APS Diplomat Recorder articles from July 2004

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from July 2004

ARAB AFFAIRS - June 29 - Kuwait and Saudis Call On Iraq To Pay Its Debts.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2004... Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, who have lodged claims worth billions of dollars against Iraq for damage from the 1991 Gulf War, insists that Baghdad must honour its debts to victims. A day after the US handed over sovereignty to an interim Iraqi...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - June 30 - Details Of Iraq Pull-Out On Way.
July 3, 2004... In a Commons statement, PM Blair says a plan for the withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq is being drawn up jointly by the new Iraqi government and the multinational force and will be published by the end of next month. He issues a barely...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - July 1 - Iran Is Asked To Return Navigation Equipment.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2004... Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urges Tehran to return navigational equipment taken from eight British sailors, saying it will clarify on which side of the Iran-Iraq border they were detained. Iranian troops arrested the six marines and two...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - July 4 - No WMD Stockpiles In Iraq.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2004... Talking to the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme, Blair's former envoy to Iraq Sir Jeremy Greenstock admits that claims Saddam had stockpiles of WMD are wrong, saying no evidence of them has been found. He says: "We didn't know they [the...

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 27 - Israel Ends West Bank Raid.
July 3, 2004... Israeli forces end their deadliest "Full Court Press" raid in the West Bank for months after killing Nayef Abu Sharkh, the West Bank commander of a militant group within Palestinian Pres Arafat's Fatah faction, including local commanders of the...

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 30 - Israeli Court Orders Changes To West Bank Barrier.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2004... In the first legal setback for Israeli Govt's hopes of completing the controversial 30km security barrier in the West Bank, the Supreme Court orders the government to change the route to alleviate the hardship of Palestinian villagers, even if...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 1 - Second Blow To Israeli Security Barrier.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2004... Israeli Supreme Court delivers another setback to the government's construction of a security barrier around the West Bank, ordering a temporary halt to the building of part of the barrier south of Jerusalem. The order comes a day after the...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 28 - Diplomats From US Return To Libya.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2004... In a formal restoration of its diplomatic presence in Libya, Asst State Secretary William Burns opens a new US liaison office in Tripoli and discussed security issues with Muammer Gadaffi, including reports that the Libyan leader had ordered...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 28 - Transfer Of Sovereignty Without Fanfare.
July 3, 2004... During a sparsely attended, five-minute ceremony in a nondescript room in the office of new interim PM Allawi, the US formally hands over authority two days earlier than planned. The event was announced only after it took place. While Iraqis...

AFGHANISTAN - June 27 - 16 Killed Registering To Vote.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2004... The interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashhaal says Taliban killed as many as 16 civilians in the southern province of Oruzgan, after they registered to vote in national elections. Two women from a UN-Afghan electoral body in Jalalabad were...

AFGHANISTAN - June 30 - Surge Of Violence.
July 3, 2004... Two bombs hidden in fruit carts explode in commercial district of Jalalabad, killing one person and wounding 26. In a separate incident, an Australian journalist is reported missing in a region where the Taliban are active. The two explosions...

IRAQ - July 1 - Defiant Saddam Mocks Court In Criminal Hearing.
July 3, 2004... Appearing in public for the first time since his capture in December last year, the former Iraqi dictator Saddam mocks the special court set up to try him and his fellow Baathists, as he was charged with seven counts of crimes against the...

RUSSIA - July 1 - Plan To Pay Cash Benefits Brings Protests.
July 3, 2004... Hundreds of people demonstrate against plans to turn benefits, from free transport passes to help on medical treatment, into cash for two-thirds of the country's citizens. The demonstrators fear the cash equivalent will not match the value of...

SAUDI ARABIA - June 30 - Dangerous Militant Al-Rashud Dies In Shootout.
July 3, 2004... The heavy exchange of gunfire between security forces and five militants in the Al Quds area of eastern Riyadh kills one of Saudi Arabia's "most dangerous" Islamic militants Abdullah Mohammed Rashid Al-Rashud. Three other security men were...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - July 6 - Blair Admits Saddam's WMD May Never Be Found.(Brief Article)
July 10, 2004... Appearing before the Commons liaison committee, UK PM Blair concedes for the first time that WMD may never be found in Iraq, but continues to insist that Saddam had posed a grave threat. As Blair awaits the outcome of Lord Butler's report into...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 4 - Israeli settler, 3 Palestinians die.
July 10, 2004... As Israeli troops maintains a stranglehold around the Gaza Strip border town of Beit Hanoun, a fresh spasm of violence kills three Palestinians and an Israeli settler in the West Bank. The three Palestinians killed were a militant trying to...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 8 - Israelis Kill Seven Palestinians In Gaza Fighting.
July 10, 2004... In the fiercest fighting in northern Gaza since the army invaded 10 days ago to stop rocket attacks on southern Israel, Israeli troops kill seven Palestinians. Palestinian witnesses in the town of Beit Hanoun said five of the dead were gunmen,...

ARAB-OPEC AFFAIRS - July 7 - OPEC Won't Backtrack On Output Hike.
July 10, 2004... Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reports an affirmation by Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Naimi that OPEC will not backtrack on its decision to boost production as a way of stabilising the global oil market. He says: "The decision to raise...

ARABS-UN - July 8 - ElBaradei To Curb Nuclear Weapons.
July 10, 2004... The IAEA Dir Mohammed ElBaradei says that differing approaches to the nuclear policies of Israel and Iran are damaging the credibility of efforts to rid the Middle East of nuclear weapons. He said there was a "security imbalance" across the...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - July 8 - 'Democratic Process' Seen As Terror Target.
July 10, 2004... The Homeland Security Sec. Tom Ridge says US intelligence analysts have credible information that Al Qaeda terrorists are planning another attack in the US. But he added that the chances of heading off an attack are better than ever, and that...

IRAQ - July 4 - Allawi Ready To Offer Amnesty To Al Sadr.
July 10, 2004... Talking to the US's ABC news, PM Iyad Allawi says he will be willing to grant an amnesty to the leading Shiite opponent of the US occupation Muqtada Al Sadr, as part of a government offer of a second chance to rebels who lay down their weapons....

IRAQ - July 4 - Al Sadr Pledges to Resist Oppression and Occupation.(Brief Article)
July 10, 2004... The militant Shiite theologian Al Sadr whose uprising last April left hundreds dead, pledges to resist "oppression and occupation" and calls Allawi's government "illegitimate". He says "We pledge to the Iraqi people and the world to...

IRAQ - July 5 - Car Bomb Attack By 2 Iranians Thwarted.
July 10, 2004... For the first time capturing foreign fighters, interior ministry spokesman Col Adnan Abdul-Rahman says officials arrest two Iranians trying to explode a car bomb in the town of Talbiyah about 12 miles east of Baghdad. Iraqi officials have...

IRAQ - July 5 - US Marine Hostage Moved To Safety.(Brief Article)
July 10, 2004... Raising hopes for the fate of Lebanese-born Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun who had previously been reported as beheaded, a statement of Islamic Response Movement(group it reported on June 27 as claiming to have abducted Hassoun), released by Al...

IRAQ - July 5 - US Airstrike Leaves 10 Dead In Falluja.(Brief Article)
July 10, 2004... US warplanes attack a house in the turbulent city of Falluja killing 10 people. The US military had no immediate comment. US airstrikes have frequently targeted safehouses used by members of the Jordanian militant Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi's...

IRAQ - July 7 - Clashes As Allawi Signs Security Law.
July 10, 2004... Insurgents battle US troops and Iraqi security forces in central Baghdad as PM Iyad Allawi signs the new security law that gives his government wider powers to combat insurgents and foreign Islamist militants. Two US helicopters fired at a...

ISRAEL - July 5 - Sharon Survives Censure Motions.(Brief Article)
July 10, 2004... PM Sharon survives six votes of no confidence in Parliament, including four denouncing his economic and social policy. Sharon lost his parliamentary majority last month. The 120-seat Knesset voted down what was the second motion from the Labour...

RUSSIA - July 5 - Yukos Accuses Putin Over Rescue.(Brief Article)
July 10, 2004... Yukos CFO Bruce Misamore accuses Pres Putin, of scuppering secret talks with the government last month to save the embattled oil group from bankruptcy. He said there had been discussions with senior members of the government but there was a...

RUSSIA - July 6 - Khodorkovsky Offers His Shares To Save Yukos.(Brief Article)
July 10, 2004... Yukos's deputy chief executive Yury Beilin, sends a fresh rescue proposal to the government, with Khodorkovsky's approval, suggesting a global settlement for its escalating tax debts in exchange for handing over all or some of the controlling...

RUSSIA - July 9 - Forbes Editor Shot Dead.(Brief Article)
July 10, 2004... The editor of Forbes magazine's Russian edition Paul Klebnikov, 41, is shot dead in Moscow as he leaves his office. He had worked for Forbes since 1989, specialising in Russian and eastern European stories, and became editor of Forbes Russia...

ARAB AFFAIRS - July 12 - Syria And Iraq Agree To Seal Border.(Brief Article)
July 17, 2004... A meeting between Iraq's Deputy PM Barham Salih and Syrian Pres Bashar Al-Assad concludes with an agreement to co-operate to seal long desert border and stop foreign insurgents infiltrating into Iraq to fight US forces. But, Barham Salih said,...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - July 12 - EU Considers Zebari's Request For Aid.(Brief Article)
July 17, 2004... Meeting for the first time with the EU, Baghdad's FM Hoshyar Zebari, receives a positive response from his European counterparts, when asked for help in training police officers and administrators and in institution-building for the country's...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - July 12 - France Re-establishes Ties With Iraq.(Brief Article)
July 17, 2004... An unnamed French FM spokesman says France re-establishes diplomatic relations with Iraq, severed under Saddam's leadership. He says: "Paris wants to participate in the political and economic reconstruction of Iraq". Political analysts said...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - July 14 - Iraq War Dossier Severely Flawed.
July 17, 2004... In a judgment that led the Conservatives to claim Blair is shorn of all credibility, the Butler inquiry into intelligence and WMD concludes that, before last year's war, Iraq "did not have significant - if any - stocks of chemical or biological...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 11 - Sharon Links Bomb To Court Ruling On Barrier.(Brief Article)
July 17, 2004... Israel's PM Sharon, accuses the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of encouraging terrorism after a bomb in Tel Aviv kills one person and injures several others two days after the court rules that a barrier cutting off the West Bank is...

AFGHANISTAN - July 11 - Karzai Calls For Warlord Militias To Be Disarmed.
July 17, 2004... In an interview Pres Hamid Karzai says the failure to disarm militias has become greatest danger - greater than the Taliban insurgency - and that new action is required to defeat them. Karzai did not specify what action he would undertake. But...

IRAQ - July 12 - Al Sadr Stabbed.(Brief Article)
July 17, 2004... The local newspaper Al Itihad reports an information disclosed by the sources close to theologian Muqtada Al Sadr which says he is stabbed by one of his office members after a quarrel over his authorities, and the injury is not dangerous. The...

IRAQ - July 13 - Security Forces Arrest Over 500.
July 17, 2004... The interior ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim says security forces detain more than 500 suspected criminals in a 24-hour sweep of Baghdad's unruly Rusafa area, in a bid to prove government can curb rampant criminality and regain control of the...

IRAQ - July 14 - Bomb Kills 11.
July 17, 2004... In central Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone which houses offices for the PM, president and senior government officials, as well as the US and UK embassies and foreign contractors' premises, a car bomber strikes with 1,000 pounds of...

IRAQ - July 15 - Allawi Opposes Talks With Terrorist Groups.
July 17, 2004... PM Allawi says that he is opposed to negotiating with terrorists and urges the Philippine government to reconsider its decision to pull out peacekeeping troops in response to a demand by insurgents threatening to kill a Philippine truck driver...

ISRAEL - July 12 - Sharon Threatens Opponents With Labour Link.
July 17, 2004... PM Sharon throws down a challenge to opponents of his plan to withdraw from Jewish settlements in Gaza, by inviting the opposition Labour party to talks on forming a "unity" government to ensure that the proposal is implemented. Sharon hit out...

PALESTINE - July 16 - Police Chief Abducted Briefly.(Brief Article)
July 17, 2004... In a sign of the desperate power struggles plaguing the Gaza Strip ahead of Israel's planned pullout, the Palestinian chief of police Ghazi Jabali, is abducted in broad daylight and released a few hours later. PA officials negotiated for his...

RUSSIA - July 14 - Yukos Offers Its Whole Cash Pile To Pay Part Of Tax Bill.
July 17, 2004... The high-stakes public chess game between Yukos and the Kremlin intensifies as the giant oil company offers to immediately pay more than a third of a $3.4 bn bill for back taxes, and its billionaire founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, asks...

SAUDI ARABIA - July 13 - Bin Laden Confidant Surrenders.
July 17, 2004... A close confidant of Bin Laden Khaled Bin Ouda Bin Mohammed Al-Harby, seen on a videotape with the Al-Qaeda leader as he talked about the September 11 terror attacks, surrenders to Saudi diplomats in Iran and has been flown to Riyadh. He has...

SUDAN - July 13 - Opposition Members Freed.(Brief Article)
July 17, 2004... Twelve members of opposition party Popular Congress Party, including a junior government minister, are released after more than three months in detention on suspicion of subversion. More than 20 other members and sympathisers, however, remain...

SUDAN - July 17 - Darfur Peace Talks Collapse.
July 17, 2004... Talks aimed at resolving the conflict in Darfur end in failure after the two rebel groups walk out accusing the government of not respecting the four-month-old ceasefire agreement. The Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and...

ARAB AFFAIRS - July 21 - Iraqi Neighbours Agree To Help Secure Borders.(Brief Article)
July 24, 2004... In a first meeting in Cairo between Iraq's neighbours since the interim government took over sovereignty from the US-led CPA June 28, Iraq FM Zebari meets FM's of Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and agree to...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - July 22 - Solana Defends Vote On Israel's Barrier.(Brief Article)
July 24, 2004... The EU's top envoy Javier Solana, defends the bloc's stance against the West Bank barrier as Israel cancel some of his planned meetings with government officials amid an atmosphere of worsening relations. Israel is furious about the united EU...

ARABS-UN - July 20 - UN Vote Opposes Israel's West Bank Wall.
July 24, 2004... The UN Gen Assembly delivers a strong but largely symbolic international rebuke to Israel over its controversial West Bank wall, with 150 of the UN's 191 member countries supporting a resolution calling for its removal. The vote, opposed by...

AFGHANISTAN - July 20 - Warlords Are Moved To Civilian Roles.
July 24, 2004... Disappointing hopes of a robust move to curb the so-called warlords' influence, Pres Karzai removes three powerful militia commanders from their posts but awards them key civilian jobs. Jawed Ludin, Karzai's spokesman, said Gen Atta Mohammed,...

IRAQ - July 18 - Allawi Reopens Sadr's Newspaper.
July 24, 2004... PM Iyad Allawi seeks to reach out to Muqtada Al-Sadr, a radical Shiite theologian who has excluded himself from the political process, by allowing a controversial newspaper Hawza to resume publication. Allawi's office says the Hawza newspaper,...

IRAQ - July 19 - Nine Killed As Violence Returns.(Brief Article)
July 24, 2004... In the latest series of attacks that signal an end to a period of relative calm in Baghdad since June 28, a suspected suicide-bomber kills at least nine people by crashing a fuel tanker into a lot outside a police station in the Saidia...

IRAQ - July 21 - Six More Hostages Seized.
July 24, 2004... In a video footage given to Arabic TV Al Arabiya, masked gunmen, from a group calling itself the "Black Banners", says they will behead seized hostages, three Indians, two Kenyans and an Egyptian and threaten to kill them one by one unless the...

LEBANON - July 19 - Blast Kills Senior Hizbollah Member.
July 24, 2004... Guerrilla Group Hizbollah says a bomb rips through it's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, killing Ghalib Awali, a member of their group. Witnesses said the wreckage of a Mercedes car lay in the road, its glass shattered. Blood...

PALESTINE - July 18 - Violence Flares In Gaza As Qurei Quits.(Brief Article)
July 24, 2004... In an escalating Gaza Strip violence following the July 17 resignation of PM Qurei and the appointment of Moussa Arafat as security chief, a cousin of Arafat, militants storm a security post in the southern city of Khan Younis setting fire to...

PALESTINE - July 20 - Qurei Will Stay On If Demands For Reform Are Met.
July 24, 2004... Talking to a crisis cabinet meeting, PM Qurei tells he will stay in office but keeps up his threat to quit if demands for reform are not met. Also known as Abu Ala, Qurei said on July 17 he would resign following a power struggle with Pres...

PALESTINE - July 21- Arafat Critic Shot.(Brief Article)
July 24, 2004... A power struggle within the PA risks running out of control after a gunman seriously wounds one of Arafat's harshest domestic critics, Nabil Amr, a reformist parliamentarian and former cabinet minister. Arafat ordered an investigation on Nabil...

RUSSIA - July 22 - Yukos May Be Bankrupt Within A Month.
July 24, 2004... Yukos CEO Steven Theede says Yukos can be bankrupt within a month and unable to fulfil its export contracts if the Ministry of Justice sells its main production subsidiary and keeps a freeze on other assets. He said Yukos would run out of cash...

SAUDI ARABIA - July 20 - Security Forces Kill Two Militants In Fierce Clash.(Brief Article)
July 24, 2004... An interior ministry statement, published by the official Saudi Press Agency, says security forces kill two militants in a fierce exchange of fire in Riyadh and detain the family of the suspected leader of Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. It...

TURKEY - July 22 - 36 Killed In Train Disaster.(Brief Article)
July 24, 2004... Health Ministry says a passenger train derails between Istanbul and Ankara on a high-speed line that had been opened less than two months ago killing more than 36 people. The cause of the accident, which according to some reports claimed as...

YEMEN - July 22 - Army Ordered to Halt Assault on Al Houthi.
July 24, 2004... Pres Ali Abdullah Saleh orders government forces to suspend attack on strongholds of a the radical preacher Hussain Badruddin Al-Houthi to give the "last chance" for the besieged man and his followers to surrender. Citing military officials,...

ARAB AFFAIRS - July 27 - Allawi Meets With King Fahd.
July 31, 2004... Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi holds separate talks with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah soon after arriving in Jeddah on a visit to the Kingdom as part of a tour of the region. King Fahd welcomed Allawi, wishing him...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - July 26 - Italy Gets New Threat On Pullout.
July 31, 2004... In a second threat in two weeks against the government of PM Silvio Berlusconi regarding Italian forces in Iraq, Islamic militants Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades linked to Al Qaeda issues a statement warning the Italian government to withdraw its...

ARAB-ISLAMIC AFFAIRS - July 27 - Islamic Bodies Warn Against Aqsa Attack.(Brief Article)
July 31, 2004... The Jeddah-based 55-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the Makkah-based Muslims World League warn of Muslim anger in the event of an attack on the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and said any attack on Islam's third holiest shrine...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 25 - Israelis Gun Down Six Palestinians.(Brief Article)
July 31, 2004... A raid by Israeli troops in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarm kill six Palestinians and wound two bystanders. Among the dead was Hani Awidha, local commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. The Israeli military confirmed the killings....

ARAB-US RELATIONS - July 28 - Skepticism For Powell In Egypt.
July 31, 2004... In a visit to the region for talks on a broad range of issues including the proposed Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip, the stability of Iraq, the war on terror, possible sanctions against Sudan over the Darfur situation, and political...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - July 30 - Powell Pledges Speed On Rebuilding Iraq.
July 31, 2004... Speaking at a news conference in Baghdad, State Secretary Colin Powell promises Iraqi leaders that the US will speed up spending to rebuild the country's infrastructure and create jobs. He says: "We want to rebuild the infrastructure. We want...

AFGHANISTAN - July 26 - Warlord Is Dropped From Karzai's Ticket.(Defence Minister appointments)(Brief Article)
July 31, 2004... Pres Hamid Karzai announces his candidacy for October elections after several days of heated political wrangling that prompted a show of force by NATO peacekeepers worried about instability. In a surprise move, he dropped Defence Minister...

IRAQ - July 26 - Committee To Impose Restrictions On News Reporting Setup.
July 31, 2004... The head of the new Higher Media Commission Ibrahim Janabi, says PM Iyad Allawi establishes a media committee to impose restrictions on print and broadcast media. The step underlines an aggressive new attitude towards press freedoms, in spite...

IRAQ - July 28 - Car Bombing Kills 70.
July 31, 2004... A massive suicide car bomb explodes near a line of would-be police recruits in Baquba, a centre of anti-government opposition north of Baghdad, killing 68 people and wounding 56, in a most devastating attack since June 28 transfer of...

ISRAEL - July 25 - Thousands Challenge Sharon's Gaza Plan.
July 31, 2004... Tens of thousands of Israelis hold hands to form a colourful human chain, broken in places, but formidable nonetheless, that stretches 90km from the Gaza Strip to the Western Wall in the Old City to protest PM Sharon's plan to withdraw Jewish...

PALESTINE - July 27 - Qurei Withdraws Resignation.
July 31, 2004... As part of an agreement to defuse a violent 10-day political crisis PM Ahmad Qurei, withdraws his resignation and seals the deal with a handshake and an embrace with Arafat, some supporters of reform says it may offer only a temporary respite...

RUSSIA - July 26 - Yukos Shareholder Hunted On Murder Charges.
July 31, 2004... A Moscow court issues an arrest warrant on charges of murder for Leonid Nevzlin, a key shareholder in Yukos and one of the closest associates of former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Nevzlin fled to Israel last year as investigations into Yukos...

SUDAN - July 27 - Soldiers Will Fight If Foreigners Invade.(Brief Article)
July 31, 2004... FM Mustafa Osman Ismail says soldiers will fight back if foreign troops enter his country to quell ethnic violence in its western Darfur region, but adds that he hoped this will not happen. He says: "If we are attacked we will not sit silent,...

SUDAN - July 28 - Talks End Without Cease-Fire.(Brief Article)
July 31, 2004... A retired Kenyan army general Lazaro Sumbeiywo, who is in charge of mediating the talks between the government and the main southern rebel group Sudan People's Liberation Army, says peace talks in Kenya adjourn without agreeing on a cease-fire...