ABBAS TO U.S. LIFT BLOCKADE

Abbas tells US envoy blockade must be lifted
8:00 AM JUNE 18,10

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday told US envoy George Mitchell that Washington must press Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip.President Abbas insisted during the meeting on the need for a continuation of US efforts to achieve the complete end of the Gaza blockade, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP following talks in Ramallah, the political capital of the occupied West Bank.He stressed that lifting the blockade would favour a restart of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians that were halted when Israel launched a devastating 22-day offensive in Gaza in December 2008.

Mitchell has brokered indirect talks and has been acting as a go-between since they started in May.Abbas condemned the blockade as collective punishment against Gaza's 1.5 million residents and dismissed as insufficient an easing of the measures announced by Israel earlier this week, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.
Mitchell met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and was due in Egypt on Saturday for talks with its leaders.

Israel says easing Gaza land blockade By Jeffrey Heller – Thu Jun 17, 5:17 pm ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel said on Thursday it was easing a land blockade of the Gaza Strip that drew heightened international criticism after its deadly raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.A new Israeli-approved product list includes all food items, toys, stationery, kitchen utensils, mattresses and towels, said Raed Fattouh, the Palestinian coordinator of supplies to Gaza.But Israel maintained its sea blockade, a ban on exports from the coastal strip and a prohibition against the commercial import of building materials that are vital to wide-scale reconstruction after the December 2008-January 2009 Gaza war.Hamas, an Islamist group locked in conflict with Israel, dismissed the new measures as trivial and media propaganda.What is needed is a complete lifting of the blockade. Goods and people must be free to enter and leave. Gaza especially needs construction material, which must be allowed to come in without restrictions, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.Some 1.5 million people live in Gaza, of whom about 1 million depend to some extent on regular supplies of U.N. and other foreign aid brought in overland after Israeli inspection.Richard Miron, spokesman for United Nations Middle East envoy Robert Serry, said they were encouraged by Israel's move, adding, we hope that today's decision by the security cabinet is a real step forward toward meeting the needs in Gaza.The United States, Israel's main backer, said the decision was a positive step but welcomed further loosening.We want to see an expansion of the scope and types of goods allowed into Gaza to address the Palestinians' legitimate needs for sustained humanitarian assistance and regular access for reconstruction materials, while addressing obviously Israeli's legitimate security needs, said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.He added that U.S. special envoy George Mitchell would continue to work on ideas with Israeli leaders in coming days.

The White House also welcomed the move. We will continue to work in the coming days with our Israeli friends to continue to improve a humanitarian situation in Gaza that the president has said is unsustainable,spokesman Robert Gibbs said.An Israeli statement, issued after a security cabinet meeting, said it was agreed to liberalize the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza (and) expand the inflow of materials for civilian projects that are under international supervision.Israel has said unrestricted import of cement and steel could lead to Hamas Islamists seizing the material and using it to rebuild military infrastructure.It already allows in limited quantities of construction material for U.N. projects.The announcement did not specify how procedures for the import of commercial goods would change or list any specific products, saying only that cabinet ministers would decide in the coming days how to implement the revised policy.It noted existing security procedures to prevent the inflow of weapons and war materials would continue.Defense Minister Ehud Barak said more goods would reach the Gaza Strip without lifting the sea blockade, a measure Israel says is aimed at curbing arms smuggling to Hamas.

COUNTERPRODUCTIVE

Israel faced intensified international calls to relax or lift its Gaza embargo after the killing by Israeli commandos of nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists during the interception at sea of an aid convoy on May 31. Israeli leaders said the troops acted in self-defense after being swarmed by activists who attacked them.Turkey, a once-close Muslim ally, accused Israel of state terrorism.A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Ankara wanted to evaluate the Israeli move. However, our attitude on the issue is obvious: we expect that the blockade be lifted altogether.EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the European Union hoped the in-principle statement by the Israeli government can now be followed up very quickly with the detail which we shall look at with interest.Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Israel had understood that a blockade strategy is counterproductive, echoing Israeli and foreign critics of the embargo who have said such pressure only rallies Gaza residents around Hamas. European diplomats had said a plan drawn up in coordination with Middle East envoy Tony Blair called for Israel to move from banning the entry of many commercial goods to accepting all products and prohibiting only a list of specified items.Blair represents the Quartet of international powers -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- seeking Middle East peace.

He held talks last week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Thursday.Israel imposed the blockade soon after Hamas, which has rejected Western calls to recognize its right to exist, won a Palestinian election in 2006.Restrictions were tightened after Hamas's takeover of Gaza.A network of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt keeps the enclave supplied with a variety of black market commercial goods.Hamas maintains its own tunnels, which are also used for weapons smuggling.Humanitarian aid shipments are transferred regularly via border crossings with Israel, but international aid groups say more supplies are needed.The security cabinet's deliberations coincided with another visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories by Mitchell, who met Netanyahu and Barak in Jerusalem.Mitchell is mediating indirect talks between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority, which holds sway only in the West Bank after the Fatah movement lost control of Gaza to rival Hamas in a brief war in 2007.This is a period in which we urge all concerned to exercise restraint and to avoid confrontation, Mitchell said at the start of his current round of talks.(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Andrew Quinn in Washington; editing by Mark Heinrich)

Gaza-bound Lebanese women pray for Mary's blessing
Thu Jun 17, 3:40 pm ET

MAGHDUSHE, Lebanon (AFP) – Women activists planning to sail to Gaza gathered on Thursday near a statue of the Virgin Mary in south Lebanon to pray she bless their flotilla, christened Mariam in her honour.Mariam has begun to achieve its goals and aims, as Israeli officials expressed fear and sent out warnings and threats before deciding to ease the blockade on Gaza, said spokeswoman Rima Farah.The participants are committed to making progress and our only weapons are faith in the Virgin Mary and in humanity,she told AFP.Tens of Christian and Muslim women gathered in prayer in a cave near Our Lady of Mantara in the town of Maghdushe, where Mary was said to have waited for Jesus while he was preaching nearby 2,000 years ago.Along with European activists and journalists, they are planning to sail for Gaza with an aid ship loaded with medical supplies in the latest bid to break Israel's four-year blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.The women insist they are not affiliated with Israel's Lebanese enemy Hezbollah or any other political organisation and have not given an exact date for the departure of the ship.The trip comes as Israel faces an international backlash over its deadly May 31 seizure of a six-ship aid fleet bound for Gaza, in which nine Turkish activists were shot dead by naval commandos in clashes on one of the boats.Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday warned Lebanon it would be responsible for any violent and dangerous confrontation.

But Israel also approved a plan to ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip after weeks of international pressure, while providing few details on what new goods would be allowed in.Mariam organiser Samar al-Hajj for her part thanked Israel for its threats which only strengthened these women's willpower to make the trip.The ship is now ready,she told AFP. We are not afraid.

Settlers building in West Bank despite freeze
Thu Jun 17, 6:46 am ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli settlers are continuing to build in the occupied West Bank despite a partial moratorium on new projects that expires later this year, the Peace Now settlement watchdog said Thursday.Authorities do not appear to have issued any new construction permits since the start of the year, but the group said it had documented dozens of instances in which settlers have begun building new structures in violation of the ban.Peace Now in the past few months has recorded a significant slowdown in building starts, but not a complete cessation, it said in a statement.

The settlers, in cooperation with the government, had prepared themselves for a construction freeze and hundreds of housing units were approved in (the) two months that preceded the decision, it added.If the government will not renew the freeze in September, the last 10 months will not have significantly affected the expansion of settlements in the territories, it said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reluctantly agreed to the 10-month moratorium in November after months of US pressure to halt settlement growth, a key Palestinian demand for the renewal of direct peace talks.The Palestinians have always dismissed the move as insufficient since it did not include occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, public buildings or projects already under way, while Washington hailed the move as unprecedented.The gesture failed to convince the Palestinians to relaunch direct talks with Israel last suspended in December 2008, but in May the two sides agreed on indirect proximity talks led by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.Mitchell was expected to meet with Israeli officials on Thursday and Palestinian officials on Friday for the latest round of indirect talks, which have yet to show any progress in resolving the decades-old conflict.

Syria says Israeli raid raised Mideast war risk
Thu Jun 17, 3:19 am ET

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview aired on Thursday that Israel's pyromaniac government had raised the risk of a regional war with its deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla.The May 31 attack that killed nine Turkish activists had destroyed any chance for peace in the near future, Assad told the BBC in an interview.He said the incident had proved that this (Israeli) government is another pyromaniac government, and you cannot achieve peace with such (a) government.Asked if the incident had raised the chances of war, he said: Definitely.Assad added that even before the raid, Syria did not see the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a partner for peace.We definitely don't have a partner, we know this. With this government (it) is something different from any previous Israeli government, Assad said.The nine activists were killed in the pre-dawn raid by Israeli naval commandos, sent in after the aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip in violation of an Israeli blockade refused to turn back.Under intense international pressure Israel has set up an inquiry panel to probe the circumstances of the raid.

Assad also denied that Syria was sending weapons to the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006.Israel's security cabinet met again on Thursday to discuss easing the four-year blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip amid mounting pressure following its seizure of the aid fleet, Israeli media reported.

Israel brands Turkish charity terrorist organisation: TV
Wed Jun 16, 3:51 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel considers the Turkish Muslim charity IHH involved in organising a flotilla of aid ships to Gaza last month as a terrorist organisation, public television said Wednesday.IHH, the acronym for Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation, is the charity that was involved with organising the fleet of aid ships that attempted to bust the Gaza blockade on May 31.Nine Turkish activists were killed by Israeli navy seals when commandos stormed one of the six boats in the flotilla -- the Turkish-owned ferry, Mavi Marmara.Public television said that IHH is now part of a list of movements or organisations such as the Palestinian Islamist Hamas or Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah group which are under scrutiny by Israeli intelligence services.Questionned by AFP a spokesman for the Israeli defence ministry declined to confirm or deny the report.But a senior Israeli official said on condition of anonymity that the IHH charity is considered as criminal in Israel because it supports terrorism and has close links with Hamas,the Islamist rulers of Gaza.Foreign Ministry spokesman Ygal Palmor told AFP Israel will consider a hostile act any bid by enemy countries to break the Gaza blockade -- amid reports aid ships from Iran and Lebanon would try to reach the Gaza Strip.Turkey has accused Israel of state terror over the deadly attack on the aid flotilla.Israel has said that the flotilla had been carrying out a terrorist operation.

The IHH was founded in 1992 to help Muslims during the Bosnian war and operates in several Arab and Muslim countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Lebanon and Pakistan.Israel and several Western countries suspect IHH of having close ties with jihadists.The charity's declared goal is to carry out relief operations to save lives and prevent human right abuses.

EU may send naval mission towards Gaza: Ashton
Wed Jun 16, 12:58 pm ET

STRASBOURG (AFP) – The EU may send a naval mission towards Gaza to help control the transit of goods if Israel lifts its blockade of the Palestian territory, the bloc's foreign affairs chief said Wednesday.Catherine Ashton said there may be a maritime option for a CSDP (Common Defence and Security Defence Policy) mission, adding however that such an option would be more complex than helping monitor land crossings into Gaza.Israel has come under increased pressure to lift its blockade, which has been in place since 2007, after a commando raid on an aid flotilla bringing aid for the Gaza Strip last month left nine Turkish activists dead.Israel's security cabinet on Wednesday met to reportedly consider an international proposal for significantly easing its blockade on Gaza, but the closed-door meeting ended without any conclusion.British peer Ashton, who visited Gaza earlier this year, stressed that what happened on the seas outside Gaza was unacceptable.She called on the Israeli government to allow humanitarian aid, commercial goods and civilians to enter and exit Gaza normally, with only arms and other goods where Israel has legitimate security concerns,prohibited.Ashton added that the EU border mission at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which has been largely inactive since 2005, could be reactivated and Europe is ready to support the opening of other land crossings.

The blockade hurts ordinary people, prevents reconstruction and fuels radicalism and empowers Hamas, the Islamist group which controls the Gaza Strip, she said.She said it was also partially ineffective, as goods are smuggled in illegal tunnels and get to those with money and clout.However she admitted that it will not be easy to find an agreed way to lift the blockade.Also at the EU parliament pro-Palestinian groups announced that they plan to send another aid flotilla for Gaza next month, similar to the one involved in the deadly Israeli attack.

Suspected Hezbollah financier arrested in Paraguay
Tue Jun 15, 9:22 pm ET

ASUNCION (AFP) – Interpol said Tuesday it has arrested a Lebanese national suspected of funneling money to the Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Paraguay in the tri-border area with Argentina and Brazil.Moussa Hamdan, 38, was arrested in Ciudad del Este, part of the Triple Frontier, a region the United States has repeatedly cited as being exploited by militant groups that finance terrorist activities.Local media, citing local security officials, said Hamdan was financing Hezbollah, which fought a devastating 2006 war with Israel and is blacklisted as a terror group by Washington.

The Interpol chief in Paraguay, Jose Chena, said justice officials would decide within about six weeks whether to extradite Hamdan to the United States, where an arrest warrant has been issued against him.A cosmopolitan area and significant tourist spot, the Triple Frontier is also considered a major spot for smuggling and other organized crime. Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina deny their shared region is a hotbed for terror financing.The three countries have refused to cooperate in the production of Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow's latest project in a film tentatively titled Triple Frontier over concerns the movie could damage their countries' reputation with tourists.A significant Arab population lives in the region, with a big presence in Ciudad del Este.