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Iran wants talks with US ambassador.
About this event: El Rabie (Spring) festival
Related to country: United States

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Iran wants talks with US ambassador- Iran wants to renew high-level talks with U.S. officials on security in Iraq, insisting that discussions take place between ambassadors and not lower-level functionaries, Iraqi officials said Monday.


The Iranians also want a clear-cut agenda for the meeting, which the American side has not yet provided, according to Sami al-Askari, an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and a member of parliament. Three Iraqi officials confirmed his account, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the press.

There was no immediate comment or confirmation from Iran's Foreign Ministry or state media.

A May 28 meeting concerning security in Iraq between U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, broke a 27-year diplomatic freeze between the two countries.

A planned Dec. 18 meeting between Iranian and American security, military and diplomatic experts was canceled a few days before it was to be held. At the time, Iranian officials said it was a scheduling problem while U.S. officials referred questions to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.

American officials have since pointed out that Dec. 18 was the day Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Iraq, which forced the postponement of the meeting. For security reasons, they said they could not disclose Rice's arrival date ahead of time.

Since then, top Iranian officials in Baghdad have asked their Iraqi counterparts to push the Americans to hold a fourth-round of talks between Crocker and Qomi, an Iranian official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The two last met in August, shortly after the first and only meeting of low-level experts, which produced no concrete results.

Iran has long been accused by Washington of training, arming and funding Shiite extremists inside Iraq to kill American troops.

But in the past month, U.S. officials have said Tehran appears to have slowed or halted the flow of illegal weapons across the frontier. Iran has denied the arms smuggling accusations, insisting that it is doing its best to help stabilize its embattled western neighbor.

Crocker told reporters during a Sunday briefing in Baghdad that he would be willing to meet Qomi again, but said no date had been set for a meeting at any level.

"I would be open to this. We could do it at the experts' level or we could do it at my level. I would definitely see that as a possibility," he said. "We're looking at what we might talk about, which I think is the first and necessary step before deciding who talks about it."

Crocker said there were "some signs, some indicators that the Iranians are using some influence to bring down violence from extremist Shiia militias." They included a drop in the number of attacks that use high-tech shaped charge bombs, which American officials allege are made in Iran.

"How lasting a phenomenon that will be, and how Iran will define and play its role in Iraq in 2008 will be very important to the long-term future of the country," he said.

Crocker said any talks with the Iranians would focus solely on Iraqi security and would not extend into the explosive issue of U.S. accusations that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Al-Askari said a top Iranian diplomat complained to him in recent days that U.S. officials are not providing enough information about what a new round of talks at any level will achieve.

"They told us that the Americans are vague and that they want to know what is the goal, what is the purpose of these talks," al-Askari said. "They said they do not want to talk on the level of experts — that at a minimum, it should be at the ambassadorial level or even higher."

Al-Askari added that the Iranians were also upset that although they contributed to the improving security situation in Iraq, U.S. officials have not done enough to acknowledge it.

"The Iranians will not stand anymore going to talk with the U.S. one day, and the next day watch the Americans speak badly about them in the press — by saying Iran is supporting militias and supplying weapons," he said.

The Iranian Embassy in Baghdad was closed Monday for the Eid al-Adha holiday.

December 24, 2007 | 4:47 PM Comments  0 comments

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which is still something that is quite prevalent in Egypt.
About this event: El Rabie (Spring) festival
Related to country: Palestine

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Egypt fights ignorance on HIV/Aids, In a small room, in a modest, but well-maintained building in Central Cairo, a phone rings. The caller - a woman - is worried. She suspects that her husband has been having sex with someone else. She is concerned that she might be at risk of catching HIV.

"Where can I go to get tested?" she wants to know. "Will my anonymity be guaranteed?"
Such a call, which lasts no more than five minutes, is not unusual on Egypt's national HIV/Aids hotline.

Supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), the hotline has been providing information on the transmission and prevention of this deadly virus for more than 10 years to callers in Egypt and other countries in the region.

The disease, which has claimed millions of lives throughout the world, is still widely seen as a "foreign" problem, nothing for ordinary Egyptians to worry about.

And on the face of it, available statistics make for reassuring reading.

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids), the prevalence of HIV in Egypt in 2005 was estimated at some 17,000 in a population of more than 70 million.

Worrying trends

But a number of factors - including an overwhelmingly youthful population, a lack of basic information about the virus and an increase in the number of young people engaging in premarital sex - have prompted concerns that the situation could quickly worsen unless direct measures are taken.

"Our callers phone us with a varied concerns," says Dr Ahmad Bahaa, the hotline manager, whose centre receives some 15 to 20 calls a day.


KEY STATISTICS
Between 2004 and 2005, the estimated number of HIV cases in Egypt rose from 12,000 to 17,000 in 2004-2005
12% of reported HIV cases among 15-24 age group
30% of married women in remote rural areas of Egypt have sexually transmitted infections
20% of Egypt's population are infected with Hepatitis C, which is transmitted in the same way as HIV
In Middle East and North Africa 460,000 have HIV. 68,000 people were newly infected in 2006 alone
Source: Unicef
"We receive a lot of calls about modes of transmission, about symptoms, though, even now, we still get a lot of callers who hang up because they are afraid that we might be tracking them and their numbers, which, we are not, of course."

Despite world-wide attention on the issue, ignorance about HIV/Aids transmission is still a major problem in Egypt, says Nadia Sadiq Ahmad, a trained counsellor working at the hotline.

"We have had people phoning us, because they have been kissing, for example, and they're worried that may be at risk of contracting the virus in this way.


"Others have asked whether it is possible to get HIV through water; one caller told of how she was out in the balcony and a splash of water hit her hand from above her. She was worried that if the water had touched someone with the disease first, then it could be transmitted to her."

Targeting the young

The presence of Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centres in Egypt, has taken the fight to increase HIV/Aids awareness to the next level.

The hope is that the promise of anonymity will encourage those most at risk of contracting the disease - such as commercial sex workers, intravenous drug users and gay men - to go for testing.


"The testing centres work through a process of guaranteeing confidentiality," says Dr Tariq Bahaa, a doctor and counsellor at one of the centres in Cairo.

"The person, who could just be coming for counselling, or counselling and testing, chooses a code name, and then we give him/her a code number. No personal details are asked for and nothing about them is divulged to anyone outside the centre. But everything about their needs and their behaviour is explored before any testing is done."

Meanwhile, HIV/Aids peer education programmes have been introduced by a range of NGOs dealing with young people.

Particular attention is given to those most at risk, such as Egypt's estimated one million street children.

At a reception centre run by the Cairo-based Hope Village Society, HIV and the risks associated with the disease are a regular topic of discussion with groups of street children.

"HIV is a very dangerous disease, so because of the training, I'm more aware of risks, and it's influenced my behaviour," says 15-year old Emad. "I look after myself better now when I'm on the streets than I ever did before."

Despite the presence of other positive factors, such as the recent founding of the Egyptian NGO Network Against Aids (ENNAA), and growing media coverage of the epidemic and programmes addressing it, significant challenges remain.

"There are many HIV/Aids related issues that we have not yet tackled, but intend to tackle over the coming years," says Dr Wessam El Beih, Unicef's officer for HIV/Aids.

"One thing that we will be engaged in very soon, is providing care and support for people living with HIV/Aids. This would be in terms of trying to give these people a voice, and help them live positively with HIV. And through this, we would be able to make real efforts at combating the stigma attached to the virus, which is still something that is quite prevalent in Egypt."