Iran denies test-firing rockets near US carrier

A spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards said the US is lying about the incident 
An Iranian military drill in the Strait of Hormuz in February (AFP) 

Thursday 31 December 2015

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday denied its naval forces test-fired rockets close to a US aircraft carrier in the strategically important Strait of Hormuz.

"The Guards' naval force had no exercise in the past week when the Americans claim that a missile or rocket was fired in the Hormuz Strait area," spokesman General Ramezan Sharif said on the Guards' official website.

The Guards naval unit is responsible for securing Iranian interests in the Strait, where it regularly patrols the area and conducts exercises.

On Tuesday, a US military official said that the Iranian navy, in an act that was described as "highly provocative", fired several rockets on 26 December within 1,500 metres of USS Truman. A French frigate and the USS Bulkeley destroyer were also in the area.

Separately on Tuesday, Navy Commander Kyle Raines, spokesman for US Central Command, told Reuters that the Iranians only gave nearby traffic 23 minutes advanced warning before firing the rockets from an attack craft in Omani waters.

"These actions were highly provocative, unsafe and unprofessional and call into question Iran's commitment to the security of a waterway vital to international commerce," Raines was quoted as saying.

Sharif accused the US of lying about the incident. 

"Publishing such lies in the current situation is more a psychological operation," he said.

"The security and peace of the Gulf is of serious strategic importance to Iran. The Guards conduct exercises to increase our required preparedness at due times, based on our own schedule."

The alleged incident comes after Iran and world powers led by the US agreed a landmark deal to limit the Islamic republic's nuclear programme in exchange for lifting economic sanctions, set to end in early 2016.

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the US Treasury Department is preparing fresh sanctions on two Iran-linked networks, including individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, helping to develop a missile programme. 

Iranian officials have warned that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei would view new sanctions as a violation of the nuclear deal. 

China Begins Building Second Aircraft Carrier

Announcement comes as maritime tensions simmer on China’s periphery

Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning cruises for a test on the sea in May 2012. PHOTO: LI TANG/ASSOCIATED PRESS

By CHUN HAN WONG- Dec. 31, 2015

BEIJING—China said it has started building a second aircraft carrier, signaling Beijing’s ambitions to develop a powerful navy as it asserts itself regionally.

Thursday’s announcement—confirming speculation among defense watchers—comes amid festering maritime tensions on China’s periphery, marked by what Beijing’s neighbors call aggressive Chinese moves to assert control over disputed Asian waters.

Still, analysts say the new warship will provide only a modest boost to China’s rudimentary carrier force, which remains decades away from challenging the U.S. as the dominant naval power in the Asia Pacific.

“Independent design and construction work [on the second carrier] is under way” in the northeastern city of Dalian, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman told a regular news briefing, according to an official transcript. The 50,000-ton vessel is a fully indigenous design that will be conventionally powered, he said, unlike the nuclear-powered U.S. carriers.

The new carrier will carry Chinese-built J-15 jet fighters and other aircraft, many of which would use what is known as a ski-jump ramp for takeoff, according to Sr. Col. Yang Yujun. He said the warship will be more technologically capable than China’s existing carrier, the Liaoning, which was built from a Soviet-era hull bought from Ukraine in 1998.

Sr. Col. Yang declined to specify a launch date for the new carrier, which would be roughly the same size as the Liaoning.

Analysts say the new carrier underscores China’s efforts to develop a modern military that can safeguard its growing overseas interests. In May, Beijing unveiled plans for its navy to expand operations from offshore areas to the open seas, setting it up for a front-line role in President Xi Jinping’s increasingly assertive foreign policy.

“It’s a statement of intent,” said Huang Jing, an expert on Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore. “Aircraft carriers are useful as deterrent and platforms for projecting power against China’s regional rivals, though not against the mightier U.S. Navy.”

In Washington, Cmdr. Bill Urban, a Pentagon spokesman, said “we are not going to comment on an individual PRC modernization program, but we do monitor Chinese military modernization carefully.”

Beijing has steadily strengthened its fleet in recent years, adding modern destroyers and nuclear submarines that boost its ability to assert claims in the South and East China seas. The effort has worried rival claimants in those waters—including the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan—which have responded with their own naval modernization plans.

Even so, observers say the Chinese navy remains a force in transition—capable of more than mere coastal defense but still a far cry from being a true blue-water force like the U.S. Navy.

China’s first carrier, the Liaoning, entered service in 2012 and serves mainly as a training ship. State media reports say that the carrier has accumulated significant experience in operating fighter jets and has achieved a degree of combat readiness.

“China has joined this elite group of naval powers with aircraft carriers, but at the bottom rung of the ladder,” said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy. “There will be an awful lot of problems with a newly developed carrier, and the Chinese will have to catch up on decades of naval-aviation experience that the U.S. has accumulated.”

China’s new carrier will be far smaller and less capable than its U.S. counterparts. The Chinese ship’s reliance on conventional propulsion means it will have shorter range, while the use of a ski-jump ramp limits the weapons payloads that its aircraft can carry, according to Mr. Thayer.

In contrast, a typical nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carrier displaces more than 100,000 tons, carries more than 80 combat and support aircraft, and can cruise nonstop for months at sea with proper logistics support. The U.S. Navy operates 10 Nimitz aircraft carriers, while a more advanced Gerald R. Ford-class carrier is set to enter service in 2016.

Beijing hasn’t said how many aircraft carriers it wants, though a Chinese admiral told Hong Kong media this year that the People’s Liberation Army Navy would need a minimum of three carriers to ensure at least one was operationally ready at all times. Experts say China will take years, even decades, to develop a carrier force capable of rivaling the U.S.

“China hopes to gradually break the American monopoly on influencing global security issues,” said Mr. Huang, the Singapore-based academic. “It’s a ‘long march’ and China is taking the first steps.”

Thursday’s announcement also lends weight to Beijing’s plan for sweeping military reforms, which would involve streamlining the PLA’s command structure and shedding 300,000 personnel from China’s 2.3 million-strong armed forces.

The effort has met resistance from within the military, and news of a new carrier could boost morale and win support Mr. Xi’s reform agenda, said Mr. Huang.

Write to Chun Han Wong at chunhan.wong@wsj.com

Dubai skyscraper ablaze near New Year's Eve fireworks

One person suffers heart attack and 15 injured as fire shoots up high-rise city centre hotel building

Fire engulfs Dubai hotel before New Year’s Eve fireworks.

Shaheen, Ruth McKee and agencies-Thursday 31 December 2015

A huge fire has engulfed part of a luxury Dubai hotel, near where revellers had gathered to watch a New Year’s Eve fireworks display.

Dubai Skyscraper Ablaze Near New Year's Eve Fireworks by Thavam Ratna

What’s in Store for Our Freedoms in 2016?

More of Everything We Don’t Want

by John W. Whitehead

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”—George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. 1

( December 31, 2015, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian)  In Harold Ramis’ classic 1993 comedy Groundhog Day, TV weatherman Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray) is forced to live the same day over and over again until he not only gains some insight into his life but changes his priorities. Similarly, as I illustrate in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we in the emerging American police state find ourselves reliving the same set of circumstances over and over again—egregious surveillance, strip searches, police shootings of unarmed citizens, government spying, the criminalization of lawful activities, warmongering, etc.—although with far fewer moments of comic hilarity.

What’s in Store for Our Freedoms in 2016 by Thavam Ratna

Facebook fights for free Internet in India, global test-case

Motorists ride past a billboard displaying Facebook's Free Basics initiative in Mumbai, India, December 30, 2015.REUTERS/DANISH SIDDIQUI

 BY HIMANK SHARMA AND DOUGLAS BUSVINE-Thu Dec 31, 2015

India has become a battleground over the right to unrestricted Internet access, with local tech start-ups joining the front line against Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg and his plan to roll out free Internet to the country's masses.

The Indian government has ordered Facebook's Free Basics plan to be put on hold while it decides what to do.

The program, launched in around three dozen developing countries, offers pared-down web services on mobile phones, along with access to Facebook's own social network and messaging services, without charge.

But critics say the program, launched 10 months ago in India in collaboration with operator Reliance Communications, violates principles of net neutrality, the concept that all websites on the internet are treated equally. It would put small content providers and start-ups that don't participate in it at a disadvantage, they say.

"India is a test case for a company like Facebook and what happens here will affect the roll out of this service in other smaller countries where perhaps there is not so much awareness at present," said Mishi Choudhary, a New York-based lawyer who works on technology and Internet advocacy issues.

Also at stake is Facebook's ambition to expand in its largest market outside the United States. Only 252 million of India's 1.3 billion people have Internet access, making it a growth market for firms including Google and Facebook.

RECORD SUBMISSIONS

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on Thursday it had received record submissions for a public consultation that precedes the rule-making process.

But more than three quarters of the 1.8 million comments submitted by users via Facebook will be disregarded as they did not follow the proper format, TRAI Chairman Ram Sevak Sharma told a news conference.

In the past week, Facebook has urged users in India to send a response to the TRAI both through its social networking platform and through mobiles by dialling a number that automatically generates a response on the users' behalf.

However, the social media giant faces stiff resistance.

In a letter seen by Reuters, the heads of nine start-ups including Alibaba-backed Paytm and dining app Zomato have written to the TRAI urging it to ensure Internet access was allowed without differential pricing.

The executives said in the letter, dated Tuesday, that differential pricing for Internet access would lead to a "few players like Facebook with its Free Basics platform acting as gate-keepers."

"There is no reason to create a digital divide by offering a walled garden of limited services in the name of providing access to the poor," they wrote.

Zuckerberg has got personally involved.

"We know that for every 10 people connected to the Internet, roughly one is lifted out of poverty," he wrote in The Times of India newspaper this week. "We know that for India to make progress, more than 1 billion people need to be connected to the Internet.

"What reason is there for denying people free access to vital services for communication, education, healthcare, employment, farming and women’s rights?"

BOTH SIDES

A Facebook spokesman said the aim of the Free Basics initiative was to give people a taste of what the internet can offer. And Facebook has issued a series of full-page newspaper advertisements and billboard banners in an aggressive campaign to counter the protests.

"Free Basics is at risk of being banned, slowing progress towards digital equality in India," said an advertisement published in Mumbai newspapers on Wednesday, urging Internet users to support the initiative.

Launched last year in Zambia, Free Basics, earlier known as internet.org, has run in to trouble elsewhere on grounds that it infringes the principle of net neutrality. Authorities in Egypt effectively suspended the service when a required permit was not renewed after it lapsed on Wednesday.

The TRAI has asked Facebook and Reliance Communications to suspend Free Basics until a final policy decision is made next month.

"In a democracy you have both sides - you have Facebook spending so much on the campaign and on the other side you have internet activists making their own efforts," the TRAI's Sharma told Reuters on Wednesday.

"Our job is to make a policy that is in the interest of telecom operators and end users in India."

(Reporting by Himank Sharm and Douglas Busvine; Writing by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ian Geoghegan)

Puerto Rico Continues to Sink Into Bankruptcy With No Lifeline in Sight

BY DAVID FRANCIS-DECEMBER 31, 2015

Puerto Rican Governor Alejandro García Padilla made another damaging admission this week: on New Year’s Day, the island willdefault on nearly $174 million in principal and interest payments on debt. Even worse: six months after Padilla admitted Puerto Rico was going broke and unable to make $72 billion in bond payments, the U.S. commonwealth has no clear path to solvency.

In Washington, there are White House-backed bills in the House and Senatethat would allow Puerto Rico to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, which would set up an orderly process for the island’s debtors to recoup some of what they had lent it in the first place. American cities likeDetroit used Chapter 9 to emerge from bankruptcy. But because Puerto Rico is a commonwealth, not a municipality, it’s not eligible for this protection unless the new measure becomes law. So far,support for the legislation has been hard to generate.

“The bottom line is that neither Chapter 9 [normal municipal bankruptcy] nor Super Chapter 9 [a similar alternative] do anything to help Puerto Rico’s spending problems, which are the crux of the issue,” Taylor Foy, a spokesperson for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said earlier this month. Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is one of the loudestopponents of providing Padilla with debt relief.

Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen has also said the U.S. central bank ispowerless to help Puerto Rico, whose economy has been plagued by years ofpopulation flight, anemic economic growth, andirresponsible government spending.

Perhaps Puerto Rico’s only financial lifeline is to come to a compromise with the Wall Street firms holding its debt. For year, municipal bond fund managers have been attracted to the island’s bonds because they are free of federal taxes.

Firms like Franklin Templeton and OppenheimerFunds together hold about $5 billion in Puerto Rican bonds. Hedge funds like Stone Lion Capital Partners and Knighthead Capital Management also are big holders of San Juan’s bonds. Bond insurers, including MBIA and Assured Guaranty, are also in line for losses if Padilla can’t find a way to pay his bills.

“We know that our creditors have spent a fortune lobbying against the people of Puerto Rico,” Padilla said in a speech Wednesday, adding creditors are “willing and anxious to initiate costly and disruptive litigation against the commonwealth, and attempt to attach and seize the little cash left in our accounts to obstruct our ability to provide essential services to our people.”

So far, those holding the island’s debt have only been willing to give Puerto Rico a minor “haircut,” meaning they would allow the commonwealth to pay less than what it borrowed. The island and its creditors came to a deal in July that allowed Puerto Rico do avoid default. They’ve were unable to come to a similar agreement in August, when Puerto Rico defaulted for the first time, nor at the new year.

“Puerto Rico’s government is starting to make choices between their obligation to their people and their obligation to those who hold debt‎,” Eric LeCompte, executive director, director of the religious development network Jubilee USA, said in a statement late Wednesday. “Unfortunately, without bankruptcy intervention or a negotiated solution, Puerto Rico’s financial crisis continues to worsen.”

If there is any silver lining to Puerto Rico’s default, it managed to pay some of what it owes on Jan. 1., defaulting on just two of the 13 payments it owes as the new year begins. This includes $329 million due to general obligation bondholders.

But even this payment is controversial, because Padilla was forced to raid revenues from the Highways & Transportation Authority, the Infrastructure Financing Authority, and the Convention Center District Authority bonds to make it. This means Padilla had to rob Peter to pay Paul, or raid his own island’s few sources of revenue to pay back its creditors.

Photo Credit: Christopher Gregory/Getty Images

“Diabetes And Cancer Are Fictional Diseases – Here’s What You Need To Do To Stay Healthy”

December 29, 2015

This is an interview with the famous Professor Neumyvakin. The name of the famous Professor Ivan Pavlovich Neumyvakin is related with the alternative medicine for more than 40 years. Professor Neumyvakin says that diabetes and cancer are fictional diseases, that there is no Parkinson’s disease, if you have healthy bowels – these type of things are managed with gymnastics, walking keeps the hypertension away. He also says that created the medicine for cosmonauts is a categorical person.

Diabetes and Cancer Are Fictional Diseases – Here’s What You Need to Do to Stay Healthy by Thavam Ratna

Unemployed graduates demand national policy



2015-12-30
The Combined Association of Unemployed Graduates (CAUG) today staged a protest outside the University Grants Commission (UGC) demanding a national policy to provide job opportunities for graduates. Pix by Kushan Pathiraja - See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/101207/and-national-policy#sthash.3Si5SG4I.dpuf

Logic Behind The Actions & Politics Of The NPC

By Mylvaganam Sooriasegaram –December 30, 2015

Mylvaganam Sooriasegaram

It is essential to try to go deep into the actions and politics of the NPC, led by TNA’s breakaway group centred around the Chief Minister, C.V. Wigneswaran and assess the inherent dangers. Separatist ideology and an attempt to return to the barren politics of the LTTE can be seen in every one of their actions. If this is not identified and exposed, once again the Tamil people will be forced to take the road to disaster and Sri Lanka will be plunged into another civil strife for decades. One such painful experience in our history is too many – we have to mobilize ourselves and act together to prevent its repetition. Otherwise we will sleepwalk into another disaster like the one we had to endure during the last 30 years. I am not a nationalist but if we have to choose between the nationalism of the TNA and that of the Federal Party, the latter is a tolerable one. Neither is my choice provided we can collectively work for a truly democratic Sri Lanka where all the different communities can enjoy equal rights, opportunities and privileges, irrespective of their religion, language and ethnicity.

The actions of the TNA rebels headed by the CM cannot be seen as isolated actions of madness. They are interconnected by the dogmatic philosophy of an inward looking separation and isolation, giving false hopes to people in desperation. Another dangerous aspect to the politics of separation is the inclusion of cultural and religious fundamentalism. CM’s lamenting over cultural degeneration and his posing as the guardian of Tamil Culture, if not correctly understood and checked, can lead us on a slippery road similar to Islamic fundamentalism. His resemblance to Ayotola Humani of Iran is not a comforting factor either. His going to India to meet Modi through the back door to have his Swamigi (who was charged and found guilty of child abuse by all the courts in India including the Supreme Court of India) released from imprisonment in India is symptomatic of his religious fanaticism. If his group secures political power and Eelam, the Tamil people will definitely be subjected to religious, cultural and political dictatorship.

We have seen the Chief Minister glorifying Prabakaran as a hero soon after his election to power. Since then he and his faction have joined hands with the pro-Eelamists within and outside of Sri Lanka to take on Sri Lanka once again.

We can see their incessant cry of not enough powers devolved to the NP even though many important devolved powers and the unusually large government funds allocated to the NP have not been effectively utilized to serve the immediate as well as the long term needs of our people. This is because they want to keep alive the suffering and desperation of the Tamil people to justify the separatist agenda, to which people can again be swayed easily due to government’s failure to restore the legitimate rights of the Tamil speaking people. Sri Lankan government also must not fail to do what is fair, right and just to the minority communities so that they can also happily and proudly embrace and celebrate their Sri Lankan identity. Doing what is fair, right and just cannot be a difficult thing at all in a predominantly Buddhist country. Government failing to do this will not only be offensive to Buddhism but also be foolish enough to give the separatists all the excuses they need to take the separatist line of politics. Government should never be party to strengthen the separatist agenda.

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Govt. urged to stop persecuting military to appease West

December 30, 2015, 9:42 am 

Kalutara District UPFA MP Jayantha Samaraweera (NFF) yesterday warned the government of dire consequences unless it immediately stopped persecuting military officers on trumped-up charges.

Samaraweera was addressing the media at the Kottawa junction in the wake of a group of monks performing Satyakriya to pressure the government to release five military officers and men arrested in connection with their alleged involvement in the disappearance of media personality Prageeth Ekneligoda on the eve of 2010 presidential polls.

The MP also referred to Sergeant Major Sunil Ratnayake, who had been sentenced to death recently for being responsible for the massacre of eight Tamil civilians at Mirusuvil, Jaffna on Dec 19, 2000.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government had jeopardised national security by acting against the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), the MP claimed. The government had conveniently forgotten the sacrifices made by security forces, particularly Intelligence Services during the conflict, Samaraweera alleged.

The NFF spokesman said the government was bending backwards to appease Western powers, pro-LTTE Diaspora organisations as well as those who still promoted separatist sentiments. According to him, the new administration had targeted selected officers and men in accordance with a commitment given last September at the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which was a Western cat’s paw.

The former JVPer warned that people would launch street protests unless the government reversed its despicable strategy (SF)

Another Army officer arrested

DEC 30 2015

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) recently arrested another Army Officer attached to the State Intelligence Service in connection with the abduction and murder of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda.

CID sources said he is a member of the gang who abducted Eknaligoda in 2010.

According to sources Abeyratne was a Sergeant during the period when Eknaligoda was abducted and later promoted to the Lieutenant rank.

He was previously questioned by the CID in connection with the incident and released after having recorded several statements.

In his previous statements, he had said that on the day Eknaligoda was abducted, he came to Colombo from the Giritale Army Camp to obtain quotations for sports equipment.

He had said that he first went to Borella to meet a friend and then went to Battaramulla for the quotations. According to him he went to the Giritale Camp the same day.

But, when the CID inquired after obtaining phone details of Abeyratne they found that he had not come to Colombo during the day Eknaligoda was abducted and they arrested him again on Monday.

When questioned for the second time, he failed to give the name of the shop from which he obtained the quotation for sports equipment or the friend whom he met. He is to be produced before the Homagama Magistrate. 

Why Mahinda Worried about Prageeth, Lasantha Murder Investigations

Rajapksa standing on his head!

30/12/2015

Today this column records the true story of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s recent photograph released to the Facebook by his son Namal in which Mahinda was seen standing on his head. Namal uploaded this photograph to show that his 70-year-old father was still fit as a fiddle.

On the contrary, the common man in society viewed it in a more practical social and political perspective because it was only a few days before this photograph went viral on the social and print media, Mahinda visited the Welikada Prison to see the suspects in the Prageeth Ekneligoda murder or disappearance. Concluding that visit, Mahinda who came out from the Prison entrance told the media, “Military officers are facing the guillotine while national security was at peril”.

On receipt of that observation, the true story behind Mahinda standing on head surfaced. The first question that surfaced was: If Mahinda was standing on his feet would he have had ever made such a statement from the entrance to the Prison? That query was raised by a three- wheeler-driver, a man from the lumpen class in society. However, that query is correct. On 2 February 2010 Brigadier Keppetiwalana and 17 high ranking military officers were arrested for the murder of Lasantha Wickremetunga under Mahinda’s Presidency. They were all war heroes who gallantly fought the terrorist war at the risk of their lives. Earlier, in a manner adding insult to injury to the integrity of the military, Mahinda’s administration sent 14 senior military officers on compulsory leave alleging that they supported Sarath Fonseka at the 2010 Presidential Election. That was the first time in the Army history that such a number of high ranking military officers had been sent on compulsory leave.

For betraying nation
The Sinhala daily ‘Divaina’s ‘ Keerthi Warnakulasuriya reported that incident, on 02.02.2010, in the following manner: ’14 military officers sent on compulsory leave for betraying the nation’ – Fourteen senior military officers have been sent on compulsory leave immediately yesterday , Director General of the Centre for National Security Lakshman Hulugalle said. He said the reason was that these officers had assisted an anti-national plan. They included five Majors-General, Five Brigadiers, a Colonel, a Lt. Colonel and two Captains. Hulugalle further stated that Intelligence authorities had reported to top government officials of the conduct of these military officials last week’.

During the 1962 coup which was later popular as the case of ‘Queen vs. Liyanage’ in judicial history, a few officers of the military were sent on compulsory leave. In the case of the 14 senior military officers sent on compulsory leave by Mahinda’s administration they faced charges for acting against the Secretary to the President and the Army Commander. These officers were served letters of compulsory leave and they were identified as Majors-General D. Liyanage, Rajitha Silva, Jayanath Perera, Mahesh Senanayake and Suriyabandara; Brigadiers D.D. Dias, Keppetiwalana, Mohotti, Hannedige and Kumarapperuma; Colonel Tilak Ubhayawardene, Lt.Col. Jayasuriya and Captains Ranaweera and Krishantha.’ Altogether 37 military personnel were arrested framing bogus charges on the pretext of a conspiracy against the State. Cannot Mahinda remember that past? If so, Mahinda’s Yoga Instructor would have made Mahinda stand on his head to make Mahinda forget that past. If Mahinda is able to recollect that past he cannot make such silly statements outside the prison gates!

When Mahinda arrested military officers over the murder of Lasantha, was that a patriotic act? Then how come when the Ranil-Maithri Government arrests military personnel over the murders of Prageeth Ekneligoda and Lasantha, they should be viewed as unpatriotic acts? It is a fact that people who stand with their feet on the ground could understand the realities and those who stand on their heads would never understand the truth. Mahinda’s supporters who shed crocodile tears, when arrests are made over the murders of Prageeth and Lasantha, do it not for any love for Prageeth and Lasantha, but for the fear that more skeletons may emerge from the cupboards of Mahinda’s administration.

_ Ceylon Today

Past Year Marked Important Democratic Gains In Several Countries Including Sri Lanka: John Kerry

December 30, 2015

“The past year also marked important democratic gains in such countries as Nigeria, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela” says the US Secretary of State, John Kerry in his Op-Ed “Building on 2015 as We Look Ahead”

John Kerry

We publish below the Op-Ed in full;

One reason for the remarkable record of the New England Patriots is the team’s single-minded focus on the next game. Managing world affairs requires the same concentration on future challenges, for past accomplishments provide no guarantee of continued success. They can, however, lend confidence that, with the right preparation and effort, positive results will follow.

As one year gives way to the next, international leaders have an opportunity to build on several major achievements of 2015.

Of these, none is more important than the recent global agreement in Paris to prevent the most harmful impacts of climate change. Earlier negotiating efforts had failed because of divisions between industrialized and developing nations. By reaching out to China, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases, and by emphasizing the incredible economic potential of clean energy technology, we were able to secure an agreement that sends the right message to all. We have a shared responsibility now to sustain the momentum generated in Paris, so that the targets established there are considered not a ceiling on what we can accomplish, but rather the platform upon which we can make further gains.

In July, the United States and our negotiating partners agreed with Iran on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a blueprint for blocking all of Iran’s potential pathways to a nuclear weapon. As it agreed to do, Iran has since begun dismantling critical elements of its nuclear facilities and, on December 28, shipped a major portion of its enriched uranium out of the country. That shipment more than triples our previous timeline of two to three months for Iran to acquire enough weapons-grade uranium for one weapon, and is an important piece of the technical equation that ensures an eventual breakout time of at least one year by implementation day. We must continue to monitor implementation of this agreement closely to ensure that the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran is removed as a threat to Middle East security and global peace.

In August, I had the privilege of traveling to Havana to raise the American flag above our embassy for the first time in 54 years. President Obama’s bold decision to normalize diplomatic ties with Cuba reflects both our own national interests and our desire to help the citizens of that country live in a more open and prosperous society. As I walked through the streets of Old Havana, I felt more strongly than ever that we should not allow our continued differences with the Cuban regime to prevent closer engagement with the Cuban people.

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