Uncategorized – Page 79

Iran, U.S. hold nuclear talks in Munich

February 7, 2015 by Nasheman

by Press TV

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry have held fresh talks in the German city of Munich as a March deadline for a nuclear deal between Tehran and the P5+1 group approaches.

The two foreign ministers started their talks on Friday on the sidelines of Munich Security Conference.

Back in January, Zarif and Kerry held intense negotiations in the Swiss city of Geneva to help speed up the ongoing negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group – the US, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany – over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear work.

The Iranian minister is scheduled to attend a meeting attended by Kerry as well as his French and German counterparts, Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on Sunday to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, is likely to participate in the meeting.

The Iranian minister is also to hold a one-on-one meeting with his German counterpart.

Since an interim deal was agreed in Geneva in November 2013, the negotiating sides have missed two self-imposed deadlines to ink a final agreement.

Iran and the P5+1 countries now seek to reach a high-level political agreement by March 1 and to confirm the full technical details of the accord by July 1.

The scale of Iran’s uranium enrichment and the timetable for the lifting of anti-Iran sanctions are seen as major sticking points in the talks.

Palestinians to become ICC member from April 1, UN confirms

February 6, 2015 by Nasheman

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Reuters / Enrique Castro-Mendivil)

by RT

Palestine will join the International Criminal Court on April 1, announced UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday. The Palestinians will be able to sue Israel for war crimes, a move the Israeli administration has consistently opposed for decades.

The UN treaty website says that due to the court’s procedures “the statute will enter into force for the State of Palestine on April 1, 2015.”

Along with the ICC application, the UN chief approved other sets of documents, enabling Palestine to join 16 international agreements, conventions and treaties.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed the ICC application documents on the last day of 2014, following the UN Security Council’s resolution on December 30, which rejected Palestine’s official bid for statehood, a document vetoed by the US in support of Israel.

The Palestinian delegation submitted its ICC application on January 2.

Israel’s immediate reaction was negative.

“We will not let Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers and officers be dragged to the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, AFP reported.

Israeli Prime Minister and leader of the ruling rightwing Likud party, Benjamin Netanyahu (AFP Photo / Jack Guez)

The Israeli administration immediately applied financial pressure on the Palestinian Authority, freezing the transfer of half a billion shekels (over $127 million) in monthly tax revenues it collected on behalf of the Palestinians.

The US joined the financial pressure on the Palestinian Authority on Monday, when the Obama administration announced a review of America’s annual $440 million aid package to the Palestinians. As AP pointed out, once the Palestinian Authority apply any case against Israel to the International Criminal Court, US financial help to Palestine will cease immediately under American law.

Joining the ICC will give the Palestinian Authority new and powerful leverage to make Israel more compliant regarding withdrawal from the occupied territories.

International Criminal Court’s building (ICC) in The Hague (AFP Photo / Vincent Jannink)

In anticipation of the ICC bid last week, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour announced the Palestinians will prosecute Israel for crimes committed during the war in Gaza last summer. According to Mansour, Palestinians will also sue Israel for constructing settlements on the occupied Palestinian territory.

In late 2014, the Palestine stepped up its efforts to gain international recognition as a sovereign state. It came following the failure of the latest round of US-brokered peace talks with Israel, which was initiated after the bloody 50-day armed conflict in Gaza that left some 2,120 Palestinians and 68 Israelis dead.

Unlike before, this time around the aspirations of the Palestinians have found much wider international support, as many countries have openly spoken in favor of creating a sovereign Palestinian state.

One Al Jazeera journalist freed while two remain prisoners of Egyptian crackdown

February 3, 2015 by Nasheman

Supporters welcomed news of Peter Greste’s deportation but warned they ‘will not rest’ until colleagues Fahmy and Mohamed are also freed

After being jailed for 400 days by Egyptian authorities, journalist Peter Greste was deported to Australia on Sunday, February 1. (Photo via freepetergreste.org)

by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

One of the three Al Jazeera journalists who had been held in Egypt for 400 days has been freed, sources reported Sunday.

Peter Greste, an Australian national, has reportedly boarded an Egypt Air flight and is being accompanied by his brother. However, Greste’s colleagues, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, remain imprisoned for allegedly colluding with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in a case that has sparked international condemnation.

A recent presidential decree in Egypt stated that imprisoned foreign nationals may be deported to complete their sentence in their home country, which observers note is likely the reason behind Greste’s release.

Though the news of Greste’s deportation was widely celebrated, many connected to the case demanded the release of Fahmy and Mohamed, in addition to the numerous other wrongly convicted journalists currently detained as part of a sweeping crackdown against dissent in Egypt.

Al Jazeera Media Network released a statement saying that its campaign to free the journalists in Egypt will not end till all three have been released.

“We’re pleased for Peter and his family that they are to be reunited. It has been an incredible and unjustifiable ordeal for them, and they have coped with incredible dignity,” said Mostefa Souag, acting Director General of Al Jazeera Media Network. However, Souag added: “We will not rest until Baher and Mohamed also regain their freedom. The Egyptian authorities have it in their power to finish this properly today, and that is exactly what they must do.”

Al Anstey, managing director of Al Jazeera English, said he was relieved Greste was freed and on his way home to be reunited with his family, but also spoke of the need to free Baher and Mohamed.

“We’ve got to focus that Baher and Mohamed are still behind bars, and seven of their colleagues that were sentenced to ten years in absentia are still sentenced today,” Anstey said.

Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, also welcomed the news of Greste’s release but added, “It is vital that in the celebratory fanfare surrounding his deportation the world does not forget the continuing ordeal of Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy who remain behind bars at Tora prison in Cairo.”

All three men, Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said, “are facing trumped up charges and were forced to endure a farcical trial marred by irregularities. Continuing to detain Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy is completely unjust and unwarranted.”

Fahmy has also reportedly applied for deportation to Canada and his fiancée Marwa Omara told reporters she was “optimistic” about his chances. The case of Mohamed, however, is more complicated because he is an Egyptian national and therefore does not have the same options for release.

Mohamed’s brother Assem told the Guardian: “Baher will not be released. Until now only Peter … but as always what happens in Egypt it’s the Egyptians who pay.”

At least 12 journalists had been jailed in Egypt in 2014—double the number imprisoned the previous year—according to a December report by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

More than 16,000 people have been detained as part of a sweeping crackdown on dissent in Egypt, which has particularly targeted government opponents and critics, as well as media workers and human rights activists.

Japanese journalist Kenji Goto's wife devastated after apparent ISIS beheading

February 2, 2015 by Nasheman

Goto left for Syria in late October just a weeks after birth of his youngest daughter

ISIS militants said they had beheaded a second Japanese hostage, journalist Kenji Goto, prompting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to vow to step up humanitarian aid to the group’s opponents in the Middle East and help bring his killers to justice. The words on the screen (top left) read, “Goto was murdered” (Yuya Shino/Reuters)

by Associated Press

The wife of slain Japanese hostage Kenji Goto said Monday she was devastated but proud of her husband, who was beheaded by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) extremists.

In a statement issued through the British-based journalist group Rory Peck Trust, Rinko Jogo requested privacy for her family as they deal with their loss, and thanked those who had supported them.

“I remain extremely proud of my husband, who reported the plight of people in conflict areas like Iraq, Somalia and Syria,” she said.

“It was his passion to highlight the effects on ordinary people, especially through the eyes of children, and to inform the rest of us of the tragedies of war,” she said.

Goto left for Syria in late October just a few weeks after the birth of the couple’s youngest daughter. Soon after, he was captured by the militants.

Appalled and saddened by news of Goto’s following the release of a video showing his killing, purportedly by ISIS, Japan has ordered heightened security precautions at airports and at Japanese facilities overseas, such as embassies and schools, government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said.

Until now, Japan had not become directly embroiled in the fight against the militants.

No increased terrorist risk: Abe

In parliamentary debate Monday, opposition lawmakers challenged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s effort to raise Japan’s diplomatic profile through non-military support for countries fighting ISIS, which control about a third of both Syria and Iraq.

Citing previous cases, including a 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo’s subways, Abe said he did not see an increased terrorist risk following savage threats in the purported ISIS video, which vowed to target Japanese and make the knife Goto’s killer was wielding Japan’s “nightmare.”

Japan will persevere in providing humanitarian aid to countries fighting the Islamic State extremists, said Abe, who explained that bowing to terrorist intimidation would prevent Japan from providing medical assistance and other aid it views as necessary for helping to restore stability in the region.

The failure to save Goto raised fears for the life of a Jordanian fighter pilot also held by the Islamic State militants.

Jordan renewed an offer Sunday to swap an al-Qaeda prisoner for the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was seized after his F-16 crashed near ISIS’s de facto capital, Raqqa, Syria, in December.

Jordan, Japan, reportedly negotiated with militants

Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani told The Associated Press that “we are still ready to hand over” prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi, who faces death by hanging for her role in triple hotel bombings in Jordan in 2005. Al-Rishawi has close family ties to the Iraq branch of al-Qaeda, a precursor of ISIS.

With no updates for days, al-Kaseasbeh’s family appealed to the government for information on his situation. But for Goto’s family and friends, the beheading shattered any hopes for his rescue.

Jogo, Goto’s wife, said she had received several emails from unknown people claiming to be her husband’s captors. But the hostage crisis became a national issue after the militants issued a demand for $200 million in ransom, to be paid within 72 hours, on Jan. 20.

Later, the militants’ demand shifted to seeking the release of al-Rishawi, who survived the 2005 attack that killed 60 people when her explosive belt failed to detonate in the worst terror attack in Jordan’s history.

Jordan and Japan reportedly conducted indirect negotiations with the militants through Iraqi tribal leaders, but late on Friday the Japanese envoy sent to Amman to work on the hostage crisis reported a deadlock in those efforts.

The UN Security Council issued a statement Sunday demanding “the immediate, safe and unconditional release of all those who are kept hostage” by the Islamic State group. Council members underlined the need to bring those responsible for Goto’s “heinous and cowardly murder” to justice and stressed that the Islamic State group “must be defeated and that the intolerance, violence and hatred it espouses must be stamped out.”

Spain Blames Israel for UN Peacekeeper’s Killing in South Lebanon Clashes

January 30, 2015 by Nasheman

Israeli military vehicles are seen burning in the Shebaa Farms, an Israeli-occupied Lebanese territory near the village of Ghajar, on January 28, 2015, following a Hezbollah missile attack. AFP/Marouf Khatib

Spain on Wednesday said Israeli fire had killed a Spanish UN peacekeeper serving in South Lebanon and called on the United Nations to fully investigate the violence, a day after Israeli prime minister vowed that Hezbollah would “pay the price” an attack in the Israeli-occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms that left at least two Israeli soldiers dead.

The UN Security Council condemned the death of the 36-year-old Spanish corporal who died when Israel shelled Lebanon with a combined aerial and ground strikes after an anti-tank missile was fired at an Israel Occupation Forces (IOF) convoy in the Shebaa Farms, a mountainous, narrow sliver of land illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.

“It is clear that this was because of the escalation of the violence and it came from the Israeli side,” Spanish Ambassador to the UN Roman Oyarzun told reporters.

The Spanish envoy said he had asked for a full investigation of the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeper’s death during an emergency meeting of the council called by France to discuss ways to defuse tensions between Israel and Lebanon.

The violence raised fears of another all-out conflict between Lebanon and Israel in a region already wracked by fighting in Syria and Iraq.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for “maximum calm and restraint,” urging all sides to “act responsibly to prevent any escalation in an already tense regional environment,” a UN statement said.

“Our objective is to engage toward de-escalation and to prevent further escalation of the situation,” French Ambassador to the UN Francois Delattre told reporters.

France presented a draft statement to council members, but after meeting for over an hour the council issued a terse condemnation of the peacekeeper’s death and made no mention of de-escalation efforts.

Discussions regarding another council statement on the situation were ongoing.

The 10,000-strong UNIFIL mission, which monitors the border between Lebanon and Occupied Palestine, said it had observed six rockets fired towards Occupied Palestine from southern Lebanon and that Israeli forces “returned artillery fire in the same general area.”

Hezbollah said it had targeted an Israeli military convoy “transporting several Zionist soldiers and officers.”

“There were several casualties in the enemy’s ranks,” Hezbollah said.

According to Israeli figures, two soldiers were killed and seven others were wounded.

The Hezbollah brigade which carried out the attack, the Quneitra martyrs of the Islamic Resistance, was named in reference to an illegal Israeli airstrike on the Syrian city of Quneitra on January 18 that killed six fighters of Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah, as well as an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general, indicating that Wednesday’s attack was in retaliation for the killing of its members.

Meanwhile, Lebanese security sources told AFP that Israeli forces then hit several Lebanese villages along the border.

Clouds of smoke could be seen rising from al-Majidiyeh village, one of the hardest hit. There were no casualties.

Senior peacekeeping official Edmond Mulet told council members that the attacks were a “serious violation” of ceasefire agreements, which Israel violates on a daily basis.

Israeli warplanes routinely violate Lebanon’s airspace and have launched several attacks against Syrian targets in recent months, some reportedly carried out from over Lebanon. An infographic of the number of Israeli overflights in Lebanon in 2011 showed that Israeli planes breached Lebanese sovereignty roughly five to 10 times a week on average that year.

On Thursday, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), said Israeli fighter jets penetrated deep into Lebanese airspace, startling residents as the jets flew over the capital Beirut.

Israeli jets were also seen flying over southern Lebanese towns.

In 2013, Lebanon filed an official complaint to the United Nations over the regular Israeli violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

Netanyahu: Hezbollah will “pay the price”

Israel claimed on Thursday it had allegedly received a message from Hezbollah that it was backing away from further violence.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon claimed Israel had received a message from a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon stating that Hezbollah was not interested in further escalation.

“Indeed, a message was received,” he said. “There are lines of coordination between us and Lebanon via UNIFIL and such a message was indeed received from Lebanon.”

In Beirut, Hezbollah officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

“I can’t say whether the events are behind us,” Yaalon added in a separate radio interview. “Until the area completely calms down, the Israel Defense Forces (sic) will remain prepared and ready.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah it will pay the “full price.”

“Those behind today’s attack will pay the full price,” Netanyahu’s office quoted him as saying at a meeting with Israel’s top security brass Wednesday evening.

Netanyahu also threatened the government of Lebanon and to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“The government of Lebanon and the Assad regime share responsibility for the consequences of attacks originating in their territory against the state of Israel,” he said.

The United States stood by Israel after the exchange of fire and condemned Hezbollah’s shelling of the Israeli military convoy.

“We support Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense and continue to urge all parties to respect the blue line between Israel and Lebanon,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, however, appealed for an “immediate cessation of hostilities.”

Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam condemned the Israeli military escalation in south Lebanon and expressed concern regarding the “aggressive intentions expressed by the Israeli officials and the deterioration of the situation it could lead to in Lebanon,” the NNA reported.

“Lebanon deems the international family responsible for repressing any Israeli tendency to gamble with the security and stability in the area.”
Moreover, Hezbollah’s attack was hailed by the Palestinian resistance groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“We affirm Hezbollah’s right to respond to the Israeli occupation,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, while Jihad’s Quds Brigade praised the attack as “heroic.”

On Wednesday, Israeli security sources said at least one house had been hit in the divided village of Ghajar, which straddles the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Lebanon.

“Three houses were hit by rockets,” Hussein, 31, said, relaying what he had heard by telephone from relatives in the village of 2,000 inhabitants.

He said a number of villagers had been wounded but that he did not know how badly.

Other frantic family members argued with police to be allowed in to collect their children, who had been locked inside the village school for their own safety.

Building tensions

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah had previously warned Israel against any “stupid” moves in Lebanon and Syria, vowing to retaliate and make sure Israel paid the price for any aggression against the neighboring countries.

Israeli airstrikes on Syria “target the whole of the resistance axis,” Nasrallah said in reference to Syria, Iran and his government, who are sworn enemies of Israel.

“The repeated bombings that struck several targets in Syria are a major violation, and we consider that any strike against Syria is a strike against the whole of the resistance axis, not just against Syria,” he said, adding the “axis is capable of responding” anytime.

Since the January 18 airstrike, troops and civilians in northern Israeli-occupied territories of Palestine and the occupied Golan Heights have been on heightened alert and Israel has deployed an Iron Dome rocket interceptor unit near the Syrian border.

Israel occupied most of southern Lebanon for 22 years until 2000 and the two countries are still technically at war.

Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said Wednesday’s attack was the “most severe” Israel had faced since 2006, when its war with Hezbollah killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Nasrallah is expected to deliver a speech on January 30 regarding the Israeli strikes.

(AFP, Reuters, Al-Akhbar)

French police question 8-year-old on suspicion of “defending terrorism”

January 29, 2015 by Nasheman

France is in a state of “collective hysteria,” says Sefen Guez Guez, the lawyer for a second grader questioned by police in France.

by Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada

Just when it seemed that the crackdown on free speech in France could not get worse, French police today questioned a second grader on suspicion of “defending terrorism.”

BFMTV says that administrators at a primary school in Nice reported the child to police on 21 January after the boy allegedly said that he “felt he was on the side of the terrorists.”

“A police station is absolutely no place for an eight-year-old child,” the boy’s lawyer Sefen Guez Guez told BFMTV. He said that the incident showed that France was going through a state of “collective hysteria.”

Guez Guez said that on 8 January, the day after two French gunmen attacked the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo, the boy, whose name has been reported as Ahmed, was in class when he was asked if he was “Charlie.”

“He answered, ‘I am on the side of the terrorists, because I am against the caricatures of the prophet,’” the lawyer said.

Since the murders of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and the lethal attack by a third French gunman on a Jewish supermarket, French government officials and media have adopted the slogan “Je Suis Charlie” – I am Charlie – to indicate social conformity and support for official policies, all under the guise of supporting free speech.

The Collective Against Islamophobia in France, which has taken up Ahmed’s case, provided these additional details: “On 8 January, Ahmed, a second grader, was called on by his teacher who asked him if he was Charlie. Being of Muslim religion and aged only eight, he opposed Charlie Hebdo because of the caricatures of the prophet, and responded naively that he was on the side of the terrorists. Angered, the teacher sent him to the principal, who was in the class next door, and who asked him three times in front of the whole class, ‘Are you Charlie?’”

The child’s parents were called in and “played an educational role, explaining to him what terrorism really was and why one should be on the side of the Charlie Hebdo victims,” Guez Guez said.

Principal calls police

Instead of leaving the matter there, on 21 January, the school principal lodged two complaints with police, one against the child for “defending terrorism,” and another against the child’s father for trespassing.

According to the lawyer, the child had been deeply upset and isolated after what happened, so his father accompanied him to the school playground on three occasions after 8 January, before being told he was not allowed to do so.

Fabienne Lewandowski, a spokesperson for the Alpes-Maritimes regional police, confirmed to BFMTV that they received the complaints. Lewandowski revealed that the school principal claimed that the child had said “French people should be killed,” “I am on the side of the terrorists” and “the journalists deserved to die.” The child then allegedly refused to take part in a government-decreed minute of silence.

“During our interview, the child indicated that he had said some of these words, but did not really understand what they meant,” the police spokesperson said. “The purpose of this interview was to understand exactly what had happened, and what could have led him to say this.”

“We can regret that this took the form of an official police interview,” Lewandowski said, “but under the circumstances, we could have gone even further.”

According to the police spokesperson, the father “showed regret for his son’s words.”

The Collective Against Islamophobia in France said that his interview by police “was an additional trauma that illustrates the collective hysteria that has ensued since the beginning of January.”

Prosecutors in Nice have yet to decide how to proceed in the case.

Victim of bullying?

Ahmed has said that he was a victim of bullying by the school principal, according to his lawyer, BFMTV reported. On one occasion, the child was playing in a sandbox. According to the child’s account relayed by the lawyer, the principal told the boy, “stop digging in the sand, you won’t find a machine-gun in there.”

On another occasion, Ahmed, who is diabetic, alleges the principal deprived him of his insulin, saying, “Since you want us all to die, you will taste death.” The principal has denied the accusation.

Guez Guez said that Ahmed’s parents planned to lodge a complaint about the school’s behavior.

According to Le Figaro, the French education ministry confirmed that the school principal had also made a report about Ahmed to child protective services.

Government crackdown

While Ahmed’s case may seem extreme, the complaint against him is enabled by an atmosphere of intolerance and authoritarianism fostered by the French government.

Since the attacks in Paris, the government has launched an unprecedented crackdown, condemned by Amnesty International as well as French civil rights groups, in which it has jailed dozens of people for things they have said, under the vague charge of “defending terrorism.”

Previously, as The Electronic Intifada reported, one of those arrested was a sixteen-year-old high schooler, for allegedly posting a caricature mocking Charlie Hebdo.

Yesterday, French President François Hollande used an International Holocaust Memorial Day speech to confirm that his government plans to tighten its control over what people are allowed to say online and stiffen penalties for illegal speech.

Cuba demands Guantanamo Bay in return for US ties

January 29, 2015 by Nasheman

Cuban President Raul Castro issues broad list of demands, saying that without them normal relations are unreachable.

Castro’s call for an end to the US embargo drew support at the summit from several Latin American presidents [Reuters]

by Associated Press

Cuban President Raul Castro demanded that the United States return the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay before the two nations re-establish normal relations.

Castro also said the US should lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages in exchange for reconcilliation.

Castro told a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States on Wednesday that Cuba and the US are working toward full diplomatic relations but “if these problems aren’t resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement wouldn’t make any sense”.

Castro and US President Barack Obama announced on December 17 that they would move toward renewing full diplomatic relations by reopening embassies in each other’s countries.

The two governments held negotiations in Havana last week to discuss both the reopening of embassies and the broader agenda of re-establishing normal relations.

Obama has loosened the trade embargo with a range of measures designed to increase economic ties with Cuba and increase the number of Cubans who don’t depend on the communist state for their livelihoods.

The Obama administration says removing barriers to US travel, remittances and exports to Cuba is a tactical change that supports the United States’ unaltered goal of reforming Cuba’s single-party political system and centrally planned economy.

Cuba has said it welcomes the measures but has no intention of changing its system.

List of Cuban demands

Castro emphasised an even broader list of Cuban demands, saying that while diplomatic ties may be re-established, normal relations with the US depend on a series of concessions that appear highly unlikely in the near future.

He demanded that the US end the transmission of anti-Castro radio and television broadcasts and deliver “just compensation to our people for the human and economic damage that they’re suffered.”

Demands also include an end to US support for Cuban dissidents and Cuba’s removal from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Castro also wants the US to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for losses caused by the embargo.

“The re-establishment of diplomatic relations is the start of a process of normalizing bilateral relations, but this will not be possible while the blockade still exists, while they don’t give back the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo naval base,” Castro said.

Castro’s call for an end to the US embargo drew support at the summit from the presidents of Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff also praised the effort by the leaders of Cuba and the US to improve relations.

“The two heads of state deserve our recognition for the decision they made – beneficial for Cubans and Americans, but, most of all, for the entire continent,” she said.

Fidel Castro expresses cautious support of Cuba-U.S talks

January 28, 2015 by Nasheman

Fidel Castro has welcomed talks with Washington, but warned, “I don’t trust the policy of the United States.”

by teleSUR

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro publicly gave his blessing to the historic negotiations between Cuba and the United States Monday, but warned Washington isn’t to be trusted.

“We will always defend cooperation and friendship with all the peoples of the world, among them our political adversaries,” said Fidel Castro in a statement published by Cuban newspaper Granma. “Any peaceful or negotiated solution to the problems between the United States and the peoples or any people of Latin America that doesn’t imply force or the use of force should be treated in accordance with international norms and principles.”

However, Fidel Castro conceded, “I don’t trust the policy of the United States nor have I had an exchange with them.”

“But, this does not mean … a rejection of a peaceful solution to conflicts or the dangers of war,” he explained.

The first round of negotiations between Havana and Washington wrapped up last week. The talks are aimed at reviving bilateral ties after decades of U.S. attempts to overthrow the government in Havana.

Along with the U.S. blockade and the controversial listing of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, other issues discussed in the meeting included immigration reform and plans to open embassies.

U.S. President Barack Obama has already announced plans to loosen trade and investment restrictions, along with easing a long-standing travel ban.

Both sides reported some progress in last week’s talks, but said there is still more work to be done.

A Cuban official that spoke ahead of the negotiations explained the first round of talks wouldn’t “normalize” bilateral relations.

“Cuba is re-establishing diplomatic relations with the U.S. The process of normalization is much longer and deeper,” the official stated.

The U.S. blockade of Cuba must be totally dismantled before relations can be completely normalized, the official said.

Leftist Tsipras sworn in as new Greek prime minister

January 27, 2015 by Nasheman

Syriza party to form coalition with small right-wing party and renegotiate massive bailout agreements.

by Al Jazeera

Greece’s new prime minister has been sworn in after forming a surprise anti-bailout alliance with a small right-wing nationalist party.

Alexis Tsipras broke with tradition and took a secular oath rather than the Greek Orthodox religious ceremony with which prime ministers are usually sworn in.

The 40-year-old, who drew remarks from some observers for not wearing a tie to the ceremony, becomes the youngest man to hold the post in150 years.

His Syriza party gained the key backing of Independent Greeks after Sunday’s elections, paving the way for a coalition government.

Tsipras won the vote but fell short of the majority needed to govern alone.

“From this moment, the country has a government. Independent Greeks give a vote of confidence to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras,” Panos Kammenos, leader of the Independent Greeks, said.

Kemmenos did not clarify whether he would join a coalition with Tsipras or give support to a minority government.

The two parties have different ideologies and their coalition comes a surprise, which nonetheless boosted stock markets across Europe that had fallen on news of the uncertain election results. Stocks had fallen as much as 4 percent in Athens on Monday morning.

Tsipras has promised to renegotiate Greece’s massive bailout agreements, but has vowed not to take any unilateral action against lenders from other eurozone countries.

Concerns

With 99.8 percent of the vote counted, Syriza had 149 seats in the 300-member parliament with 36.3 percent of the vote. The ruling conservative coalition was on 27.8 percent, and the extreme right Golden Dawn party in third place with 6.28 percent.

Tsipras’ choice to negotiate with the Independent Greeks – a party aligned in Europe with the UK Independence Party – rather than the centrist Potami caused concern that he could take a tough line in negotiations with rescue lenders, reported the Associated Press news agency.

Syriza’s financial planning official, Giorgos Stathakis, confirmed on Monday that the new government had no plans to meet with negotiators from the “troika”, a reference to the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund.

The government would instead seek talks directly with governments, Stathakis said.

Greek voters swung to the once-marginal left-wing party after five years of punishing austerity measures demanded under $268bn bailout deals drove hundreds of thousands of people out of work and left nearly a third of the country without state health insurance.

U.S a dangerous ally: former Australia PM

January 27, 2015 by Nasheman

Malcolm Fraser, former primer minister of Australia.

by China Times

In his new book titled “Dangerous Allies,” Malcolm Fraser, the former prime minister of Australia worries that the Canberra’s dependence on the United States will eventually bring the nation into a direct conflict with China. His words echo those of Georgetown University professor Amitai Etzioni in and article he wrote for the Diplomat on Jan. 20.

Australia has always been strategically dependent on other great powers since gaining independence in 1901. It relied on the United Kingdom until World War II and then transfered that dependence to the United States afterwards. The relationship grew stronger with the signing of the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty in 1951. Fraser said that the treaty does not require the US to defend Australia, only nneding to “consult” it in case of an attack.

In Fraser’s book, he describes how Australia’s blind faith in the UK before World War II left the country unprepared for war. He then goes on to say that currently many feel more vulnerable because of the country’s dependence on the United States. What Fraser and many Australian leaders fears most is that the United States will get Australia involved in a coflict not of its own making. “Australia effectively ceded to America the ability to decide when Australia goes to war,” said Fraser.

Fraser labelled the United States a “dangerous ally” as Australia has become progressively more enmeshed in American strategic and military affairs since the end of Cold War.

Just as with the armed conflicts in the Middle East, Fraser said that the conflict in Ukraine took place partially due to Washington’s attempt to include Ukraine in NATO. He went on to blame the United States lack of historical understanding towards Russia on the matter.

Washington’s policy to “contain” China can eventually lead to trouble for Australia. Believing that the United States will eventually use Australia as a base to attack China, Fraser suggested the removal of all American military facilities from Darwin in the north and Pine Gap in the center of the country as soon as possible. The former Australian leader added that the country should be more independent of the United States in both defense and foreign affairs. While recommending that Australia shore up its diplomatic activities throughout Asia and at the UN, he also suggested an increase in defense spending to 3% of the country’s GDP.

Jared McKinney, an American defense expert said that Fraser’s book is often redundant and sometimes appears simplistic and one-sided in its historical interpretations. Still, he praised Fraser’s great service to Australia and it said would be a shame if his arguments were unable to incite the sort of grand strategy debate.