Middle Orient

Having secured the release of kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston on July 4th, Hamas officials are now moving discreetly to negotiate freedom for another Gaza hostage — Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Iraq says Turkey has 140,000 soldiers along its border, prompting fears of an incursion against Kurdish guerrillas.

Egyptian officials rule out any possibility for Fatah and Hamas to resume talks soon, the state-owned news agency said Tuesday as Egyptian security forces deployed reinforcements along the border with the Gaza Strip.

Cairo vehemently opposes the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s intelligence chief Omar Suleiman told a delegation of MKs from the left-wing Meretz party in Cairo Sunday.

The head of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, has told the BBC that fighting the insurgency is a “long term endeavour” which could take decades.

The 22-country Arab League will send envoys on a historic first mission to Israel this week to discuss a sweeping Arab peace initiative and how it might prop up embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli and Arab diplomats said Sunday.

Iraq’s foreign minister has warned that a quick withdrawal of U.S. forces could lead to civil war and the collapse of the Iraqi government. From northern Iraq, VOA’s Margaret Besheer reports the Iraqi diplomat was reacting to growing debate about the future of American troops in Iraq.

The boost in troop levels in Iraq has increased the cost of war there and in Afghanistan to $12 billion a month, and the total for Iraq alone is nearing a half-trillion dollars, congressional analysts say.

Lebanese troops have fought new battles with Islamist militants around a Palestinian refugee camp in the north of the country, reports say.

A special Israeli envoy gave Egypt last week a list of Hamas prisoners Israel is prepared to release in an exchange for abducted Israel Defense Forces Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported.