Hamas Accepts State

Haniyeh: Hamas Accepts Pal. State with 1967 Borders
http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?
id=62998&language=en


09/11/2008 The Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said on
Saturday his government was willing to accept a Palestinian state
within the 1967 borders.

The Hamas leader spoke at a meeting with 11 European parliamentarians
who sailed from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip to protest Israel's naval
blockade of the territory. Haniyeh told his guests Israel rejected
his initiative.

Clare Short, who served in the cabinet of former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, asked Haniyeh to repeat his offer. He said the
Hamas government had agreed to accept a Palestinian state that
followed the 1967 borders and to offer Israel a long-term hudna, or
truce, if Israel recognized the Palestinians' national rights.

In response to a question about the international community's
impression that there are two Palestinian states, Haniyeh said: "We
don't have a state, neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank. Gaza is
under siege and the West Bank is occupied. What we have in the Gaza
Strip is not a state, but rather a regime of an elected government. A
Palestinian state will not be created at this time except in the
territories of 1967."

The parliamentary delegation was led by Baron Nazir Ahmed, who was
born in Pakistan and is a member of the British House of Lords.
Ahmed, Britain's second Muslim peer and the only one born Muslim,
related how, 10 years ago, he was sworn into the House of Lords using
a Koran. "And now you represent us," Haniyeh told him on Saturday.

Ahmed asked Haniyeh about Hamas' relations with Iran. "Our ties with
Iran are like those with other Muslim states. Does a besieged people
that are waiting breathlessly for a ship to come from the sea want to
throw the Jews into the ocean? Our conflict is not with the Jews, our
problem is with the occupation," Haniyeh said.

The protest boat Dignity anchored at Gaza port Saturday morning,
carrying nine MPs from Britain and Ireland, one from Switzerland and
one from Italy. The parliamentarians sought to express their
opposition to the Gaza blockade and see for themselves its effect on
Gaza's population. The 11 were among a few dozen members of European
parliaments who about two weeks ago were refused entrance to Gaza at
the Rafah crossing by Egyptian officials.

This was the Dignity's third voyage from Cyprus to Gaza in 10 days,
and the third time in three months the Free Gaza Movement organized a
protest sail and visit to Gaza.

The peak of the group's first day in Gaza was their meeting with
Haniyeh at his official guesthouse in Gaza City's exclusive Rimal
area - formerly the guesthouse of Yasser Arafat. The two-hour meeting
was a good-natured affair, at the end of which the parliamentarians
noted their host's pleasant manner.

"Your visit proves that the Palestinian people are not alone in its
struggle against the blockade and that many of the peoples of the
free and cultured world support us," Haniyeh told his guests.

He explained to them why Hamas boycotted the talks with Fatah that
were scheduled to begin on Sunday in Cairo. "We had 17 political
detainees [from Fatah, held without trial and without being charged]
being held in harsh conditions - I'm not proud of that," Haniyeh
said. "They were released. We expected a similar measure from our
brothers in Ramallah, but unfortunately the situation only worsened
ahead of the meeting in Cairo."

According to Haniyeh, about 400 Hamas activists are being held in
Palestinian Authority jails in the West Bank, and all requests to
release them have fallen on deaf ears.

Haniyeh said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' statements to
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit prove that
the United States won't allow the two Palestinian factions to reach
reconciliation. He said the PA must shake off the "American fist"
gripping it.

The European politicians took with them a ton of medical supplies and
three medical scanners used for spinal injuries, said Arafat Shoukri,
37, a doctor based in Britain.

"We are taking very basic medical supplies like paracetamol and
painkillers. We were shocked when we got the list from the Health
Ministry in Gaza - it means they don't have anything," Shoukri said.

International aid agencies, including the International Committee of
the Red Cross, have said virtually no medical supplies were reaching
Gaza.

===

Livni: We Recognize the Need to Establish a Pal. State
http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?
id=63006&language=en

09/11/2008 Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, speaking after a
meeting Sunday with the so-called "Quartet" of Mideast peace
negotiators in Egypt, said that progress had been achieved in talks
with the Palestinian Authority, and that the Zionist entity
recognizes the need to establish a Palestinian state, on condition
that an independent Palestine does not sponsor what they
called "terrorism."

Representing Israel at the meeting at the Egyptian resort town of
Sharm el-Sheik, Livni updated representatives of the U.S., Russia,
United Nations and the European Union on Sunday about progress in
talks with the Palestinians.

The meeting came approximately one year after the U.S.-sponsored
Annapolis Mideast peace conference.

Livni described the negotiations with the Palestinians as serious and
intensive. "We recognize the need to establish a Palestinian state,
provided that it will not be a terror state."

Prior to the meeting, Livni said that her goal for the meeting was to
keep pressure off Israel as elections approach.

Israel is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections on February 10,
and polls show that Livni, the chief Israeli negotiator, is neck and
neck with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes
negotiations with the Palestinians at this point.

Livni told Israeli Army Radio before heading to Egypt that she
believes that if "mediators see Israel is serious about an agreement
with the Palestinians they will not pressure Israel about deadlines
or the specifics of the negotiations right now."

Livni will not be presenting any dramatic reports of progress, she
told Army Radio. "In the meantime, the updates will include the
principles of the process, not its content, and we will try to retain
the support of the international community for the process," she
said.

In regard to the issue of occupied Jerusalem, parts of which the
Palestinians are demanding as the capital of a future Palestinian
state, Livni stressed that the topic was never on the negotiating
table. "We committed to discussing all the core issues, but it is
important to differentiate between a commitment and actual
discussion," she went on to say.

The Sharm meeting will be attended by representatives of the Quartet:
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-
moon, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov as well as other European Union
representatives.

During the meeting, Livni is expected to brief the representatives,
alongside chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia, on the progress
of the talks since their re-launch last November in Annapolis,
Maryland.

===

Syria's Assad Says Israel Must Prove It Wants Peace
Hanan Awarekeh
http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/NewsDetails.aspx?
id=63011&language=en

09/11/2008 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called on Israel on
Sunday to prove that it was interested in forging a peace deal by
withdrawing from all occupied Arab territory, six months after the
long-time foes relaunched indirect negotiations.

"Peace for Israel is a tactical act and not a strategic choice,"
Assad spoke Sunday at the opening session of a meeting of Arab
parliamentarians in the Syrian capital Damascus.
"Israel must provide proof of its desire for peace because it is the
Israelis who are occupying our land and aggressing our people," he
said, adding that Syria would never make any concessions to the
Zionist entity.

Indirect negotiations between the two neighbors - which technically
remain in a state of war - were resumed in May under Turkish
mediation but have been on hold since July.

The two sides held four rounds of discussions but a fifth round
scheduled for October was postponed at Israel's request amid
political turmoil following the resignation of scandal-hit Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert.

Direct negotiations were frozen eight years ago after Israel baulked
at Syrian demands for the return of the whole of the occupied Golan
Heights, right down to the Sea of Galilee, its main water source.

Israel seized the Golan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in
1981 in a move never recognized by the international community.

"Until now, Israel has been using the peace slogan for internal
political purposes and world opinion believes these Israeli
maneuvers," Assad said, calling on Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967
war borders.

"Syria decided to resume the peace process... because we are
committed to achieving a fair and comprehensive peace," he said, but
added that "Our rights cannot be the subject of compromise."

Assad has said that the negotiations need "international patronage"
chiefly from the United States, despite the chilly state of
diplomatic relations between Damascus and Washington.

Assad also criticized a proposed American-Iraqi security pact that
would keep US occupation troops in Iraq for three more years. He said
US troops contribute to regional instability and should withdraw from
Iraq.

A recent American raid inside Syria near its border with Iraq is
confirmation that the US will use Iraq as a base to attack its
neighbors, he added.

Iraq has asked the US for an explicit ban in the pact on the use of
Iraqi soil for attacks against the country's neighbors. The US has
replied to the request, but the details are not known.

Last month, Syrian authorities said US occupation troops attacked a
village near the border with Iraq, killing eight civilians. A US
official in Washington claimed the raid was targeting militants
smugglings arms and fighters into Iraq.

===

Moscow to host forum involving Israel, Palestine, LAS in spring 2009
09.11.2008
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=13254176&PageNum=0

SHARM-EL-SHEIKH, November 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Any events held in
development of the Annapolis process must be a step forward, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in comments on the Sunday meeting
of the Middle East mediating quartet.

"Thus, we are thoroughly preparing the Moscow event together with
representatives of Israel, Palestine and the League of Arab States
(LAS)," he said.

"We have confirmed the intention to hold the Moscow conference in
spring, when the United States has a new administration, the interim
period is over, and Israel holds an election,'" he said. "I hope that
the problem of Palestinian unity will be resolved by then."

"I am confident that the Moscow conference will take another step in
support of efforts of the parties [to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict] and of progress in the entire settlement process, including
the Israeli-Syrian track. The [Israeli-]Lebanese track will also be
in the focus of our attention," Lavrov said.

*********************************************************************

WORLD VIEW NEWS SERVICE