Middle East Aggregator

Opening a farewell tour of Europe, President Bush won European support on Tuesday to consider additional punitive sanctions against Iran, including restrictions on its banks, if Iran rejects a package of incentives to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

President Bush at Brdo Castle in Kranj, Slovenia, with, from left, Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission; Janez Jansa, prime minister of Slovenia; and Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief.

Iran’s leaders, the Mr. Bush said, “can either face isolation, or they can have better relations with all of us if they verifiably suspend their enrichment program.”

Mr. Bush was speaking at a news conference after what was billed as his final summit meeting with European officials before his term ends in January.

The meeting was held in the same small mountainous country as he chose for his first foray into Europe as president seven years ago.

It was, he said, a “fitting circle” to return to Slovenia. One day he would return as a tourist, he said. “You know, I’m close to retirement.”

A joint statement after the meeting urged Iran to “comply with its international obligations concerning its nuclear activities.” (NY Times)

Labels: European Union, Iran, Nuclear Power, U.S.

European Parliament Vice-President Luisa Morgantini and the Irish Nobel laureate, Mairead Corrigan, have been injured at a protest in the West Bank.

An Italian judge, Julio Toscano, was also hurt when Israeli troops fired tear gas to disperse the demonstration against the West Bank barrier in Bilin.

He suffered head wounds when he was hit by one of the tear-gas canisters.

The incidents came on the last day of an international conference supporting local protests against the barrier.

In September, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to redraw its route near Bilin, accepting an appeal by residents, who had argued it prevented them from reaching 50% of their agricultural land.

The International Court of Justice issued an advisory ruling in 2004 that the barrier breached international law where it is built on occupied Palestinian territory and should be dismantled.

Despite the supreme court's ruling last year, the Israeli authorities have not yet begun to implement it, meaning Bilin's residents continue to be prevented from accessing around 200 hectares (500 acres) of their farmland. (BBC)

Labels: European Union, Israel, Palestine

Iran said on Tuesday it had agreed to a visit by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to submit an upgraded package of incentives aimed at coaxing the country into halting uranium enrichment, a news agency reported.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said no date had been yet been set for Solana's trip.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia -- and Germany, known as the P5+1, offered a package to Iran in 2006 that also required Iran to halt enrichment.

Tehran rejected those proposals in 2006 and the latest package is an enhanced version of that earlier offer.

"Solana has asked to visit Iran to deliver the P5+1 nuclear incentives package. We have accepted his request," Mottaki told reporters, the students news agency ISNA said.

European diplomats have also told Reuters that Solana was still waiting for Iran to set a time for the handover. (Reuters)

Labels: European Union, Iran, Nuclear Power

Ten suspects were detained on Friday in France, Germany and the Netherlands, accused of funding Islamic extremists in Uzbekistan, officials said. A French source close to the case said eight suspects of Turkish origin were lifted in a suburb of the eastern city of Mulhouse and in the central Rhone region. They were thought to have ties to Al-Qaeda, the source said. The arrests were part of a coordinated swoop with police in Germany and the Netherlands where two other suspects are being held, the source said. Police were searching the suspects' homes on Friday. The source said anti-terrorism units moved in on the group as a "pre-emptive" measure and that none of the suspects had committed attacks. The group "is linked to the Pakistani-Afghan" area, the source added. France's DST domestic intelligence agency had been investigating the ring for close to a year and the arrests were ordered by anti-terrorism judge Thierry Fragnoli. The Dutch state prosecutor's office meanwhile said a 48-year-old Turk was arrested early Friday in the southern town of Tilburg at the request of French legal authorities, a statement said. Prosecutors added that France has formally requested extradition. "The French police and intelligence services have over these past months launched a probe into the funding of a Turkish Islamist group" linked to Metin Kaplan, who was sentenced to life in June 2005 for plotting to overthrow Turkey's secular system. (AFP)

Labels: Al Qaeda, European Union

The international community's efforts at trying to weaken Hamas have failed and should be reevaluated, the EU's two leading diplomats to Israel and the PA said Monday, although they stopped well short of saying that Hamas should be engaged.

"The policy implemented in the last year [toward the Gaza Strip] aimed at strengthening people [through providing direct economic assistance and humanitarian aid], and weakening Hamas... is having the opposite effect," said Ramiro Cibrián-Uzal, the EU's ambassador to Israel. "We need to think about alternative policies, because this has not been successful. This is important to recognize."

Cibrian-Uzal's counterpart in the West Bank and Gaza, John Kjaer, agreed, saying that the closure of the crossings into Gaza had been counterproductive.

Only allowing in humanitarian assistance, rather than a free flow of goods through the Gaza crossing that enable the development of the Gaza economy and show "peace dividends," has only increased Hamas's clout, Kjaer said. (JPost)

Labels: European Union, Hamas, Israel, Palestine

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.

Turkish legislators are debating a proposal to soften a law restricting freedom of speech that has been used to prosecute several writers.

A vote on the proposed amendment to Article 301 of Turkey's penal code, which bars insults to the Turkish identity or the country's institutions, is expected on Tuesday or early Wednesday.

The ruling party, which proposed the change, has a majority in the 550-seat parliament and the amendment is expected to pass.

Turkey says close to 7,000 people have been prosecuted under that law and its precursor since 2003, including Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel prize winner.

A total of 745 were convicted in that period.

The European Union has been pressing Turkey to abolish or overhaul the law as part of Turkey's campaign for EU membership.

The opposition, resentful of what it calls EU interference in Turkey's affairs, wants the law to remain intact. (Al Jazeera)

Labels: European Union, Free Speech, Turkey

Jerusalem expressed mild satisfaction Sunday night that a statement issued by the EU on the fuel shortage in Gaza placed at least part of the blame on Hamas's shoulders.

After expressing "grave concern" at reports that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) had suspended its humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip because of a fuel shortage, and after calling for "regular and unrestricted delivery of fuel supplies" through the "controlled reopening of the crossings" into the area, the EU then singled out Hamas.

"Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza have their share in aggravating the humanitarian situation, including through carrying out the attacks on the Nahal Oz and Kerem Shalom crossings," the statement read. "The [EU] president condemns such actions, which only lead to further suffering of the population."

Senior Foreign Ministry officials said that this was one of only a few times that an EU statement had actually condemned Hamas by name. The official said that while the statement was not revolutionary in nature, it did indicate that the EU had taken the recent Hamas attacks at the Nahal Oz and Kerem Shalom crossings into account when looking at the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. (JPost)

Labels: European Union, Hamas, Israel, Palestine

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik told Turkey Monday that it should not expect to automatically join the European Union and urged Ankara to pursue democratic reforms. "Austria's position remains unchanged," Plassnik told a joint news conference with her Turkish counterpart, Ali Babacan. "I have made it clear that for us negotiations with Turkey ... should be open-ended," Plassnik said, adding that accession talks should not guarantee automatic membership. "We have to explore together the exact content of our future relationship." Austria, where public opinion is overwhelmingly against Turkey's entry into the EU, had insisted that Ankara be offered an option other than full membership when the bloc gave the green light in 2005 to begin accession talks with Turkey.

Turkey says the only goal of the negotiations is full membership. Plassnik also urged Turkey to implement European values and norms in daily life. Babacan said Turkey would not deviate from its path of reform despite upcoming "challenges," an allusion to a bid by the country's top prosecutor to ban the governing party for anti-secular activity. Turkey has so far opened accession talks in only six of the 35 policy areas that candidates are required to complete amid a row over Cyprus and strong opposition to its membership in some EU countries. The EU froze negotiations on eight chapters in 2006 in response to Turkey's refusal to grant trade privileges to Cyprus, which Ankara does not recognize, under a customs union pact with the bloc. (AFP)

Labels: Austria, European Union, Turkey

Poor security and the lack of good governance are the biggest challenges facing Afghanistan, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Monday.

More than six years after U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban, violence has surged in Afghanistan and Western politicians and think-tanks have this year warned the country risks becoming a failed state and sliding into anarchy.

A major donors' conference on Afghanistan planned in France for June will focus on the issues of security and governance, Solana said. He said he discussed the two issues with President Hamid Karzai, who has led Afghanistan since the Taliban's 2001 ouster and relies on Western funds for 90 percent of his budget.

"When we talk about challenges, we have to talk about difficulties that prevent everything that is done ... one is security and that is important ... for the development of the country," Solana told a joint news conference with Karzai. (Reuters)

Labels: Afghanistan, European Union

Belgium (AP) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave notice to the European Union on Wednesday that his nation is open for business, despite its fighting with al-Qaida in Iraq and Shiite militias.

Al-Maliki said that in return for opening its vast oil and gas reserves to investors, Iraq wants EU know-how to rebuild its tattered institutions and industrial base.

During his talks with top EU officials, Iraq offered to forge closer economic and political ties by increasing its supply of natural gas to the European market over the next three years.

"We have come here to open the way - and pave the way - for a new relationship," al-Maliki said. "As you know, Iraq is a rich country. We are not asking for direct assistance to Iraq in order to fund our projects. What we need is technical assistance" to help rebuild.

Iraq's government has indicated that it is negotiating with U.S. and European oil companies to manage the development of new oil fields.(AP)

Labels: European Union, Iraq, Oil

A European Union court ruled against the way the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was put on the bloc's list of groups whose funds must be frozen to help fight terrorism in 2002, but the EU said the ruling was irrelevant.

The Court of First Instance (CFI), the EU's second-highest court, said the EU had not properly justified its decision at the time.

But an EU official said a new version list had been drawn up in December 2007, including the PKK again, which took into account the views of the court in similar cases in the past.

"For the Council (of EU governments), the PKK continues to be on the list," the official said.

The Turkish government blames the PKK for nearly 40,000 deaths since the group launched an armed struggle for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

Thursday's ruling followed similar judgments by the CFI that the EU had failed to give sufficient reasons for including groups on the list, including exiled Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahideen. (Reuters)

Labels: European Union, Kurdistan

Hundreds of demonstrators from member countries of NATO laid siege to the alliance's headquarters on the outskirts of Brussels Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.

Belgian police said they had briefly detained about 450 demonstrators in and around the headquarters located in the suburb of Evere.

Demonstrators were removed from the premises, identified and later released, Belga news agency quoted police as saying.

Minor damage was reported near the NATO building, police said but added that no charges had been filed.

"The police force was huge and they didn't hesitate to use dogs, horses, pepper spray, clubs and water cannon," Belga quoted one demonstrator as saying.

Belgian television showed police using powerful water jets to dislodge people trying to scale the high fencing around the NATO buildings. (Link)

Labels: European Union, Free Speech, Iraq, NATO

Osama bin Laden has threatened the European Union with grave punishment over "insulting drawings" of the Prophet Muhammad as the Muslim world marked the prophet's birthday.

He says in an audio internet posting that the "wise men" of the European Union had gone "overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings. This is the greatest misfortune and the most dangerous". (Link)

Labels: Al Qaeda, European Union, Free Media, Free Speech, Islam

The trial of seven men accused of involvement in a network recruiting young French men for armed groups fighting against US forces in Iraq has begun in Paris.
The men have been accused of "criminal conspiracy with a terrorist organisation" and face up to 10 years in jail if they are found guilty.

The suspects were arrested following an investigation launched in 2004, when Redouane El-Hakim, a young Frenchman, was found dead in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. (Link)

Labels: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, European Union, Iraq

Switzerland and Iran signed a huge deal on Monday for the supply of Iranian natural gas to Europe, sparking harsh criticism from the United States.
Experts said the deal, worth an estimated 20 billion euros, may signal a renewed willingness by European companies to do business with Iran in the wake of a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate that essentially eliminated the possibility of an American military strike on Iran.
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, wearing a traditional Islamic headscarf, attended the signing ceremony in Tehran. She said the deal was needed to diversify Switzerland's energy sources and lower its dependence on Russian gas.

Under the agreement - signed by National Iranian Gas Company and the Swiss firm EGL, which is indirectly owned by Switzerland's cantons - Iran will supply Switzerland with 5.5 billion tons of gas a year for 25 years, starting in 2011. The gas is slated to be sent via the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, which has not yet been built. (Link)

Labels: European Union, Iran, U.S.

Iran dismissed Western criticism of its parliamentary elections, pointing Monday to 60 percent turnout in an election that saw conservatives win a majority, although reformists were largely barred.

Reformists say the deck was stacked against them because the cleric-led Guardian Council threw out most of their candidates on grounds they were insufficiently loyal to the values of Islam and Iran's 1979 revolution.

The United States called the election "cooked" because of the disqualifications. The European Union said the vote was "neither fair nor free" and that the barring of candidates was a "grave violation" of international norms. (Link)

Labels: European Union, Fair Elections, Iran

Iran's parliamentary elections, in which conservatives have claimed a clear victory, have been condemned by the European Union as neither free nor fair after several reformists were barred from standing.

The EU's remarks come as Iran's state TV reported that conservatives have won a majority with at least 163 out of 290 seats in parliament.

Reformist opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, have so far gained 40 seats.

A EU statement on Sunday said: "[EU] expresses its deep regret and disappointment that over a third of prospective candidates were prevented from standing in this year's parliamentary elections." (Link)

Labels: European Union, Iran

The chief Palestinian negotiator says Israel is sabotaging Middle East negotiations with new plans to build hundreds of homes in the West Bank and occupied east Jerusalem.

"The pursuit of settlements is a slap to the peace process and to efforts to make it credible," Ahmed Qureia said on Tuesday.

Israel this week unveiled new housing plans in occupied east Jerusalem and in the West Bank settlement of Givat Zeev, moves that drew a chorus of international criticism and warnings they could hamper peace talks.
It also came as Egyptian mediation efforts led to a tentative ceasefire in Gaza. (Link)

Labels: Arab Leauge, Egypt, European Union, Israel, Palestine, U.S.

An Iranian homosexual man who has said he will be executed if he is deported from the Netherlands has had his claim for asylum overturned.

Mehdi Kazemi has said his life is in danger if he is returned to Iran, where he says his boyfriend named him as a partner before being executed.

Homosexual acts are illegal in the Islamic republic.

A Dutch spokesman said Mr Kazemi would now be sent to the UK, the first European country he entered.

A claim for asylum in the UK had already been turned down.

His case has become a campaign cause for gay rights activists across Europe. (Link)

Labels: European Union, Iran

Iran is ready to negotiate with Europe over the Islamic republic's nuclear program if there were would be "meaningful and effective" results, Iran's foreign minister said Sunday.

Manouchehr Mottaki's comments came just days after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared to rule out any nuclear negotiations with Europe, saying the issue would only be discussed with the U.N. atomic watchdog agency.

"We have always supported negotiations that are purposeful, meaningful and effective," Mottaki said when he was asked if Iran was ready to negotiate Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy affairs chief.

Negotiations could be in any fields including the West's wrongdoings such as "expansionism, invasion and occupation," Mottaki said. (Link)

Labels: European Union, IAEA, Iran

Following the adoption of UN Security Council 1803 against Iran,
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday ruled out talks with the European Union over the nuclear dispute.
"Iran will no longer have any talks with any other country (over the nuclear dispute) outside the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," Mehr news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying after a cabinet session in Tehran.

Iran had in the recent years held several rounds of talks with the EU via foreign policy chief Javier Solana which however led to no tangible results so far.
The UN Security Council voted on Monday to impose additional sanctions on Iran for its continued refusal to abandon nuclear activities. (Link)

Labels: European Union, Iran, U.N.

The European Union has joined the United Nations in condemning what it calls the "disproportionate" use of force by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza after more than 60 Palestinians were killed in the highest single day toll since fighting erupted in 2000.
In a statement, the EU urged Israel to halt activities that endanger civilians saying they were contrary to international law.
It also called for an immediate end to Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli territory and insisted that the peace process should not be interrupted.

Earlier on Saturday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a similar condemnation of he termed Israel's "excessive and disproportionate" response to Palestinian rocket fire, while also denouncing the ongoing rocket attacks on Israeli towns and cities.
Ban spoke at an emergency Security Council session on the escalation of violence in Gaza, where the body expressed "deep concern" over the fighting. (Link)

Labels: European Union, Israel, Palestine, U.N.

The boss of one of the Middle East's best-known sovereign wealth funds has warned against any European Union (EU) moves to increase their regulation.

State-run investment vehicles, Chinese and Middle East sovereign wealth funds have recently bought stakes in a number of Western banks and other businesses.

Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman of Dubai World, said such funds might choose not to invest in Europe.

He was responding to EU criticism that the funds are too "opaque".

The comments came earlier this week from EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia and EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy.

(Link)

Labels: European Union, U.A.E.

The European Union has criticised the new penal code being drafted in Iran, particularly a section that imposes the death penalty for giving up Islam.

The EU said this section and other parts of the code violated Tehran's commitments under international human rights conventions.

Death for apostasy already exists in Iran under Sharia - or Islamic - law.

But the changes would for the first time bring the punishment into the criminal code.

An EU statement expressed deep concern about what it calls the ongoing deterioration in the human rights situation in Iran. It singled out Section Five of the draft penal code currently before the Iranian parliament, imposing the death penalty for apostasy. (Link)

Labels: European Union, Iran

European Union lawmakers urged Israel on Thursday not to inflict "collective punishment" on Gaza's population, saying its isolation of the territory had failed and its actions were endangering civilians.
They urged Israel to lift a blockade which has cut supplies to the 1.5 million people living in Gaza, run by the Islamist group Hamas, and let in aid and essential goods and services.
"The policy of isolation of the Gaza strip has failed at both the political and humanitarian level," the European Parliament said in an adopted resolution.

"The civilian population should be exempt from any military action and any collective punishment."
Israeli air strikes and ground incursions into the Gaza Strip have killed some 300 Palestinians in the past year, including dozens of civilians, but have failed to prevent rocket fire, which killed two Israelis in the same period. (Link)

Labels: European Union, Israel, Palestine

Israel took nearly 70 foreign ambassadors to its border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as part of a diplomatic campaign to enlist international support for tougher action against the enclave's Hamas Islamist rulers.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the envoys at the Erez crossing with Gaza that cross-border rocket fire by militants had created an "unbearable" situation that would only get worse. "Israel must act in order to reduce these threats," she said.

But a large-scale military offensive in densely populated Gaza, where an Israeli blockade has already fuelled fears of a humanitarian crisis, could prove a tough sell for Israel.

Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal, the ambassador of the European Union to Israel, condemned the rocket fire and called for it to stop immediately and unconditionally. Shortly after diplomats left the much-bombarded town of Sderot, a rocket hit a house there.

But the EU envoy told Reuters after the tour: "The European Union does not consider a large military operation in Gaza to be a good idea and we do not believe it will bring a permanent solution to the problems Israel is confronted with." (Link)

Labels: European Union, Israel, Palestine

Robert Gates warned that the future of Nato was at risk if it became a "two-tiered alliance" of countries which fought, and those that did not.

Mr Gates was speaking on the last day of a security conference in Munich.

The summit is also set to consider a threatened diplomatic crisis with Russia over Kosovan independence plans.

Mr Gates said it was incumbent upon Nato leaders to "recapitulate to the people of Europe the importance of the Afghanistan mission and its relationship to the wider terrorist threat".

"On a conceptual level, I believe it falls squarely within the traditional bounds of the alliance's core purpose: to defend the security interests and values of the trans-Atlantic community," he told the gathering of the world's top defence officials. (Link)

Labels: European Union, NATO, U.S.