UPDATED: 09:50, February 17, 2007
Lebanese President says ready to help form national unity gov't
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud asserted on Friday readiness to contribute to any solution that will bring real national unity government which in return will help bring back political and national balance to the country.
A statement issued by the Presidential media office said Lahoud encouraged any meeting that will help end the crisis between the government and opposition.
The Lebanese president expressed sadness to innocent victims who lost their lives in the two tragic bomb explosions last Tuesday.
Lahoud called on all parties involved to increase efforts in finding out the perpetrators of the two explosions.
Lebanese opposition alliance launched an open-ended sit-in in downtown Beirut on Dec. 1 last year to topple Premier Fouad Seniora's government, declaring the anti-Syrian cabinet illegitimate and demanding early parliamentary elections and a new electoral law.
The Seniora government, backed by the March 14 parliamentary majority coalition, had rejected such calls and accused the Hezbollah-led protest of trying to obstruct the creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri and related crimes.
Source: Xinhua
20 Febrero 2007
Iran's Revolutionary Guards send message with war games
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps launched three days of war games on Monday with a series of missile tests aimed at improving the country's defensive capabilities. The "Power Maneuver" exercises, involving 3,000 units of the elite force in 16 of Iran's 30 provinces, come at a time of mounting tension with the United States over Iran's nuclear program and allegations that it is arming militias in Iraq.
State television said the exercise is the biggest since March 2006. The broadcast said 20 brigades, or an estimated 60,000 troops, are participating in the maneuvers.
"All weapons possessed by the Guards' ground force … including new weapons, will be tested during the war games," General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, commander of the Guards' ground force, was quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying Monday.The Revolutionary Guards is an elite military corps with more than 200,000 members and its own naval and air forces.
It is independent of the regular armed forces and controlled directly by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
It oversees vital interests such as oil and natural gas installations and the nation's missile arsenal.
"With the firing of short-, medium- and long-range missiles by the Revolutionary Guards, Power Maneuver has started," the state news agency IRNA reported.
It is the latest show of force by Iran's elite military in the face of Washington's increasingly tough rhetoric, although US officials have been at pains to deny speculation of a planned military strike.
Vice Admiral Patrick Walsh, commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command and 5th Fleet, told reporters at the US Navy base in Manama, Bahrain that the US was keeping a close eye on the military exercises in Iran.
IRNA said a total of 750 missiles and canon munitions would be fired during the exercises, being staged less than two weeks after similar maneuvers by the Guards' air force and naval units in the Gulf.
Exercise spokesman General Nilforoushan told state television the war games were aimed at "upgrading the capabilities and readiness of defense of the military forces as well as the deployment of munitions and forces in the early hours of a war."
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"We will also carry out offensive exercises with anti-helicopter and anti-aircraft weapons," said the spokesman, whose first name was not given.
"Once, having military weapons with a range of up to 50 kilometers was our ideal. But the Guards now have access to rockets and missiles of a range of more than 200 kilometers," said Nilforoushan.
He told the Fars news agency later that the armed forces had successfully tested a laser-guided anti-tank missile that can be launched by a Russian-designed T-72 tank.
Brigadier General Abbas Khani, the commander of an artillery and missile unit, said Fajr 3 and 5 and Zelzal missiles would be test-fired.
Zelzal (Quake) has a range of 100-400 kilometers. The Fajr 5 (Dawn) can hit a target about 70 kilometers away, while the Fajr 3 has a slightly shorter range.
The Guards earlier this month staged naval and air maneuvers during which they said they successfully test-fired a land-to-sea cruise missile capable of hitting warships in the Gulf and as far as the northern Indian Ocean.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, a charge denied by Tehran, which insists its atomic program is peaceful in nature.
Although Washington has said it wants the long-running standoff resolved through diplomacy, it has never ruled out military action to thwart Iran's atomic drive.
Iran is facing a deadline this week set by the UN Security Council to halt uranium enrichment, a process which can make nuclear fuel or the core of an atom bomb.
US President George W. Bush has ordered a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf and US forces have stepped up raids in Iraq on networks supplying Iranian arms to Iraqi militias.
US officials said this month that Iranian forces were supplying Shiite militias with sophisticated bombs and training, claims some analysts said appeared timed to step up pressure on Iran as a confrontation over its nuclear program is reaching a critical stage. - Agencies
20 Febrero 2007
ANALYSIS: The summit - a slap in the face to the Palestinians
By Avi Issacharoff
One of the senior Palestinian Authority officials at Monday's summit sounded upbeat. "The Americans did not raise a white flag and the political horizon is still there. Olmert may reject the unity government but does not reject negotiations with the PLO chairman, Mahmoud Abbas," the senior official told Haaretz.
However, it's hard to tell on what concrete facts the Palestinian official is basing his assessment. Several hours after the meeting, Al-Ayam, a Palestinian daily, published an interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in which she said that there is no certainty that a Palestinian state would emerge during the tenure of President George W. Bush.
For many in the Palestinian camp this statement was regarded as a slap in the face for Abbas, and raised much concern about the future of negotiations. This was proof to them that the American administration was giving up on the two-state vision and on efforts to reach a final status agreement. The summit also appeared to have been forced. On the eve of the summit, Rice tried to downplay expectations. S., a Palestinian journalist from Ramallah, commented on the Secretary's visit with an Arab idiom - "you left the same way you came over," or in other words, Rice's visit was unnecessary.
Rice promised to return and that the American efforts to renew the negotiations would continue, but for most in the Palestinian leadership this was merely keeping up appearances. In their view, the Americans were going through the motions to appease the Arab world in order to receive support in Iraq, and to appease the European Union so that the Quartet's unity would continue.
And yet, the prevalent approach in Abbas' circle is that the unity government must be formed. Abbas has a new ally - Ismail Haniyeh. Immediately after Monday's summit Abbas even bothered to update Haniyeh on its outcome.
Olmert's statements and Rice's insinuations that there would be no cooperation with the new Palestinian government is less critical than the need to avoid a civil war. The chairman's men insist that once the government is formed, Salam Fayad would be Finance Minister, Ziyad abu-Amar foreign minister, and Hamas would not have a majority - leaving Israel and the U.S. in a much more difficult position in their attempts to persuade the European Union to uphold its economic boycott against the Palestinians.
In Abbas' view, the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit and observing the cease fire would also bring Israel to agree to renew negotiations. "What's your alternative?" asks the senior Palestinian official.
"Let's say Olmert refused to talk to the Rais (chairman Abbas) because he formed a unity government. Then what? Will the Palestinians turn Zionist? A unity government is also your preferable option, because a Palestinian civil war will not generate peace and security for the Israelis."
20 Febrero 2007
