Egypt arrests over 40 suspected smugglers to Gaza Tue Apr 7, 6:08 pm ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian police have detained more than 40 people suspected of involvement in weapons smuggling to the Gaza Strip, a security official said on Tuesday.
The men were suspected of having bought or rented homes in the Rafah border town with Gaza to smuggle weapons and contraband into the Palestinian enclave, the official said.Montassar el-Zayat, an Egyptian lawyer who has often represented jailed Islamists, said that Lebanese and Palestinians were among the arrested.Zayat said lawyers had not been allowed to meet the detained, but their families told lawyers they were being questioned about links to the Islamist Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Police were asking about a Lebanese man who was detained and whom security suspect of being a representative of Hezbollah,he said.It was not immediately clear when the arrests were made and no charges have been brought against the men.Egyptian security had charged an Islamist opposition activist who organised relief convoys to Gaza last year on charges of forming a criminal group belonging to Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza.Hezbollah is a vocal supporter of Hamas and is thought to have helped train some Hamas fighters and to have tried supplying weapons to Palestinian militants in the past.Hamas fought a devastating 22-day war with Israel in December and January. Israel and Egypt have mostly blockaded border crossings with Gaza after Hamas took it over in June 2007.Israel, which is determined to stop Hamas from acquiring weapons, announced a ceasefire to the war in Gaza only after receiving assurances from the US and European countries to prevent Hamas from arming.Much of the goods smuggled into Gaza come through a network of tunnels linking the enclave with Egypt.But Egypt, which has taken increasingly robust measures to crack down on the smuggling, denies weapons are smuggled from its territories, saying arms come to Gaza by sea.
Obama speech draws praise in Mideast By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 7, 4:22 pm ET
BEIRUT – Syria's foreign minister praised President Barack Obama's address to the Arab and Islamic world in Turkey, and many Arabs were cheered by the American leader's promises to push for a Palestinian state.On his first visit as president to a predominantly Islamic nation, Obama reached out to Arabs and Muslims in his Ankara address, saying the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. He also spoke of the Arab-Israeli peace process, saying he will actively pursue the goal of creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel.In an interview published Tuesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Obama's speech reflects a clear attention toward the two-state solution.Al-Moallem said Obama's words were important and positive.But he hinted that Arabs expect Washington to pressure the new hard-line Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the creation of a Palestinian state.We need to see how the United States will deal with an Israeli government representing the extreme right, and continues to reject the two-state solution,al-Moallem told Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper.Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit praised Obama's remarks as insightful and credible.Netanyahu's office on Monday issued a statement saying Israel would work closely with the U.S. on peace, but it avoided any mention of a two-state solution.A spokesman for the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Taher Nunu, said in a statement Tuesday in Gaza that any change that would lead to justice for the Palestinian people would be welcome. However, Nunu said the real test of Obama's remarks and statements will be ending the unfair bias in favor of the Zionist occupation.
Syria is one of the big tests of the Obama administration's attempts to strike a new tone in relations with Mideast nations. Obama's predecessor George W. Bush sought to isolate Syria to force it to stop its support of militant groups like Lebanon's Hezbollah and Hamas and do more to prevent militants from entering Iraq.The Obama administration has said it seeks a dialogue with Syria — as well as with Syria's ally and Washington's biggest regional rival, Iran. Damascus has appeared eager for better ties, hoping for an economic boost and U.S. mediation of peace talks with Israel, though it has shown little sign of being ready to cut its backing for militants.More broadly, Obama's visit to Turkey aimed to overcome widespread resentment in the region for what many saw as the Bush administration's aggressive policies against Muslims and Arabs. Top Arab satellite news networks Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya carried his speech to Turkey's parliament live on Monday, as well as a town hall meeting Obama held with Turkish students on Tuesday in which he said he wants to work with Muslims.Lebanese columnist Rajeh Khoury said Obama's visit to Turkey draws a road map for the relationship between the West and Islam.Tareq Masarwah, a columnist in Jordan's Al-Rai newspaper, pointed to the significance of Obama's choosing Turkey — a mainly Muslim nation but with a strong secular tradition — as a nod to moderate Islam.
Moderation is what we need to confront the extremism and the violence which has dominated Muslims the past three decades,Masarwah said.
But, he said,the sole bridge toward reconciliation is a Palestinian state.Though many Arabs were angered by the U.S. invasion of Iraq and other American policies in the region, the biggest dispute they most often cite is the Palestinian issue, and what they see as Washington's bias toward Israel.Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat welcomed Obama's endorsement of a Palestinian state. We hope that the Israeli government will understand that this is the only path to peace,he told The Associated Press.But Yehia Moussa, a lawmaker with the Hamas militant group, said What's important is not that he talks nicely, but what he does on the ground.Until now we haven't seen any positive actions on the Palestinian issue. He is repeating the same positions as Bush,Moussa said.Associated Press writer Mark Lavie in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Lieberman rejects foreign intervention in Israeli politics by Marius Schattner – Tue Apr 7, 3:22 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's hawkish new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told foreign powers on Tuesday to stay out of Israeli politics, in an apparent reference to the flagging Middle East peace process.We have never interfered in the affairs of others, and we expect from others that they not interfere in ours, Lieberman told a meeting of his ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party.I do not expect from others that they have a stopwatch in hand and tell Israel when it must produce a responsible political programme, he added.Visiting Turkey on Monday, US President Barack Obama voiced renewed hope that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be resolved on the basis of a two-state solution and urged leaders on both sides for courage to make peace.I believe that peace in the Middle East is possible. I think it will be based on two states side by side,he said.In order to achieve that, both sides are going to have to make compromises. Now what we need is the political will and courage on the part of leadership,he added.The previous two Israeli governments committed themselves to a peace roadmap drafted by the international Quartet of the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations in 2003.Under it, Israel bound itself to the principle of a Palestinian state -- a concept new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes.
In remarks after taking office last week, Lieberman said Israel was not bound to conduct final settlement negotiations with the Palestinians as agreed at a 2007 conference in Annapolis, Maryland.The two sides agreed to relaunch the talks on core issues while also implementing the other phases of the roadmap.The talks produced little visible progress before being put on the back-burner in the run-up to the Israeli general election in February.There is only one document that binds us and it is not the Annapolis conference,Lieberman said.Only the roadmap. The Israeli government and the Knesset (parliament) never adopted Annapolis.We will go exactly according to the roadmap,he said. We will never agree to skip any of the stages -- and there are 48 of them -- and go straight to the last stage on negotiations on a permanent agreement.
We will go exactly according to each stage.
In his remarks on Tuesday, Lieberman said we are working on new ideas and that will take a month or two to sort out,adding that Israel would respect agreements it had reached but not mentioning Annapolis.Speaking in Beirut, visiting Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said his country would work to convince the Netanyahu government to accept the premise of a Palestinian state.Italy, as a friend of Israel, is keen to see the peace process launched on the basis of the Quartet and the Arab peace initiative, which envision two states with two free and independent peoples, he told journalists. We will work with the cooperation of the European Union and the United States to encourage the new government to move forward on this road.
Lieberman's stand has marked a sharp break with his predecessor Tzipi Livni, who had led the Israeli delegation at the renewed negotiations. The Palestinians slammed Lieberman's comments, with a senior aide to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas saying this minister is an obstacle to peace. He will cause harm to Israel first.Earlier on Tuesday, police questioned Lieberman over graft suspicions for the third time since he was sworn in.The former nightclub bouncer had already been quizzed last Thursday and Friday over suspicions of corruption, fraud, money laundering and breach of trust.
Israel tests Arrow ballistic missile interceptor by Ron Bousso – Tue Apr 7, 11:04 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Tuesday tested its Arrow ballistic missile interception system, a costly project launched two decades ago aimed at countering strikes mainly from archfoe Iran.The Arrow (Hetz in Hebrew) intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile similar to Iran's Shahab-3 which can reach Israel. The missile was fired by an Israeli fighter plane over the Mediterranean, a defence official said.This morning, the Arrow system performed a successful test, the defence ministry said in a statement.The success of the project marks a key step in its development plan and the improvement of the operational systems to offer a response to the growing threat of ballistic missiles in the region.Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who watched the test from a helicopter, said that combined with other rocket and missile interception systems under development, the Arrow project will offer optimal protection from near and immediate strategic threats,in the ministry statement.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the test launch, saying: We seek peace but we will know how to protect ourselves.It was the latest successful test of the Arrow, a project launched in 1988 during the now-defunct Star Wars programme under late US president Ronald Reagan.The Arrow programme was stepped up after Israel was hit by 39 Iraqi Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf War.
Development of the Arrow is now half-funded by Israel's main ally, the United States. Israel says it has carried out more than a dozen successful tests of the Arrow under various conditions.Israel considers Iran to be its arch-foe following repeated calls by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.Widely considered to be the Middle East's sole nuclear armed state, Israel and Washington suspect Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons under the guise of its civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran has repeatedly denied.In March, Iran said it had successfully tested an air-to-sea missile with a 110-kilometre (70-mile) range. The announcement came days after a top military commander said Tehran has missiles that can reach nuclear facilities in Israel.Mohammed Ali Jafari, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, said Tehran has missiles with a range of more than 2,000 kilometres, bringing all of Israel within range.But defence analysts question the accuracy of Iran's longer-range missiles.Jafari's comment came amid sustained speculation that Israel, which has a nuclear facility at Dimona in the Negev desert at which it is widely believed to have developed a nuclear arsenal, could target Iranian nuclear plants.
Palestinians, Israel hail Obama remarks Mon Apr 6, 4:09 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – The Palestinian Authority on Monday welcomed US President Barack Obama's renewed support for the Annapolis agreement and the stalled roadmap plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.At the same time, the Israeli government hailed what it said was Obama's commitment to Israel's security.Leading Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat focused instead on the statements by President Obama confirming the principle of a two-state solution.Israel should understand that the track leading to an end of the occupation since 1967 of the Palestinian and Arab territories and to the start of a two-state solution is the only track that can be followed,said Erakat.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman, for his part, said Israel appreciates President Obama's commitment to Israel's security and to the pursuit of peace.The government of Israel is committed to both of these goals and will formulate its policies in the near future so as to work closely with the United States towards achieving these common objectives,said Mark Regev.But Environment Minister Gilad Erdan, who is close to the right-wing premier, was less positive.
Israel does not take its orders from President Obama. In voting for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli citizens decided not to become the 51st state of the United States,he said in a speech to parliament.Erdan said the government would act in Israel's interests, although Obama was a friend of Israel and the United States an important ally, and whatever happens between us will be the result of a dialogue.In an address to Turkey's parliament on Monday, Obama said the United States strongly supports the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.His remarks came after Israel's new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said last week that the 2007 Annapolis document did not bind Israel though he did accept the roadmap as the basis for progress.A November 2007 conference in Annapolis, near Washington, relaunched peace negotiations on the basis of the roadmap, although dozens of rounds of talks between Israel and the Palestinians have produced little visible progress.In Washington, the State Department later announced that US special envoy George Mitchell would return to the Middle East next week.Mitchell will travel to the region starting on April 13 and meet officials from Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, the Gulf and North Africa, spokesman Robert Wood said.The former US senator and architect of Northern Ireland's peace agreement aims to advance the goal of the two-state solution and comprehensive peace in the region,Wood said.
Blair urges Netanyahu not to abandon peace talks Mon Apr 6, 11:25 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Middle East envoy Tony Blair urged Israel's prime minister on Monday to resume Palestinian statehood talks in parallel with a push to boost the West Bank economy and to let Palestinians control more of their territory.Blair met rightist Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office last week, laying out in broad terms how the Quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- wants to see stalled peacemaking proceed.There is a great deal of skepticism out there,Blair told reporters after talks with Netanyahu.Tasked by the Quartet with spearheading economic development in the occupied West Bank, Blair said providing Palestinians with greater freedom of movement was central to creating the foundations for statehood.But the former British prime minister said he told Netanyahu that a credible political negotiation for a two-state solution should be conducted in parallel with that.
Marc Otte, the European Union's Middle East envoy, concurred: You cannot change things on the ground without having a political perspective on what it is that we're doing.Netanyahu has been vague about renewing talks over thorny territorial issues, saying his priority was to focus instead on the creation of development zones and on ways to ease roadblocks and checkpoints that inhibit travel and trade in the West Bank.Last week, Netanyahu's foreign minister, ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman, declared that negotiations over statehood borders, and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, launched at a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland in November 2007, had no validity.Otte, speaking to reporters in Jerusalem earlier on Monday, said that Annapolis was binding on Israel because it was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.My view is that he (Netanyahu) does understand that, if the right context can be created for peace, the only lasting peace is based on a two-state solution,Blair said.He said he told Netanyahu that in addition to improving economic conditions in the West Bank, it was essential security forces of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas progressively take control of their own territory.
Otte said the focus should be on creating what he called trade routes that would make it easier for Palestinian businesses to transport their goods to market.Blair also urged Netanyahu to ease Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, which Hamas Islamists seized in June 2007 after routing forces loyal to Abbas's secular Fatah faction.
Aides said Blair saw Israel's decision last year to give Abbas's U.S.-trained security forces greater control over the northern West Bank city of Jenin as a model that could be applied to other parts of the territory.The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama plans to expand its training program for Abbas's forces. Speaking in Turkey on Monday, Obama said Washington strongly supports the goal of two states, living side by side in peace and security.(Reporting by Adam Entous; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
Obama talks confidently of Turkish help on Mideast Mon Apr 6, 8:37 am ET
ANKARA, Turkey – President Barack Obama has beckoned for Turkey's help in working with the United States to promote a Mideast peace agreement, while acknowledging that the road ahead will be difficult.Speaking to the Turkish Parliament Monday, Obama said he believes the U.S. and Turkey can help Israel and the Palestinians achieve this elusive goal.Obama also said that peace in the region would also be advanced if Iran forgoes any nuclear weapons ambitions and both the U.S. and Turkey support negotiations between Israel and Syria.
Israeli attorney general considers charging Olmert Sun Apr 5, 7:51 am ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel's attorney-general put former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on notice on Sunday he was weighing criminal charges against him over suspected corruption during a 2003-2006 term as industry and trade minister.Olmert is suspected of having granted favors to clients of his former law partner while serving in the cabinet post. He has denied any wrongdoing in the case, one of several police investigations against him.Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz said he was considering charging Olmert with fraud and breach of trust, pending a hearing with his lawyers, the Justice Ministry announced.Olmert was replaced as prime minister on Tuesday by right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu.The former Israeli leader may also face indictment over allegations he submitted duplicate travel bills and inflated travel costs while serving as Jerusalem mayor from 1993 to 2003, and over suspicions he took bribes from a U.S. businessman.
Olmert has denied the allegations.
Olmert, then leader of the centrist Kadima party, resigned as prime minister in September, saying he intended to wage a legal battle to clear his name. He remained in office through a February 10 election and stepped down when Netanyahu's new right-leaning government was sworn in.Other corruption probes into Olmert's purchase of a house and alleged misconduct in the sale of an Israeli commercial bank were recently closed for lack of evidence.As in past affairs that the state comptroller initiated that began with sparks and fireworks ... this affair will end with nothing, Olmert adviser Amir Dan told Israel Radio.(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Charles Dick)
Israel's Netanyahu chairs first cabinet meeting by Ron Bousso Ron Bousso – Sun Apr 5, 7:33 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chaired his first cabinet meeting on Sunday, after less than a week in power dominated by his top diplomat sparking concern over the fate of peace talks.Vowing to pull up our sleeves and get to work,Netanyahu said his government will set its peace and defence policies within weeks.In the coming weeks, we will complete a policy for the advancement of peace and defence, he said at the start of the first get-together of Israel's largest ever cabinet.The size of the right-leaning government is such that it required the installation of a new table large enough to accommodate the 30 ministers including the premier along with a slew of deputies.The remarks are the first public statements by Bibi, as he is popularly known, since he assumed office on Wednesday.Since then, the focus has been on firebrand Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who sparked controversy as soon as he took office last week with his comments on peace and then his grilling by police in a corruption probe.In the foreign ministry handover ceremony on Wednesday, Lieberman said that the new right-leaning government was not bound by a US-backed 2007 agreement to relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland.There is only one document that binds us and it is not the Annapolis conference, Lieberman said.Only the roadmap.
We will never agree to skip any of the stages -- and there are 48 of them -- and go straight to the last stage on negotiations on a permanent agreement.The roadmap is a step-by-step international peace plan launched in 2003 under which Israel bound itself to the principle of a Palestinian state -- a concept that Netanyahu opposes.It calls for Israel and the Palestinians to take a series of steps -- among them a freeze on Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and an end to violence -- eventually leading to talks on a final peace deal.In Annapolis, the two sides agreed to jump to its final phase and relaunch peace talks on core issues while at the same time implementing the other phases of the plan, although the talks have produced little visible progress since.Lieberman's comments provoked a furious reaction from the Palestinians, who called the firebrand an obstacle to peace.On Thursday, the Soviet-born former nightclub bouncer poured oil on the fire, rejecting any withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria.He was then questioned by police for seven hours on Thursday and five hours on Friday as part of a probe into corruption, fraud, money laundering and breach of trust.
Netanyahu's return to the prime minister's chair 10 years after his first term in office ended had already triggered concern among Palestinians and some in the international community over the future of the peace process.The new premier is opposed to the two-state solution that foresees the creation of a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel, saying that the economy in the occupied West Bank needs to improve first.He has repeatedly made clear that his top priority was arch-foe Iran's controversial nuclear programme, which Israel and Washington believe is aimed at manufacturing atomic weapons, a charged Tehran has repeatedly denied. Israel is widely believed to be the Middle East's sole nuclear-armed nation, something it has never confirmed or denied. Netanyahu's stance on the peace process is at odds with the position of Israel's key ally Washington, where President Barack Obama has vowed to vigorously pursue a settlement to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on a two-state solution.
