‘Switzerland of the Middle East’ looks for revival
BEIRUT (IPS) — Lebanon was long dubbed the 'Switzerland of the Middle East' for its advanced banking sector. It lost its status 23 years ago at the dawn of the 1975 civil war, which lasted 15 years. The country has since been unable to regain the title, in spite of the brief economic revival witnessed in the 1990s. Since 2005,...Iraq says all troops out by 2011
WASHINGTON (IPS) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signaled last week that that all U.S. troops — including those with non-combat functions — must be out of the country by the end of 2011 under the agreement he is negotiating with the George W. Bush administration. That pronouncement, along with other moves indicating that...Syria sets basis for peace talks
Damascus has sent a proposal to Israel laying out the basis for direct peace talks, Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, has said. "We are awaiting Israel's response to six points that we have submitted through Turkey," he said on Thursday. "Our response would be positive, paving the way for direct talks after a new U.S....
Free Gaza boats challenge Israel’s siege
August 29th, 20080 An international group of peace activists took on Israel's crushing siege of the Gaza Strip. After two years of organizing two ships to sail to Gaza's shores, the ships made their journey in defiance of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. The ships left with several Palestinians in need of medical treatment and others...Arrest warrant for Kadhafi over missing Imam
BEIRUT (AFP) Lebanon has issued an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi over the disappearance 30 years ago of a senior Shi'a Muslim cleric after a visit to Libya, officials said on Wednesday. Kadhafi was also indicted for allegedly "inciting the abduction" of Imam Mussa Sadr, the spiritual guide of Lebanon's Shi'a...Illegal Israeli settlements get tax breaks
JERUSALEM (Reuters) — The United States says Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank threaten any peace between Israel and the Palestinians — yet it also encourages Americans to help support settlers by offering tax breaks on donations. As Condoleezza Rice flew in on Monday for another round of peace talks, Israeli and American...
A downsized occupation disguised as withdrawal
August 29th, 20080 Back in January, the Bush administration proposed a Status of Forces Agreement to govern relations between American troops and the Iraqis after the U.N. mandate expires in December 2008. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton accused the White House of trying to tie the hands of a future American president and many Democrats in...Hizbullah’s triumph is blow for Israeli policy
NEW YORK (IPS) — Since the 34-day Israel-Lebanon two years ago, and particularly after the Doha accord in May which restored Hizbullah to the Lebanese government and essentially gave it the veto power it demanded, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been the most popular figure anywhere in the Arab world. "For decades, the Shi'a...
U.S., Iraq have draft to pull U.S. troops out
August 22nd, 20080 BAGHDAD — Iraq and the U.S. have reached a preliminary agreement to withdraw American forces from Iraqi cities by next June, six years into the increasingly unpopular war, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday after meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The negotiations over a withdrawal timetable follow...Israel clears soldiers in killing of Palestinian journalist, youths
The Israeli government has announced it won't prosecute soldiers involved in the death of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana and eight Palestinian youths. The twenty-four-year-old Palestinian died on April 16 in Gaza when an Israeli tank shelled his vehicle clearly marked "press." Shana's final piece of footage shows the tank firing a...Little hope of peace after Olmert
CAIRO (IPS) — With Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent resignation announcement, the self-proclaimed Jewish state is headed for new leadership. Egyptian commentators, though, entertain few hopes that Olmert's successor — whoever he or she may be — will temper Israel's hard-line approach to the peace process. "Israeli...Gaza and West Bank in muddied separation
RAMALLAH (IPS) — Over a hundred Fatah fighters loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement fled to the West Bank from Gaza last week, fearing for their lives at the hands of Hamas, the Islamic movement which took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after it routed Fatah forces. The Fatah men barely managed to escape...One-fifth of Iraq funding paid to contractors
NEW YORK (IPS) — As a new report forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighboring countries will cost U.S. taxpayers more than 100 billion dollars by the end of 2008, an under-the-radar Florida court case suggests that U.S. President George W. Bush — a staunch contractor supporter — is preparing to throw...U.S. officials admit worry over a “difficult” al-Maliki
WASHINGTON (IPS) — U.S. officials privately admit being concerned that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki has become "overconfident" about his government's ability to manage without U.S. combat troops, according to an Iraq analyst who just returned from a trip to Iraq arranged by U.S. commander General David Petraeus. Colin...U.S. shifts ‘hearts and minds’ fight
Washington — Nearly seven years after the 9/11 attacks spawned the question, "Why do they hate us?" and made the repair of America's poor international image a top foreign-policy pursuit, the Bush administration is taking a new tack in the "war of ideas." Out, or at least de-emphasized, is the effort to explain America and its......
Palestinian Authority rejects Israeli proposal
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected an Israeli peace proposal because it did not provide for a contiguous Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, Abbas' office said Tuesday. Nabil Abu Rdainah, Abbas' spokesman, told the official Palestinian WAFA news agency Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert's plan showed a "lack of...
Palestinians bury poet Darwish in West Bank
August 15th, 20080 Palestinians bade an emotional farewell on Wednesday to their national poet Mahmoud Darwish, who was laid to rest on a hilltop overlooking the West Bank city of Ramallah. Darwish died Saturday in Houston at age 67 after complications from open-heart surgery. He was the first Palestinian to receive a state funeral since Yasser......
Bomb blast rocks north Lebanon
August 15th, 20080 A bomb explosion in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli has killed at least 18 people, including nine soldiers. The blast, which also left 45 others injured, hit a military bus in central Nour Square early on Wednesday, officials said. The explosion happened near a bus pick-up point in the busy commercial district as people...U.S. Army hopes to keep native Arabic speakers
Washington — The Army may begin paying a retention bonus of as much as $150,000 to Arabic speaking soldiers in reflection of how critical it has become for the U.S. military to retain native language and cultural know-how in its ranks. Only one other job in the Army, Special Forces, rates such a super-sized retention bonus. Now,...Hizbullah influence likely to hold
BEIRUT — Lebanon's politicians squabbled this week over whether or not to enshrine Hizbullah's resistance to Israel in a ministerial statement to be adopted by the fledgling national unity government. But with the balance of power in favor of the Shi'a movement laid bare since the May strife, analysts said there was little doubt the...Egypt sentences opposition activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim
Washington — Leading pro-democracy activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim was on Saturday sentenced in absentia by an Egyptian court to two years in prison on charges of "tarnishing Egypt's reputation." The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) condemns what has been an extended campaign to silence and demonize Ibrahim for exercising his......
Medical care contingent on spying
Israel's secret police are pressuring Palestinians in Gaza to spy on their community in exchange for urgent medical treatment, according to a report released this week by an Israeli human rights organization. Physicians for Human Rights says the Shin Bet began interrogating Palestinian patients seeking permission to travel from...New operation gets surprise support
BAQUBA (IPS) — A massive military operation in Diyala province has underscored the military and political gains by the Sahwa militia, despite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's earlier attempts to thwart them. Maliki has now apparently come around to involving the Sahwa rather than opposing them. The Sahwa are the "Awakening Forces"......
Israel attacks charities, orphanages
If you still think there are red lines that Israel has not crossed with regard to its treatment of Palestinians, don't be too sure. In recent days and weeks, the Israeli army has been vandalizing, ransacking and confiscating Palestinian civilian institutions in the West Bank's largest towns and cities, including Ramallah, the seat of...What does al-Maliki really want?
The July deadline for Iraq and the United States to sign a security agreement for the long-term status of U.S. troops in Iraq is stumbling to a close. Officials of both the Bush administration and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's government are now admitting that meeting a deadline that would allow Iraq to restore full......