Saudi ‘gift’ to hide its terror hand

 

By: Finian Cunningham

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/12/30/342785/saudi-gift-to-hide-its-terror-hand/

Saudi largesse is throwing money again – in a bid to cover up its bloodstained hands in violence hitting the Middle East and beyond.

The latest public relations gimmick is the “donation” of $3 billion to the Lebanese army made by Saudi King Abdullah at the weekend.

The Saudi cash – twice the national military budget of Lebanon – is being regaled in the Western media as a noble offer to secure Lebanon from recent terror attacks.

The announcement was made during a visit to Riyadh by French President Francois Hollande, who met the Saudi king and the latter’s Lebanese proxy, Saad Hariri.

The new Saudi military aid to Lebanon is tied to the condition that it must be spent on purchasing French weaponry.

Already, the outlines of a sleazy deal are emerging. The above political actors have done much to destabilize Lebanon with violence, which is now being blamed on the wrong people – Shia Hezbollah – thanks to the deft finger work of billionaire Paris-exile Hariri.

One of the main protagonists of terrorism – Saudi Arabia – now steps in with a military aid “gift” that will allow it to influence the Lebanese army to go after Saudi enemy Hezbollah.

Such an insidious interference by Saudi Arabia in the internal affairs of Lebanon can only but incite further sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia in that country, which is still recovering from a 15-year civil war.

On top of this, the other main advocate of regional subversion and terrorism – France – stands to receive a handsome payback in weapons sales to the tune of $3 billion.

And all the while, the Western media give this despicable charade a veneer of respectability. It really is astounding how Western media can get away with such distortion.

Saudi blood money and sponsorship of terrorism are carrying out demonic work in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Pakistan and even it could be added in Iran’s peripheral southeast region.

Moreover, the Saudi terror connection can also be traced to the weekend double bombing in the southern Russian city of Volgograd where more than 30 people were killed.

In October, a suicide bomber killed six also in a bus attack in Volgograd. Other cities have also been hit with deadly attacks in Russia’s Dagestan in recent months.

The likely Chechen perpetrators behind those attacks – led by Saudi-linked Doku Umarov – are also involved in waging the Saudi-financed terror war in Syria.

Recall, too, that Saudi spymaster Prince Bandar only a few months ago made veiled threats to Russian leader Vladimir Putin that the Sochi Winter Olympic Games were at risk to acts of sabotage. The Games are set to open on 7 February 2014.

Nevertheless, against this appalling background of provable Saudi-sponsored mayhem – stretching from the Mediterranean to the Russian Caucasus – we have this latest ridiculous Saudi public relations stunt.

Saudi King Abdullah, we are told, is to “grant” $3 billion to “help” the Lebanese army to “beef up its security”. France 24, among others, reported that the military boost “would help the Lebanese army fight ... groups like Hezbollah, which has caused a wave of violence in the country.”

The latter claim by France 24 is a risible distortion of the facts. Lebanon has indeed witnessed a wave of violence in recent months, but the main victims of the attacks have been Hezbollah and Shia communities in southern Beirut and Baalbek in the east of the country.

The primary source of this bloodshed in Lebanon is groups linked to Saudi, Israeli and Western intelligence.

For example, the double suicide bombing of the Iranian embassy in Beirut on 19 November, which killed at least 23 including Iranian cultural attaché [to Beirut Hojjatoleslam] Ebrahim Ansari, was claimed by the Saudi-backed al-Qaeda group known as Abdullah Azzam Brigade.

The Saudi king’s act of generosity to “improve security” in Lebanon should therefore be scoffed at by media instead of praised. But this is the Western media performing its dutiful function of inverting reality.

King Abdullah’s show of magnanimity came two days after a prominent Lebanese Sunni politician, Mohamad Shatah, was assassinated in a massive bomb blast that targeted his car in the capital Beirut on Friday morning.

Western media were quick to highlight claims by Saudi-backed Lebanese political leader Saad Hariri that the perpetrators of Shatah’s murder were Hezbollah. The Syrian government of President Bashar al Assad was also implicated for the killing.

There is no evidence to attribute Shatah’s murder to Hezbollah, other than politicized conjecture. Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian allies all categorically condemned the killing.

However, there is strong circumstantial evidence that Shatah may have been liquidated by his geopolitical allies as a nefarious means of triggering further sectarian violence inside Lebanon.

The execution of his murder would have required split-second timing and confidential information of his itinerary. He was on his way to meet members of the Hariri-led March 14 group.

This pattern of fomenting sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shia, as well as Christian, has been a staple of Saudi, Israeli and Western intelligence operating to destabilize Syria and Iraq over the past three years.

The splurging of $3 billion by Saudi Arabia to “increase Lebanon’s security” is merely cynical public relations to cover up the real source of violence in that country, as well as providing Riyadh military leverage to go after Hezbollah within Lebanon.

It follows the much bigger precedent of $100 billion that Saudi Arabia doled out to the United Nations Anti-Terrorism Center last August.

That donation was made at the end of the Holy Muslim Month of Ramadan as “a gift from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques of Islam”.

In the previous four weeks before that “gift”, some 1,000 Iraqis were killed in terror attacks mainly committed by the Saudi-bankrolled al-Qaeda franchise known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.

This same group has been engaging in similar atrocities in neighboring Syria, along with [so-called] al-Nusra Front, [so-called] Liwa al-Tawhid and [so-called] Ahrar al-Sham – all of them Saudi-sponsored.

The simple fact is that the sectarian bloodshed inundating Syria and Iraq, and increasingly now in Lebanon, as well as in countries as far apart as Yemen and Russia, would not be happening if it were not for the blood money flowing from Saudi Arabia.

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Finian Cunningham (born 1963) has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Originally from Belfast, Ireland, he is now located in East Africa as a freelance journalist, where he is writing a book on Bahrain and the Arab Spring, based on eyewitness experience working in the Persian Gulf as an editor of a business magazine and subsequently as a freelance news correspondent. The author was deported from Bahrain in June 2011 because of his critical journalism in which he highlighted systematic human rights violations by regime forces. He is now a columnist on international politics for Press TV and the Strategic Culture Foundation

 

Sudan’s Bashir says airstrike Israeli regime’s ‘hysterical reaction’

 

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/28/269129/attack-israel-hysterical-reaction-bashir/

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has slammed the recent Israeli airstrike on an arms factory in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, as Tel Aviv’s ‘hysterical reaction’ to the Arab world developments.

“The reckless behavior is a manifestation of Israel’s concerns and nervousness about the political and social upheavals in the region and about the progress in Sudan,” Bashir said in his Friday address to the nation on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha.

He pointed out, “Such aggressive acts by the Zionist entity could never force Khartoum to change its policies,” and reaffirmed the Sudanese nation’s determination to make “tough choice” in the face of challenges.

According to Sudanese Minister of Information Ahmed Bilal Osman, information collected by experts indicates that the weapons used in the aerial strike on Yarmouk facility were made in Israel.

“The sophisticated warplanes and weapons used in the attack are available to no country in the region except Israel.”

Four Israeli warplanes attacked the arms factory in the capital on October 23, Osman said.

Sudan has asked the United Nations Security Council to condemn the Israeli regime for violating the country’s sovereignty and bombing the factory.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far refused to comment on the incident. Israeli Minister for Military Affairs Ehud Barak has said that there is “nothing I can say about this subject.”

Sudan accuses Israel of bombing weapons factory threatens to retaliate

Fire engulf the Yarmouk ammunition factory in Khartoum October 24, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer)

Source: Russia Today

Israel was behind the bombing of a military factory that killed two people, claims Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman. Now, the Arab North African state is threatening to respond in kind.

"We think Israel did the bombing," Osman told a news conference, adding that Sudan reserves “the right to react at a place and time we choose." He also told reporters that his government may take the issue up with the United Nations Security Council.

The minister said four planes were involved in the attack at the Yarmouk military manufacturing facility in south Khartoum, and claimed evidence recovered at the scene points to Israel’s involvement.

The Yarmouk complex was built in 1996, and is one of two known state-owned weapons manufacturing facilities in the Sudanese capital.

Residents from the area told local newspapers that they saw planes flying overhead just before the explosion. The blast blew roofs off houses, shattered windows and set nearby trees ablaze. Several people suffered from smoke exposure.

Thick smoke blackened the sky over the complex, and firefighters fought the blaze for hours.

It's not the first time Sudanese officials have blamed such an incident on Israel.

One person was killed when a car blew up on the country's Red Sea coast in May, about a year after Sudan blamed Israel for an air strike on a vehicle in the same area. Witnesses to the May incident said they heard a big blast that set the car ablaze and left two holes in the ground.

In January 2009, foreign aircraft struck a truck convoy reportedly laden with weapons in the country’s east, killing dozens. The shipment was rumored to be headed for Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, though Sudanese parliamentarians denied the claims.

Osman told the news conference that his country was certain the previous attacks were ordered by the Israeli government. “The main purpose is to frustrate our military capabilities and stop any development there and ultimately weaken our national sovereignty,” he said.

Israel, as is its policy, has neither admitted nor denied carrying out the attack.

Khartoum is seeking the removal of United States sanctions imposed in 1997 over support for international terrorism, its human rights record and other concerns.

In 1998, US cruise missiles bombed a Khartoum pharmaceutical factory suspected of links to al-Qaeda in the wake of the terrorist group's bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

Onlookers gather to looks at a huge fire that engulf the Yarmouk ammunition factory in Khartoum October 24, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer)

Fire engulf the Yarmouk ammunition factory in Khartoum October 24, 2012 (Reuters / Stringer)

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Sudanese stage demonstration against Israel, US

Hundreds of Sudanese hold a demonstration in the capital Khartoum on October 24, 2012, to protest against an airstrike on a weapons factory in the city blamed on Israel

Source: Press TV

Hundreds of Sudanese have staged a demonstration in the capital Khartoum to protest against an airstrike on a weapons factory blamed on Israel.

On Wednesday night, the protesters chanted slogans against the Israeli regime and the United States, such as "Death to Israel" and "Remove Israel from the map."

The demonstration was staged after Sudanese Culture and Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman said that four Israeli warplanes had attacked a weapons factory in Khartoum earlier in the day, killing at least two people.

In response to a question about the attack, Israeli Minister for Military Affairs Ehud Barak said, "There is nothing I can say about this subject."

Sudan also called on the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israel for violating the country’s sovereignty.

Sudanese Ambassador to the UN Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman referred to the attack as a "blatant violation" of the UN charter and demanded condemnation from the global body.

In May, Khartoum blamed Israel for a deadly attack that destroyed a car and killed a businessman in Port Sudan.

Sudan also blamed Israel for another deadly missile attack on a car near Port Sudan in April 2011.

The Tel Aviv regime, however, has neither denied nor confirmed its involvement in these incidents.

Israeli Night of Broken Glass: Africans attacked in Tel Aviv anti-migrant demo

Hundreds of people demonstrate in the impoverished Hatikva neighborhood of the southern Mediterranean city of Tel Aviv on May 23, 2012 (AFP Photo / Roni Schutzer)Israel Out)

Source: Russia Today
http://www.rt.com/news/israel-anti-migrant-demo-061/

Thousands of Israelis, including high-profile politicians, attended an anti-African demonstration in Tel Aviv. The rally turned violent, with attacks on Africans and grocery shop windows being smashed.

The gathering, which took place in Tel Aviv’s Hatikva neighborhood, targeted the influx of African asylum seekers and was organized by Michael Ben Ari, a Knesset member from the National Union party, along with far-right activists Itamar Ben-Guir and Baruch Marzel, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports.

Many protesters also blamed the government, and Benjamin Netanyahu specifically, for inaction.

But the rally was also attended by politicians from the ruling Likud party, including Knesset members Miri Regev and Danny Danon. While Regev described asylum seekers as a “cancer in our body,” Danon said the “infiltrators” had to be immediately expelled from Israel.

“We should not be afraid to say the words 'expulsion now,'” Danon was reported as saying.

The crowd carried signs proclaiming messages such as “This is not Africa” and “Stop talking, start expelling.”

But as the sun set the rally turned violent, with demonstrators attacking at least a dozen African men and women who were unfortunate enough to be near the scene. They also smashed the shop front of a grocery store that served the migrant workers, subsequently looting it. Demonstrators also broke the window of a cab driven by a suspected African migrant worker. A bonfire was also lit up in the street. Seventeen people were reportedly arrested.

The rage of those who attended the rally seems to reflect a growing intolerance of the incoming African asylum seekers and migrant workers, even among those in the highest ranks of power.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his ministers that the phenomenon of “illegal work infiltrators” was “very grave,” and that it “threatened the social fabric of society,” Israel’s national security and national identity. He also warned that unless action is taken, the migrants could “inundate” the country and “cancel out its image as a Jewish and democratic state.”

Netanyahu’s words were strongly supported by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who called for the deportation of asylum seekers.

Thousands of migrants from Eritrea and South Sudan came to Israel, saying they wanted to escape the poverty and political instability at home. Most of them are headed for Europe, but are unable to use their traditional path through Libya because of the ongoing post-civil war strife in the country. Once in Israel, they are looked after by local NGOs and the UN High Commission for Refugees. Most of them settle in Tel Aviv.

The government has been trying to deport refugees from South Sudan back to their homeland, but the motion was halted by the Jerusalem District Court. The court issued a temporary order prohibiting the deportation until it rules on a petition filed by five human rights organization against the state’s decision to deport the immigrants, arguing that their lives may be endangered if they return home. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein is set to appear before the court next week to argue that there is no legal obstacle to the expulsion, as individual checks will show that none of the immigrants face any threats to their lives back South Sudan.

Sudan oil-war spiral could split world powers

Source: Russia Today
http://rt.com/news/sudan-south-sudan-war-338/

Sudan's president has threatened to topple the government to his south to “liberate” the South Sudanese. As a bloody battle over a disputed oil field heads towards full-scale war, it threatens to provoke conflict between the US and Russia-China.

Wednesday, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir accused authorities in the Southern capital, Juba, of trying to topple his government and vowed to retaliate.

“This situation makes it imperative for Sudan to confront the challenge of the State of South Sudan to topple the government in Khartoum by working to liberate the Southern nationals,” al-Bashir said.

South Sudan broke away from its northern neighbor last July after decades of on-off civil war. But the two never agreed on how to share the oil wealth found in the region between the countries, and the border was never fully demarcated.

The fighting is taking place along the shared border around the oil town of Heglig, which South Sudanese troops captured last week.

The northern state’s parliament was quick to brand its southern neighbor an “enemy” and called for the swift recapture of the region.

The Heglig field is vital to Sudan’s economy as it accounted for half the 115,000 barrels per day output that remained in its control when South Sudan seceded in July and Khartoum lost 75 per cent of the country’s oil production.

In its turn, the landlocked South lost its 350,000 barrels per day output after failing to agree on how much it should pay to export via Sudan’s pipelines, a Red Sea port and other facilities.

Fighting over oil transit payments and disputed territory has already withered the combined crude output of both countries, which are highly dependent on oil. Any protracted fighting would severely damage their economies and may disrupt the surrounding region.

Fueling an arms race

The international community is calling to stop the bloodshed, but the two sides seem determined to resolve the issue by force.

Meanwhile, their “border war” threatens to provoke a conflict among the permanent members of UN Security Council. South Sudan is an ally of the US, while Khartoum has close ties with Russia and China.

“If the conflict escalates, we are likely to see a stalemate at the UNSC with China and Russia opposing any proposals that may be politically costly to Sudan,” political author and columnist Reason Wafawarova told RT. “The US, with its allies France and the UK, is likely to push for proposals politically favorable to South Sudan, while opposing any proposals they may see as benefiting Sudan.”

Wafawarova says Sudan is seen as militarily superior to its southern neighbor. The US is unlikely to allow Juba’s capitulation, increasing its military support.

Some reports allege that the West is already providing arms to South Sudan through its Middle Eastern partners. For instance, Sudan’s Al-Intibaha newspaper writes that Israel might be supplying weapons to Juba.

South talking tough too

Another indicator that Juba has some serious allies in the West is the tough stance of South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir.

When the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called him and asked to stop the attack on Heglig, he received a surprisingly defiant answer: “I am not a slave to fulfill your orders!”

Experts say the behavior of President Kiir may be explained by the fact that he was confident of the unshakable support of the United States. Previously the US helped the southerners in their fight against the “dictatorial regime in Khartoum.”

The reason, Wafawarova says, is that it is no secret the United States militarily supported South Sudan in its campaign for secession from the North.

The US reportedly provided $100 million-a-year in military assistance to the SPLA. The information about the nature of this assistance has been scarce, but in December 2009 WikiLeaks released a diplomatic cable that refers to a US “training program for the SPLA, including combat arms soldier training.”

On the other side are Russia and China, who have traditionally supported close ties with Khartoum, selling weapons to Sudan right up to the 2005 UN arms embargo on the Sudanese government because of the war in Darfur.

However, in 2008 a BBC news report claimed to have found evidence of China-Sudan trade in violation of the embargo.

Currently, China is Sudan’s largest trading partner, importing oil and exporting low-cost goods.

Wafawarova believes that the permanent USNC council members’ standoff in the region may lead to an arms race between the two Sudans. US will be “expanding the military strength of South Sudan, while China and Russia will keep arming Khartoum,” he said.

There are also persistent rumors that the US plans to set up a military base in South Sudan – the largest in Africa.

“The US has failed to set up its AFRICOM base in Ghana, Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya and other proposed countries in the past,” says Wafawarova. “It would not be surprising if the US is trying to capitalize on the vulnerability of South Sudan in its efforts to establish the AFRICOM base somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.”

However, Wafawarova stressed that any efforts to set up AFRICOM in South Sudan are likely to face stiff opposition from Russia and China, as well as from the African Union and most African countries at individual levels.

Shifting the blame

While all involved in the conflict are pursuing their own interests, there always has to be someone to blame. It seems that Russia and China might again become the punching bag of the West for this purpose.

One of the indicators that that this might be the case is Amnesty International’s shift of attitude towards the parties involved. In July 2011, the organization accused China, Russia, and the USA of fueling conflict in the region.

The organization condemned the countries “for providing weapons or military training to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the official army of South Sudan.”

However, in February 2012, only China and Russia were accused of supplying arms to the volatile region, with no traces of US involvement whatsoever.

“China, Russia, and Belarus continue to supply weapons and munitions to Sudan despite compelling evidence that the arms will be used against civilians in Darfur,” the new Amnesty International statement reads.

Tuesday, Security Council members promised to discuss the crisis urgently, including the possibility of sanctions.

“Calls from the UNSC for a ceasefire are hypocritical and of no strength for as long as China, the US and Russia are pursuing their own political and economic interests in Sudan,” believes Reason Wafawarova. “And the fact that Heglig is, in reality, a conflict over oil makes the prospect of an amicable solution bleak.”

Sudan blocks South's oil shipment

Port Sudan (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/192589.html

Sudan has prevented a shipment of oil produced in South Sudan from leaving port after Juba refused to pay customs fees, escalating tensions between the neighbors.

"Sudan has blocked the ship in Port Sudan... When the ship leaves the port, the South has to pay the customs authorities. This is the first time they didn't pay," Sudan Foreign Ministry spokesman Al-Obeid Meruh was quoted by AFP as saying on Friday.

The spokesperson earlier said Juba had refused to pay the north's fees for the use of its oil infrastructure, such as its pipeline, and therefore the cargo of 600,000 barrels had been blocked.

Meruh went on to say that Sudan and South Sudan have not reached an agreement about the transit fees, adding that Khartoum is asking for $32 per barrel.

South Sudan says other states charge a fee of $1.8 per barrel for providing the same facilities, urging the north to consider international standards in setting the fees.

The event intensifies a row between the neighbors in which Juba accuses Khartoum of making efforts to impede its economic growth.

"They want to stop the shipment so that it prolongs the whole [negotiating] process. Khartoum is trying to sabotage the economy of South Sudan," said David Loro, undersecretary for South Sudan's Ministry of Energy and Mines.

Loro added that a southern committee is holding negotiations with Sudanese authorities in Khartoum over the issue of transit fees.

The landlocked South has to use the north's infrastructure to pump oil, which according to the World Bank, accounts for nearly 95 percent of its total revenue.

South Sudan becomes independent

Citizens of the new country celebrate independence of the South Sudan at midnight in the capital Juba, July 9, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/188209.html

South Sudan has become independent, making it Africa's newest nation and the world's newest country.

South Sudan became independent several minutes ago, shortly after midnight local time on July 9.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Sudanese President Omar Bashir, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Yehia al-Gamal, and other prominent political figures travelled to the South Sudan capital Juba on Friday to attend the independence ceremony of the new Republic of South Sudan.

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, and the head of the US military's Africa Command, Gen Carter Ham were also in Juba for the independence day celebrations.

President Bashir, who forged the 2005 peace deal with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), expressed readiness to work with the “Southern brothers and help them set up their state so that, God willing, this state will be stable and develop.”

“The cooperation between us will be excellent, particularly when it comes to marking and preserving the border so there is a movement of citizens and goods via this border,” he said.

South Sudan becomes the 193rd country recognized by the United Nations and the 54th UN member state in Africa.

Joyful residents of the new nation banged on jerry cans and chanted the name of the world's newest president, Salva Kiir, the Associated Press reported.

“We are brothers and sisters who suffered for a long time, and that is why we are now celebrating, what we will achieve,” said a resident.

“In independence we are going to have hospitals and schools and a lot of development around here. Our mothers and sisters died in the past. Hospitals were very far from us.”

South Sudan's independence comes after decades of conflict with the north in which over 1.5 million people died. The new oil-rich nation is one of the least developed countries in the world, where one in seven children dies before the age of five.

A historic peace agreement between North and South Sudan signed in 2005 paved the way for an independence referendum in January 2011, in which southerners voted almost unanimously to secede. North Sudan has officially recognized southern independence.

China rolls out red carpet for Bashir

Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands with Sudan's leader Omar al-Bashir during the signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on June 29, 2011 in Beijing, China

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186876.html

Chinese President Hu Jintao has welcomed his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir in the capital Beijing, saying the visit will bolster the traditional friendship among the two nations.

The two presidents held talks in the Great Hall of People in central Beijing on Wednesday and signed several economic cooperation pacts.

"Mr. Bashir, you are a guest who has travelled from afar, and we welcome you," Hu said in his opening remarks.

State media quoted Hu as saying that al-Bashir's visit would solidify and develop traditional China-Sudan ties and promote “practical cooperation” between the two states “in many fields."

The Sudanese president, who called Hu his "friend and brother", thanked his counterpart for the "warm welcome and treatment."

Chinese officials said that the two presidents also discussed "Sudan's ongoing north-south peace process and the Darfur issue" as South Sudan prepares to become an independent country on July 9.

Sudan is China's sixth largest source of overseas oil and, according to Sudanese media, Bashir's meeting with Hu followed a trip to the headquarters of China National Petroleum Corporation, where he concluded an agreement to boost Chinese oil investment in Sudan.

Bashir's visit comes ahead of the partition of Sudan into two states, scheduled for implementation on July 9, after two decades of civil war.

Chinese officials have confirmed that achieving a peaceful relationship between Bashir's government and the newly formed state of Southern Sudan will be the main focus of their discussions during his visit.

China needs stability in Sudan to maintain an outward flow of oil and ensure the safety of its substantial investments there. Since most of Sudan's oil resources will lie in the newly formed southern state, the upcoming secession will be of major significance for China.

96,000 displaced in North South Sudan conflict: UN

Smoke rises from burnt homes in the town of Abyei in this handout photo released by the United Nations mission in Sudan on May 23, 2011.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183720.html

The United Nations says the tense situation in the border region of Abyei between North and South Sudan has displaced 96,000 people.

“As of 5 June, the estimated number of people to be displaced by the Abyei violence was 96,000 people,” the UN's humanitarian office said.

“The situation in Abyei over the weekend was reported to be tense and unpredictable with reports of sporadic gunfire, and tukuls (traditional thatched huts) being burnt,” AFP quoted the UN office as saying on Tuesday.

According to reports, northern troops seized the oil-producing region on May 21, two days after the southern forces attacked a convoy of northern troops, killing 22 people.

The 'humanitarian crisis' in Abyei comes “in the middle of the hunger period” in the South which is between March and August. Tens of thousands of people lessen their consumption until the South's first harvest.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 300,000 southerners who used to live in the North have returned to the South, adding to the woes of the fledging government.

Meanwhile, clashes between the Southern and Northern armies in Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan state, has claimed the lives of six people, the UN sources said on Tuesday.

“At one of the hospitals we visited, we saw six dead bodies, four of whom were government of Sudan police, and the other two civilians... Earlier we saw about 3,000 people taking refuge at the Kadugli police hospital,” Hua Jiang, spokeswoman for the United Nations Mission in Sudan said.

South Kordofan is situated in the North Sudan and is the only oil-rich state in the country.

Sudan rejects UNSC pullout demand

Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmad Karti

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183374.html

Sudan has dismissed a request by the UN Security Council (UNSC) to pull its forces out of the oil-producing region of Abyei on the border between the South and the North.

“Sudan does not need to be asked to pull its army out of Abyei because this is a Sudanese territory,” AFP quoted Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Ahmad Karti as saying on Sunday.

“The army's entering the area to handle the security situation there was necessitated by the continued security breaches committed by the other party,” Karti added, referring to South Sudan troops.

The Sudanese top diplomat went on to say that their forces will remain in the region until an agreement is reached.

Karti's remarks come a day after the UNSC called on Khartoum to withdraw its forces from Abyei. The council claimed Sudan's military operations in Abyei are “serious violations” of the so-called 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The 2005 deal ended more than two decades of civil war between the rival sides. In January, majority of southerners voted for secession from the North in accordance with the agreement.

The agreement had left the fate of Abyei to a later referendum by the residents of the region to choose whether to join the South or the North.

Sudanese Armed Forces seized control of the oil-producing region on May 21. The measure came after troops from the South fired shots at a convoy of northern forces and UN peacekeepers on May 19.

'Sudan may retaliate for Israeli attack'

Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/173465.html

Sudan says it may respond to what it denounces as a recent Israeli airstrike, which killed two people in the northeast of the country.

Foreign Minister Ali Karti said “Sudan reserves its right to react” to the 'Israeli attack' near Port Sudan, the country's main port city, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The missile attack reportedly destroyed a car, killing both its occupants. Israeli Foreign Ministry's spokesman Yigal Palmor, however, has declined to comment on the matter.

Karti said Israel had carried out the attack on the false claim to prevent transfer of weapons to the Gaza Strip, reaffirming Khartoum's denial of arms transfer to the coastal sliver.

Tel Aviv has been imposing a total siege on the Gaza since mid-June 2007, claiming it seeks to block shipment of weapons into the impoverished enclave.

The restrictions have been depriving Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians of food, fuel, medicine and other necessities. They even prevent the entry of construction materials into the region -- largely in ruins from Israeli attacks.

The Tuesday attack served to remind a January 2009 strike by an unidentified aircraft on a convoy in Sudan, which killed a total of 119 people.

Sudan to build 1st nuclear plant

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was offered nuclear technology
by Iran earlier this year


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/139759.html


Sudan is planning to build a nuclear reactor and its first nuclear power plant for peaceful electricity purposes by 2020, state media say.

Director-general of the Sudanese Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed Ahmed Hassan el-Tayeb, said on Sunday that his government had begun the plan for the development of the nuclear reactor at the beginning of this year.

The country "has already started preparing for the project ... in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and is expected to build the first nuclear power plant in the year 2020," state news agency SUNA quoted Tayeb as saying.

An IAEA delegation is set to visit the African country this week to discuss the project, he went on to say.

Sudan has been an IAEA member since 1958, which means that it can develop nuclear energy with IAEA assistance.

Though the country has been under severe US sanctions since 1997, it has managed to boost both its oil production and increase its dam construction projects, thus encouraging growth.

However, in March, Khartoum announced that it needed to look for an alternate source of energy in an attempt to meet its growing demands.

Earlier this year, Iran offered to transfer nuclear technology to Sudan.

The African state has close economic and political ties with the Islamic Republic, which is locked in a dispute with the United States and some of its Western allies over its nuclear program.