 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Comment Focus Special Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Syria's track
US SECRETARY of State Madeleine Albright held talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the opening of the UN General Assembly. Albright aims to build on a Middle East trip made earlier this month when Syria and Israel stated there was a need for the US to act as an intermediary between them.US officials said Albright was searching for a formula to restart the negotiations and ensure that both sides move quickly through the main issues.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, brushed aside French efforts to play the role of matchmaker in peace negotiations as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak held talks in Paris with French President Jacques Chirac.
Hamas arrest
JORDANIAN Security officials detained three leaders of the banned militant Palestinian group Hamas immediately after they arrived at Amman's international airport aboard a United Arab Emirates flight from Iran via Dubai. Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Majali said Khaled Misha'al, Hamas politburo chief, and Ibrahim Ghosheh had been referred to the state security court. A third politburo member, Moussa Abu Marzook, a Yemeni national holding a Palestinian travel document, was under arrest at the airport pending his expulsion to Iran.The Jordanian government shut down Hamas's Amman offices last month and issued arrest warrants against the three leaders who were outside the country. Islamist sources claim the crackdown is intended to appease Israel and the Americans.
As Hamas leaders in Gaza city appealed to King Abdullah to intervene to release the leaders, hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Nablus in the West Bank calling the arrests an embarrassment to the Arab world. (see p.8)
UN rebuffed
ISRAEL has refused to cooperate with a Norwegian diplomat appointed only the day before as special UN coordinator for the Middle East peace process. Israeli Foreign Ministry officials said yesterday they would not accept an expansion of the title, mandate and powers of the outgoing UN special coordinator, insisting that the entire Oslo peace process was based on bilateral negotiations.In a statement issued in New York on Tuesday the UN said that the new post will enable the world body to improve the efficiency of its traditional activities in support of the Middle East peace process.
Terje Rod Larsen is due to take up his post, which carries the rank of under-secretary-general, at the end of the month. His predecessor, Chinmaya Garekhan, was essentially in charge of UN aid to the Palestinians.
Raisa dead
HUNDREDS of Muscovites, from former premiers to penniless pensioners, paid a final farewell yesterday to Raisa Gorbachev, wife of the Soviet Union's last leader, who brought a dash of glamour to the normally lacklustre position of Soviet first lady.The body of Raisa, 67, who died in the German city of Munster after battling against leukaemia, was flown back to Moscow on Tuesday aboard an official Russian plane. Her open coffin lay in state on a raised platform in the elegant Cultural Foundation which she founded.
Among the earliest notables to pay their last respects were current Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, his predecessor Yevgeny Primakov, a former senior aide to Gorbachev, and Naina Yeltsin, wife of Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
