Damascus Rejects Kerry Proposal If Cease-Fire Fails

DAMASCUS – The Syrian government criticized on Wednesday U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for his statements that “contradict the truth” about a hypothetical partition of Syria if the cease-fire scheduled for Saturday fails.

In a statement published by the Syrian Arab News Agency, or SANA, a Syrian Foreign Ministry official said that “Syria condemns these statements which contradict the truth and serve to hide his country’s responsibility for what Syria is exposed to from the crimes perpetrated by the terrorist groups.”

On Tuesday, Kerry told the U.S. Senate that Washington would move to plan B, which would involve the division of Syria, if the truce between the United States and Russia in the Syrian territory did not materialize or if a transition to an interim government did not occur in the coming months.

For the Syrian Foreign Ministry “the United States, with its regional allies and tools, shoulders the responsibility of starting and continuing the crisis in Syria through its continuous support of terrorism, SANA reported.

The statement stressed that the Syrian people “are more determined to defeat terrorism, preserve Syria’s territorial integrity, national sovereignty and its national independent decision.”

Khamenei Claims Enemies Create “False Bipolarity to Create Discord” in Iran

TEHRAN – Iran’s Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that the enemies of his country are attempting to create a “false bipolarity to create discord” among the Iranian people.

Speaking to thousands of people in the Iranian city of Najafabad, the supreme leader said the plotters of “false bipolarity” are trying to show that there are pro-parliament and anti-parliament Iranians.

“The Iranian nation wants a parliament which is religious, committed, brave, not gullible, resistant against the arrogant powers’ excessive demands and greed,” he explained according to FARS news agency.

He pointed out that Iranian people need a parliament that will be a “defender of the national honor and independence, a real lover of the country’s progress” and is not “intimidated” by the United States.

Khamenei called on all people to go to the polling stations on Friday to elect the representatives of parliament and Assembly of Experts, in which about 55 million will vote.

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Saudi Arabia: 32 accused of spying for Iranian regime stand trial

A group of 32 people including an Iranian national who have been accused of spying for the Iranian regime’s Intelligence appeared before the Special Criminal Court in Riyadh on Sunday.

The court presented a list of accusations prepared by the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution (BIP) against the members of the cell that also includes Saudis and an Afghan national.

The spy ring divulged defense secrets and strove to carry out acts of sabotage in the kingdom, according to the Saudi Interior Ministry.

“They were accused of high treason against their country and the King by breaching their loyalty to the nation and setting up links with Iranian Intelligence and providing them with highly confidential information,” Saudi Gazette reported.

“The ring recruited people in government departments and trained them to send coded information to Iranian Intelligence.”

“Some of them also met Ali Khamenei,” the Iranian regime’s supreme leader, the report said.

IRAN: Death sentence of young Kurdish man becomes definite

The Iranian judiciary has finalized the death sentence that had been handed dwon to a young Kurdish man who was under the age of 18 at the time of attributed crime.

The country’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence issued for a young man by the name of Heyman Uraminezhad.

This young man is currently held in Sanandaj Central Prison waiting for his sentence to be carried out.

Heyman is currently 21 years old and was convicted on premeditated murder by the Sanandaj Prime Court.

Iran under the rule of the clerical regime is one of the leading executioners of juvenile offenders, Amnesty International said Monday.

In a new report, Amnesty International said last month that it had documented the execution of at least 73 juveniles in Iran from 2005 to 2015 and that 160 juvenile offenders are languishing on the country’s death row.

According to the Amnesty International, the report was based on information received from death-penalty opponents and human rights defenders in Iran, as well as from lawyers and relatives of juveniles convicted of capital crimes in Iran.

Now that Iran is emerging from an era of international sanctions and is seeking broader acceptance, Ms. Auerbach said, rights groups are hoping that the Iranian authorities “realize they have to act in accordance with international human rights standards.”

There have been over 2,300 executions in Iran since Hassan Rouhani has been in office, more than in any similar period in the past 25 years.

The victims include political dissidents like Gholamreza Khosravi, an activist of Iran’s principal opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI or MEK) who was hanged solely for providing financial assistance to a satellite television station supporting the opposition.

On April 20, 2014 Rouhani described these executions as “God’s commandments” and “laws of the parliament that belongs to the people.”

Panama Has Seized 6.4 Tons of Illicit Drugs So Far in 2016

PANAMA CITY – Panamanian authorities have seized 6.4 tons of drugs and arrested 72 alleged drug traffickers so far this year, the Public Safety Ministry reported Sunday.

The suspects belong to four bands using shell companies in small towns around Panama City, namely Juan Diaz, Parque Lefevre, Betania and Rio Abajo, “where they warehoused large shipments of drugs, to send them later to Central America, the United States and the Caribbean,” the ministry said in a statement.

The arrests and seizures were made in 30 anti-drug operations in the provinces of Panama Oeste, Colon, Veraguas and Chiriqui.

The National Police seized 3,368 kilograms of drugs and more than a million dollars in cash, and the Senan air-sea service seized 2,750 kg of narcotics and other drugs.

Meanwhile, the National Border Service seized 253 kg of cocaine and 39 packages of marijuana.

Of the total seizures, 4.5 tons consisted of cocaine and at least 1.3 tons consisted of pot.

Official figures reveal that 2015 was the biggest year in the past decade for drug seizures in Panama, with at least 58.1 tons confiscated, according to the latest government tally.