Azeri police disperse anti-govt. rally

Azerbaijan's police officers detain opposition activists taking part in an anti-government rally in central Baku, on April 2, 2011.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/172767.html

Azeri riot police have attacked and dispersed a rally of anti-government protesters, who were calling for democratic reforms, in the capital city of Baku

On Saturday, Azeri riot police prevented protesters from Musavat and Popular Front opposition parties from gathering in Baku's Fountains Square by sealing off the streets leading to the square, an IRIB correspondent reported.

Protesters demanded that the government resigns and cried, “We want freedom."

Leader of the Musavat opposition Party Isa Qambar says more than 200 protesters have been arrested.

The Baku Prosecutor General's Office had summoned Qambar and chairman of Popular Front party Ali Karimli, warning them against organizing the rally on Saturday.

Azeri authorities had taken security measures in Baku and other cities, and arrested tens of members of Musavat and Popular Front parties during past week.

The Islamic Party of Azerbaijan, which had not supported the April 2 rally, has announced that it would probably hold a rally in Azadliq Square on April 8.

The Baku government's anti-religion agenda has caused uproar in the predominantly Muslim nation. Baku bans Azeris from openly observing their religious rites.

Protesters want to the government to respect religious values and prevent Azerbaijan from falling into a crisis.

Muslim communities in Azerbaijan blame the growing non-democratic secularism in the country on Tel Aviv and accuse Israel of being behind anti-Islamic programs in the country.

Shia Muslims make up a vast majority of the population in Azerbaijan.

State Dept. spokesman forced to resign

Former US State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/169748.html

The US State Department spokesman has been forced to resign after calling the treatment of a US solider accused of leaking documents to WikiLeaks “stupid.”

The state department announced the resignation of Philip J. Crowley on Sunday, following his recent comments he made at Massachusetts University where he said the treatment of Army Private Bradley Manning was "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid," Reuters reported.

“Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Spokesman for the Department of State," Crowley said in his statement.

"It is with regret that I have accepted the resignation of Philip J. Crowley as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

Private Manning was charged in July with leaking classified materials, including a video of US soldiers attacking and killing twelve unarmed Iraqi civilians in an Apache helicopter raid on Baghdad. Among the dead were two Reuters employees.

Manning has been held in solitary confinement since May, and is now imprisoned at the Quantico Marine Corps base in Virginia.

His attorney, David Coombs, says his client faces inhuman treatment. Besides sensory deprivation, he is being forced to sleep only in his underwear and to wear shackles when outside of his cell.

US slams PA efforts against Israel

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/161198.html


US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has criticized the Palestinian Authority (PA) for trying to condemn Israeli settlement projects at the UN Security Council.

"The only way that there will be a resolution of the conflict... is through a negotiated settlement," she told reporters at the State Department on Thursday.

"We don't see action at the UN or any other forum as being helpful in bringing about this desired outcome," AFP quoted the top US diplomat as saying.

On Tuesday, Palestinian resolution against illegal Israeli settlement buildings in the occupied Palestinian territories was formally put to the Security Council.

The resolution would condemn Israel's settlement activities and reiterate an existing UN demand for all building work in the occupied territories to stop.

Clinton did not comment on whether the United States will veto the resolution or not.

Meanwhile, a group of US cabinet officials, diplomats, journalists and pundits released an open letter, urging the US to ratify the resolution.

"If the proposed resolution is consistent with existing and established US policies, then deploying a veto would severely undermine US credibility and interests, placing us firmly outside of the international consensus, and further diminishing our ability to mediate this conflict," said the letter.

Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority once again reached a deadlock in September after Tel Aviv refused to extend a partial moratorium on settlement constructions in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians argue that the continuation of settlement activities reduces the chance of establishing an independent Palestinian state.

Turkish pipeline ablaze after blast

Iraqi workers repair a damaged pipeline in 2004.


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=133272§ionid=351020204


An explosion has blown up a section of a pipeline carrying oil from Iraq to southern Turkey and set it on fire.

The blast occurred on Saturday near the town of Midyat in the southeastern province of Mardin, but the cause is still unknown, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported.

Firefighters have arrived on the scene, but the fire is still raging, according to the latest reports.

The 970-kilometer (600-mile) twin conduit pipeline begins in Iraq's northern oil hub of Kirkuk and ends in the port of Ceyhan on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, from where the crude is shipped to world markets by tanker.

Last year, the pipeline carried 167.6 million barrels of oil, according to Turkish government statistics.

Over the past few years, the pipeline has been targeted several times by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been waging campaign for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast for 26 years.

The PKK militants launch their attacks from Iraq's Qandil Mountains in the areas under the control of Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani. Israel and Israeli firms are also operating in the Qandil mountain range.

Clinton arrives in Baku

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=133273§ionid=351020406



US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has flown to Azerbaijan's capital where she is scheduled to hold talks with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.

Clinton arrived in Baku overnight on Saturday and is to discuss regional issues in the Caucasus with Aliyev.

Among the issues high on the agenda will be the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is currently controlled by ethnic Armenians.

At the Group of Eight summit in Toronto last week, Russia and the US called for a "peaceful solution" to the conflict and urged the leaders of the two countries to "start working on a peace accord."

On Friday, Clinton was in Ukraine as part of her major tour of Russia's near abroad, where she told officials in Kiev that the door to NATO membership was still open.

The visit came amid concerns over Ukraine's shrinking economy.

In late 2009, the International Monetary Fund decided to halt disbursement of a $16.4 billion rescue loan package due to Kiev's violations of the fund's austerity rules.

Clinton said the United States was ready to help Ukraine by investing in its energy industry "including in the nuclear energy sector, as well as helping developing the gas sector."

The Ukrainian energy sector suffered a major blow in early 2009 after a dispute between Kiev and Moscow over the former's outstanding gas debts led the latter to stop its energy exports to Ukraine.

Following her visit to Baku, the US secretary of state is also scheduled to make brief stops in Armenia and Georgia on Monday.

Clinton urges Kyrgyzstan on Manas

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=122996§ionid=351020406


US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called interim Kyrgyz leader Roza Otun-baye-va after Bishkek announced it would close a Key US military base in the country.

"Secretary Clinton spoke to Ms. Roza Otun-baye-va to support the efforts of the Kyrgyz administration to resolve peacefully Kyrgyzstan's current political problems," AFP quoted US spokesman P.J. Crowley as saying.

Clinton spoke about "the important role Kyrgyzstan plays in hosting the Transit Center at the Manas Airport," Crowley said on Saturday.

He added that Otun-baye-va confirmed the Kyrgyz administration would abide by previous agreements regarding the Center.

According to the spokesman, Clinton will send Assistant Secretary Robert Blake to visit Kyrgyzstan to follow up on her discussion.

On Saturday, the US stopped all troop flights to Afghanistan from its controversial air base in Kyrgyzstan, a day after the country's new leadership said it would shorten Pentagon's lease on the Manas military base near the capital.

Clinton ramps up rhetoric on Iran

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/02/2010215103440320234.html

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has said that Iran is heading towards a "military dictatorship" and warned it poses an international threat.

Clinton made her comments to students in Doha, the Qatari capital, on Monday as part of her Gulf tour seeking greater support for tough new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme.

"We see the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the parliament is being supplanted and Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship," she said, speaking at the Qatari branch of Carnegie-Mellon University.

The US is seeking to push Iran into curbing its nuclear ambitions, which it says are aimed at building a nuclear weapon.

Iran has repeatedly stated that its nuclear programme is purely to meet the country's civilian energy needs.

Iran blamed

Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst at the University of Tehran, dismissed Clinton's comments.

"If we give Hillary Clinton some more time she will be blaming Iran for global warming as well," he told Al Jazeera.

"Obviously the statements that she has been making over the past couple of days are quite dishonest, the fact is the United States has to deal with Iran on a rational basis otherwise it will get itself nowhere."


The comments by the US secretary of state mark a stepping up of pressure in favour of sanctions on Iran.

The US is hoping to use international pressure through the UN Security Council for a fourth round of sanctions on Iran.

Clinton said that those sanctions would expressly target the business interests of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.


Her comments come a day after she told delegates at the US-Islamic World Forum, also in Qatar, that Iran had left the world powers little choice but to impose harsh penalties against it over its nuclear programme.


She she told the forum, which is jointly organised by the Qatari foreign ministry and the US-based Brookings Institution, that "evidence is accumulating" that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon.


"Iran has consistently failed to live up to its responsibilities. It has refused to demonstrate to the international community that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful," she said.

'Less than peaceful'

PJ Crowley, the US state department spokesman, later echoed that sentiment in an interview with Al Jazeera.


"Given all the steps that Iran has taken and all the actions that Iran refuses to take, we can only begin to draw the conclusion that Iran's intentions are less than peaceful," he said.


Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, said last week that his country's nuclear scientists had completed further enrichment of the first batch of its stockpile of uranium.


Tehran has said that it stepped up enrichment to produce fuel for a medical research reactor, but the US and its allies have said that the move signals a rejection of a UN-backed plan to swap Iran's low-enriched uranium for processed nuclear fuel.

Iran warns Clinton over sanction remarks

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117526§ionid=351020101


In reaction to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's remarks on Iran's nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned Sunday about the consequences of "tension-seeking" American policies.

“We believe the world public opinion should be concerned about tension-seeking US policies and their consequences on regional and international peace and stability,” Mottaki told reporters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Mottaki was reacting to the recent remarks made by his American counterpart, Hilary Clinton, on Tehran's nuclear program. He said Tehran does not take her comments “seriously.”

“Clinton's efforts to take the US back to the time of the unsuccessful policies of [former President George W.] Bush will bear no fruit for the American people and the new administration,” he said.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has been faced with the hostile approaches of certain US officials during the past three decades but has always tried to maintain peace and stability in the region,” he said.

In unusually blatant remarks aimed at China, Secretary Clinton on Friday assailed the country for not joining the US-led front in imposing fresh sanctions against Iran over its nuclear work.

Clinton said she understood China's unwillingness to impose new penalties on Iran, one of the country's biggest oil suppliers in the world, but warned against “longer-term implications” if Iran did not stop its nuclear program.

"We understand that right now it seems counterproductive to you to sanction a country from which you get so much of the natural resources your growing economy needs. But think about the longer-term implications."

Mottaki, meanwhile, said sanctions and threats cannot prevent Iran, which has always committed itself to regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), from seeking its inevitable right to peaceful nuclear technology.