Clinton blasts Iran, Syria in appearance before Jewish group

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As the United States prepares for a visit next week by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned his regime in some of the Obama administration’s strongest language to date in a speech Thursday night.

“Iran, with its anti-Semitic president and hostile nuclear ambitions, also continues to threaten Israel, destabilize the region, and sponsor terror,” Clinton said, addressing the annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee.

“The United States is committed to pursuing [a] diplomatic path. But we will not compromise our commitment to preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.”

Ahmadinejad is expected to be in New York for a United Nations conference on nuclear nonproliferation that opens Monday. The United States has said it will likely grant the Iranian leader’s request for a visa.

Clinton also took on Syria on Thursday night, speaking of “grave dangers of Syria’s transfer of weapons to [Hezbollah],” and warning that such a move by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would “have a profoundly destabilizing effect on the region” and would violate a UN Security Council resolution

U.S. officials this month accused Syria of trying to supply weapons to Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party that the United States has labeled a terrorist organization.

“We do not accept such provocative and destabilizing behavior — and nor should the international community,” Clinton said. “President Assad is making decisions that could mean war or peace for the region.”

“There should be no mistake, either in Damascus or anywhere else: The United States is not re-engaging with Syria as a reward or a concession,” Clinton said, referring to the Obama administration’s plan to appoint an ambassador to Syria.

“Engagement is a tool that can give us added leverage and insight, and a greater ability to convey strong and clear messages aimed at changing Syria’s behavior.”

More than a thousand people, including members of Congress and diplomats, were packed into a ballroom at a downtown Washington hotel for the event. Clinton received a warm reception, with her speech repeatedly interrupted by applause.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who followed Clinton at the event, remarked on recent tensions between the Obama administration and the Jewish state, which have revolved largely around President Obama’s call for the Israelis to freeze settlements in the Palestinian territories.

“I feel very strongly that these differences, these slight disputes, are behind us,” Barak said Thursday.

Barak called 2010 a year of “exceptional threats and opportunities” for Israel and spoke of “heavy clouds looming over the horizon” in reference to Hezbollah, Hamas and Iran.

He said nations opposed to Iran moving forward with the development of nuclear weapons should support sanctions against it. “For the time-being, it is time for sanctions,” Barak said. “They should be effective.”

But he said that sanctions required clear time limits.

Four Palestinians killed in border tunnel

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(CNN) — Four Palestinians were killed, and six were hurt by toxic fumes when Egyptian security forces blew up a tunnel in Rafah, Egypt, the Palestinian Interior Ministry said.

The Egyptians on Wednesday blew up a tunnel on their side of the border with Gaza, Palestinian officials said, but fumes and chemicals from the blast seeped into an adjacent tunnel where the Palestinians were working.

Hundreds of such smuggling tunnels crisscross the border between Egypt and Gaza, providing passage for everything from weapons to humanitarian aid to people. Egyptian and Israeli forces frequently target the tunnels. Egypt has recently begun construction of a steel wall along the border to block such tunnels.

HEZBOLLAH REJECTS US ALLEGATION

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Hezbollah has sharply rejected US allegations about the Lebanese movement’s missiles, vowing to continue armed resistance against Israeli aggression.

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah in an article published on Wednesday scoffed at recent comments by US Defense Minister Robert Gates that Hezbollah’s arms exceeded those held by many states in the world, saying Hezbollah’s arms did not compare to the “armament” and “crimes” of the United States and its ally Israel.
The Lebanese official recalled “the level of armament of the United States, which it used in its crimes against peoples around the world, from Hiroshima to the more than 100,000 killed in Iraq and the tens of thousands killed in Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan,” the Arabic-language newspaper As-Safir quoted him on Wednesday.
“There is a difference between arms which only serve invasions, occupations and aggressions, such as those of the United States and its ally Israel … and the arms of a resistance which defends, protects, and liberates,” he said.
“Our choice was and remains to secure all the arms of resistance that we can,” he added.
In a joint news conference with Israeli Defense Minster Ehud Barak in Washington, Gates on Tuesday accused Syria and Iran of arming Hezbollah with increasingly sophisticated rockets and missiles.
Gates’ claims came amid tensions in the Middle East intensified by Israel’s earlier accusations against Syria of providing Scud ballistic missiles for Hezbollah.
Israel views Hezbollah a major enemy, especially after the summer conflict of 2006 where the resistance forces repelled a 33-day Israeli offensive on southern Lebanon.

Iran selected for women's rights body

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Iran has won a four-year term on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, an influential body explicitly dedicated to promoting gender equality.

A press release on the filling of vacancies in subsidiary UN bodies announced on Thursday that Iran, along with representatives from 10 other nations, has been elected to the high-profile women’s rights commission.

Other countries joining Iran for the term beginning in 2011 include, Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Estonia, Georgia, Jamaica, Liberia, the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and Zimbabwe.

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) is devoted to ensuring the protection of women’s rights by investigating nations that violate women’s rights, monitoring their efforts in improving women’s equality and detailing their shortcomings.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast announced Monday that the country has dropped its bid for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council and has instead turned its sights on a position in the reputable UNCSW.

“Iran has reconsidered its application for candidacy in the Human Rights Council and will instead run for a seat in the influential and legitimate Women’s Right Commission,” Mehmanparast explained.

Iran will always stand alongside Syria: Veep

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Iran First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said here on Friday that Syria is prepared to confront any threat and Iran will always remain alongside it.

Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), In a joint press conference with Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri, he added that Iran will never neglect for a moment in supporting Syria against the occupiers of the Palestine land.

He described the unity between the two countries as an iron fist on the face of those who nurture bad thoughts in their heads about a Muslim country, especially Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Stressing the need to strengthen economic ties between the two states, he further noted that Iran will prioritize friend countries in its economic cooperation.

Referring to the Israeli threats against the Arab country, he said that such threats are worthless.

“Iran will support Syria in all fields” Rahimi concluded.

US panel names Saudi as one of 13 religious violators

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That is the goal of the congressional act that founded the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in 1998. The commission investigates conditions in what it calls “hot spots,” where religious freedom is endangered. Its job is to recommend U.S. government policies to improve conditions.

It is a “small but critically important point of intersection of foreign policy, national security and international religious freedom standards,” the report said. “Regrettably that small point seems to shrink year-after-year for the White House and he State Department.”

This year’s list of 13 “countries of particular concern” included all eight named last year – Myanmar, also known as Burma; China; Eritrea; Iran; North Korea; Saudi Arabia; Sudan; and Uzbekistan – plus Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

U.S. actions currently in force against the original eight include embargoes, often on top of existing sanctions, and denial of military or financial aid. Sanctions have been waived indefinitely for Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan has a waiver of 180 days which remains in force.

President Barack Obama’s administration has not officially accepted the 2009 findings or named the specified countries as violators of religious rights. Neither did the administration of President George W. Bush between November 2006 and January 2009.

In addition to the 13 designated the worst violators, the report identified 12 countries on a watch list: Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Venezuela.

Thursday’s report described violations of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia as “systematic, egregious and ongoing” despite limited reforms implemented by King Abdullah.

“In China, the government continues to engage in systematic and egregious violations of the freedom of religion or belief,” the report said. It alleged “a marked deterioration in the past year, particularly in Tibetan Buddhist and Uighur Muslim areas.”

It had similar observations for the other countries listed. In Iran, it noted “prolonged detention, torture and executions based primarily or entirely upon the religion of the accused.” It said the Tehran government’s record deteriorated after contentious elections in June.

The commission’s chairman, Leonard Leo, said in a statement that visits to the “hot spots” had found situations “where freedom of religion is obstructed and related human rights are trampled.”

He said the report offers important foreign policy solutions that should be implemented. “The report’s conclusion is clear,” Leo said: “the administration must do more.”

Iran wins seat on UN Commission on the Status of Women

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TEHRAN, May 1 (MNA) – Iran has won a four-year seat on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, an influential body committed to promoting gender equality.
At a meeting at UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, Iran was elected, through a vote of acclamation, as a member on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

Iran’s election to the commission came Just days after Iran announced it withdrew from a high-profile bid for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council.

When its term begins in 2011, Iran will be joined by 10 other countries namely Belgium, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Estonia, Georgia, Jamaica, Liberia, the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and Zimbabwe to help set UN policy on gender equality and advancement of women.

The CSW, a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), is tasked with setting global standards and policies to promote gender equality, monitoring the implementation of measures for advancement of women, appraising progress made at the national, sub-regional, regional and global levels, and conducting review of cases of women rights violation across the globe.