World refugee population certain to rise

GENEVA (AP) – The number of people driven from their homes by violence, natural disasters and poverty increased last year for the first time since 2002 and is almost certain to rise further due to deepening conflicts across the world, the U.N. refugee chief said.

Iraqis board a bus to neighboring Syria, in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, June 20, 2007. A recent UNHCR report said that the situation in Iraq had forced up to 1.5 million Iraqis to seek refuge in other countries, particularly Syria and Jordan. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed )

“We are very concerned that many conflicts today are not being solved and are becoming worse and worse, resulting in many displacement situations,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.

In a report released Tuesday, the UNHCR said the number of refugees reached 9.9 million at the end of 2006 — a 14 percent increase over the 8.7 million refugees recorded in 2005. It was the highest number since 2002, when there were 10.6 million refugees.

The report said the increase was largely due to the war in Iraq, which by the end of 2006 had forced up to 1.5 million Iraqis to seek refuge in other countries. The report said some 50,000 Iraqis continue to flee the country each month, mostly for Jordan and Syria, which complain that the refugees are exhausting their limited resources.

Tariq Ziad, a former Iraqi civil servant who fled to Jordan after receiving death threats, said he exchanged problems linked to war and violence with the misery of being an illegal alien.

He said he faced the “constant threat” of being sent back to Iraq, and struggled to feed his six children because he has had no regular income.

The UNHCR report said the largest group of refugees were the 2.1 million Afghans still living outside their homeland. The Iraqis were second, followed by 686,000 Sudanese, 460,000 Somalis, and about 400,000 apiece from Congo and Burundi.

The refugee total omits the 4.3 million Palestinians living in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, who are under the auspices of a separate agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA. The total number of refugees under both agencies is more than 14 million.

Guterres said Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya, that the rising number of Sudanese returning to their homes in southern Sudan is a hopeful sign. A 2005 peace deal ended a 21-year civil war between the government and southern rebels, allowing the refugees to head back to the region.

He said a comprehensive peace deal is the key to ending the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, where a separate war between the government and rebels has killed more than 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes since 2003. He said the peace deal was just as important as plans to send a joint U.N.-African Union force to the region.

“Without a comprehensive peace agreement with all the actors, even a very strong force will not be able to guarantee security for all concerned,” Guterres said.

“We are very concerned that many conflicts today are not being solved and are becoming worse and worse, resulting in many displacement situations,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.

In a report released Tuesday, the UNHCR said the number of refugees reached 9.9 million at the end of 2006 — a 14 percent increase over the 8.7 million refugees recorded in 2005. It was the highest number since 2002, when there were 10.6 million refugees.

The report said the increase was largely due to the war in Iraq, which by the end of 2006 had forced up to 1.5 million Iraqis to seek refuge in other countries. The report said some 50,000 Iraqis continue to flee the country each month, mostly for Jordan and Syria, which complain that the refugees are exhausting their limited resources.

Tariq Ziad, a former Iraqi civil servant who fled to Jordan after receiving death threats, said he exchanged problems linked to war and violence with the misery of being an illegal alien.

He said he faced the “constant threat” of being sent back to Iraq, and struggled to feed his six children because he has had no regular income.

The UNHCR report said the largest group of refugees were the 2.1 million Afghans still living outside their homeland. The Iraqis were second, followed by 686,000 Sudanese, 460,000 Somalis, and about 400,000 apiece from Congo and Burundi.

The refugee total omits the 4.3 million Palestinians living in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, who are under the auspices of a separate agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA. The total number of refugees under both agencies is more than 14 million.

Guterres said Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya, that the rising number of Sudanese returning to their homes in southern Sudan is a hopeful sign. A 2005 peace deal ended a 21-year civil war between the government and southern rebels, allowing the refugees to head back to the region.

He said a comprehensive peace deal is the key to ending the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, where a separate war between the government and rebels has killed more than 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes since 2003. He said the peace deal was just as important as plans to send a joint U.N.-African Union force to the region.

“Without a comprehensive peace agreement with all the actors, even a very strong force will not be able to guarantee security for all concerned,” Guterres said.

Jihadists moving into Lebanon from Syria

By Christopher Allbritton
The Washington Times
May 29, 2007

NAHR EL-BARED, Lebanon — Heavily armed foreign jihadists have been entering Lebanon from Syria from around the time Western authorities noticed a drop in the infiltration of foreign fighters from Syria to Iraq, Lebanese officials say.
    
Syrian authorities, hoping to disrupt Lebanon so they can reassert control of the country, “have stopped sending [the jihadists] to Iraq and are now sending them here,” charged Mohammed Salam, a specialist in Palestinian affairs in Lebanon. “They sent those people to die in Lebanon.”
    
Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, commander of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, said about half of the militants who have been battling Lebanese forces in the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp outside Tripoli for nine days had fought previously in Iraq.
    
“They are very dangerous,” he said in an interview. “We have no choice, we have to combat them.”
    
Officials traveling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said before Miss Rice’s meeting with her Syrian counterpart in Egypt early this month that Syria appeared to be taking “positive” steps to guard its border with Iraq, resulting in a reduced number of jihadists crossing the border.
    
But U.N. officials running the Nahr el-Bared camp told The Washington Times that a large band of foreigners carrying mortars, rockets, explosive belts and other heavy weapons entered the camp in a group several months ago.
    
That is near the time that infiltration of militants from Syria into Iraq fell off, according to Lebanese authorities, who suspect the jihadists were simply redirected by Damascus.
    
Several thousand residents have been trapped in the Palestinian refugee camp since fighting broke out May 20 between the army and several hundred militants of a group called Fatah Islam, which includes a large number of foreign fighters.
    
Palestinian leaders tried yesterday to negotiate an end to the standoff, in which Lebanese army forces are ringed around the camp, but Prime Minister Fuad Siniora insisted that the militants surrender and face justice.
    
Gen. Rifi said the foreigners began arriving in Lebanon during the war between Hezbollah and Israel last summer, when between 60 and 70 jihadists were integrated into Fatah al-Intifada, a group set up by Syrian intelligence in the 1980s.
    
In November last year, a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship named Shaker Youssef al-Absi broke with Fatah al-Intifada and set up a new group, Fatah Islam, based in the Nahr el-Bared camp. Gen. Rifi said Fatah Islam has about 250 fighters, of which about 50 have been killed so far.
    
“They are parasites,” the general said. “Even in Nahr el-Bared, there are not a lot of Palestinians with Fatah Islam.”

The original group had about 30 to 40 Lebanese members and 20 Palestinians in the leadership positions, Gen. Rifi said. The rest were made up of fighters from Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Yemen, Algeria and even from as far as Bangladesh.
    
Residents of the camp appear to have been terrorized by the jihadists, according to interviews with Palestinians who fled for their lives over the past week.
    
The militants “were shooting at anyone who moved,” said one refugee who declined to give his name. He said he could tell they were foreign by listening to their accents, but his wife shushed him and he said no more.
    
Gen. Rifi said there are several more cells of foreign jihadists scattered around Lebanon. Some are in the Palestinian camps, some are in Tripoli and some are in Beirut. Another government official said some were based in the Bekaa Valley.
    
“Some [Gulf] Arabs, originally from al Qaeda, joined the group,” Gen. Rifi said. “But they are false al Qaeda. Our al Qaeda is made in Syria.”
    
Money for the fighters comes from local criminal activities, such as bank robberies — one of which sparked the current standoff — and support from Gulf countries and “local politicians,” said a senior regional military source. “They’re part of the global jihad,” he said.
    
Many government supporters think the timing of this flare-up, given an upcoming U.N. Security Council vote on the formation of an international tribunal to investigate the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, indicates Syria’s involvement.
    
“It’s actually a Syrian-sponsored and -coordinated move to send these jihadis into Lebanon to topple the regime,” said Mr. Salam.
    
Syria has been using the militant Shi’ite group Hezbollah to advance its interests in Lebanon, but Mr. Salam suggested Damascus was worried about inflaming religious tensions with the Sunni-led government that could spill over into Syria.
    
The Syrians “wouldn’t mind demolishing Lebanon, but they didn’t want to do it with a Sunni-Shi’ite war because that could cross the border into Syria. So they got Sunnis to fight Sunnis,” the analyst said. 
    

U.N. agency knew of armed foreigners in Lebanon camp

By Betsy Pisik
The Washington Times
May 24, 2007

NEW YORK — The U.N. agency that oversees the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon, the scene of three days of battles between Lebanese troops and Muslim militants, said yesterday it had been aware for months that heavily armed foreigners were moving into the Palestinian enclave but were helpless to stop them.
    
The extremists of Fatah Islam, who local reports say hail from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Bangladesh, apparently entered the camp, just north of Tripoli, several months ago. They are thought to have arrived in a group, not individually.
    
Officials of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) could not say how a large band of foreigners carrying what has been described as mortars, rockets, explosive belts and other heavy weapons were able get past the Lebanese army soldiers stationed outside the camp.
    
They also could not explain why militias of young Palestinian men who provide security and gather intelligence throughout Nahr el-Bared and other Palestinian areas allowed foreign fighters to settle there.
    
“Somebody hasn’t been doing their job,” said Karen Koning AbuZayd, commissioner-general of UNRWA. “The problem with refugee camps in Lebanon is that they are self-policed. … This group showed up a few months ago. As far as we know, it is mainly a foreign group.
    
“The Palestinian refugees themselves have been very unhappy about it and have been trying to persuade them to leave,” Mrs. AbuZayd told reporters.
    
Yesterday, Lebanon’s defense minister issued an ultimatum to Islamic militants barricaded in the camp to surrender or face a military onslaught.
    
Also yesterday, refugees continued to leave Nahr el-Bared as a tense cease-fire held. Some piled onto the backs of pickup trucks or stuffed themselves into battered sedans.
    
Many joined relatives in the nearby Badawi refugee camp, while others made their way to nearby Tripoli.
    
UNRWA has 200 Palestinian employees inside the camp, mostly teachers, medical staff and aid workers who help distribute supplies.
    
Mrs. AbuZayd said she was surprised that many of the camp’s 30,000 inhabitants didn’t leave before fighting erupted Sunday.
    
On Tuesday, thousands of refugees took advantage of a pause in fighting to escape. 

 ”UNRWA couldn’t do anything because the United Nations is not responsible for policing or administering the camps, only their own installations inside them,” Mrs. AbuZayd said.
    
Security inside Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps has always been a sensitive issue.
    
Lebanese police and soldiers are not permitted to enter the camps but maintain a perimeter, as much to protect the Lebanese as to protect the Palestinians from outside threat.
    
UNRWA says it does not administer the camps, nor does it maintain a roster of legal occupants.
    
The U.N. agency is responsible only for registering refugees who want to use UNRWA facilities such as schools and clinics as well as assistance programs.
    
About 400,000 Palestinians live in Lebanon, most of them in severely crowded camps with little fresh water, sanitation or jobs. They camps originally held those displaced by the 1948 creation of Israel, although the refugee numbers have multiplied in later generations.
    
The chief U.N. coordinator for humanitarian affairs, John Holmes, yesterday condemned as “unacceptable and outrageous” a Tuesday mortar attack on a U.N. relief convoy that had just arrived inside the Nahr el-Bared camp. Baby formula, milk powder, bread and water supplies eventually were unloaded.
    
“I simply don’t know who is responsible for starting that exchange of fire,” said Mr. Holmes, adding that the number of casualties in that and other attacks still cannot be gauged.
    
He said the camp has been without running water or electricity since Sunday.
    
UNRWA is working with other agencies and private humanitarian groups to obtain shelter and services to those who have left. 
    

U.S. Condemns Vietnam, Syria for Detaining Political Activists

By Ed Johnson

May 12 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. condemned Syria and Vietnam for their crackdown on political activists after pro-democracy campaigners were arrested in the two countries.

“All political prisoners in Syria should be released immediately,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said in a statement yesterday, adding President Bashar al-Assad’s government “continues to suppress dissent.”

Snow also called for democratic progress in Vietnam and said the Bush administration is concerned that authorities prevented Vietnamese citizens from attending meetings at the U.S. ambassador’s residence in Hanoi with a visiting member of the U.S. Congress.

President George W. Bush’s administration has previously criticized the human rights records of the two nations. In a speech in December, Bush called on the government in Damascus to free political prisoners. The U.S. State Department said in a March report that Vietnam’s human rights record in 2006 was “unsatisfactory.”

In yesterday’s statement, the White House condemned the recent sentencing of democracy activists Anwar al-Bunni and Kamal Labwani in Syria to “long terms of imprisonment” and said it is “alarmed by reports that they have been subjected to inhumane prison conditions.”

Syrian-U.S. Relations

Relations between the Bush administration and al-Assad’s government are strained. The U.S. has accused Syria of allowing insurgents to cross the border into Iraq to fight coalition troops. The administration also implicated Syria in the 2005 car-bomb killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. Hariri had been pressing for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, where they had been stationed since 1990. Syria denies both accusations.

U.S.-Vietnamese relations have improved steadily in recent years, although the U.S. continues to criticize limitations on freedom of speech and other alleged human rights violations. In its March report, the State Department noted “a change in attitude” on human rights and improved conditions for religious believers.

The White House criticized the “increasing incidence of arrest and detention” of political activists, including Nguyen Van Ly and Le Quoc Quan.

“As Vietnam’s economy and society reform and move forward, such repression of individuals for their views is anachronistic and out of keeping with Vietnam’s desire to prosper, modernize and take a more prominent role in world affairs,” said Snow in the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net .

Condoleezza Rice Meets Syria’s Foreign Minister

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt – In a highly anticipated meeting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Syria‘s foreign minister of U.S. concerns about his country’s porous border with Iraq Thursday — the two nations’ first Cabinet-level talks in years.

“I didn’t lecture him and he didn’t lecture me,” Rice said afterward.

Prospects dimmed for a more dramatic face-to-face discussion between Rice and

Iran‘s foreign minister.

“We haven’t planned and have not asked for a bilateral meeting, nor have they asked us,” she said.

The 30-minute session with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem marks a diplomatic turning point for the Bush administration, which had resisted talks with Syria and Iran despite the recommendations of allies abroad and the Iraq Study Group and lawmakers from both parties at home.

“It’s a start,” Moallem said afterward.

The carefully orchestrated meeting overshadowed the modest initial accomplishments here from a 50-nation gathering devoted to improving Iraq’s security and financial bottom line. Iraq’s embattled prime minister was among those leaning on the Bush administration to engage Syria and Iran, arguing that those neighboring nations could help lessen violence in Iraq.

Until now, Rice and President Bush had said Syria well knew what it could do to help Iraq — namely tighten its border — and didn’t need the U.S. to point it out. The United States claims that Syria looks the other way while fighters from many countries cross its border to join the ranks of al-Qaida and other insurgent or terror groups in Iraq.

Ahead of the meeting, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said Syria had somewhat stemmed the flow of foreign fighters. “There has been some movement by the Syrians,” said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell. “There has been a reduction in the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq” for more than a month.

The Bush administration also has said it worries that Syria will use any contact with the United States as leverage in a dispute over alleged Syrian meddling in fragile Lebanon. Rice said that subject did not come up Thursday.

Rice’s meeting with Moallem marked the first such high-level talks since the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The United States yanked its ambassador from Damascus in protest, and has given a cold shoulder to the Syrian government since. Syria denies it had anything to do with the killing.

Moallem asked Rice to return an ambassador, but she made no promises.

Rice said the talks were limited to Iraqi security. “I made clear we don’t want to have a difficult relationship with Syria, but we need to have some basis for a better relationship.”

Only last month the White House blistered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a diplomatic trip to Damascus, and administration officials suggested afterward that Syrian President Bashar Assad had played the California Democrat for a fool.

“There’s a difference in going to Damascus and having broad-scale discussions about a whole range of issues with Syria and that was the issue at the time,” Rice said Thursday. “Having the secretary of state take an opportunity to speak to the foreign minister of Syria about a concrete problem involving Iraq, at an Iraqi neighbors conference, makes more sense.”

Rice called Pelosi ahead of this week’s trip to Egypt, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Rice and Moallem have no specific plans to meet again, although lower-level diplomats from both countries will continue to discuss ways to improve security in Iraq, diplomats said.

“We are serious and we expect the United States to show the same seriousness,” Moallem said. “We agreed to continue dialogue.”

The Iraqi government is pressing for talks between Rice and Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, saying Washington’s conflict with the government in Tehran is fueling instability in Iraq.

Rice and the Iranian “said hello, that’s about it,” at a luncheon Thursday, McCormack said.

They missed one another entirely at dinner.

Although Rice had seemed to invite a broader engagement with Iran ahead of the Iraq meeting, the tone changed in recent days. U.S. officials played down the chances for any substantive exchange, and some said they would wait for clearer signals from the Iranians that they were ready to talk.

The United States cut diplomatic relations with Iran shortly after the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The Bush administration labeled Iran part of an “axis of evil,” and Iranian leaders still refer to the United States as the Great Satan.

The United States pressed hard in the weeks before the conference to get Arab countries’ participation and urge them to forgive Iraq’s billions of dollars of debt — and it was with that request that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki opened the conference.

The conference aims in part to overcome differences between al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government and Sunni Arab nations, which are demanding that the Iraqi government ensure greater participation by Sunni Arabs in Iraq’s political process.

Al-Maliki pledged to institute reforms to boost Sunni participation but said forgiving Iraq its debts was the only way the country could rebuild.

___

Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Edith M. Lederer in Sharm el-Sheik and Salah Nasrawi in Cairo contributed to this report.

U.S.: Rice to meet with Syrian FM

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Syria‘s foreign minister in the first high-level talks between the countries in years, a U.S. official said Thursday, and the chief American military spokesman in Iraq said Syria had moved to reduce “the flow of foreign fighters” across its border.

But a substantive meeting between the United States and Iran — another U.S. opponent in the Mideast — appeared less certain. The Iraqi government is pressing for Rice and her Iranian counterpart to meet during the gathering, saying Washington’s conflict with the government in Tehran is only fueling Iraq’s instability.

“We expect that there will be a discussion between Secretary of State Rice and the Syrian foreign minister about Iraqi security issues,” said a senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was still being arranged.

In Baghdad, U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said Syria had tightened its borders to and reduced the number of foreign insurgents crossing into Iraq.

“There has been some movement by the Syrians … there has been a reduction in the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq” for more than a month, Caldwell said.

Both the United States and Iran had also spoken favorably of a possible meeting, but the chances for that remained unclear, and neither side had commented publicly on any immediate arrangements.

Iraq and the United States hope Thursday and Friday’s conference of nearly 50 nations at this Egyptian Red Sea resort will rally international support — particularly from Arab nations — for an ambitious plan to stabilize Iraq.

Iraq is pressing for forgiveness of debt and for Arabs to take greater action to prevent foreign fighters from joining the Iraqi insurgency. Arab countries, in turn, demand his government ensure greater participation by Sunni Arabs in Iraq’s political process, echoing the United States.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki opened the conference by urging all countries to forgive his country’s enormous foreign debts — estimated at about $50 billion. Another $100 billion has already been written off by the Paris Club of lender nations.

But Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, told the conference only that his country “has expressed its readiness to alleviate some of the debts on Iraq” and was currently in discussions with Iraqi officials to deal with the issue “in line with the regulations and bases of the Paris Club.”

Iraqi and U.S. officials had said Saudi Arabia privately had already committed to forgiving 80 percent of Iraq’s $17 billion debt.

Signs of new tension between Iraq and Saudi Arabia emerged in the leadup to the conference when Saudi King Abdullah, dismissing pressure from the United States, turning down a request to meet with al-Maliki.

Al-Faisal, addressing the conference, renewed a Saudi offer of $1 billion in loans to Iraq, on the condition that the money be distributed equally among “Iraq’s geographical sectors.”

Al-Maliki pledged to institute reforms to boost Sunni participation but said forgiving Iraq’s debts was the only way the country could rebuild.

Rice’s meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem will be the first such high-level talks since the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria denies it had anything to do with the killing, but U.S. and European officials have since shunned the Damascus government.

Last month, President Bush assailed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi  for making a trip to Damascus, saying it sent mixed messages to the Syrian government, which his administration considers to be a state supporter of terrorism. Pelosi said her delegation was “assessing the ground truth” to inform spending decisions made by Congress.

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group, U.S. allies and lawmakers of both parties have urged Bush to reconsider in the hope that Iran and Syria can be persuaded to use their influence inside Iraq.

Iraq and many Arab countries have been particularly eager, even desperate, for such talks — saying they are only the way to stabilize Iraq and lessen Iran’s growing influence in the region.

Rice has also said she was willing to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, after years of accusations and name-calling between the nations. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had also expressed interest in such a meeting.

During Thursday’s session, the two sat on far ends of the large conference hall where the ministers and top diplomats from nearly 50 nations gathered. They both attended a lunch along with the other foreign ministers.

“All of us here today are bound to the future of Iraq. What happens in Iraq has profound consequences which will affect each and every one of us,” Rice said in a speech to the conference.

In his speech, Mottaki blamed Iraq’s turmoil on “the flawed policies of the occupying powers” — referring to the U.S.

Iraq has offered to mediate between Iran and the U.S., an aide to al-Maliki told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

Al-Maliki told Rice on Wednesday that “a rapprochement must take place between you and the nations of the region to solve the issue of Iraq, particularly Syria and Iran,” according to Iraqi Planning Minister Ali Baban, a Sunni.

The U.S accuses Iran of fueling Iraq’s violence by arming and backing militants there, a charge Iran denies.

The two-day conference in this Red Sea resort town brings together officials from Iraq, the U.S., Iran, Russia, China, Europe and Arab nations.

___

Associated Press writers Anne Gearan and Edith M. Lederer in Sharm el-Sheik and Salah Nasrawi in Cairo contributed to this report.

Rice warns Iraq neighbours region’s stability at stake

by Sylvie Lanteaume

SHANNON, Ireland (AFP) – US Secretary of State   Condoleezza Rice warned Iraq’s neighbours on Wednesday that the entire Middle East’s stability was at stake in the upcoming international conference to be held in Egypt.

“The most important message that I will be delivering is that a stable, unified and democratic Iraq is an Iraq that will be a pillar of stability in the Middle East and an Iraq that is not stable and not an Iraq for all people will be a source of instability for the region,” she said.

Rice was speaking to reporters during a stopover in Ireland on her way to Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where she will take part in multilateral talks aimed at ending the bloodshed in Iraq.

“So the region has everything at stake here. Iraq’s neighbours have everything at stake here,” Rice said.

“But not all states we believe are acting in the interest of a stable and unified Iraq. And so it’s very important for the neighbours to get together and to make that commitment and then to act on that commitment,” she explained.

She was referring to Syria and Iran, who have been accused by Washington of funding the Sunni insurgency and Shiite militias respectively, and which are believed to hold the key to Iraq’s stability.

Washington has also been seeking to increase Saudi Arabia’s involvement in attempts to curb the spiralling violence.

Rice is expected to arrive in Sharm el-Sheikh later Wednesday for preliminary talks.

The two-day conference starts in earnest on Thursday with the launch of the International Compact with Iraq (ICI), an initiative providing a framework for Iraq’s security and economic development.

The second day of the conference will focus on bringing all of Iraq’s neighbours together as well as the United Nations, United States and European Union for unprecedented talks.

Rare high-level talks between Washington and Tehran could also take place during the Sharm el-Sheikh conference.

“It is going to take some time to overcome suspicions in the region. It is going to take time to overcome suspicions within Iraq and those suspicions within Iraq then feed suspicions in the region,” Rice admitted.

“But it’s also an opportunity for the neighbours to be supportive of those efforts and to the degree that those neighbours have influence with important political factions and figures in Iraq, to encourage them to also engage in the reconciliation,” she added.

US Treasury Deputy Secretary Robert Kimmitt, who is traveling with Rice, was equally cautious about the outcome of the conference.

“Now not everything is going to be achieved at this meeting in terms of all of the commitments that will need to be made to Iraq overtime but I think as the Iraqis meet more and more of their targets, you’ll see more and more commitments to them,” he said.

“I don’t think that this is a one time effort to have reconciliation among the Iraqis and reconciliation of Iraq with its neighbors,” Kimmitt added.

The conference will be seeking further debt relief to prop up Iraq’s embattled economy and set benchmarks to improve governance.

Tenet: U.S. must do more in Mideast

By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated

NEW YORK – Former CIA Director George Tenet says the United States needs to revitalize the Palestinian-Israeli peace effort and do a better job leveraging its own diplomatic and economic strength to offset Iran‘s growing influence in the Middle East.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Tenet said discussions about Iraq need to be broadened to consider the entire region — with an eye toward “cauterizing and minimizing” Iranian political influence.His to-do list for the Bush administration is long: “Change the political dialogue. Create a better sense of hope for the region. Talk to the regional partners about issues they care about.”

“The Palestinian-Israeli peace process has to be resuscitated at some point,” said Tenet, whose new memoir, “At the Center of the Storm,” provides details about his involvement in the peace talks during the Clinton administration.

Tenet said Monday that he worries about Iranian influence for a number of reasons, including Iran’s sway over Syria and an influnce in Palestinian politics that affects Israeli security.

He said U.S. political, diplomatic and economic strength is enormous — and can be used to offset Iranian influence. “We need to look at this region. Iraq’s a problem. We are working through a difficult environment today,” he said.

Tensions between Iran and the United States have grown. The Bush administration accuses Tehran of helping destabilize neighboring Iraq by supplying deadly weapons and stirring sectarian strife. On Monday, the State Department released a report saying that Iran remains the biggest supporter of terrorism around the world, with elements of its government backing groups throughout the Middle East.

Although recent tension has raised the prospect of a military confrontation between the United States and Iran, Tenet said he could not recall that any senior Bush administration officials were thinking along such lines when he stepped down in July 2004 after seven years as spy chief.

“I highly doubt in this time period — where we were dealing with Iraq, we’re dealing with Afghanistan, we’re dealing with terrorism — there was much thinking about this,” he said of a possible Iran invasion.

Tenet has remained largely out of the public eye since he stepped down. His silence has left some wondering why he is speaking out now — long after the 2004 presidential election — on his contention that Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials stretched intelligence to justify their determination to take the nation to war in Iraq.

Tenet said it took him time to compose his thoughts and write his book after so much time in a job that was a “swirling cauldron” every day. “It is unusual for people to come out of our business to say much to anybody or to write. I thought I had a historical obligation to write.”

Tenet, who is no stranger to controversy, is finding that the book has its share of critics. For instance, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the White House have disputed his assertions that the Bush administration didn’t think through the 2003 Iraq invasion or plan for its aftermath.

“My own view is perhaps more serious discussion should have occurred to link the war fighting, the peacekeeping, the stabilization,” he said. “That is my perspective on it. I don’t doubt they had their discussion. I think we needed to do more of it.”

In the interview, Tenet discussed a range of issues:

• He said the one issue he has thought more about than any other since leaving government is al-Qaida’s interest in obtaining a nuclear device and government-wide efforts to prevent what could be a history-changing attack.

“We have lots of fissile material in the world. We have scientists in the world,” he said. “This needs a major national effort that involves our national labs, science, policy, our intelligence and law enforcement community to give it a focus, to pay attention to it, because the consequences of something like this are devastating for us.”

• He also briefly discussed an Iraqi source whom he has referred to only once before — obliquely — in public. In a little-noticed vignette of his book, Tenet says this well-placed individual provided intelligence that was central to his thinking on the threat from Saddam Hussein.

When doubts would creep into the U.S. intelligence on Iraq, the source would provide specific information to ease them. The fresh reports came at a key time: After the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which has since been found to be riddled with errors.

Tenet wouldn’t provide any more details, including the source’s location, how the individual had such good timing and whether he was found to be a fabricator.

“We believed what the source was telling us, and we believed that essentially what we wrote (in the intelligence estimate) was being corroborated,” he said.

Afghanistan, Pakistan agree to fight terrorism

by Sibel Utku Bila

ANKARA (AFP) - Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to step up joint efforts against terrorism and boost confidence-building measures during fence-mending talks here Monday between the two troubled neighbours.

“We decided to reconcile our differences… I can say it’s a new beginning,” Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told NTV television after talks with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai.

The meeting, the first between Karzai and Musharraf since September 2006, sought to ease simmering bilateral tensions over Afghan accusations that Pakistan tacitly supports the Taliban militia.

They agreed to “deny sanctuary, training and financing to terrorists and to elements involved in subversive and anti-state activities in each other’s countries,” according to a joint declaration issued after the talks mediated by Turkish leaders.

They pledged “to initiate immediate action on specific intelligence exchanges” as part of their commitment, it said.

Musharraf and Karzai, who traded harsh accusations ahead of the meeting — including the Pakistani president calling his Afghan counterpart a “liar” — did not shake hands as they appeared before the media.

Instead, they stood on either side of Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who held and raised their hands as they posed for photographers, joined by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who also attended the talks.

They did not speak to the press and did not take questions.

Turkish officials were satisfied with the meeting, which had been planned since March 2006, and described the atmosphere of the talks as “good.”

“The fact that they managed to agree to a joint declaration is in itself very important,” a senior diplomat said.

The two leaders said they were also concerned by “the alarming increase in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan” and called for efforts to combat drug trafficking, which they said was linked to terrorism.

They said they would work for an “orderly repatriation” of Afghan refugees from Pakistan.

They agreed to set up a three-way committee, including Turkey, to monitor progress on bilateral issues and boost confidence-building measures between their countries.

They welcomed the idea of meeting again in Turkey either later this year or early in 2008, Sezer said.

“We tried to convince them that if they try in earnest they can resolve their problems…. We gave them as an example our own experience” in improving ties with Greece, Iran and Syria after years of animosity, the Turkish diplomat said.

NATO member Turkey has traditionally close ties with both countries. It has contributed troops to the the international force in Afghanistan.The two key US allies in the war against terrorism last met for talks in Washington in September, when US President George W. Bush tried to reconcile them, with no apparent success.

Tensions simmered between them ahead of the Ankara talks, with Musharraf angrily dismissing Afghan claims that Pakistan’s ISI secret intelligence service was helping the Taliban.“Those who do nothing against terrorism, like Karzai, are also the ones who criticise those who are fighting, like us,” Musharraf told the Spanish daily El Pais Thursday.

“Those who say that the ISI helps the Taliban because we want a weak Afghanistan are liars.”Pakistan, once the main backer of the Taliban regime, reversed its policy in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Since then, it has deployed 90,000 troops in sensitive border areas in a bid to stop Pakistan-based militants entering Afghanistan. Many in Afghanistan remain skeptical, saying Musharraf cannot or will not rein in elements of his military intelligence who allegedly support the Sunni extremist Taliban.

Islamabad insists it has taken effective measures and accuses Afghanistan of trying to shift the blame away from its own failures to tackle a booming drug trade and warlords who are undermining the government’s authority.

There are nearly 50,000 US and NATO troops in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, whose radical regime was ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.

Oliver North: Not Cheering Losers

By Oliver North
The Washington Times
April 29, 2007

If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is right, nearly 60 percent of Americans agree with him that the war in Iraq is already lost. And if he is correct in saying losing the war will increase Democrat majorities in future elections, it may be fair to conclude that Americans now love losers. I’m not buying any of it — and neither are the troops fighting this war.
    
In the days since Mr. Reid announced “this war is lost,” I have heard from dozens of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Guardsmen and Marines that I have covered in eight trips to Iraq and two to Afghanistan for Fox News. Some who correspond with me are there now, others are home. Some are preparing to deploy again.

None of them agree with the majority leader’s assessment.
    
One e-mail from Ramadi, Iraq observed: “Good thing this guy Reid wasn’t around in 1940 when Winston Churchill promised the people of Great Britain nothing but ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat.’ “

Another, a National Guardsman, recently returned from Mesopotamia with a Purple Heart, noted that the Senate majority leader has become “al Qaeda’s most powerful ally.” At Mississippi State University, a Marine corporal I last saw along the banks of the Tigris River — now a college student — asked me, “Do those people who think we’ve lost this war have any idea what things will be like if we really do lose?” It’s an important question none of the potentates on the Potomac who just voted to withdraw U.S. troops appear willing to address.
    
According to military folklore, Napoleon kept a corporal at his side to ensure that the orders issued in battle were understandable by the troops who had to carry them out. Whether true or not, it’s time for Mr. Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to find such a corporal who will ask them such questions, for if the Democrats continue their current course, we may well lose this war — and they will have embraced defeat, and all that comes with it.
    
What would losing the war in Iraq mean? It’s a picture so dark and depressing it makes the collapse in Vietnam — 32 years ago next week — look like a Sunday school picnic by comparison. The fall of Saigon was horrific for the people of the Republic of Vietnam and their neighbors in Cambodia and Laos. More than 5 million became refugees and by the most conservative estimates — no one knows for sure — at least a million others perished.
    
For most Americans, the consequences were minimal. The vast majority of the 2.8 million of us who fought and bled there mourned the loss of 58,253 of our comrades, swallowed the bitterness of defeat, and got on with our lives. Our nation spent a few hundred million tax dollars on refugee relief and resettlement — and tried to forget what people in Mr. Reid’s party called “the long nightmare of Vietnam.”
    
But classified U.S. intelligence assessments, military contingency plans and staff studies evaluating the consequences of a precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, coupled with the lack of funding for political reform measures — as contained in the legislation just passed by Mr. Reid’s party — paint a far more dismal picture than anything that happened after Vietnam:
    
Within months, an immediate upsurge in vicious sectarian violence fomented by Iranian intervention on behalf of Shi’ite militias and Wahhabi-supported, al Qaeda-affiliated terror groups. As U.S. forces retreat to a half-dozen staging areas for retrograde through Kuwait and Jordan, American casualties will dramatically increase from suicide bombers seeking “martyrdom” in their victory.
    
Inside of 18 months, the fragile, democratically elected government in Baghdad will collapse, precipitating a real sectarian civil war and creation of Taliban-like “regional governments” that will impose brutal, misogynistic rule throughout the country. The ensuing flood of refuges into Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Iran will overwhelm relief organizations, creating a humanitarian disaster making what’s happening in Darfur pale by comparison.
    
The Kurds in Northern Iraq are likely to declare an autonomous region that could well result in Turkish, Iranian and even Syrian military intervention.
    
In the course of withdrawing U.S. combat brigades and support units, billions of dollars in American military equipment and ordnance will have to be destroyed or left behind. More than $40 billion in reconstruction projects for schools, health-care facilities, sanitation, clean water, electrical distribution and agricultural development will be abandoned. Plans to exploit the new West Qurna oil field in southeastern Iraq will be forsaken.
    
The governments of Kuwait, Jordan, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, intimidated by Iranian boldness in acquiring nuclear weapons, will likely insist on the withdrawal of American military bases from their territories. Such a move will jeopardize U.S. naval operations in the Persian Gulf and logistics, intelligence collection and command and control facilities supporting operations in Afghanistan.
    
As Iraq becomes a battleground for the centuries-long Sunni-Shia conflict, radical Islamic terror organizations will use the territories they control to prepare and launch increasingly deadly terror attacks around the globe against U.S. citizens, businesses and interests.
    
Mr. Reid and his cohorts in Congress who believe “this war is lost” have acted to ensure it will be. No one asked them: “If we lost, who won?” The answer should be obvious.
    
    Oliver North is the host of “War Stories” on the Fox News Channel and founder and honorary chairman of Freedom Alliance.

Related:
Terror War Called Riskier Than Vietnam