Violent clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli regime soldiers on Tuesday in several parts of occupied east al-Quds, as the occupying regime deployed thousands of troops in the holy city.

Zionist regime soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas on demonstrators who were throwing stones at the regime troops. Similar clashes erupted in other neighborhoods in occupied east al-Quds.

Some 40 Palestinians were injured when Israeli soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas.

Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas earlier declared Tuesday a “day of anger” against Israeli regime, a day after the regime reopened a synagogue in the occupied east Al-Quds.

“We call on the Palestinian people to regard Tuesday as a day of rage against the occupation’s (Israel’s) procedures in al-Quds against al-Aqsa mosque,” Hamas said in a statement.

Palestinians say the restoration work at the Hurva synagogue in occupied East al-Quds endangered al-Aqsa, situated some 400 meters (yards) away.

Thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank took to the streets on Tuesday, pledging to protect the occupied city of al-Quds against the Israeli regime’s attacks.

“With our blood, with our souls, we sacrifice for you, Al-Quds,” the crowds, most of them students, chanted.

The protests came at calls by Hamas Resistance movement that earlier declared Tuesday a “day of anger” against Israeli regime, a day after the regime reopened a synagogue in the occupied east Al-Quds.

Violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli regime soldiers were reported on Tuesday in several parts of occupied east al-Quds.

The regime’s soldiers fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinians who hurled stones in several neighborhoods.

The regime spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed that15 Palestinians were arrested.

A few hundred meters (yards) from the Qalandia checkpoint between Israel and the West Bank, dozens of Palestinian youths hurled stones at the regime’s soldiers who fired rubber bullets.

As the unrest rocked al-Quds, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell delayed a visit to the region amid the most severe diplomatic row in decades between Israeli regime and its staunch ally, the United States.

Israel’s announcement last week of plans to build 1,600 new Jewish settler homes in occupied East al-Quds infuriated not only the Palestinians, but also the US administration which had sent Vice President Joe Biden to the region to promote new Middle East peace talks.

Mitchell postponed a visit to the region that was to start on Tuesday, the US embassy said.

The reopening of a synagogue in occupied east al-Quds on Monday further fuelled tensions.

Leader of Hamas political bureau Khaled Meshaal slammed the move as “a falsification of history,” and warned it could cause the Middle East to “explode.”

“Israel is playing with fire and touching off the first spark to make the region explode,” he said.

“We warn against this action by the Zionist enemy to rebuild and dedicate the Hurva synagogue. It signifies the destruction of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the building of the temple,” he added.

Hatem Abdel Qader, who oversees Al-Quds affairs for Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah, said: “This is not just a synagogue.”

“This synagogue will be a prelude to violence, extremism and religious fanaticism, and that will not be limited to extremist Jews” but includes members of the Israeli occupying regime.

Iraqi elections partial results on Tuesday showed that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s party looked likely to form parliament’s single largest grouping.

Maliki’s success in the capital Baghdad, which accounts for more than twice as many seats as any other province, builds on his lead in seven provinces overall, and is a major boost for his bid to retain the top job.

Maliki’s main rival, secular ex-premier Iyad Allawi, leads in five provinces, with two-thirds of votes having been counted nationwide.

Preliminary results, based on 60 percent of ballots counted in Baghdad, showed Maliki’s State of Law Alliance held a 65,000-vote lead over Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc with the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition of Shiite religious groups, a distant third.

The election — the second since former dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled — comes less than six months before the United States is set to withdraw all of its combat troops from Iraq.

Maliki also holds leads in the oil-rich province of Basra, the third-biggest in Iraq, as well as five other provinces south of Baghdad.

Iraq’s proportional representation system makes it unlikely that any single group will clinch the 163 seats needed to form a government on its own, and protracted coalition building is likely.

Figures released on Monday showed Allawi, a Shiite Arab like Maliki, was narrowly ahead in the northern oil province of Kirkuk, defying predictions of a win for the Kurdish bloc which wants to incorporate Kirkuk into autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan in the north.

Iraqiya is also leading in Nineveh, Iraq’s second-largest province around the main northern city of Mosul, as well as the mostly Sunni provinces of Anbar, Diyala and Salaheddin.

The INA, meanwhile, is ahead in three Shiite southern provinces while Kurdistania, an alliance of the two main Kurdish factions, was ahead in all three of Kurdistan’s provinces.

Zionist Forces opened fire at the Palestinian protestors in East of Jerusalem today morning and used the rubber bullets and tear gas against them.

Palestinian sources confirmed that the clashes took place after Zionist decision to reopen synagogue near Jerusalem.

After that, the clashes broke out into several neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. The Palestinian medical sources reported that the Zionist forces injured more than Forty Palestinian civilians in Al Asaweiya area north of Occupied Jerusalem.

Palestinian Journalists inside occupied Jerusalem confirmed that the Zionist forces is detaining Palestinians randomly to suppress the civilian protestors by force.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Resistance movement Hamas said that the Zionist entity is aiming from these actions to judize Jerusalem. Palestinian sources in Gaza strip reported that huge rallies out as a protest on what is going on Jerusalem.

Israeli regime has reopened a synagogue in occupied east Al-Quds amid tight security, as Palestinian groups declared Tuesday a “day of anger” over the Zionist regime’s atrocities in Palestinian occupied lands.

Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas also called on Arabs and Muslims to “come to the aid of Al-Aqsa in the occupied Al-Quds.

Palestinians consider the opening of the synagogue as the last step leading up to removal of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the establishment of the alleged temple place.

The reopening took place amid high tensions in the holy city, with thousands of Israeli soldiers deployed in occupied Al-Aqsa.

Leader of Hamas political bureau Khaled Meshaal slammed the move as “a falsification of history,” and warned it could cause the Middle East to “explode.”

“Israel is playing with fire and touching off the first spark to make the region explode,” he said.

“We warn against this action by the Zionist enemy to rebuild and dedicate the Hurva synagogue. It signifies the destruction of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the building of the temple,” he added.

Hatem Abdel Qader, who oversees Al-Quds affairs for Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah, said: “This is not just a synagogue.”

“This synagogue will be a prelude to violence, extremism and religious fanaticism, and that will not be limited to extremist Jews” but includes members of the Israeli occupying regime.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) warns a third uprising will ensue if Israel pushes ahead with its practices in East Jerusalem (al-Quds).

“If matters remain at this level, regardless of whether we take the decision or not, it [an intifada] is coming. If Israel continues these practices, it is coming,” Ma’an news agency quoted the organization’s executive committee member, Ahmed Qurei, as saying.

Intifada “is not a matter of official decision, but rather it arises from the culmination of oppression, injustice, aggression and tyranny. It is something the people decide,” Qurei told reporters during a Monday news conference in his office in East al-Quds.

“This is what happened with the two previous intifadas,” he recalled.

Qurei criticized repeated attempts by Tel Aviv to change the city’s demographic nature and the threat the regime posed to Arab Muslim and Christian identity. Israel’s policy is aimed at severing al-Quds from negotiations and fully annexing the city to Israel, he added.

On Monday, a synagogue rededication ceremony, a few hundred meters away from the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, drew angry protests from Palestinians and prompted Hamas to call for massive demonstrations and dubbed Tuesday Palestinians’ “day of rage.”

Qurei, too, condemned the reopening of the Hurva synagogue as a “dangerous program” seeking to “Judaize” al-Quds and to falsify history.

The PLO official also spoke of unprecedented aggression and provocation from Israelis, citing a recent leaflet distributed by radical Jews calling on non-Jews to leave al-Quds amid mounting speculations of an Israeli takeover of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Revealing an 1882 map of al-Quds, which illustrated planned Israeli settlements, the former Palestinian prime minister said it proved “an unprecedented danger, which targets its land, people, holy sites, heritage and history.”

Despite intense security measures by Israeli authorities on Tuesday and the presence of some 3,000 security forces in al-Quds, thousands of angry Palestinians gathered in different neighborhoods of the city and protested the restoration of the synagogue.

Israeli forces clashed with the Palestinian protestors and fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the demonstrators.

Iran has deplored Israel’s reopening of a synagogue near al-Aqsa mosque, demanding the international community to take action against the move.

Israel on Monday reopened the Hurva synagogue in East Jerusalem (al-Quds), as part of what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Israel’s “heritage.”

The move has sparked protests by Palestinians in the holy city and elsewhere in the West Bank. Clashes have also been reported between the police and angry Palestinians.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast on Tuesday condemned Israel’s move as a “catastrophe that has distressed the Islamic world.”

He said the world community was expected to stand up against the move.

“We condemn the move and call on the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Arab League and the United Nations to take appropriate measures to stop this occupying regime,” Mehmanparast said.

He also condemned Israel’s plan to increase settlement activities.

Israel announced last week that it would erect 1,600 new settler houses in al-Quds, as US Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel over the so-called peace talks with the Palestinians.

Mehmanparast said Biden’s visit was not aimed at stopping Israel from settlement activities, saying it was, in fact, a “cover-up” for Israel’s measures.

He said the US had to take into account “numerous considerations” when it came to Israel.

Although the US criticized Israel for stalling peace talks through settlement activities, it backed Israel’s reopening of the rebuilt synagogue.

The US State Department said Palestinians’ criticisms of the reopening of the building could “only serve to heighten tensions.”

Despite Israel’s insistence that there is no political motives behind the move, the reopening of the synagogue is regarded as part of Israel’s plan to judaize al-Quds.

Head of al-Quds international institution, Dr. Ahmed Abu Halabiya, said the reopening of Hurva synagogue in al-Quds was part of an Israeli plan “to build a Jewish temple on al-Aqsa ruins.”

Hatem Abdel Qader, the Palestinian Authority’s official in charge of al-Quds affairs also expressed concern over what he described as “not just a synagogue.”

“We warn against this action by the Zionist enemy to rebuild and dedicate the Hurva synagogue. It signifies the destruction of the al-Aqsa mosque and the building of the temple,” he said.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is Islam’s third holiest location.

Iran has dismissed a recent report by an American paper which claimed Tehran was seeking nuclear weapons in the late 1980s.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast described the report as a “propaganda ploy that shows Washington’s ultimate frustration.”

In a Sunday article titled ‘Iran’s attempted deal with Pakistan,’ The Washington Post, quoted Abdul Qadir Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, as claiming that Tehran had attempted to purchase nuclear weapons and know-how from Islamabad.

The Post bases its report on “never officially disclosed” material written by Khan while under house arrest in 2004, but does not provide a source for its story.

“The US is using such allegations to deprive the Iranian nation of its nuclear rights, which have been internationally recognized,” Mehmanparast said Monday, adding that Washington was following an “Iranophobia project” to justify its military presence in the Middle East.

The Washington Post report comes while Abdul Qadir Khan has repeatedly dismissed such allegations.

Abdul Basit, Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman, also rejected the report on Monday and said, “It is yet another repackaging of fiction which surfaces occasionally for purposes that are self-evident.”

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has swept the vote in the country’s largest province, Baghdad, early results from parliamentary elections show.

With 60 percent of ballots counted, the prime minister’s Rule of Law Alliance garnered 518,203 votes, with the Iraqiya bloc of secular ex-premier Iyad Allawi coming in second with 453,028, AFP reported Monday.

The Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition of Shia religious groups, was in third place with around 323,975 votes, according to the report.

Earlier results released on Saturday, based on 18 percent of ballots counted, had put the Rule of Law around 50,000 votes ahead of both Iraqiya and the INA.

More than 6,200 candidates from six major coalitions and several other tribal and minority groups contested the parliamentary elections on March 7.

After long hours of debate, Iran’s Majlis (parliament) has passed the budget bill for the new Persian calendar year starting March 21st.

The bill encompasses measures that give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the go-ahead for the first phase of his major economic reform plan.

Less than a week to the Persian New Year, lawmakers wrapped up 14 long sessions of debate and passed the much anticipated budget bill allowing the government to eliminate USD 20 billion worth of subsidies rather than the USD 40 billion that President Ahmadinejad had asked for, a Press TV correspondent reported.

This is the first phase of the Iranian president’s major reform plan to make fundamental changes in Iran’s economy, a topic that has sparked debates over the past year.

“Everyone agrees that the current subsidy system is wrong. The question is how to redirect the subsidies. In parliament, we believed that this should be done over a period of five years to reduce the negative effects, particularly on the inflation rate,” lawmaker Mohammad Reza Khabbaz said.

The government is currently paying USD 100 billion in subsidies and President Ahmadinejad says the faster changes are made, the easier it will be for the nation to adapt.

Last Tuesday, debates continued behind closed doors, as President Ahmadinejad tried to convince the nation’s representatives in Majlis.

“The president told us that the USD 40 billion would not increase the current 11.8 percent inflation, rather it would reduce it because it will not be adding to the liquidity,” another lawmaker, Vali Esmaeeli said.

Esmaeeli added that if parliament disagrees, it will become difficult for the government to go through with the plan.

Only 105 lawmakers agreed, the remaining members of parliament were of the opinion that such a rapid change might trigger a 50 percent surge in inflation.

“If we were to agree with the USD 40 billion, it would definitely affect the calculations regarding the prices of fuel and food,” lawmaker Mohammad Taqi Rahbar said.

“It would create a shock so we disagreed….The government should not expect parliament to agree with everything it proposes.”

The next year’s budget in terms of resources and spending stands at USD 360 billion based on an oil price of USD 65 per barrel.

Now that parliament has passed next year’s budget bill, Iran prepares itself for the first phase of major economic reforms which includes the redistribution of state subsidies for food and energy – something that critics believe will negatively impact the country’s inflation rates.

Israel’s Army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi has traveled to Turkey to attend a NATO conference amid rising tensions between Tel Aviv and Ankara.

During his one day visit to Ankara, Ashkenazi will meet with his Turkish counterpart General Ilker Basbug and Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul, Ynet reported.

Ashkenazi will head to the NATO conference which focus on terrorism and international cooperation.

The visit was not revealed until Monday morning.

Relations between Israel and Turkey began to deteriorate after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly slammed Israel over its late 2008 incursion into Gaza and charged the regime with committing “barbarian” acts against the Palestinian civilians.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki congratulated the people of Iraq on holding a successful general election in his last meeting with the outgoing Iraqi ambassador.

“The Iraqi elections showed that despite enemy plots, it is the people of Iraq who determine their country’s destiny,” Mottaki told Iraq’s ambassador to Tehran, Mohammad Majid al-Sheikh.

Tehran-Baghdad relations are on the upswing and are on the right path, the Iranian foreign minister added.

Ambassador al-Sheikh, who has been representing the Iraqi government in Tehran for over five years, will soon leave the Iranian capital for Baghdad, having completed his mission.

In his last meeting with the Iranian foreign minister, al-Sheikh informed Mottaki about how the two countries’ joint projects are progressing and highlighted the importance of expanding bilateral relations.

As Iran prepares for the Persian New Year, the Judiciary chief said Sunday the events of the past year, which ends March 21st, have made the Islamic Republic stronger than before.

Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani said although the year was “bittersweet,” its events had paved the ground for the foundation of the revolution, the Iranian Labor News Agency reported.

“Although the harsh post-vote events lacerated the public’s emotion, the active and conscious presence of the people foiled the [anti-Iran] plots,” he said in an allusion to the unrest that followed the presidential election in June.

Iran says Western powers, particularly the UK, were responsible for the unrest. The West, however, denies any involvement in the events that claimed the lives of a dozen civilians.

Ayatollah Larijani also expressed hope that the next year would be filled with success and public satisfaction.

Early results from Iraq’s general election show former premier Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya Alliance is leading in the northern province of Kirkuk.

Iraqiya garnered 123,862 votes, while the Kurdistania Alliance, which had been expected to secure most of the votes, was second with 120,664 votes, followed by Goran with 20,152 votes.

About 61 of the ballots have been counted with complete results expected on March 18 and the final ones at the end of the month.

Kirkuk accounts for 13 parliamentary seats in the 325-member Council of Representatives.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Rule of Law coalition is leading the polls in major Iraqi provinces, including Baghdad, Basra, Najaf, Babil, Karbala and Muthanna.

Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani calls on Iranian youth and university students to choose a “rational” manner to express their views.

Rafsanjani said Sunday that everybody should be free to express their views, adding that “I will never ask them to remain silent.”

However, the former president added, “We should speak in a way that our crouching enemies and arrogant [powers] will not take advantage of it.”

He advised students to “express their views in a rational manner.”

“We ask you to assess the current situation well… despite unrests, long-term wars and sanctions, the Islamic Republic has been able to take major strides forward,” Rafsanjani said.

“I think individuals, including students, who have good things to say will be successful in rational situation, eventually,” the head of the Assembly of Experts said.

Iran’s envoy to the Vatican said Sunday diplomatic efforts are underway to secure the release of an Iranian journalist detained in Italy over alleged arms smuggling.

Ali Akbar Naseri, the Iranian ambassador, made the comments in Tehran where he met with Iranian lawmakers to review the case of Hamid Masouminejad.

Masouminejad is an employee of Iran’s national broadcaster, IRIB. He was arrested after Italian counterterrorism prosecutor Armando Spataro claimed a nine-month investigation, including intercepted phone conversations and e-mail messages, had implicated the journalist.

The move has sparked a diplomatic row between Rome and Tehran. Iran says the move is politically motivated.

Naseri rejected the charges against Masouminejad and said Iran expects the Italian government to immediately release the journalist.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil is planning to pay an official visit to Tehran in May, an Iranian official said Sunday.

Mir Qassem Momeni, the head of Iran-Brazil Friendship Association, said economy will top President Lula’s agenda during his visit to Iran, slated for May 15.

According to Momeni, the Ministers of Development, Industry and Trade as well as banking and trade authorities will accompany the Brazilian president.

Brazil has been a vocal supporter of Iran’s right to enrich uranium for civilian applications. The country has also expressed willingness to facilitate Tehran in acquiring fuel for its medical research reactor.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Brazil to win support for fresh anti-Iran sanctions over its nuclear program. She, however, failed to bring President Lula onboard the US-led campaign.

Early results from Iraq’s general elections show Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition having a wide lead in the southern oil hub of Basra.

Maliki’s State of Law coalition had 219,657 votes compared to 121,497 for the Iraqi National Alliance.

Iraqiya, led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, had 36,093 votes. The totals represented 63 percent of the vote in Basra Province.

The electoral commission’s Sunday announcement comes one day after results showed Maliki’s Law of Coalition leading in the capital Baghdad.

Initial results since Thursday have put the Rule of Law in the lead in the predominantly-Shia southern provinces of Najaf, Babil, Karbala and Muthanna.

More than 6,200 candidates from six major coalitions and several other tribal and minority groups contested the parliamentary elections on March 7, despite the prospects of violence and fear of subversion on the part of the loyalists to Baath — the outlawed party of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The event kicked off following the disqualification of suspected Baath sympathizers.

The elections day also saw more than 30 people killed in violent attacks.

Iran’s envoy to OPEC says there is no need for the organization to change output targets in the upcoming meeting in Vienna.

”OPEC is expected to insist on the members’ quota compliance in the next meeting,” Mohammad Ali Khatibi was quoted by SHANA as saying on Sunday.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets in Vienna on March 17 to review its oil supply policy.

The oil producing organization has left its quota unchanged since December 2008, when it agreed to cut 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) but compliance of the group’s members has waned to 53 percent.

Khatibi added that the oil market would be oversupplied in the second half of 2010.

“If the current oil production continues, the oil market will face an oversupply in the second half of 2010,” he said.

Khatibi said that OPEC is likely to ask members to comply with their quotas until the economic crisis is over.

According to OPEC’s reports, the group expects appetite for crude oil to remain weak throughout the first half of 2010.

An American soldier has been killed and two others have been wounded in an attack on a US military base in central Iraq.

The US military said in a Sunday statement that the soldier, who was not named, was killed by indirect fire in a mortar or rocket attack on a base in Diyala province.

“The wounded were evacuated to a nearby military medical facility and are in stable condition,” the statement said without giving further details.

The US military said in a separate statement that an American soldier died of non-combat related causes in the northern province of Nineveh.

Sunday’s deaths bring the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion to 4,384, according to an AFP tally based on independent website icasualties.