APS Diplomat Recorder articles from August 2007

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from August 2007

ARAB AFFAIRS - July 30 - Arab League Discusses ME Peace.
August 4, 2007... The Arab League discusses recent efforts by its representatives to rally support for an Arab initiative to make peace with Israel. The FMs of the 22-member Arab group were also expected to formulate a response to US President George W. Bush's...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Aug 1 - Saudis Consider Diplomatic Engagement With Israel.
August 4, 2007... Saudi Arabia and Israel takes a tentative step toward diplomatic engagement, with the Saudi FM saying that his country will consider attending Pres Bush's planned Israeli-Palestinian peace conference in the autumn. Such a step would put Saudi...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Aug 1 - Kingdom Gives Boost to ME Peace.
August 4, 2007... In a major push toward the creation of an independent Palestinian state, Saudi Arabia throws its weight behind the upcoming US-sponsored Middle East peace conference. Addressing a press conference with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - July 31 - US Wins Ground In Iran Financial Embargo.
August 4, 2007... Washington's campaign to persuade financial institutions to break ties with Tehran gains another scalp when Deutsche Bank confirmed it had decided to cease doing business in Iran. The bank said it had informed clients in Iran on July 20 that...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Aug 2 - Abbas And Israel Nudged Towards Talks.
August 4, 2007... Condoleezza Rice nudges Israel and the Palestinians towards peace talks, saying she will return to the region before a Middle East conference expected to take place this autumn in the US. The US secretary of state told Mahmoud Abbas,...

AFGHANISTAN - July 29 - Nato Plans Smaller Bombs For Afghanistan.
August 4, 2007... Nato plans to use smaller bombs in Afghanistan as part of a change in tactics aimed at stemming a rise in civilian casualties that threatens to undermine support in the fight against the Taliban. The head of the alliance, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer,...

AFGHANISTAN - July 30 - Taliban Kills S Korean Hostage.
August 4, 2007... Taliban kidnappers shoot dead a male South Korean hostage, a spokesman for the group -aid, accusing the Afghan government of not listening to rebel demands for the release of Taliban prisoners. "We killed one of the male hostages at 6.30 this...

AFGHANISTAN - Aug 1 - Bodies Of 4 Kidnapped Afghan Judges Found.
August 4, 2007... The bodies of four Afghan judges kidnapped 10 days ago are found in a mountainous area of Ghazni Province, south of Kabul, the same province where 21 South Korean hostages are being held by suspected members of the Taliban. The discovery...

IRAN - July 30 - Death Of Theologian Opens Way For Rafsanjani.(Ali Akbar Meshkini, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani)
August 4, 2007... Ayat Ali Akbar Meshkini, chairman of Iran's powerful Assembly of Experts, dies, leaving the way open for his replacement by the influential former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The 86-year-old Ayat, who had been suffering from lung...

IRAQ - July 30 - Iraqi Parliament Misses Key Deadline.
August 4, 2007... Iraq's government misses its deadline to compile a list of people eligible to vote in a December referendum that will determine the fate of a large, oil-rich and bitterly disputed swathe of the country. Politicians from the Shi'ite-led bloc...

IRAQ - July 31 - Former PM Of Iraq Says Maliki Is Too Sectarian To Solve Crisis.
August 4, 2007... The UN and Arab League must play a bigger role in Iraq because the current government there is too sectarian to solve the nation's problems. In an interview with The AP, Ayad Allawi also called on the US "and other peace-loving nations" to...

IRAQ - Aug 1 - Sunni Front Quits Iraqi Government.
August 4, 2007... Iraq's main Sunni Arab political coalition announces that it is pulling out of the Shi'ite-led national unity government, in what may become a significant blow to hopes for Sunni-Shi'ite reconciliation. A spokesman for the Iraqi Consensus Front...

ISRAEL - July 29 - Israel Declines To Criticise US Weapons Sales To Gulf Arab States.
August 4, 2007... In a significant departure from past Israeli policy, PM Ehud Olmert poses no objections to a new US plan to sell state-of-the-art weaponry to Saudi Arabia and other moderate Arab states, saying Iran is the common enemy. "We understand the need...

LEBANON - July 30 - Hizbullah Determined To Confront Israel.(Hassan Nasrallah)
August 4, 2007... Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who caught the imagination of the Muslim youth with his legendary resistance against the might of the Israeli Army during the 34-day war on south Lebanon last year, says his group is armed with fresh supply of...

PALESTINE - July 29 - Plight Of Stranded Palestinians Nears End As More Than 100 Begin Journey Home.
August 4, 2007... More than 100 Palestinians begins their trip home to Gaza, almost two months after the takeover of the territory by the militant Palestinian faction Hamas triggered the closure of the border with Egypt. For seven weeks now, as many as 6,000...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Aug 7 - Turkey And Iraq In Spat Over Terror Base.
August 11, 2007... Turkey and Iraq are locked in talks to try to resolve their differences over alleged terrorist bases near their joint border. The talks were the centre point of a visit to Ankara by the Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki, that was dominated by security...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Aug 6 - Abbas, Olmert Pave Way For Talks On State.
August 11, 2007... Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, and the PA president Mahmoud Abbas, meet in Jericho to discuss resuming negotiations on Palestinian statehood. The Israeli leader made clear at the outset of the three-hour summit, their first in the West Bank, that it...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Aug 6 - US And Iran In 'Frank And Serious' Talks.
August 11, 2007... US and Iranian officials hold talks in Baghdad as a security sub-committee set up two weeks ago met for the first time. The talks, which lasted several hours, and were described by both sides as "frank and serious", dealt with security issues...

AFGHANISTAN - Aug 6 - Karzai Says Taliban Poses No Threat.(Hamid Karzai)
August 11, 2007... Afghan President Hamid Karzai insist the Taliban posed no threat to his government but admitted the Islamic fundamentalist group remained a menace. Karzai made the comments after a summit with US President George W. Bush at Camp David, amid...

IRAQ - Aug 4 - Iraq Asks Sunnis To Come Back To Cabinet.
August 11, 2007... President Jalal Talabani of Iraq shuttles between Shi'ite and Sunni leaders in Baghdad, trying to find a way of bringing Sunnis back into the fold after they walked out of the government last week. Talabani, a Kurd, first met with PM Nuri Kamal...

IRAQ - Aug 6 - Truck Bomb Kills 28, Mostly Iraqi Children.
August 11, 2007... A suicide truck bomber kills at least 28 people, including at least 19 children, in a Shi'ite area of Tal Afar, a city in northwestern Iraq that was hailed by Pres Bush in March 2006 as a success story for US forces. The blast brought down...

IRAQ - Aug 8 - Sadr City Raids Kill 32 Militants 'Smuggling In Arms From Iran'.
August 11, 2007... US forces launch raids and air strikes on Baghdad's Sadr City, killing 32 militants suspected of smuggling arms into Iraq from neighbouring Iran. The US military said the suspects were believed to be members of a "special-groups terrorist...

ISRAEL - Aug 7 - Israeli Police And Troops Evict Jewish Settlers From Hebron.
August 11, 2007... Pelted by rocks and metal, hundreds of Israeli riot police officers forcibly remove Jewish settlers from houses in the West Bank city of Hebron that they had been occupying illegally for months. About 15 people were hurt, 11 of them police...

LEBANON - Aug 5 - High Turnout As Lebanon's Christians Contest Seat.
August 11, 2007... Lebanese voters turn out in their thousands in two by-elections that have provided the latest battleground between the pro-western government of Fouad Siniora and his pro-Syrian opponents, led by the Shi'ite Hizbullah movement. One race was...

LEBANON - Aug 4 - Theologian Calls For Forming 'Axis Of The Good'.(Brief article)
August 11, 2007... Lebanon's most senior Shi'ite theologian calls on Arabs and Muslims to form an 'Axis of the Good' to counter US policies in the Middle East. Grand Ayat Muhammad Hussain Fadl Allah criticised a Mideast peace conference proposed by US President...

LIBYA - Aug 9 - Gadaffi's Son Admits Jail Medics Were Tortured.
August 11, 2007... The son of Muammer Gadaffi, the Libyan leader, acknowledges that foreign medical workers imprisoned for eight years for allegedly infecting hundreds of children with HIV were tortured while in detention. In an interview with al- Jazeera, the...

PALESTINE - Aug 5 - Hundreds Of Palestinians Give Up Guns.
August 11, 2007... Almost all the gunmen with ties to President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, more than 300 of them, have given up their weapons as part of an amnesty deal with Israel. The amnesty offer is part of rapidly improving relations between Israel and...

PALESTINE - Aug 8 - No Dialogue With Hamas, Says Abbas.(Mahmoud Abbas )
August 11, 2007... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists there will be no dialogue with Hamas until the Islamists return Gaza to his legitimate authority. Hamas seized the territory in June. "What Hamas did was a destructive operation which helped those who...

TURKEY - Aug 5 - Gul Future Uncertain As Erdogan Picks Team.
August 11, 2007... Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's PM, is to begin putting together his new cabinet on Aug 6 despite uncertainty whether his prospective foreign minister will seek the presidency. Erdogan's Justice and Development party (AKP), which has its roots...

YEMEN - Aug 8 - Yemen Forces Kill Al-Qaeda Mastermind.
August 11, 2007... Yemeni security forces carry out a sting raid operation and kill four militants including a senior Al-Qaeda operative accused of plotting last month's car bomb attack that killed eight Spanish tourists and two Yemenis. Security officials told...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Aug 15 - Iraq, Jordan To Bolster Security Co-operation.
August 18, 2007... The Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwaffaq Rubaie says Jordan and Iraq ends two days of talks by setting up a joint technical committee for boosting security co-operation between the two countries. "The panel, which comprises experts from the...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Aug 12 - Hamas Boycott Criticised In UK.
August 18, 2007... The refusal of Britain and the EU to engage with Hamas in the Palestinian territories has been strongly criticised by a UK parliamentary inquiry. In a stinging indictment of the west's approach to the Middle East peace process, a committee of...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Aug 14 - Israel 'Must Take Nasrallah Seriously'.
August 18, 2007... Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, a member of Israel's powerful security cabinet says Israel must take seriously Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's Hizbullah which fought a war with the Jewish state last year. He said: We...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Aug 14 - Al-Qaeda Blamed For Iraq Suicide Attacks.
August 18, 2007... The US military says that al-Qaeda is the main suspect in a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks that targeted a two villages in northwestern Iraq, killing several hundred people. The attacks - among the deadliest to have taken place since...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Aug 15 - US Targets Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
August 18, 2007... The US decides to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist", a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances. The...

IRAN - Aug 16 - Iran Leader Denounces US Missile Shield Plan.
August 18, 2007... Iran uses the meeting of a regional security organisation here to lash out at American plans for a missile defense shield, while President Vladimir Putin of Russia took an indirect swipe at Washington's "unilateral" foreign policy. Speaking at...

IRAQ - Aug 12 - Al-Maliki Calls Crisis Talks.(Nuri Al-Maliki )
August 18, 2007... PM Nuri Al-Maliki calls on senior leaders in Iraq's bitterly divided communities to hold crisis talks this week even as an influential Sunni leader issued an impassioned appeal for help from Arab countries against what he called...

IRAQ - Aug 13 - Sunnis Cool To Al Maliki's Crisis Summit.
August 18, 2007... Sunni politicians maintain a hard line after Iraq's PM Nouri Al Maliki invites key Sunni and Kurdish allies to a crisis conference in a desperate bid to reach a compromise among Iraq's divided factions. It was a limited invite, including a...

IRAQ - Aug 14 - Iraq Suicide Truck Bombers Kill 20 In Yazidis Sect.
August 18, 2007... Three suicide truck bombers target members of an ancient religious sect in northwestern Iraq, killing at least 20 people, while the crash of an American transport helicopter near an air base in Anbar killed five US service members. Nobody took...

ISRAEL - Netanyahu Sets Goal Of Regaining His Old Job.
August 18, 2007... Benjamin Netanyahu, fresh off a commanding election wins as leader of Israel's hard-line Likud Party, vows to shift his efforts toward reclaiming his old job as PM. Netanyahu faced a relatively strong challenge from Moshe Feiglin, a radical...

LEBANON - Aug 13 - Escaped Militants 'Threaten' Attacks In Lebanon.
August 18, 2007... The leader of a Syrian Islamist group claims in an audio tape aired that a group of Fatah al-Islam militants had escaped from the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in North Lebanon, and he hinted they will be launching attacks inside...

PALESTINE - Aug 12 - Hamas Claims To Hold Talks With Fatah.(Brief article)
August 18, 2007... A Hamas official in Gaza says that his organisation is holding unofficial talks with representatives from the rival Fatah movement, as tension between the two factions continued to simmer on the ground. Fatah officials denied that any such...

PALESTINE - Aug 16 - Fayyad Calls For Further Talks With Israel.(Salam Fayyad)(Brief article)
August 18, 2007... The PA PM Salam Fayyad, rules out the idea of provisional statehood, saying that Israel and the Palestinians should move quickly to final status talks to end their conflict. "We Israelis and Palestinians know where we're going and how to get...

PALESTINE- Aug 16 - Palestinian Leader Calls For Final Status Talks With Israel.(Salam Fayyad)(Brief article)
August 18, 2007... Salam Fayyad, the PA PM, rules out the idea of provisional statehood, saying that Israel and the Palestinians should move quickly to final status talks to end their conflict. "We Israelis and Palestinians know where we're going and how to get...

SAUDI ARABIA - Aug 16 - Kingdom Calls Syrian VP's Comments 'Lies'.(Farouk Shara)
August 18, 2007... Saudi Arabia says that Syrian Vice President Farouk Shara's recent comments contain several "lies and fallacies" when he criticised the Kingdom for not playing a leading role in Arab solidarity. "The Kingdom cannot stoop to the level of Shara...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Aug 20 - Kingdom Urges Arabs To Close Ranks.
August 25, 2007... Saudi Arabia says that solving the problems of the Muslim Ummah by promoting stability, security, development and unity is the first priority of the Kingdom's foreign policy. "The ability of the Arab countries to counter all challenges faced by...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Aug 18 - French FM Makes Surprise Trip To Baghdad.(Bernard Kouchner)
August 25, 2007... French FM Bernard Kouchner, arrives in Baghdad on the highest-level visit by a French official to Iraq since the 2003 invasion. The French FM said the surprise trip by Kouchner, a former United Nations administrator for Kosovo and co-founder of...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Aug 19 - Gaza Without Power As EU Stops Funding.
August 25, 2007... The EU stops funding a major Gaza Strip power plant, cutting off electricity to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The plant had already cut power to large swaths of Gaza last week after Israel closed a fuel crossing into Gaza. Israel...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Israel Begins Sending Sudanese Infiltrators Back Through Egypt.
August 25, 2007... Israel confirms that it has begun returning Sudanese infiltrators to Egypt, expelling nearly 50 in an operation overnight. Egyptian security said late Saturday that Israel sent back 48 Africans, most of them Sudanese, across the border with...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Aug 21 - Israel Kills Six Hamas Fighters.
August 25, 2007... Six Hamas fighters were killed in the Gaza Strip yesterday when an Israeli missile hit their jeep in one of the deadliest single strikes since Hamas took control of the territory two months ago. Another Hamas gunman was wounded as a result of...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Aug 22 - Bush Warns Of Iraqi 'Killing Fields'.(George W. Bush on genocide)
August 25, 2007... George W. Bush on says the consequences of a US withdrawal from Iraq can echo the "killing fields" genocide that destroyed Cambodia after the US pulled out from Vietnam in the mid-1970s. In a speech signalling Bush is in no mood to compromise...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Aug 24 - US Intelligence Is Gloomy Over Iraq.
August 25, 2007... The Iraqi government will continue to 'struggle' to achieve political reconciliation over the next year despite prospects for a moderately better security environment, according to a new US intelligence report. The director of national...

AFGHANISTAN - Aug 22 - Taliban Attack On NATO Base Kills 2 Afghan Soldiers.
August 25, 2007... Taliban militants wearing Afghan army uniforms attack a remote NATO base in eastern Afghanistan, leaving two Afghan soldiers dead and 11 alliance soldiers wounded, a statement from NATO said. A suicide bomber, meanwhile, attacked a provincial...

IRAQ - Aug 20 - Roadside Bomb Kills Second Iraqi Governor.(Muhammad Ali al-Hassani)
August 25, 2007... The governor of a southern Iraqi province was killed by a roadside bomb, the second such assassination in the predominantly Shi'ite south in less than 10 days. The bomb struck as Muhammad Ali al-Hassani, governor of Muthanna province, was...

IRAQ - Aug 21 - 'Chemical Ali' On Trial For Shi'ite Killings.
August 25, 2007... Fifteen former Iraqi officials and military commanders goes on trial on charges related to the suppression of a 1991 Shi'ite uprising in which tens of thousands were killed. It is the third in a series of "regime crimes" trials related to acts...

IRAQ - Aug 24 - Sunnis Unwilling To Rejoin Iraqi Cabinet.
August 25, 2007... Iraq's vice president Tariq Al-Hashemi says his Sunni political party will not return to its Cabinet positions unless its demands are met. Tariq Al-Hashemi's moderate party is part of a Sunni political alliance, the Concord Front, which...

LEBANON - Aug 18 - Lebanon Charges 107 With Terrorism.
August 25, 2007... Lebanon has charged over 100 suspected militants with terrorism, accusing them of belonging to an Al Qaida inspired group that has been battling the army for almost three months. Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza filed the charges on Friday,...

PALESTINE - Aug 23 - Abbas Denies Secret Talks With Israel.
August 25, 2007... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denies recent Israeli media reports that secret peace talks have made progress on some of the most sensitive issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the latest account, the Israeli daily...

PALESTINE - Aug 24 - Hamas Beats Up Journalists.
August 25, 2007... Members of the Hamas Security Force beat up journalists covering a demonstration held by the rival Fatah movement, briefly arresting four of them and confiscating their cameras in a sign of growing intolerance for political opposition. The...

TURKEY - Aug 20 - Gul Falls Short Of Outright Win In Turkish Poll.
August 25, 2007... Abdullah Gul, the Turkish FM, fails to win an outright majority in the first round of voting in the country's presidential elections. As candidate for the governing Justice and Development party (AKP), Gul scored 341 votes in the 550-seat...