Jafarir News:Pakistan jafaria allince strongly condemn the terrorism and barbarism throughout the country andannounce with profound grief that in Quetta today at 11.am Ali Mohammad.manager pepsi cola.co,Is seriously injured and Tahir Memon have mrrtyred by firing at Eastern Bypass.It is high time that we strengthen ourselves by uniting instead of scattering in to pieces.
Daily Archives: July 25, 2009
Iraqi Kurdistan’s crucial vote
| TEHRAN, July 24 (MNA) — The election for the presidency and parliament of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan tomorrow is expected to have a large turnout and the two main political factions, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), will face an unprecedented challenge to their 18-year monopoly on power from a slate named simply Change. | |
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Iraqi Kurdistan is clearly the biggest beneficiary of the downfall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The people of the region have experienced a long period of peace while other regions have suffered from civilian casualties from bomb blasts, a refugee crisis, sectarian strife, and other security-related problems.
The Kurds won self-rule in 1991, after the Americans and their allies chased Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in the south and then prevented him from attacking the Kurds in the north. Since then, two parties, the KDP, long a fief of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani, and the PUK, run by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s clan.
Mr. Barzani heads the most powerful Kurdish clan unchallenged, as his father did before him.
Goran, meaning change, is a new party that says it wants to improve the lives of Kurds across the northern region of Iraq. It has criticized corruption in the KDP and the PUK, accusing the two parties of doing a poor job of defending Kurdish interests in the federal parliament in Baghdad.
Change’s leader is Nawashirwan Mustafa, 65, who broke away from the PUK two years ago, saying that the KDP-PUK leadership had bred corruption, cronyism, and nepotism to the detriment of ordinary Kurds.
Mr. Mustafa uses the Wusha Foundation, a media outfit that runs a daily newspaper, a popular website, and a satellite TV station, to spread his message.
Interestingly, “Change” has been a major slogan for many politicians during recent elections, including reformist Iranian presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, U.S. President Barrack H. Obama, and Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah. Although Change’s leaders deny any conscious connection with Mr. Obama’s campaign, the movement’s official campaign slogan is “Yes, We Can Change It.”
The deputy prime minister of Iraq’s central government, Barham Salih, has been drafted by the PUK-KDP coalition to head its list during the election. If this coalition survives, Mr. Salih, a respected PUK man, may replace the Kurdish region’s incumbent prime minister, KDP member Nechirvan Barzani.
The law dictates a closed list system, where voters choose parties or coalitions rather than individual candidates. This system tends to favor voting along ethno-sectarian lines.
Kirkuk Province
Kirkuk is a fiercely disputed oil-rich province which the Kurds say they won’t “compromise” on. KRG President Barzani said Sunday, “We are committed to the application of Article 140 (of the Iraqi Constitution) and we promise that we will absolutely not compromise on this issue…” Article 140 calls for a referendum to decide the fate of Kirkuk, which the Kurds have declared as the future capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northernIraq.
The dispute over Kirkuk Province has repeatedly held up legislation needed to hold the vital post-war national parliamentary elections due in January.
The region is rich in oil and gas, and the Kurdish government has signed several oil and gas production and exploration deals with foreign firms which the federal government regards as illegitimate. The Iraqi Oil Law, dictating who controls what and where, is still unarticulated.
Change, the KDP, and the PUK have the same goals for Kirkuk, but Change says with its leadership there’d be a better chance of achieving them.
Also in dispute are three other historically Kurdish-populated provinces of Diyala, Nineveh, and Salahuddin.
The Kurdish region has a 100-seat assembly. 11 seats are reserved for minorities such as Turkmen and Christians. During the last election in 2005, the PUK-KDP alliance won all but seven of the 100 parliamentary seats up for grabs. |
Iran : First VP Rahim-Mashaii quits post
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| TEHRAN, July 25 (MNA) – Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaii quit his post as first vice president as the Supreme Leader’s letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on dismissing him was released on Friday. | |
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“After the order of the Supreme Leader I do not consider myself the first vice president,” Rahim-Mashaii said in an announcement.
In the letter, date July 18, the Leader had stated that appointing Rahim-Mashaii as vice president is not in the interests of the government and causes “rift and disappointment” among the supporters of the president himself. |
PROTESTERS WELCOME ISRAELI FM IN ARGENTINA
Zionist regime Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has arrived in Argentina as many took to the streets to protest his visit to the Latin American country. According to AP, Lieberman’s visit to Argentina is the latest leg of his 10-day tour of South American states.
In the capital, Buenos Aires, several hundred protesters demonstrated against his visit and Israeli policies in the Middle East.
The Zionist foreign minister arrived in Argentina after his first stop in Brazil, where he failed to drum up support for setting up an anti-Iran front in collaboration with the Latin American country.
The Brazilian official then took an apparent swipe at Israel over its blunt refusal to sign the NPT. He said: “Brazil would like all countries to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and wants to see a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.”
Zionist regime, which is the Middle East’s sole possessor of nuclear warheads, has shrugged off requests to join the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).
International Kashmir Conference concludes in Washington
ISLAMABAD, Jul 25 (APP): The 10th International Peace Conference on Kashmir, concluded on Friday in Washington D.C., has demanded that the inalienable right to self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, as it stood on 14 August 1947, be recognized and instituted. According to Kashmir Media Service, the Conference was held under the auspices of the Kashmiri American Council/Kashmir Center, and the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers.
The declaration adopted as the Washington Declaration in the concluding session urged upon the United States Congress to persuade the US Administration to support the appointment of a special United Nations envoy to Kashmir. It pointed out that the people of Jammu and Kashmir were the principal stakeholder.
The Declaration underscored the need to bring about a democratic, peaceable resolution of Kashmir dispute in conformity with the United Nations Charter.
It demanded an end to state of impunity, and restoration of individual, civil, political, and legal rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
It stressed that the cessation of militarization and human rights violations and the implementation of justice should take place expeditiously.
The Washington Declaration deplored that the non-violent, civil disobedience, including the prolific agitation of 2008 and 2009, enacted by the people of Kashmir had been repeatedly met with brutal force and collective punishment by the Indian state.
The militarization, it added, has induced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, unlawful detentions, torture, phenomenon of half-widows, orphans, displacement, migrations, and mass graves.
The Washington Declaration appreciated the commitment to resume composite dialogue between India and Pakistan, adding that the egregious violations of humanitarian norms had induced a culture of crisis.
It emphasized that the violation of promises, laws, and conventions in international humanitarian law, and the enforcement of draconian laws and policies had empowered the security apparatus of the Government of India to act with impunity.
The Washington Declaration identified its premise as sixty-two years of irresolution had witnessed conditions of militarization and inhumanity endured by the people of Indian-administered Kashmir, and the violation of their inalienable right of self-determination.
The drafting committee of the Declaration comprised Ved Bhasin, Prof. Angana Chatterji, Gautam Navlakha, Zahid G. Mohammad, Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Dr. Najib Naqi, Jatender Bakshi, Dr. Ghulam N. Mir and Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai.
Dr. Fai, the Executive Director of Kashmir Centre talking to media men expressed satisfaction over the adoption of the Washington Declaration.
16 killed in plane incident northeast Iran
A Russian made Illushin-62 with 153 passengers on board which was flying from Tehran to Mashad on Friday afternoon faced with a problem during landing in Hashemi-nejad Airport, Mashad, at 18:10 hours local time (14:40 hours GMT). 16 persons were killed in the plane incident on Friday, three of them passengers and the rest of them crew. Civil Aviation Spokesman Reza Jafarzadeh said that among the crew 9 persons were citizens of Kazakhstan and 4 of them were Iranian. He added that the plane, an Illushin–62, belongs to Kazakhstan and was chartered by Aria Airline. The Spokesman said that around 30 people of the 153 people on board have been injured. Qahreman Rashid, the provincial official, confirmed that names of 88 passengers who are healthy and alive have been checked by the passenger list. Rashid said that cause of the incident is under investigation.
Lebanon: Berri rejects to meet with US senior official
Lebanese Parliament Speaker, Nabih Berri rejected to meet with Middle East Senior Director of the American National Security Council, Dan Shapiro on Friday. Berri only allowed his consultant, Ali Hamdan to meet with Dan Shapiro. The American Vice-President, Joe Biden and Foreign Minister, Hilary Clinton in their visits to Lebanon before parliamentary elections had rejected to meet with Berri. America usually interferes in Lebanon’s internal affairs. The Lebanese Foreign Ministry repeatedly has announced that the American ambassador to Beirut and many other American officials in their visits to Lebanon do not comply with diplomatic norms.
Iran:Statement of 50 Membars of Leadership Assembly of Experts(majlese khobregan)
A majority of Leadership Assembly of Experts, a constitutional institution charged with designation of leader in the Islamic Republic of Iran, issued a statement to people to express views about the recent developments in the Iranian political scene. The statement thanked people for their 40-million-odd ballot in the June 24 presidential elections and described it a turning point in the history of the Islamic Revolution. The statement then affirmed that the notion of Velayat-e Faqih or the supervision and leadership of a devout expert in Islamic issues over the country’s affairs was a sequel to the track of Allah’s messengers and has its roots in the Holy Koran. It reaffirmed that no institution or authority, including the presidency would enjoy legality unless Vali-e Faqih, the person in the position, puts his signature of approval over the authority. “President is the executive arm of Velayat-e Faqih,” the statement noted. The experts of the assembly then renewed their approval of the leadership of Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei. They then denounced the wicked campaign of the enemies of the Islamic Republic system following the tenth presidential elections, namely by fanning the allegations of major fraud. “By exploiting the negligence of some of polls candidates, they embarked on a full-blown psychological warfare and tried to ruin public minds through fanning the phony and myth-like allegation of major fraud which was taken from velvet revolutions projects,” the statement said. The statement then asked the head of the assembly, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to express his support to the notion of Velayat-e Faqih more than past and wrest the enemies an opportunity to deal a blow to Iran’s national unity. The statement also asked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to strictly follow the recommendations of the IR Leader in promotion of religion and morality, serving people and resolving their problems. It also urged the President to use all committed and revolutionary experts in his cabinet and avoid appointing people who may incite sensitivities among elites and people. The statement concluded with the hope that the elites of society pass their Divine test regarding the political developments.
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