Khamenei hails Venezuela's courageous cut in Israel ties by Farhad Pouladi – Sat Apr 4, 4:29 pm ET
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran's supreme leader Ali Khemenei hailed on Saturday as a courageous step the Venezuelan government's decision to cut ties with Tehran's archfoe Israel over the Gaza war.Venezuela expelled the Israeli ambassador in January to protest the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip that left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead.
Khamenei hailed the courageous stance taken by the Venezuelan president in cutting ties with the Zionist regime,in a meeting with the visiting Hugo Chavez, the leader's website reported.The action taken by the government of Venezuela is in reality the duty of the European nations who claim to be supporters of human rights,the Islamic republic's guide added.The comments came three days after new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the biggest threat faced by the Jewish state was the possibility of a radical regime armed with nuclear weapons,in a reference to Iran.
Khamenei also criticised the West over its approach to Iran's nuclear drive, feared by the West to be a covert programme for military purposes but claimed by Tehran as purely for peaceful.The anger shown by the world's arrogant powers is due to the fact that Iran acquiring nuclear technology is an effective action in consolidating the front of righteousness in the global arena,he said.The West knows well that we are not seeking nuclear weapons, but their anger emanates from the fact that we acquired nuclear technology without their permission,Khamenei said.At the end of Chavez's visit to Iran, during which the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on boosting banking and oil cooperation, a joint statement expressed satisfaction with developments.Both sides are pleased by the opening of a joint bank in Tehran and emphasise the opening of a joint strategic fund in Caracas as soon as possible, state television quoted part of the statement as saying.On Friday, Tehran and Caracas inaugurated a bank to finance their joint economic, industrial and mining projects projects.The Iran-Venezuela Joint Bank, based in Tehran, has an initial capital base of 200 million dollars, with each nation providing half the funds.
The Export Development Bank of Iran, which is under sanctions from the US Treasury, was tasked with creating the joint bank with the Venezuelans.The United States has also imposed sanctions on three large Iranian banks -- Mellat, Melli and Saderat -- accusing them of financing weapons proliferation.In October, the US Treasury said it had imposed sanctions on the Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI), alleging it helped with the country's nuclear programme.Iran is also under international banking sanctions over its nuclear programme.Iran and Venezuela are members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and have vowed to further strengthen ties and find common ways to cope with the global economic crisis.Both presidents emphasised joint cooperation in OPEC and more coordination among the non-OPEC oil producers in order to defend the rights of the oil exporting and importing nations, especially when it comes to determining a fair price for oil in the international market,the joint statement added. The two sides also signed a number of deals in the field of mining, agriculture, visa waiver, oil exploration, gas refinery and pharmaceutical plants.The leftist Venezuelan leader's visit to Tehran was his sixth as president and follows an Arab-South American summit in Doha.
Israeli police kill armed Arab woman in Israel Sat Apr 4, 7:54 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli security forces shot and killed an armed Arab woman on Saturday in a rare confrontation inside southern Israel, a security official said.
Police were trying to defuse a bomb strapped to her body, the security official said. Army radio reported there were no Israeli casualties in the incident.It was not immediately clear whether the woman was an Israeli Arab citizen or a Palestinian from occupied territory who had infiltrated into Israel.Israel's Ynet news Web site said the woman approached a border police base near the town of Arad in southern Israel and opened fire at the guard. Police at the base fired back, killing her, the security source told Reuters.The shooting occurred hours after Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinian gunmen near the border fence with the Gaza Strip.(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Charles Dick)
Two Gaza gunmen die in clashes with Israeli forces Sat Apr 4, 6:24 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Two Palestinian gunmen were killed on Saturday in clashes with Israeli troops along the border of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, local medics said.An army spokeswoman said the gunbattle took place when Israeli ground forces crossed several hundred metres into Gaza after identifying the gunmen approaching the heavily-guarded border fence in northern Gaza.The troops clashed with the gunmen and identified hitting at least two of them,she told AFP.Palestinian medics later recovered the bodies of two gunmen killed in the clashes, according to Muawiya Hassanein, the head of emergency services for the Gaza Strip.
It remained unclear if there more people were injured in the incident.
The clashes follow a period of relative calm in the wake of a tenuous ceasefires that Hamas and Israel declared on January 18 to end a 22-day war in the impoverished territory.
U.N. official pleads for opening of Gaza borders By Louis Charbonneau – Fri Apr 3, 3:45 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The top U.N. aid official in the Gaza Strip urged Israel on Friday to ease restrictions on the flow of goods into the conflict-torn territory, saying they were devastating for the people.It's wholly and totally inadequate, John Ging, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, said about the amount of goods Israel permits into the territory, where some 1.5 million Palestinians live.
It's having a very devastating impact on the physical circumstances and also the mindset of people on the ground,he said.Israel says it has opened Gaza's border to larger amounts of food and medicine since its December-January offensive against Hamas militants who control the Palestinian enclave and were firing rockets against Israeli towns.The war destroyed some 5,000 homes and, according to figures from a Palestinian rights group, killed over 1,400 people. Around 80 percent of Palestinians are reliant on aid.
Ging said access to goods was still a severe problem.
We need access,he said.It's the number one issue. It's the number two issue. It's the number three issue, and so on. Until we get it, there's nothing as important as solving the access issue.Israel fears opening the borders would allow Hamas to smuggle more weapons and ammunition into the territory.Ging said that all the crossing points from Israel into the Gaza Strip should be opened, and those that were currently opened in a limited way to only selected people or goods should be fully opened.In addition to restrictions on what it deems luxury goods, such as cigarettes and chocolates, Israel has blocked entry of materials such as cement and steel for rebuilding because it says they could be used for bunkers and rearming.Since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in a 2007 civil war with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction, Israel has tightened its blockade of the 30-mile (45-km) strip in an effort to weaken Hamas' hold on power.Ging said he understood the real security challenges to the operation of crossing points, such as when militants were firing rockets that could endanger people at the crossings. But he said it was not clear why they were closed at other times.Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said last month that an expansion of activity at Gaza's border crossings could be discussed once Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was captured by Hamas in 2006, is released.(Additional reporting by Claudia Parsons; Editing by Alan Elsner)
