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Tough new US sanctions against Iran are raising concern that the OPEC member’s insurers may not be able to pay Western claims in the event of an accident, but Iran’s main ship insurer said it is confident it would be able to.
(AP) – The German government says it has summoned Iran’s ambassador to press for the release of a pastor sentenced to death for converting to Christianity.
(AP) – A Russian bank has closed the accounts of employees at the Iranian Embassy in Moscow, prompting an angry reaction from them.
Gravestones were smashed and overturned at Benghazi Military Cemetery where soldiers who died during the second world war are buried.
(AP) – China is offering a proposal to end the violence in Syria, calling for an immediate end to all violence and talks by all the parties but standing fast against any intervention by outside forces.
(UPI) – Iran and Russia’s only choice is to join the international opposition to President Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, Turkish President Abdullah Gul says.
The Red Cross pressed efforts on Saturday to deliver desperately needed aid to the vanquished Syrian rebel stronghold of Baba Amr in Homs after a blocked first attempt sparked an international outcry.
A senior Hamas official in Gaza said on Saturday the Palestinian Islamist movement is not taking sides in the conflict between the regime and the insurgency in Syria. “Our position on Syria is the same as on other Arab revolutions,” said Mahmud Zahar.
The bodies of two Western journalists killed in the bombardment of Syria’s Homs were handed over to diplomats in Damascus on Saturday. Meanwhile a suicide car bomb exploded Saturday in a southern Syrian city known as the birthplace of the country’s uprising, and casualties were reported, the state-run news agency said.
Iran is increasing its level of support to Syrias forces as they continue their brutal crackdown against opposition strongholds, The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing three unnamed US officials.Citing intelligence reports.
Turkey said Saturday that the international failure to agree on action over Syria is emboldening the government crackdown that has killed thousands, calling the violence a crime against humanity on the scale of Balkans.
(Reuters) – Suicide bombers linked to al Qaeda detonated two vehicles laden with explosives at two military outposts outside the southern Yemeni city of Zinjibar on Sunday, killing at least six soldiers, local officials and residents said.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said that the government was determined to solve the rest of the problems of religious minorities in Turkey.
A Turkish human-rights group has accused authorities of trying to block an investigation into suspected extrajudicial killings by security forces in the Kurdish region of the country.
Ex-CIA Chief admits the US created stuxnet virus to attack Irans nuclear programs.
Libyan Islamists and independents have formed a new political party and elected a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday as its leader after a three-day conference.
(Jordan Times) – His Majesty King Abdullah said the Arab Spring is a call for dignity, justice and freedom, and that there is no going back on the legitimate aspirations of the people.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says the inability of international leaders and aid workers to alleviate “systematic murder of innocent civilians” in Syria “challenges all the promises of the international community that they are responsible .
Tajikistan blocked local access to Facebook and two Russian-language sites that published an article critical of its long-serving president on Saturday, representatives of two Internet providers said.
(Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on opponents bears the hallmarks of war crimes and his violent repression is damaging the chances of a negotiated peace, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday.
A suicide attack has killed a police officer and wounded eight others, including a local politician, in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.
Reporters Without Borders condemns the many direct physical attacks by police on journalists that took place when the media were filming their use of violence and tear-gas to disperse a demonstration organized by the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) in Tunis.
(Reuters) – Libya’s leadership has apologised after armed men smashed the graves of British and Italian soldiers killed during World War Two, in an act of vandalism that bore the hallmarks of radical Islamists.
The GCC today voiced deep concerns over incessant Iranian interference in the internal affairs of the Gulf states. Convened in Riyadh, 122nd session of the GCC ministerial council .
Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, a major reformist figure, has announced that he will soon make a public explanation for his decision to cast a vote in Friday’s parliamentary elections.
An Al-Qaeda splinter group wants 30 million euros ($39 million) to free three European aid workers kidnapped in Algeria in October, a Malian source close to the mediators said on Saturday.
(Reuters) – The United States on Saturday reaffirmed its backing for Egypt’s efforts to get a $3.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, despite the recent diplomatic standoff between Washington and Cairo over American pro-democracy activists.
Egypt’s parliament and senate will appoint a panel to draft a new constitution on March 24, the speaker said on Saturday, in what will likely be a tug of war between the dominant Islamists and liberals.
The United States remains committed to strong ties with Egypt, a US official said Saturday, after tensions over the treatment of US activists who had been barred from leaving Cairo.
Algeria’s prime minister vowed on Sunday to eradicate terrorism, a day after a suicide bomber crashed an explosives-laden car into a police station in the remote Algerian desert.
A Tehran court has reportedly sentenced a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer to 18 years in prison for spreading anti-government propaganda.
Commander of a Libyan militia that has detained two British journalists working for Iran’s English-language Press TV said Sunday.
The decision of MPs last week to spend $50 million on their own armored cars on a day that dozens of people were killed in a wave of attacks has drawn sharp criticism from across Iraqi society. The vote, alongside a long-delayed approval of the 2012 federal budget on Thursday.
Iran is to accept gold instead of dollars as payment for its oil, says the country’s state news agency.
BBC Persian TV’s audience in Iran has almost doubled since 2009, despite the Iranian authorities’ efforts to block the service, new research shows.
The United States has drafted an outline for a new U.N. Security Council resolution demanding access for humanitarian aid workers in besieged Syrian towns and an end to the violence there, Al Arabiya correspondent said on Wednesday.
A Tunis appeals’ court on Wednesday postponed till mid March a trial against ousted Tunisian leader Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and other officials, accused of torture, a court official told AFP.
Al-Qaida in Yemen has claimed responsibility for a weekend suicide bombing that killed at least 25 people in southern Yemen. The group says the car bomb attack was a warning to the U.S. to stop meddling in Yemen’s affairs.
Jordan’s opposition Islamists urged King Abdullah II on Wednesday to call an emergency Arab summit in a bid to protect Jerusalem from “Judaisation.” “We urge you to lead Arab, Muslim and international efforts to protect Al-Aqsa mosque,” in Jerusalem’s Old City, Hamzeh Mansur, head of the Islamic Action Front (IAF), said in a letter to the king.
A coalition of radical Islamic groups in Sudan has threatened to unseat the country’s President Omer Al-Bashir if he failed to heed demands for a constitution based on Shariah law.
Chief of Dubai Police Force and Lieutenant General, Dahi Khalfan, warned that the United States, Iran and the Muslim Brotherhoods are a threat to the security of the Gulf region, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.Dahi, who was in charge of the investigation.
The Turkish Foreign Minister has denied Syrian claims that Ankara pressured Damascus to engage in political dialogue with Muslim Brotherhood, but has acknowledged that Bashar al-Assad was advised to make peace with those who fled the country.
An Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program would set the Middle East ablaze, possibly drag in the United States and unleash a conflict beyond the Jewish state’s control, the deputy head of Lebanon’s pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement said.
(Reuters) – A remote control bomb wounded 10 police officers near the Istanbul headquarters of Turkey’s ruling AK Party, Turkish police said.
In affidavits in a lawsuit, former Senators Bob Graham and Bob Kerrey say they believe the Saudi government might have played a direct role in the attacks.
The United States says the Mujahedeen Khalq’s relocation in Iraq from Camp Ashraf to a former United States base could help its case for removal from a list of terrorist organizations.
Heavy fighting raged in the Syrian city of Homs today as elite government troops attacked the rebel-held bastion for a 25th day.
Israeli Cabinet minister says Syrian rebel leaders want peace with Israel.
Iran’s parliamentary elections on Friday are shaping up as a contest by proxy between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who seeks public endorsement of his efforts to wield broad authority, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has struggled to keep his populist president in check.
Iran is crushing dissent leading up to its March 2 parliamentary elections and has launched a “cyber army” to block Internet and social media communication, according to Amnesty International .
No opposition Green Movement candidate will participate. A number of sources tell RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that Iran’s Basij paramilitary units are behind an unorthodox get-out-the-vote campaign ahead of Iran’s March 2 national elections.
Hamas has distanced itself from the Iranian government increasingly siding against Al Assads regime.
Iran’s parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2, 2012, will be grossly unfair because of arbitrary disqualifications and other restrictions,Human Rights Watch said today.
An Islamic bank in the United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that it “took pre-emptive action” to end business relationships with some Iranian banks.
Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Fereidoon Abbasi rejected on Wednesday the claims that Iran carries out nuclear activities at the country ‘s Parchin military site.
The international dispute with Iran over its nuclear program is entering a new phase, with Iran both calling cooperation and also refusing to allow U.N. inspectors into a key facility.
The leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard told supporters that Iran has the upper hand over the US and that the US would suffer the heaviest damage if it dares to launch an attack on the regime.
As differences and dissatisfaction among members of Iran’s armed services have been growing, particularly after such events as the disputed tenth presidential elections in 2009, new international sanctions and serious military threats, the head of Iran’s military justice organization expressed his concerns on this and issued a warning. -Bahram Rafiei, Rooz Online.
Sanctions-hit Iran has announced it will take payment from trading partners in gold instead of dollars. The sanctions have made it harder for Iran to be paid for its main export, oil, and to purchase imports.
(Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear watchdog believes unspecified “activities” may be taking place at an Iranian military site which make its request to visit the Parchin facility.
(Reuters) – Iranian firm AHT exports millions of dollars worth of nuts and dried fruit from Iran each month but Western financial sanctions mean it gets little money in return. Instead it is relying on barters.
Iranian technicians work at the satellite data receiving site of the Alborz station, in Mahdasht 40 miles (70 kilometers) west of the capital Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012.
Sitting in his fabrics shop in Tehrans main Bazaar, Ali Mohebi was more worried about earning a living than by Irans parliamentary elections on Friday.
Mohammad Hossein Dajmar, the managing director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines has dismissed as baseless claims by the US and Europe against his company, reiterating IRISL’s activities fully comply with international rules and regulations, Fars news has reported.
Iran’s government is goading citizens to vote and warned them not to protest the results of parliamentary elections on Friday.
The Iranian regime continued its persistent campaign against press freedom days ahead of its parliamentary elections on March 2 by sentencing two journalists to prison and periodically blocking millions of users from accessing the Internet, according to news reports.
Iranian nation will demonstrate its firm will to fight enemies by massive participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said, IRNA reported.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that cooperation by the exiled Iranian opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) during the closure of its Iraqi base at Camp Ashraf will be “a key factor in any decision” on whether to change the organization’s terrorist designation.
U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said Wednesday that Syria has not approved her repeated requests to visit the country. Syria has not set a time to allow the UN’s top humanitarian official Valerie Amos into the country thus far, but has not refused her entry either, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Amateur footage from Syria is purported to show tanks heading in the direction of Homs. The Syrian regime showed a new determination Wednesday to crush its opponents, vowing to “cleanse” a rebel-held district in the besieged central city of Homs.
Heavy fighting raged in the Syrian city of Homs today as elite government troops attacked the rebel-held bastion for a 25th day.
With India having switched its stance on Syria to being more critical of the Bashar al-Assad regime, New Delhi is ready to lend its considerable diplomatic clout to support the Arab League reported India Times. Meanwhile China’s foreign ministry calls on world powers to send aid to Syria as the violence and bloodshed showed no sign of easing.
Saudi Arabia’s Board of Grievances (BOG) upheld on Tuesday the recommendation of the Ministry of Information to impose a jail sentence on a Saudi businessman trading in pirated goods said Arab News.
Syria condemns Qatari and Saudi Arabian calls for arming terrorist groups fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad as a hostile bid aimed at fueling unrest in the country.Syrian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jihad Maqdisi said on Wednesday.
The Obama administration on Wednesday offered an Iranian opposition group a path to get off of a U.S. terrorism blacklist, a move that would end years of high-profile campaigning from the Mujahadin-e-Khalq and infuriate Iran.
Forbes announced the richest 100 Turks on Tuesday. According to the list by Forbes, Husnu Ozyegin, chairman of executive board of Fiba Holding, became the richest person of Turkey with his asset of 3 billion U.S. dollars.
A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) underlined that Iran has the upper-hand and the initiative in the Persian Gulf, and warned the US that it will sustain the heaviest damage.
Saudi Arabia said yesterday it would honor a pledge of $3.75 billion in aid to Egypt after complaints by the Egyptian premier that donor countries were failing to respect their commitments.
Egypt on Wednesday lifted a travel ban on seven Americans employed by pro-democracy U.S. groups, signaling an end to the worst crisis in relations between Egypt and the U.S. in 30 years.
Egypt has set May 23-24 for the first presidential election since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster last year, an official said Wednesday, and the nation’s new president is to be named June 21.
The US government has forced Dubai-based Noor Islamic Bank to stop channelling billions of dollars from Iranian oil sales through its accounts.
Azerbaijan’s ambassador was summoned to Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday to explain the weapons and to receive a warning that Israel must not be permitted to use Azerbaijan to stage acts against Iran.
Riyadh appears to be ramping up production as sanctions by the European Union and the US disrupt Iran’s crude exports reporteds FT.
A previously unknown jihadist group has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in the Syrian capital and the second city Aleppo that killed dozens earlier this year, in a video seen by AFP Wednesday. The group calls itself Al-Nusra Front to Protect the Levant.
Kuwaiti MPs overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Wednesday calling on the government to recognize the opposition Syrian National Council as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad escaped an assassination attempt Wednesday when a blast hit one of the vehicles of his cavalcade, a media report said. Iran’s Press TV, however, denied the report
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast rejected on Saturday reports saying that Iran has sent weapons to Syria, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. The Islamic republic of Iran rejects any military intervention in Syria.
Oil prices surged on Friday as the UN’s nuclear watchdog said Iran had significantly increased its production of higher-grade uranium over the past six months and had failed to dispel concerns that it was pursuing atomic weapons.
The UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said Iran must address “serious concerns” about “possible military dimensions” to its nuclear program after significantly escalating its ability to enrich uranium.
A group of Canadian activists hopes to put pressure on the Iranian government to commute the death sentence of a Canadian resident, who is being held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, by staging a protest in Ottawa on Sunday.
Under pressure from the United States and the European Union, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), based in Belgium, is expected to ban Iran’s forty banks and institutions from using SWIFT to process its financial.
Iranian officials at UN headquarters in Bangkok denied any involvement in the February 14 bombings in Bangkok.
The world’s biggest electronic banking system is ready to block Iran’s central bank from using its network to transfer funds, a U.S. congressional aide said on Friday after a briefing from the Belgium-based group earlier.
Dariush Jalali, a student at Iran’s Yasuj University who had sewn his lips together to protest the pressure he had been facing over his activism, has reportedly been arrested. -Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ center dealing with organized crimes issued a statement on Saturday releasing details about the BBC’s ill-intentioned activities inside Iran.
The threat of a possible layoff hangs over the heads of 1,300 workers at Tabriz match factories due to rising energy costs and an increase in the smuggling of substandard matches.
The United States is condemning reports that an Iranian court has upheld the death sentence for an Iranian Christian pastor convicted of apostasy, or abandoning the Muslim faith.
The Pentagon has notified U.S. lawmakers of plans to boost U.S. strength in the Persian Gulf in response to Iranian threats to close the Straits of Hormuz.
Hackers calling themselves the ‘Iranian Cyber Army’ have attacked the website of mainly Muslim neighbour Azerbaijan’s state television station, the communications ministry said on Thursday.
(Reuters) – Turkey is ready to host an international meeting on Syria to follow up one being held in Tunis on Friday to raise pressure on Damascus to end a violent crackdown, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday.
Turkey has that most scarce, yet highly sought-after, attribute among European economies: growth. With this rising tide, is now the time for investors to be contemplating Turkey’s growing Internet economy? Certainly the statistics look good.
Yemen’s outgoing president has left the U.S. after more than three weeks of medical treatment. U.S. officials say Ali Abdullah Saleh departed Boston late Wednesday for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Yemen’s new transitional government is facing an emboldened al-Qaida presence, and the United States and others have pledged to help fight them.
Yemen’s single-candidate election turned into an unexpected expression of choice as the country’s voters widened their options beyond a vote for Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi to include a creative assortment of write-in ballots or to opt out altogether.
A prominent Egyptian Islamist and presidential hopeful is in hospital after a carjacking attack overnight on a highway to Cairo.
‘LA Times’ reports highly classified US intelligence assessment indicates that Iran is conducting research that could eventually enable it to develop a nuclear weapon, but that it has not sought to do so.
A fruitless visit to Iran by United Nations (UN) nuclear inspectors heightened tensions as Russia warned of ‘catastrophic’ consequences if it leads to a military attack on its Middle East ally.
President refutes ‘Haaretz’ story saying he would tell Obama he doesn’t “believe Israel should attack Iran” in near future.
Algeria’s elderly first president Ahmed Ben Bella left the hospital in good health Thursday after undergoing medical tests, his daughter said after some reports that the former independence fighter had died.
The outlook for the underequipped members of the Syrian opposition appeared to have grown less bleak Thursday on the eve of a Friends of Syria meeting in Tunis, the cradle of the Arab Spring movement.
The latest events that swept through some Arab nations known, as “ The Arab spring” were at the center of the discussions during the fifth session of the supreme Council of the Arab Woman Organization held here in Algiers.
Somalia should be enjoying an Arab Spring of its own but its Al-Shabab insurgents are fomenting jihad both in and out of the country.
A Lebanese man with links to Hezbollah is being charged by the U.S. military of helping kill American troops in Iraq, the New York Times reported Thursday.
After months of reassuring secularist critics, Islamist politicians in Tunisia and Egypt have begun to lay down markers about how Muslim their states should be — and first signs show they want more religion than previously admitted. Reported by Arab News.
Police in a Tunisian town used tear gas on Thursday to break up a crowd of about 200 hardline Islamists, armed with sticks, swords and petrol bombs, who set fire to a police station, witnesses told Reuters. “The security forces are chasing about 200 Salafists armed with swords and sticks.
(UPI) – The Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing in Egypt isn’t endorsing a presidential candidate until after the registration period closes in April, an official said.
The Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab has said that they have taken over areas seized by the government forces in Bay Region, southwestern Somalia, reported the privately-owned Radio Shabeelle on 23 February.
(UPI) – A Western-Arab meeting will pressure Syria’s Assad regime to let humanitarian aid into hardest-hit areas, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
The head of the main opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) sought on Friday to reassure Syrian Kurds they would have a place in a post-Bashar al-Assad country, promising decentralised government.
Western and other countries are turning a blind eye to weapons purchases by Syrian exiles who are already smuggling light arms, communications equipment and night vision goggles to rebels inside Syria, a Syrian opposition source said Friday.
The U.S. and allies from the “Friends of Syria,” meeting today in Tunisia, will ratchet up pressure on President Bashar al-Assad by announcing plans to deploy United Nations peacekeepers after his ouster.
The main opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) outlined on Friday its vision for a post-Bashar al-Assad Syria, proposing an interim presidential council of national leaders and a truth and reconciliation committee.
Thai police is seeking a fifth suspect and New Delhi is scrutinizing the telephone calls made to the Middle East around the time of the attacks.
At least 26 civilians were killed in Syria on Friday as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to demand President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, a watchdog said.”The toll of martyrs from Popular Resistance Friday has reached 26 civilians,”
In an article he wrote before his death on Thursday, Mr. Shadid examined how a party shaped by repression hopes to act as a regional model after being voted into power in Tunisia as reported by NYTimes.com
(UPI) – Egyptian political activists said they have formed a “revolutionary council” focused on achieving and realizing the 2011 revolution’s goals and aspirations.
An international human-rights organization said Saudi Arabia has reversed its decision to allow women to participate in the London 2012 Olympics.
Iran’s nuclear ambitions could plunge the world into “a new Cold War” with the Middle East, Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned. He predicted a nuclear arms race among rival Middle Eastern states that would carry the dangers without the safety.
SWIFT to ban Iran after pressure from United States on Belgium-based international financial transactions firm to block Iranian banks from network; SWIFT waiting for “clarity” on EU legislation.
Two Iranian warships sailed from the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean the first such trip in at least three decades, eliciting Israeli charges that Tehran is seeking to dominate the Middle East.
Israel has reached a $1 billion preliminary deal to buy 30 Italian military training jets, Israeli defense said.
Syrian troops intensively shelled rebel-held neighborhoods in the restive central city of Homs Friday and killed at least five people, activists said.
An international banking clearinghouse crucial to Iran’s oil sales said Friday that it is preparing to discontinue services to Iranian financial institutions, an unprecedented and potentially devastating blow to Tehran as the West ramps up a campaign to stop its nuclear program.
An American antiwar activist and another Westerner who were leading a women’s protest were detained by the police in the capital, Manama, on Friday.
After winning elections, members of Tunisia’s Ennahda Party have a chance to apply their belief that faith and democracy are compatible, a concept shaped by decades of struggle, theoretical debates and exile.
The Obama administration is trying to shrink market for Iranian oil to deprive Tehran of funds for its nuclear program.
Saudi Arabia mosques called for an end to the bloodbath in Syria, where innocent people are being killed mercilessly.
A senior Israeli official accused Iran’s shadowy Quds Force on Friday of masterminding a string of attacks on Israeli diplomats abroad this week, fleshing out allegations denied by Tehran.
Turkey’s Parliament voted late to stop prosecutors questioning spies without the prime minister’s permission, after a row which analysts said revealed divisions inside the state on ending the war with Kurdish militants.
Upheaval in Egypt hit Jordan’s trade deficit last year, helping it widen by 21 percent to 7.3 billion dinars ($10.3 billion) by cutting off cheap gas supplies, official data showed.
Iran’s top oil buyers in Europe are making substantial cuts in supply months in advance of European Union sanctions, reducing flows to the continent in March by more than a third — or more than 300,000 barrels daily, industry sources said.
European Union lawmakers approved a new trade deal with Morocco that will significantly extend duty-free sales of agricultural, food and fisheries products between the North African kingdom and the 27-nation bloc.
A sharp rise in trading turnover shows money is pouring back into Middle Eastern stock markets, after a year in which the global financial crisis and political turmoil in the Arab world kept most markets depressed.
After years of attacking the West, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is now courting Western businesses to help revive the country’s sick economy.
Bahrain announced the deportation of four foreign activists for “taking part in illegal demonstrations,” bringing to 12 the number expelled over the past week.
US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon will travel to Israel on Saturday for talks with senior Israeli officials on a range of issues, including Iran and Syria, the White House announced.
(AP) – Iran began ground military exercises Saturday and defiantly warned that it could cut off oil exports to “hostile” European nations.
The new military maneuvers came weeks after Iran rolled out its troops and arsenals in an unprecedented display of military readiness, with 10 days of naval maneuvers that included the first threats to block Gulf oil tankers in early January.
Tehran has claimed that the most recent move — EU sanctions approved on Jan. 23, which include an oil embargo and the freezing of central bank assets — will be ineffective.
The Iranian government has arrested relatives of Persian-language journalists working abroad for the BBC in a bid to silence them, the British Broadcasting Corporation said Friday.
Iran has frequently accused the BBC of fueling the unrest that broke out following the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
Iran is moving toward reducing reliance on oil revenues, a hint that Tehran is preparing for the worst.
(AP) – Iran began ground military exercises Saturday and defiantly warned that it could cut off oil exports to “hostile” European nations.
The West’s quest to impose a painful embargo on Iran is slamming into a harsh reality: India is declining to cooperate.
Iran is moving toward reducing reliance on oil revenues, a hint that Tehran is preparing for the worst.
Iran has begun mass production of an anti-ship cruise missile, state television’s website said on Saturday.
The Islamic republic says it has a wide range of missiles. It says some are capable of striking targets inside Israel as well as Middle Eastern military bases of its other main arch foe, the United States.
Iran’s missile program is becoming increasingly self-reliant, lessening the ability of the international community to limit its capabilities.
In a ceremony on Saturday, the production line of a new domestically manufactured naval missile system, named the Zafar (Victory), was officially launched and the first batch of the missile system was delivered to the Islamic Revolution Guards.
The ceremony was held on the fourth day of the Ten-Day Dawn (Feb. 1-Feb. 11), which is a national celebration of the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Turkey’s ties with Iran are under growing strain as the countries split on sectarian lines over Middle East conflicts.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are carrying out military exercises amid rising tensions over the country’s nuclear program and rumors of a possible strike.
Hezbollah
Thailand said it arrested a Lebanese terror suspect less than three hours after the U.S. warned of a possible attack in Bangkok and urged citizens to exercise caution in public areas.
As the Middle East frets about a regional conflict, Israel’s military says it believes Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah has long-range surface-to-air.
Russia remains a staunch defender of Syria, providing it with a political lifeline as well as arms and ammunition.
Tehran has stepped up its bellicose warnings of conflict in the Persian Gulf as potentially crippling new European Union and American sanctions have been approved on Iran’s oil exports.
The Israeli military has conducted its first full-scale parachute exercise for its airborne brigade in 15 years as part of military preparations.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that New York police used “terrible judgment” in showing counterterrorism trainees a documentary-style film that says Muslim extremists are masquerading.
Lebanese judicial officials say a former army general has been sentenced to two years in prison for giving information to Israel.
Tunisia
Tunisia’s foreign minister said Thursday its newly formed coalition government —which includes Islamists, secularists and leftists — is a good model for other Arab countries.
Tunisia’s moderate Islamist leaders are under pressure from a radical Muslim fringe, forcing them to stress their liberal democratic credentials without alienating their base, analysts say.
Amid growing tensions over Iran’s nuclear research program, Azerbaijan claims that it has foiled an alleged Iranian assassination plot against the Israeli ambassador to Baku.
Azerbaijan said this week it has struck a deal with Moscow to double the amount of Caspian Sea gas exported to the Russian energy monopoly.
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, an economic giant and rising military power in the Persian Gulf, is reported to have discreet ties with Israel.
Bahrain
(UPI) — Bahrain has continued to assault anti-government protesters despite pledging last year to honor international norms, witnesses said.
Bahrain’s Interior Ministry said on Thursday that a man detained by police over “acts of sabotage” died in hospital while in custody, without elaborating on the cause.
Bahrain must investigate more than a dozen deaths that followed the use of tear gas by security forces, rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday.
Bahrain police on Friday denied opposition claims that security forces were responsible for the death of an anti-government protester, saying the man died from natural causes.
Qatar
The Arab League chief and the Qatari prime minister will present an Arab peace plan for Syria to ambassadors in the U.N. Security Council in New York early next week.
The opening of a Taliban office in the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar is contingent on the renunciation of international terror and the backing of a peace process to end the Afghan conflict.
Pakistan
Pakistan’s former leader Pervez Musharraf will “certainly” be arrested if he returns to Pakistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Friday.
Over 100,000 supporters of Pakistan’s largest religious political party gathered in Karachi on Friday and condemned drone attacks by the United States in the country’s troubled northwest.
Attackers on Friday fired rockets at Pakistan’s top military academy, damaging its outer wall in a major security breach near the home where Osama bin Laden lived.
A Pakistani government official says Iranian security forces have killed six Pakistani traders taking goats into Iran. Abdur Rehman said the incident happened.
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Wednesday that he “openly and proudly” supports the uprising of the Syrian people, one day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah repeated his support for the Syrian regime.
“If Hezbollah openly supports the Syrian regime, we openly and proudly support the Syrian revolution and the Syrian people,” Hariri told his Twitter followers.
Meanwhile, lawmakers from Hariri’s Future bloc said that Nasrallah’s speech and rare public appearance were aimed at boosting the dwindling morale of his supporters since his regional allies “are falling” and after the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which the party had strongly opposed.
“He felt that there was a need to boost the morale of his supporters after a Cabinet, which his party dominates, had financed the tribunal,” Minieh MP Ahmad Fatfat told Future News.
“What’s more important in Nasrallah’s speech was the [part] on Arab affairs,” Fatfat said. “He will clearly fight by the side of President Bashar Assad and his regime and he accuses the [Syrian] opposition of treason, which is clear interference in Syrian affairs.”
Following a rare and short public appearance Tuesday, Nasrallah said that his group was continuing to arm itself and would stand by Assad who is facing a popular uprising nearing its ninth month.
“Our forces have increased and so have our arms day after day,” Nasrallah said in a video link on the occasion of Ashura, one of the holiest occasions in Shiite Islam which marks the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad.
“This resistance and its weapons will continue to exist and your conspiracies as well as your psychological, political and intelligence wars will not destroy us,” Nasrallah told crowds at a packed stadium in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Thousands of men dressed in black applauded as Nasrallah yelled: “The resistance in Lebanon, with its weapons and mujahideen, God willing, will continue to exist. We will hold onto our arms … our weapons do not rust. They are being upgraded.”
Fatfat said that Nasrallah had torpedoed dialogue when he refused to discuss the party’s arms.
Beirut MP Serge Torsarkissian, Fatfat’s colleague in the Future bloc, commented on Nasrallah’s statement that Hezbollah’s arms would not rust.
VIA Daily Star
Hezbollah’s leader has made his first public appearance in years at a Beirut rally to mark the Muslim holy day of Ashoura.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah rarely appears in public for fear of assassination by Israel.
Tuesday’s speech was Nasrallah’s first public address since 2006. Since then, he has appeared briefly in public several times but has not made public speeches.
Nasrallah walked through a throng of people in a southern Shiite stronghold in Beirut and greeted the crowd from the podium, saying his appearance was a message to those who believe they can “threaten us.”
Ashoura marks the anniversary of the death in the seventh century of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussein.
The holy day was marked around the Shiite Muslim world, and as is often the case it was marred in Afghanistan by devastating sectarian violence.
The collapse of the 40-year-old Assad regime in Syria would radically change the politics of the Middle East, reducing the influence of Iran and its Islamist proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon, the main Syrian opposition leader in exile has said.
Syria would align itself with the Arab League and the Gulf, Syrian National Council leader Burhan Ghalioun told the Wall Street Journal in an interview in France.
“Our future is truly tied to the Arab world and the Gulf in particular,” he was quoted as saying in a WSJ transcript.
Damascus would have no special relationship with Iran and Hezbollah if President Bashar al-Assad lost power, he said.
“The current relationship between Syria and Iran is abnormal,” Ghalioun told the daily. “Syria is the centre of the Arab Orient. It cannot live outside its relationship with the Arabian Peninsula, the Gulf countries, Egypt and others.”
“There will be no special relationship with Iran. This is the core issue – the military alliance. Breaking the exceptional relationship means breaking the strategic military alliance. We do not mind economic relations.”
Syria has had close ties with Tehran since the early years of the Islamic Republic of Iran, founded in 1979.
“As our relations with Iran change, so too will our relationship with Hezbollah. Hezbollah after the fall of the Syrian regime will not be the same. Lebanon should not be used as it was used in the Assad era as an arena to settle political scores,” Ghalioun told the paper.
Ghalioun did not go into likely relations with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. He said the Council had links to the Palestine Liberation Organization, of which Hamas is not currently a member.
Regional sources told Reuters on Friday that the Iranian-backed Palestinian movement is quietly reducing its presence in its long-term Damascus headquarters as Assad’s future looks uncertain.
They said the Hamas delegation in the Syrian capital, which once numbered hundreds of exiled Palestinian officials and their relatives, had shrunk to a few dozen.
In Beirut, a Hamas representative said the group was “still committed to supporting Assad.”
VIA Reuters