(via The Corner)
BBC Persian service has reported a speech by General Mohammad-Ali Ja'fari, chief of the Revolutionary Guards, who had a speech in the former U.S. embassy in Tehran spoke about how it might be necessary for paramilitary and revolutionary students to once again take foreign diplomats hostage. In such a situation, he said, the IRGC would support the hostage-takers. So send somebody you don't mind losing. How about Joey "The Brain" Biden?
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#2
Talk about generals fighting the last war! It wasn't even a war, and it simply begs the question of whether the response will be any different the next time. Who knows?
#4
i will nominate Jesse Jackson, but leave Al sharpton at least he has entertainment value somtimes. How about we throw in a bfew of those human rights experst from the UN too
The rights group headed by Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi is to lodge a complaint against the "illegal" closure of its office, a founding member of the centre said on Friday. Iranian police on Sunday raided and shut down the office of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, signalling a toughening crackdown on rights groups in the Islamic republic.
"We are lodging a complaint on Saturday. We are also going to write to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi to protest this violation of the law," lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told AFP.
Sucks to live in a dictatorship, doesn't it ...
Iranian authorities said the office was shut down because the centre did not have an interior ministry permit to operate. An Iranian official said on a visit to Tokyo that the office had been reopened but this was denied by Dadkhah. "She (Ebadi) has all the freedom and liberty in Iran and outside Iran," Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh, the deputy foreign minister for Asia, told reporters, describing her as a "big fighter."
"We have our rules and regulations. If somebody goes beyond those rules and regulations, they have to undergo the scrutiny of the concerned judicial process, and I believe that has been completed and her office is reopened."
Ebadi's group says it has sought to obtain authorisation to no avail while insisting that founding associations without an official permit is lawful as long as they are not against Islam. "We went to the ministry six years ago and submitted all the required documents," Dadkhah said, adding that a former deputy interior minister in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government "also said we were not illegal".
"This is an organisation that does not seek power but it has solely been targeted for defending human rights," he added.
Ebadi, who won the Nobel peace prize in 2003, was in the office during the raid, which came as the group was to hold a belated ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the United Nations declaration on human rights. She condemned the police action, which she said had taken place without a warrant, as "illegal" but vowed that her campaigning would continue.
Founded by five prominent lawyers, the group is a vocal critic of the human rights situation in Iran and has defended scores of prisoners of conscience, including high-profile dissidents and student activists.
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BEIRUT - Lebanon's Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said his country has no interest in holding peace talks with neighbouring Israel at the moment.
I see no interest for us right now to discuss direct negotiations or indirect negotiations with Israel, Siniora said in an interview with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation broadcast on Wednesday. No one has challenged our claim of authority and ownership of the land that Israel occupies. So we see it as premature to take a decision in this regard as yet, he added.
Israel withrew from south Lebanon in 2000 after more than two decades of occupation, but Lebanon claims it is still occupying land on the border, including Shebaa Farms, a mountainous sliver of land rich in water resources.
Which belonged to Syria before the games began. If Israel ever gave up Shebaa the Lebanese would just claim something else ...
On Monday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his country would eventually embark on direct peace talks with Israel, but that they must be based on UN Security Council resolutions.
We are closely following what the Syrian Arab Republic is undertaking, but that is the decision of the Syrian Arab Republic... we in Lebanon have to look at our situation very carefully, Siniora said. We always have said it is in Lebanon's interest to be the last country to enter into a peace process (with Israel), he added.
Siniora also welcomed the imminent opening of the first-ever Syrian embassy in Beirut after the two countries agreed to reestablish ties for the first time since independence 60 years ago. It is a very important and fundamental step that lays the groundwork for other steps, the Lebanese premier said as he was told to say.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
12/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
No point talking peace until the Lebanon elections are over.
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The rights group headed by Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi is to lodge a complaint against the "illegal" closure of its office, a founding member of the centre said on Friday. Iranian police on Sunday raided and shut down the office of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, signalling a toughening crackdown on rights groups in the Islamic republic.
