Leaks’ cables put US envoys worldwide on horns

NEW YORK: Release of thousands of diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks has bothered the US diplomats worldwide as friends and foes of the United States turned on WikiLeaks over its release, with some saying the revelations undermined diplomacy, while others dismissed them as worthless.

Pakistan said it considered the “extremely negative reports” carried on Pakistan-Saudi relations attributed to WikiLeaks as “misleading and contrary to facts”.

“It is quite evident that these mischievous reports reveal the utter inadequacy of the author to grasp the essence of the Pakistan-Saudi relationship,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit responded to the WikiLeaks documents that revealed on Sunday.

He said the U.S had alerted Pakistan to the unauthorized leaks. “Since these leaks are in the public domain, we would obviously look at these closely with a view to ensuring that Pakistan’s national interest is not compromised in any manner.

“This will weaken diplomacy around the world. It will weaken diplomacy in general, but first and foremost American diplomacy,” Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said as the mass release of documents continued. “I see this rather as something that is making the world less safe,” he said.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, mentioned in much of the diplomatic discussion revealed by the WikiLeaks website, dismissed the documents as “worthless mischief”.

Close US allies Britain, France and Germany brushed aside disparaging personal remarks about their leaders contained in the cables. France however condemned the leaks as “irresponsible” and “an attack on states’ sovereignty.”

Britain slammed the release as damaging to national security, but said it would continue to work closely with Washington.

And German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters: “A few gossipy comments about European politicians are not exactly welcome but they are not really important. “But in other cases, people’s lives could be put at risk.”

Israel, which has long waged a diplomatic war on Tehran, said the cables vindicated its concerns about a nuclear Iran that were shared across the Arab world. The documents showed that Saudi Arabia had repeatedly urged a US military strike to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “The Arab countries are pushing the United States towards military action more forcefully than Israel,” said an Israeli official. But Ahmadinejad told a press conference broadcast live on state television that “the documents that they released are a mischief. We do not see any value in them.”

In Saudi Arabia, foreign ministry spokesman Osama Nugali told that “these documents do not concern the kingdom… Nor is it aware of their authenticity. Therefore Saudi Arabia cannot comment on them.”

Russia also played down being called “a virtual mafia state” where all the decision-making is done by “alpha dog” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and not President Dmitry Medvedev, described as “Robin to Putin’s Batman.” “Our own diplomats are sometimes just as open in their own private messages to each other,” a Kremlin official told the Kommersant business daily. But some observers directed their criticism at the US 

Bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist

TEHRAN, Iran – Assailants on motorcycles attached bombs to the cars of two nuclear scientists as they were driving to work in Tehran Monday, killing one and seriously wounding the other, state television reported.

The report did not say whether the two university teachers were directly involved in the country's highly controversial nuclear program.

State TV swiftly blamed Israel for the attacks. At least two other Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in recent years in what Iran has alleged is part of a covert attempt by the West to damage its nuclear program. One of those two was killed in an attack similar to those on Monday.

The nuclear program is at the center of a bitter row between Iran on one side and the U.S. and its allies on the other. A number of world powers suspect Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons, an allegation the government denies. Tehran's refusal to limit some of its nuclear activities has brought on multiple rounds of U.N. sanctions against the country.

The assailants, who escaped, drove by their targets on motorcycles and attached the bombs as the cars were moving. They exploded shortly thereafter, the state TV report said.

The man killed Monday was identified as Majid Shahriari, a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. His wife, who was in the car with him, was wounded.

A second, separate attack in the capital Tehran seriously wounded nuclear physicist Fereidoun Abbasi. His wife was also in the car with him, and she was also wounded.

A pro-government website, mashreghnews.ir, said Abbasi held a Ph.D. in nuclear physics and was a laser expert at Iran's Defense Ministry and one of few top Iranian specialists in nuclear isotope separation.

The site said Abbasi has long been a member of the Revolutionary Guard, the country's most powerful military force. It said he was also a lecturer at Imam Hossein University, affiliated to the Guard.

Some Iranian media reported that Abbasi died after he was transferred to hospital. But Iran's official IRNAnews agency said he was in stable condition in the hospital.

The attacks bore close similarities to another in January that killed Tehran University professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a senior physics professor. He was killed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his car as he was about to leave for work.

In 2007, state TV reported that nuclear scientist, Ardeshir Hosseinpour, died from gas poisoning. A one-week delay in the reporting of his death prompted speculation about the cause, including that Israel's Mossad spyagency was to blame.