BAKU
March 11
(AFP)
Azerbaijan and the United States will have talks in April on regional security, a senior Azerbaijani official said.
Novruz Mamedov, foreign relations adviser to President Heydar Aliyev, said Baku attached enormous importance to the discussions, agreed during Aliyev�s visit to the United States in 1997.
Azerbaijan would be raising its conflict with Armenia over the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, deliveries of Russian arms to Armenia, Russian military bases in the region and the security of pipelines transporting oil from the Caspian Sea.
In a message Wednesday to Aliyev, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright welcomed the fact that he would be attending the NATO summit in April, Mamedov said.
Another aide to Aliyev, Vafa Gulizad, suggested at the end of January that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, Turkey or the United States base troops in Azerbaijan to counter Russian influence in the region.
Moscow took umbrage, demanding an official explanation from Baku.
UNITED NATIONS, March 10 (AFP)
Peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghani opposition were postponed until Thursday, the United Nations said.
The talks, which were to open Wednesday in the capital of Turkmenistan, were delayed because opposition representatives were unable to leave Afghanistan due to bad weather, said UN spokesman Fred Eckhard.
�If they arrive in Ashgabad as scheduled today, the talks should begin Thursday,� he added.
The two sides are expected to discuss a mutual prisoner exchange, a cease-fire and the make-up of a post-war administration with the United Nations acting as a mediator.
The Taliban and UN diplomats arrived in the Turkmen capital on Tuesday evening, a Turkmen foreign ministry spokesman said.
UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said last week that the talks provided the last chance for peace in the war-torn country.
The fundamentalist Taliban controls 80 percent of Afghanistan�s territory after overthrowing the regime of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani in 1996.
ALMATY, March 11
(THE GLOBE)
On March 10 two major national companies� leaders have been changed by the governmental decision. Timur Kulibayev, former vice-president of �Kazakhoil� was appointed as �Kaztransoil��s president. The fate of Erlan Upushev, the former chief of �Kaztransoil�, is yet unknown.
Eugeny Feld, former director-manager of �Kazkommertsbank�, is now the chief of �Gegos� (instead of Aset Nauryzbayev).
The governmental decision became an enigma for the public and the ruling circles.
The press-service of Energy, Industry and Trade Ministry as well as the one of the Prime minister refused commentaries.
Gulnur ORAZYMBETOVA
ALMATY, March 11 (THE GLOBE)
�The oil drilling on the Northern shelf of Caspian Sea, planned on the April this year, would lead to a global ecological catastrophe�, said Ibragim Kunushev, leader of the public movement �Caspiy Tabigaty� addressing a press-conference in Almaty on March 11.
He said that the population of the Atyrau region is very worried by such a perspective and a possible social crisis and was obliged to apply to the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan with a request to introduce moratorium on the sea oil operations in the North of Caspian basin. The drilling would bring about death of fishes and seals as was the matter in the Ural river and Chernaya Rechka on May last year. To preserve the wild life is more important than to develop oilfields of the Caspian shelf, the latter action would be a direct violation of the Article #48.1 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan about specially protected zones of nature, said Ibragim Kunushev
Erkanat ABENI
ALMATY, March 11 (THE GLOBE)
�The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan under different pretexts and without any explanation deters registration of the Republican organization �The Union of Retired Officers�,� said retired general Aitcali Isengulov addressing a press-conference in Almaty on March 11.
He noted that on November 16 last year all necessary documents had been submitted for registration to the Ministry of Justice but since that time no positive reaction from the Ministry was granted.
TEHRAN, March 11 (AFP)
An Iranian paper had harsh words of warning for Azerbaijan Thursday on the eve of the Azeri foreign minister�s visit to Tehran, stressing that Baku should downplay its relations with the West and improve ties with Iran.
�It is not in Baku�s interests to annoy its giant southern neighbor,� the conservative Kayhan International said ahead of a four-day visit from Baku�s Foreign Minister Tofik Zulfugarov beginning Friday.
�Azerbaijan�s security and progress cannot be guaranteed only through flirting with the West,� it said.
Tehran has been particularly angered by Turkmenistan�s plans to build a natural gas pipeline under the Caspian sea via Azerbaijan and Georgia that would bypass the Islamic republic, a plan strongly backed by Washington.
It was also miffed after an aide to Azerbaijan�s President Heydar Aliyev suggested in January that troops from NATO, Turkey or the United States base troops in his country.
�Azerbaijan should also note that Iran is not willing to see a foreign power stationed along its borders,� the paper said.
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