Month: August 2017

Pakistan: Trump’s Afghan Policy ‘Hostile and Threatening’

Posted on by SeeUS

Pakistan’s National Assembly passed a resolution Wednesday strongly denouncing President Donald Trump’s new policy on Afghanistan and calling his and General John Nicholson’s statements on Pakistan “hostile and threatening.”

President Trump had some of the harshest words for Pakistan when he announced his new policy on Afghanistan and South Asia on August 21.

“We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists we are fighting,” he said in a speech.

Soon after, in an interview with an Afghan TV channel, the top U.S. military commander in Kabul, General Nicholson said the U.S. is “aware of the presence” of Taliban leaders in the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Peshawar, and that they should not “sleep in peace.”

Drone strikes a concern

Many observers in the region interpreted that to be a threat of either drone strikes or unilateral military action. The U.S. has carried out drone strikes periodically on Pakistan’s territory against high value targets. Last year, Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was taken out in a drone strike in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.  

Pakistan maintains that drone strikes on its territory are a violation of its sovereignty, but it has never shot down a U.S. drone.   

While the resolution passed Wednesday did not directly call for such an action, it called on the government to “express the determination of the people of Pakistan to protect Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Other suggested responses included postponement of visits by U.S. delegations to Pakistan and vice versa, and suspension of Ground or Air Lines of Communication, the official name for the routes used by the U.S. or NATO to take their supplies through Pakistan to Afghanistan.

Some of these steps seem to already have been implemented. A visit by Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif to the U.S. was postponed after Trump’s speech, followed by the postponement of a visit by the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells to Pakistan.

India as player

The National Assembly also objected to “attempts by the Trump administration to provide more space to India in Afghanistan,” a move Pakistan considers highly provocative.

Pakistani officials say India, a hostile neighbor to the east, wants to encircle their country by setting up a second front on the west in Afghanistan from where it could support terrorist activities or support separatist insurgencies inside Pakistan. Officials in the U.S. say Pakistan’s fears regarding India in Afghanistan are overblown.

The resolution, presented by Defense Minister Asif, also emphasized the “robust and credible command and control system” for the country’s nuclear weapons program in response to the second element of President Trump’s policy to “prevent nuclear weapons and materials from coming into the hands of terrorists.”

Pakistan’s Senate had adopted a similar resolution earlier in the day.
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Mattis: US ‘Never Out of Diplomatic Solutions’ Concerning N. Korea

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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has emphasized the U.S. is “never out of diplomatic solutions” when it comes to the North Korean crisis, after President Donald Trump said that “talking is not the answer.”

Mattis was responding to a question about Trump’s tweet Wednesday morning about dealing with the threat of North Korea following the country’s most recent ballistic missile test over Japan.

 

“The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!” Trump tweeted, a day after he said “All options are on the table” for dealing with Pyongyang.

 

Defense Secretary Mattis welcomed his South Korean counterpart to the Pentagon on Wednesday, as the two countries try to figure out how to handle recent North Korean provocations.

 

“We continue to work together, and the Minister and I share a responsibility to provide for the protection of our nations, our populations, and our interests…and look for all the areas that we can collaborate,” Mattis said.

North Korea has acknowledged firing a ballistic missile Tuesday over Japan, saying it was to counter current joint exercises by South Korea and the United States.

In Geneva, U.S. Disarmament Ambassador Robert Wood called for “concerted action” in response to the “increasing threat” caused by North Korea’s missile program, calling it the greatest current “challenge to the global security environment.”

 

“We must respond to the serious threats it makes to the United States and to our allies,” he said. “We want to be clear to North Korea that the United States has the unquestionable ability and unbending will to defend itself and its allies.”

On Wednesday the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted leader Kim Jong Un as saying the drill for the launch of the Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile was “like a real war” and the first step by North Korea’s military for operations in the Pacific and “a meaningful prelude to containing Guam.”

The U.S. and South Korea have been conducting war games in recent days, as rhetoric between North Korea and the United States has heated up.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy announced its sailors had successfully shot down a medium-range ballistic missile off the coast of Hawaii Wednesday in a test of its defense systems.

 

“We will continue developing ballistic missile defense technologies to stay ahead of the threat as it evolves,” said Lieutenant General Sam Greaves, the director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

 
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US Economic Growth Upgraded to 3 Percent Rate in Q2

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The U.S. economy rebounded sharply in the spring, growing at the fastest pace in more than two years amid brisk consumer spending on autos and other goods.

 

The gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic health, grew at an annual rate of 3 percent in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. It was the best showing since a 3.2 percent gain in the first quarter of 2015.

 

The result is a healthy upward revision from the government’s initial estimate of 2.6 percent growth in the second quarter. The growth rate in the January-March quarter was a lackluster 1.2 percent.

 

Improvements in consumer spending, particularly on autos, and business investment powered second-quarter growth. Those revisions offset a bigger drag from spending by state and local governments.

This was the second of three estimates the government will provide for second quarter growth. Even with the upward revision, the weak start to the year means that growth over the past six months has averaged 2.1 percent, the same modest pace seen for the recovery that began in mid-2009.

 

During last year’s presidential campaign, Donald Trump attacked the Obama administration’s economic record, pledging to double GDP growth to 4 percent or better. His first budget, sent to Congress earlier this year, projects growth rates will climb to a sustained annual rate of 3 percent, a goal that many private economists believe is still too optimistic.

 The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office sees growth averaging 1.9 percent over the next decade, a forecast much closer to estimates made by private economists.

 

Many economists had been forecasting growth in the current July-September quarter would be around 3 percent. Some are now saying that the devastation from Hurricane Harvey could shave about a half-percentage point off growth this quarter. However, analysts believe the pace of growth will bounce back once the rebuilding begins and oil refineries get back to full production, bringing down prices.

For the entire year, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, is forecasting growth of 2.1 percent. That would mark an improvement over last year when the economy grew a meager 1.5 percent, the poorest showing since 2009 when GDP shrank by 2.9 percent.

Zandi is forecasting that growth in 2018 will be an even stronger 2.8 percent. But he said 0.4 percentage point of that forecast reflects an assumption that the Trump administration will win a tax cut package that will take effect in early 2018. The economy will also be boosted by higher spending on the military and infrastructure projects, he said.

 

“For the first time since the Great Recession ended in mid-2009, the economy is not facing any significant headwinds,” Zandi said.

 

 
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Muslims Begin Annual Haj Pilgrimage in Mecca

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Hundreds of thousands of Muslims began the annual haj pilgrimage on Wednesday, donning traditional white garments and heading to a tent camp outside the holy city of Mecca in an itinerary retracing the route Prophet Muhammad took 14 centuries ago.

Nearly 2 million worshippers, from nearly every country, arrived in Saudi Arabia this week for the five-day ritual, which is a once-in-a-lifetime religious duty for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it.

Some prayed at the Grand Mosque before heading to the Mina area or towards Mount Arafat, east of Mecca, where the Prophet is believed to have delivered his final sermon to followers.

They walked or took buses, with traffic police using loudspeakers to try to direct crowds speaking a medley of languages. They were dressed in simple white robes, marking a state of ihram, or ritual purity.

Moroccan pilgrim Rida al-Belaqili, waiting to board a bus to Arafat, struggled to find words to describe his feelings.

“We are meeting people from every country and every nationality. There is a sort of unity,” he said. “I hope this will recharge Muslims’ faith and spirituality. I ask God to grant me and all Muslims forgiveness.”

He is performing haj with his wife, Latifa al-Omari, for the second time.

“Haj is not a hardship. This joy and happiness makes you forget everything,” she said.

All the pilgrims will arrive by Thursday morning at Mount Arafat, about 15 km (10 miles) east of Mecca.

The Eid al-Adha, or feast of the sacrifice, begins on Friday, when pilgrims begin three days of casting stones at walls in a symbolic renunciation of the devil.

The world’s largest annual gathering of Muslims has in the past seen deadly stampedes, fires and riots, with authorities sometimes struggling to respond.

A crush in 2015 killed nearly 800 pilgrims, according to Riyadh, although counts by countries of repatriated bodies showed over 2,000 people may have died, more than 400 of them Iranians.

Saudi Arabia stakes its reputation on its guardianship of Islam’s holiest sites – Mecca and Medina – and organizing the pilgrimage.

Authorities say they have taken all necessary precautions, with more than 100,000 members of the security forces and 30,000 health workers on hand to maintain safety and provide first aid.
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Qatar Crisis Shakes East Africa, a Home to Gulf Militaries

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Though far-removed from the Gulf, East Africa has been shaken by the Arab diplomatic crisis gripping Qatar.

 

In recent years both Qatar and the other energy-rich nations arrayed against it have made inroads in the Horn of Africa by establishing military bases, managing ports and showering friendly nations with foreign aid.

 

As the rivalry heats up, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain seeking to isolate Qatar, East African nations stand to gain or lose from an increasingly fierce competition for influence. And with Saudi Arabia and its allies mired in a war just across the Red Sea in Yemen, the area has never had more strategic value.

 

“I think we’re seeing a game of geopolitical chess being played out,” said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

 

Military expansion

 

The importance of the Horn of Africa to Gulf nations can be seen with just a glance at a map. The Horn’s shoreline comes as close as 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) to Yemen at the Bab el-Mandeb straight, a crucial chokepoint at sea for oil tankers heading from the Gulf to Europe.

 

For years, the shores of East Africa provided a crucial point for smugglers to reach Yemen, as well as a target-rich hunting ground for pirates. Securing the area has taken on new importance for Gulf countries since March 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition launched its war against Shiite rebels and their allies who hold Yemen’s capital.

 

Since the conflict began, the United Arab Emirates and others have established military bases in East Africa. In Eritrea, the UAE has a base at the port in Assab. Another Emirati military base will be built in Somalia’s breakaway northern territory of Somaliland.

 

“The UAE is very keen to show that it’s a provider of security, not just a consumer of security,” Ulrichsen said.

 

Saudi Arabia meanwhile has discussed putting its own base in tiny Djibouti, already home to an under-construction Chinese military base and a U.S. base that launches drone missions over Somalia and Yemen.

 

Analysts believe all these Gulf military installations will become permanent features in East Africa.

 

“They are not only just momentarily engaging in the Horn and its countries, but they are becoming long-term strategic actors in the whole region,” said Umer Karim, a researcher at the University of Birmingham.

 

Jockeying for position in Somalia

 

In Somalia, whose first civilian government after decades of lawlessness is fighting against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militant group, Gulf countries loom large.

 

Saudi Arabia is the Somali government’s biggest benefactor, while the UAE has trained the country’s military and launched a high-profile aid appeal this year. Somalia has meanwhile allowed Qatari aircraft to increasingly fly through its airspace as Arab nations have closed theirs off.

 

Gulf states are believed to have taken sides in lawmakers’ February election of Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, which was marked by allegations of massive bribery. Mohamed appointed a former reporter of the Qatar-funded satellite news channel Al-Jazeera Arabic as his chief of staff. The UAE backed a different candidate.

 

Meanwhile, Turkey soon will open an overseas military base in Mogadishu. Its only other overseas base is in Qatar, which Ankara has backed amid the boycott.

 

“You couldn’t find any place more strategic for the Arab powers than Somalia,” said Rashid Abdi, the Horn of Africa project director for the International Crisis Group. “That explains the intensity of these powers’ interest in Somalia.”

 

Bring Eritrea out of the cold

 

For Eritrea, the Qatar diplomatic dispute actually could be a good thing.

 

Ruled by an autocratic and repressive president, Eritrea has seen tens of thousands of its citizens flee mandatory national conscription that can last over a decade, something rights groups say amounts to slavery. The former Italian colony routinely ranks last among nations in personal and press freedom.

 

But when the Gulf crisis began, Qatar removed 400 peacekeepers from a disputed Red Sea island claimed by both Eritrea and Djibouti. Eritrea quickly sent its own troops in to seize it.

 

Meanwhile, Eritrea hosts the UAE military base at Assab while siding with the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen. Eritrean leaders likely hope this improves their image.

 

“There’s no doubt that Eritrea is looking beyond the horizon and saying, ‘We are becoming rehabilitated, we are now a major player in the region, we are getting noticed and whatever the West thinks of us, at least our Arab neighbors are taking us serious,'” Abdi said. “That is a big psychological victory.”

 

An increasingly nervous Ethiopia

 

For Ethiopia, which fought wars against Somalia and Eritrea in the last 20 years, the ongoing Gulf crisis adds new uncertainty. The country maintains one of the region’s strongest militaries, but sees itself as being hemmed in by foreign military bases.

 

Ethiopia has struggled to remain neutral in the dispute. In July, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn even acknowledged his concerns in a speech before parliament.

 

“Ethiopia could be affected in the event of a regional destabilization,” he said.

 

An empowered Eritrea may push back against Ethiopian gains in their costly war, which killed tens of thousands of people. Nearly all of landlocked Ethiopia’s foreign trade passes through the port at Djibouti, now run by Dubai’s DP World. Egypt, part of the Arab nations now boycotting Qatar, remains worried about a new giant dam in Ethiopia cutting into its share of the Nile.

 

“The rift in the [Gulf] and the Saudi-led camp, and the acts of the UAE to become not only a port management power but also a military power in the greater Horn of Africa, poses a threat to Ethiopia,” political analyst Mehari Tadele said.
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UN Chief Appeals for Humanitarian Aid in First Visit to Gaza

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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for large-scale humanitarian aid to Gaza on Wednesday in his first visit to the isolated territory as U.N. chief and ordered the immediate release of $4 million from the world body’s emergency relief fund.

Speaking at a U.N.-backed elementary school in the northern Gaza Strip, Guterres also called for unity among the Palestinians’ warring factions – Hamas, which rules Gaza, and Fatah, which rules parts of the West Bank.

“The division only undermines the cause of the Palestinian people,” he said, adding that he had a dream to “come back to Gaza one day and to see Gaza as part of a Palestine state in peace and prosperity.”

Guterres is on his first visit to the region since taking office at the beginning of the year. He has met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders aiming to encourage the resumption of peace talks. But he did not meet with Hamas officials in Gaza, who issued a demand he work to lift the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the strip and save it from a humanitarian crisis. Hamas also demanded he approve relief and development programs and pressure Israel about the Palestinian prisoners it holds.

Prior to arriving in Gaza, he took a helicopter tour of the Israel-Gaza border with Israeli officials, visited a tunnel Hamas dug into Israel to carry out attacks and met local residents living along the volatile front.

Guterres was accompanied by Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, and Aviv Kochavi, Israel’s deputy military chief. Danon warned Guterres that Gaza’s Hamas rulers have been exploiting international humanitarian aid to dig the tunnels aimed at harming Israel.

“Instead of working to ensure a better future for their children, Hamas has turned the residents of Gaza into hostages,” Danon said. “At the same time, the Israeli residents of the border communities have stood strong in the face of terror threats, as they build prosperous communities and help further develop the region for the betterment of the next generation.”

Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks Israel’s destruction, has ruled Gaza with an iron fist since seizing control of the coastal area in 2007 from forces loyal to Palestinians President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party. Repeated attempts for reconciliation have failed.

Hamas has since fought three wars with Israel, firing thousands of rockets into its territory and digging a network of elaborate offensive tunnels. It has largely observed a truce with Israel since the last battle, in 2014, though more radical groups in the territory have carried out occasional attacks.

Egypt and Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after the Hamas takeover that has crippled the local economy. In recent years, Egypt has also cracked down on the once-vibrant tunnel trade along the border. Israel began construction of an underground anti-tunnel barrier along the border last year.
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Family Mourns Death of Reporter Who Chose to ‘Bear Witness’

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Freelance journalist Christopher Allen believed it was important to not look away from the worst of humanity. By the age of 26, he had lived up to his belief, covering conflict in Ukraine and South Sudan and sharing powerful stories with people around the world.

“He chose to bear witness; he chose to look unflinchingly at what was painful and to find the humanity within it,” his mother, Joyce Krajian, told VOA.

On August 26, Allen was killed in the southern border town of Kaya, South Sudan, in a clash between government and rebel groups. The Committee to Protect Journalists said he had been embedded with rebel forces for two weeks, citing a rebel spokesman.

He was killed by a bullet wound to the head, although the details of his death are still unclear. A spokesman for South Sudan’s Army said that anyone, including a journalist, who enters the country with rebels will be targeted for death by their forces. CPJ has forcefully rejected any notion that Allen was helping the rebels and noted that international law affords journalists the same protection as civilians in conflict zones.

“Chris was actually a photographer. He was holding a camera, not an AK-47. So, he was not a combatant,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal.

Allen is the tenth journalist to be killed in South Sudan since 2012, according to the U.N. CPJ has called for a full investigation into his death.

‘I want to see history in the making’

Allen grew up in suburban Philadelphia and attended the University of Pennsylvania. He later earned a master’s degree in European history at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

During his studies in Europe, Allen was riveted by images of revolution in Ukraine and decided to travel there to cover the story. “In the middle of that program, when the rest of his cohort was going off to the Greek islands, Chris chose to go to Ukraine,” his mother said. “It was just post-Maidan Square [the site of protests in Kyiv], and he said ‘I want to see history in the making. I don’t want to read about history.'”

Allen’s work appeared in The Telegraph newspaper, BBC, Mashable and other outlets. In 2014, he was one of the first reporters to arrive at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down over Ukraine, killing 298 people.

Later, as part of a documentary, he shared his thoughts on the carnage he saw that day in a wheat field.

“Being in Eastern Ukraine, seeing all this death, you’re conscious of how quickly a life can be taken,” he told the interviewer in 2014. “Whether it’s the person walking across the playground during [a] shelling or whether it’s the people who fell 10,000 meters in a plane, you quickly become conscious, being here, being in the middle of this conflict, that life is a really fragile thing.”

A life cut short

Allen’s family is left grieving the son they say could have chosen a comfortable existence in academia, but instead was driven to tell stories of people seeking freedom in forgotten corners of the world.

“He found it very refreshing when people would stand up for what they consider their human rights and the right of their country,” said his father, John Allen. “And he was interested in what makes these folks tick who were prepared to put themselves out there to sacrifice, to even make the ultimate sacrifice, which most of us don’t dare to do.”

Above all, they feel an incredible sense of loss at a life cut short.

“He was such a big-hearted, big-spirited guy,” his mother said. “It’s really hard to imagine the world without him. Our world. We have gotten a lot of response from people who knew him and said that, truly, this is a loss for the world.”
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Slow Transition Away from Plastic Bags in Uganda

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This week, Kenya became the latest African country to ban plastic bags. In neighboring Uganda, the transition has been slow after declaring a ban in 2009.  Halima Athumani reports for VOA that some Ugandan business owners are starting to see opportunity in going green.
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Ancient Board Game Helps Unite Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem

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An ancient board game has helped bring some Israelis and Palestinians together at Jerusalem’s first backgammon championship. VOA’s Deborah Block reports.
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World’s Biggest Drone Drug Deliveries Take Off in Tanzania

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Tanzania is set to launch the world’s largest drone delivery network in January, with drones parachuting blood and medicines out of the skies to save lives.

California’s Zipline will make 2,000 deliveries a day to more than 1,000 health facilities across the east African country, including blood, vaccines and malaria and AIDS drugs, following the success of a smaller project in nearby Rwanda.

“It’s the right move,” Lilian Mvule, 51, said by phone, recalling how her granddaughter died from malaria two years ago.

“She needed urgent blood transfusion from a group O, which was not available,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Malaria is a major killer in Tanzania, and children under age 5 often need blood transfusions when they develop malaria-induced anemia. If supplies are out of stock, as is often the case with rare blood types, they can die.

Tanzania is larger than Nigeria and four times the size of the United Kingdom, making it hard for the cash-strapped government to ensure all of its 5,000-plus clinics are fully stocked, particularly in remote rural areas.

The drones fly at 100 kph (62 mph), much faster than traveling by road. Small packages are dropped from the sky using a biodegradable parachute.

The government also hopes to save the lives of thousands of women who die from profuse bleeding after giving birth.

Tanzania has one of the world’s worst maternal mortality rates, with 556 deaths per 100,000 deliveries, government data show.

“It’s a problem we can help solve with on-demand drone delivery,” Zipline’s chief executive, Keller Rinaudo, said in a statement. “African nations are showing the world how it’s done.”

Companies in the United States and elsewhere are keen to use drones to cut delivery times and costs, but there are hurdles ranging from the risk of collisions with airplanes to ensuring battery safety and longevity.

The drones will cut the drug delivery bill for Tanzania’s capital, Dodoma, one of two regions where the project will first roll out, by $58,000 a year, according to Britain’s Department for International Development, one of the project’s backers.

The initiative could also ease tensions between frustrated patients and health workers.

“We always accuse nurses of stealing drugs,” said Angela Kitebi, who lives 40 kilometers east of Dodoma. “We don’t realize that the drugs are not getting here on time due to bad roads.”
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‘Gates of Hell’: Iraqi Army Says Fighting Near Tal Afar Worse Than Mosul

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Iraqi forces are battling to retake the small town of al-Ayadiya where militants fleeing Tal Afar have entrenched themselves, saying on Tuesday the fighting is “multiple times worse” than the battle for Mosul’s old city.

Hundreds of battle-hardened fighters were positioned inside most houses and high buildings inside the town, making it difficult for government forces to make any progress, army officers told Reuters.

Iraqi government troops captured the town of Mosul from Islamic State in June, but only after eight months of grinding urban warfare.

But one Iraqi officer, Colonel Kareem al-Lami, described breaching the militants’ first line of defense in al-Ayadiya as like opening “the gates of hell.”

Iraqi forces have in recent days recaptured almost all the northwestern city of Tal Afar, long a stronghold of Islamic State. They have been waiting to take al-Ayadiya, just 11 km (7 miles) northwest of the city, before declaring complete victory.

Tough resistance from the militants in al-Ayadiya has required the Iraqi forces to increase the number of airstrikes, as well as bring in reinforcements from the federal police to boost units from the army, air force, Federal Police, the elite U.S.-trained Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) and some units from the Shi’ite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

Up to 2,000 battle-hardened militants were believed to be defending Tal Afar against around 50,000 government troops last week.

Military intelligence indicated that many militants fled Tal Afar to mount a staunch defense in al-Ayadiya. Many motorcycles carrying the Islamic State insignia were seen abandoned at the side of the road outside al-Ayadiya.

Though the exact numbers of militants on the ground in al-Ayadiya was still unclear, al-Lami, the Iraqi Army colonel, estimated they were in the “hundreds.”

“Daesh [Islamic State] fighters in the hundreds are taking positions inside almost every single house in the town,” he said.

Sniper shots, mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-armored projectiles were fired from every single house, he added.

“We thought the battle for Mosul’s Old City was tough, but this one proved to be multiple times worse,” al-Lami said. “We are facing tough fighters who have nothing to lose and are ready to die.”

Two army officers told Reuters that no significant advances had yet been made in al-Ayadiya. They said they were waiting for artillery and airstrikes to undermine the militants’ power.

Tal Afar became the next target of the U.S.-backed war on the jihadist group following the recapture of Mosul, where it had declared its “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
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Iran Rejects US Demand for Inspection of Its Military Sites

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Iran on Tuesday dismissed U.S. demands for the inspection of Iranian military sites by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, shrugging off a request by America’s ambassador to the U.N. as only a “dream.”

Iran’s government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht told reporters that the demand by Ambassador Nikki Haley wasn’t worth any attention. Iran will not accept any inspection of its sites and “especially our military sites,” he said.

In remarks broadcast by state TV, he said the sites and all information about them were “classified.”

Last week, Haley said the United States wants inspections of Iranian military and nonmilitary sites to determine its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. The deal saw Iran cap its nuclear activities in return for lifting of crippling sanctions.

In a televised interview later in the day, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also rejected the demands, saying “regulations dictate out relations with the [International Atomic Energy] Agency, not the United States.”

He said Iran was still committed to the nuclear agreement, but “we do not accept bullying.”
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Trump Inspects Flood-ravaged Texas as More Rain Falls

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President Donald Trump on Tuesday inspected the huge cleanup and rescue work in southeastern Texas from Hurricane Harvey and said the storm recovery would probably be one of the most expensive efforts the U.S. has ever undertaken.

The storm is already a record-breaking disaster. More than 49 inches (124 centimeters) of rain have poured down on Houston since Friday night — the most rain ever to fall in the continental U.S. in such a short period.

Visiting an emergency operations center in the Texas capital of Austin late Tuesday, Trump said his administration and Congress would come up with the “right solution” to help storm victims.

WATCH: Texans Talk about Evacuations, Snakes and ‘Too Much Water’

The president and first lady Melania Trump spent the day in Texas to get a firsthand look at the indescribable damage caused by Harvey. No longer a major hurricane, the tropical storm was still dumping heavy rain on southeastern Texas and western Louisiana.

Cabinet chiefs

Several Cabinet members accompanied Trump, including Health and Human Services chief Tom Price, who said his department was trying to make sure storm victims get the medical care they need, especially those with chronic diseases who may be unable to reach their regular physicians.

Housing Secretary Ben Carson said his department was reallocating assets from routine spending to disaster relief.

In Corpus Christi, where the hurricane hit the Texas Gulf Coast, Trump said he wanted his administration’s storm recovery effort to be “better than ever before.”

In an ironic convergence of hurricane history, Tuesday was the 12th anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana and caused catastrophic damage in New Orleans.

Trump said Harvey was a “historic … epic” storm. Waving a Texas state flag as he spoke to cheering supporters in Corpus Christi, he added: “But it happened in Texas, and Texas can handle anything.”

Total damage estimates from Harvey have ranged between $30 billion and $100 billion. But the immediate job for emergency workers, including firefighters, doctors and the Texas National Guard, is rescuing thousands of people still trapped by floods inside or on top of their homes.

Around-the-clock rescues

More than 3,500 people in the Houston area already have been rescued in around-the-clock efforts by emergency personnel and volunteers pushing boats, rafts, inflatable dinghies and even floating plastic furniture through streets and highways that now resemble brown, debris-filled rivers.

As many as nine storm-related deaths have been reported. They included Houston police Sergeant Steve Perez, who drowned in a highway underpass Saturday when his car was overwhelmed by floodwaters as he tried to get to his post.

Police Chief Art Acevedo could barely hold back his tears when he talked about Perez, saying the 59-year-old veteran officer would get a proper tribute from the city as soon as possible.

More rain fell in Houston Tuesday as the storm, which has moved back out over the Gulf of Mexico, remained near the Texas coastline, sucking up moisture from the warm Gulf waters, normally above 85 degrees Fahrenheit (above 30 degrees Celsius) at this time of year.

Forecasters said Harvey would move back inland, passing north and east of Houston Wednesday. Once it moves away from the Gulf, the tropical storm is expected to weaken further as it heads toward the U.S. East Coast by the end of this week.

Rough days ahead

But the worst may not be over for storm survivors. Brock Long, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said difficult times lie ahead, even after the rain stops.

“This recovery is going to be frustrating,” Long said in a message of assurance to Texas residents, adding, “We’re going to be here with you.”

Trump did not visit Houston, where flood recovery and relocation efforts were concentrated, in order to avoid disrupting rescue efforts. But White House officials said the president planned to return to Texas as soon as Saturday to see how the recovery effort is going. He also plans to stop in Louisiana, east of Texas, which also has received a heavy share of Harvey’s rains.

VOA’s Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.
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Mexico Dusts Off ‘Plan B’ as Trump Revs Up Threats to Kill NAFTA

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Mexico sees a serious risk the United States will withdraw from NAFTA and is preparing a plan for that eventuality, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Tuesday, calling talks to renegotiate the deal a “roller coaster.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened three times in the past week to abandon the North American Free Trade Agreement, revisiting his view that the United States would probably have to start the process of exiting the accord to reach a fair deal for his country.

Trump has vowed to get a better deal for American workers, and the lively rhetoric on both sides precedes a second round of talks starting on Friday in Mexico City to renegotiate the 1994 accord binding the United States, Mexico and Canada.

“This is not going to be easy,” Guajardo said at a meeting with senators in Mexico City. “The start of the talks is like a roller coaster.”

The need for a backup plan in case Trump shreds the deal underpinning a trillion dollars in annual trade in North America has been a long-standing position of Guajardo, who travels to Washington on Tuesday with foreign minister Luis Videgaray to meet senior White House and trade officials.

“We are also analyzing a scenario with no NAFTA,” Guajardo said.

In an interview published earlier on Tuesday in Mexican business daily El Economista, Guajardo said “there is a risk, and it’s high” that the Trump administration abandons NAFTA.

Responding to Guajardo’s comments, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government would continue to work “seriously” to improve NAFTA.

What is ‘Plan B’?

Earlier this month, Guajardo told Reuters a “Plan B” meant being prepared to replace items such as the billions of dollars in grain Mexico imports from the United States annually.

To that end, and to seek openings in more markets, Mexico is hosting trade talks with Brazil this week. Trade officials are also discussing a possible replacement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact that Trump ditched after taking office.

Overlapping with the NAFTA talks, Mexico will participate in separate trade meetings with Australia and New Zealand in Peru, and President Enrique Pena Nieto travels to China this weekend.

Still, attempts to diversify trade will not be easy. Some 80 percent of all Mexican exports go to the United States, and economies such as Brazil and China often compete with Mexico.

Guajardo also suggested World Trade Organization tariffs that would kick in if NAFTA crumbled would be more favorable for Mexico, a view held by many Mexican experts who think trade with the United States would survive the demise of the 1994 deal.

“I don’t think it’s going to make that much of a difference in terms of the trading relationship,” said Andres Rozental, a former Mexican deputy foreign minister. “If we have to go to WTO tariffs, for us it’s fairly straightforward.”

Guajardo’s and Videgaray’s trip to Washington was announced after Trump not only threatened to pull out of the trade deal, but again said that Mexico would end up paying for the wall he wants to build between the two countries.

Mexico has refused point blank to pay for a wall. In January, after similar comments led Mexico to scrap a summit with Trump, the two sides agreed not to talk in public about it.
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In Syrian Skies, US Pilots Learn How Fast Air War Can Morph

Posted on by SeeUS

U.S. Air Force pilot Jeremy Renken knew that whatever happened next might escalate the war in Syria.

The lieutenant colonel, 40, was flying his F-15E StrikeEagle fighter jet in a “racetrack” pattern around an Iranian-made drone, which had just tried to kill U.S.-backed forces and their advisers on the ground.

After the drone’s first shot failed to detonate on impact, it was positioning to strike again.

So, on June 8, in what was an unprecedented move in the U.S. air war over Syria to that point, Renken shot it down, even as two Russian fighter jets watched from a distance.

“When we saw the drone turn back toward friendly forces, we weren’t waiting around for anybody’s permission. We destroyed it,” Renken said in his first interview about the incident.

Renken’s downing of the Iranian drone, a Shaheed 129, was the first in a series of several defensive U.S. air-to-air shoot-downs over several weeks in June that at first appeared to signal a tipping point to a far more dangerous air war in Syria.

But since the decisions by Renken and other U.S. pilots to fire at two drones and a manned Syrian fighter jet in June, there haven’t been similarly provocative actions by pro-Syrian forces. U.S. officials say they seem to have delivered the message.

Renken’s case, in many ways, highlights not just the risks of Syrian conflict, in which Russia, Syria, the United States and its allies are flying military jets within targeting range of each other.

It also illustrates the tremendous responsibility entrusted to U.S. pilots to make life-or-death decisions in an instant, with broad, strategic implications for the war.

Renken spoke with Reuters from a U.S. military installation in the Middle East, which does not disclose its location at the request of the country hosting it.

Lethal intent

Renken, a squadron commander, developed his Air Force career in the shadow of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al-Qaida. He was training as a pilot when suicide hijackers flew into the World Trade Center, and he has since deployed repeatedly to the Middle East.

But Renken acknowledged that the Syrian air war is, in his view, unique.

U.S. pilots, who have enjoyed air supremacy against the insurgents they’ve been battling in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, cannot be sanguine about the risks posed by advanced Russian or Syrian jets or ground-based air defense in Syria.

Armed aircraft from Syria, Russia, the United States and its coalition allies are all flying within “no escape” range of each other’s weapons.

“We can all engage each other. So it takes a lot of discipline and studying the nuance of a circumstance to [determine]: ‘Was that an escalation?’ ” Renken said.

As U.S.-backed and Russia-backed ground forces scramble to capture what is left of Islamic State’s caliphate, the risk of accidental contacts between the sides is growing, raising the stakes both on the ground and in the air.

But while the U.S. military has had years to iron out how and when to engage IS fighters on the ground, American pilots are still gaining experience deciphering hostile intent by other aircraft in the skies above Syria.

Closer than thought

The U.S. Air Force proudly boasts that no U.S. soldier has been killed by enemy aircraft since 1953. But the drone attack threatened to change that, if accounts by two U.S. officials of a limited American presence in the convoy that day are correct.

The U.S. military initially said the drone dropped a bomb that missed the convoy, which included U.S.-backed fighters and their advisers. Renken offered a slightly different account.

He said the drone was actually carrying missiles. When it fired, it hit the door of one of the vehicles with a munition that failed to detonate, he said.

“It was a dud round. So, very lucky,” Renken said. “It was definitely intended to be a lethal shot.”

The criteria needed to fire the drone had been clearly met, he said.

Still, one factor complicating his decision to return fire was the presence of the Russian “Flanker” fighter jets, who might think that Renken was shooting at them.

“Is [the Russian pilot] going to see a missile come off of my aircraft and consider that a potential aggression against him?” he explained.

Another problem was that the drone was small enough that the missile Renken would fire could potentially go long and inadvertently head toward the Russian jet.

“[There] was a lot of potential for escalation,” he said.

For Renken, the big takeaway for pilots is that the war in Syria has evolved far beyond simply striking IS targets on the ground.

U.S. pilots have to be prepared for anything.

“What this recent event has proven is that you can’t take for granted that you know what the fight is going to look like,” Renken said. “You need to walk in ready for it to metastasize into any hybrid variation.”
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Merkel Backs EC in Dispute With Poland Over Courts

Posted on by SeeEU

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday threw her weight behind the European Commission in its row with Warsaw over freedom of Poland’s court system.

The previously reticent Merkel, speaking in Berlin, said she took the issue “very seriously” and would talk about it with Commission President Jean-Claude Junker on Wednesday.

In July, the commission, the European Union’s executive, gave Warsaw a month to address its concerns about reforms it saw as interfering with an independent judiciary.

Warsaw’s reply signaled that the ruling nationalist and euroskeptic Law and Justice (PiS) party had no intention of backing down and even doubted the commission’s right to intervene.

While two of the new Polish laws questioned by the commission have been sent back for reworking by an unexpected presidential veto, a third one, giving the justice minister powers to fire judges, has become law.

The commission said it undermined the independence of the courts and therefore EU rules.

“This is a serious issue because the requirements for cooperation within the European Union are the principles of the rule of law. I take what the commission says on this very seriously,” Merkel said at a news conference.

“We cannot simply hold our tongues and not say anything for the sake of peace and quiet,” she said.

‘Political emotions’

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said Merkel’s remarks showed the criticism was political, rather than factual.

“I’m convinced that Polish government will be executing its targets despite political emotions that appear in politicians’ statements,” Ziobro told reporters in Warsaw.

“Every country which is independent within the EU has its own laws and should settle its problems within democratic mechanisms,” he said in remarks broadcast on state TV.

In its reply to the commission on Monday, the Polish foreign ministry said the legislative process of overhauling its judiciary was in line with European standards.

It called the commission’s concerns groundless and noted that judiciary was the province of national governments, not the commission.

“We have received the reply from the Polish government. Regarding the point that we have no competence in this sphere, this is something that we would actually quite powerfully refute,” a commission spokeswoman said.

“The rule of law framework sets out how the commission should react should clear indications of a threat to the rule of law emerge in a member state. The commission believes that there is such a threat to the rule of law in Poland,” she said.

The commission said in July that it would launch legal action against Poland over the judicial reforms. It also said that if the government started firing Supreme Court judges, the commission would move to suspend Poland’s voting rights in the EU — an unprecedented punishment that would, however, require the unlikely unanimous support of all other EU governments.

Merkel’s remarks on Tuesday followed openly critical statements from French President Emmanuel Macron, who said last Friday that Poland was isolating itself within the EU and Polish citizens “deserved better” than a government at odds with the bloc’s democratic values and economic reform plans.

Logging

In another unprecedented sign of defiance against the EU, the Polish government ignored an order by the EU’s highest court to cease logging in the Bialowieza forest.

The court will convene September 11 to decide how to react to Warsaw’s failure to honor the injunction, the first in EU history.

As the EU’s spats with the PiS government get increasingly tense, the bloc’s member states are due to discuss again this autumn whether the situation in their largest ex-communist peer merits launching an unprecedented Article 7 punitive procedure.

The maximum punishment under the procedure, however unlikely, would be stripping Poland of its voting rights in the EU over not respecting democratic principles on which the bloc is built.
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Notre-Dame’s Crumbling Gargoyles Need Help

Posted on by SeeEU

The Archbishop of Paris is on a 100 million-euro ($120 million) fundraising drive to save the crumbling gargoyles and gothic arches of the storied Notre-Dame cathedral.

Every year, 12 million to 14 million people visit the 12th-century Parisian landmark on an island in the Seine river. Groundbreaking for the structure occurred in 1163 and construction was completed in 1345. Pollution and exposure to elements over time have resulted in losses of large chunks of stone.

“If we don’t do these restoration works, we’ll risk seeing parts of the exterior structure begin to fall. This is a very serious risk,” said Michel Picaud, president of the Friends of Notre-Dame charity set up by the archbishop.

Church officials, who have created what they are calling a “stone cemetery” from fallen masonry, say the cathedral remains safe to visit.

Entry to the cathedral is free, and the French state, which owns the building, devotes 2 million euros a year to repairs.

But that is not enough to embark on major restoration works, the last of which were carried out during the 1800s, officials at the cathedral and charity said.

Hugo’s book

Notre-Dame has long drawn tourists from around the world.

It is most famous in popular culture as the locale for 19th-century author Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” and films of the same name, including the 1939 classic with Charles Laughton and the 1996 Disney musical animation.

The latter in particular raised the cathedral’s profile for modern-day tourists from China to the United States.

“It’s the movie for me. I just think of the Hunchback of Notre-Dame, and the book as well. After reading that book, I actually really wanted to come see it,” said U.S tourist Claire Huber as she visited the cathedral.

Church authorities hope the cathedral’s worldwide fame will attract donors, particularly from the United States.

“Gargoyles are what people want to see when they come to Paris. If there are no more gargoyles, what will they see?” Notre-Dame communications chief Andre Finot said.
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Source: Barcelona Attackers’ Suspected Supplier Arrested in Morocco

Posted on by SeeEU

Moroccan authorities have arrested a man suspected of supplying gas canisters to a jihadist cell that carried out a double attack in Catalonia earlier this month that killed 16 people, a source from the Spanish investigation said.

The cell accumulated around 120 canisters of butane gas at a house in a town south of Barcelona with which, police say, it planned to carry out a larger bomb attack.

Police believe the cell accidentally ignited the explosives on Aug. 16, the eve of the Barcelona attack, triggering a blast that destroyed the house in the town of Alcanar.

The remaining attackers then decided to use hired vans to mow down crowds along Barcelona’s most famous avenue and later mount an assault in the resort town of Cambrils.

Moroccan police arrested the man in the city of Casablanca, the source said, without giving further details.

Spain’s interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, said on Tuesday that Moroccan authorities had arrested two people linked to the attacks but declined to give details about them.

Spanish news agency EFE said the second man was arrested in the city of Oujda and was a relative of one of the members of the Barcelona cell. The source did not confirm that.

Zoido, speaking after a meeting with the Moroccan interior minister in Morocco’s capital Rabat, said Spanish and Moroccan authorities were working closely together in the investigation.

Most of the suspected attackers were Moroccan and an imam suspected of radicalizing the cell traveled there shortly before the attack took place.

Six of the attackers were shot dead by police and two died in the explosion at the house in Alcanar. Four other people were arrested over the assaults, two of whom have now been released under certain conditions.
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New Yorker Accused of Trying to Join Islamic State

Posted on by SeeUS

A 22-year-old New York resident has been arrested on charges of attempting to provide material support to Islamic State, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

Authorities also said Parveg Ahmed was due in federal court Tuesday for an initial appearance. News reports say Ahmed had sent messages through social media accounts about his support for IS.

“As alleged, Ahmed sought to take up arms with violent terrorists who have killed numerous innocent victims, including Americans,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Rohde. “This Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to work tirelessly to arrest and prosecute extremists before they are able to threaten the United States and its allies.”

Ahmed, who is a U.S. citizen, was detained while attempting to travel to Syria, allegedly to join and fight with Islamic State.

If convicted, Ahmed faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
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Germany’s Merkel Rules Out Coalition With Far Left, Far Right

Posted on by SeeEU

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday ruled out forming a government coalition after elections with either the far left or the far right.

Supporters of the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party jeered her throughout a 30-minute campaign speech in the eastern city of Bitterfeld-Wolfen hours after Merkel declared comments by a top AfD official to be racist.

Merkel, whose conservatives have a double-digit lead over the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) in polls ahead of the Sept. 24 elections, also ruled out a coalition with Germany’s far-left Left party.

She said the SPD, junior partner in Merkel’s current coalition government, had also ruled out governing with the anti-immigrant AfD, but had not issued any clear statements on whether it would work with the Left party.

“We say clearly: no coalition with the AfD and no coalition with the Left,” Merkel said, underscoring her party’s standard line on potential future governing alliances. “The Social Democrats have been lacking this clarity.”

The chancellor, a Christian Democrat, said she did not think a so-called “Red-Red-Green” coalition of the Social Democrats with the Left and the pro-environment Greens would help advance Germany.

Such a coalition would be one possible alternative to a return of a Merkel-led coalition between her CDU/CSU conservatives and the SPD. There has also been conjecture about a coalition of the conservatives with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

Merkel, expected to win a record-tying fourth term, defended her decision in 2015 to allow in over a million migrants, carrying on her speech despite loud heckling from a group of around 60 protesters, many of whom carried AfD signs.

Some booed, while others shouted “get lost” and chanted “AfD, AfD.” She has faced similar heckling at about a third of her speeches since kicking off the campaign on Aug. 12.

Earlier, Merkel accused one of the AfD’s top officials, Alexander Gauland, of racism for recent remarks that Aydan Ozoguz, the government’s integration minister, should be “dumped” back in her parent’s homeland, Turkey.

Gauland defended his remarks in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Newspaper, saying Ozoguz “had no business being in Germany” given she had said Germany had no culture beyond its language.

Social Democrat Martin Schulz, speaking at a campaign event in the eastern German city of Erfurt, also criticized Gauland’s remarks. He welcomed a move by Thomas Fischer, the former lead judge in Germany’s constitutional court to file a formal complaint against Gauland for “incitement to hatred”.

Founded in 2013 as an anti-euro party, the AfD shifted its focus after the euro zone debt crisis peaked to campaigning against immigration after Merkel’s move in 2015 to open the borders to a flood of migrants, many from the Middle East.

Merkel’s conservatives were on 37 percent support in the latest poll by the INSA institute released on Tuesday, compared with 24 percent for the SPD.

The poll showed 10 percent support for both the Left and the AfD parties, while the Greens were at 6.5 percent and the FDP on 8 percent.

 
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Finland Denies Fighter Deal with Boeing After Trump’s Comments

Posted on by SeeEU

President Sauli Niinisto on Tuesday denied that Finland was buying new fighter jets from American planemaker Boeing, following remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Finland is looking to replace its aging fleet of 62 F/A-18 Hornet jets with multirole fighter aircraft in a procurement estimated at 7-10 billion euros by 2025.

“One of the things that is happening is you’re purchasing large amounts of our great F-18 aircraft from Boeing and it’s one of the great planes, the great fighter jets,” Trump said on Monday at a news conference with his Finnish counterpart in the White House.

Niinisto, who was standing next to Trump, looked surprised but did not follow up on the comment. He later denied the deal with Boeing on his Twitter account and on Tuesday in Washington.

“It seems that on the sale side, past decisions and hopes about future decisions have mixed. … The purchase is just starting, and that is very clear here,” Niinisto told Finnish reporters.

Helsinki is expected to request that European and U.S. planemakers provide quotations for new jets in 2018, with a final decision made in the early 2020s.

A government working group has listed possible candidates as Saab’s Jas Gripen, Dassault Aviation’s Rafale, Boeing’s Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 and the Eurofighter, made by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
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As Sudan Seeks Sanctions Relief, US Presses Religious Freedom

Posted on by SeeAF

The United States has raised the issue of religious freedom in talks about easing sanctions on Sudan, the new head of the U.S. Agency for International Development said in Sudan on Tuesday.

The head of the agency, Mark Green, held the talks with senior Sudanese officials as the U.S. government weighs whether to ease or extend the 20-year-old sanctions, a decision that must be made by Oct. 12.

“We have asked questions and… have received assurances,” Green told reporters after a meeting with Sudanese Prime Minister Bakri Hassan Saleh.

While human rights and religious freedom are not conditions for the permanent lifting of some Sudan sanctions, the U.S. government is increasingly raising them as a concern.

Religious leaders have complained that churches have been bulldozed by the government and priests arrested, stoking fears among Christians that they will not be able to practice their faith in majority-Muslim Sudan.

During his three-day visit to Sudan — the first by a senior U.S. official since 2005 — Green met with various religious organizations, including churches and religious freedom lawyers.

In his meetings on Tuesday, Green said he had acknowledged “meaningful steps” by the government in complying with U.S. conditions for easing the sanctions. Among those conditions are improved humanitarian access for aid workers, counter-terrorism cooperation and a resolution of internal conflicts.

“The government is continuing a gradual reversal of long-standing impediments,” Green said, “and I urge the government to accelerate its work in this regard.”

Earlier, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said his country was looking forward to normal ties being restored.

“On our side we look forward for a normalization of our relations with an important country… the U.S.,” said Ghandour, who has overseen dialogue with Washington on the sanctions.

Hobbled economy

Easing the sanctions could suspend a trade embargo, unfreeze assets and remove financial restrictions that have hobbled the Sudanese economy.

The North African country wants to regain access to the global banking system, potentially unlocking badly needed trade and foreign investment. It needs both to cope with an inflation rate of 35 percent and a shortage of foreign currency that has crippled its ability to buy abroad.

A decision on the sanctions was delayed for six months to give Sudan more time to make progress on key demands and to give the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump time to settle in.

Lifting them would be a major turnaround for the government of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who once played host to Osama bin Laden and is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of orchestrating genocide in Darfur.

Washington has not weakened its condemnation of Sudan’s tactics in Darfur, and Sudan remains on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, alongside Iran and Syria.

Green told Reuters on Monday after visiting North Darfur state that humanitarian access had improved.

In particular, aid workers have been allowed for the first time in seven years into Jebel Marra, a region of Darfur where clashes between the government and rebels persist, according to USAID reports.

While he acknowledged progress, Green emphasized on Monday that a final decision on sanctions was up to Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“Certainly, there has been progress, particularly in recent weeks,” Green said, “This is not a matter of whether things look perfect on the date that a decision is made, it’s whether or not long-lasting changes have been made.”

The United States first imposed sanctions on Sudan in 1997, including a trade embargo and blocking the government’s assets, for human rights violations and terrorism concerns. The United States layered on more sanctions in 2006 for what it said was complicity in the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region.

 

 

 
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Al-Shabab Defectors Being Rehabilitated to Re-enter Somali Society

Posted on by SeeAF

Last June, al-Shabab militants attacked an Ethiopian base in the Somali town of Halgan, one of several raids on African Union military camps. The Ethiopian troops repelled the attack, causing massive casualties.

One of the al-Shabab fighters, Mohamed Daud Mohamed, known as Mohamed Dhere, said his unit lost 45 men.

“It was a difficult fight; we left behind the wounded as we didn’t have a chance to evacuate them. … Everyone ran for their lives,” he told VOA’s Somali service.

For Dhere, 20, it was a lesson. He decided to desert al-Shabab, but said his commanders were suspicious. After eight months, he found his opportunity in February when his commander sent him to attend a seminar.

Instead, he contacted relatives, who handed him over to the government. He is living at a rehabilitation center for militants in Mogadishu, one of 70 former al-Shabab members recently granted amnesty by the Somali government.

Abdirashid Ibrahim Mohamed directs the program to reintegrate former al-Shabab foot soldiers and low-risk individuals into society. He saod defectors receive food, exercise, health checkups, education and vocational training.

They also get religious lessons, aimed at guiding them away from the al-Shabab’s radical views of Islam.

“There are clerics who give awareness lectures, hold debates about the position of Islam, about extremism,” Mohamed said. “Normally when these youngsters defect from al-Shabab, they already know that what they were involved in is wrong, and they came to us to save themselves.”

The amnesty and rehabilitation program was launched in 2009. The Somali government says thousands of militants have passed through, although Mohamed says only 800 have come through the Mogadishu center. There are also reintegration programs in Baidoa, Beledweyne, Huddur and Kismayo, each treating 30 to 70 men.

Mohamed says those who completed the retraining in the past have moved on to run businesses, pursue education or just return to society. Security sources say others have joined the army or decided to work with the government.

Defector turns rogue

But not all graduates of the program undergo genuine change.

Omar Mohamed Abu Ayan, a former al-Shabab member, said the rehabilitation program is not changing the ideology of hard-core militants who claim to have defected but actually have “other agendas” in mind.

“For some they use it to continue their acts, such as suicide attacks, and for some others they just want to clean their names,” he said. ” … Even those with other agendas, if they could get a real doctor who could treat them ideologically from misinterpretation and deviation in their thinking, they would have changed.”

By “a real doctor” he meant someone who understands the extremism of the defectors and can lead them toward a more moderate position.

One who had another agenda was Abdirahman Mohamed Abdulle, who was welcomed by authorities in Kismayo in 2013. He earned their trust and was assigned to the security detail of Isse Kamboni, Jubbaland region’s chief intelligence officer.

Abdulle assassinated Kamboni and then escaped back to al-Shabab. He was in communication with the militants all along. Three years later, Abdulle became a suicide bomber in the January attack on Mogadishu’s Dayah hotel that killed 28 people.

It’s not clear whether Abdulle went through a rehabilitation program or authorities simply trusted him too quickly.

Ayan said militants are not going to change their ideology by being in a center, learning vocational techniques, and talking to military or intelligence officials. He said the government needs people “who have direct knowledge of the environment these young men departed from, who discuss and debate them about ideology.”

“You need people like Robow,” he said.

High-profile defector

Mukhtar Robow is a founder of al-Shabab and the group’s former deputy emir. He defected to the government last month, five years after he became inactive with al-Shabab, because of ideological differences with the group’s then-supreme leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane.

Robow is too prominent and powerful to go through the regular rehabilitation program, but Ayan said that if Robow is willing to cooperate, he could help change the minds of other hard-core militants.

“I believe if Robow accepts to work with the government, they should use him on the ideological approach,” he said.

Rashid Abdi, an International Crisis Group analyst, said Robow’s defection could “incentivize” more defections, if the government publishes a clear policy on how it will treat defectors. “Many people will abandon al-Shabab if they know they are secure,” he said.

But Abdi said if the government is too kind to the militant leader, it will send the wrong signal.

Critics say the government’s stance toward defectors is inconsistent, because low-profile al-Shabab members are usually tried and sometimes executed when they turn themselves in.

Hussein Moallim Mohamud, a former counterterrorism officer and national security adviser, said the amnesty program has led to the defection of up to 30 high-profile al-Shabab members.

“When a top official with information defects, that causes a big problem for al-Shabab,” he said. “I believe the program is equally as important as military operations against al-Shabab.”
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IOM: No Reports of Migrant Deaths in Mediterranean in Past 20 Days

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The International Organization for Migration reports no migrants have died while crossing the Mediterranean Sea over the past 20 days. It adds migrant fatalities in general appear to be on the decline.

The central Mediterranean Sea route from Libya to Italy is much favored by African migrants who risk their lives on smugglers boats desperate to reach Europe. While this route might become a gateway to a better life for some, it also is notorious for taking the lives of many.

The International Organization for Migration reports a total of 2,410 Mediterranean Sea fatalities so far this year. IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle says it is remarkable to go without a single reported death for 20 days. He acknowledges it is very hard to know exactly why.

“The flows from Libya have diminished.  If you recall in July, there were days when 3,000 people were picked up in one weekend. You remember that. Now, we have very, very few. So, something is happening. We are not sure what is behind it all. We see somewhat of a decline of migrant flows coming in from Niger, but not enough to justify or to explain why the flows across the Mediterranean have gone down,” Doyle said.

IOM data show the number of fatalities on the Mediterranean Sea generally has declined. Just 19 deaths have been recorded across the region this month, which is a sharp drop from the 689 recorded in August 2015 and 62 the same month last year.

Doyle says no deaths for 20 days might be a cause for celebration. He warns, though, this number can easily go up as smugglers continue to prey on vulnerable migrants, risking their lives while exploiting them for profit.
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