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Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported about an unconfirmed number of alleged Russian fighters having been killed by the US led coalition forces during a clash with pro-Assad forces in Syria. The incident happened earlier this month, in the Deir ez-Zor province. Russia’s defense ministry’s statement at the time of the incident tried to downplay the situation, claiming that no Russian servicemen were in the area at the time of the fighting, as pro-Syrian government fighters were carrying out a recon mission when they were engaged by US led coalition forces. However, on Monday, the story changed, as it emerged that...

Iran's rich architecture and rare treasures threatened by possible US strikes · Many ancient remains are close to nuclear plants · Archaeologists anxious to avoid repeat of Iraq chaos Maev Kennedy Monday March 5, 2007 The Guardian (UK) Tourists visit Persepolis, which lies within 50 miles of the Ardakan and Fasa uranium processing plants. Photograph: Vahid Salemi/AP In his quiet office at the British Museum, among the portraits of long-dead explorers and copies of 3,000-year-old inscriptions, one of the greatest experts on the archaeology of the Middle East has a series of maps of Iranian nuclear installations spread out across...

RIYADH: A senior Saudi official denied reports of a secret promise by Riyadh to make its airspace and bases available for use by the United States in the event of war against Iraq, in remarks published on Monday. "This report is untrue. The kingdom's position on this issue has been very clear from the start," Deputy Defence Minister Prince Abdulrahman bin Abdul Aziz told Okaz daily. The New York Times on Sunday quoted senior US military officials as saying Riyadh would make its airspace, air bases and an important operations center available to the United States in a possible war...

TEHRAN, Aug 4 (AFP) - The top diplomat of another key pro-Western Persian Gulf state, Oman, used a visit here Sunday to express strong opposition to any US-led military action against Iraq, following the Saudi foreign minister the previous day. Yussef bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Oman's minister of state for foreign affairs, said on arrival for a visit to Iran, "Our position is the same, ruling out any military option against an Arab and Muslim country." "We are opposed to an attack on Iraq or any other Muslim state because we think that any differences with regard to the Middle...

Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal arrived in Tehran Saturday for a one-day visit and was welcomed at Mehrabad International Airport by his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi. Speaking to reporters upon arrival, al-Faisal said that his visit is aimed at examining the stances of the two Islamic states on a wide range of issues. He added he was also carrying a written message from Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz for Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. "Ways of expanding the two countries' relations as well as Middle East issues, including those relating to Iraq and Palestine, will be discussed in meetings...

Tidings of war are never comforting. But in the case of Iraq, they are welcome nonetheless. Rolling over a nuke-building Saddam now is the only way the West can avoid confronting a nuke-wielding Saddam later. Time is of the essence: Speaking at a U.S. Senate committee hearing on Wednesday, Khidir Hamza, an Iraqi nuclear engineer who defected to the West, said Iraq is running an advanced chemical weapons program and has enough uranium to manufacture several nuclear weapons by 2005. The U.S. Congress has begun debating the Iraq issue, and will likely come out in favour of military action. Yet...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq says Baghdad will resist any U.S. military campaign and will "kick the United States out of the region" if attacked. In an interview with Reuters, Iraq's Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh said Baghdad would also take punitive economic measures against countries which backed a possible U.S. strike. Washington has made no secret of its wish to topple President Saddam Hussein's government, having branded Iraq part of an "axis of evil" supporting terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction. "The United States will be defeated and it will be kicked out of the region if it attacks...

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait on Saturday warned Iraq that it should take seriously the threat of US military strikes and accept the return of UN weapons inspectors. "Iraq has to understand, seriously, what the United States intends for it," said First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, quoted by the official Kuwaiti news agency KUNA. "It has to approve the Security Council resolution regarding (UN) inspectors," said Sheikh Sabah, who was speaking after talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov. Sheikh Sabah, who stressed that Kuwait was not party to the debate over possible US military action...

THE Federal Government has warned Australians in Iraq to leave the country as soon as possible. A spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs and Trade also urged Australians to avoid visiting Iraq as the US prepares to widen its war on terrorism to the region. The official warning comes just weeks after the Australian Government indicated it would support a US-led attack on Iraq. The warning came as Trade Minister Mark Vaile said Iraq's threat to halve Australian wheat imports may be partly due to good domestic production forecasts. Australia, on the other hand, was heading rapidly towards a drought that would...

BAGHDAD: Iraq has won the support of Jordan, Syria and the PLO for the holding of an urgent meeting of the Arab Parliamentary Union (APU) on US threats against Baghdad, the official INA news agency reported on Sunday. The Jordanian and Syrian parliamentary speakers, Zaid al-Rifai and Abdel Kader Kaddura, respectively, and Palestine National Council representative Salim al-Zanun, have expressed their support in writing, INA said. Iraq's parliament sent a message to its Arab counterparts on Thursday urging them to hold a meeting "as soon as possible" in Baghdad or in Syria, the headquarters of the APU. It held an...

ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates and Jordan said on Wednesday they opposed a US military strike on Iraq but urged Baghdad to comply with relevant UN resolutions, the official Emirati news agency WAM reported. During talks here, Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan and Jordan's King Abdullah II voiced "opposition to a military strike on Iraq, which would have grave repercussions not only in that country but also on regional security and stability," WAM said. "At the same time, they urged Iraq to implement UN resolutions in order to spare its people further suffering" caused by...

Private conversation with those in a position to know seems to make it certain that the United States will attack Iraq within the next six months, with the purpose of toppling Saddam Hussein from power for good. The Bush administration will not be deterred by European protests or by the fear of alienating regional governments in the Middle East or South Asia. It has decided that Saddam Hussein threatens America's vital interests by his known and unrelenting efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and by his undoubted, though unproven, sponsorship of terrorism. The U.S. judgment is that the longer Saddam is...

MANAMA -- Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, voiced opposition Tuesday to any U.S. military strike on Iraq, saying the sentiment was shared in the Arab world and by several European leaders. "We do not support recourse to force against Iraq, whether the strike be American or any other. This position is shared by our Arab brothers and several European leaders," Defense Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmad al-Khalifa told ***Al-Ayyam*** newspaper as cited by AFP. "We support the territorial integrity of Iraq and the unity of the Iraqi people. We are working so that this people live in...

Well-informed French sources disclosed on Sunday that the French authorities asked The ruler of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khaleifa al-Thani during his recent visit to Paris to carry a message to the Iraqi leaders saying that the "count down for a large military operation in Iraq has started." These sources added in a statement to the London- based al-Sharq al-Awsat daily that if Iraqi will delay announcing its acceptance of the return back of UN weapons inspectors, it will be then difficult to stop the American machine. These sources said that Baghdad is about to commit again the same mistake...

SIX Afghan governors are demanding the United States obtain their permission before conducting military operations in their provinces, one of them said - another sign of fallout after a US airstrike reportedly killed 48 civilians. The governors also plan to organise a regional military force to hunt for Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives and to police international borders independently of the central government in Kabul, Kandahar Governor Gul Agha said. Agha said he would inform President Bush of the requirement to obtain their permission for combat operations when he visits Washington next week. "We have already decided the matter," Agha said....