Iran's president urges US to focus on terror threat instead of fears his country wants nukes

Iran's president urges US to focus on terror threat instead of fears his country wants nukes Published September 24, 2014  The Associated Press

Iran President Hassan Rouhani speaks during his keynote address at New America, a public policy institute and think tank, on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014 in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) 

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, looks at a protester holding a picture who interrupted while he was speaking at New America, a public policy institute and think tank, on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014 in New York. Protesters say the individuals in the picture are all dissidents under house arrest in Iran and called on the President Rouhani to facilitate their release. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) 

NEW YORK –  Iranian President Hasan Rouhani urged the United States on Wednesday to move beyond "insignificant" fears that his country seeks nuclear arms and challenged it to join his country in battling what he described as the global threat of Islamic extremism.

Rouhani also made clear he was not prepared to interfere in the case of Jason Rezarian, an American-Iranian journalist detained on unspecified charges in Iran, during a speech and question-and-answer session hosted by the New America think tank.

But most of his comments focused on the menace posed by the Islamic State terror group and attempts by his country and the U.S. to seal a deal to meet White House demands that Iran agree to significant long-term curbs on its nuclear program that could be used to make weapons in exchange for an end to crippling sanctions.

The Iranian president is addressing the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, and his comments Wednesday touched on some of the issues he is likely to highlight.

The nuclear talks appear stuck two months before their extended Nov. 24 deadline. While the U.S. is formally joined by five other powers at the negotiating table with Iran, it is clear that the Americans are the lead negotiators, and Rouhani directed most of his comments at Washington.

He urged the U.S. government to "let go of pressure politics toward Iran" — a reference to Iranian complaints that Washington's demands at the talks are unrealistic. Repeating that Iran is not interested in nuclear arms, he urged the U.S. to "leave behind (this) insignificant issue."

Instead, Rouhani said, the two countries must focus on the fight against the Islamic State group and other extremist groups, the "real and serious common challenges which ... threaten the entirety of the world."

At the same time, he was critical of the U.S. bombing campaign of Islamic Group strongholds in Iraq and Syria and the growing coalition of countries seeking to stop the extremists by military means. "Bombing and airstrikes are not the appropriate way," he said, warning that "extraterritorial interference ... in fact only feeds and strengthens terrorism."

Blaming "the misunderstandings of the realities of the region by ... outsiders," Rouhani said wrong U.S. policies, including the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, likely led to the birth of the Islamic State group by creating power vacuums exploited by the extremists.

He also suggested it was in the West's interest to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran, freeing Tehran to play a more active role in creating and maintaining stability in the Islamic world.

Even if a nuclear deal is sealed, it could face harsh opposition by Iranian hardliners and U.S. congressional critics united in one fear — that their side has given away too much. But Rouhani shrugged off opposition from inside his country and said it was up to President Barack Obama to deal with Congress.

Iran-U.S. tensions have eased since the election last year of the moderate Rouhani. A year ago, he and Obama spoke by telephone for 15 minutes, the first time the presidents of the United States and Iran had talked directly since the 1979 Iranian revolution and siege of the American embassy. The conversation was hailed as an historic breakthrough.

But American officials are furious with Iran for detaining Rezarian, a Washington Post journalist who has both American and Iranian citizenship, as well as his wife.

Iranian officials have not specifically said why the couple is being held, and Rouhani has dodged questions about their fate. Asked Wednesday about Rezarian, he said he would be freed if he is innocent of any crime.

"We must not prematurely express opinions about a case that hasn't reached the court yet," he said.

Afghanistan's disputed election: Divide and rule

Afghanistan's disputed election

Divide and rule

Sep 22nd 2014, 10:05 by J.K. | KABUL

AFGHANISTAN has been held hostage by political stalemate for months. On September 21st it was finally broken, when the country’s two feuding presidential candidates, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, signed a power-sharing agreement. Though the ceremony, at the Arg, the presidential palace in the capital Kabul, was brief and low-key, the deal will radically—and perhaps wisely—change the country’s political framework.

Neither man spoke and neither looked quite at ease. But the agreement will at least allow the new government to get on with the massive task of winning the confidence of a country that has been waiting for the deadlock to end. The four-page document, signed in the presence of outgoing President Hamid Karzai, and later by witnesses James Cunningham, the American ambassador, and Jan Kubis, the United Nations’ senior Afghanistan representative (both of whom were banned from the palace ceremony by Mr Karzai), divests the president of his vast powers.

The so-called National Unity Government intends for Mr Ghani, a Western-educated technocrat and former World Bank employee, to become president and for Dr Abdullah (or his nominee) to assume a the role of chief executive officer, newly created by decree and similar to the position of prime minister. A constitutional change, within the next two years, will confirm the role. The pair will split the allocation of senior positions, including ministries. They have also pledged to fix the country’s election system, which allows voter fraud to flourish.

The secret backroom deal, which many think usurps democratic process, was announced hours before the election commission declared Mr Ghani the winner, and Dr Abdullah the CEO. In a strange kowtowing to Dr Abdullah, who had argued that the poll was poisoned by undetectable fraud, neither the vote tallies nor the turnout were announced. The “everyone’s-a-winner” arrangement, similar to a politically-correct primary school sports day, came about after a bitterly disputed election season prompted threats to form a parallel government and fears of a return to civil war.

A former foreign minister, who came second to Mr Karzai in the election in 2009, Dr Abdullah easily won the first round of voting but without enough to avoid a run-off. In the second round, held on June 14th, Mr Ghani reversed the double-digit gap to pull off a comfortable victory, according to provisional results. Dr Abdullah alleged that he had been cheated again (after making the same charge in 2009) by “industrial scale” fraudand accused the election commission of helping rig the poll at the behest of Mr Karzai.

After the announcement of provisional results, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, travelled to Kabul. Both candidates embraced and vowed to form a government of national unity following an unprecedented audit of the vote, overseen by the UN. The audit found fraud on both sides made little change to the outcome, according to Western officials familiar with its results. That audit process started more than two months ago. In the meantime the candidates have bickered and their supporters have brawled in the audit halls.

It has been a costly few months for Afghanistan: the economy is battered and any trust in the government, widely viewed as predatory and uncaring, has evaporated. The Taliban, meanwhile, has capitalised on the dispute by launching large-scale attacks in numerous provinces. Afghan security forces are dying at a rate of about 100 a month in what has been the bloodiest summer of fighting since the war began.

All this makes the speedy signing of the bilateral security agreement between the government and America—which will allow about 14,000 foreign troops to remain past December—so vital. Mr Ghani has vowed to do what Mr Karzai refused to do and sign it within a week of his inauguration, which is likely to take place on September 29th. On paper, given the distrust between the two, the deal may look fragile and unworkable. But the pair has little choice than to make it succeed. An ethnically divided country with parallel governments is a form of mutually assured destruction, particularly given the country’s dependence on foreign money that will be impossible to source if this new government falls.

Mr Ghani, with Dr Abdullah riding shotgun, needs to demonstrate quickly that he is a partner worth funding in the long term. America can, in the short term, alleviate the country’s financial woes, harmed further through the political impasse that has emptied government coffers. It has an interest in giving the new government a chance; “They won’t spoil the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar,” says one Western official. But both Mr Ghani and Dr Abdullah owe results to their electorate, too. It has paid a steep price for this long-running squabble.

(Picture credit: AFP)

Karzai says US has not wanted peace in Afghanistan during farewell speech

 Karzai says US has not wanted peace in Afghanistan during farewell speech 

September 23, 2014: Afghan President Hamid Karzai attends his farewell ceremony at the presidential palace in Kabul. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Published September 24, 2014 | FoxNews.com

"We don't have peace because the Americans didn't want peace," said Karzai, who will officially give way to President-elect Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai when the latter is sworn in Monday.

"If America and Pakistan really want it, peace will come to Afghanistan," Karzai added, referring to his country's eastern neighbor as well as the U.S. "The war in Afghanistan is to the benefit of foreigners. But Afghans on both sides are the sacrificial lambs and victims of this war." 

Karzai also thanked a number of countries for their efforts in Afghanistan — India, Japan, China, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Germany — without thanking the U.S.

Karzai's words were met with a furious response by the American ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham, who called the comments "ungracious and ungrateful."

"It makes me kind of sad. I think his remarks, which were uncalled for, do a disservice to the American people and dishonor the huge sacrifices Americans have made here and continue to make here," Cunningham told a gathering of journalists.

Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi told The Washington Post that while the president appreciates the efforts of U.S. troops and taxpayers to rebuilt the war-torn country, he also believes that the U.S. did not do enough to confront Pakistan-backed militants in the country and that Washington and Islamabad "sabotaged" efforts to reach a peace deal with the Taliban. 

Karzai is the only president Afghanistan has known since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion removed the Taliban from power. In the intervening years, The United States has spent more than $100 billion on aid in Afghanistan since 2001 to train and equip the country's security forces, to pave crumbling dirt roads, to upgrade hospitals and to build schools. More than 2,200 U.S. forces have died in Afghanistan operations since 2001. Nearly 20,000 have been wounded.

The United Nations says that some 8,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in the conflict over the last five years alone. Karzai for years has railed against U.S. military strikes for the civilian casualties that some of them cause — although the United Nations has said insurgents are to blame for the overwhelming majority of casualties.

In his final year in office, Karzai refused to sign a security agreement with the U.S. that would set the legal framework to allow about 10,000 American military advisers and trainers to stay in the country next year. Ghani Ahmadzai has said he will sign it.

Samehullah Samem, a member of parliament from the western province of Farah, said as a decade-long ruler Karzai has earned respect among Afghans, but that he should be more careful with his words toward an ally. He noted that the Afghan economy is faltering.

"We are completely dependent on the international community. We need the support of the international community, especially the United States of America," Samem said.

U.S. military and intelligence operatives helped transport Karzai around the region in late 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington. That U.S. connection helped pave the way to the presidency.

Ghani Ahmadzai's entrance is more conventional. A former finance minister, the new president has worked at the World Bank and earned a PhD. from New York's Colombia University. His path to the presidency follows a long election season that ended with negotiations for a national unity government and the election commission giving him 55 percent of the runoff vote.

Cunningham said the U.S. was asked to be involved in the unity negotiations and that the U.S. exerted itself to help Afghanistan succeed, an important achievement especially given the "psychic investment as well as blood and treasure" here since 2001.

The 13-year war against the Taliban has largely been turned over to Afghan security forces, a development that has seen casualties among Afghan soldiers rise significantly this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

With canal and hut, India stands up to China on disputed frontier

BY SANJEEV MIGLANI

NEW DELHI Wed Sep 24, 2014 6:32pm EDT

(Reuters) - Earlier this month, the Indian army stationed on a remote Himalayan plateau built a small observation hut from where they could watch Chinese soldiers across a disputed border.

The move so irked China's military that it laid a road on territory claimed by India and demanded that the tin hut be dismantled. India refused, destroyed a part of the new road and promptly raised troop numbers in the area.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making good on election promises of a more robust national security policy, and the fact that around 1,000 soldiers from each side are facing off in Ladakh is evidence even mighty China is not off limits.

No shots have been fired, and a brief border war between the world's two most populous nations was fought 52 years ago.

But Indian military officials said the situation in the Chumar area of Ladakh had been unusually tense in recent weeks, highlighting a simmering disagreement between the nuclear-armed neighbours that is back on the agenda at the highest level.

Taliban suicide car bomber kills NATO troops in Kabul

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Latest update : 2014-09-16

A Taliban suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a NATO convoy near the US embassy in Kabul on Tuesday, killing three soldiers and wounding at least 13 Afghan civilians in a massive blast.

At the side of the road, US and Polish troops gave first-aid to bloodstained comrades beside the wrecked remains of a military vehicle, but the nationality of the dead soldiers was not confirmed.

The attack was mounted during morning rush-hour traffic outside the Supreme Court and on a main road from the airport to the heavily-fortified US embassy.

"We can confirm three International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) members died as a result of an enemy attack in Kabul today," the NATO coalition said in a statement.

"It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities."

The blast, on a route that NATO convoys use every day, shook buildings and sent a plume of smoke high above the city.

India's Supreme Court canceled most of the coal-mining licenses issued since 1993. Pictured, laborers load coal into trucks at an open-pit coal mine in Jharkhand, India's Bestacolla Colliery. Bloomberg News

NEW DELHI—India's Supreme Court canceled hundreds of coal-mining licenses, adding uncertainty beyond the struggling coal industry to the heart of Asia's third-largest economy.

The country's highest court on Wednesday said control over almost all coal blocks allotted since 1993 will have to be returned, saying they were granted illegally. The decision could aggravate a coal shortage in the country, analysts said.

The cancellation puts at least $47 billion of investments in such industries as power, steel and aluminum at risk, said Ashok Khurana, director general at the Association of Power Producers. "It does create uncertainty in the mind of an investor," he said. "He will think that even after 10,15 or 20 years, a court may strike down the policy on which he [based] his investment decision."

Why Pakistan's militants can still strike at will

In recent months the fortunes and allegiances of Pakistan's militants have proved mercurial. Formerly united fronts fractured while the army drove others out of their strongholds. Then al-Qaeda said it would take the initiative in South Asia proving, as the BBC's M Ilyas Khan reports, that the insurgents are still a potent force.

The claim by al-Qaeda that it carried out the 13 September attack on the Pakistan Navy's dockyard in Karachi city yet again shows the militants' ability to strike deep in Pakistan despite recent setbacks.

In a statement placed on one of its web portals, al-Qaeda claimed the operatives of its recently launched wing - al-Qaeda in the Indian Sub-continent (AQIS) - seized control of a Pakistani frigate in order to attack some nearby American vessels.

Fraud and Folly in Afghanistan
BY CHRIS MASON

The runoff round of the Afghan presidential election on June 14 was massively rigged, and the ensuing election audit was "unsatisfactory," a result of Afghan government-orchestrated fraud on a scale exceeding two million fake votes, completely subverting the will of the Afghan people. That is the watered-down conclusion of the press release of the European Union's yet-to-be-released report detailing its thorough and non-partisan investigation of the entire Afghan election. The report was completed last week, according to sources in Kabul who have seen it, but political pressure has so far resulted in heavy redaction and kept it from public release.

The key point is this: Ashraf Ghani did not win the election. The U.S. Center for Naval Analysis (CNA) concluded in July that it was mathematically impossible for Ghani to win, given Afghan demographics and the initial 46 percent to 32 percent first-round vote spread, according to sources familiar with the analysis. According to sources who reviewed the private report, the top experts in statistical analysis in the United States used every known computer model of election balloting and concluded that a Ghani victory was scientifically impossible. In simple terms, there is no mathematical doubt that Abdullah Abdullah won.

Drone strike kills suspected militants in Pakistan, officials say

Reuters | Sep 24, 2014, 03.06 PM IST BANNU: A US drone strike killed at least five suspected militants near the Afghan border in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, intelligence officials said, amid a rise in such attacks since after the military announced an anti-Taliban offensive. 

Four intelligence officials said the strike killed between five and eight militants.

Six locals and two foreigners were killed in the strike in the district of Datta Khel in the mountainous region of North Waziristan, an intelligence official said.

The death toll could not be independently confirmed because North Waziristan has been off limits to journalists since the military announced an anti-Taliban offensive there in June.

Even before the operation, the military and militants often prevented journalists from visiting the sites of drone strikes.

The United States has long urged Pakistan to crack down on the Taliban stronghold in North Waziristan. The Taliban use the region to prepare bombs, hold kidnap victims, stage public executions and as a launching pad for attacks on Afghan and NATO troops across the border.

The military says it has killed hundreds of militants in its North Waziristan operation, including a senior commander that the Taliban eulogized in a press release this weekend. But no bodies, photographs or names have been provided to the media.

The United States halted drone strikes for the first six months of the year as Pakistan attempted to negotiate peace with Taliban insurgents, who want to overthrow the civilian government and put in place a strict Islamic state.

But the talks failed and drone strikes resumed a few days before the military announced its offensive. Since then, there have been at least seven attacks, excluding the one reported on Wednesday, according to the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, which tracks the strikes based on media reports.

Police crack down on Tehran Sufi protest

By فرهاد نوری on 24/09/2014 - 15:57

This protester's sign reads, "Sufism isn't a crime". All photos were gathered by our Observer. 


Hundreds of Iranian Sufis protested in front of Tehran’s public prosecutors’ office this weekend, demanding to be jailed alongside their friends in prison, who they say are being treated terribly. Security forces violently cracked down on the protesters, arresting dozens. 

Over the past decade, Iran’s Sufis have become increasingly marginalized, with the authorities closing down many of their places of worship. Since 2009, when their leaders supported opposition candidate Medhi Karoubi, the pressure has mounted even further. Dozens of their most famous representatives have been arrested on charges of belonging to a cult. And in the past few months, Sufis have reported that these detainees were being treated increasingly poorly in prison, leading to this weekend’s protests. 

Sufism is a mystical branch of Islam. Its followers believe God is present in all things, and they are known for their chants and love of poetry. Sufis across the world are divided between Sunnis and Shiites; in Iran, they are Shiite. In recent years, Sufism has seen gains in popularity among Iranian youth. 

Modi: Al-Qaeda's South Asia plan 'delusional'

Prime minister says Indian Muslims "will not want anything bad for India" in first reaction to Zawahiri's announcement. Last updated: 19 Sep 2014 12:17

Modi: Threat from armed groups is 'a crisis against humanity, not a crisis against one country or race' [AP]

India's prime minister has dismissed al-Qaeda's plan to set up a South Asia branch, saying it was "delusional" to think the country's Muslim minority would follow orders to wage a struggle based on religion against their country. It was Narendra Modi's first reaction to al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri's announcement this month that the group would set up a new operation to take the fight to India, which has a large but traditionally moderate Muslim population, as well as to Myanmar and Bangladesh. "They are doing injustice towards the Muslims of our country," Modi, 64, who led his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a landslide victory in India's general elections in May, said in an interview with broadcaster CNN on Friday. "If anyone thinks Indian Muslims will dance to their tune, they are delusional. Indian Muslims will live for India, they will die for India - they will not want anything bad for India." There have been relatively few reports of young Indian men leaving to fight causes abroad, which experts say is because local grievances have kept them at home. Modi's BJP was accused by its rivals and some commentators during the election campaign, which it won, of trying to polarise votes along religious lines. He said the threat from armed groups was "a crisis against humanity, not a crisis against one country or one race". "We have to frame this as a fight between humanity and inhumanity, nothing else," Modi told CNN's Fareed Zakaria. In the run-up to a visit to the US, Modi also said the world's two largest democracies were natural allies. He acknowledged there had been "ups and downs in our relationship" but said that both countries shared common values. "India and the USA are bound together, by history and culture. These ties will deepen further," Modi said. He said that the US history of immigrant absorption and the vast Indian diaspora showed the people of both countries were inherently tolerant. "America has absorbed people from around the world, and there is an Indian in every part of the world," Modi said. "This characterises both the societies. Indians and Americans have co-existence in their natural temperament." http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2014/09/modi-al-qaeda-south-asia-plan-delusional-2014919102516379117.html

Rival Afghan Leaders Sign Power-Sharing Deal

Rival Afghan Leaders Sign Power-Sharing Deal

Months after disputed presidential elections, the opposing candidates agree to form a unity government in a US-brokered deal.

3:50pm UK, Sunday 21 September 2014

Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani shake hands after signing the agreement

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A deal to create a power-sharing government in Afghanistan has been signed by the rival presidential candidates after months of wrangling following a disputed election.

Former finance minister Ashraf Ghani, who will become president under the deal reached on Saturday night, embraced rival Abdullah Abdullah, who takes the new role of chief executive, after they signed the agreement in a ceremony broadcast live on television.

The deal, brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, was swiftly welcomed by Washington.

"This agreement marks an important opportunity for unity and increased stability in Afghanistan," said a statement issued by the White House.

"We continue to call on all Afghans - including political, religious, and civil society leaders - to support this agreement and to come together in calling for co-operation and calm."

Iran has role to play in fight against IS militants, Kerry says

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Iran had a role to play in a global coalition to tackle Islamic State militants who have seized swaths of Iraq and Syria and proclaimed a caliphate in the heart of the Middle East.

“The coalition required to eliminate ISIL (Islamic State) is not only, or even primarily, military in nature,” Kerry told a United Nations Security Council meeting on Iraq.

“It must be comprehensive and include close collaboration across multiple lines of effort. It’s about taking out an entire network, decimating and discrediting a militant cult masquerading as a religious movement,” he said. “There is a role for nearly every country in the world to play, including Iran.”

Kerry’s remarks appeared to represent a shift away from previous US statements indicating a reluctance to cooperate with Iran to confront the threat of Islamic State. The United States cut off diplomatic ties with Tehran during a hostage crisis after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The United States, president of the UN Security Council for September, called the meeting on Iraq as it builds an international military, political and financial coalition to defeat the radical Sunni Muslim group.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, this week said he had rejected an offer by Washington for talks on fighting Islamic State. Kerry said he refused to be drawn into a “back and forth” with Iran over the issue.

Anger mounts in Indian Kashmir after worst flood in over century

BY KRISTA MAHR

SRINAGAR India Sat Sep 13, 2014 12:18pm EDT

1 OF 4. An Indian Air Force helicopter flies above flooded-affected areas of Kashmir region September 13, 2014.

CREDIT: REUTERS/INDIA'S PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

(Reuters) - Residents of revolt-torn Indian Kashmir turned their wrath on state administrators for failing to provide them with succor after the worst flooding in over a century, angrily dumping food parcels into gutters.

A week into the disaster, large parts of Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, lay under water with many people still trapped atop their homes, and others crowded in relief camps.

Their misery has added to problems of the administration in a Muslim-majority region where a revolt against Indian rule has simmered for nearly a quarter century.

Many complain that the government, which has maintained a heavy presence in the territory to keep a lid on the revolt, has left them to their fate.

Residents stranded for days by the floodwaters said that the army has selectively evacuated tourists and people according to a pre-set priority list, leaving locals to be rescued later by volunteers.

“Helicopters came, and we waved our arms,” said Aasiya Kutoo, who was living at a temporary shelter. “Nobody came for us. Nobody in our area was rescued by air.”

Outside one mosque-turned-camp in Srinagar, food supplies dropped earlier in the day by a military helicopter were strewn in a gutter, rejected.

    “People said we don’t need this government food,” said Nayeem, who lives in the neighborhood. He said since the state of India occupied Kashmir, they were only providing relief out of duty. “If another state occupied this land, they would be bound to do the same.”

Both the Indian and Pakistan sides of the disputed Himalayan territory have been hit by extensive flooding since the Jhelum river, swollen by unusually heavy rain, surged last week. The river flows from Indian Kashmir to the Pakistan side, and then down into Pakistan's lower Indus river basin.

The Indian government has put the death toll at 200 in the part of Kashmir it controls but there are fears that number will rise as the damage to Srinagar, a city of one million, and villages in southern Kashmir is fully revealed.

On the Pakistani side, officials put the death toll at 264 on Friday.