Iran throws conference to support Hamas By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer MAR 5,09
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran, Hamas and their supporters from 30 countries spent two days probing ways to provide assistance to the militant Palestinian group and promote resistance against Israel at an international gathering in Tehran, an Iranian lawmaker said Thursday.The conference in the Iranian capital aimed to counter an international meeting in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik on Monday that gave a powerful boost to Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.The gathering in Egypt raised $5.2 billion in pledges to rebuild Gaza and fund Abbas' West Bank-based Palestinian Authority after Israel's recent offensive. The funds will bypass the coastal strip's Hamas rulers.Hamas wasn't invited to the Egyptian meeting and is considered a terrorist group by the Unites States, Europe and Israel. Iran, like Hamas, doesn't recognize Israel and is the militant group's chief political and financial backer.The conference in Egypt sought to weaken Hamas, promote compromise and treason against the cause of the Palestinian people, said lawmaker Mohammad Reza Mirtajoddini, one of the organizers of the Iranian gathering. But the Tehran conference speaks of resistance against the Zionist entity, which understands only the language of force.Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opened the conference Wednesday calling Israel a cancerous tumor and saying resistance against the Jewish state was the only way to save Palestinians.Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced the meeting in Egypt and was quoted Tuesday by the official IRNA news agency as saying that the difference between the two conferences is like that between Satan and man.Hamas' Gaza strongman, Mahmoud Zahar, attended the Tehran conference, which organizers said focused on how to provide assistance to Palestinians. Other Palestinian militant factions, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad attended, as well as parliamentary delegations from 30 different countries.The lawmakers came from a wide range of nations, such as Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Mali. Other countries, including Turkey, Indonesia, Algeria, Bolivia, Jordan and Yemen, also had representatives.
However, it was not clear if the gathering, which ended Thursday, actually raised any funds for Hamas.Israel's three-week military offensive against Hamas meant to put a halt to Hamas' years-long rocket fire on southern Israel ended in an informal cease-fire Jan. 18. The campaign killed nearly 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, and left some 15,000 homes destroyed or damaged in the war.Hamas seized Gaza from Abbas' more moderate Fatah group in 2007.
Bulldozer rams cars in Jerusalem, driver killed By Ari Rabinovitch MAR 5,09
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A Palestinian driver crashed his bulldozer into a police car and hit a bus at one of Jerusalem's busiest intersections on Thursday before police and a taxi driver shot him dead.An open Koran, the Muslim holy book, was found in the driver's cabin, Niso Shaham, Jerusalem's deputy police chief, told reporters at the scene. A police spokesman said it was a terrorist attack.Israeli police and Palestinian residents identified the driver as Marei Radaydeh, a West Bank construction worker in his mid-20s who lived with his family in the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.No Palestinian militant groups have claimed responsibility for the incident, which came a day after a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Riyad al-Malki, information minister for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Western-backed government, described the incident as a traffic accident,and called for an investigation into why he was shot.Hamas said the attack was a natural response to Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and to the Jewish state's military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which the Islamist movement controls. Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah faction are rivals.Police and witnesses said the driver of the bulldozer first turned over a police car, crushing its roof and injuring two officers inside.The bulldozer then slammed the police car into a large bus but no one was hurt, police said.Radaydeh, whom police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld called a terrorist,was not carrying any identification papers.
Nir Barkat, Jerusalem's mayor, said he would recommend that authorities take the harshest measures we can take by law against those involved in the attack. Two of Radaydeh's brothers were later arrested, family members said.Israel has previously threatened to demolish the homes of Palestinian attackers.Police compared Thursday's attack to three similar incidents last year, two with bulldozers and one with a BMW car.In the 2008 incidents, which police also called terrorist attacks, the drivers were identified as Palestinians from Arab East Jerusalem.One witness, who identified himself as Shai, said the bulldozer driver was shot by both a policeman and a civilian who was later identified by police as a taxi driver.Amateur video obtained by Reuters captured the sound of four gunshots fired near the bulldozer, which came to a stop at the end of a highway that leads to Jerusalem's main shopping mall.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Nasr and Ivan Karakashian, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Mohammed Abu Ganeya in Bethlehem, Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah; writing by Adam Entous; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Britain re-establishing contact with Hezbollah MAR 5,09
LONDON – Britain is re-establishing contact with the militant group Hezbollah following the formation of a unity government in Lebanon, the British government said Thursday.The Foreign Office said that it has established contact with the group's political wing but still has no contact with its military wing.Britain ceased contact with members of Hezbollah in 2005 and listed the military wing as a proscribed terrorist organization last year.The Foreign Office said that it had reconsidered its position following positive developments in Lebanon.Our objective with Hezbollah remains to encourage them to move away from violence and play a constructive, democratic and peaceful role in Lebanese politics, in line with a range of UN Security Council Resolutions, the ministry said.The ministry said Britain's ambassador attended a meeting in January in Beirut alongside a Hezbollah lawmaker, and that the government was seeking to build relations with other legislators attached to the group.Israel and Hezbollah fought a brutal 34-day war in the region in 2006. More than 1,200 people in Lebanon — most of them civilians — and 159 in Israel died in the conflict.Hezbollah has a large rocket arsenal but is not believed to have used it against Israel since the 2006 war. It has denied involvement in recent rocket attacks on Israel.After showing its military strength against Israel in 2006 and then again in May 2008 against its Lebanese rivals — when it took control of large parts of Beirut by force — Hezbollah became a partner in Lebanon's government with veto power over decisions.
Israel's Netanyahu in cabinet talks with key hardliner MAR 5,09
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu was to hold talks on Thursday with ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman as he struggles to put together a broad-based coalition government.Representatives of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party and Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu held talks before the meeting between the two leaders to discuss the outlines of any government agreement.According to Stas Meseznikov, who is heading Yisrael Beitenu's team for the coalition talks, the outlines will include a commitment to topple the Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip using all available means.Netanyahu is considering Lieberman, whose controversial statements on Israeli Arabs have earned him the label of racist among his critics, as foreign minister, a Likud official said.There is a serious possibility that Avigdor Lieberman will take the helm of the foreign ministry, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, but added: Nothing has been decided for the moment.Yisrael Beitenu is the third largest party in parliament after winning 15 seats in the 120-member house in the February 10 election.For the moment, the Russian immigrant party is expected to be the second-largest party in a Netanyahu coalition, and is laying claim to a senior portfolio, such as foreign affairs, finance or defence.Netanyahu has excluded giving him the defence job because he lacks experience. The finance post could be a problem because of an ongoing corruption investigation into Lieberman, local media have reported.Public radio reported that in addition to foreign affairs, Netanyahu could give Lieberman's party the justice, interior and economic ministries.
Lieberman, 50, a Moldovan former bouncer, has built his reputation on statements that have earned him accusations of being a racist and fascist among critics and while his admirers hail him as a refreshing straight-talker with a tough line on security.In the three years since the last election, he has called for the execution of Israeli Arab MPs who had dealings with Hamas, for Gaza to be treated like Chechnya and for Israel to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II.A resident of a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, Lieberman wants to keep major settlement blocs in exchange for transferring areas with heavy concentration of Israeli Arabs to a future Palestinian state.Netanyahu has until April 3 to form a government.
Israeli raids kill Gaza militants after Clinton visit by Sakher Abu El Oun – Thu Mar 5, 7:19 am ET
AP GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli air raids on Hamas-run Gaza killed four militants just hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended her first Middle East trip vowing to breathe life into the peace process.An air strike in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on Thursday killed three militants and wounded two others, medics said.An army spokesman said the raid targeted a group who had fired an anti-tank shell at an army unit on the Israeli side of the border.Late Wednesday, an Israeli air raid killed a senior Islamic Jihad military commander as he drove through the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City.The radical Palestinian group vowed to avenge his death and on Thursday said its militants fired three rockets into Israel. None caused casualties.It was the latest blow to the tenuous ceasefire Hamas and Israel declared on January 18 to end Israel's 22-day devastating war on the tiny coastal strip. Egypt has been brokering talks to turn the ceasefires into a durable truce but has so far failed to clinch any agreement.Israeli leaders have repeatedly warned of tough action to try to stamp out the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which Israel withdrew from in 2005 after 38 years of occupation.The latest violence erupted just hours after Clinton left Israel on Wednesday after wrapping up her first trip to the Middle East since being appointed by US President Barack Obama.The United States aims to foster conditions in which a Palestinian state can be fully realised," she said after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the occupied West Bank. Time is of the essence.She called for Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, which was devastated by the war that Israel launched on December 27 in response to rocket fire and that ended up killing more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.Israel sealed the impoverished territory to all but humanitarian goods in June 2007 when Hamas, an Islamist group pledged to Israel's destruction, seized power in the enclave booting out forces loyal to moderate Abbas.We have obviously expressed concerns about the border crossings. We want humanitarian aid to get into Gaza in sufficient amounts to alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza, Clinton said.
Gaza is one of the world's most densely-populated places. More than half of the 1.4 million population is under 18 and the vast majority of residents depend on foreign aid.Clinton slammed Israel's plans to raze houses in east Jerusalem that were built without building permits, notoriously difficult to obtain for the city's Palestinian residents.Clearly this kind of activity is unhelpful and not in keeping with the obligations entered into under the roadmap,Clinton said, referring to a blueprint for peace talks adopted by the international community in 2003.
Obama plans to boost security aid to Abbas's forces By Adam Entous – Thu Mar 5, 3:34 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Obama administration plans to expand a program to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces in the occupied West Bank as part of a push for statehood, officials said on Thursday.Israel has given tentative backing to the program as a test of Abbas's ability to rein in militants, one of its main conditions in stalled U.S.-backed negotiations over establishing a Palestinian state.Hamas Islamists, shunned by the United States and other Western powers for refusing to recognize Israel and renounce violence, have denounced Abbas's forces as collaborators and say the program has fueled inter-Palestinian tensions.U.S. and Western officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration planned to boost security assistance, including funding for training conducted by Jordanian police at a base near Amman, by up to 70 percent, from $75 million in fiscal year 2008 to as much as $130 million.The State Department had no immediate comment. President Barack Obama has been vague about his policies in the region.
After talks with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged to work with Abbas to address Palestinian security needs, but she has offered no details.At a donors' conference in Egypt on Monday, Clinton pledged $600 million to support Abbas's Palestinian Authority and $300 million for humanitarian aid in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, which was devastated by a three-week Israeli offensive.Diplomats said it was unclear when the new money would arrive. Winning congressional approval could take months.Obama's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, has asked Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, the American who has been overseeing the training of Abbas's forces, to stay on for two more years. Dayton, whose three-year assignment was due to end, has agreed, diplomats said.While the security program has garnered bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, it could run into opposition if Egyptian-backed reconciliation talks between Hamas and Abbas's secular Fatah faction result in another unity government.
Hamas, which won a 2006 election and receives support from Iran and other Islamist allies, forcibly seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after routing Abbas's forces there, bringing an end to a previous unity deal opposed by Washington.The extra funding would allow the United States to increase the number of battalions undergoing training and to provide them with more equipment. The United States provides non-lethal equipment like vehicles. Arms are supplied by Arab states.Some 1,600 members of Abbas's National Security Force and Presidential Guard have undergone U.S.-funded training since January 2008. Many of them have since been deployed in major West Bank cities, including Jenin, Nablus and parts of Hebron.
Hamas has accused Abbas's forces of targeting its members in the West Bank. Hamas, in turn, has rounded up Fatah activists in Gaza. Human rights groups have accused both factions of abuses.
ISRAELI SUPPORT
Israel's defense establishment has slowly warmed to the U.S. training program after initially delaying Palestinian deployment and the delivery of some equipment for Abbas's men.The training has advanced while other major initiatives launched by then-President George W. Bush, including Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, foundered.
Israel's prime minister-designate, right-wing Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, has yet to take a public position on the program. But Silvan Shalom, a Netanyahu ally and former foreign minister, expressed satisfaction with the training in a Reuters interview last week, suggesting it would enjoy support. Netanyahu has said he wants to focus on bolstering the West Bank economy by creating development zones and lifting some travel restrictions rather than pursuing thorny territorial issues linked to the creation of a Palestinian state. While he advocates greater Palestinian self-rule, Netanyahu has been vague about creation of an independent state, which he says must have limited powers of sovereignty and no army.(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington and Sue Pleming in Brussels; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Clinton criticizes Israel over East Jerusalem demolition By Sue Pleming and Mohammed Assadi – Wed Mar 4, 6:01 pm ET
AP RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Israel Wednesday over plans to demolish Palestinian homes in Arab East Jerusalem and said Washington would engage Israeli leaders on Jewish settlements.Calling the planned destruction of more than 80 dwellings unhelpful, Clinton said after talks with Palestinian leaders: It is an issue that we intend to raise with the government of Israel and the government at the municipal level in Jerusalem.Israel says the homes slated for demolition were built without permits.Palestinians say authorization from Israel's Jerusalem municipality is nearly impossible to obtain. They accuse Israel of trying to drive them out of East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 war, to make room for Jewish families.Israel considers all of Jerusalem its united and eternal capital, a claim that does not have international recognition. The Palestinian Authority wants East Jerusalem to be the capital of a Palestinian state.
At a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank, Clinton stopped short of repeating U.S. calls for an immediate cessation of Israeli settlement expansion but promised to follow up on the issue.We will be looking for a way to put it on the table along with all the other issues that need to be discussed and resolved, she said.I think at this time, we should wait until we have a new Israeli government. That will be soon and then we will look at whatever tools are available, Clinton said.She also repeated her support for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
PEACE PARTNERS
Abbas said that unless Israel's incoming leaders were committed to a two-state solution and halted settlement construction and Jerusalem demolitions, we will not consider them as peace partners.Clinton, on her first visit to the region as secretary of state, said the United States planned to play a coordinating role to revive peace efforts.But at the end of the day, no one can make a decision on whether or not there will be two states or a comprehensive peace settlement except those that are directly involved, she told reporters traveling with her.It is a time of political transition in Israel, which held an election on February 10 that led to right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu being invited to form a government by April 3.The Likud party leader's reluctance to commit himself to the creation of a Palestinian state could put him on a collision course with the Obama White House.With Israel still in political flux and peace talks with the Palestinians stalled, Clinton used her Middle East visit to announce a new approach to improve U.S. relations with Syria.
She said the decision to send two senior U.S. officials to Damascus later this week was also aimed at laying the groundwork for a comprehensive peace agreement.We believe that there is an opportunity for Syria to play a constructive role if it chooses to do so, she said. Political analysts said the overture is also aimed at weakening Syria's ties with Iran and Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups.
Clinton, like her predecessor Condoleezza Rice, said she planned to get personally involved in peacemaking and that her special envoy, George Mitchell, would be back in the region as soon as an Israeli government was formed. Are there risks to being actively involved? Yes, there are risks in getting up in the morning and pursuing whatever your particular interests might be. I am absolutely committed to this, she said. Rice made more than a dozen trips to Israel and the Palestinian territories during her tenure but came away with no peace deal, despite public optimism that Palestinian statehood could be achieved before the end of the Bush administration. We are going to give it everything we have. We can't promise any outcomes but we can promise the very best efforts of the United States,said Clinton. (Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Adam Entous and Tim Pearce)
Iran urges world Muslim 'resistance' against Israel by Jay Deshmukh – Wed Mar 4, 4:18 pm ET
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged world Muslims on Wednesday to join the Palestinian resistance against Israel, but his call was dismissed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.The only way to save Palestine is resistance, Khamenei said in an address to a global summit organised by Tehran in aid of the war-battered Gaza Strip and the Palestinians.Support and help to Palestinians is a mandatory duty of all Muslims. I now tell all Muslim brothers and sisters to join forces and break the immunity of the Zionist criminals.Iran's top military commander Mohammad Ali Jafari also declared that the Islamic republic has long-range missiles that can reach Israeli nuclear sites.Today the Islamic republic has missiles with a range of more than 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) and... all the land of the Zionist regime, including its nuclear installations, is within our range,Jafari, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, told the ISNA news agency.He said the Islamic republic could firmly retaliate if it was attacked by Israel, which considers Iran its biggest threat.
Khamenei said any negotiations to solve the Israel-Palestinian conflict were fruitless, adding that the United States and Britain committed the crime of creation and supporting this cancerous tumour (Israel).Even the new president of the United States who came to power with the motto of changing the (George W.) Bush administration's policies talks about unconditional commitment to secure Israel. This is defending terrorism by a government.But Khamenei's call was bluntly dismissed by Abbas and Clinton after the two met during her first visit to the region since taking office.We are sending a message to the Iranians and others -- stop interfering in our affairs, Abbas said.They are interfering only to deepen the rift between Palestinians.
Clinton too said Khamenei's remarks were clear interference in the internal affairs of the Palestinian people, continuing efforts on the part of the Iranians to undermine the Palestinian Authority.Musa Abu Marzuk and Abu Zahar from the Islamist Hamas movement that controls Gaza and who attended the Tehran summit acknowledged the role Iran played in tackling the Middle East problem.Zahar openly said Iran and other countries have been offering aid to Palestinians, which included paying salaries of our employees since we came to power in 2006.Iran does not recognise Israel, and Khamenei has repeatedly rejected a two-state solution to solve the decades-old conflict.Shiite Iran's efforts to tackle the issue have received sceptical response from much of the Muslim world, especially from the neighbouring Sunni-ruled Arab states which are also wary of Tehran's nuclear programme.On Tuesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called for a joint Arab strategy to deal with the Iranian challenge at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers.In his address at the Tehran summit, Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the creation of a global anti-Zionist front.On the other hand we must seriously pursue punishing the Zionist criminals, so that by saving Palestine and the establishment of a popularly chosen government, the world gets rid of racism, lies and occupation forever.
Prominent lawmaker Khazem Jalili said the Tehran conference will suggest setting up a common fund of participating nations to channel the donations. But unfortunately, the route for delivering the aid is not open,he said referring to the Israeli blockade of Gaza.The summit, attended by officials from such neighbours as Kuwait and Bahrain, as well South Africa and Nigeria, comes two days after global donors meeting in Egypt pledged around 4.5 billion dollars to rebuild Gaza.
US says Hamas must recognise Israel Wed Mar 4, 12:32 pm ET
AP JERUSALEM (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington would not work with a Palestinian unity cabinet that includes Hamas unless the Islamists recognise Israel and renounce violence.If there is to be a unity government that includes Hamas, then we would expect that Hamas would comply with the principles as set forth by the Quartet,Clinton told CNN, referring to a group consisting of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia.
(Those principles) are the same: that Hamas must renounce violence, recognize Israel, and agree to abide by prior PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) commitments,she added.In the absence of Hamas agreeing to the principles that have been adopted by such a broad range of international actors, I don?t see that we or they, anyone, could deal with Hamas.When pressed, Clinton said Hamas would have to make a formal announcement recognising Israel and giving up armed struggle, as the PLO -- which includes most Palestinian factions but not Hamas -- did in 1988.The principles are clear. They have been adopted. And we would expect any unity government to abide by those,she said.Clinton made the remarks on her first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories since being appointed secretary of state, a two-day tour during which she met senior Israeli and Palestinian leaders.US President Barack Obama has vowed vigorously to pursue the peace process between Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority of president Mahmud Abbas, but has ruled out any negotiations with Hamas.The Islamist movement -- which is sworn to Israel's destruction and blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Israel and the West -- seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Abbas.
Israel launches overnight strikes on Gaza tunnels Wed Mar 4, 1:37 am ET
GAZA CITY, (AFP) – Israeli warplanes launched two new raids early Wednesday on smuggling tunnels linking the Gaza Strip to Egypt without causing casualties, witnesses said.An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the bombings, saying three tunnels had been attacked and secondary explosions took place in one of them, indicating the presence of explosives.On Tuesday, the airforce had carried out some seven raids wounding four people, following rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled territory, witnesses and medics said.Palestinian witnesses said aircraft carried out at least seven strikes along Gaza's southern border, where dozens of tunnels are used for trafficking people, goods and arms into the impoverished territory.Four people were wounded in the raids, Palestinian medics said.An army spokeswoman told AFP that the air force carried out six strikes against smuggling tunnels near the southern Gaza town of Rafah in response to barrages of rockets fired over the past week.Outgoing Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had earlier warned that Israel would not shy away from striking Gaza in response to persistent rocket fire.If it turns out that Hamas has not got the message, it will be hit again, Livni told public radio hours before meeting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her first official visit to the Jewish state.Late Tuesday Palestinians fired more rockets at southern Israel from the northern Gaza Strip, but nobody was hurt and no damage reported, an army spokesman said, adding that the rockets fell on wasteland south of the town of Ashkelon.Some 120 rockets fired from the Palestinian coastal strip have been tallied since twin ceasefires came into force on January 18 following a three-week Israeli offensive which claimed more than 1,300 lives.
Clinton: US to support Palestinian state Tue Mar 3, 7:40 am ET
JERUSALEM – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the U.S. will vigorously pursue the creation of a Palestinian state.Clinton is making her first visit to the Mideast as the top U.S. diplomat. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, she said pursuit of a peace agreement that includes a Palestinian state seems inescapable.Clinton says the U.S. will be vigorously engaged in the pursuit of a two-state solution every step of the way.She spoke alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni ahead of a meeting later in the day with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.Netanyahu's criticism in the past of peace talks with the Palestinians and the possibility of Palestinian independence has raised concerns that his new government could clash with the U.S.
