TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday called for a stronger alliance with Syria in a bid to resist Israel and its allies over the Palestinian crisis.
In a meeting with visiting Syrian Prime Minister Mahmoud Naji Otri, Ahmadinejad praised the two countries position on the international and regional issues, particularly the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Recent developments in the world proved that Iran and Syria were moving on the right track insisting on the need of resistance against enemies, the Iranian leader said.
Tehran does not recognize Israel and is the main supporter of the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza. Israel and the United States have accused Iran of training Hamas militants in Gaza as well as providing them financing and weapons. Tehran however insists it only gives spiritual and political support to anti-Israel militia groups both in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.
If Iran and Syria have an eminent position in the region, it is because of their resistance based on their correct decisions, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the website of state television IRIB.
Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoudi, in a separate meeting with Otri, urged Damascus to be more on alert about their political enemies tricks, saying: Both countries (Iran and Syria) should be active in supporting unity among all Palestinian groups and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11141 views]
Top|| File under:
A landmark international tribunal to try the suspected killers of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri got under way on Sunday with pledges to provide justice to the victims of terrorism.
The chief prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (SPL), Daniel Bellemare, said the new tribunal constituted the world's first anti-terrorist court.
Bellemare was speaking at a special ceremony to inaugurate the tribunal, set up four years after Hariri's assassination in Beirut in 2005. "By the very nature of its mandate, the SPL is the first international anti-terrorist tribunal," he told reporters.
He said the court was set up not to seek revenge, but "a justice that ensures everybody is treated with dignity and respect".
Under the terms of the tribunal, Bellemare has 60 days to apply to the Lebanese authorities to have four generals held over the killing to be brought to The Hague to face trial. The four include the former head of the presidential guard. Three others, civilians suspected of withholding information and misleading the ongoing probe, were freed on bail by Lebanon on Wednesday. The Canadian prosecutor gave no indication of a date when the tribunal would hold its first trial. "Indictments will be filed when I am satisfied I have enough evidence," he said.
He emphasised the tribunal's independence, asserting that its workings "must and will be above politics".
The tribunal, located in the suburb of Leidschendam, was created by a 2007 UN Security Council resolution and will apply Lebanese law. It has an initial, renewable, three-year mandate. There was no indication of a date for its first trial. The identities of its 11 judges, four of them Lebanese, are being kept secret.
The opening ceremony, attended by UN officials and diplomats, was held at a former gymnasium at the headquarters of the Dutch intelligence service, where the court will sit. The tribunal's registrar, Robin Vincent, told the opening ceremony, "We're not here for the perpetrators of crimes, but for the victims of crimes."
Lebanon's ambassador to the Netherlands, Zeidan Al-Saghir, said the court was a step towards the Lebanese people's belief "that they can reconstruct and rebuild what has been destroyed by war". "What Lebanon is asking you is to serve justice. Justice is our request," he said.
Welcome: The United States welcomed the opening of the Special Tribunal, saying it was "a clear signal that Lebanon's sovereignty is non-negotiable".
"We hope it will help deter further violence and end a sad era of impunity. Too many Lebanese families have never seen justice for the murder of their loved ones," said State Department spokesman Robert A Wood.
Bellemare has hitherto led the international investigation into a series of attacks on Lebanese political and media personalities, notably Hariri's assassination in a car bombing in February 2005 that also killed 22 other people.
The attack on Hariri on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after a 29-year presence. In its early stages, the UN probe into the murder implicated top officials close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Damascus has consistently denied any involvement.
A lawyer for one of the generals held in connection with the crime, Akram Azuri, said last week the tribunal held no fear for the suspects. "They have a clear conscience, they have no problem with the tribunal. They are impatient for it to get underway," he said.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11144 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday called for a stronger alliance with Syria in a bid to resist Israel and its allies over the Palestinian crisis.
A landmark international tribunal to try the suspected killers of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri got under way on Sunday with pledges to provide justice to the victims of terrorism.
