Brahimi: Iran Welcome In Syria Peace Process

The new joint UN-Arab League (AL) special envoy to Syria said he looks forward to including Iran in efforts aimed at the establishing peace and stability in the crisis-hit Arab nation.
“Iran is an important country in the region and definitely I’ll be very happy to talk to them,” Lakhdar Brahimi, who was named on August 17 to replace the former UN-AL envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, said on Sunday, Press TV reported.
He added that Annan’s mission failed ‘because the international community was not as supportive as he needed them to be’.
“The problem is not what I can do differently, it is how others are going to behave differently,” Brahimi said.
The former Algerian foreign minister and longtime UN diplomat asserted, “Without a unified voice from the [UN] Security Council, I think it will be difficult.”
“I’m a peacemaker. By definition, if I start speaking about military intervention, that is recognizing a failure, not a personal failure, but a failure of the peace process,” Brahimi said.
China and Russia, both permanent members of the Security Council, have so far defied the West’s insistence on military intervention in Syria, blocking efforts to materialize the objective.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the violence.
Iran has consistently stressed that dialog is the only solution to the crisis in Syria and proposed the formation of a contact group to help end the violence in the Arab country.
The Islamic Republic also recently hosted a one-day international consultative meeting on the Syrian situation in Tehran.

Ban Certain to Attend NAM Summit

Spokesman for the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Mohammad Reza Forqani said despite the rumors, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will certainly participate at the summit in Tehran.
Forqani told Fars News Agency that rumors about Ban’s decision not to attend the summit due to certain pressures were untrue.
“All the contacts, requests and pressures aimed at preventing Ban Ki-moon from taking part in the NAM meeting have been ineffective and the UN secretary general will come to Tehran for sure,” he underlined.
Some western media outlets in recent days published reports claiming Ban would not attend the Tehran summit.
The 16th summit meeting of the NAM member states will be held on August 26-31 in the Iranian capital during which the Islamic Republic will assume the rotating presidency of the movement for three years.
NAM, an international organization with 120 member states and 21 observer countries plus 9 organizations, is considered as not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.
NAM’s objective, as stipulated in the Havana Declaration of 1979, is to ensure ‘the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries’.

Fate of Red Crescent Hostages in Libya Reviewed

The fate of seven Iranian aid workers recently abducted in Libya was discussed in a meeting in Tehran on Monday.
The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as well as the ministry’s council of deputies.
Foreign Ministry’s Deputy for Consular and Iranians affairs Hassan Qashqavi, who has recently visited Libya, briefed the meeting on his trip and the result of his talks with Libyan officials which focused on the release of the abductees.
During the meeting, Salehi in a telephone conversion with his Libyan counterpart Ashour bin Khalil called for the immediate release of the Iranian delegation.
On July 31, gunmen kidnapped a seven-member delegation from the Iranian Red Crescent Society visiting the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.
Earlier on August 8, Iran‘s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the country‘s Foreign Ministry is actively pursuing the fate of the Iranian nationals held hostage in Libya.
Salehi said Iran had sent letters to related international bodies and expected that regional governments take the necessary measures to secure the release of the captives.

Tehran Offers Condolences On Sudan Plane Crash

Iran in a message expressed condolences to the people and government of Sudan over the death of the country’s officials and citizens in a recent plane crash.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Monday extended a written message of condolence to his Sudanese counterpart Ali Ahmed Karti, expressing sympathy over the loss to the Sudanese government and nation.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has also expressed the Islamic Republic’s sympathy with Khartoum over the accident.
On Sunday, the Sudanese Guidance and Endowments Minister Khalil Abdalla and 31 other people were killed when the plane carrying the official delegation crashed in central Sudan.
“The plane was carrying a ministerial delegation, headed by a minister and 25 others, who were accompanying him in addition to five crewmembers, where all of them were killed after the plane was completely crashed following its collision on a mountain at the area of Taloudy in South Kordofan State,” Sudan’s Minister of Information Ahmed Bilal Osman said in a statement on Sunday.
“All people on board were killed,” Abdelhafiz Abdelrahim, spokesman for the Sudan Aviation Authority, said.
Speaking on the official Radio Omdurman, Osman said the plane ‘crashed into a hill’ because of bad weather, killing the entire delegation.
Sudan has seen several plane crashes in recent years.
On June 20, 2012, a Sudanese military training aircraft crashed at the airbase in the Port-Sudan city in the east of the country, leaving its two crewmembers dead.
On December 30, 2011, six crewmembers were killed when a military helicopter crashed in the western region of Darfur.

Turkey Will Help Free Abducted Pilgrims

Turkey’s Ambassador to Iran Umit Yardim pledged that Ankara will do its best to help release the Iranian pilgrims abducted by armed groups in Syria earlier this month.
Speaking at a meeting with head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi in Tehran on Saturday, Yardim voiced Ankara’s concern about the abduction of Iranian nationals in Syria, Fars News Agency reported.
“Ankara government has paid special attention to help free the kidnapped Iranians and it will continue its efforts in future,” Yardim stated.
The lawmaker, for his part, called on Turkey to use all its capacities to free 48 Iranian pilgrims.
On August 4, armed insurgents in Syria kidnapped 48 Iranian pilgrims who were traveling on a bus from Damascus International Airport to the shrine of Hazrat Zainab (SA) on the outskirts of Damascus.
Meantime, Iran is using all diplomatic, political and security means to secure the release the 48 Iranian pilgrims.
Ever since the abductions took place, the Foreign Ministry and the Iranian embassy in Damascus have been pursuing the fate and release of the kidnapped Iranian nationals through different channels.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said earlier this month that Tehran is trying to free the Iranian pilgrims through Turkey’s assistance, and added that he has held meetings with Turkish officials to ask them to do their best to help secure freedom of the Iranian nationals.
Speaking to reporters upon his arrival at Tehran airport after a visit to Turkey at the time, Salehi pointed to his talks with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu, and noted that the short visit came after his phone conversation with Davutoglu over the fate of the kidnapped pilgrims in Syria.
“All our efforts are aimed at the immediate release of the abducted pilgrims through Turkey’s assistance given Turkey’s contacts with some groups in Syria,” Salehi stated, adding that Turkey had previously helped Iran free some of its nationals in Syria.
“This time, too, we try to obtain result through Turkey’s help,” Salehi stated.
Later, Davutoglu said Ankara would ramp up every effort to help secure the release of the Iranian pilgrims kidnapped by insurgents in Syria.
“Although Iran and Turkey have different views on Syrian developments, Ankara has always differentiated between political and humanitarian issues and has always been a pioneer in humanitarian issues,” Davutoglu told reporters at the time.

Leader Slams Enemies ‘Divide and Rule’ Policy

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Qods Day Rallies
Ayatollah Khamenei stated that that massive turnout in the World Qods Day rallies would have large impact on the world of Islam.
“Undoubtedly, the right and timely move will leave great impact on the world of Islam.”
The Ayatollah said that the World Qods Day is the big legacy of the founder of the Islamic Republic the late Imam Khomeini and that Iranian nation support the oppressed Palestinian nation as a one of the big and essential issue of the world of Islam.
Ayatollah Khamenei said that this year, other nations too were in coordination with Iranian nation more than the previous years.

Morsi’s Visit to Reshape Political Landscape

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“And the Iran leader also sees the opportunity to improve its external environment out of the change (in Egypt),” he said.
The two countries have not had full diplomatic relations since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Iran cut ties after Egypt gave asylum to the deposed Iranian shah in Cairo and made peace with Israel.
Morsi’s visit could mark a thaw in relations between the two countries after years of enmity.
The announcement of the trip came days after Morsi included Iran, which has strong ties with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, in a proposal for a contact group to mediate an end to Syria’s escalating civil war. The proposal for the group, which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, was made at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca.
In another contact between Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr and his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi on the sidelines of the Extraordinary Islamic Ministerial Meeting held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on August 13, the Egyptian official also urged Iran to assist in solving the Syrian crisis, according to the website of Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Zhang said the two countries are expected to exchange ideas about Syria, but he doubts any concrete achievements as the contact between Egypt and Iran is still at an early stage.
However analysts believe it will also bring Egypt back to the regional political stage.
The visit is in line with popular sentiment. Since former president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in an uprising last year, there has been a push for Cairo to craft a foreign policy independent of western or Persian Gulf Arab countries’ agendas.
“This really signals the first response to a popular demand and a way to increase the margin of maneuver for Egyptian foreign policy in the region,” political scientist Mustafa Kamel El-Sayyed told AP. “Morsi’s visits ... show that Egypt’s foreign policy is active again in the region.”
He added, “This is a way also to tell (Persian) Gulf countries that Egypt is not going to simply abide by their wishes and accept an inferior position.”
But the policy toward Iran will not represent a radical shift in the young government’s foreign policy, Zhang said.
“As Morsi just became the country’s first elected president and the current domestic situation is not stable, what he needs is to be cautious and take prudent measures,” Zhang added.
Morsi, the country’s first elected president, has been expected to improve ties with Tehran since his inauguration on June 30. It is unclear whether Morsi will hold two-way meetings with Iranian officials during the visit.
Under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, several attempts were by trade ministers and business leaders to bolster economic ties. But they stirred objections from the foreign ministry and intelligence circles, officials said at the time.
On Thursday, the United States said it had told Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the NAM summit in Iran sent a ‘strange signal’ after Tehran reported that the UN chief would also attend.

Russia Raps Bids Against Nuclear Talks

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The deputies to Jalili and Ashton held day-long talks in Istanbul on July 24.
The meeting between Ali Baqeri and Helga Schmid was held three weeks after Iran and the G5+1 held an expert-level meeting on July 3 in Istanbul with the participation of representatives and experts from both sides.
The two sides had agreed to hold the expert-level talks during their negotiations in the Russian capital, Moscow, in June.

Correa Defends Iran Ties

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa on Sunday strongly defended his country’s commercial relations with Iran and stated that Quito will need permission from no one to expand ties with Tehran.