US: Envoy Won’t Attend UN Disarmament Councils Led By Iran

Insists Iran Should Be Barred From Holding Chair

by Jason Ditz, May 13, 2013

The Obama Administration has announced that they will no longer allow their ambassador to attend UN Conference on Disarmament meetings because the rotating chairman position has passed to Iran.

The US maintains that since there are sanctions against Iran they should be barred from holding “any formal or ceremonial positions” at the UN. Iran will hold the position from May 27 through June 23.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman shrugged off the complaints, saying that the 65-member council came up with the monthly rotating leadership plan, and since Iran is a member it was eventually going to be the leader.

Iran has been supportive of calls for a nuclear-free Middle East, a plan which the NPT member states initially supported, but which the US loudly condemned since Israel is the sole nation in the region with nuclear weapons.

http://news.antiwar.com/2013/05/13/us-envoy-wont-attend-un-disarmament-councils-led-by-iran/

Iran’s Ambassador to France Ali Ahani
Sun Apr 14, 2013 6:49AM GMT
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Iran’s Ambassador to France Ali Ahani has warned against any military attack against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities, saying such aggression may lead to World War III.

“A potential Israeli attack against Iran with an objective of destroying its scientific and nuclear facilities is sheer madness. Its consequences are disastrous and uncontrollable,” Ahani said, Fars news agency reported.
“Iran will not stand idly by in the face of such aggression. This can entail a chain of violence that may lead to World War III,” the Iranian envoy warned.

Ahani said that according to Resolution 533 of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN Security Council must react firmly against any threats on nuclear facilities, adding that certain entities apparently want to ignore this issue.

The United States, Israel and some of their allies have falsely accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, with Washington and Tel Aviv repeatedly threatening Tehran with a military strike.

The US and European Union have also used the unfounded allegation as an excuse to impose illegal sanctions against Tehran.

Iran has categorically rejected the allegation, noting that as a committed member of the IAEA and a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

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Related Stories:
• Cmdr. warns of WWIII if Iran attacked
• ‘Israel pushing for World War III’

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (R) and his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari speaking during a news conference in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on October 3, 2011

Fri Feb 1, 2013 8:22AM GMT

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Turkey’s focus is shifting from Syria to Iraq as the United States remains reluctant to militarily intervene in Syria, former US envoy to Baghdad and Ankara says.

According to a Friday report by the Turkish daily Hurriyet, former US Ambassador to Iraq and Turkey Jim Jeffrey said there are several reasons why Ankara’s strengthening ties with Baghdad are overshadowing its role in Syria’s crisis.

The former US envoy said Iraq is now emerging as a potential source of stability unlike before, as well as a major oil exporter.

A Turkish official recently stated, “Iraq is now more important for us,” adding, “You saw this shift during Undersecretary of the Turkish Foreign Ministry Feridun Sinirlioglu’s visit to Washington two weeks ago as well.”

Ankara is well aware of the unwillingness that Washington has signaled for military intervention in Syria, the report said.

In an interview with the New Republic magazine published on January 28, Obama responded to domestic criticisms of the US administration’s failure for military action against Syria by saying he is fully aware of the limitations Washington faces for such an action.

“I am more mindful probably than most of not only our incredible strengths and capabilities, but also our limitations,” the president said.

According to the report, Jeffrey interpreted Obama’s recent remarks to suggest an end to long-term, massive ground wars that fight the very population of a country.

“He is absolutely right. That period is over. Because it was not particularly successful,” he said.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/01/286677/turkey-shifts-focus-from-syria-to-iraq/

Envoy says Venezuela open to better ties with U.S.
By Daniel Wallis | Reuters – 1 hr 44 mins ago.. .
.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government is open to improving troubled ties with Washington and is considering a U.S. proposal for the return of anti-drug agents kicked out of the country eight years ago by President Hugo Chavez, a senior official said.

There has been no word from Chavez since he had cancer surgery in Cuba five weeks ago, so every move the government makes in his absence is being picked over for clues to what the OPEC nation might look like in a post-Chavez era.

Speaking to Telesur, a TV network set up by Chavez to counter Western media influence, Venezuela’s ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Roy Chaderton, said U.S.-Venezuela relations were “not hot, not cold. Zero degrees”.

But he said there were efforts to find common ground.

“There are things that are being done with a great deal of seriousness and a lot of caution,” he said late on Saturday.

“We are not obliged to have bad ties with governments which have different visions to ours … I hope pragmatism prevails in this initiative and we reach a fair place of mutual interest.”

Officials say Chavez’s condition is improving but delicate after the 58-year-old suffered complications from his surgery in Havana on December 11, his fourth operation in just 18 months.

Many Venezuelans suspect, however, that the socialist’s 14 years in power – during which his fiery criticism of the United States helped turn him into one of the world’s most recognizable and polarizing leaders – may be coming to an end.

In one typically headline-grabbing move, Chavez halted cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2005 after accusing its agents of spying.

Venezuela, which shares a long, largely unpoliced border with Colombia, has become a transshipment point for Colombian cocaine on its way to consumer nations.

TARGETING DRUGLORDS

Asked about the possible return of DEA agents to Venezuela, Chaderton confirmed it was being discussed. “It is one of the many hopes of the United States and it is a proposal,” he said.

“Our government will decide, the competent national authorities, the justice minister, the director of the O.N.A. (anti-drug agency),” he said. “It is a matter which has to be studied by the politicians and the experts.”

The government says it has invested heavily in fighting narcotics and points to the extradition to Colombia and the United States of high profile accused drug lords as evidence of its efforts. It has also taken part in joint operations.

In September, Venezuelan officers captured a top Colombian trafficker, Daniel “Crazy” Barrera, near the border in a raid that Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos said was directed from Washington by a Colombian general and included the help of U.S. and British intelligence agencies.

The latest political spat between Washington and Caracas took place as recently as December, when Venezuelan officials were furious after President Barack Obama criticized the ailing Chavez’s “authoritarian policies and suppression of dissent”.

Venezuela’s government called them “despicable comments at such a delicate moment”, and said Obama was responsible for a major deterioration in relations.

Spurred on by years of Chavez’s tirades about the “Yankee empire”, many of his loyal supporters suspect the United States of being behind a wide range of threats to his self-styled revolution – including a coup that briefly toppled him in 2002.

Stressing the need for mutual respect, Chaderton couched his talk of better ties in caution, stressing that Venezuela needed no U.S. stamp of approval or card of good conduct.

“We are not going to take part in an improvement of relations at the cost of being ‘certified’ by those who have no authority to do so,” he said.

(Editing by Andrew Heavens)

http://news.yahoo.com/maduro-slams-business-leaders-over-venezuela-economy-comments-002907309.html

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The international envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, drew a grim portrait on Sunday of the country’s future in the absence of a political solution, warning of a state carved up by warlords and a death toll that would rapidly surge, while conceding that there was little sign that the antagonists intended to negotiate.

At a news conference at Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Mr. Brahimi said the violence, which has already killed tens of thousands of people, could claim 100,000 lives over the next year.

“People are talking about a divided Syria being split into a number of small states like Yugoslavia,” he said.

“This is not what is going to happen. What will happen is Somalization — warlords,” Mr. Brahimi said, according to a transcript of his remarks. Without a peace deal, he added, Syria would be “transformed into hell.”

Mr. Brahimi’s comments reflected a deepening pessimism after his apparently unsuccessful attempt over the past week to mediate the crisis by shuttling between opposition figures and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. The envoy indicated that Mr. Assad had made no response to peace proposals, which included a plan to create a transitional government. In another sign of the impasse, the leader of a large opposition coalition all but rebuffed an invitation by Russia, one of Syria’s closest allies, to discuss solutions to the crisis.

On Saturday, nearly a week after Mr. Brahimi traveled to Damascus, the Syrian capital, Russia’s foreign minister said there was “no possibility” of persuading Mr. Assad to leave the country, which Syrian opposition groups have insisted is a precondition for any peace talks.

The envoy’s warnings came as activists in Syria reported a new exodus of civilians from the central city of Homs, adding untold numbers of internal refugees to the millions Mr. Brahimi said had already been displaced by the war. Over the past three days, hundreds and perhaps thousands of residents have fled fighting in the Deir Ba’alba district of Homs after government troops stormed the restive neighborhood, according to activists in Talbiseh, north of Homs, where many of the refugees were being received.

Some residents have blamed rebel fighters for the incursion, saying the army moved in after the insurgents inexplicably quit the neighborhood. In Syria’s other cities, residents have frequently been angered by the tendency of rebel fighters to occupy a neighborhood and then attack government troops before abruptly withdrawing and leaving civilians to bear the brunt of the army’s brutal retaliation.

It was unclear how many people had been killed in the fighting in the district. One young witness said he believed a neighbor had been killed. Two videos purportedly from Deir Ba’alba showed the bodies of about a dozen men who had apparently been executed with gunshots to the head. But there was no confirmation of claims made on Saturday by an antigovernment group, the Local Coordination Committees, that hundreds had been killed.

One resident of Deir Ba’alba, a 14-year-old boy reached by Skype in Talbiseh, said he had fled with his parents at 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The family had grown accustomed to sporadic fighting and gunfire, and usually fled to a relative’s house elsewhere in Homs. “But this time, it was heavy shelling,” the teenager said. “I could hear the asphalt cracking under the tanks.”

As he and his family left, the boy saw the body of a neighbor, a woman, lying on the ground, he said. His mother tried to convince the boy that the neighbor was alive. “I’m sure I saw her dead,” he said. “Her neck was bleeding. She was unveiled. It was the first time I saw our neighbor unveiled.”

One fighter from Homs said the retreat had come after the rebel military council for Homs failed to provide ammunition for its fighters in Deir Ba’alba. “They asked for supplies 48 hours before the invasion,” the fighter said. “Their call was not answered. I don’t know why.”

Civilians had begged the fighters not to leave, or at least to leave their weapons behind, two fighters said. Another fighter from Homs, calling the withdrawal “suicidal,” said the rebels had left civilians “to face their destiny alone.”

“We don’t know what happened to them,” he said.

By Kareem Fahim and Hwaida Saad
New York Times

WASHINGTON — The top US envoy to Syria warned on Thursday that extremists were gaining influence in the Syrian opposition and that this influence would only increase the longer fighting dragged on in the Levant country.

US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, speaking to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, described extremist groups that had “little by little been gaining influence among the armed opposition.” He pointed particularly to an al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq that is now operating in Syria.

Extremist elements, which are still a minority among the opposition, pose “an obstacle to finding the political solution that Syria needs,” he said.

However, he stressed, America sees a political solution as the only way to resolve the violence in Syria — one in which President Bashar Assad plays no role.

To that end, the United States has been working with a newly formed umbrella group, which represents Syrians in the opposition both inside and outside of the country, to forge a political transition in the war-torn nation.

Ford assessed that keeping this group unified was essential to diminishing the chance for outside actors to exploit difference, work one side against another and otherwise exercise influence in a new Syria.

“If we can keep these Syrian leaders united, I think there will be less chance for Iran, Russia, and other pernicious actors — Hezbollah, for example — to intervene in their typically negative way,” he said.

He also reiterated the US warning about any use of chemical weapons, amid signs that Assad was making preparations to do so.

“We want to be very clear to the Syrian government: As its situation deteriorates, they must not think about deploying these things. They must not deploy them,” he emphasized, saying such an action would cross red lines for America and the broader international community.

“The use of those weapons is for us a qualitatively different situation, and frankly countries in the region also view it that way, so it will change our calculations in a fundamentally different way,” he warned.

That Assad might be contemplating using chemical weapons is, according to many analysts, a sign of a last-ditch effort on his part to stave off an increasingly certain defeat.

Ford added his assessment that Assad’s days in power were numbered.

“The armed opposition groups… have made substantial gains on the ground over the past weeks,” he said, pointing to their control of eastern parts of the country, the Kurdish areas, and most of the border along Turkey and Iraq.

“It’s very clear that the regime’s forces are being ground down and that they are losing,” he said. “The writing is on the wall.”

But Ford noted that Assad’s forces continued to maintain some cohesion.

“They still have some fight left in them, even though they are losing,” he said. “I’m sorry to say that I expect there will be substantial fighting in the days ahead.”

By Hilary Leila Krieger
www.jpost.com

The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
2201 C St NW Ste 7276
Washington DC 20520

Dear Secretary Clinton:

More than a year has lapsed since the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation (H.R.440), introduced by myself and Rep. Anna Eshoo, to create a special envoy at the State Department charged with focusing exclusively on the plight of religious minorities in the Middle East and South Central Asia, including Pakistan and Afghanistan. Senators Roy Blunt and Carl Levin introduced companion legislation, S.1245. Yet, today, both this bill and the House-passed legislation are languishing in the Senate. This is deeply disappointing. Even more disappointing is the fact that the State Department has urged Senator Jim Webb to oppose this bipartisan legislation and put a hold on it in the Senate.

Senator Webb has indicated that he is uncomfortable with the legislation moving forward absent a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I have no objection to such a hearing, and would welcome it. In fact, I wrote Senator Kerry on July 23 echoing Senator Webb’s request for a hearing before the lame duck session, but he never held it. I am concerned that time is running out — both in terms of the legislative calendar for this year and in terms of the plight of these communities. Will a special envoy guarantee these communities’ survival — and even flourishing — in the lands they have inhabited for centuries? No one can predict for sure. But I am certain, that to do nothing is not an option — lest on the State Department’s and this Congress’ watch we witness a Middle East empty of faith communities, foremost among them the beleaguered Christian community.

As you may know, this legislation is widely supported by the religious freedom advocacy community and by many of the groups that represent these besieged communities in countries of strategic importance to the U.S. such as Iraq, Egypt and Pakistan. Last month, the enclosed letter was sent to Chairman Kerry, Ranking Member Lugar and Senator Webb, from a multi-faith coalition of international religious freedom advocates. The letter was spearheaded by the American Islamic Congress, Open Doors USA and the Simon Wiesenthal Center and several other individuals and organizations.

Given the widespread support for this bill, I still cannot understand why both the State Department and Senator Webb would want to block this bipartisan legislation from receiving a hearing and a vote. On July 29, 2011, the House version overwhelmingly passed 402-20 with not one Democratic ‘no’ vote. More importantly, I would venture that the Coptic Christians, Baha’is, Chaldo-Assyrians, Ahmadis, small remaining Jewish population and countless other religious minorities throughout the Middle East and South Central Asia who face daily persecution, hardship, violence, instability and even death would be hard-pressed to see your objection to this straight-forward, bipartisan legislation.

Despite the introduction of the bill having pre-dated the so-called “Arab Spring,” the dramatic changes in the region over the last year have only made these communities more vulnerable. As such, a special envoy has never been more needed. Consider the roughly 8 million Coptic Christians that live in fear especially with the ascendancy of the Muslim Brotherhood and various Islamist elements. According to the annual report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), released earlier this year, “[i]mplementation of previous court rulings — related to granting official identity documents to Baha’is and changing religious affiliation on identity documents for converts to Christianity — has seen some progress but continues to lag, particularly for Baha’is. In addition, the government has not responded adequately to combat widespread and virulent anti-Semitism in the government-controlled media.”

While the violence continues in Syria, the administration seems unable to muster much more than empty rhetoric and the significant Christian population finds itself especially vulnerable. An October 24 Wall Street Journal article stated that one widely-cited tally estimated that “34,000 people have been killed.” In Iraq, the once vibrant Christian community has been halved from 2003 to the present day. Thousands have fled the country, with many presently living in ghettos in neighboring countries, in the face of violence — violence which for years the State Department has failed to recognize as targeted in nature, despite the disproportionate representation of Iraqi Christians and other minorities among the refugee population. USCIRF also found in its annual report that, “[l]arge percentages of the country’s smallest religious minorities — which include Chaldo-Assyrian and other Christians, Sabean Mandaeans and Yezidis — have fled the country in recent years, threatening these ancient communities’ very existence in Iraq.”

In Pakistan, Shabbaz Bhatti — Pakistan’s only Christian cabinet member — was gunned down in March 2011 for daring to challenge the blasphemy laws and for being outspoken on his defense of Asia Bibi, the young Christian mother of five, facing a possible death sentence on charges of blasphemy. For months prior to the assassination, I repeatedly urged the State Department to provide Shabbaz with an armored vehicle, in face of repeated threats on his life and in recognition of his strategic import in the region. Such a vehicle never materialized, leaving Shabbaz vulnerable to the murderous aims of extremists in his own country, which ultimately took his life.

The examples above are but a sampling of a devastating trend which has broader geopolitical implications. Religious pluralism is central to any vibrant democracy and religious minorities have historically been a moderating influence in these parts of the world.

And yet, despite the strategic imperative and the moral obligation to act, the State Department seems unable or unwilling to address the issue with the urgency it demands. I am disappointed in Senator Webb for having put a hold on this bill and preventing it from moving, despite the obvious need for renewed attention to this issue and the very fact that not one Democrat voted against the House-passed bill. I am particularly disheartened by Chairman Kerry’s lack of action — despite my repeated requests for a vote or hearing.

It is important that the State Department prioritizes these issues and actively works to sustain the presence of religious minorities in the region, particularly during such a critical time of transition in the broader Middle East.

Best wishes.

Sincerely,
Frank R. Wolf
Member of Congress

Azerbaijan says its soil will not be used to launch an attack on Iran.

Tue Oct 2, 2012 4:46PM GMT

Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Pakistan says Baku will not allow Israel to use its airspace or land to carry out a military attack on Iran or any other country.

“Azerbaijan has been following a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries,” Baku’s Ambassador to Pakistan Dashgin Shikrov said in an exclusive interview with the Pakistani daily The News on Monday.

The ambassador strongly rejected rumors in Western media outlets about his country’s readiness for providing Israel ground facilities for attacking Iran’s nuclear sites.

“Azerbaijan is member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and nobody should have any doubt that it will not permit the use of its territory for committing acts of aggression against another OIC member,” the ambassador added.

Israel has recently stepped up threats of carrying out a strike against Iran’s nuclear energy facilities.

The threats are based on the unfounded claims that the peaceful nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic include a military component.

Iranian officials have refuted the allegation and have promised a crushing response to any military strike against the country, warning that any such measure could result in a war that would spread beyond the Middle East.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/02/264610/baku-will-not-aid-israel-attack-on-iran/

Fri Aug 3, 2012 8:4AM GMT

When yesterday the Washington Post came up with an article which was harshly critical of Kofi Annan, I think if the United States were really in support of the special envoy, the spokesman of the State Department could have said a few things in defense of the special envoy.”

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin

Russia has blamed the United States for the resignation of Kofi Annan as the joint United Nations and Arab League envoy for the Syria crisis, Press TV reports.

“When yesterday the Washington Post came up with an article which was harshly critical of Kofi Annan, I think if the United States were really in support of the special envoy, the spokesman of the State Department could have said a few things in defense of the special envoy,” Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters after a UN Security Council briefing on Syria at the UN headquarters in New York City on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Annan quit his mandate as the special UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, blaming “finger-pointing and name-calling” at the UN Security Council for his decision.

Annan, who was appointed to the task on February 23, proposed a six-point peace plan to restore calm in Syria.

The proposal envisaged a ceasefire between foreign-backed insurgents and the Syrian government forces, a deal which went into effect in mid-April but failed to end the violence as the insurgents refused to lay down their arms.

Churkin also criticized foreign media for following a propaganda line in their coverage of the unrest in Syria. He specifically spoke of the media coverage of the situation in Aleppo and accused the foreign media of lacking objectivity.

Meanwhile, UN under-secretary for the peacekeeping operations Herve Ladsous admitted that the armed groups fighting Damascus have been provided with heavy weapons, including tanks.

“The opposition, yes, we know for a fact that the opposition does have heavy weapons- that we have seen. We have not yet seen the opposition in the action of using those heavy weapons against government forces but we know that they have tanks; that they have armored personnel carriers etcetera. That’s a fact,” Ladsous said.

VG/AZ

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/03/254177/russia-blames-us-for-annan-resignation/