Free Republic

The Bush administration has blocked arms and technology transfers to Israel. Israeli and U.S. sources said the State Department has blocked the transfer of weapons and technology to the Jewish state over the last three months. The sources said the halt reflected deteriorating relations between the two countries since the end of the war in Lebanon in August 2006.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei lashed out at US President George W. Bush for his recent remarks, describing his words as arrogant utterances of a person who imagines to be the owner of Muslim countries. "This Person (Bush) speaks as if he were the master and owner of Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Iran and other Muslim states, but if the huge power of nations comes to the scene -- as it happened in Lebanon, it will smash the arrogant powers so badly that the enemies of Islam will no longer be able to continue with...

Iran on Tuesday responded to the P5+1 package of incentives concerning its peaceful nuclear program. Top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani delivered Tehran's answer to representatives of the P5+1 Group, i.e. ambassadors of Germany, Russia, France, UK, and China as well as Swiss ambassador as caretaker of the US interests in Iran.

Wars tend to widen. Containing war in terms of area or intensity has nearly always been impossible. The War on Terror is proving no exception. Controlling war's expansion gets harder until exhaustion sets in. So far the War on Terror shows more signs of proliferation and intensification than exhaustion. Israelis and Iranian-backed Hamas Palestinians appear headed for a new level of conflict even as the West escalates pressure on Iran over its nuclear development. The deadline of July 12 to stop its enrichment processing could prove crucial.

VIENNA,(Reuters) - Iran could stop enriching uranium at best only as a result of negotiations with big powers, but not as a precondition for such talks as they demand, a senior Iranian official said on Thursday. It appeared to be the first time Tehran had hinted at the possibility of suspending nuclear fuel enrichment the West sees as an atomic bomb risk. But the insistence that this could only happen after negotiations was likely to be rejected by the major powers. Iran would never renounce its "legitimate right" to civilian atomic energy under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, said Javad Vaeedi,...

In today’s Belgian newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen Bob Van de Voorde, the spokesman of Frank Vandenbroucke, the minister of Education, says: “One of the conditions [for homeschooling] is that the homeschoolers must sign a document in which they promise to rear their children along the lines of the UN Convention on Children’s Rights. These parents have not done this. This is why the ministry has started an inquiry.” The parents Mr Van de Voorde is referring to in the paper are my husband (TBJ editor Paul Belien) and myself. The “inquiry” is a threat to prosecute us.

Lucknow: Iraq's deceased Al Qaida leader, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, was registered for unemployment benefits in India, a recent report suggests. A query has been ordered to certify how Al Zarqawi, who was killed in a US air strike in Iraq last week, came to be registered as an Indian resident. {snip} Disciplinary action has been ordered by the principal secretary and district administration against those responsible for the lapse.

Manila: A terror group based in the southern Philippines has been preparing for underwater terror attacks, two anti terror experts and other sources told Gulf News. The Abu Sayyaf Group has a plan to poison the drinking water system of the US forces which are now based for medical and military mission in Sulu, said a source.

Following are excerpts from an interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, which aired on Channel 2, Iranian TV on June 7, 2006. Manouchehr Mottaki: We emphasize the peaceful nature of our nuclear weapons... I mean... of our nuclear power plant, and nuclear energy and activities. We have no need for nuclear weapons, as we've often said. Nuclear weapons are not part of our defense doctrine.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Monday stressed that his country does not have any enemies in the region and further advised trans-regional powers not to show belligerent attitudes towards regional states. Speaking during a joint press conference with Saudi Foreign Minister, Mottaki referred to Saud al-Faysal's visit to Tehran and reminded that a recent agreement between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Saudi King Malek Abdallah, signed during Ahmadinejad's recent meeting to Mecca, has assigned the two Foreign Ministers to scrutinize avenues for developing the existing cooperation.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Thursday stressed that the Iranian nation will not give up even an iota of its right of access to peaceful nuclear technology irrespective of whatever decisions western states may adopt. "No matter you attend negotiations or not, no matter you frown or not, the Iranian nation will not divert the path of progress and it will not give up even an iota of its right to access peaceful nuclear technology," President Ahmadinejad reiterated while talking to a fervent crowd of the public in the province of Qazvin.

TEHRAN (AFX) - Iran is ready to hold talks with the US but rejects the Bush administration's demand that it first suspend sensitive nuclear enrichment work, Iran's foreign minister said.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Foreign Minister Friday described uranium enrichment as Iran's legal and natural right and stressed that Tehran does not need permission by any other country to enrich uranium. Speaking in a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki noted the cooperation agreements signed by the two countries' officials during recent years and said that during his meeting today with Hushyar Zebari, the two sides have agreed to launch the high commission of relations in a bid to start a new round of cooperation. He also said that both sides have agreed to hold a...

If Satan had a cell phone, you know that the number would be 666-6666. Well, if he wants that number he had better budget at least $2.8 million. {snip} Though we generally equate 666 with the devil, it has a different meaning in Qatar. It is apparently equated with the Arabic word ellah, meaning God.

MORE than 230 foreigners identified by MI5 and Scotland Yard as suspected terrorists have been allowed to stay in Britain as asylum seekers. Home Office records show that nearly a quarter of the 963 people arrested in counter-terrorism operations in England and Wales since September 2001 have claimed refugee status, saying their human rights would be violated if they returned to countries such as Algeria, Iraq and Somalia.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tuesday stressed that Tehran's decision for restoring its nuclear rights is definite and irrevocable. Responding to the Monday remarks made of EU's Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana about Europe's new proposals, Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, "Since the very beginning of our talks, we informed the European side that production of nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes is our goal and that we are not seeking anything beyond our international rights and commitments. (Thus,) no incentive might be better than implementation of the NPT and IAEA rules and regulations free...

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Informed sources said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now composing his second letter. FNA dispatches said that this time Ahmadinejad's letter won't be forwarded to a political figure, adding that enthusiasts should wait till next week to find out about the content of this letter. On April 23rd, President told the audience during a press conference that he would soon forward letters to the heads of some world powers to elaborate on the current issues and invite them to the culture of the prophets so that global peace and calm could finally be restored.

VIENNA, Austria — The U.N. atomic agency has found traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian site linked to the country's Defense Ministry, diplomats said Friday. The finding added to concerns that Tehran was hiding activities that could be used to make nuclear arms.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia --A series of bombs exploded in Ethiopia's capital Friday, killing three people and wounding at least 26, a police spokesman and witnesses said. Federal police spokesman Commander Demsash Hailu said the blasts were the work of an organization trying to discredit the government but did not offer specifics. The first blast occurred at 4:50 a.m. in one of Addis Ababa's main plazas and damaged an Ethiopian Airlines office, but caused no injuries.

DUBAI — A Dubai engineering consultancy is at the center of an international criminal investigation into a scheme to smuggle banned weapons technology from the US to Iran. The scheme aimed to ship 103 Honeywell pressure sensors, which can be used to trigger explosive devices, from an electronics company in Minneapolis, US, to a firm in Isfahan, Iran. Court documents obtained by the Khaleej Times reveal the Al Turath Engineering Consultancy was used as an 'intermediary address' to disguise the sensors' real destination. Under the US’s International Emergency Economic Act, it is illegal to ship any technology that has weapons-making...