WORLD
CHINA DAILY Wednesday, August 7, 2019 | 11Rouhani says
Iran favors
talks with US
But Washington must lift all sanctions
as tensions soar in Persian Gulf region
TEHERAN — Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday
that Teheran favors talks with
Washington but the United States
must first lift sanctions it imposed
on the Islamic republic.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran
favors talks and negotiations
and, if the US really wants to talk,
before anything else it should lift
all sanctions,” Rouhani said in
remarks aired live on state televi-
sion.
Rouhani said “peace with Iran is
the mother of all peace” and “war
with Iran is the mother of all wars”
as he defended a landmark 2015
nuclear deal between Iran and
world powers.
Rouhani, speaking at the For-
eign Ministry after meeting with
his top diplomat, Mohammad
Javad Zarif, said Iran was ready for
talks regardless of whether or not
the US was party to a landmark
nuclear deal.
“Whether they want to come
into the JCPOA or not, it’s up to
them,” said Rouhani. “JCPOA”
refers to the 2015 deal known for-
mally as the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action, which was signed
by Iran, the US, France, Russia,
Britain, Germany, China and the
European Union.
Rouhani told the US: “If you
want security, if your soldiers want
security in the region, (then agree
to) security for security.”
“You cannot harm our security
and then expect your own security.
Peace for peace and oil for oil,” he
added. “You cannot say that you
won’t allow our oil to be exported.
“Strait for strait. It cannot be
that the Strait of Hormuz to be free
for you and the Strait of Gibraltar
not to be free for us.”
Zarif on Monday confirmed
reports that he had turned down
an offer from a US senator to meet
US President Donald Trump at the
White House.
Tensions between Iran and the
US have soared since Trump
announced last year that the US
was withdrawing from the deal in
May 2018 and began reimposing
sanctions against the Islamic
republic.
The nuclear deal set limits on
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (center) attends a meeting at
the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Teheran on Monday.
IRANIAN PRESIDENCY VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A young woman reacts as a health worker injects her with the
Ebola vaccine, in the city of Goma, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, on Monday. BAZ RATNER / REUTERSContaining an epidemic
1.5b people face extreme water stress
WASHINGTON — Nearly one-
quarter of the world’s population, or
almost 1.5 billion people, live in 17
countries vulnerable to water short-
ages close to “day zero” conditions,
according to a report released on
Tuesday.
The World Resources Institute’s
updated Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas
ranks water stress, drought risk and
riverine flood risk using a peer-re-
viewed methodology.
“Agriculture, industry, and
municipalities are drinking up 80
percent of available surface and
groundwater in an average year” in
the 17 worst affected countries, the
report said.
“When demand rivals supply, even
small dry shocks — which are set to
increase due to climate change — can
produce dire consequences” such asthe recent water crises in Cape Town,
South Africa; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and
Chennai, India, the report said.
The Middle East and North Africa
are home to 12 of the most stressed
countries, while India, which is
ranked 13, has more than three
times the population of the other 16
in its category combined.
“The recent water crisis in Chen-
nai gained global attention, but vari-
ous areas in India are experiencing
chronic water stress as well,” said
Shashi Shekhar, India’s former
water secretary, adding that the tool
could help authorities prioritize
risks.
Qatar, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Jor-
dan, Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,
Eritrea, United Arab Emirates, San
Marino, Bahrain, India, Pakistan,
Turkmenistan, Oman and Botswa-na made up the top 17 vulnerable
countries.
“Water stress is the biggest crisis
no one is talking about. Its conse-
quences are in plain sight in the
form of food insecurity, conflict and
migration, and financial instability,”
said Andrew Steer, CEO of the
World Resources Institute, a non-
profit research organization based
in Washington.
Another 27 countries comprised
the “high baseline water stress” list.
Even countries with low average
water stress can have dire hot spots,
the report found. While the US
ranks a comfortable 71 on the coun-
try list, the state of New Mexico
faces water stress on par with the
United Arab Emirates.AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSEResidents fill water cans from a government-provided tanker in Chennai, India, on June 30.
ATUL LOKE / GETTY IMAGESModi’s move draws praise, criticism
NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD —
Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s decision to revoke the special
status of the India-controlled part of
the disputed Kashmir region is a
bold gamble to end a three-decades
old armed revolt and draw the terri-
tory closer to the rest of India, the
country’s media said on Tuesday.
The Hindu nationalist-led gov-
ernment on Monday scrapped a
constitutional provision that
allowed the Muslim majority state
of India-controlled Kashmir to
make many of its own laws and
barred non-residents from buying
property there.
“History, in one stroke,” ran a
front-page headline in the Indian
Express newspaper about the big-
gest political move in nearly 70 years
in one of the world’s most milita-
rized regions.
“Mission Kashmir Accomplished:
In one swift stroke, India gets spe-
cial status in state,” The Economic
Times said on its front page.
Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata
Party, or BJP, has long advocated for
an end to India-controlled Kashmir’s
special status, saying it hindered the
region’s development and spurred
young people to join the Muslim
insurgency against Indian rule.
But none of former Indian govern-
ments has tried to change the autono-
my granted to India-controlled
Kashmir after it acceded to India in1947, fearing more violence in a
region where tens of thousands of
people have died in the insurgency of
the past 30 years and India has
fought two wars with Pakistan, which
also has claims over the region.
“BJP’s Kashmir move is bold, but
has risks,” The Hindustan Times
newspaper said in its editorial, add-
ing that the government must now
reach out to Kashmiris.
New Delhi gave no prior warn-
ing that it planned to withdraw the
special status of India-controlled
Kashmir.Isolated from outside
The measure is likely to provoke a
backlash in the region, where hours
before Monday’s decision, Indian
authorities cut off mobile, internet
and cable television networks in a
bid to prevent protests.
India-controlled Kashmir
remained virtually isolated from the
outside world for a second day on
Tuesday with phone and internet
links cut and thousands of troops
enforcing a curfew.
India’s lower house of Parliament
was set to ratify the bill on Tuesday
to remove special status of India-
controlled Kashmir.
Editorials and social media in
Pakistan were buzzing over Modi’s
decision.
The Pakistani parliament on
Tuesday opened a debate on theIndian government’s decision to
cancel the special status.
Pakistani President Arif Alvi has
summoned the emergency session
of Parliament to form a consensus
on the Indian government’s deci-
sion. Pakistani Prime Minister
Imran Khan was expected to
attend the session.
Pakistan’s military “firmly stands”
by Kashmiris, General Qamar Javed
Bajwa, the country’s army chief said
on Tuesday.
Pakistan was braced for protests
on Tuesday, a day after India’s con-
troversial move that Islamabad has
branded as “illegal”.
Demonstrations were set to kick
off in the early afternoon with pro-
tests planned in Muzaffarabad, the
largest city in Pakistan-controlled
Kashmir, alongside rallies in Lahore,
Karachi, and the capital Islamabad.
A United Nations’ spokesman
said on Monday that Secretary-Gen-
eral Antonio Guterres is very con-
cerned about rising tensions in the
Kashmir region and is urging all
parties “to exercise restraint”.
“We are following with concern
the tense situation in the region,”
spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
“We’re also aware of reports of
restrictions on the Indian side of
Kashmir, and we urge all parties to
exercise restraint.”AGENCIES—XINHUATyphoon Francisco slams Kyushu Island
By WANG XU in Tokyo
[email protected]
At least one man has died and
several others were injured on
Japan’s southwestern island of Kyu-
shu as a strong typhoon hit the
country on Tuesday.
According to the Japan Meteoro-
logical Agency, Typhoon Francisco,
this season’s eighth typhoon, land-
ed on the city of Miyazaki around 5
am on Tuesday, bringing strong
winds and torrential rain as it trav-
eled northward.
The dead man, who appeared to
be in his 50s, was found in a swollen
river by police in Oita prefecture.
Nearly 130 flights were canceled
because of the typhoon, said Japa-
nese airlines. Several train services
was also canceled on Tuesday, Kyu-
shu Railway Co said.
At least 24,710 households on
Tuesday lost power in 11 Kyushu cit-
ies and towns, according to Kyushu
Electric Power Co.
At 8:30 pm on Tuesday, around
760 households were still in the
dark.
Several people in Kyushu, the
country’s third-largest island,
were reported injured by the
heavy storm.
Among them was a 55-year-old
woman who was blown over by thewind while taking out her garbage.
The strongest wind was recorded
in Miyazaki. It reached a speed of
140 kilometers per hour while in
Nobeoka, a city 100 kilometers to
the north, received 95.5 millime-
ters of rain in an hour.
Francisco was the second
typhoon to make landfall in Japan
this year after Typhoon Nari on
July 27.
Moving northwest from Japan at
a speed of 24 kilometers per hour,
Francisco was expected to land on
South Korea between Tuesday
night and Wednesday morning,
according to South Korea’s meteor-
ological administration.Hiroshima
marks 74th
anniversary
of atomic
bombing
HIROSHIMA, Japan — Hiro-
shima marked the 74th anniver-
sary of the atomic bombing of
the city with its mayor renewing
calls for eliminating such weap-
ons and demanding Japan’s gov-
ernment do more.
Mayor Kazumi Matsui raised
concerns in his peace address on
Tuesday about the rise of self-cen-
tered politics in the world and
urged leaders to steadily work
toward achieving a world with-
out atomic weapons.
“Around the world today, we
see self-centered nationalism in
ascendance, tensions heightened
by international exclusivity and
rivalry, with nuclear disarma-
ment at a standstill,” Matsui said
in his peace declaration.
He urged the younger genera-
tions never to dismiss the atomic
bombings and the war as a mere
events of history, but think of
them as their own, while calling
on the world leaders to come visit
the nuclear bombed cities to
learn what happened.
Matsui also demanded Japan’s
government represent the will of
atomic bombing survivors and
sign a UN nuclear weapons ban
treaty.Japan, which hosts 50,
troops from the United States and
is protected by the US nuclear
umbrella, has not signed the Trea-
ty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons, which shows Japan’s
lack of sincerity, say atomic bomb-
ing survivors and pacifist groups.
The annual memorial ceremo-
ny, held at the Peace Memorial
Park near Ground Zero, was
attended by about 50,000 people,
including representatives from
about 90 countries and regions.
Survivors and other partici-
pants marked the 8:15 am blast
with a minute of silence.
A uranium-core atomic bomb
named “Little Boy”, dropped onto
Hiroshima in western Japan by a
US bomber, exploded above the
city on Aug 6, 1945, killing an esti-
mated 140,000 people by the end
of the year.
Nagasaki was also hit by an
atomic bomb on Aug 9, 1945,
prompting Japan’s surrender
and the end of World War II.
Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe delivered a speech
during the ceremony, stressing
the importance of continuing
efforts to realize “a world free of
nuclear weapons”.
As the only country that has
experienced atomic bombings in
war, Japan’s duty to eliminate
nuclear weapons remains
unchanged even in the new Rei-
wa era, Abe said.
Japan is determined to serve as
a mediator between nuclear
weapon states and non-nuclear
weapon states and take the lead
in making such efforts in the
international community, he said.
He also acknowledged widen-
ing differences between nuclear
and non-nuclear states. “Japan is
committed to serve as a bridge
between nuclear and non-nucle-
ar states and lead the interna-
tional effort, while patiently
trying to convince them to coop-
erate and have a dialogue.”
He vowed to maintain Japan’s
pacifist and nuclear nuclear-free
principles, but did not promise
to sign the treaty.AGENCIES—XINHUAWe see self-centered
nationalism in
ascendance,
tensions heightened
by international
exclusivity and
rivalry, with nuclear
disarmament at a
standstill.”Kazumi Matsui,
Hiroshima mayorIran’s nuclear program in
exchange for the removal of puni-
tive economic sanctions.
Following the US pullout from
the nuclear accord and reimposi-
tion of sanctions, Iran’s oil exports
have seen a sharp decline.
At the height of the crisis,
Trump said he called off airstrikes
against Iran at the last minute in
June after the Islamic republic’s
forces shot down a US drone.Zarif said on Monday that Iran’s
minimum demand for oil sales
under the 2015 nuclear deal is 2.
million barrels per day.
Besides, the European parties
should fulfill their promises con-
cerning the return of Iranian pet-
rodollars after the oil sales, Zarif
said.
He said Iran will take another
step to reduce its nuclear commit-
ments if the parties to the deal fail
to secure Iran’s economic inter-
ests.
It is worth noting that Iran has
recently withdrawn from parts of
its obligations under the deal.
To secure trade with Iran and
skirt US anti-Iran sanctions, the
European Union announced in
January the launch of a special
payment channel with Iran known
as Instrument in Support of Trade
Exchanges.
However, Teheran said the EU
mechanism lacks feasibility in
supplying Iran with petrodollars.
Iran has also been locked in a
high-seas standoff with the United
Kingdom — a US ally — since Roy-
al Marines helped to seize a tanker
carrying Iranian oil off Gibraltar
on July 4.AGENCIES—XINHUAYou cannot harm our
security and then
expect your own
security. Peace for
peace and oil for oil.”Hassan Rouhani,
Iranian president