Palestinians to hold local elections July 9 By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press – Tue Feb 8, 12:03 pm ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank – The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday set long-overdue local council elections for July 9 in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the government spokesman said. The rival Hamas government that rules Gaza promptly rejected the move.The recent push for Palestinian elections appears to reflect fears that two weeks of street protests demanding increased democracy in nearby Egypt could lead to similar calls in the Palestinian territories.The Palestinian Authority has not held elections since 2006, leaving Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and members of parliament in office after their elected terms ended.Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib said the Cabinet decision calls for elections in both of the bitterly divided Palestinian territories. He said if Hamas did not allow for vote preparations in Gaza, the balloting would be held only in the West Bank.Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the West Bank government has no right to call this election. He said Hamas would not participate in any vote, even in the West Bank, until the two governments were reconciled.
They have been bitter rivals since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, leaving Abbas governing only in the West Bank. Repeated Egyptian-backed efforts to reconcile the two groups have failed.The Palestinian Authority — a huge recipient of American and European aid — has had a spotty record with democracy in recent years.In 2010, Abbas canceled local elections in the West Bank when it appeared that his Fatah movement would lose key seats to independents.Fatah has been burned twice before by heading into elections despite warnings of impending defeat. Hamas scored heavily in 2005 municipal elections and won a strong majority in the Palestinian parliament the next year.Elections have not been held in the territories since.Abbas' four-year term expired in 2009, though it has been extended indefinitely. The parliament's term expired in 2010, but the legislature remains in office, although its work is hindered by the split between the territories.Palestinian Minister of Local Government Khalid Qawasmi said the election is to be for 305 seats in municipalities and village councils in the West Bank and 25 in Gaza.He said all political groups, including Hamas, could participate.The government has no objection to any faction or any list. On the contrary, we invite them to join the election, he said.
Qawasmi denied that the Egyptian upheaval triggered the announcement. The Cabinet was complying with a Supreme Court decision that called last year's cancellation illegal, he said.Palestinian analyst Hani al-Masri acknowledged the court decision, but said he still suspected events in Egypt played a role.The Egyptian uprising was an alert to every regime in the region to correct the situation in its country, he said, adding that the Palestinian Authority has been criticized for its handling of freedom of speech and political power sharing.Without finding solutions for these problems, no one is immune to upheaval, he said.AP correspondent Ibrahim Barzak contributed to this report from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.
Lebanese PM on final stretch of cabinet formation
– Tue Feb 8, 11:54 am ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanese premier-designate Najib Mikati expects this week to form his cabinet, which will include members of a Hezbollah-led camp but exclude his Western-backed rivals, an official said on Tuesday.Prime minister Mikati hopes to finalize his consultations and form the government this week, the official, who is close to the premier, told AFP on condition of anonymity.The next government will include representatives of the (Hezbollah-led) new majority, centrists and technocrats, he said, adding that the size of the cabinet had not been finalised yet but would likely count 24 to 30 ministers.The centrists would be appointed into office by Mikati and President Michel Sleiman, who has positioned himself as a politically neutral figure in Lebanon.Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, also said he expected Mikati to complete his cabinet formation in the next few days.
The government will see the light this week, Berri told reporters at a conference in Qatar on Tuesday. But it would appear that some parties have no desire to participate in a government of national salvation.Hezbollah, which is backed by both Tehran and Damascus, last month toppled the Hariri government and succeeded in ushering Mikati in to replace him, thanks to the key parliamentary votes of its Christian and Druze allies.The move prompted a wave of anger among the allies and supporters of US- and Saudi-backed Hariri, who accuse Shiite Hezbollah of a coup and of attempting to unilaterally control government.Amin Gemayel, a Christian ally of Hariri, announced Monday that talks on their alliance's participation in government had reached a dead end.At the centre of the political deadlock is the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is investigating the February 2005 assassination of Sunni ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, Saad's father.Hezbollah had been pressuring Hariri for months to disavow the tribunal before it forced the collapse of his government on January 12 over the investigation.The court is reportedly poised to indict Hezbollah members in connection with the Hariri case, a move the militant movement has warned against.While Hezbollah has demanded Lebanon end all cooperation with the tribunal, the outgoing Hariri has sought a commitment from fellow billionaire Mikati to see the investigation through.
But Mikati has refused to make any promises on the issue.The prime minister designate's response to the demands of Hariri's camp has not changed from the beginning and he cannot make any commitments to either side as that would cause him to lose his position as a centrist, said the official working with Mikati.The United States, France and other countries have adopted a wait-and-see approach to Mikati's appointment while he forms his government and tackles the thorny issue of the tribunal.The nature of the United States' relationship with the new government will be determined by that government's composition, policy statement and behavior, US ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly said Tuesday in a statement.The international community has made clear its expectation that the next government of Lebanon should live up to its international obligations... and uphold Lebanon's commitment to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Hezbollah chief: Egypt's unrest will change region By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press – Mon Feb 7, 12:05 pm ET
BEIRUT – The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group said Monday the unrest in Egypt will transform the Middle East by pushing out a regime that has maintained peace with Israel.Sheik Hassan Nasrallah predicted that whatever leadership emerges in Egypt after President Hosni Mubarak will move away from Israel, leaving the Jewish state more isolated. The only other Arab nation to have made peace with Israel is Jordan.You are fighting the battle of Arab dignity, the dignity of the Arab human being that was humiliated by some of its leaders in the past decades, Nasrallah said during a ceremony to support the Egyptian demonstrators and to protest the 1979 peace treaty between Cairo and Israel.We look forward to the day that you bring back to Egypt its leading and historic position in the life of our nation and the region, Nasrallah said referring to the days when Egypt was leading anti-Israeli policies in the 1950s and 1960s.Egypt became the first Arab nation to sign a peace accord with Israel in 1979 and has strictly honored it. Mubarak has close ties to Israeli leaders and has acted as a bridge between Israel and the Palestinians to the broader Arab world.
Mubarak has refused protesters' demands to step down immediately, but says he will not run in September's presidential election. Israel's leaders have expressed fears that if the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main opposition movement, has a major role in a future Egyptian government, the peace treaty between the countries could be in jeopardy.In his speech, Nasrallah asked where Arabs want to stand — on Israel's side, which wants to protect this regime, or with the revolution that wants to bring it (regime) down.Hezbollah, which has fought Israel since 1982, has had poor relations with Mubarak's government mainly since 2009, when Egyptian security officials said they had uncovered a Hezbollah cell plotting to destabilize Egypt.A year later, an Egyptian court convicted 26 men of spying for Hezbollah and plotting attacks in Egypt and gave them prison sentences ranging from six months to life. They included a Lebanese, Sudanese and Egyptians.Nasrallah then acknowledged sending an agent to supervise weapons shipments to the militant Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, but he has denied seeking to undermine Egypt's security.Last week, senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Komati said one of the defendants, Lebanese citizen Mohammed Youssef Mansour, better known as Sami Chehab, escaped from his Egyptian jail during the unrest and is in a safe place.Komati refused to say whether Mansour is in Lebanon.
New flotilla for Gaza on deadly raid anniversary
– Mon Feb 7, 11:59 am ET
MADRID (AFP) – A new flotilla of ships will try to reach Gaza at the end of May to mark the first anniversary of deadly Israeli raid against a similar convoy that killed nine Turkish activists, organisers said Monday.The flotilla that will try to break Israel's blockade of the territory this time will consist of around 15 boats with activists from 25 nations compared to just six ships last year, they told a news conference in Madrid.We will set sail during the second half of May, said Manuel Tapial, one of the three Spanish activists who were on board the Mavi Marmara which was intercepted by Israeli navy commandos on May 31 2010, sparking a global outcry.Activists onboard the Free Gaza Flotilla say the Israeli commandos started shooting as soon as they boarded the vessel.But Israel says the commandos used live fire only after they were attacked with clubs, knives and guns.Last month an Israeli probe into the incident concluded that both the raid and the blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory complied with international law.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the inquiry had neither value, nor credibility.
A Turkish investigation concluded Israeli troops had used disproportionate force during their raid, which took place in international waters about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the Israeli coast.The new convoy will transport construction material, electric generators and desalination plant to Gaza.Maria Elena Delia of the Italian branch of Sailing to Gaza, the nong-governmental organisation which is organising the new flotilla, called the Israeli blockade of Gaza a crime and a violation of international law.We hope to break this blockade and if we can't, we will set sail again and again,she added.
Israel approves settler plans for Jerusalem homes
– Mon Feb 7, 10:44 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The city council on Monday approved plans for construction of 16 new apartments by a Jewish settlement group in the Sheikh Jarrah district of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, a councillor said.The move drew an angry response from the Palestinian Authority, for whom settlement construction is one of the bitterest elements of the conflict, and which scuppered the latest round of US-brokered direct peace talks.Yosef Pepe Alalu, a city councillor with the dovish Meretz party, told AFP the municipality's building and planning committee approved two plans for the building of up to 16 housing units on two separate sites in Sheikh Jarrah.There were two plans filed, on both (sites) there are currently small houses which are owned by Palestinians, he said. One is inhabited and the other is empty.This approval is the first stage, he told AFP. The move still had to be rubber-stamped by an interior ministry committee. It will be at least a year before we see anything.A spokesman for the municipality said that the projects in question were private and not municipal, and that permits were never issued on the basis of the applicant's religion, colour or creed.But the Palestinian Authority issued a statement saying the city council's approval of the projects was more evidence of a continued policy of ethnic cleansing, of uprooting humanity and of the imposition of facts on the ground.
Alalu agreed.This is the settlers and the right, together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and (Mayor) Nir Barakat, working together to Judaise this neighbourhood, he said.The problem is that this is an invasion of a Palestinian neighbourhood, this is not one of the Jewish neighbourhoods that has been agreed will remain with Israel, like Gilo, Alalu said, referring to a large Jewish district in east Jerusalem.Israeli activists working to stop creeping settlement activity in Sheikh Jarrah, just north of Jerusalem's Old City, said the move would see the demolition of the two buildings, one of which is home to three local families.Avner Inbar of the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement said the families, who live in the Im Haroun compound, had lost a legal battle with the settlers over ownership of the land six months ago.When the municipality says these are private projects and that it has only played a bureaucratic role, it is very misleading because it is Israeli law which has allowed for this land to be basically confiscated by the state of Israel, he said.This is an entirely new settlement and the vision is to connect it with other Jewish settlements in the area, to create continuity of Jewish building between west Jerusalem and Mount Scopus.Israel captured the city's still mainly Arab eastern sector from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community.Following the decision, between 30 and 40 left-wing activists held a protest against the new settlement plans outside the city's police headquarters in west Jerusalem.
Police spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby said police had been forced to intervene after the demonstrators began marching, arresting one and taking two others for investigation as they did not have a permit.The Jewish state sees Jerusalem as its eternal, undivided capital and does not consider construction in the east to be settlement activity.The Palestinians, however, want east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and fiercely contest any actions to extend Israel's control over the sector.
France urges greater role for Mideast Quartet
– Mon Feb 7, 9:46 am ET
PARIS (AFP) – France said Monday the Middle East diplomatic Quartet, which seeks rapid resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, should take a more active role in the bid for peace in the troubled region.We believe that the Quartet should assume a more active role notably in establishing the parameters under which negotiations should be held, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.
This was necessary to achieve the Quarter's goal of a deal by the end of the year that would enable the creation of a Palestinian state with possible approved exchanges of territories, and with Jerusalem the capital of both states, he told reporters.The Quartet, in a statement Saturday, called on all parties to undertake urgently efforts to expedite Israeli-Palestinian and comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, which is imperative to avoiding outcomes detrimental to the region.The Palestinians walked out of peace talks after Israel refused in September to renew a temporary ban on building settlements in the West Bank -- on land earmarked for a future Palestinian state.The Quartet is made up of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
Mideast turmoil makes peace imperative: Peres
– Sun Feb 6, 2:18 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – The turmoil engulfing the Middle East makes it urgent that Israel and the Palestinians return to negotiations and make peace, Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Sunday.The veteran Israeli politician said that while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not the cause of much of the problems affecting the region, it was being manipulated by the enemies of both the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The dramatic events of recent days raise the need to remove the Israeli- Palestinian conflict from the daily agenda as soon as possible because the conflict is being exploited to the detriment of both sides, Peres said at a conference in the seaside town of Herzliya north of Tel Aviv.Peres spoke of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, the political turmoil in Lebanon, the north-south split in Sudan and Iran's nuclear programme.His comments echo those of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet -- the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations, which met in the German city of Munich on Saturday.History has lost its patience, it is happening at a gallop. Either we gallop with it or it will leave without us. There are those who say we need to wait for the storm to subside, no one knows when it will end, Peres said.Talks between Israel and the Palestinians, relaunched on September 2 after a long hiatus, fell apart weeks afterwards after Israel refused to renew a temporary ban on building settlements in the West Bank.The Palestinian leadership refuses to resume negotiations as long as Israel builds on land wanted for a Palestinian state.
Echoes of Soviet collapse in Mideast revolt By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press – Sun Feb 6, 6:07 am ET
LONDON – Tunisia. Egypt. Yemen. The astounding pro-democracy domino effect in the Arab world evokes the shock waves of 1989 that toppled communism in Eastern Europe and eventually brought down the Soviet Union.Two figures who helped shape the Soviet collapse — former Czech president Vaclav Havel and former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze — are watching the Arab drama with excitement and nostalgia, but warn Cairo 2011 may not be Berlin 1989.They fret about possible military takeovers or religious extremists hijacking the revolutions, and whether they're churning forward too slowly, or too fast.Havel told The Associated Press that the protests are at a dangerous crossroads, the outcome impossible to predict, and warned that just because the revolts in Eastern Europe brought about meaningful democratic change doesn't mean the same will happen in Egypt and its neighbors.I have to point out that the situation in the Arab countries is quite different — mentality, culture, political culture, and attitude to the world, he said.
Havel said he learned during the popular rebellions in Eastern Europe that mass demonstrations against entrenched rulers need to succeed quickly or they risk degenerating into thuggishness — as has happened in Cairo as pro-government agitators moved against forces demanding President Hosni Mubarak's ouster.If the uprisings in Eastern Europe had taken a month instead of just a week, he said, the results might have been different — and far worse.Time is a crucial element, he said. The longer it takes the bigger the danger of a far worse dictatorship than Mubarak's.He cautioned that the military could seize power if the stalemate continues and said the best solution is for Mubarak to step down right away rather than try to serve the rest of his term, which ends in September.Mubarak has said he will not run again, but President Barack Obama and other Western leaders are urging him to leave now to avoid further bloodshed and allow landmark democratic reforms to get under way.However, Havel held out some hope for a democratic breakthrough.It's an interesting process and if it results in some sort of democracy, a system that will respect human rights, that won't rig elections, and so on, then it would of course be an immensely positive development.Shevardnadze, who helped open the Soviet system under Mikhail Gorbachev, warned against rushing Mubarak to the exit. He said Western officials should allow the Egyptian president, who has been a steadfast ally in a troubled region, to serve the remaining months of his term.
I don't understand the leaders who strongly insist on Mubarak's resignation, he said. Just recently they were friends with him and cooperated with him. When they had problems they asked Mubarak for advice and listened to him.He said Mubarak served as an important point of contact between Israel and other Arab countries hostile to the Jewish state, having valuable influence on both sides. He, too, cautioned against making too much of parallels between the revolutions in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.It's not exactly the same thing, he told The Associated Press. However, the destruction of any system has some general patterns, so the current developments in the Arab world look similar.At a security conference this weekend in Munich, German Chancellor Angela Merkel — who was raised in East Germany and entered politics as communism crumbled in 1989 — said the Middle East protests bring back strong memories of the uprisings that brought democracy to Eastern Europe.
We are seeing pictures awaken memories of what we experienced,she said. People who are shaking off their fear.She said it was necessary for western leaders to back the Egyptian pro-democracy movement to help spread universal rights, including freedom of opinion and freedom of the press. Others who played important roles during the communist breakdown believe the Middle East uprisings are less deeply rooted than those that challenged a string of Soviet bloc dictators. James Collins, who was acting U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union during the upheaval, said the Middle East protests have more in common with the revolutions in the Philippines, Iran and Indonesia.What happened in Tunisia and is happening in Egypt are nowhere near as fundamental, he said. These have been uprisings against a sclerotic and out of touch leadership. In Eastern Europe the change was much deeper, systemic. It touched the roots of the economy and the way society operated.While former political leaders have mixed feelings about parallels, some analysts believe the comparison between Eastern Europe in 1989 and the Middle East today is useful.I hear it coming out of the region, said Eugene Rogan, director of the Middle East Center at the University of Oxford and author of The Arabs: A History.The Tunisians talked about their movement being similar to what happened in the Gdansk shipyard with Solidarity. They see this as a starting point for changing the Arab world.The Poles showed the rest of the region that demonstrations and strikes could challenge the state's ability to repress basic rights, like freedom of speech and free assembly, the same lesson the Tunisians hoped to teach other Arab nations, Rogan said.Karel Janicek in Prague, Misha Dzhindzhikhashvili in Tbilisi and Steven R. Hurst in Washington contributed to this report.
Egypt transition vital for Mideast peace: Ban
– Sun Feb 6, 5:14 am ET
MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – An orderly transition in Egypt is essential to the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Sunday, a day after attending a Middle East Quartet meeting.Egypt has been playing a very strategic role in the Middle East peace process. President (Hosni) Mubarak was one of the key players in trying to facilitate reconciliation, Ban told reporters in Munich, Germany.Overall in the Middle East peace process he has participated and contributed, he said.This is what we are concerned about, and that is why we would like to see this transition take place in an orderly and peaceful manner without having any negative sudden impacts on the overall peace and stability in this region.
On Saturday Ban took part in a Quartet meeting in Munich with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.In a statement afterwards, the grouping called on all parties to undertake urgently efforts to expedite Israeli-Palestinian and comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, which is imperative to avoiding outcomes detrimental to the region.
The Quartet meeting took place at a critically important time, considering what has happened in this region. It has serious implications for continuing a peace negotiation process, Ban said Sunday.He said it was important that the Quartet had agreed to step up its engagement in order to get the stalled peace process back on track.We will do our best efforts, Ban said.He said that the next Quartet talks would likely take place on the sidelines of a Group of Eight (G8) foreign ministers' meeting, which is due on March 26-27 in Paris.
Quartet urges Israel, Arabs to heed Egypt risk By David Brunnstrom and Stephen Brown – Sat Feb 5, 3:16 pm ET
MUNICH (Reuters) – Israel and the Palestinians should recognize the security risk posed by the turmoil in Egypt and urgently speed up peace efforts, the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers said on Saturday.The United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States said further delays in resuming Israeli-Palestinian talks would be detrimental to prospects for regional peace and security.The Quartet emphasized the need for the parties and others concerned to undertake urgently the efforts to expedite Israeli-Palestinian and comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, they said in a statement.EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton took part in the meeting along with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.The events we have witnessed in the region mean it's hugely important they make progress in the Middle East peace process, Ashton told a news conference.The Quartet agreed it would discuss the dramatic developments in Egypt and elsewhere in the region and the implications for the peace process as a matter of high priority.It reiterated support for concluding the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations by September this year and said the Quartet would meet again in mid-March on the way ahead.Quartet envoys would seek to meet separately with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators before this in Brussels, it said.
Egypt, the Arab world's biggest and most influential country, has been a significant force in efforts to bring about an Israeli-Palestinian deal.
WESTERN FEARS OF RADICALISATION
Western governments fear unrest in Egypt could lead to Islamist radicalization that could threaten Cairo's role in the peace efforts and even its own 1979 peace agreement with Israel.Nabil Abu Rdainah, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the Palestinians welcomed any meetings of the Quartet but were demanding a staunch position regarding (Israeli) settlements so that we can go to negotiations.
The crisis of the Middle East is linked to the continuation of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, he said.The Quartet statement said the group regrets the discontinuation of Israel's 10-month moratorium on settlement activity.It also strongly reaffirms that unilateral actions by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of the negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community -- a reference to campaigns by both sides to set out borders before they have been negotiated.Israeli officials had no immediate reaction, but on Friday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated a call on Palestinians to enter direct peace talks and announced a series of initiatives to help the civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, in line with Israel's bottom-up strategy of economic and security improvement.Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair said on Friday Israel had also agreed in principle to cede to the Palestinian Authority security control over seven West Bank towns and to help improve the Palestinian infrastructure in East Jerusalem.Blair emphasized that agreements were not the same as implementation, but in the past two years there had been significant economic growth in the West Bank thanks to actions both by the Palestinians and the Israelis.
He said a combination of progress in improving peoples lives and strong political negotiation was needed for peace and this was even more true given uncertainty in the region.(Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah)
Israel, Jordan gas cut after Egypt pipeline attack
by Jailan Zayan – Sat Feb 5, 2:45 pm ET
CAIRO (AFP) – Saboteurs attacked an Egyptian gas pipeline to Jordan on Saturday, forcing authorities to switch off supplies from a twin pipeline to Israel, an official said, as anti-regime protests raged in Cairo.Attackers used explosives against the pipeline in the town of Lihfen in northern Sinai, near the Gaza Strip, the official told AFP. It was initially thought the pipeline to Israel was targeted.
The pipeline to Jordan has been attacked and the supply to Israel has been cut off, the official said.The army has taken precautionary measures to stop the fire from spreading, the official added, as rescue services were putting out the flames.It was not immediately clear who was responsible, or whether the attack was linked to the deadly protests against President Hosni Mubarak's rule, which entered their 12th day on Saturday.A broad swathe of Egypt's opposition, including the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, as well as public opinion, has called for Cairo to stop supplying Israel with gas.Egypt supplies about 40 percent of Israel's natural gas, and in December, four Israeli firms signed 20-year contracts worth up to 10 billion dollars (7.4 billion euros) to import Egyptian gas.Israel has suspended imports of Egyptian gas for security reasons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.But there will be no difficulties providing electricity to the Israeli population because there is a system of alternative energy supplies, the statement said.The Israeli defence ministry said that it had strengthened security around its gas installations following the attack.
In Jordan, an official told AFP that the cut would cost the country -- the only other Arab nation besides Egypt to have signed a peace treaty with Israel -- 3.5 million dollars (2.7 million euros) a day.This cut will cost Jordan 3.5 million dollars a day as the kingdom will have to replace the gas with diesel and oil to fire the country's electricity generators, the official said, asking not to be named.
Jordan imports 6.8 million cubic metres of Egyptian gas a day, which, when burnt, accounts for 80 percent of Jordan's electricity needs, the official said, adding that he expected supplies to resume in three or four days.An armed Bedouin group in June threatened to attack the pipeline, security officials said, leading Egyptian authorities to beef up security around the pipeline and terminal.Police relations with the region's former nomads are often tense, with the Bedouin complaining of routine harassment and discrimination.Activists accuse the police of exploiting concerns about the pipeline to crack down on the community.Human rights groups have criticised Egyptian policy towards the Bedouin, who faced harsh police treatment after a series of bombings in Sinai resorts between 2004 and 2006, which killed dozens of Egyptians and foreign tourists.Saturday's attack came after Israel expressed concern that its natural gas supplies from Egypt could be threatened if a new regime takes power in Cairo. We again realise that the Middle East is not a stable region. We must act to ensure our energy security without relying on others, a spokesman for Israel's National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau said on Tuesday.
Israel is concerned that a post-Mubarak regime might not respect the peace treaty signed three decades ago -- potentially threatening the crucial energy supplies Egypt provides.Landau on Monday summoned the heads of Israeli companies that are developing the offshore Tamar gas field -- due to start production in 2013 -- to urge them to push ahead with its timely development, his office said.Landau told them Tamar's importance was even greater in these times of unrest in our region.The field, off the port city of Haifa in northern Israel, holds estimated reserves of eight billion cubic metres (280 billion cubic feet).
Hundreds march against government in Jordan By Dale Gavlak, Associated Press – Fri Feb 4, 2:01 pm ET
AMMAN, Jordan – Hundreds of Jordanians inspired by Egypt's uprising on Friday staged a protest against Jordan's prime minister, installed just days earlier in response to anti-government marches.However, Jordan's main Muslim opposition group said it wants to give the new leader a chance to carry out promised political reforms, and Friday's turnout was much smaller than in previous protests against rising prices.
The scenes of mass protests in Egypt have riveted the Arab world, and unrest has spread to other countries, most recently Yemen where tens of thousands on Thursday called on their long-time president to step down.However, expectations of large-scale protests in Arab countries after Friday's noon prayers, the highlight of the Muslim religious week, did not materialize.In Syria, where authoritarian President Bashar Assad has resisted calls for political freedoms, an online campaign calling for protests in the capital, Damascus, fizzled. Plainclothes police deployed in key areas of Damascus on Friday, and no protesters showed up.In Iraq, residents seizing on the Egypt protests staged two small demonstrations to protest corruption in their own security forces, rampant unemployment and scant electricity and water supply.
About 100 Iraqis gathered in central Baghdad's famous Mutanabi book market to complain about limited civil liberties and a lack of services. No to the restriction of freedoms, read one of their banners.Iraqi clerics warned leaders to heed public frustrations, or potentially face an uprising like those in Egypt and, a month earlier, in Tunisia.Later Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appeared to address those concerns, at least symbolically, saying he planned to cut in half his annual salary. He is believed to make at least $360,000 a year.The march in the Jordanian capital of Amman on Friday was far smaller than previous anti-government protests. Jordan's King Abdullah II has tried to pre-empt further unrest by sacking his Cabinet earlier this week and installing a new prime minister, Marouf al-Bakhit, amid promises of political reform.The Islamic Action Front, the political arm of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, said it is confident about change after meeting with the king and al-Bakhit, said a leader of the group, Nimer al-Assaf.We are very optimistic that change will happen, al-Assaf said after Friday prayers at a mosque near the prime minister's office where the activists gathered.He said the opposition would give the new government a chance and that he did not expect further protests.
Friday's protesters in Amman included Islamists and supporters of other opposition groups.Small protests took place in three other towns in Jordan.We want jobs and an end to corruption, which is making government officials rich on the expense of poor people like me, said unemployed Mahmoud Abu-Seif, 29, who joined some 150 marchers in the city of Karak.Across the Muslim world, worshippers and leading clerics expressed support for the uprising in Egypt, where huge crowds of protesters have been pressing for President Hosni Mubarak's ouster.In Malaysia's biggest city, Kuala Lumpur, hundreds marched outside the U.S. Embassy, calling on the U.S. to pressure Mubarak to resign immediately. Protesters, including many from Malaysia's Islamic opposition party, shouted Down, down, Mubarak.Police used water canons to break up the crowd and arrested several demonstrators. Police in Malaysia, a country with a Muslim majority, regularly break up protests deemed illegal. Several thousand worshippers rallied outside a mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, in solidarity with the Egyptian protesters. No to dictatorship,read a huge banner hanging from a wall of the Beyazit mosque.In the Turkish capital, Ankara, dozens of protesters marched toward Egypt's embassy. One of the speakers, Mehmet Pamak, head of the pro-Islamic Scientific and Cultural Research Foundation, branded Mubarak a puppet of Israel.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel.In Iran, top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told worshippers that Mubarak betrayed his people because of his close alliance with Israel and the U.S.America's control over Egypt's leaders has ... turned Egypt into the biggest enemy of Palestine and turned it into the greatest refuge for Zionists, Khamenei said.This explosion we see among the people of Egypt is the appropriate response to this great betrayal that the traitor dictator committed against his people, Khamenei said, without mentioning Mubarak by name.Iran has portrayed the unrest in Egypt as a replay of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that toppled the pro-U.S. Shah and brought Islamic militants to power.
While Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is perhaps most organized of the opposition factions, the protests have been driven by a loose alliance of diverse groups, including young, secular Egyptians.The Brotherhood, which is officially banned, calls for rule by Islamic law in Egypt. But it has also cast itself in an uneasy partnership with pro-democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei and other opposition groups.In Madrid, members of the Spanish branch of the human rights group Amnesty International handed the Egyptian Embassy what they said was a petition with 86,000 signatures supporting the Egyptian protesters.Amnesty International members gathered outside the embassy and held up a banner that read A New Egypt With Human Rights.
Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Zeina Karam in Damascus, Lara Jakes in Baghdad and Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
Hamas allows anti-Mubarak protest in Gaza By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press – Thu Feb 3, 12:58 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Hamas security officials allowed hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza to demonstrate Thursday against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in the first such public gathering in the seaside strip since turmoil erupted in neighboring Egypt last week.In the West Bank, the Western-backed Palestinian Authority broke up a demonstration of anti-Mubarak protesters but permitted a smaller gathering backing him.Nearly 1,000 Hamas supporters rallied in front of the Egyptian representative office in Gaza, waving Palestinian and Egyptian flags and chanting, Mubarak, you must leave. Some carried banners in Arabic and English that read, The Egyptian people want to change their regime, we must support and respect that.One participant, Khalil Mohammed, 21, said Gazans and Egyptians share the same concerns and the same interests as young men. This is a symbolic stand to show our solidarity.
Hamas security officials stood by and did not break up the protest.The militant Islamist group, which controls the Gaza Strip, has largely kept quiet on the unrest in neighboring Egypt. Hamas is affiliated with Egypt's largest opposition group, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, and has been openly critical of Mubarak's regime because of the Israel-Egypt blockade of Gaza.
In 2007 Hamas wrested control of the Gaza from the Palestinian Authority.In the West Bank, police quickly dispersed more than 100 people who gathered in downtown Ramallah in solidarity with the Egyptian people calling for Mubarak's resignation, freelance journalist Mohammed Jaradat said.Police detained him and three other people, Jaradat said, including a cameraman whose footage was confiscated. Some protesters said police roughed them up.The incident came hours after a smaller pro-Mubarak demonstration in the same spot.A reporter from The Associated Press saw about 10 protesters wait for cameramen and photographers to set up their gear, then chant support for Mubarak. They also called Egyptian pro-democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei a coward and an American collaborator.Police stood by. Demonstrators would not say who organized them.Earlier this week, Abbas told his security chiefs to clamp down on protests in support of the Egyptian demonstrators, a senior Palestinian security official said Tuesday.Abbas told the chiefs he was concerned that loosening their grip could provide an opening to Hamas to destabilize the West Bank, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to discuss details of the meeting.
Abbas considers Mubarak an ally for his role in peace talks with Israel and for seeking reconciliation among rival Palestinians factions.Police spokesman Adnan Damiri said both protests were illegal because they had not received permits. He denied charges of favoritism.Our policy is that we don't intervene in the internal affairs of other countries, he said.The Palestinian Authority has prevented two other demonstrations in recent weeks in support of anti-government protesters in Tunisia and Egypt.Associated Press writer Ben Hubbard contributed from Ramallah, West Bank.
