CAIRO: A senior Egyptian official is in Damascus to meet Syrian and Hamas officials ahead of renewed Palestinian unity talks next week, a Palestinian official said on Friday. Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman’s deputy Omar Kinawi will push for Palestinian reconciliation during the meetings, said Nabil Shaath, a senior official with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah …

The International Atomic Energy Agency failed to agree on a new chief on Friday, with Japanese frontrunner Yukiya Amano falling one vote short of the required two-thirds majority. He consistently outpolled South Africa’s Abdul Samad Minty in five rounds of voting by the nuclear watchdog’s board of governors. But neither was seen as broad-based enough …

CAIRO: Ayman Nour came to prominence when he placed second in the 2005 Presidential elections. Shortly after, he was serving a five-year prison sentence on charges of forging Powers of Attorney when setting up his political party, Al-Ghad. He was released Feb. 18 on grounds of his health which deteriorated considerably during his incarceration. Nour …

JERUSALEM: Israeli President Shimon Peres hailed his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak on Thursday 30 years after the two countries signed a landmark peace treaty. President Shimon Peres spoke today with the president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, offering his blessings and best wishes to the peoples of Israel and Egypt on the 30th anniversary of the …

CAIRO: A government official says Egypt is still mediating talks between Israel and Hamas on a prisoner swap that would include the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The Ministry of Interior official spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Both Israel and Gaza s Hamas rulers …

THE HAGUE: International war crimes prosecutors Wednesday warned Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir, who was visiting Egypt, that there was no way of escape as long as he is the subject of an arrest warrant. We want all political leaders who might meet Omar Al-Beshir to explain to him there is no possible way out, said …

CAIRO: Thirty years ago today, on March 26, 1979, President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed a peace treaty witnessed by American President Jimmy Carter between Egypt and Israel on the White House lawn. The treaty came after three wars and much antagonism, it was a landmark moment in regional history insomuch …

At the center of 30 years of peace between Egypt and Israel is the text of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty of March 26, 1979, which governs the conditions of peace and the relationship between the former adversaries. Although much of the treaty focused on immediate concerns such as ending the state of war between the …

CAIRO: Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir met his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Wednesday on his second trip visit since an international court ordered his arrest for war crimes in Darfur. Mubarak met Beshir at the airport and held talks that lasted a few hours before boarding a plane for the return flight to …

JERUSALEM: Two human rights groups said on Wednesday that Israel, Egypt, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority had all violated the rights of Gaza residents by preventing them from crossing into Egypt. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement said in a joint statement that all four are preventing passage between …

CAIRO: Thirty years after the signing of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in Washington on March 26, 1979, local opposition to the treaty and its conditions continues to grow. Opposition centers on the terms of the treaty that are perceived to be unfavorable to Egypt, specifically the security restrictions on Sinai and the …

JERUSALEM/GENEVA: Israel on Tuesday slammed as one-sided a report by a UN human rights investigator which said its three-week war on the Gaza Strip was possibly a war crime. Unfortunately this is a further example of the very one-sided, unbalanced and unfair attitude of the (UN) Human Rights Council, government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP. …

CAIRO: The People’s Assembly approved the extension of Law 29 of 1972 on Monday, giving President Hosni Mubarak authority over decisions pertaining to arms trade until the end of his term in 2011. The PA approved the law after 313 of 338 members voted for its extension. Most of the independent and opposition members voted …

JERUSALEM: Both Israel and Gaza s Hamas rulers said Sunday that talks aimed at freeing an Israeli soldier held nearly three years by Palestinian militants are not over, despite last week s public breakdown of Egyptian-mediated contacts. Also, the exiled leader of Hamas said it s a matter of time before the Obama administration establishes …

NAIROBI: Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir arrived in Eritrea Monday on his first foreign trip since the issue of an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes, Eritrea s information minister said. It is a one-day visit, it s a very normal visit from one president to another. He is responding to an invitation by President …

CAIRO: In a heated confrontation, one month before the end of the current PA session, independent and opposition MPs filed 11 investigation requests to cabinet, hoping but failing to clinch a no confidence vote against the government. On Sunday, parliament discussed 11 requests, one of which accused the government of “failing to confront monopolistic practices …

The Arab League is warning Iran not to harm the sovereignty or independence of any Arab state. Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ahmad Bin Hali accused Tehran of issuing provocative statements against Arab states. Arab countries will not allow Iranian influence in Iraq on account of Iraq’s sovereignty and stability, Bin Hali said in an interview …

JERUSALEM: Israeli premier-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to reassure Cairo over choosing a firebrand who once told the Egyptian president to go to hell as his foreign minister, his office said on Sunday. The move comes as the two nations get ready to mark the 30th anniversary of their landmark peace treaty later this week. …

WASHINGTON: The United States said Thursday that Hamas must be committed to non-violence and meet other international demands before Washington can recognize a Palestinian unity government with the radical group s members. The statement referred to the quartet of the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union, which have mapped out the conditions …

CAIRO: US President Barack Obama made a televised speech directly addressing the Iranian people and their leaders Friday in which he promised to resolve the longstanding impasse between both countries through diplomatic means. Obama’s speech indicated a rapprochement which was a clear departure from methods employed by the previous American administration vis-a-vis Iran. Yet talk …

WASHINGTON: Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman held talks on Wednesday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a US official said. “She met him, the State Department official told AFP on condition of anonymity without elaborating on the substance of the meeting. Suleiman, who has not spoken to the media, met Tuesday with US Middle …

CAIRO: Sudan is ready to expel foreign ambassadors “if they exceed their diplomatic mission, President Omar Al-Beshir was quoted as saying on Thursday in his latest act of defiance of the West. Tensions between Al-Beshir and the West have risen since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant accusing him of war crimes and …

CAIRO: Egypt’s ambassador to Israel Yasser Rida denied making statements in an Israeli newspaper that Egypt was willing to forget scathing remarks about it by the right-wing Avigdor Lieberman, who is slated to be the new Israeli Foreign Minister. Haaretz had reported that Rida had said Egypt was willing to forget previous statements by Lieberman …

CAIRO: Two Hamas officials returning from Egypt were caught trying to cross the Gaza border Tuesday with nearly $850,000 stuffed into candy tins, an Egyptian security official said. Gaza s Hamas rulers are dependent on the smuggling of cash and goods to keep their government afloat because the coastal territory has been subject to an …

RAFAH: Egypt reopened its Rafah border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Wednesday for two days to enable students and the sick to cross, a security official told AFP. The border has opened for two days to allow the passage of Palestinian students and the sick who are stuck on the Egyptian side, the border …

CAIRO: Tarek El-Zomor, member of the Jihad organization and allegedly one of late president Anwar Sadat’s assassins, is demanding moral compensation to salvage his image in society after being imprisoned for his involvement in the 1981 parade shooting. In a memo presented yesterday by his lawyer Nizar Ghorab to the Attorney General of South Giza, …

CAIRO: The Appeals Circuit of the Supreme Administrative Court has decided to adjourn the hearing of the government’s appeal on the Cairo Administrative Court’s decision to ban gas exports to Israel and other countries until April 6. The court will examine the report of the State Commissioner’s Authority of the State Council which was submitted …

CAIRO: Presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said that the $213 million decrease in US economic aid to Egypt this year was a result of conditions that were rejected by Egypt. Awad said it was a unilateral decision by the United States to cut economic assistance to Egypt from $413 million to $200 million as a result …

CAIRO: A British national is alleging that he was tortured in Egypt in collusion with UK intelligence agencies, British daily the Guardian reported Sunday. Twenty-six-year-old Azhar Khan says that he was detained at Cairo Airport when he and a friend flew to Egypt on July 9, 2008 for a holiday. While Khan s friend was …

BRUSSELS: Egyptian Foreign Minster Ahmad Aboul Gheit voiced concern Monday for Middle East peace hopes after an ultra-nationalist party signed up to be part of Israel s new government. We have a negative, possibly damaging factor, which is the emergence of an extreme right government in Israel, he told members of the European Parliament in …