GAZA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli army on Wednesday prevented a European parliamentary delegation from entering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, the delegation said. The delegation, which comprises nine lawmakers from several European Union (EU) states, had held contact with the Israeli authorities to facilitate their entry to Gaza. "The visit was canceled three hours prior to the scheduled visit," the delegation said in a statement. Palestinian sources said the delegation had already arrived at Erez crossing point in northern Gaza Strip before Israeli soldiers turned the legislators back. The ban comes hours after the EU called on Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate on Jerusalem as the future capital of two states.
read more @ chinaview
2. opinion - Washington's new Lebanon policy by Franklin Lamb
excerpt:
Europe is expressing its support for Lebanon’s Unity Government as is Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the whole region. Plus the United Nations Sec-Gen Ban Key Moon and virtually the complete international community with two exceptions, the governments of Israel and the United States.
...Washington’s reaction to date has come mainly from two sources. The first and most predictable was an AIPAC drafted letter sent out by 31 of Israel’s agents on the House side of the US Congress. The members forwarded the particularly obtuse and nearly incomprehensible letter to Secretary of State Clinton urging the Obama administration to work toward disarming Hezbollah by threatening the budgets of UNIFIL and Lebanon.
It reads in part: "In light of the clear violations of UN Security Council resolutions, we ask what actions the Administration is taking to ensure the UN addresses these violations.” Presumably the reference is to UNSCR 1701 which according to the arithmetic contained in the seven UN Reports on UNSCR 1701 compliance, Israel has violated more than 1,600 times including near daily violations of Lebanese sovereignty, with cross border troop incursions and Lebanese airspace and territorial waters penetrations. If the members had in mind UNSCR 425, unanimously passed in 1978, demanding that “Israel immediately withdraw from all Lebanese territory”, it is true that this resolution has still not been complied with as Israeli troops still occupy Lebanese territory and it is doubtful the AIPAC language (“we ask what actions the Administration is taking to ensure the UN addresses these violations”) is meant to apply to the Israeli forces occupying the Lebanese territory of Ghajar, Kfar Khouba, and Shebaa Farms.
read more @ al manar tv
3. Ayalon claims Turkey foiled Hizbullah attack but it's all very mysterious, you know how it is with security concerns
Turkish forces have foiled a Hizbullah plot to attack an undisclosed Israeli target in the country, Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon as saying. Defense sources told Haaretz that the planned attack was aimed at avenging the killing of Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh in a car bombing in Damascus in February 2008. The plot was uncovered over a month ago, with Turkish media publishing a warning issued by the local police's senior command to its officers to take steps to prevent a Hizbullah attack on American and Israeli targets, according to Haaretz. According to the Israeli daily, Turkish reports said Hizbullah had set up a network of Iranian agents posing as tourists in Istanbul, with the cooperation of Iranian security agencies. Haaretz said U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation director Robert Mueller visited Ankara last month asking for access to the country's biometric database, in order to identify "terror activists" moving in and out of Turkey. "Israel believes the organization would like to carry out an attack against a distant Israeli target, without dragging Lebanon into another war with Israel," Haaretz said.
source: naharnet news desk
4. will Israel move the focus over to Syria now?
Asia Times: A recent article by the veteran and well-connected Israeli columnist, Alex Fishman, in the Hebrew language newspaper, Yediot Ahronoth, perhaps offers some insights into how Israelis may be speculating about such issues when he warns about "the approaching December winds”. These winds, Fishman tells us, will bring more and new revelations - not about Iran's nuclear ambitions - but about Syria's nuclear projects: the departure of Mohamed ElBaradei from the chair at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he states, will open the door to new IAEA demands to inspect two suspected nuclear sites in Syria.read more analysis of this possibility and the 'exploding tire' accident in Damascus @ twelfth bough
5. as if on cue, Baghdad car bombs blamed on Syria and Islamists by Iraqi government
For the third time in four months, coordinated bombers have defeated Baghdad's security and dealt a blow to the Iraqi government's claims to have made the country's streets safer.
Four car bombs early yesterday killed more than 110 people and injured about 200 throughout the centre of the capital in attacks that replicated two days of carnage in mid-August and late-October.
The bombs detonated within minutes near the city's main court house and the public works and finance ministries.
...The prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and his senior officials quickly blamed the devastation on senior Ba'athists living in exile in Syria and an alliance of Islamists and militants.Iraq and Syria have remained at diplomatic loggerheads since the bombings in August. Both countries withdrew their ambassadors after Iraqi officials accused Syria of harbouring enemies who had vowed to direct and fund a bombing campaign in the run-up to a general election, which is scheduled for 6 March.
Iraqi officials have offered only scant support for their accusations. However, they appear to fervently believe that Damascus has at least given implicit consent to a subversive campaign that was allegedly plotted on Syrian soil.
6. US behaved as terrorist in kidnapping Iranian scientist
Iran Parliament speaker Ali Larijani has said that the United States behaved like a "terrorist" by abducting its nuclear scientist who went missing in Saudi Arabia, state television reported on Wednesday. Labeling the kidnapping of Shahram Amiri "terrorist behaviour" by the US, Larijani said both Washington and Riyadh must be held responsible for his disappearance, the report added.
"Americans have done such things even in the past, but have never taken responsibility for their terrorist behavior," Larijani said. "It is clear that this move was done by Americans and organized by Saudi conspirators and such behavior harms their reputation."
However, the US State Department refused to make any comment on the matter. "We are aware of the Iranian claims," department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters on Tuesday. "I have no information on that." "I'm not going to say anything else," he insisted.
Shahram Amiri, a researcher at the University of Malek Ashtar, went missing in the Saudi holy city of Medina while on a pilgrimage visit earlier this year. He is among several Iranian nationals who Tehran says have been illegally detained by the US authorities.
On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki accused the US of abducting the researcher. "Based on evidence that we have at our disposal, the Americans had a role in kidnapping Shahram Amiri,” Mottaki said. "Therefore, we expect the US government to return him,” he added.
Earlier Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast told Press TV that authorities in Riyadh have sent Amiri off to the United States. Mehman-Parast said 11 Iranian nationals are currently held in detention in US prisons, adding that "Shahram Amiri is one of these detainees."
The US revealed earlier in December that Amir-Hossein Ardebili, an Iranian national who went missing in Georgia two years ago, was being held in a prison in Philadelphia. The Georgian government handed him over to the US authorities in 2008.
7. Saudi Arabia sent scientist to US
An Iranian nuclear scientist who went missing in Saudi Arabia has been "handed over by Riyadh to Washington," Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday, quoting Tehran's foreign ministry spokesman. "Shahram Amiri, Iran's nuclear scientist who had gone to hajj in Saudi Arabia, was handed over by Riyadh to Washington," Ramin Mehmanparast told Mehr, referring to the Umra.
The spokesman said Amiri was one of 11 Iranian detainees currently held in US jails. His statement was the first acknowledgement by Tehran that Amiri was a nuclear scientist. Iranian officials have previously said Amiri went missing in Saudi Arabia soon after he landed there as a pilgrim earlier this year.
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