Supreme leader leads Eid prayers, comments on Libya

TEHRAN: Iranians marked the end of the Ramadan holy month on Wednesday by taking part in Eid al-Fitr prayers.

In Tehran, thousands of worshippers and senior Iranian officials attended a service led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader.

Addressing the nation afterwards, Khamenei issued a warning to the people of Libya, saying “they should not forget that those who have come to the scene today and consider themselves owners of the uprising are those who used to sit and drink with those who once suppressed the Libyan nation.”

He claimed that these “owners of the new uprising” would “seek to take advantage of the situation.”He did not mention by name any particular person or group.

On Tuesday, Ali Akbar Salehi, the Iranian Foreign Minister congratulated the Libyan people for their victory in a telephone conversation with  Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the rebels’ National Transitional Council.

It was the first official contact between Iran and the rebels following the take-over of Tripoli. AGENCIES

Gaddafi still a threat, says Libya council chief

DOHA: Muammar Gaddafi, who has not been seen since rebels took over the Libyan capital of Tripoli a week ago, is still a threat to the country and the world, the chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Monday. 

Speaking at a meeting in Doha, Qatar, of defence ministers from countries supporting the insurgency against Gaddafi’s rule, NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil called on NATO to keep supporting the movement.

“I call for continued protection from NATO and its allies from this tyrant,” Abdel Jalil said.

The NTC, which is hunting Libya’s deposed leader and pushing to take over his hometown of Sirte east of Tripoli, said on Saturday it had no firm information on his whereabouts. It has offered a $1.3 million reward and amnesty from prosecution for anyone who kills or captures Gaddafi. AGENCIES

US transfers Libyan embassy to rebels

Washington has recognised the Council as Libya s de facto government.

“It is true,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters when asked whether the United States had handed the embassy over to the rebel NTC.

Nuland s deputy Mark Toner said the United States and NTC signed documents that transferred the embassy – which once represented Moamer Kadhafi s regime in Washington — to the rebels based in the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi.

At a meeting last month in Istanbul, the United States and other powers recognised the NTC as “the legitimate governing authority in Libya” until an interim government is formed.

Ali Aujali, who was accredited as Libya s ambassador, defected from the Kadhafi regime in February as violence erupted and affiliated himself with the National Transitional Council.

It was not immediately clear whether Aujali would head the new mission. Nor was it clear whether the embassy was now staffed with the NTC.

ICC bans govts to appoint board members

Cricket s governing body on Thursday banned governments from appointing members of national cricket boards, vowing to free the sport from undue government influence.

The International Cricket Council told a media conference in Hong Kong that it had made the decision to uphold “the important principle of free elections and the independence” of the sport.

2015 World Cup to have 14 teams – report

The 2015 cricket World Cup will be contested by 14 teams – 10 test playing nations and four associate teams, a cricket Website reported on Tuesday.

Adil Rashid replaced Yardy

The technical committee of International Cricket Council (ICC) has approved Adil Rashid as a replacement player for all-rounder Michael Yardy in England’s squad in the ongoing World Cup. Yardy on Thursday, turned back to home after admitting to his management that due to depression he can’t play more in tournament. English team will take on Sri Lanka on Saturday, in the big match of quarterfinal. Rashid, who is currently in the West Indies England’s second string team, is due to arrive in Colombo on the same day.

Yardy is the fourth player to be replaced in English squad after all-rounder Kevin Peterson, Fast bowler Staurt Broad, and pacer Ajmal Shahzad.

Any injury-based replacement in the Mega Event is subject to the final approval of the technical committee and once replaced, a player cannot return to the squad save as an approved subsequent replacement for another injured player.

23-year-old Adil Rashid, from Bradford, is a leg-break spinner with Yorkshire, has represented England in five one-day internationals claiming three wickets while he has also represented English team in five Twenty20 Internationals. He made his ODI debut on 27 August 2009, against Ireland. Rashid has played 73 first-class matches so far, and his first-class wickets are 241.

Rebels eye Gaddafi’s hometown

TRIPOLI: Opposition says it controls strategic town of Zawiyah; regime appoints new UN envoy; at least 60 dead in 2 days; rebels down fighter plane.

Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi waged a second offensive against the western town of Zawiyah on Saturday after rebels drove them out in a morning of fierce fighting; while to the east, opponents of the Libyan strongman pushed toward his hometown.

In a second day of fierce fighting for control of Zawiyah, 50 km. west of Tripoli, government forces retreated to the outskirts early in the day, but later mounted a counter-offensive.

Rebels said both attacks were repelled.

The city bore the signs of heavy fighting, with one building completely burned and smoldering rubble littering the center. Other buildings around the main square, the stronghold of rebel resistance, were riddled with holes from large-caliber weapons.

Rebels in eastern Libya said they were pushing further west after driving forces loyal to Gaddafi from the oil town of Ras Lanuf on Friday. Opposition fighters said they had taken the town of Bin Jawad some 525 km. east of Tripoli, and were moving on toward Sirte, Gaddafi’s heavily guarded hometown 160 km. away.

The fight over Sirte is likely to be fierce. The town is psychologically important. It is not only where Gaddafi was born but a place he has fashioned into a second capital designed in his own extravagant image.

“If Benghazi rebels can expand down into the Gulf of Sirte… they’ve got a very good shot at independence at the least – or maybe even overturning him at the most,” said Peter Zeihan, an analyst with the US-based Stratfor think tank.

The latest fighting suggested that front lines between government forces, including militia and mercenaries, and the rebels, who are fighting with everything from captured tanks to sticks and winning support from some police and soldiers along theway, were far from clear and could shift quickly.

Rebels seized Ras Lanuf on Friday and even managed to down a fighter aircraft in Gaddafi’s service. The BBC reported the plane had been shot down by a man in his 50s who was on his first day manning a mobile anti-aircraft gun, which only had one barrel working.

Reuters correspondent Mohammed Abbas wrote in a brief message from the scene: “I am at the wreckage of the aircraft in Ras Lanuf.” In a sign of the increasing reports of brutality of both sides of this conflict, he said the faces of the corpses appeared to have been ripped off.

The anti-Gaddafi National Libyan Council said on Saturday it had named a three-member crisis committee, which included a head of military affairs and one for foreign affairs.

Omar Hariri, one of the officers who took part in Gaddafi’s 1969 coup but was later jailed, was appointed head of the military.

Ali Essawi, a former ambassador to India who quit last month, was put in charge of foreign affairs. Mahmoud Jebril, who had been involved in a project among intellectuals to establish a democratic state, was named head of the crisis committee, which aims at streamlining decision-making.

Meanwhile, Libya has appointed former foreign minister Ali Abdussalam Treki as its UN envoy in New York, replacing an ambassador who had renounced the Gaddafi regime for inflicting violence on its own people, the UN said on Friday.

“The secretary-general has received correspondence from the Libyan authorities,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

“That correspondence names Dr. Treki as the person they wish to have as the permanent representative of their country.”

It is not clear whether Treki, one of Gaddafi’s most senior foreign policy advisers and a former president of the UN General Assembly, will ever take up the post as ambassador to the United Nations.

In theory, Gaddafi has the right to name his UN envoys.

“Libya is a recognized member of the United Nations,” Nesirky said. “When any country sends a letter naming the permanent representative, that person is the person who will be recognized as the permanent representative.”

Nesirky added, however, that Treki would need to present his credentials to Ban in New York to become the Libyan ambassador.

The United States has a treaty with the United Nations covering visa issuance, but Washington reserves the right to deny visas under certain circumstances.

It is unclear whether the US State Department would be prepared to give Treki a visa.

Economic pressure against Libya also continued to mount this weekend. Britain extended a freeze on assets to a further 20 members of Gaddafi’s entourage on Friday, and impounded around £100 million ($160m.) of Libyan currency.

Around £2 billion of assets belonging to Libyan interests are believed to have been frozen in Britain under sanctions against Gaddafi’s government after its violent crackdown on protests.

The asset freeze was imposed last week and initially applied only to Gaddafi and his immediate family. It now extends to 26 people.

“The financial net is closing in on Colonel Gaddafi,” Chancellor of the Exchequer trendpk.comrge Osborne told BBC television.

“We’re denying him access to banknotes, access to bank accounts, making sure he is held accountable for what is taking place in Libya and also denied the means to persecute his own people.” (Online)

Switzerland also banned transfers of money that could end up in the hands of his family and associates.

“Switzerland wants to prevent any financial support of Muammar Gaddafi and his circle,” the government said. It will also be forbidden to give people linked to Gaddafi direct or indirect access to money or economic resources, the government said.

On the ground in Zawiyah, the atmosphere was tense and the situation appeared fluid as rebels braced for more attacks.

A doctor in the city said at least 30 people, mostly civilians, had been killed during fighting there, bringing to at least 60 the death toll from two days of battles.

In the central square, four graves had been freshly dug.

The red, green and black flag of the rebellion flew from many buildings in the square, where rebels shouted anti-Gaddafi slogans atop tanks and armored personnel carriers captured from the army.

In the square, rebels showed a charred tank they had captured from government forces earlier in the day. It was hit by a rebel rocket-propelled grenade as Gaddafi forces tried to enter the square earlier, rebels said.

“The fighting has intensified and the tanks are shelling everything on their way. They have shelled houses,” resident Abu Akeel said by telephone, speaking of afternoon’s attack. “Now they are shelling a mosque where hundreds of people are hiding. We can’t rescue anyone because the shelling is so heavy.”

Outside the city, cars loaded with suitcases and boxes piled on their roofs could be seen driving westward toward Libya’s border with Tunisia as refugees continued to flee the violence.

Residents said it was difficult to say how many people had been killed in two days of fighting.

A government spokesman could not be reached for a comment.

“They took away many bodies of injured and killed civilians,” said a local civilian who was helping treat the wounded at a clinic. “I saw that. They were putting them in trucks.”

Residents said Gaddafi’s forces stormed into residential buildings and killed people inside their houses in order to secure sniper positions on rooftops.

“They slaughtered people,” another resident said. “But we tell Gaddafi that every time a martyr falls, there will be 10 to replace him.”

The noise of loudspeakers calling on rebels to keep on fighting could be heard through the telephone.

Rebels fighting Gaddafi’s four-decade rule in Zawiyah said they had captured two tanks and three armored personnel carriers from the army.

Inside a building that has served as the rebel central command in the town, the rebels presented six men they said were captured Gaddafi militia fighters.

Two of them were badly wounded, with one standing in a pool of his own blood, which was dripping from his thigh.

Appearing terrified, they waited silently as the rebels looked through their identification papers.

Anti-Gaddafi people form crisis committee

BENGHAZI: The National Libyan Council based in the rebel-held east named a three-member crisis committee on Saturday to cover military and foreign affairs in a bid to streamline decision-making.

The council has said it will act as the face of the rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi’s rule but says it is not an interim government. It also wants to shift its base from the eastern city of Benghazi to Tripoli, although the capital remains firmly under Gaddafi’s control.

The council repeated its call for foreign air strikes to help dislodge the man who has been in power for 41 years and has used warplanes and helicopters against rebel forces. Rebels accuse him of hiring African mercenaries for help.

Political science professor Fathi Baja, a Benghazi-based member of the rebel February 17th Coalition, said of the committee:

“This will encourage people because they have chosen some very strong names. Also, they reflect a balance as they are from different places and different tribes.”

The council named Omar Hariri, one of the officers who took part in Gaddafi’s 1969 coup but was later jailed, as head of the military. Ali Essawi, a former ambassador to India who quit last month, was put in charge of foreign affairs.

Mahmoud Jebril, who had been involved in a project called “Libyan Vision” with other intellectuals before the revolt to establish a democratic state, will head the crisis committee. The council said the group aimed to streamline decision making.

Other new members include dissident Ahmed Zoubeir who, under Gaddafi, spent longer than the 28 years South Africa’s Nelson Mandela was held in prison, as well as Selwa Adrilli, Fathi Terbil and Fathi Baja.

Other ministers are to be announced at later dates.

Speaking at a news conference, the head of the national council, ex-Justice Minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said the body did not want foreign troops on Libyan soil and had sufficient forces to liberate the country.

“There is a feeling on the street that if Gaddafi can employ foreigners to fight for him then why cannot we?,” he said.

“Our people have the numbers and the determination to liberate all of Libya, but we will ask for air strikes to help us do this in the shortest possible time.”

He also said the young, mostly civilian fighters in the rebel force would be replaced by a more professional fighting force. He did not say when. AGENCIES

US puts on alert its citizens in Palestine

JERUSALEM: The U.S. consulate in Jerusalem restricted personal travel for staff members in some areas of the West Bank on Saturday, a day after the Obama administration vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have condemned Israel.

At the same time, Palestinians demonstrated against the U.S. for vetoing the Arab-backed Security Council resolution. Its sponsors sought to condemn Israel for continuing to build Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank.

A U.S. consular official said the travel restrictions were a precaution to avoid attacks against staffers, and that there had been no violence so far. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of consular rules.

The U.S. consular ban prohibits staff from personal travel to the town of Jericho, the use of some West Bank roads and using a border crossing to Jordan frequented by Palestinians for the next three days.

Palestinians — with backing from much of the international community — say Jewish settlements prevent the emergence of a viable state by cutting up the West Bank, one of the chief territories they seek for their future country.

“Oh Obama, hateful one, settlements will not last,” chanted hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus.

In the nearby town of Tulkarem, a few hundred demonstrators marched to the nearby Israeli separation barrier and hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers in olive-green uniforms.

Soldiers grabbed one boy and tried to take him away, but were thwarted by a woman who ran toward them while clutching her handbag. She wrestled with the soldiers and took back the crying child.

More demonstrations are planned for Sunday, Palestinians said.

The militant Islamic group Hamas, which rules Gaza, also condemned the veto. One official described it as “immoral behavior.”

Israel thanked the U.S. for issuing the veto. In a statement, the prime minister’s office said the decision shows that peace “will come through direct negotiations and not through the decisions of international bodies.” AGENCIES

Tickets of WC semis, final on sale from Monday

MUMBAI: Cricket fans can finally get their chance to buy World Cup semi-finals and final tickets from Monday when they go on sale for the first time, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said.

“A certain amount of tickets will go on sale online with our official ticket agents Kyazoonga,” the ICC spokesman said.

Although the knockout stages do not begin until March 23, there is likely to be a scramble for the semi-final (March 29 and 30) and the final (April 2) tickets after favourites India began their 2011 campaign with a resounding 87-run win over co-hosts Bangladesh. AGENCIES

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