APS Diplomat Recorder articles from May 2008

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from May 2008

ARAB AFFAIRS - Apr 26 - Turkish PM Meets Syrian President.
May 3, 2008... The Turkish PM flies to Damascus and said he was trying to restart direct talks between Syria and Israel, stepping up his nation's behind-the-scenes efforts to negotiate a peace deal between the longtime enemies. PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan spent...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Apr 27 - Abbas Backs 'Any Syria-Israel Deal'.
May 3, 2008... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says that he supports Turkish mediation of Israeli-Syrian peace and would back any agreement reached between the two longtime enemies. Abbas said a peace agreement between Israel and Syria would not harm...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Apr 28 - Saud Denies Rift In Relations With Syria.
May 3, 2008... FM Prince Saud Al-Faisal says that the Kingdom and Syria are in direct contact with each other and denied that relations had come to a halt. "Relations have not been cut. They are still ongoing and communication between us continues", Prince...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Apr 30 - Abdallah Meets Olmert, Urges Peace Pact In 2008.
May 3, 2008... Jordan's King Abdallah confers in Amman with Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and urges the Israelis and the Palestinians to reach a peace treaty before the end of the year, an official statement said. Olmert paid a whirlwind visit to Jordan as part of...

AFGHANISTAN - Apr 27 - Taliban Assassins Miss Afghan Leader.
May 3, 2008... President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan survives an assassination attempt at a military parade in central Kabul, when suspected Taliban insurgents fired mortars and bullets at the dignitaries assembled in the spectator stands. Six people were...

AFGHANISTAN - Apr 27 - Al Maliki In Talks To Reintegrate Sunnis.
May 3, 2008... Iraq's PM meet with the Sunni Vice-President to discuss reintegrating Sunni political parties into his Shi'ite-dominated government as five people died in clashes and a suicide car bombing in Baghdad, police said. The meeting between PM Nouri...

EGYPT - Apr 29 - Cairo Hosts Palestinians For Talks On Truce Offer To Israel.
May 3, 2008... Palestinian resistance groups are in Cairo for Egyptian-mediated talks on a possible truce with Israel that has already been approved by the Islamist movement Hamas. The Palestinian factions traveled from Gaza, Damascus and Amman for two days...

IRAN - Apr 27 Conservatives Win Iran Elections, But Ahmadi-Nejad Critics Make Gains.
May 3, 2008... Although conservatives won the majority of the seats in Parliament as expected, critics of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad also made a strong showing, according to results released over the weekend, suggesting he could face opposition in the...

IRAN - May 1 - Iran Files Protest At Un Over Hillary Clinton's 'Obliterate' Comment.
May 3, 2008... Iran has lodged a formal protest at the UN over comments by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton that the US would "totally obliterate" Iran if it attacked Israel with nuclear weapons. Iran's deputy ambassador to the UN, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, sent a...

IRAQ - Apr 27 - Rockets Bombard Green Zone Of Baghdad.
May 3, 2008... Militants bombard the Green Zone with rockets, taking advantage of the cover of a blinding dust storm to stage one of the heaviest strikes in weeks. US forces normally respond rapidly to missile firings with helicopter strikes, but those are...

IRAQ - Apr 27 - Two Iraq Mass Graves Yield 100 Bodies, Says Security Forces.(Brief article)
May 3, 2008... Iraqi security forces have found more than 100 bodies in two mass graves. Fifty bodies were found in a mass grave in central Iraq on Apr 27, a military source in the area said. Another team said it had discovered more than 50 bodies in a grave...

IRAQ - Apr 27 - 38 Militants Killed As Baghdad Fighting Intensifies.
May 3, 2008... Shi'ite fighters shot more rockets or mortar shells at the US-protected Green Zone as US and Iraqi troops engaged militants in the most violent clashes in weeks in Baghdad, killing at least 38. Abrams tanks were used to repel attacks on two...

IRAQ - Apr 30 - 28 Iraqis killed in fierce fighting in Sadr City.(Brief article)
May 3, 2008... At least 28 Iraqis are killed and over 50 injured following a four-hour battle between US soldiers and Shi'ite militiamen in the capital's Sadr City neighbourhood, making it one of the bloodiest days in a month of sustained street-fighting. The...

ISRAEL - Apr 27 - Israeli Tank Fire Kills Gaza Children.
May 3, 2008... A Palestinian mother and four of her children are killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, amid contradictory claims over who was responsible for the deaths. Local reports said an Israeli tank shell hit their home in the village of Beit Hanoun in...

PALESTINE - Apr 27 - Abbas Backs Turkish Mediation Of Israeli-Syrian Peace.
May 3, 2008... The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, says that he supported Turkish mediation of Israeli-Syrian peace and would back any agreement reached between the two longtime enemies. Abbas said a peace agreement between Israel and Syria would not...

PALESTINE - May 1 - Palestinian Factions Eye Gaza Cease-Fire.
May 3, 2008... Israel will probably agree to an informal truce with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip if cross-border rocket attacks and weapons smuggling into the territory ended. Citing an unidentified high-level Egyptian official, Egypt's state news...

ARAB ISRAEL RELATIONS - May 5 - Weakened Olmert Talks With Abbas.
May 10, 2008... The agenda between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders included Israeli settlements and roadblocks in the West Bank, a Palestinian official says, two issues that were given prominent mention by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her...

ARAB US RELATIONS - May 4 - Rice Maintains Heat On Israel Over Settlements.
May 10, 2008... Condoleezza Rice says she still believed that Israel and the PA could reach a peace agreement by the end of the year, shrugging off concerns over the lack of progress in the negotiations. On her latest trip to the Middle East, the US secretary...

ARAB US RELATIONS - May 5 - Hizbullah Trains Iraqis In Iran, Officials Say.
May 10, 2008... Militants from the Lebanese group Hizbullah have been training Iraqi militia fighters at a camp near Tehran, according to American interrogation reports that the US has supplied to the Iraqi government. An American official said the account of...

AFGHANISTAN - May 6 - Roadside Bomb Wounds 5 In Afghanistan.(Brief article)
May 10, 2008... US-led coalition troops kill several militants during a raid in eastern Afghanistan, while a roadside bomb in the south wounded five people, including three policemen. The coalition troops killed the militants during a raid on several compounds...

IRAN - May 4 - Iran Seems To Reject West's Offer.(Brief article)
May 10, 2008... Iran's supreme religious leader says that his nation will not bow to pressure after Western powers announced that they would offer a new package of incentives to coax Iran to give up its nuclear program. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme...

IRAN - May 5 - Iran Will Not Hold Talks With Us On Iraq.(Brief article)
May 10, 2008... Iran does not intend to hold talks with the US on Iraq while American forces are fighting Shi'ite militias in Sadr City, the Iranian FM reports on its Web site. The US and Iran met in Baghdad at least three times last year to discuss stability...

IRAQ - May 7 - Iraqi FM Zebari Urges Iran, US To Hold Talks.
May 10, 2008... Iraqi urges Iran and the US to stop trading accusations and sit down for a fourth round of talks to seek solutions to Iraq's security woes. US and Iranian officials met three times last year to seek common ground on stabilising Iraq in...

LEBANON - May 4 - Hariri Insists Arab Initiative Begins With Election Of Suleiman.(Saad Hariri, Michel Suleiman)
May 10, 2008... Parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri urges Syria to facilitate the election of the head of the Lebanese Armed Forces, General Michel Suleiman, as Lebanon's new president. "Does Syria want to be held responsible for the presidential vacuum...

LEBANON - May 7 - Clashes Erupt In Beirut As Hizbullah Enforces Strike.
May 10, 2008... Members of the opposition group Hizbullah, trying to enforce a general strike called by labor unions, fights with government supporters and blocked roads in this capital, escalating the country's worst political crisis since the 1975 to 1990...

PALESTINE - May 7 - 1 Palestinian Killed, 14 Palestinians Wounded In Fighting In Gaza.
May 10, 2008... Israeli tanks and bulldozers rumble into the southern Gaza Strip, and Israeli aircraft struck a series of targets. One militant was killed and at least 14 Palestinians, one a civilian, were wounded in the fighting, according to witnesses and...

TURKEY - May 4 - Over 150 PKK Rebels Killed In Raid By Turkish Military.
May 10, 2008... More than 150 Kurdish rebels are killed in a cross-border air raid by Turkish military into northern Iraq earlier this week, according to Turkey's military. Turkish warplanes successfully hit all their intended targets in a three-hour air...

ARAB AFFAIRS - May 11 - Arab FMs Split Over Whom To Blame For Crisis.
May 17, 2008... Arab FMs holding crisis talks in Cairo are divided over a draft resolution that would implicitly condemn Hizbullah for deadly clashes in Lebanon. The draft resolution put before the ministers underlined the Arab League's "rejection of the use...

ARAB AFFAIRS - May 11 - Egypt Optimistic About Israel-Hamas Truce.
May 17, 2008... A top Egyptian mediator says he had "high expectations" that a ceasefire deal could be reached between Israel and Hamas Islamists controlling the Gaza Strip. Omar Sulaiman, Egypt's intelligence chief, held talks with Israeli Defence Minister...

ARAB ISRAEL RELATIONS - May 12 - Israel Says Peace 'Extremely Difficult' As Bush Prepares For Tour.
May 17, 2008... A peace deal between the Palestinians and Israelis will be "extremely difficult", because of longstanding disputes, Israeli President Shimon Peres tells The Washington Post in an interview, as US President George W Bush is set to visit the...

ARAB US RELATIONS - May 15 - Nuclear Arms For Iran 'A Betrayal'.
May 17, 2008... US President George W. Bush offers a peace prediction for the Middle East in which the enemies of the US faced a future of defeat. "This is a bold vision, and some will say it can never be achieved", Bush told Israel's parliament. The president...

ARAB US RELATIONS - May 11 - US Warns Israeli And Palestinian Leaders Over Stalled Talks.
May 17, 2008... The US government has warns Israeli and Palestinian leaders that they will lose public support for the peace process unless they can show progress in the near future. The message was passed on by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during...

AFGHANISTAN - May 13 - Afghan Madrassa Plan Hit By Funding Shortfall.
May 17, 2008... An Afghan plan to build a network of government-approved religious schools to try to undermine the radical madrassas used as a recruiting ground by the Taliban is failing to attract international financial support, according to the country's...

AFGHANISTAN - May 16 - New Bin Laden Message Focuses On Palestinian Issue.
May 17, 2008... Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden Osama Bin Laden vows in a new audio message to continue the fight against Israel and not give up an inch of Palestinian land. In his latest message posted on an Islamist website on Friday, Bin Laden also said...

IRAN - May 13 - Iran's Ahmadi-Nejad To Offer Proposals In Nuclear Row.(Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad)(Brief article)
May 17, 2008... President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad says Iran will soon submit new proposals to resolve its dispute with the West over its nuclear programme. "There are various concerns in the world which big powers have no solutions for those international...

IRAQ - May 11 - Missile Is Fired At Copter Over Baghdad, US Says.
May 17, 2008... A surface-to-air missile is fired at an American Apache helicopter flying over the Sadr City section of Baghdad. The attack, which had not been disclosed previously, represents the first time that a helicopter has come under missile attack in...

IRAQ - May 12 - Sadr And Government Sign Truce In Baghdad.(Muqtada al-Sadr)
May 17, 2008... Representatives of the Shi'ite theologian Muqtada al-Sadr and lawmakers from Iraq's main Shi'ite political bloc signed a four-day cease-fire in an effort to end seven weeks of fighting in the neighborhood of Sadr City here. Sadr is thought to...

IRAQ - May 14 - Girl, 8, Used As Bomber Kills Iraqi Captain.
May 17, 2008... Spokesmen for both the US and Iraqi military have confirmed that an eight year old girl strapped with explosives was the cause of a blast that killed an Iraqi captain and injured four soldiers south of Baghdad. Iraqi Army Lt Ahmad Ali said the...

LEBANON - May 11 - Civil War Fear As Lebanon Clashes Escalate.
May 17, 2008... Fierce clashes involving rockets and heavy machine guns erupt in Lebanon between pro-government forces and opposition gunmen in mountains east of Beirut. At the same time Arab FMs held an emergency meeting in an effort to find a solution to the...

LEBANON - May 12 - Civil War Fear As Lebanon Clashes Escalate.
May 17, 2008... Clashes resume in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli in fighting between Hizbullah and its pro-government opponents as security sources said at least 36 people had been killed in fierce clashes. Security sources said the 36 dead fighting...

SAUDI ARABIA - May 13 - Saudis Blame Iran For Lebanon 'Coup'.
May 17, 2008... Saudi Arabia describes Hizbullah's military actions in Lebanon as a coup backed by Iran, illustrating the regional tensions the Lebanese crisis threatens to exacerbate. In the strongest comments yet from the kingdom in relation to the crisis in...

TURKEY - May 11 - Turkey Launches Attacks Against Kurdish Rebels.
May 17, 2008... Turkey has launched air and artillery attacks against Kurdish separatist rebels in northern Iraq following an insurgent attack on a Turkish military base. A statement released on the Turkish military's website said artillery units and attack...

ARAB AFFAIRS - May 19 - Arab Ministers Struggle To Save Lebanon Talks.
May 24, 2008... Arab FMs struggle to salvage the Lebanon talks after several proposals failed to win a consensus from the pro-western governing coalition and the Iran-backed Hizbullah-led opposition. On the fourth day of negotiations in Doha, the mood soured...

ARAB AFFAIRS - May 20 - GCC Leaders Emphasise Commitment To Peace Plan.
May 24, 2008... GCC leaders hold a consultative meeting here and emphasised their commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative. The peace plan, originally proposed by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, offers Israel normal ties with Arab states in...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - May 19 - France Acknowledges Contacts With Hamas.
May 24, 2008... France confirms that it has been engaged in contacts with the leaders of Hamas, the radical Islamic group that is running Gaza, for several months to try to better understand its positions. The Bush administration, which recently likened talks...

ARAB ISRAEL RELATIONS - May 20 - Despite Violence, Israeli Officials Say Gaza Cease-Fire Is Close.
May 24, 2008... Israeli aircraft launched at least three attacks on Palestinians, killing four Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, Palestinian doctors said. Despite the violence, Israeli defense officials said an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire could take...

ARAB US RELATIONS - May 18 - Bush Presses Middle East Leaders To Isolate Iran.
May 24, 2008... US President George W. Bush calls on Middle East governments to stop Iran and Syria from "supporting terrorism". "Every peaceful nation in the region has an interest in opposing Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions", Bush said in remarks prepared...

ARAB US RELATIONS - May 20 - US Criticises New Report About Iran.
May 24, 2008... The White House sharply criticised a news organization for the second time in two days over reports about administration policy toward Iran, dismissing an Israeli report that President George W. Bush was preparing to order an attack on Iran...

IRAN - May 20 - Iranian Theologians Tell The President To Leave The Theology To Them.
May 24, 2008... In his almost three years as president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has been harshly criticised in the West. But he is increasingly drawing fire from Shi'ite theologians here, who accuse him of using religion to distract attention from his...

IRAQ - May 19 - Iraqi Officials Say Top Qaeda Figure In Mosul Has Been Arrested.
May 24, 2008... Iraqi officials say that the police had arrested a man suspected of being a top figure in Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia in the northern city of Mosul, where security forces have been carrying out a crackdown to root out the terror network. The US...

IRAQ - May 20 - Operation In Sadr City Is An Iraqi Success, So Far.
May 24, 2008... Iraqi forces rolled unopposed through the huge Shi'ite enclave of Sadr City, a dramatic turnaround from the bitter fighting that has plagued the Baghdad neighbourhood for two months, and a qualified success for PM Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. As it...

ISRAEL - May 23 - Israeli PM Questioned Again By Police In Corruption Scandal.
May 24, 2008... The PM of Israel, Ehud Olmert, was interrogated by the police for the second time this month in connection with a new and potentially serious corruption scandal. Also May 23, Olmert's lawyers failed in a bid to delay by two weeks the early...

LEBANON - May 18- Doha Talks Make Progress But Hurdles Remain.
May 24, 2008... Lebanese leaders make progress toward ending their political crisis but talks foundered on the second day of the Qatar-hosted meetings as Hizbullah stuck to its refusal to discuss any possibility it would give up its weapons. Qatar's Emir...

PALESTINE - May 22 - Suicide Bomber Attacks Gaza Crossing.
May 24, 2008... A Palestinian suicide bomber detonates a truck packed with explosives early just short of the Erez crossing on the Gaza-Israel border, militant groups and the Israeli military said. It appeared that only the bomber had been killed in the blast...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - May 29 - US Cancels Fulbright Grants To Palestinian Scholars.
May 31, 2008... The State Department has withdrawn all Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in Gaza hoping to pursue advanced degrees at American institutions this fall because Israel has not granted permission for the students to leave Gaza. Israel's...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - May 27 - US Fails To Toe Tough Bush Line On Mideast.
May 31, 2008... The US has followed up President George W. Bush's warning this month about the risks of appeasement in an unusual way. Washington has welcomed negotiations with some of the Middle Eastern actors the Bush administration most distrusts. Last...

IRAN - May 28 - Larijani Elected Iran's Parliament Speaker.(Ali Larijani)
May 31, 2008... Iran's parliament elects as its speaker former top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, a conservative heavyweight who has been critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad. And in his first speech to the 287-member assembly, Larijani made clear his...

IRAN - May 29 - Iran On Track For Nuclear Milestone.
May 31, 2008... Iran's nuclear programme has made big strides in recent months and the country is on course to pass an important threshold for nuclear weapons capability next year, scientists and analysts say. Ever since Iran started enriching uranium in...

IRAQ - May 25 - Iraqi Government Trades Accusations With Sadr Followers.
May 31, 2008... As some semblance of normal life begins to return to the Sadr City district of Baghdad, the Iraqi government and followers of Muqtada al-Sadr accused the other of being weak after a cease-fire that finally brought calm to one of the capital's...

IRAQ - May 27 - A Sunni Bloc Pulls Back On Rejoining Iraqi Cabinet.
May 31, 2008... Iraq's largest Sunni political bloc suspended its return to the Shi'ite-dominated government, saying PM Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had refused to give it the cabinet ministries it wanted. The move raised the possibility that the Sunni bloc, known as...

IRAQ - May 29 - Iraq Calls For Debt Cancellation.
May 31, 2008... Senior members of Iraq's government have stepped up calls for Arab neighbours to cancel up to $60bn in debts run up during the rule of Saddam Hussein in order to speed up the economic development of the country. Speaking at an international...

IRAQ - May 30 - Maliki Faces Uphill Fight Over Security Pact.
May 31, 2008... PM Nuri Kamal al-Maliki faces emerging opposition to his efforts to negotiate a security agreement that will set out how long American forces and military bases stay in Iraq, who American troops can arrest and attack, and whether they will...

ISRAEL - May 26 - Olmert Israel Has Not Committed To Returning Golan Heights.
May 31, 2008... PM Ehud Olmert says Israel has not committed to pulling out of the Golan Heights. Speaking to a parliamentary committee, Olmert said: From February 2007 to May 2008, nothing was said aside from 'you know what I want, and I know what you want...

LEBANON - May 25 - Lebanon Gets President After Six-Month Wait.(Michel Suleiman)
May 31, 2008... Lebanon's parliament confirms Michel Suleiman, army commander, as president amid scenes of jubilation in a country that was on the brink of civil war just over a week ago. The result of the vote was greeted with fireworks and celebratory...

LEBANON - May 26 - Hizbullah Leader Plays Down Group's Political Aims In Lebanon.(Shaikh Hassan Nasrallah)
May 31, 2008... Hizbullah's leader sought to reassure the Lebanese about the Shi'ite militant group's intentions in a speech saying that its newly expanded political clout will not translate into greater control over the state, and that its top priority...

PALESTINE - May 25 - Hamas Wants Arabs To Broker Palestinian Accord.
May 31, 2008... Palestinian group Hamas is open to Arab mediation in its dispute with the rival Fatah faction, the Arab League chief said in remarks. AMoussa said that Hamas leader Khaled Mesha'al had expressed the group's view during a telephone conversation,...