LIKE THE SONG GOES THERES SOMETHING IN THE AIR. I THINK IRAN AND THOSE COUNTRY DEMONIC SPIRITS CONTROLLING IRAN KNOW SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN SHORTLY BECAUSE AHMADINEJAD IS REALLY THREATENING THESE DAYS AGAIN.
Iran warns against attack on nuclear facilities By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer SEPT 21,08
TEHRAN, Iran - Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that Iran's military will break the hand of anyone targeting his country's nuclear facilities.
The president spoke during a military parade displaying various types of Iranian-made missiles, including Shahab-3 and Ghadr. Also taking part in the parade was a military truck carrying a huge banner saying Israel should be eliminated from the universe in both English and Farsi.If anyone allows himself to commit even a tiny offense against Iran's legitimate interests, borders and sacred land, our armed forces will break his hand before he pulls the trigger, Ahmadinejad said during the parade.The phrase legitimate interests is Iranian parlance for the country's nuclear program, which the West says is a cover for developing nuclear weapons. Iran, which denies the charge, already is under three sets of sanctions by the U.N. Security Council over the issue.Washington and its Western allies are pushing for quick passage of a fourth set of sanctions to underline the international community's resolve.But Ahmadinejad said Sunday that sanctions only help Iran achieve self-sufficiency.Those who once imposed sanctions, today should open their eyes and see our nation's technical achievements, he said.Both the United States and its ally Israel say they support a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with Iran but cannot rule out the military option.Today, Iran is not in a position to show softness toward its enemies, said Ahmadinejad, but added that threats made against Iran's nuclear facilities amounted to only psychological warfare.Sunday's parade commemorated the start in 1980 of Iran's ruinous eight-year war with neighboring Iraq.
Meanwhile, the official IRNA news agency reported that on the sideline of the parade, the air force chief of the Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Hossein Salami, rejected the notion that Iran had any ambitions for nuclear weapons, describing them as ineffective.Any report about Iran's intention to use nuclear weapon is a sheer lie, he said, while adding that our missiles are able to target the enemy's points in the region.
Scandal-hit Olmert to resign formally Sunday
By Jeffrey Heller SEPT 21,08
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will hand his resignation to President Shimon Peres on Sunday, Olmert's office said, but the scandal-hit leader could stay in office for weeks or months until a government is formed.Olmert, who faces criminal indictment in corruption probes, said earlier at the weekly cabinet session he was stepping down in accordance with good governance and history would judge the achievements of his administration.The ongoing political uncertainty has dimmed even further prospects of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal which the United States had hoped Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could achieve this year.In a statement, Olmert's office said he would meet Peres at the president's residence at 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. EDT) in order to hand him his letter of resignation.After Olmert does so, he will become caretaker prime minister until Israel has a new government through a coalition deal or an early election.Olmert was replaced by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as leader of the ruling Kadima party in an internal election on Wednesday, raising her chances of becoming Israel's first woman prime minister since Golda Meir in the 1970s.Peres will on Sunday hold talks with leaders of the four largest parliamentary factions -- Kadima, Labour, Likud and Shas -- before officially asking Livni to form a new government.Olmert had promised to resign once a new Kadima chief was chosen. At the cabinet session, Olmert wished Livni well, shook her hand and called on the country to support her.If Livni, Israel's chief negotiator in peace talks with the Palestinians, gets the nod from Peres to try to form a new government, she will have up to 42 days to put together a coalition.Failure to build a coalition would lead to an early parliamentary election.
Livni appeared to face an uphill battle to retain a political partnership with Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Labour Party.In a snub to Livni, Barak met opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud on Saturday to discuss the political situation.Political commentators said it appeared both men were trying to work out a deal for an early election, and by keeping Olmert on as caretaker prime minister, freeze Livni out of the top leadership spot before a national ballot.
Opinion polls predict Netanyahu would win a general election, amid speculation he would keep Barak as defense chief.(Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
Israel's Olmert announces Sunday resignation By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer SEPT 21,08
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, crippled by a series of corruption investigations, announced he would resign Sunday, clearing the way for his foreign minister to try to succeed him as Israel's next leader. The prime minister's office said Olmert would submit an official letter of resignation to President Shimon Peres later Sunday, freeing the president to formally tap Livni to try to put together a new government. Weeks ago, Olmert promised to step down after his governing Kadima Party elected a new chief to replace him.Livni, a rival of Olmert's, won that race last week by a narrow margin, but that victory did not assure her the premiership. Peres must first assign her the task of trying to cobble together a government, giving her six weeks to forge a coalition. Should she fail, parliamentary elections would be called for early 2009, a year and a half ahead of schedule.Olmert is expected to stay on as caretaker prime minister until a successor is in place.
At the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Olmert notified ministers of his intention to resign, pledging to help Livni with all my might to form a government.Livni and Olmert have had a tense working relationship since she called on him to resign in May 2007 after a government report harshly criticized his handling of the war against Lebanon the previous year. Livni also was one of the first voices to call on him to leave office this year after a key witness in a corruption case said he had given illicit payments and fancy gifts to Olmert.Polls show that in the event of a parliamentary election, Kadima would be in a tight race with the hawkish Likud Party, headed by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister.As prime minister, Livni would be expected to pursue a moderate and pragmatic course in peacemaking with the Palestinians and Syria. Netanyahu takes a tougher line in peace talks, and Israel's relations with the Arab world suffered when he was prime minister in the late 1990s.Any accords that might emerge from talks with the Palestinians and recently renewed, indirect negotiations with Syria would benefit from broad-based parliamentary backing.Over the weekend, Livni met with potential coalition partners, including two small factions that are not part of the current government, which controls 67 of parliament's 120 seats.
Neither Kadima nor its coalition partners appear eager for a new election, fearing they would be ousted from power. But the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, which could be key to building a new coalition, has already said it would not join a government willing to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians.As lead peace negotiator, Livni is committed to discussing all the outstanding issues between Israel and the Palestinians. The fate of Jerusalem, whose eastern sector the Palestinians claim for a future state, is at the core of the conflict.Kadima was founded in 2005 by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But Sharon suffered a debilitating stroke in early 2006, pushing Olmert into the leadership role.Olmert led Kadima to victory in 2006 parliamentary elections. But his term in office was troubled by a series of police investigations, Israel's inconclusive 2006 war against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and months of peace talks with the Palestinians that have yielded no breakthroughs.
The police investigations focus on Olmert's financial dealings in the years before he became prime minister. Police have recommended he be indicted on counts that include bribery and money laundering, but prosecutors have not decided whether to press charges. Olmert denies any wrongdoing.
Diplomats: Syria passes 1st test of nuclear probe By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 20, 4:38 PM ET
VIENNA, Austria - Partial results of samples from a Syrian site bombed by Israel show nothing to back up U.S. assertions that the target was a secret nuclear reactor, diplomats said Saturday. The diplomats cautioned that the results from the International Atomic Energy Agency probe are preliminary because findings of more detailed environmental tests are still outstanding.Still, two of the three who spoke to The Associated Press said that IAEA officials did not expect the results from the samples still being tested to strongly contradict the first results.All three diplomats were informed of the status of the IAEA probe but demanded anonymity because their information was confidential.Washington says that the Al Kibar site that Israel destroyed last year was a near-finished plutonium-producing reactor built with North Korean help, and that Damascus continues to hide linked facilities. Syria denies that.While allowing a small IAEA team to visit the bombed structure in a remote part of the Syrian desert earlier this year, Damascus subsequently turned down an agency request to revisit that and other suspect sites. That, and no evidence of a nuclear program from the rest of the samples, could spell the end of the investigation into the U.S. allegations.IAEA inspectors looking for unreported nuclear activity usually test for radioactivity. But in this case, their mission was more difficult.According to intelligence given to the Vienna-based agency by the U.S., Israel and a third, unidentified country, the alleged reactor was not yet completed at the time of the Sept. 6, 2007, bombing. That meant no nuclear material would have been present.So, the inspectors looked for minute quantities of graphite, which is used as a cooling element in the type of North Korean prototype that was allegedly being built. Such a reactor contains hundreds of tons of graphite, and any major explosion would have sent dust over the immediate area.
But — if they were interested in a cover-up — the Syrians would have scoured the region to bury, wash away and otherwise remove any such traces. Long before the time of the June IAEA visit to the site, it had been encased in concrete that served as the foundation of a new building erected by the Syrians.Former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security closely tracks suspect secret proliferators, said another possibility was that the Israeli bombs did not penetrate deeply enough into the building to disperse the graphite.While it is possible that none of the samples will yield traces of graphite, Albright said it was important to wait for the second batch of results, which are more sensitive and can pick up smaller quantities.
Beyond Al Kibar, the agency is also interested in going to three other locations suspected of harboring other secret nuclear activities — sites the Syrians insist are off limits because opening them up would expose military secrets.More broadly, IAEA experts want to use a follow-up visit to put questions to Syrian officials based on intelligence they have been given outlining years of extensive cooperation between the Syrians and teams of visiting North Korean nuclear officials.North Korea exploded a nuclear device in 2006. It is believed by experts to have produced enough weapons-grade plutonium to make as many as 10 nuclear bombs before agreeing to dismantle its weapons program early last year. It recently threatened to restart its nuclear reactor because of alleged U.S. failure to fulfill obligations under an international disarmament-for-aid deal.Diplomats say Syria is strenuously denying any concerted North Korean presence in the country — despite U.S. intelligence alleging that the building bombed was a reactor of the type only built by the communist state.They said Syrian officials described meetings between nuclear officials from Pyongyang and their Syrian counterparts as occasional and informal.
Israel's Olmert to start handover to Livni By Avida Landau
Sat Sep 20, 2:51 PM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A date for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's resignation has yet to be set though the leader will tell his cabinet at its weekly meeting on Sunday that he is stepping down, his spokesman said. He will announce in the cabinet that he, as prime minister, will be resigning, the spokesman, Mark Regev, said on Saturday. We have to schedule a meeting with (Israeli President Shimon) Peres for the formal resignation.When Olmert, facing possible indictment for corruption, has handed in his resignation, Peres, whose powers as head of state are largely symbolic, is expected to ask Olmert's designated successor Tzipi Livni to form a government.Beyond that, officials said they were unaware of the precise schedule for a process that will see Olmert continue as premier in a caretaker capacity until a new governing coalition can be formed -- possibly many weeks away.Livni, who hopes to become Israel's first woman leader since Golda Meir in the 1970s, narrowly won a hard-fought election on Wednesday to succeed Olmert as leader of the Kadima party. She faces a struggle to heal divisions within her own movement and to persuade smaller parties to join her in a new government.Peres can by law take 14 days to ask Livni, the foreign minister, to form a government and is likely to consult other party leaders. Peres flies out to New York on Monday to attend U.N. meetings, his office said.Livni, a 50-year-old lawyer and one-time Mossad agent, would have six weeks to try to secure a new coalition deal -- with Ehud Barak's Labor on the left and Jewish religious party Shas on the right, as well as with several smaller groups.
Should she fail -- and Kadima has only a quarter of the seats in the Knesset -- right-wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu could get his wish for an early parliamentary election, which polls indicate his Likud party would win.
MRS. CLEAN
Olmert denies wrongdoing but bowed to pressure to quit after a U.S. businessman told prosecutors he had handed Olmert cash stuffed in envelopes to fund political campaigns before he succeeded Ariel Sharon as prime minister in 2006. Police are also investigating Olmert for fraud over expense claims.He has said he will recommend Livni. Her supporters have dubbed her Mrs. Clean and say she can put an end to years of corruption scandals that some say pose a threat to the state.
However, she first must hold Kadima together in the face of disillusionment among followers of Shaul Mofaz, the former general who ran her so close in the party ballot. Mofaz, whose aides complained of voting irregularities, stayed away from a Kadima meeting on Friday and is taking time out from politics.Until Livni forms a government, Olmert plans to stay on as caretaker prime minister and pursue U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.Abbas has welcomed the rise of Livni, who has been the chief negotiator with the Palestinians for the past year. But few on either side hold out much hope of the deal on establishing a Palestinian state which U.S. President George W. Bush has set as his goal before he leaves the White House in January.(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Bush, Abbas to meet at White House next week Fri Sep 19, 6:44 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will review progress in Middle East peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas when they meet in Washington next week, the White House said on Friday. The president looks forward to discussing with President Abbas the progress made toward building Palestinian institutions and toward realizing the vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.The leaders will meet Thursday, about a week after Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni narrowly won a vote to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert who faces possible indictment and plans to resign.Olmert plans to stay on as caretaker prime minister and pursue U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Abbas until Livni forms a government.Bush is pressing for a deal on a Palestinian state before he leaves office in January, but few see a major breakthrough in the process.(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Jackie Frank)
Israel's Livni vies to unite party after leadership win by Jack Guez
Fri Sep 19, 10:46 AM ET
TEL AVIV (AFP) - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni sought on Friday to restore unity within Israel's governing Kadima party as new rifts emerged in the wake of her narrow victory in the party's leadership election. Livni met top party members to try to stress the need to close ranks as the centrist party seeks to form a new coalition government.After the meeting, Livni told journalists she wanted to form a government as soon as possible, as long as everybody acts responsibly.Livni won Wednesday's vote to replace scandal-plagued Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as party leader, but she may struggle to find enough coalition partners to command a parliamentary majority and avert early elections.She faced her first challenge hours after winning the vote with a lead of just one percentage point over her main rival, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz.Evidently disgruntled, Mofaz, a hawkish former army chief, said on Thursday he will take a break from politics in a move Israeli media called a bombshell.Senior figures in Kadima defined Mofaz's decision as crushing the party, the Maariv daily said, amid media speculation the minister could return to the right-wing opposition Likud party that he, Livni and Olmert left in 2005.
Livni, a 50-year-old former Mossad spy who has been leading the US-backed peace negotiations with the Palestinians, will have 42 days to form a new coalition if early parliamentary elections are to be avoided.At Friday's Kadima meeting, which was marked by the absence of Mofaz, Livni made it clear she hoped to maintain the current alliance with the centre-left Labour party and the religious party Shas.
There is no reason to change the set-up of the coalition, she said.Labour members have reportedly sent out mixed messages, with some demanding a renegotiation of coalition agreements and party leader Ehud Barak calling for snap elections.Barak, who is also defence minister, had previously threatened to bring down the government unless Olmert quit, but he relented when the beleaguered premier announced he would go.Likud is likely to be the main beneficiary if early elections are held. Opinion polls suggest that it would emerge as the largest party and that its leader, hawkish former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, would then be asked to try to form a government.
Netanyahu seized on Livni's narrow margin of victory in the leadership vote to demand early elections, warning that without them a new government would have no popular mandate.We should allow the millions of Israeli citizens to choose who will lead them and not leave such a vital question in the hands of a few hundred Kadima supporters, he said on Thursday.The third largest party in the outgoing coalition, Shas also set tough conditions for joining a Livni-led government.Party chairman Eli Yishai insisted Shas would not participate in any governing coalition that was prepared to negotiate the future of Jerusalem.Israel considers the city its eternal and undivided capital, including east Jerusalem which it annexed after the 1967 war and which the Palestinians demand as the capital of their promised state. The issue is among the thorniest in negotiations between the two sides that were revived at a US-hosted conference in November but which have made little tangible progress since.
But German foreign ministry spokesman Jen Ploetner said the goal of a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of the year is very ambitious.In Syria, which is engaged in indirect peace talks with Israel since May, the official media on Friday poured scorn on the Kadima election saying it was a contest in extremism. Livni won because she spent four years working for the Israeli intelligence service and because her parents were part of a group which attacked and massacred Palestinians, said the government Ath-Thawra newspaper.
Mideast deal by year-end very ambitious: Germany Fri Sep 19, 10:13 AM ET
BERLIN (AFP) - Germany believes the goal of a lasting peace settlement in the Middle East by the end of the year is very ambitious, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
As far as the timeframe goes, I think from the start it was clear that it is very ambitious to want to achieve substantial results by the end of the year, foreign ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner said.Just putting something substantial into the hands of the new US administration (taking office in January) ... would be an achievement, Ploetner told a regular government news conference.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US President George W. Bush agreed at a conference in the United States in November last year to seek a comprehensive peace deal by the end of 2008. Bush steps down in January.The spokesman added that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had congratulated Tzipi Livni on her victory in the leadership election of Israel's governing Kadima party on Wednesday to replace the embattled Olmert.Steinmeier had pushed last year for the revival of the so-called Middle East Quartet including the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union which developed a road map for peace in the region.
Second Palestinian battalion begins U.S.-funded training Thu Sep 18, 11:20 AM ET
ALLENBY BRIDGE, West Bank (Reuters) - About 500 members of a security force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas crossed into Jordan on Thursday for U.S. funded training, the second such battalion to do so. Washington wants to train the backbone of a Palestinian gendarmerie that would underpin any future state.The battalion from Abbas's National Security Force will undergo training for four months in police tactics, riot control and human rights, officials said.An official at the Israeli-controlled Allenby Bridge, between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, said the battalion crossed without incident.It is the second battalion from the NSF to undergo U.S.-funded training, part of the Bush administration's push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal this year. The other battalion returned to the West Bank in late May.The U.S. training program has fuelled tensions between Abbas's secular Fatah faction and the Hamas Islamist group, which seized control of the Gaza Strip last year.Washington provides non-lethal equipment to Abbas's forces. Arab allies provide guns and ammunition with Israeli consent.U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials assert that Hamas receives security equipment and training from Iran and other Islamist allies.The training is conducted by Jordanian police at the Jordanian International Police Training Centre near Amman.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas launched statehood talks last November with the goal of reaching a deal this year but the talks have shown little progress.Olmert, poised to step down as premier following his party's election of a new leader on Wednesday, has insisted that a Palestinian state will not be established until Abbas regains control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas and reins in militants in the West Bank, where his government is based.(Reporting by Adam Entous)
