Syria’s retaliation will be immediate, strong and painful to any new Israeli attack, says Faisal Muqdad. -Photo by AFP

DAMASCUS: Syria has threatened an immediate response to any new Israeli strike, as its militant ally Hezbollah said Damascus would provide “game-changing” weapons despite two reported attacks on military sites.

Damascus also welcomed a US-Russian initiative to find a political solution to end the two-year-old civil war, while balking at Washington’s demand that President Bashar al-Assad would need to stand down.

The Assad regime also said it was ready to receive a UN team to probe claims that chemical weapons had been used in the country.

In an exclusive interview with AFP on Thursday, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad said “the instruction has been made to respond immediately to any new Israeli attack without (additional) instruction from any higher leadership, and our retaliation will be strong and will be painful against Israel.”

Senior Israeli sources have said strikes early Friday and Sunday targeted weapons bound for the powerful Shiite group Hezbollah based in neighboring Lebanon, but Muqdad denied that.

In Beirut, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Syria would supply his movement with “game-changing weapons” and open up the front to “resistance fighters” against the Jewish state on the Golan Heights.

Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day war and subsequently annexed it.

Israel has repeatedly warned that it will intervene to prevent the transfer of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah, with which it fought a devastating 2006 war.

Hezbollah is battling alongside Assad’s troops in several parts of the country.

The regime is relying increasingly on its alliance with Hezbollah, and Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar quoted Assad as saying that Syria would “give Hezbollah everything” for its loyalty.

The military and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog group both reported that loyalist forces, including Hezbollah elements, had advanced in the Qusayr area, strategically located along the Lebanese border.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the army’s campaign was “fierce.”An army officer told AFP the military seized control of Shumariyeh village near Qusayr “and troops are currently on their way to the village of Ghassaniyeh,” which has been under rebel control for more than a year.

Meanwhile, Syria’s foreign ministry welcomed the US-Russian “rapprochement,” under which the two countries will seek to convene an international conference to build on a six-point accord agreed in Geneva last year.

The Geneva agreement aimed at finding a path towards a transitional government but made no mention of Assad’s departure, which the opposition says is non-negotiable.

US Secretary John Kerry said Assad would have to step down as part of the resolution to the conflict.

That was rejected by the Syrian foreign ministry, which stressed that the decision belongs “only” to the Syrian people.

And the ministry said it was “confident that the Russian position, which is based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law, will not change.”

Russia is a top ally of the regime in Damascus and has staunchly resisted any bid to oust Assad.

The Obama administration is treading cautiously on Syria, and the reports of chemical weapons use, after what it sees as Washington’s past errors in the Iraq invasion and occupation, Vice President Joe Biden said.

Biden told Rolling Stone magazine that “we don’t want to blow it like the last administration did in Iraq, saying ‘weapons of mass destruction.’

Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, cited by George W. Bush’s administration as the main motive to launch the US-led invasion in 2003, never surfaced after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Biden stressed that once the use of the chemical weapons has been verified, Obama would likely make a “proportional response in terms of meaningful action,” without providing further details.

Echoing the cautious tone, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the problems that plague the Middle East, including Syria’s civil war, require “political, not military” solutions.

The United Nations said its Syria envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, has withdrawn a threat to quit and will stay the course in light of the US-Russian agreement.

And The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had informed Washington about the imminent sale to Syria of Russian S-300 missile batteries, advanced ground-to-air weapons that can take out aircraft or guided missiles.

Reacting to the report, Kerry warned in Rome that the sale would be “potentially destabilising” for the region.
Moscow has continued to supply Damascus with weapons throughout the conflict, which has left more than 70,000 people dead since March 2011.

Under mounting international pressure over the possible use of chemical weapons, Syria said it was ready to receive a UN team to investigate the claims.

“We were ready and we are always ready, right now, to receive the delegation that was set up by Ban Ki-moon to investigate what happened in Khan al-Assal,” Muqdad said.

“I am still choosing my next (film) project and developing the next one. Of course movie is my first love,” says Ang Lee. -File Photo

TAIPEI: Oscar-winning Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee said Thursday he is excited to be working on his first TV project “Tyrant”, but dismissed reports he would stay away from movies to focus on television.

“’Tyrant’ is Middle East intrigue. The subject matter is touchy and pretty scary. I like scary, to scare myself… I am very excited about ,this project” Lee told a press conference.

“I am still choosing my next (film) project and developing the next one. Of course movie is my first love,” he said, during his first trip to Taiwan since winning his second Oscar for best director with “Life of Pi”.

“Tyrant”, which is produced by the US cable TV channel FX, centres on “an unassuming American family drawn into the workings of a turbulent Middle East nation”, according to Hollywood Reporter.

Lee, who has spent almost his entire professional career abroad, also won a best director Oscar for the gay cowboy drama “Brokeback Mountain”.

His kung fu epic “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” won best foreign language film.

Almost all of Lee’s films have drawn on both Western and Asian culture to depict characters struggling to fit into society, and to live up to the pressures of family and repressive social expectations.

Lee said he has to be “really diligent” in adapting cultures.

“As an non-American filmmaker I cannot assume that I know… I have to be modest and diligent adapting all kinds of cultures,” he said.

The filmmaker, who is based in New York, was hailed as the “glory of Taiwan” after becoming the first Asian to win a best director Oscar for “Brokeback Mountain” in 2007.

Lee is a big supporter of Taiwan’s film industry.

But he said he would not be able to chair the judging committee for the island’s Golden Horse film festival in November, since he needs to wrap up production of “Tyrant” at that time.

Worldwide, there have been 30 laboratory-confirmed cases of the virus, including 18 deaths, according to WHO data. -Photo by Reuters

PARIS: France has identified its first case of a new strain of coronavirus emerging from the Middle East in a person recently returned from the United Arab Emirates, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The ministry said it had opened an investigation into what it said was the first and only confirmed case of the virus in France and would hold a news conference later in the day.

“The person has been placed in isolation in an intensive care ward,” the ministry said in a statement.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) said it had been informed of the French case but had no further details.

Worldwide, there have been 30 laboratory-confirmed cases of the virus, including 18 deaths, since it came to scientists’ attention in September, according to WHO data.

The coronavirus is from the same viral family as the common cold and triggered the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that swept the world from Asia in late 2003, killing 775 people.

There is no evidence yet of sustained human-to-human spread of the new virus, but there are concerns about clusters of cases reported by the WHO in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Britain.

Emirati police patrol in the Gulf emirate of Dubai. —Photo by AFP

DUBAI: Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have broken up an Al-Qaeda cell comprising seven Arabs who were plotting attacks in the Gulf state, an official statement said on Thursday.

The UAE is one of the most stable countries in the Middle East and has so far not seen any attacks by Al-Qaeda.

It has also been spared in the wave of Arab Spring uprisings.

The cell was “plotting acts that would have harmed the security of the country, its citizens and foreign residents,” said the statement carried by state news agency WAM.

The group was also involved in “recruiting people” for Al-Qaeda and providing the jihadist organisation with “money and logistic support”.

It was also “trying to extend its activities to reach some other countries in the region,” the statement said, without elaborating.The seven are of “Arab nationalities,” and will be questioned and put on trial, it said.

The population of the UAE, estimated at over eight million, comprises nearly 90 percent foreigners lured by work opportunities in the wealthy country.

The UAE is already trying 94 Emiratis, including 13 women, over accusations of plotting to seize power, in the largest trial in the history of the federation of sheikhdoms formed in 1971.

Authorities accuse the Islamists of links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed in the Gulf state.

The UAE also arrested a group of Egyptians in December and accused them of links to the Muslim Brotherhood, collecting sensitive intelligence about the UAE, and having ties to the Emirati Islamists on trial.

Human Rights Watch said 13 Egyptians were in custody.

UAE authorities at the time of the arrests put the number at 11.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.—File Photo

TEHRAN: Iran’s president has slammed ”foreign presence” in the Persian Gulf, claiming it’s the source of insecurity in the region.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran has ”always guarded peace and security” in the Gulf and the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.

Ahmadinejad says that “foreign presence has been main reason of insecurity in the region” — an apparent reference to Western nations and the US 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain.

Iran sees the large American-led naval presence as foreign military meddling in the Mideast. Ahmadinejad’s remarks — typical rhetoric from the president — came ahead of a military parade in Tehran on Thursday as Iran marks National Army Day.

Some women who have migrated to work as domestic workers, nurses, teachers or waitresses, “are abducted upon arrival by their freelance agents and obliged to provide commercial sexual services to clients out of private or isolated apartments or villas.” -File photo by Reuters

AMMAN: An estimated 600,000 people have been “tricked and trapped” into forced employment in the Middle East, many of them also sexually exploited, the UN’s labour agency said on Tuesday. The International Labour Organisation, issuing the findings of a two-year study based on 650 interviews, called for an overhaul of employment practices in the region, notably an end to the “kafala” system of sponsorships.Kafala, mostly prevalent in Arab states east of Egypt, which are home to more than 12 million foreign workers, requires all such labourers to have in-country sponsors, usually their employers, who are responsible for their visa and legal status.

“Labour migration in this part of the world is unique in terms of its sheer scale and its exponential growth in recent years,” said Beate Andrees, head of an ILO programme to combat forced labour.

“The challenge is how to put in place safeguards in both origin and destination countries to prevent the exploitation and abuse of these workers,” she said at the opening of a two-day conference on the issue in Amman, Jordan.

The 150-page report entitled “Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East” was based on research carried out in Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

“Although data is scarce, the ILO estimates that there are 600,000 forced labour victims in the Middle East,” it said.

The study singled out the kafala system, saying it was “inherently problematic” because it created an unequal power dynamic between employers and workers.

“Reforming the kafala system would significantly improve labour migration governance in this regard,” it said.

The study addressed the issue of animal herders, who are recruited from many Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

“Several migrants interviewed by the research team had originally been recruited as domestic workers but later were moved on to work as animal herders, taking care of sheep, camels and other livestock out in the desert,” it said.

“The vulnerability to debt was highlighted by the results of a survey of Asian workers in Qatar: Half of those interviewed had paid recruiting agencies a fee before leaving home; the average fee was 2,000 Qatari rials ($550), and some had paid much more, putting themselves deep in debt.”

The report said the research team found evidence that showed “the particular vulnerability of Asian and African women migrant workers to deceived and coerced into sexual exploitation.”

Some women who have migrated to work as domestic workers, nurses, teachers or waitresses, “are abducted upon arrival by their freelance agents and obliged to provide commercial sexual services to clients out of private or isolated apartments or villas.”

The study criticised as insufficient laws that “reinforce underlying vulnerabilities of migrant workers” and restrict their ability to terminate employment contracts and to change employers.

A lack of inspections kept domestic workers isolated and heightened their “vulnerability to exploitation,” said the study, warning against “the real risks of detention and deportation for workers who are coerced into sex work”.

In male-dominated economic sectors such as construction, manufacturing, seafaring and agriculture, “workers are routinely deceived with respect to living and working conditions, the type of work to be performed, or even the existence of a job at all,” it said.

“Human trafficking can only be effectively tackled by addressing the systemic gaps in labour migration governance across the region,” said Frank Hagemann, ILO deputy regional director for Arab states.

Iran’s Parliament Head Alaeddin Boroujerdi.—Photo by Reuters

TEHRAN: Iran has barred a Saudi diplomat allegedly involved in a deadly drink-driving accident from leaving the country, Fars news agency cited top lawmaker as saying on Sunday.

The unnamed diplomat was “barred from leaving until the clarification of the (legal) status” of the case, Allaedin Boroujerdi, who heads the parliament’s influential foreign policy committee, was quoted as saying.

An Iranian citizen was killed in mid-March when the diplomat’s car reportedly hit another vehicle on a expressway in Tehran while speeding at 130 kph (80 mph).

Boroujerdi said that while foreign mission staff have diplomatic immunity, “they have to observe the country’s regulations”.

The diplomat, he said, had also “violated international law” as a field sobriety test conducted by the police indicated the official had been “drunk”at the scene of the accident.

“Several bottles of alcoholic drinks, some of which already opened,” were found in the diplomat’s car, he added.
Iran’s foreign ministry in late March protested to the Saudi embassy about the deadly accident, initiating diplomatic and judicial protocols.

At the time, it said the diplomat had exceeded the speed limit, and the allegations of drink-driving were only reported in the media.

The consumption of alcohol is forbidden in Iran under its Islamic sharia law.

SEA-ME-WE 4 (SMW4) submarine cable system pictured.— PTCL Photo

MULTAN, Mar 27 - One of the international submarine cable’s (SMW4) has experienced fault in sea waters near Alexandria, Egypt which has impacted internet services in the Far East, Middle East, Pakistan, India and North Africa.

The total length of the SEA-ME-WE 4 (SMW4) submarine cable system is approximately 20,000 km which consists of the main backbone across the Eastern and Western worlds and links 14 countries with 16 landing stations across Europe, Middle East and Asia plus the extension links in various countries.

The international consortium of operators in the region that manages the submarine cable system is proceeding to deploy repair services to restore services at the earliest, said a press release issued here by PTCL on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, PTCL has already undertaken necessary actions to minimize the impact on the services to customers in Pakistan, by making alternate arrangements for internet capacity.

This has been made possible because of PTCL multiple submarine cable systems in Pakistan, added the release.

Customers may experience slow browsing during peak hours and PTCL sincerely regrets this temporary inconvenience caused to valued customers, under the prevalent circumstances, concluded the release.

US President Barack Obama. — File Photo.

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE: Barack Obama departed late Tuesday and is en route to Israel for a four-day trip to the Middle East, a journalist traveling with the US president, said.

The president’s airplane, Air Force One, took off at 8:15 pm (0015 GMT Wednesday) from Andrews Air Force Base outside the US capital.

Obama is scheduled to touch down in Tel Aviv at around 10:30 GMT, according to the president’s official schedule.

US officials have styled Obama’s trip as an effort to reconnect with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he had a delicate relationship during his first term, and to coordinate on key issues like Iran and Syria.

Obama will also travel to see Palestinian leaders on the West Bank and visit Jordan on the first foreign policy mission of his second term.

Administration officials have signaled there will be no major peace initiative during the trip, with Obama stating he is traveling to the region to “listen” to both sides.

Obama will meet Netanyahu in Jerusalem, and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and his premier Salam Fayyad in Ramallah, to hear their perspective on how to resolve the decades-long conflict.

“My goal on this trip is to listen. I intend to meet with Bibi (Netanyahu) … I intend to meet with Fayyad and Abu Mazen (Abbas) and to hear from them what is their strategy, what is their vision, where do they think this should go?” Obama told Israeli television.

British officials say a mysterious virus related to Sars may have spread between humans, as they confirmed the 15th case worldwide of the new coronavirus in a patient who they say probably caught it from a family member. —File Photo by AP

LONDON: A Saudi man infected with a deadly new virus from the same family as Sars has died, becoming the ninth patient in the world to be killed from the disease which has so far infected 15, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

The 39-year-old developed symptoms of the novel coronavirus (NCoV) on Feb. 24 and died on March 2, several days after being hospitalised, the WHO said in a disease outbreak update.

NCoV is from the same family of viruses as those that cause common colds and the one that caused the deadly outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) that first emerged in Asia in 2003. The new virus is not the same as Sars, but similar to it and also to other coronaviruses found in bats.

The WHO first issued an international alert in September after the virus infected a Qatari man in Britain who had recently been in Saudi Arabia. Symptoms of NCoV include severe respiratory illness, fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.

“Preliminary investigation indicated that the (latest Saudi)patient had no contact with previously reported cases of NCoV infection,” the WHO said. “Other potential exposures are under investigation.”

Nine of the 15 people confirmed to have been infected with NCoV have died. Most cases have been in the Middle East or in patients who had recently travelled there.

Research by scientists in Europe has found that NCoV is well adapted to infecting humans and may be treatable with medicines similar to the ones used for Sars, which killed a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected.

The Geneva-based WHO said it was monitoring the situation closely and urged its member states to continue surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections and to carefully review any unusual patterns.

“WHO is currently working with international experts and countries where cases have been reported to assess the situation and review recommendations for surveillance and monitoring,” it said, adding that national authorities should “promptly assess and notify” it of any new NCoV cases.