Group items tagged

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Friday that he believed the U.S. and Israel will resolve their differences over Jewish settlements, and accused the Palestinians of using the issue to avoid peace talks.

"The settlements are not an obstacle to advancing peace," Lieberman said on Friday. "In the 19 years before 1967, there were no settlements but there was terror. During the disengagement, Israel evacuated 24 settlements and in response got Hamas rule in Gaza and rockets on Sderot." Advertisement "It's very clear that ... the settlements ... [are] an excuse for those that tried to avoid any peace talks," he said.

Ban, meanwhile, stressed that settlement construction must end and warned of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Tension was growing in the Pacific today as the US navy prepared to intercept a North Korean cargo ship suspected of carrying weapons in defiance of a United Nations ban.

The US navy has been tracking the Kang Nam since it left a North Korean port on Wednesday.

It would be the first ship to be intercepted since the UN last week imposed sanctions on North Korea as punishment for conducting an underground nuclear test last month. The sanctions ban the import and export of nuclear material, missiles and all other weapons other than small arms.

President Barack Obama's "reassertion" of U.S. leadership in the Middle East offers a rare opportunity to get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said.

"A historic settlement is within reach, one that would give the Palestinians their state and freedom from occupation while granting Israel recognition and security to live in peace," wrote Mubarak. Advertisement "Egypt stands ready to seize that moment, and I am confident that the Arab world will do the same," he added.

Egypt has been trying to broker a power-sharing deal between the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and Hamas and Mubarak said the Palestinians must overcome their divisions to achieve their aspirations for statehood.

Speaking in front of an audience of tens of thousands, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Khamenei attacked foreign powers for conspiring to deligitimise the vote, and to destroy the Iranian people's trust in their political leaders. Khamenei's descripton of Britain as the "most treacherous" of Iran's enemies was met by roars of "Death to the UK" from the massed ranks of Basiji militiamen assembled in the prayer hall.

In repsonse, Iran's ambassador to London was summoned to the Foreign Office this morning to explain why Britain had been singled out.

Mousavi was conspicuous by his absence from Friday prayers at Tehran University, where Khamenei was making his first public appearance since controversially endorsing Ahmadinejad's election as president.

"If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible," Khamenei declared in his first address to the nation since the upheaval began. "The result of the election comes from the ballot box, not from the street," the white-bearded cleric told huge crowds thronging Tehran University and surrounding streets for Friday prayers. "Today the Iranian nation needs calm." He said any election complaints should be raised through legal channels. "I will not succumb to illegal innovation," he said, in an apparent reference to the street protests, which have few precedents in the Islamic Republic's 30-year history.

"It's a wrong impression that by using street protests as a pressure tool, they can compel officials to accept their illegal demands. This would be the start of a dictatorship," Khamenei said.

"American officials' remarks about human rights and limitations on people are not acceptable because they have no idea about human rights after what they have done in Afghanistan and Iraq and other parts of the world. We do not need advice on human rights from them," he said.

investigators uncovered evidence that LTTE fighters gunned down civilians who they believed were trying to escape and that government troops threw grenades into bunkers where they knew civilians were sheltering and used a vehicle to run over injured civilians. There are also allegations that wounded civilians may have been bulldozed into mass graves along with the dead.The most controversial claim, however, is that the government authorised a massacre of LTTE cadres after persuading them to surrender.

"If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible," Khamenei declared in his first address to the nation since the upheaval began.

"The result of the election comes from the ballot box, not from the street," the white-bearded cleric told huge crowds thronging Tehran University and surrounding streets for Friday prayers. "Today the Iranian nation needs calm."

He said any election complaints should be raised through legal channels. "I will not succumb to illegal innovation," he said, in an apparent reference to the street protests, which have few precedents in the Islamic Republic's 30-year history.

The U.S. is moving ground-to-air missile defenses to Hawaii as tensions escalate between Washington and Pyongyang over North Korea's recent moves to restart its nuclear-weapon program and resume test-firing long-range missiles.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday that the U.S. is concerned that Pyongyang might soon fire a missile toward Hawaii. Some senior U.S. officials expect a North Korean test by midsummer, even though most don't believe the missile would be capable of crossing the Pacific and reaching Hawaii.

Mr. Gates told reporters that the U.S. is positioning a sophisticated floating radar array in the ocean around Hawaii to track an incoming missile. The U.S. is also deploying missile-defense weapons to Hawaii that would theoretically be capable of shooting down a North Korean missile

"Since of the beginning of the Islamic revolution, thirty years ago ... various incidents [occurred], some of which could have toppled the establishment, which could have brought turmoil to the nation, as you have seen in other nations. "But in this nation which is moving firmly ... this ship did not find any agitation in stormy sea.

Khamenei said that the "great accomplishment" of the 85 per cent turnout at the presidential poll on June 12 conveyed the legitimacy of the country's leadership and "people's solidarity with their establishment."

"If people do not feel free they will not attend the voting stations, trusting the Islamic establishment was evident in this vote."

Mitchell said preparations to revive negotiations could be could conclude within weeks. "We hope to conclude the discussions in which we are now engaged very soon. To me it's a matter of weeks, not many months," he said.

"The only viable resolution to this conflict is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states," Mitchell said on Wednesday. "As President Obama said last week, America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity and a state of their own."

The U.S. knows that when Israel "says it doesn't accept the two-state solution and doesn't want to freeze settlement expansion, that means it says 'no' to resuming negotiations," Erekat said

Washington Post mentioned a 1979 State Department document that concluded the settlements were illegal. The article said it is doubtful Clinton would raise the document during her meeting with Lieberman, in view of the fact that he, too, is a settler.

One of the latest surveys in the U.S. suggests a sharp, 20 percent drop in support for Israel. A survey done for Project Israel nine months ago showed that 69 percent of Americans supported Israel; today that support stands at only 49 percent.

Support for the Palestinians remained unchanged at 7 percent; however the number of those undecided increased. The figures are not unprecedented; following the disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005, support for Israel stood at only 38 percent.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman late Wednesday reiterated Israel’s objection to a complete settlement freeze as the United States considers allowances that could permit some projects already under way to proceed.

"This approach is very clear and also we had some understandings with the previous administration (of George W. Bush) and we try to keep this direction," he said. Clinton disagreed. "In looking at the history of the Bush administration, there were no informal or oral enforceable agreements," she said, repeating earlier statements.

Israel did not have "any intention to change the demographic balance" of the West Bank, said Lieberman, head of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, part of Netanyahu's Likud-led coalition government. "But we think that as in any place, babies are born, people get married, some pass away and we cannot accept this vision about an absolutely complete freezing of settlements," said Lieberman. "I think that we must keep the natural growth," he said.

The political chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard has warned reformists in the country against seeking what he called a "velvet revolution", vowing that it would be "nipped in the bud".

In a statement on its website, Javani drew parallels between Mousavi's campaign and the "velvet revolution'' that led to the 1989 overthrow of the communist government in then Czechoslovakia.

"There are many indications that some extremist [reformist] groups, have designed a colourful revolution ... using a specific colour for the first time in an election," the statement said.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, the leading opposition candidate, had called for a fresh election and he was reported to be reluctant to go along with a recount conducted by the guardian council, a deeply conservative group of Islamic jurists.The council referred to the results declared by Khamenei as ­"provisional", an important symbolic concession. "It is possible that there may be some changes in the tally after the recount," said a spokesman, Abbasali Kadkhodai.

"Based on the law, the demand of those candidates for the cancellation of the vote – this cannot be considered," he told state television.

observers said it was unlikely an establishment body such as the guardian council would rigorously assess how the election was conducted. Half the council is appointed by Khamenei and its ­chairman, Ahmad Jannati, is a hardliner and Khamenei ally. Another council spokesman said the vote had "the least amount of violations reported" of any Iranian election.

"What you're seeing is the result of 30 years of pressure and strangling," said Hossein Rahmati, a 68-year-old carpet seller wearing an old-fashioned 1980s suit to attend the march. "Iran is like a dam about to burst."

"My son was martyred in the Iran-Iraq war. I don't want to lose our Islam. We did not participate in 1979, in the revolution, to have this kind of freedom that Mousavi supporters claim they want."We don't want the freedom they want. Ahmadinejad is a courageous president. There was not any rigging in Friday's election. What's happening now is just [being influenced] by foreigners."

Tehran was a city literally divided yesterday as rival rallies for incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his defeated centrist challenger Mousavi took over either end of Vali Asr Avenue, the city's north-south spine.

Shots have been fired at an opposition rally in Tehran where more than 100,000 Iranians were protesting against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

An Associated Press photographer saw one person killed when shots were fired from a compound for pro-government militiamen. Several other people appeared to have been seriously wounded in Tehran's Azadi Square. BBC's Persian service quoted an eyewitness saying that four protesters have been killed.

The gathering followed an announcement from Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that he had ordered an investigation into claims vote-rigging had given the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a landslide victory.

The son of Colonel Gaddafi today claimed Libya's original prisoner transfer deal with the UK had targeted the Lockerbie bomber and was directly linked to talks on trade and oil. But, in an interview with The Herald newspaper, Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi denied it had anything to do with the eventual release last week of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi. Speaking at his home near Tripoli Saif Gaddafi said the "deal in the desert" more than two years ago - which saw an agreement signed between Tony Blair and Libya allowing prisoner transfers - specifically targeted Megrahi.

Yesterday pressure increased on Mr Brown to disclose details of trade deals negotiated with Libya after it emerged that three ministers visited the country in the 15 months leading up to the release of Megrahi. Lord Jones, then trade minister, travelled to Libya in May last year to speak to business representatives, the Cabinet Office confirmed. Former health minister Dawn Primarolo conducted talks with the Libyan prime minister last November, and Bill Rammell, then Foreign Office minister, held discussions with his Libyan counterparts in February. Home Secretary Alan Johnson also met Libyan health ministers at the World Health Assembly in Geneva last year when he was health secretary.

Saif Gaddafi told The Herald he denied there had been a quid pro quo and said his comments had been misunderstood partly because people do not understand the difference between the PTA and compassionate release. He said: "This (the PTA) was one animal and the other was the compassionate release. They are two completely different animals. The Scottish authorities rejected the PTA." Saif Gaddafi said the prisoner transfer agreement in Megrahi's case was "meaningless". "He was released for completely different reasons," he added.

Its leader, Yukio Hatoyama, has quietly modified early promises to end Japan's "subservience" to US foreign policy, but he remains committed to enhancing his country's Asian identity through closer ties with China and South Korea.And while he has yet to augment his antipathy to US-led "market fundamentalism" with a clear alternative, the ambiguity that is the luxury of opposition parties looks certain to keep him safe until after the election.