Israeli MP backs organ theft reports

Israeli lawmaker Mohammad Barakeh has backed organ harvest allegations against Tel Aviv over its practice of keeping the dead bodies of slain Palestinians.

"We have the right to question the reasons why Israel is keeping the bodies of martyrs and what secret they seek to preserve," the chairman of far-left Hadash party said in Nablus on Tuesday.

"Is it that the bodies were mutilated? My answer is yes until proven otherwise. Is it that their bodies have been stolen? My answer is yes, until proven otherwise," he added.

The outrageous scandal was laid bare last month by Sweden's best-seller tabloid, Aftonbladet, which printed an article on how the Israeli army kidnapped Palestinian youths and returned their bodies mutilated a few days later.

The revelation infuriated Israeli officials and prompted them to ask the Swedish government to condemn the article and its author, a demand Sweden flatly rejected.

Speaking at a conference, Barakeh called on Israel to return bodies of Palestinians buried in the occupied territories, and said why Tel Aviv continues to hold the bodies while "there is no worse way to punish a man and his family than with his death."

"The burden of proof falls on Israel, and as long as it refuses to say what the status of the bodies is or return them, it is hiding something awful," he warned.

The Palestinian Authority officials have demanded that Israel return the bodies of the Palestinians it killed.

They said "the world must be careful regarding what Israel does," describing Tel Aviv's efforts to hide bodies of Palestinian victims as aimed at distorting evidence of its crimes, including organs trafficking.

According to Palestinian human rights organizations, Israel is holding 275 bodies which it refuses to return to their families.

Sweden flatly rejects Israeli request for media quiet

Sweden has turned down a demand that it condemn the recent publication of an article that links Israeli soldiers to the death of Palestinian civilians with the motive of obtaining their organs.

In an article published earlier in the week, Sweden's best-selling daily Aftonbladet recounted grotesque incidents dating as far back as 1992 in which Israeli soldiers allegedly abducted Palestinian youths and returned their bodies mutilated a few days later.

The publication infuriated Israeli officials who labeled the news piece as 'blatantly racist' and full of 'vile anti-Semitic themes'.

In response to the publication, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on his Swedish counterpart, Carl Bildt, to officially rebut the 'shocking and appalling' piece.

Tel Aviv's envoy to Sweden, Benny Dagan, was to make a similar request during a Friday meeting with the kingdom's deputy foreign minister.

Bildt, however, responded that he would not condemn the article, asserting that such a measure would be in violation of freedom of expression and counter to the Swedish constitution.

Condemnation of anti-Semitism is "the only issue on which there has ever been complete unity in the Swedish parliament", the Swedish minister wrote in a blog post on Thursday, apparently rejecting the idea that disapproving criminal conduct amounts to anti-Semitism.

The Swedish refusal to denounce the allegations against the Israeli army by the high-circulation daily may shake diplomatic ties between Tel Aviv and Stockholm.

There is media speculation that Israel might respond by canceling the Swedish foreign minister's visit to the occupied West Bank scheduled for the next 10 days.

Israeli foreign minister: No peace deal now

By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – Israel's powerful foreign minister declared Thursday that there is no chance of reaching a final accord with the Palestinians any time soon, casting a pall over the U.S. Mideast envoy's latest effort to get peace talks moving again.

Peacemaking policy in Israel is decided by the prime minister's office, and not the foreign ministry. But Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman carries significant weight in Israeli decision-making, and his is a sentiment common among confidants of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

President Barack Obama brought Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together in New York last month in an effort to jumpstart talks that broke down months ago. So far, no breakthroughs have been announced.

Since the New York summit, U.S. envoy George Mitchell met with representatives of Netanyahu and Abbas in the United States, and returned to the region this week. He was to meet with Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday and has sitdowns planned with Netanyahu and Abbas for Friday.

Israeli media reported that a Mitchell aide told Israeli journalists Wednesday that the enovy's visit was not likely to conclude with an announcement on talks resuming.

Lieberman told Israel Radio on Thursday that anyone who thinks the two sides can soon reach a deal ending their decades-old conflict "doesn't understand the situation and is spreading delusions."

What the two sides should do, he said, was to come up with a long-term interim arrangement that would ensure prosperity, security and stability, and leave the tough issues "to a much later stage."

This approach runs counter to U.S. efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal quickly. Obama has declared that establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel is a vital U.S. interest. Also, Israel would not find a Palestinian partner for putting off a resolution to the conflict indefinitely.

Lieberman's view does not bode well for U.S. attempts to restart negotiations.

Mitchell has been laboring for months to pressure Israel to curb settlement construction. Israel has agreed to limited and temporary restrictions on building in the West Bank, but has resisted a total freeze. It has rejected any limitations on construction in east Jerusalem.

The Palestinians want the West Bank and east Jerusalem for part of their future state, along with the Gaza Strip, now ruled by Islamic Hamas militants.

Abbas has said repeatedly that he wouldn't go back to the negotiating table without a freeze. He also demands that talks begin where they broke off, with a promise from Israel that all issues will be on the table. Netanyahu has said he wouldn't be bound by the previous Israeli government's actions.

Abbas could be hard-pressed to back down now that he's dropped efforts to bring Israel before a war crimes tribunal in connection with its winter war in the Gaza Strip.

Nearly 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the war, including hundreds of civilians. Israel, which lost 13 civilians and soldiers in the war, launched the campaign to end years of Hamas rocket fire on Israeli border towns.

Emir meets head of Islamic Jihad

HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani yesterday received at the Al Wajbah Palace the visiting secretary-general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Dr Ramadan Abdullah Shallah. The meeting was attended by, among others, the Chairman of the Qatar Media Corporation HE Sheikh Hamad bin Thamir al-Thani and Director of HH the Emir’s office HE Sheikha Hind bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

Source: Gulf Times.
Link: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=318965&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16.

Egyptian named MINURSO chief

2009-10-07

UN chief names Hany Abdel-Aziz to head UN mission in Western Sahara, succeeding Harston of Britain.

UNITED NATIONS - UN chief Ban Ki-moon has named Hany Abdel-Aziz of Egypt to head the UN mission in the disputed Western Sahara (MINURSO), according to a letter seen here Wednesday.

In a letter to the Vietnamese presidency of the UN Security Council, Ban said he was appointing Abdel-Aziz as his special representative to Western Sahara and head of MINURSO with immediate effect.

The Egyptian, a former army officer who has served with the United Nations since 1981, is currently head of mission support at the UN mission in Democratic Republic of Congo.

He is to succeed Julian Harston of Britain, who quit as MINURSO chief at the end of February.

Abdel-Aziz's post is distinct from that of Christopher Ross, an American who is Ban's special envoy to Western Sahara tasked with reviving stalled talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement.

Morocco annexed the phosphate-rich northwest African territory after the withdrawal of colonial power Spain in 1975, leading to a bitter guerrilla war with the Polisario Front. It ended with a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991.

Rabat has proposed considerable autonomy for the Western Sahara, but argues that its sovereignty is a non-negotiable historical fact. The Algerian-backed Polisario demands a referendum on self-determination, with independence as one of the options.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=34801.

Somalia's two main rebel groups agree truce

* Rebels to resume joint attacks on government

* Disputes to be solved via dialogue, sharia law

By Ibrahim Mohamed

MOGADISHU, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Somalia's two main insurgent groups agreed a truce on Wednesday to end days of clashes between them in the south of the failed Horn of Africa state.

Fighters from al Shabaab, which Washington says is al Qaeda's proxy in the country, drove rival Hizbul Islam gunmen out of Kismayu port last week then the two rebel groups battled each other in surrounding districts.

On Tuesday, Hizbul Islam's leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys called for an end to the bloodshed. [ID:nL6052340]

On Wednesday, al Shabaab said rebel officials met on the outskirts of the capital Mogadishu and agreed three points.

"All conflicts, including what happened in Kismayu, must be resolved through dialogue," Hussein Ali Fidow, a senior al Shabaab official, told reporters, reading a joint statement.

"Any disputes in the future should be referred to a sharia court, and we should also continue our attacks together against the government and African Union peacekeepers." A Hizbul Islam commander confirmed the details of the deal.

Until last week's battle for Kismayu, the country's two main insurgent movements had controlled Kismayu port and much of southern and central Somalia in an uneasy alliance.

Western donors had long hoped hardliners in al Shabaab could be isolated by a deal between more moderate Hizbul leaders and President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government.

Ahmed has had little luck luring Aweys to his side, but a worsening rift between the insurgents could have provided his fragile administration with some much needed breathing space.

Fighting in Somalia has killed 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.

Source: Alertnet.
Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L7081011.htm.

JSF Could Have Tiny Mideast Clientele

LONDON [MENL] -- The U.S.-led Joint Strike Fighter appears to have lost most of its potential clients in the Middle East.

A report for the parliament of the Netherlands has asserted that most U.S. allies in the Middle East have rejected the F-35 fighter-jet. The report, titled "Market Analysis JSF: How Many JSF's Will Be Produced?" said such U.S. allies as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were no longer in the market for JSF, which would result in a rise in per unit costs.

Source: Middle East Newsline.
Link: http://menewsline.com/article-1173,4770-JSF-Could-Have-Tiny-Mideast-Clien.aspx.