Syria rejects linking Israel peace with cutting off Iran MAY 24,08
DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syria will not accept preconditions over its resumed peace talks with Israel and will not compromise its relations with other states, the government daily Tishrin said on Saturday, referring to Iran. Damascus rejects all preconditions concerning its relations with other countries and peoples, it said after an Israeli call for Damascus to distance itself from Tehran, which has called for the destruction of the Jewish state.Damascus will make no compromise on these relations, an editorial said.
Israel and Syria announced on Wednesday they had launched indirect peace talks, with Turkey acting as go-between, after an eight-year freeze.Israel's Housing Minister Zeev Boim said peace can be reached with the Syrians only if they end all terror activities, including supporting and arming Hezbollah in Lebanon and giving up their strategic dependence on Iran.Israel regards Iran as its greatest strategic threat.A three-decade alliance between Damascus and Tehran was bolstered in 2006, when they signed an agreement on military cooperation.A first round of peace feelers between Syria and Israel last year ran up against Damascus's objection to any explicit linkage between a peace deal and its support for Iran and Arab militant groups.Last June, Syria's ruling coalition, the National Progressive Front, accused Israel of trying to impose conditions which have nothing to do with the principles of peace.
Israel also wants Syria to stop supporting Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups. Damascus has repeatedly denied having links to such organisations.Tishrin said on Saturday that adding non-negotiable conditions to the indirect talks would hamstring efforts to achieve peace.Syria is not concerned with Israeli (policy) but with peace and achieving it by the shortest route, the editorial said.Damascus says it has received Israeli commitments for a full withdrawal from the occupied-Golan Heights, the main sticking point in previous talks.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has carefully avoided mentioning the Golan but has drawn fire after hinting that Israel would have to pay a painful price for a peace accord.The strategic Golan plateau was seized by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognised internationally.On Wednesday Boim, of Olmert's centrist Kadima party, said he opposes in principle any withdrawal from the Golan Heights.Nevertheless we should hear exactly how and on what issues the negotiations are held, he added.Syria insists that any negotiations with Israel must be based exclusively on the principle of the exchange of land for peace. The Golan, which rises from the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, is now home to some 20,000 Israeli settlers and key military installations. In the past Damascus has insisted that the entire Golan Heights be returned, and also that it have access to the Sea of Galilee, Israel's main source of fresh water.
Sign of change? Israeli, Palestinian officers meet By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer Sat May 24, 12:48 AM ET
SALEM CHECKPOINT, Israel - The military men don't look like diplomats and the sun-baked checkpoint dividing the West Bank from Israel couldn't have been farther from the Jerusalem hotels and ministerial residences where Israeli-Palestinian peace talks unfold. But the fate of those negotiations depend in large measure on the success of meetings like this one around a faux-wood desk in Lt. Col. Fareis Atilaa's utilitarian office. The Associated Press was given rare access to the meeting this week, providing a glimpse of the minutiae and personal dynamics of the new contacts.Atilaa, a 36-year-old Israeli army officer, heads the military unit that coordinates links between Israel and the Palestinian government and security forces in the West Bank town of Jenin.A Druse Arab fluent in Hebrew and Arabic, he does his job not with a rifle — his M-16 lay unceremoniously on the floor — but with the two cell phones clipped to his belt and the two land lines next to his computer.
The meeting was conducted in Arabic. The Palestinians were represented by the Jenin commander, Suleiman Amran, who wore a checkered shirt and slacks. He was accompanied by a liaison officer in a smart forest-green uniform.Sitting opposite them were Atilaa and a high-ranking Israeli officer who cannot be identified because of army regulations. The Palestinians had mustaches, the Israelis were clean-shaven.These twice-monthly meetings are key to the current U.S.-backed attempt to bolster the authority of President Mahmoud Abbas' moderate government in the West Bank, which remains under the control of the Israeli military.But despite the contacts, Palestinians contend that Israeli actions on the ground — including military incursions and targeted assassinations — are severely undermining their efforts to establish authority in the West Bank.
What's more, little has changed since peace talks resumed at a U.S.-hosted conference in November to inspire confidence that peace efforts can bear fruit.Sometimes the tensions are indeed about fruit — literally.A truckload of watermelons can sit at an Israeli checkpoint for most of a day, a big blow to a farmer who may find himself or his sons drawn into the arms of the militants. But such trucks have been used in violence, including one case in 2001 when a militant tried to blow up a bus with explosives hidden inside watermelons.Palestinians are discouraged because Israel has failed to lift these roadblocks, which hobble movement and trade, or to stop building on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state. A confiscated tract of land may have been that farmer's watermelon patch, and his sons may be among the thousands of Palestinians who remain in Israeli prisons.Israel has not forgotten the waves of suicide bombings that came out of Palestinian-controlled towns like Jenin not so long ago. Although the Palestinians have moved against common criminals, Israel believes the Palestinians are not yet able — and possibly not entirely willing — to dismantle the hard-core militant groups that have spoiled peacemaking in the past.
This week's meeting at the Salem checkpoint took place during an important test for the Abbas government: Hundreds of armed security men were brought into Jenin to try to restore law and order to an area long known as a militant hotbed. A similar operation in the unruly city of Nablus restored a measure of security earlier this year.The last security contacts like these, in the heyday of peacemaking in the 1990s, were successful for a time, progressing with much backslapping and friendly talks over plates of hummus. But they ended in 2000 with the outbreak of violence and the subsequent disintegration of the Palestinian government and its security forces.In one of the first incidents of violence that year, an Israeli soldier was shot to death by his Palestinian counterpart on a joint security patrol.But now Israel and Palestinian moderates find themselves facing a common enemy: Hamas, the Islamic group that seized Gaza last June, and its extremist allies. The new security cooperation, like the peace talks themselves, are driven by that shared threat.The atmosphere at this week's meeting was pleasant, at times jovial. The officers had a good laugh about masked men spotted in the Jenin refugee camp earlier this month — the Palestinians jokingly said they were Israeli undercover troops and the Israelis countered they were local militants. (The Israelis later privately insisted their men had not been in the area.) But there was no question who was in charge: the Israeli officer, who asked the questions and spoke last. The Israeli military says it is trying to keep out of the way. We told them, we're not only going to stay away from where you're operating — we're not going to be anywhere in the area, Atilaa told the AP before the meeting. Success depends on Palestinian determination: If they will it, it is no dream, he said — quoting Theodor Herzl, the Jewish visionary who dreamed up the modern State of Israel. Amran agreed his troops face no obstacles from the Israelis, who try as much as possible to facilitate our movement. But overall control, he made clear, remains in Israel's hands. In the village of Qabatiyeh, Amran told his Israeli counterparts, there were now 15 officers with four vehicles. Earlier this month, three people were wounded in a clash between his men and local gunmen apparently concerned about interference in the town's lucrative trade in stolen Israeli cars.
Amran said the village was now under control. The Israelis haven't entered Qabatiyeh since the Palestinians went in, Atilaa said.
With a certain measure of pride, Amran informed the Israelis that his men had now begun entering Jenin's notorious refugee camp without backup — demonstrating to what extent the Palestinian authorities lost control in recent years. Two Islamic Jihad men had just turned themselves in, he said. And that day, 14 stolen Israeli cars were sent back into Israel through the checkpoint. The Israelis asked Amran to make sure his men always wear uniforms and travel in marked cars to avoid being mistaken for militants. If they enter villages at night, the Israelis want to know, to avoid friendly fire incidents, the Israeli officer said. Then came the meeting's only open note of discord. The Israelis asked if more Palestinian forces were due to arrive, and Amran said there was another battalion training in Jordan — but it would only be deployed in Jenin if his men were given more authority. It was clear the Israelis don't trust them enough to cede responsibility, a fact that was not hidden by the good-natured banter in Atilaa's office. A name that came up at the meeting gave a telling indication of the situation on the ground. The Israelis mentioned a wanted gunman from Islamic Jihad, Amar Abu Ghaliun, a well-known figure in the Jenin refugee camp. Amran's men had been in the camp and tried to arrest him twice, but he got away. On Sunday, an Israeli unit went into the camp and caught him. Amran was unhappy about that. We in the Palestinian Authority are against these incursions and arrests, he said after the meeting. But in Atilaa's office, the officers didn't let that spoil the atmosphere. They parted with handshakes, and the Palestinians walked past the armed Israeli sentries and passed through the checkpoint back into the West Bank. Associated Press Writer Mohammed Ballas reported from Jenin.
Palestinian PM: $1.4 billion in investments raised By DALIA NAMMARI, Associated Press Writer Fri May 23, 1:44 PM ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank - A business conference helped raise $1.4 billion in investments for projects aimed at bolstering Palestinians' battered economy, the Palestinian prime minister said Friday. The investments could create as many as 35,000 jobs, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said at the end of the three-day conference, which drew more than 500 foreign investors, many from the Arab world, along with hundreds more from the Palestinian territories.
More than $500 million of the investments are in real estate and $65million are in high-tech, Fayyad said.But the conference was not without its critics. Most of the money will go into construction, creating temporary jobs rather than steady employment. And the largest investment — $650 million by a new mobile phone provider — has been in the works for 18 months, and Israel still hasn't given final approval for the necessary frequencies. The company said Thursday it has been assured approval is imminent.Critics also said investment is risky in the turbulent Palestinian territories — especially at a time when the fate of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is uncertain — and because of restricted access for some foreigners to the Palestinian areas.Still, Fayyad, a respected economist, declared the conference a success, saying it was the start of moving the wheel of the economy.The Palestinian economy has been severely hampered by Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade, imposed after the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in 2000. Delays at Israeli checkpoints can make it hard for Palestinian exports to deliver their goods on time.
Israel says it can't ease restrictions faster because Palestinian militants still pose a threat. But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who attended the conference, disagreed.Israel should and Israel can exert more efforts in this regard without endangering its security, Kouchner said.Kouchner also criticized Israel for ongoing construction in Israeli settlements, which he said obstructs development of the Palestinian economy.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said construction continues only in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, which Israel does not consider settlements, and inside large West Bank settlement blocs that Israel intends to retain in any final peace accord.The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as a future capital but Israel annexed the sector of the city to its capital after capturing it in 1967.The Palestinians also want sovereignty over the entire West Bank, though negotiators have discussed swapping the land where major settlement blocs stand in exchange for an equal amount of Israeli territory.
Israel minister to French counterpart: Shun Hamas By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu May 22, 4:24 PM ET
JERUSALEM - The Israeli foreign minister told her visiting French counterpart Thursday that world governments must shun Hamas, days after he disclosed that France was in touch with the Islamic militant rulers of Gaza, an Israeli ministry statement said. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in her comments referred to a suicide bombing early Thursday at a Gaza crossing that killed the Palestinian driver of a truckload of explosives. Smaller groups claimed responsibility, but she blamed Hamas.The bombing should demonstrate to the international community that, while it demands that Israel take care of the situation in Gaza and open the crossing points, Hamas, which controls Gaza, is not interested in improving the lives of the population and doesn't take even minimal responsibility, a Foreign Ministry statement quoted Livni as saying.
The international community must continue to delegitimize Hamas, she said.French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's response was not reported. The French Embassy did not issue a statement.Kouchner had said in a radio interview Monday that France had been in touch with Hamas over several months, but the contacts did not amount to relations or negotiations. He did not detail the substance of the contacts with Hamas, which rejects Israel's existence.Israel, the United States and the international community have listed Hamas as a terrorist organization, and Washington delivered a swift rebuke after Kouchner's revelation, with the State Department saying the contacts were not wise or appropriate.Israel's Foreign Ministry said Monday it would be seeking clarification from Kouchner during his visit, but a ministry official could not say if the issue had been satisfactorily resolved at Thursday's meeting.The Quartet of Middle East mediators — the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union — has demanded Hamas renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept previous peace accords as a condition for any talks. The militant group has refused.An Israeli government official said the issue of French contacts with Hamas was mentioned at Kouchner's meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, but he declined to give details. In brief comments to journalists as he entered the meeting with Livni in a Tel Aviv hotel, Kouchner did not refer to Hamas.We have to talk about the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis, he said in English. We have to say some words and have to listen to her about the beginning of talks with Syria, and we have to talk about Iran.
Abbas wants Europe to play vital role in Mideast peace process Thu May 22, 3:27 PM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday urged Europe to play an important political role in the Middle East peace process. We discussed the peace process, and we say frankly that we want Europe to have a role -- we insist on it, Abbas told a joint news conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.It's true that Europe offers economic support, but we also want it to play an important political role. It is geographically the closest to the Middle East and best understands the region, he said.The Middle East process was relaunched last November at a US-sponsored meeting in Annapolis with the aim of reaching an agreement by the time President George W. Bush leaves office next January.A breakthrough has yet to be achieved, and in private Palestinian officials accuse Washington of not exerting enough pressure on Israel to take the process forward.Kouchner earlier expressed doubts that Israel and the Palestinians will reach a peace accord this year.If one looks at the situation, we have reasons to be sceptical, he told the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam in an interview published on Thursday.
Kouchner told the news conference that the European Union must not just play the role of cashier to dispense money in aid to the Palestinians.We must stand by the side of our Palestinian and Israeli friends to participate in progress in the peace process... to be positive and to help, not to be anti-American, he said.
Kouchner, who met earlier in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, again called for Jewish settlement in occupied Arab land to cease.France's position is clear, he said. We are completely against the creation of new settlements and have always insisted to our Israeli friends that this must stop. We restated this position yesterday and today in Israel.He played down recent contacts between France and the Islamist Hamas movement which ousted Fatah forces loyal to Abbas from the impoverished Gaza Strip more than 11 months ago.There was only one meeting, you know about that and it is over, he said.It was a simple contact aimed at gleaning information on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. It was not a political negotiation, Kouchner said of talks a senior retired diplomat had with Hamas leaders.The United States and the European Union refuse to talk to Hamas, which they consider to be a terrorist organisation.
