Archive for category: News

If the Obama administration decides to suspend sanctions against Iran, Congress will go along with the decision, an American politician says.

Art Olivier, the former mayor of Bellflower, California, who was also the Libertarian candidate for vice president in the US presidential election in 2000, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday.

He was commenting on US Secretary of State John Kerry’s assertion that the White House does not need congressional approval to lift Iran sanctions.

The Obama administration is reportedly planning to lift sanctions against the Islamic Republic without an immediate vote in Congress, but it says lawmakers will have the final word on whether to permanently terminate the sanctions.

“Congress does have the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, that’s one of the few limited powers they do have. And if the administration decides to lift the sanctions, then Congress could try to enforce the sanctions,” Olivier said. 

“But this is something that’s really never done, very seldom done in the United States anymore. When the administration makes a decision, Congress usually ends up going along with it. And they don’t challenge it,” he added. 

“But theoretically they could challenge it. Congress could vote to continue the sanctions. The administration/the president could veto that vote, then the Congress could override the veto by two-thirds votes from both houses. This is very rarely ever done. And I don’t think it will happen. I think that Congress will go along with it,” the Libertarian politician noted.

At a press conference in Berlin, Kerry said, “On sanctions, what we’ve merely said to people is that — and we’ve said this in public testimony as well as in private conversations — that in the first instance, we would look to suspend sanctions, which the president can do, simply because that’s the necessary way to proceed with respect to the negotiations themselves.”

The plan, first revealed by The New York Times on Sunday, does not suggest that the US Congress will be sidestepped on any nuclear deal with Iran, Kerry said.

The top US diplomat said that administration officials were engaged in “a regular series of briefings” with lawmakers on the issue, emphasizing that “Congress has an extremely important role to play in this.”

Iran and the P5+1 group– Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany – are negotiating to narrow their differences over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program ahead of a November 24 deadline.

Sources close to the Iranian negotiating team say the main stumbling block to resolving Western disputes over Iran’s nuclear issue is the removal of sanctions, not the number of centrifuges or the level of uranium enrichment.

In July, the US representative in nuclear talks, Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, testified that the White House would consult with Congress but did not need its approval to suspend sanctions against Iran.

GJH/GJH

Two new opinion polls show that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has gained ground over opposition candidate Aecio Neves ahead of the October 26 runoff presidential election.

The latest opinion polls by Brazil’s major polling firms, Ibope and Datafolha, on Thursday put Rousseff at a clear lead of between six to eight percentage points over Neves.

According to the statistics released by Ibope, the incumbent president has 49 percent of voter support while her rival has 41 percent.

The other polling center, Datafolha, gave the lead to Rousseff with 48 percent of the vote versus 42 percent for Neves.

An earlier survey conducted by the research firm Vox Populi indicated that support for Rousseff stood at 45 percent compared to 44 percent for Neves.

Pro-business Neves has gained ground since his surprise performance in the first round, when he finished second ahead of popular environmentalist Marina Silva and behind Rousseff.

On October 12, Neves secured Silva’s endorsement, enhancing his chances in the October 26 election.

Meanwhile, recent allegations of bribery involving Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras and top government officials are likely to adversely affect Rousseff’s runoff campaign.

IA/HJL/MHB

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says Washington and Seoul have agreed that the US will maintain its control over the South Korean army in the event of war with North Korea.

Hagel made the remarks on Thursday after meeting with South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo at the Pentagon, Washington.

The US was scheduled to transfer wartime control of South Korean troops to Seoul in 2015.

However, Hagel said the handoff will be delayed to a later time to ensure South Korean troops have the necessary military capabilities to thwart the North’s threat.

“While this agreement will delay the scheduled transfer of operational control, it will ensure that when the transfer does occur, Korean forces have the necessary defensive capabilities to address an intensifying North Korean threat,” he told reporters.

Hagel also reaffirmed that Washington would maintain the previous number and structure of its military forces in South Korea.

The US has kept combat forces on the Korean Peninsula since the Korean War in the early 1950s. Pyongyang says Washington’s continued hegemonic control in the region is provocative.

The US has 28,500 troops in South Korea, which has its own 640,000-strong force. In the event of war with North Korea, current plans call for a US military commander to lead both forces.

In his new memoir “Worthy Fights”, former CIA chief Leon Panetta says US war plans against North Korea involve the use of nuclear weapons should communist forces pour across the demilitarized zone (DMZ), dividing North and South Korea.

Panetta recalls a 2010 briefing in Seoul by General Walter L. “Skip” Sharp, the commander of US forces in South Korea, who apprised him of the plans.

“If North Korea moved across the border, our war plans called for the senior American general on the peninsula to take command of all U.S. and South Korea forces and defend South Korea —  including by the use of nuclear weapons, if necessary,” the former Pentagon chief writes.

GJH/GJH

By Catherine Shakdam

As Yemen newly appointed Prime Minister Khaled Bahah gets ready to tackle the momentous task of leading a new coalition government at a time of such great political and economic uncertainty, his arrival to the capital, Sana’a has been marred by reports of clashes in between Al Qaeda loyalists and the Houthis.

The Houthis – Zaidi group organized under the leadership of charismatic politician Abdel-Malek Al Houthi – who has worked since late September to reassert government control by cleansing Yemen towns and provinces from the presence of Islamists, in keeping it is crucial to note with President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s wishes, has over the past week been met by increased resistance in central and south Yemen.

Even though Al Islah – a Sunni radical faction which acts an umbrella for the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafi militants and pro-Saudi tribes – stood almost motionless before the Houthis’ advances in the highlands, unable to prevent the group’s takeover of the capital and subsequent political victory against the former government, the faction has since then re-grouped, determined to regain lost ground and reclaim absolute political and institutional control.

Looking at recent developments in the impoverished nation, namely the sudden rise in terror attacks and Al Qaeda related movements across the country, it has been almost impossible to ignore increasingly apparent links in between Al Islah and Al Qaeda; the latter appearing more and more to be the secret military arm of the former.

With this in mind, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s warnings back in 2011 that terror elements had worked their way to the highest offices in the republic under the influence of covert foreign powers – Saudi Arabia and Qatar – have taken an entirely new dimension.

If such allegations were at the time understood as an attempt to cling on to the presidency before increasing popular pressure, it appears now that such heedings carried a deep understanding of Yemen’s inner political dynamics.

The Al Qaeda connection

Now that Yemen’s 2011 revolutionary dust has settled, laying bear some uncomfortable truths as to the real motives of those powers who pushed and engineered what analysts understood at the time as a democratic awakening, Yemenis have realised what hold Al Qaeda truly has over their country and more importantly how deep it is rooted within their institutions.

Looking back at 2011, it is blatantly evident that Yemen uprising has served but one faction – Al Islah and one family in particular – Al Ahmar.

Until recently the most influential tribal and political family in Yemen, Al Ahmar brothers have enjoyed the backing of powerful regional allies in their eternal quest for riches and powers, namely Saudi Arabia.

Just as Riyadh has aided, financed, backed and supported Islamists across the region –Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Iraq — to act as a counter-power to budding democracies in order to control the political and ideological narrative from within and thus assert and protect its hegemonic ambitions, Yemen has lived under the shadows of Al Saud, its republic dwarfed by Riyadh’s political will and petro-dollars.

The very existence of Al Islah, a faction which was founded in 1990 by late Sheikh Abdullah Al Ahmar in reaction to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rise to power, was master-minded by Saudi Arabia as a mean to keep Saleh’s republican aspirations in check.

The most populous nation in the Arabian Peninsula, and potentially a strong regional contender in terms of political and economic traction, should it be allowed to flourish that is, Yemen has always been perceived by Riyadh as a threat to be neutralized, hence Al Saud’s determination to organized manageable chaos within Yemen borders.

As Islamists grew emboldened, radicals’ ideology degenerated into one of terror – Al Qaeda was born and the rest is history really.

Very much the hidden military wing of Al Islah, its hidden agenda one might argue, Al Qaeda was allowed to grow and flourish within Yemen tribal circles, outside the government’s reach and influence while “moderate” Islamists walked the echelon of the political ladder, encroaching themselves on all state institutions.

The Terror Tide

Having torn open the veil which Al Islah pulled on Yemen’s institutions for several decades, the Houthis have now laid bare politicians and tribal leaders’ connections to Al Qaeda, as well as the depth of President Hadi’s inaptitude as the nation’s leader.

Locked in his presidential tower, oblivious to the chaos which is fast spreading across Yemen’s provinces, President Hadi has remained deafeningly silent before the terror surge which has gripped the impoverished nation. Either unable or unwilling, Yemen’s government has utterly failed its people, adding to the degree of urgency of a strong leadership and national cohesion.

So far, Yemen has relied on the Houthis to hold back Al Qaeda.

Interestingly, foreign media have been keen to hold the Houthis’ responsible for Al Qaeda’s insurgency, arguing that if it wasn’t for the Zaidi faction, Yemen would have been allowed to continue on its transition of power.

The fact that Abdel-Malek Al Houthi answered Yemenis’ calls for change and fair political representation suddenly seem to have become irrelevant to the media, so keen have they been to play into the sectarian narrative, reducing Yemenis’ aspirations to religious labelling.

If anything the Houthis have saved Yemen from a terror autocracy by shining a light on internal political and tribal manipulations.

Very much alone, the Houthis have taken on the fight of an entire nation on their shoulders.

Need for Unity

As Yemen stands to lose the very ground the Houthis freed from under Islamists’ boots, Yemenis as a people ultimately will have to choose in between religious prejudice and freedom.

Unless Yemen can prove capable to unite as a people behind the only power which has proved capable and willing to stand for the republic and democratic values, the rowdy nation stands to fall into the abyss of terror, and become yet another dot on the dark army’s map.

Rather than look without for answers and assistance, Yemenis will need to find within themselves the strength to oppose radicalism and fanaticism to emerge a unified nation.

There is a lesson to be learnt from the Houthis –That leadership can never be exclusive and that equality can only exist when all prejudices have been overcome, religious, political and otherwise.

Just as the Houthis have pushed open the door of popular rule, Yemen needs to stand behind its fighters to win its war against terror.

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A bomb explosion in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta has claimed the lives of three people and injured over a dozen.

An assailant attacked a rally held by supporters of the Pakistani religious and political party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), in Quetta, the capital city of violence-ravaged Balochistan Province, on Thursday.

According to reports, the leader of the party, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, was the target of the bomb attack. However, he managed to escape the deadly incident.

“I was in a bulletproof car and that’s why I survived…. My car was badly damaged, almost destroyed. The windscreen of my car was completely cracked, we received a big shock but me and friends inside the car are safe and alive,” said Rehman, who chairs the biggest religious party in the Pakistani parliament.

Earlier in the day, unidentified armed men opened fire on Shia Muslims on the outskirts of Quetta just days before the Shia holy month of Muharram.

“At least nine Hazara Shiites were sitting in a minibus after buying vegetables when two gunmen opened fire on them with automatic weapons, killing eight of them and wounding another one,” said the senior local police official, Imran Qureshi.

No group has claimed responsibility for either of the deadly attacks.

Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered an alliance with the United States in the so-called war on terror.

FNR/HMV/SS