West Bank barrier route revised
Israel modified the route of its West Bank separation barrier on Sunday, moving forward with interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan to quickly define the country’s final borders as his Kadima Party secured a parliamentary majority.
The Israeli Cabinet voted to reroute the barrier near the major settlement of Ariel deep in the West Bank and approved putting temporary fencing around areas of Jerusalem abutting the West Bank.
The moves will put thousands of Palestinians on the “Palestinian” side of the enclosure, officials said.
Palestinians said Israel is imposing its will over disputed land and trying to strengthen its claim to sovereignty over Jerusalem.
“We must make a supreme effort to complete the security barrier wherever possible,” Olmert told the Cabinet. “The decisions we take today will allow us to complete the construction of the fence very quickly in critical areas and, therefore, improve our ability to thwart attempted attacks.”
WASHINGTON
U.S. downplays Iranian offer
Iran’s offer to let a watchdog agency inspect the country’s nuclear facilities is a stalling tactic to avoid U.N. penalties that would further isolate Tehran, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.
“I think they’re playing games. But obviously, if they’re not playing games, they should come clean. They should stop the enrichment, suspend the enrichment,” Rice told ABC’s “This Week.”
Iran’s deputy oil minister played down the chance of U.N. action, saying that punishing Tehran would send oil prices even higher.
CAIRO, Egypt
Emergency law extended
Egypt’s Parliament agreed Sunday to extend an emergency law President Hosni Mubarak imposed on the country after he took power in 1981, ignoring a growing chorus of opposition both inside and outside the country.
The emergency law, put in place after Islamic extremists killed Mubarak’s predecessor, Anwar Sadat, during a Cairo military parade, gives security forces broad powers to arrest and detain suspects.
The United States called on Mubarak last year to lift the law, which human rights organizations and Egypt’s opposition say is subject to abuse.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif told legislators the two-year extension is important to the government’s effort to combat terrorism, the official Middle East News Agency reported.
Nazif called terrorism a “vicious tool of destruction” bent on destroying the efforts of Egyptians’ “labor, sweat and money.”
A spokesman for lawmakers affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood said Mubarak’s National Democratic Party used its overwhelming majority in the 454-seat Parliament to pass the extension.