CHINA BACKS PALESTINIAN STATE

China backs efforts for independent Palestinian state
Wed Jan 13, 12:55 pm ET

RIYADH (AFP) – China on Wednesday endorsed efforts to create an independent Palestinian state as Saudi Arabia hardened its accusations that Israel is preventing a settlement of the Middle East conflict.China will continue its support for the Palestinian effort to establish an independent state," Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on a visit to Riyadh.Yang said at a news conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal that China supports the principles of a two-state solution under the Saudi-driven Arab Peace Initiative, which calls for an independent Palestinian state based on 1967 borders and with Jerusalem as its capital.Saud, meanwhile, stepped up the rhetoric over Israel's refusal to freeze the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and begin talks with the Palestinians.

This is the longest conflict in modern times, Saud said.The reason why this conflict is long is the refusal by Israel of all the attempts to end this conflict. Arab countries have done their job with the Arab Peace Initiative, which gives Israel security, and gives the Arab countries the restoration of their lands.But peace should be established by two sides, not just one side. If one side does not want peace, peace will not be achieved, he said.The comments came as both the US and Saudis have increased efforts to push the Palestinians and Israelis into final-status peace talks that would result in an independent Palestinian state.Amid a sharp increase in regional diplomacy, White House National Security Adviser James Jones met Saudi King Abdullah late Tuesday on the first stop of a regional tour that will take him to Israel and the Palestinian territories.US Middle East special envoy George Mitchell is also expected to visit soon.The two sides remained at odds over the key issue of Israeli settlements.The Palestinians and their Arab backers -- with Saudi Arabia one of the most important -- insist that peace talks cannot resume until Israel freezes the construction of Jewish settlements in the West bank and East Jerusalem.Israel and the United States say talks should proceed with no preconditions.

Israel FM calls on Turkey to show respect
Wed Jan 13, 6:36 am ET

NICOSIA (AFP) – Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday that Israel had no desire to fall out with traditional ally Turkey but called on Ankara to show reciprocal dignity and respect.You know regarding Turkey maybe it's time to clarify our position -- we are not interested in confronting or arguing with Turkey, Lieberman told reporters.We have had good relations with Turkey for many years and we respect the Turkish state and people.But that is exactly what we expect in return from them -- to treat us with dignity and respect.Any issues or questions that they may have can be raised with direct dialogue even if we don't see eye to eye on some issues.Israel and Turkey have been bound by a defence agreement for more than a decade but an escalating row over a television series that the Lieberman's office said depicted Israel and Jews as baby-snatchers and war criminals has brought relations to a new low.We will not tolerate any anti-Semitic remarks and incitement against the Jews of the state of Israel, Lieberman said.We prefer to keep a close dialogue and to clarify our position in direct meetings to resolve any declarations and to resolve any statements, he added.I think this is the best way and I hope we can come back to the normal relations between the two countries.

Lieberman was speaking on a visit to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which is the sole European Union nation to have no diplomatic ties with Turkey.On Tuesday, Lieberman's deputy Danny Ayalon infuriated Ankara by giving the Turkish ambassador an angry dressing down in which he made the envoy sit on a low couch and removed the Turkish flag from the table in a meeting called to convey Israeli protests over the television series.After the Turkish government demanded an apology, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement earlier on Wednesday regretting the manner in which his government's protest had been delivered.The television series that sparked the row, was broadcast on the private Star TV channel and showed a Turkish secret agent storming an Israeli diplomatic mission to rescue a Turkish boy supposedly kidnapped by Israel's Mossad overseas intelligence service.

US backs plan for Egypt's wall with Gaza
Tue Jan 12, 5:31 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States Tuesday voiced its support for a wall being built by Egypt to block a network of tunnels stretching out from the Gaza Strip, arguing it would stop arms smuggling.We believe that weapon-smuggling should stop and that measures taken to stop that weapon-smuggling should be, could be carried out, yes, said State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid.The vast network of tunnels from Gaza to Egypt, constructed in the sandy earth to bypass a crippling Israeli blockade, has become an economic lifeline for the Palestinians.The network has weathered Israeli air strikes and Egyptian attempts to flood tunnels with water and gas, but there are accusations that they are used to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip run by Islamic Hamas militants.Citing national security, Egypt is now building an underground iron wall in a new bid to tighten its porous Sinai border with the restive Palestinian territory.Cairo -- which states support for Palestinians and has long mediated between both Israel and Hamas and among Palestinian factions -- has only implicitly admitted constructing the iron barrier and has provided no details on its size.Media reports, however, said it would be 30 meters (100 feet) deep and 10kilometers (six miles) long.

But Duguid stressed Washington also supported greater access for humanitarian supplies to get into Gaza.There are established channels for that, and those established channels should not be hindered by Hamas or any party in Gaza.Egypt at the weekend banned aid convoys bound for the Gaza Strip from traveling across Egyptian territory after activists clashed with police.Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told the government newspaper Al-Ahram that members of one convoy led by British MP George Galloway committed criminal acts on Egyptian soil on their way to Gaza.Egypt will no longer allow convoys, regardless of their origin or who is organizing them, from crossing its territory, Abul Gheit said.

Donors ready to fill Palestinian budget in coming weeks
Tue Jan 12, 2:28 pm ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Major international donors said Tuesday that they would inject funds in coming weeks to finance the Palestinian budget for this year, and stood ready to do more once peace talks with Israel resume.We enter 2010 ready and able to support the Palestinian budget, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told reporters, after talks with US, EU and French officials in Brussels.We will make our total annual support to the budget in the coming weeks, said Stoere, whose country chairs the group of major donors to the Palestinians.We encourage our Arab and Gulf partners to come up with their commitment, he added, saying their funds were vital to ensure that the institutions of a Palestinian state are in place should conditions arise for one to be declared.The day there is a resumption of negotiations -- the sooner the better -- we feel confident in this group that donors once again will rally to the challenge and stand up to support the creation of a Palestinian state.

Officials declined to say exactly how much money would be provided.During the meeting the officials, including French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos representing the EU presidency, also heard about Washington's plans from US envoy George Mitchell.On Monday, Israel's Maariv newspaper said Washington was pushing a plan to restart peace talks that foresee reaching a final deal in two years and agreeing on permanent borders in nine months.Mitchell said nothing about the approach, but underlined that international efforts must be coordinated and concerted to help build Palestinian institutions.No one country, no one person can do this alone. Our American partnership with our European allies and the broader international community is critical to our effort and will be essential to our achieving these objectives, he said.Stoere said the intention of donors is really to be able to divert our support towards investments, and projects, and value creation, and jobs, and welfare and progress in the occupied territories.The European Union provides about one billion euros (1.45 billion dollars) in financial support each year to the Palestinians.

Work begins on first planned Palestinian city By BEN HUBBARD, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 12, 12:32 pm ET

ATARA, West Bank – Work crews have broken ground on what they hope will be the first modern, planned Palestinian city — a step that officials say will help build an independent state in spite of the current deadlock in the peace process with Israel.

Since last week, machine operators have been hard at work, taking chunks out of a rocky hillside near this West Bank village. If the project goes according to plan, it will provide 40,000 Palestinians with homes in an American-style development.

But complications remain.The $500 million project hinges on Israel's approval of a short stretch of road.We could build the whole city, but the question is, would people live in a city that doesn't have an access road? said Bashar Masri, managing director of the company behind the project.Obviously, the answer is no.Palestinians say Israel has not responded to their requests about the access road. The Israeli Defense Ministry, which is in charge of the area, did not return calls from The Associated Press about the issue.Israel's stated policy is to promote economic development in the West Bank, and construction of the new town would appear to fall within that goal. But two miles (three kilometers) of the road would have to be built through a part of the West Bank that Israel controls, within view of a Jewish settlement, raising possible complications.Western-backed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, an internationally respected economist, has announced plans to build institutions regardless of progress in peace talks, aiming to be ready for statehood in two years. The new city, known as Rawabi, would be a key part of that plan.

Rawabi, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Jerusalem, is designed to look much like an American suburb.Standing over a working model in the office of Bayti Real Estate Investment Company in Ramallah, Masri pointed to the city's egg-shaped, hilltop center, saying it will hold office and residential towers, a conference center and hotel, shops, cafes and a movie theater. The center will be a pedestrian zone with an underground car park, he said.Cities like Ramallah and Nablus have sprawled into the West Bank countryside over the last century, leaving them with insufficient roads, infrastructure and parking space, producing daily traffic jams that snarl their centers.In Rawabi, by contrast, a series of roads will loop down the hillside, lined with residential buildings connected by footpaths, designed for the Palestinian middle class, Masri said. Residents will have ample parking and access to parks, schools, mosques and a church.Masri declined to give condo prices, but said 5,000 units are designed for Palestinians who can afford monthly mortgage payments of between $400 and $700. Another 1,000 deluxe units will sell for more, he said.The project is being funded by Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co. and Ramallah-based Massar International.To help families purchase homes, the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corp., an investment arm of the U.S. government, is helping establish a mortgage assistance project.Masri's company plans to start pouring foundations in three months, he said, and says the first residents should move in by 2013.

That is, assuming the city gets its access road.

Reaching the site now means following a narrow, winding road through a number of Palestinian villages. Planners have laid out a new access road, but about two miles (three kilometers) of it cross an Israeli-controlled zone, said Amir Dajani, Bayti's deputy director. Dajani said the Palestinian Authority has asked Israel to put the stretch of road under Palestinian jurisdiction, but has yet to get a response. The access road is an artery for the project, Dajani said.It is critical for its success and future growth and a prerequisite for its sustainability.Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev declined to comment on the project, but said Israel considers economic growth in the West Bank the best antidote to extremism and terrorism.For now, the project is moving ahead. Last Wednesday, a team of tractors carved a local road into the rocky hillside, while orange-vested surveyors and engineers in hardhats prepared other sites. Standing on the hilltop slated to host the future downtown, site manager Maher Sawalha pointed to where he hopes to build the city's roads, condos and sewage treatment plant. Palestinian villages stood clustered on adjacent hilltops, and the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast was clearly visible, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) to the west. If it's clear and you have a sunny day, you can see all the way to the sea,Sawalha said.

Sawalha, a 45-year-old father of six, said he planned to move from his rented apartment in Ramallah to Rawabi as soon as possible. It's a dream to own a house here, in a new city where you work and live quietly with your kids, he said.It will be similar to life in the U.S.

Lebanon, Syria criticize US air screening rules By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 12, 10:48 am ET

BEIRUT – Lebanon and Syria criticized Tuesday the tight security screening recently introduced by the United States against travelers from the two Arab nations, branding the measures a form of discrimination and warning they might lash back with similar measures.President Barack Obama's administration ordered the changes after the alleged attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a jetliner bound to Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas Day. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said enhanced screening techniques would include full-body pat-downs, searches of carryon bags, full-body scanning and explosive-detection technology.It is the sovereign right of the USA to chose to protect its citizens the way it deems most appropriate, Lebanon's Information Minister Tarek Mitri told reporters.What is under question is the fact that citizens of different countries are singled out in a discriminatory fashion.In Syria, the state-run news agency said Washington's top diplomat in Damascus was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and told the new measures constituted unfriendly behavior. No Syrian citizen was ever involved in terror attacks against the U.S., the agency noted.The Syrian Foreign Ministry also informed the American diplomat that Damascus could be left with no choice but to introduce similar measures against U.S. citizens.The U.S. demanded more careful screening for people who are citizens of, or are flying from, 14 nations deemed security risks. Beside Syria and Lebanon, they include Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Iraq, Algeria, Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.

There are no direct flights from Syria or Lebanon to the United States.

The row over airport security could hinder the slow improvement of relations between Damascus and Washington after years of tensions. The United States withdrew its ambassador to Syria in 2005 following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria denies charges by some Lebanese officials that it was behind the killing.

Israel will no longer pay for burial of 'terrorists'
Tue Jan 12, 6:29 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's parliament has adopted legislation that bans the state from paying for the funeral of any citizen who commits terror attacks against the Jewish state, state radio said on Tuesday.The law was adopted on Monday evening with all 39 deputies in attendance -- out of 120 -- voting in favour.This text will be a dissuasive factor for potential terrorists, Miri Regev of the governing Likud party who sponsored the bill, told the radio.

The Israeli state generally pays basic funeral costs for its citizens.

The legislation is widely seen as directed at Arab-Israelis, who make up 20 percent of the 7.5 million population, but Regev insisted it would also apply to any Jew who carries out a terrorist attack.

US envoy seeks European support for Mideast push
Mon Jan 11, 4:46 pm ET

PARIS – U.S. envoy George Mitchell is asking for French and European Union support for a renewed push for peace in the Middle East.Mitchell, on a visit to Paris, said Monday that no one country, no one person can accomplish this objective alone.After meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, he urged a combined and concerted effort and partnership with U.S. allies, including France, toward resuming peace negotiations that broke down in December 2008.From Paris, Mitchell was to travel Brussels for meetings with his counterparts from the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers — the U.S., the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — and European diplomats before a trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories later in the month.Kouchner and Mitchell also discussed a French proposal to eventually host a Mideast peace conference, though no details of the discussions were released.

The Obama administration is gearing up for a fresh attempt to relaunch stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after the effort hit a dead end last year.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that very serious consultations are taking place to try to get the Middle East peace process back on track.I have been urging all the leaders, particularly the leaders of Israel and Palestine, to come back to the negotiating table, he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.I know that there are some conditions and there are some political difficulties for parties to come to the dialogue table at this time. But it would be desirable that the parties remain inside the negotiation process.... This is very important,he said.The Palestinians say there is no point negotiating while Israel expands settlements on land that it wants for its country.During this week's meeting in Brussels, Ban said, the Quartet will continue to discuss this matter as a top priority.

Palestinians find ancient coin hoard in Gaza
Mon Jan 11, 1:06 pm ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – The Hamas-run ministry of tourism and antiquities in Gaza on Monday announced the discovery of ancient artifacts near the Egyptian border town of Rafah.The most important of the findings are 1,300 antique silver coins, both large and small, said Mohammed al-Agha, tourism and antiquities minister in the Islamist-run government.He said archaeologists had also uncovered a black basalt grinder, a coin with a cross etched on it, and the remains of walls and arches believed to have been built in 320 BC.They also discovered a mysterious underground compartment with a blocked entrance that appeared to be a tomb, Agha said.The Palestinian Authority has been carrying out archaeological excavations since the 1990s, but this was the first major find to be announced by the Hamas-run government.The Islamist movement seized control of the impoverished coastal territory in June 2007 when it drove out forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmud Abbas.The archaeological dig, still under way, is close to where a vast network of smuggling tunnels provides a vital economic lifeline amid strict Israeli and Egyptian closures imposed after the takeover.

Israel will take years to deploy rocket defense By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jan 11, 12:20 pm ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's defense minister said Monday it would take years before the country's new rocket defense system would be fully deployed along borders with Gaza and Lebanon.Ehud Barak predicted that once the barriers are in place, they will significantly reduce Middle East hostilities.Last week, Israel announced it had successfully completed testing the Iron Dome system, designed to protect civilians from short-range rockets fired by Hamas militants in Gaza and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. The military did not say at the time when the system would become operational, though Channel 10 TV said a first battery would be deployed in May.The military on Monday released three brief videoclips of last week's test, each showing streaking rockets disappearing inside a white circular flash. In one video, a rocket is seen disintegrating into a shower of tiny fragments. Each video appears to show a tiny, stationary circular object waiting in the path of the incoming projectile shortly before the explosion.Despite the technological success, Barak said it would take years before the system is fully operational.We can't sow the illusion that now that development has been successfully completed, tomorrow morning there already will be complete protection for the Gaza area or the north, Barak said.It will take years before we are equipped.

Israel has had no system in place to guard against thousands of rockets that militants rained down on its southern and northern borders over the years. Millions of Israeli civilians are within rocket range, and the military stepped up its quest for a solution after the country's 2006 war against Hezbollah, when 4,000 rockets bombarded northern Israel.Iron Dome, developed at a cost of more than $200 million, uses cameras and radar to track incoming rockets and shoot them down within seconds of their launch, the Defense Ministry said. It is to be integrated into a multilayered defense umbrella designed to neutralize all missile threats — including long-range ballistic missiles from Iran that might be configured to carry nuclear warheads.Barak predicted Iron Dome would pare military operations against Hamas and Hezbollah in the future.It will save time of fighting and deter in many cases a potential enemy from really launching an attack, he said in English.He also deflected concerns about the high cost of employing the system: It has been estimated that it would cost many thousands of dollars to shoot down a single rocket, which in Hamas' case, could cost only several hundred dollars to manufacture.

The whole picture from my point of view is how much it costs us to run the war one day more or probably not just even opening it, he said.The cost of one day of warfare against the Hamas and Hezbollah, for example, will cover 10,000 interceptors.
There has been a recent flare-up of rocket fire from Gaza, and Barak said that reflected the failure of Gaza's Hamas rulers to impose their will on dissident militant groups.Hamas is well-deterred from trying another direct collision with Israel,he said, warning it to prevent fire on Israel and not dissolve into crocodile tears if we're forced to take action.At the same time, he judged that Hamas has been deterred by Israel's war against it a year ago. The offensive killed more than 1,400 Gazans, according to Gaza officials and Palestinian rights groups. It wreaked large-scale destruction that has not been rebuilt because of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade on the seaside territory.

Israel urges Hamas to rein in Gaza militants By Dan Williams – Mon Jan 11, 7:20 am ET

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak urged the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers on Monday to rein in militant groups behind a surge in attacks on Israel, coupling his appeal with a veiled threat of Israeli action.I think the recent days reflect the inability of Hamas to control the dissident groups, the Popular Committees or Islamic Jihad, who are trying to break the tranquility, Barak told Reuters during the unveiling of an Israeli anti-rocket system due to be deployed outside the Gaza Strip by June.Hamas is well deterred from trying another direct collision with Israel. I hope that they will take over -- or else, Barak, asked if a new Gaza war was possible, said in English, referring to the Islamist movement imposing its authority on smaller armed groups.On Sunday, three Palestinian militants were killed in an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a powerful response to any attacks from the territory.Netanyahu said 20 mortar bombs and rockets had been fired at Israel from the Hamas-ruled territory last week.Violence has risen along the Israeli-Gaza frontier in the past month, which could further complicate U.S.-backed diplomacy in the region, after a respite since a three-week Gaza war a year ago in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.Asked about Barak's comments, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the Palestinian attacks were carried out in response to continued Israeli aggression.A Palestinian official, who asked not to be identified, said Hamas planned to meet other groups soon to urge restraint, unless Israel stepped up its attacks.

IRON DOME

Barak said Israel's new Iron Dome rocket interceptor system would change the equation and could deter militants from launching attacks.It is a major change and provides the Israeli civilian population, once deployed in the coming years, cover against small-sized rockets and missilettes, he said.The project was spurred by the 2006 war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, during which 4,000 rockets rained down on northern Israel.On Thursday, three Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli air strikes in Gaza, including the first air raid in months to target a site inside Gaza City.Palestinians said the targets were sites belonging to other militant groups, not Hamas Islamists who seized the territory in 2007 and are seen as having reined in violence since the Israeli offensive last January.Israel also dropped leaflets warning Gaza's 1.5 million residents to avoid coming within 300 meters (yards) of the border fence with Israel, citing security reasons.(Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; editing by Andrew Dobbie)

Lebanese army fires on Israeli fighter planes
Mon Jan 11, 5:39 am ET

BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanese anti-aircraft guns opened fire on four Israeli warplanes which were violating its airspace at low altitude on Monday, the military said.The army's anti-aircraft guns fired at four enemy Israeli planes that had been overflying the (southern) area of Marjayoun this morning, an army spokesman told AFP on condition of anonymity.An AFP correspondent in southern Lebanon said about 70 rounds had targeted four Israeli aircraft.A UN spokesman in Lebanon said the overflights were a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a devastating 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah.We have been noticing a significant number of Israeli overflights into Lebanese airspace over the last week, which constitute a violation of Resolution 1701, UNIFIL deputy spokesman Andrea Tenenti said.We have, as always, strongly protested these violations to the Israeli Defence Forces and reported them to the Security Council, he told AFP.

Israel argues that the overflights are necessary, despite Resolution 1701, to monitor what it says is massive arms smuggling by Hezbollah in breach of the same resolution.While Lebanon's army publishes almost daily reports of Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace, the military rarely opens fire unless the planes fly within range of its guns.

Israel PM vows not to free terror masterminds for Shalit
Sun Jan 10, 2:06 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday not to release several high-profile Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.We will not agree to release ... terror masterminds and never agree to the return of dangerous terrorists to the West Bank, Netanyahu told members of his Likud party in parliament, according to officials at the meeting.Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas have been locked in arduous indirect negotiations for the release of Shalit.The Jewish state has reportedly agreed to release about 450 prisoners demanded by Hamas but baulked at several who were behind particularly bloody attacks.Netanyahu was apparently referring to Marwan Barghuti, the popular Palestinian leader who Israel holds responsible for instigating the 2000 outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.Barghuti, who was elected to the governing body of the secular Fatah party of Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in August, is currently serving five life sentences for murder and his role in the intifada.He is widely seen as the uprising's architect, although he has said he opposed attacks on civilians inside Israel, including the scores of suicide bombers sent in by armed groups.

During his time behind bars, the man once seen as the natural successor to the iconic leader Yasser Arafat and today to Abbas has remained highly popular on the Palestinian street.He told an Italian newspaper in late November that he believed he was on a list of hundreds of prisoners whose release Hamas which controls Gaza is demanding in exchange for Shalit.Shalit, who holds both Israeli and French nationalities, was captured in June 2006 when three Gaza militant groups, including Hamas, tunnelled out of the territory and attacked an Israeli army post, killing two other soldiers.

Jumblatt and Hezbollah seal Lebanon reconciliation accord
Sun Jan 10, 1:49 pm ET

BEIRUT (AFP) – Hezbollah finalised a reconciliation agreement on Sunday with Druze leader Walid Jumblatt that has diffused tensions between the two Lebanese parties after deadly clashes in May 2008.Leaders of the two sides emphasised their commitment to national unity in speeches broadcast on Hezbollah's television station Al-Manar, with Jumblatt stressing the importance of ending the tensions.If the fighting had spread... the country would have fallen into a vicious cycle of violence that would have put an end to the co-existence of Lebanon's multiple religious communities, Jumblatt said at the reconciliation meeting in Shweifat, southeast of Beirut.

Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad praised Jumblatt's courage.He said the partnership was of strategic interest and that the two parties would remain united on different issues, against the (Israeli) enemy that threatens us, reading a speech on behalf of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.The agreement crowns reconciliation efforts which were launched after the deadly clashes between Lebanon's political majority and minority blocs, the worst since the country's 1975-1990 civil war.The fighting, which took place in the capital and other parts of Lebanon, pitted the Shiite party and its allies against supporters of current Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Jumblatt's Progressive Socialist Party.

Around 100 people were killed in a week.Since August, Jumblatt has gradually distanced himself from the Western-backed parliamentary majority in Lebanon's national unity government which Hariri formed in November.The formation came after more than four months of tough negotiations with Hariri's Hezbollah-led rivals.

Israel ignores US pressure over peace talks
Sun Jan 10, 8:27 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel on Sunday dismissed an implicit threat by a top US official to apply financial pressure on its close ally in order to advance peace talks.

President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell said in an interview with PBS television earlier in the week that under US law, Washington can withhold support on loan guarantees to Israel.But Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Sunday that we have no indication that there is any intention to pressure us through the guarantees... only a few months ago we reached an agreement with the US treasury and state departments on the extension of their guarantees.The United States offered Israel 10 billion dollars in loan guarantees in the early 1990s to assist the Jewish state in the absorption of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.In 1991, former US President George Bush temporarily suspended the approval of the guarantees by Congress in order to pressure Israel to take part in an international peace conference.Loan guarantees are not cash grants, but allow Israel to take loans from international bodies with better conditions and lower interest rates.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in response to Mitchell's comments that everyone knows that the Palestinian Authority is refusing to renew the peace talks, while Israel has taken important and significant steps to kick-start the process.The Palestinian Authority needs to change its ways, not Israel, his office said in a statement.

Despite intensive diplomatic efforts, Washington has so far failed to revive the stalled Middle East peace process, a key component in the Obama administration's foreign policy.The Palestinians have said they will not restart talks until Israel freezes all settlement activity, while the Jewish state has enacted only a partial easing of construction in the occupied territories.

Settlements major obstacle to Mideast talks: Saudi
Sat Jan 9, 2:18 pm ET

RIYADH (AFP) – Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that Israel's settlements policy remained a major obstacle to Middle East peace efforts and a freeze on settlement growth was an internationally agreed requirement.The illegal settlements... constitute a major obstacle to peace talks, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in a joint news conference with Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.A freeze on settlements is one of the main commitments of the peace process. It is not a Palestinian condition to resuming negotiations as Israel is trying to promote, he said.His comments came a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks without preconditions, mentioning specifically Arab demands that Israel stop building and expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.Westerwelle said a settlement freeze was part of the 2003 roadmap set out for peace by the West.

The roadmap conditions constitute an important building block for reviving the peace process,he told reporters.This also includes freezing of settlement activities.This is not only the view and the position of the German government. It is also the position expressed by the European Union as a whole.The two diplomats said that they agreed in their talks on Saturday that resolving Afghanistan's problems required more money and work to help the country develop.We agreed that the (London) conference on Afghanistan must have a broad political approach, said Westerwelle.We are convinced that a political solution must be the focus of international talks, because we agree that the lives of people in Afghanistan must be improved, said Westerwelle, whose country has contributed troops to the coalition force supporting the Kabul government.Westerwelle, who was in Saudi Arabia for one day as part of a regional tour, held talks in Riyadh on regional, political and commercial issues.

He and Prince Saud also said their talks addressed Iran's nuclear programme and Yemen, where domestic political strife and the growing influence of Al-Qaeda have weakened the government.We support all international efforts to stabilise the country. We are open to discussing the issue in London at the Afghanistan conference in the British capital on January 28, Westerwelle said.What is decisive is to strengthen state institutions in such a way so that they can ensure security, he said.Stability (in Yemen) is a priority for us,added Prince Saud, whose country's armed forces have since November joined the Yemeni military in battling Shiite Huthi rebels in rugged northwest Yemen.