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Olde Tyme Religion

Usual protests flare over Rushdie honour

2007-06-21

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, the mousepad, the collector DVD. Angry protesters have taken to the streets in Pakistan and Malaysia to denounce a British knighthood for author Salman Rushdie, whose novel the "Satanic Verses" outraged Muslims worldwide. Margaret Beckett, Britain's foreign secretary, said on Wednesday that Britain was "sorry" people were upset about the knighthood. However, she insisted it was awarded to Rushdie for his literary achievements. Beckett said: "Obviously we are sorry for people who have taken very much to heart this honour, which is after all for a lifelong body of literary work." Afghanistan's Taliban on Wednesday also condemned the knighthood, which Britain's Queen Elizabeth awarded to the Indian-born British writer last week. A Taliban spokesman said: "We ... consider this another major affront to Islam by the infidels." Pakistani anger There was widespread condemnation for the knighting in Pakistan and several leaders called for Rushdie's death, while protesters demanded Britain withdraw the honour. Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister, condemned remarks by Ijaz-ul Haq, the religious affairs minister, who had said a suicide attack against Salman Rushdie was justified. Haq had said that the Rushdie honour merited such an attack by Muslims but later withdrew the comment insisting that he meant to say that the award to Rushdie would foster extremism. Bhutto said that although the knighthood awarded to Rushdie had outraged the sentiments of Muslims, Islam did not permit murder and nor did the law allow suicide killings for those with divergent views. 'Fostering extremism' Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a Pakistan opposition leader, at a rally of about 200 women outside parliament in the capital Islamabad, said: "This is an attempt to provoke Muslims all over the world." Rushdie's book, "Satanic Verses", prompted protests, some violent, by Muslims in many countries after it was published in 1988. Muslims say the novel blasphemed against the Prophet Mohammad and ridiculed the Koran and events in early Muslim history. Robert Brinkley, British high commissioner to Pakistan, said on Monday that Rushdie's knighthood was a reflection of his contribution to literature and was not intended as an insult to Islam or the Prophet Mohammad. But on Tuesday, Pakistan summoned Brinkley to protest against the award. Britain's envoy in Iran was also summoned. In Islamabad, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, a religious leader at the capital's Red Mosque, said in a statement that Rushdie should be killed. He said: "He is condemned to death. Whosoever is in position to kill him, he should do so." In the central Pakistani city of Multan, about 300 people chanted "Death to the British Queen" and "Death to Rushdie". They burned a British flag and effigies of Queen Elizabeth and Rushdie. Several hundred people including members of the provincial parliament protested in the Pakistani city of Lahore. The Pakistani parliament had adopted a resolution on Monday deploring the knighthood. UK 'values' John Reid, Britain's home secretary, reiterated on Wednesday that the government stood by the award. He said: "I think we have a set of values that accrues people honours for their contribution to literature even when they don't agree with our point of view. That's our way and that's what we stand by." In Malaysia, about 30 protesters demonstrated outside the British embassy in Kuala Lumpur chanting "Destroy Salman Rushdie" and "Destroy Britain". The late Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a death warrant against Rushdie in 1989, forcing him into hiding for nine years. In 1998 Iran's government formally distanced itself from the death warrant, but some groups in Iran have regularly renewed the call for his death, saying Khomeini's ruling is irrevocable.

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Iraq

Mahdi Official: Captured Britons could be bargaining tools

2007-05-31

The five Britons captured in Iraq could be used as bargaining tools to secure the release of hundreds of Shia prisoners of war being held in Basra Iraqi police guard the building where the Britons were snatched A senior official in the Mahdi army militia told The Daily Telegraph that the captives - four security guards and a computer expert - had been taken to put pressure on Tony Blair and George Bush. "We are holding the British until they release our brothers from Camp Bucca in Basra," the cell commander said. "There are hundreds there under British security, some of them for years. When they are released the British will be allowed to go." Hundreds of US and Iraqi troops carried out raids yesterday in Sadr City - the Baghdad Shia suburb which is a Mahdi army stronghold - as more information about the kidnap became clear. Immediately after the Britons were snatched from a finance ministry building in Baghdad on Tuesday, they were driven to a "hostage holding" centre near Sadr City's Mudafra Square, from where they were expected to be moved frequently to avoid detection. Whitehall's emergency response unit, Cobra, met again yesterday and Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, said officials were working closely with the Iraqi authorities and doing everything they could to secure the captives' "swift and safe release". Mr Blair, on a visit to Sierra Leone, said: "We know the dangers and challenges there but we shouldn't let those that are prepared to use kidnapping and terror succeed." The Foreign Office said there was "no firm indication yet" as to who was behind the abductions. The Mahdi army official said the order to seize the hostages was handed down by Hassan Salim, the militia's leading figure. He said the group was seeking to emulate what it saw as the successful outcome of the recent seizure of the 15 British sailors by its allies in the Iranian government. He added that the militia's demands had already been passed to Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, a Shia Muslim close to the Mahdi army's political wing. There has been no official confirmation of any demands being made. The official was directly contradicted by Sheikh Abdel al-Sattar al-Bahad, a senior aide to radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, to whom the Mahdi army is intensely loyal. He denied any involvement by the Mahdi army. GardaWorld, the Canadian security contractor which employs the security guards, and BearingPoint, a US management consultancy which employs the computer expert, said they were continuing to hope for the men's safe release. Their identities have not yet been released. The men were snatched by up to 40 men, some in police uniforms. Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's foreign minister, said it had been known "for some time" that insurgents had infiltrated the police and security services. For the kidnappers to act with such confidence they "must have some connection", he added.

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Terror Networks

Iran planning strike on Europe: analyst

2007-05-23

Claude Monniquet's website (some material in english). HT No Pasaran! Iran is attempting to draw up plans to strike targets in Europe and has reconnoitered European nuclear power stations, a security analyst told a meeting at Britain's parliament. Claude Moniquet, president of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Centre, a private think-tank in Brussels, said his organisation also had evidence Tehran has increased the number of its intelligence agents across Europe. "We have serious signals that something is under preparation in Europe," Moniquet said. "Iranian intelligence is working extremely hard to prepare its people and to prepare actions." The centre, which he said deals directly with European intelligence agencies, believes Iranian operatives have carried out "reconnaissance of targets in European cities, including nuclear power stations," Moniquet said. He mentioned no other specific targets. Preparations to target Europe's nuclear energy plants could be tied to the diplomatic standoff over Tehran's contested nuclear program, he told a meeting of MPs and analysts in London's House of Commons. Iran appeared to be preparing to target "British citizens on the streets of London," Moniquet said. "Just as they kill British soldiers in the south of Iraq." Conservative parliamentarian Patrick Mercer told the meeting that Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, in a debate in December, had acknowledged worries about Tehran backing terrorist activity inside Britain. There were "concerns about the scale and nature of terrorism in this country, and about whether some of that is inspired or funded in any way by forces in and around Iran," Beckett told MPs. Parliament's intelligence and security committee, a panel of MPs which reviews the work of Britain's MI5 and MI6 domestic and foreign spy agencies, also warned last year of an "increased threat to UK interests from Iranian state-sponsored terrorism". A government security official said Iran was active in espionage and likely interested in compiling information on European military and industrial targets. However, the official could not verify Moniquet's claim that Tehran had conducted reconnaissance against power plants or increased numbers of agents in Britain. "There was a lot of anticipation the number of agents would increase when President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad came to power," the official said. "But I'm not sure whether that has actually been the case."

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Britain

'Beware Climate Warfare': Beckett

2007-04-19

Wars across the world will be caused by global warming, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett warned yesterday. Iranian naval patrols Drought, floods and rising sea levels pose a major security risk and businesses must come together to try to find a way to combat the threat, she told a UN meeting. In developing countries climate change could "make it more difficult for them to secure the energy they need to power their homes and their businesses. They might decide to go out and take what they need for themselves. The resources available to us are already stretched and under immense and growing strain. An unstable climate threatens to exacerbate all these existing tensions." Meanwhile, in a presentation to the Security Council, Britain warned the potential for instability and conflict would be increased as a result of migration by up to 200 million people.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Delegation ready to fly out for Iran talks

2007-04-04

Britain is ready to fly a delegation to Iran at short notice as part of an attempt to secure the release of the captive British naval crew, but yesterday evening it was still waiting for a green light from Tehran for talks to begin. The delegation, probably consisting of naval officers, legal experts and diplomats, would not formally negotiate the release of the 15 sailors and marines seized by Iran, British officials insisted, but would try to produce a face-saving way out of the crisis for both sides by discussing how to avoid another incident in the northern Gulf. "The next 48 hours will be fairly critical," Tony Blair said yesterday as Downing Street braced itself for a news conference today by the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has hitherto had little to say about the crisis. "If they want to resolve this in a diplomatic way, the door is open," the prime minister said. But if the negotiations stalled, Britain would "take an increasingly tougher position". Speaking later, the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, made clear that Britain was not considering the use of force. The prime minister "is not talking, or intending to imply, anything about military action," she said. "We are not seeking confrontation. We are seeking to pursue this through diplomatic channels." Mrs Beckett said that, 12 days into the hostage crisis, British diplomats had still not been given access to the captive naval crew, and the Foreign Office had still had no "formal response" to a note sent to Tehran on Friday, proposing the dispatch of the expert delegation for confidence-building talks. There have been almost daily contacts between the Iranian ambassador in London, Rasoul Movahedian, and David Triesman, a Foreign Office minister; they were due to hold their eighth meeting of the crisis last night. The British ambassador in Tehran, Geoffrey Adams, has also been meeting officials in the Iranian foreign ministry. But those contacts have largely produced platitudes, British sources say. They believe that Iranian officials may be unwilling to commit themselves until President Ahmadinejad has spoken.

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Britain

Europe has failed us in the Iran crisis

2007-04-02

Hat tip Instapundit. To borrow from the Professor, letting people down is what Europe does best. Labour's Margaret Beckett is getting it right. It's our EU allies who are letting us down by Malcolm Rifkind The Iranians are a sophisticated and sensitive people. From time to time, however, they do something dumb. The seizure of 15 British sailors and Royal Marines was one such example. Parading them on television and requiring them to mouth unconvincing apologies was another. These events have not happened by accident. For some time the more radical elements in the Iranian government have been trying to find a way of retaliating against the growing pressure from the United Nations in general and the United States in particular. They have been surprised and disturbed that as a result of their nuclear programme, Washington has now achieved a second unanimous Security Council resolution ratcheting up sanctions against Iran. The Iranians, of course, are indifferent as to whether the British were in Iranian or Iraqi waters. The British were taken for two specific reasons. First, the Iranians want to demonstrate that they will not be passive while UN pressure is increased on them. They can, and will, retaliate through their close links with the Shia militia in Iraq and Hizbollah in Lebanon. They can disrupt normal traffic in what used to be called the Persian Gulf. But they have a second objective. Some weeks ago the Americans arrested Iranians in the north of Iraq. They are still detained, accused of helping foment strife against the coalition forces. Tehran may be hoping to trade the British personnel for their citizens.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Blair facing 'long haul' in quest to free hostages

2007-04-01

See if he can beat 444 days. TONY Blair was last night facing the prospect of Britain's dispute with the Iranians escalating into an extended hostage crisis, as Tehran refused to rule out the prospect of putting the 15 captured British sailors on trial. As Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett blasted Iran for "sabre-rattling" over the plight of the seized sailors and marines, senior Downing Street officials admitted that Britain had to prepare for "the long haul". The grim prognosis followed nine days of bitter diplomatic wrangling which has failed to bring an end to the row over Iran's claims that the British personnel had encroached into its waters during a routine patrol in the Shatt al-Arab waterway. It also raises the possibility that Blair's final days in office could be tarnished by an intractable hostage dilemma similar to the 444-day Iran hostage crisis that blighted Jimmy Carter's US presidency in 1979. "We want to get these people out as quickly as we can," a senior Blair aide said last night. "That is what we are working towards. But it is not easy and we have to accept that these things take time. We must prepare for the long haul." The dramatic intervention lays bare the growing distress at the highest levels of the British government over the failure of bilateral and international pressure to achieve a breakthrough that would secure freedom for Faye Turney and her 14 male colleagues. more at link...

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Ministers seek deal with Iran for captives

2007-04-01

EFL Ministers are preparing a compromise deal to allow Iran to save face and release its 15 British military captives by promising that the Royal Navy will never knowingly enter Iranian waters without permission. The Sunday Telegraph has learnt of plans to send a Royal Navy captain or commodore to Teheran, as a special envoy of the Government, to deliver a public assurance that officials hope will end the diplomatic standoff. The move, which was discussed at a meeting of Whitehall's Cobra crisis committee yesterday, came as Downing Street officials explicitly cautioned against hopes of a speedy outcome and said that families of the hostages should prepare for the "long haul". The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, have been warned that the impasse may develop into a long-term stand-off. Privately, officials are speculating that the crisis could continue for months. The renewed search for a solution was given greater urgency when a senior Iranian official said that moves had begun to put the 15 British captives on trial. Details of the strategy emerged as a former Falklands War commander expressed fury at how the sailors surrendered to Iranian gunboats without a fight. Maj Gen Julian Thompson called for a review of the Navy's rules of engagement, dictated by the United Nations, that they cannot open fire unless they are shot at first. I think I've spotted the problem... "In my view this thing is a complete cock-up," he said. Gott sei dank!!! At last, someone who can speak plain English!!! "I want to know why the Marines didn't open fire or put up some sort of fight. My fear is that they didn't have the right rules of engagement, which would allow them to do this." A former Iranian ambassador to the UN, Sayed Rajai Korasani, said that Britain should be more conciliatory and called for a delegation of MPs to seek the handover of the sailors. Send Gorgeous George. In his red tights. Offer to exchange him for the hostages.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Britain seeks to turn up heat

2007-03-31

Military strikes have a poor track record as a way to rescue hostages, leaving Britain with little choice but to ratchet up diplomatic and economic pressure as it tries to free 15 sailors and marines seized by Iran last week. Prime Minister Tony Blair is under increasing pressure to act more forcefully after a leading British newspaper slammed the early response to the Iranian seizure as "pusillanimous." British diplomats pressed ahead yesterday for a U.N. statement "deploring" the seizure and calling for the immediate release of the detainees. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett also has appealed for support from Britain's partners in the European Union and from allies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Oman. "Blair's preference, indeed best hope, is probably the U.N.," said Simon Henderson, director of the Persian Gulf and energy policy program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, in an analysis of the standoff. Military analysts say history suggests that neither a surgical strike nor a massive military retaliation has a high likelihood of achieving the primary objective of freeing the hostages. A U.S. Special Forces mission to rescue the more than 50 American hostages seized in the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Iran misfired disastrously, contributing to the political downfall of President Carter. Tracy Dove, a professor of history and international relations at the University of New York in Prague, points to a more recent example: Israel's 34-day war in Lebanon last summer. For all the damage inflicted on fighters of the militant Shi'ite Hezbollah movement during the war, Israel never managed to win the freedom of two Israeli soldiers whose capture in a cross-border raid ignited the conflict. "War conducted for the sake of liberating hostages rarely achieves its objectives, so this is not an option, despite the rhetoric," Mr. Dove said. Mr. Blair told a British television interviewer yesterday that London has a "whole series of measures we can take," both at the United Nations and within the European Union, to pressure Iran. "I'm not interested in confrontation for its own sake," he added, "The most important thing is to get the 15 personnel back safe and sound." Britain, which has diplomatic relations with Tehran, has frozen bilateral contacts in the wake of the seizure, but a full rupture of formal ties is considered unlikely for the moment. Former Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind, speaking in the House of Commons this week, said Britain should pressure its European allies, many with extensive energy and trade ties to Iran, to suspend or cancel export credits to Iran. The Bush administration has strongly backed Britain in the crisis, which erupted while the United States was beefing up its naval presence in the region. The United States also is pressing Tehran to suspend its suspect nuclear programs and has put out tentative diplomatic feelers to Iran over stabilizing the security situation in Iraq. Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing yesterday that the captured British sailors and marines were "entirely innocent" and were not operating in Iranian waters, as Tehran charges. But, Mr. Burns added, "We are most definitely on a diplomatic track [with Iran]. We do not believe that conflict is inevitable." Despite intense press speculation, Iran has denied any link between the capture of the British servicemen and five Iranians seized by U.S. forces in the Iraqi city of Irbil in January. Iran claims the five were diplomats, but U.S. military officials say they have evidence the Iranians were actively supporting militants. A senior U.S. official, briefing reporters in London on background yesterday, said London and Washington were united in rejecting any prisoner swap. "I don't think it's ever a good thing to create exchanges of hostages," the official said, according to a Reuters news agency report.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran Shows Video of British Crew

2007-03-28

Iranian state TV showed video Wednesday of 15 British sailors and marines who were seized last week, including a female captive in a white tunic and a black head scarf who said the British boats had "trespassed" in Iranian waters. Britain called the broadcast "completely unacceptable" and said it was concerned that the statements from sailor Faye Turney were coerced. The British government earlier released what it called proof the boat crews were seized in Iraqi waters, and said it was freezing all contacts with Iran except negotiations to release them. Iran's foreign minister said Turney—the only female captive—would be freed on Wednesday or Thursday, but British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said it had received no confirmation of that. The British military said its vessels were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were taken Friday, and it released what it said were the GPS coordinates that proved that. Several hours later, Tehran broadcast the video on an Arabic-language satellite channel, along with a letter from Turney saying the sailors and marines were inside Iranian waters when they were captured. "Obviously we trespassed into their waters," Turney said, sitting by herself against a floral curtain and smoking a cigarette. "They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we've been arrested, there was no harm, no aggression," she said. Turney, 26, was also shown eating with several fellow sailors and marines. What appeared to be a handwritten note from Turney to her family said, in part, "I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologize for us entering their waters." The video also showed a brief scene of what appeared to be the British crew sitting in an Iranian boat in open water immediately after their capture. Before the video was broadcast, a Blair spokesman said any showing of British personnel on TV would be a breach of the Geneva Conventions. "It's completely unacceptable for these pictures to be shown on television," the Foreign Office said after the broadcast. "There is no doubt our personnel were seized in Iraqi territorial waters." The statement also demanded that British diplomats be given immediate access to them as a "prelude" to their release. The Foreign Office said it had "grave concerns" about Turney's state of mind when she spoke on video. "I am very concerned about these pictures and any indication of pressure on or coercion of our personnel," said Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett. She added that Britain had "comprehensively demonstrated today that our personnel were operating inside Iraqi territorial waters." British officials declined to comment after the broadcast on whether it violated the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war. The chief spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross also declined to comment, saying the ICRC was not involved. President Bush spoke to Blair over a secured video conference call about the standoff Wednesday, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. "The president fully backs Tony Blair and our allies in Britain," she said. Vice Adm. Charles Style told reporters that the Iranians had provided a position on Sunday—a location that he said was in Iraqi waters. By Tuesday, Iranian officials had given a revised position two miles east, placing the British inside Iranian waters—a claim he said was not verified by global positioning system coordinates. "It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of coordinates," Style said. Style gave the satellite coordinates of the British crew as 29 degrees 50.36 minutes north latitude and 048 degrees 43.08 minutes east longitude, and said it had been confirmed by an Indian-flagged merchant ship boarded by the sailors and marines. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki denied this, saying, "That's not true. It happened in Iranian territorial waters." Iraq and Iran have never agreed on the ownership of waters near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where Britain said the sailors and marines were seized. Fixing the dividing line is difficult because of conflicting claims to rock formations, sandbars and barrier islands in the shallow waters of the northern Gulf. Mottaki told The Associated Press in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that Turney would be released Wednesday or Thursday, and he suggested that the British vessels' alleged entry into Iranian waters may have been a mistake. "This is a violation that just happened. It could be natural. They did not resist," he told the AP. "Today or tomorrow, the lady will be released," Mottaki said Wednesday on the sidelines of an Arab summit in the Saudi capital. The Iranian Embassy in London also said: "We are confident that Iranian and British governments are capable of resolving this security case through their close contacts and cooperation." In a first act of retribution against Iran, Beckett suspended bilateral talks with Tehran on all other issues. Visits by officials were stopped, issuing visas to Iranian officials suspended and British support for events such as trade missions put on hold, her office said. Oil prices rose by more than $1 a barrel Wednesday as the standoff continued and on rumors that Iran had fired a missile at a U.S. ship in the Persian Gulf, where the U.S. is carrying out its largest sequence of military maneuvers since the launch of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2004, eight British sailors were captured as they were delivering a patrol boat to the Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. Britain described the mission as "routine" but Tehran accused them entering Iranian waters illegally. A day later, Iran said the sailors would be put on trial, and Iranian TV broadcast video of them blindfolded and sitting on the ground. Two of them later read a statement of apology for entering Iran's territorial waters, saying it was a mistake. The sailors later told reporters they had been mistreated and subjected to mock executions. The eight were eventually returned to British diplomats in Tehran and flown back to Iraq. Iran initially promised to return the seized boats, but later decided to keep them for display at Tehran's War Museum. The Iranians also kept the crew's GPS equipment, and their coordinates have never been released.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran: British sailors treated in humane manner

2007-03-28

Iran says the 15 British sailors and marines it detained last week are healthy and have been treated in a humane manner. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said on Tuesday that the 26-year-old female sailor, Faye Turney, had been provided privacy, adding, "All moral codes have certainly been observed." "They are in complete good health. They have been treated based on humanitarian and moral values," Hosseini told the Associated Press. The spokesman, however, did not elaborate on where the Britons were being kept, saying their case is under investigation. "The case should go through legal procedures. Media hyperbole will not lead to a hasty resolution of the case," Hosseini reiterated. Tehran has said it is questioning the Britons to determine if their entry into Iranian waters was "intentional or unintentional" before making a decision on the Brits. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday expressed hope diplomacy would win their release but was prepared to move to a different phase if not. "I hope we manage to get them (the Iranian government) to realize they have to release them," Blair said in an interview with GMTV. Also on Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett repeated her government's interest in a quick resolution to the crisis, telling reporters in Turkish city of Ankara that the matter should be settled "swiftly and peacefully." "We will continue to leave the door open for a constructive outcome of these difficulties between Iran and the United Kingdom," Margaret Beckett said.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

PM warns Iran over Navy captives

2007-03-27

Just posted on Drudge from the BBC News site. PM Tony Blair puts Iran on notice. I wonder if he might pull a Maggie Thatcher on Iran if the sailors are not released soon. PM warns Iran over Navy captives Efforts to secure the release of 15 Royal Navy personnel held by Iran will enter a "different phase" if diplomatic moves fail, Tony Blair has said. Downing Street said the UK could end up releasing evidence proving the group had not ventured into Iranian waters. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has called for their "speedy return". Meanwhile, the family of the only woman detained, Faye Turney from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, has said this is a "very distressing time" for them. The BBC has been told the group are being held at an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps base in Tehran. Iran says they were trespassing in Iranian waters when they were seized on Friday - but the prime minister said the group were in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate. More at link...

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