UN principal hits patron Iran over human rights

The U.N. chief agitated his Persian hosts for a neutral nations converging Wed by pointing out "earnest concerns" in Tehran's earth born rights enter and urging cooperation with the domain embody to alter freedoms.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had signaled he would not shy off from criticism of Iran during his impose to the Nonaligned Move thickening in Tehran, but the lancination comments appeared to touch Persian officials off protect upright hours after his accomplishment.

"We possess discussed how Merged Nations can create together with Persia to amend the anthropoid rights status in Iran. We bed our sensible concerns on the anthropomorphic rights abuses and violations in this region," he told a info conference as he sat close to Persia's Parliament Author Ali Larijani, who frowned at the remarks.

Persia's oppositeness groups had urged Ban to use his appearing in Tehran as a platform to comment Persia's judgement scheme over its crackdowns on governmental dissent, including the shelter arrests of contestant leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi.

While in Tehran, Ban also could cite excitable issues much as demands by U.N. thermonuclear inspectors for wider admittance to various sites, including a warrior like basic moral Tehran suspected of state a proving percept for explosives experiments that could be old to experiment atomic triggers. Iran denies it seeks thermonuclear blazon, but Feature nations and coalition veneration Tehran's uranium enrichment labs are wriggling next to warhead-grade physical.

U.N. spokesman Comic Nesirky said in his talks, Ban expressed hindrance that "soft touchable progress" has been prefab in talks between Iran and concern powers over Tehran's thermonuclear performance. No companion has been set to summary negotiations after several rounds over the tense months.

Persia says it wants talks to talk, but also claims that the modern sewing in Tehran shows that Western efforts to insulate Iran feature failed.

In Vienna, the U.N.'s atomic office has created a special Iran Task Displace of thermonuclear weapons experts, intelligence analysts and separate specialists convergent on inquiring Tehran's atomic curriculum, according to an intimate papers joint with The Associated Machine.

Ban's stay is existence interpreted by Iranian media as a stir to Occidental attempts to insulate the Islamic republic in rebelliousness of Land and Earth calls to boycott the convergence.

Tehran is also hunting to win connection from the nonaligned alignment, job for nearly two-thirds of the U.N. member states, for its atomic information. A jaunt to Natanz metal enrichment situation in centered Persia by involved body has not been ruled out.

Ban met Persia's Supreme Person Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Chairwoman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad afterward Wed.

Nesirky, the U.N. spokesman, said that in his meetings in Tehran Ban "urged the body - the chairwoman, the Dominant Individual, the talker of parliament - to really labor out to the Asiatic leadership and move on them the rattling imperative poverty to cease the violence and to create the conditions that are needed for a semi political treat."

Persia plans to select the shaping of a three-member neutral unit, quality two neighbors of Syria, to helpfulness compute the crisis there, Iran's country media quoted conspicuous lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi as locution.

The planned troika leaves countenance Empire, Iran and Venezuela plus Iraq and Lebanon. Boroujerdi, who met Assad during a jaunt to Syria sunset hebdomad, said the Asian chairwoman said he would welcome the Persian counseling.

Khamenei told Ban that the statement is to forbid weapons shipments to the Syrian rebels, or as he put it, "feckless groups internal Syria," according to his website.

A ranking Iranian authorised gave information of the design Persia is proposing at the meeting.

In President, Commonwealth Department spokeswoman Port Nuland urged Ban to press Iran over Syria. She said Persia does screw a persona to recreation: "It can bust with the Assad plan and stop providing material activity and arms and advisers and all of these kinds of things, she said.

Israel's move toward early Election may shelve any attack on Iran

Two top Israeli security officials said Wednesday that the prospect of early national elections will have no influence over a decision over whether to strike Iranian nuclear sites.

Some say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unlikely to risk his reelection by striking Iran. The Iran issue could also lead to a divisive campaign.

Israel'smove toward early elections is the latest sign that its threatened attack against Iran's nuclear facilities is unlikely to take place in the coming months.

The Israeli military said Wednesday it has closed its investigation into the shelling deaths of 21 members of a single Palestinian family and would not file any charges in what was one of the gravest incidents in the 2009 war in the Gaza Strip.

The military's move, which exonerates Israeli soldiers from any responsibility in the killings, outraged relatives of the killed Palestinians and the Israeli human rights group that had pressed for the investigation. They said the findings proved the army is not capable of investigating the conduct of its soldiers.

Longtime grasshoppers know I've been skeptical about Israel actually 

carrying through on threats to strike Iran in an attempt to 

degrade the Iranian nuclear weapons program

"We are talking about a crime against civilians," said Salah Samouni, 34, whose 2-year-old daughter was killed when Israeli shells slammed into the Gaza City house where the family had gathered.

Though no final decision has been made about moving up national elections slated for next year, the Knesset, or parliament, is talking about dissolving this month and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce as soon as next week an election date in September.

Some officials predict the chances of an Israeli airstrike against Iran will decrease because a divisive political campaign would paralyze the government and focus attention on domestic issues.

"He can't do anything before elections," said Knesset member Daniel Ben-Simon of the Labor Party. "He's a lame duck. Nothing will be decided before the vote."

Both Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said in published comments on Wednesday that policy toward Iran will be based solely on strategic interests.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled this week that he may call parliamentary elections a year ahead of schedule, casting additional uncertainty over any Israeli military plans.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce as soon 

as next week an election date in September.

Israel considers Iran a threat to its existence because of its nuclear and missile development programs, frequent reference to Israel's destruction by Iranian leaders and Iran's support of violent anti-Israel groups in Lebanon and Gaza.

Israel has been warning for years that Iran is trying to construct nuclear bombs. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Echoing Barak's sentiments was Deputy Prime Minster Moshe Yaalon. "The election will not be a consideration in the Iranian issue. If we need to make decisions we will make them," he told the Maariv daily.

There has been a precedent to big military offensive prior to an election.

Clinton urges China to protect human rights

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called on China to protect human rights amid a dispute over the status of a blind dissident who has appealed to Washington for help.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton cautioned China to protect human rights Thursday, in remarks that rejected Beijing's criticism of the U.S. for getting involved in the case of a blind dissident whose fate overshadowed the opening of annual talks between the powerful countries.

Clinton told the opening of annual talks with China on foreign policy and economic issues that the U.S. believes "all governments have to answer our citizens' aspirations for dignity and the rule of law and that no nation can or should deny those rights."

Clinton's comments Thursday came after a blind Chinese dissident who took refuge in the U.S. Embassy appealed to Washington for more help. He said later from his hospital room in Beijing that he fears for his family's safety unless they are all spirited abroad.

Her comments came as the dissident, Chen Guangcheng, pleaded for more help from Washington. The blind, self-taught lawyer took refuge in the U.S. Embassy after escaping house arrest, but left Wednesday to get treatment for a leg injury at a Beijing hospital. He initially said he had been assured that he would be safe in China, but hours later he said he fears for his family's safety unless they are all spirited abroad.

China already demanded an apology from the U.S. even before Chen balked at a deal in which he would remain in his homeland. Now that he wants to leave, the case could overshadow talks in which Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are to discuss foreign policy and economic issues with their Chinese counterparts.

ADDS U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT LEGAL ADVISOR HAROLD KOH AT LEFT In this photo released by the US Embassy Beijing Press Office, blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng is wheeled into a hospital by U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, right, and an unidentified official at left, in Beijing Wednesday May 2, 2012. At left is U.S. State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh.

China's President Hu Jintao said at the opening of the talks that China and the United States "must know how to respect each other" even if they disagree.

U.S. officials verified that account. But they adamantly denied his contention that one American diplomat had warned him of a threat from the Chinese that his wife would be beaten to death if he did not get out of the embassy. They also denied his claim that American officials have left the hospital where he is being treated for a leg injury suffered in his escape.

"I think we'd like to rest in a place outside of China," Chen told the AP, appealing again for help from Washington. "Help my family and me leave safely."

"There were U.S. officials in the building," the spokesman told reporters. "I believe some of his medical team was in fact with him at the hospital." He said U.S. officials would continue visiting Chen while he was there.

It is not clear how the U.S. could be party to an agreement on Chen's safety inside China when it has no power to enforce the conditions of his life there.

EU imposes new sanctions on Syrian regime

LUXEMBOURG, The European Union on Monday banned the sale of luxury goods and products to Syria that can have military as well as civilian uses as the U.N. political chief demanded that the Syrian government stop using heavy weapons and comply with a cease-fire.

B. Lynn Pascoe told the U.N. Security Council in New York that the cease-fire, which went into effect on April 12, remains "incomplete" and "human rights violations are still perpetrated with impunity." He said Syria has also failed to fully implement international envoy Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan, saying the government's compliance with requirements to release detainees and allow peaceful demonstrations "are clearly insufficient."

The EU ban on luxury items appears to take direct aim at some of Syrian President Bashar Assad's most loyal supporters: the business community and prosperous merchant classes that are key to propping up the regime. An influential bloc, the business leaders have long traded political freedoms for economic privileges in Syria.

So far, the wealthy classes have stuck to the sidelines, but if the economic squeeze reaches them, it could be a game changer, analysts say.

Assad, who inherited power in 2000, spent years shifting the country away from the socialism espoused by his father. In the process, he helped boost a new and vibrant merchant class that transformed Syria's economic landscape even as the regime's political trappings remained unchanged.

Emails purportedly from Assad and his wife Asma, published in February by London's Guardian newspaper, indicated that the Syrian first lady has a taste for the finer things in life. The emails, whose authenticity has been questioned, revealed the first lady shopping online for crystal-encrusted Christian Louboutin stilettos, expensive jewelry, custom-made furniture and other luxury goods as violence swept the country.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said the EU's 27 foreign ministers approved the new set of sanctions — the 14th in the past year — "because of deep concern about the situation and continuing violence in spite of the cease-fire."

"We expect the government to withdraw all troops and heavy weapons from towns and cities (and) we want to make sure that the regime gives full access to humanitarian organizations."

The U.N. estimates that more than 9,000 people have been killed since an uprising against the government of Assad began 13 months ago.

Pascoe, the U.N. undersecretary-general for political affairs, told the Security Council "we are at a pivotal moment in Syria."

He said the U.N. hopes the deployment of 300 unarmed U.N. military observers, which the Security Council authorized on Saturday, "will help to stop the killing and consolidate the calm" with the aim of creating the conditions "for a serious and credible political process."

To create these conditions, Pascoe said, "it is essential that the government of Syria fully and immediately implement its obligations to stop using heavy weapons and to pull back military forces from population centers."

He said it is also essential that Syria implement other aspects of the Annan plan, noting "little progress" on its requirement to allow unimpeded access for aid workers to an estimated 1 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

He said Annan, the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy, will brief the Security Council on Tuesday.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters late Monday that it is "absolutely important" that Syria protect the monitors and ensure their freedom of access and freedom of movement. There must be "no such obstacles," he stressed.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, again urged the Syrian government "to seize this chance for a peaceful political solution to the crisis — before it's too late."

The U.S. welcomes "the positive statements from various Syrian opposition figures and groups" about the expanded U.N. observer mission, she said, "but we are all sober in our expectations."

"The Syrian regime should make no mistake: we will be watching its actions day and night," Rice said. "We will work to ensure there will be consequences should the Syrian regime continue to ignore this Council's decisions, press ahead with its murderous rampage, and flout the will of the international community."

Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari strongly criticized Qatar, saying its leader didn't believe that the Annan mission would succeed. Ja'afari accused Qatar and Saudi Arabia of financing "terrorist groups," which the Syrian government blame for the violence.

Previous rounds of U.S. and EU sanctions have done little to stop the bloodshed, although there are signs the Syrian economy is suffering. International measures against Assad's regime have depleted its foreign currency reserves by half, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said last week.

EU experts will work out later precisely which goods will be included in the new embargo. One of the diplomats said so-called "dual-use" goods can include anything from vehicles to fertilizers and other chemicals.