UK parliamentary committee urges U.S.-Taliban talks (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – The United States must hold direct talks with the Taliban if it is to have any hope of ending the Afghan war, an influential British parliamentary committee said on Wednesday.

The Foreign Affairs Committee said the military campaign was not working and urged the British government to use its influence in Washington to convince it to engage fully in direct talks with Taliban leaders.

"An Afghan-led, but U.S. driven, process of political reconciliation is the best remaining hope that the UK and others have of achieving an honorable exit from Afghanistan," the report, based on interviews with experts and officials, said.

Britain and the United States have long stressed the need for a political settlement in Afghanistan. But officials have also said any talks must be Afghan-led, and insisted military pressure is helping bring insurgents to the negotiating table.

The report, however, argued the Afghan government led by President Hamid Karzai did not have the clout to negotiate a settlement without the direct involvement of Washington.

"All of those from whom we took evidence were convinced that the U.S.'s direct endorsement of, and participation in, talks was essential if a peace settlement is to be brokered..."

It said that while the military campaign might be achieving tactical successes, the overall security situation remained precarious. Current tactics might even reduce chances of a settlement by raising mistrust and radicalizing the insurgency.

"Given that the pre-requisites for a successful military campaign are currently lacking, we conclude that the U.S. should not delay its significant involvement in talks with the Taliban leadership..." it said.

The report -- which echoed comments made by Pakistan and some regional analysts that the Taliban could be convinced to break with al Qaeda in a political settlement -- was researched last year and may have been overtaken by events.

KARZAI IN LONDON TALKS

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a speech last month that Washington was "launching a diplomatic surge to move this conflict toward a political outcome that shatters the alliance between the Taliban and al-Qaeda ..."

"Now, I know that reconciling with an adversary that can be as brutal as the Taliban sounds distasteful, even unimaginable. And diplomacy would be easy if we only had to talk to our friends. But that is not how one makes peace," she said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday the situation in Afghanistan had in some cases moved on from the evidence given to the parliamentary committee.

"I fully support the committee's assessment that now is the right time to advance a political process in Afghanistan," he said in a statement.

Official sources from several countries say talks are already underway with the Taliban, although these have yet to find shape in any kind of formal peace process.

The Taliban says publicly it will not negotiate until foreign forces leave, although many Afghan experts -- including those cited in the report -- say the original leadership of the movement which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 are privately pragmatic about the need for talks.

The release of the report coincided with a fresh flurry of diplomatic contacts over Afghanistan.

Karzai met newly appointed U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman, officials said, during a visit to London on Tuesday in which he also held talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Echoing comments made by Clinton, Cameron called for real progress this year on reconciliation with insurgents who were ready to abandon violence, cut ties to al Qaeda and accept the basic tenets of the Afghan constitution.

"It is time for the Taliban to start this journey and to make this year a decisive year for peace in Afghanistan," he told a news conference held jointly with Karzai.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is hosting a meeting in Saudi Arabia this week on Afghanistan which is expected to bring together representatives of more than 40 countries along with leaders of an Afghan peace council. Clinton said it would review efforts toward reconciliation.

(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft, Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Cambodia urges ASEAN ceasefire deal with Thailand (AFP)

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Cambodia said on Thursday it would press Thailand to sign a permanent ceasefire at a regional gathering next week as both countries remained at odds over how to settle a deadly border row.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia would urge its neighbour to agree a peace deal during a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta on Tuesday.

But Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected the idea of ASEAN involvement in resolving the dispute, which erupted into armed clashes between the countries earlier this month.

Four days of heavy fighting near a 900-year-old border temple left at least 10 people dead and displaced thousands of families on both sides of the frontier.

"During the upcoming ASEAN meeting, Cambodia will request that a ceasefire agreement be signed between the Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers under the witness of ASEAN or the ASEAN chair," Hun Sen said at a press conference in the Cambodian capital.

He also confirmed that his country will call for ASEAN observers to come to the border area to help ensure a ceasefire holds.

The two sides are at odds over an area near the Preah Vihear temple, an 11th-century clifftop ruin that belongs to Cambodia but whose designation as a World Heritage site sparked the ire of Thai nationalists.

Both countries blame each other for the crisis.

Thailand has repeatedly said it wants to resolve the row bilaterally, rejecting Cambodian requests for third-party mediation.

"I do not think we have to talk about this during the ASEAN meeting because we are not the ones that started the fight," Abhisit said on Thursday when asked about a ceasefire deal.

The United Nations Security Council on Monday urged the two nations to establish a "permanent ceasefire" but did not endorse a Cambodian request to deploy UN peacekeepers in the contested area.

It did, however, express support for mediation efforts by Indonesia, the current chair of the 10-nation ASEAN group.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that the Preah Vihear temple belonged to Cambodia, but both countries claim ownership of a 1.8-square-mile (4.6-square-kilometre) surrounding area.

Hun Sen told reporters legal officials were currently preparing documents to bring the case back to the World Court to ask for a clarification concerning the disputed plot of land.

"We will return to the Court to have it resolved," Hun Sen said.

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Cambodia urges ASEAN ceasefire deal with Thailand (AFP)

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – Cambodia said on Thursday it would press Thailand to sign a permanent ceasefire at a regional gathering next week as both countries remained at odds over how to settle a deadly border row.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia would urge its neighbour to agree a peace deal during a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta on Tuesday.

But Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected the idea of ASEAN involvement in resolving the dispute, which erupted into armed clashes between the countries earlier this month.

Four days of heavy fighting near a 900-year-old border temple left at least 10 people dead and displaced thousands of families on both sides of the frontier.

"During the upcoming ASEAN meeting, Cambodia will request that a ceasefire agreement be signed between the Cambodian and Thai foreign ministers under the witness of ASEAN or the ASEAN chair," Hun Sen said at a press conference in the Cambodian capital.

He also confirmed that his country will call for ASEAN observers to come to the border area to help ensure a ceasefire holds.

The two sides are at odds over an area near the Preah Vihear temple, an 11th-century clifftop ruin that belongs to Cambodia but whose designation as a World Heritage site sparked the ire of Thai nationalists.

Both countries blame each other for the crisis.

Thailand has repeatedly said it wants to resolve the row bilaterally, rejecting Cambodian requests for third-party mediation.

"I do not think we have to talk about this during the ASEAN meeting because we are not the ones that started the fight," Abhisit said on Thursday when asked about a ceasefire deal.

The United Nations Security Council on Monday urged the two nations to establish a "permanent ceasefire" but did not endorse a Cambodian request to deploy UN peacekeepers in the contested area.

It did, however, express support for mediation efforts by Indonesia, the current chair of the 10-nation ASEAN group.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that the Preah Vihear temple belonged to Cambodia, but both countries claim ownership of a 1.8-square-mile (4.6-square-kilometre) surrounding area.

Hun Sen told reporters legal officials were currently preparing documents to bring the case back to the World Court to ask for a clarification concerning the disputed plot of land.

"We will return to the Court to have it resolved," Hun Sen said.

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Military urges halt to strikes gripping Egypt (AFP)

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's military government urged an end to widespread strikes following the popular uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, as the United States pressed for an end to 30-year-old emergency laws.

The orders came after the elderly generals now ruling the country met some of the young Internet activists who triggered the revolt against Mubarak, reportedly promising a referendum on a new constitution within two months.

European governments, meanwhile, moved on Egyptian requests to freeze the assets of several officials of the ousted regime amid accusations that they had salted away billions of dollars in ill-gotten assets.

In its latest announcement since it took power on Friday, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces urged union leaders to call off their action.

They stopped short however of issuing a decree banning strikes, as it had been rumoured to be preparing to do.

"Honourable citizens can see that protests at this critical time will have a negative effect in harming the security of the country," its spokesman said.

The uprising that toppled Mubarak's 30-year rule has splintered into pay strikes by workers in the banking, transport, health care, oil, tourism and textiles sectors, as well as state-owned media and government bodies.

"It's difficult to say exactly how many people are striking and where. Who isn't striking?" Kamal Abbas of the Centre for Trade Union and Workers' Services said.

Many of the strikes were aimed at removing corrupt union leaders tied to Mubarak, he said.

At one such protest, public transport workers demanded better working conditions, accusing officials of corruption.

"They send us out with vehicles with bad brakes... There is no maintenance," said one demonstrator.

At another protest, hospital workers formed a human chain to stop traffic on the highway south out of the capital, causing a major traffic jam and infuriating motorists.

The strikes prompted the stock exchange to once again postpone reopening until next week.

The cyber campaigners said the junta, which dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution on Sunday, had vowed to rewrite the document within 10 days in line with the protesters' demands for democratic change.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has set a six-month timetable for holding elections but said the cabinet Mubarak hastily appointed on January 31 -- headed by a former air force commander -- would stay on.

"We met the army... to understand their point of view and lay out our views," said 30-year-old Google executive Wael Ghonim and blogger Amr Salama, in a note on a pro-democracy website that helped launch the revolt.

Ghonim became an unlikely hero of the uprising after tearfully describing his 12 days in detention in a televised interview.

The sweeping changes announced by the council dismantled the political system that underpinned Mubarak's rule, which ended Friday when he was driven from power after the 18-day pro-democracy uprising.

The dissolved parliament was seen as illegitimate following elections last year marred by widespread allegations of fraud, which gave Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) an overwhelming majority.

Protesters had also demanded the overhaul of the constitution, which placed restrictions on who could stand in elections and made it virtually impossible to seriously challenge the NDP.

Several members of the previous government, including sacked premier Ahmed Nazif and widely hated interior minister Habib al-Adly, have been banned from leaving Egypt by authorities investigating graft allegations.

In an attempt to show their solidarity with the uprising, hundreds of members of Mubarak's police force -- widely viewed as corrupt and brutal -- have called for Adly, their former boss, to be publicly executed.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she hoped the military leaders would lift the three-decade old emergency law as promised.

In comments to Al-Jazeera television, Clinton stressed that the process should be "directed and defined" by the Egyptian people.

But she added: "One of the demands which we have supported for a long time is to lift the emergency decree.

"There has been an announcement that will be done and we hope that it will be," she added.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said his government had been asked to freeze the assets of several former regime officials. A German foreign ministry said Berlin had received a similar request.

The Tunisian uprising was an inspiration to Egypt's protest movement, which in turn triggered anti-government demonstrations around the Middle East, from Algeria to Iran and Yemen.

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Obama urges 'genuine democracy' in Egypt (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama has called on the now-ruling Egyptian military to ensure a transition towards "genuine democracy," saying that the people of Egypt had spoken.

Obama gave a statement Friday, soon after it emerged from a euphoric Cairo that President Hosni Mubarak, a 30-year US ally who America subtly helped push towards the exit, had resigned after days of raging street protests.

"The people of Egypt have spoken -- their voices have been heard and Egypt will never be the same," Obama said.

"Egyptians have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day," Obama said, praising the military for safeguarding the state, but also calling on them to secure a credible political transition.

The US administration had struggled for days to find ways of making an impact on the 18-day crisis, as Mubarak had defied pressure to end his long authoritarian rule.

Obama had ratcheted up calls for a peaceful, swift transition to democracy, and on Friday pledged that the United States would stand with the people of Egypt -- one of America's staunchest allies and a recipient of some two billion dollars in annual aid.

"By stepping down, President Mubarak responded to the Egyptian peoples' hunger for change," Obama said in his brief statement.

On taking power Friday, the military moved quickly to reassure the citizens whose street revolt toppled Mubarak that it would respect the popular will.

And the White House called on the new authorities in Egypt to honor existing peace agreements with Israel.

"It is important the next government of Egypt recognize the accords that have been signed with the government of Israel," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Mubarak's hurried departure Friday -- a day after he said he would stay until September's elections -- will have brought relief in Washington, facing a dearth of options to force an end to the crisis.

But Mubarak's exit also posed searching questions about future US Middle East policy, with a possible power vacuum in Egypt.

Obama nevertheless hailed the toppling of the Arab strongman, brought down by two weeks of mass protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, as a defining moment in world history.

"The word Tahrir means liberation. It's a word that speaks to that something in our souls that cries out for freedom," Obama said.

The president also drew parallels to other tumultuous world events, referring to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Indonesian revolt against president Suharto, and Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi.

He called on the armed forces to ensure a political transition that was "credible in the eyes of the Egyptian people," warning of "difficult days ahead."

"Over the last few weeks, the wheel of history turned at a blinding pace, as the Egyptian people demanded their universal rights," he said.

And he emphasized the peaceful nature of the uprising.

"Egyptians have inspired us and they've done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence," Obama said.

"For Egypt, it was the moral force of non-violence, not terrorism, not mindless killing, but non-violence, moral force, that bent the arc of history towards justice one more."

The Pentagon announced that the top US military commander will visit Israel and Jordan Sunday and Monday to reaffirm US support following the collapse of the Mubarak presidency.

Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will begin his trip in Amman where he will meet with King Abdullah II and his Jordanian counterpart, Lieutenant General Meshaal Al-Zabn.

"He will discuss security issues of mutual concern and reassure both these key partners of the US military's commitment to that partnership," Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby said.

In Israel, Mullen will hold talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and the country's military leaders.

US lawmakers on Friday were also weighing tighter controls on exports that can help repressive regimes cling to power.

"We continue to watch and have concerns about the misuse of any equipment that the United States provides or sells to another nation," said a spokesman for the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Josh Holly.

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PM urges move to civilian, democratic rule in Egypt (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Prime Minister David Cameron has said Egypt must "move towards civilian and democratic rule" after president Hosni Mubarak quit following days of mass protests.
Speaking after what he described as a "remarkable day", Cameron said Egypt now had a "really precious moment of opportunity to have a government that can bring the country together".
"We believe it must be a government that starts to put in place the building blocks of a truly open, free and democratic society," he said.
"Of course what has happened today should only be the first step.
"Those who now run Egypt have a duty to reflect the wishes of the Egyptian people, and in particular there really must be a move to civilian and democratic rule as part of this important transition to an open, democratic and free Egypt."
He added that "as a friend of Egypt and the Egyptian people we stand ready to help in any way that we can".
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