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Israeli and Palestinian leaders will resume face-to-face peace talks on Monday in Washington, the State Department said Sunday. The restart of the long-stalled talks is being attributed to Secretary of State John Kerry's six months of frenetic shuttle diplomacy. Agency spokeswoman Jen Psaki said both sides had accepted invitations from Kerry to come to Washington "to formally resume direct final status negotiations" that are scheduled to begin Monday evening and continue Tuesday. Psaki said in a statement that Kerry on Sunday called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and that the leaders agreed the talks would...

Former senior PLO official Mohammed Dahlan is suing Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for malicious persecution. Dahlan, a personal nemesis of the chairman, was removed from all his positions in the organization two years ago. Now he claims that Abbas is after him for publicly exposing the corruption of the chairman and of his offspring. Dahlan is pushing an assortment of lawsuits in various European courts, according to Kol Israel, revolving around his charge that some $700 million are missing from the PA treasury. Dahlan, who used to be head of the PLO Gaza Preventive Security Force, and participated in...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash, in a sermon attended by PA President Mahmoud Abbas on the day that renewed peace negotiations with Israel were announced, compared PA peace agreements to a 10-year truce that was broken by the Prophet Muhammad after only two years. The PA minister, according to a July 19 Palestinian Authority TV broadcast cited by Palestinian Media Watch, compared the Palestinian leadership’s approach to peace agreements such as the 1993 Oslo Accords to the “Treaty of Hudaybiyyah” between Muhammad and the Quraish Tribe of Mecca. Just like the Palestinian leadership encountered “much criticism...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Friday the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. "I'm pleased to announce that we've reached an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming final status negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis," Kerry told reporters in Amman, Jordan, according to AFP. The top U.S. diplomat added that PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli negotiator Justice Minister Tzipi Livni would meet him in Washington "to begin initial talks within the next week or so." In his brief comments to the press, Kerry praised the courage of PA Chairman...

Moscow has reiterated its vivid interest for Cyprus’ natural gas by expressing once again its interest for the exploitation of the reserves in the island’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The interest was expressed during a meeting in Moscow between the Cyprus House President Yiannakis Omirou and Russian Deputy Minister of Energy Yury Sentyurin. The meeting lasted two hours and was also attended by the members of the parliamentary party delegation which accompany Omirou, as well as by representatives of Russian natural gas companies, NOVATEK and Gazprom Bank. Omirou arrived in Russia this morning, for a two-day official visit, heading a...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni warned on Monday that Israel runs the risk of a European economic boycott if it fails to advance peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. "You cannot deal only with economic issues and ignore the political issue and the importance of a two-state solution," she told delegates at an accountancy conference in Eilat, according to AFP. "Europe is boycotting products. And, true, it is starting with the settlements but their problem is with Israel, which is perceived as a colonial state, so it won't only stop with the settlements, but will (reach) Israel as a whole," warned...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni fears the potential disaster facing Israel if nothing is done to combat the European boycott of Israeli goods, she told an accountant's conference in Eilat on Monday. "If we do not take action regarding the European boycott of goods coming from the settlement areas, the boycott will eventually extend to all of Israel," Livni warned. Livni claimed that some European countries see Israel as a colonizing nation, and this has affected economic relations with those countries. Recently the fast food chain McDonald's made headlines for refusing to allow its restaurant to be built in an up-and-coming...

As the possibility of free market competition in liquefied natural gas sales looms, Gazprom is preparing to do battle with potential domestic and international rivals. The gas giant plans to take as much as 15 percent of the world LNG market, up from its 5 percent share today, Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said at annual shareholder meeting held at company's headquarters on Friday. Europe's own gas production is decreasing, while many LNG producers prefer to supply premium markets in the Asia-Pacific region. As a consequence, Europe's share in world LNG imports decreased from 28 percent in 2009 to 21 percent...

JERUSALEM — Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, known for his rigid negotiating positions, has been sending signals that he is ready for significant compromises in a peace deal with the Palestinians — and that he accepts the narrative increasingly favored by his opponents that says ending the West Bank occupation is essential for Israel itself. While some of Netanyahu's political allies say he is serious, the Palestinians remain skeptical. This week's visit by Secretary of State John Kerry could show which way things can go. In recent speeches, Netanyahu has stressed the importance of reaching a peace deal, saying it...

Israel is the center of the world “in so many ways,” the archbishop of Canterbury said Thursday in Jerusalem. He stressed Israel’s legitimacy and right to security, and also spoke, in the context of persecution of Christians by Islamists in the Middle East, about the Christian imperative to “love our enemies.” It was his maiden visit to the region since being appointed to one of the highest positions in the Protestant Church. The Most Reverend Justin Welby, who has a Jewish father, is the leader of the Church of England and of 80 million Anglicans worldwide. He was enthroned in...

WASHINGTON - The top US military officer said on Wednesday he has recommended bolstering Lebanese forces grappling with the fallout from Syria's civil war by sending in military trainers and accelerating arms sales. General Martin Dempsey also said he had recommended helping Iraq better deal with the re-emergence of al-Qaida. "We've made a recommendation that as we look at the challenges faced by the Lebanese armed forces, the Iraqi security forces with a re-emerging al-Qaida in Iraq, and the Jordanians, that we would work with them to help them build additional capability," Dempsey told reporters at the Pentagon. snip

A $4 billion foreign investment package to boost peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will not be considered unless US Secretary of State John Kerry succeeds in bringing the negotiating parties back to the table, The Times of Israel has learned. “[This package] is not intended as a substitute for the political process,” a Western diplomatic source told The Times of Israel on Wednesday. “It will be launched either in parallel or after the political track is resumed, as judged by John Kerry.” Kerry is scheduled to return to Israel later this week in an effort to relaunch negotiations...

Cyprus and a US-Israeli partnership on Wednesday signed a statement of intent for the development of a natural gas liquefaction plant on the island. The parties are the Cyprus state, Noble Energy International, and Israel’s Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration Limited Partnership. It is hoped the preliminary accord will lead to a final agreement in the future setting up a joint venture between the parties – a special-purpose vehicle seeking investors for the estimated €7 to €8bn LNG plant. “The signing of the memorandum between the Republic of Cyprus and the three companies represents the next milestone on the...

Sabotage of the natural gas pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt’s willingness to buckle to terrorism cost the State of Israel $187 million (NIS 677 million) in 2012, a new report shows. The Finance Ministry’s accountant general, Michal Abadi-Boiangiu, pointed out that the cutoff of Egyptian natural gas sales to Israel following repeated sabotage of the pipeline forced Israel to use more costly diesel fuel. As a result, the Israel Electric Company’s debts reached $ 19 billion (NIS 70 billion) by the end of the year 2012. The expense was recorded as a loss in investments. snip

VATICAN CITY — Christians and Jews can work together to challenge the contemporary problems of secularism and disrespect for the human person, Pope Francis told representatives of Judaism in a Vatican audience. “Humanity needs our joint witness in favor of respect for the dignity of man and woman created in the image and likeness of God and in favor of peace, which is, above all, God’s gift,” the Bishop of Rome told members of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations June 24. “Friendly relations are, in a way, the basis for the development of a more official dialogue,” he...

Cyprus' deputy government spokesman says the Cabinet has ratified a preliminary agreement with U.S. firm Noble Energy and its Israeli partners Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration on their participation in the development of a planned natural gas processing facility. Victoras Papadopoulos didn't disclose Wednesday details of the deal. Cyprus is looking to have the estimated 10 billion euro ($13.41 billion) facility up by 2020 to process offshore gas reserves for domestic use and export. The bailed-out country hopes the project will boost its struggling economy. Noble, Delek and its subsidiary Avner are partners in a gas field off Cyprus'...

With the decision by Israel’s top officials Wednesday on how much natural gas the country will be exporting in the coming years, the government is likely to get flack from all sides — at least according to the initial reactions and comments. For those completely opposed to the export of natural gas — or too much of it — the 540 billion cubic meters of gas that will go to export (currently 40% of Israel’s projected reserves) is too much. Meanwhile, for those advocating gas exports, the amount, 13% less than the 53% of gas reserves the Tzemach Commission had...

It was a love fest at Shimon Peres’ 90th birthday party Tuesday night, as world leaders, beloved performers and regular folk spoke, sang, and sent their messages of love and affection for the president, former prime minister, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Peres sat flanked by former US president Bill Clinton and Jewish stage diva Barbra Streisand on his right, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, on his left. Behind them was an auditorium full of who’s who in Israel and abroad, from actors Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone, Prince Albert of Monaco and Chicago mayor...

Israeli government sources claim Francis is apparently thinking of calling a meeting between leaders and faithful of the world’s three biggest monotheistic religions, in Rome, to launch a message of peace, countering violence and the use of God’s name to justify hatred and terrorist acts. The sources say the Pope announced his intention to call a meeting, during an Audience last 30 April. But there was no mention of this in the communiqué the Holy See’s issued after the Audience. President Peres “told the Pope that there are people who use God’s name to justify terrorism” and religious leaders should...