Mousavi rally draws massive crowds in Tehran

Iranians call for post-vote calm
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By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Many tens of thousands of Iranians chanted support for Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran on Monday after a presidential election they say was stolen from him and handed to the hardline incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest), they converged on Revolution Square, where Mousavi addressed a small part of the crowd through a loud hailer and held his fists clenched above his head, in a sign of victory, after two days of the capital's most violent unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The gathering, which took place in defiance of an Interior Ministry ban, was a reply to Ahmadinejad's government-organized victory rally, which also drew vast crowds on Sunday.
Supporters stretching along several kilometers of a Tehran boulevard waved green flags, Mousavi's campaign colors, and held portraits of him aloft as they tried to take pictures on their cellphones -- even though his words could not be heard above the noise of the crowd.
Iran's state television said Mousavi, looking smiling and relaxed in a striped shirt, had said he was ready in case the election was re-run.
"Mousavi, take back our votes," the marchers chanted before Mousavi appeared, along with other pro-reform leaders who backed his call for Friday's election result to be overturned.
The disputed election has dismayed Western powers trying to induce the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter to curb nuclear work that they suspect is for bomb-making, a charge Iran denies.
U.S. CONCERN
U.S. leaders have reacted cautiously, in the hope of keeping alive President Barack Obama's strategy of engagement with Iran.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters: "Obviously we continue to have concerns about what we're seeing."
But the European Union increased pressure on Iran to agree to opposition demands to investigate Ahmadinejad's landslide election victory and halt a crackdown on protesters.
France, Germany and Britain led the EU campaign to persuade Iran to clarify the election results.
In Paris, Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said Iran's ambassador had been summoned to hear French concerns over "the brutal repression of peaceful protests and the repeated attacks on the liberty of the press and freedom of speech."
Britain said it was worried that events in Iran might affect any future international engagement with its government.
"The implications are not yet clear," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. "What we know is that there has been no Iranian response to the outreach that has been made by the international community, including the United States." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Palestinian dismay, U.S. and EU caution on Netanyahu

Israel bombs Gaza tunnels
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By Mohammed Assadi
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinians voiced dismay on Monday over terms Benjamin Netanyahu set for a peace deal but the Israeli leader won guarded approval in Washington and Brussels for at least accepting Palestinian statehood.
In a speech on Sunday, Netanyahu responded to weeks of U.S. pressure by endorsing for the first time establishment of a Palestinian state, on condition Israel received international guarantees in advance the new nation would be demilitarized.
But Palestinians were disappointed by the prime minister's demand they recognize Israel as a Jewish state and his failure to halt Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.
"The international community should confront this policy, through which Netanyahu wants to kill off any chance for peace," Yasser Abed Rabbo, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told Reuters.
"They must isolate and confront this policy which Netanyahu is adopting and exert pressure on him so that he adheres to international legitimacy and the road map," he said, referring to a U.S.-sponsored 2003 peace plan.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in remarks to troops that the call to recognize Israel as a Jewish state "increases the complexity of the matter and aborts the chance for peace."
Palestinians argue that granting such recognition would effectively rule out any return of Palestinian refugees to what is now Israel.
The White House termed Sunday's address "an important step forward" for implementing President Barack Obama's peace vision.
The European Union described the speech as "a step in the right direction" but said it was not enough to raise EU-Israel ties to a higher level.
DIFFERENCES
Interviewed on U.S. television on Monday, Netanyahu said he hoped to narrow differences with Obama over settlements.
Obama has called for a full settlement freeze, in line with the road map, but Netanyahu wants building to continue in existing West Bank enclaves.
"President Obama and I are trying to reach a common understanding on this," Netanyahu said on U.S. television. "I think we'll find some common ground."
Netanyahu pledged to keep all of Jerusalem as Israel's capital -- defying Palestinians' claim on the city -- and hedged on whether Israel would ever remove West Bank settlements.
He ruled out the admission of Palestinian refugees to Israel proper and said Abbas must impose his authority over the breakaway Hamas Islamists ruling the Gaza Strip. Continued...
Source: Reuters

EU ready to help settle Guantanamo ex-detainees

By David Brunnstrom
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - European Union member states are ready to help resettle detainees freed from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the EU said on Monday.
A joint statement by Brussels and Washington said the EU backed the decision by the United States to close the detention center and set out a framework for cooperation under which member states would be able to receive released detainees.
It said Washington would share with EU member states information about detainees who had been cleared for release and would consider, on a case-by-case basis, contributing to the costs incurred by EU states in receiving former detainees.
"By supporting the U.S. determination to shut down Guantanamo, the EU hopes to contribute to changing U.S. policies and to help the United States turn the page," the joint declaration said.
The Guantanamo Bay prison camp, opened under former U.S. President George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, drew international criticism for holding prisoners indefinitely, many without charge.
U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered the closure of the prison, which now holds 229 detainees, by the end of January.
The 27-nation EU wants to help Obama meet his goal by taking in some detainees cleared for release, and EU officials say member states could accept about 60 former detainees.
But the issue has proved controversial because Europe's open borders mean a former inmate accepted by one state could travel freely through most of the region.
"It will now be for each country in the EU to decide whether to take detainees from Guantanamo or not, knowing that we have agreed on general principles," Jonathan Faull, a senior European Commission official, told reporters in Brussels.
He said a member state's decision to resettle a detainee or detainees could not be vetoed by another EU state.
"It is up to a member state, in its interest and the interest of other member states, to know and share information," he said. "Other member states can make representations... but the competence to decide whether to admit people in their country is on the member state alone."
EU ministers agreed this month to share information with each other before accepting anyone for resettlement.
(Additional reporting by Bate Felix in Brussels; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Source: Reuters

Indian, Pakistani leaders expected to meet on Tuesday

By Oleg Shchedrov
YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) - The leaders of India and Pakistan will hold talks in Russia on Tuesday, raising expectations their first meeting since last November's Mumbai attacks will ease tensions between the two countries.
Russian officials said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari would meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
But it was unclear whether the two would make any real breakthrough in improving relations, which Washington hopes will ease tensions across the region, including in Afghanistan.
"According to our information a bilateral Indian-Pakistani meeting is tentatively planned for tomorrow," a Russian official involved in organizing the summit said.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the two men would have a one-on-one meeting, but gave few details.
"Let the meeting take place and then we can talk after it is over," he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press of Pakistan. "We can't prejudge the outcome of the meeting."
Pakistan is keen to resume a peace process broken off by India after last November's attacks on Mumbai, blamed by New Delhi on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.
But analysts say that even if Singh and Zardari do manage to break the ice, the two countries are unlikely to be able to pick up where they left off in peace talks.
India is expected instead to focus on trying to persuade Pakistan to take tougher action against the Lashkar-e-Taiba and other militant groups it blames for attacks in Indian Kashmir and on Indian targets elsewhere.
It was incensed when a Pakistani court this month ordered the release from house arrest of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
And while Singh -- who is in a stronger position to manage ties with Islamabad after winning re-election last month -- has said he is ready to meet Pakistan "more than half way," he has also insisted it take tough action against militant groups.
It is not yet clear exactly how he plans to take talks forward with Pakistan, nor whether he would give any indication of this after meeting Zardari in Yekaterinburg.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars since independence, two of them over Kashmir.
The United States would like Pakistan to move troops from its eastern border with India in order to intensify an offensive on its western border against Taliban militants using Pakistan's tribal areas as a base for launching attacks in Afghanistan.
The two countries are also rivals for influence in Afghanistan, complicating U.S. efforts to improve conditions there and end a military stalemate.
India and Pakistan have observer status at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which groups Russia, China and the former Soviet Central Asian republics.

Source: Reuters

Three women captives shot dead in Yemen

Nine kidnapped in Yemen
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By Mohammed Sudam
SANAA (Reuters) - Three women from a party of nine kidnapped foreigners have been found dead in north Yemen, officials said on Monday, in a rare killing that comes as separatist and militant tensions intensify.
The three women were believed to have been shot, two sources told Reuters, in a dramatic escalation of violence that comes one day after authorities arrested a man described as al Qaeda's top financer in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Yemeni state news agency Saba said the three were part of a group of nine -- seven Germans, a Briton and a Korean -- that included three children and their mother and were kidnapped last week in the mountainous Saada region bordering Saudi Arabia.
A source told Reuters on Sunday that one of the German captives was a doctor at a local hospital which the other Germans were visiting. The Briton is an engineer and the South Korean was working with an aid agency.
Two of the dead women were German nurses and one was a Korean teacher, the Yemeni military said in a statement. No claim of responsibility for the killing has been made.
If the killing was carried out by tribal forces, it would mark the first time that women hostages have been victims. Two Belgian women, however, were killed in 2008 by gunmen in an ambush that authorities blamed on al Qaeda.
Dubai-based security analyst Fares bin Houzam said it was possible al Qaeda was behind the latest deaths. No al Qaeda statement claiming responsibility has been published so far.
"It's very rare for kidnappers in Yemen to kill, we have to wait to know what happened. But whoever is behind this, this is a fatal blow to security in Yemen," he said.
Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is struggling with a revolt in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and growing al Qaeda militancy, which have unsettled Western governments and neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Kidnappings of Western tourists or workers by tribes is fairly common in Yemen with most incidents resolved peacefully in exchange for ransom or concessions from authorities. In this case, no tribal demands were made public.
Increasing unrest has raised concerns Yemen could slip into chaos and provide a base of operations for al Qaeda or pirates operating in the Indian ocean.
On Sunday Yemen arrested Saudi national Hassan Hussein Alwan described as al Qaeda's top financier in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, brought under control an al Qaeda campaign of violence launched in the kingdom in 2003, but fears are that Yemen will become the staging post for a revival of the effort to bring down the U.S.-allied Saudi royal family.
Yemeni authorities have blamed the Houthi tribal group for kidnapping the nine foreigners, a charge the Houthis denied.
In 2004, tribesmen in Saada led by members of the Houthi clan began an intermittent rebellion against the government in protest at what they said was economic and religious discrimination. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Police in Georgia beat opposition protesters

By David Mdzinarishvili
TBILISI (Reuters) - Masked police beat dozens of opposition protesters in the Georgian capital on Monday in the latest flare-up during a weeks-long street campaign against President Mikheil Saakashvili, witnesses said.
Dozens of black-clad police officers armed with truncheons confronted a protest of about 50 people at Tbilisi's main police station demanding the release of six opposition activists detained since Friday, a Reuters photographer said.
He said several protesters and a photographer for the European Pressphoto Agency were severely beaten. Senior opposition official Zurab Abashidze was admitted to hospital.
Police seized cameras from photographers and cameramen, including a Reuters photographer. The cameras were later returned but the Reuters photographer's images had been erased. Other photographers said their memory cards had been taken.
Tensions are running high in the former Soviet republic, after more than two months of opposition protests and roadblocks demanding Saakashvili quit over his record on democracy and last year's disastrous war with Russia.
The volatile country of 4.5 million people sits on Russia's southern border, at the heart of a transit region for oil and gas to the West.
"This is absolutely unacceptable," protest leader and former Saakashvili ally Nino Burjanadze said of the violence. "We demand a response from our Western partners, to give their assessment of the situation."
Saakashvili said he was tolerating a state of "lawlessness" and accused his opponents of trying to provoke him.
"They think Saakashvili is hot-headed, they insult (parliament speaker David) Bakradze and (Prime Minister Nika) Gilauri, and they try to make us crush them," he told a televised meeting of the parliamentary majority.
Police firing tear gas and rubber bullets dispersed the last mass demonstrations against Saakashvili in 2007. Watched closely by the West, authorities are wary of taking a hard line again, but analysts question how long the stalemate can continue.
"CRIMINALS AND BANDITS"
Both sides have traded blame for a spate of violent incidents, vying for the sympathy of Georgia's Western allies.
The opposition said that statements by several Western embassies on Friday, in which they criticized opposition protesters for throwing rocks and bottles at Bakradze's official car, had encouraged the government to take a hard line.
"The statements made by the U.S., French and Czech ambassadors clearly gave impetus to the authorities to act as criminals and bandits today," opposition leader David Gamkrelidze said.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that protesters were hampering traffic and resisted police efforts "to unblock the entrance to the police station and restore traffic movement." It said 39 protesters were detained. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Iran bans protest rally, Mousavi to urge calm

Ahmadinejad rejects vote rigging
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By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian authorities banned a planned protest rally by supporters of Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran Monday, but the defeated presidential candidate said he would attend anyway to calm the crowd.
Protests marking the sharpest display of discontent in the Islamic Republic in years have rocked the capital since the Interior Ministry announced Saturday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won Friday's election by a big margin.
The ministry and the hardline Ahmadinejad have rejected charges of fraud leveled by losing candidates.
Mousavi, who has appealed to the watchdog Guardian Council to annul the result, had asked supporters to rally Monday.
But the Interior Ministry declared any such gathering would be illegal and seditious, warning that it would hold the former prime minister responsible if the event went ahead.
"The consequences of such behavior will be directed at Mousavi," its director general of political affairs, Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini, said, the state IRNA news agency reported.
Mousavi's website said the rally had been postponed, but added the moderate opposition leader would go to the venue to ensure any supporters who showed up remained calm.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has upheld the election result, met Mousavi Sunday and told him to pursue his complaints "calmly and legally," state television said.
The election outcome has disconcerted Western powers trying to induce the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter to curb nuclear work they suspect is for bomb-making, a charge Iran denies.
France, which has sharply criticized the election, said it backed Iranian opposition calls for an inquiry into the vote.
"I asked today that the investigations demanded by the opposition be carried out," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters after discussing the election with EU colleagues.
EUROPEAN CONCERN
The European Union urged Iran not to use violence against protesters and to look into complaints of irregularities.
Britain voiced concern about the impact of events in Iran on any possible international engagement with its government.
"The implications are not yet clear," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. "What we know is that there has been no Iranian response to the outreach that has been made by the international community, including the United States." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Three German women captives killed in Yemen: sources

By Mohammed Sudam
SANAA (Reuters) - Three German women from a party of nine kidnapped foreigners have been found dead in north Yemen, a government and a tribal source told Reuters on Monday, a rare killing that comes as separatist and militant tensions intensify.
The three women found near the Saada area were believed to have been shot, the two sources said, in a dramatic escalation of violence that comes one day after authorities arrested a man described as al Qaeda's top financer in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Yemeni state news agency Saba said separately that the three were part of the group of nine -- seven Germans, a Briton and a Korean -- kidnapped last week in the Saada area.
A second government source told Reuters the dead women were Germans, two of them nurses. One of the nurses was married to one of the German hostages.
Dubai-based security analyst Fares bin Houzam said it was possible al Qaeda was behind the deaths. No al Qaeda statement claiming responsibility has been published so far.
"It's very rare for kidnappers in Yemen to kill, we have to wait to know what happened. But whoever is behind this, this is a fatal blow to security in Yemen," he said.
Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is struggling with a revolt in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and growing al Qaeda militancy, which have unsettled Western governments and neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Kidnappings of Western tourists or workers by tribes is fairly common in Yemen with most incidents resolved peacefully in exchange for ransom or concessions from authorities. In this case, no tribal demands were made public.
Increasing unrest has raised concerns Yemen could slip into chaos and provide a base of operations for al Qaeda or pirates operating in the Indian ocean.
On Sunday, Yemen arrested a Saudi national, Hassan Hussein Alwan, described as al Qaeda's top financer in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, brought under control an al Qaeda campaign of violence launched in the kingdom in 2003, but fears are that Yemen will become the staging post for a revival of the effort to bring down the U.S.-allied Saudi royal family.
Yemeni authorities have blamed the Houthi tribal group for kidnapping the nine foreigners, a charge the Houthis denied.
In 2004, tribesmen in Saada led by members of the Houthi clan began an intermittent rebellion against the government in protest at what they said was economic and religious discrimination.
Yemeni tribesmen in Saada on Friday released a group of 24 doctors and nurses they abducted a day earlier, demanding the authorities release two prisoners, a government official said.
The medics, most of whom were Yemenis but also included Egyptians, Indians and Filipinos, were working at a Saudi-backed hospital in the northern Saada region.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Hammond; Writing by Thomas Atkins; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Source: Reuters

ElBaradei prods Iran not to ignore Obama overture

By Mark Heinrich and Sylvia Westall
VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief urged Iran Monday to meet a U.S. offer of unconditional talks with goodwill gestures including giving inspectors easier access to monitor its atomic program.
Friday's re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, condemned as fraudulent by losing candidates, dimmed hopes abroad for a moderate successor who might take up concern over Iran's nuclear work and seriously engage U.S. President Barack Obama.
The International Atomic Energy Agency leader did not mention the vote but said the ball was in Iran's court after Obama's overture following 30 years of U.S.-Iranian hostility.
Obama "gives reason for hope that a genuine dialogue can lead to a comprehensive settlement of many security, political and economic issues spanning over 50 years," Mohamed ElBaradei told an IAEA governors meeting.
He urged Iran to respond with "an equal gesture of goodwill and trust-building," for example by lifting restrictions on U.N. inspectors which prevent them from checking that Iran's uranium enrichment campaign is not being diverted to making atom bombs.
Ahmadinejad said Sunday Iran's nuclear issue "belongs in the past," indicating there would be no concessions during his second term in office.
IMPASSE
The United States and five other world powers earlier this year improved a 2006 package of diplomatic and trade incentives offered to Iran to suspend enrichment and dropped a demand for a nuclear halt before talks can even begin.
But Iran has promised only readiness to negotiate a broader, vague palette of peace and security issues while saying its nuclear fuel campaign is a non-negotiable fait accompli.
Ahmadinejad has welcomed Obama's gesture but said he was awaiting real U.S. policy changes to back up the conciliatory talk. Washington had deferred action in the hope of Ahmadinejad losing the election to a moderate.
ElBaradei pushed Iran to accept a temporary "freeze for freeze" formula -- no further expansion of enrichment for no increase in U.N. sanctions -- suggested by the six powers to jumpstart talks. But Tehran has ruled that out as well.
A June 5 IAEA report said Iran now has over 7,000 centrifuge enrichment machines installed and stockpiled what U.S. analysts said was enough potential nuclear fuel to be reprocessed into fissile material for one atomic bomb.
Iran say it seeks industrial-scale enrichment only for electricity so it can export more of its oil wealth.
But it hid sensitive nuclear research and development from the IAEA until Iranian exiles blew the whistle in 2002.
It limits inspector movements, has stymied an IAEA probe into intelligence allegations of illicit atom bomb studies, and ceased giving design information on planned nuclear sites to the agency. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Nigerian rebels attack oil facility, eyes offshore

By Randy Fabi
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's main militant group on Monday threatened to extend its attacks to offshore oil facilities after sabotaging a Chevron-operated oil pumping station in the Niger Delta.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it attacked the Abiteye flow station early on Monday, the fifth militant attack claimed against the U.S. energy company in Delta state in less than a month.
Chevron said it was looking into the report.
The U.S. oil major has already shut down its operations around Delta state after MEND's first pipeline attack on May 24, halting about 100,000 barrels per day of oil output in Africa's biggest oil and gas producer.
Oil markets have largely shrugged off the latest violence, focusing attention instead on the broader global economy and its affect on energy demand.
MEND, responsible for attacks that have cut one fifth of Nigeria's oil production in the last three years, threatened to begin sabotaging oil facilities outside Delta state, including offshore oil fields.
"After destroying the entire oil infrastructure in Delta state, the hurricane will move into the neighboring states of Bayelsa and Rivers before passing through the remaining states of Ondo, Edo and Akwa Ibom then finally head offshore," MEND said in an e-mailed statement.
MEND last June carried out a daring raid on Royal Dutch Shell's Bonga oil platform, the Anglo-Dutch giant's main offshore facility 120 km (75 miles) from the coast, forcing the firm to temporarily stop the $3.6 billion site.
But a year later, security experts say MEND has been weakened following the military's biggest offensive in years last month. The army bombarded rebel camps from the air and sea and sent three battalions of soldiers to hunt militants down.
Oil firms have also increased security at offshore facilities, making a repeat of the Bonga attack harder.
Most of the oil infrastructure that MEND has targeted in recent weeks has been around Abiteye in Delta state, an area known to be hostile to the military and foreign oil companies.
Militants and local youths sabotaged oil pipelines in the area last November and again in March.
Although the area is supposed to have been secured by the military after last month's offensive, industry and security sources say it is virtually impossible to fully protect hundreds of kilometers of pipeline running through remote and largely unpopulated areas.
(Reporting by Randy Fabi; Editing by Nick Tattersall)

Source: Reuters

Pakistan steels for army assault on Waziristan

Deadly bomb in Pakistan
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By Kamran Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan braced for militant reprisals on Monday as the army conducted softening-up operations ahead of an assault on the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, one of al Qaeda's main allies.
Military experts see the showdown in remote South Waziristan as a possible Waterloo for al Qaeda and its allies as the government has demonstrated a fighting spirit hitherto missing in Pakistan.
"We continue to fight until the last Taliban, militant, enemy of Pakistan is flushed out of Pakistan," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told police in Islamabad on Monday.
Extra police roadblocks caused unusually long traffic tailbacks in the capital on Monday morning as Rehman feared more bomb attacks like those that killed eight people in Dera Ismail Khan on Sunday and nine in a Peshawar hotel last week.
U.S. officials say they believe the Pakistan army has started a big push into Mehsud's mountainous redoubt, and on Sunday Awais Ahmed Ghani, governor of North West Frontier Province, confirmed an operation had been ordered.
The United States heaved a sigh of relief when the army went on the offensive in late April to clear the Swat valley and neighboring districts northwest of the capital, Islamabad.
The start of a campaign against Mehsud will doubly reassure Western allies, who fear the nuclear-armed Muslim state could plunge into chaos unless the Taliban's creeping advances are stopped.
Waziristan has long been regarded as a militant sanctuary, and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden passed through the area before disappearing after fleeing Afghanistan in late 2001.
Military and intelligence officials told Reuters the main operation has not yet started, though a countdown has begun.
There have been a series of actions in recent days, including the bombing of a Mehsud village on Saturday, and an army assault on militant tribesmen in the nearby Bannu district, while two forts in Waziristan came under heavy attack from Mehsud fighters.
FEW PLACES LEFT TO RUN
The Pakistan army, for all its firepower, faces a difficult campaign given the terrain, the fact that the Taliban is embedded with a civilian population, and the desperation of their opponents.
"It's going to be a tough battle initially because this going to be their final battle," retired brigadier Asad Munir, a former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer, told Reuters.
"It is for their survival so all of them are going to join together, the jihadis, sectarian groups, foreigners, al-Qaeda.
"If they take over South Waziristan there'll be no place for al Qaeda leaders to hide." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Ahmadinejad delays Russia visit after election

By Guy Faulconbridge and Chris Buckley
YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delayed a visit to Russia on Monday, a source at the Iranian embassy in Moscow told Reuters, amid unrest over his contested win in Friday's presidential election.
"The president will definitely not come today," said the official, who asked not to be named. The source would not say why the visit was delayed but added that Ahmadinejad would arrive on Tuesday.
Supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi postponed plans to hold a protest rally in Tehran on Monday after the Interior Ministry declared it would be illegal.
Ahmadinejad was supposed to arrive on Monday at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. Iran has observer status at the SCO, which groups Russia, China and four Central Asian states.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was scheduled to meet Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the summit to discuss bilateral ties and Iran's nuclear program, a Kremlin source said. Russia has supplied fuel to Iran for a civilian nuclear reactor.
Chinese President Hu Jintao also had a meeting scheduled with Iran's president in Yekaterinburg, a Chinese official said.
Iranian state television said Ahmadinejad was due to fly to Russia later on Monday, a day after holding a triumphant rally attended by tens of thousands of people.
Besides Russia and China, the SCO groups the ex-Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In addition to Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan and India have observer status. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been invited as a guest.
Iran's president, who helps rule the world's fifth-largest oil producer, has made a tradition of stealing the limelight at major conferences, including an SCO meeting in Shanghai in 2006 that was dominated by news about Tehran's nuclear program.
The leaders of India and Pakistan are also likely to meet in Yekaterinburg, their first such meeting since last November's attack on Mumbai.
NUCLEAR-ARMED POWERS
A meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari could help break the ice between the two nuclear-armed powers.
"We consider that this organization is an important platform in the sense of strengthening trust, regional security and assistance in economic cooperation," Zardari told Russia's Kommersant newspaper in an interview published on Monday.
He said nothing about a possible meeting with India's leader in the interview and it was unclear whether they would hold a bilateral discussion or simply take part in the wider meeting.
SCO leaders meet for dinner with Medvedev on Monday and some observer nations will also attend. On Tuesday, a fuller meeting of SCO leaders and observer countries will take place. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Mousavi protest rally postponed in Tehran

Ahmadinejad rejects vote rigging
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By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi called off a planned protest rally in Tehran on Monday after the Interior Ministry declared it would be illegal and treated as sedition.
A Mousavi website said the gathering had been delayed after the Interior Ministry refused to authorize it.
Protests have erupted in the capital and elsewhere since Saturday when the ministry announced a landslide victory for hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Friday's election.
The outcome has disconcerted Western powers trying to induce the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter to curb its nuclear program. U.S. President Barack Obama had urged Iran's leadership "to unclench its fist" for a new start in ties.
The European Union urged Iran not to use violence against those protesting against the disputed election and urged the authorities to look into complaints of irregularities.
"I have thorough respect for all the Iranian citizens who have shown their discontent and have demonstrated peacefully," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters in Luxembourg. "I do hope that the security forces will refrain from showing violence."
Mousavi has asked Iran's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, to annul the result because of alleged irregularities, a charge the Interior Ministry and Ahmadinejad have dismissed.
The Guardian Council, whose chairman, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, endorsed Ahmadinejad before the vote, said it would rule within 10 days on two official complaints it had received from Mousavi and another losing candidate, Mohsen Rezaie.
"Mousavi and Rezaie appealed yesterday. After the official announcement (of the appeal) the Guardian Council has seven to 10 days to see if it was a healthy election or not," ISNA news agency quoted council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai as saying.
GUARDIAN COUNCIL'S ROLE
The council vets election candidates and must formally approve results for the outcome to stand. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has told Iranians to support Ahmadinejad.
On Sunday, Mousavi's supporters handed out leaflets calling for a rally in downtown Tehran on Monday afternoon. The protests over the last two days are the sharpest show of discontent against the Islamic Republic's leadership for years.
"The Interior Ministry issued a statement and said no permission had been issued for a rally ... The holding of such a gathering would be illegal," state radio said.
"Some seditious elements had planned to hold a rally and by fabrication said they had permission from the Interior Ministry. Any disrupter of public security would be dealt with according to the law," it said.
Mousavi urged Iranians on Sunday to keep up nationwide protests "in a peaceful and legal way." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Abbas aide urges world shun Netanyahu over speech

Israel bombs Gaza tunnels
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By Mohammed Assadi
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - World powers should isolate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he unveiled tough terms for a Middle East peace accord, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday.
In a major policy speech on Sunday, Netanyahu responded to weeks of pressure from Washington by finally giving his endorsement -- with conditions -- to the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state.
Palestinians were dismayed by his demand they first recognize Israel as a Jewish state and his failure to heed a call they and U.S. President Barack Obama have voiced to halt Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
"The international community should confront this policy, through which Netanyahu wants to kill off any chance for peace," Abbas adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters.
"They must isolate and confront this policy which Netanyahu is adopting and exert pressure on him so that he adheres to international legitimacy and the road map," he said, referring to a U.S.-sponsored 2003 peace plan.
Netanyahu pledged to keep all of Jerusalem as Israel's capital -- defying Palestinians' claim on the city -- and hedged on whether Israel would ever remove West Bank settlements.
He ruled out the admission of Palestinian refugees to Israel proper and said Abbas must impose his authority over the breakaway Hamas Islamists ruling the Gaza Strip.
The address, in which Netanyahu urged the Palestinians to resume talks with Israel immediately, was welcomed by the White House as "an important step forward" for implementing Obama's peace vision. The European Union called it "a step in the right direction."
CANTONS
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said mediators should challenge Netanyahu on whether he was prepared to tackle territorial issues such as borders, Jerusalem and settlements.
"Netanyahu is talking about negotiations about cantons -- the canton of the state of Palestine, with a flag and an anthem, a state without borders, without sovereignty, without a capital," Erekat said.
Israeli National Security Adviser Uzi Arad told Israel Radio: "They (Palestinians) are saying this because they noticed that previous (Israeli) governments did not deal effectively, and did not set conditions in a categorical manner."
But Netanyahu's cabinet secretary, Zvi Hauser, described the speech as an opening move in what Israel hoped would be discussions of a peace deal involving the wider Arab world.
"Look, of course we must all distinguish between what is desirable and what is at hand. Yesterday, the prime minister delineated what is desirable," Hauser told Israel's Army Radio.
"As of this morning, we have to deal with what is at hand, and what is at hand is not just in our court. What is at hand is mainly in the other side's court." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Nigerian rebels claim attack on Chevron facility

By Randy Fabi
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's main militant group said on Monday it had sabotaged an oil pumping station in the Niger Delta operated by Chevron, the fifth attack claimed against the U.S. energy company in less than a month.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it attacked the Chevron-operated Abiteye flow station, which feeds oil to the Escravos export terminal in Delta state.
It was not possible to verify the statement independently. Chevron officials were not immediately available for comment.
The militant group, which declared "an all-out war" against the military last month, threatened to expand its campaign in the region to include offshore oil facilities.
Oil markets have largely shrugged off the latest violence, focusing attention instead on the broader global economy and its affect on energy demand.
"After destroying the entire oil infrastructure in Delta state, the hurricane will move into the neighboring states of Bayelsa and Rivers before passing through the remaining state of Ondo, Edo and Akwa Ibom then finally head offshore," MEND said in an e-mailed statement.
Chevron facilities in the southern Delta state have become a favorite target for attacks by MEND, which says it is fighting for a fairer share of the region's wealth.
Chevron has halted much of its operations in Delta state, shutting output of 100,000 barrels per day, after militants bombed one of it pipelines on May 24.
On Saturday, Chevron confirmed damage to its Makaraba-Utonana-Abiteye pipeline and fire at its Makaraba Jacket 5 facility in Delta state.
Security experts say MEND has been weakened after the military launched its biggest offensive in years last month, bombarding rebel camps from the air and sea and sending three battalions of soldiers to hunt gunmen down.
Most of the oil infrastructure that MEND has targeted in recent weeks has been around Abiteye in Delta state, an area known to be hostile to the military and foreign oil companies.
Militants and local youths sabotaged oil pipelines in the area last November and again in March.
Industry and security sources say it is virtually impossible fully to protect hundreds of kilometres of pipeline running through remote and largely unpopulated areas.
(Reporting by Randy Fabi; editing by Andrew Dobbie)

Source: Reuters

Ahmadinejad due in Russia on first trip since vote

By Guy Faulconbridge and Chris Buckley
YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due in Russia on Monday for a security and trade summit with Asian leaders, his first foreign trip since his disputed re-election.
After weekend protests in Tehran and other cities over the result of Friday's vote, Ahmadinejad may want to show a business-as-usual face by attending a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
Iran has observer status at the SCO, which groups Russia, China and four Central Asian states.
Supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi postponed plans to hold a protest rally in Tehran on Monday after the Interior Ministry declared it would be illegal.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to meet Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the summit to discuss bilateral ties and Iran's nuclear program, a Kremlin source said. Russia has supplied nuclear fuel to Iran for a civilian nuclear reactor.
Chinese President Hu Jintao also has a meeting scheduled with Iran's president in Yekaterinburg, a Chinese official said.
Iranian state television said Ahmadinejad was due to fly to Russia later on Monday, a day after holding a triumphant rally attended by tens of thousands of people.
Besides Russia and China, the SCO groups the ex-Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In addition to Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan and India have observer status. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been invited as a guest.
Iran's president, who helps rule the world's fifth-largest oil producer, has made a tradition of stealing the limelight at major conferences, including an SCO meeting in Shanghai in 2006 that was dominated by news about Tehran's nuclear program.
The leaders of India and Pakistan are also likely to meet in Yekaterinburg, their first such meeting since last November's attack on Mumbai.
NUCLEAR-ARMED POWERS
A meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari could help break the ice between the two nuclear-armed powers.
"We consider that this organization is an important platform in the sense of strengthening trust, regional security and assistance in economic cooperation," Zardari told Russia's Kommersant newspaper in an interview published on Monday.
He said nothing about a possible meeting with India's leader in the interview and it was unclear whether they would hold a bilateral discussion or simply take part in the wider meeting.
SCO leaders meet for dinner with Medvedev on Monday and some observer nations will also attend. On Tuesday, a fuller meeting of SCO leaders and observer countries will take place. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Dreams dashed in Greek homes market bust

By Angeliki Koutantou
ATHENS (Reuters) - Dia Tsouloukopoulou walks through the concrete slabs of her unfinished apartment in Athens talking about what might have been if the builder hadn't gone bust.
"The living room would have been here," said the 37-year old, making her way through the dusty construction site still missing windows and doors. "Here I had planned to have my kitchen, there a laundry room and a bedroom for my guests."
Her two storeys of plastered brick walls with no power, water or heating, are not the only unfinished project in the area. About a dozen other such buildings stand empty in the neighborhood and more in other growing areas of Athens.
Construction accounts for 11 percent of Greece's GDP -- a significant factor taking the economy into recession after years when Greece grew by about 4 percent annually, well above its euro-zone peers. This recession will be its first since 1993.
The problems of Greece's homes market pale in comparison with those of Spain and Ireland, but the pain is seeping through the economy.
Like many Greeks taking advantage of booming growth and low interest rates to buy their first home, Tsouloukopoulou, who is single and works for a mobile phone operator, has a mortgage (for 160,000 euros or $225,200 in her case) on a building that is now unlikely to be finished.
About 80 percent of Greeks own their homes, the fourth biggest rate in the euro zone. Now many are giving up hope of getting onto the property ladder.
"Construction is about 8 percent of Greece's 4.5 million workforce, excluding unregistered employment," National Bank analyst Nikos Magginas said.
"But its impact on economic activity is even bigger, as it is interconnected to other heavyweight sectors, such as financials, insurance and real estate."
Realtors say home and commercial building sales fell about 35 percent last year and the outlook is gloomier for 2009, despite falling prices.
"The full year of 2009 will be as bad as the first quarter as buyers are waiting for prices to fall further and banks do not lend money as easily as they used to," the Athens head of a real estate brokers' association, Ioannis Revythis, told Reuters.
UNSOLD HOMES
About 135,000 properties, mostly residential, remain unsold in Greece, compared with well over one million in Spain and about 70,000 in Ireland.
Greek house prices fell for the first time since 1994 in the first quarter, dropping about 1.7 percent year-on-year, central bank data show.
Economists say that is a smaller fall than Spain's 6.8 percent decline and Ireland's 9.8 percent, because supply has exceeded demand there for years and household exposure to home loans was already twice as high as a percentage of GDP. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Japan PM support sinks, opposition widens lead

By Linda Sieg
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and his ruling party suffered fresh setbacks on Monday as surveys showed his support had sunk again ahead of an election while the opposition Democratic Party widened its lead among voters.
Aso has come under renewed fire for lack of leadership after a highly public feud that prompted his internal affairs minister to resign on Friday, sparking speculation that the ruling party may seek to dump him ahead of an election many expect in August.
A weekend survey by Kyodo news agency showed that support for Aso's cabinet had sunk nearly nine points to 17.5 percent.
Kyodo said 47.8 percent planned to vote for the Democrats in the next election, while support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has enjoyed five decades of almost unbroken rule, stood at 18.7 percent. The election must be held by October.
Kunio Hatoyama -- a close Aso ally who is also the brother of Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama -- resigned after the prime minister refused to fire the head of Japan Post, which runs the postal office, over controversial property deals.
The dispute also reflected deep divides within the LDP over privatising the postal system including its financial arms, proposals backed by most voters when they gave the ruling bloc a huge victory in the last general election in 2005.
Hatoyama, the third minister to resign since Aso, 68, took office last year, told reporters on Monday he had no plan to leave the LDP or form a new group, but declined to rule out that possibility in the future.
TOKYO ELECTION IN FOCUS
A Democratic Party victory in the election for parliament's powerful lower house would bring to power a party which has pledged to pay more heed to the interests of consumers and workers than corporations.
The Democrats have also vowed to pry control of policy-making from bureaucrats as a way to cut waste and to adopt a diplomatic stance more independent of close security ally the United States.
In another sign of the conservative LDP's troubles, an opposition candidate won a closely-watched mayoral election on Sunday.
Japanese media speculated that Aso's latest troubles could fuel moves in the LDP to oust him, especially if the party fares poorly in a July 12 Tokyo metropolitan assembly election being billed as a bellwether for the national poll.
"If there are going to be moves to oust Aso before the general election, it would most probably be after the Tokyo election," said Koichi Nakano, a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo. "Of course, that is late, but it could be quite lethal for Aso because he's putting his weight behind it."
In the second local election victory for the Democrats since they replaced scandal-tainted leader Ichiro Ozawa last month, candidate Toshihito Kumagai, 31, defeated a rival supported by the LDP to become mayor of the city of Chiba near Tokyo.
A separate survey by the Mainichi newspaper put support for Aso's cabinet at 19 percent, with more than two-thirds of voters disapproving of his handling of the dispute over Japan Post.
Thirty-two percent preferred Yukio Hatoyama as next prime minister compared to 15 percent who chose Aso. More than half said they wanted the Democrats to win the next election. (Additional reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Source: Reuters

Mousavi supporters plan rally in Tehran

Ahmadinejad rejects vote rigging
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By Fredrik Dahl and Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Supporters of Iran's defeated presidential candidate plan a rally in Tehran on Monday to protest against the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which has sparked two days of violent demonstrations in the capital.
Former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi has appealed to the Islamic Republic's top legislative body to annul Friday's election result, in which hard-liner Ahmadinejad took 63 percent of the vote, because of what he alleges were irregularities.
Ahmadinejad himself held a triumphant rally on Sunday, attended by a cheering crowd of tens of thousands of people. It was not clear whether authorities would allow any demonstration by his opponents.
The unrest that has rocked Tehran and other cities since results were declared on Saturday is the sharpest show of discontent against the Islamic Republic's leadership for years.
The election result has disconcerted Western powers trying to induce the world's fifth-biggest oil exporter to curb its nuclear program. U.S. President Barack Obama had urged Iran's leadership "to unclench its fist" for a new start in ties.
Pro-Mousavi demonstrators threw stones at police at Tehran University on Sunday and also clashed with Ahmadinejad supporters on a main street in the city that was littered with broken glass and fires.
In the north of the capital, a stronghold of Mousavi backers, riot police patrolled streets after midnight. Rubbish burned in the street, some cars had their windows broken, and police blocked access to roads.
MOUSAVI'S APPEAL
In a statement on his website, Mousavi said he had formally asked Iran's legislative Guardian Council to cancel the election result.
"I urge you, Iranian nation, to continue your nationwide protests in a peaceful and legal way," he said.
Mousavi's supporters handed out leaflets calling for a rally in Tehran on Monday afternoon. After dusk some took to rooftops across the city calling out "Allah Akbar" (God is greatest), an echo of tactics by protesters in the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Ahmadinejad appeared at his rally amid a sea of red, white and green Iranian flags waved by supporters thronging Tehran's Vali-e Asr square, some perched on rooftops or cars, to applaud his win.
"Some ... say the vote is disrupted, there has been a fraud. Where are the irregularities in the election?" Ahmadinejad said in a speech that the crowd punctuated with roars of approval.
"Some people want democracy only for their own sake. Some want elections, freedom, a sound election. They recognize it only as long as the result favors them," he said.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden cast doubt on the election result but said Washington was reserving its position for now. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Netanyahu bows to Obama, accepts Palestinian "state"

Israel bombs Gaza tunnels
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By Ori Lewis
RAMAT GAN, Israel (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded on Sunday to uncommon pressure from Washington by finally giving his endorsement -- with conditions -- to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
But in a speech answering President Barack Obama's address to the Arab world 10 days ago, the right-wing leader's defense of Jewish settlement on occupied land may fail to dispel tension with the White House, as the two men try to set new terms for the Middle East peace process in their first months in office.
Obama called Netanyahu's shift in position on Palestinian statehood as an "important step forward," even as aides to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were denouncing the speech as "sabotaging" negotiations by restating Israel's refusal to share the city of Jerusalem or accept Palestinian refugees.
Netanyahu, who has refused to back a state for Palestinians since he took office in March, said he would now endorse the establishment of a such a state -- but only if Israel received in advance international guarantees the new nation would have no army and Palestinians recognized Israel as a Jewish state.
"If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitarization and Israel's security needs, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, then we will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarized Palestinian state exists alongside the Jewish state," Netanyahu said at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv.
"If (Obama) looks at the glass as half-full, this should be sufficient," Israeli political scientist Eitan Gilboa said of the speech as a whole. "But if he is looking for confrontation with Israel, he would say the glass if half-empty."
A senior European diplomat in the Middle East questioned how far it changed the substance of Israel's approach. "It's goodwill and good words but I don't think it's going to appease the Americans," the diplomat said. "He's trying to gain time."
WHITE HOUSE WELCOME
"The president welcomes the important step forward in Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech," the White House said.
"The president is committed to two states, a Jewish state of Israel and an independent Palestine, in the historic homeland of both peoples."
Palestinian leaders have rarely made an issue of Israel's insistence that their future state should not have an army in a position to threaten its neighbor, but they have rejected the demand that they explicitly accept Israel as a Jewish state.
To do so, they have argued, weakens the position of the 20 percent of Israel's citizens who are Muslim and Christian Arabs, and undermine a key demand for a right of return to what is now Israel for millions of Palestinians classed as refugees since the flight of Arabs during Israel's creation in 1948.
The White House reference to Obama's support of "a Jewish state of Israel" may reassure Israelis, who will also hear in his reference to "the historic homeland of both peoples" an echo of Netanyahu's robust defense on Sunday of the Jews' 3,000-year-old claim to the land and to the city of Jerusalem.
Palestinian leaders voiced their opposition, especially to the Israeli premier's flat rejection of any right of return for refugees or of a division of Jerusalem, where Palestinians want to have the capital of their new state.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said: "Netanyahu's remarks have sabotaged all initiatives, paralyzed all efforts being made and challenges the Palestinian, Arab and American positions." Continued...
Source: Reuters

Netanyahu bends on statehood but not settlements

Israel bombs Gaza tunnels
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By Ori Lewis
RAMAT GAN, Israel (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted on Sunday the U.S.-backed goal of a Palestinian state but balked at meeting President Barack Obama's demand to stop Jewish settlement expansion.
Netanyahu's reversal on statehood appeared to be a bid to end the worst rift in U.S.-Israeli relations in a decade. But further friction appeared likely over his refusal to budge on settlements.
Netanyahu said he would support the establishment of a Palestinian state -- but only if Israel received in advance international guarantees the new nation would have no military and Palestinians recognized Israel as a Jewish state.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Netanyahu had not gone far enough. Palestinians have long resisted calls to declare that Israel is a Jewish state.
"If we receive this guarantee for demilitarization and the security arrangements required by Israel, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation of the Jewish people, we will be prepared for a true peace agreement (and) to reach a solution of a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state," Netanyahu said.
SETTLEMENTS
But he stood by his refusal to declare a complete settlement freeze sought by Washington under a 2003 peace "road map."
"We have no intention to build new settlements and to expropriate land for new settlements," Netanyahu said at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.
"But there is a need to allow settlers to lead normal lives, to allow mothers and fathers to raise their children like all families around the world," he said, alluding to the concept of "natural growth" or construction within existing settlements.
Obama, in a speech on June 4 aimed at repairing U.S. relations with Muslims, said such building must stop.
In his address, Netanyahu, leader of right-leaning coalition, reiterated his readiness to meet Arab leaders and urged Palestinians to resume peace talks.
But on the thorny issue of Palestinian refugees, Netanyahu repeated long-standing Israeli policy by saying they could not return to areas in Israel from which they fled or were forced to flee during a 1948 war that led to its creation.
Israel says such an influx would erase the country's Jewish identity.
It was not immediately clear whether Abbas would accept Netanyahu's call to resume talks.
Abbas has said talks with Israel could not be renewed until Netanyahu accepted the goal of a two-state solution and halted settlements. A settlement freeze could fracture the governing coalition that came to power in Israel last March.
(Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Adam Entous)

Source: Reuters