August 26, 2002 News

Israel rules out pullback from Hebron
By Nazir Majally, Arab News Staff

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 26 August — The Israeli government yesterday ruled out any imminent pullback from Hebron, bowing to pressure from the military establishment as the army continued its sweep in the West Bank.

"The army can only pull out of this area once it has received guarantees that calm will be maintained" by the Palestinian Authority, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told army radio yesterday. "It still isn’t the case in Hebron," he said, adding Palestinian groups had continued to issue threats of violence.

Palestinians slammed Israel’s decision to delay a gradual pullout from reoccupied Palestinian areas. The decision to postpone the gradual pullout was a "dangerous action", Nabil Abu Rudeina, a top aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, told reporters yesterday. "The Israeli government is becoming unable to reach and implement any agreement signed with the Palestinian Authority," he said.

According to army radio, Ben-Eliezer bowed to pressure from high-ranking military officers, who had advised against any redeployment in Hebron until after the end of the Jewish holidays a month from now.

Israeli media had reported a major split between the defense minister and top brass on the issue, prompting the army to issue a rare public denial Saturday.

"All efforts to create tension (between the army and minister) are a waste of time and do not correspond with the reality," the army said in a statement.

The army carries out the government’s orders and acts in "full coordination" with the defense minister, the statement said.

Israeli troops raided the Palestinian town of Salfit in the West Bank yesterday and arrested at least 10 Palestinians in the sweep. The Salfit raid followed a gunbattle in the West Bank city of Jenin in which a Palestinian man was killed on Saturday.

Three Palestinians were wounded during the Israeli raid in Jenin. Two 12-year-old children were among the three Palestinians injured in the Israeli operation.

In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, the army arrested Abdel Halim Dan, a political leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, witnesses said.

Since reoccupying virtually the whole of the West Bank in June, the army has systematically swept the territory for suspected fighters and tried to deter future attacks by rounding up suspects’ relatives, demolishing their homes and threatening them with deportation to the Gaza Strip.

Under a new security plan thrashed out by Ben-Eliezer earlier this month, the Palestinians are expected to clamp down on Palestinian groups in return for a phased Israeli pullback from territories it reoccupied two months ago.

Israeli troops withdrew from the West Bank town of Bethlehem last Monday in the first phase of the redeployments, which the Palestinians had been counting on being swiftly extended to the Gaza Strip and other parts of the West Bank.

Meanwhile, 13 Palestinian factions resumed their discussions on a common position yesterday, and vowed to continue two-week-old talks on a unity document which hard-line groups have sought to amend, a senior Hamas official said.

"We will continue our talks for two days on the proposed document and the comments made by Hamas and Islamic Jihad," Ismail Haniyeh said.

Saudi Arabia to try Saud if terror links established
By a Staff Writer, Arab News

JEDDAH, 26 August — Saud Al-Rasheed, the young Saudi listed by the FBI as a terror suspect, will be put on trial if he has any links to terrorism, the Interior Ministry said yesterday, ruling out his extradition to the United States.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday said 21-year-old Saud might have links with the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Saud returned to Riyadh on Thursday from Egypt and immediately turned himself in to the Saudi security authorities.

An Interior Ministry official said: "The Saudi security authorities followed with concern media reports about Saud...It was found that he was in the Kingdom and was detained on Thursday for questioning.

The Saudi Press Agency quoted the official as saying: "Preliminary investigations indicate that he had never traveled to the United States but he had traveled to Afghanistan on June 18, 2000 and returned on June 9, 2001.

The official added: "Investigations are still continuing. If it is proven that he has links with terrorism, he will be transferred to the Shariah court."

Abdul Aziz Al-Rasheed, Saud’s father, said on Saturday his son "has turned himself in because he is confident he is innocent and we are confident of the Saudi authorities’ fairness." He categorically denied that his son had undergone any military training or had ever had any links with Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network or any other organization.

The FBI on Tuesday released a passport photo of Saud and said it considered him armed and dangerous. It found Saud’s photograph while examining material collected as part of investigations related to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Abdul Aziz said he would take legal action against the FBI and seek compensation for the damage to his son’s and his family’s reputation. "I will consult with Saudi authorities before taking any legal action," he told Al-Riyadh Arabic newspaper.

Abdul Aziz accused Pakistani authorities of handing over his son’s photo and other information to the United States because his son had gone to Afghanistan through Pakistan.

Abdul Aziz Al-Assaf, a Saudi lawyer, blasted US security agencies for showing enmity toward the Saudi government, people, companies and charities.

"The American Constitution protects freedom and prevents tarnishing of a person’s image," he told Al-Riyadh indicating that the FBI action contradicted the country’s constitution. "In regard to Saud, he has never visited the US and is still a teenager. How can they describe him as an armed and dangerous criminal without any evidence? The CD and the photograph they received from a foreign country are not adequate evidence for accusing him," he added.

Al-Assaf said American law allows individuals to take legal action against the government and its agencies and seek compensation for damages. He advised Saud’s father to appoint US lawyers to file a lawsuit against the FBI and the media, which published the false report.

Meanwhile, Okaz newspaper quoted the FBI as saying that no accusations had been made against Saud. "There is no evidence against him. We called for his arrest after seeing his photo with suspects linked to the Sept. 11 attacks and we wanted to know why his photograph was found with those people," FBI spokesman Bill Carter told Okaz.

Iraq: Bush gets new warning from senators, key ally
By Rupert Cornwell

Arab News

WASHINGTON, 26 August — Two leading US senators and a key ally of President George W. Bush warned him against any unilateral action against Iraq. The senators urged Bush to seek approval from allies and from Congress before using military force to depose Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"I would want to know what the president really has in mind," Sen. Arlen Spector told CBS’s Face the Nation.

"I believe that before we act in a military way, there has to be a clear and present danger," the Republican senator said, recalling congressional and citizen opposition to the war in Vietnam.

The senators joined a growing chorus opposed to Bush’s call to use military force to depose Saddam, given the rise in opposition in the Arab world, from US allies, in Congress and from security experts.

"Our intelligence is not as good as we would like it to be in Iraq," said Sen. Bob Graham, chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee. He went on to say that the United States has other priorities, such as tracking down terrorists, like Osama Bin Laden, who has so far avoided capture.

Former Secretary of State James Baker, a key political ally of Bush, urged the president not to take unilateral military action against Saddam. He urged Washington to focus on a new Security Council resolution insisting on intrusive UN weapons inspections and authorizing all necessary means to ensure them.

In a swipe at the hawkish ‘go-it-alone’ school led by the likes of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, the secretary of state under President Bush senior underlines the domestic and international risks "if we end up going it alone or with only one or two other countries."

"Although the United States could certainly succeed, we should try our best not to have to go it alone and the president should reject the advice of those who counsel doing so," Baker wrote in an opinion piece published by The New York Times.

The senators also urged Bush to release intelligence information that is likely to prove that Saddam is developing banned chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in an effort to build his case for an invasion of Iraq before Congress, the US public and US allies.

In Damascus, Syria’s Information Minister Adnan Omran blasted yesterday US plans to strike its eastern neighbor Iraq on the "absurd" basis that Baghdad wants to develop weapons of mass destruction, and warned that US threats targeted the "whole Arab world".

In another development, chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said yesterday no new Security Council resolution is needed to press Iraq to allow in UN weapons inspectors.

Turki to open conference on Islam in Kazakhstan

MAKKAH, 26 August — Secretary-General of the Makkah-based Muslim World League (MWL) Dr. Abdullah Al-Turki will leave today for Kazakhstan to open a conference on Islam in central Asia, organized by MWL in cooperation with Kazakhstan-based Abaya University.

In a press statement, Dr. Turki said a number of Muslim dignitaries from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Russia and China will participate. The conference, he said, will shed light on the tolerant spirit of Islam as well as on its effective role in the progress and development of the individual and society.

Dr. Turki pointed out that the participants will exchange views on a number of topics including the role played by the ulema (Muslim scholars) of Central Asia in spreading the Islamic culture and sciences as well as the historical relations between the Muslims of Central Asia and the rest of the Muslim world.

Meanwhile, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) announced that it has built a mosque and dug a well in Kyrgyzstan at a cost of SR55,000.

Dr. Abdulwahab Noorwali, assistant secretary-general of WAMY said in a statement that as many as 20,000 citizens of the central Asian Republic would benefit from the mosque, which bears the name of ‘Umrayyan’ and the well, which is named Jamjoom well.

"The Makkah branch of WAMY has implemented since the beginning of this year a number of charitable projects in Kyrgyzstan costing over SR600,000. The projects included seven mosques, four educational youth camps, two medical caravans, distribution of Islamic headscarf among women, conducting of religious and training courses and serving free meals during the holy month of Ramadan, and distribution of sacrificial meat and Eid clothes to orphans and other needy people," he added. (SPA)

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.