June 23, 2006

THE CUSTODIAN OF THE TWO HOLY MOSQUES REVIEWS WITH THE FRENCH PRESIDENT CHIRAC THE DEVELOPMENTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND ON THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA. THE WORLD DENOUNCES THE ISRAELI AGGRESSIONS AGAINST PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS. KHARTOUM PROPOSES THE CONVENING OF AN EXTRAORDINARY CONSULTATIVE SUMMIT TO DISCUSS THE PALESTINIAN ISSUE. BUSH VOWS SUPPORT TO THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT. CHINA SEES NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR A PEACEFUL SOLUTION WITH IRAN. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz received a telephone call from President Jacques Chirac of France. During the conversation, they discussed the latest developments at the regional and international arenas, topped by the situations in the Middle East. Bilateral relations between the two countries and ways of enhancing them were also discussed. On the other hand President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the ongoing Israeli air strikes in Palestinian civilian areas as "state terrorism," which claimed the lives of three children, three medical workers, three civilian bystanders and a leading anti-occupation activist among eleven Palestinians killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in the Gaza Strip last Tuesday. President Abbas condemned the air raids as "state terrorism," he told reporters at his office in Gaza. Abbas said Israel is trying to "wipe out the Palestinian people." "Every day there are martyrs, there are wounded people, all of them innocents, all of them bystanders," he said, adding: "They want to eliminate the Palestinian people, but we are going to sit tight. We are sitting tight on our land. We want to establish our state and live in peace." "What Israel is committing is state terrorism," he said. Israeli forces yesterday killed 10 Palestinians, including a family of seven on the Gaza beach when the navy opened fire, in what Tel Aviv called retaliatory action. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called it a "bloody massacre" and sought international intervention. Among those killed on the shore were three children, including twins. About 20 Palestinians were injured by the shells, which were fired from Israeli gunboats. Terrified, crying children who were injured in the attack were rushed to hospitals in Jabaliya and Gaza City. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh visited them in the hospitals. The victims had been bathing on the coast on the traditional Muslim day of rest, which was also one of the hottest days of the year. The Israeli Army said the gunboats were targeting Palestinians who launched rockets against the Jewish state after Israel's killing of a top fighter who also served as a senior security adviser appointed by the Hamas-led government. Israeli military chief of staff later ordered an investigation into the beach deaths. "We know it's not from the air force and not from the navy and we are checking if it was artillery (fire)," said an army spokesman. Meanwhile Israeli military authorities say they were not responsible for a blast last Friday at a beach in the Gaza Strip that killed eight Palestinians, including seven members of one family. Senior Israeli military officers say fragments of shrapnel taken from Palestinians wounded in the attack, who were treated at Israeli hospitals, do not match the 155-millimeter shells used by the Israeli Army. Speaking at a Tel Aviv news conference late Tuesday, Israel's Defense Minister Amir Peretz said as tragic as the incident was, Israel is not responsible. Israel's defense minister says initial suspicions by Israeli authorities that they were not responsible for the blast have been borne out by the evidence accumulated in the investigation. Israeli military authorities also say aerial photographs they have taken, and a timeline of their firing, also indicates that their shelling had stopped by the time the explosion occurred on the beach. Palestinian officials have rejected the conclusions. Saeb Erekat, a senior official responsible for negotiations with Israelis, told VOA he believes Israeli authorities are trying to blame Palestinians for what happened, which he says could result in similar incidents happening in the future. "First of all, the Palestinians do not have any weapons capable of such precision and such effectiveness that can massacre seven people in one shot," he said. "Secondly, I believe that the Israeli side should have pointed out who was really responsible to make sure that such incidents will not reoccur. Now they want to escape the responsibility, and these crimes may reoccur and that is dangerous and alarming." An independent investigation conducted by the U.S. based Human Rights Watch, which sent an investigator to Gaza, has found that the injuries suffered by the Palestinians were inconsistent with a mine-blast as suggested by Israeli authorities in earlier statements. The Human Rights Watch investigator says he believes evidence points to an Israeli artillery shell as causing the deaths and injuries on the beach, but that something else could have also caused the blast. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called for an international commission to investigate Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged a probe of reports that civilians were killed by Israeli forces on a beach in Gaza today, and reminded all concerned to exercise restraint and avoid further bloodshed. A spokesman for Mr. Annan said he was "deeply disturbed" at the incidents on a beach where women and children were reportedly among the dead, and called for a full investigation. "The Secretary-General reminds all concerned of their obligations under international humanitarian law to avoid placing civilians in danger, while urging the utmost restraint to avoid further escalation and bloodshed," the spokesman said in a statement. Earlier in the day, Palestinian envoy Ryiad Mansour told reporters that þPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Annan, the Quartet and the þSecurity Council to shoulder their responsibilities and pressure Israel to put an end to its vicious attacks on Palestinian civilians. Meantime Syria condemned the alleged Israeli attack on a Gaza beach which killed 10 holidaymakers and warned it could derail efforts to revive the stalled Middle East peace process. A Syrian Foreign Ministry source denounced as a 'massacre' the incident and condemned all 'acts of violence and aggressions which Israel incessantly practices against the Palestinian people,' the country's official news agency SANA reported. The source said the attack was carried out at a time when Israel 'is persistent with its siege of the Palestinian people, a matter which aims at destructing efforts that are currently underway to preserve the national Palestinian unity.' It said Syria 'at this delicate time ... urges all concerned Palestinian leaders to foil this plan by adhering fast to their national unity.' Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called for "an immediate international investigation into this condemned crime" by the United Nations and Arab League to punish the perpetrators. In a statement issued by his office, he said the latest attack "confirms once again that Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people were continuing, unrestrained, under the eyes and ears of the international community." "Only a decisive stand by the international community can put an end to these continuing massacres in Palestinian territories," Saniora said. In Amman the Jordanian government strongly deplored and condemned the continuing Israeli military operations against innocent and unarmed civilians in the Gaza Strip and the Israel's insistence on pursuing a policy of indiscriminate killing without justification. Spokesperson of the government Nasser Judah said "the government is making contacts with the Israeli government calling them to stop these actions immediately for its incompatibility with the desire of the international community in bringing the concerned parties to the negotiating table, and pushing them to implement the road map." "The Israeli practices poison the atmosphere and make things more difficult in the quest to move towards the restoration of the peace process," he added. Egypt condemned the IDF shelling, saying the excessive use of force by Israel in densely populated areas was against international law. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit "expressed his condemnation of the Israeli shelling of Gaza," the Egyptian state news agency MENA said. "The use of force by Israel in the Palestinian territories is a principle unacceptable in itself and responsibility for security in the territories is entrusted to the Palestinian Authority," he added. "International law bans the use of force in this excessive manner in densely populated areas because shelling civilian areas by plane and ship is bound to cause civilian casualties," he said. Aboul Gheit called on Israel to hold an inquiry into the attacks and to refrain from such acts in the future, MENA added. The U.S. expressed regret over the deaths of the seven Palestinians killed in IDF shelling on a Gaza beach, and called on both sides to show mutual restraint and avoid actions that could increase tensions following the strike. The U.S. has been in contact with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the government of Israel and will continue to monitor the situation closely, McCormack said. France's Foreign Ministry also expressed regret over the shelling, calling the strike "disproportionate" and urging calm in the region. "France deplores Israel's bombardments on a beach in the Gaza Strip, whose disproportionate character has cost the lives of several civilians and injured many others," a Foreign Ministry statement said. France expressed its condolences to relatives of the victims and urged "restraint among the two parties, to put an end to the spiral of violence," the statement said. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett also expressed her government's concern over the killings Friday. "We are deeply concerned by reports of the deaths from Israeli shelling of civilians, including children, on a Gaza beach this afternoon," she said. "The killing of innocent civilians is utterly unacceptable and we urge the Israelis to undertake an investigation into this incident. I will raise this with my Israeli counterpart when I see her on Monday." Russia - a member of the international Quartet mediating in the Middle East peace process alongside the European Union, the UN and the U.S. - said it was deeply shocked by Israel's "unacceptable" and "disproportionate" use of force. Iran called on the United Nations to prevent continuation of massacre of the innocent Palestinian people. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi made the request while condemning brutal crimes of the Zionist regime. He expressed hope the UN would seriously carry out its research studies on the Israeli crimes without paying attention to the will of the big powers and inform public opinion of its results. He also hoped the UN would take practical and effective steps to prevent continuation of such crimes. The agenda of the 33 Session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers convenes in Baku, Azerbaijan between 19 and 21 June 2006 will be topped by the Palestinian issue. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa told reporters in Cairo: "We condemn these Israeli raids that targeted women and children. This is unacceptable terrorism." The Secretary General welcomed the Sudanese President's initiative to hold an Arab summit consultative meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh that includes Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria as well as all concerned parties with the Palestinian and Somalian issues. He added that this is a very important issue together with Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum initiative to hold a yearly Economic Arab Summit. On the Iraqi arena President Bush used a surprise visit to Baghdad last Tuesday to tell the country's new leaders that "the fate and future of Iraq is in your hands" and that the time had come for Iraqis to pull together to save democracy. "My message to the Iraqi people is this: seize the moment," Mr. Bush said in a speech to American troops and embassy employees who gave him a rapturous reception in one of the marbled halls of Saddam Hussein's old Republican Palace, now the main American command center in the Green Zone. "Seize the opportunity to develop a government of, and by, and for the people." Only a handful of Mr. Bush's closest aides knew about the six-hour visit before he departed from Washington on Monday night. Mr. Bush also gave Mr. Maliki a renewed assurance that the United States would not abandon the new government as it struggles to curb the spiralling violence, rebuild the country's shattered infrastructure and put Iraqis back to work in a reviving economy. "I also have a message to the Iraqi people: that when America gives a commitment, America will keep its commitment," he said, to wild cheers from the 300 American soldiers and civilians gathered in the palace hall. Mr. Bush left the palace at 9.20 p.m., and boarded an American military helicopter for Baghdad's international airport and Air Force One, which had carried the president and a small party of White House aides from Washington on the 11-hour journey on Monday night. Aides said that the return trip would involve a refuelling stop at an American air base in Mildenhall in Britain, and that Mr. Bush would be back in Washington by dawn on Wednesday. Security for the visit was extraordinarily tight, exceeding anything previously experienced in a city that has become a byword for suicide bombings, ambushes and kidnappings. The airport was closed for at least an hour before Air Force One spiralled steeply down onto the runway, following procedures aimed at foiling insurgents' missiles. American officers said Mr. Bush had flown into the city aboard a specially-equipped helicopter flown by the Nightstalkers Special Aviation Team, forsaking the distinctive Marine One helicopter that the president traditionally uses in the United States and abroad. Bridges across the Tigris River in the city's heart were closed, and American attack helicopters circled low over the Green Zone during the visit. Additional Humvees with turret gunners were stationed on approaches to the palace inside the Green Zone, and hundreds of Americans working in the building were told to pack up for the day and leave several hours before Mr. Bush arrived, leaving him to enter an eerily quiet building. American officials said Mr. Maliki was told that Mr. Bush was coming only shortly before the president arrived, after the Iraqi leader joined American officials at the palace in preparation for what had been announced late last week as a video-conference meeting involving Mr. Bush and members of his cabinet at Camp David and the Maliki cabinet in Baghdad. On the other hand Al-Qaeda in Iraq has named a successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, days after he was killed in a US air strike. Abu Hamza al-Muhajir is "knowledgeable" and has a history of fighting a holy war, said an internet message on a site used by Islamic militants. But observers say little is known about him - the name could be a pseudonym. In Washington, President George W Bush said Muhajir would be "on our list to bring to justice", during talks on Iraq with military and diplomatic planners. Speaking after the first of two days of talks his advisers say may herald a crucial reassessment of the war, Mr Bush also said US troops would stay in Iraq for the immediate future. The news came as US military officials said Zarqawi had died from injuries consistent with the results of a bomb. An autopsy revealed the cause of death was a blast injury to the lungs, but he took nearly an hour to die, they said. Zarqawi and five others were killed after US planes dropped two 500lb (230kg) bombs on Zarqawi's safe house near the city of Baquba. Giving the first details of Zarqawi's autopsy, US military doctor Steve Jones told reporters DNA analysis had confirmed the corpse was Zarqawi's. "The cause of death was close based primary blast injury of the lung", he said. There had been tearing, bruising and bleeding in the lungs, which had not been apparent from an external examination, the US official said. This wound was not immediately fatal, he added. "Fatal death occurred as lung function deteriorated and the lungs became progressively unable to absorb oxygen into bloodstream," he said. Col Jones said the body of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq bore "no evidence of beating or any firearm injuries". On the Iranian arena China urged Iran to respond positively to a package of incentives and penalties aimed at persuading it to give up uranium enrichment and defuse a showdown with Washington and its allies. Pressure is growing on Tehran to reply to the big-power offer, originally drawn up by Britain, France and Germany - known as the EU-3. That package has also been endorsed by the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, including China. Since it was presented with the set of possible concessions, Iran has insisted on its right to enrich uranium, but has not rejected the deal outright. "The EU-3 have come up with a new package regarding the Iran nuclear issue. They have briefed Iran on it, and Iran is looking at it very seriously," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters at in Shanghai. "We hope that all sides will come up with a positive response, and will adopt a positive, pragmatic and flexible attitude so we can create conditions favourable for the resumption of negotiations," he added. Liu was speaking at a news conference for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a Central Asian security group that China has promoted. Iran is only an observer member of the SCO, but its nuclear ambitions are overshadowing the meeting. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday. Russia's President Vladimir Putin is also attending and appears likely to also meet the Iranian leader. The United States has led opposition to Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran insists is aimed at civilian energy purposes but which Washington suspects is a cover for atomic weapons-making. US President George W. Bush has advocated diplomacy to resolve the international row over Iran's aims but has also said "all options are on the table" if Iran refuses to halt sensitive uranium enrichment work. China and Russia refused to join with other big powers in threatening sanctions over Iran's nuclear program during diplomatic jostling at the UN nuclear watchdog. In a further blow to US efforts to present a united front at the International Atomic Energy Agency talks, non-aligned nations prepared a statement reaffirming Tehran's right to enrich uranium. Diplomats played down the significance of the cracks, however, saying IAEA members would try not to hinder an international offer to Iran of benefits if it reins in its nuclear ambitions. "Everybody feels they want this package (of benefits) to have every possible chance of success," a Western diplomat told AFP. On the other hand former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov warned from a Shiite belt that will extend from Lebanon and Syria to the South of Iraq and Iran. He said dividing the world on the bases of cultures will lead to disastrous results. In a lecture he delivered at King Faisal Charitable Organization he talked about the dangers of the super state and stressed the importance of multi polarization. Primakov talked about the US invasion of Iraq and said amongst its reason is the export of democracy by force to the Middle East. He went on to say that the division of Iraq will lead to dangers more power to Iran. On the Palestinian issue Primakov said that Hamas could become a civilian organization and some sort of agreement must be reached between Fatah and Hamas.