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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan |
elections.
In an interview with The Washington Post published Saturday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said isolating Hamas is the reason for the ongoing tensions in the region.
He criticized world leaders for failing to respect the political will of the Palestinian people who voted for the Palestinian resistance movement.
Erdogan said Hamas would have been in a different situation if the world had given it a chance in politics after winning elections.
The Turkish prime minister said Hamas would not be able to change the situation as long as Palestine was “an open air prison”.
Hamas won the 2006 Parliamentary elections with 74 of the 132 available seats. The rival ruling Fatah faction got only 45 seats.
Western-backed Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, however, fired Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya’s unity government in June 2007.
Erdogan’s remarks came after his recent public spat with Israel’s President Shimon Peres, over the Israeli massacre in the Gaza Strip, in the world economic forum meeting on Thursday.
On Thursday, Erdogan stormed out of the world economic forum in Davos, Switzerland after a heated debate with Shimon Peres on Gaza.
Erdogan told Peres in the Forum, “Mr. Peres, you are a senior citizen and you speak in a loud voice. I feel that your raised voice is due to the guilt you feel.
“But be sure that my voice will not be raised as yours,”
“When it comes to killing, you know very well how to kill.”
“I know very well how you hit and killed children on beaches.”
Erdogan walked off in front of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other panel members complaining that his comments on the conflict were cut short by the Washington Post’s moderator David Ignatius.
Israel launched the military campaign against the impoverished coastal strip after an Israeli National Security Council assessment urged Tel Aviv to hinder “elections in the Palestinian Authority at all costs” because it may lead to another Hamas victory.
Erdogan received a hero’s welcome on his return home after his spat with Israel over its war on Gaza. The Turkish premier vowed he would never return to the annual gathering of the rich and powerful in Davos. Around 3,000 supporters gathered at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport on Friday, waving red and white Turkish flags and banners reading “Conqueror of Davos” upon Erdogan’s arrival. Many carried banners denouncing Israel, a move which raises concern among the Jewish state as Ankara is its closest ally in the Islamic world.
“I did what I had to do,” Erdogan told reporters gathered at the airport, adding, “I cannot remain apathetic when it comes to these things, it’s just not in my nature. I am duty-bound to defend the honor of my country.”
NY man convicted for broadcasting Al Manar
The Pakistan-born owner of a satellite TV company has pleaded guilty to providing material aid to a terrorist organization by letting customers receive broadcasts from Hizbullah’s television station.
Javed Iqbal entered the plea in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. He declined comment afterward. As part of the plea, Iqbal agreed to serve a prison term of up to six and a half years. Sentencing was set for March 24.
Prosecutors said Iqbal used satellite dishes on his Staten Island home to distribute broadcasts of Al Manar, the television station of the Lebanon-based organization that has been fighting Israel since the early 1980s.
Israel and the U.S. consider Hizbullah a terrorist organization and accuse it of being behind deadly attacks in Lebanon and abroad.
Iqbal, 45, was born in Pakistan but has lived in the United States for more than 20 years. He is a permanent resident with five children. A former New York Police Department officer was among those who signed his $250,000 bail package.
Although Americans are granted freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution, the government contended in this case that Iqbal was not entitled to arrange the satellite broadcast of an organization designated as a terrorist group, regardless of the message.
Lebanon’s information minister, Ghazi Aridi, had criticized Iqbal’s arrest, calling it an “attack against freedoms (that) robs a large section of people from watching a specific channel.”
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Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi |
Moammar Gadhafi of Libya was elected Monday as leader of the African Union, a position long sought by the eccentric dictator who wants to push his oil-rich nation into the international mainstream after years of isolation.
Gadhafi, once ostracized by the West for sponsoring terrorism, has been trying to increase both Libya’s global stature and its regional influence — mediating African conflicts, sponsoring efforts to spread Islam on the continent and pushing for the creation of a single African government.
Still, some African leaders offered tepid praise for the choice of the strongman who grabbed power in a 1969 coup. Rights groups called him a poor model for Africa at a time when democratic gains are being reversed in countries such as Mauritania and Guinea.
He attended the session dressed in a gold-embroidered green robe and flanked by seven extravagantly dressed men who said they are the “traditional kings of Africa.” Gadhafi told about 20 of his fellow heads of state that he would work to unite the continent into “the United States of Africa.”
Gadhafi arrived at the summit Sunday with the seven men, one carrying a 4-foot gold staff, and caused a stir when security officials did not admit them because each delegation gets only four floor passes. All seven “kings” were seated behind Gadhafi when he accepted the chairmanship.
“I think the coming time will be a time of serious work and a time of action and not words,” he said.
The chairmanship of the African Union is a rotating position held by heads of state for one year and gives the holder some influence over the continent’s politics but carries no real power
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| Syrian President Bashar al-Assad |
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received on Saturday morning a U.S. Congressional delegation headed by Adam Smith.
The meeting dealt with bilateral relations between Syria and the United States and prospects of developing them further.
The president underlined the importance of conducting a positive and constructive dialogue which is built on the basis of the mutual interests and reciprocal respect between Syria and the United States.
President al-Assad, during the meeting, briefed the delegation on Syria’s vision of the situation in the Middle East, particularly following the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip which led to thousands of victims of Palestinian civilians and caused the destruction of infrastructure, farms, hospitals and schools.
The American delegation underlined Syria’s important role in the region and expressed the new U.S. administration’s desire to develop Syrian-American relations in the service of stability in the Middle East.
The meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, presidential political and media advisor Bouthaina Shaaban and the U.S. Charge d’ Affairs in Damascus.
In a statement to reporters before leaving Damascus Saturday evening, Mr. Smith said “we had a very excellent meeting with President al-Assad who was very open, frank and honest… He listened to us and answered our questions …We feel that this constitutes a very good start.”
He added that “We in the United States are very optimistic with our newly-elected President Barack Obama…we have an opportunity for a fresh start in our relations with Syria…and we are mindful of the fact that there are many difficulties that have to be bypassed…we believe that the process has to start, and to make this new start as there are so important problems….”
Mr. Smith said he believed that Syria and the U.S. have common interests as both want peace in the Middle East and want to fight terrorism. He hoped that these common interests would help lead to more dialogue, adding that the delegations’ meeting with President al-Assad was a very good start.
He said that “all the members of the delegation were impressed with the Syrian people, their culture and hospitality,” describing their Syria visit as fantastic. “I speak in the name of the whole group when I say that we’re looking forward to returning to Syria once again,” Mr. Smith said.
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