Hassan Nasrollah

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 20--Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised Friday that his opposition alliance would intensify its campaign to bring down the government, pledging to mount an effective action in the coming days.
In an interview with his group’s Al-Manar television, Nasrallah said Hezbollah’s consultations with its allies were drawing to a close and they would release a statement shortly that spelled out the steps to be taken, AP reported.
“I believe this action will be effective, very important and very big,“ he said. He would not divulge the plan but urged all Lebanese to support it.
Hezbollah and its allies have staged street protests and sit-ins, camping outside the prime minister’s office, since Dec. 1 in a bid to topple the government of Fuad Saniora.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah would never use weapons in its political struggle in Lebanon, repeating that the group’s arms were for fighting Israel.
He said the resignation of Israel’s military chief proved that his group had won the July-August war with Israel, and forecast that the country’s defense and prime ministers would also have to resign.
“It is natural and logical that (Israeli Defense Minister Amir) Peretz should fall. I expect him to resign. He will be the next victim,“ Nasrallah said in an interview on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television station.
He predicted that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would also pay the price of Israel’s failure to crush Hezbollah and secure the release of its soldiers in the 34-day war.
“In the end, (Olmert) will either resign or be overthrown,“ Nasrallah said.
The chief of Israeli armed forces, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, resigned Wednesday, saying he had to take responsibility.
Nasrallah said the US used Saddam Hussein’s execution as a pretext to create Shiite-Sunni conflict.
He called on Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki to “have the courage to clarify the American role, details and decision to execute“ Saddam.
Hezbollah’s leader said the US has planned to use Iraq as a bulwark against Iran.

TEHRAN, Jan. 20--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will submit the budget bill for next Iranian year (to start March 21) to Majlis on Sunday.
Vice president for parliamentary and legal affairs, Ahmad Mousavi, told ISNA that the chief executive will outline the objectives and issues of next year’s budget bill.
A member of Majlis Presiding Board, Hamid Reza Haji-Babaei, pointed out that the president will comment on details of the next year’s budget bill and the situation of the current one.
The 2007-8 budget bill shows a 1.5-percent decline in budget compared with the previous year by allocating about 17,500 billion rials to developments projects.
Mousavi had previously said Ahmadinejad will elaborate on the country’s economic conditions when he attends Majlis to submit the budget bill.
Hot debates pertaining to high prices of commodities, particularly housing prices, among the people have increased this possibility.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 20--Iran complained to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the United States has illegally attacked its consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil and detained five Iranians in Iraq. It pressed the UN for an urgent response.
The US military accused the Iranians of links to Iranian Revolutionary Guards and disputed Iranian claims that the arrested men were diplomats and the office a consulate, AP reported.
In a letter to the UN chief, Iran’s deputy ambassador Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi strongly condemned the attack and accused the United States of “another flagrant violation of the basic principles of international law“ and diplomatic conventions which bar attacks on diplomatic missions.
The Foreign Ministry said US forces disarmed the consulate’s guards, broke down the door of the building, beat and injured the consular officers, and confiscated documents and other property. It said Iran has had an office in Irbil since 1992, and its status was officially changed to a consulate in the past year in an exchange of official documents with the government of Iraq.
“This illegal act, together with the unlawful arrest and detention of some Iranian diplomats and officials by the US forces in Baghdad a few weeks earlier, have once again displayed the contempt of the United States of America for international law and the basic principles on which international relations are based and operate,“ Danesh-Yazdi said.
He called for the immediate release of the five Iranians, the return of the property seized by US forces and compensation for damages to the Iranian Consulate.

TEHRAN, Jan. 20--A top security official rejected any possibility of military attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.
Ali Larijani, secretary of Supreme National Security Council, made the remark late Friday, at the end of his trip to Qom for meeting religious scholars and sources of imitation, IRNA reported.
Speaking at a press conference, Larijani noted that in order to make Iran retreat from its principled stance, especially on the topic of its peaceful use of nuclear energy, the enemies have launched a psychological war.
“Any plan of militarily invading the Islamic Republic of Iran and its nuclear sites is nothing more than a rumor, a kind of psychological war. The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are fully prepared to face any probable threats of our enemies. The news of military invasion of Iran is not true; every year we have faced such rumors and psychological campaigns,“ he said.
“At present, a coalition has been formed to put pressure on Iran. Ultimately, it is the European countries which will be harmed. We will make every effort to pass this phase with wisdom and prudence.“
Larijani pointed out that in the past, in order to create trust, Iran closed its facilities and suspended uranium enrichment, but the Europeans did not live up to their part of the agreement.
“Today, the European countries have become aware of the mistakes they have made on Iran’s nuclear dossier, and they are worried. We have entered an important phase in our nuclear dossier and we will achieve our goals with unity, prudence and wisdom,“ he said.
In another section of his speech, Larijani maintained that America’s Middle East policies are gravely mistaken.
“The US government has made such blatant mistakes in the region that it was manifested in its congressional elections. They want to solve people’s problems with force. Outwardly they speak of democracy, but inwardly they have other intentions.“
The official further said America’s strategy in Iraq and other regional countries is based on false assumptions and carves out enemies for themselves.
Larijani said his goal in traveling to Qom was to present a report to sources of imitation on Iran’s nuclear dossier and the political condition of Middle Eastern countries.

TEHRAN, Jan. 20--The first phase of the new Tehran International Fairgrounds was launched in Aftab City, near the Imam Khomeini Mausoleum, on Saturday.
The new fairgrounds will be built on 140 hectares, at a cost of about 8,000 billion rials, with the participation of the private sector in two executive phases, ISNA reported.
It will contain 44,000 sq. m. of office space, 36,000 sq. m. of service space, 12,000 sq. m. of storage, parking space for 30,000 cars, a 5-star hotel with 350 rooms and an apartment-hotel with 360 units.
The fairground will be in harmony with Iranian-Islamic architecture.
At the launching ceremony, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf promised that the first phase of fairgrounds, which will include a commercial center, four halls and a section of a hotel, will go on stream during the Ten-Day Dawn ceremony in 2009.
Stating that the new fairgrounds will have a capacity for 300,000 people, Qalibaf said, “The fairgrounds will meet all the exhibition needs of the city for the next 50 years. On the other hand, with the building of an amusement park and a 5-star hotel, it will become a suitable commercial-cultural center.“
The mayor also announced the inauguration of a tunnel simultaneous with the completion of the new fairgrounds.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 20--A US helicopter crashed Saturday northeast of Baghdad, killing all 13 people on board, the military said.
The brief statement from the military lacked the customary comment that the aircraft was not shot down, indicating it may have been downed by insurgent fighters, AP reported.
The helicopter was carrying 13 passengers and crew members and all were killed, it said. No further details were released, including the exact location of the crash.
The deaths highlighted a major danger for US forces in Iraq, where the military relies heavily on air travel to avoid the dangers of roadside bombs.
The worst US aircraft accident since the war began was on Jan. 26, 2005, when a Marine transport helicopter crashed during sandstorms in Iraq’s western desert, killing 30 Marines and a US sailor.
Three US aircraft also went down in a span of two weeks late last year, including an Air Force fighter jet that crashed in a field in Anbar province on Nov. 27, killing the pilot.
A Sea Knight helicopter carrying 16 US troops also went down in a lake in Anbar on Dec. 3, killing four.