International 5 Nieghbor News India, Pakistan to Resume Talks Continued Sanctions Not Acceptable to Iran: Rouhani China Pledges Stronger Fiscal Policy, Widens Tax Breaks US-Led Coalition Stages 15 Airstrikes against IS: Statement IS Seize 100 Iraqi Tribesmen before Battle Kazakhstan to Hold Early Presidential Election: President Tajik Parliament Ratifies Pact with ADB on Funding Power Project ISLAMABAD - India and Pakistan will finally come face to face after a long hiatus on March 3, when Indian foreign secretary S Jaishankar visits Pakistan as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s SAARC Yatra initiative starting on March 1. This will be the first high- level visit from India under the new BJP-led government. Ever since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, talks between India and Pakistan had taken off on the positive note with their Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attending Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in May last year. “We are expecting all is- sues related to SAARC, as well bilateral issues to be discussed when both the foreign secretaries meet,” a top official told Business Standard. According to Pakistan of- ficials, it is expected that during the visit, Prime TEHRAN) - Iranian Pres- ident Hassan Rouhani underscored the coun- try’s firm decision to con- tinue progress and devel- opment, and said Tehran doesn’t accept continued sanctions. “We have taken impor- tant steps in area of for- eign policy in relations with the regional states and other world coun- BEIJING - The State Council, China’s cabinet, on Wednesday pledged to step up fiscal policy support and strengthen targeted controls to com- bat downward pressure on the economy. “To ensure the economy operates within a rea- sonable range, proactive fiscal policy needs to be stronger and more effec- tive,” said a statement released after the execu- tive meeting, which was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang. The meeting decided to extend tax break policies to more micro and small businesses. From 2015 to the end of 2017, compa- nies with annual taxable income under 200,000 yuan (32,573 U.S. dollars) will have their corporate tax halved. Previously, the threshold was 100,000 yuan.In an effort to acti- vate private investments, the cabinet said taxes ASTANA - President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has signed a decree on early presiden- tial election on April 26, 2015. He announced this on Wednesday in an ad- dress to the nation broad- cast by the country’s tel- evision channels. “In the interests of the people, taking into ac- count their request to me and the general will, I have made the decision and signed a decree set- ting the date for the early presidential election on April 26, 2015,” the presi- dent said. The early presidential election was initiated by the Council of the Peo- ple’s Assembly of Ka- zakhstan on February WASHINGTON - The United States and its partner nations launched 15 strikes against Islamic State since early Tuesday, the Combined Joint Task Force said. Nine air strikes hit in Syr- ia, with six of them strik- ing three units of Islamic State fighters and several fighting positions near BAGHDAD - Islamic State fighters have ab- ducted 100 Sunni Muslim tribesmen near the city of Tikrit, local tribal lead- ers said on Wednesday, apparently to neutralize suspected opponents be- fore a widely expected army offensive. Iraqi soldiers and pro- government Shi’ite mi- litias have been massing for days in preparation for an attack on Islamic State strongholds along the Tigris River to the north and south of Tikrit, hometown of executed former president Saddam Hussein. Tikrit, about 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, has been controlled by the Sunni Muslim radi- cals since they swept through northern Iraq in June, scattering Iraq’s se- curity forces. Tribal leaders said Is- lamic State fighters had detained 42 Sunni tribes- men in the village of Rubaidha on Tuesday whom they suspected of being ready to take up arms against them. “They broke into the houses and asked for mobiles,” said Hatam al- Obeidi, a Rubaidha resi- dent who escaped to the town of Tuz Khurmatu on Wednesday. “They were checking everything in the mobiles that might show that the owner is against them,” DUSHANBE - Tajikistan’s lower cham- ber of parliament ratified Wednesday an agree- ment between Tajikistan and the Asian Devel- opment Bank (ADB) on funding an electric power wholesale meter- ing and transmission reinforcement project in Tajikistan. The project stipulates joint funding by the ADB and the Tajik govern- ment for the installation of new modern electric- ity meters and more than 1,800 electric power transformers as well as the construction of 95 km of new 220kV transmis- sion cables. Once completed, the pro- ject would reduce electric power losses and im- prove power supply in PARIS - French Foreign Minister Laurent Fa- bius said on Wednesday Russia would face more sanctions if pro-Moscow fighters attack Ukraine’s government-held port of Mariupol. “We’ve told the Russians clearly that if there was a separatist attack in the direction of Mariupol, things would be drasti- cally changed, including in terms of sanctions,” Fabius told France Info radio. The question of sanctions would be asked again at the European level, the minister said. Asked whether France would send servicemen to Kiev, Fabius said, “We TIKRIT - Iraqi secu- rity forces are planning an imminent major of- fensive against Islamic State (IS) militants in the northern central province of Salahudin, a provin- cial security source said on Wednesday.Artillery bombardment began late Tuesday night on the militants-seized areas, including the provincial capital city of Tikrit and nearby towns of Alam and Dowr, in addition to areas north of Shiite shrine city of Samarra, some 120 north of Bagh- dad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.“The offen- sive could be launched within the coming 72 hours,” the source said. He said that reinforce- ment troops, allied mili- tias, tanks and armored vehicles arrived on Tues- day from the neighbor- ing province of Diyala WASHINGTON - A top American official has blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Net- anyahu for deciding to address Congress, say- ing the planned visit is destructive to relations between the US and Is- rael. President Barack Obama’s National Se- curity Adviser Susan Rice said the decision has “injected a degree of partisanship, which is not only unfortunate, I think it’s destructive of the fabric of the relation- ship.” She criticized the Israeli leader in an interview with PBS television on Minister Sharif might extend an invitation for PM Modi’s early visit to Islamabad. In last 10 years of UPA rule, former Prime Min- ister Manmohan Singh never visited Pakistan, although former foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai had been there in 2012. “We stand ready to talk with Pakistan in ac- cordance with the Simla Agreement on all is- sues including Jammu & Kashmir,” said Indian Ministry of External Affi- ars (MEA) Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin. Earli- er PM Sharif was quoted as saying that Pakistan is keen to discuss all is- sues as it wants ‘peace- ful relations with its neighbours.’Jaishankar is undertaking the ‘SAARC Yatra’ from March 1 when he will travel to Bhutan followed by Bangladesh in March 2, Pakistan and Afghani- stan in March 3 and 4 re- spectively. (Agencies) tries, have continued the path of problem settle- ment, specially with re- gard to the nuclear case, mightily and without heeding the marginal moves and will continue this path to the end,” Rouhani said, addressing a large gathering of Irani- an people in the Central city of Qom on Wednes ...(More on P4)...(26) on investment earnings from non-monetary as- sets would be levied in stages rather than a one- off collection. In addition, China will reduce the unemploy- ment insurance rate to 2 percent from 3 percent previously, which is esti- mated to save over 40 bil- lion yuan for businesses and employees annually. The State Council also pledged to speed up con- struction of major water projects in the less devel- oped central and western regions. Approvals on the new projects will be finished by the end of July and over 90 percent of funds from the central budget will be allocated by the end of June, ac- cording to the statement. The set of policy adjust- ments comes in the wake of the economy growing by 7.4 percent in 2014, its weakest annual expan- sion in 24 years. (Xinhua) 14. Major political par- ties, including the rul- ing party Nur Otan, the Democratic Party of Ka- zakhstan Ak Zhol and Communist People’s Par- ty of Kazakhstan that are represented in the par- liament, have supported the electoral campaign. Both houses of the na- tional parliament - Sen- ate and Majilis - request- ed President Nursultan Nazarbayev to call an the border town of Kob- ani, the task force said in a statement on Wednes- day. In Iraq, six airstrikes were launched near Al Asad, Mosul and Ram- adi, hitting four units of militants as well as 11 Islamic State buildings, among other targets, the statement said. (Reuters) he said, adding that his own telephone had been returned to him after a gunman told him he was “clean”. Last week, insurgents detained 56 men accused of belonging to a gov- ernment-backed Sunni militia, said Abu Kareem al-Obeidi, who left Ru- baidha for the neighbor- ing Diyala province to avoid abduction. The militants initially set up a headquarters in Rubaidha, about 20 km (12 miles) north of Tikrit, after their June offensive, but pulled out after army helicopters mistakenly bombed the house of the local sheikh beside their base. The sheikh then asked the militants to leave, residents said. Iraq’s military said around 2,000 Shi’ite mili- tia fighters, known as the Popular Mobilisation, had arrived near Tikrit in preparation for a major operation against Islamic State. Raed Jabouri, governor of Tikrit’s Salahuddin province, said on Tues- day that 5,000 fighters from the security forces and the Popular Mobili- sation - formed last year with Iranian support af- ter the rout of the army - would join “the opera- tion to liberate Tikrit”. Witnesses said the mili ...(More on P4)...(25) the city of Panjakent in the northern province of Sughd, said First Deputy Minister of Finance Ja- moliddin Nuraliev at the parliamentary session. The total cost of project is 67 million U.S. dollars, in- cluding a 54 million U.S. dollar grant provided by the ADB and 13 million U.S. dollars contributed by the Tajik government, Nuraliev said. The Asian Development Bank, whose projects focus on the moderniza- tion of transmission and distribution facilities, sector restructuring and reforms, is the largest multilateral development partner in Tajikistan’s en- ergy sector, with the total energy approvals reach- ing 430 million dollars. (Xinhua) advocate de-escalation.” Fabius met his German, Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, under the so-called Normandy for- mat, on Tuesday to dis- cuss ways to implement the Minsk peace deal and halt fighting in Ukraine’s eastern region. The top diplomats also asked for a reinforce- ment of the Organization for Security and Co-oper- ation (OSCE) monitoring mission in Ukraine. Also on Tuesday, more than a week after the latest Minsk ceasefire agreement, separatist insurgents said they had begun pulling back heavy weapons from the front line in east- to support government troops’ advance from east toward the vital area of al-Fatha north of the refinery town of Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, in order to cut supplies of the IS militants.The offensive is designed to sweep all re- doubts of the IS militants across the province in order to prevent the mili- tants from maneuvering with their groups and to surround them, the source added.The latest bom- bardment forced dozens of families to leave their homes in Tikrit and Albu- Ajil, he said, adding that intelligence reports said that the families includ- ed those with sons col- laborating with extremist militants during the past few months.However, the source anticipated no “fierce and bloody bat- tles” because many of the extremist militants and Tuesday.Netanyahu will address a joint meeting of Congress next week in order to put pressure on US officials to stop a comprehensive nuclear agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Se- curity Council and Ger- many. On Tuesday, Netanyahu once again defended his trip to Washington, say- ing he would do every- thing to prevent a nu- clear deal with Iran. “It is my obligation as prime minister to do everything that I can to prevent this agreement. Therefore, I will go to Washington... because Netanyahu’s Congress Address Destructive to US-Israeli Relations: Rice Moscow Calls on OSCE to Monitor Ukrainian Insurgents’ Weapon Withdrawal French FM Warns of More Sanctions against Russia Iraq Says Planning Major Offensive Against IS the American Congress is likely to be the final brake before the agreement,” he said.In a strong public rebuke on Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry criti- cized those officials who are speaking against a potential nuclear agreement. “Anybody running around right now, jumping in to say well we don’t like the deal, or this or that, doesn’t know what the deal is,” Kerry said.Senator: Netan- MOSCOW - Russia urged the Organiza- tion for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) special mission in Ukraine to monitor the weapon withdrawal in eastern Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.“We are worried a bit that the OSCE observers are not monitoring the with- drawal of heavy hard- ware, which is being conducted by the militia at least,” Lavrov told the visiting President of the French Senate Gerard Larcher.Lavrov said Moscow would prompt the OSCE presidency to instruct the chiefs of the special mission in Ukraine to monitor and verify the pullback of heavy armaments from the contact line.He said that the monitor process should be carried out im- partially to prevent the disruption of the Minsk agreements.“A lot de- pends now on a honest, impartial and unbiased approach of the moni- tors, who should record the developments in the battlefields,” Inter- fax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.Lavrov added that the foreign ministers decided Tues- day at a “Normandy for- mat” meeting that there is no need to establish new monitor missions other than the OSCE one.A clear agreement was reached in Minsk on Feb. 12 that the OSCE mission should play the role and that the mission should be strengthened with staff, equipment and funds, Lavrov said. Moreover, the minister urged the Kiev admin- istration to show re- sponsible attitudes and honor the commitments of decentralization and constitutional reform in Ukraine as written in Minsk agreements.Be- sides the Ukraine peace progress, the two officials discussed situation in the Middle East, calling for joint efforts to eliminate the threats of terrorism and extremism. (Xinhua) yahu’s private meeting refusal ‘disappointing’ Democratic Senator Richard Durbin said he is disappointed by Net- anyahu after he refused to meet with a number of Democrats in a private session.Two high-rank- ing Senate Democrats invited Netanyahu for a separate closed-door meeting, but he turned down the request. “We offered the prime minister an opportunity to balance the politically divisive invitation from Speaker [John] Boehner with a private meeting with Democrats who are committed to keeping the ...(More on P4)...(24) their families have already fled their homes and hideouts in the province and mainly headed to the northern city of Mosul.“In most cases, the IS militants left some small groups and suicide bombers in addition to hundreds of roadside bombs and boo- by-trapped houses and vehicles in provincial cit- ies and towns with an aim of obstructing the troops’ advance and causing heavy casualties among them,” he added.Tikrit, the capital city of the pre- dominantly Sunni prov- ince of Salahudin, is the hometown of former Pres- ident Saddam Hussein. Security has been wors- ening in Iraq since June 10, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and Sunni militants, who took con- trol of the country’s north- ern city of Mosul and the later swathes of territories in Nineveh and other pre- dominantly Sunni prov- inces. (Xinhua) ern Ukraine.Ukrainian military sources said the military would start withdrawing heavy arms from the front line no earlier than two days af- ter a complete ceasefire. The Minsk ceasefire deal was brokered by Paris and Berlin on Feb. 12 in the capital of Belarus. It envisaged both sides withdrawing heavy weapons 25-70 km from the front line to create a buffer zone.Under the agreement, both sides were meant to start with- drawing heavy weapon- ry from the battle area no later than two days after the start of a truce which came into force on Feb. 15. (Xinhua) early presidential elec- tion. The country’s Con- stitutional Council has not found legislative re- strictions for setting the date of an early election by the president. In accordance with the country’s legislation, early presidential elec- tions are announced by the head of state and held within two months since the date of their an- nouncement. (Agencies)
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International5
Nieghbor NewsIndia, Pakistan to Resume Talks
Continued Sanctions Not Acceptable to
Iran: Rouhani
China Pledges Stronger Fiscal Policy,
Widens Tax Breaks
US-Led Coalition Stages 15 Airstrikes
against IS: Statement
IS Seize 100 Iraqi Tribesmen before Battle
Kazakhstan to Hold Early Presidential Election: President
Tajik Parliament Ratifies Pact with ADB on
Funding Power Project
ISLAMABAD - India and Pakistan will finally come face to face after a long hiatus on March 3, when Indian foreign secretary S Jaishankar visits Pakistan as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s SAARC Yatra initiative starting on March 1.This will be the first high-level visit from India under the new BJP-led government. Ever since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, talks between India and Pakistan had taken off on the positive note with their Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attending Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in May last year.“We are expecting all is-sues related to SAARC, as well bilateral issues to be discussed when both the foreign secretaries meet,” a top official told Business Standard.According to Pakistan of-ficials, it is expected that during the visit, Prime
TEHRAN) - Iranian Pres-ident Hassan Rouhani underscored the coun-try’s firm decision to con-tinue progress and devel-opment, and said Tehran doesn’t accept continued sanctions.“We have taken impor-tant steps in area of for-eign policy in relations with the regional states and other world coun-
BEIJING - The State Council, China’s cabinet, on Wednesday pledged to step up fiscal policy support and strengthen targeted controls to com-bat downward pressure on the economy.“To ensure the economy operates within a rea-sonable range, proactive fiscal policy needs to be stronger and more effec-tive,” said a statement released after the execu-tive meeting, which was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang.The meeting decided to extend tax break policies to more micro and small businesses. From 2015 to the end of 2017, compa-nies with annual taxable income under 200,000 yuan (32,573 U.S. dollars) will have their corporate tax halved. Previously, the threshold was 100,000 yuan.In an effort to acti-vate private investments, the cabinet said taxes
ASTANA - President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has signed a decree on early presiden-tial election on April 26, 2015. He announced this on Wednesday in an ad-dress to the nation broad-cast by the country’s tel-evision channels.“In the interests of the people, taking into ac-count their request to me and the general will, I have made the decision and signed a decree set-ting the date for the early presidential election on April 26, 2015,” the presi-dent said.The early presidential election was initiated by the Council of the Peo-ple’s Assembly of Ka-zakhstan on February
WASHINGTON - The United States and its partner nations launched 15 strikes against Islamic State since early Tuesday, the Combined Joint Task Force said.Nine air strikes hit in Syr-ia, with six of them strik-ing three units of Islamic State fighters and several fighting positions near
BAGHDAD - Islamic State fighters have ab-ducted 100 Sunni Muslim tribesmen near the city of Tikrit, local tribal lead-ers said on Wednesday, apparently to neutralize suspected opponents be-fore a widely expected army offensive.Iraqi soldiers and pro-government Shi’ite mi-litias have been massing for days in preparation for an attack on Islamic State strongholds along the Tigris River to the north and south of Tikrit, hometown of executed former president Saddam Hussein.Tikrit, about 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, has been controlled by the Sunni Muslim radi-cals since they swept through northern Iraq in June, scattering Iraq’s se-curity forces.Tribal leaders said Is-lamic State fighters had detained 42 Sunni tribes-men in the village of Rubaidha on Tuesday whom they suspected of being ready to take up arms against them.“They broke into the houses and asked for mobiles,” said Hatam al-Obeidi, a Rubaidha resi-dent who escaped to the town of Tuz Khurmatu on Wednesday.“They were checking everything in the mobiles that might show that the owner is against them,”
DUSHANBE - Tajikistan’s lower cham-ber of parliament ratified Wednesday an agree-ment between Tajikistan and the Asian Devel-opment Bank (ADB) on funding an electric power wholesale meter-ing and transmission reinforcement project in Tajikistan.The project stipulates joint funding by the ADB and the Tajik govern-ment for the installation of new modern electric-ity meters and more than 1,800 electric power transformers as well as the construction of 95 km of new 220kV transmis-sion cables.Once completed, the pro-ject would reduce electric power losses and im-prove power supply in
PARIS - French Foreign Minister Laurent Fa-bius said on Wednesday Russia would face more sanctions if pro-Moscow fighters attack Ukraine’s government-held port of Mariupol.“We’ve told the Russians clearly that if there was a separatist attack in the direction of Mariupol, things would be drasti-cally changed, including in terms of sanctions,” Fabius told France Info radio.The question of sanctions would be asked again at the European level, the minister said.Asked whether France would send servicemen to Kiev, Fabius said, “We
TIKRIT - Iraqi secu-rity forces are planning an imminent major of-fensive against Islamic State (IS) militants in the northern central province of Salahudin, a provin-cial security source said on Wednesday.Artillery bombardment began late Tuesday night on the militants-seized areas, including the provincial capital city of Tikrit and nearby towns of Alam and Dowr, in addition to areas north of Shiite shrine city of Samarra, some 120 north of Bagh-dad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.“The offen-sive could be launched within the coming 72 hours,” the source said.He said that reinforce-ment troops, allied mili-tias, tanks and armored vehicles arrived on Tues-day from the neighbor-ing province of Diyala
WASHINGTON - A top American official has blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Net-anyahu for deciding to address Congress, say-ing the planned visit is destructive to relations between the US and Is-rael.President Barack Obama’s National Se-curity Adviser Susan Rice said the decision has “injected a degree of partisanship, which is not only unfortunate, I think it’s destructive of the fabric of the relation-ship.”She criticized the Israeli leader in an interview with PBS television on
Minister Sharif might extend an invitation for PM Modi’s early visit to Islamabad.In last 10 years of UPA rule, former Prime Min-ister Manmohan Singh never visited Pakistan, although former foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai had been there in 2012.“We stand ready to talk with Pakistan in ac-cordance with the Simla Agreement on all is-sues including Jammu & Kashmir,” said Indian Ministry of External Affi-ars (MEA) Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin. Earli-er PM Sharif was quoted as saying that Pakistan is keen to discuss all is-sues as it wants ‘peace-ful relations with its neighbours.’Jaishankar is undertaking the ‘SAARC Yatra’ from March 1 when he will travel to Bhutan followed by Bangladesh in March 2, Pakistan and Afghani-stan in March 3 and 4 re-spectively. (Agencies)
tries, have continued the path of problem settle-ment, specially with re-gard to the nuclear case, mightily and without heeding the marginal moves and will continue this path to the end,” Rouhani said, addressing a large gathering of Irani-an people in the Central city of Qom on Wednes ...(More on P4)...(26)
on investment earnings from non-monetary as-sets would be levied in stages rather than a one-off collection.In addition, China will reduce the unemploy-ment insurance rate to 2 percent from 3 percent previously, which is esti-mated to save over 40 bil-lion yuan for businesses and employees annually.The State Council also pledged to speed up con-struction of major water projects in the less devel-oped central and western regions. Approvals on the new projects will be finished by the end of July and over 90 percent of funds from the central budget will be allocated by the end of June, ac-cording to the statement.The set of policy adjust-ments comes in the wake of the economy growing by 7.4 percent in 2014, its weakest annual expan-sion in 24 years. (Xinhua)
14. Major political par-ties, including the rul-ing party Nur Otan, the Democratic Party of Ka-zakhstan Ak Zhol and Communist People’s Par-ty of Kazakhstan that are represented in the par-liament, have supported the electoral campaign.Both houses of the na-tional parliament - Sen-ate and Majilis - request-ed President Nursultan Nazarbayev to call an
the border town of Kob-ani, the task force said in a statement on Wednes-day.In Iraq, six airstrikes were launched near Al Asad, Mosul and Ram-adi, hitting four units of militants as well as 11 Islamic State buildings, among other targets, the statement said. (Reuters)
he said, adding that his own telephone had been returned to him after a gunman told him he was “clean”.Last week, insurgents detained 56 men accused of belonging to a gov-ernment-backed Sunni militia, said Abu Kareem al-Obeidi, who left Ru-baidha for the neighbor-ing Diyala province to avoid abduction.The militants initially set up a headquarters in Rubaidha, about 20 km (12 miles) north of Tikrit, after their June offensive, but pulled out after army helicopters mistakenly bombed the house of the local sheikh beside their base.The sheikh then asked the militants to leave, residents said.Iraq’s military said around 2,000 Shi’ite mili-tia fighters, known as the Popular Mobilisation, had arrived near Tikrit in preparation for a major operation against Islamic State.Raed Jabouri, governor of Tikrit’s Salahuddin province, said on Tues-day that 5,000 fighters from the security forces and the Popular Mobili-sation - formed last year with Iranian support af-ter the rout of the army - would join “the opera-tion to liberate Tikrit”.Witnesses said the mili ...(More on P4)...(25)
the city of Panjakent in the northern province of Sughd, said First Deputy Minister of Finance Ja-moliddin Nuraliev at the parliamentary session.The total cost of project is 67 million U.S. dollars, in-cluding a 54 million U.S. dollar grant provided by the ADB and 13 million U.S. dollars contributed by the Tajik government, Nuraliev said.The Asian Development Bank, whose projects focus on the moderniza-tion of transmission and distribution facilities, sector restructuring and reforms, is the largest multilateral development partner in Tajikistan’s en-ergy sector, with the total energy approvals reach-ing 430 million dollars. (Xinhua)
advocate de-escalation.”Fabius met his German, Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, under the so-called Normandy for-mat, on Tuesday to dis-cuss ways to implement the Minsk peace deal and halt fighting in Ukraine’s eastern region.The top diplomats also asked for a reinforce-ment of the Organization for Security and Co-oper-ation (OSCE) monitoring mission in Ukraine.Also on Tuesday, more than a week after the latest Minsk ceasefire agreement, separatist insurgents said they had begun pulling back heavy weapons from the front line in east-
to support government troops’ advance from east toward the vital area of al-Fatha north of the refinery town of Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, in order to cut supplies of the IS militants.The offensive is designed to sweep all re-doubts of the IS militants across the province in order to prevent the mili-tants from maneuvering with their groups and to surround them, the source added.The latest bom-bardment forced dozens of families to leave their homes in Tikrit and Albu-Ajil, he said, adding that intelligence reports said that the families includ-ed those with sons col-laborating with extremist militants during the past few months.However, the source anticipated no “fierce and bloody bat-tles” because many of the extremist militants and
Tuesday.Netanyahu will address a joint meeting of Congress next week in order to put pressure on US officials to stop a comprehensive nuclear agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Se-curity Council and Ger-many.On Tuesday, Netanyahu once again defended his trip to Washington, say-ing he would do every-thing to prevent a nu-clear deal with Iran.“It is my obligation as prime minister to do everything that I can to prevent this agreement. Therefore, I will go to Washington... because
Netanyahu’s Congress Address Destructive to US-Israeli Relations: Rice
Moscow Calls on OSCE to Monitor Ukrainian Insurgents’
Weapon Withdrawal
French FM Warns of More Sanctions against Russia
Iraq Says Planning Major Offensive Against IS
...(More on P4)...()
...(More on P4)...() the American Congress is likely to be the final brake before the agreement,” he said.In a strong public rebuke on Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry criti-cized those officials who are speaking against a potential nuclear agreement.“Anybody running around right now, jumping in to say well we don’t like the deal, or this or that, doesn’t know what the deal is,” Kerry said.Senator: Netan-
MOSCOW - Russia urged the Organiza-tion for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) special mission in Ukraine to monitor the weapon withdrawal in eastern Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.“We are worried a bit that the OSCE observers are not monitoring the with-drawal of heavy hard-ware, which is being conducted by the militia at least,” Lavrov told the visiting President of the French Senate Gerard Larcher.Lavrov said Moscow would prompt the OSCE presidency to instruct the chiefs of the special mission in
Ukraine to monitor and verify the pullback of heavy armaments from the contact line.He said that the monitor process should be carried out im-partially to prevent the disruption of the Minsk agreements.“A lot de-pends now on a honest, impartial and unbiased approach of the moni-tors, who should record the developments in the battlefields,” Inter-fax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.Lavrov added that the foreign ministers decided Tues-day at a “Normandy for-mat” meeting that there is no need to establish new monitor missions other than the OSCE
one.A clear agreement was reached in Minsk on Feb. 12 that the OSCE mission should play the role and that the mission should be strengthened with staff, equipment and funds, Lavrov said.Moreover, the minister urged the Kiev admin-istration to show re-sponsible attitudes and
honor the commitments of decentralization and constitutional reform in Ukraine as written in Minsk agreements.Be-sides the Ukraine peace progress, the two officials discussed situation in the Middle East, calling for joint efforts to eliminate the threats of terrorism and extremism. (Xinhua)
yahu’s private meeting refusal ‘disappointing’Democratic Senator Richard Durbin said he is disappointed by Net-anyahu after he refused to meet with a number of Democrats in a private session.Two high-rank-ing Senate Democrats invited Netanyahu for a separate closed-door meeting, but he turned down the request.“We offered the prime minister an opportunity to balance the politically divisive invitation from Speaker [John] Boehner with a private meeting with Democrats who are committed to keeping the ...(More on P4)...(24)
their families have already fled their homes and hideouts in the province and mainly headed to the northern city of Mosul.“In most cases, the IS militants left some small groups and suicide bombers in addition to hundreds of roadside bombs and boo-by-trapped houses and vehicles in provincial cit-ies and towns with an aim of obstructing the troops’ advance and causing heavy casualties among them,” he added.Tikrit,
the capital city of the pre-dominantly Sunni prov-ince of Salahudin, is the hometown of former Pres-ident Saddam Hussein.Security has been wors-ening in Iraq since June 10, when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and Sunni militants, who took con-trol of the country’s north-ern city of Mosul and the later swathes of territories in Nineveh and other pre-dominantly Sunni prov-inces. (Xinhua)
ern Ukraine.Ukrainian military sources said the military would start withdrawing heavy arms from the front line no earlier than two days af-ter a complete ceasefire.The Minsk ceasefire deal was brokered by Paris and Berlin on Feb. 12 in the capital of Belarus. It envisaged both sides withdrawing heavy weapons 25-70 km from the front line to create a buffer zone.Under the agreement, both sides were meant to start with-drawing heavy weapon-ry from the battle area no later than two days after the start of a truce which came into force on Feb. 15. (Xinhua)
early presidential elec-tion. The country’s Con-stitutional Council has not found legislative re-strictions for setting the date of an early election by the president.In accordance with the country’s legislation, early presidential elec-tions are announced by the head of state and held within two months since the date of their an-nouncement. (Agencies)
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