Colin Powell, the former US secretary of state, said on Wednesday Iraq had descended into civil war and urged world leaders to accept that “reality”.

“I would call it a civil war,” Powell told a business forum in the United Arab Emirates. “I have been using it [civil war] because I like to face the reality.”

Powell’s remarks came before a meeting between George Bush, the US president, and Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, in the Jordanian capital to discuss the security developments in Iraq.

He said world leaders should acknowledge Iraq was in civil war.

Bush had denied on Tuesday that sectarian violence in Iraq had reached the scale of civil war. He said the latest wave of violence was part of a nine-month-old pattern of attacks by al-Qaeda fighters aimed at fomenting sectarian tension.

Bush is under growing pressure to find a new policy to curb sectarian strife in Iraq and to secure an exit for 140,000 US troops.

Powell, speaking at a world leaders forum in Dubai, said Washington should adopt a more balanced policy towards Iraq’s political parties and sects to avoid marginalising Sunni Muslims.

“We have to accept what all Iraqis accept, not to end up seeing a Shia-dominated regime,” he said.

However, Powell said troops had to continue their job in Iraq until their mission is done, but not to remain too long.

“The coming strategy has to be an Iraqi strategy, not American strategy.”

Powell outlined the case against Iraq at the UN Security Council in the run-up to the war, which was based broadly on unfounded intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

AGENCIES

Irish police have launched an investigation into the suspected poisoning of former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar.

He fell ill at a conference in the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Co Kildare after collapsing with nose bleeds and vomiting last Friday.

Mr Gaidar was rushed to James Connolly Memorial Hospital in west Dublin.

Police are interviewing everyone who came into contact with the politician.

A member of the Irish parliament has called for emergency radioactivity tests everywhere he visited.

But the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) has revealed that it has no plans to examine the university or the hospital.

While officials in the Russian embassy were unable to comment it emerged Mr Gaidar stayed at campus accommodation in NUI Maynooth last Thursday night.

It is also understood he complained of feeling ill on his flight over to Ireland.

The incident came amid heightened suspicions in the UK about the poisoning of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died a day before Mr Gaidar fell ill.

His daughter, Maria Gaidar, said: “There was a serious threat to his life. Doctors still can’t figure out a reason for what happened.”

Mr Gaidar served briefly as Prime Minister in the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin.

AGENCIES

What has blind support for the Zionists by the US administration brought for the American people? It is regrettable that for the US administration, the interests of these occupiers supersedes the interests of the American people and of the other nations of the world .

What have the Zionists done for the American people that the US administration considers itself obliged to blindly support these infamous aggressors? Is it not because they have imposed themselves on a substantial portion of the banking, financial, cultural and media sectors?
I recommend that in a demonstration of respect for the American people and for humanity, the right of Palestinians to live in their own homeland should be recognized so that millions of Palestinian refugees can return to their homes and the future of all of Palestine and its form of government be determined in a referendum. This will benefit everyone.

Now that Iraq has a Constitution and an independent Assembly and Government, would it not be more beneficial to bring the US officers and soldiers home, and to spend the astronomical US military expenditures in Iraq for the welfare and prosperity of the American people? As you know very well, many victims of Katrina continue to suffer, and countless Americans continue to live in poverty and homelessness.

I’d also like to say a word to the winners of the recent elections in the US:
The United States has had many administrations; some who have left a positive legacy, and others that are neither remembered fondly by the American people nor by other nations.

Now that you control an important branch of the US Government, you will also be held to account by the people and by history.

If the US Government meets the current domestic and external challenges with an approach based on truth and Justice, it can remedy some of the past afflictions and alleviate some of the global resentment and hatred of America. But if the approach remains the same, it would not be unexpected that the American people would similarly reject the new electoral winners, although the recent elections, rather than reflecting a victory, in reality point to the failure of the current administration’s policies. These issues had been extensively dealt with in my letter to President Bush earlier this year.

To sum up:
It is possible to govern based on an approach that is distinctly different from one of coercion, force and injustice.

It is possible to sincerely serve and promote common human values, and honesty and compassion.

It is possible to provide welfare and prosperity without tension, threats, imposition or war.

It is possible to lead the world towards the aspired perfection by adhering to unity, monotheism, morality and spirituality and drawing upon the teachings of the Divine Prophets.

Then, the American people, who are God-fearing and followers of Divine religions, will overcome every difficulty.

What I stated represents some of my anxieties and concerns.

I am confident that you, the American people, will play an instrumental role in the establishment of justice and spirituality throughout the world. The promises of the Almighty and His prophets will certainly be realized, Justice and Truth will prevail and all nations will live a true life in a climate replete with love, compassion and fraternity.

The US governing establishment, the authorities and the powerful should not choose irreversible paths. As all prophets have taught us, injustice and transgression will eventually bring about decline and demise. Today, the path of return to faith and spirituality is open and unimpeded.

We should all heed the Divine Word of the Holy Qur’an:
“But those who repent, have faith and do good may receive Salvation. Your Lord, alone, creates and chooses as He will, and others have no part in His choice; Glorified is God and Exalted above any partners they ascribe to Him.” (28:67-68)
I pray to the Almighty to bless the Iranian and American nations and indeed all nations of the world with dignity and success.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran
29 November 2006
2329/1771

IRNA

Due to a bomb blast south of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, 2 occupation soldiers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were killed.

The so-called International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan said on Wednesday that one of its vehicles hit a bomb south of Kabul, resulting in the death of the two soldiers and severe injuries to two others including an interpreter.

There is no news on the nationality of the NATO victims.

Meanwhile a blast in Qandahar province killed and wounded two persons.

According to the Persian Dari service of IRIB a shahid struck an ISAF patrol in Panjawi region of Qandahar wounding a NATO occupation soldier and destroying the ISAF vehicle. The suicide bomber was killed in this incident.

Meanwhile, police chief of Helmand Province, General Nabi Jan Mulla Khalil, said 7 Taliban forces were killed in Garmsir.

IRIB

At least 4 articles appeared in the Russian press on Tuesday accusing the CIA in killing the Russian defector Litvinenko in London. All the articles were printed  in FSB-backed newspapers, and are designed for “internal use only” inside Russia.

The “arguments”, depending on the article,  are as follows:

The CIA killed Mr Litvinenko in connection with a power struggle in Kremlin for the post of the future president. The U.S. allegedly supports Medvedev and Sergei Ivanov and poisoned Mr Litvinenko to discredit their rivals.

The defector picked up radiation due to a fault in the technological  process in a secret  Al-Qaeda laboratory in London where his friends had been making a “dirty bomb”. Russian readers, due to earlier similar articles, believe that Al-Qaeda is a subsidiary of the CIA. So Mr Litvinenko was accidently poisoned by the CIA.

Litvinenko was allegedly mentally ill from the very start. The CIA and MI6 fed him a “truth vaccine”. He committed suicide.

Litvinenko was not a “traitor”. He was a brave FSB Russian agent in the enemy capital of London pretending to be anti-Putin. The CIA got to know about his double role and poisoned him with polonium, the Russian press says.

KC

According to a London Web site, This Is London, passengers have been asked to come forward for possible testing, after radiation traces were found on two BA planes linked to the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

The BA 767 planes operate on routes within Europe and up to 800 passengers on four flights may have been affected.

A statement from the airline said: “BA has been advised that three of its Boeing 767 short haul aircraft have been identified by the UK Government as part of the investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko.

“The airline was contacted last night by the Government. It has taken the three B767s out of service to enable forensic examination to be carried out.

“The initial results of the forensic tests, which was confirmed late this afternoon, has shown very low traces of a radioactive substance onboard two of the three aircraft.

“British Airways has been advised that this investigation is confined solely to these three B767 aircraft, which will remain out of service until further notice.

British Airways said they had been advised the risk to public health is low.

Passengers from the following flights are being asked to come forward:

• BA875 Moscow-Heathrow on October 25 - aircraft number GBNWX

• BA872 Heathrow-Moscow on October 28 - aircraft number GBNWX

• BA873 Moscow-Heathrow on October 31 - aircraft number GBNWB

• BA874 Heathrow-Moscow on November 3 - aircraft number GBZHA

The flights would have each been carrying up to 200 passengers.

On November 24, 2004, a former (?) Russian KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi and his accomplice “Volodya”, aka “Vyacheslav”, said in an interview with Moscow radio “Echo Moskvy”

(in Russian) that they had flown to London on October 31 and returned to Noscow on November 3. This is one of the planes contaminated by radioactivity. It is impossible to contaminate the plane FROM Moscow, BA873 Moscow-Heathrow on October 31 - aircraft number GBNWB, with radioactivy received in London.

Before mainstream press stated writing about Mr Livivenko’s poisoning late in the evening, November 18, 2006, the Chechenpress news agency quoted Mr Livinenko saying that Lugovoi had been arrested in 2001 on a false charge and was released from prison in 2002 presumably because he had agreed to work for the FSB as a secret agent and even killer. The late Mr Litvinenko also said that Lugovoi assembled since his release from prison a private capital of over US$ 1,000,000 which is absolutely impossible in Putin’s Russia without collaborating with the FSB.

Mr Litvinenko started reporting about his poisoning by the FSB on the Chechepress on November 11, 2006. The Chechenpress has no English site any more but the Kavkaz Center English Service started reporting about Mr Litvinenko’s poisoning on November 12, 2006.

The mainstream press kept a mum for 6 days. Up till now, no mainstream newspaper or news agency ever explained to its readers the reason of the complete silence in coverage of the poisoning during this time period.

KC

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in a meeting with the visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani here Tuesday said that continued insecurity and genocide in Iraq will harm all regional states.

Speaking at the meeting, Ayatollah Khamenei referred to insecurity in Iraq as a serious cause for concern.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers assistance in
establishment of security in Iraq as its religious and human task,” the Supreme Leader added.

Ayatollah Khamenei underlined that Iran seeks security, progress as well as development in Iraq, adding that security of Iraqi cities is as important as that of Iranian cities.

“Iran will spare no efforts to promote stability and security in Iraq, if Iraqi officials call for such help,” added the Supreme Leader.

Underlining that such insecurities in the country are aimed at undermining Iraq’s popular government, Ayatollah Khamenei said that given the failure of the enemies plots against Iraq, they intend to undermine the current situation in any possible way.

“This is while, their main targets are terrorists, Takfiris (non-Sunnis considering Sunnis as pagans) and the former Baathists,” said the Supreme Leader.

Stressing that those responsible for the insecurity of Iraq act under the cover of conflict between Shiites and Sunnis, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “The fact is that Shiites and Sunnis have been coexisting peacefully for several centuries and there has been no discord among them.

“However, the US policies being implemented through mediators are the main cause of the current situation in Iraq.”
Turning to the continuous insecurity in Iraq as a great catastrophe and grief for the people of the country, the Supreme Leader said that those implementing such a policy aim to appoint a dictator similar to Saddam Hussein and that they are certainly doomed to failure.

Ayatollah Khamenei referred to some US agents in the region as mediators implementing this policy in Iraq and responsible for the resulting insecurity.

“Strengthening terrorist groups in Iraq and igniting the flames of insecurity and genocide in the country will be quite risky for the US agents and the region.

“The US agents in Iraq are doomed to failure and continuation of Iraq’s occupation is not a bite to be swallowed by the US,” the Supreme Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq and passing on the security matters to Iraqi popular government as the first measure towards solving the issue of insecurity in the country.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Supreme Leader urged the need to pursue mutually reached agreements and implement them as a step towards further expansion of bilateral ties.

At the meeting, which was attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Talabani expressed satisfaction with his visit to Iran once more and said that broadening of relations will be beneficial to both sides.

Talabani said that those who are seriously worried about a democratic and modern Iraq with a popular government are responsible for the insecurity and genocide of people in the country.

The Iraqi president said that Iraqi government has no control over the country’s security.

“If the government is charged with the country’s security, full security can be established all over Iraq by mobilizing people,” he added.

Meanwhile, Talabani appreciated Iran’s aid to the Iraqi people on various occasions.

Talabani, accompanied by a senior politico-economic delegation, arrived in Tehran Monday evening.

Later on Monday evening he was given an official welcome by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Presidential Office.

IRNA

Pope Benedict XVI has called for Christians and Muslims to work together, during the first day of his visit to Turkey.

“Religions are for peace and reconciliation - they should not be interpreted otherwise,” the pope said, speaking in Ankara on Tuesday after meeting Ali Bardakoglu, Turkey’s leading Muslim cleric.

He said: “The best way forward is via authentic dialogue between Christians and Muslims, based on truth and inspired by a sincere wish to know one another better, respecting differences and recognising what we have in common.”

It was the first papal visit to a Muslim country since his ordination.

Healing rifts

The pope also used his visit to seek to heal rifts between Islam and Christianity.

Earlier in the year Benedict angered many Muslims after appearing to suggest that Islam was a violent and irrational religion.

“Freedom of religion, institutionally guaranteed and effectively respected in practice, both for individuals and communities, constitutes for all believers the necessary condition for their loyal contribution to the building up of society,” the pope said at the Directorate of Religious Affairs in Ankara as Bardakoglu listened.

The Muslim cleric then gave a speech which echoed the pope’s call for more understanding between Islam and Christianity.

“We too are for dialogue between religions,” he said, “but this [dialogue] should have a solid basis.”

Bardakoglu warned that attacking Islam would only worsen the ‘clash of civilisations’.

“Such accusations and attempts can only serve to encourage those who perform wrong-doing on behalf of religion by way of exploitation,” he said.

The two men, both dressed in white ceremonial robes and accompanied by their respective delegations, talked and exchanged presents before shaking hands for the cameras.

The two delegations then held closed-door talks. The pope  and Bardakoglu were later scheduled to make a statement to the  press.

Bardakoglu, the director of religious affairs, had previously accused Benedict of harbouring “hatred in his heart” for Muslims.

Erdogan meeting

Earlier in the day the pope had briefly met Recip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, who later said that the pope had supported Ankara’s ambitions to join the European Union.

“He said we are not political but we wish for Turkey to join the EU,” Erdogan told journalists.

Erdogan, who began his career in Islamic politics, added: “The most important message the Pope gave was towards Islam, he reiterated his view of Islam as peaceful and affectionate.”

Erdogan had initially said that he would be too busy to meet the pope, citing his commitment to attend a Nato conference in Latvia.

The pope also laid a wreath at the tomb of Kemal Attaturk, the founder of the modern secular Turkish state.

Protests muted

Turkey has deployed thousands of police and security forces during the papal visit, but protests against him have so far been muted in the country of 80 million.

On Tuesday only a few hundred urkish nationalists and religious activists turned out in Ankara to demonstrate against the pope’s visit.

Larger protests are expected later in the week when the pope is scheduled to visit Istanbul.

There he will visit the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia, a Byzantine church that was once the centrepiece of medieval Greek-ruled Constantinople.

For hundreds of the years Constantinople was the greatest city in the Christian world before it was conquered by the Muslim Ottoman Empire in 1453.

AGENCIES

A British government minister has said President Vladimir Putin’s success in building economic stability in Russia has been clouded by “huge attacks” on individual liberty and democracy.

Peter Hain’s comments on November 26 came three days after former Russian spy Aleksandr Litvinenko died in a London hospital, having blamed his apparent radiation poisoning on Putin — an accusation dismissed by the Russian president.

Hain, the government’s minister for Northern Ireland, did not comment directly on Litvinenko’s death. But he told the BBC Putin’s tenure had been clouded by incidents including what he called the “extremely murky murder” of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

British police have been studying security camera footage of a London hotel and restaurant where Litvinenko met contacts the day before he fell ill.

Traces of the radioactive substance polonium-210 detected in Litvinenko’s body have been found in both places.

AGENCIES

Two reporters at a Russian newspaper that has been critical of Kremlin crimes in Chechnya received death threats last week, editors said Monday.

The threats against the Novaya Gazeta reporters came weeks after an American female journalist working for the newspaper was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building.

In a statement posted on its Web site, the paper\’s editors said the threats were made on Friday to two unnamed journalists in connection with an article about problems in Russian-occupied North Caucasus and another article on the American journalist\’s murder. One of the reporters also received a threatening mobile phone text message, the paper said.

Russian police officials could not be  reached for comment on the report

Last week, the Russian secret police FSB killed in London a Russian defector and  British journalist Litvinenko. Mr Litvinenko has been a regular reporter of a Chechen Web site for approximately 6 years.

AGENCIES