The Saudis must be truly frightened by Iran's nuke program. They must not believe the NIE anymore than the Israelis, UK, France, Germany or any semi-intelligent observer does. B
BBC NEWS Ahmadinejad invited to be pilgrim Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will this week become the first sitting president of the Islamic republic to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, his office said. It follows a formal invitation from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, seat of the Islamic holy places and a long-time regional rival of revolutionary Iran. It is not clear if he has performed the Hajj before, or if past presidents have been to Mecca after leaving office. An official said the invitation was an important event in Saudi-Iranian ties. "It is the first time in the history of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia that the king of this country invites a president of the Islamic republic to make the pilgrimage to Mecca," said presidential aide Ali Akbar Javanfekr. Relations between revolutionary, Shia Iran and the conservative, Sunni monarchy of Saudi Arabia have been steadily improving since the first visit to Riyadh by an Iranian president in 1999. Twelve years earlier, more than 400 people, mostly Iranians, were killed in clashes between Iranians and Saudi security forces during the Hajj. Earlier this month Mr Ahmadinejad became the first Iranian president to attend the annual summit of six Arab Gulf states - all strong US allies - in neighbouring Qatar. Iran and Mr Ahmadinejad in particular are among Washington's most vocal critics in the region. It will be his third visit to Saudi Arabia as president. The pilgrimage rites, which last for five days and are performed by at least 1.5 million Muslims, are expected to begin on 18 December. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7141994.stm Published: 2007/12/13 10:40:23 GMT C BBC MMVII . <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=11648958/grpspId=1705447214/msgI d=50462/stime=1197589718/nc1=3848607/nc2=4670553/nc3=4776372> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
