Archive for month: September, 2014

The recent war games by the US military were focused on fighting an enemy like China in case of blocking US access to international waters and airspace, according to a report.

Stars and Stripes explained in a detailed report the Pentagon’s Air-Sea Battle concept during last week’s Valiant Shield exercise over the western Pacific Ocean.

The exercise with 18,000 US forces tested the concept, which is a set of tactics that blinds an enemy’s communications in space and cyberspace and destroys land- and sea-based weapons platforms, the report said.

It added that China is the only country in the Pacific with type of “anti-access, area-denial” capability that participants of the drills fought against.

“Air-Sea Battle is about China — no doubt,” Aaron Friedberg, a Princeton University professor, said. “We have exaggerated concerns about offending the Chinese. I think at some point we have to be more candid.”

Washington says it is concerned about Beijing’s moves based on a report by the Pentagon to Congress that said Beijing is developing the weapons that will prevent the US from safely sending its ships into the international waters of the East and South China seas.

The tensions between the United States and China have escalated after Beijing announced an air defense zone over the East China Sea.

Security analysts said the Air-Sea Battle concept is focused on defeating China if the country grows increasingly belligerent.

The biennial maneuvers, which began Sept. 15 and ended Sept. 23, included personnel from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

AGB/AGB

Pakistan’s opposition politician Imran Khan has promised to continue protests until Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif steps down.

Addressing thousands of his supporters in the eastern city of Lahore on Sunday, Khan vowed to take the protests to other Pakistani cities until Sharif resigns.

“Nawaz Sharif should hurry up with his resignation while I wake up Pakistan by organizing public protests,” Khan said.

“I am thankful for Lahoris for their massive support. Lahoris have not left me. I will always stand by the Lahoris.”

Last week, the former cricketer took his protest to the southern city of Karachi from the capital Islamabad, where he has been leading opposition rallies for more than a month.

Cleric Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri has also led separate protests in Islamabad since mid-August.

The opposition groups accuse Sharif of corruption and rigging last year’s parliamentary elections, which swept him to power.

Pakistan has been the scene of anti-government protests since August 14.

Talks between representatives from Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the opposition groups have stalled, as both sides refuse to back down.

The ruling party says Sharif will not resign, while the opposition refuses to accept any solution short of his resignation.

MSM/MAM/AS

President Barack Obama says it is “absolutely true” the United States underestimated the threat posed by the insurgents who formed the ISIL Takfiri group.

Obama made the comment in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” which is to be broadcast on Sunday. The channel released some excerpts of the interview before airing it.

60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft asked Obama about the remarks made by  Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who has said the White House  underestimated ISIL.

“That’s true,” Obama replied. “That’s absolutely true.”

Kroft also asked Obama how the ISIL militants were able to seize large swaths of land both in Syria and Iraq.

“During the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos,” Obama said.

Obama also accused the Iraqi army of not having the necessary will and ability to resist against ISIL.

The US commander in chief also listed a range of measures he thinks Washington should take in order tp put more pressure on the insurgent group.

“We just have to push them back, and shrink their space, and go after their command and control, and their capacity, and their weapons, and their fueling, and cut off their financing, and work to eliminate the flow of foreign fighters.”

The ISIL controls large areas of Syria’s east and north. They sent militants into Iraq in June, seizing large parts of the land straddling the border between Syria and Iraq.

The US and some of its allies have formed a coalition and have been conducting air raids against the ISIL and other Takfiri groups in Syria and Iraq. The airstrikes in Syria, however, are conducted without an approval from the Syrian government.

Washington and its regional and Western allies have been financially and militarily backing the militants fighting against the government of President Bashar al Assad in Syria since 2011.

DT/DT

Security has been tight in the Afghan capital, Kabul, as the country is preparing to host the inauguration ceremony of President-elect Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.

Officials say large areas of the capital will be locked down during the ceremony, which will be held in the presidential compound on Monday.

“For the presidential inauguration ceremony …, the Afghan national police forces have taken strong security measures, especially in Kabul,” Sediq Sediqi, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said on Sunday.

“We will do everything to make sure that this happens in a very secure environment.”

Many international leaders and dignitaries have been invited to the ceremony.

Earlier this month, Ghani was named president-elect after he reached a deal to share power with his rival in the June run-off vote Abdullah Abdullah following months of political wrangling.

Based on the deal, Ghani will become president, while Abdullah will take up the new post of “chief executive officer” (CEO), which will be similar to the role of prime minister.

The new Afghan government will succeed that of President Hamid Karzai, who has been in power since Washington and its allies invaded the country.

The United States and its allies attacked Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity remains in the country, despite the presence of thousands of foreign troops.

MSM/MAM/AS

About 25 percent of Israel’s settlement constructions this year have been erected in the eastern side of East al-Quds (Jerusalem) where a larger population of Palestinians resides, an NGO says.

An official form Israeli NGO Peace Now said on Sunday that a quarter of the illegal constructions in 2014 were in the eastern side of the occupied city, annexed during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Earlier, the city council said 2,100 settler units were built there between January 1 and June 30 but it did not mention where the constructions were carried out.

“We’re talking about approximately 500,” settlements, said Hagit Ofran from the NGO.

Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the besieged Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.

Tel Aviv, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.

According to the city’s Israeli municipality, 306,000 Palestinians live in East al-Quds, who are not considered citizens by Tel Aviv. Some 200,000 illegal settlers also live there, according to the municipality’s figure.

The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.

NT/MAM/AS