Israel burying nuclear waste in Golan

Syria has complained to the United Nations about a series of Israeli wrongdoings in the Golan Heights including burying nuclear waste.

The complaint was made in a report Syria handed to a UN fact-finding committee comprised of Senegal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia’s ambassadors, Ha’aretz said.

The report came after Syria held a third round of indirect negotiations with Israel in Turkey last week. A Turkish government source said Thursday that both sides agreed to hold a fourth round of indirect negotiations in Turkey in late July.

Syria listed in the report a number of human rights violations committed by Israel against the Golan’s Druze inhabitants.

Damascus also charged that Israel confiscates the Israeli ID cards of Druze students who return from studies in Syria, and that Golan residents continue to serve prison terms in Israeli jails, some for dozens of years.

Syria also protested the expansion in the strategic plateau of Israeli settlements, as well as lamenting the fact that Golan residents continue to be injured by mines planted in the region.

Israel seized the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.

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Israel calls for direct talks with Syria

Israeli president Shimon Peres says Israeli and Syrian leaders should hold direct talks if both sides are interested in forging trust.

Shimon Peres called for direct Israeli-Syrian negotiations, recalling the groundbreaking visit by Egypt’s then-President Anwar Sadat to al-Quds in 1977.

“Had Sadat not come to Jerusalem [al-Quds], we would not have had peace with Egypt”, said Peres.

“If the Syrians are genuinely seeking peace, then they must hold a summit meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert,” Shimon Peres said on Sunday in a meeting with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. The two met at Peres’ official residence in al-Quds.

Such a meeting could take place either in al-Quds or Damascus, said Peres, adding, “But it is an absolute necessity to break the psychological barrier and build trust between the two sides.”

Peres further noted that the current president’s late father, Hafez al-Assad, refused to meet with him in 1996. He did, however, give his consent in principle to such a meeting through then-US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who acted as mediator.

Meanwhile the indirect talks between the Israeli and Syrian delegations are continuing in Ankara. A possible meeting between Assad and Olmert at the upcoming Middle East conference in Paris will be on the agenda.

The conference, organized by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is scheduled to be held on July 13th. The Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are invited to the conference, but there has been no indication that they plan to meet.

In May, Israel and Syria launched indirect peace talks, with Turkey acting as a mediator, after an eight-year freeze.

The Syrians want the return of all of the Golan Heights which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981, a move never recognized by the international community.

Israel demands that Syria break off its ties with Iran as a precondition in their talks, but Syria has said it would reject any preconditions in the talks that call on Damascus to change its relations with other countries or movements.

MSH/GM

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IRGC commander highlights Syria ties

The top Iranian IRGC commander Jafari says the expansion of Iran-Syria cooperation will have great impact on strengthening regional unity.

“Cooperation between Iran and Syria and their mutual efforts to establish unity have borne fruit,” Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari, said in a meeting with the visiting Syrian Defense Minister, Hassan Ali Turkmani, in Tehran on Sunday.

He stressed the importance of promoting bilateral cooperation and praised the significant level of unity and solidarity between the two countries.

Turkmani, for his part, praised Iran’s efforts aimed at preparing the ground for ever greater bilateral cooperation and said that mutual ties would produce important results.

Syria is aware of the IRGC’s great capabilities in various fields of science and military and technology, he added.

SF/GM/BGH

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Doha Accord, Last But Not Least Blow to US Scheme

 On Wednesday, Lebanese leaders from the opposition and the ruling bloc signed the Doha agreement, opening the way for a new political phase that would be characterized by participation and national unity. The agreement put an end to all endeavors to strain the situation in Lebanon, not to mention US promises of a hot summer in this small country.
 
So, the Doha agreement appeared to be just another episode in the series of US frustrations in Lebanon, a worn chain that passed through different stages since before the July 2006 Israeli war against Lebanon.
 
The Lebanese didn’t yet forget how US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
announced, from Beirut during the first days of the destructive war, that what was happening was a preliminary step toward the birth of the so-called new Middle East. However, her announcement lasted less than 33 days and fell simultaneously with the Israeli fiasco and the Resistance’s Divine victory, as acknowledged by the Zionist entity itself.
 
Since then, Washington’s set eye on Lebanon’s internal front through successive “diplomatic” maneuvers and incitement attempts by different US officials, particularly US President George W. Bush who never missed the slightest incident in Lebanon to exploit and put more pressure on this country.
 
Also remarkable was the fact that stances or visits made by US officials were always crowned with new crises. The Arab University clashes in January 25, 2007, and the Mar-Michael incidents in January 26, 2008, both took place after two visits for US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern affairs David Welch to Lebanon. Those incidents nearly set the country on fire.
 
Today, the opposition’s insistence on partnership, denouncing sedition and coexistence bore fruit and set Lebanon free from US tutelage. The Doha Accord saw light and dealt another blow to the US scheme in the region, only a few days after Welche’s threat of a hot summer in Lebanon.

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Israel says it is holding peace talks with Syria

JERUSALEM – Israel and Syria on Wednesday said they were holding indirect peace talks through Turkish mediators — the first official confirmation of contacts between the longtime enemies.

In statements issued minutes apart, the two governments said they “have declared their intent to conduct these talks in good faith and with an open mind,” with a goal of reaching “a comprehensive peace.”

Both nations thanked Turkey for its help, and Turkey issued its own confirmation. Muslim Turkey has good ties with both Israel and Syria.

There have been reports in recent months of new Israeli-Syrian contacts through Turkey, and Turkey’s foreign minister said earlier this month that his country was trying to bring the sides together. But this was the first official confirmation that contacts have resumed.

An Israeli government official said Olmert’s chief of staff and diplomatic adviser have been in Turkey since Monday. “In parallel their Syrian counterparts are in Turkey as well,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks. He declined to discuss the substance of the talks.

Israel and Syria are bitter enemies whose attempts at reaching peace have repeatedly failed, most recently in 2000. The nations have fought three wars, and their forces have also clashed in Lebanon.

Peace with Syria would require Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

A Golan withdrawal would be extremely controversial among Israelis, and it could be difficult for a weakened leader like Olmert, whose already low popularity has been battered by a recent corruption investigation, to win public support for such a move. Peace talks with Syria also could divert attention from newly relaunched Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which aim to reach an agreement by the end of the year.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians welcomed the latest news. “We want to reach a comprehensive peace and therefore we support talks between Israel and Syria,” he said.

Israel, meanwhile, has demanded that Syria — which offers refuge to militant groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad and supports the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah — distance itself from terrorism as a condition for talks.

Last September, Israeli warplanes attacked an installation in Syria that the U.S. has said was an unfinished nuclear reactor built by North Korea.

U.S.-mediated talks between the two countries broke down in 2000 because of disagreements over the extent of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan. The main point of contention concerns a narrow strip of land along the Sea of Galilee, which Israel wants to keep to ensure its control of vital water supplies.

The latest round of contacts began in February 2007, when Olmert visited Turkey, Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said.

Stuart Tuttle, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Israel, said the U.S. was not directly involved in the talks.

U.S. relations with Syria have been frosty for years because of Syria’s meddling in Lebanon, support for militant groups in the Palestinian territories and Iraq and ties with Iran.

Political scientist Efraim Inbar suggested the announcement might be linked to Olmert’s current political woes and the apparent deadlock with the Palestinians.

“He might be using it as a ploy to divert public attention from his troubles and perhaps bring forward elections,” said Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

“He has failed with the Palestinians and he might be romancing the Syrians to pressure the Palestinians to reach an agreement,” he said.

The Israeli government official who spoke with The Associated Press said the talks with Syria “will not be at the expense of the Palestinian track.”

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Bush Urges to Confront “Lebanon Enemy” Hezbollah

US President George W. Bush called on Sunday on Lebanon’s neighbors and other nations in the Middle East to oppose Hezbollah, claiming that the lebanese resistance party turned out to be “the enemy of a free Lebanon,” saying that all nations have an interest in helping the Lebanese people prevail.
 
“We must stand with the people of Lebanon in their struggle to build a sovereign and independent democracy,” Bush told a mostly Arab audience at the World Economic Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday, claiming that this means opposing whom he called “Hezbollah terrorists, funded by Iran, who recently revealed their true intentions by taking up arms against the Lebanese people,” according to Bush.
 
Bush also sought to reassure skeptical Arabs he is committed to securing a deal on Palestinian statehood before he leaves office, despite his outspoken support for Israel, claiming the so-called peace in the Middle East was possible by the end of the year but that it required “tough sacrifices.”  
 
Wrapping up his Middle East tour in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Bush was looking to ease Palestinian dismay over his visit to Israel, where he lavished the Zionist entity with praise, hailing it as a “homeland for the chosen people.”
 
Bush alternately prodded and encouraged his allies from the so-called moderates on everything from oil to political reform, and urged them to isolate U.S. foes Syria and Iran for “supporting terrorism.”
 
“We must stand with the Palestinian people, who have suffered for decades and earned the right to a homeland of their own,” Bush said at the end of a five day Middle East tour.
 
Attempting to adjust his approach from the one taken on his visit to Israel for marking the formation of the Zionist entity on the Palestinian territories, Bush pressed Palestinians to “fight terror” and called on Israel to make “tough sacrifices for peace and ease restrictions on Palestinians.”
 
He was alluding to the hardship Palestinians face from Israeli roadblocks and barriers in the occupied West Bank, measures they call collective punishment.
 
Bush, who met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday, sought broader regional support for the so-called peace process and urged Arab states to “move past their old resentments against Israel.”
 
He called on Arab governments to free all “prisoners of conscience” and open up political debate. “Too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail,” Bush said.
 
Reflecting concern over record oil prices during a presidential election year, Bush also warned Arab oil producers their supplies were limited and they must diversify their economies. His comments follow a visit to Saudi Arabia where he won a modest increase in oil output.

Source: www.insight-info.com