US backs Israel’s ‘right to defense’ amid global condemnation (PHOTOS)

An Israeli soldier watches as an Iron Dome launcher fires an interceptor rocket near the southern city of Beersheba November 15, 2012. (Reuters / Baz Ratner)

Israel’s offensive on Gaza has drawn sharp condemnation around the world, particularly from the online community. The US, however, has advocated Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorists, while the UN reached an impasse in negotiations.
Egypt, which withdrew its ambassador from Israel following the latter’s announcement that it would intensify its military campaign, ordered an emergency UN meeting to discuss the escalating conflict. Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr warned that further aggression from Israel could have “negative repercussions on the security and stability of the region.”
The Palestinian envoy to the UN slammed Israeli aggression during the meeting, decrying it as "vulgarly and publicly boasting about its willful killing of Palestinians.” Following Wednesday’s offensive that killed Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari.

Egypt recalls ambassador from Israel, calls for emergency UNSC meeting

Egyptian Embassy in the city of Tel Aviv (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

Egypt recalled its ambassador from Israel after the country announced a operation against "terror targets" and started bombing Gaza. Cairo ordered Egypt’s UN representative to call for an emergency meeting over Israel’s intensifying military campaign.
Following the decision to recall the country’s ambassador on Wednesday, Egyptian presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said Cairo had asked the Arab League's Secretary General to convene an emergency ministerial meeting in response to a series of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza strip. The Arab League announced it would hold an urgent meeting Saturday in light of Wednesday's events.

Israel strikes Gaza, calls up reservists, ready to ‘expand’ operation

Palestinians extinguish fire from the car of Ahmaed Jaabari, head of the military wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedin Qassam Brigades, after it was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on November

The IDF announces a widespread campaign on “terror targets” and begins bombing the Gaza Strip, preparing for a ground operation. This comes after the head of Hamas’ military wing Ahmed Jabari was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
   Hamas says now in 'open war' with Israel, promises 'gates of hell'
The operation, called “Pillar of Defense”, has been launched by the Israel military. Many of the buildings in downtown Gaza City are on fire after being attacked by Israeli warplanes, RT’s Arabic correspondent Saed Swerky reports on Twitter.

Tension high in Cairo after mass protests

 

Egyptian police have fired tear gas into Cairo's Tahrir Square, where several hundred protesters spent the night after a mass rally to denounce President Mohamed Morsi's assumption of expanded powers.
Clashes erupting on streets near Tahrir Square spilled into the square on Wednesday morning, with canisters falling into the crowd forcing protesters to run and sending clouds of tear gas over the tents housing the demonstrators.

Egypt's Morsi: statesman abroad, a ‘pharaoh’ at home?

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has won high praise for brokering the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. But can he implement the truce? And on the domestic front, is Egypt’s new president turning into its next pharaoh? 

In Arabic, Egypt is sometimes called “Umm al-Dunya” – or mother of the world – a title that turned more ironic than complimentary over the past few decades as Egypt sunk to new lows of poverty, autocracy and humiliation over its failure to defend the honour of the Arab world.
But for a brief moment on Wednesday night, it seemed like the most populous Arab nation was once again the centre of the world.
While announcing an Israel-Hamas ceasefire at a joint press conference with her Egyptian counterpart in Cairo on November 21, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lavishly praised Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

Egypt opposition backs referendum 'No' vote

Egypt's opposition National Salvation Front has urged supporters to vote "No" in a looming referendum on a controversial draft constitution.

However, it said it could still call a boycott if its demands for the ballot - including the judiciary acting as overseer - were not met.

The opposition says the draft document, backed by President Mohammed Morsi and his supporters, is too Islamist.

The controversy has prompted mass demonstrations across Egypt.

In a separate development, conciliation talks called for Wednesday by the head of the armed forces have been postponed, with no new date announced.
Key conditions
The National Salvation Front on Wednesday spelled out its stance on the referendum, issuing a call to Egyptians to "go to polling stations to refuse the proposed constitution and to vote 'no'".

Leading opposition politician and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa told Reuters news agency: "We will vote 'no'."
Analysis

  Jon Leyne BBC News, Cairo

Iran hails progress in nuclear talks with IAEA

Iran says progress has been made at key talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Tehran.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said the meeting had been constructive and more talks would be held back in Tehran next month.

The IAEA has not commented, nor is it known whether it gained access to the Parchin military complex, as requested.

The IAEA is investigating "possible military dimensions" to Iran's nuclear programme.

The IAEA's chief inspector, Herman Nackaerts, is expected to issue a statement on returning to Vienna on Friday morning.
'Extensive activities'
Tehran has vehemently denied that it is trying to produce nuclear weapons, but has for seven years refused IAEA inspectors access to Parchin, where the agency believes explosives tests with potential nuclear elements may have been conducted.

Syria government 'losing control' - Russian official

Separately, Syria denied reports it had fired Scud missiles at rebels.

A Russian official has said for the first time that the Syrian government may be defeated by opposition forces.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces are "losing more and more control and territory", deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said.

He said Russia, one of Syria's staunchest allies, was making plans for a possible evacuation of thousands of its citizens.


Nato's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen earlier said the organisation had detected the launch of such short-range missiles, saying it showed an "utter disregard" for the lives of the Syrian people.
'Unacceptable price'
Russia, along with China, has used its veto at the UN Security Council to block resolutions condemning the Syrian government's use of violence.

But Mr Bogdanov said on Thursday: "Unfortunately, we cannot rule out the victory of the Syrian opposition."

Hamas stages first West Bank rally in five years

A rift developed between the PA's Fatah party and Hamas after the Islamist movement won legislative elections in 2006 and came to power in Gaza a year later.

Thousands of Palestinians have joined the first mass rally organised by Hamas in the West Bank since 2007.

Demonstrators in the city of Nablus celebrated the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Islamist militant group, which governs the Gaza Strip.

It is the first time in five years that the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs in the West Bank, has granted Hamas permission to hold a rally.

The move is seen as a sign that ties are improving between the two sides.

But some observers say there have been indications that tensions between the rivals factions have eased in recent times, in particular after last month's eight-day conflict between Hamas and Israel.

Last week, Fatah leaders attended a rally by Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal, held during his first ever visit to Gaza.

Hamas chief Meshaal vows never to recognise Israel

Exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal told a crowd of more than 100,000 Palestinians at a mass rally in Gaza on Saturday that there would be no territorial concessions to Israel or recognition of the Jewish state.

Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, making his first ever visit to the Gaza Strip, vowed on Saturday never to recognise Israel and said his Islamist group would never abandon its claim to all Israeli territory.
“Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concession on an inch of the land,” he told a sea of supporters at an open-air rally, the highlight of his three-day stay in Gaza.
“We will never recognise the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation and therefore there is no legitimacy for Israel, no matter how long it will take.”
In an uncompromising speech, Meshaal also vowed to free Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, indicating Islamist militants would try to kidnap Israeli soldiers to use as a bargaining chip.
Israel last year released 1,027 Palestinians from its jails in return for the liberation of Gilad Shalit, a conscript soldier who was seized by Palestinian guerrillas in 2006 and hidden for more than five years in Gaza.

Report: Israel tracking chemical arms in Syria

Amid mounting international warnings about Syria’s chemical weapons threat, a recent report in a British weekly said Israeli special forces are operating inside Syria to try to track its non-conventional weapons stocks.

While several Western governments have been warning the Syrian regime against using its chemical weapons, Israel has apparently gone a step further, according to a British news report, by deploying Israeli special forces inside Syria as spotters to track the country’s chemical and biological weapons stocks.

Over the past few days, the US and other Western governments have raised concerns that an increasingly desperate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could “cross a red line,” in the words of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and use chemical weapons. Another fear is that the nation’s stockpiles could end up in the wrong hands.
While US and Israeli officials are widely believed to be monitoring the country’s known chemical depots, a recent report in the Sunday Times said Israel has embarked on a “secret war” to track Syria’s non-conventional weapons, by deploying Israeli special forces as spotters across the border to monitor the movement of these arms caches.

‘Disastrous results’ if no talks, Egypt’s army warns

Egypt's powerful army joined calls for dialogue on Saturday, a day after the opposition rejected an offer from President Mohammed Morsi to hold talks on the political crisis that has polarised the nation and sparked weeks of deadly clashes.

Egypt’s armed forces lent its weight to President Mohammed Morsi’s calls for negotiations on Saturday with its first public statement since anti-Morsi protests erupted more than two weeks ago.
"The path of dialogue is the best and only way to reach agreement and achieve the interests of the nation and its citizens," the statement from the armed forces said.
"The opposite of that will take us into a dark tunnel with disastrous results -- and that is something we will not allow," the army said, adding that it would take measures to protect state institutions, if necessary.
The statement does not, however, signal that Egypt’s powerful army is making a return to politics, a military source told Reuters.
Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters besieged the presidential palace again on Friday even as Vice President Mahmoud Mekky said a December 15 referendum on a constitution that liberals oppose could be put off if a delay posed no legal challenges. That concession, however, only partly meets a list of opposition demands that include scrapping a November 22 decree that expanded Morsi’s powers.

Syria fires scud missiles at rebels

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have fired Scud-style ballistic missiles against rebels in recent days, US and NATO officials said on Wednesday, representing a dramatic escalation in the Assad regime's struggle to maintain power.

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have fired Scud missiles at rebels trying to overthrow Syria’s government, a senior US official said on Wednesday.
US officials said they were unaware of any previous instances in which Scuds were used against the rebels and it represented an escalation in Assad’s struggle to retain power in the 20-month-old uprising in which more than 40,000 people are thought to have been killed.