Palestinian presidents asserts PNA commitments, voices concern about Israel's incompliance with principles of Annapolis conference

British PM urges two-state solution based on 1967 borders, with as Jerusalem capital for both

Israeli FM urges Olmert to resign

Syrian FM conveys visit invitation to Lebanese president

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas thanked British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for his initiative to host a pro-Palestinian investment conference in London in the fall.

Speaking at a press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Bethlehem. Abbas lauded the funds to be offered by Britain to support the Palestinian Authority budget.

"What is required for these investments is to assure the freedom of movement of goods and of people," Abbas said at the joint news conference with Brown.

Abbas added, however, that the major snag in the way of developing the Palestinian economy will remain Israel's restrictions on the movement of people and goods, repeated closure of crossings and incessant storming operations in Palestinian cities and refugee camps.

He expressed concerns about Israel's incompliance with the principles of the Annapolis conference, topped by freezing settlement activities.

He added that the Arab initiative launched six years ago to realize just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East was still awaiting the Israeli response.

For his part, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Israel to stop settlement construction in the West Bank as he offered financial help and police training to the Palestinian government, The Guardian newspaper reported on its website.

he urged a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem the capital for both. Reflecting the distinctive economic slant of his foreign-policy thinking, he pledged that Britain would lead the way in supporting "an economic road map for peace", citing Northern Ireland as a place where prosperity had discouraged violence.

Brown said "settlement expansion has made peace harder to achieve". He added: "It erodes trust, it heightens Palestinian suffering, and it makes the compromises Israel will need to make for peace more difficult. So we are very clear - not just Britain but the whole of the European Union - what should be done."

Brown clashed with his Israeli counterpart Olmert over his demand to freeze the building of settlements in the West Bank.

Olmert said that his country's disagreement with Britain over expanding settlements in the West Bank "should not stand in the way" of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

"You criticized our settlement policy and I tried to explain to you the restraints which we put on ourselves on the one hand and the need to keep the pace of life going on, on the other hand," Olmert told visiting British Prime Minister at a joint news conference in Jerusalem.

"And while you disagree with us, at least I hope you understand better the position of Israel on some of these issues."

Peace Achievable, Says Brown.

However Brown insisted that the gap between Israelis and the Palestinians can be bridged and that a landmark Middle East peace deal is achievable.

Brown announced an extra £30m of support for the Palestinian Authority. As part of the package Brown announced that Britain would expand its training of Palestinian police and security forces and will provide a new senior leadership training course.

"We are also clear that the violence must stop too. And that's why I'm pleased that we are also talking about how we can increase the security that is available to the Palestinian Authority," the British premier said. Brown said the security wall erected by Israel along its border with the West Bank was "graphic evidence of the urgent need for justice for the Palestinian people" and an end to the occupation of Palestinian land.

"While security is the key, Palestinians also need to see real change in their daily lives and that means jobs, housing and basic services."

Britain has already pledged £250m in both cash support and the provision of expertise over the three years to 2011.

Brown said: "I can announce today a further commitment of $60m (£30 million) $30m of which we will give as direct budgetary support, bringing our total support this year to $175m."

He called for increased international investment in the territories, saying "Palestine is open for business."

Prosperity would "make the cost of ever returning to violence so high and so unacceptable that the vast majority will not want to have anything to do with those who preach violence," he said.

Gordon Brown became the first British prime minister to address the Israeli Knesset, and declared his government's resolve to stand fast against any British boycott of Israel or Israeli academics.

Brown was responding to attempts by British universities to boycott Israeli academics and a previous decision by British workers to boycott Israeli products in protest against Israeli practices in Palestinian territories.

The prime minister affirmed that the British and Israeli people will stand together now and in the future because of their history that supports those who struggle for freedom, and said that if the major conflict of the 21st Century is between those who believe that closed societies impede progress and those who support open societies, then the two countries stand together for open society.

Brown also pledged that Britain "will continue to lead, with the United States and our European partners, in our determination to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapons program".

He pointed out that the European Union had imposed additional sanctions on Iran aside from those clamped by the UN Security Council, with reference to the measures taken last month against an Iranian bank involved in supporting the Iranian nuclear program, and stressed readiness for more such steps and for urging the international community to follow suit.

"We stand ready to lead in taking further sanctions and will ask the whole international community to join us," Brown said, adding that Iran "has a clear choice to make: suspend its nuclear weapons program and accept our offer of negotiations or face growing isolation and the collective response, not just of one nation, but of all nations aground the world." The British prime minister said the road to the future was not through violence, killing and harming civilians but through fostering of freedom, justice, tolerance and equality.

Building peace, stability, prosperity and working as one world would overcome poverty, environmental deterioration, diseases and instability, Brown said.

Britain and Israel had to work together and mobilize the best talents in a collective effort to build new international institutions that better suit the new international stage, he said.

He urged the United Nations to foster stability, peace-keeping and reconstruction, and called for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to help non-nuclear countries to find alternative energy resources.

He also called for modernizing the World Bank to enable it to defend the environment, bolster development and lay the basis for international financial stability, turning the International Monetary Fund into an "early warning system" for any problem in the global economy.

The British prime minister declared that Israel was faced with a historic challenge which was to establish peace with its neighbors throughout the region.

Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1978 and with Jordan in 1994, and was presently conducting negotiations with Syria while the time had come to build another peace edifice and establish peace with the Palestinians, Brown urged.

Expressing his support and that of his government for Israel, the British prime minister told the Knesset that in his sincere appraisal a lasting peace was within their grasp as the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayad provided the best partners for Israel in a generation.

He said those two men shared Israel's vision for peace and reconciliation and realize that they cannot secure their objectives for the Palestinian people at the expense of Israel's security.

Brown advised the Israelis to seize the opportunity to achieve that peace by enforcing the two-state solution within the borders of 1967, so that a viable Palestinian state is created and accepts Israel as a friend and a partner, with Jerusalem as capital for the two states, and a just and agreed solution for the Palestinian refugees is reached.

The British prime minister also affirmed before the Knesset that for a historic and lasting peace to be established, it was necessary that the two sides work on creating the suitable circumstances for reaching a final agreement.

This, he said, would enable the Palestinians to work with determination to confront those who attack Israel.

Israel in turn must freeze settlement activities and withdraw from the illegal settlements, Brown urged.

Britain was ready to support an "economic road map for peace" with funds going for creation of jobs, commercial activities, small-scale companies and residential blocs and not the purchase of weapons, he said.

This would be support for the "political roadmap for peace," Brown said. As in Northern Ireland, the cost of a return to violence must be so exorbitant as to make it unacceptable, the British prime minister stated.

Brown called on Israel to alleviate the impediments to Palestinian economic development, including re-opening of the chamber of commerce in west Jerusalem.

Brown concluded with an expression of hope that next year Jerusalem would be finally war-free and that peace would have been achieved for all. He further urged that matters should not stop with the achievement of peace but continue for achievement of prosperity.

Meanwhile Gordon Brown said that tougher sanctions are likely against Iran over its contested nuclear program and declined to reject outright the prospect of future military action, Time-CNN online reported.

Brown, holding his first Downing Street press conference, said he believed sanctions aimed at persuading Iran to halt uranium enrichment were working, but predicted a swift new U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at increasing pressure on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"I'm not one who is going forward to say we rule out any particular form of action," Brown said, asked if he would rule out options for future military action against Iran.

"But I firmly believe that the sanctions we are imposing on Iran are sanctions that are having an effect already," he said. "There will probably be a further resolution in relation to Iran soon, and I believe that is a way forward that is working and will work."

The United States and some of its allies, including Britain, fear Tehran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to produce atomic weapons. Iran denies the charge and has rejected two U.N. Security Council resolutions requiring it to halt uranium enrichment work.

"Again, I appeal to the Iranian authorities to understand the fears that other countries have about the development of the nuclear weapons program," Brown told reporters.

He said Britain would "take whatever measures are necessary to strengthen the sanctions regime in the future."

The International Atomic Energy Agency said this month that Iran has scaled back its uranium enrichment program, signaling a possible willingness from Tehran to resolve the international deadlock.

Minister of Information and Palestinian Authority (PA) spokesperson Riyad Al-Maliki warned that the PA will face a financial crisis if donor countries do not fulfill commitments made at the Paris conference held on 17 December 2007.

In a Ramallah press conference held after the weekly cabinet session, Al-Maliki, who also serves as PA Foreign Minister, noted that since its formation in 2007, the Palestinian government has been operating on a month-to-month basis trying to cover employees' salaries. He added that the government hopes donor countries that pledged assistance at the Paris conference will fulfill their promises quickly, and called on Arab countries to realize their pledges so the PA can avoid another financial crisis.

Commenting on other matters, Al-Maliki condemned the aggressive Israeli practices in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, especially the heightened Israeli military campaign in Nablus. He pointed out that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are following the Israeli raids on Nablus institutions with concern, and plan to visit the city.

Al-Maliki emphasized that the ongoing Israeli operations against charities and institutions in Nablus have no legal basis, and described them as a major Israeli escalation targeting a West Bank city supposedly under PA control, where the PA has begun implementing its security plan. He noted that these escalations in the West Bank come in the context of Israel's failure to fulfill its commitments to open border crossings and increase the supply of goods to Gaza under the truce agreement.

The Ramallah-based government has contacted numerous countries demanding that they intervene urgently to pressure Israel to ends its punitive policies towards Palestinians, Al-Maliki reported.

Al-Maliki also announced that US presidential candidate Barack Obama will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit to the Palestinian territories on July 23rd. Abbas will give Obama a detailed explanation of the state of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and the ongoing Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, including settlement expansion and construction of the separation wall. Abbas will also ask Obama to make the Palestinian issue a priority if he is elected as the next US president.

In a less-than subtle attack on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that all public servants who criminal acts should pay with their office.

It is important "to say no to temptations which are offered clandestinely, to say no when that becomes a norm which the society cannot accept," the foreign minister said during a conference on democracy at the president's residence in Jerusalem.

"From the criminal aspect, a person who breaks the law pays with his freedom; from the normative aspect, this man must pay with his office," she said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Israel can be "proud" of a prisoner swap deal last week with Hezbollah guerrillas. Israel returned five Lebanese prisoners and nearly 200 bodies in return for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers.

Olmert says Israel "can be proud of the fact that we pay a high price," saying it shows Israeli soldiers that their country will spare no effort to bring them home, "even if that home is the military cemetery." Olmert also says it shows Israel's values are "completely different from those of our enemies."

Olmert spoke at a Cabinet meeting. One Israeli soldier remains in captivity - Gilad Shalit, who has been held by Hamas militants in Gaza for two years. Olmert vowed that Israel "would not rest or be silent" until Shalit was returned.

Syria is supporting inter-Arab solidarity, said visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallam.

In press statements after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, Muallam noted that his country is seeking to boost the joint Arab action.

The issue of Lebanese prisoners in Syrian jails is under discussion, he said, adding that a fair Lebanese-Syrian judicial committee has been looking into the issue.

The Syrian FM said his country is keen on opening an embassy in Beirut and exchanging diplomatic missions with Lebanon.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallam, in his press statements after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, noted that Damascus is ready to start joint border demarcation.

As for indirect Syrian-Israeli peace talks, he noted that when the two sides would reach an agreement on the basic requirements for peace we will move to direct peace talks.

Muallam said rhetoric about Syrian tutelage over Lebanon is nonsense. Such stance overrides the Syrian sacrifices for ending Lebanon's civil war, he pointed out.

Damascus is looking forward to a visit by Lebanese President Michel Suleiman to Syria, he said, adding that the coming period requires pooling all efforts together for attaining the interests of the two countries.

Lebanese political sources expected the leaders of Syria and Lebanon to declare at a summit in Damascus on Saturday the establishment of full diplomatic relations and the opening of embassies in Beirut and Damascus.

The sources told Assafir newspaper they expected the summit to issue an "official and clear declaration on the establishment of full diplomatic relations and the opening of two embassies in Beirut and Damascus."

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al Assad have preliminary agreed on Saturday as the date for their summit to be preceded by a phone call between them to confirm the date, the sources said.

"Suleiman will pay a historic visit, and he will find the Syrian leadership ready to discuss all matters that will place the relationship between the two countries on the right track and turn the page on the past three years," they said.

The launching of diplomatic relations will first have to come from the political leadership and then be endorsed by the constitutional institutions in the two countries, they said.

Syria and Lebanon have not had formal embassies in each others' countries since gaining independence in the 1940s. Relations between the two soured considerably after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005.