Damascus—Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday described as “immoral” Iraq’s accusation that Damascus was responsible for attacks inside its territory and again asked Baghdad to produce evidence. His remarks were the latest salvo in an escalating war of words between the two neighbors since Iraqi officials accused Syria of complicity in a spike of militant attacks in Iraq. When Syria is accused of killing Iraqis, while it is housing around 1.2 million Iraqis ... this is considered an immoral accusation,” Assad told a joint news conference with visiting

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Tehran—Top Iranian lawmakers voiced strong opposition on Monday to some of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s proposed ministers, including women, on the second day of a debate on his controversial cabinet line-up. Parliament is due to hold a vote of confidence on the 21-member cabinet on Wednesday but the hardline Ahmadinejad is battling to win support even from conservative MPs who complained about the inclusion of women and charged that many of his nominees lacked experience. And on Monday, lawmakers openly

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Oslo—U.N. Secretary-General (UNSG) Ban Ki-moon on Monday brushed off a Norwegian diplomat’s stinging criticism of his leadership style and personality as a matter of differing cultures and traditions in the world agency. Norway’s U.N. Ambassador Mona Juul accused the South Korean of weak leadership, lack of charisma and angry outbursts in an internal memo that leaked to Norwegian news media this month. “Personally, I admit

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Jerusalem—Palestinians will not accept a partial settlement freeze, a senior official reiterated on Monday, as Israel and the United States pressed on with negotiations over the thorny issue. “If (US President Barack) Obama approves continuing settlement building in Jerusalem, Obama has pulled out of the Middle East peace process,” Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian Authority official, told reporters. Obama’s administration has pressed Israel to completely halt all settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land as it seeks to jumpstart peace talks that

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Alison Weir Comment

LAST week Sweden’s largest daily newspaper published an article containing shocking material: Testimony and circumstantial evidence indicating that Israelis may have been harvesting internal organs from Palestinian prisoners without consent for many years. Worse yet, some of the information reported in the article suggests that in some instances Palestinians may have been captured with this macabre purpose in mind. In the article,

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