Syria developing chemical weapons site: Jane's Wed Feb 18, 12:54 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – Syria has increased activity at a suspected chemical weapons production site, a move likely to increase tension with Israel, Jane's defence information group said Wednesday.Satellite imagery of the Al Safir site in northwest Syria does not suggest that Damascus is arming for an offensive but will fuel concern in neighbouring Israel, the respected group said.The satellite imagery that ... Jane's has examined suggests that Damascus has sought to expand and develop Al Safir and its chemical weapons arsenal, said Christian Le Miere, editor of Jane's Intelligence Review.Further expansion of Al Safir is likely to antagonise Israel and highlight mutual mistrust, even as peace talks between the two neighbours progress intermittently, he added.The London-based information group said it studied imagery from commercial satellites taken between 2005 and 2008.The site contains not only a number of the defining features of a chemical weapons facility but also that significant levels of construction have taken place at the facility's production plant and adjacent missile base.This does not suggest that Syria is arming itself for an offensive but it could have regional security implications given Syria's tension with its neighbour, Israel, it said in a statement.A clear sign that it is a military facility, and not a civilian complex, is the level of security -- overall access is via a military checkpoint and there are more security points between different parts of the site, Jane's said.Le Miere added: Construction at the Al Safir facility appears to be the most significant chemical weapons production, storage and weaponisation site in Syria.Its presence indicates Syria's desire to develop unconventional weapons, either to act as a deterrent to conflict with Israel or as a force enhancer should any conflict ensue,he added.
Palestinian unity talks delayed: Egypt by Fatima El-Bacha – Wed Feb 18, 11:58 am ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at reconciling feuding Palestinian factions have been delayed, state news agency MENA quoted a senior Egyptian official as saying on Wednesday.Palestinian reconciliation talks scheduled for February 22 have been delayed for a short period because more discussions are needed, the unnamed official said.The talks are part of an Egyptian-proposed plan to end Israel's massive three-week offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December and January that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians.Its initiative called for an immediate Gaza ceasefire, followed by meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials to secure a long-term ceasefire, and the reconciliation talks.A long-running feud between Hamas and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah faction exploded in June 2007 when the Islamist faction seized control of the Gaza Strip after more than a week of deadly street battles.Hamas beat Fatah in parliamentary elections in January 2006 but its government was boycotted by Israel and much of the international community because the Islamists would not recognise Israel or renounce violence.Egypt last tried to reconcile Palestinian factions in November, with the aim of forming a government of national unity acceptable to the international community.But the Islamists withdrew from those talks at the last minute, saying Fatah forces were continuing to arrest Hamas members in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Egypt's efforts to secure a lasting truce between Israel and Hamas suffered another setback on Wednesday after Israel's security cabinet voted to make any truce conditional on the release of a captive soldier.
The 12-member security cabinet voted unanimously to back outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's insistence that Gilad Shalit should be released as part of a truce with Hamas.Hamas rejected the cabinet's decision and stuck to its position that Shalit's release be negotiated separately as part of a prisoner exchange involving hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.Shalit was seized by Gaza militants in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006.Hamas has said any truce must include the opening of Gaza's border crossings, which Israel has closed to all but humanitarian aid since the Islamist movement seized power.
EU grants 41m euros in Gaza aid Wed Feb 18, 8:17 am ET
AMMAN (AFP) – The European Union will grant the UN agency for Palestinian refugees 41million euros (over 51 million dollars) to meet humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip, a joint statement said on Wednesday.The contribution was announced by European Commission Representative for the West Bank and Gaza Strip Christian Berger at a closed-door meeting of the UN Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Amman on Tuesday, it said.Berger said UNRWA, which cares for some 4.3 million refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, has already received 19 million euros out of the total amount.We have already mobilised 18 million euros... as a response to the dire humanitarian situation caused by the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip. We are also contributing one million euros to help with UNRWA's ongoing reform plans,he said.We will mobilise a further 22 million euros in the near future.UNRWA Commissioner General Karen Abu Zayd said the agency's aid programmes face a 52-million-dollar shortfall this year.Support... has never been so important in light of our human development and relief work in the wake of the Gaza conflict, she said.Jordan's Queen Rania, who is of Palestinian origin, appealed at Tuesday's meeting for urgent aid for UNRWA.We are in very dire need of much more assistance and without which I think UNRWA won't be able to operate, said the wife of King Abdullah II.UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in January the United Nations will launch a 613million dollar appeal to meet the massive needs in Gaza, where Israel's 22 war in December and January killed more than 1,300 people and caused huge destruction.
Unexploded bombs missing in Gaza: UN Wed Feb 18, 5:25 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – UN officials said Wednesday that several large, unexploded Israeli bombs left over from last month's war in the Gaza Strip have gone missing in the Hamas-ruled territory.A number of aerial bombs and other materiel retrieved in Gaza were being held in a collection area at a traffic police compound in Gaza City, a UN official told AFP on condition of anonymity. This has disappeared.The missing munitions include three 2,000-pound (900 kilogram) bombs and eight 500-pound (230 kilogram) bombs dropped by Israeli warplanes during the 22-day offensive that killed over 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.We are anxious to return this ordnance. It's dangerous materiel and needs to be disposed of in a safe manner, UN spokesman Richard Miron said.The UN said it did not know who had taken the bombs and did not accuse the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza of being involved in the incident.
Israel launched the offensive -- the largest it has ever carried out against the Palestinian territory -- on December 27 in what it said was a bid to halt the firing of crude, homemade rockets on Israeli communities near the border.The conflict came to a halt on January 18 when Israel and Hamas declared separate ceasefires, but the calm has been strained since then by dozens of rocket attacks and several deadly Israeli air strikes on the territory.
Israeli security cabinet meets on Gaza truce by Jean-Luc Renaudie– Wed Feb 18, 3:47 am ET
JERUSALEM, (AFP) – Israel's powerful security cabinet was meeting on Wednesday to decide whether to back Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's insistence that a captive soldier be released as part of a Gaza truce deal.A vote to support the position of the outgoing premier risks further complicating Egyptian efforts to broker a lasting truce around the enclave as its Hamas rulers have already rejected the condition.
Olmert first made the demand that Gilad Shalit, a soldier seized by Gaza militants in June 2006, be released as part of a truce deal at the weekend.We want first to resolve the Shalit issue and then will look into the reopening of crossings and the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip, he said on Tuesday, repeating his position.His demand was swiftly rejected by Hamas's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal, who again accused Israel of backtracking on the terms of a proposed long-term truce by linking the lifting of the blockade to the soldier's release.Israel is responsible for blocking Egypt's efforts to broker a truce by adding a new condition at the last minute, Meshaal said after Damascus talks with Arab League chief Amr Mussa.A truce can come about only in exchange for a lifting of the blockade and the reopening of the crossing points. It is unacceptable to combine the truce issue with the question of Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit, Meshaal said.Egypt, which has been acting as intermediary in separate negotiations for a Gaza truce and for an exchange of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails for Shalit, has also said that the two issues should be kept separate.Egypt will not change its position on the truce -- the matter of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is a separate issue which can in no way be linked to the truce negotiations,the state-owned Egyptian daily Al-Ahram quoted President Hosni Mubarak as saying.Israel's pointman for the Egyptian negotiations, senior defence ministry official Amos Gilad, also lashed out at the changed Israeli position.Suddenly, the order of things has been changed. Suddenly, first we have to get Gilad. I don't understand that. Where does that lead, to insult the Egyptians? To make them want to drop the whole thing? What do we stand to gain from that? the Maariv daily quoted him as saying.
The Egyptians have shown extraordinary courage. They've given us manoeuvering room, they're trying to mediate, they're investing efforts, they're showing goodwill of a kind they've never shown before, he said.Mubarak has been fair and courageous...What are we thinking? That they work for us? That they're a subordinate unit of ours?
Shalit was captured in a deadly cross-border raid from Gaza in June 2006.His family on Tuesday evening issued a statement demanding that his release should be the first condition in any accord on a truce with Hamas.The chance which currently presents itself must not be missed as it was in previous agreements, Israeli army radio quoted the statement as saying in reference to a six months' truce in Gaza agreed between Israel and Hamas in June last year.Egypt has been acting as a go-between in efforts to consolidate the separate ceasefires that ended Israel's deadly 22-day Gaza offensive on January 18. The war killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.The ceasefires have been consistently rattled by Palestinian militant rocket fire and Israeli military raids.Early on Wednesday Israeli jets struck a Hamas position and seven smuggling tunnels on the border between Gaza and Egypt. Noone was reported hurt in the strike.
Gaza, slump seen spurring rise in anti-Semitism By Adrian Croft and Avril Ormsby – Tue Feb 17, 5:44 pm ET
LONDON (Reuters) – Israel's offensive in Gaza and the global economic downturn have spurred a rise in physical and verbal attacks on Jews, participants in an international conference on anti-Semitism said Tuesday.In the last six weeks, we have seen an explosion of anti-Semitic activity and behavior -- which I would describe as a pandemic -- as a result of both the Gaza war and the economic crisis being blamed on Jews, Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. civil rights group, said.Since World War Two we have not seen so many attacks on Jews, Jewish institutions, synagogues, he told Reuters during a London conference on anti-Semitism attended by 125 legislators from 40 countries.British Foreign Office Minister Mark Malloch-Brown said there had been a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Britain and elsewhere in Europe after the Gaza campaign.Several countries have reported an increase in anti-Semitism during Israel's 22-day offensive in Gaza which ended with a January 18 truce with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.France's main Jewish association CRIF recorded more than 100 attacks in January, up from 20 to 25 a month in the previous two years.
Some 250 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded in Britain in the four weeks after fighting began in Gaza, compared with 541 incidents over the whole of last year, a charity that protects the Jewish community was reported last week as saying.In Venezuela, armed men vandalized the Tiferet synagogue in January while Turkey's centuries-old Jewish community said it was alarmed by anti-Semitism that emerged during protests at Israel's Gaza assault.(There's) no doubt that each time when Israel has to struggle, to fight, to protect its citizens, the anti-Semitic feelings all over the world grow up, said Natan Sharansky, a former Israeli government minister.A survey by the Anti-Defamation League published last week found that stereotypes about Jewish power in business still held strong in Europe.The poll of 3,500 people in Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Spain and Britain found 31percent blamed Jews in the financial industry for the global economic crisis.David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, a lobby group, said there was a consensus at the conference that anti-Semitism had reached new heights.
Israel's campaign in Gaza was just another factor in a much larger issue, he said. While anti-Semitism was focused to a large degree in Europe, it was a global problem, he said.The increase in anti-Semitism was set against a backdrop of the economic crisis which only makes matters worse by accusing Jews of nefarious economic crimes, he told Reuters.The legislators, most of whom were not Jewish, agreed to a declaration urging governments to stop anti-Semitic programs being broadcast on satellite television and to teach children about the Holocaust, racism and anti-Semitism.(Additional reporting by Marie-Claire Fennessy)(Editing by Richard Balmforth)
UN: 5 tons of bombs stolen under Hamas guard By IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer –Tue Feb 17, 3:01 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Five tons of unexploded Israeli bombs stored in the Gaza Strip under Hamas police guard have been stolen, U.N. officials said Tuesday.U.N. spokesman Richard Miron said the explosives were being stored in Gaza until a U.N. team of disposal experts could disarm them, but they disappeared.The bombs were dropped on Gaza during Israel's offensive there last month, according to another U.N. official. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said three one-ton bombs and eight quarter-ton bombs were taken from the warehouse in northern Gaza.It's clearly extremely dangerous and needs to be disposed of in a safe manner, Miron said. The material was under guard by Hamas police between Feb. 4 and 14 when it was stolen, he said.Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner told The Associated Press that the explosives were probably taken by Hamas. He said Israel had been informed by the U.N. about the missing ordnance.Hamas officials in Gaza contacted by the AP said they had no knowledge of the matter.
The Israeli Haaretz daily reported that a U.N. bomb disposal team has been working in Gaza for the past three weeks, but it has been hindered by Israeli refusal to allow some of its equipment into Gaza or approve an area for neutralizing the explosives.The paper said several other warehouses hold unexploded ordnance in Gaza, some close to residential areas. There have been no reports of thefts from other locations.During the 23-day offensive, Israeli aircraft dropped hundreds of tons of bombs on Gaza and fired artillery and tank shells, aiming at Hamas strongholds but also leveling apartment buildings in areas said to be under Hamas control. About 1,300 Palestinians were killed, about half of them civilians, according to Palestinian figures.
Pope to visit Jordan mosque during Holy Land tour By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer – Tue Feb 17, 10:40 am ET
AMMAN, Jordan – Pope Benedict XVI will visit Jordan's largest mosque during his first papal tour of the Holy Land in May, a local Roman Catholic priest said Tuesday.
The pope's stop at the Hussein bin Talal Mosque in Amman will be his second visit to a Muslim place of worship since becoming pope in 2005, said Rifat Bader, a Catholic priest in Jordan who is the spokesman for the Jordanian leg of the pope's Holy Land tour. In 2006, Benedict prayed at Turkey's famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul.He will also meet there with Muslim leaders and religious scholars at the mosque, underlining the coexistence between religions, Bader told The Associated Press.The mosque, built in outskirts of Amman nearly four years ago, is named after the late King Hussein, who died in 1999.Jordan will be the pope's first stop on the Holy Land tour from May 8-15, Bader said. He will also travel to Israel and the West Bank, making stops in cities including Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Bader said discussions were under way to possibly add Gaza on the pope's itinerary.During his three-day stay in Jordan, the pope will also visit biblical sites including Mount Nebo, where Moses is said to have first seen the promised land, and a spot on the Jordanian River, where Jesus is believed to have been baptized, Bader said.The pope also plans to hold a public Mass in Jordan, where 3 percent of the country's 5.8 million people are Christians.Benedict will then travel to Israel, where President Shimon Peres is expected to escort him. Bader said the pope will stop at the recently renovated Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum during his visit to Jerusalem and will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.The late Pope John Paul II came to the Holy Land in a 2000 pilgrimage, visiting Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The visit to the Mideast comes at a time of strained relations between the Vatican and Israel. The fragile relations worsened last month when the German pope reinstated an excommunicated bishop who has questioned the extent of the Holocaust. Benedict later condemned the bishop's remarks and spoke out against anti-Semitism.
Relations between the Vatican and the Muslim world have also been tense in recent years. In 2006, Benedict made remarks on Islam and holy war during a speech in Germany that angered many Muslims, leading him to backtrack and declare himself deeply sorry.(This version CORRECTS SUBS graf 7 to correct to number of Christians in Jordan is 3 percent.)
Hezbollah says has right to possess air defenses By HUSSEIN DAKROUB, Associated Press Writer – Mon Feb 16, 5:16 pm ET
BEIRUT – The leader of Hezbollah said Monday that his militant group has the right to possess air-defense weapons to face the Israeli warplanes that regularly fly over Lebanon.Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, however, refused to confirm or deny persistent Israeli reports that Hezbollah may have acquired anti-aircraft missiles.He did say an air defense system would change the balance of power by shattering Israel's air superiority after Hezbollah managed to withstand Israel's air, ground and sea bombardment during their 2006 war.Nasrallah spoke via a video link to a rally commemorating last year's assassination of Hezbollah's top military commander, Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed by a car bomb in Syria. Hezbollah blames Israel, which has denied involvement.Nasrallah said Israeli media report occasionally that Hezbollah has acquired sophisticated air defense missiles.I will not deny or confirm the reports, Nasrallah said, but added that such weapons would weaken Israeli air power and change the region's power equation.What I want to confirm today is that we have the full right to possess any weapons, including air defense weapons. Also, we have the full right to use this weapon if we want, he said.The Iranian-backed Hezbollah fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 that killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and 159 in Israel. Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets at Israel.
Israel cautions anew against a nuclear-armed Iran Mon Feb 16, 4:19 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a forum of military chiefs on Monday that Israel would regard a nuclear-armed Iran as an "existential threat" that would speed up a regional arms race.Israel's military spokesman released Barak's comments after the United Nation's nuclear watchdog chief said global nuclear disarmament work was being hampered by Arab perceptions Israel wasn't abiding by a non-proliferation treaty.Barak told a closed forum of military chiefs at a strategy session that if Iran obtained atomic weapons it would pose a central threat to world order, the statement said.He added it would dramatically accelerate nuclear proliferation in the region.Israel is believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, though it has never acknowledged such a program or ever testing atomic weapons.The Jewish state has long denounced Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its existence and also cites remarks made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying Israel should be wiped off the map.U.S. President Barack Obama has warned Tehran of tougher sanctions if it does not halt its disputed nuclear work, but in a departure from his predecessor George W. Bush, said last week he also saw the possibility of diplomatic openings with Iran.Iran says it seeks nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, in order to generate electricity.Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, referred on Monday to Arab perceptions of Israel in the context of global nuclear disarmament efforts.The nuclear non-proliferation regime has lost its legitimacy in the eyes of Arab public opinion because of the perceived double-standards concerning Israel.ElBaradei said further that Israel was the only state in the region outside the NPT and known to possess nuclear weapons, referring to a global nuclear non-proliferation treaty never signed by the Jewish state.
Israel must continue peace process: Livni by Charly Wegman Charly Wegman – Mon Feb 16, 3:41 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Tzipi Livni, who is bidding to become Israel's next prime minister, said on Monday the Jewish state has no option but to continue with internationally backed peace talks with the Palestinians.We have to continue with the peace plan launched at Annapolis, Livni told a conference of US Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.If we don't continue with the plan, we will not be able to count on the support of the international community against Iran, Hezbollah (Lebanon's Shiite militia) or Hamas (the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip), said Livni, who as foreign minister has been at the forefront of the negotiations.Direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were relaunched after a seven-year hiatus at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November 2007 with the US aim of securing a deal before the end of George W. Bush's presidency in January 2009.The plan is backed by the so-called Middle East diplomatic quartet, comprising Russia, the European Union, the United Nations and the United States.Negotiations were to have focused on core issues such as the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees, but little progress has been made.The process has now stalled completely as Livni and her hawkish right-wing rival Benjamin Netanyahu, the two front-runners after a parliamentary election on February 10, bid separately to form a workable governing coalition.The majority of Israelis understand that if Israel wants to remain an independent Jewish state, in the end the territory will have to be divided, Livni said.We can carry out negotiations while still fighting against terrorism.
The Annapolis peace process envisages separate Palestinian and Jewish states co-existing peacefully side by side.Livni repeated her views later in an interview with Channel 2 television.My government will make progress in the peace process, she said. I will not be associated with freezing this process, and I am ready if necessary to join the opposition.Livni's centrist Kadima party has called for a power-sharing deal with Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party amid furious haggling in the wake of the tight parliamentary election.Although Kadima won 28 seats in last week's general election, one more than the Likud, Netanyahu is widely tipped to become the next prime minister.Under Israeli law, the person charged with trying to form a new government is not necessarily the leader of the largest party but the one with the best chances of cobbling together a coalition capable of securing a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.Livni's Kadima party said on Sunday that if Livni is not prime minister, it would rather consider going into opposition.Netanyahu has indicated that Middle East peace talks should focus on improving Palestinian daily life before negotiations on core issues can begin.When he became Israel's youngest premier in 1996, Netanyahu put the brakes on the peace process with the Palestinians, in part by authorising a major expansion of Jewish settlements.
