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G-4 countries call for expanding Security Council
Homage paid to Kanishka bombing
victims
Gas pipeline ‘not to hit’ ties with USA
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PoK govt in row with President
Muzaffarabad, June 23 Serious differences have surfaced between the Azad Kashmir government s and President Sardar Mohammad Anwar Khan which have the potential to take a worst turn in the coming days, The Dawn learnt from highly credible sources.
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G-4 countries call for expanding Security Council
London, June 23 In a joint statement, the Foreign Ministers of India, Brazil, Germany and Japan said, “The Security Council must be expanded in both permanent and non-permanent categories, on the basis of equitable representation, with the inclusion of both developed and developing countries.” The statement was issued after External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh had an emergency meeting with his counterparts Celso Amorim of Brazil, Joschka Fischer of Germany, and Machimura Nobutaka of Japan in Brussels yesterday. The ministers said the Security Council “must be reformed to represent today’s global realities, not the world of 60 years ago”. They reiterated their resolve “to further cooperate to make the summit meeting on the Millennium Declaration in September a success, with substantial achievement in various fields”. In line with the recommendation of the UN Secretary-General, who had urged member states to take a decision on the important issue of Security Council reform before September, 2005, they expressed their resolve to introduce the text of the framework resolution, leading to its adoption by the General Assembly after AU and Caricom Summits in July, it added. The ministers were in Brussels to take part in an international conference on Iraq, co-hosted by the EU and the USA. They met at the Japanese Embassy in the Belgian capital.
— UNI |
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Homage paid to Kanishka bombing
victims
Cork (Ireland), June 23 Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Irish President Mary McAleese and Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Prithviraj Chavan joined over 200 relatives of the victims in paying tributes to the dead at a 90-minute ceremony that took place at the memorial site at
Ahakista, the place closest to the disaster, in western Cork. Describing the bombing as a “dreadful” and “wicked” event, McAleese said: “This is not how things are supposed to be. No one on that plane on that fateful day had this destination in mind.” “The tragic end to the lives of so many men, women and children who left Toronto for Bombay full of thoughts of tomorrow and the next day was to mark the start of a journey of sorrow for the bereaved,” she said. Martin said the bombing was one of the greatest tragedies Canada had ever suffered. “The loss haunts us to this day,” he said in a statement. The Canadian Government had paid $ 2,500 per person to the
victims’ relatives to attend the ceremony, the biggest ever for those killed in the disaster on June 23, 1985.
— PTI
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Gas pipeline ‘not to hit’ ties with USA
New Delhi’s determination to go ahead on a gas pipeline project with Iran despite opposition from the USA is not likely to damage its relationship with Washington, say US-based analysts.
“It will not strain US-Indian ties,” said Ashley J. Tellis, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who served as a senior adviser to Robert Blackwill when he was the U.S. Ambassador to India. “This relationship is far more encompassing and strategic for it to be disrupted by a disagreement over Iran.” Negotiations on the gas pipeline began in 1994, but no headway was made until last year because of tensions between India and Pakistan, and the project’s prohibitive cost. The 2,600 km gas pipeline project, with an estimated cost of about $ 4.5 billion, has been strongly opposed by the USA because of concerns about Teheran’s secretive nuclear programme and its sponsorship of terrorism. India’s Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, a strong advocate of the pipeline, recently said: “We are sensitive to U.S. concerns and trust they are aware of our requirements. It is impossible for India to secure its energy requirements without access to natural gas resources in the extended neighborhood, especially Iran... I hope that even as we work with the U.S. and Iran in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to meet international concerns, the U.S. will work with us in securing our vital energy requirements.” To sustain its current 7 per cent growth rate, India imports more than 70 per cent of the crude oil it consumes. It is expected to import some five million tons of gas this year alone, with at least 20 per cent coming from Iran. India is on “fairly solid ground” when it talks about its energy needs, says Anupam Srivastava, director of the Asia programme at the Center for International Trade and Security at the University of Georgia in Athens. Some U.S. officials have indicated that the pipeline would put a crimp in U.S.-India relations. On a recent visit to New Delhi, U.S. assistant secretary of state for arms control Stephen Rademaker revealed the extent of this concern. “We think it [the Iran pipeline] would be a mistake. It would provide oil revenue to Iran that could be the basis of funding for weapons of mass destruction,” Mr. Rademaker said. During a recent meeting in Washington with Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly told the minister that the Iran pipeline would violate the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA). The act empowers the president of the USA to order punitive measures against any international company that invests more than $ 20 million a year in Iran’s energy sector. A violation of this act would mean sanctions on Pakistan, Miss Rice warned. Dr. Srivastava pointed out that the ILSA couldn’t, by law, stop other countries’ economic engagement with Iran. “This is just a U.S. extra-territorial law, not an international law. So when the U.S. sanctioned eight Chinese companies on December 27, 2004 for providing nuclear assistance to Iran in violation of the same act the Chinese said they broke no law - so all the U.S. could do is to stop business with the Chinese firms.” The Bush administration’s opposition to the pipeline stems from its suspicions that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons programme and concern that revenue earned from the pipeline will be used to fund terrorists. Analysts say this opposition could be dropped if Iran agrees to provide International Atomic Energy Agency weapons inspectors access to its nuclear plants. |
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PoK govt in row with President
Muzaffarabad, June 23 On Wednesday afternoon, the parliamentary party of the ruling Muslim Conference decided not to attend a dinner which the
President had hosted in the honour of the Legislative Assembly (LA) members at his residence. The decision was taken soon after prorogation of the LA session in a close-door meeting which was also attended by Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat, Muslim Conference President Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan and LA Speaker Siab Khalid. The meeting took serious stock of “obstacles being created by the President in the smooth functioning of the government” and of his press statements in which he had allegedly dubbed the Azad Kashmir (occupied Kashmir) politicians as “flatterers.” A source told The Dawn that three top Muslim Conference leaders - Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat, former Premier Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan and party President Sardar Attique Ahmed — had already made up their mind to boycott the President’s dinner. Most of the participants remained silent at the meeting, but some stressed that the decision should be reviewed because it was a traditional dinner, the source said. But the Prime Minister and the MC chief appeared unwilling to change their mind as they cited different reasons in support of their viewpoint, he added. The source said that a vocal participant expressed doubt if the party leadership would adhere to the decision. “Then you will also have to stick to this decision instead of hobnobbing with the President,” the source quoted him as having said at the meeting. |
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