The US on Wednesday reiterated that the 123 Agreement and not the contentious Hyde Act would govern a civilian nuclear agreement it struck with India. Earlier this month, Congress party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi, on a visit to Washington, asserted India was bound by only the 123 Agreement and not the Hyde Act.

Speaking to reporters at the Foreign Press Centre in Washington on Wednesday, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher denied he had dodged the issue in the past. “The 123 Agreement binds India and the US. That’s the deal,” Boucher said.

“We don’t see any inconsistency between the Hyde Act and the 123 Agreement. The requirements of US law are on us to meet. The essential function of the Act is to enable a nuclear deal with India, because otherwise under American law we were prohibited from doing anything with India,” he said.

“And so the Hyde Act is what makes it possible for us to sign this deal and conclude the agreement. The agreement binds the US and India once it’s fully ratified and finished,” he added.

“We don’t see any inconsistency between what we were allowed to do and required to do under the Hyde Act, but what binds India and the US together is the 123 Agreement, not the Act,” Boucher contended.

The civilian nuclear deal has been delayed by objections from Left parties in India leading officials in Washington and New Delhi to provide pessimistic outlooks for the future of the deal.

President George W. Bush’s term in office ends in less than a year causing officials in Washington to worry that a failure to conclude the nuclear deal before then would rob the administration of its chance to notch up a lone foreign policy success.

“Every day that goes by makes it harder to get the deal done this year,” Boucher said.

He pointed out that all three presidential candidates - Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain - had voted in support of the nuclear deal.

“I don’t think it is so much of a political issue, though. If you look at any of the major candidates in both parties, there’s been very strong support for the US-India relationship and a desire to see this move forward on a bipartisan basis, including in the nuclear area,” he said.

Peshawar, April 24
An Al-Qaida-linked militant commander has ordered his followers to stop attacks in Pakistan in the wake of the new government beginning peace talks, a government official said today.

Pakistan’s new government that emerged from a February general election has promised to pursue negotiations in a bid to end a tide of militant violence in which hundreds of people have been killed since the middle of last year.

But, the prospect of peace pacts with militants based in lawless tribal areas along the Afghan border has raised concern as critics say deals only give militants the opportunity to re-group and intensify their attacks in Afghanistan.

With talks under way, Baitullah Mehsud, a militant leader accused of organising the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December, has put out word to his followers to cease attacks in Pakistan.

“All members of Tehrik-e-Taliban are ordered by Baitullah Mehsud that a ban is imposed on provocative activities for the sake of peace,” the Tehrik-e-Taliban, or Movement of Taliban, said in a leaflet distributed in the South Waziristan region and nearby towns close to the Afghan border.

The group is an umbrella organisation, formed last year, of various militant groups based in Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun border lands, and led by Mehsud.

A military spokesman declined to comment on the ceasefire or the talks, but he denied a militant claim that government troops had begun pulling back from positions in South Waziristan.

Top interior ministry official Rehman Malik welcomed the ceasefire: “If he’s said it, we welcome it,” Malik told reporters, adding that Mehsud had denied killing Bhutto.

Earlier, Mehsud’s spokesman Maulvi Omar had said the talks with the government were making progress and he welcomed the release of Sufi Mohammad, a radical cleric who sent thousands of militants to Afghanistan to fight US-led forces who overthrew Taliban in 2001. Detained in 2002, he was freed on Monday. — Reuters

Beijing, April 24
China said today a shipment of weapons bound for Zimbabwe would be recalled after South African port workers refused to unload it and amid a call from Britain to prevent arms flowing into the troubled country.

Zambia, which chairs the Southern African Development Community grouping, had urged regional states to bar the An Yue Jiang from entering their waters, saying the weapons could deepen Zimbabwe’s election crisis.

“To my knowledge, the Chinese company has decided to recall the ship and the relevant goods bound for Zimbabwe,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference.

She said the reason was the same she gave on Tuesday -- that the ship had been unable to unload its goods.

But she defended the shipment in the face of criticism from New York-based Human Rights Watch, which said any state that sent arms and ammunition to Zimbabwe could be complicit in the country’s rights abuses.

“In the field of conventional weapons, we have trade relations with some countries. These are consistent with our laws and with security council resolutions and China’s international obligations,” Jiang said.

“We have been very responsible and cautious with regards to weapons exports and we have a very strict management system for weapons exports.” No results have been announced from Zimbabwe’s March 29 presidential vote, while the outcome of a parliamentary poll is also in doubt because of partial recounts.

The Opposition movement for democratic change (MDC) says it won the elections and the delay in releasing the results extends a deadlock, in which the MDC says 10 members have been killed.

Jiang also gave a spirited defence of China’s trade with Africa, following a European Parliament resolution that criticised its shipping weapons to states, including Sudan and Chad, and said investments without conditions in poorly governed countries could perpetuate human rights abuses. — Reuters

BRIEFLY

KATHMANDU
Maoists to scrap peace treaty with India: The incoming Maoists-led government plans to scrap the 58-year-old Indo-Nepal Peace and Friendship Treaty and have a fresh pact reflecting new realties besides reviewing all other bilateral agreements. “Our past policy towards the 1950 treaty remains unchanged, we want to scrap that treaty and replace it with a new one in the changed context,” said Maoist chairman Prachanda. During the poll campaign, the Maoists said the treaty was “unequal” which needed to be abrogated, a demand which was also made in the Himalayan nation eight years back. — PTI

LONDON
3 NRIs guilty of £300-m fraud : Three Indian-origin businessmen, who swindled banks in Britain and the US of more than £ 300 million by pretending to run a worldwide metal trading empire, have been found guilty and face a long term in jail. Virendra Rastogi (39), Anand Jain (43) and Gautam Majumdar (57), ex-directors of metal trading business RBG Resources, were convicted at London’s Southwark Crown Court of conspiracy to defraud and remanded to custody this week. Judge James Wadsworth told the three could expect ‘long prison terms’ when he sentences them on June 5. The conviction came at the end of a long drawn out international investigation. When investigators from the serious fraud office (SFO) swooped on Rastogi in his Mayfair apartment here in 2002, he was found shredding wads of documents. — PTI