REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE (THE EU DICTATORS TEMPLE)
REVELATION 11:1-2
1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
DANIEL 9:27
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
REBUILT 4TH TEMPLE (THE TRUE MESSIAHS TEMPLE)
ZECHARIAH 6:12-13
12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:
13 Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
ISAIAH 60:9-10
9 Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.
10 And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.
ISAIAH 2:1-5
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
MARK 11:9-10,15-17
9 And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord:
10 Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.
15 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
16 And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.
EZEKIEL 40 TO 48 IS THIS 4TH TEMPLE TO BIG FOR THE MOUNT I BELIEVE TO BE BUILT 25 MILES FROM JERUSALEM.
ISN'T THIS STORY INTERESTING WHEN GOD GIVES THE ISRAELS TIMELINE IN HISTORY DEALING WITH ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM IN DANIEL 9:24-27.
Experts unearth more than 2,100-year-old Jerusalem wall SEPT 03,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli archaeologists said on Wednesday they had rediscovered rare remains of the wall that surrounded Jerusalem more than 2,100 years ago after locating the site of a 19th century dig. The Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists said they also discovered at the same site a section of the city walls dating from the later Byzantine period between the 4th and 7th centuries AD.
The earlier findings include a 3.2-metre (10-foot) tower and parts of the wall built during the second century BC under the Hasmonean dynasty and that was destroyed together with the Jewish Second Temple by the Romans in 70 AD.The two important finds were at a large excavation on Mount Zion outside the limits of today's Old City, whose Ottoman-era walls date from the 16th century.The city had never been as big as it was during those two periods, the director of the excavations, Yehiel Zelinger, told a news conference.In the Second Temple period the city, with the temple in its centre, was a focal point for Jewish pilgrimages from all over the ancient world and in the Byzantine period it attracted Christian pilgrims, he said.
The site for the dig was determined from a map drawn by British archaeologists of the Palestine Exploration Fund who first excavated the area at the end of the 19th century.The lost site, whose shafts and tunnels had since been filled and covered with soil, was rediscovered by cross-referencing the plans of the old excavation with updated maps of the area, Zelinger said.The Israeli archaeologist discovered souvenirs left behind by the British excavators 120 years ago -- including a shoe, the top of a gas light and fragments of beer and wine bottles.
Tony Blair's sister-in-law stranded in Gaza SEPT 03,08
JERUSALEM - The sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that Israel and Egypt are preventing her from leaving the Gaza Strip, more than a week after she entered the territory in defiance of an Israel-led blockade.
Lauren Booth said she has been trying to leave Gaza since Friday, but was turned away at Israeli and Egyptian border crossings.Booth was among 46 pro-Palestinian international activists with the Free Gaza Movement who sailed into Gaza waters on Aug. 23 to draw attention to Israel's blockade, which has prevented the area's 1.4 million Palestinians from traveling abroad and crippled the local economy.Most of the protesters left Gaza on the same boats last Thursday and sailed to Cyprus, but Booth and several other activists chose to remain behind to do human rights work.
Booth said she has turned to British diplomats in the region to get her out of Gaza. High-level diplomatic maneuvering is going on when none should be needed, she said.
She said she has not spoken to Blair, who now serves as the international community's Mideast peace envoy. Neither Blair's office nor the British Embassy in Tel Aviv returned calls seeking comment.Israel and Egypt sealed Gaza's borders after the Islamic militant group Hamas violently seized power in June 2007. The sanctions have halted the movement of virtually all goods and people across Gaza's border. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said his government was still weighing whether to let her into Israel, but noted that Israel, like any country, has the right to decide who enters its territory.This is something she should have thought about before entering Gaza, he said. Nothing was coordinated with Israel.Egyptian officials were not immediately available for comment.
LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
DANIEL 8:23-25
23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king (EU DICTATOR) of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences,(FROM THE OCCULT) shall stand up.
24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power:(SATANS POWER) and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes;(JESUS) but he shall be broken without hand.
DANIEL 11:36-40
36 And the king shall do according to his will;(EU PRESIDENT) and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers,(THIS EU DICTATOR IS A EUROPEAN JEW) nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
38 But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces:(HES A MILITARY GINIUS) and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
39 Thus shall he do in the most strong holds (CONTROL HEZBOLLAH,AL-QUAIDA MURDERERS ETC) with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many,(HIS ARMY LEADERS) and shall divide the land for gain.
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south(EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR PROTECTING ISRAELS SECURITY) and the king of the north(RUSSIA) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).
ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
Palestinians study options if peace talks fail By Wafa Amr
Wed Sep 3, 8:29 AM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Support among Palestinians for a binational state with Israel will grow should U.S.-brokered talks on creating an independent Palestine fail, a Palestinian think tank forecast in a new report released on Wednesday. Israel has long rejected the idea of becoming a binational country, in which Jews would lose their majority. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he remains committed to a two-state solution despite slow-moving negotiations.A 50-page document, formulated by the Palestine Strategy Studies Group (PSSG) and titled Palestinian Strategic Options to End the Israeli Occupation, noted Palestinian frustration over Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.If the current negotiations fail, Palestinians will be driven to replace the 1988 (two-state solution) offer (by the Palestine Liberation Organization) by a new strategy, not just rhetorically but in reality, the report said.The negotiated two-state outcome will then be definitely cancelled, it added.The PSSG is made up of 30 Palestinian intellectuals and professionals from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the diaspora. The study was funded by the European Union.The document has sparked a debate within the Palestinian society on the next steps to be taken should negotiators fail to meet Washington's goal of achieving at least a framework peace deal by the end of the year.Palestinian negotiators have said that Israeli proposals fall short of Palestinian aspirations for a viable state on lands Israel captured during the 1967 Middle East war.Abbas plans to meet U.S. President George W. Bush on September 26 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session in New York, Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki said on Wednesday.
OPTIONS
We must be prepared with options and scenarios, Palestinian writer Hani al-Masri, a member of the PSSG, told Reuters.The document lists a number of options, including a binational state. It doesn't say the two-state solution must be ruled out but it says that the two-state solution is being eradicated by settlements and Israeli facts on the ground, Masri said, referring to the Jewish enclaves on occupied land.
The Palestinian leadership has also started debating options if no deal is reached.
Senior Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo said one possibility under discussion was a unilateral declaration of independence.The idea caused an international uproar in 1999 when then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat threatened to declare statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.The entire Palestinian discourse must change. Our aim is to end the occupation and not have a process without peace, Fatah official Mohammad Ishtayeh, a member of the PSSG, told Reuters.Another PSSG member, Samir Abu Eisheh, a former cabinet minister close to the Islamist Hamas group that controls the Gaza Strip, said options included placing that territory and the West Bank under international trustreeship.
Sarkozy heads to Syria for Mideast peace talks Wed Sep 3, 7:03 AM ET
PARIS (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday headed to Damascus on the first visit by a Western head of state since the 2005 murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri left Syria isolated. Sarkozy's two-day visit -- for bridge-building talks and a four-way summit to promote peace negotiations between Syria and Israel -- was the latest step towards restoring ties frozen after the killing of Hariri, a close friend of Sarkozy's predecessor Jacques Chirac.The French leader, who will dine with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad Wednesday ahead of joint talks with regional mediators Turkey and Qatar Thursday, said before leaving that France and Syria were key to Middle East peace.As I told President Bashar al-Assad when he came to Paris on July 12, the path of peace in this region passes through our countries, he told Syria's Al-Watan daily, which is close to government circles.
Syria can provide an irreplaceable contribution to solving Middle East issues. It is important that Syria plays a positive role in the region.The visit marked an important new step in drawing Syria back into the international fold after years out in the cold, six weeks after Assad made a comeback on the world stage in Paris.Today there is a new era between Syria and France based on France's new policy, a realistic, pragmatic policy that is aimed at achieving peace and that calls for dialogue, Assad told French TV on Tuesday.Assad has called on France and the United States to mediate in negotiations towards a peace accord between Syria and its historic foe Israel, which are holding indirect negotiations with Turkey acting as go-between. The fifth round of talks is expected to be held in Ankara on Sunday.
On Thursday Sarkozy, whose country holds the European Union presidency, will join a four-way summit on the Syria-Israel issue with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.Negotiations broke down in 2000 over the fate of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981 in a move not recognised by the international community.Israel urged Europe to exercise utmost caution in dealing with Damascus, without referring directly to Sarkozy's visit.
Europe must be very careful in its relationship with Syria as that country opens up, foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP Wednesday.Except for a slight change in tone, Syrian policies have not changed, he said, charging that Damascus continues to support terrorist organisations -- a reference to the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.
But in Damascus, Al-Watan columnist Ghassan Yusef praised Sarkozy's clear approach to cooperation with Syria, saying the French president understands the Syrian position both on Israel and Lebanon.Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon two months after Hariri's death, ending three decades of domination of its small neighbour.The election of Lebanese President Michel Sleiman in May and the decision to establish diplomatic relations between Beirut and Damascus for the first time opened the door for a resumption of top-level ties between France and Syria.Syria's official Tishrin newspaper predicted an excellent and positive outcome to Sarkozy's visit, both for regional security and ties with Europe.After a careful examination of history, the French leadership under Sarkozy has realised that Syria is key to the Middle East and to solving its regional issues, agreed the ruling party newspaper Al-Baath. France knows now that American pressure on Syria does not and will not serve peace.Both Paris and Washington accused Syria in 2005 of orchestrating Hariri's assassination in a Beirut car bombing, but while Sarkozy has moved to end the country's isolation, the United States continues to blacklist it as a sponsor of terrorism.
SONIC KABOOOOOOM.
Israel warplanes break sound barrier over Lebanon Wed Sep 3, 6:11 AM ET
TYRE, Lebanon (AFP) - Six Israeli jets flew over south Lebanon and broke the sound barrier twice over the port city of Tyre on Wednesday, a security official said. Six Israeli warplanes flew all over southern Lebanon and the city of Tyre at low altitude for more than an hour and broke the sound barrier twice over Tyre, the official told AFP.The overflight prompted scared shoppers to flee Tyre's main market, an AFP correspondent said.Residents also poured on to the streets nervously watching the skies, little more than two years after the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah devastated much of southern Lebanon, the correspondent added.
There has been a mounting war of words between the Shiite militant group and Israel in recent weeks with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowing to destroy Israel in any new conflict.For their part Israeli cabinet ministers have warned that Lebanon's civilian infrastructure could be targeted in any new war, now that the Hezbollah-led opposition has secured veto powers in a national unity government.Israeli jets have repeatedly overflown Lebanon in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah.The United Nations has called on Israel to stop violating Lebanese air space. It says the overflights undermine the credibility of UN peacekeepers deployed in south Lebanon and compromise efforts to bring stability to the region.
Hezbollah attempts to kidnap Israelis foiled: Barak By Dan Williams
Wed Sep 3, 4:05 AM ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas have tried to abduct Israelis abroad and several such attempts have been thwarted, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said. Israel, which fought a war with Hezbollah in 2006, has been on alert for reprisals since the Iranian-sponsored group's military mastermind Imad Moughniyah was assassinated in Syria in February.Israeli media reported on Tuesday that Israel's intelligence services, in cooperation with foreign counterparts, prevented Hezbollah agents from kidnapping as many as five Israelis who were traveling or living abroad.There have been quite a few intelligence alerts in recent weeks and there were a number of very important thwarting operations, Barak said in a briefing to reporters, according to a transcript released by his office on Wednesday.An Israeli security source said intelligence warnings were received last month about a west African country that has a small group of business people from the Jewish state, as well as a sizeable Lebanese expatriate community.Israel sent emissaries to warn its citizens in the African country to be vigilant, the source said. Israel's National Security Council also issued an advisory urging Israelis abroad to beware of kidnapping attempts.Last June, the U.S. television network ABC reported that Hezbollah was suspected of having reconnoitred Israeli and Jewish targets in Canada ahead of a possible attack. An Israeli security source dismissed that report as baseless.Hezbollah vowed open war on Israel to avenge the death of Moughniyah in a Damascus car bombing. Israel denied involvement.Seizing Israelis could help Hezbollah press its demand for Israel to quit a disputed zone straddling the Lebanese and Syrian borders or to negotiate for the release of Arabs jailed in Israel.An Israeli businessman abducted by Hezbollah while on a 2000 visit to Dubai was freed as part of German-mediated prisoner swap between the Lebanese group and Israel four years later.(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Syria warns of 'catastrophic' effect of any Israeli strike on Iran Tue Sep 2, 2:18 PM ET
PARIS (AFP) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned Tuesday that an attack by Israel on Iran would have catastrophic consequences for the entire world. We think that Israel could try to launch attacks against Iran, even against Lebanon or Syria, he said in an interview with France 3 television.Any attack by Israel or by anyone else will have catastrophic results not only on the region but on the whole world, he said.In recent months several Israeli politicians have talked of the possibility of a preemptive military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities to avoid any possibility of Tehran acquiring an atomic weapon.Iran has responded by threatening retaliatory strikes with its Shahab-3 missiles which have a nominal range of 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) -- enough to reach Israel.
Gaza strike deepens Palestinian rift: U.N. envoy By Nidal al-Mughrabi
Tue Sep 2, 1:21 PM ET
GAZA (Reuters) - An education and health dispute that has sparked a huge strike in Gaza may deepen the rift between Hamas and Fatah and harm chances of Palestinian reunification, a United Nations envoy said on Tuesday. Middle East envoy Robert Serry made the remarks as a pro-Fatah employees union in Gaza announced plans to extend the strike, involving thousands of educators and health care workers, for another week.Some 85 percent of education workers and about 70 percent of primary care personnel have walked off their jobs in Gaza since Saturday, paralyzing services, a U.N. source said. They accuse Hamas rulers of transferring Fatah supporters from their posts.In a statement, Serry expressed concern at the reports of transfers and replacements of health and teaching professionals in the Gaza Strip.
These actions and the subsequent strike called by unions threaten the provision of health and education services to the people of Gaza who already face considerable hardship, he said, alluding to an Israeli blockade that already limits supplies.
Israel has restricted border crossings into Gaza since Hamas Islamists seized the territory violently from President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement a year ago and stepped up rocket attacks against Israel. These have been curtailed by a mid-June truce.Serry said the situation created by the strikes only further entrenches the division between Gaza and the West Bank and prejudices the prospects for Palestinian reunification.Palestinian factions have made little progress in talks held in Egypt to reconcile the divisions that, added to differences with Israel, have further complicated chances of achieving a goal of statehood in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.Bassem Zakarna, head of the pro-Fatah union, said the Gaza sanctions, initially planned for four days, would continue for another week to press Hamas to reverse its policy and end its seizure of a teachers' union headquarters in Gaza City.The teachers went on strike on August 24, and were joined by the health workers on Saturday.Zakarna also accused Hamas of exercising suppression by arresting some striking workers.Hamas has condemned the strike and denies any services have been paralysed. It rejects accusations that its officials have moved personnel for political motives, saying any job transfers have been done for technical and administrative reasons.
Assad to host Sarkozy, Turkey, Qatar leaders By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer Tue Sep 2, 11:50 AM ET
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syria's leader is looking to rebuild some trust with the West, and this week French President Nicolas Sarkozy, along with other U.S. allies, is testing out whether new warmth with Damascus can bring progress in Mideast peace efforts.
Sarkozy's visit is a reward to Syrian President Bashar Assad for a recent sign of flexibility — his agreement in August to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon, a longstanding demand of the Lebanese and the West.Sarkozy, the prime minister of Turkey and the emir of Qatar will hold a joint summit with Assad in Damascus on Thursday, hoping to sound out whether the cautious good feelings can be built on, at a time when Syria is engaged in indirect peace negotiations with Israel.The players are significant. France, close to Lebanon, has joined the United States as the sharpest Western critics of Syria's interference in its smaller neighbor. Turkey is the mediator in the Israeli-Syrian talks over the past months. The tiny Gulf nation of Qatar, an ally of the U.S., is a key broker in inter-Arab disputes and mediated a compromise deal in Lebanon between pro- and anti-Syrian factions that was crucial to easing tensions there at least for now.For Assad, Sarkozy's visit is a major break in the West's isolation of his regime. Sarkozy is the first Western head of state to come to Syria in several years and the highest-profile Westerner since U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to Damascus in 2007.The U.S., other Western countries and most Arab governments have been shunning Assad, accusing him of trying to control Lebanon, not doing enough to stop infiltration of militants into Iraq and backing Lebanon's Hezbollah and Palestinian groups that Washington brands terrorists.
France is changing gears and starting from scratch, telling (Syria) We trust you but you've got to make progress, said Antoine Basbous, director of the Paris-based Observatory of Arab Countries.Basbous described Sarkozy's visit as a win-win situation for both nations, although it entails a gamble by Paris, which is betting on a change in the regime's behavior.Suleiman Haddad, head of the Syrian parliament's foreign relations committee, said his country can play a distinguished role in (resolving) the Middle East problem.We hope for a new era in relations between Paris and Damascus, he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The top concern is Syrian-Israeli negotiations. The summit is not expected to bring a breakthrough, but is a chance to look into prospects for movement. Syria is demanding a full return of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, and Israel wants Damascus to cut support for the Palestinian Hamas and Hezbollah, which has battled Israel repeatedly at the southern Lebanese border.Syria has said it is open to direct talks, but only after a new U.S. administration comes to office next year. U.S.-brokered direct negotiations collapsed in 2000 over the extent of Israeli withdrawal from the heights. Syria's foreign minister said recently the indirect talks are focusing on the same sticking point.The recent standoff between the West and Russia also may be another reason for Sarkozy to woo Damascus after helping broker a cease-fire in the conflict between Russia and Georgia. Apparently exploiting the renewed U.S.-Russia tensions, Assad traveled to Russia last month and asked for weapons while offering more strategic military cooperation with Moscow.Assad also has close alliance with Iran. He promised Sarkozy during his Paris trip in July to try to persuade Iran to offer proof to the West that it isn't developing nuclear weapons, but apparently failed to win Iranian concessions during a visit to Tehran in August.The New York-based Human Rights Watch on Tuesday also urged Sarkozy to press Assad to release Syrian political activists who have been arrested over recent years in what rights groups have called a stepped-up crackdown on dissent. The arrests have brought criticism from Washington.Associated Press writers Jenny Barchfield and Angela Doland contributed to this report from Paris.
