Hamas blocks pilgrims from leaving Gaza NOV 29,08
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Hamas, which controls Gaza, prevented scores of Muslims wanting to attend the annual pilgrimage to Mecca from reaching the Rafah border with Egypt on Saturday, witnesses and would-be pilgrims told AFP.Police from the Islamist group set up checkpoints several kilometres (a mile or two) from the border between the city of Khan Yunis and the Rafah crossing to stop anyone passing through, the witnesses said.Around 10 people were lightly injured when the police used sticks and batons to turn people back, the witnesses added.Egypt had announced on Friday that the Rafah crossing would be open for three days from Saturday to allow the passage of some 3,000 Palestinian pilgrims who hold visas for Saudi Arabia.An Egyptian security official told AFP buses were waiting on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, but that no pilgrims had arrived.This year's hajj has become embroiled in the deepening chasm that has cut through Palestinian politics since the Hamas seizure of Gaza in June last year.Hamas refuses to recognise the authority of the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank which Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas installed in response to the Gaza takeover.
In Gaza, the administration continues to be run by Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister whom Abbas ousted.Last week, Haniya's religious affairs minister Talep Abu Sher said he would not allow would-be pilgrims who had obtained their Saudi visas through the government in the West Bank to join the hajj unless the Hamas administration too is given a quota to allocate to the faithful.
Settlers clash with Palestinians in WBank city NOV 29,08
HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) – Jewish settlers and Palestinians hurled stones at each other in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday before Israeli soldiers separated the two sides, the army and Palestinian witnesses said.Two Palestinians and two settlers were injured in the clashes, they said. One of the Palestinians is a researcher with the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.An Israeli army spokeswoman said the clashes erupted near a building whose ownership is disputed. Jewish settlers have been defying a November 16 ruling by Israel's High Court that they must leave what they dubbed the House of Peace or face eviction.About 150 settlers, some armed, moved into the building, on the boundary line of Palestinian neighborhoods, in March 2007, saying they had bought it from its Palestinian owner. The man denies having sold the building.The Israeli Defense Ministry said it was negotiating with the settlers to leave the building voluntarily within a 30-day period allowed under Israeli law.Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Some 650 settlers live in fortified enclaves guarded by Israeli troops in the heart of the city of 180,000 Palestinians.
(Reporting by Mustafa Abu Ghaniya; Writing by Joseph Nasr, editing by Tim Pearce)
Hamas claims mortar attack on Israeli army base Sat Nov 29, 4:08 am ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The Islamic militant group Hamas on Saturday claimed responsibility for a mortar attack on an Israeli army base that injured eight Israeli soldiers.The mortar shells were fired from Hamas-ruled Gaza late Friday at an army base along Israel's border with territory. The Israeli military said eight soldiers were hurt, including two who were in serious condition.Immediately after the attack, another militant group, the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed responsibility. Some militants belong to both groups, and it is common for rival militant groups to claim responsibility for the same attack.It was not immediately possible to confirm either claim.The attack came after more than three weeks of renewed cross-border fighting. Israel and Hamas had agreed to a cease-fire in June, but the truce started to unravel in early November, following an Israeli cross-border raid. Israel has kept Gaza's borders closed since Nov. 5 to try to pressure militants to halt the attacks.
Israeli court rebukes state over illegal outposts By Joshua Mitnick Joshua Mitnick – Fri Nov 28, 3:00 am
Tel Aviv – An Israeli government effort to make good on a five-year-old commitment to the US and Palestinians to rein in settlement expansion in the West Bank is coming under legal fire at home.Under the 2003 road map peace plan, Israel promised to remove about two dozen or so unauthorized hilltop outposts as a way to build confidence in Palestinian peace talks, but has so far avoided dismantling the outpost communities for fear of violent clashes with settlers.This week, the government revealed a compromise reached with the settler leadership aimed at avoiding conflict: Migron, a flagship outpost of 40 families living in mobile homes near the Palestinian city of Ramallah, would be relocated to an already existing settlement.But at a Supreme Court hearing Wednesday, justices sided with Palestinians who own the land at Migron. Their lawyers argued that the deal allows the government to avoid evacuation during the minimum three years it could take to build new homes.I don't believe that Migron will be moved, says Michael Sfard, a lawyer for the settlement watchdog group Peace Now, which represented the Palestinians. All of these statements are only made to enable more extensions by the courts.Clashes over settlement evacuations will carry extra political weight in the run-up to a Feb. 10 general election, especially for Defense Minister Ehud Barak, whose Labor Party is sagging in the polls and desperately needs votes from left-wing Israelis. Mr. Barak, who oversees Israel's military occupation of the West Bank, is already embroiled in a standoff over a house in Hebron that settlers moved into illegally in 1997 and which the Supreme Court last week said must be cleared.
The legal system is closing in on the government, says Hebrew University political science professor Yaron Ezrahi. And so is public expectation that the government will do something about it. Things are moving finally, maybe because of the election.
The case of Migron highlights nearly three years of Israeli dissonance on settlements as the administration of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert draws to a close. The government admits that the outpost was erected on Palestinian land, but has repeatedly requested delays in court proceedings to avoid a clash.Though Mr. Olmert came into office promising a unilateral withdrawal from some parts of the West Bank and new settlement evacuations, the number of Israelis has grown unabated in territories claimed by the Palestinians as a part of a future state.With a February election approaching, Olmert has said Israel will have to return roughly to the 1967 border with the West Bank in a peace deal left for his successor, but has managed little progress on the unauthorized outposts.The failure to tamp down settlement growth is a sore spot with the Palestinian Authority, which argues that the ongoing expansions undermine public support in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for peace talks.Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish, who Peace Now says leveled pointed criticism of the government deal during the proceedings, gave the state 45 days to explain why it doesn't evacuate Migron.Mr. Sfard argued that it would take three to seven years for new homes to be prepared for Migron residents, and that even though the new location is within the legal boundary of the settlement of Adam, it would represent a violation of the road map commitment to halt settlement expansion.
Settler leaders said they negotiated the compromise with the government to avoid a rift among Israelis over an evacuation. Any future settlement removal is almost certain to be more violent than the 2005 Gaza Strip withdrawal.We reached an agreement with the prime minister and the defense minister to lower the flames, says Pinchas Wallerstein, a former head of the settlers' council. If the government of Israel can't make good on the agreement, it understands well the price it will pay. We tried to avoid conflict.
Israel's Livni calls on Olmert to step down By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer NOV 27,08
JERUSALEM – Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday called on the country's embattled prime minister to step down immediately in light of growing signs that he will soon be indicted on corruption charges.The announcement came a day after Israel's attorney general said he was considering filing charges against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for allegedly double billing Jewish groups for trips abroad. He wants Olmert to appear at a special hearing before making a final decision on whether to prosecute and put Olmert on trial.Olmert has already said that he will step down after elections scheduled in February. But at a meeting of the ruling Kadima party Thursday, Livni said he should go before that. His departure would clear the way for Livni to become acting prime minister until the election.The prime minister, like any other person in Israel, is innocent until proven guilty. But the citizen Ehud Olmert must wage his battle to prove his innocence from his home and not from the chair of the prime minister, Livni said, at special party meeting she called.The prime minister has to go on vacation, there is no other option, she said.
Olmert's office did not react, but has said that the prime minister plans to stay in office until the elections.Livni was recently elected to succeed Olmert as Kadima leader. After initial polls showed her running neck-and-neck with opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Livni has recently dropped far behind him.Her attack on Olmert, who is widely unpopular, may have been an attempt to jump start her faltering campaign.The double billing scandal is one of a half-dozen corruption affairs Olmert has had to face during his nearly three years in power. Olmert also has been accused of improperly taking tens of thousands of dollars from a U.S. businessman, involvement in questionable real estate deals and making controversial political appointments.If Attorney General Meni Mazuz decides to file charges, Olmert would become the first Israeli prime minister to ever be indicted.Olmert has denied all wrongdoing. But the turmoil has hampered Olmert's Mideast peace efforts.Mazuz's announcement on Wednesday came just hours after Olmert returned from a trip to Washington to meet President George W. Bush.In a radio interview, Olmert spokesman Amir Dan said the prosecution set up an ambush.Olmert's office said the announcement had no legal significance and there was no reason for him to step down.
IAEA chief baffled over lack of Syria nuclear info By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer – Thu Nov 27, 2:32 pm ET
AFP VIENNA, Austria – The chief U.N. nuclear inspector said Thursday that his agency's Syria probe has been hampered because key satellite images of an alleged nuclear reactor bombed by Israel are inexplicably unavailable on the market.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei did not point any fingers in the baffling failure of his agency's efforts to obtain the images of the Syrian site immediately after it was bombed by Israel last year.But diplomats familiar with the IAEA's Syria investigation said agency officials were considering several scenarios, including the possibility that Syria or other nations with an interest in a cover-up had bought the photos and all rights to them from commercial satellite companies.ElBaradei's comments at the start of a two-day full meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board partially reflected the focus of the gathering — suspicions about Syria's and Iran's nuclear activities.On Iran, ElBaradei told the meeting that he cannot exclude the existence of possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program.The U.S. and the European Union both expressed alarm at Tehran's defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions meant to curb its suspected nuclear activities. And Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's IAEA representative, accused Washington and its allies of dragging it before the Security Council as part of a hidden agenda.In the case of Syria, ElBaradei noted that his agency was unable to obtain commercial satellite imagery of the site immediately after the bombing, adding: It is regrettable, and indeed baffling, that imagery for this critical period ... was not available.Syrian nuclear chief Ibrahim Othman was dismissive, telling The Associated Press: The theory that we bought all the photos is nonsense.
The IAEA often turns to commercial images beyond any spy satellite photos shared by governments.But the two nations most likely to have satellite intelligence were unlikely to have provided it with immediate information. Israel still has not confirmed it was behind the strike, while the United States waited for more than six months before sharing knowledge with the IAEA.The possibility that commercial companies simply did not know where to look immediately after the bombing was raised by David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security closely tracks suspected secret proliferators.The United States and Israel went to great lengths to prevent others from finding out where the site was, said Albright, whose institute was the first to publish commercial satellite images of the site more than a year ago and identify it as a likely North-Korean-model nuclear reactor.No one knew where the site was immediately after the bombing, said Albright, whose institute published photos taken nearly a month before the Sept. 6, 2007, Israeli strike.Albright also noted that ElBaradei was initially skeptical of the U.S. assertions, which could have led to Washington and Israel to withhold satellite photos.Why would U.S. intelligence give photos to ElBaradei if he was predisposed not to believe that they showed a secret nuclear reactor, Albright said in an interview.Meanwhile, a senior diplomat familiar with the Syria probe suggested that the comments by ElBaradei were at least partially out of date. He said the agency had very recently been able to locate commercial images showing the site after the Israeli strike.IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the agency would not comment on the issue.All of the diplomats asked for anonymity in exchange for speaking to The Associated Press because their information was privileged.
While the agency was unable to find satellite images immediately after the bombing, it acquired photos showing the building at other stages. An IAEA report said those images and other information showed the bombed building had the features of a reactor, adding that agency inspectors had found traces of processed uranium on location. The U.S. says the target was a nearly completed reactor that would have produced plutonium, a possible fissile warhead component. Syria has signaled it will not permit IAEA inspectors to return to the country after their initial visit to the bombed site in June, or permit initial visits to three other suspicious locations. Such a ban would make satellite images become even more important in the IAEA probe.
US Jews urge Obama to move embassy to Jerusalem Thu Nov 27, 12:43 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – A group of American Jews urged president-elect Barack Obama on Thursday to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which the international community does not recognise as the capital of the Jewish state.The move would make the United States the only country to have its main diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital.
The Jerusalem Embassy Act requires the United States to move its embassy to Jerusalem by 1999, but both President George W. Bush and his predecessor Bill Clinton have deferred its implementation every six months.Some 100 members of the US Jewish Orthodox Union gathered on Thursday near the site which Congress earmarked in a 1995 bill as the location of the future US embassy in west Jerusalem.They sang American national anthem and held banners reading President Obama: The US embassy belongs in Israel's capital, as well as a petition addressed to Obama, who takes office on January 20.President Obama likes using the word change. It is time for change. Now is the time to show support for Israel by moving the embassy here, Orthodox Union President Stephen Savitsky told AFP.Former Israeli ambassador to the United States Danny Ayalon said that if the US embassy were moved to Jerusalem, other countries would follow suit.When it moves its embassy to Jerusalem, other civilised states will move their embassies here, Ayalon said.Israel occupied and annexed Arab east Jerusalem and the Old City in 1967 and considers the city its eternal, undivided capital.But the international community refuses to recognise it as Israel's capital while the Palestinians wish to make east Jerusalem the capital of their future state.There are no embassies in Jerusalem. They are in the commercial capital Tel Aviv.
Israel's Olmert under pressure to quit by Catherine Dupeyron Catherine Dupeyron – Thu Nov 27, 9:30 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced pressure from his own party on Thursday to step down following a decision to indict him in one of several graft cases over which police questioned him.Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni led the call for Olmert to quit.The prime minister has to take a leave of absence; there's no other choice, said Livni, who hopes to become premier after February 10 elections.Israel cannot tolerate a situation where he is acting as prime minister after a decision to indict him. This is a moral test; this is a question of values and a practical test, Livni said at a meeting of the governing Kadima party in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv.The centrist party's parliamentary faction said it unanimously approved Livni's statement.Should Olmert declare himself incapacitated, party head Livni would take over as head of the caretaker government until a new government is formed after the elections.Several other officials urged Olmert to quit the caretaker government.Olmert presented his resignation in September but remains acting prime minister.Attorney General Menachem Mazuz had notified Olmert on Wednesday that he envisages pressing criminal charges over suspicions of wrongdoing.
The charges relate to allegations of multiple-billing for foreign trips at the time when Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem and then trade and industry minister.Olmert, who took office as prime minister in 2006, is alleged to have used the ill-gotten gains to pay for private trips.It is a tragic day for the state of Israel, Labour MP Ophir Pines Paz told journalists. It is not acceptable that a person accused of a crime against the state should continue to hold the post of prime minister.Olmert's office made it clear he did not intend to step down as head of the caretaker government, stressing he already quit as prime minister.In these circumstances, there is no legal reason to announce a further resignation, a statement said.Mazuz's announcement came just two months before the snap elections that were called after Livni failed to garner enough support in parliament to form a government following Olmert's resignation.Olmert's camp was furious over the timing of the announcement, which came just as the caretaker premier was getting off his plane following a farewell visit to US President George W. Bush in Washington.This is a planned ambush under the auspices of the law enforcement authorities, Olmert spokesman Amir Dan said.Olmert's lawyers described the prospect of charges in the case as strange and even unreasonable.
Olmert could face charges of fraud, abuse of confidence, falsification of documents and making ill-gotten gains but no date has yet been set for him to be charged, the attorney general's office said. He has faced police questioning 10 times since May over a number of different allegations. In September, police recommended that Olmert face charges in the multiple billing case as well as in another case in which he allegedly accepted tens of thousands of dollars of illegal funds from US businessman Morris Talansky. The prime minister is also suspected of steering tens of millions of dollars worth of state funds towards a company owned by his former law partner, Uri Messer, while he was trade minister. The allegations, all of which Olmert denies, only surfaced earlier this year even though they concern events that took place in the 13 years before he became premier. The political turmoil that followed Olmert's resignation in September and Livni's inability to form a new governing coalition has dealt a major blow to the already slow-moving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that were relaunched one year ago.
Agencies seek $462 million in aid for Palestinians By SHAWNA OHM, Associated Press Writer Shawna Ohm, Associated Press Writer – Wed Nov 26, 9:43 am ET
JERUSALEM – The U.N. and other aid agencies appealed to the international community Wednesday to send $462 million in emergency assistance to address what they said is a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories.Most of the money will be used for food and cash handouts, said Maxwell Gaylard, local head of the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. A total of 159 emergency programs are planned in areas such as health, education, food, water and sanitation.The request for funds in 2009 comes from the U.N. and its partner aid organizations. It is the seventh annual request for emergency funds, besides hundreds of millions of dollars in normal operating budgets.Little, if anything, has been achieved since the beginning of 2008, said Filippo Grandi, deputy commissioner of the U.N. Reliefs and Works Agency, the main U.N. body caring for Palestinian refugees. Little, if anything, has been felt by the people with whom we work.Grandi lamented the need to spend funds on emergency responses instead of long-term development projects. He said the situation was especially dire in the Gaza Strip, which is stifled by Israeli and Egyptian border closures and where half the population lives below the deep poverty line.Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza since the violent Islamic Hamas movement seized control in June 2007. It tightened the already stringent closure earlier this month after a truce with Gaza militants began to unravel.In the West Bank, the U.N. said Israel's construction of a separation barrier and restrictions on Palestinian travel have hurt the local economy. Israel says the measures are needed for security.Last year, the U.N. asked for a similar amount of emergency aid. Officials said they raised nearly 70 percent of the funds they sought. Kuwait, the European Union and the United States were last year's largest donors, staff said.Grandi said he feared the global economic crisis would lead to cuts of as much as one-third in operating funds for U.N. agencies in the Palestinian areas next year.He said the Israeli closure has prevented U.N. agencies from delivering even the minimal amount of aid needed to meet basic needs in Gaza.A growing number of U.N. officials, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, have urged Israel to ease the blockade.Foreign journalists have also been barred from entering the territory and have filed suit with Israel's Supreme Court demanding that the ban be rescinded.
Fatah would win Palestinian elections: opinion poll Wed Nov 26, 7:24 am ET
NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) – The Fatah faction of Mahmud Abbas would defeat the Hamas movement at the polls, said a survey out on Wednesday, as the Palestinian president threatened to call snap elections in the new year.The opinion poll by An-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus found that the secular Fatah would take 31.4 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections against 14.4 percent for the Islamists Hamas.The remainder of those who specified a choice were shared among smaller parties.In a presidential election, 31.4 percent of respondents said they would vote for the Fatah candidate and 13.4 percent said they would vote for the Islamist.A full 15.9 percent of respondents said they did not know how they would vote in either presidential or parliamentary elections.A total of 19.9 percent of respondents said they would not vote in a presidential election and 19.4 percent said they stay away from parliamentary elections.The opinion poll was published three days after Abbas warned that he will call snap parliamentary and presidential elections if Hamas does not rejoin reconciliation talks aimed at healing the rift in Palestinian ranks sparked by the Islamists' seizure of Gaza in June 2007.But the research on which it was based was undertaken before the Palestinian president made his threat in a televised speech on Sunday.Opinion polls conducted before the last Palestinian parliamentary elections, held in January 2006, consistently underestimated the Hamas vote and none predicted the Islamists's upset victory.Hamas has rejected Abbas's threat to call snap parliamentary elections, insisting he has no right to dissolve the legislature before its term ends in January 2010.
But the An-Najar poll found that 51 percent of respondents said it would still be possible to go ahead with the elections regardless, while 44.1 percent thought it would not. The rest ventured no opinion.A full 61.8 percent of respondents blamed Hamas for the rift between the two largest parties with 22.2 percent blaming Fatah.
The poll was conducted among a representative sample of 1,365 Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza. The pollsters gave a margin of error of three percentage points.
US has never advised Israel against Iran strike: Olmert Tue Nov 25, 2:44 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States has not pressured Israel to rule out military action in order to halt Iran's nuclear program, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday after talks with President George W. Bush.The outgoing prime minister, who ends what is probably his last visit to Washington in office, said he had spoke at length with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the president on Iran.There is a basic, deep understanding about the Iranian threat and the need to act in order to remove threat, he told reporters.Israel considers Iran its greatest threat, because of Tehran's accelerating nuclear program and repeated statements by its leaders predicting the Jewish state's demise.Israel -- the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power -- and the United States accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, while Tehran has insisted its program is entirely peaceful.The Jewish state has refused to rule out military response to the nuclear standoff and Olmert said on Tuesday that the Bush administration has never advised them against such action.I don't remember that anyone in the administration, including in the last couple of days, advised me or any other of my official representatives not to take any action that we will deem necessary for the fundamental security of the state of Israel, and that includes Iran, Olmert said.As Bush prepares to leave the White House on January 20 and with Olmert set to step down amid a corruption scandal after February elections, the premier wanted to clinch new US commitments on Iran before president-elect Barack Obama takes office.
Officials said Olmert would press Bush and Congress to allow Israel to purchase dozens of F-35 stealth fighter jets, which would considerably boost the Israeli air force's ability to carry out long-range strikes.The Pentagon has announced that Israel had asked to buy up to 75 jets, but Congress has yet to give the 15-billion dollar (12-billion euro) deal a green light.Over the past year, the United States has considerably increased its already tight defense ties with its ally, giving the Jewish state an unprecedented 10-year, 30-billion dollar defense aid commitment.
Jordan newspaper rejects peace ad over Israeli flag Tue Nov 25, 1:46 pm ET
AMMAN (AFP) – An independent Jordanian newspaper said on Tuesday it has refused to publish a Palestinian advertisement promoting an Arab peace initiative with Israel because it contains the Jewish state's flag.We refused to publish the paid advertisement because the source, the Palestine Libration Organisation's negotiations department, refused to remove the Israeli flag, a senior editor at the Arabic-language Al-Arab Al-Yawm told AFP.We also rejected the advertisement because it seeks to promote the idea that Israel accepts the peace initiative, although Israeli officials have rejected the initiative.The advertisement shows the flags of all Arab and Muslim countries, in addition to the Israeli Star of David, saying all these states have accepted the Arab peace initiative.But Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat said the paper had made no contact the negotiations department about the advertisement.Nobody contacted us about the issue and we did not receive any request about removing the Israeli flag, Erakat told AFP.The Saudi-sponsored initiative, first proposed in 2002, offers Israel normalisation of relations and comprehensive peace agreements with Arab countries in exchange for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the occupied territories.Israel, which had rejected the peace plan out of hand when it was first adopted but has voiced renewed interest as a basis for talks.Jordan signed a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, becoming only the second Arab state after Egypt to make peace with the Jewish state.
Bush, Olmert leaving with no Mideast peace deal By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer – Tue Nov 25, 12:51 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel and the Palestinians could reach an agreement on the core issues of their century-old conflict very soon, despite time running out on both his and President George W. Bush's tenures.Speaking to reporters a day after his final meeting with Bush, Olmert said the sides were very close on the central issues and that it was time to make decisions.I think we are in a situation where we can reach that point, and I want to reach that point, he said. I am ready and I hope the other side is ready too.
Regardless, Bush and Olmert's lofty Mideast peace goals are ending with a whimper. A year ago, almost exactly to the day, the leaders announced the resumption of peace talks to great fanfare, after a seven-year hiatus, at a Mideast summit hosted in Annapolis, Md. Summit participants set an ambitious target of concluding a final peace deal by the end of 2008.Despite frequent negotiating sessions, Olmert and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, have little to show for their efforts and seem no closer to a peace agreement than they were before the summit.Olmert said it could be done relatively soon. To make decisions, you don't need months, he said.But time seems to have run out on the leaders. Bush leaves office on Jan. 20 and Olmert's successor will be selected three weeks later. The prime minister announced plans to resign in September amid corruption charges.In brief comments to reporters before their hourlong talk in the Oval Office, both gave off an air of nostalgia, thanking each other profusely for their friendship and dedication to peace, and pledging to leave behind a productive peace process for their successors when they leave office.
We've been through a lot together during our time in office, Bush said. We strongly believe that Israel will benefit by having a Palestinian state, a democracy on her border that works for peace.Turning to Olmert, he said: I want to thank you for the friendship, and thank you for your vision. And I just want you to know that I believe that vision is alive.Speaking Tuesday, Olmert reiterated his commitment to the two-state solution and said he expected progress to continue after both he and Bush leave office.Aaron David Miller, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, said The Bush administration leaves its Arab-Israeli diplomacy certainly in better shape than they got it, when President Bill Clinton departed and a violent Palestinian uprising raged.President-elect Barack Obama now inherits the reins, but with hardline opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu seemingly poised to win Israeli elections in February, and the Hamas militant group's continued control of the Gaza Strip, the future of peace talks appears murky.Besides the peace process, Olmert said the ongoing threat from Iran's nuclear program was a central topic of his discussions with Bush.Israel sees Iran as its biggest national security threat, because of its development of long-range weapons and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. It believes Iran will be capable of building a bomb by 2010.The U.N. Security Council has imposed three rounds of economic penalties on Iran, which insists its nuclear program is peaceful and designed to produce energy. Both the U.S. and Israel say they hope diplomatic pressure resolves the standoff, but they have not ruled out military action.I can say there is a deep, basic understanding between us about the Iranian threat and the need to act in order to remove that threat, Olmert said. I don't remember anyone in the administration, including the last couple of days, advising me or any of my official representatives not to take any action that we deem necessary for the fundamental security of Israel, and that includes Iran.
Olmert, who did not speak with Obama during his three-day visit to Washington, said Obama's stance against Iran acquiring a nuclear weapons was fundamentally no different from that of Bush, and he expected U.S.-Israeli relations to remain unchanged in the next administration. (This version CORRECTS last graf to correct by saying that Olmert did not speak with Obama. Moving on general news and financial services.)
Iran urges Lebanese to unite against Israel Tue Nov 25, 10:18 am ET
AFP TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran, a main backer of Lebanon's Shi'ite group Hezbollah, urged the Lebanese people Tuesday to unite to confront Israel, the Islamic Republic's arch foe.Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comments to Lebanese President Michel Suleiman during a visit to Iran that included touring an exhibition by the Defense Ministry, Iranian media reported.Iran believes the capability of all Lebanese groups should be at the service of (Lebanon's) power and unity to confront the danger of the Zionist regime, Khamenei told Suleiman, the official IRNA news agency reported.Iranian officials often call Israel the Zionist regime.Suleiman, a Maronite Christian, was elected president in a May parliamentary vote after an 18-month standoff between the U.S.-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition.Under Lebanon's power-sharing system the presidency is held by a Christian while other top posts are taken by Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims and members of the Druze sect.
Holding talks among different Lebanese groups that are now led by the president is considered positive because Lebanon's bright future depends on national unity, Khamenei said.Suleiman, a former army chief, was elected as part of an agreement brokered by Qatar in May to defuse the political crisis that had pushed Lebanon to the brink of civil war.Tehran has often praised Hezbollah, which has formidable guerrilla army, for fighting Israel in a 34-day war in 2006. Israel has accused Iran of supplying weapons to Hezbollah but Iran insists it only provides moral and political support.Lebanon as a friendly and brotherly country in the region will always enjoy Iran's spiritual support, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani told Suleiman, Iran's ISNA news agency reported.Suleiman's trip included touring an exhibition showing off the Defense Ministry's capabilities, ISNA also said.Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announced Iran's readiness to deepen and expand defensive ties between two states in line with the strengthening of Lebanon's security and increasing Lebanon's national and defensive capabilities.ISNA reported that Suleiman expressed interest in expanding defensive cooperation and emphasized the need to strengthen the Lebanese army's defensive power in confronting any kind of threat, foreign aggression and terrorism.Khamenei said Iran would always be on Lebanon's side and said he hoped talks during the visit would strengthen ties.
Suleiman, who left Tuesday, also met Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his two-day visit.(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Bush, Olmert bid farewell but say Mideast talks will continue by Ron Bousso –Mon Nov 24, 11:58 pm ET
WASHINGTON, (AFP) – President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Middle East peace process which has so far failed to yield results will continue after the two lame-duck leaders leave office.The close allies spoke at the start of a farewell meeting Monday before Bush leaves the White House on January 20 and as Olmert prepares to step down amid a corruption scandal after February 10 elections.Although president-elect Barack Obama has vowed to continue to support the talks to end the 60-year conflict, the prospects of the process launched almost exactly a year ago at an international conference in Annapolis, Maryland remain shrouded in uncertainty.I believe that vision is alive and needs to be worked on, Bush said. We strongly believe that Israel will benefit by having a Palestinian state, a democracy on her border that works for peace.Olmert, on his part, said that the Annapolis process will continue because a two-state solution is the only possible way to resolve the conflict in the Middle East.Bush and Olmert, who wish to end their time in office with proof of some success, will use the talks to take stock of their work over the past three years, officials said.But it remained unclear if they were to seek to draw up a document summarizing the latest round of talks.The peace talks have made little apparent progress despite intensive meetings between Israeli and Palestinian leaders and strong US backing, as all sides have acknowledged they would not meet their declared goal of inking a peace treaty before Bush leaves office.Chances of a breakthrough seem dim as Israel heads for elections and the Palestinians remain deeply divided between Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas and the Islamist Hamas movement.Olmert earlier met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney as well as Democratic Congressman and Obama confidant Robert Wexler.Another meeting with Rice has been set for 1600 GMT Tuesday.
Rice said on Sunday the peace talks were in pretty good shape and that the failure to reach a deal was largely because of the political situation in Israel following Olmert's resignation.White House spokesman Tony Fratto also defended the state of the talks.There has been a great deal of progress. We're much further along than we would otherwise be were it not for the start of the Annapolis process, Fratto said.
Although they were unlikely to make any major decisions, the two were expected to discuss international efforts to halt Iran's controversial nuclear drive, which Israel and the US suspect is aimed at developing an atomic bomb, a claim denied by Tehran.Olmert wants to clinch new commitments on Iran from his staunch ally before Obama, whose policy towards the Islamic republic has raised some concern in Israel, enters the White House, officials said.Olmert will press Bush and Congress to allow Israel to purchase dozens of F-35 stealth fighter jets, which would considerably boost the Israeli air force's ability to carry out long-range strikes.Over the past year, the United States has considerably increased its already tight defense ties with its ally, giving the Jewish state an unprecedented 10-year, 30-billion dollar defense aid commitment. The aid comes amid growing US and international concern about Iran's missile and nuclear programs and statements by Iran's leaders predicting that Israel is doomed to disappear. Israel, the region's sole, if undeclared, nuclear armed state, considers Iran its main strategic threat because of its nuclear program. Olmert has repeatedly said Israel would prefer to use diplomatic and economic pressure to persuade Iran to abandon its program, but he has refused to rule out a military strike. Monday's summit also served as an opportunity for both Bush and Olmert to reaffirm the close ties between the two allies that were considerably tightened under Bush's administration. I'm sure that we will continue our friendship for many years to come, Olmert told Bush.
