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Parliament’s speaker says old U.S. policies failed, welcomes new approach

MUNICH – Iran sternly dismissed decades of U.S. policies targeting Tehran and declared Friday that the new American administration had to admit past wrongs before it could hope for reconciliation.

The comments by Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani at an international security conference in Munich appeared to be the most detailed outline yet of Tehran’s expectations from President Barack Obama’s administration.

“The old carrot and stick policy must be discarded,” he said, alluding to Western threats and offers of rewards to coax Iran to give up nuclear activities the West views as threatening. “This is a golden opportunity for the United States.”  Obama has said the U.S. is ready for direct talks with Iran in efforts to overcome concerns that its nuclear program could be used to develop atomic weapons. Tehran denies that and insists its aims are peaceful. The former U.S. administration refused one-on-one negotiations with Tehran on the issue unless it made significant nuclear concessions beforehand.

Senior Iranian officials have cautiously welcomed the new U.S. proposal. But on Friday, Larijani, his country’s former chief nuclear negotiator, delivered a blistering condemnation of what he described as failed and evil U.S. actions against his country and in the region. He declared the U.S. had to own up to the past before it could hope for a better future with Iran.

“In the past years, the U.S. has burned many bridges but the new White House can rebuild them” if it “accepts its mistakes and changes its policies,” Larijani said.

He condemned Washington’s backing for Iraq in its 1980s war against Iran and its support of Israel. Larijani said those policies and others in the region failed in their declared purpose of rooting out terrorism and finding hidden weapons of mass destruction.

On the nuclear standoff, he said, Washington “has tried to sabotage any diplomatic solution.” Without U.S. acknowledgment of failure and wrongdoing, “do you expect this pain to go away?” he asked.

Iran criticized for satellite

Outside the conference, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband criticized Tehran’s decision to launch a satellite this week, while Germany’s foreign minister urged the Iranian regime to engage in direct diplomacy with the United States.

Iran launched an Omid satellite Monday — touching off concerns among experts in Europe, the United States and Israel about the potential for links between its satellite program and its work with missiles and nuclear technology.

Speaking outside the gathering of a dozen world leaders and more than 50 top ministers, Miliband said that even if the launch was for civilian purposes as Iran claims, it sent the wrong signal, considering Obama’s offer to talk directly with Iranian leaders to defuse the nuclear crisis.

“Given that President Obama said that he was stretching out a hand if Iran would unclench its fist, I don’t think that this was an unclenching of a fist,” Miliband told AP Television News.

He also urged Iran to work with the IAEA to disprove suspicions that its nuclear activities were geared toward producing weapons — and warned of new penalties if it does not.

“The commitment of the new American administration to engage with Iran is right and important, but if Iran defies international opinion then there inevitably have to be stronger and tougher sanctions,” he said, referring to the possibility of new U.N. Security Council measures.  German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier opened the three-day meeting.

“Above all, I appeal to those responsible in Tehran: Take this chance,” Steinmeier said.

Financial support cut after gold medalist was pictured holding pot pipe

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Michael Phelps was suspended from competition for three months by USA Swimming, the latest fallout from a photo that showed the Olympic great inhaling from a marijuana pipe.

The sport’s national governing body also cut off its financial support to Phelps for the same three-month period, effective Thursday.

“This is not a situation where any anti-doping rule was violated, but we decided to send a strong message to Michael because he disappointed so many people, particularly the hundreds of thousands of USA Swimming member kids who look up to him as a role model and a hero,” the Colorado Springs-based federation said in a statement.

“Michael has voluntarily accepted this reprimand and has committed to earn back our trust.”

Phelps won a record eight gold medals in Beijing and returned to America as one of the world’s most acclaimed athletes. Now he’s enduring a wave of bad news in the wake of the photo, published Sunday by News of the World, a British tabloid.

Earlier Thursday, cereal and snack maker Kellogg Co. announced it wouldn’t renew its sponsorship contract with Phelps, saying his behavior is “not consistent with the image of Kellogg.” The swimmer appeared on the company’s cereal boxes after his Olympic triumph.

“Michael’s been through a lot and he’s learned a lot, hopefully,” his coach, Bob Bowman, told The Associated Press during a telephone interview. “I support him and I want to see him do better. I’m here, as always, to try to help him move forward. He’s learned some tough lessons and he’s disappointed a lot of people, me included.”

Phelps has acknowledged “regrettable” behavior and “bad judgment.” He didn’t dispute the authenticity of the photo, reportedly taken at a house party while Phelps was visiting Columbia, S.C., in November during an extended break from training.

“I certainly understand USA Swimming needed to take action,” Bowman said. “We will certainly abide by everything they’ve put down.”

The 23-year-old has resumed training in his hometown of Baltimore, but his plans to return to competitive swimming will have to be put on hold. Phelps had planned to compete in early March at a Grand Prix meet in Austin, Texas.

Now, he won’t be able to compete until early May, which would give him a little more than two months for some racing before July’s world championships in Rome.

“This is the result of a poor decision Michael made,” U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said in an e-mail. “He understands there is accountability and has pledged to not repeat this in the future. We have offered our assistance to make certain he is as consistent and successful away from the pool as he is in it, and we are confident that will happen.”

After the suspension, Phelps would be able to compete at a May meet in Charlotte, N.C.; there’s another Grand Prix competition in Santa Clara, Calif., the following month. The U.S. team for Rome will be chosen at the national championships, which begin July 7 in Indianapolis.

“He’s been very good in practice,” Bowman said. “I think he feels good to be back in the water. Certainly, he’s not in very good shape.

“We’re anxious to get back to a really normal routine and we have. We’re moving on.”

Several of Phelps’ Olympic teammates rallied to his defense. Among them was Dara Torres, the 41-year-old silver medalist whom Phelps jokingly referred to in Beijing as “Mom.”

“I see him as a kid trying to grow up in the most intense spotlight known to any athlete. He has apologized and what else can he do?” she told the AP by telephone. “The thing I hope is that people realize Michael is still a person and not just a swimming hero.”

Torres said she sent Phelps a text a few days ago to extend her support.

“He didn’t let the USA down at the games, so we shouldn’t let him down,” she said.

Torres doesn’t expect a three-month suspension in a non-Olympic year to have much affect on Phelps’ career. He intends to keep swimming through the 2012 London Games.

“Knowing Michael the way I do, I guarantee you it’s going to make him want to do well,” Torres said. “All this is going to do is light a fire under him.”

Amanda Beard compared Phelps’ ordeal to some of the disdain she faced after posing nude in Playboy magazine before the Beijing Games.

“If anyone knows public scrutiny, it’s me,” the four-time Olympian said in a text message. “When I posed for Playboy, so many officials looked down on me. Michael knows he isn’t a bad person. He made a mistake. People need to get over it. I want to cheer him on in London.”

Even a rival agent came to Phelps’ defense.

“Enough is enough,” said Evan Morgenstein, who represents a large number of Olympic swimmers. “The penalty is far greater than the crime. He has said he is sorry. Let’s move on to the real problems in this country.”

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WASHINGTON (CNN) — Over the last several weeks a growing number of al Qaeda operatives have entered Yemen from Saudi Arabia and have established a renewed network that potentially threatens U.S. and Saudi targets in the region, both U.S. and Yemeni officials have told CNN.

Yemeni soldiers carry the coffin of a comrade killed in September’s attack on the U.S. Embassy.

As a result Yemeni security forces have gone on high alert.

CNN spoke with three U.S. officials and a Yemeni embassy official who outlined new concerns about al Qaeda in Yemen that all three said go beyond the usual worries about the terror organization in Yemen. None of the officials could be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the information.

“There are strong indications of heightened activity in Yemen,” one U.S. official told CNN. “There is real concern in the U.S. government that al Qaeda is trying to mount attacks in Yemen.”

The United States continues to worry about attacks against the U.S. embassy or other U.S. business interests in Yemen the official said. But there are also growing concerns that a renewed al Qaeda network in Yemen could plan attacks against Saudi oil infrastructure or the massive cargo shipping operations that run through the immediate region — potentially disrupting an already shaky world economy.

The official said there is a flow of intelligence information in recent weeks backing up that assessment. “There are clear indications al Qaeda is placing emphasis on Yemen as a place to conduct operations and train operatives.”

Both U.S. officials said one of the major concerns is that a number of al Qaeda operatives have crossed the border from Saudi Arabia since a Saudi crackdown has stepped up. Al Qaeda, he said appears to be looking for a new place in the immediate area where it can still operate.

The officials could not say how many have operatives may have crossed but the second U.S. official said the United States has been watching closely and is seeing ‘gatherings’ of al Qaeda operatives and communication among them. There have also been signs of communication between al Qaeda in Yemen and the al Qaeda leadership believed to be hiding in Pakistan, the first official said.

For its part, 1,000 troops from the Yemeni border guard were put on high alert last week, according to a Yemeni embassy official. “Additional guard have been mobilized to prevent the movement of wanted elements from and to the Yemeni-Saudi border, ” the official said. More than 30 people have already been arrested, he said, and the government of Yemen is developing a new list of “most wanted” fugitives that will be distributed throughout the country.

The Yemenis have been anxious to demonstrate to Washington they are serious about cracking down on al Qaida but the weak central government remains cautious about pressing its tribal leaders.

The U.S. officials said the latest concerns about Yemen are not directly related to the emergence of Said Ali al-Shiri as the new deputy leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen. Al-Shiri was released from U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay but is now back in Yemen. All of this comes as Saudi Arabia has publicly released a list of 85 terrorists suspects — some of whom are suspected of being in Yemen already.

The U.S. State Department has long warned American citizens about the security risk of traveling to Yemen. Last year armed gunmen attacked the U.S. embassy killing 10 Yemeni police and civilians.

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