8 Tuesday July 30, 2019
WORLD
Boys stare at the site of Sunday’s attack in Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday, a day after a deadly assault targeting a political
campaign office. Deadly violence marred the start of the Afghanistan election season on the weekend after President Ashraf Ghani
insisted “peace is coming” to the war-torn nation. Photo: VCG
Trump’s spy chief Dan Coats resigns
Peru president
urges elections
to end crisis
Peru’s President Martin Viz-
carra on Sunday offered to cut
short his term and hold elec-
tions to end what he called an
institutional crisis.
He said in a speech to Con-
gress this would also involve
shortening the term of the leg-
islature. As it stands, general
elections are scheduled for July
next year.
Vizcarra’s proposal comes
with Peru’s executive and legis-
lative branches locked in a mas-
sive power struggle.
The president said his idea
would need to be passed by
the opposition-controlled legis-
lature, and then approved in a
referendum.
“The voice of the people
must be heard,” Vizcarra told
lawmakers, as some cheered
him and others yelled insults,
in a session on Peru’s national
day.
“Peru is screaming out for
a new beginning,” Vizcarra
said.
If Congress agrees to the
president’s proposal, the refer-
endum will be held at the end
of the year and the elections
“on the second Sunday of April
2020,” Justice Minister Vicente
Zeballos said.
Shaken by a string of high-
profile corruption scandals,
Peruvians overwhelmingly ap-
proved Vizcarra’s anti-corrup-
tion reforms in a December
referendum.
But he has repeatedly
clashed with Congress, which
is dominated by the Popular
Force party of Keiko Fujimori,
who is herself in prison pend-
ing trial on corruption charges
linked to Brazilian construction
giant Odebrecht.AFPThe death toll from a suicide
attack on the Kabul office
of Amrullah Saleh, Afghan
President Ashraf Ghani’s run-
ning mate in September elec-
tions, reached 20 with at least
50 wounded, officials said on
Monday as cleanup operations
began.
Saleh, a former intelligence
chief and security adviser
who is running for vice presi-
dent with Ghani, was slightly
wounded in Sunday’s attack on
the office of his Green Trends
party in central Kabul.
No group has so far claimed
responsibility for the attack,
which came at the start of of-
ficial campaigning for presi-
dential elections scheduled for
September 28.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the vet-
eran Afghan-American dip-
lomat who is leading the US
side in peace negotiations with
the Taliban, condemned Sun-
day’s attack and said the per-
petrators must be brought to
justice.
“The attack on Amrullah
Saleh’s political party offices
was grotesque and a clear
act of terrorism,” he said on
Twitter.
Already delayed twice this
year, the elections are likely to
prove a severe organizational
and security test for Ghani’s
government, which came to
power in 2014 following a bit-
terly fought campaign and apoll marred by accusations of
widespread fraud.
Sunday’s attack added to an
anxious mood in Kabul, where
there is concern over chaotic
election preparations and un-
certainty about the future of US
military support for the Afghan
government.
US diplomats have been
talking with the Taliban for
months to agree a timetable for
the withdrawal of foreign forces
in exchange for security guar-
antees. The talks are expected
to resume early next month
amid increasing expectations
that the two sides are close to
an agreement.
Ghani declared on Sunday
that peace was coming but hehas so far been excluded from
the talks because of the Tali-
ban’s refusal to negotiate with
a government it considers a
foreign-appointed “puppet” re-
gime.
The attack in central Kabul- a virtual fortress of concrete
blast walls, razor wire and po-
lice checkpoints – underlined
how difficult it will be to main-
tain security during the election
campaign, with government
control slipping across the
country.
AFPUS intelligence chief Dan Coats will
leave office next month, US President
Donald Trump announced on Sunday,
after a tenure in which he was regularly
at odds with the president.
The departure of Coats – who has,
however, sought to avoid direct confron-
tation with Trump during his time as
Director of National Intelligence – is the
latest high-profile exit from the mercu-
rial president’s turnover-plagued admin-
istration.
Trump tweeted that Coats will leave
on August 15, saying he plans to nomi-
nate Representative John Ratcliffe of
Texas, who serves on the House intelli-
gence, judiciary and homeland security
committees, to replace him.
“A former US Attorney, John will lead
and inspire greatness for the Country
he loves,” Trump wrote, also thanking
Coats “for his great service to our Coun-
try.”
If Ratcliffe’s nomination is approved,
Trump will get an intelligence chief who
is more in synch with his views.
In Congress, he has been a staunch
defender of Trump and has criticized
two of the president’s nemeses, former
FBI chief James Comey and special
counsel Robert Mueller.
Ratcliffe has also said he has “seenno evidence” that Russian election
meddling helped bring Trump to of-
fice, has backed the president’s asser-
tion that court-approved surveillance of
his campaign amounted to spying, and
has supported his hawkish policy on
Iran.
The choice of Ratcliffe was hailed by
various Republicans – including House
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who
tweeted that he “will bring strength and
accountability in his new role” – but
drew criticism from other quarters.
“Our Director of National Intelligence
should be above partisan politics, speak
truth to power, and resist Trump’s abus-es of authority. John Ratcliffe doesn’t fit
that bill,” Democratic presidential hope-
ful Elizabeth Warren tweeted.
Coats has not seen eye-to-eye with
Trump on a range of issues while serv-
ing as the official who oversees and co-
ordinates the CIA, NSA and other US
espionage bodies.
He backed the US intelligence
community’s conclusion that Rus-
sia interfered in the 2016 election
that brought Trump to office – some-
thing the president was long loath to
acknowledge.AFPDeath toll from attack on Afghan VP candidate’s office rises to 20
Arch loyalist John Ratcliffe to replace exiting director
Page Editor:
wangbozun@
globaltimes.com.cn