US open to Afghan peace deal including Haqqani: Clinton

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday signalled that the United States remains open to exploring a peace deal including the Haqqani network, the militant group that US officials blame for a campaign of high-profile violence that could jeopardise Washington’s plans for withdrawing smoothly from Afghanistan.

“Where we are right now is that we view the Haqqanis and other of their ilk as, you know, being adversaries and being very dangerous to Americans, Afghans and coalition members inside Afghanistan, but we are not shutting the door on trying to determine whether there is some path forward,” Clinton said when asked whether she believed members of the Haqqani network might reconcile with the Afghan government.

“It’s too soon to tell whether any of these groups or any individuals within them are serious,” she said in an interview with Reuters.

Inclusion of the Haqqani network in a hoped-for peace deal — now a chief objective in the Obama administration’s Afghanistan policy after a decade of war — is a controversial idea in Washington.

Officials blame the group for last month’s attack on the US embassy in Kabul and a truck bombing that injured scores of American soldiers.

The State Department is facing heat from Capitol Hill for refraining, at least so far, from officially designating the Haqqani group, which US officials say is based in western Pakistan, as a terrorist organisation.

The White House has backed away from assertions from Admiral Mike Mullen, who was the top US military officer until he retired last month, that Pakistani intelligence supported the Haqqani network in the September 13 embassy attack.

But President Barack Obama and others have put their sometimes-ally Pakistan on notice that it must crack down on militants or risk severing a key relationship.

According to media reports, US officials have held meetings with Haqqani network representatives as part of their efforts — which have not yet yielded any visible results — to strike a peace deal, but the State Department declines to discuss details of the reconciliation process.

In recent months reconciliation has become a more prominent feature of Obama’s Afghan strategy even as US and Nato soldiers continued to battle the Taliban and Haqqani militants in Afghanistan’s volatile south and east.

Earlier this year, Clinton advanced a peace deal as a key plank of regional policy for the first time, saying Washington would support a settlement between the Afghan government and those militant groups that meet certain requirements, including renouncing violence and supporting the Afghan constitution.

Fighting, talking

Despite the conciliatory signals, Clinton said the United States would stick to its military campaign that the White House hopes will make militants more likely to enter serious negotiations.

“Now, it is also true that we are still trying to kill and capture or neutralise them (the Haqqani network),” Clinton said. “And they are still trying to, you know, kill as many Americans, Afghans and coalition members as they can.”

“In many instances where there is an ongoing conflict, you are fighting and looking to talk,” Clinton said. “And then eventually maybe you are fighting and talking. And then maybe you’ve got a cease-fire. And then maybe you are just talking.”

It is unclear how quickly a peace deal could be had, as it remains unclear how military commanders can achieve and defend security improvements as the foreign force in Afghanistan gradually grows smaller.

While parts of the Taliban’s southern heartland are safer than they were, Obama will be withdrawing the extra troops he sent to Afghanistan in 2010 just as commanders’ focus turns to the rugged eastern regions where the Haqqani group are believed to operate.

Clinton did not directly address the question of designating the Haqqani network as a ‘foreign terrorist organisation,’ but suggested the United States would want to keep its options open as it seeks peace in a region known for historic merry-go-round of political and military alliances.

“It’s always difficult in this stage of a conflict, as you think through what is the resolution you are seeking and how do you best obtain it, to really know where you’ll be in two months, four months, six months,” Clinton said.

“We are going to support the Afghans and they want to continue to see whether there is any way forward or whether you can see some of the groups or their leaders willing to break with others.”

http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/12/us-open-to-afghan-peace-deal-clinton.html

Guardian UK: Pakistan's madrasa reform 'stalls'

A majority of Pakistanis are in favour of English language teaching being introduced into the country's madrasa schools, according to a recent survey carried out by Gallup Pakistan. The nationwide poll indicates that 59% of Pakistanis want the language to be taught as part of the schools' traditional Islamic curriculum, with 31% of respondents against.

But a government campaign to combat Islamic extremism that is seeking to bring madrasas under closer state control and to broaden the range of subjects they teach is unlikely to deliver effective change, critics say.

While madrasas came to be characterised in the west as a breeding ground for Islamic terrorism post 9/11, a decade on the US and other major aid donors say that reversing poor standards of education acrossPakistan's school system, and not just in madrasas, will have the most direct impact on inequality and social conditions that give rise to extremism.

However, attempts to improve the quality of teaching in madrasas appear to have stalled. The religious affairs ministry claims there are over 18,000 registered madrasas in Pakistan. But observers estimate that the actual number of schools could be as a high as 30,000.

According to the International Centre for Religion and Diplomacy, the US-based conflict-resolution charity, only 10% of madrasas complied with the government's voluntary registration programme launched in 2002.

Sardar Asif Ahmed Ali, a former education minister, said: "We were trying to introduce the madrasa reforms. Five madrasa federations had agreed to the establishment of a madrasa board under the ministry of education. They also agreed to introduce the general system of education, in vogue in Pakistan."

Ahmed Ali said that a madrasa reform bill was to be presented to parliament earlier this year but it had to be abandoned because of the devolution of authority to the provinces.

Some madrasas are modernising their syllabuses and have already introduced general subjects such as English, maths and computer studies. According to Tahir Ashrafi, chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council, a moderate umbrella group for madrasas, 20% of schools are teaching other subjects in addition to Islamic education.

But a focus on including English language teaching in madrasa classrooms is being questioned by some observers, who say the language could be used as a double edged weapon – to help deradicalise on one hand, and to enhance the effectiveness of terrorists on the other.

Ejaz Haider, a journalist and security analyst, says that during the Pakistan military's offensive against the Taliban in the Afghan border region of Bajur in September 2008, he saw captured material and manuals used for bomb making, mine laying, booby traps and explosives.

"These manuals were in English, Pashto, Dari, Arabic, Urdu. In fact, far from running away from English or militating against it, radical groups have been embracing it. Take for example al-Qaida's online English language magazine Inspire," Haider said.

"Because of the assortment of foreigners of various nationalities, there is an increasing practical need that Islamist cadres learn English. They understand the power of the narrative."

At present the national de-radicalisation programme has been taken over by the ministry of interior and a period of consultation with the provinces has begun. But there is no visible effect or improvement, says Ashrafi.

"I was an adviser myself during President Musharraf's time and the truth is they don't take this issue seriously – nor then, nor now. It is all just to show the outside world. They may be getting funds from the west but nothing new is happening; attitudes have not changed."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/oct/11/pakistan-stalls-madrassa-reforms-english

� p � ht ss=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:6.0pt;line-height:normal;mso-mirror-indents: yes'>Syria hailed last week's vetoes by China and Russia of a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at the Bashar al-Assad regime. But even though they opposed the U.N. initiative, both countries have called for changes in Syria.

On Tuesday, China exhorted the government to react properly to calls for change.

"We believe the Syrian government should respond to people's reasonable expectations and appeals, and resolve the issues through dialogue and consultations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.

Last week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said his country wants an end to the bloodshed and is calling for the regime to implement changes, state-run RIA Novosti reported Friday.

"If the Syrian leadership is unable to complete such reforms, it will have to go, but this decision should be made not by NATO and certain European countries, it should be made by the people of Syria and the government of Syria," Medvedev told the Russian Security Council.

Many world powers have been outraged over the government's crackdown. The European Union and United States have already imposed sanctions against the regime.

The EU Monday demanded that al-Assad step aside, saying his government's crackdown on opposition demonstrations could amount to crimes against humanity.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, Jennifer Deaton and Amir Ahmed contributed to this story.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/11/world/meast/syria-unrest/index.html?hpt=wo_c1

US making strategic bet on India

WASHINGTON, Oct 11: The future of world politics will be decided in the Asia-Pacific region, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the centre of the action, says US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an article she has written for the November issue of the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine.

In the 5,500-word article, Secretary Clinton reviews the challenges that the United States is likely to face in the near future and concludes that real changes are taking place in the Asia-Pacific region, not in the Pak-Afghan region.

She also places India in the Asia-Pacific region, pointing out that the US “is making a strategic bet on India`s future”.

“As the war in Iraq winds down and America begins to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, the United States stands at a pivot point,” she writes.

“Over the last 10 years, we have allocated immense resources to those two theatres. In the next 10 years, we need to be smart and systematic about where we invest time and energy.”

One of the most important tasks of American statecraft over the next decade, she argues, will be to “lock in a substantially increased investment — diplomatic, economic, strategic, and otherwise — in the Asia-Pacific region”.

She notes that the Asia-Pacific has become a key driver of global politics, includes many of the key engines of the global economy, and is home to several of key US allies and important emerging powers like China, India, and Indonesia.

“The time has come for the United States to make similar investments” in this region as it did in Europe after the World War II, she argues. “Harnessing Asia`s growth and dynamism is central to American economic and strategic interests” as the region provides the United States with “unprecedented opportunities for investment, trade, and access to cutting-edge technology”.

The rapid transformations taking place in the region, she writes, underscores “how much the future of the United States is intimately intertwined with the future of the Asia-Pacific”.

She proposes a six-point strategy for staying engaged with the region, which includes maintaining political consensus and helping protect defence capabilities and communications infrastructure of US allies, particularly from non-state actors.

Describing China as one of the most prominent emerging partners in the region, she notes that the US has stayed engaged with China on all key issues, including the war in Afghanistan and on the situation in Pakistan. “The fact is that a thriving America is good for China and a thriving China is good for America. We both have much more to gain from cooperation than from conflict,” she argues. The US, she says, is also committed to working with China to address critical regional and global security issues.

Stressing the need for both the US and China to remain honest about their differences, Secretary Clinton writes: “At the end of the day, there is no handbook for the evolving US-China relationship. But the stakes are much too high for us to fail.”

India, she argues, is another key emerging power with which the US will work closely as the relationship between India and America will be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century, rooted in common values and interests.

“There are still obstacles to overcome and questions to answer on both sides, but the United States is making a strategic bet on India`s future — that India`s greater role on the world stage will enhance peace and security,” she adds. Opening India`s markets to the world will pave the way to greater regional and global prosperity.

Indian advances in science and technology, she notes, will improve lives and advance human knowledge everywhere, and India`s “vibrant, pluralistic democracy will produce measurable results and improvements” for its citizens and inspire others to follow a similar path of openness and tolerance.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/12/us-making-strategic-bet-on-india.html

CNN: Syria opposition gains regional backers

(CNN) -- International powers put more heat on Syria's government Tuesday, as a new umbrella opposition group gained key backers in the Arab world and China exhorted the government to respond to people's "reasonable" demands.

The developments come amid a seven-month government crackdown against protesters, an ongoing operation that has stirred condemnation across the world.

The United Nations estimates that 2,900 people have been killed. Activist groups have said the toll exceeds 3,000. The government says it is fighting armed gangs that have killed 1,100 members of the security forces.

The new opposition movement, the Syrian National Council, has received backing from a coalition of Egyptian activists -- the Democratic Alliance for Egypt.

Syrian opposition gains Arab support

Clashes intensify in Syria

The alliance and the council held a meeting in Egypt, said Sayed el-Badawi, whose al-Wafd party is a member of the alliance.

"The meeting aimed to foster a stronger relationship between the Syrian Council and the Egyptian parties," Adeeb Shishakly, a senior member of the Syrian National Council told CNN. "At the conclusion of the meeting, the 43 parties recognized the Syrian National Council as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people," he said.

Egypt's military and political leaders have not recognized the Syrian opposition group, despite the delegation's efforts. The Arab League has not recognized it either.

But in Libya, the new authorities there have recognized the Syrian National Council as the "sole representative of the Syrian people."

The support from Libya and the Egyptian parties comes two days after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem warned countries against recognizing the opposition.

"Syria will take strong measures against any country that recognizes the opposition council formed in Turkey," al-Moallem said Sunday.

"I am not interested in what they seek," he said, according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

Syria hailed last week's vetoes by China and Russia of a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at the Bashar al-Assad regime. But even though they opposed the U.N. initiative, both countries have called for changes in Syria.

On Tuesday, China exhorted the government to react properly to calls for change.

"We believe the Syrian government should respond to people's reasonable expectations and appeals, and resolve the issues through dialogue and consultations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.

Last week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said his country wants an end to the bloodshed and is calling for the regime to implement changes, state-run RIA Novosti reported Friday.

"If the Syrian leadership is unable to complete such reforms, it will have to go, but this decision should be made not by NATO and certain European countries, it should be made by the people of Syria and the government of Syria," Medvedev told the Russian Security Council.

Many world powers have been outraged over the government's crackdown. The European Union and United States have already imposed sanctions against the regime.

The EU Monday demanded that al-Assad step aside, saying his government's crackdown on opposition demonstrations could amount to crimes against humanity.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, Jennifer Deaton and Amir Ahmed contributed to this story.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/11/world/meast/syria-unrest/index.html?hpt=wo_c1

BBC: Ukraine ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko jailed over gas deal

David Stern in Kiev says the verdict has been criticised by the EU and Russia

A judge ruled the ex-prime minister had criminally exceeded her powers when she signed a gas deal with Russia in 2009.

Mrs Tymoshenko said the charges were politically motivated. She vowed to appeal against her sentence and fight for Ukraine "till her last breath".

The EU said it was disappointed with the verdict, and that Kiev's handling of the case risked deep implications for its hopes of EU integration.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement the verdict showed justice was being applied selectively in politically motivated prosecutions.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who signed the deal with Mrs Tymoshenko, said he did not understand why she had been jailed.

"It is dangerous and counterproductive to cast the entire package of agreements into doubt," Mr Putin was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

Russia's foreign ministry had earlier said the ruling had a "clear anti-Russian subtext".

'Shame, shame'

Riot police stood outside the court as thousands of supporters and opponents gathered. There have been minor clashes and some arrests.

In his ruling, Judge Rodion Kireyev said the former prime minister would also have to pay back 1.5bn hrivnas ($186m; £119m) lost by the state gas company as a result of the deal.

At the scene

Daniel SandfordBBC News, Kiev

Even before the judge had finished his verdict, Yulia Tymoshenko stood up to denounce what he'd done. She said she would continue to fight on and urged her supporters to fight on, and promised that they would one day achieve a free, European, democratic Ukraine.

As she was led from court, her supporters cried "shame, shame" from the back of the court. As we came out of court 15 minutes later we walked out on to one of Kiev's main streets and there were file upon file of riot police standing alongside her supporters, who were playing music through loudspeakers and chanting political slogans. There have been confrontations, but so far they have been minor.

Mrs Tymoshenko can appeal against the sentence, but it will be a long, tedious process to take it to the next level. And during that time she will still be in prison.

She has also been banned from political office for three years, with implications for her role in next year's parliamentary elections.

As the verdict was read out, Mrs Tymoshenko spoke over the judge, saying she would fight to defend her honest name.

She said Ukraine had returned to the repression of Stalin's 1937 Soviet Union, and accused her long-time rival President Viktor Yanukovych of orchestrating the trial.

She said she would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

"We will fight and defend my good name in the European court," she said. "We have to be strong and defend Ukraine from this authoritarianism."

After the judge finished the verdict, her supporters in the court shouted: "Shame, shame."

They believe Mr Yanukovych used the trial to get rid of her before the next presidential election.

Western officials had urged the president to reclassify the charges against her as administrative, not criminal.

AFP news agency later quoted Mr Yanukovych as saying the sentence was not final, and that the appeal court would have to decide whether to uphold it.

"Today the court took its decision in the framework of the current criminal code. This is not the final decision," he said.

'Not very optimistic'

The former Orange Revolution leader was accused of exceeding her authority while negotiating the gas agreement with Russia in 2009, which critics say was to Ukraine's disadvantage.

They say the price Ukraine agreed to pay was too high, damaging state gas company Naftohaz and Ukraine's economy

"In January 2009, Tymoshenko... exercising the duties of prime minister... used her powers for criminal ends and, acting deliberately, carried out actions... which led to serious consequences," Judge Kireyev said.

As a result of ordering state gas company Naftohaz to sign an import contract with Russia in 2009 she inflicted damages of 1.5bn hrivnas on the company, he added.

Russia pipes gas to western Europe across Ukrainian territory and relations between the two ex-Soviet states have long been dogged by disputes over transit fees and unpaid bills.

As the verdict was read out over several hours, Mrs Tymoshenko stared at her iPad, apparently not listening to the judge, occasionally exchanging whispers with her daughter, Evgenia Carr.

She has been in custody for contempt of court since 5 August.

Mrs Tymoshenko was the heroine of the Western-leaning Orange Revolution - the sudden street protests that erupted after a fraudulent presidential election in 2004 - and was made prime minister shortly afterwards.

But the next few years saw Ukraine's revolution stagnate, and were marred by bickering between Mrs Tymoshenko and her Orange allies, which paralysed the country just as it was facing a deep economic crisis.

In 2010 the revolution was definitively reversed, when Mr Yanukovych was elected president and Mrs Tymoshenko forced into opposition.

Former president and one-time ally Viktor Yushchenko and others have testified against her in the court case.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15250742

Gulf News: Netanyahu seeks to legalize outposts built on private Palestinian land

Instruction issued under pressure from the right in response to state's decision to demolish several outposts built on private Palestinian land.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to set up a task force to explore ways to legalize houses in the settlements that were built on private Palestinian land.

The instruction was issued under heavy pressure from settlers and others on the right in response to the state's decision to demolish several outposts built on private Palestinian land over the next half year.

In February, Netanyahu and three other senior ministers - Ehud Barak, Moshe Ya'alon and Benny Begin - met with the attorney general and other senior legal officials. The product of that meeting was a decision to demolish all outposts built on private Palestinian land, but to try to retroactively legalize any illegal construction in settlements or outposts that took place on state land. The state subsequently submitted affidavits to the High Court of Justice detailing the timetable for the demolitions.

Inter alia, the affidavits said that by the end of this year, the Givat Assaf outpost would be razed in its entirety, as would parts of the outposts of Givat Haro'eh, Ramat Gilad and Bnei Adam. In addition, by May 2012, 30 houses and caravans in Jebel Artis, near Beit El, will be demolished, while Migron, which is home to 45 families, is due to go by the end of March 2012.

The demolition of three houses in Migron on September 5 convinced the settlers that the government was serious. Ever since, they have been exerting heavy pressure on Knesset members, ministers and Netanyahu himself over this issue. Minister Daniel Hershkowitz (Habayit Hayehudi ) has hinted that he will quit the government if no solution is found, while MK Yariv Levin (Likud ) plans this winter in the Knesset to submit a bill under which Palestinians would instead be compensated with money or alternate land for any building erected on private Palestinian land with help from government ministries.

On Sunday, Netanyahu bowed to this pressure: At a meeting with ministers from his Likud party, he said he would order Neeman to explore ways to legalize the buildings in question. Any such solution would require new legislation.

Ever since 1979, when the High Court overturned an attempt to use the pretext of "security reasons" to expropriate private Palestinian land for settlements, successive attorney generals have all ruled that there is no legal way to build houses for settlers on private Palestinian land.

The settlers, however, claim that there are solutions: In some cases, the land's ownership can be challenged; in others, the owner could be compensated generously; and in others still, the owners could be declared absentees, enabling their land to be used, as is the case vis-a-vis land inside Israel.

While the task force's members have not yet been appointed, it seems they will not come from either the state prosecution or the military prosecution.

Culture Minister Limor Livnat, one of those who pushed for the task force, told Arutz Sheva radio on Monday that the goal was to examine the issue "without fear of what leftist groups will say. As the government, we need to govern."

Another politician said that even if the task force produced no solutions, its work would take several months and could provide a pretext for postponing the demolitions.

Haaretz has reported in the past that parts of two veteran settlements, Ofra and Eli, are also built on private Palestinian land. So far, no legal solution has been found for these settlements, so the task force will presumably be asked to deal with this issue as well.

Meanwhile, the government is also working energetically to legalize everything that has been built on state land, but without proper master plans or building permits, in both settlements and outposts. At stake is much of what has been built in the settlements over the last 20 years. Based on the state's submissions to the High Court, it seems it plans to legalize 326 permanent houses and 344 caravans.

However, various government legal officials say that certain outposts cannot be legalized without a cabinet decision to establish a new settlement - something the government wants to avoid due to the diplomatic ramification of such a moves. The government is seeking to declare these outposts neighborhoods of nearby settlements.

"Israel's policy regarding construction in Judea and Samaria has not changed," a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said in response to this report.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-seeks-to-legalize-outposts-built-on-private-palestinian-land-1.389233

Guardian UK: Iranians charged in US over plot to assassinate Saudi ambassador

US claims elements of Iranian government directed bomb plot with alleged involvement of Mexican drug cartel

US attorney general Eric Holder describes the "murder-for-hire" plot Link to this video

A dangerous confrontation was developing on Tuesday between the US and Iran after the Obama administration directly blamed the Iranian governnment for an alleged plot to blow up the Saudi ambassador and scores of others at a Washington restaurant with the help of a Mexican drug cartel.

The US attorney-general Eric Holder said Iran would be "held to account" over what he described as a flagrant abuse of international law. While the US says military action remains on the table, it is at present seeking instead to work through diplomatic and financial means to further isolate Iran.

The US Treasury department immediately imposed sanctions against five individuals allegedly linked to the plot.

The Iranian government reacted by dismissing the allegations, saying the US was expert at making false claims. "This is a fabrication," said a spokesman for the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Two men, one an an American-Iranian, Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iranian, have been charged in New York with the alleged "murder-for-hire" plot to pay a Mexican drug cartel to help assassinate Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador and close confidante of the Saudi king.

According to the US justice department, the aim was to bomb a restaurant in Washington frequented by Jubeir with the possibility of a hundred or more bystanders being killed in the explosion. US officials said the Iranians put a $1.5m price tag on the assassination.

The White House said Obama called Jubeir today to express solidarity between the US and Saudi Arabia in the face of "a flagrant violation of US and international law".

Arbabsiar appeared briefly in court in New York this afternoon, and was held without bail. Shakuri, who is alleged to be a member of the Quds Force, a special operations team inside the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is said by the US to be in Iran.

The US views the plot as state-sponsored terrorism. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton described it as a "violation of international norms" and said she would discuss with allies in Europe and elsewhere round the world how to further isolate Iran.

The Saudi embassy in Washington described the alleged attempt to assassinate its Jubeir as "despicable".

Relations between the US and Iran have been tense for years over Tehran's alleged pursuit of a nuclear bomb. But the court case heightens tensions even further, introducing unpredictable elements such a risk of retaliation by Saudi Arabia.

The central question is whether a rogue element in Iran may have been involved or whether the alleged plot had been sanctioned by a senior leader. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, who was briefed in detail, reufsed to say whether Ahmadinejad had been involved but he insisted it was "an Iranian government sanctioned event".

Arbabsiar was arrested on September 29 at New York's JFK airport following a sting operation involving the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The FBI director, Robert Mueller, speaking alongside Holder at a press conference in Washington, described the plot as "reading like a Hollywood script".

The justice department claimed Arbabsiar was working under the direction of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

He allegedly met on a number of occasions in Mexico with a DEA confidential source who was posing as a member of the drugs cartel Zetas. The source, according to the indictment, had faced drugs charges in the past but these had been dismissed in return for him becoming a paid informer.

According to the justice department, Arbabsiar met with the DEA source in Mexico on May 24 where he discussed explosives and explained that he was interested in, among other things, attacking an embassy of Saudi Arabia. They held further meetings in Mexico in June and July.

Arbabsiar allegedly arranged for $100,000 to the transferred into a bank account in the US for the supposed cartel member.

He is alleged to have told the DEA source that the assassination needed to go forward, despite possible mass casualties, telling him: "They want that guy [the ambassador] done [killed], if the hundred go with him f**k 'em." The agent and Arbabsiar allegedly discussed bombing a restaurant in the United States that the ambassador frequented.

When the agent noted that others could be killed in the attack, including US senators who dine at the restaurant, Arbabsiar allegedly dismissed these concerns as "no big deal".

The use of a sting operation is likely to prompt scepticism about the extent, if any, of the Iranian government's involvement. Although the focus of media attention this year has been on the Arab Spring, the Pentagon, State Department and White House have all been increasingly worried about alleged nuclear developments in Iran.

Steve Clemons, a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst, said: 
"This is a serious situation - and this kind of assassination is the sort that could lead to an unexpected cascade of events that could draw the U.S. and other powers into a consequential conflagration in the Middle East."

The five facing US Treasury sanctions are: Arbabsiar and Shakuri; Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani; Hamed Abdollahi, a senior Quds Force official, who allegedly coordinated aspects of the plot; and Abdul Reza Shahlai, a Quds official also allegedly involved in the operation.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/11/iranians-charged-us-assassination-plot

CNN: U.N. peacekeepers killed in Darfur

(CNN) -- Three United Nations peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in a camp for displaced people in Sudan's Darfur region, the global body said Tuesday.

Two of the dead were soldiers; the third was a police adviser for the joint U.N. and African Union mission in the troubled region. Another six peacekeepers were injured in the incident.

They came under attack at 10:15 Monday night in the Zam Zam camp in North Darfur while the security unit was on patrol. One of the assailants was also killed, a statement from the joint mission said.

It was unclear why the attack occurred.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "strongly condemns" the attack, the U.N. said in a statement. The attack was carried out by unidentified armed men while the peacekeepers were on a "confidence-building patrol," the statement said.

Ban "appeals to the Sudanese authorities to investigate the incident and to bring to justice the perpetrators as soon as possible," according to the statement.

The peacekeeping mission in Darfur is the world's largest at 20,000 authorized troops. Since it began in 2008, 33 peacekeepers have been killed.

"I condemn in the strongest terms this attack on our peacekeepers who have worked selflessly to bring security to the internally displaced persons of Zam Zam camp where so many Darfuris have sought refuge," said Ibrahim Gambari, head of the mission. "An attack on international peacekeepers is a war crime and we will ensure that justice will be served."

Darfur is among the most dangerous areas of operation for U.N. personnel. The region remains a tinderbox. At least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million others driven from their homes as a result of fighting between Sudanese rebel groups and the Khartoum government and its allied armed militia.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/11/world/africa/sudan-peacekeepers-killed/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

CNN: Myanmar begins prisoner release

CNN: Myanmar begins prisoner release

 (CNN) -- Myanmar has begun the release of what it said will eventually be more than 6,300 prisoners under a mass amnesty.

Among the inmates freed by noon Wednesday, 70 were political detainees, a rights group said.

The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said it obtained its information from staff members and political activists inside Myanmar.

Maj-Gen Hso Ten who was sentenced to 105 years in prison on sedition charges in 2005, was among those released, the group said.

Also released were some members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, the party said

Party spokesman Nyan Win said the NLD was expecting more releases later Wednesday.

About 200 NLD members are in prison, he said.

Myanmar's mass amnesty is one in a series of recent moves that could help the isolated nation normalize relations with Western nations including the United States.

Kurt Campbell, a U.S. assistant secretary of state, called it a "dramatic development" that could prompt Washington to consider improving ties. The United States imposes an embargo on arms and investment in Myanmar, once known as Burma before a military junta took over.

But Mark Farmaner, director of the London-based human rights group Burma Campaign UK, said the prisoner amnesty is part of the "mood music" created to soothe the world. Obviously, he said, the amnesty was welcome, but it was hardly signaling the government's wish for democracy.

"What's very clear is that (President) Thein Sein is willing to make more concessions in order to get sanctions lifted and get more international legitimacy," Farmaner said.

The amnesty announcement in state-run media did not make it clear how many political detainees would be included.

Amnesty International has reported that more than 2,200 political prisoners are detained in poor conditions and subjected to torture and cruel treatment.

Their release remains a key demand of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi and a priority for lifting of Western sanctions.

There was cause for optimism after a letter to Thein Sein from a new state-appointed human rights panel called for the pardon of "prisoners of conscience who do not pose a threat to the stability of state and public tranquility."

Myanmar, ruled by generals since 1962, denied for decades that political prisoners even existed.

Since Myanmar's elections in November 2010 -- the first in two decades -- its leaders have been gingerly reaching out to critics.

"Now I think it would be fair to say the elections themselves were flawed in many critical ways, and we have continuing concerns about a number of developments inside the country," Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said Monday in a lecture in Bangkok, Thailand.

"But it is also undeniably the case that there are dramatic developments under way," he said. "We have stated clearly that we are prepared for a new chapter in our relations, and we are watching carefully developments on the ground. And I think it would be fair to say we will match their steps with comparable steps, and we are looking forward over the course of the next several weeks to continuing a dialogue that has really stepped up in recent months."

Tint Swe, the head of Myanmar's state censorship, called Friday for greater press freedoms, saying his own office should be shuttered as part of government reforms, reported Radio Free Asia.

In September, Myanmar's Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin held a rare, historic meeting with U.S. officials in Washington following what a U.S. State Department spokesman characterized as positive developments after years of discord over human rights and other issues.

A month earlier, Suu Kyi met with Thein Sein at the presidential residence in Naypyitaw and the two vowed to work together in the nation's interest, state media reported.

The NLD was banned from the 2010 election, but Suu Kyi is fighting to restore her party's legitimacy.

Myanmar and Western nations have been at odds for years because of Myanmar rulers' ongoing clampdown on their political foes, most notably Suu Kyi. She spent most of the past two decades in some form of detention before being released a week after last year's elections.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/12/world/asia/myanmar-prisoner-release/?hpt=wo_c2