The leader of Hezbollah has said that his Lebanese Shia movement is ready for “open war” with Israel, in a speech to supporters mourning the death of a senior commander.

Israel immediately ordered its military and embassies to go on high alert.

Accusing Israel of killing Imad Moghaniyah in a car bomb blast in the Syrian capital on Tuesday, Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday that it had “crossed the borders”.

“With this murder, its timing, location and method - Zionists [Israel] if you want this kind of open war, let the whole world listen: let this war be open,” he said.

He said Hezbollah fighters had started preparing for the next war immediately after the end of the 2006 war with Israel.

Speaking in a videotaped message to supporters at the funeral service for Moghaniyah in southern Beirut, Nasrallah said: “Like all human beings we have a sacred right to defend ourselves.

“We will do all that it takes to defend our country and people.”

Israel on alert

The Israeli prime minister’s office issued a warning late on Thursday urging Israeli citizens to act with extra caution while abroad, noting the threat of kidnapping.

It advised staying out of Arab and Muslim countries, avoiding concentrations of other Israelis and turning down “unexpected invitations to meetings in remote places”.

Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, Israel’s military chief, put forces on heightened alert, and the military sent more troops to the already fortified border with Lebanon, defence officials said.

Israeli embassies worldwide also were put on alert, and Israeli security forces advised Jewish institutions across the globe to be vigilant, officials said.

In Washington, Sean McCormack, the US state department spokesman, called Nasrallah’s threats “quite concerning”.

“Quite clearly, Hezbollah has a long record of carrying out violent acts and acts of terrorism around the globe,” he said.

Different visions

The speech by Nasrallah, who is in hiding after the July 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, came shortly after an event elsewhere in the Lebanese capital to mark the third anniversary of the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, a former prime minister.

Security was tight as thousands of people gathered for the two separate rallies, which highlighted the deep divisions in the country.

Leaders in the pro-government March 14 bloc had supporters in the al-Hariri commemoration in Martyrs Square to show their rejection of alleged Syrian efforts to regain influence in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, which is supported by Syria and Iran, has led an opposition political bloc against March 14 for the past three years.

Rula Amin, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Beirut, said the rallies advanced different visions for Lebanon.

She said the al-Hariri rally speakers took pride in the fact that it was the US, the EU and the West that was backing them.

But in the southern suburbs, at the funeral for Moghaniyah, there was defiance against Israel, the US and the West in general which considered Moghaniyah a terrorist, she said.

The funeral was a message from Hezbollah not just to Israel but the March 14 leaders that the Shia group also commanded support on the streets, Amin added.

Nasrallah vow

Moghaniyah, who was accused by the US of planning attacks on Western targets during the Lebanese civil war, was killed by a car bomb in Damascus on Tuesday evening.

Nasrallah said that the death of Moghaniyah would only strengthen the resistance against Israel.

“Moghaniyah’s blood will lead to the elimination of Israel. These words are not an emotional reaction,” he said.

Amin said Nasrallah’s words had left many Lebanese wondering if there will be another war with Israel.

AGENCIES

Following continued tension in Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has ordered the country’s security forces to end the tension, decisively. After the assassination of People’s Party leader Mrs. Benazir Bhutto Thursday the ensuing tension has left around 50 people killed and millions of dollars of damages.

Although the government says al-Qaeda was responsible for the assassination, the People’s Party has called for full investigation into the matter. The broadcast of a film showing someone shooting toward Bhutto has led to intensified differences between this party and the government on how Bhutto was killed. Thus the government has announced its readiness for more investigation.

Meanwhile the holding of the January 8th parliamentary elections have been placed in ambiguity. Although the government has not yet decided about this issue the electoral commission is to make a decision in this regard. Leader of the Muslim League Party Nawaz Sharif has called for the elections to be postponed until conditions are ready.

The government believes terrorist and rioters intend to take advantage of the country’s situation to delay the elections and make political instability continue in the country. At any rate Musharraf’s order to the security forces could make the situation more critical, something that will be to the terrorists’ benefit and that of foreign interventionist powers.

That is why establishing peace in Pakistan requires cooperation between all factions. Since Pakistani parties are getting ready for the elections, establishing peace and confronting the terrorists is more than ever required, and this needs cooperation among the government and political groups.

IRIB

Osama bin Laden has accused the US of plotting to take control of Iraq’s oil and urged Iraqis to reject efforts to rebuild a US-backed national unity government.

In a new audio recording, the al-Qaeda leader also threatened more attacks against Israel and to expand his group’s so-called holy war, or jihad, to Jerusalem and Palestine.

The authenticity of the tape could not be verified.

In it, bin Laden urged Iraqis to reject a plan which he said meant “to give the Americans all they wish of Iraq’s oil” and said those who take part in a unity government would be turning their backs on Islam.

He also urged Iraqis not to join the Awakening Councils which are predominantly Sunni tribal police funded by the US military to fight al-Qaeda and reduce violence.

“I advise those who follow the path of temptation should wash out this disgrace by repentance,” he said in the 56-minute recording posted on the internet on Saturday.

US progress

“This participation [in the Awakening Councils] is a great apostasy and sedition that will lead them to Hell.”

The release of the recording comes as the US and the Iraqi interior ministry claim they have the al-Qaeda organisation in Iraq on the run.

Several hours before the tape was issued, General David Petraeus, the most senior US commander in Iraq, said al-Qaeda was becoming increasingly fearful over losing the support of Sunnis and had begun targeting the leaders of the tribal councils who have switched allegiances to the US.

Bin Laden also criticised the Saudi government for supporting US policies in Iraq.

“The government of Riyadh is still playing its wicked roles,” he said.

The recording was posted on the website where al-Qaeda’s media arm, al-Sahab, issues the group’s messages.

A US counter-terrorism official said Washington was aware of the recording and was looking into it.

“There has never been a fake bin Laden tape, so there really wouldn’t be any reason going in to believe it would be anything other than authentic,” the official said.

Palestine threat

The tape was the latest message from al-Qaeda leaders trying to patch up divisions among groups in Iraq and rally Sunnis behind al-Qaeda.

On December 16 bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, branded those who work with the anti-Qaeda tribal councils as traitors and called for Sunnis to purge anyone co-operating with the Americans.

Also in Saturday’s tape, bin Laden promised to widen al-Qaeda’s fight to include Israel, stepping up the organisation’s attempts to use the Israeli-Arab conflict to rally supporters.

“I would like to assure our people in Palestine that we will expand our jihad there,” bin Laden said.

Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders frequently vow to liberate Jerusalem and Palestine in their messages, but the latest comments were more direct.

Israel has warned of growing al-Qaeda activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, but the network is not believed to have taken a strong direct role there so far.

“We will not recognise even one inch for Jews in the land of Palestine as other Muslim leaders have,” bin Laden said.

The tape did not refer to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan on Thursday.

AGENCIES

The political party of Benazir Bhutto, the late Pakistani opposition leader, is meeting in southern Pakistan to choose her successor and decide whether to contest or boycott elections due in a little over a week.

Bhutto’s assassination three days earlier has thrown into doubt the January 8 poll and stoked violence, killing at least 47 people.

Rioters have destroyed 176 banks, 34 petrol stations, 72 train cars, 18 rail stations, and hundreds of cars and shops.

The election commission said nine election offices, with the voter rolls and ballot boxes inside, were also wrecked.

With the printing of ballot slips and the training of poll workers hampered, the commission has called an emergency meeting for Monday.

Fuelling the protests in Pakistan’s streets is distrust of Pervez Musharraf, the president, and his administration’s contention that Bhutto was killed by al-Qaeda.

Abu Bakr, a Bhutto supporter, told Al Jazeera: “This is a conspiracy. Musharraf has hatched this conspiracy. Al-Qaeda has not done this. This was a plot by Musharraf.”

AGENCIES

Kurdish fighters in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan say they will resist a Turkish invasion of the region.

Kurdish fighters deep in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan say they are prepared to fight Turkey if it invades northern Iraq to flush out PKK guerrillas.

General Jabbar Yawar, spokesman of the General Command of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Border Guard Force, said that Kurdish forces will fight Turkey if it enters Iraq.

“We have a strong force in Kurdistan, and we have been able to protect the security of Kurdistan for years,” he said. “We will not stay out of the way of the Turkish army. We will resist.”

The general argued that Turkey was using its conflict with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, PKK, as a pretext for a military incursion into the region of northern Iraq which enjoys self-rule.

“Turkey has not been able to accept this region up to now,” maintained Yawar.

The PKK is facing one of its most serious challenges from Turkey since setting up bases in the Qandil mountain area of Kurdish northern Iraq in 1982.

Turkey is threatening to invade following weeks of fierce battles over the Iraqi-Turkish border between PKK rebels and Turkish forces, in which dozens have been killed on both sides.

Ankara accuses the US and the Iraqi governments of not doing enough to stop the PKK, which was founded in Turkey, from conducting cross-border attacks.

Washington, which is an ally of Turkey, is leading diplomatic efforts to prevent a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq, and US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice held high-level talks with Turkish leaders on November 2

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to meet US president George W Bush on November 5, and Turkish officials have said the country will decide whether it will send troops into Iraq after the meeting.

While US and Turkey consider the PKK to be a terrorist organisation, the party and its supporters say that it fights for Kurdish rights.

Although US and Iraqi officials have pledged to crack down on the party in recent meetings with Turkish officials, Iraqi Kurdish leaders and PKK fighters say its bases in the rugged Qandil mountain range are impossible to access.

The Qandil mountain range is about 3,500 metres high and about 1,500 square kilometres, lying between Iraq, Iran and Turkey.

The terrain is known in Iraqi Kurdistan as “Iraq’s Tora Bora”, a reference to the mountainous area of Afghanistan where al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters are thought to be hiding.

The PKK controls the towns below the mountains, and it is necessary to walk - and sometimes even crawl - up steep terrain to reach the party’s bases.

Guerrillas have also built trenches and tunnels throughout the mountain range, which is blanketed by snow in the winter.

Abdularahman Chadirchy, a member of the PKK’s command board, said that because of the harsh conditions, he does not believe that Turkey will launch a wide ground attack on PKK bases, despite reports that Turkey has sent 100,000 troops to the border.

“If Turkey attacks Qandil, it will be by air,” he said.

Fuad Hussein, chief of staff for the KRG, told IWPR that Iraqi Kurdistan’s Peshmarga military forces are not able to drive out the PKK from such impenetrable terrain.

“Turkey is asking the Kurdistan region for something that is beyond our ability,” said Hussein, who has called on the PKK to stop attacking the Turkish military and “giving them the pretext to come into the Kurdish region”.

He also noted that rooting out the PKK would leave the mountain range open to Islamic extremists, such as Ansar al-Islam, the Kurdish-affiliated al-Qaeda group.

Nowruz Jarand, a member of the PKK Leadership Council, confirmed that the group had fought Ansar al-Islam in the mountains.

She also said that the PKK continues to hold eight Turkish soldiers as prisoners of war, since they were captured during clashes in late October. Jarand said the troops were with the PKK inside Turkey and invited the International Committee for the Red Cross to visit them.

While the KRG condemned the capture of the Turkish troops - and has called on the PKK to stop attacking Turkey - Iraqi Kurds tend to support the group, arguing that Turkey discriminates against its Kurdish population.

Many are also suspicious that Turkey wants to limit the power of the KRG.

Saria Mustafa, 20, a Syrian Kurdish fighter with the PKK, who joined the rebels last year, said she is ready for a Turkish attack.

“They might reach Qandil,” she said while sipping a cup of tea after a military training, “but it will be over my dead body.”

Frman Abdul-Rahman
IWPR

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has said Washington views Kurdish fighters who have launched attacks on Turkey from Iraq as a “common enemy”.

Rice, on a visit to Turkey, said at a press conference on Friday that Washington and Ankara needed to show “commitment and persistence” against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Ali Babacan, Turkey’s foreign minister, said in the same press conference that Rice’s visit to Turkey marked the start of closer co-operation between the Nato allies against the PKK.

Rice said that Washington and Ankara were working together on intelligence sharing to combat the separatist group.

Rice will later attend wider talks in Istanbul to discuss Ankara’s strategy against the PKK, who have launched attacks against Turkey from bases in northern Iraq.

Iraqi officials are also attending the Istanbul conference, which was originally meant to focus on Iraq’s long-term stability.

The meeting comes amid concerns that Turkey may launch cross-border raids against fighters from the PKK.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, is also attending the talks.

‘Common enemy’

Turkey has accused the regional Kurdish government in northern Iraq of harbouring PKK fighters.

The separatist group is said to use bases in the mountainous region for cross-border attacks as part of its 23-year campaign for self-rule in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.

Rice told reporters earlier en route to Turkey: “We have certainly been concerned that anything that would destabilise the north of Iraq is not going to be in Turkey’s interests, it is not going to be in our interests and it is not going to be in the Iraqis’ interests. That’s been the reason for urging restraint.

“But we understand the need to do something effective against this PKK threat … The PKK is an enemy of the United States just like it is an enemy of the Turks.”

AGENCIES

The decision by the British regime to withdraw a number of its occupation troops from Iraq has drawn reactions from inside and outside the US. The American press in the past couple of days has repeatedly reviewed this issue and have reported the end of the war coalition in Iraq.

The Los Angeles Time wrote: the US should take lesson from the withdrawal of the British troops from Iraq and stop beating the drums of war through deceit on the pretext of creating stability because the members of the war coalition are leaving the bloody war zone of Iraq, The last of such coalition members was Britain the closest US ally which announced it would pull its troops out.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week announced that by the summer of 2008 half of the total number of British occupation forces will be withdrawn from Iraq. Therefore only 2500 British occupation forces will remain in Iraq, which compared to the 130,000 forces of the US occupiers is nothing.

One day before Brown’s decision the Czech Republic, which is also an accomplice to the American-occupation of Iraq, said it would pull its 100 forces out of Iraq. With such a decision the Czech Republic also joined ranks of countries withdrawing their occupation forces from Iraq.

Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Japan, the Netherlands and Norway were among countries whose occupation contingents have been withdrawn from Iraq. As this trend continues the efforts by the US regime to justify the occupation of Iraq will receive a serious blow. Of course, from the very beginning of the Iraq war there was no real coalition and the US regime had the biggest share in terms of the number of occupation forces and military equipment in Iraq.

The number of soldiers dispatched by some of the so-called war coalition members was less than 50 and they never participated in any military operation. US President George W. Bush in a bid to deflect public pressures has said that by the summer of 2008 he will bring 100,000 of his occupation troops out of Iraq. But still it is not certain whether Bush will keep his promise.

IRIB

Malaysian ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad has said history should remember Blair and Bush as children killers and lying war criminals. In a keynote speech at the ‘Expose War Crimes: Criminalize War Exhibition’ Mahathir Mohamad said war has in fact ‘legitimized terror’ orchestrated by powerful states against the weak.

He added what former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush have done in Afghanistan and Iraq is much worse than the atrocities of Saddam.
The former Malaysian prime minister also suggested that a permanent tribunal be set up for criminalizing war in order to hear charges levelled at warmongers, leaders and the governments of aggressor nations.

He said: “History should remember Blair and Bush as the killers of children or as the lying prime minister and president,” adding that terrorism stems from the actions of powerful countries that kill innocent civilians, which is much worse than the crimes of terrorists.

AGENCIES

Turkey took a step toward a military operation in Iraq on Tuesday, as its top political and military leaders issued a statement authorizing troops to cross the Iraq border to eliminate separatist Kurdish rebel camps in the northern region.

Turkey moved toward military action in the face of strong opposition by the United States, which is anxious to maintain peace in the region, one of the rare areas of stability in conflict-torn Iraq. But more than two dozen Turkish soldiers have been killed in recent days, and the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan seemed far more determined than before to act decisively.

A government official without authorization to speak publicly on the issue who asked not to be identified by name, said preparations were under way to seek parliamentary approval for a cross-border military operation, a request that would be the first formal step toward an offensive.

The Associated Press reported that the request would be submitted to Parliament as early as Wednesday.

Government offices and institutions have been ordered “to take all economic and political measures, including cross-border operations when necessary, in order to end the existence of the terror organization in a neighboring country,” said the statement, which was released by Mr. Erdogan’s office, after he met with political and military leaders in Ankara.

A Turkish military offensive into northern Iraq, while unlikely, would have far-reaching consequences for the United States. Turkey is a NATO member and has the region’s most powerful army. Turkey’s support of the United States in the Iraq war is crucial. The United States’ Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey supplies the military in central Iraq.

Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman, said the United States had encouraged Turkish officials to work together with the Iraqi government.

“In our view, it is not going to lead to a long-term, durable solution to have significant incursions from Turkey into Iraq,” he said at a news briefing in Washington.

But Iraq’s government has little authority in the region, which is controlled exclusively by Kurds, and an accord reached by Iraq’s interior minister and senior Turkish officials last month did not include permission for military operations, a formulation that frustrated Turkey.

Relations between the United States and Turkey are delicate on another front. A bill on the Armenian genocide — the killing of more than a million Armenians by Turkey at the end of World War I — is due before the House Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday. Turks have been working to prevent its consideration, with Mr. Erdogan making phone calls Tuesday, according to a Turkish member of Parliament in Washington to work against the bill.

Its passage “would be insulting to Turkey,” said Egeman Bagis, the Parliament member. “It would mean losing Turkey’s support in the region.”

He did not say precisely what that might mean. Turkey ended military cooperation with France last year after France voted to make denial of the Armenian genocide a crime.

“It could make it very difficult for Turkey to continue supporting” the United States in Iraq, Mr. Bagis said.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Ali Babacan, made a similar appeal to Israeli authorities on a visit over the weekend, asking them to press Congress to drop the matter. Turkey has close relations with Israel, and Turkish officials have bristled at a recent statement by the Anti-Defamation League declaring that the killing of Armenians was “tantamount to genocide.”

Some analysts said that given the complex relationships among Turkey, Iraq and the United States, Turkey would continue to consider military action a last resort.

Edip Baser, a retired general who was special coordinator in a United States-Turkey effort against the Kurdish Workers’ Party in 2006, said it was likely that political and military leaders would wait for the appropriate time to act.

The government official who asked not to be identified by name said: “Our government will soon start technical consultation with the military to see what they need in order to end this violence that make our hearts bleed. First, there needs to be necessary preparations and assessments. We can say that they have already started.” Senior cabinet members, state officials and high-ranking military officials met Tuesday after President Abdullah Gul, Mr. Erdogan and Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, the leader of the Turkish Army, vowed to strengthen efforts against the Kurdish Workers’ Party, the Kurdish rebel group.

AGENCIES

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, has been re-elected by legislators, officials said, although doubts remain over whether the supreme court will let him claim victory.

Politicians voted on Saturday, but a winner will not be declared until Musharraf’s eligibility for the poll has been approved by the court, which meets on October 17.

Following the vote in a televised address, Musharraf called on opposition parties to accept the outcome and urged them not to destabilise the state by holding strikes or protests.

“I appeal to the people for a conciliatory approach, let sanity prevail,” he said.

But he refused to say what he would do if the supreme court overturns the result, adding: “Let them come to their decision, then we will decide.”

In the two houses of parliament, Musharraf won 252 of 257 votes, and also won the most votes in three of four provincial assemblies, officials said.

About 30 per cent of national assembly opposition politicians resigned before the vote and Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party abstained.

A rival, Wajihdduin Ahmad, a former judge who refused to swear allegiance to Musharraf after the coup that brought him to power in 1999, got two votes. Three votes were rejected.

Ahmad told Al Jazeera that there was a good chance the supreme court would not endorse Musharraf’s victory.

“We have a very strong case,” he said.

Musharraf’s total electoral college vote, including the provincial assemblies, was 384 ballots out of 702, government officials said

Musharraf has been in conflict with the supreme court since he attempted to sack Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the chief justice.

However, Ayaz Amir, a Pakistani political columnist, told Al Jazeera that Pakistanis were very cynical about the validity of the poll.

“People are taking this election with a large bucketful of salt, ” he said.

Lawyers protests

Earlier, anti-government protests, led by lawyers, who have spearheaded a campaign against Musharraf in recent months, took place in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.

Police fired tear gas to disperse lawyers pelting rocks at the North West Frontier Province assembly, and the lawyers also threw a burning effigy of the president on top of an armoured police vehicle.

Before election officials announced the result, Wajiha Mehdi, a lawyer and associate of Chaudhry, told Al Jazeera she believed that any win for Musharraf would be unconstitutional.

“The people of Pakistan are now going to speak. They have had enough.”

However, Amir said it was unlikely that the supreme court would overturn Musharraf’s victory.

Political wrangling

If his re-election is confirmed, the president has promised to leave his position as head of the army by November 15 and be sworn in as a civilian leader.

Opposition parties have vowed to stage protests over Musharraf’s decision not to step down from his army post ahead of the election.

But Musharraf had averted a walk-out by Bhutto’s PPP by granting her amnesty from corruption charges, paving the way for a power-sharing deal between the two politicians.

Bhutto, whose party is the country’s largest, had earlier threatened to further undermine Musharraf’s widely anticipated victory by pulling her MPs from parliament, after other opposition parties also resigned.

The amnesty clears the way for her planned homecoming on October 18 in the run-up to parliamentary elections due by early 2008.

AGENCIES