ISRAEL-HAMAS PEACE (QUIET)

EU GRAPPLES WITH NO VOTE
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IRAN REJECTS HALT TO ENRICHMENT
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DEADLY JAPAN QUAKE
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Abbas to discuss settlement construction with Rice By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer JUNE 14,08

JERUSALEM - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will insist when he meets with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the U.S. pressure Israel to stop settlement construction, an Abbas aide said Saturday. Rice, who arrived in Israel late Saturday, appeared more exasperated with the Israeli construction than she has in past condemnations. Israeli announcements of building plans have often come just before or after her visits in the past year and a half of her peace mission.Unfortunately there have been a few whether I'm coming or not, Rice told reporters on her plane. Her clipped tone and arched brows revealed annoyance.Look, it's a problem, and it's a problem that we're going to address with the Israelis, she said.

Also Saturday, senior Hamas officials traveled to Cairo as part of ongoing Egyptian efforts to secure a cease-fire between Israel and the Islamic rulers of the Gaza Strip. The violence there has overshadowed peace talks renewed late last year between Israel and Abbas' West Bank administration.Rice was to hold separate talks Sunday with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the West Bank. The visit is part of the intense U.S. effort to prod the sides toward a final peace agreement by the end of the year.But that deadline, meant to coincide with the end of President Bush's term, has appeared increasingly unrealistic with little visible progress in the negotiations. Officials on both sides say privately they are pessimistic about the prospects of reaching an agreement to establish a Palestinian state.The negotiations have been bogged down by Israeli construction in areas claimed by Palestinians for their future state and Israeli security concerns that led to continued West Bank military checkpoints, which hamper Palestinian travel.On Friday, Israel's Interior Ministry announced plans to build 1,300 homes in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, angering Palestinians who want to establish a capital in east Jerusalem.Israel annexed that sector of the city soon after capturing it in 1967 and does not consider construction in east Jerusalem a violation of its peace talk pledge — in the 2003 roadmap peace plan — to stop settlement activity.Everyone understands in any final status agreement the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem will remain part of Israel, government spokesman Mark Regev said Saturday. Building in those Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem is in no way contradictory to the peace process.

Rice disagreed.

This is obviously a roadmap obligation that is not being met, she said.Palestinians temporarily called off peace talks earlier this year over Israeli plans to build homes in east Jerusalem. Since peace talks reopened, Israel has announced it will build more than 3,000 housing units there. The settlements will be high on the agenda when Abbas and Rice meet.Especially the issue of the new settlement units will be discussed, Abbas aide Nimr Hamad said. The United States should exert real pressure on Israel and not just make statements. That's what we'll ask for from Secretary Rice.Rice said Israel has not fully honored its pledge to make practical improvements in the daily lives of West Bank Palestinians, especially regarding checkpoints. There have been a few small success stories, she said.But it's not enough, and there certainly and clearly needs to be more, she said. I understand the security considerations as well as anyone but the obligation was undertaken to improve the lives of the Palestinians, and we're going to have to work very hard if we're going to make that true in a broader sense.The talks would also be threatened by any broad Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, which officials have said is inevitable if the truce efforts fail. Senior Hamas officials Moussa Abu Marzouk and Mohammed Naser traveled Saturday to Cairo where they were slated to meet the key mediator, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, said Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha. The mediation has been hampered by ongoing violence, with Hamas refusing to stop almost-daily rocket attacks from Gaza and Israel retaliating with air strikes and land raids. Israel has dropped one of its key demands in the talks — progress toward the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas, an Egyptian security official said Saturday requesting anonymity due to the secret nature of the mediation. Amos Gilad, Israel's envoy to Egypt, did not explicitly deny that Saturday when asked in an interview on Israel Radio. Among its other demands is a halt to Hamas weapons smuggling. The Hamas delegation will not make any decisions immediately, Taha said.

Hamas wants Israel to lift a blockade of Gaza that has isolated the territory's 1.4 million residents and caused widespread shortages of fuel, electricity and commercial goods. Israel virtually sealed off Gaza after the Islamic group violently seized control of the territory from Abbas-allied forces in June last year. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh warned Israel on Saturday against any broad operation in Gaza, saying Gaza will not be a picnic for Israeli troops. Officials close to Abbas in Gaza said Saturday that three senior officials from Abbas' Fatah movement would visit Gaza in the coming days to shore up support among his backers for talks with Hamas. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity since an official announcement of the visit had not been made yet. Such a visit would be the first of such senior Fatah officials to Gaza since Hamas took over. Ibrahim Barzak contributed reporting from Gaza City and Dalia Nammari from Ramallah and Anne Gearan contributed in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.

BUSH SEEKS FRANCE ON IRAN
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Bush, French president united against Iran By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer JUNE 14,08

PARIS - Iran rejected a six-nation offer of incentives to stop enriching uranium on Saturday, prompting President Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to jointly warn Tehran anew against proceeding toward a nuclear bomb. Our allies understand that a nuclear-armed Iran is incredibly destabilizing, and they understand that it would be a major blow to world peace, Bush said at a news conference with Sarkozy at Elysee Palace.The quickly unfolding series of events began in Tehran, where European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana played the role of messenger for the offer from the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China.Solana presented the plan — a refreshed version of a 2006 package that Iran ignored — to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and its top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. There were no plans for Solana to see Iran's hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Even before Solana's meetings, however, Iran gave its pre-emptive judgment of the deal that holds out the promise of economic, technological, educational and political rewards: dead on arrival, assuming the offer is conditioned on Iran halting its uranium enrichment, which it is.If suspension is included in the package, it won't be considered at all, the official IRNA news agency quoted Iran's government spokesman, Gholam Hossein Elham, as saying Saturday. The position of the Islamic Republic of Iran is clear. Preconditions can't be raised for any halt or suspension.

Bush and Sarkozy were informed of this as as they went into morning meetings. Their session capped warm talks that began over an elegant palace dinner Friday night. When the U.S. and French leaders appeared together before reporters in a grand palace hall around lunchtime, they presented a single front — contrasting with the tension shown between Bush and Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy's predecessor.I'm disappointed that the leaders rejected this generous offer out of hand, Bush told reporters.Said Sarkozy: As far as military nuclear access is concerned, this is no on the part of the international community.Bush said the issue has been dominating his discussions this week with leaders as he travels through Europe. With his time in office ticking down and it widely presumed that Iran could have enough fissile material for a weapon within a few years, Bush has been hoping to inject new urgency into the extremely slow-moving diplomatic process. Iran claims its enrichment is to generate nuclear energy, while the West believes it is designed as part of a now-dormant warhead program that could easily be restarted.The package is hardly different from the 2006 offer, said a senior State Department official. It includes more meat in terms of how Iran could prosper from going along, including new help developing civilian nuclear power in the form of energy partnerships and other measures, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to more freely describe the offer.The official said that Tehran's dismissive stance was expected and that allies will allow some time before acting, in the hope that officials there will decide to more seriously weigh the proposal.

Perhaps reflecting this, Bush did not repeat his strongest rhetoric on Tehran, which he has repeatedly threatened with new sanctions — or even the last-resort possibility of a military strike if it remains defiant.The farthest the president went Saturday was to promise the implementation of existing sanctions — three rounds of mild penalties through the auspices of the United Nations. He said the United States was working with our friends and allies on unspecified tasks.Both Bush and Sarkozy gave special emphasis to their position that Iran is entitled to civilian nuclear power, while it can't be trusted to enrich. And they spoke in unison on the point that the people there have a right to be better represented by a government that Bush said is creating the depravation inside Iran.Our view is we want the Iranian people to flourish and to benefit, he said.It was left to Sarkozy to augment this softer message with tough talk.If Iran gets a nuclear bomb, that is totally unacceptable, he said. Our position will not change.
Like Bush, he declined to offer specifics about what allies will do next. But, he said, The only solution ... is a faultless, seamless sanctions regime.Europeans have appeared more inclined recently to get aggressive about current loosely enforced sanctions, to support new, tougher ones at the U.N., and to possibly even adopt unilateral measures to squeeze oil-rich Iran by curtailing dealings with its banks.

Bush and Sarkozy spoke with one voice on Syria as well, saying that it must stop backing terrorism that destabilizes the Mideast and calling it a dangerous partner with Iran in that effort. In a warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Bush said: Stop fooling around with the Iranians and stop harboring terrorists.In a statement issued by the French presidential palace, the United States and France sought to dispel signs that they have divergent thoughts on Syria. Sarkozy also sought to play down a growing controversy about an invitation extended to Assad — among other Arab leaders — to France's Bastille Day military parade next month, and plans to include Syria in a new Union for the Mediterranean that Sarkozy has championed. If, when we go around the Mediterranean, we start by only inviting the countries that meet our exact criteria, that runs the risk of holding a meeting where very few people attend, Sarkozy said. He said that discussions of normalized relations with France would require Syria to guarantee Lebanon's independence and peel off, as much as possible, from Iran in its desire to lay its hands on a nuclear weapon.Bush also was confronted with questions about Iraq, and his administration's desire to negotiate with Baghdad a long-term deal to provide the legal authority and rules covering an ongoing U.S. military and diplomatic presence there. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared Friday that initial talks with the U.S. were deadlocked, in part over American demands such as immunity for U.S. troops and the ability to detain terror suspects. Al-Maliki said talks would continue.

Bush was upbeat.

If I were a betting man, we'll reach an agreement with the Iraqis, he said. Bush said the U.S. side would work hard on answering Baghdad's concerns. But he did not promise that Washington would give up its most controversial proposals. A U.N. mandate for the U.S. military mission expires at the end of the year. Associated Press Writers Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran and Jamey Keaten in Paris contributed to this story.

BUSH PARTNERS WITH EUROPE TO ADVANCE PEACE
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Rice: Jewish housing plan undermines peace talks By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer JUNE 14,08

JERUSALEM - The United States took Israel to task Saturday for a planned expansion of Jewish homes in the portion of Jerusalem that Palestinians claim for the capital of a future state. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said such moves undermine the U.S.-backed peace talks.Rice, while making what has become nearly a monthly trip to assess the negotiations, said Israeli housing expansions are a recurring problem. In particular, she says she will discuss the latest announcement of 1,300 new homes in east Jerusalem with every Israeli official she sees.With peace talks under way, Rice said, now is a time to build confidence on both sides. This is simply not helpful to building confidence, she told reporters before arriving in the Israeli capital.An aide to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that Abbas will insist that Rice pressure Israel to stop the construction. At the same time, an Israeli government spokesman said that Israel was looking forward to constructive talks with Rice.Israel has committed to halt all settlement activity. But the country insists it has the right to build housing for Jews in east Jerusalem because it annexed that sector of the city shortly after capturing it in the 1967 Mideast war.Israel's announcement on Friday brought to more than 3,000 the number of homes Israel has approved for construction on land that Palestinians claim since the renewal of the U.S.-supported peace talks late last year.We firmly condemn this project, which reveals the Israeli government's intention to destroy peace, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.The fate of Jerusalem, site of shrines sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity, lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of their future state and say continued Israeli construction there makes it difficult to persuade ordinary Palestinians to support peace talks and not violence.

The future of the city recently became an issue in the U.S. presidential election, when Democrat Barack Obama alarmed Palestinians and Arab-Americans by saying Jerusalem should be Israel's capital and remain undivided. He did not initially mention the Arab claim.Rice and other U.S. officials have publicly scolded Israel over housing before, but her frustration was evident Saturday. Over the year and a half that Rice has been making regular peace missions, there has been a pattern of provocative Israeli housing announcements just before or just after her visit.

Unfortunately there have been a few whether I'm coming or not, Rice told reporters. Her clipped tone and arched brows revealed annoyance. Look, it's a problem, and it's a problem that we're going to address with the Israelis, she said.Although Israeli authorities say the announcements are not related, Palestinians say the timing is clearly meant to placate hard-liners in Israel who oppose the land concessions that would be inevitable if the U.S.-sponsored peace process ever bore fruit.President Bush predicted Saturday that an Israeli-Palestinian agreement is possible by year's end.A total of 270,000 Jews live in the West Bank, and an additional 180,000 live in east Jerusalem.Privately, the Palestinians acknowledge that Israel will hold on to much of the disputed land where Jews live, and are prepared to trade it for equal amounts of Israeli territory. But they say the reports of continued construction weaken support in the Palestinian street for Abbas' administration.Abbas briefly called off peace talks over the construction earlier this year.Rice also said Israel has not fully honored its pledge to make practical improvements in the daily lives of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where as a security precaution the Israeli military restricts Palestinian movement and controls details of ordinary life. There are a few small success stories, such as demonstration projects in which Palestinian security forces are operating with some autonomy, Rice said. But it's not enough, and there certainly and clearly needs to be more, she said. I understand the security considerations as well as anyone but the obligation was undertaken to improve the lives of the Palestinians, and we're going to have to work very hard if we're going to make that true in a broader sense.

Israel-Hamas Peace (Quietly) at Hand? By TIM MCGIRK/JERUSALEM JUNE 14,08

It was certainly a noisy prelude to a cease-fire: Just as an Israeli envoy was flying to Cairo on Thursday to negotiate a long-delayed truce with the Palestinian militants of Hamas, a huge explosion rocked a building in Gaza.Hamas charged that the blast that killed eight people and wounded 40 others had been caused by an Israeli rocket strike, and the militants sprayed over 50 mortar shells and missiles into southern Israel. Later, however, Hamas sheepishly admitted that the Gaza blast had been an explosion, or what the Israelis term a work accident - when militants blow themselves up while handling explosives in preparation for mounting an attack. Despite Thursday's lethal fireworks, both Israeli and Palestinian sources expect that by the middle of next week, a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas brokered by Egypt may go into effect. It won't be announced as such - Israel is squeamish about officially striking a deal with what it deems a terrorist group - but if it goes ahead, Hamas will strong-arm its own fighters and those belonging to Islamic Jihad into halting the barrage of rockets aimed at the farming communities and towns of southern Israel. In exchange, Israel is expected to refrain from targeted killings of Hamas operatives, and will hold off on mounting any major assault into Gaza. Israel will also commit itself to gradually lifting the blockade on goods reaching Gaza's besieged inhabitants.Israel is still pressing for the accord to include the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas for almost two years now since his capture on the Israeli side of the boundary with Gaza, but Hamas sources say negotiations over Shalit's freedom will start later. The militants are demanding that Shalit be traded for over 400 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails. So far, Israel is refusing, saying it will only release around 70 prisoners who were not involved in deadly attacks.

So why is Israel dealing with Hamas? Because its army generals have told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that a major offensive into Gaza could last weeks or even months and would very likely cause heavy casualties among Palestinians and Israelis soldiers - but would probably not stop rockets from being fired. And Olmert's priority is to stop the rockets from Gaza.But the Prime Minister faces opposition from within his own cabinet to a deal with Hamas. Transport Minister and former army chief Shaul Mofaz wants Israel to invade Gaza, though his remarks are widely viewed as an effort to position himself as a tough-guy successor to Olmert as leader of the centrist Kadima party. Hamstrung by a possible indictment on corruption charges, Olmert faces a rising chorus in the media and in the Knesset demanding his resignation. Inside Gaza, Hamas is preparing for battle if the cease-fire talks fail. Its fighters are on red alert, and its commanders, many trained in Syria and Iran, are laying plans to ambush Israeli forces in Gaza City's warren of lanes and refugee camps. One Hamas official also boasted to TIME that the militia had surprises waiting for Israel, hinting that these might include longer-range rockets and surface-to-air missiles capable of shooting down helicopters. The Bush Administration and the Israelis have long argued that talking with Hamas would undermine support for moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. But Palestinians in Ramallah say that Abbas, after initially opposing the Egyptian-sponsored talks, is now wagering that a cease-fire - however short-lived - may be inevitable, and he wants to be a part of it. That's why Abbas, all of a sudden, is pushing unity talks with Hamas, says one Palestinian official. In other words, Abbas has to get back in the game. So does Olmert. And whether the cease-fire is official or not, it will be a boost for Hamas, now celebrating the first year anniversary of its armed take-over of Gaza.- With reporting by Jamil Hamad/RamallahTime.com

Hamas sends team to Cairo to discuss Gaza truce JUNE 14,08

GAZA CITY (AFP) - The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas sent a delegation to Cairo on Saturday to receive Israel's response to an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire proposal for the Gaza Strip. A delegation composed of members from the Gaza Strip and headquarters in Damascus was due to arrive in Cairo later on Saturday, said a Hamas political leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniya.The delegation will meet the Egyptian leadership and will hear the Israeli response to the implementation of the truce conditions, Haniya told reporters.

Haniya reiterated the Islamist group's demands for Israel to lift its crippling blockade of Gaza and to halt all military operations in the impoverished territory, where Hamas violently seized control a year ago.Israel refuses to hold direct talks with Hamas which, in turn, refuses to recognise the Jewish state's right to exist.
Hamas's top leader in the Gaza Strip, Mahmud Zahar, said a ceasefire could take effect in less than two weeks.Israel's envoy for the truce talks presented the country's conditions for the ceasefire in Cairo last week, insisting that Gaza militants completely halt attacks, mainly rocket strikes, against southern Israel.Israel also wants the Egyptian authorities to be more energetic in their efforts to halt weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip.Another key condition is that progress be made towards the release of Gilad Shalit, a young army corporal seized by militant groups including Hamas in a deadly cross-border raid on June 25, 2006.But Zahar said that Shalit's release would not be included in the ceasefire agreement, adding that Hamas would free under a prisoner exchange deal.

Would-be voters support Irish veto of EU treaty By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer Sat Jun 14, 1:24 PM ET

DUBLIN, Ireland - Political leaders across Europe were shaking their heads in frustration this weekend at the Irish voters' veto of the latest European Union treaty. But many of their citizens weren't. Ordinary Spaniards, Dutch, French and Britons, who wish they could get the same chance, might also say no to the cold, distant heart of Europe.Spaniards feel Spanish, the French feel French, and the Dutch feel Dutch. We will never all be in the same boat, said Eduardo Herranz, a 41-year-old salesman in Madrid, Spain.

Herranz said Europeans were right to feel alienated from bureaucrats in the EU base of Brussels, Belgium.You don't decide on anything, and you don't get to vote on anything they are talking about, he said of the average voter. In day-to-day life, out on the street, the European Union is something very distant.The emotional disconnect between EU commissioners and their 495 million citizens has never been more evident than in the rejection of the Treaty of Lisbon Thursday by voters in Ireland, long considered one of the most pro-European voices in the 27-nation bloc.The complex, 260-page document sought to change EU powers and institutions to keep them in line with its rapid growth into Eastern Europe, but like all EU documents requires unanimity to be ratified.While all other EU members are ratifying it only through their national governments, Ireland is constitutionally obliged to subject all EU treaties to a popular vote. The unexpectedly strong no result announced Friday effectively acts as a veto.The EU's political establishment is already calling on all other members to keep ratifying the treaty through their governments alone while calculating what it will take to make Ireland vote again, only this time yes.Ireland's government played along with such a maneuver in 2002, when it staged a second referendum after narrowly rejecting a previous EU treaty, then haggling for an appendix that emphasized Ireland's military neutrality.Many Europeans say this is exactly the problem with democracy Brussels-style, where European Commission members are not directly elected but wield continental powers.

We're told we can vote no, that the system requires unanimity. But when (a no vote) actually happens, every time, the EU tells us: You really only have a right to vote yes, said Dublin travel agent Paul Brady, who voted against the treaty. You know, I love traveling through Europe, but I don't really want to live there all the time. I'd like to stay as close to America as Europe.The new treaty would increase powers for the president and foreign policy chief, prune the commission from 27 to 18 members — resulting in only two-thirds of the countries being able to nominate one of their own members in any given term — and trim the policy areas where a holdout nation can block a decision.It's OK to belong to Europe, but I do not want to be governed by them, said David Richards, 56, a tourist from Lincoln, England, on vacation in Dublin.Richards expressed delight at Ireland's no vote and said he wished he had the same opportunity in his homeland, where skepticism about all matters EU runs particularly high. The United Kingdom is one of eight EU members that had waited for the Irish referendum before proceeding with their own ratification through Parliament.Citizens across the continent complain they have no direct power to influence EU treaties, which are produced in legalese too complex to understand. They say it's not enough that their elected governments help to negotiate such treaties.Would-be voters in France and the Netherlands appear particularly annoyed on that score. Majorities there thought they had registered powerful statements against EU accountability by shooting down the EU's proposed constitution in 2005.Instead, most of the constitution's rules for reshaping EU institutions and decision-making procedures reappeared in new packaging two years later when all 27 governments signed the Lisbon Treaty in the Portuguese capital. First they asked our opinion (on the constitution), and we said no. So the second time they didn't ask our opinion. They said it wasn't the same, just some little laws. But it is the same, said Han de Vries, a parking meter attendant in Amsterdam. Now the Irish have said no. So in Brussels they will now look again for a way and pass it anyhow, de Vries said. Rachel Sayer, a French woman spending the summer working in Dublin, said her country would have voted no again if given the opportunity to test the Lisbon Treaty. I know we voted no to the last one, and changes were made, and our government passed it without a revote. A lot of people didn't like that, said Sayer, 24, sitting in Dublin's central park with friends.

An Austrian schoolteacher escorting 17 teenage students on a visit to Ireland said her father back home in Vienna was jubilant over the Irish no.People want to stay independent and be less regulated by Brussels, said Marianne Findeis, 51, who added that she herself would have voted in favor even though the Lisbon Treaty is not really the best.They have to have some sort of treaty for Europe, she said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country assumes the rotating EU presidency next month and is saddled with keeping the Lisbon Treaty alive, on Saturday said this Irish hiccup should not affect other governments' in-house ratifications. But Sarkozy conceded that voters throughout the bloc were liable to shoot down the high diplomacy of EU insiders, if given the chance. A lot of Europeans do not understand how we are shaping Europe right now and building Europe, and we have to take account of that. And we have to do so very fast. We have to change our way of building Europe, he said, according to a translation of his French comments. Sarkozy said the European Union was set up to protect. And yet it worries so many Europeans ... I take the Irish no as a call for us to do things differently and do things better.Associated Press writers Daniel Woolls in Madrid and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam contributed to this report.