Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday replaced his Ministers of Defence and Health, Labour and Welfare in a major Cabinet reshuffle, with an eye on upcoming elections for the upper house of the Parliament in 2019, to be followed by lower house elections in 2021.

This was Abe’s first major reshuffle after he was re-elected as the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in September.

Abe retained six of the 19 ministers in his Cabinet and named 13 new ministers, out of which 12 were former ministers, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga was cited as saying by Efe news.

The most significant change in the Cabinet was new Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya, who replaced Itsunori Onodera at a time when the government was set to push a controversial reform to change its pacifist Constitution.

Abe also named Takumi Nemoto as the new Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, replacing Katsunobu Kato, while veteran politician Yoshitaka Sakurada was appointed as the Minister of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Satsuki Katayama, currently the only woman minister in the Cabinet after Abe replaced two other female ministers, will be the new Regional Revitalization Minister.

Two of Abe’s closest aides, Finance Minister Taro Aso, and Suga himself retained their portfolios, along with Foreign Minister Taro Kono, Economy and Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko and Minister of State for Economic Revitalization and Human Resources Toshimitsu Motegi.

The reshuffle indicated Abe was set to continue with his economic policy or “Abenomics”, that was launched six years ago to revive the world’s third biggest economy.

The leader also reorganized the leadership of his party on Tuesday, naming former Health Minister Kato as chairman of the party’s general council, with the objective of pushing the proposed constitutional amendment.

This was Abe’s fifth Cabinet reshuffle in six years and across three terms.

IANS

The US President Donald Trump reviewed on Saturday in a phone call with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud the oil supply for stability of the market, Saudi Press Agency reported.

The two leaders discussed efforts to maintain supplies to ensure the stability of oil market and the growth of global economy.

Oil supply and prices are common interests of the US and Saudi Arabia.

Media reports said that Saudi Arabia would raise oil outputs in the coming months to deal with the drop in Iranian oil production and might limit outputs next year to balance global supply and demand when the US pumps more quantities of crude.

The two leaders also discussed developments in the region and the world.

IANS

 
The Syrian Ministry of Transportation on Saturday announced the re-opening of the Nasib border crossing with Jordan, which has been closed since 2015.

A ministry statement cited by the state news agency SANA said the border crossing was opened and the movement of trucks and transit to and from Syria resumed.

The border crossing was closed in 2015 when the rebels took over the Nasib area and the crossing in the countryside of Daraa province in Syria.

The Syrian Army captured Daraa and the border crossing in July after the rebels in the province surrendered and agreed to evacuate to rebel-held areas in northern Syria, mainly the northwestern province of Idlib.

Last week, the Transportation Ministry declared raising the transit crossing fees that should be paid by trucks passing in and out of Syria whether they were loaded or empty.

The Nasib crossing is the busiest border crossing in Syria as it is situated on the Damascus-Amman international highway.

The crossing is also considered one of the most important land crossings in the Middle East as it is the main crossing for Syrian exports to Jordan and the Gulf countries.

Lebanon would also benefit from the re-opening of the Nasib crossing as the small Mediterranean country has crossings with Syria only and through Nasib it can do business with Arab markets.

The crossing is important for Jordan which is suffering from economic problems. Since it was closed in 2015, the kingdom suffered heavy losses as 70 per cent of its exports and imports went through Syria, according to Nabil Ruman, head of the investor’s board of the Jordanian Free Zone.

Reports said the losses of the Jordanian transport sector from the border closure was estimated at around half a billion US dollars.

IANS

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has turned the diplomatic snub by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at the Saarc meeting into a personal vendetta, making a unprofessional remarks in public about her to the accompaniment of derisive laughter.

“I was quite concerned when I saw the Minister for External Affairs, when I was in the room she looked pale to me,” Qureshi said while laughing. “She looked very worried. I wish, I wish we could have smiled at each other.”

He made the remarks at the Asia Society here on Friday, a day after Sushma Swaraj had refused to interact with him at the South Asian Association Regional Cooperation (Saarc) ministerial meeting and left after delivering her speech without staying on for his address.

Most people in the audience, which included a large number of people of Pakistani descent, did not join his laughter.

With exaggerated gestures, Qureshi added: “I could see the immense strain and when she left, she wasn’t even willing to engage with the media. I had no problem, but I could see the pressure, but I could see the political pressure on her, politics, nothing else, politics, domestic politics.”

After the Saarc meeting on Thursday he had insinuated to the Pakistani media that may be she was feeling unwell, according to Samaa TV.

Sushma Swaraj, however, went on to have her scheduled meetings with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Walid al Muallem.

India had initially agreed last week to recently-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan’s request for holding talks between Sushma Swaraj and Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting.

However, New Delhi cancelled the talks a day later after three Indian police personnel were killed in Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan issued a stamp honouring a terrorist leader.

In keeping with India’s resolve not to engage diplomatically with Pakistan while the terrorism issue persisted, Sushma Swaraj has steadfastly refused to engage with Qureshi even informally while in New York for the UN General Assembly meeting.

Asked by a Pakistani journalist about why the talks didn’t take place, Qureshi replied alluding to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party, but without naming them.

“Why are they reluctant? Simply, sir, politics, elections, elections, the scare of the electorate. They have taken the pendulum, they have swung the pendulum to such an extreme, now they are finding it difficult to bring it back.”

“And with elections around the corner and they felt it could boomerang, that’s why they were shy,” he added.

But recalling Khan’s offer in his first speech after the election to take two steps for every step India took, Qureshi reiterated Islamabad’s keenness for talks.

“Whenever you are ready, our message is loud and clear, Pakistan will never shy away because we want to move on, we want the region to develop,” he said.

Qureshi said the Pakistan election that brought Khan to power was a turning point for the nation.

“People of Pakistan are clear that extremism has to be reversed, militancy is not what we need. Terrorism has hit us more than anyone else.”

About the growing ties between New Delhi and Washington, Qureshi said: “Today India is a strategic partner of the US, (but) we have no problem with that.”

However, displaying a sense of insecurity, he added: “… But why lose old friends? Have new ones, why lose old friends.”

In return for continued help to the US in Afghanistan, he wanted Washington to pressure India on relations with Pakistan.

“If the US wants us to help (in Afghanistan) and we want to help in our own interest, because we want peace in the region, then they have to tell their new strategic partner to give us ease on the eastern side so we can concentrate on areas of mutual interest,” he said.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday held up India as an example to the world of a country that successfully lifted millions out of poverty while upholding democracy and freedom.

Addressing the General Assembly, he said India was part of a “beautiful constellation” of countries working for a common future.

In speech that emphasised his America First policy with a declaration that he rejected the “ideology of globalism” for a belief in patriotism, he reiterated his hardline against countries such as China, Iran and Venezuela.

He demanded that Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut their “horrible prices.”

IANS

India will make a “sovereign decision” on Russian defence purchases, which are facing possible US sanctions, according to Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“I understand that India will be taking sovereign decision (on) how to proceed and what kind of weapons it needs,” he said at a news conference here on Friday.

Asked by a reporter if the proposed $8.5 billion defence deal with Russia, which includes a missile defence system, that was expected to be signed next month during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India was on hold, Lavrov said: “I haven’t heard anything about the timing, about postponement, about putting anything on hold.”

In response to another question if Russia would be adding “checks and balances” to its defence deals with India in the light of the controversies over the purchase of Rafale jets from France, Lavrov said he was not aware of the allegations of corruption and added, “We participated in the deal for the delivery of that (but) we did not get it.”

Six manufacturers, including Mikoyan MiG-35, competed for the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) tender. The MiG-35 was eliminated in an initial round and Dassault’s Rafale emerged the winner for the contract.

The Countering Americaa¿s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) passed last year by the US Congress imposes sanctions on some Russian companies as well as on their customers and this could impact India’s defence deals with Russia.

India will need exemptions from CAATSA to buy the S-400 Triumf missile defence system as well as frigates and helicopters.

While India raised the issue during the recent 2+2 Strategic Dialogue between the Defence and External Affairs Ministers of India and the US Secretaries of Defence and State in New Delhi, a categorical exemption is yet to be made.

When the Congress tried earlier this year to prevent President Donald Trump’s administration from granting exemptions, Defence Secretary James Mattis made an appeal citing India to allow the administration to exempt deals and finally prevailed.

So the Trump administration continues to have the power to exempt India.

(IANS)

The US Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-10 Friday to send the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the full Senate.

Prior to the party-line vote, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said that he reached an accord with the Democratic minority to call for the Senate to delay a final vote on Kavanaugh by one week to allow an FBI investigation of sexual abuse allegations against the nominee, Efe reported.

Friday’s session ended in confusion, as the committee chair, Republican Chuck Grassley, called an abrupt halt, citing the two-hour limit on hearings when the full Senate is in session.

Three women have accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting them several decades ago.

One of those women is Christine Blasey Ford, who attended a judiciary committee hearing on Thursday to testify that Kavanaugh attempted to rape her in 1982.

During Friday’s session, Democrats accused Republicans of ignoring the alleged victim, who had to testify in public before a committee made up of a large majority of men, while they insisted on the need for the FBI to carry out an investigation into the allegations.

The ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, also criticized Kavanaugh’s declarations on Thursday, when he appeared defiant and angry.

“This was not someone who reflected an impartial temperament or the fairness and even-handedness one would see in a judge, this was someone who was aggressive and belligerent,” she said.

“I have never seen someone who wants to be elevated to the highest court in our country behave in that manner,” Feinstein added.

Despite the meeting of minds between Flake and committee Democrats, the decision on whether to delay a vote rests with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

President Donald Trump said he was prepared to let the Senate leadership decide on the timing of vote.

“I’m going to rely on all of the people, including Sen. Grassley, who’s doing a very good job,” Trump said.

“That’ll be a decision that they’re going to make, and I suspect they’ll be making some decision soon, whether to take a vote or to do whatever else they want to do,” the president added.

“I will be totally reliant on what Sen. Grassley and the group decides to do,” Trump told reporters during a photo opportunity in the Oval Office with visiting Chilean President Sebastian Piñera.

(IANS)

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas spoke in harsh and unflinching terms about Israel and the US at the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, while Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the platform to once again brand the Iran nuclear deal a “lie”.

Abbas began his address by stating that “Jerusalem is not for sale”, drawing applause from the room. He then turned to denouncing in turn Israel’s “racist” nation-state law, the Trump administration’s uncritical support of Israel, and both states’ refusal to abide by international agreements and UN resolutions.
Abbas seeks alternative to US as peace mediator
“This law will inevitably lead to the creation of one racist state, an apartheid state, and thus nullifies the two-state solution,” he said.

In his first speech to the UN since the US moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Abbas said Palestinians now see the US “with new eyes” and no longer as a fair mediator in the peace process.

“This administration has reneged on all previous US commitments and undermined the two state solution,” he said.

The PLO leader called on more countries to recognise the state of Palestine and for the UN to enforce the resolutions it has passed on Israel.

“It is insufficient for the general assembly to pass a reinstitution without implementation,” he said, saying that Israel had not implemented even one of the over 700 resolution passed by the assembly since 1949.

Abbas raised the issue of UNRWA, which provides relief and humanitarian assistance to over five million Palestinians, and is battling for survival since the US pulled $300m in funding for the organisation.

He accused the US of attempting to “obliterate” UNRWA, and rubbished its estimate that there are only 40,000 Palestinian refugees.

He reiterated several times that the PLO is fully committed to peace and rejects all forms of violence outright, but stressed that cooperation was a two-way street and Palestine would not be bound by agreements that are reneged on by other countries.

Concluding, Abbas paid tribute to martyrs and prisoners and said to all Palestinians that “we are soon approaching our day of freedom and independence and that the darkness of occupation will soon vanish.”

Netanyahu targets Iran
Speaking shortly after, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his address to publicly identify what he claims is a secret, previously unknown nuclear facility in Tehran.

Holding up a printed satellite photo with geographic coordinates, he encouraged the public to use Google Maps to locate the site for themselves as proof that Iran has been dishonest about its nuclear ambitions.

He claimed that Israeli intelligence found Iranian authorities had disposed of 15kg of nuclear material across Tehran, exposing residents to dangerous radioactivity.

Calling on the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency by name, he asked Yukiya Amano to investigate the facility “right here, right now”.

“I will never let a regime that calls for our destruction to develop nuclear weapons. Not now, not in 10 years, not ever,” he said, calling on European leaders to join the US and other in abandoning the Iran deal.

He accused EU states of “appeasement” and “rolling out the red carpet” for Iranian president Hassan Rouhani as he expands his military influence in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere.

Netanyahu praised the thousands of Iranians who have take to the streets in recent months to protest the government and its response to an economic crisis resulting in dramatic rises in inflation and unemployment.

Withdrawal of funding for Palestinian refugees key in UN talks
“The people of Iran are bravely standing up to a regime that has oppressed them for four decades and squanders their money in bloody wards across the Middle East,” said the Israeli leader.

The only positive result of the Iran deal, he claimed, was bringing Israel and several Arab states “closer together than ever before in an intimacy and friendship that I’ve not seen in my lifetime and would have been unimaginable a few years ago”.

Netanyahu then called for a brief round of applause for US president Donald Trump and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley for their unwavering support of Israel before defending at length the nation state law from the accusations of Abbas, human rights organisations and the international community.

Claims that Israel is racist or an apartheid state are “shameful” and simply “antisemitism with a band new face,” he claimed, before branding his Palestinian counterpart a Holocaust denier.

Regardless of the new legislation, Jews and non-Jews enjoy equal individual rights in Israel, he said.”

‘Same sort of speeches’
“We have got the same sort of speeches now for quite a few years,” said Yossi Mekelberg, Professor of International Relations at Regent’s University London, referring to the speeches by the Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

“Netanyahu concentrates on Iran because that where he’s comfortable and confident about what he’s saying, and he’s comfortable with the support of the US in the region,” he told Al Jazeera.

“He tries to minimise talking about Palestinian issues because he know that he is in a very small minority in the UN.

“For Abbas, the cutting of the money to UNRWA, the moving of the American embassy to Jerusalem, it’s all going in one direction. The US can’t even be seen as an honest broker in peace negotiations… It’s obviously not something the PA can accept.”

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Research Fellow at the Forum for Regional Thinking, said Abbas’ wish for more international mediation would likely not be forthcoming.

“European and other nations that may play a constructive role in this context are focused on their own domestic concerns or more pressing international crises, relegating the Palestinian issue to the back-burner,” she said.

“This means a continuation of military rule over the Palestinian people and the daily humiliations and human rights abuses this rule entails.”

Aljazeera

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked for early repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

In her speech at the UN General Assembly General Debate here on Thursday, Hasina regretted the fact that repatriation had not started in a permanent and sustainable manner, reports Xinhua news agency.

“Myanmar is one of our neighbours. From the outset, we have been trying to find a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis through bilateral consultations,” she said.

“So far, three bilateral arrangements have been concluded between Bangladesh and Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation. Despite their verbal commitment to take back the Rohingya, in reality the Myanmar authorities are yet to accept them back.

“The Rohingya crisis has had its origin in Myanmar. As such, its solution has to be found in Myanmar… We want an early, peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis,” the Prime Minister added.

The Rohingya in Bangladesh are living in an uncertain situation, she said.

Bangladesh has made arrangements for their food, clothing, health care, child care and security to the best of its ability. Many countries and organisations, including the UN and the Commonwealth, have shown solidarity with the Rohingya and extended support and assistance for them.

Bangladesh has started working on a new housing facility for the refugees.

“So long the Rohingya are not able to return home, they should, as a temporary arrangement, be able to live in a good and healthy condition,” she said.

Hasina called upon international organisations to work with her country in the relocation of the Rohingya to the new facility.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), over 720,000 Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority living in mostly Myanmar’s Rakhine state, have fled to Bangladesh since violence broke out in August 2017.

They joined another 200,000 Rohingya who earlier fled into adjacent Bangladesh, said the UNHCR.

(IANS)

US President Donald Trump “looks forward” to visiting India but the timing will depend on his other commitments, according to a senior State Department official.

“I am certain that President Trump looks forward to being able to visit India at an appropriate time,” Alice Wells, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, told IANS in an interview.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Trump to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations next year.

Asked if Trump would come to the celebrations or would schedule his visit for another time, Wells said that the White House will decide taking into account “both the domestic commitments he has here in the US as well as overseas”.

Wells pointed to the steady stream of US officials who visit India as a symbol of the close ties between the two countries at the official level.

“As somebody who helps manage India relationship, it’s amazing the number of cabinet officials and high-level visitors that we have in India every month of the year,” she said.

“That too reflects the density of the ties between our countries that I think we have over 40 major dialogues that take place between our government agencies and departments.”

Modi first met Trump in Washington in 2017, and also at other multilateral meetings.

A military parade is the centre of the Republic Day celebrations and Trump has been a fan of such parades and wants the US to have one, too.

While these parades are held annually across the globe world as part of patriotic celebrations, the US does not have one.

At Trump’s suggestion a parade was scheduled for November on Veterans Day, which honours former servicemen, and this year it would coincide with the centenary of the conclusion of the First World War.

However, having never having held such a parade, the Defence Department postponed it to possibly next year.

(IANS)