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Thursday,
February 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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EU leader in Jeddah to pursue Saudi plan
Pervez ‘ready’ to hand
over Omar to USA USA accepts JeM links with
Al-Qaida Most Pakistanis ‘anti-USA’ |
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8 held for firing on US plane 14 Maoists shot in Nepal
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EU leader in Jeddah to
pursue Saudi plan Jeddah, February 27 Mr Solana cut short a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories to fly to Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea city of Jeddah for talks with Prince Abdullah, de facto ruler of Washington’s main Gulf Arab ally. Earlier this month Prince Abdullah resurrected an Arab offer to normalise relations with Israel in return for full Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands occupied in 1967 war. The initiative, a longstanding Arab demand and the basis of Arab-Israeli peace talks launched in 1991, appears to have renewed hopes for ending 17 months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed in which more than 1,100 people have been killed. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has said he “appreciated and supported completely” Prince Abdullah’s efforts. The proposal aired by the Saudi leader, but not yet formally made, has also won praise from Western Security Council members as well as US President George W. Bush. The White House said Bush hailed the ideas in a conversation with the crown prince on Tuesday. But spokesman Ari Fleischer made clear that Washington believed proposals already on the table for ending the violence had to take effect first. Mr Solana, who met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem on Tuesday, told reporters the hawkish Israeli leader was prepared to meet any Saudi officials to discuss the plan. But Israeli right-wingers have made clear they will oppose any proposal that calls for a return to pre-1967 borders on the grounds that that would jeopardise the Jewish state’s security. Diplomats said that although Prince Abdullah’s putative offer holds little new, the fact that it has come from the secretive kingdom has allowed the various parties involved in peacemaking to treat it as a fresh starting point. The Prince’s readiness to talk of peace with Israel, at a time when the hardline Sharon is in power, was also aimed at dragging US attention back to the region, the analysts added. GAZA: The Palestinian militant group Hamas signalled its opposition on Wednesday to a new Middle East peace initiative put forth by Prince Abdullah. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas founder and spiritual leader, said his Islamic movement would reject any proposal that ceded land it considered part of historic Palestine, which includes the territory that now makes up the Jewish state. “Anything that contradicts our policies and strategies cannot be accepted by us,” Yassin told Reuters in an interview in Palestinian-ruled Gaza. “We will continue our resistance against the enemy.” Yassin said Hamas would support the Saudi proposal only if it was put forth as a temporary, tactical move rather than as a permanent solution. NABLUS
(West Bank): A Palestinian and an Israeli were shot dead early today in separate incidents in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Palestinian security sources and Israeli public radio said. The Palestinian was shot dead and two others wounded by Israeli forces in an exchange of fire at the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, Palestinian security sources said. Imad al-Mograbi, 25, was killed in the shootout between armed Palestinian groups and Israeli troops.
Reuters, AFP |
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Pervez ‘ready’ to hand
over Omar to USA Washington, February 27 Senior Pakistan officials close to the negotiations said Musharraf had promised US ambassador Wendy Chamberlin at their meeting yesterday that he would hand over Pearl once legal proceedings against him were completed in Pakistan, according to the paper. “President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan agreed in principle today to surrender the chief suspect in the killing of Daniel Pearl to the USA, but only after Pakistan concluded its criminal investigation and was confident that the handover would meet legal requirements, Pakistani officials with knowledge of the discussion said tonight,” said the daily. Sheikh, who is in custody right now in Pakistan, has already been indicted in the USA last November. Despite high praise for Musharraf’s investigation and his anti-terror policies that Washington has been voicing publicly, there is some dissatisfaction within the Bush administration on the handling of the Pearl case. Two strikes by alleged terrorists in Pakistan, one that killed nine people in Rawalpindi, and a firing on American aircraft landing at a Pakistani airport, are adding to a lessening of confidence in Musharraf’s hold over terrorist elements, some of which are said to have the support of former ISI officials. US officials are also concerned about the way some aspects of the Pearl case, such as suppression of information about Sheikh’s surrender for a week by Pakistani authorities, are raising doubts about the motives behind the investigations in Pakistan. KARACHI: Police have been warned not to extradite Omar Saeed Sheikh to the USA, Pakistani officials here said. The Karachi police received an anonymous call saying if the process of possible extradition of Sheikh, currently in police custody, to the USA is not stopped, the place where he is being held would be blown up, Pakistan’s CID sources told SADA news agency. The caller warned officials that rockets or bombs would be used to blow up the place where Sheikh was being held, if plans to get him extradited went ahead. Islamabad: Pakistan has said it has no objection to Washington’s request for sending Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed to the USA to face trial. Islamabad has informed the Bush administration that it has no objection to comply with the US request to extradite Omar, one of the three terrorists released by India to end 1999 hijacking of the Indian Airlines aircraft to Kandahar, The News said today.
IANS, PTI |
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USA accepts JeM links with
Al-Qaida THE USA blacklisted the Pakistan-based Al-Qaida terrorist group nine months after Britain, and only after intense pressure from the Indian Government, the WorldNET Daily has reported. In a despatch from Washington, the Internet media outfit said the British Home Office, which had been working closely with the Bush administration in the war on terror, outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed, an Al-Quaida branch in Pakistan, on March 29, last year. Yet, the US State Department did not add JeM to its list of terrorist groups until December 26, even though Indian intelligence had briefed American officials months earlier about JeM’s ties to Al-Qaida. The report said only now, in the wake of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s murder, was the Bush administration publicly acknowledging JeM’s ties to Al-Qaida. In a phone interview to WorldNet Daily, Mr Joe Reap, spokesman for the State Department’s Office of Counter-terrorism, confirmed that JeM members were tied to Al-Qaida through “terrorist training in Afghanistan”. The report said sources attributed the delay to the administration’s politically sensitive alliance with Pakistan, which until September 11 (terrorist attacks) had maintained diplomatic ties with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The WorldNet Daily, quoting Mr Reap, said the State Department denied any political considerations in the delay, however arguing that JeM’s threat was not clear until five of its members attacked the Indian Parliament on December 13. |
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Most Pakistanis ‘anti-USA’ Washington, February 27 The survey, conducted by the Gallup organisation in December and January, includes the views of 9,924 residents of Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Atleast 53 per cent of those questioned had unfavourable opinions of the USA, while 22 per cent had favourable opinions, CNN reported. Most respondents said they thought the USA was aggressive and biased against Islamic values, citing specifically what they described as a bias against Palestinians. Residents of Lebanon had the most favourable opinion of the USA at 41 per cent, followed by Turkey where the US approval rating stood at 40 per cent, the report said. Pakistan yielded the most anti-American results, with only 5 per cent saying that they liked the USA.
AFP |
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8 held for firing on US plane Jacobabad, Pakistan, February 27 Security has been stepped up at the Pakistani air force’s Shahbaz base in Jacobabad, 430 km north of Karachi, previously the scene of militant Islamic protests, the police said. The plane was not hit and there was no damage or casualties, the police spokesman said adding an anti-aircraft gun was believed to have been used.
Reuters |
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14 Maoists shot in Nepal Kathmandu, February 27 A Defence Ministry spokesman said soldiers on Tuesday killed eight guerrillas in Kalikot, four in Bajhang and two in Gorkha districts in west Nepal, a stronghold of the rebels campaigning for a communist republic in the Himalayan kingdom. The rebels were “killed in the course of search operations by security forces”, he said in a statement. The announcement came as more than 80 human rights activists demonstrated in temple-studded Kathmandu to urge the government and rebels to stop the conflict and resume peace talks. A fragile peace process collapsed three months ago after the Maoist insurgents broke a truce and resumed violence as the government refused to compromise the future of monarchy, a popular institution in a nation that considers the king a the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the Hindu god of protection.
Reuters |
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