Israel bars Gaza runners from first West Bank marathon - Courtney Morgan

The Palestinian Olympic Committee has asked Israel to grant permits to Gazan runners

Israel is refusing permission for Palestinian runners from the Gaza Strip to take part in a marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

The race on 21 April will be the first marathon to be held in the occupied Palestinian territory.
But the Israeli military says the athletes do not meet the criteria required to leave Gaza.
Twenty-two Gazan runners, including former Olympian, Nadar al-Masri, hoped to reach the start line.
A woman, Sanaa Abu-Bahit, also planned to participate in a shorter race.
The athletes, the race organisers and the Palestinian Olympic Committee have asked the Israeli authorities to reconsider their position but have not received a reply.
"The Israelis should look at this purely as a sporting event. It has nothing to do with politics," says Samia al-Wazir, the spokeswoman for the Palestinian Olympic Committee.
"This is an event in the West Bank and every Palestinian, not just athletes, should have the right to attend."
Israel strictly controls movement in and out of Gaza making it difficult for Palestinians there to make the short journey to the West Bank.
It also controls entry to the West Bank via the border with Jordan.
'Second disappointment' An Israeli military statement said: "The entrance of the Gaza Strip residents to Israeli territory, and their passage to the West Bank, is possible only in exceptional humanitarian cases, mainly urgent medical cases."
It added that this was because Gaza was ruled by Hamas which Israel considers a "terror organisation".
The decision has been criticised by human rights groups.
Gisha, an Israeli organisation supporting freedom of movement, has sent a letter appealing against the refusal to allow the runners into the West Bank.
"Our clients... would be honoured to participate in the first all-Palestinian marathon," wrote the Gisha Legal Director, Nomi Heger.
She also says that each month the military issues permits for thousands of Palestinians to enter Israel from Gaza, subject to security checks, and that it has defined participation in events sponsored by the Palestinian Authority, like the Bethlehem marathon, as justification for travel.
In the past, Israel has issued permits for Mr Masri to travel via the Erez Crossing, for training abroad and in the West Bank.
The Gazan runners' inability to compete in the Bethlehem marathon is their second disappointment this month.
The United Nations cancelled its annual Gaza marathon after Hamas refused to allow women to take part.
An official Israel Defense Forces blog criticised Hamas for that decision.

Israel bars Gaza runners from first West Bank marathon

By Jon Donnison BBC News, West Bank

The Palestinian Olympic Committee has asked Israel to grant permits to Gazan runners

 

Israel is refusing permission for Palestinian runners from the Gaza Strip to take part in a marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

The race on 21 April will be the first marathon to be held in the occupied Palestinian territory.

But the Israeli military says the athletes do not meet the criteria required to leave Gaza.

Twenty-two Gazan runners, including former Olympian, Nadar al-Masri, hoped to reach the start line.

A woman, Sanaa Abu-Bahit, also planned to participate in a shorter race.

The athletes, the race organisers and the Palestinian Olympic Committee have asked the Israeli authorities to reconsider their position but have not received a reply.

"The Israelis should look at this purely as a sporting event. It has nothing to do with politics," says Samia al-Wazir, the spokeswoman for the Palestinian Olympic Committee.

"This is an event in the West Bank and every Palestinian, not just athletes, should have the right to attend."

Israel strictly controls movement in and out of Gaza making it difficult for Palestinians there to make the short journey to the West Bank.

It also controls entry to the West Bank via the border with Jordan.
'Second disappointment'
An Israeli military statement said: "The entrance of the Gaza Strip residents to Israeli territory, and their passage to the West Bank, is possible only in exceptional humanitarian cases, mainly urgent medical cases."

It added that this was because Gaza was ruled by Hamas which Israel considers a "terror organisation".

The decision has been criticised by human rights groups.

Gisha, an Israeli organisation supporting freedom of movement, has sent a letter appealing against the refusal to allow the runners into the West Bank.

"Our clients... would be honoured to participate in the first all-Palestinian marathon," wrote the Gisha Legal Director, Nomi Heger.

She also says that each month the military issues permits for thousands of Palestinians to enter Israel from Gaza, subject to security checks, and that it has defined participation in events sponsored by the Palestinian Authority, like the Bethlehem marathon, as justification for travel.

In the past, Israel has issued permits for Mr Masri to travel via the Erez Crossing, for training abroad and in the West Bank.

The Gazan runners' inability to compete in the Bethlehem marathon is their second disappointment this month.

The United Nations cancelled its annual Gaza marathon after Hamas refused to allow women to take part.

An official Israel Defense Forces blog criticised Hamas for that decision.

Israel ready to act on Syria weapons, warns Netanyahu

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Benjamin Netanyahu: "Iran needs to know that if economic sanctions fail, there will be military action"

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the BBC that Israel has a right to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands in Syria.

He said that if terrorists seized anti-aircraft and chemical weapons they could be "game changers" in the region.

There have been growing calls for the international community to arm rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

But there is increasing concern that Islamist militants could use such weapons to further their own causes.

Israel has said its policy is not to get involved in the Syrian conflict.

But in recent months it has retaliated following Syrian firing into Israeli-controlled areas in the Golan Heights.

Israel first occupied the Golan Heights in 1967 and later annexed the territory in a move that is not internationally recognised.

Mr Netanyahu, in an exclusive interview with the BBC's Lyse Doucet, said Israel's concern was "which rebels and which weapons?"

"The main arms of concern to us are the arms that are already in Syria - these are anti-aircraft weapons, these are chemical weapons and other very, very dangerous weapons that could be game changers," he said.

"They will change the conditions, the balance of power in the Middle East. They could present a terrorist threat on a worldwide scale. It is definitely our interest to defend ourselves, but we also think it is in the interest of other countries."
'Not aggressive'
Mr Netanyahu was in London to attend the funeral of former prime minister Baroness Thatcher, and also held talks with current Prime Minister David Cameron.

Asked if Israel would adopt a more aggressive military stance in Syria, Mr Netanyahu said: "We are not aggressive. We don't seek military confrontation, but we are prepared to defend ourselves if the need arises and I think people know that what I say is both measured and serious."

Mr Netanyahu would not confirm what was widely believed to have been an Israeli air strike on a suspected Syrian government weapons convoy in January.

It was reported that the convoy had been heading for Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.

Mr Netanyahu also reiterated his view that Iran and its nuclear programme posed a direct threat to world peace, which could only be stopped by a "direct military threat", not sanctions or tough diplomacy.

"Other countries, once they see Iran getting nuclear weapons, will rush to get their own nuclear weapons and then the Middle East will become a tinderbox," he said.

He added that the current North Korea crisis had shown world leaders what could happen when a rogue state acquired nuclear weapons.

"The entire world is paralysed [and] destabilised," Mr Netanyahu said.

"Iran is many times stronger than North Korea, both in GDP and aggressive tendencies. I think there's an interesting change of perception because people can understand what it would be like to have Iran with their imperial ambitions, with their messianic and apocalyptic ideology possess atomic bombs."

Asked about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Mr Netanyahu said the creation of a two-state solution depended "on the Palestinians".

"I'm ready to sit down. I think we shouldn't talk about the talks. We should just get on with it and try to negotiate a real lasting and defensible peace between us."

United Arab Emirates arrests 'al-Qaeda terror suspects'

Seven members of an alleged al-Qaeda cell have been arrested over plans to attack targets in the United Arab Emirates, officials tell state media.

The group was planning actions which compromised the Gulf nation's security, according to state news agency WAM.

An unidentified source told the agency the cell recruited people, promoted al-Qaeda and provided finances and logistical support to the organisation.

All seven members are believed to be Arab nationals.

Analysis

Bill Law Gulf analyst

---

The claim that this is a local al-Qaeda cell needs to be treated with caution. The UAE has a track record of rounding up dissidents and branding them as terrorists. Currently 94 people are on trial for allegedly plotting the overthrow of the government. Most are members of a conservative religious society al-Islah that observers say is non-violent. Their only crime may be criticising the UAE rulers. And despite the ongoing allegations that would suggest that the UAE is under constant threat, Dubai and other major cities have been mercifully free of terror attacks. The same cannot be said for neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Last December, the UAE arrested members of what it called a terror cell which it said was planning to attack targets in the Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Another 94 people, said to be members of an Islamist organisation, are on trial in the UAE charged with plotting to overthrow the government.

The detainees, all Emiratis, include prominent human rights lawyers as well as judges, teachers and student leaders.

An Emirati human rights activist who asked not to be named told the BBC that "it was highly unlikely" al-Qaeda was operating in the UAE.

"I don't put any credibility in what state security says. These kinds of arrests are a pretext for repression."

The UAE is a major oil exporter and key Western ally in the region, comprising seven sheikhdoms run by ruling families.

Up to 80% of its residents are expatriates, lured by work in construction or the lucrative financial sector.

Iraq violence: Baghdad cafe hit by deadly bomb attack

 

At least 27 people, including two children, have been killed and dozens more injured in a bomb attack on a cafe in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, officials have said.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside the cafe in the west of the city, police said.

No group has said it carried out the attack.

The violence comes ahead of Iraq's provincial elections on 20 April, the first in the country since 2010.

Emergency workers were still trying to pull out victims trapped in the rubble when part of the building collapsed, police told the Reuters news agency.

On Monday, a series of co-ordinated car bomb attacks took place across the country, claiming at least 31 lives and injuring more than 200 people.

Tensions are high between Iraq's Sunni and Shia, amid claims by the Sunni Muslim communities that they are being marginalised by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shia-led government.

Sunni Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda have attempted to destabilise the government by stepping up attacks, mainly on Shia but also Sunni targets this year.

Although violence has decreased in Iraq since the peak of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007, bombings are still common.

Courtney Morgan - UN suspends Gaza food centres after compound attack

The UN says it is suspending all its food distribution centres in the Gaza Strip after protesters angered by aid cutbacks stormed one of its compounds.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) said the centres would stay closed until it received security assurances for its property and staff.
It said it was trying to mitigate the effects caused by cuts in cash payments to some of Gaza's poorest families.
Unrwa provides aid for an estimated 800,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
It runs dozens of schools and medical clinics and distributes food to many of the territory's 1.7 million residents, but says it is grappling with a huge budget deficit.
Correspondents say the suspension of food aid will cause more hardship for people in Gaza already hit by Israeli and Egyptian controls on its borders.
An Unrwa statement said the storming of its Gaza field office was "a dramatic and disturbing escalation in a series of demonstrations that have taken place over the past week".
"We fully understand the impact the decision to suspend cash assistance had on some of our beneficiaries," Robert Turner, head of the agency's Gaza operations, said in the statement.

There have been days of protests outside Unrwa compounds in Gaza

"What happened today was completely unacceptable. The situation could very easily have resulted in serious injuries to Unrwa staff and to the demonstrators. This escalation, apparently pre-planned, was unwarranted and unprecedented."
He added: "All relief and distribution centres will consequently remain closed until guarantees are given by all relevant groups that Unrwa operations can continue unhindered."
Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas which governs Gaza, said they condemned any violence against Unrwa but described the decision to close the food centres as "unjustified".
"When the administration of Unrwa asked the Palestinian security to intervene they arrived and stopped the chaos. We are asking Unrwa to rethink their decision," he said.
Unrwa says financial support for its programmes to help Palestinian refugees hasn't kept up with the deepening poverty of those in need.
It says it is currently grappling with a deficit of more than $67m (£44m).

Courtney Morgan - Iran defiant over talks on its nuclear programme

"We are talking about peaceful nuclear energy," Saeed Jalili said

Iran has again strongly defended its controversial nuclear programme as a new round of talks with world powers began in Kazakhstan.

Chief negotiator Saeed Jalili said the global community must accept Tehran's right to enrich uranium.
International powers suspect Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons - a charge Tehran denies.
Iran insists its purposes are purely civilian, asserting it needs enriched uranium to make medical isotopes.
'Practical solution'

Analysis Lyse Doucet Chief international correspondent, Almaty

"The Iranians are engaging, now we want them to negotiate," a senior Western official told me ahead of these latest talks.
He said there had to be more of "you offered that, but we offer this" for Iran to prove it was really interested in moving forward, not just buying time.
Iran will reiterate its right to enrich uranium under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), an interpretation the West does not subscribe to. But Iranian officials indicate they may be willing to discuss its level of enrichment as long as demands and incentives are "balanced".
It is seeking more sanctions relief than the limited steps in the revised proposal offered by global powers in February.
Western sources say they want to see confidence-building measures from Iran to bolster its claim that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.
The last round of talks in Almaty marked modest progress, although Western descriptions of "useful" contrasted with Iran's talk of a "possible turning point".
Round two will show which way this is turning, if at all.

"We think our talks... can go forward with one word. That is the acceptance of the rights of Iran, particularly the right to enrichment," Mr Jalili said in the city of Almaty - the venue of the talks with Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany (P5+1).

"We are talking about peaceful nuclear energy," he stressed, accusing "a handful of countries" of trying "to deny this right to others".
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Madrid on Thursday he hoped for "very meaningful progress" from the negotiations, urging the Iranians to prove their programme was for peaceful purposes.
At the previous round of talks in Kazakhstan in February, the world powers tried to push Tehran to halt production and stockpiling of uranium enriched to 20% - a step away from achieving a nuclear weapons capability.
The P5+1 also demanded Iran shut down the Fordo underground enrichment facility.
In return the world powers suggested easing tough economic sanctions against Iran.
Several rounds of sanctions have squeezed Iran's economy, with oil revenue slashed, the currency nose-diving in value and unemployment growing.
But significant differences reportedly remain on how far both sides are willing to go to reach a mutually accepted compromise.
In March, US President Barack Obama said he had offered Iran a "practical solution" if it truly sought peaceful nuclear capabilities rather than weapons.
He urged the country to take "immediate and meaningful steps" to reduce tension with the international community.
Meanwhile, Israel has warned that it will stop Iran's programme militarily if other means fail.