On the eve of the silliest peace talks in history, the big question is this. What makes Obama’s envoy George Mitchell, a negotiator of high repute, say there is ‘no role’ for Hamas?

The talks are silly because they seek to overturn what the United Nations has already decided for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict and drive a bulldozer through the building blocks of justice.

It might be music to Zionist ears, but to people of good will it’s a cruel, futile and immensely damaging ploy.

The talks are also silly because they bring together two people who by no stretch of the imagination could qualify as partners for peace. And they sit down under the auspices of a third party with an appalling track record in the Middle East and whom no-one trusts to act fairly.

So Mitchell has been dealt a terrible hand. The former US senator, we’re told, has had an illustrious career in politics. Honours have been heaped upon him for his part in the Northern Ireland ‘Good Friday’ agreement.

Accepting one of those awards – the Liberty Medal in 1998 – Mitchell said: “I believe there’s no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended… No matter how ancient the conflict, no matter how hateful, no matter how hurtful, peace can prevail. But only if those who stand for peace and justice are supported and encouraged, while those who do not are opposed and condemned. Seeking an end to conflict is not for the timid or the tentative. There must be a clear and determined policy not to yield to the men of violence…”

How about that? Conflict can be ended only by supporting those who stand for peace and condemning those who don’t. But does he know – has he really taken the trouble to find out – who actually stands for peace and justice in the ever-escalating obscenity of the Israeli occupation of Palestine? And is he absolutely clear who “the men of violence” are? Get it wrong and matters are made worse.

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Israel is ready to cede parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians in the framework of a peace deal, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday ahead of the start of talks in Washington.

Partition in Jerusalem – at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict — would include a “special regime” for managing the city’s holiest sites, Barak told Haaretz.

He said the killing of four Israelis by Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank on Tuesday should not stop the talks starting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Wednesday for their first face-to-face negotiations, has
publicly balked at dividing the city.

Barak’s disclosure suggested the Netanyahu government was willing to yield on Jerusalem, including its walled Old City where al-Aqsa, Islam’s third-holiest shrine, abuts the Western Wall, the vestige of Judaism’s two ancient temples and today a Jewish prayer plaza.

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Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that there was no reason why building should not restart in the major West bank settlement after a 10-month freeze expires next month.

The determination to continue building is likely to alarm Palestinians, who are pushing for an Israeli promise to continue the freeze ahead of peace talks in Washington, due to start on September 2.

Palestinian negotiators have repeatedly threatened to walk out of talks if the freeze is broken.

“We cannot punish tens of thousands of citizens who have served in the army and live in legal communities,” Lieberman said. “We should take natural growth into consideration, as did the previous administration.”

The foreign minister, who leads the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, also repeated a previous promise to evacuate his own home in the settlement of Nokdim – but only “if we can arrive at a complete peace agreement that will end the conflict”.

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Three men were killed in Beirut on Tuesday in clashes between supporters of Shiite group Hizbullah and a Sunni faction, Al-Ahbash, security sources said.

Mohammad Fawaz, a Hizbullah official, his aide Munzer Hadi and Fawez Omeirat from Al-Ahbash were killed in clashes sparked by a fight between a supporter of Hizbullah and another from Al-Ahbash in the mixed Sunni-Shiite Beirut neighborhood of Burj Abi Haidar in Beirut.

But late on Tuesday Hizbullah and Al-Ahbash issued a joint statement following a meeting at the offices of the Lebanese Army Intelligence Unit in Beirut saying the clash was “an isolated one and does not carry any political and sectarian undertones.”

However, Hizbullah later demanded the surrender of four persons involved in the killing of Fawaz, warning that it would interfere militarily if its demand was not met, according to reports.

The Association of Islamic Charitable Projects, better known as Al-Ahbash, is a pro-Syrian conservative Sunni Muslim group, rival to many other Sunni groups in the country, including Premier Saad Hariri’s Future Movement and the hard-line Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya.

Hizbullah and Al-Ahbash also agreed to “contain the incident and end it immediately, as well as banning all armed presence in the area so as to deal with all the repercussions of the incident,” the statement added.

Also, the statement said the Lebanese Army has started an investigation into the incident, with both Hizbullah and Al-Ahbash vowing not to protect anyone who endangers security and stability.

As The Daily Star went to press, calm was restored in Burj Abi Haidar and the neighborhoods of Zkak al-Blat, Basta, Hay al-Leja and Mazraa, where the fighting spread. However, new clashes were heard in the Beirut neighborhood of Ras al-Nabaa.

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“Israel is too weak to stage a military strike against Iran, but if it attacks, it will receive a devastating response, which will make it regret its aggression,” said President Ahmadinejad in a televised interview with Al-Jazeera TV Network on Sunday.

The Iranian President rejected the idea that Arab countries’ soil would be used to launch attacks on Iran, saying that the “leaders of these countries are more prudent than that.”

Ahmadinejad further downplayed US military might in its current wars in the Middle East region and dismissed the speculations that an imminent war against Iran was the cause of the US troops’ withdrawal from Iraq.

“Do you think an army that has been beaten by a small army is pulling back from Iraq in order to combat a large and well trained army like the Iranian army? I don’t think so. The United States is not capable of opening a front against Iran. There are no logical motivations and real reasons for such an act,” the Iranian chief executive noted.

“Experience suggests that friendship with Iran is much better than hostility towards it. No one will benefit from animosity against Iran,” he continued.

President Ahmadinjad’s comments come in the wake of provocative remarks from former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton who had urged Israel to strike Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant before nuclear fuel is loaded into it, increasing the speculations that a US or Israeli military option against Iran is still on the table.

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Facebook photos depicting Israel Defense Forces soldiers pictured alongside handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainees represent the norm, not the exception, in IDF conduct, an Israeli human rights group said on Tuesday, thus refuting an official army statement claiming the opposite.

Photographs uploaded by Eden Abergil released earlier this week and labeled “IDF – the best time of my life,” sparked massive public outrage. The photos depicted Abergil smiling next to Palestinian prisoners with their hands bound and their eyes covered.

A comment attached to one of the photos of the soldier smiling in front of two blindfold men and posted by one of Abergil’s friends read “That looks really sexy for you,” with Abergil’s response reading: “I wonder if he is on Facebook too – I’ll have to tag him in the photo.”

An IDF spokesman had issued a response on Monday, saying that “on the face of it the behavior exhibited by the soldier is base and crude.”

In a statement released Tuesday by Breaking the Silence, an organization that collects testimonies of Israeli soldiers on alleged abuse of Palestinians in the territories, the group said that while the IDF claimed to be “shocked” by Abergil’s photos, it did not represent “the ugly behavior of just one person.”

The statement released in a Facebook page called “The Norm that IDF Spokesman Avi Benayahu Denies,” also included several graphic photos depicting soldiers posing next to the bodies of suspected militants as well as next to handcuffed detainees [viewer discretion is advised].

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Iraq’s most senior military officer has said that his security forces will not be able to secure the country until 2020 and asked the US to delay its planned withdrawal.

The US government plans to withdraw its combat troops by the end of August, and to remove all troops by the end of 2011. But Lieutenant General Babaker Zerbari said that his forces – particularly the air force – are not ready to take over.

He said the planned withdrawal will create a “problem” and increase instability in Iraq.

“At this point, the withdrawal is going well, because they are still here,” Zerbari told the AFP news agency on Wednesday.

“But the problem will start after 2011 - the politicians must find other ways to fill the void after 2011. If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to politicians: the US army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020.”

Hours later, Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, told reporters that the US is still “on target” to withdraw troops from Iraq. He said only “dozens” would remain at the US embassy in Baghdad after 2011.

“We’re on target by the end of the month to end our combat mission,” Gibbs said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Iraqi officials have made contradictory statements about the country’s readiness to take over security from the Americans, Al Jazeera’s Omar al-Saleh reported from Baghdad.

Just two days ago, General Ali Ghaidan, the commander of all Iraqi ground forces, told reporters at a press conference that his troops are “100 per cent ready” to take over, al-Saleh said.

There are currently 64,000 US troops in Iraq, a number that is expected to fall to 50,000 by next month.

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Emiratis are increasingly choosing to marry foreigners, new statistics show.

The data from the Dubai Statistics Centre reveal that from 2007 through 2009, the number of marriages between Emiratis and foreigners rose 10 per cent to 539, while the number of marriages between two Emiratis dipped two per cent to 1,178.

The figures, which are for Dubai only, are based on the annual report from Dubai Courts.

Social experts have attributed the trend, which started in the 1980s, to the large dowries demanded by Emirati women. Sheikh Zayed, the founding President of the UAE, limited the official maximum dowry to Dh20,000 – but it can go as high as Dh800,000 in unofficial family agreements.

“A lot of people in the UAE complain that families of the Emirati woman demand a large amount of dowry and a wedding in an expensive hotel,” said Fawzya Taresh Rabee, the director of family development at the Ministry of Social Affairs. “So they end up opting for the foreigner.”
Marrying an expatriate is believed to cost Emirati men a quarter of what they would spend on the dowry of an Emirati bride. However, they might not be banking on hidden costs that can accompany non-Emirati brides, Ms Rabee said. Those include bringing family to the Emirates and travelling back and forth to the woman’s country of origin.

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Three Lebanese soldiers were killed Tuesday as Lebanese and Israeli Armies exchanged fire close to the Blue Line, security officials said.

The incident erupted in the southern village of Adaysseh, where Lebanese Army soldiers fired warning shots at a nearby Israeli patrol, who were attempting to cut down a tree on the Lebanese side of the technical fence. The patrol responded with rocket salvos. The situation quickly escalated with an Israeli helicopter gunship firing at a Lebanese Army armored vehicle.

Witness and Army officials confirmed that three soldiers had died, in addition to several civilian casualties. Lebanon’s Al-Manar television reported that a high-ranking Israeli official was killed.

“The Israelis fired four rockets that fell near a Lebanese army position in the village of Adaysseh and the Lebanese army fired back,” a security official in the area told AFP, adding that two houses were damaged by the rockets.

A Lebanese army spokesperson said the clashes erupted after Israeli soldiers attempted to uproot a tree on the Lebanese side of the fenced border.

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Iran has criticized new EU sanctions against the country over its nuclear program, saying such measures will “only complicate matters,” reports Press TV.

The European Union on Monday adopted new sanctions against Iran which mainly target investment in and technical assistance to Iran’s refining, liquefaction and liquefied natural gas sectors.

“Sanctions… will only complicate matters and move away [the parties] from mutual understanding,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted by IRNA as saying.

The sanctions came a day after the Iranian foreign minister announced Tehran was ready to hold talks with the West on nuclear fuel swap.

Manouchehr Mottaki made the remark in a press conference after holding trilateral talks with his counterparts from Turkey and Brazil in Istanbul on Sunday.

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