Syria's Assad says talks on post-war constitution to 'continue' - Aljazeera.com

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has said discussions would "continue" over the composition of a body to draw up a post-war constitution for the country.

Meeting with Russian envoy Alexander Lavrentiev, Assad discussed ongoing efforts towards "creating a committee to discuss the constitution", the presidency said on Friday.

The president and Moscow's representative "agreed to continue working and intensely coordinate between both sides on the next steps," it said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the Syrian government and visiting United Nations Envoy Geir Pedersen announced "progress" towards forming the body, whose composition has dragged for more than 17 months.

Disagreements have raged over the names to be included in the committee, a third of which are to be nominated by the government, another by the opposition, and a final third by the UN envoy.

Damascus hopes to amend the current constitution, while the opposition wants to write a new one from scratch.

The UN envoy met the Syrian Negotiation Commission opposition grouping late Thursday "to discuss the results of Pedersen's latest visit to Damascus", it said on Twitter, without further details.

Pro-government newspaper al-Watan on Tuesday reported that a body could start work as early as September if Damascus agreed to Pedersen's list.

Last month, the United States said it was time to scrap the constitutional committee initiative and come up with other ways to end the war.

Numerous rounds of UN-led peace talks have failed to end a conflict that has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests.

In recent years, a parallel negotiations track led by regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey has taken precedence.

With key military backing from Russia, government forces have retaken large parts of Syria from rebel groups since 2015, and now control around 60 percent of the country.

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2019-07-13 09:28:00Z
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Somalia attack results in deaths and injuries, reports say; Americans said to be among casualties - Fox News

As many as 26 people, including an unknown number of Americans, died during a more than 14-hour-long siege on a Somali hotel carried out by gunmen with ties to the global Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda, according to a report, and dozens more were reported injured.

Among those killed was a presidential candidate running in upcoming regional elections, current Jubbaland president Ahmed Mohamed said in a statement to Reuters.

Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh and her husband, Farid Jama Suleiman, also were among those killed, Mogadishu-based independent radio station Radio Dalsan confirmed to the Associated Press. She was the first Somali woman media owner in the world.

8 KILLED, 16 HURT AS EXPLOSIONS ROCK SOMALIA'S CAPITAL

"I'm absolutely devastated by the news of the death of our dear sister Hodan Nalayeh and her husband in a terrorist attack in Somalia today. What a loss to us. Her beautiful spirit shined through her work and the way she treated people," Omar Suleiman, a Texas-based imam who knew the victim, wrote on social media.

Nalayeh was born in Somalia in 1976, but spent most of her life in Canada, first in Alberta and then in Toronto. She founded Integration TV, an international web-based video production company aimed at Somali viewers around the world.

Attackers first deployed a suicide bomb at the entrance gate to the Asasey Hotel in Somalia’s port city of Kismayo on Friday evening. At least four gunmen then stormed the hotel, which is frequented by politicians, patrons and lawmakers.

At least 14 hours passed before Somali troops shot dead all four attackers inside the hotel compound, Col. Abdiqadir Nur, a local police officer, told the Associated Press.

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Reports on the death toll were conflicting. Initial reports said 12 people died in the attack. The president of Somalia’s Jubbaland region told Reuters on Saturday the death toll had risen to 26 people, including Americans, a Briton, Kenyans and Tanzanians.

The number of injured ranged from 40 to 56, according to reports.

Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the attack. Al-Shabab, which is allied with al-Qaeda, often uses car bombs to infiltrate heavily fortified targets like the hotel in Kismayo, which has been relatively quiet in recent years.

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2019-07-13 09:21:16Z
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Russia delivers more air defense equipment to Turkey - Reuters

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Russia flew a fresh shipment of advanced air defense equipment to Turkey on Saturday, the Turkish Defence Ministry said, continuing to implement a deal that is likely to trigger U.S. sanctions against a NATO ally.

FILE PHOTO: First parts of a Russian S-400 missile defense system are seen after unloaded from a Russian plane at Murted Airport, known as Akinci Air Base, near Ankara, Turkey, July 12, 2019. Turkish Military/Turkish Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

The ministry said a fourth Russian cargo plane landed at the Murted air base near the Turkish capital Ankara, a day after three huge Russian air force AN-124 planes offloaded equipment at the base.

Washington has tried for months to prevent the deal, arguing that the Russian S-400 air defense system is incompatible with NATO systems. It also says that if the S-400s are deployed near U.S. F-35 jets, which Turkey is buying and helping to produce, they would undermine the stealth fighter planes’ defenses.

U.S. officials had warned that Turkey would be thrown off the F-35 program if it took delivery of the S-400s, and would also face sanctions under U.S. legislation seeking to prevent countries from buying military equipment from Russia.

Turkey says S-400 is a strategic defense requirement, above all to secure its southern borders with Syria and Iraq. It says that when it made the deal with Russia for the S-400s, the United States and Europe had not presented a viable alternative.

The dispute between the countries with the two largest armies in NATO marks a deep division in the Western military alliance, which was forged after World War Two to counter Moscow’s military power.

Reaction from Washington was limited on Friday, with acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper saying the U.S. stance had not changed. Esper later spoke with Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar.

“Minister Akar told his U.S. counterpart that Turkey remains under a serious air and missile threat and that purchase of S-400 defense systems was not an option but rather a necessity,” a Turkish Defence Ministry statement said.

Investors in Turkey have been unsettled by the deal and the prospect of sanctions, a year after a dispute with Washington over the trial of a U.S. pastor in Turkey contributed to a financial crisis which drove Turkey’s economy into recession.

The Turkish lira weakened as much as 1.6% to 5.7780 against the dollar on Friday, before recovering somewhat.

Russia’s TASS news agency quoted an unnamed military-diplomatic source on Friday as saying that a further delivery – of 120 guided missiles – would be carried out by ship at the end of the summer.

Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Mark Heinrich

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-07-13 08:15:00Z
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Beijing to impose sanctions on U.S. firms involved in $2.2B Taiwan arms deal - POLITICO

The U.S. arms deal with Taiwan includes 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images

This story is being published as part of a content partnership with the South China Morning Post. It originally appeared on scmp.com on July 12, 2019.

Beijing said on Friday it will issue sanctions against the U.S. companies involved in the latest arms sale to Taiwan, as tensions between China and the United States continue to rise.

Story Continued Below

The foreign ministry said in a brief statement that the move by Washington had violated China’s territorial sovereignty and national security.

“To protect our national interest, China will impose sanctions on the U.S. companies involved in the arms sale,” ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang was quoted as saying.

Beijing has made repeated calls to the U.S. for it to stop engaging in military exchanges with Taiwan, with the latest remarks coming after Washington on Monday approved the sale of U.S. $2.2 billion worth of military equipment to the self-ruled island.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on a visit to Budapest on Friday that the U.S. should stop “playing with fire”.
“We urge the U.S. to fully recognize the gravity of the Taiwan question … [and] not to play with fire on the question of Taiwan,” he told a news conference.

The deal will do little to ease the tension between China and the U.S., which are embroiled in multiple disputes on a range of issues, from trade and technology to Beijing’s militarization of the South China Sea.

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Beijing last used the threat of sanctions to punish U.S. firms in 2015, after Washington approved a U.S. $1.83 billion arms deal with Taiwan, saying that its determination to protect its territorial integrity was unshakeable.

The latest deal includes 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks, 250 Stinger missiles and related equipment.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which handles U.S. foreign arms sales, said the principal missile contractor would be Raytheon Missile Systems, and the prime contractor for the tanks would be General Dynamics Land Systems.

The deal is by far the most substantial since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017. Previous sales, announced in June 2017, September 2018 and April 2019, included training and maintenance/logistics support, as well as torpedoes, anti-radiation missiles and missile components. They were worth U.S. $500 million, U.S. $330 million and U.S. $1.42 billion respectively.

Beijing’s sanctions announcement came after Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen made a public appearance in New York on Thursday during a stopover en route to the Caribbean nations of Haiti, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and St Lucia.

At a reception at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office — the first of its kind ever hosted by a Taiwanese president — Tsai said the self-ruled island would not bend to pressure from Beijing to give up its ambition of joining the United Nations.

Her remarks were criticized by the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing, whose spokesperson, Ma Xiaoguang, accused her of using external powers to challenge the “one China” principle and threaten the stability of the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing considers Taiwan a wayward province awaiting reunification with the mainland fold, by force if necessary. It has become increasingly upset by American arms and strategic support for the island in countering Beijing’s military expansion since Trump became president.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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2019-07-12 16:01:00Z
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Turkey Accepts Russian S-400 Missile System, Rankling U.S. And NATO - NPR

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A Russian cargo plane carrying parts of Russia's S-400 missile defense system landed at a military air base near Ankara on Friday. Stringer ./Reuters hide caption

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Stringer ./Reuters

The first pieces of the S-400 missile system Turkey bought from Russia — against the wishes of the U.S. and NATO — began arriving Friday, according to Turkey's National Defense Ministry. In response, the Pentagon is expected to announce that Turkey will be barred from receiving the new F-35 fighter.

Turkey had planned to buy 100 F-35s, which is produced by Lockheed Martin Corp. But in the months since Turkey announced in April of 2017 that it also planned to install Russia's S-400 air-defense missile system, the U.S. has repeatedly said Turkey can have one or the other — but not both.

"If Turkey procures the S-400, it will mean they will not receive the F-35. It's that simple, " acting Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said last month.

Beyond implying a crisis of solidarity in the NATO alliance, the Russia-Turkey deal has been criticized by the U.S. and its allies because of the potential for sensitive information to be sent back to Russia by its advanced missile system.

Describing the worries of U.S. military officials, NPR's David Welna reported earlier this year:

"The S-400, they say, is designed to detect and shoot down stealth fighters like the F-35. Planting that air-defense system on Turkish soil could, by means of its powerful radar, help Moscow discover the secrets — and the vulnerabilities — of the F-35s that Turkey intends to acquire."

Despite warnings from the U.S. that buying the Russian system could prompt sanctions, Turkey went ahead with the deal. On Friday, Turkey's defense ministry announced via Twitter that the first component had arrived at the Murted Air Base in Ankara. Photos from the scene showed a large Russian cargo jet landing and opening its nose cone to unload large equipment — which was kept under tarps.

With the Russian system now landing on Turkish soil, NATO said on Friday that it's "concerned" about Russian missiles being deployed by a NATO ally.

"It is up to Allies to decide what military equipment they buy," a NATO official tells NPR. "However, we are concerned about the potential consequences of Turkey's decision to acquire the S-400 system."

Noting that NATO members see the interoperability of their military forces as a fundamental strength of the alliance, the official added, "We welcome that Turkey is working with several Allies on developing long-range air and missile defense systems."

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2019-07-12 13:26:00Z
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Russian S-400 defense systems arrive in Turkey despite US warning - Fox News

Turkey's Defense Ministry says the first shipment of a Russian missile defense system has arrived in Turkey, a development that could move the country closer to U.S. sanctions.

The ministry said the first delivery of the S-400 air defense systems arrived on Friday at an air base near the capital, Ankara.

TURKEY PREPARES TO RECEIVE RUSSIAN MISSILE SYSTEM, AS QUESTIONS SWIRL OVER POTENTIAL US PUNISHMENT

The United States has warned Turkey it will face economic sanctions if it goes ahead with the purchase of a Russian missile defense system. It has also said Turkey won't be allowed to participate in the program to produce the high-tech F-35 fighter jets.

Turkey has refused to bow to U.S. pressure, insisting that choosing which equipment to purchase is a matter of national sovereignty.

Although U.S. President Donald Trump expressed sympathy toward Turkey's decision to purchase the Russian system during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a G-20 meeting in Japan, Washington has repeatedly said that the Russian system is incompatible with NATO systems and is a threat to the F-35.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a meeting of the NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue, in Ankara, Turkey, Monday, May 6, 2019. Erdogan says Turkey's decision to purchase Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems does not mean that it is seeking "alternatives" in its relations with the West. (Presidential Press Service via AP)

Sanctions would mark a new low in the already-tense relations between Turkey and the U.S. Last year, the United States imposed sanctions on Turkey over its detention of an American pastor, triggering a Turkish currency crisis.

INSIDE IRAN’S DEADLY ARMORY AND ITS CAPABILITIES TO FIGHT THE US

The deal with Russia — the first such deal between Russia and a NATO member — has also raised concerns that Turkey is drifting closer to Moscow's sphere of influence.

Turkey has refused to bow to U.S. pressure, insisting that choosing which defense equipment to purchase is a matter of national sovereignty.

"We've always said regarding the S400s that it's an agreement that has been finalized and the process continues to progress," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters. "There's no problem and the process will continue in a healthy way going forward."

In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "Everything is going strictly in compliance with the agreements and contracts signed." He would not comment on a timeframe for the delivery but insisted that both parties are committed to complying with the contract.

Turkey has said it was forced to buy the S-400s because Washington refused to supply the American-made Patriot systems to Turkey.

U.S. officials have since encouraged Turkey to buy the Patriot missile defense system instead of the S-400s. But Turkey says the offer does not meet its requirements, including possible future joint production.

The U.S. has already stopped training Turkish pilots on the F-35, and given Ankara until the end of July to get its personnel out of the U.S.

Turkey maintains that it has fulfilled all of its financial obligations concerning the F-35 program and cannot be excluded from the project.

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Turkey has refused to say where it intends to deploy the S-400. Turkish media reports have said it could take until October for the system to be fully operational.

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2019-07-12 10:35:57Z
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Shipment of Russian S-400 Defense System Arrives in Turkey - TIME

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2019-07-12 08:47:35Z
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