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Azerbaijani intel service jugs 17 hard boys
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Africa North
Egyptian protesters rally to keep Islamist in race
CAIRO: Thousands rallied in Cairo on Friday in support of an ultraconservative Islamist presidential hopeful who may be disqualified from the race after it was announced that his mother was an American citizen.

The protesters carried photos and campaign posters of Hazem Abu Ismail, a 50-year-old lawyer-turned-preacher who in recent months vaulted to become one of the strongest contenders for president, with widespread backing from ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafis.

The showdown between Abu Ismail’s supporters and the government has shaken-up a race that includes former regime officials and Islamists competing against one another in the first presidential election since last year’s ouster or Hosni Mubarak. The balloting is slated for the end of May.

Abu Ismail’s face— smiling, with a long, conservative beard — has become ubiquitous in Cairo and other cities because of a startlingly aggressive postering campaign that plastered walls and lampposts with his picture.

Egypt’s election commission, which announced Thursday that Abu Ismail’s mother was a US citizen, did not outright disqualify him because it has yet to start vetting would-be candidates’ applications. A law put in place after Mubarak’s fall stipulates that a candidate may not have any other citizenship than Egyptian — and that the candidate’s spouse and parents cannot have other citizenships as well.
Ah, so the opposition worked one time in Chicago...
As his disqualification looked increasingly likely, Abu Ismail said Thursday he faces an “elaborate plot” against him and insisted his mother only had a Green Card to visit her daughter, who is married to an American and lives in the United States.

The announcement about his mother is particularly embarrassing for Abu Ismail, who has used anti-US rhetoric in his campaign speeches and says he rejects “dependency” on America.

His campaign team claims the country’s military rulers, who took over after Mubarak’s ouster, are looking for ways to disqualify him as a candidate. As his supporters began marching after Friday prayers down a main Cairo street toward the central Tahrir Square, his campaign chief, Gamal Saber, said the ruling military council is “lying about the sheik.”

“We have proof that his mother is not American,” Saber said, adding that their supporters are prepared “to die in Tahrir Square” to fight the “fraud.”

A follower of the ultra-conservative Salafi trend of Islam, Abu Ismail has been among the front-runners in the race. If he is disqualified, it opens the door for Muslim Brotherhood candidate Khairat el-Shater to win a greater number of Islamist votes. Another Islamist in the race is Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, a reform minded physician who was expelled from the Brotherhood last year and is trying to appeal both to religious and more secular-minded Egyptians.

An election win by an Islamist candidate would mirror Egypt’s recent parliamentary elections, where the Brotherhood won nearly half of the seats in parliament and the Salafi Al-Nour party came in second, with a quarter of the seats.

Abu Ismail’s supporters say he will cleanse the country of corrupt officials by enforcing a strict application of Islamic law.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/07/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Mubarak aide enters presidential race
CAIRO: Aides of ousted Hosni Mubarak's former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman said yesterday he planned to contest the presidential election, reversing a statement earlier this week that he would not run.

Omar Suleiman, 74, was Mubarak's close associate for decades and served as his vice president briefly during the uprising that forced him to step down a year ago.

Hundreds rallied in Cairo yesterday to press Suleiman to join the race, carrying banners reading “Suleiman, save Egypt” and "We need you Suleiman." Commentators say he would appeal to the country's military and voters worried about stability.

In a statement attributed to Suleiman circulated by campaign aides, the man who was the director of military intelligence and the General Intelligence Service vowed to run if he could get the necessary registration of 30,000 supporters by today.

“I have been shaken by your strong position,” said the statement, addressed to “citizens of Egypt.” “The call you have directed is an order and I am a soldier who has never disobeyed an order.

“Your call and your faith in my ability is an honor,” it added. “I promise to change my position if I can complete the registrations by Saturday.”

Campaign aides have been pushing Suleiman to run and have leaked similar reports to the media during the last month. Suleiman himself has not spoken to the media directly and it could not be immediately verified whether the statement was written by him.

“Suleiman decided to run because anyone who loves this country has been begging him to do so. He has even had to switch off his phone because of the number of calls he was receiving to convince him to run,” campaign aide Saab Abbasy told Reuters.

Egyptians vote on May 23 and 24 in what is billed as Egypt’s first and last free and fair presidential race.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/07/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
US pro-democracy group staffer under probe in UAE
DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates authorities said yesterday they were investigating an employee of a US pro-democracy group after briefly detaining him as he tried to leave the Gulf state.
Time to fold up the quangos and bring them home...
Slobodan Milic works for the National Democratic Institute which was last week ordered to close its UAE offices. The Serb was detained at Dubai airport on Thursday evening, questioned and then allowed to return to his apartment in Dubai, NDI said. A UAE official said Milic had been questioned about NDI’s activities and the investigation was continuing.

“We are waiting for the results of the investigation,” the official said, when asked if Milic could leave the UAE. He did not elaborate about the nature of the probe.

The UAE said on Thursday licensing irregularities were behind the closure of “some foreign institutions” in the Gulf state, a week after NDI and German democracy group Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) were told to shut their offices there.

Western-allied UAE allows no political parties and keeps a wary eye on signs of political dissent.

In Egypt, NDI was one of a number of civil society groups raided by police last year. Washington hinted at the time it could review its $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Cairo. That row was defused when Egypt lifted a travel ban it had placed on the groups’ American staff, whom it accused of carrying out political activities unrelated to their work, failing to obtain proper licenses and receiving foreign funds without Cairo’s approval.

NDI is loosely affiliated with the US Democratic party, while KAS has links with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany.

Another NDI employee, Pat Davis, an American, flew out of the UAE on Thursday, said NDI regional director Les Campbell.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/07/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Likee (Arab) Springee?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/07/2012 3:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Milic - I thought he played for the Timberwolves?
Snark of the day.
Posted by: Raj || 04/07/2012 9:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Unexpectedly.

Looks like a deal with the Jailblazers is in the works.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/07/2012 16:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Now to get fakecharities and NGO's out of the west.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/07/2012 18:43 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Issa, Grassley hammer White House for stonewalling on 'Fast and Furious' witness
The B.O. regime is stonewalling two politicians' requests to interview a former member of the National Security staff in connection with the failed Operation Fast and Furious gun-walking program, according to a March 28 letter obtained by The Daily Caller.

Caliphornia Rep. Darrell Issa and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, both Republicans, requested a response by April 4 to their letter, which asks for an interview with Kevin O'Reilly, that former staffer. But the White House, according to the letter, is blocking access to him.

Through staff, both Grassley and Issa confirmed to TheDC on Thursday that April 4 came and went without any response from the B.O. regime.

In their letter to White House Counsel Karen Ruemmler, Grassley and Issa cited a cryptic email exchange between O'Reilly and William Newell, the special agent in charge of the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at the time Fast and Furious was implemented. The emails, their letter suggests, indicate that Newell was going around his chain of command to personally brief the White House about developments in the gun-walking program.

"You didn't get this from me," Newell wrote to O'Reilly in a Sept. 3, 2010 email about Fast and Furious, according to the letter from Issa and Grassley.

"Just don't want ATF HQ to find out," Newell wrote in am earlier email, "especially since this is what they should be doing (briefing you!)."

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which Issa chairs, has not yet made complete copies of those emails available to news hounds.

Newell testified before that committee on July 26, 2011, saying he couldn't remember what the email exchange was about.

"To date, the White House has not complied with multiple congressional requests to interview O'Reilly," Issa and Grassley wrote in their letter to Ruemmler. "Our staffers have had extensive discussions with lawyers in your office, who have represented that the White House does not perceive any need for us to interview O'Reilly and consequently will not make arrangements for him to speak to us."

Speaking with Fox News Channel host Greta Van Susteren last week, Grassley said that while Newell and O'Reilly are friends, "it's very, very unusual to have someone at a field office communicating directly with someone at the National Security Council."

Grassley hinted that Newell's poor memory about his emails with O'Reilly looked suspicious. "It's very convenient that he'd have an absence of mind when he's under oath in front of a congressional committee," he said.
Posted by: Beavis || 04/07/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Barking up the wrong tree!

'Fast and Furious' story first breaks in December 2010. US Ambassador to Mexico, Carlos Pascual resigns in March 2011, due to...."Wikileaks?"

Dig faster please!
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/07/2012 9:47 Comments || Top||


For Rantburg's Sunday Morning Coffee Pot: General Alfonso Duarte Mujica, Mexico's rising star
Going by Mexican press accounts, General Alfonso Duarte Mujica was a rising star when he received his appointment to the 2nd Military Zone in 2008, and later to the II Military Region.

The Mexican left in the form of Proceso news weekly has even taken notice by expressing fear and trepidation that General Duarte Mujica may be next on the list to be SEDENA, the top army job in Mexico.

But four incidents during his still-ongoing tenure as commander in Baja California, each in turn social, political, human rights and legal could stand in the way of General Duarte Mujica getting the SEDENA job.

Rantburg.com correspondent Chris Covert separates the accusations from the facts.
Posted by: badanov || 04/07/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
20 million Pakistani children not in school: UNICEF
ISLAMABAD: Around 20 million children in Pakistan, including an estimated 7.3 million of primary school age, are not in school, said a statement issued by United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on Friday.
Does this include the madrassahs?
“Investing in children and their education is vital due to the positive impacts it has on so many socio-economic dimensions. It is therefore imperative that all children in Pakistan, both boys and girls, have the opportunity to attend and complete their schooling,” the statement said.

About the efforts of the fund for promoting education for children across the country, the statement said, “UNICEF is supporting the nationwide ‘Every Child in School’ campaign, which encourages parents and communities to ensure that all primary school-age children are enrolled for the new school year. A special focus is being placed on enrolling girls, who represent 57 percent of primary school-age children who are not attending school. Girls from poor families in rural areas, for example, receive just over one year of education, on average.”
And that's considered too much by some...
“The disparities in educational opportunities are influenced by multiple factors, like wealth, gender, ethnicity, geographic location, early learning opportunities, access and quality of learning – and it is therefore critical that all who can positively influence children’s learning opportunities should come forward to ensure that this school-year is more successful than ever,” said UNICEF Pakistan Representative Dan Rohrmann.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/07/2012 00:04 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, maybe their parents are scared by the daily school blowing reports.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/07/2012 3:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Which will bring down America first? Millions of illiterate religious fanatics overseas or a debt collapse from too many student loan defaults here at home?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 04/07/2012 12:17 Comments || Top||

#3  They're needed to help with the poppy crops.
Posted by: gorb || 04/07/2012 13:11 Comments || Top||

#4  The girls don't count, right?
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 04/07/2012 21:12 Comments || Top||


Memo panel gives Haqqani another chance to appear
Much inside cricket here...
ISLAMABAD: The judicial commission probing the notorious memo scandal on Friday granted another chance to Pakistan’s former envoy to the US Husain Haqqani to appear before it on April 12.

The commission headed by Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa ordered the former ambassador to appear before the court with his BlackBerry handsets and relevant documents.

The commission also directed the government of Pakistan to ensure the former envoy’s presence through the ministries of interior and foreign affairs, proposing four options to bring him back – confiscation of his property in Pakistan, issuance of an arrest warrant, filing of a criminal case against him or holding him in contempt of court.

Justice Alam said Haqqani was allowed to leave the country only after an assurance that he would appear before the court whenever ordered to do so. Justice Isa remarked that Haqqani’s failure to appear before the commission would be considered the government’s failure to present the former ambassador before the commission.

Foreign Ministry Director General Sohail Khan recorded his statement before the commission and presented the official record from January 2011 to the time when Haqqani resigned. He apprised the court that the former ambassador had gone to London from Washington in 2011 without informing the consulate concerned. The two BlackBerry handsets used by the former ambassador during that period were in the possession of the government of Pakistan, he informed the court. When the court cross-questioned the director general about Haqqani’s travel to London, the official replied that the consulate concerned did not have any written record of that period. The commission in Thursday’s hearing had ordered the director general to present the record before the court on Friday.

Akram Sheikh, counsel for Mansoor Ijaz, requested the commission to seek details of the secret funds of the Embassy of Pakistan in the US, saying the funds were used by Haqqani. Zahid Bukhari, counsel for Husain Haqqani, termed it an unnecessary and irrelevant issue. However, the commission directed the Foreign Ministry official to produce record of secret funds used by the embassy in the US from April to December 2011.

Justice Isa asked Bukhari why he had not written a letter to the BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM). The counsel informed the commission that he had conveyed the court’s order to Haqqani, adding that his client wanted the order in written form, as he wanted to consult an American lawyer in that regard.

After hearing the arguments, Justice Isa again directed Haqqani to write a consent letter to RIM to waive his right to privacy.

Earlier, prior to appearing before the commission, Bukhari had said that his client would not write the consent letter to RIM. Speaking at the premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), he had said that he would request the commission to provide him a written order in that regard.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/07/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:


Dupe URL: Nuggets From The Urdu Press
Secularists feared by Sajid Mir
Daily Nawa-e-Waqt reported leader of Markazi Ahle Hadith as saying that if the religious parties went on quarrelling among themselves the secularists of Pakistan might come to power again. If the mullahs got together he said the people will 'give them note together with vote'.


How blasphemers are invented
Monthly Naya Zamana had a report from Nabil Anwar Dhaku Chakwal which told the story of how a Foreign Office clerk Mohammad Ishaq turned saint while in America was named blasphemer in Talagang and sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet PUBH by a judge in Adiala jail Rawalpindi after a scared judge in Jhelum had first gave him death. Ishaq became popular in Talagang as cult figure and his followers chanted 'Ya Rasul-Allah' which was interpreted by jealous Deobandis as insult. A judge refused to take the case because he was scared of the Deobandis but later another scared judge in Jhelum gave him death, confirmed in Adiala jail.
Indian Kashmir attacks Valentine's Day
According to monthly Naya Zamana Muslim women's organisation led by Asia Andarabi went around stopping what they thought was Valentine's Day in the Valley. They were confronted by a couple in a restaurant who said they were about to be married and had come to the restaurant because it was their right. Asia retorted that even married couples were not allowed by Islam to celebrate Valentine's Day.
American, Iran and Ikhwan are enemies!
Daily Mashriq reported the police chief of Dubai as saying that the enemy of the Muslims were America, Iran and Ikhwan al Muslimoon in power in Egypt. Talking to a Kuwaiti paper he said that the region was under threat from the three.


Kayani as Salahuddin Ayubi
Writing in Jang famous columnist Haroon Rasheed stated that he greatly longed to write books about certain great people he revered and the first among them would be Dr Rafeeq Akhtar of Gujjar Khan known as the spiritual mentor of Imran Khan. Those who came after him as worthy of books authored by Haroon Rasheed were: Tipu Sultan, Jinnah and Salahuddin Ayubi. He said he had once called General Kayani the Salahuddin Ayubi of Pakistan which was not liked by journalist, Ayaz Amir.

Brigadier Ali wanted to kill generals
Monthly Naya Zamana reported that Hizbut Tahrir member Brigadier Ali Khan had planned to use Air Force planes to attack a corps commanders' meeting at the GHQ and thus kill all the generals in order to establish a Khilafat in Pakistan. Some Muslim civilians were also involved in the plot but all of them were British citizens.

Two kinds of storms
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir said that there were two kinds of storm (toofan): the first was ones created by Nature and they were genuine against which can be no human resistance. The second kind was invented by the human mind which in fact was turbulence of one mind which some wished to transfer to other minds. This storm was a mental storm and was composed of conspiracies. The first genuine storm was desi (home-made) while the second one was valayati and internationally linked. This valayati storm was not understood but every time it appealed to the people as social revolution it brought on the government of military rule.

Afghan Taliban leader killed in custody
Reported in monthly Naya Zamana, Afghan Taliban leader Maulana Ubaidullah Akhund was killed in custody in Karachi after being arrested in 2007 from Balochistan. Akhund was army chief of defence under Mullah Umar and belonged to Qandahar. He was released the same year but was rearrested in 2008 and kept in jail in Karachi where he died of heart attack, according to official sources. (Another commander of Mullah Umar - Dadullah - was arrested in 2010 from Sindh.)

Sindh Assembly and English
Daily Express reported that the Sindh Assembly got hot when one lady MPA Shazia Marri stated that she was offended by the English language used in a draft resolution by an opposition lady MPA named Marvi Rashdi. She told her that her English was wrong and she had no manners. Rashdi responded by saying Marri did not use normal makeup but applied think paint on her face. The speaker had to stop proceedings of the house.

Mansoor Ijaz and state agencies
Writing in Jang Hamid Mir stated that Mansoor Ijaz was known to him from the past as a plotter against Pakistan but some state agencies were attracted to him despite the fact that he had persuaded Musharraf to declare ceasefire in Kashmir which set the liberation movement against itself and against Pakistan. But those who spoke against Mansoor Ijaz as an enemy of Pakistan were accused by the agencies of being kafir.

Wife of Shakeel Afridi dismissed
Reported in Monthly Naya Zamana, a health officer with the government Shakeel Afridi was given Congressional Gold Medal for helping the US to get to Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad and kill him. He was a surgeon in Khyber Agency but moved to Abbottabad to conduct fake polio tests. The government in Peshawar moved - after his arrest and subsequent case of treason against him - to dismiss also his wife who was principal of Darra Adamkhel Girls Degree College from her job.

From 'farangi' slave to 'Amrikan' slave
Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt leader of JUI Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the rulers of Pakistan had converted from Pakistan from the slaves of farangi (British) to slaves of America. After that the country was made insecure and the rulers began to loot it through corruption while extending the begging bowl to enemies of Pakistan.


Why destroy Osama's house so quickly?
Columnist Ishtiaq Beg wrote in Jang that it was perhaps not proper to demolish the house of Osama bin Laden in great haste. Many people may have doubts as to the motives behind the destruction of the house. The place could have been preserved as a school for girls or a public library. But there was also the consideration that the house could become a centre of attention for the lovers of Osama bin Laden.

Government hiding facts about Osama
Famous historian an ex-Intelligence Bureau officer Dr Safdar Mehmood wrote in Jang that the government will not reveal everything about the residence of Osama bin Laden and the incident of May 2 when the Americans came and killed Osama. Likewise Aimal Kansi was hiding in a remote hotel when the CIA was allowed to pick him up take him to the US and get him sentenced to death.
 

Wukla go on the rampage
Reported in Express lawyers in Lahore called wukla for their violent conduct beat up a civilian judge in Lahore and threw him out of the court. One lawyer named Iftikhar Bhatti first demanded that the judge give his judgement on his advice. When this was not done he became violent. Other wukla joined and beat up the judge. On seeing this, the judges in other courts got scared and struck work.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/07/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Amnesty International: 4 men face execution in Gaza
(Ma'an) -- Four Paleostinian men are on death row in the Gazoo Strip and could face execution at any time, an urgent report from Amnesia Amnesty International said Thursday.

The group identified Mohammed Baraka as one of the detainees who recently lost his appeal. Three other men have also had their appeals rejected recently, Amnesty said.

Baraka, a father of six, was convicted on May 30, 2010, of murdering one of his relatives, the group said. He was sentenced to death and an appeal against the ruling was rejected in February.

Three other men have been convicted of various crimes including kidnapping, murder, political killings and of collaboration with the Israeli army resulting in killings of fellow Paleostinians.

Amnesty said it was not able to report full details on the men but it identified them by their initials as Z.J., 38, sentenced to death for abduction and murder, W.K.J., 27, for treason and being an accessory to murder, and M.J.A, for abduction and murder.

The group urged Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, to ensure that the death sentences are not ratified and that all are commuted. It is also calling for the Hamas government to abolish the death penalty entirely.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/07/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wow. They've noticed.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/07/2012 3:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Hmmm, just how bad would they be, to be noticed in a band of thugs and murdrers?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2012 11:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Execute 'em for stupidity - they kidnapped/killed fellow paleos.

If they'd stuck to killing Joooooooos, they would be getting medals (or a grand funeral) instead of getting whacked.
Posted by: Barbara || 04/07/2012 13:13 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran says ties with Turkey should not be harmed
DUBAI: Iran said on Friday it had a strategic relationship with Turkey that should not be damaged by officials’ remarks, a day after Turkey’s prime minister said Tehran was insincere about proposing nuclear talks with world powers in Syria or Iraq.

Tensions between Turkey and Iran have risen after Turkey’s vocal opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has close ties with Iran, and Istanbul hosting the Syrian opposition and international meetings of nations opposed to the Damascus government.

Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan said suggesting Damascus or Baghdad as a venue for the meeting was a “waste of time, it means it won’t happen.” He told the news conference Tehran was losing its international prestige because of its “lack of honesty.”

“We should not allow comments by different officials in the two countries to harm the strategic relations between us,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.

He did not specifically name Erdogan, who met President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and had a rare audience with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a visit to Iran last week.

“A difference of opinion on some political regional issues is natural and through dialogue one should try to bridge the gap between countries’ stances and find the best possible solution to existing crises,” Mehmanparast said.

Erdogan said on his return from Iran that he had received assurances from the Iranian leaders that their nuclear program was purely civilian and said he had no reason to doubt their sincerity.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/07/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Obama’s signal to Iran
President Obama has signaled Iran that the United States would accept an Iranian civilian nuclear program if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei can back up his recent public claim that his nation “will never pursue nuclear weapons.”

This verbal message was sent through Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited Khamenei last week. A few days before traveling to Iran, Erdogan had held a two-hour meeting with Obama in Seoul, in which they discussed what Erdogan would tell the ayatollah about the nuclear issue and Syria.
And how much 'flexibility' Obama would have after the next election...
Obama advised Erdogan that the Iranians should realize that time is running out for a peaceful settlement and that Tehran should take advantage of the current window for negotiations. Obama didn’t specify whether Iran would be allowed to enrich uranium domestically as part of the civilian program the United States would endorse. That delicate issue evidently would be left for the negotiations that are supposed to start April 13, at a venue yet to be decided.

Erdogan is said to have replied that he would convey Obama’s views to Khamenei, and it’s believed he did so when he met the Iranian leader on Thursday. Erdogan also met President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other senior Iranian officials during his visit.

The statement highlighted by Obama as a potential starting point was made on state television in February. Khamenei said: “The Iranian nation has never pursued and will never pursue nuclear weapons. . . . Iran is not after nuclear weapons because the Islamic Republic, logically, religiously and theoretically, considers the possession of nuclear weapons a grave sin and believes the proliferation of such weapons is senseless, destructive and dangerous.”

The challenge for negotiators is whether it’s possible to turn Khamenei’s public rhetoric into a serious and verifiable commitment not to build a bomb. When Obama cited this statement to Erdogan as something to build on, the Turkish leader is said to have nodded in agreement.

But the diplomatic path still seems blocked, judging by recent haggling over the meeting place for negotiations. Istanbul was expected to be the venue, but the Iranians last weekend balked and suggested instead that negotiators meet in Iraq or China. U.S. officials see this foot-dragging as a sign that the Iranian leadership is still struggling to frame its negotiating position.

The Erdogan back channel to Iran is the most dramatic evidence yet of the close relationship Obama has forged with the Turkish leader. Erdogan, who heads an Islamist party that is often cited as a model by Muslim democrats, has been a key U.S. partner in handling Syria and other crises flowing from the Arab Spring uprisings.
And Champ likes the way Erdogan treats his wife...
A sign of Erdogan’s role as intermediary is that he was accompanied, both in the meeting with Obama and on the trip to Iran, by Hakan Fidan, the chief of Turkey’s intelligence service. Fidan is said to have close relations with Qassem Suleimani, who heads Iran’s Quds Force and is probably Khamenei’s closest adviser on security issues. Also joining Erdogan was Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister.

Syria was another big topic in Erdogan’s discussions with Obama and his subsequent visit to Iran. The Turkish leader told Obama he would press Iran to reduce its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Erdogan once championed but is now determined to oust. Erdogan said he planned to tell Khamenei that Syrian attacks on Muslim opposition forces must stop. The Turks have been trying, meanwhile, to bolster the opposition so that it can provide a credible alternative to Assad’s rule.

Some Arab analysts see a weakening of support for Assad in recent days from Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, whose leader Hasan Nasrallah last week called for a “political solution” with the opposition. The key player in any such managed transition would be Russia’s president-elect, Vladimir Putin. U.S. officials hope he can broker a Syria deal before he meets Obama at the G-8 summit next month.

As Iran’s leadership debates its negotiating stance, the squeeze of Western sanctions is becoming tighter. Nat Kern, the editor of Foreign Reports, a leading oil newsletter, forecasts that Iran will lose about a third of its oil exports by mid-summer. It may get even worse for Iran after July 1 if China and the European Union follow through on recent warnings that they might stop insuring tankers carrying Iranian crude.

U.S. officials believe that if Iran refuses to negotiate, it will be easier to tighten sanctions even more.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/07/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let me correct my earlier Post from today - Israel + other anti-Iran Sunni Muslim Govts-States to go ballistic.

04/07/2012 - the Day the ME Nuclear Arms Race officially began, to include the so-called "Islamist/Jihadi Bomb", + wid US assent???

DITTO ANY GOP-DEM WRANGLING IN WASHINGTON OER THE NEED FOR MISSLE DEFENSE, GLOBALSTRIKE + SPACE STRIKE; + GLOBAL DEFENSE + SPACE DEFENSE.

More Space-based Lasers, etc. to be test-fired [again]to near that Madonna Fan from Guam.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/07/2012 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques couldn't be reached for comment.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/07/2012 3:25 Comments || Top||

#3  Obama seeking substantiation? Sheriff Joe will be snorting Blue Mountain through his nose when he reads this.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/07/2012 3:48 Comments || Top||

#4  The challenge for negotiators is whether it's possible to turn Khamenei's public rhetoric into a serious and verifiable commitment not to build a bomb.

Ignatius makes a cogent argument for the “something’s got to give” strategy. Unfortunately, there are no guaranties that the foundations for such an argument would be effective with the Persian Turbans. In fact, history suggests the West’s feeble attempt at external pressure has been, at best, counter-intuitive. And, at worst, this decades long fiddle is playing precisely into the hands of Tehran’s’ obvious “play out the clock” strategy. The starting point must be that Team Khamenei has rarely acted in Western concepts of rationality. And then there’s the fact that the Mullahs have developed lying and deceit into an Art form.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 04/07/2012 9:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Its all moot. Israel has said if Iran keeps attacking jews, Israel will retaliate against Iran.

I expect to see IRG offices and barracks mysteriously exploding in the not to distant future.

It will escalate from there, but Israel has drawn a line in the sand and they don't usually back down when it is the lives of their citizens and jews in general at stake.

With Syria and Egypt in chaos, the time is now to face down Iran.
Posted by: phil_b || 04/07/2012 9:52 Comments || Top||

#6  To summarize, president Obama isn't even bothering to pretend he's not measuring Israel's back for knife placement. That was another one sliding in.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/07/2012 12:51 Comments || Top||

#7  This must be that Smahrt Diplomacy we have heard soo much about.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 04/07/2012 15:47 Comments || Top||

#8  The Bammer a'sezzes ITS IRAN'S "LAST CHANCE".

The DemoLeft + MSM is pushing H-A-R-D that "things are getting better in America" this 2012 thanx to the Bammer + Dems, + that the Bammer WILL EASILY WIN RE-ELECTION IN NOVEMBER???

As per DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > FRANCE: IRAN MUST BOW, i.e Iran must PROVE ITS CIVIE NUC ENERGY- ONLY INTENTIONS TO THE G5 + 1, HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE A SOVEREIGN NATION WILLFULLY DID SUCH A THING???

[POST-WW1 TREATY OF VERSAILLES GERMANY here].

And Yeeuuuppp, wid a threat of WORLDWIDE/GLOBAL ECON DEPRESSION too.

I'l believe it when I see it.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/07/2012 21:58 Comments || Top||

#9  More from DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > NUCLEAR IRAN WILL DESTABILIZE WEST ASIA, IS NOT IN INDIA'S INTERESTS: ISRAELI EXPERTS.

and

* SAME > [Iranian Lawmaker] IRAN CAN PRODUCE NUCLEAR WEAPONS, BUT WILL NOT. View does not represent that of the Iranian Govt.

As per my earlier POsts, methinks France + HIllary want something more substantive as proof.

FYI DPK POSTER = opined that IHO, given the state of Iranian proficiency in various Sciences including NUclear, IT SHOULD ONLY TAKE IRAN 1-2 MONTHS ONLY TO BUILD A RELIABLE NUCBOMB.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 04/07/2012 22:24 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2012-04-07
  Azerbaijani intel service jugs 17 hard boys
Fri 2012-04-06
  Mali rebels declare cease-fire after seizing north
Thu 2012-04-05
  Pakistan rejects US bounty on Hafiz Saeed
Wed 2012-04-04
  Yemeni airstrikes kill 43 al-Qaida militants
Tue 2012-04-03
  Oil Pipeline Blown Up In Southeast Yemen, Flows Halted
Mon 2012-04-02
  Twin explosions rocked Mombasa Saturday
Sun 2012-04-01
  Paris: Scientist accused of plotting to blow up 'city size of London'
Sat 2012-03-31
  Us Drone Strike Kills Four In Miranshah
Fri 2012-03-30
  France nabs at least 17 Islamists in raids across the country
Thu 2012-03-29
  Gunmen kidnap Saudi diplomat in Yemen
Wed 2012-03-28
  Syrian Troops Kill 57 amid Clashes near Lebanese Border
Tue 2012-03-27
  Terror plot uncovered when 11 suicide vests found at Afghan military HQ
Mon 2012-03-26
  Toulouse killings: Mohamed Merah brother charged
Sun 2012-03-25
  Syrian Rebel Chiefs Form Military Council to Unify Ranks
Sat 2012-03-24
  At Least 26 Dead as Tens of Thousands Rally in Syria


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