APS Diplomat Recorder articles from October 2004

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from October 2004

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sep 26 - Blair Warns Against 'False Hopes' For Briton Being Held In Iraq.
October 2, 2004... PM Tony Blair warns against "raising false hopes" for a British engineer held hostage in Iraq, as the crisis casts a shadow over the start of his party's annual conference. Kenneth Bigley, 62, was abducted in Baghdad 10 days ago, along with two...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 1 - Chirac Promises Turkey Referendum.
October 2, 2004... The French Pres Jacques Chirac, promises France will hold a referendum in 10-15 years' time on Turkey's eventual entry to the EU and on all subsequent enlargements of the 25-country organisation. After meeting in Strasbourg with the German...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sep 26 - Israel Accused After Syria Car Bomb Killing.
October 2, 2004... A suspected military commander of Hamas Izzedin Shaikh Khalil, is killed when his booby-trapped car explodes in Damascus and the Palestinian militant group accuses Israel of carrying out the assassination. There was no official acknowledgement...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sep 27 - Israelis Kill 7 Palestinians; CNN Crewman Abducted.
October 2, 2004... Seven Palestinians are killed in scattered violence, including an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip and an incursion by soldiers into a West Bank refugee camp. Also, Palestinian gunmen in Gaza City abducted an Israeli Arab working for CNN....

ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct 1 - Israelis Pursue Palestinians Deep Into Gaza Strip.
October 2, 2004... In its biggest offensive against the territory in the four-year Palestinian uprising, Israel pour forces into the Gaza Strip and warns of harsher measures if the invasion fails to end Palestinian rocket attacks. Witnesses said as many as 90...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sep 26 - Powell Says Rebellion In Iraq Intensifying.
October 2, 2004... In a departure from the Bush administration's recent assessments of security in the country, US State Secretary Colin Powell, says the revolt in Iraq is intensifying. Talking on ABC TV's This Week programme, Powell said: "We are fighting an...

AFGHANISTAN - Sep 25 - Senior Talib Is Killed.
October 2, 2004... A senior commander of the Taliban Maulavi Ghaffar, who has been released from the American detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is killed in Uruzgan Province. Ghaffar spent eight months in the Guantanamo prison. He had been captured after...

AFGHANISTAN - Sep 27 - Warlords' Power Has Been Checked.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2004... The US envoy to Kabul Zalmay Khalilzad, says the government has broken the back of the country's abusive provincial strongmen but concedes they will still influence voters in next week's Presidential election. However, he denied he had been...

IRAQ - Sep 30 - Baghdad Bombs Kill More Than 30 Children.
October 2, 2004... A series of car bombs kill more than 30 children in a west Baghdad suburb, as deputy PM Barham Salih predicted an imminent offensive into rebel-held cities. The bombs tore through a crowd of children who had gathered to receive sweets at a...

LEBANON - Oct 1 - Bomb Hurts Syria Critic.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2004... A remote-controlled car bomb wounds a prominent Lebanese opposition politician Marwan Hamadeh and kills his driver in Beirut, weeks after he quit the government to protest Syria's grip on Lebanon. Marwan Hamadeh, resigned as economy minister...

RUSSIA - Sep 27 - Mikhail Fradkov Defends State Intervention.
October 2, 2004... PM Mikhail Fradkov, defends the state's growing role in the economy, saying the country "should not be ashamed of the term 'active industrial policy'". He told an international investment conference: "If we try to follow the classic western...

RUSSIA - Sep 30 - Kyoto Survives.
October 2, 2004... After years of vacillation, the government approves the Kyoto protocol to combat global warming and sends it to the Duma for the formal ratification that is the key to bringing this seven-year-old international treaty into effect. It is too...

TURKEY - Sep 26 - Ankara Overhauls Penal Code.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2004... The parliament approves sweeping changes to the country's penal code, a week before a landmark report on its bid to join the EU. MPs voted to ratify the changes, which include tougher sentences for torture and "honour killings", knowing that...

YEMEN - 2 Sentenced To Die For Cole Attack.
October 2, 2004... Judge Najib Al Qaderi sentences two men to death and four others to prison terms of as long as 10 years for the deadly attack in 2000 against the US warship Cole. The convictions are the first stemming from the water-borne suicide bombing that...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 6 - Blair Sets Deadline For Peace Deal In Sudan.
October 9, 2004... On a visit to Khartoum, before leaving for Ethiopia for a summit with African leaders, Blair meets Sudan Pres Omar Hassan Al Bashir, for talks on the violence in Darfur, in the west of Sudan and gives the Sudanese government until the end of...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 6 - Brussels Sets Tough Conditions For Turkey Talks.
October 9, 2004... The European Commission recommendation, says that, on a number of specific issues, Ankara will have to measure up to additional standards before negotiations can begin. In addition, Turkey will have to continue its process of political reform....

ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct 3 - Sharon Vows To Expand Gaza Raid.
October 9, 2004... Israeli PM Ariel Sharon vows to expand an offensive in Gaza that has killed 55 Palestinians until militants stop firing rockets into Israel. Militants fired another rocket into the Jewish state Oct 3 in a campaign that has fuelled criticism...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 4 - Rumsfeld Softens Claims Of Al Qaeda Link To Iraq.(Brief Article)
October 9, 2004... US Def Sec Donald Rumsfeld, appears to soften claims that Al Qaeda had links to the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, which are a major part of the Bush administration's case for war. Rumsfeld told a meeting in New York that "to my...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 6 - Iraq Did Not Have WMD - Duelfer.(Weapons of mass destruction)
October 9, 2004... In a long -awaited 1,000 page report likely to be cited by both sides in next month's US Presidential election, the US's top weapons inspector Charles Duelfer concludes Saddam Hussein's regime has no WMD since 1991 and no active programmes to...

AFGHANISTAN - Oct 6 - Karzai's Running Mate Survives Assassination Attempt.(Brief Article)
October 9, 2004... Pres Hamid Karzai's running mate Ahmad Zia Massoud escapes an assassination attempt during a campaign stop in northern Afghanistan, the third attack on one of his close political allies only days before the country holds its first direct...

IRAN - Oct 4 - Conservatives Divided Over How To Respond To Nuclear Demands.
October 9, 2004... One of the reformist vice-presidents Mohammad Ali Abtahi, announces his intention to resign, just a day after parliament votes to impeach Ahmad Khorram, transport minister. Abtahi, a close ally of Pres Mohammad Khatami, said he could not fulfil...

IRAQ - Oct 3 - US And Iraqi Troops Consolidate Hold On Samarra.
October 9, 2004... US and Iraqi troops consolidates their hold on Samarra in an apparently successful first stage in the US-led coalition's strategy of using Iraqi troops to retake rebel-held cities. Military sources cautioned that the success of this operation...

IRAQ - Oct 5 - Allawi Sounds Note Of Gravity On War.
October 9, 2004... In his first speech before the interim national assembly here, PM Ayad Allawi gives a sobering account of the threat posed by the insurgency, saying that the country's instability is a "source of worry for many people" and that the guerrillas...

IRAQ - Oct 7 - Rockets Hit Sheraton In Central Baghdad.
October 9, 2004... Two rockets hit a central Baghdad hotel housing foreigners and journalists and gunfire erupts in the neighbourhood, which is across the Tigris River from the US Embassy compound. Security guards at the Palestine Hotel said two rockets fired...

RUSSIA - Oct 4 - Yukos Ex-Security Chief Denies Murder.(Brief Article)
October 9, 2004... A former head of security at Yukos Alexei Pichugin, pleads not guilty to murder. He is accused of organising several murders including that of a couple whose bodies have never been found. Pichugin's arrest marked the beginning of an assault on...

RUSSIA - Oct 6 - One Billion Tax Bill Arrives At Yukos Unit.
October 9, 2004... Yukos says the Russian tax authorities has sent a bill for back taxes and penalties totaling nearly $1 bn to its largest subsidiary, Yuganskneftegas. The 2002 tax bill, for 27.8 bn rubles, or $951m, comes in addition to the $7.5 bn in back...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 11 - EU Agrees To End Arms Ban On Libya.
October 16, 2004... EU FMs agree to lift an arms embargo on Libya, marking a further step toward the return of the North African country to the international diplomatic fold. Europe's move to further thaw relations with Libya follows Tripoli's decision last year...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 13 - Blair Further Defines Iraq Apology.
October 16, 2004... Talking to the house of commons, PM Tony Blair gives his most explicit apology to date for the flawed intelligence assessments upon which he took Britain to war in Iraq, but he rejects opposition demands that he says he is sorry for...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct 13 - Officer Suspended Over Gaza Shooting.
October 16, 2004... The Israeli army suspends an officer who is accused of firing up to 20 bullets into a 13-year-old Palestinian as she lays on the ground after having been shot from an army outpost. Another schoolgirl died after being shot while sitting at her...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct 14 - Sharon Gives Timeline For Gaza Withdrawal.
October 16, 2004... Ariel Sharon says he wanted to begin withdrawing Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip in May or June and to complete the pullout within three months. Sharon's comments at a closed session of Parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 10 - Rice Offers Defiant Defence Of Iraq Invasion.(Brief Article)
October 16, 2004... Offering a defiant defence of the US administration's war policy just three weeks before national elections, Bush's chief national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, says US would have taken the same decision to invade Iraq even had it known...

EGYPT - Oct 10 - Local Extremists Main Suspects In Egyptian Attacks.
October 16, 2004... Security officials in Cairo suspect Oct 7 Sinai attacks targeting Israeli tourists are perpetrated by Egyptian extremists who may have smuggled the explosives in from abroad, possibly from Jordan or Saudi Arabia. Officials said no final...

IRAQ - Oct 10 - Details In Dispute As Sadr City Ceasefire Takes Hold.
October 16, 2004... As an optimistic-sounding ceasefire agreement between interim government and the militia loyal to the radical Shiite theologian Muqtada Al Sadr takes hold, for the first time in several weeks, the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City breathes peaceful...

IRAQ - Oct 10 - Car Bombs Kill 11.
October 16, 2004... Car bombers strike twice in rapid succession in Baghdad, killing at least 11 people including an American soldier, as Def Sec Donald Rumsfeld warns violence may increase before the January election. The most feared terror group, Tawhid and...

IRAQ - Oct 13 - Donors Urged To Speed Up Funding.
October 16, 2004... At a donor's conference in Tokyo, a follow-up to the last year's Madrid meeting, the deputy PM Barham Salih urges donors to speed up funding for its reconstruction and step up pledges to forgive much of its $125 bn debt, saying faster project...

IRAQ - Oct 14 - Bombers Strike In Baghdad's GreenZone.
October 16, 2004... Two suicide bombers strike inside the Green Zone in the centre of Baghdad, killing at least 10 people, the first time that guerrilla fighters have penetrated and successfully attacked the most heavily fortified US bastion in Iraq. The bombs...

ISRAEL - Oct 12 - Sharon Fights To Avoid Early Elections.
October 16, 2004... PM Sharon, is trying to fight off the prospect of early elections after an unprecedented parliamentary defeat complicating his plan to withdraw from Gaza. Sharon rejected both an early poll and a national referendum on the Gaza plan as options...

RUSSIA - Oct 14 - Yukos Unit To Be Sold For Knock-down $4 bn.
October 16, 2004... The government appears to be preparing to sell the main asset of Yukos, the country's embattled oil company, for as little as $4 bn - a fraction of its fair value - in a move analysts branded as "daylight robbery" and a "worst-case scenario"....

SAUDI ARABIA - Oct 11 - Women's Voting Hopes Dashed.
October 16, 2004... In his statement to Kuwait's Al-Watan newspaper, Interior Minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdelaziz, delivers a blow to women's hopes that they may be allowed to participate in municipal elections in the kingdom early next year. The prince gave no...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 19 - Syrian Trade Deal To Test EU Policy On Weapon Curbs.
October 23, 2004... The European Commission and Syria initialled an association agreement that will give Damascus greater access to EU markets but which also includes controls on WMD. EU governments have yet to give their approval, but the draft association...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 21 - UK Agrees To Redeploy Troops Despite Political Furore.(Brief Article)
October 23, 2004... UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon agrees to a US request to redeploy some of Britain's troops to central Iraq, despite claims from critics that such a move can expose UK forces to greater danger and higher casualty rates. Hoon says the decision...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct 21 - Israel Kills Top Hamas Militant Ahead Of Vote On Gaza.
October 23, 2004... Israel kills top Hamas commander Adnan Al Ghoul in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian militant group vows to hit back hard, setting the scene for a key Israeli parliamentary vote next week to quit the occupied territory. The assassination of...

ARABS-UN - Oct 19 - Annan Warns Against Alienating Iraqis During Fighting.(Kofi Annan)(Brief Article)
October 23, 2004... UN Sec Gen Kofi Annan, warns the US-led battle to win back control of Iraqi towns from insurgent groups must be "calibrated" to avoid further alienating the Iraqi population. Addressing a news conference with Jack Straw, Britain's foreign...

ARABS-UN - Oct 21 - UN Oil Probe Avoids Pointing Finger.(Brief Article)
October 23, 2004... The head of the UN' inquiry into allegations of impropriety in Iraq's oil-for-food programme Paul Volcker, releases a list of companies that bought oil from and sold goods to Saddam's Iraq, but steered free of any specific allegations of...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 20 - Taliban In Disarray - US Military.(Brief Article)
October 23, 2004... A spokesman for the US-led coalition that has been fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda for three years Maj Scott Nelson says the Taliban leadership is in disarray following the group's failure to disrupt Afghanistan's presidential election. He...

AFGHANISTAN - Oct 18 - Karzai Takes Strong Lead In Afghan Election.
October 23, 2004... The prospect of an outright victory for Hamid Karzai in presidential election grows as he picks up 62% of the first million ballots counted. Karzai's strong lead will be welcome news to his political supporters as well as some international...

IRAQ - Oct 17 - GIs Continue To Pound Falluja.
October 23, 2004... US troops pound the insurgent stronghold of Falluja with airstrikes and tank fire, and the government appeals to residents of the city to expel "foreign terrorists" to prevent an all-out attack. As violence soared, two American soldiers were...

IRAQ - Oct 19 - Woman Working For British Charity Abducted.(Brief Article)
October 23, 2004... Kidnappers seize the British-Iraqi head of an international charity group in Baghdad and later she is shown sitting anxiously and alone in a video broadcast by an Arabic TV station. Margaret Hassan, who has dual nationality and has lived in...

IRAQ - Oct 21 - Shiites 'Agree' Deal On Candidate List For Elections.
October 23, 2004... Shiite Islamist parties reaches a "preliminary agreement" to run a single list of candidates in parliamentary elections scheduled for January, with help from representatives of the most powerful theologian in Iraq, Grand Ayat Sistani. If the...

IRAQ - Oct 22 - Hassan In Video Appeal For Release.(Brief Article)
October 23, 2004... British-Iraqi hostage Margaret Hassan makes an emotional appeal for British forces to withdraw from Iraq, in a videotape broadcast on Arabic TV Al Jazeera. "Please help me, please help me", Hassan, who works for aid agency Care International,...

IRAN - Oct 21 - Mixed Signals From Iran In Nuclear Dispute.
October 23, 2004... The foreign policy chief of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Hossein Mousavian says Iran needs time to consider a European package designed to persuade it to suspend its nuclear enrichment programme in line with a UN request. Mousavian...

LEBANON - Oct 20 - Rafik Hariri Resigns.
October 23, 2004... PM Rafik Hariri, resigns after weeks of speculation about the fate of his government, amid a political crisis triggered by intense international pressure on Syria over its influence in Lebanon's political affairs. Four ministers had already...

RUSSIA - Kommersant Newspaper Faces $10m Bill For Defamation.
October 23, 2004... One of the country's most critical daily newspapers is hit with a record $10m legal bill after losing a defamation case against the country's largest private bank. The decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court to award the damages to Alfa Bank...

SAUDI ARABIA - Oct 19 - Two More Wanted Terrorists Caught.(Brief Article)
October 23, 2004... Saudi security forces arrest two wanted terrorists, one disguised as a woman, as they press ahead with a crackdown on extremists blamed for a string of terror attacks. The two were arrested in the southern township of Houtat Bani Tamim and...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 24 - Iran Rejects European Deal On Nuclear Program.
October 30, 2004... Iran rejects a proposal, to suspend its uranium enrichment program, by Britain, Germany and France and urges the three countries to offer a "more balanced" proposal. Iran's FM spokesman, Hamid Reza Assefi says: "The European proposal is their...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 26 - Allawi Criticises US-Led Forces For The First Time.
October 30, 2004... PM Ayad Allawi partly blames the US-led military forces for the massacre by insurgents of 49 freshly trained Iraqi soldiers on Oct 23, saying the military has shown "major negligence." In a speech before the interim National Assembly, Allawi...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 29 - Bin Laden Shocks US.
October 30, 2004... In a video surfacing more than a year, Al Qaeda leader Bin Laden makes a dramatic intervention in the US presidential race, by releasing a videotape warning of possible new terror attacks against the US. Addressed to the American people, the...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 29 - US 'Destroyed 230 Tonnes Of Iraq Explosives.(Brief Article)
October 30, 2004... The Pentagon says US soldiers destroy about 230 tonnes of munitions found at the Al Qaqaa arms facility in Iraq, but provides no evidence that they include any of the high explosives that has vanished from the site. Maj Austin Pearson, who...

AFGHANISTAN - Oct 24 - Karzai On Brink Of Victory In First Round Of Voting.(Brief Article)
October 30, 2004... Hamid Karzai is on the brink of victory in presidential election, when his share of the estimated 8.1mn votes cast on Oct 9 topped 50%. Karzai, who has led the interim government since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, needs a majority to...

EGYPT - Oct 25 - Red Sea Bombing Leader Identified.
October 30, 2004... The interior ministry names a Palestinian as the mastermind of bomb attacks which killed at least 33 people at Red Sea resorts earlier this month, many of them Israeli. In what appears to be a breakthrough in the investigation into the car...

IRAN - Oct 24 - Tehran 'Prepared' For UN Security Council Referral.
October 30, 2004... The Foreign Policy Chief of Supreme National Security Council Hussain Mousavian says Tehran i preparing to face referral to the UN Security Council over its nuclear programme but is still open for compromise. Mousavian said an incentive...

IRAQ - Oct 23 - 49 Soldiers Die In Guerrilla Ambush.
October 30, 2004... In the single deadliest ambush of insurgency, dressed as security officers, guerrillas execute 49 freshly trained Iraqi soldiers Oct 23 evening on a remote road in eastern Iraq as the unarmed soldiers are going home on leave. The soldiers were...

IRAQ Oct 25 - Ramadan Brings Rising Violence.(Brief Article)
October 30, 2004... Bombs and clashes kill 12 in a surge of Ramadan attacks and also claiming the lives of an Estonian and an American soldier. The death brought to 845 the number of US troops killed in action since the war started last year. In the first attack...

IRAQ - Oct 26 - Zarqawi Group Seizes Japanese Hostage.(Brief Article)
October 30, 2004... Al Jazeera TV reports a group led by Al Qaeda ally Abu Musab Al Zarqawi taking hostage a Japanese man in Iraq and giving the Japanese government 48 hours to withdraw its forces from the country. The Arab satellite channel showed a video tape of...

IRAQ - Oct 28 - 11 Iraqi Soldiers Are Slain After Being Held Hostage.
October 30, 2004... A grisly video released shows militants killing 11 Iraqi soldiers held hostage for days, beheading one, then shooting the others execution-style. Another group released a video of a kidnapped Polish woman, demanding that Warsaw pull its troops...

IRAQ - Oct 29 - Sadr Theologian Urges Supporters To Vote.
October 30, 2004... Tens of thousands worshippers in the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad are told to vote in January elections by a representative of Sadr, Shaikh Abdul Zahra Al Suweidi, the clearest sign yet the radical Shiite theologian has given up armed...

ISRAEL - Oct 24 - Cabinet Hands Victory To Sharon.
October 30, 2004... PM Ariel Sharon wins a key victory as his cabinet easily approves a plan to compensate Jewish settlers who will be uprooted from the Gaza Strip. It was the first of three crucial votes on the Gaza withdrawal plan set for this week and next....

KUWAIT - Oct 26 - Vote for Women.
October 30, 2004... Ignoring stiff opposition from Islamist deputies, the Emir Shaikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah opens the new session of the National Assembly (Parliament) with an ambitious reform program for women including the right to vote and seek public office...

LEBANON - Oct 26 - Karami Forms Pro-Syrian Cabinet.(Brief Article)
October 30, 2004... New PM, Omar Karami, forms a cabinet consisting entirely of pro-Syrian politicians, defying international and domestic pressure against Syrian influence. To face the pressure, Karami had called for a government of national unity, but the list...

PALESTINE - Oct 27 - Yasser Arafat Said To Be 'Very, Very Sick'.(Brief Article)
October 30, 2004... Senior Palestinian officials rush to the bedside of PA Pres Yassir Arafat, amid reports that the ailing 75-year-old has lapsed into a coma. Witnesses said that an ambulance went to Arafat's besieged Ramallah HQ's on Oct 27 night following...

RUSSIA - Oct 29 - Putin Plan For Political Overhaul Easily Passes Its First Vote.
October 30, 2004... The lower house of Parliament takes its first step toward adopting Pres Putin's sweeping overhaul of the country's political system, despite signs of popular dissent, particularly in regions distant from the capital. After demonstrators...