Russia: US Lithuania shield ‘unacceptable’

Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev has told US president that locating part of a missile defense shield in Lithuania is ‘absolutely unacceptable’.

“The Russian president openly expressed his serious concern about talks between the US and Lithuania on the possible installation of anti-missile bases. It was said that for the Russian side this was absolutely unacceptable,” Medvedev’s diplomatic advisor Sergei Prikhodko said after Bush and Medvedev met on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Japan on Monday.

It was their first meeting since Medvedev became president.

The United States wants to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar facility in the neighboring Czech Republic to ward off potential attacks by so-called “rogue” states, notably Iran.

But Pentagon Spokesman Geoff Morrell made it clear before the tentative deal with Warsaw was reached that Poland was not the only option the United States had to host the shield.

“There are several European nations that could host the (missile) interceptors and Lithuania is one of them,” Morrell told reporters in Washington.

FF/BGH

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‘Israel, US daren’t attack Iran’

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the United States and the Israeli regime will not dare launch any attack against the Islamic Republic.

“Neither the US, nor Israel nor hundreds of others will ever dare launch any attack on Iran. They know full well that they are unable to attack the Islamic Republic,” IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as telling Malaysian reporters on Monday.

Ahmadinejad is currently in Kuala Lumpur to attend the 6th Summit of Group of Eight Developing Islamic Countries (D-8).

“The US President George Bush harbors evil and inhuman wishes, including confrontation with the Iranian nation but he could fulfill none of them. They (the US) know that they cannot speak to the Iranian nation with a bullying and threatening language. They should submit to the will of the Iranian nation,” he said.

The enemies have used the nuclear issue to put Iran under pressure, the Iranian president said, adding they have no concern about nuclear bombs because there are countries which possess atomic bombs and are not members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“Our enemies oppose the ideals, views, culture and development of the Iranian nation. We support dialogue on common issues in a fair atmosphere because talks in unfair and unequal conditions would bear no fruit.”

Ahmadinejad characterized the current threats of the US and the Israeli regime as psychological warfare and added that the Iranian people would stand up to the enemies.

He stated that the US used to be the largest producer of oil in the world. There are also other countries that possess the world’s largest gas and energy reserves, but the fact has not prevented them from using nuclear energy as a clean energy.

He went on to say that using nuclear energy would spare countries such crises as pollution, global warming, drought and the resulting food shortages currently gripping large parts of the world.

SF/GM/BGH

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Bush: Use of force on Iran not ruled out

The US President says although he hopes to settle Iran’s nuclear standoff through diplomacy he will not rule out the use of force.

In a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, George W. Bush said that the world wants to provide pressure in order to solve Iran’s problem diplomatically, adding, “Iranians must understand all options are on the table however.”

President Bush also took an unprecedented step in acknowledging Iran’s justification for making use of peaceful nuclear energy.

“I would like to say one thing about the Iranian demand for civilian nuclear power, it is a justifiable demand,” he said in London.

The US President has repeatedly vowed to keep the military option on the table, arguing that the ‘consequences of a nuclear-armed Iran are such that military strikes are justified, whether a smoking gun is found or not’.

Iran asserts that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty it is entitled to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.

Washington and allies have so far imposed three rounds of UN sanction resolutions on Iran, targeting individuals, firms with military links and several banks.

CS/HGH

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Israel calls for direct talks with Syria

Israeli president Shimon Peres says Israeli and Syrian leaders should hold direct talks if both sides are interested in forging trust.

Shimon Peres called for direct Israeli-Syrian negotiations, recalling the groundbreaking visit by Egypt’s then-President Anwar Sadat to al-Quds in 1977.

“Had Sadat not come to Jerusalem [al-Quds], we would not have had peace with Egypt”, said Peres.

“If the Syrians are genuinely seeking peace, then they must hold a summit meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert,” Shimon Peres said on Sunday in a meeting with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. The two met at Peres’ official residence in al-Quds.

Such a meeting could take place either in al-Quds or Damascus, said Peres, adding, “But it is an absolute necessity to break the psychological barrier and build trust between the two sides.”

Peres further noted that the current president’s late father, Hafez al-Assad, refused to meet with him in 1996. He did, however, give his consent in principle to such a meeting through then-US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who acted as mediator.

Meanwhile the indirect talks between the Israeli and Syrian delegations are continuing in Ankara. A possible meeting between Assad and Olmert at the upcoming Middle East conference in Paris will be on the agenda.

The conference, organized by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is scheduled to be held on July 13th. The Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are invited to the conference, but there has been no indication that they plan to meet.

In May, Israel and Syria launched indirect peace talks, with Turkey acting as a mediator, after an eight-year freeze.

The Syrians want the return of all of the Golan Heights which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981, a move never recognized by the international community.

Israel demands that Syria break off its ties with Iran as a precondition in their talks, but Syria has said it would reject any preconditions in the talks that call on Damascus to change its relations with other countries or movements.

MSH/GM

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Brzezinski to Bush: Stop Israel

Former White House national security adviser has urged President Bush to dissuade Israel from attacking Iran over its nuclear program.

In an interview on the Bloomberg Television on Friday, Zbigniew Brzezinski, said that an armed conflict between Israel and Iran would widen to include the US and will lead to Iranian attacks against the US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He noted that any military confrontation begins between Iran and the US will put the US “into a very destructive conflict from which the US will not extricate itself for many years to come.”

Brzezinski, 80 and now a counselor at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the most effective strategy for dealing with Iran’s nuclear program would be a combination of stiffer economic sanctions and positive incentives to negotiate.

He said threats of military action against Iran are “counterproductive” because they unite the Iranian population in opposition to the US.

Brzezinski said Bush has leverage to discourage an Israeli strike because Israeli warplanes would have to fly through airspace controlled by the US in order to attack Iran, and the US could deny permission to do so.

MGH/HAR

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