Clinton warns of Mideast nuclear arms race By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer – 8:40 AM FEB 16,10
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told Saudi college students Tuesday that if Iran gets a nuclear weapon it could trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.Then you have all kinds of opportunity for problems that can be quite dangerous, she said.Clinton spoke at an all-woman college in Jeddah called Dar al-Hekma, which translates in English to House of Wisdom. Her appearance at the college was highly unusual in a conservative Muslim nation.Clinton ticked off a list of Iranian actions that she said violated its obligation not to pursue nuclear weapons, including construction of the Qom enrichment facility that came to light last fall.You have to ask yourself, Why are they doing this? Clinton said.Noting that Iran insists it is not pursuing the bomb, she said, The evidence doesn't support that.Everyone who I speak with in the Gulf, including the leaders here and leaders elsewhere in the region, are expressing deep concern about Iran's intentions, she said.Clinton also called Iran the largest supporter of terrorism in the world today.She said the goal is to have not only a non-nuclear Iran but also an entire Middle East free of nuclear weapons.
If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, that hope disappears, she said,because then other countries which feel threatened by Iran will say to themselves,If Iran has a nuclear weapon, I better get one, too, in order to protect my people.Then you have a nuclear arms race in the region, she said.A graduate of the college, Dalai M. Khayat, said in an interview after Clinton departed she was pleased that Clinton had come, but saw some of her responses to audience members as not that fulfilling.Khayat said she was a bit disappointed that Clinton had not responded fully to a student who had asked why Israel should not be forced to give up its nuclear weapons, given U.S. opposition to a nuclear Iran. Israel has not formally declared itself a nuclear power but is widely believed to have a relatively small arsenal of weapons.Clinton had said the U.S. wants to see the entire Middle East free of nuclear weapons, but she did not mention Israel.Khayat said Clinton's appearance was a huge step forward for Saudi Arabia, given its closed nature and social conservatism.Clinton is an unlikely role model for Saudi women. Saudi law bars women from voting, except for chamber of commerce elections in two cities in recent years, and no woman can sit in the kingdom's Cabinet. Women also cannot drive or travel without permission from a male guardian.Clinton was winding up a three-day Persian Gulf visit that began Sunday in Qatar and continued in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Monday. She was returning to Washington later Tuesday.
Ireland: Dubai's 3 Irish assassins are fictional By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer – FEB 16,10
DUBLIN – Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs says three alleged Irish citizens that Dubai authorities claim helped to assassinate a Hamas official do not exist.The government says the trio of alleged Irish passport-holders identified Monday in Dubai as Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron do not appear in Ireland's records of legitimate passport-holders.We are unable to identify any of those three individuals as being genuine Irish citizens. Ireland has issued no passports in those names,the department said in a statement to The Associated Press.The government says the Irish passport numbers publicized by Dubai authorities also are counterfeits, because they have the wrong number of digits and contain no letters.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai police appealed for an international manhunt Tuesday after releasing names and photos of an alleged 11-member hit squad accused of stalking and killing a Hamas commander last month in a plot that mixed cold precision with spy caper disguises such as fake beards and wigs.Dubai authorities said they would seek assistance from the global police coordination agency Interpol and press individual nations to hunt down the suspects in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, whose body was found Jan. 20 in his luxury hotel room.
Dubai's attorney general, Essam al-Hemaydan, said international arrest warrants have been issues for those accused of links to the slaying.Police say the 10 men and one woman traveled to Dubai with European passports and killed al-Mabhouh less than 24 hours after their arrival.Hamas has accused Israel's Mossad secret service of masterminding the slaying and has vowed revenge.Dubai's police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, did not directly implicate Israel at a news conference Monday to announce new details about al-Mabhouh's death. But he noted the possibility that leaders of certain countries gave orders to their intelligence agents to kill al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing.At least two Palestinians have been taken into custody in Dubai for alleged links to the slaying, said Adnan Damiri, the police spokesman in the West Bank, citing sources familiar with the investigation.Damiri said the Palestinian suspects were Hamas operatives. But Hamas claimed the suspects were linked to the rival Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as part of alleged clandestine links with Israeli intelligence.Dubai police did not immediately respond to requests for details on the reported Palestinian arrests.Meanwhile, there was no comment from Dubai-based diplomats from the countries linked to passports carried by the alleged assassin cell: six with British, three Irish and one each from France and Germany.Dubai police claimed that four members of the alleged cell — three men identified as British and one Irish — carried out the killing. Five others, including the woman, were used as spotters and in other planning roles, police said. The mastermind was a man identified as French.The Consul General of France in Dubai, Nada Yafi, declined to comment on the case.Tamim's news conference attempted to create a full narrative of the plot — including surveillance video clips — from the suspects' airport arrivals to their hasty departures before al-Mabhouh's body was found in Room 230 at the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel near Dubai's international airport. Tamim's account portrayed the suspects as operating with chilling efficiency — arriving in Dubai at different times, checking into different hotels and tailing al-Mabhouh from the moment of his arrival in Dubai to when he entered his hotel room. Some of the suspects even rode in the same elevator as al-Mabhouh to verify his room number and later booked a room across the hall, Tamim said.
They paid for all expenses in cash and used different cell phone cards to avoid being traced, Tamim said. In the surveillance footage, the female suspect appears to be wearing a wig and at times a big hat and sunglasses to blend in as a tourist. Others also were seen disguised as vacationers, wearing baseball caps or tennis outfits and carrying rackets. Tamim also said some suspects donned fake beards. He said forensic tests indicated al-Mabhouh died of suffocation, but lab analyses were still under way to pinpoint other possible factors in his death. Hamas initially claimed al-Mabhouh was poisoned and electrocuted, but later a Hamas leader, Mohammed Nazzal, denied that poison was used. The killing itself took just 10 minutes, Tamim said. Four assassins later entered his room while he was out, using an electronic device to open the door, and waited for al-Mabhouh to return. Tamim said they were careful not to disturb anything in the room and left the door locked from the inside to try to hide the fact that they had broken in. The team then headed for the airport, some of them flying to Europe and others to Asia, he said. All were out of the United Arab Emirates within 19 hours of their arrivals. He did not say whether any of the suspects have been formally charged by prosecutors in Dubai, one of seven semiautonomous emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. But local charges would be needed before the suspects could be added to the Interpol database or to begin any possible extradition efforts in the future. A Hamas statement last month acknowledged al-Mabhouh was involved in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989 and said he was still playing a continuous role in supporting his brothers in the resistance inside the occupied homeland at the time of his death.
Israeli officials have accused al-Mabhouh of helping smuggle rockets into the Gaza Strip, the coastal territory ruled by the militant group. Top Hamas figures have denied reports that al-Mabhouh was en route to Iran, a major Hamas backer. But the group has not given clear reasons for his presence in Dubai. Dubai police issued a document identifying the suspects and their nationalities. They are: Michael Lawrence Barney, James Leonard Clarke, Jonathan Louis Graham, Paul John Keeley, Stephen Daniel Hodes and Melvyn Adam Mildiner of Britain; Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron of Ireland; Peter Elvinger of France and Michael Bodenheimer of Germany. Associated Press Writer Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
It's not me, man in Israel says in hit-squad saga By Jeffrey Heller – FEB 16,10
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A man in Israel with the same name as an alleged member of a hit squad that assassinated a top Hamas militant in Dubai said on Tuesday he was angry, upset and scared over what he called a misidentification.Dubai police listed Melvyn Adam Mildiner, a British national, as one of 11 Europeans suspected of killing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a luxury hotel in the Gulf emirate last month.Speaking in British-accented English, Melvyn Adam Mildiner, resident of a town near Jerusalem, told Reuters he had nothing to do with the assassination and had never been to Dubai.I woke up this morning to a world of fun, he said in a sarcastic tone, after Israeli newspapers splashed names and photos of the suspects distributed by Dubai.I am obviously angry, upset and scared -- any number of things. And I'm looking into what I can do to try to sort things out and clear my name, he said in a telephone interview.I don't know how this happened or who chose my name or why, but hopefully we'll find out soon.A photo of Melvyn Adam Mildiner released by police in Dubai did not match a picture of the Israel-based Mildiner on his Twitter social networking page, though it had some similar features.It's not me. Which is one silver lining on this entire story because at least I can point to it and say, Look, that's not me. It's not the picture that I have in my passport, and it's not the picture that I have on my face that I walk around with every day, Mildiner said.I have my passport. It is in my house, along with the passports of everybody else in my family, and there's no Dubai stamps in it because I've never been to Dubai, he said.Acknowledging that his name was uncommon, Mildiner said: There's probably not many of us.
NO COMMENT
Israel has refused to comment on the killing and allegations by Hamas that its Mossad intelligence service was responsible.A security source in Israel has said the target, Mabhouh, played a key role in smuggling Iranian-funded arms to Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip.Dubai police showed closed-circuit video of the alleged killers wearing disguises including wigs and hats at the hotel where the killing took place and in public venues.The 11 identified suspects include British, Irish, German and French passport holders, Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim told reporters. No arrest warrants have been issued.Israeli hit squads have used non-Israeli passports in the past, notably in 1997 when agents who bungled an attempt to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Jordan entered the country on Canadian passports.One of the agents had a passport bearing the name of a Canadian living in Israel, who later said he was the victim of identity theft.In 2005, Israel apologized to New Zealand after two suspected Mossad agents were sentenced to six months in jail by a court in Auckland that found they had sought to obtain a New Zealand passport illegally.(Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
Biden to make Mideast tour early March
Mon Feb 15, 3:54 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Vice President Joe Biden will tour the Middle East in early March with stops in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Jordan, the White House said Monday.Biden will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah, his office said.During the trip, the vice president will discuss the full range of bilateral and regional issues, according to the White House statement.No other details were provided on Biden's tour, which comes as the administration of President Barack Obama struggles to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians more than a year after he took office.US allies Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab neighbors of Israel to have signed peace agreements with the Jewish state, and have in the past played the role of mediator between Israelis and Palestinians.Obama's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in the Qatari capital Doha, said Monday she is hopeful that serious negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will begin this year.
A day earlier in a speech to the US-Islamic World Forum, Clinton said she was disappointed by the lack of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but added that the United States could not impose a solution.The announcement of Biden's trip also comes amid rising diplomatic heat over Iran's controversial nuclear program.Clinton, while in the Middle East, sought to rally support for tough new UN sanctions against Tehran, as she warned Iran was turning into a military dictatorship bent on building a nuclear bomb.Iran, which denies seeking atomic weapons, said Monday it was considering a new proposal from the major powers for the supply of nuclear fuel, but the United States, France and Russia all denied any such offer had been made.
Netanyahu asks Russia for biting Iran sanctions by Gavin Rabinowitz – Mon Feb 15, 12:41 pm ET
MOSCOW (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday asked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to back tough sanctions against Iran that would deal a crippling blow to its critical energy indutry.The Israeli leader expressed glowing satisfaction over his talks in the Kremlin with Medvedev, amid signs that Russia is finally losing patience with the Islamic Republic over Tehran's defiance in the nuclear crisis.What is needed now is biting sanctions that have the power to influence the regime, bitter sanctions that have to hit, in a convincing way, the (Iranian) oil industry, imports, exports and refining, Netanyahu told reporters after the talks.The Russian president expressed a full understanding of the issues that concern us, he added.There was no immediate comment from the Russian side and it was not clear how far Medvedev, whose country is a permanent UN Security Council member, indicated he was prepared to back the Israeli demands.But Russia has in recent weeks questioned the sincerity of Iran's pledges not to develop nuclear weapons and, in an apparent hardening of position, said fresh UN sanctions on Tehran were a realistic option.A senior Israeli official said that during the meeting they heard things we have never heard before about the Russian view of the Middle East.
Iran is Israel's arch foe and the Jewish state accuses Tehran of trying to develop a nuclear weapon. By contrast, Russia has the strongest ties with Iran of any major power and has repeatedly urged restraint in the nuclear standoff.What kind of sanctions? The toughest possible, the most biting, added Netanhayu.As 80 percent of the Iranian economy or the budget of the regime depends on energy, we have to work toward aggressive sanctions against their energy (interests), he added.This is Netanyahu's first official trip to Moscow since taking office a year ago, but follows a clandestine visit in September, a secretive move that highlighted the key role Russia plays in the nuclear standoff.As well as meeting Medvedev, Netanyahu is to hold talks with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, officials said.Russia is also yet to fulfil a contract to deliver sophisticated S-300 missile systems to Tehran, a deal that worried Israel as it would significantly strengthen Iranian air defences against military action.The deputy secretary of the Russian security council, Vladimir Nazarov, said Sunday there was no reason not to send Iran the missiles, adding that a contract was signed which we must fulfil.
Yet Netanyahu said he emerged reassured from the meeting.I trust the things I heard from the president of Russia, he said when asked about the arms deal. Russia is guided by considerations of the need for stability in the Middle East.The deputy head of Russia's agency for military-technical cooperation, Alexander Fomin, said the delivery of the weapons had been delayed as technical shortcomings had been identified, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.Iran declared on Tuesday it had started the process of producing 20-percent enriched uranium, as the United States stepped up its efforts to pass a new round of sanctions against Tehran by the United Nations Security Council. Israel, considered to be the Middle East's sole, if undeclared, nuclear power, views Iran as its top enemy after statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Jewish state was doomed to be wiped off the map. Bringing Moscow on board for harsher sanctions has been a key goal of Israel and the United States. Russia has long-standing ties with Tehran and is helping to build Iran's first civilian nuclear power plant in the city of Bushehr.
Abbas seeks U.S. answers before talking to Israel By Mohammed Assadi – Mon Feb 15, 12:35 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday he was still waiting for the United States to explain how it might help restart peace talks before he will consider reopening those negotiations.A senior aide to U.S. mediator George Mitchell will meet Abbas in the coming days, a senior U.S. official said.Abbas has resisted U.S. and other Western pressure to resume negotiations with Israel which were suspended over a year ago. He has insisted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu impose a complete freeze on the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.We are still awaiting the American administration's response regarding their proposals, Abbas said of suggestions that Washington could host proximity talks involving officials, but not leaders, from the two sides as a way of preparing for a full-scale resumption of negotiations.He accused Israel of obstructing a process which has failed to produce a negotiated settlement and a Palestinian state in nearly two decades of talking. Israel says Abbas should return to talks, a view shared by the United States and its allies.Netanyahu, who says he is ready to talk without conditions, ordered a 10-month freeze on some settlement projects in much of the West Bank. But, in line with Israel's unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem and its suburbs, he has refused to include building there in any settlement pause.That annexation is not recognized internationally, and Washington and its allies have long urged Israel to comply with a commitment under the 2003, U.S.-brokered road map peace plan to halt the expansion of all settlements.
SETTLEMENTS EXPANDED
The Israeli lobby group Peace Now, which campaigns against the expansion of settlements and for a two-state solution to the conflict, said on Monday it had evidence building has continued -- sometimes under cover of darkness -- since Netanyahu's declared freeze in 34 settlements, a quarter of the total.Diplomats say efforts to resolve the conflict, which was complicated by the seizure of the Gaza Strip in 2007 by Abbas's Islamist rivals Hamas, focus mainly on helping Abbas find face-saving ways to return to negotiations without securing the kind of settlement freeze that Netanyahu will not deliver.Abbas noted that he would discuss any U.S. proposals with the Arab League. Diplomats say broader Arab backing for a return to talks with Israel would help Abbas make such a move, although few diplomats or regional officials hold high hopes of rapid progress toward a final settlement of the conflict.Nabil Abu Rdainah, an aide to Abbas, told Reuters on Monday: We have told the Americans we are ready for proximity talks but we want answers to certain questions.Saying that Abbas had been waiting nearly three weeks for those answers, Abu Rdainah said Palestinians wanted to be sure that any talks would address all the core issues of the conflict. These are notably the establishment of state borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.Some Israeli officials, as well as diplomats, have suggested phased negotiations where the borders of a Palestinian state might be agreed in advance of a resolution of other issues.Abbas has said he does not want a partial or interim deal.(Reporting by Tom Perry and in Ramallah, Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem and Arshad Mohammed in Doha; writing by Alastair Macdonald, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Israeli FM: Palestinian government smearing us By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Mon Feb 15, 8:59 am ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's foreign minister on Monday accused the Western-backed Palestinian government of spearheading an international smear campaign against Israel and predicted that even if negotiations between the two sides resume, they would fail.Avigdor Lieberman's tough comments could mean new trouble for U.S.-led efforts to restart peace talks, which broke down more than a year ago. U.S. envoy George Mitchell has spent months trying to bring the sides back to the negotiating table, but so far has been unable to break the deadlock.Speaking to parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, Lieberman said the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was behind some of the attempts to try ranking Israeli officials and military commanders abroad on war crimes.Most of the appeals against senior commanders around the world are financed by the Palestinian Authority and initiated by it, Lieberman said. It was not clear what, if any, independent proof he provided.Palestinians and their supporters have unsuccessfully been trying to press authorities in Britain and other European countries to arrest visiting Israeli officials and military officers in connection with Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.They have tried to use a legal concept known as universal jurisdiction, which allows judges in some countries to issue arrest warrants for nearly any visitor accused of committing war crimes anywhere in the world.
Lieberman told the committee Monday that he was expressing his own views, and not government policy, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sets. But other senior Netanyahu confidants share similarly skeptical views on peacemaking. Lieberman's ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party is the second-largest faction in Netanyahu's coalition government.Lieberman, known for his pugnacious style, turned the table on Palestinians who frequently have questioned Israel's commitment to peacemaking.Every discussion the Palestinians conduct with international representatives starts with how they don't believe Israel's intentions are sincere. I don't believe their intentions are sincere, he said.He also questioned Abbas' ability to deliver a peace deal, noting that the Palestinians are divided between two governments. Abbas' rival, the Islamic militant group Hamas, has controlled the Gaza Strip for nearly three years. Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, rules only the West Bank.It's not clear Abu Mazen can deliver the goods at negotiations, He doesn't represent all Palestinians,Lieberman said.Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat dismissed Lieberman's accusations.It seems to me that the problem is Israel's policy on the ground, with settlement activity and fait accompli actions on the ground, that's the problem,he said.The Palestinians claim Gaza and the West Bank as parts of a future independent state, with east Jerusalem as their capital. Israel captured all three areas in the 1967 Mideast war, though it withdrew from Gaza in 2005.The Palestinians have said they will not resume peace talks until Israel halts all settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.Israel has offered a limited slowdown on building in the West Bank, while saying it will never divide Jerusalem. Netanyahu says talks should begin without preconditions.
Kuwaiti newspaper fined over pro-Israel advert
Mon Feb 15, 6:46 am ET
KWUAIT CITY (AFP) – A Kuwaiti newspaper was fined 3,000 dinars (10,400 dollars) for printing a pro-Israeli advertisement justifying the Jewish state's war on Gaza, Al-Jarida newspaper reported on Monday.The fine was slapped on Al-Watan Daily for allowing the printing of the advertisement in the International Herald Tribune, which it prints and distributes locally in the Gulf emirate.The advertisement was sponsored by the US-based Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) during the 22-day Israeli offensive on Gaza Strip that was launched on December 27, 2008.Al-Watan's lawyer, Rashid al-Radaan, told AFP that he has challenged the verdict at the appeals court, saying that the newspaper did not deliberately allow the printing of the advertisement.The printing of this advert was not done on purpose, he said, adding that the IHT goes directly to the press without being checked by Al-Watan.Three Kuwaiti lawyers sued Al-Watan Daily although the paper had issued an apology to its readers for running the advertisement.About 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the Gaza offensive.
Muslim firebrands challenge Hamas rule in Gaza By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer – Mon Feb 15, 12:00 am ET
RAFAH, Gaza Strip – They preach global jihad, or holy war, adhere to an ultraconservative form of Islam and are becoming a headache even for Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza.Jihadi Salafis, as they are known, have organized into small, shadowy armed groups that have clashed with Hamas forces and fired rockets at Israel in defiance of Hamas' informal truce.Perhaps even more worrisome for Hamas, they claim a growing appeal among Gazans in the territory's pressure cooker of isolation and poverty, raising fears they could serve as a bridgehead for their ideological twin, al-Qaida, from which they take their call for global holy war.Hamas insists it dismantled the groups after a mosque shootout last summer that left 26 dead.But after months of lying low, Jihadi Salafis become active again. Besides resuming rocket fire on Israel in recent weeks, they blew up the car of a Hamas chief outside his southern Gaza home. The chief, who was not in the car, was unhurt, and the group that claimed responsibility said the blast was a warning.
We will not stop targeting the figures of this perverted, crooked government (Hamas), breaking their bones and cleansing the pure land of the Gaza Strip of these abominations,said the group, the Soldiers of the Monotheism Brigades. What will come next will be harder and more horrible.Going by names like Rolling Thunder and Army of God,they oppose Hamas for refraining from imposing Islamic law since seizing power in Gaza in 2007 and largely sticking to a tactical truce with Israel since the latter's devastating offensive last year.Expert opinion holds that al-Qaida has shown little interest in inviting the Gaza groups it inspired into the fold. But even an al-Qaida foothold in Gaza could pose a significant challenge to Hamas' control as well as its attempts to get off Western governments' terrorist list and lift the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza.Hamas own rapid rise to power is a reminder of the appeal of militant ideas in the absence of a peace process.Gaza's Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, acknowledges that some in Gaza have been swept up by the ideas of the Jihadi Salafi groups.If this is a phenomenon among some young men in Gaza, they will be treated with discussions and meetings, said Haniyeh in a sermon to mosque worshippers. However, he rejected any suggestion of an al-Qaida presence in Gaza and repudiated the call to global jihad.Still, Hamas may inadvertently have helped create a climate for Salafi growth with its own gradual push to make Gaza more Islamic, including a virtue campaign that urges women to cover up. But Hamas has stopped short of a direct Taliban-style assault on secularism.It is more difficult for Hamas to deal with these people because they are selling the same goods: religion, said Mahmoud Abu Rahmeh, a Gaza human rights researcher.
The Salafi movement has grown across the Middle East, preaching an ultraconservative Islam similar to Saudi Arabia's, strictly segregating the sexes and interpreting religious texts literally.Salafis tend to be nonpolitical, but a minority jihadist stream embraces the al-Qaida call for holy war against the West and the moderate Arab leaders in its camp.Hamas, on the other hand, confines itself to pushing for a Palestinian state, says the sole target of its suicide bombings and missile attacks is Israel, and makes compromises with other movements, even participating in Palestinian elections in 2006.Those stances are reviled as un-Islamic by the Salafi purists.Their groups began to emerge in Gaza after Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. A study co-authored by a former deputy chief of Israel's Shin Bet security service estimates their membership in the low hundreds, including disgruntled followers of established Palestinian militant groups. The Jihadi Salafis are suspected in a series of bombings of Internet cafes and music stores in Gaza, seen as purveyors of vice. In June, a group called Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers of the Supporters of God) sent explosives-laden horses toward an Israeli border post, but the attack was foiled and four fighters were killed in a battle with the Israelis. Hamas praised the four dead as martyrs, but then faced its most brazen challenge when Jund Ansar Allah's leader, Abdel Latif Moussa, flanked by masked gunmen, took to the pulpit of a mosque in August to proclaim Gaza an Islamic emirate. Hamas raided the mosque and 16 Salafis, including their leader, died in a gun battle, along with five Hamas men and five civilians. Hamas arrested about 150 Salafis across Gaza, including former Hamas members. Twenty-five remain in prison, said Interior Ministry spokesman Ehab Ghussein. One of those released spoke to The Associated Press in his family home in the southern town of Rafah. The 21-year-old college student insisted on anonymity, saying he feared Hamas retaliation.
He said he was in the mosque during the shootout, though unarmed. During nearly two months in a Hamas prison, he said, he was beaten and Hamas men cut off his long hair. He said he had joined Hamas as a teen, but left when the movement participated in Palestinian elections in 2006. Democracy is wrong, the young man explained, since rule should only be by Islamic law. I felt Hamas was making too many compromises, he said. The student wore a white prayer cap and shin-length robe, a style Salafis believe emulates the dress worn at the time of Prophet Muhammad. The violent Salafi groups are inspired by al-Qaida but are not formally affiliated with it, according to a January study by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a U.S. think tank, co-authored by Yoram Cohen, the former Shin Bet official. It said Al-Qaida has not established an affiliate in the region nor accepted any of its locally radicalized, globally inclined jihadists.The U.S. think tank, citing Israeli officials, estimated that 30 to 50 fighters from Yemen, Egypt, France and elsewhere have slipped into Gaza, either to train Salafi fighters or to wage holy war. But the authors said none are believed to be al-Qaida operatives. The group called Rolling Thunder, which pledged allegiance to bin Laden in a July statement, claimed that some of its fighters went abroad for training. Hamas denies any foreign fighters are in Gaza. However, in an apparent sign of concern, its radio is broadcasting warnings to owners of Gaza's blockade-dodging tunnels not to let foreigners through. The Shin Bet and Israel's military intelligence did not respond to requests for comment.
Beyond the armed groups, the nonviolent Salafi movement is taking root in Gaza. Its adherents also believe that jihad is a religious duty, but put more emphasis on returning to what they consider the real Islam in their daily lives. Salafis run charities that include Quran lessons and feeding the poor. On a recent day, a dozen women, more heavily robed and veiled than most Gaza women, studied Quran in the Rafah office of the Ibn Baz charity. The message is strictly religious, said Sheikh Hussam al-Gazar, the charity's deputy director.People are returning to the real Islam, after seeing that they get no benefit from political parties,he said.
Additional reporting by Rizek Abdel Jawad in Gaza City. On the Web:
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org
US asks Gulf to pressure Iran, sees changes in China by Lachlan Carmichael – Sun Feb 14, 9:21 pm ET
DOHA (AFP) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes the US drive to halt Iran's sensitive nuclear work to Saudi Arabia on Monday as she sounded more upbeat that China may eventually support sanctions against Tehran.During a visit to Qatar on Sunday, Clinton told Iran's neighbours it appeared increasingly evident Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons and warned the Revolutionary Guards' rising power poses a direct threat to all.A Clinton aide told AFP and another reporter on condition of anonymity that the US chief diplomat's remarks on China and Iran's alleged atomic weapons drive were more forceful than her previous ones.Frustrated that a year-long drive to engage Iran in nuclear and other talks has yielded little, President Barack Obama's administration last week imposed fresh unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.US officials also want the UN Security Council to draft new sanctions against a force they say runs Iran's nuclear programme, supports anti-US and anti-Israeli militants and cracks down on Iranian anti-government protesters.It's time for Iran to be held to account for its activities which do already and can continue to have destabilising effects, Clinton said in a speech to the US-Islamic World Forum, set up after the September 11, 2001 attacks.During a three-day tour that began in Qatar, the chief US diplomat added to the US sense of urgency after Iran began Tuesday to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity while insisting its intent was peaceful.Iran leaves the international community little choice but to impose greater costs for its provocative steps, she said after talks with Qatar's emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani, who is both foreign minister and prime minister.We are now working actively with our regional and international partners... to prepare and implement new measures to convince Iran to change its course,she said.Clinton also met in Doha with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan whose country has good ties with Iran and has repeatedly offered to serve as mediator on the nuclear issue.A Clinton aide who asked not to be named said Turkey's stand was close to that of China, but made no comment.
Turkey's foreign minister is due to visit Iran on Monday, the aide said.Clinton struck an upbeat note about support for sanctions among the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.She said Russia has said publicly and privately that it can and will support sanctions,and detected a shift in the Chinese position.The weight is maybe beginning to move toward not wanting to be either isolated or inadvertently contributing to instability that would undermine their economic interests, she said.She recalled China's investment stake in Iran and its oil imports from that country.On the flight to to Doha, the US assistant secretary of state for near east affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, said Washington would ask for oil-rich Saudi Arabia's help in pressing China to join the US drive for sanctions against Iran.But Feltman neither confirmed nor denied suggestions from reporters that the administration would ask the Saudis to offer China oil supply guarantees in return for winning Beijing's support for new UN sanctions. Clinton is due to meet Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and Prince Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, in Riyadh on Monday, following a broadcast question-and-answer session with Arab and Muslim university students in Doha. The Clinton aide said the Obama administration was open to what he called a Qatari proposal for direct US-Iran talks to break the nuclear impasse. In her speech -- a follow-up to one that Obama gave in Egypt last October in which he called for a new beginning with the world's Muslims -- Clinton said she was disappointed the Arab-Israeli peace process remained deadlocked. But we need to remember that neither the United States nor any country can force a solution. The parties must resolve their differences through negotiations,she added. We are committed to our role in ensuring that negotiations begin and succeed,she said.
The Arab and Muslim enthusiasm that greeted Obama's victory in the US election in 2008 has given way to frustration and disenchantment, particularly over the deadlock in the peace process. The Clinton aide said Qatar's leaders asked Clinton to press Israel to allow construction material to enter the Gaza Strip to rebuild homes destroyed in Israel's military offensive in December 2008 and January 2009. The aide also said Clinton asked the Qataris to reopen the Israeli trade office they closed after that offensive, adding the Qataris are considering the move.
Lebanese troops open fire on Israeli warplanes
Sun Feb 14, 2:05 pm ET
BEIRUT – Lebanese troops opened fire Sunday on four Israeli warplanes that flew into Lebanese airspace, the army said.Israeli warplanes frequently fly over Lebanese territory in what Israel says are reconnaissance missions. The overflights have been a constant source of friction between the two countries. Sunday's incident comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East following some of the sharpest exchanges in years between Israel and its Arab neighbors.Last week, Syria's foreign minister accused Israel of spreading an atmosphere of war in the region after Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that the stalled peace process with Syria could result in an all-out regional war.The Lebanese army said in a statement that its troops used anti-aircraft fire Sunday to force the Israeli warplanes out of Lebanese airspace. The army said the planes were in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley in central Lebanon.A spokesman for the Israeli military declined to comment.
Hamas, Fatah join Gaza reconciliation talks
Sun Feb 14, 11:40 am ET
GAZA CITY (AFP) – Palestinian groups including Hamas and Fatah held talks on Sunday in the Gaza Strip aimed at finding reconciliation between the rival factions, they said in a statement.The meeting, the first for two years according to Ayman Taha, a spokesman for Hamas in the Palestinian enclave, was designed to overcome obstacles to the signing of an reconciliation pact in Cairo late last year.The deal, negotiated over several months under Egyptian mediation, was signed by Fatah by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, but Hamas has so far refused to endorse it.
Participants in Sunday's talks agreed on the need to continue their efforts for an agreement, and welcomed the positive atmosphere during the Gaza meeting, according to the statement.The head of the Hamas government, Ismail Haniya, said in a separate statement that there was no alternative to Egyptian mediation for Palestinian reconciliation and called for a solution before a March 27-28 Arab summit in Libya.
Cairo has twice postponed the signing of the agreement because of deep divisions between Hamas and Fatah, who have been at loggerheads with each other since the former seized power from the latter in Gaza in June 2007.
Israelis warned to beware of Hezbollah attacks
Sun Feb 14, 10:58 am ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's government is warning its citizens to beware of possible attacks when they travel abroad, singling out threats by the Lebanese group Hezbollah.Two years ago, a prominent Hezbollah commander, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in an explosion in Syria. Hezbollah blamed Israel and pledged revenge.Israel and Hezbollah fought a fierce monthlong war in 2006.In the advisory issued Sunday, the government tells Israelis to take precautions when they are abroad. These include avoiding most Islamic countries, rejecting tempting offers and unexpected gifts, turning down invitations to unexpected meetings and avoiding routines.The government issued the advisory with the approach of the Passover holiday, a heavy travel period.
(This version CORRECTS that Mughniyeh's assassination was two years ago).)
