Israel burying nuclear waste in Golan

Syria has complained to the United Nations about a series of Israeli wrongdoings in the Golan Heights including burying nuclear waste.

The complaint was made in a report Syria handed to a UN fact-finding committee comprised of Senegal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia’s ambassadors, Ha’aretz said.

The report came after Syria held a third round of indirect negotiations with Israel in Turkey last week. A Turkish government source said Thursday that both sides agreed to hold a fourth round of indirect negotiations in Turkey in late July.

Syria listed in the report a number of human rights violations committed by Israel against the Golan’s Druze inhabitants.

Damascus also charged that Israel confiscates the Israeli ID cards of Druze students who return from studies in Syria, and that Golan residents continue to serve prison terms in Israeli jails, some for dozens of years.

Syria also protested the expansion in the strategic plateau of Israeli settlements, as well as lamenting the fact that Golan residents continue to be injured by mines planted in the region.

Israel seized the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.

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US hidden agenda in Iraq security agreement

Iraq and the US are now at loggerheads over a new open-ended security agreement which would sanction continued presence of the US military in the country, envisage permanent military bases, and give the American military personnel and security contractors the license to kill more Iraqi civilians.

The US-proposed agreement would legalize the presence of the American military after the UN mandate expires after December 31. So the agreement if concluded will be the US ace in the hole in Iraq.

With their capitulatory right, the US military can freely detain the Iraqi civilians under the guise of military operations.

In November, US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed a secret non-binding statement of principles for the negotiations for the conclusion of a final pact due to be in July. No one really knows the terms of the agreement. Yet, they can be easily surmised by a mind familiar with US policies.

The agreement brought swift condemnation from politicians and religious leaders who barely discern an iota of goodwill in the US-proposed agreement. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said he would not allow the Iraqi government to strike a pact with “the US occupiers” as long as he was alive.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council in Iraq, said that there was “a national consensus on rejecting many of the points put forward by the American side in the agreement, because they detract from national sovereignty.”

The brave Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr also urged a referendum for the agreement.

Also in Iran, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani believes that the United States is trying to enslave Iraqis through the deal.

He has said that the ‘essence of this agreement is to enslave the Iraqis before the Americans if it is sealed. This will not happen. The Iraqi people, the Iraqi government and the Islamic nation will not allow it.” He warned of a permanent occupation of the country which is to be seen a danger to all nations of the region.

Iraqi MP Hasan al-Sanid has told al-Iraqiyah that “Iraqi negotiators rejected all US demands and talks have been suspended to allow negotiators to refer to decision makers with the aim of changing US ideas.”

One of the sticking points in the agreement is that the US has demanded absolute powers in the so-called anti-terror fight which would undermine Iraq’s sovereignty. In fact, the agreement gives the US the blank check to render its own definition of terrorism in the world. In plain language, Iraq will remain a killing field so the US military may implement their policy of terror and coercion in the region.

The agreement artfully drafted by US officials will not only jeopardize the Iraqi sovereignty but will also give the US military the right to use Iraq as a launching pad for attacks against other countries, including Syria and Iran.

The US military, however, says that it has no plans for permanent bases in Iraq. Yet, if facts are taken into account, one will see but a hidden agenda behind the agreement.

The US has built overwhelmingly huge military bases including air bases, detention centers, ground force headquarters, and logistical depots in different parts of Iraq with the express intention of exercising complete control over the whole country. More than one billion dollars has been spent on the construction of these military bases. This also gives the negative signal to the Iraqi people that they are planning to perpetuate their presence in the country. Some of the main bases are; al-Balad, also known as Camp Anaconda, north of Baghdad; al-Talil, southwest of Nasiriya; al-Asad, west of Baghdad; al-Qayyara, southeast of Mosul; Camp Victory/Camp Liberty, a complex near the Baghdad International Airport. Many of these bases are well-equipped with diverse amenities to boost the morale of the military such as mess halls, sports facilities, Post Exchange department stores, fast food restaurants including a 24-hour Burger King, a Pizza Hut, a Starbucks knockoff called “Green Beans,” and Baskin Robbins ice cream outlets.

The construction of a sizeable number of bases and a gargantuan embassy complex is certainly meant for long-term military and political activities.

The Iraqi people have constantly expressed resentment and concern over these military bases which can be interpreted as only long-term presence of the US military, exploitation of the country’s resources and violation of independence, sovereignty and freedom.

Also, the construction of a mammoth embassy complex in Baghdad leaves no doubt in the mind that the US government harbors some hidden agenda in the country.

The one-billion dollar New Embassy Compound in the Green Zone occupies 104 acres – ten times the size of its kind anywhere in the world, and six times the size of the UN compound in New York. There are reportedly 1000 diplomats working there many of whom are CIA agents who are working there as technicians. As the Persian saying goes, they have anchored their ship of greed there.

Manifestly, the US government seeks to have a permanent presence in the country, have full control over air space and lands, secure the capitulatory right to immunize its army against the detention and killing of the Iraqis, and finally to use Iraq as a safe launching pad to attack the countries which antagonize the US expansionistic policies in the region including Iran and Syria.

The agreement is yet another US stratagem to practice its long-term policy of expansionism and military adventurism in the region.

It is to the best interests of the Iraqi people if the US troops just leave the land to the afflicted people and let them write their own fate. And it is better for the US government to pull out the teeth of greed and avarice it has long whetted for the region.

Ismail Salami is the author of ‘Iran Cradle of Civilization’ and numerous articles on Middle East and Asia. He can be reached at salami@salamionline.com.

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Who pays the price of speculators’ greed?

While the world faces one of its worst crisis and millions of people are struggling with starvation and death, analysts point finger at several factors.

Soaring oil prices, high consumption of food products in developing countries including India and China, and unprecedented drought in Australia, one of the major producers of wheat and rice are among factors analysts blame for the hike in food prices.

Although such factors have contributed to the current situation they cannot explain why food prices have been skyrocketing in the past six months.

“We have enough food on this planet today to feed everyone,” says the head of the UN Environment Program, Achim Steiner, but “the way that markets and supplies are currently being influenced by perceptions of future markets is distorting access to that food.”

“Real people and real lives are being affected by a dimension that is essentially speculative,” says Steiner.

According to the UN official millions “have found themselves unable to pay for food” as food prices began to go through the roof since the beginning of 2008.

Now, millions of people across the world are struggling with what Josette Sheeran of the World Food Program (WFP) describes as “a silent tsunami”.

Although the issue of food crisis has recently been grabbing headlines, public media have barely scratched the surface of the catastrophic situation. The reason is obvious: in a capitalistic dog-eat-dog world the exchange market must be considered as a source of prosperity and no one should be allowed to cast doubt on its sacredness.

In his article The trading frenzy that sent prices soaringpublished by the Newstatesman, Iain Macwhirter, writes: “The reason for food ’shortages’ is speculation in commodity futures following the collapse of the financial derivatives markets. Desperate for quick returns, dealers are taking trillions of dollars out of equities and mortgage bonds and ploughing them into food and raw materials. It’s called the ‘commodities super-cycle’ on Wall Street, and it is likely to cause starvation on an epic scale.”

The reality is that hedge funds and speculators have found future food contracts a lucrative field of activity which can be considered as a license to print money.

The injection of these large sums of money into the marked has created artificial demands which have sent food prices soaring; however, this lucrative trade has so far claimed 100 million lives and left many others struggling with poverty and hunger.

The price of wheat is estimated to be increased by 73 percent by the end of 2008. The situation for other food items is not better: the price of soybeans is expected to rise by 54 percent and that of soybeans oil by 49 percent.

Deutsche Bank estimates that the prices of corn, one of the main food sources, would double over a short period of time.

“Just like the boom in house prices, commodity price inflation feeds on itself. The more prices rise, and big profits are made, the more others invest, hoping for big returns. Look at the financial websites: everyone and their mother is piling into commodities. It is the great bull market of the Noughties. The trouble is that if you are one of the 2.8 billion people, almost half the world’s population, who live on less than $2 a day, you may pay for these profits with your life.

This speculation doesn’t happen on its own, however. Commodities such as gold and oil are favourite “hedges” against falling currencies. But this time all manner of other commodities, such as wheat and rice, have been swept along in the inflationary slipstream,” Macwhirter adds.

The issue of future contracts and speculations is not the only contributing factor in the current global crisis; the industrialized world’s US-led drive to use food products for developing bio fuels has fanned the flames of famine and hunger across the world.

The developed nations justify their move which UN officials described as “a crime against humanity” by the notion that such fuel resources would cut their dependency on fossil fuels whose resources are mainly located in other parts of the world. The US grants heavy subsidies ($11-12billion) for the production of ethanol corn every year.

At the beginning of a recent FAO summit in Rome, Jacques Diouf, the head the UN organization lashed out at the US over the issue:
“Nobody understands [why] $11-12 billion of subsidies in 2006 and protective tariff policies [should be used to] divert 100 million tons of cereals from human consumption, mostly to satisfy a thirst for fuel for vehicles.”

As Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram says converting food products to bio fuel is “the most foolish thing” that humanity can do and should be condemned, yet Washington encourages farmers to follow this unwise practice, isn’t it surprising?

The painful fact is that we have enough food to feed the world but many people, mainly innocent children, have to die to satisfy “the deadly greed” of speculators and certain politicians.

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UN: Iran sanctions will halt drug fight

Western sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program could hinder Tehran’s campaign against drug traffickers, the UN warns.

Western nations have told Iran that they could cut off any new help to Iran’s anti-drug units unless Tehran halts its uranium enrichment activities but the EU has not yet decided on whether to trim its aid to Iran’s anti-drug fight, AP reported on Tuesday.

A “heroin tsunami” could hit Europe if the drug interdiction by Iran is weakened, warned Antonio Maria Costa, the director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. “ We should definitely assist Iran in this respect.”

Roberto Arbitrio, head of the UN drugs and crime office in Iran, said the war on drugs should be viewed as “a non-political area of mutual interest.”

Overall opium production in Afghanistan has more than doubled in the last four years and smuggling the drug into Iran is the first step toward reaching Western markets.

Afghanistan produced 93 percent of the world’s opium last year, and about 50 percent of the drugs leaving the country flowed towards Iran, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says.

“Cooperating with Iran in Afghanistan on this and other issues is not a favor we do for Iran but something we need to do in our own interest,” said Barnett Rubin, an expert on Afghanistan at New York University.

MGH/PA

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‘Olmert to cede Shebaa Farms to UN’

The Israeli premier has voiced his willingness to evacuate Israeli troops from Shebaa Farms to hand the area to the UN, a report says.

Ehud Olmert is ready to cede the farms to the UN as early as July, Israeli website Debkafile reported on Monday.

Olmert informed the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about his decision when they met in al-Quds on Sunday, the report added.

Rice took the news to Beirut Monday at the end of her talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

“The United States hopes for an early settlement to the Shebaa Farms issue,” she told Lebanese president Michel Sleiman and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

Israel captured the Shebaa Farms, a 25-square-kilometer (10-square-mile) area of land on the Israel-Lebanon-Syria border, during the 1967 Six Day War.

MGH/DT

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Hezbollah rejects UN control of Shebaa

Hezbollah lawmaker Mohammad Raad has rejected an initiative that would put the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms under the control of the UN.

In an interview with al-Manar TV, Raad said that Hezbollah would not reach its goal of liberating the occupied territories if it put the Shebaa Farms under the control of the United Nations.

The initiative to place the territory under the control of the United Nations was reportedly put forward by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy visited Lebanon earlier this month to become the first Western head of state to meet with newly-elected President Michel Suleiman, who was elected into office May 25.

Suleiman announced during a meeting on Monday with visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband that he would provide the UN with documents ‘that will prove the Shebaa Farms belong to Lebanon’.

Israel occupied Shebaa Farms in the 1967 war. Syria has insisted the territory belongs to Lebanon but Israel has so far declined to return the land under the pretext of continued ambiguity over its status.

According to the plan proposed to the UN, the Shebaa Farms would be demarcated and returned to Lebanon in future stages of the initiative.

In another development, Raad referred to the delay in forming a Lebanese government cabinet, saying that no ’serious problems’ have occurred in the formation of a new cabinet and that the process simply needed to be managed ‘logically’.

“We have not received any responses about our suggestions” for cabinet ministers, Raad said.

Hezbollah’s bloc in the Lebanese government has requested that the opposition choose a Sunni minister and a Druze minister for cabinet positions, a move that would reduce Hezbollah’s Shia representation in the government.

Hezbollah, however, has also requested that it take control of the Communication Ministry in exchange.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has been in consultations with various parliamentary blocs for more than 10 days in a bid to form a new national unity government but internal disputes between members of the ruling bloc have so far prevented that from happening.

MSH/MR/BGH

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