Lula censures anti-Iran sanctions
Press TV – December 21, 2010
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has harshly criticized the decision to impose economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear energy program.
On Monday, Lula said that the sanctions could have been avoided if the United States had accepted a declaration issued in Tehran in May.
The foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey, and Brazil signed a declaration in Tehran on May 17, according to which Iran would ship 1200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey to be exchanged for 120 kilograms of 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel rods to power the Tehran research reactor, which produces radioisotopes for cancer treatment.
The nuclear declaration gives Iran a guarantee since the low-enriched uranium would be stored in Turkey and would be returned if Iran does not receive the 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel within one year.
Despite the fact that Iran agreed to conduct the fuel swap in a third country — a demand made by the West that Iran had previously rejected due to guarantee concerns — on June 9 the UN Security Council passed a resolution imposing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran following an intense US campaign claiming that Iran’s nuclear program could have potential military applications.
The Brazilian president also said he received a letter from US President Barack Obama in May, which set conditions for Iran to avoid sanctions. He added that those terms were met in the fuel swap declaration and emphasized that the anti-Iran sanctions are therefore unnecessary.
Iran has described the sanctions as illegal, saying that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it has the right to enrich uranium to produce fuel.
Lula also stated that the US cannot be the lone arbitrator of the Middle East, saying, “There will not be peace in the Middle East as long as the United States is the guardian of peace. It is necessary to involve other countries in negotiations (between Israel and the Palestinians),” DPA quoted him as saying.
Israeli Troops Invade Hospital Near Bethlehem
By Saed Bannoura – IMEMC News – December 19, 2010
The Bethlehem Arab Rehabilitation Hospital reported Sunday that a group of Israeli soldiers surrounded the hospital with armored vehicles and jeeps, then invaded the Emergency Room, pointing guns at patients.
The soldiers then roughly demanded of the ER staff that they produce admissions records for the past 48 hours, according to the Director of the Hospital, Edmund Shehadeh. They threatened to confiscate a computer containing medical records, but ended up leaving the hospital empty handed.
Invasions of hospitals are routine in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, despite the fact that hospitals are accorded special protection under the Fourth Geneva Convention, and are not supposed to be invaded by military force.
Israeli military forces routinely violate their obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention, particularly in the areas concerning protection of civilian populations, and attacks on schools and hospitals.
Some patients in Palestinian hospitals are civilian victims of Israeli military attacks, and the invasions of hospitals are especially traumatic to these patients, according to psychologists who work with Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.
Nablus: Israel gives villagers 24 hours to vacate
Palestine Information Center – 20/12/2010
NABLUS — Israeli authorities have given the people of the east Nablus village of Tana 24 hours to evacuate their homes before demolishing them, and threatened to confiscate their livestock when the deadline falls, sources in Nablus said.
Tana is home to more than 35 Palestinian families. They have decided to resist decisions to demolish their homes and eject them from them, calling on officials to stand by them in the face of the arbitrary ruling.
The village’s population has been residing there since the 1940’s. They had prior to that dwelled in caves in the rock village before they began building to house themselves and their livestock, their key source of livelihood.
The village sits seven kilometers away from Beit Fourik. Villagers have fallen victim to Jewish settlers from time to time.
Since developing the village, residents have been ordered to stop building and under threat of demolitions. The structures there have been taken down on several occasions, the last of which was about ten days ago, when 12 homes, a school, and several were wiped out. The Beit Fourik municipality leveled the entire village last month for allegedly being erected on the West Bank’s Area C, a region placed under Israeli security control after the Oslo Accords.
The village has a land area of about 250 acres and is located near the Jewish settlement of Mahura, which was founded in 1969. Israel has siezed more than 2,500 acres of the land surrounding Beit Fourik for the interest of settlers there.