Iran's Larijani slams Arab, European proposals on Gaza - Summary

[Adsos Letter]

Source: DPA/ EarthTimes

Beirut - A prominent Iranian politician on Thursday severely criticized proposals by Middle Eastern and European nations to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip, describing them as "honey injected with poison.""These proposals do not protect the rights of the Palestinian people," Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament, said after talks with his Lebanese counterpart Nabih Berri.

Larijani arrived in Beirut as part of a delegation of the Asian Parliamentary Troika, which included speaker of the Syrian People's Assembly Mahmoud Al-Abrach and Indonesian Speaker Agung Laksono.

"As a troika, we are looking for reasonable solutions to end the conflict in Gaza," he said.

Egypt is trying to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas to implement a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds have died and thousands have been injured since the Israeli offensive against Hamas began on December 27.

Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/249604,irans-la...

[Idealism]

1. Why would anyone think the terms would be fair to Palestinians?

That would require Israel to make concessions, which they clearly are unwilling to do.

[EFerrari]

2. After the last 48 hours, I'm beginning to believe I should just prepare myself

for the end of the Palestinian people. It's not only Israel, it's our whole political establishment, up to and including the new administration. It wasn't a happy vision.

[Idealism]

3. It is obvious that there isn't much the world can do to stop Israel or the US

The UN is a cruel joke.

[EFerrari]

14. The UN has always been mostly us which is why it's so stupid

when Republicans accuse the UN of being anti-American as if your left hand could commit an act without your permission.

[WriteDown]

10. Israel has already agreed...

It is Hamas that is holding out. What concessions would you like to see?

[Idealism]

12. Go read the proposal

It doesn't do anything to take down the wall surrounding Gaza, doesn't word strongly enough to lift the blockade, and doesn't reimburse Palestinians at all for the pain Israel has rained upon them. At least when we wrongly went into Iraq, we tried to rebuild the shit we blew up.

[WriteDown]

15. This is a cease fire and not a....

two state solution. That's been tried and failed. It can be tried again though after the cease fire.

[Idealism]

16. The cease fire was working just fine until November 4th n/t

[WriteDown]

17. Really?

Please describe your version of what happened then.

[Idealism]

18. Well it goes like this...

As you can see, rocket and mortar fire subsided greatly from Gaza into Israel (and 5 of the rocket and mortars fired landed in Gaza- didn't even get outside the security wall) after the cease-fire was signed in June. Now Israel said it would open boarder crossings, ease the blockade to allow aid back in, and allow industrial diesel into the Strip via the Nahal Oz crossing. None of this happened. On November 4th, the IDF launched an operation in Gaza that was later called the 'ticking tunnel' raids. It killed 6 Hamas policemen and blew up several underground tunnels that many have described as 'the lifeline of Gaza' because food, cooking oil, etc was smuggled past the blockade through these tunnels. That raid took place on November 4th, and within hours Qassam rockets were heading into Israel. Ever since November 4th, there has been a steady increase in rocket and mortars fired.

[Adsos Letter]

4. Iran's Larijani meets Hamas political chief Meshal in Damascus

Source: Haaretz/defense

By Reuters

Senior Iranian politician Ali Larijani met with Hamas political chief Khaled Meshal in Damascus on Wednesday as the Palestinian Islamist group considered an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Larijani, speaker of parliament and one of the major figures in the Islamic Republic, met Meshal and several high level officials from Hamas at the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, witnesses said.

The meeting stretched into the early hours of Thursday, with no details emerging from the deliberations. Larijani earlier met
leaders of Islamic Jihad, a smaller Palestinian group with close
links to Iran.

Iran and Syria are the major backers of Hamas, and Syria hosts members of Hamas's exiled leadership, including Meshal.


Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1053787.html

[dipsydoodle]

5. In other news

The USA'a main war criminal is due to be in Israel today to meet up with the Israeli war criminals :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[Behind the Aegis]

6. ...

[KewlKat]

7. The date of the story on your link says

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Wasn't this last year?

[dipsydoodle]

9. Yes - a mistake too late to edit

apologies to you and Behind the Aegis above. The error arose due to almost duplciate headlines from last year to todays : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7817135.st...

Must confess I thought Bush had finished his overeseas visits anyway.

[ellisonz]

8. Good, maybe they will end this stupidity.

As Moshe Dayan once said: peace is only a phone call away...

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Alamuti Lotus]

13. as an aside -- Iran's next President, most likely