BAGHDAD, March 20 — Insurgents detonated a bomb in a car with two children in it after using the children as decoys to get through a military checkpoint
KIRK SEMPLE
Published: March 21, 2007
Speaking at a news briefing at the Pentagon, Maj. Gen. Michael Barbaro, deputy director for regional operations at the Joint Staff, said American soldiers had stopped the car at the checkpoint but had allowed it to pass after seeing the two children in the back seat.
“Children in the back seat lower suspicion,” he said, according to a transcript. “We let it move through. They parked the vehicle. The adults run out and detonate it with the children in back.”
General Barbaro offered no further details.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a top American military spokesman in Baghdad, said late Tuesday that his office had no record of the bombing but that it was researching it. “I don’t know what event he’s talking about,” Colonel Garver said.
Agence France-Presse, quoting an unidentified American military official, said the incident occurred Sunday. The bombers parked the vehicle across the street from a school then ran away, leaving the children inside, the official told the news agency. The blast killed the children and three other civilians and wounded seven, the official said.
The American command on Tuesday gave its account of a disputed raid on a Shiite mosque in Baghdad late Monday that infuriated many in the Shiite community and led some to question their cooperation with the latest American-led security plan.
According to an American military statement, Iraqi soldiers stormed the mosque, in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiya in northwestern Baghdad, in search of suspected militants. About 50 people were temporarily detained during the raid, but nobody was arrested and no bomb-making materials were discovered, military officials said.
Contrary to claims made by neighbors and Shiite community leaders, the American command said its soldiers had remained outside the building during the entire operation. Past American raids of mosques have provoked bitterness among Muslims here, who resent having their sacred spaces dragged into the war.
After the raid, the joint American-Iraqi force came under attack by about 20 gunmen firing rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, according to the military statement. The Americans returned fire, the statement said, killing three people it described as insurgents.
Shiite community leaders and residents in the neighborhood of the raid gave a significantly different account. They said American forces had stormed not one but two mosques, both linked to Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American Shiite cleric.
As the soldiers entered one of the mosques they opened fire on worshipers who tried to flee, said Salah Abdul Qadir, the spokesman for the Shiite Endowment, a government organization that supervises all Shiite mosques in Iraq.
Mr. Sadr, who commands a powerful and often unruly militia, has instructed his fighters not to resist the latest security plan. At the same time, he has publicly denounced the expanded American presence in Baghdad and demanded that American troops stay out of the neighborhoods he controls.
The reaction to the raid among much of the elected Shiite leadership was muted, suggesting either that the American account held up in their view or that they were not willing to create a stir that could risk imperiling the new American-Iraqi security plan.
Fierce clashes on Tuesday near Falluja, pitting Sunni Arab tribal fighters and the Iraqi police on one side and insurgents from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia on the other, killed 32 insurgents, 10 tribesmen and 8 police officers, according to officials in the Falluja police department.
The fighting, in the contested area of Amiriya near Falluja, involved members of the Anbar Salvation Council, a federation of tribes that banded together last September to resist the Sunni jihadists of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
Hamid al-Eesouwi, the leader of one of the tribes, said in a telephone interview that the tribal federation decided to carry out its assault on the insurgents after suicide truck bombers struck in tribal territory south of Falluja on Friday using vehicles laden with chlorine gas and explosives.
A concealed bomb exploded next to an American patrol near the Jadriya Bridge in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing one American soldier, an official at the Interior Ministry said.
Three car bombs in the capital — near a mosque in the Obaydie neighborhood, in an industrial area of Sheik Omar Street and near the 14th of July Bridge, leading to the Green Zone — killed at least eight people and wounded at least 28, the ministry official said.
Mortar shells landed in the Dora neighborhood of southern Baghdad, killing at least six people and wounding 15, the official said, and 32 bodies were found in various locations around Baghdad. Gunmen assassinated Capt. Hussain Abdullah, an officer in the intelligence service of the Interior Ministry, the official said.
The body of Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam Hussein’s vice president, who was hanged before dawn on Tuesday, was flown by American helicopter to an American military base outside Tikrit. Mr. Ramadan’s body, wrapped in an Iraqi flag, was buried in the village of Awja near a marble tomb where Mr. Hussein’s body was interred after he was hanged in December. Last week the bodies of Mr. Hussein’s sons, Uday and Qusay, were unearthed and reburied outside the tomb.
Alissa J. Rubin and Iraqi employees of The New York Times in Falluja, Ramadi and Tikrit contributed reporting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/world/middleeast/21iraq.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
mercredi 21 mars 2007
mardi 20 mars 2007
Freed Hamas leader shuns terror tactics
By Joshua Mitnick in Aroura, West Bank, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:20pm GMT 17/03/2007
A prominent Hamas leader released after 15 years in Israeli jails is urging the Islamic group to abandon bus bombings and start talking to the Jewish state.
The last time Salah Arouri was free, he was a Hamas commander raising money and winning recruits for the violent militant group, on the fringe of the first Palestinian uprising.
As his first five-year sentence was extended by successive Israeli military orders, he became the voice for thousands of Palestinian inmates in talks with the Israeli prison authorities and rubbed shoulders with almost all of Hamas's jailed leaders. He was released unexpectedly last weekend, on the eve of Hamas's unity coalition agreement with Fatah which made it the senior partner in the Palestinian government.
The accord has been criticised by Israel, America and Europe for not recognising the Jewish state or committing to honour peace agreements with it, and for failing to renounce violence.
But Arouri, 40, insisted that Hamas's rise to the forefront of Palestinian politics, triggered by its election victory last year, signalled a shift away from violence in favour of political process and the attempt to establish a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He also admitted that the campaign of bomb attacks against Israeli civilians had harmed the Palestinians' cause, and expressed hope that it would end.
"We are harmed if we target civilians," he said, adding that political progress would be easier if Israel would also show restraint. "At the end of the day, the fruit of military actions is political action," he said. "All wars end with truces and negotiations."
Arouri's release was celebrated on the front pages of Palestinian newspapers. He gave a press conference and received visits from leading Palestinian figures spanning the political spectrum.
Yet the more moderate tone he now adopts towards the struggle with Israel, compared with that of some Hamas leaders, suggests a possible advantage for Israel in releasing others among its 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, whose views may have changed during their incarceration - like the former IRA and Protestant paramilitary prisoners who eventually backed political engagement in Northern Ireland.
"The development of the Islamic movement from a militarilyoriented party into a political movement is a desirable outcome," he said. "It is a natural process."
In prison Arouri learned Hebrew and took correspondence courses on Israeli politics through the Hebrew University. As he held court after his release, with male relatives and acquaintances seated around a table spread with coconut chocolate bars, he insisted that Hamas was now resigned to the de facto acceptance of peace accords reached with Israel under the leadership of the rival Fatah faction.
Hamas's leaders have refused to recognise the legitimacy of Israel or to discuss the possibility of negotiations with it, offering instead an extended truce in return for a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from all territory occupied since 1967.
In the policy guidelines of the unity government, confirmed by the Palestinian parliament yesterday, Hamas would agree only a vague reference to respecting the peace agreements with Israel negotiated under Fatah. Arouri said: "Israel is a reality, but not a legitimate reality." However, Arouri, who was consulted about the unity deal while in prison, added: "It is political participation, whether it is labelled as respect of agreements, or resolutions, or commitment to summit decisions."
Hamas has demanded the release of more than 1,000 security prisoners like Arouri in return for Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit, abducted last June at the Gaza Strip border. Israel is thought to be in indirect talks with the Islamic militants on a prisoner swap, but a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, denied that Arouri's release was connected. Returning last week to his home village of Aroura, a West Bank hamlet of 3,000, Arouri realised how much he had missed while in jail. Village elders, including his father, had died, while he had never met young relatives such as his 11-year-old niece Aya.
Some are tipping him as a shoo-in on Hamas's parliamentary slate in the next election. But Arouri admitted that more pressing was his imminent wedding to the woman who has been waiting years for his prison release. "All I can see is the near future, and that is my wedding tonight," he said. Was he nervous? "No," he replied with a grin. "In prison, you learn how to keep cool under pressure."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/18/wmid18.xml
Last Updated: 11:20pm GMT 17/03/2007
A prominent Hamas leader released after 15 years in Israeli jails is urging the Islamic group to abandon bus bombings and start talking to the Jewish state.
The last time Salah Arouri was free, he was a Hamas commander raising money and winning recruits for the violent militant group, on the fringe of the first Palestinian uprising.
As his first five-year sentence was extended by successive Israeli military orders, he became the voice for thousands of Palestinian inmates in talks with the Israeli prison authorities and rubbed shoulders with almost all of Hamas's jailed leaders. He was released unexpectedly last weekend, on the eve of Hamas's unity coalition agreement with Fatah which made it the senior partner in the Palestinian government.
The accord has been criticised by Israel, America and Europe for not recognising the Jewish state or committing to honour peace agreements with it, and for failing to renounce violence.
But Arouri, 40, insisted that Hamas's rise to the forefront of Palestinian politics, triggered by its election victory last year, signalled a shift away from violence in favour of political process and the attempt to establish a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He also admitted that the campaign of bomb attacks against Israeli civilians had harmed the Palestinians' cause, and expressed hope that it would end.
"We are harmed if we target civilians," he said, adding that political progress would be easier if Israel would also show restraint. "At the end of the day, the fruit of military actions is political action," he said. "All wars end with truces and negotiations."
Arouri's release was celebrated on the front pages of Palestinian newspapers. He gave a press conference and received visits from leading Palestinian figures spanning the political spectrum.
Yet the more moderate tone he now adopts towards the struggle with Israel, compared with that of some Hamas leaders, suggests a possible advantage for Israel in releasing others among its 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, whose views may have changed during their incarceration - like the former IRA and Protestant paramilitary prisoners who eventually backed political engagement in Northern Ireland.
"The development of the Islamic movement from a militarilyoriented party into a political movement is a desirable outcome," he said. "It is a natural process."
In prison Arouri learned Hebrew and took correspondence courses on Israeli politics through the Hebrew University. As he held court after his release, with male relatives and acquaintances seated around a table spread with coconut chocolate bars, he insisted that Hamas was now resigned to the de facto acceptance of peace accords reached with Israel under the leadership of the rival Fatah faction.
Hamas's leaders have refused to recognise the legitimacy of Israel or to discuss the possibility of negotiations with it, offering instead an extended truce in return for a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from all territory occupied since 1967.
In the policy guidelines of the unity government, confirmed by the Palestinian parliament yesterday, Hamas would agree only a vague reference to respecting the peace agreements with Israel negotiated under Fatah. Arouri said: "Israel is a reality, but not a legitimate reality." However, Arouri, who was consulted about the unity deal while in prison, added: "It is political participation, whether it is labelled as respect of agreements, or resolutions, or commitment to summit decisions."
Hamas has demanded the release of more than 1,000 security prisoners like Arouri in return for Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit, abducted last June at the Gaza Strip border. Israel is thought to be in indirect talks with the Islamic militants on a prisoner swap, but a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, denied that Arouri's release was connected. Returning last week to his home village of Aroura, a West Bank hamlet of 3,000, Arouri realised how much he had missed while in jail. Village elders, including his father, had died, while he had never met young relatives such as his 11-year-old niece Aya.
Some are tipping him as a shoo-in on Hamas's parliamentary slate in the next election. But Arouri admitted that more pressing was his imminent wedding to the woman who has been waiting years for his prison release. "All I can see is the near future, and that is my wedding tonight," he said. Was he nervous? "No," he replied with a grin. "In prison, you learn how to keep cool under pressure."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/18/wmid18.xml
lundi 19 mars 2007
Israeli TV documentary: Egyptians killed captured Israeli soldiers in 1973 war
The Associated Press
Published: March 18, 2007
JERUSALEM: Egyptians killed "dozens, if not hundreds" of captured Israeli soldiers in the 1973 Mideast war, according excerpts of an Israeli TV documentary screened Sunday, responding to charges that Israeli forces killed captured Egyptian soldiers in an earlier conflict.
Channel 10 TV showed parts of interviews with Israelis who served in the 1973 conflict, relating specific cases in which they said Egyptian forces killed soldiers who had been captured or had surrendered.
The Israeli commercial TV channel said its documentary was a response to the outcry over a different program shown earlier this month on Israeli state TV about the 1967 conflict.
Egyptian media said that the program showed that Israeli forces executed 250 captured Egyptian soldiers, sparking widespread outrage in Egypt and a crisis in relations between the two countries, which signed a peace treaty in 1978.
The documentary producer denied that his film made such an allegation. Participants said the 250 were armed Palestinian fighters killed in a battle, but senior Egyptian officials demanded an investigation.
In the 1973 war, Israeli forces were caught by surprise in a two-front lighting attack by Egyptian and Syrian armies. Thousands of Israeli soldiers on the front lines were killed, wounded or captured.
The Channel 10 documentary showed film of what it said were Israeli soldiers, their hands bound behind their backs, shot to death in the Golan Heights and the Sinai desert.
Defense correspondent Alon Ben-David concluded, "Investigations of the Egyptian army's behavior in wars against Israel will find dozens, if not hundreds, of cases of captured Israeli soldiers murdered in cold blood by their Egyptians captors."
Egyptian government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
One of the ex-soldiers, Issachar Ben-Gavriel, said he witnessed one of the incidents. He said he was one of a group of 19 Israeli soldiers who surrendered at the Suez Canal, flying white flags and raising their hands. "They (Egyptians) just shot them," he said, "11 guys."
Another Israeli who fought in the 1973 war, Eitan Mor-Gan, said he was in a group of captured soldiers who were lined up against a wall. Mor-Gan said before opening fire at them, an Egyptian officer told the soldiers, "I will kill whoever stays on the ground. Whoever manages to get up will be saved."
In another case, an ex-soldier told of a fighter in his unit who was captured alive but beaten to death during interrogation.
Ben-David said the interviews were done during a visit by the ex-soldiers to the sites of the Sinai desert battles, which have been turned into museums by the Egyptians.
Published: March 18, 2007
JERUSALEM: Egyptians killed "dozens, if not hundreds" of captured Israeli soldiers in the 1973 Mideast war, according excerpts of an Israeli TV documentary screened Sunday, responding to charges that Israeli forces killed captured Egyptian soldiers in an earlier conflict.
Channel 10 TV showed parts of interviews with Israelis who served in the 1973 conflict, relating specific cases in which they said Egyptian forces killed soldiers who had been captured or had surrendered.
The Israeli commercial TV channel said its documentary was a response to the outcry over a different program shown earlier this month on Israeli state TV about the 1967 conflict.
Egyptian media said that the program showed that Israeli forces executed 250 captured Egyptian soldiers, sparking widespread outrage in Egypt and a crisis in relations between the two countries, which signed a peace treaty in 1978.
The documentary producer denied that his film made such an allegation. Participants said the 250 were armed Palestinian fighters killed in a battle, but senior Egyptian officials demanded an investigation.
In the 1973 war, Israeli forces were caught by surprise in a two-front lighting attack by Egyptian and Syrian armies. Thousands of Israeli soldiers on the front lines were killed, wounded or captured.
The Channel 10 documentary showed film of what it said were Israeli soldiers, their hands bound behind their backs, shot to death in the Golan Heights and the Sinai desert.
Defense correspondent Alon Ben-David concluded, "Investigations of the Egyptian army's behavior in wars against Israel will find dozens, if not hundreds, of cases of captured Israeli soldiers murdered in cold blood by their Egyptians captors."
Egyptian government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
One of the ex-soldiers, Issachar Ben-Gavriel, said he witnessed one of the incidents. He said he was one of a group of 19 Israeli soldiers who surrendered at the Suez Canal, flying white flags and raising their hands. "They (Egyptians) just shot them," he said, "11 guys."
Another Israeli who fought in the 1973 war, Eitan Mor-Gan, said he was in a group of captured soldiers who were lined up against a wall. Mor-Gan said before opening fire at them, an Egyptian officer told the soldiers, "I will kill whoever stays on the ground. Whoever manages to get up will be saved."
In another case, an ex-soldier told of a fighter in his unit who was captured alive but beaten to death during interrogation.
Ben-David said the interviews were done during a visit by the ex-soldiers to the sites of the Sinai desert battles, which have been turned into museums by the Egyptians.
mardi 13 mars 2007
Dispute Halts Delivery Of Atomic Fuel to Iran
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign ServiceTuesday
March 13, 2007
MOSCOW, March 12 -- Russian officials said Monday that nuclear fuel will not be delivered to Iran this month as planned and that the September completion of a Russian-built nuclear power plant will be postponed because of an escalating dispute between the two countries.
Moscow and Tehran have been arguing for weeks over what Russia calls Iran's failure to make $25 million monthly payments on the $1 billion plant in the southern city of Bushehr. Iran insists that it has made all scheduled payments.
"It will be impossible to launch the reactor in September, and there can be no talk about supplying fuel this month," the state-owned Russian contractor Atomstroiexport said in a statement Monday.
Underlying the financial dispute appears to be increasing Russian hostility to Iran's suspected desire to build nuclear weapons and its flouting of international demands that it stop the enrichment of uranium and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The delivery of nuclear fuel would be a major boost for the Iranians. "We hope the Russians won't politicize" the delivery, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Sunday, according to news agencies. "This should be done within the next two weeks. We expect the Russians to fulfill their commitments."
The U.N. Security Council imposed limited sanctions on Iran in December after it refused to stop uranium enrichment. Iran says it has no intention of producing highly enriched uranium necessary for making nuclear weapons. Construction of the Bushehr plant was not affected by the sanctions, but Russia has in the past slowed construction as a lever to pressure Iran.
The Security Council is considering further penalties against Tehran.
"We do not need a nuclear Iran or an Iran with the potential to create them," a Russian official whose name was not disclosed told Russian news agencies Monday. "We will not play any anti-U.S. games with it, should [Iran] decide against giving any answers to the IAEA's questions. Let them answer for themselves."
The unidentified source accused Iran of abusing its good relations with Moscow. The Iranians "have done nothing to help us convince our colleagues of Tehran's consistency," the official said. "This is detrimental to us, especially to our foreign policy and our image."
Russia has been building the Bushehr nuclear plant under a contract signed in 1995, and the two countries have close economic ties. Russia has repeatedly defended Iran's right to develop a peaceful nuclear energy program and has resisted efforts by the United States and the European Union to level harsher sanctions against the country.
Iran reportedly wants to make payments in euros, not dollars, which Russia has refused to accept without renegotiating the contract. There are reports here that the contract has become unprofitable and Russia may want to extract additional financial and political concessions.
Talks broke down last week when Russian officials became angered by public statements from the head of the Iranian delegation blaming Moscow for the standoff.
Iran's central bank issued a new bank note Monday that includes a nuclear symbol, the Associated Press reported. The note shows electrons flying around a nucleus on a map of Iran.
Washington Post Foreign ServiceTuesday
March 13, 2007
MOSCOW, March 12 -- Russian officials said Monday that nuclear fuel will not be delivered to Iran this month as planned and that the September completion of a Russian-built nuclear power plant will be postponed because of an escalating dispute between the two countries.
Moscow and Tehran have been arguing for weeks over what Russia calls Iran's failure to make $25 million monthly payments on the $1 billion plant in the southern city of Bushehr. Iran insists that it has made all scheduled payments.
"It will be impossible to launch the reactor in September, and there can be no talk about supplying fuel this month," the state-owned Russian contractor Atomstroiexport said in a statement Monday.
Underlying the financial dispute appears to be increasing Russian hostility to Iran's suspected desire to build nuclear weapons and its flouting of international demands that it stop the enrichment of uranium and cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The delivery of nuclear fuel would be a major boost for the Iranians. "We hope the Russians won't politicize" the delivery, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Sunday, according to news agencies. "This should be done within the next two weeks. We expect the Russians to fulfill their commitments."
The U.N. Security Council imposed limited sanctions on Iran in December after it refused to stop uranium enrichment. Iran says it has no intention of producing highly enriched uranium necessary for making nuclear weapons. Construction of the Bushehr plant was not affected by the sanctions, but Russia has in the past slowed construction as a lever to pressure Iran.
The Security Council is considering further penalties against Tehran.
"We do not need a nuclear Iran or an Iran with the potential to create them," a Russian official whose name was not disclosed told Russian news agencies Monday. "We will not play any anti-U.S. games with it, should [Iran] decide against giving any answers to the IAEA's questions. Let them answer for themselves."
The unidentified source accused Iran of abusing its good relations with Moscow. The Iranians "have done nothing to help us convince our colleagues of Tehran's consistency," the official said. "This is detrimental to us, especially to our foreign policy and our image."
Russia has been building the Bushehr nuclear plant under a contract signed in 1995, and the two countries have close economic ties. Russia has repeatedly defended Iran's right to develop a peaceful nuclear energy program and has resisted efforts by the United States and the European Union to level harsher sanctions against the country.
Iran reportedly wants to make payments in euros, not dollars, which Russia has refused to accept without renegotiating the contract. There are reports here that the contract has become unprofitable and Russia may want to extract additional financial and political concessions.
Talks broke down last week when Russian officials became angered by public statements from the head of the Iranian delegation blaming Moscow for the standoff.
Iran's central bank issued a new bank note Monday that includes a nuclear symbol, the Associated Press reported. The note shows electrons flying around a nucleus on a map of Iran.
UN to open permanent probe on Israel
Mar. 13, 2007
By TOVAH LAZAROFF
The United Nation's Human Rights Council is expected to place Israel under permanent investigation for its "violations" of international law in the territories - until such time as it withdraws to the pre-1967 border - according to Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
Neuer added that he received that information from diplomatic sources.
It's one of at least four anti-Israel actions he expects the council to take during its fourth session, which started in Geneva on Monday and runs through April 5, Neuer told The Jerusalem Post from Geneva.
The UN body was created in June to replace the Human Rights Commission, which was scrapped because it had a faulty membership composition and repeatedly singled out Israel.
But since its inception, the 47-member body - which includes Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China - has continued to single out the Jewish State. It has issued eight anti-Israel resolutions, and none against any other nation. It has also held three special sessions on Israel.
Neuer and Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Yitzhak Levanon, said they expected this session to continue in that same pattern, although the council is also expected to discuss human rights abuses in other parts of the world, including in Darfur, Sudan.
"I'm expecting there will be some clashes concerning Israel," Levanon told the Post.
Neuer said Israel would be rapped for the Antiquities Authority's construction of an access ramp to the Temple Mount's Mughrabi Gate.
The work has been widely condemned throughout the Muslim world.
Neuer said the council would also take Israel to task for refusing entry to inquiry teams in July and in November. The first team was sent to investigate Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip following the kidnapping by Hamas of Cpl. Gilad Schalit in June.
The second team was dispatched to investigate the accidental discharge of an IDF artillery barrage that killed 19 civilians in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip in November.
Levanon said the investigators were denied entry because they were overtly biased against Israel.
The Human Rights Council is also set to hear a report compiled by UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard that compares Israeli actions in the territories to that of the former apartheid system in South Africa.
By TOVAH LAZAROFF
The United Nation's Human Rights Council is expected to place Israel under permanent investigation for its "violations" of international law in the territories - until such time as it withdraws to the pre-1967 border - according to Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
Neuer added that he received that information from diplomatic sources.
It's one of at least four anti-Israel actions he expects the council to take during its fourth session, which started in Geneva on Monday and runs through April 5, Neuer told The Jerusalem Post from Geneva.
The UN body was created in June to replace the Human Rights Commission, which was scrapped because it had a faulty membership composition and repeatedly singled out Israel.
But since its inception, the 47-member body - which includes Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China - has continued to single out the Jewish State. It has issued eight anti-Israel resolutions, and none against any other nation. It has also held three special sessions on Israel.
Neuer and Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Yitzhak Levanon, said they expected this session to continue in that same pattern, although the council is also expected to discuss human rights abuses in other parts of the world, including in Darfur, Sudan.
"I'm expecting there will be some clashes concerning Israel," Levanon told the Post.
Neuer said Israel would be rapped for the Antiquities Authority's construction of an access ramp to the Temple Mount's Mughrabi Gate.
The work has been widely condemned throughout the Muslim world.
Neuer said the council would also take Israel to task for refusing entry to inquiry teams in July and in November. The first team was sent to investigate Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip following the kidnapping by Hamas of Cpl. Gilad Schalit in June.
The second team was dispatched to investigate the accidental discharge of an IDF artillery barrage that killed 19 civilians in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip in November.
Levanon said the investigators were denied entry because they were overtly biased against Israel.
The Human Rights Council is also set to hear a report compiled by UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard that compares Israeli actions in the territories to that of the former apartheid system in South Africa.
lundi 12 mars 2007
Hezbollah keeps low profile while making `preparations'
Lebanon UN soldiers report no sign of military activity near Israeli border, but villagers north of buffer zone say Shiite militia has returned to mountains
Mar 11, 2007 04:30 AM Andrew Mills SPECIAL TO THE STARAS-SRAIRI, Lebanon
It's a 20-kilometre trip – as the missile flies – from Hafez Kirwan's house directly across the broad Marjayoun plain and into the Israeli villages of the northern Galilee.
So, he's not surprised that Hezbollah guerrillas have returned to these remote mountains that rise steeply to the north of the Litani River, beyond the jurisdiction of UN soldiers stationed in southern Lebanon, to build a new line of attack.
"We know that they're here," says Kirwan, the 42-year-old leader of this Druze village. "And they don't want us to know. It's forbidden to know."
Almost every day during last summer's war between Israel and the Shiite Muslim militia, Hezbollah fighters used the thick underbrush of these mountainsides as cover to fire missiles into Israel.
And locals say those fighters are back, in greater numbers, moving more frequently and, everyone suspects, stockpiling more weapons than ever before.
Hezbollah officials won't confirm specifics, but when questioned about the mountainside positions, they don't deny their existence.
"It's not a secret when we say that we are always preparing and that we are always ready," says Nawar Sahali, a Hezbollah member of Lebanon's parliament. "The resistance force moves in a secret way ... . We hope not to use these preparations, but we must always be aware of any Israeli aggression."
What's more, it seems the guerrillas' deployment in these mountains is unfolding without anybody stopping them.
South of the Litani River, the 13,000-strong United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon is tasked with preventing Hezbollah, or any armed militia, from operating in a 20-kilometre "buffer zone" that stretches south to the Israeli border.
But UNIFIL has no mandate north of the river. And the Lebanese army has no clear orders to interfere with Hezbollah's armed operations outside the buffer zone.
In fact, Lebanon's government still allows Hezbollah to operate as an armed militia outside the buffer zone, thanks to an unrevised clause in the Taif Agreement that ended Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
So, despite the army checkpoints along the road to As-Srairi, Hezbollah seems to be moving with impunity in these mountains.
A few kilometres down the road, Hezbollah doesn't even attempt to conceal its presence in the Shiite village of Rihan. Posters hang alongside the road, marking the spots where guerrillas battled the Israelis in the past, during the two-decade-long occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000.
Hezbollah openly says its fighters have spent the last seven months preparing for another major battle with Israel by regrouping and amassing some 33,000 missiles.
"We in the resistance have weapons, and we openly declare that we have weapons, that we are completing our preparedness for a greater and more dangerous stage," Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address last month.
What's more, the Israeli military has said in recent weeks it has intelligence that Hezbollah is continuing to smuggle Iranian-supplied weapons across the Syrian border into Lebanon.
"Clearly, Hezbollah's contingency plan is to fortify the area north of the Litani," says Saad-Ghorayeb, a Hezbollah expert and visiting fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. "But I would think that they have infiltrated south of the Litani .... They can't completely have abandoned their territory."
The Shiite villages, olive groves and sheep pastures stretching east from the Mediterranean to the mountains that form the Syrian border make up Hezbollah's heartland. And since the Israeli occupation ended seven years ago, the militia has used this territory to launch countless rocket attacks into Israel.
But since the end of last summer's war, UNIFIL troops have found barely a single Hezbollah guerrilla, missile or weapon that is poised to attack Israel. With a few exceptions, everything they've discovered in the buffer zone has been abandoned.
"The vast majority of bunkers, positions and facilities that we've come across are those which are redundant. There is no sign of maintenance," says UNIFIL spokesperson Liam McDowall. "The vast majority of explosive devices, improvised explosive devices, shells, missiles ... are inoperable."
UNIFIL says that because its white armoured vehicles and Humvees conduct some 100 patrols every day, Hezbollah has had to give up active operations in the buffer zone.
"Our job is patrol, monitor and report any violations" of the ceasefire, says Maj. Sumit Sharma of the 850-strong battalion of Indian soldiers. "We are a deterrent and no armed elements are here."
But Hezbollah fighters have become experts at avoiding UNIFIL patrols over the years. They've been digging caves, smuggling Iranian-supplied weapons through the mountains and building covert fortifications in this area for two decades now, despite the presence of the international force that has been in Lebanon since 1978.
In the years after Israel's 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon, for example, Hezbollah built an entire "underground city" of tunnels and arms caches without UNIFIL knowing anything about it, says Timur Goksel, who retired as a senior adviser to UNIFIL in 2003.
Hezbollah's Sahali claims the militia is not engaged in any armed activity or fortification construction in the UN buffer zone, but in the same breath confirms it is prepared to fight Israel again, north or south of the Litani River.
"If Israel enters south Lebanon again, we cannot stay and watch without reacting," he says. "We have to be prepared."
Andrew Mills is a Canadian journalist based in Lebanon.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/190516
Mar 11, 2007 04:30 AM Andrew Mills SPECIAL TO THE STARAS-SRAIRI, Lebanon
It's a 20-kilometre trip – as the missile flies – from Hafez Kirwan's house directly across the broad Marjayoun plain and into the Israeli villages of the northern Galilee.
So, he's not surprised that Hezbollah guerrillas have returned to these remote mountains that rise steeply to the north of the Litani River, beyond the jurisdiction of UN soldiers stationed in southern Lebanon, to build a new line of attack.
"We know that they're here," says Kirwan, the 42-year-old leader of this Druze village. "And they don't want us to know. It's forbidden to know."
Almost every day during last summer's war between Israel and the Shiite Muslim militia, Hezbollah fighters used the thick underbrush of these mountainsides as cover to fire missiles into Israel.
And locals say those fighters are back, in greater numbers, moving more frequently and, everyone suspects, stockpiling more weapons than ever before.
Hezbollah officials won't confirm specifics, but when questioned about the mountainside positions, they don't deny their existence.
"It's not a secret when we say that we are always preparing and that we are always ready," says Nawar Sahali, a Hezbollah member of Lebanon's parliament. "The resistance force moves in a secret way ... . We hope not to use these preparations, but we must always be aware of any Israeli aggression."
What's more, it seems the guerrillas' deployment in these mountains is unfolding without anybody stopping them.
South of the Litani River, the 13,000-strong United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon is tasked with preventing Hezbollah, or any armed militia, from operating in a 20-kilometre "buffer zone" that stretches south to the Israeli border.
But UNIFIL has no mandate north of the river. And the Lebanese army has no clear orders to interfere with Hezbollah's armed operations outside the buffer zone.
In fact, Lebanon's government still allows Hezbollah to operate as an armed militia outside the buffer zone, thanks to an unrevised clause in the Taif Agreement that ended Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
So, despite the army checkpoints along the road to As-Srairi, Hezbollah seems to be moving with impunity in these mountains.
A few kilometres down the road, Hezbollah doesn't even attempt to conceal its presence in the Shiite village of Rihan. Posters hang alongside the road, marking the spots where guerrillas battled the Israelis in the past, during the two-decade-long occupation of southern Lebanon, which ended in 2000.
Hezbollah openly says its fighters have spent the last seven months preparing for another major battle with Israel by regrouping and amassing some 33,000 missiles.
"We in the resistance have weapons, and we openly declare that we have weapons, that we are completing our preparedness for a greater and more dangerous stage," Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address last month.
What's more, the Israeli military has said in recent weeks it has intelligence that Hezbollah is continuing to smuggle Iranian-supplied weapons across the Syrian border into Lebanon.
"Clearly, Hezbollah's contingency plan is to fortify the area north of the Litani," says Saad-Ghorayeb, a Hezbollah expert and visiting fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. "But I would think that they have infiltrated south of the Litani .... They can't completely have abandoned their territory."
The Shiite villages, olive groves and sheep pastures stretching east from the Mediterranean to the mountains that form the Syrian border make up Hezbollah's heartland. And since the Israeli occupation ended seven years ago, the militia has used this territory to launch countless rocket attacks into Israel.
But since the end of last summer's war, UNIFIL troops have found barely a single Hezbollah guerrilla, missile or weapon that is poised to attack Israel. With a few exceptions, everything they've discovered in the buffer zone has been abandoned.
"The vast majority of bunkers, positions and facilities that we've come across are those which are redundant. There is no sign of maintenance," says UNIFIL spokesperson Liam McDowall. "The vast majority of explosive devices, improvised explosive devices, shells, missiles ... are inoperable."
UNIFIL says that because its white armoured vehicles and Humvees conduct some 100 patrols every day, Hezbollah has had to give up active operations in the buffer zone.
"Our job is patrol, monitor and report any violations" of the ceasefire, says Maj. Sumit Sharma of the 850-strong battalion of Indian soldiers. "We are a deterrent and no armed elements are here."
But Hezbollah fighters have become experts at avoiding UNIFIL patrols over the years. They've been digging caves, smuggling Iranian-supplied weapons through the mountains and building covert fortifications in this area for two decades now, despite the presence of the international force that has been in Lebanon since 1978.
In the years after Israel's 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon, for example, Hezbollah built an entire "underground city" of tunnels and arms caches without UNIFIL knowing anything about it, says Timur Goksel, who retired as a senior adviser to UNIFIL in 2003.
Hezbollah's Sahali claims the militia is not engaged in any armed activity or fortification construction in the UN buffer zone, but in the same breath confirms it is prepared to fight Israel again, north or south of the Litani River.
"If Israel enters south Lebanon again, we cannot stay and watch without reacting," he says. "We have to be prepared."
Andrew Mills is a Canadian journalist based in Lebanon.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/190516
Defector spied on Iran for years
Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv
AN Iranian general who defected to the West last month had been spying on Iran since 2003 when he was recruited on an overseas business trip, according to Iranian sources.
This weekend Brigadier General Ali Reza Asgari, 63, the former deputy defence minister, is understood to be undergoing debriefing at a Nato base in Germany after he escaped from Iran, followed by his family.
A daring getaway via Damascus was organised by western intelligence agencies after it became clear that his cover was about to be blown. Iran’s notorious secret service, the Vavak, is believed to have suspected that he was a high-level mole.
According to the Iranian sources, the escape took several months to arrange. At least 10 close members of his family had to flee the country. Asgari has two sons, a daughter and several grandchildren and it is believed that all, including his daughters-in-law, are now out of Iran. Their final destination is unknown.
Asgari is said to have carried with him documents disclosing Iran’s links to terrorists in the Middle East. It is not thought that he had details of the country’s nuclear programme.
An Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Aharonot, claimed this weekend that Mossad, Israel’s external security service, had orchestrated his defection. There is some evidence that the Mossad station in Istanbul was involved in shadowing Asgari after he arrived in Turkey via Damascus last month.
It is unclear which intelligence organisation he was spying for. “He probably was working for Mossad but believed he was working for a European intelligence agency,” said an Israeli defence source.
Asgari’s escape has provoked alarm in the Iranian regime. “Asgari is a gold mine for western intelligence,” said an Israeli defence source. “We have been following him for years, especially since the late 1980s when he was commander of the Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon.”
In 1997 he was appointed deputy defence minister in charge of internal investigations. He uncovered several cases of embezzlement in the Republican Guard that made him unpopular. He was pushed aside after President Mahmoud Ahmadine-jad came to power in 2006. The two had been rivals for many years and Asgari realised that his days were numbered.
During an overseas business trip in 2003 he is said to have met a new business partner, who turned out to be a foreign intelligence officer. “Ali Reza was a wealthy man even before 2003,” said an Iranian source. “Since 2003 he has become a very wealthy man.”
On February 7, four days after arriving in Damascus and having been assured his family was safe, Asgari boarded a flight to Istanbul. He was given a new passport and left Turkey by car - to disappear into the shadows.
From The Sunday Times
March 11, 2007
AN Iranian general who defected to the West last month had been spying on Iran since 2003 when he was recruited on an overseas business trip, according to Iranian sources.
This weekend Brigadier General Ali Reza Asgari, 63, the former deputy defence minister, is understood to be undergoing debriefing at a Nato base in Germany after he escaped from Iran, followed by his family.
A daring getaway via Damascus was organised by western intelligence agencies after it became clear that his cover was about to be blown. Iran’s notorious secret service, the Vavak, is believed to have suspected that he was a high-level mole.
According to the Iranian sources, the escape took several months to arrange. At least 10 close members of his family had to flee the country. Asgari has two sons, a daughter and several grandchildren and it is believed that all, including his daughters-in-law, are now out of Iran. Their final destination is unknown.
Asgari is said to have carried with him documents disclosing Iran’s links to terrorists in the Middle East. It is not thought that he had details of the country’s nuclear programme.
An Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Aharonot, claimed this weekend that Mossad, Israel’s external security service, had orchestrated his defection. There is some evidence that the Mossad station in Istanbul was involved in shadowing Asgari after he arrived in Turkey via Damascus last month.
It is unclear which intelligence organisation he was spying for. “He probably was working for Mossad but believed he was working for a European intelligence agency,” said an Israeli defence source.
Asgari’s escape has provoked alarm in the Iranian regime. “Asgari is a gold mine for western intelligence,” said an Israeli defence source. “We have been following him for years, especially since the late 1980s when he was commander of the Revolutionary Guard in Lebanon.”
In 1997 he was appointed deputy defence minister in charge of internal investigations. He uncovered several cases of embezzlement in the Republican Guard that made him unpopular. He was pushed aside after President Mahmoud Ahmadine-jad came to power in 2006. The two had been rivals for many years and Asgari realised that his days were numbered.
During an overseas business trip in 2003 he is said to have met a new business partner, who turned out to be a foreign intelligence officer. “Ali Reza was a wealthy man even before 2003,” said an Iranian source. “Since 2003 he has become a very wealthy man.”
On February 7, four days after arriving in Damascus and having been assured his family was safe, Asgari boarded a flight to Istanbul. He was given a new passport and left Turkey by car - to disappear into the shadows.
From The Sunday Times
March 11, 2007
vendredi 2 mars 2007
The Negotiations Hoax
By Michael A. Ledeen
Posted: Thursday, March 1, 2007
ARTICLES
National Review Online
Publication Date: March 1, 2007
Freedom Scholar Michael A. Ledeen
A great hoax is being perpetrated on the world, the hoax of negotiations as an untried method to "solve" the "Iranian problem." In fact, we have been negotiating with the mullahs ever since--indeed even before--the 1979 revolution that deposed the shah and brought to power the Islamic Fascist regime of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In the intervening 28 years, we have participated in countless face-to-face encounters, myriad "demarches" sent through diplomatic channels, and meetings--some on the fringes of international conferences--involving "unofficial" representatives of one government or the other. The lack of any tangible result is obvious, yet the chatterers, led by James Baker and Lee Hamilton, and cheered on by intellectuals, editorialists, and instant experts on Iran, act as if none of this ever happened.
The best discussion of the long, sad history of these failed negotiations is in Ken Pollack's The Persian Puzzle. Pollack was involved in many of these efforts, and firmly believed that, if only we found just the right formula, a deal could be struck. After all, the president of the Islamic Republic at the time, Mohammed Khatami, was a "reformer," and appeared to be ready to resume better, and perhaps even normal, relations with the United States. To show our good will, we not only opened a channel of communications to the highest levels of the regime, but we made no less than nine significant concessions to the Iranians. We liberalized our visa policies, expanded cultural exchanges (including permitting our wrestlers to travel to Iran to participate in the world championships), we placed the Iranians' bogeyman, the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK), on our official list of terrorist organizations, and we shamefully removed the Islamic Republic from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. We similarly removed Iran from the list of narcotrafficking governments and permitted American companies to sell food and medicine to Iranian purchasers. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright went to international talks on the future of Afghanistan in the hope she would be able to talk directly to Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi, and President Clinton himself delivered a speech in which he regretted past American actions with regard to Iran.
All this produced nothing. And, as Pollack notes, Iraqi oil was being smuggled through Iranian waters in open defiance of the embargo on Iraq. But the Clinton folks, convinced that a deal had to be possible, went even further. On March 17, 2000, Secretary Albright openly apologized to Iran.
"The United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular Prime Minister, Mohammed Mosaddeq . . . the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development . . . the United States gave sustained backing to the shah's regime . . . (which) brutally repressed political dissent...the United States must bear its fair share of responsibility for the problems that have arisen in U.S.-Iranian relations . . . aspects of U.S. policy towards Iraq during its conflict with Iran appear now to have been regrettably shortsighted . . ."
(Pollack says that the Iranians were particularly eager for an apology for the overthrow of Mossadeq, and I have myself from time to time been hectored by Iranians for this presumed malfeasance. Perhaps it shouldn't have been done, but I cannot for a moment believe that the fanatical clerics in Tehran are enraged by the removal of a progressive liberal. But I digress.)
All those gestures and concessions and giveaways got Clinton a rude awakening. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivered one of his patented diatribes: "What do you think the Iranian nation, faced with this situation and these admissions, feels? . . . what good will this admission (of supporting Saddam in the war with Iran)--that you acted in that way then--do us now? . . . An admission years after the crime was committed, while they might be committing similar crimes now, will not do the Iranian nation any good."
(By the way, in her surrender speech, Albright created another myth, which has been elevated to holy writ in the Democratic Party Bible, namely that we favored Iraq in the war. It's a pretty amazing claim, given the quantity of arms and money and intelligence we showered on Iran in an effort to ransom our hostages. But I digress again.)
Pollack thinks that if Khatami-the-reformer had had more power, or more courage, the grand bargain might have been negotiated. But Khatami was powerless; real power resided with the Supreme Leader (there is a reason for that title), and Khamenei didn't want any part of a deal with the Great Satan.
Those who still dream of the grand bargain--including those in the G.W. Bush administration who have pursued it avidly, and have gotten kicked in the same place as the Clinton pursuers--must explain to us simple souls why there is anything different today that might make a bargain with the Iranians more likely than it has been for the last 28 years. Certainly the Iranians have shown no desire for reconciliation; quite the contrary, unless you think killing Americans at a rate considerably faster than the tempo of murder in the Clinton years represents some odd form of mating dance. The Supreme Leader is the same fanatic as he was then, in terrible health to be sure, but no friendlier towards satanic negotiators. The only big change in Tehran personnel is the president. Instead of Khatami-the-Reformer we've got Ahmadinejad, Hitler's great admirer. I don't think that is an improvement.
If they were forced to answer these questions, the advocates of negotiations would resort to the hoax--we haven't tried negotiations, and it's worth a try. But the real history of U.S.-Iranian relations suggests very strongly that the only possible winners in such talks will be the mullahs. They will gain more time to organize their war against us, and to build atomic bombs.
Michael A. Ledeen is the Freedom Scholar at AEI.
http://aei.org/publications/pubID.25701,filter.all/pub_detail.asp
Posted: Thursday, March 1, 2007
ARTICLES
National Review Online
Publication Date: March 1, 2007
Freedom Scholar Michael A. Ledeen
A great hoax is being perpetrated on the world, the hoax of negotiations as an untried method to "solve" the "Iranian problem." In fact, we have been negotiating with the mullahs ever since--indeed even before--the 1979 revolution that deposed the shah and brought to power the Islamic Fascist regime of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In the intervening 28 years, we have participated in countless face-to-face encounters, myriad "demarches" sent through diplomatic channels, and meetings--some on the fringes of international conferences--involving "unofficial" representatives of one government or the other. The lack of any tangible result is obvious, yet the chatterers, led by James Baker and Lee Hamilton, and cheered on by intellectuals, editorialists, and instant experts on Iran, act as if none of this ever happened.
The best discussion of the long, sad history of these failed negotiations is in Ken Pollack's The Persian Puzzle. Pollack was involved in many of these efforts, and firmly believed that, if only we found just the right formula, a deal could be struck. After all, the president of the Islamic Republic at the time, Mohammed Khatami, was a "reformer," and appeared to be ready to resume better, and perhaps even normal, relations with the United States. To show our good will, we not only opened a channel of communications to the highest levels of the regime, but we made no less than nine significant concessions to the Iranians. We liberalized our visa policies, expanded cultural exchanges (including permitting our wrestlers to travel to Iran to participate in the world championships), we placed the Iranians' bogeyman, the Mujahedin Khalq (MEK), on our official list of terrorist organizations, and we shamefully removed the Islamic Republic from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism. We similarly removed Iran from the list of narcotrafficking governments and permitted American companies to sell food and medicine to Iranian purchasers. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright went to international talks on the future of Afghanistan in the hope she would be able to talk directly to Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi, and President Clinton himself delivered a speech in which he regretted past American actions with regard to Iran.
All this produced nothing. And, as Pollack notes, Iraqi oil was being smuggled through Iranian waters in open defiance of the embargo on Iraq. But the Clinton folks, convinced that a deal had to be possible, went even further. On March 17, 2000, Secretary Albright openly apologized to Iran.
"The United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular Prime Minister, Mohammed Mosaddeq . . . the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development . . . the United States gave sustained backing to the shah's regime . . . (which) brutally repressed political dissent...the United States must bear its fair share of responsibility for the problems that have arisen in U.S.-Iranian relations . . . aspects of U.S. policy towards Iraq during its conflict with Iran appear now to have been regrettably shortsighted . . ."
(Pollack says that the Iranians were particularly eager for an apology for the overthrow of Mossadeq, and I have myself from time to time been hectored by Iranians for this presumed malfeasance. Perhaps it shouldn't have been done, but I cannot for a moment believe that the fanatical clerics in Tehran are enraged by the removal of a progressive liberal. But I digress.)
All those gestures and concessions and giveaways got Clinton a rude awakening. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei delivered one of his patented diatribes: "What do you think the Iranian nation, faced with this situation and these admissions, feels? . . . what good will this admission (of supporting Saddam in the war with Iran)--that you acted in that way then--do us now? . . . An admission years after the crime was committed, while they might be committing similar crimes now, will not do the Iranian nation any good."
(By the way, in her surrender speech, Albright created another myth, which has been elevated to holy writ in the Democratic Party Bible, namely that we favored Iraq in the war. It's a pretty amazing claim, given the quantity of arms and money and intelligence we showered on Iran in an effort to ransom our hostages. But I digress again.)
Pollack thinks that if Khatami-the-reformer had had more power, or more courage, the grand bargain might have been negotiated. But Khatami was powerless; real power resided with the Supreme Leader (there is a reason for that title), and Khamenei didn't want any part of a deal with the Great Satan.
Those who still dream of the grand bargain--including those in the G.W. Bush administration who have pursued it avidly, and have gotten kicked in the same place as the Clinton pursuers--must explain to us simple souls why there is anything different today that might make a bargain with the Iranians more likely than it has been for the last 28 years. Certainly the Iranians have shown no desire for reconciliation; quite the contrary, unless you think killing Americans at a rate considerably faster than the tempo of murder in the Clinton years represents some odd form of mating dance. The Supreme Leader is the same fanatic as he was then, in terrible health to be sure, but no friendlier towards satanic negotiators. The only big change in Tehran personnel is the president. Instead of Khatami-the-Reformer we've got Ahmadinejad, Hitler's great admirer. I don't think that is an improvement.
If they were forced to answer these questions, the advocates of negotiations would resort to the hoax--we haven't tried negotiations, and it's worth a try. But the real history of U.S.-Iranian relations suggests very strongly that the only possible winners in such talks will be the mullahs. They will gain more time to organize their war against us, and to build atomic bombs.
Michael A. Ledeen is the Freedom Scholar at AEI.
http://aei.org/publications/pubID.25701,filter.all/pub_detail.asp
mercredi 28 février 2007
U.S. Sanctions With Teeth
By David Ignatius
Wednesday, February 28, 2007; Page A19
Everybody knows that economic sanctions don't work. Just look at the decades of fruitless pressure on Cuba. But guess what? In the recent cases of North Korea and Iran, a new variety of U.S. Treasury sanctions is having a potent effect, suggesting that the conventional wisdom may be wrong.
These new, targeted financial measures are to traditional sanctions what Super Glue is to Elmer's Glue-All. That is, they really stick. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt doesn't even like to call them sanctions, preferring the term "law enforcement measures." Explains Stuart Levey, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence: "Sanctions are scoffed at. They have a bad history."
Authority for the new sanctions, as with so many other policy weapons, comes from the USA Patriot Act, which in Section 311 authorizes Treasury to designate foreign financial institutions that are of "primary money laundering concern." Once a foreign bank is so designated, it is effectively cut off from the U.S. financial system. It can't clear dollars; it can't have transactions with U.S. financial institutions; it can't have correspondent relationships with American banks.
The new measures work thanks to the hidden power of globalization: Because all the circuits of the global financial system are inter-wired, the U.S. quarantine effectively extends to all major banks around the world. As Levey observed in a recent speech, the impact of this little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act "has been more powerful than many thought possible."
Treasury applied the new tools to North Korea in September 2005, when it put a bank in Macao called Banco Delta Asia on the blacklist. There was no legal proceeding -- just a notice in the Federal Register summarizing the evidence: Banco Delta Asia had been providing illicit financial services to North Korean government agencies and front companies for more than 20 years, according to the Treasury notice. The little Macao bank had helped the North Koreans feed counterfeit $100 bills into circulation, had laundered money from drug deals and had financed cigarette smuggling. North Korea "pays a fee to Banco Delta Asia for financial access to the banking system with little oversight or control," Treasury alleged.
Wham! The international payments window shut almost instantly on Pyongyang's pet bank. Transactions with U.S. entities stopped, but the Treasury announcement also put other countries on notice to beware of Banco Delta Asia. The Macao banking authorities, realizing that they needed the oxygen of the international financial system to survive, took regulatory action on their own and froze the bank's roughly $24 million in North Korean assets. And around Asia, banks began looking for possible links to North Korean front companies -- and shutting them down.
A similar financial squeeze is being applied to Iran. Here again, the impact has come from the way private financial institutions have reacted to public pressure from Treasury. "As banks do their risk-reward analysis, they must now take into account the very serious risk of doing business in Iran, and what the risks would be if they were found to be part of a terrorist or proliferation transaction," says Kimmitt.
Treasury began squeezing Iran last September, when it accused Bank Saderat, one of the largest government-owned banks, of financing terrorism by funneling $50 million to Hezbollah and Hamas since 2001. The Treasury order cut the bank off from any access to the U.S financial system, direct or indirect. A similar ban was imposed in January on Bank Sepah, which Treasury alleged was a key intermediary for Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization, the agency that oversees the country's ballistic missile program.
Meanwhile, top Treasury officials began visiting with bankers and finance ministers around the world, warning them to be careful about their dealings with Iranian companies that might covertly be supporting terrorism or weapons proliferation. This whispering campaign was enough to convince most big foreign banks in Europe and Japan to back away from Iran.
The new sanctions are toxic because they effectively limit a country's access to the global ATM. In that sense, they impose -- at last -- a real price on countries such as North Korea and Iran that have blithely defied U.N. resolutions on proliferation. "What's the goal?" asks Levey. "To create an internal debate about whether these policies [of defiance] make sense. And that's happening in Iran. People with business sense realize that this conduct makes it hard to continue normal business relationships."
The writer co-hosts, with Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria, PostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues athttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/postglobal. His
Wednesday, February 28, 2007; Page A19
Everybody knows that economic sanctions don't work. Just look at the decades of fruitless pressure on Cuba. But guess what? In the recent cases of North Korea and Iran, a new variety of U.S. Treasury sanctions is having a potent effect, suggesting that the conventional wisdom may be wrong.
These new, targeted financial measures are to traditional sanctions what Super Glue is to Elmer's Glue-All. That is, they really stick. Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt doesn't even like to call them sanctions, preferring the term "law enforcement measures." Explains Stuart Levey, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence: "Sanctions are scoffed at. They have a bad history."
Authority for the new sanctions, as with so many other policy weapons, comes from the USA Patriot Act, which in Section 311 authorizes Treasury to designate foreign financial institutions that are of "primary money laundering concern." Once a foreign bank is so designated, it is effectively cut off from the U.S. financial system. It can't clear dollars; it can't have transactions with U.S. financial institutions; it can't have correspondent relationships with American banks.
The new measures work thanks to the hidden power of globalization: Because all the circuits of the global financial system are inter-wired, the U.S. quarantine effectively extends to all major banks around the world. As Levey observed in a recent speech, the impact of this little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act "has been more powerful than many thought possible."
Treasury applied the new tools to North Korea in September 2005, when it put a bank in Macao called Banco Delta Asia on the blacklist. There was no legal proceeding -- just a notice in the Federal Register summarizing the evidence: Banco Delta Asia had been providing illicit financial services to North Korean government agencies and front companies for more than 20 years, according to the Treasury notice. The little Macao bank had helped the North Koreans feed counterfeit $100 bills into circulation, had laundered money from drug deals and had financed cigarette smuggling. North Korea "pays a fee to Banco Delta Asia for financial access to the banking system with little oversight or control," Treasury alleged.
Wham! The international payments window shut almost instantly on Pyongyang's pet bank. Transactions with U.S. entities stopped, but the Treasury announcement also put other countries on notice to beware of Banco Delta Asia. The Macao banking authorities, realizing that they needed the oxygen of the international financial system to survive, took regulatory action on their own and froze the bank's roughly $24 million in North Korean assets. And around Asia, banks began looking for possible links to North Korean front companies -- and shutting them down.
A similar financial squeeze is being applied to Iran. Here again, the impact has come from the way private financial institutions have reacted to public pressure from Treasury. "As banks do their risk-reward analysis, they must now take into account the very serious risk of doing business in Iran, and what the risks would be if they were found to be part of a terrorist or proliferation transaction," says Kimmitt.
Treasury began squeezing Iran last September, when it accused Bank Saderat, one of the largest government-owned banks, of financing terrorism by funneling $50 million to Hezbollah and Hamas since 2001. The Treasury order cut the bank off from any access to the U.S financial system, direct or indirect. A similar ban was imposed in January on Bank Sepah, which Treasury alleged was a key intermediary for Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization, the agency that oversees the country's ballistic missile program.
Meanwhile, top Treasury officials began visiting with bankers and finance ministers around the world, warning them to be careful about their dealings with Iranian companies that might covertly be supporting terrorism or weapons proliferation. This whispering campaign was enough to convince most big foreign banks in Europe and Japan to back away from Iran.
The new sanctions are toxic because they effectively limit a country's access to the global ATM. In that sense, they impose -- at last -- a real price on countries such as North Korea and Iran that have blithely defied U.N. resolutions on proliferation. "What's the goal?" asks Levey. "To create an internal debate about whether these policies [of defiance] make sense. And that's happening in Iran. People with business sense realize that this conduct makes it hard to continue normal business relationships."
The writer co-hosts, with Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria, PostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues athttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/postglobal. His
mardi 20 février 2007
US 'Iran attack plans' revealed
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6376639.stm
US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.
It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.
The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.
The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions.
But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran.
That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say.
Two triggers
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies.
Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran.
Long range B2 stealth bombers would drop so-called "bunker-busting" bombs in an effort to penetrate the Natanz site, which is buried some 25m (27 yards) underground.
The BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says the news that there are now two possible triggers for an attack is a concern to Iranians.
Authorities insist there is no cause for alarm but ordinary people are now becoming a little worried, she says.
Deadline
Earlier this month US officers in Iraq said they had evidence Iran was providing weapons to Iraqi Shia militias. However the most senior US military officer later cast doubt on this, saying that they only had proof that weapons "made in Iran" were being used in Iraq.
Gen Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said he did not know that the Iranian government "clearly knows or is complicit" in this.
At the time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the accusations were "excuses to prolong the stay" of US forces in Iraq.
Middle East analysts have recently voiced their fears of catastrophic consequences for any such US attack on Iran.
Britain's previous ambassador to Tehran, Sir Richard Dalton, told the BBC it would backfire badly by probably encouraging the Iranian government to develop a nuclear weapon in the long term.
Last year Iran resumed uranium enrichment - a process that can make fuel for power stations or, if greatly enriched, material for a nuclear bomb.
Tehran insists its programme is for civil use only, but Western countries suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.
The UN Security Council has called on Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium by 21 February.
If it does not, and if the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms this, the resolution says that further economic sanctions will be considered.
US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.
It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.
The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.
The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions.
But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran.
That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say.
Two triggers
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies.
Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran.
Long range B2 stealth bombers would drop so-called "bunker-busting" bombs in an effort to penetrate the Natanz site, which is buried some 25m (27 yards) underground.
The BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says the news that there are now two possible triggers for an attack is a concern to Iranians.
Authorities insist there is no cause for alarm but ordinary people are now becoming a little worried, she says.
Deadline
Earlier this month US officers in Iraq said they had evidence Iran was providing weapons to Iraqi Shia militias. However the most senior US military officer later cast doubt on this, saying that they only had proof that weapons "made in Iran" were being used in Iraq.
Gen Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said he did not know that the Iranian government "clearly knows or is complicit" in this.
At the time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the accusations were "excuses to prolong the stay" of US forces in Iraq.
Middle East analysts have recently voiced their fears of catastrophic consequences for any such US attack on Iran.
Britain's previous ambassador to Tehran, Sir Richard Dalton, told the BBC it would backfire badly by probably encouraging the Iranian government to develop a nuclear weapon in the long term.
Last year Iran resumed uranium enrichment - a process that can make fuel for power stations or, if greatly enriched, material for a nuclear bomb.
Tehran insists its programme is for civil use only, but Western countries suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.
The UN Security Council has called on Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium by 21 February.
If it does not, and if the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms this, the resolution says that further economic sanctions will be considered.
lundi 12 février 2007
Lebanon hit by black market weapons boom
by Joelle Bassoul Sat Feb 10, 4:39 PM ET
BEIRUT (AFP) - The price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle has soared in Lebanon, riding the wave of political crisis, community tension and fears of a new civil war.
It used to be 100 dollars (76 euros). Now it's more than 700 dollars.
"It's a stampede," an arms dealer who did not wish to be named told AFP.
"Those who have guns are keeping them or not selling except for a huge profit, and those who don't have them are buying so they can face any eventuality."
He said a cartridge clip that used to go for two dollars now costs 20 dollars, and "a Kalashnikov has gone from a hundred dollars to 700 or 750 dollars."
After the country's 1975-1990 civil war, militias handed in their weapons, all of them except the Shiite group Hezbollah, whose guerrillas were fighting Israeli occupation in south Lebanon.
The
United Nations as well as Lebanese officials -- have demanded that Hezbollah disarm, but it has not done so.
After the current political crisis sparked deadly Beirut street clashes last month between opposition supporters and those backing the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, "everyone is looking for guns," said a businessman close to the arms trade.
Requesting anonymity, he added that
Hezbollah, which heads the opposition movement, is not selling weapons on the local market.
The source of guns now available is twofold, the businessman said. Either they have been passed from hand to hand down the years or they were smuggled into the country, generally from
Last December, police in the north seized weapons in a raid on offices of a pro-Syrian party, which said they were left over from the 1980s "from the time of the resistance" against
Israel. But guns that have hit the market recently are brought by road from Iraq via Syria, often hidden in containers, lorries, "and even concealed inside car doors," the businessman said.
"To ensure they are not found by Syrian customs officers, only small quantities are smuggled at any one time," he added.
On February 4, Syrian officials said they had impounded an Iraqi truck transporting guns to Lebanon, and on Thursday a lorry loaded with weapons destined for Hezbollah was intercepted by security forces in east Beirut.
A UN report late last year on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 34-day summer war between Israel and Hezbollah, spoke of "information concerning arms movements on the Syrian-Lebanese border."
For the arms dealer, who uses intermediaries to buy guns from Iraq, the former Yugoslavia remains an elusive El Dorado.
"If only I could break into the market over there," he said. "I'd bring over all the Kalashnikovs and sell them in the blink of an eye."
A client's motives for buying a gun are unimportant. In Lebanon, when it comes to doing business, politics plays no part -- both smugglers and dealers have links with all parties, the businessman said.
Kalshnikovs and US-made M-16s are most highly sought after, as are handguns. "But not heavy weapons," said the businessman. "It's more difficult to bring in a cannon or rocket launcher, and demand is low."
The black market price of a rocket launcher has not risen -- it is still 300 dollars.
Patrick Haenni, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the absence of demand for heavy weapons is telling.
"It's true that there is a general tension that is leading people to arm themselves, but I don't think this indicates imminent hostilities," he said.
Haenni believes the current trend to buy guns may give rise to "localized blunders," as happened in late January when seven people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the Beirut street fighting.
"But for civil war to break out again requires a political decision, and for the moment there has not been one," he said.
BEIRUT (AFP) - The price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle has soared in Lebanon, riding the wave of political crisis, community tension and fears of a new civil war.
It used to be 100 dollars (76 euros). Now it's more than 700 dollars.
"It's a stampede," an arms dealer who did not wish to be named told AFP.
"Those who have guns are keeping them or not selling except for a huge profit, and those who don't have them are buying so they can face any eventuality."
He said a cartridge clip that used to go for two dollars now costs 20 dollars, and "a Kalashnikov has gone from a hundred dollars to 700 or 750 dollars."
After the country's 1975-1990 civil war, militias handed in their weapons, all of them except the Shiite group Hezbollah, whose guerrillas were fighting Israeli occupation in south Lebanon.
The
United Nations as well as Lebanese officials -- have demanded that Hezbollah disarm, but it has not done so.
After the current political crisis sparked deadly Beirut street clashes last month between opposition supporters and those backing the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, "everyone is looking for guns," said a businessman close to the arms trade.
Requesting anonymity, he added that
Hezbollah, which heads the opposition movement, is not selling weapons on the local market.
The source of guns now available is twofold, the businessman said. Either they have been passed from hand to hand down the years or they were smuggled into the country, generally from
Last December, police in the north seized weapons in a raid on offices of a pro-Syrian party, which said they were left over from the 1980s "from the time of the resistance" against
Israel. But guns that have hit the market recently are brought by road from Iraq via Syria, often hidden in containers, lorries, "and even concealed inside car doors," the businessman said.
"To ensure they are not found by Syrian customs officers, only small quantities are smuggled at any one time," he added.
On February 4, Syrian officials said they had impounded an Iraqi truck transporting guns to Lebanon, and on Thursday a lorry loaded with weapons destined for Hezbollah was intercepted by security forces in east Beirut.
A UN report late last year on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 34-day summer war between Israel and Hezbollah, spoke of "information concerning arms movements on the Syrian-Lebanese border."
For the arms dealer, who uses intermediaries to buy guns from Iraq, the former Yugoslavia remains an elusive El Dorado.
"If only I could break into the market over there," he said. "I'd bring over all the Kalashnikovs and sell them in the blink of an eye."
A client's motives for buying a gun are unimportant. In Lebanon, when it comes to doing business, politics plays no part -- both smugglers and dealers have links with all parties, the businessman said.
Kalshnikovs and US-made M-16s are most highly sought after, as are handguns. "But not heavy weapons," said the businessman. "It's more difficult to bring in a cannon or rocket launcher, and demand is low."
The black market price of a rocket launcher has not risen -- it is still 300 dollars.
Patrick Haenni, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the absence of demand for heavy weapons is telling.
"It's true that there is a general tension that is leading people to arm themselves, but I don't think this indicates imminent hostilities," he said.
Haenni believes the current trend to buy guns may give rise to "localized blunders," as happened in late January when seven people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the Beirut street fighting.
"But for civil war to break out again requires a political decision, and for the moment there has not been one," he said.
vendredi 9 février 2007
Hezbollah demands back seized munitions
BEIRUT (Reuters) -
Hezbollah demanded the return of a truck carrying munitions seized by Lebanese authorities on Thursday and said the supplies were heading to its fighters in south Lebanon.Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said earlier on Thursday customs authorities had stopped a truck carrying weapons on the outskirts of Beirut and had taken it to the city's port for investigation.Hezbollah said the authorities had confiscated a "truck carrying munitions to the resistance." The truck had been carrying the load from the Bekaa Valley in the east to the south, it said in a statement."The government program clearly confirms the right of the resistance ... to work to liberate the rest of the occupied land, the prisoners and to confront the Zionist threats," the statement said, demanding the return of the truck and munitions.Israel and Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, fought a war in July and August following the Lebanese group's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12.The war was halted by a U.N. Security Council resolution which authorized the deployment of thousands of U.N. troops to monitor the truce. The Lebanese army also deployed to the south under the resolution.The Lebanese government is supposed to halt the flow of weapons to Hezbollah from abroad under the resolution. A U.N. envoy and anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders have accused Syria of smuggling weapons to its allies in Lebanon in recent months.Hezbollah is part of an opposition at odds with the government. The Shi'ite Muslim group says the cabinet does the bidding of the United States and, together with its allies, is demanding veto power in government. The political standoff spilled over into armed clashes last month and nine people were killed. It was Lebanon's worst civil unrest since its 1975-1990 civil war and raised fears of a new conflict. Leaders on both sides called for calm.Hezbollah has sworn it will never use its weapons against other Lebanese. It says it needs the arms partly because of Israel's continued occupation of Shebaa Farms -- territory occupied since the 1967 Middle East war.The Shebaa Farms are claimed by Lebanon, while the United Nations says they belong to Syria. Damascus says the land belongs to Lebanon.Israeli and Lebanese soldiers exchanged fire on Wednesday after Lebanese troops shot in the air as an Israeli patrol crossed a security fence near the border to search for explosives planted by Hezbollah guerrillas. No one was hurt.
Hezbollah demanded the return of a truck carrying munitions seized by Lebanese authorities on Thursday and said the supplies were heading to its fighters in south Lebanon.Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said earlier on Thursday customs authorities had stopped a truck carrying weapons on the outskirts of Beirut and had taken it to the city's port for investigation.Hezbollah said the authorities had confiscated a "truck carrying munitions to the resistance." The truck had been carrying the load from the Bekaa Valley in the east to the south, it said in a statement."The government program clearly confirms the right of the resistance ... to work to liberate the rest of the occupied land, the prisoners and to confront the Zionist threats," the statement said, demanding the return of the truck and munitions.Israel and Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, fought a war in July and August following the Lebanese group's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12.The war was halted by a U.N. Security Council resolution which authorized the deployment of thousands of U.N. troops to monitor the truce. The Lebanese army also deployed to the south under the resolution.The Lebanese government is supposed to halt the flow of weapons to Hezbollah from abroad under the resolution. A U.N. envoy and anti-Syrian Lebanese leaders have accused Syria of smuggling weapons to its allies in Lebanon in recent months.Hezbollah is part of an opposition at odds with the government. The Shi'ite Muslim group says the cabinet does the bidding of the United States and, together with its allies, is demanding veto power in government. The political standoff spilled over into armed clashes last month and nine people were killed. It was Lebanon's worst civil unrest since its 1975-1990 civil war and raised fears of a new conflict. Leaders on both sides called for calm.Hezbollah has sworn it will never use its weapons against other Lebanese. It says it needs the arms partly because of Israel's continued occupation of Shebaa Farms -- territory occupied since the 1967 Middle East war.The Shebaa Farms are claimed by Lebanon, while the United Nations says they belong to Syria. Damascus says the land belongs to Lebanon.Israeli and Lebanese soldiers exchanged fire on Wednesday after Lebanese troops shot in the air as an Israeli patrol crossed a security fence near the border to search for explosives planted by Hezbollah guerrillas. No one was hurt.
UNIFIL confirms Israel's version: IDF troops didn't enter Lebanon
By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) accepted on Thursday Israel's version of the events that concluded in an exchange of fire between the Israel Defense Forces and the Lebanese Army at the border late Wednesday.UNIFIL patrolled the area around Israel's and Lebanon's shared border, photographed the site, and concluded that IDF troops operated entirely within Israeli territory.The Lebanese Army on Wednesday fired warning shots at IDF troops, claiming that the troops had entered Lebanese territory.
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The incident occurred north of the border fence that Israel erected several dozen meters within Israeli territory, but south of the actual international border between the two countries. UNIFIL has not yet completed the official report on the incident, however, a UNIFIL representative briefed the UN Security Council on Thursday, and confirmed Israel's version of the events.Following the discussion on the matter, the UN Security Council called for the renewal of coordination meetings between the IDF, the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL that had been customary immediately following the Israel-Hezbollah war this summer. Lebanon was not interested in the renewal of such meetings. The Security Council convened at the behest of France. The French ambassdor to the United Nations said Thursday that Paris wants the Council to discuss and react to the Wednesday night border clash."We think that the council should have an exchange of views on this issue, which is an important one," France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere told reporters. "I am just going to ask for a briefing from the secretariat."On Wednesday night, an IDF tank fired two rounds at Lebanese Army positions opposite Moshav Avivim, after Lebanese troops fired on IDF soldiers searching for Hezbollah mines beyond the border fence but inside Israeli territory. The IDF suffered no casualties, while UNIFIL reported that five Lebanese soldiers were wounded in the incident. The Lebanese Army has denied it sustained any casualties.Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Thursday denounced what he called Israel's violation of the Lebanese border, saying IDF troops crossed the internationally-recognized border line prior to the exchange of fire between the two countries' forces. The incident was the first of its kind since the aftermath of last summer's war between Hezbollah and Israel.Siniora discussed the border clash with UN envoy Geir Pedersen, telling him that his government condemned what he described as the new Israeli aggression on Lebanon's sovereignty and what he called the violation of the Blue Line, the UN-recognized border between the two countries.Liam McDowell, a spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), said the exchange was initiated by the Lebanese army and that the IDF bulldozer had crossed the border fence, but not the Blue Line, to clear mines.The border fence lies several dozen meters south of the Blue Line.Speaking to Pedersen in front of reporters, Siniora said the incursion compounded the daily violations of Lebanese sovereignty by Israeli aircraft.On Thursday morning, Israel Air Force planes flew twice over southern Lebanon.The IDF confirmed the overflights, saying that, "The incident yesterday hasn't led us to change our aerial activity."Defense Minister Amir Peretz stressed Thursday that Israel is not seeking an escalation along the border, but that the IDF would return fire when fired upon.Peretz's comments came after a special security consulatations on the situation in the north.Meeting with IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and senior military officials, Peretz said that the "Northern Command operated according to regulations and in the necessary and correct manner, in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 1701.""We have no intentions of escalation, but wherever there is fire endangering IDF forces we will have to react," he said. "UNIFIL forces and the Lebanese Army are fulfilling their roles, and we intend to continue to operate within the political and regulatory framework established in recent months."Peretz added that "there is no intention of returning to the policy of looking the other way on Lebanon."Earlier this week, four explosive devices were discovered in the area. IDF sappers detonated them from a distance. The IDF carried out yesterday's operation after informing UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army of its intentions. In response, the Lebanese Army warned the IDF that if its forces violated Lebanese sovereignty, it would open fire. The IDF said that it did not intend to cross into Lebanese territory, but if its forces were attacked, it would respond. Israel rejected Lebanese claims that it had violated Lebanese sovereignty, saying that the force was south of the international border - inside Israel - as delineated by the United Nations following the IDF pullout from southern Lebanon in May 2000. In some places, the border and the fence are several dozen meters apart.Lebanese officials said an IDF bulldozer crossed the international border and entered about 18 meters into Lebanon.A spokesman for UNIFIL, however, confirmed the exchange was initiated by the Lebanese Army after an IDF bulldozer crossed the border fence "in an apparent attempt to clear mines between the Blue Line (international border) and the fence.""We characterise this as a serious incident between the Lebanese Army and the IDF," the spokesman said.The IDF operation in the area caused grave concern on the Lebanese side, and drew the attention of the Lebanese Army. Israel imposed a local media blackout, which was lifted as soon as Hezbollah's Al-Manar went on the air with information about the operation. Al-Manar gave the operation a great deal of coverage, reporting that an Israeli armored column tried to cross into Lebanon close to Maroun al-Ras, which is across from Avivim. The report stated that UNIFIL and a Lebanese Army officer held discussions with Israel, after which Israel agreed to cancel the mission. The Lebanese News Agency reported that the Lebanese Army placed forces deployed near Maroun al-Ras on alert, fearing that the IDF planned to broaden its operation. It was also reported that IDF helicopters flew over southern Lebanon villages. The IDF Northern Command was unable to confirm whether the explosive devices had been placed recently. Hezbollah, for its part, denied Tuesday that these were new bombs, saying they had been placed before the war in July. A GOC Northern Command officer said yesterday that Hezbollah is still operating in southern Lebanon, but is keeping a low profile - its operatives avoid public displays of weapons, and wear civilian clothes. Northern Command sources report that Hezbollah is working hard to replenish its ranks, sending conscripts for training in the Beka'a, in order to make up for its losses during the war. The officer said there has been a growing presence of Islamic Jihad militants in southern Lebanon, as well as extremists affiliated with Al-Qaida and Sunni groups. These groups are seeking to challenge Hezbollah's hegemony in the area. The IDF officer said the army intends to clear all salients between the border and the fence of explosives. "Our way of thinking has changed," the officer said. "Before the war, the approach was that confrontation was bad for us, and therefore we kept away from the fence. Now the approach is that we will operate up to the Blue Line [the international border] and if the other side seeks a confrontation, it will get it," the officer said. This is not the first time the IDF has operated north of the border fence. Following the army's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000, the fence was redrawn. At several points its path was routed south of the border, as far as 100 meters in, in what the army cited as strategic considerations.In searches conducted in recent months along the fence, IDF troops have discovered Hezbollah positions and equipment which appear to have been used in the abduction of two IDF soldiers in July 2006.About two weeks ago, IDF troops destroyed two Hezbollah bunkers uncovered during searches of the area around the border fence. One of the bunkers was found during the war, and the other was uncovered last month. Both bunkers were within Israel's territory, somewhere between the international border and the border fence. The bunkers housed supplies, food and tools that would enable a long stay underground.'Syria rearming Hezbollah'Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Wednesday accused Syria of allowing the rearmament of Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and said Israel has the right to act forcefully against the Shiite militia to counter the threat.Speaking to visiting U.S. Jewish leaders, Peretz said Syria, Hezbollah's main ally, is continuing to allow weapons shipments to the group to cross its border with Lebanon."We can't under any circumstances ignore the transfer of weapons and ammunition to Hezbollah," Peretz said. "While Israel remains committed to the cease-fire we reserve the right to protect the citizens of the State of Israel and we will do this forcefully without any compromises."In Beirut, a Hezbollah official declined comment.About two weeks ago, IDF troops destroyed two Hezbollah bunkers uncovered during searches of the area around the border fence. One of the bunkers was found during the war, and the other was uncovered last month. Both bunkers were within Israel's territory, somewhere between the international border and the border fence. The bunkers housed supplies, food and tools that would enable a long stay underground.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) accepted on Thursday Israel's version of the events that concluded in an exchange of fire between the Israel Defense Forces and the Lebanese Army at the border late Wednesday.UNIFIL patrolled the area around Israel's and Lebanon's shared border, photographed the site, and concluded that IDF troops operated entirely within Israeli territory.The Lebanese Army on Wednesday fired warning shots at IDF troops, claiming that the troops had entered Lebanese territory.
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The incident occurred north of the border fence that Israel erected several dozen meters within Israeli territory, but south of the actual international border between the two countries. UNIFIL has not yet completed the official report on the incident, however, a UNIFIL representative briefed the UN Security Council on Thursday, and confirmed Israel's version of the events.Following the discussion on the matter, the UN Security Council called for the renewal of coordination meetings between the IDF, the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL that had been customary immediately following the Israel-Hezbollah war this summer. Lebanon was not interested in the renewal of such meetings. The Security Council convened at the behest of France. The French ambassdor to the United Nations said Thursday that Paris wants the Council to discuss and react to the Wednesday night border clash."We think that the council should have an exchange of views on this issue, which is an important one," France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere told reporters. "I am just going to ask for a briefing from the secretariat."On Wednesday night, an IDF tank fired two rounds at Lebanese Army positions opposite Moshav Avivim, after Lebanese troops fired on IDF soldiers searching for Hezbollah mines beyond the border fence but inside Israeli territory. The IDF suffered no casualties, while UNIFIL reported that five Lebanese soldiers were wounded in the incident. The Lebanese Army has denied it sustained any casualties.Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Thursday denounced what he called Israel's violation of the Lebanese border, saying IDF troops crossed the internationally-recognized border line prior to the exchange of fire between the two countries' forces. The incident was the first of its kind since the aftermath of last summer's war between Hezbollah and Israel.Siniora discussed the border clash with UN envoy Geir Pedersen, telling him that his government condemned what he described as the new Israeli aggression on Lebanon's sovereignty and what he called the violation of the Blue Line, the UN-recognized border between the two countries.Liam McDowell, a spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), said the exchange was initiated by the Lebanese army and that the IDF bulldozer had crossed the border fence, but not the Blue Line, to clear mines.The border fence lies several dozen meters south of the Blue Line.Speaking to Pedersen in front of reporters, Siniora said the incursion compounded the daily violations of Lebanese sovereignty by Israeli aircraft.On Thursday morning, Israel Air Force planes flew twice over southern Lebanon.The IDF confirmed the overflights, saying that, "The incident yesterday hasn't led us to change our aerial activity."Defense Minister Amir Peretz stressed Thursday that Israel is not seeking an escalation along the border, but that the IDF would return fire when fired upon.Peretz's comments came after a special security consulatations on the situation in the north.Meeting with IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz and senior military officials, Peretz said that the "Northern Command operated according to regulations and in the necessary and correct manner, in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 1701.""We have no intentions of escalation, but wherever there is fire endangering IDF forces we will have to react," he said. "UNIFIL forces and the Lebanese Army are fulfilling their roles, and we intend to continue to operate within the political and regulatory framework established in recent months."Peretz added that "there is no intention of returning to the policy of looking the other way on Lebanon."Earlier this week, four explosive devices were discovered in the area. IDF sappers detonated them from a distance. The IDF carried out yesterday's operation after informing UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army of its intentions. In response, the Lebanese Army warned the IDF that if its forces violated Lebanese sovereignty, it would open fire. The IDF said that it did not intend to cross into Lebanese territory, but if its forces were attacked, it would respond. Israel rejected Lebanese claims that it had violated Lebanese sovereignty, saying that the force was south of the international border - inside Israel - as delineated by the United Nations following the IDF pullout from southern Lebanon in May 2000. In some places, the border and the fence are several dozen meters apart.Lebanese officials said an IDF bulldozer crossed the international border and entered about 18 meters into Lebanon.A spokesman for UNIFIL, however, confirmed the exchange was initiated by the Lebanese Army after an IDF bulldozer crossed the border fence "in an apparent attempt to clear mines between the Blue Line (international border) and the fence.""We characterise this as a serious incident between the Lebanese Army and the IDF," the spokesman said.The IDF operation in the area caused grave concern on the Lebanese side, and drew the attention of the Lebanese Army. Israel imposed a local media blackout, which was lifted as soon as Hezbollah's Al-Manar went on the air with information about the operation. Al-Manar gave the operation a great deal of coverage, reporting that an Israeli armored column tried to cross into Lebanon close to Maroun al-Ras, which is across from Avivim. The report stated that UNIFIL and a Lebanese Army officer held discussions with Israel, after which Israel agreed to cancel the mission. The Lebanese News Agency reported that the Lebanese Army placed forces deployed near Maroun al-Ras on alert, fearing that the IDF planned to broaden its operation. It was also reported that IDF helicopters flew over southern Lebanon villages. The IDF Northern Command was unable to confirm whether the explosive devices had been placed recently. Hezbollah, for its part, denied Tuesday that these were new bombs, saying they had been placed before the war in July. A GOC Northern Command officer said yesterday that Hezbollah is still operating in southern Lebanon, but is keeping a low profile - its operatives avoid public displays of weapons, and wear civilian clothes. Northern Command sources report that Hezbollah is working hard to replenish its ranks, sending conscripts for training in the Beka'a, in order to make up for its losses during the war. The officer said there has been a growing presence of Islamic Jihad militants in southern Lebanon, as well as extremists affiliated with Al-Qaida and Sunni groups. These groups are seeking to challenge Hezbollah's hegemony in the area. The IDF officer said the army intends to clear all salients between the border and the fence of explosives. "Our way of thinking has changed," the officer said. "Before the war, the approach was that confrontation was bad for us, and therefore we kept away from the fence. Now the approach is that we will operate up to the Blue Line [the international border] and if the other side seeks a confrontation, it will get it," the officer said. This is not the first time the IDF has operated north of the border fence. Following the army's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000, the fence was redrawn. At several points its path was routed south of the border, as far as 100 meters in, in what the army cited as strategic considerations.In searches conducted in recent months along the fence, IDF troops have discovered Hezbollah positions and equipment which appear to have been used in the abduction of two IDF soldiers in July 2006.About two weeks ago, IDF troops destroyed two Hezbollah bunkers uncovered during searches of the area around the border fence. One of the bunkers was found during the war, and the other was uncovered last month. Both bunkers were within Israel's territory, somewhere between the international border and the border fence. The bunkers housed supplies, food and tools that would enable a long stay underground.'Syria rearming Hezbollah'Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Wednesday accused Syria of allowing the rearmament of Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and said Israel has the right to act forcefully against the Shiite militia to counter the threat.Speaking to visiting U.S. Jewish leaders, Peretz said Syria, Hezbollah's main ally, is continuing to allow weapons shipments to the group to cross its border with Lebanon."We can't under any circumstances ignore the transfer of weapons and ammunition to Hezbollah," Peretz said. "While Israel remains committed to the cease-fire we reserve the right to protect the citizens of the State of Israel and we will do this forcefully without any compromises."In Beirut, a Hezbollah official declined comment.About two weeks ago, IDF troops destroyed two Hezbollah bunkers uncovered during searches of the area around the border fence. One of the bunkers was found during the war, and the other was uncovered last month. Both bunkers were within Israel's territory, somewhere between the international border and the border fence. The bunkers housed supplies, food and tools that would enable a long stay underground.
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