Syria opposition: consult allies before peace push

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's main opposition bloc wants to consult its allies before deciding on joining a U.S.-Russia initiative to negotiate a peaceful transition in Syria, its leader said Monday.

The U.S. and Russia called last week for an international conference to start talks that would be accompanied by a cease-fire. The two nations are on opposite sides of the Syria conflict, and this marks their first serious attempt at Syria diplomacy in a year.

The time, venue and agenda of the conference have not been set, reflecting disagreements between the two warring sides in Syria that scuttled previous initiatives.

Both have agreed in principle to attend, but the opposition Syrian National Coalition says it will not negotiate unless President Bashar Assad steps down first, while the regime has been vague about a truce.

George Sabra, head of the SNC, said Monday his coalition wants to consult with its allies, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, before making a decision.

"It is still early to make a decision on attending the conference," Sabra told reporters in Istanbul, Turkey. "It still has no agenda, program and list of attendees."

Even so, it appeared unlikely the opposition would refuse to take part, especially if its regional allies back the conference. U.S. diplomats have met with Arab leaders to ensure the opposition will eventually get on board.

Work on the logistics is underway.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said over the weekend that Syria has given its list of attendees to its ally Russia. There was no immediate Syrian government comment.

Elaraby said the international envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, is working on the setting up the conference, but no date has been set. Initially, the U.S. and Russia said it should be held by the end of the month.

The uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. More than 70,000 Syrians have been killed and millions displaced.

Western leaders face growing pressure to find a way to end the conflict — both because of the steadily rising death toll and fears that neighboring Turkey, Lebanon or Israel could get pulled deeper into it.

Turkey has blamed the Assad regime for twin car bombs Saturday that killed 46 people and wounded scores in a Turkish border town that serves as a hub for Syrian refugees and rebels.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that Syria was behind the attacks "with certainty." He said Turkey is not ruling out retaliation but will act with caution and avoid being drawn into the civil war.

Syria has vehemently denied Turkey's accusations. There has been no claim of responsibility for the blasts in the town of Reyhanli.

On another front, Israel attacked suspected shipments of advanced Iranian missiles in Syria with back-to-back airstrikes this month. Israeli officials signaled there would be more attacks unless Syria refrains from trying to deliver such "game-changing" missiles to ally Hezbollah, an anti-Israel militia in Lebanon. Hezbollah responded by saying weapons shipments won't cease.

For now, the West is placing its hopes on the revived U.S.-Russian diplomatic initiative. Similar efforts ran aground in the past but now appear to have stronger Russian backing.

Through the conflict, Russia has sided with Assad, sending him weapons and shielding him against Western attempts to impose international sanctions.

British Prime Minister David Cameron suggested en route to a meeting with President Barack Obama that Russia is ready to find common ground with the West. Cameron met last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Syria initiative.

Cameron said late Sunday that there was a recognition by Putin "that it would be in all our interests to secure a safe and secure Syria with a democratic and pluralist future, and end the regional instability."

In fighting in Syria, regime troops have taken full control of the strategic town of Khirbet Ghazaleh, near the highway linking the capital Damascus with Jordan, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.

Rebels withdrew from the area after several days of fighting. Government forces conducted house-to-house searches Monday, the group said.

Troops also reopened the highway, restoring the supply line between Damascus and the contested provincial capital of Daraa, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Observatory.

Rebels have been trying to carve a pathway from the Jordanian border through the southern province of Daraa, in what is seen as their best shot at capturing Damascus. A few weeks ago, they scored significant gains, but have since suffered setbacks in a government counteroffensive.

Arab officials and Western military experts have said Mideast powers opposed to Assad have stepped up weapons supplies to the rebels, with Jordan opening up as a new route.

___

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed.

View the original article here

Italy PM Letta warns coalition allies as tension mounts

By Silvia Ognibene

SARTEANO, Italy (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta took his ministers to a conference center in a former abbey in Tuscany for a retreat on Sunday to thrash out differences that have already threatened the stability of his fragile coalition.

The two-day bonding session near the town of Sarteano was billed by Letta's office as a chance to discuss some of the thorniest policy issues facing the coalition between the main traditional rivals on the left and right of Italian politics.

As well discussing major reforms to the dysfunctional electoral and parliamentary system, the cabinet must also find a way to reconcile differences over billions of euros worth of tax cuts promised by the center-right but resisted by the left.

The encounter will also give Letta an opportunity to try to calm the mounting tensions that have appeared in his new government, formed last month after weeks of wrangling in the wake of February's deadlocked election.

Only two weeks after the government was formed, senior members of Letta's center-left Democratic Party (PD) took aim at their partners in Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party (PDL) following a fierce attack on magistrates by the 76-year-old media tycoon at a rally on Saturday.

"It's quite clear that this demonstration complicates the relationship and not just between the PD and PDL but between all the parties," PD deputy Economy Minister Stefano Fassina told the daily La Stampa.

It was noted that Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, the PDL party secretary, attended the demonstration against magistrates who rejected an appeal by Berlusconi against a four year tax fraud sentence last week.

However the remarks were brushed off by PDL politicians including Agriculture Minister Nunzia de Girolamo, who said the rally was no different from a meeting of PD leaders on Saturday to choose a new party secretary.

"They hold assemblies in rooms inside, we're out in the squares, with the people," she told reporters as she arrived at the meeting.

TENSIONS

The fractious atmosphere has increased the problems facing Letta and raised doubts over the durability of his government, despite assurances from Berlusconi that he does not intend to withdraw support.

Behind the barbs, the coalition faces wide differences over tax policy which must be resolved to win extra budget leeway from the tight constraints imposed on Italy by the European Union's excessive deficit procedure.

Letta has pledged to focus on cutting youth unemployment of nearly 40 percent and restore growth to the sinking economy but he has little room for new spending given the huge burden of public debt, now around 130 percent of Italy's economic output.

EU authorities are due to decide this month whether to take Italy out of the excessive deficit procedure but approval could be endangered by the PDL's insistence on scrapping an unpopular housing tax that brings in 4 billion euros a year.

Letta's PD says it is more important to cancel a 1 percentage point increase in sales tax due to take effect in July and the government has agreed only to suspend payments of the housing tax due in June.

So far, however, there has been no agreement on how to pay for the cuts as well as urgently needed measures to fund special unemployment benefit programmes without pushing the budget deficit past EU limits.

In a bid to calm the tension, Letta's spokesman said on Sunday the coalition partners had agreed that ministers would henceforth not take part in electoral rallies or television talk shows not connected with their portfolios.

However Berlusconi's legal woes are likely to continue to overshadow the government, with a hearing in his trial on charges of paying for sex with a minor set for Monday.

Opinion polls continue to show the center-right holds a lead, with a survey by the ISPO institute in the Corriere della Sera showing Berlusconi's alliance on 35.6 percent ahead of the combined center-left on 29.6 percent and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement on 24.1 percent.

(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Giles Elgood)

View the original article here

Cameron's allies scorn talk of leadership threat

By Andrew Osborn

LONDON (Reuters) - Two senior members of Prime Minister David Cameron's ruling Conservative party spoke out to calm growing talk of a leadership challenge against him on Friday, days before a closely watched budget.

Halfway through a five-year term, Cameron's Conservatives are trailing the opposition Labour party by 10 percent in the polls, the economy is stagnant, some MPs say they are unhappy with his leadership, and one of his ministers is being touted as a possible replacement.

But on Friday, two senior party figures insisted Cameron's leadership was not under threat ahead of a general election in 2015, dismissing media stories which have suggested others may be positioning themselves to usurp him.

"David Cameron is more popular than all of us ... more popular than all of the party in the country, which is a key point that lots of people do recognise," said Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps.

Talk of a leadership challenge was "for the birds and certainly not for today," he told political magazine The House.

London Mayor Boris Johnson, who has himself been tipped as a leadership candidate, agreed. "People need some sort of political drama so they're inventing one. I think it's complete nonsense," he told The Sun newspaper.

Cameron is going through a bruising time politically.

His party was beaten into third place in a vote for a parliamentary seat earlier this month, half of his party rebelled against him over a gay marriage law last month, he is at odds with his junior coalition partner on press regulation, and is being criticised for his ambiguous stance on an alcohol control law.

SPECULATION SWIRLS

Most analysts believe the malcontents are in the minority and would have scant chance of unseating Cameron if they chose to try. No serious rivals have emerged, they say, and even most internal detractors think Cameron should remain leader.

But, as his Chancellor, George Osborne, prepares for a budget on Wednesday that will give the Conservatives a chance to tip the political scales in their favour, Cameron's position remains the subject of almost weekly speculation.

This week, Theresa May, the home secretary or interior minister, delivered a speech that went well beyond her brief, prompting media speculation she was angling for Cameron's job.

Labour taunted Cameron over the speech in parliament as Conservative party strategists told MPs to curb their criticism of Cameron on social media and to decide if they were commentators or participants in the battle to win the next election.

Johnson said it was time for the party to unite.

"If ministers are setting out their stall now, it strikes me as being very odd," he said. "They should save their breath and cool their porridge. Put a sock in it and get on and back the Prime Minister."

In a party political TV broadcast earlier this week, Cameron shrugged off the speculation about his leadership as "rubbish".

"It's so vital that you look to the horizon and not tomorrow's headlines, because there is a sort of daily battle of this story and that event," he said. "It's all rubbish."

Several Conservative MPs disenchanted with his leadership have said they would judge him by five "key tests".

In their eyes, he has already failed two of them after his party lost a vote for a parliamentary seat in the constituency of Eastleigh earlier this month and the country lost its top-notch AAA credit rating in February.

Three tests remain: setting out a successful budget on Wednesday, avoiding a triple-dip recession, and performing reasonably well in local elections in May.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

View the original article here

France, allies want special force for Mali U.N. mission

By John Irish and Michelle Nichols

PARIS/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - France and its African allies want a heavily armed force able to counter any resurgent Islamist threat in Mali as part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission, diplomats said.

The United Nations is considering setting up a 10,000-strong force in the former French colony before presidential and legislative elections in July, a deadline a European diplomat described on Tuesday as "a race against time".

U.N. deputy peacekeeping chief Edmond Mulet is in the Malian capital Bamako this week to assess options for a peacekeeping mission once a French-led military intervention that began two months ago is completed.

A heavily armed rapid-reaction force, similar to the unit proposed for a U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, would be a departure from its typically more passive peacekeeper operations.

In practical terms, U.N. diplomats say, troops in the rapid-response force would have more freedom to open fire without being required to wait until they are attacked first, a limitation that is standard for U.N. peacekeepers deployed around the world.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to deliver a report to the Security Council with peacekeeping recommendations for Mali by the end of the month, and diplomats hope a vote could take place by mid-April.

"The discussion so far in the council shows that a consensus is there (for a peacekeeping mission)," said a senior U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Diplomats said the vote hinged on the security situation.

France launched a ground and air operation in January to break Islamist rebels' hold on the northern two-thirds of Mali, saying the militants posed a risk to the security of West Africa and Europe.

French and Chadian troops are engaged in heavy fighting in northeast Mali, where Islamist militants have taken refuge, and hope to secure the region by the end of the month.

Paris then wants to start winding down its 4,000 troops with a view to handing over to the African force, AFISMA, that would later fall under the U.N. peacekeeping mandate.

AFISMA comprises about 6,000 troops, mainly from West Africa, including more than 2,000 Chadians. Other than Chad's contingent, most African elements remain in the south of Mali away from the fighting.

"We'd like to see the non-Chadians go north to Gao and Timbuktu so that the focus can be on the final phase in the extreme north," the European diplomat said.

"After that, we're talking about a peacekeeping force of 10,000 soldiers."

RAPID INTERVENTION FORCE

However, there are fears that militants could launch a guerrilla-style insurgency marked by suicide attacks and hit-and-run raids on towns, leaving the U.N. force exposed.

A rapid-reaction force to counter this threat could retain battle-hardened Chadian troops, but also include elements from new forces such as Burundi, which has played a key role in fighting Islamists in Somalia.

France's role in that framework has yet to be defined, but diplomats say talks center on French elements being based either in Mali or elsewhere in the region and intervening if needed.

"It would be under French control, but approved by the United Nations," said the European diplomat.

Financing is also an issue. About $450 million in donations pledged last month in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to fund African and Malian troop operations have failed to materialize, leaving a burden on AFISMA countries, diplomats said.

Once the Security Council authorizes the deployment of a peacekeeping mission - which would take at least two months - the U.N. would equip, finance and support most of the troops and give them human rights training, the U.N. official said.

(Writing by John Irish; Editing by Erica Billingham)

View the original article here