WASHINGTON, December 31 -- President Donald Trump has ordered a slowdown to the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Syria, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has said. "I think we’re in a pause situation," the South Carolina Republican said outside the White House after lunch with the president. Trump announced earlier this month that he was ordering the withdrawal of all the roughly 2,000 troops from war-torn Syria, with aides expecting it to take place swiftly. The president had declared victory over ISIL in Syria, though pockets of fighting remain. Graham had been an outspoken critic of Trump’s decision, which had drawn bipartisan criticism. "I think we’re slowing things down in a smart way," Graham said. National security adviser John Bolton was expected to travel to Israel and Turkey next weekend to discuss the president’s plans with the American allies. During his appearance on CNN’s "State of the Union," Graham previewed his arguments to Trump for reconsidering the Syria pullout. "I’m going to ask him to sit down with his generals and reconsider how to do this. Slow this down. Make sure that we get it right. Make sure ISIS never comes back. Don’t turn Syria over to the Iranians. That’s a nightmare for Israel," Graham said, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, AFP reported Dec. 30 that the US flag fluttered above four US armoured vehicles driving through drizzle in the Syrian city of Manbij Dec. 30, each visibly carrying an armed soldier on lookout duty. "The Americans’ presence is reassuring for people, as the situation has become tense since we heard about their decision to withdraw," said Mohammed Ahmad, a 28-year-old shop owner in Manbij. Turkey, which views the YPG as a terrorist group, had been threatening a military operation against Manbij. Turkey and its allied fighters have been amassing troops around Manbij in recent days. Syria’s military announced Dec. 28 it has taken control of Manbij after the YPG invited the regime ahead of Turkey's offensive but Turkish and US officials denied reports that Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime forces entered the city.
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BEIJING - China's Ministry of Veterans Affairs said on Saturday that they would improve the education and training for veteran soldiers to make them more competitive in the job market. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime," Minister Sun Shaocheng quoted an old Chinese saying as explaining the need to improve the work, at a conference in Beijing. The ministry plans to encourage veteran soldiers to receive academic education and better implement supporting policies including providing free education and training. The ministry will also improve vocational education for veterans to enhance their employability, such as teaching more job-oriented and specific training programs. The ministry will cooperate with both state-owned and private companies, organize regional job fairs for veterans, and set up information platforms to share job posts. For veterans who want to start businesses, the ministry will help with tax cuts, set up investment funds and provide professional guidance. Veterans can also enjoy preferential policies, including in pensions, medical services, housing, transport and their children's education. The benefits will be divided into different levels based on the veteran's contribution while in service, the ministry said. The ministry will call on all parties in society and recruit volunteers to help the ex-servicemen. TEHRAN, December 30 -- Iranian government is expected to appoint two females as ambassadors to foreign countries. 'Two more female ambassadors will be introduced in the near future,' Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a meeting with Women Fraction in the Iranian parliament. Hamideh Zarabadi, the spokesperson for Women Fraction in the Iranian parliament said that during the meeting, Zarif has stressed improvement of role of women in the Foreign Ministry. Lots of measures have been adopted to prepare the grounds for presence of women in the ministry, she quoted the Iranian foreign minister as saying. Marzieh Afkham who was the first female spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry was appointed as ambassador to Malaysia on November 8, 2015. During the moderate government of President Hassan Rouhani, many women took high-level governmental positions. BEIJING, December 30 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday held a telephone conversation, expressing their willingness to push for implementation of their agreements reached during the G-20 summit in Argentina. Trump wished Xi and the Chinese people a happy new year, saying that the U.S.-China relations are very important and closely followed by the whole world. He said he values the great relations with Xi, adding that he is pleased to see the teams of both countries are working hard to implement the important consensus reached between him and Xi during their meeting in Argentina. Trump said relevant talks and coordination are producing positive progress. He hopes results will be reached to the benefit of both U.S. and Chinese peoples as well as people of all nations. Xi, for his part, extended best wishes to Trump and the U.S. people upon the arrival of the new year. Xi said both he and Trump hope to push for a stable progress of the China-U.S. relations, adding that the bilateral ties are now in a vital stage. The Chinese president said he and Trump had a very successful meeting early this month and reached important consensus in Argentina. The teams from both countries have since been actively working to implement such consensus, he said, expressing hopes that both teams can meet each other halfway and reach an agreement beneficial to both countries and the world as early as possible. Xi said next year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the United States and China, adding that China attaches great importance to the development of bilateral relations and appreciates the willingness of the U.S. side to develop cooperative and constructive bilateral relations. China is willing to work with the United States to summarize the experience of 40 years of the development of China-U.S. relations, and strengthen exchanges and cooperation in fields of economy and trade, military, law enforcement, anti-drug operations, local issues and culture, Xi said. Xi added that China is also willing to work with the United States to maintain communication and coordination on major international and regional issues, respect each other's important interests, promote China-U.S. relations based on coordination, cooperation and stability, and let the development of bilateral relations better benefit the two peoples and people around the world. The two heads of state also exchanged views on international and regional issues of common concern such as the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Xi reiterated that China encourages and supports further talks between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and hopes for positive results. LONDON, December 30 -- Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner says that communication between the team and its new engine partners Honda will be crucial in determining whether their first season together will prove to be a success. Red Bull parted company with Renault after 12 years of partnership at the end of the 2018 season, meaning that it will be busy over the winter setting up a whole new way of working with the Japanese manufacturer. "Communication in any business, in particular in this sport, is a vital element,” Horner acknowledged. "Obviously Honda being based in Japan but their UK base is just around the corner from us in Milton Keynes. “We’ve obviously got a huge amount of discussion going on between the groups and so far it’s all been very positive," he added. Red Bull's junior team Toro Rosso has already had a full season with Honda power units. Pierre Gasly will transfer from Faenza to the senior squad this season in place of Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo, which should also help. Honda F1 boss Masashi Yamamoto said last week that communication between Honda and Toro Rosso was already significantly better than the strained relationship it had enduring with McLaren in the preceding troubled three seasons. "We had much better communication with the team compared to the past," said Yamamoto. "As a result of that we had better connection between the chassis and power unit on the technical side." Horner was certainly sounding happy with how things were bedding in during the transition period. “I think we’ve found a very healthy working environment," he said. "We’ve been nurturing through the relationship with Red Bull technology, Toro Rosso and Honda, [so] we don’t go into next year completely afresh." There's still a big question mark over whether Red Bull will find the same level of success with Honda than it did with its French counterpart. Although Red Bull struggled at points during of 2018 with power and reliability issues, it got significantly stronger as the season went on - which Horner believes is a good sign for their new venture with Honda. BELGRADE, December 30 -- Serbians protested against President Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party in downtown Belgrade on Saturday. Thousands of people chanted "Vucic thief" as they marched peacefully through the city centre in the fourth such protest in as many weeks. They demanded media freedoms, an end to attacks on journalists and opposition politicians. Backers of the Alliance for Serbia, an opposition grouping of 30 parties and organisations, say Vucic is an autocrat and his party is corrupt, something its leaders vehemently deny. In an interview with the pro-government Studio B TV during the protest, Vucic said he was ready to discuss the opposition demands. "I am ready to look at what causes dissent of the people," he said, after being jeered by a group of protesters as he entered the television station building. Vucic earlier suggested he was willing to test his party's popularity in a snap vote, although Vuk Jeremic, a former foreign minister and the head of the small People's Party, part of the alliance, said the opposition would boycott any election. "There will be no legitimate elections in Serbia with the participation of the opposition until after normal conditions for elections and living are created," Jeremic said. According to a poll by the Belgrade-based CESID election watchdog in October, Vucic's SNS enjoys the backing of 53.3 percent of electorate while other parties are trailing far behind. If the opposition ran as an alliance, rather than individual parties, they could count on around 15 percent of the vote. Their joint participation in a vote has yet to be agreed and so far they are only united in their animosity to Vucic and his party. The SNS-led ruling coalition has a comfortable majority of 160 deputies in the 250-seat parliament. The next national election is due in 2020. Major opposition protests have been relatively rare in Serbia since the popular unrest that ousted former strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. Most of current opposition leaders served in successive pro-Western coalitions that led Serbia between 2000 and 2012 when SNS forged a coalition with Milosevic's Socialists and came to power. A nationalist firebrand during the violent collapse of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Vucic later embraced pro-European values and set Serbia's membership in the European Union as the country's strategic goal. He also maintains close ties with Russia and China. THE HAGUE, December 30 -- Mayor Pauline Krikke of The Hague has put an end to a protest by about 150 to 200 people wearing Yellow Vests on Saturday in the city. At the order of the mayor, the police called on the protesters to end the demonstration and they obeyed and left. The protest in the center of The Hague was grim, with the demonstrators throwing fireworks and smoke bombs. When they walked towards the town hall, the police intervened. There was a confrontation between police and activists in the shopping area in the city center. The police managed to prevent the demonstrators from entering the shopping area and arrested a total of eight protesters. No one got wounded, according to the police. The demonstrators in Yellow Vests protested, among other things, against the Dutch government. Earlier this month, they also protested in a quiet and minor demonstration in the city, in which three arrests were made. DAMASCUS, December 30 -- The withdrawal of the US army from Syria may shed light on the military crimes committed by the coalition under the "fight" against the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS, outlawed in Russia), a military-diplomatic source told journalists on Saturday. "The upcoming withdrawal of the American military from Syria may unveil multiple military crimes committed by the international coalition during the so-called fight against the ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a former name of the ISIS)," the source said. It chiefly concerns Raqqa, "which was turned into a ghost city after the carpet bombing carried out by the coalition’s aviation," he said.
The source pointed out that now the US, the UK and France state the inadmissibility of holding surgical operations against militants from the extremist group Jabhat al-Nusra (outlawed in Russia) in Idlib to avoid the sufferings of the civil population of this governorate. "That said, during the operation to liberate Raqqa, where the ISIL openly used civil residents as a shield, Washington, London and Paris sent their aviation there that just dropped bombs on the city’s residential quarters," he said. The source noted that Raqqa has not been cleared from mines yet and thousands of bodies remain under the city debris. Outbreaks of infectious diseases are being registered in the city, which are killing civilians, including children. Militants became active in the Al-Tanf area, which is controlled by the US: they are trying to penetrate to Damascus and Jordan, the source said. He also informed that the terrorists are burning the bodies of refugees from the Rukban camp who died because they did not receive humanitarian help. "Both the Syrian government and international humanitarian and human rights organizations will have to long and thoroughly deal with all this and other ‘heritage’ left after the illegal American presence in Syria," the source said. The withdrawal of the US forces On December 19, US President Donald Trump declared the decision to start the pullout of the American forces from Syria. He explained it by the defeat of the IS in Syria, which was the only reason why the US forces were there. The withdrawal of the army of more than 2,000 may take 60 to 100 days, according to American officials. “The Iranians are trying to come up with new ways and routes to smuggle weapons from Iran to its allies in the Middle East." TEHRAN, December 3 -- A Fars Air Qeshm 747 that left Tehran Sunday morning has been accused in the past of transporting weapons to Hezbollah. In September, in a report from Fox News based on western intelligence assessments, it made some suspicious flights in July and August to Damascus and Beirut. “The Iranians are trying to come up with new ways and routes to smuggle weapons from Iran to its allies in the Middle East,” a source told Fox News in September. Israel has warned about Hezbollah using areas in Beirut to store weapons. It made another suspicious trip on November 29 to Beirut. On December 25 it flew into Damascus and left by the evening. Airstrikes, which Russia and Syria blamed on Israel, struck west of Damascus soon after.
TOKYO, December 29 -- Japan released video footage on Friday to prove that a South Korean warship allegedly locked its fire-control radar onto a Japanese warplane off the country's northern coast, the latest move in an escalating row between the two Asian neighbours.
The Defense Ministry's just over 13-minute footage, filmed from the P-1 patrol aircraft and published on its website, contained Japanese crewmembers asking the destroyer for clarification but getting no response.
Japan alleged that last Friday a South Korean destroyer repeatedly locked its targeting radar on the Japanese aircraft inside of Japan's exclusive economic waters off the Noto Peninsula. A lock with a fire-control radar is considered a hostile act and only one step away from actual firing. Relations between Japan and South Korea have degraded to their worst in recent years over compensation issues related to Japanese atrocities such as sexual abuse of "comfort women'' and Korean forced labour during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 through 1945. The radar flap has added to the strain.
"Korea South Naval Ship, Hull Number 971, this is Japan Navy. We observed that your FC antenna is directed to us. What is the purpose of your act, over?'' a crewmember asked the destroyer in English several times using three different frequencies but the destroyer remained silent. The voice grew slightly tense as the crew kept calling. The video starts showing the gray destroyer sailing near a North Korean vessel. About six minutes later, one of the crewmembers can be heard saying: "FC detected'' and that it was coming from the destroyer. Seoul has denied the allegation, saying its warship used an optical camera while rescuing a North Korean fishing boat in distress. Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters earlier Friday that he decided to release the footage and data to let the people in and outside Japan know that the Japanese Self-Defense Force operated appropriately. "It is most important that an incident like this should never be repeated between Japan and South Korea,'' Iwaya said, adding that relations between the two sides are crucial for regional national security. "Even though difficult issues remain between Japan and South Korea,'' he said, "I hope to overcome those problems and push forward our mutual understanding and exchange between our two militaries.'' |
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