Clinton to press India to stop buying oil from Iran

KOLKATA — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed in India on Sunday with hopes of reinvigorating a relationship seen as losing steam despite efforts to bring the world’s two largest democracies closer.

Clinton was greeted by streets lined with waving well-wishers as she started her visit in Kolkata, where she will tour monuments and meet ordinary citizens in her latest bid to use her star appeal as a diplomatic tool.

She heads on Monday to New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with whom she is expected to raise U.S. calls for India to stop buying oil from Iran, one of the most open disagreements in years between the countries.

Clinton said she saw ample progress in relations with India, pointing to rising trade and cooperation in areas from education to clean energy.

“I think it’s like any relationship—there is progress in some areas that we are very heartened by, and there is more work to be done,” Clinton told reporters before her arrival.

“But that’s the commitment that we make when we say to another country, we want to be your partner,” she said.

After more than a decade of warming relations, India has bristled at a U.S. law that would impose sanctions on banks from countries that buy oil from Iran due to concerns over Tehran’s contested nuclear program.

A senior U.S. official traveling with Clinton acknowledged that India had quietly been cutting back on Iranian oil and that New Delhi—fiercely protective of its sovereignty—could not be seen as buckling under U.S. pressure.

“Our assessment is that India is making good progress but we really need to receive assurances that they’re going to continue to make good progress,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said that Carlos Pascual, the U.S. point man on the issue, would visit New Delhi later this month to determine the next step. Only EU nations and Japan have so far been given exemptions to the sanctions which go into effect on June 28.

India is highly dependent on foreign energy and has historically enjoyed friendly relations with Tehran.

But the U.S. official said that Indian businesses had made “a major strategic bet” on continuing good relations with the United States and did not want to jeopardize them over Iran.

Clinton will meet Monday morning in Kolkata with West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who took power last year by sweeping out nearly 35 years of communist rule in the eastern state.

Clinton will seek to show solidarity with a fellow female leader but also press Banerjee to back the opening up of India’s fast-growing retail sector to major foreign companies such as Walmart, the U.S. official said.

Banerjee, a fractious ally of Singh’s government, was instrumental in scuttling planned retail reforms. Critics charge that liberalizing the sector would devastate India’s ubiquitous small stores, but foreign retailers contend that they can improve efficiency and consumer choice.

US businesses, once at the vanguard of building ties with India, have voiced disappointment over the deadlock on retail reform along with parliament’s refusal to give US nuclear firms greater protection from liabilities.

Nuclear energy had been a symbolic milestone in the relationship, with former President George W Bush championing a deal that ended India’s decades of isolation over its nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

President Barack Obama has backed another of India’s longtime ambitions by supporting its bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. But few expect U.N. reform anytime soon and some Indians have accused the Obama administration of a lack of attention.

T.P. Sreenivasan, a former Indian ambassador to the United Nations, said that the initial expectations for the U.S.-India relationship had not been met but that Clinton had the advantage of being considered a friend of New Delhi.

The visit “comes at a useful time as there is a certain amount of strain in relations that needs to be rectified,” he said.

“The relationship has lost momentum partly because… both are preoccupied with their own internal problems,” he said.

source: japantoday.com

Clinton calls for holding Syrian leaders to account

ISTANBUL — Calling for tighter sanctions and for ways to hold Syrian leaders to account for abuses, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared for international talks in Turkey on Sunday aimed at turning up the heat on Syria to end a deadly crackdown on protests.

The chief U.S. diplomat arrived in Istanbul late Saturday from Riyadh where she had warned that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad risked backing out of his commitment to a six-point peace plan from UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

Clinton will join representatives from 70 European, Arab and other countries to look at ways of supporting the opposition, who will also be present here, and applying further international pressure on the Assad regime.

During a press conference in Riyadh, Clinton reaffirmed that Washington is looking at sending non-lethal support like communications gear and medical aid to an increasingly armed opposition.

However, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are calling for arming the anti-Assad movement.

Clinton said the U.S. focus in Istanbul will be to “intensify” the array of U.S., European, Canadian, Arab and Turkish sanctions on Syria, and to look at sending more humanitarian aid to the needy, despite Syrian efforts to block it.

She also called for strengthening the unity of the opposition—including the leading Syrian National Council—and promoting their “democratic vision” so that it can “represent an alternative” to the Assad regime.

She has vowed to press the opposition “very hard” to properly represent Arabs, Kurds, Sunni Muslims, Alawites, Christians, Druze and other ethnic and religious groups.

A fourth point she aimed to make is to hold the Syrian leadership and security forces accountable for the abuses that have taken place amid allegations of murder, torture and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas.

“We want to discuss how to help the Syrian people prepare to hold those responsible who have been committing these terrible acts of violence,” Clinton told a press conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

More than 9,000 people, U.N. officials estimate, have died since Assad in March last year began crushing pro-democracy protests inspired by revolutions that have swept the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen from power.

It was not clear whether the Syrian opposition would, if they eventually overthrew Assad, hope to put the political and military leaders on trial or have them sent to an international criminal court like the one at The Hague.

In Riyadh, wary Assad could be playing for time, the United States and Gulf Arab monarchies urged Annan to produce a “timeline for next steps” if Assad fails to stop the bloodshed despite his acceptance of the peace plan.

“The Syrian government is staying true to form, unfortunately, making a deal and then refusing to implement it,” Clinton said.

“And as of today, regime forces continue to shell civilians, lay siege to neighborhoods, and even target places of worship,” she said.

Annan’s plan calls for a commitment to stop all armed violence, a daily two-hour humanitarian ceasefire, media access to all areas affected by the fighting, an inclusive Syrian-led political process, a right to demonstrate, and release of arbitrarily detained people.

Annan was due to brief the U.N. Security Council on Monday about his efforts to have his peace plan implemented.

source: japantoday.com