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July 22 (Reuters) – The United States announced on Thursday it was dropping a more than decade-old ban on ties with Indonesia’s special forces, imposed over human rights abuses in the 1990s.
The decision, made public by U.S. officials during a visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Jakarta, was taken after Indonesia took steps requested by Washington including the removal of convicted human rights violators from the organisation’s ranks. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Sara Webb)
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s top diplomat and defense chief head to Seoul this week to discuss ways to respond to North Korea and deter it from any future attack after the sinking of a South Korean warship.
But the high-profile visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates risks angering China in the process, with an expected announcement of U.S.-South Korean military exercises that have set off alarms in Beijing.
Tension between North and South Korea remain high following the March sinking of the warship, Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors. Pyongyang has denied responsibility and escaped censure this month from the United Nations, which condemned the attack but, in deference to China, did not blame North Korea.
Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said the talks in Seoul were aimed at assessing the next steps with North Korea, including whether and how to resume stalled talks about Pyongyang’s nuclear program. Pyongyang said this month it was willing to return to disarmament talks, in limbo since 2007.
“The United States is considering a variety of options associated with North Korea and we will be in deep consultations,” Campbell said.
But he stressed that an essential precondition for any new talks would be that Pyongyang cease its “provocative ways” and commit to denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
Victor Cha, a former director of Asian Affairs at the White House National Security Council under the Bush administration, said he expected that re-engagement will take a back seat to the main message of deterrence during the visit to Seoul.
“Right now on this trip the focus is going to be on the deterrence part, that will be the big public message … But privately, the conversations will also deal with getting these talks back on track,” said Cha, who works for the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.
The visit has symbolic overtones, a show of U.S.-South Korean unity 60 years after the outbreak of the 1950-1953 Korean War. Gates will meet some of the 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea on Tuesday.
The trip will culminate Wednesday in the first talks between the U.S. and South Korean secretaries of defense and state. U.S. officials say the top-level event, reserved for only the closest U.S. allies, shows how important Obama views relations with South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
Clinton also plans discuss the U.S.-South Korea economic relationship, where President Barack Obama has vowed to push through a long-stalled free trade agreement, as well as South Korea’s preparations to hold the a G20 summit this year.
WAR GAMES
U.S. officials say the talks are likely to yield at least one concrete result: the announcement in Seoul of a series of joint U.S.-South Korean military drills over a period of months in both the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan.
“These are exercises that enhance our anti-submarine warfare capabilities. They will also, by extension, be a show of force to the North Koreans, and send a message — what we hope to be a very strong message — of deterrence,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell.
China, North Korea’s sole ally, has voiced deep concerns about any U.S.-South Korean drills in the Yellow Sea, which separates China and the Korean peninsula, and urged regional powers to put the Cheonan incident behind them.
U.S. officials, briefing reporters ahead of the trip, dismissed those concerns, saying drills in international waters in the Yellow Sea or elsewhere were “routine.”
“This is about sending a message to (North Korea). It’s not about sending a message to the Chinese. And it should not be interpreted as such,” Morrell said.
John Park, a researcher at the United States Institute of Peace who studies Chinese-North Korean relations, said drills risked aggravating ties between the United States and China.
“As much as the (U.S.-South Korean) announcement will be focused on a sending a message to North Korea, the unintended consequence is that messages are also being sent to China,” Park said.
Beijing broke off military-to-military contacts with the United States this year after the Obama administration notified Congress of a plan to sell Taiwan up to $6.4 billion worth of arms. Underscoring its displeasure, Beijing turned down a proposed fence-mending visit by Gates to China in June.
Park said that inside China, some believe the United States and South Korea are using the Cheonan “as its own pretext to enlarge the scope of the U.S.-South Korean alliance” west toward Chinese coastal waters.
“Their question is: Will the anti-submarine warfare exercises signal an expansion of the coverage area of the U.S.-(South Korea) alliance?”
(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
June 20 (Reuters) – The White House on Sunday hailed Israel’s easing of its land blockade of Gaza and said President Barack Obama would discuss “additional steps” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a Washington visit on July 6.
“We believe that the implementation of the policy announced by the government of Israel today should improve life for the people of Gaza, and we will continue to support that effort going forward,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
Israel unveiled new procedures on Sunday to ease its land blockade on Gaza, saying it would start allowing in all goods except for weapons and materials that can be used to make them. Israel has been under pressure to loosen restrictions since a deadly May 31 raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave. (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick)
WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) – U.S.-led forces are making progress against insurgents in Afghanistan despite significant casualties and concerns about the quality of Afghan troops, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.
Gates told the “Fox News Sunday” program that U.S. General Stanley McChrystal and other military leaders are confident that the campaign against Taliban insurgents, particularly in southern Afghanistan, is moving in the right direction.
McChrystal is the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.
“It is a tough pull and we are suffering significant casualties,” Gates said, adding that the Pentagon had expected a fierce battle in the southern city of Kandahar and other Taliban-controlled areas.
“He (McChrystal) is confident he will be able to demonstrate by December that not only do we have the right strategy but that we are making progress,” Gates said.
The U.S. defense secretary, however, said it was too early to be able to say how many U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan and how quickly they would leave when a planned drawdown began in July 2011.
“That absolutely has not been decided,” Gates said.
President Barack Obama decided in December to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan as part of a revised strategy that focuses on securing Kandahar, the Taliban’s birthplace, to try to turn the tide in the nearly nine-year-old war.
Obama also announced the July 2011 date for the gradual withdrawal of troops. Transferring responsibility for security to Afghan troops in certain parts of the country is one of the linchpins of the Obama strategy.
But doubts remain that Afghan troops will be able to assert control if given broader authority next year — recent reports have suggested that Kabul’s army is poorly trained and suffers high rates of desertion.
Some top military officials have said privately that they doubt they will really know if the war strategy is working or not until next summer, around the time Obama plans to begin a troop withdrawal, conditions permitting.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told ABC’s “This Week” program that the July 2011 drawdown date was “firm,” adding that Washington was seeing signs that the Afghan government was making headway on security.
“We are now at that point in Afghanistan, and in fact for the first time in eight years, nine years, they’re actually meeting their police recruitment requirements as well as their army recruitment requirements,” he said in an interview aired on Sunday.
Gates said he was confident that Afghan troops would be ready to take over primary responsibility for security in some parts of Afghanistan.
(Writing by Paul Simao, Editing by Will Dunham)
June 20 (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday that targeted economic sanctions on Iran had “real potential” to pressure Tehran to halt its nuclear program.
“Targeted economic pressures has real potential,” Gates told the Fox News Sunday program when asked if he saw any signs that Iran’s resolve to push ahead with its nuclear program was weakening in the face of international sanctions.
“I think there is a reasonable chance of getting the Iranian regime to finally come to their senses and realize that their security is probably more in danger by going forward,” Gates said.
He added, however, that all options, including a military strike, were still on the table in dealing with Tehran on the nuclear issue. (Writing by Paul Simao, Americas Desk, Editing by Sandra Maler)
June 20 (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Fox News Sunday that targeted economic sanctions on Iran had “real potential” to pressure Tehran to halt its nuclear program. (Writing by Paul Simao, Americas Desk, Editing by Sandra Maler)
(Reuters) – It could be up to three years before Iran is capable of developing a nuclear weapon, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday, adding that there was still time for the world to put pressure on Tehran. Asked how long the United States and its allies were prepared to wait for U.N. sanctions on Iran to bite, Gates said:
World
“I think that everybody agrees we have some more time, including the Israelis, and we will just continue to work it.
“Most people believe that the Iranians could not really have any nuclear weapons for at least another year or two. I would say the intelligence estimates range from one to three years.”
Even if Iran got that far, he said having nuclear weapons material was different to full “weaponization” or having a capable delivery system that could threaten neighbors or enemies further afield.
“But clearly them getting to the threshold of having the weapons is what concerns every body.”
June 11 (Reuters) – It could be up to three years before Iran is capable of developing a nuclear weapon, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday, adding that there was still time for the world to put pressure on Tehran. Asked how long the United States and its allies were prepared to wait for U.N. sanctions on Iran to bite, Gates said:
“I think that everybody agrees we have some more time, including the Israelis, and we will just continue to work it.
“Most people believe that the Iranians could not really have any nuclear weapons for at least another year or two. I would say the intelligence estimates range from one to three years.”
Even if Iran got that far, he said having nuclear weapons material was different to full “weaponisation” or having a capable delivery system that could threaten neighbours or enemies further afield.
“But clearly them getting to the threshold of having the weapons is what concerns every body.”
June 11 (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday he was disappointed by Turkey’s decision to vote against a U.N. Security Council resolution on sanctions against Iran but said it would not affect U.S.-Turkish military cooperation.
“I was disappointed by the Turkey vote in the Iranian sanctions. That said, Turkey is a decades-long ally of the United States and other members of NATO,” Gates said after a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.
“Turkey continues to play a critical part in the alliance,” he said.
Turkey, a key NATO member, joined Brazil in voting against the U.N. resolution on Wednesday, but the resolution still passed and the world powers are moving ahead with tighter sanctions on Tehran.
June 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, expects to make solid progress in the conflict across the country by the end of this year, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday. Speaking at the end of a gathering of NATO defence ministers in Brussels, Gates said the road ahead would be “long and hard” but said progress in the offensive so far was sustainable.
“General McChrystal told the ministers that he is confident that he will be able to show progress in the south and across the country and that the strategy is working by the end of the year,” Gates told reporters.
BRUSSELS, June 11 (Reuters) – NATO warned on Friday of tough times ahead in Afghanistan and said success was not yet assured in its struggle against a widening Taliban insurgency.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a meeting of defence ministers of the 28 NATO states the alliance force in Afghanistan was facing fierce resistance from insurgents in the Taliban heartlands of Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
A statement by the ministers said military operations were making “measured progress” in extending the reach of the Afghan government and marginalising the insurgency. However, it added:
“Significant challenges remain, and success is not yet assured.”
Rasmussen said NATO needed to step up its training effort to allow the start of a handover of security responsibility to Afghan forces, hopefully by the end of the year. But he said NATO’s commitment would be long term.
“There will be many difficult days ahead but a stable, sovereign Afghanistan means a safer world for all of us and we will do what is necessary for as long as necessary to make it happen,” he said.
SOBER ASSESSMENT
The sober assessment of the difficulties facing a mission now involving more than 122,000 foreign troops and worsening casualties came after the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said a long-awaited campaign in the Taliban’s birthplace Kandahar would unfold more slowly than planned.
Citing shortcomings that set back the last big U.S.-led offensive in neighbouring Helmand, General Stanley McChrystal said on Thursday he wanted more time to shore up Afghan support for the campaign in Kandahar and to prepare local authorities to provide services when security improves.
The decision to move more slowly on what has been billed as the biggest operation of the nearly nine-year-old war adds to doubt about what can be achieved by this year’s end, when the White House is holding a review and demanding signs of progress.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said gains would need to be seen by then in order to maintain public support for the war in NATO countries, which has eroded as the death toll has risen. At least 17 foreign troops have been killed this week.
The massive military operation in Kandahar is the linchpin of McChrystal’s strategy to turn the tide this year, using the bulk of 30,000 reinforcements sent by U.S. President Barack Obama in a final “surge” of extra troops announced in December.
Obama embraced a counterinsurgency strategy devised by McChrystal last year that aims to push the Taliban from key population centres. But in agreeing to send McChrystal extra troops, the White House also set a goal of starting a gradual withdrawal in July 2011, making the next 12 months critical.
BRUSSELS, June 10 (Reuters) – Military operations to gain control of Kandahar, the Taliban’s birthplace, will roll out more slowly and take longer than initially planned, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Thursday.
The shift, outlined by General Stanley McChrystal on the sidelines of a NATO conference in Brussels, is aimed at buying more time to shore up Afghan support for the operation and to build up the capabilities of local authorities to provide services as security improves.
“It’s more important we get it right than we get it fast,” McChrystal told reporters of the Kandahar operation. Though he did not detail the revised timing, McChrystal said, “I think it will take a number of months for this to play out… We want this thing to be as shaped as possible before we go.”
McChrystal’s reassessment puts a spotlight on the limited window available to turn the tide against the Taliban.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned on Wednesday that NATO and Afghan forces will have to show gains by year-end to maintain public support at home and in Europe for the eight-year-old war.
Asked if the United States would know by year-end whether the operation in Kandahar was successful, McChrystal said, “I think we’ll know whether it’s progressing… I don’t know whether we’ll know whether it is decisive.”
McChrystal said the changes in Kandahar reflected lessons learned by the U.S. military during a more difficult than expected offensive earlier this year in Marjah in neighbouring Helmand province.
“As we did it, we found that it’s even more complex than we thought and so we need to educate ourself from that and do it even better in Kandahar,” McChrystal told reporters.
“I want to make sure we’ve got conditions shaped politically with the local leaders, with the people. We really want the people to understand and literally pull the operation towards them as opposed to feel as though they are being forced with something they didn’t want,” he said.
McChrystal said he still envisages a gradual campaign in Kandahar aimed at delivering security and governance, as opposed to one big military assault.
But he said, “I do think that it will happen more slowly than we had originally intended.
“We are already in the process of doing political and military shaping but … I think that the timing in which we can be decisive in the environs around the city will probably happen more deliberately than we had originally laid out.”
U.S. commanders had initially seen the main thrust of military operations in Kandahar running from June to the beginning of August, before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to an internal schedule seen by Reuters in March.
The campaign would have then shifted from a “clearing” phase to a “secure and deliver government” phase, expected to last at least until mid-October.
But McChrystal said “there will be signficant things happening after Ramadan as well”, and made clear he expected to show progress by year-end, rather than complete the operation outright.
In March, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, described Kandahar as Afghanistan’s “center of gravity” and the key to reversing the Taliban’s momentum this year, Obama’s goal when he ordered the deployment of 30,000 extra U.S. troops in December.
But Gates said on Wednesday in London that he believed Kandahar was an important piece of a successful strategy, but not the only piece. “Kandahar and Helmand are important but they are not the only provinces in Afghanistan that matter in terms of the outcome of this struggle,” Gates said. (Editing by Louise Ireland)
June 9 (Reuters) – A U.N. Security Council resolution against Iran could clear the way for individual states and the EU to take further steps, including blocking foreign companies from expanding Tehran’s oil and gas exports, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday.
Gates, in an interview taped before the Security Council voted to impose new sanctions on Iran, said the U.N. resolution, provided a legal platform for individual countries to take “more far-reaching steps individually.”
In an interview with al Jazeera’s “Frost Over the World” programme, Gates said those tougher measures could target front companies for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards including shipping lines and imports. “There are a variety of areas that can be targeted preventing foreign companies from going in to help them maintain or grow their oil or gas export capability or any other business enterprises,” Gates added, according to a transcript of the interview, which was taped on Wednesday in London hours before the U.N. vote. (Reporting by Adam Entous; editing by Tim Pearce)
Singapore, June 6 (DPA) US Defence Secretary Robert Gates Sunday said any efforts to make North Korea accountable over the sinking of a South Korean warship may have little effect given Pyongyang’s defiant attitude.
North Korea’s stance was an obstacle for finding the adequate measures short of military options, Gates told the BBC on the sidelines of a summit on Asian security here.
‘You can bring together additional pressure, you can do another resolution at the UN,’ Gates said.
‘As long as the regime doesn’t care about what the outside world thinks of it, as long as it doesn’t care about the well-being of its people, there is not a lot you can do about it, to be quite frank, unless you are willing at some point to use military force,’ he said.
‘And nobody wants to do that,’ Gates said.
His remarks came after South Korea filed a complaint to the United Nations Security Council accusing the North of sinking its vessel Cheonan on March 26, causing the death of 46 sailors.
Gates told defence ministers and policymakers at the 2010 Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore Saturday that the US was reviewing additional options to deal with North Korea, but did not elaborate.
‘To do nothing would set the wrong precedent,’ he said, calling on the international community to hold North Korea accountable for the Cheonan sinking.
A multinational investigation concluded that a torpedo from the North likely sank the ship, but Pyongyang denied any involvement and threatened war against the South if any punitive measures are taken.
June 4 (Reuters) – The Pentagon is prepared to help in any way to stop the BP oil spill in the Gulf but has no expertise to do so, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday.
“The truth of the matter is we don’t have any expertise in this area,” Gates told reporters on the sidelines of a security conference in Singapore.
“We have offered to provide planners with the Coast Guard. We have authorized the mobilization of the National Guard in the four states. Anything, any capabilities that we have, that will help, we are fully prepared to commit to this endeavor.”
“But the truth is… we don’t have any specialized capabilities,” Gates said. (Reporting by Adam Entous; Editing by Alan Elsner)
Washington, May 29 (IANS) The United States says it has consistently pressed Pakistan to stop the continuing infiltration into India by Punjab-based terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taeba and Jaish-e-Mohammed as this was a key obstacle to improved relations between ‘two friends of US’.
‘On Pakistan, I’m sure it will be a topic of discussion’ at the inaugural US-India strategic dialogue here next week Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake told reporters Friday when asked what the US was doing to rein in Pakistan to allay India’s concerns about cross border terrorism.
Welcoming the announcement that Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers will meet in Islamabad in mid-July and Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram will be visiting Islamabad in late June, he said: ‘Those are very important opportunities to try to expand relations and to reduce some of the frictions between these two friends of the United States.’
But Blake acknowledged ‘One of the most important obstacles to expansion of those relations is the continuing infiltration from Pakistan to by Punjab-based groups, such as Lashkar e-Taeba and Jaish-e-Mohammed and others.’
‘And the United States has consistently called for greater action on the part of Pakistan to stop the activities of these groups,’ he said suggesting ‘Pakistan has done so in the past between 2004 and 2007, and that laid the basis for a very significant expansion in relations between India and Pakistan.
‘So we’d like to see these two friends get back on that same course again. But one of the first things that has to happen is for there to be visible progress in stopping this.’
President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates have all made the point ‘that increasingly, these groups are all operating together as a syndicate. And so it’s very much in Pakistan’s own interest to take on these groups as well,’ Blake said,
Highlighting what he called ‘the unprecedented counterterrorism cooperation,’ between India and the US, he said they had raised the level of cooperation ‘because of the increasingly common threats that we face, particularly those in India faced by Lashkar- e-Taeba and other groups.’
Asked if the US will relay Pakistan’s concerns about India ‘training the Afghan army’, he said: ‘I’m not sure that India’s providing that much training to the Afghan army. The vast majority of the assistance that the Indians are providing to Afghanistan is in the form of economic assistance.’
And US ‘welcomed very much the assistance that India has provided and all of our cabinet-level officials have welcomed that and will continue to do so,’ he said describing it as ‘a very important part of the international effort to help stabilise Afghanistan.’
Denying reports that US is pressurising India to have its dialogue with Pakistan despite the fact that Islamabad has not taken any action against those responsible for the Mumbai terrorist attack, the official said while US ‘always have an interest in seeing our two friends have peaceful relations, but we are not pressurising either side.’
Asked where the Kashmir issue fitted into this puzzle, Blake said ‘What’s most important is first to get these talks going again and once they’ve gotten beyond the immediate counterterrorism issues, to focus on some of the important opportunities like trade’ before ‘taking up some of these more sensitive territorial issues.’
Defense Secretary Robert Gates sought on Friday to ease concerns among U.S. troops about plans advancing in Congress to end the military’s ban on homosexuals, saying a long, careful review process lay ahead.
Gates, in his first major address to U.S. troops on the politically charged legislation, said he did not expect Congress to pass the repeal for months, perhaps not until the end of the year.
Even then, the U.S. military would have to give final approval and would not do so without a comprehensive review that included troops’ input.
“Every man and woman in uniform is a vitally important part of this review. We need to hear from you and your families so that we can make these judgments in the most informed and effective manner,” Gates said.
“So please let us know how to do this right.”
The House of Representatives on Thursday approved an amendment aimed at ending the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that allows homosexuals to serve if they keep quiet about their sexual orientation but expels them it if becomes known. More legislative hurdles remain.
Recent polls show most Americans support repealing the 1993 ban, as does President Barack Obama.
But opponents, including some within the military, question changing the policy during wartime, arguing it would put added strain on troops stretched by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
FOCUS ON WAR EFFORT
Opposition Republicans, gearing up for congressional elections in November in which they are expected to make gains, are rallying around the issue. They have accused Obama of pandering to gay rights advocates and ignoring the pressures on troops.
Gates asked troops to stay focused on the war effort and not the rhetoric in Washington.
“Do not let the on-going political debate distract you from what is important — our critical mission to defend our country and our duty to uphold the values represented by the uniform you wear,” he said, in an address aired on TV by the Pentagon.
Republican Senator John McCain, Obama’s opponent in the 2008 election, has spoken out against the repeal. He points to letters from the heads of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines saying they had wanted Congress to wait until the Pentagon completed its internal review before acting.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin noted the Pentagon still had a big say in the process and would need to change its internal regulations to implement the repeal.
“It’s still up to them,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell, editing by Alan Elsner)
Iran’s tirade against Russia on Wednesday for supporting fresh U.N. sanctions showed how the former allies have now publicly fallen out.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a rare public rebuke to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, telling him he should “act more cautiously” and “think more”. The Kremlin replied that Ahmadinejad should refrain from “political demagoguery”.
Below are some questions and answers on why and how Moscow has shifted its position on Iran:
WEREN’T IRAN AND RUSSIA ALLIES?
Russia is a significant trading partner with Iran. Bilateral trade reached $3 billion last year, with Moscow selling the Islamic Republic nuclear technology, aircraft and other goods.
Iran and Russia are also among the world’s top oil and gas producers and have cooperated in this area.
In the diplomatic arena, Russia had resisted in 2008 and early 2009 fresh U.N. sanctions against Tehran and played down suggestions Iran was using its nuclear programme to build bombs.
HAS RUSSIA OPPOSED AN IRANIAN BOMB?
Russian officials have always insisted Moscow — which has a big problem of its own with Islamist terrorism — does not want to see a powerful Islamic state near its troubled southern borders acquire nuclear weapons. But until last year, Russia didn’t believe American assessments that it was likely to happen.
DIDN’T PUTIN DISMISS ANY NUCLEAR THREAT FROM IRAN?
In October 2007 while still president, Vladimir Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Iran since Stalin, delivering smiling support to Ahmadinejad, warning the United States against any military action and upholding Iran’s right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme.
DID RUSSIA BELIEVE IRAN WAS PURSUING A BOMB?
U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates recounted a meeting he had in 2007 with Putin:
“When I first met with President Putin and talked about this, he basically dismissed the idea that the Iranians would have a missile that would have the range to reach much of Western Europe and much of Russia before 2020 or so,” he said in testimony to the U.S. Senate last year.
“And he showed me a map that his intelligence guys had prepared. And I told him he needed a new intelligence service.”
WHEN DID THIS START TO CHANGE?
In the two years after that meeting, Russia started to change its assessment of the Iranian programme. However, in June 2009 Moscow was still happy to welcome Ahmadinejad to a summit of BRIC nations in Siberia and congratulate him on his disputed re-election. The real shift in policy towards Iran appears to have started over the course of last summer in Moscow.
DID OBAMA’S ELECTION ALTER ANYTHING?
When President Obama came to power in January 2009, he vowed to “reset” relations with Russia. This meant concessions to Moscow such as scaling back Bush-era missile defence plans in eastern Europe and accepting Russian influence in the former Soviet Union, in return for Moscow’s help on tackling international problems such as the Iranian nuclear programme and Afghanistan. Ties between the two nations improved dramatically.
BUT WASN’T RUSSIA RESISTING SANCTIONS ONLY LAST YEAR?
Despite headlines from Russian officials apparently resisting Western pressure on Iran, Western ambassadors in Moscow were talking confidently last year about how helpful and supportive Russia had been on Iran. It appears that Moscow was giving private assurances of support to the West on Iran some time before it changed its public position.
The West’s announcement in September that it had discovered a new secret Iranian nuclear fuel plant near the Muslim holy city of Qom further undermined Moscow’s confidence in Iran. Russia said the plant violated U.N. Security Council decisions and was a “source of serious concern”. In November 2009, Moscow supported an IAEA resolution condemning the move.
DID MEDVEDEV MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Medvedev’s strong personal relationship with Obama has made it easier for the two leaders to agree a common position on Iran. The Russian president first started talking of fresh sanctions against Iran last September and mentioned them again during a visit to the United State the same month.
After signing a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Obama last month, Medvedev said he regretted that Iran was not reacting to constructive proposals on its nuclear programme. Iran has complained that Russia is caving in to U.S. pressure.
ISN’T RUSSIA STILL PROVIDING NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY TO IRAN?
Moscow has a $1 billion contract with Tehran to build and start up a nuclear power plant at Bushehr. The plant is planned to start up in August after numerous delays — which a senior Iranian lawmaker said were the result of Russia using Iran as a pawn in dealings with other powers such as the United States.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained about Bushehr’s planned summer start-up when she visited Moscow in March, but Western diplomats say privately Russia has offered satisfactory safeguards against the plant being used for military purposes.
AND WASN’T RUSSIA GOING TO SELL IRAN AN AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM?
Moscow signed a contract in 2007 to sell Iran the S-300, a modern surface-to-air missile system that can be used to shoot down multiple hostile rockets and aircraft. However Russia has not yet fulfilled the contract and Western envoys say they have private assurances from Moscow that it will not do so.
WHAT MADE RUSSIA AGREE TO SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN THIS TIME?
A senior Kremlin official said earlier this month that if Washington wanted Moscow’s support for fresh sanctions against Iran, it needed to drop U.S. bans on trade with four Russian arms companies. Washington dropped the bans on Friday last week, though U.S. officials continue to deny any direct linkage with the Iran sanctions issue.
(Editing by Ralph Boulton)
U.S. President Barack Obama sent a landmark arms-reduction treaty with Russia to the Senate on Thursday for ratification and called for $80 billion in nuclear funding, which could help win opposition support.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the funds, which would be spent over a decade, were needed to “rebuild and sustain America’s aging nuclear stockpile.”
The treaty, which must be ratified by the U.S. Senate and Russia’s parliament before it goes into force, would reduce the strategic nuclear arsenals deployed by the former Cold War foes by 30 percent within seven years.
Known as the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, it is also seen as a major step toward “resetting” U.S.-Russia relations, which were prickly under the Bush administration.
“The U.S. is far better off with this treaty than without it,” Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration, said in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. “It strengthens the security of the U.S. and our allies and promotes strategic stability between the world’s two major nuclear powers.”
Gates said the treaty had the unanimous support of America’s military leadership.
Obama, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in part for his vision of a nuclear-free world, must get some Republican backing to win the 67 votes needed for Senate approval. Obama’s Democrats and their allies have 59 seats in the Senate.
Some Senate Republicans previously argued that Obama needed to commit more resources to modernizing the U.S. nuclear weapons complex to convince them the treaty was viable.
“This might be what’s necessary to buy the votes for ratification,” said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.
The White House noted the $80 billion in funding for the nuclear stockpile came on top of more than $100 billion in additional investments in nuclear delivery systems, like nuclear submarines.
READY FOR VOTE BY AUGUST
Obama discussed efforts to ratify the treaty in a telephone conversation with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday.
“The presidents stressed the importance of completing the ratification process in both countries as soon as possible,” the White House said in a statement.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by 2004 Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry, aims to get the treaty ready for an eventual full Senate vote before Congress breaks for the summer recess in August, aides said.
Kerry said the $80 billion funding request was the largest since the Cold War.
“It demonstrates the Obama administration’s commitment to keeping America’s nuclear deterrent safe and effective for a generation to come,” Kerry said in a statement.
Kerry’s committee is planning to roll out Republican political heavyweights to testify, including former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and James Baker.
Obama has made nuclear nonproliferation one of the main goals of his presidency and last month unveiled a policy restricting U.S. use of nuclear weapons.
He has also renounced the development of new atomic weapons and in May disclosed for the first time the current size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Russia said on Wednesday it may lift the veil on its nuclear arsenal after the treaty with the United States comes into force.
If it does, that could raise pressure on other nuclear powers — such as China, Pakistan, India and Israel — to disclose their capabilities and potentially put global nuclear stockpiles on a downward trend, analysts say.
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Writing by Phil Stewart; Editing by John O’Callaghan)
Washington, May 13 (ANI): US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has rated Washington’s relationship with Pakistan as six on a scale of ten, adding that he expects a sustained progress in ties between both countries.
In an interview aired on CNN, Gates stressed that ties between Islamabad and Washington have improved ‘significantly’ in the recent past, and that he would give the relationship “six or a seven now.”
Gates noted that the Obama Administration is well aware about its responsibilities and respects Pakistan’s stand on its sovereignty.
“The Pakistanis are very sensitive to the size of the American footprint, the number of Americans on the ground in a training capacity or whatever. They’re also extremely sensitive about their sovereignty. And we have to respect those things,” The Daily Times quoted Gates, as saying. (ANI)
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