Middle Orient

The Quartet of international powers has “lost its grip” on the Middle East peace process which it is meant to foster, a group of aid agencies says.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s West Bank barrier is fuelling attacks by East Jerusalem Arabs who feel isolated from fellow Palestinians and are increasingly likely to lash out independently, Israel’s domestic spy service said on Wednesday.

SAMARRA, Iraq (Reuters) – At a checkpoint consisting of a wooden shack wrapped in steel sheets, five young Iraqis with AK-47 rifles have the task of stopping al Qaeda bombers striking the ancient city of Samarra.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s parliament passed a provincial elections law on Wednesday after months of arguing between Arabs and Kurds, and called for the vote to be held before January 31 next year, legislators said.

Gunmen have killed at least 20 people in an ambush to the north-east of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, officials say.

The Iraqi parliament has passed a law which paves the way for provincial elections.

CAIRO, Sept. 23 – A senior official of the Palestinian Fatah movement said here on Tuesday that he is optimistic about the success of an Egypt-brokered inter-Palestinian national dialogue to end the current crisis among the Palestinians.

GAZA CITY (AFP)–At least two Palestinians were killed Wednesday when an explosion collapsed a tunnel running under the border between the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and Egypt, local medics and witnesses said.

Over the past two decades of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, deadlines for peace agreements have come and gone with precious few treaties. Now, amid low expectations for an agreement before the expiration of the Bush administration’s target for an accord by the end of 2008, voices are growing on both sides advocating …

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Israeli President Shimon Peres cast strong doubt on Tuesday over whether Israel and the Palestinians could reach a peace deal by the end of the year as hoped.