Russia -The US sanctions against Iran are no concern of Russia ( Russian Foreign Minister said )

SEVASTOPOL, August 19. /TASS/. The US sanctions against Iran are no concern of Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday, answering a question whether the possible sale of S-300 air defense systems to Iran by Russia fell within the scope of US sanctions laws.

"The US sanctions are no concern of ours. We only fulfill our international obligations, above all, with regard to sanctions, this is the decision of the UN Security Council. All other unilateral restrictions imposed bypassing the Security Council in violation of the general norms of the international law are of no interest to us. So, let our American colleagues study the issue, perhaps, it will useful for them to come to the conclusion that far from all corresponds to their vision of international law," Lavrov said.

On August 14, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that "the decision on possibly supplying S-300 to Iran has already been made by the Russian president, and technical issues of this matter are being discussed." "This is an exclusively bilateral issue. Participation of third countries is not envisaged and is not required," he stressed.

Russia’s Defense Ministry earlier said Moscow was ready to hand over to Tehran the modernized versions of S-300. Russia is currently working to upgrade the missile defense system in line with the Iranian side’s recommendations.

Gallery

12 photo

© ITAR -TASS/Dmitry Rogulin

Russian air defense systems in demand on global arms market

The ministry said these missile systems may be delivered to Iran under the Russian presidential decree "immediately."

Russian President Vladimir Putin lifted the ban on the S-300 supplies to Iran in April 2015 when six world powers confirmed significant progress after talks with Iran on the nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Under the 2007 contract, Moscow pledged to deliver to Tehran five battalions of S-300 medium-range air defense systems worth $800 million. Iran made an advance payment of $166.8 million. No supplies followed up to the middle of 2010.

In September 2010, Russia’s then-president Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on measures to implement the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1929 of June 2010 to prohibit the supplies of S-300 to Iran. The contract was annulled and the advance payment returned to Iran.

Bulletproof Vest Saves Colombian Presidential Candidate

BOGOTA – A mayoral candidate in the northern Colombian province of Sucre emerged uninjured from an assassination attempt thanks to the bulletproof vest he was wearing, his political party, the leftist Union Patriotica, said on Wednesday.

Hugo Sanchez, who is running for mayor of Palmitos, was shot twice in the chest but the bullets did not harm him due to the vest.

This is one of the measures that the National Protection Unit is providing to thousands of threatened candidates in Colombia ahead of the Oct. 25 provincial and municipal elections.

The UP said that Sanchez’s attackers “are the same people” who tried to wipe out the party in the late 1980s, when some 5,000 members of the Union Patriotica were exterminated by right-wing paramilitaries.

“The authorities know who finances them and who protects them. They know where they live,” UP chief Aida Avella said, adding that she saw no point in asking for an “exhaustive” investigation of the shooting, as such investigations “don’t exist in Colombia.”

“There are less than 700 armed men” in the vicinity of Sincelejo, capital of Sucre province, the UP said.

The Union Patriotica was founded in 1985 as the result of negotiations between the government of then-President Belisario Betancur and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrillas.

In its first elections, in 1986, the UP obtained more than 320,000 votes that allowed it to get into Congress and numerous municipal administrations, a situation that was the start of the persecution of the party and its members.

The UP disappeared in the early 1990s but returned to the Colombian political arena in mid-2013, when it regained its legal standing amid a peace process between the FARC and the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos

Death Toll in Mecca Rises to 100 from Crane Crashing onto Mosque

RIYADH – At least 107 people have died and 238 were injured when a crane crashed onto the Grand Mosque in the sacred Islamic site of Mecca, according to the latest figures announced by the Saudi emergency management agency.

The grave accident, caused by the strong winds and rainstorm lashing the area, occurred when Mecca was preparing for the imminent hajj pilgrimage.

Numerous bloody corpses were stretched out on the floor of the mosque that was crowded with the faithful, a usual occurrence above all on a Friday, the Muslim’s holy day.

Dozens of ambulances rushed to the scene to evacuate the injured, while aiding with the rescue work were emergency management teams and personnel of the Red Crescent and the Health Ministry, which declared a maximum alert in all Mecca’s hospitals.

The crane that caused the massacre when it fell, breaking through the roof and falling on the worshippers inside the Grand Mosque, was used in the work of restoring the place of worship and expanding its premises that has been underway for the last four years.

The hajj pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam, together with the profession of faith known as the shahada, the giving of alms, prayer, and fasting in the month of Ramadan.

Nine Bodies Found in Clandestine Grave in Mexico

VERACRUZ, Mexico – The bodies of nine people were found in a clandestine grave in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz as part of a missing-persons investigation, the state Attorney General’s Office said.

The grave was discovered by Mexican navy personnel at a property in the coastal town of Alvarado. Most of the bodies bore tattoos covering most their skin, the AG’s office said Friday.

After the find, numerous relatives of disappeared persons in Veracruz arrived at a coroner’s office and a regional prosecutor’s office in the municipality of Boca del Rio seeking permission to view the bodies and determine if they correspond to their loved ones.

Between 2006 and 2015, 3,089 missing-person complaints have been filed in Veracruz state, which has been hard hit by drug-gang violence in recent years.

Hungarian camera woman caught on video kicking and tripping migrants

Pink Taxi strikes back against sexual assaults in Egypt

Patrick Kennedy: Maryam Rajavi poses existential threat to Iran regime

NCRI – The Iranian Resistance, led by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, which supports democracy and human rights, poses an “existential threat” to the mullahs and their theocratic regime in Iran, former U.S. Democratic congressman Patrick Kennedy has said.

Mr. Kennedy made the remarks at an event in Washington last Saturday to mark the Golden Anniversary of Iran's main opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, or MEK).

Highlights from remarks by Hon. Patrick Kennedy, former Representative, U.S. Congress, in the Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC on Saturday, September 4, 2015:

Obviously today we celebrate a very important anniversary: The 50th anniversary of the MEK, and the purpose for its founding, which is to resist aggression and tyranny and torture and to return Iran to a democracy that honors human rights and respect for all of its citizens. The reasons for the founding of the MEK are as relevant today as they were when this movement got started by these three historic founders. We are literally at not only a historic anniversary but we’re living in a historic time when it comes to the freedom for Iran, and the freedom for all peoples around the world.

So let’s understand where we stand today. Iran under the mullahs is the largest sponsor of state sponsored terrorism, both at home with its own people, and around the world. It’s number one for the massacre of its own people. And in addition to that, it is the central banker and arms supplier for terrorism around the world. We understand in America what is at stake in the next few weeks as the United States develops and decides its own policy, once again, towards Iran.

But let me say the three main reasons for a sound U.S. policy are all intertwined with the story of the MEK andMadame Rajavi and the sacrifice of the 120,000 martyrs and the residents of Ashraf and now Liberty. For without the Iranian resistance, the world would never have learned about Iran’s secret and clandestine nuclear program. That’s why we ought to celebrate the MEK. All Americans, however they vote on this Iranian deal, ought to know they have the MEK to thank for us understanding and knowing what was going on in Iran. And for that reason it’s appropriate that we honor the 50th anniversary of the MEK. And without Maryam Rajavi and a place called Camp Ashraf and a place called Camp Liberty, the world and the people of Iran would not know that there is an alternative to the mullahs that run Iran. In fact, an alternative that supports democracy and human rights and is led by a woman, an existential threat to the mullahs and their theocracy. So thank God today for the modern MEK leadership, and the residents of Ashraf and Liberty because they have told us there is an alternative.

Without the residents of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty the world would not have known about those refugees that were being killed and denied the needed protection. The world would never have known that the United States broke its promise to protect the Iranian refugees in Camp Ashraf and in Camp Liberty. And the world would have never have known that the international community violated—violated—the fourth Geneva Convention to protect the unarmed, defenseless asylum seekers.

But this 50th anniversary is a historic time, and it’s the best opportunity to make good on the promises of the founders, the promises of freedom and democracy and human rights. For that is the alternative now. Freedom, democracy, human rights, or repression, torture, theocratic dictatorship and execution. That’s the choice for both the people of Iran, and for the people of the world. The mullahs say they now want to be a part of the community of nations, but we now the truth is that they are more unstable both in Iran and around the world than they’ve ever been before. That is why it’s our time, this 50th anniversary, to make good on the promises of the MEK. We have to be clear and unequivocal. And we must choose a side, we cannot have it both ways. And neither can the mullahs, they cannot say that we have to be peaceful but at the same time construct a nuclear program. They cannot be the number one executioner of their own people and support genocide in Syria and then say they want to be members of the international community.

So in conclusion, my father, Senator Edward Kennedy, stood with the future not only in writing letters for those imprisoned in the Shah’s prisons, but writing letters every time that he was ever asked by Amnesty International on behalf of the Iranian dissidents. He also stood with Nelson Mandela, who was part of the ANC, not the MEK, another “terrorist group” that just wanted the freedom of their own people. So I say we have to choose which side of history we’re going to be on on this historic anniversary. Are we going to be on the side of the future, which is what the founders of the MEK and Maryam Rajavi stand for, or are we going to part of the past? Are we going to be on the side of human rights or are we going to be on the side of dictatorships? Are we going to be on the side of democracy, or theocracy? I say the answer is clear today, the 50th anniversary of the MEK, to rededicate ourselves to the principles upon which it was founded.