1. Military affairs
a. Short range rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel.
b. An Israeli patrol was fired at from Gaza. Return fire killed one person.
c. Egyptian sources have denied reports that a wall is being constructed along its border with Gaza.
2. Middle Eastern diplomacy
a. Arrest warrants against Israeli officials have again become an issue.
i. Reports indicate that a London magistrate issued an arrest warrant for Kadima party chairwoman Tzipi Livni accusing her of complicity in ‘war crimes.’ The warrant was issued at the request of Palestinian lawyers in London on the basis of Livni having been Foreign Minister during Operation Cast Lead in January 2009. The warrant was dismissed when it became clear that Livni was not in the United Kingdom (UK). (Photo by Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
ii. It is unclear from published reports whether Livni changed her plans and avoided traveling to the UK because of the warrant.
iii. The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement urging “the British government to once and for all honor its promises to take action to prevent anti-Israel forces from exploiting the British legal system to act against Israel and its citizens…The absence of resolute and immediate action to redress this distortion harms relations between the two countries.” The statement added “If Israeli leaders cannot visit Britain in a dignified manner, it will naturally be a real obstacle to Britain’s desire to have an active role in the peace process in the Middle East.”
iv. The Foreign Ministry also summoned the British ambassador to protest the warrant.
v. The British Foreign Ministry issued a stated saying “The UK is determined to do all it can to promote peace in the Middle East, and to be a strategic partner of Israel…To do this, Israel’s leaders need to be able to come to the UK for talks with the British Government. We are looking urgently at the implications of this case.”
vi. After a meeting with the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband stated the arrest warrant was “insufferable.”
b. Lebanese President Michel Suleiman is visiting Washington for meetings with U.S. officials including President Barack Obama. In a press conference with Suleiman, Obama “emphasized to him our concerns about the extensive arms that are smuggled into Lebanon that potentially serve as a threat to Israel.” Suleiman and Obama did not publicly address the issue of U.S. military aid to Lebanon and the possible diversion of arms to Hezbollah.
c. In a speech before the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Central Committee Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas stated “We will renew negotiations if the settlements are completely halted and the 1967 borders recognized as the borders of the Palestinian state.” Abbas added “There is one thing I will not accept: a return to violence.” (Photo by Issam Rimawi/FLASH90)
d. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinedjad met with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Tehran and stated “The government and the people of Iran will always stand by the Palestinian resistance and the Palestinian people.”
e. Sa’eed Jalili, chief Iranian nuclear negotiator, Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the ‘expediency discernment council,’ and Manouchehr Mottaki, Iranian Foreign Minister, met with the Hamas politburo in Damascus. Jalili stated that ‘resistance is the only way to restore the usurped rights of the Palestinian people.’ Mottaki stated “We congratulate the anniversary of establishment of Hamas and the Iranian people, too, joyfully participate at celebration of resistance anniversary along with the people of Gaza and Hamas.”
3. Palestinian politics
a. Hamas held rallies in Gaza on the 22nd anniversary of the movement’s founding. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh stated “We will never give up on a Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, a land of Islamic Waqf [religious endowment]. It is not enough for Hamas to liberate Gaza… Hamas strives to liberate all of Palestine.”
b. The Palestinian Authority (PA) banned public celebrations by Hamas supporters in the West Bank.
4. Iran
a. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stated that Iran was willing to accept part of the international proposal to exchange low enriched uranium (LEU) for high enriched uranium (HEU) from the international community. Iran would be willing to exchange 400 kilos of LEU for an equivalent amount of HEU rather than its entire stockpile of approximately 1200 kilograms, as called for in the international proposal. The U.S. rejected Mottaki’s statement.
b. Syrian Defense Minister Ali Muhammad Habib and his Iranian counterpart, Ahmad Vahidi, signed a military cooperation agreement on behalf of their countries.
c. Reports indicate that the talks between the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) on Iran have been postponed at the request of China.
d. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated “I don’t think anyone can doubt that our outreach has produced very little in terms of any kind of a positive response from the Iranians…The second track of our dual-track strategy is to bring the international community together, to stand in a united front against the Iranians and try to impress upon them the importance of changing their actions and decisions concerning their nuclear program…Certainly, additional pressure is going to be called for in order to do that.”
e. Thirty-five tons of munitions were seized from a North Korean aircraft in Thailand. The munitions reportedly included explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, and components for surface-to-air missiles. The five man crew, four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus, was detained. Observers suggest the munitions were en route to Iran.
