The Jim Bakker Show

Egypt’s Sisi, Israel’s Netanyahu meet for first time in public

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (R) speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) during their meeting as part of an effort to revive the Middle East peace process ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, U.S., September 19, 2017 in this handout picture courtesy of the Egyptian Presidency. The Egyptian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have met for the first time in public in what Egypt said was part of an effort to revive the Middle East peace process.

Egyptian authorities said in a statement the two had met on Monday ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Sisi separately met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his residency, where they agreed to continue working toward a two-state solution.

The meeting came just days after Egypt helped broker an agreement with the Palestinian Hamas group to dissolve the administration that runs Gaza and hold talks with Abbas’ Fatah movement, its Palestinian rivals .

For much of the last decade, Egypt has joined Israel in enforcing a land, sea and air blockade of the Gaza Strip, a move to punish Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since a brief Palestinian civil war in 2007.

Netanyahu has said in recent weeks that ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors have been improving and that cooperation exists “in various ways and (at) different levels”.

Egypt was the first of a handful of Arab countries to recognize Israel under the U.S.-sponsored peace accord in 1979. But Egyptian attitudes to its neighbor remain icy due to what many Arabs see as the continued Israeli occupation of land that is meant to form a Palestinian state.

In recent weeks, Egypt has hosted delegations from Fatah and Hamas to help reach an agreement between the two sides and talk about the Gaza border. But reunification a decade after their battle for control may hinge on whether complex power-sharing issues can be resolved.

Under pressure from the blockade, Hamas has sought to mend ties with Egypt, which controls their one border crossing. Egypt under Sisi has been wary of ties between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, which Sisi ousted from power after mass protests.

(This story has been refiled to remove extraneous words in paragraph 2.)

(Reporting by Nadine Awadalla; editing by Patrick Markey/Jeremy Gaunt)

Trump to single out North Korea, Iran in first speech at U.N.

By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will urge United Nations member states on Tuesday to turn up the pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, using his maiden speech to the world body to address what he considers the top global challenge.

Senior White House officials said Trump would also target Iran’s nuclear program, single out Venezuela for criticism and refer to Islamist militants as “losers,” in his first appearance in the green-marbled U.N. General Assembly hall, where applause from world leaders is generally muted.

“Big day at the United Nations – many good things, and some tricky ones, happening. We have a great team,” Trump wrote in an early morning post on Twitter that also noted his “big speech.”

The speech, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT), will mark his latest attempt to lay out his America First vision for a U.S. foreign policy aimed at downgrading global bureaucracies, basing alliances on shared interests, and steering Washington away from nation-building exercises abroad.

Trump’s first major turn on the global platform offered by the United Nations has been dominated by Iran and North Korea, which have been the focus of his talks with other world leaders.

Now eight months in the White House, Trump also has found time to criticize the world body, alleging gross mismanagement and demanding that the United States, the largest donor to the United Nations, get more for its investment.

In his speech, he will seek to rally the world to help the United States and its Asian allies reduce North Korea to pariah status and pressure Iran to rein in everything from ballistic missile launches to interference in Syria.

With North Korean nuclear tests and missile launches stirring global tensions, the U.S. ambassador to the United States, Nikki Haley, has said that most non-military options have all but been exhausted.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed several rounds of sanctions on North Korea.

A senior White House official, briefing reporters on the contents of the speech, said Trump would single out North Korea for “destabilizing, hostile and dangerous behavior.”

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said on Monday that the more sanctions that Washington and its allies imposed on Pyongyang, the faster it would move to complete its nuclear plans.

‘SHARED MENACE’

Trump will also voice concern about Iran, which aides say he considers in violation of the spirit of a 2015 deal negotiated by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, and aimed at containing Iran’s nuclear program.

“Theirs is a shared menace and nations cannot be bystanders to history and if we don’t confront the threats now, they will only gather force and become more formidable,” the official said of North Korea and Iran.

Trump has set U.S.-Iran relations on a far more confrontational path than the detente Iranian President Hassan Rouhani enjoyed with Obama.

Trump’s rhetoric against Iran, coming as he appears to be leaning against recertifying the nuclear deal by a mid-October deadline, prompted a retort from Rouhani on Monday.

Rouhani told CNN that exiting the Iran nuclear deal “would carry a high cost for the United States of America, and I do not believe Americans would be willing to pay such a high cost for something that will be useless for them.”

Later on Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to meet with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. White House officials have said Trump on Wednesday will meet with leaders from Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Britain and Egypt.

Trump is using his four days in New York to voice his concern about Venezuela, telling Latin American leaders on Monday night the United States would take additional steps if Caracas moved toward authoritarian rule.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Yara Bayoumy and Howard Goller)

As North Korea threat looms, Trump to address world leaders at U.N.

U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a session on reforming the United Nations at UN Headquarters in New York, U.S., September 18, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – North Korea’s nuclear threat looms large this week over the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations in New York, where diplomats are eager to hear U.S. President Donald Trump address the 193-member body for the first time.

North Korean diplomats will have a front-row seat in the U.N. General Assembly for Trump’s speech on Tuesday morning, which will touch on the escalating crisis that has seen Trump and Pyongyang trade threats of military action.

Despite his skepticism about the value of international organizations and the United Nations in particular, Trump will seek support for tough measures against North Korea, while pressing his “America First” message to the world body.

“This is not an issue between the United States and North Korea. This is an issue between the world and North Korea,” Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, said on Friday.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres – who, like Trump, took office in January – plans to meet separately with “concerned parties,” including North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, on the sidelines of the 72nd General Assembly.

“The solution can only be political. Military action could cause devastation on a scale that would take generations to overcome,” Guterres warned on Wednesday.

A week ago, the 15-member U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted its ninth sanctions resolution since 2006 over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said U.N. sanctions had banned 90 percent of the Asian state’s publicly reported exports, saying of Pyongyang on Friday: “This is totally in their hands on how they respond.”

Haley told CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday that Washington had “pretty much exhausted” its options on North Korea at the Security Council.

Ri is due to address the General Assembly on Friday.

IRAN

Some leaders will also push Trump not to give up on a 2015 deal curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions in return for a lifting of U.N., U.S. and European sanctions, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was time to “fix it – or cancel it.”

The foreign ministers of Iran, the United States, Britain, Germany, Russia, China and France – the parties to the agreement – are due to meet on Wednesday ahead of an October deadline for Trump to tell Congress if he believes Tehran is sticking to what he has described as “the worst deal ever negotiated.”

When asked on Friday what Moscow’s message would be for Washington, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said: “Stay in the JCPOA (the nuclear deal).”

A senior U.N. Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “We are faced with real uncertainties with respect to North Korea and it’s a bit dangerous … to add another source of uncertainty with respect to Iran.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday his country would not be bullied by the United States and would react strongly to any “wrong move” by Washington on the nuclear deal.

Iran and North Korea will also feature heavily during a ministerial Security Council meeting on Thursday, at the request of the United States, to discuss the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

MYANMAR, CLIMATE, U.N. REFORM

While leaders and diplomats are also due to meet on longer-running crises including Libya, Syria, South Sudan, Mali, Central African Republic, Yemen and Iraq, a last-minute addition has been Myanmar, where the United Nations has branded violence against Rohingya Muslims as “ethnic cleansing.”

Britain is due to host a ministerial meeting on Monday to seek a way to get Myanmar authorities to end a military offensive in the country’s Rakhine state that has sent more than 400,000 minority Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh.

Following Trump’s announcement that the United States would withdraw from a landmark 2015 global agreement to fight climate change, several high-level gatherings are planned on the sidelines of the General Assembly to bolster the deal.

“Climate change is a serious threat,” Guterres told reporters. “Hurricanes and floods around the world remind us that extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent and severe, due to climate change.”

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared to hold the door open for the United States to remain in the Paris climate accord “under the right conditions.”

“The president said he is open to finding those conditions where we can remain engaged with others on what we all agree is still a challenging issue,” Tillerson said on CBS’ “Face The Nation” program on Sunday.

Trump will seek to boost support for reforming the United Nations, which he once called “a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.”

The United States is the largest U.N. contributor and Trump has complained that Washington pays too much.

“The United Nations, of course, holds tremendous potential to realize its founding ideals, but only if it’s run more efficiently and effectively,” McMaster said on Friday.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Editing by Yara Bayoumy and Peter Cooney)

Bangladesh warns Myanmar over border amid refugee crisis

A Rohingya refugee woman looks on in a newly built makeshift camp, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

By Ruma Paul

DHAKA (Reuters) – Bangladesh has accused Myanmar of repeatedly violating its air space and warned that any more “provocative acts” could have “unwarranted consequences”, raising the risk of a deterioration in relations already strained by the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Nearly 400,000 Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar have crossed into Bangladesh since Aug. 25, fleeing a Myanmar government offensive against insurgents that the United Nations has branded a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Bangladesh said Myanmar drones and helicopters had violated its air space three times – on Sept. 10, 12 and 14 – and it had called in a top Myanmar embassy official in Dhaka to complain.

“Bangladesh expressed deep concern at the repetition of such acts of provocation and demanded that Myanmar takes immediate measures to ensure that such violation of sovereignty does not occur again,” the ministry said in statement late on Friday.

“These provocative acts may lead to unwarranted consequences.”

A Myanmar government spokesman said he did not have information about the incidents Bangladesh had complained about but Myanmar had denied an earlier accusation.

The spokesman, Zaw Htay, said Myanmar would check any information that Bangladesh provided.

“Our two countries are facing the refugee crisis. We need to collaborate with good understanding,” he told Reuters.

Bangladesh has for decades faced influxes of Rohingya fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where the Rohingya are regarded as illegal migrants.

Bangladesh was already home to 400,000 Rohingya before the latest crisis erupted on Aug. 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked about 30 police posts and an army camp, killing a dozen people.

The Myanmar security forces and Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes responded with what rights monitors and fleeing Rohingya say is a campaign of violence and arson aimed at driving out the Muslim population.

Bangladesh has said all refugees must go home. Myanmar has said it will take back those who can verify their citizenship but most Rohingya are stateless.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was leaving on Saturday for the U.N. General Assembly where she would call for pressure to ensure Myanmar takes everyone back after stopping its “ethnic cleansing’, her press secretary, Ihsanul Karim, told Reuters.

The conflict has led to a humanitarian crisis on both sides of the border and raised questions about Myanmar’s path under the leadership of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi after nearly 50 years of strict military rule.

The generals still control national security policy but nevertheless, Suu Kyi has been widely criticized abroad for not stopping or condemning the violence.

There is little sympathy for the Rohingya in a country where the end of military rule has unleashed old animosities and the military campaign in Rakhine State is widely supported.

‘STRONGHOLD’

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N. Security Council have urged Myanmar to end the violence, which he said was best described as ethnic cleansing.

Ethnic cleansing is not recognized as a separate crime under international law but allegations of it as part of wider, systematic human rights violations have been heard in international courts.

Myanmar rejects the accusations, saying its security forces are carrying out clearance operations to defend against the insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which claimed responsibility for the Aug. 25 attacks and similar, though smaller, attacks in October.

The government has declared ARSA a terrorist organization and accused it of setting the fires and attacking civilians.

The ARSA says it is fighting for the rights of Rohingya and has denied links to foreign Islamists.

Myanmar’s army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, said the violence – 93 clashes since Aug. 25 – was a bid by the insurgents to “build a stronghold”, according to speech to officer trainees, posted on a military Facebook page.

More than 430 people have been killed, most of them insurgents, and about 30,000 non-Muslim villagers have been displaced, Myanmar has said. Human Rights Watch said satellite imagery showed 62 Rohingya villages had been torched.

The United States has called for the protection of civilians and a deputy assistant secretary of state, Patrick Murphy, is due in Myanmar next week.

China, which also vies for influence in Myanmar, joined a U.N. Security Council call for an end to the violence while its ambassador in Myanmar expressed his support for the government’s action, Myanmar media reported.

Separately, the Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Bangladesh to release two Myanmar journalists detained last week while covering the refugee crisis. A police official told Reuters the two were found to be working on tourist visas and police were investigating.

(For a graphic on ‘Rohingya refugee crisis’ click http://tmsnrt.rs/2eS8B9B)

(Additional reporting by Shoon Naing in YANGON, Serajul Quadir in DHAKA; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

U.N. seeks ‘massive’ help for Rohingya fleeing Myanmar ‘ethnic cleansing’

By Serajul Quadir and Wa Lone

DHAKA/YANGON (Reuters) – The United Nations appealed on Thursday for massive help for nearly 400,000 Muslims from Myanmar who have fled to Bangladesh, with concern growing that the number could keep rising, unless Myanmar ends what critics denounce as “ethnic cleansing”.

The Rohingya are fleeing from a Myanmar military offensive in the western state of Rakhine that was triggered by a series of guerrilla attacks on Aug. 25 on security posts and an army camp in which about a dozen people were killed.

The United Nations has called for a massive intensification of relief operations to help the refugees, and a much bigger response from the international community.

“We urge the international community to step up humanitarian support and come up with help,” Mohammed Abdiker, director of operations and emergencies for the International Organisation for Migration, told a news conference in the Bangladeshi capital. The need was “massive”, he added.

The violence in Rakhine and the exodus of refugees is the most pressing problem Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has faced since becoming national leader last year.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday urged Myanmar to end the violence, which he said was best described as ethnic cleansing.

The government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects such accusations, saying it is targeting “terrorists”.

Numerous Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine have been torched but authorities have denied that security forces or Buddhist civilians set the fires. They blame the insurgents, and say 30,000 non-Muslim villagers were also displaced.

Smoke was rising from at least five places on the Myanmar side of the border on Thursday, a Reuters reporter in Bangladesh said. It was not clear what was burning or who set the fires.

“Ethnic cleansing” is not recognized as an independent crime under international law, the U.N. Office on Genocide Prevention says, but it has been used in U.N. resolutions and acknowledged in judgments and indictments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

A U.N. panel of experts defined it as “rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups”.

The crisis has raised questions about Suu Kyi’s commitment to human rights, and could strain relations with Western backers supporting her leadership of Myanmar’s transition from decades of strict military rule and economic isolation.

Critics have called for her to be stripped of her Nobel prize for failing to do more to halt the strife, though national security remains firmly in the hands of the military.

Suu Kyi is due to address the nation on Tuesday.

‘INTERNAL AFFAIR’

China, which competes with the United States for influence in Myanmar, endorses the offensive against the insurgents and deemed it an “internal affair”, Myanmar state media said.

“The counterattacks of Myanmar security forces against extremist terrorists and the government’s undertakings to provide assistance to the people are strongly welcomed,” the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted China’s ambassador, Hong Liang, as telling government officials.

But at the United Nations in New York, China set a different tone, joining a Security Council expression of concern about reports of violence and urging steps to end it.

The Security Council met on Wednesday to discuss the crisis and later “expressed concern about reports of excessive violence … and called for immediate steps to end the violence in Rakhine, de-escalate the situation, re-establish law and order, ensure the protection of civilians … and resolve the refugee problem”.

This week, the Trump administration called for protection of civilians.

Bangladesh says the refugees will have to go home and has called for safe zones in Myanmar. Myanmar says safe zones are unacceptable.

The IOM’s Abdiker declined to say how many refugees he thought might end up in Bangladesh.

“The number may rise to 600,000, 700,000, even one million if the situation in Myanmar does not improve,” he said.

The most important thing was that the refugees be able to go home safely, said George William Okoth-Obbo, assistant high commissioner for operations at the U.N. refugee agency.

“The international community has to support to ensure their return … peacefully and with safety,” he told the news conference.

On Wednesday, the Myanmar government said 45 places had been burned. It did not provide details, but a spokesman said out of 471 villages in the north of Rakhine, 176 had been deserted and at least some people had left 34 more.

The spokesman, Zaw Htay, said the people going to Bangladesh were either linked to the insurgents, or women and children fleeing conflict.

Government figures show 432 people have been killed, most of them insurgents, since Aug. 25.

There are also fears of a humanitarian crisis on the Myanmar side of the border. The government has accused some aid groups of helping the insurgents and has restricted access.

(Additonal reporting by Simon Lewis In COX’S BAZAR, Ruma Paul in DHAKA, Michelle Nichols in NEW YORK; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Nick Macfie and Clarence Fernandez)

North Korea defiant over U.N. sanctions as Trump says tougher steps needed

By Jack Kim and Roberta Rampton

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – North Korea showed trademark defiance on Wednesday over new U.N. sanctions imposed after its sixth and largest nuclear test, vowing to redouble efforts to fight off what it said was the threat of a U.S. invasion.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday’s sanctions, unanimously agreed on Monday by the 15-member U.N. Security Council, were just a small step towards what is ultimately needed to rein in Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

The North’s Foreign Ministry said the resolutions were an infringement on its legitimate right to self-defense and aimed at “completely suffocating its state and people through full-scale economic blockade”.

“The DPRK will redouble the efforts to increase its strength to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and right to existence and to preserve peace and security of the region by establishing the practical equilibrium with the U.S.,” it said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

The statement echoed comments on Tuesday by the North’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Han Tae Song, who said Pyongyang was “ready to use a form of ultimate means”.

“The forthcoming measures … will make the U.S. suffer the greatest pain it ever experienced in its history,” Han said.

The North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper also accused South Korea of being Washington’s “puppet”, criticizing Seoul’s agreement with the United States to amend an existing bilateral guideline that will now allow the South to use unlimited warhead payloads on its missiles.

The U.N. Security Council agreed to boost sanctions on North Korea, banning its textile exports and capping fuel supplies, and making it illegal for foreign firms to form commercial joint ventures with North Korean entities.

The U.N. resolution was triggered by North Korea’s test of what it said was a hydrogen bomb.

Damage to mountainous terrain at the North’s nuclear test site in Punggye-ri seen in satellite imagery taken after the latest test was more extensive than anything seen after the five previous tests, the Washington-based 38 North project said.

There was also activity at another location in the Mount Mantap site involving large vehicles and mining equipment that suggests “onsite work could now be changing focus to further prepare those other portals for future underground nuclear testing”, said 38 North, which monitors North Korea.

The North accuses the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war, of continual plans for invasion.

North Korea has also tested a missile capable of reaching the United States, but experts say it is likely to be at least a year before it can field an operational nuclear missile that could threaten the U.S. mainland.

ANOTHER SMALL STEP

Trump has vowed not to allow that to happen.

A tougher initial U.S. draft resolution was weakened to win the support of China and Russia, both of which hold U.N. veto power. Significantly, it stopped short of imposing a full embargo on oil exports to North Korea, most of which come from China.

“We think it’s just another very small step, not a big deal,” Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

“I don’t know if it has any impact, but certainly it was nice to get a 15-to-nothing vote, but those sanctions are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned China, North Korea’s main ally and trading partner, that Washington would “put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the U.S. and international dollar system” if it did not follow through on the new measures.

Another senior administration official told Reuters any such “secondary sanctions” on Chinese banks and other companies were on hold for now to give China time to show it was prepared to fully enforce the latest and previous rounds of sanctions.

Washington so far has mostly held off on new sanctions against Chinese banks and other companies doing business with North Korea, given fears of retaliation by Beijing and possibly far-reaching effects on the world economy.

Russia and China both say they respect U.N. sanctions and have called on the United States to return to negotiations with North Korea. They have also said they could kick-start talks with North Korea if the United States halts joint military drills with South Korea, which Washington has rejected.

An article carried on the front page of the People’s Daily, the official paper of China’s ruling Communist Party, said the Korean peninsula had reached the “moment of choice” where the United States and North Korea must break from the cycle of nuclear tests and sanctions.

“All parties involved in the peninsula have their own strategic considerations, but not being able to see beyond this vicious cycle is not in anyone’s interest,” the article said.

Asked about the North Korean and U.S. rhetoric, China’s foreign ministry reiterated a call for restraint and a return to dialogue.

“We hope all relevant parties can be rational and maintain restraint and not take actions that could further increase tensions on the peninsula,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular briefing.

In another show of force, South Korea’s Air Force conducted its first live-fire exercise of Taurus long-range, air-to-surface missiles on Tuesday, the defense ministry said, as practice for precision bombing North Korean facilities.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the new sanctions could eventually starve North Korea of an additional $500 million or more in annual revenue.

The United States has said that a previous round of sanctions agreed in August was aimed at cutting North Korea’s $3 billion in exports by a third.

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim and Yuna Park in SEOUL, Michael Martina and Christian Shepherd in BEIJING, and Roberta Rampton and David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Paul Tait and Nick Macfie)

U.N. Security Council steps up sanctions on defiant North Korea

By Michelle Nichols and Jack Kim

UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted to step up sanctions on North Korea, with its profitable textile exports now banned and fuel supplies capped, prompting a traditionally defiant threat of retaliation against the United States.

Monday’s decision, triggered by the North’s sixth and largest nuclear test this month, was the ninth such resolution unanimously adopted by the 15-member Security Council since 2006 over North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Japan and South Korea said after the passage of the U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution they were prepared to apply more pressure if North Korea refused to end its aggressive development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

A tougher initial U.S. draft was weakened to win the support of China, Pyongyang’s main ally and trading partner, and Russia, both of which hold veto power in the council.

“We don’t take pleasure in further strengthening sanctions today. We are not looking for war,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the council after the vote. “The North Korean regime has not yet passed the point of no return.

“If it agrees to stop its nuclear program, it can reclaim its future … If North Korea continues its dangerous path, we will continue with further pressure,” said Haley, who credited a “strong relationship” between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping for the successful resolution negotiations.

North Korea’s ambassador, Han Tae Song, told the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Tuesday the United States was “fired up for political, economic, and military confrontation”.

The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States, which it accuses of continual preparation for invasion.

“My delegation condemns in the strongest terms, and categorically rejects, the latest illegal and unlawful U.N. Security Council resolution,” he said.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was “ready to use a form of ultimate means”, Han said, without elaborating.

“The forthcoming measures by DPRK will make the U.S. suffer the greatest pain it ever experienced in its history.”

U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood took the floor to say the Security Council resolution “frankly sent a very clear and unambiguous message to the regime that the international community is tired, is no longer willing to put up with provocative behavior from this regime”.

U.N. member states are now required to halt imports of textiles from North Korea, its second largest export after coal and other minerals in 2016 that totaled $752 million and accounted for a quarter of its income from trade, according to South Korean data. Nearly 80 percent went to China.

“This resolution also puts an end to the regime making money from the 93,000 North Korean citizens it sends overseas to work and heavily taxes,” Haley said.

“This ban will eventually starve the regime of an additional $500 million or more in annual revenues,” she said.

RESUME DIALOGUE

South Korea’s presidential Blue House said the only way for Pyongyang to end diplomatic isolation and free itself of economic pressure was to end its nuclear program and resume dialogue.

“North Korea needs to realize that a reckless challenge against international peace will only bring about even stronger international sanctions against it,” the Blue House said.

However, China’s official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that the Trump administration was making a mistake by rejecting diplomatic engagement with the North.

“The U.S. needs to switch from isolation to communication in order to end an ‘endless loop’ on the Korean peninsula, where “nuclear and missile tests trigger tougher sanctions and tougher sanctions invite further tests,” Xinhua said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quickly welcomed the resolution and said after the vote it was important to change North Korea’s policy by stepping up pressure.

The resolution imposes a ban on condensates and natural gas liquids, a cap of 2 million barrels a year on refined petroleum products, and a cap on crude oil exports to North Korea at current levels. China supplies most of North Korea’s crude.

A U.S. official, familiar with the council negotiations and speaking on condition of anonymity, said North Korea imported about 4.5 million barrels of refined petroleum products annually and 4 million barrels of crude oil.

Chinese officials have privately expressed fears that an oil embargo could risk causing massive instability in their neighbor. Russia and China have also expressed concern about the humanitarian impact of stiffer sanctions on North Korea.

Haley said the resolution aimed to hit “North Korea’s ability to fuel and fund its weapons program”. Trump has vowed not to allow North Korea to develop a nuclear missile capable of hitting the mainland United States.

South Korean officials said after the North’s sixth nuclear test that Pyongyang could soon launch another intercontinental ballistic missile in defiance of international pressure. North Korea said its Sept. 3 test was of an advanced hydrogen bomb and was its most powerful by far.

The latest resolution contained new political language urging “further work to reduce tensions, so as to advance the prospects for a comprehensive settlement”.

The resolution also calls on countries to inspect vessels on the high seas, with the consent of the flag state, if they have reasonable grounds to believe the ships are carrying prohibited cargo.

It also bans joint ventures with North Korean entities, except for non-profit public utility infrastructure projects.

(Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Christine Kim in Seoul, Philip Wen in Beijing, Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo, David Brunnstrom in Washington and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Nick Macfie)

‘Alarming’ surge in Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh: UNHCR

Rohingya refugees carry their child as they walk through water after crossing border by boat through the Naf River in Teknaf, Bangladesh, September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

By Krishna N. Das

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) – An alarming and unprecedented influx of 270,000 Rohingya has sought refuge in Bangladesh over the past two weeks from violence in Myanmar, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday, a dramatic jump in the total as new pockets of people are found.

A rights group said satellite images showed about 450 buildings had been burned down in a Myanmar border town largely inhabited by Rohingya, as part of what the refugees say is a concerted effort to expel members of the Muslim minority.

Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said the estimated number of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted on Aug. 25 had surged from 164,000 on Thursday because aid workers doing a survey had found big groups of uncounted people in border areas.

“This does not necessarily reflect fresh arrivals within the past 24 hours but that we have identified more people in different areas that we were not aware of,” she said, adding that the number was an estimate and there could be some double-counting.

But she added: “The numbers are so alarming – it really means that we have to step up our response and that the situation in Myanmar has to be addressed urgently.”

The surge in the number of refugees, many sick or wounded, has strained the resources of aid agencies and communities which are already helping hundreds of thousands displaced by previous waves of violence in Myanmar. Many have no shelter, and aid agencies are racing to provide clean water, sanitation and food.

Two days ago, UNHCR had said the worst-case scenario was 300,000 refugees.

“We need to prepare for many more to come, I am afraid,” said Shinni Kubo, the Bangladesh country manager for the agency. “We need huge financial resources. This is unprecedented. This is dramatic. It will continue for weeks and weeks.”

Rohingya have been fleeing their homes in Myanmar since at least 400 people were killed after insurgent attacks in Rakhine State two weeks ago were followed by an army counter-offensive.

Myanmar says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against “terrorists” it blames for a string of attacks on police posts and for burning homes and civilian deaths.

It says about 30,000 non-Muslims have been displaced by the violence.

About 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims living in Myanmar have long complained of persecution and are seen by many in the Buddhist-majority country as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

“While most Rohingya refugees arrive on foot, mostly walking through the jungle and mountains for several days, thousands are braving long and risky voyages across the rough seas of the Bay of Bengal,” the UNHCR said.

At least 300 boats arrived in Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday, the International Organisation for Migration said.

BURNED BUILDINGS

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said satellite images taken last Saturday showed hundreds of burned buildings in Maungdaw, a district capital in Rakhine State, in areas primarily inhabited by Rohingya.

“The Burmese government has an obligation to protect everyone in the country, but if safety cannot even be found in area capitals, then no place may be safe,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Several thousand people held a protest in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, after Friday prayers against the crackdown on the Rohingya.

Similar protests were held in Indonesia and Malaysia, also Muslim-majority countries. Scores of people also staged protests outside the Myanmar embassies in Tokyo and Manila.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was considering raising the Rohingya issue when he holds talks with U.S. President Donald Trump next week.

Earlier, the head of Malaysia’s coastguard said it would not turn away Rohingya and was willing to provide them temporary shelter, although it is unlikely any refugees would travel hundreds of kilometers south by sea during the monsoon season.

Najib told reporters the Rohingya issue had to be resolved “at the source”.

“It is unfair for affected parties to inflict more cost to Malaysia to manage and to receive these people when they should be allowed fundamental and universal rights that have been denied to them,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor in Jakarta, Rozanna Latiff in Kuala Lumpur and Tom Miles in Geneva; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Exodus of Rohingya to Bangladesh tops quarter of a million: UNHCR

By Krishna N. Das

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) – An unprecedented surge of 270,000 Rohingya has sought refuge in Bangladesh over the past two weeks, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday, as it announced a dramatic jump in the total as new pockets of people fleeing violence in Myanmar are found.

Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said the estimated number of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted on Aug. 25 had risen from 164,000 on Thursday because aid workers had found big groups of uncounted people in border areas.

“The numbers are so alarming – it really means that we have to step up our response and that the situation in Myanmar has to be addressed urgently.”

The wave of refugees, many sick or wounded, has strained the resources of aid agencies and communities which are already helping hundreds of thousands displaced by previous waves of violence in Myanmar. Many have no shelter, and aid agencies are racing to provide clean water, sanitation and food.

Two days ago, UNHCR had said the worst-case scenario was 300,000 refugees.

While most refugees are coming on foot many are also braving the sea. At least 300 boats carrying Rohingya arrived in the Bangladesh border district of Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

The latest flight of Rohingya from their homes in Myanmar began two weeks ago after Rohingya insurgents attacked security force posts in Rakhine State. That triggered an army counter-offensive in which at least 400 people were killed.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against “terrorists” it blames for the attacks on the security forces and for burning homes and civilian deaths.

It says about 30,000 non-Muslims have been displaced by the violence.

The 1.1 million Rohingya living in Myanmar have long complained of persecution. They are denied citizenship and regarded as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

Rohigya refugees are seen waiting for boat to cross the border through the Naf river in Maungdaw, Myanmar, September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

BURNED BUILDINGS

There is very limited access to the north of Rakhine State and few if any independent witnesses so the situation for Rohingya still there is a major concern, with fears a humanitarian crisis could be unfolding there too.

“What we know is what people are saying as they come across, and what they’re saying now, given this been going on since Aug. 25, is they are in an absolutely desperate state,” said Leonard Doyle of the IOM.

“They say living out in open, without protection from the tropical sun with their children, without enough food to eat.”

Bangladesh has proposed creating “safe zones” run by aid groups for Rohingya in Myanmar. But it would seem the plan is unlikely to be accepted there.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said satellite images taken last Saturday showed hundreds of burned buildings in Maungdaw, a district capital in Rakhine State, in areas primarily inhabited by Rohingya.

“If safety cannot even be found in area capitals, then no place may be safe,” said Phil Robertson, the group’s deputy Asia director.

A Myanmar reporter in the north of the state said he had got reports from residents of an area called Rathedaung that six villages had been torched and there had also been shooting in the area. It was not clear who was responsible.

Several thousand people held a protest in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, after Friday prayers against the crackdown on the Rohingya.

Protests were also held in Indonesia and Malaysia, also Muslim-majority countries. Scores of people staged protests outside the Myanmar embassies in Tokyo and Manila.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the Rohingya issue had to be resolved “at the source” and he was considering raising it when he holds talks with U.S. President Donald Trump next week.

The rainy season ends in late November, bringing calmer weather when more boats are likely to head for Southeast Asia.

The coastguard said it would watch waters near its Indian Ocean border with Thailand in anticipation of Rohingya arriving.

Thailand has also said it is preparing to receive people fleeing Myanmar, while Singapore said it was ready to help with the humanitarian effort.

A Rohingya refugee girl drinks river water as she waits for boat to cross the border through Naf river in Maungdaw, Myanmar, September 7, 2017.REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

(Additional reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor in Jakarta, Rozanna Latiff ad Liz Lee in Kuala Lumpur, Tom Miles in Geneva; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Robert Birsel)

China agrees U.N. action, and talk, needed to end North Korea crisis

Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors are seen as they arrive at Seongju, South Korea, September 7, 2017. Lee Jong-hyeon/News1 via REUTERS

By Christian Shepherd and Katya Golubkova

BEIJING/VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – China agreed on Thursday that the United Nations should take more action against North Korea after its latest nuclear test, while also pushing for dialogue to help resolve the standoff.

North Korea, which is pursuing its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of international condemnation, said it would respond to any new U.N. sanctions and U.S. pressure with “powerful counter measures”, accusing the United States of aiming for war.

The United States wants the U.N. Security Council to impose an oil embargo on North Korea, ban its exports of textiles and the hiring of North Korean laborers abroad, and to subject leader Kim Jong Un to an asset freeze and travel ban, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

Pressure from Washington has ratcheted up since North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sunday. That test, along with a series of missile launches, showed it was close to achieving its goal of developing a powerful nuclear weapon that could reach the United States.

“Given the new developments on the Korean peninsula, China agrees that the U.N. Security Council should make a further response and take necessary measures,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters.

“Any new actions taken by the international community against the DPRK should serve the purpose of curbing the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs, while at the same time be conducive to restarting dialogue and consultation,” he said, referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

China is by far North Korea’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 92 percent of two-way trade last year. It also provides hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oil and fuel to the impoverished regime.

U.S. President Donald Trump has urged China to do more to rein in its neighbor, which was typically defiant on Thursday.

“We will respond to the barbaric plotting around sanctions and pressure by the United States with powerful counter measures of our own,” North Korea said in a statement by its delegation to an economic forum in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he had an executive order ready for Trump to sign that would impose sanctions on any country that trades with North Korea, if the United Nations did not put new sanctions on it.

‘DIRTY POLITICS’

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in spoke at the regional meeting in Vladivostok and agreed to try to persuade China and Russia to cut off oil to North Korea as much as possible, according to South Korean officials.

North Korea accused South Korea and Japan of “dirty politics” for what it said was the highjacking a meeting meant to be about economic development.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the meeting he thought the North Korea crisis would not escalate into nuclear war, predicting that common sense would prevail.

But he said he believed North Korea’s leadership feared that any freeze of its nuclear program would be followed by what amounted to “an invitation to the cemetery”.

North Korea says it needs its weapons to protect itself from U.S. aggression.

South Korea and the United States are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.

China and Russia have advocated a “freeze for freeze” plan, under which the United States and South Korea would stop major military exercises in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programs.

But neither side appears willing to budge.

Abe later met Putin at the Vladivostok conference and said they both agreed that North Korea’s nuclear test was a serious threat to regional peace and a challenge to global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

Putin said he and Abe decisively condemned North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile that flew over Japan last week.

THAAD DEPLOYMENT

Amid the rising tension, South Korea installed the four remaining launchers of a U.S. anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on a former golf course south of its capital, Seoul, early on Thursday. Two launchers had already been deployed.

More than 30 people were hurt when about 8,000 police broke up a blockade near the site by about 300 villagers and members of civic groups opposed to the THAAD deployment, fire officials said.

The deployment has drawn strong objections from China, which believes the system’s radar could be used to look deeply into its territory and will upset the regional security balance.

China lodged another stern protest on Thursday.

“We again urge South Korea and the United States to take seriously China’s and regional nations’ security interests and concerns, stop the relevant deployment progress, and remove the relevant equipment,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular media briefing.

South Korean Marines wrapped up a three-day firing drill aimed at protecting islands just south of the border with North Korea, while the air force will finish up a week-long drill on Friday.

For a graphic on nuclear North Korea, click: http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/NORTHKOREA-MISSILES/010031V7472/index.html

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim and Soyoung Kim in SEOUL, Christian Shepherd and Vincent Lee in BEIJING, Oksana Kobzeva and Denis Pinchuk in VLADIVOSTOK, Steve Holland, Eric Walsh, Jeff Mason and Jim Oliphant in WASHINGTON and Kiyoshi Takenaka in TOKYO; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel and Nick Macfie)

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