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Abu Dhabi Islamic sees double-digit growth in H2 – CEO

July 19, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

July 18 (Reuters) – UAE lender Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank ADIB.AD expects to report “double digit” profit growth in the second half of the year, its chief executive said on Sunday.

“Our plan is to continue to show double digit growth for the rest of the year,” Chief Executive Tirad Mahmoud told Reuters.

The bank, the second largest Islamic lender in the UAE, posted a 56 percent rise in second-quarter profit earlier in the day as provisions fell. [ID:nLDE6650AH] (Reporting by Stanley Carvalho, Editing by Andrew Callus)

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Ahmadinejad urges Obama to accept nuke swap deal

May 26, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Iran’s president Wednesday urged Barack Obama to accept a nuclear fuel swap deal, warning the US leader will miss a historic opportunity for improved cooperation from Tehran if the offer is rejected.

Mahmoud Ahamdinejad also issued a stern warning to Russia, saying Moscow’s support for the US-led push for a new round of UN sanctions against Iran was contrary to the two countries’ neighbourly and friendly relations.

Washington has denounced the Iranian offer, brokered last week by Brazil and Turkey, as a ploy by Tehran to avoid a new round of UN sanctions over its controversial nuclear program, which the West fears is geared toward nuclear weapons.

“There are people in the world who want to pit Mr Obama against the Iranian nation and bring him to the point of no return, where the path to his friendship with Iran will be blocked forever,” Ahmadinejad said during a rally in the southern town of Kerman.

Iran proposed last week to ship much of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for nuclear fuel rods needed for a Tehran medical research reactor.

The fuel swap would diminish Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium that can possibly be used in making atomic bombs, if the uranium is enriched to a higher, weapons-grade level.

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Iran says to reconsider fuel swap if sanctions imposed

May 26, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Iran will reconsider a nuclear fuel swap deal if world powers agree to impose further sanctions on the Islamic Republic, Interfax news agency quoted Tehran’s ambassador to Moscow as saying on Tuesday.

“If there are new sanctions, it will become obvious to the Iranian public that the “5 + 1″ group is hiding evil intentions and pursuing political objectives. This would force us to revise the Tehran accords,” Mahmoud Reza Sadjadi was quoted as saying.

Under the deal, agreed with Turkey and Brazil, Iran would send 1,200 kg of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Turkey in return for fuel rods to keep a Tehran medical research reactor running.

Western critics say the deal would still leave Iran with enough uranium for one bomb, as it has stockpiled more LEU since the idea was first proposed last year.

“We believe that by this (deal) Iran has demonstrated its goodwill,” Sadjadi said. “After all that lobbying by Brazil, Turkey and other countries, we believe that it makes no sense to talk about new sanctions.”

(Writing by Dmitry Solovyov, editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

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Australia expels Israeli diplomat over Dubai hit

May 24, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Australia’s government said on Monday it had ordered the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat over the use of fake passports in the assassination of a top Hamas militant in Dubai in January.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said an investigation had left no doubt that Israeli intelligence services had been behind the forgery of four Australian passports used by suspects in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai hotel room.

(Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by Ed Davies)

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ASIO probes fake passports used in Dubai hit

April 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Australia’s intelligence agencies have taken over the investigation into the use of fake Australian passports by an assassination team in Dubai.

On Friday, the Government received the Federal Police report into claims the documents were fraudulently used by Israeli agents involved in the assassination of a senior Hamas leader in Dubai.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith has told Channel Nine he needs more information.

“I’m talking about our intelligence agencies, about ASIO and ASIS,” he said.

“There’s no point being coy about that further work is required, further consideration is required.

“When that’s done I’ll let the Government’s decision about these matters be known publicly.”

Four forged Australian passports were used in the hit on Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January this year.

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Grandson of Iran’s Rafsanjani may face charges-agency

April 5, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

A grandson of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani could face security-related charges after he was detained for taking part in opposition protests last year, a news agency said on Sunday.

Hassan Lahouti, believed to be in his 20s, was detained on March 21 by police at Tehran airport after arriving on a flight from abroad.

Iranian media later said he was freed on bail after he had expressed regret for participating in the protests that erupted after a disputed presidential election in June 2009.

On Sunday, the ISNA news agency cited Tehran’s Revolutionary Court as saying an investigative report on Lahouti would be sent to the court, “under the charge of committing security breaches against the establishment”. It did not elaborate.

Rafsanjani, who heads the Assembly of Experts, is still a powerful player in the Islamic establishment and a rival of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose re-election plunged Iran into turmoil last year.

The pro-reform opposition says the poll was rigged, a charge denied by the authorities.

Thousands of people protesting against the conduct of the election were arrested after the vote, which exposed deepening establishment divisions. Most have since been released, although more than 80 people have received jail sentences of up to 15 years. Two people tried after the election have been executed.

Lahouti’s mother, Faezeh Hashemi, was among several of Rafsanjani’s relatives held briefly for joining rallies in June, when the unrest first erupted.

Rafsanjani has been criticised by Ahmadinejad’s supporters for what they said was his failure to give full backing to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the crackdown on the protest movement.

Rafsanjani expressed support for Khamenei, a Shi’ite Muslim jurist who holds ultimate authority in the Islamic Republic, at a meeting of the Assembly of Experts in February.

ISNA also said a relative of Rafsanjani’s wife who had received a one-year jail term for propaganda against the Islamic establishment must return to prison after having been granted leave for the Iranian new year holidays last month.

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Britain to expel Israeli diplomat – Sky TV report

March 24, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Britain will expel an Israeli diplomat over the use of forged British passports in an assassination in Dubai, Sky News television reported on Tuesday, without disclosing its sources.

The Foreign Office declined to comment but said Foreign Secretary David Miliband would make a statement on the matter at 1530 GMT.

Sky News said it did not know the level of seniority of the diplomat who faced expulsion.

The Israeli foreign ministry said it had no immediate comment on the report. Spokesman Yigal Palmor said he was checking the details of the report.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied a role in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a military commander from the Palestinian organisation Hamas, in a Dubai hotel room in January.

Dubai authorities have named 27 alleged members of the team that tracked and killed the Palestinian, and said they used fraudulent British, Irish, French, German and Australian passports to enter and depart from Dubai.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon in London and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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Dubai Police Say They Have DNA Samples From Hamas Leader’s Murder

March 6, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

CAIRO — Dubai investigators have collected crime scene DNA samples and fingerprints of some of the suspects in the high-profile slaying of a Hamas operative, a senior official said Friday.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera television, Dubai police chief Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim said the evidence was collected at the luxury hotel in the Gulf city state where Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in his room Jan. 20.

Dubai authorities have accused Israel’s Mossad spy agency of being behind the slaying, and have identified at least 26 suspects of the alleged hit squad that traveled to Dubai on fake identities and forged European and Australian passports to kill al-Mabhouh.

At least 15 of the suspected killers share names with Israeli citizens, further fueling suspicions the Mossad was behind the hit.

Tamim told Al-Jazeera the suspects that entered al-Mabhouh’s room to kill him left the room tidy and locked the door from inside — and latched the chain lock — when they left to make it look like he died in his sleep.

“They made the room look as if there had been no struggle,” he said. “Everything was in order, as if the man was asleep. They left and closed the door perfectly and put the chain lock on as if the man had shut it himself.”
Tamim said the fingerprints and DNA samples will allow Dubai authorities to positively identify the suspects if they are ever arrested, even if they have changed their appearance.

“Fingerprints don’t lie. The picture may lie, the camera may lie, and the face may change. But the DNA remains in everyone’s body,” he said. “There are samples from a number of them (suspects) which they left behind. We have these samples, and when they are arrested … the fingerprints and DNA samples will be used.”

Dubai authorities have two Palestinians suspects in custody, and Tamim said security camera video show that one of the Palestinians was directly involved with the foreign suspects and had meetings with them.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in al-Mabhouh’s killing.

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Obama to host tripartite meeting with Israeli PM and Palestinian President

September 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Jerusalem, Sep 20 (ANI): In an effort to renew the peace process in the Middle East, President Barack Obama will host a tripartite meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the meeting would take place after Obama meets separately with each of the two leaders.

“These meetings will continue the efforts of President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Special Envoy George Mitchell to lay the groundwork for the relaunch of negotiations, and to create a positive context for those negotiations so that they can succeed,” the Jerusalem Post quoted a White House statement, as saying.

The meetings will take place in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly conference.

The White House announcement of the meeting comes as something of a surprise, since both Israel and the PA until Saturday continued to blame each other for the current stall in peace talks

And recently, Mitchell had failed to make progress in talks with the two leaders.

On Saturday, Mitchell said: “It is another sign of the president’s deep commitment to comprehensive peace that he wants to personally engage at this juncture.” (ANI)

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US accepts Iranian offer to hold discussions

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep. 11 (ANI): The United States has accepted Iran’s proposal to hold talks, despite the Islamic republic announcing that it would not bring its future nuclear programs on the discussions table.

The decision to engage directly with Iran would put a senior representative of the Obama administration at the bargaining table, along with emissaries from five other nations, for the first time since Obama took office, the New York Times reports.

The decision is bound to raise protests from conservatives and human rights groups.

Earlier on Friday, senior administration officials said that their expectations from the talks were extremely low.

“We’ll be looking to see if they are willing to engage seriously on these issues. If we have talks, we will plan to bring up the nuclear issue,” paper quoted US State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley, as saying.

They added that the United States could make a case for imposing far stronger sanctions on Iran if diplomatic engagements fail.

Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany are going to be present on the discussion table, who in the past have negotiated with Iran even without the presence of an American representative.

Iran made its offer to meet in a five-page letter delivered to several nations on Wednesday.

But the letter said nothing about Iran’s nuclear program. However, this week Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed never to halt the fuel production.

Within less than 48 hours the Obama administration said they would consider the offer to meet.

Even though it is unclear who will represent the US on the discussion table, but most probably William J. Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, will lead America.

Earlier, Burns was quoted as saying that the Obama administration had begun preparing sanctions against Iran, so that it would be ready to implement them at the end of the year. (ANI)

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