Hamas: Arrests foiled car bombing Tue Sep 9, 5:01 PM ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas security says its police have arrested two men from the rival Fatah in a car containing explosives. The Hamas statement says the police also found batteries and a telephone detonating device in the car and the men were planning to set off a powerful car bomb.The arrests were made late Tuesday near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Hamas identified one of the men as a former officer in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' elite guard. There was no comment from Fatah, which is led by Abbas.The Islamic militant Hamas overran Gaza last year, expelling Fatah forces.
Abbas to meet Bush on Sept 26: Palestinians Tue Sep 9, 3:57 PM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is due to hold talks with US President George W. Bush at the White House later this month, Palestinian officials said on Tuesday. The meeting will be held on September 26 in the morning, Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.In Washington, a White House spokeswoman could not confirm the meeting but said it was possible, coming just in the wake of the UN General Assembly meeting.Since there are so many leaders who are going to be in the country at the time and going to New York, we will have some leaders coming around that week, said spokeswoman Dana Perino.Before traveling to Washington, Abbas is to attend the opening session of the UN General Assembly starting on September 23. Palestinian officials had initially said Abbas would meet Bush on the sidelines of the General Assembly.Abbas and Bush will evaluate the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation process and discuss the obstacles that prevent reaching an accord, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.Erekat accused Israel of failing to abide by its commitments in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, including the agreement to freeze settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
Continued construction in the Israeli settlements is seen as one of the major hurdles in attempts to reach a peace agreement.Peace efforts were relaunched with great fanfare at a US-backed conference in November with the stated goal of reaching agreement by the end of this year, but have made little tangible progress.So far, there are no signs to reach an agreement by the end of the year that comprises all the issues Abbas said on Saturday after talks in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.Hopes for a swift conclusion have been further affected by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to step down after his Kadima party holds leadership elections on September 17.But in Washington Perino said the White House had not given up on reaching a peace pact.We continue to work towards it... Obviously there are things, like the settlement announcements, that undermine the negotiations. But all in all I think that they continue to work towards it, she said.
Lebanon president calls rival leaders for talks Tue Sep 9, 3:31 PM ET
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman invited rival leaders on Tuesday for talks next week that were set to focus on the fate of the military wing of Iranian-backed Hezbollah group. The talks, set to start at the presidential palace on September 16, were stipulated in a Qatari-brokered deal that ended the country's political crisis in May.Hezbollah's weapons emerged as a main divisive issue after the group used some of its military muscle to defeat its foes in street fighting in Beirut and other areas in early May.The Western-backed majority coalition says Hezbollah should be disarmed after Israel pulled out of Lebanon while the group and its allies, backed by Syria and Iran, say the weapons were needed to defend Lebanon against Israeli threats.Hezbollah fought a 34-day war against Israel in 2006 which killed 1,200 people in Lebanon and 158 people in Israel.Suleiman announced the talks at a fast breaking banquet he held for Lebanese leaders to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.The United Nations and the international community want Hezbollah to be disarmed and transformed into a political party. The ruling coalition say the government should have full control of all armed forces in Lebanon and it alone should hold the war and peace decisions.The group, which has parliament members and a cabinet minister, says it is willing to discuss a defence strategy that would define the role of its guerrillas and the Lebanese army in confronting Israeli threats.Hezbollah has thousands of highly trained guerrillas, equipped by tens of thousands of rockets capable of hitting Israel, as well as anti-tank and anti-ship missiles. It is widely believed that the group had rearmed and even strengthened its military might since the 2006 war despite a U.N. ban.An 18-month political crisis threatened to erupt into all out civil war in May when Hezbollah briefly seized control of the Muslim half of Beirut routing pro-government gunmen.
The violence led to talks in Doha and an agreement that stipulated the election of Suleiman, formation of a unity government, agreement on a law for next year's parliamentary election and the holding of talks to discuss divisive issues.
Politicians from both camps see little chance that next week's talks would reach a full agreement but hope holding them would ease sectarian tensions threatening instability.The Sunni Muslim leader of the ruling coalition Saad al-Hariri said Tuesday he was ready to meet the leader of Shi'ite Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah had earlier welcomed any such meeting, security concerns permitting.Such a meeting would go a long way into defusing Sunni-Shi'ite tension. The two men have not met for more than two years and while Hariri is expected to attend next week's talks, Nasrallah will send a representative.Nasrallah has made only a few public appearances since the 2006 war on fears Israel is seeking to assassinate him.(Reporting by Nadim Ladki)
Israel's Olmert, ministers to discuss Iranian nukes Tue Sep 9, 2:44 PM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will discuss Iran's nuclear program at a special meeting of senior ministers on Wednesday, officials said.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak are expected to take part in the meeting, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Olmert's spokesman played down the significance of the meeting.The prime minister is conducting business as usual. There are routine discussions on a whole series of issues, he said.Israeli Radio said government officials were concerned by reports that Iran's Bushehr nuclear power station was nearing completion.Russia has already delivered nuclear fuel to Iran under a $1 billion contract to build the Bushehr plant, on the Gulf coast in southwest Iran, and Iranian officials say the reactor is likely to be started up soon.Tehran signed an agreement with Moscow allowing the Russians to remove the plutonium-rich spent fuel and return it to Russia but Israel Radio said government officials feared the fuel would remain in Iranian hands and could be used in weapons production.Israel, which is long assumed to have an arsenal of atomic weapons, has vowed to prevent Iran becoming a nuclear power in the region.
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, insists the Islamic Republic is not a threat to any country and says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
God help us: Israeli response to Mideast poll Tue Sep 9, 12:03 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Most Israeli Jews have a negative perception of the Middle East with many asking themselves, What the hell are we doing here? according to a survey released on Tuesday. Asked to give the first words that came to mind when thinking about the Middle East, 61 percent of respondents were negative, 20 percent neutral and 19 percent positive, Tel Aviv University's Centre for Peace Research said.The negative responses mainly related to war, terrorism and Islam, the centre's poll found.These came along with expressions of a general, colourful nature such as: a nutcase region, a morass, I can't take any more of it,God help us, and What the hell are we doing here? the centre said.
Among the positive responses, an aspiration to peace was common.
The survey also found that 71 percent of Jewish Israelis do not believe that Israel will succeed in the coming decades to integrate politically with the rest of the Middle East.The centre's survey shows that 63 percent clearly prefer integration with the West.Among Israeli Arabs on the other hand, 34 percent responded with positive words and images when questioned about the Middle East, 32 percent had negative responses and 34 percent were neutral.In the telephone interview of 599 people, carried out at the start of September, a majority of Israeli Arabs also favoured integration with the West rather than the Middle East.The sampling error for the poll is 4.5 percent, the university said.
Arab League chief says angry with Palestinian groups Tue Sep 9, 10:35 AM ET
CAIRO (Reuters) - The head of the Arab League said on Tuesday that he was angry with fractious Palestinian political groups and that sanctions against them were being discussed by Arab governments. Egypt, the main mediator between often rival Palestinian groups, has been holding bilateral talks with minor groups in preparation for similar talks with the two main groups -- Fatah and Hamas.I am extremely angry with the Palestinian organizations, Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the league, told a news conference in an unusually harsh criticism of the Palestinians.We are studying the measures to be taken in the face of the current Palestinian chaos, he said, after a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.But he added: The sanctions would not be against anyone in particular. They would be against the party which obstructs reconciliation and maybe against everyone or against the organization which obstructs Egyptian efforts.If talks with the main groups succeed, Egypt might bring all the factions together in October after the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and the holiday which follows.Hamas routed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces in Gaza in June 2007. In response, Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led government and appointed a new administration in the occupied West Bank where his Fatah group holds sway.Hamas and Fatah disagree on their approach to talks with Israel and over how to resolve the dispute which led to Hamas control of Gaza.Moussa gave no details of the sanctions the Arab states envisaged against the Palestinian groups. They (the sanctions) are now all in the framework of closed consultations within the Arab system, he added, referring to the Arab League.He said: Do they (the Palestinians) have a state for them to be fighting over ministerial positions? We kidded ourselves and called it the state of Palestine. It's not a state until it obtains its full rights.(Reporting by Mohamed Abdellah, Writing by Jonathan Wright)
Israel attack on Lebanon depends on Iran, Syria: Hezbollah Mon Sep 8, 4:20 PM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) - Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said any Israeli attack on Lebanon depended on the Iranian nuclear issue and the Israel-Syria talks, in an interview with Iran's state-run television on Monday. I can not say when Israel is going to attack Lebanon, if it is going to be soon or not. It depends on the region's events and circumstances, said Nasrallah, whose Lebanese Shiite group is backed by Damascus and Tehran.On the one hand it depends on Iran's nuclear case, and on the other hand it depends on the indirect talks between Syria and Israel, he added.He was referring to the Iranian nuclear drive which the West suspects is a weapons programme under the guise of a civilian one. It has already imposed sanctions on Teheran and Washington refuses to rule out the use of force.Tehran vehemently denies it is developing nuclear weapons.Israel and Syria, which have technically been at war for 60 years, launched indirect negotiations brokered by Turkey in May, eight years after talks were frozen over the fate of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Nasrallah assessed the current situation in the Middle East as not stable and not calm, but he added that Hezbollah's military situation is in best shape, thanks God.
Iran is a staunch supporter of Hezbollah although it denies Western and Israeli charges of military backing to the militant group which fought a devastating 2006 summer war against the Jewish state.
Most Israelis would trade Barghuti for kidnapped soldier Mon Sep 8, 10:02 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Almost four out of five Israelis favour trading jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghuti for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militants in 2006, according to a poll released Monday. The joint survey of Israelis and Palestinians carried out by the Hebrew University and the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) found that 78 percent of Israelis favour such a swap.On the Palestinian side, 74 percent said they support seizing more soldiers for future prisoner swaps and only 21 percent oppose such a strategy.Barghuti, a senior West Bank leader from president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, was arrested by Israeli troops in 2002 and in June 2004 was sentenced to five life sentences for allegedly masterminding deadly attacks on Israelis.He remains popular among Palestinians, however, and is frequently spoken of as a possible successor to Abbas.The Islamist Hamas movement, which seized power in the Gaza Strip in July 2007, has been trying through Egyptian mediators to negotiate a prisoner swap in which it would trade Shalit for several hundred jailed Palestinians.The survey also found that majorities on both sides favour the extension of a two-month-old ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Islamist movement, with 55 percent of Israelis and 81 percent of Palestinians supporting it.The Hebrew University poll questioned 611 Israelis and had a margin of error of 4.5 percent. The PSR poll questioned 1,270 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and had a three-percent margin of error.
Police call to indict further weakens Israel PM by Marius Schattner
Mon Sep 8, 9:36 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Police recommendations that criminal charges be filed against Ehud Olmert have dealt yet another blow to the Israeli premier whose government has been battered by corruption allegations. While a final decision is not expected for weeks or even months, the Israeli media is almost unanimous in declaring that the police move marks the end of the Olmert era.Olmert's government is already hobbled by internal divisions that could prevent it from making any significant decisions in US-backed peace talks with the Palestinians or indirect negotiations with Syria.
Olmert is a dead horse. Occasionally, he still kicks but his kicks are weak, the liberal Haaretz newspaper said in an editorial.On Sunday, Olmert failed to convince his cabinet to discuss a plan to compensate Jewish settlers who agree to relocate from the occupied West Bank to Israel as part of a future peace agreement with the Palestinians.The presence of some 450,000 settlers in the West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem, is seen as one of the main hurdles in the peace negotiations, which have made little progress since they were relaunched at a US-hosted conference in November.The premier, who turns 63 at the end of September, has denied any wrongdoing but announced in July he would step down following a public uproar over the array of suspicions against him.Olmert's lawyers have dismissed the police report as meaningless, pointing out that only the attorney general can decide whether to indict, a decision that could be weeks, if not months, away.And the premier's media advisor Amir Dan recalled that the attorney general had in the past ignored police recommendations to indict serving prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon.Police said they had gathered enough evidence to indict Olmert on charges of taking bribes and breach of public trust for allegedly accepting tens of thousands of dollars of illegal funds from US businessman Morris Talansky.Police also recommended that Olmert be indicted over suspicions he had billed the same overseas trips several times over.The allegations only surfaced earlier this year but concern events that took place in the 13 years before Olmert took office in 2006, when he served as mayor of Jerusalem and as trade and industry minister.State prosecutors will now review the evidence and make their own recommendation.Police said they would need to question Olmert further before deciding whether to recommend a third indictment over suspicions of cronyism in political appointments he made as minister in 2005.Police also recommended on Monday indicting two of Olmert's closest associates -- former secretary Shula Zaken and lawyer Uri Messer -- who are both suspected of accepting bribes in the Talansky affair.If I were the prime minister, I would immediately step down, former Supreme Court judge Yitzhak Zamir told army radio. He has no legal obligation to do so, but legal doesn't automatically mean kosher.Olmert has been dogged by several corruption investigations since he took office and has been interrogated seven times since May.
Under mounting pressure from political rivals and allies alike, he announced at the end of July that he would step down after his centrist Kadima party selects a new leader in a September 17 leadership election. Opinion polls make Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hawkish Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz the favourites to succeed him. The winner will have to win a vote of confidence in parliament for a new governing coalition, otherwise the country will go to early parliamentary elections.
Opinion polls suggest the right-wing opposition Likud headed by Netanyahu would emerge as the largest party.
Israel's government puts off evacuation discussion Sun Sep 7, 9:49 AM ET
JERUSALEM - Israel's government on Sunday postponed discussion of landmark legislation that would pay Jewish settlers to leave their homes in the West Bank, but said it would take up the matter next week. At the opening of the meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet that Israel would likely have to uproot West Bank settlers as part of a future peace agreement.In light of Israel's continuing peace talks with the Palestinians, he added, it would be proper to think about providing cash incentives for settlers to leave voluntarily.Olmert said it was important to learn from the mistakes of Israel's last evacuation of settlers — the 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip — and it was important to plan ahead.I think it is good to start thinking about these issues and to see how we prepare for them in the right way, Olmert said.Israel evicted 8,500 settlers from the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements in mid-2005. Many settlers refused to plan for or cooperate with the operation. A government watchdog has accused the government of poorly planning for the settlers after their evacuation, most significantly by not doing enough to move them into permanent housing from temporary quarters.
Dubbed evacuation-compensation, versions of the proposal have been pushed in recent years by dovish lawmakers. Sunday's discussion, though a symbolic step, was to be the most prominent sign so far of its acceptance at the highest levels of Israel's government.But other issues took precedence at the meeting. Government spokesman Mark Regev cited time constraints and said the legislation would be discussed next week.Under the proposed bill, Jewish settlers willing to leave their homes in territory thought likely to be transferred to the Palestinians would receive payment from the government.The bill is aimed at minimizing friction with settlers and paving the way for a large pullback from the West Bank, which the Palestinians claim as part of a future independent state. Proponents of the bill have said up to half of the 70,000 residents of settlements expected to be evacuated would leave if they had the financial means.The proposal is nowhere near implementation, and Olmert had no plans to ask his ministers to vote on it. Making any progress more unlikely, Olmert has said he will step down after his party elects a new leader this month, a step likely to throw Israel's government into turmoil and which could lead to new elections.
Israel seizes heroin, cash near Lebanon border Sat Sep 6, 2:54 PM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli security forces seized a large shipment of heroin and cash near the Lebanese border in an overnight raid, police said on Saturday. In a joint operation targeting a local smuggling network, army and police forces seized around 55 kilos (120 pounds) of heroin and 650,000 dollars (450,000 euros) in cash, police spokesman Eran Shaked told AFP.Three Bedouin from southern Israel were arrested in the raid, which took place near the town of Biranit along the Lebanon border.The rugged frontier between the two longtime foes has long been a conduit for drug smuggling despite the heavy Israeli military presence there.On August 18 Israeli police found some 22 kilos (more than 48 pounds) of heroin and cocaine in a raid near the town of Sasa, also near the border.
