Palestinian sources said Wednesday that Israel Defense Forces troops raided city hall in the West Bank town of Nablus, confiscating five computers, as part of a crackdown on Hamas’ civil and social infrastructure in the West Bank.
They said troops also raided six mosques Wednesday and seized five buses belonging to schools affiliated with the Islamic organization that rules Gaza, AP reported.
Nablus’ mayor, Adli Yaish, is a Hamas politician who has been imprisoned by Israel. On Monday, the IDF shut down a multiple storey shopping center in Nablus whose board of directors is chaired by Yaish.
On Tuesday, the IDF also shut down five other Hamas institutions in the northern West Bank city, including a support group for fighters jailed in Israel, an trade union organization, a medical society and two aid organizations in the Nablus refugee camps of Askar and Balata.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has voiced readiness to engage in direct talks with Lebanese leaders over the issue of Shebaa Farms.
Olmert made the remark during a meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, ’Ha’aretz’ reported.
Frattini, on a visit to Beit-ul-Moqaddas offered his country’s services in facilitating talks between Israel and Lebanon.
Israel occupied Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms in the 1967 war, and has ever since refused to return the land to Lebanon.
In an apparent bid to normalize ties with Arab states, Israeli president Shimon Peres earlier called for direct Israeli-Syrian negotiations over the Golan Heights but Syria turned down his offer.
The Syrians want the return of all of the Golan Heights which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981-- a move never recognized by the international community.

Thousands of supporters of Iraqi cleric, Moqtada Al-Sadr, demonstrated in Baghdad and elsewhere after Friday prayers and denounced plans for a military deal with the US on May 30.

Iraq’s main parliamentary bloc said the country is not obliged to meet any deadline set by the US for finalizing the security treaty.
Sheikh Jalaluddin Al-Saghir, an Iraqi lawmaker from the United Iraqi Alliance said any deadline imposed by the US side to finalize a security treaty between the two countries is non-binding for Iraq, the Arab language daily ’Al-Hayat’ reported on Tuesday.
The remarks were made as Saghir announced that the Americans had put forward a new draft as a basis for the controversial treaty.
The Iraqi lawmaker, however, said the second draft was still unacceptable and any proposal by Washington should not infringe on Iraq’s sovereignty.
“Iraq’s Council for National Security will discuss the new draft at its next meeting and will make the final decision on it,“ he added.

Timelines
In another development, the government’s national security adviser said on Tuesday that Iraq will not accept any security agreement with the United States unless it includes dates for the withdrawal of foreign forces.
But the government’s spokesman said any timetable would depend on security conditions on the ground, Reuters reported.
Their differences underscore the debate in Baghdad over a deal with Washington that will provide a legal basis for US troops to remain when a UN mandate expires at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday he expected to pull more US troops from Iraq and stressed any decision to withdraw would be based on the ability of Iraqi troops to take responsibility for security and combat.
The Pentagon has 146,000 troops in Iraq. That force level should drop to about 140,000 by the end of July under a planned reduction. Commanders will then assess security conditions before recommending further troop cuts.

Rejected by Sistani
In other news, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani Tuesday rejected the security deal between Iraq and the United States on the grounds it violates Iraqi sovereignty.
Sistani met in Najaf with Iraqi national security adviser Muwafaq Al-Rubaie to receive updates on the progress of the status of forces agreement set to replace the UN mandate for Iraq, which expires this year, UPI reported.
The revered cleric said Iraq should not accept a security arrangement that justifies the illegal occupation of the US military.

Out by 2011
A deadline should be set for the withdrawal of US and allied forces from Iraq, and the pullout could be done by 2011, an Iraqi government spokesman said Tuesday.
Ali Al-Dabbagh said any timetable would depend on “conditions and the circumstances that the country would be undergoing.“ But he said a pullout within “three, four or five“ years was possible, CNN reported.
“It can be 2011 or 2012,“ Dabbagh said. “We don’t have a specific date in mind, but we need to agree on the principle of setting a deadline.“
Iraq’s government said Jordan’s king has postponed a visit to Baghdad until further notice.
According to AP, the announcement Tuesday came shortly after Jordan confirmed that King Abdullah II would visit Iraq. No Arab head of state has made the trip since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.

One in Sixth Displaced
In other news, UN secretary general’s representative, David Shearer, said on Tuesday that one-sixth of Iraq’s residents are displaced inside and outside of the country,
Shearer referred to the necessity of enacted a national policy to deal with this issue, according to the Voice of Iraq.
“Iraq has faced big problems and difficulties, represented by violence and forced displacement, which has resulted in the displacement of one-sixth of Iraq’s residents both inside and outside the country,“ Shearer said in a speech he made during the first conference pertaining to the national policy to treat displacement that was held in Baghdad.
He praised the governmental activities to restore 10,000 displaced people to their residential areas, in addition to helping 5,000 physicians to return to Iraq, according to statistics released by the Iraqi Immigration Ministry.
“These numbers are simple and cannot be heavily relied upon, but at the same time mirror evidence of tangible security improvements,“ he added.