*National Affairs
Political Headlines:
1. Mubarak: Arab world in 'best shape'(The Egyptian Gazette)
2. 'Egypt saved Palestinian talks from failure'(The Egyptian Gazette)
3. Envoy outlines ambitious agenda for Cairo tenure(The Egyptian Gazette)
*Regional and International Affairs
Political Headlines:
1. Amnesty accuses Israel of war crimes in Gaza(The Washington Post)
2. 'U.S. can't get Arabs to commit to normal Israel ties'(The Haaretz)
3. Saddam's weapons bluff aimed at Iran: FBI reports(The Washington Post)
4. Major military operation under way in Afghanistan(The San Francisco Chronicle)
5. Report: NKorea likely to fire barrage of missiles (The Washington Post)
6. Hopes for nuclear breakthrough on Obama Moscow trip(The Washington Post)
*****************
*National Affairs
Political Headlines:
1. Mubarak: Arab world in 'best shape'(The Egyptian Gazette)
PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak yesterday said that the Arab world was presently in its 'best shape'.“Occasional problems may surface, but eventually they will be over,” added Mubarak as he toured facilities in the industrial zone of 6 October City outside Cairo. Mubarak had three-way talks with Saudi and Bahraini monarchs in Egypt on Tuesday
.“Mubarak's tour of the industrial area of 6 October City was aimed at encour- aging various industries to increase exports and provide more job opportunities,” the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.Mubarak began his tour in the Universal Group Factory for Electric and Electronic devices, where he listened to a presentation about its growth and the general development of the Egyptian industry sector, according to MENA. Minister of Trade and Industry Rashid Mohamed Rashid and ministers of infor- mation, housing, transport and local development accompanied Mubarak on his tour.
http://www.egyptiangazette.net.eg/gazette/home/detail_2_22.shtml
2. 'Egypt saved Palestinian talks from failure'(The Egyptian Gazette)
EGYPT's intelligence service chief kept talks aimed at reconciling rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah from collapsing completely, a Fatah negotiator said yester- day.“Egypt saved the Palestinian reconciliation from failing, and (intelligence chief) Omar Sulaiman played a vital role in pushing the two sides to reach an agreement
,” said Azzam al-Ahmad, the head of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, before leaving Cairo for Ramallah.Asixth round of Egyptian-brokered talks between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas” Fatah faction, which controls Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank, and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, again adjourned without an agreement on Tuesday.“Sulaiman gave the two sides the chance to go back and consult their leaders and come back for the seventh round of talks on July 25,” said al-Ahmed, adding that they will sign the reconciliation agreement on July 28.Egypt had imposed a July 7 deadline on the groups either to sign an agreement on a national unity government or accept an Egyptian compromise that would see a joint committee coordinate the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and prepare for elections.
http://www.egyptiangazette.net.eg/gazette/region/detail_1_11.shtml
3. Envoy outlines ambitious agenda for Cairo tenure(The Egyptian Gazette)
Three months after named South Korea's Ambassador to Egypt, Jong Kong-yoon has a clear vision of what he has to do during his tenur of duty in this country, which he described as an influential player in this part of the world. “It's a very challenging and daunting task to keep pace with the hectic events taking here every day,” Jong, 53
, told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview, a few days after he presented a copy of his credentials to President Hosni Mubarak. Since his arrival in Cairo in March, he has conferred with ten Egyptian Government ministers and basked in the glory of the country's inspiring history. “I had the chance to attend US President Barack Obama's speech at Cairo University on June 4. This was a very rare event in my diplomatic career.” In 1995, Egypt and South Korea upgraded their consular relations to full diplomatic ties. “During those years, substantial progress has been made in diplomatic, trade, cultural and people-to-people contacts. More and more South Koreans come to your country as tourists,” he said. “In 1999, President Mubarak visited Korea. And in 2006, the President of South Korea (Roh Moo-hyun) returned the visit. Now we are expecting another state visit by President Mubarak.”Despite the “substantial progress” in both countries' relations, Jong believes “there is still so much room” to further develop these ties.
http://www.egyptiangazette.net.eg/gazette/home/detail_2_23.shtml
*Regional and International Affairs
Political Headlines:
1. Amnesty accuses Israel of war crimes in Gaza(The Washington Post)
Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians and destroyed thousands of Gaza Strip homes in attacks that amounted to war crimes, Amnesty International charged Thursday, in the first in-depth human rights group report on the recent war in Gaza.
Amnesty called on Israel to publicly pledge not to use artillery, white phosphorus and other imprecise weapons in densely populated areas. And it urged Gaza's militant Hamas rulers to stop rocket fire against Israeli civilians - attacks it also described as war crimes.
Amnesty - which first accused Israel of war crimes shortly after the fighting ended on Jan. 18 - said "disturbing questions" remain about why high-precision weapons like tank shells and air-delivered bombs and missiles "killed so many children and other civilians."
The group also deplored Israel's use of less-precise artillery shells and highly incendiary white phosphorous in densely populated areas. It also accused Israeli forces of using Palestinians as "human shields" and frequently blocking civilians from receiving medical care and humanitarian aid.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR2009070103769.html
2. 'U.S. can't get Arabs to commit to normal Israel ties'(The Haaretz)
The U.S. administration has not been successful in securing commitments from Arab countries to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel, a senior source in Jerusalem said Wednesday.
The source said U.S. President Barack Obama's recent meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia did not produce a commitment to encourage the other Arab states to begin normalization.
"In such a situation, the Americans can't continue demanding gestures only from Israel, such as the demand that Israel freeze settlement construction," the source said.
In response, a senior White House source said talks with the Arab states are continuing with the aim of obtaining a commitment to make gestures toward Israel, and there is still hope for progress.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak returned to Israel on Wednesday from a meeting with U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell. A senior White House official confirmed reports that progress was made on the issue of settlements, though no agreement had been reached. He added that similar progress had been made in contacts with Arab countries.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097224.html
3. Saddam's weapons bluff aimed at Iran: FBI reports(The Washington Post)
Saddam Hussein believed Iran was a significant threat to Iraq and left open the possibility that he had weapons of mass destruction rather than appear vulnerable, according to declassified FBI documents on interrogations of the former Iraqi leader.
"Hussein believed that Iraq could not appear weak to its enemies, especially Iran," FBI special agent George Piro wrote on notes of a conversation with Saddam in June 2004 about weapons of mass destruction.
He believed Iraq was being threatened by others in the region and must appear able to defend itself, the report said.
The FBI reports, released on Wednesday, said Saddam asserted that he was more concerned about Iran discovering Iraq's weaknesses and vulnerabilities than the repercussions of the United States for blocking the return of UN weapons inspectors who were searching for WMD.
"In his opinion, the UN inspectors would have directly identified to the Iranians where to inflict maximum damage to Iraq," according to the documents obtained and released by the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute.
Saddam began a bloody border war with Iran in 1980 that lasted until 1988, during which Iraq used chemical weapons.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200153.html
4. Major military operation under way in Afghanistan(The San Francisco Chronicle)
Thousands of U.S. Marines poured from helicopters and armored vehicles into Taliban-controlled villages of southern Afghanistan Thursday in the first major operation under President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize the country.
The offensive was launched shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday local time (4:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, 2030 GMT Wednesday) in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and the world's largest opium poppy producing area. The goal is to clear insurgents from the hotly contested region before the nation's Aug. 20 presidential election.
Officials described the operation, dubbed Khanjar, or "Strike of the Sword," as the largest and fastest-moving of the war's new phase and the biggest Marine offensive since the one in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. It involves nearly 4,000 newly arrived Marines plus 650 Afghan forces. British forces last week led similar, but smaller, missions to clear out insurgents in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar province.
"Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said in a statement.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/01/international/i171254D15.DTL
5. Report: NKorea likely to fire barrage of missiles (The Washington Post)
North Korea is highly likely to test-fire a barrage of missiles in coming days, a news report said Thursday, a move that would aggravate the already-high tensions following Pyongyang's nuclear test and U.N. sanctions.
The North is expected to launch short- or medium-range missiles, including banned ballistic rockets, from two sites on its east coast in early July, the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported, citing an unidentified intelligence source.
Last month, Pyongyang designated a no-sail zone off its east coast for military drills through July 10. Media reports have said the missile launches could come around July 4, the U.S. Independence Day. The North tested a long-range missile on that day in 2006.
New missiles launches would seriously exacerbate the tensions running high since Pyongyang's May 25 nuclear test and a series of missile firings. The U.N. Security Council adopted a tough sanctions resolution last month to punish the communist regime.
Versions of short-range Scud or medium-range Rodong missiles are expected to be fired from one site in Anbyon, the JoongAng said. The Scud B missile has a range of 210 miles (340 kilometers) and the Rodong 1 has a range of more than 620 miles (1,000 kilometers), it said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070200109.html
6. Hopes for nuclear breakthrough on Obama Moscow trip(The Washington Post)
Hopes are rising on both sides that President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow next week will produce a breakthrough in talks on cutting U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons and on helping Washington in Afghanistan.
Officially, neither side has made an announcement but diplomats believe Obama will agree with President Dmitry Medvedev on the outline of a deal to reduce the stocks of deployed nuclear warheads to below 1,700 on each side.
"We are confident that we will secure an agreement committing both sides to cutting warheads to fewer than 1,700," one person close to the talks said.
Obama and Medvedev gave the go-ahead to talks on a new strategic arms treaty to replace START-1, which expires on December 5, when they met for the first time in London in April.
Sergei Ryabkov, a Russian deputy foreign minister, said on Tuesday that progress in the arms talks had been "beyond what was expected when we started."
By December, Ryabkov told the state-run RIA news agency, he expected a "solid document with a range of measures for testing and exchange of information...and real reductions in strategic offensive weapons."
Estimates of current nuclear stockpiles differ but according to the U.S.-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the start of 2009 the United States had around 2,200 operationally deployed strategic nuclear warheads and Russia around 2,790.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR2009070102283.html