same day Bahrain also signed an agreement on military cooperation with the ministry of defence.

Trade apart, Britain's relations with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states matter because of their shared hostility to their powerful neighbour Iran, at loggerheads with the international community over its nuclear programme. Bahrain is also home to the US fifth fleet. The FAC has said its inquiry will look at how the UK balanced its interests in these countries in defence, trade, security, counter-terrorism and human rights. It is expected to be completed next spring.

brihaspati wrote:Funny - vey funny - confrontation already happened by 21st October at the time of "posting". "Source" actually predicted something that had already happened and info available publicly. But source took care to "predict" so that any details of the "confrontation" that has already happened doesn't have to be reported - unlike tweets of things as they are "happening" when it appears to go in favour of GCC or GCC posturings!!

shyamd wrote:

brihaspati wrote:Funny - vey funny - confrontation already happened by 21st October at the time of "posting". "Source" actually predicted something that had already happened and info available publicly. But source took care to "predict" so that any details of the "confrontation" that has already happened doesn't have to be reported - unlike tweets of things as they are "happening" when it appears to go in favour of GCC or GCC posturings!!

Aahhh now the issue has changed from sources being "quiet" to "confrontation already happened on 21st Oct at the time of posting".

You obviously didnt bother to check the date (another convenient factual error) that I posted on 20th October - the day before the confrontation.

* Kuwait has so far avoided "Arab Spring"
* Political crisis has held up development plans
* Opposition warns against "aggression" towards march

By Ahmed Hagagy

KUWAIT, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Opposition groups in Kuwait say they will boycott Dec. 1 parliamentary elections, calling changes to the voting system announced by the government on Saturday a "coup against the constitution".

Kuwait has been torn by a power struggle between the government, controlled by the ruling Al-Sabah family, and the elected parliament. The turmoil has blocked development plans and paralysed the political system. The Kuwaiti government, at an extraordinary meeting in Kuwait city of Saturday, ordered elections to held on Dec. 1, and decided to amended the election law to allow each voter to choose only one candidate instead of four.

The opposition, including Islamists, liberals and tribal figures who won a majority in the 50-seat parliament in the last election in February, rejected the changes and called for a protest march on Sunday, said Ahmed al-Dayen, an opposition politician.

Kuwait's oil wealth and a generous welfare state have helped it avoid the "Arab Spring" protests that forced out leaders elsewhere in the region. But there have been regular demonstrations in the country since last year.

DUBAI: The top Saudi in al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing has apparently released an audio message denying reports he was killed last month, a group that monitors Islamist websites said on Monday. In the audio posted on jihadist websites on Sunday, a man identified as Said al-Shehri said reports of his death were fabricated and aimed to cover up the killing of civilians by U.S. drones, the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group said.
[...]
Shehri was freed by the U.S. authorities from detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, only to become second-in-command of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has been reported killed before only to emerge unscathed. Yemen's Prime Minister Mohammed Basindwa's media adviser Rajeh Bady told Reuters on Monday the audio "seemed authentic". "From start we had doubts that Shehri was killed and we became sure later on that he was still alive," Bady said.

[...] The Yemeni Ministry of Defence website said on Sept. 10 that Shehri and six other militants were killed during a Yemeni army operation in the remote Hadramout province in eastern Yemen. It gave no further details. But a Yemeni security source had said Shehri was killed in Hadramout by a U.S. drone, rather than by the Yemeni military. U.S. officials declined to comment on the drone strike report.

U.S. officials described Shehri as one of the most important al Qaeda-linked militants to be released from Guantanamo Bay detention facility, where he was taken in January 2002 after being handed over by Pakistan to U.S. authorities.

A former officer in Saudi Arabia's internal security force, Shehri allegedly joined al Qaeda and helped Saudi militants travel to Afghanistan via Iran, according to a classified Pentagon report made public by WikiLeaks. Shehri was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and put through a Saudi rehabilitation program for militants. He later returned to the battlefield in Yemen and became AQAP's number two. Shehri was wanted by Yemen for a suspected role in a U.S. embassy attack in 2008.
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

brihaspati wrote: True - true - my error about your timings! Unlike you, I have no problem in acknowledging my errors.

You on the otherhand never make any errors!

But then you did not follow up with the report on the confrontation, which is curious. You are more keen on reporting even at tweet level on conflicts that may help GCC! Any special reason for this special treatment?

RamaY wrote: ShyamD ji, any insight?

It appears that every time the hope for progress in the Syrian situation arises, somebody attempts to prevent it from calming down and deliberately fuels the continuation of the bloodshed and civil war in Syria,” Lavrov said in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Monday.

According to Lavrov, the Syrian conflict is “part of geopolitical remapping of the Middle East, where various players attempt to safeguard their interests.”

Assad, who is widely viewed as a close ally of Iran, has been unfairly made “a scapegoat” in this “big geopolitical game,” Lavrov said.

He defended Assad by calling him “a guarantor of the security of national minorities, among them Christians, who have been living in Syria for centuries.”

"By the most conservative estimates our Western partners quote in confidential contacts, he still enjoys support of at least a third of citizens as a man who vowed to prevent Syria's transformation into a state where minorities will be simply unable to live and exist," the Russian minister said.

Lavrov reiterated that foreign “recipes” would never provide a long-lasting and reliable solution to the Syrian conflict, and expressed hope that the visit of UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to Russia next week would help outline steps toward dialogue between warring parties in Syria.

A narrow majority of Turks is opposed to any intervention by their country in Syria if President Bashar al-Assad's regime falls, according to a poll published on Tuesday.

Fifty-one percent of people surveyed believe that Turkey, which shares a long border with Syria, must "remain impartial without favouring any side" in the Syrian crisis, according to the Edam Centre survey.

Eighteen percent of Turks surveyed think that Ankara must play the role of mediator among the conflicting sides, it said.

Ten percent of Turks believe that Turkey should send soldiers to Syria within the framework of a peacekeeping force that would be headed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation or the United Nations, it added.

The poll was carried out by the Edam Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies and Research on a representative sample of 1,500 people.

Championing the cause of the Syrian opposition which has been calling for the ouster of the Assad regime since March 2011, Turkey has sheltered Free Syria Army rebel leaders and now hosts more than 100,000 Syrian refugees.

Tensions surged between the two former allies after a Syrian mortar bomb killed five Turkish civilians when it landed inside Turkey at the beginning of October.

Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime are now armed with man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) including US-made Stingers, Russia's top military commander said on Wednesday.

Russia has "reliable evidence" that the rebels have the weapons, "including US-made Stingers," but "who delivered them, we need to look into," Army Headquarters General Nikolai Makarov said.

NBC news reported in August the rebels had been supplied with unspecified MANPADS, possibly initiated by Turkey, Saudi Arabia or Qatar which have repeatedly called for lending military support to the Syrian opposition.

brihaspati wrote:Ah, shyamd ji,
you are an old hand in the game of never acknowledging your errors even when you are caught redhanded. Top that with the childish and petty behaviour of crediting your personal sources with material filched from public domain sources - for which also you have been caught redhanded many times.

Acknowledging errors is a sign of adulthood, while sliminess in avoiding acknowledging is the real childish behaviour. By the way, do you have the maturity to own up to reporting both the latest Saudi-handover of the IM, and the Kuwait "action plan for Sunday" from public domain news channels, and not any special source of yours?

Source says Kuwait heading for confrontation from tomorrow as opposition parties boycott call for elections by the Emir. Possibility of Arab spring reaching the Gulf. The announcement of the amendment to the electoral laws is being seen as a domestic political earthquake

The Syrian authorities have agreed to a truce during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, UN and Arab League peace envoy for Syria Brahimi has said.

Damascus is expected to officially announce its decision later today.

Lakhdar Brahimi said the agreement for a ceasefire during the Muslim holiday followed his visit to Damascus.

The holiday is to kick off Thursday and will last for three or four days, although the mediator didn’t expand on the terms of the truce.

nakul wrote:Syrian Rebels Have US Stinger Missiles - Russian General

Who barred Russian consular officials from boarding the Syrian passenger jet en route from Moscow, which was forced to land in Ankara earlier this month? Russia wants to know the answer. And it also wants Turkey to publicly acknowledge that there were no weapons aboard the detained plane, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.

"According to Turkish newspapers, information that the plane was allegedly carrying weapons had been passed along by the Americans. The Turks would have never dared do such a thing, had they not trusted the Americans 100%. But as it turned out later, there were no weapons on board. The plane was carrying electrical equipment for radars – fully legal cargo not prohibited by any international conventions. The tip-off was actually meant to strengthen the Turkish-American ties with regard to Syria. But there is a mechanism of political consultations between Russia and Turkey. Having received such information, the Turks could have held consultations with Moscow and then the incident could have been prevented."

"Russia has been consistent in defending its point. As long as there is no real evidence that Iran is making nuclear weapons, no sanctions can be imposed on it. This contradicts international law. It’s very important for us to hold on to our position."

The shortest way to loose “eyes” and “ears” in Iran is to start bombing it, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. He cautioned against attempts to provoke Tehran to sever relations with the international community and order IAEA inspectors out of the country, and then there will be no information whatsoever as to what is really happening at Iranian nuclear sites. Regrettably, the events in Libya have shown that a military scenario in Iran is not implausible. Therefore, Russia will see to it that no UN Security Council resolution shall allow for any ambiguous interpretation as the Libya resolution, Lavrov said.

shyamd wrote:

brihaspati wrote:Ah, shyamd ji,
you are an old hand in the game of never acknowledging your errors even when you are caught redhanded. Top that with the childish and petty behaviour of crediting your personal sources with material filched from public domain sources - for which also you have been caught redhanded many times.

Lol. Feel free to assume. I've proved time and again info I get is ahead of the news.

Acknowledging errors is a sign of adulthood, while sliminess in avoiding acknowledging is the real childish behaviour. By the way, do you have the maturity to own up to reporting both the latest Saudi-handover of the IM, and the Kuwait "action plan for Sunday" from public domain news channels, and not any special source of yours?

Latest hand-over of the IM - which one?

Re: Kuwait - here is what I posted:

Source says Kuwait heading for confrontation from tomorrow as opposition parties boycott call for elections by the Emir. Possibility of Arab spring reaching the Gulf. The announcement of the amendment to the electoral laws is being seen as a domestic political earthquake

Not predicting anything my friend, as you can see I said it was after the event. Yawn, nice try at twisting things again. We can all see what you are trying to do.