Syria agrees to new US ambassador nominee: US official
Fri Feb 12, 5:27 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Syria has accepted Washington's nominee for the first US ambassador to Damascus in five years, a US official said Friday as the Obama administration tries to engage Syria in Arab-Israeli peace talks.We have agreement from the Syrians on our candidate. When the White House announcement comes is a separate issue,a senior State Department official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.It is normally up to the White House to announce a new ambassador.The US official declined to confirm media reports that the United States has nominated Robert Ford, a career diplomat with experience in Arab countries like Algeria and Iraq, his most recent posting.He would be the first US ambassador to Damascus since the one recalled after former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri was killed in a bombing blamed on Syria on February 14, 2005.President Barack Obama's administration announced February 3 that it had nominated an ambassador to Syria as part of its year-long drive to engage a former foe in efforts to promote Arab-Israeli peace.In line with diplomatic protocol, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem noted from Damascus at the time that Syria had the right to study the proposed appointment.
There was no immediate confirmation from Damascus that it had accepted the US nominee.The news comes as the administration announced that senior diplomat William Burns will travel to Syria next Tuesday for talks with President Bashar al-Assad on furthering dialogue... on all aspects of US-Syrian ties.But the senior US official told AFP there was not necessarily a link between Burns's trip and any White House announcement.State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said earlier that the visit by Burns, the assistant secretary for political affairs and the State Department's number three diplomat, doesn't have to do with the ambassador per se.However, Crowley added: It has to do with what a return of the ambassador to Syria represents, which is, you know, further steps in terms of our bilateral relations.
Burns, a former US ambassador to Jordan who speaks Arabic, will reflect on a number of issues in terms of regional issues... how Syria continues to view... the situation with respect to the Middle East peace,Crowley said.Burns, who will also meet Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, will travel to Syria from Beirut where he will hold talks Monday with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and others, Crowley said.The White House said Obama told Saad Hariri in a telephone call Friday that he strongly supports bringing to justice the killers of his father.An international tribunal based in The Hague was set up by a UN Security Council resolution in 2007 to try suspects in the murder.US support for the tribunal has strained ties with Syria.A UN commission of inquiry initially said it had found evidence to implicate Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services but there are no suspects in custody.The State Department said that Burns will travel to Turkey on Wednesday before wrapping up his regional trip in Azerbaijan on Thursday.
Palestinian protesters pose as Na'vi from Avatar
Fri Feb 12, 2:23 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Palestinian protesters have added a colorful twist to demonstrations against Israel's separation barrier, painting themselves blue and posing as characters from the hit film Avatar.The demonstrators also donned long hair and loincloths Friday for the weekly protest against the barrier near the village of Bilin.They equated their struggle to the intergalactic one portrayed in the film.
Israel says the barrier is needed for its security. Palestinians consider it a land grab.The protests have become a symbol of opposition. They often end in clashes with Israeli security forces involving stones and tear gas.The Avatar protest comes a day after the Israeli government began rerouting the enclosure to eat up less of the Palestinian village.
Israel moves West Bank barrier at flashpoint village By Ismael Khader – Fri Feb 12, 11:31 am ET
BILIN, West Bank (Reuters) – Israel began rerouting part of its West Bank barrier near a flashpoint Palestinian village on Friday after a top court heard residents' complaints over land seizures for the controversial project.While Israeli surveyors prepared the new fence outside Bilin, Palestinians and foreign sympathizers demonstrated nearby, vowing not to abandon their fight against a barrier condemned internationally for taking in occupied territory.An Israeli official said the Bilin work was the culmination of a process begun with a High Court petition filed against the project in 2007 by local Palestinian landowners.That prompted a to-and-fro with Israel's Defense Ministry, which revised the route until an April 2009 version was accepted by the court, despite lingering objections from Bilin and from a neighboring Jewish settlement, Modiin Illit.Construction work to measure and alter the security fence in Bilin began in accordance with the directives of the High Court of Justice, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.Israel credits the barrier -- a network of fences interspersed with concrete walls, projected to be 720 km (450 miles) long when complete -- with stemming Palestinian suicide bombings that peaked in 2002 and 2003.But Palestinians condemn the project for looping around settlement blocs in the West Bank, where they want to set up a state. With its weekly and often violent protests, Bilin has become a symbol of the struggle.
This is an achievement and a victory for the popular resistance, but this is not enough -- 2,300 dunam (575 acres) were confiscated from Bilin's land, 750 dunam (188 acres) were regained, said demonstrator Iyad Bornat about the rerouting.A non-binding ruling by the World Court in 2004, which Israel rejected, said the barrier was illegal. Israel says the project could be demolished altogether should peace prevail.The prospects of that happening look dim given the diplomatic deadlock over Israel's refusal to halt all settlement construction and the Palestinians' internal divisions.(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
IF AMERICA WOULD BE SMART THEY WOULD GET RIGHT OUT OF THE PEACE PROCESS AND LET PROPHECY FULFILL ITSELF WHEN THE BIBLE CLEARLY SAYS ITS THE EUROPEAN UNION,NOT AMERICA THAT MAKE THE FINAL 7 YEAR PEACE TREATY.
Clinton says Blair to play bigger role in Mideast
Thu Feb 11, 9:17 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is going to play a bigger role in efforts to get Israel and the Palestinians back to peace talks by intensifying his partnership with special U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell.In a written statement, Clinton said she had spoken to Blair on Thursday about developments in the region. As a result of that call, she said Blair would broaden his current role as representative of the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers to intensify his partnership with Mitchell in support of the attempt to revive political negotiations.Blair's spokesman, Matthew Doyle, said the former prime minister would deepen his partnership with Senator Mitchell in support of the political negotiations, but provided no details. The spokesman also said that while the Quartet had made real progress on the West Bank, a new strategy was needed for Gaza.Blair took his position as leader of the Quartet — comprising the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — in June 2007. Until now he has confined his activities to building support for the Palestinian Authority. He had not served as a mediator or negotiator.Clinton's statement did not say how Blair would partner with Mitchell in the effort to revive peace talks. Clinton aides said they did not immediately have details. The failure thus far to get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the bargaining table has been one of the major foreign policy disappointments of the first year of the Obama administration.
The prospect for bringing the Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table, following a break-off in late 2008, is expected to be among the subjects Clinton discusses during a visit this weekend and next week to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.Israeli-Palestinian peace talks broke off mainly over the issue of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land, including in east Jerusalem. Israel committed to a full settlement freeze under a 2003 peace plan but did not fully meet that obligation.The Palestinians contend there is no point in negotiating while Israel expands the settlements.
Israeli FM hopes for direct Mideast talks by end of March
Thu Feb 11, 12:32 pm ET
BAKU (AFP) – Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday he hoped that indirect Middle East peace talks would begin by the end of this month and that direct talks would follow by the end of March.I hope that by the end of this month... indirect talks with the Palestinians will begin, and direct talks within the month after that, Lieberman told journalists during a visit to Azerbaijan, the Trend news agency reported.There is no alternative to direct negotiations between the two parties and we believe that it is necessary to start indirect negotiations sooner rather than later, he said.Palestinian officials said earlier this week that president Mahmud Abbas agreed in principle to indirect talks with Israel under US mediation but requested a number of guarantees.The latest US proposal for renewing peace talks suspended more than a year ago would have the two sides hold three months of indirect negotiations and have Israel make several goodwill gestures to the Palestinians.The Palestinians would continue to require a complete freeze of Israeli settlements before any direct negotiations but not as a precondition to indirect talks.The Palestinians said if accepted, the talks would begin February 20 with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell shuttling between the two sides.The two sides have been at loggerheads for months as Washington has called for the renewal of negotiations that were suspended when Israel launched its three-week Gaza offensive in December 2008.Lieberman made the remarks at the end of a three-day visit to ex-Soviet Azerbaijan, where he praised growing ties between Israel and the mainly Muslim republic.Israel and Azerbaijan have good relations that are developing very dynamically,Lieberman said, adding that Israel was hoping to boost energy cooperation with the republic, which is one of Israel's main oil suppliers.
Ahmadinejad warns Israel against any military move
Thu Feb 11, 2:38 am ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel should be resisted and finished off if it launched military action in the region, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Thursday.Ahmadeinjad's comments were made when the president spoke over the telephone with his Syrian counterpart late on Wednesday.Last week, Syria -- a key regional ally of Iran -- accused Israel of pushing the Middle East toward a new war.Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, in an interview broadcast on Wednesday, said Israeli aircraft were making daily incursions into Lebanese air space, creating a very dangerous situation.We have reliable information ... that the Zionist regime is after finding a way to compensate for its ridiculous defeats from the people of Gaza and Lebanon's Hezbollah, Ahmadinejad told Syria's Bashar al-Assad, referring to conflicts in 2006 and 2009.If the Zionist regime should repeat its mistakes and initiate a military operation, then it must be resisted with full force to put an end to it once and for all.Ahmadinejad, who has often predicted the imminent demise of the Jewish state, said Iran would remain on the side of regional nations including Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.
The Islamic Republic does not recognize Israel, which it refers to as the Zionist regime. Israel sees Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat and has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the row.Iran, the world's fifth-largest crude exporter, says it would retaliate for any attack on its nuclear facilities which it says are part of a peaceful energy program but which the West suspects are aimed at making bombs.In a statement late last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was not planning any imminent attack on Lebanon, from where Hezbollah launched some 4,000 rockets at it during the 34-day war in 2006.Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, responding to Syria's accusation last week, has said Damascus would be defeated and Assad would lose power in any future conflict. Netanyahu later reassured Syria that Israel sought peace.
(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb and Hashem Kalantari; writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Matthew Jones)
Palestinians appeal to UN on Jerusalem cemetery By IAN DEITCH and FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writers – Wed Feb 10, 2:03 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Palestinian and international human rights activists on Wednesday petitioned the United Nations to stop the construction of a Museum of Tolerance on the site of a medieval Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, saying it would disturb centuries-old graves.Campaigners said they are turning to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights after Israel's Supreme Court rejected a 2008 appeal to stop the Simon Wiesenthal Center building its museum on part of the Mamilla cemetery.We have nowhere else to go, Rania Madi of the Palestinian rights group BADIL told reporters in Geneva, where the petition was filed. Any response from the U.N.'s top rights official would carry only moral weight and is not legally binding.The group said construction of the museum would violate Muslim religious and cultural rights, and such a project would never have been undertaken if the site was home to Jewish graves.The petition is signed by about 60 people who say their relatives are buried in the cemetery. Palestinians say people were laid to rest there as early as the 14th century and until the 1930's.At a news conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday to coincide with the filing of the petition, local resident Jamal Nusseibeh said his extensive family is buried at the site. We have been fighting for this for years to preserve these graves. Its a chain that goes back to 1432 when my ancestor was buried there and it is part of the rich fabric of Jerusalem that is a symbol of tolerance,he said.So why destroy this to build a museum of tolerance?
The Simon Wiesenthal Center denied any graves would be disturbed, claiming that construction would occur only in an area of the cemetery that has been a parking lot for 50 years. Israel's Supreme Court judges said in their ruling that they would not block the museum since no objections were lodged in 1960 when the parking lot was built.There are no tombstones, no monuments, that were ever on this site for half a century or more, because it was the car park of Jerusalem, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.You can appeal to the moon, it isn't going to help you,he told The Associated Press from Los Angeles.We're going forward. The case is over.The museum will be modeled on an existing one in Los Angeles that opened in 1993 and receives over 250,000 visits a year.Exhibits will focus on the twin themes of mutual respect and social responsibility and impress on visitors the need for tolerance toward all religions and nationalities, Hier said. It is scheduled to have a conference center, theater and museums for both adults and children.Yael Lerer, an Israeli activist who opposes the project, said it was a very strange joke to build a museum of tolerance on top of a cemetery.The international community, if it wants, can stop this easily,she said in Geneva.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the case was being used for propaganda purposes by Palestinians who refused to accept the Supreme Court's ruling.
The activists have rejected proposals to either remove the deceased for reburial or install a barrier between the graves and a future building foundation to avoid disturbing the remains. They insist the museum should be relocated instead.Standing beside graves in various state of disrepair adjacent to a cordoned off area where the museum is being built, Dyala Husseini Dajani, 68, said her parents would take her there as a young girl to visit her ancestors. She said her grandparents, aunts and uncles are buried there.These bones represent our history here in this part of the world,she said.Jordans reported from Geneva.
Abbas mulls peace talks; expects U.S. answers soon
Tue Feb 9, 1:46 am ET
TOKYO (Reuters) – Palestinian leaders have not set specific terms on which they would accept a U.S. offer to mediate indirect peace talks with Israel, and expect clarification on such talks in a week, President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday.The United States has proposed circumventing a dispute preventing the resumption of talks, stalled for more than a year since a war in Gaza, by reconvening in the form of proximity talks on an indirect basis, under closer U.S. mediation.Israel has agreed to the formula but Abbas has said he will announce a decision after hearing answers to some questions he has put to Washington.The Palestinian side has not set any conditions in particular, said Abbas, speaking to reporters in Japan through an interpreter, when he asked under what conditions he would accept the U.S. offer on the proximity talks.Speaking at a seminar in Tokyo, Abbas added that his government was keeping the door open to the U.S. proposal, but stressed that he was still waiting to hear from Washington.Abbas said that he expected U.S. Middle East special envoy George Mitchell to get back to him with further clarification about the talks a week from now. After that, his government could consult with other Arab leaders and make a decision, he added.
His comments came a day after Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, visiting Tokyo with Abbas, said the proximity talks should focus on border issues and their timeframe should be limited to a maximum of three to four months.Peace talks were halted more than a year ago over the war in the Gaza Strip and have not resumed, due largely to a Palestinian demand that Israel first impose a complete freeze on building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Israel's refusal to do so.Abbas has rejected a limited, 10-month construction freeze ordered by Israel in November as insufficient, particularly for excluding Jerusalem.(Reporting by Yoko Nishikawa; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Yemen al Qaeda urges jihad, wants Red Sea blocked By Mohamed Ghobari and Raissa Kasolowsky – Mon Feb 8, 3:25 pm ET
SANAA/DUBAI (Reuters) – The Yemen-based wing of al Qaeda called for a regional Muslim holy war and a blockade of the Red Sea to cut off U.S. shipments to Israel, a further sign of the group's ambitions to mount new strikes outside its base.Yemen is in the throes of a major crackdown on the global militant network's regional off-shoot, which grabbed the world's attention when it claimed a failed bomb attack on U.S.-bound plane in December.Western powers and neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, fear that Yemen's growing instability as it struggles with northern Shi'ite rebels and southern secessionists, may allow al Qaeda to strengthen its operations.The Christians, the Jews, and the treacherous apostate rulers have pounced on you ... you have no other way out from this plight other than to wage jihad,the wing's deputy leader, Saeed al-Shehri, said in an audio tape posted on a website often used by Islamist groups.Shehri, a former inmate of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay from Saudi Arabia, was one of 30 al Qaeda members that Yemen claimed to have killed in an air strike in December but this was later denied by the global militant network.Shehri also said the Yemen-based wing's failed bomb attack on the plane to Detroit on December 25 had been carried out in coordination with network leader Osama bin Laden.Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attack in January, weeks after al Qaeda in Yemen said it was behind it.Shehri called on Somalia's Islamist al Shabaab insurgents to help block a narrow strait at the mouth of the Red Sea that separates Yemen from the Horn of Africa.At such a time the Bab (al Mandab) will be closed and that will tighten the noose on the Jews (Israel), because through it America supports them by the Red Sea,Shehri said.The area across the strait from Yemen is far from al Shabaab's territory.Hours after the recording was issued, Yemen's top national security body held a meeting headed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh and said all necessary measures will be taken to maintain security and public order and control outlaw elements,state media reported.
CLASHES IN NORTH
Fighting in the north of the poor Arab country, where about 40 percent of the population survive on less than $2 a day, continued on Monday, state media reported. The rebels said on their website they had blocked attempts by army forces to advance near the northern city of Saada and other fronts.The website said Saudi rockets had killed two children and wounded two others and that Saudi warplanes carried out nine air strikes in northern Yemen by mid-day on Monday.There was no immediate official response from Saudi Arabia, which was drawn into a five-year conflict between the Yemeni government and the rebels three months ago when the rebels seized some of the kingdom's territory.Yemen said on Saturday it had handed the rebels a timetable for implementing the government's ceasefire terms, a week after rejecting a truce offer from the insurgents because it did not include the promise to end hostilities against Saudi Arabia.A Yemeni official told Reuters on Monday that the government had received a response from the rebels, but declined to give further details as to the nature of the answer.The government is still studying the response, the official said, declining to be identified. The insurgents said they staged their cross-border raid into Saudi Arabia because the kingdom had been allowing Yemeni troops to use Saudi territory to launch attacks against them. Saudi Arabia declared victory over the rebels last month, but has continued launching air strikes and rocket attacks against the insurgents, who say they have now quit Saudi land. Yemeni forces also fought rebels in the north on Monday, inflicting heavy casualties on the insurgents, the defense ministry's online newspaper September 26 reported. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari and Mohamed Sudam in Sanaa, Andrew Hammond and Firouz Sedarat in Dubai; Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Palestinians set terms for talks as violence flares By Allyn Fisher-ilan – Mon Feb 8, 2:52 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – More than a dozen people were injured when Israeli police confronted Palestinian protesters in a refugee camp at the edge of Jerusalem on Monday, violence stoked by rising tensions over a stalemate in peace talks.The Palestinian cabinet strongly condemned what it called an Israeli incursion and its senior officials said negotiations with Israel could resume only if they focused on borders and other core conflict issues and set out a clear deadline.Citing biblical roots to the city, Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its indivisible and eternal capital,a claim that has not been recognized internationally.Palestinians want East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 conflict, to be the capital of the state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.Israeli and Palestinian protesters have squared off on a weekly basis in the past few months during generally peaceful demonstrations staged against Israel's recent seizure of homes inhabited by Palestinians in parts of East Jerusalem.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who under U.S. pressure ordered a limited settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank, has refused to heed Palestinian demands to halt the construction of homes for Jews in East Jerusalem.In a move that may exacerbate tensions further, Israel's state planning commission has scheduled a hearing to approve the expansion of a Jewish settlement in the mostly Palestinian section of Silwan, Israel's Channel One television reported.The dispute over Jerusalem took a violent turn when Palestinian schoolchildren threw rocks at Israeli police vehicles heading into Shoafat Refugee Camp on Monday, injuring four officers, an Israeli police spokesman said.Police had launched the raid to arrest what Israel said were municipal tax evaders. Palestinian officials said 10 Palestinians were injured in the confrontation, none seriously.
The Palestinian cabinet said in a statement it strongly condemned the Israeli incursion and military operation" into three Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, in which it said dozens were also arrested.In Tokyo, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said any renewed peace talks with Israel, which have been stalled since the launching of a three-week Gaza war in December 2008, must focus on border issues and set a deadline of four months.Proximity talks should focus on one issue only. That issue is borders, Malki said, responding to a U.S.-backed proposal to resume negotiations with Israel on an indirect basis.Israel has agreed to the formula but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will announce a decision after hearing answers to some questions he has put to Washington.Abbas has made any resumption of peace talks conditional on Israel halting Jewish settlement building in occupied land, and rejected a temporary construction freeze ordered by Israel in as insufficient, particularly for excluding Jerusalem.Separately, the Israeli military carried out arrests in the West Bank, and detained the wife of the mayor of the town of al-Bireh, charging involvement in the Islamist Hamas movement.Israel's Supreme Court ordered two pro-Palestinian foreign activists freed on bail, saying immigration officers overstepped their authority by detaining Spaniard Ariadna Jove Marti and Australian Bridgette Chapell outside Israel, in the West Bank.(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon, Mohammed Assadi and Tom Perry in Ramallah; Editing by Jon Boyle)
Palestinians to hold local elections in July
Mon Feb 8, 11:53 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – The Western-backed Palestinian Authority said on Monday it would hold local elections in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on July 17.The completion of this democratic process is one of the building blocks of the national authority's programme and the government's plan to complete the building of the institutions of a state, the government said in a statement.The Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza rejected the move, calling it an illegal decision made in bad faith.Any elections, whether presidential or legislative or local... must come as the fruit of reconciliation and not amid the uprooting of Hamas in the West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.Israel and Egypt have sealed Gaza off from all but basic goods since Hamas seized power there in June 2007 after driving out forces loyal to Abbas.Since then Fatah and Hamas have been fiercely divided, with each accusing the other of persecuting its rivals in the territory where it rules.The last municipal elections were held in 2006 and saw Hamas win a majority in several large towns in both territories. The Islamist group also won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections that year.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had scheduled legislative elections for last month in accordance with the constitution.But they have since been postponed indefinitely as Hamas refuses to allow any vote in Gaza without a unity agreement with Abbas's Fatah movement.The two groups struggled for months to reach a unity deal under Egyptian mediation but the efforts collapsed late last year when Hamas refused to agree to a proposal that was signed by Fatah.
UN urges Egypt, Arab League to press Israel on Gaza by Mona Salem – Mon Feb 8, 10:33 am ET
CAIRO (AFP) – The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Filippo Grandi, on Monday urged Egypt and the Arab League to press Israel to allow reconstruction equipment into the blockaded Gaza Strip.I am in Cairo to discuss the situation in Gaza and to call on the Cairo government and the Arab League to continue pressure on the state of Israel to lift entry restrictions on people and construction equipment, he told AFP.Israel has imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip since the Islamist movement Hamas ousted loyalists of president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah party, taking control of the enclave in June 2007.The Jewish state launched a 22-day war on Gaza that ended on January 18, 2009 and killed about 1,400 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis also died during the offensive which devastated the already impoverished coastal enclave.Israel refuses to let construction materials into Gaza for fear that Hamas would use it for military purposes.We respect Israel's security concerns. They are legitimate concerns, but we have offered very precise guarantees that the material we receive would only be used for our reconstruction projects, Grandi said.
We have very strict procedures, and we are very scrupulous as far as the use of the resources we receive for our projects is concerned, he said.Grandi, who was appointed commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees on January 20, on Sunday met Arab League chief Amr Mussa and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit.Egypt is the current president of UNRWA's Advisory Commission, a committee grouping 23 countries tasked with assisting in the agency's work.According to Grandi, the situation in Gaza can only be described as a very serious crisis.It's a crisis that affects all aspects of life for the residents of Gaza, he said.It's an economic crisis with a crumbling private sector, it's a social crisis, a crisis of institutions, it's a very serious general crisis that the banning of construction material renders even more serious,he said.
Grandi also called for the lifting of the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, saying that in the long term, it will be a risk for Israel and the region.As an occupying power, Israel has the responsibility to let goods get into the Gaza Strip, he said.
The fact that Israel does not do so has created an illegal economy based on smuggling through tunnels,under the border with Egypt, he said.It is a risk for the stability of the Gaza Strip, for the whole region and for the security of Israel.
Hamas' top leader visits Moscow
Mon Feb 8, 8:07 am ET
MOSCOW – The leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas is visiting Moscow as Russia seeks to expand its role in Middle East peacemaking.The Russian Foreign Ministry issued no information about Monday's meeting between Khaled Mashaal and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Moscow hopes to host a Middle East peace conference.Moscow sees Hamas as an integral part of the peace process despite strong opposition from Israel and the U.S., which list the organization as a terrorist group. Russia has repeatedly called for an end to the blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.Russia is part of the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacebrokers that also includes the U.S., the European Union and the United Nations.
Israel minister denies saying sorry to Saudi diplomat
Sun Feb 7, 3:27 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Sunday denied apologising to a senior Saudi diplomat before a rare public handshake between officials of the two states.Prince Turki al-Faisal had said he shook hands with Ayalon at a security conference in Munich, but only after the Israeli apologised for actions Turki objected to -- giving Turkey's ambassador a public dressing down.
However, Ayalon said it was not true he said sorry to Turki.Everyone who was present at the conference knows there was no apology from the deputy minister to the Saudi prince, said a statement from his office.To those who did not take part in the conference we suggest they check the video recordings to verify what really happened.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief and ex-ambassador to the United States said the handshake came after Ayalon publicly reprimanded him for not sitting together on a panel at the annual international security conference.I objected to sitting on the same panel with him not because he is the deputy minister of foreign affairs of Israel but because of his boorish conduct with the Turkish ambassador to Israel Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, Turki said.In January Ayalon made a show of publicly humiliating Celikkol to demonstrate Israeli displeasure over a Turkish television show critical of the Jewish state.Although Turki currently has no official government title he continues to carry out diplomatic work for the Saudi government.
Turki also said he objected to Ayalon's allegation that Saudi Arabia has not provided any aid to the Palestinian Authority. In fact Riyadh has given the PA hundreds of millions of dollars.Mr. Ayalon then asked me to come up to the podium to shake hands to show that there were no hard feelings, Turki said.I pointed to him that he should step down from the podium, Turki said.When we stood face-to-face, he said that he apologised for what he had said and I replied that I accept his apology not only to me but also to the Turkish ambassador.Turki insisted that the handshake was in no way a step towards recognition.Until Israel heeds US President Barak Obama?s call for the removal of all settlements, the Israelis must be under no illusion that Saudi Arabia will offer what they most desire -- regional recognition.
Palestinian leader visits Hiroshima
Sun Feb 7, 2:11 pm ET
HIROSHIMA, Japan (AFP) – Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas kicked off his Asian tour on Sunday in the Japanese city of Hiroshima ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.Japan is one of the top donors for the Palestinian territories, providing more than one billion dollars in aid since 1993.Abbas, who plans a four-day stay in Japan, will meet Hatoyama and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada to discuss strengthening relations and aid from Tokyo, Japanese officials said.
Hatoyama is expected to express Japan's support for efforts by Abbas to promote peace negotiations with Israel, the officials said.Abbas visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, a site to remember the US atomic bombing on August 6, 1945, which killed more than 140,000.Abbas, escorted by Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba, donated a flower wreath at the memorial.He told reporters that the world should abandon weapons of mass destruction including nuclear arms.After the trip to Japan, his second visit as the Palestinian head of state, Abbas plans to fly to Seoul and meet South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.
Syria would back Lebanon if Israel attacks: Assad
Sun Feb 7, 11:36 am ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syria will support Lebanon in the event of any attack from Israel, President Bashar al-Assad told the speaker of Beirut's parliament on on Sunday, the official SANA news agency reported.Syria will stand alongside the government and people of Lebanon against any possible Israeli aggression launched on Lebanon, the agency quoted Assad as saying to Nabih Berri in Damascus.Assad and Berri discussed repeated Israeli threats on countries in the region and Israeli extremism which can kill chances for peace and bring war to the region,SANA said.Israeli officials have warned repeatedly in recent weeks that any attack by Lebanon's Syrian-backed Hezbollah Shiite movement will spark a tough response.Syria and Israel have also been locked in a bitter war of words for several days.Foreign Minister Walid Muallem warned on Wednesday that war against his country would become a wider conflict. Israelis, do not test the power of Syria since you know the war will move into your cities,he said.His Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman retorted on Thursday that any war would cost Assad his grip on power. When there is another war, you will not just lose it, but you and your family will lose power, Lieberman said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to ease tensions on Sunday, saying that Israel wants peace with all of its neighbours.We made peace with Egypt and Jordan and we seek peace with Syria and the Palestinians, he said.On Tuesday Netanyahu had accused Beirut of allowing Hezbollah to smuggle weapons into Lebanon in blatant violation of (United Nations Security Council) Resolution 1701 which led to an end to the 34-day conflict.Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating war in 2006, which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
