Doc's Talk: Iran early Bird

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Iran early Bird

April 1, 2009

Diplomatic Affairs

1. Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, briefly met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific Affairs Mehdi Akhundzadeh on the sidelines of a meeting in The Hague to discuss Afghanistan. The two men agreed to stay in touch. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini also met with Akhundzadeh and told reporters that Italy expected Iran to fulfill a significant and practical role in the conference on Afghan security. Meanwhile, the Iranian Embassy in The Hague has stressed that Iran and the United States had had no contact at all on the sidelines of the conference.

2. Iran rejects Doha statement on ownership of three islands – Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hasan Qashqavi described as “baseless” claims made in the statement of the 21st meeting of the heads of Arab states in Doha regarding the three Iranian islands of the Lesser and Greater Tunbs and Abu Musa. Qashqavi said the statement was blatant interference in Iran's domestic affairs and rejected the claims. According to Qashqavi, the three islands have always been inseparable parts of Iran throughout the history. “The repetition of such obsolete and ineffective methods to invoke these baseless claims in certain Arab circles will have no effect but diverting public opinion from the main issues of the world of Islam especially the growing threats of the Zionist regime against the oppressed people of Palestine,” he said.

3. Iran – Turkmenistan - Mahdi Safari, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and special representative on Caspian Sea affairs, met (March 31) with Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov. The two discussed economic cooperation within the Caspian Sea economic cooperation committee and security issues. During the meeting, Berdymukhammedov invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to pay an official visit to Turkmenistan. Safari also held separate talks with Turkmenistan Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov and Turkmenistan’s representative on Caspian Sea affairs. Meanwhile, Kyrgyzstan's parliament speaker met with Iran's ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Mohammad Reza Sabouri, andurged parliamentary and economic developments in the Iran-Kyrgyzstan relations, also extending an invitation to his Iranian counterpart, Ali Larijani, to visit Kyrgyzstan.

Economic Affairs

4. Iran Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari in Damascus - Nozari is in the Syrian capital for a week to hold talks with his Syrian counterpart, Sufian al-Alao, on cooperation in the fields of oil and gas, gas supply to Syria and projects to establish oil refineries with Venezuela (Chavez is due in Iran later this week) and Malaysia. "Iran is rich with immense gas resources and Syria is in need of the product for its industries," Nozari said. “In order to transfer our gas to Syria, Iran would use the Turkey route".

5. Iranian company wins oil contract in India - A contract for a major project to renovate and rebuild oil rigs in India - NHRC - has been signed between the Iran Marine Engineering Company and the Oil and Natural Gas Company of India. Iran Marine Engineering Company, which faced competitors from United Arab Emirates and India in the tender, will be responsible for more than 60 percent of the project and is committed to complete work within two years. Iran Marine Engineering Company has already successfully completed two additional projects in India. (Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran Radio - March 31)

6. New Iranian car – The director-general of Iran’s national car company, Iran Khodro, has announced the pending launch of the country’s second national car, the X12. According to the director-general, the X12 will be an upgraded model of the first Iranian national car, the Samand, which was a success in other countries too, such as Russia. The X12 is expected to be popular among both Iranians and foreign customers from the point of view of looks, safety and price.

7. Information Technology – According to Iranian IT experts, the 50-percent cut in the budget of the National Information Technology Company will lead to the suspension of many of the current projects in the field, including national projects for which the company is responsible.

8. Regulations on foreign banks in Iran – Iran’s cabinet has approved regulations concerning the establishment of branches of foreign banks in the country. The move comes with the aim of encouraging foreign capital investments and expanding the field of banking in Iran. According to the regulations, any foreign bank that has existed for at least five years will be able to set up a branch in Iran and conduct banking operations in keeping with the regulations. One of the regulations requires branches to have a starting equity of at least five million euros.

9. Iranian currency – The Iranian Central Bank has announced an end to the printing of 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 rial notes, which will be replaced with coins of similar values. The move comes to save the costs involved in the printing of the notes.

Human Rights, Religion and Social Affairs

10. Open letter to President Barack Obama - Following Obama'sNorooz message to Islamic Republic leaders, an Iranian dissident wrote an open letter to the U.S. leader: “President Obama, your Norooz message to Islamic Republic leaders is loud and clear. Unfortunately, it might not be as effective as you would like it to be. You should have been informed that the leaders of the Islamic Republic care less about Norooz, (E) and Norooz greetings… In fact, you should have been informed that the Islamic regime has stated that Norooz must be replaced by an Islamic holy day. The only reason this agenda is not fulfilled is because of the great resistance of the Iranian people… Mr. President, leaders in the Islamic Republic denounce everything that has to do with Iranian origin… Mr. President, I would like to suggest that you read the Norooz greeting of President Shimon Peres to the Iranian people… Such a message brings us hope in the dark… Mr. President, lastly, I’d like to point out that the people of Iran are called just that. There is no such thing as the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The people of Iran will fight for democracy and freedom regardless of your policies. We don’t expect much from you and your administration but we hope that you acquire some basic information about Iran regardless of the agenda you are about to pursue. A good start would be to recognize the fact that Iranian people and the Islamic Republic are two different entities. Respectfully, Mani Aryamand.”

11. Prosecutor visits notorious Evin prison – Iran’s general prosecutor, Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, paid a surprise visit to Evin prison, where he was given a tour of the facility’s various wings and a first-hand view of the condition of the prisoners. Meanwhile, the 10 women’s rights activists who were arrested last week have been released on bail. The court, however, refused to release two central activists in the One Million Signatures campaign for equal rights for women, Hadija Makadem and Mahbouba Karami, who remain in detention at the Evin facility.

12. Fear for life of political prisoner – Human rights activists have expressed grave concerns regarding the situation of political prisoner Ramin Sadaki, who is being held at the Intelligence Ministry’s detention facility in the city of Ardabil. According to the activists, Sadaki has been subjected to severe torture and his life is in danger.

13. Kurdish-minority prisoner in solitary confinement – Hadi Amini, a Kurdish-minority political prisoner, was placed in solitary confinement yesterday at the Mahabad prison. Amini has been in detention for a year on charges of collaborating with Kurdish political parties. He has lost the use of both his arms following torture he underwent when initially arrested. Amini also went on a hunger strike for 40 days to protest his detention conditions.

14. Tight Internet supervision – More on the arrest of members of the largest network for the distribution of “immoral material” on the Internet in Iran: Over a week ago, intelligence forces from the IRGC arrested members of a network responsible for distributing anti-religious, anti-cultural, immoral and anti-regime material over the Internet. According to the IRGC, the network was sponsored by the security services of foreign countries and was part of a plot to spark a quiet revolution in Iran. The Conservative-affiliated Fars news agency is carrying extensive excerpts from the confessions of the suspects, claiming that the statements shed light on the objectives and plots of the members of the network.

15. Cellular telephones – In a letter to the Iranian intelligence minister, General Prosecutor Dorri-Najafabadi has called for tighter supervision over multimedia messaging services on cellular telephones, urging that access to them be available only if the true identity of the user can be verified so as to prevent “social and moral problems”.

16. Drug smugglers arrested – Iranian Interior Forces have arrested members of a drug smuggling ring in South Tehran.

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

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