Middle Orient

ISTANBUL — Turkey, the only Muslim member of NATO and a country with close ties to both Israel and Arab states, seems to many in Europe and the United States to be an ideal contributor to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

ALGIERS (Reuters) — Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi has scolded his nation for over-reliance on oil, foreigners and imports and told it to start manufacturing things people need.

Israel is taking serious steps to ensure that it’s well prepared in the event of a possible war with Iran. The Jewish state has bought two German-made nuclear-capable submarines, and Israel’s army chief, Dan Halutz, appointed a top officer to be a “campaign manager” for Tehran.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Maliki won important support Saturday for his national unity plan from hundreds of tribal chiefs, and from the release of a leading Sunni Arab lawmaker returned by her captors as a gift to his project.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said Saturday that it has asked “friendly Muslim countries” to contribute troops to a UN force that is to help patrol southern Lebanon to prevent a new outbreak of violence between Israel and Hizbollah fighters.

ARAK (Reuters) — Iran’s president launched a new phase in the Arak heavy-water reactor project on Saturday, saying Tehran would not give up its right to nuclear technology despite Western fears it aims to make atomic bombs.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration may be on the verge of getting what it has long sought: United Nations sanctions on a defiant Iran over its accelerated nuclear programme.

BEIRUT — The bitter smell of burned plastic is carried on the wind with the choking dust churned up by a noisy backhoe that rattles and scrapes at a small mountain of rubble.

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BEIRUT (AP) — Syria hotly opposed deployment of an international force along its border to prevent arms shipments to Hizbollah, and Israel on Wednesday called the situation in Lebanon “explosive”, as the ceasefire was shaken by artillery shells and explosions that killed three Lebanese soldiers and an Israeli.