Responding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that he was prepared to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad immediately and without preconditions, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told the pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat that Israel must first declare its intention to withdraw to the 1967 borders before any Syrian-Israeli talks can take place.
The Syrian foreign minister said that there is no point in “putting the cart before the horse” and that “Israel must withdraw from the occupied territories before Syria and Israel can meet”.
Despite the exchange of threats between Damascus and West Jerusalem last month and the trilateral meeting of Hezbollah’s Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Assad in Syria on 25 February, Israel’s training exercise “Firestones 12″, which took place in northern Israel last week, conspicuously omitted simulations of war with Syria. Instead, the Israel Defense Forces fought mock battles in preparation for clashes with Hezbollah in Lebanon or Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The army also cancelled emergency call-up drills for large numbers of regular forces and reserves, fearing Syria might mistake such a move as mobilization for war.
But in line with Haaretz’s Gideon Levy’s article “Israel Does Not Want Peace,” it can be said that Israel seeks no talks to resolve the problem; instead, it suspends this possibility while never missing any chance of upholding Damascus’s hostility. At the end of the day, Syria is bound to play the “bad guy” for Israeli officials, isn’t it?
Ahmadinejad to Assad: “Destroy Israel”: Reuters carries the report of RIB, Iran’s state broadcaster, that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called his Syrian counterpart on Wednesday evening and said: “If the Zionist regime should repeat its mistakes and initiate a military operation, then it must be resisted with full force to put an end to it once and for all.”
Washington’s Leaves Behind Its Military Equipment:Americans plan to leave a significant amount of equipment in Iraq to assist local security forces following the official withdrawal at the end of 2011. The rest will be stocked in Afghanistan, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Saturday roared at an ambassadors conference held at the Foreign Ministry. Referring to an interview with the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas who had said that unilateral IDF actions, including the killing of the three Palestinians, had caused him to reconsider the current joint security pact; Lieberman said: “We have paid enough. We have made many gestures and received nothing in return.”
At the same conference, he implicitly targeted Israel’s ambassador to Turkey, Gaby Levy, who has been keeping a low profile not to increase tension between two allies and making efforts to mend ties between them. Lieberman said:
The era of groveling is over. I have seen several ambassadors whose identification with the countries where they are posted is so great they are constantly trying to justify [to Israel] the other side’s point of view. This stance is wrong. There should not be an attitude of groveling and self-effacement.
We will not look for friction and confrontation but we will also not turn the other cheek. For every action there will be a reaction and this is the policy I demand from the ambassadors.
During their meeting, Abbas told Clinton that there would be no new negotiations unless Israel froze the building of settlements. Read the rest of this entry »
President Obama’s special envoy for the Middle East, George Mitchell, is back in Israel. He held talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres on Thursday and is expected to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today before moving to the West Bank to speak with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas this weekend.
Mitchell’s visit comes midst increasing tension between Israelis and Palestinians over the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem and pressure on Abbas over the Goldstone Report on Gaza. The envoy did not refer to those events; instead, Mitchell told Peres of his hope that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians can be restarted soon and of Obama’s commitment to bringing peace to the region. After Mitchell gave him the same message, Barak portrayed Israel as the “partner” of United States in the peace process, adding, “The time has come to move forward to start the process and pass all of the obstacles, because this will help everyone… No obstacle is impassable!”
But Barak’s words were not echoed by Lieberman, who is calling for detachment from the US and ruling out peace with Palestine in the near-future: “I will tell [Mitchell] clearly, there are many conflicts in the world that haven’t reached a comprehensive solution and people learned to live with it.” Since it was not the right time for a final agreement, Lieberman suggested that Mitchell should focus on an interim accord, leaving “the tough issues for a much later stage”.
Haaretz reports that a senior U.S. official told Israeli reporters that Mitchell’s visit was not likely to conclude with an announcement of renewed talks. Israeli sources, however, said — despite Lieberman’s unhelpful intervention — that this was “within reach.”
Perhaps the least surprising dimension of the story of the second Iranian enrichment plant has been the speed and intensity of Israeli official reactions came flat out.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio on Saturday:
This removes the dispute whether Iran is developing military nuclear power or not and therefore the world powers need to draw conclusions… Without a doubt it is a reactor for military purposes not peaceful purposes.
Referring to representatives of Arab countries at the UN meetings last week, Lieberman claimed:
Nobody is worried about the Palestinian problem, everybody in the Muslim and Arab world, and first and foremost in the Gulf states, are worried about the Iranian problem.
Over the last week, Paris has sent three signals of concern to Tel Aviv. First,President Nicolas Sarkozy said last Wednesday that an Israeli attack on Iran would be an “absolute catastrophe”.
Second, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner held talks on Friday with a Hezbollah legislator. Responding to Israeli criticisms, Kouchner said: “Hezbollah is part of the parties that participated in the recent parliamentary elections. It is natural to meet with its representatives.”
And on Saturday, Ha’aretz reported, via Israel Radio, that Kouchner had told his Lebanese interlocutors in Beirut that Washington had given Tel Aviv 6 months to halt expansion of settlements in the West Bank: “The U.S. could extend the six-month deadline, though Washington will not provide sponsorship to a renewed peace process if Jerusalem continues settlement construction.”
If true, Kouchner has just set up a two-way message to Israel and Iran: while Tehran has its deadline — negotiate by September or face tougher economic sanctions — the Israelis are now on notice over the Palestinian process. The question is whether the French have developed this with the US. If Tehran fails to satisfy the demands of the international community, Washington and Paris will lean more to the Israeli demand for stricter sanctions on the Islamic Republic. However, if Tehran moves to meet the demands, Washington will start ignoring the classic Israeli rhetoric on Iran’s nuclear threat unless Tel Aviv halts its policy on settlements.
Perhaps the great unnoticed paradox of Barack Obama’s Middle Eastern trip came before his Cairo speech, when he stopped in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has kept a low public profile over the post-Inauguration discussions on Israel and Palestine, yet here was the US President making it clear that the Saudi rulers still have a major part in the ongoing drama.
Responding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that he was prepared to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad immediately and without preconditions, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told the pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat that Israel must first declare its intention to withdraw to the 1967 borders before any Syrian-Israeli talks can take place.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Saturday roared at an ambassadors conference held at the Foreign Ministry. Referring to an interview with the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas who had said that unilateral IDF actions, including the killing of the three Palestinians, had caused him to reconsider the current joint security pact; Lieberman said: 
On Saturday, 
President Obama’s special envoy for the Middle East, George Mitchell, is back in Israel. He held talks with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and President Shimon Peres on Thursday and is expected to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today before moving to the West Bank to speak with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas this weekend.
Perhaps the least surprising dimension of the story of the second Iranian enrichment plant has been the speed and intensity of 
Over the last week, Paris has sent three signals of concern to Tel Aviv. First,President Nicolas Sarkozy said last Wednesday that an Israeli attack on Iran would be an “
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