France has said it will vote Yes in a UN vote on making Palestine into an “observer state,” but the UK will only back the move with strings attached.
French foreign minister Laurent Fabius told parliament on Tuesday (27 November): “You know that for years and years France’s consistent position has been the recognition of the Palestinian state … That is why when the question is raised [in New York] on Thursday and Friday, France will respond with a ‘Yes’.”
The success or failure of Operation Pillar of Defense depends on the most elusive of parameters, the future, but this major round of conflict — Israel’s first since the still-moving fire of the Arab Spring began to burn — can be viewed on many different levels, from the army’s successes on the ground, to Hamas’s extended rocket range and resilience, to the silent but watching eyes of Iran.
The Quartet is working with the US, the UN and Egypt to bring a cessation of hostilities on a sustainable basis that will stop missiles from coming to Israel, Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair told President Shimon Peres in a meeting at the President’s Residence on Monday.
While Israelis are suffering, Gazans are also suffering, Blair said.
ISTANBUL – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan described Israel on Monday as a “terrorist state” in carrying out its bombardment of Gaza, underlining hostility for Ankara’s former ally since relations between them collapsed in 2010.
His comments came after nearly a week of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. An Israeli missile killed at least 11 Palestinian civilians including four children in Gaza on Sunday.
Pope Benedict XVI has appointed six priests from non-European countries to be cardinals, at a service in the Vatican’s St Peter’s Basilica.
The cardinals, the closest aides of the Pope, come from the Philippines, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Colombia and the US.
Hizbullah’s officials, the Shiite terrorist group based in Lebanon, were hosted in Rome by the Vatican during the recent ceremony for the election of six new cardinals. Among the new cardinals is the Lebanese Patriarch, Bechara Boutros Rai.
As head of Lebanon’s Catholic Church, Rai recently sent his envoy, Father Abdo Abou Kassem, to Teheran to attend a conference in support of the Palestinian Arab Intifada and of a “Zionist-free middle east”. The conference was attended also by Hizbullah ideologue, Mohammad Raad, and by the Hamas’ leader Khaled Meshaal.
Europe’s debt crisis remains a far bigger threat to the world’s economy than the “fiscal cliff”, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
In its latest twice yearly report the OECD warned the world’s major economies could all got back into recession if euro-zone and US policy makers fail to tackle their fiscal crises. The organisation believed an escalation in the ongoing European crisis poses the biggest threat to global economies and could drag Europe into a deep recession in the next two years and the US along with it.
