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INTERNATIONAL
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Iraqi politicians save power sharing pact after walk-out Iraqiya members say bloc will stay in govt BAGHDAD: Iraqi law makers appeared yesterday to have salvaged a pow er-sharing deal that gives Nuri Al-Maliki a second term as premier, days after a dramatic w alkout from parliament by his former rivals. The pact, w hich has looked fragile since being signed on Wednesday, has been lauded by w orld leaders, including US President
RAFAH: A Palestinian man carries a sheep in the Rafah refugee camp yesterday. Muslims worldwide are preparing for the Eid-Al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, with the sacrificial killing of sheep, goats, cows or camels. — AP
Iran arms-smuggling case displeases Nigeria ABUJA: Nigeria will take actions against Iran if an investigation shows it violated international law and UN sanctions in an arms smuggling case, Nigeria’s foreign minister said Friday. The artillery rockets and other weapons, loaded in 13 shipping containers that were labeled as building supplies, were seized on Oct 26 at a port in Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria’s security service believes the arms were imported by some local politicians to destabilize the country if they lose in upcoming elections that are expected to be hotly contested. An international cargo shipper based in France has said one of its ships picked up the containers from Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran. “The consignment did originate from Iran,” Nigerian Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia told a news conference Friday “That has been confirmed from our own shipping documents and the Iranian authorities have also confirmed that the consignment did originate from Iran.” Underscoring the sensitivity of the matter, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki met with his Nigerian counterpart here late Thursday. Late Friday, Ajumogobia told private television network Channels Television that Mottaki and the Iranian government agreed to having one of the men, Azimi Agajany, be interviewed yesterday by Nigerian security agents. Ajumogobia said Iranian diplomats initially balked at conducting the interview outside of their embassy, but later agreed to let Agajany leave. “We insisted on respect for our processes and our laws,” Ajumogobia said. Nigerian authorities believe both men are hiding in the Iranian Embassy, located down a quiet street in Abuja, the capital, and which is being watched by Nigerian security officials. On Friday, for the second consecutive day, two unmarked patrol vans with long radio antennae waited outside the Iranian Embassy. The vans looked similar to others used by Nigeria’s State Security Service. Like other official vehicles used for security purposes, they did not have license plates. “If Nigeria finds at the conclusion of the investigation that there has been a breach of international law, a breach of UN sanctions, Nigeria is a member of the UN Security Council (and) we will do what is necessary,” Ajumogobia told reporters.
In a 2007 resolution stepping up sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, the UN Security Council banned Iranian arms exports, forbidding the sale or supply of weapons by Iran, whether directly or indirectly. It requires nations to prevent any such transfers and prevent their citizens from obtaining any weapons from Iran. Mottaki’s visit came after Nigerian authorities had concluded that Iran’s government was behind the arms shipment, according to internal Nigerian government documents seen Thursday by The Associated Press. The Nigerian foreign minister said Mottaki cleared the way for Nigerian security officials to interview Agajany, one of the men who Nigeria says organized the secret arms shipment through a Tehran-based company called International Trading and General Construction. Ajumogobia said Agajany may be questions as early as Friday. The internal government reports seen by AP say Agajany received a visa to travel to Nigeria after getting an endorsement from Sheikh Ali Abbas Othman, also known as Abbas Jega, a Nigerian who worked for Radio Tehran’s Hausa language service and studied in Iran. Jega is in the custody of Nigeria’s State Security Service, a Nigerian government official told the AP. The other Iranian implicated in the case, Sayed Akbar Tahmaesebi, entered Nigeria after Nigerian authorities received a letter of recommendation from Iran’s foreign ministry saying he would “provide administrative support” at its Abuja embassy, according to the internal Nigerian reports. Tahmaesebi has diplomatic immunity and cannot be questioned without Iran’s consent, Ajumogobia said. “If the Iranians are willing to waive immunity then we will pursue that, but in the meantime we are taking one step at a time,” the Nigerian foreign minister told journalists at the Friday morning news conference. Inside the cargo containers at Nigeria’s main port in Lagos, inspectors found 107mm artillery rockets, rifle rounds and arms. The rockets can accurately hit targets more than 5 miles (8.5 kilometers) away with a 40-foot (12-meter) killing radius. Insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq have used similar rockets against US troops. China, the United States, and Russia manufacture versions of the rocket, as does Iran. —AP
MPs passed the deal by consensus, a parliamentary official told AFP, and an Iraqiya member read a statement to the Council of Representatives explaining why around 60 lawmakers from his bloc had walked out. “We left because of a misunderstanding over the implementation of the agreement,” Haidar Al-Mullah, an Iraqiya MP said in a statement to the chamber. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that “around 250 MPs (of 325 members) who were present approved by consensus the power-sharing initiative.” It was not immediately clear why 75 MPs stayed away from the session, or whom they represent. Mullah said later that three senior Iraqiya members who were barred from standing in the March elections over their alleged ties to ex-dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baath party would be reinstated within 10 days. Parliament’s failure to do so on Thursday prompted the walk-out. The next session of the Council of Representatives is scheduled for November 21, with the prolonged break due to this week’s Eid Al-Adha holiday. The power-sharing deal called for Maliki, a Shiite, and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to keep their jobs and for a Sunni Arab to be selected speaker of parliament. It also established a new statutory body to oversee security as a sop to Allawi, who had held out for months to regain the post of premier. The support of Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc, which narrowly won the March 7 poll and garnered most of its seats in Sunni areas, is widely seen as vital to preventing a resurgence of inter-confessional violence. The Sunni Arab minority that dominated Saddam Hussein’s regime was the bedrock of the anti-US insurgency after the 2003 invasion. Thursday’s parliamentary session, only the second since the election, had got off to a good start, with Maliki and Allawi sitting side-by-side in the chamber. But shortly after Sunni Arab and Iraqiya member Osama Al-Nujaifi was chosen as speaker, verbal clashes erupted, with Iraqiya complaining that the deal was not being honored. Iraqiya had wanted the three barred members to be reinstated before the vote to elect the president. When their demands were not met, around 60 lawmakers left the chamber. After some confusion, the remaining MPs began voting to reelect Talabani. Iraqiya has said its participation rests on four conditions: a bill forming the security body, a committee examining cases against political detainees, codifying the power-sharing deal and annulling the bans on the three Iraqiya members. Allawi has repeatedly accused Maliki of monopolizing security decisions during his first term. As far back as six months ago, US officials floated the idea of a new counterweight to the premier’s office in order to break the deadlock over the top job. US President Barack Obama hailed the agreement as a “milestone” in Iraq’s history. The government would be “representative, inclusive and reflect the will of the Iraqi people,” he said, adding that Washington had long lobbied for such a “broad-based government.” The US military, which currently has fewer than 50,000 soldiers in Iraq, is due to withdraw all of its forces by the end of 2011. Britain, a partner in the US-led invasion, called the deal a “significant step forward,” a sentiment echoed by France and Iraq’s northern neighbor Turkey. UN chief Ban Ki-moon welcomed the deal but urged Iraq’s leaders to “continue demonstrating the same spirit of partnership in moving swiftly to conclude the formation of a new government.” The Security Council said it “encourages Iraq’s leaders to rededicate themselves to the pursuit of national reconciliation,” and emphasized the importance of Iraq’s stability for the region. — AFP
Iran hangs serial killer TEHRAN: Iran hanged yesterday a serial killer convicted of murdering 16 women and girls over a four-year period, Fars news agency reported. Farid Baghlani was executed in a prison of the southwestern city of Ahvaz, the report said, adding families of the victims celebrated by handing out sweets to people in the detention facility. The report said
Baghlani began the killing spree at the port city of Abadan in 2004, and that he said during his trial that he carried out the murders out of hatred for women. The latest hanging brings the number of executions in Iran to at least 144 so far this year, according to an AFP count based on media reports. At least 270 people were executed in 2009. Iran is one of
the leading countries that carry out the death penalty each year, along with China, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The Islamic republic says the death penalty is essential to maintain public security and is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings. Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are all punishable by death in Iran. — AFP
Barack Obama, as a step forw ard in a country w ithout a new government since elections in March. Leaders from the three main parties to the pact met before a session of parliament yesterday and agreed to reconcile their differences and address the protests of the Sunni-backed bloc led by former premier Iyad Allaw i.
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Kurdish MPs Khaled Shwani (right) and Ala Talabani hold a press conference on the sidelines of a parliament session to discuss a power-sharing pact yesterday. — AFP