APS Diplomat Recorder articles from June 2007

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from June 2007

ARAB AFFAIRS: May 29 - Sultan Meets Turkish Defense Minister.
June 2, 2007... Crown Prince Sultan, the regent, hold talks with Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul in Riyadh and explores ways of strengthening cooperation between the two countries. "The talks focused on the latest global developments and ways of...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - May 31 - EU And Iran Make Little Progress On Nuclear Program Dispute.
June 2, 2007... Top envoys for Iran and the EU end talks with little indication that they are closer to resolving a deadlock over Tehran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment but agrees to meet again in two weeks. "Sometimes we are not able to move the...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 27 - Israel Vows To Continue Attacks Against Hamas.
June 2, 2007... An Israeli man is killed by a Qassam rocket launched from Gaza, and PM Ehud Olmert vows to continue Israel's military assault on Hamas as an effort to stop the rocket fire, warning that "no one involved in terror is immune". Oshri Oz, 36, died...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 30 - Israelis Carry Out West Bank 'Execution'.
June 2, 2007... An Israeli undercover squad shoot dead an off-duty Palestinian security man at point-blank range during a daylight raid on Ramallah in what Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian information minister present at the scene described as an extrajudicial...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - May 28 - US Tells Iran To Stop Backing Iraq Militias.
June 2, 2007... The US and Iran hold their first talks on the security crisis in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, with the US side describing Iran's public policy statements as encouraging but also demanding that it halt its armed support of Sunni and Shi'ite...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - May 31 - US Military Seeks Ceasefires In Iraq.
June 2, 2007... US military officers in Iraq are attempting to negotiate ceasefires with some insurgent groups that have been responsible for the violence in the country. Lt General Raymond Odierno, commander of ground forces in Iraq, said on May 31 the US was...

AFGHANISTAN - May 31 - Taliban May Have Caused Copter Crash, Officials Say.
June 2, 2007... The NATO forces in Afghanistan say that they are investigating whether enemy fire brought down a Chinook helicopter in an incident that killed seven troops during a mission on May 30 in southern Afghanistan, where some of the heaviest fighting...

EGYPT - May 31 - Egypt Detains 48 Members Of Brotherhood Ahead Of Polls.(Muslim Brotherhood)(Brief article)
June 2, 2007... Egyptian police detain 48 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in a crackdown ahead of parliamentary elections. In one of the largest single-day tolls against the movement since February, police arrested members of Egypt's most powerful...

IRAN - Ahmadi-Nejad's Battle With Businesses Worsens:-By Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran.
June 2, 2007... May 27 2007 17:56 The battle between President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad and Iran's private sector intensified as state television quoted the president rejecting "negative propaganda" that his government opposed business. "Those who misuse people's...

IRAQ - May 27 - US Raids Al Qaeda Hideout, Freeing 42 Iraqi Hostages.
June 2, 2007... American forces raid a Qaeda hideout northeast of Baghdad and free 42 Iraqis imprisoned inside, including some who had been tortured and suffered broken bones. The raid was part of a three-month-old security crackdown that included the...

LEBANON - June 1 - Lebanese Army Takes Fight Inside Refugee Camp.
June 2, 2007... Under a hail of gunfire and shelling, the Lebanese Army moves into a besieged refugee camp in northern Lebanon where a group of militants has been hiding, crossing the boundaries of the camp for the first time since the siege began two weeks...

PALESTINE - May 30 - PA Head Calls For Renewed Ceasefire.
June 2, 2007... Mahmoud Abbas, the PA's Fatah president, has put forward proposals to renew a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip that extend the truce to the West Bank. Two Israelis were killed in the past two weeks as Hamas...

ARAB AFFAIRS: June 5 - Ahmadi-Nejad: Iran Does Not Interfere: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad reaffirms that Iran does not interfere in Lebanese affairs and calls for Lebanese unity.(Brief article)
June 9, 2007... Ahmadi-Nejad: Iran Does Not Interfere: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad reaffirms that Iran does not interfere in Lebanese affairs and calls for Lebanese unity. The issues of Lebanon and Hizbullah belong to the Lebanese, and Iran never...

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 3 - Olmert Vows To Keep Up Strikes In Gaza.(Ehud Olmert)
June 9, 2007... Israeli PM Ehud Olmert vows to continue strikes in the Gaza Strip as a soldier was wounded by mortar shells fired by the armed wing of Hamas. One soldier was moderately wounded and three more suffered light injuries when the shells hit near the...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 3 - US Warns Turkey Not To Invade Iraq.
June 9, 2007... The US defence secretary Robert Gates, warns Turkey not to invade northern Iraq amid a build-up of Turkish forces on the border between the two countries. There is an intense internal debate in Turkey about whether Ankara should push across the...

IRAN - June 3 - Israel's Destruction Soon.(Brief article)
June 9, 2007... Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad says the world will witness the destruction of Israel soon Ahmadi-Nejad said last summer's war between Israel and Hizbullah showed for the first time that the "hegemony of the occupier regime...

IRAN - June 4 - Iran Says Will Not Beg For Its Atomic Rights.(Brief article)
June 9, 2007... Supreme Leader Ayat Ali Khamenei says Iran will not beg world powers for its right to develop nuclear technology and has shown it will not retreat from the "field of danger" to protect such rights. The defiant remarks by the Islamic Republic's...

IRAQ - June 5 - Suicide Truck Bomber Kills As Many As 18 Near Falluja.
June 9, 2007... As many as 18 people are killed south of Falluja when a suicide bomber driving a truck packed with high explosives plowed into a busy commercial district. The attack also wounded at least 15 people, according to a local Iraqi police official....

ISRAEL - June 3 - Olmert Vows To Keep Up Strikes In Gaza.(Ehud Olmert)
June 9, 2007... Israeli PM Ehud Olmert vows to continue strikes in the Gaza Strip as a soldier is wounded by mortar shells fired by the armed wing of Hamas. One soldier was moderately wounded and three more suffered light injuries when the shells hit near the...

LEBANON - June 3 - Clashes At Second Lebanese Camp.(Brief article)
June 9, 2007... The Lebanese army clashes with Islamic militants at a second Palestinian refugee camp. The new confrontation comes as the army pursued its offensive, including heavy shelling, against militants from the Fatahal-Islam group in the Nahr el-Bared...

PALESTINE - June 5 - Abbas Sees Palestinians On Brink Of Civil War.
June 9, 2007... Pres Mahmoud Abbas says that Palestinians are on the brink of civil war and that their internal battles are as dangerous to their welfare as the Israeli occupation, if not more so. Abbas made his remarks in a televised address to mark the 40th...

PALESTINE - June 8 - Haniya Calls For End To Hamas-Fatah Violence.(Ismail Haniya of Hamas)(Brief article)
June 9, 2007... The Palestinian PM, Ismail Haniya of Hamas, calls for the political will to stop another round of intra-Palestinian clashes between his own faction and Fatah, who sit together in a unity government. He was speaking before June 8 prayers in...

SAUDI ARABIA - June 4 - Saudi Religious Police Face Pressure.
June 9, 2007... Saudi Arabia's religious police are under unprecedented pressure amid accusations that their over-zealous pursuit of moral compliance includes beating suspects, sometimes to death. According to Saudi newspapers and human rights defenders, four...

TURKEY - June 7 - Turkey To Boost Security On Iraq Border.
June 9, 2007... Turkey's military high command is to introduce special security measures in three provinces close to the border with Iraq, amid an intensive build-up of troops in the region ahead of a possible attack on Kurdish separatists. The measures, in...

ARAB AFFAIRS - June 14 - GCC Federation Mulls Plans To Revive Oman's Economy.
June 16, 2007... The Federation of the GCC Chambers of Commerce plans to organise an investment conference in the Sultanate of Oman to discuss ways to kick-start Omani economy battered by super cyclone Gonu. Abdul Rahman Naqi, secretary general of the...

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 10 - Israel Attacks 2 Buildings In Gaza City.
June 16, 2007... The Israeli Air Force strike at least two buildings in Gaza City in the early hours in an apparent response to a raid across the Gaza-Israel border by Palestinian militants on June 9. Internal violence between the rival Palestinian factions...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 10 - Car Bomber Blows Up US Bridge Checkpoint In Iraq.
June 16, 2007... An apparent suicide car bomber takes aim at a US convoy carrying demolition experts, collapsing a major highway overpass south of Baghdad and trapping American soldiers in the rubble. The vehicle detonated beside a support pillar, bringing down...

AFGHANISTAN - June 10 - Karzai Survives Assassination Attempt.
June 16, 2007... Taliban guerrillas makes a failed attempt to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai with a rocket attack, narrowly missing a building where he was giving a speech. Rockets fell several hundred metres from the government building southwest of Kabul...

AFGHANISTAN - June 11 - 'Shaped Charge' Roadside Bomb Found In Afghanistan.
June 16, 2007... Afghan security forces find a sophisticated roadside bomb of the type used in Iraq for the first time in the center of the capital, Kabul, and it was primed to hit a convoy of high-ranking Afghan officials. A NATO spokeswoman, Lt Col Maria...

EGYPT - June 11 - Egypt's Islamists Allege Poll Irregularities.
June 16, 2007... Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood alleges that there had been widespread irregularities against its candidates in elections for 88 seats in the Shura Council, the upper chamber of parliament. Nineteen Brotherhood candidates are running as...

IRAQ - June 11 - Iraqi Parliament Votes To Remove Speaker.(Mahmoud Mashadani)
June 16, 2007... A majority in Parliament votes in favour of a resolution to remove their speaker, Mahmoud Mashadani, in the coming days, underscoring widespread discontent with a Sunni Arab politician who has done little to build consensus among Iraq's...

IRAQ - June 12 - Shrine Attack Raises Iraqi Tension.
June 16, 2007... A second bomb attack on one of Shi'ite Islam's most holy shrines in Iraq has raised fears of another surge in sectarian violence. The attack, which destroyed the minarets of the Askariya shrine in the central Iraqi town of Samarra, was blamed...

LEBANON - June 13 - Ten Dead In Lebanon Blast.
June 16, 2007... At least 10 people are killed in an explosion on Beirut's waterfront, including a Lebanese legislator from the ruling anti-Syrian coalition. The blast, which took place during rush hour in the mainly Muslim Manara district, is the bloodiest...

PALESTINE - June 11 - Gunfire Sends Palestinian Cabinet Fleeing.
June 16, 2007... Ministers are forced to flee the building as the Palestinian government HQ's comes under fire while the Cabinet was meeting yesterday, deepening an especially brutal wave of factional violence. Nine people have been killed since fighting...

PALESTINE - June 12 - Fatah Freezes Role In Unity Coalition.
June 16, 2007... Fatah freeze its participation in the Palestinian government after forces loyal to its Hamas coalition partner seized a number of Fatah-controlled security posts and ordered others to surrender in the course of a widespread offensive in the...

PALESTINE - June 12 - Gaza Moves Close To Civil War.
June 16, 2007... Deadly clashes between Hamas and Fatah fighters threaten to topple the government and pushed Gaza closer to civil war as President Mahmoud Abbas' office accuses Hamas of plotting a coup. Hamas gunmen besieged two Fatah security headquarters...

PALESTINE - June 14 - Abbas Dismisses Hamas-Led Government.(Mahmoud Abbas)
June 16, 2007... The PA president Mahmoud Abbas, dismisses his Hamas-led government and declares a state of emergency, although with little prospect of imposing it in the Gaza Strip after Hamas routed his Fatah loyalists there in the space of a week. His...

SUDAN - June 12 - Sudan Accepts Revised Peacekeeping Plan For Darfur.
June 16, 2007... A senior AU official says that Sudan has accepted a revised plan for a joint AU and UN peacekeeping force of between 17,000 to 19,000 troops in Darfur. But at UN headquarters in New York, Security Council diplomats said they had been informed...

TURKEY - June 10 - 14 Wounded In Istanbul Bombing As Turks Mobilize Against Kurdish Separatists.
June 16, 2007... A small bomb wounds 14 people outside a clothing shop. The bomb appeared to be a type of explosive that usually causes limited damage, a police official said on condition of anonymity. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The...

ARAB AFFAIRS - June 20 -Arab World Fails To Achieve Poverty Alleviation Targets.
June 16, 2007... Tarik Al Alami, officer in charge at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, says the Arab region has not made significant progress in reducing poverty and lags behind other regions in achieving the Millennium Development Goals....

ARAB AFFAIRS - June 19 - Mousa: Time Running Out For Lebanon Rivals.
June 16, 2007... The Arab League chief urges Lebanon's feuding leaders to break a political impasse that has paralysed the country and warns that "time is running out". AMousa began on June 19 a three-day visit here in an attempt to help politicians end the...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - June 18 - EU To Release Aid To PA.(Palestine)
June 16, 2007... EU foreign ministers announces in Luxembourg that they will resume direct aid to the PA amid warnings by analysts that the bloc's policy in the region continued to be dangerously inconsistent and damaging to the EU's credibility. The EU, which...

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 20 - Israeli-Palestinian Clashes Leave At Least 6 Militants Dead.
June 16, 2007... In a sudden escalation of Israeli-Palestinian violence, at least six Palestinian militants are killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers in Gaza and the West Bank, according to army officials and Palestinian news reports, and the Israeli Air...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 19 - US, Israel Promise Support For Abbas.
June 16, 2007... The US and Israel holds out the prospect of lending some practical support to president of the PA Mahmoud Abbas, but they agreed this was not the time for an immediate resumption of peace talks. Meeting in the White House, President George...

AFGHANISTAN - June 19 - Taliban Terror Attacks Due To Frustration, Karzai Argues.
June 16, 2007... Taliban insurgents shift their tactics to rely more on terrorist attacks in part out of frustration with their flagging insurgency campaign, according to President Hamid Karzai and the commander of American military forces in Afghanistan....

EGYPT - June 18 - Egypt Holds Runoff Parliamentary Elections.
June 16, 2007... Egypt holds runoff elections for its upper chamber of Parliament, a week after the first round was marred by violence and accusations of vote manipulation. Candidates from President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party nearly swept...

IRAQ - June 18 - US Military Strikes Insurgents' Base Near Baghdad.
June 16, 2007... The American military begins a major attack against Sunni insurgent positions here in the capital of Diyala Province overnight, part of a larger operation aimed at blunting the persistent car and suicide bombings that have terrorised Iraqis and...

IRAQ - June 19 - Dozens die in attack on Shi'ite mosque.
June 16, 2007... Almost 80 people died in a reported truck bomb attack on a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad on Tuesday, hours after 10,000 US troops launched a hunt for al-Qaeda militants in the province of Diyala - one of the largest offensives since the US-led...

ISRAEL - June 18 - Ex-PM Returns As Israeli Defence Minister.(ex-prime minister Ehud Barak)
June 16, 2007... Ehud Barak is back. Six years after being ousted from the premiership amid the wreckage of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Israel's most decorated soldier took over as the country's new defence minister. The outgoing Amir Peretz handed...

LEBANON - June 19 - Army Takes Control Of Most Militant Positions.
June 16, 2007... Two more soldiers are killed in ongoing heavy clashes between the Lebanese Army and militants of Fatah al-Islam holed up in the eastern part of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp outside Tripoli. Sergeant Wessam Muhammad Shakker Bond, 27, and...

PALESTINE - June 17 - Abbas Bypasses Hamas In New Cabinet.(Mahmoud Abbas)
June 16, 2007... PA Pres Mahmoud Abbas, o swear in an emergency government, bypassing the Hamas-dominated parliament, and outlawed the Hamas militias that last week took control of the Gaza Strip. Emboldened by international support for his tough response to...

ARAB AFFAIRS - June 21 - Moussa Warns Lebanese To Make A Deal Before Time Runs Out.
June 23, 2007... Sec Gen AMoussa, on his second day of meetings with Lebanese leaders, warns that time is rapidly running out for a political settlement to the ongoing crisis, although the possibility for an agreement still exists. Moussa dismissed debates on...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - June 20 - EU To Release Aid To PA.(Palestine National Authority)
June 23, 2007... EU foreign ministers announce in Luxembourg that they will resume direct aid to the PA amid warnings by analysts that the bloc's policy in the region continued to be dangerously inconsistent and damaging to the EU's credibility. The EU, which...

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 20 - Israeli-Palestinian Clashes Leave At Least 6 Militants Dead.
June 23, 2007... In a sudden escalation of Israeli-Palestinian violence, at least six Palestinian militants are killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers in Gaza and the West Bank, according to army officials and Palestinian news reports, and the Israeli Air...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 17 - US Frustrated By Lack Of Iraqi Reconciliation.
June 23, 2007... The top US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus warns the Iraqi government has not made any substantial progress on political reconciliation since the US military surge began. The US surge was intended to provide the Iraqi government with...

AFGHANISTAN - June 18 - Children Killed In Afghan Raids.
June 23, 2007... US warplanes kill seven children in an air strike targeting suspected al-Qaeda militants in Afghanistan, further intensifying political concerns about high civilian casualties from the military campaign against Islamic fundamentalists in the...

IRAN - June 16 - Senior Iranian Theologian Dies.(Grand Ayat Muhammad Fazel-Lankarani)(Obituary)(Brief article)
June 23, 2007... Grand Ayat Muhammad Fazel-Lankarani, one of Shi'ite Iran's most senior theologians, dies after a period of illness, official media reported, without giving details on the cause of death. Born in 1931 in the religious city of Qom, he was a...

IRAQ - June 19 - Dozens Die In Attack On Shi'ite Mosque.
June 23, 2007... Almost 80 people die in a reported truck bomb attack on a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad, hours after 10,000 US troops launched a hunt for al-Qaeda militants in the province of Diyala - one of the largest offensives since the US-led invasion in...

LEBANON - June 21 - Lebanese Army Traps Militants In South End Of Nahr Al-Bared.
June 23, 2007... The Lebanese Army says it had taken control of all positions formerly held by Fatah al-Islam, as the intermittent fighting shifted to the southern area of the camp. "Fatah al-Islam has nowhere to hide now, because we have completely destroyed...

PALESTINE - June 17 - Abbas Bypasses Hamas In New Cabinet.(Mahmoud Abbas)
June 23, 2007... The PA president Mahmoud Abbas, swear in an emergency government, bypassing the Hamas-dominated parliament, and outlaws the Hamas militias that last week took control of the Gaza Strip. Emboldened by international support for his tough response...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS: June 24 - Blair Set For Mideast Envoy Role.(Tony Blair)
June 30, 2007... Tony Blair's appointment as an international envoy for the Middle East looks set to be formally agreed on June 26 - a day before he leaves office - amid signs that the move is causing deep unease in some quarters. Representatives of the four...

ARABS-ISRAEL - June 25 - Israel Offers To Release 250 Fatah Prisoners.
June 30, 2007... PM Ehud Olmert of Israel says that he will release 250 Fatah members from Israeli prisons in a goodwill gesture aimed at giving a boost to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah faction, after the Hamas victory in Gaza. Olmert...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 26 - Rice Pushes US Backing Of Battered Lebanese Government.(Condoleezza Rice)
June 30, 2007... Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seek to bolster the fragile government of Lebanon, the country that experienced a recent wave of violence and quasi-civil war. She held a morning meeting with the Lebanese PM, Fouad Siniora, to close a...

AFGHANISTAN - June 25 - Al-Qaeda Tells Muslims To Back Hamas.
June 30, 2007... Al-Qaeda's second in command urges all Muslims to support Hamas with weapons and money now that the Palestinian Islamic group controls the Gaza Strip. The message, released in a tape purportedly by Ayman al-Zawihiri, represents a change in...

IRAN - June 29 - 'Pulse Of Iran' Sounds A Warning For President.
June 30, 2007... President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad says he likes to check Iran's economic pulse in his own neighbourhood in eastern Tehran. He once told MPs in response to criticisms about rising prices to go and buy their tomatoes from Narmak. And he is fond of...

IRAQ - June 25 - Iraqi Shaikhs Killings May Cause Set Back.
June 30, 2007... A suicide bomber strikes at a gathering of Sunni Arab tribal leaders meeting in a Baghdad hotel, one of five suicide attacks that left at least 40 people dead across the country. The blast in the Mansour hotel killed four members of the Anbar...

ISRAEL - June 24 - PM Plays Down Summit Expectations.(Ehud Olmert)
June 30, 2007... Israel agreeds to begin releasing hundreds ofms of dollars in frozen tax funds to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, part of a package of planned goodwill gestures meant to strengthen the moderate Palestinian leader in his standoff against...

ISRAEL - June 29 - Israel's President Resigns Over Sex Crimes.
June 30, 2007... Israeli President Moshe Katsav resigns, a day after admitting to sex crimes against women employees in a case that has brought unprecedented disgrace on an Israeli head of state. When his resignation from the largely ceremonial post takes...

LEBANON - June 27 - Clashes In Refugee Camp Continue, Lebanese Army Urges Militants To Surrender.
June 30, 2007... Lebanon's army accuses al-Qaida-inspired militants still barricaded in a refugee camp in northern Lebanon of hiding among Palestinian civilians trapped in the settlement and confiscating humanitarian aid sent to them. In a statement, the army...

PALESTINE - June 23 - Haniya Ready For Talks With Abbas.(Mahmoud Abbas, Esmail Haniya)
June 30, 2007... The PM of the Hamas-led government, sacked by President Mahmoud Abbas, vows that isolation will not force the Islamist group to give up power from its Gaza stronghold. Esmail Haniya accused Abbas, the Fatah leader, of violating Palestinian law...