Hezbollah slams media over clashes

Hezbollah has slammed ‘the media propaganda’ about Tuesday’s clashes in Beirut which ‘was aimed at misleading public opinion’.

In a statement issued by the movement’s office, Hezbollah termed as regrettable ‘the misleading propaganda’ and ‘media attacks’ about the clashes in the Kurnish Mazraa neighborhood.

The statement called on media to ask security institutions to provide them with the facts about the incidents.

The statement added a row started after a group of youths celebrating the anniversary of the liberation of southern Lebanon were attacked by stones in the Kurnish Mazraa neighborhood.

A member of al-Mostaqbal faction hurled a bomb at the youths but it exploded prematurely and several people were wounded.

Hezbollah said security forces are well informed about the incident and know who were behind it.

SB/RE

Source: www.insight-info.com

Nisr Due in Lebanon on Sunday

 Nassim Nisr, who has been imprisoned in Israel, will be released on Sunday as a preliminary step toward the release of Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar. A ceremony is to be held Sunday morning to welcome the long-awaited prisoner.
 
Nisr will be deported from Israel and preparations are underway to receive five Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of ten Hezbollah resistance fighters who fell during the July 2006 war with Israel in exchange for two of Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in 2006.
 
Meanwhile, Yedeot Ahronot military correspondent quoted German mediator as saying that the two Israeli soldiers are likely to be dead.
 
Nassim Nisr was born in 1968 to an Israeli-Jewish mother and a Lebanese Muslim father and left Lebanon during the Israeli invasion in 1982 to join his mother’s family near Tel Aviv. Nisr’s mother Valentine, 70, now lives in the village of Bazouryeh in southern Lebanon, and said that she had been informed of her son’s imminent release. 

Source: www.insight-info.com

Iran urges Lebanese unity

The Iranian foreign minister says unity among political groups is the key solution to help Lebanon out of its political crisis.

Manouchehr Mottaki made the remark in a meeting with the Leader of Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement, Michel Aoun, on Monday.

He said all of the political factions in Lebanon would benefit from cooperation and expressed hope that the recent agreement reached in Doha, Qatar, would bring about positive developments in the country.

For his part, Aoun praised Iran’s efforts to find a solution to his country’s 18-month long political deadlock.

In a separate meeting, former president Emile Lahoud also hailed Iran’s positive role in the agreement reached between political groups.

Lahoud called on all Lebanese factions to unite to prevent Israel from interfering in the country’s domestic affairs.

Mottaki officially invited Lahoud to pay a visit to Iran.

Mottaki arrived in Lebanon on Sunday to attend a parliamentary session for the election of the country’s new president.

Michel Suleiman was elected as Lebanon’s new president in a parliamentary session convened in Beirut Sunday in the wake of a crisis that lasted about 18 months.

AR/GM/BGH

Source: www.insight-info.com

Israel Uneased by Suleiman Position in Resistance

The smiles, handshakes and congratulations that followed the election of Lebanese President Michel Suleiman Sunday were unable to erase questions and fears in Israel over Hezbollah’s stature and role in the next stage.  
According to Haaretz, Hezbollah could have celebrated twice Sunday – once to mark eight years since the Israel army withdrew from Lebanon, and a second time over having enhanced its stature and role in Lebanon. The daily listed what it said were Hezbollah’s recent achievements: The guaranteeing one third of ministers in the next government, the endorsement of the 1960 electoral law and consolidating the legitimacy of Hezbollah’s arms. “And without the agreement of the Lebanese government, any international attempt to disarm Hezbollah will be seen as illegitimate,” Haaretz said.  
 
“Hezbollah has won and Suleiman thanked Hezbollah because no of this could have happened if the recent events did not happen. Suleiman also praised the resistance that is consolidating its role in Lebanon. This was a tremendous victory to Hezbollah who made everybody celebrate its Resistance and Liberation Day,” Tsvika Yehezkeli, an ‘Israeli’ specialist in Arab affairs, said.
 
Haaretz also said that the Israeli cabinet will meet on Wednesday to discuss developments in Lebanon as well as the growing force of Hezbollah.
Source: www.insight-info.com

Military: US soldier killed north of Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The U.S. military says a U.S. soldier has been killed in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad.

A statement says two other soldiers were wounded in the blast in Salahuddin province. The identities of the soldiers have been withheld pending notification of relatives.

Monday’s attack raises to at least 4,082 members of the U.S. military who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003. That’s according to an Associated Press count.

Source: www.insight-info.com

Carter: Israel has 150 Nuclear Weapons

Former US president Jimmy Carter broke his decades-long silence on Israeli nuclear arsenal as he urged Washington to launch direct talks with Tehran over nuclear program
The London Times quoted former US president Jimmy Carter on Sunday as saying Israel has 150 nuclear weapons in its arsenal. Carter also described Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip as “one of the greatest human rights crimes now existing on Earth.”
 
In a speech at a literary festival in Hay-on-Wye, in Wales, the 83-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner said: “There is no reason to treat these people this way,” referring to the blockade, in place since Hamas seized Gaza in June 2007.
 
Carter called the failure of the European Union to support the Palestinian cause was “embarrassing.” He said European countries should be “encouraging the formation of a unity government,” including Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, which is the officially recognized ruling party of the Palestinian Authority.
 
“They should be encouraging Hamas to have a ceasefire in Gaza alone, as a first step,” he told the invited guests. “They should be encouraging Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement in prisoner exchange and, as a second step, Israel should agree to a ceasefire in the West Bank, which is Palestinian territory.”
 
Carter also said the United States had to begin holding direct talks with Iran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb, despite Tehran’s denials. “We need to talk to Iran now, and continue our discussions with Iran, to let Iran know the benefits, and the detrimental side, of continuing with their nuclear program,” he said.

Source: www.insight-info.com

Carter: US should be talking to Iran

Former US president Jimmy Carter says the White House should begin to directly negotiate with Iran over the country’s nuclear program.

“We need to talk to Iran now,” said president Carter in a speech at a literary festival in Hay-on-Wye in Wales on Sunday.

“(We should) continue our discussions with Iran, to let Iran know the benefits, and the detrimental side of continuing with their nuclear program,” said the 83-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The White House and its allies allege the Iranian nuclear program is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb. Tehran, however, maintains its drive is solely meant to acquire nuclear technology in order to produce electricity for a growing population.

The United States and its number one ally, Israel, are believed to be hoping to ratchet up pressure on Iran over the nuclear program by threatening to take military actions against the country’s nuclear facilities.

While stressing that the Islamic Republic has never initiated war against any country, Iran has made it clear that any aggression would be met with a maximum of force.

MD/HAR

Source: www.insight-info.com

IRGC commander highlights Syria ties

The top Iranian IRGC commander Jafari says the expansion of Iran-Syria cooperation will have great impact on strengthening regional unity.

“Cooperation between Iran and Syria and their mutual efforts to establish unity have borne fruit,” Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari, said in a meeting with the visiting Syrian Defense Minister, Hassan Ali Turkmani, in Tehran on Sunday.

He stressed the importance of promoting bilateral cooperation and praised the significant level of unity and solidarity between the two countries.

Turkmani, for his part, praised Iran’s efforts aimed at preparing the ground for ever greater bilateral cooperation and said that mutual ties would produce important results.

Syria is aware of the IRGC’s great capabilities in various fields of science and military and technology, he added.

SF/GM/BGH

Source: www.insight-info.com

‘Ayatollah will not allow US-Iraq deal’

Iraq’s most revered Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has strongly objected to a ’security accord’ between the US and Iraq.

The Grand Ayatollah has reiterated that he would not allow Iraq to sign such a deal with “the US occupiers” as long as he was alive, a source close to Ayatollah Sistani said.

The source added the Grand Ayatollah had voiced his strong objection to the deal during a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the holy city of Najaf on Thursday.

The remarks were made amid reports that the Iraqi government might sign a long-term framework agreement with the United States, under which Washington would be allowed to set up permanent military bases in the country and US citizens would be granted immunity from legal prosecution in the country.

While the mainstream media keep mum about the accord, critics say the agreement would virtually put Iraq under the US tutelage and violate the country’s sovereignty.

The source added Ayatollah Sistani, however, backed PM al-Maliki’s government and its efforts and that of the nation to establish security in the country.

The mandate of US troops in Iraq will expire in December 2008 and al-Maliki’s government is under US pressure to sign ‘a mutual security agreement’ which would allow the long-term presence of US troops in Iraq.

Washington’s plan has so far faced fierce protests by religious figures including Ayatollah Seyyed Kazem Haeri, another senior Shia cleric, and it is expected that other religious figures join the efforts to prevent the deal.

The US has signed similar agreements with countries like Japan and South Korea and thousands of US troops are now stationed in the countries.

SB/RE

Source: www.insight-info.com

Doha Accord, Last But Not Least Blow to US Scheme

 On Wednesday, Lebanese leaders from the opposition and the ruling bloc signed the Doha agreement, opening the way for a new political phase that would be characterized by participation and national unity. The agreement put an end to all endeavors to strain the situation in Lebanon, not to mention US promises of a hot summer in this small country.
 
So, the Doha agreement appeared to be just another episode in the series of US frustrations in Lebanon, a worn chain that passed through different stages since before the July 2006 Israeli war against Lebanon.
 
The Lebanese didn’t yet forget how US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
announced, from Beirut during the first days of the destructive war, that what was happening was a preliminary step toward the birth of the so-called new Middle East. However, her announcement lasted less than 33 days and fell simultaneously with the Israeli fiasco and the Resistance’s Divine victory, as acknowledged by the Zionist entity itself.
 
Since then, Washington’s set eye on Lebanon’s internal front through successive “diplomatic” maneuvers and incitement attempts by different US officials, particularly US President George W. Bush who never missed the slightest incident in Lebanon to exploit and put more pressure on this country.
 
Also remarkable was the fact that stances or visits made by US officials were always crowned with new crises. The Arab University clashes in January 25, 2007, and the Mar-Michael incidents in January 26, 2008, both took place after two visits for US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern affairs David Welch to Lebanon. Those incidents nearly set the country on fire.
 
Today, the opposition’s insistence on partnership, denouncing sedition and coexistence bore fruit and set Lebanon free from US tutelage. The Doha Accord saw light and dealt another blow to the US scheme in the region, only a few days after Welche’s threat of a hot summer in Lebanon.

Source: www.insight-info.com