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Secretary of State John Kerry called Friday for greater efforts to "unfreeze" decades of tense stalemate between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus, after meeting here with the foreign minister of the divided Mediterranean island. "The United States supports a bi-zonal, bicommunal federation. We would like to see us unfreeze this conflict and be able to move to a resolution," Kerry told reporters after meeting here with his Cypriot counterpart Ioannis Kasoulides. "We also look forward to working with the foreign minister, and with President (Nicos) Anastasiades and others to try to move Cyprus forward on one of the world's frozen...

TEL AVIV, Israel, May 9 (UPI) -- Israel's rapprochement with onetime strategic ally Turkey is a vital element in Ankara's drive to become the intercontinental east-west energy hub in the Mediterranean and many expect it to produce an energy alliance that will transform the region. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has, since taking power in 2002, transformed his country's economic prospects through a wide-ranging diplomatic drive aimed at restoring Turkish leadership in the region. He has long sought to transform Turkey, which has no energy resources of its own, into the unassailable central hub for transporting oil and gas...

KABUL -- The U.S. wants to keep nine bases in Afghanistan after American combat troops withdraw in 2014 and the Afghan government will let them as long as it gets "security and economic guarantees," President Hamid Karzai said Thursday in his first public offer in talks about the future relationship between the two uneasy allies. U.S. officials have made no final announcement about how many troops might remain in Afghanistan after 2014, although they have said as many as many as 12,000 U.S. and coalition forces could remain to train and advise Afghans and continue counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida and...

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, several days after the alleged Israeli air raids on Syrian targets and as Washington steps up its Middle East peace efforts, AFP reported. The White House said in a short statement that Obama and Netanyahu, who is visiting China, spoke by telephone, and discussed "regional security issues and Middle East peace." U.S. officials have declined to comment in detail on air strikes allegedly carried out by Israel on targets near Damascus on Friday and Sunday, which reportedly destroyed Iranian missiles apparently destined for the Hizbullah terror group. But...

ROME (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday he would depart in two weeks on another trip to the Middle East to push peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Speaking to reporters alongside Israeli peace negotiator Tzipi Livni, Kerry said he'd depart on his fourth trip to the Jewish state as America's top diplomat around May 21 or 22. He will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "We are working through threshold questions," Kerry said, ahead of his private talks with Livni in Rome. "We're doing it with a seriousness of purpose that...

ROME — The Obama administration is providing $100 million in new Syria aid, U.S. officials said Wednesday, but the money is for humanitarian purposes only and not linked to any decision on arming Syrian rebels. The announcement will be made by Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday in Rome, where his diplomacy includes a meeting with Jordan’s foreign minister, the officials said. The new funds will help support 1.4 million Syrian refugees, including many in U.S. ally Jordan, and hundreds of thousands of other civilians still trapped by the violence inside Syria’s border. Total U.S. humanitarian assistance in the...

Only by combining their forces will Israel and Cyprus be able to make a significant dent in the global natural gas economy, the Cypriot energy minister stressed on Tuesday. “We feel that through a close collaboration with Israel we will be able to be a major player in the world energy market, something that for each country individually might be too hard to achieve,” said Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis. Lakkotrypis was addressing a group of Israeli and Cypriot business leaders and government officials at a seminar entitled “Cyprus: An International and Professional Center,” held in Tel...

At a meeting with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised that Israel would continue to maintain good ties with Cyprus, regardless of its newly-rekindled relationship with Turkey. Netanyahu met with the newly-elected Anastasiades on Sunday night, before he departed for China. At a press conference after the meeting, Anastasiades said that Israel and Cyprus had “embarked on a strategically important dialogue with a view at enhancing and further developing our bilateral ties, which are founded on common principles and values.” In an interview with Channel Two, the Cyprus president said that he and Netanyahu had agreed, among...

The upcoming visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to China is expected to further promote mutual political trust and cooperation in the fields of economy, trade and science. Netanyahu is due to leave for China Sunday night for a five-day official visit, the first of its kind since 2007 when then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited China. Chinese Ambassador to Israel Gao Yanping told Xinhua in an interview that China and Israel have maintained close high-level contact in recent years, creating a good atmosphere for the growth of bilateral ties. Recent years have also witnessed increasingly closer exchanges...

Turkey's prime minister on Sunday delivered his most virulent attack so far on Bashar al-Assad, calling the Syrian president a "butcher" and warning that he will be held to account for the deaths of tens of thousands of his citizens. "If God permits, we will see this butcher, this murderer receive his judgement in this world ... and we will praise (God) for it," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. "You will pay a very, very heavy price for showing your courage to the babies in the cradle, the courage you cannot show others," he told a cheering crowd of lawmakers and...

Turkish and Israeli officials will meet on Monday in Israel for another round of talks over compensation for a deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a diplomatic source told AFP. "The second round of negotiations will be held in Israel tomorrow," the source said on Sunday, without elaborating. An initial meeting was held in Ankara on April 22 to discuss the amount and the terms of the payment for the compensation by Israel, which Turkey has named as a precondition for normalisation of diplomatic ties. That meeting was the first stage of what Turkish officials have said would...

Israel needs to reach peace with the Palestinians to avoid becoming a binational state, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday. He stressed, however, that the core of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians was not territory, but rather a Palestinian unwillingness to recognize Israel’s legitimacy within any boundaries. Netanyahu’s comments at a meeting with top Foreign Ministry officials came amid signs of revived motion on the Palestinian track. He made similar comments during a meeting later in the day with five US congressmen, giving the impression that he was staking out a pre-negotiation position. “We’re engaged right now in an...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet on Sunday morning with new Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, who said before the visit that strengthening ties with Israel is one of his government’s most important initiatives. Netanyahu will meet Anastasiades shortly before leaving for a five-day trip to China. The Cyprus Mail quoted Anastasiades as saying the aim of the visit was to begin a “to-the-point dialogue that can lead to collaboration between the two countries that will benefit both peoples in many areas, among them of course the exploitation of natural resources.” Anastasiades arrived on Thursday evening for a twoday...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will leave this afternoon for a five-day trip to China, where he will try to bring Israel’s perspectives on a slew of regional issues such as Iran, Syria and Egypt to the country’s new leadership. Netanyahu will be meeting with the new Chinese president, Xi Jinping, as well as with the country’s new prime minister, Li Keqiang, in an effort to shape their impressions of the Middle East as they begin what is expected to be a decade of rule. While two previous attempts to arrange a visit by Netanyahu failed to materialize, the trip is...

In a further indication of stirrings in the long-stagnant Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni met Thursday in Washington with US Secretary of State John Kerry, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said for the second time in a week that he supports a public referendum on any agreement with the Palestinians. Yitzhak Molcho, Netanyahu’s envoy on the Palestinian issue, accompanied Livni to her meeting with Kerry, where they discussed the peace process as well as regional developments, particularly Syria. The meeting came three days after an Arab League delegation met with Kerry and US Vice President Joe Biden. Kerry...

ROME, April 30 (UPI) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres met with Pope Francis in the Vatican Tuesday, inviting him to Israel and seeking help restarting the Palestinian peace process. Peres told Francis he has a unique and potentially very helpful role in restarting the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians, Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. "The citizens of Israel see in you a leader of peace and good will," Peres said. "The sooner you visit the better, as in these days a new opportunity is being created for peace and your arrival could contribute significantly to increasing the trust and belief...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister on Monday said that Iran is steadily edging closer to nuclear weapons capability but has not yet reached the "red line" he drew in a speech to the United Nations last fall. Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his assessment as Israel took delivery of the fifth of six advanced submarines it has ordered from Germany. The "Dolphin" class vessels are believed to be capable of carrying missiles with nuclear warheads and could play an important role in any future conflict between Israel and Iran. In Iran, an influential former president appeared to be trying to lower...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry met a group of senior Arab officials on Monday as he sought to build regional support for any fresh push for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Kerry has made no secret of his hope to revive peace talks, which broke down in 2010, but it remains unclear whether U.S. President Barack Obama will decide to back a major U.S. effort. In convening the group, Kerry is trying to ensure that a new peace process would have the backing of the Arab states, who, if they were to offer Israel a comprehensive peace, hold a powerful...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Senior aides to Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi made a rare visit to Tehran for talks with Iran on an Islamic initiative to seek a peaceful solution to Syria's civil war, the two sides said on Sunday. Tehran is Syria's closest ally and has provided money, weapons, intelligence and training for President Bashar al-Assad's forces, while Egypt has given political support to the opposition Syrian National Coalition fighting to oust him. Mursi's foreign affairs adviser Essam Haddad and his chief-of-staff Rifaa El-Tahtawy met Iranian officials in a follow-up to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's groundbreaking visit to Cairo in...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons could be a greater threat after that nation’s president leaves power and could end up targeting Americans at home, lawmakers warned Sunday as they considered a U.S. response that stops short of sending military forces there.</p>