Recently added articles from APS Diplomat Recorder:

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - June 23 - EU States Back Tighter Iran Sanctions.

Jun 28, 2008 ... EU states agree to impose new sanctions against Iran, including an asset freeze on its biggest bank, over its refusal to meet demands to curb its nuclear programme. But the EU said the door remained open to possible talks over an international package of incentives delivered to Tehran ...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - June 22-24 - Sarkozy Hits Israel Where It Hurts.

Jun 28, 2008 ... France's President Nicolas Sarkozy's state visit to Israel was striking for the candour with which he addressed his hosts. He spoke as an intimate friend - certainly Israel's best friend in Europe - but he did not mince his words, both on his arrival at Ben Gurion airport and a day later ...

ARAB ISRAEL RELATIONS - June 24 - Raid And Rockets Hit Gaza Truce.

Jun 28, 2008 ... The ceasefire agreed last week between Israel and Hamas suffers a violent setback, after Palestinian militants fired four rockets and one mortar from the Gaza Strip and Israeli forces launched a deadly incursion into the West Bank city of Nablus. The Egyptian-brokered truce came into ...

AFGHANISTAN - June 24 - More German Troops To Afghanistan.

Jun 28, 2008 ... Under pressure from NATO, Germany announces that it will increase the number of soldiers available for duty in Afghanistan by almost one-third to 4,500, but that it would maintain its policy of keeping the bulk of them away from the relatively violent southern provinces. Franz Josef Jung, ...

AFGHANISTAN - June 26 - Mahdi Army Militia 'Going Underground'.

Jun 28, 2008 ... The Mahdi Army, the staunchly anti-American militia currently on the run after successive Iraqi military campaign to dismantle its network, is increasingly going underground. The Mahdi Army, considered the military wing of the Sadrist Movement that is led by Shiite leader Muqtada Al Sadr, ...

IRAQ - June 22 - Iraq Needs Foreign Troops.

Jun 28, 2008 ... Talking to Sami Al Askari, an Iraqi member of parliament and adviser to the PM, about the ongoing debate on shaping the future of Iraq's relations with the US, the conversation led to a number of points that seemed very much in line with the chaos witnessed in Iraq over the past five ...

IRAQ - June 24 - 10 Killed In Sadr City Bombing.

Jun 28, 2008 ... An explosion apparently caused by a bomb in a district council building in the Sadr City neighbourhood of Baghdad killed two American soldiers, at least six Iraqis and two civilians working for the US military. Iraqi council members who were at the scene of the attack described the ...

IRAQ - June 26 - 3 US Marines Among 30 Killed In 2 Iraq Bombings.

Jun 28, 2008 ... Two insurgent bomb blasts strike at pro-American Iraqi targets in Anbar province just west of Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul, and the police said at least 30 people had been killed and 80 wounded. Iraqi police officials said three US marines were among the dead in the Anbar ...

SAUDI ARABIA - June 25 - Saudi Arabia Detains 520 Terror Suspects.

Jun 28, 2008 ... Saudi Arabia has detained 520 people suspected of involvement in terrorism. General Mansour al-Turki, interior ministry spokesman, told the Financial Times that 701 people had been arrested during the past six months for alleged terror activities. Of these, 181 had been released. Those ...

ARAB AFFAIRS - June 18 - Israel Calls On Lebanon To Start Peace Talks.

Jun 21, 2008 ... Israel urges Lebanon to open peace talks, the latest move in a flurry of developments aimed at easing the multiple conflicts in the region. Government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel was interested in 'direct, bilateral' talks and ready to put 'every issue of contention' on the table, ...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - June 16 - Britain And Europe To Tighten Economic Sanctions On Iran.

Jun 21, 2008 ... PM Gordon Brown announces that Britain and Europe would freeze the overseas assets of Iran's largest commercial bank, joining the US in intensifying financial pressure against Iran over its refusal to address international concern over its nuclear activities. Brown, appearing with ...

ARAB ISRAEL RELATIONS - June 15 - Israeli Plan Threatens Peace Talks, Says Rice.

Jun 21, 2008 ... Israel confirms plans to build 1,300 homes in the ultraorthodox Ramat Shlomo area of East Jerusalem Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, warns that the Israeli government's plan to build hundreds of new housing units in the occupied West Bank Jewish settlement of Ramat Shlomo ...

ARAB ISRAEL RELATIONS - June 16 - Israel Ignores US Pressure.

Jun 21, 2008 ... Israel seek to lower US expectations for any deal with the Palestinians this year, brushing aside pressure over settlements and calling for decisions on Jerusalem's future to be deferred. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended her sixth trip to the region this year with no sign of ...

ARAB ISRAEL RELATIONS - June 17 - Israel And Hamas 'Call Ceasefire'.

Jun 21, 2008 ... Israel and Hamas have agreed to begin a truce tomorrow, the first since the Islamist group's takeover of the Gaza Strip a year ago, said Egyptian officials who mediated in the ceasefire. Barring last-minute complications, the truce, set to start at 6am local time, will bring a rare period ...

IRAN - June 15 - Iran Shows Interest In Nuclear Compromise.

Jun 21, 2008 ... Senior diplomats from the world's big powers said they had received an unexpectedly positive response from Iran at the weekend when the international community presented Tehran with a fresh package of proposals aimed at settling the dispute over its nuclear ambitions. After a visit to ...

ARAB AFFAIRS - June 7 - Maliki Allays Iran Fears On US Presence.

Jun 14, 2008 ... Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki, tries to allay Iranian concerns about a possible US-Iraqi treaty that might provide for a long-term US troop presence in Iraq. "We will not let Iraq become a base for hurting Iran's security", he is quoted as saying. Maliki met Iran's FM Manouchehr Mottak, and was ...

ARAB AFFAIRS - June 12 - Abdullah Vows Full Support In Talks With Al-Maliki.

Jun 14, 2008 ... Jordanian King Abdullah hold talks with the visiting Iraqi PM Nuri Al-Maliki and pledged Jordan would extend all possible help to the Iraqi government to enable it restore security and stability to the violence-torn country. "Jordan puts all its capabilities in support of the Iraqi ...

ARAB EUROPEAN RELATIONS - June 11 - Merkel Backs Bush On Iran Sanctions.

Jun 14, 2008 ... Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany joins President George W. Bush in calling for further sanctions against Iran if it did not suspend its uranium enrichment program. But their news conference here, a day after Bush won general European support for consideration of additional sanctions ...

AFGHANISTAN - June 10 - US Marines Apply Lessons Learned In Iraq To Afghanistan.

Jun 14, 2008 ... US marines pushed the Taliban out of this village and the surrounding district in southern Helmand Province so quickly in recent weeks that they called the operation a "catastrophic success Yet NATO troops conducted similar operations here in 2006 and 2007, and the Taliban returned soon ...

AFGHANISTAN - June 12 - Militants Attack Afghan Prison, Freeing Hundreds Of Inmates.

Jun 14, 2008 ... Taliban militants attack the main prison in southern Afghanistan, exploding a car bomb at the main gate in a multi-pronged assault that freed hundreds of militant prisoners, officials said. The complex attack included a car bomb, suicide bombers who entered the prison and rockets fired ...