Excerpts: Iran nuclear position unchanged. Palestinian's hunger strike
ended. Gulf Arab Stats warn Syria and Iran. Assad's allies show support.
Over 70,000 Syrians flee to Jordan 21 February 2012

+++Iran Says its Nuclear Activities Non-Negotiable

by Naharnet Newsdesk 21 February 20,’12:

Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: Iran nuclear position unchanged’

QUOTE:”confirmes they (nuclear activities)will ne discussed in moot talk
with world powers”

FULL TEXT:Iran said on Tuesday[21 Feb.] it views its nuclear activities as a
non-negotiable right, but confirmed they will be discussed in mooted talks
with world powers aimed at defusing a crisis containing the seeds of a new
Middle East war.

"The issue of our country's peaceful nuclear activities will be on the
agenda of talks between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent U.N. Security
Council members plus Germany)," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin
Mehmanparast told reporters in a televised briefing.

"Our main demand is recognition of our right to possess the (nuclear)
technology for peaceful purposes," Mehmanparast said.

"That right has been achieved, and we don't think there is a negotiable
issue regarding our nuclear activities."

Mehmanparast's comments came on the second day of a two-day visit by
officials from the U.N. nuclear watchdog for talks focused on "possible
military dimensions" of the nuclear program.

The ministry spokesman said the aim of the visit by officials from the
International Atomic Energy Agency was not inspections but to talk about "a
framework to pursue dialogue and cooperation between Iran and the IAEA."

An IAEA visit to Tehran late last month was inconclusive.

Tensions have risen dramatically this year over Iran's nuclear program,
which much of the West suspects includes research to develop atomic weapons.

Israel has provoked increasing speculation it is poised to launch air
strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, raising the possibility of a wider conflict
being triggered that could draw in the United States, EU nations, and Saudi
Arabia.

Iran on Monday announced its military was holding exercises to boost air
defenses around its nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, the European Union was studying Iran's positive response to an
offer it made late last year to revive talks with the P5+1 that collapsed in
January 2011.

EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton said the talks could resume if Iran
placed no pre-conditions on them, particularly concerning its nuclear
program.

In the more than three months it took Iran to reply to Ashton's offer of
renewed talks, Tehran has forged ahead with its nuclear activities,
declaring it was adding thousands more centrifuges to its uranium enrichment
activities and producing what it said was 20-percent enriched nuclear fuel.

The U.N. nuclear agency in November issued a report voicing strong
suspicions that Iran was engaged in research for an atomic weapon and
ballistic missile warhead design.

While confronting challenges on the military and diplomatic fronts, Iran is
also battling with the economic pressure from Western sanctions.

On Monday, it said it could expand a halt on oil exports to the European
Union, following a stoppage announced at the weekend to France and Britain,
in apparent retaliation for an EU oil embargo due come into full effect in
July.

"Certainly if the hostile actions of some European countries continue, the
export of oil to these countries will be cut," said Deputy Oil Minister
Ahmad Qalebani, pointing the finger at Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal,
Germany and the Netherlands, Mehr news agency reported.

The European Union, though, said it could cope with any halt in Iranian
supplies.

"In terms of immediate security of stocks, the EU is well stocked with oil
and petroleum products to face a potential disruption of supplies," said a
spokesman for Ashton.

In Rome, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe dismissed Tehran's move.

"Undoubtedly, Iran is very imaginative with regards to provocation. It is
not Iran that decided to cut off its deliveries, we are the ones who decided
to terminate our orders," he told reporters.

"It makes one smile," Juppe added.

Iran exports about 20 percent of its crude -- some 600,000 barrels per
day -- to the European Union, mostly to Italy, Spain and Greece.

After initially spiking to a nine-month high on the news about France and
Britain, oil prices softened slightly.

Brent North Sea crude for April delivery shed eight cents to trade at
$119.89 a barrel in Asian trade on Tuesday afternoon.

"I think with the Brent (contract), the initial panic over Iran is going
away, pushing prices downwards....

"People are actually calming down after realizing that this is a game of
political brinksmanship from Iran," said one analyst, Justin Harper, head of
research at IG Markets Singapore.

+++SOURCE: Naharnet 21 Feb.’12:”Palestinian Ends 66-Day Hunger Strike after
Deal Reached”,Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: Palestinian’s hunger strike ended.

EXCERPTS:A Palestinian prisoner has ended his 66-day hunger strike over his
detention without charge under a deal that will see him released in April,
Palestinian and Israeli officials told Agence France Presse on Tuesday921
Feb.].

"The Israeli court decided to release Khader Adnan on April 17 and based on
that he ended his hunger strike," Palestinian prisoner affairs minister Issa
Qaraqaa said.

Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
said the agreement meant "if there's no new evidence against him, he will be
released from custody on April 17."

Adnan's lawyer Jawad Bulus also confirmed the deal, details of which were
made public just hours before the Israeli Supreme Court was to hear an
appeal against the prisoner's detention without charge.

"There will be no extension of his administrative detention and he will be
released on April 17," Bulus told AFP.

. . .

Israeli officials described Adnan as a "terrorist" from the radical Islamic
Jihad movement, although he has never been charged with any offence, nor has
any evidence against him been made public.

+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES 21 Feb.’12::”Gulf Arab states issue warnings to
Syria and Iran,Six-nation bloc announces support for Kuwait port project
disputed by Iraq”,Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: Gulf Arab States warn Syria and Iran

QUOTE:”CCC members called on Syria to ‘immediately halt its killing machine”

FULL TEXT:Gulf Arab states on Tuesday urged Syria's government to
immediately halt its "killing machine", and called on arch rival Iran to
stop interfering in their internal affairs.The six-nation Gulf Cooperation
Council also pledged to implement comprehensive reforms and strengthen
economic and military integration as a first step towards forming a union.

In a statement issued at the end of their annual summit, held in Riyadh
against the backdrop of the Arab uprisings, the GCC members called on Syria
to "immediately halt its killing machine".

They appealed for Damascus to "put an end to bloodshed, lift all signs of
armed conflict and release prisoners, as a first step towards implementing
the [Arab] protocol".

Syria signed the accord with the Arab League on Monday after weeks of
prevarication in the hope the 22-member bloc will lift sweeping sanctions
against the regime.

"If there was goodwill when the protocol was signed, then these steps must
be immediately taken," said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal,
adding the initiative was "proposed to prevent a civil war".

Despite the accord, at least 100 mutinous troops were killed or wounded on
Tuesday, a day after up to 70 deserters were gunned down while trying to
flee their posts, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in the Syrian regime's nine-month
crackdown on dissent, the United Nations estimated on December 12.

In its concluding statement, the Gulf Cooperation Council also called on
Iran to stop meddling in the internal affairs of the group's members.

"Stop these policies and practices... and stop interfering in the internal
affairs" of Gulf nations, it said, expressing concern over Tehran's attempts
to "instigate sectarian strife".

The Gulf states also called on their Shiite neighbour to "fully cooperate"
with the International Atomic Energy Agency, adding GCC members were
committed to a Middle East "free of weapons of mass destruction".

The West fears Iran's nuclear programme masks a push to develop an atomic
weapons capability, a charge Tehran denies.

Saudi-Iranian relations have deteriorated since 1,000 Gulf troops entered
Bahrain to help the Sunni monarchy crush Shiite-led democracy protests in
February and March.

The ties worsened when US justice officials announced in October that they
had foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to
Washington.

And tensions remain high even though the Iranian intelligence chief was in
Riyadh last week to clear up misunderstandings over the alleged plot.

On Monday, the last of American troops withdrew from Shiite-dominated Iraq,
further heightening Gulf fears over growing Iranian and Shiite influence in
the region.

Hoping to ease tensions, the GCC urged Baghdad to step up its efforts to
normalise ties with Kuwait, 10 years after the first Gulf War.

They called on Iraq to "implement its international commitments" towards its
neighbour in a bid to "enhance trust between the two countries and
strengthen their relations".

The two neighbours have not settled their border and Iraq still has to pay
almost $20 billion in war damages resulting from the 1990 Iraqi invasion of
Kuwait.

The Gulf states also expressed support for a Kuwaiti port project which Iraq
says would strangle its shipping lanes in the narrow Khor Abdullah waterway,
through which most of its oil exports enter the Gulf.

Kuwait insists the port will not affect Iraq.

The Gulf Arab nations, with the exception of Bahrain, for the most part
evaded the turmoil of the Arab Spring.

In Saudi Arabia, however, Sunni-Shiite tensions have risen with several
Shiite demonstrators from Eastern Province killed in anti-government
protests.

Saudi Arabia, like Bahrain, accuses Iran of instigating the unrest among the
Shiites in their country, and fear existing sectarian strife in Iraq could
inflame existing tensions within their borders.

In response to the region's unprecedented upheaval, GCC chief Abdullatif Al
Zayani said the group's six members agreed to "adopt Saudi King Abdullah's
initiative to make the GCC countries a single entity".

On Monday, King Abdullah asked the GCC leadership to "move from a phase of
cooperation to a phase of union", arguing the region's "security and
stability are threatened" and that such

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 21 Feb. ’12: “Iranian ships reach Syria; Assad
allies show support”China scolds West; president prepares for referendum”,Reuters

SUBJECT: Assad’s allies show support

QUOTE:” Russia, China and Iran showed support for Syrian President Bashar
Assad on Monday[20 Feb.]”

FULL TEXT:AMMAN/BEIRUT — Russia, China and Iran showed support for Syrian
President Bashar Assad on Monday[20 Ffeb.], days before an international
meeting likely to pile more pressure on him to step down in the face of an
increasingly bloody uprising.

Assad met a senior Russian politician in Damascus, who reiterated Moscow’s
support for his self-styled reform programme and spoke out against any
foreign intervention in the conflict, Russian and Syrian news agencies
reported.

China accused Western countries of stirring up civil war in Syria, and two
Iranian warships docked at a Syrian naval base, underscoring rising
international tensions over the near year-long crisis.

Government forces pressed on with their crackdown on the anti-Assad
uprising, with opposition activists reporting five people killed in renewed
shelling of an opposition-held district of Homs and troops and militia
blockading Hama. Both cities have been in the forefront of the revolt.

The crisis is entering an important week, with Western and Arab powers due
to meet at a conference in Tunisia on Friday[24 Feb.] to pressure Assad to
give up power, while Assad forges ahead with plans for a referendum on
Sunday [26 Feb.]for a new constitution.

The referendum, which would lead to multi-party elections within 90 days, is
part of what Assad describes as a reform programme to address demands for
more democracy. Syria’s official SANA news agency said about 14,600,000
people are eligible to take part in the referendum.

The West and Syrian opposition figures have dismissed the plan as joke,
saying it is impossible to have a valid election amid the continuing
repression.

From Russia with love

Alexei Pushkov, head of the international affairs committee of Russia’s
lower house of parliament, met Assad in Damascus on Monday[20 Feb.] and
affirmed Russia’s support for the plan. Moscow is Syria’s main arms supplier
and an ally dating back to the Cold War.

Pushkov also stressed the need “to continue working for a political solution
to the crisis based on dialogue between all concerned parties, without
foreign intervention”, ,SANA said.

Assad, who shows no inclination to relinquish power, told Pushkov Syria was
being targeted by armed terrorist groups supported by foreign elements
aiming to destabilise Syria.

China, which sent an envoy to Damascus this weekend, also backs Assad’s idea
of a political solution and has appealed to the government and opposition
alike to halt the violence.

China’s Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, took the West to
task in a commentary on Monday[20 Feb.], saying: “If Western countries
continue to fully support Syria’s opposition, then in the end a large-scale
civil war will erupt and there will be no way to thus avoid the possibility
of foreign armed intervention.”

The West has so far ruled out any Libya-style military action but the Arab
League, led by Saudi Arabia, has indicated some of its member states were
prepared to arm the opposition.

Halt to fighting sought

A more immediate concern for the West is the plight of civilians caught up
in the offensive against the opposition and a nascent rebel army. Activists
in embattled cities such as Homs say food supplies are running out and
doctors lack medicine to treat the wounded.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in Geneva it was
negotiating with Syrian authorities and opposition fighters for a ceasefire
to bring life-saving aid to civilians. Diplomatic sources said the ICRC was
seeking a two-hour ceasefire in hotspots including Homs.

Opposition activists said five people had been killed in government shelling
of Homs’s Baba Amro district on Monday[20 Feb.], adding to a reported death
toll of several hundred since the operation began on February 3.

Activists in the western city of Hama said troops, police and militias had
set up dozens of roadblocks, isolating neighbourhoods from each other.

Rebel fighters have been attacking militiamen, known as shabbiha, while
avoiding open confrontations with armoured forces that had amassed around
Hama, a city north of Homs on the Damascus-Aleppo highway.

In a bold protest in Damascus, opposition youths unfurled a pre-Assad era
national flag over a road bridge at the edge of the capital, YouTube footage
showed. That followed a weekend which saw one of the biggest demonstrations
yet in the capital as the uprising neared its first anniversary.

Two Iranian warships docked at the Syrian port of Tartous on Saturday[18
Feb.], Iranian state TV reported. The ships were said to be providing
training for Syrian naval forces.

With Shiite-led Iran already at odds with the United States, Europe and
Israel over its nuclear programme, the deployment was likely to add to
Western concerns that the Syria crisis could boil over into a regional
conflict if it not resolved soon.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, asked about the Iranian move at
briefing in Jerusalem, said Assad was receiving generous support from Iran
and the Hizbollah group and that Russia and China had given him “a licence
to kill”.

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 21 Feb.’12:”Over 70,000 Syrians flee to Jordan as
violence continues Only around 4,000 register with UN agency”

by Taylor Luck

SUBJECT: ‘Over 70,000 Syrians flee to Jordan’

QUOTE:“Jordanian officials classify the vast majority (fleeing Syrians) as
guests . . .need of financial and material assistance has not reached the
level of a ‘refugee crisis’ “

FULL TEXT:AMMAN — The number of Syrians who have fled to Jordan since the
beginning of the crisis has surpassed 70,000, according to official sources,
in the latest sign of the growing humanitarian impact of the ongoing
violence north of the Kingdom’s border.

Over 78,000 Syrian nationals have crossed into Jordan since the launch of a
military crackdown on peaceful protesters in March 2011, according to an
official source, including 1,400 who crossed into the Kingdom “illegally”
and 200 Syrians who returned to their home country.

Amidst the thousands of Syrians who have sought refuge in the Kingdom over
the past year were 200 army defectors, including 10 senior officers, added
the government source, which preferred to remain unnamed.

Despite witnessing a dramatic upswing in arrivals of Syrian nationals over
the last year, Jordanian officials classify the vast majority as guests,
stressing that the number of Syrians arriving in the country in need of
financial and material assistance has not reached the level of a “refugee
crisis”.

Amman has taken a series of precautionary measures — including the
establishment of a refugee camp in Ribaa Sirhan near Mafraq and tasking the
Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO) to coordinate relief efforts —
should the ongoing violence in Syria escalate and transform the steady
trickle of displaced Syrians into a wider “humanitarian crisis”, according
to the JHCO.

Meanwhile the number of Syrian refugees arriving in Jordan is on the rise,
according to the UN, as international agencies prepare to increase
assistance for the latest displaced population to make the Kingdom their
temporary home.

According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Jordan, over 3,800 Syrian
nationals have registered with the agency, a figure officials admit is
unrepresentative of the true number of Syrians in need, many of whom opt not
to register with the agency out of fear from reprisal from their government,
relying instead on assistance from local charity associations.

The number represents an increase of nearly 800 registrations in little over
a month as the UN continues to reach out to vulnerable Syrians concentrated
in the northern cities of Ramtha and Mafraq in addition to Amman.

“We as the UNHCR and the international community are here to offer support
to the Jordanian government to help it shoulder the added burden of
supporting this community,” said Arafat Jamal, deputy UNHCR representative
in Jordan.

While the vast majority of Syrian refugees have settled into urban areas,
humanitarian officials say Amman is preparing two additional “emergency
camps” in the northern region to avoid the sudden rise in rents and prices
of basic goods that accompanied the influx of Iraqi refugees following the
US-led invasion in 2003.

============
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA