IRAN LOOKS TO SILK ROAD TIES IN TIME OF SANCTIONS

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- In back-to-back Asian summits this month, Iran's president made sure to carve out special time to look east.

At one gathering in Azerbaijan, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reminded the president of Kazakhstan about the vision of a railway linking the heart of Central Asia with Iran's warm ports. At another meeting in Kuwait, he held talks with Tajikistan's leader about their growing trade ties.

Even as U.S. and European sanctions tighten around Iran's economy, officials in Tehran are busy reaching out to Asian markets as a critical lifeline. For months, Iran's oil sales to energy-hungry nations such as China and India have been the focus of intense Western efforts to reduce the flow as part of pressure over Iran's disputed nuclear program.

Yet lesser - but not insignificant - economic pathways for Iran also run along the ancient Silk Road connecting China and the Middle East. While Iranian trade and projects in Central Asia are tiny compared with oil sales to the continent's economic powerhouses, the outreach represents another way for Tehran to seek economic buffers from sanctions in a region where Washington holds relatively limited sway.

It also displays some of Iran's first steps at trying to diversify its economy away from oil - which still represents 80 percent of foreign currency revenue - and develop backyard markets for its construction and technology industries.

"The Iranian economy is so strong that it could live without oil revenues," said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a pan-Asian summit last week in Kuwait. "Our people could get accustomed to that and I think that things will change in the near future."

On Tuesday, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi told an energy conference in Dubai that Iran has contingency plans to run the country without the critical oil revenue, including investments in solar and other renewable sources.

While Iran is a long way off from functioning without its oil income - and may never reach that stage - the remarks reflect real ambitions to turn Central Asia into a key market for Iranian goods and technological expertise while offering the landlocked former Soviet republics access to the sea.

In August, carmaker Iran Khodro announced plans to boost exports to Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. In Tajikistan, Iranian construction firms are major builders with projects such as hydroelectric power stations and a $39 million tunnel that connects the capital Dushanbe to northern Tajikistan.

But the centerpiece of the Islamic Republic's outreach - an uninterrupted rail link through Central Asia - remains caught up in disputes and competing ventures more than 15 years after the first leg was opened between Iran and neighboring Turkmenistan.

Last month, Turkmenistan's president, Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, abruptly canceled a reported $700 million contract with Iran's Pars Energy to continue the rail line to Kazakhstan along the Caspian Sea coast. The reasons were unclear, but Turkmenistan has been reviewing its deep trade ties with Iran as Western sanctions widen.

Meanwhile, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have expressed interest in joining a rail project running from Azerbaijan's Caspian Coast to the eastern Turkish area of Kars. Such a railway would bypass Iran and still provide the sea access coveted by the Central Asian states.

"Iran has no choice but to turn to Asia for trade" because of the Western sanctions, said Sasan Fayazmanesh, an economic affairs expert and head of the Middle East Studies Program at California State University, Fresno. "But that, of course, will not solve Iran's problem of selling its oil since the Central Asian countries, for the most part, do not need Iran's oil."

But for Tehran, its overtures to Central Asia mean more than just a price tag.

Iran has been a cultural point of reference for centuries across the ex-Soviet states through books, films and traditions dating back to Persia's pre-Islamic Zoroastrian faith. Iran's main Central Asian foothold, Tajikistan, also shares linguistic ties that give Iran an important commercial edge over China and Russia.

A weak link for Iran, however, is the rifts within Islam. Much of Central Asia is Sunni Muslim and governments are cautious about any moves that could stir sectarian tensions with Shiite minorities. These same divides, in turn, help cement the influence of Shiite Iran in Iraq and parts of Afghanistan.

"Iran's future in Central Asia and most of Afghanistan is constrained by the fact that its government is officially Shiite and nearly all the populations of these countries are Sunni," said Frederick Starr, chairman of our Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

"Both sides worked out a practical understanding of this issue shortly after the collapse of the USSR, which effectively keeps Iran from advancing its religious cause in the region," he added.

At the same time, Iran is increasingly fearful that Washington could seek to build stronger ties in Central Asia following the planned withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Central Asia has been a stop for top U.S. envoys in the past year. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Uzbekistan a year ago and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta traveled in March to Kyrgyzstan, where the U.S. already has an air base used for airborne refueling missions and as a transit point for troops in Afghanistan.

"Iran's ruling elites are practically unanimous in their belief that the announced departure (from Afghanistan) is nothing but a cover for a strategic regrouping," wrote Nikolay Kozhanov, a regional affairs analyst at the Institute of the Middle East in Moscow.

He also noted that the growing attention to the region has given Central Asian leaders more options.

"These countries have undergone drastic changes in self-perception over the past decade," he wrote in an August essay for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "No longer do they see themselves as living in a landlocked, isolated region whose relations with the external world depend completely on Russia or Iran."

JORDAN'S KING STEERS NATION THROUGH TURBULENCE

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- The foiling of a planned al-Qaida terror plot in Jordan underscores a new subplot in the story of the Arab Spring: Things are heating up for King Abdullah II, a Western-oriented monarch who has run a business-friendly, pragmatic monarchy with some trappings of democracy.

Jordan, a key U.S. ally that sits at a strategic crossroads between neighboring Syria, Iraq, the Palestinian territories, Israel and Saudi Arabia, has so far weathered 22 months of street protests calling for a wider public say in politics.

But this week's announcement that Jordanian authorities had thwarted an al-Qaida plan to attack shopping malls and Western diplomatic missions in the country has raised fears that extremists could take advantage of growing calls for change to foment violence.

The king also has been working overtime to fend off a host of domestic challenges, including a Muslim Brotherhood boycott of parliamentary elections, increasing opposition from his traditional Bedouin allies and an inability to keep the Syrian civil war from spilling over the border.

So far, Abdullah has largely maintained control, partly by relinquishing some of his powers to parliament and amending the country's 60-year-old constitution. His Western-trained security forces have been able to keep protests from getting out of hand. And most in the opposition remain loyal to the king, pressing for reforms but not his removal.

The stakes are high: Abdullah is a close friend of the United States and has been at the forefront in its global war on terrorism, including in Afghanistan. Jordan serves as a buffer zone to Saudi Arabia, another Sunni Muslim country, and to Israel, a friend under a peace treaty signed in 1994. The kingdom hosts the largest Palestinian population outside the West Bank.

"The worst nightmare would be for Israel and Saudi Arabia," said liberal lawmaker Jamil Nimri. "Jordan shares the longest border with Israel and is one of its few remaining Arab friends, while for the Saudis, it's a neighboring country with a similar monarchy system in trouble."

Concern over Jordan's stability was underlined last month, when its U.S., British and French allies quickly dispatched their military experts to help Jordanian commandos devise plans to shield the population in case of a chemical attack from neighboring Syria.

Jordan is worried that Syrian President Bashar Assad might lose control over his chemical weapons in the civil war and that his stock could subsequently fall into the hands of al-Qaida or Lebanon's Islamic militant group Hezbollah.

More than 210,000 Syrian refugees also have fled to the kingdom to escape the violence at home, straining basic services like water, electricity and the health care system.

In the past three months, dozens of Jordanian policemen were wounded in violent riots at a dust-filled refugee camp packed with 35,000 Syrians near the northern border.

A growing number of stray Syrian missiles also have fallen on Jordanian villages in the north in recent weeks, wounding several civilians as Assad widened his offensive against rebel holdouts near the Jordanian frontier.

A Jordanian border patrol officer also was shot dead Monday during army clashes with eight militants who sought to illegally cross a border fence into Syria.

Hours before the clash, Jordan announced that authorities had arrested 11 suspected al-Qaida-linked militants for allegedly planning to attack shopping malls and Western diplomatic missions in the country with explosives and rockets.

Two Arab diplomats, insisting on anonymity because they are not allowed to make press statements, said regional intelligence indicates that militants see Jordan as an "easy prey" as they try to consolidate their presence between hot spots.

"The Jordanian people can never enjoy complete stability when our country is surrounded by wars and uprisings," said Yousef Matarneh, a 45-year-old civil servant.

Abdullah has tried to forestall Arab Spring-style uprisings that have toppled autocratic regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Libya, and led to the war in Syria.

His reform roadmap envisions parliamentary polls as a vehicle toward having an elected prime minister for the first time in Jordan's history. Previously, it was the king's prerogative to appoint the premier.

Abdullah also has been trying to buttress his ailing economy, straining under $23 billion foreign debt, a record deficit of $2 billion and rising inflation, by inviting foreign investment and marketing Jordan as a tourist destination.

"If you want to change Jordan for the better, there is a chance, and that chance is through the upcoming elections," he told a gathering of 3,000 prominent politicians and businessmen on Tuesday. "There is a way, and that way is through the next parliament."

But the opposition, dominated by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, is boycotting the Jan. 23 vote and vowing to continue street protests.

The Islamists argue that a new election system gives too much weight to traditional tribally based conservatives loyal to the monarchy who dominate local politics. The government insists that Jordan's system is used by many countries, and that the Islamists' preferred all-party list system would inflate their numbers.

Many Jordanians are keen to avoid the turmoil that followed the revolution in Egypt, which led to the election of a Muslim Brotherhood member as president of the Arab world's most populous nation.

"We will not trade our stability for anything. People in the region envy us for it," said 25-year-old Mohammed Shneikat, who works at a music store in Amman.

The king's supporters point to voter registration that has exceeded 2.3 million, or 33 percent of the country's 6 million population.

"Nobody wants the king to abdicate," said independent lawmaker Hosni Shiyyab. "There's a consensus among supporters and opponents that he should stay because he is a stabilizing factor among the different segments of the society."

There are, however, signs of increasing opposition. Street protests in Jordan have remained largely peaceful, but recent slogans have begun pointing to the king, breaking a longstanding taboo against criticizing him.

"Abdullah, listen well, your reforms are cosmetic. The Arab Spring's next stop is Amman," chanted 7,000 Islamist opposition and youth movements during a recent protest in the Jordanian capital - the largest gathering in months.

Even the king's traditional supporters have started to voice unheard of criticism, with young Bedouins staging small rallies to rebuke the monarch, although their families still form the bedrock of support for Abdullah's Hashemite monarchy.

"He gave us nothing. In fact, he made us poorer and without jobs," lamented Yazan, 26, a high school teacher who earns $300 a month. He declined to give his last name fearing government reprisal.

ACTIVISTS: SYRIAN WARPLANES STRIKE VILLAGE, KILL 5

BEIRUT (AP) -- Activists say Syrian warplanes have struck a village near a strategic rebel-held town in the country's north, killing five members of an extended family.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says government aircraft hit Mar Shureen village on Wednesday morning.

The Observatory director, Rami Abdul-Rahman, says the dead include a father and his two sons, as well as a two other relatives, a woman and a young man.

Regime forces have intensified airstrikes in an area along a main highway between the northern city Aleppo and Damascus in efforts to reopen a key supply route to Aleppo. The government troops are bogged down in a stalemate with the rebels in Aleppo, Syria's largest city.

Syria's relentless fighting has killed more than 34,000 people since March last year

Palestinian killed as Israel shells Gaza

At least one person has been killed and two others wounded in an Israeli artillery attack in the northern Gaza Strip, according to local medical sources.

The men were fighters hit while they were trying to fire rockets at Israeli towns, a Hamas-affiliated radio station reported.

The Israeli shelling followed a bomb attack earlier on Tuesday which wounded an Israeli army officer on patrol along the strip. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for that attack.

The violence comes as the emir of Qatar visited the occupied territory, the first head of state to visit Gaza since an international blockade was imposed in 2007.

Fighters also fired four rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel on Tuesday, but they landed without causing any casualties or damage.

Two Palestinian fighters were killed in Israeli air strikes on Sunday.

Syrian government agrees to Eid ceasefire

International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is pushing "extremely hard" for a ceasefire in Syria, according to a UN spokesperson as violence continues to rage across the country.

Brahimi, has proposed that both sides lay down their arms during Eid al-Adha, a four day religious holiday that begins on Friday.

United Nations spokesman Martin Nesirky said the UN-Arab League envoy was pressing for a truce and would brief the divided UN Security Council on his efforts on Wednesday.

Brahimi will address the 15-member Security Council by a video link from Cairo, Nesirky told reporters in New York.

"Mr Brahimi is pushing extremely hard as is the secretary general because this is an extremely important moment."

Brahimi, who arrived in Cairo on Tuesday, is due to meet with the head of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi for talks on the 20-month conflict.

The envoy wanted "a long-lasting ceasefire that will enable a political process to unfold".

Lakhdar Brahimi, UN envoy, met with Faisal Mekdad, Syrian deputy foreign minister, in Damascus on Tuesday [EPA]

The 15-member Security Council is bitterly divided over the conflict with Western nations pressing for international actions against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and Russia and China blocking these moves.

UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous spoke on Monday of tentative plans top assemble a peacekeeping force if a ceasefire takes hold.

"We are getting ourselves ready to act if it is necessary and a mandate is approved," Ladsous said.

The two sides to the conflict have given a cautious welcome to Brahimi's proposal but neither has committed itself to the plan for a ceasefire during Eid.

Damascus said that Brahimi's visit which ended on Monday was "successful" although there was no concrete outcome.

The Syrian authorities "are still optimistic," deputy foreign minister Faisal Muqdad said. "The visit was successful and [Syria's] co-operation with Brahimi is without limits."

Ongoing violence

But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the unrelenting violence is dimming hopes for Eid ceasefire.

"Neither the rebels nor the regime appear to want a ceasefire, and the daily death toll continues to exceed 100," Rami Abdel Rahman, the Observatory director, told the AFP news agency.

The Observatory said 112 people were killed in Syria on Tuesday, including ten people who died when a warplane bombed a bread queue in the northern city of Aleppo.

On the battlefront, warplanes raided an eastern district of Aleppo city, the conflict's focal point since mid-July, killing a child and nine other people, said the Observatory.

"Ten people, including a child, were killed by a military air strike near a bakery in the Masaken Hanano neighbourhood of Aleppo," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

"It is always at the bread lines" where people get killed, he added.

A resident confirmed the aerial attack, saying civilians were killed "as they were standing in line to get bread from the Zahra bakery".

The Observatory also reported fighting in Damascus province, and said five children and three women were among 12 people killed in the district of Moadamiya by shelling that targeted a residential area.

Violence also gripped the eastern province of Deir Ezzor and Deraa in the south and warplanes pounded the northwestern town of Maaret al-Numan, which rebels seized on October 9.

Weapons controversy

Meanwhile, Syrian rebels have acquired portable surface-to-air missiles, including US-made Stingers, the Interfax news agency quoted Russia's senior general as saying on Wednesday.

Russia has laid most of the blame for continuing violence on armed government foes it says are aided by encouragement and arms from abroad.

Russia's military has learned "that militants fighting Syrian government forces have portable missile launchers of
various states, including American-made Stingers," Interfax quoted general staff chief Nikolai Makarov as saying.

"Who supplied them must still be determined," he said.

NBC News reported in late July that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, also known as MANPADs. A political adviser to the Free Syrian Army denied it.

In contrast to the Libya crisis, the West has shown little appetite to arm the Syrian rebels, worried that weapons would fall into the hands of Islamic militants.

Russia sold the government in Syria $1 bn worth of weapons last year and has made clear it would oppose an arms embargo in the UN Security Council because of what it says are concerns rebels fighting Assad's government would get weapons illegally anyway.

Millions of pilgrims head to Mina as Hajj 2012 officially kicks off

Millions of pilgrims arrived this week in Mecca for Islam’s annual Hajj (pilgrimage), which officially starts on Wednesday. Around four million pilgrims were heading to Mina, where they will spend their night before heading to the Mount of Arafat in the early hours of Thursday.

Many pilgrims began leaving for Mina on Tuesday night after circumambulating the Holy Kaaba, the first house of worship on Earth, built by Adam. Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail rebuilt it some 5,000 years ago. Most Hajj rituals are related to Prophet Ibrahim, his wife Hager and his son Prophet Ismail, and thus reflect the unity of humanity.

The Saudi government has given top priority to the security and safety of pilgrims and has deployed thousands of security forces in Mecca, Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah, all cities within a radius of 10 kilometers, to ensure a safe and secure Hajj.

A statement by the Saudi Interior Ministry on Tuesday said that pilgrims were being transported to Mina smoothly without any obstacles, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

Millions of pilgrims will spend their night at Mina before heading to the Mount of Arafat in the early hours of Thursday. (SPA)

The Grand Mosque, the focal point of the Islamic faith, was already teeming with joyful pilgrims at dawn on Monday, wearing the simple white folds of cloth prescribed for Hajj, many of them having slept on the white marble paving outside.

“I feel proud to be here because it’s a visual message that Muslims are united. People speaking in all kind of languages pray to the one God,” said Fahmi Mohammed al-Nemr, 52, from Egypt.

Hajj must be performed at least once in their lifetime by all Muslims capable of making the expensive, difficult journey, a duty that applies equally to Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Saudi leaders have emphasized it is a strictly religious occasion and they are prepared to deal with any troublemaking.

Last year nearly 3 million pilgrims performed the Hajj, with roughly a third from inside the conservative kingdom. The Saudi authorities said there have so far been 1.7 million arrivals from abroad and about 200,000 from inside Saudi Arabia.

Mecca’s merchants, famed across the Arab world, are already doing a thriving trade as pilgrims stock up on souvenirs such as prayer beads and mats, Qurans, dates, gold and Zamzam water, pumped from a holy well.

“The first time I saw the Kaaba I cried with joy. I prayed for myself and all Muslims,” said Nafisa Rangrez, 36, from Gujarat in India, who had waited five years for a Hajj visa, according to Reuters.

All Muslims must face towards the Kaaba, the huge black cube at the center of the Grand Mosque, five times a day for prayer, making a visit to the sanctuary a powerful experience. Pilgrims must circle it seven times when they arrive in Mecca.

Wednesday is the first official day of the pilgrimage, with Muslims following a set form of rites laid out by the Prophet Mohammed and culminating on Friday with the Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), a holiday across the Islamic world.

“I would love to live here for the rest of my life. There’s no such place in the entire world. This is a blessed country,” said Ziad Adam, 23, a theology student from Kenya.

“It’s my first time in Mecca for pilgrimage. I can’t wait to pray in Arafat,” 32-year-old Koara Abdul Rahman, a businessman from Burkina Faso, told AFP.

“Right now, I’ve got all the good feelings you can think of,” said an Iranian pilgrim, her voice quivering and tears welling.

Saudi Arabia’s king is formally titled Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the ruling family has long reigned on its guardianship of Islam’s birthplace.

Over the past decade it has spent billions of dollars expanding the Grand Mosque and building new infrastructure to avert the stampedes and tent fires that marred past pilgrimages with hundreds of deaths.

In 2011, Saudi Arabia began the biggest expansion yet of the Grand Mosque, to increase its capacity to 2 million. A new railway will link the holy sites around Mecca.

This year alone, the kingdom spent more than 1.1 billion riyals ($293.3 million) on development projects in the holy sites of Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah, all outside Mecca, according to AFP.

PAKISTANI ARMY STRATEGY IN QUESTION AFTER ATTACKS

MINGORA, Pakistan (AP) -- The Taliban's horrific attack on a female teenage activist in this scenic corner of Pakistan's northwest was the latest in a series of assassination attempts by militant sleeper cells in the area over the last year, each carried out with targeted shots to the head.

The insurgents activated their networks in the Swat Valley to take advantage of the army's decision to reduce its presence and accelerate the transition of security and governance to civilian authorities in the wake of a big offensive in 2009 to push out the Taliban.

The valley is in little danger of falling under the militants' control again anytime soon. But the resurgent threat raises questions about the army's ability to hand over control to civilians in Swat and other areas of the northwest where soldiers are fighting the Taliban, a fundamental part of the military's counterterror strategy.

Building effective civilian government and law enforcement is not only critical so the military can withdraw, but also to address local grievances related to development and justice that can fuel support for the insurgents.

The Taliban shot and wounded 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai as she was heading home from school in Swat's main town of Mingora on Oct. 9. The militants targeted the girl because she was an outspoken opponent of the group and promoted "Western thinking," such as girls' education.

The militants have carried out at least half a dozen other assassination attempts against their opponents in Swat since the end of last year, killing four people and wounding several others, said security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Haji Zahid Khan, a member of a major tribal council in Swat, was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in August but managed to survive. Khan criticized the army and police for not taking his case seriously enough, which he believes emboldened the militants.

"Had they arrested the culprits in my case, the network that was working could have been traced," said Khan. "The Malala incident could not have happened."

Investigations into the shootings indicated the attackers came from Afghanistan, where many militants fled following the army offensive in 2009, said Kamran Rehman Khan, the top government official in Swat. The militants worked with networks of sympathizers in Swat who provided weapons, ammunition, cell phones and other logistical support, he said.

The insurgents activated their networks to take advantage of the army's decision to reduce its presence in Swat. The military has decreased the 40 checkpoints it had in the area by almost half in the last year, although the number of troops in the valley has stayed the same, said Khan, the senior government official.

The army launched its offensive in Swat in the spring of 2009 with about 25,000 troops and originally planned to hand over control to civilian authorities and pull out over a period of about two years. That hasn't happened because the civilians haven't proven capable of handling security, say military officials.

The number of police in Swat has more than doubled to about 3,700, said Khan, but police in the country routinely lack sufficient resources and would likely have trouble keeping the militants at bay.

For this reason, the army still has about 12,500 soldiers in Swat and has plans to build permanent bases for some of them. The military hopes to reduce the number of troops by 50 percent next year, but experts are doubtful.

"The civilians don't feel confident enough to manage the area in the absence of the military, so the military will stay," said Pakistani defense analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi.

The inability to pass the baton to civilians in Swat raises questions about what the military plans to do in the adjacent tribal region, which serves as the main sanctuary for the Taliban in the country and is even less developed than Swat. The army has over 100,000 troops fighting in the semiautonomous region, and the experience in Swat indicates the generals will have difficulty pulling them out.

"I don't think they will be able to withdraw easily from the tribal areas because they have not been able to control them successfully and there is hardly any civilian structure to hand off to in these areas," said Rizvi.

The military may be more effective at handling security, but there are concerns its long-term presence could fuel resentment that could be exploited by the militants. Human rights organizations have accused the army of rounding up scores of suspected militants in Swat since the 2009 offensive and never producing them in court - allegations denied by the military. The practice "can create hatred against the army," said Khan, the tribal council member.

But that doesn't necessarily mean residents want the military to leave. Even with the recent attacks, security in Swat is far better than it was a few years ago when the Taliban routinely beheaded people and left them in the streets as a warning.

"If the army goes," said Dolat Khan, a drugstore owner in Swat, "there could be a civil war."