Iranian aid ships to set sail for Gaza

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Two Iranian aid ships carrying humanitarian relief and medical supplies for the people of Gaza will set sail for the coastal sliver in the upcoming days.

Iran’s Red Crescent announced Monday that the cargo will include food, medicine and appliances and it will be accompanied by a group of Iranian doctors and relief workers.

“The aid consists of food and medical supplies, which will be transported into Gaza via the Rafah border in Egypt before the week is through,” the country’s Red Crescent Director Abdolraoof Adibzadeh said.

The Rafah border crossing is the only escape route from Gaza that does not lead to Israel.

“Iran is also preparing to dispatch a navy hospital ship for the people of Gaza, which will have onboard doctors, nurses and all the medical equipment required for emergency surgeries and procedures,” Adibzadeh further explained.

The decision comes in the wake of a deadly Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla carrying thousands of tons of aid supplies and hundreds of humanitarian activists to the coastal strip.

Israel’s military attack into the Turkish aid vessel M.V. Mavi Marmara resulted in the death of nine activists — including a Turkish teenager — and the injury of more then 40 others.

Iran to approve “peace pipeline” deal on Tuesday

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TEHRAN: Iran hopes to finalise a deal this week for a much-delayed pipeline to export natural gas to Pakistan by 2015, an energy official said on Sunday.

“The $7 billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline contract will be finalised this week, and based on the approved time framework the export of gas to Pakistan will be launched by the end of 2015,” said Hojjatollah Qanimifard, deputy director in charge of investment at the National Iranian Oil Company.

“In a meeting in Tehran on Tuesday (June 8), the final approval on pipeline by the NIOC board of directors will be delivered to Pakistani officials and their letter of guarantee will be received,” he said in the comments on semi-official news agency ILNA.
The project is crucial for Pakistan to avert a growing energy crisis already causing severe electricity shortages in the country of about 170 million, at the same time as it confronts militancy.

The pipeline will connect Iran’s giant South Fars gas field with Pakistan’s southern Baluchistan and Sindh provinces.

Iran has the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia. But sanctions by the West, political turmoil and construction delays have slowed its development as an exporter.

Dubbed the “peace pipeline,” the project has been planned since the 1990s and originally would have extended from Pakistan to its old rival, India.

However, India has been reluctant to join the project given its long-running distrust of Pakistan, with which it has fought three wars since they achieved independence in 1947.

Under a deal signed in March, Pakistan will be allowed to charge a transit fee if the proposed pipeline is eventually extended to India.

The United States has tried to discourage India and Pakistan from any deal with Iran because of Tehran’s uranium enrichment activities and suspicions it wants to build nuclear weapons.

Iran, whose economy has been hit by UN sanctions over the dispute, denies any such ambitions.

Iranian media reported on Sunday that the oil minister had ordered an end to talks with Anglo-Dutch Shell and Spain’s Repsol over the development of South Pars after the majors failed to meet ultimatums on their involvement.

Iran has the world’s second largest gas reserves but has struggled for years to develop its oil and gas reserves.

Iran says it already makes $18 billion annually from production at 10 phases of South Pars but that income could leap to at least $96 billion a year when all phases are completed. China’s National Petroleum Corporation is developing part of it.

The Islamic republic says it needs around $25 billion a year in oil and gas industry investment.

Hossein Noghrekar Shirazi, deputy oil minister in charge of international affairs, told Abrar daily on Sunday Iran’s gas production capacity of 600 million cubic metres per day could rise to 1.1 billion cubic metres by 2015.

Israel kills 4 Palestinians off Gaza in foiled terror attack

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The Israeli military said Monday it thwarted a terror attack when it fired on a group of Palestinians in diving gear at sea off Gaza.

The statement by the Israel Defense Forces did not offer additional details other than to say that no soldiers were hurt.

Hamas security forces said four Palestinians were killed and their bodies brought to a hospital. Search was under way to find a fifth body.

Al Aqsa — the armed wing of Fatah, Hamas’ rival — confirmed the men belonged to their organization and were on a suicide mission.

In northern Gaza, one man was injured in an Israeli air strike Monday morning, Palestinian officials said.

The “air force attacked a group of terrorists who were prepared to fire rockets into Israel in the northern Gaza strip,” said an Israel Defense Forces spokesman. “About 10 rockets and mortars were fired into Israel in the past several weeks.”

Israel said it holds Hamas, the Palestinian faction in control of Gaza, responsible for the rocket attacks into Israel.

Once again, the Israeli enemy proves to be scared and perplexed… Israel in State of Alertness Because of… Imam Hussein Ensign! + PIC

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While showing the peace activists its “muscles” and claiming to be the strongest ever, the Israeli enemy finds itself unable to “hide” its state of alertness and panic whenever there’s some activity in South Lebanon…

Thus, on Saturday, the Zionist entity was in a state of alertness and mobilization at the Lebanese-Palestinian border. Israeli soldiers were dispatching patrols while Zionist vehicles were moving all over the region separating the borders.

The Israeli state of alertness was, however, “justified”: Hezbollah was raising the ensign of Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) in the southern town of Maroun Al-Rass.

From the highest point facing the Palestinian occupied territories, and specifically in Iran’s park in Maroun Al-Rass town, the town that played a major role in the Israeli defeat in 2006, a group of the Islamic Resistance members raised the flag coming from the holy city of Karabala in Iraq.

The ceremony, which was unprecedented in the southern town, also came in support with the Freedom Flotilla convoy en route to free and end the siege on Gaza.

Hezbollah official in South Lebanon Sheikh Nabil Qaouk spoke during the ceremony and stressed that the Resistance party will not allow that Palestine is left alone in the era of resistance’s victories, referring that betting on the US policies is misguiding a deceiving.

Sheikh Qaouk expressed belief that sixty-two years of occupation, and four years of blockade, is more than enough to reveal that betting on international community, international resolutions, and Arab conferences, is only an illusion. “The real bet is only on the resisting heroes in Maroun Al-Rass, Gaza, and all Palestine”, Sheikh Qaouk emphasized.

The Hezbollah official, meanwhile, said Turkey was today more Arabic than most of the Arab countries. “Gaza is tired of all speeches, conferences, international and Arab resolutions, and it misses the will of the free and the resistance and martyrs”, Sheikh Qaouk said.

According to Sheikh Qaouk, Hezbollah will always be in the lead of supporting Palestine and Gaza, “and whether they like it or not, Maroun Al Rass and Gaza will be the doors to liberation.”

OIC Chief Urges Prosecution of Israeli Officials

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Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on Sunday called for formation of a judicial committee to bring to justice the Zionist regime officials according to the international accepted laws.

According to IRNA, addressing an emergency meeting of the OIC Foreign Ministers Executive Committee, Ihsanoglu said that Muslim countries are now in a position that can make important decision to curb Zionist regime’s aggressions.

He said contacts have been made with the Muslim heads of states in New York and Vienna to find ways to prosecute the Zionist ringleaders and draw up strategies to break siege of Gaza.

The Zionist regime of Israel has added another page to the lengthy record of its crimes against humanity.

Iran-Turkey-Pakistan railway to begin

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The cargo rail system between Iran, Turkey and Pakistan will begin regular operations by next August.

According to Press TV, Fars News Agency reported Sunday that Pakistani Minister of Railways Haji Gholam Ahmed Billour announced that the tri-nation cargo railway will inaugurate August 1, 2010, when Turkey is to launch the first cargo train in Istanbul destined for Islamabad.

Billour added that following the initial trip, regular transport of cargo trains will continue to operate between the three countries.

The remarks by the Pakistani official came in an address to the country’s parliament, according to the report.

Billour also emphasized Pakistan’s interest in expanding his country’s rail communications with Iran and Turkey.