Barak: Israel will never let Iran develop a nuclear weapon

Washington – Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned Iran on Sunday that Israel would never allow Iranian leaders to develop a nuclear weapon, as he addressed a powerful US-Israel lobby.

“It is Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear capability which is the greatest challenge facing Israel, the region and the world today,” Barak told thousands of delegates at the opening of the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

World powers leading negotiations with Iran to rein in its suspect nuclear program concluded talks in Kazakhstan last week, after putting forward a proposal to ease biting sanctions if Tehran halts its uranium enrichment.

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Diplomacy with Iran has fallen short, Netanyahu tells AIPAC

WASHINGTON — Diplomacy is failing and only a credible threat of military attack could still deter Iran from reaching the threshold at which it cannot be stopped from developing nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington Monday.

“We have to stop Iran’s nuclear enrichment program before it’s too late. Words alone will not stop Iran. Sanctions alone will not stop Iran. Sanctions must be coupled with a clear and credible military threat if sanctions fail,” Netanyahu told a room of some 13,000 AIPAC supporters by satellite feed from Jerusalem.

“Time after time the world’s leading powers have tabled offers,” Netanyahu said. But “diplomacy has not worked. Iran ignores all these offers. It’s running out the clock.”

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Nuclear watchdog agency says Iran not cooperating

(CNN) — Iran is not cooperating, making it difficult for the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency to provide “credible assurance” that the country doesn’t possess undeclared nuclear material, the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano said Monday.

Speaking to the IAEA’s board of governors, Amano said Iran should grant access “without further delay” to the Parchin military complex, where the Islamic Republic is believed to have tested rockets.

Since Iran has not provided such access to date, “The Agency therefore cannot conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities,” Amano said.

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Kerry: ‘Finite’ time for Iran nuclear talks to bear fruit

RIYADH – Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday there was “finite” time for talks between Iran and world powers on its disputed nuclear program to bear fruit, but gave no hint how long Washington may be willing to negotiate.

Israel, Iran’s arch-enemy and convinced Tehran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, has grown impatient with the protracted talks and has threatened preemptive war against Tehran if it deems diplomacy ultimately futile.

Kerry’s sentiment was largely echoed by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who said that the negotiations cannot be endless like the debates of philosophers over how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.

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U.S., Saudis paper over differences on Syria, Iran during Kerry visit

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Highlighting a divide with the United States over whether to arm the Syrian rebels, Saudi Arabia’s chief diplomat said Monday there is a moral responsibility to speed an end to the civil war, including by helping Syrians fight the regime’s “vicious killing machine.”

“Saudi Arabia will do everything in its capacity. We do believe that what is happening in Syria is a slaughter — a slaughter of innocents,” Prince Saud al-Faisal said during a visit by Secretary of State John F. Kerry. “We cannot bring ourselves to remain silent. Morally there is a duty.”

Saudi Arabia is believed to be sending small arms and perhaps other weapons to Syrian rebel fighters. Saud’s brother, former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal, called in January for sending heavy weapons such as antitank and antiaircraft weapons.

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Gunmen kill at least 40 Syrians being sent home from Iraq

(Reuters) – Unidentified gunmen on Monday killed at least 40 Syrian soldiers and government employees who were being taken to the Syrian border by Iraqi authorities after fleeing into Iraq from a Syrian rebel attack, Iraqi officials said.

The attack on the convoy carrying the Syrians occurred in Iraq’s westerly Anbar province, they said.

The Iraqi officials said some 65 Syrian soldiers and government officials had handed themselves over to Iraqi authorities on Friday after anti-government rebels seized the Syrian side of the Yaarabiya frontier crossing.

Six Iraqi soldiers were also killed in attack on Syrian soldiers inside Iraq: official

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Syrian rebels overrun Reqqa, down Hafez Assad’s statue

Syrian opposition forces took control Monday of the northeastern Syrian city of Reqqa, captured the head of the state securities there and brought down the statue of Hafez al-Assad, the late father of the current dictator.

“This is the first provincial capital in Syria where rebels have made such progress. They now have near-total control of Raqa city, except for some regime positions, including the military security and Baath party headquarters,” Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

According to the Observatory, Al-Nusra Front jihadists fought alongside other rebel groups in the battle for the northern city, strategically located on the Euphrates river near the Turkish border.

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Syria troops launch major assault on Homs city: NGO

AFP – Syrian troops on Monday launched a major assault to capture rebel-held areas of the central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The offensive comes after at least 264 people were killed across the strife-torn country on Sunday, among them 115 regime soldiers, 104 rebels and 45 civilians, the Observatory said.

“This is the worst fighting in months and there are dozens of dead and wounded among the assailants,” the Observatory said without giving further details of the casualties.

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Saudi Arabia calls for arms embargo on Syrian regime

Riyadh, Sunday, 21 Rabi Al-Thani 1434/04 March 2013 (IINA) – Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Salman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, received U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his accompanying delegation at Al-Yamamah palace here today.

During the meeting, they reviewed the bilateral relations between the two countries in various fields and ways to strengthen them. The leaders also discussed the latest developments at the regional and international arenas, and the positions of the two countries towards them.

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Five killed in Port Said clashes; Egypt army denies exchanging fire with police

Sound of gunfire continued to ring around the security directorate area in central Port Said into the early hours of Sunday night as several media outlets reported that police and army soldiers have been exchanging fire at the end of a tense day in the Suez Canal city.

However, Egyptian armed forces official spokesperson, Colonel Ahmed Ali, issued a statement on his Facebook page on Sunday night denying reports that army units in Port Said clashed with police forces.

“It is completely untrue that armed forces units in Port Said exchanged fired with police forces during the clashes,” Ali wrote adding that the presence of the army units at the governorate buildings was intended to secure the premises and to attempt to end the clashes between the protesters and the police.

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Security Headquarters in Egypt’s Port Said in Flames

The main security building in Egypt’s Port Said was in flames on Monday, as fresh fighting erupted between police and protesters in the restive canal city, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

The blaze, which started in the ground floor of the security headquarters, sent plumes of smoke into the air while clashes continued in the streets surrounding the building.

Rescue services could not reach the area, witnesses said, as anger mounted in the city where a campaign of civil disobedience entered its third week.

The unrest, fueled by January death sentences handed down to football fans over deadly riots, boiled over again overnight when clashes left six people — including three policemen– dead.

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Five Iraqi police die in Mosul suicide car bombing

Five police officers have been killed in a suicide car bombing in northern Iraq, say police and a doctor.

The bomber detonated his explosives close to a police facility in the city of Mosul at about 12:30 (09:30 GMT), police said.

A doctor confirmed the death toll. At least eight others were wounded.

Although sectarian violence has decreased in Iraq since the height of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007, bombings and shootings remain common.

There has been a string of bomb attacks across Iraq in recent months.

Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaeda have been blamed for much of the recent violence.

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Suicide Car Bomb Kills Five in South Yemen

A suicide car bombing killed five people and wounded at least eight others on Monday when it hit a post run by pro-government militiamen in the south Yemen city of Loder, witnesses and medics said.

“Five were killed and more than eight wounded in the explosion of a car bomb driven by a suicide attacker targeting a position of the Popular Resistance Committees,” said a witness from the militias which have battled al-Qaida alongside government forces.

A medical source confirmed the death toll but it was not immediately clear if the casualties were members of the militia or civilians.

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