Tehran Times Political Desk
TEHRAN – ?Israel?s dream to dominate Lebanon will never be realized,? Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei said here on Sunday during a ceremony held to celebrate the birth anniversaries of the daughter of Prophet Muhammad (S), Hazrat Fatima (SA), and the Founder of the Islamic Republic, the late Imam Khomeini.
Ayatollah Khamenei condemned the Zionists? recent atrocities in Palestine and Lebanon and denounced the United States and some Western countries for their support for Israel, saying that the progressive and open-minded people of the world judge and condemn the atrocities of the Zionists, and this will definitely be effective.
He also denounced some Islamic and Arab countries for their silence about the recent crimes of the Zionists, and said that the human rights violations in Palestine and Lebanon over the past few days have once again proven that the Zionists? presence in the region is a satanic and cancerous phenomenon that threatens the Islamic world.
Declaring that the current U.S. administration is the most shameless one in the history of the United States due to its support of the massacre of defenseless men, women, and children in Palestine and Lebanon, Ayatollah Khamenei said that, on the contrary, the current truth-seeking movement in the Islamic world is in no way comparable with the situation in the past, and its independence, development, and dignity is a promising sign for all Muslim nations.
The Leader also pointed out that Muslim nations are proud of Hezbollah?s brave response toward the Zionist assaults and added that such sentiments did not exist in Arab or Islamic countries in the past, but now Lebanon, a country which was scheduled to become the main base of Western cultures, has turned into a base for jihadi and resistance cultures.
?This is quite contrary to the ideals of the domineering and dictatorial powers of the world,? Ayatollah Khamenei opined.
Commenting on U.S. President George W. Bush?s call for the disarmament of the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Leader said that Hezbollah will never be disarmed because the Lebanese people are grateful and know that it has been the independent Hezbollah that has resisted the Zionists and frustrated their dream of dominating Lebanon.
President: Zionist regime lying about peace
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that the Zionist regime?s mission is to create division and tension among regional countries.
?They are lying that they want peace. Every day, they come up with a pretext to impose their demands,? Ahmadinejad told a ceremony to inaugurate the Mehr-Reza fund.
Ahmadinejad censured the international organizations for keeping silent over Israel?s brutal attacks on Lebanon and Palestine. He called upon the major world powers to make their stances clear and say whether they support or condemn the occupying regime.
?This regime?s barbarities were worse than Genghis Khan and Nero,? he added.
Lebanon accused Israel on Sunday of using banned weapons against Lebanese civilians in its military offensive against the country. President Emile Lahoud said Israeli forces have fired “phosphorus incendiary bombs, which are a blatant violation of international laws, …against Lebanese civilians.”
He called on the United Nations to help “deter Israel from using destructive weapons which violate human rights and the United Nations charter.”
“We are facing a real annihilation carried out by Israel,” Information Minister Ghazi Aridi told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
“Israel is using internationally prohibited weapons against civilians,” he said.
Military sources told AFP that Israel had used phosphorus incendiary bombs and implosion bombs, which suck up the air and collapse buildings.
Pakistan strongly stands by Lebanon: PM
Pakistan stands by the people of Lebanon, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Sunday told his Lebanese counterpart Fouad Siniora.
The mainly Muslim nation “strongly condemns the violence being committed against Lebanon” and urges that the loss to life and property stop immediately, officials said Aziz told Siniora in a phone call.
“Pakistan strongly stands by the Lebanese people and fully respects their sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.
“We appeal to the world community, the permanent members of the Security Council, the UN and other relevant bodies to intervene.”
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait pledge $70m to help Lebanon
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait pledged $70 million on Sunday to help Lebanon after its prime minister said Israeli attacks turned the country into a disaster area.
Siniora said late on Saturday Beirut needed a comprehensive plan to rush aid into the country.
The official Saudi Press Agency said King Abdullah ordered the immediate transfer of $50 million “for the (Lebanese) prime minister to spend on emergency aid and basic services to alleviate the suffering of the Lebanese people”.
It said the move was in response to Siniora’s call.
The cabinet of Kuwait allocated $20 million “to provide urgent aid to brothers in Lebanon to help them in the face of this barbaric aggression and ease their suffering”.
More than 110 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since Hezbollah forces captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight on Wednesday. The attacks destroyed key infrastructure, including bridges, power stations and ports.
In Israel at least 12 people have been killed in attacks by Hezbollah.
Iraq parliament expresses support for Lebanon
Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers in Iraq’s U.S.-backed parliament often fail to see eye to eye, but on Sunday they stood united in their condemnation of Israel’s military offensive against Lebanon.
Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been pleading with fellow Iraqis to put aside deep sectarian and ethnic divisions of the kind that plunged Lebanon into civil war 30 years ago.
His pleas have gone largely unheeded, but Israel’s five-day-old assault on Lebanon that has killed well over 120 people, all but four of them civilians, has evoked strong feelings of solidarity among Iraqis, bridging the sectarian divide.
Hundreds of supporters of the Shiite Fadhila party, a small but locally powerful party in Basra, Iraq’s oil export hub, staged a street demonstration, rare in Iraq, in support of the Shiite group, chanting “Yes, yes to Hezbollah”.
Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the Sunni speaker of parliament, sent a personal message to his Lebanese counterpart on Sunday, telling him that Iraqis supported Lebanon’s efforts to defend its “sovereignty … against outrageous Israeli aggression”.
The Iraqi parliament earlier passed a motion unanimously condemning the Israeli offensive and urging the UN Security Council and Group of Eight leaders meeting in St Petersburg to intervene “to stop the … Israeli criminal aggression”.
It followed a statement by Maliki on Saturday, in which the Shiite Islamist prime minister, making a rare foray into foreign affairs, denounced Israel and warned of the dangers of escalating tensions in the region.
Civilians killed
At least 10 civilians were killed and 20 others wounded in an Israeli air strike Sunday on the southern Lebanese port town of Tyre, hospital sources said.
They had been in a building housing a Lebanese military office and topped by a radar installation that was targeted in the attack, police said. An Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at the building, they said.
An AFP correspondent at the scene said several families had been in the basement of the building after fleeing Israeli assaults in their nearby home villages.
One of the missiles destroyed the top two floors of the building while the second hit lower where the civilians were huddled. Hizbollah rockets also killed eight people in the Israeli city of Haifa on Sunday. It was Hizbollah’s deadliest rocket
Hizbollah said the attack was retaliation for Israel’s killing of civilians and destruction of Lebanese infrastructure.
Solana in surprise visit to Beirut
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived in Beirut on Sunday.
Lebanese officials said Solana was set to meet Siniora shortly.
Solana, who was to hold a news conference after the meeting, could also talk with the head of Lebanon’s parliament, an EU official said in Brussels.
The EU has called Israel’s attacks in Lebanon, “disproportionate” and urged both sides to show restraint.
Solana is due back in Brussels for a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday.
Syria vows to respond directly to any Israel strike
Syria warned Sunday it would respond directly and by all means necessary to any Israeli attack on its territory, in its first official reaction to Israel’s offensive on neighboring Lebanon.
“Any Israeli attack against Syria will provoke an unlimited, direct and firm response using all means necessary,” Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told the official SANA news agency.
Bilal accused Israel of “state terrorism” and “operating above the law … ignoring UN Security Council resolutions” and sabotaging efforts toward Middle East peace, as he vowed Syria’s support for Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement.
“Syria supports the national Lebanese resistance against Israeli aggression. The resistance will triumph and Israel will be conquered,” he said, using a term that refers to Hezbollah.
“Resistance is a legitimate and sacred right,” he added, saying it was necessary to “make a distinction between resistance and terrorism”.
A coalition of Syrian political parties led by the ruling Baath party echoed Bilal’s comments and announced a series of measures aimed at “supporting the Lebanese people’s resistance” against Israel.
Damascus will arrange “facilities” for those Lebanese who wish to reside in Syria or pass through the country, send medical and food aid to Lebanon and “contribute to the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed by the barbaric Israeli raids”, the National Progressive Front said.
Tehran also warned arch-enemy Israel of “unimaginable losses” if it makes “the mistake of attacking Syria” and vowed that it was standing by the Syrian people.
