The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Iran seeks new talks with powers
Doesn’t spell out readiness to negotiate on nuclear activity

Vienna, February 16
Iran, facing harsher sanctions targeting its economically vital oil exports, has told world powers taht it wants to resume long-frozen talks soon, but left vague whether it is ready to address concerns about its nuclear activity, as they insist.

Tehran made the offer in a letter to the EU's foreign policy chief today, a day after it trumpeted several advances in nuclear know-how and sent oil prices upward with suggestions of economic reprisal in what may have been moves to boost its leverage before any fresh negotiations.

Iran's President vowed no retreat from its atomic path yesterday only for state television to announce the proposal to re-launch talks after a year's break - mixed signals making it difficult to divine what Tehran's intentions were.

Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili's letter said he would have "new initiatives", but did not spell them out. He made one separate reference to "Iran's nuclear issue", without saying whether Tehran was prepared to negotiate on it.

His letter was a reply to one from Ashton in October, in which she said the big powers could meet with Iran within weeks if it was ready to "engage seriously in meaningful discussions" tackling concerns about its nuclear quest.

Jalili said he welcomed an earlier statement by Ashton on respecting Iran's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

"No doubt by committing to this approach, our talks for cooperation based on step-by-step principles and reciprocity on Iran's nuclear issue could be commenced," said the English-language letter. — Reuters

Israel complains to UN

United Nations: Israel has lodged a complaint before the UN chief over the alleged terror campaign launched by Iran and its "proxy" Hezbollah against Israeli targets in recent weeks, including in India and Thailand. "This campaign bears the unmistakable fingerprints of the Iranian regime. Their actions constitute a clear threat to security and stability of Lebanon, to the Middle East, and to many other countries," Israel's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ron Proser, said in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. — PTI

Forex trading is ‘haram’, says Malaysia’s Fatwa Council

Kuala Lumpur, February 16
Malaysia's National Fatwa Council has ruled that foreign exchange trading is forbidden or 'haram' for Muslims as it was against the Islamic Sharia law. "A study by the committee found that such trading involves currency speculation, which contradicts Islamic law.

For that reason, the National Fatwa Council has decided that it is haram for Muslims to participate in such trading," Council chairman Dr Abdul Shukor Husin was quoted as saying by the Star newspaper.

He said Muslims should not participate in forex trading as there were many doubts about it, given that it involved individuals using the Internet with uncertain outcomes.

"Other forms of trading in foreign currencies, such as trading by money changers or between banks, are permissible as they do not involve currency speculation or uncertain outcomes," he said.

Husin said the meeting also decided that it was permissible for Muslims to invest or save under the Premium Saving Certificate scheme by a local bank here.

He said the committee was satisfied with the briefing given by the country's central banks Shariah panel regarding the scheme’s implementation.

Husin added that the committee also agreed to formulate guidelines on Muslim couples having their wedding ceremony in a mosque to allay doubts that the ceremony purportedly follows Christian practices, the report said. — PTI

‘Libya militias out of control’

Tripoli, February 16
The Amnesty International today said armed militias in Libya commit widespread human rights abuses, creating instability and obstructing efforts to rebuild the country.

"Armed militias operating across Libya commit widespread human rights abuses with impunity, fuelling insecurity and hindering the rebuilding of state institutions," the Amnesty warned in a new report. The report, released a year after the start of the February 2011 revolt that toppled Muammar Gaddafi's regime, documents "serious abuses, including war crimes, against suspected Gaddafi loyalists, with cases of people being unlawfully detained and tortured -- sometimes to death," it said. — AFP

Special to the tribune
In tirade against Assad, US finds unlikely ‘ally’ — Al-Qaida
Shyam Bhatia in London

The civil conflict in Syria is throwing up some unexpected potential political bedfellows who have been sworn enemies for the past decade and more. On one side of the divide supporting the regime of Bashar al-Assad are the Russians, Chinese, Iranians and their assorted local allies, such as the Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Ranged against them are the US and its traditional Western allies.

Countries like India and Pakistan are also in the Western camp. Added to this anti-Assad mix is the recent addition of Al-Qaida head Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has released an eight-minute video that calls on Muslims around the world to join the uprising against Assad's 'pernicious, cancerous regime'.

For the uninitiated, Zawahiri is the successor of Osama bin Laden, the founder of the Al-Qaida and sworn enemy of the West, who was killed by the US Special Forces when they attacked his hideout last year in the Pakistani city of Abottabad. Osama was the mastermind of the 9/11 atrocities that killed more than 3,000 Americans on their own soil, the worst such terror attack in the history of the US. The sheer scale and severity of 9/11 underlines the blind hatred that motivated Laden against his American enemies. But his relationship with the US was not always so poisonous.

Over a decade earlier, Laden and his guerilla forces were fighting side by side with secretly deployed and highly trained American commandos dedicated to kicking the Soviet army out of Afghanistan.

It was American weapons and money that funded the Afghan resistance that sprang up after the Soviet Union their country in 1979. Tens of billions of US dollars were poured into Pakistan, both the next line of resistance if the Soviets continued their eastward expansion and the distribution centre of cash and weaponry for the seven Afghan guerilla groups or mujahidin soldiers of God.

Laden didn't need the cash. He was rich enough in his own right, both because of his inherited wealth and the money he generated from his many businesses. But he certainly needed the weapons and the training available from the Americans. Whether he had direct contact with CIA experts is something the history books will doubtless reveal in years to come. For those who reported the decade-long Soviet occupation, there were many stories about huddled meetings between American agents and a tall Saudi who had committed heart and soul into expelling the Soviet forces.

Why the mutually beneficial relationship soured between this Saudi millionaire and the Americans has inevitably been a matter of considerable speculation. One theory is that by contributing to the defeat of the Soviets, Laden inadvertently helped to strengthen Washington's regional allies, including the 'lecherous, drunk and corrupt' regime in his own home country of Saudi Arabia.

A refined version of this analysis explains how during Moscow's occupation, there were plenty of hints from American advisers about how in exchange for kicking out the Soviets, Washington would help support governments committed to the Islamic values. The reality was that Washington was only interested in preserving the corrupt Middle East order that existed before the Soviet invasion.

Laden, thereafter, embarked upon his war against the West. Laden is not the only Islamic radical who turned against his one-time American benefactors. In Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini swept into power in 1979 following the withdrawal of US support for a 'zombie' Shah who angered the West by both his pursuit of nuclear weapons and his role in boosting world oil prices. Khomeini had every reason to be grateful to Washington, but when whispered promises of continued American backing came to nothing, he too turned against the US. His successors remain committed to blocking the Americans wherever possible .

The same is not true of the Al-Qaida. True, Zawahiri's recent call for all Muslims to join hands against the Syrian regime has been interpreted by some as simply a last ditch and desperate attempt by the Al-Qaida to climb on to the anti-Assad bandwagon.

But there are others who insist that Zawahiri's call to arms in Syria is a coded message for the West to let bygones be bygones and join hands in a common cause. Could the impossible happen? Laden is dead and gone and the Al-Qaida's close allies, the Taliban, are currently engaged in secret negotiations with Washington to expedite Nato's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

22 killed as Syrian troops target protest hubs
Damascus: Syrian armour on Thursday moved on the main hubs of an 11-month uprising killing at least 22 persons, monitors said, a day after President Bashar al-Assad set a vote for a new constitution. Opposition groups rejected the newly proposed constitution and urged voters to boycott a referendum set for this month, and to step up efforts to oust Assad. — AFP
A member of Free Syrian Army in Binnish.

Prosecutor wants 'extremist' Russian comment banned

Moscow, Feb 16
Nearly two months after a Russian court rejected a ban on a translated version of Bhagvad Gita, a top Siberian prosecutor has now demanded the removal of a Russian comment only from the book for being "extremist", without affecting the canonical text of the scripture.

On December 28, a court in the Siberian city of Tomsk had rejected a petition seeking a ban on the translated version of Bhagvad Gita, a verdict which was welcomed by India as a "sensible resolution of a sensitive issue".

Tomsk Region Prosecutor General Vasily Voikin has now demanded that "a Russian translation of a comment in this book, earlier published in English, be banned as extremist, not the canonical text of the scripture," his deputy Ivan Semchishin was quoted as saying by 'Ria Novosti' today.

Confirming the report, Sadhu Priya Das of Moscow ISKCON told PTI that an appeal has been filed by prosecutors in Tomsk District court against the earlier judgement, dismissing their plea to ban Gita.

"The next hearing will be held on March 6," he told PTI.

The original petition seeking a ban on the translated version of the holy scripture was filed in June 2011 and the trial prompted a flurry of criticism from across the world.

State prosecutors, who had filed the petition, have branded the test as "extremist" literature full of hatred and insult to non-believers, which promoted social discord.

A day before the Siberian court rejected the petition, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had asked the Russian government to help resolve the issue quickly.

"The bid to ban the Russian translation of Bhagavad Gita has been misunderstood," Alexander Buksman, a Tomsk region prosecutor, said.

"It's important to discern gems from the chatter in this very case; the society's perception of this issue is that prosecutors are standing against the concepts of this religion (Hinduism).

"However, the problem is that the Russian translation has paragraphs that could be seen as promoting extremism; prosecutors started the case for that reason," Buksman was quoted as saying.

Voikin "is now maintaining his claims in an appeal court for that very reason," Semchishin added.

Bhagavat Gita was first published in Russia in 1788 and since then it has been republished many times in various translations.

The controversial Russian translation of "Bhagavad Gita: As It Is" was carried out by founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. — PTI