Putin says Medvedev and he have close opinions about Libyan events

File picture : Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, left and President Dmitry Medvedev

LJUBLJANA, March 23 (KATAKAMI.COM) -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that President Dmitry Medvedev and he had very close opinions about the situation in Libya and stressed that the president determined the Russian foreign policy, Russian News Agency ITAR TASS reported on Tuesday.

“As for the unity or no unity in the opinions of Russian leaders about the events in Libya, the president determines the foreign policy of Russia and there cannot be any duality there,” Putin said. “If you ask me whether Mr. Medvedev and I have different views, I can assure you that we are close to each other and have mutual understanding.” 

“As for the core of the problem, we must think about victims, whose number is growing in the civil war and the bombings. That is what we must think about in the first turn. First and foremost, those involved in the tragedy must think about that and pray for saving their souls,” he stressed.  (*)

Netanyahu, Abbas May Cross Paths in Moscow as Russia Seeks Role

File picture : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

March 23, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM / Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to Moscow today, where he will cross paths with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as they consult separately with a Russian leadership looking to insert itself into Middle East peacemaking.

As reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday, violence has been escalating between Israel and the Hamas- controlled Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers yesterday fired mortar shells into Gaza killing four teenagers playing soccer, and an air strike left three other people dead in a separate incident, a Gaza health official said.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks stalled in September after Netanyahu refused to extend a 10-month partial construction freeze in West Bank settlements. Abbas has said he won’t negotiate with Israel while the building continues.

There is “nothing planned in terms of a meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu in Moscow,” Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said in a phone interview, adding that the timing of the visits likely wasn’t coincidental.

“The Russians have always expressed the desire to convene an international conference on the Israel-Palestinian front, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is what they are pushing now,” Ashrawi said.

‘Act with Determination’

Netanyahu said he regrets that innocent civilians were killed in the violence yesterday and pinned blame on Hamas, which he said launched rockets at Israel while using civilians as a human shield.

“Israel has no intention of bringing about a deterioration in the situation,” Netanyahu said in an e-mailed statement. “At the same time, the Israeli military will act with determination to protect Israel’s civilians.”

The Israeli army said in a statement that both of the strikes in Gaza were aimed at Palestinians firing mortar shells and rockets at southern Israel.

A group of masked militants fired mortar shells at Israel from near a playground where teenagers were playing soccer, said 28-year-old Mohammed, an eyewitness who asked that his full name be withheld for fear of reprisal. He said minutes after the mortars were fired the Israelis shot back.

Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, ending a partnership government with Abbas’s Fatah after winning parliamentary elections the previous year. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union and the U.S.

At least 19 Gazans have been injured in the current round of violence, according to Adham Abu Selmeya, chief of emergency services in Gaza, who confirmed yesterday’s deaths. He said an eighth man was clinically dead from Israeli shelling.

Drive to Mediate

Abbas met yesterday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who told reporters afterwards he was concerned about peace efforts in the wake of continuing turmoil in the region, according to the Kremlin. Medvedev, on a visit to Jericho in January, renewed a call Russia first made last year for a Middle East peace conference to be held in Russia.

“Moscow has long considered itself one of the countries in the front line to mediate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” said Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. “The fact that Moscow is inviting both sides no doubt demonstrates its drive to be a mediator.”

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tomorrow to discuss the peace process, Iran, changes going on in the region, bi-lateral relations and economic cooperation, an Israeli official said, speaking anonymously because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the record.

Cruise Missiles

Israel’s relations with Russia have been strained by Moscow’s arm sales to its enemies, including Syria and Iran. Israel protested Russia’s announced sale last September of anti- ship Yakhont cruise missiles worth more than $300 million sales to Syria. Russia last year scrapped an $800 million delivery of S-300 air defense systems to Iran in compliance with U.N.- imposed international sanctions.

Israel “has not much leverage” to influence Russian arms sales, said Amnon Sella, a Russian-studies expert at Israel’s Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. “With the Middle East in upheaval, it is very important for Russia to maintain its position in the region, and one of the ways it does so is through the sale of weapons systems.”   (*)

Photostream : Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad meets with U.S. Senator John Kerry

US Senator John Kerry (C) waves as his arrives at the Palestinian Authority headquarters for a meeting with prime minister Salam Fayyad on March 22, 2011 in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Photo by ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad (R) shakes hands with U.S. Senator John Kerry during their meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah March 22, 2011. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, left, meets with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, March 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh: President’s invite still open

GAZA CITY, March 23, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM) — Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday that his invitation to President Mahmoud Abbas to hold talks in the Gaza Strip was still open.

As reported by Ma’an News Agency on Tuesday, Haniyeh said he invited Abbas to the enclave to continue talks to resolve the national split between Hamas and Fatah, and their rival governments in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The Gaza premier called for emergency talks on Tuesday as massive youth protests broke out in the Gaza Strip and across the West Bank demanding an end to the division.

Abbas accepted the invitation Wednesday, but said the purpose of his visit was to make a unity deal, not to discuss one.

Senior Fatah official Azzam Al-Ahmad said Saturday that “Dialogue has become like deaf people trying to communicate. There is nothing left to talk about. Any further dialogue will have to follow after reconciliation is achieved and not before.”

During a visit to the home of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the Gaza premier said reconciliation would only be reached through dialogue.

Haniyeh called for a national conference to bring together Palestinians in the occupied territories and in the diaspora to discuss national issues, including elections for the Palestinian National Council.

He added that the Hamas-run government in Gaza was committed to national unity.

Meanwhile, Abbas’ advisor Nimir Hammad said the Palestinian Authority had not received any positive feedback from Hamas about the president’s initiative to visit Gaza. He said some Hamas spokesmen had responded negatively to the planned visit.

Hammad told Ma’an radio that Hamas leaders thought by continuing the national division they could keep control of Gaza.

At a meeting with Arab ambassadors in Budapest on Monday, Abbas said that if Hamas leaders accepted his initiative, he would cut short engagements in Europe and head straight to the Gaza Strip.

He added that if Israel tried to prevent the visit, he would travel through Egypt.

“If the Israelis won’t allow me to visit Gaza through the Erez crossing, I will go via the Rafah crossing. In fact I am ready to break my visit to Hungary and head to Gaza immediately if Hamas agrees.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to slam the developments towards Palestinian unity. In a CNN interview broadcast Thursday, he said Palestinian reconciliation would be the end of the peace process.

The president has not yet set a date for the meeting, but the trip would be a landmark visit.

Abbas has not set foot in Gaza since Hamas ousted Fatah from the coastal enclave in 2007 in clashes which neared civil war.

The parties’ rivalry dates back two decades, and several years of unity talks have so far failed to reconcile the factions.

The split has badly damaged the Palestinian national movement and divided the Palestinian territories, which are governed by separate authorities.   (*)

Salam Fayyad freezes cabinet reshuffle to make way for possible unity government

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad speaks at the northern West Bank village of Al-Jalameh Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011. Fayyad on Sunday angrily denounced the U.S. veto of a United Nations resolution condemning Israel's West Bank settlements and offered to form a unity government with the rival Hamas militant group. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

RAMALLAH, March 22, 2011 (KATAKAMI.COM) — Palestinian Prime Minister- designate Salam Fayyad froze the reshuffle of his West Bank-based government to make way for President Mahmoud Abbas’ proposal to form a unity government with the Gaza Strip, an official said Tuesday, Xinhua News Agency reported.

“There has been nothing new with Fayyad’s authorization to reshuffle the government,” the official told Xinhua, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Fayyad will not resume negotiations with Palestinian technocrats, politicians and representatives of factions to join his government until at least Friday, when Abbas will return from an external tour, the official added.

The legal five-week period in which Fayyad should have completed the formation of his government ended Monday.

Last week, Abbas said he is ready to visit the Gaza Strip, controlled by Islamic Hamas movement, to form a technocratic unity government preparing for national elections within six months.

Abbas’ declaration came in response to an invitation by Ismail Haneya, head of the deposed Hamas government that rules Gaza. In 2007, Hamas ousted pro-Abbas forces and his Fatah party and took over Gaza.

Welcoming Abbas’ response, Hamas said it needs to resume dialogue with Fatah to resolve issues related to security, elections and the reform of Palestine Liberation Organization.

However, Abbas said his visit to Gaza is subject to Hamas’ ac

Gaza’s cherry tomatoes selling in Europe

GAZA CITY, March 22, 2-11 (KATAKAMI.COM) — Cherry tomatoes grown by farmers in Gaza can now compete with settlement produce on European supermarket shelves, Ma’an News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The Gaza Strip has exported cherry tomatoes since the 1980s, said Jamal Abu An-Naja, who manages the export of vegetables and flowers from southern Gaza.

But under Israel’s blockade, Gaza’s export market collapsed. Israel’s military has maintained complete control over the enclave’s airspace and coast since 1967, so merchants cannot transport their goods by sea or air from the Gaza Strip. When Israel closed the land crossings in 2007, Gaza traders and farmers could no longer access lucrative markets abroad.

Under a Dutch-funded program, Israel agreed to allow the limited export of agricultural produce to Europe.

An-Naja told Ma’an that 10 farmers took the risk this year of growing flowers and vegetables on around 25 dunums in the Gaza Strip, in the hope that Israel would allow them to export the harvest. Much of the produce rotted as farmers waited for permits from Israeli authorities to transport the goods across the border and into Europe.

Growing tomatoes on one dunum of land costs around $3000, An-Naja said, adding that the Dutch government helped to finance the farmers.

Gaza farmers are keen to export to Europe, where one kilo of cherry tomatoes sells for between $1 – $2.5. In Gaza markets, it sells for around 2 shekels ($0.50).   (*)