‘Terror’ tag excludes Iran from UN summit

The U.S. did not invite Iran to Tuesday’s UN summit on combating the Islamic State and other violent extremist groups because it still designates Iran itself as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Even if he had been invited, it is not clear if Iranian President Hassan Rouhani would have taken part. He has made clear he has different views to the Obama administration on fighting IS.

However, the absence of an invitation to a critical meeting on violent extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, an issue in which Iran has a major stake, illustrates the remaining institutional and political barriers to U.S. cooperation with Iran even after the successful negotiation of a nuclear agreement on its nuclear programme in July.

State department officials confirmed that Iran’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism was the reason for its exclusion from the countering IS summit being chaired by Mr. Obama on Tuesday.

Iran was first designated a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. state department in 1984 and the designation has been rolled over each year.

The latest state department report said: “Iran continued its terrorist-related activity in 2014, including support for Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, Lebanese Hezbollah, and various groups in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.”

The U.S. also accused Iran of increasing assistance to Iraqi Shia militias, one of which was designated a terrorist organisation, “in response to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant incursion into Iraq, and has continued to support other militia groups in the region. Iranian officials have complained that about being stigmatised by backing militia groups fighting Isis, something the US is also attempting to do.

The state sponsor of terrorism label does not present a legal barrier to negotiating with a national government, a fact that allowed the nuclear negotiations to take place, so there is an element of discretion in its application.

“These labels and lists reduce American manoeuvrability and flexibility at a time when agility is a critical property in foreign policy,” said Trita Parsi, the head of the National Iranian-American Council, an advocacy group promoting diplomacy with Iran

U.S., U.K. ask citizens in Bangladesh to be on alert

The U.S. and the U.K. have advised their citizens to limit their movement in Bangladesh, a day after an Italian aid worker was shot down in Dhaka. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the murder of Cesare Tavella on Monday.

The U.S. Embassy in an alert update said: “Such attacks, should they occur, could likely affect other foreigners, including U.S. citizens.” The U.S. has “received information” that terrorist groups in the South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, “may be planning attacks in the region, possibly against U.S. government facilities, U.S. citizens, or U.S. interests”.

Australia was the first to express security concerns in Dhaka on Friday following which its cricket team decided to delay its Bangladesh tour.

The U.K. has also advised its citizens to limit movement in Dhaka. In a foreign travel advice update on Monday it advised its officials “to limit attendance at events where westerners may gather”.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamalsaid the involvement of IS in the murder of Tavella was yet to be confirmed. “We are looking into everything that might have been the motive behind the murder.”

TNA hails U.S.-backed resolution on Sri Lanka

"This is perhaps the best possible resolution that could have been achieved at the UNHRC", says TNA leader R. Sampanthan.

The draft resolution on Sri Lanka tabled at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by the U.S. and other countries has addressed the main issues of accountability and reconciliation, according to the Tamil National Alliance leader, R. Sampanthan.

The involvement of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence counsel, prosecutors and investigators would give the judicial process “much greater degree of credibility”, the TNA chief told The Hindu on Tuesday. “You can’t blame the people who are sceptical [of the domestic judicial process] because the previous experiences were quite bad.”

The references in the resolution to the need to evolve an acceptable political solution and the proposed review of implementation of the resolution at the 32nd and 34th sessions of the UNHRC are “welcome features”, he said.

“This is perhaps the best possible resolution that could have been achieved at the UNHRC on the basis of a consensus.” Mr. Sampanthan also recalled that resolutions on Sri Lanka were adopted at the UNHRC during 2012-2014 through voting.

Asked whether he was confident of the full implementation of the resolution, the TNA leader said that a “honest implementation will become inevitable,” against the context of “a resolution based on consensus.” He urged all to join together to make sure that the resolution was “honestly implemented in the interests of the whole country and all people living in the country.”

Emphasising that an early settlement to the Tamil question should be found by next year, he said it must be “reasonable, workable and durable.” “Our people must feel that they have a new future where they honestly think that they belong to this country and this country belongs to them.”

'They are barbarians': meet the man defending Syria's heritage from Isis

Old Queen Zenobia came to Damascus the other day and was winched into place in a prime spot on Umayyad Square, opposite the ­al-Assad national library. The replica brass statue of the 3rd-century heroine was representing Palmyra, her realm on the eastern edge of the Roman empire, now in the hands of Islamic State. Zenobia’s ceremonial arrival in the capital was a pledge that Syria’s heritage has not been abandoned.
The destruction wrought by Isis on the desert city hauntingly known as the ‘Venice of the Sands’ horrified a world fatigued by a conflict that has claimed 250,000 lives and made millions homeless. And the tragedy was cruelly personalised by the fate of Khaled al-­Asaad, the archaeologist who devoted his long life to Palmyra – and who was tortured and beheaded after refusing to reveal where its treasures had been hidden.

Beheaded Syrian scholar refused to lead Isis to hidden Palmyra antiquities

Read more

“Everyone is talking about Palmyra now,” Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria’s director-­general of antiquities and museums, and Khaled al-Asaad’s devoted friend and colleague, told the Guardian in his Damascus office. “But three months before it fell we asked the international community to do everything possible to prevent it falling.” Yet the battle to preserve the country’s glorious past goes on.
Abdulkarim, who is of Armenian and Kurdish background, embodies the cultural diversity of which Syrians were once proud – and which he remains determined to defend in the face of disintegration and hatred. He came to the antiquities job in the “catastrophic” summer of 2012, when rebel attacks seemed to threaten the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. His first decision was to close down all the museums in the country, to safeguard both collections and visitors. “I always say that I am the unhappiest director-general of antiquities in the world,” he quipped with a self-deprecatory smile.

A day on a refugee rescue ship: 'this job must be done, there must be no sinking'

On board a merchant ship around 30 miles north of Libya, Gordie Hatt hurries up the stairs to the bridge, his long white hair tied back in a ponytail. “Where is everyone?” says the 63-year-old Canadian, bursting from the staircase. “It’s just Amani and me down on deck, and we have a thousand people trying to find a place to sleep.”
Hatt has a point. This is the bridge of the Bourbon Argos, one of three merchant ships hired by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to rescue stricken refugees from the waters north of Libya, in the absence of full-scale EU rescue operations. Earlier in the morning the crew rescued two boats in quick succession, a pair of operations that brought 1,001 refugees on board the Argos, almost all of them Eritreans. The boat is only supposed to take 500, so Hatt needs all the help he can get on deck.
But what he doesn’t know is that an even bigger problem is unravelling in the waters in front of the boat, consuming his colleagues’ attention. In this bit of the southern Mediterranean, there are nine rescue operations in progress, involving MSF’s boats, the Italian coastguards and a few warships from European navies. But it’s not enough. From the bridge, Hatt’s colleagues can see two more flimsy refugee boats on the water, and only one of them is being rescued.
The Argos cannot safely take on any more passengers, so Sebastian Klein, the MSF team’s second-in-command, stands by the radar monitor looking grim. “We can’t help them,” says the 34-year-old Norwegian. “The only difference would be if they started sinking and we had to rescue them.”
The situation is already tense enough when Klein’s boss, Lindis Hurum, picks up the bridge telephone and radios another rescue ship in the area. “Does your boat have a gynaecologist?” she asks. “We have a very pregnant woman on board who needs to deliver within 24 hours.”
Even as the smuggling season begins to wind down, this is the reality in the southern Mediterranean, 30-odd miles north of the smuggling ports of western Libya. In recent months the media’s migration coverage has shifted from here to the beaches of Greece and the plains of the Balkans, along the new routes that Syrian refugees are taking to reach the EU. But even without the Syrians, the number of people attempting the sea crossing from Libya to Italy has remained near record levels. And record numbers have died in doing so.
According to figures released to the Guardian by the International Organisation for Migration on Tuesday, 130,891 people have reached Italy so far in 2015, only marginally fewer than the record 138,796 who crossed during the equivalent period last year.

Corbyn: UK must drop Saudi prison bid in light of activist's death sentence

Jeremy Corbyn used his Labour conference speech to call for the Ministry of Justice to drop its bid for a Saudi prisons contract, citing the case of pro-democracy protester, Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who has been sentenced to crucifixion.
Nimr is facing a death sentence, handed down when he was 17, which is largely based on a “confession” he was forced to sign following what he says were days of torture while in custody.
The sentence will be carried out in jail by the Saudi prison service. Corbyn called on the British government to protest against this sentence by dropping its bid for a £5.9m contract to provide prison expertise to the Saudis.
The bid was put in by Justice Solutions International, the commercial arm of the MoJ that was set up by the last justice secretary, Chris Grayling, to sell its expertise in prisons and probation – including in offender management, payment by results, tagging and privatisation – around the world.
Last month the new justice secretary, Michael Gove announced that he was closing down JSI, telling MPs it was because “of the need to focus departmental resources on domestic priorities”.
But Gove said the bid for the Saudi contract to provide “training-needs analysis” would go ahead because it is so far advanced that the financial penalties for cancellation would be detrimental to the British government’s interests. “All work relating to this contract will be completed within six months of starting,” he said.
The official explanation was later amended to exclude the issue of financial penalties, and a correction made to the parliamentary record. But the justice ministry still says that it would not be in the “wider interests of the British government” to withdraw the bid at this late stage. This is taken by campaigners, such as Reprieve, to mean that the Foreign Office is insisting it goes ahead.
In a statement last Friday, the FCO said: “We understand that Ali Mohammed al-Nimr’s legal process has finished and his final appeal has been denied. We will raise this case urgently with the Saudi authorities.”
The spokesperson added: “The abolition of the death penalty is a human rights priority for the UK. The UK opposes the death penalty in all circumstances.”
Downing Street said the UK had already raised Nimr’s case with the Saudi authorities and Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, would raise it again with his Saudi counterpart.
The initial JSI bid to the Saudi authorities for the contract was made in August 2014 with a final bid being submitted this April. It is subject to final approval by the Saudi ministry of finance.
Maya Foa, of the anti-death penalty group Reprieve, wrote to Gove asking him to drop the bid. She said: “Britain’s justice system has a strong reputation for fairness and decency and we believe that to continue with this contract would sully that reputation, while sending the signal that Britain condones the abuses taking place in the Saudi system, and others like it around the world.”

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France hits out at Russia's claims of fighting Isis ahead of UN summit

France has alleged that Russian claims to be fighting the Islamic State in Syria are merely for show and have not been backed up by any military operations.
In remarks on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, also raised the possibility of creating a handful of “safe zones” within Syria where displaced people could be protected both from barrel bombs dropped by the Assad regime and from attacks from Isis and other extremist groups.

Putin says he can work with Obama despite trading barbs on Syria and Isis

Fabius was speaking before the start of a summit on fighting Isis and violent extremism chaired by Barack Obama. The summit is being attended by Iraq and other Arab states, but not Russia or Iran – a reflection of the continuing and deep rifts over Syria and in particular over the fate of Bashar al-Assad as part of a possible peace deal.
On Monday, Vladimir Putin had insisted that Assad had to be supported as his forces were “valiantly” fighting Isis on the ground. Russia has portrayed its deployment of warplanes and troops to western Syria as a reflection of its commitment to confront Isis head on. On Tuesday Fabius sought to debunk both claims.
“The fight against Daesh [the Arabic acronym for Isis] is an absolute necessity but it must not be just a fight only through the media. It must be a real one,” he said. “And when I’m looking at who is really committed in the fight of Daesh … as far as Bashar al-Assad is concerned, it’s still recent and it’s still modest. So as far as our Russian partners are concerned, up to now they didn’t yet [do anything] against Daesh.”
By contrast, Fabius said: “We the French this week struck against a Daesh camp. We have to judge realities and not mass media.”

Syria crisis: where do the major countries stand?

The US has also carried out airstrikes against Isis inside Syria, and is ramping up sanctions. As Obama opened the anti-Isis summit on Tuesday, the US government announced sanctions against 25 people and five groups connected to Isis in moves it said were aimed at hitting the activities of financial, logistical and recruiting operatives.
Opening the summit, Obama said: “This is not going to be turned around overnight ... There are going to be successes and there are going to be setbacks. This is not a conventional battle. This is a long-term campaign – not only against this particular network, but against its ideology.
“But, ultimately, I am optimistic. In Iraq and in Syria, Isil [another acronym for the Islamic State] is surrounded by communities, countries and a broad international coalition committed to its destruction,” the president said. “Like terrorists and tyrants throughout history, Isil will eventually lose because it has nothing to offer but suffering and death.”
Reiterating his position that Assad cannot stay, Obama said: “In Syria, defeating Isil requires a new leader and an inclusive government that unites the Syrian people in the fight against terrorist groups. This is going to be a complex process. And as I’ve said before, we are prepared to work with all countries, including Russia and Iran, to find a political mechanism in which it is possible to begin a transition process.”
Fabius also argued it made no moral or practical sense for Assad to remain if the goal was to rebuild a new, free and united Syria.
“How can you imagine that the Syrian refugees – 80% of whom fled Syria because they were under threat from Assad – how can you imagine that they go back to Syria if we tell them that the future of Syria is Bashar al-Assad?” Fabius asked. He said a political transition mechanism had to be negotiated, but was not specific about timing.
Meanwhile, he said that France had revived the idea of the creation and enforcement of “safe zones” inside Syria where civilians would be protected both from the regime and Isis.
“It could be an idea to have within Syria one or two or three … safe zones, security zones, in order that these zones will be able to welcome Syrian people without forcing them to go out of the country. We are working on that,” Fabius said, again without offering details on how such zones could be achieved.
The Russians continue to promote a separate negotiating effort, seeking to recruit countries to its view of Syria and the need for Assad to remain. The foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is chairing a ministerial meeting to that end on Wednesday. French officials said that Fabius would attend.

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