Free Republic

KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s foreign minister on Monday said that his government is aiming to have a peace summit by the end of February, preferably at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as a possible mediator, around the anniversary of Russia’s war.“Every war ends in a diplomatic way,” he said. “Every war ends as a result of the actions taken on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”Kuleba said the Ukrainian government would like to have a peace summit by the end of February.

“In the Kherson direction, today at 5 o’clock in the morning Moscow time, the transfer of units of Russian troops to the left bank of the Dnieper River was completed. No units or military equipment and weapons were left on the right bank. All Russian soldiers crossed to the left bank of the Dnieper,” read the announcement of the Russian Ministry of Defense on Friday, November 11, 2022 – the anniversary of World War I Armistice Day, 1918. The amount of misinformation and sheer nonsense about the Russian withdrawal from Kherson published since the time of the announcement “wouldn’t fit...

The North Korean dictator is fancied at 4/6 to take the prize jointly with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in. Donald Trump is second favourite at 10/1 by bookies Ladbrokes. The two leaders are in Singapore for a showdown summit to solve the ongoing crisis over Pyongyang's nuke programme, which has led to fears of a major world war. The US President has sounded a positive note ahead of the crisis talks with Kim. Earlier he tweeted: "Great to be in Singapore, excitement in the air!" Kim was also pictured in a candid selfie smiling with politicians on a night...

Despite expectations of warming ties between Jerusalem and Cairo, Egyptian People's Assembly Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour last week listed Tel Aviv as the address for an official letter to his counterpart, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin. The letter was in response to a dispatch from Rivlin reflecting on the Knesset's October 26 decision to endorse Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. Rivlin intends to send Sorour a response on Monday in which he will thank him for the letter, addressed to him in Tel Aviv, but note that he "surely" is aware that Israel's parliament is located in Jerusalem – the...

<p>Many organizations who say they struggle for peace and justice operate in areas being affected by the fighting between Israel and Islamic terrorists every day. These are entities which, among other things, hold dear to themselves the rights of women, children, journalists, minority, ethnic, religious groups and gays. The fact of the matter is that they fight for none of these people. Point of fact, they do not advocate peace but advocate war on the human rights of these mentioned groups of Palestinian Arabs – war continued not by Israel, but by the Palestinian Authority (PA).</p>

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Israel's military has determined that Egypt seeks to weaken Israel through attacks by Palestinian insurgency groups. Israeli military sources said the assessment was contained in Military Intelligence reports relayed to the General Staff and the Cabinet over the last two months. The sources said MI has determined that Egypt has facilitated the smuggling of weapons and insurgents from the Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip for attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. "We are not only talking about weapons," a senior military source said. "We are talking about the infiltration of Egyptian and other trainers to...

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Wednesday he sees a fresh opening for Mideast peace as a new leader emerges to replace the ailing Yasser Arafat. "There will be opening for peace when leadership of the Palestinian people steps forward and says, 'Help us build a democratic and free society,'" Bush said after an Oval Office meeting with the secretary-general of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. "And when that happens - and I believe it's going to happen because I believe all people desire to live in freedom _the United States of America will be more than willing to help build...

www.petra.gov.jo/nepras/2004/Oct/03/21694400.htm Amman, Oct. 3 (Petra-Jordan News Agency)--His Majesty King Abdullah II affirmed that Israel's continuation of its arrogance, its assassination and mass killing of Palestinians, as well as the destruction of properties and infrastructure in the Palestinian lands, do not serve peace. During a meeting at the Hashemite Royal Court with a delegation from the British Royal Defence Studies Academy, the King said that such acts will increase the cycle of violence, instability as well as the phenomenon of extremism in the region. "The Palestinian cause is the first central issue in the Middle East region and solving it in...

An Egyptian governmental newspaper on Tuesday called on Arab countries to boycott Israel in order to isolate it in the international arena. Al-Akhbar newspaper's Editor-in Cheif Galal Dowidar wrote in Tuesday's editorial that there was an opportunity to boycott Israel following the decision made by foreign ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement last week to ban visits by settlers. "After many years and after the real Israel has been revealed to the world as a Nazi and aggressive country, we may now to say that there is an opportunity to boycott this country and its supporters in order to internationally isolate...

Palestinian officials said Sunday that they are ready for a cease-fire with Israel as a first step toward reviving the stalled road map peace plan. Militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas told Egyptian mediators they are ready to commit to a cease-fire, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath said. Sha'ath said he made the cease-fire proposal during a meeting Saturday in Jordan with United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. "We told Powell that ... we are ready for such a cease-fire if the United States is able to bring an Israeli commitment to such an agreement," he said. Sha'ath said...

.S. President George W. Bush and Jordan's King Abdullah are scheduled to meet Thursday in Washington for talks on the Middle East. The meeting was delayed by the Jordanian king in the wake of Bush's meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last month. U.S. officials said that Bush, despite his recent assurances to Israel on the return of Palestinian refugees and the absorption of West Bank settlement blocs, is expected to give Abdullah a letter saying that Palestinians and Israelis must negotiate key issues. The two will discuss Sharon's initiative to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of...

(Source: Raytheon Co.; issued April 15, 2004) [With thanks to www.defense-aerospace.com ] RESTON, Va. --- Raytheon Company has been awarded a $64.8 million contract by the Jordan armed forces to upgrade their M60A3 main battle tanks with Raytheon's Integrated Fire Control System (IFCS). Raytheon will manufacture and test 82 IFCS upgrade kits in Indianapolis and will provide technical assistance to Jordan armed forces personnel during the installation in Jordan. Spares and depot-maintenance equipment to establish a limited depot-support capability in Jordan will also be provided under this contract. Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC (RTSC) has been working with Jordan's King...

[IMRA: President Bush says "There will never be a Palestinian state, in my judgment, if terrorists are willing to kill. And so the first step we've got to do is to work on the mutual security concerns of the region" - but it should be noted that in contrast to these remarks, Mr. Bush's Road Map makes possible the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state in the evacuated areas after "declarations" and the "start" of PA security activities (=photo ops) that are judged by a consensus of the Quartet - as compared to Israel's activities - to justify the creation...

Yosse Kopel, Israel Police Spokesperson for the Southern District, told IMRA today that the Egyptian Police had no role in either the discovery or arrest of the members of a large arms-smuggling network from Egypt to Gaza. Among those arrested over the past two months of intense police work were five Egyptians, four Israeli Bedouin, and a resident of PA-controlled Nablus. The criminals in custody smuggled drugs, prostitutes and foreign workers as well as arms. Over the past two months, police confiscated 140 rifles, two RPG rocket launchers and much ammunition from the cell members. Yesterday U.S. President George Bush...

Police and the Shin Bet cracked a 10-member weapons smuggling ring, they announced Tuesday. The five Egyptians, four Beduin from the Negev, and a Palestinian from Nablus are suspected of smuggling the weapons from Egypt via Sinai and selling them to terrorists in the Palestinian Authority-controlled areas. The head of the ring is Egyptian Mahmoud Sawarka. The authorities also netted 140 Kalashnikov assault rifles, two RPG launchers, RPGs, and vast amounts of ammunition. Police estimated that the Egyptians – all residents of Sinai – received requests from terrorist organizations, acquired the weapons, crossed into Israel, and left them at a...

Senior Jordanian officials warned Israel not to attempt targeted killings on its territory so as not to endanger provoking additional violence in the region, reported Israel Radio Tuesday afternoon. The daily al-Dustour newspaper quoted a government source commenting on press reports that Israeli hit teams were targetting Palestinian leaders in neighboring countries, including Jordan. "Such policy will have a catastrophic impact on the whole region and plunge it in a vicious circle of violence in addition to threatening the mere existence of a peace process," the source said. In 1997, an attempt on the life of Hamas' Militant leader Khaled...

Soldiers and Border Police uncovered and destroyed an arms-smuggling tunnel 15 meters underground in ongoing operations that began overnight Thursday in Rafah near the border with Egypt. The tunnel is 150 meters long and its entrance was found inside a house. It is not clear if the house was inhabited. The Rafah operation began early Friday morning and IDF forces are still in the area. While they encountered no resistance Friday there has been a number of shooting attacks against soldiers Saturday. No soldiers were wounded.

Special Report - No. 28 April 2, 2004 No.28 Anti-American and Antisemitic Cartoons in Leading Egyptian Government Weekly Al-Ahram: 1998-2004By: Steven Stalinsky* Background Al-Ahram newspapers [1] are controlled by the Egyptian government and edited by the government-appointed Ibrahim Nafi', who also serves aschairman of the Arab Journalists Association. Following a MEMRI dispatch from an October 10, 2000 issue of Al-Ahram based on a centuries-old blood libel, according to which Jews used the blood of a priest in Damascus to make Passover matzoh, the French Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et L'antisémitisme (LICRA) filed a complaint against Nafi' for incitement...

Palestinian Arab Violations ofPresident Bush's "Road Map" PlanA Survey of Week #47: March 16, 2004 - March 22, 2004   BACKGROUND:    On June 24, 2002, President Bush set forth the conditions that the Palestinian Arabs must fulfill in order to merit U.S. support for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state. Among the major obligations are that the Palestinian Arabs must "dismantle the terrorist infrastructure," "end incitement," "elect new leaders not compromised by terror," and unequivocally embrace democracy and free market economics. None of those conditions were fulfilled.    In March 2003, Yasir Arafat chose Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the...

Exactly a quarter of a century ago – in March 1979 – Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty which put an end to decades of war between the two nations. When President Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister Menachem Begin attached their names to the peace document on the White House lawn, with president Jimmy Carter as witness and facilitator, there was hope for a new dawn in the Middle East. It was not to be. Twenty-five years later, there is still no regional peace. Israel and Syria have failed, despite numerous attempts, to reach an equivalent agreement. And with...