APS Diplomat Recorder articles from December 2008

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from December 2008

ARAB AFFAIRS - Dec 3 - Lebanese Christian Leader Courts Assad.
December 6, 2008... The Christian Lebanese politician Michel Aoun, who once personified opposition to Syria, completes an astounding about-face by meeting the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus. Although a slew of Lebanese political leaders have been...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Dec 4 - Sleiman Urges Foreign Countries To Deal Only With Head Of State.
December 6, 2008... President Michel Sleiman urges foreign countries to only deal with his office, which he says is "in charge of [Lebanon's] relations with other states". The remark comes during a speech delivered to Arab ambassadors in Berlin, where the...

AFGHANISTAN - Dec 3 - Afghans Say They Will Sign Treaty Banning Cluster Munitions.
December 6, 2008... In a surprising last-minute change of policy, the government of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan agrees to join about 100 nations signing a treaty banning the use of cluster munitions. The decision appeared to reflect Karzai's growing...

EGYPT - Dec 4 - Egyptian Court Starts Trial Of Five Journalists.
December 6, 2008... A local court opens the trial of five journalists from two newspapers on charges of violating a ban on reporting about the trial of an Egyptian business tycoon accused of involvement in the murder of a Lebanese singer in Dubai last July. The...

IRAQ - Dec 1 - 2 Attacks Kill At Least 30 Iraqis.
December 6, 2008... Suicide bombings in Baghdad and Mosul kills at least 32 Iraqis in carnage recalling the levels of violence before the American troop build-up last year. The Baghdad bombing occurred at a police training academy on the eastern side of the Tigris...

IRAQ - Dec 2 - Kurds Issue Sharp Retort To Maliki.
December 6, 2008... The Kurdish regional government releases a pointed rebuttal to PM Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's recent criticism of its policies, a sign of growing fault lines between the Kurds and Iraq's central government. Maliki gives speech on Nov. 20 in which he...

IRAQ - Dec 4 - Iraq's Presidency Council Approves US Security Pact.
December 6, 2008... Iraq's Presidency Council approves a security pact with the US that paves the way for a complete US troop pullout by the end of 2011. The pact, which brings in sight an end to the US military presence that has lasted since the 2003 invasion,...

ISRAEL - Dec 2 - Israeli FM Faces Eu Criticism Over Settlers.(Tzipi Livni)
December 6, 2008... EU lawmakers tell Israel's FM Tzipi Livni that her country has to do more to stop the expansion of West Bank settlements. Lawmakers at the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee said settlers' moves to defend their homes there were...

ISRAEL - Dec 4 - Jewish Settlers Evicted From Hebron.
December 6, 2008... Israeli security forces clear out a group of Jewish settlers from a disputed house in the West Bank city of Hebron, in a rare confrontation that sparked riots and clashes between rightwing settlers, police and Palestinians all over the...

PALESTINE - Dec 4 - Palestinians' Rift Prevents Gazans From Traveling To Mecca.
December 6, 2008... For the first time since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, no Palestinians from Gaza are making the sacred annual pilgrimage to Mecca this year because of a power struggle over which Palestinian government is legitimate. Saudi Arabia, which runs the...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Dec 10 - Britain To Begin Iraq Withdrawal In March.
December 13, 2008... Britain's remaining troops in Iraq will begin withdrawing from the country in March on a timetable that will aim to leave only a small training force of 300 to 400 by June. The long-expected drawdown of the British force next year from its...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Dec 12 - Arabs Should Leave Israel, Says Livni.
December 13, 2008... Israeli FM and leader of ruling Kadima party, Tzipi Livni says that Arab Palestinians should leave Israel for a Palestinian state once such a state is established. This call is viewed as a new Israeli move to confiscate Arab lands. Speaking to...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Dec 7 - US Plans To Deploy New Troops Near Kabul.
December 13, 2008... Most of the additional American troops arriving in Afghanistan early next year will be deployed near the capital, Kabul, US military commanders here say, in a measure of how precarious the war effort has become. It will be the first time that...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Dec 13 - US Army Says Iraq Work Not Over Yet.
December 13, 2008... The No 2 US commander in Iraq Lt General Lloyd Austin says Iraq's security forces must develop intelligence, battlefield medicine and logistics before they can stand on their own. In the rush to create a security force to guard Iraq against...

IRAN - Dec 8 - 'Thousands' Join Anti-Ahmadi-Nejad Rally In Tehran.(Brief article)
December 13, 2008... Iranian students hold a protest at Tehran University calling for freedom and denouncing the policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, a pro-reform student group said. The protest amid heavy security was organized by the radical pro-reform...

IRAN - Dec 8 - Iran Urges Obama To Change Approach.
December 13, 2008... Iran says that it will not abandon its nuclear program and urged President-elect Barack Obama to change America's "carrot-and-stick policy" toward Iran. Hassan Ghashghavi, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that Iran, which has repeatedly...

IRAQ - Dec 11 - Iraq Bomb Kills 48 In Volatile North.
December 13, 2008... A suicide bomber attacks a restaurant where Sunni Arabs and Kurds were meeting to ease friction in the tense northern city of Kirkuk. At least 48 people were killed in the bombing, apparently aimed at provoking extremists along widening ethnic...

LEBANON - Dec 9 - Lebanese Militant Group Says Leader May Be Dead.
December 13, 2008... An Islamic militant website quotes that the leader of an Al Qaida-linked Lebanese group Shaker Al Absi has probably been killed in Syria. Shaker Al Absi went on the run last year after his group, Fatah Islam, battled the Lebanese army for weeks...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Dec 16 - Quartet Makes Fresh Bid To Revive Talks.
December 20, 2008... The UAE participates in a meeting held by the Arab liaison group of the Arab League with the Middle East Quartet to discuss ways of reviving Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations and stepped up calls to both sides to take the necessary steps...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Dec 17 - British PM Arrives In Iraq On Unannounced Visit.
December 20, 2008... British PM Gordon Brown hold talks with Iraqi PM Nouri Al Maliki during an unannounced visit to Baghdad. The British PM's fourth visit to Iraq comes one day after the Iraqi cabinet drafted a law planning the withdrawal of Britain's 4,100 troops...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Dec 16 - Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian Militant.
December 20, 2008... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he'll call general elections "very soon", signaling that he's ready for a new showdown with the Islamic militant Hamas. Hamas, which wrested control of Gaza from Abbas 18 months ago, contends that his...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Dec 14 - Dodging Shoes, Bush Makes Final Iraq Visit.(United States President George W. Bush)
December 20, 2008... President George W. Bush makes a valedictory visit to Iraq, the country that will largely define his legacy, but the trip will more likely be remembered for the unscripted moment when an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at Bush's head and...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Dec 15 - Bush Says US Will Stand By Afghanistan.
December 20, 2008... President George W. Bush tells Afghan President Hamid Karzai the US would stand by the war-torn country despite a -transition of power at the White House. -Moving from one war zone to another, Bush flew secretly from Baghdad to Kabul, landing...

IRAN - Dec 15 - Khatami Likely To Contest Against Ahmadi-Nejad.(Muhammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad)
December 20, 2008... Former Iranian President Muhammad Khatami, an opponent of current President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad's policies, says he is still pondering a bid for the country's highest political office directly elected by the people. During a speech before...

IRAQ - Dec 18 - 35 Iraq Officials Held In Raids On Key Ministry.
December 20, 2008... Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, according to senior...

IRAQ - Dec 18 - Iraq Arrests Extend Beyond Key Ministry.
December 20, 2008... Iraqi officials confirm a wave of arrests in what appeared to be a major internal crackdown inside the nation's security apparatus. But in an atmosphere of secrecy and political rivalry, the officials could agree on few other facts, from the...

PALESTINE - Dec 14 - Hamas, Showing Split, Hints It May Extend Israel Truce.
December 20, 2008... Hamas leaders in Gaza leaves open the possibility of renewing a tenuous truce with Israel that is due to expire Dec 19, putting themselves at odds with a statement by the exiled political leader of the group in Damascus, Syria. Khaled Mashal,...

PALESTINE - Dec 14 - Hamas Ends Gaza Truce With Israel.
December 20, 2008... Hamas says that a troubled Cairo-brokered truce with Israel is unlikely to be renewed when it runs out this week, as former US president Jimmy Carter met the exiled leader of the Palestinian group for the second time this year to discuss the...

PALESTINE - Dec 15 - Palestinians Celebrate Release From Israeli Jails.(Brief article)
December 20, 2008... Israel releases 224 prisoners in a goodwill gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, prompting joyous family reunions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Families sang and danced as prison buses rolled up full of newly freed men, shouting...

PALESTINE - Dec 17 - Palestinian Militants Fire Rockets From Gaza.
December 20, 2008... Palestinian militants in Gaza fired barrages of rockets at Israel for a second day, escalating tensions before a six-month truce is due to expire on Dec 19. One rocket landed in the parking lot of a busy shopping center in Sderot, an Israeli...

PALESTINE - Dec 19 - Hamas Renounces Cease-Fire With Israel.
December 20, 2008... Hamas formally announces the end of its unwritten, often-breached truce with Israel as Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired four more rockets into southern Israel. The Israeli military said troops guarding Israeli farmers in fields...

TURKEY - Dec 17 - Turkish Fighter Planes Bombard Iraqi Kurd Areas.
December 20, 2008... Turkish warplanes strike Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq, the second consecutive day of strikes. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets were in the mountainous Kandil region and all the jets returned safely to their bases, the...