New Page 1

Mitchell: US seeks Israeli peace talks with Syria, Lebanon

WASHINGTON - The United States is pushing for peace talks between Israel, Syria and Lebanon, US envoy George Mitchell said Tuesday, as the Israelis prepared to resume direct negotiations with the Palestinians.

"With respect to Syria, our efforts continue to try to engage Israel and Syria in discussions and negotiations that would lead to peace there and also Israel and Lebanon," Mitchell said.
"You will recall that when the president announced my appointment two days after he entered office, he referred to comprehensive peace and defined it as Israel and Palestinians, Israel and Syria, Israel and Lebanon, and Israel at peace with and having normal relations with all of its Arab neighbors. And that remains our objective."
Mitchell was briefing journalists ahead of Thursday's resumption of direct peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
Top level talks in search of an elusive Middle East peace deal broke off in 2008 when Israel invaded the Palestinian Gaza Strip to halt militant rocket fire on its south.

Lebanon army chief says 10 arrested over deadly clash

BEIRUT - The number of arrests linked to a street battle in which three people were killed in mainly Muslim west Beirut last week has risen to 10, Lebanon's army chief said in comments published on Monday.
"Army operations in the area are ongoing... and we have arrested 10 persons and not just four" as was previously reported, General Jean Kahwaji told the local Arabic-language daily As-Safir.
"What is required is that no one ignite a fire and then demand the army put it out," he was quoted as saying.
A deadly street battle shook the Burj Abi Haidar district in the Lebanese capital on August 24, pitting supporters of Shiite group Hezbollah against those of Sunni outfit Al-Ahbash, two parties with warm ties to Damascus.
Tuesday's clash, which reportedly began as a row over a parking space and escalated into a battle with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, left three dead, including Hezbollah official Mohammed Fawaz, and 11 people wounded.
The incident has again put Hezbollah's arms in the limelight and raised fears of a repeat of May 2008, when gunmen supporting an alliance led by the Shiite group staged a takeover of west Beirut and forced the closure of the airport.
Some 100 people were killed in the week-long battle, which also involved Druze and Sunnis and was sparked by a government crackdown on Hezbollah's private communications network.
Lebanon's interior and defense ministers were scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday to forge an agreement on the control of widespread armament in Beirut in the wake of the latest clash.
But the meeting will exclude discussions on the arsenal of Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah, which argues its weapons are necessary to defend itself against its arch-foe Israel.
"Certain measures should be taken, at the very least to find a means to control armament within the capital," Interior Minister Ziad Baroud told As-Safir.
"But disarming the resistance (Hezbollah) is not on the table, even in Beirut, as we are fully aware of the sensitivity of the situation and we can agree on a unique formula for the resistance's arms in Beirut."

Odierno says Iraq failure could see
US combat role resume

WASHINGTON

The top US commander in Iraq admitted Sunday that a "complete failure" of Iraqi security forces could oblige the United States to resume combat operations there, but he called this an unlikely scenario.
The last US combat brigade withdrew from Iraq on Thursday. On August 31 combat operations officially end and the role of the remaining 50,000 American troops switches to one of providing advice and assistance.
General Ray Odierno told CNN's "State of the Union" that the ability of the Iraqi police and army to keep a lid on the violence was improving, but refused to rule out a return to US combat missions if things went sour.
Security advancements meant Iraq was on target to be able to handle its own security after 2011 when the remainder of the US troops are due to be withdrawn, the commanding general of American forces in Iraq said.
"My assessment today is they will be (ready)," he told CNN, speaking from Baghdad. "I think that they continue to grow. We continue to see development in planning, and in their ability to conduct operations.
"The Iraqi people are resilient. They want this. They want to have a democratic country. They want to be on their own. They want to be moving forward and be a contributor to stability in the Middle East."
Despite the advances in building up Iraq's security apparatus, Odierno conceded there were scenarios where the US military might have to step back in and resume combat operations.
"If, for example, you had a complete failure of the (Iraqi) security forces. If you had some political divisions within the political forces that caused them to fracture, but we don't see that happening," he said.
"They have been doing so well for so long now that we really believe that we are beyond that point."
But massive security challenges remain, and the extent of the country's political problems was highlighted this week when the winner of the general election five months ago broke off coalition talks with his main rival.
Thursday's pullout, a major symbolic step in the handing back of power to the Iraqi people, came two days after a suicide bomber killed 59 people at a Baghdad army recruiting center in Iraq's deadliest attack this year.
Iraq's top military officer warned earlier this month that American forces may be needed in the conflict-wracked nation for a further decade.
"If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to politicians: the US army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020," Lieutenant General Babaker Zerbari told AFP.
US President Barack Obama will make a major speech on Iraq on his return next week from his summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, a senior administration official said.
Obama, who was an opponent of the Iraq war from the beginning and promised on the road to the White House to withdraw US forces as quickly as possible, has insisted the ongoing pullout is on schedule and will not be altered.
Under a bilateral security pact all US forces must leave Iraq by the end of 2011, but Odierno said special training units could remain, noting similar security arrangements with regional allies such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
"Potentially we could be there beyond 2011," he said. "If the government of Iraq requests fielding systems that could help them with external threats."

Syria: UN Lebanon tribunal has 'political goals'

DAMASCUS - Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in reports on Monday that the UN tribunal probing the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri has "political goals."

"The international tribunal is not seeking to reveal the truth (about the murder) but to achieve political goals," Muallem was quoted as saying in local media.
"The international tribunal is a Lebanese matter and we will not deal with this court," he said at a meeting of Syria's Baath party late on Sunday.
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah, said on July 22 that he knew the UN tribunal was set to indict members of his militant Shiite party for Hariri's assassination.
His comments raised fears of renewed conflict in Lebanon and prompted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi King Abdullah to make an unprecedented joint visit to Beirut on Friday in a bid to ease the tensions.
Hezbollah, whose main backers are Syria and Iran, is the most powerful military and political force in Lebanon and fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006.
Syria was widely believed to have been involved in Hariri's murder, forcing it to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after a 29-year presence. Damascus has consistently denied any part in the killing.
The United Nations set up the special tribunal to investigate Hariri's assassination in 2007.
The first reports by a committee of the tribunal, which is due to give its verdict by the end of this year, concluded there was evidence implicating Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services.

Jordan port hit by rocket, one killed, five hurt

AMMAN - A Grad-type rocket smashed into a street in the Jordanian port of Aqaba on Monday, killing a taxi driver and wounding five other Jordanians, a security official said.

"Subhi Yousef al-Alawneh died in Aqaba as a result of wounds he sustained from the rocket attack," the security official told AFP.
The 51-year-old taxi driver died at military-run Princess Haya hospital in the port city, he added.
"The injured are still at the hospital. They are in a stable condition," he said.
Officials identified those hurt as two taxi drivers, a member of the tourist police, a security guard and an engineer who works in Aqaba.
Interior Minister Nayef Qadai and other officials told AFP that the rocket fell in a street near to the Intercontinental hotel, destroying three cars besides causing casualties.
A source close to the investigation said the rocket was fired from a location "southwest" of Aqaba -- indicating the Sinai desert.
"Investigations proved that the rocket was fired from southwest of Aqaba," he told AFP.
Information Minister Ali Ayed said the rocket fell at around 7:45 am (0445 GMT) and that a probe showed that "the rocket was fired from outside Jordanian territory."
Israel's army radio earlier Monday said five rockets slammed into areas around the Israeli port of Eilat, less than 10 kilometers (six miles) from Aqaba.
An Egyptian security official denied that the rockets had been fired from Egyptian territory.
"The rockets did not come from Sinai. To launch rockets from Sinai would need a great deal of logistics and equipment and that is impossible considering the heavy security presence in the Sinai peninsula," the official said.

Ahmadinejad: US to start new Mideast wars

TEHRAN - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the United States is planning to launch two wars in the Middle East in order to pressure Tehran, English-language Press TV reported on Tuesday.
"We have precise information that the Americans have devised a plot... they plan to attack at least two countries in the region within the next three months," he said in remarks Press TV posted on its website from an interview with him late Monday.

Ahmadinejad said the United States was seeking to achieve two main objectives from these wars.
"First of all, they want to hamper Iran's progress and development since they are opposed to our growth, and, secondly, they want to save the Zionist regime because it has reached a dead-end and the Zionists believe they can be saved through a military confrontation," he said referring to Israel.
Iran vowed on Tuesday to press ahead with its nuclear program as it condemned tough new sanctions.
The European Union slapped fresh sanctions on Iran's key energy sector on Monday in a bid to halt its sensitive uranium enrichment program. Canada followed suit, and the United States said the punitive steps would bite.
"These sanctions will not help in resuming talks and will not affect Iran's determination to defend its legitimate right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast.
The punitive measures would "not help in advancing the talks," he said, as quoted by the official IRNA news agency on Tuesday.
The EU sanctions follow similar measures meted out by the United States by going beyond a fourth set of UN sanctions imposed on June 9 over Iran's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.
Among their measures are a ban on the sale of equipment, technology and services to Iran's energy sector, and steps to hit activities in refining, liquefied natural gas, exploration and production, EU diplomats said.
New investments in the energy sector were also banned.
Iran is the world's fourth largest producer of crude oil, but imports 40 percent of its fuel needs because it lacks enough refining capabilities to meet domestic demand.
The Iranian banking sector was also hit by restrictions, forcing any transactions of more than 40,000 euros (52,000 dollars) to be authorized by EU governments before they can go ahead.
Iran also has the world's second-largest reserves of natural gas after Russia, but the development of its giant gas fields has been delayed due to a lack of investment in a country faced with severe gas needs of its own and because of difficulties in procuring the required technology.
Several top global energy majors have already quit Iran, or have been considering an exit since the fresh set of UN sanctions.
The last high-level meeting between Iran and the six world powers was held in Geneva in October 2009 when the two sides agreed a nuclear fuel swap deal that has since stalled.
Western powers have demanded Iran suspend its uranium enrichment program, fearing Tehran would use the material to build a nuclear bomb. Iran says its atomic program is a peaceful drive to produce energy.
On Monday Iran responded to queries raised by the Vienna group of diplomatic powers -- France, Russia and the United States -- over a nuclear fuel swap proposal by Brazil, Turkey and Tehran.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tehran was ready for "prompt talks without any preconditions" over the fuel swap deal.
Iran also said earlier this month that talks over Iran's overall nuclear program could begin in September after EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton reached out to Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in a letter in June.

Lebanon, Syria sign string of accords

DAMASCUS - Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday as the two countries signed a string of cooperation accords.
During Hariri's third visit as premier to a country he once blamed for his father's murder in 2005, Syrian and Lebanese ministers signed a total of 17 accords covering justice, tourism, education and agriculture.

"We will also continue to take action to control the borders so as to combat trafficking and all illegal acts," he told a joint press conference after talks with his Syrian counterpart Mohammed Naji Otri and Assad.
Hariri told reporters that his relations with the Syrian leader were "in the interest of both countries... which face a common enemy."
"During the course of our meetings, a friendly relationship has been built up between the Syrian president and myself, something which strengthens the interest of Lebanese and Syrian citizens," he said.
Earlier, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told reporters that the UN's Special Tribunal for Lebanon investigating the assassination of Hariri's father, ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, was "a Lebanese affair."
"If irrefutable evidence demonstrates that a Syrian citizen was implicated, that person will then be judged in Syria for high treason," Muallem said.
A UN commission of inquiry had said there was converging evidence that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services were involved in Hariri's killing, but Damascus has consistently denied any involvement.
The killing prompted the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after a 29-year presence.
During a visit in December, his first since his father's assassination, Hariri called for "privileged, sincere and honest relations... in the interest of both countries and both peoples."
Hariri and his political allies, backed by the West and Saudi Arabia, won a majority of seats in parliament in June 2009, edging out an alliance led by the Syrian-backed Shiite Hezbollah.
The two blocs now share power in a government of national unity.

Arabs call for guarantees for direct Mideast talks

CAIRO
Arab League chief Amr Mussa said on Sunday that Palestinians could not resume direct talks with Israel without guarantees, as the Palestinian and Israeli leaders met separately with Egypt's president.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who are taking part in US-brokered indirect talks, left the meetings with President Hosni Mubarak without making any statements.
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell met with Mubarak earlier and then held talks with Mussa, who later told reporters the Palestinians could not move from the indirect talks to face-to-face negotiations.
"We cannot automatically move from one negotiation to another without written guarantees," said Mussa.
"I felt the Palestinian president was committed to the decisions of the ministerial council that the automatic transition from indirect to direct negotiations is not feasible," he said about his meeting with Abbas on Saturday.
The Arab League backed the indirect talks in March but supported their suspension after Israel said it would build more Jewish homes in annexed east Jerusalem.
It backed the talks again in May after the Palestinians said they received unspecified guarantees, but said direct negotiations would come only after a complete end to settlement building in occupied Palestinian lands.
Netanyahu had told reporters before flying to Cairo that he would discuss the prospects for direct talks with Mubarak.
The Palestinian leadership restated the conditions for the direct talks, suspended since Israel's offensive on Gaza in December 2008, after a meeting between the US envoy and Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Saturday.
Senior Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo called for greater clarity from Washington about its position on new negotiations, insisting the Palestinians wanted to address the core issues of the Middle East conflict.
"The three-hour meeting between Abbas and Mitchell was important but there are several issues, most important among them the settlements and the situation in Jerusalem, that need more clarity," Abed Rabbo told reporters.
The Palestinians have demanded a complete freeze on Israeli settlement expansion ahead of direct talks and have accused Israel of undermining the process by approving new settler homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, which they want as the capital of their promised state.

Iranian scientist leaves for home

Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist, is on his way home from the US after surfacing in Washington more than a year after Tehran claimed he was abducted by US spies.
Ramin Mehmanparast, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, said that Amiri had on Wednesday left from the Pakistan embassy in Washington, where he said he sought refuge, and was sent off by Mostafa Rahmani, the head of the Iran interests section.
"Shahram Amiri left US soil ... for Iran following efforts taken by the Islamic Republic of Iran and the effective cooperation of the Pakistani," Mehmanparast said.
Iran and the US have no diplomatic relations, so Tehran's interests in Washington are handled by a separate "interests section" at the Pakistani embassy.
Repeating accusations that Amiri was kidnapped by US agents, Mehmanparast said Iran would continue to pursue his case "legally and diplomatically".
Washington denied kidnapping Amiri and said he had "lived freely" in the US, with Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, saying: "He's free to go, he was free to come. Those decisions are his to make."
Iranian claim
Iranian authorities have repeatedly said that Amiri was seized by the CIA as he visited Saudi Arabia last year, and Iranian state television broadcast the text of what it said was an interview with Amiri.
He was quoted in the interview as saying that he was abducted at gunpoint by US agents, while attending the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia There were three people in the van - a driver, another person in a formal suit and beard, and a third person in the back.
"When I opened the door to get in and sit down, the person at the back put a gun to my side and said 'please be quite, don't make any noise'," he was quoted as saying.
PJ Crowley, a spokesman for the state department, said on Tuesday that Amiri had been living in the US for "some time".
"I'm not going to specify for how long, but he has chosen to return," Crowley said.
'Defeat for US'
Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said Amiri was handed over to the embassy by US agents, calling it a defeat for US intelligence services.
"Because of Iran's media and intelligence activities, the American government had to back down and hand over Amiri to the embassy on Monday night," Fars said.

Syria's Assad in historic visit to Havana

HAVANA - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived Sunday in Cuba, the second stop of his first tour of Latin America, to meet with President Raul Castro to reinforce political and economic ties between the two allies, officials said.
Assad will meet with Castro on Monday and sign several cooperation agreements, as well as undertake a commitment to reinforce education links between their nations -- some 200 Syrians recently graduated from Cuban universities in health related studies.
Assad's is the first visit to Cuba by a Syrian leader since his late father Hafez al-Assad came here in 1979, when he met with then Cuban president Fidel Castro.
Officials did not rule out a visit by Assad to Fidel Castro, who stepped down for health reasons in 2006 handing Cuba's helm to his younger brother, Raul.
Assad's tour of Latin America started Thursday in Venezuela where he met with President Hugo Chavez. After Cuba, the Syrian leader will visit Brazil and Argentina.
Fidel Castro on Sunday predicted a nuclear war between United States, Israel and Iran, after the United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on Tehran over its suspect nuclear weapons program.
"I haven't the slightest doubt that as soon as US and Israeli warships are in place... and attempt to inspect the first (Iranian) merchant ship, a shower of projectiles will be unleashed... That will be the exact moment the terrible war will start," Castro wrote in the Cubadebate website.
In his search for greater international recognition, Assad had embarked on a landmark Latin American tour on Friday to reinforce economic ties with a continent he is visiting for the first time.
Accompanied by his wife, Asma, the Syrian leader arrived in Venezuela on Friday before proceeding to Cuba, Brazil and Argentina, all three home to large communities of Syrian émigrés.
"Bilateral relations and developments in the Middle East and Latin America" will dominate discussions in the four countries, the official SANA news agency said.
"This is a trip that was envisaged for a long time but was not carried out for various reasons," said a Western diplomat in Damascus.
Boycotted and sidelined for decades by the United States, Syria has begun to assert itself as a key player in the Middle East.
Last month, shortly after the United States renewed sanctions for another year, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev described Damascus as a key political player in the region.
Assad's Latin American visit seeks to strengthen ties with a continent that is home to millions of Syrian-origin émigrés, said the Western diplomat.
The tour is intended "to reinforce the economic bonds" with the Latin American countries, "particularly with the émigrés of Syrian origin" and especially those in Brazil, which has between three and four million, he said.
The majority of the millions of Syrian-origin emigres in Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela are businessmen, engineers, doctors, politicians and even a former president -- Argentina's Carlos Menem.
The visit is aimed at "reinforcing economic ties", official Syrian media have reported.
Assad also will meet with Arab communities in those countries.
Cuba and Syria, together with Iran and Sudan, are on a US State Department blacklist of nations that support terrorism, an accusation they all deny.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited Syria in 2003, and last March Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim carried an invitation to Assad.
In Argentina, Syria's "traditionally good" relations "will be consolidated" by the signing of nine transport, tourism and cultural agreements, said a senior official at the Argentine embassy in Damascus.
Ten percent of Argentina's population is of Arab origin, including 2.5 million of Syrian ancestry and 1.5 million of Lebanese descent, the embassy said.