A view of IranÕs Parliament

TEHRAN, Sept. 29--Majlis in a statement termed US Army and US Central Intelligence Agency as ’terrorist’.
The statement read out in an open Majlis session on Saturday reiterated that the US Army and CIA have been involved in many terrorist operations, IRNA reported.
The lawmakers noted that the US Army and CIA are supporters of terrorism and they themselves are ’terrorists’.
They enumerated the atomic bombardment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, using depleted uranium in the bombardments of Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, occupation of countries such as Vietnam in the past and Iraq and Afghanistan at present, as well as support for the Zionist regime of Israel as terrorist acts pursued by the US and CIA.
It also referred to the US support of the executed Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, and terrorist groups such as the banned Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO) and Al-Qaeda and Taliban after the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan as other terrorist acts performed by the US.
The lawmakers noted that they support the Iranian nation while condemning the aggressions of the US Army, blaming Washington for creating a chaotic atmosphere inside Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Majlis move was interpreted as an apparent response to a Senate resolution seeking to give a similar designation to the Islamic Revolution’s Guard Corps (IRGC).
Earlier, the Senate voted 76-22 in favor of a resolution urging the State Department to designate IRGC a terrorist organization. While the proposal attracted overwhelming bipartisan support, a small group of Democrats said they feared labeling the organization as such could be interpreted as a congressional authorization of military force in Iran.
The IRGC in Iran is known as a defense entity which since its inception has pursued the interests of the nation and defends the values of the Islamic Revolution. Its active presence in different national arenas is another service of this revolutionary organization to the nation.

TEHRAN, Sept. 29--Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on Saturday Iran considers the US Senate resolution for creating federal regions in Iraq as a blatant act of interference in the country’s internal affairs.
On Friday, the US Senate passed a resolution calling for the creation of separate Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish federal regions in Iraq, IRNA reported.
“The recent ratification shows the repetition of mistakes by the Americans in dealing with Iraq,“ he said, adding that this is one of the grave mistakes which they will be forced to correct.
Reiterating Iran’s support for the Iraqi Premier Nuri Al-Maliki’s government, he said, “We consider such measures to be against the efforts of Maliki’s government which is striving to forge national unity and solidarity.“
Noting that the US move undermines Iraq’s sovereignty and solidarity, the spokesman said, “Iran underlines the need to respect the country’s political development as well as its constitution which is based on democracy.“
“The Iraqi people should decide about their own fate through legal channels and it is their right,“ he said.
Hosseini lambasted such measures, which seek to disrupt unity and solidarity in Iraq and create insecurity and crisis in the country and the whole region.
Meanwhile, Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) condemned an approval by the US Senate according to which Iraq will be divided into three distinct ethnic and religious zones.
OIC warned that the US measure will result in further violence in Iraq.
OIC President Ekmeleddin Ihsan Oglou said that the approval will only result in further violence and killings inside Iraq.
Ihsan Oglou noted that OIC supports a national reconciliation plan instead of federalism plan for Iraq.
OIC headquarters is in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and it has a total of 57 member-states.

TEHRAN, Sept. 29--Air defense experts of the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC) have launched a system that can fully control the entire Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz.
According to a plan by IRGC engineers, the air defense system dubbed ’Hod-Hod’ (Hoopoe) will control all movements in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz round the clock, Fars News Agency reported.
Hod-Hod, which is equipped with the most advanced cameras, will send all information to IRGC centers via computers. It can also record and send high quality pictures with high precision and resolution.
By launching the online Hod-Hod air defense system, IRGC will be informed about the status of ships and airplanes moving in the Persian Gulf.
Hod-Hod extends full control over Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz by supplementing conventional radar and electronic systems.

BOGOTA, Colombia, Sept. 29--Scores of candidates and officials have been murdered in Colombia ahead of the October 28 local elections by leftist rebels and new gangs replacing rightwing militias that once brutally ruled provincial politics.
With a month to go before ballots are cast, the government says there have been 69 political murders in this campaign season, including 27 candidates, 13 town council members, five campaign volunteers and a campaign manager, Reuters reported.
In the last nationwide local elections campaign four years ago, 94 people were killed by illegal groups including well-organized paramilitary militias, most of which have since disbanded under a government peace plan.
But thousands of former ’paras’ have joined a new generation of Colombian gang with no ideology or agenda other than to bribe or cow politicians into turning a blind eye toward their extortion and drug-smuggling businesses.
“We are seeing new drug-trafficking groups that include some former paramilitaries but not with the same organization as the paramilitaries,“ Deputy Interior Minister Maria Isabel Nieto told Reuters on Friday.
Crime is down in Colombia thanks to President Alvaro Uribe’s US-backed crackdown on leftist guerrillas. Still, Nieto said the rebels are behind nearly half of this year’s political murders.
The government has provided bodyguards, bulletproof vests and armored cars for some candidates in a bid to reduce political violence. It says such measures have helped foil 35 attacks this year. Colombia’s rightwing paramilitary groups were organized in the 1980s to help landowners beat back communist insurgents.
More than 31,000 paramilitaries have demobilized in a deal offering reduced jail terms for crimes such as massacre and torture. The rebels remain at war with the state and often threaten to kill people if they vote at all.
More than half of Colombia’s towns face intimidation ahead of the October vote, according to an independent study released this week that the government says exaggerates the threat.

aDAMASCUS, Syria, Sept. 29--Everything reported so far about an Israeli air raid on Syria is wrong and part of a “psychological war“ against Damascus intended to lay the ground for future attacks, Syria’s vice president said on Saturday.
In his first comments on the Sept. 6 Israeli incursion over Syria, Farouk Al-Sharaa said Israel was trying to restore its damaged image following its ’defeat’ by Lebanese Hezbollah during their month-long war last year, AP reported.
“If some people in Israel think that this psychological war will restore (the image of) the Israeli army following its defeat by the Lebanese resistance last year, they should know that what Israel needs is to restore the Israeli mind,“ Al-Sharaa said.
Details of the Israeli incursion remain unclear. While Israel has clamped a news blackout on the incident, US officials have said Israeli warplanes struck a target and a senior American nonproliferation official said earlier this month that North Korean personnel were in Syria helping its nuclear program, resulting in speculation nuclear installations had been targeted.
Syria and North Korea both denied the reports and accused US officials of spreading the allegations for political reasons.
Syria has said only that warplanes entered its airspace, came under fire from anti-aircraft defenses and dropped munitions and fuel tanks to lighten their loads while they fled.
“The size of these (media) leaks along with the fabrications they carry is striking,“ Al-Sharaa said at a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Adil Abdul-Mahdi.
“They (the Western and Israeli media) are inventing things to justify a future aggression“ against Syria, he concluded.
He described reports of North Koreans killed in the alleged raid as ’nonsense’.
Al-Sharaa also said that Syria has not received an official invitation to a US-proposed Mideast peace conference to take place in November. But he said that any such conference must be based on “firm grounds“ such as UN resolutions or an Arab peace initiative and the return by Israel of Arab occupied territories.
Any conference that is not based on these principles “will have no value other than being a photo opportunity“, Al-Sharaa added.

TEHRAN, Sept. 29--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the display of Iran’s grandeur was the greatest achievement of his visit to the American continent.
He made the remark late Friday upon his arrival from the six-day tour of the United States, Bolivia and Venezuela, IRNA reported.
Referring to his participation in the 62nd UN General Assembly session, he said it was a good opportunity to present the views of the Iranian nation.
President Ahmadinejad addressed the assembly on Tuesday.
Delivering a speech at Columbia University and holding discussions with American Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders as well as media networks were among his other programs in New York.
As to the Columbia University president’s insult to the Iranian president, he said the incident revealed both Iran’s innocence and the hostility of enemies.
“Although everything had been prepared for holding a mock trial to damage the image of the Iranian nation, the righteousness of the Iranian stands was proved to the world,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad noted they lost the credibility of their bullying system as well as the prestige of their university and their mass media.
“After a meeting I had with the world leaders, popular groups, news groups and senior diplomats, they conveyed the message that they support the Iranian nation and condemned what happened at Columbia University,“ he said.
The chief executive noted that he also met American Jewish rabbis and priests which was also very fruitful.
“The Jewish religious leaders thanked the Iranian nation for distinguishing between real Jewish people and the Zionists,“ he said.
Commenting on his attendance at the gathering of Iranian expatriates residing in the US, the president said, “One million Iranians live in the US and a majority of them are highly educated.“
Ahmadinejad noted that the Iranian expatriates have asked him to continue to defend the Islamic Revolution’s ideals and to count on their support.
During his short visit to Bolivia, three major agreements in the fields of energy and industry were signed. The two sides also release a joint communiquŽ on bilateral cooperation.
Three documents on cooperation in the areas of energy and industry were also signed with Venezuela.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 29--A Taliban suicide bomber wearing an Afghan army uniform set off a huge explosion on Saturday while trying to board a military bus in the capital, killing 30 people, most of them soldiers, officials said.
Hours later, the Afghan president offered to meet personally with the Taliban leader for peace talks and give the militants a position in government, AP reported.
Strengthening a call for negotiations he has made with increasing frequency the last several weeks, President Hamid Karzai said he was willing to meet with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and factional warlord leader.
“If I find their address, there is no need for them to come to me, I’ll personally go there and get in touch with them,“ Karzai said. “Esteemed Mullah, sir, and esteemed Hekmatyar, sir, why are you destroying the country?“
“If a group of Taliban or a number of Taliban come to me and say, ’President, we want a department in this or in that ministry or we want a position as deputy minister ... and we don’t want to fight anymore... If there will be a demand and a request like that to me, I will accept it because I want conflicts and fighting to end in Afghanistan,“ Karzai said.
“I wish there would be a demand as easy as this. I wish that they would want a position in the government. I will give them a position.“
Karzai earlier this month renewed a call for talks with the Taliban, and a spokesman for the militant group initially said the fighters might be open to negotiations. But spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi later said foreign troops must first leave the country--a demand Karzai said Saturday he would not meet.
“It should be very clear until all our roads are paved, until we have good electricity and good water, and also until we have a better Afghan national army and national police, I don’t want any foreigners to leave Afghanistan,“ he said.
Saturday’s explosion ripped off the roof of the bus and tore out its sides, leaving a charred hull of burnt metal.
“It was a terrible tragedy, no doubt an act of extreme cowardice,“ Karzai said. “Whoever did this was against people, against humanity, definitely against Islam. A man who calls himself Muslim will not blow up innocent people in the middle of Ramadan (the Muslim month of fasting).“
A purported Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed the militant group was responsible for the blast in a text message to the Associated Press. Mujahid said the bomber was a Kabul resident named Azizullah.