Jan 28, 2003 News

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 28 January 2003 — The Israeli Army yesterday imposed a total closure on the Palestinian territories on the eve of elections, in which hard-line Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is due to emerge the overall winner. Meanwhile, tensions were high in the Gaza Strip after more Palestinian rocket attacks, and as Israel said it could reoccupy the coastal territory as it has done most of the West Bank for the past seven months.

The army shut all borders between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, as well as key border crossings it controls between the territories and Jordan and Egypt, until tomorrow morning, the day after the elections. Tensions rose sharply over the weekend after homemade rockets were fired over the border into southern Israel, provoking a devastating Israeli raid into the heart of Gaza City, the deepest incursion into the densely-populated metropolis in more than two years of fighting.

Twelve Palestinians were killed and more than 60 injured in Israeli raids. The death toll continued to rise in Gaza even after the army withdrew Sunday, with a six-year-old boy killed by tank fire in Rafah in the south, near the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt, and a 50-year-old killed in his home by a tank shell in Khan Younis, just to the north.

A 17-year-old Palestinian youth was killed yesterday in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip when an explosive device went off as he was following a funeral procession for the previous day’s casualties.

In the West Bank, the army also extended the closure of two Hebron colleges catering to more than 7,000 students which were shut down in reprisal for a series of deadly attacks in the area in past months.

Palestinians accused Sharon of launching the massive raid as a means of boosting his tough image before today’s general elections, which he is tipped to win on a pledge to smash the intifada, or uprising, and not engage in peace talks. And Sharon’s main rival, Amram Mitzna, appeared to be guiding his Labour Party to its worst defeat ever, slipping from 25 seats to 18 or 19, compared to Likud which is set to storm from 19 to around 33 seats in the 120-member Parliament. Tommy Lapid’s secular and centrist Shinui party is set for a spectacular parliamentary breakthrough to become the third party with 16 seats, 10 more than it currently holds.

With Mitzna refusing to join any government led by Sharon, the hawkish premier is looking to Shinui to shore up a rocky future coalition. However, Shinui refuses to join any government with religious or extremist nationalist parties, meaning Sharon will have to jettison smaller far-right allies he has traditionally used to navigate crises stemming from the conflict or the country’s worst ever economic slump.

At talks in Cairo, Palestinian factions from across the political spectrum were poised to issue a joint policy statement after four days of talks, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said. “We have formed a drafting committee to draw up the document (which) will be submitted to delegates for approval and publication at the end of the talks” last evening, the head of the PFLP delegation Maher Taher told AFP.

“The main point is the formation of a unified national command comprising the 12 Palestinian factions,” including the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups as well as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s mainstream Fatah movement. Taher said the Palestinian Authority had raised no objection to the unified command, seeing it as a complement rather than a challenge to its leadership.

The European Union said it was seriously concerned at the deteriorating situation in the Middle East after Israel’s military operations in Gaza City. “The EU member states had an in-depth discussion of the Middle East peace process against the background of the further deterioration of the situation on the ground and the upcoming Israeli elections,” said a statement after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. “Grave concern was expressed for yesterday’s extensive Israeli military operations in Gaza,” it said.

The Brussels statement also said EU members continued to support the need for speedy implementation of the “road map” endorsed by all participants in the quartet, which links the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union in seeking a Middle East settlement. The quartet wants to see civil and administrative reforms in place to prepare the Palestinians for statehood under a potential peace deal with Israel. (The Independent)

Inspectors criticize Iraq, seek more time
By David Usborne

The Independent, Arab News

UNITED NATIONS/LONDON, 28 January 2003 — The chief UN weapons inspectors for Iraq said yesterday they had found no banned weapons in the two months so far available, but they warned Baghdad to cooperate actively to avert being disarmed by force. “Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament which was demanded of it,” chief inspector Hans Blix told the Security Council.

While other council members said the inspectors needed more time to complete their work, the United States told them it expected them to make a decision on enforcing its resolutions on Iraq “in the days ahead”. “There is little time left for the council to face its responsibilities,” US Ambassador John Negroponte said in private consultations later, according to a transcript of his remarks published by his office.

Blix also told the Security Council that Iraq had cooperated with his investigators, but left many questions about its chemical and biological weapons unanswered. Contrary to the expectations of many diplomats, Blix did not directly ask the council for more time to complete the inspections which began Nov. 27.

But the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed El-Baradei, said several more months “would be a valuable investment in peace because they could help us avoid a war.” “No prohibited nuclear activities have been identified during these inspections” which began on Nov. 27, El-Baradei said.

He made it clear, however, that he would need several more months in order to provide any “credible assurance” that Iraq has no nuclear weapons program. “These few months would be a valuable investment in peace because they could help us avoid a war,” he said.

The two officials gave the council and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan a public one-hour briefing on progress made so far. Before the briefing, Annan told reporters that he expected the council to give the inspectors more time. “If they do need time, they should be given the time to do their work,” Annan said. “I suspect the council will allow for that time,” he added.

But in Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the United States wanted evidence that Iraq was complying fully with the council’s demand that it disarm. “If the answer is only partially yes, therefore the answer is no,” he said. The United States has clashed with other key council members over the need to give more time to the inspections, but Blix alluded only obliquely to the question.

The council met for about two hours behind closed doors immediately after the briefing before adjourning for lunch. It was due to reconvene at 2100 GMT. The Security Council debates the Iraq crisis again tomorrow, a day after President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address, amid strong signs Washington has delayed any decision to go to war for several weeks.

The council will hear from inspectors Blix and El-Baradei again on Feb. 14. But whether or not the United States will agree to another Security Council resolution authorizing war remains in doubt. Diplomats said Britain had drafted such a document, which will be a subject of discussion between Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair at a Camp David meeting on Friday.

The inspectors’ presentations did little to dispel the fear of war haunting world financial markets. Major stock indices, US Treasuries, the dollar and oil all weakened after the inspectors spoke.

Iraq’s UN ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, told reporters his country had disclosed everything. “We have no hidden reports at all. We gave everything and we put it in our report with the 12,000 pages and I think they have to carefully read this report,” Aldouri said.

The European Union sought to paper over its deep divisions on Iraq, as Britain denounced Baghdad’s cooperation as a “charade” but France and Germany called for the monitors to be given more time.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters it was “important that the inspectors’ work be carried out within the time needed”. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer added: “The German position is that the inspectors should have all the time they need.”

Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency and is trying to give a single voice to the bloc’s disparate views, reiterated that the aim remains full disarmament of Iraq.

In Brussels, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called the inspections a “charade” that showed Saddam was “cooperating on process but not on substance.” Turkey and Iran called for restraint and increased efforts to avert war. Russia, one of many nations opposed to war, was typical of opposition in the council to short-circuiting inspections.

“The main conclusion which we heard is that all these new finds ... is they don’t have any evidence that Iraq has resumed its weapons of mass destruction programs nor can they assert that all these programs have been stopped,” Moscow’s UN ambassador, Sergei Lavrov, told reporters. “Flowing from this is the need for inspections to continue,” Lavrov said.

And China’s UN envoy, Zhang Yishan, told reporters, “I think it is the opinion of most of the members that since we have started this process and there is no clear reason to stop it, that we should continue.”

In Berlin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he expected the Security Council to give the inspectors more time but he did not indicate how much time that might be. (The Independent)

US groups funneled $1m to help Sharon

Arab News

WASHINGTON, 28 January 2003 — US donors funneled more than one million dollars into coffers supporting political activities by Ariel Sharon before he was elected Israeli prime minister two years ago, the Washington Post reported yesterday. The revelation has sparked a probe by Israel’s attorney general on the eve of today’s parliamentary election, the Post said.

The Israeli state comptroller’s office has accused Sharon’s son Omri and a colleague of accepting foreign contributions that Israeli law deems illegal, while Sharon has denied knowledge of such a scheme, according to the daily. Money from two US charities — the American and Israeli Research and Friendship Foundation Inc. and the College for National Studies Inc. — was used to help fund Sharon’s political activities in 1999 and 2000, according to preliminary findings of the Israeli probe, it said.

One of the charities, the New York City-based American and Israeli Research and Friendship Foundation Inc., founded in 1998, received $1.49 million in contributions in its first three years of operation. The charity’s only disbursement in 1999 was a grant of $815,000 to a Tel Aviv firm called Annex Research Ltd., which Israeli state comptroller Eliezer Goldberg said was established by Sharon’s attorney and run by his son, the Post reported.

The daily wrote that Goldberg told reporters the money was in turn used to advance Sharon’s “position and improve his image” as he campaigned for Likud party chairman in September 1999. Another charity listed in the Israeli state comptroller’s report, the California-based College for National Studies Inc., was established in 1994 with the stated goal of passing contributions solely to Ben Eliezer College in Israel, an organization that offers lectures and seminars on “Jewish-related matters.”

The group’s sole disbursement in 1998 was a $80,000 grant to First International Resources, a New Jersey-based consulting firm, according to the newspaper. In this period, the firm produced a private poll to assist Sharon’s political efforts. In 2000, it gave $275,000 to Annex, the Post reported.

Annex was one of the shell companies which channeled funds to pay campaign workers in the 1999 leadership race, according to the Israeli press. In October 2001 Goldberg ordered Sharon to repay most of those funds, sparking off allegations of a new scandal earlier this month. To cover the repayments, Sharon’s family was reported to have borrowed $1.5 million from a South African businessman, Cyril Kern.

The latest revelations about American funding have shed new light on lax US government scrutiny of the transfer of money overseas by charitable, “tax-exempt” US organizations, the Post wrote. Currently, US charities are obligated to certify that they did not attempt “to influence public opinion on a legislative matter or referendum” and did not engage in transactions with political organizations.

Meanwhile, Israel’s third biggest political party, Shas, has toughened its policy on the Middle East peace process amid opinion polls suggesting it stands to lose as many as seven of its 17 seats.

In a handwritten message to Jewish settlers in the occupied territories, the party leader Rabbi Ovadia Yossef said he regarded the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords with the Palestinians as “null and void”. (AFP)

CAIR issues travel advisory for Muslims in US

Arab News

WASHINGTON, 28 January 2003 — A Washington-based Islamic rights group yesterday issued a travel warning for US-based Muslims, concerned that if they leave the United States they may be harassed upon returning or even denied re-entry. The Council on American-Islamic Relations advisory follows recent tighter rules imposed by US immigration authorities on visitors from predominantly Muslim countries. The warning comes as thousands of US-based Muslims are traveling to Saudi Arabia for the annual Haj pilgrimage. The pilgrims will return in mid-February, and may face mistreatment by US immigration officials, according to the group. (AFP)

Blix raps Iraq for `gaps' in arms programme disclosure

Jordan Times, 1/28/03

UNITED NATIONS (R) — With the United States escalating threats of war, the chief UN arms inspector sharply criticised Iraq on Monday for not disclosing all of its long-range missile, chemical and biological arms programmes.

But Hans Blix, in addressing the UN Security Council, was not able to corroborate US claims that Baghdad had rebuilt its weapons of mass destruction arsenal, saying he could not at the moment give a verdict one way or another.

However, Blix delivered his toughest assessment yet on Iraq's cooperation, particularly on Baghdad's 12,000-page arms declaration submitted on Dec. 7.

“It is not enough to open doors. Inspection is not a game of catch as catch can,” he said. “Iraq appears not to have come to genuine acceptance, not even today, of the disarmament that was demanded of it.”

After two months and more than 350 inspections, the reports by Blix and Mohammed Al Baradei, who is in charge of nuclear teams, fuelled US arguments in favour of war but prompted China, Russia, Germany, France and other nations to argue immediately that inspections should continue.

Blix, however, did not ask for more inspection time. Al Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, did and told the council he had “found no evidence that Iraq has revived its nuclear weapons programme since the elimination of the programme in the 1990s.”

The UN Security Council debates the Iraq crisis again on Wednesday, a day after President George W. Bush's State of the Union address, amid strong signs Washington has delayed any decision to go to war for several weeks. Bush is expected to lay out the case for possible aggression against Iraq in his address.

The council will hear from inspectors Blix and Al Baradei again on Feb. 14.

But whether or not the United States will agree to another Security Council resolution authorising war remains in doubt. Diplomats said Britain had drafted such a document, which will be a subject of discussion between Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair at a Camp David meeting on Friday.

The inspectors' presentations did little to dispel the fear of war haunting world financial markets. Major stock indices, US Treasuries, the dollar and oil all weakened after the inspectors spoke.

The United States, represented by Ambassador John Negroponte, immediately said Baghdad's lack of cooperation showed Iraq was in violation of a tough Nov. 8 Security Council Resolution 1441 that threatens “serious consequences” in case of non-compliance.

“Iraq is not complying (and) it is not cooperating and it is time for the council to think about how it's going to respond and that will be the subject of this week's discussion,” said another senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

To underline the Bush administration's aims, Secretary of State Colin Powell, on the eve of the report, said the United States was prepared to go to war against Iraq alone if European allies would not join the fight.

Powell on Sunday also raised anew the Bush administration's claim of links between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Osama Ben Laden, saying Baghdad had “clear ties to terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda.”

Washington blames Al Qaeda for Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. But several members of Congress said on Sunday they had yet to see supporting evidence.

Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, told reporters his country had disclosed everything.

“We have no hidden reports at all. We gave everything and we put it in our report with the 12,000 pages and I think they have to carefully read this report,” Aldouri said.

Outside UN headquarters, hundreds of people protested against the war, holding up signs reading, “Let the Inspectors Work” and “No to Bush's Oil War.” Seventeen people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct.

Russia, one of many nations opposed to war, was typical of opposition in the council to short-circuiting inspections.

“The main conclusion which we heard is that all these new finds ... is they don't have any evidence that Iraq has resumed its weapons of mass destruction programmes nor can they assert that all these programmes have been stopped,” Moscow's UN ambassador, Sergei Lavrov, told reporters.

“Flowing from this is the need for inspections to continue,” Lavrov said.

And China's UN envoy, Zhang Yishan, told reporters, “I think it is the opinion of most of the members that since we have started this process and there is no clear reason to stop it, that we should continue.”

In Berlin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he expected the Security Council to give the inspectors more time but he did not indicate how much time that might be.

But Britain, which is amassing troops in the Gulf to augment the US military buildup, while critical of Iraq, noted the inspectors would report again on Feb. 14.

“Most members of the Security Council, if not all members of the Security Council, regard this as a part of an ongoing process,” British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock said.

In Brussels, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called the inspections a “charade” that showed President Saddam was “cooperating on process but not on substance.”

Turkey and Iran called for restraint and increased efforts to avert war.

List of unresolved arms issues

Blix, a 74-year-old Swedish diplomat in charge of chemical, biological and ballistic arms teams, listed a series of unresolved issues.

He said that documents Iraq submitted in its Dec. 7 weapons declaration had not answered key questions. Among them were the whereabouts of the deadly VX nerve gas, 2 tonnes of nutrients or growth media for biological agents, such as anthrax, 550 artillery shells filled with mustard gas and an accounting of 6,500 chemical bombs.

His teams have also found that Iraq obtained missile engines as well as raw material for rocket fuel and chemical agents, a violation of an arms embargo that is part of 12-year-old UN sanctions.

And despite assurances from Iraq that it would encourage its scientists to submit to private interviews, no such talks have taken place and Baghdad has blocked the use of U-2 surveillance flights over all parts of Iraq.

Blix's teams, however, found thousands of documents hidden in the home of an Iraqi scientist, and at least 16 empty and undeclared chemical warheads, which he said were still being tested and analysed.

Jordan wants inspectors be given more time

AMMAN (Petra) — Jordan on Monday called for more time to be given to the United Nations weapons inspectors to enable them complete their mission in Iraq.

Minister of State for Political Affairs and Minister of Information Mohammad Adwan said the two reports presented to the UN Security Council Monday by Chief UN arms inspector Hans Blix and head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohammed Al Baradei reflected progress in the inspection operations.

Adwan, also the government spokesman, voiced hope that this progress "would lead to more cooperation between Iraq and the UN."

The minister also reiterated Jordanian calls for finding a way out of the crisis within the framework of the UN to spare Iraq and the region the calamities of war and urged more cooperation with the UN arms inspectors.

Hamas, Jihad say they rejected Egyptian ceasefire plan

Jordan Times, 1/28/03

CAIRO (AP) — Two Palestinian resistance groups said Monday they have turned down an Egyptian proposal to halt military attacks against Israelis that had been aimed at clearing the way for a possible resumption of the Middle East peace process.

Twelve Palestinian factions opened talks here Friday under Egyptian auspices with the declared aim of “reaching a unified strategy on the future of struggle with Israel.” However, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have claimed responsibility for many suicide and other attacks on Israelis, had declared from the start they did not support Egypt's proposed one-year Palestinian ceasefire.

“There will be no halt, no truce and no freezing of resistance,” Osama Hamdan, a Hamas delegate to the talks told the Associated Press after a lengthy session that ended at dawn Monday.

Islamic Jihad delegate Ziyad Nikhla said: “As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. This is a natural law.”

Fear of Israeli reoccupation grips Gaza

By Nidal Al Mughrabi
Reuters

Jordan Times, 1/28/03

GAZA — Fear of an Israeli invasion gripped Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Monday as they cleared away the rubble left after Israel's deepest incursion into Gaza City in two years of fighting.

Such concerns are never far away but were heightened by Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, who refused on Sunday to rule out reoccupying Gaza if resistance activists continue attacks on Israelis in a 28-month-old uprising for independence.

“An occupation of Gaza would mean more scenes like these, scenes of destruction and killing,” Latifa Sha'ban said by the remains of her house and mechanical workshop.

“What happened was a disaster. God forbid they will come back here,” she said, denying allegations by the army that the workshop had been used to manufacture weapons.

Elsewhere in Gaza, municipality workers cleaned streets and cleared away the rubble of blown-up buildings and demolished shops. Workers also tried to repair telephone and electricity lines cut by Israeli bulldozers.

At least 12 people — more than half of them resistance fighters — were killed on Sunday during fighting that erupted after armoured vehicles backed by assault helicopters invaded Gaza City from three directions in a raid Israel intended to weaken the Islamic resistance group Hamas.

Hamas has carried out dozens of suicide attacks in Israel, and fired rockets into an Israeli town near Gaza the day before the army raid. It and other resistance groups threatened to retaliate for the raid.

Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat quickly drew the conclusion that Israeli forces meant to reoccupy the Gaza Strip soon after Israel's general election on Tuesday.

“I believe that after a government is formed in Israel, Israel will be moving to reoccupy the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Army wary

Such fears have often gripped Palestinians after previous Israeli raids, especially as Israeli forces have reoccupied major Palestinian towns in the West Bank to try to quell the uprising.

The army has not undertaken what would be a vast, expensive and complicated operation in Gaza and has been content to pursue the less risky tactic of lightning raids to arrest suspected activists, collect arms and destroy weapons factories.

Such raids are followed by rapid withdrawals to the safety of army bases.

Gaza, which was handed to Palestinian rule in 1994, is already heavily guarded and is fenced off in all directions but the Mediterranean Sea. Israeli officials often hail the success they say the fence has had in preventing would-be assailants from entering Israel.

Mofaz did not, however, dismiss the possibility that Israeli forces might eventually reoccupy Gaza, where about 6,000 Jews live in 19 heavily guarded settlements beside more than one million Palestinians.

Asked about a possible reoccupation, Mofaz told Israel Radio on Sunday: “I think we must keep all our options open. Even this option of taking over the Strip was considered in the past and is still being considered. We will decide when to carry it out.”

“Now our method is to target the areas launching the missiles and the infrastructure which manufactures the mortar bombs and Qassam rockets.”

Commenting separately, a senior military source also declined to rule out reoccupying Gaza, but made clear it was a last option and such a move was not imminent.

“We hope that it won't be necessary to take the Strip,” the source said.

Palestinian freedom fighters promise to resist the army if it tries such a reoccupation.

“We expect anything from our enemy but they should not expect us to raise white flags or to surrender,” said Abdul Aziz Al Rantissi, a top leader of Hamas.

Arabs take to streets to support Iraq, Palestinians

Jordan Times, 1/28/03

SANAA (AFP) — Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Arab capitals on Monday to protest against US and British threats to strike Iraq and to express support for the Palestinians.

One of the biggest crowds was in Sanaa, where demonstrators chanted “Down with Zionist crimes!”, “No to war, yes to peace!”, “No to regime change by force!”

Yemen's Parliamentary Speaker Sheikh Abdullah Al Ahmar, who heads the Al Islah Islamist group, said before the protest that the US administration was only after Iraq's oil.

“It's sad to see the US administration become a toy in the hands of a band of Zionists,” he said.

“If there were a US strike on Iraq, all the other (Arabs) will be harmed despite their concessions and good relations” with Washington, he said, urging Yemenis to “continue their protests and rejection of US policy towards Iraq.”

The protesters marched to the United Nations office in the Yemeni capital, where they delivered a message on the “region's concerns about Israeli actions in Palestine and the dispatch of (US) warships to the Gulf.”

The demonstrations came as chief UN weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohammad Al Baradei prepared to present a progress report on the past two months of missions in Iraq to the UN Security Council.

More than 10,000 Sudanese marched through Khartoum, shouting support for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and denouncing “Arabs of the dollar.”

The demonstration was staged by the Popular Organisation for Solidarity with the People of Iraq, comprising trade unions, professional associations, political parties, as well as youth, women and student unions.

They chanted “down, down USA, we will not be ruled by the CIA,” as well as “shame upon you Arabs of the dollar,” and “we will not be humiliated and will not obey the Americans.”

For Saddam, they shouted, “We defend you with our blood and soul,” as they gathered in front of the presidential palace.

“The enemies have rallied against Iraq because it has raised the banner of Islam,” Iraq's ambassador to Sudan, Ahmad Tareq Abdullah, told the demonstrators.

The United States and other countries “have allied to break the bone of the Arab nation and to deprive it of its faith and values,” he said, adding: “The moment of jihad (holy war) has now arrived.”

The demonstration was blocked by riot police about 200 metres from the US embassy, but organisers were allowed to hand over a statement.

Addressed to US President George W. Bush, it denounced, “in the name of the Sudanese people,” US plans for “military aggression on the Muslim Arab people of Iraq.”

“The aggression targets not only Iraq but all the Arab and Islamic nations under the pretext of liberating the Islamic world and thus brings about a new era of colonialism to suppress the peoples of the region,” it added.

In Damascus some 3,000 students gathered in front of the offices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), holding up banners declaring support for Iraq and the Palestinians.

“No to aggression against Iraq,” read one banner, while another blasted Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a “criminal and bloody executioner.”

“No to the destruction of houses,” by Israel, read another, referring to Israel's practice of dynamiting the houses of Palestinians it blames for conducting attacks.

The students took to the streets following calls from various Syrian support groups.

In Cairo, some 50 Egyptians held a silent protest, denouncing Bush and Sharon as “Neo-Nazis” in poster messages.

Sudan rebels want suspension of talks

Jordan Times, 1/28/03

NAIROBI (AFP) — Southern Sudanese rebels on Monday asked Kenyan mediators to suspend for a day a third round of peace talks with the Khartoum government, which they accused of violating a ceasefire.

"We asked the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) mediators to put the talks on hold for one day to enable us hold consultations with our leadership," Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) spokesman Samson Kwaje told AFP in the Kenyan capital.

"We did not go the conference venue on Monday," Kwaje told AFP by telephone.

"We asked for the suspension because the government of Sudan has continued to break the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) we have both signed (in October 2002) by violating the ceasefire and capturing further territory.

"Our return to the talks will depend on the results of our consultations today with the SPLA leadership," Kwaje said.

Kwaje alleged in a statement sent to AFP that, since Dec. 31, government forces had conducted large-scale land and air attacks on SPLA bases and civilian targets in Western Upper Nile, burning down several villages in the process and retaking five major towns under SPLM/A control.

"Four of these towns — Reang, Koak, Leal and Kwal Kuony — have been reported in several letters of protest to the IGAD Violations Committee," Kwaje said.

"Today, January 27, government forces attacked and captured the towns of Leer, a major relief centre in the area, which has been under the SPLA for a very long time, and Dublual," he said.

"Many, many civilians have been killed and many more wounded including women and children," Kwaje claimed, saying the bombardments on the two towns and their surroundings had forced UN agencies and other humanitarian NGOs to withdraw.

"This is a major and a serious violation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cessation of Hostilities that was signed in October last year between the SPLM/A and government of Sudan under the auspices of IGAD.

"These attacks also violate the Civilian Protection Agreement brokered by US Senator John Danforth in early 2002 ... and a violation of the December 20, 2002 Washington Understanding reached by the two parties," Kwaje's statement added.

The third round of Sudan peace talks, aimed at ending two decades of civil war in Africa's largest country, opened on Thursday, amid complaints by the SPLM/A delegation of ceasefire violations.

Bahrainis rally against war on Iraq
Bahrain |By Mohammed Almezel | Gulf News, 28-01-2003

Dozens of Bahraini youth, protesting against the U.S. plans to attack Iraq, urged the world powers yesterday to spread "love and peace" instead of war and destruction.

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, meanwhile, assured local politicians that Bahrain will not be used as a launching pad for any military action against Iraq.

In the latest of anti-U.S. demonstrations in the kingdom, 100 girls and boys spent over an hour singing "peace, love and liberty" outside the UN House in Manama while carrying white balloons and banners that called on the U.S. to give up its plans to invade Iraq.

The colourful and peaceful rally was organised by the Bahraini Youth Organisation and the Bahraini Committee to Support the Iraqi People. "We don't support war; nobody should support war which only brings suffering and destruction to all sides," said a girl who held a small Iraqi flag.

Mohammed Saleh, from the Committee to Support the Iraqi People, told reporters he was against the Iraqi regime but the world community should look for a peaceful way to deal with the issue.

He said the "Zionist lobby" in Washington was behind the U.S. administration drive to attack Iraq because it believes the sanctions-saddled Arab country poses a threat to the security of Israel.

"The Zionist propaganda has brainwashed the American public opinion," he explained, "Why doesn't the world stop the Israeli terror against the Palestinian people?"

During a meeting with the presidents of Bahrain's 14 political groups on Sunday evening, King Hamad said he supported the anti-war public rallies as long as they were conducted peacefully and within the legal limits. "It proves that our society is vibrant and I support that," he was quoted yesterday by the official news agency as saying.

He told the politicians Bahrain was exercising full sovereignty over its territories, skies and waters. "Of course, we hope there would be no military action but if it does happen, Bahrain will not be used as a launching pad to attack Iraq," he said.

The King, who will visit the U.S. during the first week of February, said he will discuss the Iraqi and Palestinian issues with American officials in addition to economic matters.

However, he urged the Iraqi government to show more cooperation with the UN saying a peaceful solution was "in the hands of the Iraqi leadership".

Sheikh Ali Salman, leader of the opposition group, Al Wefaq, told Gulf News that King Hamad stressed the need to consolidate national unity during these turbulent times in the region.

Iran to set up refugee camps along border
Tehran |By Mohsen Asgary | Gulf News, 28-01-2003
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Iran is expected to shelter up to 200,000 Iraqi refugees in camps to be constructed along its borders with Iraq should the U.S. launches a war against the neighbouring country.

Speaking to reporters here yesterday, Ahmad Hosseini, head of the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Agency in Iran, said: "Iran's policy towards Iraqi refugees in the event of a possible U.S. attack is the policy of closed doors and supplying them with assistance inside the Iraqi territory."

Hosseini stressed that Iran hosted the greatest number of refugees over the past two decades due to the various wars and crises taking place in its neighbouring countries.

"Some ten years ago, Iran provided shelter to around 1.3 million Iraqi refugees for four months and now there are 202,000 registered Iraqi nationals currently living in Iran," he said adding that Tehran believes that the UN is responsible for sheltering refugees.

Since Iran has accepted the 1951 Geneva Conventio regarding refugee's rights, the country will give shelter to Iraqi refugees within the framework of the convention Iran has announced that it will help Iraqi officials settle refugees inside the Iraqi territory and Iran will refrain from admitting them inside the country.

"In the event of any security concerns, Iran has planned to establish 19 camps on the border strip," he said. These camps will be located at a distance of 500 metres to 10 km at the most from the border in five provinces bordering Iraq.

The probable attack on Iraq could trigger an exodus of 800,000 refugees into Iran that would force Tehran to seek blankets, tents and heating equipment from international organisations.

Most of the camps will be set up at the same places which Iran established during the 1991 U.S.-led attack on Iraq to evict Iraqi troops from Kuwait, the Iranian official added.

Iran had adopted the same refugee policy during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan last year, when it set up a pair of camps just inside Afghan territory to lodge those fleeing the fighting. Around 470,000 Afghans have been repatriated since April last year, while the rest should return by early 2005.

Allies pushing U.S. back to UN before war
Davos |Reuters | 28-01-2003
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European and Middle Eastern allies are pushing the United States to give UN arms inspectors more time to do their job in Iraq and seek Security Council authority to launch a war against Baghdad.

The smoke signals from the World Economic Forum of business and political leaders following U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's weekend visit suggest Washington is willing to do both. But it will maintain tough rhetoric, threatening to go it alone to keep up pressure on both Iraq and its own allies.

That picture emerged from a dozen conversations with U.S., European and Middle Eastern officials and former policymakers speaking on condition of anonymity at the Davos forum.

The most likely scenario is that the weapons inspectors would be asked to report back about March 1 and a U.S.-led coalition - including France - would launch military action in mid-March with the endorsement of the Security Council.

Jordan's King Abdullah punctured official talk of seeking a peaceful solution when he made clear a war to oust President Saddam Hussain was now all but inevitable.

"Unfortunately I believe that we're now a bit too little, too late to see a way out, a diplomatic solution between Iraq and the international community," he told delegates on Sunday.

"Today I think the mechanisms are in place. I think it would be very difficult, it would take a miracle to find a dialogue and a peaceful solution out of the crisis."

The sources cited three reasons why President George W. Bush would give the arms monitors another month to pursue suspected Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, then seek a second UN resolution endorsing the use of force: military readiness, alliance management and building public support.

A senior military analyst said U.S. and British forces would not be ready to launch an attack until well into March because key ground strike units and logistics were not yet in place.

The scope of deployments so far had been exaggerated for psychological purposes. Getting substantial U.S. ground forces into Turkey remained a key condition for a successful campaign.

The analyst, a former top Western commander, said there was no weather problem about fighting up to the end of April but the war would likely be shorter, so mid-March would be the optimum time to start the campaign.

Despite U.S. exasperation at the anti-war posture struck by France and Germany, the sources said Washington was well aware it needed as much backing as possible from European and Middle Eastern allies for military action and post-war assistance.

A decision to use force without going back to the UN would likely cause a lasting rift with many European partners, cause a pai-nful loyalty conflict for key ally Britain, and strike a devastating blow to the world organisation.

How to prevent war
Dubai |By A Staff Reporter | Gulf News, 28-01-2003
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A group of prominent NGO representatives and former UN officials visited Iraq between January 3 and 8 and met with senior Iraqi officials, scientists, doctors, teachers, and ordinary people. They also visited sites inspected by the UN inspectors of weapons of mass destruction.

The group issued a statement titled A letter from Baghdad, a copy of which was obtained by Gulf News.

Excerpts from the letter:

Attitudes of Iraqis: We experienced an extraordinary mixture of fatalism, faith and defiance in the El-Zahrawi tearoom. Watching Saddam Hussain's Army Day speech on television, we talked with people at random, many of whom spoke English.

They said that twice now world opinion has predicted that Iraq would collapse – after the Gulf War in 1991, and in 1998 when 350 cruise missiles hit the country – and once again they will survive. Yes, their children are afraid. Yes, the teenagers do not know if it is worth studying seriously or not. No, they will not go to the shelters.

They do not talk so much of U.S. or UK aggression but rather of Bush and Blair: Until now, they have not resented the people of the countries about to bomb them, nor the civilisations, but the leaders. However that trend seems to be changing with the Iraqis increasingly holding the people of the UK and the U.S. responsible for their countries' policies.

In the words of Dr Hoda Ammash "People here bear every respect for western people and western civilisation. We respect your technological advancement, and your values. We know that westerners are being given the opportunity to learn about Arabic civilisations. Yet hatred is being manufactured, by some, to engineer a clash of civilisations."

Food reserves: Iraqi households have been given three months' (and now a further two months') food rations in order to get it out of the main storage sites to prevent warehouses being bombed.

The food distribution programme, according to Denis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq (1997-98), is one of the most efficient in history, involving 49,000 food distribution agents and minimising corruption through a system whereby if 100 people complain about an agent, he or she is removed. Iraqis are also stock-piling water but have no suitable large containers.

People with gardens are being asked to dig wells.Under the UN oil-for-food programme only about half the oil revenues can be used for buying food and other necessities for the population of the centre and South of the country; the rest being used for compensation to Kuwait, food for the Iraqi Kurds in the North, and the costs of the UN programme including the Unmovic weapons inspections.

Halliday concludes: "The 12-year sanctions regime has become a weapon of mass destruction, built on the massive damage to civilian infrastructure by U.S. bombing and resulting in the deaths of over one million people since 1991, over half of whom are children."

According to Unicef 25 per cent of Iraqi babies are born weighing 2kgs or less, a key indicator of famine. One million children under five suffer acute or chronic malnutrition.

Shelters: Everyone we spoke to said they would not use the 34 shelters provided for civilians in Baghdad because of the 1991 bombing of Al Amarya shelter when 408 out of 422 women and children in the shelter were burned to death.

Weapons Inspectors: Dr Sami Al Araji, a nuclear engineer and Director General of Planning at the Iraqi Ministry of Industry, is facilitating the work of the Unmovic inspectors. "Everywhere we went there was a remarkable willingness to co-operate with the inspections, but patience is being tested. During our visit there was a routine inspection near the University of Baghdad where there are six science centres.

"The inspectors wanted to investigate one of the centres, but froze the entire complex meaning that nearly 3,000 people could not move for six hours, even though their place of work was not under inspection. This meant that toddlers were left uncollected at nursery schools. Not even the Iraqi ambassador to the UN, there for a visit, was allowed to leave".

A professor of microbiology at the University of Baghdad told us that during 1991-98 inspectors re-examined the university every three weeks, searching minutely. "They enter exam halls where students are doing their finals and search under their chairs."

Iraqi people thought the inspections would last 2-3 years, and then they could go back to normal life. It is now 12 years since the inspections started, they are more intense than ever, and there is no end in sight. We visited the Al Dawrah Foot and Mouth Vaccine Institute which was high on the list in the UK Government dossier (published in September 2002) of biological weapons sites.

Since 1994 the site has been inspected 60 times, it has been closed since 1995, when all the equipment was destroyed or removed and there were cameras everywhere connected to the former Unscom Monitoring Centre in Baghdad. The place was wrecked.

Civil and political rights: Since October 2002, laws and regulations have been or are being revised as follows:
* Amendments to the constitution to allow for a multi-party system.
* Abolition of special 'security violations' courts which had no rights of appeal.
* Abolition of laws requiring cutting off hands of thieves.
* Amnesty for political prisoners.
* Exiles not linked to intelligence services may now return to Iraq with the right to criticise the government.
* Reduction of fee for exit visa from Iraq from $200 to $10.

Oil: Current Iraqi production is approx 3 million barrels per day (current world production approx 77 million) but it has the second largest reserves in the world. If controls were lifted, and with infrastructure investment, with its immense reserves of easily extractable oil Iraq has the potential to supply 10 per cent of the world's oil needs, and to continue to do so for at least a century (since less than one per cent of reserves are being used up each year).

Iraqis are very conscious of the energy needs of the western economies – the U.S. has to import 60 per cent of its oil needs – and know that the main reason for military invasion is to gain control of its vast reserves of oil.

Iraqi ministers fear that if the U.S. were to control Iraq's oil production, it would manipulate the economies not only of the Far East, but also of Europe. Iraq takes a long-term view, wants a stable oil price, and would like to adopt normal trading relations rather than be subject to crises, threats and manipulation.

Depleted Uranium (DU): Water-borne and air-borne dust from DU shells, used by the U.S. and the UK in the 1991 Gulf war, is spreading over vast areas of Iraq but the government has no way of detecting the direction of the spread because airborne radiation sensing equipment is prohibited.

People are developing cancers by consuming meat and milk from animals grazing in polluted areas.

Cancers of all kinds are increasing dramatically in Iraq particularly amongst women with breast cancer and leukaemia. Members of our delegation have visited hospitals in Iraq since 1991 and observed that current conditions in the hospitals have worsened.

Equipment needed for treatment lies idle because the computerised controls have been removed due to sanctions. There is one nurse for every 16 beds where previously there was one for every two beds.

Dr Ahmed Fadeh of the Baghdad Children's Hospital told me there are unlimited complicated cases he simply can't treat because his equipment is worn out or lacks spares, and he has not got the drugs or even the suture thread that he needs because of sanctions.

8. Implications for the future: This visit was a shock treatment in learning what it feels like to be an Iraqi. This is an ancient people with a civilisation 7000 years old (Iraqis point out that the United States is barely 300 years old), an economy that until the 1980s was a model for the entire Middle East, and with a free health service that was ahead of the National Health Service in the UK.

The streets are now rubble-strewn, most of the middle class have left, and people are selling their household goods on street corners in order to survive. The currency has devalued 6,000 per cent in 20 years; in 1981 one dinar bought $3, today $1 buys about 2000 dinars.

Twelve years of sanctions, which were intended to make the Iraqi people revolt against their leadership, have had the opposite effect giving Saddam Hussain total control over his people through food rationing.

Sanctions have simply disabled Iraqi people through hunger and the wholesale disintegration of their infrastructure. Rather than rebel against Saddam, they feel defiance towards Bush and Blair which their leader can constantly reinforce, since their sense of honour is continuously provoked.

The humiliation is very deep and very dangerous. In these circumstances a war and subsequent occupation of Iraq will no doubt fuel the fires of hatred and terror, and consequently the risk of attacks on the West.

Interview: War on Iraq is not justified, EU tells U.S., Britain
London |By Rachel Sylvester | Gulf News, 28-01-2003

Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, claimed Sunday that public opinion in Europe was overwhelmingly opposed to military action in Iraq and urged the U.S. and Britain not to launch a campaign without wider international support.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the EU's high representative for common and foreign security policy said that war would not be justified now.

"Military action represents a failure of diplomacy," he said. "Europeans in big numbers think that the last resort moment has not arrived. I do not think the moment of last resort has arrived.''

Warning that military action in Iraq could not be seen as part of the wider war against terrorism, Solana said the UN should be a vehicle for tackling Saddam Hussain.

He also rejected the argument by U.S. President George W. Bush that non-co-operation by the Iraqi leader would classify as a breach of the UN resolution 1441.

"Co-operation with UN weapons inspectors should be total both from Saddam Hussain and from the international community," he said.

"We trust them, we chose them, we gave them a resolution and we have to support them. If they say they need more resources then more resources should be given, if they say they need more time more time should be given to them."

Non-cooperation "in a small way" by the Iraqi leader would not justify war, Solana added. "I think it would be far better to have military action with the support of the UN."

Solana, the former Secretary General of Nato, said that there were huge cultural differences between Europe and America and called on the U.S. President to be more sensitive in the language he used. "The Europeans and the Americans are cousins not brothers," he said.

"Sometimes terminology has a different meaning for different people - 'crusade' for example means different things to different groups - and if you want to construct a coalition you have to attempt not to step on the feet of too anybody. "You cannot imagine a European leader using a phrase like 'axis of evil'."

American politics, including foreign policy, is, he argued, more influenced by religion than European politics.

"We in Europe are as societies more secular... Nobody could imagine there being a sentence on the euro which said 'In God we trust' but that's what it says on a dollar. America is a very complex society... but sometimes they have a very black and white attitude."

The U.S. is also more unilateralist in its approach than Europe, he said. "Europe has been the territory of war, and we have worked to prevent war through building relations with other countries.

"The U.S. has never been the territory of war - that's why September 11 was so important: it was the first time their territory had been attacked.

"The European Union is a construction based on sharing sovereignty; the Americans have a much stronger sense of their own sovereignty." Solana, who masterminded Nato's campaign in Kosovo, warned that military action in Iraq would be far riskier.

"It would be much more difficult and much more dangerous," he said.

"There would be troops on the ground and yes it is likely that some of them would be killed. The big difference for public opinion is that in Kosovo every citizen of Europe was seeing Milosevic doing ethnic cleansing, there was a clear position of the European countries saying stop that. The problem now is that we don't see Saddam Hussain doing that so people don't have the same sense of anguish."

He also raised questions about whether Iraq was the appropriate target now. North Korea is a higher priority in the sense that they already have weapons of mass destruction," he said. "North Korea is a very serious problem that has to be dealt with rapidly."

Solana, 60, a Spaniard, was imprisoned in his youth by Franco for his Socialist views. "I fought him both legally and illegally," he said. "Fighting a dictator is not an evil, it's a duty."

Two years ago he was made the EU's foreign policy chief - a new role designed to answer Henry Kissinger's question about who he should call when he wanted to speak to 'Europe'.

He is responsible for the newly-formed EU peace keeping corps and insisted that he had no plans to turn it into a fully fledged military force. "We're not in the business of creating a standing army, with an EU commander fighting under an EU flag," he said.

"We're not going to have a United States of Europe. Solana also played down the significance of the growing closeness between France and Germany.

"Although he would not be drawn into commenting on the implications of Britain staying out of the euro, he urged the UK to join. It's a decision that you have to take. For me, it would be a great satisfaction if the UK were to join the euro. I think you will gain if you join."

The high representative is clearly staunchly pro-Euro-pean, but he is careful not to let his passion run away with him. "I try to keep a bit of idealism, but I like to apply it in a pragmatic way."

"Perhaps it comes from my profession - in physics, you have to be a visionary, but you know that the solution to the problem has to be found one step at a time.''

The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2003

Syrians protest war plans
Damascus |Reuters | Gulf News, 28-01-2003

Thousands of Syrians, branding U.S. President George W. Bush a "butcher", yesterday protested in the streets of Damascus against a possible U.S. military strike against Iraq.

The demonstrators gathered in front of a United Nations office in the Syrian capital hours before a deadline for a report by UN arms inspectors on Iraq's cooperation in their hunt for weapons of mass destruction.

The protesters chanted slogans, calling Bush a "criminal and a butcher" and demanding Washington ditch its "plan" to attack Iraq. "We sacrifice our souls and blood for Iraq," chanted young demonstrators.

"America wants to dominate us, it wants to weaken us and to destroy Iraq to control its oil," said student Housam Halabi, echoing a view shared by many Syrians and Arabs.

The protest was organised by several groups, including anti-war activists. No political protest can be held in public in Syria without a tacit government blessing.

Syria, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, is convinced Iraq has shown sufficient cooperation with UN inspectors and insists the United States should respect its part of a resolution which requires Iraq to disarm.

"Iraq has cooperated with the inspectors' team despite the sensitivity and complexity of the issue and feelings of anger over (compromising) national dignity...What else is required?" asked Teshreen newspaper, a government mouthpiece.

Syria has voiced diplomatic support for Iraq but diplomats say it is not expected to lend Iraq any military assistance.

The demonstration steered clear of a district of Damascus where several Western embassies, including the U.S. mission, is located.

Syrians raided the U.S. embassy in October 2000 after a peaceful protest against U.S. policies in the Middle East escalated into a violent demonstration.

The demonstrators also voiced anger over what they called Israeli violence aimed at quelling a 27-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

At least 1,802 Palestinians and 698 Israelis have been killed since the start of the uprising for an independent state after peace talks stalled in September 2000.

Israeli occupation forces kill 4 Palestinians in Jenin, in the election day

Khaleej Times, 1/28/03

JENIN, West Bank - Seven Palestinians were killed on Tuesday during Israeli raids on Jenin and Gaza, as Israel chose a new government in a vote set to be won by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on a tough security pledge.

Sharon has vowed not to talk peace until Palestinians end their 28-month uprising against Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, a pledge that has attracted more support than Labour leader Amram Mitzna's plan to renew peace talks and quit the Gaza Strip. In a sign of Sharon's unflinchingly tough policy, Israeli armoured vehicles stormed into Jenin in the northern West Bank early Tuesday to arrest Palestinian activists but ran into heavy resistance from armed Palestinians.

Four Palestinian men were killed by tank-borne troops in the heavy clashes that erupted, while an AFP photographer was shot in the leg. Two of them were identified as members of the Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Palestinian officials said two boys aged 13 and 11 were also injured by Israeli sniper fire in the town's refugee camp, devastated in a massive battle as Israel invaded the West Bank in April to smash militant networks behind constant suicide bombings. In the northern Gaza Strip, three Palestinians, including two Hamas members and a teenager, were killed in an explosion overnight in Beit Lahia, Palestinian security officials said.

Hamas said in a statement however that only one was a member of the group, while the other two were the children of one of its members. Palestinian officials said the blast was caused by an Israeli helicopter attack, but Israeli military sources quoted in the media suggested it could have been a premature explosion of a bomb.

Palestinians fear such bloody raids will go on when Sharon is re-elected, but despite being tipped to win up to 33 of the 120 seats in parliament, the hardline premier faces tough horse-trading after the elections to craft a new coalition. Sharon wants to build a broad coalition with centrist parties, and intends to make an emotional plea to Labour -- set to win around 19 seats, down from 25 -- to come on board to form a stable government facing down the intifada and the country's worst ever economic crisis.

Mitzna, elected in November after Labour booted out his hawkish predecessor Binyamin Ben Eliezer who served 20 months as Sharon's defence minister, has refused to join any government headed by Sharon.

Sharon has therefore concentrated his efforts on wooing the upstart secular party Shinui, tipped to increase its seats from six to 16 on an anti-religious ticket, calling for subsidies to ultra-Orthodox families who refuse military service to be slashed. But Shinui refuses to join a coalition with religious parties, ruling out the option of Sharon allying himself with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which has played a crucial kingmaker role in previous governments.

Shas was making a last-ditch effort Tuesday to mobilise voters after suffering a dip in support, and appeared set to get around 13 seats, down from 17. Sharon also wants to draw votes from Israel's large Russian immigrant community, trespassing on the traditional base of the ultra-nationalist National Union bloc, his erstwhile allies after Labour quit his government in October. The 74-year-old premier wants to avoid at all costs a patchwork coalition of small ultra-nationalist and religious parties with hardline agendas, which could erode support from Israel's main backer, the United States.

Analysts predict that such a scenario would plunge Sharon's government into a fresh round of elections in which Labour may rally after years of internal squabbling provoked by the collapse of the 1993 Oslo peace accords which the centre-left party crafted. The central electoral committee said voter turnout was just 10.2 percent three hours after polling booths opened at 7:00 am (1500 GMT), the lowest ever recorded in the Jewish state's 54-year history. Polling stations are due to close at 10:00 pm, with preliminary official results out by Wednesday at around 1:00 am (2300 GMT Tuesday), but counting of the bulk of ballot slips will start at 5:00 am (0300 GMT).

The final official results will not be known before Thursday night More than 25,000 policemen and soldiers have been mobilized to ensure the electors' security as the threat of Palestinian attacks still looms despite a military blockade of the West Bank and Gaza since which was imposed on Sunday and which will not be lifted until Wednesday. - AFP

Arab League chief says no proof for war on Iraq

Khaleej Times, 1/28/03

BERLIN - The head of the Arab League said on Tuesday there was no proof to justify a war on Iraq, and that UN inspectors must be given more time to check its alleged progamme of weapons of mass destruction.

Amr Mussa, who was on Tuesday visiting Germany, admitted in an interview with the Handelsblatt business daily the situation was "not very encouraging" but added there was always a chance to avoid war. "In any case, they (UN weapons inspectors in Iraq) need to be allowed more time to complete their work," he said. "Apart from that, many countries are not convinced of the pressing need for a war, there is no proof."

It was not clear if the interview was conducted before or after the report Monday by the chief weapons inspectors to the UN Security Council, in which they said Iraq was defying international demands to disarm. Mussa, who was due to hold talks later Tuesday with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, said "probably no one can stop" the United States, which is massing tens of thousands of war-ready troops in the region. He added he did not know if exile for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was a "realistic option," nor if it had been discussed by other Muslim states.

"There are a lot of suggestions in the air. But I don't see much substance behind them." Mussa said if evidence were found of an Iraqi programme of weapons of mass destruction, which led the UN Security Council to vote for war, then Arab nations "would follow such a decision." Earlier he told Qatar's Al Jazeera television station that the Arab League was working to avoid war.

"Everyone is working in the same direction: to avoid war and prolong the mandate of the inspectors," Mussa said from Berlin. Arab diplomacy helped the return to Iraq of inspectors in November after a four-year break and "we will continue all our efforts" to win more time for the inspectors' mission, he said. Fischer's talks in Berlin with Mussa will focus on Iraq. The German minister ended a tour of the Middle East at the weekend which included meetings with Egyptian, Iranian, Jordanian, Saudi, Syrian and Turkish leaders. - AFP

Malaysia to push for Arafat's presence at NAM summit

Khaleej Times, 1/28/03

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia will ask Israel to allow Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit here next month, Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said on Tuesday.

"The NAM meeting is important during this period of global uncertainties. Arafat should be allowed to attend. "We cannot pressure big powers but (we will) ask Israel to allow Arafat to come for the NAM meeting," Syed Hamid told reporters. He acknowledged that the chances may be slim, noting that Israel refused to let Arafat attend a London conference on Palestinian reforms earlier this month despite an appeal from British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Arafat's Palestinian Authority is a member of NAM, which groups 114 countries in an organisation established as an alternative to the Western and Soviet blocs during the Cold War.

Malaysia has indicated it believes the war on terrorism and the situation in Iraq, which is also a member of NAM, could give the organization a new role to play. Syed Hamid said 40 leaders had so far confirmed attendance at the February 20-25 summit. - AFP

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