All Blog Posts from World Watch

Islamic militant movement Hamas, and seven other Damascus-based Palestinian factions, slammed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' decree on Saturday for holding Presidential elections next January as "illegal," accusing the United States of being behind the call which would deepen internal rift.

"The decision of holding elections is neither legal nor legislative and consolidates inter division … it is retraction of the deal reached in previous dialogues", a joint statement by the factions read.

"The U.S. and regional parties are behind this decision that serves neither people's interest nor national unity. Adopting individual decisions comes within the US-Zionist vision that aims to liquidate our people's rights," the statement, obtained by our office in Damascus, said.

Abbas, whose term expired earlier this year, has announced that presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on 24 January across the Palestinian territories, including the rival Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

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Israel has unexpectedly released two Syrian men who spent 25 years in Israeli jails, the longest terms ever served by Syrians in custody of the Jewish state, Syria's state-run news agency reported Friday.

Bisher Suleiman Ahmad Maqt, 44, was freed suddenly despite having 12 years left to serve on his sentence. Also released was Assem Mahmud Ahmed Wali, who had two years left.

It was not clear yet why the men were released and whether the move was connected with an expected prisoner exchange between Israel and the Islamic fundamentalist movement Hamas, which is holding captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit inside the Gaza Strip.

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A top adviser to U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said on Thursday the Obama administration is seeking to play a "balanced" role in its drive for peace in the Middle East.

Fred Hoff made his remarks, in a bid to test Syria's support for Washington's efforts, after lengthy talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus.

"Mr. Hoff underlined the United States' quest to work for achieving comprehensive peace in the region and its determination to play its effective and balanced role for resuming peace negotiations on all tracks," said an official statement.

Meanwhile, the Israelis said they were ready to resume direct talks with Damascus if it distances itself from Iran and armed Islamist groups in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories that are arrayed against the Jewish state.

Syria dismissed the Israeli demand, insisting that any new negotiations should include assurances that it will recover the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 war.

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Khaled Mashaal, the political bureau chairman of the Hamas Movement, welcomed on Thursday the "new language" by President Barack Obama towards his Islamic movement "We appreciate Obama's new language towards Hamas. And it is the first step in the right direction toward a dialogue without conditions, and we welcome this," he told his supporters in a televised speech in the Syrian capital Damascus.

But he said words must be followed by "action on the ground," and that Mr. Obama remains "too sympathetic" toward Israel, despite the president's pledge to work hard for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"We see a change in Washington's stance over the Middle East region and the Islamic world…but we are looking for a change on the ground. Obama's stance is still under test," Mashaal, a Hamas leader in exile, said.

"Obama spoke widely about the suffering of Jews and their Holocaust in Europe but ignored the talk about our suffering and Israel's Holocaust that has been going on for decades against our people," he added.

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U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell arrives in Damascus on Friday for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to see if the time is right to jump-start Syria-Israel peace talks.

His visit comes a week after President Obama pledged in his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo to pursue a broad-based, comprehensive peace agreement in the Middle East.

Mitchell will be the highest-ranking administration official to visit Syria since 2005, in the most concrete sign yet of rapprochement between Washington and Damascus — a radical departure from the Bush administration.

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Israel is concerned that the U.S. may be planning to approve funding for a future Palestinian unity government that would include the Islamic militant group Hamas.

Israeli officials say the Obama administration has asked Congress to change a U.S. law to allow such indirect funding for Hamas, even though the group is on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations.

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Members of a high-profile European parliamentary delegation are urging their governments to engage in direct talks with Hamas and end the Islamic movement's international isolation. The push comes after a marathon meeting Saturday between the delegation and Hamas's political leader Khaled Mashaal, who is in exile in Damascus.

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Although Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has not met with two senior U.S. envoys, Damascus and Washington sounded upbeat on Saturday that their first high-level talks in the Syrian capital in four years would result in better ties between the two countries after years of tension.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem sat with Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and Daniel Shapiro, a senior staffer on the National Security Council, for four hours as both sides tested the waters to see what concrete offers will emerge as the countries seek a closer rapprochement.

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Foreign ministers and international aid groups will converge in the Egyptian summer resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday in a bid to reconstruct the Gaza Strip, devastated a month ago by three weeks of non-stop onslaught by Israeli forces. Facing the reconstruction efforts are tricky questions about how to devise a mechanism for funneling the necessary cash.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — who is arriving in this Red Sea resort on her first visit to the Middle East since joining the Obama administration — has said the United States would offer more than $900 million through the United Nations or the Palestinian Authority.

[Washington has no direct contact with Hamas, a group which remains on the State Department's list of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.]

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Two U.S. lawmakers came out of talks with Syrian leaders on Saturday more hopeful Damascus would engage in dialogue with the new administration as Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad denounced what he called Washington's “dictation policy” of recent years.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, D-Calif., both agreed they see prospects for better relations with Syria, a country shunned under Bush.

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