Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Beijing called for further expansion of bilateral cooperation in all areas.

The latest regional and international developments were also on the agenda of talks held between the two foreign ministers.

On critical situation in Afghanistan, Mottaki underscored the need for greater efforts by the international community to eradicate extremism, drug production and terrorism in that country.

Expressing his concern over extremist policies adopted by certain Western states in the region, he said the move endangers all regional states.

As to the latest developments in Georgia, Mottaki said presence of foreign forces would deteriorate the situation and make the regional status more complicated.

The Chinese foreign minister, for his part, stressed that regional issues should be settled through dialogue and participation of all regional countries.

On Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, he underlined the need for resolving the issue through diplomacy.

Jiechi invited his Iranian counterpart to pay another visit to China for further talks on bilateral, regional, and international issues.

IRNA

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and armed forces will begin on Monday a three-day military exercise to test new weaponry and practice repelling potential air strikes on its territory, the local media said on Sunday.

“The main goal of the exercise is to evaluate the combat readiness [of the Iranian army], to test new weapons developed by Iranian scientists, and to practice defensive measures in case of a potential violation of the Iranian airspace by the enemy,” the media said.

International media have recently carried reports about a possible military attack by Israel and the United States on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran has reacted to rumors of an imminent attack by Israel or the U.S. by promising to deliver a “powerful blow” to any aggressor.

According to military experts Iran has relatively modest air defenses, which were recently strengthened with a delivery of 29 Russian-made Tor-M1 air defense missile systems under a $700-million contract signed in late 2005. Russia has also trained Iranian Tor-M1 specialists, including radar operators and crew commanders.

Iran also successfully launched in July an upgraded Shahab-3 ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 km (1,240 miles) and several missiles with a range of 350 kilometers (217 miles) as part of the Great Prophet III military exercise in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, drawing a new wave of international criticism.

Iran is currently under three sets of relatively mild UN Security Council sanctions for defying demands to halt uranium enrichment, which it says it needs purely for electricity generation despite Western accusations that the program is geared toward weapon production.

RIA Novosti

Russia is considering increasing its assistance to Iran’s nuclear programme in response to America’s calls for Nato expansion eastwards and the presence of US Navy vessels in the Black Sea delivering aid to Georgia.

The Kremlin is discussing sending teams of Russian nuclear experts to Tehran and inviting Iranian nuclear scientists to Moscow for training, according to sources close to the Russian military.

Moscow has been angered by Washington’s promise to give Georgia £564m in aid following the Russian invasion of parts of the country last month after Tbilisi’s military offensive. Kremlin officials suspect the US is planning to rearm the former Soviet republic and is furious at renewed support for attempts by Georgia and Ukraine to join Nato.

Last week a third US Navy ship entered the Black Sea with aid bound for Georgia. Moscow has accused the Americans of using the vessels to deliver weapons but has failed to provide any evidence.

Vladimir Putin, the prime minister of Russia, who has been the driving force during the crisis, has declared he will take unspecified action in response.

“Everything has changed since the war in Georgia,” said one source. “What seemed impossible before, is more than possible now when our friends become our enemies and our enemies our friends. What are American ships doing off our coast? Do you see Russian warships off the coast of America?

“Russia will respond. A number of possibilities are being considered, including hitting America there where it hurts most - Iran.”

Increasing nuclear assistance to Iran would sharply escalate tensions between Moscow and Washington. Over the past 10 years Russia has helped Iran build its first nuclear power station in Bushehr. Iran claims the plant is for civilian purposes. Officially at least, Moscow accepts that. The West has little doubt the aim is to build a nuclear bomb.

But diplomats say that despite its help with the Bushehr plant, Moscow has so far played a constructive role as a mediator between the regime in Tehran and the West and by backing United Nations sanctions.

Earlier this year, in one of his last actions as president, Putin added Russia’s stamp of approval to a UN security council resolution imposing fresh sanctions against Iran.

The document bans, with the exception of the Bushehr project, dual-technology exports that could be used for civil nuclear purposes and missile production.

“After the war in Georgia it’s difficult to imagine relations between Russia and America getting worse,” said a western diplomat. “Russia giving greater nuclear assistance to the Iranians would do the trick - that’s for sure.”

Last month Russia agreed to sell missiles to Syria. “The mood among the hawks is very bullish indeed,” said one source who did not rule out a resumption of Russian military action in Georgia to take the port of Batumi, where American vessels are delivering aid.

Hardliners were infuriated last week by the visit to Georgia of Dick Cheney, the American vice-president. “Georgia will be in our alliance,” Cheney said. He also visited Ukraine, whose Nato aspirations could make it the next flashpoint between Russia and America.

However in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, events appeared to be moving Moscow’s way. Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-western president, is fighting to stay in power in a crisis that could see him impeached.

“I’m amused by claims in the West that Russia is the loser in this crisis,” said a former Putin aide. “What would Washington do if we were arming Cuba the way it armed Georgia? The postSoviet days when we could be pushed around are over.”

Mark Franchetti

Times

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad extended his congratulations to Asif Ali Zardari on his victory in Pakistan’s presidential poll Saturday and said he hoped ties between the two countries would expand.

“I would like to extend my sincerest congratulations for your deserving election as president of the Islamic republic of Pakistan to you, your government and nation,” Ahmadinejad said.

“Voicing complete readiness of the Islamic republic of Iran to expand cooperation with Pakistan in all fields, I hope we witness the expansion and strengthening of good relations between the two countries,” he added.

Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto, secured a large win in the presidential elections called after Pervez Musharraf resigned on August 18.

Bhutto, who headed the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), was assassinated last year.

AGENCIES/FARS

Almost all passengers and crew on board a packed plane bound for a popular European tourist destination are reported to have died after it burst into flames on takeoff in Spain.

All but about 25 of the 173 people on board flight JK5022 were killed after the aircraft swerved off of a runway and crashed at Madrid’s Barajas airport on Wednesday, according to emergency services sources.

The Spanish interior ministry has said at least 45 people died in the disaster.

The aircraft is reported to have been attempting an emergency landing shortly after becoming airborne.

Clouds of smoke were seen billowing from the runway after the plane, which had been taking off for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands off of West Africa, crashed at Terminal Four.

“It is a catastrophe,” an emergency rescue service official said, as crews removed bodies and injured people from the aircraft belonging to Spanish airline Spanair.

Joanne Levine, Al Jazeera’s correspondent at the airport, said: “Black smoke is rising from the plane and the airport has been shut down.

“Ambulances are heading towards the scene.”

Helicopters and fire engines pumped water onto the burning plane, which had crashed into a wooded area at the end of the runway.

The MD-80 plane, which can carry up to 166 passengers, is operated by Spanair, Spain’s second-biggest airline after Iberia, and is a subsidiary of Scandinavian carrier SAS.

AGENCIES

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, has said he will resign from his position, following months of pressure form the country’s civilian government.

The move, which came in a televised address to the nation on Monday, is intended to help him avoid impeachment charges drawn up by the ruling coalition.

“After consultations with my legal advisers and close political friends, for the country and the nation today, I am deciding to resign from my office,” Musharraf said.

“I am leaving with the satisfaction that whatever I did for this country and the population, I did with honesty and commitment.

“But I am also a human being,” he added. “I might have made some mistakes, but I have hope that this nation and the population will tolerate those mistakes with the belief that my intentions were always clear and to the benefit of this country.”

Rumours persisted that Musharraf was going to resign to avoid charges of impeachment that were to be levelled against him in parliament later this week.

Pakistani officials say that Musharraf’s aides have held talks with the ruling
coalition, brokered by Saudi Arabia, the US and the UK, to allow him to quit in return for an indemnity for his previous actions.

AGENCIES

George Bush, the United States president, has said he is sending US military aircraft and naval forces with humanitarian supplies to Georgia.

Speaking from the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington on Wednesday, Bush said: “Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis.”

He said: “The United States of America stands with the democratically- elected government of Georgia, [and] insists that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected.”

He also said he was sending Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, to show his support for the Georgian government.

Flanked by Rice and Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, Bush warned Moscow against breaking its pledge to halt its military action and announced that a US humanitarian aid flight was already on its way to Georgia.

AGENCIES

Russian military vehicles have been heading towards the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, Al Jazeera has confirmed.

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher tailed a convoy of Russian armoured vehicles  on the road from the town of Gori, less than 60km from Tbilisi on Wednesday.

“Right in front me, no more than 100 metres away is an armoured personnel carrier with three Russian soldiers on top … behind that there is a long convoy of Russian military vehicles,” Fisher reported.

“They’re not moving at a fast speed, but they are moving towards Tbilisi.

“It is only 60km from Gori to Tbilisi, but this doesn’t look like an invasion force.”

He later said the convoy had come to a halt, split in two and taken up artillery positions. A convoy of Georgian special forces was alsoreported to be heading for the area he said.

AGENCIES

Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s president, has told tens of thousands of people at a rally outside the country’s parliament that Georgia will quit the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and urged Ukraine to follow suit.

The president said: “We have taken a decision, Georgia is quitting the CIS.”

The CIS is an alliance consisting of ten former Soviet Republics, including Russia.

Other speakers shouted slogans against Russia and Vladimir Putin, its prime minister, shouting “Georgia, Georgia!”

Posters denounced Putin, the former Russian president, with one depicting him with the caption “Wanted: Crimes against humanity in the world.”

Saakashvili has appealed for international support after Russian forces moved into Georgia on Friday after the Georgian army launched an offensive to bring South Ossetia, which broke away in the early 1990s, back under government control.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, called a halt to military operations on Tuesday.

However, Georgia says that Russia is still continuing operations inside Georgia.

NATO concern

In Brussels, Nato ambassadors voiced serious concern at the situation in Georgia, with many nations saying it could not be “business as usual” with Russia.

The ambassadors from the 26 Nato nations met in the Belgian capital on Tuesday ahead of talks with the head of Georgia’s Nato mission.

Kurt Volker, the United States ambassador to Nato, said there was “serious concern about the events in Georgia” including the humanitarian situation, support for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of forces.

An extraordinary meeting requested by Moscow of the joint Russia-Nato council did not take place.

Volker said: “Given the events in Georgia, many allies expressed the  sentiments that there cannot be business as usual with Russia.”

Meanwhile, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato secretary general, said “I think that the Bucharest communique stands. That was the situation and that is the situation and that has not changed” despite the current conflict with Russia.

At their Bucharest summit in April, Nato member states agreed that neither Georgia nor Ukraine were ready for Nato candidate status, a preliminary to joining the alliance, but that they could become members of the alliance one day.

AGENCIES

El presidente de Rusia, Dmitri Medvedev, anunció la decisión de poner fin a la operación militar para “imponer la paz” a Georgia. Pero afirmó que para resolver definitivamente el conflicto en torno a la región separatista georgiana de Osetia del Sur es necesario que se firme un acuerdo jurídicamente vinculante en el que las partes implicadas se comprometan a renunciar al uso de la violencia.

Además, las tropas georgianas deben retirarse totalmente de Osetia del Sur, apuntó el mandatario ruso durante una reunión en el Kremlin con su homólogo francés, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy afirmó que es una “buena noticia”. “La declaración del cese de las hostilidades por parte de Rusia es una noticia que esperábamos”, aseguró Sarkozy, quien añadió que “ahora hay que hacer efectivo el alto el fuego”.

“El objetivo de la operación para imponer la paz se ha cumplido. La seguridad de las tropas de paz y de los ciudadanos rusos está garantizada”, aseguró Medvedev, según las agencias rusas.

El presidente ruso hizo este anuncio durante una reunión con el ministro de Defensa, Anatoli Serdiukov, y el jefe del Estado Mayor del Ejército ruso, Nikolai Makarov. Al mismo tiempo, el líder ruso les ordenó “aplastar, en caso de que surjan, cualquier foco de resistencia o de agresión” en la zona.

“El agresor ha sido castigado y ha sufrido bajas significativas. Sus fuerzas armadas han quedado desorganizadas”, dijo. Y pidió al ministro de Defensa que le presente una lista de militares rusos que participaron en la operación que se han hecho acreedores de medallas y condecoraciones.

AGENCIES