Hundreds of thousands of people took part in the World Qods Day rallies held on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Tehran. (Mehr Photo)

TEHRAN, Oct. 20--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday the Zionist Israeli regime is fake and a complete failure, thanks to God and the vigilance of world nations.
The president made the remark while addressing hundreds of thousands of people taking part in the World Qods Day rallies held on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Tehran, IRNA reported.
“Its military power, aggressiveness and myth of invincibility were behind its survival. But thanks to God’s mercy as well as the resistance of Palestinian people and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, such false myths have been disproved. Thus, today the Zionist criminals feel insecure even in their own houses,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad noted that the corrupt Zionist regime had the distinct mission to threaten and act aggressively against the regional states constantly.
Pointing to the Zionist regime’s role in expanding the hegemony of some western powers worldwide, the president said its supporters prepare the ground for making countries recognize the Zionist regime officially.
“This fake regime was formed to swallow the interests of the region. The claim that its formation was a move to sympathize with the victims of the World War II is a big lie,“ he said.
He referred to the symbolism created by some western countries about the Zionist regime and said that they are aimed at insulting their own nations.
“Why should people, including the youth, go through such a great loss for what took place three generations ago? When are such claims expected to end and what is their connection to the US and Britain to authorize them to blackmail the world on the pretext of holocaust. Wasn’t Britain accused of inciting Jews to attack the occupied territories, make a nation leave its own homeland and encourage others to occupy this land?“ he said.
The president further said that the Zionists and their supporters are today facing the rage of hundreds of millions of immaculate and determined individuals, adding that the whole region is against this regime.
He advised the Zionist regime and its supporters not to commit new crimes in the region and world, adding that all nations consider them to be responsible for all crimes in the region and that they will take revenge.
Addressing the supporters of the Zionist regime, he said, “As an option, I advise you to comply with your claims to democracy and let the Palestinians determine their own destiny through a free and legal election.“
In another part of his speech, Ahmadinejad called on the West and Europe to turn back from the path they have taken and get along with the Iranian nation.
“Getting along with the powerful and freedom-seeking Iran will be to the interest of western states,“ he said.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has presented its proposals to the West in a specific package and clarified ways of cooperation. The Iranian nation advocates negotiations and peace but will never give in to pressure even by an inch.“
Meanwhile, a large group of domestic and foreign reporters and correspondents covered the rallies held across the country, which was attended by millions of Iranians from all walks of life.
Muslims and non-Muslims also took part in similar rallies in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Syria, Lebanon, Indonesia, Iraq, Occupied Palestine and other countries to commemorate the World Qods Day.

TEHRAN, Oct. 20--Foreign Ministry in a communiquŽ on Friday said if Europe chooses the path of pressures, sanctions and threats, Iran will not remain indifferent and will not allow its legitimate rights to be violated.
The communiquŽ was in response to the recent statement of the European Union’s Council of Ministers, Fars News Agency reported.
“The bad omen is that the EU statement has ignored negotiations between EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana and the Supreme National Security Council’s Secretary Ali Larijani and chose the path, which is closer to the stance of the Bushies,“ he said.
It noted that the last round of negotiations between Solana and Larijani pursued a logical course of action for removing worries about the diversion of Iran’s nuclear activities and ensuring the rights of the Iranian nation for peaceful utilization of nuclear energy.
The communiquŽ also noted that the EU has not adhered to the agreements reached during the four rounds of long negotiations.
Stressing that Iran adheres to the agreements reached with Solana, it said, “If the EU, in line with the policies of some powers, has chosen a solution other than talks, then it should accept the responsibility for its consequences.“
The communiquŽ recalled that Iran’s comprehensive reply to the package of incentives offered by Group 5+1 is still valid and Iran urges EU to adopt a positive approach based on negotiations and interaction, and prove its commitment to global peace and security.
“Comparing Iran’s nuclear program to that of countries making the atomic bomb is a great fallacy aimed at making the governing political atmosphere more tense,“ it said. The European Union backed limited United Nations sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program on Tuesday after Tehran spurned calls for suspending uranium enrichment.
The EU’s 25 foreign ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, called for incremental measures that officials said would be targeted first at individuals and materials involved in Iranian uranium enrichment activities.
Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday stressed again Iran’s right to use peaceful nuclear energy.
“We are not denying Tehran’s right to use civilian atomic energy but we want to prevent Tehran from producing nuclear weapons under this disguise,“ said Steinmeier in his speech to the German Parliament in Berlin.
He insisted Tehran had still to prove that it had “neither a main nor a side purpose“ for developing nuclear arms.
Steinmeier’s remarks followed repeated reports by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, stating it had found no diversion in Tehran’s civilian nuclear program.

LONDON, Oct. 20--Oil prices rose toward $59 a barrel on Friday after OPEC agreed to more output curbs than expected and some members said it could even cut production again before the end of the year.
The market briefly surged above $59, but gains were later checked by nagging concerns that some OPEC members may fail to comply with the curbs.
US crude rose 28 cents to $58.78 a barrel by 1140 GMT, $1.50 above the 2006 low touched just a week ago, Reuters reported.
London Brent crude rose 21 cents to $61.08 a barrel.
OPEC ministers agreed to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels per day, some 200,000 bpd more than anticipated.
The group, which supplies about a third of the world’s crude, said in a statement after an emergency meeting in Doha that oversupply had destabilized the oil market.
The cut was its deepest since January 2002 and is equal to about 4.3 percent of September supply.
“It was a surprise. It shows the determination of OPEC,“
Tetsu Emori, chief strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures Ltd.
in Tokyo, said.
“They obviously wanted to send a message to the market.“ Some ministers said a further cut of 500,000 bpd could follow when OPEC next meets in Nigeria in December.
They said they were concerned about high fuel stocks in consumer countries, particularly in the United States, and a projected drop in demand for OPEC oil in 2007 as competitors bring more supplies online.
“This is not the end of the road because we have another meeting coming up,“ Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi told Reuters. Naimi said that Saudi Arabia fully backed the OPEC cut and had already notified customers of lower supply. The world’s largest exporter will shoulder around 32 percent of the cut, amounting to 380,000 bpd.
Ministers’ failure to speak with one voice before the hastily-arranged talks had deepened oil’s losses of around 25 percent from a mid-July peak of $78.40 a barrel.
Analysts said OPEC’s next task was to prove to the market it really was curbing supplies.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 20--The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr seized control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country’s powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.
A British military official said 25 gunmen and police were killed, AP reported.
Mahdi Army fighters stormed three main police stations Friday morning, planting explosives that flattened the buildings, residents said.
About 800 black-clad militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were patrolling city streets in commandeered police vehicles, eyewitnesses said. Other fighters had set up roadblocks on routes leading into the city and sound trucks circulated telling residents to stay indoors.
The fighting broke out as the United States acknowledged its military drive to crush violence in Baghdad had largely failed and only days after sectarian killings raged through the region around Balad, killing about 100 people. Britain returned control of the city to Iraqi authorities in August.
The Iraqi Army dispatched two companies to Amarah from Basra, the south’s largest city, and a British officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to make press statements, said Iraqi Army and police forces were massing to retake the city of 750,000.
Authorities imposed Friday morning a curfew in Amarah until further notice, the Defense Ministry spokesman told the Associated Press.
“All the parties have started a truce as two army companies were dispatched from Basra.“ Mohammad Al-Alaskari said.“ But the situation is still tense.“
Shiite militia violence, mainly against the country’s Sunni minority, has ravaged Iraq since February when a Shiite holy place in Samarra was blown up. The violence has been on the increase, but this is the first recent fighting that has pitted Shiites against one another on such a scale.
Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki dispatched an emergency security delegation that included the Minister of State for Security Affairs and top officials from the Interior and Defense ministries, said Yassin Majid, the prime minister’s media advisor told the Associated Press.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Oct. 20--A bomb blast ripped through a crowd of shoppers as they bought gifts for a Muslim festival in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar Friday, killing seven people, officials said.
Dozens of others were wounded by the powerful bomb, which was planted beneath a gypsy vendor’s cart near a public park, North West Frontier Province Police Chief Riffat Pasha told AFP.
Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said seven people were killed. A doctor at Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar said 24 wounded people had been brought in, 13 of them in critical condition.
The bomb was apparently planted beneath one of a number of vendors’ carts parked on a footpath outside the city’s Jinnah Park, which were selling toys and garments, police officer Abdul Rehman said.
“The road was crowded with men, women and children when the explosion occurred,“ Rehman said.
Five of the wounded were women who were selling bangles from the carts, hospital officials said.
The Pakistani government last month signed a controversial peace deal with insurgents in North Waziristan under which rebels were supposed to end cross-border attacks on international forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
NATO, which leads foreign troops in Afghanistan, has expressed concerns about the deal.