CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat today squarely blamed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the prevailing political crisis saying his "renewed bid" to go to the IAEA to seek its approval for the safeguards agreement to operationalise the Indo-US nuclear deal was the main reason for it.
In an article in the latest issue of the CPI(M) party organ "People's Democracy" Karat said that there was actually no time table set for the deal, except that of President Bush ending tenure at the White House. "It is this schedule set out by the United States which is impelling the Prime Minister to go ahead regardless of the consequences," the CPI(M) leader said.
Karat said the reason for such urgency was "the insistence of the Bush Administration that India complete the procedures for the safeguards agreement with the IAEA so that the Americans can take the step of formally initiating the process in the Nuclear Suppliers Group to get the waiver for nuclear trade with India."
"President Bush wants to ensure in the last few discredited months of his presidency that at least the Indo-US nuclear deal will remain as a legacy to be taken up by the next President. This will have some certainty if the NSG clearance is got before his term expires," he said.
Karat, who has been holding parleys with Left, UNPA, Congress and UPA leaders on the issue, said: "the tactics adopted (by the government) has been to try and get the Left to agree piecemeal to a step by step operationalisation of the 123 agreement."
He said it was "a fact that consultation process in the NSG has already been initiated by the US. In September 2007, the Bush Administration presented a pre-decisional draft titled 'Submission of Civilian Nuclear Cooperation with India' to an informal meeting of the NSG."
"It is learnt that a revised note has been submitted subsequently," Karat said, adding that the NSG was awaiting the IAEA clearance to start the procedure. "The way it will go will be that the US would make a request formally for an exemption," he quoted former NSG Chairman Abdul S Minty as saying.
Maintaining that the UPA side was trying to convince the Left that IAEA approval would pave the way for nuclear cooperation with Russia and France, Karat said "nothing can be further from truth."
"In February, Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns had categorically stated that the US would not get the NSG waiver for India in a "worst case scenario of the 123 agreement being bypassed and India trying to engage in nuclear commerce with other countries," said Karat.
"So that 'passport' which is being sought can be nothing but an American passport," Karat said. Observing that the government and the Congress were fully aware that Left would not be party to them trying to push the deal "through a strategic alliance with the US," he reiterated that there could be "no compromise" on the issue.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Oil rises to $142 for the first time
Crude oil rose to a record above $142 a barrel in New York on Friday and gold advanced as falling stock markets spurred investment in commodities.
Oil has gained 47 percent this year, headed for the biggest six-month gain since 1999, as recession concerns have pushed the MSCI World Index of global equity markets down 12 percent. Oil may rise further if the European Central Bank raises rates on July 3, further weakening the U.S. dollar, traders said.
"It's a combination of equities underperforming and pricing in some further risk on what the ECB will do next week," said Oliver Jakob, managing director of Petromatrix in Zug, Switzerland. Trading volumes are so low that price movements are being exaggerated, he said.
Crude oil for August delivery rose as much as $2.62 a barrel, or 1.9 percent, to $142.26 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $141.95 at 12:31 p.m. London time.
On Thursday the contract rose $5.09, or 3.8 percent, to $139.64 a barrel, a record settlement price, as Libya threatened to cut output and the president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said prices may reach between $150 and $170 within months.
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Many of the companies most reliant on oil, like airlines and refiners, are having to buy futures now after waiting earlier in the year in the expectation of lower prices, said Gerrit Zambo, an oil trader for BayernLB in Munich.
"In the first months of this year consumers were waiting, but now they've reached a painful limit and have no choice but to hedge," Zambo said. "The costs put so much pressure on the companies and they have no choice."
The doubling of prices in the last year is "a blessing in disguise" for Asian economies and currencies, according to Stephen Jen, chief currency strategist at Morgan Stanley in London. High transport costs will force the region to become less reliant on exports and more on local demand, Jen said in a report Thursday.
Gold headed for a second weekly gain as the dollar weakened, increasing the appeal of the metal as a hedge against inflation and an alternative investment to the U.S. currency. Gold for immediate delivery rose $5.17, or 0.6 percent, to $922.47 an ounce as of 11:39 a.m. in London.
The MSCI World Index lost 1.8 percent to 1,403.36 at 10:37 a.m. in London as 8 of the 10 industry groups retreated.
The U.S. dollar was 0.2 percent lower at $1.5757 against the euro, and 0.6 percent weaker versus the Japanese currency at 106.33 per yen at 11:37 a.m. London time.
Brent crude oil rose as much as $2.30, or 1.6 percent, to a record $142.13 on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract traded at $141.74 a barrel at 12:31 p.m
Oil has gained 47 percent this year, headed for the biggest six-month gain since 1999, as recession concerns have pushed the MSCI World Index of global equity markets down 12 percent. Oil may rise further if the European Central Bank raises rates on July 3, further weakening the U.S. dollar, traders said.
"It's a combination of equities underperforming and pricing in some further risk on what the ECB will do next week," said Oliver Jakob, managing director of Petromatrix in Zug, Switzerland. Trading volumes are so low that price movements are being exaggerated, he said.
Crude oil for August delivery rose as much as $2.62 a barrel, or 1.9 percent, to $142.26 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $141.95 at 12:31 p.m. London time.
On Thursday the contract rose $5.09, or 3.8 percent, to $139.64 a barrel, a record settlement price, as Libya threatened to cut output and the president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said prices may reach between $150 and $170 within months.
Multimedia
Interactive Graphic: World Markets
» View
Related Articles
Stocks sag worldwide as oil price surges
Today in Business with Reuters
Oil rises to $142 for the first time
Gloom descends over Wall Street again
Japan annual inflation hits decade high in May
Many of the companies most reliant on oil, like airlines and refiners, are having to buy futures now after waiting earlier in the year in the expectation of lower prices, said Gerrit Zambo, an oil trader for BayernLB in Munich.
"In the first months of this year consumers were waiting, but now they've reached a painful limit and have no choice but to hedge," Zambo said. "The costs put so much pressure on the companies and they have no choice."
The doubling of prices in the last year is "a blessing in disguise" for Asian economies and currencies, according to Stephen Jen, chief currency strategist at Morgan Stanley in London. High transport costs will force the region to become less reliant on exports and more on local demand, Jen said in a report Thursday.
Gold headed for a second weekly gain as the dollar weakened, increasing the appeal of the metal as a hedge against inflation and an alternative investment to the U.S. currency. Gold for immediate delivery rose $5.17, or 0.6 percent, to $922.47 an ounce as of 11:39 a.m. in London.
The MSCI World Index lost 1.8 percent to 1,403.36 at 10:37 a.m. in London as 8 of the 10 industry groups retreated.
The U.S. dollar was 0.2 percent lower at $1.5757 against the euro, and 0.6 percent weaker versus the Japanese currency at 106.33 per yen at 11:37 a.m. London time.
Brent crude oil rose as much as $2.30, or 1.6 percent, to a record $142.13 on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract traded at $141.74 a barrel at 12:31 p.m
North Korea destroys nuclear reactor tower
North Korea destroyed the most visible symbol of its nuclear weapons program Friday, blasting apart the cooling tower at its main atomic reactor in a sign of its commitment to stop making plutonium for atomic bombs.
An explosion at the base of the cylindrical structure sent the tower collapsing into a cloud of white and gray smoke that billowed into blue skies as international journalists and diplomats looked on, according to video footage filmed by broadcaster APTN at the site.
The demolition of the 60-foot-tall cooling tower at the North's main reactor complex is a response to U.S. concessions after the North delivered a declaration Thursday of its nuclear programs to be dismantled.
"This is a very important step in the disablement process and I think it puts us in a good position to move into the next phase," said Sung Kim, the U.S. State Department's top expert on the Koreas who attended the demolition. Kim shook hands with a North Korean official following the tower's tumble to the ground.
In its first reaction to the developments this week, North Korea's Foreign Ministry welcomed Washington's decision to take the country off the U.S. trade and sanctions blacklists.
"The U.S. measure should lead to a complete and all-out withdrawal of its hostile policy toward (the North) so that the denuclearization process can proceed smoothly," the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The symbolic tower explosion came just 20 months after Pyongyang shocked the world by detonating a nuclear bomb in an underground test to confirm its status as an atomic power. The nuclear blast spurred an about-face in the U.S. hard-line policy against Pyongyang, leading to the North's first steps to scale back its nuclear weapons development since the reactor became operational in 1986.
Last year, the North switched off the reactor at Yongbyon, some 60 miles north of the capital of Pyongyang, and it already has begun disabling the facility under the watch of U.S. experts so that it cannot easily be restarted.
The destruction of the cooling tower, which carries off waste heat to the atmosphere, is another step forward but not the most technically significant, because it is a simple piece of equipment that would be easy to rebuild.
Still, the demolition offers the most photogenic moment yet in the disarmament negotiations that have dragged on for more than five years and suffered repeated deadlocks and delays.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the tower's destruction would mark a step toward disablement, something that has been ongoing for many months to prevent the North from making more plutonium for bombs.
"It is important to get North Korea out of the plutonium business, but that will not be the end of the story," she said in Kyoto, Japan, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries.
North Korea's nuclear declaration, which was delivered six months later than the country promised and has not yet been released publicly, is said to only give the overall figure for how much plutonium was produced at Yongbyon — but no details of bombs that may have been made.
Experts believe the North has produced up to 110 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium, enough for as many as 10 nuclear bombs.
The declaration was being distributed Friday by China, the chair of the arms talks, to the other countries involved, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said.
"We'll have to study it very carefully and then we'll have to work on verification," Hill said in Kyoto.
The declaration does not address the North's alleged uranium enrichment program or suspicions of its nuclear proliferation to other countries, such as Syria
An explosion at the base of the cylindrical structure sent the tower collapsing into a cloud of white and gray smoke that billowed into blue skies as international journalists and diplomats looked on, according to video footage filmed by broadcaster APTN at the site.
The demolition of the 60-foot-tall cooling tower at the North's main reactor complex is a response to U.S. concessions after the North delivered a declaration Thursday of its nuclear programs to be dismantled.
"This is a very important step in the disablement process and I think it puts us in a good position to move into the next phase," said Sung Kim, the U.S. State Department's top expert on the Koreas who attended the demolition. Kim shook hands with a North Korean official following the tower's tumble to the ground.
In its first reaction to the developments this week, North Korea's Foreign Ministry welcomed Washington's decision to take the country off the U.S. trade and sanctions blacklists.
"The U.S. measure should lead to a complete and all-out withdrawal of its hostile policy toward (the North) so that the denuclearization process can proceed smoothly," the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The symbolic tower explosion came just 20 months after Pyongyang shocked the world by detonating a nuclear bomb in an underground test to confirm its status as an atomic power. The nuclear blast spurred an about-face in the U.S. hard-line policy against Pyongyang, leading to the North's first steps to scale back its nuclear weapons development since the reactor became operational in 1986.
Last year, the North switched off the reactor at Yongbyon, some 60 miles north of the capital of Pyongyang, and it already has begun disabling the facility under the watch of U.S. experts so that it cannot easily be restarted.
The destruction of the cooling tower, which carries off waste heat to the atmosphere, is another step forward but not the most technically significant, because it is a simple piece of equipment that would be easy to rebuild.
Still, the demolition offers the most photogenic moment yet in the disarmament negotiations that have dragged on for more than five years and suffered repeated deadlocks and delays.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the tower's destruction would mark a step toward disablement, something that has been ongoing for many months to prevent the North from making more plutonium for bombs.
"It is important to get North Korea out of the plutonium business, but that will not be the end of the story," she said in Kyoto, Japan, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries.
North Korea's nuclear declaration, which was delivered six months later than the country promised and has not yet been released publicly, is said to only give the overall figure for how much plutonium was produced at Yongbyon — but no details of bombs that may have been made.
Experts believe the North has produced up to 110 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium, enough for as many as 10 nuclear bombs.
The declaration was being distributed Friday by China, the chair of the arms talks, to the other countries involved, U.S. envoy Christopher Hill said.
"We'll have to study it very carefully and then we'll have to work on verification," Hill said in Kyoto.
The declaration does not address the North's alleged uranium enrichment program or suspicions of its nuclear proliferation to other countries, such as Syria
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