APS Diplomat Recorder articles from July 2006

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from July 2006

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 25 - Olmert Puts Army On Standby For Gaza Strip Operation.
July 1, 2006... Israeli PM Ehud Olmert orders the Israeli military to prepare for a large-scale operation against the Gaza Strip, following the abduction of a soldier earlier in the day and the deaths of two others in a Palestinian militant attack. But he told...

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 25 - 2 Israeli Troops Killed In Attack.
July 1, 2006... A daring pre-dawn Palestinian attack on an Israeli Army post bordering the southern Gaza Strip leaves two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinians dead. The Israeli Army sent tanks and troops into the Gaza Strip in response. Military officials...

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 28 - Israeli Tanks And Troops Enter Gaza.
July 1, 2006... Israeli tanks and troops crosses the border into the southern Gaza Strip early June 28 in what the army describes as a target operation aimed at freeing a kidnapped soldier. The army said it did not intend to carry out a prolonged operation....

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 26 - White House Considers Iraq Troop Cuts.
July 1, 2006... The White House on confirms the top American general in Iraq General George Casey had drafted a plan for a steep reduction in US troops but cautions that it is only one potential scenario. Tony Snow, White House press secretary, said it was...

AFGHANISTAN - June 25 - Karzai Says Taliban Boss Lacks 'Guts'.(Hamid Karzai, Mullah Omar)
July 1, 2006... Coalition and Afghan forces kill about 45 militants, suffering two coalition casualties in the process, in southern Afghanistan. The two soldiers were wounded during a four-hour battle on June 24 and later died at a hospital, the US-led...

IRAN - June 27 - Khamenei Appoints Body To Oversee Foreign Policy.(Ayat Ali Khamenei)
July 1, 2006... The country's supreme leader Ayat Ali Khamenei, establishes a new body to supervise foreign policy in a move seen by some politicians in Tehran as a way to counterbalance the government of Pres Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad. The move comes as Iran faces...

IRAN - June 30 - Mottaki Brushes Demands Aside.(Manouchehr Mottaki)
July 1, 2006... Tehran's FM Manouchehr Mottaki brushes aside demands from the seven major industrialised nations and Russia to respond by July 5 to an international offer for Tehran to roll back its uranium enrichment programme, saying his nation will need...

IRAQ - June 25 - Baghdad Reconciliation Plan Vague About Amnesty.
July 1, 2006... PM Nuri al-Maliki, announces a national reconciliation plan aimed at convincing Sunni insurgents to end their struggle. Maliki's initiative was less detailed than some Iraqi politicians had earlier implied it might be, and did not spell out how...

IRAQ - June 29 - Shi'ites Clash With Sunnis, And GIs Join Fight In Iraq.
July 1, 2006... Intense clashes erupt between Shi'ite and Sunni Arab fighters in a village north of Baghdad, highlighting the sectarian violence that is fracturing Iraq. American soldiers also took part in the battles, but it was unclear exactly what role they...

PALESTINE - June 27 - Hamas, Fatah Strike Deal On Israel.
July 1, 2006... After weeks of acrimonious negotiations aiming to lift crippling international aid sanctions, the rival Hamas and Fatah movements strike a deal on a plan implicitly recognising Israel. Also, the first information was given about an abducted...

PALESTINE - June 29 - Plea To UN Over Hamas Arrests.
July 1, 2006... PA Pres Mahmoud Abbas, appeals to the UN to help obtain the release of dozens of lawmakers and cabinet ministers of the ruling Hamas movement seized by the Israeli army. Abbas' plea came amid growing regional and international concern about the...

PALESTINE - June 30 - Hamas PM remains defiant.(Ismail Haniyeh, Arab-Israeli border conflicts)
July 1, 2006... PM Ismail Haniyeh vows the Hamas government will continue to function despite the mass Israeli detention of lawmakers and ministers as Israel kept up its offensive in the Gaza Strip. In his first public address since Israeli forces entered the...

ARAB AFFAIRS - July 7 - Abdullah And Mubarak Hold Talks On Palestinian Situation.
July 8, 2006... King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz and Pres Hosni Mubarak of Egypt discuss ways of jointly containing the deteriorating situation in Palestine following Israeli atrocities and kidnapping 64 Palestinian ministers and lawmakers. Mubarak was received by...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 1 - Israel Bombs Offices Of Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh.
July 8, 2006... Israel intensifies its campaign against the ruling Palestinian Hamas movement, with fighter jets bombing the Gaza City office of the PM Ismail Haniyeh. Both Israel and Hamas said after July 2 strike that there was no agreement on the release of...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 3 - Israelis Reject Captors' Deadline.
July 8, 2006... Palestinian militants holding a soldier in the Gaza Strip gives Israel an ultimatum, stating that unless the release of 1,000 Palestinian prisoners begin this morning it will "bear the consequences". The Israeli government immediately rejected...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 6 - 17 Dead As Israel Deepens Gaza Push.
July 8, 2006... At least 16 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier are killed in the worst day of violence since Israel launched incursions into the Gaza strip in pursuit of a kidnapped soldier. The deaths came as Israeli troops moved into more densely populated...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - July 3 - Ex-soldier Charged With Four Iraq Murders.
July 8, 2006... A former US soldier Steven Green is charged with murdering four Iraqi civilians and raping one of them. Steven Green, 21, who was discharged from the US army "due to a personality disorder" before the case came to light, was arrested on June 30...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - July 3 - Bashar Vows Support To Palestinians.
July 8, 2006... Syrian Prest Bashar Al Assad reiterates his country's staunch support for the Palestinians in the face of the Israeli military offensive in Gaza as Tel Aviv warns that it held Damascus responsible for the captured soldier's fate. Bashar...

IRAQ - July 2 - Former Saddam Associates Top 'Most Wanted' List.
July 8, 2006... The government publishes a "most wanted" list topped by family and former associates of deposed president Saddam Hussein who reportedly finance and direct the insurgency. The list - planned in parallel with the government's national...

KUWAIT - July 2 - Sabah Picks Nasser Again As Premier.(Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, Shaikh Nasser Al Muhammad Al Sabah)(Brief article)
July 8, 2006... Kuwait's Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah reappoints Shaikh Nasser Al Muhammad Al Sabah as PM and asks him to form a Cabinet. Shaikh Nasser submitted the resignations of the 16 Cabinet members on July 1, as was expected after parliamentary...

SAUDI ARABIA - July 4 - Militants Reject Saudi Amnesty Deal.(Brief article)
July 8, 2006... Al Qaida in Saudi Arabia rejects a renewed amnesty offer to repentant militants from Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz. "We say no surrender. It's either victory or martyrdom", said the statement signed by the Al Qaida Organisation in the...

ARAB AFFAIRS - July 13 - Syria And Iran Told To Rein In Hizbullah.
July 15, 2006... Syria and Iran comes under growing pressure to restrain the Lebanese Hizbullah and Palestinian Hamas groups as Israel intensifies its military offensive against Lebanon. Israeli warplanes attacked the home and office of the Hizbullah leader...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 9 - Offensive To Continue In Gaza, Israel Says.
July 15, 2006... PM Ehud Olmert tells his cabinet Israel will continue its military offensive in the Gaza Strip at its own pace until Palestinian militants release a captured Israeli soldier and halt their rocket attacks. The operation in Gaza is a "war for...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 14 - Israel Broadens Offensive In Lebanon.
July 15, 2006... Israeli war planes attack the main Beirut-to-Damascus highway in Lebanon, closing Lebanon's main artery. Hizbullah guerillas responded with anti-aircraft fire. Residents heard at least three strikes but there was no immediate word on...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - July 12 - Rumsfeld Urges Reconciliation In Surprise Visit To Baghdad.(Donald H. Rumsfeld)
July 15, 2006... At a joint news conference with Iraq's new Defense Minister, Abdul Qader Muhammad Jasem Al Mifarji, US Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says political reconciliation in war-torn Iraq is crucial to establishing security. The top US general...

AFGHANISTAN - July 9 - Afghan Mosques Raided.
July 15, 2006... Afghan police officers raid mosques across the volatile southern city of Kandahar and arrest more than 100 people sleeping in compounds, according to Afghan officials. The arrests appeared to be the first large-scale raids of mosques carried...

EGYPT - July 11- Mubarak Sees No Need For A Vice-president.(Hosni Mubarak)(Brief article)
July 15, 2006... Pres Hosni Mubarak says in remarks published that there is no need to appoint a vice-president, suggesting he will leave open the post from which both he and his predecessor became leader. Analysts and the opposition Muslim Brotherhood said...

IRAQ - July 9 - Gunmen Massacre Dozens In Baghdad.
July 15, 2006... Gunmen massacre dozens of people in a Sunni district of Baghdad, in what appears to be an escalation of the sectarian violence which has engulfed the country for nearly five months. Bombings and abductions are common in many parts of the city,...

IRAQ - July 11 - Iraq 'Sliding Towards Civil War'.(Ali al-deeb's forecasts)
July 15, 2006... A senior Shiite politician told parliament on Tuesday that Iraq was "fast sliding towards civil war" as sectarian attacks across the country killed 47 people. Ali al-deeb, a senior member of the Dawa party of PM Nuri al-Maliki, made his...

IRAN - July 13 - Tehran Defies Big Powers And Asserts Atom Rights.
July 15, 2006... In a defiant statement, Tehran says that it will not abandon its right to nuclear technology, though major powers at the UN and in the European Union have decided to send the dispute over Tehran's nuclear program to the Security Council . But...

ISRAEL - July 10 - Olmert PM Defends His Response To Abduction.
July 15, 2006... PM Ehud Olmert, rebuffs international criticism of his government's response to the capture of an Israeli soldier and held out the prospect of a prolonged military offensive in Gaza. Olmert suggested Israeli military operations in Gaza -...

ISRAEL - July 12 - Israel Prepares For Two-pronged Conflict.
July 15, 2006... The country is preparing for escalating military confrontation on two fronts after the capture of two of its soldiers by Lebanese Hizbullah guerrillas complicated attempts at winning the release of a third, held by Palestinian militants in the...

YEMEN - July 13 - Parliament Rejects Applications Of 13 Presidential Candidates.
July 15, 2006... The Parliament accept 50 candidates out of 64 who seek to run for the Presidential elections, scheduled to be held in September. Thirteen applications were declined since they failed to meet the constitutional demands, while one of the...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 19 - Israel Warns Syria On Missile Supply.
July 22, 2006... As Syria comes under Israeli and US pressure not to interfere in the Lebanon crisis, senior Israeli officials say Israel has no interest in a conflict with the regime in Damascus. Israel was reported to have sent a stern message to Syrian...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 20 - Israelis Warned Of Extended Fighting.
July 22, 2006... As Hizbullah rockets continue to fall across northern Israel, the Israeli chief of staff Dan Halutz, warns his troops the fighting in Lebanon might continue for "an extended period of time". A number of government ministers meanwhile made the...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 17 - Bush Doubts Lebanon Peace Plan.
July 22, 2006... Europe's leaders seek to build momentum behind a UN plan to send soldiers to the conflict zone in Lebanon. But doubts about the viability of such a move - already resisted by Israel - were raised when George W. Bush, US president, made...

AFGHANISTAN - July 16 - Taliban Resistance 'Will Be Broken Before The Year-end'.
July 22, 2006... The Defence Minister General Rahim Wardak tells that Nato and Afghan forces will be able to break the back of Taliban resistance in southern Afghanistan before the end of the year. He said: I think that in the next two or three months there...

AFGHANISTAN - July 18 - Bush Warns Syria To Keep Out Of Lebanon.(George W. Bush)
July 22, 2006... George W. Bush warns Syria to stay out of Lebanon as he signals to Israel that it will have more time to carry out its military campaign against Hizbullah as long as it did not bring down the Lebanese government. The US president's assurances...

IRAQ - July 21 - Saddam Hussain Urges US To Leave Iraq.(Brief article)
July 22, 2006... Saddam Hussain urges the Americans to "save your country and leave Iraq" in a letter written in prison to the American people and released on July 21 by his lawyers. Saddam blamed Pres Bush and pro-Israel groups for misleading the US public to...

IRAN - July 20 - Iran Hits Out At US Over Nuclear Dispute.
July 22, 2006... The country's top official Ali Larijani, accuses the US of trying to prevent a negotiated solution to the stand-off over Tehran's nuclear programme. In a statement read out on state television on Thursday, Larijani said Iran needed to produce...

ISRAEL - July 16 - Israelis Brace For Prolonged Conflict.
July 22, 2006... Israel extends a missile alert southwards to Tel Aviv as PM Ehud Olmert, warns a public menaced by long-range strikes from Lebanon's Hizbullah to be prepared for a prolonged struggle. Less than a week after the Shiite militia sparked the crisis...

LEBANON - July 19 - Israeli Force Will Backfire, PM Warns.(Fouad Siniora)
July 22, 2006... Lebanon's embattled PM says Israel's fierce military offensive will backfire, suggesting it can bolster support for the Hizbullah group rather than undermine it. Fouad Siniora said, in an interview with the FT, the bombings, which have killed...

LEBANON - July 20 - Bunker Strike Failed, Says Hizbullah.
July 22, 2006... The leader of Lebanon's Hizbullah movement, Hassan Nasrallah, emerges from hiding to deny that the command structure of his group had been damaged by an Israeli attack earlier in the day. Speaking on the Arab satellite TV station al-Jazeera,...

PALESTINE - July 18 - Fatah Official's Gaza Home Attacked.(Brief article)
July 22, 2006... In what appeared to be renewed violence between Hamas fighters and President Mahmoud Abbas' loyalists, gunmen storm the home of a senior Palestinian security officer in Gaza, killing his bodyguard. However, the governing Hamas movement said it...

YEMEN - July 19 - Yemen Jails Intelligence Officers Over Jail Escape.(Brief article)
July 22, 2006... A Yemeni military court calls for 12 intelligence officers to be jailed for negligently allowing 23 "of the most dangerous" Al Qaida suspects to escape from Sanaa's central intelligence prison last February, official Yemeni media said. "The...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - July 27 - EU Denies Giving 'Green Light' To Israel.
July 29, 2006... The EU says it did not give Israel the green light to continue its offensive against Hizbullah in Lebanon as air strikes are stepped up across the country. An Israeli cabinet meeting decided against a big invasion but did call up at least...

ARABS-ISRAEL - July 26 - Israeli Army Encounters Tiff Resistance.(Hizbullah)
July 29, 2006... The Israeli army on experiences its fiercest clashes so far in the two-week conflict with Hizbullah fighters in the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbail. The army said eight soldiers had been killed and 22 wounded, three seriously. Israel's...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - July 24 - Hizbullah Rejects US Peace Plan.
July 29, 2006... Nabih Berri, Lebanon's parliamentary speaker who acts as a go-between with Hizbullah, rejects proposals brought by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, to end the fighting between the Shi'ite movement and Israel. Rice arrived in Beirut on...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - July 24 - Rice ideas for peace disappoint in Beirut.(Condoleezza Rice)
July 29, 2006... US State Sec Condoleezza Rice, arrives in Israel from Lebanon on a visit aimed at creating conditions for a "sustainable ceasefire" in Israel's war with Hizbullah. Rice was due to meet Israeli FM Tzipi Livni last night and PM Ehud Olmert this...

IRAQ - July 23 - Car Bombs Kill At Least 62.
July 29, 2006... Car bombs kill at least 62 people, while a senior Iraqi prosecutor is reported as saying that Saddam Hussein, the deposed president, is receiving medical treatment after 16 days on hunger strike. Meanwhile, PM Nuri al-Maliki, prepared to visit...

IRAN - July 25 - Nuclear Deal In Peril, Says Tehran Pragmatist.(Sadegh Kharrazi)
July 29, 2006... The former ambassador to Paris and an influential pragmatist Sadegh Kharrazi, sas that Israel's assault on Lebanon can complicate attempts to reach a settlement on Iran's nuclear programme but added that Tehran was still open to compromise....

ISRAEL - July 24 - Sharon's Condition Deteriorates.(Ariel Sharon)(Brief article)
July 29, 2006... Agencies Occupied Jerusalem: Former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon, who suffered a massive stroke in January, has taken a turn for the worse. "Over the past two days, the condition of the former PM has deteriorated. His kidney function is...

ISRAEL - July 28 - Most Israelis Want Troops To Use More Force On Hizbullah.
July 29, 2006... As Israel's Lebanon war enters its 17th day, an opinion poll indicates four out of five Israelis wanted the military to use more force to eliminate Hizbullah or remove it from the border. The Israeli air force continued to bomb dozens of...

LEBANON - July 24 - Fierce Fghting Rages In Lebanon.
July 29, 2006... In some of the most intense ground clashes so far, Israeli troops and Hizbullah militants fight fiercely in and around two hilltop towns in southern Lebanon where the Israeli military is seeking to drive the Islamic faction away from the...

PALESTINE - July 26 - 23 Gazans Massacred In The Deadliest Day.
July 29, 2006... In one of the bloodiest days since Israel begins its offensive in the Gaza Strip one month ago, 23 Gazans were massacred in airstrikes and tank shelling on north-east Gaza City. More than 40 Palestinian were wounded, officials said. Most of the...

SAUDI ARABIA - July 23 - Saudis Urge US To Back Lebanon Ceasefire.
July 29, 2006... The kingdom calls on the US to back an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon as the first step towards a comprehensive settlement of the conflict as State Sec Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, prepared for her talks in Israel on Monday. But the US...