West Bank Students Attack British Diplomat’s Car

Scores of Palestinian students forced the British consul general to make a hasty departure from a West Bank university campus on Tuesday.
Consul General Sir Vincent Fean had travelled to Bir Zeit University near Ramallah to deliver a lecture on Britain’s policy in the region and the prospects for peace but was turned away by a noisy demonstration, AFP reported.
Video footage showed protesters banging on his car and shouting: “Get out of Bir Zeit!”
Although Fean was hurriedly escorted back to his car then whisked away unharmed by his security detail, the protesters managed to break the car’s wing mirror and taped pictures of a Palestinian prisoner on long-term hunger strike onto the window, the correspondent said.
The protesters held up Palestinian flags and banners in English and Arabic, one of which read: “I am a refugee because of Balfour” in reference to Britain’s publication in 1917 of the Balfour Declaration calling for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”
The consulate confirmed the incident saying Fean had been due to give a lecture on Britain’s policies in the Middle East.
“Sir Vincent had hoped to underline Britain’s deep commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state, and the urgency of progress on the peace process in 2013,” a statement said.
“Sadly, such a dialogue was not possible on this occasion,” it said, without giving details.
Student protesters at Bir Zeit pulled off a similar stunt in February 2000 when they booed and threw stones at then visiting French prime minister Lionel Jospin demanding he leave the university in protest over controversial remarks he made about Lebanon.

Fresh Clashes Erupt In Egypt’s Port Said

Egyptian security forces battled stone-throwing youths in the Suez Canal city of Port Said on Tuesday while in Cairo even police staged a protest, reflecting a country beset by discontent over a host of grievances.
By far the most serious trouble was in Port Said, at the canal’s northern entrance, where police shot into the air and fired teargas during clashes with hundreds of protesters in a third day of unrest, Reuters reported.
Port Said has seen waves of violent demonstrations since January over the detention of dozens of people in connection with a soccer riot last year in which more than 70 died.
At least six people have been killed in the latest protests, including three policemen. Hundreds more have been wounded, scores of them from gunshot wounds and live bullets, according to medical officials.
On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of a local government building and hurled stones at police, who reacted by firing tear gas and warning shots in the air, a Reuters witness said.
The witness said he had seen at least three people who appeared to be unconscious.
“The police are thugs,” the protesters chanted. “We’ll give our blood and souls for you, Port Said.”
Live footage on Al Jazeera’s Egypt channel showed dozens of men running and throwing rocks as black smoke rose in front of a building’s charred facade. Tear gas canisters streaked through the air.
Egypt has been in political turmoil since a popular uprising ousted Hosni Mubarak as president in 2011. His Islamist successor, Mohamed Mursi, has struggled to restore security since his election in June.
Joblessness worsened by an economic crisis, anger at police brutality and fuel price rises have helped fuel the unrest.
About 60 people died during street protests across Egypt between January 25, the anniversary of the 2011 uprising, to February 4. Many of the demonstrators were calling for Morsi’s resignation, accusing him and his Muslim Brotherhood of trying to monopolize power.
In a sign of the broader discontent afflicting the country, dozens of police officers blocked a major road in Cairo to protest about the killing of a colleague by an unknown attacker while he was investigating a bank robbery earlier on Tuesday, the state news agency said.

Iraq: Qatar Financing Rebel Groups in Syria

Iraq’s national security advisor, Faleh Al-Fayyad, said on Monday that Qatar and other Arab countries, along with nongovernmental groups, are financing Jabhat Al-Nusra, the Syrian jihadi group, with the acquiescence of Turkey.
“These are the same sources that finance Al-Qaeda,” Fayyad said through a translator. “In times of crisis, some countries use Al-Qaeda; some countries make peace with Al-Qaeda,” he said.
Fayyad and a delegation of Iraqi officials and members of parliament are in Washington this week for meetings with top US officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken, Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, and other senior State Department and Pentagon officials.
Fayyad said his meeting with Biden was “very beneficial and useful.” Iraq is hoping to bolster its relations with the United States, including via increased weapons sales and training, and attract greater investment from US companies. The delegation is using this week’s meetings to get acquainted with the Obama administration’s second-term team.
Fayyad said that Turkey, Qatar, and other Arab countries had pushed the unrest in Syria, soon to enter its third year, toward armed conflict.
The Iraqis are especially concerned about the rising power of Jebhat Al-Nusra, which the United States has designated a terrorist group with ties to Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
“Very frankly, elements of Al-Qaeda are very active in certain parts of Syria,” Fayyad said, comparing Turkey’s role of hosting and facilitating armed groups to that of Syria at the height of the insurgency in Iraq.
Fayyad noted that Iraqi President Nouri Al-Maliki had personally warned US President Barack Obama that the conflict could drag on for two years or longer.
Iraq and the United States had previously had sharp differences over Syria, Fayyad acknowledged, but said that Obama’s position on Syria--which he described as pressure aimed at bringing the warring parties to the table--is now “really good.”
Fayyad said that Iraq is willing to cooperate with the international community to find a negotiated end to the conflict in Syria, but warned that Iraq would be less willing to do so if it is not included in the discussions and that it would not tolerate a government that included jihadi groups like Jabhat Al-Nusra.
“We will not accept to have the noose around our necks and allow Syria to be divided along sectarian lines,” Fayyad said.

Assad: Conspiracy Nearing End

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On Tuesday, the Observatory distributed a short amateur video filmed by rebels showing provincial governor Hassan Jalili, and Suleiman Suleiman, the ruling Baath party’s secretary general for Raqa province, captured by rebels.
Though insurgents took most of Raqa on Monday, troops and pro-regime militia fought on during the night near the military intelligence headquarters in the city, said the Observatory.
Pro-government newspaper Al-Watan meanwhile described the takeover as “terrorism spreading in Raqa”.
“The army and security services are fighting fierce battles in the city of Raqa where thousands of armed men have arrived” from the countryside, said Al-Watan.
“This city was one of the calmest (in Syria) and was considered a refuge for many Syrians who had fled their cities,” the daily added.
Raqa was once home to 240,000 residents, but some 800,000 people forced to flee violence in other parts of Syria have sought shelter there since the start of the conflict.
“Armed men are looting homes as well as public and private institutions amidst the city’s chaos,” said Al-Watan.
Elsewhere, fresh clashes broke out on Tuesday pitting rebels against troops in insurgent enclaves of the city of Homs, said the Observatory.
Some 70,000 people have been killed in Syria’s nearly conflict, the UN says.

Kurdish Militants Attack Turkish Military Vehicle

Kurdish militants detonated a bomb under a military vehicle in southeast Turkey, wounding four soldiers, security officials said on Tuesday, in a potential challenge to a fledgling peace process between Ankara and the rebels’ jailed leader.
Turkish intelligence officials and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned on an island near Istanbul, began talks last October aiming to end a 28-year-old insurgency in which more than 40,000 people have been killed, Reuters reported.
As the discussions have advanced, violence has dwindled, with one of the most recent PKK attacks coming in January, when its fighters killed a Turkish police officer in the southeastern province of Mardin.
In Monday’s attack, militants remotely detonated roadside explosives under a military convoy on a road in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province. Four soldiers in an armored vehicle were lightly wounded, officials said.
Turkish military units were hunting the perpetrators, Diyarbakir Governor Mustafa Toprak said.
According to Kurdish politicians, the PKK is now observing a de facto ceasefire and Ocalan plans to declare an official halt to hostilities by the Kurdish New Year on March 21.
But Turkish warplanes have continued to bomb militant targets in the mountains of northern Iraq where thousands of rebels are based, drawing warnings from the PKK that they are jeopardizing the peace process. Military operations have also continued in southeast Turkey. Soldiers backed by helicopters launched an operation around Cudi mountain in Sirnak province near the Iraqi border, with artillery units shelling the mountain, officials said.
There was no immediate comment from the PKK on Monday’s attack. Under a plan discussed by Ocalan and government representatives, the PKK would end hostilities and give up its demands for autonomy for Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast in return for greater Kurdish rights, enshrined in the constitution, Turkish media have reported.

Yemen Rejects Mediation On Truce With Al-Qaeda

Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has rejected efforts by clerics and tribal chiefs to broker a truce with Al-Qaeda, insisting that the militants must lay down their arms, an official said on Tuesday.
“The president wants members of Al-Qaeda to surrender their arms, announce their repentance and renounce their extremist ideas,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), considered the jihadist network’s most dangerous franchise, announced on several websites that the truce efforts had failed.
The mediators, who launched the initiative in January, had already revealed in a statement on February 5 that their efforts had run into trouble.
They said Hadi had refused to sign up to a truce proposal which had been accepted by AQAP chief Nasser Al-Wahishi.
The collapse of the mediation bid came as a suspected Al-Qaeda suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a building in the southern Yemeni city of Loder, killing 12 pro-government militiamen.
Al-Qaeda militants were driven out of most cities in Abyan province, including Loder, in June last year in an offensive by troops backed by militia.
Yemeni forces continue to hunt Qaeda militants in the rugged south and east, aided by US drone attacks.
The militants took advantage of a decline in central government control during a 2011 uprising that forced veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh from power to seize large swathes of territory across the south, including most of Abyan province, which they controlled for a year.

Anti-Al-Qaeda Leader Killed

A local leader of anti-Al-Qaeda militiamen was shot dead Tuesday in western Baghdad, one of four people killed in violence in different parts of Iraq, officials said.