Region

MONTREUX, Switzerland — US Secretary of State John Kerry quietly cautioned Israel not to undercut Iran nuclear negotiations that resumed on Monday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to make the case against his diplomacy before the US Congress.

Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held the first of what could amount to three days of meetings in the Swiss lakeside town of Montreux about restraining the Iranian nuclear programme in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

The two men, along with US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Iranian atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi, shook hands and then met for about 50 minutes late on Monday afternoon.

Both sides postured in advance and suggested the other would be to blame if the talks fail to meet an end-March deadline, for a framework accord, with Kerry saying Iran must be prepared to compromise and Zarif calling for the total lifting of sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic as part of any final deal.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva before the meeting, Kerry struck a balance between defending Israel before the UN Human Rights Council, which Washington has long accused of anti-Israel bias, and also suggesting the Israelis not undermine the talks.

"We are concerned by reports that suggest selective details of the ongoing negotiations will be discussed publicly in the coming days," he said, apparently alluding to Netanyahu's planned Tuesday speech to US lawmakers.

"Doing so would make it more difficult to reach the goal that Israel and others say they share in order to get to a good deal," Kerry said. "Israel's security is absolutely at the forefront of all of our minds, but frankly so is the security of all of the other countries in the region. So is our security."

Netanyahu says he fears US President Barack Obama's Iran diplomacy could allow Israel's arch Middle East adversary to develop atomic weapons. US officials say the best way to prevent that outcome is a negotiated settlement.

Washington and some allies, notably Israel, suspect Iran has used its civilian nuclear programme as a cover to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Iran denies this, saying its programme is for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity.

In travelling this week to Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and Britain, Kerry will avoid being in Washington when Netanyahu is expected to criticize the emerging nuclear deal to Congress.

Further sanctions risk to negotiations

Netanyahu's main aim is to warn US lawmakers about the risks of a deal with Iran and to keep alive the possibility of Congress passing new sanctions, a step critics say could scuttle the talks and raise the risk of war. Critics also suspect him of seeking political gain before Israel's March 17 election.

In a speech to the powerful pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC in Washington on Monday, Netanyahu said the nuclear deal being negotiated could threaten Israel's survival and insisted he had a "moral obligation" to speak up about deep differences with Obama on the issue.

US officials have offered equivocal assessments of where they are in the talks with Iran that involve five other major powers: Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. They have set an end-June deadline for a final detailed settlement.

"We have made some progress but we still have a long way to go and the clock is ticking," Kerry told reporters before driving to Montreux. "We're going to find out whether or not Iran is willing to make the hard choices that are necessary."

Kerry said a vital component would be a rigorous international inspection regime to ensure Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons, saying the Islamic Republic already has the knowledge to make fissile material.

"You can't bomb knowledge into oblivion unless you kill everybody. You can't bomb it away," he said.

"The question is, can you provide an adequate level ... of intrusive inspections, structured tough requirements, limitations, all the insights necessary to be able to know to a certainty that a programme is peaceful."

Zarif put the onus on the United States and its partners to lift sanctions to achieve a deal.

"If they want an agreement, sanctions must go... We believe all sanctions must be lifted," Zarif told reporters in Geneva.

One of the disputes holding up a final agreement is over the pace at which sanctions should be dismantled. Tehran wants them rapidly removed while Western powers want gradual steps responding to Iranian performance in implementing the accord.

RIYADH — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived Monday in Riyadh for a visit at the king's invitation in what is seen as a Saudi bid to unify Sunnis against Iran and jihadists.

Erdogan's meeting with King Salman comes a day after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi held talks with the monarch, and precedes a visit by Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif later this week.

The Turkish and Saudi leaders discussed "means of enhancing bilateral cooperation in various fields, issues of common interest" and external developments, said the official Saudi Press Agency.

Top officials from neighbouring nations Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have already visited King Salman since mid-February, and other Arab heads of state will follow, said Nawaf Obaid, a visiting fellow at the Belfer Centre at Harvard University in the United States.

"Saudi Arabia is drastically going to re-energise its foreign policy to bring the kingdom back to its natural role as the main unifier of the Sunni world because of its unique attributes," Obaid told AFP.

He was referring to the kingdom's hosting of Islam's holiest sites, the size of its economy, and its position as the world's largest oil exporter.

"Clearly, things are shaping up in a very different way than they have been in the last several years."

Salman acceded to the throne in January after the death of King Abdullah, aged about 90.

Erdogan arrived in Riyadh after performing a weekend pilgrimage in the Muslim holy city of Mecca and visiting Medina.

Cairo has accused Turkey of interfering in Egypt's internal affairs and of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

Sisi and Erdogan have had strained relations since Sisi ousted president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, launching a crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood which Qatar was also accused of backing.

But Obaid said keeping Turkey "on the sidelines" only weakens the Sunni world, which accounts for about 90 per cent of Muslims.

"So as long as you can start having a serious sustained discussion between the major Sunni powers then you can come up with some form of policy at some point down the road, dealing with Iran and dealing with ISIS," he said, referring to Daesh militants who have seized large parts of Iraq and Syria.

Daesh has claimed atrocities including the beheading of foreigners and Christians and the burning alive of a caged Jordanian fighter pilot.

Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab neighbours are part of a US-led military coalition conducting air strikes against the jihadist group.

Shiite-dominated Iran competes with Saudi Arabia for influence in the region.

An official from nuclear-armed Pakistan confirmed Sharif would make a two-day visit to the kingdom this week for talks.

“Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been co-ordinating their positions for a long time”, said the official who asked for anonymity.

He added that, with about 20 per cent of its population Shiite, Pakistan avoids “anything sectarian”.

BAGHDAD — Iraq's prime minister called on Sunni tribal fighters to abandon Daesh terror group Sunday, ahead of a promised offensive to retake president Saddam Hussein's hometown from the extremists.

Haider Al Abadi offered no timeline for an attack on Tikrit, the hometown of the late Iraqi dictator some 130 kilometres north of Baghdad that fell into the hands of Daesh last summer. However, Shiite militias and Iraqi security forces have stationed themselves around Tikrit as state-run media has warned that the city "will soon return to its people”.

But sending Shiite militias into the Sunni city of Tikrit, the capital of Iraq's Salahuddin province, could reprise the bloody, street-by-street insurgent battles that followed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. On Saturday, two suicide car bombers killed 16 nearby Shiite militiamen and wounded 31.

Abadi offered what he called "the last chance" for Sunni tribal fighters, promising them a pardon during a news conference in Samarra, 95 kilometres north of Baghdad. His office said he arrived in Samarra to "supervise the operation to liberate Tikrit from the terrorist gangs".

"I call upon those who have been misled or committed a mistake to lay down arms and join their people and security forces in order to liberate their cities," Abadi said.

Abadi said the operation will see troops come from several directions, but he declined to give an exact time for the operation's start. However, his presence in Samarra suggests it could come soon.

The Iraqi military previously launched an operation in late June to try to wrest back control of Tikrit, but that quickly stalled after making little headway. Other planned offensives by Iraq's military, which collapsed under the initial Daesh blitz, also have failed to make up ground, though soldiers have taken back the nearby refinery town of Beiji.

Tikrit, which occasionally saw attacks on US forces during the American occupation of the country, is one of the biggest cities held by the Daesh. It also sits on the road to Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, which is also held by the extremists. Any operation to take Mosul likely would require Iraq to seize Tikrit first.

Abadi's comments appear to be targeting former members of Iraq's outlawed Baath Party, loyalists to Saddam, who joined the Daesh group during its offensive, as well as other Sunnis who were dissatisfied with Baghdad's Shiite-led government. The premier likely hopes to peel away some support from the Daesh group, especially as Iraqis grow increasingly horrified by the extremists' mass killings and other atrocities.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel's army said it launched a "surprise exercise" Sunday calling up thousands of reservists for its central region of operations that includes the West Bank.

The military said in a statement that it was mobilising "forces including some 13,000 reserves, 3,000 of whom will physically report for active duty".

The drill, initiated by newly sworn-in chief of staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, comes nearly two months after Israel stopped transferring taxes it collects for the Palestinian Authority (PA), in retaliation for its move to join the International Criminal Court.

The United States has expressed concern over the "viability" of the West Bank-based PA if Israel continued to withhold the funds.

But army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said the drill was "not specifically connected" to possible Israeli fears of an eruption of West Bank unrest due to the Palestinian fiscal crisis.

Lerner said the army carries out such drills on a regular basis, most recently in 2013, acknowledging however the "rare" size of the new drill which he said was the choice of Eisenkot, sworn in last month.

The army had informed Palestinian authorities of the exercise, expected to run two days.

RIYADH — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi held talks in Riyadh on Sunday, coinciding with a visit to Saudi Arabia by his Turkish counterpart who Cairo accuses of backing the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Sisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose relations have been strained since Sisi ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, did not meet in the oil-rich Gulf state.

Sisi's brief visit came after a satellite television last month broadcast a leaked audio recording in which he apparently suggests that Gulf monarchies have more money than they need and should give more to Egypt.

Sisi swiftly initiated telephone conversations with his allies in the Gulf, including with Saudi Arabia's King Salman who reportedly told him that relations with Cairo were "strategic".

On Sunday, the Saudi monarch greeted Sisi upon his arrival, the official SPA news agency reported.

The leaders discussed "bilateral cooperation... and affirmed the deep strategic relations between the kingdom and Egypt, and their eagerness on strengthening them," said SPA.

They also held talks on "regional and international developments."

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are the main financial backers of Sisi's government, having pledged around $12 billion to Cairo since he came to power.

In an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news channel ahead of the visit, Sisi insisted that Cairo’s relations with Riyadh were strong.

His visit came at the same time as Erdogan, who on Saturday travelled to the Muslim holy city of Mecca to perform a pilgrimage, before leaving to Medina the next day.

Sisi said the timing of the visits was a “coincidence”.

But he also urged Turkey to “stop interfering in Egypt’s internal affairs”, in the interview with Al Arabiya.

Cairo accuses Ankara, as well as Doha, of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement of Morsi, blacklisted by Saudi Arabia and the UAE as well as by Egypt.

BEIRUT — Syrian rebel forces in Aleppo on Sunday rejected UN envoy Staffan de Mistura's plan for a freeze in fighting in the divided northern city, dealing a blow to his peace efforts.

"We refuse to meet with Mr Staffan de Mistura if it is not on the basis of a comprehensive solution to Syria's drama through the exit of [President] Bashar Assad and his chief of staff, and the prosecution of war criminals," a newly-formed Aleppo revolutionary commission said.

The political and military grouping was set up on Saturday at a meeting in the Turkish border town of Kilis attended by exiled coalition chief Khaled Khoja, other opposition figures and Aleppo civil society representatives.

De Mistura's proposal "falls short of an initiative to resolve the humanitarian crisis of our people targeted by the regime's use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs prohibited by the international community", it said in a statement.

Aleppo's opposition forces also turned down preferential treatment for their region over other areas of Syria stricken by the country's deadly conflict since 2011.

“Syria and its people are one and indivisible. The blood of our brothers in Daraa [in the south], in Ghouta [near Damascus], in Homs [central] and in other Syrian provinces are no less important than our blood in Aleppo,” they said.

De Mistura on Saturday held talks in the Syrian capital to try to finalise a deal to freeze fighting in the war-ravaged second city of Aleppo.

He met Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem and agreed to send a delegation from his Damascus office to Aleppo on a fact-finding mission, state news agency SANA said, without giving a date.

“The mission will aim to assess the situation on the ground and to ensure that, once the freeze is announced, humanitarian aid can significantly increase and to prepare arrangements to follow up on violations of the freeze,” the UN said.

The Swedish-Italian diplomat “hopes to set in motion as soon as possible his project” to halt fighting in Aleppo for six weeks, said a member of his delegation.

He has met government officials and opposition chiefs in recent weeks to promote his plan for a temporary truce in Aleppo in order to move aid into the northern city, as a starting point to be expanded to other regions.

However, De Mistura, who has made the Aleppo freeze the centrepiece of his mediation efforts since he was named in July as special envoy to Syria, incurred the wrath of the opposition last month by describing Assad as “part of the solution” to the conflict.

Once Syria’s commercial hub, Aleppo has been devastated by fighting that began in mid-2012, and the city is now split between loyalist forces and rebels.

About 220,000 people have been killed in Syria since its conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests that spiralled into a multi-sided civil war drawing foreign jihadists.

19 Christians freed 

In northern Syria, Kurdish forces have recaptured almost 300 of 350 villages around the strategic border town of Kobani that Daesh terror group seized in September before the tide was turned with the backing of US-led coalition air strikes, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that Daesh had freed 19 Assyrian Christians from a group of 220 kidnapped last week in the northeastern province of Hasakeh.

De Mistura paid a surprise visit Sunday to a church near Damascus in a show of solidarity with the country’s Christian minority targeted by jihadists.

An AFP photographer said de Mistura travelled to a Greek Catholic Church in Jaramana, southeast of the capital, before winding up his mission and leaving for neighbouring Lebanon.

His visit to Syria coincided with a mass of solidarity with the Assyrians kidnapped in the Tal Tamr area of Hasakeh where Daesh has seized 10 Christian villages, sending almost 5,000 people fleeing to Kurdish- and government-controlled areas.

In southern Syria, the army and pro-government forces captured several rebel-held hilltops in Tal Adass, 50 kilometres southwest of Damascus, after heavy clashes on Sunday, the observatory said.

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State John Kerry pressed the case on Sunday for completing nuclear diplomacy with Iran despite Israeli opposition, saying the United States deserves the benefit of the doubt on getting a deal that would prevent any need for military action to curb Tehran's atomic ambitions.

Two days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to address the US Congress to warn against an Iran deal, Kerry delivered a stout defence of talks that are entering a critical phase with a key March 31 deadline looming.

Kerry said he hoped Netanyahu's speech does not turn into "some great political football" but said the Israeli leader is "welcome to speak in the United States, obviously".

Six powers — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — are negotiating with Iran towards an agreement to restrain Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for easing economic sanctions. Netanyahu has spoken scathingly about a possible deal and says a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an existential threat to Israel.

Netanyahu was invited to speak by Republican congressional leaders, but they did not inform President Barack Obama's administration about the speech in advance. Signs are growing that the speech could damage Israel's broad alliance with the United States.

In an interview with the ABC programme "This Week," Kerry said of the Iran negotiations: "It is better to do this by diplomacy than to have to do a strategy militarily which you would have to repeat over and over again and which everybody believes ought to be after you have exhausted all the diplomatic remedies."

Kerry said he could not promise that a deal can be reached, but said that "we are going to test whether or not diplomacy can prevent this weapon from being created".

"We have said again and again, no deal is better than a bad deal. We're not going to make a bad deal," Kerry said.

Kerry, who said he spoke with Netanyahu on Saturday, is heading to Switzerland and is due to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif this week just as the Israeli leader comes to Washington.

"Our hope is diplomacy can work," Kerry added. "... Given our success on the interim agreement, I believe we deserve the benefit of the doubt to find out whether or not we can get a similarly good agreement with respect to the future."

CAIRO — Egypt's army said Sunday at least 172 militants were killed in February in joint police and military operations in the restive Sinai where security forces are battling an Islamist insurgency.

The militants were killed in a series of security operations in the peninsula after a deadly January 29 attack by jihadists left 30 people dead, mostly soldiers.

The army said the militants were killed in the North Sinai cities of El Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and in the town of Rafah that borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Another 229 suspected jihadists were arrested in these operations, while 85 militant hideouts were destroyed last month, the army said in a statement accompanied by a picture of a suspected militant shot dead.

Egypt's army has poured troops and armour into the region to fight an Islamist insurgency since the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Most attacks are spearheaded by Ansar Beit Al Maqdis [Partisans of Jerusalem], the Egyptian affiliate of the Daesh terror group that has seized territory in Syria and Iraq.

It says the attacks are in retaliation for a brutal government crackdown against Morsi supporters that has left hundreds dead and thousands jailed.

CAIRO — Egypt's parliamentary polls look set to be delayed after a court ruled part of an elections law was unconstitutional and the main election committee said it was working on a new timetable for the long-awaited vote.

President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi directed his government to amend the law within one month.

The first phase of the polls are due to start on March 22. The elections are the final step in a political roadmap the army announced in July 2013.

Another court ruling later this month will definitively decide whether or not the elections will be delayed.

The latest development highlights Egypt's rocky path towards democracy since the ousting of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by the army after mass protests against the rule of Egypt's first democratically elected leader.

Egypt has been without a parliament since June 2012 when a court dissolved the democratically elected main chamber, reversing a major accomplishment of the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

"The committee will prepare a new timetable for [elections] measures after the legislative amendments are issued," the supreme election committee said.

Earlier, the supreme constitutional court ruled that an article in a law defining electoral districts was unconstitutional.

Zaid Al Ali, a senior adviser with intergovernmental organisation International IDEA, said there was "little question" the elections would be delayed.

Legislative drafters need time to understand the ruling, prepare a new version of the law, allow time for review and for any new legal challenges before the elections.

"If they decide not to wait, then they will run the risk of the new version of the law being declared unconstitutional after the elections, which would lead to yet another dissolution, which would be a disaster," Ali told Reuters.

Egyptian leaders say the elections show their commitment to democracy. Critics say Sisi, who as army chief toppled Morsi, has undermined freedoms gained after the uprising that ended Mubarak's 30-year rule.

In the absence of parliament, Sisi has wielded legislative authority to introduce economic reforms that have impressed investors, while also curtailing political freedoms.

The People's Assembly is made up of 567 seats, with 420 elected as individuals and 120 through winner-takes-all lists with quotas for women, Christians and youth. The remaining seats are appointed by the president.

Several opposition political parties had announced they would boycott the elections. Some say the emphasis on individuals was a throwback to Mubarak-era politics, which often favoured candidates with wealth and family connections.

RAMALLAH — Most West Bank shops no longer carry the products of six major Israeli food companies, as a boycott triggered by rising Israeli-Palestinian tensions is taking hold, a boycott leader said Sunday.

The Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the boycott plans earlier this month, after Israel halted transfer of vital tax revenues to Abbas' cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA). Israel took that step after the Palestinians joined the International Criminal Court to seek war crimes charges against Israel.

Fatah activists had given shopkeepers until this weekend to remove the products, warning they would destroy what hadn't been sold by then.

Campaign leader Abdullah Kmail said Sunday that 80 per cent of shops no longer carry the products. He said shopkeepers were given extra time to sell the remaining goods and that no products were seized.

Palestinian activists tried before to get consumers to shun Israeli products, with little success. The current campaign appears more effective, in part because of changing public mood.

West Bank shopkeepers said sales of Israeli products declined even before the boycott appeal. They said the main trigger was last year's war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, in which some 2,200 Palestinians were killed, according to UN figures, along with 72 people on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.

The West Bank is an important market for Israeli exports, including an estimated $700 million a year in food exports. The current campaign targets the companies Tnuva, Strauss, Elite, Osem, Prigat and Jafora.

Visits to a small grocery and a large supermarket Sunday indicated that owners are trying to comply with the campaign. Both said they are trying to sell what remains of the targeted products and would not restock.

Kmail said the boycott in its current form would end if Israel resumes transfers of the funds it collects on behalf of PA. Since the freeze of the monthly transfers in January, the Abbas government has only been able to pay partial salaries to some 150,000 civil servants and members of the security forces.