The single point of negotiations: How quickly will Obama disarm the USA.
Iran's president said Thursday his country is open to talks offered by the U.S. and other countries over its nuclear program. But he insisted the talks must be based on respect for Iran's rights, suggesting the West should not try to force Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.
Hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comments during celebrations for Iran's Nuclear Day, in which a number of advances in Iran's nuclear program were announced.
Among them, officials said the number of centrifuges at Iran's uranium enrichment facility had increased to 7,000 up from 6,000 announced in February and that a new, more advanced type of centrifuge had been tested. Ahmadinejad also announced the opening of a new plant for developing uranium fuel for a planned hard-water reactor.
...
Ahmadinejad said the new centrifuge has been tested, and has several times more capacity more than the P-1 centrifuges currently used at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in central Iran. Neither gave details on the new centrifuge or said when it might be brought into use.
Ahmadinejad also said the country has inaugurated a new facility producing uranium fuel for a heavy-water nuclear reactor that is under construction in the town of Arak and is expected to be completed in 2009 or 2010.
Heavy-water reactors use a different process than light-water ones, but has its own nuclear proliferation concerns. The West fears that Iran could eventually reprocess spent fuel from the heavy-water reactor to produce plutonium for a warhead.
Iran has been building the 40-megawatt hard(heavy)-water reactor in the central town of Arak for the past four years. Hard-water reactors do not need enriched uranium for fuel, and can instead use more easily produced uranium oxide ore, fashioned into pellets.
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Posted by: ed ||
04/09/2009 11:59 ||
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Most likely they have reached the stage they wanted to ie nuclear bomb capability so talks are easier now!!!!
Ahmad al-Asaad has decided to stand up to the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon's June 7 parliamentary elections, despite the widespread belief he stands no chance in the face of the Shiite Goliath. "I will topple the Iranian project," Asaad, a south Lebanon native who heads his own mainly Shiite party, told AFP. The election will pit the Hezbollah-led alliance, backed by Syria and Iran, against the Sunni-led majority, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
The Lebanese Option Gathering, as Asaad's party is known, is an "independent" movement that aims, he says, to stand up to Hezbollah's "monopoly over Shiite representation" in Lebanon. The 46-year-old mathematician-turned-businessman ran for a seat in the 2005 parliamentary elections but lost to Hezbollah by a wide margin. Unfazed, the silver-haired father of two plans to run again, this time with a list of 14 members of his party, founded in July 2007.
Lebanon's rival political groups joined ranks in a unity government, in which the opposition has veto power, at the start of the summer of 2008 under a Doha-sponsored accord aimed at ending the worst inter-Lebanese violence to rock the country since the 1975-1990 civil war. The national unity government has been largely paralysed, however, with ministers locking horns over Hezbollah's stockpile of arms.
"The opposition's plans are dangerous for Lebanon and for the Shiites in particular," said Asaad, the son of former House Speaker Kamel al-Asaad. "The opposition uses the Shiites as fuel in their plan to establish an Iranian empire."
The Asaad dynasty has itself come under fire among residents of the south, some of whom accuse the family of a political monopoly of its own. "Ahmed al-Asaad is from a feudal family which wants to take us backwards and which considers us as servants," said Rami Hammud, a businessman from the southern coastal town of Tyre.
But Ahmad al-Asaad says his plan for the south, much of which was destroyed during Hezbollah's month-long war with Israel in 2006, is one of reform and development. Yet his is a vision from afar, as he rarely frequents his hometown, 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Israeli border. In fact, he only returned to Lebanon in 2003 after decades abroad. "Of course I'm afraid," Asaad told AFP. "I'm afraid they'll liquidate me. I fear for my life and my project."
In early April, a Lebanese Option Gathering member's car was set on fire in Beirut's southern suburbs, one of three major Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese press. Tens of cars owned by party members have been reported set on fire or bombed in the past year. The party's offices, also in the southern suburbs, came under fire in March.
"They come at night, like bats, and burn our cars. This is Hezbollah's responsibility," Asaad said. The militant party has denied any involvement.
And while he has openly denounced Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's call for "open war" with Israel last year, he says he is ready to launch a war of his own against the Shiite militia. "The resistance's role is over," Asaad said. "We have had enough of Hezbollah using us and exploiting the people in the name of the resistance."
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This story has been kicking around for a while. Why anyone would travel to Iran to 'report' is beyond me.
TEHRAN - US-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi, who has been in Iranian custody since January, has been charged with spying, Tehrans deputy prosecutor Hassan Haddad said on Wednesday.
Her case has been sent to the revolutionary court. She, without press credentials, was carrying out spying activities under the guise of being a reporter, Haddad was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. The evidence is mentioned in her case papers and she has accepted all the charges. She has been arrested under the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Saberi, who also holds both US and Iranian nationalities, was initially reportedly detained for buying alcohol which is prohibited in the Islamic republic.
If it's prohibited then how did she find some ...
In March, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said Saberis press identity card was revoked in 2006 and since then she had been working illegally in the country.
Haddad said on Wednesday that Saberi had entered Iran as an Iranian citizen. She has an Iranian citizenship, passport and an Iranian national identity card. She has entered Iran as an Iranian citizen and if she has another citizenship, we are unaware of it and it has no effect on how we will proceed with her case, he said. There is no evidence that she has another citizenship and the investigation is still on.
US-born Saberi has reported for US-based National Public Radio (NPR), the BBC and Fox News, and had been living in Iran for six years.
Her parents, Reza and Akiko Saberi, arrived in Tehran on Sunday to pursue her case. They had a 20-minute meeting with her in Tehrans notorious Evin prison on Monday. Her father told NPR on Tuesday that he planned to stay in Iran until her case was resolved.
He said Roxana, 31, was surprised by their visit, and that she looked pale and weak but was in good spirits. He said she also wanted to see her lawyer to point out ... that apparently some of the statements were made under pressure, under threat, you know. So that they were not valid.
Iran, which does not recognize dual nationality and has had no ties with the United States for three decades, has detained several Iranian-Americans, including academics, in recent years.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009 00:00 ||
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BEIRUT - A Lebanese investigating judge on Wednesday lifted arrest warrants against four high-ranking generals jailed since 2005 in connnection with former premier Rafiq Hariris murder, a judicial official told AFP. However the official, who asked not to be identified, added that Judge Sakr Sakr also ordered that the four remain in jail pending a decision on their fate by The Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).
That's it, send them to the hotel prison at The Hague. They can die a comfortable old age.
Sakr issued his decision as he approved the transfer of Lebanese documents linked to a probe into Hariris 2005 assassination to the tribunal set up to try suspects in the case and in the killings of other Lebanese figures. Lebanons justice system has decided to stand back from the case and stop its probe, Sakr said in his ruling.
He added that it was up to the STL to decide whether the generals, who have not been formally charged, would remain behind bars.
The four generals are the former head of the presidential guard, Mustafa Hamdan, security services director Jamil Sayyed, domestic security chief Ali Hajj and military intelligence chief Raymond Azar.
The UN-sponsored tribunal had called on Lebanon last month to hand over documents related to the Hariri case and results of the local investigation.
Hariris murder in a seafront bombing was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since its 1975-1990 civil war and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after a 29-year presence. A UN investigative commission has pointed to evidence that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services were involved in Hariris February 14, 2005 killing.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009 00:00 ||
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DAMASCUS - Syria is ready to resume indirect peace talks with the new Israeli government on the basis of a total pullout from the Golan Heights, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Wednesday.
The old 'something-for-nothing' trick: Israel gives away something, that is the Golan, and Syria gives away nothing, that is, they agree to talk.
He said the four rounds of Turkish-mediated talks held last year had been launched on the basis of three principles, but without preconditions. A full agreement from Israel to a commitment to a withdrawal from the Golan Heights, was the main point, Muallem said at a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini.
The talks process was suspended when Israel, which seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, waged a deadly offensive against the Palestinian Islamist Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip in December-January.
Muallem said Syria is now ready to resume a land-for-peace process on the same basis as arranged with the government of (former Israeli prime minister) Ehud Olmert under Turkish mediation.
These indirect talks must not in any way affect the Palestinian-Israeli talks and also not be used as a cover to launch attacks against Lebanon or Gaza, the Syrian foreign minister said.
Late last month a largely right-wing coalition headed by hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in the Jewish state and quickly ruled out a pullout from Golan in exchange for peace with Syria. There is no cabinet resolution regarding negotiations with Syria, and we have already said that we will not agree to withdraw from the Golan Heights, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in his first days at his new post.
Peace will only be in exchange for peace, said Lieberman.
There's an original idea ...
Frattini, who met President Bashar al-Assad during his visit to Damascus, said Italy was prepared to play an active role toward the relaunch of the negotiations as soon as possible.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
04/09/2009 00:00 ||
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How about: after IDF breaks Syrian military, the Sunni majority rises and exterminates the Allawites?
"One lump or two, Walid?"
"One please, Manuchehr. My triglycerides are a trifle high."
TEHRAN — Visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem on Wednesday affirmed Iran's significant role at the regional level and praised its stances of support for Arab causes. Speaking at a news conference with his Iranian counterpart, Manuchehr Motaki, in the Iranian capital, Al-Muallem said his visit to Iran was part of continuous coordination between the two countries.
Syria will not play a mediation role in the Iranian nuclear issue because Damascus believes that Tehran's program is peaceful, he said. Mottaki said the talks with the Syrian minister dealt with a host of regional and international issues.
The Iranian foreign minister said the world should prepare for global cleansing of nuclear arms.
He added that the talks with the senior Syrian official dealt with various issues including Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel's formation of a new government. "We have called the new government (in Israel) as the unmasked government for the previous governments masked their real intentions, " he said, alluding to the new cabinet led by ultra right-wing leaders.
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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.
DAMASCUS - Syria is ready to resume indirect peace talks with the new Israeli government on the basis of a total pullout from the Golan Heights, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Wednesday.
