Skip to main content

G8 Leaders Condemn Violence in Iran

By VOA News
08 July 2009

Group of Eight (G8) leaders pose for a family photo at the summit in L'Aquila, central Italy, 08 Jul 2009
Group of Eight (G8) leaders pose for a family photo at the summit in L'Aquila, central Italy, 08 Jul 2009
Group of Eight leaders meeting in Italy say they deplore the deadly post-election violence in Iran and they call the arrests of journalists unacceptable.

U.S. officials say the G8 leaders issued a strong and significant statement on Iran following a working dinner Wednesday night.

The officials say the leaders are losing patience with Iran's refusal to meet its international obligations to give up its suspected nuclear weapons program

The leaders did not threaten any new sanctions Wednesday. French President Nicloas Sarkozy said all eight agreed to give negotiations with Iran a chance until September, when another major summit convenes.






The G8 statement also demands Iran let foreign embassy employees work unhindered and it condemns Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks back as she attends meeting of G8 leaders in Italy 8 July 2009
German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks back as she attends meeting of G8 leaders in Italy 8 July 2009
The G8 statement also condemns North Korea's nuclear weapons program and its missile tests. The leaders also gave their backing to Pakistan's fight against terrorism

U.S. officials at the summit also announced that President Obama will host a nuclear security summit next March. They said the president does not want to wait for an act of nuclear terrorism before such dangerous materials are secured, and black markets broken up.

Earlier Wednesday, G8 leaders announced a goal of deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, widely blamed for global warming.

On economic issues, the leaders affirmed their commitment to support financial growth and their opposition to trade barriers.

Other issues expected to come up at the summit include world hunger, aid to developing countries, the political crisis in Honduras, and ethnic violence in China's Xinjiang region.

The G-8 plan to meet with their counterparts from developing countries on Thursday.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Wake of Protests, Khamenei Faces Split Inside Regime

By Geneive Abdo Iran Analyst, The Century Foundation The basij militias may have crushed the historic street protests against Iran’s election results, but Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei now faces a more pressing problem: how to prevent a potent coalition of political elites arrayed against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from destabilizing the entire Islamic political system – and undercutting his own power, too. Western journalists, politicians and pundits have largely focused on the unrest in the streets of Tehran – the worst in the history of the Islamic republic – usually with the underlying, if unjustified, assumption that popular rebellion against clerical rule is at last at hand. However, the real battle is taking place inside the closed world of Iran’s clerical caste, particularly among the relatively confined circle of the “political mullahs” and their lay allies – all of whom have eschewed traditional Shi’ite teachings against direct involvement in political affairs. A “coali...
Post a Comment
Read more

Former Iraqi Official Gets 7 Years for Expelling Kurds

By VOA News 02 August 2009 An image from Al-Iraqia TV station of former deputy PM Tariq Aziz in Baghdad (file) Iraq's highest court has sentenced former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz to seven years in prison for expelling Kurds from northern Iraq during former dictator Saddam Hussein's rule. The Iraqi High Tribunal handed down the sentence Sunday. Aziz was deputy prime minister when Iraq invaded Kuwait and during the 1991 Gulf War. He served as an international spokesman for the Iraqi government. Also Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki traveled to Iraq's Kurdish region to meet Kurdish politicians in an effort to resolve disputes over land and oil. Mr. Maliki met near the city of Sulaymaniyah with the Kurdish region's newly re-elected President Massoud Barzani and Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, who also is a Kurd. After the meeting, Mr. Maliki said the two sides agreed to hold furthe...
Post a Comment
Read more