News Update Place

Updated at : Tuesday, January 08, 2008   VIENNA: The head of the UN atomic watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, is to visit Tehran at the end of this week to try and clear up some of the outstanding issues surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme, an agency spokeswoman here said.

“The Director-General (ElBaradei) will visit Tehran on January 11 and 12,” said International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming.

“During the visit (ElBaradei) will meet with a number of high officials. He hopes that the visit will develop ways and means to enhance and accelerate implementation of safeguards in Iran, with a view of resolving all remaining outstanding issues and enabling the agency to provide assurance about Iran’s past and present nuclear activities.”

At least 13 people have been killed and more than 50 wounded in a bomb blast at a pet market in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, police have said.

The bomb, believed to have been hidden in a box containing birds, exploded at the Ghazi market on Friday morning when the area was crowded with people.

A medic at the Al-Kindi hospital said: “We have received 45 people, among them four policemen.

“The ambulances are still arriving.”

The blast comes amid a downturn in violence

Powerful blast
An interior ministry official said some those killed and wounded in the bombing were also transferred to Medical City, another major hospital in Baghdad.The blast is the second powerful bomb attack in Baghdad this week. (more…)

A vote to elect a successor to Emile Lahoud, Lebanon’s pro-Syrian president, has been postponed after the Hezbollah-led opposition threatened to boycott the poll.

The parliamentary vote set for Friday was put off for a week, the office of Nabih Berri, the parliament speaker, said just hours before lawmakers were scheduled to cast their ballots.

The vote had been the last chance to choose a president before Lahoud leaves office at midnight.

Many Lebanese fear the failure to elect a new president could throw the country deeper into political chaos and violence

The army had been heavily deployed in the capital on Friday

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The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia will attend a US-sponsored Middle East conference in the American city of Annapolis.

The decision came after Arab foreign ministers held talks in the Egyptian capital Cairo for forging a common position ahead of next week’s summit on the creation of a Palestinian state.

Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said: “The Arab peace follow-up group has decided to accept the invitation to attend the Annapolis Middle East peace conference at a ministerial level to discuss the peace process.”

Arab countries want ’serious’ talks at Annapolis

“I’m not hiding any secret about the Saudi position. We were reluctant until today. And if not for the Arab consensus we felt today, we would not have decided to go,” al-Faisal said.

“But the kingdom would never stand against an Arab consensus, as long as the Arab position has agreed on attending, the kingdom will walk along with its brothers in one line.”

Participation by al-Faisal was a key goal of the United States to show strong Arab support for the conference in Annapolis

However, al-Faisal insisted that he would not allow “theatrics” like handshakes with Israeli officials, saying the gathering must make serious progress.

Until Friday, Saudi Arabia, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel, was reluctant and wanted assurance that Israel would negotiate the most difficult issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - namely final borders of a Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Syrian participation

Walid Moallem, the Syrian foreign minister, has also conditionally agreed to attend the Annapolis conference.

The Arab ministers at the Cairo meeting have sent a letter to the United States asking it to “explicitly” include the issue of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on the agenda for the talks on Tueday.

Moallem said : “US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has promised a positive response to the request and if we receive a formal positive response, Syria will attend,” Moallem told a news conference in Cairo.

Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian preisdent, has said that Damascus will not attend unless the status of the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau which Israel has occupied since 1967, is discussed.

Clayton Swisher, Al Jazeera’s Middle East analyst, said Syria’s participation will symbolise the importance of Hamas’ involvement in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He said: “It brings back memories of the 1991 Madrid conference when the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organisation] wasn’t allowed to attend the conference but other countries were allowed to represent the group, namely through Jordan.”

Meanwhile, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, has praised the Arab peace plan and said negotiations launched at Annapolis will address the core issues.

He also said a final deal could be reached in 2008.

But Israel is resisting putting those commitments on paper in a final statement due to be announced at Annapolis.

In a draft of the joint statement, published on Thursday in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Israel’s proposals make no mention of the main issues and avoid any talk of a timetable for negotiations.

The draft is said to reflect wide differences with the Palestinian proposals.

NEW YORK: The price of oil closed at a record high of 96.70 dollars a barrel in New York, after earlier hitting an all-time peak above 97 dollars, amid concerns about tight US supplies.

New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, hit an all-time high of 97.10 dollars a barrel in intraday trade.

Oil prices moved steadily toward the symbolic 100-dollar level on the eve of crucial supply data from the United States, the world’s largest energy consumer.

The record-breaking run came as traders bet on falling US energy supplies ahead of the northern hemisphere winter, when demand for heating fuel is expected to shoot higher, analysts said.

According to analysts falling dollar, losses to financial institutions in the world market, uncertainty in stock markets and limited oil supplies affecting the prices.

The oil prices hike could hit hard the economies of developing countries, analysts added.

A Palestinian fighter and an Israeli soldier have been killed after Israeli army troops raided the southern Gaza Strip, officials have said.

Israeli troops shot dead Hazem Asfur, 21, of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, during the raid east of the town of Khan Younis on Wednesday, Palestinian medical sources said.

The Israeli soldier was critically injured in later exchanges of gunfire and was declared dead after being taken to a hospital, an Israeli army spokesman said.

Four Palestinians were also wounded in the incursion, nearly one kilometre inside Palestinian territory.

Houses raided

Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza reported that a number of Israeli military vehicles, backed by helicopters, raided Khan Younis’ eastern Farahin district.

The vehicles raided the area amid intensive and indiscriminate gunfire at Palestinian citizens’ houses, he reported.

Eyewitnesses told the correspondent that a group of Israeli special forces infiltrated the district before the raid and had occupied a number of civilians’ houses, turning them into military bases.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said “terrorist threats and rocket-launching infrastructure” were the target of the raids.

Israeli troops shot several Palestinian fighters who had struck an Israeli armoured vehicle with an anti-tank rocket, she said.

Israel has tried with little success to stop frequent rocket fire from Gaza, which the Israeli government last month branded a “hostile territory”.

he US secretary of state has flown back to Israel to resume intense preparations for a looming Middle East summit after securing cautious Egyptian support for the conference.

Condoleezza Rice is to hold a second round of talks with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, on Wednesday.

David Chater, Al Jazeera’s correspondent, said Abbas would likely press Rice to get concessions from Israel on “core issues”.

“But if she does force concessions [from Israel] it might mean the collapse of the coaltion government of the Israeli prime minsiter Ehud Olmert,” he said.
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Libya has been elected to the UN Security Council, taking a step back towards global respectability after being considered a pariah state by the West for years.

The US, which had used its influence to foil previous Libyan attempts in 1995 and 2000 to win a coveted seat on the powerful council, took no similar action this year, diplomats said.

Libya, Vietnam and the West African state of Burkina Faso easily obtained a two-thirds majority on Tuesday after being endorsed by regional groupings to stand unopposed for the three non-permanent seats available for African and Asian nations.

Also elected for two-year terms starting on January 1 were Croatia, which defeated the Czech Republic in a contested race for an East European seat, and Costa Rica, which beat off a challenge from the Dominican Republic for a Latin American place.

Muammar Gaddafi abandoned Libya’s weapons of mass destruction programme in 2003 [Reuters]

At stake, like every year, were five of the 10 non-permanent seats on the 15-nation council which wields the power to send peacekeeping troops around the world and impose sanctions on countries.
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The UN has urged Israel to reconsider its decision to declare the Gaza Strip as an “enemy entity”, warning that cutting vital services would violate international law.

The Israeli move to cut off the power, water and fuel supplies on which Gaza is almost entirely dependent was backed by the United States on Wednesday.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said Ehud Olmert’s security cabinet had approved the “enemy entity” classification and there would be “limitations on imports to the Gaza Strip and a reduction in the supply of fuel and electricity”.

The move is seen as retaliation for Palestinian rocket fire.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said Wednesday’s declaration intended to interrupt essential services could exacerbate the Palestinians’ difficult conditions.

“Such a step would be contrary to Israel’s obligations towards the civilian population under international humanitarian and human rights law,” he said on Wednesday.

Ban said 1.4 million people in Gaza, including the old, the very young and the sick were already suffering and “should not be punished for the unacceptable actions of militants and extremists”.

At the same time he said continued rocket fire from Gaza into Israel was unacceptable, calling “for it to stop immediately”.

“I understand Israel’s security concerns over this matter,” he added.

US backing

Rice assured “innocent Palestinians in Gaza”
the US would not abandon them [AFP]
Israel’s move on Gaza was backed by the US on Wednesday, with Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, saying the Hamas was “a hostile entity to the US as well”.

Speaking in a joint press conference with Livni in occupied Jerusalem, she said the US, however, would not “abandon the innocent Palestinians”.

“We will not abandon the innocent Palestinians in Gaza and indeed will make every effort to deal with their humanitarian needs,” she said.

Rice is on a visit to the Middle East in preparation for a US-led peace conference between Israelis and Palestinians.

The Israelis and Palestinians, however, have very different expectations of the talks.

Israeli leaders are seeking a softer joint declaration rather than a binding deal while the Palestinians are pushing for a firmer “framework agreement” on core issues of borders, the status of Jerusalem and refugees.

‘Declaration of war’

“Under no circumstances can Israel view it as an ‘enemy entity’. Gaza is not an independent state, Gaza is under occupation”
Saeb Erekat,
senior Palestinian negotiator
Tensions have been on the rise in the area since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June. Hamas responded to the Israeli government’s announcement saying the move amounted to a “declaration of war”.

Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, said the Israeli cabinet “made this decision according to our legal advisers, so it is according to international law”.

But Saeb Erekat, the senior Palestinian negotiator and spokesman for the West Bank-based government, told Al Jazeera the Israeli move was “illegal and null and void”.

“I believe Gaza and West Bank are still under Israeli occupation. Under no circumstances can Israel view it as an ‘enemy entity’. Gaza is not an independent state, Gaza is under occupation,” he said.

Erekat said Israel was in “total violation of international law” and described the move as “a collective punishment and a preparation for further military escalation against the 1.5 million people of Gaza”.

“At the end of the day, it will not end the cycle of violence but complicate matters and breed more violence,” he added.

At least nine people have been killed and eight injured in a bomb blast at a historical site in Yemen popular with Western tourists.

The sources also said al-Qaeda’s statement said Sanaa should distance itself from the US.