6 Saturday, September 2, 2017

Washington

The US Customs and Border Protection agency ordered

prototypes for President Donald Trump’s proposed wall on the US-Mexican border Thursday, even though a budget fight in Congress could leave the project unfunded for next year.

Four companies were awarded contracts to build reinforced concrete models up to 30 feet (nine meters)

high, Acting CBP Deputy Commissioner Ronald Vitiello announced. 

The prototypes have to have “anti-climb” features to deter illegal immigrants from sneaking into the United States.

The government also expects to award contracts for non-concrete prototypes.

They will be evaluated not only on the physical structure, but “all of the tools that help

us secure the border,” he said.Trump promised in his

election campaign last year to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants. For the fiscal 2018 budget, the government has proposed $1.8 billion to begin building what could become a $20 billion project spanning the 3,200-kilometer (2,000-mile) frontier.

But Congress is deeply split over the budget and worries are that it might not be able to

bridge its differences and fund the government before the fiscal year begins on October 1. 

On Sunday Trump insisted that Congress must find a way to pay for his promised border wall, branding Mexico a hotbed of violent crime.

And he has warned that he will close down the government if Congress does not give him funding for the wall.

US orders prototypes for Mexico wall

© GRAPHIC NEWSSources: AFP, BBC, Bloomberg, IHS Conflict Monitor, New York Times

The so-called Islamic State (IS) group has suffered a series of majordefeats in recent months that have left its “caliphate” straddling Syria

and Iraq in tatters, three years after it was declaredIS territory lost sinceDecember 31, 2016

Brackets indicatedate of IS loss

Remaining IS territoryas of August 28, 2017

Med

iterra

nean

Sea

T U R K E Y

IRA

N

LEBA

NON

J O R D A N

S A U D IA R A B I A

BaghdadDamascus

Aleppo

Homs

Deraa

Mosul(July 10)

HawijaMayadin

Al-Bukamal

Hasakah

Al-Qaim

Tal Afar(Aug 31)

Kirkuk

Tikrit

Ramadi

Al-Bab(Feb 23)

Raqqa: U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forceshold about 60 percent of city. IS encircled

Palmyra(Mar 2)

Qara(Aug 30) I R A Q

S Y R I A

Deir al-ZourSyrian governmentforces besieged by IS

GolanHeights 100km

60 miles

© GRAPHIC NEWSSource: AP, Fox News, teleSUR Pictures: Associated Press, Getty Images

The most powerful and oldest guerrilla group in Latin America hasre-launched itself as a political party. However, Colombia’s FuerzaAlternativa Revolucionaria del Comun will still be known as FARC

1964: Rebelleader ManuelMarulanda –alias Tirofijo –establishesRevolutionary

Armed Forces of Colombia,known as FARC2008: FARC leader Tirofijodies of natural causes

1982-87: Peace talks withgovernment of PresidentBelisario Betancur fail1998-2002: Peace effortled by President AndresPastrana breaks down

2010: FARC’s top militarystrategist Jorge Briceno –alias Mono Jojoy (aboveleft) – killed in air strike.President Juan ManuelSantos (above right)takes office2012: FARC renounceskidnapping for extortion andfrees all army officers incaptivity. President Santosannounces peace talkswith FARC. They beginin Oslo, Norway, and latermove to Havana, CubaMar 2017: FARC beginsprocess of disarmamentJun 27: FARC officiallyceases to exist as rebelgroup and transitionsto civil and political life.Peace deal ends 53 yearsof conflict that claimed morethan 220,000 lives anddisplaced nearly 7 millionpeople from their homes

2011: FARC leader GuillermoSaenz – alias Alfonso Cano(above left) – killed, replacedby Rodrigo Londoño – alsoknown as Timoleon Jimenez orTimochemko (above right)Aug 24, 2016: Santosgovernment and FARCannounce peace accordOct: President Santos awardedNobel Peace Prize

Paris

France called yesterday for a political transition

in Syria that would not include President Bashar al-Assad, after a series of shifting positions on resolving the six-year-old conflict.

“We cannot build peace with Assad,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on France’s RTL radio.

“He cannot be the solution,” said Le Drian, who was defence minister in the former Socialist government.

“The solution is to establish... a timeline for political transition that can lead to a new constitution and elections, and this transition cannot happen with Bashar al-Assad.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said in July that the removal of the Syrian president was not a “prerequisite” for peace in the war-torn country, and that he did not see a “legitimate successor” to the leader who has been in power since 2000.

Paris had been a key supporter of the opposition to Assad’s rule since the start of the conflict in 2011, which has since killed more than 320,000 people and displaced millions.

But Macron said that the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group was a priority for France, which has endured a string of terror attacks that have killed more than 230

people since 2015. Some of these were planned in Syria.

On Friday, Macron said he hoped to organise an international conference early next year in Beirut on facilitating the return of Syrian refugees, saying this was crucial for “stabilising Syria and the entire region.”

Lebanon currently hosts more than 1.2 million Syrian refugees. 

France’s armed forces are in action as part of the US-led international coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq.

The group has lost much of the territory it controlled in the two countries, and thousands of its fighters have been killed since late 2014, when the coalition was formed to defeat the group.

Syria transition

without Assad

France urges

Next round of Syria talks in SeptemberAstana

A new round of talks on the conflict in Syria

will be held in Astana on September 14-15, Kazakhstan announced yesterday, with key powers looking to shore up safe zones on the ground. 

Russia and Iran, which back the Syrian regime, and opposition supporter Turkey will look to work out more details of the “de-escalation zones”, including the thorny issue

of who will police the northern Idlib region, the Kazakh foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The participants also intend to confirm the maps of the de-escalation zones in the provinces of Idlib, Homs and Eastern Ghouta,” it said.

The statement did not mention a fourth zone in the south of Syria, where Israel and the United States have been wary about seeing Iran involved after a ceasefire was agreed

between Moscow and Washington in July.

Russia has already deployed military police to the zone in the south; in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus; and in part of Homs under the safe zone deals. 

Moscow has been spearheading the Astana peace talks since the start of the year in a bid to pacify Syria after its game-changing intervention on the side of President Bashar al-Assad.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows President Bashar al-Assad performing the morning Eid al-Adha prayer at the Grand Mosque of Qara