NAIROBI - We prefer hijacking ships to being on land because that way we can feed ourselves, pirate Abdulahi Hasan Afdhub told AFP by satellite phone from a hijacked Taiwanese ship in Somali waters. Theres no other work than piracy for us in this time of anarchy in Somalia. The money we get is the only way we can survive.
The Somali pirate took control, along with a group of armed hijackers, of the Taiwanese fishing vessel in mid-May off the Somali coast and on June 2 they killed one crew member out of frustration with failed ransom negotiations. They have threatened to kill more crew members if a ransom is not paid soon. The ship is one of five currently held by Somali pirates who are back in action, attacking with speedboats mounted with machine guns, on a scale unseen for more than a year.
This year has so far seen at least 10 attacks and many attempted attacks off Somalias 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) of unpatrolled coastline, the same amount as during the whole of 2006.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/10/2007 00:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm sure I could find another place to fish.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/10/2007 15:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Er, um, that pic is fine (or beyond fine) on weekends, but although it's technically OK, with the current culture at many corporations, it would fall on the NSFW side of the line if I had hit this site at lunch or something.
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
06/10/2007 15:57 Comments ||
Top||
#3
C'mon, Gary. It's Rantburg. It's not a pr0n site but pix like this are the kind of deliberate stab at politcal correctness that many of us keep returning for. Besides, it's not like her nipples are showing. Don't get your panties in a bunch.
(Xinhua) -- Consultations will be held next week between the Sudanese government, the United Nations and the African Union (AU) on a proposed hybrid peacekeeping force to be deployed by the UN and AU in the conflict-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur. Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig told reporters that the tripartite meeting is to be held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Monday, adding the Sudanese delegation is to leave for the meeting on Sunday.
He said that the delegation, led by undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry Mutrif Sidik, would carry the government's vision on the proposals regarding the joint UN-AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
Mohi-Eddin Salim, Sudanese Ambassador to the AU, told the official SUNA news agency that the tripartite meeting would be a consultative one on the details of the hybrid operation concerning troops and command. Salim was quoted as saying that previous meetings or concerned document had affirmed that the troops would be Africans and the commander would be African and the role of the UN would be limited to the logistic, administrative, technical and financial support as well as focusing on supporting the political process. He referring to the outcomes of the same three parties' meeting in Addis Ababa on Nov. 16, 2006, and the meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council in Abuja in the same month as well as the statement issued by the UN Security Council's chairman on December19.
The upcoming consultations between the three parties should be made in light of these backgrounds, stressed the ambassador. The deployment of the hybrid force is the third of the three phases of a UN plan to support the current peacekeeping operation in Darfur. As the first phase of the plan, or "the light support package", has almost completed, the Sudanese government, the UN and AU reached an agreement in April on the second phase, or "the heavy support package" on hybrid peacekeeping force in Darfur. Despite mounting pressure from the United States and its western allies for a UN commandership of the hybrid force, the Sudanese government insisted that the force should be commanded by an African.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Hybrid force? They are going to be driving Prii?
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
06/10/2007 16:09 Comments ||
Top||
HT to Capt EdKim Jong Il, North Korea's reclusive leader, has been so unwell that he could not walk more than 30 yards without a rest, western governments have been told. Diplomats in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, are increasingly convinced that the 65-year-old dictator needs heart surgery to restore his apparently flagging health. He has had to be accompanied by an assistant carrying a chair so that, wherever he goes, he can sit and catch his breath.
Quick differential diagnosis: severe congestive heart failure (brought about in part by diabetes), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (from the smokes), severe coronary artery disease and angina, severe liver disease. That'll do for a start.
Speculation about the state of Kim's health was heightened when a team of six doctors from the German Heart Institute in Berlin flew to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, for eight days last month. Kim, who also suffers from diabetes, was believed by diplomats to have been among those on the list for treatment by the combined medical and surgical team. But a spokesman for the German team said they had only treated three labourers, a nurse and a scientist.
Kim's public appearances have been curtailed this year and he has appeared in public only 23 times, compared with 42 times at the same point last year - an indication, observers say, of his declining health. The suggestion that he underwent an operation offered an apparent explanation for his recent month-long disappearance from public view. His illness may also explain why Kim has appeared keen to tackle the question of his succession, putting two of his sons through their paces to decide which is best suited to take over.
He is reported to have taken Jong Chul, 26, and Jong Woon, 23, on a series of military inspections to ascertain who performed best. His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 36, is out of favour after being deported from Japan six years ago for trying to enter the country on a forged passport. Some observers predict, however, that his eventual death might be followed by a collective leadership by military figures, ending his family's dynastic power over the impoverished communist state and paving the way for it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme and open up to the rest of the world.
A spokesman for the heart institute, said it was the first time that it had sent German doctors to North Korea. But high-ranking North Korean officials are routinely treated by foreign doctors and Kim's family members and officials have been treated in Russia, Switzerland and Germany.
According to reports in North Korea, a team from Berlin visited last year and operated mainly on small children, but also treated Kim's brother-in-law, Chang Sung Taek. He had been due to visit Germany earlier this year for a follow-up operation, but was denied an entry visa because of UN sanctions aimed at prohibiting foreign trips by North Korean officials believed to be involved in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I recommend a complete frontal lobotomy to remove the dear leaders cancerous loss of energy!
Posted by: Phineter Thraviger, Dr. of Lobotomy Frontals ||
06/10/2007 0:32 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I'm shocked! Shocked! Everyone knows that Cuba has the best medical system.
/Michael Moore
Posted by: Mike N ||
06/10/2007 0:39 Comments ||
Top||
#4
If it weren't for the fact that this bastard can't die soon enough I'd wish him the slowest and most painful death imaginable. His rule over North Korea has been nothing but one interminable crime against humanity.
#5
I wouldn't be so sure that you want him to die. If he tips and North Korea opens up enough to reconcile with the South, we are going to have one massive expense on our hands because we can't control ourselves when it comes to humanitarian aid.
Posted by: Mike N ||
06/10/2007 0:59 Comments ||
Top||
#6
we are going to have one massive expense on our hands because we can't control ourselves when it comes to humanitarian aid.
South Korea has already demonstrated a distinct reluctance to embrace reunification, fearing a similar debacle to that of reunited Germany. Even if America eagerly rendered assistance to a North Korea finally freed of Kim's tyranny, it is quite likely that China would intervene in order to attenuate any favor the West might curry by doing so.
This unmasks China as the real eminence grise with respect to who is truly responsible for prolonging North Korea's suffering. The starvation, cannibalism and deprivation experienced by over twenty-three million North Koreans is as nothing to a politburo willing to ruthlessly subjugate billions in their naked lust for power.
Sadly, Western leadership has neither the moral rectitude nor political will required to take China to task over this abomination. The fires of everlasting Hell will never burn nearly hot enough to scorch China's craven Mandarins in proper fashion. No amount of suffering in an individual lifetime could possibly repay the horrendous toll of human agony that China has cheerfully inflicted during their shameless manipulation of North Korea as a counterweight to Western hegemony in East Asia.
#7
Kim Jong Il, North Korea's reclusive leader, has been so unwell that he could not walk more than 30 yards without a rest,
Starvation? nah, that's for the "Little People"
We can only pray he won't recover, and soon won't be able to move at all, then we put on a huge State Funeral, and try to recover.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/10/2007 14:34 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Might I suggest medical treatment in Cuba. Michael Moore thinks very highly of it and Kim Jong would get the same high quality treatment as Fidel. Just the other day Fidel was up, walking around and asking for a nice snack of "Brains!".
mods, reposting this as I only wanted the dupe deleted, thanks in advance. Kassar is an infamous Syrian who has friends all over the world who have kept him from swinging since way back. It wouldn't surprise me to discover that Y'urp-peon EUnuchs had used this arms dealer in Africa etc. maybe it wouldn't shock me if our Gubmint had used this pos at one time or another either.
Sorry, twas me. I dunnit. I wasn't glad but I dunnit. Glitch in the mouse-finger.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Karen P. Tandy said Syrian national Monzer Al Kassar, 61, of Marbella, Spain, along with suspects Tareq Mousa Al Ghazi, 60, of Lebanon, and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, 58, also of Marbella, were arrested as they prepared to finalize a multimillion-dollar deal with the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to pay for the weapons.
Mr. Kassar was arrested on the U.S. charges by Spanish authorities in Madrid; simultaneously Mr. Ghazi and Mr. Moreno Godoy were arrested in Romania.
"Monzer Al Kassar commands a global munitions empire, arming and funding insurgents and terrorists across the globe, particularly those who wish to harm Americans," Mrs. Tandy said. "He operates in the shadows, the silent partner behind the business of death and terror."
According to a federal grand jury Indictment unsealed in New York, since the early 1970s, Mr. Kassar, an international weapons trafficker, has been a ready source of weapons and military equipment for armed factions engaged in violent conflicts around the world.
The indictment said he provided weapons and military equipment to Bosnia, Brazil, Croatia, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Nicaragua and Somalia, among other countries, some of which went to known terrorist organizations, such as the Palestinian Liberation Front.
According to the indictment, to carry out his weapons-trafficking business, Mr. Kassar developed an international network of criminal associates, including co-defendants Mr. Ghazi and Mr. Moreno Godoy, as well as front companies and bank accounts in Bulgaria, Iraq, Poland, Romania, Spain and Syria and the United Kingdom.
Mr. Kassar, Mr. Ghazi and Mr. Moreno Godoy agreed to sell to the FARC millions of dollars worth of weapons -- including thousands of machine guns, millions of rounds of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and surface-to-air missile systems.
Tareq Mousa Al Ghazi c*ksucker deserves to be gut shot and left to squirm..for a good time google his name RD
Interview with swiss senator Dick Marty, author of Council of Europe report on CIA activities in Europe, by Thierry Oberle in Bern
How do you explain the Italian Government's position in the Abu Omar case?
It is paradoxical that members of the present Italian Government who criticized their predecessors when they were in opposition now hold the same posture as Mr Berlusconi's team. Indeed, the Prodi government has its hands tied. It is bound by secret agreements reached with the United States following 11 September. It claims that there are no state secrets, but it refuses to demand the extradition of the CIA agents implicated in the Abu Omar kidnapping in order to honour the Italian state's undertakings.
What does the second part of your inquiry reveal?
We focused our investigations on secret detention sites in Eastern Europe. We obtained evidence, on the basis of collated information, of the existence of illegal prisons in countries working closely with the United States, such as Poland.
We have details about the programme drawn up by the CIA. The plan, now officially suspended in Europe, sought to export the antiterrorist struggle beyond United States' borders in order to escape the legal constraints imposed by US law.
By fighting terrorism, you cause it. By using methodology other than the criminal law, you violate terrorist rights. Successful US hardline policies have constrained homeland terror, but at the cost of offending Euro-dhimmism. Why don't these idiots join al-Qaeda? They already serve their interests.
The subcontracting established in our countries reflects a lack of respect for the European partners. It is in an insulting attitude. The United States decided to pursue a war without rules against terrorism. The alleged terrorists kidnapped, then tortured and held in rogue states such as Syria had neither civil rights nor rights of war. They became even more dangerous, because they thus enjoyed sympathy in some circles. The mistake was not to treat them for what they are - criminal groups to be prosecuted using appropriate legislation. By kidnapping Abu Omar in Milan, the CIA sabotaged the antiterrorist struggle. Its policy has resulted in disaster.
Harborage of terror is an act of war against a sovereign state; by harbouring, a state surrenders claims to inviolability of frontiers. Those ARE the "rules," moron.
Did France participate in the CIA programme?
The French intelligence services were notified of the US secret programmes, but they did not participate in them directly. Several sources have told us that the DGSE [General Directorate of External Security] knew what was being planned. There was no cooperation, because the CIA mistrusted France, and the latter has its own rather successful methods, since it warned the United States before 11 September of the imminence of a terrorist attack on its territory.
#1
since it warned the United States before September 11
That would imply that we were unaware that some sort of terrorist act was coming soon. Idiot.
Posted by: Mike N ||
06/10/2007 1:08 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The United States decided to pursue a war without rules against terrorism.
Let's do the math. Terrorists have no inhibiting rules to regulate their predatory activities. The more rules we impose upon ourselves with respect to combating terrorism, the greater of a disadvantage we place ourselves in. Ergo, a no-holds-barred strategy gives us greatest leverage against those who wage asymmetrical warfare. Why is this so unclear to the Europeans?
The alleged terrorists kidnapped, then tortured and held in rogue states such as Syria had neither civil rights nor rights of war.
Which is as it should be. Once a group undertakes military attacks upon other nations without use of identifying uniforms or overtly coordinated battle formations, they voluntarily forfeit all right to due legal process. The same goes for all nations that sponsor terrorism or harbor terrorist operatives, they automatically relinquish all claim to sovereign rights of territory.
Unfortunately, too many of this world's political leaders are loath to tread upon each others' toes and thereby give many rogue regimes a free pass so as not to inspire any unrest against themselves. The hyper-corrupt African dictatorships spring to mind along with Burma, Syria, Iran and numerous other failed states that deserve only the very swiftest dismantling.
#3
The United States decided to pursue a war without rules against terrorism.
Au contraire, tete merde. If we pursued a war without rules, there would be far fewer living in certain areas and we would have used those troops sitting in Europe to grab the terrorists you shelter.
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
06/10/2007 15:54 Comments ||
Top||
Thousands of people took to the streets of Turkeys mainly Kurdish southeast on Saturday in a state-sponsored demonstration against separatist violence. The protesters, mainly state-paid village guards, civil servants and schoolchildren, waved Turkish flags and chanted anti-guerrilla slogans in the remote hillside town of Sirnak, overlooking the Iraqi border some 50 km (30 miles) away. The rally came amid rising speculation about a possible Turkish army incursion into northern Iraq and coincided with a call from the army General Staff in Ankara on Friday for Turks to show a mass resistance reflex to PKK attacks. Damn the PKK, Martyrs do not die, the homeland will not be divided, the crowds chanted below a 10 metre (33 ft) high portrait of modern Turkeys founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, flanked by similarly large Turkish flags hanging from a state building.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Anyone taking futures? I bet Turkey will be both arrogant and stupid enough to do more than Israeli style incursions to deal with the PKK.
Erdogan is a little Islamic Napolean wanna-be. Everyone keeps underestimating him - or should I say overestimating? A state sponsored rent-a-crowd had to have the approval of their military, which is always supposed to step in and protect democracy but never does. I can not understand why this isn't making front page headlines since it is all about the ooooiiilll.
ISLAMABAD - Pakistans military ruler President Pervez Musharraf is battling serious dissent within his own party, weakening a crucial cornerstone of the US-led war on terror, analysts and party officials say.
The man who survived at least two Al Qaeda assassination attempts stirred up a hornets nest when he suspended the countrys top judge, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on March 9. Opponents say he wanted to intimidate the judiciary before seeking re-election in uniform from the outgoing parliament despite the fact that the constitution says he should quit as army chief by the end of 2007.
After trying to present a united front in the face of nationwide protests, newspapers reported this week that Musharraf had blasted members of his ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q). I bluntly say you always leave me alone in times of trial and tribulation, The News, a respected daily, quoted a shaken Musharraf as telling the members on Wednesday.
Was he sweating when he said that?
He reportedly warned that without him, the country risked Talebanisation by militants from the Pakistan-Afghan border.
But hours after he spoke, fresh divisions emerged when Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz abruptly suspended tough curbs on the media that Musharraf himself had introduced three days earlier.
Part of the problem, analysts say, lies in the ragtag origins of the PML-Q, which is named after Pakistans founding father Mohammad Ali Jinnah. To back him in 2002 elections, Musharraf gathered disaffected members from the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif, the premier he overthrew in a 1999 coup, and the Pakistan Peoples Party of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
But the hybrid party is largely conservative and has failed to support some of Musharrafs measures to tackle sexism and religious extremism. It now faces trouble in a general election expected late this year. The president is solely responsible for destroying the party. He never considered it important to seek its opinion, Kabir Ali Wasti, one of several PML-Q vice-presidents, told AFP.
Dictators usually don't consult widely.
So far the party has held only a handful of rallies to support its embattled president after commandeering local buses to bring in supporters.
Musharrafs strongest backing has come from his allies in Karachi, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. However, they have been accused of involvement in violence there on May 12 that claimed more than 40 lives when Chaudhry tried to speak in the city. I have told the president there is no consultative process in the party. We need to regroup to survive, said Farooq Amjad Mir, a PML-Q legislator from the eastern city of Lahore. Even on the judicial issue there was no parliamentary meeting called to work out a strategy in the face of the opposition and media onslaught.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/10/2007 00:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
OBL &/or the one-eyed Mullah are eagerly waiting in the wings. Perv's replacements will definitely be no improvement whatsoever.
DUBAI Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will never accept the President in uniform but will participate in the general elections under the "courageous leadership" of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, who will return to Pakistan by November this year, said Masood Sharif Khan, former director-general of Intelligence Bureau and a senior PPP leader.
In an exclusive interview with Khaleej Times during a visit to Dubai recently, he said it is time for General Musharraf to hang his boots and leave after holding fair, free and transparent elections. We should, as a nation, vow never to accept another President in uniform, he said adding that the time to put Pakistan First has truly come for Musharraf.
The very idea of trying to have the same assemblies re-elect Musharaf (with or without uniform) will be the proverbial last straw on the camel's back, he said. I say very emphatically that this is something Musharaf can never achieve he just cannot, Khan said. "There cannot be a deal between the PPP and General Musharraf by which the status quo continues with the only change of for PML (Q) read PPP.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/10/2007 00:38 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Pakistan had decided to become a partner nation in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (Global Initiative). The Foreign Ministry issued a statement, saying: While joining the Initiative, Pakistan has declared that the Global Initiative does not cover Pakistans military nuclear facilities or activities. The statement went on to say that the sponsors of the Global Initiative have, with this understanding, welcomed Pakistans participation.
Pakistan, it said, has therefore been invited to attend the next meeting of the Global Initiative, scheduled to take place in Kazakhstan from June 11-12, 2007. It may be pointed out that as a responsible nuclear weapon state, Pakistan has put in place legislative, regulatory and administrative infrastructure to prevent and combat any possible acts of terrorism involving nuclear and radiological materials and facilities, the statement said.
Well, I certainly feel safer, by golly!
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Khan running an underground nuclear tech export business for 20 years? A mere bagatelle!...
#2
Including Pakistan is like giving international terrorism a direct pipeline for all strategy evolving from this organization. Somebody has shit for brains in a big way.
Iraqs Foreign Ministry on Saturday accused Turkey of intensively shelling northern Iraq this week, adding it had handed the Turkish envoy in Baghdad a protest letter. A statement from the Foreign Ministry said the shelling caused huge damage in an area between Dahuk and Arbil provinces in Iraqs north. A ministry spokesman said the shelling took place over three hours late on Wednesday and early Thursday. This attack caused wide fires and huge damage in the area and made citizens fearful, the Foreign Ministry statement said, without precisely identifying the damage.
Financial markets were rattled by a report late on Wednesday that Turkey had launched a major incursion across the border into northern Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels.
Turkey denied the report but a military source said troops had conducted a limited raid, a rare incursion into northern Iraq where 4,000 rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) are said to be hiding. Iraqs Foreign Ministry called for talks between the two governments. Such an action could affect the confidence between both countries and affect the friendly atmosphere between both governments, the statement added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Alarmed by the growing number of Palestinians who are emigrating from the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Authority's mufti has issued a fatwa [religious decree] forbidding Muslims to leave. Sources in the PA Foreign Ministry told The Jerusalem Post that some 10,000 Palestinians have filed requests to emigrate from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year. They said the requests had been approved. "Every day we hear about hundreds of Palestinians who file requests for emigration with different consulates and diplomatic missions," the sources said. "According to our statistics, there are at least 45,000 emigration applications being reviewed by different countries."
The sources said most of the applicants were young men seeking work abroad. They said the majority of them wanted to move to the US, EU and Canada. The number of Palestinians who wish to emigrate increased significantly after the second intifada broke out in September 2000. Figures published by a number of Palestinian groups show that 50,000 to 80,000 people emigrated in the first few years after the violence erupted.
We should not accept a single Muslim Paleo who wishes to leave. They made Gaza and the West Bank what it is today, let them stay and enjoy it. Not a single one here.
Dr. Nu'man Amr of Al-Quds University attributed the phenomenon to the harsh economic situation and the high rate of unemployment. "Most university graduates can't find jobs here," he said. "Even those who find jobs here are not receiving good salaries."
Entitled "No Permission to Emigrate from Palestine," the fatwa reads:
"There has been much talk in Palestine about emigration, especially among the young people, due to the difficult security and economic situation. This is being done in search of a better life abroad. Many are continuing to rush to the gates of the embassies and consulates of the Western nations with requests for visas in order to reside permanently in those countries.
"We hereby declare that emigration from the blessed lands is not permitted according to religious law. The people living in these areas must remain in their homes and must not leave them to conquerors. Those who abide by this ruling will perform an honorable deed and will support the Aksa Mosque."
However, the fatwa permits Muslims to travel abroad temporarily for study and work "as long as they are committed to returning and living in the blessed lands."
A recent public opinion poll conducted in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip showed that that 82.7 percent of the Palestinians are pessimistic regarding their conditions. The survey, conducted by the Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah University in Nablus, also reported that 92% of respondents feel insecure because of the growing lawlessness in the PA-run areas. The pollsters questioned 1,361 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and had a 3% margin of error.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
... the Palestinian Authority's mufti has issued a fatwa [religious decree] forbidding Muslims to leave.
Cost of Palestinian supplicant culture: Billions per year
Cost of UNHR bureaucratic overhead: Millions per year
Watching the Palestinians' religious leaders hold them all hostage: Priceless
Israel has put out secret feelers to Syria, but has not received a response, Israel's deputy prime minister confirmed Saturday. The comments came a day after an Israeli newspaper reported that Israel has told Syrian leaders it is willing to give up the captured Golan Heights as part of a peace deal that would require Syria to distance itself from Iran's virulently anti-Israel regime.
Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, speaking Saturday to Israel Radio, confirmed that a message was sent to Syria, but would not describe the content in detail. "In light of the tensions in the current period, and considering the fact that in the past ... the Syrians sent messages that they want peace, I thought and I still think today that a secret channel is one of the channels for checking intentions and expectations," Mofaz said. "And such an approach, in a secret channel, was done. And this was said clearly by the prime minister's office. At this stage, there is no Syrian response, or any comment on this issue."
Mofaz said he considered a back channel to be important, noting that Israeli peace agreements with other Arab countries started in such a way. He said Syria seemed to be ambivalent about peace talks with Israel. "At the beginning, they (the Syrians) speak about their desire to renew talks and the process, and after messages are sent, there is no answer," he said. At this stage, he said, Israel is not sure what Syria's intentions are. Syrian officials were not immediately available for comment.
On Friday, the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently sent messages to Syrian President Bashar Assad through German and Turkish diplomats saying Israel was open to direct peace negotiations and to give up the strategic plateau it seized in the 1967 Mideast war.
Olmert's office has not commented on the report. But an Israeli official said earlier in the week that Israel had been taking soundings on Syria's intentions through an undisclosed third party. That official agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name.
Israel and Syria have held several rounds of peace talks in the past. The last attempt broke down in 2000 over the scope of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Golan, which Syrian artillery shelled Israelis before the 1967 war. Assad has recently urged Israel to return to the negotiating table, but has not publicly addressed Israel's demand that Damascus scale back its ties with Iran, its main ally in the region, and stop backing Lebanese and Palestinian groups committed to Israel's destruction.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Israel has told Syrian leaders it is willing to give up the captured Golan Heights as part of a peace deal that would require Syria to distance itself from Iran's virulently anti-Israel regime.
(Xinhua) -- Iran on Saturday expressed regret over a declaration of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations urging Tehran to suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities. In a press release, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said that the G8 industrialized nations have ignored Iran's inalienable right to enjoy nuclear technology and use it in a peaceful way. "While the Islamic Republic of Iran have had a close cooperation with all regional and international organizations...unfortunately, the G8 summit in its declaration has accused Iran of being inattentive towards international community's demands," Hosseini said.
In the statement issued at the conclusion of the three-day G8 summit at the German Baltic resort of Heiligendamm, the G8 said it is still committed to resolving the Iranian nuclear issue by diplomatic means. However, the G8 said that it will "support adopting further measures, should Iran refuse to comply with its obligations" under UN Security Council resolutions 1696, 1737 and 1747.
Hosseini lashed out at the G8 threat of imposing more sanctions against the country, saying that Iran's principled policy is to defend its "indisputable rights."
"Imposing sanctions against Iran and trying to make it isolated by certain powers will never affect the will of Iran's government and nation to demand its indisputable rights," Hosseini said. "Bringing up Iran's nuclear issue in the UN Security Council is clearly contradictory to international community demands," he added. The spokesman, meanwhile, expressed that Iran will welcome diplomatic approaches, especially some negotiation mechanisms, to answer questions and possible ambiguities concerning its nuclear program. "Iran is ready to participate in any kind of negotiations upon good will and without illogical and unilateral preconditions," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/10/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(Xinhua) -- Consultations will be held next week between the Sudanese government, the United Nations and the African Union (AU) on a proposed hybrid peacekeeping force to be deployed by the UN and AU in the conflict-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur. Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig told reporters that the tripartite meeting is to be held in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Monday, adding the Sudanese delegation is to leave for the meeting on Sunday. 
Kassar is an infamous Syrian who has friends all over the world who have kept him from swinging since way back. It wouldn't surprise me to discover that Y'urp-peon EUnuchs had used this arms dealer in Africa etc. maybe it wouldn't shock me if our Gubmint had used this pos at one time or another either. 
ISLAMABAD - Pakistans military ruler President Pervez Musharraf is battling serious dissent within his own party, weakening a crucial cornerstone of the US-led war on terror, analysts and party officials say.
DUBAI Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will never accept the President in uniform but will participate in the general elections under the "courageous leadership" of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, who will return to Pakistan by November this year, said 
The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Pakistan had decided to become a partner nation in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (Global Initiative). The Foreign Ministry issued a statement, saying: While joining the Initiative, Pakistan has declared that the Global Initiative does not cover Pakistans military nuclear facilities or activities. The statement went on to say that the sponsors of the Global Initiative have, with this understanding, welcomed Pakistans participation. 
Israel has put out secret feelers to Syria, but has not received a response, Israel's deputy prime minister confirmed Saturday. The comments came a day after an Israeli newspaper reported that Israel has told Syrian leaders it is willing to give up the captured Golan Heights as part of a peace deal that would require Syria to distance itself from Iran's virulently anti-Israel regime. 
