TEHRAN, Feb. 13--Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on Wednesday the assassination of senior Hezbollah leader, Imad Mughniyeh, is another instance of the Zionist Israeli regime’s organized crime.
Hosseini called for the world community’s action to prevent the Zionist regime from repeating this sheer violation of international law, IRNA reported.
“It goes without saying that the struggles of Martyr Mughniyeh who spent all his life fighting the Zionist occupiers have contributed a lot to the anti-Zionist movement,“ he added.
Hosseini noted that the free people of the world will never forget the the martyr’s struggles.
Meanwhile, a Hezbollah official said on Wednesday that one of the Shiite resistance movement’s top commanders, Imad Mughniyeh, has been killed in Syria and blamed Israel for the attack.
The official said Mughniyeh was killed in a car bombing in the Syrian capital late on Tuesday, AFP reported.
“He has been a target of the Zionists for 20 years,“ a Hezbollah statement said.
Mughniyeh, who was head of Hezbollah’s special operations unit, was wanted for his suspected role in a number of attacks, including the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires which killed 29 people.
He was on the US State Department’s list of most wanted terrorism suspects.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television interrupted its normal programs on Wednesday to broadcast music to mark his death.
Syrian state television confirmed that one person had been killed in a car bombing late on Tuesday, but did not identify the victim.
Witnesses in Damascus told AFP that the vehicle was blown up in a car park in the newly completed residential neighborhood of Kfar Suseh at around 11 pm (2100 GMT) on Tuesday.
The rear of the Mitsubishi Pajero was entirely blown out by the force of the blast, an AFP photographer reported.
The windows of nearby buildings were blown in and four cars parked close by were damaged.
Mughniyeh is on an FBI wanted list with a US$25 million bounty on his head. The bounty is equal to the amount placed by the US on Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Hamas spoke out against Mughniyeh’s assassination. “We condemn this crime and we emphasize the Muslim nation must rise up to confront the Zionist devil which is backed by the Americans,“ said Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Samir Abu Zuhri. The announcement of his death said Mughniyeh for 20 years has been the target of “Zionists and oppressors“--in Hezbollah and Iranian parlance a reference to Israel and the United States.
Mughniyeh’s last public appearance was believed to be at the funeral of his brother Fuad, who was killed on Dec. 12, 1994, when a booby-trapped car blew up in the southern suburb of Beirut.
Israel, however, officially denied on Wednesday any involvement in the assassination Mughniyeh.
“Israel rejects any attempt by terrorist organizations to attribute to it any implication in this affair,“ said a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office. “We have nothing else to add.“

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 13--The UN Security Council will probably not vote on a third sanctions resolution targeting Iran’s nuclear program until after a key report by the UN nuclear watchdog is issued, diplomats said on Tuesday.
Washington has been pushing for a swift vote. But Security Council member South Africa has been pressing the five permanent council members--the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China--to wait until the International Atomic Energy Agency issues a report on Iran next week.
“The vote is not specifically tied to the IAEA report, but it just so happens that by the time we get around to voting on it, it will most likely be after the report is out,“ a European diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Western countries claim the IAEA’s investigation of Iran’s past nuclear activities is important but has little relevance to the future of Tehran’s nuclear program.
South Africa and other members of the Non-Aligned Movement say the IAEA’s investigation is relevant and want the council to wait until it has as much information as possible.
The draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, calls for asset freezes and mandatory travel bans for specific Iranian officials and vigilance on all banks in Iran. It also repeats the council’s demand that Iran halt nuclear enrichment activity.
Several other diplomats said the vote would likely come in late February or early March. France, Britain and Germany, the resolution’s sponsors, can accept this timetable, they said.
Waiting for the IAEA report will help them by ensuring they get a ’yes’ vote from South Africa, several diplomats said.
Diplomats said concerns from Libya and Vietnam were also holding up the vote. Libya, which until recently was the target of UN sanctions, opposes sanctions in general while Vietnam is unwilling to interfere in other countries’ affairs, they said.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 13--American and Iranian officials planned to start another round of talks on Friday, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki said.
The adviser, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to release information, said on Wednesday that discussions would be held on the expert level. The Iraqis have been brokering occasional security talks between the two nations, AP reported.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday the fourth round of Iran-US talks would be held at the experts level.
US Ambassador Ryan Crocker told AP earlier this month that he was open to renewing the three-way dialogue with Iranian and Iraqi officials, and that he expected the latest round would begin with a lower-level meeting of security officials.
A spokesman for the US embassy neither confirmed nor denied that the talks would resume this week.
“The Iraqis are the organizers,“ W. Johann Schmonsees said. “We are ready whenever they’re going to happen.“
A meeting last May 28 between Crocker and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, broke a 27-year diplomatic freeze between the two countries. The two met again late last summer and there has been one other meeting at the experts level.

TEHRAN, Feb. 13--Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called on Paris to adopt a realistic approach, stressing that such an approach would benefit both Iran and France.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet session on Wednesday, Mottaki said, “It seems that after so many ups and downs in its political policies, France has balanced its decision-making process,“ IRNA reported.
Mottaki made the above remark when asked about Iran’s reaction toward certain stances of France and remarks regarding revision of Tehran-Paris relations.
“If Paris does not move moderately, it will damage its own national interest,“ he said.
On Iran-France cooperation, he said, “There are great potentials in the two countries in both political and economic fields.“
He expressed hope that the French authorities would adopt a realistic approach toward Iran’s key role at both bilateral and regional levels and make use of its potentials.
The foreign minister was asked about the remarks of the Lebanese pro-western governing coalition’s leader, Saad Al-Hariri, claiming Iran is interfering in the Lebanese domestic affairs.
“Tehran’s stances regarding Lebanon are fully clear,“ he said, adding that Tehran believes different Lebanese groups should reach consensus from both legal and traditional viewpoints.
“We advise other countries to help settle the Lebanese problems and not make decisions instead of the Lebanese nation. Decision-making on the basis of consensus will help restore stability to Lebanon,“ he said, calling for the participation of all Lebanese groups in the country’s decision-making.
Mottaki also said there was no sign the United Nations nuclear watchdog or its chief, Mohamed ElBaradei, in particular, would be influenced by pressures from some western powers.
“There is no sign of Mr. ElBaradei or the agency being influenced by those pressures,“ he said.
The IAEA chief is expected to release his latest report on Iran’s nuclear activities on February 20 in Vienna.
The report will be later discussed in the agency’s Board of Governors’ next meeting on March 13 in the Austrian capital Vienna.
“If the agency gets rid of special pressures, then we will have a realistic report,“ he said.
Mottaki added that Iran never dictated anything to the agency and believes ElBaradei has completed his job.

George Bush and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud at the monarch's ranch in Al-Janadriyah, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 15.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13--A handful of US Republican lawmakers, saying Saudi Arabia is funding terrorism, sought to enlist more GOP opposition to the Bush administration’s proposal to sell precision-guided bombs to the Arab kingdom.
They argue that the Arab kingdom is funding terrorism and should not possess such bombs, AP reported.
The Bush administration announced on Jan. 14 that it intended to sell $123 million worth of sophisticated precision-guided bomb technology to Saudi Arabia.
The weapons were part of a larger arms package, estimated to total $20 billion, for Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries. The 30-day period for lawmakers to object ends on Thursday.
At least 13 Republicans and an estimated 80 Democrats had signed a resolution opposing the sale, Rep. Zach Wamp, a Tennessee Republican said.
However, he acknowledged that the resolution was not scheduled for a vote.
When the arms deal was announced last month, California Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he did not intend to consider a disapproval resolution.
Lantos died on Monday.
Wamp said oil money from the Saudi royal family funded numerous nonprofit organizations that, in turn, supported terrorism.
“The problem with selling arms to Saudi Arabia is there is a clear pattern here of the royal family in Saudi Arabia basically aiding and abetting the enemy.
I know those are harsh terms, but I’m not from the State Department,“ Wamp said.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 13--The Pakistan military on Wednesday launched a short-range ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads in the third such training launch in as many weeks, the military said.
Soldiers from the country’s strategic force command carried out a ’successful’ launch of the Hatf III Ghaznavi missile, which has a range of 290 km (180 miles), an army statement said, AFP reported.
The launch was witnessed by caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro and army chief Ashfaq Kayani, the statement added, saying that more details would be announced later.
Soomro said nuclear-armed Pakistan’s military strength ensures peace in South Asia, where rival neighbor India also has nuclear weapons.
“The Pakistani government is fully committed to retaining a strong conventional and unconventional deterrence, and will meet all the needs of a strong national defense,“ he added.
The premier also lauded the country’s strategic forces and scientific organizations for “having developed and operationalized a strong nuclear deterrence capability“.
Pakistan first test-fired the Ghaznavi in December 2006 and handed it over to the Army Strategic Command in March 2007. It is believed to have around 50 warheads.
Pakistan and India have routinely conducted missile tests since the nuclear-armed rivals carried out tit-for-tat atomic detonations in May 1998.