EU condemns uncivilised Iranian comments on Israel: statement Mon Feb 25, 9:42 AM ET
BRUSSELS, Feb 25, 2008 (AFP) - The European Union condemned in the strongest terms Monday remarks by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials about Israel, after the killing of a top Hezbollah commander. Their comments ... against Israel are unacceptable, damaging and uncivilised, a statement from the EU's Slovenian presidency said.The EU calls on Iran to stop hostile rhetoric and refrain from all threats towards other states, members of the international community, it said.Last week, Ahmadinejad called Israel a dirty microbe and savage animal, as Iran stepped up its rhetoric against the Jewish state after the murder of a top Hezbollah commander.World powers have created a black and dirty microbe named the Zionist regime and have unleashed it like a savage animal on the nations of the region, he said at a rally, in remarks broadcast on state television.
The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari --who along with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was also singled out by the EU -- had predicted the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah would destroy Israel.The EU calls again on the Iranian leadership to support the need for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to the search for lasting peace between Israel and its neighbours, the statement said.Israel has denied involvement in the killing in a car bombing on February 12 in Damascus of Imad Mughnieh, a top Hezbollah commander hailed by Iran as a great martyr.
Gazans form human chain to protest Israeli blockade by Mai Yaghi Mon Feb 25, 11:58 AM ET
BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip (AFP) - Palestinians formed a human chain in the Gaza Strip on Monday in protest at a crushing Israeli blockade, with Israeli forces on alert for any rush on the border. Under a light late-morning rain, thousands of schoolchildren were joined by adults along Salaheddin Road, the main highway traversing the centre of the impoverished coastal strip, an AFP correspondent witnessed.Slogans such as The Siege of Gaza Will Only Strengthen Us, The World Has Condemned Gaza to Death and Save Gaza were among banners brandished by demonstrators, who gathered peacefully.As the demonstrators dispersed a few hours later, a small group of youths set fire to a tyre a few dozen metres (yards) from the Israeli army position at the Erez crossing and began throwing stones.The incident drew fire from Israeli soldiers, and two of the youths were wounded, medical sources said.At the same time, the army said it had arrested around 50 Palestinians who had approached the crossing.
The Popular Committee Against the Siege, a politically independent group headed by Jamal al-Khudari, an MP with close links to the Islamist Hamas movement, had called for the demonstration against the months-long siege.This is a peaceful and civilised act to let the people express their rejection of the siege and of collective punishment, Khudari told journalists. We are raising a cry to the world for it to act.Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip in June from forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, backed the demonstration.This is a message addressed to the international community and to the Israeli occupation, and I hope it will seize the opportunity to lift the siege, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.Hamas MP Ismail al-Ashqar warned that if this does not happen there will be a hurricane that will flood the whole region.Israel has sealed the territory to all but vital humanitarian supplies since Hamas seized power in June, in a bid to pressure the group to halt rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel by its own militants and others.Huzeifa al-Masri, 14, said he and his classmates from the northern border town of Beit Hanun attended the protest because there is hardly any food, and the Israeli incursions are frequent. We want to live in security like the rest of the world.Most of Gaza's 1.5 million population depends on foreign aid.Israel had warned Hamas it would defend its territory if there was any trouble.Israel will not intervene in demonstrations inside the Gaza Strip but it will ensure the defence of its territory and prevent any violation of its sovereign borders, said a joint statement from Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak.Their statement accused Hamas of orchestrating a premeditated effort to put civilians on the front line.
Israel is working to prevent an escalation, but has made it absolutely clear that if there is an escalation, the responsibility will be entirely on Hamas's shoulders.Media reports said the army had been prepared for any attempt to storm the border fence around the Gaza Strip aimed at breaking the blockade. The army and police had beefed up forces in the border area. Media reports said organisers were planning to place one person every metre (yard) along the roughly 40-kilometre (24-mile) road running from Rafah to Beit Hanun, for a total of around 40,000 people. Salaheddin Road runs through the centre of the territory and is never much closer than around three kilometres (two miles) from the border. Reports said the Israelis' main concern was what could have happened at the road's northern terminus near Erez. On January 23, Palestinian militants blasted several holes in the border barrier between Gaza and Egypt, sending a human tide of hundreds of thousands streaming into the Sinai on a mission to replenish depleted stocks. Hamas gunmen and Egyptian troops resealed the border on February 3.
Meanwhile, an Israeli youth was moderately wounded when a rocket fired from Gaza hit the entrance to a housing complex in the southern city of Sderot, officials said. That attack came after four Palestinian militants were killed by Israel raids overnight.
Syria sees no chance for peace this year By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 25, 4:33 PM ET
PITTSBURGH - Israel and Palestinians will not reach a peace deal this year, and a recent Mideast peace conference in Annapolis was only an exercise in public relations, Syria's ambassador to the United States said Monday. Imad Moustapha said President Bush has no real desire to broker a peace deal and that there are powerful forces within his administration who believe chaos is constructive in the Middle East.I don't know who he is referring to, responded Tom Casey, a U.S. State Department spokesman. I certainly know that we have serious and ongoing concerns about Syria's unconstructive role in the region.The White House accuses Syria of harboring terrorists, supporting Hezbollah — a Lebanese group classified by the United States as a terrorist organization — and of allowing insurgents to freely cross its border into Iraq. Moustapha said Hezbollah leaders will remain active in Syria despite the mysterious killing earlier this month of one of the group's top commanders, Imad Mughniyeh.Moustapha represented Syria at the Annapolis, Md., conference in November, and later expressed optimism that the talks could ease tensions between Washington and Damascus.
But in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, hours before he was scheduled to speak at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Moustapha said the United States only makes positive statements about Syria when it serves a political purpose.We believe that the whole Annapolis thing was an exercise in public relations, Moustapha said. The only thing that happened there was people were smiling and saying cheese.Moustapha added, I don't think there is a unanimous belief among the administration, across the departments of this administration, that peace should be the path forward in the Middle East.Palestinian officials are also pessimistic, he said, adding that they have told him no progress has been made in one-on-one negotiations with Israel.Bush announced in Annapolis that Israel and the Palestinians would relaunch long-stalled peace talks with the goal of reaching a deal by the end of this year. Since then, high-level talks have been held, including several meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.No breakthroughs have been reported, and the talks have been overshadowed by increasing violence along the Israel-Gaza border and Israeli construction in areas the Palestinians want for a future state.Bush is happy with Annapolis' outcome and has no real enthusiasm to pursue matters further, Moustapha said.They have now their photographs for their memoirs, he said. The Syrian leadership does not believe that this year will witness any major movement.
He said Syria's investigation into Mughniyeh's killing in a Damascus car bombing is progressing. He said Damascus will allow Hezbollah to remain active because it is popular throughout the Muslim world, viewed by many as successfully resisting Israel.Many Muslims and Arabs believe Hezbollah's resistance led Israel to end its 18-year occupation of south Lebanon in 2000. Many also believe Hezbollah was victorious in a 2006 war with Israel.Hezbollah leaders have accused Israel of killing Mughniyeh and have vowed to retaliate. Israel has denied involvement in the Feb. 12 car bombing. Mughniyeh, who helped set up the Shiite guerrilla group, was one of the world's most wanted terror masterminds, accused by the West of killing hundreds in suicide bombings and hijackings in Lebanon and around the world.Syria demands Israel withdraw from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau it captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as part of a peace deal.Moustapha has been Syria's ambassador to the United States since 2004. At times, he has said he is the loneliest ambassador in Washington, because no one in the Bush administration will talk to him.
Israeli police detain African migrants By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 25, 5:50 PM ET
TEL AVIV, Israel - Israeli police arrested about 200 African migrants Monday, a day after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered a crackdown on the growing problem of illegal immigration, officials said. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the migrants, mostly Sudanese who entered through the porous border with Egypt, were arrested in a raid near Tel Aviv's old bus station, where many live. Rosenfeld said the arrests would continue this week.The dilapidated buildings that shelter migrants in southern Tel Aviv were nearly empty after the raid as people tried to avoid arrest. They left hundreds of barren mattresses side-by-side in smelly underground dwellings.Solomon Mangstie-Dayan, a 40-year-old migrant from Ethiopia who crossed into Israel nine days ago, said police officers raided his shelter, seizing fellow African migrants and hurrying them onto three buses. He said he was spared only because of the cries of his 3-year-old daughter, Sunight.Olmert on Sunday ordered security officials to tighten supervision of the Egyptian border and directed officials to expedite the processing of those seeking asylum, to decide which were just seeking work and could be deported.
Africans have been sneaking into Israel in increasing numbers over the past year. More than 7,000 have entered the country illegally through Egypt in just over a year, including more than 2,000 so far in 2008, said Michael Bavly, a representative in Israel of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.Israeli government statistics estimate about 100,000 legal foreign workers in the country. At least 100,000 others, many from Africa, work in Israel without permits, according to experts.Foreign workers flock to Israel because the higher wages allow them to send relatively large amounts of money back home to their families. Refugees seeking asylum from wars or persecution see Israel as a welcoming, Westernized country.Many Israelis feel an obligation to help refugees because of the centuries of persecution Jews endured before they created their own state.Most migrants are from Sudan, including southern Sudan, where a 22-year conflict left 2.5 million people dead, and Darfur, where a rebellion has cost more than 200,000 civilian lives and made 2.5 million homeless. Others have fled Eritrea and forced military conscription there.
This year, Israel granted temporary residency status to 600 refugees from Darfur. It also recognized about 2,000 migrants from Eritrea whose lives would be endangered if sent home.But the nation plans to deport another 4,500, many of whom came from countries like Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria.Their route to Israel is often treacherous. Egyptian border police on Monday shot and wounded a Sudanese and a man from Ivory Coast in separate incidents as they tried to cross into Israel. On Sunday, Egyptian forces shot and killed an African woman who was trying to cross the border into Israel, a medical official said.A spokeswoman for Israel's Interior Ministry said those arrested Monday who have work permits would be released. Those whose refugee status is being reviewed by the U.N. would be granted a limited stay, and the others would be deported.
Sigal Rozen, of the Hotline for Migrant Workers in Tel Aviv, who represents the migrants, said authorities were shipping some of the arrested migrants to a prison in southern Israel.
