Middle East

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Israeli Labor Party Picks Barak to Lead

Former PM will join cabinet, sets sight on top job again

(Newser) - Ehud Barak won a runoff election yesterday making him head of Israel's Labor Party once again. Barak, who edged out former Shin Bet boss Ari Ayalon, will join PM Ehud Olmert's coalition cabinet, probably as defense minister. But the Guardian reports that the serial party chief is widely expected to...

Hamas Takes Fatah Outposts in Gaza
Hamas Takes Fatah Outposts in Gaza
Jun 12, 2007 9:59 PM CDT

Hamas Takes Fatah Outposts in Gaza

Abbas decries Hamas coup as escalating bloodshed leaves 37 dead

(Newser) - Hamas fighters overpowered Fatah security forces to capture their headquarters in northern Gaza today, as battles raging across the strip for the second day left at least 37 dead, the AP reports. Pro-Fatah soldiers then attacked the main Hamas-run television station, but they were repelled.

Israel Cautiously Invites Syria to the Table

Olmert denounces war, hints back-door deals may end in peace talks

(Newser) - Israel's PM deflected fears of a war with Syria today, and fueled semi-official rumors that peace talks are going on furtively between the two hostile countries. Olmert says he wants a sitdown with Syria—which would be the first in seven years—but warned president Assad that talks would not...

Turkey Menaces Kurds
Turkey Menaces Kurds
Jun 1, 2007 6:00 AM CDT

Turkey Menaces Kurds

Buildup along border makes U.S., Iraq nervous

(Newser) - Turkish troops and tanks amassing along the border with Iraq are ready to go after Kurdish separatist guerrillas as soon as they get the order, the country's top general said yesterday. The US, Iraq and the EU are all urging Turkey not to launch the offensive, which could destabilize Northern...

Israel Targets Palestinian PM
Israel Targets Palestinian PM
May 22, 2007 2:40 PM CDT

Israel Targets Palestinian PM

All Hamas leaders fair game if rocket attacks don't cease, declares defense official

(Newser) - The Israeli government today threatened to assassinate the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, if rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip are not halted, reports the Guardian. Deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh declared on the radio, "There is no one who is in the circle of commanders and leaders in...

Iran Charges American Scholar
Iran Charges American Scholar
May 22, 2007 11:20 AM CDT

Iran Charges American Scholar

Imprisoned academic accused of working against government

(Newser) - The Iranian government has charged an Iranian-American scholar already in custody in Tehran with working for "the soft-toppling of the country." Haleh Esfandiari, 67, was arrested May 8 after being under house arrest since January. The accusations come just days before American and Iranian diplomats are to meet...

Israel Steps Up Attack on Hamas
Israel Steps
Up Attack
on Hamas
May 21, 2007 8:24 AM CDT

Israel Steps Up Attack on Hamas

Gaza assault continues; at least 5 dead, thousands without power

(Newser) - Israel is escalating both its shooting war and its war of words with Hamas over the Gaza Strip. An Israeli air assault today killed at least five people and came on the heels of a massive attack targeting a Hamas leader over the weekend. That strike missed Khalil al-Hayya but...

Israeli Strikes Kill 5 in Gaza
Israeli Strikes Kill 5 in Gaza
May 18, 2007 7:08 AM CDT

Israeli Strikes Kill 5 in Gaza

Hamas and Fatah continue to clash

(Newser) - Israel has launched air strikes at Gaza for a second day in response to continued Hamas rocket attacks. Helicopter gunships and fighter jets targeted militants, and at least five Hamas fighters were killed in the strikes. Hamas has fired about a hundred makeshift missiles into Israel in the past several...

Palestinian Factions Call Ceasefire
Palestinian Factions Call Ceasefire
May 15, 2007 6:49 AM CDT

Palestinian Factions Call Ceasefire

Hamas and Fatah agree to shaky truce after brutal fighting in Gaza

(Newser) - Hamas and Fatah have brokered a truce after two days of intense factional fighting that left 9 dead and 30 wounded. The Palestinian government has deployed its entire security force to the Gaza strip in an effort to maintain peace, but, the BBC observes, sporadic fighting continued Monday.

Iranian, U.S. Diplomats Meet Briefly

Three-minute discussion focuses on Iraq, hints at Bush administration policy shift

(Newser) - It didn't involve the American Secretary of State or the Iranian foreign minister, but a brief meeting of high-level diplomats today in Egypt signals a thaw in relations between the countries, the International Herald Tribune reports. U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said the three-minute conversation concerned the situation...

Condi Sits Down With Syria
Condi Sits Down With Syria
May 4, 2007 5:56 AM CDT

Condi Sits Down With Syria

Rice talks with Syrian Foreign Minister about border security

(Newser) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice conferred with her Syrian counterpart Thursday in an unexpected half hour sit-down that ended a two-year cold-shoulder between the Bush administration and a state it considers a sponsor of terrorism. Rice asked asked Sryia's help in restricting the flow of foreign fighters across the Syrian...

Middle East Solution? Ignore It
Middle East Solution? Ignore It
May 1, 2007 10:05 PM CDT

Middle East Solution? Ignore It

The only option: "backward societies must be left alone"

(Newser) - As experts scramble to respond to escalating crises in the Middle East, think-tanker Edward Luttwack has a novel solution—leave 'em be. The strategic implications of the Arab-Israeli crisis ended with the Cold War, he argues, and local regimes don't control oil supplies—oil companies do.

Democracy Depends on Kurdistan
Democracy Depends on Kurdistan
May 1, 2007 12:52 PM CDT

Democracy Depends on Kurdistan

Human-rights activist sees region as harbinger of Iraq's fate

(Newser) - While the U.S. focuses on Baghdad, a potentially defining crisis is developing in Kurdistan, according to Mark Lattimer, director of Minority Rights Group International. He argues in the Guardian that bloodshed in the only relatively secure region of Iraq is increasing as Kurds forced out of Kirkuk by Saddam...

Report on Lebanon War Slams Olmert
Report on Lebanon War Slams Olmert
May 1, 2007 7:49 AM CDT

Report on Lebanon War Slams Olmert

Israeli cabinet member resigns, urges embattled PM to follow

(Newser) - Israel’s investigation into last summer’s bungled war in Lebanon has produced a firestorm of  criticism directed at Ehud Olmert, who is now fighting for his political survival. The Winograd Commission’s initial report accused the prime minister of “supreme and comprehensive personal responsibility” for the war’s...

Hamas Warns of New Intifada
Hamas Warns of New Intifada
Apr 30, 2007 9:06 AM CDT

Hamas Warns of New Intifada

(Newser) - The political leader of Hamas is putting Israel on notice: Prepare for another Palestinian uprising if economic and military conditions do not improve. "I warn and under 'warn' I put many red lines," Khaled Meshaal told a Palestinian newspaper. Citing recent Israeli incursions and a year-old Western aid...

Olmert Braces For Possible Summer Ouster

Report critical of Lebanon war may doom Israeli PM

(Newser) - Ehud Olmert may be forced out of office to avoid dragging the Kadima party down with him, Haaretz reports. Quoting a senior party official, the newspaper says the Israeli Prime Minister may resign this summer as part of the fallout from a government report on the run-up to and conduct...

Condi Says She'll Talk to Iran
Condi Says She'll
Talk to Iran
Apr 30, 2007 6:45 AM CDT

Condi Says She'll Talk to Iran

Meeting at Iraq conference will be first between US and Iran since 2004

(Newser) - Iran will be attending next week's regional conference on Iraq, the Times reports, offering the first sitdown between the Axis of Evil power and the U.S. in three years. Condoleezza Rice yesterday reiterated accusations that Iran is stirring insurgent violence in Iraq, but also hinted that the meeting in...

Million Turks Rally for Secularism
Million Turks Rally for Secularism
Apr 30, 2007 6:35 AM CDT

Million Turks Rally for Secularism

(Newser) - Secular Turks staged an enormous rally yesterday amid a constitutional crisis over the election of the next president, the BBC reports. As many as a million protesters turned out in Istanbul to oppose ruling-party candidate Abdullah Gul, who they're afraid is orchestrating an Islamic coup in the country even as...

US Lets China Dominate Asia
US Lets China Dominate Asia
Apr 25, 2007 11:38 AM CDT

US Lets China Dominate Asia

Zakaria: America distracted and damaged in Iraq helps Beijing court allies

(Newser) - The U.S. is so wrapped up in the Middle East that it's sacrificing chances to improve relations with Asia, leaving China to dominate the region, Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria contends. "Beijing has become remarkably adept at using its political and economic muscle in a patient, low-key and highly effective...

Eight Dead In Bombing of Iraqi Parliament

Suspected suicide bomber was bodyguard of Sunni MP

(Newser) - Eight people, including three lawmakers, were killed and at least 30 wounded when a suicide bomber eluded the normally heavy security around the Green Zone and  denonated an explosion in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament. Officials believe the culprit was the bodyguard of a Sunni legislator not among the...

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