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Iran plotted to kill Saudi envoy: US Sri Lankan refugees return home by ferry |
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Iran plotted to kill Saudi envoy: US
Tehran/Washington, Oct 12 Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia vowed today that Iran would "pay the price" for an alleged plot to kill its ambassador in Washington and US officials said there could be a push for a new round of UN sanctions. Tehran angrily rejected the charges laid out by a number of top US officials yesterday as "amateurish", but a threat nevertheless to peace and stability in the Gulf, a region critical to global oil supplies with a number of US military bases. "The burden of proof is overwhelming... and clearly shows official Iranian responsibility for this. Somebody in Iran will have to pay the price," senior Saudi prince Turki al-Faisal, a former ambassador to Washington, said in London. US Vice-President Joe Biden echoed those hawkish sentiments, telling US network ABC Iran would be held accountable. He said Washington was working for a new round of international sanctions against Iran, warning that "nothing has been taken off the table". A criminal complaint alleges that US national of Iranian decent Manssor Arbabsiar and Iran-based Gholam Shakuri began plotting the murder of the Saudi Ambassador early this year. They were charged with conspiring to carry out terror attacks in the US and participating in a plot, allegedly directed by elements of the Iranian government, to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. While Shakuri remains at large, Arbabsiar was arrested on September 29 in New York. The motive for the alleged plot was not clear. Iran has in the past assassinated its own dissidents abroad, but an attempt to kill an ambassador would be a highly unusual departure. Iran and Saudi Arabia are bitter regional and to some extent sectarian rivals, but they maintain diplomatic ties and even signed a security agreement in 2001. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Riyadh in 2007. The United States has led a global effort to isolate Iran and pile on United Nations sanctions in recent years over Tehran's nuclear energy programme which Washington and its regional allies including Israel and Saudi Arabia fear is a front for developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies nuclear arms ambitions. Those allies fear Washington could take its eye off the ball on Iran. US diplomatic cables from Riyadh leaked by Wikileaks over the past year, in which Jubeir features prominently, show Riyadh repeatedly pushing the United States to take a tougher stand, including the possible use of military force. Tensions rose between Riyadh and Tehran when Saudi Arabia sent troops to help Bahrain put down pro-democracy protests let by the island state's Shi'ite majority that both governments accused Iran, a non-Arab Shi'ite state, of fomenting. This month Riyadh accused some among its Shi'ite Muslim minority of conspiring with a foreign power, a reference to Iran, to cause instability, following street clashes in the Eastern Province. US President Barack Obama, who seeks reelection next year, called the alleged conspiracy a "flagrant violation of US and international law". The United States said Tehran must be held to account and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she hoped countries hesitant to enforce existing sanctions on Iran would now "go the extra mile." — Reuters
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Sri Lankan refugees return home by ferry
The first batch of Sri Lankan refugees returned to their homeland island from India on the Scotia Prince ferry on Wednesday as the situation in the island nation is fast returning to normalcy after nearly three decades of civil war. The group of refugees included 37 persons belonging to 15 families, who left Tuticorin and arrived in Colombo this morning. The refugee returnee programme is being conducted under the auspices of the UN Refugee Agency. It is part of a voluntary, facilitated repatriation programme, supported by the governments of both India and Sri Lanka, a UNHCR spokesman said. Though many refugees have returned to Lanka from India since the war against the Tamil Tigers ended in May 2009, but they had come by air. The transport by ferry is significant as it allows them to bring their possessions along, the UNHCR said. Many refugees are waiting for ferry returns in order to transport their household possessions with them as each person can bring up to 150 kg of their belongings. Since the end of war, Sri Lankan refugees have been steadily returning to their country, mainly from India, with a few from other countries. Over 1,400 refugees have returned so far this year, compared to 2,054 refugees in 2010. UNHCR’s most recent statistics showed there were 1,41,063 Sri Lankan refugees in 65 countries, with the majority in India, followed by France, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Australia.
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Senate rejects Obama’s jobs bill Washington, October 12 Lawmakers voted 50-49 to advance the $447 billion dollar plan, falling short of the 60 senators needed to do so, in the face of fierce opposition from Republicans eager to deny the president a second term. “Tonight’s vote is by no means the end of this fight,” Obama said in a statement released before the vote was over but after its outcome was unmistakable, vowing to move his plan piecemeal “as soon as possible.” And he vowed to pile political pressure on Republicans in a series of votes aimed at forcing them to oppose funds aimed at helping middle class families and block tax hikes on the very richest Americans to pay for the plan. “With so many Americans out of work and so many families struggling, we can’t take ‘no’ for an answer. Ultimately, the American people won’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” said the embattled president. The bare majority vote inflated Senate support for the measure, as some Democrats who backed ending debate on the legislation had said they would oppose its final passage, a point that led Republicans to crow that a bipartisan majority was rejecting the bill. Two Democrats broke ranks to oppose the blueprint, while one Republican did not vote, while Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also voted against the measure in a parliamentary manoeuvre that allows him to bring up the measure again at any time. — AFP
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The US has foiled an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi envoy and sounded a terror warning to its citizens and international
diplomats.
The first batch of Sri Lankan refugees returned to their homeland island from India on the Scotia Prince ferry on Wednesday as the situation in the island nation is fast returning to normalcy after nearly three decades of civil war.
