Arab leaders meeting in Khartoum said yesterday they expected little change from Israeli elections in which Ehud Olmert claimed victory.
The interim prime minister pledges to retain parts of the occupied West Bank in which there are large Jewish settlement blocs, give up other areas and impose a border unilaterally on the Palestinians.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the election result would make no difference unless Olmert changed his policies.
"This result will not change [anything] as long as the agenda of Olmert himself does not change and he does not abandon the question of `unilateral agreements,'" Abbas told reporters in Khartoum, where he is attending the annual Arab summit.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said the victory of Olmert's Kadima party was expected and it was more important to see the shape of the coalition he would put together and "what its course would be -- peaceful or not."
"The ball is in the Israeli court because during these years since the launch of Madrid [the 1991 peace conference in Madrid], Israel with all its ruling parties has put obstacles in the way of attaining peace," he added.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said: "It's not comprehensible leaving the issue of Jerusalem or accepting unilateral withdrawals according to Israeli whims. This will not work but will only lead to worsening matters more and more."
"It is impossible to accept Israeli proposals that we have seen so far. Is there anything new the new Israeli government can come up with? Many Arabs don't think so, so the Arab world has to look at all the possibilities," he added.
The Arab summit, which ended yesterday, renewed an Arab offer of peace with Israel in exchange for withdrawal from territory occupied since the 1967 Middle East war. Israel has in the past rejected the offer.
The summit also opposed unilateral steps by Israel, calling for a return to multilateral peace negotiations under international supervision.
Arab leaders also agreed on a US$150-million aid package for cash-strapped African Union (AU) troops deployed in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
The move came after summit host Sudan sought to win backing for its opposition to plans for the dispatch of UN peacekeepers to Darfur, where war, disease and famine have cost up to 300,000 lives in three years.
Arab leaders stopped short of an outright rejection of wider international intervention in the conflict, but said any deployment of any other troops should have the approval of the government in Khartoum.
The leaders endorsed a resolution to allocate US$150 million to the African troops over the next six months and called on Arab countries to "provide financial and logistic support to the AU mission in Darfur to enable it to continue performing its tasks."
The resolution stressed that the AU should "continue its efforts and accomplish its mission to end the crisis of Darfur," mainly through peace talks being held in Abuja, according to a copy seen by the press.
Arab leaders also stipulated that the deployment of any other troops in the region required Sudan's "pre-approval" and called on "Arab African countries to strengthen their participation in the AU force."
But regional heavyweight Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview published yesterday he would not send troops to Darfur unless there was a peace agreement between rebels and Khartoum.
"Only then could Egypt take part in a peacekeeping force in this region," he told the weekly al-Mussawar.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
LAW CONSTRAINTS: The US has been pressing allies to send warships to open the Strait, but Tokyo’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution Japan could consider deploying its military for minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz if a ceasefire is reached in the war on Iran, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi said yesterday. “If there were to be a complete ceasefire, hypothetically speaking, then things like minesweeping could come up,” Motegi said. “This is purely hypothetical, but if a ceasefire were established and naval mines were creating an obstacle, then I think that would be something to consider.” Japan’s military actions are limited under its postwar pacifist constitution, but 2015 security legislation allows Tokyo to use its Self-Defense Forces overseas if an attack,
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) yesterday faced a regional election battle in Rhineland-Palatinate, now held by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merz’s CDU has enjoyed a narrow poll lead over the SPD — their coalition partners at the national level — who have ruled the mid-sized state for 35 years. Polling third is the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which spells a greater threat to the two centrist parties in several state elections in September in the country’s ex-communist east. The picturesque state of Rhineland-Palatinate, bordering France, Belgium and Luxembourg and with a population of about 4 million,
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