A UPS cargo plane crashes at an air force base shortly after take-off from Dubai airport, killing two crew members on board.

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Published on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:46:41 GMT

A British man has appeared in court in London, accused of trying to sell missile parts to Iran in breach of international sanctions. Wealthy golf club president Christopher Tappin denies the charge and is fighting an extradition request from the United States, where he could face a 35-year prison sentence if found guilty.

The case has highlighted the tightening of sanctions against Tehran – and the problems that foreign businesses face in trying to do business in Iran.

Tappin says he was the victim of entrapment by U.S. customs officials — and emerged from the hearing confident that the extradition request would be denied. “We are very against the way that the U.S. is conducting itself in prosecuting this case and the clear indication is that things are moving in our direction,” he said.

Tappin denies he attempted to sell batteries for surface-to-air missiles, which were allegedly to be shipped from the U.S. to Tehran. The American clients he was dealing with were in fact undercover Customs Enforcement agents.

In July of this year, President Obama signed a bill enacting sanctions against the export of petroleum products to Iran, together with measures preventing banks from providing services to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. “I’m pleased to sign into law the toughest sanctions against Iran ever passed by the United States Congress,” the president said.

The United Nations followed with sanctions targeting Iran’s armed forces and nuclear-related industries. It’s these laws that Christopher Tappin is accused of breaking.

Nigel Kushner of the London law firm Whale Rock advises clients who want to do business in Iran on how to comply with the sanctions. He says the regulations are hugely complex. “There are so many different layers of sanctions which means that companies are often in the dark and don’t even realize that what they’re doing is wrong. The U.S. authorities came out with some far-reaching sanctions which have an effect on non-U.S. persons, so what they’re saying to the rest of the world is, ‘You want to do business with Iran? Then you won’t be doing business in the U.S,’” he said.

The U.S. government says the sanctions are a vital tool in trying to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons – though Tehran denies it is doing so.

Outside the courthouse in London, the human rights group “Liberty” organized a protest in support of Tappin. The group’s director of policy, Isabella Sankey, claims the extradition agreements between the U.S. and the United Kingdom are being misused.

“Cases like this definitely highlight how blanket rules that were brought in post-9/11, supposedly to deal with terror suspects and allow them to be transferred easily between the U.S. and the U.K., are actually so broad and lack so many fundamental safeguards that many of these smaller allegations and cases are being swept up along with what this law was originally intended to deal with,” she said.

Tappin will be back in court in November to continue his fight against extradition to the U.S.

U.S. authorities say they will continue to pursue anyone they believe is breaking the sanctions against Iran.

U.S. sponsored peace talks between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships are under way again after a two-year hiatus. On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. administration wants an agreement within a year. Many Mideast analysts are skeptical, though, about the chances of success.

After their direct talks in Washington on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas agreed to hold another round of meetings later this month. Their long-term aim is to produce a framework for a permanent peace deal.

The prospects for peace as a result of this new U.S. initiative were intensely debated at a meeting in Washington of the American Political Science Association.

Anne Marie Slaughter, the director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department, said “I think we’ve got a good shot.”

Slaughter is the former dean of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She says there are good reasons why President Barack Obama’s effort might succeed where previous administrations have failed.

“This president made his commitment clear from day one. He didn’t wait until the last year of his administration. He knew it would take patience and time. It has. But this is an important step forward after 18 months, recognizing that the groundwork has to be prepared, we have to be patient, but we also have to believe that an agreement is possible,” she said.

Pessimism

But optimism was a minority view here. “I think the peace process is basically a charade,” said John Mearsheimer, co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago.

Mearsheimer is a well-known critic of the pro-Israel lobby in the U.S. He says its efforts will make it impossible for the president to pressure Mr. Netanyahu into making concessions.

“I think that a good case could be made that Barack Obama is making a significant political mistake in pursuing these negotiations because they’re bound to fail and when they fail he’s going to have egg all over his face,” he said.

Setbacks

Mearsheimer says Mr. Abbas is weak and unable to bring Hamas to the negotiating table. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip. Its armed wing claimed responsibility for attacks that killed Jewish settlers in the West Bank earlier this week.

Ian Lustick of the University of Pennsylvania says conditions are less favorable for an agreement now than they were during previous peace attempts.

“However, one of the advantages of this particular episode is that we’ll know very quickly whether there’s any reason for hope,” he said.

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He says that’s because Mr. Netanyahu will have to decide whether to extend his moratorium on construction of settlements when it expires later this month.

Lustick, who has studied the settler movement in Israel, says that previous failed talks have at least taught both Israelis and Palestinians what is needed to make peace.

“Everybody on each side knows what the price is,” he said. “It’s not like either side is not sure what the price is. Each side knows almost exactly what would be necessary for a viable two-state solution’”

There have been successful peace talks, namely with Egypt and Jordan. But analysts note that by comparison the concessions required from Israel were mild.

Michael Desch, who chairs the Political Science Department at the University of Notre Dame, says it will be a lot harder for Israel to give up even part of the West Bank, which many Israelis refer to by the ancient names Judea and Samaria.

“Judea and Samaria are different. There are larger numbers of settlers involved. And this is really the heart of the biblical land of Israel,” he said.

But even if Israel does what the Palestinian leadership demands and completely stops building settlements, Hamas still has the power to destroy the whole peace process. Its armed wing says 13 militant groups are now joining forces to launch more attacks against Israel, including possible suicide bombings.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair tells the BBC that radical Islam is the greatest threat facing the world.

This article is from BBC News [visit resource]
Published on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:54:20 GMT

The U.N. refugee agency is urging European countries to halt the forcible deportation of Iraqis to their country, where their lives could be at risk. The UNHCR says the Iraqi asylum seekers are in need of international protection.

The U.N. refugee agency says it is very concerned by on-going forced returns of Iraqi citizens from Western European countries. It says the latest deportations occurred September 1st, when a chartered flight with 61 people on board landed at Baghdad airport.

The UNHCR says the passengers were mainly Iraqis who had been residing in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the United Kingdom. The agency says it has not yet been able to confirm reports that three Iranians were among those on board.

U.N. refugee spokesman, Adrian Edwards says the UNHCR is asking governments not to forcibly return Iraqis to Baghdad, Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninewa and Salah Al-din. He says these areas are dangerous and serious human rights violations are common.

“Our position is that Iraqi asylum applicants originating from these five governorates should benefit from international protection in the form of refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention or an alternative form of protection,” said Edwards.

“Some of the individuals among the group returned on Wednesday may be destined for safer areas such as the Kurdistan Region Government Region, others may have elected to return voluntarily. Nonetheless of the 11 individuals we were able to interview on arrival some originated from Baghdad and at least one person was a Christian from Mosul, in the Governorate of Ninewa.”

Edwards says the security situation in that Governorate remains extremely volatile. He says increased deadly attacks in Baghdad highlight the dangers that exist in the Iraqi capital.

He says asylum seekers who are returned to Iraq run serious risks from indiscriminate threats to life and from violence that disturb public order.

The UNHCR strongly urges European governments to provide Iraqis with protection until the situation in their areas of origin is good enough for them to return home safely.

The US secretary of state warns the current round of Mid-East peace talks may be “the last chance for a very long time”.

This article is from BBC News [visit resource]
Published on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:22:35 GMT

The relaunching of peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Washington has been greeted with a fair degree of skepticism in the Arab world.

The mixed reaction to the renewed talks could be seen in the comments of Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa. Before negotiations got under way, he said he was pessimistic about the chance of success, but is now stressing that the talks must be given a chance.

An informal survey of the mood on the streets of Beirut, where some areas are still being rebuilt after a 2006 conflict with Israel, turned up repeated expressions of pessimism. The only variation seemed to be the reason for the low expectations.

Some, like Hashim, an oil business consultant, were suspicious of Israeli motives, especially in light of past promises not to keep building on Palestinian lands.

“I think with the current Israeli government, they’re not going to give in on anything,” he said. “They’ve already drawn the line on where they want the borders to be. The stettlements aren’t going away. So what’s going to change? Nothing’s going to change. The Israelis are not going to budge on any of that. Ever since the Oslo peace treaty, the number of settlements have been increasing exponentially. So they don’t care.”

Others, like this student, Justine, spreads the blame, saying the region is not ready for peace. “Everyone is telling me the war will come soon, will come back,” he said. “It could be with Israel, or it could be a civil war again. No one thinks that the country is at peace now. So peace talk in Washington, I don’t think it will change the atmosphere here”.

Others expressed hostility to even the idea of talks. This young man is between jobs as a telecommunications consultant.

“Any peace talks with the Israelis is a kind of surrender by traitors. That’s how I see the peace talks. There shouldn’t be any peace talks with the Israelis. There’s no basis for peace. Somebody came and took your land, so what are you negotiating? The only solution is to get out of that land. That’s it,” he said.

Others, such as this young woman, Yasmin, says there could be a practical solution, if conditions were different. “It’s like a business deal,” she said. “So when there is common interests, maybe we can get to a certain agreement for, like, a truce. But if there is no common ground, then no.”

The popular view of an unfair situation regarding the Palestinians is shared by many intellectuals and officials as well. But some, like Paul Salem, the director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, offers a glimmer of hope the talks could succeed.

“What we’re talking about here is a settlement, not a just peace,” he said. “And that’s very sad. That’s very unfortunate. But that also seems to be the reality. And many Palestinian leaders and other leaders around the world acknowledge this difficulty: how do you adjust to a situation which is not just? But at the end of the day, life needs to go on.”

Salem adds the Palestinians need a homeland of sorts, even if its not the homeland they deserve, and a growing sense of the need to move forward.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned Israel and the US in a rally marking the annual Quds, or Jerusalem Day. Security was tight and coincided with reports that the house of opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi was under siege by pro-government militia members.

Iranian government TV showed crowds of demonstrators chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” for the celebration of Jerusalem Day, an annual event to express support for Palestinians and to decry the existence of Israel.

Preparations for this year’s event began well in advance, with government leaders urging a large turnout. Last year, opposition protesters overwhelmed parts of the demonstration, chanting slogans against the Iranian government and condemning repression of the popular Green Movement.

Government leaders were shown attending the event, surrounded by dozens of supporters. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been locked in a struggle recently with adversaries inside the government, claimed that Jerusalem Day had strong popular support:

He says 75 million Iranians turned out for Jerusalem Day, today, and that hundreds of millions of others turned out to mark the event across the world. He adds that billions of people would turn out to mark Jerusalem Day if it were not for what he called the pressures of arrogant world powers and their threats of arrest and suppression.

Government TV used video taken by helicopter to try to show that there was a large turnout for the demonstration. Opposition supporters countered the claims with their own videos which appear to show a sparse turnout and a heavy security presence.

Friday, security forces deployed across Tehran, in an apparent bid to keep opposition demonstrators off the streets. Dozens of pro-government Basij militiamen on motorcycles surrounded the house of opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, according to his news site Sahamnews.

Karroubi’s home has been under siege for several days, with reports of violence and vandalism in the area. Karroubi’s website also reported that Molotov cocktails were thrown at his building and that his top bodyguard had been badly beaten.

Iranian-born analyst Alex Vatanka of the Middle East Institute in Washington insists that pro-government forces have been mounting an ongoing campaign to de-legitimize the opposition Green Movement, as well as its top leaders:

“We’ve seen in the last few days how they’ve tried to keep Mehdi Karroubi away, trying to say Mr. Karroubi, Mr. Khatami, Mr. Mousavi, you are not part of whatever it is that you used to be part of,” said Alex Vatanka. “Now, you are going to the dark side. You’re not with the repressed Palestinians and you’re not with the repressed Iranians.”

Jerusalem Day began in the early 1980s after a call by Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to demonstrate against Israeli occupation of Jerusalem.

Alex Vatanka notes that this year’s rally carries added significance for the Iranian government, because it was eclipsed in recent months by Turkey’s spearheading of the failed aid flotilla to Gaza. “Iran,” he argues, “wants to put itself at the forefront as defender of the most cherished Islamic cause it can find, which is Palestine.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has criticized the relaunched direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, saying the talks are doomed to fail.

Mr. Ahmadinejad said Friday that only Palestinians can decide their fate – not Western powers. He said resistance was the only way for Palestinians to secure their rights.

The Iranian leader commented at a rally marking Quds Day, an annual event in Iran on the last Friday of Ramadan to mark a show of support for Palestinians. Supporters attending the rally cheered Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speech and chanted “down with Israel.”

The rally follows direct peace talks in Washington Thursday between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the first such dialogue in almost two years.

Iranian leaders have repeatedly called for Israel’s demise. Israel has long accused Iran of providing weapons to Gaza militants. Iran denies smuggling weapons to Hamas but has been a vocal supporter of the militant group.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.