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Iran attack would hurt US, Israel: Assad

Reuters, Paris

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday a military attack on Iran over its nuclear program would have grave consequences for the United States, Israel and the world.

Speculation of a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities has mounted following a report that Israel staged an air force exercise which was a rehearsal for such an attack.

"It will cost the United States and the planet dear," Assad said in an interview with France Inter radio, adding that such an attack, if it occurred, would have an impact on Israel.

"Israel will pay directly the price of this war. Iran has said so. The problem is not the action and reaction. The problem is that when one starts such action in the Middle East, one cannot manage the reactions that can spread out over years or even decades," said Assad who came to Paris for the EU-Mediterranean summit.

Assad said logic would dictate that there would be no attack on Iran because of the serious repercussions, but such reasoning was not necessarily shared by the current U.S. administration.

"This administration is an administration whose doctrine is a warmonger's doctrine. It does not reason with our logic, ours and that of most European countries, most countries in the world," Assad said.

The Syrian president said he would respond to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's request and use his good relations with Iran to help resolve its nuclear stand-off with the West.

"We are going to have discussions with our Iranian friends to get to the heart of the matter, to the details. This is the first time that we had been asked to play a role."

Iran denies Western charges that it is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian atomic program. Tehran says it only wants to master nuclear technology to generate electricity.

Israel, widely believed to possess the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has sworn to prevent Iran from attaining atomic weapons. The Jewish state, however, neither confirms nor denies possessing such weapons.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other officials have warned that the Islamic Republic's response to any attack would be quick and harsh.

The United States, which insists Iran must suspend uranium enrichment, has refused to rule out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear row.

Iranian missile tests last week further stoked tension. Fears of military confrontation between Iran and Israel have helped to send global oil prices to record highs.

Oil exports from the whole Gulf region would be at risk if Iran's exports were hindered by any threat, Iran's OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi told Reuters on Sunday.

Around 40 percent of global oil shipments leave the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz off Iran's southern coast. Tehran has threatened to impose controls on shipping there if it is attacked, and warned Gulf neighbors of reprisals if they took part.

Karzai opposes US use of Afghan soil against Iran

Reuters, Kabul

Afghanistan opposes U.S. use of its territory for launching a possible attack against neighbouring Iran, President Hamid Karzai said in an interview broadcast on Monday.

Iran has threatened to target Israel and U.S. interests in the region in the event of an attack against the Islamic Republic which is locked in a dispute with the West over its nuclear programme.

Karzai said his government, which came to power after U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001, had always tried to "keep the balance between the powers."

"We are attentive to the dangers," Karzai told Radio Liberty when asked about the possible repercussions of a conflict between Iran and the United States. "Afghanistan should not become the battleground of differences of any country," he said in a wide-ranging interview. "Afghanistan does not want its soil to be used against any country and Afghanistan wants to be a friend of Iran as a neighbour which shares the same language and religion." Karzai said his government had facilitated talks between Tehran and Washington, and had also served as a messenger between both in the past.

Washington, which has some 32,000 troops in Afghanistan and is the biggest aid donor to Kabul, has not ruled out military force against Iran.

Meanwhile, Karzai said foreign troops had ignored his repeated calls to coordinate operations with Afghan forces to avoid civilian casualties.

Nearly 700 Afghan civilians have been killed in the first six months of 2008, the United Nations says, 255 of them by Afghan and international forces.

"This in reality is a disaster t many innocent people have been killed in the bombardment. For five years, routinely, I have been trying to prevent foreign forces from possibly harming our nation. Unfortunately, this effort has not had outcome I wanted, and as the nation expects," Karzai said. Karzai brushed aside reports about a possible postponement of next year's presidential election due to rising violence.

He said Afghanistan favoured good ties with its other large neighbour, Pakistan, but said there were "elements in Pakistan's intelligence and Pakistan's army" who did not want a stable Afghanistan.

9 US troops killed as Taliban overrun base

Reuters, Kabul

A Taliban attack that killed nine U.S. soldiers, the biggest single American loss in Afghanistan since 2005, was a well-planned, complex assault aimed at overrunning an outpost near the Pakistan border, a NATO spokesman said.

The Taliban have largely shied away from large-scale attacks on foreign forces since suffering severe casualties in assaults on NATO bases in the south in 2006. Instead the militants have scaled up hit-and-run attacks and suicide and roadside bombs.

"It was a complex attack, well organized and planned t it was clear they wanted to overrun the combat outpost," said Captain Michael Finney, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The Taliban began the assault on the Afghan army and ISAF outpost in the mountainous and thickly forested Pech Valley district of Kunar province just before dawn on Sunday, warning villagers to leave their homes before the fighting started.

"They chose their positions well. It wasn't just an attempt to rush the gate," Finney said.

The defenders, numbering between 100 to 150, called in airstrikes from attack helicopters and fixed wing warplanes in fighting that went on till mid-afternoon.

There was no exact count of Taliban dead, but ISAF estimated militant losses to be "in the high double figures, close to triple figures," the spokesman said. Tens of Taliban were killed, an Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman said.

There has been a marked increase of violence in Afghanistan this year, especially along the eastern border where militants have effectively secured their rear with de-facto ceasefires with Pakistani forces and launched more attacks into Afghan soil.

The surge in violence is also partly due to the higher numbers of ISAF and Afghan forces in the country entering areas, such as the Pech Valley, where they seldom went before.

Afghan officials said on Sunday the Taliban fighters had infiltrated from nearby Pakistan to launch the attack. However, NATO's Finney said it was unclear whether the militants had crossed the border.

But Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan were "a matter of great concern," he said.

Afghan leaders are growing increasingly impatient with Pakistan, whose new government has adopted a policy of trying to treat with militant leaders instead of battling them.

Afghan officials have hinted at Pakistani agents being involved in a string of attacks in Afghanistan, including a suicide bomb on the Indian embassy in Kabul last week which killed 58 people and an attempt to kill President Hamid Karzai in April.

500 Nepalese cops end revolt after 2-day hostage standoff

AP, Katmandu

About 500 Nepalese riot police who revolted and took their senior officers hostage to protest poor working conditions released their captives and surrendered after a two-day standoff, officials said Monday.

Seven senior police officers were released unharmed just after midnight Sunday, said Narendra Sharma, chief government administrator in the area.

The armed policemen took over a riot police camp Saturday at Nepalgunj, about 310 miles west of Katmandu. They were protesting the alleged ill treatment of lower-ranking officers by their supervisors, low-quality food and other issues.

Hundreds of police surrounded the camp Sunday after the government ordered an immediate end to the standoff, Sharma said.

"The revolting policemen allowed their hostages to leave after midnight, and they are all being held at the police training camp," Sharma said.

There had been reports of shots fired during the standoff, but no one was believed to have been hurt.

Home Secretary Umesh Mainali told The Associated Press that authorities were assessing how to improve the 68,000-member force after two revolts in a month.

In June, disgruntled policemen took 16 officers hostage at the same camp, which is the regional hub for security agencies in western Nepal.

Police official Akhtar Ali Ansari said those involved in the latest action would face a special court.

86 indicted on terrorism charges in Turkey

AP, Ankara

A prosecutor says 86 people have been indicted on terrorism charges for their alleged involvement in plots to topple Turkey's Islamic-rooted government.

Prosecutor Aykut Gengiz Engin says the 86 have been charged with either forming or being a member of a terrorist organization, or of inciting public unrest with the aim of toppling the government.Engin, announcing details of a long-awaited indictment released Monday, did not name the suspects charged, but reports have said the group includes former army officials and journalists.

The suspects were detained as part of an investigation into an alleged hardline secularist and nationalist group. The group was uncovered after police found a cache of hand grenades at the house of an army officer in Istanbul last year.

Israeli leader Olmert hopes for direct Syria talks

AP, Paris

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Israel hopes to have direct contacts with Syria soon.

The rival neighbors have been holding indirect talks mediated by Turkey.

Olmert said in Paris on Sunday that he hopes "it will soon become direct contacts."

Syria's President Bashar Assad said Saturday that the talks could move toward direct contact but suggested that would not happen until there is a new U.S. president in place.

Both leaders are in Paris for a summit of some 40 leaders from around the Mediterranean region. The Israel-Syria tensions are a key thorn in the Union for the Mediterranean.

SKorea to recall Tokyo envoy in islands row

AFP, Seoul

South Korea will recall its ambassador to Tokyo after Japan reaffirmed its claim to a group of islands controlled by Seoul, the foreign ministry said Monday.

"South Korea's ambassador will be recalled in protest," a ministry spokesman told AFP, without saying when the envoy would leave or how long he would remain in Seoul.

Officials said Tokyo has formally told Seoul of its plan to describe the islands as Japanese territory in educational handbooks.

The islands in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) are known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japan.

Mediterranean union launched with Mideast peace hopes

AP, Paris

The leaders of 43 nations from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa have launched a Union for the Mediterranean, a brainchild of French President Nicolas Sarkozy that aims to improve cooperation in the region with practical projects that parallel efforts toward Mideast peace.

Sarkozy's ambitious plan overlaps with European Union projects already in progress, and it was melded into EU efforts and expanded to include 27 members of the EU, not just those on the Mediterranean coast. Nearly all of the 43 nations sent a president or prime minister to the summit. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi objected to the idea and refused to come. Sarkozy reveled at having brought so many leaders to the same table for the first time. "We dreamed about a Union for the Mediterranean, and now it is a reality," Sarkozy said in closing the summit in a palace abutting the River Seine. He called it an "extremely moving, very important moment." Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, co-presiding at the summit with Sarkozy, called on the new union to tackle reducing the wealth "gap" between north and south, and cited other southern Mediterranean "challenges" as education, food safety, health and social welfare.

He said the union has better chances of success than a previous cooperation process launched in Barcelona in 1995 because the new body focuses on practical projects.

While trying to unify the region, the summit laid bare the deep divisions that still slice through it and highlighted how hard it will be to parlay the meeting's goodwill and words into real progress. Syria's president refused to shake the Israeli prime minister's hand, and Morocco's king snubbed the meeting attended by the president of rival Algeria.

Sudan's President likely to face war crimes charge

AFP, The Hague

International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is expected on Monday to seek the arrest of Sudan President Omar al-Beshir, despite warnings the move could impact on the crisis in Darfur.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in an interview he was "very worried" by the possibility of Beshir's indictment, which would be the first of a sitting head of state by the ICC.

"It would have very serious consequences for peacekeeping operations including the political process," he told Le Figaro newspaper. "I'm very worried, but nobody can evade justice." The US State Department has confirmed newspaper reports that Moreno-Ocampo will name the Sudanese leader when he unveils evidence to the court in a new case involving crimes in the country's war-stricken western Darfur region.

The prosecutor's office announced last Thursday he would present evidence and name suspects Monday for "crimes committed in the whole of Darfur over the last five years", but has so far refused to confirm Beshir would be targeted.

Khartoum, which rejects the ICC's jurisdiction and refuses to surrender two war crimes suspects already named, has warned the move could threaten peace efforts.

"If there is a decision about President Beshir, it may destroy the peace process," state minister for foreign affairs Al-Samani al-Wasila told AFP last week.

Arab and African leaders have also warned of the consequences.

The African Union's Peace and Security Council "expressed its strong conviction that the search for justice should be pursued in a way that does not impede or jeopardize efforts aimed at promoting lasting peace."

Five men plead guilty in trans-Atlantic airline plot

AP, London

Five men accused of plotting to detonate liquid explosives on board trans-Atlantic passenger jets have pleaded guilty to lesser offenses, a jury was told Monday, although they maintain they never intended to cause midair carnage.

Three of the men - Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 28, and Tanvir Hussain, 27 - admitted they planned to set off bombs, just not aboard planes bound from London's Heathrow to North America.

They and two other defendants - Ibrahim Savant, 27, and Umar Islam, 30 - have also admitted to "conspiring to cause a public nuisance" by publishing videos threatening suicide bomb attacks. Jurors still need to rule on whether the five men and three other defendants are guilty of conspiring to murder thousands of people by using liquid explosives to blow their aircraft out of the sky.

Their trial is drawing to a close.

The eight defendants were arrested in 2006. Airlines quickly imposed tough new limits on the amount of liquids and gels airline passengers could take in their carry-on luggage.

Zimbabwe political talks in stalemate

Reuters, Harare

President Robert Mugabe's party and the opposition failed last week to agree a framework for talks to end Zimbabwe's crisis, the opposition said on Sunday, but state media said negotiations would continue.

The first preliminary talks between the two sides since a disputed election were adjourned on Friday without agreement, a spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) told Reuters.

Election-related violence that has killed 113 MDC activists since the first round of voting in March was continuing and this led to the talks stalemate, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. The MDC faction led by presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai and a smaller grouping led by Arthur Mutambara began preliminary discussions on Thursday with officials from Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF under the auspices of South African mediators in Pretoria, the South African capital.

"There was (no agreement). The matters are still outstanding. It's not about the table discussions in Pretoria but about what's happening on this side of the Limpopo (river)," Chamisa said.

"We still have to clear the course for meaningful talks."

Despite Chamisa's denials, Zimbabwean state media reports on Sunday suggested an agreement had been reached on a way forward for negotiations.

The state-owned Sunday Mail said the parties had agreed on a "working framework" which "paved the way for serious talks."