16-08-2013 - 12:48
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah (click here) will deliver a speech on Friday, in a ceremony celebrating the July 2006 victory.
Hezbollah is holding a ceremony which will begin at 5:00 pm (Lebanon timing) in the southern city of Aita Al-Shaab, which witnessed fierce clashes between resistance fighters and Zionist soldiers during the 2006 war, and resulted in the victory of Lebanon.
Sayyed Nasrallah is expected to tackle the latest local and regional developments during his speech.
When the Iraqi foreign minister (click here) arrives in Washington this week, among his top requests will be for the White House to overcome objections in Congress to selling his country advanced Apache helicopters the Iraqis say they need to fight terrorists within their borders.
Iraq’s top diplomat, Hoshyar Zebari, will meet with Secretary of State John Kerry on Aug. 15. Zebari’s trip comes just weeks after a daring and successful military assault on the Abu Ghraib prison resulted in the release of more than 500 suspected extremist militants. The jailbreak reversed years of work to roll up al Qaeda’s leadership in Iraq during the U.S.-led counterinsurgency campaign known as the surge.
The U.S. government has notified Congress in recent weeks of its intention to sell Iraq $4.7 billion worth of military equipment, but none of those sales include the top item on Iraq’s shopping list, the Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopters. The House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have refused to allow the sale of the helicopters to date....
President Rouhani has a sincere opportunity to be a partner in peace and prosperity in the Middle East. As a matter of fact, he has the potential of being pivotal considering the years of escalation of violence and hate under the previous President of Iran.
President Rouhani can become a global leader respected by most or he could continue a negative spiral in the Middle East resulting in masses of angry and dying people.
I believe he will be seeking the higher road rather than one of continued violence and unrest. He should step into the center of much of the unrest and provide sincere leadership. The Shi'ites of the Middle East long for it. We know it is possible, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani stands as evidence to the potential.
By RAY TAKEYH
Published: August 15, 2013
One of the enduring aspects (click here) of Washington’s Iran debate is its wild oscillations between the hysteria of war and the euphoria of reconciliation....
...In the coming months, Rouhani and his diplomats will inevitably profess their readiness to deal in earnest. The possibility of a limited deal addressing some of the more urgent aspects of Iran’s nuclear program should not be ruled out. If such a deal is done, then it must be welcomed. But standing behind these deliberations will be the untrusting Ayatollah Khamenei and his allies who will always need an American nemesis to justify their ideology to themselves.
Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
