Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syria to Attend Mideast Peace Conference

2007-11-26

Syria will send its deputy foreign minister to the U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md. because the issue of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has been added to the agenda, the state-run news agency said Sunday. The agency, SANA, said Syria will be represented at the conference by Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad. The decision was made "after the Syria track was added to the conference agenda," the agency said. Syria had said it will attend only if the conference discusses the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel saw the announcement as a positive development. "The meetings are clearly about the Israeli-Palestinian process, but could be the beginning of new avenues to peace in the Middle East," spokeswoman Miri Eisin said. Broad Arab attendance at the Annapolis summit was a key goal for the U.S., which is hoping that could help bring about an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Syria did not explain why it will not be sending its foreign minister, like other Arab participants, but the decision appears to indicate that it is not entirely confident the conference will address its concerns over the Golan Heights.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Palestinians demand deadline for state, ponies

2007-10-30

The chief Palestinian peace negotiator threatened on Tuesday that there would be no talks with Israel unless a deadline is set for establishing a Palestinian state — the first indication the Palestinians could scuttle a U.S.-sponsored peace summit over the issue. Palestinian officials have repeatedly said they want a detailed timeline for talks that are expected to begin in earnest after a U.S.-sponsored Mideast conference in November or December. But although Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has consistently resisted the notion of a deadline, they had never before made the matter a condition for talks. On Tuesday, lead negotiator Ahmed Qureia tightened the screws. "The Israeli prime minister has stated that he will not accept a timetable, and we say we will not accept negotiations without a timetable," Qureia said at a news conference with the European Union's external affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner. He delivered the ultimatum as the two sides struggle to bridge yawning gaps ahead of the fall peace summit. It wasn't clear whether the Palestinians would really carry out the threat, or were trying to wrest concessions from Israel. In the past, however, deadlines have been set and ignored. No date has been set for the U.S.-sponsored summit, set to take place in Annapolis, Md., because the two sides remain so far apart on the starting point for talks. Israel wants a vague, joint statement of objectives. The Palestinians want a detailed outline that would address core issues that need to be resolved before peace can be achieved and a Palestinian state can be established. These are final borders, sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem, and a solution for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948. Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have met several times in recent months to try to come up with a joint platform ahead of the meeting, and negotiating teams from both sides have recently entered the process. At Tuesday's news conference, Qureia indicated the talks weren't going well. "We haven't gotten closer yet concerning the issues," he said. "We are talking in general about the issues that should be included in the document. (But) we haven't yet touched the core issues." What the Palestinians want, he said, is "a clear and specific document, without vagueness, that lays the basic foundation for all final status issues. Without that, the conference will be hindered." Qureia was one of the negotiators of the 1993 accord Israel and the Palestinians reached in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, which called for a final peace deal five years later. In 2007, the Palestinians are still waiting, and "we don't want to go for open-ended negotiations," he said Tuesday. Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said negotiations should be held behind closed doors, not through the media. "We're not at the ultimatum stage," Eisin said. "They agreed to work to go forward, and we are committed to going forward to a joint statement."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Abbas specifies land demands for future Palestinian state

2007-10-11

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday laid out his most specific demands for the borders of a future independent state, calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from all territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Abbas’ claim comes as Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams are trying to hammer out a joint vision for a future peace deal in time for a US-hosted conference next month. With Israel seeking to retain parts of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Abbas’ comments appeared to set the stage for tough negotiations, which are expected to include complicated arrangements such as land swaps and shared control over holy sites. In a television interview, Abbas said the Palestinians want to establish a state on 6,205 square kilometers (2,400 square miles) of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It was the first time he has given a precise number for the amount of land he is seeking. 6,205 sq km land: “We have 6,205 square kilometers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.” Abbas told Palestine TV. “We want it as it is.” According to Palestinian negotiating documents obtained by The Associated Press, the Palestinian demands include all of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, east Jerusalem and small areas along the West Bank frontier that were considered no-man’s land before the 1967 war. UN resolutions: Abbas said his claim is backed by UN resolutions. “This is our vision for the Palestinian independent state with full sovereignty on its borders, water and resources.” Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin declined to comment, saying she did not want to prejudice negotiations. But the Palestinian demands appear to exceed anything that Israel would be willing to offer. Israel captured the territories in the 1967 Mideast war and hopes in a final peace deal with the Palestinians to hold on to parts of the West Bank where Jewish settlement blocs are located. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Despite Abbas’ tough public stance, aides to Abbas said he has agreed in recent talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to exchange West Bank land Israel wants to keep in a final peace deal with an equal amount of Israeli land. This would allow Israel to annex the West Bank area where the settlement blocs are located. As part of the proposal, Abbas offered Olmert about 2 percent of the West Bank, the aides said. Olmert is seeking some 6-8 percent of the West Bank, but has said the exact amount of territory should be decided in future negotiations. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity since they were not authorised to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters with the media. In exchange for the West Bank land, Israel is reportedly considering transferring to the Palestinians a strip of area between the Gaza Strip and West Bank to allow for a connection between them.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Olmert may allow Jordanian forces into West Bank

2007-07-30

Israeli aircraft struck a car in the central Gaza Strip on Monday, injuring at least five people, medics said. According to Islamic Jihad and medics in Gaza Strip, the car was carrying members of the group. Other witnesses said that the vehicle contained members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah movement. The strike occurred about 10 kilometers south of Gaza City. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is in favour of Jordanian forces deploying in the occupied West Bank to help Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas fight Hamas, a report said on Monday. "What Olmert has in mind and what has been raised in recent meetings with Jordan's King Abdullah II... (is) 'regular' Jordanian army troops, Bedouin who have experience fighting terrorism," said the English-language Jerusalem Post, citing unnamed sources. Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin dismissed the report, calling it "speculation." According to AFP, she said that Olmert "is not opposed to the idea of deployment of foreign troops, including from Arab countries, in the West Bank with a view to combating the terrorists of Hamas."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel Sends Tax Funds to Palestinians

2007-07-02

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Tens of thousands of Palestinian civil servants will be paid in full this week for the first time in over a year after Israel released millions of dollars in tax funds frozen during Hamas rule, officials said Sunday. None of this is going to matter, it just delays the day when the Paleos hit rock bottom. The transfer of the funds was Israel's first concrete gesture of support for moderate President Mahmoud Abbas in his battle with Hamas, which violently seized control of the Gaza Strip last month. Dispensing the salaries allows the West Bank-based government to assert its legitimacy, disputed by the Hamas rulers in Gaza. The salaries will bypass employees hired by Hamas, including the 6,000 members of the militant group's security forces. Security forces in Gaza were told they would be paid only if they stayed home and refused to work under Hamas command. Under Hamas, the 165,000 government employees had only received irregular, partial payments because of an international aid boycott imposed over the group's refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel. The Israeli government said $119 million were transferred Sunday, and Palestinian officials confirmed they received it. The Israelis said there would be another transfer in coming days. Since Hamas came to power in March 2006, Israel had frozen roughly $600 million, mostly customs duties that it collects on behalf of the Palestinians under interim peace accords. The tax funds account for roughly half of the Palestinian government's operating budget, and the cutoff had crippled the economy. "Israel is committed to ... strengthening the new (Palestinian) government and to cooperate fully both in the financial and security realms," said Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin. "Some of the actions already taken by the Palestinian government ... will help us to find, slowly and cautiously, paths of cooperation," Olmert said. "At the same time, the war on terror continues and will not cease."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Quartet envoys to meet Tuesday in Jerusalem

2007-06-23

Representatives of the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers will meet Tuesday in Jerusalem, a Russian envoy said Friday, according to the Interfax news agency. Sergei Yakovlev, a Russian Foreign Ministry envoy for Middle East peacemaking, said the envoys "will discuss the situation in the region, the talks for the Quartet and plans of action for the future," Interfax reported. A higher-level meeting of officials from the Quartet - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - will have taken place Monday in Egypt. That meeting was delayed to allow Quartet officials time to assess changes in the region after Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip. The meeting will be of lower-level envoys, spokeswoman Miri Eisin said. It is to take place a day after Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian and Jordanian get together in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Olmert's coalition under threat from Labor

2007-05-05

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government continued self-destructing came under renewed threat on Friday when members of the left-leaning Labour party threatened to withdraw from the coalition following a scathing Lebanon war inquiry. Labour, in the midst of its own power struggle, is the largest partner in Olmert's coalition government and its withdrawal could force new elections. Israel's next general election is not due until 2010. The head of Labour, Defence Minister Amir Peretz, is considering stepping down from his post in response to the Lebanon war report. Increasingly unpopular within his own party, Peretz could be forced out when Labour holds internal elections on May 28. Increasingly unpopular within his own party, he could be forced out when Labour holds internal elections on May 28. Israel's Haaretz newspaper quoted Olmert's aides as saying they were concerned that members of Labour would opt for self-preservation push to end their coalition partnership with his centrist Kadima party in order to form a new government. Some coalition members have suggested that they would stick by Olmert because they might lose significant parliamentary clout if fresh elections were held now. Olmert's approval ratings have plummeted into the single digits and his deputy, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, this week joined calls for his removal. Labour party member Ofir Pines and several other Labour leaders said that Olmert must go, even if it means early elections. "We will make an effort to build a new coalition and a new government. If we won't be able to do so, we will have to have early elections," Pines told Reuters. "It is not the best option but it's a better option than to stay with the present government." Danny Yatom, also a candidate for Labour party leadership, said that as long As long as Labour stays in the coalition, it gives legitimacy to a government that has lost the support of the Israeli people. as Labour stays in the coalition, it gives legitimacy to a government that has lost the support of the Israeli people. "I will try to convince my friends in the faction and in the central committee to withdraw from the coalition and finally I hope that after such a big demonstration, they will be convinced," Yatom said. Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Friday that he had no intention of resigning despite a mass rally that called on him to step down over a scathing Lebanon war report. "The prime minister does not intend to resign, these are speculations," Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP. "The prime minister listens attentively to everything that happens and is trying to react in the best interests of the state of Israel." "The prime minister listens attentively to everything that happens and is trying to react in the best interests of the state of Israel," she said. Late Thursday between 150,000 and 200,000 demonstrators, according to police and organiser estimates, gathered in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square calling on Olmert to quit after a government inquiry blasted him for serious failure during last year's war against Lebanon's Hezbollah. It was the first mass demonstration calling for Olmert's ouster since the report was published on Monday.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Olmert has no intention of resigning - aide

2007-04-30

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has no intention of resigning over the expected harsh criticism of his leadership during last year's inconclusive war in Lebanon, an aide told AFP on Sunday. "The prime minister has no intention of resigning, he will remain at the head of the government," the aide said on condition of anonymity a day before publication of an initial report on the war's failures by a government inquiry, headed by retired judge Eliahu Winograd. That's what Halutz said just before he departed the scene. Government spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP that Olmert, who is expected to be harshly criticized over his handling of the 34-day war, "will not react to partial leaks in the media." "We will wait patiently for the report to be published on Monday afternoon before reacting," Eisin said. Olmert made no mention of the report in his opening statement at the weekly Cabinet meeting. Defense Minister Amir Peretz also had no comment on the report, which is expected to criticize his leadership as well. Although the five-member Winograd commission, appointed by Olmert last year to stave off calls for a full-scale judicial inquiry into the government's performance during the summer 2006 war, has no authority to order resignations, a harsh report could be the final blow to Olmert's grasp on power.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

'Israel, Palestine holding secrets talks in Europe'

2007-04-25

Israeli and Palestinian officials are conducting secret negotiations in Europe on creating an independent Palestinian state by the end of 2008, a Palestinian newspaper reported on Tuesday. But don't tell nobody, okay? 'Cuz they're secret. “Palestinian and Israeli officials are holding secret meetings in a European capital under the aegis of the United States and Europe to try to reach an agreement on final status issues, with a view to establishing a Palestinian state at the end of next year,” wrote the leading Al-Quds daily. Basing its report on “informed” sources, the newspaper said the talks were including the thorniest issues in the decades-old conflict, such as borders, and the fate of Palestinian refugees, Jerusalem and Jewish settlements. The newspaper said the goal of the talks was to realise US President George W. Bush’s two-state vision before his term in office expires in January 2009. “The United States and European countries have put pressure on the Israeli government to take part in these meetings,” the newspaper said. Government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said the Israeli prime minister’s office “categorically denies this report”. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP he was “not aware” of such talks, but did allude to “unofficial” Israeli-Palestinian meetings without elaborating.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israeli forces kill nine Palestinians in raids

2007-04-23

Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, at least five of them militants, over the weekend in the most serious flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence in months. The deaths drew a threat on Sunday from a spokesman for Hamas, the Islamist group that heads the Palestinian coalition government, to strike back through “all means of resistance”. In a raid on Sunday, Israeli troops surrounded a house in Nablus in the occupied West Bank and shot dead two members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in a gun battle, local residents said. An Israeli military source confirmed that troops killed the two men saying both were wanted for their involvement in planning attacks that included attempted suicide bombings in Israel. Several hours later, Israeli forces killed a 17-year-old Palestinian near the West Bank city of Ramallah, residents said. An Israeli military spokesman said the Israeli force had been confronted by a crowd of dozens of Palestinians, some of who were holding petrol bombs and others, knives. “They spotted a man about to throw a petrol bomb, fired at him and saw that he was hit,” the spokesman added. Israeli forces also killed six Palestinians three armed militants, a policeman, a 17-year-old girl near the West Bank city of Jenin and a civilian motorist with Islamic Jihad gunmen in Gaza, residents and medical officials said. The girl, Huda barghish was killed as 25 army jeeps rolled into the centre of Jenin’s refugee camp. The civilian, 45, was killed in an air strike, only the second in Gaza since a November truce, which the Israeli military said targeted militants who had fired makeshift rockets at the Israeli border town of Sderot. “A house in Sderot sustained a direct hit from a Qassam rocket. Two people were taken to hospital with light wounds,” a spokesman for the Magen David Adom rescue services told AFP. Four other people were also treated for shock at the site. According to an Israeli army spokesman, Palestinian militants fired three projectiles. The aircraft “fired at a vehicle carrying the rocket launching cell shortly after they had fired rockets at the town of Sderot”, he said. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokeswoman Miri Eisin said, “Israel expects the Palestinian leadership to entirely stop rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.” Militants in the Gaza Strip regularly fire rockets against Israel, despite a ceasefire agreement between Palestinian groups and the Jewish state. The latest deaths brought the overall total to 5,666 since the eruption of the current Palestinian uprising in September 2000, the vast majority of them Palestinians, according to an AFP count.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel rebuffs PA unity government

2007-03-16

Reviving the idea of unilateral withdrawal is one of the options being considered inside the Prime Minister's Office in the wake of the formation of a Palestinian Authority unity government whose platform Israel views as intransigent, senior government officials said on Thursday. The officials said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did not believe that Israel can afford to remain at a diplomatic standstill, and that if there were no Palestinian government with whom to negotiate a two-state solution, Israel might once more begin drawing borders on its own. The officials' comments came as Jerusalem made clear it would not deal with the new coalition following the publication of the new PA government's guidelines. "We won't recognize or deal with the new Palestinian government until it complies with the Quartet's three principles," said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin. "We won't even deal with or recognize members of the government who we have dealt with in the past," she said. According to government officials, Olmert has always said he preferred a negotiated settlement, but that if this were not possible, then Israel would act unilaterally. The officials said that Olmert did not say after the war in Lebanon that his realignment plan was shelved, only that the Israeli public "did not have an appetite for it" at the time. Asked if the Prime Minister's Office feels that the Israeli public now has regained an appetite for unilateral moves, one official asked, "Does the public have the stomach to stay forever in Judea and Samaria? Is that a better option?" According to sources in the PMO, Israel will continue to speak with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, but that these talks would focus on day-to-day and humanitarian issues - what one official called "small change" - not about fundamental issues. "We can't talk substance with Abbas, because there is a real question now about whom he represents," one source said. He added, however, that Israel was interested in keeping the lines of communication with him open. Officials in the Prime Minister's Office said Olmert did not hit the phones Thursday and canvass world leaders to remain steadfast behind the Quartets' three principles - that the new PA government must recognize Israel, renounce violence, and accept previous agreements - because Israel's position on this has been consistent and is well known. Nevertheless, the Foreign Ministry began a campaign on Thursday to keep the world from recognizing the new government. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said, "The Palestinian government platform shows clearly that it refuses to accept the three benchmarks of the international community. Accordingly, Israel will not deal with this government and we call upon the international community to be steadfast behind its own principles and not to give recognition to this government." Regev said that not only was there no positive momentum in the platform, there was "a clear regression in the language on a number of points."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

JPost: Israel lets Egypt ship arms to Fatah

2006-12-28

In response to continued violence between the Hamas and Fatah factions in the Palestinian Authority, Israel approved on Wednesday night the transfer of 2,000 automatic rifles, 20,000 ammunition clips and 2 million bullets, to the Fatah security forces in the Gaza Strip. The decision, taken following Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's meeting last Saturday with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, marked the first time Israel agreed to allow arms into Gaza in some six months. With the approval of the United States, the weapons were transferred from Egypt via the Kerem Shalom crossing, after which a police escort guarded the guns as they were moved to the Karni crossing, where representatives of Abbas collected them. Likud MK Yuval Steinitz called the move a "bad mistake. A lot of IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians will be killed with these weapons," Steinitz told Army Radio. "We haven't yet seen that Abbas is determined to contain terrorism, and there's a greater chance that these weapons will be used against [our] soldiers, and we'll have to combat terrorism." National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer rejected Steinitz's comments and insisted that the arms would be put to good use by Abbas. "The weapons delivery is intended to give Abbas the ability to cope with those organizations which are trying to ruin everything. If it helps Abbas become stronger, I'm for it," said Ben-Eliezer in an interview with Army Radio. Israel's decision to allow the arms shipment to Fatah was a sign that the government was starting to think in more complex terms, Lt.-Gen. (res.) Yochanan Tzoref told Israel Radio. Tzoref explained that while Fatah might be at a disadvantage as far as its arsenal in its struggle with Hamas, the real challenge facing the organization was that it had lost the faith of the Palestinian public. "Fatah has to undergo an internal process that will strengthen it, and allow it to compete with Hamas in the public's eyes," Tzoref said. Hamas had the [Palestinian] public's support almost "instinctively," Tzoref continued, whereas the Fatah "old guard" was holding up necessary reforms. Meanwhile, a source in Abbas's Presidential Guards denied on Thursday that Fatah had received weapons and ammunition from Egypt. The unnamed source told Israel Radio that the Egyptian shipment had contained an X-ray machine, televisions, and computers to be used at the Gaza border crossings. Saeb Erekat, a spokesman for Abbas, declined comment, as did Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin and the Defense Ministry.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More