APS Diplomat Recorder articles from February 2005

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from February 2005

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Jan 31 - Europe To Step Up Iraq Security Effort.
February 5, 2005... EU governments, which are divided over the US-led war against Iraq, pulls together and agreed to step up efforts to improve security after Iraqis hold their first democratic elections in 50 years. Pres Jacques Chirac of France, who along with...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Feb 2 - Iran Envoy Hits At Europe Over Nuclear Deal.
February 5, 2005... Iran's top nuclear negotiator Hossein Mousavian, expresses frustration that European countries have not delivered on incentives promised last year in return for Iran's pledge to suspend nuclear enrichment. The Secretary of the foreign policy...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jan 30 - Israel Ready To Leave Some West Bank Cities.
February 5, 2005... The Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz says the country is preparing to hand over security control of several West Bank cities to the Palestinians in the next few days, in the latest sign of increasing co-operation between the two sides. The...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Feb 3 - Israel To Release Prisoners Before Summit.
February 5, 2005... Israel is to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and begins a staged withdrawal from West Bank towns as part of measures approved Feb 3 by senior ministers ahead of next week's Sharm El Shaikh summit. Israeli PM Ariel Sharon, and PA Pres...

ARAB-OPEC AFFAIRS - Jan 30 - Opec Shows Confidence In Strength Of Oil Price.
February 5, 2005... The OPEC suspends its official oil price band, signalling a structural rise in long-term crude prices founded on stronger Asian demand, the weaker dollar and a dearth of substantial new non-Opec supplies. The removal of Opec's nominal $22-$28 a...

ARABS-UN - Feb 4 - UN Chiefs 'Bent Over Backwards' For Saddam.
February 5, 2005... Iraq's ambassador to the UN Samir Sumaidaie, accuses the international body on "bending over backwards" to help Saddam Hussein's regime during the establishment of Iraq's oil-for-food programme, and said he has "serious questions" about the...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Feb 2 - Bush Optimistic About Progress In Middle East.
February 5, 2005... Pres Bush speaks optimistically of the spread of democracy across the Muslim world and peace "within reach" in the Middle East, pledging US support for the creation of a Palestinian state and applauds the success of Iraqi elections. In a State...

AFGHANISTAN - Feb 4 - Afghan Plane Missing With 104 On Board.
February 5, 2005... The Kam Air airline's financial controller Atilla Kamgar says the Boeing 737 Kam Air, flying from the western city of Herat to Kabul, with 104 people on board is missing after being turned away from Kabul airport the previous day due to a snow...

EGYPT - Feb 2 - Forces Slay Suspect In Sinai Bombings During Mountain Shootout.
February 5, 2005... The security forces clash with Islamic militants in the mountains of Sinai, killing a suspect in last year's deadly bombings of beach resorts on the peninsula, the government said. The gun battle erupted as the police were chasing militants...

IRAQ - Jan 31 - Iraq Polls Close Amid Reports Of High Turnout.
February 5, 2005... Shiite and Kurdish voters flock to polling stations to assert their democratic rights after decades of oppression, defying efforts by insurgents to disrupt the vote. But in the first free elections for 50 years, a mixed picture emerged from the...

KUWAIT - Jan 31 - Battle With Militants Leaves 5 Dead.
February 5, 2005... The security forces storm a building in a residential part of the capital and exchanged gunfire with suspected terrorists, killing three in a battle that also left a security officer and a bystander dead. The clash was the third battle this...

TURKEY - Jan 30 - Deep Split In Opposition Party.
February 5, 2005... After a raucous session of name-calling and a chair-throwing melee that has to be broken up by the riot police, main opposition leader Deniz Baykal beats back a challenge by reformers and is re-elected to lead the Republican People's Party. The...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Jan 22 - Iran Mocks West Over 'N-weapon Design' Request.(nuclear weapon)
February 6, 2005... Iran's secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani ridicules western governments' request for a document said to show a weapons design obtained from the illegal nuclear procurement network of Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan,...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan 26 - US Releases Female Iraqi Prisoners.
February 6, 2005... The American military releases five Iraqi women from custody, nine days after kidnappers said they would kill an American journalist if the US did not free all the Iraqi women in its jails. The women were released late Jan 26 afternoon in...

IRAQ - Jan 23 - New Judge Is Named To Lead Saddam Trial.
February 6, 2005... A new judge is appointed to take charge of the trial of Saddam Hussain and seven co-defendants, the latest twist in a legal process that has been plagued by unruliness and accusations of political influence. Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman, a Kurd,...

IRAQ -Jan 23 - Saddam Trial Delay Angers Defence Lawyers.(Saddam Hussain)
February 6, 2005... The trial of Saddam Hussain is delayed again reportedly because members of the tribunal hearing the case against the deposed president object to the appointment of a new chief judge. The cancellation suggests that what was already a troubled...

KUWAIT >TI Jan 24 - Kuwait's Parliament Deposes Ailing Ruler.(Brief Article)
February 6, 2005... Kuwait's parliament votes the country's ailing ruler out of office, marking the first time a ruler from the Gulf's dynastic autocracies has been deposed by constitutional means. The unanimous vote to remove Shaikh Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah was...

PALESTINE - Jan 24 - Palestinians Head For Coalition Government.
February 6, 2005... A multi-party coalition government led by Fatah, with the possible inclusion of ministers from Hamas, appears the most likely outcome of Jan 24 Palestinian parliamentary elections as last-minute polls showed the ruling party maintaining its...

PALESTINE - Jan 26 - Hamas victory Met With Alarm In The West.
February 6, 2005... Hamas raise its Islamic green banner on the roof of the Palestinian parliament in Ramallah, celebrating a stunning election victory that has cast a new shadow over the quest for Middle East peace. Hamas's victory was met with alarm in the west....

RUSSIA - Jan 25 - Putin Links Foreign Spies To Private Groups.
February 6, 2005... Pres Vladimir Putin accuses foreign intelligence operatives of using private organisations to interfere in Russia's internal affairs, saying accusations that four British diplomats were spies justified new government restrictions on the groups....

ARABS-ISRAEL - Feb 6 - Barghouti's Son Among Hundreds Of Prisoners To Be Freed.
February 12, 2005... Israeli security officials say Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz agrees to free the son of prominent Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti as part of an upcoming prisoner release. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Qassam...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Feb 9 -Israel To Readmit Palestinian Workers.
February 12, 2005... Israel will soon readmit Palestinian workers from Gaza and lift some West Bank roadblocks in a follow-up to a ceasefire summit in Egypt that resuscitated hope for Middle East peacemaking. Adding to a mood of optimism, the "Quartet" of US,...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Feb 6 - Israel Must Take 'Hard Decisions' For Peace.
February 12, 2005... Condoleeza Rice arrives in Israel for her visit as US State Secretary with the message that US wanted to see Israelis and Palestinians make progress through regional dialogue. "I hope we would all get into a mindset that says if the parties are...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Feb 6 - Cheney Urges Calm On Islam's Role In Iraq.
February 12, 2005... In a lengthy interview on Fox-TV, Vice President Dick Cheney turns aside concerns the emerging government in Iraq might be strongly Islamic and might even set more restrictive standards on the rights of women than those of men. Cheney, also...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Feb 11 - Rumsfeld Flies To Northern Iraq.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2005... US Def Sec Rumsfeld flies into northern Iraq before dawn to make a personal appraisal of the training of Iraqi security forces and talk with his commanders. Rumsfeld began the unannounced trip at an airfield outside the northern city of Mosul....

AFGHANISTAN - Feb 7 - Troops Recover 3 Bodies From Crash Site.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2005... NATO-led and Afghan troops recover the first bodies from the site where a passenger jet carrying 104 people hit a snow-covered mountain on Feb 3. Clear skies allowed helicopters to drop a small team of medics, mountaineers and explosives...

IRAQ - Feb 6 - 4 Egyptian Engineers Kidnapped.
February 12, 2005... Gunmen kidnap four Egyptian engineers working for a telecommunications company, Egyptian telecoms firm Orascom, which has several contracts in Iraq, including running the Iraqna mobile phone service in Baghdad. Iraqna spokesman Shamal Hanafi...

IRAQ - Feb 7 - Two Suicide Bombs Kill 27.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2005... Suicide bombers kill more than 27 people in attacks in two cities in the worst bloodshed since the country's historic Jan 30 election. At least 14 people were killed and 13 wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded outside the main police HQ's...

IRAQ - Feb 7 - Returns Show Kurds With Significant Gains.
February 12, 2005... The first voting returns from northern Iraq shows the main Kurdish party makes significant gains in the country's first contested Jan 30 elections, improving its standing from an insignificant portion of the votes to about 25% of those that...

IRAQ - Feb 9 - Rebel Gunmen Kill A Journalist And A Senior Official.
February 12, 2005... Gunmen kill a journalist working for a US-financed TV network in Basra and assassinate a senior government official in Baghdad. Also, officials said they must recount votes from about 300 ballot boxes from the Jan 30 election because the boxes...

IRAQ - Feb 10 - Suicide Bomber Kills 4 But Misses US Convoy.
February 12, 2005... A black-robed suicide attacker explodes an enormous bomb concealed in his sport utility vehicle in one of Baghdad's main squares, killing at least four people and greeting the Islamic New Year with more of the carnage that has littered the...

ISRAEL - Feb 10 - Settler Supporters Attack Netanyahu At Wedding Party.
February 12, 2005... Supporters of Jewish settlers attack Benjamin Netanyahu at a wedding but the former Israeli PM escapes unhurt. A small group vehemently opposed to PM Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw Israelis from the Gaza Strip shouted at Netanyahu: Murderer,...

PALESTINE - Feb 7 - Arafat's $200m Gamble Pays Off.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2005... Yassir Arafat and his senior financial adviser Mohammad Rachid risks about a quarter of the PA's assets by investing more than $200m (156m) in a single company. Official assets are usually invested conservatively and, in internal Palestinian...

PALESTINE - Feb 10 - Abbas Dismisses Security Chiefs After Hamas Attack.
February 12, 2005... Palestinian Pres Mahmoud Abbas, dismisses three security chiefs and orders his forces to preserve a ceasefire agreement reached with Israel this week by acting against militants who fired around 50 rounds of mortar and rocket fire at Jewish...

RUSSIA - Feb 9 - Cabinet Survives A No-Confidence Vote.
February 12, 2005... The government of PM Mikhail Fradkov on survives a vote of no-confidence called by the Communist and nationalist opposition in the lower house of Parliament, the largely pro-Kremlin State Duma, after a wave of public protests against social...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Feb 16 - Syria And Iran Join Forces Against Threats.(Brief Article)
February 19, 2005... An embattled Syria turns to Iran for help, with the two countries declaring they will create a "common front" to confront threats. After meeting the Syrian PM Naji Al Otari, in Tehran on Feb 16, Iranian vice president Reza Aref, said it was...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Feb 17 - Gaddafi Meets Mubarak After Surprise Cairo Trip.(Hosni Mubarak, Muammar Qadhafi)(Brief Article)
February 19, 2005... Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi makes a surprise visit to Egypt and discusses several crucial issues in the Arab world with Pres Hosni Mubarak. The two leaders discussed the Mideast peace process after last week's summit meeting at the Egyptian...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Feb 18 - Russia-Iran Nuclear Projects To Continue.(Vladimir Putin)(Brief Article)
February 19, 2005... Pres Putin says Russia will continue nuclear co-operation with Iran, and that he is convinced Iran did not intend to produce nuclear weapons. Russia is helping build an $800m (612m, [pounds sterling]422m) nuclear reactor in Bushehr that the US...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Feb 13 - Israel Shows Support For Abbas.
February 19, 2005... Israel's cabinet agrees to release an initial group of 500 Palestinian prisoners as part of measures to boost Palestinian Pres Mahmoud Abbas, after he secured agreement from the militant factions to continue a de facto truce. Israel and the PA...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Feb 13 - Iran Warns Washington 'Not To Play With Fire'.
February 19, 2005... Tehran warns US "not to play with fire" and takes a harder line in its nuclear talks with Europe amid reports that the US has been flying unmanned aircraft over Iran and is conducting the sort of broad intelligence review of the country that it...

IRAN - Feb 14 - Mosque Blaze Kills 35, Injures 200.(Brief Article)
February 19, 2005... A faulty electrical heater starts a blaze in a Tehran mosque crowded with worshippers for a major Shiite Muslim festival, killing 35 people and injuring 200. Aid workers and emergency services swarmed around the mosque, a Reuters witness said....

IRAN - Feb 16 - Mystery Blast In Iran Rattles Nerves.
February 19, 2005... Iranian TV sends ripples through world financial markets as it broadcasts a series of conflicting reports about a powerful explosion arousing fears of an attack and underscores the high state of tension in Tehran's standoff with the West over...

IRAQ - Feb 15 - Al Jaafari And Chalabi Vie For Iraq Premiership.(Ahmed Chalabi, Ebrahim Al Jaafari )(Brief Article)
February 19, 2005... The contest for next PM narrows after FM Adel Abdul Mahdi stands down from consideration, making it a two-man Shiite race, party spokesmen said. The UIA, which has provisionally won more than half the seats in the new National Assembly, has...

IRAQ - Feb 17 - Shiites Get Most Seats In Iraq.
February 19, 2005... The Shiite alliance wins a slim majority of seats in the new National Assembly, the Iraqi Electoral Commission confirms after reviewing returns from the Jan. 30 election. The UIA, composed mainly of Shiite Islamist religious parties, will...

ISRAEL - Feb 17 - Sharon Avoids Charges In Funding Case.(campaign funding scandal: Ariel Sharon )(Brief Article)
February 19, 2005... Attorney General Menachem Mazuz decides not to file charges against PM Ariel Sharon in a campaign funding scandal but indicts his son. He closed a three-year-old investigation of Sharon, citing insufficient evidence of involvement in setting up...

LEBANON - Feb 14 - Killing Of Hariri Renews Instability In Lebanon.(Rafiq Hariri)
February 19, 2005... The country is thrown into renewed instability Rafiq Hariri, a former PM and architect of the country's reconstruction, is killed in a massive car bomb explosion. Hariri, a billionaire businessman who led Lebanon for most of its post-civil war...

LEBANON - Feb 16 - Thousands Bid Farewell To Hariri.
February 19, 2005... Hundreds of thousands of frenzied mourners swarm the streets of Beirut in a sea of Lebanese flags as they bid farewell to former PM Rafik Hariri amid rising public outcry against Syria, blamed by opposition leaders for the suspected suicide car...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Feb 20 - Mid-East Parties Told To Seize Peace Opportunity.(Brief Article)
February 26, 2005... His Majesty King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa and King Abdullah II of Jordan calls on all Middle East parties to seize the new opportunity to achieve a comprehensive and just settlement. King Hamad is currently on an official visit to Jordan to...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Feb 24 - Syria To Move Back Troops In Lebanon.
February 26, 2005... Syria, under intense international pressure to end its military and political grip on Lebanon, says it is preparing to re-deploy its troops toward the border. No time frame for the withdrawal was provided. The two governments indicated that...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Feb 20 - Israel Agrees Evacuation Of Gaza.
February 26, 2005... The Israeli cabinet votes to evacuate Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in what officials describes as a historic moment in the life of the state. The 17-5 vote was the first time an Israeli government has sanctioned the...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Feb 21 - Israel Frees 500 Prisoners In Gesture To Abbas.
February 26, 2005... Israel frees 500 Palestinians in the largest mass release for nearly a decade, a gesture meaning bolstering a ceasefire deal with new Palestinian Pres Mahmoud Abbas. But even as Abbas' hand was strengthened by jubilant scenes of homecoming for...

ARABS-UN - Feb 25 - UN Vow On Hariri Murder Probe.(Rafiq Hariri)
February 26, 2005... A UN team pledges impartiality as it begin's its inquiry into the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, Lebanon's former PM, a killing that has provoked domestic and international uproar. A three-member team headed by Irish deputy police commissioner...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Feb 20 - Secret US-Sunni Talks Reported.(Brief Article)
February 26, 2005... Citing Pentagon and other sources, Time magazine reports US diplomats and intelligence officers are conducting secret talks with Sunni insurgents in Iraq on ways to end fighting there. The Bush administration has said it will not negotiate with...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Feb 23 - Iran Is Not Iraq - Bush.
February 26, 2005... Pres Bush says European diplomatic efforts to rein in Iran's nuclear programme are only just beginning and that comparisons with Iraq are wrong. He said: Iran is not Iraq. We just started the diplomatic efforts and I want to thank our friends...

EGYPT - Feb 22 - Detainees Of Red Sea Bomb Attacks Were 'Tortured'.
February 26, 2005... The New York-based Human Rights Watch says many of an estimated 2,400 people detained without charge by Egypt after the bomb attacks at Red Sea resorts last October might have been "tortured or treated inhumanely". Those rounded up since the...

EGYPT - Feb 23 - Detained Egyptian Opposition Leader 'Taken Ill'.(Ayman Nour)(Brief Article)
February 26, 2005... Gamila Ismail, wife of the detained opposition leader Ayman Nour, says he has suffered a mild stroke or heart attack under interrogation. Gamila said his left arm and side had gone numb and he had experienced violent chest pains and sweating...

IRAN - 400 Killed In Earthquake.(Brief Article)
February 26, 2005... An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale strikes the outskirts of Zarand, 600km south-east of Tehran and 200km north-west of Bam, (the historic city devastated just over a year ago in an earthquake measuring 6.6 that killed up to...

IRAQ - Feb 20 - Sunnis Demand A Voice In The New Government.
February 26, 2005... With the Shiite majority still reeling from carnage that left nearly 100 people dead over two days, tribal leaders from Sunni Arab minority scrambles to demand a say in the first freely elected government in modern history. With a new cabinet...

IRAQ - Feb 24 - Insurgents Kill 21 In Attacks.
February 26, 2005... Insurgents strike to the north and south of Baghdad, killing as many as 21 people, including two US soldiers. A suicide car bomber attacked a police station here in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, at 9 a.m., leaving 8 to 10 people dead and 12...

ISRAEL - Feb 25 - Tel Aviv Bombing Hits Hopes For Peace.(Brief Article)
February 26, 2005... A suicide bomber kills at least four people and wounds more than 30 in central Tel Aviv, in the severest challenge yet to mounting hopes of peace between Israel and the Palestinians after four years of violence. The first such attack inside...

LEBANON - Feb 24 - Beirut To Move Syrian Troops To Ease Crisis.
February 26, 2005... The defence minister Abdel-Rahim Mrad says Syrian troops across the country will soon be redeployed to the eastern Bekaa valley, apparently seeking to contain a growing crisis over the Syrian presence in the country. The redeployment, though...

PALESTINE - Feb 22 - Qurei Puts Technocrats In Place Of 'Old Guard'.(Ahmad Qurei on Palestinian conflict)
February 26, 2005... The PA PM Ahmad Qurei, caves in to a parliamentary revolt against his proposed new government and promises to replace it with a cabinet made up almost exclusively of technocrats. Reformist members of the ruling Fatah movement, who had...

SYRIA - Feb 23 - 'Don't Rush To Accuse'.(Beirut car bombing)
February 26, 2005... FM Prince Saud Al Faisal says countries should not hastily accuse Syria of involvement in the killing of Lebanon's former PM Rafik Hariri. He also dismissed calls for an immediate international probe into last Feb 14 assassination, saying...