Middle East Aggregator

Five years since U.S. president George W. Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech, critics say the administration has yet to show a credible way to actually "accomplish" the mission that could see a peaceful Iraq and a return home of U.S. troops.
Though the 2007 revamping of the counter-insurgency strategy, known as the "surge", has markedly reduced violence, political turmoil and ethno-sectarian strife still plague Iraq.
The U.S. surge and its concurrent positive developments did create political space, but meaningful moves towards comprehensive political accords and reconciliation have yet to follow, said a pair of new Iraq reports from the International Crisis Group (ICG).
For example, the Sunni awakening, or Sahwa movement, that helped to slow violence in much of Baghdad and Anbar province by bringing in former insurgents and incorporating them into U.S.-funded militias, for example, leaves a new Sunni political landscape.
But that landscape, with all of its advantages for bringing stability -- and thereby aiding the U.S. occupation -- has failed to transition into the politics of the Iraqi central government. Frustration with those failures creates a tense atmosphere that even U.S. officials acknowledge as being "fragile and reversible".
"Tribal elements and former insurgents may become disillusioned with lack of political progress, inadequate steps toward economic and social inclusion, and what they perceive as continued dominance by Iran and its Shiite proxies," said the first IGC report, "Iraq After the Surge I: The New Sunni Landscape".
So while the larger insurgent-U.S. battles and wider Sunni-Shia fighting have abated, the new, smaller, more subdivided groups continue to bump heads. The U.S. policy of tending to choose between these groups with either economic or military support, said the report, does not constitute meaningful steps towards political reconciliation. (IPS)

Labels: Iraq, U.S.

A fierce political row has broken out in Lebanon over claims that the radical Shia movement, Hezbollah, secretly filmed aircraft at Beirut's airport.

Heads of the Western-backed government accused Hezbollah of preparing for some kind of terrorist attack.

Hezbollah dismissed the accusations as scare mongering.

The exchanges reflect the divisions that have paralysed Lebanon for eight months and left the country without a president for much of that time.

The allegation levelled by leaders of the government is that Hezbollah set up a hidden, remote-controlled camera in a container park overlooking the main runway of Beirut's international airport.

A newspaper that supports the government, an-Nahar, published documents in which the Lebanese Army's intelligence agency purportedly confirms that the camera was spotted in the last week of April, apparently directed at the runway, but was removed by three men in civilian clothing before it could be impounded.

The accusation is that the radical Shia movement, which controls the suburbs where the airport is located, was spying on air traffic in preparation for a possible attack, perhaps aimed at assassinating one of the prominent pro-government figures who fly in and out of the facility. (BBC)

Labels: Hezbollah, Lebanon

The political crisis gripping Lebanon has chipped away at what has been viewed by most since the 2005 parliamentary elections as an unlikely alignment of two political heavyweights.
The recent falling out between Michel Aoun, head of the Christian Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Michel Murr, the Greek Orthodox former vice-president of parliament, heralds a change that will undoubtedly affect the 2009 electoral landscape in the Lebanese Christian region of the Metn in the north.
Inexplicable alliances have long been a tradition of Lebanese politics, defined by short-sighted tactical partnerships rooted in the intense rivalry of opposing parties, communities and political families. Such alliances have played a key role in the struggle for power among the various Christian factions.
To strengthen their positions, the Christian Kataeb party (Phalangists) and the Lebanese Forces -- led by Amin Gemayel and Samir Geagea respectively -- joined forces in the 2005 elections with the largely Sunni Future Movement (headed by Saad Hariri, son of slain former prime minister Rafik Hariri) and the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) headed by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. Comprising the March 14 Movement and holding a total of 67 seats out 128 in parliament, the alliance is considered the majority. (IPS)

Labels: Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he is "very interested" in peace with Syria. He has sent a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad expressing a willingness to give back the Golan Heights in exchange for a comprehensive peace treaty.
Assad has confirmed receiving that message. And the Syrian leader has said that most of the differences between the two countries have already been settled.
The way the two leaders have been talking in recent weeks, it sounds as if the only thing left to do is ink the deal. But a peace treaty between Israel and Syria is hardly around the corner.
Israeli lawmakers who oppose ceding the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war, were sufficiently impressed by the interaction between Jerusalem and Damascus to emerge from their somnambulant state induced by the week-long Passover holiday to flay the Prime Minister. They accused him of endangering the country's security by agreeing to relinquish the strategic range that overlooks northern Israel and enables Israel to survey much of Syria.
"Withdrawing from the Golan would result in Hezbollah terrorists entering the area and embittering the lives of the residents of northern Israel," said David Tal, a member of Olmert's own ruling Kadima party. Tal said he now planned to push forward legislation that would require a national referendum on any agreement with Syria. (IPS)

Labels: Israel, Syria

The appearance of long breadlines outside state-run distribution centres in recent weeks has raised fears of possible bread shortages. Although the government has taken measures aimed at easing the crisis, experts point to soaring international wheat prices that have made the commodity more costly for households worldwide.
"Wheat prices jumped 20 percent on the local market last year," Hamdi Abdel Azim, former professor of economics at Cairo's Sadat Academy told IPS. "But during the same period, global prices rose by a whopping 120 percent."
According to official statements, Egypt's economy is growing at a rate of roughly 7 percent a year, and is set to grow further. But despite this rosy outlook, the vast majority of Egypt's teeming population of 80 million has yet to feel the benefits of stated macro-economic growth.
In fact, most Egyptians complain that times have never been harder. With inflation soaring across the board, local prices of basic foodstuffs -- including such staples as bread, rice and pasta -- have tripled in recent months.
Per capita income, meanwhile, has failed to keep pace with rising prices. The past year has seen an unprecedented number of labour strikes and demonstrations, with workers angrily insisting on higher wages to meet soaring costs of living.  (IPS)

Labels: Egypt, Food

Amidst unemployment and impoverishment, Iraqis now face a cutting down of their monthly food ration – much of it already eaten away by official corruption.

Iraqis survived the sanctions after the first Gulf War (1990) with the support of rations through the Public Distribution System (PDS). The aid was set up in 1995 as part of the UN's Oil-for-Food programme.

The sanctions were devastating nevertheless. Former UN programme head Hans von Sponeck said in 2001 that the sanctions amounted to "a tightening of the rope around the neck of the average Iraqi citizen." Von Sponeck said the sanctions were causing the death of 150 Iraqi children a day.

Denis Halliday, former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq who quit his post in protest against the sanctions, told IPS they had proved "genocidal" for Iraqis.

During more than five years of U.S.-occupation, the situation has become even worse. The rationing system has been crumbling under poor management and corruption.

From the beginning of this year, the rations delivered were reduced from 10 items to five.

"We used the PDS as counter-propaganda against Saddam Hussein's regime before the U.S. occupation of Iraq began in 2003," Fadhil Jawad of the Dawa Party led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told IPS in Baghdad. "But then we found it necessary to maintain basic support for Iraqi people under occupation. We blamed Saddam for feeding Iraqis like animals with simple rations of food -- that we fail to provide now." (Inter Press Service)

Labels: Iraq, U.N., U.S.

Twice within 10 days, Israel has been labeled as "apartheid" in Haaretz: in an editorial in support of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter's efforts for peace; and in a column by Yossi Sarid, the former Meretz leader. Two authoritative voices, both misinformed.
Both Haaretz and Sarid focused on the territories. Both condemn Israel's nearly 41-year-long occupation. Haaretz ("Our Debt to Jimmy Carter," April 15) said that the "interim political situation in the territories has crystallized into a kind of apartheid," while Sarid ("Yes, It Is Apartheid," April 25) wrote with great emotion that "what acts like apartheid, is run like apartheid and harasses like apartheid, is not a duck - it is apartheid."
Yes, there is no question that our occupation policies and practices can be compared with apartheid. And, equally, with China's control of Tibet. And also, to one degree or another, with any other place in the world where one group of people oppresses another.

Domination and control are the common elements. Roadblocks, licenses and permits for every little matter, arbitrary seizure of land, privileges concerning water use, cheap labor - these and much else are the stock in trade of suppression.
But to apply the apartheid label is wrong, both with regard to the territories (to which Haaretz and Sarid refer), or to Israel within the Green Line (where Arabs suffer discrimination, but to say it's apartheid would be laughable). Why do I say this with such certainty? Because I was a journalist with the Rand Daily Mail newspaper in Johannesburg for 26 years, and my special function was to report and comment on apartheid's evils. And for more than 10 years I have lived in Israel, and have been engaged in dialogue work. (Haaretz)

Labels: Israel, Palestine

Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq this week left more than 150 Kurdish rebels dead, the Turkish army says.

"According to initial estimates, this operation allowed us to neutralise more than 150 terrorists," the army said in a statement on its website.

Several senior Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) commanders may have been killed, it said. There is no confirmation.

Turkey has staged several cross-border raids into northern Iraq over the past few months in pursuit of the rebels.

The strikes, which began on Thursday and ended on Friday, were carried out against PKK guerrillas based in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, the Turkish army says.

All targeted posts in Qandil area were destroyed during the operation, according to the Turkish army's statement.

The Turkish parliament authorised cross-border operations against the PKK late last year. (BBC)

Labels: Iraq, Kurdistan, Turkey

Russia on Saturday said that world powers concerned about Iran's nuclear programme were asking Tehran only to suspend uranium enrichment during a period of talks.

Following a meeting on Iran in London of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said no mention had been made of new sanctions and that Tehran must be made to see the advantages of cooperation.

"Our first conditions are the freezing, suspension of uranium enrichment. The approach of the six (powers) is that Iran should suspend enrichment only for the period in which talks continue," Lavrov told the Interfax and ITAR-TASS news agencies.

"There wasn't anything about new sanctions although our American colleagues take the view that pressure on Iran must be maintained.

"It's necessary to explain to Iran the advantages it would receive from agreeing to start talks, on the basis of one condition -- the freezing of uranium enrichment," Lavrov said. (AFP)

Labels: Iran, Nuclear Power, Russia, Security Council, U.N.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is heading to the Middle East in the latest attempt to push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Ms Rice will hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

No big announcements are expected during the visit, says the BBC's state department correspondent Kim Ghattas.

But it will set the stage for President George W Bush's trips to the region next month, our correspondent says.

The US administration is hoping it can bring about a deal between the Palestinians and the Israelis, but with nine months to go before Mr Bush's term ends, time is running out.

Ms Rice arrives in Israel later on Saturday and will meet Mr Olmert in Jerusalem.

On Sunday she will travel to the West Bank town of Ramallah to meet Mr Abbas. (BBC)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, U.S.

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, is considering sending 7,000 American troops to Afghanistan early next year, the New York Times newspaper has reported.

The number of US troops in Afghanistan would rise to about 40,000 if the plan is approved.

The move would also entail a "modest reduction" in troops from Iraq, the newspaper said.

The report comes after George Bush, the US president, announced at a Nato summit last month that the US would significantly increase troop levels in Afghanistan next year.

Gates has also pushed other European member states to provide combat troops and equipment to fill shortfalls in the south of Afghanistan.

Southern Afghanistan is considered to be the most dangerous area of the country, but the response to Gates's appeal has so far been tepid.

The New York Times said the Pentagon now appears resigned to the fact that Nato is unable or unwilling to contribute more troops despite its public pledges. (Al Jazeera)

Labels: Afghanistan, NATO, U.S.

Palestinian sources have said that Hamas is willing to show flexibility over a prisoner swap deal, which may facilitate the release of the abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida reported on Saturday.
The paper said that Hamas had told Egypt it is willing to continue negotiations over the release of Shalit, who was abducted by Hamas militants in 2006, in exchange for a lull in the fighting between the Islamic organization and Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar reported on Saturday that the heart procedure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas underwent in a Jordan hospital on Thursday resulted from the acute distress he suffered after his meeting with U.S. President George Bush last week.

A Palestinian official told the paper that Abbas was deeply upset by Bush's unequivocal endorsement of Israel's policy toward the West Bank and Gaza.
"Bush's stance shocked and agitated him. He seemed angered, and now suffers from disquiet and weakness," the source said. (Haaretz)

Labels: Hamas, Israel, Palestine

Clashes erupted between Yemeni forces and rebels led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi on Saturday, dealing a new blow to a faltering ceasefire a day after a mosque bombing killed 15 people in the northern city of Saada.

Government forces killed five rebels, members of the Zaydi sect of Shi'ite Islam, in Saada, while rebels surrounded a government compound in nearby Manbah, local sources said.

Hundreds of Yemenis demonstrated in Saada earlier in the day in show of anger against the attack that appeared to target army officers but killed a woman, two children and other civilians.

Yemen has witnessed attacks by different groups targeting everything from tourists to government offices in recent years, but attacks on mosques were virtually unheard of until Friday.

A security source said several suspects had been detained at a checkpoint in Saada and investigations suggested that Houthi's followers were behind the attack. (Reuters)

Labels: Yemen

The Lebanese Druze leader called Saturday for the expulsion of Iran's ambassador and the ending of Iranian flights to Beirut because they might be carrying weapons and money to the militant Hezbollah group.
Walid Jumblatt, a member of the U.S.-backed parliamentary majority, also warned in a press conference from his family home of Mukhtara southeast of the capital, that he and parliament majority leader Saad Hariri could be targets of assassination.
"Iranian flights to Beirut should be stopped because Iranian planes might be bringing in money and military equipment," said Jumblatt, a strong critic of the Iranian-backed opposition heavyweight Hezbollah. "The Iranian ambassador should be expelled from Lebanon."

His comments come as Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa ended a three-day visit to Beirut Saturday without reaching a breakthrough in the months-old political deadlock between the government and opposition.
Lebanon is passing through its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-90 civil war and the parliament has failed 18 times to elect a new president. The country's top post has been vacant since pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud left office in November.
Jumblatt also accused Hezbollah of monitoring the traffic of politicians' executive jets with hidden cameras at the airport, possibly to assassinate them. (AP)

Labels: Hezbollah, Iran, Lebanon

The U.S. military fired rockets at a target near a major hospital in eastern Baghdad on Saturday, wounding 20 people and damaging a number of ambulances, a senior Iraqi hospital official said.

No patients were wounded at the hospital in the Sadr City stronghold of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, but 20 people at the scene of the blasts were wounded, said the official.

"Three missiles were fired at a place very close to the hospital. Windows of the hospital were shattered," the official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

In a statement, the U.S. military said: "We did hit the target, which was a criminal command and control centre, which was near a hospital. We are still assessing battle damages."

It said precision-guided munitions were used to destroy the militant facility in Sadr City, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling gunmen loyal to Sadr for several weeks.

Such weapons could either be rockets fired from launchers on the ground or helicopters.

"Coalition forces only target legitimate military objectives and follow strict rules of engagement. Every necessary measure is put in place to mitigate collateral damage and protect the lives of innocent civilians," the military said. (Reuters)

Labels: Iraq, U.S.

Syria said Friday that US allegations about a weapons-capable nuclear reactor were part of a policy of "madness."

US allegations about the reactor were "manufactured in order to create further crisis in the Middle East," Syrian Ambassador Faysal al-Hamoui told conference on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Earlier Friday the United States submitted a paper to the conference saying the treaty's biggest problem was noncompliance by countries like Syria and Iran which it said were seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

The United States also cited North Korea's nuclear weapons program and said reports its nuclear cooperation with other countries warranted serious vigilance.

"North Korea's clandestine nuclear cooperation with Syria ... is a dangerous manifestation," the US paper said.

"North Korea assisted Syria's covert work in building a nuclear reactor capable of producing plutonium and not intended for peaceful purposes," it said.

The US paper made no mention of allegations that the reactor was destroyed in an Israeli bombing raid in September. (AP)

Labels: Israel, Syria, U.S.

Six key world powers have agreed on a new package of incentives to be offered to Iran over it controversial nuclear programme.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council as well as Germany hope to convince Tehran to stop uranium enrichment by offering technical, political and economic rewards.

"We have got agreement on an offer that will be made to the government of Iran," David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, said after discussions on Friday with counterparts from China, France,  Germany, Russia and the United States.

In a brief statement, Miliband explained that the six nations had "reviewed and updated" an offer made to Iran in June 2006, but that the contents of the new proposal would only be disclosed to Tehran.
Alongside the incentives, the UN Security Council has adopted three resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran.
Enriched uranium can be used either to produce nuclear power or in weapons. (Al Jazeera)

Labels: Iran, Nuclear Power, Security Council, U.N.

U.S. pilots flying missions over Iraq come to the region expecting a host of challenges, including swirling sandstorms and urban battlefields filled with a mix of enemies and civilians.

But Naval aviators flying off the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman said one of the newest difficulties has been the least expected: navigating increasingly crowded airspace in a region that has experienced the world's fastest airline growth in recent years.

The mix of U.S. combat aircraft and civilian planes from booming Gulf airlines illustrates the growing divide in the Middle East between countries like Iraq and Lebanon, which are mired in political and sectarian conflict, and oil-rich nations such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar enjoying a windfall revenue and surging investment.

Cmdr. Bill Sigler, head of an F/A-18 fighter jet squadron on the USS Truman, estimated that planes flying off the carrier headed north over the Persian Gulf to Iraq were confined to one-fifth of the airspace available the last time he was in the region in 2002 because of increased airline traffic.

"You have to carve a strip out of the middle of the Gulf and that's frequently below 15,000 feet, which for us is like confining your car to the sidewalk," said Sigler. "It does not give us much to work with." (AP)

Labels: Iraq, U.S.

Iran told Britain not to cross any "red lines" when preparing incentives for the Islamic Republic aimed at ending a row with the West over Tehran's nuclear program, the Iranian foreign minister said on Saturday.

World powers met in London on Friday and said they would offer new incentives to encourage Iran to halt nuclear work which the West fears is aimed at building atomic bombs.

Iran refused the last such offer made in 2006 and officials have in the past described a demand that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment program as a "red line". They say it is Iran's right to carry out such work and say the aim is peaceful.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr said he met his British counterpart, David Miliband, in Kuwait recently. Britain and Iran attended a multilateral meeting there on Iraq last month.

Miliband had said world powers would meet in May and planned to "write a letter" to Tehran, Mottaki said.

"I told him that 'You have used a word, and I think it is a forbidden word ... Don't pass those red lines. Be careful about that'," Mottaki said without saying what those "red lines" were. (Reuters)

Labels: Iran, Nuclear Power, U.K.

Jordan's King Abdullah told visiting MK Yossi Beilin on Saturday that progress in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians prior to the two sides reaching an agreement on the core issues of the conflict would be sufficient for the Arab League states to implement, at least partially, the 2002 Arab peace initiative, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.
The monarch added his belief that a significant number of Arab and Muslim states would move to establish diplomatic relations with Israel as a result of positive movement on the Palestinian front.
Beilin told Abdullah that the gaps between the two sides are smaller than what is perceived by the public, yet the question remains whether Israel and the Palestinians can muster the courage to make the necessary compromises and bridge those gaps, according to Israel Radio.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this weekend makes her fourth visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories since the November Annapolis peace conference with little to show for the U.S. effort.
Traveling ahead of President George W. Bush's May 13-18 trip to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Rice left Washington on Thursday and will see officials on both sides - including in three-way sessions - to assess a peace negotiation with no visible sign of progress. (Haaretz)

Labels: Arab Leauge, Israel, Jordan, U.S.

Egyptian opposition members of parliament demanded the government cease exporting natural gas to Israel, and plan to convene a special session Sunday to discuss the matter.
"This is a disaster that must be stopped," said Husan Ibrahim, an MP who represents the Muslim Brotherhood's Islamic opposition movement.
Ibrahim dismissed government claims that private companies, and not the state, are providing natural gas to Israel.

Last Thursday, the Egyptian natural gas consortium EMG began exporting to Israel Electric power stations in Ashdod and Tel Aviv.
The agreement, signed in 2005, calls for EMG to supply Israel Electric with 1.7 billion cubic meters annually over a period of 15 years, with an option to increase the amount by 25 percent and to extend the length of the contract an additional five years. The deal is said to be worth $2.5 billion. (Haaretz)

Labels: Egypt, Israel, Muslim Brotherhood

The Iranian-backed Lebanon-based guerilla movement Hezbollah said on Friday it prides itself on appearing on the United States' terrorist list.
"The U.S. administration has no right to give statements on nationalism and terrorism when it is making the peoples of the world, including the American people, pay the price for its wars and bloody policies," said a statement by Hezbollah.
Hezbollah's remarks came in response to the report released earlier this week by the U.S. State Department which accused Iran of providing aid to Palestinian "terrorist" groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, "Iraq-based militants," and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

The statement criticized Washington for its Lebanon policy and accused the U.S. of "provoking its allies in Lebanon against fellow citizens who support the resistance and the opposition."
Hezbollah slammed the U.S. as the biggest threat to international peace and stability. (DPA)

Labels: Hezbollah, Iran, Lebanon, U.S.

Egypt has suspended three tourist firms pending the outcome of a probe into a coach crash that left eight foreign tourists dead and 29 people hurt, the official Middle East News Agency said on Friday. Six Russians, a Ukrainian and a Romanian died early Thursday morning when the coach, carrying 40 people, left the road, hit a concrete barrier, rolled over and burst into flames about 70 kilometers south of Suez. A ninth fatality was the Egyptian back-up driver, while the actual driver survived. Sixteen Russian tourists, along with two Romanians, two Italians, two Britons, two Canadians and a Ukrainian were injured. In addition, two Egyptian policeman and a tourist guide were also hurt. The bus, which belonged to Azure Travel, was traveling from the Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh to Cairo. Clients of the Nasr Travel and Infinity Transport agencies were also on board. Spokeswoman Hala al-Khatib said Tourism Minister Zuhair Garana had decided that "these agencies will be banned until the end of the investigation to determine responsibility for the accident." The initial investigation showed that the driver was traveling too fast as he tried to negotiate a sharp curve. (AFP)

Labels: Egypt

Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe, known for her sexy looks and revealing outfits, went ahead with a performance in Bahrain despite an attempt by the Islamist-dominated Parliament to stop the show.

"Haifa Wehbe was dressed modestly. She was almost veiled," Adel Surour, 37, who attended Wednesday night's show with his family, said Thursday. "Her performance was measured compared to her usual demeanor. We thoroughly enjoyed the show."

Surour said the audience consisted mainly of families, including Gulf Arabs from neighbouring countries.

Al-Ayyam newspaper on Thursday carried pictures of Wehbe dressed in a long green gown with a low V-neckline during the performance.

On Tuesday Sunni and Shiite Islamist MPs approved an urgent motion asking the Bahraini government to ban the show, which was timed to mark Thursday's May Day celebrations.

The move by the 40-member Parliament, where Islamists hold three-quarters of seats, came despite assurances by organizers that Wehbe would dress modestly during the show, which would be reserved for families and respect Bahraini traditions. (AFP)

Labels: Bahrain, Free Speech

The first class of Palestinian security officers trained under a multimillion-dollar U.S. program to strengthen the Palestinian Authority is deploying to one of the West Bank's most restive cities without promised supplies of body armor, helmets or even flashlights after Israel blocked a shipment of equipment.

The shortage in U.S.-funded supplies threatens the Palestinian government's ability to provide security in the West Bank, which Israel has made a condition of future withdrawals from the occupied territories. There have also been significant problems with the training, including a final round that one American involved in the program described as "a complete fiasco."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrives in the region this weekend, has said the training program is an essential part of the Bush administration's push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement before it leaves office in January.

But Israel has traditionally viewed Palestinian security forces as potential adversaries, even though this training class is affiliated with the moderate Palestinian government that serves as the Jewish state's counterpart in peace talks. In this case, Israel failed to approve delivery of the requested supplies in time for the deployment, according to senior Palestinian officials. (Washington Post)

Labels: Israel, Palestine, U.S.

The Israeli military has released video footage which, it says, clears it of blame for the deaths of a Palestinian woman and her four children in Gaza.

It says the footage shows the family died because a missile attack on a Palestinian militant set off explosives he was carrying, in a secondary blast.

The family's neighbours deny that Palestinian gunmen were in the area at the time of the incident on Monday.

Doctors and residents in Beit Hanoun blame Israeli tank fire for the deaths.

The Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, has said that, regardless of whether there was a secondary explosion, it was probably a breach of international law to fire a missile into a densely populated area.

Israeli ground forces moved into the Gaza Strip early on Monday morning and entered Beit Hanoun, not far from the border.

During the incursion, a missile smashed through the ceiling of one family's one-storey house while they were having breakfast, witnesses said.

The mother, and two girls and two boys aged between one and six, were killed. (BBC)

Labels: B'Tselem, Israel, Palestine

Republican John McCain was forced to clarify his comments Friday suggesting the Iraq war involved U.S. reliance on foreign oil. He said he was talking about the first Gulf War and not the current conflict.

At issue was a comment he made at a town hall-style meeting Friday morning in Denver.

"My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East," McCain said.

The expected GOP nominee sought to clarify his comments later, after his campaign plane landed in Phoenix. He said he didn't mean the U.S. went to war in Iraq five years ago over oil.

"No, no, I was talking about that we had fought the Gulf War for several reasons," McCain told reporters. (AP)

Labels: Iraq, Oil, U.S.

A new Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem that straddles an Arab residential area with sweeping vistas of the Old City and the Temple Mount will be populated this summer.

Nof Zion (View of Zion), which borders the Jebl Mukaber neighborhood and the promenade on the edge of Armon Hanatziv, is being built by entrepreneurs on privately owned Jewish land, despite Palestinian and international opposition.

The recently completed first stage of the upscale project is made up of 91 three-to-five room apartments, most of which have already been sold, said Yehuda Levy, the head of Tel Aviv's DiGal Investments and Holdings Ltd., which is building the project.

The project got under way after the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Arab residents who had claimed that that some of the land in question belonged to them, Levy said. (JPost)

Labels: Israel, Palestine

Shiite clerics offered sharply different visions Friday in the showdown between government forces and Shiite militias - one predicting that armed groups will be crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be prosecuted for crimes against his people.

The contrasting views - given during weekly sermons - showed the complexities and risks in the five-week-old crackdown on Shiite militia factions. The clashes have brought deep rifts among Iraq's Shiite majority and have pulled U.S. troops into difficult urban combat in the main militia stronghold in Baghdad.

But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, shows no indication of easing the pressure on groups including the powerful Mahdi Army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Iraqi and U.S. forces are pressing deeper into Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people that serves as the Mahdi Army's base in Baghdad. Al-Maliki also is seeking to increase leverage on Iran, which is accused of trading and arming some Shiite militia groups.

A five-member Iraqi delegation was sent to Tehran this week trying to try to choke off suspected Iranian aid to militiamen. (AP)

Labels: Iraq, Mehdi Army

The Israeli army has blamed Palestinian fighters for the deaths of a Gaza mother and her four young children following an Israeli air raid in Beit Hanoun earlier this week.

The military's report contradicts one by B'Tselem, an independent Israeli human rights group, which found that the family was killed by a strike from an Israeli missile.

The army said on Friday that its investigation of the killing of Meissar Abu Megteg and her children found that secondary blasts from ammunition backpacks carried by the fighters were to blame.

But B'Tselem maintains there is "no evidence" of any secondary explosion.

David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, said the "real time sequence and the claims by the Israeli army have not been subjected to  independent expert analysis".

Chater said: "Their interpretation is based solely on the video footage and is at odds with field researchers from B'Tselem who gathered evidence on the ground immediately after the strike. They say it is not enough to launch an internal inquiry alone." (Al Jazeera)

Labels: B'Tselem, Israel, Palestine

Gaza's water authority has dumped 60 million liters of partially treated and untreated sewage into the Mediterranean Sea since January 24, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report released on Wednesday.

"The sewage discharge is contaminating Gaza seawater and posing health risks for bathers and consumers of seafood. The sewage flows northward to Israeli coasts, including near the Ashkelon desalination plant. Urgent studies are needed to examine the extent of the impact," the report reads.

The report's authors blamed Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip for the Gazans' inability to treat the sewage.

"This sewage cannot be treated due to the lack of a steady electricity supply within the Gaza Strip, Israel's restrictions on fuel imports and prohibitions on the import of materials and necessary spare parts," according to the report.

The UN said Gaza's water authority, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, required 14 days of uninterrupted electricity to treat the sewage. The utility provides more than 130 million cubic meters of water per year, according to the report, 80 percent of which ends up as sewage. Moreover, because of the restrictions on imports and exports into and out of the Strip, spare parts needed to repair the sewage treatment plants had not been allowed in. (JPost)

Labels: Environment, Israel, Palestine, U.N.

In a recent NY Times article, Jimmy Carter lays out the points Hamas agreed to accept as a stepping stone to peace with Israel:

• Hamas will accept any agreement negotiated by Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel provided it is approved either in a Palestinian referendum or by an elected government. Hamas's leader, Khaled Meshal, has reconfirmed this, although some subordinates have denied it to the press.

• When the time comes, Hamas will accept the possibility of forming a nonpartisan professional government of technocrats to govern until the next elections can be held.

• Hamas will also disband its militia in Gaza if a nonpartisan professional security force can be formed.

• Hamas will permit an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants in 2006, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, to send a letter to his parents. If Israel agrees to a list of prisoners to be exchanged, and the first group is released, Corporal Shalit will be sent to Egypt, pending the final releases.

• Hamas will accept a mutual cease-fire in Gaza, with the expectation (not requirement) that this would later include the West Bank.

• Hamas will accept international control of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, provided the Egyptians and not the Israelis control closing the gates. (NY Times)

Labels: Hamas, Israel, Palestine

Major world powers are to offer Iran updated incentives to stop enriching uranium and end fears it is seeking a nuclear arsenal.

The agreement on a new package was announced by UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband after talks between foreign ministers in London.

He said no details would be made public before the offer was made to Tehran.

Iran, which says it is seeking civilian nuclear energy, is under UN sanctions for continuing to enrich uranium.

Friday's deal was agreed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, the UK and France - plus Germany.

All were represented by their foreign ministers except for China, which sent a deputy minister.

"We are united in our belief that the threat posed by this enrichment programme to stability is very serious and it's one that we want to address directly," Mr Miliband said. (BBC)

Labels: China, France, Iran, Nuclear Power, Russia, U.K., U.N.

Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj has hit out at the US treatment of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison where he was held for nearly six and a half years.

Saying that "rats are treated with more humanity", al-Hajj said inmates' "human dignity was violated".

Al-Hajj, who arrived in Sudan early on Friday, was carried off the US air force jet on a stretcher and immediately taken to hospital.

Later, he had an emotional reunion with his wife and son.

His brother, Asim al-Hajj, said he did not recognise the cameraman because he looked like a man in his 80s.

Still, al-Hajj said: "I was lucky because God allowed that I be released."

But his attention soon turned to the 275 inmates he left behind in the US military prison.

"I'm very happy to be in Sudan, but I'm very sad because of the situation of our brothers who remain in Guantanamo. Conditions in Guantanamo are very, very bad and they get worse by the day," he said from his hospital bed. (Al Jazeera)

Labels: Guantanamo, U.S.

Members of the Middle East Quartet have called on Israel to freeze the construction of further settlements in the West Bank.
The Quartet "called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity," Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said on Friday reading from a statement agreed at the meeting of the UN, the US, Russia and the European Union.

The Quartet members met at London on a day donor countries were also scheduled to meet to explore options to tide over the Palestinian economic crisis.

The Quartet members also called on Israel to dismantle outposts erected since March 2001.

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, speaking at a press conference after the Quartet meeting, said there were now measures in place to help improve the situation in the region.

She said: "It's very difficult to do this in a kind of macro way, or a  general way. It comes down to very specific issues, that issue of that checkpoint or that roadblock that's preventing that kind of economic activity in that town ... it gets that specific." (Al Jazeera)

Labels: European Union, Israel, Palestine, Russia, Settlements, U.N., U.S.

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, has said there is a chance to break Lebanon's political deadlock which has left the country without a president for more than five months.
Moussa made the comments after meeting feuding Lebanese factions on Thursday in his latest attempt to break the impasse.

"Time is passing but I think there is a chance which we can exploit to make serious progress," he told reporters after a two-hour meeting in Beirut, the capital, with Nabih Berri, the parliamentary speaker, who is aligned with the Syrian-backed opposition.

Moussa's visit came two weeks after a similar trip by David Welch, the US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs.

Moussa described his talks with Berri as extremely important.

He said: "We have begun work which I think can serve as a basis for progress."

But Moussa's several visits to Lebanon in the past have yielded little results. (Al Jazeera)

Labels: Arab Leauge, Lebanon

An Iraqi delegation in Iran has confronted Iranian security officials with evidence that Tehran is providing support for Shi'ite militias battling Iraqi government forces, an Iraqi official said on Friday.

"They presented a list of names, training camps and cells linked to Iran," Haidar al-Ibadi, a member of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa party, told Reuters.

"The Iranians did not confess or admit anything. They claim they are not intervening in Iraq and they feel they are being unfairly blamed for everything going on Iraq," he said of the talks, which took place on Thursday.

Ibadi said he had been in contact with the delegation.

Washington has long accused Tehran of backing Shi'ite militias, particularly fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, providing them with weapons, funding and training. It has displayed some of the weapons, including rockets and mortars. (Reuters)

Labels: Iran, Iraq, Mehdi Army

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raised fresh doubts Thursday about the nature of Iran's nuclear program, saying if the clerical state really wanted only an avenue to peaceful atomic energy it could quickly have it.

Instead, Iran is stonewalling on an attractive deal to trade away only the part of the program that could result in a nuclear weapon, Rice said ahead of a gathering of the U.N. nations that have presented a carrot-or-stick package to Iran.

"I continue to suspect this is not at all about a civil nuclear program," Rice told reporters traveling with her. Iran's insistence that it be able to enrich uranium on its terms seems at cross-purposes with that goal, Rice said.

"One has to wonder what is going on here."

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a report last year that Iran shelved an active weapons-development program years ago, a finding that undercut the Bush administration's claim that Iran was using a public energy development program to hide a secret drive for a bomb. An unclassified summary of the report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, said Iran could resume a weapons program and might evade detection if it did. Rice did not say whether she thought that had happened and did not directly accuse Iran of lying. (AP)

Labels: Iran, Nuclear Power, U.S.

Eighteen people, mostly soldiers, were killed in Yemen on Friday when a blast blamed by authorities on Shiite insurgents exploded at the entrance to a mosque in the rebels' stronghold.

A booby-trapped motorcycle exploded as hundreds of Muslim faithful were leaving the Bin Salman mosque in the northwestern town of Saada after Friday prayers, according to military sources at the site.

Forty-five people were wounded.

The attack on the mosque, located near an army barracks, raised fears of an escalation in violence between the government and Shiite rebels whose insurgency in the mountainous province of Saada has claimed thousands of lives since 2004.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but a local official told AFP the attack bears the hallmarks of the "Huthis," as the rebels are known.

"Terrorist criminal followers of the terrorist Abdul Malak al-Huthi are behind this ugly crime," an interior ministry official told the Saba state news agency, referring to the rebels' field commander.

Military sources said the dead were mostly soldiers, but they also included women and child beggars who had been waiting for worshippers outside the mosque. Most of the injured were soldiers. (AFP)

Labels: Yemen

Israeli police questioned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert under caution on Friday over money raised by a U.S. citizen for municipal and party elections in 1999 and 2002, his office said.

A statement said Olmert, who has been the subject of three other corruption probes relating to his conduct in public offices before he became premier in 2006, answered investigators' questions for an hour and would continue to cooperate with law-enforcement authorities.

Israeli election finance laws limit donations from abroad. Olmert's office did not say if he was suspected of illicitly using funds raised by the unnamed American. A police spokesman declined to elaborate on the statement from Olmert's office.

Olmert successfully ran for re-election as Jerusalem mayor in 1999. In 2002, he ran against then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the leadership of the right-wing Likud Party, but lost.

Friday's questioning, which was ordered at unusually short notice by Israel's attorney-general, came as Olmert pursues a peace effort with the Palestinians, talks the United States hopes will culminate in an accord before January.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will arrive in the region on Saturday to help advance the talks.(Reuters)

Labels: Israel

The home where Miyasar Abu Muatak died with her children is now just a pile of rubble. A mourning tent has been put up outside with photographs of the family. A steady stream of relatives, friends and neighbours come in to express their condolences.

Three year old Hanaa, Salah, four, Rudeynah, six and Musad, 18 months, were killed along with their mother during a firefight between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces, the cause of their death remains in dispute. Local residents say an Israeli aircraft fired two missiles, collapsing the house with the family inside. The Israeli military insisted that the deaths had been the result of a “secondary explosion” caused when weaponry carried by militants exploded.

The children’s father, Ahmed Abu Muatak, was on his way to the market when he heard the sound of the explosion and ran back. “It was my house, and I knew that everyone was inside, no one had escaped. What a black day, they have killed my family,” he said weeping as a neighbour put a consoling arm around his shoulders.

The deaths at Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza strip, were just the latest in this attritional conflict with Palestinian rockets being fired into Israel and Israeli retribution claiming civilian lives alongside those of militants. (Independent)

Labels: Israel, Palestine

Turkish warplanes launched intensive bombing raids on Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq overnight, the Turkish General Staff said on Friday, but there were no reports of any casualties.

Turkish forces have stepped up strikes against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq in recent weeks in addition to operations against them in Turkey. Turkish troops conducted a large-scale incursion across the border in February.

"Turkish Air Force planes struck targets belonging to the terror group in a comprehensive and effective air operation from 2300 (2000 GMT)," the General Staff said in a statement on its website.

The military said all its planes had returned safely to base after the attack which was launched after PKK targets were identified in the Qandil mountain region. It did not make any mention of casualties.

The PKK uses northern Iraq as a base to stage attacks on Turkish territory. Turkey blames the PKK, which is fighting for an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey, for the deaths of more than 40,000 people.

A rebel spokesman earlier said that Turkish warplanes struck targets in northern Iraq overnight but there were no reports of any casualties. (Reuters)

Labels: Iraq, Kurdistan, Turkey