APS Diplomat Recorder articles from May 2006

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from May 2006

ARABS-US RELATIONS - Apr 30 - Powell 'Gave Warning' On Iraq Troops.
May 6, 2006... Former US State Sec Colin Powell, advises Pres Bush and Def Sec Donald Rumsfeld, before the onset of war that the administration was not deploying enough troops to Iraq. Powell, joining a chorus of critics who have singled out Rumsfeld's...

ARABS-US RELATIONS - Apr 30 - US Forces Kill Insurgents In Area Being Used To Stage Suicide Attacks.
May 6, 2006... US and Iraqi forces kill more than 20 foreign insurgents, some wearing suicide vests, during raids in an area being used by militants to stage attacks in Baghdad. The raids took place in and around Youssifiyah, a town about 20 kms south of...

AFGHANISTAN - May 3 - Taliban Power Creeps Back In Afghan South.
May 6, 2006... Building on a winter campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations and the knowledge that US troops are leaving southern Afghanistan, the Taliban appear to be moving their insurgency into a new phase, flooding the rural areas of the south...

EGYPT - Apr 30 - Cairo To Extend Emergency Laws.(Brief article)
May 6, 2006... PM Ahmad Nazif, asks parliament to extend emergency laws for two years in another sign that democratic reforms in the country are grinding to a halt. Nazif said the extension was justified by dangers to Egypt, where terrorists killed 24 last...

ISRAEL - May 1 - Finance Minister Named.(Avraham Hirchson)(Brief article)
May 6, 2006... Avraham Hirchson, a close friend of acting Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, is named finance minister in a new government that is expected to maintain free market budgetary and fiscal policies. Olmert's new coalition - his Kadima party, Labour, the...

ISRAEL - May 4 - Olmert Presents Government To Parliament.(Ehud Olmert)
May 6, 2006... Ehud Olmert took office as PM at the head of a four-party coalition, pledging to fix Israel's final borders by the end of his four-year term with or without the agreement of the Palestinians. "The borders of Israel that will be formed in the...

PALESTINE - Apr 30 - Hamas Warns Of New Intifada If Palestinian Rule Fails.
May 6, 2006... A senior Hamas official warns that attempts to bring down the Palestinian government can provoke the dissolution of the PA and lead to a new, more violent uprising. Moussa Abu Marzouk, second in command in the Syrian-based leadership of Hamas,...

PALESTINE - May 2 - Palestinian Business Calls For Unity Government.
May 6, 2006... Leaders of the Palestinian private sector calls on Hamas and other political parties to set up a government of national unity that will formulate its own plan for peace with Israel. The unprecedented entry of the business community into the...

ARAB AFFAIRS - May 7 - Lebanese Politicians Face Trial In Absentia.
May 13, 2006... Syria issues court summons to Lebanese politicians that will put them likely to face trials in absentia and arrests should they fail to appear in court. The US has called for an end to the summons, which it condemned as "cynical attempts by the...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - May 6 - Britain Plays Down Security Fears After Basra Clashes.
May 13, 2006... The southern Iraqi city of Basra returns to calm following May 6 crash of a military helicopter that led to clashes between British oops and local youths. British officials played down suggestions that the clashes indicated any significant...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - May 7 - US Seeks De Facto Financial Sanctions On Iran.
May 13, 2006... US government officials and advisers say the US is attempting to persuade European governments, banks and companies to isolate the Iranian government by engaging in de facto financial sanctions. The tactics are modelled on those used for the...

EGYPT - May 11 - Egypt Takes Harder Line On Street Protests.(Muslim Brotherhood)
May 13, 2006... Security forces beat activists and arrested journalists in Cairo during protests in support of judges facing a disciplinary committee for criticising election abuses last year. One of the largest protests was by some 300 members of the illegal...

IRAN - May 7 - Tehran Vows To Ignore UN Resolution.
May 13, 2006... The government says that it will reject any UN resolution that punished it for its nuclear activities, and threatens to stop co-operating with the UN nuclear monitoring agency, the IAEA. "If the Security Council adopts a resolution which does...

IRAN - May 11 - Ahmadi-Nejad Casts Himself As Muslims' Regional Hero.
May 13, 2006... Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad steals the international limelight again this week with his long-winded letter to Bush. Seen as bold by some and clumsy by others, his move was quickly dismissed by Washington as a deliberate diversion. But it may yet serve...

IRAQ - May 7 - Car Bombs Kill 42.
May 13, 2006... Car bombs kill at least 16 people and wounds dozens in Baghdad and a Shiite holy city. At least 26 others were killed or found dead, including a US marine who was mortally wounded in the insurgent bastion of Anbar Province in western Iraq, the...

PALESTINE - May 9 - Second Day Of Clashes In Gaza Despite Appeals For Calm.
May 13, 2006... Nine people, including five schoolchildren, are wounded in Gaza City as Fatah and Hamas militants clashed for the second day, despite calls for calm from leaders of the two Palestinian factions. Each side blamed the other for the exchange of...

PALESTINE - May 9 - Abbas Plea To Avert Palestinian Crisis.
May 13, 2006... Pres of the PA Mahmoud Abbas, appeals to FMs meeting in New York to avert a financial crisis. His appeal came as the US faced pressure to soften its tough line on humanitarian and institutional aid. Washington has resisted ideas for finding new...

SYRIA - May 9 - Damascus Takes In 244 Refugees.
May 13, 2006... A group of 244 Palestinians stranded for several weeks on the border between Iraq and Jordan enters Syria at the al-Tanaf crossing point after Damascus agreed to take them in. The refugees fled violence in Baghdad in March and had been camping...

ARABS-US RELATIONS - May 14 - May US 'Must Beware' Rise In Al-Qaeda Oil Strikes.
May 22, 2006... The former CIA official Michael Scheuer warns that the US and its Arab allies must expect an increase in attacks on their oil infrastructure in the next phase of the war by al-Qaeda targeting the US economy, who was responsible for hunting down...

AFGHANISTAN - May - 18 - Taliban Launches Major Attack On Afghan Town.
May 22, 2006... Almost 100 people are killed in a string of bloody battles in the country's restive south as an increasingly daring Taliban brought renewed violence closer to the country's second largest city. Taliban militants fought fierce battles with...

IRAN - Ahmadinejad - May 14 - EU Talks Relic Of 'Colonialist World'.(Mahmoud Ahmadi-nejad, European Union)
May 22, 2006... In a speech broadcast on state TV, Pres Mahmoud Ahmadi-nejad says the nation will reject any demand to stop what it calls peaceful nuclear work, a day before Europe's foreign ministers discuss incentives and penalties designed to rein in...

IRAQ - May 14 - Wrangling Over Key Portfolios Holds Up Government.(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... A series of six bombings kill at least 26 people in Baghdad, a wave of violence that appears intended to derail attempts to form a national unity government that are reportedly stalled by disputes over the key interior and defence ministries....

PALESTINE - May 17 - Hamas Puts Forces Into Gaza.
May 22, 2006... The Hamas-led Palestinian government deploys a new security force in a move that directly challenges the authority of the Palestinian Pres, Mahmoud Abbas, who last month vetoed the creation of the security service. In another sign of internal...

ARAB AFFAIRS - May 21 - Palestinian In Contact With Israeli.
May 29, 2006... PA Pres Mahmoud Abbas, and Israel's FM Tzipi Livni, meet in Egypt in the highest- level contacts between the two sides since the radical Islamic faction Hamas won Palestinian elections in January. In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security forces...

ARAB AFFAIRS - May 23 - GCC Ministers Vow Unified Security Bid.
May 29, 2006... Interior ministers of the six-member holds a consultative meeting here under the chairmanship of Shaikh Saif ibn Zayed Al-Nahayan of the UAE and reiterates their countries' resolve to combat all forms of terrorism. It also called for greater...

ARABS-ISRAEL - May 23 - Israel Arrests Hamas Military Chief Wanted Since 1998.(Ibrahim Hamed)
May 29, 2006... The Israeli military arrests a Palestinian described as the top commander of Hamas's military wing in the West Bank and says he had orchestrated several of the deadliest suicide bombings in recent years. Ibrahim Hamed, 41, surrendered to the...

ARABS-US RELATIONS - May 23 - Bush Fails To Back Israeli Plan For Borders.(George W. Bush)
May 29, 2006... Pres Bush fails to endorse specific plans for further Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank, but calls the ideas from Ehud Olmert, the Israeli PM "bold", and suggests they can be "an important step towards the peace we both support". Speaking...

AFGHANISTAN - May 23 - Karzai Orders Inquiry Into US Airstrike.(Hamid Karzai )(Brief article)
May 29, 2006... Pres Hamid Karzai orders Afghan security forces to investigate the American aerial bombardment of an Afghan village that killed at least 16 civilians. As reports of the numbers of casualties from the operation continued to rise, officials in...

IRAN - May 26 - Tehran Says US Offer Of Iraq Talks Was Propaganda.
May 29, 2006... FM Manouchehr Mottaki, rules out talks with the US over Iraq "for the time being", saying Tehran's decision to accept Washington's offer has been exploited for "propaganda" and that the US had "raised other issues" without specifying what they...

IRAQ - May 23 - Baghdad Faces Clash With Kurds Over Oil Deals.
May 29, 2006... The country's newly appointed oil minister says that the central government shall handle all contracts related to petroleum exploration and production, putting him on a potential collision course with the autonomous Kurdish region which has...

IRAQ - May 23 - Wave Of Sectarian Violence Leaves 41 Dead Across Iraq.
May 29, 2006... A bomb planted in a motorcycle parked in the courtyard of a Shiite mosque kills 11 people and wounds nine, part of mostly sectarian violence across Iraq that left 41 dead. The mosque attack comes in the mixed Tunis neighbourhood of northern...

IRAQ - May 24 - Tariq Aziz Takes The Stand For Saddam.(Saddam Hussain)
May 29, 2006... Iraq's ex-Deputy PM Tareq Aziz makes his first public appearance in three years on the stand for Saddam Hussain, calling on the court to try current leaders for attacks on the state in the 1980s. Aziz, the highest profile witness for Saddam,...

KUWAIT - May 21 - Kuwaiti Emir Dissolves Parliament.
May 29, 2006... Kuwait's new emir dissolves parliament in an apparent bid to reassert control over increasingly rebellious members. The resulting political crisis could further delay decisions on whether to re-open Kuwait's oil industry to multinationals as...

PALESTINE - May 23 - Haniyya urges Hamas and Fatah to show restraint.(Ismail Haniyya )
May 29, 2006... Ismail Haniyya urges rival forces from Hamas and the Fatah Movement to show restraint and restates his demand that Israel withdraw to the 1967 boundaries, offering in return a long-term cease-fire. "I urge all our people to be calm and show...