Blair accused of putting war with Iran on the electoral agenda

Tony Blair

“We face the same problem about Iran today,” he told the Chilcot inquiry. guardian.co.uk

Yemeni Houthi Rebel leader accepts accepts cease-fire conditions

The leader of Yemen’s northern rebels says he is ready to accept the government’s conditions for a cease-fire, including relinquishing control of strategic mountain positions.
Abdel-Malek al-Houthi says in an audio recording posted Saturday on Yemeni Web sites that he is ready to end more than five years of hostilities.
Yemen is under international pressure to end the conflict quickly to free up resources to confront a separate threat from al-Qaida’s offshoot in the impoverished nation on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula.
The government offered a conditional cease-fire in September, soon after battles intensified with the rebels, who accuse the government of discriminating against and neglecting their communities in the north. Washington post

Yemen captures al Qaeda suicide bomber

Yemeni forces on Saturday captured an al Qaeda militant wearing an explosive belt who was planning a suicide attack on “economic facilities,” a government official said.
The man was detained while driving a motorbike in the Khalf area in the Hadramaut region, the Ministry of Interior official said in a statement sent to Reuters. He was named as Saleh Abdul-Habib Saleh Shawash.
“The primary interrogation of this terrorist (revealed) he was planning a suicide attack against economic facilities in Hadramaut … the interrogation is ongoing to reveal more information about this and to see who else might be involved in the plan,” the source said. Reuters

Shiite cleric urges Lebanon to boycott Arab summit in Libya

Deputy Head of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan urged Lebanon to boycott the forthcoming Arab Summit that will be held in Libya, a country he described as “a hostile and tyrant state.”
Qabalan accused Libya of kidnapping Amal Movements ’s founder Shiite Imam Moussa Sadr and his companions in 1978.
“Is that how we respect Imam Sadr and his Lebanese, Arab, and Islamic position?” added Qabalan
He urged all the Arab countries to use the occasion to put pressure on Libya’s strongman Moammar Gadhafi to reveal the truth about Imam Sadr before the summit takes place

Lebanon MP calls for unified Arab stance in support of Said Nafaa

Commenting on the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of Druze Arab Knesset member Said Nafah , Lebanese MP Marwan Hamadah said: “The Israeli occupation continues with its policy of suppression and oppression of the 1948 Palestinians without any concern for the choice of the voters “.
Hamadah called for a unified “Arab stance in support of Nafaa and all his fellow activists in the occupied Arab Palestine”.
Hamadah said Naffa “will continue to be the strong and clear voice of the Arabs in the heart of the Knesset despite the brutality and tyranny of the regime”.
Israel’s Knesset House Committee overwhelmingly rejected an appeal last Tuesday by MK Naffaa for immunity in the face of an indictment that charges him with visiting Syria. In a 9-2 vote by the Knesset Committee MK Naffaa was stripped of his parliamentary immunity.

Army defuses a bomb in north Lebanon

The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) defused a bomb in Jabal Mohsen in Tripoli, north Lebanon that was planted inside a gasoline barrel, according to National News Agency NNA
The LAF has reportedly cordoned off the area and started its investigation of the incident

ET409 crash: Aridi says advanced submarines will aid in search

Lebanon’s Transportation and Public Works Minister Ghazi al-Aridi said on Saturday that advanced submarines were on-route to Lebanon to aid in search operations of the Ethiopian Airlines flight ET409 crash.

“We did not expect to discover that 10 kilometers from the Lebanese shore, there are depths that go beyond 1300 meters.” Aridi said
During Friday’s cabinet meeting it was revealed that the company that owns Ocean Alert ( which identified the location of the black boxes ) will be sending soon Odyssey Explorer which has the capability of taking high-resolution photos that will help in recovering the plane’s fuselage from the bottom of the sea .
The minister said the government is dedicated to uncovering the truth behind the plane crash and that the efforts of investigators would uncover answers.
“The best international investigative experts, specialized in aviation accidents, are in Lebanon and are carrying out their technical duties without being influenced by anything,” he added.

France backs US new peace initiative in the Middle East

President Nicolas Sarkozy told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday that France is ready to back a new Washington-led peace initiative in the Middle East, a French official said.

The president told Clinton during their Elysee meeting that “France would support a re-engagement of the United States in the Middle East” to “quickly re-launch the peace process,” said the official.
Sarkozy told Clinton that an international conference would be the best way to get the Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table.
In a related development US National Security Adviser James Jones pledged Friday to push hard to re-launch Middle East peace talks in 2010, warning that Iran may try to exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
“History shows that when regimes are feeling pressure as Iran is internally and will externally in the near future, it often lashes out through its surrogates,” he said, in reference to Hezbollah and Hamas

Democratic Renewal Movement to skip March 14 meeting

The Democratic Renewal Movement said in a statement today that it “would not attend the March 14 meeting to be held next Sunday at the Hotel Bristol, in line with its position of boycotting their meetings since more than six months, as a “result of the blunders committed by some parties of the March 14 alliance” .
The Movement which is headed by Nassib Lahoud reiterated its commitment to the objectives and principles of March 14, and confirmed that it will participate in the Feb 14, 2010 commemoration ceremony that will mark the 5th anniversary the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and his companions

North Korea detains another American

North Korea notified the U.S. that it has another American in custody for allegedly entering the country illegally, the State Department announced Friday.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the North Koreans, in a bare-bones message through their representative at U.N. headquarters in New York, provided no identifying information about the detainee, including the name or gender, or details of the alleged offense.
This is the second case of a detained American in North Korea to surface in the past month
Washington Post