DEBKAfile - Search Articles

International

Regional

Search Articles

Keywords:
Category:
Order by:

Found 1281 articles

Obama committed to close ties with Israel - but demands settlement freeze

June 30, 2009, 1:25 PM (GMT+02:00)

Ahead of his high-profile speech of reconciliation to the Muslims world June 4, US president Barack Obama vowed to sustain close US tie with Israel but said the status quo in the region was "unsustainable" for Israel's security. In a National Public Radio interview late Monday, June 1, he emphasized his differences with Israel when he said: "We do have to retain a constant belief in… negotiations that will lead to peace" and "I've said that a freeze on settlements, including expansion to accommodate successive generations of settlers, is part of that." Israeli leaders must practice the same honesty as the United States - and be less defensive, say DEBKAfile's political sources, and say out loud that the Arab and Muslim world thrusts the "Middle East" issue, a euphemism for Israel, to the fore to present a solid front to the West, while avoiding addressing the real problems afflicting their societies and relations with the United States.
In full

DEBKAfile lifts fog from the Obama-Netanyahu balance sheet

June 30, 2009, 1:24 PM (GMT+02:00)

Almost a week after Israeli prime minister held his first talks with US president Barack Obama at the White House, last Tuesday, May 18, some of the fog obscuring their content is finally beginning to clear. The White House was forced to rebut a major misapprehension, that the US president would use his June 4 speech in Cairo to launch a new Middle East peace plan. There never was such a plan, DEBKAfile's Washington sources confirm. Obama did not demand the repartition of Jerusalem; neither is he keen to pursue the Palestinian issue at all at this time. He was mostly after space to engage in negotiation with Tehran without the threat of a surprise Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear sites hanging over the talks. Netanyahu, on the one hand, persuaded Obama for the first time to accept a time limit for those talks; on the other, it is longer than Israel thinks safe. But he stood by his refusal to endorse Obama's "two state" solution of the Palestinian issue in return. Still, he knew the deadline would be hard to sell at home, especially after Iran successfully test- fired its first accurate long-range surface to surface missile while he was still in Washington.
In full

President Obama favored losing candidate in Iran's election

June 30, 2009, 1:24 PM (GMT+02:00)

Backers of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi

Friday night, June 12, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was already on his way to victory in Iran's turbulent presidential election although only the first votes had been counted. By Saturday morning, it was clear he had won a landslide for a second term, widening the gap with his closest rival opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. According to final results, the incumbent won 62.6 percent of the vote, Mousavi 33.75 percent. This contradicted Western predictions that the record-breaking turnout of 85 percent of Iran's 46 million eligible voters favored the challenger. Yet strangely enough, even then, Washington and the US media were still doggedly insisting that that the reformist Mousavi could still make it in a run-off, although that door had been finally slammed shut by the president's broad majority.
In full

Obama thaw on Israeli settlement construction follows Iran setback, Saudi brush-off

June 30, 2009, 1:24 PM (GMT+02:00)

An Israeli West Bank community

The Obama administration signalled a new mood of compromise on settlement construction just ahead of the key talks in New York between Israel's defense minister Ehud Barak and prime minister's adviser Yitzhak Molcho and US envoy George Mitchell Tuesday, June 30. DEBKAfile's political analysts attribute this change to four new developments: The first two are: 1. The prospect of direct US-Iranian dialogue on the nuclear issue has vanished into the blue yonder as relations go from bad to worse in the aftermath of Iran's disputed presidential election. A tough US stance against Israel as a bargaining chip with Iran is no longer relevant. 2. Saudi Arabia has made it clear that even if the Netanyahu government surrenders to the US demand for a total halt in settlement activity, Arab concessions will not be forthcoming. The Obama administration had factored Arab reciprocity into its campaign to halt Israel's settlement activity. When it was denied, the White House saw no point in continuing to lean on Israel.
In full

First round in Internet war goes to Iranian intelligence

June 28, 2009, 4:00 PM (GMT+02:00)

Millions of sympathizers around the world looked forward to seeing Iran's protest movement using the Internet for the first online coup in history. Instead, the Iranian Islamic regime turned the tables: Its Internet police, arguably the largest in the world, pushed "control," "halt," "delete" and "send" buttons to activate a deadly weapon for suppressing the movement, as soon as it took to the streets to protest the June 12 election which was believed to have given Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a false victory. By Sunday, June 28, when the Guardian Council was to hand down its final verdict on their complaints, the street rallies had petered out. Part of the reason, DEBKAfile's intelligence sources report, was their organizers' heavy reliance on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other social sites to orchestrate their protest movement. They did not at first appreciate that Iranian intelligence Internet experts, operating from secret headquarters established months ago, were using their communications to shoot them down.
In full

Washington infighting mutes Netanyahu-Obama differences

June 28, 2009, 3:55 PM (GMT+02:00)

Netanyahu, Obama met before they won office

In less than a month, aides in Washington and Jerusalem have transmuted the head-on clash forecast for the first meeting between Binyamin Netanyahu has Israel's prime minister and US president Barack Obama Monday, May 18, into a warm, amicable encounter, DEBKAfile's political analysts say. This is less thanks to the Likud prime minister having softened his positions on Iran and the Palestinian issue, more to the political furor gripping Democratic Washington and the fraying of the president's key Middle East policies: Expectations of constructive dialogue with Tehran have receded, the Turkish-Syrian get-together Obama fostered has turned its back on Washington and the Palestinians are incapable of uniting on power-sharing or representation. Options for curtailing Iran's nuclear program will be tossed back and forth at length, according to Netanyahu's national security adviser Uzi Arad. He has said that so long as the Islamic Republic never gets its hands on a bomb, it is immaterial how this objective is achieved.
In full

Al Qaeda again switches tactics for Lahore bombing

June 28, 2009, 3:54 PM (GMT+02:00)

Although Pakistan's Taliban took responsibility, the latest bombing attack in Pakistan's third city, Lahore, Wednesday, May 27, in which 27 people lost their lives and 294 people were badly hurt, was executed on its behalf by al Qaeda's new strike units. These units, made up mainly of fighters from Lashkar-e-Taiba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, have been reinforced lately by an influx of Saudis, Yemenis, Syrians and Libyans, who fought the Americans in Iraq. Their methods have changed four times in the last six months, adapted to their individual missions. DEBKAfile's counter-terror experts note that they are evidently being run by a proactive command, capable of great tactical flexibility. Al Qaeda is no longer satisfied with simple massacres. The last six months show that each operation is designed to make a separate point.
In full

Terrorism not ruled out in Air France crash mystery

June 28, 2009, 3:54 PM (GMT+02:00)

Divers pull Air France tail fin out of Atlantic Ocean

A week after Air France A330's unexplained fatal dive into the Atlantic June 1, DEBKAfile reports from Paris that US, French and Brazilian investigators have begun going through the list of more than 200 passengers on the flight from Rio to Paris with a tooth comb. They are looking at the victims' countries of origin, family, social and denominational associations for possible clues to the mysterious disaster. As long as the fog surrounding the tragedy remains impenetrable, a man-made disaster cannot be ruled out. Both the French defense minister and Pentagon have said there were no signs that terrorism was involved in the crash. This was short of an outright denial. But some terror experts are not excluding a terrorist attack.
In full

Netanyahu-Mubarak Talks Aim to produce Arab-Israeli Front versus Iran

June 13, 2009, 6:01 PM (GMT+02:00)

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak open to ideas for resisting Iran

If successful, Binyamin Netanyahu's first meeting as Israeli prime minister with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak at Sharm el Sheikh Monday, May 11, may well mark an epic turning-point in Middle East history recalling the 1979 peace breakthrough with Egypt. Their common goals – and Mubarak speaks for the Saudi king Abdullah on this issue – are the formation of an Arab-Israeli front against Iran and putting a spoke in US president Barack Obama's planned détente with Tehran. Most of all, the Netanyahu government utterly rejects the Palestinian-Iran tradeoff proposed by the Obama administration - and reaffirmed by US National adviser Gen. James Jones Sunday - that a two state-solution would diminish Iran's existential threat to Israel. Israel points out that no guarantees are offered for the latter. Therefore, Netanyahu prefers to put the Iranian menace on a different, regional footing.
In full

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 …