APS Diplomat Recorder articles from January 2009

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from January 2009

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 5 - King Tells Palestinians To Stand United.
January 10, 2009... Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah calls on Palestinian factions to stand united against their common enemy and said that Palestinian unity was essential to stopping Israeli aggression and achieving a just and comprehensive peace...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Jan 1 - Israel Rejects Ceasefire.
January 10, 2009... Israel rejects a ceasefire proposal and stepped up its preparations for a possible ground incursion while Hamas continued to lob rockets further into the Israel. PM Ehud Olmert ruled out stopping the attacks until "conditions ripen" and Israel...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Jan 5 - Israel presses on with ground offensive-By Tobias Buck in Jerusalem-Published.
January 10, 2009... January 5 2009 13:39- Israeli forces pressed on with their ground operation in the Gaza Strip on Monday, clashing with Hamas fighters and once again destroying a mosque which the army said had been used as a weapons depot. The Israeli assault...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan 7 - 32 Insurgents Killed In Afghan Battle, Military Says.
January 10, 2009... US-led forces raid a Taliban bomb-making cell in eastern Afghanistan, killing 32 insurgents in a battle with scores of armed militants who shot at them from rooftops and alleyways. The firefight broke out Jan 6 in Laghman province when as many...

IRAQ - Jan 4 - Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 40 In Iraq.
January 10, 2009... At least 40 people, 16 them Iranian pilgrims, are killed and 72 are wounded in a suicide bombing in Baghdad at the doorstep of one of Iraq's holiest Shi'ite shrines, government and hospital officials said. The attacker appeared to have singled...

IRAQ - Jan 5 - New US Embassy Opens In Baghdad Green Zone.
January 10, 2009... Iraqi and American officials preside over a dedication ceremony for the sprawling new US Embassy compound in Baghdad, declaring the start of a new era for relations between the two countries. The hourlong ceremony, which took place outside on a...

ISRAEL - Jan 1 - Israeli Airstrike Kills Hamas Leader.
January 10, 2009... Israel again steps up its air strikes on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, killing a senior leader of the Islamist group for the first time since the attacks began five days ago. Nizar Rayan was killed when a missile struck his apartment...

ISRAEL - Jan 5 - Israel Rejects EU Calls For Ceasefire.(European Union)
January 10, 2009... Israel rebuffs a call from visiting European FMs for an immediate ceasefire in its Gaza offensive, as troops engaged in their heaviest clashes with Hamas fighters and the civilian death toll mounted. At least 14 children were reported to have...

LEBANON - Jan 5 - Hariri Confident Hizbullah Won't Be Suckered Into New War.
January 10, 2009... Hariri confident Hizbullah won't be suckered into new war Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri dismissed concerns that Hizbullah might launch attacks on Israel's northern border to support Palestinians coping with the Zionist state's...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 15 - King Calls Emergency GCC Summit.
January 10, 2009... Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has called for an emergency summit of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states in Riyadh in response to the war on Gaza. The call comes a day after Saudi Arabia and Egypt said they preferred...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 14 - Egypt, Hamas Closer On Truce.
January 10, 2009... Egypt and Hamas have narrowed in on the possible outlines of a deal for a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group in Gaza. The officials said they were hopeful of sealing Hamas' agreement on a temporary halt in...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 16 - Halt Genocide: GCC Summit.
January 10, 2009... Leaders of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) hold an emergency summit here last night and discussed ways and means to stop Israel's war on Gaza that has so far claimed close to 1,100 lives. The leaders endorsed a broader agreement...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 16 - Two Arab States Suspend Links With Israel.
January 10, 2009... Two Arab states Qatar and Mauritania suspend ties with Israel, as Muslim and Arab officials called for Israeli leaders to be prosecuted for war crimes over the Jewish state's three-week offensive in Gaza. In the strongest action yet taken by...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Jan 14 - EU Halts Upgrade Of Ties To Israel.
January 10, 2009... The European Union calls a halt to plans to upgrade diplomatic and economic ties with Israel, as Egypt stepped up efforts to secure a 10-day ceasefire to provide a first step to ending the Gaza war. In the latest sign of the international...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Jan 12 - Israel Deploys Reserves As Fighting Intensifies.
January 10, 2009... Israel has deployed reserve units in the Gaza Strip for the first time since its assault on the Hamas-controlled territory began on December 27, in a sign that the armed forces are stepping up their offensive. There were reports of heavy...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Jan 14 - Israel Steps Up Attacks.
January 10, 2009... Israel step up its attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip in what observers said was an escalation in activity ahead of a possible ceasefire. The UN Relief and Works Agency said that one of its compounds in Gaza City was hit by at least two...

EGYPT - Jan 11 - Egyptian Police Hold 21 Islamists After Gaza Rally.
January 10, 2009... Egyptian police detain 21 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood after a rally in protest against Israel's offensive in Gaza. Those detained include members of the provincial leadership of the Brotherhood, which has ties with Hamas, the...

IRAQ - Jan 12 - Series Of Bombs Kill 7 In Baghdad.
January 10, 2009... A series of bomb attacks across Baghdad kill at least seven people and wounded 25. A bomb attached to a car, followed quickly by another blast, killed three people and wounded 10 in the New Baghdad district in the east of the capital, police...

ISRAEL - Jan 13 - Likud Leader Calls For Tougher Assault.
January 10, 2009... The leader of Israel's rightwing opposition Benjamin Netanyahu, urge the government to escalate its assault on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and "topple" the Islamist group from power. Netanyahu, who is the frontrunner to win next month's...

ISRAEL - Jan 15 - Israelis Bomb UN Compound.
January 10, 2009... Israel shell the UN headquarters in the Gaza Strip and kill senior Hamas leader Said Siam. Hamas Interior Minister Siam, his son and his brother died in an Israeli airstrike on the house of Siam's brother north of Gaza City, Hamas television...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 19 - Arab League Discusses Aid Disbursement.
January 24, 2009... King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia pledges $1 bn for the reconstruction of Gaza and threatens to pull the plug on an Arab peace initiative with Israel as he sought to unite regional leaders whose infighting was exposed during the three week assault...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 19 - 'Israel Used Ammo Containing Depleted Uranium In Gaza'.
January 24, 2009... Arab states accuse Israel of using ammunition containing depleted uranium in its 22-day war on Gaza as Tel Aviv said it would withdraw all its troops from the coastal strip by the time Barack Obama is inaugurated as president of the US. In a...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Jan 18 - Unresolved Issues Cloud Uneasy Calm That Has Fallen Over Gaza.
January 24, 2009... The truce that gave Gaza its first day of calm after a 22-day offensive remains fragile at best. The two sides still remain apart on many crucial issues. Addressing them will be complicated by Israel's insistence that it will not strike any...

ARAB - US RELATIONS - Arab-Israeli Conflict To Be Early Priority.
January 24, 2009... -By Daniel Dombey in Washington and Jan 21 - Tobias Buck in Jerusalem Barack Obama calls four leaders in the Middle East, in a move intended to signal that his administration would make the Arab-Israeli conflict a priority from the very...

IRAQ - Jan 18 - A Suicide Bomber Kills Sunni Politician.
January 24, 2009... A suicide bomber kills the deputy leader of one of the biggest Sunni Arab political blocs in Iraq as he and other politicians met to discuss a coming provincial election, the party's leader said. The deputy leader of the Iraqi National Dialogue...

IRAQ - Jan 21 - Iran Says Palestinian Resistance Has Right To Arms.
January 24, 2009... Iran, accused by Israel of supplying arms to Hamas militants, says resistance groups around the world like those in Gaza had the right to have access to weapons to fight against "colonialists". "A government or a people who would like to defend...

IRAQ - Jan 20-21 - Mass Hangings In Iran.
January 24, 2009... Iran hangs 22 convicted criminals in mass executions in Tehran and few other cities, official news media reported. Iran has the highest number of executions in the world after China. Crimes such as murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape...

TURKEY - Jan 21 - Ankara Tries To Play Honest Broker.
January 24, 2009... The Top foreign policy adviser to Turkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ahmet Davutoglu, returned from eight days of frantic talks in Cairo and Damascus to a telling-off from his daughter. "You're travelling every day, we don't get to see you but...

PALESTINE - Jan 18 - Hamas Annnounces Immediate Ceasefire.
January 24, 2009... Palestinian group Hamas has announced an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, giving Israel a week to leave the area. "Hamas and the factions announce a ceasefire in Gaza starting immediately and give Israel a week to withdraw", Ayman Taha, a...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 29 - Arab Nations Want Action On Alleged War Crimes.
January 31, 2009... Palestinian envoy to the UN Riyad Mansour says Arab Nations will urge the United Nations Security Council to examine evidence that could lead to indictments against Israeli officers and officials for war crimes in Gaza. Mansour was speaking...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Jan 28 - Israel Bombs Gaza Tunnels.
January 31, 2009... US President Barack Obama's new Mideast envoy George Mitchell arrives in Israel amid fresh fighting between Israel and Hamas throwing into turmoil the fragile 10-day-old ceasefire. Israeli warplanes bombed tunnels linking Gaza and Egypt, which...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Jan 28 - US Envoy Calls On Israel And Hamas To Tighten Truce.
January 31, 2009... President Barack Obama's special Middle East envoy calls for a consolidation of the fragile Gaza truce, but Israel and Hamas seemed far apart on the issue of the reopening of the Gaza border crossings, a main Hamas demand for an lasting...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan 25 - Karzai Accuses US Troops Of Killing Civilians.
January 31, 2009... Hamid Karzai accuses US troops of killing 16 civilians during Jan 24 military raid, putting further strain on the already brittle relationship between Afghanistan and the new Barack Obama administration in Washington. The Afghan president...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan 27 - Afghanistan Is 'Greatest Challenge'.
January 31, 2009... US defence secretary Robert Gates says Afghanistan was the "greatest military challenge" facing the country. "The ideology we face was incubated there when Afghanistan became a failed state and the extremists have largely returned their...

AFGHANISTAN - Jan 29 - Afghan Officials Delay Presidential Election.
January 31, 2009... Afghan officials say that they had decided to postpone the presidential election until August, saying they needed more time to prepare. But the decision, which appeared to contravene the Afghan Constitution, raised doubts about the legitimacy...

IRAQ - Jan 27 - Car Bomb Near Kurdish Office Kills 3 Iraqi Soldiers In Mosul.
January 31, 2009... Officials say a car bomb has exploded near a Kurdish party's office in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least three Iraqi soldiers only days before pivotal elections. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred amid...

ISRAEL - Jan 27 - Netanyahu To Gain From Position Of 'Strength'.
January 31, 2009... As Benjamin Netanyahu slowly made his way through crowds of adoring supporters, it looked as if one of the most important battles of the election campaign was already behind him. Whether he will indeed emerge as Israel's next PM will only be...

TURKEY - Jan 29 - Erdogan Storms Out Of Davos Debate.
January 31, 2009... The World Economic Forum in Davos is rocked by a diplomatic fracas as Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish PM Erdogan stormed off the stage after an emotional debate with Shimon Peres, Israel's president, in a session about Gaza and the case for...

PALESTINE - Jan 25 - Hamas Demands Open Borders.
January 31, 2009... Hamas will not consider renewing its ceasefire with Israel unless the Jewish state agrees to open fully its borders with the Gaza Strip. A Hamas delegation is due in Cairo on Jan 25 for talks with Egyptian authorities aimed at shoring up the...

SAUDI ARABIA - Jan 27 -Israel's War Crimes Must Be Probed.
January 31, 2009... Saudi Arabia calls for an extensive investigation of Israel's war crimes in Gaza and said the Jewish state must be held responsible for its acts in defiance of international laws and charters. The Council of Ministers, chaired by Custodian of...

SAUDIA ARABIA - Jan 27 - Saudis Arrest 9 'Rehabilitated' Jihadists.
January 31, 2009... Nine graduates of an influential Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists, including some who had been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, have been arrested for rejoining terrorist groups since the program started in 2004. The Saudi...