APS Diplomat Recorder articles from October 2008

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from October 2008

ARAB ISRAEL RELATIONS - Israel Admits Violence Is On The Rise In Colonies.
October 4, 2008... Hundreds of Jewish colonists are engaged in violence against Palestinians and Israeli soldiers who get in their way, Israel's top general in the occupied West Bank said in remarks published on Oct 2. "In the past, only a few dozen individuals...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Oct 2 - US Soldier Pleads Guilty To Iraq Killings.
October 4, 2008... A US Army solder pleads guilty to charges of accessory to murder and was sentenced to eight months in prison for his role in the killing of four Iraqi prisoners who were bound, blindfolded, shot and dumped in a canal. Spc. Steven Ribordy, 25,...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Oct 2 - 'Rice Warned Moallem' Against Trying To Revive Role In Lebanon.(Condoleezza Rice and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem)
October 4, 2008... The US government warns Syria against any attempt to restore its formerly dominant position in Lebanon, the pan-Arab daily Al-Haayat said Oct 2 Arab and Western diplomatic sources quoted by Al-Hayat said Damascus had asked Beirut for security...

AFGHANISTAN - Sept 28 - Taliban Kill Top Woman Officer.(Malalai Kakar)(Brief article)
October 4, 2008... Taliban gunmen shot dead the most high-profile woman police officer in Afghanistan and wounded her teenaged son as she left home to go to work. Attackers waiting outside the home of Malalai Kakar, head of the city of Kandahar's Department of...

AFGHANISTAN - Sept 30 - Karzai Seeks Talks With Taliban.
October 4, 2008... President Hamid Karzai risks angering members of his government and his US backers when he revealed he had asked the Saudis to help broker peace talks with the Taliban leadership. Karzai said his envoys had travelled to Saudi Arabia and...

AFGHANISTAN - Oct 1 - NATO Forces To Begin Attacks On Afghan Drug Lords.
October 4, 2008... The top American commander General David McKiernan says NATO forces in Afghanistan will step up attacks on drug lords and narcotics traffickers who are supporting an insurgency that over the past year has rebounded and is responsible for rising...

AFGHANISTAN - Oct 3 - Afghanistan Wins Spot On Iaea Board After Syria Withdraws.(International Atomic Energy Agency)
October 4, 2008... Afghanistan wins a place on the 35-member board of the UN atomic watchdog after Syria pulled out of the race for the seat. Syria had been competing with Afghanistan for a spot in the body that oversees the work of the International Atomic...

IRAQ - Sept 28 - Baghdad bombs kill at least 32.
October 4, 2008... Four bombs kill at least 32 people and wounded scores in busy districts of Baghdad as Iraqis shopped and broke their fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. A car bomb exploded in a parking lot in central Baghdad's busy Karrada shopping...

IRAQ - Sept 29 - Iraq Buys 12 US-Made Reconnaissance Planes.
October 4, 2008... Iraq has bought 12 new US-built reconnaissance planes to bolster surveillance of its borders and better track movement of extremist groups, the Defense Ministry said Sept 29. Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Muhammad al-Askari said six King Air...

IRAQ - Oct 1 - Iraq Takes On Control Of Militias.
October 4, 2008... The Baghdad government has begun assuming control of the US-backed armed groups that have been credited with helping to curtail violence in the country, in a high-stakes test for the US strategy to pacify Iraq. Iraqi authorities officially took...

IRAQ - Oct 2 - Suicide Bombers Strike Iraq Worshippers.
October 4, 2008... Suicide bombers strike Shi'ite worshippers as they gathered for prayers at two mosques in Baghdad to celebrate the Muslim Eid al-Fitr feast, killing 16 people and wounded nearly 60. For most of Iraq's Shi'ite Muslims, Oct 2 is the main day of...

ISRAEL - Sept 28 - Olmert Sees Threat From New Right Wing.(Ehud Olmert)(Brief article)
October 4, 2008... PM Ehud Olmert says a new ultranationalist underground is apparently active in Israel and responsible for a bombing that wounded an outspoken critic of Jewish colonies in the West Bank. The attack on Oct 2 at the home of political scientist...

ISRAEL - Sept 29 - Olmert Calls For Return Of 'Almost All' Territory.(Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert)
October 4, 2008... Outgoing PM Ehud Olmert says Israel should withdraw from "almost all" the land it conquered more than 40 years ago and hand back east Jerusalem to the Palestinians and the Golan Heights to Syria. His comments marked the clearest plea yet by a...

LEBANON - Sept 29 - Lebanese Blast Mars Electoral Law Vote.
October 4, 2008... A car bomb targeting a bus carrying soldiers in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli killing at least five people and wounded 24 others. Eighteen of the victims were members of the armed forces. The explosion occurred just as parliament was...

LEBANON - Sept 30 - Lebanese Leader Warns Of Syrian Threat.(Saad Hariri)
October 4, 2008... Saad Hariri, the leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Lebanon has accuses Syria of posing "a clear and direct threat" to his country's sovereignty. Tensions have risen between Lebanon and Syria in the wake of recent bomb attacks...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Oct 5 - Security In Lebanon And Syria Is 'Interdependent'.
October 11, 2008... Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Muhammad Raad says that the security situations in Lebanon and Syria were "interdependent". Speaking during a political rally in the southern village of Kfar Tebnit, Raad said Syrian forces had "no intention"...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Oct 6 - Arab League Puts Man In Iraq.
October 11, 2008... The Arab League dispatches an ambassador to Baghdad, the latest sign of progress in the Iraqi and US effort to ease the country's diplomatic isolation. Hani Khilaf arrived a day after the first visit by an Egyptian FM in 18 years. The previous...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 5 - Britain Risks US Rift In War Against Taliban.
October 11, 2008... The British government risked fuelling a rift with the US and some members of the Afghan government by supporting a senior military commander's statement suggesting that the war against the Taliban cannot be won. A spokesman said the UK's...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Oct 5 - US Considering Diplomatic Presence In Iran, Says Rice.
October 11, 2008... US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the Bush administration is still considering setting up a diplomatic outpost in Iran. Her comments came after a report that the US government has abandoned plans to open an "interest section" in...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Oct 6 - Washington And Beirut Set Up Joint Military Panel.
October 11, 2008... Lebanon and the US set up a joint commission charged with organising their bilateral military relationship. The commission was set up after a meeting on Oct 6 between Defense Minister Elias Murr and US Assistant Secretary of Defense for...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Oct 7 - Deal Near On Status Of US Troops, Iraqi FM Says.
October 11, 2008... Hoshyar Zebari of Iraq says the US and Iraq are close to a deal to keep US troops in this country next year but it will take "bold political decisions" to overcome the final hurdles. Zebari made the comments at a joint news conference with the...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Oct 9 - Gates Says US Talks With Taliban Conceivable.(United States secretary of defense Robert Gates)
October 11, 2008... The US defence secretary Robert Gates, says that Washington could "ultimately" contemplate the idea of negotiating with the Taliban to secure a political settlement in Afghanistan, if the Afghan government were to pursue such talks. In...

EGYPT - Oct 5 - Egypt Detains At Least 15 From Muslim Brotherhood.
October 11, 2008... Security and Brotherhood sources say Egyptian security forces detain at least 15 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in dawn raids on their homes in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. The Brotherhood said on its web site that those...

IRAN - Oct 6 - 'Looting' Of Iran's Central Bank Assets Hit.
October 11, 2008... Iran's former central bank governor Tahmasb Mazaheri accuses the government of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of "looting" the bank's assets, exploiting people's deposits and not being determined to curb inflation. Tahmasb Mazaheri, dismissed last month...

IRAQ - Oct 5 - 11 Die As US Force Raids House In Iraq.
October 11, 2008... Eleven people die after Americans raided a house in the northern city of Mosul at dawn and one of the residents detonated a suicide vest while others engaged in a gunfight. The Americans said that after they entered the house in pursuit of a...

IRAQ - Oct 9 - Bomb Kills Senior Shi'ite Lawmaker.
October 11, 2008... A bomb struck a convoy carrying lawmakers loyal to anti-US theologian Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad, killing a prominent member of the Shi'ite bloc. The explosion occurred as a car carrying Saleh al-Auqaeili passed about 200 yards from an Iraqi...

LIBYA - Oct 9 - Libya Begins Payments For US Terror Victims.
October 11, 2008... Libya has started making payments into a nearly $2 bn fund to compensate the families of American victims of Libyan-linked terror attacks in the 1980s, another step in the full normalization of long-strained ties between Washington and Tripoli....

SYRIA - Oct 7 - Syria Bans Saudi Daily For Publishing Critical Articles.
October 11, 2008... In a further sign of deteriorating Syrian-Saudi relations, the London-based Saudi daily Al Hayat was banned in Syria, with no immediate indication of the duration of the ban. The step comes nearly two years after Al Sharq Al Awsat, another...

TURKEY - Oct 5 - Turkish Warplanes Hit Iraqi Bases Of Kurdish Separatists.
October 11, 2008... Turkish warplanes have bombed Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq, two days after 15 Turkish soldiers are killed and at least 20 wounded in an attack by Kurdish separatist rebels in the mountainous border area of eastern Turkey. The planes...

TURKEY - Oct 8 - New Mandate For Turkish Attacks On PKK In Iraq.
October 11, 2008... Turkey's Parliament extends the government's mandate to order strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq as an attack on a police bus in the country's southeast killed four people. The assault came just days after rebels from the Kurdistan...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Oct 14 - Assad Issues Decree To Establish Full Diplomatic Relations With Lebanon.
October 18, 2008... Syrian President Bashar Assad issues a presidential decree ordering the establishment of diplomatic relations between Syria and Lebanon and announcing the opening of an embassy-level diplomatic mission in Beirut. Presidential Decree Number 358...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Oct 15 - Damascus Says Lebanon And Syria Face Same Militant Threat.
October 18, 2008... Syria urges Lebanon to cooperate in fighting what it described as a terrorist threat facing the two countries following bomb attack s against their security forces. "The security cooperation must deepen in the face of this common threat",...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Oct 16 - Israeli Soldiers Kill Third Palestinian In Three Days.
October 18, 2008... Israeli troops shoot and kill a Palestinian man during a clash in the West Bank before dawn, the third killing in three days. The Israeli Army asserted that all three were holding or about to throw firebombs when they were shot. An army...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Oct 18 - US Embassy In Khartoum Warns Of New Al Qaeda-Linked Group.(Brief article)
October 18, 2008... A new Al Qaeda-linked group has threatened the north African country of Sudan and its allies. The US embassy said the group called "Al Qaeda in the Land of the Two Niles" issued a statement referring to the murder of US aid official John...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Oct 14 - Rice Repeats Unlikely Pledge To Seek Peace Deal Between Palestinians, Israelis.
October 18, 2008... US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pledges to leave "no stone unturned" in her quest for a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal by January 20 when President George W. Bush steps down. As time draws near "for the end of this administration, I...

ARAB US RELATIONS - Oct 17 - US Seems Close To Deal With Iraq On Military.
October 18, 2008... The Bush administration and the government of PM Nuri Kamal al-Maliki appears to be on the verge of an agreement that would spell out the conditions under which American troops would remain in Iraq and set a timeline for their departure....

AFGHANISTAN - Oct 11 - Afghan President Reshuffles Cabinet Posts.(Hamid Karzai)
October 18, 2008... Under pressure from the US and its coalition partners to shake up his government and curb high-level corruption, President Hamid Karzai named as his interior minister a former official of Afghanistan's communist-era secret police. The...

AFGHANISTAN - Oct 14 - As Iraq Cools, Rebels Go To Afghanistan.
October 18, 2008... The Afghan defense minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak says US military successes in Iraq have prompted growing numbers of well-trained "foreign fighters" to join the insurgency in Afghanistan instead. The minister said that the increased flow...

IRAN - Oct 12 - Iran Reformist To Run In 2009.(National Confidence party Mehdi Karroubi)
October 18, 2008... The leader of Iran's reformist National Confidence party Mehdi Karroubi, announces he will run in next year's presidential race, the first Iranian politician to declare his candidacy to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad. "After many consultations I...

IRAN - Oct 15 - Petition Seeks Impeachment Of Iranian Interior Minister.
October 18, 2008... More than 20 members of Parliament petitioned their colleagues to impeach the interior minister after investigations indicated that he did not hold several academic degrees that he had claimed. If the minister, Ali Kordan, is impeached,...

IRAQ - Oct 12 - Iraq Sends 1,000 Policemen In Mosul To Protect Christians.
October 18, 2008... Iraq deploys nearly 1,000 policemen to Mosul to protect Christians fleeing violence in the country. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf said two brigades were sent to Christian areas in the northern Iraqi city. Nearly 1,000 Christian...

IRAQ - Oct 13 - Iraq Says British Troops Should Leave.
October 18, 2008... Iraq's PM Nouri Al Maliki says the 4,100 British troops in southern Iraq are no longer necessary to provide security. PM Nouri Al Maliki told The Times of London that there may be a need for a few British troops to remain for training and...

IRAQ - Oct 14 - Iraqi Kurds Meet Turkish Delegation In Baghdad.
October 18, 2008... Iraq's senior Kurdish leader meets Turkish officials in Baghdad, the first direct talks between the two sides in four years. The meeting between Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani and a Turkish envoy occurred as tensions are high after...

IRAQ - Oct 15 - Iraq Reports Progress On Security Pact.
October 18, 2008... Iraqi negotiators are reviewing a revised draft of a long-delayed draft security agreement to govern the conduct of American forces in Iraq. The draft includes a timeline for American troop withdrawal, with troops moving out of Iraq's cities...

ISRAEL - Oct 13 - Israel's Livni Set For Coalition Deal.
October 18, 2008... Israel's Kadima and Labour parties are close to a deal on a coalition government led by Tzipi Livni, a move that sets her on course to form a new centrist administration. FM Livni still needs to persuade other parties to join her to build a...

LEBANON - Oct 12 - Army Arrests Suspects In Tripoli Blasts.
October 18, 2008... Lebanese authorities arrest a "terrorist network" behind deadly bomb attacks in Tripoli. "Several members of a terrorist cell involved in the recent explosions in Tripoli have been arrested", the army said in a statement. The army said an...

LEBANON - Oct 16 - Hizbullah Basks In Its Authority.
October 18, 2008... In spite of his modest title of labour minister and his spartan office in a poor neighbourhood of Beirut, Muhammad Fneish speaks with an authority bordering on overconfidence, an attitude that testifies to the power of Hizbullah, the militant...

PALESTINE - Oct 12 - Time Is Ripe For Fatah-Hamas Reconciliation, Abbas Says.(Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas)
October 18, 2008... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says the rift between his mainstream Palestinian faction and archrival Hamas must end. The Hamas leader, meanwhile, said the time is right for reconciliation. Abbas was in the Syrian capital for a two-day...

PALESTINE - Oct 14 - Fatah Rejects Hamas Request For Bilateral Talks.
October 18, 2008... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party has rejected a request by Hamas rivals to meet separately ahead of multi-factional reconciliation talks next month in Cairo. A senior Fatah official said, "Hamas has tried to change the Egyptian...

SYRIA - Oct 14 - Syria And Lebanon Set Up Formal Ties.(Brief article)
October 18, 2008... Syria formally establishes diplomatic relations with Lebanon, for the first time since both nations gained independence from France in the 1940s. The initiative by President Bashar al-Assad of Syria ends six decades of non recognition and meets...

SYRIA - Oct 14 - Syria To Establish Diplomatic Ties With Lebanon.
October 18, 2008... Syrian President Bashar Al Assad issues a decree to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon for the first time since the two Arab neighbours won independence from France in the 1940s. The decree, which formalises decisions taken jointly...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Oct 24 - Neighbors Vow To Help Iraq.
October 25, 2008... Interior ministers of Iraq and eight of its neighboring countries meet in Amman and vows to support the Baghdad government in strengthening its security and stability. The meeting coincided with the handover of Babil province, part of what was...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 23 - Russia Backs Keeping US Force In Iraq.
October 25, 2008... Russia's FM Sergey Lavrov says with the prospects for agreement on a proposed American-Iraqi security pact in doubt, the idea of allowing US-led troops to stay under a UN mandate resurfaced this week, and tells reporters that his country will...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Oct 24 - EU Court Rejects Freeze On Iranian Opposition Group's Funds.
October 25, 2008... A prominent Iranian opposition group win an appeal against a EU decision to freeze its funds. But the group, the People's Mujahedeen, will remain on a European terror list because the decision concerned a blacklist compiled last year, not the...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Oct 21 - Abbas And Olmert To Meet October 27.
October 25, 2008... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli PM Ehud Olmert will meet on October 27, possibly for the last time, to push forward with peace talks. Olmert is serving as caretaker premier since he quit on Sept. 21 and his ruling Kadima party...

ARAB ISRAELI RELATIONS - Oct 21 - Israeli Officials Think Out Loud On Seeking Truce With Lebanese.
October 25, 2008... Israeli FM officials are exploring the possibility of a long-term non-belligerence pact with Lebanon that could prevent future hostilities between the neighbours. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the director general of the FM, Aharon...

AFGHANISTAN - Oct 19 - Victims' Identity Disputed In Taliban Ambush.
October 25, 2008... Taliban militants stop a bus traveling on Afghanistan's main highway through a wild and dangerous part of the country's south, seized about 50 people on board and killed about 30 of them. A Taliban spokesman confirmed that the militia's...

EGYPT - Oct 21 - Egypt To Host Intra-Palestinian Talks Next Month.
October 25, 2008... Egypt has invited Hamas and Fatah to meet in Cairo on November 9 for talks aimed at restoring Palestinian unity. "We received yesterday a draft of the Egyptian vision for Palestinian reconciliation which includes a call for a full Palestinian...

IRAQ - Oct 21 - Disagreement On US Troop Pullout Agreement In Iraq.
October 25, 2008... Statements by Iraqi politicians that a security agreement with the US will be reached soon are merely attempts to weaken the opposition's demands, according to an Iraqi parliamentarian who spoke to Gulf News on condition of anonymity. His...

IRAQ - Oct 22 - Maliki Leads Objections To US Troop Proposal.
October 25, 2008... The Iraqi cabinet wants to renegotiate a draft US-Iraq agreement to keep US forces in the country beyond 2008, in the most serious sign yet that the accord is in trouble. While some US officials are worried that the document might not be signed...

ISRAEL - Oct 24 - Coalition By Sunday Or Snap Polls.
October 25, 2008... Israeli FM Tzipi Livni, who heads the ruling Kadima party, says she will call for snap elections if a government coalition agreement is not reached by Oct 26. "Decision time has come", she said in what was seen as an ultimatum to parties...

ISRAEL - Oct 25 - Ultra-Orthodox Party Snubs Role In Israel.(Shas party)
October 25, 2008... The ultra-Orthodox Shas party says that it will not join a government that FM Tzipi Livni is trying to assemble. If that decision stands, it will be a major blow to her efforts to become PM and avoid early elections. At the same time, Livni...

LEBANON - Oct 21 - Sleiman Stresses Dialogue As Only Way For Lebanon Jumblatt Wants Syrian Help On Shebaa.
October 25, 2008... President Michel Sleiman says that reconciliation and dialogue among rival Lebanese factions were a national duty rather than a political option. Sleiman told representatives of the Lebanese community in Montreal, Canada, that a number of...

LEBANON - Oct 23 - Row Over Deputy PM's Powers Divides Cabinet.(Issam Abu Jamra)
October 25, 2008... Chances of Christian reconciliation decline further as Lebanese politicians sank deeper into debate over the powers of the deputy PM. Deputy PM Issam Abu Jamra said he would boycott Cabinet sessions until his proposal to amend the powers of his...

PALESTINE - Oct 22 - Fatah, Hamas Welcome Egypt Plan For Palestinian Unity.(Brief article)
October 25, 2008... Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah have given their initial acceptance of an Egyptian plan to reconcile both the factions amid a looming constitutional crisis. "We will agree to the draft of the agreement and will not reject it", Hamas...

PALESTINE - Oct 22 - Abbas Sacks Key Official Ahead Of Fatah-Hamas Talks.(Tawfiq Al-Tirawi)(Brief article)
October 25, 2008... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sacks the head of Palestinian general intelligence agency, Tawfiq Al-Tirawi, who has been working since last year to prevent Hamas from extending its control from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. Palestinian...