Seyyed Nasrallah, Iran’s Deputy FM discuss regional developments + Pics

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Hezbollah Secretary General, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah met with Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and held talks on issues of mutual interests, it was reported on Thursday.

The meeting was held before Amir-Abdollahian’s departure to Muscat early Thursday.

The two side discuss the latest regional and political developments during the meeting.

Iranian Defense Minister Hamid Reza Dehqani and Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Fathali were also present during the meeting.

Before leaving Beirut, Amir-Abdollahian said he will hold talks with Omani officials on issues of mutual interest and regional developments, including Syria, Yemen and Palestine.

Amir-Abdollahian noted he would probably travel to Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on the forth leg of his regional tour.

Amir-Abdollahian arrived in Beirut early Wednesday.

Upon arrival at Beirut International Airport, Amir-Abdollahian was warmly welcomed by a number of senior Lebanese officials and Iran’s Chargé d’Affaires, Mohammad Sadiq Fazli.

Amir-Abdollahian held talks with the Lebanese Parliament Speaker, Nabih Berri and some other Lebanese senior officials on issues of mutual interest, regional developments, particularly the Syrian crisis.

Iranian deputy foreign minister visited Moscow on Tuesday before departing for Beirut.

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West Gave Rise to Terrorism to Tarnish Image of Islam: Sheikh Issa Qassem

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Bahrain’s Shiite leader Ayatollah Sheikh Issa Ahmed Qassem referred to the phenomenon of terrorism as the West’s offspring in the region, saying that it has been using terrorism to tarnish the image of Islam.

Hegemonic powers, using their puppet governments in the Middle East, spread the phenomenon to undermine Islam and cause a rift in the Muslim community, the Bahraini leader said on Thursday.

The Global Arrogance tried to use terrorism as a means to achieve its “dirty goals”, Sheikh Qassem said, but added that it has now backfired and turned to a threat against the hegemonic powers themselves.

He also questioned the West’s so-called fight against terrorism, saying that there is no sign showing it is a serious one.

Their campaign against terror would not be believable unless the political conditions are improved and justice would become the main criterion in dealing with Muslim nations, the senior cleric stressed.

International observers have frequently raised the issue of how serious the US-led coalition’s so-called fight against terrorism is, mostly bringing evidence showing that the West’s claims are absurd.

In October, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the US-led coalition against the ISIL (Daesh) terrorist group has failed to accomplish its declared mission in Iraq and Syria for it has never been serious in fighting the group.

“We support anybody’s involvement against Daesh, provided that it’s serious. The problem with the international coalition was that it was never serious, because it had political inhibitions against hitting Daesh, because they believe that hitting Daesh before they have a solution for (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad would help Bashar. So there is just a show going on, and that is why the ability of Daesh has not even been dented over the past year,” the Iranian foreign minister said in an interview with The New Yorker.

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Iran’s FM visits senior religious figures in Qom to report on JCPOA + Pics

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Iranian FM Zarif arrived in Qom this morning and held talks with several senior religious figures on JCPOA and Syria peace talks, among other topics.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, after paying his respects to the Holy Shrine of Hazrat Masoumeh (SA), held meetings with several prominent religious scholars and authorities in Qom on Thursday.

Zarif first held talks with Grand Ayatollahs Nasser Makarem Shirazi and Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani.

He is also scheduled to meet with Grand Ayatollahs Hossein Nouri Hamedani, and Seyyed Abdul Karim Mousavi Ardebili.

The Iranian top diplomat said the aims of his visit to Qom were to present a report to the senior religious scholars and receive their opinions on advancing the Islamic Republic’s foreign policies in regard to the latest developments in the JCPOA, the Syrian peace talks and regional situation, the process of pursuing the Mina tragedy and the condition of the incident’s missing pilgrims.

“Today, we are in a situation where the Muslim world is in need of a cultural and scientific countermeasure to the threats of extremist and Takfiri terrorist groups. Qom as the cultural capital of the Islamic world can contribute a lot to the discourse stemmed from Islam’s highly valued teachings in the fight against extremism,” said Zarif.

The meetings between Zarif and religious figures in Qom will be held in private and without the presence of the reporters.

 

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Palestinian martyred in Israeli Raid on Al-Khalil Hospital + Pics

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Israeli settlers have sneaked into a medical center in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) and fatally shot a young Palestinian man hospitalized there for gunshot wounds sustained during clashes in the occupied Palestinian territories some weeks ago.

On Thursday morning, a group of 21 settlers made their way into the al-Ahli Hospital in al-Khalil under the disguise of the relatives of a pregnant woman, and went inside the room where injured Azzam Shalaldeh was resting, the Arabic-language Palestine al-Yawm news agency reported.

The assailants then took out pistols with silencers on and fired shots at Azzam, who died on the spot.

His cousin, who was in the room at the time of the incident, also sustained injuries.

The attackers took away Azzam’s body to an unknown location. He had been receiving medical treatment for critical injuries sustained during clashes in the town of Sa’ir some 20 days earlier.

Tensions in the occupied territories have dramatically escalated since the Israeli regime’s imposition of restrictions in August on the entry of Palestinian worshipers to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.

Palestinians are angry at increasing violence by Israeli settlers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and their attacks on Palestinian properties, saying that the Tel Aviv regime seeks to change the status quo of the compound.

Last month, senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called the recent spate of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds, an Intifada against the Tel Aviv regime.

Over 80 Palestinians have been killed in the recent escalation of violence since the start of October.

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Luxembourg confirms right of Muslim women to wear Niqab

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People choosing to wear the veil as an expression of their faith may do so freely under Luxembourg law now and for the foreseeable future, the country’s Justice Minister Felix Braz has confirmed.

Braz said that there currently exists no national law banning on wearing the full veil in public in Luxembourg nor are their plans to legislate on the matter.

His words came in response to pressure from the Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) to ban the wearing of the veil in public places, as has been done in France and Belgium.

According to the Luxembourg Shoura, a federation of Islamic faith communities, 16 women in Luxembourg currently wear the niqab, a partial veil, and it is thought that no-one wears the full body and face covering known as the burqa.

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Over 1 Million Syrians Returned Home Since Beginning of Russian Attack against Terrorists

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Over one million Syrians have returned home since the start of the Russian air campaign against terrorist groups in their country.

More than one million Syrians have returned home since Russian airstrikes began on September 30, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said Wednesday.

“Since the beginning of Russian operations, according to UN structures, more than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria,” Meshkov said at a press conference in Moscow.

On September 30, Russia launched an air campaign in Syria at the request of President Bashar Assad targeting terrorist positions with precision airstrikes. The operations has been coordinated with the Syrian army.

Since the beginning of the air campaign, the Russian Air Force has carried out more than 1,800 sorties, destroying more than 2,000 terrorist positions. Several hundreds of terrorists were killed, dozens of command centers and ammunition depots were destroyed.

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Saudi Arabia behind Recent Deadly Attack on Mourners in Western Iran: Shamkhani

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Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani announced on Wednesday that a recent deadly attack on mourners in the western Iranian city of Dezful had been sponsored by the Saudi regime.

During a shooting in Iranian western city of Dezful in Khuzestan province on October 16, three terrorists opened fire on a group of people attending a mourning ceremony held on the occasion of the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shiite Imam.

As a result of the terrorist attack, two people were killed and two were injured.

Shamkhani said the terrorist team were paid by the Saudi security service.

Saudi Arabia resorts to unpleasant actions inside Iran, Shamkhani went on to say, adding that they use every opportunity to mobilize Arab people against Iran.

If Saudi Arabia wants to get the problems between the two countries settled, they should stop their evil deeds against Iran, he added.

“We have a historically good relation with Arabs,” the Iranian official further noted, adding that the gap in the Muslim world should be filled.

Saudi friends should take a better look at the record of what they have done, and if they have the will to change the trend, the problems can be resolved on Iran’s side, Shamkhani noted.

His remarks came one day after Iran’s Minister of Intelligence Seyed Mahmoud Alavi announced that 14 individuals have been arrested in regard to terrorist activities in Western parts of the country including the one in Dezful and a couple of attacks on police stations in the city of Soosangerd.

“They are terrorists sponsored by reactionary regional states,” Alavi said.

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ISIS Threatens to Attack Russia Very Soon

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The ISIS terrorist group has released a video threatening to carry out attacks in Russia “very soon.”

The five-minute clip, published by ISIL’s Al-Hayat Media Center, contains graphic images of previous attacks, accompanied by a chant in Russian.

The group vows to “take back Caucasus and stop it from being ruled by dark forces,” as well as to seize the Kremlin, and impose Sharia in Tatarstan.

In October, ISIS called on Muslims worldwide to launch attack against Russian and US citizens, who, according to the terrorist group, are waging a “crusaders’ war” against Muslims.

On September 30, Russia launched an air campaign in Syria at the request of President Bashar Assad targeting terrorist positions with pinpoint airstrikes.

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Iran envoy to UN condemns Israeli atrocities

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Iran’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations (UN) has called on the international community to take action to stop Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians.

Addressing a meeting of the UN Special Political and Decolonization Committee, Gholam Hossein Dehqani denounced Israel’s “systematic violation of Palestinian rights,” including the demolition of their homes, the forced displacement of residents and the detention of women and children.

Dehqani referred to Tel Aviv’s expansion of settlements on the occupied Palestinian lands, citing it as the main source of the recent escalation in tensions in the occupied Palestinian lands.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1967.

Much of the international community regards the settlements as illegal because the lands taken by Israel in 1967 fall under the Geneva Conventions, which forbid any construction on occupied territories.

“It is time to end the abhorrent Israeli atrocities and occupation that have brought so much suffering to the Palestinian people, and are the most destabilizing factors at the regional and global levels,” the Iranian envoy said.

Tensions have dramatically escalated since Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.

Palestinians are also angry at settler attacks on their properties and rising Israeli raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque, which they see in line with Tel Aviv’s policy to change the demographic status of the compound.

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Saudi, Qatar attempt to spreading Wahhabism in Afghanistan: Top cleric

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A top Afghan cleric warned of attempts by Saudi Arabia and Qatar at spreading Wahhabism in Afghanistan, stressing that both Shiite and Sunni groups are in defiant of emergence of the ideology in his country.

“At present, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are attempting to attract Afghanistan’s Sunni society and convert them to Wahhabism, and are directly donating part of their oil incomes to promotion of such cult in Afghanistan,” Hojatoleslam Ali Tavassoli, member of the executive commission of the Afghan Shiite clerics council said.

The fact that certain extremist clerics within the Sunni society benefit from Saudi Arabia’s financial supports justifies Riyadh’s attempts to push for the spread of Wahhabism, he concluded.

However, Tavassoli added, the Afghan society, including the “Sunni brothers” in the country, will not allow extremist groups with affiliations with Wahhabism to emerge in Afghanistan.

While Wahhabism has adherents in its birthplace Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, Muslims detest it, because it considers Shiites and followers of other non-Sunni sects to be infidels.

Some blame Saudi Arabia’s promotion of Wahhabism abroad for giving theological fuel to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an accusation Saudi officials reject.

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