Europe, Asia diplomats support Obama peace plan
– JUNE 7,11
GODOLLO, Hungary – Foreign ministers from over 40 countries in Europe and Asia have offered strong support for President Barack Obama's peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians based on the 1967 borders and negotiated land swaps.A statement Tuesday at the conclusion of the 10th Asia-Europe meeting, or ASEM, of foreign ministers also calls on the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the U.S., the EU, the U.N. and Russia — to contribute to the resumption and success of direct peace talks between the two sides.The diplomats say the peace process must not become a casualty of uncertainty in the context of dramatic changes in the region.The ASEM meeting was held in Hungary, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU until June 30.
Syria warns of more marches on Israeli border
– JUNE 7,11
DAMASCUS, Syria – A Syrian government newspaper says marches to the border will continue and warns Israel the day will come when thousands of Syrians will return to their occupied villages.Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian and Syrian protesters Sunday, killing as many as 23 people who tried to cross into the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.The Tishreen newspaper said the march was only an introduction adding Syrians and Palestinians were now determined to recover their territory through resistance.It says Israel should not be surprised when 600,000 Syrian refugees march back to their villages and farms from which their families were forcefully uprooted.Israel should expect a march at any time,it said.
Turkish FM suggests how to avoid fresh Gaza tensions
– Tue Jun 7, 5:31 am ET
ANKARA (AFP) – Turkey's foreign minister has called on activists to rethink a planned flotilla to the blockaded Gaza Strip and suggested how to avoid fresh tensions after last year's bloodshed, reports said.Civic groups should take into account the fact that the Rafah crossing (between Gaza and Egypt) has been opened and... act in a more careful manner, Ahmet Davutoglu said in remarks carried by Anatolia news agency Tuesday.The minister however insisted it would be unacceptable for the Turkish government to demand independent civic groups abandon the mission, planned for late June with 15 ships from various countries.In May last year, Israeli forces intercepted a flotilla led by a Turkish Islamist charity, killing nine Turkish activists and plunging ties with Ankara into deep crisis.In separate remarks, Davutoglu said the expected formation of a transitional Palestinian government under a unity deal between the radical group Hamas, which controls Gaza, and the secular Fatah faction of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas might help lower tensions in the region.
Israel should wait for the formation of the new Palestinian government and then lift the blockade of Gaza,he was quoted as saying on the Hurriyet newspaper's web site Tuesday.The aid flotilla should wait to see developments following Egypt's opening of the Rafah crossing and how Israel reacts to the new government to be set up in Palestine,he added.The minister argued a new Palestinian administration would mean that Gaza would no longer be under Hamas control and deprive Israel of the grounds for the blockade.A crisis may be overcome with certain steps by both sides... If we are talking about common sense, you can take those words of mine as common sense, he said.On Sunday, Palestinian officials suspended operations on their side of the Rafah crossing amid a spat with Egypt over capacity and coordination.International activists, who gathered in Istanbul last month, insisted they would sail to Gaza on the grounds that the Israeli blockade remained in place.They said 15 vessels would leave for Gaza from several Mediterranean ports around June 20, with some 1,500 activists from about 100 countries on board and hundreds of tonnes of humanitarian aid.Ties between one-time allies Turkey and Israel remain in crisis after last year's bloodshed, with Ankara demanding an apology and compensation for the victims' families.
Blair open to French Mideast peace talks
– Tue Jun 7, 5:24 am ET
OSLO (AFP) – Tony Blair, the envoy of the Quartet group of world powers seeking an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, said Tuesday he was open to a French proposal to host a Middle East peace conference.What the French foreign minister has been saying is absolutely right in the sense that you need to put together not just the support for Palestinian statehood and institutions building, but some political momentum has to be injected back into this,he said on a visit to Oslo.One of the ways political momentum could be injected, the former British prime minister said, would be by transforming the scheduled Paris meeting of international donors into a broader peace conference to help relaunch stalled negotiations.We should certainly examine that,he said.French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in a June 2 visit to Ramallah in the Palestinian Territories that Paris was ready to host a Middle East peace conference before the end of July in a bid to kickstart stalled negotiations.The proposal received a cool welcome from Israel and the United States, with Washington deeming such a conference premature.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has told France he is ready to attend if Israel accepts talks based on the 1967 borders.
The Quartet groups the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.Peace talks hosted by the United States last year broke down in disagreement over Israeli settlement activity. The Palestinians have set a target of having a Palestinian state recognised at the UN General Assembly in September.France has taken the lead in recent weeks in pushing to meet the September deadline, hinting it may recognise an independent Palestinian state this year if peace talks are not back on track by then.
Clinton meets Israeli, Palestinian peace envoys
By Andrew Quinn – Mon Jun 6, 7:19 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held separate meetings with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators on Monday as the United States seeks to find a way to revive moribund peace talks.Clinton also met visiting French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe -- who launched a separate bid to start talks -- but said it was too early to consider a proposed Paris conference because neither side appeared willing to talk despite a looming September showdown over Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.We strongly support a return to negotiations, but we do not think that it would be productive for there to be a conference about returning to negotiations, Clinton told reporters.There has to be a return to negotiations, which will take a lot of persuasion and preliminary work in order to set up a productive meeting between the parties, she said, adding that Washington was in a wait-and-see attitude.Clinton's meetings with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and his Israeli counterpart Yitzhak Molcho came amid mounting concern over the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, which remains deadlocked despite the wave of political change sweeping the Arab world.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he intends to seek U.N. recognition of Palestinian statehood at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September -- a move which both Israel and the United States say will only inflame tensions.Juppe said his offer last week to host talks between the two sides in Paris was based on concerns that that situation could spin out of control if September arrives and no peace talks are under way.We have the feeling if nothing happens before September, the situation will be very difficult for everybody, he told reporters.
FALTERING EFFORT
President Barack Obama presided over the resumption of direct peace talks between the two sides in September, but the effort collapsed almost immediately over Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank.Obama has said he believed it was possible to get a framework deal for peace within a year, and last month sought to accelerate the momentum by proposing that the two sides discuss terms based on the borders that existed in before the 1967 war in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, along with agreed territorial swaps.But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads a coalition dominated by pro-settler parties, swiftly rejected the plan as unworkable.The faltering effort has been further strained by a recent Palestinian political unity deal between President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and the rival Islamist Hamas, which controls Gaza and remains sworn to Israel's destruction.While the Palestinians say the planned unity government will be technocratic with no direct role for Hamas, both Israeli and U.S. leaders have said peace talks are not possible unless Hamas explicitly recognizes Israel's right to exist and renounces violence.
Clinton said on Tuesday those concerns remained.It is not enough for us that it would be called technocratic,she said.If Hamas is involved we think that undermines the whole purpose of negotiations because we would have a party that rejects Israel's right to exist.Erekat, speaking after his meeting with Clinton, said he had sought to address U.S. concerns over Hamas -- but repeated that Palestinians must achieve political reconciliation if they are to meet their goal of forming an independent state.This is not a power-sharing government,Erekat said.This will be a government for elections, and reconstruction of Gaza, and a government that runs Abbas' program,he said.He said the Palestinians remained firm in their intention to seek U.N. recognition, and warned that failure to move toward statehood could throw a question mark over the future viability of Abbas' Palestinian Authority.(Editing by Eric Walsh)
Israel sees Syrian hand in Golan clashes, 23 dead
By Ari Rabinovitch – Mon Jun 6, 6:05 pm ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel, with U.S. backing, accused Syria on Monday of orchestrating deadly confrontations on a ceasefire line between the two countries as a distraction from Damascus's bloody crackdown on an 11-week-old revolt.Syria said 23 people, including a woman and a child, were killed and 350 wounded on Sunday when Israeli troops fired on Palestinian protesters who surged against the fortified boundary fence on Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said live Israeli fire had caused casualties and U.N. monitors were seeking to confirm facts.Russia voiced deep concern about the flareup and the shooting of unarmed demonstrators, while the United States said it was deeply troubled by attempts to breach the Golan disengagement line and urged restraint on both sides.
Washington backed Israel's charge that by permitting the protests to take place, President Bashar al-Assad was trying to shift world attention from the security forces' killing of at least 1,100 Syrians engaged in anti-government protests.This is clearly an attempt by Syria to incite these kinds of protests, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, saying Damascus hoped to divert attention from its own problems.Israel, like any sovereign nation, has a right to defend itself,Toner added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: The events along the Syrian border did not erupt by chance. There is an attempt being made here to heat up the border and to try and breach our borders.Netanyahu, speaking to reporters at Israel's parliament, said Israel would defend its borders and charged Syria with an attempt here to divert international attention from what is going on inside Syria and the difficult events in Hama.Sunday's protest was held to mark the 44th anniversary of the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured the Golan Heights, as well as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip where Palestinians want to establish a state.Although Israel and Syria are technically at war, and Syria is home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war of Israel's foundation, the Golan Heights had long been quiet.That changed on May 15, when scores of flag-waving Palestinian activists flattened a fence on the demarcation line and briefly rallied inside Israeli-controlled territory.
LEGITIMACY
Rattled by the breach, Israel beefed up its defenses and warned that lethal force could be used. A Reuters reporter at the scene on Sunday saw Israeli sharpshooters firing at demonstrators at the fence and 10 people taken away on stretchers by comrades.With U.S.-brokered peace efforts stalled, some Palestinians inspired by non-violent popular revolts sweeping the Arab world are trying to adopt similar tactics against Israel.Israeli leaders said they feared such marches would recur ahead of the Palestinians' campaign to secure recognition of their claim to statehood at the United Nations in September.The official Syrian news agency SANA put Sunday's death toll at 23 and quoted Health Minister Wael al-Halki as saying a woman and child were among the dead. It said 350 people suffered gunshot wounds.The Israeli military said it believed a blast from what it said was a Syrian land mine detonated accidentally by petrol bombs thrown by protesters had caused 10 casualties. But it gave no overall figure for the dead and wounded.Before the Golan violence, Israel rarely censured the Assad government for its domestic crackdowns. Successive Israeli governments have sought peace with Assad, seeing his government as a possible anchor for wider Israeli-Arab accommodation.(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Andrew Quinn in Washington, Thomas Grove in Moscow, Dominic Evans in Beirut; Editing by Dan Williams and Janet Lawrence)
U.N. chief says Gaza flotilla panel to report in July
– Mon Jun 6, 5:15 pm ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A much-delayed U.N. panel set up to investigate last year's Israeli attack on an aid convoy bound for Gaza is now due to report back next month, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said on Monday.This panel is still discussing the incident,Ban told reporters.They will bring me their recommendations and their findings some time in July.In May of last year, Israeli marines intercepted a six-ship flotilla in international waters and killed eight Turks and a Turkish-American aboard one vessel, the Mavi Marmara, owned by a Turkish Islamic charity.
Israel said its marines were attacked by activists wielding metal bars, clubs and knives, but organizers of the convoy denied that. The incident led to a breakdown in already strained ties between Turkey and Israel.Last August, Ban appointed a panel headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer to look into the incident. The panel also included former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as well as Turkish and Israeli representatives.Ban never publicly set a deadline for it to complete its work, although U.N. officials had originally hoped it might do so first in February and then in April.Diplomats and U.N. officials have said the panel has been held up by disputes between its Turkish and Israeli members. U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky suggested last month the group might not be able to produce a consensus document.Ban said there was still no exact date for the panel to report and that it was still working very, very hard.Israel blockades Gaza, a move it says is legal because Palestinian militants in the Hamas-ruled territory fire rockets at the Jewish state. Many states and the United Nations have called for the blockade to be lifted.Israel says any aid for Gaza should go overland, which in practice has meant through Israel.Pro-Palestinian groups have said they are planning a new flotilla for Gaza in late June, a move that led Ban to appeal last month for governments to try to dissuade them. He repeated that message on Monday, saying it is very important to avoid any unnecessary confrontation.(Reporting by Patrick Worsnip, Editing by Sandra Maler)
Latest developments in Arab world's unrest
By The Associated Press – Mon Jun 6, 3:55 pm ET
SYRIA-Armed men attack Syrian security forces in a tense northern city, state television says, and 120 policemen and security forces are killed in a region where the army has carried out days of deadly assaults on protesters calling for the end of President Bashar Assad's rule. Communications are cut to the area around Jisr al-Shughour, and the details of the attack were impossible to verify, but there have been unconfirmed reports in the past by residents and activists of Syrians fighting back against security forces. The government promises a decisive response, setting the stage for an even stronger government crackdown against a popular uprising that began in mid-March.
YEMEN-With the wounded president out of Yemen, the United States and Saudi Arabia scramble to arrange a power transfer ensuring an end to his decades-long rule. But a top official says President Ali Abdullah Saleh, recovering in Saudi Arabia, would return home within days, a step almost certain to spark new, intensified fighting between his forces and opposition tribesmen determined to topple him. Both sides' fighters are deployed in the streets of the capital, and a cease-fire brokered by Saudi Arabia only a day earlier is already starting to fray, with clashes killing at least six.
LIBYA-Libya's rebels have arbitrarily detained dozens of civilians suspected of supporting ruler Moammar Gadhafi and at least one has died after apparently being tortured while in custody, Human Rights Watch says. Since the uprising started in mid-February, rebels have seized control of much of the country's east and scrambled to set up an administration in their de facto capital of Benghazi. Rebels also hold the western city of Misrata and smaller towns in the western mountains. Both sides have taken prisoners in the fighting. NATO intensifies its airstrikes in and around the capital of Tripoli, targeting military installations and a government building.
EGYPT-Crowds of Egyptians dressed in black hold demonstrations to honor a young man from Alexandria beaten to death a year ago in a savage attack blamed on police that helped inspire the uprising that brought down Egypt's president. Photographs of Khaled Said's badly disfigured and bloodied face were posted on the Internet and became an instant rallying point for campaigners trying to bring attention to rampant police brutality under the regime of Hosni Mubarak. A Facebook page in his honor called We are all Khaled Said was used months later to call for the protests that toppled Mubarak on Feb. 11. On Monday's anniversary of his death, crowds held protests in Cairo and Alexandria to remember him and draw attention to continued abuses by Egyptian police.
BAHRAIN-Dozens of doctors and nurses who treated injured anti-government protesters during the months of unrest in Bahrain go on trial in a security court on allegations they participated in efforts to overthrow the Gulf country's monarchy. The prosecution of 47 health professionals is a sign that Bahrain's Sunni rulers will not end their relentless pursuit of the Shiite-led opposition despite officially lifting emergency rule last week. The medical workers are charged with participating in efforts to topple Bahrain's Sunni monarchy and taking part in illegal rallies.
Israel's Barak says Syrian president will fall
– Mon Jun 6, 10:56 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may be encouraging unrest on the Israel-Syria frontier in a futile effort to save his regime.We have no choice, we have to defend our border and Assad, in my opinion will fall in the end, said Barak a day after hundreds of protesters from Syria tried to cross into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, prompting troops to open fire.It may be something that the Syrians are encouraging, it may be that they are pleased with it, they may think it distracts attention, Barak told Israel public radio.Syrian state television said 23 people were killed and some 350 wounded by Israeli gunfire, with all of the casualties falling on the Syrian side of a no-man's land.But the Israeli army said there were 10 dead, all of whom were killed when a number of Syrian landmines exploded in Quneitra after being set off by Molotov cocktails hurled by the protesters.Barak said Israel would continue to defend its borders and that Assad would not be able to use the confrontations to avoid the consequences of massive popular uprisings rocking Syria.
I think he will fall, he's lost his legitimacy, he may be able to stabilise for another six or nine months, he will be very weakened.Rights groups say more than 1,100 civilians have been killed and at least 10,000 arrested in Syria since protests erupted in mid-March.Damascus insists that the unrest is the work of armed terrorist gangs backed by Islamists and foreign agitators.If he stops the use of force today he will be seen as weak and will be brought down; if he continues, the killing will increase and cracks will start to appear, including within the army, Barak said.His fate is already determined. I think the same about Saleh in Yemen and Kadhafi in Libya,he said of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
Spat with Egypt shuts Rafah border crossing
by Sakher Abu El Oun – Sun Jun 5, 11:51 am ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian officials have suspended operations at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in protest at what they say is Egyptian lack of cooperation at the terminal.Palestinian officials said on Sunday that they had halted operations on their side of the border crossing, after disagreements about capacity and coordination.The crossing was closed on Saturday, with the Palestinians saying Egypt halted operations without warning, stranding angry Palestinian travellers on the Gaza side of the terminal, unable to cross into Sinai.But on Sunday morning, it was Palestinian officials who closed the crossing, with terminal head Ayub Abu Shaar saying it would remain shut until officials on both sides came to an agreement on its operation.A senior Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, accused the Egyptian side of foot-dragging.We gave the Egyptian side our requests yesterday and we haven't had a response yet,he told AFP.
Operations... have been suspended until the Egyptian side responds to our requests, which are the implementation of the decision to open the crossing, an increase in the number of travellers, speeding up operations, shorter waiting times for travellers and an agreement on the working hours of the crossing.Earlier, Abu Shaar said the Palestinians had decided to suspend operations after three days of confusion and coordination problems at the crossing.He cited the slow processing of travellers and Egypt's decision to close the crossing on Saturday, which the Palestinians said was done without consultation.The reopening of the crossing will be announced after these problems are solved, he said.On Saturday, Abu Shaar said the crossing was closed without warning, with phone calls to the Egyptian side going unanswered as hundreds of would-be travellers massed at the Palestinian side of the border.According to a security source in Egypt, the crossing was closed for renovation work that was to have been completed on Friday.Egyptian security and state television later said the crossing had reopened, but only for pedestrians, as the works prevented the passage of vehicles.But Palestinian officials said the border was still closed and Hamas police had moved Palestinian travellers away from the frontier fence.On Sunday, a senior Egyptian official said Rafah was open in both directions including for vehicles, but that the Palestinian side had shut down operations in Gaza.
Passage from Egypt to the Gaza Strip is functioning normally, but no Palestinians have arrived in Egypt because Hamas has closed the terminal on the pretext of examining, with the Egyptians, the mechanism for its operation,he added.Egypt reopened the Rafah crossing last month, ending its cooperation with a blockade Israel imposed in 2006, after Gaza-based militants snatched an Israeli soldier.The blockade was tightened in 2007 when the Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the territory, with Egypt cooperating by tightly restricting movement through Rafah.
Rafah is Gaza's only border crossing not controlled by Israel, and news of Egypt's decision to reopen it was warmly welcomed in the coastal strip, though Israel strongly criticised the move.Cairo's decision to permanently reopen Rafah came more than three months after former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak resigned following 18 days of massive street protests against his rule.
Palestinians charged with murder of settler family
– Sun Jun 5, 11:26 am ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Two Palestinians have been charged with the grisly murder of a young Israeli family stabbed to death in a West Bank settlement, the Israeli military said on Sunday.Its website said military prosecutors charged Hakim Awad and a relative, Amjad Awad, both from the West Bank village of Awarta, with the murder of five members of the Fogel family: three-month-old Hadas, four-year-old Elad, 11-year-old Yoav, and their parents Udi and Ruthie.In addition to the frenzied March 11 stabbing attack at the Itamar settlement near Awarta, the men were also charged with stealing weapons, breaking and entering, and conspiracy to commit a crime, the military said.They confessed to committing the acts and incriminated one another, the website said, quoting the chargesheet.Also, fingerprints and DNA material of the two were found at the (Fogel) family home.The Ynet news website quoted Amjad Awad as saying he had no remorse, as he was led into a military court in the West Bank for the indictment.I'm proud of what I did,it quoted him as saying.I don't regret what I did.Neither the military website nor Ynet gave a date for the trial.
