Fatah rejects Hamas request for bilateral talks OCT 14,08
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction has rejected a request by Islamist rival Hamas to meet ahead of unity talks planned for next month in Cairo, Fatah officials said Tuesday. Hamas has tried to change the Egyptian plan by requesting a bilateral meeting with Fatah which excludes the other 11 Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) factions. We adhere to the Egyptian plan which calls for a meeting of all the factions, a senior Fatah official told Reuters by telephone from Amman.We don't object to holding a bilateral meeting with Hamas after the comprehensive meeting taking place, he said.Egypt's Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman has held a series of separate talks with all Palestinian factions to heal the rift between Hamas and the PLO since the Islamists seized Gaza last year.
Abbas has not sanctioned any meetings between his Fatah group and Hamas and has insisted that such meetings would only take place after Hamas quits control of Gaza, officials said.Despite positive statements by Fatah and Hamas officials, the positions have not changed and relations have remained bitter.Palestinian officials said 12 PLO factions, including Fatah, have approved a reconciliation plan drawn up by Egypt.They said the plan calls for ending Hamas' control over Gaza by forming a transitional non-factional government that would prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections, and for Arab forces to help restructure Gaza's security forces.Hamas's top negotiator, Moussa Abu Marzouq, said the Islamists had agreed with Egypt's vision for a joint Gaza government, but wanted other factions to join rather than for it to be non-partisan.Hamas has also called for the formation of committees that would discuss details of the disputed issues.Senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad said Fatah sent its response to Hamas' request to meet to Egypt Tuesday.There is no need for bilateral meetings now. We prefer the meetings to be comprehensive and for Egypt to pursue its consultations with the factions. We don't object to the formation of committees if they are formed of all the factions and are not confined to Fatah and Hamas, al-Ahmad told Reuters.In June, Abbas called for a comprehensive national dialogue to end the schism between the West Bank, where Fatah holds sway, and Hamas-run Gaza.Hamas said it would not recognize Abbas as a legitimate president after his term ends on January 9.
UAE to host US-backed forum on Arab reform by Taieb Mahjoub OCT 14,08
DUBAI (AFP) - The United Arab Emirates will host a forum on political reform in the Arab world this weekend amid questions about whether the annual gathering launched by US President George W. Bush has made any difference. Since its launch in 2004, the Forum for the Future has not produced the anticipated results. The promised big democratic changes did not take place in the Middle East, said Ali Fakhro, a Bahraini activist and former minister.The Fifth Forum for the Future will be held in Abu Dhabi on Saturday and Sunday under the co-chairmanship of the UAE and Japan, which holds the rotating presidency of Group of Eight leading industrial countries.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be among around 40 G8 and Arab League ministers, including some 25 foreign ministers, attending the gathering, organisers say.More than 50 countries will be represented at the forum, which will be preceded by a three-day gathering of dozens of Arab civil society organisations in Dubai.The forum will focus on the progress accomplished in the realm of political reforms, including the expansion of popular participation and the empowerment of women in the political, economic and social domains, according to the programme.It will also discuss cooperation between governments, civil society and the private sector.The forum was launched at a time when Washington was professing high aspirations for democratic reform in the Arab world following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, which toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.It aimed to promote political, social and economic reforms in the Middle East and North Africa and had the backing of the G8 nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.Morocco hosted the first edition, followed by Bahrain the year after and Jordan in 2006. The 2007 events took place in both Germany and Yemen.Civil society representatives, who will meet starting on Wednesday, will put forward recommendations to the ministerial conference.But persistent doubts that the forum can achieve concrete results have only intensified this year as the Bush administration prepares to exit with little progress made in introducing reform in the Arab world.The presence of non-governmental organisations is useless in the absence of a genuine debate with governments, Fakhro told AFP.
Democratic change can only come from within Arab states. It is difficult to introduce change from the outside, irrespective of the good intentions of countries from outside the region seeking to encourage democratisation, said Fakhro, who was invited to the Dubai meeting but said he will not attend for personal reasons.The Forum, launched at the height of the US war on terror, is seen as having broken little ground as violence goes on in the Arab world, sectarian tensions rise and the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems no closer to a solution despite Bush's promise that the beginning of a settlement would be in place before year's end.The continuing intractability of the conflict was highlighted by the negative reactions to a recent proposal by Bahrain to set up a regional bloc grouping Arab states with Israel, Iran and Turkey.This suggestion cannot be executed, retorted Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, whose country has imposed itself as a regional power.
Syria establishes diplomatic ties with Lebanon By ALBERT AJI, Associated Press Writer Tue Oct 14, 9:47 AM ET
DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria established diplomatic relations with Lebanon Tuesday, ending six decades of non-recognition of its neighbor's sovereignty in an apparent bid to curry favor with the West as it pursues indirect peace talks with Israel. The move by President Bashar Assad is part of his recent efforts to meet long-standing demands by the United States and Lebanon's anti-Syrian politicians, who hope that normalizing Syrian-Lebanese relations will bolster regional stability.Some experts say Syria is more comfortable dealing with Lebanon now that its ally Hezbollah has gained a veto power in the government. Lebanon also recently installed a president sympathetic to Syria.A diplomatic mission for the Syrian Arab Republic at the embassy level will be established in the Lebanese capital, Assad said in a decree carried by the official Syrian news agency SANA.Relations between the two Arab nations have been lopsided since the 1970s, when Syria sent its army into Lebanon and retained control for nearly 30 years. Ties unraveled when former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a 2005 car bombing that many Lebanese blame on Syria — a charge Syria denies.Hariri's assassination triggered massive anti-Syrian street protests and Damascus caved to U.S.-led international pressure and withdrew its tens of thousands of troops from Lebanon a few months after Hariri was killed.
But establishing diplomatic relations remained a pressing demand of the anti-Syrian majority in Lebanon's parliament, which saw Syria's refusal to do so as a refusal to recognize Lebanese sovereignty.In addition to trying to improve relations with Lebanon, Assad has also recently sought indirect peace talks with Israel, mediated by Turkey, and says he wants direct talks next year.Those moves could help Syrian aspirations to build trust with the West, which is slowly moving away from its isolation of Syria in recent years in favor of engaging the country in Mideast issues.Lebanon and Syria have not had formal diplomatic ties since both gained independence from France in the 1940s.In August, they agreed to establish ties and demarcate their contentious border. That landmark agreement, which came during an official visit by Lebanon's president to Damascus and Assad's formal decree Tuesday, mark the final break in Syria's longtime dominance over its smaller neighbor.Assad's announcement did not say when the Syrian embassy in Beirut would open. But a Syrian Foreign Ministry official said it will happen before the end of the year.
Israeli official says Livni closer to PM post By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer Mon Oct 13, 6:56 PM ET
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni's Kadima Party initialed a partial agreement Monday on bringing the Labor Party into a new governing coalition, but several issues remained to be settled before a formal pact, a Labor official said.
Livni also will need to attract support from smaller parties to form a new government to replace the one headed by former Kadima leader Ehud Olmert, who resigned as prime minister under the cloud of a corruption investigation.If Livni fails to put together a coalition in the coming weeks, early elections would have to be called, further disrupting Israel's peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
Lior Avnon, a spokeswoman for Labor, said her party's leader, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Livni would try to produce a final agreement at a meeting Tuesday evening. She did not give any details on the unresolved issues.Labor would be Kadima's key partner in any coalition and a deal would make it easier for Livni to bring in the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party and reach a majority in parliament.Kadima holds 29 seats in the 120-member Knesset, while Labor has 19. Shas has 12 and the other partner in the former coalition, the Pensioners Party, has 4. A grouping of those four would produce a 64-seat bloc.Livni, the foreign minister in the previous government, received formal approval to try to form a new government Sept. 22, starting the clock to put together a Cabinet within 42 days. If there was no coalition at that point, elections would have to be held within 90 days.Livni, 50, once an agent of the Mossad spy agency, has pledged to pursue peace with the Palestinians and Syria, following up negotiations started by Olmert. She would be Israel's first female prime minister in more than three decades, since Golda Meir.
The leader of the hawkish opposition Likud Party, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wants elections to be called, encouraged by polls that say he could beat Livni and Barak.Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged to try for a peace accord by January, but negotiations have yielded little apparent progress and both sides have expressed skepticism the target could be met. Israel's political turmoil adds to the doubt.Israel has also had several rounds of indirect peace talks with Syria, resuming contacts that were broken off in 2000.
Israel's Kadima, Labour reach coalition agreement: media by Catherine Dupeyron Mon Oct 13, 3:44 PM ET
JERUSALEM, Oct 13, 2008 (AFP) - Israel's Kadima and Labour parties on Monday reached an agreement in principle that would pave the way for the formation of a new government headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, media reported. The agreement was signed by MPs from both sides following a marathon 19-hour negotiating session, and would bring Labour's 19-member parliamentary delegation into an alliance with Kadima's 29-member bloc.The alliance constitutes a major step towards forming a new governing coalition in the 120-member assembly but is not in itself sufficient to allow Livni to become the country's second female premier after Golda Meir.Israeli public radio reported that the two sides must still agree on which government posts will go to the centre-left Labour party.Kadima's chief negotiator, Tsahi Hanegbi, told Channel 2 television that hammering out the accord had been hard going.It was not easy reaching this agreement, Hanegbi said, adding that it was concluded with the idea that it would operate for the next two years.Following Tuesday's Sukkot holiday, Kadima negotiators will meet with leaders from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which has 12 MPs, the leftist Meretz party, which has five, and the Pensioners party, which has three.Hanegbi said that Kadima would have to thrash out a similar accord with Shas, otherwise there will be no government.Livni, 50, was formally asked by President Shimon Peres on September 22 to form a new government, after she took over as Kadima chairman from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who stepped down as police recommended he be indicted over graft allegations.She has since held negotiations with Labour and several smaller parties in a bid to gain the support she needs to form a new coalition government and avert snap elections that could bring the right-wing Likud party to power.Bringing Defence Minister Ehud Barak's Labour party and its 19 MPs into the coalition would put Livni well on her way to forming a new government but she would need to recruit at least two smaller parties to do so.The ultra-Orthodox Shas, a crucial member of Olmert's coalition, has demanded increased child subsidies and a promise not to negotiate over Jerusalem with the Palestinians.Livni, who as Israel's top diplomat has led US-backed negotiations with the Palestinians relaunched last November, has vowed to continue the process, which is aimed at securing a full peace agreement by the end of 2008.
The Palestinians have demanded mostly Arab east Jerusalem -- occupied and annexed by Israel in the 1967 war -- as the capital of their future state, while Israel considers the entire city its own eternal, undivided capital.Under the draft agreement Barak would gain greater influence over cabinet decisions and negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria, the Ynet News service reported.The summary draft, according to which cabinet decisions will not be made without the support and ratification of Barak, is dramatic, the news site quoted a Barak associate as saying.
Channel 2 said the agreement, which runs to 38 paragraphs, envisages in particular a budgetary expansion for pensioners amounting to 850 million shekels (229 million dollars) over the three next years.Ehud Barak will be appointed deputy prime minister and be charged in particular with ongoing negotiations with Syria, it said.
Barak, who served as prime minister from 1999 to 2001, was voted out of office in a landslide in the wake of the failed Camp David peace talks and the outbreak of the latest Palestinian intifada in September 2000.
Olmert, Abbas to meet on Friday Mon Oct 13, 10:16 AM ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for a new round of peace talks this week, the Palestinian foreign minister said on Monday. (Abbas) will meet prime minister Olmert on October 17 within the framework of their regular meetings, Riyad Al-Malki said at a news conference in Ramallah, the political capital of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Olmert and Abbas have been meeting about twice a month since the peace process was relaunched at a US conference in November.Hounded by a series of corruption scandals, Olmert formally resigned on September 21 after the governing Kadima party elected Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as its new leader.Livni is trying to form a new coalition government so she can also take over as prime minister and avert early elections.Last month, Olmert said Israel must give up almost the entire occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem as the price for peace with the Palestinians.
But he later said the comments, made in a newspaper interview, reflected his private view and were not binding for Livni.
Israel closes West Bank for Sukkot holiday Mon Oct 13, 5:00 AM ET
JERUSALEM - Israel has shut down entry from the West Bank during the weeklong Sukkot holiday. The order bars almost all West Bank Palestinians from entering Israel until Oct. 21, though Israel says exceptions will be made for humanitarian cases.Israel routinely imposes such closures on Jewish holidays. It fears Palestinians could carry out attacks during the holiday period.Sukkot is a seven-day festival that commemorates the 40 years Jews spent in the desert living in temporary huts in biblical times. Many Israelis build sukkahs, or huts, to live or eat in to mark the holiday.
Abbas arrives in Damascus for talks with Assad Sat Oct 11, 3:48 PM ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) - Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Damascus on Saturday for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on efforts to reconcile the Palestinian president's Fatah party and the rival Islamist movement Hamas. Abbas stressed the importance of coordination and consultations with Damascus on the Palestinian cause and the peace process now underway between Israel and Syria through indirect, Turkish-mediated talks, the official SANA news agency reported.We must inform the Syrians responsible for negotiations (with Israel) of the Palestinian element, Abbas was quoted as saying.Abbas is visiting Syria against the backdrop of plans for Fatah and Hamas delegations to meet in Cairo on October 25 for Egyptian-mediated talks aimed at forming a Palestinian transitional government acceptable to the rival factions.In July, on his last visit to Syria, Abbas met with representatives of several Palestinian factions based in Damascus. However, he did not meet with Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal, who also lives there.
