Arabs woo Israel over peace plan

The two Arab countries with ties to Israel have paid an historic visit to the Jewish state to "extend the hand of peace" on behalf of their fellow Arabs.

The Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers' visit is the first on behalf of the 22-state Arab League, which has no diplomatic ties with Israel.

They urged serious consideration of an Arab proposal to recognise Israel if it leaves occupied Palestinian land.
Israel's prime minister has said the Arab plan contains positive elements.
"We are extending a hand of peace on behalf of the whole region to you, and we hope that we will be able to create the momentum needed to resume fruitful and productive negotiations," said Jordan's Abdullah Khatib.

Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have not seen progress for seven years, a period in which more than 5,000 people have died in violence, the large majority of them Palestinians.
Mr Khatib said Israel needed to agree on a precise timetable "not to waste this historic opportunity".

The visit comes a day after the maiden mission of new envoy Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, and is part of a flurry of diplomatic efforts.
Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties with Israel and have sent many delegations there, but never on behalf of the Arab League.

'Common ground'

Mr Khatib and Egypt's Ahmed Aboul Gheit are presenting a long-standing Arab League initiative that was readopted at a meeting in Saudi Arabia recently.

The initiative offers Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full Israeli withdrawal from territory it occupied in 1967, the creation of a Palestinian state and a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there was "a chance in the near future for the process to ripen into talks that would, in effect, deal with the stages of establishing a Palestinian state".

Correspondents say his comments are the clearest statement yet of Israel's intention to try to relaunch final-status talks.
But Olmert said there were "no precise timetables or stages established yet".

Any progress needs to address recent developments in Gaza which last month fell under the control of Hamas - the militant Islamist movement boycotted by both Israel and the rival Palestinian movement Fatah which holds sway in the West Bank.

'Land swap'
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman called the visit historic, saying: "In the past, the Arab League has opposed dialogue, normalisation and any contact with Israel and this is the first time the Arab League has authorised a delegation to visit Israel."

But Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa stressed the ministers were not representing the organisation.
"They are not acting under the banner of the Arab League. They are not going on behalf of the Arab League nor have they been sent as delegates by the Arab League.
"They represent two Arab countries that for certain circumstances entered into peace accords and official diplomatic relations," he said.

On Wednesday, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper said Israel was considering an "an agreement of principles" with Palestinians that could establish a Palestinian state on 90% of occupied territory.

The paper said Israel would propose a tunnel linking the West Bank and Gaza, while there would also be a territorial exchange allowing Israel to keep its main Jewish settlements.
In other moves, King Abdullah of Jordan met President George W Bush at a private dinner in Washington.

Meanwhile, Mr Blair continued his tour of the region with visits scheduled for Bahrain and Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Source : news.bbc.co.uk

Secret US plan to stay in Iraq

THE US military command in Baghdad has prepared a classified plan outlining a significant American role in Iraq until at least 2009, despite the growing chorus in Washington for a withdrawal.

The detailed plan represents the co-ordinated strategy of the top American commander and the US ambassador to Iraq and calls for restoring security in local areas, including Baghdad, by the northern summer of next year, reports said yesterday.

"Sustainable security" is to be established on a nationwide basis by the northern summer of 2009, American officials familiar with the document were quoted as saying by The New York Times.

The document, known as the Joint Campaign Plan, expands on the new strategy US President George W.Bush signalled in January when he sent five additional combat brigades and other units to Iraq, the report said.

The troop surge marked a shift from the previous strategy, which emphasised transferring to Iraqis the responsibility for safeguarding their security.

The new approach emphasises protecting the Iraqi population in Baghdad, on the theory that improved security would provide Iraq's leaders with breathing space to try political reconciliation, the report said.

The latest plan does not explicitly address troop levels or withdrawal schedules but it anticipates a decline in US forces as the surge in troops runs its course this year or early next year, the paper said.

But it assumes continued US involvement to train soldiers, act as partners with Iraqi forces and fight terrorist groups in Iraq, US officials said.

The plan, developed by General David Petraeus and US ambassador Ryan Crocker, has been briefed to US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral William J.Fallon, head of Central Command. The plan envisions two phases -- the "near-term" goal was to achieve "localised security" in Baghdad and other areas no later than June next year, the report said.

The "intermediate" goal was to stitch together such local arrangements to establish a broader sense of security on a nationwide basis no later than June 2009.

News of the plan came as a New York Times/CBS News poll found that Americans' support for the initial invasion of Iraq has risen as the White House has continued to ask the public to reserve judgment about the war until later this year.

Support for the invasion had been at an all-time low in May, when only 35per cent of Americans said the invasion of Iraq was right and 61per cent said the US should have stayed out.

The number of Americans who say the war is going "very badly" has fallen from 45per cent earlier this month to 35per cent, and of those who say it is going well, 29per cent now describe it as "somewhat well" compared with 23per cent just last week.

The US and Iran yesterday launched a second round of face-to-face talks in Baghdad to stem violence in Iraq. The talks were held at the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

As with a similar meeting held on May 28, officials said the talks would focus only on the security situation in Iraq, leaving aside a roster of other disputes between the US and the Islamic republic.

The US broke off relations with Iran in 1980, when Islamic revolutionaries seized the US embassy in Tehran and held its diplomats hostage for 444 days.

Source : www.theaustralian.news.com.au

Kosovo tells West to ignore Russia on independence

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Kosovo Albanians told the West on Friday to stop wasting time trying to win over Russia to the province's secession from Serbia and prepare for a unilateral declaration of independence.

In Belgrade, Serb parties countered the tough line, drafting a fresh parliamentary resolution that threatened an "energetic" response to any country thinking of recognising Kosovo as a state.

An air of crisis built up as NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer came to the Serb capital to call for calm. He spoke of "the last chance" and offered no way out of the diplomatic impasse at the United Nations.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leader Veton Surroi said the United Nations no longer offered a route to independence because of Russia's obstruction on behalf of its ally Serbia.

"Plan A has failed. Now we're on to Plan B," he told a news conference. "There's no point in consulting Russia anymore. We did not enter this process to meet the desires of other states."

Surroi sits on Kosovo's "unity team" with interim President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku, a pact meant to maintain stability as pressure for independence mounts.

His comments echoed those of Ceku, who urged the European Union this week to be "more courageous" and set a date by which Kosovo could declare independence unilaterally.

With one eye on possible elections in November, Kosovo's political leaders are nearly out of patience with Western powers who promised them independence by mid-year but are now proposing four months of further talks with no guarantee of the outcome.

"We don't work for various foreign offices, we work for the citizens of Kosovo," said Surroi.

In May Russia blocked adoption of a U.N. blueprint offering Kosovo independence under European Union supervision.

On Friday it shot down the fifth and latest Western draft, a watered-down resolution calling for 120 days of Serb-Albanian talks on top of 13 fruitless months of negotiations for a compromise that no one gas been able to describe.

Russia's Vladimir Titov, a deputy foreign minister, rejected "cosmetic" tinkering with a text, saying "fundamental" changes were needed.

Russia says Serbia must consent to any solution but Serbs reject independence for land cherished as their spiritual heartland. Political hardliners say Serbia should cut diplomatic ties with any country that recognizes Kosovo.

NATO's de Hoop Scheffer urged flexibility.

"I have the impression that this resolution ... might provide the last chance for all the parties concerned," he told reporters in Belgrade. He said the status quo was untenable.

"There is a lot at stake for everybody in Kosovo, but certainly also for the 16,000 men and women in uniform in KFOR."

NATO has patrolled the territory since bombing Serbia in 1999 to expel its forces and halt the killing and expulsion of Albanian civilians in a two-year war with separatist guerrillas.

The West sees zero prospect of forcing 2 million hostile Albanians back into the arms of Belgrade. Some analysts see the territory's division as possibly the only way out of the deadlock, but NATO fears stirring regional conflict.

It also fears that Albanian hardliners could turn to violence against KFOR and U.N. officials in the province if the West is seen to have broken its word.

(Additional reporting by Christian Lowe in Moscow, Ivana Sekularac in Belgrade, and Fatos Bytyci in Pristina).

Source : www.reuters.com