Australia central bank subsidiary in Saddam link

Google – AFP, 30 Sep 2013

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein delivers a televised speech in 1998 -- the year

 a company owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia attempted to strike a

business deal with him (IRNA/IRNA/AFP)

Sydney — The Reserve Bank of Australia on Monday admitted staff from a subsidiary visited Iraq at the height of UN sanctions after it was accused of attempting to strike an illegal deal with Saddam Hussein.

A joint investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Fairfax Media said secret files showed officials from the central bank's scandal-hit Note Printing Australia (NPA) went to Iraq to discuss a contract to turn the country's paper currency into polymer notes.

During the 1998 trip, codenamed Delta Project, they met a middleman -- former dictator Hussein's brother-in-law and bodyguard Arshad Yassin, the reports said.

"Indications from Arshad Yassin's office are that Saddam Hussein's office has already allocated $US65 million for the total project," RBA officials said in one document, the media groups reported.

A man walks past the Reserve Bank of

 Australia on May 7, 2013 (AFP/File,

William West)

"He has confirmed that Saddam Hussein has seen the polymer notes samples and is keen to adopt our product."

Reserve officials working for NPA said the funds could potentially be accessed by funnelling them through a Jordanian bank "with the green light of SH (Saddam Hussein)," it was alleged.

The operation was called off six months later after Australian diplomats uncovered the secret dealings with the brutal regime, according to the ABC.

The RBA admitted officials made the trip, as calls mounted for a full inquiry.

"The visit in 1998 was, in the opinion of the bank, ill-advised," it said in a statement.

"No banknotes were ultimately supplied to Iraq. On the records available to the bank, the project went into abeyance after concerns were raised by DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) with the then-CEO of NPA."

David Chaikin, a legal expert at the University of Sydney who reviewed the confidential bank documents, said the negotiations were a violation of international law and alarm bells should have been sounded "to the highest levels of the bank".

"What was happening is not only in violation of law, but could potentially destroy and undermine the reputation of Note Printing Australia and its owner, the Reserve Bank," he told the broadcaster.

He added to Fairfax that the files contained a "very strong prima facie" case that officials involved in the trip had breached a UN sanction that banned Australians from promoting the sale or supply of goods to Iraq.

NPA has been plagued by allegations of corruption in recent years, with claims it and another RBA subsidiary Securency paid bribes to win plastic bank note contracts in Asia.

Executives from both companies have been charged over the alleged racket, which involved contracts in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Nepal, following an investigation by Fairfax in 2009.

The RBA has previously denied it attempted to hide information related to the Asian contracts, with bank chief Glenn Stevens telling an inquiry last year that he knew nothing about the scandal before it was exposed.

Whistleblower Brian Hood, a former NPA executive, told the ABC and Fairfax that Stevens' testimony "wasn't the truth" and the RBA knew of the allegations in 2007, claims the bank rejected Monday.

"The governor has always answered questions in parliamentary proceedings fully and truthfully," it said.

Australian Greens Party deputy leader Adam Bandt said the latest revelations were disturbing.

"Most Australians would be shocked to know their central bank was using their money to line up dirty deals with Saddam Hussein," he said.

"The stench surrounding the Reserve Bank gets worse and a full inquiry is needed to clear the air."

Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf in European debut

Google – AFP, Charles Onians (AFP), 29 Sep 2013

Gaza's Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf smiles during a meeting with fans

 and journalists before a concert in The Hague, on September 29, 2013 (AFP,

Charles Onians)

The Hague (AFP) - The Gazan winner of the Arab Idol talent competition, a rare symbol of Palestinian unity, is to give his first concert outside the Arab world in The Hague on Sunday.

Mohammed Assaf, 24, became a national hero when he won the pan-Arab contest in June after transfixing millions of television viewers with his soaring renditions of Arab love ballads and patriotic Palestinian songs.

“I am happy, this is an opportunity to be in front of a non-Arab audience, and that's a good thing," Assaf told AFP in an interview. "I’d like to reach out to the world.”

Organisers said they expected the 800 tickets for the young heartthrob's concert in The Hague's town hall on Sunday night, his first outside the Middle East and north Africa, to be sold out.

“Music is a unifying message," Assaf said.

Mohammed Assaf meets with fans and

 journalists before a concert in The Hague,

 on September 29, 2013. (AFP, Charles

Onians)

"Maybe there are different audiences, or the techniques are different in the Middle East and in Europe and America, but what I know is music is something that when people first hear, they love.”

Assaf arrived in The Netherlands from his new home in Dubai and had dinner with Arab ambassadors on Saturday evening, a spokesman for the Palestinian delegation in The Netherlands, Roel Raterink, told AFP.

Organisers said Palestinians from Germany and Belgium are also expected to travel to The Netherlands for the concert, which will also be attended by most Arab ambassadors.

Israel in August took the exceptional step of allowing Assaf to move from the Gaza Strip to the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a "humanitarian gesture".

Israel has maintained a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza since 2006 which was tightened further when the Islamist movement Hamas seized control there the following year.

Assaf said he was now living in Dubai "because of the conditions in my country".

"Because of the siege, it is easier for me to go to Dubai, it makes travel easier because I have concerts in some Arab countries and in Europe, and in America over the next months.”

No Israeli diplomats will be attending. Israeli President Shimon Peres is on a visit to Amsterdam at the same time, the Israeli embassy said.

One-time wedding crooner Assaf was also to meet members of The Netherlands' Palestinian community before heading to Italy for another European concert, Raterink said.

Born to Palestinian parents in Misrata, Libya, Assaf grew up in the teeming Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza before winning the 2013 edition of Arab Idol in Beirut in June.

His victory sparked scenes of jubilation across the Palestinian territories.

The week after he won, Assaf performed in front of some 40,000 fans in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The contest in Beirut transfixed the viewing public with Assaf's story which saw him sneaking out of Gaza, nearly missing his initial audition in Cairo, and then only making it through after a fellow Gazan pulled out.

Palestinians remain divided between the Islamist Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip and its Fatah rival which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

On his return to Gaza in June, Assaf called for an end to the "division" with the West Bank, and urged unity between Palestinians.

While this is his first performance in Europe as Arab Idol winner, he says he went to summer camp in France in 2003 and performed in Marseille in 2006.

“We took first prize for a cultural song. I was singing and there were guys dancing the debke, an Arab dance," he said.

Related Article:

Arab Idol favourite Mohammed Assaf carries hopes of Palestinians into final

Women's rights supporters condemn Saudi Arabia as activists ordered to jail

Supporters condemn length of sentences as bid by authorities to silence criticism

The Guardian, The Observer, Tracy McVeigh, Sunday 29 September 2013

A Saudi Arabian woman drives a car as part of a campaign to defy the
ban on women driving. Photograph: AP

Two prominent female rights activists who went to the aid of a woman they believed to be in distress are expected to go to jail in Saudi Arabia on Sunday after the failure of their appeal against a 10-month prison sentence and a two-year travel ban.

Wajeha al-Huwaider, a writer who has repeatedly defied Saudi laws by driving a car, and Fawzia al-Oyouni were arrested for taking a food parcel to the house of someone they thought was in an abusive relationship. In June they were found guilty on a sharia law charge of takhbib – incitement of a wife to defy the authority of her husband, thus undermining the marriage.

Campaigners say they are "heroes" who have been given heavy sentences to punish them for speaking out against Saudi restrictions on women's rights, which include limited access to education and child marriage as well as not being able to drive or even travel in a car without a male relative being present.

In 2007 a Saudi appeal court doubled a sentence of 90 lashes to be given to a teenager because she had been in a car with a male friend when they were abducted and gang-raped by seven men.

Suad Abu-Dayyeh, an activist for the group Equality Now, said the authorities had been trying to silence the two women for years and their sentence "is unfortunate and scandalous". It marked a dangerous escalation of how far Saudi authorities were willing to go.

"These women are extremely brave and active in fighting for women's rights in Saudi Arabia, and this is a way for the Saudi authorities to silence them," she said. "If they are sent to jail, it sends a very clear message to defenders of human rights that they should be silent and stop their activities – not just in Saudi Arabia, but across Arab countries. These women are innocent – they should be praised for trying to help a woman in need, not imprisoned. They now find themselves at the mercy of the system they have fought so tirelessly to change."

According to reports, this is also the first time in Saudi legal history that a travel ban has been imposed in a case involving domestic issues.

"This case and the system of lifelong male guardianship of women in Saudi Arabia shows that protecting a husband's dominant, even abusive, position in the family is far more important than his wife's wellbeing," said Suad Abu-Dayyeh.

The women themselves believe they may have been set up, that they were contacted by text message by a woman claiming to be the mother of Natalie Morin, a Canadian national married to a Saudi who has herself been campaigning for several years to be allowed to leave the country with her three young children – something she says the authorities will not allow her to do.

The text, in June 2011, said she had been abused by her husband, an unemployed former Saudi intelligence officer, who had then left for a wedding and left her and her children locked in their apartment in the eastern city of Dammam for a week and that they were running out of food and water. When the two women arrived in Morin's street they were immediately arrested.

"Actually when we went to there, the minute we arrived a police car arrived," said Wajeha al-Huwaider. "I'm sure the judge knows that it was a trap and they meant to catch us at that time in order to make a case against us."

At first they were charged with trying to aid Morin escape to the Canadian embassy in Riyadh, but the intervention of a local member of the Saudi royal family led to those charges being dropped, because, said Huwaider, even he was embarrassed at the obvious nature of the set-up.

Morin was also arrested and held for several hours. It was not until a year later that the two women were told they were to face the new charge of takhbib, a law that effectively puts all aid workers and activists helping Saudi women in need of protection from domestic violence, at risk.

Morin was not permitted to testify at their trial earlier this year that she had never met Huwaider and Oyouni. She has declared support for them on her blog writing: "I am sorry for what's happening to madam Wajeha al-Huwaider and her friend." She said the "two Saudi women find themselves in a serious legal problem with jail just for trying to help me … there is no evidence for the charges that are against her and her friend."

Huwaider and Oyouni's conviction has been condemned by numerous human rights organisations, including the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Equality Now and Pen International.

Related Articles:

Saudi Arabian Women Urged To Protest Against Driving Ban By Getting Behind The Wheel On October 26

Women in 15 nations need spouse's okay to work

With a smile, Iran president makes history in a week

Google – AFP, 28 Sep 2013

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani waves to supporters as his motorcade draws

 out of Tehran's Mehrabad Airport upon his arrival from New York, on September 28,

 2013 (AFP, Arra Kenare)

New York — With a blitz of composed speeches and a media campaign showcasing his every move, Iran's new president succeeded phenomenally in one week in changing the dynamics for a country that had sunk into near pariah status.

The self-styled moderate, tasked with easing concerns over Iran's nuclear program, made history by speaking to US President Barack Obama in the first contact between the countries' leaders since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iranian newspapers with pictures of

 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, US

 President Barack Obama, Iranian Foreign

 Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his

 American counterpart John Kerry on a

 newsstand in Tehran on September 28, 

2013 (AFP, Behrouz Mehri)

Hassan Rouhani stole the show at the annual UN General Assembly summit, addressing nearly a dozen packed audiences or interviews in which he calmly, and with a smile, explained how he wanted better relations with the West.

A Twitter account in English tracked Rouhani's movements from a shot of him serenely sitting in a car Monday on his way in from the airport, to a shot of the white-turbaned cleric grinning broadly Friday as he boarded his plane home.

The shift could not be more stark from his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was also fond of appearances overseas but was greeted with walkouts, protesters and diplomatic rebukes for his bombastic defense of Iran's nuclear program and his denial of the Holocaust.

Rouhani, who understands English but almost exclusively spoke Farsi in public, condemned the Holocaust in the face of repeated questions, while also diligently criticizing Israel.

Critics, notably Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accused Rouhani of offering little different from Ahmadinejad other than a more elegant delivery, and charge that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

But most foreign leaders who met Rouhani said they were impressed, or at least hopeful, that he can find a peaceful resolution to a row that until recently had prompted talk of a US or Israeli attack.

"My frank impression of President Rouhani was that he is willing to fully cooperate with the international community," said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, which historically has had cordial relations with Iran.

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani (C) and

 Eshaq Jahangiri, the First Vice President (L)

 arrive at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport, on

 September 28, 2013 (AFP, Atta Kenare)

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who accompanied President Francois Hollande in a meeting with Rouhani, praised the "week of the thaw."

"There is a very, very sharp change in attitude from the Iranians. That's something positive. Now we need to see how to translate that into facts," Fabius said.

In a telephone call that would have been unthinkable weeks ago, Rouhani spoke for 15 minutes by telephone with Obama, who signed off by telling him goodbye -- "khodahafez" -- in Farsi.

Obama reached out to Iran after entering the White House in 2009, but said he was disappointed by the lack of reciprocation.

After appeals from Israel and US lawmakers, the Obama administration spearheaded tough sanctions on Iran's oil and banking sectors. The measures have wreaked havoc on Iran's economy, and the Tehran leadership eagerly want them lifted.

Alireza Nader, senior international policy analyst at the Rand Corp., said that Rouhani, who studied in Scotland, and his US-educated Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif knew how to relate to the West.

"He gets it. He gets what the US is concerned about and he knows how to put on the charm," Nader said of Rouhani.

US President Barack Obama talks with

 President Hassan Rouhani of Iran during

 a phone call in the Oval Office on

 September 27, 2013 (The White House

/AFP/File, Pete Souza)

"He's showing a side that I think a lot of Americans in the foreign policy community wanted to see, so that's why you get a lot of excitement," Nader said.

While warning that diplomacy may prove difficult, Nader said that Rouhani's UN performance -- and talks with Obama -- showed that he enjoyed the backing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a US group which advocates a hard line on Iran, agreed that Rouhani had shored up support in Tehran but said he saw little substantively different from Ahmadinejad.

"From Rouhani's perspective, his week was a smashing success and Rouhani-phoria is now at a feverish pitch," he said.

But he predicted the buzz would fade, and noted that Netanyahu -- who has branded Rouhani a "wolf in sheep's clothing" -- will meet Obama at the White House on Monday.

"Everybody has to get away from the euphoria of personality and to the more mundane task of nuclear physics," Dubowitz said.

Related Articles:

Obama and Iran's Rouhani hold historic phone call

US-Iran logjam ends not with bang but with Twitter


Iranian president tweets Rosh Hashanah blessing to Jews

IPCC climate report: six things we've learned

The IPCC's long-awaited fifth assessment report says it is 'extremely likely' that humanity is to blame for global warming. What else can we learn from the report?

theguardian.com, Adam Vaughan, Friday 27 September 2013

Nearly dried-up area of the Jialing River, China. The IPCC report warns we

 are likely to surpass rises of 2C by 2100, beyond which dangerous consequences

 including drought, floods and storms are expected. Photograph: Diego Azubel/

epa/Corbis

• Scientists are more certain than ever that humanity is to blame for rising temperatures. The head of the United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation, Michel Jarraud, said "it is extremely likely that changes in our climate system in the past half century are due to human influence." The report says: "Human influence on the climate system is clear. This is evident from the increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, positive radiative forcing, observed warming, and understanding of the climate system."

• Concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have increased to levels that are unprecedented in at least 800,000 years. The burning of fossil fuels is the main reason behind a 40% increase in CO2 concentrations since the industrial revolution.

• We're likely to surpass rises of 2C by 2100, the threshold of warming that governments have pledged to hold temperatures to, and beyond which dangerous consequences including drought, floods and storms are expected. "What is very clear is we are not" on the path to keeping temperatures below 2C, said Thomas Stocker, one of the co-chairs of today's report. Global temperatures are likely to rise by 0.3C to 4.8C by the end of the century, the report said.

• Sea level rises are coming. "Global mean sea level will continue to rise during the 21st century," says today's report, by a further 26-82cm by 2100, but Stocker said "there is no consensus in the scientific community over very high sea level rises".

• Scientists said claims that the rate of temperature rises in the last 15 years has slowed did not affect the big picture, and temperatures are going up in the long-term. Climate trends "should not be calculated for periods of less than 30 years," said Stocker.

• The amount of carbon the world can burn without heading for dangerous levels of warming is far less than the amount of fossil fuels left in the ground. "The IPCC carbon budget to stay below 2C is 800-880 gigatonnes of carbon (GTC). 531 GTC had already been emitted by 2011. So we have 350 GTC left, which is much less than the carbon stored in fossil fuel reserves," notes our correspondent Fiona Harvey.

Related Articles:

IPCC Headline Statements from the Summary for Policymakers

Arctic ice melt slows down: NASA

Warming 'pause' gives thought for scientists, sceptics

THE RELATIONSHIP TO GAIA - April 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

New Mini Ice Age

"The weather you have today, and all the alarming attributes of it, is a scenario of what was scheduled to happen on Earth anyway. I review again that the weather changes you are seeing prophesied by myself, 21 years ago, are not a surprise. The changes are not caused by the pollutants you put in the air. You call it global warming and that's a nice phrase, and perhaps that will get you to put less pollutants in the air – a very good thing. But what you are seeing in the weather shift today was not caused by Humans putting things into the air. It would have happened anyway in about 300 years."

"We've called this process the water cycle, since it's all about water, not about air. The water is the predominant attribute of Gaia and of the weather cycle you're seeing. More predominant is the temperature of it. The cycle is ice to water and water to ice, and has been repeated on this planet over and over and over. It is not new. It is not exceptional. It is not frightening. But it's a cycle that modern humanity has not seen before, and it's a long cycle that is beyond the life span of a Human Being. Therefore, it tends to be overlooked or not seen at all !"

"In the days of the Lemurians, the water level of the Pacific Ocean was almost 400 feet lower, and that's only 50,000 years ago. [Kryon invites science to check this out – the water level at that time.] That was a water cycle working, and the reason it was lower was due to so much of the water being stored as ice. Today you're going through another water cycle that will eventually lead to cooling. The last one was in the 1400s."

"Science sees that at about 1650. As mentioned, they are so slow there is no remembrance that a Human has of them except in past writings and in the rings of the trees. The time span of the changes is so great that environmental record keeping does not exist in the form that it does today. But you can still look at the rings of the trees and at the striations of the rocks and can generally figure out that a few hundred years ago, you had a mini-ice age. Now you're going to have another one." 

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

“… So now we've refreshed that which we have said before, a review. You are in the middle of a cycle that will bring cooling to the planet. It is not a heat cycle, but rather a cooling cycle. But it always starts with a short heat cycle. It has been here before. It will come again. It is a long cycle - one generation plus five years. That's how long it's going to last. It starts with the melting of the ice caps, which is far more than any of you have seen in your lifetime or those of your ancestors. It is a cycle whose repetition is thousands of years long, but one that has not yet been recorded to the books of Human record. But it's definitely been recorded in the cores of the ice and in the rings of the trees.

Thousands of years old, it is, and it happens in a cyclical way. It's about water. It starts with that which is the melting of the ice caps to a particular degree, which has a profound effect on the planet in all ways. You can't have that happen without seeing life change as well as Gaia change and you've seeing it already. What happens when you take that which is heavy on the poles [ice] and you melt it? It then becomes cold water added to that which is a very, very gentle and finite balance of temperature in the seas of the planet (1). The first thing that happens is a redistribution of the weight of water on the thin crust of the earth from ice at the poles to new water in the seas. The results become earthquakes and volcanoes, and you're seeing them, aren't you? You are having earthquakes in places that are not supposed to have earthquakes. Volcanoes are coming to life in a way that you've not seen before on a regular basis. There will be more. Expect them.

Is it too much to ask of a Human Being that if you live by a volcano that you know might erupt, maybe you ought to move? Yet there will be those who say, "It hasn't erupted in my lifetime or my parents' lifetime or my grandparents' lifetime; therefore, it won't." You may have a surprise, for all things are changing. That is what is happening to Gaia. ….“

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

"...The Weather...

My partner has been "against the grain" in the past years, giving you what I have channelled about the weather. Is it global warming? No. Is it going to get better? No. This is a two-generation cycle. There will continue to be earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and storms. This is a recalibration of life in the ocean, and humanity must go through this in any way they can. This is a cycle, a known and expected one, but since you haven't gone through it in modern times, it's not well understood yet. ..."

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much….”

Iran, US hold unprecedented nuclear talks

Google – AFP, 26 Sep 2013

The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus 

Germany meet with Iran over their nuclear program September 26, 2013 in

New York. (AFP, Stan Honda)

New York — Iran and the United States met for one of their highest level meetings since the 1979 revolution Thursday as their foreign ministers joined landmark talks on Tehran's suspect nuclear program.

The talks, involving US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, came just after new Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani called on Israel to admit it has a nuclear bomb.

Chaired by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the meeting brought together the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany in a group dubbed the P5+1.

Smiling broadly, Zarif was sat at the head of the table next to Ashton looking down on the Security Council conference room, with Kerry to the right on an abutting table.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (C)

 arrives with UN Secretary-General Ban

 Ki-moon (R) during the UN General 

Assembly in New York, September 26,

2013 (AFP, Emmanuel Dunand)

Western powers have approached with caution the overtures made by the new Iranian leadership which took power in August.

"While we do not anticipate that any issues will be resolved during today?s P5+1 meeting, we are hopeful that we can continue to chart a path forward," a US State Department official said.

"We hope that this new Iranian government will show that it is prepared to engage substantively to address these long standing concerns and we will see today and in months ahead whether they will follow words with action."

It is the first time that Iranian and American ministers have sat together at the talks, aimed at reining in the Islamic republic's nuclear program, which western nations believe is a covert grab for an atomic bomb.

Iran has repeatedly denied the accusations, saying its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only.

Rouhani said he believed a deal could be struck with the international community within three to six months.

And he said Iran's arch-foe Israel should join the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which aims to contain the spread of nuclear weapons. Israel has never declared a nuclear arsenal, but is widely assumed to have several bombs.

Rouhani, speaking as current leader of the Non-Aligned Movement at a conference on disarmament, highlighted the failure of attempts to organize a Middle East nuclear free zone.

"Israel, the only non-party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty in this region, should join thereto without any further delay," Rouhani told the meeting.

Kerry met early Thursday with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and the two men agreed "Iran should cooperate and should respond positively to the offer on the table," a US official told reporters.

The P5+1 made a new offer to Iran earlier this year, before Rouhani's election, on how to overcome the current stalemate in the nuclear dossier.

It is believed to have offered an easing of the international sanctions which have crippled the Iranian economy, in return for a slow down in Iran's uranium enrichment program.

Western officials say they are still waiting for a response.

"No nation should possess nuclear weapons, since there are no right hands for these wrong weapons," insisted Rouhani.

"As long as nuclear weapons exist, the risk of their use, threat of use and proliferation persist. The only absolute guarantee is their total elimination," he said.

Rouhani told the Washington Post he wants a quick deal on the nuclear standoff adding he has the full backing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"If it's three months, that would be Iran's choice, if it's six months, that's still good. It's a question of months not years," he said.

While US officials say no bilateral talks are planned between Kerry and Zarif, an unofficial encounter remained possible.

As he entered the room Kerry said he was "looking forward to a good meeting."

Western diplomats say the meeting will give Iran a chance to show there is substance behind Rouhani's statements that he wants to end the nuclear showdown.

The United States had sought a meeting between President Barack Obama and Rouhani on the sidelines of this week's UN assembly. But Iran said it was too complex to organise.

Related Articles:

Iran hails Obama's UN speech

Hassan Rouhani tells UN: Iran poses no threat to the world

China bans several weapon-related North Korea exports

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)  

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore. "Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …”

"The Way Synchronicity Works" – Aug 24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Qatar 2022 World Cup organisers appalled by work conditions

BBC News, 26 September 2013

Qatar 2022 World Cup organisers say they are "appalled" by the findings of an investigation into the treatment of migrant workers in the country.

The Guardian  reported Nepalese workers in Qatar "face exploitation and abuses that amount to modern-day slavery".

Tournament organisers said the Qatari government will study the allegations and Fifa added it is "very concerned".

A Qatari statement read: "There is no excuse for any worker in Qatar to be treated in this manner."

The Guardian investigation claims:

• At least 44 workers died between 4 June and 8 August because of heart-related issues or workplace accidents
• The paper also says there is some evidence of forced labour on a major World Cup infrastructure project
• Nepalese men claim they have not been paid for months, with salaries retained and passports confiscated to limit their movements
• Access to free drinking water on construction sites has apparently been denied on some occasions

The statement from World Cup organisers continued: "The health, safety, well-being and dignity of every worker that contributes to staging the 2022 Fifa World Cup is of the utmost importance to our committee and we are committed to ensuring that the event serves as a catalyst toward creating sustainable improvements to the lives of all workers in Qatar."

Qatari officials are adamant that working conditions will be suitable for those involved in construction of World Cup facilities.

The statement added: "We firmly believe that all workers engaged on our projects, and those of the other infrastructure developers in Qatar, have a right to be treated in a manner that ensures at all times their wellbeing, safety, security, and dignity.

"This is our top priority as we begin to deliver on the promises made in our bid to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar."

BBC Radio 5 live spoke to the chief executive of Qatar 2022, Hassan Al Thawadi, in September before The Guardian's findings were published.

Asked about the issue of working conditions, he said: "Our priority when it comes to the workers is to ensure the safety, security, dignity and health of each worker is catered for and taken care of."

He added that work on World Cup projects had yet to get under way, but when it did contractors would have to abide by a "workers' charter".

"We've shared these workers' standards and our workers' strategy with Human Rights Watch  and Amnesty International  and we are in open discussions with them as well," he added.

The 2022 World Cup is already under scrutiny because of concerns about the effects Qatar's searing summer heat could have on players.

A Fifa statement said world football's governing body "will again get in contact with the Qatari Authorities".

Fifa's executive committee will discuss the issue when it meets in Zurich on 3-4 October to discuss the possibility of moving the competition to winter.

Skyscrapers in Doha, Qatar: the country has about 1.2 million

 migrant workers, mostly builders. Photograph: Karim Jaafar/

AFP/Getty Images

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