By Omar Obeidat and AFP
AMMAN - Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu will meet today to discuss bilateral relations, Mideast peace coordination between the two countries and the latest regional developments.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nassar Habashneh told The Jordan Times on Wednesday that the two officials will hold a press conference today on "efforts to bring about peace to the region".
The top Turkish diplomat has cancelled a visit to Israel, the Israeli foreign ministry said yesterday, over what media reports said was a refusal to let him visit the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Davutoglu "has let us know that he will not come in October to participate in an annual conference organised by President Shimon Peres", a ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"We regret this decision, as the Turkish minister is always welcome in Israel and we had prepared for him a series of meetings at the highest levels," the official added.
The Israeli media said the visit was cancelled because Israel had refused to allow Davutoglu to enter the Hamas-run Gaza Strip from its territory unless he promised not to meet the Islamist rulers of the Palestinian enclave.
Tensions between Israel and Turkey, long one of its most important Muslim allies, skyrocketed during Israel's deadly assault on Gaza at the turn of the year.
UN
Also Wednesday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced Israel's plans to build new Jewish settler homes in the occupied territories as "contrary to international law". Ban "noted with deep concern" an Israeli decision on Monday to approve further construction in settlements in the occupied territory, a statement issued by his office said.
"Such actions and all settlement activity are contrary to international law and the roadmap," it said, referring to the international plan for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"The secretary general urges Israel to respond positively to the important efforts under way to create the conditions for effective Palestinian-Israeli negotiations and reiterates his call on Israel to stop all settlement activity, including natural growth, and dismantle all outposts erected since March 2001 in the occupied Palestinian territory," Ban stressed.
Israel on Monday gave the go-ahead to build hundreds of new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank, defying warnings that the move jeopardises any resumption of Middle East peace talks.
'320 minors killed
in Gaza war'
Israel's Gaza offensive killed 1,387 Palestinians, with more than half of them, including 320 minors, not having taken part in the fighting, an Israeli human rights group said on Wednesday.
B'Tselem said 773 of the Palestinians killed in the December-January offensive "did not take part in the hostilities", a figure that conflicts with the Israeli army's insistence that most of the casualties were fighters.
B'Tselem said 252 children under the age of 16 and 111 women were among those killed, while the military put the figures at 89 and 49 respectively.
Sixty-eight Palestinians aged 16 to 18 who did not take part in the fighting were among the fatalities, who also included 19 minors in the same age group "who took direct part in the hostilities", the rights group said.
"The extremely heavy civilian casualties and the massive damage to civilian property require serious introspection on the part of Israeli society," a B'Tselem statement said, calling on Israel to conduct an "independent and credible" investigation.
It said that 330 of those killed took part in the fighting and 248 were police officers, most of them killed when police stations were bombed on December 28, the first day of the three-week offensive.
The group said that for 36 fatalities, it could not determine whether or not they had participated in hostilities.
The Israeli military, which put the Palestinian death toll at 1,166, includes the police among the 709 "terror operatives" it says were killed in the offensive. The Gaza force has been under the command of Hamas since the Islamist movement seized control of the enclave in June 2007.
B'Tselem said its figures were obtained by researchers who "visited homes and gathered death certificates, photos and testimonies" for all the children killed.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment but had previously stressed that its objective during Operation Cast Lead "was to target the Hamas terror organisation and not the citizens of the Gaza Strip". Gaza emergency medical services say 1,382 Palestinians were killed in the offensive, 447 of them under the age of 18.
The B'Tselem report said Palestinians killed nine Israelis, including three civilians, while another four soldiers were killed by friendly fire.
Hamas
The political leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Mishaal, said his group produces and smuggles weapons, during a visit to Sudan on Wednesday.
"Your brothers in Palestine, despite the blockade and the closing of border passages... despite the fleets from East and West, despite all of this, we buy arms, we manage to produce arms and we smuggle arms," he said in a recording of a speech to young members of President Omar Bashir's ruling party.
The Damascus-based leader of Hamas, who arrived in Khartoum on Tuesday, did not elaborate on the type of arms produced or the suppliers of weapons.
An air raid by foreign aircraft on a convoy of trucks in eastern Sudan in January killed 119 people, the country's news agency Suna reported in May, giving an official death toll for the first time.
The convoy had been transporting illegal immigrants to Egypt, General Abdul Rahim Mohammad Hussein told a parliamentary committee investigating the attack, Suna said.
But Time Magazine has reported that the convoy was carrying rockets and Iranian explosives bound for the Gaza Strip during an Israeli offensive against Palestinian militants.
Citing two senior Israeli security officials, the magazine said Israeli fighter-bombers had carried out the attack.
No comments:
Post a Comment