Diplomat: Mumbai attack not planned in Pakistan

NEW DELHI – A senior Pakistani diplomat said the Mumbai attacks were not planned in Pakistan and suggested Friday that India's evidence linking Pakistan-based militants to the deadly siege could be fabricated.

The comments from Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's high commissioner to Britain, were the first from a senior Pakistani official since India handed over a dossier of evidence earlier this month that New Delhi said proved the November siege that left 164 dead had been plotted from Pakistan.

"Pakistani territory was not used so far as the investigators have made their conclusions," Hasan told India's NDTV news channel in an interview. "It could have been some other place."

Hours later, however, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousef Gilani, who is in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum, said Hasan had spoken too soon and that his government was not ready to comment on the dossier.

India's package of evidence included details from extensive interrogations of the lone surviving gunman and information gleaned from satellite phones used by the attackers, as well as details of weapons recovered and supplies used.

Hasan indicated that Islamabad did not accept the evidence.

"Well, it could be fabricated," he said. Referring to India, he added, "You took 45 days to give that sort of evidence although you started blaming Pakistan from day one."

But Gilani later told NDTV that the evidence was still being investigated by Pakistan's Interior Ministry and even he did not have details of that probe yet.

"He can't comment at the moment when the prime minister can't comment," he said of Hasan's interview. "Very soon we'll come back to the world whatever the findings are, " he added.

Hasan was in a meeting Friday when his office was reached by The Associated Press and not immediately available for comment.

In New Delhi, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee responded angrily to Hasan's comments.

"We have not received any information from Pakistani authorities through proper channels," he told reporters. "This is not the way a government can respond."

Since the attacks across India's financial capital, New Delhi has said that it expects Islamabad to crack down on the terrorist network it says operates across the border and to help prosecute anyone involved in the Mumbai

Hasan said he was confident the international community would accept Pakistan's findings.

"We are not going to do any whitewashing business. We believe in going after facts. Our findings will be acceptable to the world," he said. "We will try to satisfy India with our findings. We are addressing the concerns of the world, not just India."

Pakistan has arrested several senior members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group India blames for the attack, but says it will try any suspects in Pakistani courts. Authorities have also moved against a charity that India and others say is a front for Lashkar.

Pakistani authorities have acknowledged that Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only gunmen among the 10 militant to survive the siege, is from Pakistan.

Hamas wants new leadership for Palestinians

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – The Islamist Hamas group is calling for new leadership for Palestinians to replace the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) dominated by its arch-rival President Mahmoud Abbas and the factions loyal to him.

Claiming victory in a devastating 22-day war with Israel in which 100 Palestinians were killed for every Israeli who died, the militant group is reasserting control over the enclave and resuming its central political challenge to the moderate Abbas.

Several thousand Hamas supporters rallied in Gaza on Friday in support of the call to abolish the PLO, made two days ago by the group's exiled leader, Khaled Meshaal.

Meshaal advocates a new umbrella body to represent Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and in the diaspora. His proposal was echoed in similar statements to cheering crowds on Friday by a senior Hamas political leader, Khalil al-Hayya.

In the first public appearance by a prominent Gaza Hamas leader since Israel's attacked on Dec 27, Hayya said the PLO was "dead," and sent to the "morgue" by those who founded it.

"It is high time the Palestinian people have a new leadership. We are moving forward to shoulder the causes of refugees and Jerusalem. We will not cede our rights," he said.

"It is high time our people see a new, wise leadership that upholds resistance and the rifle."

Hamas, which rules 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, is pledged to continue fighting the state of Israel, which it does not recognize.

Western-backed Abbas, seeking to create a Palestinian state at peace with Israel, runs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which is home to 2.5 million Palestinians and also heads the PLO.

He accused Meshaal of trying to "knock down a structure that was built 44 years ago."

"If he wanted to bring down the temple he would not be able to do it because not one of the Palestinian people or others would stand with him," Abbas told reporters in Ramallah where his dominant Fatah faction is seated.

MODERATES VERSUS MILITANTS

Fatah is the largest of the 11 factions which make up the PLO, which has signed a series of peace accords with Israel since 1993 aimed at establishing a Palestinian state.

Abbas was leaving on Friday for visits to European capitals, seeking diplomatic help in securing a durable ceasefire in Gaza and post-war reconstruction for the enclave, as well as support for Egyptian mediators seeking to reconcile Fatah and Hamas.

"If Israel wants peace, it has to withdraw from the Arab and the Palestinian land which it occupied in 1967," Abbas said.

"Then it will be recognized by 57 Arab and Islamic countries which offer their hands for a historic opportunity for peace. I think Israel should not miss this opportunity."

Hamas, by contrast, does not propose to recognize Israel at any point and is shunned by major powers engaged in the Middle East peace process for its refusal to renounce violence.

Meshaal, the group's top leader, lives in exile in Damascus. He and other leaders of the group had said Hamas could accept a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders, in return for a long-term truce with Israel.

Meshaal now says factions allied to his group have already begun discussions over the formation of a "national steering committee" to represent Palestinians everywhere.

"The PLO, in its current form, has become incapable of serving the Palestinian people and has become a tool to deepen divisions," he said in a speech in Qatar this week.

Hamas is the most powerful of the "rejectionist" front of Palestinian factions -- which are based in Syria -- and could aspire to dominate a new umbrella grouping.

Failure to resolve differences over the PLO in 2007 was a major cause of the brief civil war that ended in Hamas's seizure of Gaza from the hands of security forces loyal to Abbas.

Hamas, which is not a PLO faction, had in the past demanded that the highest Palestinian decision-making body be restructured in a way that allows its participation as well as that of Islamic Jihad, another militant group allied to Hamas which also advocates the elimination of the state of Israel.

My terror as a human shield: The story of Majdi Abed Rabbo

As battle raged in Gaza, Israeli soldiers forced Majdi Abed Rabbo to risk his life as a go-between in the hunt for three Hamas fighters. This is his story...

By Donald Macintyre in Jabalya, Gaza
Friday, 30 January 2009

After yet another fierce, 45-minute gun battle, Majdi Abed Rabbo was ordered once again to negotiate his perilous way across the already badly-damaged roof of his house, through the jagged gap in the wall and slowly down the stairs towards the first-floor apartment in the rubble-strewn house next door. Not knowing if the men were dead or alive, he shouted for the second time that day: "I'm Majdi. Don't be afraid."

All three men – with Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles, wearing camouflage and headbands bearing the insignia of the Izzedine el Qassam brigades – were still alive, though one was badly injured and persuaded Mr Abed Rabbo to tighten the improvised bandage round his right arm. The youngest – perhaps 21 – was taking cover behind fallen masonry from where he could see the Israeli troops who had sent the visitor. Nervously, Mr Abed Rabbo told them: "They sent me back so I can take your weapons. They told me you are dead." It was the youngest who replied defiantly: "Tell the officer, 'If you're a man come up here'."

When the soldiers had arrived at about 10am, Mr Abed Rabbo, 40, had no inkling that over the next 24 hours he would make four heart-stopping trips, shuttling across increasingly dangerous terrain between the Israeli forces and the three besieged but determined Hamas militants who had become his unwelcome next-door neighbours. He would recall every detail of an episode which, in the telling, resembles the more melodramatic kind of war movie, but which was all too real for a man who by the end had lost his house and thought (wrongly) that his wife and children were dead. He had also witnessed at too close quarters the last stand of the men from the Qassam brigades in the face of relentless Israeli ground attacks and Apache helicopter fire.

Civilians were not killed in this episode, as they were in all too many during Operation Cast Lead. Instead, it offers a rare and detailed glimpse of an actual engagement between the Israeli military and Hamas fighters. And while it helps to reinforce Israel's contention that Hamas operates in built-up civilian areas, it also suggests that its own commanders were prepared to use civilians as human shields to protect Israeli troops.

It is one man's version of what happened, of course. But as the soldiers would find out when they checked later, Mr Abed Rabbo is a former member of the Fatah-dominated intelligence, still being paid by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. He believes the Hamas gunmen had no right to be in the house next door. But he also strongly objects to the use made of him by the Israeli military. "I could have been killed," he explained.

The soldiers arrived on 5 January, the second day of their ground offensive, with a Palestinian he knew only by his family name of Daher. After telling him to remove his trousers and roll up his shirt to establish he had no weapons, the soldiers told him to bring out his wife, Wijdan, 39, and family. Then, with Mr Abed Rabbo escorted at gunpoint by three soldiers and his family still in the yard, the troops searched his house up to the roof. The Arabic-speaking soldier assigned to Mr Abed Rabbo then asked him about the house next door. He told them he thought there was no one in the property. Then, he said, one of the soldiers brought a sledgehammer with which Mr Abed Rabbo was told to smash a hole in the wall between the two roofs, each opening to the apartments below.

An officer arrived and ordered a search of the house next door. The officer went first, stepping cautiously sideways down the stairs with his M16 rifle pointing downwards, then Mr Abed Rabbo with the soldiers and their guns pointed at his back. Suddenly, the officer turned and started screaming at his men. "We went back upstairs. The soldiers were pulling me and I fell twice," Mr Abed Rabbo said. "We went back to the roof of my house." It became apparent what the officer had glimpsed when suddenly the soldiers, by now on high alert and outside the yard of Mr Abed Rabbo's house, came under fire. He was taken into a mosque, which was already full of soldiers, across the road, then handcuffed and told to sit. After a 15-minute silence, the Hamas militants opened fire again. "The soldiers took position at the windows of the mosque and started shooting back. I was screaming at the soldier who spoke Arabic, 'My wife and children are in danger'." Mr Abed Rabbo said he was then told "shut up or I'll shoot you". "I collapsed and started to cry," he added. "I felt my family was dead."

He remained in custody for the next two days, sometimes handcuffed, staying with the Israeli unit as it moved through the area, often amid heavy exchanges of fire. Once, he was told to open the doors of two cars at another house to check them, before summoning the female occupants of the house downstairs. Then, in the afternoon, he was ordered to visit the damaged building where the armed Hamas men were. "I said I will not go. Maybe they will shoot me. I have a wife. I have kids," he recalled. But, he added, the Israeli officer told him he had "fired 10 rockets and killed them". He was then told to go into the house and bring out the weapons, after being hit with a rifle butt and given a kicking to reinforce the order. "I went to my house and saw my family was not there. I looked to see if there was any blood but there was nothing. It was empty. As I went down the stairs I was calling 'I'm Majdi' so they would not think I was Israeli and shoot me." Approaching the apartment door, he saw one gunman, his AK-47 pointed out, standing guard in the hall with two others behind him. Staying at the doorway, he told them the Israelis believed they had been killed. "They asked me where the army was and I said, 'They're everywhere'," he added. "They asked me to leave."

The soldiers, concealed behind the wall of a house 100 metres away, told him to strip naked to show he had not concealed any weapons as he left the house. Later, he was asked to make a third trip – his second journey alone – to the gunmen's redoubt. Mr Abed Rabbo says the Israeli officer cursed and hit him when he heard his report. Shortly afterwards, an Apache helicopter fired three missiles which he says "destroyed" the house containing the gunmen.

Night had fallen when he set out yet again under orders from the troops, but Mr Abed Rabbo persuaded them that the route through the rubble on his roof was impassable in the dark. "I kept asking about my family and they kept saying 'they're OK, they're OK'." The gunmen, incredibly still alive, opened fire yet again.

Mr Abed Rabbo was then taken to another house and told to stay there, handcuffed, cold and "worried about my family, my house". The Israeli soldiers came to fetch him again at about 6.30am, assuring him "we killed them last night" and telling him to go and see. "I said, 'How can I go? My rooftop is destroyed. It is very dangerous'," Mr Abed Rabbo explained. But given no choice, he managed to reach the stairs and descending cautiously, calling out as he had done twice before. "I saw everything was destroyed. They were all injured but the one who had been bleeding was worst. He was holding his finger up and saying, 'There is no God but Allah'. One of them was lying under rubble but still alive. The one in better condition said there was no way they would surrender, they would become martyrs. One gave me his name and told me to give a message to his family."

Mr Abed Rabbo said the Israelis started shooting while he was there and he ran away. "I went back to the Army. I lied to them. I said, 'They said if I went back they would kill me'."

The Israeli troops now used a megaphone to tell the gunmen in Arabic: "You have families. Come out and we will take you to hospital and take care of you. [The] district is full of special forces. All the Hamas leaders are hiding underground."

According to Mr Abed Rabbo: "While they were talking like this the [Hamas men] opened fire again, the officer pushed me against a wall and said, 'You've been lying to me. There are more than three in there'."

The soldiers then ordered two other residents to take cameras into the house to photograph it and the Hamas fighters. Next, the army sent in a dog which returned injured and died soon afterwards. The gunmen were then told: "You have 15 minutes to come out with no clothes on and with your hands up. If you don't, we will bring the house down on you."

After 15 minutes, Mr Abed Rabbo said, a bulldozer moved into the area between the houses and the mosque, destroying large parts of his house before systematically demolishing the one the gunmen were hiding in. It was now Tuesday afternoon.

Before he was taken away, Mr Abed Rabbo had a clear view of his wrecked house, the pulverized property next door, and the bodies of the three Hamas gunmen lying in the rubble.

Voting under way in Iraq amid tight security

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – Iraqis passed through security checkpoints and razor-wire cordons to vote Saturday in provincial elections that are considered a crucial test of the nation's stability as U.S. officials consider the pace of troop withdrawals.

Polls opened shortly after dawn after a step-by-step security clampdown across the country, including traffic bans in central Baghdad and other major cities and closure of border crossings and airports. Turnout appeared brisk in many areas and officials extended polling to accommodate crowds.

There were no reports of widespread violence as voting got under way. But in Baghdad's Sadr City district, Shiite lawmaker Ghufran al-Saidi said a military officer opened fire and injured two people after voters chanted slogans at a polling station.

Iraq's military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, told Al-Arabiya television that the shooting happened after some people tried to carry mobile phones through security cordons. One person was killed and one injured, he said. The reason for the conflicting accounts was not immediately clear.

In Tikrit, about 80 miles north of Baghdad, three mortar shells exploded near a polling station but caused no casualties, said police, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

A bomb found near a Tikrit voting center was defused, police said.

Hundreds of Iraqi Kurds stormed an election office in the disputed northern city of Khanaqin after claiming many of them were not on voting lists. There were no reports of serious injuries. The incident was part of lingering disputes between Kurds and the Arab-run central government over control of the city near the Iranian border.

Signs of the blanket security measures were everywhere. In the Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah, Iraqi police and army soldiers manned a series of checkpoints — some only 200 yards apart. Stores were closed and the streets cleared of cars.

A group of U.S. soldiers patrolled on foot but well away from polling centers. The U.S. military assisted in security preparations for the elections but said troops would only be called in on election day if needed.

In the western city of Fallujah — once a center of the Sunni insurgency — police used their patrol cars to help some people get to voting stations.

More than 14,000 candidates, including about 3,900 women, are running for 440 seats on the influential councils in all of Iraq's provinces except for the autonomous Kurdish region in the north and the province that includes oil-rich Kirkuk, where ethnic groups were unable to reach a power-sharing formula.

Voting was to cease at 5 p.m. local time (9 a.m. EST) but was extended by one hour. Preliminary results are not expected before Tuesday.

Voters headed home waved their purple-tinted index fingers, which are dipped in ink to identify people who already cast ballots. The ink-stained fingers became an iconic image of Iraq's first post-Saddam Hussein elections four years ago.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, shadowed by a bodyguard, dipped his finger into an ink box after voting in the walled Green Zone enclave in Baghdad.

He appealed for a high turnout — which would help boost his government's attempts to use the election as a sign of progress.

"This gives a picture of trust in the government, the elections and the people's right to take part in this democratic process," he said.

Although violence is sharply down — and with pre-election attacks relatively limited — authorities were unwilling to take any risks.

An election without major attacks or charges of irregularities would provide a critical boost for Iraqi authorities as the U.S. military hands over more security responsibilities. But serious bloodshed or voting chaos could steal momentum from supporters of a fast-paced withdrawal of U.S. combat troops next year.

The provincial councils have no direct sway in national affairs but carry significant authority through their ability to negotiate local business deals, allocate funds and control some regional security operations.

This election is also a possible dress rehearsal for bigger showdowns in national elections later this year, when the U.S.-allied government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki could face a power challenge from the country's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.

The security measures implemented for the election brought back memories of the most deadly years of the war. The closely monitored frontiers with Iran and Syria were among borders that were sealed. A nighttime curfew also was in place, apparently to block extremist groups that plant roadside bombs under cover of darkness.

Voters in many places passed through double-ring search cordons. Women teachers and other civilians were recruited to help search for possible female suicide bombers.

In Baqouba, the capital of the violence-wracked Diyala Province northwest of Baghdad, long lines formed.

"We were not able to vote during the 2005 elections because of the deteriorating security situation," said Ahmed Jassim, 19. "But now we feel safe enough to go out and vote."

Iraqi special forces in full combat gear patrolled streets in Baghdad's Fadhil district, which was once a hub in the Sunni insurgents' car bomb network. The tense atmosphere there contrasted with the more relaxed mood in other parts of the city.

In Baghdad's Azamiyah neighborhood — once a stronghold of support for Saddam Hussein's regime — a voting station at a girls' high school still carried a small image of Saddam, calling him the nation's "hero and martyr."

But one voter, Zaid Abdul-Karim, 44, said the elections will hopefully ease tensions between Shiites who gained power by Saddam's downfall and Sunnis who perceive themselves as sidelined since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

"These are the people we need now — people who represent everyone in Iraq and have no sectarian bias," said Abdul-Karim, a government employee.

Among Sunni groups, powerful newcomers could reshape the political hierarchy.

In Anbar province, the Sunni tribes that rose up against al-Qaida and other insurgents — and led to a turning point of the war — are now seeking to transform their fame into council seats and significantly increase their role in wider Iraqi affairs. Their gains could come at the expense of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic party in the current government.

A couple who fled to Kuwait in 2004 to escape the violence returned to their northern Baghdad neighborhood to vote Saturday. Salih Zawad Ali and his wife Zeinab looked longingly around the Sulaykh district after casting their ballots.

"I hope and pray we can come back," she said.

Juarez highlights role in Gib-Madrid air link

The Mayor of La Linea Juan Carlos Juarez has said that he is confident that air links between Gibraltar and Madrid will be re-established by newly operational airline Andalus.

The Mayor has revealed that he met with the Director General of the airline on 12 November last year to discuss the venture. He has also disclosed that the plan is for one flight a day leaving Gibraltar early in the morning and returning from Madrid at night.

Iran watching US policies in Afghanistan: foreign minister

TOKYO (AFP) – Iran is monitoring US foreign policy in countries such as Afghanistan to see if improved ties under President Barack Obama might be possible, its foreign minister told Japanese media.

Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran welcomed Obama's emphasis on dialogue but added that his government would need more detail on US intentions abroad before reviewing Tehran's relationship with Washington.

"Now we are studying what (are) the practical policies of the United States, towards Afghanistan, for example," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in an interview with Japan's public broadcaster NHK, aired on Saturday.

"What (are) they going to do? Is it a military-based approach?" asked Mottaki, who was in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum.

Mottaki said Iran would negotiate on its nuclear programme under the correct circumstances, NHK reported, without showing the relevant footage.

The comments come after White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Thursday Obama preferred to use diplomacy in dealings with Iran and its controversial nuclear programme but kept "all his options" open.

Asked if the military option was still on the table, Gibbs said: "The president hasn't changed his viewpoint that he should preserve all his options."

In an interview on Monday with Al-Arabiya television, Obama said: "It is very important for us to make sure that we are using all the tools of US power, including diplomacy, in our relationship with Iran."

"As I said in my inauguration speech, if countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us," the president said.

Senior diplomats from six world powers trying to convince Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions will gather next week in Germany for their first meeting since Obama took office on January 20, a German official said Friday.

Political directors from the UN Security Council permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany will meet Wednesday near the western city of Frankfurt, German foreign ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner told a news conference.

Spain's probe of Israelis presents legal quandary

By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer

MADRID, Spain – A Spanish judge's decision to investigate seven Israeli officials over a deadly 2002 attack against Hamas that had nothing to do with Spain has renewed a debate about the long arm of European justice.

Critics say Madrid should mind its own business, particularly since Spain is still struggling to address its own bloody past. Supporters argue that some crimes are so heinous that all of humanity is a victim and somebody has to prosecute them.

Spain is hardly alone. A number of European countries have enacted some form of "universal jurisdiction," a doctrine that allows courts to reach beyond national borders in cases of torture or war crimes.

• In 2001, a war crimes suit against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was filed in Belgium by Palestinian survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Chatilla refugee camp massacre in Lebanon. Belgium's highest court then dismissed the war crimes proceedings against Sharon and others, ruling it had no legal basis to charge them.

• French judges have opened investigations into Congolese security officials and convicted a Tunisian Interior Ministry official of torturing a fellow citizen on Tunisian soil.

• And Spain has indicted the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Osama bin Laden among others, including Argentine dirty war suspects.

"I think some of these judges are looking for publicity, taking on causes that have no business being tried in Spain," said Florentino Portero, an analyst with the Strategic Studies Group, a conservative Spanish think tank. "They are practicing politics through judicial work."

The most recent case involves a 2002 bombing in Gaza that killed Hamas militant Salah Shehadeh and 14 other people, including nine children. Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu agreed to take the case on the grounds the incident may have been a crime against humanity — prompting a furious response from Israel.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Spanish decision "makes a mockery out of international law," and Moshe Yaalon, a former Israeli general named in the probe, termed the case "propaganda."

Israel's Justice Ministry said Friday it had transferred material on the case to Spanish authorities and hoped the investigation would be closed soon. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said her Spanish counterpart had assured her his government would promote legislation to limit the authority of Spanish courts.

But Deputy Spanish Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega appeared to contradict Livni's statement Friday, saying the courts are independent of politics.

Philippe Sands, a professor of law at University College London and the author of "Torture Team," which looks at U.S. interrogation practices during the administration of President George W. Bush, said most countries allow prosecutions in cases involving torture or war crimes, so long as they have some connection to the case.

He noted that a U.S. court recently convicted the American son of Liberian President Charles Taylor, despite the fact his crimes were committed overseas against non-American citizens. Still, Sands said the question of universal jurisdiction gets murkier when there is no connection to the country doing the prosecuting.

"I am less persuaded that you can exercise universal jurisdiction when there is no connection at all, or where there is no solid treaty basis for exercising such jurisdiction," Sands said.

Belgium rolled back its universal jurisdiction law in 2003 after foreigners started filing a spate of genocide and war crimes complaints against foreign leaders, including Colin Powell and Dick Cheney, prompting Washington to threaten to move NATO headquarters out of Brussels. The case against Sharon did not result in conviction.

In Spain, the issue is particularly sensitive since the country has never brought charges against its own citizens for crimes committed in the name of Gen. Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator who ruled from the 1930s until his death in 1975. It was only two years ago that Spain passed a law even acknowledging victims of the 1936-1939 civil war.

Emilio Silva, who heads an organization that leads efforts to exhume the bodies of civilians killed by Franco's forces, said he has no problem with Spanish courts looking outward.

"I think it is good that Spanish courts investigate who they have to investigate, but it is strange that they make an exception of their own country," he said. "Spain is part of the universe too."

Then there is the diplomatically explosive prospect that a European court could bring charges against American CIA and military operatives accused of torture anywhere in the world, or even indict former Bush administration officials for war crimes.

Former Bush administration official Susan Crawford was quoted in a Washington Post interview published this month as saying the United States tortured one inmate at Guantanamo Bay, Saudi Mohammed al-Qahtani, in 2002.

Eric Holder, President Barack Obama's designee for attorney general, has said he considers interrogation methods like waterboarding to be torture, but has not indicated he plans to bring charges against any CIA or military operatives who might have used the technique.

If European courts sense a reluctance on the part of American officials to act, analysts say, they could use that to justify bringing charges themselves.

"Without a doubt the United States is the next step," Portero said.

'I'm not afraid of al-Shabab'

Somalia's Islamist group, al-Shabab, has taken over the city of Baidoa, one of the last strongholds of the transitional government and the seat of parliament.

They say they will introduce Sharia law in the city.

Marian Zeila, chairperson of the Somali Media Women's Association, based in the city, give her views on the takeover.

I'm concerned that the al-Shabab militants will prevent me from carrying out the work I do here in Baidoa - fighting gender-based violence.

The fact that al-Shabab are bringing in Sharia law doesn't really worry me.

Sharia law is a part of Islam, it's in the Koran. But it's their interpretation of the law that I disagree with.

They are turning Islam into a harsh religion, which I don't believe it actually is.

My organization is trying to empower women who suffer domestic violence - and I don't think al-Shabbab will like us encouraging women to speak out.

I am not angry with them yet, but I do wonder what effect their presence will have on the women of Baidoa.

From talking to other women, it's my impression that civil society groups here are not happy with al-Shabab.

I haven't been to work since al-Shabab took over Baidoa.

Everything seems calm at the moment, but I plan to stay at home for another four days until I can be sure that it's safe to go to work.

I did go out briefly today to the center of town to do some shopping.

I would say that today the atmosphere in Baidoa is relatively good - I saw women and children out in the streets, they were walking around freely.

I am not afraid of al-Shabab and I don't think people in Baidoa fear them.

Wait and see

I saw members of al-Shabab around town carrying guns today. They look incredibly young.

I know that they have encouraged teenagers in Baidoa to join their movement, but they are not forcing anyone.

People working for the transitional government in Baidoa are staying indoors.

Al-Shabab have promised they will not harm them, but it remains to be seen whether this is the case.

While the transitional government was in charge there was insecurity in Baidoa, they were unable to protect civilians.

At least the al-Shabab have restored stability - for the time being.

I am 23 and I got married just one month ago.

If things stay calm in Baidoa, my husband and I will stay here. But we want to wait and see how this goes. Nobody knows what al-Shabab are planning to do.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7854191.stm.

Somali president faces tough task

By Roger Middleton

The election of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed as president of Somalia marks a dramatic return for the former head of the Union of Islamic Courts administration.

Winning over the roughly 500 members of Somalia's newly expanded parliament is likely to be the easiest part of his presidency, however.

Somalia faces a daunting set of challenges: famine, poverty, chronic insecurity and lawlessness, meddlesome neighbors, and the enduring memory of numerous failed peace processes.

Sheikh Sharif defeated at least 14 other candidates including current Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, commonly known as Nur Adde, who has been the driving force behind bringing the Transitional Federal Government and Mr Sharif's Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS) together.

Mr Hussein was probably the favored candidate of the West, but Sheikh Sharif commands considerable respect among many in Mogadishu and southern Somalia.

The most pressing problem for the new president is how to deal with the radical Islamist group al-Shabab.

So far they have shown no willingness to join the grand coalition between Sheikh Sharif's ARS and the remains of the transitional government under Mr Hussein.

They have spent the last two years building their military and financial strength and will be hard to dislodge by force.

Sharia law

Since the Ethiopian intervention at the end of 2006 al-Shabab has grown in size, ambition, organization, and seems increasingly radical.

Their leaders have benefited from the bitter feelings generated by the Ethiopian intervention and are now probably the best organized force in Southern Somalia.

They have expanded their control over southern Somalia since taking control of the strategic port of Kismaayo late last year.

Baidoa, the town that until recently hosted the Transitional Federal Parliament, is for now also under their control.

Reports indicate that they are established in Mogadishu and threatening to capture the city.

The ARS and the transitional government have been negotiating in Djibouti but it is al-Shabab who have been making headlines.

In Shabab-controlled Kismayo a young girl accused of adultery was stoned to death.

Al-Shabab have said they will also impose their version of sharia law in Baidoa and the other areas they control.

They have been destroying shrines of traditional saints across southern Somalia.

Most Somalis insist that al-Shabab does not represent traditional interpretations of Islam.

Clan divisions

It seems highly unlikely that the international community or Somalia's neighbors would be keen to support the new president if he engages in negotiations with a group listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department.

His best bet may be to hope that militiamen fighting for al-Shabab can be convinced to change sides and support his government.

President Sharif cannot even count on unified support from the newly enlarged parliament.

The clearest division is between the original MPs who served under President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and the new ARS MPs.

Even within these two groups there is hardly consensus, and it is likely that the new president will receive little help from politicians who in the past have only really swung into action when new prime ministers or presidents needed to be appointed.

MPs have been selected on the basis of a formula designed to ensure even representation across Somalia's different clans.

It is up to each clan to decide how to negotiate divisions within them along sub-clan lines.

Humanitarian crisis

Some analysts argue this system means MPs who come from the more stable north of the country will be involved in trying to solve the problems of the south.

They complain that the formula, by treating the problem as an all-Somalia one, ignores the reality - that the war is in the south and only southerners will be able to end the fighting.

As Mr Hussein and Sheik Sharif are both from the Hawiye clan, if one is president the other cannot be prime minister.

So the two men with the best chance of resolving the problems of the south cannot together hold the two most important offices of state.

More than three million people are in need of urgent humanitarian aid, millions were displaced from Mogadishu, and Somalia has been described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Somalis rely on massive shipments of food aid to stay alive.

If the president wants to build popular legitimacy then he will need to address these problems.

However, providing food and medical supplies will be very difficult until some form of security is established, and without a government that can ensure the most basic services young men have little incentive not to take the $15-a-day pay cheque from the warring factions.

Finally, President Sharif should not expect to be left alone to resolve his country's crises.

The outside world has a history of interfering in Somalia's affairs.

Among a long list of interventions, the two-year Ethiopian mission and US missile strikes against terrorist targets may have been motivated by legitimate security fears, but they have almost never improved the security or humanitarian situation inside Somalia.

The new president will need to navigate a bickering parliament, a hungry population and meddling world - and face down a massive military threat from al-Shabab.

He will need a lot of luck if this is not to be just the most recent failed peace process in Somalia.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7861853.stm.

Iranian president praises Turkish PM for Davos outburst

TEHRAN, January 31 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday congratulated Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on taking a stand over Israel on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Erdogan tried to respond to an emotional 25-minute defense of Israeli military operations in Gaza by President Shimon Peres, but when after about a minute he was told he could not speak as it was time for dinner he walked out of the prestigious conference.

"Don't interrupt me. You are not allowing me to speak," he told the moderator, adding: "I will not come to Davos again."

He was given a hero's welcome when he returned to Turkey from Switzerland.

"The act of the Turkish prime minister reflects expectations of all Turkish people, the nations of the region and the entire world. We appreciate it. He behaved exactly how he should have behaved in that situation," Ahmadinejad told journalists.

The president of Iran again accused the Israeli government of committing war crimes in Gaza and declared that no aim could justify the killing of Palestinian civilians.

In Tehran on Saturday a group of protesters rallied outside the Turkish Embassy in support of Erdogan's actions. They chanted anti-Israeli and anti-American slogans, and some schoolchildren in the crowd carried flowers.

The new U.S. envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is due to meet Erdogan in Turkey on Sunday. The Turkish prime minister said he was angry at not being allowed to speak, rather than at Israel or Peres, while the Israeli president said he did not expect Turkish-Israeli relations to be affected.

Israel's recent military operation in Gaza killed some 1,300 Palestinians. Up to 50,000 people were also left homeless in the enclave of 1.5 million. Israel's casualties in the conflict were put at 13, including 10 military personnel.

Somalia's new moderate Islamist president sworn in

DJIBOUTI – A moderate Islamist leader was sworn in as the country's new president Saturday after parliament elected him to stabilize a country wracked by violence and anarchy for nearly 20 years.

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed was elected in neighboring Djibouti early Saturday after the last president — a former soldier, rebel and warlord named Abdullahi Yusuf — resigned in December after failing to pacify the country during his four-years as president.

More than 1,200 people, including the new Somali parliament, attended Saturday's swearing-in at a hotel in Djibouti.

Ahmed was chairman of the Islamic Courts Union that ran Mogadishu for six months in 2006 before Ethiopian soldiers drove them from power. His election raises hopes that he will bring many of Somalia's Islamic factions into a more inclusive government.

But the Western-backed government wields little control in Somalia — just a few blocks of the capital, Mogadishu, where African Union peacekeepers patrol. An Islamic insurgent group called al-Shabab, who say they don't recognize the government, have taken over most of Somalia.

The U.S. considers al-Shabab a terror organization with links to al-Qaida.

Somalia's parliament has been meeting all week in neighboring Djibouti to choose the new president. Sharif won easily with 293 votes after the other front-runner, the prime minister, withdrew. The second-place candidate received 126 votes.

Sharif was due to fly to the Ethiopian capital for an African Union summit after he was sworn in.

The arid and impoverished Horn of Africa nation of some 8 million people has not had a functioning government for a generation, since clan-based militias overthrew a dictator in 1991 then turned on each other.

Pirates prey on international shipping freely from Somalia's lawless shores, and analysts fear an extremist Islamic administration could become a haven for international terrorists.

There have been more than a dozen previous peace efforts and three previous governments were formed, but they never managed to take effective control over most of the country.

US envoy in Jordan in bid to bolster Gaza truce

AMMAN (AFP) – US Middle East envoy George Mitchell arrived in Jordan on Saturday for talks with King Abdullah II on consolidating the ceasefire that ended the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Jordan's king is expected to tell Mitchell that the United States must be "really engaged in the peace process based on a two-state solution, Israeli and Palestinian," a senior palace official told AFP.

US President Barack Obama's new envoy said in Jerusalem on Friday that the United States is committed to "actively and aggressively" seeking lasting peace in the Middle East but warned there would be further setbacks.

He kicked off his maiden regional tour in Egypt and has held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. He is still due to visit Saudi Arabia ahead of traveling to Europe.

The 75-year-old former US senator, who helped broker peace in Northern Ireland in 1998, has been charged by new Obama with "vigorously" resuscitating the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

N. Korea ditches nonaggression pact with S. Korea

By JAE-SOON CHANG, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said Friday it is ditching a nonaggression pact and all other peace agreements with South Korea, in an apparent attempt to use the threat of an armed clash to press Seoul to give up its "confrontational" stance.

The communist nation also said it will no longer respect a disputed sea border with the South, raising the prospect for an armed clash along the Yellow Sea boundary — the scene of deadly skirmishes between the two navies in 1999 and 2002.

South Korea said it regretted the North's latest move and warned it won't tolerate any attempt to violate the border.

Analysts said Pyongyang's threats could signal it is preparing for an armed confrontation, but only as a way of ratcheting up the pressure on Seoul to get the neighbor to soften its hard-line stance — and attracting President Barack Obama's attention.

"This signals that North Korea will stage a provocation" — probably near the maritime border, said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.

The isolated regime could then use the threat of an armed clash to pressure Seoul to change course with the North, said Yang Moo-jin, an expert at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

But Kim added that any skirmish would be limited in scale and intensity because Pyongyang is aware that serious deadly clashes would irreparably harm relations with Seoul — and Obama's new administration, whose attention the North is seeking, he said.

A Defense Ministry official said the military has stepped up vigilance along the land and sea borders with the North. The official, who declined to give his name citing department policy, said more guard posts have been installed along the land border, but could not offer details about what's been done on the sea border.

Yonhap news agency said the navy deployed a warship near the maritime boundary and strengthened radar and other surveillance systems. The ministry official said he was checking the report.

The two Koreas technically remain at war because their brutal, three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. The peninsula remains divided by a heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, with thousands of troops stationed on both sides of the border.

Relations had warmed considerably over the past decade, with Seoul's liberal leadership adopting a "sunshine policy" of extending aid to the impoverished North as a way to facilitate reconciliation.

But South Korea's current president, conservative Lee Myung-bak, has not committed to accords signed by his predecessors — a stance Pyongyang says proves his hostility. The regime cut off reconciliation talks soon after he took office nearly a year ago.

Lee has refused to give in to the pressure, saying he will "wait" until Pyongyang agrees to return to the reconciliation talks.

On Friday, the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea — a ruling Workers' Party organ in charge of ties with Seoul — declared all past peacekeeping accords with the South "dead," claiming Lee is escalating tensions with the regime.

"The group of traitors has already reduced all the agreements reached between the North and the South in the past to dead documents," the committee said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The statement specifically mentioned a nonaggression pact that the two sides signed in late 1991 pledging not to invade each other and to seek peaceful unification. The so-called Basic Agreement has served as a basis for future peace accords, such as summit agreements signed in 2000 and 2007.

It also said the maritime boundary off the divided peninsula's west coast will be "nullified."

The U.S.-led United Nations Command unilaterally drew the Yellow Sea border, also known as the Northern Limit Line or NLL, at the end of the war — but Pyongyang claims it should be redrawn farther south.

"The position of our military on the NLL is firm," Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said. "If the North violates it, we will sternly respond to that."

The latest verbal attack from Pyongyang comes as both Koreas watch to see how Obama's North Korea policy takes shape.

After eight years of icy relations with the Bush administration, Pyongyang hopes to have improved relations with Obama, analysts say. Obama has said he would be willing to meet with Kim Jong Il if it advances the effort to disarm the North of its nuclear capabilities.

Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said the government regretted the North's move and urged the regime to defuse the tensions through dialogue.

The Defense Ministry said its troops remain on alert, though there have been no unusual moves by the North's military.

Earlier this month, the North's military accused the South of preparing to wage war and said it had adopted an "all-out confrontational posture" to rebuff any southern aggression.

Seoul denied plotting any attack on the North.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear bomb in 2006, signed a pact in 2007 with five other nations — the U.S., South Korea, Japan, Russia and China — agreeing to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for aid.

That process has been stalled since August, and talks in Beijing in December failed to get the process back on track.

Hamas dispenses politics along with aid to Gazans

By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer

JEBALIYA, Gaza Strip – The aid money from Hamas came with a heavy dose of politics. A Hamas Cabinet minister carried a carton stuffed with checks worth nearly $2 million into a Gaza tent camp pitched on the ruins of the Salam neighborhood, close to the Israeli border.

But before hundreds of homeless residents could collect, they had to listen to a political speech. Social Affairs Minister Ahmed al-Kurd told them Israel's military machine was defeated and that the Hamas government would rebuild their neighborhood bigger and better.

"There's a lot of talk," resident Zayed Khader, 45, said after the speech, as he waited for his name to be called so he could pick up relief checks worth a total of $6,000 for his family of nine. "When I see them actually building my house, I'll say these are good words."

Israel's three-week war on Gaza's Hamas rulers ended 10 days ago, but many here complain that political maneuvering — both between Hamas and its moderate West Bank rivals, and in the international community — is slowing the delivery of urgently needed aid to Gaza.

Israel and Egypt have not significantly eased their blockade of Gaza since a shaky cease-fire took hold Jan. 18, aid officials say.

A lifting of the blockade, a key Hamas demand, is being held up because of slow-moving negotiations over the terms of a durable truce.

Israel says it will only open the gates if Hamas halts weapons smuggling under international supervision. Egypt has said that on its border with Gaza, it will only deal with forces loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and not with troops from Hamas, Abbas' rival.

In the meantime, thousands of tons of supplies are not reaching Gaza, said John Ging, the top U.N. aid official in the territory. "The ordinary people here in Gaza are not getting enough help and are not getting it quickly enough," Ging told reporters this week.

Israel said U.N. trucks are given priority at crossings into Gaza and denied aid was getting stuck. "Over 40,000 tons of aid have entered Gaza since the cease-fire and that is despite ongoing Hamas rocket attacks," said Peter Lerner, an Israeli military official.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency is the biggest aid organization in Gaza. It is responsible for 1 million refugees and their descendants, out of a population of 1.4 million. Its initial war emergency budget was $100 million, and on Thursday it filed an aid appeal for $613 million.

But without a deal to open the devastated territory's borders, it wasn't clear the appeal would do much good. More than two dozen trucks loaded with food, aid and goods intended for Gaza were stranded on the Egyptian side of the border Thursday.

"There are thousands of tons of assistance generously donated, sitting in Egypt, Jordan and also in the ports in Israel," Ging said. "That aid should be right here, right now, helping the people who need it."

In recent days, UNRWA expanded food aid, with some 900,000 Gazans now getting rations of flour, oil and sugar. On Thursday, each of 200,000 students in UN schools received about $25.

During the war, U.N. schools sheltered 50,000 displaced Gazans, and the agency is paying nearly $150 to each family to try to find another place to stay.

UNRWA operates independently of the Hamas government, and the Islamic militants have been careful not to interfere with U.N. aid programs. However, Hamas has insists on supervising the projects of foreign and local volunteer groups.

On Thursday, government representatives took charge of a tent camp pitched in the Salam neighborhood of the town of Jebaliya, near Israel.

Dozens of tents stood on a newly cleared lot, ringed by the rubble of houses that had been demolished or badly damaged by Israeli forces. Hundreds of residents, now homeless, milled around, chasing rumors about the size of the eventual aid payment as they waited for other deliveries. Two U.N. trucks eventually dropped off 460 mattresses and 2,540 blankets.

The camp was divided into an area for residents and a fenced off compound for official business, with bearded Hamas police in black uniforms standing guard. In the administration tent, equipped with a computer, the chiefs of the 10 local clans presented lists and ID card numbers of family members to prove their aid claims.

By mid-afternoon, two Hamas Cabinet ministers arrived to the sound of Hamas marching music, carrying a cardboard box with 332 white envelopes. Each envelope held two checks totaling $6,000, to enable each family to buy food and supplies — after they heard al-Kurd, the Cabinet minister, deliver his speech on the Gaza victory.

But many are skeptical.

As a result of the border blockade, imposed after Hamas seized Gaza in June 2007, there are barely any building supplies, such as concrete, window glass and aluminum. Without a full opening of the border, the rebuilding of thousands of homes is impossible, Ging has said.

Jumma Dardona, whose nearby three-story family house has been rendered uninhabitable, fears he'll live in a tent for a long time. "No one knows the accurate period," said Dardona, 34, as he cut firewood behind the last row of tents, his 6-year-old son Mohammed by his side.

Dardona and several others in Salam said they want Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement to put aside their rivalries. They say the infighting is one of the main reasons for the misery of Gaza civilians. "As long as they fight, I feel I am lost," said Dardona, who served as a policeman before the Hamas takeover.

However, Abbas' government has not been visible among the aid groups, sidelining him even further in the eyes of many Gazans.

He still pumps huge sums into Gaza every month, paying the salaries of tens of thousands of civil servants and police, like Dardona. But his promised $3.5 million for the families of the dead — according to Gaza health officials nearly 1,300 — has not been disbursed, in part because Gaza banks suffer from a shortage of bank notes, another fallout from the closure.

Hamas, which smuggles cash through border tunnels instead of using bank transfers, has no problems with distribution.

Khader watched Thursday's bustle of Cabinet ministers, bodyguards and aid deliveries with disdain. He said he has told visiting Hamas politicians that the civilians are the losers and that they oppose continued rocket fire on Israel — the attacks that triggered the war.

"It's all hot air," he said of the officials' promises. "What do they care if my house is bombed?"

Iraqis to vote in al Qaeda's last stronghold

By Tim Cocks

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – An election in two days in Iraq's most violent province, where al Qaeda and other insurgents are making a last stand, could bring Sunni Arabs back into power and ease resentment that has fueled the bloodshed.

Iraqis vote on Saturday for the first time since 2005 in a provincial poll that is likely to redraw the political map almost six years after the U.S-led invasion triggered sectarian violence that killed tens of thousands.

The stakes are high in Nineveh in the north, an ancient battleground between rival ethnic and religious groups, which is majority Sunni Arab but some of which Kurds claim as their own.

Sunni Arabs boycotted the last provincial polls in 2005, leaving them with only 10 out of Nineveh's 41 council seats, despite making up 60 percent of the population. Kurds control 30 seats, despite being just a quarter of the population.

The imbalance has helped feed an insurgency mounted mostly by Sunnis, who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein. They are expected to turn out in large numbers to elect the 37 council seats being contested this time.

"The (Sunnis) of Nineveh will take part because they see the problems that ensued from not taking part last time," Mohammed Shakir, head of the local arm of the Iraqi Islamic Party, said.

Tensions are rising between Kurds and Arabs in Iraq just as the sectarian war between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims eases.

While much of the country enjoys its best security in years, Nineveh is struggling to shake off a determined insurgency.

On Thursday, a Sunni candidate in the provincial capital Mosul, Hazem Salem Ahmed, was gunned down in front of his home, at least the second candidate to be killed there.

Al Qaeda regrouped in Nineveh in 2007 after being driven out of former strongholds in Baghdad and western Iraq.

"We're expecting that al Qaeda will try to create violence to cause disruption," said Major Karl Neal, head of U.S. military intelligence for Nineveh. "Mosul is al Qaeda's last stand."

SUICIDE BOMBERS MAY ATTACK

The streets of Mosul, a ruined city home to two-thirds of Nineveh's 2.6 million inhabitants, are lined with rubble and flanked by bombed-out or half-finished buildings.

Power comes on four hours a day. Raw sewage spews into the Tigris river. On one street, children played by a flock of sheep grazing on a festering pile of trash.

"I hope the elected will take care of us and not just make empty promises," said Satar Ibrahem al-Dabbagh, who runs Mosul's al-Salaam hospital. "We need medicines, equipment, vaccines."

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, speaking to local officials and tribal leaders on a visit to Mosul, blamed the poor state of Mosul's services on the relentless violence and called for wide participation in Saturday's vote to bring citizens together.

"We will send a message to those who think Iraq is divided along ... ethnic and sectarian lines," he said.

Some in Nineveh see past such differences. "I'm from Kurdistan and I have never felt unwelcome here," said Omar Salam, a young soldier.

U.S. officials say a dozen other groups, including secular nationalists or remnants of Saddam's Baath party, are fighting in Nineveh in addition to al Qaeda.

Neal said they may stay quiet so as not be seen to be thwarting a return of Sunni Arabs to power in Nineveh.

One party hoping for success is al Hadba, a new bloc that includes former Baathists. Atheel al-Nujaifi, the party's head, himself once a Baathist, is campaigning against the U.S. occupation but also against violence. He is likely to do well.

Nujaifi accuses Kurdish Peshmerga fighters of intimidation.

"When the Kurds realize they are losing power, they are not going to be reasonable. They will want to hold on," he said.

Others in Mosul are disturbed by such rhetoric.

"He talks of ridding Mosul of Kurds. That would be ethnic cleansing," said Mosul Mayor Abdul Aziz al-Aaraji, part of the Shabak minority. "If he wins, he'll have to work with Kurds."

Al-Qaeda suspect shot dead in Istanbul: report

ISTANBUL (AFP) – A suspected Al-Qaeda militant was killed and three others captured here Thursday in a shootout with the police, Turkish media quoted Istanbul governor Muammer Guler as saying.

The shootout broke out after the four suspects attempted to rob a post office in Istanbul's suburb of Sultanbeyli.

"The incident occurred during a pursuit targeting the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization," Guler told reporters, according to Anatolia news agency.

He explained that police had intelligence of a planned robbery at the post office and had already taken position at the building when the group arrived.

"When they saw the police, the members of the organization opened fire at them," Anatolia quoted the governor as saying.

"The police responded with fire and as a result one person was killed and three others captured, one of them injured," he said, adding that the investigation into the incident was continuing.

In earlier remarks carried by Anatolia, Guler described the suspects as "either robbers or suspected members of an illegal organization."

A Turkish cell of Al-Qaeda was held responsible for four suicide bombings in Istanbul in November 2003, the deadliest terrorist attacks in Turkey so far.

The suicide drivers detonated truck bombs first at two synagogues, and five days later at the British consulate and a British bank, killing a total of 63 people, including the British council, injuring hundreds and causing massive destruction.

In 2007, seven men were jailed for life over the bombings, among them a Syrian man who masterminded and financed the attacks.

In August, police arrested 11 people in the southeastern provinces of Bingol and Mus on charges that they had set up a group -- the Muslim Vengeance Brigade -- to carry out bomb attacks on behalf of Al-Qaeda in Turkey.

Prosecutors said five of them were trained and indoctrinated in Afghanistan and returned to Turkey to organize attacks.

NATO-led troops killed around 100 civilians in Afghanistan in 2008

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan killed around 100 civilians in 2008, said the alliance on Wednesday.

"In 2008 NATO-ISAF was responsible for 97 -- let's say, around 100 -- civilian casualties (deaths)," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters.

In contrast, the Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents killed 973 civilians last year, he said.

These figures are based on an assessment by the military with the help of a new tracking system, said the spokesman.

The figures are not supposed to be 100 percent accurate as civilian deaths are difficult to track given the fact that there are neither birth certificates, nor death certificates in the country and that the dead are buried quickly according to tradition in Afghanistan, noted Appathurai.

NATO-ISAF was ordered to take new measures last December to minimize civilian casualties as they were affecting popular support for ISAF in Afghanistan.

In a "tactical directive" issued by ISAF Commander Gen. David McKiernan on Dec. 30, 2008, the NATO troops were told to show respect for the Afghan people, their culture, religion and customs.

Commanders were ordered to ensure troops are properly trained to minimize the need to resort to deadly force. They were also asked to demonstrate proportionality, restraint and utmost discrimination in engagement.

NATO troops were ordered to conduct combined operations with the Afghan security forces as much as possible. All searches and entries of Afghan homes, mosques, religious sites or places of cultural significance must be led by Afghan security forces unless there is clear and identified danger from such a place.

Erdogan hailed after Davos walkout

Turkey's prime minister has returned home from the World Economic Forum in Davos to a warm welcome after he stormed out of a debate over Israel's war on the Gaza Strip.

More than 5,000 people, many waving Palestinian and Turkish flags, greeted Recep Tayyip Erdogan after his airplane touched down early on Friday.

Erdogan walked out of a televised debate on Thursday with Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, after the moderator refused to allow him to rebut Peres' justification about the war.

Before storming out, Erdogan told Shimon Peres, the Israeli president: "You are killing people."

At least 1,300 Palestinians were killed during Israel's 22-day aerial, naval and ground assault on Gaza. Thirteen Israeli citizens died over the same period.

'No return'

During the heated panel discussion in the Swiss town, Peres told Erdogan that Turkey would have acted in the same manner as Israel if rockets had been falling on Istanbul.

Moderator David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist, then told Erdogan that he had "only a minute" to respond to a lengthy monologue by Peres.

Erdogan said: "I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. There have been many people killed. And I think that it is very wrong and it is not humanitarian."

Ignatius twice attempted to finish the debate, saying, "We really do need to get people to dinner."

Erdogan then said: "Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I don't think I will come back to Davos after this."

Peres told reporters after the incident that Israel is not in conflict with Turkey.

"I don't see this as a personal or national problem. The relations can remain as they are. My respect [for him] hasn't changed. It was an exchange of views and views are views," he said.

Hamas, which has de facto of the Gaza Strip after pushing Fatah fighters out of the territory in June 2007, commended Erdogan for his action.

"Hamas pays tribute to the courageous stand of Turkey's prime minister ... who in Davos directly defended the victims of the criminal Zionist war against our children and women in Gaza," Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said on Friday.

"We consider his departure from the room an expression of support for the victims of the holocaust carried out by the Zionists."

'Understandable'

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League and former Egyptian foreign minister, who was also in the debate, said Erdogan's action was understandable.

"Mr Erdogan said what he wanted to say and then he left. That's all. He was right," he said, adding that Israel "doesn't listen".

Turkey has in recent months brokered indirect talks between Israel and Syria over the Golan Heights region, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967.

The exchange between Erdogan and Peres took place on the second day of the summit, where business and political leaders have been discussing trade, financial regulation and global security.

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, used the forum to announce the launch of an emergency appeal for $613m to help Palestinians recover from Israel's attack on Gaza.

But Gareth Evans, the president of the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that Erdogan's walk-out was "deeply depressing".

"I thought the tone of the debate had been reasonably moderate up until Shimon Peres laid some heavy-duty stuff on the line, in a very uncompromising and rather un-Peres like fashion," he said.

"In particular, what was depressing was Peres' utter unwillingness to acknowledge the real significance of the Arab peace initiative and to respond to Erdogan and Amr Moussa, saying how important it is that Israel formally say that the plan is a major step towards peace.

"Turkey was Israel's best friend in the Muslim world. I think Israel has to come to grips with the fact that it has alienated a very large proportion of the world's population."

Gaza appeal

The UN secretary-general said he had been deeply moved by his visit to Gaza and that he had given his word that the UN would help the Gazans in their hour of need.

He said the appeal for funds covered the requirements of the UN and other aid organizations for the next six to nine months.

Ban said it would help provide aid such as medical care and clean water and that an appeal for longer-term needs would be launched later.

Asked about achieving peace in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel's Likud party who was attending the forum, swiftly turned his answer to Iran, which he said was in a "100-yard dash" to get nuclear weapons.

While he did not specify any planned military action, Netanyahu said if Iranian rulers were "neutralized", the danger posed to Israel and others by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in south Lebanon would be reduced.

Meanwhile, Manouchechr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, who is also in Davos, said Tehran had taken note of the intention of Barack Obama, the US president, to withdraw troops from Iraq and believed he should also pull troops out of Afghanistan.

Mottaki told a panel at the forum that Obama had "courage" to say which of the policies of George Bush, the former US president, he disagreed with and said his approach marked a "milestone" away from an era of "might equals right".

Abdul the Taliban, on the hunt for American 'infidels'

KABUL (AFP) — Abdul Shafiq is around 30 years old and has sacrificed his family life for two things: reading the Koran and fighting.

After years in exile following the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, this Taliban commander is back in the mountains of his birth, having left behind his old life with his family for one mission: chasing out the "infidel" Americans.

It takes several cups of tea in a house next to a snowy hill, somewhere in southern Kabul, before the fighter with a thin face and the features of a Pashtun from southern Afghanistan, agrees to tell his story.

Abdul Shafiq -- an assumed name -- looks like any other Afghan, except that he has never been as unhappy as in times of peace.

He wears a long cream shirt and leather jacket; his hair and beard are thick and black, his clear brown eyes sparkle as brightly as his silver Pashtun cap dotted with shiny plastic beads.

In hiding in Kabul, he rarely spends two nights in the same place, taking a break before returning to the fight.

In the mountains, he heard of new US President Barack Obama "who will change nothing" and of Palestine "where something is happening".

His future seems set: "As long as the Americans are here, we will fight them," says the Taliban militant, whom AFP could only meet through local intermediaries.

This year should be a challenging one for Shafiq: up to 30,000 new US troops are expected in Afghanistan under a major new strategy led by Obama, with several thousand headed to Shafiq's home province.

Born and raised in Wardak, adjacent to Kabul, he entered an Islamic school aged 13 for several years of instruction under teachers he remembers as Arabs with a strict interpretation of religion.

In 1994 he joined the Taliban as they prepared to march on Kabul at a time when the country was engulfed in civil war between former anti-Soviet factions, the mujahideen (holy fighters).

When the extreme Islamist group finally won control of the capital in 1996, "everyone was happy to see the Taliban -- good Muslims -- put an end to the killing, the rape and the theft of the mujahideen," Shafiq says.

Then aged 18 and with some education, on top of his two years' service with the Taliban, he could have taken a job with the new administration.

But Shafiq preferred to continue fighting, traveling to the north to take on the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, a bitter enemy of the Taliban. "Some good fighters. We respected them," he recalls.

It was in the northern mountains that he heard, over Taliban combat radio, on September 11, 2001 that planes sent by Al-Qaeda, had struck at the heart of the United States.

"That was beautiful, delicious to hear, everyone was happy," the warrior says with a smile.

But when the United States invaded Afghanistan the following month, Shafiq and his comrades soon realized they could not withstand the deluge of US bombs and fled. Some went to Pakistan. Others, like Shafiq, went west to Iran.

The Iranian government and the Taliban may have little in common, but they shared virulent opposition to the United States.

Iran took in Taliban in their thousands, according to Shafiq. He stayed there for four years, without guns and without combat. He was despondent.

"I didn't want to do anything," the fighter remembers.

"Anyway, I didn't know how to do anything except fight. We read the Koran but life wasn't that interesting."

At the start of 2006, Afghanistan elected a new parliament. In Kabul, the US army, sure of itself, branded the Taliban finished.

It was then that Shafiq slipped quietly home to Wardak. "They told us that the Americans were stopping the Taliban much less," he says.

He took charge of a group of 30 men who lived on the move, going from one safehouse to another, he says.

Even before then, the Taliban started to regroup. "Everything is structured. The orders come from our leaders in Pakistan," Shafiq says. He is less forthcoming about how they obtained weapons and money.

In villages crowded with unemployed men tired of US bombings and disappointed by international aid that never arrived, Taliban rhetoric slamming the American "invaders" who "plunder Muslim soil" won some support.

Others fell in with insurgents to enrich destitute lives with stolen goods gained from ambushes targeting trade convoys.

Whether "old" or "new" Taliban, many take liberties with the Islamic dogma of war which bans kidnapping for ransom or taking civilians prisoner.

Claiming to be a fighter for Islam above all, Shafiq hardly ever sees his wife and three children, under five. He condemns television as "against Islam" and has never used the Internet.

When it comes to the war, he calls suicide attacks a "good weapon" and says they should avoid harming civilians -- which they almost most never do.

Hezbollah chief made a televised speech on "Freedom Day"

Chief of Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah Hasan Nasrallah made a televised speech on the occasion of "Freedom Day" on Thursday, the al-Manar TV reported.

During his speech on "Freedom Day," a day celebrated by Hezbollah to mark the freedom of their hostages from Israeli jails, Nasrallah denounced the Egyptian regime for continuing to close the Rafah crossing with Gaza, "the closure of Rafah crossing is a historical crime."

He expressed doubts over the Egyptian role of mediating between the Palestinians and the Israelis, saying "I doubt that the (Egyptian) regime is an honest mediator because it works on imposing the conditions of others on the Palestinians."

Nasrallah also denounced "the rude" statements made by some European officials against the Palestinians in Gaza, and stressed that "the previous and decisive stand of the United States and Europe is represented by their full support to Israel, and all its crimes."

He vowed that revenging the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the Hezbollah military commander who was killed in a Damascus car bombing in February last year, "was never behind us," adding that the response would be "to punish those who killed him and safeguard the others."

Hezbollah had accused the Israeli intelligence service of carrying out the assassination.

"The investigations proved that the Israeli Mossad is responsible for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh," Nasrallah reaffirmed.

He said that any war with Israel will be "costly" to the Israeli capabilities.

"We remain a resistance ready to defend Lebanon, we will not leave the circle of conflict with Israeli, and shall stand to the enemy," Nasrallah pledged.

"Israel failed politically and militarily in Gaza as in Lebanon," he said, adding that "those who did not recognize the victory in Lebanon will not recognize it in Gaza for the same reasons."

Nasrallah called on the Lebanese government to reveal the fate of the four Iranian diplomats who were kidnapped in Lebanon in 1982 by the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) militia during the civil war. Israel claimed that they were killed by the LF, while Hezbollah believes they were handed over to Israel.

Hezbollah fought a devastating 34-day war with Israel in summer 2006, and had pledged to keep its arms as long as Israel posses a threat in the region.

Hezbollah: Obama same as Bush on Israel

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Lebanon's Hezbollah leader said Thursday there is no difference between Barack Obama and George W. Bush when it comes to Israel, and that the new U.S. administration has so far shown full support for the Jewish state — Hezbollah's archenemy.

The remarks were the first comments by the reclusive Sheik Hassan Nasrallah since the Jan. 20 inauguration of the new U.S. president. Although a militant group, Hezbollah is today also a political force and a partner in the Lebanese government with veto power over all decisions.

"The conduct of the new administration when it comes to Israel is ... one of absolute support," Nasrallah said, speaking via videolink from his hiding place. "I have not sensed until now that there is any difference between the two (U.S.) administrations."

He also denounced Israel's 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip, claiming Israel failed to achieve its target of routing out militant Palestinian Hamas from the coastal strip. Hezbollah is a Hamas ally, and both are supported by Iran and Syria.

Nasrallah went into hiding at the onset of the July 2006 Israel-Hezbollah and has rarely been seen since in public, fearing assassination.

Belgium to take command of UN maritime forces in Lebanon

Belgium will take command of the naval maritime forces, a part of UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), after France's command expires at the end of February, local Naharnet website reported Thursday.

UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said that the French 6-month command ends on Feb. 28, and will be turned over to Belgium.

"As a result of the leadership transfer, several changes will be made to the contribution of different countries to UNIFIL naval forces," Bouziane was quoted as saying.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Wednesday that France will pull out two warships from UN forces off south Lebanon coast "because the security risks are no longer as intense."

UNIFIL naval forces patrol Lebanese territorial water in accordance to UN resolution 1701 which ended the Hezbollah-Israeli war in 2006, and are in charge of preventing any arms smuggling into Lebanon.

The Germans were the first to command the maritime forces, followed by the Italians and then the French.

Stormy debate in Davos over Gaza

The Turkish prime minister has stormed out of a heated debate at the World Economic Forum in Davos over Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked out of the televised debate on Thursday, after the moderator refused to allow him to rebut the Israeli president's justification about the war that left about 1,300 Gazans dead.

Before storming out, Erdogan told Shimon Peres, the Israeli president: "You are killing people."

Peres told Erdogan during the heated panel discussion that he would have acted in the same manner if rockets had been falling on Istanbul.

Moderator David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist, then told Erdogan that he had "only a minute" to respond to a lengthy monologue by Peres.

Erdogan said: "I find it very sad that people applaud what you said. There have been many people killed. And I think that it is very wrong and it is not humanitarian."

Ignatius twice attempted to finish the debate, saying, "We really do need to get people to dinner."

Erdogan then said: "Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I don't think I will come back to Davos after this."

'Understandable'

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League and former Egyptian foreign minister, said Erdogan's action was understandable.

He said: "Mr Erdogan said what he wanted to say and then he left. That's all. He was right," adding that Israel "doesn't listen".

The exchange took place on the second day of the summit, where business and political leaders have been discussing trade, financial regulation and global security.

After grappling with a bleak global economy on the opening day, leaders attending the forum switched to debates on the new administration in the United States and unrest in the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Kamal Nath, India's trade minister, warned that the global economic crisis could fuel protectionism to safeguard national industries and jobs.

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, used the forum to announce the launch of an emergency appeal for $613m to help Palestinians recover from Israel's attack on Gaza.

Protectionist fears

Nath said that India saw growing signs of protectionism and would respond with its own measures if its exporters were threatened "which will be good for no one."

He said: "We do fear this because one must recognize that at the heart of globalization lies global competitiveness, and if governments are going to protect their non-competitive production facilities it's not going to be fair trade.

India has raised tariffs on steel to protect local producers, a measure trade experts say was aimed at China, which India does not regard as a market economy.

The deepening economic crisis, and the failure to complete the World Trade Organization's long-running Doha round on freeing up global commerce, have raised fears that countries will block their partners' exports to protect jobs at home.

Such protectionism, if it led to tit-for-tat retaliation, would intensify the current crisis.

Emerging economies

The economies of India, China and Russia, which have been experiencing rapid growth in recent years, have taken precedence at the forum.

Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European studies at Oxford University, said emerging markets are almost overshadowing the importance of the US economy.

"What is really striking to me about this Davos, is the lack of a sense of a new beginning with Barack Obama," he told Al Jazeera.

"That is not what we've been hearing about in the last 24 hours, we've been hearing about China, about Russia, about India, about emerging economies, and that I think is a very significant fact.

"It's not just the American investment banks that have gone down, it's America's own soft power, and ability to lead that has been badly damaged by the crash."

Rachid Mohamed Rachid, Egypt's minister of trade and industry, said there would be a rush towards emerging markets.

"People understand today that there will not be growth in developed countries for a long time to come, the growth will continue to be in emerging markets, even more than before," he told Al Jazeera.

Gaza appeal

The UN secretary-general said he had been deeply moved by his visit to Gaza and that he had given his word that the UN would help the Gazans in their hour of need.

He said the appeal for fund covered the requirements of the UN and other aid organizations for the next six to nine months.

Ban said it would help provide aid such as medical care and clean water and that an appeal for longer-term needs would be launched later.

Asked about achieving peace in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel's Likud party who was attending the forum, swiftly turned his answer to Iran, which he said was in a "100-yard dash" to get nuclear weapons.

While he did not specify any planned military action, Netanyahu said if Iranian rulers were "neutralized", the danger posed to Israel and others by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in south Lebanon would be reduced.

Netanyahu said the global financial meltdown was reversible but "what is not reversible is the acquisition of nuclear weapons by a fanatic radical regime".

Meanwhile, Manouchechr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, who is also in Davos, said Tehran had taken note of the intention of Barack Obama, the US president, to withdraw troops from Iraq and believed he should also pull troops out of Afghanistan.

Mottaki told a panel at the forum that Obama had "courage" to say which of the policies of George Bush, the former US president, he disagreed with and said his approach marked a "milestone" away from an era of "might equals right".

Russia halts Kaliningrad missile deployment :report

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has suspended the deployment of its Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad due to a change in U.S. missile defense policy in Europe, Interfax news agency quoted a military official as saying on Wednesday.

"The implementation of these plans has been halted in connection with the fact that the new U.S. administration is not rushing through plans to deploy" elements of its missile defense shield in eastern Europe, Interfax quoted the unnamed official in the Russian military's general staff as saying.

President Dmitry Medvedev said in November that Russia would deploy the missiles in its western outpost of Kaliningrad, which borders European Union member Poland, in response to the U.S. missile shield plans.

Washington says the plans, to deploy interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic, are intended to avert potential strikes from Iran and North Korea. Russia says the deployment is targeted against it.

The spat has helped to drive diplomatic ties to their lowest point since the Cold War.

But Russian officials have said they are encouraged by early signals from the new administration of U.S. President Barack Obama and hopeful of a fresh start in their relations.

A nominee for a top Pentagon post in the Obama administration said earlier this month the missile shield plan would be reviewed as part of a regular broad look at policy.

CIA Algeria station chief faces sex assault probe

WASHINGTON, (AFP) – Federal investigators have launched a probe of the CIA's former station chief in Algeria, the State Department said after US media reported allegations that he drugged and raped two women.

The station chief, a 41-year-old convert to Islam who was in his post since September 2007, was ordered home in October after two women came forward last year with separate allegations they were raped in the official's residence in Algiers, ABC News reported.

It said both women had provided sworn statements to federal prosecutors in preparation for a possible criminal case against the officer, with a grand jury likely to consider an indictment on sexual assault charges as early as next month.

"The US takes very seriously any accusations of misconduct involving any US personnel abroad," State Department acting spokesman Robert Wood said in a statement.

"The individual in question has returned to Washington and the US government is looking into the matter," Wood said, referring further media inquiries to the Justice Department.

A Central Intelligence Agency spokesperson would not name the agent, and refused to confirm to AFP that a Justice Department investigation of the station chief had been launched. Both the Justice Department and FBI declined to comment.

But in a statement, CIA director of public affairs Mark Mansfield said: "I can assure you that the Agency would take seriously, and follow up on, any allegations of impropriety."

The explosive allegations could potentially deal a major blow to the US image abroad at a time when President Barack Obama has called for "a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect" with the Muslim world.

Algeria in particular is seen as a hotspot because of the presence of Al-Qaeda's North African branch there. A suicide bombing in August in Issers, 37 miles (60 kilometers) east of Algiers, left 48 people dead.

The case "will be seen as the typical ugly American," former CIA officer Bob Baer told ABC News. "My question is how the CIA would not have picked up on this in their own regular reviews of CIA officers overseas."

According to an affidavit filed in federal court by the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, a copy of which was posted on the Web by ABC News, the first alleged victim said she was raped by the officer in September 2007 after being invited to a party with US embassy employees at his residence.

She said that while there, she was served mixed drinks of cola and whiskey that were prepared out of her sight.

Later in the evening, after the final drink served by the officer, she suddenly felt ill and vomited, and woke up in the officer's house the next morning nude after being apparently raped, according to the affidavit. She said she had no recollection of having intercourse.

The second alleged victim described a similar incident that occurred in February 2008, according to the affidavit.

CNN said pills and other evidence, including about a dozen videotapes showing the officer engaged in sexual acts with women, some of whom are believed to have been in a semi-conscious state on the videos, turned up when a search warrant was executed on the officer's residence.

Officials told ABC that prosecutors have broadened the investigation to Egypt because the date on some tapes matched the time when the officer was posted in Cairo.

The affidavit said Valium and Xanax, drugs FBI toxicologists described as "commonly used to facilitate sexual assault," were found in the officer's home in Algiers.

"Drugs commonly referred to as date rape drugs are difficult to detect because the body rapidly metabolizes them," former FBI agent Brad Garrett told ABC News. "Many times women are not aware they were even assaulted until the next day."

When interviewed by diplomatic security investigators, the officer claimed he had "engaged in consensual sexual intercourse," according to the affidavit.

Algerian ambassador to the United Nations Mourad Benmehidi told ABC News that the US had not notified his government of the rape allegations or the criminal investigation.

George Mitchell and the Middle East

The senator will need all the skill and patience he brought to the Northern Irish peace process. But Hamas must be at the table

In the crowds of Washington's Union Station last week, I bumped into George Mitchell. We were both in the city for Barack Obama's inauguration, but at that point there was only speculation that George might be made US special envoy for the Middle East – it wasn't until I returned to Ireland that the appointment was confirmed.

President Obama in his inaugural address signaled a new direction for US foreign policy. The posting of George Mitchell and the referencing of his very significant role in the Irish peace process hint at a more focused engagement by the US in seeking to secure a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinian people.

But as George and I both know from our separate but related experience in Northern Ireland, making peace is a difficult, exhausting and, at times, hugely frustrating process.

George Mitchell had been a very successful and influential Senate majority leader for the Democrats. He was known as someone who could broker a deal between opposing groups.

In January 1995, he became President Clinton's secretary of state on economic initiatives in Ireland and, later that year, he was appointed to chair the International Body on Arms Decommissioning. The report produced by this group in January 1996 contained six broad principles of democracy and non-violence, which became known as the Mitchell Principles.

But it is as the chair of the all-party negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement that George is best known in Ireland and elsewhere. Initially, the Unionists and the British government opposed his appointment. Neither wanted an independent person holding down such a key position.

When eventually George Mitchell made it to Castle Buildings in Belfast where the negotiations were to take place, the Unionists kept him waiting in a side room for two days while they debated whether he should be allowed into the room. And thereafter, they embarked on a constant campaign of challenging the ground rules and structure of the talks as a way of undermining him.

There was more to come. In late 1996, several London and Dublin newspapers carried headline stories alleging that Martha Pope, George Mitchell's chief aide, was having an affair with one of our senior negotiators, Gerry Kelly. The story was rubbish, but it had been deliberately planted by anonymous "security sources" to damage George Mitchell.

So, between interminable negotiations, almost weekly crises, dirty-tricks efforts from British securocrats and endless filibustering by the Unionists; not to mention the mindnumbing detail of a peace agreement, George Mitchell had his work cut out.

He patiently plotted a course through all of this. He brought to the process a legislative and judicial experience that saw the negotiations format changed from one of large cumbersome meetings to one of smaller groups of negotiators, usually involving the leader and deputy leader of the parties. This provided for a greater focus on the detail of the issues, and it facilitated a more workable and productive arrangement.

It also suited his particular style of getting things done. George spent a great deal of his time in side meetings with the parties. Throughout these, I found him to be goodnatured, humorous and tolerant. It is this experience that will stand him to good stead as he embarks on his journey to the Middle East.

Of course, a lot will depend on the terms of reference he has been given. Ultimately, however, no matter how good he might be, George Mitchell will not produce a negotiated agreement in the Middle East. That is for the Israeli government and the Palestinians. But to have any hope of achieving that goal, the US and the international community have to engage with this issue in a concentrated way and treat the participants on the basis of equality.

In the Irish peace process, the US involvement was generally seen as a good thing. That may not be so in the Middle East. That could be a complicating factor facing George Mitchell.

Moreover, if any renewed effort in the Middle East to reach an agreement is reduced by either side to a tactical game of winners and losers, in which the object is to use the negotiation process to inflict defeats, then it will not work. It will simply be a repeat of past mistakes and lost opportunities.

In a peace process, the goal must be an inclusive agreement that is acceptable to all sides, is doable, deliverable and sustainable. That means enemies and opponents creating space for each other. It means engaging in real conversations and seeking real solutions. It means accepting that dialogue is crucial and that means recognizing the right of the Palestinian people to choose their own leaders, their own representatives.

The Israeli government and other governments have to talk to Hamas.

The recent assault on Gaza is a brutal reminder of the destructive power of war and of the human cost of failure. It is time all of this was brought to an end.

But breaking the cycle of conflict will mean political leaders – Israeli and Palestinian – taking real risks for peace. They will need help and a real and unrelenting international effort to construct a durable peace settlement that provides for two states, but in particular, for a Palestinian state that is sustainable and viable.