Region

QUSRA, Palestinian Territories –– Palestinians beat and detained several Israeli settlers who had sparked clashes after entering Qusra village near the West Bank city of Nablus Tuesday, sources on both sides said.

At one point, Israeli soldiers were negotiating the release of some 13 settlers from a house in the village where they were being held, an AFP correspondent said.

Palestinian security sources told AFP the settlers were eventually released and handed over to the Israeli army.

Village council head Abdul Azim Wadi confirmed the incident but said only eight settlers were detained.

The Israeli army said it had “vacated” 11 Israelis from a building in Jalud, a village adjacent to Qusra, “with light-moderate injuries, following a confrontation which erupted earlier today between them and Palestinians”.

“During the confrontation mutual rock-hurling took place, injuring some of the Israelis,” the army said in a statement.

“Initial inquiry suggests the confrontation erupted following a law enforcement activity which took place earlier today in Esh Kodesh.”

Esh Kodesh is a nearby settlement outpost, where military radio said the army had earlier uprooted an olive grove settlers had illegally planted.

A group of settlers then entered Qusra to provoke a clash.

However, an Israeli wounded in the event, told army radio that Palestinians had attacked a group of settlers who were hiking in the area and had not provoked an attack.

The area south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, is the scene of frequent clashes between Palestinians and Jewish settlers from nearby settlements.

Some 350,000 Jewish settlers live in the occupied West Bank, in addition to another 200,000 Israelis settled in occupied and annexed East Jerusalem.

The international community considers the colonisation of occupied land to be illegal, and the Palestinians have long viewed settlement construction as a key obstacle to reaching a peace agreement.

UNITED NATIONS –– UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday sent invitations to 30 countries to attend a Syria peace conference this month, but did not include Iran, a spokesman said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet on January 13 in a bid to decide Iran’s role in ending the nearly three-year-old war, said UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

Russia supports the participation of Iran, a major backer of President Bashar Assad, at talks scheduled to start in Switzerland on January 22.

The United States and other western nations say Iran must first support a 2012 declaration by the major powers calling for a transitional government in Syria before it can play a frontline role in the peace talks.

The role of Iran is one of many obstacles that have bedevilled efforts by Ban and UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to organise the conference.

The makeup of the Syrian opposition and government delegations has also called friction and details of their representatives have still not been released.

But Haq confirmed to reporters that Ban has started asking countries to attend, while adding: “Iran was not among the first invitations.”

The 30 countries on the list do include Saudi Arabia, a major backer of the Syrian opposition, as well as Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States –– the five UN Security Council permanent members –– and Syria’s neighbours such as Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.

Highlighting the January 13 meeting between Kerry and Lavrov, the UN spokesman said “we very much hope they will reach agreement on Iran’s participation”.

Ban has spoken in favour of Iran’s attendance. “We all know that the active support of regional powers in a political solution is critical,” said Haq.

Kerry reaffirmed the US position on Sunday while adding that Iran could play a role from the “sidelines”.

US deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf reaffirmed Monday that Iran would have to accept the declaration –– adopted at a meeting in Geneva in June 2012 –– calling for a transitional government in Syria before it could attend the new conference.

Iran would have to show that is being “less destructive” in the Syrian war, Harf added.

With the war worsening, Lavrov and Kerry have been pressing since May for a follow-up Geneva conference.

The new meeting, which will have a much bigger guest list than for 2012, will start in Montreux before moving back to Geneva for serious negotiations.

“It aims to bring two broadly representative and credible delegations of the Syrian government and opposition to a negotiating table in order to end the conflict and launch a political transition process through the full implementation of the Geneva communiqué of 30 June 2012,” said Haq.

“The secretary general views the conference as a unique opportunity for ending the violence and ensuring that peace can be restored,” he added.

“At the core of this effort is the establishment of a transitional governing body based on mutual consent.”

Even after any role of Iran, and opposition backer Saudi Arabia, is decided, the conference faces a mountainous struggle to end the bloodshed.

The Syrian government, which has stepped up its bombardment of opposition strongholds such as Aleppo, says that Assad’s future cannot be discussed at the peace conference.

Western nations back the opposition case that Assad cannot be a part of any transitional government.

Amid the diplomatic tensions, the death toll has risen to more than 130,000 since protests against Assad that started in March 2011 turned into a civil war, according to Syrian activists.

GENEVA –– Thousands of Syrians fleeing civil war or planning to stock up on supplies crossed into northern Iraq at the weekend after Iraqi Kurdish authorities reopened a long-closed border, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday.

On Sunday afternoon, authorities reopened the Peshkhabour border at the Tigris River, which had been closed since mid-September, allowing 2,519 Syrians to cross into the country by barge, UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva.

The border crossing is currently the only one open between Syria and Iraq, she said.

A bridge across the border was no longer in use, so people were forced to cram into small barges carrying between 10 and 30 people each to cross from Simelka on the Syrian side of the river, she explained.

No one had crossed on Monday, but Fleming said “several thousand” Syrians had gathered near the riverbank in Simelka by Tuesday morning.

Iraqi authorities decided to close the border in September after facing an exodus of some 60,000 Syrians, UNHCR said.

Authorities in Iraq’s Kurdistan region had told the UN agency they had now decided to allow Syrians claiming they did not want to stay in the country to visit for up to seven days, allowing them to stock up on supplies before returning.

Those wishing to stay meanwhile needed to register their request for refugee status with authorities.

Around 400 of the newcomers had gone to UNHCR to ask for assistance as refugees, and were taken to the Gawilan refugee camp, which counts some 3,000 residents and lies between Erbil and Dohuk.

But Fleming said many appeared intent on returning to Syria.

UNHCR staff had on Monday seen 350 of the new arrivals load barges and go back to Syria with generators, kerosene heaters and other supplies, she said.

Some 210,000 Syrians have been registered as refugees in Iraq since the conflict in their country began in March 2011.

In total, more than 2.35 million people have fled across Syria’s borders, while millions more have been displaced inside the country during the nearly three-year conflict.

CAIRO –– In Egypt, it no longer appears to be a question of if, but when army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi will declare his candidacy for president.

For the second time in three days, local media reported on Monday that Sisi had finally made up his mind.

With no other obvious candidates for the post, the general who deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July has kept Egyptians guessing about his intentions as the clock ticks down to the presidential vote that could happen as soon as April.

Sisi’s candidacy would further deepen divisions between the many Egyptians who believe a firm hand is needed to steer the country through crisis and Islamists bearing the brunt of a state crackdown on dissent.

Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, an official in the security services said Sisi was “most likely going to announce that he will run for the presidency”, adding: “The army in a recent meeting expressed its support for him to run.”

The question of Sisi’s intentions has become more pressing since the army-backed authorities signalled that the presidential election will come ahead of parliamentary polls — reversing the original timetable.

In public statements, the army has said nothing on Sisi’s intentions — the major outstanding question of the political transition set in train after the military deposed Morsi following mass protests against his rule on June 30.

Responding to a local TV report saying Sisi would run, the army issued a statement on Saturday saying the military did not make declarations via anonymous sources and urging the media to show professionalism in its reporting.

But it did not clearly deny the main elements of the report read out during an evening talk show on MBC Egypt: that Sisi will now run and Sedki Sobhi, currently chief of staff, will take his place as defence minister and army chief.

There is little doubt Sisi would win the election, turning the clock back to the days when the presidency was controlled by men from the military — a pattern interrupted by Morsi’s 2012 win and one year in office.

Though Sisi enjoys broad support among those Egyptians happy to see the end of Morsi’s rule, he is reviled by his Islamist opponents, who view him as the mastermind of a bloody military coup against the country’s first freely elected head of state.

The army-backed government has mounted a crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, driving it underground and prompting fears of longer term instability. Prominent secular dissidents have also been arrested in a blow to political freedoms.

But Sisi’s supporters see him as the kind of strong man needed to bring stability after three years of turmoil. His face has appeared on posters and chocolates, he has been lionised by the media and songs have been dedicated to him and the army.

Decision seen after referendum

In his last public remarks on whether he would run, Sisi, 59, held open the possibility. “Let’s see what the days bring” he told a Kuwaiti newspaper in a November 21 interview.

People familiar with Sisi’s thinking have said he was by no means set on the idea of running for the presidency of a country facing economic and political crises.

But with little time left for another candidate to be introduced to the public, analysts say he now has no choice.

It seems unlikely that Sisi, who received military training in the United States, will make an announcement before a January 14-15 referendum on a new constitution drawn up as part of the transition plan, analysts and politicians say.

The referendum marks the first time Egyptians have voted since Morsi’s removal, and is seen as much as a public vote of confidence on the roadmap and Sisi as the constitution itself.

Mohamed Abolghar, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, forecast that Sisi would announce his candidacy and step down from his official positions after the referendum.

“Then he will prepare for elections. That’s what seems likely to happen,” added Abolghar, whose party counts the interim prime minister among its members.

Abolghar also forecast that no prominent liberal or leftist politicians would run against Sisi.

None of the candidates defeated by Morsi in the 2012 election have declared their candidacy this time around.

And the Nour Party, an ultra-orthodox Islamist group that came second to the Brotherhood in 2011 parliamentary elections, has said it will not run a candidate for the presidency.

The dearth of campaigning is a stark contrast to the frenetic period leading up to the 2012 vote, when the field included former air force commander Ahmed Shafik, leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, ex-Arab League chief Amr Musa and Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, a moderate Islamist.

Mustapha Kamel Al Sayid, a political science professor at Cairo University, said the election may shape up to be more of a “presidential plebiscite” on Sisi than a hotly contested vote.

“I am sure there will be other candidates but I don’t think there will be any serious candidates that will have the courage or audacity to run against Sisi,” he said.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The US ambassador to Israel says a framework proposal on all issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be presented to both sides soon.

Dan Shapiro told Israel Radio on Tuesday that the proposal will include security arrangements, borders, Jerusalem and all other “core issues”.
He said it will be presented to the Israelis and the Palestinians in a few weeks’ time.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has been visiting the region often since talks resumed last July, shuttling between Israel and Palestinian leaders to mediate talks.

Kerry has been pushing for the outlines of a peace deal. He is trying to nudge Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu closer to a peace pact that would establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

On Tuesday, Israel’s defence minister said wide gaps remain in peace talks with the Palestinians after Kerry’s latest visit and he cast doubt over the chances of reaching a final accord by an April target.

Negotiations on Palestinian statehood resumed in July after a three-year halt, with a nine-month target set for a permanent peace agreement, amid deep scepticism a deal could be achieved to end the decades-old conflict.

“We are attempting to achieve a framework for a continuation of negotiations for a period exceeding the nine months in which some thought that we would be able to reach a permanent agreement,” Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon told reporters.

“It is clear there are big gaps — they are not new — but it is definitely in our interest to continue the talks,” he said in broadcast remarks, without defining the differences.

The United States is trying to broker a “framework” of general guidelines — addressing core issues such as borders, security, the future of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem — with details to be filled in later.

Before wrapping up his 10th visit to the region on Monday, Kerry said the two sides were making progress but there was still a chance no accord would be reached.

Shapiro said that Kerry would return soon to continue his talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

“We will take into account the suggestions, the requests and wishes of the parties and I hope and we will work so that in a few weeks, or perhaps a month — I don’t know how long — we will be ready to present a proposal for a framework on all the core issues,” Shapiro said in Hebrew.

A senior Palestinian official said the Palestinian side was seeking a written framework agreement.

“We want it to address concrete issues, such as saying the Palestinian capital will be ‘East Jerusalem’, not just ‘in Jerusalem’,” the official said.

Palestinians seek to establish a state in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, an enclave now controlled by Hamas Islamists opposed to the US peace effort, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel captured the areas in the 1967 Middle East war and pulled troops and settlers out of Gaza in 2005.

In his remarks, Yaalon signalled that Israel was looking for a less rigid “framework” deal than Palestinians were seeking, in an apparent nod to concerns any formal agreement now could stoke opposition from hardline members of the Israeli government.

“We are not dealing with a framework agreement, but with a framework for the continuation of negotiations for a more lengthy period,” Yaalon said.

Shapiro said that Kerry has sat for “many, many hours” with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and has heard from them things that “perhaps nobody else has heard”.

“Even though they have already taken brave decisions, he estimates they both have the ability to take more hard decisions with the support of their respective peoples,” Shapiro said. 

KHARTOUM –– Sudan and South Sudan agreed Monday during a visit to Juba by President Omar Bashir to consider setting up a joint force to protect vital oilfields, his foreign minister said.

“Sudan and South Sudan are in consultations about the deployment of a mixed force to protect the oilfields in the South,” Ali Ahmed Karti said, adding that Juba had come up with the proposal.

Bashir visited Juba as South Sudan’s government and rebels were starting formal peace talks in Addis Ababa aimed at ending more than three weeks of unrest.

South Sudan won independence from Khartoum in 2011 after decades of war, but the north remains a key player — serving as the export route for the South’s oil.

On Sunday, the South’s army spokesman Philip Aguer said government forces were on the offensive in the oil-producing Unity and Upper Nile states in the north of the country.

Despite its oil wealth, accounting for about 80 per cent of 2012 gross domestic product, South Sudan is one of the continent’s least developed countries.

Oil production in South Sudan has slumped by about 15 per cent since the fighting erupted.

It began on December 15, pitting army units loyal to President Salva Kiir against a loose alliance of ethnic militia forces and mutinous army commanders nominally headed by Riek Machar, a former vice president who was sacked last July.

CAIRO — Egypt on Monday summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires in Cairo to protest over recent Iranian statements on Egypt, the foreign ministry said.

Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said last Saturday that her country was worried by the recent escalation in violence between Egypt’s army and protesters supporting former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

At least 17 people were killed on Friday in clashes between the police and supporters of Morsi, who was ousted by the army in July. “The Iranian comments were an unacceptable interference in Egypt’s internal affairs,” said Egypt’s foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty.

Egypt’s relationship with Iran improved markedly during Morsi’s one-year rule, after decades of broken diplomatic and political ties between the two majority Muslim states.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Egypt for an Islamic summit last year, marking the first visit by an Iranian leader in more than three decades. He called for a strategic alliance with Egypt and offered Cairo a loan to ease a deepening economic crisis.

Iran had welcomed the 2011 uprising that led to the downfall of autocratic president Hosni Mubarak, and considered it an “Islamic awakening” given that it was followed by Islamist rule.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on Egyptian authorities last August not to suppress the masses after hundreds of people were killed when security forces stormed camps full of Morsi supporters in Cairo.

The Egyptian foreign ministry also summoned Qatar’s ambassador on Saturday to complain about similar remarks made by Doha in reaction to Friday’s violent confrontations.

TEL AVIV –– Thousands of African asylum seekers demonstrated outside Western embassies in Tel Aviv on Monday in a second day of mass protests against Israel’s immigration policies.

The migrants, primarily from Eritrea and Sudan, marched from downtown Tel Aviv to the embassies, calling for help in the face of Israel’s refusal to give them refugee status and its detention without trial of hundreds of asylum seekers.

A police spokesman said the march by some 10,000 migrants was coordinated with police and there were no disturbances.

Under legislation passed on December 10, authorities can detain illegal immigrants entering Israel for up to a year without trial.

A sprawling detention facility has been opened in the Negev Desert to house both them and immigrants already in the country deemed to have disturbed public order.

The demonstrators marched past the Israeli office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, chanting “Wake up UN”.

The UNHCR has not been responsible for determining the refugee status of asylum seekers in Israel since 2009, when that authority was transferred to the interior ministry.

UNHCR official Sharon Harel said Israel had not approved a single request for refugee status in all of last year, although an interior ministry spokeswoman told AFP it had granted 10.

Harel said the asylum seekers already in Israel — 14,000 from Eritrea and 36,000 from Sudan — received collective protection on arrival and were not returned to their countries of origin.

But the UNHCR condemned Israel for not affording “those with protection needs” with “access to refugee status determination”, defining them as “infiltrators” without “taking into account the reasons why they had to flee from their country of origin”.

The interior ministry rejected the UN criticism, insisting “all the requests for asylum are examined by the population and immigration authority”.

“Any foreign national who has requested political asylum in Israel is protected from expulsion until the examination of their request has been completed”, it said.

The right-leaning government has made removal of African migrants who slipped across the desert border with Egypt before the completion of a high-tech barrier last year a priority.

It says their presence in Israel threatens its Jewish character.

Tens of thousands of African migrants held a mass rally in central Tel Aviv on Sunday to mark the launch of a three-day nationwide strike.

RAMALLAH/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A Palestinian official said the Palestinians have reservations about some of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s ideas for the outlines of a peace deal with Israel, particularly on the future of Jerusalem.

Kerry left Monday after meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He is to present a US proposal for a peace framework and is expected back in the region next week.

The official said Monday that wide gaps remain, including about East Jerusalem.

The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of Kerry’s demand for discretion, said the US state secretary suggested that a framework refer to Palestinian “aspirations” to have a capital in Jerusalem.

The Palestinians want a specific mention of East Jerusalem as their capital, fearing that otherwise they’ll end up with a small part of the city.

After four days of intense diplomacy, Kerry headed home Monday, insisting progress had been made despite failing to agree a framework to guide Israeli-Palestinian talks.

On his 10th visit to the region as US top diplomat, Kerry spent hours locked in separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
He also visited Jordan and discussed peace efforts with His Majesty King Abdullah.

The US official also made a trip to Saudi Arabia, where he held talks with the Saudi monarch.
With the US remaining tight-lipped about the details, little news has filtered out about Kerry’s proposals to bridge the huge gaps between the two sides as they seek to draw up the contours of two states living side by side.
According to a report in Israeli daily Maariv, Kerry pressed Netanyahu to agree to a formula which would enable the return of some Palestinian refugees, who fled or were expelled from Israel in 1948.

Netanyahu refused, Maariv said. According to the newspaper, Israeli negotiators also wish to extend talks beyond their agreed April deadline to January 2015, in return for freezing some settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.

Jordan and Saudi Arabia will be key to any deal.
Jordan’s historic role in the guardianship of Muslim sites in Israeli-annexed Arab East Jerusalem is recognised under its 1994 peace treaty with Israel.

Saudi Arabia authored a 2002 peace plan which is the basis of Arab aspirations for any deal.

Kerry, who has made a Middle East peace deal a personal quest since taking office in February, is due to meet this week with top members of the Arab League to brief them on his discussions in Israel and the West Bank.
This trip was clouded by bitter recriminations from both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, accusing each other of not being serious partners in the search for peace.
On Sunday, Netanyahu renewed allegations that Palestinians were “continuing their campaign of inciting hatred.”

The Palestinians, meanwhile, reportedly told Kerry they will refuse to recognise Israel as a Jewish state, and remain steadfast in their opposition to stationing any Israeli troops on the border between the West Bank and Jordan to ensure Israel’s security in a new Palestinian state.
Israeli media said he could be back as early as next week.

TUNIS –– Tunisia’s army has shelled militant hideouts near the Algerian border as part of a campaign against hardline Islamists seeking to destabilise the North African country’s fragile transition to democracy.

Troops fired heavy artillery after spotting suspicious movements in the Mount Chaambi area on Sunday, army spokesman Taoufiq Rahmouni told the state news agency TAP. It was unclear if there were any casualties.

Concerns about militant violence are increasing as Tunisia takes its final steps to full democracy, three years after its revolution that inspired the “Arab Spring” revolts in Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria.

The Tunisian military have repeatedly hit Chaambi, a remote mountainous region a few kilometres from Algeria, since the start of 2013 after militants began trying to establish a refuge base there.

“The number of terrorists hiding there is around 25 or 30,” Rahmouni said.

Militants, mainly from the Islamist group Ansar Al Sharia whose leader has declared allegiance to Al Qaeda, have emerged since the Tunisian uprising in early 2011 ousted autocratic leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Tunisia’s police last week arrested seven suspected ultra-conservative Islamist militants, accusing them of threatening attacks during New Year celebrations in Kasserine, the closest city to Mount Chaambi.

The country’s Islamist-led government declared Ansar Al Sharia a terrorist organisation last year after blaming it for the assassination of two opposition leaders.

Militants have since clashed with police in raids and a suicide bomber blew himself up late last year at a beach resort in the first such attack in Tunisia in a decade.

Tunisia’s ruling Islamist party Ennahda has agreed to step down under a deal that will see parties finish the constitution, set a date for elections and name an electoral council before a non-political caretaker government takes over.