Biblical countries, in the news.

[Shammu]

U.N.'s Malloch Brown Questions Hezbollah's 'Terror' Designation

Thursday , August 03, 2006

By Sharon Kehnemui Liss

WASHINGTON — U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown may want to stick to reforming his own office and stop criticizing member states, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday.

Malloch Brown was quoted in a British newspaper Wednesday suggesting that he does not think that Hezbollah, the Syrian- and Iranian-backed group currently fighting Israeli Defense Forces, is a terrorist organization.

"It's not helpful to couch this war in the language of international terrorism. Hezbollah employs terrorist tactics; it is an organization, however, whose roots historically are completely separate and different from Al Qaeda," he said, according to a transcript of an interview.

"I have to say that some of his comments, as reported today, are really misguided and misplaced. And we are seeing a troubling pattern of a high official of the U.N. who seems to be making it his business to criticize member states and, frankly, with misplaced and misguided criticisms. So I really don't understand the origin of these comments," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

This is not the first time Malloch Brown has made remarks revealing his distaste for the U.S. administration or its policies. Last month, he said the United States relies on the United Nations as a diplomatic tool but doesn't defend it in "Middle America," which remains largely ignorant while it criticizes the world body.

Many of the U.N.'s good works are largely lost on America because "much of the public discourse that reaches the U.S. heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and FOX News," he said during a speech in which he also defended the success of U.N. peacekeeping missions.

McCormack said the United States has a good working relationship with the U.N.'s second in command, but Kofi Annan's top deputy should redirect his attention to issues closer to home.

"We hope, also, that he can focus his efforts, really, where they are needed: on working with members states to help bring about an end to this current crisis, to work on U.N. reform. We want to make sure that member state contributions, that U.S. taxpayer dollars are well spent. And there's a lot more work to be done on U.N. reform," McCormack said.

Unlike the United States, the European Union does not list Hezbollah, a Shiite Islamic group that takes "its ideological inspiration from the Iranian revolution and the teachings of the late Ayatollah Khomeini," as a terrorist organization.

"Hezbollah supports a variety of violent anti-Western groups, including Palestinian terrorist organizations. This support includes the covert provision of weapons, explosives, training, funding and guidance as well as overt political support," reads the State Department report on Hezbollah in its list of designated terror groups.

The report also notes that Hezbollah earned considerable legitimacy in 2005 after Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon. Having been a political party operating in Lebanon since 1992, Hezbollah now has 14 elected officials in the 128-seat Lebanese National Assembly and holds the Ministry of Water and Electricity.

"We believe Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. And in terms of Mr. Malloch Brown's comments regarding Hezbollah, clearly, we disagree," McCormack said.

A British citizen, Malloch Brown said he didn't think Hezbollah would lose support for its militia unless a political solution can be reached on Shebaa Farms. In 2000, after the United Nations declared complete Israel's withdrew from Lebanon, Hezbollah began claiming Israel still occupied part of the country because it holds the 25 square-mile area in the Golan Heights. Israel took Shebaa Farms from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967.

"The idea that there is a peace which either Hezbollah would respect or which would draw the wind out of Hezbollah's sails, which doesn't address those political things is, I think, far-fetched," Malloch Brown told the newspaper.

The latest military conflict between Hezbollah and Israel began when the terror group crossed into Israeli territory on July 12, kidnapping two Israeli soldiers and killing three others. Israel responded by dropping bombs on key Hezbollah strongholds. It started a new ground offensive on Tuesday.

Top members of the United Nations are trying to find a solution to end the current conflict. Malloch Brown suggested one way for that to happen is for Great Britain to fall back and "follow" the international community's lead in finding a solution.

"What is troubling to me is the U.S. and UK now carry with them a particular set of baggage in the Middle East. The challenge for them is to recognize that ultimately they have to allow others to share the lead in this effort diplomatically and [in putting together] a stabilization force," Malloch Brown told The Financial Times.

"The U.K. has immense knowledge and influence; it can be a behind the scenes player. But we need Chirac and Bush, or Chirac, Bush, and Mubarak and Abdullah on a podium, not President Bush and Mr. Blair," Malloch Brown said, referring to the leaders of France, the United States, Egypt, Jordan and England, respectively.

A diplomatic solution, however, has yet to be reached among the international community, with French officials saying they will not take part in a Thursday meeting at the United Nations of countries that could send troops to help monitor a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.

U.S. officials say an international force needs to be ready to go to make sure a cease-fire will last. The chicken and egg argument about which comes first, the cease-fire or the peacekeepers, has heightened tensions between the United States and France, which ruled Lebanon between World Wars I and II and retains close ties to it.

White House spokesman Tony Snow tried to put a damper on the dispute on Wednesday.

"I think, when those issues are ironed out, everybody will have a full answer to it. I'm not going to get myself into what are ongoing and very constructive conversations," Snow said.

McCormack added that the United States and France are working very closely together, "off one paper, a common text."

Meanwhile, an Israeli official told FOX News on Wednesday that American support for Israel during the entire crisis has been "superb," a function of Israel's and Bush's "identical strategic view" of the nexus of Syria, Iran and regional terrorist groups.

The official said the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah should be over by the end of next week, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicated in an interview with FOX News on Tuesday. The official also noted that Israel acknowledges that Hezbollah will remain a military force after the end of next week, but a "much weakened" one.

The IDF have seen a "continuous and constant erosion" of Hezbollah's ability to inflict damage on Israel, but the purpose behind Israeli diplomacy at the United Nations is to make sure that the supply lines connecting Hezbollah and Syria be permanently severed, the official said. Any multinational force installed by the United Nations at the Israeli-Lebanese border must be as dedicated to that task.

U.N.'s Malloch Brown Questions Hezbollah's 'Terror' Designation

[Shammu]

Russia Urges Iran to Meet Deadline on Suspending Uranium Enrichment
By VOA News
04 August 2006
   

Russia has urged Iran to heed a U.N. Security Council resolution giving Tehran until the end of the month to suspend its sensitive nuclear activities.

In a statement Thursday, Russia's Foreign Ministry said no further measures by the Security Council will be required if Iran heeds the call.

Russia, a permanent Security Council member, has resisted Western efforts to sanction Iran for its refusal to comply with nuclear demands.

The U.N. resolution, passed earlier this week, demands Iran stop enriching uranium by August 31st or face possible sanctions. The Security Council acted after Iran failed to respond to an international incentives package Tehran would get by suspending enrichment activities.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday Iran is still considering the incentives package.

The United States and its Western allies believe Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

Russia Urges Iran to Meet Deadline on Suspending Uranium Enrichment
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Why does August 22 keep poping up in my head??  I know that ImagineAnut said he would give the world and the UN, an answer on that date. Theres something else there, I feel thats not being said.

[Shammu]

Hezbollah’s Prominence Has Many Arabs Worried

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
Published: August 4, 2006

DAMASCUS, Syria, Aug. 3 — To one Damascus University professor, the faint echo of Israeli bombs exploding in the lower Bekaa Valley brings two fears. He recoils at the destruction he imagines across the border, less than 10 miles from his village home, but deeper down he worries that any Hezbollah triumph will come at the expense of his own Sunni branch of Islam.

“Since the Americans invaded Iraq we have all become aware of the danger from the Shiites,” said the professor, who asked not to be identified by name because discussing sectarian rivalry is taboo in Syria, an authoritarian state run by a religious minority. “Ordinary people only think of Hezbollah as fighting against Israeli aggression. But the educated classes think that if Hezbollah controls the region, then the Sunnis will be abused.”

Intensifying Sunni-Shiite violence in Iraq in the last couple of years has already raised sectarian awareness across the Middle East in ways not experienced since the Islamic Revolution in Shiite Iran in 1979. The fighting in Lebanon promises to further increase Sunnis’ unease about Shiites challenging their dominance.

Mushrooming public support for Hezbollah has overshadowed the issue somewhat, with public anger focused on Israel for the civilian deaths and widespread destruction in Lebanon. Yet sectarian disquiet persists in whispered conversations, on Web sites, in the corridors of government and in mosques.

Governments like those in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, whose initial criticism of Hezbollah proved untenable, use “Shiite” as a euphemism for Iran’s waxing regional influence; the religious put more emphasis on doctrinal differences.

Zabadani, a Syrian resort in the pine-shaded mountains facing Lebanon, fills with Arabs from the Persian Gulf each summer. Many interviewed at random along the main street said they supported Hezbollah in its fight with Israel, but some made their distaste for Shiites clear.

“They think they will be the leaders of all Muslims, and I don’t want that,” said a 45-year-old high school math teacher from Riyadh, who declined to give his name due to the topic’s sensitivity. “Hezbollah is Iranian; everyone knows that.”

He described some of the rituals Shiites perform, including beating and cutting themselves during Ashura to commemorate the battlefield martyrdom of Hussein, the Prophet’s grandson. “This is wrong!” he said, his face contorting in disgust. “I don’t want to see all this blood.”

The Sunni-Shiite rivalry dates back almost 1,400 years, to Islam’s earliest decades. After the Prophet Muhammad died, the group that became the Shiites backed his son-inlaw Ali — Shiite means partisan, as in partisans of Ali — as his rightful heir. Ali and his sons died in a series of battles lost to the caliph ruling from Damascus.

The Shiites make up about 15 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims. There is little difference between Sunnis and Shiites when it comes to basic rituals like prayer and fasting, but Shiites have a more hierarchical system. Fundamentalist Sunnis label some Shiite practices — treating dead religious figures as saints, for example — as blasphemy.

In Saudi Arabia, puritanical Wahhabi Muslims lace their writings with suggestions that being a Christian or a Jew is far preferable to being Shiite — often referred to as rejectionist, for rejecting the true faith. And they often disparage the Shiite practice of takiya, or sanctioned lying about beliefs, an insurance policy developed during repeated Sunni inquisitions.

One prominent Saudi cleric, Abdullah bin Jibreen, just reissued a fatwa accusing Shiite groups like Hezbollah of habitually betraying Sunnis. “It is not appropriate to support this rejectionist party and to fall under its authority, and it is not appropriate to pray for their victory and control,” the fatwa read in part.

Raging arguments erupted on Internet chat rooms, including rare public criticism of senior clerics for being too aloof from the Arab struggle against Israel. Mohsen al-Awaji, a well-known Saudi religious activist, said such fatwas seemed as though they “came from another planet.” But some called Iran’s Islamic Revolution one of the worst disasters ever visited on Sunni Islam. In Lebanon, the Druse leader Walid Jumblatt is among the few who dare voice the belief that Hezbollah needlessly brought destruction raining down.

In an interview in his mountain redoubt at Mukhtara, Mr. Jumblatt said Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, represented the same ideology espoused by Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran’s current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — awaiting the return of the Mahdi, or savior, at the end of the world.

cont'd next post

[Shammu]

“He’s part of the Shiite Armageddon,” Mr. Jumblatt said of Sheik Nasrallah.

In a televised speech last Saturday, Sheik Nasrallah tried to assuage fears about Shiite dominance. “I say to the Lebanese that none of you should be afraid of the victory of the resistance, but you should be afraid of its defeat,” he said. “It will be a victory for every Arab, Muslim, Christian and honorable person in the world who stood against the aggression and defended Lebanon.”

He also referred to the sectarian tension, thanking those who confront attempts to sow sedition and tear apart the ranks of Muslims.

Since the beginning of this outbreak of violence, extremist Sunni groups like Al Qaeda have tried to portray their struggle as parallel with Hezbollah’s, as a fight against Zionism and the sinful West. But the late Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, issued long screeds that labeled all Shiites heretics deserving death for collaborating with the Americans.

Even mainstream Sunni leaders like King Abdullah II of Jordan spoke darkly of a “Shiite crescent” emerging from Iran through the Persian Gulf to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

The Shiites were last ascendant from the 10th to the 12th century. During much of that period a Shiite dynasty ruled Egypt and a large swath of the region, including the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Saladin, the commander who captured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, overthrew the dynasty. So the comparisons now springing up between Sheik Nasrallah and Saladin are anathema to Shiites.

Modern Egypt lacks any significant population of Shiites and views them with some tolerance.

In a recent newspaper column, Ahmed Fouad Negm, a poet, described an episode at a rally in support of Hezbollah. A clean-cut young man — the archetype of a secret-police infiltrator — shouted, “You people, Hassan Nasrallah is a Shiite!”

A woman yelled back in mock horror, “Does that mean he’s Christian?”

The security agent, answered, “No, of course he’s Muslim.”

“So why are you picking on him?” the women responded, prompting widespread snickering.

Egypt’s grand mufti, Sheik Ali Gomaa, the country’s highest religious authority, issued a statement supporting Hezbollah, while Sheik Youssef Qaradawi, whose program on Al Jazeera makes him one of the Arab world’s most influential clerics, defined supporting the guerrillas as a “religious duty.”

The Muslim Brotherhood, the Sunni Islamist group founded in Egypt, has been particularly outspoken. Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, a member of its guidance office, said that Washington had invaded Iraq to divide Muslims and that it was better to support a Hezbollah-Iranian agenda than an “American-Zionist” one.

“Which one is more dangerous to the Muslim world?” he said in an interview, before attacking “the regimes who tremble before Iran. They are weak and tattered regimes who don’t acknowledge the will of their people.”

When pressed, though, a vague ambivalence emerges. “Iran would be at the end of our list of enemies, even though it’s not an enemy,” he said. “Let’s combat the American danger on the region before we ‘compete’ with Iran.”

Unease exists in Egypt on a popular level, too. Sheik Khalid al-Guindy runs a well-used dial-a-fatwa service, where the faithful can pose religious questions. Most callers voice frustration over not doing enough to help, but a few raise sectarian doubts, he said.

They ask questions like “Does this mean that the Shiites are the ones who are right and the Sunnis have been mistaken?”

“The problem is that they are looking at the battle as one between Israel and a specific group — the Shiites,” Sheik Guindy said he told his callers. “This is not true. The battle is against Islam specifically and the Arabs generally, and we shouldn’t differentiate. I think talking about sectarian differences at this time is one of the greatest sins.”

Syria has long adhered to a secular, pan-Arabist viewpoint, not least because a tiny minority of Alawites — members of a Shiite offshoot — control the country. Here, even in official news reports about Iraq’s sectarian fighting, a bombed mosque is not identified as Shiite or Sunni.

But recently Sheik Mohamed al-Bouti, a populist imam, was allowed to address the differences. The sheik a Sunni cleric, recently interrupted his usual televised Koranic lesson to describe the whispered fears he was hearing at his mosque that a Hezbollah victory would expand the “Shiitization” of the Arab world.

“Oh my followers!” he said. “This is wrong! This is what Israel wants! These sectarian differences will only lead to strife. When there is war, when there is holy jihad, then we have to unify as one Islamic and Arab nation. Hezbollah is fighting on behalf of the whole nation.”

Watching the rising tide of Islam, even secular Syrians who support Hezbollah worry that their lifestyle is at risk. Leaving the Arab-Israeli dispute unsettled for decades has opened the door to all manner of religious extremists, they argue.

“The idea of a Shiite crescent is imaginary,” said Hunein Nemer, a lawyer and one of the Communist Party members of Syria’s rubber-stamp Parliament. “But let me tell you a fact: once this situation lasts for a long time, then the influence of the Islamic groups will grow more and more.”

Hezbollah’s Prominence Has Many Arabs Worried

[Shammu]

 Israel Says U.S. Support is 'Superb'
01:26 Aug 04, '06 / 10 Av 5766

(IsraelNN.com) An Israeli official has told Fox News that American support for Israel during the Hizbullah terrorist war has been "superb." The unidentified official added that the U.S. and Israel share a common view concerning Syria and Iran.

Fox News reported that he said the fighting should be over by the end of next week but acknowledged that the Hizbullah terrorist organization will remain a military force, although much weaker than before.

Israel Says U.S. Support is 'Superb'

[Shammu]

 Bibi Tells Britain: Hizbullah Can Reach London
01:11 Aug 04, '06 / 10 Av 5766

(IsraelNN.com) Knesset Member and Opposition leader Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu warned Britons on Thursday that Iran has missiles which can reach London. Speaking on Sky News, the former Prime Minister said that Hizbullah represents a new Fascism and Hitler-ism that threatens the West.

In a separate interview with The Times of London, MK Netanyahu also doubted that a proposed international peacekeeping force in Lebanon can prevent future attacks on Israel by Hizbullah. "The record of multi-national forces so far has been mixed one,” he said.

"In Iraq, a dozen nations started out and one by one they fell by the wayside as Islamic terrorists targeted the soldiers of the international force. Ukrainian, Spanish and Japanese mothers asked why should our sons fight and die in Iraq. This is undoubtedly a tactic that Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons will try to replicate here.”

Bibi Tells Britain: Hizbullah Can Reach London

[Shammu]

Hezbollah founder says group’s missiles can hit whole of Israel


TEHRAN, Aug 3: One of the Iranian founders of Lebanon’s Hezbollah said in remarks published on Thursday that the group had missiles which ‘leave no spot in Israel unreachable’.

“Hezbollah’s arsenal not only includes Katyusha missiles, but also Zelzal-2 missiles, which could hit targets as far as 250 kilometres, leaving no spot in Israel unreachable,” Ali Akbar Mohtashami-Pour, a cleric, told the centrist Shargh newspaper.

Mohtshami-Pour, Iran’s former ambassador to Syria during the early 1980s, did not say where the missiles were made.

“Hezbollah managed to equip itself in the past five years,” he noted, implicitly referring to Israel’s pullout from southern Lebanon in 2000.

His comments were backed by the Hezbollah representative in Iran, Abdullah Safeyodin.

“The reason we have aimed at Haifa is because it is a vital target .... but if it is deemed necessary we will target Tel Aviv,” Safeyodin was quoted as saying by Iranian papers.

Hezbollah founder says group’s missiles can hit whole of Israel

[Shammu]

Venezuela withdraws ambassador to Israel in protest against attacks
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Venezuela has recalled its ambassador to Israel in protest against the Jewish state's military actions in Gaza and Lebanon, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday.

"I have ordered the withdrawal of our ambassador in Israel" to show "our indignation at seeing how the state of Israel continues ... bombarding, killing, quartering," Chavez said in a speech.

Chavez, president of the world's fifth largest oil exporter, has been a sharp critic of the U.S. government and has frequently expresses support for the Palestinian people.

The Venezuelan response came after Israeli forces launched attacks in Lebanon on July 12 to free two soldiers captured by the Lebanon-based guerrilla group Hezbollah. The attacks have killed over 900 people, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Thursday.

Israel also launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip to free another kidnapped soldier and halt rocket attacks from Palestinian militants.

Venezuela withdraws ambassador to Israel in protest against attacks

[Shammu]

 Leaked EU Secret Report Smacks Of Anti-Semitism
By Jim Kouri
Aug 3, 2006

A leaked European Union secret report advises European government officials that they should "consider direct intervention in an attempt to curb the systematic measures being undertaken by Israel to increase its control and population in the historically -- and legally -- Arab eastern sector of Jerusalem

The classified report warns that the chances of a two-state solution are being eroded by Israel's "deliberate policy" -- in breach of international of law -- of "completing the annexation of East Jerusalem".

But European foreign ministers decided against releasing the report -- which also warns that rapid expansion of Jewish settlements in and around East Jerusalem, along with use of the separation barrier to isolate East Jerusalem from the West Bank, "risk radicalizing the relatively quiescent Palestinian population of East Jerusalem." They risk radicalizing the Palestinian population? Is there anything more radical than suicide bombers?

No where in the report is there mention of terrorist attacks by groups such as Hamas and Hezbullah.  In fact, the report claims East Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinians and sees it as the eventual capital of the a new Palestinian state.

The EU report also distorts the history of Jewish control of East Jerusalem.  The report writers claim that the Israelis "seized" it during the Six Days War of 1967, without mentioning that the war was intiated by Arab nations and Israel was merely defending itself from multiple attacking armies.  They commandeered the territory in order to create a security buffer zone.  Of course, to do so they had to push back the invading armies to prevent Israelis from being driven into the sea.

The report's recommendations includes meeting with the elected-leaders of the Palestinians, such as President Mahmoud Abbas, to show support for their endeavors to create their own independent nation.

The classified report, leaked to a British news organization, says: "Israel's activities in Jerusalem are in violation of both its Roadmap obligations and international law.  We and others in the international community have made our concerns clear on numerous occasions with varying effect.  Palestinians are, without exception, deeply alarmed about East Jerusalem.  They fear that Israel will 'get away with it' under cover of disengagement [from Gaza]."
Continue reading this article below

This report shocks very few observers who follow European politics.  Anti-semitism is deeply entrenched in these nations who are well-known appeasers.  Although no single country is mentioned as far as their part in formulating the report, intelligence sources believe it has all the earmarks of a French and German coalition.

Even in the United States, there are many liberals and radical leftists who either criticize Israel or out and out blame the Jews for all the world's ills.  So-called conservative Pat Buchanan and others have created this mythical Israeli lobby whom they blame for everything from foreign aid for Israel to the US invasion of Iraq.

Meanwhile, anti-war movement icon Cindy Sheehan has repeatedly made references to American soldiers dying for Israel.  Recently, this writer observed a bumber sticker that read: "Fight for America, Not Israel."  What strange bedfellows hatred for Israel breeds.

This "secret report", although never officially released, displays a total distortion of Middle East history.  Prior to the 1967 war, there was no such thing as "Palestinians." Arabs who lived in that region called themselves Syrians or Egyptian or Jordanians.  Even the top leader of the so-called Palestinian people -- Yassar Arafat -- was born and raised in Egypt and his biography refers to him as being Eqyptian.

This writer's grandfather lived in the city of Haifa, but he called himself a Syrian (he left for America in 1917 because of the violence perpetrated by Muslims on the Christian Arabs).  My grandfather and grandmother never called themselves Palestinians.

Leaked EU Secret Report Smacks Of Anti-Semitism

[Shammu]

Islamists to help Hezbollah fight
Friday August 04, 2006 06:20 - (SA)

CAIRO - The leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has said he was ready to send 10,000 fighters to Lebanon to combat Israel alongside Hezbollah.

"I am ready to send immediately 10,000 mujahedeen to fight the Zionists alongside Hezbollah," Mohammed Mehdi Akef said.

He admitted though that the chances were more than slim that any volunteers from Egypt would ever reach Lebanon.

"There are enough people but you would need Arab regimes to authorise their deployment or at least turn a blind eye on their departure," Akef said.

"Training... is not as easy as it once was; there was a time when a week was all it took to train and arm fighters."

Israel launched a land, air and sea offensive against Lebanon following the July 12 capture of two its soldiers by guerrillas of Hezbollah.

Despite being Shiite movement, Hezbollah enjoys massive popular support in most of the Arab world for its resistance to Israel.

In a weekly statement distributed to the press, Akef also lashed out at Arab regimes for failing to express their support for Hezbollah and take action to stop the bloodshed in Lebanon.

"The most appalling thing is that these heroic acts have not awakened the conscience of a single Arab regime," Akef charged.

"They have only one thing in mind and that is to cling to their positions and plunder their people's wealth," added Akef, who had promptly issued a statement to congratulate Hezbollah when they captured the soldiers.

The moderation of some Arab countries' criticism of Israel when the offensive began drew fierce reactions from the press and opposition movements in Egypt.

[Shammu]

    

Jordanian, Egyptian FMs warn Israel-Hizbullah violence could lead to chaos

 

 

Brutal conflicts like the one raging between Israel and the militant group Hizbullah will not end until Israel makes peace with the whole Arab world, the Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers said Wednesday.

 

"We believe that this situation in Lebanon could be repeated if a peace settlement that gives Arabs their full rights and gives the Palestinian people the right to set up their independent state is not reached," said Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Illah al-Khatib.

Jordanian, Egyptian FMs warn Israel-Hizbullah violence could lead to chaos

[Shammu]

Thousands of gotcha2tes Rally in Baghdad for Hezbollah

Friday , August 04, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a show of support for Hezbollah militants battling Israeli troops in Lebanon.

No violence was reported during the rally in the Sadr City neighborhood. But at least 26 people were killed elsewhere in Iraq, most of them in a car bombing and gunbattle in the northern city of Mosul.

The demonstration was the biggest in the Middle East in support of Hezbollah since the Israeli army launched an offensive July 12 after a guerrilla raid on northern Israel. The protest was organized by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose political movement built around the Mahdi Army militia has been modeled after Hezbollah.

Al-Sadr summoned followers from throughout the Shiite heartland of southern Iraq to converge on Baghdad for the rally but he did not attend.

Demonstrators, wearing white burial shrouds symbolizing their willingness to die for Hezbollah, waved the group's yellow banner and chanted slogans in support of its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who has attained a cult status in the Arab world for his defiance of Israel.

"Allah, Allah, give victory to Hassan Nasrallah," the crowd chanted.

"Mahdi Army and Hezbollah are one. Let them confront us if they dare," the predominantly male crowd shouted, waving the flags of Hezbollah, Lebanon and Iraq.

Many walked with umbrellas in the searing afternoon sun. Volunteers sprayed them with water.

"I am wearing the shroud and I am ready to meet martyrdom," said Mohammed Khalaf, 35, owner of a clothes shop in the southern city of Amarah.

Al-Sadr followers painted U.S. and Israeli flags on the main road leading to the rally site, and demonstrators stepped on them — a gesture of contempt in Iraq. Alongside the painted flags was written: "These are the terrorists."

Protesters set fire to American and Israeli flags, as well as effigies of President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, showing the men with Dracula teeth. "Saddam and Bush, Two Faces of One Coin" was scrawled on Bush's effigy.

Iraqi government television said the Defense Ministry had approved the demonstration, a sign of public anger over Israel's offensive and of al-Sadr's stature as a major player in Iraqi politics.

"I consider my participation in this rally a religious duty. I am proud to join this crowd and I am ready to die for the sake of Lebanon," said Khazim al-Ibadi, 40, a government employee from Hillah.

Although the rally was about Hezbollah, it was also a show of strength by al-Sadr. Many people worried the presence of so many Shiite demonstrators — most of them from the Mahdi Army — would add to sectarian tensions in the city, which has seen almost daily clashes between Shiite and Sunni extremists.

The sectarian violence escalated after the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra unleashed a wave of reprisal attacks on Sunnis nationwide.

On Thursday, Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, told a Senate committee in Washington that sectarian violence in Iraq "is probably as bad as I have seen it" and that if the spiral continued the country "could move toward civil war."

In the latest violence Friday, at least 13 people were killed when Iraqi security forces fought gunbattles with suspected insurgents in Mosul after a suicide car bomber blew up a police patrol, said the provincial police commander, Maj. Gen. Withiq al-Hamdani.

He said that the suicide bombing killed four policemen and that eight insurgents died in the subsequent gunbattle.

Also Friday, another suicide bomber killed three people on a soccer field in the town of Hatra near Mosul. An engineer was shot dead and an unidentified body, showing signs of torture, was found in western Baghdad.

The U.S. military said in a statement that coalition forces killed at least three "terrorists" during an air strike and multiple raids southeast of Baghdad on Thursday.

Separately. gunmen shot and killed four people and wounded eight from a Shiite family late Thursday in Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad, police Lt. Hussam al-Dujeili said.

Thousands of gotcha2tes Rally in Baghdad for Hezbollah

[Shammu]

Iranian official admits Tehran supplied missiles to Hezbollah
By Amos Harel and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents

A senior Iranian official admitted for the first time Friday that Tehran did indeed supply long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hezbollah.

Mohtashami Pur, a one-time ambassador to Lebanon who currently holds the title of secretary-general of the "Intifada conference," told an Iranian newspaper that Iran transferred the missiles to the Shi'ite militia, adding that the organization has his country's blessing to use the weapons in defense of Lebanon.

Pur's statements are thought to be unusual given that Tehran has thus far been reluctant to comment on the extent of its aid which it has extended to Hezbollah.

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Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday night in a televised broadcast that his organization would target Tel Aviv if Beirut was attacked by Israel.

"If our capital, Beirut, is attacked, we will attack your capital, Tel Aviv," Nasrallah threatened.

The Hezbollah leader issued his warning after Israel Air Force aircraft dropped leaflets over the Lebanese capital, calling on residents of three Shi'ite neighborhoods in southern Beirut to evacuate their homes.

Israeli security sources assessed that Nasrallah's threats are serious.

On Wednesday evening, the IAF attacked Beirut for the first time after a hiatus of nearly five days. The dropping of the leaflets yesterday is considered to be a precursor to new air strikes on the city.

Military Intelligence estimates that Nasrallah would like to end the war with a dramatic move, such as the firing of missiles against Tel Aviv.

The range of the Iranian-made Zelzal missiles is estimated to be 210 kilometers, enabling Hezbollah to target the northern suburbs of Tel Aviv and its environs. Last week, the IAF deployed Patriot anti-aircraft missiles near Netanya as part of the overall effort to foil a possible Zelzal attack.

Iranian official admits Tehran supplied missiles to Hezbollah

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Islamic group: 200 militants sent to bomb 'Israel's vital interests'
By Reuters

JAKARTA - More than 200 Islamic militants from Southeast Asia have
been sent on missions to bomb Israel's "vital interests" and countries that support the Jewish state, their leader said on Friday.

The militants have been trained to carry out suicide bombings to avenge Israel's military strikes on the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, said Suaib Didu, chairman of the Jakarta-based ASEAN Muslim Youth Movement.

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"We will limit our targets to Israel's vital interests and those that support Israel's aggression in Palestine and Lebanon," Didu said. "We will not carry out attacks indiscriminately."

Hardline militant groups in Indonesia have made claims in the past of sending volunteers to participate in conflicts overseas that have sometimes proved exaggerated.

Western countries such as the United States and Britain, as well as businesses, could be targeted unless they cease supporting Israel, he said.

Didu said the group was watching Australia's position on the Middle East conflict.

"If John Howard makes a statement in support of Israel, he will be a target," Didu said.

More than 3,000 people have signed up for the mission, and 217 people from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore have been dispatched abroad so far, he said.

A "show of force" of the more than 3,000 volunteers will be held on Saturday in Pontianak in West Kalimantan province on Borneo island, Didu said, adding that many of the 200-plus militants had fought with Afghanistan against the Soviets.

Din Syamsuddin, chairman of the moderate Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, said Thursday that threats by radical Muslim groups to send volunteers to fight Israel were just "symbolic gestures" to show solidarity with the Palestinians and Lebanese.

"There are too many obstacles for these people to travel there. It is too costly and the Israeli army is no match for them," he told reporters.

But in Canberra, Human Services Minister Joe Hockey said Friday the government was not shrugging off reports of the plans to carry out suicide bombings.

"The minister for foreign affairs and the Department of Foreign Affairs are investigating what is reported in the papers today and we are treating it very, very seriously," Hockey told Australian television.

Australia is a staunch ally of the United States, with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. While it has been targeted in attacks in Indonesia, Australia has never suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil.

Australia and Indonesia strengthened cooperation on counter-terrorism following the 2002 nightclub bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australian tourists.

Islamic group: 200 militants sent to bomb 'Israel's vital interests'

[Shammu]

Judges in Egypt: Scrap peace deal with Israel

Egyptian judges ask government to cancel peace accord with Israel; Strike scheduled for Sunday
Roee Nahmias

Judges in Egypt called upon the government to dissolve its peace agreement with Israel, on the grounds that it is inconceivable for Egypt to coexist peaceably with Israel while the IDF operates in Lebanon. The judges expressed support of popular resistance against Israeli advances, which, in their eyes, is the only way to protect the Arab ummah (greater nation).

In a statement issued Thursday, Egyptian judges censured "the barbaric Israeli attacks on the Palestinian and Lebanese people." They also warned of American attempts "to rearrange the Middle East, based on the 'Greater Middle East' plan, via Israeli pride and American hegemony, in whose eyes the lives of hundreds of Arab children are not worth the wounds of one Israeli child."

The judges expressed their belief that the popular resistance is the only way to protect the Arab nation and their honor, and stated their support from "the bravery of Lebanese resistance fighters and the stance of Lebanese people of all denominations." The statement declared that it is inconceivable that the US will continue to be considered a friend or strategic ally of any nation in the region, after having proven itself to be the primary instigator of attacks on the Arab nation.

According to the judges, the US incited this attack, encourages it, and is the main beneficiary from it. They censured those trying to bring about war between Sunni and Shiites and labeled them "an agent with malicious motives." Likewise, they condemned anyone trying to provoke war between Muslims and Christians and anyone expressing doubt that an entrenched nation in the area (implying Iran) has nuclear know-how.

The Egyptian judges called upon judges from around the world to do their duty and aid in imposing values of justice and equality between human beings.

Sunday: General strike

The Egyptian union of professional associations, boasting seven million members, announced that they intend to hold a general, hour-long strike on Sunday, including all members of the union with the exception of emergency medical workers.

Granted, it will not be the first public condemnation of Israel in Egypt. The London-based al-Sharq al Wasat newspaper, reported that Egyptian lawyers conducted a general strike on Thursday against IDF operations in Lebanon.

Member of Parliament and chairman of the Egyptian Physician's Association, Hamdi al-Sayyid, announced that Hizbullah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had told him that the organization required only moral support, not volunteers. Al-Sayyid announced that Egyptian armed forces agreed to transfer airborne aid to Lebanon.

The Egyptian reform movement, 'Kafia', is also pressing on the Egyptian government. In the last presidential and parliament elections, the movement protested against the continued leadership of Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.

This time, they focused their criticism on Israel and demanded a cessation of gas exports from Egpyt to that country. Newspapers also reported that popular anti-Israeli sentiment was growing, including among organizations, political movements and factions of the population that had previously not actively expressed such views.

These accounts come on the heels of similar reports in Egypt and other Arab countries. Several days ago, it was reported that Egyptian opposition sources demanded the removal of Israel's ambassador in Cairo, Shalom Cohen.

Comparable demands were voiced in Mauritania and Jordan. Abdullah, the king of Jordan, was asked, in an interview published Thursday, if he intended to comply. Skirting the issue, the king responded that: "We will do everything in the best interest of our homeland and our brothers in Lebanon and Palestine."

Judges in Egypt: Scrud peace deal with Israel