US sounds alarm on China seapower

The United States voiced concern Wednesday about rising tension between China and Vietnam in the South China Sea as a senator led calls to boost US seapower faced with Beijing's growing military.
Experts at a Senate hearing pointed to a string of incidents -- including standoffs this year between US and Chinese ships -- as evidence of a more assertive sea posture by Beijing.

State Department official Scot Marciel said that Beijing has told US and other foreign oil companies to halt work with Vietnamese partners in the South China Sea or face consequences inside lucrative China.

"We object to any effort to intimidate US companies," Marciel, a deputy assistant secretary of state handling Asia, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said Washington has raised concerns directly with China.

"We have also urged that all claimants exercise restraint and avoid aggressive actions to resolve competing claims," he said.

But Marciel said the United States would not take sides on the myriad island disputes involving China and its neighbors including Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Senator Jim Webb, who called the hearing, said he understood the need to stay out of Asia's sometimes emotionally charged territorial disputes but worried that the lack of US position may embolden China.

"We don't discuss it enough here in the United States -- we are the only guarantor there to provide a credible umbrella under which those other countries in the region can successfully grow their economies without intimidation," said Webb, a Democrat from Virginia.

Webb, a former secretary of the navy, worried that China was quickly closing the gap with the United States in seapower.

"If the United States is to remain an Asian nation, and a maritime nation, our nation's leaders have a choice to make," he said. "The United States should maintain the quality and strength of its seapower -- if not improve it."

China, which has historic tensions with Vietnam, has administered the Paracel islands since 1974 when it overran a South Vietnamese outpost shortly before the end of the Vietnam war.

The islands -- known as the Xisha by China -- are considered strategic outposts with potentially vast oil and gas reserves, and rich fishing grounds.

Tension recently mounted when Vietnam named a "president" for a government body overseeing the islands.

China disputes the Diaoyu, or Senkaku, chain with Japan along with Taiwan, which Beijing also claims as a whole.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso raised hackles in Beijing earlier this year when he said the United States would defend the uninhabited chain as part of its security alliance with Tokyo.

Separately, the potentially oil-rich Spratly island chain is claimed entirely or in part by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Richard Cronin, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Stimson Center think-tank, told the Senate hearing that President Barack Obama should end the "passive" US attitude on sovereignty issues.

"The Obama administration should lend at least moral support to Southeast Asian countries which are subject to intimidation, and be resolute in asserting its own rights to free passage in the face of Chinese provocations," Cronin said.

But he said the United States would fail if it tried to "stigmatize" China.

"Instead, we should make every effort to respect China's aspirations for leadership and major power status, but within the internationally recognized rules," Cronin said.

Israel tests anti-rocket system

Iron Dome is expected to be able to intercept rockets with a range from four kilometres to 70 kilometres (2.5 to 44 miles).

Israel has successfully tested a system that intercepts and destroys rockets such as those fired by militants from the Gaza Strip or from south Lebanon, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.
The "Iron Dome" system developed by public armaments firm Rafael was tested successfully in recent days and destroyed an unspecified number of incoming rockets, the ministry said in a statement.

More tests are expected in the next few months before the defence system is deployed in southern Israel to counteract rockets fired by Palestinian militants based in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The military commentator of private television Channel 10 said meanwhile the defence ministry wants to deploy the system near the southern Israeli border town of Sderot by the beginning of 2010.

Iron Dome is expected to be able to intercept rockets with a range from four kilometres to 70 kilometres (2.5 to 44 miles).

"This system is a new defence element against rockets and will allow the Israeli army to better carry out its supreme duty which is to protect, in the best way, our civilian population," Defence Minister Ehud Barak said.

The Israeli military says militants have fired more than 200 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel since the January 18 end of the Jewish state's 22-day military offensive against Gaza.

Israeli areas near the Palestinian enclave have been the target of homemade Qassam rockets fired by Palestinian militants since the start of the intifada in September 2000.

The militant Shiite group Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 Katyusha rockets at Israel during the 2006 summer war between the two sides, forcing one million residents to flee homes in north Israel or hide in shelters.

US won't stand in Israel's way on Iran: Biden

Iran speaker warns US over Biden's Israel remarks
Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani issued a warning against the United States Monday after Vice President Joe Biden said Washington would not dictate the way Israel deals with Tehran's nuclear ambitions. "We will consider the Americans responsible in any adventure launched by the Zionist entity," Larijani told reporters during an official visit in Doha, referring to Israel. "No politician or person in the world can imagine that the Zionist entity can lead an operation without getting the green light from the United States," said Larijani, Iran's former nuclear negotiator. He warned that Iran's response to an attack would be "decisive and painful". Biden said in an television interview on Sunday that the United States would not stand in the way of Israel in its dealings with Iran's nuclear ambitions. "Israel can determine for itself -- it's a sovereign nation -- what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else," Biden told ABC television. "Whether we agree or not. They're entitled to do that... We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're existentially threatened." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out a possible military strike against Iran, insisting that Tehran must not obtain nuclear weapons. Iran denies that is wants to build an atomic bomb. Larijani slammed Biden's comments as a "political manoeuvre. We have heard a lot of these words in the past." "Biden, by saying that they (the United States) can't prevent such an operation, has taken the wrong route and revealed his card," he said. Asked about US calls for dialogue, Larijani said: "We want to work seriously. ... But on one side they tell us 'we want to resolve the problems and negotiate,' on another we hear what Mr. Biden says."

US Vice President Joe Biden said, in an television interview, that the United States would not stand in the way of Israel in its dealings with Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"Israel can determine for itself -- it's a sovereign nation -- what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else," Biden told ABC television's "This Week" Sunday.

"Whether we agree or not. They're entitled to do that... We cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination, that they're existentially threatened."

But the top US military officer meanwhile warned of the dangers posed by any military strike against Iran.

"It could be very destabilizing, and it is the unintended consequences of that which aren't predictable," Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told "Fox News Sunday."

However, he added: "I think it's very important, as we deal with Iran, that we don't take any options, including military options, off the table."

A senior Iranian official visiting Japan said Monday his country would respond "in a very full-scale and very decisive way" if it were attacked by Israel.

"I think that America and Israel are fully aware what kind of result such a wrong judgement will entail," Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said.

President Barack Obama has said he wants to see progress on his diplomatic outreach to Iran by year's end, while not excluding a "range of steps," including tougher sanctions, if Tehran continued its controversial nuclear drive.

Hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out a possible military strike against Iran, insisting that Tehran, which the Mossad spy agency could have a ready-to-launch nuclear bomb within five years, must not obtain nuclear weapons.

"If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice," Biden said. "But there is no pressure from any nation that's going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed."

Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state, contends -- as does the West -- that Iran is seeking to acquire a nuclear arsenal, despite Tehran's repeated denials.

The Jewish state has also called the Islamic Republic a threat to its existence, citing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's call to wipe Israel off the map.

Biden also confirmed that the Obama administration remains open to pursuing negotiations with Tehran, despite the regime's crackdown on protesters following a disputed election outcome last month that saw Ahmadinejad return to power.

"If the Iranians respond to the offer of engagement, we will engage," Biden said. "The offer's on the table."

Mullen declined to say whether the danger posed by a nuclear-armed Iran would be sufficient to outweigh the negative consequences of a US military strike on Tehran's weapons program.

"I think both outcomes are really, really bad outcomes. And that speaks to the very narrow space that we have to try to resolve this so that neither one of those things occur," he said.

North Korea defies UN ban, fires 7 ballistic missiles

- North Korea test launched seven ballistic missiles from its eastern coast Saturday, the Yonhap news agency reported citing South Korea's military.

"North Korea fired a seventh missile at 17:40 [8:40 GMT]. We believe it was launched from the same launch site as the other ones," a South Korean Defense Ministry official who declined to be identified said.

The official said the missiles are Scud-type and flew up to 500 kilometers (300 miles) to fall in the Sea of Japan.

South Korea and Japan resolutely condemned the tests calling the country's actions "provocational, violating UN Security Council resolutions and aimed at escalating tensions in northeast Asia."

The launches have also been condemned by the U.S. State Department. Russia and China voiced concern over the tests.

North Korea is reported to have about 600 Scud missiles, including Hwasong-5 with a range of 300 km (190 miles) and Hwasong-6 (500 km) missiles.

The reclusive Communist state also conducted four test launches of short-range missiles on Thursday.

Japanese and South Korean intelligence sources have said the North appears to be preparing to test-launch two intercontinental ballistic missiles, in defiance of the new United Nations sanctions, but South Korean media said Thursday there were no signs of the North preparing to launch long-range missiles in the near future.

The reclusive communist regime is banned from conducting nuclear tests or launches of ballistic missiles under UN Resolution 1718, which was adopted following North Korea's first nuclear test on October 9, 2006.

However, Pyongyang carried out a second nuclear test on May 25 this year followed by a series of short-range missile launches, and has threatened to build up its nuclear arsenal to counter what it calls hostile U.S. policies.

The move led to the UN imposing new sanctions on North Korea banning the import and export of nuclear material and all weapons except small arms.

N.Korea test launches 4 short-range missiles in one day

The missiles, which appeared to be surface-to-ship, were fired into the East Sea, the agency said.

One was fired at 5:20 p.m. and the other at 6:00 p.m. from Sinsang-ni near the eastern coastal city of Wonsan. The North fired a third missile and fourth at 7:50 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. from Sinsang-ni.

Other officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, were quoted as saying the missiles landed about 100 kilometers off the coast, where the North had imposed a June 25-July 10 maritime ban for a military drill.

Japanese and South Korean intelligence sources have said the North appears to be preparing to test-launch two intercontinental ballistic missiles, in defiance of new UN sanctions.

Japan's Yomiuri daily has suggested, citing its Defense Ministry and U.S. intelligence, that North Korea may even launch a long-range ballistic missile toward the U.S. state of Hawaii in early July.

However, South Korean media said on Thursday that there were no signs of the North preparing to launch long-range missiles in the near future.

The reclusive communist regime is banned from conducting nuclear tests or launches of ballistic missiles under the UN Resolution 1718, which was adopted following North Korea's first nuclear test on October 9, 2006.

However, Pyongyang carried out a second nuclear test on May 25 this year followed by a series of short-range missile launches, and has threatened to build up its nuclear arsenal to counter what it calls hostile U.S. policies.

The move led to the UN imposing new sanctions on North Korea banning the import and export of nuclear material and all weapons except small arms