Israel PM meets Blair as Quartet pushes peace
– Mon Feb 28, 1:57 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday with Quartet envoy Tony Blair, as negotiators sought to coax Israel and the Palestinians into dialogue.Israeli officials confirmed the two had met but refused to give details of what was discussed, as media reports suggested the premier was shying away from sending his chief negotiator to Brussels to meet representatives of the Middle East Quaret.Later, Netanyahu cautioned lawmakers from his hardline Likud party that Israel was facing intense international pressure over the construction of settlements in the West Bank.We are currently making efforts to maintain the existing construction, but we must understand that we are (faced with) a very difficult international reality, the Haaretz daily quoted him as saying.His comments came amid protests from the lawmakers over the destruction of a building in a wildcat West Bank settlement outpost early Monday by Israeli forces.Netanyahu said Israel needed to act with restraint, citing the new reality in the Middle East and noted that getting the United States to veto a recent UN Security Council resolution condemning settlement construction took great effort.We could keep banging our heads against the wall, but that's not how I do things, he said.
Direct peace talks between the two sides broke down late last year over Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.Israel refused to extend a 10-month partial settlement freeze and the Palestinians, who say they will not negotiate while Jewish settlers build on land they want for a future state, refused to continue with the talks.Since then the international community has been searching in vain for a way to get them back to the negotiating table.The Quartet chiefs -- EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and UN head Ban Ki-moon -- who last met in Munich on February 5, are due to meet again in Paris at an unspecified date in March.
Ahead of the principals' meeting, their Middle East envoys are to hold separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Brussels on March 2, according to EU officials.Officials at Blair's office in Jerusalem confirmed that Quartet envoys were holding a series of meetings in Brussels this week and were expected to meet both Israeli and Palestinian representatives.But reports in two Israeli newspapers said Netanyahu had not yet given the green light to his chief negotiator, Yitzhak Molcho, to attend the talks later this week.Netanyahu has voiced his reservations to the meeting, fearing that by agreeing he would open the door to international influence on the terms of the renewed talks.Specifically, the premier is worried of being forced to resume talks toward a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, the Haaretz newspaper said.Quoting sources in Netanyahu's office, the paper said he had been trying to find out from Washington more about the aim and goals of the Brussels session, before making a decision.Briefing the UN Security Council last week, UN peace envoy Robert Serry said Quartet officials understood that there was a need for much clearer parameters in order for the two sides to negotiate properly.
It is becoming increasingly clear that a more concrete and substantive basis would have to be laid out for the parties to engage. The Quartet must play its full role in this regard, he said. Meanwhile, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and two others were in Brussels for a round of talks with Quartet officials, sources in Ramallah said.Erakat resigned on February 12 over the theft from his office of thousands of confidential documents on peace talks with Israel, which were subsequently leaked to Al-Jazeera and the London Guardian. However, his resignation was never formally accepted by Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas.
Iran FM: Iran's protests unlike recent uprisings By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press – Mon Feb 28, 1:42 pm ET
GENEVA – Iran's top diplomat on Monday praised the popular uprisings roiling the Arab world, but dismissed protests in his own country as unjustified.Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran has only experienced a few manipulated protests, while mass movements in the nations in the region are authentic, popular and people's movements.Speaking to several reporters in Geneva, he said: There is absolutely no comparison between what is happening in the countries in the region and what has happened in Iran in a few incidents.The protests that swept Iran after its disputed June 2009 presidential election grew into a larger movement opposed to Iran's ruling system. Hundreds of thousands peacefully took to the streets, but a heavy military crackdown crushed the protests.Salehi, who is in Geneva for a meeting of the Human Rights Council, said his government was shocked by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi resorting to extreme force against civilians and hopes that the power is transferred through legal means to the people.In Tehran, Iran's state prosecutor said Monday that authorities have cut all outside contact with the country's two senior opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, as part of a campaign to silence dissent.Salehi said of Karroubi's arrest that it must come based on provocation of certain rule of law. In the case of Mousavi, Salehi said that if there is any charge, this charge has to be raised from the side of the judiciary and not the Foreign Ministry.
Human rights advocates said Sunday the two opposition leaders and their wives were in grave danger after security forces apparently took them from their homes, where they had been under house arrest.Two years have already passed since the last presidential election in Iran and they have been living a normal life and they have asked people to come into the streets, which we think are manipulated protests, because there was absolutely no justification for that, Salehi said. They had to yield and be satisfied with the results.
Al-Qaeda's Zawahiri warns of US influence in Mideast
– Sun Feb 27, 10:33 pm ET
NICOSIA (AFP) – Al-Qaeda's Egyptian-born number two Ayman al-Zawahiri has said the United States is installing sympathetic new regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, demanding Muslims rise up against whippers and invaders.The SITE monitoring service said Monday that Zawahiri had released the third of a series of audio messages on uprisings in the Arab world, recorded between the fall of Tunisia's regime and Hosni Mubarak's government in Egypt.Railing against Washington, Zawahiri also said Tunisians should resist the French occupier and establish a rule that will be a role model of counselling and justice for your brothers.The United States had abandoned Tunisia's long-time president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in mid-January when it became clear that he had become a liability, the fugitive deputy to Al-Qaeda supremo Osama bin Laden said.However, the reins of the affairs remain with America's men, its agents and their soldiers... Zawahiri said.
The same thing was happening in Egypt, he said in the message, recorded before Mubarak was ousted by the military on February 11 following more than two weeks of mass protests.Zawahiri said a secular alternative was emerging in the shape of Mohamed ElBaradei, the former Vienna-based UN atomic chief.I don't know where will be the headquarters of this transitional government -- in Cairo or in Vienna or in New York? he said.He is an alternative that is in harmony with the international system, fulfilling its interests and giving the poor and weak some freedoms and some liberty, his message said.But Egypt will remain a base for the Crusader campaign and a primary partner in America's war on Islam under the name of war on terror, and protector of the southern border for the Zionist Entity (Israel).Addressing the free, honourable ones in Egypt, Tunisia, and all Muslim nations, Zawahiri said: Know that the road is still long in order to free our Ummah (Islamic community) from its whippers and its invaders.
Israeli inquiry clears officials in 2002 Gaza raid
– Sun Feb 27, 12:48 pm ET
JERUSALEM – An Israeli inquiry into the killing of a Hamas militant nine years ago has ruled the airstrike legal, despite withering international criticism.An Israeli plane dropped a one-ton bomb on the Gaza house of Hamas bombing mastermind Salah Shehadeh in 2002. He was killed along with 14 others, including several children.The Israeli government report issued Sunday called the strike legal according to international law, clearing Israeli officials. It blamed faulty intelligence for the civilian deaths.The airstrike came during a Palestinian uprising, with Hamas suicide bombings.The incident led pro-Palestinian groups to call for criminal charges against Israeli officials involved in the airstrike. Such charges still interfere with their travel.
Rocket fired from Gaza hits Israel, no casualties
– Sun Feb 27, 3:55 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit Israeli territory on Sunday morning, raising Israel's alert level but causing no damage or casualties, according to Israel's military and police.The latest rocket, which the military's spokeswoman said struck a field in the Eshkol region in southern Israel, comes after a string of Israeli air raids targeting militant training camps across the Gaza Strip on Saturday night.A first set of strikes hit two camps belonging to Islamic Jihad, while a second raid targeted two camps belonging to the Ezzedine al-Qassem Brigades, the armed wing of Gaza's ruling Hamas movement, in the southern city of Rafah.The second raid wounded four people including a toddler, Palestinian officials and medics said.A third air strike blasted an Islamic Jihad facility west of Khan Yunis, witnesses said.The military said the attacks targeted a number of terror hubs... in response to recent rocket fire into Israel.The air raids came after tensions rose along the Israel-Gaza border this week following clashes in which an Islamic Jihad gunman was killed and a rocket attack on the Israeli city of Beersheba hit a house but caused no casualties.
It was the first rocket to reach the city since the devastating offensive Israel waged against Gaza December 2008 to January 2009, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn the territory's militants not to test the Jewish state.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Sunday that the country's alert level had been raised in response to the renewed rocket fire and regional instability.The police examined the security situation and decided to raise the alert level on Israeli territory for a week, Rosenfeld said.The security examination was undertaken after the new Palestinian rocket fire on Sunday and because of the continued unrest in the Arab and Muslim world, he said.It is not unusual for Israel to raise its security alert level in response to a perceived increase in the risk of attacks.
Russia vows to sell missiles to Syria
by Dmitry Zaks – Sat Feb 26, 11:56 am ET
MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia vowed Saturday to fulfil its contract to supply Syria with cruise missiles despite the turmoil shaking the Arab world and Israel's furious condemnation of the deal.The contract is in the implementation stage, news agencies quoted Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying.Russia initially agreed to send a large shipment of anti-ship Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria in 2007 under the terms of a controversial deal that was only disclosed by Serdyukov in September 2010.
The revelation infuriated both Israel and the United States and there had been speculation that Russia would decide to tear up the contract amid the current turmoil plaguing north Africa and the Middle East.Israel -- which is still technically in a state of war with Syria and fears its close ties with Iran -- suspects that the shipment is ultimately aimed at supplying Hezbollah militants in neighbouring Lebanon.The disputed sale is believed to be worth at least $300 million (218 million euros) and is meant to see Syria receive 72 cruise missiles in all.
Russia has not officially confirmed making any Yakhont deliveries to date.But Interfax cited one unnamed military source as saying that Russia had already sent Syria two Bastion coastal defence systems that can include up to 36 Yakhont missiles each.The feared complex can only operate when equipped with radar and target detection helicopters and it was not clear from Serdyukov's comments which supplies -- if any -- had already been received by Syria.The Israeli ambassador to Moscow confirmed that his country was primarily worried the missiles would end up in the hands of the Shiite Hezbollah movement that receives strong backing from Syria.The question of these missiles' deliver to Syria really has triggered a negative reaction in Israel, Dorit Golender told the Interfax news agency.And this is understandable since Hezbollah has repeatedly used weapons that they received either from Lebanon or Syria.Serdyukov's statement comes amid Russian efforts to keep its military supply lines open to the Middle East despite the wave of revolutions and social unrest sweeping the region.A source in the Russian arms exports industry said this week that the fall of the region's regimes may see the country lose about $10 billion dollars in contracts.Serdyukov himself confirmed that the unrest may force Russia to give up some of its Soviet-era clients in the Arab world.There is a chance we might lose something, the defence minister said on a visit on visit to Russia's Pacific port city of Vladivostok.
But I hope that the main weapons and military equipment agreements will be fulfilled, Serdyukov said.Russia's sales to Syria have come under particularly close scrutiny because of fears that Moscow may be also be covertly assisting Damascus' nascent nuclear programme.The head of the country's arms export corporation in October denied that Russia had also signed an agreement to supply Syria with its latest range of MiG-31 fighter jets.But the same agency confirmed in May that Russia was in the process of supplying Syria with a less advanced fighter jet version -- the Mig-29 -- along with short-range air defence systems and various armoured vehicles.Russia is the world's second-largest arms exporter behind the United States and its sales are crucial to the country's efforts to keep alive a creaking defence industry whose reforms have dragged on for years.
Hundreds of thousands protest across Arab world By BEN HUBBARD and KARIN LAUB, Associated Press – Fri Feb 25, 3:44 pm ET
CAIRO – Hundreds of thousands poured out of mosques and staged protests across the Arab world Friday, some trying to shake off autocratic rulers and others pressuring embattled leaders to carry out sweeping reforms.In the Libyan capital of Tripoli, protesters reported coming under a hail of bullets and said they saw at least seven people killed. In Iraq, troops opened fire in several cities to push back crowds marching on government offices, killing at least 12. Scuffles were reported in Yemen, while pro-reform marches in Egypt, Bahrain and Jordan were largely peaceful.
The large crowds signaled that the push for change in North Africa and the Middle East continues to build momentum. The first anti-government protests erupted several weeks ago, toppling rulers in Tunisia and Egypt and quickly spreading to other countries.The situation remained most volatile in Libya, where longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi has cracked down hard on an 11-day-old rebellion after losing control over large chunks of the country.In Tripoli, where Gadhafi remains in charge, protesters staged the first significant anti-government rallies in several days, trying to march from several districts to the central Green Square.Protesters said they came under fire from pro-Gadhafi militias. One man among a crowd of thousands said gunmen on rooftops and in the streets opened fire with automatic weapons and even an anti-aircraft gun. In the first wave of fire, seven people within 10 meters (yards) of me were killed. Many people were shot in the head, the man, who was marching from Tripoli's eastern Tajoura district, told The Associated Press. It was really like we are dogs.Across cities that have come under control of the rebels, tens of thousands held rallies to support their comrades in Tripoli.
Iraq saw its biggest and most violent anti-government protests since the wave of regional unrest began. Thousands marched on government buildings and clashed with security forces in several cities, an outpouring of anger that left 12 people dead.
The protests were fueled by frustration over corruption, chronic unemployment and shoddy public services.We want a good life like human beings, not like animals, said Khalil Ibrahim, 44, one of about 3,000 protesters in the capital, Baghdad. Demonstrators knocked down blast walls, threw rocks and scuffled with club-wielding troops who chased them down the street.Many Iraqis rail against a government that locks itself in the highly fortified Green Zone, home to the parliament and the U.S. Embassy, and is viewed by most of its citizens as more interested in personal gain than public service.Iraq's deadliest clashes Friday were reported in the northern city of Mosul, where hundreds rallying outside a provincial council building came under fire from guards. Officials said five people were killed. The other deaths were reported in four other cities.Huge crowds also turned out in Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen, but with very different goals.In Egypt, where an 18-day uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, tens of thousands jammed Cairo's Tahrir Square to keep up the pressure on the country's military rulers to carry out reforms.
Demonstrators said they are worried the army is not moving quickly enough on reforms, including repealing emergency laws, releasing political prisoners and removing members of Mubarak's regime from power.Thousands chanted that they won't leave until they see Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, one of the Mubarak-era holdovers, removed from office. Some waved flags of Libya to show support for the uprising next door.We made Mubarak step down and we must make Shafiq also step down, said Safwat Hegazy, a protester from the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest and best-organized opposition group.Since Mubarak's fall, the military rulers have disbanded both houses of parliament and promised constitutional reforms that will allow wider participation in elections, to be held within six months. They have also promised to repeal emergency laws that give security forces largely unchecked powers, though only when conditions permit — a caveat that worries protesters. In Bahrain, the first Gulf state to be thrown into turmoil by the Arab world's wave of change, tens of thousands rallying in the central square demanded sweeping political concessions from the ruling monarch.
Security forces made no attempt to halt the marchers, an apparent sign that Bahrain's rulers do not want more bloodshed denunciations from their Western allies. In the early stage of the two-week-old rallies, troops had used lethal force. The unrest is highly significant for Washington. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is the Pentagon's main counterweight against Iran's widening military ambitions. Bahrain's Sunni monarchy, meanwhile, is under pressure from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf rulers not to yield to the Shiite-led protesters, fearing it could open footholds for Shiite powerhouse Iran.In the Arab world's poorest country, Yemen, tens of thousands marching in the capital of Sanaa demanded that their U.S.-backed president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, step down. It was one of the largest crowds since protests erupted earlier this month.A Muslim preacher who led Friday's prayer told protesters it was their religious duty to topple Saleh, describing him as a devil who has driven us to the stone ages. Shouts from the crowd of Allahu akbar, or God is great, accompanied his words.We are coming to take you from the presidential palace,activist Tawakul Kermal told the gathering, addressing Saleh. Yemen has a weak central government and an active branch of al-Qaida. Saleh has promised to step down after elections in 2013, but the demonstrators want him out now. Activists have been digging in, setting up encampments in some public areas.A record crowd turned out Friday in Jordan, where Jordan's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, has warned that citizens' patience is wearing thin with the government's slow moves toward reform.Hamza Mansour, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, called for quicker steps to give Jordanians a bigger say in politics and to have them elect their prime minister — now selected by King Abdullah II. Mansour spoke to 4,000 Jordanian protesters, the largest crowd yet to take to the streets of downtown Amman for the pro-reform cause.Associated Press writers Paul Schemm in Benghazi, Libya, Ahmed al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen, Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, and Adam Schreck in Manama, Bahrain, contributed reporting.
Gaza's Islamist rulers hounding secular community By DIAA HADID, Associated Press – Fri Feb 25, 3:31 am ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – After nearly four years of Hamas rule, the Gaza Strip's small secular community is in tatters, decimated by the militant group's campaign to impose its strict version of Islam in the coastal territory.Hamas has bullied men and women to dress modestly, tried to keep the sexes from mingling in public and sparked a flight of secular university students and educated professionals. Most recently, it has confiscated novels it deems offensive to Islam from a bookshop and banned Gaza's handful of male hairdressers from styling women's hair.The Hamas push toward religious fundamentalism is especially striking at a time of great change in the Middle East. With the Iranian-backed group firmly entrenched in power, Gaza seems unlikely to experience the type of pro-democracy unrest that has swept through much of the region.In Gaza, defense of human rights and democracy has traditionally been the role of people whose world view is not shaped solely by Islam. Their shrinking influence could undermine those values.Some argue that the case of Gaza could also be a warning sign for those pushing for quick democratic reforms in the region. Hamas rose to power in part by winning internationally backed parliamentary elections held in 2006.Hamas officials say claims that they are trying to Islamize Gaza are meant to help deter the international community from recognizing their rule. This isn't true, said Yousef Rizka, senior Hamas government official. We respect freedom.Gaza, a tiny sliver of land squeezed between Egypt and Israel, always had a significant Islamic flavor, but once tolerated bars and cinemas, especially during Egyptian rule from 1948 to 1967. A conservative religious movement began to take hold in the 1980s, as part of a larger, region-wide religious awakening and because of intensifying conflict with Israel, which occupied the territory from 1967 to 2005.
The trend accelerated with the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in 1987, which coincided with the founding of Hamas. In June 2007, Hamas seized control of Gaza after ousting forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.In Gaza, whose 1.5 million people are overwhelmingly devout Muslims, liberal and secular are loose, interchangeable terms. They apply to women who exchange modest Muslim headscarves for Western clothes, men who don't observe obligatory Muslim prayers, as well as those who call for separation of faith and politics.Because the terms are used loosely, it's hard to know how many Gazans are actually secular. They dominate Gaza's human rights organizations, art collectives and youth groups.Since the Hamas takeover, their numbers appear to have shrunk. There are no firm statistics, but their public profile has certainly diminished. Many left to study abroad and never returned. Others obtained refugee visas in Europe or found work in the Gulf.In the end, the people who think differently are leaving, said Rami, a 32-year-old activist in one of Gaza's few secular groups. He refused to give his last name, fearing retribution.The Gallery Cafe, one of Gaza's last secular spots, is a freeze-frame of their lonely fortunes.About a dozen chain-smoking men and three women swigged nonalcoholic beer and sugary mint tea on a recent night as they debated the protests sweeping the Arab world. They huddled on plastic chairs under a marquee, pummeled by chilly wind.
The trend toward religious fundamentalism preceded the Hamas takeover. In recent years, hard-liners have burned down the cinemas. Their charred remains are still visible in Gaza City. Militants blew up the last bar in 2005.Gaza women, whose attire once varied from Western pants and skirts to colorful traditional embroidered robes, began donning ankle-length loose robes. Women with face veils, once rarely seen in Gaza, are now a common sight.After winning the 2006 election, Hamas vowed it wouldn't impose Islamic law. But within two years, bureaucrats began ordering changes that targeted secular Gaza residents.During the summer of 2009, plainclothes Interior Ministry officials on beach patrols ordered men to wear shirts. Today, plainclothes officers sometimes halt couples in the streets, demanding to see marriage licenses. Last year, the Interior Ministry banned women from smoking water pipes in public. Islamic faith does not ban women from smoking, but it is considered taboo in Gaza society.In November, officials shuttered the U.N.-funded Sharek Youth Forum, Gaza's largest youth organization and a popular hangout for secular youth.
Sharek employees say they were interrogated over pornography found on some staff computers. They said it was the personal material of some employees and offered to punish them for inappropriate behavior.In January, the Culture Ministry confiscated two novels from Gaza City's dusty Ibn Khaldoun bookshop. They said residents complained the books offended Islamic values.One described the lives of Egyptian immigrants in the U.S. and has been criticized for portraying a romantically involved unmarried couple. The other, an 18-year-old book by Syrian writer Haidar Haidar called A Banquet for Seaweed, was deemed blasphemous in parts of the Muslim world because it contains phrases describing God as a failed artist and the Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer.Pockets of dissent remain. Gaza human rights groups frequently and publicly denounce Hamas campaigns.One group of Gaza youth issued a call for support on Facebook, raging against their Hamas rulers, the U.N., and Israel. Most people who joined the effort live abroad.Jamal Sharif, an English-language lecturer, said many Gazans live two lives: They submit to Hamas rules on the streets, but keep their own, more secular, ideas alive at home through the Internet and satellite TV.That's where we learn to be cultured,Sharif said.
Quartet tries new Israeli-Palestinian peace bid By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press – Thu Feb 24, 6:09 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – Envoys from the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia are hoping to hold separate meetings with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to try to revive peace talks, the U.N.'s Mideast coordinator said Thursday,Robert Serry said the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators has proposed meetings with the two sides on all core issues blocking a peace settlement. They include borders of a Palestinian state, security arrangements, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.I hope very soon the Quartet envoys will be meeting separately with the parties — that is something new, he told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council.We are at the moment seeking confirmation from both sides that they are willing to meet the Quartet envoys next week in Brussels.Serry said the separate meetings would precede a meeting of Quartet leaders in mid-March, probably in the margins of a meeting in Paris.He again warned the council that the credibility of the international community including the Quartet is at stake in 2011.Serry said it is urgent that the Quartet respond and engage the parties in serious talks, including on substance, and support them in finding ways back to the negotiation table.The United States has tried but failed to get the two sides back to face-to-face negotiations that would culminate in a peace settlement and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Both sides have agreed to President Barack Obama's target date of September 2011 for an agreement, but negotiations collapsed weeks after they restarted in September because Israel ended a 10-month moratorium on settlement construction.The Palestinians insist they will not resume peace talks until Israel halts settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war which the Palestinians want for their future state.With many Mideast countries preoccupied by anti-government protests, Serry said the Israelis and Palestinians may want to wait to see what kind of a new Middle East emerges.But he said we want to hold the parties to their commitment to reach an agreement by September.Asked what the Quartet could do that the United States and its mediator George Mitchell couldn't do to revive negotiations, Serry said, I believe we can help the parties by bringing some suggestions to them which could be a basis for those negotiations.He refused to provide any details of the suggestions saying the Quartet wants to discuss them first with the Israelis and Palestinians.As the only Quartet envoy actually based in the Mideast, Serry said he sees developments on the ground that can complicate a two-state solution.Therefore, he said, the mediators must stress the urgency of finding a solution because the two-state solution is not a solution that is going to be there forever ... and I think the Quartet as a whole has a responsibility here.
ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
Syria may have built atom site near Damascus: report
– Thu Feb 24, 11:08 am ET
VIENNA (Reuters) – Western intelligence agencies suspect Syria may have been building a secret nuclear-related site near Damascus, a German daily said, and a U.S. think-tank suggested it could be linked to a site bombed by Israel in 2007.If confirmed, Thursday's report by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper would add to Western fears that the Arab state had engaged in covert nuclear activity before the Israeli attack and may increase pressure for action by the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in Jerusalem:The international authorities as well as intelligence organisations know this information, and the International Atomic Energy Agency is working to gain access to inspect this place, and this is the right thing.The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a Washington-based think-tank, said the operational status of what it suspected was a small uranium conversion facility near the town of Marj as Sultan was not known.
However, there is suspicion that Syria may have emptied the buildings prior to mid-2008 and taken steps to disguise previous activities at the site, it said in an analysis issued alongside the German newspaper report.For more than two years Syria has refused to allow U.N. inspectors to revisit a site destroyed by Israel in September 2007, which U.S. intelligence reports said was a nascent North Korean-designed nuclear reactor intended to produce bomb fuel.Sueddeutsche Zeitung said it had obtained photographs supposed to have been taken from inside two buildings at another location, near Marj as Sultan, about 15 km (9 miles) east of the capital and bordering a military site.It was not known exactly when they were taken, it said, adding the equipment was partially installed at the time.But together with other information they allow for the first time the credible suspicion that Syria was in the process of setting up a facility for so-called uranium conversion -- a preliminary stage for producing fuel rods which could be used in the suspected reactor, it said.The paper said it had decided not to publish the photographs in order to protect its sources.
SPECIAL INSPECTION?
ISIS said the Marj as Sultan complex may have been functionally linked to the Dair Alzour facility, also known as al-Kibar, attacked by Israel more than three years ago.There is a strong suspicion that was a uranium conversion facility related to the process of making fuel for the al-Kibar reactor, ISIS research analyst Paul Brannan told Reuters.Syria, an ally of Iran, denies ever harboring an atom bomb program and says the IAEA should focus on Israel instead because of its undeclared nuclear arsenal.There was no immediate comment on Thursday from Syria's mission to the U.N. atomic body, the Vienna-based IAEA.Syria has repeatedly rebuffed requests by the IAEA for follow-up access to Dair Alzour and three sites related to it, saying they are non-nuclear, military installations.ISIS said satellite images from July 25, 2008, showed considerable activity at the Marj as Sultan facility, which it believes is one of the three additional sites. What I see as most significant is the actions that Syria takes to throw a roadblock in the way of the IAEA. It knew that the IAEA was going to want to visit these sites, Brannan said. The IAEA is due to issue its quarterly reports about Iran and Syria ahead of a March 7-11 meeting of the Vienna-based body's 35-nation governing board.The United States has suggested that the IAEA may need to consider invoking its special inspection mechanism to give it authority to look anywhere necessary in Syria at short notice. Some diplomats in Vienna have cautioned against any such move, saying it would distract attention from the more pressing issue of Iran, which Western powers suspect is trying to develop nuclear weapons capability. Tehran denies this.(Reporting by Fredrik Dahl and Michael Shields in Vienna and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Iranian warships arrive in Syria, witness says By ALBERT AJI, Associated Press – Thu Feb 24, 10:17 am ET
DAMASCUS, Syria – A witness said two Iranian warships docked in Syria on Thursday, completing a voyage that has raised tensions with Israel during a time of upheaval in the Middle East.The ships arrived at Syria's Latakia seaport, after sailing through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean — the first such trip in at least three decades. A witness confirmed the ships' arrival, but asked that his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the issue.The chief of Iran's navy, Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, said the frigate Alvand and the supply ship Kharq are in Syria for a training mission. He rejected Israeli criticism that the trip was provocative.
Iran's foray into the Mediterranean came as the Middle East was reeling from an unprecedented wave of anti-government rebellions. Some observers said the voyage through the Suez Canal was as a test of Egypt, which is the gatekeeper of the strategic waterway that links the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.Egypt's new military rulers, who took power from ousted President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, appeared to have no choice but to allow the passage. An international convention regulating shipping says the canal must be open to every vessel of commerce or of war.Analysts believe Iran wanted to see whether Egypt's new rulers will stick to the pro-Western line of the Mubarak government. Some said the voyage also signals that Iran is ready to come to the aid of regional allies, including Syria and Iranian proxies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Egyptians, Tunisians try to help Libyan neighbors By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press – Thu Feb 24, 10:52 am ET
CAIRO – Having successfully toppled their own autocratic rulers, Egyptian and Tunisians are rushing to the aid of their Libyan neighbors with hastily organized blood drives, field hospitals and convoys of food and medicine.Volunteers say they couldn't remain indifferent to the suffering next door after having just fought their own battles for freedom.It made us feel that we can do something, said Momen El-Husseiny, an architecture student.In Libya, hundreds are believed to have been killed in the 10-day uprising against dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Large areas of Libya have fallen to rebels opposing his 42-year rule, but Gadhafi remains in control in and around the capital Tripoli and has vowed to fight to the death.While Libya was initially sealed off from the world, its border with Egypt has become porous in recent days and more details of Gadhafi's brutal crackdown have emerged, such as mercenaries firing on unarmed protesters.Hospitals in eastern Libya, now under rebel control, have sent appeals for supplies. While ad hoc volunteers and charities try to meet those needs, physicians from Egypt and elsewhere are headed to the region.
The Cairo-based Union of Arab Doctors said it has already managed to send 12 tons of drugs and medical supplies, 30 tons of food and 1,000 blood portions into Libya. Fifty-five Egyptian doctors have reached towns in eastern Libya, including Benghazi, Tobruk and Beyida, said Dr. Ibrahim Zafran, a coordinator for the group.The Egyptian and Tunisian armies have set up field hospitals on both sides of the border.And more help is on the way. Libyan exiles and worldwide Muslim charities have also launched aid drives, with one group reporting it raised tens of thousands of dollars in just two days.A Turkish ferry loaded with food and medicine was heading toward Libya on Thursday before mooring at Crete due to high seas. Turkey was expected to send more aid ships in coming days, and the United Arab Emirates also promised to help.Young veterans of the Egyptian uprising that pushed out President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11 set up a Facebook page to coordinate aid efforts. Within a few days, they had thousands of members and donations rolled in, they said.The activists said they felt special kinship with the Libyans and were emboldened to take quick action because of their own success. We have energy, we're fast, and the government bureaucrats are just trying to follow up, El-Husseiny said.
On Wednesday, activists staffed an impromptu collection point outside a mosque in Cairo's Mohandeseen neighborhood.Donated flour, rice, sugar, and medicines were stacked along a sidewalk. Passers-by gave blood in mobile units parked nearby, and volunteers handed out flyers showing pictures of bloodied corpses in Libya to passing motorists to spur them to make donations.Since earlier this week, the goods have been loaded onto trucks every night and driven to the Libyan border, a 17-hour journey from Cairo.Dr. Ahmed Sharif, an Egyptian physician who grew up in London, said he was preparing to travel with the next convoy to the border town of Salloum. Sharif, 34, said he is taking sutures, antiseptics, IV fluids, bandages and other emergency medical supplies that Libyan medical officials have requested.Zafran, the coordinator for the Union of Arab Doctors, said shipments are loaded from Egyptian to Libyan vehicles at the border. There is no danger is in the eastern zone of Libya he said, but doctors don't dare venture west of Benghazi, into areas still under Gadhafi's control.Ramzi Eltajoury, a Libyan expatriate in London, said he established a medical charity after returning from a trip to Benghazi several days ago. He said his group manage to raise tens of thousands of dollars in just two days. The situation is dire in the hospitals, he said. While aid is reaching Libya from Egypt, the border between Egypt and Tunisia remains largely impenetrable, doctors involved in the aid effort said. As of Wednesday, about 2,500 Tunisians, 300 Egyptians and a few Libyans fleeing the chaos in Libya had managed to cross into Tunisia, but people injured in fighting were not among them, the doctors said.They (the injured) are prevented from exiting the country, and stopped long before they reach the border, Dr. Mourad al-Ayashi, a Tunis-based doctor, said Thursday.It's really frustrating for all the volunteers because they're ready, with tons of supplies and blood and everything, but they can't put any of it into practice, though we know there's an enormous need inside Libya.The Tunisian army has set up a field hospital with a capacity of 5,000 beds and 20 surgeons near the Libyan border, doctors said.The physicians hope that a humanitarian corridor will eventually be established to get the wounded into Tunisia, the nation that triggered the wave of uprisings in the Arab world when it kicked out its longtime ruler in mid-January.
After what we've seen on TV, it's impossible to remain indifferent to the fate of our neighbors, al-Ayashi said earlier this week. We went through a similar situation just recently, and we suffered, but in Libya, the suffering is immense.Associated Press writers Jenny Barchfield in Paris and Ben Hubbard in Cairo contributed to this report.
