Another day in the Middle East and Afghanistan

Iran Reiterates Readiness for More Talks

Iran's envoy to Moscow Seyyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi on Monday reaffirmed Tehran’s readiness to hold constructive talks with the six major world powers (P5+1), Mehr News Agency reported

RIA Novosti,

1 October, 2012

He added, however, that a precondition was that the West should abandon its hostile position toward the Islamic Republic.

“We believe that if the West stopped its hostile stance and acted in accordance with the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] there would be no problem and [Iran’s nuclear energy] issue would be resolved,” Sajjadi asid in an interview with Mehr.

Tehran has repeatedly stated its readiness for “honest and constructive” talks with the P5+1 -- Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany, he noted.

He praised Russia’s position, stressing that threatening Iran risks further complicating the situation and advocating that disputes are settled through negotiations and diplomatic means.

On Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the next round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 should start as soon as possible.

The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Syria says US and allies support terrorism

Foreign minister Walid al-Moualem tells UN General Assembly Washington and allies are arming and financing rebels.

al- Jazeera,

1 October, 2012

Syria's foreign minister Walid al-Moualem has accused the United States and its allies of supporting terrorism in his country but said his government remains open to a political settlement of its civil war.

Moualem told the UN General Assembly on Monday that his country has been facing "organised terrorism" for over a year, a reference to the countries that are backing the armed opposition in its fight against the government.

"In what context can we classify the explicit request of the United States from the armed terrorist groups not to surrender their arms as a response to amnesty decrees and decisions issued by the Syrian leadership?" Moualem asked.

"We also wonder to what extent the statements of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United States, and France that clearly induce and support terrorism in Syria with money, weapons and foreign fighters, are in line with the international responsibilities of these countries in combating terrorism."

The US and France have called for regime change in Syria while Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are widely believed to be arming rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Qatar's emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told the assembly last week that Arab countries should intervene in Syria out of "national, humanitarian, political and military duties" in the face of the UN Security Council's failure to act.

Fighting in the country has left up to 30,000 people dead, according to estimates by activists.

'Blatant interference'

Moualem said terrorism had affected "citizens, our human and scientific resources, national establishments, and also much of Syria's historic and archeological landmarks".

"The latest example of this terrorist bombing took place recently in Damascus on September 26. A terrorist group with the name 'Jabhat AI-Nosrah', one of the al-Qaeda arms, took the responsibility for this attack," he added.

Saleh Mubarak, of the opposition Syrian National Council in Turkey, said the minister used terrorism because it is a "sensitive" term in the West.

"He used al-Qaeda, he used Jihad in [such] a way to scare the West; to tell them 'it's either us or the terrorists will come.' And, of course, we know the real terrorists is nobody but the Syrian government,” Mubarak told Al Jazeera.

Moualem said that peace requires action not only by Syria but by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya and others to stop arming and financing the opposition.

He also said that calls for Assad to step down were "blatant interference" in Syrian domestic affairs.

Moualem called for political solution and Syrian-led dialogue to agree on roadmap to a more democratic country and invited the opposition to "work together to stop the shedding of Syrian blood".

"We still believe in a political solution as an essential way out of the crisis," he said.

For this to happen, he said, UN members should press for an end to the "arming, financing, harboring and training of terrorist groups".

Washington and many of its allies accuse Syria's government of mass human rights abuses in the ongoing struggle to put down the armed rebellion.

Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomy, reporting from New York, said one Security Council diplomat described the speech as "orthodox, predictable and completely out of touch with reality".

"This diplomat went on to question how the Syrian government could blame others for the refugee crisis engulfing his country when, in fact, it is the Syrian military that's arbitrarily shelling and bombing civilian areas. But, of course, the reaction to the speech depends on who you speak with," said our correspondent....

For article GO HERE

Deadly bombing in eastern Afghanistan

Suicide bomber wearing police uniform kills 14 in Khost, including at least four police and three foreign soldiers.

Al-Jazeera,

1 October, 2012

A suicide bomber wearing a police uniform has killed at least 14 people, including four police officers and three NATO soldiers, in the eastern Afghan city of Khost, ISAF and local officials say.

More than 60 other people were injured in the powerful explosion, which took place in a crowded market place, hospital officials said.

Witnesses said the target was a joint foot patrol of NATO and Afghan security forces travelling near the police headquarters on Monday. The bomber struck after the soldiers and police got out of their vehicles to walk through the market area in Khost.

"Today at around 8:30am (local time; 04:00 GMT) a suicide bomber on a motorcycle targeted a joint patrol in Khost city in a crowded area," the provincial governor's office said in a statement.

An ISAF spokesperson confirmed that three NATO service members had been killed, but that details of the incident were still unclear. The deaths take coalition fatalities to at least 347 this year.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

The dead included a NATO-contracted interpreter and six civilians, Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith reported from Kabul.

The provincial governor's office said that the commander of the local rapid reaction police force was among the dead.

Coalition spokesperson Major Adam Wojack would only confirm that three NATO service members and their translator were killed in a bombing in the east, without giving an exact location or the nationalities of the dead.

The international military alliance usually waits for individual nations to announce details on deaths. It was not immediately clear if the translator was an Afghan citizen or a foreigner, Wojack said.

The explosion came a day after NATO announced that a firefight between coalition troops and their Afghan allies killed an ISAF soldier, a civilian contractor and three Afghan army troops in circumstances that remained unclear.

That incident was initially described as a suspected "insider attack", but it was later suggested that either insurgent fire or a verbal argument between the troops led to the shooting.

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Bahraini court confirms jail terms for medics who aided protesters

Bahrain's top court confirmed the jail sentences of nine doctors for their role in last year’s pro-democracy protests, state news agency BNA reported. The medics will be imprisoned for up to five years.

RT,

1 October, 2012

On Monday, Attorney General Abdul-Rahman al-Sayed said the country’s Court of Cassation rejected all of the defendants’ appeals and upheld the verdicts, BNA said.

The nine medics were among the twenty individuals tried by a Bahraini military tribunal in September 2011. The tribunal charged the doctors with felonies for their role in the February protests, which included treating antigovernment activists wounded by security forces and reporting those injuries to foreign media. Some of the medics also participated in the protests.

The Bahraini government accused them of crimes including occupying a hospital and inciting hatred towards the country’s ruling royal family. 

 

The whole process was conducted under the ruling family's control, Khalil al-Marzooq, a member of the Bahraini opposition al-Wefaq Party, told RT.

“The whole judicial process in Bahrain is sort of dependent of the direction from the ruling family. And what happened today was headed by the ruling family members,” he said. 

 

Al-Marzooq accuses the government of applying “double standards,” saying the country's courts only pays attention to and punishes protesters, while totally ignoring killers and torturers if they have the right connections.

Bahraini political activist Saeed Shehabi calls the decision to reject the appeal “political.”

“To make them innocent would be to go against the reputation of the regime. They are saying, ‘we are here, we determine the sentences, and no one can change our mind – whether it’s the international human rights organizations or political activists,’” Shehabi told RT.

A June 2012 retrial by a civilian court resulted in the acquittal of nine of the health workers, and a reduction of sentences for nine others. Ali al-Ekri, whom the government labeled the ringleader of the doctors and nurses on trial, received a five-year sentence. The nine appealed the decision to Bahrain’s top court.

Two medics who had previously been sentenced to 15 years each did not appeal their cases, and are believed to be in hiding.

The case sparked international criticism of the Bahraini government. Several human rights groups and professional medical organizations called the sentence an unjust retaliation against people attempting to simply do their jobs amidst the crackdown on the opposition.