UK, South Africa explicitly differ on Libya

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/189861.html

South Africa has relayed the African Union's (AU) strong opposition to the NATO war against Libya during the British Prime Minister's one-day trip to the country.

President Jacob Zuma and David Cameron openly disagreed over whether to continue with the war against Libya, British media reported.

The South African leader told the UK premier that he 'wanted to see negotiations aimed at ending the five-month-old conflict in Libya.'

Zuma pushed for NATO alliance to give the AU "roadmap," which involves talks between the Libyan revolutionaries and ruler Muammar Gaddafi, the chance to succeed.

"Once there was a fight, the AU took a very clear position -- that military intervention would not solve the problem. You needed political intervention," Zuma said.

"How must Gaddafi go? Where must he go? Why must he go? These issues must be put on the table, and the Libyan people must decide," added Zuma, whose government has accused the West of trying to assassinate Gaddafi.

However, David Cameron moved to downplay the difference, claiming that he and Zuma both wanted the same results -- a peaceful and democratic Libya. But, Zuma explicitly stated that there are differences on how to achieve a solution.

"The Prime Minister and I agree that a solution is needed but we differ on how to go about that. What is important to us from the AU perspective is that any product in Libya should be preceded by negotiations and an end to the violence and the killing of civilians -- that is our position," Zuma said.

This is while Cameron stresses that Libya ruler Muammar Gaddafi must first leave power before negotiations establishing Libya's future could take place.

NATO has been bombing Libya for nearly four months under a United Nations mandate to protect civilians from being killed at the hands of forces loyal to Gaddafi.

Israel diplomat resigns over foreign policy

Israeli diplomat Ilan Baruch

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/167808.html

An Israeli diplomat has resigned in protest to the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Ilan Baruch, who served at Israel's foreign ministry, said he opted to resign from the office he holds in protest to the polices advanced by the Netanyahu government.

“The diplomatic policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman are harming Israel's international standing,” Baruch wrote in a letter to Israel's foreign ministry officials, Ha'aretz reports.

"In the last two years certain messages were reiterated by the country's leaders, [messages which] outrage me and which I cannot ignore,” the Israeli diplomat went on to say.

"I find it difficult to represent them and honestly explain them," Baruch wrote.

“The government was sworn in two years ago, its members have voiced a persistent reluctance to the international demand to withdraw from occupied territories," he noted.

Elsewhere in his letter, Baruch said "A malignant dynamic has formed, which threatens Israel's international stance and undermines its legitimacy.”

He also stressed that Israel should learn lessons from South Africa's apartheid system.

Baruch was formerly Israel's ambassador to South Africa.

Million set to march in South Africa

Strikes began last week and saw clashes between protesters
and police [AFP]


Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/08/20108265325707917.html

More than one million South African civil servants are gathering ahead of planned protests across the country over low wages.

Labor unions planned the action on Thursday as part of continued pressure on the government to agree to improved pay terms and benefits.

Around 1.3 million state workers have been on strike since Wednesday last week, picketing outside schools, hospitals and government offices.

A day after they began, the strikes became violent when police used rubber bullets and water cannons against teachers and other civil servants, who threw stones and bricks at them when trying to enter a hospital in Johannesburg.

The unions have set a deadline of September 2 for the government to provide a 8.6 per cent rise in salaries and a 1,000 rand ($138) monthly housing allowance, otherwise more state workers are slated to join the strikes.

The South African government is offering a seven per cent pay hike and 630 rand for housing.

Government services and the economy have already been disrupting by the strikes.

Patients affected

Doctors and activists warned on Wednesday that HIV and Aids patients are not receiving treatment because of the nationwide strike. An estimated 5.7 million people are living with HIV and Aids in South Africa, more than any other country.

One doctor, Ashraf Coovadia, said that his HIV/Aids clinic at a Johannesburg government hospital is receiving 20 to 30 patients whereas normally the figure would be 60 to 80.

He said that clinic staff have been calling patients to urge them to come in.

Patients typically receive three-month batches of drugs. They can develop drug resistance if they miss a few days of medication.

Coovadia said that people may fear encountering violence at state hospitals or think that they have been closed by the strikes.

He added that he has had to negotiate with strikers and security guards to ensure patients can enter the clinic safely.

"The situation is quite volatile," he said.

Under pressure

Maine de Clercq, from one of the striking unions the Public Workers Association, told Al Jazeera: "The government says they do not have the money and we are aware that it is above the inflation rate, but there is policy that we will always ask for inflation plus more.

"Other government officials have already been settled and received that.

"We have eight unions in the public service I represent one. We have not called for essential service workers to go on strike. We do not want people to die."

Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, in Johannesburg, said that strikers were planning to march to the education and health departments with a list of their demands on Thursday.

"That raises the stakes for President [Jacob] Zuma and his government. They are more under pressure now to come to some kind of an agreement with the workers and the workers have given the government one more week," Mutasa said.

"If there is no agreement and they do not get what they want they say that they will embark on an even bigger strike.

"They say that more people will join them and the aim then won't just be to bring the public sector to a halt but to bring the entire economy to a standstill."

Iran 'not to bow to US oppression'

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=127805&sectionid=351020101

Prominent American scholar Noam Chomsky says Washington cannot apply its policy of oppression to Tehran, saying it is not in Iran's nature to follow orders.

Speaking in Beirut after Israel denied him entry into the occupied West Bank, Chomsky said the US is not concerned about what government is in power, adding that it solely wants administrations "to follow orders."

The world-renowned political analyst, however, went on to caution the US in the case of Tehran, saying that "Iran does not follow orders. It is trying to pursue its sovereignty. "

In his speech, which marked the withdrawal of Israeli forces from south Lebanon ten years ago, Chomsky drew parallels between Israel and South Africa's apartheid regime.

Pointing to the fact that during the apartheid era, the whites in South Africa cared for the black natives and supported them, Chomsky said that Israel does not even take responsibility for the Palestinians.

"Israel does not need the Palestinians. It doesn't want them. If they wither away like the leaves of autumn the way that the native Americans did, that is fine. They go somewhere else that is fine. But, they don't take any responsibility for them and they don't need them. So it's much worse than apartheid," he said.

Last Monday, the fierce Israeli critic was scheduled to deliver a lecture at a Palestinian University near Ramallah. He, however, was denied entry by the Israeli forces and spent several hours in detention before being allowed to return to Jordan.

Reacting to the move, some Israeli papers described the treatment of Chomsky as marking the start of a slide into fascism. The media's harsh criticism forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to issue an apology to Chomsky, promising to grant him an entry visa for future visits.