[Libya Herald] Libya's Grand Mufti, Sheikh Sadik Al-Ghariani had ordered revolutionaries to "eliminate" alleged criminals resisting arrest in the Warshefana area and pro-Qadaffy forces in Sebha.
Speaking by phone in TV yesterday, he said that the criminals and Death Eaters "threaten the social cohesion, peace and security in our Moslem country, Libya". In the absence of effective state power, the revolutionaries were duty bound to attack them and destroy them, he ruled. Anyone who did not or did so half-heartedly was deviating from the faith, he declared. Anyone who protected or sheltered the criminals should also be considered one of them, he added.
"These gangs and criminals have gone too far in their banditry, behaviour and crimes of robbery," he ruled. "They have now became a threat to Moslems all over our country."
Given "the important role of Dar Al-Ifta in clarifying the Koranic opinion in this matter", he declared that "revolutionaries must besiege these criminals and eliminate them so as to prevent injustice, immorality and corruption prevailing in the land of Libya and in order that our revolution is not in vain in the face of the acts of these gangs and outlaws, which are contrary to the teachings of Islam".
The criminal gangs were being supported by associates of the Qadaffy regime, he said, and it was a duty "imposed on you by your religion and the Sunnah of the Prophet" to destroy them.
Anyone who wanted to leave the conflict areas must be given safe passage, he said, but those who chose to stay with the criminals and Death Eaters had to be treated as one of them.
Separately to the Grand Mufti's hardline fatwa, the Research and Religious Studies Council of the Dar Al-Ifta ,which he also heads, together with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and Religious Endowments and three other religious organizations, issued a statement calling on the government and the General National Congress to use "an iron fist" against the pro-Qadaffy rebels in the south and elsewhere, as well as against criminals throughout the country.
Calling the events in Sebha "a setback to the revolution's progress", they called on revolutionaries to unite and defend the country internally and externally. The government and Congress had to support the revolutionaries because, until a national army was operational, they were the only forces capable of ensuring security.
In the case of the conflict in the Warshefana area, however, the government and Congress appear committed to dialogue rather than force.
Confirming earlier reports of a security forces pullout from the district, the Prime Minister on Wednesday said that mistakes had been made on both sides and that police would now take over security instead.
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... fighting yesterday again intensified. The director of Abu Sleem Hospital, Sami Hanish, told Alsssema TV said that in the past two days, 28 people had been admitted. Five had died and six other had undergone major surgery.
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[Egypt Independent] Egypt's second biggest Islamist faction may have rallied behind a new army-backed constitution passed in a referendum last week, but its support for a presidential bid by military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appears less certain.
A leading holy man in the Dawa Salafiya, the Islamist movement that spawned the Nour Party, indicated in an interview that support for a Sisi bid hinged on a fuller government explanation of last year's mass killing of supporters of deposed president Mohammed Mursi, the Moslem Brüderbund politician tossed in July.
Nour Party support has provided a degree of Islamist approval for the course charted by the army since it removed the Moslem Brüderbund's Mohammed Mursi from the presidency following mass protests against his rule.
Were it to decide against endorsing Sisi for president in an election that he is widely expected to contest and win, it risks exposing more starkly the divide between the Islamist movement and the Egyptians who mobilised to remove Mursi.
"General Sisi has problems among many in the Islamic movement: it is the case of Rabaa and the bloodshed that followed," said Yasser Borhami, deputy head of the Dawa Salafiya, asked if the Nour would back Sisi for the presidency.
Rabaa al-Adawiya is the mosque in northeast Cairo where security forces killed hundreds of people on August 14 while breaking up a sit-in by Moslem Brüderbund supporters.
The government had called the sit-in a threat to national security, and says the security forces came under fire.
"This is fundamental to the grass roots of the party. What happened needs clarification, I mean the way the sit-in was disbanded. What were the orders given to the forces? There was a lot of killing, and this should be clarified to the public," Borhami told Rooters in an interview at his home in Alexandria.
INQUIRY INTO VIOLENCE
The government established a fact-finding committee that is investigating all violence since June 30, the day of mass anti-Mursi protests that led to his removal by the army. Established on January 6, it has six months to complete its work.
The dispersal of the Cairo sit-in was followed by the bloodiest bout of internal strife in Egypt's modern history, including an ongoing series of kabooms and shootings targeting the security forces: five coppers were rubbed out south of Cairo on Thursday.
Sisi is widely expected to announce his candidacy for the presidency imminently, and the election could happen as soon as March or April. He enjoys wide backing among Egyptians who supported Mursi's removal one year into a divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... presidential term. With no obvious competitors, Sisi appears certain to win.
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[An Nahar] Hundreds of Islamists with the radical Tunisian group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which advocates establishing an Islamic "caliphate", gathered in Tunis Friday to protest against the "secular" new constitution.
The protesters waved the black and white Islamist flag, and shouted slogans, including "Down with the secular constitution!" and "Establishing Islam is obligatory, illusory sovereignty is for the Koran and sharia (Islamic law)."
"We are announcing our rejection of this constitution which serves foreign intelligence services... We have one master, our Prophet Mohammed," one of the speakers shouted to the crowd, to the cries of "holy shit! Allahu akbar! (God is greatest)".
Lawmakers on Thursday completed their line-by-line scrutiny of the text late on Thursday, after three weeks of heated debate and disagreement on a range of subjects, including the role of Islam and a ban of accusations of apostasy.
The national assembly is due to vote on adopting the long-delayed new constitution on Saturday, which would be a major step towards ending months of political crisis and would pave the way for fresh elections.
The charter needs the approval of two-thirds of the 217 assembly members to be adopted, failing which it must be put to a referendum.
The Tunisian branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir was created in the 1980s but only legalized in 2012, the year after the ouster of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in a popular uprising that also opened to the door to hardline Islamist movements repressed under the secular dictator.
It calls for the rule of the Ummah, or Mohammedan community, and legislation based on sharia law.
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[An Nahar] Tunisian politicians will vote Saturday on adopting a long-delayed new constitution, more than three years after the revolution, constituent assembly officials said.
"The vote will be held tomorrow, Saturday," Mofdi Mssedi, front man for the speaker's office, told Agence La Belle France Presse on Friday, a day after parliament completed its review of each article in the draft charter.
The time of the vote has yet to be determined.
"If the constitution is adopted on the first reading by a two-thirds majority, the signing ceremony will take place on Monday," said Karima Souid, an MP and information officer at the assembly.
The text must be approved by at least 145 of the 217 members of the assembly to be adopted, and would then be formally promulgated by the president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker.
If it fails to achieve the necessary majority on either its first or second reading, the charter must be put to a referendum.
The political parties have sought to avoid that outcome, to be able to hold legislative and presidential elections in 2014 and end the political crisis plaguing Tunisia since the liquidation of two opposition MPs last year by suspected jihadist.
The national assembly was elected in October 2011, nine months after the popular uprising that toppled strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and touched off the Arab Spring.
But its mission to adopt a new constitution within one year was repeatedly disrupted by bitter political divisions between the ruling Islamist party Ennahda and the secular opposition, together with persistent social unrest and a wave of jihadist violence.
A new government of independents headed by premier designate Mehdi Jomaa should be appointed by Saturday, after Ennahda agreed, under an accord to end months of political deadlock, to hand power to a technocrat administration tasked with leading the country to fresh elections.
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[An Nahar] Three years after being hailed as heroes for toppling Egypt's Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , the young activists who led the 2011 uprising say an even more repressive regime has emerged.
Their revolt captivated the world and galvanized the Arab Spring, raising hopes that long-ruling dictators across the region would be swept aside by popular demands for democratic change.
But Egypt has been rocked by turmoil since then, with hundreds killed in street festivities and, more recently, a series of bombings against security forces, including three blasts on Friday that killed at least five people.
Since the July 3 overthrow of Mubarak's successor, Islamist president Mohammed Morsi ...the former president of Egypt. A proponent of the One Man, One Vote, One Time principle, Morsi won election after the deposal of Hosni Mubarak and jumped to the conclusion it was his turn to be dictator... , the military-installed government has launched a brutal crackdown on his Moslem Brüderbund, which won a series of polls after Mubarak's overthrow.
And the crackdown has been widened in recent months to target the liberal and secular activists who led the 18-day revolt in 2011, with authorities restricting the kind of public demonstrations that led to the toppling of both Mubarak and Morsi.
"The police and the army are stronger than before and the figures of the Mubarak era are returning," said Sally Touma, who was the spokeswoman for the Revolutionary Youth Coalition, one of the groups that led the 2011 revolt.
In December, as leading anti-Mubarak activists Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma, Mohammed Adel and Alaa Abdel Fattah were locked away Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! for holding "illegal demonstrations", Mubarak's last prime minister, Ahmad Shafiq, was acquitted in a corruption case.
The former premier, who narrowly lost to Morsi in the June 2012 presidential election, is now weighing a political comeback, while Maher, Douma and Adel have been sentenced to three-year prison terms and Abdel Fattah -- a blogger tossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! under Mubarak, the military junta that succeeded him, and Morsi -- is awaiting trial.
"These young men are being tried today because they did the revolution," said the well-known Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif, Abdel Fattah's aunt.
The military-installed authorities have claimed the mantle of the revolution and vowed to work with the youth, but Soueif says they are "lying."
"Their words are in total contradiction with what is happening on the ground."
'People changed... the state is the same'
Despite winning Egypt's first democratic election, Morsi's volatile year in power left Egyptians deeply divided, with critics accusing him of trying to erect a new dictatorship dominated by the Moslem Brüderbund, Egypt's most well-organized Islamist movement.
Protesters again took to Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on June 30, and days later the military overthrew and arrested Morsi, insisting that they were not carrying out a coup but restoring the January 25 revolution.
But analysts say the military has since revived the "deep state" that has existed since a group of military officers toppled Egypt's monarchy a half-century ago.
"The military institution is once again fully in control," said Amr Emam, a human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... lawyer.
"Mubarak was a face that was taken down for the state to maintain itself. Morsi's year in power gave them the opportunity to rearrange their cards. People changed, but the policies, the structure of the state is the same."
The authorities have since acted to ensure that "activists and rights lawyers were kept busy running behind detainees in prisons and the dead in morgues," he added.
"Removing Mubarak was the easiest part of the revolution," activist Ahmed Naguib said.
"But we discovered that the fall of the regime is not easy and it won't happen in a day or a night."
New revolt possible
Today's activists operate in a very different Egypt, where a groundswell of myrmidon nationalism has left many people clamoring for military chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to run for president and restore calm after three years of unrest.
State and private media have virtually coronated Sisi while lashing out at both the Moslem Brüderbund and the young would-be revolutionaries, including Touma, who during a TV appearance a few months ago was accused by viewers of fomenting instability.
Mustafa Kandil recently screened the Oscar-nominated documentary "The Square" at his small cafe in the upscale district of Zamalek. The film tells the story of the 2011 uprising through the eyes of the young activists who led it.
"We were not divided as much (then) as we are now," he said.
At that time, "all the people called for freedom, bread and social justice."
Ahmed Ibrahim, a patron who had campaigned against a provision in the constitution approved last week that allows military trials for civilians, said that despite the setbacks there was no going back to 2010.
"If Sisi does not realize these demands, people will take to the streets again," Ibrahim said.
"I don't think that a generation that decided to face the dictatorship and the power of Mubarak would be afraid of facing any other dictator," added rights lawyer Emam.
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01/25/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Moslems LIKE Big mustaches and stinky old boots. Mohammed didn't ASK you, he TOLD you. If you argued with Mohammed he had you killed. Can you spell M.O.S.L.E.M.?
Dictators are what Moslems DO. And you are surprised ? Repeat after me. BEND OVER and say your prayers. Their butts are in the air when they talk to God. That SHOULD tell you something.
#3
Democracy is a rare animal as a form of rule as shown by four thousands years of history. It takes just the right combination of social and economic preconditions to allow it to arise, let alone sustain. Otherwise, its the same rulers as the last rulers situation for most involving some sort of (primate) hierarchical arrangement of power.
[Yemen Post] Just as the international community has come together in its support of Yemen as it closed an important chapter of its transition of power, state officials have revealed that al-Qaeda attempted last week to take over the southern province of al-Baydha, in a move which could have well plunged the country into utter chaos.
Still fractured, both socially and politically, and its economy barely functioning, Yemen sits at a very sensitive crossroads. Should Islamic bully boyz be allowed to take advantage of the impoverished nation's current weakness, the entire region would stand to fall prey to terror.
In a statement published this Thursday, Yemen Interior Ministry explained that al-Qaeda bully boyz attempted to seize several buildings in the southern province of al-Baydha, ahead of a broader regional take over, in a move resembling that which the group ran in Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... back in 2012.
As Yemenis erupted into the streets in 2012 to demand social and political reforms, emboldened by revolutionary movements in Egypt and Tunisia, al-Qaeda bully boyz exploited the power vacuum by seizing large swathes of lands in Abyan. Islamists even managed to claim control over Zinjibar and Jaar, two cities in Abyan.
Although President Abdo Rabbo Mansour successfully drove all Islamists out of the province, backed by the military and local tribes, al-Qaeda bully boyz never completely disappeared, instead they returned to the shadows, waiting for their next opportunity.
Following to years of killing and kidnapping, it seems the terror group feels ready to move to the offensive again, further proof that Islamists are more dangerous than officials have led the public to believe.
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[Dhaka Tribune] Hefazat-e-Islam is now wavering over declaring a fresh agitation programme to realise its 13-point demands when it could not stage any large demonstration in the last six months.
Now they are considering new programmes which can connect the ordinary Mohammedans and avoid government harassment, said leaders of Hefazat and some other Islamist parties.
For that, religious conferences including waz mahfils (sermons) have been their initial choice.
Following the crackdown of law enforcers on the Hefazat supporters on May 5 last year, the Hathazari madrasa-based "non-political organization" called rallies in Dhaka more than three times.
But the government did not allow them to gather in the capital. They could not even hold rallies in Chittagong areas.
After May 5, Hefazat leaders and activists are facing many cases on charges of vandalism, arson and killing of police and general people. Most of the leaders and activists are now hiding to avoid arrest.
Hefazat leaders said they were not clear about the possible plan of action at this moment.
Sources said many of the Hefazat leaders -- who are also top leaders of the 18-party allies -- are communicating with the government high-ups for the release of its detained members and withdrawal of the cases against them.
They are also pursuing the government to hold a programme in the capital.
The Islamist parties, most of which are involved with Hefazat and the BNP-led 18-party alliance, are also uncertain about resuming the anti-government movement.
Islami Oikya Jot (IOJ), Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish and Jamaat-e-Ulama-e-Islam are part of the 18-party alliance. Bangladesh Khelafat Andolon and Khelafat-e-Islami Bangladesh are not part of any alliance.
Hefazat Secretary General Junaid Babunagari, who is also the vice-chairman of IOJ, yesterday told with Dhaka Tribune: "Now we are discontinuing our programmes. But it is a temporary situation. We will come up with new programmes soon."
Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, an adviser of the Hefazat, yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune that for the government's undemocratic activities, the country's political and also social groups, except for the ruling party, were unable to hold programmes.
"For these reasons, now we have to rethink our programme strategies."
Also secretary general of Bangladesh Khelafat Andolon, Zafarullah said Hefazat and the Islamist parties would be organising "religious gatherings" on special days.
The chairman of a faction of 18-party ally IOJ, Abdul Latif Nezami, also a Hefazat adviser, yesterday told the Dhaka Tribune that the Hefazat had to temporarily stop its programmes because of the government's harassing its leaders and supporters.
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[Dhaka Tribune] The BNP would continue to maintain its "electoral alliance" with Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... , said the party's acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday.
"The Jamaat is with the BNP as an ally. It will continue to be with BNP in future," said Fakhrul at a meeting with the leaders and activists of the party's Nilphamari chapter, according to news agencies.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... Asaduzzaman Ripon, a spokesperson of the BNP, said on Friday that there was a gulf of ideological differences between BNP and Jamaat.
"The two parties might have formed an electoral alliance, but Jamaat has its own political ideology," said Ripon, the international affairs secretary of BNP, at a presser.
The party organised the presser at its Nayapaltan central office yesterday in reaction to a remark by the prime minister, who had said BNP Chairperson the loathesome Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... was the Ameer of Jamaat.
At a public meeting in Jessore on Saturday, Prime Minister the loathesome Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. termed made the remark.
Labelling such a statement "devoid of political decorum," Asaduzzaman said: "Could I call her [PM] the ameer of Jatiya Party ...aka Jatiya Front; a political party established by Bangladictator Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1986 to lend a veneer of respectability to his rule. Since nobody was amused he was forced to resign by popular demand in 1990. The party remains in existence with about a dozen seats in Bangla's parliament... or the chairperson of JaPa?"
Asaduzzaman claimed that the BNP had not made any mistake by boycotting the January 5 election. The claim was made in reaction to another statement of the PM, who had said BNP chief Khaleda Zia had understood the mistake that she had made by not joining the polls.
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[DAWN] Taking a slightly different position from their traditional view point, Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... (JI) chief Syed Munawar Hassan ... The funny-looking leader-for-life of the Pak Jamaat-e-Islami. He joined the National Students Federation (NSF), a lefty student body, and was elected its President in 1959. He came into contact with the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) Pakistan and studied the writings of Mawlana Syed Abul Ala Maududi, The Great Apostasizer. As a result, he joined IJT in 1960 and soon he was elected as President of its University of Karachi Unit and member of the Central Executive Council. He was Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistain in 1992-93, and became Secretary General in 1993. After years of holding Qazi's camel he was named Amir when the old man stepped down in 2009... Friday said that neither bombings (Arclight airstrikes) can help restore peace nor suicide kabooms could pave way for the enforcement of Islamic Shariah.
Addressing the congregation of Friday prayers at Mansoora mosque -- the JI headquarters -- he said that religious forces, especially Deobandi holy mans should step forward and pave way for dialogue to save the country and also to prevent the emergence of a wrong image of Islam.
The JI chief alleged that the Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) did not hold peace talks with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) upon pressure asserted by the United States.
Defending the Pak Taliban's ideology, he said the notion that Taliban do not comply with law and constitution was propaganda that was being spread for some 'special purpose'.
"The government was fulfilling a longstanding wish of the US by destroying North Wazoo."
Hasan said if the religious forces did not rise at this moment, they would be driven to a blind alley and would have no way out.
He claimed the religious parties had played a key role in framing the 1973 constitution, and it was their duty at this juncture to protect the country and the constitution.
"A charge sheet has been issued against the religious parties and they would have to answer that."
The JI chief said that enemies had always used the differences between the Islamic sects and schools of thought as a weapon.
"The need of the hour is that the Ulema (holy men) of Deobandi school of thought sit down with the Shias, the Ahle Hadith, and Ahle Sunnah to evolve an effective strategy to counter the current campaign against Islam."
Therefore, he added, it was the duty of the religious forces to go ahead with the talks with the Taliban.
"Since a majority of the Taliban belongs to the Deobandi school of thought, it was for the Deobandi Ulema to take up this responsibility," he said.
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The United States has committed to provide economic assistance to Mindanao with the expected conclusion of the peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. United States Ambassador Philip Goldberg said, The US will support the government of the Philippines as they go about the peace efforts specially we can help in the underpinning any agreement with economic assistance and advises so that people can build on that peaceful resolution."
We are not part of the talks but we what want to do is to support the peaceful resolution. We will try to help, support the process, even though we are not part of it, he added.
The Philippine government and the MILF expect to conclude on Sunday the disarmament annex and an additional agreement on Bangsamoro waters the last two remaining documents before a comprehensive peace agreement can be signed during the negotiations in Kuala Lumpur that began yesterday.
Goldberg flew to Mindanao to sign an agreement with local government authoritiess for a good governance program.
A faction of the Moro National Liberation Front has expressed an interest in beginning unity talks with the MILF. Muslimin Sema, chairman of the MNLF Council, said his group is not opposed to the peace agreement, but he underscored the need to respect the 1996 final peace agreement between the government and the MNLF. He said unity talks must be brokered by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
MNLF founding chairman Nur Misuari, who went into hiding after a warrant was issued against him over the Zamboanga siege in October, was earlier invited to join the Transition Commission but he declined.
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[An Nahar] Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour on Friday rejected accusations of terrorism against Hizbullah, noting that the formation of a transitional government in Syria would be counterproductive.
"When one of the parties goes there and puts crippling preconditions, I believe this will not contribute at all to finding the solution," Mansour said at Beirut's airport upon his return from the Swiss town of Montreux, where he took part in the opening session of the Geneva II peace conference for Syria.
"For example, when a certain party demands the departure of a president or ceding power immediately to a transitional council or transitional government, that also does not contribute to finding the aspired solution and we must take into consideration the viewpoints of all parties," Mansour added.
The Syrian regime rejects the opposition's contention that the Geneva I agreement requires Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... to go. The Geneva communique reached in June 2012 envisaged a transition for Syria, but did not specify whether Assad should leave.
"After my speech (at the conference), I noticed that there is a tendentious chorus that wants to insult Leb's foreign minister," Mansour added.
"When some parties at the conference described Hizbullah as a terrorist group, that was totally unacceptable, because the resistance -- which honored its country, nation and people, struggled against the Israeli enemy and protected Lebanese land -- cannot be given this label," the minister went on to say.
"I stressed in my speech the need not to interfere in the Syrian affairs and said that such an interference will only complicate the crisis, but when foreign parties describe the resistance as terrorist, this is unacceptable, regardless of the reasons behind this labeling," Mansour added.
At the conference's opening session on Wednesday, Mansour had noted that "those claiming that what is happening in Syria is a result of Hizbullah's involvement in the war want to divert attention from the fact that there are foreign terrorist groups in the region."
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[An Nahar] A group suspected of links to al-Qaeda warned Friday that all areas of Leb where Hizbullah operates are "legitimate targets" for attack, urging Sunnis to avoid them.
"We, al-Nusra Front in Leb, announce that Iran's party (Hizbullah) and all its bases and... bastions are legitimate targets for us, wherever they are," the group said in a statement posted on the Internet.
The statement comes three days after the group -- which is believed to be a franchise of the Syrian al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda-linked rebel movement -- grabbed credit for a suicide car kaboom in the Beirut southern suburb of Haret Hreik that killed four people.
Tuesday's was the sixth in a string of attacks targeting Hizbullah strongholds in Leb since the Lebanese group acknowledged sending members into neighboring Syria to fight alongside Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... 's regime against rebels and jihadists.
Al-Nusra Front in Leb warned Sunnis against "approaching or residing in or near (Hizbullah's) bases, and (to) avoid gathering around its meeting points."
The group had earlier claimed a deadly car kaboom in the heart of Hermel town in eastern Leb, which killed three people.
While Hizbullah is said to be the target of such attacks, they have regularly killed civilians.
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#2
Al-Nusra Front in Leb warned Sunnis against "approaching or residing in or near (Hizbullah's) bases, and (to) avoid gathering around its meeting points......"
[An Nahar] U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said Friday that delegations from Syria's regime and opposition had agreed to meet together for peace talks in Geneva on Saturday.
"I met the delegations of the opposition and the government separately yesterday and again today and tomorrow we expect, we have agreed, that we will meet in the same room," Brahimi told journalists.
Pulled together by the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... , Russia and the United States, delegations from Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... 's regime and the opposition had been due to sit down early Friday at U.N. headquarters in Geneva for their first face-to-face talks.
But Brahimi was unable to convince them to sit together, after the opposition insisted the regime must be prepared to discuss Assad leaving power.
"We knew that it was going to be difficult, complicated," Brahimi said. "We never expected this to be easy -- I think the two parties understand what is at stake."
The regime has threatened to withdraw from the talks should "serious sessions" fail to take place on Saturday, but Brahimi appeared confident no one would be immediately walking away from the talks.
"Both parties are going to be here tomorrow and they will be meeting. Nobody will be leaving on Saturday and nobody will be leaving on Sunday," he said.
Brahimi said discussions so far had been "encouraging" but said talks on concrete issues had not yet begun.
"We have not discussed the core matters yet. We hope that both parties will give concessions that will be to the benefit of the process," he said.
Earlier on Friday, Syria's regime threatened to quit peace talks in Geneva.
Syrian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
said Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had told Brahimi that "should serious sessions fail to take place tomorrow, the official Syrian delegation will leave Geneva."
Muallem told Brahimi "the Syrian delegation is serious and ready to start, but the other side is not," it said.
Brahimi spent Thursday trying to convince them to be in the same room for the start of the talks -- the biggest diplomatic effort yet to stem the bloodshed in Syria's devastating civil war.
But instead he again met separately with each delegation.
"This process is shaping up, so there have been changes to previous declarations," U.N. spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci told news hounds. "We are going step by step."
Brahimi met the regime delegation in the late morning and had begun meeting with the opposition National Coalition around 4:00 pm (1500 GMT).
Sources within the delegations told Agence La Belle France Presse the opposition had refused to sit in the same room unless the regime accepted the need for a transitional government without Assad.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad told news hounds the opposition was obstructing the talks.
"The problem is that these people do not want to make peace, they are coming here with pre-conditions," he told news hounds.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2014 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif revealed on Friday that Hizbullah "took its own decision" to get involved in the Syrian war, urging all "foreign elements" to withdraw from the neighboring country.
"Iran did not send anyone to Syria and Hizbullah took its own decision to fight there," Zarif said at a seminar held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... 's Davos, noting that the party has "exerted lots of efforts to safeguard stability" in Leb.
"And we urge all foreign elements to withdraw from Syria," he added.
Iran was finally not invited to join the opening of a peace conference in Switzerland, because it has failed to sign up to a 2012 accord which sets out that Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... must give way to a transitional government to end the fighting.
Zarif continued: "We call for stop funneling funds and money and arms into Syria and to allow the Syrian people to decide their destiny... hopefully in Geneva, although we were not invited. But we are hoping that Geneva can produce results, because we are in the region, we will be affected by any disaster coming out of the region."
On whether Assad would have survived against a determined uprising without Tehran's help, Zarif assured that "of course he would."
"Nobody would survive unless they have domestic legitimacy," he explained.
Caretaker FM Adnan Mansour on Wednesday told the conferees during the Geneva II summit that Hizbullah's interference in Syria is not the problem, pointing out that the region's upheaval is cause by the presence of terrorist ideologies
"Those claiming that what is happening in Syria is a result of Hizbullah's involvement in the war want to divert attention from the fact that there are foreign terrorist groups in the region," Mansour said during his participation at the Syria peace talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2014 00:00 ||
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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.
[Yemen Post] Just as the international community has come together in its support of Yemen as it closed an important chapter of its transition of power, state officials have revealed that al-Qaeda attempted last week to take over the southern province of al-Baydha, in a move which could have well plunged the country into utter chaos.
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
Syed Munawar Hassan
Wazoo
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
