Netanyahu and Obama hold constructive talks by phone Mon Jun 8, 6:07 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had constructive talks by phone ahead of the premier's speech on the Middle East peace process next week, the White House said Monday.The president and prime minister had a constructive, 20-minute conversation, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.The president reiterated the principal elements of his Cairo speech, including his commitment to Israel's security. He indicated that he looked forward to hearing the prime minister's upcoming speech outlining his views on peace and security.For its part, Netanyahu's office said that the discussions were positive and covered a range of subjects.Mr Netanyahu indicated to (Obama) that he intends to make a political statement next week setting out the broad outlines of his government's policy to secure peace and security,it said in a statement.The two leaders agreed to maintain close and continual contact,the statement said.
The phone talks came as US Middle East envoy George Mitchell was due in Tel Aviv late Monday at the start of a new Middle East tour aimed at kick-starting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.Mitchell is expected on Tuesday to hold talks in Jerusalem with Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.The following day he is due in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank for meetings with Palestinian officials, including president Mahmud Abbas.
Netanyahu has announced he would lay out his policies on the Middle East peace process next week but gave no date, although a senior government official told AFP it would probably be next Sunday.In a speech from Cairo to the Muslim world last Thursday, Obama reiterated Washington's unbreakable bond with Israel, but vowed not to turn his back on Palestinian aspirations and repeated his call for a halt to Jewish settlements.Over the past few months tensions between the United States and its staunchest ally have risen to levels not seen in 20 years as Washington presses Netanyahu to publicly back the principle of a Palestinian state and freeze all settlement activity on occupied land.Netanyahu has resisted both demands, which are fiercely opposed by many in his largely right-wing government that analysts say would likely collapse if he bowed to Washington.Since coming to office in January, Obama has vowed to aggressively push the stalled peace process, raising fears in Israel that he may lessen Washington's support for the Jewish state as he seeks to improve US ties with the Muslim world.
Israel considers easing Gaza blockade Mon Jun 8, 11:23 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering easing a stifling blockade imposed on Hamas-ruled Gaza for nearly two years, officials said on Monday in the face of growing US pressure.The hawkish premier will convene his security cabinet in the next few weeks to decide whether to change current policy, a government official told AFP.Israel slapped the punishing siege on the Gaza Strip, allowing in only essential humanitarian aid, after the Islamist Hamas movement violently seized power in the coastal enclave in June 2007.The prime minister wants to hear different ideas. There is no change in the strategic goal which remains to weaken the Hamas regime,the official said.All the relevant government bodies will be at the table.The Jewish state has come under massive international pressure to ease the blockade, including from its main ally the United States, whose President Barack Obama said in a keynote speech in Cairo last week that the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel?s security.Israel launched a massive three-week war on Gaza at the turn of the year that left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead and large swathes of the territory in ruins.A defence official told AFP that Israeli security bodies have held a number of meetings in recent weeks to re-examine the policy, but that ultimately any change will depend on calm remaining along the Gaza border.
We understand the American pressure and we, too, wish to make life easier on the Palestinian population... but it depends on the quiet in the south,he said.At least four Palestinian militants were killed on Monday in a gunbattle with Israeli soldiers along the border of the territory in the deadliest such incident in months.Israel has in the past also linked any easing of the blockade with the release of a soldier held in Gaza for almost three years after he was seized by militants in a deadly cross-border raid.
Palestinian PM hopes Obama speech opened new era Sun Jun 7, 5:20 pm ET
OSLO (AFP) – Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said Sunday he was hopeful US President Barack Obama's landmark address to the world's Muslims in Cairo had opened up a new era in relations.There's a great deal in that speech that gives us reason for hope,Fayyad, a US-educated economist widely respected in the West but reviled by the Hamas rulers of Gaza, said during a visit to Oslo.We are impressed by the sincere tone of the speech and the substance of it. It is our hope actually it will in that respect have marked a new beginning.On Wednesday, in what may be one of the defining moments of his presidency, Obama laid out a new blueprint for US Middle East policy, pledging to end mistrust, forge a state for Palestinians and defuse a nuclear showdown with Iran.Part of Obama's motivation appeared to be to cleanse the US image in the Muslim world, which has been tarnished by events like the Iraq war, the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.Targeting young Muslims, Obama said: I know there are many -- Muslim and non-Muslim -- who question whether we can forge this new beginning.There is so much fear, so much mistrust. But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward.Fayyad was in Oslo for a meeting of Palestinian donors.The Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip, who gave a luke-warm response to Obama's speech, have never recognised Fayyad's authority, continuing instead to recognise their own prime minister, Ismail Haniya.
Israel to pay victims of Hebron settler violence Sun Jun 7, 3:23 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel will pay compensation to several dozen Palestinian families whose property was damaged when settlers went on a rampage in the flashpoint city of Hebron last December, the army said Sunday.The defence ministry will pay a total of 250,000 shekels (63,000 dollars, 45,000 euros) to about 50 families who had filed complaints with the Israeli administration in the occupied West Bank, it said.The families were the victims of hardline Jewish settlers of Hebron who went on what then prime minister Ehud Olmert called a pogrom against the local Palestinians after the Israeli police removed settlers entrenched in a disputed house in the southern West Bank city.The settlers destroyed olive groves, hurled stones, shot off guns, and set at least two Palestinian houses and more than a dozen Palestinian cars on fire. At least three Palestinians were also wounded by gunfire.
Obama says must be tough with Iran, N.Korea By David Alexander – Sat Jun 6, 12:14 pm ET
CAEN, France (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama underlined on Saturday the need for tough diplomacy in dealing with Iran's nuclear program and said he would be firm with North Korea as well after its second atomic bomb explosion.Obama has said he is prepared to hold talks with Tehran without preconditions in a bid to ensure that it does not use its advanced nuclear technology to develop weapons. Iran says it is only trying to meet its booming demand for electricity.After meeting his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of a ceremony to mark the 65th anniversary of the World War Two D-Day landings, Obama said France was being firm with Iran.Obama praised France's leadership in Europe in understanding the need for us to have tough diplomacy with the Iranians, to reach out to them and also insist that we can't afford to have a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.Iran has so far spurned approaches by six world powers -- France, Britain, Germany, the United States, China and Russia -- which have offered a package of incentives aimed at convincing it to abandon uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for power plants or, potentially, nuclear weapons.Sarkozy met Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Paris last week. Mottaki delivered a message from the highest Iranian authorities and said Tehran was finalizing a counter-proposal to the package, a French official said.
With Iran's presidential elections just six days away, Sarkozy said he told Mottaki Iran needed to agree to talks soon.I told him, one, that they have to seize the hand stretched out by Barack Obama, set a date so that the group of six (powers) can begin to talk,Sarkozy told a news conference.Sitting beside him, Obama said that if Iran obtained a nuclear weapon, a whole host of countries in the Middle East would try to do the same thing.
EXTRAORDINARILY PROVOCATIVE
Obama also underlined that he would be firm with North Korea, which tested its second atom bomb last month.Obama said North Korea's recent actions, which also include testing missiles, were extraordinarily provocative and would not be met with appeasement as they had been in the past.I don't think that there should be an assumption that we will simply continue down a path in which North Korea is constantly destabilizing the region and we just react in the same ways,Obama told reporters.We are not intending to continue a policy of rewarding provocation, he said, adding:We are going to take a very hard look at how we move forward on these issues.Obama also said he wanted to see serious, constructive Middle East peace talks this year aimed at finding a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
On the final leg of a brief tour of the Middle East and Europe, Obama was asked to clarify what he meant the previous day in Germany when he said he was confident progress could be made between the Palestinians and Israel this year.Progress would mean the parties involved ... are in serious, constructive negotiations toward a two-state solution,he said.I do not expect that a 60-year problem is solved overnight, but as I have said before, I do expect both sides to recognize that their fates are tied together,he added.(Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Jon Hemming)
UN: New uranium traces found in Syria By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jun 5, 5:14 pm ET
VIENNA – The U.N nuclear agency on Friday reported its second unexplained find of uranium particles at a Syrian nuclear site, in a probe launched by suspicions that a remote desert site hit by Israeli warplanes was a nearly finished plutonium producing reactor.In a separate report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran continued to expand its uranium enrichment program despite three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions meant to pressure Tehran into freezing such activities.And it said the growing pace of enrichment is causing it to review its inspection routine so that it can maintain oversight of the process.Iran and Syria are under IAEA investigation — Tehran, since revelations more than six years ago of undeclared nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons, and Syria after Israel bombed a structure in 2006 said by the U.S. to be a reactor built with North Korean help.
But the agency has made little progress for over a year in both cases, and both of the restricted reports made available to The Associated Press on Friday essentially confirmed the status quo — stonewalling by both countries of the two separate IAEA probes.Iran says its nuclear activities are peaceful; Damascus denies hiding any nuclear program.In order for the agency to complete its assessment, Syria needs to be more cooperative and transparent, said the IAEA in a document that detailed repeated attempts by agency inspectors to press for renewed inspections and documents — all turned down by Damascus.Drawing heavily on language of previous reports, the Iran document said Tehran has not cooperated with the agency ... which gives rise to concerns and which need to be clarified to exclude the possibility of military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program.The report noted that Tehran continued to rebuff agency efforts to investigate suspicions the Islamic Republic had at least planned to make nuclear weapons.Without cooperation by the Islamic Republic, the IAEA will not be in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, the report said.Syria and Iran are to come under renewed scrutiny when the 35-nation board of the agency meets June 15 to discuss the two reports.While the Syrian report was prepared only for the board members, the one on Iran also was transmitted Friday to the Security Council, which for more than three years has tried to pressure Tehran to give up enrichment and other activities of concern.Tehran says it is exercising its right to develop nuclear power in expanding its enrichment program. But the U.S. other great powers and dozens of additional countries fear Iran might at some point shift from producing low enriched uranium needed for nuclear fuel to making highly enriched matter suitable for use in the core of nuclear warheads.
The IAEA's Iran report reflected continued expansion both in the terms of the equipment in use or being set up and the amount of enriched uranium being turned out by those machines — centrifuges that spin uranium gas into enriched material.Nearly 5,000 centrifuges were processing uranium gas at the Natanz facility as of May 31, said the report, while more than 2,000 others were ready for operation. More than nearly 3,000 pounds — 1,300 kilograms — of low enriched uranium had been produced as of that date, said the more than four-page report.That compares to just over 2,220 pounds (1,000 kilograms) mentioned in the last IAEA report in February an amount that experts and U.S. officials subsequently said was enough to process into enough weapons grade uranium for a nuclear warhead.Commenting on the Iran report, the Washington based Institute for Science and International Security said that at the present pace of production of enriched uranium, Tehran could make two nuclear weapons — should it choose to do so — within eight months.The report said inspectors have told Tehran that given the increased number of ... (centrifuges) being installed and the increased rate of production ... improvements to the containment and surveillance measures are needed. A senior U.N official said the IAEA was considering redirecting surveillance equipment and asking Iranian nuclear staff to change their walking routes through the underground Natanz facility as part of the changes. He demanded anonymity in exchange for commenting on the confidential report. Reversing the previous U.S. stance, the Obama administration has said it is ready to talk one-on-one with Iranian officials on the nuclear issue. Obama himself has said Tehran has the right to benefit from nuclear power — as long as all proliferation concerns are put to rest.But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said his country will not negotiate on its right to enrichment.
On Syria, the agency said the newest traces of uranium were found after months of analysis in environmental samples taken last year of a small experimental reactor in Damascus.It already reported a similar finding in February at a separate site — at or near the building bombed by Israel more than two years ago. As in the case of the earlier find, the uranium particles are of a type not included in Syria's declared inventory of nuclear material, said the report, saying their origin and potential significance still needs to be understood.It also said Syria continued to deny cooperation with North Korea in building its nuclear program.
No official Bush-era deal with Israel on settlements: Clinton Fri Jun 5, 5:00 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday rejected Israeli assertions that the Bush administration had reached a binding agreement with Israel on Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.We have the negotiating record, that is the official record that was turned over to the Obama administration by the outgoing Bush administration,Clinton said at a joint press conference with her Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.There is no memorialisation of any informal or oral agreement concerning the settlements, she said.Since coming to office in January, President Barack Obama has repeatedly called on Israel to halt all settlement activity in Palestinian areas, a demand rejected by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The Israelis say they received commitments from the previous US administration of president George W. Bush permitting some growth in existing settlements.They say the US position was laid out in a 2004 letter from Bush to then Israeli premier Ariel Sharon.Clinton rejected that claim, saying any such US stance was informal and did not become part of the official position of the United States government.She reiterated the US position that Israel is obliged to follow commitments made in a so-called road map for peace negotiations with the Palestinians which foresaw a halt to settlement activity.
Those obligations are very clear, Clinton said.
More than 280,000 Israelis live in settlements dotted throughout the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 war, and their fate has become a key early dispute between the young Obama and Netanyahu governments.Obama has notably demanded that Israel stop all its activity in the settlements, including so-called natural growth construction that allows for building to accommodate a rising population.The US president made the demand publicly during his first White House meeting with Netanyahu two weeks ago and repeated it during a landmark speech in Cairo on Thursday.
The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop, Obama said in his speech billed as a message to the Muslim world.In a rare public spat between Israel and its staunchest ally, Obama has also repeatedly demanded that Netanyahu's government commit to a fully sovereign Palestinian state, something the hardline leader has yet to do.
Obama Cairo Speech Stirs Mixed Feelings in the Holy Land AP – U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, June 4, 2009.By JAMIL HAMAD / BETHLEHEM AND AARON J. KLEIN / JERUSALEM – Fri Jun 5, 6:20 am ET
In downtown Jerusalem, hardly any Israelis paused from their shopping to hear U.S. President Barack Obama's televised Cairo speech. Most will hear snippets of it tonight, rehashed and analyzed on the evening news. Obama has been portrayed favorably by the Israeli media, but lately, perhaps parroting the siege mentality of the new right-wing government, the media has attacked the White House for being too insistent on freezing Jewish settlement activity in the Palestinian territories, which the White House sees as vital to reviving peace talks. The Israeli far right - many of whose supporters gathered yesterday outside the U.S. consulate with portraits of Obama with a Palestinian headscarf superimposed on his head, with the words Jew-hater written beneath - is unlikely to be swayed by Obama's balanced oratory. Even among moderate Israelis, there is a doubt about Obama's intentions. His middle name, Hussein, keeps coming back to me. We're suspicious of him, says Yossi Danon, a high-tech expert. Obama's entitled to change U.S. policy in the region - this is too much for Israel.Still, most Israelis, according to political scientist Eytan Gilboa from Bar-Ilan university in Tel Aviv, will give Obama high marks for his reassurance of an unbreakable bond between Israel and the U.S. and for his criticism of those Muslims, such as Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who deny the Holocaust.But Israelis will need to be convinced that they'll be living next to a Palestinian state that isn't Hamastan, says Gilboa, adding, It seemed like Iran's nuclear issue was low on his priorities, and that's a main problem not just for Israelis but Arabs too.
Alon Pinkus, a former adviser on U.S. affairs to four Israeli foreign ministers, says that before Obama's speech, the national mood was that the U.S. and Israel were on a collision course. But Obama made a very balanced, respectful speech. It wasn't too pro- or anti-Israeli.The Israeli media reported that Premier Benjamin Netanyahu had been worried about Obama's speech and was peeved that an advanced copy had not been provided to his office. An insider says that on the contrary, Netanyahu realized that Obama's speech would be nothing less than a remapping of U.S policy in the Middle East, and it is in Israel's interests to play along.He adds,Bibi [Netanyahu] understands that the Obama locomotive is passing through, and he'd better not get left stranded at the station.In the Palestinian territories, Obama's speech was watched more avidly. Broadcast on Gulf, Egyptian and Jordanian satellite-TV channels, Palestinians in coffee houses and restaurants were riveted by Obama's words. Fouad, a teacher, says, I was emotionally moved by Obama's delivery. I loved his grasp of Islamic history.A Bethlehem mother, Raheeda Hamad, says she approved of Obama's message of a global partnership and of the necessity for equal education for women. At Nablus University, political scientist and Islamic scholar Abdul Sattar Qasim says,His speech was very close to the heart. He has a way of speaking directly to the people, something other leaders have forgotten.But the scholar also injects a note of criticism:He spoke of the violence of Hamas but didn't mention the daily violence that Israeli inflicts on us Palestinians.
