Breaking : #US warns Iran on support for #Yemen's #Houthis

US Secretary of State John Kerry walks outside the hotel during a break after a bilateral meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thursday March 26, 2015

Washington warned Thursday it would not "stand by" while Iran supports rebels in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition pounded anti-government forces at the start of a third week of bombings.

In the most direct US criticism yet of Tehran's backing of the Shia Houthi rebels, Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington would not accept foreign interference in Yemen.

"There have been -- there are, obviously -- flights coming from Iran. Every single week there are flights from Iran and we've traced it and know this," Kerry told PBS television in an interview.

"Iran needs to recognise that the United States is not going to stand by while the region is destabilised or while people engage in overt warfare across lines, international boundaries in other countries."

The United States has backed the Saudi-led campaign, which launched air strikes last month as the rebels advanced on Yemen's main southern city of Aden after seizing the capital Sanaa.

President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled Aden for Saudi Arabia during the Houthi advance and the city has since seen heavy clashes between pro- and anti-government forces.

Riyadh has accused Tehran, the major Shia power, of backing the rebels in a bid to establish a pro-Iran state on its doorstep.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif insisted his government wanted a swift end to the fighting, which has cost more than 640 lives since March 19, according to the World Health Organization.

Kerry, fresh from world powers striking a framework agreement with Iran on its nuclear programme, said Washington was not looking for confrontation with Tehran.

"But we're not going to step away from our alliances and our friendships and the need to stand with those who feel threatened as a consequence of the choices that Iran might be making."

In another sign of growing US support for the Saudi effort, the Pentagon said it had started daily aerial refuelling for warplanes in the coalition.

The first refuelling flight took place on Tuesday night with a US Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker providing fuel for a F-15 fighter jet operated by Saudi Arabia and an F-16 flown by the United Arab Emirates, spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters.

"We will have a tanker sortie every day," Warren said, adding that all flights will be outside of Yemeni air space.

The air strikes killed at least 14 rebel fighters in Aden overnight Thursday at positions near the northern edge of the city, a source in pro-government forces told .

Air strikes also hit a military camp in the southern Shabwa province that was seized by the Houthis' main allies -- security forces who have remained loyal to former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, a local official said.

The official had no information on casualties among the forces loyal to Saleh, who has been accused of joining with the Houthis after being ousted from power in 2012 after an Arab Spring-inspired uprising.

Yemen has been wracked by conflict since Saleh's ouster, with Hadi unable to assert government authority in a deeply tribal country riven by divisions.

As well as the Houthis, who hail from Yemen's north, the government has struggled against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), considered the most dangerous of the jihadist network's branches.

Authorities in Yemen had for years allowed Washington to carry out a drone war against AQAP but US forces pulled out of the country amid the latest unrest.

Al-Qaeda has taken advantage of the chaos to seize control of some areas and carried out a series of deadly attacks on both government forces and the Houthis.

As the fighting and air campaign drag on, concern has been growing for what aid workers say is a mounting humanitarian crisis.

Some aid trickled in to Aden by ship on Wednesday but efforts by the International Committee of the Red Cross to organize flights of cargo planes into Sanaa have so far failed.

In Aden, witnesses have said the situation is dire, with bodies lying in the streets and mosques calling through loudspeakers for help.

Diplomatic efforts have stepped up to resolve the conflict, with the Iranian and Pakistani foreign ministers pledging at talks in Islamabad on Wednesday to work to find a negotiated solution.

Zarif laid out a four-stage plan for talks, calling for an immediate ceasefire followed by humanitarian assistance, dialogue among Yemenis and the formation of an "all-inclusive government".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also quoted Thursday as calling for a regional effort to end the fighting.

"The groups in Yemen should meet and work on possible solution. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran should be involved in efforts for a diplomatic solution," Erdogan was quoted as saying by Turkish media.

EU to host Iran nuclear talks in Brussels on Monday

US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif (C) gesture as they arrive to resume nuclear negotiations in Montreux, in this March 2, 2015

The European Union will host talks in Brussels Monday with the British, French, German and Iranian foreign ministers on Tehran's contested nuclear programme as a deadline at the end of March nears.

EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini will lead the talks, a statement said, one day after US Secretary of State John Kerry meets his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Switzerland as part of continued Western efforts to ensure Tehran does not acquire a nuclear weapon.

"It is the first time talks at this level are being held in Brussels," a Commission spokeswoman said.

"They are part of the effort (with) the deadline approaching; we are doing everything we can," the spokeswoman said.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and his French and German counterparts Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier are also due to attend an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels Monday.

The EU has helped mediate talks between the five UN permanent Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany and Iran.

They began in late 2013 after Iran agreed to initial limits on its nuclear programme in return for an easing of some of the damaging economic sanctions imposed by the West.

The negotiations have been extended twice but all sides say this will be the last round, having set a March 31 deadline for a political deal.

A final accord has to follow by the end of June.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian use only.

#Kerry to meet #Sisi on margins of #Egypt's economic conference

US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Egypt on 12 March to attend the conference in Sharm El-Sheikh

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi (R) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talk before a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Cairo June 22, 2014

US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to meet Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi when he travels to Sharm El-Sheikh on 12 March for the Economic Development Conference.

He is expected to hold talks with El-Sisi and senior Egyptian officials on bilateral and global relations, including “coalition efforts” against Islamic State (ISIS) militants, as well as developments in Libya and in Syria, US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a statement on Monday.

“The United States is committed to strengthening its long-term strategic and economic partnership with Egypt,” she said.

Kerry has met with El-Sisi twice since the president was elected in June 2014.

“We continue to work with the Egyptian government to help the Egyptian people stabilize and grow the economy, create jobs, educate young people, improve access to health care, and to help realize the aspirations of the Egyptian people for an inclusive, rights- and freedoms-respecting, and peaceful political climate,” the statement added.

Egypt and the US have maintained a decades-long strategic political and military relationship with Washington providing Cairo with $1.3 billion in military aid annually.

However, relations between Cairo and Washington became strained when the US maintained a critical position towards the ousting of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, and the subsequent government crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Following the ouster of Morsi, the US suspended parts of its military aid to Egypt 

Relations between the two countries have started to warm up in recent months as Egypt announced its support for the US war against IS in the region and stressed that it considers its own war against Islamist militants in Sinai to be part of international efforts against terrorism.

In November, Washington released ten Apache helicopter in military aid to help Cairo fight Islamist militants in Sinai.

However, the pentagon continues to withhold the delivery of several weapons systems to Egypt, including 16 F-16s fighter jets, M1A1 tanks and Harpoon missiles.

#John_Kerry hosts first #anti-Islamic State coalition meeting

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks during a round table meeting of the global coalition to counter the Islamic State militant group at NATO headquarters in Brussels December 3, 2014 

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday hosts the first high-level meeting of the 60-member coalition trying to crush the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and in Syria.

Kerry, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and foreign ministers from European, Arab and other countries will meet at NATO headquarters in Brussels to discuss the best military strategy against the group, officials said.

But they will also look at how to stem the flow of foreign fighters and delegitimise the powerful IS "brand," that has drawn jihadists from several Western countries, the officials added.

"This is the end of the beginning of the formation of the coalition. This is where the coalition comes together," a senior State Department official told reporters with Kerry.

The United States launched the first strikes against IS in Iraq in August. In late September the strikes were extended to IS targets in Syria, involving both the United States as well as a number of allies.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain are taking part in the air strikes in Syria and Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France and the Netherlands are participating in Iraq.

Separately, the Pentagon Tuesday confirmed for the first time that Iran recently carried out air strikes against IS in eastern Iraq.

The threat posed by IS has brought the two arch-foes together in the fight against the jihadists but Washington said the Iranian raids were not coordinated with US forces.

The United States has carried out the vast majority of the air strikes against the jihadists who proclaimed a caliphate in Syria and Iraq in June.

Dozens more countries are offering other support including information and intelligence sharing.

Kerry on Tuesday did not rule out providing more aid to the Iraqi government. "I'm confident that over a period of time the United States will be providing additional assistance of one kind or another," he said.

Officials said the ministers will tackle how to disrupt IS finances and how to provide humanitarian aid to displaced people in Iraq and Syria.

The senior US official said the coalition partners are particularly concerned about the threat posed by thousands of foreign fighters who have joined IS and who could launch attacks in the West.

"It may be in fact one of the longest term problems that we'll ultimately face with respect to ISIS in this region," he said, using the group's alternate name.

Washington was working with European and Gulf Arab states about tightening borders and establishing no-travel lists, he added.

Coalition partners, he said, are due to meet in Marrakesh, Morocco on December 15 to further tackle the foreign fighters problem.

NATO has allowed its headquarters to be used for Tuesday's talks because foreign ministers from the transatlantic alliance met there on Tuesday, but NATO is not part of the US-led coalition against IS.

The ministers will discuss ways to send "counter-messages" to delegitimise IS, which has been savvy in using social media to recruit fighters and supporters over the Internet.

"As we are able to delegitimise (IS), we are able to turn populations against (IS), reduce their recruiting basis," he added.

The ministers will study ways to disrupt how IS raises finances through oil sales, extortion, plunder, ransom, human trafficking and the sale of Syrian antiquities, he said.

"We're working hard to map the oil system," he said, adding the coalition is tracking oil from the ground, to refineries, to black markets through tankers crossing borders, to the sources of cash and then banks.

Air strikes on refineries are undermining the IS ability to export the oil, and thereby raise funds, he said.

"We're just kicking off on many of these things. And what we're beginning to see already there is some effect that's beginning to become apparent."

The official said based on intelligence estimates there are around 30,000 IS fighters in both Syria and Iraq.

#Russia to build two more #nuclear reactors for #Iran

Russian-built Bushehr plant

Russia signed Tuesday a contract to build two nuclear reactors in Iran and announced plans for a total of nine, less than two weeks before a deadline on for deal on the country's disputed atomic programme.

A series of agreements signed during a visit to Moscow by Iran's nuclear programme chief Ali Akbar Salehi includes a contract for two new reactors at the existing Russian-built Bushehr plant.




The agreements foresee increasing the total number of Russian-built reactors in the country to nine as well as possibly transferring some sensitive technology relating to the production of fuel rod components.

The announcement comes amid last-minute diplomacy before a November 24 deadline to find a solution to ease Western suspicions over Tehran's nuclear intentions as well as damaging sanctions on the Iranian economy.


 
The contract is for the construction of two reactors at the same Gulf coast site as the existing 1,000 megawatt reactor at Bushehr that Russia launched last year.

Construction of the two reactors will be bankrolled by Iran, said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russia's state nuclear company Rosatom.

No value for the contract was disclosed.

Another agreement foresees eventually expanding the number of Russian-built reactors to nine.


 
In addition to the contract for the two reactors at Bushehr under the so-called Phase II of the project, another two could be built at the site, taking the total there to five.

Rosatom said another four similar units could be built at a site that Tehran has yet to decide upon.

Iran plans to build 20 more nuclear plants in the future, including four in Bushehr, to decrease its dependence on oil and gas.


 
Salehi praised the agreement as a "turning point" for Russia-Iran relations.

"These acts of friendship by Russia will remain in our memory," he said at the signing ceremony, according to Russian news agency RIA-Novosti.

The nuclear project "will be under the IAEA safeguards and fully meet the nuclear nonproliferation regime," Rosatom said.

Nuclear fuel will be produced in Russia through the entire life cycle of the eight plants and spent fuel returned to Russia.

However Rosatom also announced plans to look into ways of producing fuel rod components for the project in Iran.

The countries "plan to go into the issue of economic expediency and feasibility of fabricating fuel rod components in Iran, which will be used at these power units," it said.


 
Fuel rods used at Bushehr contain Russian low-enriched uranium. It was not clear whether Russia is considering switching to uranium enriched in Iran.

At the heart of the thorny nuclear talks between Tehran and six world powers, including the United States and Russia, is Iran's capability to enrich uranium.


 
Tehran argues it is needed to be able to reliably power Bushehr and other eventual reactors, but Israel and Western powers fear Iran will use the technology to enrich uranium to the much higher levels used to make an atomic bomb.

The 5+1 group, which also includes China, Britain, France and Germany, want Iran to reduce the scope of its enrichment capability in exchange for easing biting economic sanctions imposed since 2012.



Tehran agreed under an interim deal reached last year to halt enrichment in exchange for unblocking frozen oil revenues.

Iran and world powers met in Muscat Tuesday amid growing signs that a long-bargained deal on Tehran's nuclear drive will not be struck by the November 24 deadline.




The meetings followed a meeting Monday between Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry in an effort to narrow their differences but which ended with no signs of progress as both delegations indicated that big obstacles still remain.