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Iran, Syria vow to expand military cooperation
Iranian Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani said in Damascus Friday that Iran and Syria would boost their bilateral security cooperation to guarantee the security in the Middle East region.
Speaking to IRNA after inking a military and defense
agreement between the two sides, he said they have pledged to make every effort to preserve the security in the region.
He stressed the importance of expanding defense cooperation with Syria and hoped his visit to Damascus would lead to more palpable results in the area of defense and security cooperation.
For his part, Syrian Defense Minister Major General Mustafa Tlas expressed satisfaction over his Iranian counterpart`s visit to Syria and termed it important in light of the current sensitive regional and international situation.
He it is important for both countries to cooperate on security.
Commenting on the US pressure on Syria and the alleged infiltration of Muslim fighters into Iraq through Syrian borders, Tlas said Syria has become accustomed to US pressures and such issues would not lead to neglecting the country`s goals.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator holds talks in India Iran's top nuclear negotiator was in New Delhi on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Hasan Rowhani, head of Iran's powerful Supreme National Security Council, was also scheduled to meet Brajesh
Mishra, India's national security adviser, the Associated Press quoted officials as saying.
India is a member of the 35-nation IAEA, whose board is convening in Vienna on March 8.
The officials said Rowhani was in New Delhi for scheduled meetings which are part of an India-Iran strategic dialogue.
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Iranian DM arrives in Damascus for military talks
Iran's Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani arrived in Damascus on Wednesday on an official visit to Syria.
Upon arrival in the Damascus international airport, Shamkhani was welcomed by Syrian Minister of Defence Major General Mostafa Tlas, as well as a number of political and top figures of Syria, IRNA reoprted.
Iranian envoy to Syria Mohammad Reza Baqeri and a number of officials at the Iranian institutions and embassy to Damascus were also present at the airport along with the Syrian officials.
Shamkhani is in Syria on the first leg of a four-day official visit which would take him also to Lebanon.
During his stay in Syria, Shamkhani will hold talks with Syrian top-brass officials and would visit some military sites and centers as well as the defensive industrial unites of Syria.
Shamkhani, upon arrival, said that the scientific and industrial cooperation between Iran and Syria in defense and security fields will be high on agenda.
He told reporters that the two sides are to review the level of cooperation in various fields, in particular in the political, security and defense arenas.
In his two-day visit to Damascus, the Iranian Defense Minister will meet the Syrian President and commander-in-chief of the armed forces Bashar Assad, Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara, Defense Minister Mostafa Tlas and commander of the army and armed forces headquarters Major General Hassan Tourkamani.
During his stay, Shamkhani and the accompanying delegation will also sign a defense and military memorandum of understanding. The Iranian delegation will leave Damascus for Beirut on Friday.
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Iran says Rumsfeld understands nothing regarding Iraq, Middle East
Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said Tuesday that establishment of stability and security in Iraq would strengthen regional security.
In a reaction to recent remarks made by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Asefi said, "Iran has always took steps to establish stability and security in Iraq because it considers security and stability in that country as (a factor) in strengthening t he security of the region."
According to IRNA, he said the Islamic Republic of Iran does not allow any group to infiltrate into Iraq through Iranian borders and will encounter any illegal measures strongly. "It is surprising that the US Defense Secretary does not tend to understand realities in Iraq and in the region," Asefi added.
On Monday, Rumsfeld warned Iran and Syria about fighters crossing their borders into Iraq. "Syria and Iran have not been helpful to the people of Iraq," he told journalists during a visit to Baghdad. "Indeed they have been unhelpful."
"We know Iran has harbored Al-Qaeda, we know they had people moving across the border. They were certainly aware of that." "We know Syria has been a hospitable place for escaping Iraqis" following the US-led invasion of Iraq last year, he added.

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Syria slams US human right report as Powell ''disappointed'' with Assad policy
A Syrian legislator responded Thursday to U.S. criticism of its human rights record by saying the annual State Department report represented a "blatant and meaningless interference in other countries' internal affairs".
Syria was one of more that 150 states included in the U.S. report, which covers numerous issues such as the state of democracy, freedom of speech and religion in countries around the world.
The report, released Wednesday, claimed Syria used torture, limited the right of free speech and assembly and allowed no political opposition.
On his part, Suleiman Hadad, a Syrian legislator and a former assistant foreign minister, told reporters that the United States could not talk about human rights as it is an aggressive country, occupying a foreign land.
According to IRIB, he said there was no problem with human rights in Syria, which had embarked on a democratic process.
However Haitham Maleh, the chairman of the committees for the defence of human rights in Syria, acknowledged that there are many violations of human rights in Syria, but also rejected any interference from any foreign country.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was "disappointed" with Syria's Middle East policy, and that relations between Damascus and Washington were "not as I would like them to be."
"I think it is time for Syria to really take a hard look at the policies they followed in the past and whether those policies are relevant to the future in light of what's happened in Iraq," Powell said in an interview with the US Middle East television channel Al Hurra.
"I think it's time for Syrian President Bashar Assad to start looking at steps he might take to change his relationship with the United States and his relationship with the other countries in the region," Powell said in a transcript of the interview.

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CIA: Hizbullah to attack US, Israeli targets if Syria, Iran invaded
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has warned that Hizbullah would launch a war of "terror" against US and Israeli interests around the globe if either Syria, or Iran, or both, are attacked or invaded like Iraq.
This warning came in a testimony made by CIA chief, George Tenet, to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee at the U.S. Congress in Washington on Tuesday.
According to Tenet, the Bush administration's war against global terrorism had made "important inroads" in the past two years.

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Report: Israel sends to Hizbullah ''by mistake'' body of Jewish man
Hizbullah is demanding that Israel give it the bodies of 30 fighters in exchange for the body of a man that Israel mistakenly transferred to the Lebanese resistance movement, a Nazareth-based newspaper reported Friday.
The corpse in Hizbullah's hands was accidentally sent during the January 29 prisoner swap in place of Mohammed Biro, a Lebanese drug dealer who died in an Israeli prison 11 months ago.
The newspaper, Kul Al-Arab, quoted a senior Lebanese official saying the body Israel forwarded is that of a Jewish man.
Meanwhile, an Israeli source told Army Radio on Friday that he was not aware of any demand from Hizbullah, but that Israel intends to return Biro's body to Lebanon in any event.


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Saudi Arabia tightens controls on charities
In response to Western claims that Saudi charities fund terrorism, the Kingdom has set up a special agency that will oversee the nation's fund raising abroad.
According to SPA, the Saudi National Commission for Relief and Charity Work Abroad will "protect Saudi charitable work from any harmful activities that might undermine it or tarnish its reputation." The commission will announce its regulations following its official launch in the coming weeks.
The commission will be managed by a group of Saudi nationals known for their expertise in the field of charity work, stated a royal decree.
Saudi Arabia has been facing US pressure to prevent charitable donations from reaching Islamist activists abroad. Last month, the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United States asked the United Nations (UN) to add Saudi-based Al-Haramain Foundation to a list of groups whose assets are to be blocked as part of a financial squeeze on Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network. -- (menareport.com)
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Saudi Arabia, Egypt oppose reforms imposed from abroad
Egypt and Saudi Arabia stressed on Tuesday that Arab states are following a development, upgrading and reform path that matches with their peoples' interests and values and rejecting any reform ?style imposed on Arab and Islamic states from abroad.?
These comments came in a joint declaration issued on conclusion of the short visit paid by President Hosni Mubarak to the kingdom after talks he held with King Fahd bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.