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Fayyad:
Peace Process Meaningless
Rice Back in Israel
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Despite international calls on Israel to stop expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian lands, the regime is continuing to
build more settlements.
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Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Isreal has failed to meet any obligation with regards to peace, especially ending settlement expansion in West Bank, Xinhua reported Saturday.
Fayyad told the Ramallah-based Al-Ayyam daily after an international donor’s meeting Friday in London to provide aid to the cash-strapped Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
Fayyad warned that continuation of the settlement activities, inside what the Palestinians hope to be their future state, “will make the peace process meaningless“.
“If the world was unable to stop the settlement expansions which Israel promised to halt, how will we have the confidence in a vital aid towards reaching a solution in 2008?“ Fayyad said.
According to Fayyad, three priorities for Palestinians are the freezing of all settlement activities, essential change in Israel’s security behavior and securing the freedom of movement and crossing.
Suleiman Expected in Israel
Hamas movement on Saturday expected that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman will arrive in Israel on Monday to present Egypt’s ceasefire offer which Palestinian armed groups accepted.
“Most probably, Mr. Suleiman will arrive on Monday to hand the lull deal after Palestinians unanimously agreed on during last week talks in Cairo, Xinhua quoted Ayman Taha, a spokesman for Hamas as saying.
According to the Egyptian vision, the ceasefire will take place in the Gaza Strip, before being expanded in the West Bank.
Rice Meets Barak
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday met Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak to discuss removing West Bank roadblocks as she began a day of meetings that aim apparently to speed up Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
“Let’s get to work,“ Rice said as she sat down with Barak, who heads the Israeli defense ministry and exerts great influence over the network of checkpoints and roadblocks that Israel argues it needs to prevent suicide bombings, Reuters reported.
Palestinians view the barriers as collective punishment and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad say they blight the Palestinian economy.
In other news, Jordanian King Abdullah II believes that progress in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians would bring a warmer relationship between Israel and the Arab nations, said Israeli lawmaker Yossi Beilin on Saturday.
Beilin, who met with Abdullah II in Jordan’s coastal town of Aqaba Friday night, told Israel Radio that the king said advancement of the political process with the Palestinians, even prior to resolving most of the core issues, would result in the implementation of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.
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Kuwaitis Debate Democracy
Frustrated by political rows that have stalled development in one of the world’s wealthiest states, Kuwaitis are locked in a heated debate over why their brand of democracy is not working as they prepare to go to the polls on May 17, AFP said.
“A half democracy does not work,“ said political analyst Ayed Al-Manna, referring to Kuwait’s system under which it has a legislative assembly but no majority government and no political parties.
Others believe that repeated standoffs between parliament and the government reflect purported power struggles within the Al-Sabah dynasty, which has ruled Kuwait for 250 years and holds key government posts such as defense, interior and foreign affairs.
The fourth largest OPEC producer has been rocked by a string of political crises in the past few years, most recently in March when Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah dissolved parliament and called early polls following a row between MPs and the government.
“It is difficult to imagine how a government in a parliamentary system can survive without a majority,“ Manna told AFP.
Although elected MPs enjoy extensive legislative and monitoring powers, the 50-seat house has no say in the formation of the cabinet, which by tradition is headed by a senior member of the Al-Sabah family.
A new government is also not required to obtain a vote of confidence from parliament.
Lawmakers can grill individual ministers and vote them out of office but have no power to bring down the entire cabinet.
“Incomplete democracy in Kuwait has really hurt the country and stalled development projects,“ insisted independent candidate Nami Al-Nami.
Parliament has been dissolved three times since 1999--twice in the past two years--after clashing with the government.
Since February 2006, Kuwait has witnessed the resignation of four cabinets, several ministers have been questioned and forced to quit, and a number of key reform bills and economic projects have been bogged down in parliament.
A small country with a native population of just over one million, Kuwait sits on about 10 percent of global crude reserves.
It has amassed $250 billion of assets in the past nine years due to high oil prices.
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US Attacks on
Sadr City Continue
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Iraqis search for casualties at the site of a US airstrike in BaghdadŐs Sadr City on May 3.
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The US military said on Sunday it killed nine militants in helicopter strikes overnight in eastern Baghdad, where battles have raged between security forces and fighters loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr.
Much of the fighting took place in and around the crowded Sadr City, the anti-American cleric’s stronghold in the capital, Reuters reported.
“We killed nine in total,“ said Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, a spokesman for the US military in Baghdad.
“As far as we’re concerned, they’re separate from Muqtada Al-Sadr,“ Stover said, referring to the militia combatants in Sadr City. “They’re not listening to him.“
Sadr last month urged his followers to continue observing a shaky ceasefire and praised them for their patience.
Stover said he did not know of any civilian casualties from the clashes. Police in Sadr City said 11 people had been killed and 27 wounded in fighting on Saturday.
The dead included three teenage boys and a woman, police said. Sources at Sadr City’s two hospitals said they had received four dead.
On Saturday, the US military fired rockets at a target near one of the hospitals in Sadr City, wounding 20 people and damaging several ambulances, the hospital said.
During clashes over the past two days in Sadr City, at least 100 people have been killed, Iraqi health officials said.
Separately, the US military said late Saturday that four Marines were killed on Friday by a roadside bomb in Anbar province. No other details were released and the names of the Marines were withheld pending notification of their families.
AP Television News footage showed several ambulances destroyed and on fire, thick black smoke rising from them as firefighters worked to put out the flames.
At least 4,071 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
First Lady Survives Blast
In other news on Sunday, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s wife narrowly escaped death on when a roadside bomb exploded near her convoy in central Baghdad, the president’s office said.
She was not hurt but four bodyguards were wounded, the president’s office said in a statement.
“One of the vehicles of Ms Hero Ibrahim’s convoy hit an improvised explosive device in the road this morning,“ the statement said. “She was heading to the National Theatre to attend a cultural festival.“
Police said two Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were wounded in the attack, which they said targeted a military convoy.
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Syria Under Israel Pressure Over Golan
Syria says Israel is trying to pressure Damascus by stepping up its settlement activities in Golan Heights ahead of possible talks.
Syrian officials said the Zionist regime is expanding its settlement activities in the occupied Golan Heights in order to provoke and pressure Syria during possible negotiations, according to Syria’s Tishrin newspaper.
The daily said the Zionist regime was working on a huge settlement expansion campaign, according to sources from Golan.
Earlier, Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to discuss Israeli readiness for a full withdrawal from Syria’s Golan Heights in return for peace.
Israel captured the heights in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.
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Aziz Lawyer Wants Trial Moved
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Tareq Aziz
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The trial of Tareq Aziz, former Iraqi deputy premier, should be moved from Baghdad to the relatively safe autonomous northern Iraq Kurdistan region for security reasons, his lawyer said on Sunday.
“I ask the Iraqi government to move the trial to Kurdistan where the security situation is much better than in Baghdad,“ Badie Aref told AFP in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
“It will be easier for the Iraqi, Arab and foreign defense lawyers to attend a trial in Kurdistan, and it will be better for the detainees. The security situation in Baghdad makes it difficult to attend the trial,“ he said.
Aziz, 71, who surrendered to American troops in Iraq in April 2003 a month after the invasion, went on trial on April 29 on charges of executing 42 Baghdad merchants for hiking food prices when Iraq was under tight UN economic sanctions.
The trial at the Iraqi High Tribunal was adjourned to May 20 after Aziz demanded a new lawyer, saying that his counsel “Badie Aref was unable to attend for security reasons.“
Prosecutors say the businessmen were arrested in Baghdad’s wholesale markets and executed after a speedy trial in 1992.
They also allege that the former regime then seized the merchants’ money and property.
Aziz could face the death penalty if convicted.
Aref also said he had advised Aziz to “keep absolute silent throughout the trial“ to indicate that “we do not recognize the legitimacy of the tribunal.“
Aziz “is a diplomat and had nothing whatsoever to do with security matters,“ the lawyer added.
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Conclusive Evidence About
Olmert’s Corruption
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Ehud Olmert
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An Israeli police officer said police investigators have found ’conclusive’ evidence about premier Ehud Olmert’s corruption case.
The Israeli police officer who requested anonymity added that during the Friday investigation, “Olmert cooperated with police investigators but failed to deny charges against him.“
Olmert is charged with pocketing cash bribes from an American businessman before he was elected prime minister, PressTV reported.
The embattled Israeli premier was interrogated in his residence for more than an hour over his latest scandal.
Investigations about the ’huge’ bribery scandal are going on as Israeli authorities have ordered a news blackout over the issue.
Israeli news web site Arutz Sheva reported on Friday that the media could not even republish some details of the case that had already been published. A series of scandals in addition to his conduct of the 33-day war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah last summer which led to a humiliating defeat for the regime’s army have caused Olmert badly lag behind his rivals in the Israeli political scene.
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Abkhazia Shoots 2nd Georgian Spy Drone
The Georgian region of Abkhazia on Sunday said it had shot down an unmanned Georgian spy plane, two weeks after a similar incident increased tensions in the region.
“Today our anti-aircraft forces destroyed another unmanned Georgian spy drone,“ the region’s de facto Defense Ministry said in a statement, AFP reported.
“This is the third Georgian spy plane that Abkhaz defense forces have brought down over Abkhaz territory,“ the ministry said. Georgia’s Interior Ministry, however, denied the incident, saying there were no Georgian planes flying in the region. Russian news agency Interfax later quoted a representative of Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh saying two unmanned drones had been brought down on Sunday.
Georgia earlier alleged that a Russian MiG-29 had downed a Georgian spy plane on April 20 in an incident Tbilisi described as “an act of aggression.“
Relations between Russia and ex-Soviet Georgia have deteriorated in recent weeks since Moscow announced it was strengthening cooperation with Abkhazia and fellow breakaway Georgian region South Ossetia.
The row comes amid wider tensions over Georgia’s desire to integrate with the West and particularly to join the NATO--a move deeply opposed by Moscow.
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150 PKK Rebels Killed
More than 150 Kurdish rebels were killed in a cross-border air raid by Turkish military into northern Iraq earlier this week, Turkey’s military said Saturday, AP said.
Jumblatt’s Connections
Former Lebanese minister Wiam Wahhab says recent criticisms against Hezbollah by Walid Jumblatt can be attributed to US and Zionist concerns.
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Afghans Back Pak Talks With Taliban
Afghanistan backs Islamabad’s plan to hold talks with the Pakistani Taliban, the government said on Saturday, but urged its neighbor not to allow the militants space to regroup and launch raids across the border, Reuters reported.
The new Pakistani government says it wants to open talks with the Taliban. “Afghanistan supports any measure that leads to the restoration of security and stability, provided such a step does not cause the expansion of further terrorism into Afghanistan,“ the government said in a statement about the talks.
“We sincerely ask the Islamic Republic of Pakistan not to allow the terrorists to endanger the lives and security of Afghans by using its soil.“
Halt the Terrorists
Meanwhile, Afghan Defense Ministry said Pakistan should stop “terrorists“ from using its soil to attack Afghanistan if it makes deals with Taliban militants along the troubled border.
Islamabad has been trying to reach a peace deal with a Taliban commander on its side of the frontier. The militant halted talks last week because the government refused to withdraw its troops from his area, AFP reported.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said it was concerned any such deal would not result in a cessation of violence in Afghanistan by militants said to be based in Pakistan and to cross the border to attack.
The ministry cited media reports that a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban vowed to continue the “real jihad (holy war)“ in Afghanistan even if a peace deal was reached with Islamabad.
“Afghanistan supports any action resulting in peace and stability in the region but only if such actions do not cause further terrorist activities in Afghanistan,“ it said.
The ministry described a now-defunct 2006 deal between Pakistan and pro-Taliban militants in its Waziristan area as a “bitter experience“.
Taliban Rebuilding
It had allowed militants “sufficient time to regroup, re-equip and mobilize themselves and take the lives of hundreds of children, women and men,“ it said, referring to a wave of extremist violence in both countries.
“Afghanistan’s biggest hope from the brotherly and friendly country of Pakistan is that its land be not used by terrorists against Afghanistan,“ it added.
The Taliban were removed from government in Afghanistan in a US-led invasion in late 2001 for harboring Al-Qaeda, which it allowed to operate training camps.
Many rebels fled across the border to Pakistan from where they are said to be plotting an Al-Qaeda-backed insurgency that has left thousands of people dead in Afghanistan, including civilians and international troops supporting Kabul.
The US State Department said last week that Al-Qaeda is rebuilding itself in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas and North West Frontier Province, both on the border with Afghanistan.
Kabul favors peace talks with rebels to halt the unrest, but only with those who agree to accept the new government and renounce violence.
Qatar to Salvage
Yemen Ceasefire
Qatari mediators returned to Yemen’s volatile northern province of Saada on Sunday, hoping to salvage a truce brought to the verge of collapse by a mosque bombing and days of clashes between rebels and the army.
Rebels led by Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi seized a government building in the town of Manbah after clashes on Saturday and the army has now surrounded the compound, local tribal sources said. Tribes were mediating an end to the standoff.
“The Qataris and the government delegation have now returned to Saada amid continued tensions,“ the chief rebel negotiator Saleh Habra told Reuters.
The situation in Saada remained tense after a bomb planted in a motorcycle killed 15 people outside a mosque on Friday, with government forces setting up checkpoints around the city and few people on the streets, he said.
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.
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TOKYO - Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Japan (to May 11). This is the first visit by a Chinese president to Japan in a decade.
DUBLIN - Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern to step down.
TALLINN - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek visits Estonia.
TURKEY - EU Troika meet.
INDIANA/NORTH CAROLINA - Indiana and North Carolina hold Republican presidential primaries; Democratic primary in Indiana.
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