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U.S., Iran say disputes remain in nuclear talks as deadline looms

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday major differences persist between Iran and six world powers negotiating on Tehran’s nuclear program, with a week to go before a deadline for a deal. The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China want Iran to reduce its nuclear fuel-making capacity to deny it any means of quickly producing atom bombs. In exchange, international sanctions that have crippled the large OPEC member’s oil-dependent economy would gradually be lifted. Iran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful energy purposes only and wants the sanctions removed swiftly. But a history of hiding sensitive nuclear work from U.N. inspectors raised international suspicions and the risk of a new Middle East war if diplomacy fails to yield a long-term settlement. "Obviously we have some very significant gaps still, so we need to see if we can make some progress," Kerry […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraqi slaughter swells crowded Shi'ite cemetery

Responding to an appeal from Shi’ite clerics, Salah al-Wa’ili signed up earlier this month with a militia near Baghdad fighting the Islamist insurgents who have swept through northern Iraq and threatened the capital. A week later the 27-year-old part-time fighter was dead. Killed in battle against Sunni militants near the western city of Ramadi on Friday, he joined the growing list of casualties from the latest wave of conflict to strike Iraq, which has been plaged by war, sanctions and sectarian strife for longer than Wa’ili’s brief lifetime. For relatives who buried him on Friday in the sprawling and ever more crowded cemetery known as the ‘Valley of Peace’, outside the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf, grief was mixed with a bleak familiarity. Salah was laid to rest in a family plot next to the graves of three generations of relatives killed in conflict and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraqi slaughter swells crowded Shi’ite cemetery

Responding to an appeal from Shi’ite clerics, Salah al-Wa’ili signed up earlier this month with a militia near Baghdad fighting the Islamist insurgents who have swept through northern Iraq and threatened the capital. A week later the 27-year-old part-time fighter was dead. Killed in battle against Sunni militants near the western city of Ramadi on Friday, he joined the growing list of casualties from the latest wave of conflict to strike Iraq, which has been plaged by war, sanctions and sectarian strife for longer than Wa’ili’s brief lifetime. For relatives who buried him on Friday in the sprawling and ever more crowded cemetery known as the ‘Valley of Peace’, outside the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf, grief was mixed with a bleak familiarity. Salah was laid to rest in a family plot next to the graves of three generations of relatives killed in conflict and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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U.S. Sees Risks in Assisting a Compromised Iraqi Force

A classified military assessment of Iraq ’s security forces concludes that many units are so deeply infiltrated by either Sunni extremist informants or Shiite personnel backed by Iran that any Americans assigned to advise Baghdad’s forces could face risks to their safety, according to United States officials. The report concludes that only about half of Iraq’s operational units are capable enough for American commandos to advise them if the White House decides to help roll back the advances made by Sunni militants in northern and western Iraq over the past month. Adding to the administration’s dilemma is the assessment’s conclusion that Iraqi forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki are now heavily dependent on Shiite militias — many of which were trained in Iran — as well as on advisers from Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force. Shiite militias fought American troops after the United States invaded Iraq […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Deadlock Blocks Iraqi Leadership Vote as ISIS Makes Gains Toward Baghdad

As Iraq’s deadlocked Parliament was again unable to reach a deal to name a new speaker on Sunday, Sunni militants carried out a raid near Baghdad, a symbolically significant attack signaling their intent to move closer, even if only by a few miles, toward the Iraqi capital. Although the pretext for the delay was a severe sandstorm that prevented northern Iraq’s Kurdish lawmakers from flying to Baghdad, the real reason appeared to be that last-minute deals between the largest Shiite bloc and the Sunnis were falling apart. “We were ready, we came with our candidates, but the others haven’t presented their candidates,” said Usama al-Nujaifi, the Sunni lawmaker, who served as speaker in the last Parliament but has agreed not to run this time. “The country is completely collapsing and we need to unify the nation — the delay means more killing, more displaced and more emigration,” […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Cracks Start Showing in Libya's Oil Recovery

LONDON—Despite the reopening of two key terminals, a fragile oil recovery in Libya is showing cracks as the crude struggles to make it back to markets, oil officials said Monday. A planned tanker loading was disrupted by a protest this weekend, while the company overseeing Libya’s largest field was caught in Tripoli’s gunfire and customers are reluctant to buy the country’s unreliable cargoes, oil officials say. Last week, Brent oil prices fell to a three-month low after rebels in Libya agreed to reopen two key oil terminals they had occupied for nearly a year and separately, protesters allowed the country’s largest oil field to restart . The country’s production has jumped to 470,000 barrels a day, a spokesman for state-run National Oil Co. said. That is three times its level in late May but still only a third of its normal level. But over the weekend plans to load […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Cracks Start Showing in Libya’s Oil Recovery

LONDON—Despite the reopening of two key terminals, a fragile oil recovery in Libya is showing cracks as the crude struggles to make it back to markets, oil officials said Monday. A planned tanker loading was disrupted by a protest this weekend, while the company overseeing Libya’s largest field was caught in Tripoli’s gunfire and customers are reluctant to buy the country’s unreliable cargoes, oil officials say. Last week, Brent oil prices fell to a three-month low after rebels in Libya agreed to reopen two key oil terminals they had occupied for nearly a year and separately, protesters allowed the country’s largest oil field to restart . The country’s production has jumped to 470,000 barrels a day, a spokesman for state-run National Oil Co. said. That is three times its level in late May but still only a third of its normal level. But over the weekend plans to load […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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East Libya Rebels Commit to Keep Open Largest Crude Export-Port

Rebels in Libya’s east committed to keeping open the country’s largest oil port, Es Sider , and dissociated themselves from a protest that shut a smaller crude export terminal. Brent traded near the lowest in three months. “This incident, in the port of Brega, has no impact on the agreement with the government to open Es Sider and Ras Lanuf,” said Ali al-Hasy, a spokesman for the self-declared Executive Office for the Barqa region. “We stand by the agreement with the government. Es Sider and Ras Lanuf will stay open.” Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, Libya’s third-largest oil port, have a combined daily loading capacity of 560,000 barrels. Brega, which was reported July 12 to have been shut by guards seeking better pay, can export 60,000 barrels a day, according to the Oil Ministry. The Executive Office for Barqa seeks self-rule for the eastern region also known as Cyrenaica. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Militants Fire on Military Post in Egypt, Killing Soldier and Nearby Civilians

Militants in Egypt ’s northern Sinai fired mortar rounds late Sunday at a military post in El Arish, the provincial capital, killing a soldier and seven civilians, including two children, in a nearby residential complex, security and hospital officials said. A senior security official said the attack hit the military post, killing the soldier. The military post is near a compound of residential buildings in the Salam district. The main security headquarters and the local government offices are in the same area. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said a supermarket, a pharmacy and a residential building were hit by the mortar fire. Samy Anwar, the head of the local hospital, said seven civilians were killed in the attack, including a 10-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy. He said 24 others were […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China Announces New Subsidies to Encourage Officials to Buy Energy-Efficient Cars

SHANGHAI—China announced new subsidies and other inducements Sunday to get government officials and agencies to buy energy-efficient vehicles in a renewed boost for a sector Beijing has had high hopes for. Under the new rules, which will be phased in over the next two years, electric cars, hybrids that run on gasoline and electricity and other new energy vehicles will account for no less than 30% of all new cars bought for official use each year, according to a notice from the country’s main economic planning agency, the Finance Ministry and three other government agencies. The notice said subsidies will be offered to government and public agencies for purchases of vehicles that cost less than 180,000 yuan ($29,186), subsidies included. Local governments will be asked to build charging stations and other needed infrastructure, said the notice, which was posted on the government’s website. The Chinese government has been trying […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple