Semaine 39 / 2008

        Germany's foreign minister on Friday blasted the Iranian president's speech at the United Nations General Assembly as "blatant anti-Semitism" and urged the 192 U.N. member states to join in condemning it. On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad railed against "Zionist murderers" and dwelled on what he described as Zionist control of international finance. "The statements of the Iranian president about Israel are irresponsible and unacceptable," German Foreign... [Lire la suite]

       A car bomb on a crowded residential street in the Syrian capital of Damascus killed 17 people and injured 14 others Saturday, Syrian television reported. A car packed with 200 kilograms of explosives blew up on Mahlak Street, located in a southern neighborhood of the capital near the junction to the city's international airport, TV reported. Anti-terror units were investigating, it said. Syrian Interior Minister Bassam Abdul-Majid called the bombing a terrorist act and said all of the victims were civilians.... [Lire la suite]

       The British newspaper The Guardian on Thursday quoted European officials as saying that the United States earlier this year refused to agree to an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. According to the report, "European diplomatic sources" said that "Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President George W. Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his... [Lire la suite]

      Israel and Azerbaijan have closed a weapons deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars. According to agreements signed by the Defense Ministry and the government of Azerbaijan, which borders on Iran, Israel will sell the southern Caucasus state ammunition, mortars and radio equipment. Predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan has increasingly been caught in a tug-of-war for influence between its large southern neighbor, and the secular, democratic West. Rumblings of Shi'ite political Islam have been particularly... [Lire la suite]

    Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and US President George W. Bush stressed the need to continue working for Israeli-Palestinian peace in comments made before a White House meeting Thursday but made no reference to a previous 2008 deadline for an agreement.In what some analysts described as a farewell mission, Abbas visited Washington as part of an American tour coinciding with the opening of UN General Assembly in New York. Earlier this year, there had been indications the US would seek a memorandum of... [Lire la suite]

       The UN Security Council has agreed to hold a high-level open debate Friday on the ongoing Israeli settlement building in disputed territory. Agreement came Thursday in closed-door consultations of the council, said Libyan UN delegate Mahmoud Gebreel. Saudi Arabia requested the meeting at the ministerial level on behalf of the Arab League. Prime ministers, foreign ministers and other world leaders and senior diplomats are currently in New York attending the annual UN General Assembly. Public speeches are... [Lire la suite]

       An interministerial committee presented Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday with a list of 450 names of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit, in a move immediately dismissed by Hamas as insufficient. Half of the list drawn up by the committee, headed by Vice Premier Haim Ramon, included names that were on a list of 350 to 450 security prisoners that Hamas has been demanding for Schalit. Hamas is reportedly asking for some 1,000 men, plus all the minors and... [Lire la suite]

      Le président français Nicolas Sarkozy estime que les dirigeants iraniens misent sur la lassitude de la communauté internationale dans le dossier du programme nucléaire de l'Iran, selon Reuters. "Ma crainte, c'est que la communauté internationale donne le sentiment de se désintéresser de ce qui est pour moi la crise potentielle la plus grave, et qu'un jour le monde se réveille avec un conflit de plus", a-t-il déclaré lors d'une conférence de presse en marge de l'Assemblée générale de l'Onu. "A... [Lire la suite]

Mr. President, ....... At the center of this violence and fanaticism stands Iran. It built a danger to the entire world. Its quest for religious hegemony and regional dominance divides the Middle East and holds back chances for peace, while undermining human rights. Iranian support for Hezbollah divided Lebanon. Its support for Hamas split the Palestinians and postpones the establishment of the Palestinian State. Yesterday, on this very stage, the Iranian leader renewed the darkest anti-Semitic libel – the protocols of the elders... [Lire la suite]

       In his speech to the assembled delegations, Mahmoud hmadinejad called for inspections to be done in the US and other nuclear powers - even as many of those same nations are considering imposing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran. "If we have any complaints about the US government who should we turn to? The Security Council, where they veto everything?" Ahmadinejad said. "They cannot speak for the international community at large, it's the language of force and force doesn't solve... [Lire la suite]