Clinton urges Hamas to end violence as it pursues reconcilation Fri Feb 27, 6:33 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that talks to reconcile Palestinian factions will only produce results if Hamas agrees to recognize Israel and other international terms.Clinton made the remarks as she prepared to travel to the region after Fatah and Hamas agreed Thursday to work together to set up a unity government during Egyptian-sponsored talks aimed at ending factional feuding.In an interview with Voice of America radio that was distributed by the State Department, Clinton backed the idea of Palestinian unity.
I believe that it?s important, if there is some reconciliation and a move toward a unified authority, that it?s very clear that Hamas knows the conditions that have been set forth by the quartet, by the Arab summit, she said.With Arab backing, the diplomatic quartet of the United States, the European Union, United Nations and Russia have laid out three conditions that any Palestinian partners in peace talks with Israel must meet.Clinton reiterated those conditions, saying: They must renounce violence, recognize Israel, and abide by previous commitments, such as the Oslo peace accords.Otherwise, I don?t think it will result in the kind of positive step forward either for the Palestinian people or as a vehicle for a reinvigorated effort to obtain peace that leads to a Palestinian state, Clinton said.A State Department official said Clinton and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini of Italy, which currently holds the presidency of the Group of Eight wealthy nations, backed those conditions during a meeting here Friday.The official told reporters on the condition of anonymity that the two had a mind meld and agreed on the need to send a united message on Hamas after Frattini said some unspecified members of the European Union were willing to yield.The official said President Barack Obama's administration would not deal with any unity government that included a Hamas contingent which rejected the conditions.But he was not ruling out dealing separately with Mahmud Abbas, a Fatah leader who is the president of the US-backed Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, if he ends up heading a unity government with Hamas.
He also said that aid for the people in Gaza is very clearly not going to be funnelled through Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and which fought Israel in a three-week war ending in a fragile truce on January 18.Clinton is due Monday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to join an international conference aimed at raising money for the Palestinians to rebuild the war-battered territory.The United States is reportedly ready to contribute 900 million dollars, but Clinton suggested it depends on how well the Palestinians meet the conditions of the quartet.I will be announcing a commitment to a significant aid package, but it will only be spent if we determine that our goals can be furthered rather than undermined or subverted, she told Voice of America.
Netanyahu and Livni fail to agree on coalition By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer – Fri Feb 27, 1:24 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel edged closer to a government of hawks and right-wing religious parties Friday after Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu failed to persuade his chief moderate rival to join a coalition that could help avert a showdown with the Obama administration.Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni refuses to sign up unless Netanyahu openly endorses the vision of dividing the land into separate Jewish and Palestinian states.Two states for two peoples is not an empty slogan — it is the only way Israel can keep its existence as a Jewish, democratic state," Livni said after their meeting. Just as I cannot accept vague statements, neither can the world. This is a matter of principle, not semantics.Netanyahu said he had made Livni a generous offer of partnership, adding that he intended to promote the diplomatic process with the Palestinians. Nevertheless, he said he encountered a complete rejection of unity from Ms. Livni.The breakdown in their talks came as President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy George Mitchell was in the region meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.Livni did not shut the door completely on an agreement, and Netanyahu still has five weeks to cobble together a government. The two deadlocked in the Feb. 10 election, but Netanyahu was appointed to form a coalition because he had greater support from the elected lawmakers.Netanyahu can form a hard-line government that will give him a 65-seat majority in the 120-seat parliament. But that means virtually any of his partners could bring down the government in a dispute. A centrist government with Livni also would help Netanyahu ward off international pressure and avoid a clash with a U.S. president who has promised to become aggressively involved in pursuing Mideast peace.Livni, who heads the centrist Kadima Party and served as chief negotiator with the Palestinians, supports the formation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Netanyahu does not.Diplomatic activity continued Friday, with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana touring Gaza. He was the highest ranking European official to visit the territory since it was overrun by Hamas in June 2007.
Solana did not meet with representatives of Hamas, boycotted internationally as a terror group. The international community has demanded the group recognize Israel and renounce violence, conditions it has refused.I came to express solidarity with the people of Gaza and to tell them that we will be helping them in the reconstruction process, Solana said, standing at the ruins of the American International School of Gaza, which was destroyed by Israeli bombs during its recent offensive against Hamas militants.On Monday, international donors will meet in Egypt for a conference on Gaza's reconstruction. The Palestinians are seeking $2.8 billion dollars. The EU's executive office, the European Commission, said Friday it was earmarking $556 million for the Palestinians in 2009, though it was not clear how much would go to Gaza. The U.S. is expected to pledge $900 million.Israel and Hamas are holding talks through Egyptian mediation meant to produce a long-term truce in Gaza in the aftermath of Israel's three-week offensive against Hamas, which ended Jan. 18. Hamas wants Israel to open Gaza's blockaded border crossings, a step Israel says it won't take until Hamas returns an Israeli soldier held since June 2006.
Hamas is also holding talks with its Fatah rivals aimed at ending the violent spat between them, which culminated in Hamas' rout of Fatah and takeover of Gaza. The goal is to forge a power-sharing agreement.
EU's Solana on unprecedented Gaza visit Fri Feb 27, 8:41 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana toured the war-shattered Gaza Strip on Friday, his first such trip since the Islamist Hamas seized power in the Palestinian territory in June 2007.I came to Gaza to see by myself the situation and the destruction and to show the solidarity to the good people of Gaza who have suffered so much, he said at a news conference.I wanted to see with my eyes the level of destruction, he said of the devastation wrought by Israel's 22-day military offensive that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians.He viewed the ruins of the American International School and the wasteland of Ezbet Abed Rabbo, where scores of Palestinians huddle in shanties erected on mounds of rubble that used to be their homes.His visit came ahead of an international conference in Egypt on the rebuilding of Gaza.I hope the meeting that will take place on Monday will be a good meeting with good consequences for people here, said Solana.Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was on a similar visit to Gaza on Friday, touring areas hard hit by the Israeli offensive which ended on January 18.Neither Solana nor Stoere were due to meet any representative of Hamas, which the European Union, Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organisation.We have not had any meeting with Hamas at the political level since June 2007, said Norwegian foreign ministry spokesman Haakon Svane.The Islamist movement violently seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
EU to donate 436m euros in aid to Gaza Fri Feb 27, 6:53 am ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Commission announced Friday that it would donate 436 million euros (553 million dollars) in aid to the conflict-torn Gaza Strip at an international donors conference next week.By offering a substantial aid package we confirm our generosity and commitment towards the Palestinians, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.The commissioner is to pledge the funds, for this year, on Monday at a donors conference in Egypt aimed at helping rebuild Gaza following Israel's war on Hamas, which started in late December.The European Union is the biggest donor of funds to the Palestinians, providing more than half a billion euros each year, but it holds little political influence over Israel.The Palestinian Authority has said that it will seek 2.8 billion dollars to rebuild Gaza, even as Israel warned of another military strike if arms smuggling into the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave continues.We will dedicate part of our assistance to early recovery after the conflict at the beginning of the year, notably for urgently needed removal of rubble and unexploded ordinance and for providing assistance for traumatised children,Ferrero-Waldner said.The funds will also be used to back a cash for work scheme and repair shelters damaged during Israel's attack on Hamas militants, aimed at ending rocket attacks launched from Gaza on Israeli citizens.
In announcing the pledge, the commissioner also called on Israel to end its blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory, to allow aid and goods to enter unhindered.The crucial problem at the moment is not related to funding but to access,she said.In the aftermath of the crisis, a clear priority remains the immediate and unconditional reopening of all Gaza crossings on a regular and predictable basis, for the flow of humanitarian and commercial goods as well as people.The Gaza Strip has been under a tight Israeli blockade since Hamas seized power in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas whose power base is now limited to the West Bank.Israel insists it will not reopen its crossing points until Hamas releases Gilad Shalit, a soldier captured by Palestinian militants in a deadly cross-border raid from Gaza in June 2006.More than 70 countries are expected at Monday's meeting in the Egyptian coastal resort of Sharm El Sheikh.Egypt has been mediating a consolidation of the Gaza truce after Hamas and Israel declared on January 18 their own ceasefires to end the 22-day war, in which more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.Sporadic attacks have continued on both sides since.Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly called for better access to Gaza.
Palestinians agree to work to form unity govt by Sakher Abu El Oun Sakher Abu El Oun – Thu Feb 26, 2:54 pm ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas agreed on Thursday to work together to set up a unity government after Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation talks aimed at ending long-running factional feuding.It is indeed a historic day, former Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei said at a press conference announcing the creation of five joint committees, including one tasked with forming a national unity government.Qorei, a member of the Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, said the committees, which will also cover issues such as security, national reconciliation, elections and reform of the umbrella group the Palestine Liberation Organisation, would complete their work by the end of March.We have started a new chapter of reconciliation and unity.Fatah and Hamas have long been rivals but their feuding came to a head in June 2007 when the Islamists seized control of Gaza, routing forces loyal to Abbas after days of deadly street battles.The takeover, branded a coup by Abbas, split the Palestinian territories into two separate entities and dealt a major blow to international efforts to forge a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.Earlier, officials from two smaller Palestinian factions said the groups involved in talks had agreed to form a unity government by the end of March but Qorei did not confirm this deadline.No doubt some of the results of the committees will be immediately implemented, such as the government committee...it will be immediately formed and take full charge in Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas delegation leader Mussa Abu Marzuk told the press conference.As part of the agreement, the factions have also agreed to release prisoners held by Hamas and Fatah and to end a war of words being played out in the media, Qorei said.
The international community has been pushing the Palestinians to try to form a government it would find acceptable, as Hamas is boycotted as a terrorist outfit by Israel and the West.Thursday's agreement comes just days ahead of an aid meeting for Gaza being held on Monday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the Palestinians are seeking billions of dollars from international donors.Egypt had originally called for Palestinian reconciliation talks in November, but Hamas withdrew at the last minute, complaining that Fatah was continuing to arrest Hamas members in the West Bank.The reconciliation process was relaunched by Egypt after Israel's 22-day war on Gaza that ended last month with more than 1,300 Palestinians killed and buildings and infrastructure throughout the impoverished territory destroyed.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, visiting Cairo on Wednesday, had called for the Palestinians to form a new government of technocrats to oversee political and economic reconstruction in readiness for elections.Hamas trounced Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian general election but its government was boycotted by Israel and the West which regard the Islamists as terrorists, and attempts at forging a national unity government failed.Thursday's conference stemmed from Egyptian proposals for a lasting ceasefire following the January 18 end of the Gaza war. Cross-border violence has continued since then as Egypt has tried in vain to mediate a truce between Hamas and Israel.Hamas has said it was close to agreeing an 18-month truce with Israel but the talks were stalled after Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert conditioned the deal on the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit.
Senior Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel met Suleiman on Thursday to discuss efforts to release Shalit who was seized by Gaza militants in June 2006.Hamas has demanded more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, many implicated in attacks on Israelis, in exchange.
Obama's Mideast envoy talks Gaza with Israeli leaders by Patrick Moser – Thu Feb 26, 1:53 pm ET
TEL AVIV (AFP) – US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell discussed the situation in Gaza with senior Israeli officials on Thursday on his second regional trip to try to advance stalled peace talks.We are going to discuss before the gathering of the donor states in Egypt the situation in Gaza, outgoing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters before the talks with Mitchell at a Tel Aviv hotel.Israel believes that there is a need to help ... humanitarian needs and to find a way to do so without strengthening Hamas, the terrorist organisation that runs Gaza, she said.Mitchell said only that he was looking forward to the talks. He later met Benjamin Netanyahu, the hawk charged with forming Israel's new government, but had nothing to say before or after.The former US senator's visit comes ahead of an international conference on reconstruction for the Gaza Strip in Egypt on Monday, due to be attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Mitchell met later in the day for talks with outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose spokesman Mark Regev described them as positive and said the premier had expressed support for the conference.
On Friday, Mitchell was due to hold talks with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak before heading to the occupied West Bank for meetings with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad on Friday.Clinton is to visit Israel and the West Bank following the Gaza aid meeting in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.Obama has vowed to vigorously pursue Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which were relaunched to much fanfare at a US conference in November 2007 but have made little progress since.According to the Israeli press, Mitchell, one of the architects of accords that brought peace to Northern Ireland, plans to rent offices in Jerusalem with a view to visiting the region every month.The peace negotiations have been on ice since the December-January war in Gaza that Israel launched in response to militant rocket fire and that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.Ministers from the Middle East peace Quartet may meet in Sharm El-Sheikh on the sidelines of the Gaza aid conference, a Russian foreign ministry source was quoted as saying on Wednesday.The Quartet has endorsed a roadmap that calls for a Palestinian state coexisting peacefully alongside a secure Israel.Mitchell arrived in Israel from Turkey, where he said Ankara was important in efforts to solve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.As an important democratic nation with strong relations with Israel, (Turkey) has a unique role to play and can have significant influence on our efforts to promote comprehensive peace in the Middle East,he told reporters after talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey has been Israel's main regional ally since a 1996 military cooperation agreement, but their flourishing ties were strained because of strong criticism by Ankara of Israel's 22-day deadly onslaught on Gaza.
Israeli rivals divided over Palestinian state By Joseph Nasr – Thu Feb 26, 1:13 pm
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Differences over Palestinian statehood are likely to scupper Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to forge a broad government with his main rival, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, an official from his Likud party said Thursday.The hawkish Netanyahu, tapped by Israel's president to try to form a governing coalition, planned to meet Livni Friday in another attempt to recruit her centrist Kadima party, which backs the Palestinians' quest for a state.Israel needs a government and it will get one soon, Netanyahu told reporters before a meeting with George Mitchell, Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, who is on his second visit to the region since the U.S. president took office.Netanyahu wants to shift the focus of U.S.-sponsored peace talks from thorny territorial issues that would set the boundaries of a state to shoring up the Palestinian economy.Netanyahu has spoken about Palestinian self-government but alluded only in general terms to a state, saying it must have limited sovereign powers and be demilitarized. He has made no commitment to trade occupied land for peace.There is across-the-board agreement on Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas but there is a big gap between Kadima and Likud on the two states for two people. It's insolvable, Silvan Shalom, a senior Likud legislator and former foreign minister, told Army Radio.Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who meets Mitchell Friday, said the Palestinian Authority would not be able to pursue peace talks with Israel if Netanyahu's government did not express a clear and honest stance on the two-state solution.Livni has said Kadima would not join a government that does not commit clearly to pursuing a peace deal under which a Palestinian state would be created.
LAND-FOR-PEACE
As Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians in the outgoing government, Livni has been at the forefront of a land-for-peace process whose declared aims are to achieve a viable Palestinian state and security for Israel.Unfortunately the answers we are receiving from Kadima leaders is that there is no chance of her changing her position. And it seems that tomorrow she will say a final no, Shalom told Israeli Army Radio.Asked about Shalom's remarks, a Kadima spokeswoman said Livni's position was unchanged.Mitchell will meet with members of the outgoing Israeli government on ways to revive peace talks. He will also hold talks with Fayyad and President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.Kadima won 28 of parliament's 120 seats, to right-wing Likud's 27, in a February 10 election. But a strong nationalist bloc emerged from the ballot and Netanyahu has the support of 65 right-wing lawmakers, enough to form a narrow government.A right-wing coalition could lead to friction with the Obama administration, which has pledged to move swiftly toward an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.Under his mandate from President Shimon Peres, Netanyahu has another 36 days to win parliamentary approval for a government.(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Israel hits Gaza tunnels after rockets fired Thu Feb 26, 8:42 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli air strikes hit smuggling tunnels between Hamas-run Gaza and Egypt on Thursday after militants in the enclave fired two rockets into the Jewish state, the army and witnesses said.The afternoon strikes did not result in any casualties, witnesses said.They came after two rockets fired from Gaza struck inside Israel without causing casualties, the army said.The incidents marked the latest violence to rock tenuous ceasefires that Israel and Hamas announced on January 18, ending a 22-day war in the coastal strip that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.Egypt has been mediating in a bid to broker a lasting truce around the impoverished coastal strip, where the Islamists seized control in June 2007, ousting forces loyal to secular president Mahmud Abbas.
Olmert warns Iran over nuclear plant Thu Feb 26, 2:13 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert shot a thinly-veiled warning at Iran on Thursday after its arch-enemy announced the completion of its first nuclear power plant.We are a strong country, a very strong country, and we have at our disposal (military) capacities the intensity of which are difficult to imagine, Olmert told public radio.We have deployed enormous efforts to reinforce our deterrence capacity, he said. Israel will be able to defend itself in all situations, against all threats, against all enemies. I cannot say more but believe me, I know what I'm talking about.Although the remarks did not mention Iran by name they were clearly aimed at the Islamic republic which Israel considers its enemy number one.Iran began testing its first nuclear power plant Wednesday in the face of deep international concern over its atomic drive and said the long-delayed project could go on line within months.Officials from Iran and Russia, which has been involving in building the power station for the past 14 years, watched over the start of the pre-commissioning in the Gulf port of Bushehr.As for a timetable, the tests should take between four and six, seven months, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation Gholam Reza Aghazdeh said at a press conference in Bushehr.And if they go smoothly, then it (the launch of Bushehr) will be even sooner.
He also said Iran is now operating 6,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium, defying international calls that it halt the sensitive nuclear process which is at the heart of Western fears it is secretly trying to build the atomic bomb.We have 6,000 centrifuges working and we plan to increase them. In the next five years we plan to have 50,000 centrifuges, Aghazdeh told reporters.Iran has rejected repeated calls by the UN Security Council -- of which Russia is a permanent member -- for a halt to enrichment, despite three sets of sanctions being imposed for its defiance.The UN nuclear watchdog had said in a report last week that Iran was slowing the expansion of its enrichment activities, with 3,964 centrifuges actively operating in Natanz.
The visiting head of the Russian nuclear agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, announced that construction of the 1,000-megawatt Bushehr plant had been completed but that Russia would remain involved for one year after it goes on stream.We have reached a deal to establish a joint venture to operate the plant, he said, adding that the two sides were also in talks to sign a 10-year contract for the delivery of nuclear fuel by Russia.Despite being the world's number four crude producer and having the second largest gas reserves, Iran insists it needs nuclear power to sustain a growing population whose fossil fuels will run out in the coming decades.The plant's start-up will be a leap forward in Iran's efforts to develop nuclear technology but is likely to further unnerve Western powers, rattled by the launch this month of an Iranian satellite on a home-built rocket.Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak called for tougher sanctions against Iran.Although the plant is not a central part of Iran's military nuclear operations, the announcement of completion of work shows the importance of the concrete steps that the free world, led by the United States, should take as time is pressing, Barak said. As part of the pre-launch process, Iran was carrying out comprehensive tests of equipment at the plant which Kiriyenko said involved loading dummy fuel rods into the reactor. Most of the systems have had more than 97 percent of the equipment installed, Kiriyenko said, adding that some parts that required further testing included heat insulators.
Bushehr was first launched by the US-backed shah in the 1970s using German contractors but was shelved after the Islamic revolution until Russia became involved in 1995.The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been investigating Iran's nuclear programme for six years, said last week it had been informed by Tehran that the loading of fuel into the reactor was scheduled to take place during the second quarter of 2009.The 87 tons of fuel supplied by Moscow is currently under IAEA seal.The IAEA said in a report issued last Thursday that Tehran is continuing to enrich uranium, but has slowed down the expansion of its enrichment activities.In all, IAEA inspectors had been able to verify that Iran has accumulated 839 kilogrammes (1,846 pounds) of low-enriched uranium, while Iran had told the agency that it had added another 171 kilogrammes this month. Estimates vary, but analysts calculate that anywhere between 1,000-1,700 kilogrammes would be needed to convert into high-enriched uranium suitable for one bomb.
