Saturday, April 22, 2006 News

 Egypt's Mubarak invites Olmert for official visit, Olmert aides say

 Abbas vetoes Samhadana appointment

 Olmert: Orders for Tel Aviv bombing originated in Syria

 Abbas: Freeze in EU aid 'unjustified'

Egypt's Mubarak invites Olmert for official visit, Olmert aides say

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has invited interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Egypt for an official visit, Olmert's office said Friday, HAARETZ reported.

The date of the visit is to be set next week, it said.

Mubarak extended the invitation in a telephone call to Olmert, and wished him luck in forming his coalition, Army Radio reported Friday.

The invitation comes even before Olmert has set up his incoming government, signaling that Egypt is eager to do business with him.

It will be the first meeting between Israeli and Egyptian leaders since February 2005, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon attended a Mubarak-brokered cease-fire package between Israel and the Palestinians in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Egypt is a key mediator between Israel and the Palestinians. On Thursday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Cairo was trying to bring together Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to resume peace talks.

Abbas, leader of the Fatah Party, favors talks. But the Hamas militants who took power in parliament and the Cabinet after January elections refuse to end their violent campaign against Israel or recognize its right to exist, and Olmert has said he wouldn't negotiate with Abbas until Hamas changes its ways.

Abbas vetoes Samhadana appointment

Palestinian leader's aide says controversial security appointment to be nullified

A day after Popular Resistance Committees head Jamal Abu Samhadana was appointed as the PA Interior Ministry director-general, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas reportedly decided to veto the controversial appointment, amid Israeli and American criticism, YNET reported.

A presidential decree obtained by Reuters said Abbas had cancelled the decision because it violated previous laws. "All security leaders, officers and members of the security services are ordered not to deal with these decisions and regard them as if they never happened," the decree stated.

Earlier, Taib Abdel Rahim, Abbas' aide, made it clear the PA chairman does not intend the let the appointment, announced Thursday by Interior Minister on behalf of Hamas Said Siyam, to go through.

According to Rahim, a letter on the matter will be sent from Abbas' office to Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh from the Hamas.

"The letter will note that the decision is illegal…the chairman will issue a presidential decree to annul the appointment," he said, and added that the decision to appoint Samhadana was unclear and that Abbas will seek clarifications from the Hamas-led government.

On Thursday it was reported that Samhadana, the number two figure on Israel's most wanted list and the man behind most rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, was appointed to the top Interior Ministry post, which controls the Palestinian security organizations.

On Friday, Samhadana made it clear he has no intention to stop fighting against Israel despite the government appointment.

The various Palestinian factions and security forces will be uniting in the face of Israel's daily aggression against the Palestinian people, Samhadana said.

Olmert: Orders for Tel Aviv bombing originated in Syria

Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asserted on Friday that Syrian and Iran were behind Monday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that killed nine Israelis and wounded dozens.

"The order for the Tel Aviv suicide bombing came from Damascus and when the operation was complete the report went back to Damascus," Olmert told a visiting group of US senators, according to his office.

He noted that the Iranians, using Syria as a mediator, were funding and guiding terrorism against Israel. He also mentioned the strengthening ties between the two states and Hamas. "There is a channel of communication between Iran, Syria and the Palestinian Authority," claimed Olmert.

Addressing the Palestinian front, the interim prime minister said that Israel preferred to deal with them diplomatically, but if the terrorist attacks continued, then Israel would have no choice but to see to its own security using unilateral measures.

Olmert warned that it would be the Palestinians who suffered if Israel unilaterally declared its own borders. On the other hand, Hamas Member of Parliament Mushir al-Masri, in an interview to al-Arabiya, warned that Israel defining the final borders on its own would exacerbate the situation in the whole region.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also met with the US representatives on Thursday.

Abbas: Freeze in EU aid 'unjustified'

The European Union's freeze on direct aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government is "unjustified," Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said in a newspaper interview published Friday, The JERUSALEM POST Reported.

The European Union's freeze on direct aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government is "unjustified," Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said in a newspaper interview published Friday, The JERUSALEM POST Reported.

Abbas said he would explain his position during visits to Norway, Turkey and France next week, "so that the Palestinians are not penalized by the economic blockade."

"I believe that the stop in European aid is unjustified," he told Le Monde.

"If European countries do not want contacts with the Palestinian government, there are other means to maintain aid destined for the Palestinian people," including channeling funding through his office, "which would receive and redistribute it," said Abbas, who is due in Paris next Thursday and Friday.

Although the EU said it would continue to fund health care, education and other humanitarian projects, the indefinite freeze of direct budgetary aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government will dry up hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) in annual EU money that had been going directly into the Palestinian Authority's budget for a wide range of infrastructure projects and the payroll for 140,000 government employees.

Hamas, which won the Jan. 25 Palestinian legislative elections, is on the EU's list of terrorist organizations, a designation that bars EU officials from any dealings with the group.

The United States, Canada and non-EU member Norway have also cut off payments.

Abbas said government employees' salaries should be paid, in full or in part, as soon as possible.

"We are going to make proposals along this line to the Americans and Europeans in the hope that they will be accepted," he said.

Abbas also said that Hamas must fall into line with his moderate positions or risk isolation. He said he had hoped that the militant Islamic group would condemn this week's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv claimed by Islamic Jihad, but "unfortunately, they did not."

"I hope that they will change their position in the future. I try night and day to convince them to adopt my policies, which are moderate. If they do not, they will end up totally isolated, and thus incapable of accomplishing their mission," Abbas said.

Meanwhile, France said it refused a visa for the Palestinian planning minister, Samir Abu Eisha, to attend a conference in Paris. The visa refusal was in line with an EU decision to suspend contacts with the Palestinian government as long as Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and respect previous peace accords, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said.

He said France is also in contact with its European partners to determine how to respond to other such visa requests that have been made.

(Courtesy of Israel Line, Israel Consulate, New York)