Free Republic

TEHRAN : Iran and Egypt have decided to restore full diplomatic relations and are expected do so within days, a top Iranian official declared after Tehran ’s city council removed a key sticking point between the two old antagonists. "The decision to restore relations has been taken," Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi told the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television. "And in the coming days, inshallah (God willing), we will see the resumption of our relations." Full diplomatic ties between Iran and Egypt were severed nearly a quarter of a century ago after Cairo signed a peace deal with Israel and gave asylum to...

<p>ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said history had been made with a deal to resume talks with India, and termed it a good beginning in a bid to resolve their dispute over Kashmir.</p> <p>"History has been made," Musharraf told a news conference Tuesday. "This is a beginning. This statement is not an end in itself, obviously, but a good beginning has been made."</p>

North Korea says its would refrain from testing and producing nuclear weapons and freeze its nuclear facilities in a "bold" concession to the United States. North Korea "is set to refrain from test and production of nuclear weapons and stop even operating nuclear power industry for a peaceful purpose as first-phase measures of the package solution. This cannot but be one more bold concession," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said. Amid efforts to convene a new round of six-nation talks to end the nuclear crisis, North Korea said it expected concessions from Washington. In return for the proposed freeze,...

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara, whose country faces possible U.S. diplomatic and trade sanctions, told Washington's new envoy Monday that Damascus wanted better ties and a positive dialogue. Shara "emphasized the importance of the establishment of a positive and constructive dialogue between the two countries to create a better understanding for their respective stances," the official news agency (SANA) reported. Shara, speaking to Margaret Scobey after she had presented her credentials, "welcomed Ambassador Scobey, wishing her... success in improving ties between Syria and the United States," SANA said. Traditionally tense ties between Syria and the United States...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Ordinary Iranians are cheering a warming of diplomatic ties between Tehran and the United States brought on by the Bam quake, and hope an end is in sight to a quarter century of isolation from a country many openly admire. Even though conservative Tehran newspapers may rail at "earthquake diplomacy" by George W. Bush, many average Iranians on the capital's streets Sunday said they welcomed the American president's overtures that may rebuild severed ties. "I was overjoyed when I first heard America planes were going to fly in to help Bam," said Hassan Tayebi, 51, a retired...

Iranian officials have hinted that US aid to earthquake victims may have eased decades of mistrust between the two arch-foes. During a memorial service at Bam's Friday Mosque the country's former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said recent developments could have an impact on long-hostile relations between Washington and Tehran. "I'm not sure but the signs indicate that," the official IRNA news agency reported him as saying on Thursday. President Muhammad Khatami's brother went further, implying the US response to the earthquake might win an unspecified reciprocal gesture from Iran. Khatami says US-Iran relations will not be altered by the aid...

PARIS (AFP) - France has invited Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of D-Day in an unprecedented gesture to France's old enemy and present-day close partner, it was announced in Paris. It was the first time a German leader had been invited to attend D-Day celebrations. No invitation was extended to former chancellor Helmut Kohl for the 50th anniversary 10 years ago, an omission that caused upset in Germany. A government spokesman in Berlin confirmed Schroeder had accepted the invitation just before Christmas from French President Jacques Chirac to attend the commemoration of the 1944 Allied...

CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it was willing to consider opening a dialogue with Iran, marking a possible shift in policy toward a country President Bush has branded part of an "axis of evil." A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the possibility of engaging Iran is something Bush has "on his plate" to consider, though he emphasized the administration would like to see Tehran first make some gesture toward the United States. Washington severed formal ties with Iran in 1979 following the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Secretary...

Secretary of State Colin Powell says he sees the beginnings of a new attitude in Iran that could lead to a restoration of more friendly relations between the United States and the Islamic republic that President Bush has called part of as "axis of evil." "There are things happening, and therefore we should keep open the possibility of dialogue at an appropriate point in the future," Powell told The Washington Post on Monday for a story in Tuesday editions. Iranian leaders have agreed to permit unannounced inspections of the country's nuclear energy program, made overtures to moderate Arab governments and...

JERUSALEM - For two countries that rarely speak to one another at senior levels, it was a rare display of warmth. "President Mubarak has sent me here on a mission of peace," declared Ahmed Maher, the Egyptian foreign minister. Standing by his side, his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom said, "Your visit is an opening for a warming of relations." Although Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, ties have traditionally been cool and they worsened three years ago after the eruption of the Palestinian uprising. Cairo had withdrawn its ambassador to protest Israel's hard-hitting...

Sudan's peace talks have taken a major step forward with an agreement between the government and the main rebel group to share oil resources. The deal, reached in Kenya, paves the way for a comprehensive peace accord. At the moment, the government controls all the country's oil revenues, but the SPLA rebels have demanded a share. A final peace settlement is expected to be reached soon to end 20 years of civil war in Sudan that have left about two million people dead. Fighting over percentages Vice President Ali Osman Taha and Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang...

<p>Brockton youth hockey players Johnny Riley, 12, left, and Brendan Green, 12, listen to a presentation regarding another trip to Canada for the team this spring. (J. Kiely Jr./The Enterprise) By Elaine Allegrini, Enterprise staff writer BROCKTON — The youth hockey team taunted in Montreal earlier this year is headed back to Canada after coaches of a New Brunswick team delivered a personal invitation Wednesday.</p>

Schroeder says Germany ready to help on Iraq Tue December 16, 2003 11:30 AM ET BERLIN, Dec 16 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Tuesday Germany was ready to make a "substantial contribution" to rebuilding Iraq ahead of talks on Iraq's debt with U.S. special envoy James Baker. "We will talk about what we should do with Iraq's debt," Schroeder told reporters before going into a meeting with Baker. "Germany is ready to make a substantial contribution to help rebuilding a democratic and stable Iraq. That will be the subject of our talks today and I think that...

A photograph of Tony Blair's son Leo - presented by the Prime Minister to French President Jacques Chirac - seemed a coded message passed between the two world leaders at a summit yesterday. Last year Mr Chirac squared up to Mr Blair in a bitter war of words over the invasion of Iraq. The President taunted the Sedgefield MP about how he could look Leo in the face if the premier was responsible for starting a war, a spat which led to the postponement of the equivalent Anglo-French summit last year. Yesterday's gift might be read as an attempt to...

BERLIN, Nov 23 Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sent signals of a new German willingness to support the United States in Iraq on Sunday with calls for debt relief and close cooperation in what he reckons will be a long war on terror. Fresh from a trip to New York, Schroeder said Germany wanted reconstruction and democracy in Iraq to succeed and pledged to help more, pointedly recalling US aid to West Germany after World War Two paved the way for its "Economic Miracle". Even though Germany's loud opposition to the Iraq war and warnings it would cause turmoil in the region...

BEIRUT: For years, the idea of an Islamic alliance between Sunni and Shiite extremists has been a nightmare scenario for Western intelligence agencies, their allies in the Muslim world and Israel. Ever since the 1980s, there have been indications that hard-liners from both sects have been setting aside the theological differences that have kept them apart from 14 centuries and possibly even cooperating now and then on particular operations in which the interests of all concerned are advanced. In the 1980s and 90s, Shiite Iran’s intelligence services and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) hosted many meetings in Tehran with...

Canadians want closer ties to U.S. Poll shows desire for stronger links has increased since war in Iraq began Elizabeth Thompson and Scott Stinson CanWest News Service and National Post Wednesday, October 29, 2003 Support among Canadians for closer ties to the United States is at its highest point in three years, a trend experts say reflects growing anxiety about a rift between the countries that has grown to include military, political and trade disputes. A public opinion poll conducted by the Environics and CROP polling houses for the Centre for Research and Information on Canada found 44% of Canadians...

<p>While Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger was drawing the media throngs in the Capitol today, his transition director, Rep. David Dreier, slipped away for a private meeting with Sen. Tom McClintock. The session, which lasted about 30 minutes in McClintock's third-floor Capitol office, was the first serious outreach from the Schwarzenegger operation to the man many Republican insiders at one time thought might cost Arnold the election. I asked Dreier if the Schwarzenegger team planned to work with McClintock, and he suggested that his presence at the senator's office was an indication that they would. McClintock told me afterword that the meeting was "cordial" and said he stands ready to help Schwarzenegger on the goal they share: reining in state spending and cutting taxes. Typical in a situation like this would be for Schwarzenegger to freeze McClintock out, to marginalize him and try to make an example of a guy who was not a "team player." While I doubt the relations between the two will ever be warm, perhaps today's meeting was a sign that Schwarzenegger understands that one of the best ways to neutralize your enemies is to bring them into your fold.</p>

Nairobi, Kenya (CNSNews.com) - Anti-slavery activists are hopeful that the finalization of a Sudanese peace deal will bring an end to the atrocity of modern-day slavery that has taken place in the war-torn country. Peace talks between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) have entered what may be their final stage in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. "This marks a significant opportunity to end slavery in Sudan," said Beth Herzfeld of the London-based anti slavery group, Anti-Slavery International. ASI estimates that 14,000 people, mainly women and children, have been abducted and forced into slavery since 1986....

BANGKOK - Hoping tensions over the Iraq war have eased, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday her country was rebuilding US support to revive free trade talks abruptly cancelled by Washington in May. 'I think everybody has moved on from Iraq,' she said on the same day that US President George W. Bush rewarded close ally Thailand with the launch of talks towards a free trade deal. New Zealand's hopes of similar negotiations with its second-largest trading partner were dashed in May when the United States said such talks would raise too many objections from US farmers. New...