APS Diplomat Recorder articles from October 2006

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from October 2006

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 3 - Britain Revives Threat Of Sanctions On Iran.
October 7, 2006... Tensions renew over Iran's nuclear programme emerge as Britain warns that world powers will return to the UN Security Council to consider targeted sanctions against Tehran. A senior British official said preparations for a new UN...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct 1 - Israel Withdraws Last Troops From Lebanon.
October 7, 2006... The Israeli army withdraw the last of its forces from south Lebanon in accordance with a UN-brokered ceasefire that came into force on August 14. The pullout followed the deployment in the border region of an expanded international force and...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct 3 - Israeli Warplanes Violate Lebanese Airspace Again.
October 7, 2006... Israeli warplanes fly deep into Lebanon, just two days after Israeli forces withdrew from nearly all of Southern Lebanon. Two Israeli warplanes entered Lebanese airspace at medium alti ude over Aitaroun and headed north toward Tripoli at...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 3 - Rice Seeks Support For Abbas.(Condoleezza Rice, Mahmoud Abbas )(Brief article)
October 7, 2006... US State Sec Condoleezza Rice appeals for an end to fighting among Palestinian factions and says she is looking for ways to strengthen Pres Mahmoud Abbas in his standoff with Hamas radicals who control part of the Palestinian government....

IRAQ - Oct 1 - Iraq Officials Claim To Be Closing In On Al-Qaeda Leader.
October 7, 2006... Officials in Baghdad declare that they are close to capturing al-Qaeda's new leader in Iraq as the government faces political fallout from a plot to attack the heavily fortified Green Zone. National security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie displayed...

IRAQ - Oct 2 - PM Unveils Plan To Curb Violence.
October 7, 2006... PM Nouri al-Maliki announces a four-point plan aimed at calming the sectarian violence raging in his country which will establish neighbourhood committees to oversee the work of the security forces. Maliki announced the initiative after meeting...

PALESTINE - Oct 1 - Hamas And Fatah Shoot It Out In Gaza.
October 7, 2006... Hamas and Fatah gunmen fight running battles in Gaza, as Hamas forces try to disrupt Fatah-organised protests over unpaid government salaries. Five Palestinians were killed and more than 75 were wounded. The clashes were among the most severe...

YEMEN - Sept 1 - Yemeni Forces Kill Two Top Al Qaida Fugitives.
October 7, 2006... Yemeni forces kill two Al Qaida fugitives who had been sentenced to death for an attack on the French oil tanker Limburg in 2002. They said forces killed Fawaz Al Rabe'ie and Muhammad Daylami after they raided two buildings in Sanaa where the...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Oct 8 - Gulf Arab Cash To Bolster Lebanese Army.
October 14, 2006... With US blessing, Gulf Arab states are promising financial help for Lebanon's armed forces in the aftermath of the war between Israel and Hizbullah. Strengthening the 50,000-strong but poorly equipped Lebanese army is crucial to efforts to...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Oct 8 - War With Israel Possible.
October 14, 2006... In an interview with Kuwait's Al-Anbaa daily Syrian President Bashar Assad says a war with archenemy Israel cannot be ruled out as long as a lasting peace in the Middle East is not achieved. He said: In principle, we (always) expect that there...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct 8 - Israeli Troops Kill Two Palestinians In West Bank.
October 14, 2006... Israeli troops kill a Palestinian militant and a Palestinian civilian near the West Bank city of Nablus. Palestinian witnesses said the gunman, from Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was shot in Balata, a refugee camp near Nablus. Two other members of...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct 12 - Syrian Overtures On Golan Heights Spark Israeli Debate.
October 14, 2006... Syrian calls for peace talks with Israel on the return of the occupied Golan Heights have stirred an Israeli debate in the aftermath of the summer war in Lebanon. But while some politicians and commentators suggest Damascus' "charm offensive"...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 11 - Pentagon To Maintain Troop Levels In Iraq.
October 14, 2006... The US army chief of staff says the Pentagon is planning for the possibility that it may have to keep current troop levels in Iraq until 2010. Gen Peter Schoomaker said he was not predicting that the situation in Iraq would require maintaining...

EGYPT - Oct 11 - Brotherhood Chief Barred From Going On Umrah.(Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Mahdi Akef)(Brief article)
October 14, 2006... Egyptian authorities bar the leader of the countyr's strongest opposition group, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, from travelling to Saudi Arabia for a religious pilgrimage. Masoud Al Sebahy, a senior aide to Muhammad Mahdi Akef, said Akef had...

IRAQ - Oct 8 - US And Iraqi Troops Kill 30 In Shi'ite City Clashes.
October 14, 2006... US and Iraqi troops kill 30 militants in fierce street battles in the southern Shi'ite city of Diwaniya. People were ordered to stay indoors under an indefinite curfew that came into force at 2 pm (1100 GMT) after explosions and the rattle of...

IRAQ - Oct 9 - Gunmen In Military Uniforms Kill Brother Of Vice-President.
October 14, 2006... Gunmen wearing military uniforms assassinate the brother of Iraq's Sunni Arab vice-president in his home - the third sibling the official has lost this year to the country's violence. Also Oct 9, 11 Iraq soldiers were kidnapped in a brazen...

IRAQ - Oct 9 - Saddam's Guards 'Buried People Alive'.(Saddam Hussain)
October 14, 2006... A former female prisoner testifies in the genocide trial of the ex-president saying prison guards under Saddam Hussain used to bury detainees alive and watch women as they bathed, occasionally shooting over their heads. Speaking in Kurdish...

IRAQ - Oct 11 - Survey Says 600,000 Have Died In Iraq War.
October 14, 2006... Conflict in Iraq has killed more than 600,000 people since the US-led invasion in March 2003, according to a controversial study published online on by the Lancet, a leading medical journal. The researchers said their figure, far higher than...

PALESTINE - Oct 11 - Hamas Accuses Abbas Of Wrecking Unity Talks.(Mahmoud Abbas)(Brief article)
October 14, 2006... Hamas accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction yesterday of ruining Qatari mediation to form a unity government and providing political cover for Western-imposed sanctions. Osama Hamdan, Hamas's top official in Lebanon, told...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 20 - 'Fear Is Key' To Stopping Iran's Nuclear Arms Plans.
October 21, 2006... Talking to the reporters after meeting Russian Pres Putin, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says Iran cannot be prevented from gaining nuclear arms if it is not afraid of retribution, in his most defiant rhetoric yet on the standoff over Iran's nuclear...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct 18 - Israelis Uncover 5 Tunnels In Gaza.
October 21, 2006... Israeli troops uncover five mugglers' tunnels as the forces advance along the Gaza Strip's southern border with Egypt, and four Palestinians are killed in overnight clashes. Over the past week, Israeli forces have staged almost daily raids in...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 17 - US Presses Iraq On Amnesty Issue.
October 21, 2006... The Bush administration is pressing the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki to issue a "broad" and "painful" amnesty for insurgents in spite of intense opposition to the proposal from politicians both in Iraq and the US. Amid growing anxiety in...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 19 - US Army Concedes Failure In Baghdad.
October 21, 2006... US and Iraqi efforts to improve security in Baghdad fail to reduce bloodshed in the increasingly violent Iraqi capital. In an uncharacteristically gloomy admission, Maj Gen William Caldwell said the recent surge in violence was "disheartening"....

IRAN - Oct 20 - Ahmadi-Nejad Warns West On Support Of Israel.(Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad)(Brief article)
October 21, 2006... Pres Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad warns that Western countries and particularly Europe will be hurt by popular fury against their support of Israel. In a speech carried live by Iranian radio, Ahmadi-Nejad told European countries, "People in the region...

IRAQ - Oct 15 - Call For Sunni State.
October 21, 2006... A video posted on the internet in the name of one of Iraq's largest insurgent groups calls for the creation of a separate Sunni Islamic state in the country. If authentic, it could indicate a shift in strategy for parts of the Sunni Arab...

IRAQ - Oct 15 - Car Bombs Kill 10 In Northern Iraq.
October 21, 2006... Four car bombs explode in apparently co-ordinated attacks in the restive northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, killing 10 people and emptying the streets as terrified residents stay indoors. US and Iraqi troops patrolled the city as helicopters...

ISRAEL - Oct 15 - Police Seek Rape Charge Against Israeli President.
October 21, 2006... The police recommends that President Moshe Katsav be charged with rape, aggravated sexual assault and fraud, the most serious charges ever to face an Israeli leader. The recommendation came at a meeting between police investigators and Attorney...

SAUDI ARABIA - Oct 20 - Saudi Arabia Sets Up Panel To Vet Candidates For The Throne.
October 21, 2006... The Kingdom announces the formation of a committee of princes to vote on the eligibility of future kings and crown princes in an apparent effort to quell uncertainty about the kingdom's stability. The measure institutionalises...

SUDAN - Oct 14 - Sudan Signs Peace Pact With Eastern Rebel Group.
October 21, 2006... The Sudanese government signs a peace deal with a small rebel movement in the eastern part of the country, an agreement intended to end fighting that lasted for 10 years, though never with the intensity of the conflict in Darfur. According to...

TUNISIA - Oct 16 - Tunisia Cracks Down On The Wearing Of Headscarves.
October 21, 2006... Tunisian authorities launch a campaign against the Islamic headscarf, with senior officials criticising it as a "sectarian" form of dress and police stopping women on the street and asking them to uncover their hair. "I was stopped in the...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 26 - Russia Bars Proposed Sanctions On Iran.
October 28, 2006... Russia rejects a European proposal for sanctions on Iran as too tough, amid reports that Tehran is stepping up its nuclear programme. Sergei Lavrov, FM, said Moscow could not approve a draft UN resolution circulated by France, Germany and the...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Oct 24 - Israel To Continue Gaza Operations.
October 28, 2006... The Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz says the army will continue its operations in the Gaza Strip to prevent Palestinian rocket attacks and arms smuggling from Egypt. Peretz, on a tour of the Israel-Gaza border, spoke hours after the army...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 24 - Success In Iraq Possible, Say US Officials.
October 28, 2006... The US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, and the top US commander in Iraq General George Casey, in a rare joint press conference, delivers a unified message: that, despite the images of daily carnage in Baghdad, success is still possible. They said...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 24 - No Ultimatums For Iraq, Rumsfeld Says.(Donald Rumsfeld)
October 28, 2006... Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in a combative briefing, says that the US plans no penalties if the Iraqi government fails to meet the benchmarks or deadlines for progress that the Bush administration says the two governments have been...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Oct 27 - US-Led Forces Move To Defend Saudi Oil Terminal.
October 28, 2006... US-led coalition naval forces move into Saudi Arabia's port of Ras Tanura to ward off a possible terror attack against the world's biggest oil export facility. A statement from the combined naval taskforce said: Acting on information received,...

IRAN - Oct 22 - Iran Hints At Retaliation If UN Passes Sanctions.
October 28, 2006... An Iranian FM official warns that Tehran will not remain passive if the West imposes sanctions over Iran's disputed nuclear program, but did not say how it would respond. Muhammad Ali Hosseini, spokesman for the ministry, made the comments days...

IRAQ - Oct 21 - Shi'ite Infighting Threatens Troop Withdrawal.
October 28, 2006... Iraqi government officials and religious leaders move to broker a settlement in a dispute between rival Shi'ite groups in the southern provincial capital of Amara. The town was overrun on Oct 20 by fighters of the radical Mahdi Army militia....

PALESTINE - Oct 22 - Fatah Protest Raises Tension Across Gaza.
October 28, 2006... Palestinian security forces loyal to Pres Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah Party block main intersections across the Gaza Strip, burning tires and snarling traffic to protest the Hamas government's inability to pay their salaries. The protest raised...

SUDAN - Oct 22 - Sudan Orders Un Envoy Out Of Country.
October 28, 2006... The country orders the top UN envoy in Khartoum to leave the country within 72 hours following comments posted on his personal website that says army morale was low after it suffered heavy defeats in Darfur. The order was issued against Jan...

SYRIA - Oct 22 - Damascus Regime 'On Brink Of Collapse'.(Brief article)
October 28, 2006... An exiled former Syrian vice president Abdul-Halim Khaddam says that President Bashar Assad's regime is on the brink of collapse and calls on Syrians to prepare for the day when he will be overthrown. Abdul-Halim Khaddam, who is wanted in Syria...