Region

BAALBEK, Lebanon — A suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle at an army checkpoint in eastern Lebanon near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing at least two soldiers, a security official said.

“A suicide bomber detonated his car in front of a Lebanese army checkpoint at Aqabet Al Jurd in the Arsal area,” the official told AFP.

He said at least two soldiers were killed, raising an earlier toll of one dead, and that others were wounded.

“There were at least seven soldiers at the checkpoint,” the official added.

The attack was claimed on Twitter by a shadowy group calling itself Liwa Ahrar Al Sunna in Baalbek — Arabic for the Brigades of the free Sunni Muslims.

It said the attack was to avenge the death of Sami Al Atrash, a suspect wanted in connection with car bombings targeting Lebanon’s Shiite group Hizbollah.

Atrash was killed on Thursday in a shoot-out with the army.

The army had described Atrash as a “dangerous terrorist” who was tracked down to a hideout in Arsal, where he was killed.

The Arsal region has seen a spillover of the conflict across the border as Syrian regime forces backed by fighters from Hizbollah press their campaign against rebels.

Most Sunni Muslims in Lebanon back the rebels fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

Sunni groups have targeted Hizbollah interests in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon with car bombings in the past months.

Hizbollah claims that the car bombs were prepared in the Qalamun region just across the border and the scene of fierce fighting, before being driven via Arsal to their eventual targets.

DAMASCUS — Syrian troops backed by Hizbollah  fighters made fresh gains in the strategic Qalamun region near the border with Lebanon Saturday, seizing two villages from rebels, a military source told AFP.

Controlling Qalamun is crucial for President Bashar Assad’s forces as this would stop the flow of weapons and fighters entering Syria from Lebanon.

The Lebanese Shiite group Hizbollah  says deadly car bombs targeting the movement in Lebanon were rigged with explosives in the Qalamun area.

“The army took control this morning of the villages of Ras Al Maarra and Flita, after bombing the last groups of armed terrorists there,” the source said.

Assad’s troops backed by Hizbollah  have been assaulting rebel positions in Qalamun, north of Damascus, since November.

In mid-March they seized the rebels’ last major stronghold in the region, the town of Yabrud, and have since moved on rebel-held villages closer to the border.

The military source called the latest advance “a new step towards closing off the border with Lebanon”.

Though capturing Flita and Ras Al Maarra has not completely sealed the border, “any success... helps seal the border more tightly, at least at the main crossing points that [the rebels use] to transport vehicles”, he added.

The fall of the two villages forced around 700 Syrians to flee across the border to the town of Arsal, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

RAMALLAH — A senior Palestinian official said a release by Israel of Arab prisoners would not go ahead on Saturday as envisaged but he hoped there would only be short delay.

“Today the prisoners will not be released... maybe in the coming days,” Issa Qaraqae, the minister of prisoner affairs, told AFP.

“There are efforts to solve the crisis and I believe that in 24 hours everything will be clearer.”

Under the deal that relaunched peace talks last July, Israel agreed to release 104 Arabs held since before the 1993 Oslo peace accords in exchange for the Palestinians not pressing their statehood claims at the United Nations.

So far, Israel has freed 78 prisoners in three batches but ministers had warned they would block the final release, which had been anticipated for Saturday, if the Palestinians refused to extend the talks beyond their April 29 deadline.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has not spelled out his terms for prolonging talks, saying only that he is not even prepared to discuss the issue until the prisoners are freed.

There has been no official Israeli update on the last batch of prisoners. The Palestinians want it to include Arab citizens, a demand hotly opposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners and by hardliners within his own Likud Party.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Israel was willing to free the prisoners but the Palestinians were placing obstacles in the way.

“Israel is interested in continuing the peace talks with the Palestinians and is prepared to carry out the fourth stage of the release of convicted terrorists,” he said.

“But the Palestinians are creating difficulties with this when they say that the moment after the release of the prisoners they will stop the talks.”

He did not elaborate.

Palestinian official Jibril Rajub told AFP Friday that Israel informed the Palestinians that the last batch of prisoners would not be released on Saturday.

Rajub said this would be a “slap in the face of the US administration and its efforts”, adding the Palestinians would resume their international diplomatic offensive against Israel as a consequence.

“Not releasing the prisoners will mark the beginning of the efforts in the international community to challenge the legality of the occupation,” he said.

Prisoner release ‘crucial’ issue 

A poll published Saturday by the Palestinian Centre for Public Opinion said 87 per cent of those surveyed believed the Palestinian leadership should renew its UN efforts if the prisoners are not freed.

The prisoner release “is a prerequisite for any future progress of the negotiations”, the centre said, as the overwhelming majority of Palestinians consider it to be “the most crucial issue that must be treated in order to continue with the peace process”.

The talks have been teetering on the brink of collapse, with Washington fighting an uphill battle to get the two sides to agree to a framework for continued negotiations until the end of the year.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met Abbas in Amman on Wednesday in a bid to salvage the talks, with US special envoy Martin Indyk meeting the Palestinian leader in Ramallah a day later.

On Friday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki denied reports that negotiations had already collapsed.

“Any reports that suggest the talks are off are inaccurate,” she said.

“Ambassador Indyk and the negotiating team remain closely engaged with both parties on the ground and will continue to work over the coming days to help them bridge the gaps and determine the path forward.”

Israeli media say Netanyahu could give a green light to the prisoner release if the US frees Jonathan Pollard, who was arrested in Washington in 1985 and condemned to life imprisonment for spying on the United States for Israel.

Israel is not commenting on such reports, with Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev saying only that in general the spy’s fate is “often raised at high-level meetings between Israelis and Americans”.

On Wednesday, Psaki said “there are currently no plans to release Jonathan Pollard”.

CAIRO — A court in Egypt on Saturday sentenced to death two supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi convicted of throwing youths off an apartment block roof, judicial sources said.

One of the young men thrown from the building in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria was killed.

The court submitted its verdict to the mufti, the government’s official interpreter of Islamic law, for approval or rejection, the sources said.

The latest death sentences come despite international outcry at Egypt handing down the death penalty to 529 Islamists on Monday.

That verdict can be appealed, and the mufti has upheld death sentences in the past.

The men sentenced to death on Saturday were among 63 people on trial over deadly violence in Alexandria’s Sidi Gaber neighbourhood on July 5 last year, two days after the amy overthrew Morsi.

Their trial was adjourned until May 19 when the verdicts for the other defendants are expected to be announced.

The violence in Alexandria broke out as supporters and opponents of Morsi took to the streets of Egypt’s second city, with one group demanding his reinstatement and the other celebrating the end of his sole year in power.

Amateur video posted on social networks at the time showed men throwing two youths from the building.

It showed four young men cowering on the rooftop who are followed by several older men, one of them bearded and holding a jihadist flag.

The men are seen throwing stones at the youths and later one is thrown from the roof.

The video goes on to show club-wielding men beating the youth’s body.

Another man is later thrown from the roof and survives but is injured.

Egyptian authorities later said only one youth was killed in the attack and that one man had been arrested in connection with his death.

The latest verdict follows Monday’s mass death sentences for more 529 pro-Morsi defendants, a ruling that triggered an international outcry.

Washington urged Egypt not to go ahead with the executions, with deputy US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf calling the sentencing “shocking”.

The verdict also drew fire from rights groups, the United Nations and the European Union, which questioned the fairness of proceedings against so many defendants lasting just two days.

Legal experts said the unprecedented sentences are likely to be overturned on appeal.

The military-installed regime has opened mass trials against more than 2,000 alleged Islamists since the army overthrew Morsi.

Two new mass trials of Islamists are being held in Minya province south of Cairo, where Monday’s mass death sentences were pronounced.

The detained head of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, is a defendant in both.

In the first, he stands accused with 714 others of murdering six people and the attempted murder of 51 others in the provincial town of Samalot, the official MENA news agency reported.

In the second trial, Badie is accused along with 203 others of assaulting policemen, disturbing public order, and damaging public and private property in another town in Minya province.

Only 160 of defendants in the first new trial are in custody, and in the second, just two of Badie’s co-defendants are in detention.

In all, some 15,000 suspects have been detained since the security forces dispersed two Cairo protest camps set up by Morsi supporters last August 14, killing hundreds of people.

BEIRUT — Syrian President Bashar Assad is quietly preparing the ground to hold elections by early this summer to win another seven-year term, even as the Syrian conflict rampages into its fourth year with large parts of the country either in ruins or under opposition control and nearly a third of the population scattered by civil war.

Amid the destruction, which has left more than 140,000 dead, presidential elections may seem impossible. But Syrian officials insist they will be held on time.

The election is central to the Syrian government’s depiction of the conflict on the international stage. At failed peace negotiations earlier this year in Geneva, Syrian officials categorically ruled out that Assad would step down in the face of the rebel uprising aimed at ousting him. Instead, they present the elections due at the end of Assad’s term as the solution to the crisis: If the people choose Assad in the election, the fight should end; if Assad loses, then he will leave.

Observers say it would be preposterous to think a vote could reflect a real choice, and that Assad is certain to win. It would be impossible to hold polls in areas controlled by rebels. In areas under government control, many would not dare vote for anyone but Assad for fear of secret police who have kept a close eye on past elections.

“There is a gap between what goes on the mind of the Syrian president and reality. He has a fixation on the presidency and he doesn’t see beyond it,” said Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut.

“He can hold elections, and if the international community were to take these elections seriously then there is something really wrong in the international community,” he said.

In government held areas, pro-Assad demonstrators have recently begun holding rallies in support of the armed forces, carrying Assad posters, Syrian flags and banners lauding “victories against terrorists”, the term that the government uses to refer to rebels.

Assad and his British-born wife, Asma, have emerged from months of seclusion, visiting with school students, mothers and displaced people students in a campaign aimed at infusing confidence and optimism into the war-wrecked nation.

As the fighting on the ground shifts, there is no telling how the battlefield will look by the summer. But for now, Assad has overall good reason to feel self-assured.

Backed by Shiite fighters from the Lebanese group Hizbollah and Iraqi militias, Syrian troops have seized areas around Damascus and the central province of Homs that links the capital with Assad’s stronghold on the Mediterranean coast. Earlier this month, government forces recaptured two key rebel-held towns near the border with Lebanon. Troops also regained areas outside the city of Aleppo and secured its international airport, where flights resumed after a 15-month halt.

Underscoring the see-sawing conflict, rebels last week launched a major offensive in Assad’s ancestral homeland in the coastal province of Latakia, capturing the last border crossing point with Turkey that was still under government control and several towns. A second cousin of Assad, Hilal Assad, was killed in the fighting. But it is still unclear how much it represents a shift.

“This has been a great year for Assad,” said Fawaz A. Gerges, director of the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics.

“His army has become an effective killing machine that has made major tactical gains all over Syria, controlling Syria’s cities and border area with Lebanon that is essential to his survival,” Gerges said.

No date has been set yet for the vote, which must be held between 60 and 90 days before Assad’s 7-year term ends on July 17. This month, the Syrian parliament approved an electoral law opening the door — at least in theory — to potential contenders besides Assad.

It states that any candidate must have lived in Syria for the past 10 years and cannot have any other citizenship, apparently to prevent opposition figures in exile from running.

So far, no one has come forward to run against Assad.

Syria’s Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja’afari said in mid-March that a presidential election will be held in May or June, and called it “an internal affair”. Presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban said presidential elections would be held on time according to the constitution. She said Syria would not accept international monitors for the vote.

Preparations are under way. Authorities in government held areas have started issuing election cards and taking applications from people who lost or don’t have identity cards.

Assad’s wife, Asma, has reappeared in several carefully scripted public appearances recently.

In January, state TV and Syria’s official SANA news agency splashed images of the first lady’s visit to a Damascus school, where she greeted children who had lost their fathers fighting on the government side. Dressed in a gray jacket, her hair casually pulled up, she looked at children’s drawings surrounded by smiling students in blue school uniforms.

More recently, Asma and her husband sat with a group of a dozen teachers in Damascus. On March 21 — Mothers’ Day in the Arab world — state TV showed Asma meeting mothers of missing soldiers.

“Your sons are our sons,” she told them softly. “They are the sons of Syria. Syria will not rest until all of its children are found.”

The new constitution approved in a referendum in February 2012 allows for a multiparty system in Syria, which has been ruled by Assad’s Baath Party since a 1963 coup. Hafez Assad took power in another coup in 1970. His son Bashar succeeded Hafez after his death in 2000.

The constitution sets a limit of two 7-year terms for the president — starting the count from the passage of the constitution, meaning Assad could run again in 2021 and remain legally in power through 2028.

Until now, Bashar Assad has been elected by referendums in which he was the only candidate and voters cast yes-or-no ballots. Each time, he won with more than 90 per cent of the vote.

“We are seeing preparations for the elections but for us the results are known,” said a prominent Syrian opposition activist in the central city of Homs, Mohammed Saleh. “Of course, there will be other candidates for decoration only.”

The thought of elections in the current situation has enraged the opposition.

“It is impossible.... In order to hold elections there should be free parties, elections campaigns, stability, peace and when people can go vote without pressure,” said opposition figure Kamal Labwani, who spent long years in jail in Syria before he left the country.

Ahamad Al Masalmeh, an opposition activist in the southern city of Daraa where the uprising began in March 2011, said even areas under government control are too dangerous to hold a vote.

“This is an illegitimate regime that should not hold elections,” he said. “Assad for me is history and he has no place in the new Syria.”

RIYADH — US President Barack Obama sought Friday to allay Riyadh’s criticism of his policies on Syria and Iran, telling the Saudi king their two countries remain in lockstep on their strategic interests.

He also assured King Abdullah that the US “won’t accept a bad deal” with Iran, as global powers negotiate a treaty reining in Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme.

“The president underscored how much he values this strategic relationship,” a senior US administration official said, after Obama met for some two hours with the king on a royal estate outside Riyadh.

“There’s sometimes a perception out there of differences between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and the two leaders spoke frankly about a number of issues,” the official added, asking not to be named.

But Obama “made very clear that he believes that our strategic interests remain very much aligned”.

Earlier, White House officials said part of the discussions would focus on ways to “empower” Syria’s moderate opposition.

Saudi Arabia was dismayed by Obama’s 11th hour decision last year not to go ahead with military strikes against the Syrian regime over chemical weapons attacks.

But officials shot down as untrue reports that the US administration was planning to give Riyadh a green light to ship heavy weapons, known as MANPADs, to the beleaguered moderate Syrian opposition.

“We have not changed our position on providing MANPADS to the opposition,” a second senior administration official said, acknowledging “this is a proliferation risk”.

“This was not a trip or a meeting designed to coordinate detailed questions or types of assistance to Syrians,” the first official added.

Riyadh also has strong reservations about revived efforts by Washington and other major world powers to negotiate with Iran.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, long wary of Shiite Iran’s regional ambitions, views a November deal between world powers and Iran on Tehran’s nuclear programme as a risky venture that could embolden Tehran.

The interim agreement curbs Iran’s controversial nuclear activities in exchange for limited sanctions relief, and is aimed at buying time to negotiate a comprehensive accord.

Obama made clear to the king the US was “determined to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, that we’ve gone into the talks eyes wide open, but that we believe this is a common interest in stopping proliferation to Iran,” the first US official told reporters.

He also stressed that Washington remained “very much focused on Iran’s other destabilising activities in the region”.

Iranian-Saudi rivalry crystallised with the Syrian conflict: Tehran backs Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, while several GCC states support the opposition rebels.

‘Reassurance visit’ 

Obama’s stand on events reshaping the region “have strained relations, but without causing a complete break”, said Anwar Eshki, head of the Jeddah-based Middle East Centre for Strategic and Legal Studies.

US security and energy specialist professor Paul Sullivan said Obama meeting King Abdullah could “help clear the air on some misunderstandings”.

“However, I would be quite surprised if there were any major policy changes during this visit. This is also partly a reassurance visit,” he added.

The two leaders were also expected to discuss Egypt, another bone of contention since the 2011 uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak, who was a staunch US and Saudi ally.

The kingdom was angered by the partial freezing of US aid to Egypt after the army toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July — a move hailed by Riyadh.

Meanwhile, US officials said Obama did not raise the issue of human rights with the king despite appeals from US lawmakers and rights groups.

Dozens of US lawmakers had urged Obama to publicly address Saudi Arabia’s “systematic human rights violations” and efforts by women activists to challenge its ban on female drivers.

“We do have a lot of significant concerns about the human rights situation” in Saudi Arabia, the second administration official said, mentioning in particular “women’s freedoms”.

Saudi activists have urged women to defy the driving ban and get behind the wheel on Saturday, the second day of Obama’s visit.

TRIPOLI — Slain dictator Muammar Qadhafi’s son Saadi has asked Libyans for forgiveness in an interview released by prison authorities three weeks after his extradition from neighbouring Niger.

The videotaped interview, which was aired by state television late Thursday, was filmed by warders at the capital’s Al-Hadba prison, where Saadi and several other Qadhafi regime figures are being held, with the blessing of the chief prosecutor, the broadcaster said.

Saadi, who was extradited to face a series of charges including “crimes to keep his father in power” before his overthrow in the NATO-backed uprising of 2011, asked for the “forgiveness of the Libyan people and government”.

He admitted without elaborating that he had been behind “acts of destabilisation against the country”, the same accusation repeatedly levelled against him by the Tripoli authorities in its long campaign for his extradition from Niger.

Saadi, whose extradition had been strongly opposed by human rights groups concerned that he might face torture in prison, said he had been well treated by his jailers.

“I want to reassure my family,” Saadi told the camera, adding that he was speaking on Thursday evening.

“I am doing well, I am in good health and I am being very well treated,” he said, sitting at a desk in a blue prison uniform.

Saadi was best known as the head of Libya’s football federation and a player who paid his way into Italy’s top division.

The 40-year-old had been off the radar since fleeing in a convoy to Niger across Libya’s southern desert in September 2011.

After hanging up his football boots, Saadi forged a military career, heading an elite unit.

Days after the revolt began in the eastern city of Benghazi, he appeared by his father’s side in military uniform, a Kalashnikov assault rifle slung over his shoulder.

Unlike his brothers, however, no information emerged during the eight-month uprising of him taking part in combat.

Saadi’s brother, Saif Al Islam, long their father’s right-hand man and heir apparent, is also in custody in Libya awaiting trial on a raft of more serious charges which prompted the International Criminal Court to issue a warrant for his arrest for suspected war crimes.

PARIS — France apologised to Morocco on Friday after the kingdom’s foreign minister was searched while transiting at a Paris airport, the latest incident that has strained ties between Rabat and its former colonial ruler.

The two countries are already at odds over a row that erupted in February when French police tried to question the head of Rabat’s intelligence service during a visit to Paris over accusations his agency was involved in torture.

The dispute prompted Morocco to suspend judicial cooperation with France and to summon the French ambassador.

According to various Moroccan media reports citing sources, Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar was asked to remove his shoes, vest and belt at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport as he transited from The Hague to Morocco earlier this week.

His personal effects and suitcase were also searched despite indicating his position and diplomatic passport.

Foreign Minister “Laurent Fabius called his Moroccan counterpart to apologise on behalf of the French authorities for the inconvenience he suffered”, foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters.

“Errors were made at Charles de Gaulle Airport. The minister immediately asked the relevant authorities at the interior ministry and airport that everything be done to strictly adhere to diplomatic rules and norms that apply to foreign ministers, heads of state and government,” said Nadal.

The incident comes after Spanish actor Javier Bardem angered Morocco by quoting a French ambassador as saying Paris chose to ignore human rights abuses in Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that Morocco annexed in 1975.

France admitted Bardem had met the ambassador, although denied the envoy’s remarks.

Highlighting the sensitive ties between the two countries since February, Morocco on Wednesday filed a counter lawsuit in France against the activists who are suing the intelligence chief.

French officials have tried to play down the rift, saying they were working to end it as quickly as possible.

“We are working with the Moroccan authorities to fully restore our bilateral cooperation, notably on the judicial side,” Nadal said, declining to say what was specifically blocking progress in the talks.

“We have a good, trusting and very friendly relationship,” Nadal said. “[The airport incident] was isolated, extremely regrettable and not linked to our relationship.”

RIYADH — US President Barack Obama sought Friday to allay Riyadh's criticism of his policies on Syria and Iran, telling the Saudi king their two countries remain in lockstep on their strategic interests.

He also assured King Abdullah that the US "won't accept a bad deal" with Iran, as global powers negotiate a treaty reining in Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.

"The president underscored how much he values this strategic relationship", a senior US administration official said, after Obama met for some two hours with the king on a royal estate outside Riyadh.

"There's sometimes a perception out there of differences between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and the two leaders spoke frankly about a number of issues," the official added, asking not to be named.

But Obama "made very clear that he believes that our strategic interests remain very much aligned."

Earlier, White House officials said part of the discussions would focus on ways to "empower" Syria's moderate opposition.

Saudi Arabia was dismayed by Obama's 11th-hour decision last year not to go ahead with military strikes against the Syrian regime over chemical weapons attacks.

But officials shot down as untrue reports that the US administration was planning to give Riyadh a green light to ship heavy weapons, known as MANPADs, to the beleaguered moderate Syrian opposition.

"We have not changed our position on providing MANPADS to the opposition," a second senior administration official said, acknowledging "this is a proliferation risk".

"This was not a trip or a meeting designed to coordinate detailed questions or types of assistance to Syrians", the first official added.

Riyadh also has strong reservations about revived efforts by Washington and other major world powers to negotiate with Iran.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, long wary of Shiite Iran's regional ambitions, views a November deal between world powers and Iran on Tehran's nuclear programme as a risky venture that could embolden Tehran.

The interim agreement curbs Iran's controversial nuclear activities in exchange for limited sanctions relief, and is aimed at buying time to negotiate a comprehensive accord.

Obama made clear to the king the US was "determined to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, that we've gone into the talks eyes wide open, but that we believe this is a common interest in stopping proliferation to Iran," the first US official told reporters.

He also stressed that Washington remained "very much focused on Iran's other destabilising activities in the region."

Iranian-Saudi rivalry crystallised with the Syrian conflict: Tehran backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, while several GCC states support the opposition rebels.

- 'Reassurance visit' -

Obama's stand on events reshaping the region "have strained relations, but without causing a complete break," said Anwar Eshki, head of the Jeddah-based Middle East Centre for Strategic and Legal Studies.

US security and energy specialist professor Paul Sullivan said Obama meeting King Abdullah could "help clear the air on some misunderstandings".

"However, I would be quite surprised if there were any major policy changes during this visit. This is also partly a reassurance visit," he added.

The two leaders were also expected to discuss Egypt, another bone of contention since the 2011 uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak, who was a staunch US and Saudi ally.

The kingdom was angered by the partial freezing of US aid to Egypt after the army toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last July -- a move hailed by Riyadh.

Meanwhile, US officials said Obama did not raise the issue of human rights with the king despite appeals from US lawmakers and rights groups.

Dozens of US lawmakers had urged Obama to publicly address Saudi Arabia's "systematic human rights violations" and efforts by women activists to challenge its ban on female drivers.

"We do have a lot of significant concerns about the human rights situation" in Saudi Arabia, the second administration official said, mentioning in particular "women's freedoms".

Saudi activists have urged women to defy the driving ban and get behind the wheel on Saturday, the second day of Obama's visit.

TEL AVIV, Israel — With the United States irked at Israel over its settlement policies and the lack of progress in peace talks, an obscure diplomatic classification has emerged as a new sticking point between the two close allies.

To ease the travel of its citizens, Israel is pressing to join 38 other countries in the US Visa Waiver Programme — a prestigious club of nations whose citizens don't need a preapproved visa to visit America. So far, their efforts have not only been rebuffed, but Israel has seen a spike in the number of young people and military officers rejected entry to the US.

Washington says Israel has not been let into the programme simply because it has not met the requirements — and has pointed in part to Israel's treatment of Arab-American travelers, drawing sharp denials by Israeli officials of any discrimination. US officials say there is no policy in place to make it more difficult for Israelis to get "B'' visas, which allow a 90-day stay in the United States for business or travel purposes.

Figures show that the percentage of Israelis whose visa requests are rejected is lower than that of many other countries, and other countries' rejection rates have grown as well amid an overall stricter approach taken by American Homeland Security officials. For example, in 2013 Belarus had a rejected rate of 20.7 per cent, Bulgaria's was 19.9 per cent and Ireland's was 16.9 per cent.

Even so, Israel saw its visa rejection rate jumped to 9.7 per cent last year, up from 5.4 per cent the year before — a startling 80 percent increase.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, has called on the State Department to "end its widespread, arbitrary practice of denying young Israelis tourist visas." Other pro-Israel members of Congress have also pressed for answers. Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin said some Congress members are pushing for legislation that would exempt Israel from the requirements to qualify for the waiver programme altogether.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki responded this week by saying that Israelis are still overwhelmingly granted entry.

"Over 90 per cent of Israeli applicants for tourist visas to the United States are approved. For young Israelis, over 80 per cent of visa applicants are approved for a visa," she said at a briefing.

The 90-day visas are either approved or rejected after a brief interview with a US embassy official in the applicant's country of origin. Americans do not need a visa to enter Israel, though Americans of Palestinian origin often face problems and cannot enter through Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport, instead entering either through Jordan or Egypt.

The visa issue brings another irritant in US-Israeli ties at a time of strains over Secretary of State John Kerry's stagnating peace efforts. The Obama administration has been critical of Israel for continuing to press forward with Jewish settlements in the West Bank while Kerry has been brokering peace talks over a future Palestinian state.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon recently called Kerry "obsessive" and "messianic" over making peace between Israelis and Palestinians and dismissed a US security plan for the region as worthless. He also called the US weak when it comes to its stance on Iran's nuclear program and questioned Washington's commitment to Israel's security.

During the same briefing last week, Psaki said the US was disappointed that Yaalon has yet to apologise for his "offensive" remarks.

Among younger Israelis, the visa issue has put a damper on plans for a post-army trip to America, a common rite of passage after completing three or more years of compulsory military service. For this demographic, the American concern appears to be less a matter of security and rather a fear that they will abuse their tourist visas to work illegally and peddle products at malls.

Yoav Rosenbaum, 23, said he had no such intention. He and three friends just wanted to go on a 10-day trip to the New York area to see a comedy festival. But even though he holds down a hi-tech job, rents an apartment in Tel Aviv and lived in the US for the three years when he was younger, he was immediately rejected at the American embassy.

"I brought documents, showed my return flight and the tickets to the festival, paid the fee and the guy just looked at me and said 'it's not going to happen,'" he recalled, saying the official told him he didn't have enough ties to Israel to be trusted to return. "I wasn't that shocked because I knew that they give a hard time to people of my age group."

It hasn't stopped dozens of others from lining up outside the American embassy in Tel Aviv to seek visas on a daily basis.

For the Israeli government, the larger issue is membership in the Visa Waiver Programme.

As one of America's closest allies, Israel wonders why countries like Slovakia, Iceland and Latvia qualify while they are left out.

US diplomats say it is merely a matter of countries meeting stringent conditions, such as issuing biometric passports, properly reporting lost or stolen documents and allowing the free access of Americans into their country.

Psaki said American authorities "remain concerned with the unequal treatment that Palestinian Americans and other Americans of Middle Eastern origin experience at Israel's border and checkpoints, and reciprocity is the most basic condition of the Visa Waiver Programme."

Elkin, the Israeli deputy foreign minister, rejected long-standing accusations that Arabs were unnecessarily targeted with aggressive questioning, long luggage examinations and strip searches, saying that US Homeland Security had just as tough techniques for people — including Israelis — of Middle Eastern descent.

He told The Associated Press that Israel had addressed all matters under its control to be able to qualify for the programme. He said it will now allow Palestinian-Americans to begin entering the country through the airport.

The only obstacle remaining was the rate of Israelis rejected for US visas, which needs to drop below 3 per cent before Israel can be considered for the programme.

"That depends on the Americans. If they wanted, a creative solution could be found," Elkin said. "Israel is among the friendliest countries to the US and there is no reason why we shouldn't be part of the programme."