The State Department says U.S. officials are very actively involved in getting Egypt to stop preventing several U.S. citizens from leaving the country. As many as five Americans, including Sam LaHood – son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, have been stopped from boarding planes for home by Egyptian authorities.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his government does not oppose negotiating with Western powers about its nuclear program but also wants them to change what he calls their “foul” behavior toward Iran.
Yemen's President remains in Oman, making his departure for the US uncertain. An official at the Yemeni embassy in Washington told VOA Thursday he has no information on when Saleh might arrive. Mohammed Albasha also denied an article in The Wall Street Journal saying the president's family is searching for a plane to fly him to New York.
Arab League officials announced Thursday that they will present a palm for resolving Syria's months-long unrest to the U.N. Security Council on Monday. Meanwhile, Syrian opposition forces say government troops stormed the Damascus suburb of Douma in an attempt to crush rebel forces.
Details after the break.
The State Department says U.S. officials are very actively involved in getting Egypt to stop preventing several U.S. citizens from leaving the country.
As many as five Americans, including Sam LaHood – son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, have been stopped from boarding planes for home by Egyptian authorities.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday the Americans belong to international and non-governmental organizations that are working to support Egyptian elections. The voting is aimed at replacing the interim military government with civilian rule.
Nuland says Egyptian judges have questioned the Americans as authorities investigate the NGOs, accusing them of supporting unrest.
She says democratic elections are a new thing for Egyptian bureaucrats and the judicial system, and that officials are slow to adjust. She also says the NGOs support the process and not any individual candidate.
Nuland says U.S. officials urge the Egyptian government to lift the travel restrictions immediately and let the Americans come home as soon as possible.
Iran
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his government does not oppose negotiating with Western powers about its nuclear program but also wants them to change what he calls their “foul” behavior toward Iran.
Speaking Thursday on a visit to the southern province of Kerman, Mr. Ahmadinejad accused the West of creating obstacles to negotiations. Iran and six world powers held their last round of nuclear talks one year ago and have been unable to agree on terms to renew them.
The European Union approved a phased ban on Iranian oil imports this week as part of a Western campaign to pressure Iran into stopping sensitive nuclear activities. The EU and the United States accuse Iran of trying to develop a nuclear weapon capability under cover of a civilian energy program, a charge Tehran denies.
In his latest remarks, Mr. Ahmadinejad downplayed the impact of EU sanctions on his government, saying they will hurt the EU rather than Iran.
The United States did not directly respond to the Iranian president's remarks, saying instead that Tehran should formally reply to a letter offering talks on specific nuclear issues sent by the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said Ashton's letter provided the sole criteria for a resumption of dialogue.
The Reuters news agency says a respected U.S. research institute believes Iran is unlikely to rush into building a nuclear weapon because of a limited Iranian capacity to produce weapons-grade uranium.
In a draft report obtained by Reuters late Wednesday, the Institute for Science and International Security says it expects no Iranian decision on such a step until Iran develops an ability to make weapons-grade uranium “quickly and secretly.”
Reuters says the ISIS study was financed by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Peace, a non-partisan center funded by the U.S. government.
China's Foreign Ministry is criticizing the EU for banning Iranian oil imports. In a statement Thursday, Beijing said the move is not a “constructive” response to the nuclear dispute. Beijing is a key ally of Tehran and a top consumer of Iranian oil.
Iran has threatened to respond to Western sanctions by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping lane for oil supplies to energy-hungry China and other nations. The United States has warned it will not tolerate such a move.
Yemen
Outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh remains in the Persian Gulf sultanate of Oman and it is unclear when his planned trip to the United States for medical treatment will take place.
An official at the Yemeni embassy in Washington told VOA Thursday he has no information on when Saleh might arrive. Mohammed Albasha also denied an article in The Wall Street Journal saying the president's family is searching for a plane to fly him to New York.
The article said Saleh’s presidential plane, an aging Boeing 727, is prohibited from landing at U.S. airports. Albasha said President Saleh does have access to a plane that can fly him to the United States. He departed the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, Sunday on a jet for neighboring Oman, where he said he would stop for a brief period before traveling on to New York.
Media reports citing diplomats in Oman and aides to Saleh say he is trying to secure approval from the Omani ruler for permanent exile, but Albasha "strongly" denied the speculation.
A source close to the negotiations that led to Saleh's departure told the French news agency that if Saleh does eventually arrive in the U.S. he will stay until at least February 21, the day presidential elections are scheduled for Yemen. AFP quotes the source as saying Saleh will "not be admitted to a hospital but will see consultants in New York."
The U.S. has said Saleh's request to travel to the United States was approved for the sole purpose of medical treatment, and that his stay would be for a "limited time."
The embattled leader was severely wounded in a bomb attack on his presidential compound last June and spent several months recuperating in Saudi Arabia. He has spoken previously of a desire to seek further treatment in the United States.
In a televised farewell speech just hours before he left Yemen, the outgoing president asked his people to forgive him for any "shortcomings" made during his 33-year autocratic rule. He also vowed to return to the country and continue leading his ruling General People's Congress party.
Yemeni opposition activists have staged a year of mass protests demanding his immediate ouster, inspired by popular uprisings in other parts of the region. Thousands of Yemenis rallied in Sana'a Sunday, calling for Saleh to be put on trial for a violent crackdown in which hundreds of people have been killed.
The anti-Saleh protesters reject granting Saleh full immunity from prosecution. Yemen's parliament approved the immunity last week as part of a Gulf Cooperation Council-backed deal to encourage the president to leave office. Saleh signed the plan last November and agreed to transfer presidential powers to his deputy ahead of the February 21 elections to pick his successor.
Yemeni Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is the consensus candidate of Yemen's ruling party and parliamentary opposition for that election.
Reuters reported that at least 22 people were killed Thursday in clashes between Shi'ite Muslim rebels and fighters from a Sunni Islamist group in a province under rebel control in the country's rugged north.
A source close to the Houthi rebels told Reuters that Salafist fighters attacked them overnight in Hajja and in the Kataf area of Saada province, a location that has seen intense sectarian fighting in recent months.
Syria
Arab League officials announced Thursday that they will present a palm for resolving Syria's months-long unrest to the U.N. Security Council on Monday. Meanwhile, Syrian opposition forces say government troops stormed the Damascus suburb of Douma in an attempt to crush rebel forces.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby says he and Qatar's prime minister will jointly ask the U.N. Security Council to endorse a League plan which calls for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to transfer power to a deputy and form a national unity government to prepare for national elections. Syria has rejected the League plan.
Speaking in Cairo, Elaraby said he will depart for the U.N.'s New York headquarters on Saturday.
Violence continued Thursday in Syria.
Syrian government tanks and artillery pounded the Damascus suburb of Douma capturing it from rebel soldiers and arresting scores of people. Opposition websites also reported that government forces attacked other suburbs of the capital.
A widespread government offensive against opposition strongholds in the cities of Hama, Homs and Idlib began Wednesday, amid reports of heavy resistance. Videos on opposition websites showed pocked walls and storefronts in Hama from government shelling.
Hilal Khashan, who teaches political science at the American University of Beirut, says the Syrian government's latest military offensive is a sign of increasing desperation:
“The intensity of the uprising has kept increasing week after week. So I think the regime is desperate and the latest moves by the government to try to clamp on the opposition as soon as possible will backfire in my opinion. I assume that there will be more army defections as the result of the use of excessive firepower," Khashan said.
Joshua Landis, who teaches at the University of Oklahoma and edits the website “Syria Comment,” says that rebel soldiers calling themselves the “Free Syrian Army” are disorganized and unable to match the much stronger government forces:
“It's a bunch of little militias that have popped up in different towns and are taking no central orders. They call themselves the Free Syrian Army, but they're not coordinating their military efforts. If they were coordinating, they'd all rise up and fight the Syrian Army at once," Landis said.
The experts say the central government is progressively weakening as the opposition grows stronger.
All content based on VOA News reports.