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Tuesday,
February 11, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Iraq war to hit India: report ‘Inspectors must report Iraq not cooperating’
Pak calls Vajpayee’s remarks ‘baseless’ FBI presence has hardliners fuming
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Iraq war to hit India: report
Washington, February 10 India, which imports large amounts of oil from Iraq, will be particularly hardhit. Under the oil-for-food programme, Iraq-India trade volume in 2002 reached $ 1.1 billion, Stratfor said in a situation report. While both India and China have expanded oil consumption and are sensitive to the current high prices, both have outstanding contracts on Iraqi projects that might not be fulfilled by a new regime that replaces the one headed by Mr Saddam Hussein, the report said. As the USA prepares for a conflict in Iraq, negotiations for war spoils are intensifying, Stratfor said. U.S. oil majors are keen to keep a low profile on the subject, while companies from London to Beijing express both anticipation and dread over the notion of Iraq’s 122 billion barrels of reserves falling into the hands of a US-sponsored government. As Washington continues wrangling with the United Nations and trying to build a war coalition, negotiations for political and military assistance to a large extent hinge on what will happen to — and who will benefit from — Iraq’s oil wealth when the shooting stops, Stratfor said. Both West Asian and European governments are scrambling both to prevent an attack on Iraq and to prepare for the inevitable. Global and regional players fear a US-occupied country will be used as a linchpin for regional operations. They also worry about the effect a deluge of Iraqi crude will have on the global oil market. No matter how wary they might be, most of the major players — such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, France and Russia — might be forced to side with Washington or lose in the post-war payout of Iraqi oil, Stratfor added. Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world’s leading oil suppliers, have the most to lose, Strafor said. “If and when the USA occupies Iraq and pumps as much of its oil as possible, Riyadh will lose economically, politically and strategically.’’ “Iraq, with its enormous reserves, potentially could displace Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest crude supplier and powerhouse within OPEC — diminishing the kingdom’s political influence. In addition, US ground forces in Iraq will cause concern as Washington continues to pressure Riyadh to hunt for the Al-Qaida within the kingdom’s borders.’’ If cheap Iraqi oil floods the market in the next few years, Russia’s economy could be devastated, Stratfor said. The clear winners will be the USA and the UK, which will be best-positioned to tap Iraq’s reserves, and Kuwait, which finally will be rid of a hostile Iraqi regime, Stratfor said.
UNI |
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‘Inspectors must report Iraq not cooperating’
London, February 10 “My judgment is that he (chief UN inspector Hans Blix) will have to indicate the failure of Iraq to cooperate as they are required to do,” Mr Hoon said. The key weapons inspectors’ report will be enough to persuade doubters that a second UN resolution must be adopted “whether explicitly backing force or not”, he added. “I think the political and diplomatic arguments in favour of a second resolution are very strong,” said Mr Hoon. After that second resolution has been agreed, then “international support, I’m sure, will grow greater” in favour of further measures to persuade Iraq to disarm, the minister said. Such a resolution authorising the use of force is “clearly a possible hypothetical result,” said Mr Hoon, but “a more likely result is that there will be a second resolution and the international community will join in seeking to find ways of enforcing that resolution”. He implied that France would eventually rally to the US cause, saying that “the only division in Europe is between Germany and the rest at the present time”.
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Pak calls Vajpayee’s remarks ‘baseless’
Kathmandu, February 10 “Nothing could be farther from truth,’’ the English language daily Kathmandu Post today quoted Akram as saying. “We will not use friendly countries for such acts. We do not engage in such activities in the first place.’’ On Saturday, Prime Minister Vajpayee told a Chief Ministers’ Conference in New Delhi that the ISI was using territories of Bangladesh and Nepal to pursue its anti-India agenda and said Islamabad was not interested in establishing “tension free and good neighbourly relations’’ by ending its proxy war against New Delhi. “The most disconcerting aspect of terrorism is that it is sponsored, supported and funded by Pakistan as a matter of its state policy,’’ the Prime Minister had remarked. The Pakistani Ambassador to Nepal claimed Mr Vajpayee’s remarks were baseless, saying they “ignore both political and geographical realities. “If we, indeed wanted to do it, we have a long border with India and we don’t need to use Nepal whose sovereignty we respect’’.
UNI |
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FBI presence has hardliners fuming
Islamabad, February 10 US Embassy and Pakistani law enforcement officials insist the raid never happened. Still, the claims sparked a new wave of anger at the presence of FBI agents in Pakistan and a vow by radical religious leaders to kick US soldiers and agents out of the country. “Whatever it was, we had nothing to do with it,” a US official told The Associated Press of the alleged January 16 incident, speaking on condition of anonymity. Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, a senior Interior Ministry official who is coordinating intelligence and security in the campaign against terrorist groups, agreed. “These raids simply never took place,” Brigadier Cheema said. “These people wanted to malign the government, so they made these things up, but it is absolutely false. When we raid someplace, we own up to it”. The Islamic clerics who run the three schools in Islamabad, however, continue to insist they were targeted by English-speaking agents whom they took to be from the FBI, and it hasn’t been hard to convince most Pakistanis. News of the FBI involvement in high-profile arrests has become commonplace here, adding to a perception that the country is swarming with US intelligence agents. “Every white person in Pakistan is taken as an FBI agent, Brigadier Cheema said. “It is just a perception, but there are vested interests and quarters here that want to catch on to the public sentiment to give the impression the FBI is on a rampage. The ground reality is very different.” The US Embassy refuses to comment officially on individual arrests and it turned down a request for access to the FBI officials in Pakistan. But it said the number of the FBI agents in Pakistan has fluctuated between just two and 12 since the September 11 attacks in the USA. Whatever the number, Pakistani police and intelligence officials confirm that the FBI agents have been involved in nearly every important terror arrest in this country of 145 million persons since the war on terrorism began. Pakistan’s government says it has handed over more than 420 Al-Qaida and Taliban suspects to the USA. But opposition to President Pervez Musharraf’s support for the US-led campaign has become a rallying cry for resurgent Islamic hardline groups, which rode a strong anti-American platform to unprecedented success in October elections. The religious coalition is urging the expulsion of all US personnel.
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