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N-deal clears first
hurdle in US Congress
N-deal made under special circumstances, says Rice
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Pak slams India-US N-deal, wants package deal Islamabad, June 28 A day after a key committee in the Congress endorsed a bill to implement the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, a bitter Pakistan today said it would not accept any “discriminatory treatment” and that a “package deal” for the two neighbouring countries would have better served the strategic stability in South Asia.
Israel forces enter Gaza
Lanka dismisses LTTE regret over Rajiv’s killing
Three Indians detained
in Dubai
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N-deal clears first
hurdle in US Congress
The Indo-US nuclear deal cleared its first major hurdle in the Congress yesterday afternoon as the Bill that seeks to allow this cooperation sailed through the House International Relations Committee (HIRC) with strong bipartisan support.
After an intense debate on several amendments proposed by members of the panel, the committee voted 37 to 5 to approve the Bill. The Bill will now be sent to the full House where it will be debated and voted on. “That approval, however, is by no means assured,” said HIRC Chairman Henry Hyde, cautioning the Bush administration to pay attention to the Congress’ concerns. The amended Bill, introduced by 10 members of the committee, including sponsor Hyde, would grant the President a series of waivers to existing law that would allow him to negotiate and submit to the Congress for approval an agreement for civil nuclear cooperation with India. The President must issue a series of determinations that India has met certain requirements, such as negotiation of a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), before he can exercise this authority. The Bill also requires continuing consultation with the Congress and a number of reports that will enable the Congress to remain fully informed of the ongoing negotiation and implementation of the agreement. Prior to the vote, HIRC co-chairman and one of the Bill’s co-sponsors Tom Lantos, California Democrat, noted, “The legislation will not please everyone in its entirety... No agreement between sovereign nations is ever perfect — such is the nature of international negotiations”. “The measure is an important step in transforming the strategic alliance of two of the oldest and largest democracies, while strengthening international security,” Mr Hyde, Illinois Republican, said after the vote. “While the world has known that India possesses nuclear weapons, India has not had a seat at the table of nuclear stakeholders. This brings India into the mainstream with other accountable countries, giving rise to the same benefits and responsibilities as other such states. The United States enjoys a close relationship with India, and we are only growing closer,” he said. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will mark up its own version of a Bill on the deal. That meeting is scheduled for tomorrow morning. The two Bills will then have to be reconciled by a conference of selected members before it is subjected to a final vote in the Congress. Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a co-sponsor of the Bill, said she was pleased that her colleagues on the HIRC passed the Bill. “This landmark legislation ... will promote our foreign policy and security objectives in Asia, while strengthening non-proliferation strategies by further integrating India into US and international efforts,” she said. Congressman Gary Ackerman, New York Democrat, said, “The Bill provides ample opportunity for the Congress to exercise its judgment on the agreement itself, as well as requiring that the IAEA safeguards agreement, and the additional protocol and the Nuclear Suppliers Group agreement all be in place before we move ahead with nuclear cooperation with India”. Delivering a message to Iran, North Korea and Pakistan, Mr Ackerman said: “If you want to be treated like India, be like India”. The Bill had its share of critics with five members of the committee voting against it. Iowa Republican Congressman James Leach described Tuesday as a “sad day in the world of arms control and the world of law”. He said Pakistani officials in meetings had made it clear that if this deal goes through Pakistan will respond with more nuclear weapons. “This is a dilemma for the international community that we are working to undercut the most serious arms treaty ever negotiated. This is not a happy day for the world”. However, Mr Ackerman disagreed with Mr Leach that the NPT was being “knifed” saying it was being “skillfully and surgically modified”. Meanwhile, in a report, Dr Ashley Tellis, a senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, dismissed criticism that the nuclear deal would enable India to rapidly expand its nuclear arsenal. Dr Tellis says the Government of India is in no hurry to build the biggest nuclear stockpile it could construct based on material factors alone. The report concludes that India already has the indigenous reserves of natural uranium necessary to develop the largest possible nuclear arsenal it may seek and, consequently, the US-Indian civilian nuclear cooperation initiative will not materially contribute towards New Delhi’s strategic capacities in any consequential way.
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N-deal made under special circumstances, says Rice
Islamabad, June 28 “The deal we made with India is under special circumstances,” said Rice after holding talks with President Pervez Musharraf and a separate meeting with Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri here last night. Asked whether Pakistan had raised the issue of extending the US-India nuclear deal, she said Washington is having very “fruitful” discussions with Islamabad on how to provide “reliable, safe and clean” energy. Her comments came barely hours before a US Congressional Committee endorsed a deal for sharing civilian nuclear energy with India. During her talks with Musharraf, Rice told him that the USA expected the military backed government to hold next year’s general elections in a free and fair manner. “I have had discussions with the President, with the Foreign Minister, with the Prime Minister about the importance that the world and the international community, friends of Pakistan, attach to a process next year that results in free and fair elections. She said the international community would watch all aspects of the poll process, including freedom for candidates to “assemble and campaign,” statement which political parties here considered as a reference to the government’s reluctance to permit former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to return to take part in the poll. Noting that there were expectations that Pakistan was going to take the step on the road to democracy, Rice said, “it is not just a matter of election day, it is a matter of access to the Press, it is a matter of access to be able to assemble and to campaign. We’ve been very clear about all of that”. “I have heard the commitment of the Foreign Minister and of the President and of the Prime Minister and others to that process. And we will certainly support it because everybody expects that process to take place,” she said. Rice said her visit to Pakistan was a follow up to review the progress made after the March visit of President George Bush. — PTI
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Pak slams India-US N-deal, wants package deal
Islamabad, June 28 “Pakistan does not accept any discriminatory treatment,” a Foreign Ministry statement said, reacting to the House International Relations Committee’s approval of a draft bill to make exemptions in US energy laws for implementing the deal. “Strategic stability in the region would have been better served if the American administration had offered the agreement to Islamabad too as a package deal to prevent nuclear arms race in the subcontinent,” said the statement. “While we will continue to act with responsibility in maintaining minimum credible deterrent and to avoid an arms race, we will remain fully committed to our security requirements and the needs of our economic development which demand growth in the energy sector including civilian nuclear power generation,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said. Pakistan’s reaction followed reports that President Pervez Musharraf once again asked visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to extend the nuclear deal to it.
— PTI
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Israel forces enter Gaza
Jerusalem, June 28 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned after the incursion that Israel would not balk at “extreme action” to retrieve Corporal Gilad Shalit who was taken captive on Sunday during a Palestinian attack on a military post in southern Israel. “We won’t hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family,” Olmert said, adding “all the military activity that started overnight will continue in the coming days. We do not intend to reoccupy Gaza. We do not intend to stay there. We have one objective, and that is to bring Gilad home”. He also ruled out any possibility of negotiations with the militant groups to release the kidnapped soldier. The militants who seized Shalit have demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails in exchange for information about the captured soldier. — PTI
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Lanka dismisses LTTE regret over Rajiv’s killing
Colombo, June 28 Anton Balasingham of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) told a news channel yesterday that the Tigers deeply regretted the assassination. “What is new in the interview. I did not see any apology or any admission of guilt. They are merely saying the same thing they have been saying that the assassination was a tragic event and they regret it,” government spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwella said. “The whole world knows that the LTTE killed Rajiv Gandhi,” Rambukwella said. “They must first accept the responsibility, apologise to the Government of India and the people of India.” — PTI
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Three Indians detained
in Dubai
Dubai, June 28 The workers were arrested yesterday after a fight broke out on Monday night among two groups of workers from the Al Huda contracting company over right to use cold drinking water facilities provided at their accommodation. The workers blamed each other for the unrest and Indian workers were quoted as saying in the ‘Gulf News’ that they did not intend to stay with the Egyptian workers any longer. The workers abandoned plans of a march to the Ministry of Labour, after the police assured them that a solution to their problems would be
found. — PTI
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