Region

GAZA CITY –– Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh reached out to West Bank rivals Fateh on Monday, saying its members would be allowed back into Gaza, in efforts to promote Palestinian reconciliation.

“The [Hamas] government will allow all Fateh members who are from Gaza and who left the strip [in 2007] to return, without any preconditions,” apart from those accused of killing Hamas members during intense factional fighting that year, Haniyeh said.

Speaking to reporters after a visit to the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza City, he added authorities would “release a small number of Fateh members who are imprisoned [in Gaza] for security reasons”.

Fateh MPs, who are based in the West Bank, would also be allowed to visit Gaza, Haniyeh added.

Hamas in recent months has reached out to Fateh, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, as Israel and Egypt have tightened a blockade on the Islamist movement’s Gaza enclave.

Haniyeh spoke via telephone to Fateh leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in October, stressing the need for reconciliation and “a return to national unity”.

Long-time tensions between Hamas and Fateh boiled over in a week of fighting in 2007 that left the Islamist movement –– which is sworn to Israel’s destruction –– in charge of the impoverished coastal strip.

The fighting came a year and half after Hamas won a landslide victory in Palestinian general elections, leading to a Western boycott of the Islamist-run government.

Since the takeover both movements have launched tit-for-tat crackdowns on their rivals in the areas under their control.

The two sides have made repeated attempts to heal the rift, most recently by signing an Egyptian-brokered deal in 2011 in which they pledged to set up an interim government of independents to pave the way for new elections.

The agreement has never been implemented.

The Islamist movement says it has been under severe pressure since the Egyptian army destroyed hundreds of tunnels used to smuggle fuel and goods into the blockaded Gaza Strip following its overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi.

Hamas is the Palestinian branch of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails.

TUNIS — Tunisia’s national assembly on Monday approved an article in the draft constitution that would guarantee gender equality “without discrimination” in the Muslim nation.

“All male and female citizens have the same rights and duties. They are equal before the law without discrimination,” states article 20 of the new charter, which was approved by 159 lawmakers out of the 169 who voted.

Tunisia hopes to adopt the long-delayed new constitution by January 14, the three-year anniversary of the overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in a popular revolt that kicked off the Arab Spring.

Since the 1950s, when it gained independence from France, Tunisia has had the most liberal laws in the Arab world on women’s rights, which some have accused the outgoing Islamist-led government of wanting to roll back.

Human rights groups had expressed reservations about article 20 of the constitution, arguing that it limits the protection of rights to citizens and not foreigners, and does not specify the prohibited grounds of discrimination.

They urged the assembly, in a joint statement last week, to “enshrine the principles of equality and non-discrimination before the law and extend it to anyone subject to the jurisdiction of Tunisian authorities, including both citizens and foreigners”.

“Article 20 should specify that discrimination, direct and indirect, is prohibited on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status,” said the NGOs, which included Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Article 45, which would guarantee the protection of women’s rights by the state and the “equality of opportunity for men and women”, has yet to be examined.

The ruling Islamist party Ennahda, which has promised to step down when the new constitution is adopted, came in for heavy criticism when it tried to press through the idea of gender “complementarity” rather than equality.

After lawmakers have voted on the draft constitution article by article, it needs to be approved by two-thirds of parliament’s 217 members to be adopted. Otherwise, it will have to be put to a referendum.

BEIRUT –– Syria’s main opposition National Coalition re-elected Ahmad Jarba as its leader during a general assembly meeting in Istanbul on Sunday, the coalition said in a statement.

Jarba won 65 votes, beating his only rival Riad Hijab –– the best-known defector from the regime of President Bashar Assad –– by 13 votes.

Jarba, who is seen as close to key rebel backer Saudi Arabia, was first elected to head the Coalition in July, and will now lead the group for another six months.

His re-election comes at a sensitive time, less than three weeks away from slated peace talks in Switzerland that would bring rebels and regime representatives to the table.

The coalition was set to discuss on Monday whether to take part in the peace talks, though a key bloc –– the Syrian National Council — has already announced it will boycott the so-called Geneva II process.

That has raised fears the coalition may end up rejecting the talks altogether. According to council member and veteran dissident Samir Nashar, “Ahmad Jarba does not want to go to Geneva”.

Born in 1969 in the northeastern city of Qamishli, on the border with Turkey, Jarba is a Sunni Muslim who has tried to convince Arab and Western nations to arm the rebels.

In his six months as coalition leader, he has appeared more subdued than previous opposition chiefs who had higher profiles as veteran dissidents.

Jarba’s re-election comes deep into a crisis within the main opposition group, which is based outside Syria.

Many opponents and rebels on the ground feel the coalition has failed to represent them.

RAMADI –– Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki called Monday for Fallujah residents to expel “terrorists” to avoid a security forces assault, as a senior tribal leader insisted that Al Qaeda-linked militants had left.

Fallujah has been outside government control for days, while parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi, farther west, are also held by militants.

It is the first time militants have exercised such open control in major cities since the height of the bloody insurgency that followed the US-led invasion of 2003.

Maliki called on “the people of Fallujah and its tribes to expel the terrorists” so “their areas are not subjected to the danger of armed clashes,” state television reported.

He also ordered security forces “not to strike residential areas in Fallujah”, it said.

A senior official told AFP on Sunday Iraqi forces were preparing “a major attack” on Fallujah.

And ground forces commander Staff General Ali Ghaidan Majeed said the city should “wait for what is coming” — a reference to the impending assault.

Sheikh Ali Al Hammad, a senior tribal leader from Fallujah, insisted on Monday that Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces had departed the city, saying it is now held by Sunni tribesmen.

“There is no ISIL in the city,” Hammad told AFP by telephone. “They all left.”

“The gunmen inside are from the sons of the tribes, and they are here to defend Fallujah,” he said.

But a witness said ISIL fighters were still in the city, but had lowered their characteristic black flags to avoid being targeted, and Iraqi officials had previously said ISIL was in control.

In any case, Fallujah remains outside government control, and even if the departure of ISIL militants is confirmed, Baghdad may still seek to retake it.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that Washington would provide assistance to Iraqi forces but that it was “their fight”, while Iran’s deputy chief of staff, General Mohammad Hejazi, also offered “equipment and advice” to Baghdad.

Fighting in Anbar has reportedly killed more than 200 people in just three days, making it the deadliest violence to hit the province in years.

Echoes of a bloody past

Both Ramadi and Fallujah were insurgent strongholds in the years after 2003, and Fallujah was the target of two major assaults in which US forces saw some of their heaviest fighting since the Vietnam War.

American forces suffered almost one-third of their Iraq dead in Anbar, according to independent website icasualties.org.

They eventually wrested back control of Anbar from militants, with the support of Sunni Arab tribesmen who formed the Sahwa (Awakening) militias, which allied with US troops against Al Qaeda from late 2006.

But two years after US forces withdrew from the country, Sunni militants have regained strength, bolstered by the war in neighbouring Syria and widespread Sunni Arab anger with Iraq’s Shiite-led government.

Fighting erupted in the Ramadi area on December 30, when security forces cleared a year-old protest camp where Sunni Arabs had been demonstrating against what they see as the marginalisation and targeting of their minority community by Baghdad.

The violence spread to Fallujah, and the subsequent withdrawal of security forces from parts of both cities cleared the way for militants to seize control.

Maliki had long sought the closure of the protest camp outside Ramadi, dubbing it a “headquarters for the leadership of Al Qaeda”.

But its removal has caused a sharp decline in the security situation.

ISIL, the latest incarnation of the jihadist group’s Iraq affiliate, has made a striking comeback from past defeats, launching numerous attacks in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria last year.

Violence in Iraq in 2013 reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings.

More than 250 people have been killed in the first five days of this month, exceeding the toll for the whole of January last year.

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Iraq is preparing a “major attack” to retake militant-held Fallujah, a senior official said Sunday, spelling a new assault for the city, west of Baghdad, where US forces repeatedly battled insurgents.

Washington said it would help Baghdad in its battle against Al Qaeda-linked militants but that there would be no return of US troops.

The takeover of Fallujah and parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi, farther west, is the first time that militants have exercised such open control in major cities since the height of the bloody insurgency that followed the US-led invasion of 2003.

“Iraqi forces are preparing for a major attack in Fallujah,” a senior Iraqi official told AFP.

Special forces have already conducted operations inside the city, the official said.

The regular army has paused on the edge of the city to allow residents time to leave, awaiting orders to launch “the attack to crush the terrorists”.

Fallujah is in the hands of fighters of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a senior security official said on Saturday.

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that the United States would provide assistance to Iraqi forces in their battle against the militants but that it was “their fight”.

Kerry said Washington was “very, very concerned” about the resurgence of ISIL but said it was not contemplating any return of US ground troops, after their withdrawal in December 2011.

“We are not obviously contemplating returning, we are not contemplating putting boots on the ground, this is their fight,” Kerry told reporters in Jerusalem

“But we’re going to help them in their fight... We are going to do everything that is possible to help them.”

‘Wait for what is coming’

ISIL militants seized control of the village of Bubali near Ramadi after heavy fighting on Sunday, a witness said.

And AFP journalists reported sporadic clashes both inside Ramadi and on the outskirts of Fallujah.

Iraqi ground forces commander Staff General Ali Ghaidan Majeed told AFP that security forces killed 11 militants from countries including Afghanistan and various Arab states on the highway from Baghdad to Fallujah.

Majeed admitted “we do not know what is happening in Fallujah”, but said the city should “wait for what is coming” — a reference to the impending assault.

On Friday and Saturday, more than 160 people were killed in the worst violence to hit Anbar province in years.

Both Ramadi and Fallujah were insurgent strongholds in the years after 2003, and Fallujah was the target of two major assaults in which US forces saw some of their heaviest fighting since the Vietnam war.

American troops eventually wrested back control of Anbar from militants, with the support of Sunni Arab tribesmen of the Sahwa militia, who joined forces with the US from late 2006.

US forces suffered almost one-third of their Iraq dead in Anbar, according to independent website icasualties.org.

But two years after US forces withdrew, the power of militants in the province is on the rise.

Fighting erupted in the Ramadi area on December 30, when security forces cleared a year-old protest camp where Sunni Arabs demonstrated against what they see as the marginalisation and targeting of their minority community by the Shiite-led government.

The violence then spread to Fallujah, and the subsequent withdrawal of security forces from parts of both cities cleared the way for militants to seize control.

Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki had long sought the closure of the protest camp outside Ramadi, dubbing it a “headquarters for the leadership of Al Qaeda”.

But its removal has caused a sharp decline in the security situation.

ISIL is the latest incarnation of Al Qaeda’s Iraq affiliate and has made a striking comeback this year, taking advantage of widespread discontent among Sunnis and its newfound bases in neighbouring Syria, where it has become a major player in the nearly three-year-old conflict.

Violence in Iraq last year reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings.

CAIRO –– An Egyptian court on Sunday gave suspended one-year sentences to 12 activists including youth leaders of the 2011 uprising for an attack on a former presidential candidate’s headquarters.

Those sentenced include Alaa Abdel Fattah and Mona Seif, prominent youth activists known for their leading role in the revolt that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

They were convicted of torching and destroying the election campaign headquarters of Ahmed Shafik in May 2012, but acquitted of looting the premises.

They had been referred to trial under now deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who defeated Shafiq in the May and June 2012 election.

Shafiq had withdrawn the complaint against them at the time, saying he did not want to be used by Morsi as a pretext to crack down on secular dissidents.

The jail sentences can be enforced within three years if the defendants are convicted in any other trials.

Abdel Fattah is currently in detention for allegedly taking part in a violent and illegal protest in November. The date for his trial has yet to be determined.

In late November, the military-installed government passed a law that bans all but police-sanctioned demonstrations.

In December, a court sentenced three prominent activists who spearheaded the anti-Mubarak revolt to three years in jail for organising an unlicensed protest.

Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma and Mohamed Adel were convicted in the first such verdict against non-Islamist protesters since Morsi’s ouster by the military in July.

Some secular activists who had supported Morsi’s overthrow now accuse the military-installed government of restricting freedoms.

And in December, Shafiq, who served as Mubarak’s last premier, was acquitted of corruption charges by Egyptian courts, paving the way for his return more than a year after he fled abroad after losing narrowly losing to Morsi.

AMMAN/JERUSALEM –– Syrian rebel fighters loyal to Al Qaeda ceded ground near the Turkish border to rival Islamists on Sunday, activists said, in what seemed to be a tactical withdrawal to end clashes between Syrian- and foreign-led opponents of President Bashar Assad.

As Syria’s civil war gets ever more complex amid a broad regional confrontation between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, the United States raised the prospect of Assad’s sponsor Iran, the Shiite power long at odds with Washington and its Sunni Arab allies, playing some role in this month’s Syrian peace talks.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Tehran still should not take formal part in the peace conference scheduled to start on Lake Geneva on January 22 because it had not endorsed a 2012 accord calling for a new Syrian leadership. But he said there might be ways that Iran could “contribute from the sidelines”.

There is little prospect of a rapid end to the Syrian conflict but the resurgence in Iraq of mutual enemy Al Qaeda, and a recent rapprochement with the new Iranian president, have raised speculation about a common effort between the United States and Tehran to contain instability in the region.

Kerry, visiting Jerusalem, pledged to help Iraq’s Shiite-led government fight Al Qaeda but said Washington was not considering sending US troops, two years after they withdrew.

Syrian opposition activists said the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), allied to Al Qaeda and featuring foreign jihadists among its commanders, had pulled back on Sunday from strongpoint including Al Dana and Atma in Idlib province and that fighters from the Nusra Front and Ahrar Al Sham moved in.

“The Islamic State is pulling out without a fight. Its fighters are taking their weapons and heavy guns,” activist Firas Ahmad said. He added that the ISIL fighters headed in the direction of Aleppo, where Assad’s troops have stepped up pressure on rebel forces who captured the city 18 months ago.

Another activist, Abdallah Al Sheikh, said that some Syrian ISIL fighters had stayed in place but switched allegiance to the Nusra Front, whose commanders are mostly Syrian rather than foreign. Nusra coordinates with the Islamic Front, a coalition of Syrian Islamist brigades that includes Ahrar Al Sham.

Syrian opposition supporters and diplomats said that, despite days of skirmishing in the northwest between ISIL and other rebel factions, a broad alliance involving these groups seemed to be holding in the desert east of the country.

“There is certainly competition between ISIL and the other Islamist militants, but it does not appear there is full-scale confrontation,” a Middle Eastern diplomat said.

The strength of radical Islamists, nearly three years after popular revolt broke out against Assad, has caused Western powers to hold back on practical support for the rebels despite endorsing the goal, shared with Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, of overthrowing the Syrian president.

Syria peace talks

Western powers preparing for the peace conference in Montreux later this month have been pressing other opposition groups, friendlier to Western interests, to resolve their own factional disputes and take a full role in negotiations.

The Syrian National Coalition (SNC), a Western-backed umbrella body formed largely by exiles, was meeting in Istanbul to elect new leaders and vote, probably on Monday, on whether to take part in talks with Assad’s representatives.

Many in the SNC are concerned that it could jeopardise what support it enjoys inside Syria by takiang part in the talks with Assad’s delegates at what is known by the UN organisers as “Geneva II” — a sequel to international talks in Geneva in 2012.

While the Islamic Front and others fighting in Syria have ruled out negotiations, the SNC has said it would take part on certain conditions — though few of these, such as the release of prisoners and more aid to rebel areas, have been met.

Nonetheless, senior SNC member Anas Abdah told Reuters the coalition was under pressure to take part in talks, if only to avoid losing the goodwill and support of Western powers: “The only clear political option is Geneva 2,” he said.

“If we don’t explore this option, the international community might lose interest and not do anything.”

Monzer Makhous, the SNC envoy in Paris, said: “There cannot be a political solution from Geneva because the terms set out by the international community at previous meetings have not been met... But at this stage we have no other option.”

SANAA — Two days of clashes between Shiite rebels and Sunni tribesmen fighting alongside hardline Salafists in northern Yemen have killed at least 23 people, sources said on Sunday.

Fighting has centred for months on a Salafist mosque and Koranic school in Dammaj, which has been besieged by the Shiite rebels known as Houthis.

But the conflict has spread in the northern provinces, embroiling Sunni tribes wary of the power of the Houthis, who have repeatedly been accused of receiving support from Iran.

On Sunday, at least 10 people were killed in Jawf province in clashes between rebels and armed men from the Daham tribe, a tribal chief told AFP.

Seven people were killed at Harf Sufyan, in the northern province of Amran, another tribal chief said on Sunday, while two others died in shelling of Dammaj, in Saada province, Salafist websites reported.

Four people died in fighting that took place in Jawf on Saturday, another tribal chief said.

Houthi rebels this week took over positions evacuated by Salafist gunmen in the area of Kitaf, north of Saada city, witnesses said, adding the rebels demolished the Salafist Dar Al Hadith religious school and 20 houses.

BEIRUT –– Several prominent Lebanese politicians and media figures opposed to Syria’s regime and its ally Hizbollah have been threatened, the official National News Agency (NNA) reported on Sunday.

The report comes less than a fortnight after a car bombing in central Beirut killed eight people including anti-Syria former finance minister and member of the March 14 coalition Mohammad Shatah.

The NNA said Sethrida Geagea, a Christian member of parliament, March 14 member and wife of Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, had a series of threats sent to her mobile phone.

“At 5:00pm 1500 GMT on January 4, Sethrida Geagea MP started receiving calls on her mobile phone from several local, international and hidden numbers,” the agency said, quoting the politician’s media office.

A statement said Geagea’s colleagues answered the calls, and heard “personal threats against her life, insults and obscenities”.

More such calls came on Sunday, the NNA said.

The threats were reported to the security forces, whom Geagea’s office said should “take the necessary measures” to identify the callers.

A string of other personalities have received similar threats, the statement said.

They include former interior minister Ahmad Fatfat, outspoken TV presenter Nadim Koteich and assassination attempt survivor and journalist May Chidiac.

All are seen as high-profile opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime and its powerful Lebanese ally, Hizbollah .

The Shiite movement has sent thousands of fighters into Syria to help Assad’s troops in their bid to crush the revolt that erupted nearly three years ago.

Reports have also emerged that Sunni politician Khaled Daher, a fierce critic of the Damascus regime, has also received threats against his life.

Chatah’s death on December 27 was the latest in a string of nine high-profile assassinations of Syria critics that began in February 2005 with former prime minister Rafik Hariri’s murder.

Syria and Hizbollah have systematically denied any links to the attacks.

An international tribunal tasked with investigating Hariri’s assassination is due to start trying five Hizbollah members in absentia from January 16.

Syria dominated Lebanon for nearly 30 years until the international outcry over Hariri’s killing forced Assad’s troops out.

However, Damascus still exerts influence over Lebanon through its allies.

TUNIS — Debate over Tunisia’s new constitution was suspended Sunday after a deputy claimed he had received death threats because a colleague had accused him of being an “enemy of Islam”.

The outburst came a day after the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) adopted articles making Islam the state religion but guaranteeing freedom of conscience.

Sunday’s row broke out after Mongi Rahoui, a deputy from the leftwing Popular Front, accused Habib Ellouze, of the Islamist ruling party Ennahda, of saying he was an enemy of Islam.

Such words are not empty in Tunisia, a country with a militant Salafist minority suspected of assassinating two opposition politicians last year that threw the country into a grave political crisis.

Addressing Ellouze, a member of Ennahda’s hardline wing known for controversial comments, Rahoui asked: “How much more blood must there be before we understand that we are united [under Islam]”?

“I tell you that I am a Muslim; that my father, my mother, my grandfather and my people are Muslims.”

“What [Ellouze] said yesterday, that I am an enemy of Islam, has lead to death threats against me.”

Ellouze had been quoted by a radio station Saturday as saying Rahoui is “known for his animosity toward religion”.

He said his words had been misinterpreted and apologised to Rahoui.

The session began at 1100 GMT, but was suspended twice when angry protests from some deputies made work impossible.

Elected in October 2011, the NCA was due to have drafted and adopted the text within one year.

But its work was delayed by deep divisions between Ennahda and the opposition, aggravated by a rise in Islamist attacks and sometimes violent social unrest.

The deadlock became a full-blown crisis when suspected jihadists assassinated an opposition MP in July, paralysing political life.

Ennahda, which has been sharply criticised for failing to rein in jihadists, agreed in October to step down as part of a roadmap brokered by mediators.

Prime Minister Ali Larayedh has agreed to resign, turning over power to a transitional premier, Mohamed Jomaa, but insists a constitution and electoral law are in place first to pave the way for elections this year.

To be adopted, the constitution will need approval by two-thirds of the assembly’s 217 members. Otherwise, it will have to be put to a referendum.