Egyptian, Jordanian leaders discuss Palestinian, Lebanese developments

PNA rejects accusations of rendering peace process failure

Regional, int'l conflicting developments over Iran's nuke future

Olmert's visit to Dimona reactor raises questions

Israeli deputy FM admits pounding Syrian site in Deir al-Zor

The Palestinian embassy in Riyadh honored a number of secondary school graduates under ambassador Jamal al-Shobki in ceremonies attended by the supervisor over Faysali schools, Abdul-Majid Labib, the president of al-Quds University in Riyadh, Dr. Soliman al-Dalaha, the university's financial and administrative director, Dr. Yousuf Heneina, several teachers and parents.

In a speech on the occasion, Ambassador Shobki congratulated the students, stressing that "science is the only weapon through which we would be able to materialize liberation and home-return."

He praised the role played by Palestinian universities at home and abroad, citing examples of success by many Palestinians in several fields like medicine, engineering and distinct administrative activities.

Shobki urged high school graduates to cling to science and knowledge and maintain Palestinian traditions and identity and to always act like envoys for their country anywhere they go.

He extended thanks for the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz and the Saudi people for offering Palestinian student education opportunities equal to those of Saudis and also for the generous hosting and good treatment of the Palestinian community in Saudi Arabia.

He held in high esteem the painstaking efforts exerted by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques in support of the Palestinian issue in all international fora.

Meanwhile, bilateral talks between Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak and King Abdullah II of Jordan Wednesday concentrated on Palestine and Lebanon, an official said. Abdullah arrived earlier Wednesday at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to meet his Egyptian counterpart.

Egyptian presidency spokesman Suleiman Awwad said both leaders supported Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's call for peace between Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas.

Awwad said Egypt was trying to host a Palestinian-Palestinian dialogue to reach reconciliation between all factions.

The two leaders have also expressed their hope for the implementation of the Doha accord and urged a quick agreement on the new Lebanese cabinet.

A Qatar-mediated accord in May included an agreement on a Lebanese national unity government, but differences over portfolios has held up the formation of the new cabinet in which the opposition is guaranteed effective veto power.

Awwad added that Jordanian and Egyptian leaders wrapped up their talks by discussing Egyptian gas exports to Jordan.

Mubarak also discussed with U.S. Senator John Kerry, the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee member, the Iranian nuclear issue and efforts to combat terrorism. Kerry termed his talks with Mubarak as "very good," adding they dealt with bilateral relations and means to push them forward, particularly in the economic sphere.

Egypt closed its border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after hundreds of Palestinians stormed it and clashed with police a day after the border was temporarily reopened. Angry crowds, who have been waiting for hours to be allowed to pass through the Rafah crossing, swept through the checkpoint and entered Egyptian territory by force, security officials said.

Egyptian border guards used water cannons to disperse the Palestinians, who threw rocks at them. All border checkpoints have been closed, according to security sources.

The Palestinians were frustrated that only scores of Gazans have been allowed to cross the border since Egypt opened it on Tuesday morning for two days following a truce agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In January, Hamas militants blew open the border, allowing hundreds of thousands to pour into Egypt to stock up on food and humanitarian supplies after months of an Israel blockade of the Hamas-run territory.

The blockade, coming in response to rocket attacks fired from the territory, deprived Palestinians of basic commodities, such as food, medicine and fuel.

The Palestinian resistance fired a rocket that landed in an open area in the Sha'ar Hanegev region, causing no casualties or damage.

Israel Radio said that a home-made Palestinian rocket was fired from Gaza Strip, which landed near a cooperative. A group calling itself Badr Forces claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.

The Badr Forces group said in a statement that it managed to fire a rocket at the area of Sha'ar Hanegev, adding it would not accept a truce with the Israeli occupation forces.

On the other hand, The Islamist movement Hamas is suspending talks over the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit due to Israel's closure of the Gaza Strip, says a media report.

"It makes no sense to us that we launch negotiations (over Shalit) while Israel fails to follow the truce," said senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, quoted in the London-based, Arabic language Al-Hayyat on Friday.

Shalit was captured in a cross border raid on the Kerem Shalom crossing near Gaza by Palestinian militants in June 2006. Shortly after Shalit's kidnapping, the 2006 Lebanon War erupted between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

"This issue (Shalit) will be postponed until Egyptians and Israelis exert efforts in order to meet the ceasefire agreement and open the crossings, and prevent Mohammed Dahlan from sabotaging the truce… What is the use of a truce agreement if it can't be fulfilled?" he said.

When Marzouk spoke of "Mohammed Dahlan" he was referring to a derogatory term given to Fatah movement operatives in Gaza, implying they are involved in sabotaging the truce by launching rockets to Israel from Gaza.

Meanwhile, 558 Palestinians stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing are back in Gaza, Palestinian news agency Maan said.

On Thursday, Israeli authorities closed all the crossings between Gaza and Israel after unknown Palestinian militants fired a home made shell into the Israeli Negev desert.

Following a truce in mid-June, Israelis and Palestinians have traded accusations over violations but the truce is still in place.

Israelis claim Palestinians have not stopped rocket launches, while Palestinians claim Israelis have broken the truce repeatedly by arresting and killing militant leaders in the West Bank.

A Palestinian construction worker rampaged in a bulldozer along one of west Jerusalem's busiest streets on Wednesday, killing three Israelis as he crushed cars and overturned a bus before being shot dead.

There was no claim of responsibility from militant groups and police said they were trying to establish if 30-year-old Hosam Dwayyat had acted alone. At his family home in the Arab east of the city, there was no sign of the crowds and banners that normally accompany the funerals of Palestinian guerrillas.

A senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Vice Premier Haim Ramon, said the incident showed that some Palestinian areas like the one where Dwayyat lived should be separated from Jerusalem.

Olmert has faced criticism in Israel for his willingness to consider giving Palestinians some Arab-populated areas annexed by Israel as part of Jerusalem after it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants the capital of a Palestinian state to be in Jerusalem.

Neighbors and relatives, including an uncle, said Dwayyat was divorced from a Jewish Israeli. Police said he had a history of drug offences but no known political affiliation.

Dwayyat drove the 20-tonne earthmoving vehicle for 500 meters along Jaffa Road, rolling over cars, crushing some occupants, and ramming into a crowded number 13 bus, flipping it on its side with his mechanical shovel.

Dramatic television footage showed the vehicle later at a standstill and a policeman in the cab, as rescue workers and passersby surveyed the wreckage. However, the bulldozer started moving again and a struggle could be seen inside the cab.

A man in civilian clothes leapt aboard and fired a pistol into the cab, followed by a helmeted policeman in body armor who fired an automatic rifle. The officer later said he fired twice at the wounded driver to ensure he was no further threat.

"The only way to stop him was with a bullet to the head," witness Moshe Oren said afterwards. "We were relieved."

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the attack "was an act of senseless, murderous violence." An aide to Abbas called it an attempt to wreck peace negotiations and urged Israel to show restraint in its response.

Abbas's opponents in Hamas and Islamic Jihad said the attack was a "natural" response by Palestinians to Israeli aggression but, nearly two weeks into a truce in the Gaza Strip, neither Islamist group said it was responsible for the incident. U.S. President George W. Bush called Olmert to offer condolences, Israeli spokesman Regev said.

Medical officials said more than 40 people were taken to hospital. Police at first identified the dead as two Israeli men and a woman, but then corrected this to one man and two women.

It was the first Arab attack in Jewish west Jerusalem since a gunman killed eight students on March 6 at a rabbinical seminary a short distance from Jaffa Road. The scene in the aftermath of the incident was reminiscent of suicide bombings that destroyed buses on Jaffa Road during a wave of attacks in 1996 and during the first years of a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000.

Since then, fatal attacks on Israelis have become relatively rare, despite frequent rocket and mortar fire from Gaza. Israeli forces have killed more than 360 Palestinians this year, mostly in Gaza. More than 100 of the Palestinian dead were civilians.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in Gaza his group did not expect the attack to "influence the Gaza calm."

"There is a continued aggression against our people in the West Bank and Jerusalem and so it is natural that our people there will respond to such aggression," he said.

Hamas's allies, Islamic Jihad, said in a statement: "The Jerusalem Brigades bless the heroic operation in Jerusalem as the natural reaction to the crimes of the occupation." Unlike Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip and in the occupied West Bank, those living in occupied east Jerusalem have free access to the Jewish west of the city and to Israel.

Arab and Jewish populations do not mix extensively, but thousands of Palestinians work on Israel's roads and building sites. The gunman who attacked the seminary in March was from east Jerusalem. That attack was claimed by Hamas officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed on Thursday the demolition of the homes of Arab East Jerusalem residents who carry out attacks against Israelis after a Palestinian killed three in a bulldozer rampage.

Israeli authorities say Wednesday's attack and the fatal shootings of eight seminary students in March were carried out by Palestinians from the Arab east of the city. They hold Israeli identity cards that give them wide freedom of movement.

"I think we need to be tougher in some of the means we use against perpetrators of terror," Olmert told an economic conference in the southern port city of Eilat. "If we have to destroy houses, then we must do so, and if we have to stop their social benefits, then we must do so."

"There cannot be a case where they massacre us and at the same time they get all the privileges that our society provides," Olmert added.

In an earlier meeting with defense and justice chiefs, Olmert said he favored immediately destroying the homes of "every terrorist from Jerusalem," according to an Israeli government official.

Israel abandoned the demolitions of homes of Palestinians involved in attacks on Israelis, in a pledge to the Supreme Court in response to petitions by human rights groups against the procedure. Any renewal of the policy would likely draw legal challenges.

Defense and legal officials met on Thursday to discuss the demolition issue. Some 20 people live in the bulldozer driver's family home, relatives said.

Israel annexed Arab East Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally, after capturing the area in a 1967 war, and gave Palestinians there the same blue identity cards issued to Jewish and Arab citizens of the Jewish state.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a would-be state they have been pledged under a U.S.-backed peace plan.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) rejected accusations by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak of being responsible for possible failure of negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.

Nabil Abu Rdeineh, PNA President Mahmoud Abbas's advisor, in statements to the local newspaper al-Ayam, said "if the negotiations failed, the Israeli side would be responsible for this failure because the international legitimacy has outlined the features for solution."

Abbas and Barak met briefly on the sidelines of a worldwide socialist party conference near Athens.

The two met privately for a half-hour on the sidelines of a three-day Socialist International conference in this coastal resort, 25 miles south of Athens. After the meeting, Barak said he expected U.S.-backed peace talks with the Palestinians to continue, according to aides who were there when he spoke. "The Israeli public is ready for painful concessions," he said. "If there will not be peace in this round it will be responsibility of the Palestinians."

Addressing the conference earlier, Abbas said the talks "still face great obstacles" but the chance for a settlement should not be lost.

"There is still a wide gap between the respective positions that cannot be overcome unless the Israeli government adopts positions and measures that will clearly emphasize its sheer desire to seize an opportunity to achieve peace," Abbas said. "But this chance may not remain open forever."

Abbas urged self-restraint from both sides to preserve the shaky, Egypt-brokered truce in the Gaza strip.

"We hope that (the cease-fire) will be kept despite the fact that there are those who are trying to destroy it," Abbas said.

Barak urged Gaza's Hamas rulers to release an Israeli soldier abducted two years ago. "Hamas and its leadership has a choice: either to accept the quartet conditions and make itself a legitimate actor, including the release of our abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, or continue the way of violence ... leaving us no choice but to defend our citizens," he said.

Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), said an Israeli strike on Iran could destabilize the Middle East told a news conference during a recent visit to Israel.

Speaking of a flurry of speculation that Israel is planning a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, Mullen refused to comment on what Israel might be planning over Iran's nuclear facilities. Instead, he stressed the need for greater dialogue with Iran.

"This is a very unstable part of the world and I don't need it to be more unstable," he said.

"Opening up a third front right now would be extremely stressful on us," Mullen added, apparently referring to wars on two fronts: the nearly seven-year-old campaign in Afghanistan and more than five years in Iraq.

On Iran's nuclear program, Mullen said that "I believe they're still on a path to get nuclear weapons and I think that's something that needs to be deterred."

However, the top U.S. military officer noted that the settlement of Iran's nuclear disputes should be done through diplomatic, financial and economic actions by the United States and other nations.

U.S. President George W. Bush reiterated earlier in the day that diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear issue is "the first option" although "all options are on the table."

"I have always said that all options are on the table but the first option for the United States is to solve this problem diplomatically," Bush told a news conference in the White House Rose Garden.

"And the best way to solve it diplomatically is for the United States to work with other nations to send a focused message - and that is, you will be isolated, and you will have economic hardship if you continue to enrich."

Prior to the remarks by Bush and Mullen, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tuesday that Iran is "seriously and carefully examining" a package of economic incentive offered by the United States and its negotiating partners.

"We see the potential for a new round of talks ... The two sides are trying to see if they can arrive at a new modality," Mottaki told reporters at Iran's United Nations mission, noting that Iran would officially respond the international offer "within weeks."

The United States and its western allies accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of its stated goal of developing civilian nuclear power. Iran denies the U.S. allegations.

Bush said Wednesday that "military options remain on the table" in nuclear disputes with North Korea and Iran but underlined that he preferred a diplomatic resolution. "I have always said that diplomacy has got to be the first choice of solving any of these problems. But military options remain on the table," Bush said in a roundtable interview with Japanese news outlets.

The president had been asked whether the six-country-talks approach he embraced for dealing with North Korea could be effective with Iran and about charges he ignored diplomacy when it came to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Bush has frequently warned that he has not ruled out using force against Iran, but has done so less frequently amid six-country diplomatic efforts aimed at defusing the nuclear dispute with North Korea.

White House aides and Bush himself have said that it would be irresponsible for a US president to categorically rule out using force, saying that could de-fang diplomatic efforts with difficult countries.

Bush said North Korea's decision to provide an unprecedented accounting of its nuclear programs last week may have stemmed from leader Kim Jong-Il's decision to end his country's deep political and economic isolation.

"Expectations are that he will move forward, action for action," as part of a tit-for-tat diplomatic arrangement promising the secretive Stalinist country rewards for doing so, Bush told the roundtable.

"We expect there to be full declaration of manufactured plutonium. We expect there to be a full disclosure of any enrichment activities and proliferation activities. And we expect the abductee issue to be solved.

"And if they choose not to move forward on an agreed-upon way forward -- action for action -- there will be further isolation and further deprivation for the people of North Korea," he said.

But "I would only surmise that perhaps the leader of North Korea is tired of being isolated in the world, and would try to advance his country in a way that makes it easier for the people to have a better life," he said.

Bush also sought to ease Japanese anger at his decision to take North Korea off the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, effective in 45 days, in response to North Korea's nuclear accounting.

Some Japanese accused him of forgetting about the fate of Japanese abducted by North Korea, which in June agreed to reopen the issue of the purloined people after initially saying the case was closed.

"I can understand people saying, 'well, I guess this is the beginning of the end of US concern,'" he said. "But I will say it again, like I have said it time and time again, this is the beginning of our concern."

The six-party talks are "a framework to help solve the concerns of the parents, the people of Japan and the Japanese government," said Bush, who has met in his Oval Office with the mother of one of the abductees.

"The question is, can Japan solve this issue alone better, or does it make sense to have the United States and other countries expressing the same concerns? I happen to believe that it is in your country's interest to have the United States and other countries helping you on this issue," he said.

"My hope is, is that the North Koreans continue to move forward," said Bush. Iran would consider any military action against its nuclear facilities as the beginning of a war, the country's top Revolutionary Guards commander said in remarks published Friday.

Gen. Mohammed Ali Jafari's comments, carried by Iran's official news agency, come as speculation of possible military action against Iran's nuclear facilities mounts. The U.S. has said all options are on the table, and there are worries that Israel might be considering a unilateral strike. Both countries, which accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, say they favor a diplomatic solution.

Jafari said any country that attacks Iran would regret doing so.

"Any action against Iran is regarded as the beginning of war," Jafari said late Thursday, according to the IRNA news agency report. "Iran's response to any military action will make the invaders regret their decision and action."

In a newspaper interview last week, Jafari warned that if attacked, Iran would barrage Israel with missiles and choke off the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a narrow outlet for oil tankers leaving the Persian Gulf.

However, the general was also quoted as saying that he thinks a strike by Iran's adversaries is unlikely.

Iran's top diplomat, Manouchehr Mottaki, told The Associated Press in New York on Wednesday that the United States and Israel would not risk the "craziness" of attacking his country and possibly provoking a wider Middle East war or driving oil prices into uncharted heights.

An Israeli military exercise last month was seen as a strong warning to Iran. The U.S. and Israel say Iran's nuclear program is a cover for weapons production, while Iran insists it is only for power generation.

Mottaki called the speculation of a military strike part of "psychological warfare," according to Friday's IRNA report.

Iran's foreign minister has also signaled a willingness to restart talks with the West. "Tehran is ready to settle Iran's nuclear issue in a comprehensive agreement," Mottaki was quoted as saying Thursday by the Web site of Iran's state TV.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — as well as Germany have offered new talks if Iran signals it is prepared to suspend its enrichment of uranium.

Syria's foreign minister on Monday repeated his country's denials that a site bombed by Israel last year was a nascent nuclear reactor but said he wished his country had such a program to counter Israel's nuclear might.

U.N. nuclear inspectors visited the site in northern Syria last week to investigate U.S. allegations that Syria was hiding elements of a potential nuclear arms program.

Olli Heinonen, a deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he was satisfied with what was achieved on the four-day trip but that "there is still work that needs to be done" in following up on the claims.

Syrian authorities imposed a virtual news blackout on the inspectors' trip, and few details of the visit have surfaced beyond the fact that Syrian authorities allowed the three-man inspecting team to visit the Al Kibar site, which Israeli jets targeted in September. Syria has said the site was a non-nuclear military facility.

"As a Syrian citizen, I think that had Syria had such a secret program, it wouldn't have allowed inspectors to visit the site....This is logic," Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said at a joint news conference in Damascus with his Norwegian counterpart, Jonas Gahr Stoere.

"But as a citizen, I wish that Syria would have such a program because Israel simply has made strides in manufacturing nuclear weapons," he said.

Syria's vice president, Farouk al-Sharaa, said Wednesday his country allowed U.N. inspectors to visit the site destroyed by Israeli jets to prove that U.S. allegations of a covert Syrian nuclear program were false.

Al-Sharaa said, however, that the inspectors from the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear monitoring agency, will not be allowed to investigate beyond the Al Kibar site, despite a U.N. request to visit three other suspect locations.

Damascus strongly denies U.S. allegations that it is involved in any nuclear activities and fears that Washington could use the accusations to rally international pressure against it.

Al-Moallem also said a new round of indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel will be held soon in Turkey, which has been mediating between the two sides for around a year. He said such talks are "good bases for direct negotiations."

"Like any process, there are ups and downs, but what is more important is that the two sides should go on with negotiations to reach these bases," al-Moallem said.

"There is a chance to achieve a just and comprehensive peace," he said. "We hope the Israelis will not miss it by their partisan differences."

Syria and Israel announced last month that they were holding indirect peace talks under Turkish mediation. Previous peace talks broke down in 2000 because of disagreements over final borders and peace terms.

The Norwegian foreign minister, who met with Syrian President Bashar Assad Monday, praised the indirect talks between Israel and Syria as a "courageous" step that requires the contribution by all parties.