Obama took Pakistan into confidence: Zardari

LAHORE: President Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday that the US had supported transition from dictatorship to a democratic rule in Pakistan and President Obama had taken him into confidence on the new Afghan policy.

“President Obama had written me a letter which I replied to. He even talked to me on phone before finalising his government’s new Afghan policy,” the president told journalists at a dinner here.

In reply to a question, he stated that there were no differences between Pakistan and the US over any issue, including drone attacks and transfer of drone technology.

The president said the two countries had different positions on the transfer of drone technology.

“For us this is not an important technology which cannot be given to us. But they (the US) consider it modern technology and are reluctant to it transfer to us,” he added.

The two countries had different positions on drone attacks, but were trying to sort this out. “We have had close relations with America for 60 years and now when it has become the sole superpower it has supported establishment of democratic rule in our country.” He said Pakistan should not dread India because it was a mature democracy and would be mindful of Pakistan’s current position.

He said the 17th Amendment and 58(2)b of the Constitution had been withdrawn, in principle, and it required only paperwork. He said the UN had been asked to trace out “real players” behind the assassinatio Benazir Bhutto, adding that Baitullah Mehsud was a “mere player”.

Palestinians fight settlements with new planned suburb

RAMALLAH: Bulldozers are carving out a new suburb on a hilltop in the occupied West Bank. For once it isn't a Jewish settlement but the first ever planned Palestinian suburb.

The developers of Rawabi, as the community is known, hope it will one day provide much-needed housing for some 40,000 people and help cement Palestinian claims to the territory amid similar communities built by settlers.

“The city is not a settlement,” says Bashar al-Masri, head of the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company, which is carrying out the 700-million-dollar project along with Qatar's Diar Real Estate Company.

“Instead it can be considered a Palestinian attempt to keep Palestinians on their land in order to contain Israeli settlement,” he says.

The building of a modern suburb in the West Bank, which is governed by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and receives considerable international aid, is in sharp contrast to the lingering devastation in the Gaza Strip, which has been under strict closure since the Hamas movement seized power in 2007.

The first phase of the Rawabi project calls for the construction of some 22 residential buildings housing 20,000 people within three years. The second phase will double the occupancy over the following three years.

The city will include schools and hospitals, and the homes will be within the means of middle-class Palestinians, with units selling for 50,000 to 80,000 dollars.

Covering some 630 hectares, it will be one of the largest investment projects in the occupied territories, and has won the enthusiastic support of the Palestinian Authority.

“This project proves that there are opportunities for investment in Palestine,” Palestinian economy minister Hassan Abu Libdeh says.

Ironically, the hilltop suburb resembles the dozens of Israeli settlements scattered across the territory, which the Palestinians have condemned as “facts on the ground” aimed at thwarting the creation of an independent state.

“The sight of Palestinian bulldozers is strange, because we are used to seeing Israeli bulldozers stealing our land and digging it up to build settlements,” says Mohammed Khamis, 42, as he watches from a nearby village.

“There are some cynical comparisons that Palestinians are involved in this sad scene associated with Israeli settlement, but we hope that the project will be the beginning of an expansion of related investment,” Abu Libdeh says.

The project is being carried out in Area A, a part of the occupied West Bank governed by the Palestinian Authority, but comes amid a general push to assert greater Palestinian control over the territory occupied by Israel in 1967.

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad has vowed to construct housing and infrastructure in Area C, which is under complete Israeli military control, as part of his plan to build the institutions of a Palestinian state by 2011.

The Rawabi project nevertheless depends in part on Israel, which must open the main road between the new suburb and the nearby town of Ramallah and grant permission for the construction of new infrastructure, Masri says.

“We have not yet obtained Israeli approval, but there is no Israeli opposition to this,” he says. “We have approval in principle.”

As the Palestinians have accelerated projects aimed at generating economic growth following the devastating 2000 intifada, or uprising, they have demanded that Israel halt its own construction projects in the territory, which are considered illegal by the international community.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has refused US demands to re-launch peace talks suspended during last winter's Gaza war until Israel halts all settlement activity, including in mostly-Arab east Jerusalem.

Israel in November enacted a 10-month moratorium on new building starts in the West Bank but excluded east Jerusalem, public buildings and projects already underway, prompting the Palestinians to slam the move as insufficient.

Nearly half a million Israelis live in more than 100 settlements scattered across the West Bank and east Jerusalem, many of which resemble Western-style suburbs and house thousands of people.