Panetta in Afghanistan for talks amid increasing violence

Author / source: independent online/reuters

KABUL: US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta came in Afghanistan on Thursday for talks with the military leaders amid rising violence in the war against the Taliban and a spate of deadly incidents, including a NATO air strike should have killed 18 villagers.

Panetta said the purpose of the trip was to hear a review from US General John Allen, the head of the NATO coalition forces in Afghanistan, about the "confront ability, these threats by the Taliban and the Haqqanis", a reference to hardliners, al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.

Panetta planned to visit troops and talks with the Afghan Defense Minister, General Abdul Rahim Wardak.

Panetta said he wanted to find out about a recent increase in the number of attacks in Afghanistan, including some seemingly more organized, others recently considered.

"I think it is important to try to make sure that we trust the kind of attacks, they are going to participate, especially as we go through the rest of the summer and give the second half of this year", said Panetta.

The visit of the Afghanistan came at the end of Panetta weeklong trip to Asia to explain a new US military strategy, announced in January that calls for a shift in strategic focus to the region of Asia-Pacific.

Encouraged at a stopover in New Delhi Panetta Indian politicians are in the help for Afghanistan strengthen educate its economy and its security forces, to draw as the international coalition forces begins in the next two years.

He urged to continue working, to develop a better relationship with Pakistan, a longtime rival for influence in Afghanistan also India.

"As well as India relations with Pakistan sees as complicated, so we do." "And it is, it's a complicated relationship - often frustrating - it is often difficult, but at the same time a necessary relationship", he said.

Panetta said, "fought a war" against al-Qaeda in Pakistan lawless northwestern areas, and he suggested the United States, that drone strikes on al Qaeda leaders in the region despite Pakistan's concerns remain, that they its sovereignty against.

He said "We the Pakistanis, which would have made it clear the United States of America, us to defend, the attacks against us". "And we have done just that." "We have gone for their leadership and we have actually done it."

"We are very clear that we continue to defend us have taken", Panetta said.

On Wednesday, Afghan officials and villagers said 18 people, including women and children, were killed in a NATO air raid in southeastern of Afghanistan. NATO officials said that they are looking for in the reports of civilian casualties.

Also on Wednesday, two suicide bombers killed 20 civilians outside a large NATO base in the South, the bloodiest attack in weeks, because the Taliban offensive launched a spring.

Source: theindependentbd.com

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N.Korea's Kim calls for nuclear talks, doubts on uranium

BEIJING: North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il told Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang that a moribund 2005 deal should be the basis for fresh talks about Pyongyang's nuclear program, Chinese state media reported, leaving unanswered a key question on uranium enrichment.

The United States and South Korea insist that the North must immediately halt its uranium enrichment program, which it unveiled last year, as a precursor to restart regional talks that offer economic aid in return for denuclearization.

Kim's latest offer of fresh nuclear negotiations came as Washington said it had narrowed differences with North Korea on issues standing in the way of a new round of multilateral nuclear talks.

In his meeting with Li, Kim repeated that North Korea is willing to return to six-party talks -- also involving Russia and Japan -- that it walked out of more than two years ago.

But his published comments did not address Pyongyang's uranium enrichment activities, a key obstacle to talks.

"Kim said the DPRK hopes the six-party talks should be restarted as soon as possible," said the Xinhua news agency report on Tuesday of the meeting between Kim and Li in North Korea on Monday night.

The DPRK is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea -- the North's official name.

"All the six parties should fully implement the September 19 joint statement, signed by them in 2005 in Beijing, on the principle of simultaneous action," Kim said, according to the report.

The North's uranium enrichment program, which opens a second route to make an atomic bomb along with its plutonium program, is not specifically referred to in the 2005 agreement.

However, Seoul and Washington argue uranium enrichment falls under the broader term "existing nuclear programs," which the 2005 deal says must be stopped.

Pyongyang states it is willing to discuss the issue once six-party talks resume, but Seoul and Washington say there will be no talks until uranium enrichment is stopped. They say any halt must be verified by international nuclear inspectors.

The United States, South Korea and their allies have been skeptical of North Korea's recent assertions that it stands ready to return to the six-party talks, saying Pyongyang has reneged on past disarmament pledges.

The talks and the embryonic agreement were a diplomatic trophy for Beijing. But North Korea walked out of the negotiations more than two years ago after the United Nations imposed fresh sanctions for a long-range missile test. The following month Pyongyang conducted a second nuclear test.

The North says its uranium enrichment program is designed to produce power, and argues that the 2005 agreement respects its right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

In Geneva, Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, said the two sides "narrowed some differences but we still have differences that we have to resolve."

Throughout the regional turbulence, Beijing has stood by its ally, North Korea, which it sees as a buffer against the influence of the United States and its allies. But China has also tried to preserve ties with South Korea, and to revive the stalled talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament.

Li, 56, is the favorite to become premier from early 2013, when Wen Jiabao will step down. He will visit South Korea after his trip to the North.

Source: theindependentbd.com

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