Palestina

Palestinian and Israeli officials yesterday gave widely different reactions to US President George W. Bush’s call Monday for an international peace conference to address the conflict, while analysts remained distinctly underwhelmed.

About 100 Palestinians smashed doors and windows inside an airport building in this Egypt-Gaza Strip border town early Tuesday after being trapped there for more than a month since the border’s closure, police and one of the rioters said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Arab foreign ministers in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh at the end of July, Egypt’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

A bloody eight-week-old battle between the Lebanese army and Islamists claimed the life of its 100th soldier on Monday, as a blast hit a UN post in the south of the country.

Israel plans to release 250 Palestinian prisoners by the end of the week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the two leaders met in Jerusalem on Monday.

King Abdullah on Monday welcomed US President George W. Bush’s call for an international conference to revive Middle East peace talks, describing it as “a step in the right direction”, a Royal Court statement said.

President Bush is making a new push for Middle East peace. VOA White House correspondent Paula Wolfson reports he is calling for an international conference this year to move the peace process forward, and is pledging to increase aid to the Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas.

President George W. Bush on Monday called for a Middle East peace conference later this year and pledged $190 million in new aid to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

An Egyptian official has cast doubt on the authenticity of a recently-released Fatah video showing Hamas members planning the assassination of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas via a tunnel bomb, Israel Radio reported on Monday morning.

Egypt’s powerful chief of intelligence, who acts as a key diplomatic link with the United States and Israel, flew to Washington on Sunday for talks with administration officials on bilateral ties and Mideast issues, officials said.