Free Republic

Sep. 18, 2005 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that he would attempt to improve his relations with Washington, which have been rocky in recent months. "Sometimes I make mistakes, I tend to respond to any official from the government of Mr. Bush who verbally attacks Venezuela," Chavez said during a speech at a Manhattan church, his last public event in New York before heading to Cuba to meet with his close ally Fidel Castro. Chavez said the Rev. Jesse Jackson and U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., who sat with him at the church, had advised him "not to...

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf held an unprecedented meeting with leaders of the American Jewish Congress as part of his campaign to press for moderation in the Muslim world. Musharraf is the first leader of a Muslim nation which has no diplomatic relations with Israel to hold a public dialogue with Jewish leaders, officials of the Council for World Jewry said. The Pakistan military general was given a standing ovation and big round of applause as he stepped into the conference room for the meeting-cum-dinner at a leading hotel in New York. "I cannot imagine that a Muslim and that too...

Israeli and Pakistan foreign ministers hold first high-level meeting By Associated Press September 1, 2005 The Israeli and Pakistani foreign ministers were holding the first acknowledged high-level talks between the two countries in a meeting in Turkey, in the first diplomatic spinoff from Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said Thursday. The meeting was arranged at the initiative of Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, who asked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to arrange it, said Israeli Foreign Ministry officials. Pakistan, a Muslim country which has taken a hard line against Israel, was encouraged to meet the...

JERUSALEM - Israel hailed a diplomatic breakthrough Thursday with Pakistan as the first fruit of its Gaza pullout and a harbinger of warmer ties with other Muslim nations, after the first public meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries. Yet the sudden public embrace of Israel by the world's second-largest Muslim nation worried Palestinians, who warned that such a prize was premature as long as Israel controls Gaza's borders, expands West Bank settlements and tightens its hold on Jerusalem. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom met publicly for the first time with Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri of Pakistan, a...

"The armed struggle is the only strategy that Hamas possesses...As long as Palestinian lands remain under occupation, Hamas won't lay down its weapons." -- Khaled Mashaal, leader of the terrorist organization Hamas. "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son." -- Dean Wormer, Animal House (1978) The world has been witness to an extraordinary, emotional event: the Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip. This political gamble by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon marks substantive forward movement on the Road Map for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The question now is whether the Palestinian militants -- and...

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed anew Japan's remorse and apology for actions committed during World War II in his statement to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the war's end Monday, also stressing the country's forward-looking stance in apparent efforts to mend strained relations with China and South Korea. Government sources said Koizumi's statement is "the government's basic guideline aimed at acknowledging the past and contributing to future peace and prosperity." However, Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine remains a flashpoint and it is unclear if Koizumi's statement could lead to restored relations with Beijing and Seoul. On Monday night, Koizumi said...

The Indonesian Government and rebels from the province of Aceh signed a peace treaty this morning in Helsinki that could bring to an end South East Asia's longest running war. The signing of the treaty this morning, in which the separatist rebels known as the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, renounced their claim for full independence in return for an amnesty and participation in Indonesian politics, came after seven months of negotiations. More than 10,000 people are believed to have died in Aceh's war of independence against the Indonesian Government over the last 30 years. More than 4,000 people, including...

The two sides acknowledged there was still a lot to be done The Indonesian government and rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (Gam) have signed a peace deal aimed at ending their near 30 year conflict. Representatives from each side signed the official document in Helsinki. "This is the beginning of a new era for Aceh," said former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who mediated the talks. "Much hard work lies ahead." Efforts to end the conflict resumed after the huge tsunami last December, which destroyed vast swathes of Aceh. In the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, big screens were set up...

Iraqi PM in landmark Iran visit BBC Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has begun the first top-level visit to Iran since the two neighbours waged an eight-year war in the 1980s. More than 10 ministers are accompanying Mr Jaafari to open what Iranian media have called a new chapter in ties. They are expected to discuss security and the control of their long border. A new friendship is blossoming between Tehran and Baghdad to the consternation of the US, still bogged down in Iraq, says the BBC's Frances Harrison. After decades of no diplomatic relations, Iraq now has a prime...

BERLIN (AP) - Germany's opposition aims to oust Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder with a program to boost Europe's largest economy and "reinvigorate" relations with the United States, according to a draft obtained Sunday by The Associated Press. The program, to be formally endorsed Monday by the Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, includes an increase in sales tax and looser rules for companies to hire and fire staff. It also rules out Turkish membership in the European Union. The parties are also trying to win back voters by invoking Germany's strained relations with Washington. Schroeder ran for re-election in...

Thrust unexpectedly into the role of prison guards for Saddam Hussein, a group of young American soldiers found the deposed Iraqi leader to be a friendly, talkative "clean freak" who loved Raisin Bran for breakfast, did his own laundry and insisted he was still president of Iraq, says a report published on Monday. GQ magazine's July issue says Saddam greatly admired President Reagan and thought President Clinton was "OK," but had harsh words for both President Bushes, each of whom went to war against him. "The Bush father, son, no good," one of the soldiers, Cpl. Jonathan "Paco" Reese, 22,...

PARIS (Reuters) - France's new foreign minister pledged in comments published on Monday to press on with recent efforts to improve relations with the United States after the chill caused by the Iraq war. In a wide-ranging interview with Le Figaro newspaper, Philippe Douste-Blazy signalled no major change in foreign policy following his appointment on June 3, despite French voters' rejection of the European Union constitution on May 29. Relations with Washington became strained when Dominique de Villepin, who is now France's prime minister, led opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. But ties began improving under Douste-Blazy's...

US President George W. Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan highlighted their desire to overcome differences over the Iraq war that created tensions, as they met here. Ankara had been one of Washington's closest allies until 2003, when it refused to allow US troops to use its territory as a launching pad for their invasion of Iraq, cooling relations between the two NATO members. After meeting with Erdogan at the White House, Bush praised democracy in Turkey as "an important example for the people in the broader Middle East." The White House also expressed support, ahead of the...

BARI, Italy (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI visited the eastern port of Bari on his first papal trip Sunday and pledged to make healing the 1,000-year-old rift with the Orthodox church a "fundamental" commitment of his papacy. Benedict made the pledge in a city closely tied to the Orthodox church. Bari, on Italy's Adriatic coast, is considered a "bridge" between East and West and is home to the relics of St. Nicholas of Myra, a 4th-Century saint who is one of the most popular in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. Benedict referred to Bari as a "land of...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An influential anti-U.S. Shiite cleric yesterday joined the campaign to get Sunni Arab Muslim leaders to help quell the sectarian violence now roiling Iraq, even as insurgents continued their attacks against government officials and U.S. troops. Muqtada al-Sadr, who commands thousands of militia fighters in the capital's slums, sent a delegation to meet with Sunni leaders and appeal for an end to tensions. At least 10 Shiite and Sunni clerics have been killed in recent weeks, prompting speculation that they were tit-for-tat killings. The head of the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars last week blamed several of...

SHUNEH, Jordan (AFP) - The son of Libyan leader Moamar Kadhafi said his country will soon have an embassy in Washington and expected the US to reciprocate, adding the two had "excellent" intelligence cooperation. "By the end of this year we will have an embassy in Washinton and the United States will have an embassy in Libya," Seif al-Islam Kadhafi told a conference on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in this Dead Sea resort. Relations between the former foes have been improving since Tripoli agreed to a settlement in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and renounced weapons of mass...

ANKARA, Turkey - Iraq's new prime minister said Friday he will soon visit neighboring Syria to demand that the government halt the flow of foreign insurgents crossing into Iraq. Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari also said it was not clear Syria was backing the gunmen. "There are some armed groups infiltrating from Syria.... How much of this infiltration is related to the Syrian government, we will discuss this issue directly with Syrian authorities," al-Jaafari said at a news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We will visit Syria some time soon, and one of the issues that will be...

Iraq is ready to boost ties with Iran, a neighboring country which fought a bitter war with Saddam Hussein's regime in 1980-1988, the Iraqi foreign minister said Tuesday. "We have been working with Iran to open a new page in the bilateral relationship," Hoshiar al-Zebari told a press conference jointly held with his visiting Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi. For his part, Kharazi pledged to support Iraq's transitional government led by Shiite Islamist Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose cabinet was sworn in on April 28, three months after the landmark election was held on Jan. 30. Kharazi expressed expectations that a close cooperation...

Sen. John McCain, who once called two top evangelical leaders "evil," commended Christian conservatives on Sunday for their political activism, adding that their critics were wrong to complain that the religious right has too much political influence on the GOP. "Religious conservatives have every right to affect the policies and programs of candidates of our party," McCain told ABC's "This Week." "They have every right - and I respect it." The possible 2008 presidential contender chastised critics of Christian leaders like Rev. Pat Robertson and Rev. Jerry Falwell, saying they should stop complaining. "To my friends who say there's too...

JERUSALEM, May 1 - In a rare visit by the leader of a Muslim country, Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came to Israel on Sunday offering to serve as a Middle East peace mediator and looking to build on trade and military ties. Relations between Turkey and Israel had been developing steadily since they established full diplomatic relations more than a decade ago. They became strained last year when Mr. Erdogan sharply criticized what he called Israel's violent policies toward the Palestinians, and his government briefly recalled two diplomats. But Mr. Erdogan's visit suggested that any damage had been...