NewYorkTimes.gif Philippine President Blames US, UK for Middle East Violence Associated Press, from Manila, Philippines, in the New York Times, 8 July 2016 The new Philippine president on Friday blamed U.S. intervention for the bloody conflicts in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries in his latest criticism of Manila's closest security ally. President Rodrigo Duterte suggested in a speech that intrusive policy was to blame for terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, saying, "It is not that the Middle East is exporting terrorism to America, America imported terrorism." The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which was backed by Britain, led to Saddam Hussein's downfall but caused the oil-rich nation to descend into bloody factional strife, Duterte said, adding that America's action had no legal basis. "They forced their way to Iraq ... look at Iraq now, look what happened to Libya, look what happened to Syria," he said. "People are being annihilated there including children." "They destroyed the Middle East," Duterte told the Muslim community in southern Davao city in a ceremony marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The former Davao mayor has said he would be a leftist president who would chart a foreign policy not dependent on the United States. He has pointed out the benefits of nurturing friendly relations with Beijing, including a Chinese offer of financing railway projects in the Philippines. The country has had frosty ties with China under Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, who bolstered security ties with the U.S. to deter China's aggressive actions in disputed South China Sea territories. Duterte has given allies of communist rebels at least two key posts in his Cabinet as part of an effort to forge a peace deal with the Maoist insurgents, who have waged a Marxist insurgency for decades and are labeled terrorists by Washington. Duterte's speech Friday centered on his plan to open peace talks with two large Muslim rebel groups in southern Mindanao region, homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation. Duterte's plan includes shifting the country to a federal system that would give more autonomy and resources to regions like Mindanao, where Davao city is located. He called on Muslims to back his efforts. "As a nation, we must sit down," he said. "Why will we kill each other?" In the case of Abu Sayyaf militants, Duterte said he would not lump them with criminals, saying "these were the guys who were driven to desperation." He did not say how he would try to deal with the extremists although he has warned them in recent weeks to stop a wave of kidnappings for ransom or face "a reckoning one of these days." From: http://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/07/08/world/asia/ap-as-philippines-d uterte-us.html?_r=0 <http://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/07/08/world/asia/ap-as-philippines- duterte-us.html?_r=0&referer=https://www.google.co.uk/> &referer=https://www.google.co.uk/ __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 13773 (20160708) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/003c01d1d95e%2425d6ea90%247184bfb0%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
