Ain-Al-Yaqeen - October 20, 2006

		October 20, 2006

THE US REFUSES TO CHANGE ITS STRATEGY IN IRAQ AND REBUFFS A SUGGESTION TO PARTITION IRAQ.
ABOU MAZEN POINTS TO A REFERENDUM CONCERNING A DECISION ON THE FUTURE OF THE GOVERNMENT.
THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO IMPOSE PUNISHING SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA.

US President George W. Bush has for the first time acknowledged a possible parallel between the raging violence in Iraq and the Vietnam War.

But the White House also affirmed that it has no plan to reassess its strategy in the war-ravaged country, despite a surge in US casualties there and unrelenting sectarian bloodshed. Bush was asked in an ABC News interview late Wednesday if he agreed with a New York Times columnist's comparison of the strife in Iraq with the Tet Offensive, which is considered a key turning point in the US war in Vietnam.

"He could be right," Bush said. "There's certainly a stepped-up level of violence." Bush said insurgents were trying "to inflict enough damage that we'd leave."

"First of all, Al-Qaeda is still very active in Iraq. They are dangerous. They are lethal. They are trying to not only kill American troops, but they're trying to foment sectarian violence," he said. "They believe that if they can create enough chaos, the American people will grow sick and tired of the Iraqi effort and will cause (the) government to withdraw," Bush said.

The Tet Offensive, a campaign launched by the North Vietnamese in early 1968, was considered a military defeat for them, but the scope of the assault shocked Americans and helped turn US public opinion against the war. Many Americans concluded that the war was unwinnable or victory too costly.

The White House later sought to put the comparison in context. "The full context was that the comparison was about the propaganda waged in the Tet Offensive... and the president was reiterating something he's said before that the enemy is trying to shake our will," Dana Perino, a Bush spokeswoman, said in a statement.

"They know that we're a caring and compassionate people and that we're deeply affected by gross violence," she said. "The president also believes the American people understand the importance of beating our enemy who is determined to kill innocent freedom-loving people."

The comments came amid a steep spike in US deaths in Iraq, including 10 killed on Wednesday. Two more US soldiers were killed in combat, one in restive Anbar province and a second near Balad, the US military reported yesterday.

The deaths raised the American toll for October to 72, putting the month on course to be the bloodiest month for US forces in nearly two years.

In the ABC interview, Bush expressed support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki but warned that his patience is not infinite.

"I'm patient. I'm not patient forever. And I'm not patient with dawdling. But I recognize the degree of difficulty of the task, and therefore, say to the American people, we won't cut and run," he said.

The U.S. White House on Thursday rebuffed a suggestion to partition war-torn Iraq to end the long and unpopular war.

The suggestion to divide Iraq into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish regions, each with high degrees of autonomy, was a "nonstarter," White House spokesman Tony Snow told a news briefing.

Snow also rejected the discussion of phased military withdrawal from Iraq. He said a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops perhaps by 5 percent every two months, also was a "nonstarter."

"You withdraw when you win," Snow said. "Phased withdrawal is away of saying, 'Regardless of what the conditions are on the ground, we're going to get out of Dodge.'"

Defending Bush's Iraq policy, Snow said Wednesday that U.S. has to win the war in Iraq.

The comment by the White House spokesman came at a time when the Bush administration got bogged down by the three-and-a-half-year-old Iraq war.

Criticizing Bush's Iraq policy that resulted in the surge of violence in the gulf Arab country and rapid growing of death toll of U.S. soldiers, some U.S. lawmakers are calling for a new strategy in Iraq, including suggestions to partition Iraq based on religious sects and phased troops withdrawal.

Bush called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, saying he has no plans to pull U.S. forces out the country and pledged full support for the Iraqi government, the White House said.

In London Prime Minister Tony Blair has "agreed with every word" the head of the Army had said in an interview about Iraq and withdrawing British troops. The Prime Minister's backing came after General Sir Richard Dannatt had told Sky News he was standing by comments calling for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq "sometime soon".

Mr Blair said: "I suspect some of his remarks, as he was suggesting himself this morning, were somewhat taken out of context.

"In terms of what he was saying about Britain coming out of Iraq, he was saying exactly the same things we have all said."

He went on: "I have been in this business long enough not to pay attention to what is in a newspaper headline but to look at the actual words that someone uses and the context in which they are using them.

"When I read his interview this morning, it seemed to me fully in line with what the British government has said."

Government policy had always been to withdraw from Iraq, Mr Blair said, as the Iraqi forces are able to handle their own security.

"In Basra they are not which is why we will stay and get the job done," he added.

Sir Richard, who became Chief of the General Staff in August, had said in an interview with the Daily Mail that Britain should "get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems".

He said later he had withdrawn none of his comments: "I have given a little more explanation about what I meant by 'sometime soon' - that's not backtracking."

On withdrawing from Iraq, Sir Richard added: "We are going to see this thing through but we have got to get on with it; we can't be there for years and years in the sorts of numbers we are.

"We all recognise that. There is nothing new in what I am saying there and that's what I mean by 'sometime soon': when the mission is substantially done'."

Sir Richard told the Daily Mail that "the difficulties we are experiencing round the world are caused by our presence in Iraq but undoubtedly our presence in Iraq exacerbates them".

He told the paper: "We are in a Muslim country and Muslims' views of foreigners in their country are quite clear.

"As a foreigner, you can be welcomed by being invited in a country, but we weren't invited certainly by those in Iraq at the time. The military campaign we fought in 2003 effectively kicked the door in.

"Whatever consent we may have had in the first place, may have turned to tolerance and has largely turned to intolerance."

German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier has described Saudi-German relations as strong, pointing to cooperation between the two countries in all political and economic fields and the exchange of opinions on various affairs.

In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency, he said that the achievement of peace in the Middle East should include all parties concerned with the issue of Palestine, noting that his country pursues the policy of the European Union in the region.

He hoped that Palestinians will form a national unity government. The German Minister said that the achievement of peace in the region lies in the revival of the road plan proposed by Washington and supported by the European Union which includes the setting up of an independent Palestinian state side by side with Israel.

On the Palestinian arena President Mahmoud Abbas last Tuesday promoted the idea of a Cabinet of technocrats as a way to ease crippling Western sanctions and hinted that he could sack the Hamas government but that any decision he might take could lead to a referendum.

Abbas addressed reporters for more than an hour at his headquarters in Ramallah. In his strongest endorsement yet of the technocrat idea of a Cabinet made up of professionals instead of politicians, he said it should be "considered seriously" as a way out of the current deadlock.

He said talks on forming a unity coalition with Hamas were dead, due to its refusal to soften its stance towards Israel.

"In the near future we need to reach options that will allow us to get out of this crisis as soon as possible ... It is impossible to remain in this situation."

"[Hamas] say a government of professionals is an American option. What is this? They say ... this is a Zionist option that they must stop this - these statements do not frighten us."

There has been fierce fighting this month between fighters from Hamas and Fatah in which 18 people were killed, sparking fears of civil war.

Abbas did not say what his options were but his aides said he might call fresh elections, appoint an emergency government or hold a referendum to let the Palestinian people decide.

Asked if he would call a referendum, Abbas said: "If there is no constitutional text on an issue I seek, I will go to the people and hold a referendum on that issue."

"If I cannot solve the people's problems, I am worthless," he added.

Abbas said efforts to arrange a summit with Israel's PM Ehud Olmert were being hindered by the issue of Palestinian prisoners.

Olmert had been expected to free a large number of prisoners held in Israeli jails as a gesture to Abbas, but that was put on hold when Palestinian fighters captured an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in a cross-border raid from Gaza in June.

"Everything has stopped because Israel is linking the release of prisoners to the release of Shalit," Abbas said.

Hamas, ruling with an absolute majority in the parliament, did not appear eager to adopt the idea.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said, a broad-based coalition government is still the best option, adding, "if a national coalition government cannot shoulder the burden of meeting the demands of all our people, I don't think that a technocrat government can carry this responsibility."

Hamas and Fatah members will meet in Cairo in the next few days, a Palestinian Legislative Council spokesman said, as negotiations continue to try end the political stalmate and to find a solution for the Palestinian government.

According to the PLC spokesman, during the meeting, Fatah and Hamas officials will discuss a new Egyptian initiative for a unity government in the Palestinian Authority.

The PLC spokesman also said the rival factions will discuss the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Palestinian factions in June.

On another development The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to impose punishing sanctions on North Korea including ship searches for banned weapons, calling Pyongyang's claimed nuclear test "a clear threat to international peace and security."

North Korea immediately rejected the resolution, and its U.N. ambassador walked out of the council chamber after accusing its members of a "gangster-like" action which neglects the nuclear threat posed by the United States.

The U.S.-sponsored resolution demands that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons program, and orders all countries to prevent North Korea from importing or exporting any material for weapons of mass destruction or ballistic missiles. It orders nations to freeze assets of people or businesses connected to these programs, and ban the individuals from travelling.

The resolution also calls on all countries to inspect cargo leaving and arriving in North Korea to prevent any illegal trafficking in unconventional weapons or ballistic missiles. The final draft was softened from language authorizing searches, but was still unacceptable to China - the North's closest ally and largest trading partner - which said it would not carry out any searches.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said North Korea's proclaimed test "poses one of the gravest threats to international peace and security that this council has ever had to confront."

"Today, we are sending a strong and clear message to North Korea and other would be proliferators that there will be serious repercussions in continuing to pursue weapons of mass destruction," he said, in what appeared to be a clear warning to Iran whose nuclear ambitions come before the Security Council again next week.

North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Pak Gil Yon countered by blaming the United States for forcing the country to conduct a test because of its "nuclear threat, sanctions and pressure."

"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is ready for talks, dialogue and confrontation," Pak said. "If the United States increases pressure upon the Democratic People's Republic of Korea persistently, the DPRK will continue to take physical countermeasures considering it as a declaration of war."

North Korea has made similar threats in the past, and has also said it might conduct a second nuclear test in response to U.N. sanctions.

The vote came after the United States, Britain and France overcame last-minute differences with Russia and China during what the Russian ambassador called "tense negotiations."

The resolution demands North Korea eliminate all its nuclear weapons but expressly rules out military action against the country, a demand by the Russians and Chinese. Bolton warned Pyongyang, however, that if it continues pursuing nuclear weapons, the U.S. would seek further measures.

The Security Council condemned the nuclear test that North Korea said it conducted on Oct. 9. It demanded that North Korea immediately return to six-nation talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to dismantle its weapons program without precondition.

It also imposed sanctions for the North's "flagrant disregard" of the council's appeal not to detonate a nuclear device and demanded that North Korea "not conduct any further nuclear test or launch of a ballistic missile."

"This action by the United Nations, which was swift and tough, says that we are united in our determination to see to it that the Korean peninsula is nuclear-weapons free," President Bush said.

South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, who was chosen to become the next U.N. secretary-general, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the council's resolution "sends a very strong, clear and unified message to North Korea."

"I hope that North Korea will comply with this resolution," he said. "I hope that all member states of the United Nations will fully implement this resolution."

To meet Russian and Chinese concerns, the Americans eliminated a complete ban on the sale of conventional weapons. Instead, the resolution limits the embargo to major hardware such as tanks, warships, combat aircraft and missiles.

The council's go-ahead for the inspection of cargo gave broader global scope to the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative launched in 2003 which urges countries to stop banned weapons from suspect countries including North Korea and Iran.

China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said Beijing allowed the cargo provision to be included in what he called a "watered-down" resolution even though the government is opposed to it.

"China strongly urges the countries concerned to adopt a prudent and responsible attitude in this regard and refrain from taking any provocative steps that may intensify the tensions," he said.

Wang said he did not consider the North Korean ambassador's response the official reply from Pyongyang, which he awaits. "The important thing is not what they say here," Wang said.

The overriding issue, he said, is "how we work together for peace and security in the region."

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow got what it wanted - a strong resolution but one that is also aimed at "prevention of a further escalation of tension."

North Korea's Pak told the Security Council that the nuclear test was not inconsistent with the country's goal of a denuclearized Korean peninsula.

"The DPRK clarified more than once that it would feel no need to possess even a single nuke when it is no longer exposed to the United States' threat, after it has dropped its hostile policy to the DPRK and confidence has been built between the two countries," he said.

Following Pak's speech, Bolton took the floor again saying "I'm not going to waste any of our time responding." But he noted that North Korea had done exactly what it did in July after the council adopted limited sanctions for its ballistic missile tests - immediately reject the resolution and walk out.

"It is the contemporary equivalent of Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the desk," Bolton said, referring to the Soviet leader's legendary act of protest at the U.N. General Assembly in 1960.

Bolton later told reporters that the next step is to start work on implementing the resolution.

"Hopefully on saner reflections perhaps they'll begin to accept that if they don't change course, the only future for them is continued isolation," he said.

U.S. officials said an air sampling after North Korea's claimed nuclear test detected radioactive debris consistent with an atomic explosion. However, the Bush administration and congressional officials said no final determination had been made about the nature of last Monday's mystery-shrouded blast.

The U.S. and other nations trying to persuade the North to give up its atomic program continued a flurry of high-level diplomatic visits, including a trip to Asia by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meant to present a unified front to North Korea.

The resolution invokes Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which the U.S. views as a necessary because it makes economic and diplomatic sanctions mandatory.

China and Russia normally object to the Chapter 7 provision because it carries the possibility of military enforcement. The Bush administration used the same provision to justify its invasion of Iraq, and Moscow and Beijing worry the U.S. might do the same eventually with North Korea - even though Bush has said the U.S. has no plans to attack.

But in a compromise also used in July to unanimously vote on a resolution condemning North Korean missile launches, the text added mention of Article 41 of the chapter, which permits only "means not involving the use of military force."

A Russian nuclear envoy who visited North Korea said he pressed the North to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said he had a "very useful" meeting Friday with Kim Gye Gwan, the North's nuclear negotiator, but did not say how Kim responded.

Pyongyang has boycotted the six-nation talks for the past 13 months to protest financial measures imposed by Washington for alleged counterfeiting and money-laundering.

On the Iranian arena the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said any decisions by the U.N. Security Council, which is considering imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, were illegitimate.

Iran's file has been sent back to the council and it now faces possible sanctions after failing to meet a demand to halt uranium enrichment, a process the West believes Tehran is developing to build atomic bombs despite Tehran's denials.

Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, Emyr Jones Parry, has said European nations hoped to circulate a draft text on sanctions against Iran to the full council early next week.

The draft text is expected to include curbs on Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile program, which observers concede will probably not impinge on its uranium enrichment activities.

Responding to the EU move, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement that "if its counterpart (the EU) chooses the path of pressure, sanctions and threats, (Iran) will not remain idle and will not allow its rights to be stamped on."

He did not say what action Iran might take but added that Iran still wanted talks to resolve the nuclear standoff.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani threatened retaliation, possibly by suspending international atomic inspections, if the United Nations imposed sanctions.

Former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said a move by the council against Iran would harm those who take the decision, the region and the Islamic Republic.

"We advise them not to welcome such a danger for this region and this world," Rafsanjani said.

Iranian lawmakers say they are studying a bill that will oblige the government to halt inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which now carries out routine checks of Iranian facilities, if punitive steps are imposed.