APS Diplomat Recorder articles from June 2006

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from June 2006

ARAB AFAIRS - May 27 - Iran And Iraq Agree To Close Off Border To 'Saboteurs'.
June 3, 2006... Iran's FM Manouchehr Mottaki, on a visit to Iraq, says the two countries have agreed to form a joint commission to oversee border issues and that its primary task will be to "block saboteurs" crossing their mutual border. Mottaki said: We plan...

ARAB AFAIRS - May 31 - Saudi-Egypt Talks Focus On Palestine.(Brief article)
June 3, 2006... Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah talks with Egyptian Pres Hosni Mubarak in Sharm El-Shaikh on major regional and global developments, most importantly the developments in the Palestinian issue and the situation in Iraq. The talks...

ARABS-ISRAEL -May 28 - Israel Attacks Bases In Lebanon.(Brief article)
June 3, 2006... The Israeli air force strikes Palestinian bases in Lebanon after cross-border clashes erupted when militants fired rockets into northern Israel, wounding an Israeli soldier. Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, warned of a harsh response to what he...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 29 - Israeli Forces Kill 7 In West Bank And Gaza.
June 3, 2006... Israeli forces kill seven Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank during raids to stamp out rocket fire on Israel and seize wanted militants. Commandos crossed into Gaza for the first time since Israel completed its evacuation of the...

ARABS-US RELATIONS - May 30 - Pentagon Claims Progress In Training Iraqi Forces.
June 3, 2006... The Pentagon says it had made progress training Iraqi security forces, on the same day that 1,500 US troops stationed in Kuwait were transferred to Anbar, a province in western Iraq, to boost security there. The Pentagon's quarterly report to...

ARABS-US RELATIONS - June 2 - Washington Tells Iran It Expects Answer 'In Weeks'.
June 3, 2006... The US warns Iran had weeks, not months, to provide a definite response to the incentives package offered by world powers in exchange for a halt in Iran's controversial nuclear activities. As Iran maintained a defiant stance, insisting it was...

AFGHANISTAN - May 30 - Fragile Calm Returns To Kabul After Violent Protest.
June 3, 2006... Afghan police and soldiers patrol the streets of Kabul and restore a fragile calm to the city, a day after it was swept by the worst violence since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Five Afghan aid workers with Action Aid were killed in northern...

AFGHANISTAN - June 1 - Karzai Deplores Gunfire By American Soldiers.(Hamid Karzai )
June 3, 2006... Pres Hamid Karzai condemns the use of gunfire by US troops to suppress Afghans, an incident that sparked the worst riots in the capital since the fall of the Taliban. Also Jun 1, a top Afghan judge said foreigners could be tried for crimes...

IRAN - May 28 - Tehran Says Outsiders Behind Ethnic Unrest.(Brief article)
June 3, 2006... Tehran's Supreme Leader Ayat Ali Khamenei blames the "enemy", a term usually used to refer to the US and Israel, for fomenting ethnic tensions in the country. An Iranian newspaper has enraged the country's Azeri minority with a cartoon that...

IRAN - May 29 - Iran Says It Has Conducted Research on N-fusion- Tehran:.(Brief article)
June 3, 2006... Tehran says it had conducted research into nuclear fusion, a process that carries the promise of clean, inexhaustible supplies of energy but one that triggers the destructive power of the hydrogen bomb. "The first research of nuclear fusion in...

IRAQ - May 29 - British Soldiers And CBS Journalists Killed.
June 3, 2006... The British military announces that two soldiers had died in a roadside bomb attack in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, bringing the total number of UK military fatalities in May to nine, the highest it has suffered in southern Iraq since...

IRAQ - May 31 - PM Maliki Seeks To Calm Basra.
June 3, 2006... PM Nuri al-Maliki, visits southern oil capital of Basra and declares a month-long state of emergency in an attempt to restore order to a city beset by quarrelling political parties, militias and criminal gangs. "We will beat with an iron fist...

IRAQ - May 31- Chief Saddam Prosecutor Denies Fabricating Evidence.(Jaafar al-Moussawi)
June 3, 2006... The chief prosecutor in the trial of Saddam Hussein over the mass killing of Iraqi villagers is forced to defend himself in court against accusations he had fabricated the case. And for a second time since the trial opened in October 2005, the...

PALESTINE - May 28 - Abbas Brushes Off Hamas Protest.(Mahmoud Abbas )
June 3, 2006... Pres Mahmoud Abbas pledges to push through with his plan for a referendum unless the factions resolve their differences, brushing aside protests from Hamas. Abbas, who was to host a meeting with representatives from the governing Hamas movement...

RUSSIA - May 26 - Putin Removes Chief Prosecutor In Kremlin Turf War.
June 3, 2006... Pres Vladimir Putin reveals growing tension within the Kremlin inner circle ahead of Russia's presidential elections in 2008 when he unexpectedly removed the country's hardline chief prosecutor. In one of the most significant reshuffles among...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jun 8 - Israel's Olmert Assures Jordan On Palestinian Talks.
June 10, 2006... Israeli PM Ehud Olmert tells Jordan's King Abdullah he will do his utmost to restart peace talks with the Palestinians amid concern that chaos in Palestinian areas can destabilise the kingdom. Olmert said he would meet Palestinian Pres Mahmoud...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Jun 8 - Turkey, Arab Countries Seek Stronger Economic Ties.
June 10, 2006... About 700 businessmen from Turkey and Arab countries gather for a two-day forum focusing on ways to increase economic co-operation. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Lebanese counterpart Fouad Siniora participated in the opening-session...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jun 9 - Olmert Dismisses PA Referendum As 'Internal Game'.
June 10, 2006... Israel's PM Ehud Olmert, dismisses a Palestinian peace plan referendum due to be announced on Jun 10 as "meaningless" and said the Palestinian leadership was not presently capable of negotiating on his plan to withdraw from part of the West...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Jun 9 - Israeli Gunboats Kill Palestinian Beachgoers.
June 10, 2006... Israeli forces kill 10 Palestinians, including a family of seven on the Gaza beach when the navy opened fire, in what Tel Aviv calls retaliatory action. Palestinian Pres Mahmoud Abbas called it a "bloody massacre" and sought international...

IRAN - Jun 3 - Tehran Threatens Oil Disruption In Event Of US 'Mistake'.
June 10, 2006... Tehran's supreme leader Ayat Ali Khamenei warns that energy supplies from the Gulf will be disrupted if the US makes a "mistake" against his country, as officials in Tehran prepares to receive the details of an international package of "carrots...

IRAN - Jun 9 - Iranian Exile Groups Condemn US Overtures.
June 10, 2006... Rival Iranian opposition groups in exile condemn the Bush administration's conditional offer to begin negotiations with the Islamic republic if it halts its nuclear programme. Mustafa Hijri, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran...

IRAN - Jun 9 - Tehran 'Steps Up Uranium Enrichment'.
June 10, 2006... Tehran resumes sensitive nuclear work, just as the world's big powers presented it with an offer aimed at halting such activities. A report by Muhammad ElBaradei, director-general of the IAEA, says that Tehran has just increased the scale of...

IRAQ - Jun 4 - Coalition Fails To Name Iraq Ministers.(Brief article)
June 10, 2006... Baghdad's governing coalition fails to name the crucial defence and interior ministers, despite an earlier pledge by the PM Nuri al-Maliki, to do so and despite ongoing violence. Dozens of people were killed on Jun 3 in sectarian attacks near...

IRAQ - Jun 5 - Gunmen Kidnap 50 Baghdad Transport Workers.
June 10, 2006... Gunmen in police uniforms abduct up to 50 employees of Baghdad transport companies in broad daylight, as a crisis over filling key security posts deepens. They carried out what appeared to be a co-ordinated operation along a street that is home...

IRAQ - Jun 5 - Donors Accused Of Spending Aid Outside Iraq.
June 10, 2006... The country's new minister of planning Ali Baban says foreign donors spent too much of their aid to Iraq outside the country and ordinary Iraqis do not feel they are being helped by the international community. Ali Baban said he would push for...

IRAQ - Jun 6 - PM Announces Prisoner Release.
June 10, 2006... The country's new PM, Nuri al-Maliki, says his government will free 2,500 detainees, in a move that appeared designed to reduce sectarian tension and appease the country's once dominant Sunni community. The detention of thousands of Iraqis has...

IRAQ - Jun 7 - Zarqawi Killed In US Airstrike.
June 10, 2006... Al-Qaeda's chief in Iraq Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, who orchestrated a bloody campaign of attacks and beheadings, has been killed in an airstrike. He was killed in a raid by two F-16 warplanes which dropped two 500-pound bombs on a safe house north...

PALESTINE - Jun 5 - Palestinian Stand-off Over Abbas Ultimatum.(Mahmoud Abbas)
June 10, 2006... Hamas and Fatah squares up for a potentially violent confrontation as the PA's Fatah president Mahmoud Abbas, prepared to put his peace strategy to a referendum that the ruling Islamists have branded illegal. As a midnight deadline expired for...

PALESTINE - Jun 9 - Palestinians Vow To Avenge Killing.(Jamal Abu Samhadana's killing)(Brief article)
June 10, 2006... Palestinian fighters vow to avenge Israel's assassination of the Hamas government's top security chief, an attack that threatened to ignite large-scale violence between the two sides. Hours after his death, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired...

ARAB AFFAIRS - June 12 - Saud Satisfied With Iran Talks.
June 17, 2006... Saudi FM Prince Saud Al-Faisal says he hoped for a speedy resolution of the crisis over Iran's nuclear program. "We hope this crisis is solved as soon as possible", he told a joint news conference with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Jun 12 - Blair Urges Negotiated Mideast Solution.(Tony Blair)
June 17, 2006... Speaking in Downing Street after talks with Israel's new PM Ehud Olmert, UK PM Tony Blair, urges Israelis and Palestinians to pursue a negotiated settlement of their conflict, but did not endorse a unilateral Israeli solution in the event of a...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - June 15 - Putin Says Iran 'Ready To Negotiate' Over Nuclear Stance.
June 17, 2006... Russian Pres Vladimir Putin strikes an optimistic note on Iran's nuclear crisis, saying Tehran had responded positively to the six-nation package of incentives designed to persuade it to curb its nuclear programme. After meeting Mahmoud...

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 11 - Hamas Rocket Squads Resume Israel Attacks.
June 17, 2006... A missile strike from an Israeli helicopter kills two Hamas militants in the northern Gaza Strip after a rocket fires from the territory seriously wounding an Israeli civilian. The air strike comes after Hamas resumed rocket fire for the first...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 12 - Bush In Drive To Back Iraq Government.(George W. Bush)
June 17, 2006... Pres Bush launches a strategic reassessment of US policy in Iraq, joined by his cabinet and military commanders at a "breakpoint" two-day meeting in Camp David that focused on how to help implement the new Iraqi government's "Maliki plan". A...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 12 - Zarqawi Was Killed By Bombs, US Says.(Abu Musab al-Zarqawi)
June 17, 2006... A three-hour autopsy conducted on June 10 on the body of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi showed that he died of massive "tearing and bruising" of his lungs caused by the blast wave from the two 226-kilogram bombs dropped on the safe house where he was...

AFGHANISTAN - Jun 14 - Troops Launch New Drive Against Afghan Militants.
June 17, 2006... US-led coalition and Afghan troops embark on a second huge drive against militants in their strongholds in southern Afghanistan. The offensive involves more than 10,000 troops from Britain, Canada and the US and newly trained forces from the...

IRAN - June 11 - Tehran Sees 'Problems' In Nuclear Offer.
June 17, 2006... The country's top official Ali Larijani, says there are "problems and ambiguities" in the recent incentive package offered by the world's leading powers to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear programme. His comments comes a day after the...

IRAN - June 16 - President 'Considers' Nuclear Package.(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)
June 17, 2006... Pres Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad says that the six-nation incentive package designed to encourage Iran to end its uranium enrichment programme is "a step forward". But he gave no indication that Tehran was ready to meet the condition for dialogue and...

IRAQ - June 12 - Al-Qaeda Site Names Zarqawi's Successor".
June 17, 2006... A website used by Iraq's al-Qaeda claims the group had appointed Abu Hamza al-Muhajer as successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist leader killed last week in a US strike. Security experts were trying to determine the background of the...

PALESTINE - June 11 - Hamas Acts Against Vote Called By Abbas.(Mahmoud Abbas)
June 17, 2006... Hamas prisoners announce they are withdrawing support for the document that the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, has made the focus of his decree for a referendum on July 26. The prisoners asserted that Abbas was playing politics with their...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - June 19 - EU Pushes Plan To Ease Palestinian Cash Crunch.
June 24, 2006... As Palestinian leaders begin paying overdue salaries with smuggled cash, the EU's commissioner for external relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner,, arrives to push forward a new plan aimed at easing the increasingly serious financial crunch among...

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 20 - 3 Gaza Youths Killed After Israeli Airstrike.
June 24, 2006... Three Palestinians - among them a 5-year-old girl and a 6- year-old boy - are killed in a crowded refugee camp in Gaza, after an Israeli aircraft fires on a car suspected of carrying militants who had launched attacks against Israel. The...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 19 - US Soldiers Charged Over Iraq Prisoner Deaths.
June 24, 2006... The US military says three US soldiers has been charged over the deaths of three male prisoners north of Baghdad on May 9. It said the soldiers, the most senior a non-commissioned officer, faced charges including "murder, attempted murder,...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 21 - Bush Losing Patience With Iran's Delaying Tactics.(George W. Bush)
June 24, 2006... US Pres Bush, makes clear his patience is running short in the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme, after Tehran said it might not respond to an international offer until late August. "It should not take the Iranians that long to analyse what...

AFGHANISTAN - June 19 - 30 Killed In Dual Ambushes By Taliban.
June 24, 2006... A pair of deadly Taliban ambushes of civilian convoys leave 30 people deadas coalition and Afghan forces kill at least 11 militants in an ongoing US-led offensive across southern Afghanistan. More than 10,000 coalition and Afghan troops are...

IRAQ - June 19 - Death Penalty Sought For Saddam.
June 24, 2006... Saddam Hussein utters only two sarcastic words - "Well done!" - as the prosecutor demands that Saddam and three top associates, one of them his half brother, be given the death penalty for their role in the persecution of hundreds of Shiite...

IRAQ - June 21 - 3rd Saddam Lawyer Is Killed In Baghdad.
June 24, 2006... A lawyer on Saddam Hussein's defense team is kidnapped and killed in a Baghdad neighbourhood. He was the third lawyer representing Saddam or his co-defendants to have been killed since their trial started. The Iraqi police found the body of the...

JORDAN - June 19 - Abdallah Slams Islamist MPs Over Zarqawi.
June 24, 2006... King Abdullah says Islamist MPs who offered their condolences to the family of slain Al-Qaeda militant Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi are "misguided". He said: There are some elements in our society who are misguided individuals". "Zarqawi was a mass...