Oil of War

Top international diplomats on Friday called on Israel and the Palestinians to return to peace negotiations with a goal of reaching a final settlement that would create an independent Palestinian state within 24 months. They reiterated their condemnation of Israel’s latest move to add Jewish housing in disputed east Jerusalem but did not escalate criticism of the Jewish state.

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WASHINGTON: A wealthy businessman who raised money for leading Democratic Party politicians, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, pleaded guilty to defrauding three major banks out of $292.2 million in loan transactions.

Hassan Nemazee, 60, who once ran a private equity firm, admitted in Manhattan federal court to defrauding three banks.

During the plea proceeding, Iranian-born Nemasee, who owned several multimillion dollar properties and had interests in various companies and hedge funds, said he had tried to get out of financial difficulty starting in the 1990s.

Nemazee, a former member of the board of the Iranian American Political Action Committee, was a U.S. citizen whose family left Iran after the revolution there in 1979.

Nemazee admitted to three charges of bank fraud and one charge of wire fraud. Prosecutors said he had obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from the banks and used fake documents to show supposed ownership of collateral.

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Barack Obama has decided to postpone the scheduled tour to Indonesia and Australia to June in order to stay in Washington for pushing the health care reform, said the White House on Thursday.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters at the daily press briefing that President Obama has called Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and would call Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd over the postponement.

It is the second time that the Obama’’s tour was delayed.

President Obama, who was originally scheduled to visit Indonesia and Australia from March 18 to 24, had delayed the six- day tour to March 21 so that he can stay in Washington for pushing the tough healthcare reform.

Gibbs said that the Obama administration “greatly regret” the delay of the trip, but that the passage of health care reform is ” of paramount importance” and President Obama has decided to “see this battle through.”

TOKYO: Japan will boost its aid to quake-hit Haiti to 100 million dollars, a report said Friday as the country’’s foreign minister prepared to visit the impoverished Caribbean nation this weekend.

Japan, which has already pledged 70 million dollars in emergency aid and for long-term reconstruction, will raise the total sum by 30 million dollars, public broadcaster said.

The additional aid will pay for shelters for people left homeless after the devastating 7.0-magnitude quake struck on January 12, killing more than 220,000 people, the network said, without naming its sources.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada will announce the increase at a donors” conference at UN headquarters in New York on March 31, it added.

MOSCOW: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Russian counterpart clashed openly Thursday over the planned launch this summer of Iran’’s first, Russian-built nuclear power plant, highlighting a split in views over how to steer Iran away from nuclear weapons.

Clinton did not criticize the long-delayed project directly but said the Obama administration is opposed to the timing of the nuclear plant’’s startup. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced the summer startup plans on Thursday, shortly after Clinton arrived for a two-day visit.

The nuclear plant is an example of Russian-Iranian economic ties and technical cooperation, on terms that have long made the United States uncomfortable.

It was a background issue during a difficult period in U.S.-Russian relations last year and in the ongoing U.S.-led effort to bring new United Nations economic penalties against Iran over suspicions that part of its nuclear program is aimed at building a bomb.

Putin’’s announcement adds another complication to the already long list of issues on which Clinton and her Russian hosts don”t agree. Clinton is seeing Putin on Friday.

At a news conference with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after talks on a wide range of issues, Clinton told reporters that Iran, while entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, must reassure the world that it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon.

“In the absence of those reassurances, we think it would be premature to go forward with any project at this time, because we want to send an unequivocal message to the Iranians,” she said.

MOSCOW: The international Quartet for the Middle East meets in Moscow on Friday for a crucial meeting amid rising tensions after Israel’’s controversial announcement of new settler homes.

The Quartet — made up of the United States, the United Nations, European Union and Russia — is expected to pressure Israel after its announcement of the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem.

The Israeli announcement led the Palestinians to call for a halt to peace talks and precipitated the worst crisis in US-Israeli relations in years, with senior US officials warning the plans jeopardized the peace process.

They also called the announcement’’s timing an “insult”, coming as US Vice President Joe Biden visited the region.

The meeting will include UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Ashton’’s visit will come a day after she made a rare trip by a top foreign official to the Gaza Strip.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Thursday killed a Thai agricultural worker who was killed when it slammed into an Israeli kibbutz just a few kilometres from the Gaza border.

Israel replied early Friday with air strikes on Gaza, but there were no reports of any serious casualties according to eye-witnesses and Palestinian security officials.

The Moscow meeting will “demonstrate international support” for indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians, said US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley who is accompanying Clinton.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called Clinton late Thursday, Crowley said.

“They discussed specific actions that might be taken to improve the atmosphere for progress toward peace,” he added.

JERUSALEM: International talks on the Middle East set for Friday were lent a fresh sense of urgency after Israeli warplanes replied with airstrikes to a fatal rocket attack launched from the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’’s office meanwhile said late Thursday that he had spoken by phone to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Palestinian security officials and eyewitnesses said that Israeli aicraft hit several targets across the coastal strip in the early hours of Friday, but there had been no reports of serious injuries.

A Palestinian group, the Al-Qaeda-inspired Ansar al-Sunna Brigade, claimed responsibility for Thursday’’s fatal rocket attack, which killed a Thai labourer working inside Israel near the Gaza border.

The group linked it to clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police in Jerusalem earlier this week.

A second rocket slammed into open ground elsewhere in southern Israel after dark, causing no casualties, a military spokesman said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the killing.

“All such acts of terror and violence against civilians are totally unacceptable and contrary to international law,” his office said.

CHICAGO: A Pakistani-American pleaded guilty in a US court Thursday to scouting out sites for the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege and plotting to kill a Danish cartoonist.

David Coleman Headley, 49, admitted to using a friend’’s immigration company as a cover for surveillance activities in India and Denmark on behalf of two different Pakistan-based terrorist groups.

In a deal to change his earlier not guilty plea, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty or to allow Headley to be extradited to either India, Pakistan or Denmark to face related charges.

He will, however, be required to “truthfully testify in any foreign judicial proceedings held in the United States by way of deposition, video-conferencing or letters rogatory,” prosecutors said.

“Today’’s guilty plea is a crucial step forward in our efforts to achieve justice for the more than 160 people who lost their lives in the Mumbai terrorist attacks,” US Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

“David Headley is now providing us valuable intelligence about terrorist activities,” Holder said.

“Working with our domestic and international partners, we will not rest until all those responsible for the Mumbai attacks and the terror plot in Denmark are held accountable.”

The grey-haired, Washington-born son of a former Pakistani diplomat and American woman, Headley reportedly befriended Bollywood stars and even dated an actress during his lengthy surveillance trips to India.