ARAFAT DESERT, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 18--Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei stressed that disavowal of infidels and aversion to idols and idolaters is the prevailing spirit of Haj.
The leader made the remark on Tuesday in his message to Haj pilgrims, which was read by his representative for Haj affairs, Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Mohammadi Reyshahri, during the disavowal of pagans ceremony held in Arafat Desert on Tuesday.
The full text of the leader’s message is as follows:
“In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful,
“Praise be unto God, the Lord of the worlds and peace be upon Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and upon his pure Household (AS) and his companions. Greetings to the pilgrims of the House of God, the guests of the Almighty’s abode and those who have answered His Divine call and hail to hearts freshened by the remembrance of God and opened to His unsparing blessings and bounties. In these elixir-like days, nights and hours, many a man who gratefully consigned themselves to the divine attraction, illuminated their hearts through penitence and repentance, and cleansed themselves of the darkness of sin and idolatry in the waves of divine mercifulness coming constantly one after another upon this holy land. May God’s peace be upon these hearts and these virtuous and self-purified people.
“It would be most appropriate if all my brothers and sisters did think deeply over such a blessing and avail themselves of this great opportunity. They should not allow the worldly preoccupations, which are our habitual engagements, to occupy their hearts as usual. In this atmosphere of monotheism and unadulterated divinity, they should let their craving hearts soar and collect the necessary provisions to persevere on the path of God and the right path by the remembrance of God, penitence and supplication, a resolute will of truthfulness, good thinking and rectitude and seeking the help of God.
“Here is the center of true and pure monotheism. Here is the place where Abraham (AS), the Friend of God, left as a memorial for all the true believers of the world throughout history a symbol of monotheism which is the subjugation of one’s carnal desires and complete submission to the divine command by bringing his beloved to the altar. Here is the place where Muhammad Mostafa (PBUH) raised the flag of monotheism against the wishes of the arrogant and bullying elements and the wealthy of his time and deemed aversion to oppressive rulers along with belief in God as the condition of salvation: “Therefore whoever forsakes the oppressors and believes in Allah, he shall grasp a most secure handle that never breaks“ (2-256).
“Haj is the opportunity to review and revisit these great lessons. Disavowal of the infidels and aversion to idols and idolaters is the prevailing spirit of the believers’ Haj. Each and every corner of Haj is a manifestation of devoting one’s heart to God, striving in His name and path, disavowing Satan, stoning and rejecting and standing against him. Each and every corner of Haj is the embodiment of unity and solidarity among believers where natural and contractual differences fade away and the significance of the true and monotheistic unity and brotherhood is upheld. “These are the lessons that we, the Muslims, from all parts of the world, have to learn; lessons on which we have to base our lives and future.
“The Holy Qur’an refers to the strong stand against the enemies, compassion and kindness among the believers as well as courtesy and obedience to God as three indicators of an Islamic society.
“Muhammad (PBUH) is the messenger of God, and his followers should be firm of heart against the disbelievers, but most compassionate amongst themselves; you see them bowing down, prostrating, imploring God’s Grace“ (48-29).
“These are the three basic pillars necessary for the establishment of the glorious and dignified body of the Muslim Ummah. Bearing this in mind, all Muslims can appropriately identify the ailments of the present Muslim world.
“Today, the treacherous enemies of the Muslim Ummah are organizing hegemonic centers and expansionist and aggressive powers consider the Islamic awakening as a great threat to their illegitimate interests and their oppressive domination over the Muslim world. All Muslim nations led by their political and religious authorities, intellectuals and national leaders need to form a united Islamic front against this invading enemy with full strength.
“They need to muster all the elements of power within themselves and properly strengthen the Muslim Ummah. Knowledge and insight, resourcefulness and vigilance, responsibility and commitment, confidence and hope in divine promises, refraining from petty and trivial desires in order to attain the approval of God and abiding by one’s duties are the basic elements contributing to the sovereignty of the Islamic Ummah leading it to dignity, independence and material and spiritual progress, and preventing enemies from attaining their unlawful wishes.
“Compassion among the believers is the second pillar and another indication of the desired status of the Muslim Ummah. Disunity and conflict among segments of the Muslim Ummah are dangerous diseases that must be treated with all might. Our enemies have long been making great efforts in this area. Today, those who have become terrified due to the Islamic awakening have intensified their efforts.
“All that the caring people are saying is that differences must not turn into conflicts and that plurality should not lead to belligerence.
“The Iranian nation has named this year as the year of Islamic solidarity. This naming was used due to the awareness of the intensified plots hatched to sow the seeds of discord among our brothers. These plots proved to be effective in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and some people in these Islamic countries were instigated to oppose some of their own countrymen and spill their blood. The traces of this conspiracy were visible in all these bitter and tragic incidents and people with keen sights noticed the enemy’s hands in them.
“The command of ’being compassionate amongst themselves’ in the Holy Qur’an is akin to the extirpation of such pugnacities. In these glorious days and during the various rituals of Haj, one may see Muslims from all over the world and from various faiths going around one single house, praying in the direction of one Qibla, stoning in unison the symbol of the rejected Satan, acting in the same way to sacrifice the carnal desires and passions and, in unison, supplicating during the Arafat and Mash’ar gathering places.
“The same closeness and togetherness is also visible among all the Islamic sects in terms of the most basic religious precepts, regulations and beliefs. Therefore, why should prejudices and prejudgments be allowed to kindle fire among them and why should the treacherous hands of enemies be allowed to stoke this ravaging fire?
“Today there are some who, under false pretexts and due to their narrow-mindedness and lack of prudence, consider a great number of Muslims as infidels and even consider spilling their blood as lawful. Whether they are aware of it or not, they are in the servitude of idolatry, unbelief and arrogance. Many a person who used the term ’infidelity’ for the reverence shown to the holy shrines of Muhammad (PBUH), the great prophet of Islam, and the pious Imams (AS), which is actually honoring religion and religiousness, became the servants of infidels and oppressors, and collaborated with them in attaining their wicked goals.
“The real religious figures and scholars, committed intellectuals and sincere authorities must combat such perilous phenomena.
“Today, Islamic unity and solidarity are definite religious duties that can be materialized and practiced through the cooperation of the wise and caring people.
“Formation of a fortified front against the arrogant powers, on the one hand, and compassion and convergence, on the other, are the two pillars of dignity. Accompanied by the third pillar, which is obedience to God, these pillars enable the Muslim Ummah to tread steadfastly on the same path which led to the pinnacle of glory and dignity for Muslims during the advent of Islam.
“Consequently, the Muslim Ummah will be saved from the humiliating backwardness that has been imposed on it in recent centuries. The precursor of this great movement has emerged and the awakening waves are more or less on the move in the Muslim world. The media and propaganda machines belonging to the enemies try to attribute any freedom and justice seeking movement in any part of the world to Iran or Shiism. They try to hold Iran, which was the flag-bearer of the victory of Islamic awakening, responsible for the blows dealt to them by zealous Muslims in the areas of politics or culture.
“The peerless epic of Hezbollah created in the 33-Day War, the prudent resistance of the Iraqi nation which led to the formation of a parliament and a government not favored by the occupiers, the astonishing patience and perseverance of the legal government of Palestine and its self-sacrificing people and many other signs of the revival of Islam in Muslim countries are all accused of being linked to Iran or Shiism in order to impede the unanimous support of the Muslim world.
“However, such a ruse will not be able to withstand the divine tradition which heralds the victory for those who struggle for the cause of God and the bearers of the message of God’s religion. The future belongs to the Muslim Ummah and each one of us may contribute to that future in proportion with the amount of responsibility or capability we have.
“Haj rituals are a great opportunity for you fortunate Haj pilgrims to prepare yourselves for this cause more than before. I hope the divine aid and the blessing of Hazrat Mahdi, may God hasten his reappearance, will be with you in this great mission.
“Greetings to you, peace of God and his blessings and bounties be upon you.

“Seyyed Ali Al-Hosseini Al-Khamenei
“4 Zihajja, 1428 - December 15, 2007“

TEHRAN, Dec. 18--A nuclear official said the delivery of nuclear fuel to Bushehr power plant would prevent the next UN Security Council resolution against Iran.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Javad Vaeedi, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council for International Affairs, added that if the next UNSC resolution requires consensus, Russia will have to offer more evidence to approve it, IRNA reported.
“I think the new development has created serious problems for the US and its allies, and it is not easy for them to persuade Russia and China to follow their policies,“ he said.
Vaeedi also said some claim that since Russia has delivered nuclear fuel to Iran, the country should halt uranium enrichment which is an illogical reasoning.
“To generate nuclear electricity, we need to build domestic nuclear power plants and enrich uranium at home,“ he said.
“Natanz nuclear complex is able to enrich uranium for a 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant.“
The official noted that the Natanz plant will be completed within the next three to four years.
Vaeedi rejected the idea that since Iran possesses huge oil and gas reserves, the country does not need to generate nuclear energy.
“Russia is the biggest exporter of gas in the world and possesses huge oil reserves, but at the same time has many nuclear power plants for enriching uranium,“ he said.
Gholamreza Aqazadeh, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO), said on Monday all outstanding issues with the UN nuclear agency will be resolved by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2008).

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18--The so-called 5+1 debating a draft resolution for tougher sanctions over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program failed to reach agreement on consultations they had planned for Tuesday, the US State Department said.
“It’s been postponed for scheduling issues. They’ll get together later in the week,“ Tom Casey, a spokesman at the State Department, told AFP.
The US has been involved in protracted negotiations with Russia, China, Britain and France--the five permanent UN Security Council members, or P5, that all have veto power--and Germany.

GAZA CITY, Occupied Palestine, Dec. 18--Israeli aircraft launched an assault on the Islamic Jihad organization in Gaza, killing the group’s overall commander and nine other members in three fiery strikes ending early Tuesday.
A fourth attack on a security post in southern Gaza killed two Hamas members.
Islamic Jihad acknowledged it had suffered heavy losses but said it would retaliate with attacks inside Israel, warning to unleash “a wave of martyrdom operations“, AP reported.
Thousands of Gazans took to the streets in funerals for the dead people, whose bodies and coffins were draped with black Islamic Jihad flags. In northern Gaza, bullets from the rifles of mourners severed an electric wire that fell and injured five people, medics said.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak congratulated the army for its “successful activity“ against Gaza people.
“I hope these successes continue. At the same time, we must be on our guard for the responses that may come from the other side,“ Barak said, speaking after a meeting with the new American military envoy to the region, James L. Jones.
Four of the Islamic Jihad militants were targeted as they emerged from morning prayers on Tuesday at a northern Gaza mosque. Six others died when Israeli aircraft blasted two cars in Gaza City after nightfall on Monday.
“There is no doubt that this is a big loss,“ Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, told AP.
Israel has been carrying out frequent airstrikes and ground incursions into Gaza since the democratically-elected Hamas government seized control of the area in June.
The airstrikes in Gaza came a day after Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas gained strong support for his moderate government at an international donors’ conference in Paris. Donors pledged $7.4 billion in the next three years, far more than he expected.
Abbas is locked in a deadly power struggle with Hamas since it overran Gaza after routing his fighters. Abbas rules from the West Bank and has little control over Gaza.
Negotiations got off to a rocky start over Israel’s refusal to halt construction in east Beit-ul-Moqaddas and the West Bank--areas captured in the 1967 Mideast war that the Palestinians want as part of a future state.

DAMASCUS, Syria, Dec. 18--Syria is asking UN Chief Ban Ki-moon to pressure Israel to allow Syrians living in the occupied Golan Heights to visit family in Syria, according to a letter seen by AFP on Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Walid Muallem wrote that “Israel’s ban on residents of occupied Syrian Golan visiting their families and parents in their homeland of Syria, as called for by international law and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, increases the suffering of the inhabitants under occupation.
“It is a flagrant violation by Israel of its obligation as an occupying authority,“ the letter added.
“Israel refuses to return Golan to Syria in line with UN Security Council resolutions and to reach a just and comprehensive peace in the region.“
UN resolutions 242 and 338 call for Israel to return Arab territories it captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Among them was the Golan Heights, which Israel subsequently annexed.
Negotiations over Golan broke down in 2000 over Israel’s insistence on keeping a strip of land on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, which is the country’s main source of water.

ANKARA, Turkey,
Dec. 18--The Turkish Army sent soldiers about 1.5 miles into northern Iraq in an overnight operation on Tuesday, Kurdish officials said.
A Turkish official said the troops seeking Kurdish rebels were still in Iraq by midmorning.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Kirkuk, the hub of Iraq’s northern oilfields, AP reported.
The troops crossed into an area near the border with Iran, about 75 miles north of the city of Irbil, said Jabar Yawar, a spokesman for Kurdistan’s Peshmerga security forces.
About 300 Turkish troops crossed the border at 3 a.m., said Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the regional Kurdistan government. He said the region was a deserted mountainous frontier area.
The US Embassy in Baghdad declined to comment on reports of the Turkish operation.
Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, has battled for autonomy for southeastern Turkey for more than two decades and uses strongholds in northern Iraq for cross-border strikes.
It was not clear how long the Turkish soldiers who entered Iraq on Tuesday would stay, but a Turkish government official said they were sent as ’reinforcements’ to existing Turkish troops stationed further inside Iraq.
“They are going there as reinforcements, they are not returning,“ the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The president of Iraq’s Kurdish region refused to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was in Iraq on Tuesday, because of the US position over Turkey sending soldiers into northern Iraq, a top Kurdish official said.
President Massud Barzani, who had been due to fly to Baghdad to meet Rice, will not do so in protest, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said.