Iran's reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami has withdrawn from the June presidential election, a close aide of the charismatic cleric told AFP on Monday.
"He has taken a decision to withdraw. We will officially announce it tonight or tomorrow in a statement," the aide said, asking not to be identified.
The decision is seen as aimed at securing support from the electorate for Mir Hossein Mousavi, another reformist candidate who is running for the presidency. Mehr news agency on Sunday reported that Khatami had during a recent meeting with his campaign officials indicated his plan to withdraw from the vote, citing attempts to dilute support for reformists.
"Opponents want to divide my supporters and supporters of Mousavi," Khatami was quoted as saying. "It is not in our interest. Also some conservatives are supporting Mousavi. He [Mousavi] thinks that we have to change the situation. Mousavi is popular and will be able to execute his plans and I prefer he stays in the race."
Former Iranian Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi is also planning to run in the June 12 election while incumbent hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is yet to officially announce his candidacy.
Khatami, 65, was president of Iran between 1997 and 2005. Early in his previous presidential term, Khatami inspired the Iranian youth with promises of social and political reforms while Iran's relations with the West were less confrontational than they are now under Ahmadinejad.
During his presidential term, Khatami earned the tag "reformist" for several liberal initiatives that continue even now under the government of his hardline successor Ahmadinejad. He had appointed the first woman to a cabinet post since the 1979 revolution.
A Lebanese parliamentarian praised the opening of his county's first-ever embassy in Syria on Monday but warned that much remained to be done to improve bilateral relations between the two countries.
Monday's move sealed the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the two countries for the first time since they gained independence from France in the 1940s. Syria, which has dominated its small neighbor for nearly three decades, opened an embassy in Beirut in December.
"Lebanon's independence and sovereignty are reaffirmed by this symbolic and yet practical action," the parliamentarian, who asked to remain anonymous, told .The Jerusalem Post. on Monday. "It's a major step on the way to implementing diplomatic relations and implementing the long-standing request of the Lebanese wishing to reinforce independence and sovereignty of Lebanon vis-à-vis Syria."
But, the parliamentarian added, "it's a process" that does not end with the opening of mutual embassies.
The relationship was still "marred by a number of outstanding issues," including the disappearance of hundreds of Lebanese citizens inside Syria whose fate is still not known, he said.
In addition, he said a number of agreements that have been previously signed between Lebanon and Syria that should be revised or even annulled as the two countries embark on a new era of diplomatic relations, particularly the Lebanon-Syria Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination Agreement.
Senior Shiite cleric Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah has prohibited political bribery ahead of the June 7 legislative elections. In a fatwa, or religious edict, issued on Monday, the 73-year-old cleric said it was a "pity" that the issue of vote buying had not provoked any reaction in Lebanon''s political or religious circles.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
But vote-blackmailing is entirely approved by Allan.
Lebanon opened its first embassy in Syria on Monday, five months after the neighbors established diplomatic ties after decades of turbulent relations. Charge d'Affaires Rami Mortada raised the Lebanese flag over the embassy's building located in the Damascus residential neighborhood of Abu Remmaneh, which is also home to the US Embassy.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11141 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
Parliamentary majority leader MP Saad Hariri, said Monday that the general election in June will be a straight choice between Hizbullah and the country's sovereignty. "Our course is justice, independence, freedom, sovereignty and most importantly - Lebanon first," Hariri told AFP in an interview, referring to his coalition backed by the West as well as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
"That is not the case for the other side," he added, referring to the Hizbullah-led alliance.
Hariri, the son and political heir of slain former Premier Rafik Hariri, also insisted that if Hizbullah and its allies won the June 7 vote, he would not join the government.
"It is my democratic right not to take part in such a government and to be in the opposition," he said. "They are desperate for power, but not me."
The June polls are being closely watched by the international community as it will determine whether Lebanese voters choose to maintain the course with a Western-backed alliance or opt for one headed by Hizbullah, which the US considers a terrorist organisation.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11138 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
Vice-president of the Higher Shiite Council Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan said in comments published on Monday that as long as the Palestinian cause was not resolved, the Resistance [Hezbollah] and the Lebanese army "will work hand in hand." He stressed that the Resistance "will not to create a separate state or have arms of its own."
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11135 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
National Liberal Party (NLP) leader Dory Chamoun said in an interview with Ash-Sharq newspaper published on Monday he hoped Speaker Nabih Berri would not be reelected, because "those who allow themselves to put the Parliament's key in their pocket for over a year should not be reelected." But he will be, because that's the way things happen in an oligarchy. If he keels over dead tomorrow morning, there'll be another one just like him ready to take his place by the afternoon. Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11137 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
At least 30 Jundullah militants were killed during recent clashes with Iranian forces in the country's southeast, according to new reports.
On March 7, up to sixty members of the armed group entered the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan, planning to carry out an attack on a security post situated in the Zabol-Zahedan border region. The Jundullah militants intended to blow up the Kouleh Sangi post while the guards were inside, but they were stopped by intelligence and police forces before they could execute the plan.
Reports published following the incident said that at least a quarter of the militants were killed in an aerial and ground operation carried out by Iranian security forces.
More recent accounts, however, indicate that up to 30 of Jundullah members were killed in the attack. They also point out that the ring leader Abdolmalek Rigi had taken part in the clashes. "The ring leader Abdolmalek Rigi fled the scene of the clashes along with the group's other injured members," a security official speaking on condition of anonymity told Press TV.
The clashes came almost two years after one of Jundullah's deadliest attacks, known as the Tasouki incident. On March 25, 2006, armed militants shut down the Bam-Kerman highway in southeast Iran and opened fire on passing cars, killing 22 civilians and wounding six.
Jundullah claimed responsibility for the attack, providing Arab TV channels with a video footage of the brutal killing, which some channels broadcast.
Militants of the Jundullah ring regularly cross over into Iran from their hideouts in neighboring Pakistan to harass, kidnap or attack civilians and police officers.
In 2007, ABC News reported that the Jundullah militant group, which is responsible "for the deaths and kidnappings of Iranian soldiers and officials... has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials."
Reports published the following year also revealed that in 2007, the US Congress passed a undisclosed bill requested by President George W. Bush that allocated a $400-million fund for covert operations in Iran. The legislation gave the US government the go ahead to provide financial assistance to recognized terrorist groups such as Jundullah and the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).
The group's ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi denies his links to Washington, claiming that the terrorist network is a 'national movement'.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
03/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Jundullah = soldiers of the God in arabic
presumably Sunni
unknown financial supporters
Mujahedin-e Khalq = freedom fighters of the nation in persian; sort of a nationalistic anti-mullah pro socialism org
was funded by Saddam Hussain at one time, also may have received funds from other Arab nations, the family of the late Shah and maybe even the old Soviet Union
#2
how bout we fund them a little bit if they are fighting the mad mullahs, also in the article the writer acts surprised that some arab channels played the attacks on TV after being provided with the tape, for some reason it doesn't surprise me at all
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.
Iran's reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami has withdrawn from the June presidential election, a close aide of the charismatic cleric told AFP on Monday.
Senior Shiite cleric Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah has prohibited political bribery ahead of the June 7 legislative elections. In a fatwa, or religious edict, issued on Monday, the 73-year-old cleric said it was a "pity" that the issue of vote buying had not provoked any reaction in Lebanon''s political or religious circles.
Parliamentary majority leader MP Saad Hariri, said Monday that the general election in June will be a straight choice between Hizbullah and the country's sovereignty. "Our course is justice, independence, freedom, sovereignty and most importantly - Lebanon first," Hariri told AFP in an interview, referring to his coalition backed by the West as well as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Vice-president of the Higher Shiite Council Sheikh Abdel-Amir Qabalan said in comments published on Monday that as long as the Palestinian cause was not resolved, the Resistance [Hezbollah] and the Lebanese army "will work hand in hand." He stressed that the Resistance "will not to create a separate state or have arms of its own."
