The New Nation - Internet Edition

Palestinians accept Israeli truce proposal

AFP, Cairo

All Palestinian militant groups meeting in Cairo have accepted an Egyptian-mediated proposal for a truce with Israel, the official MENA news agency said Wednesday, citing well-informed sources.

"All Palestinian factions, forces and parties have accepted Egypt's proposal on a truce with Israel," MENA quoted the well-informed sources as saying-referring to Hamas, Fatah and the 12 factions currently in Cairo. The deal for a six-month period of calm has already been accepted by the Islamist movement Hamas, while Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, from rival Fatah, on Sunday gave the negotiations unconditional support.

MENA said an official statement would be released later in the day once Egyptian intelligence chief and chief mediator with Israel Omar Suleiman finishes his two days of talks with the factions on Wednesday. The Palestinian ambassador to Cairo, Nabil Amr, who was nominated by Abbas to follow the talks, told AFP that Egyptian officials had told him the outcome of the talks was "positive and excellent."

Amr said that, after obtaining the Palestinians' agreement, Egyptian officials would travel to Israel to submit the plan. He could not say when that might happen.

Egypt has been serving as a go-between in truce negotiations, as Israel refuses any direct contacts with organisations it considers terror groups.

The agreement of Islamic Jihad, which fires most rockets from Gaza into Israel, is seen as crucial for the deal. A spokesman for the group said they would respect a truce but not sign it if it applied only in Gaza. "We will respect what Israel respects but we will not sign a truce to be applied only in the Gaza Strip," Jihad spokesman Daud Shahab told AFP from Gaza.

"If the Palestinian factions agree on a period of calm we will not be an obstacle but we will not sign. We reject the principle of a calming in Gaza; we are against a political division between Gaza and the West Bank," he said. "If there are attacks, nobody and no agreement will prevent us from responding," he said. "Israel will not respect anything because no powerful party will oblige it to respect the calm. Only resistance can stem Israel's attacks." Other factions at the talks include the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Popular Struggle Front (PSF). The PRC was one of the groups behind the 2006 capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who remains captive pending a prisoner exchange deal but there was no immediate word on whether such a deal had been reached.

Hamas last week told the Egyptians it would be ready to accept a truce first in the Gaza Strip, to be followed six months later in the West Bank. The Israeli blockade of Gaza since June 2007 must also be lifted, according to the deal. Israel has expressed doubts about Hamas's intentions but said it would consider a truce if Hamas stopped firing rockets at Israeli territory and attacking border positions. Israel allows only limited basic supplies into the Gaza Strip in an embargo it says aims to force militants to halt their almost daily rocket fire against the Jewish state.

Putin pledges to keep relations with Iran

Reuters, Moscow

President Vladimir Putin has told Iran's president that there will be continuity in Russia's relations with Tehran, RIA news agency quoted a senior Russian official as saying on Wednesday.

"An oral message from Russian President Vladimir Putin was conveyed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a meeting," RIA quoted Valentin Sobolev, acting secretary of Russia's National Security Council, as saying in Tehran.

"The substance of it is that Russia confirms the principles of mutual relations (with Iran) and her policy will not depend on who is in power," he said. Putin's successor Dmitry Medvedev will be sworn in as president next month.

Global press freedom declines in 2007: Study

AFP, Washington

Global press freedom declined in 2007 for the sixth year running, with worrisome restrictions imposed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, the rights group Freedom House has stated in a report.

The Washington-based organization expressed concern about violence against journalists in a number of countries, including Russia, Mexico and the Philippines on Tuesday.

Iraq and Somalia remained the most dangerous countries for reporters, the annual survey said. The report said there was some improvement in the Middle East and North Africa due to greater access to satellite television and the Internet as well as a growing number of journalists willing to challenge government limits. But the survey struck a pessimistic tone given global trends. "For every step forward in press freedom last year, there were two steps back," said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House.

The survey, which examines print, broadcast and Internet freedom in 195 countries, said only 18 percent of the world's population live in countries with free media.

In Mexico, the report found an "extremely high level of drug-related violence against journalists as well as the continued atmosphere of impunity surrounding attacks on the media."

In Bolivia and Peru, reporters were the target of threats and physical assaults while in Colombia, there was a rise in attacks on journalists and economic uncertainty due to the continuing conflict there.

Russia suffered a "substantial" decline in press freedom in 2007 with "hundreds of journalists facing criminal or civil cases and at least two taken into temporary psychiatric detention after criticizing local authorities," Freedom House said.

Bush still hopeful of Middle East peace deal

AFP, Washington

President George W. Bush said Tuesday he was still hopeful of a Middle East peace deal before he left office in January but warned that the Islamist Hamas group could "undermine" the effort.

In a White House press conference, Bush acknowledged that achieving peace was an uphill task but said he was "still hopeful we will get an agreement by the end of my presidency" in January 2009 on establishing a Palestinian state.

Bush, who formally restarted Mideast peace negotiations in November last year after a seven-year freeze, will visit Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt from May 13 to 18. "It's going to be difficult but it's even made more difficult by entities like Hamas who insist upon lobbing rockets into Israel.

US deploys another aircraft carrier in Gulf

AFP, Mexico City

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said Tuesday the deployment of a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf should be seen as a "reminder" of US military power in the region. But Gates flatly denied that the United States was preparing the ground for military strikes against Iran.

"I don't think we'll have two carriers for a protracted period of time. So I don't see it as an escalation. I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder," Gates told reporters here during a visit with Mexican officials. The arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf follows a noticeable hardening in US rhetoric against Iran for meddling in Iraq and playing a destabilizing role in the region.