U.S. Mideast envoy: 2 years or less for peace talks
Wed Jan 6, 9:55 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – George Mitchell, the U.S. Middle East envoy, said on Wednesday that Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations should take no longer than two years and could be finished sooner than that.Mitchell said in an interview on the Charlie Rose television program on PBS he plans to return to the region in the next few days and hopes to make progress on political, security and economic tracks of the peace process.We think that the negotiation should last no more than two years, once begun we think it can be done within that period of time, Mitchell said. We hope the parties agree. Personally I think it can be done in a shorter period of time.He said an Israel-Syria track could operate in parallel with an Israeli-Palestinian track.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signaled on Monday that he is considering a proposal to relaunch stalled Middle East peace talks at a U.S.-backed summit with Israeli and Egyptian leaders early in the new year.Israel, Egypt and the United States want Abbas to reopen talks, but he refuses as long as Israel refuses to agree to a permanent freeze on construction in Jewish settlements on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
Israel has frozen most settlements for 10 months, although it is still building new homes in parts of East Jerusalem captured from Jordan in the 1967 war.Mitchell, who shuttled to the Middle East a dozen times in 2009, also helped broker a peace accord in Northern Ireland.(Editing by Alan Elsner)
Israel's Barak threatened over West Bank plans: officials
By Dan Williams – Wed Jan 6, 3:12 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has received dozens of death threats from people who fear Jewish settlements in the West Bank will be disbanded as part of peacemaking with the Palestinians, officials said on Wednesday.
In November, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu infuriated settlers by partially freezing new housing in the enclaves for 10 months. He called the moratorium a bid to coax Palestinians into resuming U.S.-sponsored negotiations suspended a year ago.
Dozens of threats have been received in recent weeks against the (defense) minister in the form of letters,said an Israeli defense official, who declined to be named.
Appearing in Tel Aviv, ex-general Barak did not provide details on the threats but described them as a response to the construction freeze. Though accompanied by unusually large number of bodyguards, he made clear he was unfazed.I wouldn't tread on a fly if I didn't have to, and, when necessary, I'm not afraid of anything or anyone," he said in a speech.The country has an elected government. When an elected government makes a decision, this decision must be implemented.About half a million settlers live among 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Israel captured from Jordan in a 1967 war. Palestinians want those territories, as well as the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, for a state.Israel has said it would evacuate isolated settlements while annexing major settlement blocs under any peace accord. That, like Netanyahu's moratorium, has been rejected by Palestinians as inefficient. Washington wants a settlement freeze, for now.A security source said Israel's Shin Bet domestic intelligence service believes there are a couple of dozen settlers or sympathizers who would be willing to attack a government figure in a bid to scotch any West Bank withdrawals.There may be up to a further 1,000 people who would support such actions, or attacks on Palestinians aimed at diverting Israeli forces from settler evacuations, the source said.
Many Israelis consider the West Bank a Jewish birthright. In 1995, an ultranationalist shot dead then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin after he signed interim peace accords which gave the Palestinians a measure of self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza.The far-right Israeli opposition party National Union accused the Netanyahu government of exaggerating the assassination specter in order to besmirch the settlers.We see this as cheap spin,said spokesman Itamar Ben-Gvir.(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis; editing by Richard Williams)
Protests mark start of Orthodox Christmas in Bethlehem
Wed Jan 6, 2:23 pm ET
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) – Orthodox Christmas celebrations kicked off in the traditional birthplace of Jesus on Wednesday to the sound of bagpipes and protests by Palestinians accusing church leaders of selling land to Israelis.Palestinian boy-scouts played bagpipes and hundreds of pilgrims watched a colourful procession led by Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III through Manger Square in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.Two columns of Palestinian riot police escorted the top Orthodox cleric in the Holy Land to the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Christians believe Mary gave birth to Jesus after she and Joseph found no room at the inn.Theophilos was elected patriarch in 2005 to replace Irineos, dismissed by the church over an alleged multi-million-dollar sale of church land in annexed Arab east Jerusalem to Jewish investors.The protesters chanted slogans against Theophilos and held up signs in English, Arabic and Greek accusing him of betraying his Palestinian followers.He did not fulfil his promise to cancel the deal, said Marwan Tubasi, President of the Council of Arab Orthodox Organisations and Palestinian deputy tourism minister.Tubasi said Theophilos has since also approved the lease of further church land to an Israeli company.
Property transactions with Israelis anger Palestinians who see east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.Following the procession, Theophilos began Christmas ceremonies for Greek, Syrian and Coptic churches, leading prayers at the ancient Church of the Nativity.Some other Orthodox churches also joined in rites that were attended by hundreds of tourists and pilgrims.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was due to attend midnight mass.The Orthodox faith uses the old Julian calendar in which Christmas currently falls 13 days after its more widespread Gregorian calendar counterpart on December 25.The Armenian Church will celebrate the city's third Christmas on January 19.
Egypt allows through Gaza aid convoy after protests By Yusri Mohamed – Wed Jan 6, 1:25 pm ET
RAFAH, Egypt (Reuters) – Egypt has reached a deal with members of an aid convoy to take supplies to Palestinians in Gaza after protests overnight, but Cairo barred their private cars from crossing, an Egyptian security source said.Cairo had insisted the food and other supplies should enter Gaza via an Israeli-controlled checkpoint but convoy leaders wanted to use the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing.Overnight, Egyptian security forces and members of the convoy, which is led by left-wing British politician George Galloway, threw stones at each other when tempers frayed over the route the trucks were to take.And in a further sign of the tensions surrounding the border, an Egyptian soldier was killed and four Palestinians were wounded in a gunbattle in Rafah during a separate protest against an anti-smuggling wall Cairo is building on the Gaza border.The official Egyptian news agency MENA said 17 Egyptian soldiers were also injured and seven foreign activists were arrested.The shooting was the most serious incident between Egyptian forces and Hamas since Cairo began an underground steel barrier a month ago. The project could choke off the movement of weapons and goods through tunnels into the Gaza Strip.Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade of the territory, which is ruled by Hamas Islamists who oppose international efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.
TRUCKS TO GO THROUGH
Under the compromise aid deal, 158 trucks will be allowed through Rafah in Gaza, the Egyptian security source said, but 40 private cars in the convoy would have to stay in Egypt for a month for security procedures and then pass through into Gaza via an Israeli checkpoint.As part of the deal, Turkey would intervene to guarantee that Israel would allow the cars into Gaza, the source said.A Turkish Foreign spokesperson said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had spoken to his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Aboul Gheit early on Wednesday and the pair were in frequent contact over the progress of the convoy.The Egyptian security source said some of the trucks had already begun their journey, with the Rafah authorities allowing in 20 at a time. MENA said Egypt would close the Rafah border on Thursday after the convoy had passed through into Gaza.Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party welcomed the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, but rejected any attempt to violate Egypt's border controls.The deal followed a sometimes violent confrontation in the early hours in the Egyptian port city of Arish, some 40 km (25 miles) from the border with Gaza.A Reuters correspondent saw security forces throwing stones at several hundred people traveling with the convoy, and police used water cannon to force them to end an occupation of the harbor. Around 40 convoy members suffered minor injuries and 15 police were hurt, witnesses said.Cairo has imposed strict regulations and restrictions on pro-Palestinian foreign activists who have held protests in Egypt since late December to mark the first anniversary of Israel's three-week offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.(Writing by Yasmine Saleh; Additional reporting by Patrick Werr and Yasmine Salah; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Israel successfully tests anti-rocket system
Wed Jan 6, 1:23 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has completed tests on its Iron Dome anti-missile system, designed to provide a response to the thousands of rockets fired at Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah, the defence ministry said.The system, which can intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells, underwent its final tests in the past 48 hours, a statement said.For the first time, Iron Dome faced multiple threats simultaneously. All the threats were intercepted with complete success, the statement said.The next phase in the development of the system was to integrate it into the army, the statement said.Israel hopes the system will provide it with a means to dealing with rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and from Lebanon.Palestinian militants have fired thousands of home-made rockets into southern Israel, prompting Israel's devastating assault on the Islamist Hamas in Gaza on December 27, 2008.The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah also fired some 4,000 rockets into northern Israel during a 2006 war with Israel, which now believes Hezbollah has an arsenal of some 40,000 rockets.Making Iron Dome operational will transform Israel's political and security situation on the northern and southern fronts, said Pinhas Buchris, the ministry's director general.
Israel will consult legal advisers on future military action By Robert Marquand – Wed Jan 6, 11:47 am ET CH SC MON
Paris – After an overwhelming attack on Gaza by Israeli forces a year ago, the Israeli army was accused of contravening laws of war – including shelling of civilians with white phosphorus munitions, and destroying civil infrastructure like water purification and sewage plants, and even targeting a relatively remote egg farm that supplied much of Gaza.Israel has insisted that the Israeli Defense Forces contravened no war-crimes laws in trying to stop Hamas missile attacks in its Operation Cast Lead, as the war was called -- and it has refused the kind of self-review needed to block prosecutions of war crimes, either by third-party national courts or the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.Yet a new directive by Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashenazi, ordering future military operations to be attended by legal advisers, suggests that Israel has undergone some kind of internal assessment of the war, and is attempting either to improve conduct in future military operations or preclude future attempts at war-crimes charges.
New rules suggest that Israel is trying to show, under the principle of command responsibility, that military leaders under battle are aware of their responsibility, and that subordinate soldiers are aware of principles set forth in the Geneva Conventions, says Mark Ellis, director of the International Bar Association in London. I applaud the step toward responsibility, though it would not create immunity for Gaza.The announced policy comes at a time when Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who was foreign minister during the Gaza operation, recently canceled plans to visit London following issuance of an arrest warrant by a British court, which used the legal claim of universal jurisdiction to prosecute war crimes. And last week, fearing arrest warrants in Great Britain, several Israeli military officers canceled a trip when British authorities said they could not guarantee the officers would not be arrested.Legal advisers would be consulted during battleUnder the new rules, the Israeli army would consult legal advisers not only during planning stages, which Israel says it did ahead of Gaza last year, but also during battle. Under international law, a state can block war-crimes prosecution if it shows good faith in conducting self-review of its behavior. So far, Israel has said it is satisfied that its behavior in the Gaza war, which inflamed Arabs and drew severe criticism in Europe, was appropriate.Yet the determination of a need to improve IDF operations, coming after Israeli soldiers, in a movement called breaking the silence, were critical of the army’s behavior, indicates that Israel has in fact reviewed its operations and has found that it fell short of its professed satisfaction that illegal or excessive military acts did not occur, some analysts say.
Reports from Gaza after the conflict, which included a UN report authored by eminent jurist Judge Richard Goldstone of South Africa (himself Jewish) suggest that of some 1,400 deaths of Palestinians in Gaza, the civilian toll was as high as 900 persons, including many children. Israel suffered 13 casualties. The report recommended that both Israel and Gaza authorities formally investigate allegations, and that, lacking this, that the Security Council take it up.Israel did not cooperate with the Goldstone Report, as it is known, forcing the Goldstone team to enter Gaza from Egypt. Israeli officials and media have decried the report as biased. The UN General Assembly voted to refer it to the Security Council, but the US did not; the US House of Representatives on Nov. 3 voted 344 to 36 to condemn the report. Earlier, the Obama administration pressured Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to seek to suspend immediate action on the report's recommendations. ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has begun a preliminary investigation into the Gaza war. Analysts like Mr. Ellis argue that the ICC is unlikely to try any Gaza case, since Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statutes that govern jurisdiction, and that the court cannot of itself recognize Gaza as a state. It would require the Security Council to refer the case to the ICC, as in the recent example of indictments against Sudan, for a prosecution to move forward.Also of interest:Israel court stirs fierce debate with Highway 443 ruling.
Saudi, Jordan kings meet on Palestinian issue
Tue Jan 5, 3:29 pm ET
RIYADH (AFP) – King Abdullah II of Jordan and Saudi King Abdullah discussed the Palestinian problem on Tuesday, the official news agency SPA said, amid a swirl of regional diplomacy aimed at restarting Middle East peace talks.During the meeting they discussed the overall situation in the Arab world, particularly developments in the Palestinian case and efforts to achieve peace in the region, SPA said.The Jordanian leader's one-day visit came in the wake of visits to regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.
The Saudis hoping to push the two into a pact of reconciliation that would enhance their position in possible peace negotiations with Israel, according to Arab diplomats.Other meetings appeared to be aimed at gathering support from other Arab states for a deal.Meshaal met on Tuesday with officials in Bahrein while Abbas was in Qatar and Kuwait.Meanwhile, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal flew to Damascus on Tuesday to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He will then travel to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose government has overseen reconciliation talks between the two leading Palestinian factions.On Sunday, Meshaal told journalists in Riyadh a pact was very near, but that Hamas still had differences with some of Egypt's proposals. He did not offer details.
Green light for new settler homes in east Jerusalem
Tue Jan 5, 11:53 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli authorities said on Tuesday they had approved the construction of 24 homes for Jewish settlers in occupied east Jerusalem in a move the Palestinians said would further threaten peace efforts.The Jerusalem municipality gave its green light for the construction of four residential buildings on the historic Mount of Olives, a spokesman said, adding that the buildings would comprise 24 flats.The construction is part of a project launched by the Irving Moskowitz family, which has already built a religious school in the neighbourhood and aims to help develop a strong Jewish presence in mainly Arab east Jerusalem.We condemn this decision in the strongest language and we condemn the Israeli government's continuing construction of settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP by phone from Doha, where he is travelling with president Mahmud Abbas.(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's government is talking about peace and negotiations in a way that is totally opposed to the reality on the ground where settlement activity is continuing,he added.A 10-month moratorium on new building permits for settler homes in the occupied West Bank announced by Netanyahu in late November excludes construction in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community.
Israel insists that the entire city is its eternal, indivisible capital, but Palestinians are determined to make Jerusalem's eastern sector the capital of their promised state.Some 200,000 Jewish settlers live in east Jerusalem alongside 270,000 Palestinian residents.Israel's continued expansion of settlements is one of the biggest obstacles to the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians, now suspended for a year.
CIA bomber coerced to work for Jordan spy agency By JAMAL HALABY, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 5, 6:42 pm ET
ZARQA, Jordan – The suspected Jordanian double agent who killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan was thrown into jail by Jordanian intelligence to coerce him to track down al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Mideast counterterrorism officials said Tuesday.The 32-year-old doctor's allegiance was to al-Qaida from the start, however, and not to his Jordanian recruiters or their CIA friends — and it never wavered, a Middle East counterterrorism official told The Associated Press.He and two other counterterrorism officials gave identical accounts of how and when Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi was recruited.Jordanian intelligence believed the devout young Muslim had been persuaded to support U.S. efforts against al-Qaida in Afghanistan and wanted al-Balawi to help capture or kill Ayman al-Zawahri, a fellow doctor from Egypt who was Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, according to another counterterrorism official based in the Middle East.All four spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on matters involving the CIA and Jordan's national security.Family and friends said al-Balawi, a father of two young daughters, had practiced medicine in a clinic at a Palestinian refugee camp near Zarqa, the hometown of slain al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. One high school classmate, Mohammed Yousef, described al-Balawi as brilliant, well-spoken and well-mannered, though he kept mostly to himself and did not mingle much with relatives or friends.
The doctor also spoke openly about wanting to die in a holy war, Yousef said, adding that in Internet postings he called tirelessly for jihad against Israel and the United States.If the love of jihad entered a man's heart, it will not abandon him, even if he wanted so, al-Balawi said in an interview published by the Ana Al-Muslim, or I, the Muslim, Web site.Jordanian intelligence was aware of these provocative statements when they arrested al-Balawi last March after he signed up for a humanitarian mission to the Gaza Strip with a Jordanian field hospital in the wake of Israel's offensive there, the counterterrorism officials said.Al-Balawi was jailed for three days and shortly after that, he secretly left his native Jordan for Afghanistan, they said, suggesting he had agreed to take on the mission against al-Qaida.Once in Afghanistan, al-Balawi provided valuable intelligence information that helped foil al-Qaida terror plots on Jordan, the officials said. His Jordanian recruiters then offered al-Balawi to their CIA allies as someone who would help them capture or kill al-Zawahri.On Dec. 30, the Jordanian was invited to Camp Chapman, a tightly secured CIA forward base in Khost province on the fractious Afghan-Pakistan frontier, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a foreign government official.He was not closely searched, according to former and current U.S. intelligence officials, apparently because of his perceived value as someone who could lead American forces to senior al-Qaida leaders.Shortly after the debriefing began, al-Balawi set off his explosives, a former U.S. intelligence official said. The blast killed seven CIA employees and Ali bin Zaid, a senior Jordanian intelligence officer and relative of Jordan's King Abdullah II.Yousef, al-Balawi's high school friend, said the doctor had deceived family and friends, telling them in March he was going to Turkey for medical studies and to be with his wife, a Turkish journalist.
He fooled us, saying he was going to continue his medical studies, but he embarked on a suicide mission, said a close relative, who requested anonymity, citing instructions from Jordanian authorities to the family not to talk to the media.He never called us,the bearded relative said, weeping.He said the family found out about al-Balawi's death in a telephone call last Thursday from a man who claimed to be from the Taliban.A Jordanian official living abroad denied al-Balawi was a double agent, saying he was a sometime contact of the Jordanian intelligence who had no formal role as an intelligence officer. The official said al-Balawi had been arrested by Jordanian authorities about a year ago and was investigated before being released for what the official said was a lack of evidence. The official said al-Balawi then traveled to Pakistan, saying he planned to study there, and contacted Jordanian authorities by e-mail soon after. Al-Balawi claimed to have important information about al-Qaida plans to target Jordanian interests, the official said.
Jordan shared that information with the United States, and maintained contact with al-Balawi electronically, the official said, adding that Jordan has no confirmation that al-Balawi was the suicide bomber. Still, the case raises uneasy questions about how the CIA could have been duped for so long. A U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday the danger of using informants is inherent but unavoidable. He said intelligence agencies have to rely on unsavory individuals to penetrate terrorist groups because no one else has the access. He said those hazards were neither denied nor ignored by the CIA officers. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Questions also remain about why the bomber was not searched for weapons or explosives prior to his meeting with CIA officers, which is standard protocol even for visiting dignitaries, said senior foreign government official and more than a dozen former CIA officers. Also unclear is why so many people were present for the debriefing. For physical security reasons and to protect the identifies of both informants and CIA officers, debriefings are generally conducted with two or three people. Former CIA officers said the large group and failure to screen for a bomb suggest a lapse in what the CIA calls tradecraft — standard operating procedures meant to maximize security, secrecy and intelligence gathering. The Pakistani Taliban has claimed they used a turncoat CIA operative to carry out the attack, saying it was in revenge for a top militant leader's death in a U.S. missile strike.
It was impossible to verify the claim independently, but it is highly unusual for the Pakistani Taliban to claim credit for an attack in Afghanistan. Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA unit that tracked bin Laden, said it's inconceivable that the bombing could have been carried out without the knowledge of the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network. The autonomous Afghan Taliban faction — whose leader was once a U.S. ally — is a serious threat to American and NATO troops in Afghanistan's east and operates on both sides of the border with Pakistan. There is no way this operation would have occurred in Khost without the knowledge and active support of Jalaluddin (Haqqani) and/or his son,Scheuer said.They and their organization own the area — and especially right around Khost — and nothing occurs that would impact their tribe or its allies without their knowledge and OK. Both men, moreover, would be delighted to help bin Laden in any way they can.The bombing — the worst attack against the CIA in decades — exposed the close cooperation between Jordanian intelligence and the CIA, which has for decades helped fund and train Jordanian operatives. In return, Jordan has acted as a proxy jailer for the CIA, interrogating several al-Qaida militants who were flown in on rendition flights from Guantanamo Bay. A key U.S. ally in the Middle East, Jordan has consistently offered intelligence to the United States on militants and helped track down Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in June 2006. Jordan has a vested interest to fight al-Qaida, which has plotted several deadly attacks against the pro-U.S. Arab kingdom. The plots included a bungled attempt to bomb the U.S. Embassy and tourist attractions during Millennium celebrations in Jordan and a 2004 foiled attack using chemicals on the Amman headquarters of the Jordanian intelligence, which experts said would have killed thousands.
The bombing of the CIA base was an embarrassment for Jordan. The country's pro-U.S. government has gone to great lengths to conceal its connection with the attack on the CIA to avoid angering Arabs already disgruntled with Washington's Mideast policy, which they regard as biased in favor of Israel. Al-Balawi came from a nomadic Bedouin clan from Tabuk, in western Saudi Arabia, which has branches in Jordan and the West Bank. He was born in Kuwait in 1977 to a middle-class family of nine other children, including an identical twin brother. He lived there until Iraq's 1990 invasion of the rich Gulf nation when the family moved to Jordan. He graduated with honors from an Amman high school and studied medicine in Turkey. AP writers Pamela Hess and Anne Gearan in Washington and Kathy Gannon in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
Fearing arrests, Israel delays officers' trip to UK
Tue Jan 5, 11:37 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has delayed a visit by senior military officers to Britain over fears the group could be arrested there on war crimes charges, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Tuesday.These officers were invited by Great Britain, but they will stay in Israel as long as we do not have a 100 percent guarantee that they will not become objects of criminal lawsuits in that country, Ayalon told public radio.In a meeting with British Attorney General Baroness Patricia Janet Scotland later on Tuesday, Ayalon protested the warrants and warned that this would impede normal bilateral ties, his office said.In December, Tzipi Livni, the leader of Israel's main opposition party Kadima and foreign minister during the Gaza war a year ago, cancelled a visit to Britain after an arrest warrant was issued against her by a British court, sparking a diplomatic row.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted that Livni is welcome and has voiced his determination to change the law that allows British courts to issue warrants for alleged war crimes suspects around the world.The Hamas rulers of Gaza, considered a terror organisation by Israel and the West, have said they were providing information to European lawyers investigating alleged war crimes by Israel during the Gaza war.Ayalon said he would discuss the matter on Tuesday with Britain's attorney general, who is currently in Israel on a private visit.
This legislation is often misused, Ayalon said.It initially targetted Nazi criminals, but terrorist organisations like Hamas are today using it to take democracies hostage.We have to put an end to this absurdity, which is harming the excellent bilateral relations between Israel and Britain, he said.A UN fact-finding mission to Gaza last year said both Israel and Palestinian militant groups were guilty of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the 22-day war that ended on January 18, 2009 with mutual ceasefires.The war, which Israel launched in response to rocket fire from the Hamas-run territory, killed some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
Hamas pledges loyalty to Arabs: Saudi minister
Tue Jan 5, 11:35 am ET
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) – Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has assured Saudi Arabia his movement is loyal to Arab states, the kingdom's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said on Tuesday.I asked Khaled Meshaal whether the movement stood with Arabs or with others, Prince Saud said, referring to Iran, a strong regional backer of Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza.Meshaal insisted that Hamas was an Arab movement and that the Palestinian question was an Arab issue, the Saudi minister said at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.The exchange between Prince Saud and Meshaal occurred on Sunday during a visit by the Hamas leader to Saudi Arabia.Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite non-Arab Iran have been traditional rivals in the Middle East.Tensions have recently mounted between the two as Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of supporting Huthi rebels in northern Yemen, which the kingdom has fought along its border with Yemen.
Prince Saud's visit to Egypt is part of a string of regional meetings aimed at reviving peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, which have been stalled for a year.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II were in Egypt on Monday for talks with Mubarak, a week after a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.On Sunday in Riyadh, Meshaal said Egyptian-led talks aimed at reconciling the Palestinian Islamist movement and its rival Fatah were close to bearing fruit.US President Barack Obama has repeatedly called on Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks, but the Palestinians have demanded Israel first freeze all settlement activity and commit to a framework for the talks.The Palestinians have insisted the borders of their promised state encompass all of their land Israel occupied in 1967, including mostly Arab east Jerusalem -- which Israel later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community -- as their capital.Hamas's takeover of Gaza in 2007, which shrank Abbas' powerbase to the West Bank and deepened Palestinian divisions, has also hampered peace talks with Israel.
Abbas, Mubarak discuss peace at Egyptian resort
Mon Jan 4, 8:48 am ET
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave no indication on Monday of any resumption soon of peace talks with Israel, despite optimism of progress voiced by officials on both sides.Abbas met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, but did not make any comment at a brief news conference about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal for an Egyptian-hosted summit with Abbas.Israel, Egypt and the United States want Abbas to resume negotiations broken off a year ago over the Gaza war, but he refuses to sit down to talks as long as Israel allows construction of any kind in Jewish West Bank settlements.
Abbas said the Palestinian Authority's stance had not changed.Our stand is known from the past and our stand remains the same -- and in agreement with our brothers in Egypt -- which is that we have no objections on negotiations or meetings in principle and we do not set conditions,Abbas said.There have been signs that progress was being made toward renewing the negotiations.An aide to Abbas said last week the region would see important political activity in the next two weeks. Israel's ambassador to Washington Michael Oren has said Mubarak has a key role to play in resuming talks.U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell is expected to return to the region early this year, and Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Intelligence Head Omar Suleiman are due to visit Washington on Friday.Abbas said he did not know what had happened in talks between Mubarak and Netanyahu in Cairo last week, and added he did not wish to comment on that meeting until after Aboul Gheit and Suleiman returned from Washington.
Hamas approves $540 mln budget for Gaza
Mon Jan 4, 8:05 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – The Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip on Monday announced a 540-million-dollar (377-million-euro) budget for 2010 with just 55 million dollars coming from taxes and other local sources of revenue.MP Jamal Nassar, the head of the Palestinian parliament's budget committee, declined to say how the Islamist group would make up the 485-million-dollar shortfall, saying only that it would be covered by aid and assistance.Israel and Egypt have sealed Gaza off from all but vital goods since the Islamist movement seized power in June 2007, but Hamas, which is backed by Iran and Syria, is believed to smuggle cash and weapons through tunnels from Egypt.Despite the blockade, the Hamas-run government has regularly paid 22,000 civil servants, including thousands of security forces, since it drove out forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.The budget includes 30 million dollars to aid Jerusalem and the steadfastness of its people, but it was not clear how the money would reach the city, which is under complete Israeli control.Iran has been a staunch supporter of Hamas since the movement won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, although Tehran says its aid does not extend to military arms and training, as Israel has alleged.
