In this issue:

Hamas Cuts Talks With Abu Mazen, Citing Israeli Attacks

U.S. Official Calls Hamas 'Enemy of Peace'

Blix Confirms No WMD Found in Iraq

IAEA Inspectors Allowed Back into Iraq

U.S. Forces in Iraq Arrest Badr Brigade Members

Two Former Weapons Inspectors Expose Lies and Bluff

Tribal Leaders Filling Iraq Power Vacuum

Powell: No War With Iran

UN Diplomat Says Iran Not in Serious Breach of NPT

U.S. Had Proposed That the Shah Build Nuclear Plants

From Volume 2, Issue Number 23 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published June 10, 2003
Mideast News Digest

Hamas Cuts Talks With Abu Mazen, Citing Israeli Attacks

The Palestinian Islamic group Hamas announced it was breaking off talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) on ending attacks on Israelis, Haaretz reported on June 6.

"The dialogue has ended," said Abdel-Aziz al-Rantisi, a top Hamas official. He told Reuters that Abu Mazen had made unacceptable commitments at the U.S.-led summit with Israel in Jordan last Wednesday. "Abu Mazen has stopped the dialogue when he committed himself to some issues not accepted by Hamas and [tha] will never be accepted by the Palestinian people."

Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said Abu Mazen failed to mention the return of refugees and other key issues. "This is our choice and we have no alternative. Resistance will continue. The Israeli enemy continues its raids and they assassinated two people in Tul Karm" (referring to two men kill earlier in the day).

The Israelis killed the two Hamas men when the surrounded the house they were in and demanded they come out. When they refused, the Israelis stormed the house, a move that was an obvious operation to kill the men as part of a targetted assassination. The attack occurred precisely when the Israelis knew the peace talks were taking place. Sharon has said he is demanding Abu Mazen crush Hamas, something the latter cannot and will not do, since it would create a civil war.

Nabil abu Rudeineh, an adviser to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said that the killing of these men indicated that Sharon's government has resumed its policy of assassinations, and is not interested in implementing the Road Map. Rudeineh demanded that the international Quartet (U.S., Russia, EU, and UN) recognize Israel's responsibility for the attempt to escalate the violence.

U.S. Official Calls Hamas 'Enemy of Peace'

White House spokesman Scott McClellan denounced Hamas, saying it "is an enemy of peace and we will continue working with all parties to try to achieve peace." He went on to say, "All parties agree that terrorism must end and that all parties have responsibilities to fight terror, and do everything they can to dismantle the infrastructure of terror."

This statement is apparently in response to the killing of two Hamas members by the Israelis, which is being citing by Hamas as one of the reasons they are breaking off talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas). The killings were also denounced by the Palestinian National Authority as an attempt by Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to escalate the violence.

Blix Confirms No WMD Found in Iraq

Hans Blix, who retires from UNMOVIC on June 30, presented the 13th quarterly UNMOVIC report to the UN Security Council, in which he stated: "The Commission has not at any time during the inspections in Iraq found evidence of the continuation or resumption of programs of weapons of mass destruction or significant quantities of proscribed items—whether from pre-1991 or later."

Earlier inspections by UNSCOM, he noted, found and destroyed "actual weapons and agents" in the "early years." In fact, he writes, "the weapons that were destroyed before inspectors left in 1998, were in almost all cases declared by Iraq and that the destruction occurred before 1993 in the case of missiles and before 1994 in the case of chemical weapons."

As for Iraq's biological weapons program, it was uncovered by UNSCOM in 1995, and thereafter "only a few remnants of the biological weapons program were subsequently found." The Iraqis asserted they had destroyed them in 1991, before the first Gulf War—a claim UNMOVIC was pursuing as "unaccounted for" items just before they were pulled out on May 17. "During the last month and a half of our inspections, the Iraqi side made considerable efforts to provide explanations and begin inquiries and to undertake ... excavations." But, "we did not have time to interview more than a handful of the ... persons" who took part in the claimed destruction of the biological and chemical weapons, preventing the verification of the claim.

It is on this last point that Blix, diplomatically, entered the fray over the current "doctored intelligence" flap. "There remain long lists of items unaccounted for—but it is not justified to jump to the conclusion that something exists just because it is unaccounted for."

Responding to a reporter's question on the failure to find weapons of mass destruction by the United States and United Kingdom, he quipped, "They have not found very much so far. We did not find very much. In fact, when you look back over the years, very little has been found since '94. And what was found before that period was largely either declared ... or it was in sites declared by Iraq."

IAEA Inspectors Allowed Back into Iraq

A team of seven International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors are being allowed back into Iraq by the U.S., but with an extremely limited mandate: to simply inventory and secure nuclear material at the storage site at Iraq's main nuclear facility, the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center. They are not permitted to enter the Tuwaitha complex itself, nor allowed to measure environmental contamination or look into reports of radiation sickness in nearby residences. They cannot go to any other nuclear site in the country.

The only reason the IAEA is being permitted to send this mission, is that the Agency made an international scandal over the fact that the coalition occupiers had not secured the Tuwaitha nuclear site from looters, despite repeated warnings to do so, and so desperate Iraqis had taken empty but nuclear-contaminated barrels to serve as storage containers for such basics as milk. There were more than 500 tons of natural uranium and 1.8 tons of low-enriched uranium stored at Tuwaitha, but Tuwaitha holds only 400 of the more than 1,000 radioactive sources which exist in Iraq.

U.S. Forces in Iraq Arrest Badr Brigade Members

U.S. forces in Iraq announced on June 5 the arrests of 20 members of the Badr Corps militia, who had been detained on May 21 in connection with at least one rocket attack on U.S. forces. The London Financial Times noted on June 6th that this "is the first time the U.S. has publicly linked the Badr Corps and its mother organization, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), to anti-American violence. Nine U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the past 10 days, in attacks that have been blamed mostly on former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party and members of the Sunni minority."

"According to a spokesman from the 4th Infantry Division, those arrested were linked to 'planning, supporting, financing and executing at least one RPG [rocket propelled grenade] attack on U.S. forces, and are suspected in several others.'"

The paper says the announcement is likely to hamper talks between the United States and the Iraqi opposition groups, among them SCIRI, about the formation of an interim administration.

Two Former Weapons Inspectors Expose Lies and Bluff

In an interview published June on 6 in the Swiss daily Le Temps, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter said that President Bush and Prime Minister Blair should "have the courage to be held responsible" for telling lies to the public, to get it to back the war against Iraq. They should "admit their lies." Saddam Hussein could not have destroyed weapons of mass destruction "without leaving traces," he said, and U.S. Defense Secretary "Donald Rumsfeld has furnished no proof of their supposed destruction, just as he has never furnished the slightest proof of their existence."

Similarly, in the June 7 issue of the German weekly Der Spiegel, former German UN weapons inspector Peter Franck says that all of the evidence was "a big bluff," and a show for the American public. Secretary of State Colin Powell relied on satellite images for intelligence, which could be interpreted in different ways, and were found to be false when the inspectors actually visited the sites.

Tribal Leaders Filling Iraq Power Vacuum

Recent news coverage of the situation on the ground inside Iraq has highlighted the role of indigenous tribal leaders in filling the power vacuum that emerged, following the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime. The British news service Reuters published a June 5 report on this phenomenon. "There is chaos everywhere, but our militias can restore law and order," said Shekh Dhari Faleh, a 70-year-old chieftain. Other tribal chiefs cited, are being called upon by the population, to retrieve looted goods and restore order. "The Americans have failed to establish law and order," said one, "so the people resort to the sheikh of the tribe. Even Saddam encouraged a role played by the tribes. Under Saddam, tribes helped to solve 60% of people's problems," he said.

According to tribal leaders, there are 700 different tribes in Iraq, made up of thousands of clans, and they make up 80% of the population.

The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the U.S. and U.K. occupying forces, say tribal support is vital to reduce hostility to them, and to provide a counterbalance to the power of religious leaders.

Analysts say the tribal structure is not conducive to democracy. "A sheikh is a sheikh by birth," said one political analyst named Saadoun al-Duleimi. "There are no elections and no democracy in a tribal structure." He added, "It's unfortunate that the Americans are encouraging tribes as political entities, because they will only create a power struggle between the chieftains, each of whom believes he is more qualified for leadership." He said also that tribal leaders were less influential than religious leaders, especially among the Shi'ites.

Many tribal leaders oppose the occupation, and all have refused to give up their weapons, considering it a question of honor.

Powell: No War With Iran

In an interview with Italian TV Canale 5 aired June 3, Colin Powell was asked if Iran was next in the "war on terror." "This is much, much overblown in the media," Powell said. "Iran is a state that we are concerned about. It is a state that has supported terrorism. It is a state that has programs underway that could lead to the development of nuclear weapons. That should be of concern to all of us. But we believe there are ways to deal with Iran. Iran has a population that clearly is not happy with its political leadership, not happy with its religious leadership, and we believe that there are pressures inside Iran. We will do what we can to talk to the Iranian people, and let them know that they really should be thinking about the 21st century globalized world that is waiting for them when they open themselves up, when they get rid of the support of terrorism, when they eliminate any programs that might develop a nuclear weapon.

"But the United States is not looking for wars to go to. This is a popular perception I run into, particularly in Europe. We don't need wars. The United States has never looked for wars, but we have not stepped aside when conflict came our way and we couldn't avoid it. We have not stepped aside when the obligations that we have as Americans, said we have to come rescue a people, whether it was coming to Europe twice in the last century during World War I and World War II to rescue Europe, or whether it was to go to Kosovo to rescue Albanians, or to go to Afghanistan to rescue a nation from the Taliban and al-Qaeda, or whether it was to go to Kuwait to rescue the Kuwaiti people from an invading Muslim army, the Iraqis."

Nevertheless, Powell's comments also reflect what seems to be the Administration policy, of avoiding "engagement" with the Iranian regime, but encouraging pressure "from the base," in the hope that sometime in the future, the Iranian people will revolt.

UN Diplomat Says Iran Not in Serious Breach of NPT

Under tremendous pressure from the United States to find Iran out of compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signator, one unnamed United Nations diplomat leaked, on June 6 to major international wire services, that the June 16 report the International Atomic Energy Agency will present to its Board of Governors will find Iran failing to comply with its nuclear safeguards agreement, but that the incidents are minor, and that Tehran is taking steps to rectify it. The safeguard agreements of the IAEA are supposed to ensure that nuclear material is not diverted. Only small amounts of material in Iran were not accounted for.

U.S. Had Proposed That the Shah Build Nuclear Plants

"It was the United States that proposed to the former regime of the Shah of Iran to build nuclear power plants," said Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, attacking the pretext that Iran has oil and so doesn't need nuclear energy. Asefi declared, in an AFP interview June 2, that the Americans should come into Iran and help build Iran's nuclear power stations, if they are truly worried about nuclear weapons programs.

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