Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei inspects the parade of military forces, during his visit to the Military Academy of Imam Hossein (AS) University in Tehran, Nov. 25. (Mehr Photo)

TEHRAN, Nov. 25--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that armed forces in the Islamic ruling system are frontrunners in defending justice, rights of people, national security and values of Islam and the Islamic Revolution.
Ayatollah Khamenei made the remark while addressing the graduation ceremony of the cadets of the Islamic RevolutionÕs Guards Corps (IRGC) at the Military Academy of Imam Hossein (AS) University, IRNA reported.
The leader, who is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, referred to the militarism of world powers as a means for gaining power and said that in the Islamic system, the armed forces are focused toward worship based on the eminent logic of Islam.
"The most important feature of IRGC is that its foundation was laid on Islamic values. It requires a determined manpower to defend the nation, though the revolutionary conditions no longer dominate the country and the Sacred Defense (the 1980-88 Iraq-imposed war) era is over," he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei dismissed semi-intellectual views that oppose military forces and described a military man with an Islamic identity as someone prepared to sacrifice himself for the high goal.
"Therefore, a military man with an Islamic identity is not comparable to the violent and irrational US or Zionist troops and those from hegemonic countries," he said.

TEHRAN, Nov. 25--Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday some of the current issues in the volatile Middle East can be solved, if the US were to adopt new approaches.
Mottaki made the remark during a meeting with the new Tunisian Ambassador to Tehran Hatam Al-Sa'em who submitted a copy of his credentials, IRNA reported.
Terming the current regional developments as very sensitive, Mottaki said after years of US unilateral policy in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan which resulted in failure, the Americans are now talking of new approaches.
"If Americans are serious about implementing new policies, we can expect some of the issues to be solved," he said.
Mottaki described the assassination of Lebanese industries minister, Pierre Gemayel, as a plot hatched by the enemies of Lebanese nation for damaging the unity of Lebanese people.
At least three gunmen rammed their car into Gemayel's vehicle at it was traveling in Beirut's Christian neighborhood and then riddled it with bullets from their silencer-equipped automatic weapons at pointblank range, witnesses said.
Gemayel, 34, was rushed to hospital where he later died of his wounds.
Mottaki also expressed hope that Lebanon's problems would be resolved through wisdom and solidarity.
Referring to the 130 peace plans proposed in the past 30 years to resolve Palestinian issues, he said the main issue of Palestine is that the occupier of holy Qods, namely the Zionist Israeli regime, has waged wars, committed crimes and violated human rights in the region.
The new Tunisian ambassador, for his part, highlighted the two countriesÕ cultural and deep-rooted commonalities and expressed hope that he would play a more active role in broadening ties between the two countries during his tenure.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 25--Lebanon's pro-western Prime Minister Fuad Siniora extended an 11th-hour olive branch to his pro-Syrian opponents on Saturday hours before a controversial cabinet meeting was due to push forward with plans for an international court.
Siniora said he was ready to postpone the emergency meeting he had called to advance the proposed court to try suspects in the February 2005 murder of anti-Syrian ex-premier Rafik Hariri if his opponents showed a "genuine willingness" to discuss the plans, AFP reported.
The two sides appeared headed for a showdown as the anti-Syrian ministers left in the cabinet after the withdrawal of six pro-Damascus ministers two weeks ago prepared for a meeting that their opponents warned would be unconstitutional.
Pro-Syrian Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had warned ministers that they had no authority to hold an emergency cabinet meeting without the approval of President Emile Lahoud, a fellow Damascus ally.
There was no immediate response to the prime minister's overture from Berri's Amal movement or from its Shiite militant ally Hezbollah.
The two factions pulled out their four ministers, along with one Shiite and one Christian ally, two weeks ago in protest at the failure of cross-party talks to agree to their demands for a national unity government, including an allied faction then already in opposition.
Earlier Saturday, Amal and Hezbollah issued a statement rejecting previous calls from Siniora to rejoin the cabinet, accusing him of failing to respect Lebanon's national pact, the unwritten arrangement providing for all of the country's myriad religious and ethnic groups to be represented in government.
"We cannot cooperate with those who refuse the principle of participation and want to ignore us," the two factions said.
"We have asked the prime minister to give us the necessary time to study the proposal and discuss it in a spirit of openness but he refused," they said in reference to the proposed court.
"In the circumstances, if the other side continues to violate the principles of the national pact, we promise the Lebanese people that we will take the necessary steps while respecting the law and democratic means."

Harith Al-Dari

CAIRO, Egypt,
Nov. 25--Iraqi Sunni Muslim cleric Harith Al-Dari sidestepped on Saturday an invitation to give his followers specific orders not to kill Shiite Muslims.
Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr said on Friday that Dari and other Sunni leaders must issue religious rulings, or fatwas, to fellow minority Sunnis forbidding the killing of Shiites or membership of the Al-Qaeda group, Reuters reported.
If Dari meets that and other conditions, Sadr said he would oppose the arrest warrant which the Iraqi government issued against Dari last week on suspicion of links to violence.
But Dari, who arrived in Cairo from Syria this week, said he refused to make a distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.
Speaking at a news conference in Cairo, he said: "We have condemned from the first months the killing of Iraqis...whether they were Arabs or Kurds, Muslims or non-Muslims, without going into details."
He gave a list of occasions when his organization, the Muslim Clerics Association, has issued specific condemnations of killings and resolutions it had voted for.
Dari blamed both the United States and successive Iraqi governments for the collapse of law and order in Iraq after the US invasion of 2003.
The Sunni cleric claimed that the ÔoccupationÕ administration is a failed administration, a stupid administration which can be summed up by saying that it has destroyed Iraq, state, people, institutions and resources.
"Its political operations have brought it today to a dead-end. It has brought Iraq to the edge of the abyss. The political process, under its various titles, took it from bad to worse, from failure to greater failure," he added.
Dari appealed to Arab governments to withdraw their recognition from the Iraqi government.
"I call on the Arab states and Egypt to stand up to this biased government, this sectarian government...this government which exploits sectarianism.Ó