“Palestinians are encouraged by the commitment President Obama and his administration have shown to Middle East peace,” Saeb Erakat, a Fatah member and the Palestinians’ top official said on Friday.

Erekat said the establishment of a viable Palestinian state and a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem would make the region more secure and stable.

But, he warned “the peace process lives on borrowed time,” saying it would not survive another round of failed negotiations.

“Israel’s failure to implement its obligations under existing agreements has eroded its credibility, while its continued settlement activities are undermining the very viability of the two state solution,” Erakat said.

Hamas reaction

Hamas, however, called the meeting a continuation of Abbas’ “way of begging” to the US and the “Zionist entity.”

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said the meeting would “accomplish nothing but more pressure on Abbas.”

He said the US administration would fail to take “any action on the ground” to halt Israeli “aggressions” and realise Palestinian rights.

In the meeting on Thursday Obama called for a stop to Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and emphasised the two-state solution.

However, Benyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, refused to openly endorse the two-state solution during a meeting with Obama on May 18.

He also rejected the US and Palestinian demand for an absolute freeze in settlement activity.

Netanyahu promised not to build new settlements, but vowed to continue construction in existing ones to accommodate for “natural growth.”

Palestinians differ on US promises

The exercise was aimed at testing the air force’s ability to counter rocket and missile attacks from the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria and archfoe Iran, as well as the infiltration of jets overland, the official told AFP.

This is the first time the Israeli army has simulated strikes from the Islamic republic, located more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away, he said.

The drill, however, did not simulate a strike on Iran, the official said, amid foreign media reports that Israel had recently performed massive air exercises to simulate strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

On Wednesday, Iran said it had successfully test-fired a new medium-range surface to surface missile capable of reaching Israel, a move which raised concern in the United States.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said that the exercise “was successful and important. What we saw strengthens our security that there is someone we can trust.”

Heavy air force jet and helicopter activity was noticeable across the country during the drill, among the biggest the air force has ever carried out.

An Israeli army spokesman said the exercise was “routine and part of the army’s annual training plan and is intended to prepare the Israeli air force to successfully face any possible threat.”

Israel, widely considered to be the Middle East’s sole nuclear armed power, suspects the Islamic republic of using its nuclear programme to develop atomic weapons, a charge that Tehran has long denied.

The Jewish state considers Tehran to be its arch-enemy because of repeated calls by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that countering Iran’s nuclear ambitions topped his agenda and that the Jewish state reserves its right to self-defence against Iran.

Israel wraps up drill to combat Iran strike

The claim on Saturday came after battles which left scores of people dead and provoked the government to threaten to break off ties with neighbouring Sudan.

Idriss Deby Itno, the Chadian president, renewed his accusations that the Union of Resistance Forces (UFR) is being backed by Sudan, warning that diplomacy between the nations could be cut.

The Chadian government says at least 225 UFR fighters and 22 soldiers were killed in the clashes south of the main eastern city of Abeche on Thursday and Friday.

Adoum Younousmi, Chad’s defence minister, said on Saturday: “It is a decisive victory.”

‘Khartoum involvement’

Deby, speaking at the presidential palace on Saturday, said: “The government must re-evaluate relations between Sudan and Chad, and envisages – if the situation does not evolve positively – the rupture of these relations.

“To this end, Sudanese cultural centres must be closed and schools financed by Sudan must be taken over by the Chadian government. Teachers who are really intelligence agents ought to return home.”

Deby himself took power in a putsch launched from Sudan in 1990. Khartoum rejects the accusations of involvement with the UFR.

South of Abeche, in the town of Am-Dam, government forces showed off their booty and prisoners to journalists, who also saw dozens of bodies and burned-out vehicles.

But a UFR source claimed that their forces were still massed southeast of Abeche and are intent on taking the capital, at least 600km to the west.

Adam Mustafa Ibrahim, the governor of Abeche, told Al Jazeera: “Security forces are on alert; they are patrolling the borders and control the situation.

“We do not pay attention to rumours, but if there is solid information regarding rebel movements, we will attack them as we have before.”

The fighting looks to have ended a peace accord signed by Khartoum and Ndjamena two weeks ago – the latest in a series of deals, none of which has had any longevity.

International criticism

The UN security council on Friday condemned the UFR incursion into eastern Chad from Sudan.

All 15 ambassadors agreed to a non-binding statement that “condemns the renewed military incursions in eastern Chad of Chadian armed groups, coming from outside”.

The UN statement also stressed that “any attempt at destabilisation of Chad by force is unacceptable”.

The European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) have spoken out against the UFR offensive.

Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, called on “the armed groups coming from Sudan in the east of Chad … to renounce violence and begin negotiations with the Chad government.”

Meanwhile, Ramtane Lamara, the AU’s peace and security commissioner, condemned “all kinds of anti-constitutional change of government, and acts of destabilisation”.

Chadian opposition fighters have sought to overthrow Deby for more than three years.

The UFR is led by Tiimane Erdimi, Deby’s nephew, who once held the brief of oil affairs in the government.

However, a split occurred within Deby’s inner circle over how to deal with the conflict in Darfur in Sudan leading to the rebellion.

Deby and many of his senior military officers hail from Sudan and have relatives living in Darfur.

About 300,000 Darfuri war refugees are camped in eastern Chad along with about 187,000 Chadians who have been uprooted by fighting in Chad and Darfur.

Chad claims victory over rebels

Harper raised the issue in talks with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek Wednesday in Prague on the sidelines of an EU-Canada meeting, Prague radio reported.

Harper said the Czech Republic violated conditions under which Canada has issued free entry visas since 2007, Topolanek told reporters in Prague.

If there is no improvement in cutting down the number of asylum seekers, Canada would have to react, Topolanek quoted Harper as saying. He did not detail threatened Canadian action.

More than 650 Czech nationals, many of them gypsies, applied for asylum in Canada between January and March, the report said.

Canada PM warns of Czech asylum seekers

A third Thai soldier died in hospital following Friday’s clashes, which rattled relations between the neighbours just days before a regional summit that was supposed to focus on the global economic slowdown.

Military officials from both sides met over lunch in disputed territory near the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple on Sunday, while Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was set to meet Thai officials later in the capital Phnom Penh.

“We held the meeting in order to make the situation return to normal and to make sure there’s no more gunfire. We have agreed to stay on our sides of the border,” Cambodian Major General Srey Doek said after the talks.

His Thai counterpart, Major General Kanok Netrak Thavesanak, said that in future both sides would “communicate to solve problems. Sometimes there are misunderstandings.”

Troops could be seen chatting and some even stowed away their weapons but they said they remained ready to fight after their clash, the biggest burst of violence over the territory since four people died there in October.

However journalists were barred from entering the so-called Eagle Area, which has seen the most violence, because the Cambodian military said it remained too tense.

Decades of tensions over ownership of the site started to boil over after Cambodia successfully applied for United Nations world heritage status for the ruins in July.

Kanok, the Thai officer, said an official from his country would meet later with Hun Sen.

“A Thai official is going to meet with the Cambodian prime minister today and they will talk about the clashes that happened two days earlier,” Cambodian cabinet spokesman Phay Siphan told AFP.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva meanwhile said that the issue would come up when he meets his Cambodian counterpart at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its regional partners in Thailand next week.

“This will be raised in next week’s meeting to find a solution to the problem,” Abhisit said in his weekly television broadcast, adding that the two countries would “resume the talking process as soon as possible.”

Pre-arranged talks on the border situation, the latest in a series that have been held over the past six months, are also set to go ahead as planned on Monday and Tuesday in Phnom Penh.

The Thai and Cambodian leaders both sought to play down the latest crisis on Saturday, saying that it was the result of a misunderstanding and that the two countries were not at war.

“It’s like next-door neighbours — when their chickens fight, the owners get into a dispute too,” Hun Sen said.

But while tensions had noticeably eased at the border on Sunday, Cambodian soldiers said they would fight to the death to protect the ancient temple perched on a forested cliff overlooking green swathes of countryside.

“We are not afraid of Thai soldiers. Everything happened because Thai soldiers want to take our temple and land,” said Cambodian soldier Chum Chuon.

Friday’s violence damaged a government office and destroyed a local market.

Hundreds of Cambodians who lost their homes in the fighting were evacuated to a school 20 kilometres (12 miles) away and were being provided new plots of land further from disputed territory.

In 1962 an international court awarded the ruins to Cambodia, but the most accessible entrance is in Thailand and the two countries still dispute ownership of the surrounding land.

The border in the area is poorly defined, partly because it is heavily mined after decades of conflict in Cambodia.

AFP: Cambodia, Thailand in talks after border clashes

North Korea launched the rocket at 11:30 a.m. local time, or 10:30 NYTime said the office of the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak. Early reports from the Japanese prime minister’s office indicated that the three-stage rocket appeared to launch successfully, with the first stage falling into the Sea of Japan and the second stage into the Pacific. South Korea vowed a “stern and resolute” response to the North’s “reckless act.”

South Korean officials, after studying the rocket’s trajectory, said it appeared to have been configured to thrust a satellite into orbit, as the North had claimed.

No debris was reported to have fallen on Japanese land. There has been no confirmation of whether the third and final stage of the launching took place.

But what may have mattered most to North Korea was simply demonstrating that it had the ability to launch a multistage rocket that could travel thousands of miles.

The motivation for the test appeared as much political as technological: After acquiring the fuel for six or more nuclear weapons during the Bush administration, and negotiating a halt of its main nuclear reactor in return for aid, North Korea’s recent statements appear to be a bid for attention from the Obama administration.

The Japanese government strongly protested the launching over its territory and asked for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

Lee Dong-kwan, a spokesman for the South Korean president, said, “North Korea’s launch of its long-range rocket poses a serious threat to the stability of the Korean Peninsula and the rest of the world at a time when the entire world is pulling its wisdom together to overcome the global economic crisis.”

Over the years the North has sometimes conducted tests as a gambit to extract concessions for more aid and fuel and to demonstrate its nuclear capabilities.

Manufacturing a nuclear warhead that is small enough, light enough and heat-resistant enough to be mounted atop a missile is far more complex than building a basic nuclear device — and intelligence officials and outside experts believe North Korea is still years from that accomplishment. Typically, it takes many years of experimentation for a nation to learn how to shrink an ungainly test device into a slim warhead.

Nonetheless, the series of tests in recent years — in 2006 and 1998 — is prompting fears of North Korean proliferation among Japanese, Chinese and Western leaders. North Korea’s missiles have ranked among its few profitable exports — Iran, Syria and Pakistan have all been among its major customers. If this long-range test ends up a success, it would presumably make the design far more attractive on the international black market.

The launching provides one of the first tests of Mr. Obama’s reaction to a provocation, on the weekend that he is scheduled to lay out for the first time, in a speech in Prague, his strategy to counter proliferation threats.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ruled out any effort to shoot down the missile if the mission appeared to be a serious effort to launch a satellite. Rather, Mr. Obama’s top aides said during last week’s Group of 20 summit meeting in London that if the missile were launched, they would seek additional sanctions against the country in the United Nations Security Council, perhaps as early as this weekend.

President Bush pressed for similar sanctions after the North’s nuclear test in October 2006, but those sanctions had little long-term effect.

“We have made very clear to the North Koreans that their missile launch is provocative,” Mr. Obama said Friday after meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France in Strasbourg, France. Mr. Obama took the issue up on Wednesday in London with President Hu Jintao of China.

While Washington has signaled calm, the Japanese response has been unusually strong. Japan deployed ships into the Sea of Japan and suggested it would try to shoot down any “debris” from the launching that threatened to hit the country. However, there is no evidence they tried to do so, and on Saturday, to the embarassment of the Japanese military, the country falsely reported twice that the missile had been launched.

With the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, reportedly recovering from a stroke last summer, the missile test may also be an effort by him — or some in the military — to demonstrate that someone is firmly in control and that the country’s missile and nuclear programs are forging ahead. In recent times top American intelligence officials have told Congress they believe Mr. Kim is back in charge of the country, but they admit considerable mystery surrounds the question of whether he has regained all of his faculties.

North Koreans Launch Rocket Over the Pacific

“The two Qassam-type devices were fired from the northern Gaza Strip and landed in the western Negev,” a military spokeswoman said, referring to the crude, homemade rockets used by Palestinian armed groups.

Gaza militants have fired more than 160 rockets and mortar rounds on Israel since the end of a massive Israeli offensive at the turn of the year aimed at halting the projectiles, shaking the ceasefires that ended the fighting.

Israel has in turn launched several air strikes at suspected militants, weapons caches, and smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border.

On Thursday Hamas said the “resistance movements” had nothing to do with the recent rocket fire and vowed to combat such activities, saying they came at a “bad time.”

Egypt has been struggling since the war ended in January to mediate a more lasting ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and a prisoner exchange to return an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militants in June 2006.

The Islamist movement has ruled Gaza since June 2007, when it violently drove out forces loyal to the Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas.

Two Gaza rockets hit Israel: military

South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan says North Korea will be breaking international law if it launches a long-range rocket – regardless of what is on board.

He says any North Korean launch, whether it is a missile or a satellite, will be brought to the United Nations Security Council for a possible response.

North Korea informed international agencies Thursday of launch coordinates for when Pyongyang says it will put a “communications satellite” into space sometime between April 4 and 8.

Leaders in South Korea, the United States, and Japan suspect the real motive for the launch is to test a long-range missile. They say any launch will violate a United Nations resolution imposed in 2006, after North Korea conducted long range missile and nuclear weapons tests within months of each other.

U.N. agencies have advised aircraft and sea vessels of two “danger zones” in waters northeast of North Korea, where stages of the rocket will fall at high speeds back to earth.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura says his country is ready to defend itself if the missile comes too close.

He says Japanese law and national security policy permit the shooting down of any object that looks like it might land on Japanese territory.

The United States has two Aegis naval Destroyers docked in South Korea for annual joint exercises with the South’s forces scheduled to end next week. Choi Kee-dong, the Korean-American commander of the USS Chafee, says ships like his are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. He says he will execute whatever course of action U.S. policymakers decide upon.

“The U.S. Navy is always prepared to respond in a crisis, and we will do our utmost to make sure that we carry out our mission,” he said.

North Korea says it will consider any attempt to shoot down its missile an act of war.

Pyongyang protested the South’s annual military cooperation with the United States Friday by sealing its border to the South for the second time this week. Hundreds of South Koreans were stranded at a joint industrial park in the North Korean city of Kaesong. Hundreds of other South Koreans were unable to complete travel plans to Kaesong as scheduled.

Japan, South Korea Warn North’s Launch Will Have Consequences

Dangerous maneuvers at sea

But Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman says the Chinese ships surrounded the American ship and maneuvered aggressively and dangerously.

“This was a reckless and dangerous maneuver that was unprofessional and that violates the international law [requirement] to operate with due regard for the rights and safety of other users of the ocean,” Whitman said.
A news release says two of the Chinese ships stopped directly in front of the USNS Impeccable, forcing it to make an emergency stop. The release says U.S. crew members sprayed water from a fire hose at one of the Chinese ships, and the U.S. ship radioed the Chinese asking for a safe path out of the area.

US says Impeccable is research vessel

Bryan Whitman says the Impeccable is a research vessel, which carries no significant weapons. According to the U.S. Navy, the ship is 84 meters long and 25 meters wide, and half its 50 crew members are civilians. Whitman says the ship was conducting routine “ocean surveillance” in international waters 120 kilometers south of China’s Hainan Island when the Chinese ships approached aggressively, one to within eight meters.
“These are dangerously close maneuvers that these vessels did,” Whitman noted. “They also dropped pieces of wood in the water directly in front of the Impeccable’s path. They also used poles in an attempt to snag the Impeccable’s towed acoustical array.”

The towed array is a piece of sonar equipment.

Some Chinese crew members undressed down to underwear

Whitman said some of the Chinese crew members undressed down to their underwear in an apparent show of disrespect, what Whitman called an “immature” display. But he said the close maneuvering and attempts to disrupt the U.S. ship’s progress were serious.

“This is not the first time that there has been some provocative maneuvering, but I think this is one of the most aggressive incidents that we have seen in some time,” Whitman said.

The official release says Chinese ships and aircraft have engaged in “increasingly aggressive conduct” toward U.S. Navy ships in recent days. It cites three previous incidents, two of them involving the same American ship, in which Chinese ships, including a navy frigate, approached at close range, shined lights and verbally harassed U.S. ships by radio. In another incident, a Chinese aircraft flew at low altitude alongside the Impeccable 11 times.

China Accuses US Ship of Violating Chinese, International Law

In a speech made outside the residence of President Shimon Peres, the Likud leader said that protecting Israel would be his greatest responsibility as leader, and condemned “formidable” challenges posed by the Islamic Republic.

However, he did not once mention the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process or a two-state solution throughout his address, omissions that will cause concern within an Obama administration determined to advance the peace process.

The Likud leader held a brief press conference alongside President Peres after he was appointed to form a coalition government, despite only finishing a close second in Israel’s election.

“Iran is seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon and constitutes the gravest threat to our existence since the war of independence,” Mr Netanyahu said.

Referring to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in south Lebanon, Mr Netanyahu said: “The terrorist forces of Iran threaten us from the north. For decades, Israel has not faced such formidable challenges.

“The responsibility we face is to achieve security for our country, peace with our neighbours and unity among us.”

He spoke after the UN announced yesterday that Iran had enriched sufficient uranium to amass a nuclear bomb – a third more than previously thought. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has caused alarm in the West over its apparent threats to Israel and support for radical Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Mr Netanyahu’s selection to form a coalition comes despite a narrow defeat in Israel’s general election by Tzipi Livni of the centrist Kadima party, who had pledged to advance the peace process with the Palestinians.

After taking soundings from all political parties, Mr Peres judged the Likud leader to have a significantly better chance of building a viable coalition after he won the backing of Avigdor Lieberman’s ultra-nationalist Yisrel Beitenu party, which finished third in the national poll.

President Peres said today that, overall, 65 out of 120 seats in Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, backed Mr Netanyahu.

However, concerns arose within minutes of his appointment as to how viable any coalition led by Mr Netanyahu would be, with both Kadima and Ehud Barak, the Labour leader, appearing to choose going into opposition rather than joining his coalition.

This would leave Mr Netanyahu relying on the nationalist Mr Lieberman, who has advocated deporting Arab Israelis who fail to swear an oath of loyalty to the state, and the ultra-orthodox Shas party, whose main focus is the funding of its religious seminaries and schools.

There are fears that Shas and Yisrael Beitenu may also clash with each other in any future coalition, as Mr Lieberman – a staunch secularist – strongly opposes religious schools and seminaries and wants to introduce civil marriages to appease his secular Russian support base, something that Shas staunchly opposes.

A similarly narrow coalition, formed by Mr Netanyahu in 1996, lasted only two years before collapsing after right-wing parties withdrew their support following territorial concessions to the Palestinians.

Making a last-ditch attempt to avoid what many Israelis would regard as an illegitimate government, Mr Netanyahu used his speech to make a final plea for Ms Livni and Mr Barak to join his administration.

“I call on Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni and Labour Party chairman Ehud Barak and I say to them – let’s unite to secure the future of the State of Israel,” he told reporters.

“I ask to meet with you first to discuss with you a broad national unity government for the good of the people and the state.”

Yet, Ms Livni appeared to have ruled the move out, saying that she would not support a leader who would prevent progress in the peace process. Mr Barak has already declared that Labour should go into opposition to rebuild itself.

“I will not be able to serve as a cover for a lack of direction. I want to lead Israel in a way I believe in, to advance a peace process based on two states for two peoples,” Ms Livni said, after her final meeting with President Peres.

The new administration would also run into immediate conflict with President Obama who has urged a speeding up of the peace process and has tried to cool hostile rhetoric with Iran.

Instead of territorial compromise, Mr Netanyahu has indicated that he prefers economic development measures in the West Bank that allow Israel to maintain continued security control over borders and no dismantling of settlements.

Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian President, this afternoon threatened a complete freeze in relations with any Israeli state led by a politician who does not believe in the two-state solution. This would be disastrous for the West, which has pumped billions into the West Bank in order to prop up his authority in anticipation of a future Palestinian state being built there.

“We will not deal with the Israeli government unless it accepts a two-state solution and accepts to halt settlements and to respect past accords,” Nabil Abu Rudeina, President Abbas’s spokesman, said.

Binyamin Netanyahu targets Iran after he is appointed Prime Minister – Times Online