Bahrain opposition head wants Iran, Saudi out
by Mohammed Fadhel – Wed Mar 30, 3:50 pm ET
MANAMA (AFP) – Bahrain's Shiite opposition head Ali Salman on Wednesday warned Iran and Saudi Arabia against using his country as a battlefield in a proxy war.Salman urged Iran to keep out of the Sunni-ruled state's affairs and called on Saudi troops to leave the country.Bahrain's foreign minister, meanwhile, renewed accusations that Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Tehran, was training regime opponents in the Shiite-majority country.We urge Iran not to meddle in Bahraini internal affairs, opposition head Ali Salman said, also demanding the withdrawal of Saudi-led troops in a joint Gulf force deployed in Bahrain since mid-March to help quash the protests.We demand Saudi Arabia withdraw the Peninsula Shield forces, he told a press conference. We do not want Bahrain to turn into a battlefield for Saudi Arabia, which is predominantly Sunni, and Shiite Iran, its arch-foe.Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said last week that bringing in Gulf troops was a strategic and political blunder that would cost the Bahraini regime its legitimacy.A teenager was killed when a police patrol opened fire with live rounds west of the capital Manama, the main Shiite-led parliamentary opposition group, Al-Wefaq, said.
There was no immediate confirmation from police of the circumstances of the death of Ahmed Sayyed Said Shams, 15, in the village of Sar.Twenty-four people, four of them police, were killed in a month of unrest, Bahrain's Interior Minister Rashed bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa said on Tuesday, linking the troubles to Hezbollah.Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa, in an interview with Al-Hayat newspaper, said Manama had proof of plotting with Hezbollah and of training in Lebanon on how to organise mass protests.But authorities in Bahrain have no intention of taking steps against Lebanese expatriates living in the kingdom, he said.The foreign minister said his country, which has been widely condemned over the use of deadly force to crush unrest, had feared its Shiite-led protests could spark sectarian conflict in other Gulf states.There have been sectarian tensions everywhere for centuries, he told Al-Hayat. Bahrain was afraid sectarian confrontations would break out not only in Bahrain but in all other regions.Sheikh Khaled argued that unrest in Bahrain was fired not so much by political opposition but rather a sectarian division.We want to affirm to the world that we don't have a problem between the government and the opposition ... There is a clear sectarian problem in Bahrain. There is division within society, he said.At Wednesday's news conference, Salman who heads Al-Wefaq, accused the government of using "the security option to shut the door to dialogue.
Last month, Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman, with the encouragement of Washington, offered to start an open dialogue with all parties on the issues which sparked the protests.But the opposition says it refuses to be coerced into talks.
Salman said opposition supporters were not being called on to stage fresh protests or to confront security forces. On Saturday, a day of mourning is to be held for the martyrs of the protests, he said. On March 16, security forces drove the pro-democracy protesters out of central Manama's Pearl Square and demolished their camp under a state of emergency put in place for three months.Bahrain's 40-member parliament on Tuesday accepted the resignation of 11 out of 18 MPs from Salman's Wefaq, exposing them to possible legal action, after a news blackout om the arrests of top activists.Al-Wefaq MPs resigned en masse in February in protest at the use of deadly force against demonstrators.
UN chief urges end to peace talks deadlock
– Wed Mar 30, 11:14 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for intensified efforts to break the impasse in Israel-Palestinian peace talks, saying resolution of the conflict is long overdue.We must intensify efforts to break the deadlock, he said in an address to Latin American and Caribbean delegates in Uruguay, the text of which was released by the UN spokesman in Jerusalem on Wednesday.The status quo is untenable, particularly at a time when so many throughout the region are pursuing freedom and dignity through non-violence -- a re-awakening also being felt among the Palestinians.Direct talks resumed at the beginning of September with the aim of securing a peace deal within a year but collapsed just weeks later after the expiry of an Israeli ban on new settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.President Mahmud Abbas has refused to return to the negotiating table while Israel continues to build on land the Palestinians want for a future state.Ban said settlement construction was illegal and must stop, and he criticised Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem and the forced transfer of residents there.
Israel's occupation, which began in 1967 was morally and politically unsustainable, and must end, he said, adding:Time is of the essence.A way must be found for Jerusalem to emerge as a capital of two states, Israel and Palestine, with arrangements for holy sites acceptable for all, he said.And there must be a just and agreed solution to the prolonged plight of the Palestinian refugees.He also condemned the surge in violence in and around the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.I am very concerned at continued violent tensions that put civilians in danger. I condemn escalating rocket fire from Gaza towards Israel, which indiscriminately targets civilians, and the killing and wounding of Gaza civilians, including children, by Israeli fire.And he also reiterated his condemnation of last week's deadly bomb attack in Jerusalem, which killed one and injured nearly 40 people.
US senators press Clinton on anti-Israel incitement
– Tue Mar 29, 7:04 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Twenty-seven US senators pressed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday to make clear to Palestinian leaders that any incitement to violence against Israel or Jews is not tolerable.We would like to know what specific steps you are taking to press for an end to this dangerous incitement, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Clinton urging action after the grisly stabbing slayings of a family of five Israelis, including three children.The Itamar massacre was a sobering reminder that words matter, and that Palestinian incitement against Jews and Israel can lead to violence and terror, the group, which included Democrats and Republicans, said in their message.We urge you to redouble your efforts to impress upon the Palestinian leadership that continuing to condone incitement is not tolerable. We also urge you to consider focusing adequate training and educational programs in the West Bank and Gaza that promote peaceful coexistence with Israel, they said.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has denounced the early March attack at the Itamar settlement in the West Bank near the northern city of Nablus as abominable, inhuman and immoral.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed Palestinian incitement for creating an atmosphere that led to the killings -- widely believed to have been carried out by Palestinians -- and Abbas has flatly rejected the charge.
In the wake of the Itamar attack as well as a bomb attack on a crowded Jerusalem bus stop last week, US lawmakers have stepped up appeals for President Barack Obama's administration to do more against Palestinian incitement.The 27 US senators told Clinton they had serious concern over continuing incitement directed against Jews and Israel within the Palestinian media, mosques and schools, and even by individuals or institutions affiliated with the Palestinian Authority.
Intelligence on Libya rebels shows flickers of Qaeda
By Missy Ryan and Susan Cornwell – Tue Mar 29, 6:42 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Intelligence on the rebels battling Libya's Muammar Gaddafi has shown flickers of al Qaeda or Hezbollah presence, NATO's operations commander said, but U.S. officials said there were no indications militant groups are playing a significant role in Libya.We are examining very closely the content, composition, the personalities, who are the leaders of these opposition forces, Admiral James Stavridis, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe and commander of U.S. European Command, said in testimony to a U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday.But several national security officials quickly and firmly denied that al Qaeda or Hezbollah were significantly involved.If anyone thinks there are vast numbers of al-Qaeda terrorists running the rebel movement in Libya, then Churchill never smoked a cigar in his life, one of the officials said.No one's saying there isn't a relative smattering of bad guys in Libya. After all, there always have been goons in the country, the official told Reuters.But let's get real here. This is, at its core, an anti-Gaddafi uprising rooted in major opposition to a repressive regime that has brutalized its own people for decades.U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice agreed that any al Qaeda involvement with the rebels was limited.Asked whether she had seen any evidence to support Stavridis' assessment, Rice told Fox News: I would like to think I'm reading much of the same stuff and no.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also made clear the wisps of information on al Qaeda and Hezbollah that Stavridis had alluded to were not based on hard intelligence.We do not have any specific information about specific individuals from any organization who are part of this, but of course, we're still getting to know those who are leading the Transitional National Council, she said in London after a conference on Libya.Gaddafi's troops on Tuesday reversed the westward charge of rebel forces as world powers met in London more than a week after the United States and other nations launched a military campaign aimed at protecting Libyan civilians.
SMALL NUMBERS
Think in terms of very small numbers of Libyan rebels being affiliated with al-Qaeda,a U.S. official familiar with internal government reporting told Reuters. While there are some limited connections, don't think that the rebels are somehow being led by al Qaeda. That's just not the case.Even as the rebels struggle against Gaddafi's better-armed, better-organized troops, Stavridis said the Libyan leader was likely to go if the coalition brought a range of military power to bear against him.If we work all the elements of power, we have a more than reasonable chance of Gaddafi leaving, because the entire international community is arrayed against him, he said.Two national security officials and a former White House counterterrorism expert said they could not confirm, and were puzzled by, Stavridis' assertion that intelligence showed possible involvement of Hezbollah with Libyan rebels.Juan Zarate, a former counterterrorism advisor on the National Security Council under President George W. Bush, said he had no information to confirm Hezbollah involvement and it would be incongruous with what U.S. experts generally understand to be the makeup of Libyan rebel forces.I would find it unlikely at this stage that we have hard and fast evidence that these groups are involved in a significant way in Libya, Zarate told Reuters.
Senators' questions at the hearing about the make-up of the Libyan opposition reflected skepticism in Congress about the Obama administration's preparedness for a campaign that came together quickly after weeks of speculation about whether the United States would intervene. It also underscores worries about who might take over in Libya if Gaddafi does go. It's premature to say what is our exit strategy until we have a little more clarity moving forward, Stavridis said.The Libya campaign has also intensified fears in Congress about the high cost of military activities overseas.The war in Afghanistan, for example, costs the United States around $9 billion a month. Stavridis said the Libya mission had cost hundreds of millions of dollars so far.(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball. Writing by Missy Ryan; editing by Christopher Wilson)
Arab League could host Palestinian unity talks
– Tue Mar 29, 1:42 pm ET
CAIRO (AFP) – The Arab League is willing to host Palestinian reconciliation talks, Secretary General Amr Mussa said on Tuesday after a meeting with Hamas leader Mahmud Zahar in Cairo.The Arab League is willing to host any Palestinian meetings to push forward national reconciliation efforts, Mussa told reporters.There is no justification whatsoever for the continued Palestinian division, he said, stressing the need to unify Palestinian ranks ahead the current challenges.Officials from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement and its rival Islamist group Hamas held talks on Saturday in a bid to restart reconciliation talks.The two have been at loggerheads since 2007 when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, routing Abbas loyalists.In Cairo, Zahar said that another meeting would be held in Gaza in the coming two days with Fatah members.Egypt has in the past hosted several rounds of Palestinian reconciliation talks but with no success.Egypt does not want to sponsor talks that would end in failure and we understand that,Zahar said.
The Arab League will therefore host the talks for a defined time period until an agreement is reached, which will be announced in Cairo, Zahar said.Gaza has been effectively cut off from the West Bank, which is under the control of Fatah, and repeated attempts at reconciliation have led nowhere.The disunity of the Palestinians has prevented them from taking a common stance in peace talks with Israel, which are now off the table.Tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza and the West Bank last week to demand that the two factions end their long-running rivalry.
Israel warning over Palestinian statehood bid
– Tue Mar 29, 12:04 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's foreign ministry has told its envoys to warn UN members that the Palestinians could face retaliatory steps if they unilaterally declare independence, the Haaretz newspaper said on Tuesday.The newspaper quoted unnamed ministry officials as saying Director General Rafael Barak sent classified cables to more than 30 embassies last week directing them to lodge protests against Palestinian efforts to gain recognition of statehood at the United Nations General Assembly in September.The embassies were those in the 15 member states of the UN Security Council and in key European capitals, Haaretz said.Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor would not comment directly on the Haaretz report, although he hinted that Israel could reciprocate with its own unspecified unilateral action.We are deeply disappointed by the deliberate choice of the Palestinian Authority to abandon negotiations, Palmor said. We think that taking the route of unilateral measures is a very dangerous mistake because it is not a one-way street.The paper did not specify what measures Israel might take, but National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau has said the proper response would be to annex land in the occupied West Bank.But public radio quoted officials in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office as saying he was unaware of any annexation plan.On March 20, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP the Palestinians were planning to ask the UN to recognise their state within the 1967 borders and with east Jerusalem as its capital.No date has been set for that bid, but it is widely expected to take place in September.Israel is fiercely opposed to such a move, arguing that negotiations are the only way to end the conflict and establish a Palestinian state.
Israel president: Great hopes for Arab revolutions
– Mon Mar 28, 2:49 pm ET
GENEVA – Israeli President Shimon Peres expressed hope Monday that popular revolutions in the Middle East could improve relations between his country and its Arab neighbors, if they end up becoming more democratic and prosperous.Changes in government would need to be accompanied by greater economic freedom and development, he said, as poverty and oppression in the region had fed resentment against Israel.
We hope the better our neighbors will have it, we shall have better neighbors, Peres told reporters in Geneva after a meeting with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey.
Israel was watching protests in Syria particularly closely.Clearly this changes the status quo in Syria, he said, without elaborating.A weeklong series of anti-government demonstrations has rocked Syria, considered one of Israel's biggest enemies in the region.
Israel deploys rocket defense system against Gaza By ARON HELLER, Associated Press – Sun Mar 27, 3:40 pm ET
BEERSHEBA, Israel – Israel deployed a cutting-edge rocket defense system on Sunday, rolling out the latest tool in its arsenal to stop a recent spike in attacks from the neighboring Gaza Strip.Israel hopes the homegrown Iron Dome system will provide increased security to its citizens, but officials warned that it can't do the job alone. The system went into operation shortly after an Israeli aircraft struck a group of militants in Gaza, killing two. Israeli said they were about to fire a rocket.The Iron Dome system has raised hopes that Israel has finally found a solution to the years of rocket fire from Gaza. The primitive rockets have evaded Israel's high-tech weaponry, in part because their short flight path, just a few seconds, makes them hard to track.The government approved Iron Dome in 2007. Its developers have compared the effort to a high-tech start-up, working around the clock in small teams to perfect its weapons, radar and software systems. The developer, local defense contractor Rafael, declared the system ready for use last year.Iron Dome uses sophisticated cameras and radar to track incoming rockets, determine where they will land, and intercept and destroy them far from their targets. If the system determines the rocket is headed to an open area where casualties are unlikely, it can allow the weapon to explode on the ground.Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of Israel's air defense corps, said Iron Dome has passed a series of tests and has now reached its evaluation phase in the field. It is expected to be fully operational in a matter of months.He added that it was only supposed to be deployed later in the year, but it was put into operation earlier because of the recent rocket attacks from Gaza.Obviously, after what we saw in the last few weeks, we accelerated the phases, he said, standing before the brown, box-like battery on the outskirts of Beersheba, southern Israel's largest city with a population of nearly 200,000.
After two years of relative calm, tensions along the Israel-Gaza border have heated up in recent weeks with Gaza militants firing deeper and more frequently into Israel, and the military striking back hard. Beersheba, more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Gaza, has been struck several times.Although Israel and Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group have both said they have no interest in escalating the situation, the renewed hostilities have fed concerns of another large-scale Israeli military operation.In December 2008, Israel invaded Gaza in response to years of rocket and mortar barrages on its southern communities, killing 1,400 Palestinians, including more than 900 civilians, and causing widespread destruction. Thirteen Israelis also died.Israel believes that Hamas, which suffered heavy losses in the fighting, has recovered from the fighting and restocked its arsenal with more powerful weapons.Gaza militants, including Islamic Jihad and Hamas, said over the weekend that they would halt their fire if Israel did.But early Sunday, Israeli aircraft struck a Palestinian rocket squad in the Gaza Strip, killing two militants from Islamic Jihad, a smaller rival of Hamas. It was not clear whether Islamic Jihad was reneging on its commitment to the cease-fire, or whether the airstrike hit a rogue group of militants.Hamas government spokesman Taher Nunu urged all militant factions to halt their fire as agreed.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had no interest in escalating things.But we won't hesitate to employ the might of the military against those who would attack our citizens, Netanyahu told his Cabinet.
Netanyahu also gave a sober assessment of Iron Dome, saying he didn't want to create the illusion that the system would offer Israel 100 percent protection from rocket attacks.The Iron Dome system is still in an experimental stage, and at any rate, we cannot deploy batteries that can protect every house, every school, every (military) base and every facility, he said. A second anti-missile battery will be deployed in another large southern city, Ashdod, the military said, without specifying a date.
Officials refused to say how many batteries would be deployed altogether, what their range was, or how much the system would cost. Analysts have estimated the cost of shooting down a rocket could be tens of thousands of dollars, compared to just a few hundred dollars to produce the rocket.The real test is not the price of knocking down the rocket, but how much damage the rocket would cause, and the price in human life, if it hits, said Gavish, the air force officer.Uzi Rubin, an Israeli missile defense expert, said the system is bound to suffer initial malfunctions as operators learn how to use it.Unfortunately, Israel is writing the book, Rubin said.That includes doing some things right and sometimes making some mistakes.Associated Press writers Josh Lederman contributed to this report from Jerusalem, and Ibrahim Barzak from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.
Israeli air strike kills two in Gaza
by Adel Zaanoun – Sun Mar 27, 8:45 am ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – An Israeli air strike killed two Gaza militants on Sunday, threatening to prompt more tit-for-tat attacks a day after militants committed to calm if Israel reciprocated.Two Palestinians were killed and another wounded Sunday morning in an Israeli air raid on targets east of Jabaliya, said Gaza emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya.Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigade, claimed the men as its own and said it would respond to the crime against them.The lives of our martyrs will not be wasted, a statement said. We will answer this crime against our mujahedeen in the right time and place.An army spokeswoman said an air force plane attacked on Sunday morning a terrorist cell that was preparing to fire a rocket at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip.On Saturday, after a week of clashes with Israel that killed eight Palestinians, militants led by Gaza's Hamas rulers declared they wanted to restore calm in the coastal enclave.
Hamas official Ismail Radwan told reporters after a meeting with Islamic Jihad and other factions that we are committed to calm as long as the occupation (Israel) commits to it.At Sunday's cabinet meeting, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said "Israel won't accept this (rocket) fire and will continue to act to foil it with whatever means are needed.This morning, too, we hit a cell that was preparing a launch against Israel. We have no interest in escalating the incidents and it is important to allow (Israeli citizens) to live their normal lives.Beforehand, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will not tolerate an attack on its civilians.In the past two weeks there have been elements that have been trying to violate the calm and security. We have no interest in escalating the situation, but will not hesitate employing the (army) against anyone who attacks our people.On Friday, Netanyahu had said Israel was ready to act with great force in response to rocket and mortar attacks.Following Saturday's meeting, Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, told AFP that everybody confirmed that they respect the national consensus by calming things with the Zionist enemy.But he said this depends on the nature of Israeli behaviour, and we insist on the need to respond immediately to each escalation by the occupiers.Just before the Gaza meeting started, the army said, a rocket was fired from Gaza on the Israel town of Sderot, causing no casualties or damage.
And Gaza militants fired two rockets into Israel on Friday night, with one damaging a house where Israeli media said eight sleeping people were unharmed.Visiting the site, Israel's southern front commander Major General Tal Russo said it appeared Hamas was unable to impose calm on Gaza.There is currently anarchy on the other side, the Ynet website quoted him as saying.Hamas is finding it difficult to turn the clock back.Meanwhile, Israel's military confirmed it began deploying Sunday its multi-million-dollar Iron Dome missile defence system in the south, with a first battery at Beersheva. In Israel last week, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Washington firmly backed Israel's right to respond both to the rocket fire and to a deadly Jerusalem bus bombing on Wednesday, which he described as repugnant acts.But he suggested Israel should tread carefully or risk derailing the course of popular unrest sweeping Arab and Muslim countries in the Middle East. Israel's leaders have appeared reluctant to be dragged into another bloody war with Hamas, especially as they lack international support for any new offensive on Gaza.Reacting to persistent attacks from Gaza, Israel launched a three-week assault on the strip over New Years 2009, in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died.
Syrian port city rocked by unrest; tensions widen By ZEINA KARAM and BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press – Sat Mar 26, 6:49 pm ET
DAMASCUS, Syria – A scenic seaside city echoed with gunfire Saturday as protesters defied government forces in Syria's second day of nationwide unrest, burning tires, attacking businesses and setting the offices of the ruling party aflame.At least two people were killed by rooftop snipers in the religiously mixed Mediterranean city of Latakia, officials said, and President Bashar Assad's government of minority Alawite Muslims blamed a major Sunni cleric in Qatar for inciting the unrest.The government also said demonstrators had attacked a police station and offices of the Baath party in the town of Tafas, six miles (10 kilometers) north of the southern border city of Daraa, the epicenter of more than a week of anti-government protests.Sectarian divisions are a deeply sensitive topic in Syria, where Assad has used increased economic freedom and prosperity to win the allegiance of the prosperous Sunni Muslim merchant classes, while punishing dissenters with arrest, imprisonment and physical abuse.Assad has placed his fellow Alawites, adherents of a mystical offshoot of Shiite Islam, into most positions of power in Syria. He has built a close relationship with Iran, allowing the Shiite powerhouse to extend its influence into Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, where it provides money and weapons to Hamas and Hezbollah militants.The surge of anti-government unrest in the Arab world has until now threatened almost exclusively regimes seen as allies of the U.S. and Western powers. Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain have maintained warm relations with Washington, and even Libya had growing ties with Britain, Italy and the rest of Europe.
The unrest in Syria, which exploded nationwide Friday after roiling Daraa for a week, is a new and highly unpredictable element of the Arab Spring, one that could both weaken a foe of the West and cause dangerous instability in one of the more fragile and potentially chaotic countries of the Mideast, experts said. On Friday, Syrian troops and soldiers opened fire in at least six cities, towns and villages, killing some 15 protesters, according to witnesses, activists and footage posted on social networking sites.We are in for a long, grueling civil conflict, said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official who worked on Mideast peace negotiations in six U.S. administrations. The black box in Syria, once you open it up, has some very nasty stuff inside.Dozens of people protested in Latakia before attacking the Baath party's offices in Syria's main Mediterranean port — a tourist draw renowned for its sandy beaches and resorts, said Ammar Qurabi, an exile in Egypt who heads Syria's National Organization for Human Rights.Home to some half a million people, Latakia is a mix of Sunnis in its urban core, Alawites living in villages on the outskirts, and small minorities of Christians, ethnic Turks and other groups.A Syrian activist in touch with protesters in Latakia said hundreds had been demonstrating there since Friday evening, burning tires and shouting Freedom! A few protesters were attacking cars and shops, the activist said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.Syrian presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban said Qatar-based Sheik Youssef al-Qaradawi had incited Sunnis to revolt with his sermon in Doha on Friday. Al-Qaradawi, who has millions of followers around the world and is seen as one of most influential voices in Sunni Islam; told his audience that,Today the train of revolutions arrived at a station that was inevitable it would reach: the station of Syria.
Syria is like the others — and it is more deserving than others of these revolutions, he said.When there are those who are killed, know that the revolution has been victorious! Shabaan said those words were responsible for the unrest in Latakia.There was nothing (in Latakia) before Qaradawi's sermon on Friday, she told reporters in Damascus. Qaradawi's words were a clear and honest invitation for sectarian strife.Shaaban said that a group of Palestinians had come into Latakia from a refugee camp with weapons and opened fire, killing a policeman and two protesters.These are not peaceful protests demanding accelerated reforms ... what is happening in Syria now is an attempt to sow civil strife, she said.A resident of Latakia who spoke to The Associated Press from home reported hearing gunfire Saturday evening. A Syrian official told The Associated Press that two passers-by were killed and two others wounded in Latakia by sniper fire from rooftops. He denied that the army had opened fire on protesters.A hospital official in Latakia also said there were two dead and two wounded. He declined to give any other details.Footage on a Facebook site run by Syrian activists showed what it said were the dead and wounded in Latakia. Young men carried one man by his limbs through a street, then another. They laid the second man limp in the street. It's the military police! one shouted.
Footage from an opposition Syrian news agency uploaded onto YouTube claimed to show another man killed in Latakia.Men screamed, Oh God! Oh God! as they laid the body of the young man on the floor, his face smeared with blood and a gaping hole close to his jaw.The authenticity of the footage could not be independently confirmed. During the week of unrest, Syrian authorities have detained two Americans, a Vermont student and a dual U.S.-Egyptian citizen accused of selling photos and videos of demonstrations.The state news agency Sana alleged that the man had confessed to selling the footage to a Colombian woman. He was later identified by relatives as Mohammed Radwan, 32, of Austin, Texas.Radwan's cousin, Nora Shalaby, said she last heard from him on Friday when he tweeted that he was at a mosque in Damascus where security forces were clashing with anti-government protesters.A Vermont man said his 21-year-old son Pathik Root, who had been missing since March 18, has been found to be in Syrian custody. Tom Root said his son, who had been studying Arabic in Damascus, was detained during a demonstration in the capital. He said he believes his son was watching, and not participating, in the demonstration.Assad appeared to be trying to appease demonstrators in mostly Sunni Daraa, pulling back police and soldiers. His government also released hundreds of political prisoners in an attempt to appease demonstrators furious about the violent government crackdown on dissent.
A resident told The Associated Press by telephone that more than 1,000 people were holding a silent sit-in the al-Omari mosque, at the center of the protests there. A human rights activist said authorities had released 260 political prisoners in another apparent attempt at appeasement. Abdul-Karim Rihawi, who heads the Syrian Human Rights League, said most of those released on Saturday were Islamists and 14 Kurdish detainees were also let free.Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Steven R. Hurst in Washington and Michael Weissenstein and Diaa Hadid in Cairo contributed to this report.
Diplomats: New European proposal on Mideast peace
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press – Fri Mar 25, 8:05 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS – Britain, France and Germany want the United Nations and the European Union to propose the outlines of a final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state, U.N. diplomats said.The three European countries, all members of the U.N. Security Council, are pressing for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the European Union to propose a settlement text at a meeting in mid-April of the Quartet of Mideast mediators, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks are taking place in private. The quartet includes the U.N., EU, U.S. and Russia.The aim is to get a basis for direct Israeli-Palestinian talks to resume.Putting the job in the hands of the EU and the U.N. would sideline the United States, Israel's closest ally which has tried unsuccessfully for months to get face-to-face negotiations going, as well as Russia, an ally of the Palestinians.
The big question mark is whether the United States would allow the Europeans and U.N. to take the lead in trying to resolve the standoff, and that is likely to depend on whether the Israelis give a green light, the diplomats said.The Israelis and Palestinians have agreed to President Barack Obama's target date of September 2011 for an agreement, but negotiations collapsed weeks after they restarted last September because Israel ended its 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.The U.S. veto on Feb. 18 of a Security Council resolution that would have condemned illegal Israeli settlements and demanded an immediate halt to all settlement building spurred Britain, France and Germany, who supported the measure, to issue a joint statement expressing serious concern about the stalemate in the Middle East peace process.
Since the U.S. efforts have been unsuccessful, diplomats said the three European powers decided to try a new approach in hopes of breaking the deadlock.The diplomats said the three European countries have delivered the message in key capitals — including Washington and Jerusalem — that if the parameters of a final settlement are endorsed, the Palestinians will return to the negotiating table.
