Arabs slam Israeli war crimes in Gaza MAR 05,08
CAIRO (AFP) - Arab League foreign ministers on Wednesday denounced Israel's deadly attacks on the Gaza Strip over the past week as war crimes.At a meeting in Cairo, the ministers said they denounce the savage crimes carried out by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territories ... considering them war crimes and crimes against humanity.The remarks were part of a draft statement expected to be formally endorsed by foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League.Israeli raids in the past week have killed more than 126 people in Gaza, including children and other civilians. Two Israeli soldiers and one civilian have also died over the same period.The Arab condemnation came as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Wednesday to keep up military strikes on the Gaza Strip, which are aimed at stopping rocket attacks on Israel from the Hamas-ruled territory.The Israeli army operations against the Gaza Strip will continue as long as the rocket fire continues, a senior official quoted Olmert as telling a meeting of the powerful Israeli security cabinet on the situation in Gaza.
Olmert's office later issued a statement saying the Israeli government will act continuously, systematically, and over a long period ... to put and end to the rocket fire and other terror activities in Gaza.The Cairo meeting comes as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrapped up a Middle East trip, during which she reiterated that the rocket fire had to stop and called on Israel -- which earned international condemnation for excessive use of force -- to spare innocent lives during its raids.The United States of course understands Israel's right to defend itself, but Israel needs to be very cognizant of the effects of its operations on innocent people, Rice said on Tuesday.
Hezbollah says it is prepared for war By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer MAR 05,08
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah is prepared for a new war with Israel but it will not start one, the militant group's deputy leader said in remarks published Wednesday. Naim Kassem warned that Israel will pay a high price in any future conflict.His comments, published in a Beirut daily close to Hezbollah, followed last month's threat by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah to retaliate with an open war against Israel for the assassination of one of his top commanders, Imad Mughniyeh.Mughniyeh was killed Feb. 12 in a car bomb in Damascus, capital of neighboring Syria. Hezbollah and Iran, its main backer, blamed his assassination on Israel, which denied any role.Asked if there will be war, Kassem said: Hezbollah cannot confirm because it does not want to initiate it. He added: The Israelis know they have to pay a high price in any war.Kassem also told Al-Akhbar daily that Hezbollah is well-prepared to face an Israeli, American and international war.He was apparently referring to the recent deployment of U.S. warships off Lebanon's Mediterranean coast, a move the U.S. has said was aimed at protecting its interesting in the region.
Rice wins promise to resume Mideast peace talks by Sylvie Lanteaume MAR 05,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday secured a promise from Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks despite discord over Israel's continuing military strikes in Gaza. I've been informed by the parties that they intend to resume the negotiations, Rice said at the end of a two-day trip aimed at mending peace efforts hobbled by a deadly Israeli blitz on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.Speaking to journalists after meeting her Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, Rice did not give a date for the resumption of talks, but said the two sides are in contact with each other how to bring this about.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas confirmed he intended to resume the talks he froze over the weekend to protest the attacks on Gaza. Israel has been insisting the talks carry on despite the strikes.The president affirms that he has the intention to restart the peace process and the negotiations to lead to the end of the occupation and the creation of a Palestinian state, Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
Earlier in the day, Abbas had said a ceasefire was a condition for the resumption of the negotiations, but Rice insisted the two were not tied.I have talked with ... president Abbas and obviously he wants calm ... but this is not a condition for the resumption of the talks, Rice said.Just hours earlier, Abbas had told reporters: The negotiations must resume, but only after a truce takes effect.
In his latest remarks he did not comment on what looked to be an about-face.The US-backed Abbas said Rice was involved in the efforts to achieve a truce, along with Egypt, which has often played the role of mediator in the Middle East.I spoke today again with Secretary of State Rice and she will send an envoy, David Welch, to Cairo where intense efforts are being deployed with a view to reaching a truce, Abbas said.Abbas has had no real power in Gaza since June, when Hamas fighters drove his forces from the territory in a week of bloody street battles.Israel made it clear it would only stop its military strikes if it were no longer targeted by near-daily rocket attacks from militants in Gaza, a tiny, isolated, and impoverished enclave that is home to 1.5 million Palestinians.If there is no Qassam fire on Israel, there will be no Israeli attacks on Gaza, said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. We do not get up in the morning and think how to attack Gaza. We want to prevent fire on Israeli civilians.Militants fired six rockets at southern Israel on Wednesday, causing no casualties or damage, the Israeli army said.Hamas has rejected Abbas's appeals for a ceasefire and blamed Israel for the recent flare-up of violence.We are in a state of self-defence. When the siege and all forms of aggression come to a stop then we will see, said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.Violence in and around Gaza escalated sharply on February 27 after an Israeli raid killed five Hamas militants and the Islamists responded with a barrage of rocket fire on Israel, killing one civilian.
Even as Rice dined with Olmert on Tuesday -- just hours after she told Israel to take more care not to kill civilians in its military operations -- fresh raids on Gaza killed a baby girl and a senior militant. Several dozen children and other civilians were among the 125 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes over the past week. Two Israeli soldiers were killed during the same period. But Rice said she still believed it was possible to achieve George W. Bush's goal of resolving the decades-old conflict and inking a historic peace deal by the end of the US president's term in less than a year.
Rice reiterated that the rocket fire had to stop and called on Israel -- which earned international condemnation for excessive use of force -- to spare innocent lives during its raids. Washington's top diplomat also said the two sides will sit down next week with Lieutenant General William Fraser, appointed in January by US President George W. Bush to oversee the compliance with the international peace road map. The document, which calls on Israelis to freeze settlement activity in the West Bank and for Palestinians to improve security, has made little progress since it was drafted in 2003. Rice left for Brussels after a two-day trip that also took her to Cairo.
US makes show of force at sea in Mideast By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer Wed Mar 5, 10:55 AM ET
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Navy switched out warships patrolling in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, maintaining a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon.
Officials said it was a routine, planned deployment but it was an action sure to draw attention in the Mideast, where an announcement on U.S. presence last week caused a political stir in Lebanon.The USS Cole guided missile destroyer and support ships passed through the Suez Canal at midday Wednesday, heading from the Mediterranean Sea into the Red Sea, canal officials said. In Washington, a Navy official said the Cole had been relieved by the guided missile destroyer USS Ors and the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea.
Both the canal official and navy official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of talking about ship movements.It's a sign of our commitment to stability in the region ... a stabilizing force and commitment to our allies, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Wednesday of the U.S. presence.I think it prevents miscalculations, he told Pentagon reporters.The deployment of the USS Cole had sparked criticism from Hezbollah and from pro-Syrian groups in Lebanon, who are locked in a political standoff with the pro-U.S. government. It also sparked criticism from Syria.Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has said his government did not ask for the ships and that they were not in territorial waters. Some in his coalition said they were surprised by the deployment.Syria has said the deployment threatened security in the region. Syria's foreign minister warned the U.S. it cannot impose its own solutions to the political crisis in Lebanon. Syria's foreign minister and the pro-Syrian groups in Lebanon also reminded Washington of the bloody consequences of its 1980s intervention in Lebanon.Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters last week that the deployment should not be viewed as threatening or in response to events in any single country in that volatile region.
The decision to send the ships appeared to be a not-too-subtle show of U.S. force in the region as international frustration mounts over a long political deadlock in tiny, weak Lebanon. The U.S. blames Syria for the impasse, saying Syria has never given up its ambitions to control its smaller neighbor.The presidential election in Lebanon has been delayed 15 times. It is now pushed back to March 11.National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe had called the deployment of the Cole a show of support for regional stability and said President Bush is concerned about the situation in Lebanon.Associated Press writer Salah Nasrawi in Cairo, Egypt, contributed to this report.
Israel vows to keep up Gaza strikes Wed Mar 5, 8:52 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Wednesday to keep up military strikes against the Gaza Strip as long as rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled territory continues. The Israeli army operations against the Gaza Strip will continue as long as the rocket fire continues, a senior official quoted the premier as telling a meeting of the powerful security cabinet on the situation in Gaza.A statement released by Olmert's office after the meeting said that the Israeli government will act continuously, systematically, and over a long period... to put an end to the rocket fire and other terror activities in Gaza.The threat came as moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said he would resume peace talks with Israel -- which he suspended in protest of Israel's latest offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 125 people in a week -- only after a ceasefire is reached covering both Gaza and the West Bank.It also coincided with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the region during which she urged the resumption of peace talks launched last November in the United States following a seven-year hiatus.
The statement said that while Israel would work to contain Hamas, it would also advance the peace process with Abbas.Defence Minister Ehud Barak told Rice that Israel would carry out a major operation in Gaza if required.The Israeli government has a commitment to defend its citizens and although we are not keen to carry out a broad offensive, we will not be deterred from doing so, the defence ministry quoted him as saying.My duty as defence minister is to bring calm to the Negev, and so I will, he added, referring to settlements in Israel's southern desert which borders Gaza.
Government spokesman Mark Regev insisted that the Hamas authorities in Gaza bore full responsibility for the latest escalation.Our forces are not operating because we want to but because we have to. If they were not shooting at our civilian population we would not have to respond, Regev told AFP.The body of a Palestinian killed in the Israeli strikes on Gaza was found in the northern town of Jabaliya on Wednesday, medics said, bringing to 126 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the territory over the past week.Two Israeli soldiers and one civilian have also died over the same period.
Afghans protest Danish cartoons, Israel raids By Mohammad Obaid Wed Mar 5, 4:41 AM ET
PUL-I-ALAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Around five thousand Afghans staged a protest on Wednesday to condemn the reprinting of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in Danish papers, and Israeli raids on Gaza that have killed scores of Palestinians. The protest, the largest in recent days in Afghanistan, also called on the Muslim world to provide arms and funds for Palestinians against Israel and condemned plans by an anti-immigration Dutch politician to release a film on the Koran.Marching on the streets of Pul-i-Alam, the provincial capital of Logar province, the protesters included students and religious figures. They burnt Danish and Dutch flags and tore apart an effigy of Pope Benedict.Like several previous protests, the demonstrators demanded the withdrawal of Dutch and Danish troops who serve under NATO's command in Afghanistan.
The Muslims have no more tolerance. The government should sever its ties with Denmark and Holland and expel their forces from Afghanistan, said the protesters in a resolution.Those who are behind the cartoons and the film must be tried ... and if not, as in the past, we the people of Logar are ready for any campaign, it said, referring to Afghan wars against British invaders in the 19th century and the then Soviet Union in the 1980s.One group of protesters, apparently in favor of the Taliban Islamic movement leading an insurgency against the government and foreign troops, chanted: Long live the Mujahideen.Logar is to the south of Kabul. Militants from the Taliban, overthrown from power by U.S.-led troops in 2001, are active there.Afghanistan's Western-backed government has called the republication of the cartoon an attack against Islam, and one official has warned it would feed the insurgents, who are backed by al Qaeda.Several other Islamic countries have demanded the Koran film by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders not be released.The controversial cartoons -- attacked for both depicting Mohammad and for what critics said were anti-Islamic messages -- were first printed in a Danish paper in 2005.They gained little initial attention but were later reprinted outside Denmark, sparking protests across the Muslim world in which dozens of people, some in Afghanistan, were killed.Danish newspapers reprinted one of the images last month in protest at what they said was a plot to murder the cartoonist who drew it. At least two Dutch papers published pictures of the Danish newspapers, with the cartoon visible.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told Dutch television on Sunday he was concerned about the repercussions Wilders' plans may have for troops serving in Afghanistan and for Dutch people and businesses elsewhere in the world.The protests over Israeli policy relate to an operation in Gaza that has killed more than 120 Palestinians, which Israel said was aimed at ending rocket attacks launched at it from Gaza.(Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Jerry Norton)
US releases Egypt aid, seeks democratic reforms Tue Mar 4, 9:27 AM ET
CAIRO (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday that she had released 100 million dollars in aid to Egypt that had been made conditional on doing more to prevent arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip. Rice told journalists in Cairo that she had exercised her waiver right to free up the funds which the US Congress froze in January pending action on smuggling tunnels and progress with Egyptian democratic reform.I've exercised the waiver, she told a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit. We believe that this relationship with Egypt is an important one and that the waiver was the right thing to do.She made no mention of what progress Egypt had made but stressed the importance that the United States attaches to democracy and reform in Egypt and the importance that we attach to progress on those fronts.
The aid freeze created a furore in Egypt, with Abul Gheit repeatedly rejecting conditions being placed on US aid. Egypt is the second largest recipient of US aid, after Israel, receiving around two billion dollars a year.Egypt frequently announces the discovery of arms caches in the Sinai peninsula as well as tunnels used by the militants.However, the Israelis have frequently complained that Egypt is failing to do enough to stem the flow of arms into the impoverished coastal strip which has been controlled by Islamist group Hamas since June 2007.
Israel can defend itself against Iran Tue Mar 4, 7:21 AM ET
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel has the might and power to defend itself against any threat from Iran, indicating a willingness to use military force if necessary against Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Olmert spoke after Iran defiantly vowed to continue its nuclear program, despite new sanctions the U.N. imposed on Tehran on Monday for refusing to suspend uranimum enrichment, a process necessary to build an atomic bomb.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel to be wiped off the map, and there is evidence Iran bankrolls extremist anti-Israel groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian areas.Israel definitely sees itself threatened by Iran, Olmert said in a tour of northern Israel. Israel has the might and power to defend itself against any threat.But he quickly added, I don't think the Iranian matter is primarily Israel's responsibility. It is the responsibility of the United States and the leading countries in the international community that are convinced Iran constitutes a threat.
Israel has always said it favored a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear affair, and did not see itself taking the lead in the campaign against Tehran's efforts to achieve nuclear capabilities.On Tuesday, Olmert said the international community had to take additional steps to stop Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran insists is peaceful. He did not say what he thought those steps should be.Israel considers Iran a serious threat because of its nuclear program and its arsenal of long-range missiles, which can be fitted with nuclear warheads and are capable of striking the Jewish state.
