APS Diplomat Recorder articles from December 2007

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from December 2007

ARAB AFFAIRS - Nov 26 - Iran Rebukes Saudi Over Middle East Peace Summit.
December 1, 2007... Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad tells Saudi King Abdullah that he wished Saudi Arabia is not taking part in the US-hosted Middle East peace summit. "I wish the name of Saudi Arabia was not among those attending the Annapolis conference",...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Nov 28 - Give Peace A Chance, Says Moussa.
December 1, 2007... Arab nations will give a US-sponsored Middle East peace drive a chance, but are waiting for Israel to prove it is serious about ending the conflict, Arab League chief AMoussa says as US President George W. Bush said Middle East peace was...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Nov 25 - Israeli Troops Kill 2 Palestinians In Gaza Raid.
December 1, 2007... Israeli troops kill two Palestinian militants during a raid in the central Gaza Strip. An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops had spotted two men wearing magazine belts, one of whom was armed. The soldiers opened fire at the pair when they...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Nov 27 - Israelis And Palestinians Pledge To Reach Peace Pact By End Of 2008.
December 1, 2007... The Israeli and Palestinian leaders commit themselves to negotiate a peace treaty by the end of 2008, setting themselves a deadline for ending a conflict that has endured for six decades. President George W. Bush announced the agreement at the...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Nov 25 - Hizbullah Blames US For Lebanon Impasse.
December 1, 2007... Hizbullah blames US interference for the Lebanese Parliament's inability to elect a president and stated a new condition for its choice of the next head of state: The leader must support Hizbullah in its fight against Israel. The demand by the...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Nov 26 - US Paves Way For Long-Term Stay In Iraq.(security agreement)
December 1, 2007... George W. Bush, US president, and Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki, signs a declaration that paves the way for a possible long-term US presence in Iraq in addition to the restoration of full Iraqi sovereignty. US and Iraqi officials said both countries...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Nov 27 - Bush Tells Syria To Steer Clear Of Lebanese Election.(George Bush )
December 1, 2007... US President George Bush uses a Middle East peace conference to warn Syria's government against interfering in Lebanon's effort to elect a new president. Some 40 nations are attending the conference at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis,...

AFGHANISTAN - Nov 27 - Massive Suicide Bomb Attack Hits Kabul Neighborhood Used By Foreigners.
December 1, 2007... A massive car bomb explodes in a residential district of the Kabul that is used by foreign diplomats and international organisations, killing two civilians and wounding four others, the police said. Two vehicles in a US military convoy were...

IRAN - Nov 27 - Iranian Critic Not Guilty Of Espionage.(Hossein Mousavian)
December 1, 2007... Iran's judiciary has found former nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian not guilty of espionage and keeping classified documents, in a move considered to be a blow to the government of president Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad. Ali-Reza Jamshidi, the...

IRAN - Nov 29 - Khatami Rallies Iran Reformists.(Muhammad Khatami)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... At a main crossroads in the holy city of Mashhad a blue hoarding welcomes Muhammad Khatami, Iran's former reformist president, as the "national pride". However, on the eve of Khatami's rally, the centrepiece of a three-day visit to Iran's...

IRAQ - Nov 25 - Ba'ath Reform Bill Rejected By Sadrists.
December 1, 2007... Iraq's parliament is presented with the text of a proposed law to rehabilitate purged members of the Ba'ath party, the furthest it has yet progressed on passing a series of legislation that Washington says is key to reconciling the country's...

IRAQ - Nov 27 - Security Claim As 800 Iraqis Go Home.
December 1, 2007... About 800 Iraqis left Damascus for Baghdad on an Iraqi government-sponsored convoy, amid a media fanfare as the regime sought to draw attention to the improving security situation at home. During the past month more Iraqis have returned than...

JORDAN - Nov 25 - The King swears in new cabinet of 28 technocrats, including a record 4 women.
December 1, 2007... Jordan's King Abdullah II swear in a new cabinet of technocrats that included a record four women ministers. The 28-member cabinet is headed by Nader al-Dahabi, who was designated PM. Al-Dahabi replaced Marouf al-Bakhit, who resigned following...

LEBANON - Nov 27 - Lebanon Government 'Will Not Be Provocative'.(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... Lebanon's PM Fouad Siniora says his government will not make any "provocative" moves in a sign he will try to contain a political crisis in the divided country. PM Fouad Siniora's cabinet assumed the powers of head of state on Saturday after...

PALESTINE - Nov 26 - Hamas Vows To Keep Fighting Israel.
December 1, 2007... Vowing to go on fighting the "Zionist enemy", Hamas calls Mahmoud Abbas the worst leader in Palestinian history and says he had no right to make concessions to Israel at the Annapolis peace conference. Speaking at an "anti-Annapolis" conference...

SAUDI ARABIA - Nov 28 - Saudis Hold 200 Suspected Militants.
December 1, 2007... Saudi Arabia says it had detained more than 200 suspected militants, including a cell that had been planning an imminent attack on a support installation in an oil-rich eastern province and others who were attempting to smuggle missiles into...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Dec 3 - Iran Calls For Security Co-operation In Gulf.
December 8, 2007... Gulf states and Iran should work together toward establishing regional security and economic pacts free of "foreign influence", President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of Iran told the Gulf Co-operation Council. Faced with increased international...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Dec 3 - Suleiman Could Be Elected Within Days.
December 8, 2007... The Arab League throws its weight behind the candidacy of army commander General Michel Suleiman to fill the vacant presidential seat in Lebanon. "We strongly support General Suleiman, who is a respected personality and can muster a national...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Dec 3 - Israel Releases 429 Palestinian Prisoners.
December 8, 2007... Israel releases 429 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons as a gesture intended to bolster the political dialogue with Palestinian moderates. Most of the prisoners arrived in buses at the Muqataa, the PA HQ's in Ramallah, where they were...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Dec 3 - Suleiman Could Be Elected Within Days.(General Michel Suleiman)(Brief article)
December 8, 2007... The Arab League throws its weight behind the candidacy of army commander General Michel Suleiman to fill the vacant presidential seat in Lebanon. "We strongly support General Suleiman, who is a respected personality and can muster a national...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Dec 5 - Israelis Kill 2 Hamas Members.
December 8, 2007... Israeli forces kill two members of Hamas and wound four others as they prepare to fire a mortar shell into Israel, and kill at least one Palestinian security officer in Bethlehem after Israeli forces in civilian clothing are fired upon as they...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Dec 4 - Tehran Still A Threat, Insists White House.
December 8, 2007... Pres Bush says that US policy on Iran will remain unchanged despite the revelation that Washington no longer thinks that Tehran is developing nuclear weapons. Bush said this week's US National Intelligence Estimate, which found that Tehran...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Dec 7 - US Criticises Israel Over Settlements.
December 8, 2007... The US State Sec Condoleezza Rice, warns Israel last night that its plan to build 300 houses on land captured in the 1967 war risked undermining fresh attempts to forge peace with the Palestinians. Delivering what for the Bush administration is...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Dec 6 - Petraeus Warns On Excessive Iraq Hopes.(General David Petraeus)
December 8, 2007... General David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, stresses that the US military is not declaring victory in Iraq despite the decline in bloodshed across most parts of the country. He said violence in Iraq had fallen by 60% since June...

IRAN - Dec 2 - Tehran Defiant On Nuclear Enrichment.
December 8, 2007... Further UN sanctions will not solve the dispute with the West over Iran's nuclear plans, the Iranian Foreign Ministry says a day after six world powers discussed imposing new penalties on Tehran. The powers met in Paris on Dec 1 after the EU's...

IRAQ - Dec 2 - Sunnis Back In Parliament After A Two-Day Boycott.
December 8, 2007... Lawmakers from Iraq's largest Sunni Arab bloc ends their boycott of parliament over the 'house arrest' of their leader, Adnan Al Dulaimi, who also showed up at the session. The two-day protest was provoked by what the lawmakers said was the...

IRAQ - Dec 7 - Bombers Kill 26 In Attacks On Iraq Police.
December 8, 2007... Suicide bombers kill up to 26 people in Iraq, targeting police and a US- allied Sunni paramilitary group in a province north-east of Baghdad, in two attacks that represent a small spike in a form of insurgency that had been in decline. The...

LEBANON - Dec 1 - Hizbullah Signals Support For Presidential Choice In Lebanon.(Michel Suleiman )
December 8, 2007... A senior official of the militant group Hizbullah says the group held the army commander Michel Suleiman in high regard, further improving his chances of becoming Lebanon's next president and averting a political crisis. Comments by the deputy...

PALESTINE - Dec 4 - Palestinians Protest Over Israeli Settlement Plan.(Brief article)
December 8, 2007... Palestinian leaders attack the Israeli government for its decision to allow the expansion of a Jewish settlement on occupied Palestinian land just south of Jerusalem. Saeb Erekat, a senior official in the Palestinian Administration, warned the...

PALESTINE - Dec 5 - Abbas Rejects Concept Of Provisional Palestinian State.(Mahmoud Abbas)(Brief article)
December 8, 2007... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejects the concept of a provisional Palestinian state, concerned that temporary borders of such an entity would become permanent. Abbas told Palestinian lawmakers that during last week's Mideast summit in...

SAUDI ARABIA - Dec 4 - Abdallah Calls On Israel To Quit Arab Lands.
December 8, 2007... King Abdallah of Jordan urges Israel to pull out from all Arab countries it occupied in 1967 war as a prerequisite for establishment of "just and durable" peace in the region. "We hereby emphasize to the Israelis that ending the occupation of...

SUDAN - Dec 3 - Sudan's President Pardons British Teacher.
December 8, 2007... The British schoolteacher jailed in Sudan for allowing her 7-year-old pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad is pardoned by Sudan's president and released to the British authorities. She was later reported to have left the country. The British...

TURKEY - Dec 2 - Turkey Claims It Attacked Kurdish Rebels.
December 8, 2007... President Abdullah Gul reaffirms Turkey's readiness and right to intervene in northern Iraq one day after the Turkish Army said it carried out an operation there against Kurdish rebels. Kurdish officials in Iraq insisted that there had been no...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Dec 12 - Annapolis Unsettled.
December 22, 2007... The hopes raised by last month's Annapolis conference on Middle East peace, at which Israel and the Palestinians undertook to negotiate a solution to the conflict by the end of next year, are already in danger of being dashed. Only days...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Dec 21 - Abdullah, Ahmadi-Nejad Hold Wide-Ranging Talks.
December 22, 2007... Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah hold talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad on major regional and international issues as well as ways of strengthening bilateral ties. Ahmadi-Nejad, the first Iranian president to...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Dec 17-18 - Israeli Airstrikes In Gaza Kill At Least 10 Palestinian Militants.
December 22, 2007... In a concerted effort to repress rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli forces kill at least 10 Palestinian militants, 8 of them from Islamic Jihad. Despite the lethality and accuracy of the Israeli airstrikes, however, Israel still has no effective...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Dec 18 - Snub For Rice Over Turkey Airstrike On Iraq.
December 22, 2007... US State Sec Condoleezza Rice, has suffered a setback in her effort to reduce the fall-out from Turkey's recent airstrike in Iraq when a prominent Kurdish leader refused to meet her. On a brief trip to the country in the wake of the Turkish...

AFGHANISTAN - Al Qaida Deputy Urges Iraqi Tribes To Purge US Allies.
December 22, 2007... In a new videotape, Al Qaida's deputy leader Ayman Al Zawahiri warns "traitors" in Iraq and called on Sunni Arab tribes to purge US allies. Al Zawahiri's comments were aimed at undermining "awakening councils" or groups of US-backed Iraqi Sunni...

IRAN - Dec 16 - Iran To Discuss Iraq 'Terrorist Groups' With US.
December 22, 2007... Tehran says it wanted to discuss the activities of "terrorist groups" when it next holds talks with the US about boosting security in Iraq. FM spokesman Muhammad Ali Hosseini suggested that the fourth round of talks on Iraqi security may be...

IRAN - Dec 17 - Iran Indicates It Is Building Another Nuclear Plant.
December 22, 2007... Iran confirms that it had received the first fuel shipment for its nuclear power plant at Bushehr, but also indicated for the first time that it is building a second nuclear power plant. The revelation came in comments by Iran's Atomic...

IRAQ - Dec 16 - Turkish Fighters Bomb Kurdish Rebel Targets Inside Iraq.
December 22, 2007... Turkish fighter jets bomb Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq before dawn, in an escalation of its effort to weaken the Kurdish guerilla group that hides there. An Iraqi official said one woman had been killed in the strikes. Planes...

PALESTINE - Dec 17 - Blair Eyes $5.6bn For Palestinian Economy.(Tony Blair )(Brief article)
December 22, 2007... Tony Blair, the former UK PM turned Middle East envoy, is set to win $5.6 bn in pledges for the Palestinian economy at a Paris donor conference on Dec 17 designed to boost the Palestinian Authority. In an interview with the FT on Dec 16, Blair...

PALESTINE - Dec 16 - UK Hands Over Basra To Iraqi Forces.(drawdown of UK forces in Iraq )
December 22, 2007... Britain hands over control for security to Iraqi forces in Basra, the last of four provinces in which the UK once held security responsibility. British officials depicted the handover as a positive development that would allow the drawdown of...

PALESTINE - Dec 17 - Abbas Urges Freeze On Israeli Settlements.
December 22, 2007... Pres Mahmoud Abbas on Dec 17 urges Israel to cease "all settlement activities" in Palestinian territories. Abbas made the statement at the start of a major donors' conference in Paris where representatives from more than 60 countries gathered...

SAUDI ARABIA - Dec 17 - Saudi King Pardons Female Victim Of Gang Rape.
December 22, 2007... King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia pardons a woman who was sentenced to 200 lashes after pressing charges against seven men who raped her, a Saudi newspaper reported Dec 17. There was no immediate confirmation from the Justice Ministry or the...

SAUDI ARABIA - Dec 21 - Authorities Say They Foiled Terrorist Plot.
December 22, 2007... Police arrest a group of men planning to attack holy sites around Mecca during the just-completed annual Muslim pilgrimage. "Security forces have foiled a plot to carry out a terror attack on holy sites outside Mecca with the aim of confounding...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Dec 22 - Israel Rejects Hamas Request For Cease-Fire Talks.
December 29, 2007... PM Ehud Olmert of Israel rejects overtures by Hamas, the militant Islamic group ruling Gaza, for discussions about a temporary cease-fire. At the same time, Olmert's government raised the ire of Palestinian representatives from the West Bank,...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Dec 22 - Olmert To Meet Abbas To Salvage Dialogue.(Mahmoud Abbas and Ehud Olmert)(Brief article)
December 29, 2007... Muhammad Mar'i, Arab News - RAMALLAH, West Bank, 27 December 2007 - Palestinian Pres Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli PM Ehud Olmert are scheduled to meet in Jerusalem today in an attempt to solve the settlement crisis that has plagued negotiations...

AFGHANISTAN - Dec 26 - Envoys Expelled For 'Talks With Taliban'.(Michael Semple and Mervyn Patterson)
December 29, 2007... Two top European diplomats are set to leave Afghanistan on Dec 27 amid allegations that they had held unauthorised talks with the Taliban. The Afghan government said the two men from the UN and the EU are being expelled because they had...

EGYPT - Dec 26 - Egypt Govt Accuses Israel Of Meddling In Its Ties With US.
December 29, 2007... Egypt accuses Israel of interfering in its relations with the US as tensions rose over alleged arms smuggling into Gaza during a visit by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Barak was in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Shaikh for his first...

IRAN - Dec 28 - Iran Military Force Fears Threat From Within.(Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps)
December 29, 2007... It has been accused of playing a role in arming Shi'ite militia in Iraq and threatens with being labelled a "terrorist organisation" by the US, but IRG - the country's elite military force - believes that domestic security threats represent a...

IRAQ - Dec 24 - Iraqi Minister Allays Fears Over Sunni Groups.
December 29, 2007... Iraq's defence minister says that the Awakening Councils - mostly Sunni paramilitary groups credited with rolling back the radical al-Qaeda network - will not be allowed to become a permanent military force. "We completely, absolutely reject...

IRAQ - Dec 22 - Kurdish Officials Contest Turkey's Claim Of Airstrike Deaths.
December 29, 2007... In its third large cross-border attack into Iraq within a week, Turkey says that its warplanes had killed hundreds of separatist Kurdish rebels. A statement from the military said that the air attack, which lasted less than half an hour, had...

IRAQ - Dec 25 - Truck Bomb Hits Crowd In Iraq.
December 29, 2007... At least 25 people are killed when a suicide bomber rammed a truck into a line of Iraqis waiting for cooking gas near a checkpoint outside the Baiji oil refinery in northern Iraq. Estimates of the death toll varied. The police in Baiji and the...

ISRAEL - Dec 28 - 2 Israeli Settlers Killed By Palestinian Gunmen, Police Say.
December 29, 2007... Two Israeli settlers out hiking with a female friend near Hebron are shot and killed by Palestinians driving by in a car. The dead Israelis, David Rubin, 21, and Ahikam Amihai, 20, were on leave from military duty and returned fire, killing two...

LEBANON - Dec 23 - Lebanon Government Prepares Bill To Elect Pres.(Brief article)
December 29, 2007... Lebanon's Western-backed government approves a bill that will amend the constitution and allow the army chief to be elected Pres. But the move further escalated tensions with the Syrian-backed opposition, which denounced the bill's approval....

PALESTINE - Dec 28 - Final-Status Talks To Start Next Week, Qorei Says.
December 29, 2007... The head of Palestinian negotiation team Ahmad Qorei says that Palestinian and Israeli peace negotiators will begin final- status talks next week. Qorei said that peace negotiations had become possible after Israeli PM Ehud Olmert pledged to...

TURKEY - Dec 23 - Turks Bomb Northern Iraq For 2nd Day.
December 29, 2007... Turkish warplanes bomb areas in northern Iraq for the second day in a row but caused no casualties. Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Iraqi Kurdish security forces, said the airstrikes in a deserted mountainous area in northern Iraq started at 3...

TURKEY - Dec 26 - Turkish Jets Strike Targets In Kurdish Iraq.
December 29, 2007... Turkish warplanes launch the latest in a series of strikes against Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq, hitting eight targets in the third cross-border air attack in 10 days. A Turkish military statement said the warplanes staged an "effective...