Free Republic

Annan: Sanctions will not solve Iran nuclear issue By News Agencies and Haaretz Service United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan met on Saturday with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Tehran. Annan is expected to press Iran to help shore up the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, but diplomats say the talks will also cover Iran's nuclear standoff with the West. Annan said in a newspaper interview before arriving that he hoped for a diplomatic solution that would "avoid another conflict in a region already subjected to a great stress at this moment." Asked about indications that the United States...

SECURITY sources believe that a man arrested in last week’s anti- terror raids in Britain is Al-Qaeda’s leader in this country. Home Office officials say that one of those arrested is suspected not only of masterminding the foiled plot to bring down up to nine transatlantic airliners, but also of involvement in other planned atrocities over the past few years. They believe that he was instrumental in sending the ringleader of at least one previous British terror plot for training at a camp in Pakistan last year. He is described by counter-terrorist officials at MI5 as the senior figure in...

UNITED NATIONS - The United States and France reached agreement Saturday on a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at ending the fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said. Bolton refused to comment on the text, but an official with knowledge of the document said the draft calls for a “full cessation of violence” between Israel and Hezbollah, but would allow Israel the right to launch strikes if Hezbollah attacks it.