UPDATE 0900 GMT: President Hamid Karzai has said in his Eid al-Adha message, “I once again call upon our brothers, the Taliban, Hezb-e-Islami and everyone who is away from their land and who have taken up arms against their soil, to come back to their country for peace, stability, prosperity so that we Afghan people join hand in hand together to rebuild and prosper our beloved country.”
On the occasion of the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha), Mullah Omar, the leader of the “Old Taliban” in Afghanistan, put out a message. From the US Government Open Source Center via Juan Cole:
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. [Verse in Arabic]
I congratulate the mojahed [holy-warrior] nation of Afghanistan, the respectable families of martyrs, those who live in captivity of the enemy, the brave mojahedin [holy warriors] and all members of the Islamic Ummah [nation] on the auspicious occasion of Eid al-Adha. May this sacred day be the day of eternal freedom, pride, happiness, well-being and success for the entire Islamic Ummah. May Allah accept the hajj, acts of worship and prayers of hajjis [pilgrims to Mecca] and make their religious gathering a cause for unity among members of the Ummah.
On the auspicious occasion of Eid al-Adha and based on the needs of time, I would also like to mention a few necessary issues: Read the rest of this entry »
On Monday Syrian President Bashar Assad, in Istanbul for the meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, condemned “Zionist occupation”. He warned Israel of the “legitimacy of Arab resistance” if peace talks fail and called for the demolition of settlements in the West Bank:
Resistance to the occupation is a national duty. To support it is a moral and legal duty and standing by it is an honor which makes us proud.
Arabs have a fixed desire for the realization of a just and comprehensive peace on the basis of the return of the occupied territories, especially Occupied Syrian Golan but the failure of negotiations in returning all rights means existence of the resistance as an alternative solution.
What about dismantling settlements instead of stopping them and more importantly, what about ending the occupation? We must begin to work for the elimination of the occupation since it ensures us stopping then removing the settlements and not the opposite.
2030 GMT: We’re still waiting for an English translation of today’s Mir Hossein Mousavi newspaper with Jamaran, the newspaper of the Khomeini family (see 1015 GMT). The headline is Mousavi’s declaration that Iran is “vulnerable” in the current political situation: “People who entered the scene of the Revolution did not do it to suffer such difficulties. They came to secure their freedom and welfare, and if the system fails to deliver, it will lose its legitimacy for certain.”
2020 GMT: An EA reader has sent us the petition, printed in full in the comments below, to the head of Iran’s judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, to commute the death sentence of Ehsan Fatahian, a 28-year-old Kurd who is scheduled for execution on Wednesday. Fatahian was initially given a 10-year prison term for “plotting against national security” but this was changed to a death sentence by an appeal court when the charge “waging war against God” was added.
2000 GMT: Back from a break to find excellent material from readers. With university demonstrations continuing today, we’ve posted four clips from a rally at Azad University, Khomeini Shahr, outside Isfahan.
Tomorrow (10 November) at 12:00 CET she will present a film, Women in Shrouds, and hold a Q&A about human rights in Iran. If anyone here would like to ask her a question through me, please post it here in these comments.
1645 GMT: Daftar-Tahkim-Vahdat, the main reformist student and alumni organisation, has issued a statement announcing that it will withstand the oppression of “coup agents” with all of its organisational power, even as almost half of its key members are imprisoned or sought by the security forces.
UPDATE 0900 GMT: President Hamid Karzai has said in his Eid al-Adha message, “I once again call upon our brothers, the Taliban, Hezb-e-Islami and everyone who is away from their land and who have taken up arms against their soil, to come back to their country for peace, stability, prosperity so that we Afghan people join hand in hand together to rebuild and prosper our beloved country.”
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On Monday Syrian President Bashar Assad, in Istanbul for the meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, 
2030 GMT: We’re still waiting for an English translation of today’s Mir Hossein Mousavi newspaper with Jamaran, the newspaper of the Khomeini family (see 1015 GMT). The headline is 
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