Southwest Asia News Digest
Israeli NSC Calls for Urgent Peace Talks with Syria
Nov. 24 (EIRNS)According to Israeli press reports cited by Reuters, the Israeli National Security Council, which is part of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office, has issued a report asserting that Israel should negotiate peace with Syria, and that the incoming U.S. Obama Administration should sponsor the talks.
Reuters cites a senior Israeli official involved in preparing the report as saying, "The most important actor for Israeli-Syrian peace talks speaks English, and his name is Obama. Without very positive and significant U.S. involvement, the Syrian track, like the Palestinian track, will go nowhere. We favor speeding up the talks with Syria, in hope of a breakthrough." Then he added that for Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria "is not too high a price to pay" if Syria cuts off support to Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, and "scales back" its ties with Iran. While Syrian President Bashar Assad rejected such preconditions, some believe he would be more flexible if there were an U.S. involvement.
Israeli Finance Minister Unveils Bailout Plan
Nov. 25 (EIRNS)The Israeli Treasury announced the details of its bailout plan for the Israeli economy. The 11 billion shekel (NIS, New Israeli Shekel, equivalent to US$3 billion) package includes NIS 6 billion of government guarantees for raising capital in the banking sector, on top of NIS 5 billion for setting up investment funds to bolster shareholders. It will also include a tax reform that would encourage cash flow into the stock market. Treasury officials claim that the NIS 11 billion guarantees would facilitate transactions worth tens of billions of shekels.
Meanwhile, Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer lowered the bank's key lending rate to its lowest level ever, 2.5%, on Nov. 24.
The Israel Securities Authority (ISA), for its part, is currently setting up special funds, to be jointly owned by the government and private investors, that would buy up several billion shekels' worth of corporate bonds. Many of these bonds are now trading at junk-bond levels, making it hard for companies to raise money to finance new activity. Buying them would theoretically encourage economic activity by making additional funds available. Ha'aretz reports that the ISA move resembles a proposal made by Likud party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at their meeting on Nov. 18.
The Finance Ministry, meanwhile, is working on a safety net for pension savings. The plan, which would cost some NIS 10 billion, will apparently cover only a few tens of thousands of savers: those aged 60 and older who earn less than twice the minimum wage, or about NIS 7,700 a month.
Olmert Faces Imminent Indictment
Nov. 27 (EIRNS)Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz announced today that he has informed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he is considering filing an indictment against him. This has triggered calls by Olmert's own Kadima party for Olmert to declare himself incapacitated and suspend himself from the Prime Minister's office. New elections are already scheduled for February.
The possible indictment centers on the Rishon Tours affair, which involved allegations of corrupt use of funds from public bodies to finance the Olmert family's private travel. Olmert's former bureau secretary Shula Zaken was also advised that she could be indicted.
The Rishon Tours affair is only one of several ongoing investigations. One involves alleged payments from American businessman Morris Talansky, and another centers on alleged interference in the privatization of Bank Leumi, in favor of one of the parties involved in bidding for the bank. Another case lurking in the background is related to the time that Olmert was industry minister.
Foreign Minister and Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni, speaking before an emergency meeting of the party's Knesset faction, called on Olmert to suspend himself as Prime Minister, saying, "There is no other option." She referred to the de facto resignation of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1977, when an illegal joint account he and his wife Leah had held in a Washington, D.C. bank came to light. "In 1977, Rabin did not hesitate and immediately announced he was taking a leave of absence. The PM, just as any other citizen, is innocent until proven guilty, but the citizen Ehud Olmert must conduct the battle [to clear his name] from home and not from his Knesset seat."
Livni, who replaced Olmert as party chief, is now the party's candidate for Prime Minister in the Feb. 10 elections. It is believed that Olmert's hanging onto the office while under criminal investigation is hurting the party's election chances.
Larijani: Iranian Parliament Has Not Rejected U.S. Call for Talks
Nov. 29 (EIRNS)Speaker of the Iranian Majlis (parliament) Ali Larijani has indicated that the country's lawmakers have received a request from the U.S. Congress on parliamentary negotiations, and have not rejected it.
"We are studying the letter. We have not rejected it, but we have not given a positive response, either," he said in an interview, according to PressTV. The letter requesting talks had been delivered to an Iranian parliamentary delegation that attended the IMF-World Bank meetings in Washington in October, and Larijani explained that a decision had been taken to postpone a response until after the U.S. elections.
IAEA Confirms Non-Diversion of Iran's Nuclear Material
Nov. 29 (EIRNS)Mohammed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported to the IAEA Board of Governors on Nov. 27, that the agency has been able to continue to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material by Iran. However, he said, both Iran, and those countries accusing Iran of having a covert nuclear weapons program, need to improve their cooperation with the agency.
ElBaradei called on Iran to implement the Additional Protocol, which, he said "is essential for the Agency to provide credible assurance about the presence of undeclared nuclear material and activities." ElBaradei had noted that only 88 of the 163 states with safeguard agreements have implemented the Additional Protocol. He also called on Iran to be more cooperative in providing information, and verifying the relevant documentation provided to the agency on the possible "military dimensions" of Iran's program.
ElBaradei also expressed regret that the IAEA has not been able to share with Iran documentation "provided by member states," and called on those member states to authorize the agency to do so. Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency said that ElBaradei was referring to a laptop computer that the U.S. claims to have in its possession that, it says, proves Iran was carrying out studies on how to build a bomb. The United States refuses to turn it over to the IAEA, claiming that leakage of the data would help Iran achieve its goal.
The whole "laptop" story is suspect, with many believing that it is a fraudulent concoction of the U.S.-backed MeK Iranian anti-government terrorist organization.
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