Iran, Iraq and Turkey in Baghdad on Thursday evening signed an agreement for power and energy cooperation and linking their power networks with that of Syria. According to IRNA, the memorandum of understanding was signed by Iran’s Minister of Energy Parviz Fattah and his Iraqi and Turkish counterparts at the end of the first regional power conference, held in Baghdad.
Under the agreement, power networks of the Persian Gulf states, Central Asian republics and regional countries will in the long run be connected to those of Europe.
The next such meeting will be held in Ankara in the next six months, to be attended by Iranian, Turkish, Iraqi and Syrian energy ministers.
Daily Archives: May 29, 2009
Suicide bombing kills 19, injures 125 in Zahedan
A relatively strong bomb rocked local Amir al-Momenin Mosque in Zahedan, Sistan-Balouchestan Prov., on Thursday, killing 19 and injuring 125. According to IRNA, speaking to reporters on Thursday, Governor of Sistan-Balouchestan Province Ali-Mohammad Azad said 80 of the injured are now hospitalized.
Azad said a terrorist group was behind the suicide bombing which occurred during the evening congregational prayers.
He said intelligence forces were quick to identify and arrest the terrorist group behind the incident who were trying to exit borders after the mosque bombing.
He noted that the group were to plant bomb in other parts of Zahedan too but failed due to timely action of the intelligence forces.
Three days of public mourning have reportedly been announced in the province following the incident.
Tehran's Friday Prayers Sermons
Tehran’s Interim Friday Prayers Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami, has said the responsibility for the recent terrorist attack on a Shiite mosque in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan lies firmly at the feet of global arrogance. Speaking to a large crowd of Friday prayers worshippers and the faithful in Tehran, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami emphasized that this terrorist attack bore all the hallmarks of US and Zionist involvement and was without a doubt carried out with US and Zionist backing. The terror attack left scores of people injured and martyred.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Seyyed Ahmad Khatami referred to last week’s trip to Kurdistan province by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, stressing that the visit was very useful in bringing closer the Shiite and Sunni communities in Kurdistan. He pointedly stressed that the objective behind last night’s terrorist attack on a mosque in Zahedan in southeastern Iran was to divide Shiites and Sunnis in that part of the country.
In further remarks, Tehran’s interim Friday prayers leader referred to the anniversary of the passing away of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the late Imam Khomeini (May his soul rest in peace), pointing out the very valuable political principles enunciated by the late Imam. Seyyed Ahmad Khatami emphasized that Imam Khomeini’s politics were always based on Islam, as a central pivot, with plenty of emphasis on the Islamic Republic, obeying laws, fighting global arrogance and the bullying powers, and defending the rights of the oppressed Palestinians. He pointedly added: “When hardly anybody raised a voice in opposition to the Zionists, the late Imam Khomeini (May his souI rest in peace) founded the International Al-Quds Day, to draw attention to plight of the Palestinians and to support the Palestinian people’s cause.
UN issues desperate appeal to help Pakistanis
UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. humanitarian chief issued a desperate appeal Thursday for hundreds of millions of dollars to help 2.4 million Pakistanis who have fled the war against Taliban militants, warning that the U.N. can only sustain its current aid efforts for one month.
Last Friday, the United Nations revised an earlier appeal and urged donors to contribute $543 million to help the displaced Pakistanis through the end of December.
U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said so far only $118 million have come in just 21 percent of the amount and “not remotely sufficient.” He noted that the total includes $17 million from the U.N.’s emergency fund.
“We need to scale up this effort very significantly, in line with the scale and the speed of the displacement,” Holmes said. “We cannot sustain the effort we are making at the moment for more than a month without some new and significant resources being contributed by the donors.”
He said the most immediate needs are funds for food, shelter, cooking utensils, water and sanitation facilities and health services.
Holmes spoke to reporters after meeting with representatives from between 80 and 90 countries to appeal for help. He was joined by Pakistan’s U.N. ambassador.
The United Nations hopes that donors will contribute 60-70percent of the $543 million “within a few weeks,” Holmes said.
More than 1.9 million Pakistanis have fled the recent conflict centered on the northwestern Swat Valley in recent weeks, joining more than 500,000 others who have left their homes since last summer, Holmes said.
While about 90 percent of the 2.4 million people who have been displaced are living with family members or in rented accommodation, he said 220,000 are now in 26 camps south of the battle zone 12 of which the U.N. opened in the last few weeks.
Holmes said the U.N. is concerned that the number of Pakistanis fleeing the fighting is increasing and could rise further if fighting worsens in Waziristan.
Ahmadinejad: We are after ultimate advancement of Iran
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Wednesday evening said in an aired presidential campaign address: “Advancement means improvement in economic, cultural and political fields, in accordance with our definitions.” According to IRIB World Service, this presidential hopeful focused on economic development issue, saying, “I am opposed to using this phrase without offering our own indigenous definition for it, since in that case anyone would have his own interpretation of it.”
Ahmadinejad added, “Some people had defined advancement by resorting to the foreign indices; based on which they intended to define both cultural and literary phenomena, and some of them in early years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution even argued that we need to seek for definitions and economy, based on foundations of development.”
Ahmadinejad pointed out that we are after optimum advancement of the country, reiterating, “True advancement is materialized when it can be observed harmoniously in economic, cultural and political fields, in accordance with our own definitions of them.”
President Ahmadinejad said that the conditions are strongly changing at the international scene in our favor, arguing, “The literature of the Islamic Revolution has found its place in the world and we notice today that most nations are dissatisfied with their status quo, having lost their hope for improvement of affairs, relying on internal apparatus.”
Hamas: Abbas conceding West Bank to Israel
Hamas has charged Head of Palestine’s self-rule Authority Mahmoud Abbas of granting concessions on the illegal Zionist settlements in the occupied West Bank. According to Press TV, the protest came after Ahmed Qurei, a senior aide to Mahmoud Abbas, suggested that Zionist settlers in the West Bank could be allowed to live in the occupied territories as Palestinian citizens in a future Palestinian state.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman was quoted by Xinhua as saying “Qurei’s statements are dangerous. They give the Zionist settlements a legitimate cover to steal the Palestinian people’s land.”
He added “This move aims at getting Israel out of its crisis especially after the world consensually stressed an end to the settlement issue on the Palestinian land,” “The settlement is a sort of aggression that must be resisted.”
Taliban claim responsibility for Lahore attack
The Taliban in Pakistan claimed responsibility Thursday for a deadly bomb and gun attack on police and intelligence agency offices, saying it was revenge for the army’s current offensive against the militants in the country’s northwest. According to AP, about 30 people were killed and at least 250 wounded when gunmen fired and lobbed grenades at offices of the police and top intelligence agency, then detonated an explosive-laden van in a busy street in Pakistan’s second-largest city – the intellectual and cultural heart of Punjab, the country’s most populous province.
A little-known group calling itself the Taliban Movement in Punjab has also claimed responsibility for the attack.
Jafria News 
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