Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad announces Israel deals with West Bank lands as public property; stresses national unity

Hariri visits Iraq; warns against sectarian sedition in Iraq, Lebanon

Walid Jumblatt: No weapon to protect weapon save national unity

Iranian nuclear file on crossroads between diplomatic solution or… war

President Saleh: Saada war is over

"Israel deals with the West Bank lands as public property which the Israelis exploit to their liking," said appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

He asserted that the only means to stop such assaults is to seek Palestinian national unity, end division state and unify efforts.

The Head of the Palestinian Water Authority Shadad Al-Atili said that the Palestinian territory is suffering grave water shortage because of the Israeli practices.

After his participation in the meeting of the Arab Ministers of Water Affairs in Egypt, , Al-Atili said that water use in the Palestinian territory is less than 60liters per capita, three times less than the WHO recommendations.

He added that it was supposed that the Palestinian territories to get 250 million cubic meters annually from the artesian water near the Jordan valley, but they did not as Israel does not abide by Oslo's agreement.

Al-Atili pointed out that it is very difficult to establish projects to desalinate the sea water due to the Israeli restrictions and provocations as well as the high cost of such projects.

In Cairo, the Arab League also welcomed the release of 60 Lebanese prisoners by Israel and called on the Jewish state to provide them with compensation for their incarceration.

“The League welcomes the release of the Lebanese prisoners and calls on the international community to urge Israel to release all Arab prisoners,” said Ahmed Ben Helli, the League's deputy secretary general for Arab affairs.

Mr. Helli welcomed the “role of the parties which contributed” to the release, a reference to the International Committee of the Red Cross and France, which helped arrange the exchange between Israel and Lebanon.

Mr. Helli also called for “compensation for the prisoners under international law” and urged the United Nations, European Union and the co-sponsors of the peace process (the United States and Russia) “to stop Israeli violations of the rights of Lebanese detainees in Israeli prisons.”

Lebanon's parliament majority leader MP Saad al-Hariri met Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad in a further sign the Iraqi government's ties with the Arab world are expanding.

Hariri praised the recent security gains in Iraq, the government said in a statement. Violence has dropped to a four-year low.

Few senior Lebanese officials have visited Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, but regional countries are starting to re-engage with the Shi'ite-led government.

Hariri, son of Lebanon's slain ex-prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, is the Sunni Muslim leader of Lebanon's majority parliamentary coalition.

He also heads a multi-billion dollar business empire, and his visit coincides with an Iraqi push for more foreign investment to help rebuild the country and provide jobs.

Last week Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan visited Baghdad, the first Turkish leader to do so since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Jordan's King Abdullah is also due to visit soon, a trip that would make him the first Arab leader to travel to Iraq since the invasion.

The U.S. military has accused Lebanon's Iranian-backed Shi'ite opposition group Hezbollah of helping train Iraqi militants.

"We reject any interference in Iraqi internal affairs. We encourage reconstruction in Iraq. Lebanese companies will participate in the reconstruction in Iraq," Hariri said after the meeting.

Iraq's government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, delivered a similar message: "Iraq emphasized that it does not interfere in other countries' internal affairs, and rejects any interference in its own affairs."

Kuwait named its first ambassador to Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War, in a major step toward healing the two countries' painful past and boosting regional ties with Baghdad's post-war government.

Kuwait's official news agency quoted the country's foreign minister as saying retired Lt. Gen. Ali al-Momen, a former military chief of staff, will take the ambassador post. His appointment will be issued in a decree by the emir, it said.

The country closed its embassy in Iraq in 1990, after Saddam Hussein invaded his tiny, oil-rich neighbor. The attack spurred the 1991 U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam's forces.

The two neighbors had no relations until more than a dozen years later, when another American invasion toppled Saddam. They resumed ties after 2003, and an Iraqi Embassy reopened in Kuwait, led by a charge d'affaires.

Kuwait had held back from reopening its embassy in Baghdad, however, citing security concerns. Diplomats from Bahrain, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab countries have all been either killed, wounded or kidnapped in Iraq since 2003.

Al-Qaida in Iraq had warned Arab states not to open embassies in Baghdad because of the Iraqi government's collaboration with U.S. military forces. But Iraqi and U.S. officials say violence has declined by 70 percent over the past year, and there have been no attacks on diplomatic missions in years.

Kuwait joins the United Arab Emirates and Jordan in opening up diplomatically to Baghdad, a step the U.S. has been prodding them to take.

He said the Kuwaiti embassy will probably be located in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone compound which houses government offices and the US embassy.

Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader Walid Jumblatt said that only Lebanese national unity can protect the resistance, in reference to Hezbollah." Arms cannot protect arms ... only national unity can protect the resistance," he said, indirectly responding to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who justified Hezbollah's use of arms against other Lebanese factions in early May as "using arms to defend the arms of the resistance."

Speaking at a ceremony in liberated prisoner Samir Kontar's hometown of Aabey, southeast of Beirut, Jumblatt said that there was no contradiction between the resistance and the Taif Agreement, which ended Lebanon's 15-year Civil War (1975-1990) and introduced major amendments to the Lebanese Constitution of 1926.

"There is no contradiction between the resistance and the Taif Agreement ... there is no contradiction between the resistance and the international tribunal," he said, referring to the UN-sponsored court to try suspects in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

"There is no contradiction between Lebanon and the resistance after gradually agreeing on a defense strategy," he said, adding that protecting the resistance did not conflict with having sound relations and mutual respect between Lebanon and Syria.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah official and Labor Minister Mohammad Fneish, who participated in the ceremony, said that Hezbollah had never forgotten its historical relations with Jumblatt, adding that Hezbollah was ready to extend its hand to Jumblatt in the future.

Fneish said Lebanon would not have been able to free all Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails had it not of the resistance.

"We should continue with the resistance to liberate the Shebaa Farms and the Kfar Shuba Hills," he added, referring to a border territory that Israel still occupied despite its withdrawal from most of Lebanon in May 2000.

Fneish said the agenda of the Lebanese state did not conflict with that of the resistance.

"We have wasted enough time ... we should cooperate to overcome the past, especially after the formation of the national unity Cabinet," he said.

"We will stretch our hand to our national partners with open hearts and minds regardless of unpleasant past experiences," he added.

Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Talal Arslan also spoke at the ceremony and said that the new Cabinet's ministerial statement should not avoid "recognizing the legitimacy of the resistance."

Arslan paid tribute to Nasrallah and stressed "the mountains will always back the resistance."

Kontar, who was released after spending almost 30 years in Israeli jails, called on all Lebanese "to rally around the resistance."

"Let us all remember Kamal Jumblatt ... Had he been with us, he would have called on his comrades to cut any hand that dares to touch the arms of the resistance," Kontar said.

The late Kamal Jumblatt is the founder of the PSP and the father of Walid Jumblatt.

Kontar said the resistance shall continue even after the liberation of the Shebaa Farms.

"Whoever believes that liberating Shebaa Farms would put an end to the resistance is wrong ... even if we left the Israelis alone, they will not leave us," he said.

"Look at the way they treated the people who signed treaties with them ... Look at what they did to former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat," he added, indirectly blaming Israel for the Palestinian leader's death in November 2004.

As he arrived at his family house earlier, Kontar said he had no regrets over what he did three decades ago.

Kontar was arrested in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya in 1978 and was convicted of killing three Israelis.

"I haven't for even one day regretted what I did," he said. "On the contrary, I remain committed to my political convictions."

Kontar received a hero's welcome at his hometown as many people from the village and neighboring areas attended the rally to meet him.

"We are very happy on this beautiful day, this is a victory for Lebanon and the national resistance," said Yusra Khaddaj, 39, as she stood with her three young daughters on the road leading to Aabey.

"Samir Kontar is the son of all the Lebanese," she added.

One banner along the road leading to Aabey read: "From Palestine to Iraq to Lebanon, the resistance is victorious."

Earlier, Kontar visited Hezbollah's senior security official Imad Mughniyeh's tomb in Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut before heading to his village in a triumphant convoy.

Mughniyeh was killed in a bombing in Syria last February. His death was blamed on Israel, which denied any responsibility.

Meanwhile, Israeli security officials warned that Kontar should now fear for his own life.

"Every terrorist who committed an act of terror against Israel, especially someone like Kontar, who killed a little child and two other people, is a target," one of the officials told AFP.

"If there is a chance for Israel to close the file on Kontar, Israel won't hesitate," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Israel's intelligence agencies Mossad and Shin Beth opposed Kontar's release but were over-ruled by political considerations, in order to end the mystery over the fate of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah two years ago in a cross-border raid. Israel responded to that raid by launching a devastating 34-day war on Lebanon.

The bodies of the two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were returned to Israel as part of the swap.

Thousands of mourners gathered in a northern Israeli town to bury the first of two soldiers returned in a prisoner exchange with Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas.

Ehud Goldwasser was one of the soldiers whose remains were returned by Hezbollah in exchange for five Lebanese prisoners and the remains of some 200 Arab fighters.

His wooden coffin was lowered into the ground in Nahariya by soldiers wearing the purple caps of an elite brigade. His widower, Karnit Goldwasser, held on to her late husband's father as each wiped away tears.

In keeping with Jewish tradition, Goldwasser's father Shlomo wore a shirt ripped at the front, to signify mourning. Later, an Israeli military rabbi recited the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning.

Another funeral for Eldad Regev was done.

The Lebanon Independent Border Assessment Team (LIBAT), dispatched by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, will conduct a broad review of Lebanon's ongoing efforts to enhance its border management capacity, following the recommendations made by the team after its first visit to the country last year.

The five-member group, comprised of experts in border security, police, customs and military issues, will carry out consultations with Lebanese officials as well as other partners already assisting Lebanon in this area.

The team is expected to be in the country for two weeks and will issue a report to Mr. Ban - who set up the team in April 2007 in response to a request from the Security Council - following the mission.

The above is based on a press release by the UN

Syria has so far refused to demarcate its borders with Lebanon and for this reason the Syrian - Lebanese borders are extremely porous, resulting in a lot of cross border smuggling.

Turkey believes that both Israel and Syria are committed to peace, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said ahead of a fourth round of indirect talks between the two sides under Turkish auspices. "The talks so far took place in a sincere and constructive atmosphere," Babacan said in an interview on NTV television.

"Our prevailing opinion is that both parties have a genuine political will to reach a settlement," he added.

A date was set for a fourth round of indirect talks in Istanbul, Babacan said, but declined to disclose it, only saying they would be held "in a few weeks." Under the format of the negotiations, Israeli and Syrian officials do not see each other and Turkish diplomats shuttle between them.

Babacan said the talks' success would have wider regional impact and could lead to peace talks between Israel and Lebanon.

The Israeli-Syrian talks started in May after an eight-year freeze. The latest round was held in early July.

Syrian President Bashar Assad and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert held indirect talks through Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Paris on the sidelines of a summit to launch a Mediterranean union.

Syria said in May that it had received Israeli commitment for full withdrawal from the Golan Heights it seized four decades ago, although Israeli officials have been tight-lipped on the controversial issue.

Olmert has said Israel is willing to make "major concessions," seen as a reference to the Golan Heights, seized by the Jewish state in the 1967 war.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said after talks with Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki in Damascus that brainstorming over Iran's nuclear issue will continue.

"Participation of US envoy William Burns in the meeting between EU foreign minister Javier Solana and Iranian nuclear negotiator Said Jalili helps the US to get to know Iran's position without mediators," Mottaki said at a joint press conference after the talks.

Mottaki added that he hoped the Geneva talks would end with positive improvements.

Meanwhile, al-Moallem said that Syria will make sure that the talks would not devalue Iran's right of peaceful use of nuclear energy provided by the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The Syrian Foreign Minister stated that Syria and Iran were among the first countries to ask the international community to free the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction, stressing the fact that both countries still adhere to the same position.

The Iranian foreign minister told reporters upon arrival that his one-day stay in Syria was a scheduled one and his talks with Syrian officials would tackle efforts to boost regional stability.

Mottaki, whose tour includes a visit to Turkey, said he will discuss Iraq's situation and how its neighboring countries can help it get through the on-going conflicts.

Mottaki, who did not meet with the Damascus-based Palestinian leaders before he left for Turkey as was scheduled, has met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The visit comes after a recent trip of al-Assad to France where he held talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said that Syria condemns and is concerned over the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court request of an arrest warrant against the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

"This action constitutes a dangerous precedent and an unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of Sudan, now that the International conventions and treaties have ensured immunity of Presidents of states from prosecution." Al-Moallem said.

"The policy of selectivity and double standards in dealing with this issue would undermine security and stability in Sudan and undermine the chances of achieving peace in Darfur." He added.

The Foreign Minister expressed Syrian people and government's solidarity with Sudan against this irresponsible decision.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration's decision to break with past policy and send a top diplomat to weekend talks with an Iranian envoy proves the international community is united in trying to eliminate threats from the Iranian nuclear program.

Speaking to reporters during a photo opportunity with Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, Rice said, "The point that we're making is the United States is firmly behind this diplomacy, firmly behind and unified with our allies and hopefully the Iranians will take that message."

"It's going to be very clear to them that the international community and P5-plus-1 are completely united," she added.

The P5-plus-1 is the group of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany that has offered Iran incentives to halt activities that could lead the development of nuclear weapons.

Senior diplomats from the group will meet in Switzerland with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator to hear Tehran's final response to the incentives package.

For the first time, the United States will participate in such a meeting with the Iranians with the State Department's third-ranking diplomat, William Burns, scheduled to attend.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared the end of the war in Saada province, the north of Yemen.

"The war in districts of Saada province ended three days ago and it will never back." Saleh said during the inauguration ceremony of summer centers and youth camps organized by the Supreme Committee for Summer Centers and Youth Camps and Ministry of Youth and Sport.

Worth mentioning, the Supreme Security Committee called all citizens fled from their villages in districts of Saada province to return home.

The committee also called citizens of Bani Hushaish and Harf Sufian district of Amran governorate to return to their villages and homes peacefully

. In the ceremony, president Saleh expressed thank for Ministry of Sports and Youths and Ministry of Education to set up these centers, affirming importance of paying further care for youths as they are heart of the nation and its future.

He pointed out to the negative impacts of ignorance of youths in some governorate such as what happened in some districts of Saada due to bad education and weakness of loyalty for the nation.

President Saleh asked the ministry of education to review school books in sake of deepening concepts of the national loyalty and unification.

He said that the country is a victim of extremism and backward, saying that the nation needs for honest and moderate youths who reject these thoughts and regionalism and sectarianism.

President Saleh insisted on commitment of all with constitution and law, indicating to the importance of dialogue rather than violence and illegal sit-ins as well as riots.

He called on all for focusing on development, renewing promises for giving further care for youths by distributing agricultural and housing units.

Regarding the increase of food prices, president Saleh reviewed efforts of the government to reduce impacts of this increase, asking to concentrate on agriculture in Saada, Amran, Shabwa, Abyan and Hadramout in addition to Tahama which supplies the markets of the country with 75percent of the agricultural crops.