The Kremlin says Russia and the US are likely to set a date for the signing of a new pact to cut nuclear arms known as START.

The heads of state have, by an already established tradition, held a regular exchange of views on the situation in the final stages of preparation of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Both sides expressed satisfaction with the high level of agreement in the major provisions of the draft treaty.

It was underlined that it is now possible to talk about specific dates for the submission of the draft START treaty for signing by the heads of state, the Kremlin press service said in a statement on Saturday.

The White House also said that the leaders of the two countries are committed to concluding the deal soon.

However, no date has been announced for the deal to reduce the two countries’ nuclear arsenals.

Russia and the United States have been negotiating a replacement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty since the Russian and US presidents met in April last year, but the finalization of the document has dragged on, with US plans for a missile system in Europe a particular sticking point.

The previous deal, known as START 1, the cornerstone of post-Cold War arms control, expired on December 5

The Judiciary said Saturday it has identified and dismantled a US-backed cyber network, which was set up to gather information on the country’s nuclear scientists and spread unrest after the presidential election.

In a statement, the Judiciary said the group had been established by anti-Iran groups, including the terrorist Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO). It added that some of the prime suspects linked to the group were identified and about 30 of them have been arrested.

According to the New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh, former US President George W. Bush funded a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, allocating up to four hundred million dollars to “destabilize the country’s religious leadership.”

The Judiciary said, under Bush’s Presidential Finding, a new campaign in the intelligence front — called the “cyber war” — was set up to engage Iran, with the help of the MKO, pro-monarchy groups and other anti-Iran cells.

One of the main projects of the campaign, the statement said, was a program called “Iran Proxy,” which received a funding of 50 million dollars from the CIA and the US State Department.

The program, which allowed Iranians bypass the state’s filtering system and access the Internet, was designed to “obtain personal and family information” of its users and pass them along to US spy agencies, the statement said.

Another major project of the campaign, it said, was a network called “Human Rights Activists,” which was led by Keyvan Rafiei, Jamal Hosseini and Ahmad Batebi.

The network was tasked with recruiting people and sending them to an MKO camp in Iraq and other countries, where they would receive training, the statement said.

The network was also in close cooperation with “Lawyers Committee” and “Harana News service,” it said.

The network, according to the confession of its arrested members, was also tasked with inviting people to attend illegal rallies and riots in the aftermath of the presidential election in June.

They also spread rumors about the number of people who were killed during the unrest, saying there had been seventy-two victims.

The network also sought to provide cover for armed acts against the Islamic Republic establishment, the statement said.

The Judiciary added that the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) had been briefed on the situation and key members of the campaign, who reside in the United States, had been introduced to the force.

The Russian foreign ministry has questioned the objectivity of US annual report on worldwide human rights practices, criticizing it for ignoring the United States’ own record.

The Russia section of the US State Department’s 2009 Human Rights Report noted a decline in the number of racially or religiously motivated crimes in Russia during the year, but expressed concern over ethnic discrimination.

“It is no secret to anyone that this opus is aimed primarily at solving the political issues of the US establishment,” said a statement from the ministry’s information and press department published on Friday.

The statement recommended a report on the human rights practices in the United States, which is not included in the US country report.

“For instance, it is interesting to know how the department, which is partial to moralizing in the human rights sphere, will comment on the tortures and cruel and inhumane treatment of people in the US itself.

“And not just the widely known cases in Bagram and the special prison in Guantanamo — which, contrary to the administration’s promises, just doesn’t close — but also in the prisons and on the streets of America.”

Such a report should not shirk from mentioning “domestic violence leading to the murder of children, including those adopted in Russia,” as well as “racism and xenophobia toward migrants, and Islamophobia,” it said.

The ministry concluded that despite efforts to “re-set” relations with Washington, which suffered a post-Cold War low during the former administration, the report had just rehashed its attitude towards Russia:

“Everything in the report fits tradition and ritual.”

US President Barack Obama has convened his war cabinet with top military and intelligence officials to get an update on the US-led occupation of Afghanistan.

Obama was briefed on the latest situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan by his top aides during the Friday session in the so-called ‘Situation Room’ of the White House.

In the convention, US General Stanley McChrystal, commander of US military in war-ravaged Afghanistan, spoke, via video link, of “continued progress” on the ground against Taliban forces.

“We were largely through the clearing phase and more rapidly moving to a phase of hold, which puts a premium obviously on good governance,” AFP quoted White House spokesman Robert Gibbs Gibbs as saying on the continued occupation of the country.

He also quoted McChrystal as saying that the US military is keeping Obama’s commitment to send 30,000 additional US troops to the hotspots.

“We were on schedule on our force flow in getting additional forces approved by the president into Afghanistan by the end of summer,” he noted.

Militancy in Afghanistan has worsened in recent months despite US plans to fortify military and deploy extra troops in the war-ravaged country.

The heads of top US intelligence agencies were also present at the meeting of which no detailed report has been published.

US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton has criticized Israel after it announced plans this week to build new housing units in East Jerusalem Al-Quds.

On Friday, Clinton told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Tel Aviv’s latest settlement plans are a “deeply negative signal.”

She also said that the move has undermined trust and confidence in the so-called peace process.

Clinton underlined that Israel is expected to take actions to improve the prospects of re-launching peace talks with Palestinians.

The dispute opened up a rare diplomatic rift between the US and Israel, as the announcement for the new constructions came while Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel.

On Tuesday, Israel announced a decision to approve 16-hundred new housing units in East al-Quds. The move drew condemnation from the UN and even Israel’s western allies.

China has lashed out at the United States for accusing other countries of human rights violation while ignoring its own poor rights record.

On Friday, in a report on US human rights violation, Chinese Information Office of the State Council denounced Washington for using the rights issue as a political instrument to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.

“The United States not only has a terrible domestic human rights record, it is also the main source of many human rights disasters worldwide,” the Chinese report said, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Chinese government has said the report is “prepared to help people around the world understand the real situation of human rights in the United States.

Beijing has also rejected the US report on the rights violation in China.

On Thursday, US State Department claimed in its annual report on global human rights that China’s human rights record worsened in 2009. The report has also targeted Iran as a major human rights violator, a yearly routine for US policy makers.

The US report is widely believed to be an unreliable and highly political document aimed at punishing nations that do not share American political and strategic views.

The US claims Saudi Arabia and the UAE are open to lobbying China and Russia to support a new round of sanctions on Iran.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates toured in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi over the past two days to tighten pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

“I have a sense that there is a willingness to do that,” Gates told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

“Although there is less need with respect to Russia, because I think Russia is pretty much already there. It’s mainly China.”

China and Russia, which are reluctant to impose sanctions on Iran, have repeatedly called for a diplomatic solution to the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program.

The United States, Israel, and their allies have accused Iran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program, a claim rejected by Tehran.

As a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology meant for peaceful purposes.

The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted toward the production of nuclear weapons.

Israel possesses a nuclear arsenal of at least 250 warheads, has never signed the NPT, and has never allowed IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities.

The US House of Representatives has rejected an effort by anti-war lawmakers to force a withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year.

On Wednesday, Sixty-five lawmakers, most of them Democrats, voted for the pullout resolution, while 356 voted against.

The resolution written by liberal Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich called for President Barack Obama to pull out US forces from Afghanistan by the end 2010.

Supporters of the Kucinich resolution said it was time for US legislators to consider the continuation of the nine-year-old war in Afghanistan in which around 1,000 US soldiers have been killed and hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent without having established security in the war-ravaged country.

“Unless this Congress acts to claim its constitutional responsibility, we will stay in Afghanistan for a very, very long time at great cost to our troops and to our national priorities,” Kucinich said.

US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that Iran’s policies were against US national interests, adding that Washington will keep existing sanctions against Tehran in force.

In a letter to the Congress of the United States, President Obama informed lawmakers about his decision to make the National Emergency on Iran, which will be expired on March 15, saying that the emergency will continue in effect for one year.

“The actions and policies of the Government of Iran are contrary to the interests of the United States in the region and pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” Xinhua quoted the US president as saying in his letter.

He added that issues between Washington and Tehran which led to the declaration of a national emergency on March 15, 1995 “has not been resolved”, stressing that “It is necessary to continue the national emergency declared with respect to Iran and maintain in force comprehensive sanctions against Iran.”

The report comes despite Obama’s claims that his administration is moving towards a policy change on Iran.

The US has also embarked on a campaign to slap fresh embargos against Iran over its nuclear enrichment program.

Russia and China, two veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council, have voiced their reluctance to back new sanctions against Iran and continue to call for a diplomatic solution to the country’s nuclear issue.

Tehran has repeatedly declared that it will not relinquish the legitimate nuclear rights of the Iranian nation under Western pressure.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has paid a visit to Saudi Arabia, seeking to win the support of the United States’ closest ally in the Persian Gulf on tough sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

Gates met with King Abdullah and the Saudi crown prince as part of the US administration’s diplomatic push for new United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions against Iran.

“We are certainly hopeful that the Saudis will use whatever influence they have which is considerable in this region and throughout the world to try and help us in our efforts at the UN so we can get meaningful sanctions enacted against Iran,” US press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters on Wednesday.

As China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UNSC, is highly skeptical of new Iran sanctions, Washington hopes to win Saudi Arabia’s support in persuading Beijing to change its stance toward Iran and its nuclear program.

The US hopes the Saudis could guarantee China, which has extensive trade ties with main oil producer Iran, stable crude supplies in the event of disruption from Iran, AFP reported.

Hundreds of demonstrators have held an anti-Israeli rally outside a fundraiser for the Israeli military in New York.

Earlier a Jerusalem Post article had reported that the Friends of the IDF would host a USD 1,000-a-plate dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, to raise funds for the Israeli military.

Organized by a broad coalition of about 25 groups, including American Jews for a Just Peace, the demonstration took place in New York on Tuesday, with protestors defending the Palestinian cause by chanting “Long live Palestine, long live the Intifada. Palestine will never die.”

We have come here “to protect the Jews from our mortal enemies, when the mortal enemy is this entity of Zionism which is the ideology behind the [creation of] Israel,” one demonstrator told Press TV, adding that by “exacerbating anti-Semitism” Israel has exposed “a rift between the Jews and the Muslims.”

The fundraiser was attended by several Israeli military officials, including Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi, who arrived in Washington on Monday for talks on Iran.

Ashkenazi has met with US military officials at the Pentagon, and he’s also due to meet with Republican Senator John McCain.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that his father predicted the 9/11 attacks on New York’s twin towers back in the ’90s.

The remark was made during the 100th birthday celebration of the premier’s father, Benzion Netanyahu, Haaretz reported.

The Israeli prime minister added that those who do not know their past will not understand their presence and will not be able to predict their future.

Benzion Netanyahu is an Israeli historian and Zionist activist.

As the Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi is heading to the US, dozens of organizations in America are planning protests against the head of the Israeli Defense Forces.

More than 25 American, Jewish and Israeli organizations plan to stage a protest against Ashkenazi in New York’s Manhattan on Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Protest organizers have described Ashkenazi as the “butcher of Gaza” where thousands of civilians were killed during Israel’s three-week offensive in December 2008.

According to the IDF, the Israeli military chief will hold meetings with government, military, security and public diplomacy officials in Washington and New York beginning Monday.

Ashkenazi’s visit to the US comes as US Vice president Joe Biden is starting a tour of the Middle East in a bid to rally support for resuming indirect peace talks between Israelis and the Palestinians.

The US-sponsored “proximity talks” have received opposition from both Palestinian movements, Hamas and Fatah.

Biden is expected to meet Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian and Jordanian leaders starting on Monday.

Four more banks have been shut down across the United States, bringing the number of bank failures in the country to 26 since January.

The banks, with over one billion dollars in assets, were closed by US bank regulators in the states of Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Utah.

The closures showed that deteriorating loans are continuing to take a toll on financial institutions.

The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has warned that the pace of bank failures is likely to pick up in coming months.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair predicts bank failures to remain high as long as the banking industry seeks to recognize loan losses and clean up their balance sheets.

Hoping to curb this trend, the US president has presented a $30 billion plan to give money to community banks if they lend more to small businesses.

At least 166 banks have been forced to close down in the US since the financial crisis first hit last year.

Regulators closed 140 banks in 2009, compared to 25 in 2008 and only 3 in 2007.

Amid US calls for punitive action against Iran, a congressional report finds that Washington’s poor record-keeping and outdated data filing will prove any US sanctions against Iran ineffective.

According to the latest findings of the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Treasury Department’s lack of “complete and timely export licensing information” is impeding the enforcement of export restrictions against Iran over its nuclear program.

In light of this, GAO urges the Treasury to review its reliance on paper-based information systems that cannot be searched to identify licenses for the export of goods to Iran.

“Treasury’s information systems weaken the ability of the government to assess compliance with Iran sanctions,” maintained GAO, which is widely regarded as the investigative arm of the Congress.

GAO investigators further note that the system still uses manual data entry as well as non-standardized data for license applications entered before 2007.

As a result, GAO says, the government “cannot readily determine the extent to which it has issued licenses for such exports or the extent to which goods marked for Iran are leaving US ports.”

The governmental watchdog explains that an improved tracking system in the Treasury Department would help Washington officials ensure that none of US exports are inadvertently used to further finance and develop Iran’s nuclear and military programs.

“US agencies … should have complete, reliable, and timely information concerning these matters to ensure the US government is implementing the ban on exports to Iran,” said GAO.

The Treasury Department is among the US agencies responsible for enforcing sanctions and tracking shipments to Iran.

This is not the first time GAO vocally questions the impact of unilateral US sanctions against Iran.

In a report released earlier in 2008, GAO challenged the efficiency of 20 years of US economic sanctions on Tehran since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

“Iran’s global trade ties and leading role in energy production make it difficult for the United States to isolate Iran and pressure it to reduce proliferation and support for terrorism,” the Office had declared on January 17, 2008.

“Iran’s overall trade with the world has grown since the US imposed sanctions, although this trade has fluctuated.”

The report comes amid US calls for stricter sanctions against Iran over its refusal to stop uranium enrichment, which Iran requires to fuel its Tehran research reactor for producing medical isotopes for cancer patients.

While the West accuses Tehran of pursuing weapons-grade enrichment, Iran dismisses such charges, saying that as a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it neither believes in atomic weapons, nor, as a matter of religious principles, does it intend to access such weapons of mass-destruction.

Following unsuccessful anti-Iran campaign in Latin America and the Middle East, the US is now sending emissaries to China to win Beijing’s support in pushing through a UN Security Council resolution for international sanctions against Iran.

Two top US diplomats arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a visit that will, among other things, focus on persuading China to cooperate in imposing embargoes against Iran.

Washington hopes that the visit to China by US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and the National Security Council’s Senior Director for Asian Affairs Jeffrey Bader will also help in easing trade tensions with the Asian power.

Steinberg will be the most senior US diplomat to visit Beijing since a wave of disputes erupted between the two governments in recent months over Internet issues, trade, and US arms sales to Taiwan.

“We’ve gone through a bit of a bumpy path here, and I think there’s an interest both within the United States and China to get back to business as usual as quickly as possible,” US State Department spokesman told reporters in Washington on Monday.

Philip Crowley also asserted that Iran would be on the agenda of the talks between US officials and their counterparts in Beijing.

China, as well, seems interested in lowering the temperature of friction with the United States, a key trade partner.

Beijing has not yet acted on its threat to sanction US companies involved in the Taiwan arms sales. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said recently that he wants to ease trade tension with the United States.

The United States and other Western powers want China’s backing for a proposed UN resolution slapping new sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program.

Analysts and officials say that China will resist any proposed sanctions that would threaten the flow of oil to China and Beijing’s investments in Iran, but most believe that the veto-wielding member of the Security Council will accept a rather narrowly-cast resolution that has a more symbolic than practical impact.

China, which has large-scale trade and investment ties with Iran, has so far resisted US pressure over the issue, stressing that the matter must be resolved diplomatically.

China could use its veto power as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to block any proposed resolution.

Iran has repeatedly objected to what it describes as the unfair privileges that a few states have at the UN Security Council that allows some powerful countries to act above the law.

The US and its allies accuse Tehran of following a military agenda under its civilian nuclear program, although the UN nuclear watchdog inspectors stationed in Iran have not been able to substantiate such claims.

Under pressure from Washington, the UN Security Council has already passed a number of resolutions against Iran with the aim of restricting its nuclear activities.

Iran, however, has disregarded the motions, arguing that the resolutions are in direct contradiction with International Atomic Energy Agency regulations, which clearly state that all countries are entitled to enrich uranium as part of a peaceful nuclear program.

US President Barack Obama has reportedly rejected proposals to exclude pre-emptive atomic strikes from the country’s new nuclear strategy.

Obama is making his final decisions on America’s new nuclear strategy, called the ‘Nuclear Posture Review’, which is expected to permanently downsize the US nuclear arsenal.

But fears are growing that the president might follow in his predecessor Gorge W. Bush’s tracks.

Citing unnamed senior presidential aides, the daily New York Times said on Monday that the administration has rejected proposals that the United States declare it would resort to nuclear arms only once targeted by such weapons.

This would mean Obama, who has been extremely cautious in distancing himself from the former administration’s policies, may now leave open the possibility for the United States to use nuclear weapons in response to a chemical or biological attack, even against a nation that may not possess a nuclear arsenal at all, the paper noted.

The new document is supposed to commit the United States to developing no new nuclear weapons, including the nuclear bunker-busters advocated by the Bush administration.

This is while Obama has authorized billions of dollars more to be spent on updating America’s weapons laboratories.

According to Times article, the US has been bringing up with its European allies the question of whether to withdraw its Europe-based tactical nuclear weapons.

On Monday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was to present Obama with several options in line with a shift in US military strategy towards the use of broader missile systems, mostly arrayed within striking distance of the Persian Gulf states.

Obama’s recently published Quadrennial Defense Review also includes support for a new class of non-nuclear missiles, namely “Prompt Global Strike,” which enable the United States to hit a target anywhere in less than an hour, the Times said.

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will depart on a five-nation Latin American tour next week in a bid to bolster ties and gauge the feasibility of Obama’s vision for the region.

Clinton’s trip, to commence next Sunday, will first take her to Uruguay where she will attend the presidential inauguration of Jose Mujica and use the occasion to meet with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and other Latin American leaders.

It is not yet known whether Saturday’s killer quake in Chile will affect Clinton’s tour of the region. However, the top US diplomat is scheduled to visit the quake-hit country on the second leg of her trip, with “no change at the moment” for her Santiago visit, Clinton spokesman Philip Crowley told AFP.

After talks with the outgoing President Michelle Bachelet and president-elect Sebastian Pinera in Chile, Clinton will travel to Brazil for talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in an attempt to draw his alignment with Washington on issues such as Iran and it’s nuclear program.

Costa Rica, which has elected its first female president this month, will be Clinton’s next destination before making her last stop in Guatemala for talks with President Alvaro Colom, as well as a meeting with leaders of Central American countries and the Dominican Republic.

Clinton’s first trip to South America will take place amid reports of a series of US policy changes in the region.

Analysts believe that she will use her trip, especially Uruguay’s presidential inauguration, to announce that the US is ready to accept the new political realities in the region expressing American willingness to work with both governments of the left and right.

Israel’s defense minister has called on the United Sates to impose strict sanctions on Iran over its nuclear energy program.

Speaking in Washington on Friday after a series of meetings with US officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak stressed the necessity of “significant and effective sanctions within a time limit,” against Iran.

Barak praised Washington’s anti-Tehran policy but said Tel Aviv wants the Islamic Republic to collapse sooner. He also urged his western allies not to remove any option against Iran from the table.

He added that Israel will “carry certain skepticism and think thoroughly and in a constructive manner about what should happen if, against our hopes and wishes, it (sanctions) won’t work.”

US and Israel, a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), accuses Tehran of seeking atomic weapons under the guise of its nuclear program.

Tehran strongly rejects the charges and says the program aims to meet its growing electricity demands.

An Israeli official claims the US has assured Tel Aviv that “firm sanctions” will be imposed on Tehran as soon as next month.

This comes as China has expressed strong resistance to a new round of sanctions against Iran.

According to a senior Israeli officials speaking on conditions of anonymity, US officials have told the Israelis that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) would approve fresh sanctions against Iran by the end of March or the beginning of April — with or without China’s approval.

Israeli officials reportedly received the assurances in a strategic meeting with US officials on Thursday in Jerusalem Al-Quds.

“The sanctions will not be paralyzing and sweeping,” Haaretz quoted the Israeli official as saying on Friday.

“But they will be firm enough to harm the regime there. Also, a mechanism will be set up to enable additional UN resolutions to be passed swiftly if the Iranians don’t change their conduct,” he added.

As part of a last-ditch effort to obstruct Iran’s nuclear program, Israel has sought to send high-ranking delegations to a number of countries, including Brazil, Russia and China, to rally support for punitive measures against the Tehran government.

In Russia, Israeli efforts have achieved little with Kremlin officials declaring that it is much too soon to consider stringent measures against Iran.

This, however, has not stopped Tel Aviv’s effort to call for international sanctions against Iran. On the contrary, it has prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go as far as demanding that the UN Security Council be sidestepped if it cannot agree to more sanctions against Tehran.

“We must prohibit Iranian oil exports and imports to Iran of refined oil products. No other sanctions will be effective,” Netanyahu said in Al-Quds at a meeting of delegates from the Jewish Agency, an organization that encourages Jewish immigration to Israel.

Israel’s vocal opposition to Iran’s enrichment activity, which is described as peaceful by the Tehran government, comes in light of reports that Tel Aviv houses an arsenal of over 200 nuclear warheads.

This has raised serious questions particularly among Middle Eastern nations as to why Israel, which houses a nuclear arsenal, refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has been involved in many wars with regional states, should not arouse concerns among those countries which try to keep Iran’s nuclear energy program in the limelight.