APS Diplomat Recorder articles from September 2005

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from September 2005

ARAB AFAIRS - Aug 29 - Arab World Fears Iraq Constitution Will Spark Tensions.
September 3, 2005... Iraq's draft constitution is greeted with stiff opposition in the wider Arab world, amid fears that it undermines the country's Arab identity and will inflame sectarian tensions. Delegates from Iraq's Sunni minority, who refused to...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Aug 31 - Israel-Egypt Border Patrol Accord Gets Knesset Nod.
September 3, 2005... The Israeli parliament approves the deployment of Egyptian paramilitary police along the border with the Gaza Strip, the first change in security agreements between the two Middle East neighbours in a quarter of a century. The deployment,...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Aug 30 - US Says Air Strike Kills Iraq Al Qaeda Fighters.
September 3, 2005... US forces kill a known Al Qaeda militant in western Iraq in air strikes which a hospital official said had killed 47 people. US warplanes launched three waves of strikes near the town of Qaim, on the Syrian border, in a remote area Washington...

IRAN - Aug 30 - Ahmadinejad Appoints Caretaker Oil Minister.
September 3, 2005... Pres Mahmud Ahmadinejad appoints a former deputy oil minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh as interim head of the ministry after his nominee failed to win parliamentary approval. Vaziri-Hamaneh, 60, will head the ministry until a new candidate for...

IRAQ - Aug 28 - Sunnis At Odds As Parliament Backs Iraq Constitution.(shiite and sunni leaders opposes constitution)(Brief Article)
September 3, 2005... The parliament approves a draft constitution, but Sunni Arabs and radical Shiite leaders vow to defeat it in a referendum on Oct 15. At a ceremony after the draft was read to the National Assembly Talabani said: The constitution is left to...

IRAQ - Aug 31 - Over 900 Feared Dead In Stampede.(Brief Article)
September 3, 2005... At least 900 are killed in the country's deadliest single incident since the March 2003 US-led invasion, suffocated or drowned in a stampede in Baghdad reportedly triggered by rumours of a suicide bomber. The Ministry of Health officials...

ISRAEL - Aug 28 - Suicide Bomber Attacks Bus Station.
September 3, 2005... A suicide bomber blows himself up at a busy bus station in Beersheba, southern Israel, seriously wounding two security guards who chased him and foils a potentially much deadlier attack. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the first...

ISRAEL - Aug 30 - Sharon Faces Party Challenge.(Ariel Sharon, Likud Party )
September 3, 2005... Standard-bearer of the Israeli right Benjamin Netanyahu, announces a bid to unseat PM Ariel Sharon, accusing him of turning his back on the ruling Likud party and endangering the country's security by withdrawing from the Gaza Strip....

LEBANON - Aug 29 - Authorities Swoop On Hariri Plot Suspects.
September 3, 2005... The authorities detain the top pro-Syrian security chiefs who served at the time of the assassination of former PM Rafiq Hariri, on suspicion of involvement in the plot. The four officials, only one of whom is still serving, were brought in...

RUSSIA - Sep 1 - Khodorkovsky Makes Bid From Prison To Run For Parliament.
September 3, 2005... The jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is planning to run for the Russian parliament from his prison cell, in what he says is an attempt to stand up for citizens' rights but some analysts labelled a publicity stunt. Although sentenced...

ARAB AFAIRS - Sep 5 - Talabani Assails Stance Of Arab States.
September 10, 2005... Pres Jalal Talabani of Iraq issues a bitter rhetorical broadside against other Arab countries, saying they have insulted Iraq by not sending diplomats to Baghdad and by not sending condolence letters about the stampede last week in which nearly...

ARAB AFAIRS - Sep 7 - GCC Calls For Total Israeli Withdrawal.(Gulf Cooperation Council)(Brief Article)
September 10, 2005... GCC foreign ministers urge Israel to withdraw completely from all occupied Arab territories. They also voiced their commitment to the Arab peace plan proposed by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. The ministers, emphasised the...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sep 5 - Russia Rejects Reporting Iran To Security Council.
September 10, 2005... Russia rules out an early decision to report the Iran nuclear controversy to the UN Security Council, undermining US and European efforts to build international consensus for a diplomatic reprimand this month. A senior Kremlin official said...

ARABS-UN - Sep 7 - UN holds Presses As Iraq Constitution Said Amended.
September 10, 2005... The UN says it refused to start printing Iraq's draft constitution, delaying yet again efforts to get millions of copies to voters before a referendum now fixed for Oct 15. One negotiator from the Sunni Arab minority which has been lobbying for...

EGYPT - Sep 7 - Opponents Of Mubarak Claim Irregularities.(Hosni Mubarak)
September 10, 2005... Pres Hosni Mubarak's main opponents in presidential elections are crying foul. But independent monitoring groups said that by Egyptian standards, there had been improvements in the conduct of the poll. Preliminary leaks from the presidential...

EGYPT - Sep 9 - Mubarak Wins Large Majority In Egypt Poll.
September 10, 2005... The electoral commission says Pres Hosni Mubarak wins 88.6% of votes cast in the country's first contested presidential election. Mubarak's victory was widely expected. But the scale of it, with figures only a few percentage points short of...

IRAN - Sep 6 - Tehran Seen As At Least 5 Years From Bomb.
September 10, 2005... A leading British research institute says that Iran is at least five years away from producing sufficient material for "a single nuclear weapon" - but only if Tehran chose to ignore international reaction and "throw caution to the wind". The...

IRAQ - Sep 6 - Baghdad Sure It Will Agree Constitution Next Week.
September 10, 2005... Baghdad's politicians say they are confident of reaching agreement on a draft constitution by the newly extended deadline of August 22, despite a host of last-minute disagreements, including some on issues that had reportedly been resolved...

IRAQ - Sep 7 - Car Bomb Shatters Relative Peace In Basra.
September 10, 2005... A car bomb shatters the relative peace of the southern Iraqi city of Basra after dark, killing 16 people and wounding 20 in a district packed with restaurants. At least two children were among the dead carried away by rescuers from the popular...

PALESTINE - Sep 7 - Gaza Gunmen Kill Former Security Chief Arafat.(Moussa Arafat)
September 10, 2005... Palestinian militants drag ex-security chief Moussa Arafat from his Gaza home and shoot him dead in the street, deepening internal turmoil ahead of Israel's military pullout from the territory. He was the most senior figure killed in factional...

RUSSIA - Sep 5 - Putin Rules Out Standing For Third Term.(Vladimir Putin)
September 10, 2005... Pres Putin categorically rules out changing the country's constitution and running for a third term when his current, and last, term ends in 2008. Talking to journalists and analysts, Putin said: First, I will not stand in 2008 for the post of...

SAUDI ARABIA - Sep 8 - All Five Terrorists Killed Were on the Wanted List.
September 10, 2005... The interior ministry says five Al Qaeda militants, who were killed in a three-day gunbattle with security forces in the eastern city of Dammam, figures on a list of 36 most-wanted terrorists. Four security men also died in the operation, which...

ARAB AFAIRS - Sep 16 - Saudi Says Israel Should Yield More Land.
September 17, 2005... Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Sultan says Israel should withdraw from more conquered Arab lands after Gaza, indicating there can be no change in the collective Arab stand on Israel unless occupation ends. In an interview with The AP, Sultan said...

ARABS-US - Sep 12 - US Envoy Warns Syria On Terrorism.
September 17, 2005... The Bush administration's highest diplomat in Iraq Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, says Syria has become a hub for terrorists who want to stop democratic progress in Iraq and that US "patience is running out", but he refuses to specify what...

EGYPT - Sep 14 - Security Forces Closes Its Border With Gaza.
September 17, 2005... Egyptian security forces close the border linking the Gaza Strip to Egypt, preventing Palestinians from entering their country in accord with a deadline set to stop such crossings following Israel's withdrawal. The move followed Israeli...

IRAN - Sep 11 - Tehran Resolves To Continue Its Nuclear Activities.
September 17, 2005... Tehran says it will not suspend its nuclear activities and contends there will be serious consequences if its case is sent to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. The comments comes as Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,...

IRAQ - Sep 12 - Army Kills 157 In Rebel Town.
September 17, 2005... The Iraqi army kills 157 suspected terrorists in rebel Tal Afar, a Defence Ministry official says, as troops continue mopping up suspects in the northern town. Iraqi PM Ibrahim Jaafari defied a $100,000 bounty on his head to visit the scene of...

IRAQ - Sep 15 - Suicide Bomber Kills 15 Police Commandos.
September 17, 2005... A suicide bomber in a car kills 15 police commandos in Baghdad, keeping up the pressure on the government a day after some of the bloodiest carnage in Iraq since a US-led invasion in 2003. A police official said the attack in the southern Doura...

ISRAEL - Sep 11 - Troops Make A Final Departure.
September 17, 2005... Israel begins to pull its last soldiers out of the Gaza Strip, although a last-minute dispute with the PA forces the scrapping of a formal ceremony transferring the territory to Palestinian control. When Brig Gen Aviv Kochavi, Israeli military...

PALESTINE - Sep 12 - Next Step Is Statehood, Says Abbas.(Mahmoud Abbas)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2005... PA Pres Mahmoud Abbas, says the next step after the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is to establish a Palestinian state. At an evacuated Jewish settlement from which the last Israeli soldiers left early on Sep 12, he said: What is...

PALESTINE - Sep 13 - Abbas Vows To End Armed Chaos.(Mahmoud Abbas)
September 17, 2005... Taking a tough stand, Pres Mahmoud Abbas vows to end internal armed chaos but warns the Middle East conflict will not end until the Palestinians are granted independence. In a televised address the day after Israel ended its 38-year occupation...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sep 21 - Reid Meets Jaafari Over Basra Jail Clash.(John Reid, Ibrahim Al Jaafari)
September 24, 2005... Iraq's PM Ibrahim Al Jaafari, and UK defence secretary John Reid, meet to discuss Britain's military presence in Iraq in the aftermath of an incident that sorely tested the goodwill on both sides. In dramatic scenes in Basra on Sep 19 evening,...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sep 22 - British Play Down Demands For Apology Over Basra.
September 24, 2005... Iraq & UK British officials play down demands for an apology issued by the authorities in Basra. The Foreign Office described the demand for an apology as a local issue and not a reflection of the feelings of the Iraqi prime minister, who met...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sep 23 - EU Firm On Iran's Referral To Security Council.(Brief Article)
September 24, 2005... The EU agrees to push through a controversial resolution at the UN nuclear watchdog to report Iran to the Security Council but leaves the timing and nature of the referral vague. The motion, watered down from earlier drafts, was still opposed...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sep 21 - Israeli Official Sees Threat In West Bank.(Yuval Diskin)
September 24, 2005... The head of Israel's Shin Bet security service Yuval Diskin says that armed Palestinian factions are increasingly likely to attack from the West Bank rather than from the Gaza Strip, following Israel's Gaza withdrawal. Yuval Diskin, who became...

AFGHANISTAN - Sep 20 - Karzai Questions US Airstrikes.(Hamid Karzai)
September 24, 2005... Just days after the country's first parliamentary elections in 35 years and well before votes are even counted, the president, Hamid Karzai, questions the need for major military operations in Afghanistan, asserting that airstrikes are no...

IRAN - Sep 20 - Tehran Warns Europe On Allocation Of Energy Contracts.
September 24, 2005... The top security official Ali Larijani, warns by hardening the country's stance against the efforts of Europe and the US to refer its nuclear programme to the UN security council, saying it will respond by resuming uranium enrichment and...

IRAQ - Sep 18 - Gunmen Kill A Kurd Lawmaker; Militia Protests Basra Arrests.(Faris Nasir Hussain)
September 24, 2005... Iraqi officials announce that a Kurdish member of Parliament is killed by gunmen north of capital, as hundreds of Shiite militia fighters block off streets in the southern city of Basra to demand the release of three militia members being held...

ISRAEL - Sep 20 - Israel Seeks Buyers For Arms Maker.
September 24, 2005... The Israeli government advertises for potential local and foreign buyers for Israel Military Industries, a struggling state-owned defence manufacturer that has failed to recover despite an injection of $2.2 bn (1.8bn, [pounds sterling]1.2bn) of...

RUSSIA - Sep 22 - Khodorkovsky Appeal Rejected.
September 24, 2005... A Moscow court rejects an appeal by the jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, against his conviction for fraud and tax evasion but cut his nine-year sentence to eight years. The ruling, which comes at the end of one-day hearing, ends...

RUSSIA - Sep 23 - Russia Gets Tough On Khodorkovsky Legal Team.
September 24, 2005... Russian authorities deport a US-Canadian lawyer for Mikhail Khodorkovsky and threaten to disqualify the Russian tycoon's legal team, a day after he lost his appeal against a conviction for fraud. The incidents are the latest in the battle...

SAUDI ARABIA - Sep 22 - Prospects Growing Worse For Iraqis, Saudi Warns.
September 24, 2005... FM Prince Saud al Feisal, says that he has been warning the Bush administration in recent days that Iraq is hurtling toward disintegration, a development that he says can drag the region into war. "There is no dynamic now pulling the nation...