APS Diplomat Recorder articles from January 2008

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from January 2008

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 1 - GCC Common Market Becomes A Reality.
January 5, 2008... The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with a combined economy of $715bn makes history with the launch of a common market, which is expected to draw more foreign investment to the region. GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Dec 30 - Israel Rejects Easing Of West Bank Curbs.
January 5, 2008... Israel says it will not ease restrictions on movement and access for Palestinians in the West Bank unless the Palestinian leadership moved more forcefully against armed groups threatening violence against Israelis. The announcement by PM Ehud...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Jan 3 - Seven Palestinians Killed In Fresh Israeli Incursion.
January 5, 2008... Israeli forces kill seven Palestinian fighters in a pre-dawn clash, pressing forward with its war against armed groups in the Gaza Strip days before US President George W. Bush arrives in the region to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace. Bush...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Dec 29 - Attacks In Iraq Drop 60%, US Commander Says.
January 5, 2008... The top US military commander in Iraq says that violent attacks in the country had fallen by 60% since June but cautioned that security gains are "tenuous" and "fragile", requiring political and economic progress to cement them. The commander,...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan 4 - Bush Tells Israel To Dismantle Outposts.
January 5, 2008... US President George W. Bush calls on Israel to dismantle rogue settlements on occupied Palestinian land. In the Gaza Strip, two Hamas fighters were killed in a shootout with Israeli troops. Ahead of his visit to the region next week, Bush said...

AFGHANISTAN - Dec 29 - Taliban Military Chiefs Split.(Mansoor Dadullah)(Brief article)
January 5, 2008... In a sign that even the Taliban is not immune from internal disputes and splits, one of the movement's most senior military commanders is reportedly sacked. A spokesman for the organisation said that Mansoor Dadullah, who operates in the south...

AFGHANISTAN - Dec 31 - 21 Killed In Taliban Attacks Across Afghanistan.(Brief article)
January 5, 2008... Taliban militants attack a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan and killed 16 officers. Seven Afghan police and soldiers were killed in attacks elsewhere. Spain's King Juan Carlos, meanwhile, made an unannounced visit to Spanish troops...

EGYPT - Jan 2 - Egypt Allows Palestinian Pilgrims To Bypass Israeli Checkpoint.
January 5, 2008... Egypt allow 2,000 Palestinian pilgrims who had been stranded for days in the Egyptian Sinai to cross back into the Gaza Strip, a decision that is expected to fuel Israeli tensions with Cairo over what Israel sees as lax security along the...

IRAQ - Jan 1 - Brazen Suicide Attack In Baghdad Kills At Least 30.
January 5, 2008... Thirty people are killed when a suicide bomber walked into a gathering of mourners at a home in eastern Baghdad and blew himself up. It was the most brazen and deadly attack in the capital in months. Many of the victims were children, and the...

ISRAEL - Jan 1 - Knesset Report Blasts Israeli Military Failure.
January 5, 2008... The Israeli Knesset (parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee condemns the senior Israeli forces command in unusually severe terms, saying that the army's methods of fighting during the 2006 July war on Lebanon played into Hizbullah's hands, and...

ISRAEL - Jan 3 - Israel Kills 9 In Gaza.
January 5, 2008... Israeli forces kill nine Palestinians, five of them civilians, during a raid in the Gaza Strip while King Abdallah of Jordan told visiting Israeli PM Ehud Olmert to stop settlement activity in the West Bank. Among the civilians killed in the...

PALESTINE - Jan 1 - Fatah Scraps Rally To Avoid Clash With Rivals.(Brief article)
January 5, 2008... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah will limit its anniversary celebrations in Hamas-run Gaza to candles and fireworks this week for fear a rally - banned by the Islamist group - will spark violence. Tensions are running high between...

PALESTINE - Dec 31 - Abbas To Urge Hamas To Accept Early Elections.
January 5, 2008... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to urge Hamas Islamists to agree to early elections, cede control of the Gaza Strip and hold talks with his Fatah faction, a Palestinian official said. The official said Abbas was expected to...

PALESTINE - Dec 31 - Leaders Call For Talks After Gaza Clashes.
January 5, 2008... Gaza remains tense after a night of clashes between gunmen of the rival Hamas and Fatah groups, while leaders on both sides called for a renewed dialogue. Seven Palestinians were killed and 40 were wounded in the clashes, according to Dr....

PALESTINE - Jan 4 - Palestinian PM Assails Israel Over Raids.(Prime Minister Salam Fayyad)(Brief article)
January 5, 2008... Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad criticises Israel for launching a major military sweep in the occupied West Bank. Hundreds of Israeli troops stormed Nablus, detaining at least six Palestinians after conducting house-to-house searches. "These...

SAUDI ARABIA - Jan 1 - Al-Qadi Asks US To Remove Him From Blacklist.(Yassin Abdullah Al-Qadi)
January 5, 2008... Saudi businessman Yassin Abdullah Al-Qadi reiterates that he had never supported any terrorist organisation and urged the US to remove his name from its blacklist of people financing terrorism. "I request the US government, in view of its...

SYRIA - Jan 2 - Syria Suspends France Talks To End Lebanon Deadlock.
January 5, 2008... FM Walid al-Moallem says Syria decides to stop talks with France over finding a solution to end the deadlock in Lebanon's presidential vote. The measure - a tit-for-tat retaliation by Damascus just three days after President Nicolas Sarkozy of...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 9 - Mousa In Beirut To Push Arab Plan To End Lebanon Crisis.
January 12, 2008... Arab League chief AMousa arrives in Beirut to persuade rival political leaders to endorse a joint Arab proposal to end Lebanon's long-running presidential crisis. "Lebanon is in danger... and we want to salvage the situation in Lebanon", Mousa...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 10 - League Leaders Seek To Expand Intervention In Iraq.
January 12, 2008... An Arab League delegation is expected in Iraq soon as an effort to reactivate the role of the Arab League after almost one year of the resignation of Mokhtar Lamani, League special envoy to Iraq, Iraqi politicians have said. The delegation will...

ARABS EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Jan 7 - France Backs Arab League Plan To End Crisis Over Presidency In Lebanon.
January 12, 2008... France throws its weight behind a three-point plan agreed by Arab League FMs to hold a presidential election in Lebanon and end its long-standing political crisis. The plan adopted by the ministers of the 22-nation Arab League, including Syria,...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Jan 8 - Israelis And Palestinians Gather Before Bush Visit.
January 12, 2008... The Israeli and Palestinian leaders meet and authorises the start of negotiations on the core issues of their conflict. The announcement comes a day before President George W. Bush was to arrive in Jerusalem, with Israel and the Palestinians...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan 6 - Bush Sees Mideast Peace Deal This Year.
January 12, 2008... Bush predicts a peace deal this year between Israel and the Palestinians ahead of his most extensive visit yet to the Middle East. US officials say the president will devote the week-long tour, in which he will travel to six countries and the...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan 7 - US Accuses Iran Of Harassing Navy Vessels.
January 12, 2008... The US warns Iran against provocative military gestures that can flare out of control as it revealed how five Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats threatened to blow up three US warships. The confrontation happened in the Strait of Hormuz, between...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan 8 - US Launches Major Iraq Offensive.
January 12, 2008... With extraordinary secrecy and even a disinformation campaign aims at their Iraqi Army comrades, American troops launch a major offensive to drive extremist Sunni insurgents from their stronghold in Diyala Province. But many insurgents still...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan 10 - Bush Calls For Fund To Compensate Palestinians.
January 12, 2008... Bush calls for a compensation fund for Palestinian refugees as he set out what he said was the "point of departure" for negotiations on a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians this year. At the end of two days of meetings in...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan 10 - US Planes Heavily Bomb Qaeda Haven South Of Baghdad.
January 12, 2008... American bombers and fighter aircraft drops 20 tons of bombs in a furious 10-minute barrage on suspected militants' hideouts, storehouses and defensive positions in a southern suburb of Baghdad. In one of the largest airstrikes in recent...

IRAN - Jan 7 - Ahmadi-Nejad Loses Favor With Khamenei, Iran's Top Leader.(Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei)
January 12, 2008... A rift is emerging between President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad and Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, suggesting that the president no longer enjoys the full backing of Khamenei, as he did in the years after his election in...

ISRAEL - Jan 6 - Longer-Range Type Of Katyusha Rocket Alarms Israelis.
January 12, 2008... Israeli security officials assert the Katyusha-type rocket fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza into the coastal city of Ashkelon on Jan 10 had been made in Iran. PM Ehud Olmert said Israel would intensify its response to the firing of such...

ISRAEL - Jan 6 - Olmert Ally Threatens To Quit Israeli Government.(Ehud Olmert, Avigdor Lieberman)(Brief article)
January 12, 2008... Israeli PM Ehud Olmert's coalition partner renews a threat to pull out of the government if Israel begins final-status talks on a Palestinian state. Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he would pull his right-wing party out of...

LEBANON - Jan 7 - Arabs Strike Lebanon Deal.
January 12, 2008... Lebanese rival parties welcome the plan approved by the Arab FMs, who met in Cairo on Jan 6, to end the political crisis in Lebanon. Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary-General AMousa announced his plans to head to Beirut "within two days" to...

PALESTINE - Jan 7 - Settlements Must Stop, Says Abbas.(Mahmoud Abbas)
January 12, 2008... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will ask US President George W. Bush, who visits the Middle East this week, to curb Israel's West Bank settlements for the sake of peace. Bush has called the expansion of Jewish settlements on...

ARABS EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Jan 15 - France Gains Military Toehold In Gulf.
January 19, 2008... In a major strategic shift, France is setting up its first permanent naval base in the Gulf, just across from Iran, President Nicolas Sarkozy announces during a visit to the UAE. The 400-strong military base will be built in Abu Dhabi, the...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Jan 17 - Olmert To Wage A War Against Gaza Fighters.
January 19, 2008... Israeli airstrikes kill five Palestinians, including a mother and child, in the Gaza Strip as PM Ehud Olmert vowed to wage a "war" to stop rocket attacks on the Jewish state. The escalation in violence prompted Palestinian leaders to warn that...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Jan 17 - Israel Closes Crossings With Gaza.
January 19, 2008... Israel closes border crossings with the Gaza Strip and destroys the Hamas-run Interior Ministry in an airstrike, in a week that saw some of the fiercest clashes in months between Israeli forces and Islamist militants. The four-storey ministry...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan 14 - US Will Push Ahead With Arms Sale To Saudi Arabia.
January 19, 2008... The Bush administration will move ahead with a high-profile arms sale to Saudi Arabia as early as Jan 14, as part of a $20 bn package of deals with the Gulf States. The Gulf is gearing up to sign a raft of military contracts after the US last...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan 15 - Taliban Vow To Attack Westerners In Kabul.
January 19, 2008... A spokesman for the Taliban says that its fighters will attack restaurants in the capital that are frequented by Westerners, a day after eight people died in a suicide assault on a luxury hotel here. Afghan officials said they had arrested four...

EGYPT - Jan 16 - Egypt And US To Work Closely To Make Peace Deal Happen.
January 19, 2008... Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak endorses US hopes for an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan this year and says he will work hand in hand with the US and other nations to make it happen. US President George W. Bush, closing his eight-day trip to...

IRAN - Jan 13 - Iran Poses Threat To Global Security, Bush Says.(George W. Bush)
January 19, 2008... President George W. Bush urges wary Gulf allies to rally against Iran "before it is too late", even as the IAEA announced that the country had agreed to answer outstanding questions about its nuclear programs within four weeks. In an address to...

IRAN - Jan 17 - Ahmadi-Nejad Says Israel Would Not Dare Attack Iran.
January 19, 2008... Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad says that Israel "would not dare attack Iran", after Israel said it tested a missile following warnings against Iran's controversial nuclear programme. "The Zionist regime... would not dare attack Iran",...

IRAQ - Jan 13 - Iraq Eases Ban On Ex-Officials Of Baath Party.
January 19, 2008... The Iraqi Parliament passes a bill to allow some former officials from Saddam Hussein's party to apply for government positions, in the first of the so-called political benchmark measures to pass after months of US pressure for progress. The...

IRAQ - Jan 17 - Iraqi Forces Set To Raid Three Sunni Provinces To Root Out Al Qaeda.
January 19, 2008... More than 75,000 American and Iraqi soldiers are preparing to launch the widest military operation since 2003 in three Sunni provinces in what is being described by military sources, as a crucial attempt to uproot Al Qaeda from Iraq. The...

ISRAEL - Jan 16 - Israeli Coalition Begins To Crumble.
January 19, 2008... PM Ehud Olmert, lost the crucial backing of his rightwing coalition partner Yisrael Beiteinu party said it on at least one other coalition member, the ultra-orthodox Shas party, to pull out - a move that would rob Olmert of his majority....

ISRAEL - Jan 17 - Israel Missile Test Sparks Fresh Security Fears.
January 19, 2008... Israel carries out a missile test raising speculation the launch was part of a programme to develop longer-range weapons which could act as a deterrent against Iran. Israel Radio said the missile tested was capable of carrying an...

LEBANON - Jan 15 - 'Innocent Martyrs Fell Today'.(political crisis in Lebanon)
January 19, 2008... The Lebanese government strongly condemns the bombing that targeted a US Embassy vehicle, one day before Arab League Secretary General AMoussa's expected return to Lebanon to continue his mediation in the country's domestic political crisis...

PALESTINE - Jan 14 - Palestinian Body To Call For Early Elections.
January 19, 2008... As the Central Council of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is scheduled to meet last evening to discuss dismissing the Hamas-dominated Parliament and call for early elections, signs of tension between the Palestinian Authority (PA)...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 20 - Saudis Offer Arab Ties For Israel Peace Treaty.
January 26, 2008... A senior Saudi official extends "the hand of peace" to Israel promising the Jewish state full "integration" into the Arab world if it signs a peace treaty. The statement came on the day Gaza, under continuous attack by the Israeli occupation,...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 24 - Battle Over Arab Plan To Heal Lebanon Heats Up.
January 26, 2008... PM Fouad Siniora flies to Cairo to discuss the Lebanese political crisis with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The visit comes four days before Arab League Secretary General AMoussa is scheduled to brief Arab FMs in the Egyptian capital on the...

ARABS-ISRAELI RELATIONS - Jan 20 - Gaza Cuts Electricity After Israel Closes Borders.
January 26, 2008... Gaza City is plunged into darkness as Gaza's only electricity plant is shut down because of a shortage of imported fuel, with Israel's closure of all its border crossings with the Hamas-controlled area still in effect. Defense Minister Ehud...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan 20 - Attacks With Iranian-Made Bombs Fall Off In Iraq.
January 26, 2008... The US military says Jan 20 that attacks in Iraq with Iranian-made bombs had fallen off in recent days after a sharp but brief increase earlier in the month, and that the overall flow of weaponry from Iran had dropped. US military officials...

EGYPT - Jan 23 - Gazans Raze Wall At Egyptian Border.
January 26, 2008... Tens of thousands of Gazans stream into southern Egypt after Hamas militants blew up the border fence in numerous locations, trying to force an end to the closing of Gaza that followed Hamas's takeover of the territory in June. On foot,...

EGYPT - Jan 25 - Egypt Battles To Hold Back Gaza Tide.
January 26, 2008... Egyptian police begin imposing some order on the vast, tumultuous open-air bazaar that has sprung up among the rubble and twisted metal that once marked the southern border of Gaza. They blocked some of the gaps blasted into the barrier by...

IRAN - Jan 25 - Iranian Minister Pledges Answers On Nuclear Program.(Manouchehr Mottaki )
January 26, 2008... FM Manouchehr Mottaki says Iran will answer all outstanding questions on its nuclear program by mid-February and both he and the International Atomic Energy Agency called on the UN Security Council not to take further action until then. FM...

IRAQ - Jan 21 - Suicide Bomber In Iraq Targets Sunnis, Killing At Least 14.
January 26, 2008... A suicide bomber blows himself up inside a funeral tent in a predominantly Sunni village, killing at least 14 people and wounding 17. It was the third such bombing in Sunni areas in three days. No one claimed responsibility, but it bore the...

ISRAEL - Jan 20 - Israel Confirms Hizbullah Has Soldiers' Body Parts.
January 26, 2008... Hizbullah leader's claim that the group had the remains of Israeli soldiers dominated Israeli media. And Israeli military officials, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, confirmed that Hizbullah has some body parts of Israeli soldiers...

ISRAEL - Jan 22 - Israel Eases Gaza Blockade.
January 26, 2008... An Israeli-approved emergency shipment of industrial fuel for the Gaza Strip's sole electricity plant begins arriving in the Hamas-ruled territory on Jan 22, a Palestinian official said. The week's supply of fuel was expected to allow for power...

LEBANON - Jan 20 - Lebanon Vote Postponed For The 13th Time.(Brief article)
January 26, 2008... Lebanon's presidential election is postponed to February 11, announcing the 13th delay of a vote blocked by the country's political crisis. Rival Lebanese leaders have agreed on army chief General Michel Sulaiman as the candidate to fill the...

PALESTINE - Jan 23 - Palestinians Break Through Egypt Border.
January 26, 2008... Tens of thousands of Palestinians makes a brief escape from the poverty and violence that has engulfed the Gaza Strip, after militants blew up vast sections of the barrier separating the embattled territory from Egypt. Egyptian border guards...