Palestina

JORDAN ON THURSDAY expressed hope that new Middle East envoy Tony Blair help resume peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.

A multimillion-dinar residential city will be built near Zarqa to tackle overcrowding and help citizens on low and limited incomes buy suitable housing.

Tony Blair was Wednesday named special envoy of the Middle East peace Quartet shortly after stepping down as British prime minister and tasked with spearheading efforts to create a Palestinian state.

The plight of some 200 Gazans, stranded in no-man’s-land on the Israeli border in a desperate bid to flee last week’s Islamist takeover of the territory, is dividing Israeli opinion.

Syria has expressed readiness to help curb Middle East instability in exchange for peace with Israel but will not easily give up its alliance with Iran as demanded by the Jewish state.

An Israeli official on Tuesday promised “dramatic” action to improve life in the West Bank, and Palestinians expressed optimism that a high profile summit in Egypt a day earlier could lead to a resumption of long stalled peace talks.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas Movement, has released a recording of captured zionist serviceman Gilad Shalit asking his government to accept his captors’ demands and to set free Palestinian prisoners in return for his freedom.

Ishmael Haniya, premier of the PA caretaker government, on Tuesday affirmed that the Israeli policy of Premier Ehud Olmert aimed at driving a wedge in Palestinian national lines.

Egypt has decided to resume its efforts to release kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit, a senior Egyptian government official here told The Jerusalem Post Monday.

Al Qaeda’s number two urged all Muslims in a tape posted on Monday to support the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in its battles with President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel, which he said was planning to invade Gaza.