Tears and anger in Bangladesh two years after Rana Plaza disaster

Two years after the deadliest industrial catastrophe in Bangladesh’s history, survivors of the Rana Plaza disaster gathered Friday to protest against poor compensation and failure to improve conditions in the country’s factories.

About 2,000 survivors, some on crutches, and families of victims held hands in a show of solidarity at the ruins of the factory complex which imploded in 2013, claiming more than 1,100 lives.

From early morning, the crowd, many clutching photos of loved ones, gathered at a makeshift memorial at the site to protest a range of concerns including poor factory safety standards and a lack of compensation.

"I only got one million taka ($12,900) from the prime minister's fund, but nothing from the trust fund created to help the victims," said Rehana Akhter, whose leg was amputated after she become trapped under tonnes of debris.

The trust fund was set up by retailers and labour groups in the wake of the tragedy.

"I can't work now. I need expensive medicines and I have a family to look after," the 24-year-old told AFP, supporting herself with a crutch, at the site in Savar outside the capital Dhaka.

Pressure on Western retailers

The collapse triggered international outrage and put pressure on European and US brands who had placed orders at the nine-storey complex to improve the woeful pay and conditions at Bangladesh's 4,500 garment factories.

Western retailers linked to the disaster include Spanish brand Mango, Italian brand Benetton, British retailer Primark and French retailer Auchan.

Two years on, nearly $25 million in compensation has been paid out to survivors and relatives of the dead.

Many wept openly as they placed flowers and wreaths at the memorial and some sat silently on the rubble, but others angrily shouted slogans against Western retailers.

"We had high hopes that the Rana Plaza collapse would be a wake-up call for the government and the retailers," union leader Taslim Akhter told AFP.

"Two years on, many factories are far from safe. We have had several deadly factory fires since Rana Plaza. Millions of workers still don't have enough labour rights," Akhter, who leads the Bangladesh Garment Workers Solidarity, said.

Some 2,500 factories have been inspected since the tragedy, but global labour group IndustriALL said on the eve of the anniversary that safety upgrades were running behind schedule and none were considered "100 percent safe".

‘I want to know where my daughter is buried’

For others, the anniversary was a chance to protest against a failure to find some 135 workers, presumed killed in the disaster, but whose bodies have never been recovered.

"I want to know where my daughter is buried. For two years I've been asking this question but nobody has any answer," said Jaheda Begum, 55, holding a photograph of her 35-year-old daughter Saleha Begum.

The sporadic discovery of remains has fuelled the anger of relatives who say authorities were too quick to send in the bulldozers to shovel up most of the debris.

By the time the three-week rescue operation ended, a total of 1,129 bodies had been recovered.

Bangladesh's garment industry, the world's second largest after China, has bounced back since the tragedy, with shipments last year standing at $25 billion.

Nepal quake toll 'could reach 10,000', says PM

The death toll in Nepal’s earthquake could reach 10,000, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala told Reuters on Tuesday, ordering intensified rescue efforts and appealing for foreign supplies of tents and medicines.

“The government is doing all it can for rescue and relief on a war footing,” Koirala said in an interview. “It is a challenge and a very difficult hour for Nepal.”

A home ministry official put the latest death toll at 4,349. If the death toll does reach 10,000, that would be even higher than the 8,500 killed in a massive 1934 quake, the Himalayan nation’s worst disaster to date.

Koirala was abroad when the 7.9 magnitude quake struck on Saturday. He returned on Sunday. He has issued orders to his government to improve coordination of the relief effort and will address the nation later on Tuesday, an aide said.

Appealing for foreign assistance, Koirala said Nepal needed tents and medicines. Many people are sleeping out of doors because their homes have been destroyed or may not withstand the dozens of aftershocks that have hit the country, he said.

“The government needs tents, much medicine. People are sleeping in fields and rains,” he said. “There are more than 7,000 people injured. Their treatment and rehabilitation is going to be a big challenge.”

More than 1,000 killed in Nepal quake

A 7.9-magnitude earthquake killed more than 1,300 people on Saturday, Nepalese authorities said, with tremors felt as far as New Delhi. The quake toppled a famed 19th-century tower in Kathmandu and triggered a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest.

The death toll surpassed 1,341 late on Saturday, a Nepalese police spokesman said, and is expected to rise further. Half of the casualties were in the Kathmandu Valley, but little information was immediately available from outlying areas of the mountainous country.

The quake triggered an avalanche at a base camp on Mount Everest, killing at least 10 people.

The worst quake to hit the impoverished Himalayan nation in more than 80 years was relatively shallow, which intensified the damage at the surface.

"Hundreds of people are feared dead and there are reports of widespread damage to property. The devastation is not confined to some areas of Nepal. Almost the entire country has been hit," said Krishna Prasad Dhakal, deputy chief of mission at Nepal’s embassy in New Delhi.

"We are totally cut off from most parts of our country," said Ram Narayan Pandey of the Nepal Disaster Management Authority, who was coordinating relief efforts from Kathmandu.

Another 36 fatalities were reported in northern India, 12 in Chinese Tibet and four people were killed in Bangladesh.

India was the first to respond to calls for foreign aid, sending military aircraft along with medical equipment and relief teams. The United States will send a disaster response team and has authorised an initial $1 million to address immediate aid needs, the US Agency for International Development said. An Israeli army statement announced that a military delegation of "medical, search-and-rescue, logistics and population assistance professionals" was due to fly out at midnight.

Tower toppled

A 19th-century tower collapsed in Kathmandu when the quake struck shortly before noon local time, with local media reporting that at least 50 people had been trapped there.

The Dharara Tower, built in 1832, was a landmark that had been open to visitors for the last 10 years and had a viewing balcony.

A stump just 10 metres (33 feet) high was all that was left of the 14-storey structure. Several bodies were brought away from the ruins.

At the main hospital in Kathmandu, people with broken limbs and arms were being rushed in for treatment. "There are people everyone where in the corridors and out in the field," said a Reuters reporter.

Television news footage showed people being treated on the streets outside hospitals and several bodies lying in rows, covered in blankets.

Kathmandu is home to ancient wooden Hindu temples. Photographs posted online showed buildings reduced to rubble, with large cracks along roads and residents sitting in the street holding babies.

Everest avalanche

The quake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, according to climbers there, raising fears for those on the world’s highest peak a year after a massive snowslide caused the deadliest incident on the world’s highest mountain.

Romanian climber Alex Gavan said on Twitter that there had been a "huge avalanche" and "many, many" people were up on the mountain. "Running for life from my tent," Gavan said. "Everest base camp huge earthquake then huge avalanche."

Another climber, Daniel Mazur, said Everest base camp had been "severely damaged" and his team was trapped. "Please pray for everyone," he said on his Twitter page.

An avalanche in April 2014 just above the base camp on Mount Everest killed 16 Nepali guides. April is one of the most popular times to climb Everest before rain and clouds cloak the mountain at the end of next month.

The quake was the worst to hit the region in more than eight decades, since an 8.3-magnitude quake killed more than 8,500 Nepalese in 1934.

Far and wide

Tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi and other northern cities in India, with reports that they had lasted up to a minute.

"Massive tremors have been felt here in Delhi and several other parts of India," said a newsreader on NDTV in Delhi.

"You can see pictures of our Delhi studios, where the windows rattled and everything shook for a very long time, for a minute perhaps or longer," she said as footage showed studio ceiling camera lights shaking.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake, initially measured at 7.7 but upgraded to 7.9, struck 80 km (50 miles) east of Pokhara. It was only 2 km deep.

"We are in the process of finding more information and are working to reach out to those affected, both at home and in Nepal," tweeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He convened a high-level meeting with ministers and top officials to assess the situation. There were no preliminary reports of damage anywhere in India, Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the Press Trust of India.

As Iran nuclear deadline looms, France plays ‘bad cop’

With the deadline for a historic deal on Iran’s nuclear program fast approaching, analysts have begun to speculate whether the wild card after months of delicate diplomacy may not, in fact, be the usual suspects: hard-liners in Tehran, hawks on Capitol Hill or Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been on an eleventh-hour push to thwart the deal. Instead, they say, all eyes are on Europe's "bad cop" on Iran: France.

Over several rounds of negotiations aimed at limiting Iran's nuclear work to strengthen safeguards against its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, France has taken the hardest line of any of the world powers seated across the table from Iran's diplomats. On Friday, less than two weeks before the March 31 deadline for a framework agreement, France's ambassador to Washington stirred anxieties by suggesting that the terms under consideration for the deal were not sufficiently stringent.

“We have been negotiating with Iran for 12 [years]. We shouldn’t be rushed into an agreement which will have to be comprehensive,” Ambassador Gerard Araud said in a tweet. “Making the end of March an absolute deadline is counterproductive and dangerous.”

To be sure, analysts doubt that France would risk an international crisis by pulling the plug on a long-awaited deal. But it has certainly positioned itself as the Western country pushing hardest to satisfy the concerns of Iran's regional antagonists, Israel and the Gulf Arab nations, which oppose a deal that leaves Tehran in possession of the nuclear infrastructure that could, in theory, allow it to build a bomb. (To do so, it would have to break out of an international agreement and circumvent the stringent monitoring regime currently in place.)

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius took a similar line in November 2013, matching hard-line rhetoric on nuclear compromise with diplomatic muscle to successfully push for stricter limits on Iran’s midlevel enrichment of uranium as part of the interim agreement that has guided the ongoing talks.

More recently, French officials have told reporters that they fear that U.S. President Barack Obama, who would consider an agreement with Iran his capstone foreign policy achievement, may be too anxious to hammer out a deal by the end of the month. Specifically, they have expressed concerns that the current parameters would allow Iran to continue producing low-enrichment uranium during the 10-year restricted period and potentially use its infrastructure to produce weapons-grade materiel later. They also want the U.N. Security Council to oversee Iran's nuclear program rather than the International Atomic Energy Agency, as is currently the case, and argue that sanctions should be repealed only gradually once Western powers are satisfied by Iran's compliance.

One explanation for France's hard-line stance is that it wants to foster closer economic ties with the wealthy nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), such as Saudi Arabia. François Nicoullaud, a former French ambassador to Iran, said Paris may be trying to cast itself in a similar light as it did in November 2013. “It would like to be able to say the agreement is a little better because it has put pressure on the other negotiators, especially the Americans,” he said. “It wants to be able to tell its friends — the Saudis and the Gulf, Israel — ‘We’ve done our best.’”

“Any diplomatic position is a mixture of principles and interests,” he added. “But in the end, I do not believe France is in a position to kill the agreement.”

For its part, Israel has made it clear that it considers France its final hope to alter the deal once again. “The French helped us a great deal” in 2013, said Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, who spoke to Israel Radio during a trip to meet with French diplomats this week. “This is an effort to prevent a deal that is bad and full of loopholes or at least … to succeed in closing or amending some of these loopholes.”

Valerie Lincy, the executive director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, argued that France is motivated in part by these "legitimate nonproliferation motives." There are plenty of outstanding issues at this point, she said from Paris, "and they’re not small."

But few believe Israeli pressure will factor into France's calculations. An unnamed French official recently told Reuters that Netanyahu's address to the U.S. Congress on March 3 — which came, controversially, at the invitation of Republican lawmakers rather than the president — pushed the anti-Iran and anti-diplomacy rhetoric too far. “In November 2013 we were working with them, and they played the game,” the diplomat said. “But here they have gone too far. We told them to play their part so they could influence a final accord, but they have taken unrealistic positions.”

Adnan Tabatabai, an Iran analyst in Berlin who recently met with French officials close to the talks, said France's apparent "bad cop" routine was more than just political theater. "This is a short-term consideration about gaining the trust of GCC countries, which the U.S. may have lost," he said.

But he said there seemed little chance at this point that France — or anyone else, for that matter — was likely to derail the talks. "The voices I hear from all sides are cautiously optimistic" about a breakthrough, he said.

United States On Patrol for Iranian Arms Shipments

US on alert over suspected Iranian arms shipments

© Wikimedia Commons | The USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier pictured in 2005

Two warships have joined US forces in the Arabian Sea, US officials said Monday, where they will monitor an Iranian convoy suspected of carrying weapons to Houthi rebels in violation of a UN arms embargo adopted last week.

"We believe these vessels may have arms and equipment on board,” a defence official said of the Iranian ships.

“If they are delivered to Yemen, it will further destabilise" the country, the official told AFP.

The US Navy said Monday that the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Normandy guided-missile cruiser would "ensure the vital shipping lanes in the region remain open and safe". The deployment brings to nine the number of US warships in the region.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said the US warships did not have orders to intercept the Iranian vessels, however. Officials said that if intercepting the ships proved necessary it would likely be carried out by the Saudi coalition.

The Iranian maritime presence in the region is comprised of nine ships including two patrol boats, a senior US defence official told AFP, adding that the exact destination of the convoy was unknown.

A Houthi official called the arrival of the US warships part of a “siege” against Yemen’s people.

"The goal of the movement of American ships is to strengthen the siege imposed on Yemen and put the Yemeni people under collective punishment," Houthi politburo member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti told Reuters.

Strategically located on key shipping routes and bordering oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Yemen was plunged into chaos last year when the Houthis seized much of the capital, Sanaa. The Shiite Houthis, who are widely believed to be backed by Tehran, seized the presidential palace and dissolved parliament earlier this year.

A coalition of Sunni Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia launched an air campaign against the rebels in March, vowing to restore the regime of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled to Riyadh as the rebels advanced on his refuge in the southern city of Aden.

The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar are taking part in the Saudi-led coalition along with Egypt, Jordan and Sudan. Morocco and Pakistan have declared support for the effort but have yet to contribute forces.

The coalition says it has carried out more than 2,000 strikes since the start of the campaign, seizing complete control of Yemeni airspace and knocking out the rebels’ infrastructure. Warplanes launched more air strikes against the Houthis and allied Shiite militias overnight.

The United States is not taking part in the strikes but is providing intelligence and logistical support to the coalition.

The conflict has raised the spectre of Yemen becoming the epicentre of a proxy war between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran that could threaten to engulf the region.

More than 944 people have been killed and almost 3,500 wounded in Yemen's unrest, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, citing Yemeni health authorities.

YEMENI FLEE FIGHTING

The civilian death toll from a raid on a missile depotin the capital on Monday has risen to 38 with more than 500 others wounded. The twin air strikes sparked powerful explosions that flattened nearby houses, medics said.

Hopes for ceasefire

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said he was optimistic that a ceasefire might be announced later on Tuesday, the Tasnim news agency reported.

"We are optimistic that in the coming hours, after many efforts, we will see a halt to military attacks in Yemen," Abdollahian was quoted as saying.

But Saudi Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi told UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday that "certain conditions" must be met before the air campaign is suspended.

He said those conditions were clearly spelled out in a resolution adopted by the UN Security Council last week that imposed an arms embargo on the rebels. The resolution demands that the Houthis pull back from all the territory they have seized – including from the capital – and that they return to peace talks.

Ban called last week for an "immediate ceasefire" amid UN concerns that the conflict could erupt into a major humanitarian crisis.

Iran has offered to mediate and set out a four-point peace plan last week, but the proposal was roundly rejected by Hadi's government.

"Any mediation effort coming from Iran is unacceptable because Iran is involved in the Yemen issue," Yemen’s Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin said.

Yemen has long struggled with deep tribal divisions that have been complicated by an insurgency launched by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which Washington considers to be the branch of the jihadist network that poses the biggest threat to the West. A US drone strike on Monday killed five suspected al Qaeda militants in the province of Shabwa.

AQAP has taken advantage of the chaos in Yemen to seize vast swaths of territory in Hadramawt province in the southeast, including the regional capital Mukalla.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

Iran peace plan to UN says 'senseless' air strikes must stop

Iran’s foreign minister on Friday submitted a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon outlining a four-point peace plan for Yemen, where Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have been targeted for weeks by Saudi-led air strikes.

The plan, which Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced in Pakistan earlier this month, calls for an immediate ceasefire and end of all foreign military attacks, humanitarian assistance, a resumption of broad national dialogue and “establishment of an inclusive national unity government.”

“It is imperative for the international community to get more effectively involved in ending the senseless aerial attacks and establishing a ceasefire, ensuring delivery of humanitarian and medical assistance to the people of Yemen and restoring peace and stability to this country through dialogue and national reconciliation without pre-conditions,” said Zarif’s letter, which was obtained by Reuters.

Russia opens way for air defense deliveries to Iran

President Vladimir Putin opened the way Monday for Russia's delivery of a sophisticated air-defense missile system to Iran, a move that would significantly bolster the Islamic Republic's military capability.

Russia signed the $800 million contract to sell Iran the S-300 missile system in 2007, but suspended delivery three years later because of strong objections from the United States and Israel. Putin lifted that ban.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry over the phone Monday to discuss Iran-related issues, the situation in Syria, Yemen and other issues, the Foreign Ministry said.

Speaking in a televised statement, Lavrov said that a preliminary agreement on settling the Iranian nuclear standoff reached earlier this month made the 2010 Russian ban unnecessary.

Timing of sanctions relief a major issue as Iran talks resume

The timing and scope of sanctions relief are major sticking points in talks between Iran and the six major world powers kicking off in Vienna on Wednesday as negotiators try to agree on curbing Tehran's nuclear activities.

After deliberations in Switzerland on April 2 between Iran and the six powers produced a mutual understanding on a framework to conclude a nuclear deal by June 30, different interpretations have emerged over what was agreed and both sides have given different versions of the timing underpinning a final deal.

"Lifting sanctions will be one of the main topics in this round of talks … If the other party shows political good will, we can reach a final agreement," Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi told Iranian state TV on Wednesday.

Talks on Wednesday began with European Union political director Helga Schmid and Araqchi. Negotiations between Iran and the six powers, including U.S. under secretary Wendy Sherman, will follow later in the week.

Iran's military nuclear activity visible under deal: Moniz

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and five other world powers would be able to detect any military capabilities of Iran's nuclear program for at least 10 years under a framework deal agreed upon earlier this month, the U.S. energy secretary said on Thursday.

For 10 years at minimum, "we will have a very comfortable ability to detect any military activity related to the nuclear program and we would have adequate time to respond," Secretary Ernest Moniz, a nuclear physicist who participated in the Iran talks, said on CNBC about the plan.

Under the deal, which Iran, the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany are working to finalize by late June, U.N. inspectors would have access to Tehran's nuclear facilities deemed to be suspicious, officials involved in the talks have said.

Inspector access to Iran's military facilities is a contentious issue, sure to be a debating point as the talks progress. On Sunday, Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of the Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp, rejected any inspections of military sites as a "national humiliation" in comments cited by a state news agency.

Moniz told CNBC said agreements under the framework deal would give world powers access to Iran's uranium supply chain for 25 years in a "completely unprecedented way." In addition, the plan would "essentially forever" commit Iran to verification that goes beyond agreements that international nuclear inspectors have anywhere else, he said.

(Additional reporting by Patrick Rucker; Editing by Emily Stephenson and Susan Heavey)

Pakistan free Munbia attack mastermind suspect

Pakistani authorities have freed the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on bail, sources said Friday, a move that swiftly drew furious condemnation from India.

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, accused over the terror siege that left 166 dead, was released late on Thursday, according to an official at Adiyala Prison in Rawalpindi, next to Islamabad.
India slammed the release as an "insult" to the victims of the three-day onslaught on its financial capital, blamed on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
LeT's charitable wing Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) confirmed Lakhvi's release.
"Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi has been released from jail. He is free now and in a secure place," a senior JuD official told AFP.
"We can't say exactly where is he at the moment for security reasons."
The release comes after nearly four months of wrangling over Lakhvi's detention, after a judge granted him bail in December, sparking an angry response from New Delhi.
The government slapped Lakhvi with a series of detention orders but judges repeatedly cancelled them.
On Thursday the Lahore High Court ordered his release, conditional on a two million rupee ($20,000) bond.
India has long seethed at Pakistan's failure either to hand over or prosecute those accused of planning and organising the violence.
A spokesman for India's home ministry, who asked not to be named, slammed Lakhvi's release.
"This is a very disappointing announcement. An insult to the victims of the 26/11 Mumbai attack. The global community should take serious note of Pakistan's double-speak on terrorism," the spokesman said.
Lakhvi and six other suspects have been charged in Pakistan but their cases have made virtually no progress in more than five years.
Delhi has long accused Islamabad of prevaricating over the trials, while Pakistan has alleged that India failed to give it crucial evidence.
Lakhvi's initial bail order in December prompted an angry response from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said it came as "a shock to all those who believe in humanity".
The horror of the Mumbai carnage played out on live television around the world, as commandos battled the heavily armed gunmen, who arrived by sea on the evening of November 26, 2008.
It took the authorities three days to regain full control of the city and New Delhi has long said there is evidence that "official agencies" in Pakistan were involved in plotting the attack.
Islamabad denies the charge but JuD, seen as a front for the militant LeT, operates openly in the country.
Pakistan has long been accused of playing a "double game" with militants, supporting groups it thinks it can use for its own strategic ends, particularly in disputed Kashmir.
Pakistan and India both control part of Kashmir but claim the whole of the territory and have fought two of their three wars over it since independence from Britain in 1947.

Pakistani Parliament Calling for Neutrality in Yemen

Pakistan MPs draft resolution urging neutrality in Yemen crisis

Pakistan’s parliament adopted a draft resolution on Yemen on Friday urging Pakistan to stay neutral in the conflict, as expected, expressing support for Saudi Arabia and calling on all factions to resolve their differences peacefully.

Sunni Saudi Arabia had asked its staunch ally, Sunni-majority Pakistan, to join the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and had requested warships, aircraft and troops.

Pakistani members of parliament have spoken out against becoming militarily involved in Yemen all week and the draft resolution is bound to disappoint the Saudis.

"The parliament of Pakistan expresses serious concern on the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in Yemen and its implications for peace and stability of the region," the resolution said.

"(It) desires that Pakistan should maintain neutrality in the Yemen conflict so as to be able to play a proactive diplomatic role to end the crisis."

>> Why old ally Pakistan is wary of joining Saudi offensive in Yemen

The Pakistan military, which has ruled the country for more than half its history, has said it will respect the civilian government’s decision.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has repeatedly said he will defend any threat to Saudi Arabia.

The resolution said parliament "expresses unequivocal support for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and affirms that in case of violation of its territorial integrity or any threat to Haramain Sharifain (Islamic holy places), Pakistan will stand shoulder to shoulder with Saudi Arabia and its people."

Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are rivals for power in the Middle East and many in Pakistan fear being caught between them if Pakistani troops are sent to Yemen.

Last month, a Saudi-led coalition began air strikes in Yemen against Iranian-allied Houthi rebels. Saudi Arabia and Yemen share a border and Saudi Arabia says it is afraid that instability might spill over to its territory.

Pakistan’s parliament began debating the request on Monday and no legislator spoke in support of sending troops for Saudi to use in Yemen.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wound up a two-day trip to Pakistan on Thursday in which he urged Pakistan to reject the Saudi request.

Pakistani army chief General Raheel Sharif had publicly remained silent on the request. Army officials have said they will defer to the civilian government.

Saudi Arabia’s request had put Pakistan in a tight spot. The nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people has strong economic, religious and military ties to Saudi Arabia but also a long and porous border with Iran in a mineral-rich region plagued by a separatist insurgency.

(REUTERS)

India Modernizing Air Forces

India orders 36 French-made Rafale fighter jets, PM Modi says

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday he had ordered 36 “ready-to-fly” French-made Rafale fighter jets to modernise his country’s ageing warplane fleet as neighbouring states upgraded their military hardware.

Indian military officials have warned that their air force risks a major capability gap opening up with China and Pakistan without new western warplanes or if local defence contractors cannot produce what the military needs in a timely manner.

“I have asked President (Francois Hollande) to supply 36 ready-to-fly Rafale jets to India,” Modi said at a news conference on the first day of a state visit to France.

“Our civil servants will discuss (terms and conditions) in more detail and continue the negotiations,” he said, speaking in Hindi through an interpreter.

The deal, another boost for French manufacturer Dassault Aviation after it sealed its long-awaited first export deal to Egypt in February, could be worth about 4 billion euros.
President Hollande said Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian would travel to India soon to finalise the deal.

India and France have already been in exclusive negotiations for three years. The value of a larger 126-plane deal being negotiated is estimated to have grown to about $20 billion from an initial $12 billion, primarily because of an Indian requirement that 108 of the jets be built in the country.

A French defence ministry source said the deal announced on Friday was separate from the original negotiations and came about after new Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar indicated the country’s urgent requirements.

“We informed them we were ready to respond to their operational needs separate from the tender under discussion for three years,” the source said.

India’s military has said it needs to start replacing its ageing jet fleet from 2017.

“There was a real operational need because India needs combat jets because a certain number of countries have been equipping themselves, so there was a desire to speed up the process,” Dassault Chief Executive Eric Trappier told Europe 1 radio.

The country already has previous ties with Dassault, having bought Mirage 2000 fighter jets. In March, Dassault delivered two modernised Mirage jets to India.

Analysts say Dassault’s deal with Egypt may have helped break the logjam in negotiations with other customers, since they are now on notice that if they want to have Rafales they may have to wait for them.

Since the Egypt deal, Dassault is in the “final stage” of negotiations to sell up to 36 Rafale warplanes to Qatar. It is also in talks aimed at supplying 16 of the multi-role combat jets to Malaysia and has resumed discussions over potential fighter sales to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the source said.

Tensions in the Middle East, instability in eastern Europe and concerns in parts of Asia about regional border threats and the rise of China have further fuelled the arms race, but shifts and sudden reversals in the various industry talks are common.

(REUTERS)

Taliban Announces Annual "Spring Offensive"

The Afghan Taliban announced Wednesday they will launch their annual "spring offensive" from April 24, vowing attacks across the country at a time when US-led foreign forces are pulling back from the frontlines.

Washington Post Journalist on Trial

A Washington Post reporter detained in Iran will be tried for espionage and collaborating with "hostile governments", his lawyer told AFP Monday, insisting there is "no justifiable proof" against him.

Afghan President Blames IS for Bombing

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has blamed the Islamic State (IS) group for a suicide bombing that killed at least 33 people outside a bank on Saturday in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

More than 125 people were also wounded in the attack in Jalalabad, the provincial capital, according to officials. The attacker detonated an explosive-laden motorcycle, targeting a crowd of both military personnel and civilians who were gathered outside the Kabul Bank branch in Jalalabad to receive their monthly salaries.

"In the horrific incident in Nangarhar (province), who took responsibility? The Taliban didn't claim responsibility. Daesh claimed responsibility for it", the Afghan president said, using the Arabic acronym for the jihadist group.

"If that is true, local experts say that this would be the biggest attack by IS in Afghanistan", said Taha Siddiqi, FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Islamabad.

Ghani's government has repeatedly raised the ominous prospect of IS making inroads into Afghanistan, though the group that has captured swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq has never formally acknowledged having a presence in Afghanistan.

"Most of the leadership [of the Taliban] has disappeared or has not shown itself in the last many years, and because of that, a lot of analysts believe that the Afghan Taliban, the young ones, are now moving towards IS", added FRANCE 24’s Siddiqi.

‘Bloody summer’

Taliban insurgents, have meanwhile, denied responsibility. The militants, who were ousted from power by a US-led invasion in 2001, rarely claim attacks that kill large groups of civilians, saying their activities are restricted to foreign or Afghan military and government targets.

"The IS presence has never been confidently confirmed, and we still have to be cautious about claims made in the name of IS", Haroon Mir, a Kabul-based political analyst, told the AFP news agency.

The deadly bombing comes as Afghanistan braces for what is expected to be a bloody push by the Taliban at the start of the spring season.

"The announcement by the IS today is alarming, if verified, and would mean that Afghanistan should prepare for a bloody summer, maybe the bloodiest in the past 14 years", said Haroon Mir.

One civilian was also killed and two others wounded on Saturday in what appeared to be a remote-controlled car bomb attack in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province. Another blast was reported near a shrine in Jalalabad, but no one was hurt.

According to a recent UN report, the number of civilians killed and wounded in Afghanistan jumped 22 percent in 2014.

Rouhani Meets Erdogan

Rouhani meets Erdoğan as regional conflicts strain Iranian-Turkish ties
Sunni/Shia rift brought to surface as sharp split between Tehran and Ankara over Syrian and Yemeni civil wars cool relations between once-friendly neighbours
 Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, right, meeting his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, at the Saadabad palace in Tehran. Rouhani praised Turkey for backing the recent nuclear agreement with the west.
 Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, right, meets his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, at the Saadabad palace in Tehran. Rouhani praised Turkey for backing the recent nuclear agreement with the west. Photograph: AP
Saeed Kamali Dehghan
Tuesday 7 April 2015 14.12 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 7 April 2015 14.52 EDT
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Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has met his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Tehran amid strong differences between the two countries over the region’s most bruising conflicts, especially the Syrian civil war and the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen.

Erdoğan infuriated Iranians last month when he said the Islamic republic was “trying to dominate the region” and accused Tehran of pursuing a sectarian agenda in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. More than 60 Iranian MPs had asked for his visit to be cancelled.

Despite this, Erdoğan was welcomed by Rouhani in the Iranian capital on Tuesday and, in an unusual departure from Tehran’s diplomatic protocol, the Turkish leader’s motorcade had a mounted escort as it made its way into the Saadabad palace, following a similar ceremony held for the Iranian president in Ankara.

Erdoğan also met Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader in Iran. In a direct reference to Turkey’s support for the Saudi-led intervention there, Khamenei’s Twitter account announced later: “Solution to Yemen crisis is to stop foreign intervention & invasion. It’s on Yemenis to decide for their future.”


“We’ve had a substantial and good meeting,” Rouhani said in a joint press conference after the two leaders met behind closed doors, praising Turkey for welcoming the preliminary agreement reached in high-level nuclear negotiations in Switzerland.

“Our both countries want to increase the [bilateral] trade volume from $14bn [£9.5bn] in the previous year to nearly $30bn,” the Iranian president said. Rouhani predicted that a final agreement between Iran and the west, which could lead to the lifting of economic sanctions, would boost economic ties between Tehran and Ankara.

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Turkey imported almost $10bn worth of goods from Iran in 2014 and exported a total of $4bn. Ankara provided a financial lifeline to Tehran when international sanctions cut off its banking system from the outside world by paying for Iranian natural gas in gold.

Iran and Turkey share a long border and have had peaceful relations in modern times, usually putting economic relations over regional politics. But relations became frosty as the two capitals followed opposing paths over the Syrian conflict.

Iran has extended unwavering support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime, while Turkey backed Syrian opposition forces and called for Assad to be removed from power. In Yemen, too, they have strong disagreements: Iran supports the Shia Houthi rebels but Turkey has backed Saudi Arabia’s air strikes against the Houthi forces, also known as Ansar Allah (the Supporters of God). In recent months, Turkey has become closer to Iran’s main rival in the region, Saudi Arabia.

Erdoğan sparked a row in March after voicing opposition to Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East, echoing similar concerns made by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. He urged Tehran to respect the territorial integrity of Syria, Iraq and Yemen by withdrawing any forces it has in those countries.

“Iran’s attitude towards the matter is not sincere because they have a sectarian agenda. So they will want to fill the void that will be created by Daesh [Islamic State] themselves,” Erdoğan said at the time.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, strongly objected. “It would be better if those who have created irreparable damages with their strategic mistakes and lofty politics would adopt responsible policies,” he said.

Iran accuses Turkey of supporting takfiris, its terminology for Sunni extremists. Hossein Shariatmadari, the hardline editor of the state-run newspaper Kayhan, said before Erdoğan’s arrival that the Turkish president’s visit to Tehran was an insult to the Iranian people.

Fadi Hakura, an expert on Turkey and associate fellow at Chatham House, said it was unlikely that such disputes would lead to a complete breakdown in relations between the two states. “Iran and Turkey have maintained their bilateral relationship in the face of major disagreements over regional issues. They cannot afford to allow their bilateral relations to experience a complete rupture.

“The two countries share a common border, which is the most peaceful border in the Middle East since the 17th century, and they have substantial energy and economic ties.”

Nevertheless, Hakura said relations were not as warm as they had been five years ago. “Iran no longer trusts Turkey as an effective mediator and does not engage in strategic dialogues with Turkey on the nuclear issue or other issues such as Iraq, Syria and Yemen,” he said.

“In essence, the Arab spring has brought the so-called Sunni/Shia divide to the surface and that has led to the cooling of relations between Tehran and Ankara.”