US FORCES MUST LEAVE AFGHANISTAN BY SEP 2014: RUSSIA

Russia has expressed concern over the United States plans to maintain its military footprint in Afghanistan after the pullout of international troops by the end of 2014.
After a Thursday meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a press conference that there would be no reason for the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan after the United Nations Security Council mandate ends in 2014.

“We … do not understand such [US] plans to maintain a presence …, we have questions and we would like to get answers,” RIA Novosti news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.

“So long as the Afghan side is unable to provide security in the country, any artificial deadlines for troops’ withdrawal do not seem quite correct. But when the UN Security Council mandate expires, there will be no reason for a foreign presence in Afghanistan and the region,” he added.

He also voiced concerns over drug trafficking and heroin cultivation in Afghanistan. Russia’s federal drug control watchdog has reported that the heroin production in Afghanistan rose 40-fold during the course of the last decade.

Afghan security forces, estimated to number around 330,000 , are expected to take over part of the fighting in the country, as the US pulls out 23,000 troops to reach 68,000 by the end of September.

Insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan, despite the current presence of some 130,000 US-led forces in the country.

All foreign combat troops are scheduled to leave and hand over security operations to the Afghan Army by the end of 2014.

However, after that date, the US may keep a number of forces to train and help the Afghan army with their operations, reports say.

Gen Kayani inspects military exercises at Tilla Jogian

COAS Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani inspected military exercises at Tilla Jogia range in Jhelum. 

The COAS inspected exercises involving missiles and tanks. The corps commanders and several other top military officers attended the exercises. 

UN probes claim China broke N. Korea sanctions

UN officials are investigating allegations China supplied technology for a NKorea missile launcher.

UN investigative panel is probing allegations that China provided long-range ballistic missile technology to North Korea, in what is likely a breach of UN sanctions, according to an AFP report quoting a defense magazine. North Korea s new missile launcher is allegedly based on Chinese missile technology, the report said.

Military analysts of IHS Jane s Defence Weekly tipped-off the United Nation s panel of experts about a possible transfer of either the technology or the missile itself from China to North Korea.

If the allegations are proved then the transfer of technology would be a serious breach of UN sanctions against North Korea and it might also expose the clandestine association that China has with the North s hermit regime.

The charges are based on the photographs of North Korea s new missile launchers that were displayed in a grand parade organized on the occasion of its founder leader Kim Sung-II s birthday centenary celebrations.

IHS Jane s defense analysts say that one of the missile launchers had Chinese technology in it and the design was very similar to China s military equipments, Pan African News reported.

Until now Iran was suspected of aiding Pyongyang in its nuclear and missile program. New accusations have now exposed the probability of China s role in encouraging North Korea s missile program.

The allegations will be taken seriously by the UN and the world powers, as China has so far claimed to be a genuine negotiator who can reign in Pyongyang. It is also a part of the six-country team of negotiators that discuss nuclear issues with North Korea.

China s credibility will take a massive hit if allegations of a breach of UN sanctions against North Korea are proved to be true.

"This would be really big, it really changes things. If China is seen to be violating Security Council sanctions by helping to militarize North Korea it puts China in a different light and changes the diplomatic relations between it and South Korea, Japan and the US," Marcus Noland, an expert on North Korea said to the Pan African News.

However, international experts feel that it would be difficult to implicate China or impose any punitive actions against it. UN investigators will have to definitively prove that the technology was transferred after 2006, when UN sanctions against supplying big military equipment to North Korea came in to effect and that the transfer was not as a commercial purpose vehicle, AFP reported.

"There is no doubt it came from China, (but) whether it was produced as a licensed or unlicensed vehicle is an open question," AFP reported quoting Nick Hansen of Stanford University s Center for International Security and Cooperation.

China may also escape allegations if it proves that the missile carrier was transferred as a commercial vehicle to North Korea, since sale of commercial vehicles is not covered by the sanctions.