Tag Archives: opinion
Sreesanth, Chavan banned for life for IPL spot fixing
Sreesanth, Chavan banned for life for IPL spot fixing (IANS) / 13 September 2013 Rajasthan Royals cricketers S. Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan have been banned for life on Friday for their involvement in the spot fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Amit Singh and Siddharth Trivedi, who too have been found involved in the scandal, have been handed down bans for five years and one year respectively. The bans were announced by the disciplinary committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Young left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh has been let off with a warning while Ajit Chandila’s case will be taken up later. “Sreesanth and Chavan have been banned for life for their involvement in the spot fixing scandal. Amit Singh has been banned for five years while Siddharth Trivedi for one year. Harmeet Singh has been let off with a warning for not reporting to the authorities that the bookies had approached him,” BCCI vice-president Niranjan Shah told IANS. BCCI president Narayanaswami Srinivasan chaired the meeting with vice-presidents Niranjan Shah and Arun Jaitley, who were the other members of the panel. “The evidence was different against each of the accused. The decision of the disciplinary committee is binding. Since the decision is about the players, it need not be ratified by the annual general meeting or any other body,” Jaitley told reporters. The cricketers were caught in the IPL scandal and chief of BCCI’s anti-corruption unit Ravi Sawani recommended ban on them in his report submitted to the board last month. Sawani, a former chief of the International Cricket Council (ICC) anti-corruption unit, was asked to investigate the alleged involvement of Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila in conceding a pre-determined number of runs per over in exchange for money during the IPL’s sixth edition which concluded recently. Continue reading
Peace prospects ride on weapons talks, says Kerry
Peace prospects ride on weapons talks, says Kerry (AP) / 13 September 2013 US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that prospects for a resumption in the Syrian peace process are riding on the outcome of US-Russian talks aimed at securing Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal that lurched into a second day. As American and Russian chemical weapons experts huddled in a Geneva hotel to haggle over technical details that will be critical to reach a deal, Kerry and Lavrov met a distance away with UN-Arab League envoy Lakdar Brahimi to examine political developments and plot a new international conference to support the creation of Syrian transitional government. Kerry, flanked by Lavrov and Brahimi, told reporters at the UN in Geneva after an hour-long meeting that the chances for a second peace conference in Geneva “will obviously depend on the capacity to have success here … on the subject of the chemical weapons.” Brahimi also met privately with Kerry at a Geneva hotel on Thursday to explore ways to resume international negotiations last held in Geneva in June 2012 aimed at ending the Syrian civil war. Lavrov said it was “very unfortunate that for a long time that the Geneva communique was basically abandoned.” Kerry and Lavrov announced they would meet again in New York toward the end of the month to try to fix a date for second conference. When the talks began on Thursday, Kerry bluntly rejected a Syrian pledge to begin a “standard process” by turning over information rather than weapons — and nothing immediately. The American diplomat said that was not acceptable. “The words of the Syrian regime, in our judgment, are simply not enough,” Kerry declared as he stood beside Lavrov. “This is not a game.” The talks were the latest in a rapidly moving series of events following the August 21 gas attack on suburbs in Damascus. The US blames Syrian President Bashar Assad for the use of chemical weapons, although Assad denies his government was involved and instead points to rebels engaged in a 2-year-old civil war against his government. President Barack Obama began building a case for support at home and abroad for a punitive military strike on Assad’s forces, then changed course and asked Congress to give him explicit authority for a limited strike. With the campaign for lawmakers’ building to a vote — one that he might well lose — Obama said on Tuesday he would consider a Russian proposal calling for international control of Assad’s chemical weapons and their eventual destruction. Obama dispatched Kerry to Geneva to hammer out the details of the proposal even as he kept alive the possibility of US military action. “We believe there is nothing standard about this process at this moment because of the way the regime has behaved,” Kerry said on the opening day of talks. The turnover of weapons must be complete, verifiable and timely, he said, “and, finally, there ought to be consequences if it doesn’t take place.” Lavrov seemed to contradict Kerry’s negative view of Assad’s offer to provide details on his country’s chemical arsenal beginning 30 days after it signs an international convention banning such weapons. Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations said that as of Thursday his country had become a full member of the treaty, which requires destruction of all chemical weapons. The Russian said the initiative must proceed “in strict compliance with the rules that are established by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.” That suggests Russia does not agree with the US that this is an exceptional case and that Syria should face tougher standards than other countries. “We proceed from the fact that the solution to this problem will make unnecessary any strike on the Syrian Arab Republic, and I am convinced that our American colleagues, as President Obama stated, are firmly convinced that we should follow a peaceful way of resolution to the conflict in Syria,” Lavrov said. The distrust in US-Russia relations was on display even in an off-hand parting exchange at the news conference. Just before it ended, Kerry asked the Russian translator to repeat part of Lavrov’s concluding remarks. When it was clear that Kerry wasn’t going to get an immediate retranslation, Lavrov apparently tried to assure him that he hadn’t said anything controversial . “It was OK, John, don’t worry,” he said. “You want me to take your word for it?” Kerry asked Lavrov. “It’s a little early for that.” They were smiling at that point. Shortly after making their opening statements, the two went into a private dinner. Assad, in an interview with Russia’s Rossiya-24 TV, said his government would start submitting data on its chemical weapons stockpile a month after signing the convention. He also said the Russian proposal for securing the weapons could work only if the US halted threats of military action. At a meeting in Kyrgyzstan of an international security grouping dominated by Russia and China, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Syria’s efforts have demonstrated its good faith. “I would like to voice hope that this will mark a serious step toward the settlement of the Syrian crisis,” Putin said. Even as diplomacy took center stage, word surfaced that the CIA has been delivering light machine guns and other small arms to Syrian rebels for several weeks, following Obama’s statement in June that he would provide lethal aid to the rebels. White House National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said the administration could not “detail every single type of support that we are providing to the opposition or discuss timelines for delivery, but it’s important to note that both the political and the military opposition are and will be receiving this assistance.” Continue reading
Kerry, Lavrov meeting UN envoy on Syria
Kerry, Lavrov meeting UN envoy on Syria (Reuters) / 13 September 2013 US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met the United Nations special envoy on Syria in Geneva on Friday as they worked on a deal that could avert US military action. Lakhdar Brahimi, who acts for both the world body and the Arab League, met Kerry and Lavrov together. He has been trying to broker a political solution to the Syrian civil war. The two powers are trying to flesh out Moscow’s plan to dispose of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons. Damascus formally applied to join a global poison gas ban – a move welcomed on Friday by Russian President Vladimir Putin . He called it “an important step towards the resolution of the Syrian crisis” and added: “This confirms the serious intention of our Syrian partners to follow this path.” China, too, hailed Assad’s decision. But Kerry underscored that Washington could still attack if it was not satisfied: “This is not a game,” he said on Thursday. * Kerry, Lavrov meet UN/Arab League Syria envoy Brahimi * Meeting follows US-Russia talks in Geneva on Thursday * Putin welcomes Assad commitment on chemical weapons * Kerry warns that US could still strike if not satisfied The talks were part of a diplomatic push that prompted President Barack Obama to put on hold plans for US air strikes in response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Aug. 21. The United States and its allies say Assad’s forces carried out the attack with sarin nerve gas, killing more than 1,400 people. Putin and Assad have blamed rebel forces. The United Nations said it received a document from Syria on joining the global anti-chemical weapons treaty, a move Assad promised as part of a deal to avoid US air strikes. The move would end Syria’s status as one of only seven nations outside the 1997 international convention that outlaws stockpiling chemical weapons. US Warning The United States immediately warned Syria against stalling tactics to avoid military strikes. Assad told Russian state television in an interview broadcast on Thursday that he would finalise plans to abandon his chemical arsenal only when the United States stops threatening to attack him. Kerry expressed some optimism about the talks in Geneva, saying, “We do believe there is a way to get this done” and that the United States was “grateful” for ideas from Russia. But he and Lavrov differed sharply on US military threats. “We proceed from the fact that the solution of this problem will make unnecessary any strike on the Syrian Arab Republic,” Lavrov said during the appearance with Kerry. Along with other world powers, Moscow and Washington see the instability in Syria as fuelling wider security threats, but differ sharply on how to respond. Western powers say that Assad is a tyrant who should be overthrown. Russia, like Assad, highlights the presence in rebel ranks of militants. In an audio recording released a day after the 12 th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahri referred to fighters in Syria among other battlegrounds as he urged supporters to carry out attacks in the United States to “bleed America economically”. “As we defeated it in the gang warfare in Somalia, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan, so we should follow it with …war on its own land,” Zawahri said. “These disparate strikes can be done by one brother or a few of the brothers.” Putin’s Russia has been Assad’s most powerful backer during the civil war, which has killed more than 100,000 people since 2011, delivering arms and – with China – blocking three UN resolutions meant to pressure Assad. “President Obama has made clear that should diplomacy fail, force might be necessary to deter and degrade Assad’s capacity to deliver these weapons,” Kerry asserted. “Only the credible threat of force – and the intervention of President Putin and Russia based on that – has brought the Assad regime to acknowledge for the first time that it even has chemical weapons and an arsenal, and that (it) is now prepared to relinquish it,” Kerry added. Kerry said any agreement must be comprehensive, verifiable, credible and implemented in a “timely” way – “and finally, there ought to be consequences if it doesn’t take place.” Kerry called a peaceful resolution “clearly preferable” to military action. A version of the Russian plan that leaked to the newspaper Kommersant described four stages: Syria would join the world body that enforces a chemical weapons ban, declare production and storage sites, invite inspectors, and then decide with the inspectors how and by whom stockpiles would be destroyed. ‘Legally speaking’ Syria has agreed to a Russian proposal that it give up its chemical weapons stocks, averting what would have been the first direct Western intervention in the civil war. “Legally speaking, Syria has become, starting today, a full member of the (chemical weapons) convention,” Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari told reporters in New York after submitting documents to the United Nations. Several UN diplomats and a UN official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that it was not yet clear that Syria had fulfilled all the conditions for legal accession to the treaty. Dressed in a white shirt and dark suit and seated in a wood-panelled office, Assad said in his TV interview that Syria opted to cede control of its chemical weapons because of a Russian proposal and not the threat of US military intervention. Assad said in comments translated into Russian: “When we see the United States really wants stability in our region and stops threatening, striving to attack, and also ceases arms deliveries to terrorists, then we will believe that the necessary processes can be finalised.” Syria is already bound by the separate Geneva accords that have banned the use of chemical weapons in warfare for nearly a century, but it had never been required before this week to disclose whether it possessed them. Western nations believe Syria has hundreds of tonnes of toxic weapons material. Assad said Syria would provide an accounting of chemical weapons stocks in 30 days, standard practice under the treaty. Kerry questioned the offer. “We believe there is nothing standard about this process at this moment because of the way the regime has behaved – not only the existence of these weapons but they have been used,” Kerry said. “And the words of the Syrian regime, in our judgment, are simply not enough.” Kerry and Lavrov flew to Geneva with delegations of chemical weapons and nonproliferation experts to begin to hammer out how to identify, secure and neutralise Syria’s chemical weapons. A draft UN Security Council Resolution submitted by France this week demands that Syria declare its chemical weapons holdings within 15 days, and holds out the threat of sanctions or military force if it fails to disarm. While the diplomats met in Switzerland, the war ground on relentlessly. Activists said Syrian warplanes bombed on the main hospitals serving rebel-held territory in the north of the country, killing at least 11 civilians including two doctors. Continue reading
