NATO is a real threat to Russia: Iranian ambassador

TEHRAN - The Iranian ambassador to Moscow has said that efforts to make it appear that the Islamic Republic is a threat to Russia do not help reduce the real threat posed to the country by NATO.   

Ambassador Mohammad Reza Sajjadi made the remarks during a recent interview with RosBusinessConsulting, which is a Russian information agency, in response to the remarks by Army General Nikolai Makarov, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, about NATO’s plan to establish a shield against ballistic missiles in Europe. 

In an interview with the RT network on April 25, Makarov was asked if there is a growing nuclear threat from Iran and North Korea, and replied, “The threat is always there.” 

The Russian official added, “We conducted a joint assessment with our U.S. counterparts, which proved that this threat is a realistic one.”  

“The very fact that we agreed to produce a joint anti-missile system implies that we recognize that the threat is there,” Makarov stated. 

Ambassador Sajjadi, according to the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency, said, “I am so sorry that the real threat to Russia’s security by NATO is being compared with such a fake threat.”  

Makarov’s remarks were “a matter of surprise” to Iran, he stated, adding, “Portraying Iran, which is a friend of Russia, as an enemy does not help reduce NATO’s threat to it.” 

Geelani asks people to offer funeral prayers in absentia for Osama bin Laden

Srinagar, 5 May: Chairman of Kashmir based Hurriyat Conference-APHC  has urged Imams and people to hold funeral prayers in absentia for Sheikh Osama bin Laden after Friday prayers tomorrow afternoon, a APHC spokesman said in a statement.
 

Meanwhile, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant outfit has paid rich tributes to its slain commanders including Gazi Naseeb-ud-Din on their anniversaries. In and emailed statement a spokesman of Hizb said, “An obituary meeting of Hizb Command Council was held in Muzafferabad under the chairmanship of Syed Salah-ud Din where glowing tributes were paid to Gazi Naseeb-ud-Din, Engineer Firdous Kirmani, Commander Manzoor Khan alias MK and Abdul Majeed Wani alias Gazi Illyas on their 14 martyrdom anniversary.”
 

The Hizb commanders were killed allegedly in custody after their arrest on March 6, 1997. “The commanders were martyred in custody after they refused to divulge secrets of the organization. They were given third degree torture,” he alleged.

A Canadian newspaper, which reported the Hizb link to the house, said Pakistan was hushing up the issue of ownership of the place.

Quoting an unnamed police source in Pakistan, Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail reported that the mansion where bin Laden lived belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen. "But the authorities have asked us not to share any information about the exact ownership," the paper said.

Land-registry officials in Abbottabad were summoned to a meeting on Tuesday and urged to keep quiet. "They are being instructed not to say anything about the land-ownership issue."

American officials have described the owners as 'brothers', and neighbours recalled seeing a pair of men, possibly ethnic Pashtuns from the rugged western frontier, who largely kept to themselves. Their names were reported in the local media as Bada Khan and Chota Khan.

A Pakistani official said the mystery surrounding the two men has deepened with the discovery that their national identity cards were fake. Demands grew louder on Tuesday for an investigation that would determine what support bin Laden received inside Pakistan.

Hizb, the biggest Cashmerian group in J&K, has a large local component of young Cashmiris. It was formed in 1990, at the initiative of the  Jamaat-e-Islami by merging nearly a dozen small  organisations of J&K and Pakistan-administered Kashmir-PAK. The outfit headed by Syed Salahuddin has several camps across the LOC in PK.

If the ownership is traced to Hizbul Mujahideen, it would mark an unusual example of co-operation between the militant group and its more extreme cousin, Al-Qaeda, the report said. HM has maintained a narrow focus on removing Indian forces from Kashmir, while al-Qaeda pursues global ambitions.

"This is the first time I've heard of links between Hizbul Mujahedeen and Osama, but its members would probably admire him," Stratfor's South Asia regional director Kamran Bokhari said.

Like other groups fighting Indian troops in the borderlands, HM's membership has never been rounded up by Pakistani forces, said the report, noting that some analysts say that Islamabad covertly supports the group.

Pakistan has denied any collusion with Cashmerian groups, saying that its leading intelligence service had been sharing information with US counterparts since 2009 about the compound where bin Laden was found.

Still, in the wake of the raid, Islamabad scrambled to ensure that precise ownership of the compound would not become public knowledge, and any link to HM would deepen Pakistan's embarrassment over bin Laden's death.

According to media reports, Hizbul Mujahideen, a cashmirian active in disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir, owns the mansion that sheltered Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.

Beijing, Islamabad reject reports : Chinese Troops In PaK?

Beijing/Islamabad, Apr 7: China and Pakistan Thursday dismissed as “baseless” reports about the presence of Chinese troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan-administered Azad Jammu and Kashmir (APaK).

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei told a media briefing in Beijing that “the reports are baseless and ridiculous.” In Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesperson Tehmina Janjua told a weekly news briefing that there was no basis for the reports.

“This is the most absurd piece of information I have heard. It is totally baseless,” she said. Janjua was responding to a question about India’s External Affairs Ministry seeking a report from the Defense Ministry about the presence of Chinese soldiers along the LoC.

The media reports had quoted Northern Command chief Lt Gen K T Parnaik as saying that Chinese troops were present along the LoC and posed a military challenge to India. He had also expressed concern over the presence of Chinese military in the region as “too close for comfort”.

Parnaik had said: “Chinese presence in Gilgit-Baltistan and the Northern Areas is increasing steadily.
There are many people who are concerned about the fact that if there was to be hostility between us and Pakistan, what would be the complicity of Chinese.”

“Not only they are in the neighborhood but the fact that they are actually present and stationed along the LoC,” Parnaik said addressing a seminar in Jammu last week.

In New Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs has sought a report from Defense Ministry on the issue.
This is not the first time China has dismissed such reports.

Last year, China officially clarified to India that some of its personnel were present in Azad Jammy and Kashmir  to render flood relief assistance amid reports in the American media about the presence of large number of Chinese troops in Gilgit-Baltistan areas.

India has also time and again conveyed its concerns over the presence of Chinese personnel working in different projects in AJK as it was a disputed territory.

The issue reportedly figured during the last December visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to New Delhi. Fresh Indian concerns over the issue and the reported observations of the top Indian General comes ahead of the scheduled bi-lateral meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) summit at the Chinese resort of Sanya on April 13-14.

Kashmiri leaders plan visit to China, IRAN

Srinagar, Nov 21: Encouraged by China and Iran’s recent stand on Kashmir, both factions of Hurriyat Conference are planning to visit the two countries to mobilize their ‘permanent’ diplomatic support towards resolution of the Kashmir issue.

As part of the process, the chairmen of the two factions will meet the envoys of the two countries during their scheduled visits to New Delhi in coming days.

“A visit to Iran and China will not only strengthen our movement on diplomatic front but will help us to garner more international support for resolution of Kashmir issue. Like Pakistan, we have to garner support from these countries to pressurise India to resolve the Kashmir issue amicably and according to UN resolutions,” Hurriyat (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani told Rising Kashmir.

He said during his planned visit to New Delhi he would be meeting the envoys of China and Iran. “I would meet the ambassadors of the two countries to formulate a proper mechanism for a formal visit,” Geelani said adding, “A permanent support for the implementation of UN resolutions will strengthen our long-pending demand for Right to Self Determination to allow Kashmiris to determine their fate”.

He, however, said any visit to these countries will be subject to the issuance of travel documents by the Indian authorities.

The Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also said that his conglomerate is working on diplomatic front for such a visit. “International support for Kashmir is must and we will surely visit these countries whenever such an opportunity comes. We are working on such things and as a first step we would be meeting the envoys of China and Iran during my scheduled visit to Indian capital in the coming weeks,” Mirwaiz said.

He said China’s stand on Kashmir has always been encouraging and the recent statement by Iranian spiritual leader on Kashmir is a beginning of support building process on international level for resolution of Kashmir issue. “To garner the support permanently, visits to these countries is necessary and must,” he said.

The Hurriyat (M) chairman said the senior conglomerate leader Aga Syed Hassan has been frequently visiting Iran, apprising its leaders about the Kashmir situation and its implications on the peace and stability of the region.

He said he has a standing invitation from a Chinese NGO and plans to visit Iran as well in the near future.

IRAN to US: It’s No Pride to Possess 5,000 Bombs!

New York, 23 October: Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has again stole the limelight when he warned that passing tougher UN sanctions against Iran would shut off all chances for diplomatic engagement between Iran and the United States and would not prevent Iran from pursuing its nuclear program. Speaking at a news conference in New York on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad added that it was “no pride” to the US to confess of possessing 5000 bombs.
 
“Experience has proven that sanctions cannot stop the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad told reporters at a hotel across from UN headquarters, where a month-long nuclear treaty conference was in its second day. “While we do not welcome sanctions, we do not fear them either,” he said. “It seems to us that the structure of the Security Council is undemocratic and unjust, and is unable to bring about security. ... This Security Council will completely lose its legitimacy.”
 
Ahmadinejad called the US disclosures Monday about its previously secretive nuclear arsenal “a positive step forward,” but one that still raises questions. “It's no pride to possess 5,000 bombs,” he said. “Now, how can you have the trust of a government that announces 5,000 bombs after 60 years?”
 
Ahmadinejad argued any new sanctions would mean that US President Barack Obama had given up on his campaign to engage Iran diplomatically.
 
“We feel that the US government will be damaged, more than us, by those sanctions,” he said. “It's very clear that if the United States starts another sanctions (regime) against Iran, it means that it's the end of Mr. Obama's effort. It means Mr. Obama's submission. It means no change will occur.”
 
Concerning a possible Israeli attack, Ahmadinejad said that Israel would pay a heavy price if it attacked Lebanon or Syria which he said are capable of bringing the Zionist entity “to its knees.”
 
“Israel can't do anything against Iran … However, as far as Palestine's Gaza, Lebanon and Syria are concerned, we will fully defend them and support them,” Ahmadinejad said. “Lebanon and Syria are already capable of confronting Israel to bring it to its knees,” he added.
 
The Iranian president reminded reporters that the Zionist regime was defeated by Hezbollah alone. “It is obvious that it would face the worst defeat if” it attacked Lebanon and Syria. He called Israel a militaristic state imposed on the Middle East by the West and said it would self-destruct if it launched any new wars in the region.
 
Arab countries sought also to turn attention to Israel on Tuesday as delegates from 189 countries debated how to stem the spread of nuclear weapons. On the second day of the month-long meeting at the United Nations, Arab countries reiterated calls for a nuclear-free Middle East with criticism of Israel's unacknowledged nuclear arsenal and failure to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
 
Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh expressed frustration at the lack of progress on implementing a nuclear-free Middle East, a goal that was declared in a resolution of a previous meeting of NPT signatories. He said that Israel's failure to sign the NPT and allow international monitoring of its nuclear program "renders the NPT a source of instability in the Middle East."
 
Egypt has proposed that this 2010 NPT conference back a plan calling for the start of negotiations next year on such a Mideast zone. The proposal may become a major debating point in the month-long session.
 
However, the Israeli UN mission declined to comment on the specifics of the conference, but told The Associated Press that Israel's stance on nonproliferation continues to be that an accepted political solution for comprehensive peace in the Middle East should first be reached.
 
“WHERE IS BUSH TODAY AND WHERE ARE WE?”
 
In an interview with the Boston Globe on Tuesday Ahmadinejad urged Obama to avoid siding with more hawkish voices in the US against Iran. "He should be very careful not to get entrapped in the web laid by radicals around him," he said. "If he can't resolve the impasse with Iran, do you think he can resolve the problems with Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine?" Ahmadinejad asked, adding that sanctions "will mean the end of his opportunity to improve world affairs."
 
“Mr. Bush used to pass resolutions against us. Where did it go? Where did it take him? Where are we today and where is he today? Iran is still advancing, and he is gone,” Ahmadinejad stated.
 
Ahmadinejad also told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that he and Barack Obama would have to refrain from "acting too hastily" if the two sides are to reach agreement on the impasse. "For example, the resolution presented to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] against Iran in the presence of Mr Obama was a very negative, hasty action that had very negative repercussions in Iran," he said. He was referring to a November 2009 resolution adopted by the UN nuclear agency that criticized Iran for defying a UN Security Council ban on nuclear enrichment. The resolution also rebuked Tehran for secretly building a uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qom. "The resolution was not based on any legal or lawful framework but surely a politicized act ... It reduced public confidence in the negotiation process in Iran."
 
The NPT is formally reviewed every five years at a meeting of treaty members — which include all the world's nations except India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, all of which either have confirmed or are believed to have nuclear weapons.