Semaine 18 / 2012

         Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi visited Thursday the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras and spoke to Hezbollah supporters in the area. During a visit to a park bordering on Israeli territory, Iran's vice president stressed the Islamic Republic's ongoing support for Hezbollah. He later met with group leader Hassan Nasrallah in a southern Beirut suburb. "After speaking to resistance supporters in southern Lebanon, Rahimi stressed Iran's support for the resistance," said Iran's... [Lire la suite]

            Iran imported weapons worth over $560 million over a three-year period despite being the target of a United Nations arms embargo, The Telegraph reported Thursday, citing data published the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.Anna MacDonald, the Control Arms campaigns manager for Oxfam, was quoted by the British daily as saying that the Islamic Republic's success in tapping the international arms market showed the ineffectiveness of current restrictions.... [Lire la suite]

          The prospect of an imminent election in Israel will not affect its strategy for tackling Iran's nuclear program, including plans for a possible preemptive war, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday. Rifts in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition over military conscription and budget cuts have prompted parties to mobilize to bring forward the ballot to as early as September, a year ahead of schedule. That has raised questions about whether an Israeli strike on... [Lire la suite]

            European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is scheduled to fly in to Jerusalem on Wednesday, to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a rundown of developments in nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers. The meeting is apparently an effort to prevent Israel from speaking out publicly against the talks. Ashton's visit, expected to last several hours, comes ahead of the second round of talks, which will begin May 23 in Baghdad. After the first round of... [Lire la suite]

‏              Egyptian security officials placed blame on Palestinian and al-Qaida-linked terrorist groups for some 50 attacks launched against on police forces in the Sinai Peninsula since the Egyptian revolution last January. According to report in the Egypt Independent newspaper, Egyptian security sources said the Palestinian Jaljalat, Army of Islam and Hamas's armed wing the Izzadin a-Kassam Brigades, along with al-Qaida in the Sinai Peninsula were behind the... [Lire la suite]

          The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday rejected a call by a US anti-Iran group for it to cut its relations with Tehran's central bank in order to adhere to US and European sanctions. The IMF said its account with Bank Markazi is simply related to Iran's membership in the IMF and does not contravene sanctions placed on Tehran to pressure it not to develop nuclear weapons. The advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, a group of US ex-diplomats and government officials, said... [Lire la suite]

          Hamas political bureau head Khaled Meshal, who now resides in Qatar, is expected to keep his post after an internal vote by the organization's leadership later this month. But sources have told Haaretz that Hamas leaders have decided to transfer some of Meshal's critical areas of authority to the leadership in the Gaza Strip, including control of the organization's budget and of its military wing. Meshal's sole control of Hamas' purse strings has effectively given him control over... [Lire la suite]

           The anti-terror unit in the prime minister's office has lowered the threat level for travel to Turkey. The threat was downgraded to the lowest on the four-level scale. The unit said that there is always a potential for attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets and therefore those travelling to Turkey should take precautions.

         By sheer accident, two politicians crossed paths on our television screens on Tuesday: one, Yair Lapid, on his way up, and the other, Tzipi Livni, on her way down. He is young and fresh, with his future before him. She is wounded and defeated, with her future shrouded in fog. And as if everything else she has gone through over the last month weren't enough, even her parting speech was pushed into second billing on the news broadcasts by Lapid's maiden speech. Even this primacy was taken... [Lire la suite]

          Israel began building a wall on Monday along a 1-km (0.6 mile) -stretch of its border with Lebanon, saying the barrier was necessary to boost security for an Israeli frontier town across from a Lebanese village. An Israeli security fence already runs along the entire border but the military said defenses had to be bolstered with a 5-7 meter-(16-23 feet) high cement wall between the Israeli town of Metulla and the Lebanese village of Kila. "(The wall is) intended to prevent firing... [Lire la suite]