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World diplomats seek to stabilise Libya

By - Mar 06,2014 - Last updated at Mar 06,2014

ROME — World diplomats worked Thursday to try to help Libya create a stable government and more secure environment amid the violence and growing political tensions that have festered since Muammar Qadhafi’s regime crumbled in 2011.

The meeting of foreign ministers, mostly from the West and Gulf states, focused largely on easing disagreements among Libya’s diverse tribal, religious and ethnic populations, looking towards writing a new constitution and holding elections this year. The ministers are also working to secure the weapons and ammunition left over from the Qadhafi regime to help bring more security to the country.

“Those mostly uncontrolled materials are a threat to the entire region,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the conference, adding that Germany and France are allocating several million euros (dollars) for the weapons-securing project this year.

US Secretary of State John Kerry shared a warm handshake with Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan at the start of the meeting at Italy’s foreign ministry. He also met with Nouri Abu Sahmein, the Islamist-leaning president of Libya’s parliament.

Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, who hosted the conference, said the international community wants to give the Libyan people support. She said they are suffering “far beyond what was expected and would be normal” from uncontrolled circulation of weapons and other violence.

Abbas cuts salaries of Fateh rival’s security men

By - Mar 06,2014 - Last updated at Mar 06,2014

GAZA — President Mahmoud Abbas has halted salary payments to scores of security men loyal to a rival Palestinian politician, deepening disarray within their US-backed Fateh faction, officials said on Thursday.

They said Abbas’ move appeared aimed at weakening Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza Strip strongman who lives in Dubai but is widely expected to return to the Palestinian territories to challenge the president and Fateh chairman.

That could spell a bitter and uncertain confrontation given Fateh’s statutory limbo since Islamist Hamas, once its partner in the Palestinian government, turned into a foe in 2007 and seized control of Gaza during a brief civil war.

Fateh, which now holds sway only in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is due to hold a leadership election this year but that has yet to be scheduled. The schism with Hamas makes new national ballots nearly impossible, extending the term of Abbas, who was elected president in 2005.

Fateh official Sufian Abu Zayda said salaries had been suspended for 98 security men who had worked under Dahlan in Gaza before the Hamas takeover. Some of them have since moved to Egypt and the West Bank.

“We knew a month ago about the intention to suspend the salaries. By the time banks closed yesterday it was clear that nearly 100 people, 100 families, had lost their income,” Abu Zayda told Reuters.

 

‘Young guard’

 

An official in the West Bank, who asked not to be named, confirmed that a number of salary payments had been suspended but declined to say why.

Dahlan, 52, is among a Fateh “young guard” chafing at the rule of 79-year-old Abbas. Other likely challengers include West Bank strongmen Jibril Rajoub and Marwan Barghouthi. The latter participates in Palestinian political discourse despite serving a life term in an Israeli jail for militant attacks.

Though Hamas blamed him for the inter-factional fighting in Gaza, Dahlan has recently made some informal contact with the Islamists. Abbas was angered by the possibility Hamas and Dahlan could normalise ties, officials and analysts said.

Dahlan was one of the Palestinians’ top peace negotiators with Israel for several years.

Palestinian officials, including from Fateh, said he has also formed a close relationship with Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, the Egyptian defence minister and de facto leader, also upsetting Abbas. Cairo has long played a key mediating role among Palestinians and between them and Israel.

Last month a delegation of senior Fateh officials loyal to Abbas made a rare visit to Gaza, during which they urged both Hamas and local Fateh supporters to shun Dahlan.

In 2011, at Abbas’ behest, the Fateh Central Committee accused Dahlan of financial and criminal offences. Dahlan rejected the allegations and has never been formally charged with crimes. But he left the West Bank after Abbas’ security forces raided his home there, moving to Amman and then Dubai.

Dahlan could not immediately be reached for comment.

Tunisia ends state of emergency after 3 years

By - Mar 06,2014 - Last updated at Mar 06,2014

TUNIS — Tunisia’s president on Thursday lifted the state of emergency that has been in place since the outbreak of a popular revolution three years ago, and a top military chief said soldiers stationed in some of the country’s most sensitive areas will return to their barracks.

The decree from President Moncef Marzouki said the state of emergency ordered in January 2011 is lifted across the country immediately.

The state of emergency was imposed by longtime President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, and was maintained after he was overthrown.

At the start it included a curfew and a ban on meetings of more than three people, but it has been relaxed over time. However it has continued to give the military and police special powers to intervene in unrest or security threats.

Tunisia has been battling Al Qaeda linked extremists since the revolution, but officials said the security situation has improved recently.

Col. Maj. Mokhtar Ben Nasr told The Associated Press that soldiers deployed in force across Tunisia would return to their barracks.

After the end of the dictatorship that touched off the Arab Spring uprisings across the region, Tunisians brought a moderate Islamist party into power allied with two other secular parties. But the coalition struggled in the face of continuing social unrest, high unemployment, the rise of a radical Islamist movement with ties to Al Qaeda and the assassination of two left-wing politicians.

Despite that, Tunisia remains a regional bright spot, since its fractious elected assembly finally wrote and passed a progressive constitution earlier this year.

Bahrain says two children injured as bomb explodes

By - Mar 06,2014 - Last updated at Mar 06,2014

MANAMA — Bahrain’s interior ministry said on Thursday two children were injured after they were instructed to plant a bomb in the same village where a bomb killed two local policemen and an officer from the United Arab Emirates earlier this week.

The two children, aged 10 and 11, had been instructed by “terrorists” to plant a bomb in Daih, west of the capital Manama, but it exploded as they were handling it causing serious injury to one of them, the statement by the ministry said.

Monday’s attack in Daih had raised fears of more violence in the Sunni Muslim-ruled kingdom, where opposition groups led by majority Shiites have staged protests for the past three years demanding political reform and an end to perceived discrimination.

Bahrain blacklisted three anti-government groups as terrorist organisations after the blast took place, outlawing the February 14 movement, Saraya Al Ashtar [Ashtar Brigade] and Saraya Al Muqawama (Resistance Brigade).

The little known Saraya Al Ashtar claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack in a message on social media that could not be immediately authenticated.

The ministry of interior said late on Wednesday it had arrested four more people in connection with Monday’s bombing. Authorities said earlier this week that 25 suspects had been rounded up in relation to the Daih bombing.

“The statements of the [four] detained indicate that their roles varied from bomb making, to monitoring and photography, and it was learned that other key actors were responsible for luring the police to the scene,” the statement said.

Bahrain’s Shiites have long complained of discrimination against their majority community in areas such as jobs and public services, charges that the Sunni-led government denies.

The Gulf island is a US ally which hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The Sunni Al Khalifa family, which has ruled for two centuries, has resisted Shiite-led demands for an elected government, not one chosen by the king.

Egypt bars Gaza-bound Irish Nobel Peace laureate Maguire

By - Mar 06,2014 - Last updated at Mar 06,2014

CAIRO — Egypt detained and deported Northern Irish Nobel laureate and peace activist Mairead Maguire on Wednesday and held up others who had been planning to go to neighbouring Gaza, the activists and officials said.

Maguire had intended to join a delegation of women activists going to the blockaded Palestinian enclave on Thursday.

The group could embarrass the military-installed government, which is at odds with Gaza’s Hamas rulers, yet does not want to be seen as party to a siege of Palestinians, blockaded by Israel.

On Tuesday, airport police had already detained and deported American anti-war activist Medea Benjamin, also part of the delegation, who told AFP police broke her arm.

Maguire said she arrived at Cairo airport on Tuesday night with fellow activist Ann Patterson.

“We were taken to the detention centre and questioned and held for eight hours, and were told we would not be allowed entry into Cairo and would be put on a plane,” she told AFP by telephone from Britain after her expulsion.

She said police were polite but gave no reason for barring her, while an airport official told AFP she had been blacklisted.

Maguire, born in 1944, won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize with Betty Williams for founding a peace group to resolve the conflict in Northern Ireland.

She has become a vocal supporter of the Palestinians and was expelled from Israel in 2010, after trying to enter the blockaded Gaza Strip aboard a ship with other activists.

The delegation of activists that will try to enter Gaza through the Egyptian Rafah border crossing was meant to be led by Djamila Bouhired, an icon of the Algerian war of independence from France.

Bouhired had been expected to arrive at 1800 GMT on a flight from Paris, but did not do so.

Meanwhile, about 15 other activists were barred from leaving the airport, their comrades said, and it was not immediately clear if they too would be deported.

Egypt controls the only border crossing with Gaza that bypasses Israel, and is accused of colluding with Israel to blockade the territory ruled by the Islamist group Hamas.

 

Complying ‘with blockade’

 

The border crossing is opened irregularly.

“I think it’s sad, what they’ve done,” Maguire said of the reception she and the other activists received in Egypt.

“It is an example and confirmation of the Egyptian government’s compliance with the blockade of Gaza.”

In 2006, a year after Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers from Gaza, fighters abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, and  Israel slapped a blockade on the enclave.

It tightened the blockade in 2007 when Hamas, which says it seeks the destruction of Israel, seized control of Gaza after routing forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Egypt refuses to recognise Hamas’s authority in Gaza and only infrequently allows some aid through the Rafah crossing.

Cairo says the crossing is meant for people, not goods, and a 2005 agreement between Israel and the Palestinians stipulates that Abbas’ forces should be present at the passage.

Pro-Palestinian activists from abroad protested in Cairo in 2010 when they were prevented from entering Gaza.

The government of then-president Hosni Mubarak eventually allowed some of the activists to cross.

US says it worked with Israel to track seized Iranian rockets

By - Mar 06,2014 - Last updated at Mar 06,2014

WASHINGTON — The United States said Wednesday its intelligence services and military worked with Israel to track a ship carrying an intercepted shipment of advanced Iranian rockets for Palestinian fighters.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Washington started to work with Israel through intelligence and military channels and at the national security adviser level as soon as it knew the shipment was on the move.

President Barack Obama also directed the US military to work out contingencies in case it became necessary to intercept the vessel, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One.

“Throughout this time our intelligence and military activities were closely coordinated with our Israeli counterparts who ultimately chose to take the lead in interdicting this shipment of illicit arms,” Carney said.

“We will continue to stand up to Iran’s support for destabilising activities in the region in coordination with our partners and allies,” he said.

“These illicit acts are unacceptable to the international community and in gross violation of Iran’s Security Council obligations.”

Israel said earlier that its forces intercepted the Syrian-made weapons, which were shipped overland to Iran and then onward towards Gaza by sea before being intercepted in the Red Sea between Sudan and Eritrea.

The announcement came hours after Israel said it struck two Hizbollah fighters as they tried to plant a bomb near the Syrian-Israeli frontier and just over a week after Israel reportedly bombed the Iran-backed group inside Lebanon for the first time since 2006.

Israel has long accused Iran and Syria of providing military aid to Hizbollah and to Palestinian groups.

Israel latched onto the weapons shipment to chide Western powers for negotiating with Tehran over its nuclear programme.

Iran said reports that it was involved in the shipment were without foundation.

Iraqi minister’s son misses flight, forces plane back — airline

By - Mar 06,2014 - Last updated at Mar 06,2014

BEIRUT — A passenger plane flying from Lebanon to Iraq on Thursday turned back after the Iraqi transport minister’s son missed the flight and phoned Baghdad to stop the aircraft from landing, Middle East Airlines (MEA) said.

Marwan Salha, acting chairman of MEA, told Reuters the flight, scheduled to leave at 1240 (1040 GMT), had been delayed for six minutes while MEA staff looked for Mahdi Al Amiri, son of Hadi Al Amiri, and his friend in the business lounge.

“We made the necessary announcements and the last calls,” he said. “The plane took off but one of the passengers turned out to be the son of the minister of Iraq.”

Salha said that when Amiri arrived at the gate he was angry and said: “I will not allow the plane to land in Baghdad.”

Twenty-one minutes into the flight, the Baghdad airport station manager called MEA operations to tell them there was no clearance to land, Salha said. The plane then returned to Beirut and the passengers disembarked.

“It’s very disturbing because this is pure nepotism,” Salha said, adding that he hoped to resume flights to Iraq on Friday but that there would not be another flight on Thursday.

Transport Minister Hadi Al Amiri is head of the Badr Organisation, once an armed Shiite militia, and a political ally of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

Many Iraqis believe that relatives of elected officials and leaders of political parties act as if they are above the law.

Iraq’s Transport Ministry confirmed the airliner had been turned around but said this was due to airport cleaning and that the minister’s son had not been due to be a passenger on it.

Kareem Al Nuri, the transport minister’s media adviser, said: “There were cleaning operations in the airport and specific measures were taken. We asked all flights not to land in Baghdad airport after 9:00am (0600 GMT) but this flight arrived after this time, so we asked it to turn back.

“This information [about the minister’s son] is not true and the minister is not accepting such behaviour. The minister’s son was not scheduled to take that flight at all.”

An official at Baghdad airport, who asked not to be named, said air traffic was normal, with 30 flights landing on Thursday. The only one turned around was the one from Beirut.

Iraqis mocked Amiri and his son on social media as news of the incident spread. A girl named Diana wrote: “Sounds like Uday and his father rose from the grave”, a reference to the late Saddam Hussein and his son Uday, known for arbitrary behaviour.

Niger extradites Qadhafi’s son Saadi to Libya

By - Mar 06,2014 - Last updated at Mar 06,2014

TRIPOLI — Muammar Qadhafi’s son Saadi, his special forces commander who fled abroad during Libya’s 2011 revolution, was imprisoned in Tripoli on Thursday after Niger agreed to send him back from house arrest there.

Saadi, who had a brief career as football player in Italy and often lived the playboy life during his father’s rule, is the first of Qadhafi’s sons the central government has managed to arrest since the former dictator was overthrown.

Qadhafi’s more prominent son Saif Al Islam, long viewed as his heir, has been held captive by fighters in western Libya who refuse to hand him over to a government they deem too weak to secure and try him.

Eager to close another chapter from the four-decade Qadhafi rule, Tripoli had long been seeking the extradition of Saadi, who had fled to the southern neighbour by slipping over the porous sub-Saharan border after the uprising.

“The Libyan government received today Saadi Qadhafi and he arrived in Tripoli,” Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s Cabinet said in a statement that thanked Niger’s government for its help.

The extradition is a success for Zeidan, but also a test whether his weak government is able to hold such a high-profile prisoner and organise a fair trial in the political chaos that has followed the uprising.

The government said Saadi, 40, would be treated according to international law.

Since escaping Libya in 2011, he had been held under house arrest in the Niger capital Niamey. Libyan authorities believe he was active from there in fomenting unrest in southern Libyan.

Within an hour of the news of his arrival, a militia on the Libyan state payroll published photographs of an uncomfortable looking Saadi in a blue prison jumpsuit, kneeling while a guard shaved his beard and head with an electric razor.

“The first pictures of the criminal,” the Libyan Revolutionary Operations Room militia said on its website, showing pictures of Saadi before and after the shave.

State prosecutors are investigating Saadi for crimes in suppressing the eight-month uprising against his father, state news agency LANA said.

Tripoli also wants to try him for allegedly misappropriating property by force and for alleged armed intimidation when he headed the Libyan Football Federation.

 

Arrest might calm south

 

There was no immediate official comment from Niger, which Libyan analysts said had agreed to cooperate because both must worth together to try to secure their long border against weapons smugglers, militant Islamists and human traffickers.

Niger sources said Saadi was spirited into Libya on board a Libyan plane overnight, accompanied by Libyan security agents.

Political analyst Khalid Al Tarjaman said Libya had convinced Niger that Saadi’s presence was giving a boost to Qadhafi loyalists in Libya’s volatile south whom Tripoli has accused of provoking clashes in the main city Sabha in January.

“The government in Niger realised that Saadi’s presence was the main source for tensions in Libya’s south, which is also affecting Niger’s sovereignty,” he said.

Saadi, who also had a business career before 2011 thanks to the quasi-monopoly his family enjoyed in many sectors of the economy, is not wanted by the International Criminal Court.

The ICC has indicted Saif Al Islam for crimes against humanity. He is being held by militia fighters in Zintan and tried there for various charges, although a local court keeps adjourning proceedings after brief sessions.

Zintan fighters have allies themselves to tribes that once formed Qadhafi’s power base, which analysts say partly explains their benevolent attitude towards Saif Al Islam.

Tarjaman said Saadi’s expulsion from Niger might help Libya persuade other countries such as Egypt or Tunisia to extradite Qadhafi relatives and former top officials.

Several family members such as Qadhafi’s daughter Aisha and her brother Hannibal had fled to Algeria during the uprising. They moved to Oman after Aisha had irritated Algerian authorities by discussing politics in public.

'Iraqi minister's son misses flight, forces plane back'

By - Mar 06,2014 - Last updated at Mar 06,2014

BEIRUT –– A passenger plane flying from Lebanon to Iraq on Thursday turned back after the Iraqi transport minister's son missed the flight and phoned Baghdad to stop the aircraft from landing, Middle East Airlines (MEA) said.

Marwan Salha, acting chairman of MEA, told Reuters the flight, scheduled to leave at 1240 (1040 GMT), had been delayed for six minutes while MEA staff looked for Mahdi al-Amiri, son of Hadi al-Amiri, and his friend in the business lounge.

"We made the necessary announcements and the last calls," he said. "The plane took off but one of the passengers turned out to be the son of the minister of Iraq."

Salha said that when Amiri arrived at the gate he was angry and said: "I will not allow the plane to land in Baghdad."

Twenty-one minutes into the flight, the Baghdad airport station manager called MEA operations to tell them there was no clearance to land, Salha said. The plane then returned to Beirut and the passengers disembarked.

"It's very disturbing because this is pure nepotism," Salha said, adding that he hoped to resume flights to Iraq on Friday but that there would not be another flight on Thursday.

Transport Minister Hadi al-Amiri is head of the Badr Organisation, once an armed Shi'ite militia, and a political ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Many Iraqis believe that relatives of elected officials and leaders of political parties act as if they are above the law.

Iraq's Transport Ministry confirmed the airliner had been turned around but said this was due to airport cleaning and that the minister's son had not been due to be a passenger on it.

Kareem al-Nuri, the transport minister's media adviser, said: "There were cleaning operations in the airport and specific measures were taken. We asked all flights not to land in Baghdad airport after 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) but this flight arrived after this time, so we asked it to turn back.

"This information (about the minister's son) is not true and the minister is not accepting such behaviour. The minister's son was not scheduled to take that flight at all."

An official at Baghdad airport, who asked not to be named, said air traffic was normal, with 30 flights landing on Thursday. The only one turned around was the one from Beirut.

Iraqis mocked Amiri and his son on social media as news of the incident spread. A girl named Diana wrote: "Sounds like Uday and his father rose from the grave", a reference to the late Saddam Hussein and his son Uday, known for arbitrary behaviour.

 

Israel hits two ‘Hizbollah fighters’ on Syria frontier

By - Mar 06,2014 - Last updated at Mar 06,2014

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel’s army said Wednesday it struck two Hizbollah fighters as they were planting a bomb near the Israeli-Syrian frontier, a week after an air raid against the group inside Lebanon.

Tensions have been mounting between Israel and Hizbollah since the outbreak of Syria’s uprising, with Israel warning it will do “everything necessary” to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons from the Damascus regime to its Lebanese Shiite ally.

Israeli army sources said they expected further confrontation after Hizbollah threatened to retaliate for the February 24 bombardment, which was the first reported Israeli air raid against the militant group inside Lebanon since the 2006 war.

“Earlier today, two Hizbollah-affiliated terrorists were identified attempting to plant an explosive device near the Israel-Syria border in the northern Golan Heights,” Israel’s army announced in a statement Wednesday morning.

Israeli troops “fired towards the suspects [and] hits were identified,” it said.

The army did not specify what weapons were used to fire at the suspected Hizbollah members.

Military sources told AFP, on condition of anonymity, confirmed the suspected Hizbollah fighters were wounded, without elaborating on the seriousness of the injuries.

Hizbollah was not immediately available for comment.

“This incident is no surprise, and we believe that clashes with Hizbollah could follow in the coming days,” the military sources told AFP.

“After Hizbollah threatened last week to retaliate for the army raid, Israeli special forces were deployed at the border with Syria,” they said.

The incident came just over a week after reports that Israeli warplanes bombarded a Hizbollah position on the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Hizbollah threatened to retaliate for what was the first reported Israeli air raid on a position of the Shiite movement inside Lebanon since the 2006 war, which killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

“This new attack amounts to blatant aggression against Lebanon, its sovereignty and territory,” the armed movement said at the time, adding that “it will not stand without a response from the Resistance, which will choose the appropriate time, place and means”.

Israel neither confirmed nor denied carrying out the two February 24 strikes outside the Lebanon border town and Hizbollah bastion of Nabi Sheet, which were reported by Lebanese media and then acknowledged by the group.

 

Israeli warnings, reported raids 

 

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would do “everything that is necessary in order to defend the security of Israel,” adding cryptically: “We will not say what we’re doing or what we’re not doing.”

Israel is bent on halting any transfer of weapons to its archenemy Hizbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters across the border to aid Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime as it battles Sunni-led rebels.

In May 2013, Israel launched two raids targeting what it said were arms convoys near Damascus destined for Hizbollah.

And in November, there were reports of an Israeli strike against a Syrian air base where missiles to be supplied to Hizbollah were located.

Syria has long provided arms and other aid to Hizbollah, and served as a conduit for Iranian military aid to the movement.

Hizbollah, which brands itself a resistance movement against Israel, was formed in 1982 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and was the principal actor in ending Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000.

Hizbollah acknowledged last spring that it is sending fighters into neighbouring Syria to support Assad’s forces in the country’s nearly three-year civil war.

The group has insisted its intervention in Syria is needed to protect the Lebanese from Sunni extremists, who have carried out several attacks targeting Hizbollah and Iranian targets in Lebanon in recent months.

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