UN pictures show what appears to be white phosphorus 'wedges' raining down on one of its compounds in Gaza.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
AFP
TEHERAN — Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal yesterday urged Iranian students to join the Palestinian Islamist movement in helping to liberate Jerusalem so they can "pray together" in the holy city.
"God willing we will liberate Al-Quds (Jerusalem) together and pray together there," Meshaal told students at the University of Teheran on the third day of a visit to Iran. We are fully preparing ourselves to liberate all of Palestine, retake Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and secure the return of all Palestinians," he said in an address delivered in Arabic, which was translated into Farsi.
Israel rejects the political legitimacy of the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip and launched a 22-day war on Gaza which ended in mutual ceasefires on January 18.
The Jewish state said its onslaught on Hamas, which killed more than 1 300 Palestinians, was aimed at halting rocket fire into southern Israel by Gaza-based militants.
Israel has long accused Iran of arming the Islamists in Gaza, a claim Teheran denies even though it says it offers moral support to Hamas.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
15:34 Mecca time, 12:34 GMT
Arab talks focus on Palestinians
Meshaal has called for a new Palestinian organisation to replace the PLO
Foreign ministers from nine Arab countries are meeting in Abu Dhabi for talks on the division between Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas.
Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have signalled their support for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and leader of Fatah, Hamas' main rival.
The meeting on Tuesday comes as Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, met Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, in Tehran.
In recent weeks the three countries have stayed away from meetings attended by Ahmadinejad in protest against Iranian support for armed groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Arab influences
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said the talks in Abu Dhabi show that the Arab landscape is being "reconfigured".
"There are outside influences, whether they be American, European, Turkish or Iranian, which are adding to the pressure on the Arab world," he said on Tuesday.
"There are those who support accommodation with Israel and the United States and those who support resisting Israeli occupation and American influence in the region."
The Abu Dhabi talks come amid continuing differences between Hamas and Fatah, with the Palestinian parties as far away from a national unity government as ever.
Meshaal said earlier this week that the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which is designated the sole legitimate voice of the Palestinian people, is obsolete and should be replaced.
But Abbas, whose Fatah movement has the backing of the US and Israel, has said he will not talk with any group that fails to recognise the legitimacy of the PLO.
Hamas support
Iranian support for Hamas shows how far the Shia state has sought to distance itself from countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Bishara said.
"Since the American invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran has felt that it is surrounded by American bases, as well as an American attempt to change its regime," Bishara said.
"Arab countries hosting American bases have supported regime change in Iran. So Iran lashed back ... it used all the tools possible to spread its influence around the region."
The fact that groups such as Hamas adhere to Sunni Islam has not prevented Iran from forming an alliegance with them, Bishara said.
"The Sunni groups that Iran is supporting are so-called Islamic Brotherhood groups that came about in the 1930s. Those groups do not look favourably to Shia Islam as a religious view. Yet Iran supports them, not for religious reasons, but for geo-political reasons."
"Talk of the Shia crescent is more of an American-Israeli view of things, rather than the reality in the region," he said.
Source: Agencies
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
09:39 Mecca time, 06:39 GMT
Gaza rocket strikes Israeli town
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip by Palestinian fighters has exploded in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon, the Israeli army has said.
The rocket caused damge but no-one was injured, an Israeli army spokesman said.
The missile is the first to land in Ashkelon since Israel and Hamas, which has de facto control of Gaza, announced separate ceasefires on January 17 and January 18 respectively.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
More than 1,300 Palestinians, at least a third of whom were women and children, were killed in Israel's war on Gaza, which had the stated aim of preventing rocket attacks into Israel.
Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, died during the 22-day conflict.
Source: Agencies
Thursday, January 29, 2009
07:11 Mecca time, 04:11 GMT
Carter says Hamas must be included
Israel's 22-day assault on Gaza has left the Palestinian territory devastated
Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has said any future permanent Israeli-Palestinian agreement has to include Hamas, the Palestinian movement that controls the Gaza Strip.
Carter also told Al Jazeera's Riz Khan on Wednesday that US presidents were unable or unwilling to take on Israel's supporters in the US, but said he had high hopes for George Mitchell, the new US Middle East envoy.
The former US leader said there was "no way to have a permanent peace in the Middle East without the inclusion of Hamas".
"Hamas has got to be involved before peace can be concluded."
Carter said reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, the faction led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, had been "objected to and obstructed by the US and Israel".
He hoped the new Obama administration would work to bring the Palestinian factions together.
The US government has branded Hamas as a terrorist group and Barack Obama, the new US president, has reiterated international demands that it recognise Israel, renounce violence and recognise previous peace agreements before it can sit at the negotiating table.
Abbas sacked a unity government led by Hamas in 2007, leading to Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip, while Abbas' Palestinian Authority remained in charge of the West Bank.
Carter also said Hamas had mainly kept to its truce agreement not to attack Israel.
The truce ended last December and was followed by a massive 22-day Israeli assault on Gaza that left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead.
Israel says the operation was necessary to stop Palestinian fighters firing rockets into southern Israel.
Mitchell praise
Carter said that US presidents had officially backed UN resolutions calling on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian land, but that they had been unwilling to take on Israel's political allies.
"The fact is that very few of the presidents have been willing to confront Israel's forces in the United States, politically speaking," Carter said in what appeared to be a reference to the powerful Israeli lobby.
Carter, a Democrat who was president from 1976 until 1980, praised Obama for signalling deeper US involvement in the quest for Middle East peace by appointing Mitchell.
"If you look at US Middle East envoys in the past, almost all of them have been closely associated with Israel, sometimes even working professionally for Israel. George Mitchell is a balanced and honest broker compared to the others."
Mitchell, a former senator, has held talks in Israel and Egypt during his first tour of the region aimed at promoting what he said would be a bid for "lasting peace" between Israel and the Palestinians.
He had served as special envoy to Northern Ireland during the Clinton administration and brokered the landmark Good Friday accord in 1998 that ended decades of bloody violence in the conflict.
Source: Al Jazeera
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