Wednesday, December 23, 2009 WASHINGTON: The United States warned Iran Tuesday that December is "a very real deadline" after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed an international ultimatum over its nuclear program. The United States and France have explicitly said Tehran must accept a UN-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel by the end of the year or face the threat of further sanctions. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the so-called P5+1, which gathers UN Security Council veto-wielding permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany, were all on board with the deadline. "I think that the international community is united in this. This is not (just) something that the (US) president has said... This is something that the members of the P5+1 have said," Gibbs said. "That's why we are at the point where we are now with the international community waiting to see and have been waiting to see for months whether Iran will live up to its responsibilities." Ahmadinejad earlier rejected once again the year-end deadline and delivered another broadside against Western pressure over its nuclear activities, considered suspect because of Tehran's refusal to suspend enrichment or agree to full inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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