Iran optimistic about IAEA talks

Iran is optimistic about the outcome of the fresh round of talks with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Tuesday.

"Iran has always stressed cooperation with the IAEA and has done its utmost for transparency and removing the ambiguities" on the nuclear issue, Afkham told reporters in her weekly press briefing.

Also, under the new administration, Iran is pursuing a "new approach" in its interaction and cooperation with the IAEA, said the spokeswoman.

"Iran hopes the new approach facilitates Iran and the IAEA`s cooperation," she said, adding that the approach is expected to " answer (the IAEA`s) questions, remove the ambiguities, and lead to further cooperation."

The nuclear agency and Iran continued talks for a second day on Tuesday on Tehran`s disputed nuclear program.

The talks centering an inspection framework document began on Monday afternoon after the meeting between Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and the agency`s Chief Yukiya Amano.

Last week, Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi said his country was prepared to voluntarily cooperate with the IAEA over the "outstanding issues" and "the issues raised about possible military dimension to its nuclear program, although the matter is outside the purview of the UN agency."

On Sept. 27, Iran expressed its willingness to reach an agreement with the IAEA on nuclear inspection after their talks in Vienna.

The IAEA has held 12 rounds of meetings with Iran since 2011 without making any progress in the inspection framework.

One of the IAEA`s concerns is that Iran`s Parchin military site is capable of nuclear weapon-grade experiments. Iran has previously refused to grant access to the site unless an agreement has been reached on a "structured approach."

Iran is suspected by the IAEA of conducting possible experiments on developing nuclear weapons, which is firmly denied by Tehran.

Sources : Middle East

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IAEA, Iran say nuclear talks `very productive`

The UN atomic watchdog and Iran said they would meet again on November 11 over Tehran`s nuclear programme after a "very productive meeting" on Tuesday.

"Iran presented a new proposal on practical measures as a constructive contribution to strengthen cooperation and dialogue with a view to future resolution of all outstanding issues," the agency`s chief inspector Tero Varjoranta said.

"Following the substantive discussions, it was decided that a further meeting will be held on November 11 in Tehran in order to take this cooperation forward," he said.

Iran`s new envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Reza Najafi, said the new proposal would allow both sides "to open a new chapter of cooperation."

The meeting in Vienna was one of a series in the Austrian capital ahead of Iran`s talks with six world powers in Geneva on November 7-8.

While those talks are focused on Iran`s current nuclear activities, the IAEA meeting -- the 12th since early 2012 -- was about allegations that Tehran conducted nuclear weapons research prior to 2003.

(U.M016)

Sources : Antaranews

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UN Nuclear Inspectors Hope to End Deadlock With Iran

Iran's apparent new readiness to address international concerns about its atomic ambitions will be tested in talks with U.N. inspectors on Monday, with diplomats hoping for progress such as on access to a sensitive military site.

However, the diplomats say Iran will probably agree to cooperate fully with an investigation by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) only if a broader deal is reached in separate negotiations with six world powers.

New President Hassan Rouhani has raised hopes of an end to international deadlock over the nuclear program by promising to engage with the West, in return for an easing of sanctions that are damaging the Iranian economy.

The Vienna-based IAEA has been investigating accusations for several years that Iran may have coordinated efforts to process uranium, test explosives and revamp a missile cone in a way suitable for a nuclear warhead.

Iran says such claims are baseless and forged, and a series of meetings in Vienna between Tehran officials and the IAEA inspectors since early 2012 have been fruitless.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief nuclear inspector Herman Nackaerts arrives for a meeting about Tehran's disputed nuclear program at the Iranian embassy in Vienna on September 27, 2013.

Expectations for Monday's round are higher and the diplomats believe Iran may soon offer some concessions, perhaps by allowing the inspectors to visit its Parchin military base southeast of Tehran - long a priority for the IAEA.

“I think both sides are looking to see whether they can be a bit more creative,” one Western envoy said. Another diplomat said Iran would need to come up with “something positive.”

The IAEA believes nuclear-related explosives tests took place at Parchin, possibly a decade ago, and wants the inspectors to interview officials and study documents to shed light on what happened there.

It has acknowledged, however, that it may no longer unearth anything at Parchin due to suspected Iranian efforts to remove any incriminating nuclear-linked traces there.

Tehran denies the accusations and says it will allow visits to Parchin once the two sides have reached an agreement on how the investigation should be carried out.

Any overall deal with the IAEA is likely to depend on progress at the separate talks in Geneva between Iran and the six powers - the United States, France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia, which want Tehran to curb nuclear work that can have both civilian and military uses.

These negotiations resumed on a hopeful note last week and a further round is due on Nov. 7-8. An Iranian parliamentarian was quoted as saying Iran had halted its higher-grade uranium enrichment, but diplomats in Vienna said they were unaware of any such move. The IAEA declined comment.

Eleven unsuccessful meetings

The IAEA - tasked with preventing the spread of nuclear weapons in the world - wants access to sites, officials and documents for its stalled investigation into alleged past experiments and research that could help Iran assemble atomic bombs, if it decided to pursue such arms of mass destruction.

Eleven meetings between senior IAEA and Iranian officials since January last year have so far failed to produce a framework accord outlining the terms for the investigation.

But diplomats briefed on the closed-door discussions said Iran seemed more willing to tackle issues of substance in the last meeting, held in late September.

Western experts say Iran must address the IAEA's concerns if it is to build confidence in the outside world that any activity it might have undertaken in the past to acquire a capability to produce nuclear weapons has since ended.

“Iran knows that in order to pave a way to a comprehensive solution those questions need to be answered,” said former IAEA chief inspector Olli Heinonen, now at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful electricity generation and that it will never develop atomic arms.

Tehran could make sanctions relief more likely if it would “immediately cooperate with the IAEA on inspections of key sites, including Parchin, and to ensure that past weapons-related experiments have been discontinued”, the Arms Control Association, a U.S. research and advocacy group, said.

Sources : VOA

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Hamas Moves to Improve Ties With Iran

The Palestinian militant group Hamas is showing signs of strain.  Hamas which has dominated the Gaza Strip since it defeated its rival, Fatah in a bitter 2007 conflict, has suffered a series of setbacks recently that have left the Islamist group isolated and increasingly ostracized in a region where until recently it was celebrated and seemed on the ascendency.

In a bid to revive his group’s flagging finances and political profile, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is likely to visit Iran shortly to patch-up damaged ties with Tehran, a onetime key patron.  Those ties were severely strained after Meshaal broke ties with long-time patron Bashar al-Assad of Syria and moved Hamas headquarters to Qatar.

But now with Gaza isolated by Egypt’s military-dominated government and a new less supportive ruler in Qatar there are daily reports that the cash-strapped Palestinian resistance group is looking to shift its headquarters from an increasingly unfriendly Qatar and is casting around for an alternative host country in the Middle East.

U.S. analyst Jonathan Schanzer believes that Hamas has no choice but to re-establish with Iran close links upset by the different positions Iran and Hamas have taken over Syria’s civil war, with Tehran backing President Bashar al-Assad and the Palestinian group supporting rebels fighting to topple the Syrian leader.

 “If Hamas runs back into the arms of Iran, then Beirut looks increasingly likely to become the new host city for the Hamas leadership,” said Schanzer, a Middle East expert with the Washington DC-based think tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Hamas backtracks on Syria

In line with a possible rapprochement with Iran, Meshaal, who was reelected Hamas leader in the spring, has begun to distance Hamas from his previous outspoken support of the Syrian rebellion. In a recent statement he argued that while people “have the right to rise up for their rights”, this must be done through peaceful means.” He called also for an end to “sectarian violence” in Syria between Muslims.

Meshaal’s backtracking has dismayed Syrian rebels, prompting the Army of Islam, an umbrella grouping of hardline Islamist brigades, to warn: “He who performs jihad out of his office should not offer advice to those in the trenches.”

Meshaal has spoken also in support of peace talks, urging “a peaceful solution in Syria that guarantees the freedom and dignity of people.” The Army of Islam and most rebel brigades have rejected U.S.-Russian sponsored peace talks.

Hamas has increasingly become isolated in the Middle East because of Arab Spring developments and the Syrian civil war shattering its established alliances. Hamas support of the Syrian rebels deprived it of funding from Tehran and Damascus, where it headquartered until 2012.

“I believe Hamas is near the point of bankruptcy,” said U.S. expert Schanzer. He estimates Hamas may have lost 60 to 80 percent of its funding.

According to Lebanese political analyst Ali Al-Amin, Hamas will continue to take a “more neutral position on Syria in a bid to facilitate its return to Iran’s embrace.”

Egypt shuts down pipeline to outside world

Additionally, Hamas has suffered financially from the ousting of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, the first Muslim Brotherhood leader of Egypt. Since his removal from office by the military after massive popular protests, and a subsequent crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian army has been closing down hundreds of smugglers’ tunnels from Egypt into Hamas-run Gaza, which has been under a seven-year-old Israeli blockade.

The tunnels have been an economic lifeline for Gaza but the Egyptian army says militant Islamists use them to stage attacks in Sinai. A few tunnels remain open, not enough to make much of a difference for Hamas when it comes to running into Gaza not only weapons but cash. Money is hard to transfer for Hamas using the international banking system because of global money-laundering regulations aimed at preventing funding of designated terrorist groups.

Changes in Qatar 

Combined with the funding challenge, the Hamas leader has found a change in Qatar since Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani passed the crown this summer to his son, Tamim. The 33-year-old emir has been presiding over shifts not only on the domestic front but when it comes to foreign policy, too, in the name of “rebalancing.”  The new emir has sought to improve relations with Qatar’s Gulf neighbors, particularly with Saudi Arabia, a foe of the Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood.

Although both Hamas and Qatar said their relations remain good, Meshaal abruptly this summer stopped being interviewed on Al Jazeera, which is owned by the Qatari royal family. He has appeared just once in the past three months.

A move to Gaza for Meshaal, who was born in the West Bank village of Silwad, doesn’t seem to be on the cards. As the main diplomatic envoy for Hamas he needs to be able to travel easily. Also, Meshaal has come under increasing criticism from Hamas rivals led by Mahmoud al-Zahar, who blame him for the group’s isolation and are critical of the decision to back the Syrian rebels. “Gaza may not be the best place for him now,” said a Cairo-based European diplomat.

Sources : VOA

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Iran Sends Out Feelers for Return to Oil Markets

Iran is reaching out to its old oil buyers and is ready to cut prices if Western sanctions against it are eased, promising a battle for market share in a world less hungry for oil than when sanctions were imposed.

New Iranian President Hassam Rouhani's “charm offensive” at the United Nations last month, coupled with a historic phone call with U.S. President Barak Obama, revived market hopes that Iranian barrels could return with a vengeance if the diplomatic mood music translates into a breakthrough in the stand-off over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

The Islamic Republic's crude exports more than halved after the European Union and United States, which accuse Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons, tightened sanctions in mid-2012, cutting its budget revenues by at least $35 billion a year.

“The Iranians are calling around already saying let's talk ... You have to be careful, of course, but there is no law against talking,” said a high-level oil trader, whose company is among many that stopped buying Iran's oil because of sanctions.

The West's energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency (IEA), said this month that despite the first high-level talks between Iran and the United States since the 1979 Iranian revolution, few expected sanctions to be eased soon.

“Rather, most expect that turning the clock back on sanctions will be a drawn-out process based on tangible diplomatic progress with regard to the issues at hand, which many still view as a remote prospect,” the IEA said.

However, last week Iran issued its first tender in two years to import fertilizers, in what traders said could be a test ball for the easing of sanctions on funding import-export operations with the country.

It is also sending strong signals to oil markets about its pricing policies should it make headway in the nuclear talks with the West. The next round of talks with the U.N. nuclear agency is planned for next week.

“Given the new circumstances, a large number of traditional buyers of Iranian oil are making the preparations and providing the facilities for raising their oil purchase from Iran,” news agency Shana quoted National Iranian Oil Co's head of trading Mohsen Ghamsari as saying on Tuesday.

Different market

Only five countries - China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey - are still buying Iranian oil. But they are taking just 1-1.2 million barrels a day, about half what Iran shifted before the sanctions were imposed in 2012, when more than a dozen countries were buyers.

All EU countries have stopped purchases, while the United States hasn't bought Iranian crude for almost two decades.

Several months before the EU imposed its embargo, executives from large Western companies and buyers of Iranian oil, such as Shell and Total, said the move would lead to higher oil prices and EU consumers would be the main losers.

But benchmark Brent oil prices have barely changed in the past two years, hovering in the $90-$120 a barrel range despite the loss of Iranian barrels and supply disruptions from Iraq, Libya and Nigeria.

The reason behind stable prices was strong growth in oil output in the United States, which is soon to become the world leader. There was also a spike in Saudi output to an all-time high, weaker demand growth in Asia and a decline in demand in Europe.

An oil technician makes his way to the oil separator facilities in Iran's Azadegan oil field southwest of Tehran, April 15, 2008.

According to the IEA, demand in developed European countries has fallen by two million bpd in the past five years, or three times what the region was getting from Iran.

“It's a different market. It's a market that has a greater degree of supply than the market they, Iranians, exited,” said a trader with an oil major, who used to buy Iranian oil.

Before the EU sanctions, traders said the most common debate in the market was whether China would swallow all or just part of the Iranian oil unwanted elsewhere.

But Beijing has played ball with the West and tried to cut imports from Iran.

Arch-rival Iraq, which overtook Iran as OPEC's second-largest oil producer, said last week China was seeking to steeply raise Iraqi oil purchases.

Iran's Ghamsari said Iran might have to set or accept lower prices to go back to the market.

“Naturally, a resupply of Iran's crude oil on the world markets will result in oil price cuts. The current figures show that the demand for oil is 30 percent lower than in normal conditions,” he told Shana.

Big Saudi shift

Pricing won't just depend on whether Iran returns to the market, but how fast. Though its oilfields could reverse much of the production cuts within months, full recovery would take over a year.

Quality will also play an important role.

“If I'm allowed to buy again, I will jump on it straight away,” said a European refiner, who asked not to be named. “Europe is terribly short of sour, heavy crude; the only one available is Russia's Urals, and it has become very expensive.”

Olivier Jakob at consultancy Petromatrix agrees that Europe's struggling refiners will not hesitate long before buying Iranian crude oil, especially at cheaper prices.

Iranian oil competes with Russian and Iraqi grades of the same heavy, sour quality, which has become prized since the U.S. shale oil boom increased global supply of previously scarce light oil.

However, a trader with another major said a jump in Iraqi Basra and Kazakh supplies next year should saturate demand for heavy oil in Europe, leaving not much space for Iranian oil.

Much will also depend on whether Saudi Arabia will make room for its arch-rival's oil and cut exports to prevent a steep fall in prices.

Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief has said the kingdom will make a “major shift” in relations with the United States in protest at its perceived inaction over the Syrian civil war and its overtures to Iran, though it remains unclear how that might affect oil policies.

Sources : VOA

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Chemical Weapons Mission Awaits Syria's Disarmament Plan

The mission overseeing the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons program is expecting the government to turn over a plan on Thursday for destroying its existing stockpile.

The destruction is the final phase of an agreement with the United Nations and the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to rid Syria of chemical arms by the middle of next year.

Syria has until Sunday to present the plan, but an OPCW spokesman said the mission expects to receive an initial document within 24 hours reagarding how the government will destroy the weapons.

OPCW inspectors have been to most of the production sites disclosed by Syria, where crews are rendering the equipment inoperable. The group expressed confidence that Syria's capability to make any new weapons will be destroyed by a November 1 deadline.

United Nations vehicles are parked in front of the Four Seasons hotel, where a team of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are staying, in downtown Damascus, Oct. 22, 2013.

Meanwhile, Syrian officials say power is being restored after much of the country lost electricity late Wednesday following an explosion near the international airport.

Minister of Electricity Imad Khamis said he expected power to return to all areas within 48 hours. State news agency SANA quoted him blaming the outage on a "terrorist" attack on gas pipelines that feed electricity generating stations.

The Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion was caused by rebel artillery strikes aimed at the town of Ghasula, several kilometers from the airport.

Rebels seeking to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad have been trying for months to push into the capital.

The fighting in Syria has killed more than 100,000 people and forced millions from their homes since it began in March 2011.

Sources : VOA

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Amnesty International highlights deteriorating human rights situation in Saudi Arabia

Amnesty International has accused Saudi Arabia of failing to live up to all promises to address the dire human rights situation in the country, a press statement from the organization received on Monday said.

An Amnesty International submission, prior to a UN meeting in Geneva today to scrutinize the country's human rights record, details an ongoing crackdown, including arbitrary arrests and detention, unfair trials, torture and other ill-treatment of citizens over the past four years.

"Saudi Arabia's previous promises to the UN have been proven to be nothing but hot air. They rely on its political and economic clout to deter the international community from criticizing its dire human rights record, " said Philip Luther, Director of Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

Last Friday (Oct 18), Saudi Arabia rejected a seat on the UN Security Council, accusing the body of failing in its duties in Syria and other conflicts. 

"It`s highly ironic for Saudi Arabia to point out the Security Council`s double standards, given the complete failure to address its own appalling human rights record," said Luther. 

According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabian authorities have failed to implement any of the main recommendations from the last review by the UN Human Rights Council, known as the Universal Periodic Review, which took place in 2009.

"Four years ago, Saudi Arabian diplomats came to Geneva and accepted a string of recommendations to improve human rights in the country. Since then, not only have the authorities failed to act, but they have ratcheted up the repression," said Philip Luther.

"For all the peaceful activists that have been arbitrarily detained, tortured or imprisoned in Saudi Arabia since, the international community has a duty to hold the authorities to account," he added

Amnesty officials claim that the new wave of repression against civil society, which has taken place over the last two years, is documented in Amnesty International's report to the UN to be used as part of the review.

Amnesty International said the Saudi Arabian government has repressed human rights activists and supporters of political reform in the country through arbitrary arrests, detention without charge or trial, unfair trials and travel bans.

Those imprisoned for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression or association include the founders of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Organization (ACPRA). Founded in 2009, it became one of the most prominent independent human rights organizations in the country. 

Amnesty also highlighted other human rights violations committed by Saudi Arabian authorities, such as the systemic discrimination against women in both law and practice, as women are required to obtain the permission of a male guardian before being married, travelling, undergoing certain surgical procedures, undertaking paid employment or enrolling in higher education. 

Amnesty also reported on issues of abuse towards migrant workers at the hands of private and government employers. Indonesia is among those countries allowing its citizens to work in Saudi Arabia. Currently, there are about two million Indonesian workers employed there. 

Other issues mentioned by Amnesty international in its report include discrimination against minority groups in Saudi Arabia, as Shi'a Muslims in the Eastern Province have been subjected to arbitrary arrests and detention on charges such as suspicion of taking part or supporting demonstrations or expressing views critical of the state. 

Sources : Antara

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Gunmen Kill Libya's Military Police Commander

Gunmen shot dead Libya's military police force commander in the restive eastern city of Benghazi as he was about attend Friday prayers, a security source said, triggering a violent response from residents.

 

The attack is the latest blow to a weak Libyan government that is struggling to assert control over militias and radical Islamists two years after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi.

 

Various army special forces trucks arrive at scene after fighting broke out near offices of the Libya Shield pro-government militia, Benghazi, Libya, June 8, 2013.

Unknown gunmen opened fire on Ahmed al-Barghathi as he left his house to go to a mosque. “He was brought to hospital but later died there,” the source said.

 

Several army officers have been assassinated in Benghazi, where the U.S. ambassador was killed during an Islamist assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission a year ago. The shooting of Barghathi, who was on vacation in the city, is the highest profile attack there for weeks.

 

Several hours after the shooting, dozens of residents joined members of Barghathi's tribe in storming the house of prominent militia leader Wissam Ben Hamid, witnesses said. His house was set ablaze but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

 

Some of the protesters accused Hamid, leader of the Libya Shield Brigade, of having a role in the killing of Barghathi, who had been trying to restore order in Benghazi and elsewhere.

 

Libya Shield, an umbrella of former rebels who say they are now allied to the defense ministry, was not immediately available for comment.

 

In June, at least 31 people were killed in clashes between the militia and armed protesters who demanded that the group disarm. Many ordinary Libyans are fed up with armed young men roaming the streets.

 

The government has been unable to disarm myriad militias and radical Islamists in a country awash with guns from the Gadhafi era and foreign weapons supplied in 2011 to help the Western-backed uprising.

 

Last week, former rebels briefly seized Prime Minister Ali Zeidan from the Tripoli hotel where he lives during a dawn raid, only to release him hours later.

 

The gunmen who snatched Zeidan — former anti-Gadhafi rebels now on the government payroll — said they were angry at reports the government had been informed in advance of a U.S. raid to capture an al-Qaida suspect in Libya. Zeidan called the kidnapping a coup attempt.

 

Zeidan, a liberal, has come under pressure for failing to improve public services since Gadhafi's overthrow and has faced a wave of strikes and protests that have closed most oil ports in the OPEC producer.

Sources : VOA

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Car Bomb Near Egypt Army Intelligence Building Wounds 6

A car bomb exploded on Saturday near an Egyptian army intelligence building in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, wounding at least six soldiers, security sources said.

No group has claimed responsibility, but al-Qaida-linked Islamist militants in the largely lawless Sinai region have stepped up attacks on soldiers and police since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July. The militants have on occasion extended their campaign into major cities.

Egyptian security personnel and residents check the site of an explosion in Ismailia city, around 120 km, east of Cairo, Oct. 19, 2013.

Military spokesman Ahmed Ali said in a statement the bombing was “a continuation of the wave of cowardly terrorist attacks,” by groups he described as promoting strife.

Security personnel searching the area found another car bomb, which had not gone off, state media and security sources said. Heavy smoke could be seen rising from a building nearby.

The force of the blast caused part of the military intelligence building's outer wall to collapse.

Some security sources said the bomb was planted in a car belonging to a doctor who lived in a nearby building.

In September the army launched a campaign against armed militants in Sinai, a desert region whose Bedouin population has long complained of neglect by successive governments in Cairo.

Egypt's turmoil has intensified since the army deposed Morsi and installed a new government, saying it was responding to mass protests against the freely elected president's rule.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, once again outlawed in Egypt as it was under ousted President Hosni Mubarak, called the Islamist leader's overthrow a military coup.

Security forces cracked down on the group on Aug. 14, crushing two protest camps in Cairo and killing hundreds of people. Many Brotherhood members have been arrested. Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders face charges of inciting violence.

The Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest and biggest Islamist group, rejects the charges and denies any links with militant activity.

Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the man who toppled Morsi, was quoted by state media on Saturday as saying army and police forces were working together to “confront terrorism and all those who try to create problems and incite strife between the children of this nation.”

Sources : VOA

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Mubarak Trial Resumes in Closed Session

A retrial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resumed on Saturday in a closed-door session in which top security officials gave testimony, state television said.

Mubarak, 85, was sentenced to life in prison last year for complicity in the killing of demonstrators in the uprising that toppled him in 2011, but an appeals court ordered a retrial.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak was released from jail but is kept under house arrest in a military hospital in Maadi, a Cairo suburb.

State television said that former intelligence chief Mourad Mowafy and the head of the national security authority, General Mostafa Abdel Naby, testified in Saturday's hearing.

Last month the presiding judge imposed a media gag on the sessions' proceedings for reasons of national security.

The military-backed government imposed a state of emergency after Islamist President Mohamed Morsi was toppled in July, and used this to place Mubarak under house arrest.

The army had removed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, after mass protests against his rule. His now-banned Muslim Brotherhood has described the move as a coup which reversed the gains of the Arab Spring revolution against Mubarak.

Sources : VOA

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Al-Qaida Suspect's Capture Sparks Libyan Outrage

Libya remains in turmoil over last week’s brief kidnapping of the prime minister by Islamist militiamen, but that is not the only abduction roiling the country - there’s equal outrage over the snatching by American commandos of an al-Qaida suspect, a man his family says is innocent of terrorist crimes.

Libyan-born Abu Anas al-Libi has had a $5 million price on his head for more than a decade, and American officials have for years classified the 49-year-old as one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, claiming he was behind the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that left 224 civilians dead.

People hold posters of senior al Qaida figure Abu Anas al-Libi (L) during a demonstration over his capture by U.S. authorities, in Benghazi, Oct. 11, 2013.

A week ago the manhunt ended when he was snatched by a U.S. Special Forces team as he was returning from dawn prayers to his home in a middle-class district of Tripoli. But his wife of 22 years, Umm Abdul Rahman, and his three sons insist he is innocent of any crimes, arguing he is a Libyan patriot, an easy-going husband and a kind father. “My husband was affiliated with al-Qaida a long time ago. But he was never a senior leader in al-Qaida. He was a member. But in 1996 he totally broke off with al-Qaida,” she explained.

Speaking with VOA in the family’s cramped two-bedroom apartment, Rahman said al-Libi went to Afghanistan in the 1980s to fight the Russians and gravitated to Osama bin Laden after he was badly wounded in 1988 in the battle for Jalalabad.

She said he became disillusioned with al-Qaida’s focus on American and Western targets, opting instead to join the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, Islamist dissidents who tried for two decades to oust longtime Libyan dictator Colonel Moammar Gadhafi.  

“He broke off with al-Qaida for several reasons. But when he got to know the men at the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group they had a common vision, a common cause, a common enemy, which was the Gadhafi regime and they wanted to remove or overthrow this regime,” Rahman stated.

Al-Libi and his family lived a peripatetic existence that included spells in Sudan, Qatar and Britain. They endured years of imprisonment in Iran after fleeing Afghanistan when the U.S. invaded.

And now she worries about her husband, who is being held reportedly on board a U.S. warship in the Mediterranean. U.S. officials say al-Libi took surveillance photographs in 1993 of the Nairobi embassy and reviewed other possible Western targets for al-Qaida in east Africa. He was indicted with 20 others in 2000 by a court in New York, an indictment based on information supplied by an Egyptian jihadist who worked as a double agent for the CIA.

Abdul Moheman al-Raghie (L), and Nabih al-Raghie, the son and brother respectively, of al-Qaida suspect Abu Anas al-Libi speak to the press in Nofleine, five kilometres from the Libyan capital Tripoli, Oct. 6, 2013.

“These are false accusations and it is very hurtful and worrisome when the President of the United States like Obama characterizes my husband as a killer and a killer of hundreds without providing any evidence, without providing any proof. Isn’t the accused innocent until proven guilty?” asked Rahman.

“Our father was kidnapped we have no idea is he still alive," Al-Libi’s 20-year-old oldest son, Abdullah said. "Is he in good shape? Is he in bad shape? We want to talk to him. We want to reach out to him. We want to know how he’s doing. Right now we are just living that same day over and over, the day of the kidnapping. We don’t know how he’s doing.”

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan has assured the family he had no prior knowledge of the American operation to snatch al-Libi: the Americans say the Libyan government gave tacit approval. Zidan's mainly Islamist political foes don’t believe him and are now demanding he resign.

Sources : VOA

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Al-Qaida Strikes Fear into Iraq's Sunni Militia

Ahmed froze as he opened the small white envelope left on his doorstep in the Iraqi town of Latifiya. Shaking, he looked around before reading the words scrawled on the envelope. Inside was a bullet.

“The message was clear: I must leave or I will be slaughtered,” said Ahmed, who immediately left home with his family and is now living with relatives in another town.

Ahmed, who did not want his full name used, was targeted for belonging to a government-backed Sunni Muslim militia formed at the height of Iraq's sectarian conflict in late 2006, when Sunni tribesmen joined forces with U.S. troops and rebelled against al-Qaida in what came to be known as the “Sahwa” (Awakening).

Iraqi Awakening Council member patrolling Azamiyah area of north Baghdad, April 3, 2010.

But the tide is now turning back toward al-Qaida and other Islamist insurgents whose onslaught against the Shi'ite-led government and its allies has killed more than 6,000 people this year in an ominous echo of the bloodshed that peaked in 2006-07.

Iraqi security officials blame the surge in violence partly on a lack of cooperation from Sahwa fighters who feel they were not rewarded as promised for taking on al-Qaida earlier and have been left to face the backlash from the militants alone.

“Since 2006, we have fought al-Qaida and arrested so many of those criminals but today we are going to back to square one,” said Sheik Aref al-Jumaili, a tribal leader from a town in Anbar province, Iraq's Sunni heartland.

“We cannot fight them now. They will kill us and get revenge because we fought them with American support. Today this government is not able to protect or support us.”

In their heyday, the Sahwa mustered around 103,000 men, but the number has declined to no more than 38,000 since the U.S. military relinquished security control in Iraq in 2010, according to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's reconciliation adviser Amir al-Khuzaie.

Some were hired as civil servants, integrated into the ministries of defense and interior or given early retirement.

“Sahwa [fighters] have left a big gap after they abandoned their positions and stopped securing their areas,” said a senior military officer serving in the Sunni town of Shirqat, around 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad.

“They know exactly the areas where al-Qaida and other militants are operating, how to abort their attacks, chase and hunt them,” the officer said.

'Sunni apostates'

In Sunni communities, the Sahwa once provided intelligence in areas where the armed forces, staffed mostly by Iraq's majority Shi'ites, face mistrust if not outright hostility.

But Sahwa fighters themselves now face the ire of fellow Sunnis as resentment builds towards the Shi'ite-led government that came to power following Saddam Hussein's overthrow in 2003.

Sunnis took to the streets in December in protest against Maliki, a Shi'ite, seeing his pursuit of Sunni politicians on terrorism charges as part of a pattern of oppression.

A deadly raid by security forces on a protest camp in April touched off a violent backlash by Sunni militants who view Shi'ites as non-believers and the Sahwa as “Sunni apostates” who deserve to die for betraying God and their sect.

“We will kill them in a brutal way and throw their corpses to the dogs,” read a recent statement posted on the Internet and signed by al-Qaida's local affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq.

Security officials said Sahwa fighters and their families had come under frequent attack in the past six months, but could not say exactly how many had been killed.

In northern Iraq, where insurgents have a foothold, al-Qaida gave the Sahwa an ultimatum that expired this week on the first day of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, to repent and swear allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq or face death.

Al-Qaida's Iraqi wing has told Sahwa fighters to hand over their weapons and uniforms and to record a video pledging their allegiance to the militant group on a flash memory stick, Sahwa leaders and security officials said.

A senior military intelligence officer said the aim was to force former Sahwa members to fight alongside al-Qaida or face the prospect of these videos being sent to the security forces.

“We do not trust al-Qaida, but our fear [of it] forced us not to cooperate with the government,” said Ahmed, adding he would rather spend time in jail than join the militants. “Al-Qaida for me is like a nuclear bomb, it is a source of death.”

Syrian Sahwa?

Al-Qaida's resurgence in Iraq has been nourished by the civil war in neighboring Syria, which has drawn Sunni Islamists from across the region and beyond into battle against President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite sect derives from Shi'ite Islam.

Al-Qaida's Syrian and Iraqi wings merged earlier this year to form the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on both sides of the border.

Facing this invigorated Sunni insurgency, Iraqi security officials said Maliki had decided to revive the Sahwa project. In Syria, some concerned by al-Qaida's growing clout are also looking to replicate the model there.

However, one Sunni politician, who asked not to be named, said Maliki had in fact undermined the Sahwa by encouraging divisions among Sunni tribal leaders in order to control them.

“It's a great way to create strife among them and push them from afar to fight each other,” he said.

Sources : VOA

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Microphone bomb kills Afghan governor at Eid prayers

A bomb hidden in a microphone killed an Afghan provincial governor Tuesday as he made a speech at a mosque after Eid prayers in Logar, close to the capital Kabul.

Arsala Jamal was appointed by President Hamid Karzai, like all 34 provincial governors, and he was seen as a close ally of the president, acting as one of his campaign managers in the 2009 election.

"This morning, governor Jamal was delivering a speech after Eid prayers when he was killed by a bomb planted in the microphone," Logar provincial governor spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish told AFP.

"The governor wanted to speak and congratulate everyone on the occasion of Eid. At least 18 other people have been wounded, including civilians and government employees."

Jamal only took up the Logar job in April after serving as governor of Khost, on the border with Pakistan.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the blast, though Taliban militants often target provincial government officials as well as Afghan soldiers and police.

Karzai did not mention Jamal`s killing in his presidential Eid address on Tuesday, but again appealed for peace.

"Hamid Karzai called on the Taliban to work for the development of their country, and to spare Afghan security forces who are working to protect their soil, national dignity, and to stop carrying out attacks," his office said.

"(The president) once again called on the Taliban and their leaders not to throw the youth of this country into destruction."

Mohammad Jan Abid, head of the criminal investigative department in Logar, confirmed the mosque bombing and said a probe would be launched.

Volatile Logar, which lies to the south of the Afghan capital, is seen as a key strategic region, often described as a "gateway to Kabul" for Taliban militants based in strongholds across the south and east.

Security in the province has deteriorated in recent years, with the Taliban holding sway in some areas despite sustained Afghan and US military pressure.

Village-based Afghan Local Police (ALP) forces have also been active trying to wrestle back control of Taliban-held territory.

The Taliban have vowed to step up attacks as Afghanistan prepares for presidential elections in April and the withdrawal of 87,000 NATO troops by the end of next year.

Taliban supremo Mullah Omar on Sunday said he "rejected" the elections, which he alleged were being manipulated by foreign powers, and called on Afghans not to participate.

The hardline Islamist Taliban regime was driven from power by a US-led coalition in 2001 for sheltering the Al-Qaeda leaders behind the 9/11 attacks.

The US and Afghanistan are currently in the last stages of talks on a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that would see several thousand US troops remain in the country to aid stability and continue training of local security forces.

Omar warned any US bases remaining on Afghan soil "will never be accepted", and that "armed jihad will continue against them with more momentum".

Eid ul Adha is a major public holiday across the Muslim world, with mosques packed with devotees marking the prophet Ibrahim`s willingness to sacrifice his son when God ordered him to.

Sheep and goats are sacrificed in many households and the meat distributed among family, friends and the poor.

Sources : Antaranews

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Officers search for 16 missing Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia

Indonesian Ambassador for Saudi Arabia Gatot Abdullah Mansyur said the embassy has sent a task force to learn the facts about 16 missing women migrant workers from Indonesia.

"The task force has operated since Friday and they are searching the streets from Riyadh to Makkah," Mansyur said here on Friday evening.

He added that local media in Saudi Arabia reported that at least 16 women migrant workers, who also brought a child to Saudi Arabia, are to be banished by their employers.

Mansyur added the task force will document their problems and Saudi Arabia police are expected to notify the RI Embassy, based upon rules set down by the Vienna Convention.

Recent information received by the Indonesian Embassy is that the Indonesian workers are believed to be located 400 kilometers from Riyadh and 600 kilometers from Makkah.

"We believe that their employers brought them from Riyadh to Makkah as they performed the Hajj. However, officers arrested them, since the Saudi Arabian government limited the number of current Hajj participants," the Ambassador said.

Mansyur said the embassy has not learned whether the Indonesian workers hold legal document or are the victims of human trafficking.

He said all migrant workers who arrive in Saudi Arabia are legal, but there are other workers who abandon their employers and join illegal work networks.

Other benefits they receive from illegal work are protection from their employers.

"They can change their employers if they do not fit and also have one day a week off," Mansyur said.

The ambassador noted that every year employers return at least 2,000 Indonesian passports to the Embassy in Riyadh from maids who left their employers.

Earlier, the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union of West Java reported on 16 female workers from Indonesia who left their employers in Saudi Arabia.

Sources : Antaranews

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