Wahhabi clerics call to boycott Iranian products

Calls to boycott Iranian products are gaining support in the region after a meeting of leading Sunni clerics in Cairo urged Muslims to declare a jihad against the Syrian regime supported by Iranian and Hezbollah fighters.

A declaration issued by the meeting also called for a boycott of ‘products, companies and interests’ of Iran. Several Kuwaiti supermarket chains have already begun boycotting Iranian goods.

Israel warns Russia over Syria arms delivery

Israel has said it will act if Russia delivers promised anti-aircraft missiles to its ally Syria, in an apparent allusion to another air raid on the neighbouring country.

Moshe Yaalon, Israeli defence minister, issued his warning on Tuesday shortly after a senior official in Moscow said the Russian government reserved the right to provide Syria with state-of-the-art S-300 air defence missiles

Car bombs, shooting in Iraq kill four people

BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials say a shooting and two car bombs have killed four people and wounded 26 in the western and northern parts of the country.

Police officials say the deadliest attack took place on Wednesday morning when gunmen sprayed a police checkpoint with bullets in the western city of Fallujah, killing three policemen.

In the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, police say a car bomb exploded near the offices of a Kurdish party, wounding 20 people.

Fazl toes US line on Iran gas

LAHORE - Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl staged a show of political force, the first of its kind by the religious party in the capital of Punjab where it has no significant ground presence.

Addressing the participants on Sunday evening, JUI-F Amir Fazlur Rehman claimed that only his party can rid the poor of the slavery of the elite, end power shortages, uphold the Islamic identity of Pakistan, protect its sovereignty and serve the very purpose of its creation.

People from various cities, even from other provinces, came to swell the crowd at Minar-e-Pakistan, where some 30,000 chairs had been arranged. Most of the participants of ‘Islam Zindabad Conference’ were students of religious seminaries, the main constituency of the JUI-F.

Overall, the JUI-F leaders who spoke on the occasion displayed a particularly soft corner for Mian Nawaz Sharif, the chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which ruled Punjab for the last five years and with which the JUI-F has been seeking an electoral alliance.