11 juillet 2009
An-Nahar: Six months to freeze settlements
The United States has given Israel a six-month deadline to accede to its demand to freeze all construction in West Bank settlements, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told his Lebanese interlocutors during an official visit to Beirut. Israel Radio cited a report which appeared Saturday in the Lebanese daily newspaper an-Nahar. According to the report, Kouchner told Lebanese officials that the U.S. could extend the six-month deadline, though Washington will not provide sponsorship to a renewed peace process if Jerusalem continues settlement construction. On Friday, Kouchner held talks with a Hezbollah legislator in the latest European outreach to the Iranian-backed militant group. The European Union and Britain have also sought to engage Lebanon's Hezbollah in recent months to encourage the group to abandon violence and play a constructive political role in the deeply divided country. The United States, however, shuns the group, which it considers a terrorist organization. Hezbollah suffered a setback in Lebanon's June 7 parliamentary election at the hands of a Western-backed coalition that held onto a majority in the legislature. The prime minister-designate, Saad Hariri, however, is trying to form a government that could include Hezbollah and its partners, though some of Hariri's allies are vowing to strip Hezbollah of the veto power it had in the outgoing government. Hezbollah had negotiated the power to veto government decisions after Shi'ite gunmen overran Sunni neighborhoods in Beirut in May 2008. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner discussed the efforts to form a new government in his meeting with Hezbollah lawmaker Nawaf Musawi and in separate meetings with senior Lebanese officials. Kouchner defended his meeting with Hezbollah, which fought the 2006 Second Lebanon War with Israel and is armed and trained by Iran. "Hezbollah is part of the parties that participated in the recent parliamentary elections. It is natural to meet with its representatives," Kouchner told reporters. Last month, the European Union's foreign affairs chief, Javier Solana, held talks in Beirut with another Hezbollah legislator in the first meeting between a senior EU diplomat and an official of the militant group. On Thursday, visiting British lawmakers met with the head of Hezbollah's 12-member bloc in parliament, Mohammed Raad. Britain's Foreign Office announced in March that it has contacted Hezbollah's political wing in an attempt to reach out to its legislators. It said its ultimate aim is to encourage the militant group to turn away from violence and become a positive force in Lebanon's politics. During Friday's meeting, Musawi said he briefed Kouchner on what he said were Israel's almost daily military flights over Lebanon in breach of a UN resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. He also spoke of the alleged Israeli spy networks in Lebanon. Lebanese authorities have reportedly arrested about 100 people suspected of spying for or collaborating with Israel in recent weeks. Kouchner was to visit neighboring Syria on Saturday.Israel is unaware of any six-month deadline placed by the US for freezing settlement construction in the West Bank, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Saturday night. (16,08)
France FM Kouchner defends meeting with Hezbollah MP as 'natural'
France's foreign minister held talks Friday with a Hezbollah legislator in the latest European outreach to the Iranian-backed militant group. The European Union and Britain have also sought to engage Lebanon's Hezbollah in recent months to encourage the group to abandon violence and play a constructive political role in the deeply divided country. The United States, however, shuns the group, which it considers a terrorist organization. Hezbollah suffered a setback in Lebanon's June 7 parliamentary election at the hands of a Western-backed coalition that held onto a majority in the legislature. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner discussed the efforts to form a new government in his meeting with Hezbollah lawmaker Nawaf Musawi and in separate meetings with senior Lebanese officials. Kouchner defended his meeting with Hezbollah, which fought the 2006 Second Lebanon War with Israel and is armed and trained by Iran. "Hezbollah is part of the parties that participated in the recent parliamentary elections. It is natural to meet with its representatives," Kouchner told reporters. Last month, the European Union's foreign affairs chief, Javier Solana, held talks in Beirut with another Hezbollah legislator in the first meeting between a senior EU diplomat and an official of the militant group. Britain's Foreign Office announced in March that it has contacted Hezbollah's political wing in an attempt to reach out to its legislators. It said its ultimate aim is to encourage the militant group to turn away from violence and become a positive force in Lebanon's politics. The European Union and Britain have also sought to engage the Shi'ite organization in recent months in an effort to encourage the group to abandon violence and play a constructive political role in the deeply divided country. The United States, however, shuns Hizbullah, which it considers a terrorist organization. Kouchner was to visit neighboring Syria on Saturday. (10,17)
10 juillet 2009
Al-Hayat/Egyptian source: Shalit talks to be resumed soon
The talks aimed at securing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit's release will be resumed soon, London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat reported Friday, quoting an Egyptian source. The source added that talks held in Cairo between Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's Security-Diplomatic Bureau, and Egyptian Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman dealt with a prisoner exchange deal. "Both sides agreed to resume the indirect negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians via Egyptian mediation, with the purpose of freeing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit's release," the official said, adding that Egypt had asked Gilad to present the Netanyahu government's stand. "So far, the Israeli government has not raised any new offer which we can build on or move forwards with," said the Egyptian official, who was defined by the newspaper as a reliable source. "We don’t want to lose all the efforts invested by the previous government and start from scratch. The agreement to resume the negotiations is positive, but we are waiting for a proposal from the Israelis about their new stand." The same source added that the talks had never stopped, but that recently the Egyptians have been working on trying to understand the new Israeli government's stand. As for Hamas' stand, the source said, the Palestinian organization still insists on the list of prisoners it demanded in the past. There is also "nothing new" in terms of a truce between Israel and Hamas, the official said. "There is an agreement in principle in regards to a mutual lull between Israel and Hamas that every Palestinian violation of the lull will be answered with a military escalation on the part of the Israelis. (16,28)
Al Muzeini; 'Hamas leaders don't know about Shalit's condition'
No one in Hamas – apart from a very exclusive circle within the group's military wing – knows Gilad Shalit's location or is in contact with him, senior organization member Osama al-Muzeini said Friday morning following reports that indirect talks for a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas will be resumed soon. According to al-Muzeini, who is in charge of the Shalit case in the Hamas organization, the exclusive circle is excluded and no one is in touch with it, due to the sensitivity of the issue. According to al-Muzeini, no one within Hamas' political or military leadership knows where Shalit is – including al-Muzeini himself, who only serves as a spokesman on the issue. The Hamas man added that since the Israeli offensive in Gaza ended, the organization's leadership does not know about Shalit's medical condition either. "We don't know if he's injured, sick or dead. That's the truth, and there is no Hamas tactic here," he said, in response to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's remark that the Israeli captive was "safe and sound." According to al-Muzeini, Mubarak's remarks were "public relations more than something based on real information." He added that Shalit's fate would only be revealed once a prisoner swap is executed. "Hamas' successful security planning has prevented the enemy from locating Shalit's whereabouts," he boasted. Al-Muzeini clarified that the reports on an imminent release were false, and that Hamas continued to stick to its conditions for a prisoner exchange deal. "Our stand is stable and will not change, and everything being said is part of the psychological war run by the Zionists. Israeli media outlets are the ones distributing these reports. Neither Haaretz nor Maariv represent our stand. "Hamas will not change its list. the 450 'heavy' prisoners will only be released as part of the deal, which has become those prisoners' only hope." (16,23)
Gilad arrives in Cairo for Schalit talks
Amos Gilad, the Defense Ministry's diplomatic-military bureau chief, arrived in Cairo on Thursday for a brief visit during which he is to conduct talks with Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on the efforts to reach a deal with Hamas, which could lead to the release of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, Arab media outlets said. Recent reports claimed that Israel and Hamas were about to renew talks on Schalit's release, though Hamas on Wednesday denied receiving any official announcement from Egypt on the topic. Meanwhile, Group of Eight leaders has called for the immediate release of Schalit. In a statement issued Thursday at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, the leaders also called for the immediate opening of Gaza crossings to allow humanitarian aid, goods and people in and out of the territory, while respecting Israel's security. The countries stressed that "a just, lasting and global peace in the Middle East remains crucial for the international community", reiterated their support for the "two-state solution" which would allow Israel to "live in peace and safety" and create "a Palestinian state, in which the Palestinian people can make their own decisions." The statement went on to say that the nations urged Israel and the Palestinians to "quickly resume direct negotiations on all open questions, in line with the Road Map, the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the Madrid principles. (01,28)
Israel may give PA commandos go ahead
The IDF is considering allowing the Palestinians to establish a specially trained counterterror squad - a scaled down version of the IDF's elite reconnaissance units - qualified to carry out pinpoint operations against Hamas terrorist cells in the West Bank, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Such an elite commando force would be able to carry out special operations against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank more effectively than could existing Palestinian security forces. The French have already offered to train such a team. The decision to consider the establishment of such a team was made following the Palestinian Authority's operation against a Hamas cell in Kalkilya last month, during which five Hamas terrorists and four members of the US-trained Palestinian security force were killed. The four Palestinian battalions trained by the United States in Jordan and already deployed in the West Bank were taught how to enforce law and order and conduct regular police-like operations, but were not given military training. Their equipment consists of pistols and Kalashnikov rifles, and the content of their training is approved by Israel. The IDF is therefore considering allowing the establishment of a small, elite Palestinian squad that would be capable of conducting operations like the one in Kalkilya more effectively and with fewer casualties. The army recently vetoed a PA request to receive explosives training. The Palestinians also asked Israel for permission to set up an advanced military communication system. This too was denied by the army, due to concern that the Palestinian system would interfere with IDF communications, JPost reported. (01,27)
Sarkozy: Israel strike on Iran would be catastrophe
A unilateral attack by Israel against Iran to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions would be an "absolute catastrophe," AFP quoted French President Nicolas Sarkozy as warning on Thursday. Sarkozy was speaking after a summit of the Group of Eight and other leaders in Italy at which they agreed on the need to pursue a negotiated deal with Tehran to halt its nuclear program. Earlier this week, U.S. President Barack Obama rebuffed suggestions that Washington had given Israel a green light to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. Israel believes that a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat. The French president said Wednesday that major powers in the G8 would give negotiations with Iran a chance until September. After Sarkozy's statement Wednesday, a senior adviser to Iran's top authority said in remarks published on Thursday that the Islamic Republic would not back down "even one step" over its nuclear work, making clear Tehran's continued defiance toward the West. Ali Akbar Velayati, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs, said Western countries did not want the Islamic state to have peaceful nuclear activities, state broadcaster IRIB said on its website. Speaking after talks with fellow G8 leaders, Sarkozy said they would review the situation at a G20 meeting of developed and developing countries in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24 and 25. "If there is no progress by then we will have to take decisions," said Sarkozy, indicating that tougher sanctions might be imposed if Tehran continued to resist negotiations. Western countries believe Iran is trying to build an atomic bomb. Tehran insists it wants to master nuclear technology to generate electricity, and has rejected all overtures for talks. U.S. and Canadian officials, meanwhile, said the world's main industrialized nations were growing increasingly impatient. "All G8 nations are united. There is a strong consensus at the table that unless things change soon, there will be further action," said Canadian spokesman Dimitri Soudas. (01,21)
09 juillet 2009
Thousands protest in Iran, defying crackdown vow /AP
Thousands of protesters streamed down avenues of the Iranian capital Thursday, chanting "death to the dictator" and defying security forces who fired tear gas and charged with batons, witnesses said. The first opposition foray into the streets in 11 days aimed to revive mass demonstrations that were crushed in Iran's postelection turmoil. Iranian authorities had promised tough action to prevent the marches, which supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have been planning for days in Internet messages. Heavy police forces deployed at key points in the city ahead of the marches, and Tehran's governor vowed to smash anyone who heeded the demonstration calls. In some places, police struck hard. Security forces chased after protesters, beating them with clubs on Valiasr Street, Tehran's biggest north-south avenue, witnesses said. Women in headscarves and young men dashed away, rubbing their eyes as police fired tear gas, in footage aired on state-run Press TV. In a photo from Thursday's events in Tehran obtained by The Associated Press outside Iran, a woman with her black headscarf looped over her face raised a fist in front of a garbage bin that had been set on fire. But the clampdown was not total. At Tehran University, a line of police blocked a crowd from reaching the gates of the campus, but then did not move to disperse them as the protesters chanted "Mir Hossein" and "death to the dictator" and waved their hands in the air, witnesses said. The crowd grew to nearly 1,000 people, the witnesses said. "Police, protect us," some of the demonstrators chanted, asking the forces not to move against them. The protesters appeared to reach several thousand, but their full numbers were difficult to determine, since marches took place in several parts of the city at once and mingled with passers-by. There was no immediate word on arrests or injuries. It did not compare to the hundreds of thousands who joined the marches that erupted after the June 12 presidential election, protesting what the opposition said were fraudulent results. But it was a show of determination despite a crackdown that has cowed protesters for nearly two weeks. Onlookers and pedestrians often gave their support. In side streets near the university, police were chasing young activists, and when they caught one, passers-by chanted "let him go, let him go," until the policemen released him. Elsewhere, residents let fleeing demonstrators slip into their homes to elude police, witnesses said. All witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals. Iranian authorities have imposed restrictions that ban reporters from leaving their offices to cover demonstrations. Many of the marchers were young men and women, some wearing green surgical masks, the color of Mousavi's movement, but older people joined them in some places. Vehicles caught in traffic honked their horns in support of the marchers, witnesses said. Police were seen with a pile of license plates, apparently pried off honking cars in order to investigate the drivers later, the witnesses said. Soon after the confrontations began, mobile phone service was cut off in central Tehran, a step that was also taken during the height of the post-election protests to cut off communications. Mobile phone messaging has been off for the past three days, apparently to disrupt attempts at planning. The calls for a new march have been circulating for days on social networking Web sites and pro-opposition Web sites. Opposition supporters planned the marches to coincide with the anniversary Thursday of a 1999 attack by Basij on a Tehran University dorm to stop protests in which one student was killed. Demonstrators dispersed by nightfall. But after sunset, shouts of "death to the dictator" could be heard from rooftops around the city - a half-hour nightly ritual by Mousavi supporters that has continued even since the previous crackdown. Mousavi and his pro-reform supporters say he won the election, which official results showed as a landslide victory for incumbent hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Days of massive demonstrations erupted, until supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the results valid and warned that unrest would not be tolerated. In what followed, at least 20 protesters and seven Basijis were killed, according to police. Police have said 1,000 people were arrested and that most have since been released. But prosecutor-general Qorban-Ali Dorri Najafabadi said Wednesday that 2,500 people were arrested and that 500 of them could face trial, the state-run English language news network Press TV quoted. The remainder, he said, have been released. Arrests have continued over the past week, with police rounding up dozens of activists, journalists and bloggers. In the latest detentions, a prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah was taken away by security forces from his office Wednesday along with his daughter and three other members of his staff, the pro-opposition news Web site Norouz reported. A former deputy commerce minister in a previous pro-reform government, Feizollah Arab-Sorkhi, was also arrested at his Tehran home, the site reported. A large number of top figures in Iran's reform movement, including a former vice president and former Cabinet members, have been held for weeks since the election. Iranian authorities have depicted the post-election turmoil as instigated by enemy nations aiming to thwart Ahmadinejad's re-election, and officials say some of those detained confessed to fomenting the unrest. Opposition supporters say the confessions were forced under duress. Ahead of the protests, Tehran's governor Morteza Tamaddon accused foreign counterrevolutionary networks of plotting new marches. "If some individuals plan to carry out any anti-security actions by listening to (protest) calls... they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people," he said late Wednesday, according to the state news agency IRNA. (22,00)
Egypt arrests Palestinian-led cell over Suez terror plot
Egyptian authorities have arrested 25 militants in a Palestinian-led terror cell on suspicion of plotting attacks on oil pipelines and ships crossing the Suez Canal, Egypt's Interior Ministry said Thursday. The ministry said the new cell is headed by a Palestinian and includes 24 Egyptians, mostly engineers and technicians, and it had contacts with militants in the Gaza Strip as well. "They believe in takfiri and jihadi thought," the statement said, referring to the radical Sunni Muslim ideology espoused by militant groups like Al-Qaida. The group planned to use explosives rigged with mobile phone-activated detonators against shipping in the busy Suez Canal, and learned about explosives from Al-Qaida militants on jihadi Web sites, said the statement. In April, Egypt announced it had disrupted a militant cell linked to Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah movement which also planned to target the Suez Canal. One of the suspects in Thursday's case also crossed into Gaza Strip to meet up with the Palestinian Army of Islam group to receive instructions on attacking vital and important targets in Egypt, the ministry added. A group by that name did once operate in Gaza, but was later dismantled by the local Hamas rulers. Authorities confiscated explosives, diving suites, and electronics, as well as a handgun linked to an attack on a Coptic Christian's jewelry shop in May 2008. According to the confessions, the detainees killed the Copt and his three workers during a robbery. They also received funds from Islamic charities abroad. In May, Egypt announced arrests of seven alleged members of the same Palestinian Army of Islam for the bombing in February at Cairo's Khan el-Khalili bazaar that killed one French woman. Diaa Rashwan, expert in Islamic militant groups, expressed skepticism and said there are many question marks surrounding the Interior Ministry's allegations, and similar cases had never gone to court. "Here is a catalog of accusations, targets and ties to different groups that don't fit together," Rashwan said. (18,19)
Security wall barely built in 15 months
Almost no progress has been made toward completing the West Bank security barrier in the past 15 months, according to numbers provided to The Jerusalem Post by the Defense Ministry on Wednesday. To date, around 490 km. of the planned 805-km. barrier have been finished, according to Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror. This is the same figure he gave the Post in February 2008, just after a suicide bomber came through a gap in the structure and killed a woman in Dimona while wounding 40 other people. Dror spoke with the Post a day before the fifth anniversary of the International Court of Justice in The Hague's advisory opinion saying that construction of the barrier in the West Bank was illegal. On Wednesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay called on Israel to "dismantle the wall" and "make reparations for all damage suffered by all persons affected by the wall's construction." Since the nonbinding court ruling, Israel has continued to say that the structure saves lives and that it has a right to build it in the West Bank to protect its citizens against terror attacks. In practice, in the past two years, work on the barrier has slowed to a trickle. While work crews continue to complete mostly constructed sections, or to redo sections of the route based on High Court of Justice rulings, the number of fully completed sections has not increased in 15 months. In two years, the length of the barrier has increased by only about 40 km. Although the Defense Ministry had initially said it would complete the fence by 2010, Dror told the Post it was now looking to finish 500 km., 62 percent of it, by 2010. He would not make any projections as to when the entire barrier, which was begun in 2002, would be finished. Dror added that the focus at this juncture was on completing the barrier in the Jerusalem area. He said 100 km. of the overall barrier route had been held up by court cases and that work had not yet begun on another 200 km. He blamed both the High Court and budget problems for the delays in completing the fence in the areas of Ma'aleh Adumim, Gush Etzion, the Ariel and Kedumim fingers, as well as the South Hebron Hills. A spokesman for Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the project remained a high priority for Barak, but he had no explanation as to why work had slowed down. The United Nations, left-wing groups that monitor the barrier, as well as the head of security for the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, all told the Post there was little overall progress toward completing the structure. At a Jerusalem press conference, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released a report in which it said the overall length of the barrier route was 709 km., of which only 413 km., or 58.3%, was completed. It added that another 73 km. was under construction. The UN said at the briefing that its issue was not with the fence but with the route, of which 85% is in the West Bank and only 15% along the pre-1967 armistice line. It, too, called on Israel to abide by the Hague ruling and construct the barrier along the Green Line. Once the barrier is completed, the UN report said, 35,000 Palestinians holding West Bank ID cards in 34 communities will be located between the barrier and the Green Line. The barrier would surround approximately 125,000 Palestinians on three sides and 26,000 Palestinians would be surrounded by it on four sides. It added that the barrier has made life very difficult for the Palestinians by dividing families, and cutting off access to medical care, schools and farm lands. Pillay, in a statement Wednesday, said, "The wall is but one element of the wider system of severe restrictions on the freedom of movement imposed by the Israeli authorities on Palestinian residents of the West Bank." According to Oxfam International, which also issued a report on Wednesday, the overall route would divide the West Bank into three parts and up to 22 smaller isolated enclaves, jeopardizing the viability of a future Palestinian state. The route as it was planned in June 2008 passed through 171 West Bank localities, affecting 712,313 Palestinians, according to Oxfam. It said that 49,291 dunams (4,929.1 hectares) of land had been confiscated for the barrier and 27,841 people had been displaced. Oxfam did acknowledge steps the government has taken to try to ease the obstacles posed by the fence. To help farmers access their land, 70 agricultural gates were created in the barrier, though farmers still had a hard time getting to their fields, Oxfam said. The government has also spent NIS 2 billion to construct an alternative system of roads, underpasses and tunnels to facilitate Palestinian travel around the barrier. Speaking at a Foreign Ministry press conference in Jerusalem, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon denied that the security barrier obstructed Palestinian movement. He noted that in spite of the barrier, 1.2 million tourists visited the Palestinian territories in the West Bank in the past year and that the area's GNP had grown by between 5% and 7%. (10,21)