Middle Orient News

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Impediments in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks mean a “miracle” would be required to meet the U.S.-set goal of an accord by the end of 2008, the chief Palestinian negotiator said on Wednesday. “All the issues were discussed with the Israeli side and there has been no …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq, negotiating an agreement on keeping U.S. forces in the country, has sent teams to study military pacts Washington has with other nations, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Sunday. The United States, which invaded Iraq in 2003 to oust Saddam Hussein, is negotiating an agreement …

GENEVA (Reuters) – A U.N. human rights investigator making an official visit to the United States later this month said on Wednesday that he would raise allegations of American troops killing Afghan and Iraqi civilians. Philip Alston, United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said he would …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Three U.S. soldiers were killed by small-arms fire near the Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, the U.S. military said. The attack took place in the town of Hawija, 210 km (130 miles) north of Baghdad.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Syria is not seeking nuclear weapons but wants to have access to atomic energy for peaceful purposes through a collective Arab project, President Bashar al-Assad said in remarks published on Tuesday. The Dubai-based Gulf News also quoted Assad as saying that the United States should have sought …

GENEVA (Reuters) – Iraqi families who fled recent sectarian violence and military operations are returning in numbers to certain areas of Baghdad where security has improved, an international aid agency said on Tuesday. An estimated 4,000 families or 24,000 Iraqis who fled fighting between security forces and Shi’ite militiamen during …

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike injured three Islamic Jihad militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Tuesday after cross-border rockets fired from the territory wounded five Israelis. One of the Islamic Jihad militants was critically injured in the air strike near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, …

JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) – Israel gave the Palestinian Authority permission on Tuesday to open three police stations in the northern West Bank as part of a U.S.-backed security campaign meant to ready the Palestinians for statehood. Washington sees the campaign as a chance for Palestinian forces to show they …

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iraq’s Kurdish regional government will make fresh proposals to Baghdad in two weeks to iron out differences over the federal oil law, the region’s prime minister said on Tuesday. Disputes between the largely autonomous northern region of Kurdistan and Baghdad have delayed the law for over a …

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas said on Monday it had punished 38 of its policemen for failing to prevent the killing of seven Palestinians during a rally staged by the rival Fatah faction last November in the Gaza Strip.