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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Jim Franklin

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Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Israel levels Palestinian homes - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...200910282211496109.html

Israeli Palestinian conflict East Jerusalem demolition

shared by Jim Franklin on 28 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Israeli authorities have torn down several Palestinian houses in occupied east Jerusalem, defying international calls to halt the demolitions in the disputed city. 
  • Palestinians say that the municipality discriminates against them, making it virtually impossible for them to get legal permits for new homes or extensions to existing ones.
  • As a result, thousands of effectively illegal structures have been built in recent decades with Israel responding by destroying dozens of houses each year.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The forced evictions and demolitions have raised tensions in the eastern half of the city, which Palestinians see as the capital of any future independent state.
Jim Franklin

BBC NEWS | Middle East | UN team 'sees Iran nuclear site' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8324511.stm

Iran USA diplomacy IAEA nuclear program

shared by Jim Franklin on 25 Oct 09 - Cached
  • A team from the UN's nuclear watchdog has inspected a previously secret uranium enrichment plant in Iran, Iranian officials and media have said.
  • The inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are expected to visit the facility, near the holy city of Qom, again over the next two days.
  • Sunday's inspection was the first time monitors from the IAEA had been allowed access to Iran's second enrichment facility, which is being built into a mountainside 160km (100 miles) south of Tehran.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • But having had weeks before the first inspection, the Iranians would have had plenty of opportunity to remove anything there that might have been incriminating, our correspondent says.
  • Our correspondent says that there has also been a setback in Iran to the IAEA deal.
Jim Franklin

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Twin Baghdad blasts kill scores - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8324546.stm

Iraq insurgency US withdrawal

shared by Jim Franklin on 25 Oct 09 - Cached
  • At least 132 people have been killed and 520 injured in two car bomb attacks in Baghdad, Iraqi officials say.
  • This is the deadliest attack in Iraq since August 2007 and comes three months after the US handed security control of cities to local forces.
  • Iraq then blamed foreign fighters and accused Syria of involvement, demanding a UN investigation.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The Iraqi authorities said the attackers were suicide bombers.
  • finger of blame is likely to point to insurgents or foreign fighters trying to destabilise the security situation ahead of Iraqi elections in mid-January.
  • Overall, violence has dropped dramatically in Iraq compared to a year ago, but sporadic attacks still continue in several parts of the country.
  • The attacks have drawn comparison with those of 19 August, when truck bombs hit two ministry buildings and killed at least 100 people.
Jim Franklin

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran delays reply on nuclear plan - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8322901.stm

USA diplomacy Iran Russia France IAEA nuclear program

shared by Jim Franklin on 23 Oct 09 - Cached
  • "Iran informed the Director General today that it is considering the proposal in depth and in a favourable light, but needs time until the middle of next week to provide a response," the IAEA said in a statement.
  • State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said: "We hope that they will next week provide a positive response."
  • He added that "obviously we would have preferred to have a response today [Friday]. We approach this with a sense of urgency".
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • State TV said Iran would prefer to buy uranium for its research reactor, rather than send its own stock abroad for enrichment, as proposed.
  • Iran's rejection of the deal would come as a disappointment to the US, Russia and France, and it could make the wider negotiation with Iran much more difficult - and the threat of sanctions more likely, says the BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna.
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Israel 'must be serious on peace' - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...200910222109748934.html

politics Israel USA peace diplomacy

shared by Jim Franklin on 22 Oct 09 - No Cached
  • Israel must decide whether it is serious about peace or whether it will pay "only lip service" to the idea, Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has said.
  • But his moves to reach out of the Muslim world have alarmed critics in Israel who fear he will depart the near-unconditional support for Israel shown by his predecessors.
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Israel push to change laws of war - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...2009102122137152596.html

politics Israel Goldstone war crimes Gaza

shared by Jim Franklin on 21 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Israel's prime minister has instructed his government to draw up plans for a "world wide campaign" to lobby for changes in the international laws of war.
  • Israeli government contends international law needs to be amended in order to fight global terrorism.
  • The statement was backed by Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, who said a change in the international laws of war was "in the interest of anyone fighting terrorism".
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • An Israeli official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the issue of establishing an official inquiry into the conduct of the military during the Gaza campaign was not raised at Tuesday's meeting.
  • "What peace process are they talking about? There isn't one."
Jim Franklin

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran nuclear fuel deal 'agreed' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8318258.stm

Iran USA diplomacy nuclear program Russia France IAEA

shared by Jim Franklin on 21 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Iran and three world powers have been handed a draft agreement aimed at reducing international concerns over Tehran's nuclear programme.
  • International Atomic Energy Agency, which proposed the plan after talks in Vienna, wants an answer by Friday.
  • plan is believed to involve Iran exporting uranium to be enriched in France and Russia.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • "Everybody at the meeting was trying to help, trying to look to the future and not to the past, trying to heal the wounds that existed for many years," he said.
  • enriched uranium would then be returned to the IAEA and sent to France, which has the technology to add the "cell elements" needed for Iran's reactor, they said.
  • This process would enable Iran to obtain enough enriched uranium for its research reactor, but not enough to produce a weapon.
  • Iranian chief negotiator Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh talked positively about a deal, but did not mention uranium export.
  • US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Iran to act quickly, and said her country would continue "to discuss the full range of issues that have divided Iran and the United States for too long".
  • We are not prepared to talk just for the sake of talking."
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Iran vows response to suicide blast - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...20091018201522994684.html

Iran diplomacy USA Jundallah terrorism Revolutionary Guard

shared by Jim Franklin on 19 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Iran has promised a swift and crushing response to a suicide attack in the country's Sistan-Baluchestan province that killed at least 35 people, including 11 Revolutionary Guards commanders.
  • a Sunni group called Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, claimed responsibility for the attack.
  • "We consider the recent terrorist attack to be the result of US action. This is the sign of America's animosity against our country," Ali Larijani, Iran's parliamentary speaker, said.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Washington has denied involvement with the group, which it has labelled as a "terrorist" organisation, and condemned the attack.
  • "Reports of alleged US involvement are completely false," he said.
  • Tehran has also suggested that Saudi Arabia and Britain have supported Jundallah
  • Other analysts have rejected the idea that the West supports Jundallah and other ethnic groups.
  • Ali Nouri Zada, the director of the Arab-Iranian Studies Centre in London, told Al Jazeera: "It's very easy to point at Saudi, to the British and Americans ... [but] it [Jundallah] is a local organisation,"
  • "It was expected because Jundallah have issued a statement saying they were going to carry out a suicide attack against those who align themselves with the Revolutionary Guards against their group."
  • The blast occurred ahead of a meeting between Revolutionary Guards commanders and tribal chiefs, part of efforts to foster Shia-Sunni unity in the region. About 10 senior tribal figures were among the dead.
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - Europe - Rights council adopts Gaza report - 2 views

english.aljazeera.net/...2009101610455533672.html

Gaza war crimes Israel Goldstone Palestinian Authority Hamas

shared by Jim Franklin on 16 Oct 09 - Cached
  • The UN human rights council has endorsed the Goldstone report on Israel's war on Gaza, which accuses the military of using disproportionate force as well as laying charges of war crimes on Israeli occupation forces and Hamas.
  • 25 votes to six with 11 countries abstaining and five declining to vote.
  • Hamas 'thankful'
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  • The Palestinian Authority had initially agreed to defer a vote on the UN-sanctioned report, but later backtracked under heavy criticism.
  • The United States and Israel were among those countries which voted against the resolution.
  • the resolution "strongly condemns all policies and measures taken by Israel, the occupying power, including those limiting access of Palestinians to their properties and holy sites".
  • Israel rejected the charges saying the resolution – drafted by the Palestinians with Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Tunisia, on behalf of non-aligned, African, Islamic and Arab nations – threatened peace efforts.
  • The report accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
  • It also accused Hamas, which has de facto control of Gaza, of war crime violations, but reserved most of its criticism for Israel.
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - Americas - PA: Punish Israel for Gaza crimes - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...20091014172335995317.html

Gaza war crimes Israel Goldstone Palestinian Authority

shared by Jim Franklin on 14 Oct 09 - No Cached
  • "The credibility and foundations of international human rights and humanitarian law as well as of the UN as a whole is at stake," he said.
  • Israel's impunity
  • But Gabriela Shalev, Israel's ambassador to the Security Council, did not refer at all to the Goldstone report during the meeting on Wednesday, but dismissed its findings before the debate even began.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • "I regret to say that the Goldstone report is one-sided, biased and therefore wrong - just as the forum and mandate that established its mission," she said.
  • The report accused Israel of using disproportionate force during its war against Gaza-based Palestinian fighters.
  • Israeli officials have condemned the report, saying their country had a right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks.
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Abbas defends Gaza vote delay - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...20091011182856246590.html

Gaza war crimes Abbas Hamas Palestinian Authority

shared by Jim Franklin on 12 Oct 09 - Cached
  • The delay has brought Abbas under immense criticism, particularly from the Palestinian group Hamas.
  • The October 2 postponement in endorsing the UN-sponsored report, listing Israeli and Hamas war crimes during Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip last winter, has angered a majority of Palestinians.
  • Abbas said that Hamas's criticism of the postponement was aimed at bolstering its own position.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • "They want to consecrate their rule and regime in Gaza. They want to ensure the continuity of the division. They aim at weakening the national Palestinian Authority."
  • "He spoke more as the head of the Fatah faction than the president of all the Palestinian people.
  • "It was a very disturbing tone for those hoping for national reconciliation. There is certainly no love lost between the two factions [Hamas and Fatah]," he said. 
Jim Franklin

Israel out of NATO event because of Gaza, Turkish official says - CNN.com - 1 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Israel Gaza war crimes Turkey NATO

shared by Jim Franklin on 12 Oct 09 - Cached
Ed Webb liked it
  • Turkey excluded Israel from a planned NATO military exercise partly because of Turkey's criticism of Israel's Gaza offensive nearly a year ago, Turkey's foreign minister told CNN on Sunday.
  • The Turkish government decided to change the list of participating countries and exclude Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces. As a result, the NATO exercise was effectively scrapped, although a U.S. embassy representative said it was only postponed.
  • "We hope that the situation in Gaza will be improved, that the situation will be back to the diplomatic track. And that will create a new atmosphere in Turkish-Israeli relations as well. But in the existing situation, of course, we are criticizing this approach, [the] Israeli approach."
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Earlier, the Turkish foreign ministry said "a technical matter," not politics, prompted the delay of the Anatolian Eagle exercise.
  • The United States and Italy
  • withdrew their participation from the drill after learning Israel had been excluded
  • tensions have emerged over strong Turkish criticism of the Gaza offensive in December and January.
  • Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January after accusing Israeli President Shimon Peres of killing children during the six-week war.
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Hamas sets new unity talks terms - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...20091010104118293581.html

Hamas Palestinian Authority Abbas Israel peace process Gaza war crimes

shared by Jim Franklin on 10 Oct 09 - Cached
  • A Hamas delegation is meeting Egyptian officials in Cairo to try to set a new date for the signing of a Palestinian unity deal
  • Egypt had earlier announced that Hamas and Fatah of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would travel to Cairo to sign the long-delayed reconciliation deal on October 25-26.
  • The postponement was requested because of the decision by the Palestinian Authority (PA) delegation at the UN Human Rights Council to drop its backing for an immediate vote on a report on the Gaza war, the Hamas source said.
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  • "betrayed" the Palestinian victims of the offensive.
  • Abbas has since sought to backtrack, saying he welcomed a move by Libya to hold an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the report.
  • "this step is likely to defuse tensions, although it is still not clear whether the Palestinians will be able to secure enough votes from states to convene this session of the UN Human Rights Council".
  • US pressure and Israeli threats
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Death sentences for Iran protesters - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...2009101013811496700.html

protesters Iran elections human rights

shared by Jim Franklin on 10 Oct 09 - No Cached
  • Three people arrested after Iran's disputed presidential election have been sentenced to death, the Iranian ISNA news agency said.
  • Bashiri Rad, giving only the initials of the convicts, said that "MZ and AP were convicted for ties with the Kingdom Assembly of Iran and NA for ties with the Monafeghin (exiled opposition group commonly known as People's Mujahideen).
  • Prosecutors said the accused admitted to spying but human rights groups say torture is used to obtain so-called confessions.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • On Friday, Amnesty International urged Tehran to lift the death sentence on Zamani. A member of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, he was among scores of arrested people in the post-vote mass demonstrations, it said.
  • sentences were "not final
Jim Franklin

Lebanon news - NOW Lebanon -Hezbollah commends Saudi-Syrian summit - 0 views

www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx

Hezbollah Hizbullah Lebanon politics government Saudi Arabia Syria

shared by Jim Franklin on 10 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Hezbollah issued a statement on Saturday, commending the “positive outcome of the Saudi-Syrian summit on furthering Arab rapprochement in a manner that serves the causes of the Arabs and the Muslims, and positively affects Lebanon.”
  • “critical phase in light of Israeli attacks against Palestine and Lebanon that are challenging the Arab and the Islamic worlds.”
  • the only available option for confronting the “Zionist threat is by strengthening unity and Arab solidarity and supporting the people’s right to resistance.”
Jim Franklin

Hezbollah, Druze leaders urge unity government - 1 views

www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx

politics Lebanon Hezbollah Hizbullah government

shared by Jim Franklin on 10 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has held talks with Druze leader Walid Jumblatt over the formation of a national unity government in Lebanon.
  • "Both sides agreed on the need to overcome as soon as possible the obstacles hindering the formation of a new government," the two heavyweight politicians said in a joint statement.
  • Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has been trying to form a national unity government since June, when his Western-backed March 14 Alliance won a parliamentary election.
Jim Franklin

The Associated Press: Bomb kills anti-insurgent cleric in Iraq - 0 views

www.google.com/...BxsNuVUEaDuOwmSSCiqGwD9B7LGKO1

Iraq insurgency

shared by Jim Franklin on 10 Oct 09 - Cached
  • A Sunni cleric known for denouncing insurgents in Iraq was killed Friday by a bomb that ripped apart his car, a police official said, in the second targeted attack on a religious figure in as many weeks.
  • Jamal Humadi was driving home after delivering his Friday sermon in Saqlawiyah, 45 miles (75 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, when a bomb attached to his car exploded, the official said. Two passengers were wounded.
  • calling on worshippers to turn away from the sectarian violence that engulfed the country two years ago.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Last week, Sunni cleric Bashir al-Juheishi was killed by a bomb attached to a car — known as a sticky bomb — in Mosul as he left a mosque there.
  • Insurgents carrying out such targeted attacks are using booby-trapped cans of food and toys, the military spokesman for Baghdad security warned on Friday.
  • Al-Moussawi said troops were also alert to the possibility that insurgents could attempt to mobilize children to carry out attacks, though there have been no recent reports of teens attacking security forces.
  • The military has frequently said it believes al-Qaida in Iraq and other insurgent groups are recruiting children and women because they can more easily evade security measures.
Jim Franklin

Yemen child soldier tells of his hatred for al-Houthi rebels - Times Online - 0 views

www.timesonline.co.uk/...article6868811.ece

Yemen civil war houthi

shared by Jim Franklin on 10 Oct 09 - Cached
  • Jubran, who thinks he is 14 but looks a lot younger, has spent the past few months as a fighter for the Government in the civil war against the al-Houthi rebels. Now the former child soldier is a refugee. With both parents dead, he lives in the squalid al-Mazrak refugee camp near the Saudi border.
  • “I don’t feel safe in the night. I always feel like a Houthi will be coming to get me,” says Jubran.
  • Ask him what he wants to do when he grows up, and he doesn’t hesitate. “I want to f*** those Houthis,” he says.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • “My dad was fighting against the Houthis when he died,” says Jubran. “Then I joined the fighters. When I was fighting in the mountains with the soldiers, I used to live in caves. I would just eat whatever, I was not afraid.”
  • “On these Houthis we found a piece of paper saying they will go to paradise. They convince children to fight by giving them this paper that promises they’ll go to paradise.”
  • The rebel leader, Abdul Malek al-Houthi, has said publicly that he wants economic equality and a Shia curriculum in schools but the movement uses darker rhetoric internally. Its slogan is: “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews, victory to Islam.”
  • Jubran’s military career ended in defeat. “The Houthis overtook our site and all of us were thirsty and looking for food. We felt like we’d lost the war and that’s why we ran away,” he says. “We were besieged for three days and then there was some negotiation and we left.”
  • Four have war wounds, including his five-year-old sister, who was hit in the leg when a bullet entered their house.
  • Their mother was with them, but she died of an unknown illness on the journey. Now Jubran shares two tents with 12 other children and his uncle and aunt.
  • Jubran says he cannot go to school. “I’m too busy queueing and asking for things,” he explains.
  • An estimated 150,000 people have been displaced and the death toll is unknown — but the world pays little attention. A UN appeal in September for $23 million fell on deaf ears.
  • Jubran hopes to go home eventually. “I don’t know what will be there. We used to have sheep but they all died, but we do have land. Maybe some time I’ll be able to go back.”
  • Jim Franklin on 10 Oct 09
     
    Wow...basically the definition of a crappy life.
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Scores killed in Pakistan blast - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...200910965717938522.html

Pakistan terrorism Taliban al Qaeda

shared by Jim Franklin on 09 Oct 09 - Cached
  • "The police are now saying that up to 100 kilos [of explosives] - perhaps more than that - may have been used in this particular attack."
  • "What is surprising everyone is that immediately after the attack, the provincial information minister came out and said that he knew where the attack came from, and started saying that people should be united against the Taliban, even though the Taliban have not claimed responsibility," he said.
  • No responsibility claim
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but previous attacks have been blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban.
  • The targets have been mostly security forces and foreigners.
  • operation could start as early as Monday.
Jim Franklin

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Mystery over missing Iran scientist - 0 views

english.aljazeera.net/...200910813627667612.html

Iran USA politics Saudi Arabia nuclear program defection

shared by Jim Franklin on 09 Oct 09 - No Cached
  • Washington has denied any involvement
  • Amiri, who is said to be a researcher at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, disappeared after he went on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June.
  • His family in Tehran said he was closely questioned by Saudi police at the airport and later called his wife from Medina, in Saudi Arabia, before apparently vanishing.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Iranian officials have not publicly identified him as a nuclear scientist, referring to him only as an Iranian citizen.
  • Iran's foreign minister, on Wednesday accused the US of involvement in Amiri's disappearance.
  • "We have found documents that prove US interference in the disappearance of the Iranian pilgrim Shahram Amiri in Saudi Arabia,"
  • Meir Javedanfar, an Iran analyst based in Tel Aviv, said the most likely scenario was that Amiri had defected.
  • it is possible he is what some people call a 'walk-in'
  • we can't rule out that he perhaps walked in himself with the information in order to give himself up and work with the Americans."
  • Turkish, Arabic and Israeli media suggested he defected to the West, but his family has dismissed that.
  • Javedanfar also said Amiri's disappearance in Saudi Arabia would be of particular concern to Tehran.
  • "They scored a victory in the Lebanese elections where Hezbollah [which is backed by Iran] lost, and now we see the Saudi king in Damascus. The Iranian press see that as an effort by Riyadh to reduce Iran's hand.
  • "If you put all these together, I think the Iranian government is particularly worried that this happened on Saudi soil."
  • Malek Ashtar University, where Amiri reportedly worked, is involved in the implementation of "special national research projects" and has faculties in aerospace, electrical engineering and other topics, according to the university's website.
  • Amiri disappeared more than three months before the disclosure of a second uranium enrichment facility that Iran has been building near the city of Qom.
  • The underground plant was kept secret until Iran disclosed its existence last month.
  • Diplomats say it did so only after learning that Western intelligence agencies had discovered the site.
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