Israel, the mid-east, and Russia - Part 2

[Shammu]

Mubarak: Nations paying for 'resistance'

Egyptian president says 'Palestinian and Lebanese resistances brought only limited gains'; Saudi Arabia criticizes Hizbullah
Roee Nahmias

Voices in the Arab world are condemning Hizbullah: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal has called on the Lebanese government to take control of its border with Israel.

"The Lebanese government must apply its sovereignty on all the country's territory," said Faisal.

Since the start of the war, Saudi Arabia has criticized Hizbullah, as have Egypt and Lebanon.

"We support the spreading out of Lebanese forces along all of the territory of the country. The decision of war on peace depend on sovereign countries and not on any other entity, otherwise there will be chaos here," Faisal said during a press conference held on Tuesday.

"What is happening in Lebanon is a real disaster taking place under our eyes and no body is doing a thing to stop it," the minister said. "Our stance is that it is the interests of Arab countries that there be international intervention."

Saudi Arabia has been criticizing Hizbullah for a week, as well as Iran which is backing it, saying that "elements in Lebanon, and those standing behind them, are responsible for the Israeli attacks."

The Saudi government is concerned over Iranian involvement in Iraq and its nuclear arms program, and its anti-Hizbullah stance has awoken a stormy argument in the Arab world, most of which attacks the Israeli-American connection.

Hizbullah slammed

But Saudi Arabia is not the only one publicly condemning Hizbullah, with Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon taking the same stances.

In an interview published by the state-controlled newspaper in Egypt al-Watan al-Yom, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that the activities of "Palestinian and Lebanese resistance fighters obtained only limited gains and that the people were paying the price."

"No one is doubting the rights of the people to resist the powers of occupation but the resistances must make considerations of losses and gains… the inflaming of the situation to make limited gains ignores the basic goal of the Palestinians which the establishment of an independent state," he said.

"The Israeli escalation in Lebanon drags the whole area into a dangerous slow and the Lebanese nation, like the Palestinians, is the one paying the price," Mubarak said.

Behind the scenes, King Abdullah of Jordan condemned Hizbullah, and together with Mubarak called its actions 'adventurous' during a meeting with Mubarak last Friday.

The Lebanese anti-Syrian coalition, led by Saad al-Hariri, also attacked Hizbullah.

Referring to Hizbullah, Hariri said in an interview to Saudi newspaper Okaz: "These adventurers put us in a difficult situation because of their irresponsible adventurism. The Saudi stance personified the situation without beautifying it and we support this stance because we have had enough of attempts to obtain more, of slogans that don't help."

Mubarak: Nations paying for 'resistance'

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DJ Saudis Criticize Intl Community For Israeli War Vs Lebanon   

Dow Jones Newswires

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP)--Saudi Arabia criticized the international community Monday for failing to halt Israel's bombardment of Lebanon. But the kingdom also reiterated its accusations that Hezbollah had provoked the Jewish state.

"The absolute support by some countries for Israeli policies has prevented the (United Nations) Security Council from making a decision on the issue, said Culture and Information Minister Iyad Madani in remarks that appeared aimed at the U.S., although he did not name it.

"The international reaction to the all-out war launched by Israel shows the international community's laxity and indifference toward Israeli crimes," Madani said in statement issued after a regular Cabinet meeting chaired by King Abdullah.

In spite of Madani's admonishment, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal hasn't modified his remarks against the guerrilla group Saturday.

While attending an emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers, Al-Faisal referred to Hezbollah's capture of Israeli soldiers as "unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts" and an "uncalculated adventure."

Madani also claimed Monday that Israel had used "the recklessness of some elements to wage its war against Lebanon and the Palestinian people."

The oil-rich kingdom announced Sunday that it was donating $50 million to Lebanon in response to an appeal for assistance by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

Israel's campaign is its heaviest offensive against Lebanon in 24 years. Six days of heavy bombardment in Lebanon have killed nearly 200 people, most of them civilians. In Israel, 24 people, half of them civilians, have died in the fighting.

DJ Saudis Criticize Intl Community For Israeli War Vs Lebanon

[Shammu]

More deadly strikes on Israel and on Lebanon

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli officials say Hezbollah rockets have killed another Israeli and wounded several others in the northern town of Nahariya.


More rockets also hit the port city of Haifa. A witness tells Israeli T.V. that a two-story building has been set on fire. In his words, "People are panicking."

The rocket attacks on northern Israel came while Israeli strikes raised the death toll in Lebanon to at least 226.

With international diplomats struggling over cease-fire prospects, Israeli officials say their Lebanese offensive could last weeks and involve ground forces.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told U.N. envoys "Israel will continue to combat Hezbollah" until two Israeli soldiers are freed and Israeli citizens are safe from rocket attacks. And army officials say they haven't ruled out deploying what one refers to as "massive ground forces."


More deadly strikes on Israel and on Lebanon

[Shammu]

Israel Coordinating with U.S. On Evacuations
21:23 Jul 18, '06 / 22 Tammuz 5766

(IsraelNN.com) Israel is working with the United States to enable a safe and quick evacuation of thousands of Americans in Lebanon. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters at the daily press briefing.

He revealed that only dozens of citizens were moved out of the country the first few days but added, "We're moving from tens of people leaving at a time to hundreds of people leaving at a time." He estimated there are about 25,000 Americans in the country.

Israel Coordinating with U.S. On Evacuations

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World Reactions: Israel is Right, and Talk of World War III
16:01 Jul 18, '06 / 22 Tammuz 5766
by Hillel Fendel

The G-8 leaders, including Bush, Blair, and Putin, are showing no signs of pressuring Israel to go easy - yet. In the U.S., there's talk of World War Three.


World leaders meeting in a suburb of the Russian city of St. Petersburg at the G-8 summit have come down squarely on Israel's side. They called for Hamas and Hizbullah to return the Israeli soldiers they are holding captive and for the cessation of rocket attacks on Israel - as conditions for Israel's cessation of its offensive on Lebanon.

The G-8 is a self-proclaimed Group of Eight industrialized nations, namely, the U.S.,
Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan.

Canada took a surprisingly pro-Israel approach when Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters before the summit that Israel "has a right to defend itself," and that Israel's offensive in Lebanon was a "measured" manifestation of that right. He clearly blamed the current warfare on Hamas and Hizbullah.

In response to calls for a more "proportionate" Israeli response to Hizbullah and Hamas, an Israel Radio correspondent in Washington quoted observers who said that such a response would have to include indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, just as both terrorist groups have done. Israel should therefore be commended for not acting "proportionately," the observers say.

Former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has described the Israel-Lebanon-Hamas warfare as part of the beginning of World War III. The Republican Senator from the southern state of Georgia, speaking on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, mentioned a series of locations in which the west and Muslim terrorists are clashing. Noting the "question of the survival of Israel," as well as bombs in India, the war in Afghanistan, the "Iran/Syria/Hamas/Hizbullah alliance," the "war in Iraq funded largely from Saudi Arabia and supplied largely from Syria and Iran," and Muslim terrorist threats in Britain and the United States, as well as the missiles from North Korea, Gingrich concluded, "I mean, we… are in the early stages of what I would describe as the third world war."

Sen. John McCain (R, Az.), appearing on CNN on Monday, was only a shade more conservative, saying, "We need to make our European allies understand that this is the most serious challenge we have faced in the Middle East in a long time." McCain added that the U.S. might have to take direct action itself.

"Frankly," Gingrich said, "the Israelis have every right to insist that every single missile leave south Lebanon, and the United States ought to be helping the Lebanese government have the strength to eliminate Hizbullah as a military force."

"The threat to the United States," Gingrich said, "is an ideological wing of Islam that is irreconcilable to modern civilization as we know it throughout most of the world. The United States and her allies face a long war with this irreconcilable wing of Islam."

World Reactions: Israel is Right, and Talk of World War III

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Egyptian Journalist Khaled Salah Criticizes Hizbullah and Declares:

The Blood of Lebanese Children More Precious Than Pictures of Khamenei in South Lebanon

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian journalist Khaled Salah, which aired on Dream2 TV on July 17, 2006.

Khaled Salah: True greatness does not lie merely in the decision to go to war. The decision to wage war is one of the easiest things. True greatness lies in protecting your people, citizens, and civilians in times of war, and in accomplishing a political victory through the use of military weapons. Entering a war without taking things into account, without planning it with the national government in Lebanon, without warning the citizens of South Lebanon that an all-out war might break out, and without guaranteeing equipment, supplies, and aid to the villages of the South - this will inevitably harm the Lebanese people, which overnight has found itself subject to the decisions of a single politician in Lebanon. Hassan Nasrallah, even though I like him, is not sacred, yet he takes all these decisions by himself. He should have consulted with the national government in Lebanon, and a warning should have been issued to the citizens, who found themselves overnight within the range of fire of a cruel and shameless enemy that uses any means to achieve its goals.

[...]

As far as I am concerned, Arab blood and the blood of Lebanese children is much more precious than raising yellow flags [of Hizbullah] and pictures of Khamenei in Lebanon.

Egyptian Journalist Khaled Salah Criticizes Hizbullah and Declares:

[Shammu]

Iran slams Israel as 'filthy tumor'
By Stefan Smith
AFP
Published July 18, 2006

An Iranian leader, whose country is accused by Israel of helping arm Lebanon's Hizbullah guerrilla movement, on Tuesday branded the Jewish state a "filthy tumor in the body of the Islamic world."
   
    The fresh verbal attack came as Israel called for Iran and Syria to be stopped from arming Hizbullah. Tehran acknowledges its support for Hizbullah but denies that it arms the movement.
   
    "The time has come for you to flee occupied Palestine. You should go back to your homes," the president of Iran's hardline-controlled parliament, Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel, told a rally in central Tehran's Palestine square.
   
    Iran views Israel as a "fake" state populated by immigrants who should return to Europe or elsewhere.
   
    "The Americans should know that as long as this filthy tumor lies in the body of the Islamic world, Muslims will not stop hating America," Hadad-Adel told thousands of regime supporters. "Either stop this support or do not expect any peace with the Islamic world."
   
    More than 200 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive on Lebanon that began on July 12 after the Hizbullah Shia militia seized two Israeli soldiers.
   
    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said that Israel's ongoing assault against Lebanon was part of Western conspiracy to dominate the Middle East, and repeated his doubts over whether the Holocaust ever took place.
   
    "For hundreds of years, some Western countries have been wishing to dominate the region. In order to carry out their mission they used the excuse of Holocaust," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by official media.
   
    "If the Holocaust is true, those who caused it should be responsible. Why someone else should pay the price?" he added, before voicing fresh doubts over the mass-murder of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II.
   
    "Why do you say that 6 million people were killed? Allow research on this, because maybe there were 10 million. But the fact that you do not allow this research shows that there is a problem," said the president, who has in the past dismissed the Holocaust as a "myth."
   
    Iran's Shia clerical regime is a major supporter of Hizbullah, and on Tuesday Israeli foreign minister Tzippi Livni said that Iran and Syria must be stopped from arming Hizbullah.
   
    Officials in Tehran insist that they only give "moral" support.
   
    Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of Iran's late Islamic revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, meanwhile heaped fresh praise on Hizbullah for its jihad against a "cancerous tumor."
   
    "Your brothers in Iran are ready to endeavor in any trench, side by side with you, to defend the borders of the Islamic nation and sacrifice their souls," he wrote in an open letter to Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
   
    "I humbly kiss your hands and those of the Hizbullah fighters, and I am proudly ready to do jihad against the enemies of Islam and humanity alongside my brothers in Lebanon," said the letter.
   
    But when asked about Iranian assistance to Hizbullah, government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters that "they are capable of defending their country" from the "illegitimate Zionist regime."
   
    He said that a solution for the conflict was an "exchange of hostages." This, he insisted, was "a reasonable demand and solution and will provide the grounds for implementing calm."
   
    In London British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett voiced "very real anxiety" that Iran or Syria might be behind Hizbullah's attacks on Israel.
   
    "Hizbullah wantonly poured petrol on the bonfire," Beckett told the BBC. "One can only ask oneself whose interests are served by that? It is certainly not the interests of the people of Lebanon," she said.
   
    Iran is under mounting international pressure over its controversial nuclear energy drive, seen in the West as a cover for weapons development. Tehran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful energy means only.

Iran slams Israel as 'filthy tumor'

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Iran, Russia discuss Mideast issue
03:50:33 È.Ù
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Safari and his Russian counterpart Alexander Saltanov conferred Tuesday on the Middle East issue, including Palestine and Lebanon.

A report released by the Russian foreign ministry internet site said that at the meeting Saltanov expounded on the measures taken by his country to stop the present regional conflicts and encourage those involved to seek political solutions.

As Russia's Foreign Ministry official in charge of Middle East affairs, Saltanov is scheduled to depart for the region as the special envoy of his country.

He is expected to hold talks with the heads of states of the regional countries, including Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and the Zionist regime about ways of ending conflicts in the Middle East.

Iran, Russia discuss Mideast issue

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Huge anti-Zionist rally in Tehran
10:13:31 Þ.Ù
Thousands of Tehranis staged a rally in the Iranian capital Tuesday to condemn the atrocities of the Zionist regime in the occupied Palestine and Lebanon.

Several senior Iranian officials, members of political groups, organizations and parties, university students and people from various walks of life attended the rally.

The rally aimed to condemn the savage Zionist attacks on Lebanon and Palestine in an ongoing offensive which has led to the martyrdom of hundreds of defenseless people as well as the hostage taking of Palestinian officials in the Hamas-led government by the Zionist regime.

Huge anti-Zionist rally in Tehran

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Rage of nations against arrogant powers on verge of eruption
Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan prov, July 18, IRNA

Iran-Ahmadinejad-Fury
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad here Tuesday referring to the crimes of the Zionist regime in the region said that the volcano of the rage of nations facing the tyranny of the arrogant powers is on the verge of eruption.

Speaking at the 8th gathering of the nationwide university and higher institute officials as well as Basiji scientific groups in Mashhad, he said that the present conditions are quite abnormal and the scenario of aggression is about to end.

"The Zionists themselves have realized that they have launched a risky move and are aware that the flame of the fury of the regional states will set them ablaze," he added.

Stressing that the enemies of Muslim nations are approaching the end of the road and are about to drown, the president said that for this reason they have subjected Muslim nations to their rage and hatred.

"The day on which the regional people will rejoice will definitely come soon and the world is standing on the threshold of great development and the Muslims are expected to overcome their aggressive enemies," said the president
Ahmadinejad addressing the Zionist regime as well as their supporters proposed, "Just as you created such a situation you had better put an end to it yourself."

Rage of nations against arrogant powers on verge of eruption

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Peace activists call on Annan to end Israeli aggression in Lebanon
Brussels, July 18, IRNA

Belgium-Lebanon-Protest
Arab, Lebanese and Belgian peace activists held a gathering in front of the EU headquarters here Tuesday calling on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to end the Israeli aggression in Lebanon.

Annan, who is visiting Brussels Tuesday to take part in an international conference on Darfur, earlier met EU officials and discussed the situation in Lebanon.

"Annan, stop Israeli terrorism and genocide in Lebanon," shouted the protestors.

"US and Israel are terrorist states," read one placard carried by the demonstrators.

The UN chief has proposed the dispatch of an international stabilization force to Lebanon to end the hostilities.

A demonstration against the Israeli aggression in Lebanon was held in front of the EU headquarters on Monday when EU foreign ministers were meeting to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East.

Another rally in Brussels against the Israeli attack on Lebanon is planned for Wednesday.

Peace activists call on Annan to end Israeli aggression in Lebanon

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Beckett: Iran or Syria behind Hezbollah's conflict

Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - ©2005 IranMania.com
     Related Pictures
 
Prime Minister Tony Blair's proposal for a stabilization force was a "viable option" to preserve any ceasefire by preventing Israel from being attacked from southern Lebanon, AFP stated.
Archioved Picture - According to an AFP report, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett voiced "very real anxiety" Tuesday that Iran or Syria might be behind Hezbollah's attacks on Israel from Lebanon.

LONDON, July 18 (IranMania) - According to an AFP report, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett voiced "very real anxiety" Tuesday that Iran or Syria might be behind Hezbollah's attacks on Israel from Lebanon.

Beckett accused Hezbollah, which analysts say is backed militarily and financially by Tehran and Damascus, of sparking hostilities by firing rockets into Israel and kidnapping its soldiers last week.

When asked whether she believed that Iran and Syria were orchestrating the attacks, Beckett told BBC Radio: "I think there is a very real anxiety about that, the report added.

"Hezbollah wantonly poured petrol on the bonfire. It is very clear that their intervention was intended to create an infinitely worse situation of the kind that we have now," Beckett said.

"One can only ask oneself whose interests are served by that? It is certainly not the interests of the people of Lebanon," Beckett said.

Asked whether she agreed with critics who describe Israel's counter-strikes as disproportionate, she replied: "It's not proportionate to be firing rockets into Israel all the time either, AFP said.

"It is clear that Israel has been under attack and is now responding in Lebanon. It is also clear that this is inflicting huge damage both on civilians in Israel and civilians in Lebanon," Beckett said.

Beckett restated Britain's call for the unconditional release of two Israeli soldiers abducted by Hezbollah as well as for "all those involved in the region to react proportionately to the problems that we all know they are experiencing".

She added: "We must all try to make sure that what we do not see in Lebanon is the destruction of a state. It is an extremely dangerous situation."

Beckett said it was clear that there would at some point be a ceasefire, but it was vital that action is taken internationally to ensure that this ceasefire is sustainable.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's proposal for a stabilization force was a "viable option" to preserve any ceasefire by preventing Israel from being attacked from southern Lebanon, AFP stated.

"Of course, we need action to cease, but there needs to be something that can then maintain and police and monitor such a ceasefire, so I think it is potentially a viable option," she said.

Beckett: Iran or Syria behind Hezbollah's conflict

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More than 1,000 Objects of Hizbollah Destroyed in Israeli Air Raids

18 July 2006 | 21:57 | FOCUS News Agency

Jerusalem. More than 1,000 objects of Hizbollah were destroyed in Israeli air raids, Yedioth Achronot reports. The information was confirmed by the Israeli General Gadi Aizenkot. He noted that several exclusively successful attacks against objects of the Lebanese group were carried out during the last 24 hours. More than 180 platforms for launching Katyusha rockets against Israeli territory were destroyed, he said.

More than 1,000 Objects of Hizbollah Destroyed in Israeli Air Raids

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Krasimir Uzunov: Middle East Conflict Will Affect Presidential Elections in Both Russia and U.S.

 18 July 2006 | 21:34 | FOCUS News Agency

Sofia. “The invasion in Lebanon will affect Bulgarian economy because of the inevitable rise of oil prices, and the Bulgarian economy is still in a stage of transformation”, the President of FOCUS News Agency Krasimir Uzunov said in an interview for the TV channel 7 Days.
“Withdrawal of a large number of foreign citizens will affect the economy in the region; hundreds of French, Britons and Bulgarians are leaving and this doesn’t speak for a quick solution of the crisis”, Uzunov said.
He said he expected the conflict in the Middle East would also affect the Presidential elections in both Russia and the United States.
“We’ve seen that the Israelis made possible the withdrawal of foreign citizens. It is interesting that even the shifting of several governments in Israel didn’t lead to decreasing the fighting capacity of the Israeli army”, Krasimir Uzunov added.
This, however, does not decrease the scale of the problem with the innocent victims of the conflict, he said.

Krasimir Uzunov: Middle East Conflict Will Affect Presidential Elections in Both Russia and U.S.

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White House rejects any truce preserving "terrorist infrastructure"

WHITE HOUSE The Bush administration says it's too soon for a cease-fire in the Mideast, even after a week of escalating bloodshed.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow says a cease-fire now would leave Hezbollah still armed to the teeth and vowing total war on Israel.

He says any truce that leaves "terrorist infrastructure" intact is "unacceptable."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is making plans to travel to the Middle East. But U-S officials still aren't saying when she'll go or who she'll see.

Snow says it's also not clear yet the specific goals she'd have in any shuttle diplomacy.

White House rejects any truce preserving "terrorist infrastructure"