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Afghanistan

Taleban free French aid worker: French FM

2007-05-12

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A French aid worker captured by the Taleban over a month ago was released on Friday, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said. Eric Damfreville of Terre d’Enfance agency, an organisation helping children in southwestern Afghanistan, was kidnapped in early April along with three Afghan colleagues. Douste-Blazy said the Afghans were still being held hostage. He told a news conference Damfreville had been handed over to French embassy representatives and would undergo medical tests before returning to France. A French female colleague kidnapped along with Damfreville was freed last month. Sarkozy said in April he saw no long-term presence for French troops in Afghanistan. Taleban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said Damfreville was freed as a response to payment gesture to new French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “The Taleban Shura (leadership council) decided to free him for the newly elected French president ... had said in his utterances that France will deliberate over withdrawing French troops from Afghanistan,” Yousuf told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location. Sarkozy said in April he saw no long-term presence for French troops in Afghanistan. “It was certainly useful that we sent (the troops) in the context of the war against terrorism, but the long-term presence of French troops in that part of the world does not seem to me to be decisive,” he said. France has some 1,100 troops in Afghanistan after withdrawing some 200 elite forces, which had operated under US command, earlier this year.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

EU Foreign Ministers Support Britain, Order Lunch

2007-03-31

The EU called on Iran to release the 15 British sailors and marines it is holding in its custody "immediately" and sent a warning it would "decide on appropriate measures" if Tehran did not comply. The statement could did not elaborate on what such measures would be. The EU told Tehran to tell the British government where the prisoners are being held to allow British diplomats access to them. In a statement released after EU foreign ministers met in Bremen, Germany, on Friday, they said "all evidence clearly indicates that at the time of the seizure, the British naval personnel were on a routine patrolling mission in Iraqi waters in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolution 1723." "The seizure," the statement went on to say, "represents a clear breach of international law." The EU statement is stronger than that of the UN Security Council which on Thursday expressed "grave concern" at the naval personnel's detention but declined to back Britain with a call for their immediate release. Britain froze official contacts on Wednesday with Iran as the dispute over the detained sailors intensified, with Prime Minister Tony Blair vowing to "ratchet up" pressure on Tehran.EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana called the Iranian action "a big mistake" and called for the release of the sailors, who were captured on March 23. "I don't understand. It's a big mistake. They should release the soldiers immediately," he said as he entered the meeting. "I have total confidence that the British boat was in Iraqi waters," he added, alluding to Iran's claims that the boat had entered its waters. However, there was opposition in the EU to freezing business with Tehran, which diplomats said Britain had initially sought. Guess who? French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Friday that all steps must be taken to avoid an escalation between Britain and Iran. Yup. "We must avert a course towards confrontation, any escalation," said Douste-Blazy in an interview to RTL radio. "The Iranian authorities must simply return to dialog." (burp) "Try the squab!"

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

France still sees diplomatic way out of Iran nuclear crisis

2007-03-12

Of course they do. They're French. ABU DHABI - French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Sunday that a diplomatic solution was still possible to the crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme. ‘Very frankly, I think the diplomatic path is possible. I believe that,’ he said at a joint press conference in Abu Dhabi with Emirati Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahayan. ‘I don’t want to believe for an instant that Iran, after having isolated itself politically and economically, can afford to take further risks,’ the French minister said. Asked about the military option, he said the United States, which is at the forefront of international opposition to Iran’s programme, ‘acknowledges that the strategy (of) using dialogue and pressure are bearing fruit’. It's very useful to us whilst we align our forces and allow certain other 'programs' to bear fruit. The five UN Security Council permanent members, including France, and Germany are currently discussing a draft resolution to tighten sanctions against the Islamic republic for its controversial nuclear fuel work. The council in December agreed a first set of measures penalising Iran for its refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment activities. The new sanctions will be more completely ineffectual. France’s policy is centred on ‘firmness and dialogue’ as well as achieving unanimity, said Douste-Blazy, warning that ‘if there is no unanimity, there will be no effectiveness to the Security Council’s position’. Grandmaster of the Obvious, specially trained at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration. A military strike, which the United States has refused to rule out, ‘would have unpredictable consequences which would prove deeply destabilising for the whole region,’ he said. We could predict a few of those consequences ... Douste-Blazy was winding up a tour of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, which like the other Gulf Arab states have also warned against the regional impact of any strike on Iran. Mostly 'cause they don't want to get hit with the splatter ...

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

International warning against the American scheme in the region

2007-03-12

(SANA)- Leader of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) Wael Hussineya has warned against the Amereican-Israel scheme in the region. So, y'see, it's not quite a National Socialist party. It's a Social Nationalist party. There's a diffo. Really. Hussineyya stressed in a meeting in Tyre, South Lebanon that the US policy in the region aims at protecting Israel through disarming the national resistance, pointing out to the dangerous effects of the American intervention in Lebanon's affairs. Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste Blazy stressed the importance of holding Iraq's Neighboring Conference for acheiving peace and stability in Iraq. During his meeting with Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Mohammed Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah in Kuwait, Blazy stressed the importance of the political solution in Iraq based on reaching accord among all Iraqi parties.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Major powers agree on framework for new Iran resolution

2007-03-03

The United States, four European powers and China have agreed on the framework for a new UN resolution toughening sanctions on Iran, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Friday. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany “are fully in agreement on the framework of a new resolution”, said Douste-Blazy. The breakthrough came during a telephone conference call held Thursday between political directors from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. Washington reported progress during the two-hour talks, with US officials saying that another conference call was scheduled for Saturday and that work on the draft text could begin next week. The foreign minister said that the new resolution would be drafted under the terms of article 41 of the UN charter which authorises the Security Council to take all necessary measures, except military ones, to enforce its resolutions. “The political directors also discussed the broad outlines of the contents of the new resolution,” said the minister. The UN Security Council slapped sanctions on Iran in December, including a ban on the sale of nuclear-related materials to the Islamic Republic and a freeze on financial assets of Iranians involved in illicit atomic research. The push for the new resolution came after a report from the UN nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, last week which said that Iran had not halted, but in fact was expanding, its uranium enrichment programme. The United States and some other western powers believe Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability. Iran however has denied seeking nuclear weapons, and asserts it has a right to a peaceful nuclear programme.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Horrified Chirac condemns Lebanon twin bus killings

2007-02-14

In a letter to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora French President Jacques Chirac Tuesday expressed his horror at a bombing that killed three people near Bikfaya in the Metn region of Mount Lebanon. "I am horrified and dismayed at the appalling attacks that took place this morning in Bikfaya. I condemn them in the clearest terms," Chirac wrote. "By striking on the eve of the commemoration of the attack that claimed the lives of Rafiq Hariri and his companions, these murderers are trying to plunge the whole of Lebanon back into violence." Jacques may be horrified, but he's not really going to do anything about it that doesn't require sending forth the striped pants brigade. Bomb blasts tore through two buses in Lebanon on Tuesday, killing three people as the deeply divided nation prepared to commemorate Hariri's murder two years ago. The bombings in a mainly Christian area northeast of Beirut were the latest in a spate of attacks that have been blamed on Lebanon's former powerbroker Syria and came at a time of high political tensions in Lebanon. According to the French presidency, Chirac also spoke with the head of Lebanon's influential Maronite council of bishops, Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, to express his condolences. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy warned that those responsible for the "hateful and cowardly attack", "and for those of the past two years, will be made to answer for their crimes."

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

France says Ahmanutbar's offer 'totally unacceptable'

2007-02-13

In possibly related news: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's offer of talks on its nuclear programme while continuing uranium enrichment is "totally unacceptable," France's foreign minister said Sunday. You tell 'em, Flippy. "(Ahmadinejad) says that he will simply no longer put material into the centrifuges, but that absolutely does not correspond to the demands of the UN Security Council," of which France is a permanent member, Philippe Douste-Blazy told a French radio station. You've got Dinnerjacket's attention, now go in for the kill! "Such a move would not even be a real pause, neither would it be a measure of confidence because in keeping the centrifuges turning the Iranians will obtain lots of information essential to advancing their banned nuclear programme leading to a nuclear capability which would not be for peaceful means," he said. "This is unacceptable." Right between the eyes. Good shot, M. le Foreign Minister. Ahmadinejad on Sunday said Iran was ready to negotiate with the West over its nuclear programme but would not give in to the key demand that it suspends uranium enrichment. "If you are willing to negotiate why do you insist on a suspension?" Ahmadinejad asked the West in a speech to a mass rally in Tehran marking the 28th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.Iran says that uranium enrichment is to supply its civilian nuclear energy programme but the United States believes it will be used to make atomic weapons. The UN Security Council in December reluctantly imposed sanctions against Iran which is facing a deadline to halt uranium enrichment by February 21.

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Africa North

Libyan court convicts 6 foreigners for child AIDS infections

2006-12-19

lybia STILL is an islamic hellhole ruled by a tinpot dictator, happy to predict the islamic conquest of Europe, and trying to blackmail the kufrs into paying tribute. This travesty of justice is disgusting. TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A court convicted six foreign health workers Tuesday on charges of deliberately infecting 400 children with the AIDS virus and sentenced them to death, setting off shouts of joy in Tripoli. The verdict, which will be automatically referred to Libya's Supreme Court, drew quick condemnation from European nations, which have charged that the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were being made scapegoats. A Western medical study, released too late for the trial, said the infections occurred before the medical workers came to Libya. The United States and European Union had called for the release of the defendants, warning that the case would affect Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's effort to repair his rogue image and rebuild ties with the West. But Libyans strongly supported a conviction. A few dozen relatives of infected children — about 50 of whom have died of AIDS — waited outside the court holding poster-sized pictures of their children and placards reading "Death for the children killers" and "HIV made in Bulgaria." After the verdict, the crowd chanted "Execution! Execution!" "God is great!" yelled Ibrahim Mohammed al-Aurabi, the father of an infected child, as soon as the presiding judge finished reading the verdict. "Long live the Libyan judiciary!" The nurses and doctor have been in jail since 1999 on charges that they intentionally spread the AIDS virus to more than 400 children at a hospital in the city of Benghazi during a botched experiment to find a cure for the disease. Western nations blame the infections on unsanitary conditions at Libyan hospitals and accuse Tripoli of using the six workers as scapegoats. Bulgaria and the EU swiftly condemned the verdict. "Sentencing innocent people to death is an attempt to cover up the real culprits and the real reasons for the AIDS outbreak in Benghazi," Bulgaria's parliament speaker, Georgi Pirinski, said in the capital, Sofia. EU spokesman Johannes Laitenberger in Brussels, said the bloc's leaders were "shocked by this verdict." He said there was no immediate decision on EU action against Libya but said he "did not rule anything out." France, where about 150 of the infected children have been treated, reacted strongly. "France deplores this verdict," said Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, adding that his government was "fundamentally opposed" to the death penalty. The chief Bulgarian counsel for the workers, Trayan Markovski, said the defendants would appeal to the Libyan Supreme Court. Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam told reporters the verdict would automatically be referred to the Supreme Court. He added that after the Supreme Court review, the case would also be heard by the Judicial Board, which could overturn the ruling. He described the case as having "a political dimension," alluding to international pressure on Libya to free the defendants. Presiding Judge Mahmoud Hawissa took just seven minutes to confirm the presence of the accused — who all answered "yes" in Arabic — and read the judgment in the longest and most politicized court process in modern Libyan history. The five Bulgarians and the Palestinian did not react. Detained for nearly seven years, the defendants had previously been convicted and condemned to death, but Libyan judges granted them a retrial last year after international protests over the fairness of the proceedings. An international legal observer, Francois Cantier of Lawyers Without Borders, criticized the retrial as lacking scientific rigor. "We need scientific evidence. It is a medical issue, not only a judicial one," Cantier said after the verdict. On Dec. 6, too late for use in the trial, Nature magazine published an analysis of HIV and hepatitis virus samples from the children. Using changes in the genetic information of HIV over time as a "molecular clock," analysts concluded the virus was contracted before the six defendants arrived at the hospital — perhaps even three years before. Oxford University, which took part in the study, issued a statement saying the verdict "runs counter to the conclusion reached by a research team from Oxford University's Zoology Department who, in collaboration with several European universities, showed that the subtype of HIV involved began infecting patients long before March 1998, the date the prosecution claims the crime began." Idriss Lagha, president of a group representing the victims, has rejected the Nature article, telling a news conference Monday in London that the nurses had infected the children with a "genetically engineered" virus. He accused them as doing so for research on behalf of foreign intelligence agencies. "I's a Conspiracy!" In testimony last month, the defendants denied intentionally infecting children. "No doctor or nurse would dare commit such a dreadful crime," said nurse Cristiana Valcheva, adding that she sympathized with the victims and their families. A second Bulgarian, Valentina Siropulo, testified that of her seven years in Libya, "I've spent only 6 months working as a nurse and the rest of the time in prison." Gadhafi, who has been trying to refashion his image from leader of a rogue state, got his government to ask Bulgaria to pay tribute compensation to the children's families. But Bulgaria rejected the idea as indicating an admission of the nurses' guilt.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

France hopes for quick approval of sanctions on Iran.

2006-12-15

(Itar-Tass) -- France hopes for a quick adoption of the UN Security Council resolution on Iran, which will set off sanctions, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Tuesday. “These are proportionate and progressive measures,” the minister said, adding that they will be applied only to “nuclear and ballistic spheres.” The United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany are holding consultations on the resolution text. If France likes it, then it's definitely useless.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

KKK's Duke is guest at Holocaust 'debate'

2006-12-12

Simply everyone was there, dahling. TEHRAN, IRAN — Iran held a gathering that included Holocaust deniers, discredited scholars and white supremacists from around the world on Monday under the guise of a conference to "debate" the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews. The Flat World morons are more credible. Among those representing the United States was the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, whose prepared remarks, issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said the gas chambers in which millions perished actually did not exist. Robert Faurisson, an academic from France, said in his speech that the Holocaust was a myth created to justify the occupation of Palestine, meaning the creation of Israel. This is what Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has frequently claimed, and it was Ahmadinejad's statements that inspired the foreign ministry to hold the conference. The ministry said 67 people from 30 countries were participating in the two days of meetings. In a welcoming speech, Rasoul Mousavi, head of the Foreign Ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies, said the session would provide an opportunity to discuss the Holocaust "away from Western taboos and the restriction imposed on them in Europe." In several European countries, denial of the Holocaust is a crime. Speakers at the conference praised Ahmadinejad's comments about the Holocaust. Finally, a "world leader" who understands us! Bendikt Frings, 48, a psychologist from Germany, said he believed Ahmadinejad was "an honest, direct man." He said he had come to the conference to thank the president for what he initiated. "We are forbidden to have such a conference in Germany," he said. "All my childhood, we waited for something like this." Frederick Toben, from Australia, said Ahmadinejad had opened an issue "which is morally and intellectually crippling the Western society. People are imprisoned in Germany for denying the Holocaust," he added. Duke argued that inventions about what happened to Europe's Jews were part of a plot. He said, "Depicting Jews as the overwhelming victims of the Holocaust gave the moral high ground to the Allies as victors of the war and allowed Jews to establish a state on the occupied land of Palestine." The event has sparked outrage in the West. I'm sparked. Outraged? No, I expect no more from the Bottom-Feeders. Germany summoned the Iranian chargé d'affaire to express its anger, and the French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, has condemned the conference.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Ahmadinejad - Convert Or Die, Infidel

2006-12-07

Declaration of war? Close enough for me Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned Western leaders to follow the path of God or "vanish from the face of the earth". "These oppressive countries are angry with us ... a nation that on the other side of the globe has risen up and proved the shallowness of their power," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the northern town of Ramsar, the semi-official news agency Mehr reported Wednesday. Yes, pulling out of Iraq looks like a real smart move, doesn't it, Mr. Baker? "They are angry with our nation. But we tell them 'so be it and die from this anger'. Rest assured that if you do not respond to the divine call, you will die soon and vanish from the face of the earth," he said. The outspoken president also maintained Iran's defiance over its controversial nuclear programme, saying it was on course to fully master nuclear technology. "Thank to God's help, we have gone all the way and are only one step away from the zenith. "We hope to have the big nuclear celebration by the end of the year (March 2007)," Ahmadinejad said, echoing comments he has made on numerous occasions in recent months. A defiant Iran has refused to suspend its uranium enrichment work, a process that the West fears could be extended to make nuclear weapons. Iran however insists its nuclear programme is solely aimed at generating energy. Yes. Of the kiliton variety. France's Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Wednesday after a Paris meeting on Tehran's nuclear programme that we have plenty of white flags in stock the UN Security Council is agreed "there will be sanctions" on Iran, though their extent is yet to be decided.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran: Ahmadinejad Threatens EU

2006-12-05

Tehran, 5 Dec. (AKI) - Speaking shortly before senior diplomats from six world powers were scheduled to meet in Paris on Tuesday to discuss sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned the European Union that any punitive measure would be considered an act of hostility by Tehran. "I am telling you in plain language that from now on, if you try, whether in your propaganda or at international organisations, to take steps against the rights of the Iranian nation, the Iranian nation will consider it an act of hostility," Ahmadinejad said. Should be very effective against the EU. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council- the Unite States, Russia, China, Britain and France - plus Germany are discussing a draft resolution imposing sanctions on Iran after the country ignored a UN 31 August ultimatum demanding that it halt sensitive nuclear work which the international community fears is aimed at building nuclear weapons. Iran claims its atomic programme is solely for civilian use. Lol. Hell, even Elbaradai, the Grate Equivocator, has finally given up on this fiction. "If you insist on pursuing this path (Iran) will reconsider its relations with you," the Iranian president was also quoted as saying on Tuesday during a visit to the Mazandaran province on the Caspian Sea. On Monday, French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy the six world powers were close to an agreement on the resolution. Talks have stalled for months over sanctions, which are opposed by Russia and China - close commercial allies of Iran - and strongly endorsed by the US. (Rar/Aki) Emphasis added Adding the US, I guess that covers everybody in the West, except for Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, and Canada.

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