Greek opposes Turkeys EU membership
January 9, 2011 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Greek opposes Turkey’s membership for European Union.
Greek president said that his country would not support Turkey till the settlement over Cyprus issue.
UNSC holds emergency talks on aid flotilla raid
May 31, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
NEW YORK: The United Nations Security Council has begun an emergency session to discuss an Israeli raid on a flotilla of ships seeking to take aid to the Gaza Strip.
The talks were requested by Lebanon, which holds the council”s rotating presidency until 0400 GMT on Tuesday.
The country”s President Saad Hariri “asked the Lebanese delegation at the UN to call for an emergency meeting over what happened today,” a Lebanese official told a foreign news agency earlier.
Israel faces a wave of condemnation over the raid, in which at least nine people were killed.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday he was “shocked” by the deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and demanded a full investigation.
“I am shocked by reports of killings and injuries of people on boats carrying supplies for Gaza,” the UN chief said at a press conference in Uganda.
Israel”s closest ally Washington said it “deeply regrets the loss of life” and was “working to understand” what caused the “tragedy.”
The Jewish state”s chief regional partner Turkey responded with fury, scrapping plans for joint war games with Israel and recalling its ambassador, as it warned the “flagrant breach of international law” would have “irreparable consequences” for bilateral ties.
Tens of thousands of furious Turks poured into the streets with protestors in Istanbul burning Israeli flags, shouting “Damn Israel!” and demanding “A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye, revenge, revenge!”
The Vatican voiced “deep sadness and concern” and Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair expressed his “deep regret and shock,” as capitals across Europe summoned Israel”s ambassadors to explain the assault.
Greece, which had dozens of nationals in the convoy, also pulled out of joint military exercises with Israel as an aid group claimed that commandos in helicopters had fired on a Greek vessel.
Israel said its troops were attacked after they stormed six ships loaded with thousands of tonnes of aid and with hundreds of activists aboard, and that both sides used live fire.
Israel, which has blockaded Gaza since its bitter foe Hamas was elected to power three years ago, had called the expedition illegal and warned it would act to stop it.
Muslim leaders united in condemning what Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called a “massacre” and Arab League chief Amr Mussa said was a “crime.”
Hamas, which rules Gaza urged world Muslims to “rise up” in protest, as Iran”s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced the raid as “inhuman Zionist regime action.”
Lebanon”s Prime Minister Saad Hariri described the raid as “dangerous and crazy” and called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, chaired by Beirut until midnight in New York.
Across the country Palestinian refugees and activists demonstrated to denounce the raid, chanting slogans like “Give us weapons, give us weapons and send us on to Gaza.”
The UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, called for a worldwide boycott and sanctions against Israel, saying “those Israelis responsible for this lawless and murderous behaviour” should be held criminally accountable.
Pakistan also “strongly condemned” the attack on a “peaceful flotilla,” as politicians, lawmakers and journalists protested in Islamabad against Israel.
Egypt condemned the “acts of killing” by Israel forces while Kuwait”s parliament speaker said the storming of the flotilla, which was carrying 16 Kuwaitis including an MP, was a “heinous Israeli crime.”
And Indonesia, the world”s most populous Muslim nation, said “there was no basis” for Israel”s assault.
In Europe, condemnation was equally swift, with the European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton demanding Israel mount a “full inquiry.”
Spain — the current European Union president — France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Greece and Cyprus summoned Israel”s respective ambassadors, with Madrid slamming the operation as “unacceptable”.
France”s President Nicolas Sarkozy accused Israel of a “disproportionate use of force.”
Germany”s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he was “deeply concerned” about the deaths, while Italy”s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini “deplored” the loss of civilian life.
Russia also condemned a “crude violation” of international law.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague deplored the loss of life, saying Israel must “act with restraint” — but also said London had warned of the risks of defying the Gaza blockade.
A Cyprus MEP, Kyriacos Triantafyllides, who was involved with the mission, said activists had “expected a strong reaction from Israel.”
“But nobody believed it would come to this point, where they would face something akin to an invading army,” he said.
Israel attacks Gaza aid ship, 20 dead
A private TV channel (Aaj TV) anchor Talat Hussain and producer Raza Agha have gone missing after the attack by the Israeli forces on an international flotilla carrying aid to besieged Gaza, killing at least 20 people and injuring several others.
Israeli commandos dropped from a helicopter onto the deck of a Turkish ship and immediately opened fire on unarmed civilians. Live image from the flotilla shows that Israeli soldiers from the helicopter and a number of speedboats boarded one of the ships at night. Activists wearing life vests were treating what appeared to be injuries for unknown reasons.
Israeli navy on Sunday night sighted the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip and ordered the convoy to dock at an Israeli harbour. Troops boarded the flotilla and clashed with the activists after they ignored Israeli orders to turn back. The flotilla of six ships set sail from a port in Cyprus on Sunday and was expected to reach Gaza by Monday morning, Al-Jazeera reported. The flotilla, originally made up of nine ships from Turkey, Britain, Ireland, Greece, Kuwait and Algeria, were carrying around 10,000 tons of aid including cement, water purification systems and wheelchairs. One of the ships had not arrived and two others had been damaged. In the meantime, the deposed government of Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) condemned the Israeli naval forces attack on the Freedom Flotilla. The Hamas government held an emergency meeting chaired by Premier Ismail Haneya.The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) also condemned in a statement sent to reporters the Israeli naval forces attack on the Freedom Flotilla and seizing all the ships and forcing them to sail to an Israeli seaport. Officials said that the Freedom Flotilla, which includes commercial ships and vessels carrying international activists and officials as well as humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip was attacked on Sunday morning by the Israeli naval forces.
Israels raid is international terrorism : Naseem Zehra
Meanwhile, talking to Dunya News, senior analyst Naseem Zehra termed Israels raid as international terrorism.She called upon the government to condemn the incident in strongest terms.
Israel on ”high alert” after deadly convoy raid
May 31, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
JERUSALEM: Israeli security forces were put on high alert on Monday to handle any on high “possible disturbances” among the country”s Arab Israeli population in the wake of a deadly naval raid on a Gaza aid convoy, a police spokesman said.
Israel boards Gaza-bound ships, 16 dead: reports
May 31, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
JERUSALEM: About 16 people were killed on Monday when the Israeli navy intercepted ships carrying aid and pro-Palestinian activists toward the Gaza Strip, Israel”s private Channel 10 television said.
As a diplomatic furore took shape, especially with long-time Muslim ally Turkey whose flag some of the ships were flying, an Israeli minister said: “The images are certainly not pleasant. I can only voice regret at all the fatalities.”
Israeli Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer gave no details of what Channel 10 said were 14 to 16 deaths. But he told Israel”s Army Radio: “I can also understand … how soldiers are coming down and are set upon with batons and tools.
“The moment someone tries to snatch your weapon, to steal your weapons, that”s where you begin to lose control.”
The bloodshed thwarted Israel”s hopes of avoiding casualties– which could hurt its diplomatic relations, especially with Turkey, where media reported ministers were meeting. Israel”s Western allies have also been critical of its Gaza embargo.
Turkey said it “strongly protested” against the military action, calling the interception of the ships unacceptable and cautioning in a statement issued by its Foreign Ministry that “Israel will have to endure the consequences of this behaviour”.
Israel has said it was absolutely determined to maintain its blockade of the Islamist-controlled Palestinian territory of 1.5 million, citing fears that arms supplies could reach Hamas by sea. It has previously halted such activist ships, although some others have reached Gaza before.
Greta Berlin, a spokeswoman for the Free Gaza Movement which organised the convoy said she was told of 10 dead by an Israeli lawyer for the group but had had no contact with the ships.
“How could the Israeli military attack civilians like this?” she said. “Do they think that because they can attack Palestinians indiscriminately they can attack anyone?
“We have two other boats. This is not going to stop us.”
Israeli media said some marine commandoes were slightly hurt. Captured ships were sailing toward Israel”s southern Mediterranean port of Ashdod, media said.
The convoy set off in international waters off Cyprus on Sunday in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade of the Gaza Strip and warnings that it would be intercepted.
The flotilla was organised, among others, by a Turkish human rights organisation. Turkey had urged Israel to allow it safe passage and said the 10,000 tonnes of aid the convoy was carrying was humanitarian.
Turkey, long Israel”s best Muslim friend and a key ally in a hostile Middle East, was highly critical of Israel”s attack on Gaza 18 months ago, in which 1,400 Palestinians were killed.
Relations between the two states are now distinctly chilly and bloodshed at sea will do nothing to improve them.
France24 television aired video of a woman in a Muslim headdress holding a stretcher with a large bloodstain on it. Below her lay a man, apparently injured, in a blanket.
CNN showed pictures of a commando apparently rappelling down a rope and clashing with a man wielding a stick. Other TV images showed what appeared to be rubber boarding launches.
The United Nations and Western powers have urged Israel to ease its restrictions on Gaza to prevent a humanitarian crisis. They have been urging Israel to let in concrete and steel to allow for postwar reconstruction.
Israel denies there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying food, medicine and medical equipment are allowed in regularly. It says the restrictions are necessary to prevent weapons and materials that could be used to make them from reaching Hamas.
Palestinian president slams aid convoy attack as ”massacre”
May 31, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
RAMALLAH: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Monday slammed as “a massacre” a deadly Israeli raid on a fleet of ships carrying aid to Gaza, in which at least 10 passengers were killed.
“We consider this to be a massacre and we condemn it,” an official from Abbas” office said on Palestinian television, announcing a three-day mourning period.
“We will have to take some difficult decisions this evening.”
Aid ships head to Gaza as Israeli warships gather
May 30, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
GAZA CITY: A flotilla of ships carrying aid for the blockaded Gaza Strip on Sunday finally steamed south from Cyprus, heading for a fleet of Israeli naval vessels determined to stop them.
The ships, carrying more than 700 passengers, are on the last leg of a high-profile mission to deliver some 10,000 tonnes of building and other supplies to Gaza, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007.
Huwaida Arraf, chairman of the Free Gaza Movement, told a foreign news agency by phone from the boat Challenger 1 that the ships had started towards Gaza on Sunday afternoon.
“Israel is blocking an area about 20 nautical miles out from the Gaza coast and we expect to hit that area in the late morning or early afternoon” on Monday, she said.
In the Gaza Strip, anti-siege activists called on the international community to ensure the protection of the so-called “Freedom Flotilla” which had been aiming to arrive on Saturday but was repeatedly delayed.
“I am asking the international community to protect these boats from the Israeli threat,” independent Palestinian MP Jamal al-Khudari said during a press conference on a boat anchored just outside the Gaza port.
“If Israel blocks them, they have a strategy for getting here,” said Khudari, who heads the Gaza-based Committee to Lift the Siege. He did not give any further details.
With the flotilla expected to approach at some stage over the next 24 hours, Gaza fishermen took to the sea flying Palestinian flags as well as those of Greece, Ireland, Sweden and Turkey — all of which sent boats.
Demonstrators also released scores of balloons with pictures tied to them of children who were killed during Israel”s massive 22-day offensive against Gaza that ended in January 2009.
Israel has slammed as “illegal” the convoy”s attempt to break its blockade on Gaza, and has naval forces at the ready to intercept the ships, tow them to its port of Ashdod, and detain the pro-Palestinian activists.
As tensions mounted, several Israeli warships could be seen off the Gaza coast.
Khudari said the convoy, which is carrying hundreds of civilians and a handful of European MPs, would stop outside Gaza territorial waters before attempting to make landfall.
It will travel “in two stages,” he said: “First they will stop in international waters at 30 nautical miles (from Gaza), and tomorrow (Monday) they will reach the shore.”
Earlier, Audrey Bomse, legal adviser to the Free Gaza Movement, had said the convoy of boats was likely to avoid a confrontation with the Israeli army during hours of darkness.
She also said the activists were considering sending “a second wave” of boats later this week.
Israel has called the convoy a media stunt, insisting there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza despite reports to the contrary from aid agencies and offering to deliver the supplies through its own land crossings.
“This is a provocation intended to delegitimise Israel,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said late on Saturday.
“If the flotilla had a genuine humanitarian goal, then its organisers should have transferred something for the abducted soldier Gilad Shalit as well,” he said of the Israeli snatched by militants in 2006 and held by the Hamas Islamist movement which runs the enclave.
The activists responded on their website that they had offered to take in a letter for Shalit from his family but received no response from their lawyer.
Hamas”s refusal to release him is cited by Israel as one of the main reasons for imposing the economic blockade on Gaza in 2007 in the wake of the group”s violent takeover of the territory.
The confrontation with the flotilla could cost Israel tens of millions of dollars as it detains the activists, pays for docking the ships and transports the aid to Gaza, the online Israeli business magazine Globes reported.
It said the detention facility alone had cost three million shekels (780,000 dollars, 640,000 euros) and that the costs of holding the activists would mount if they refuse to accept Israel”s offer to buy them tickets home.
Pro-Palestinian activists have landed in Gaza five times, with another three unsuccessful attempts since their first such voyage in August 2008. The latest is their biggest operation.
Aid flotilla sets sail for Gaza
May 30, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under Breaking News
HAIFA, Israel: Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists on seven ships prepared to set sail for the Gaza Strip on Sunday from international waters close to Cyprus, edging closer to an expected naval showdown as Israeli officials warned they would halt the flotilla from reaching the blockaded territory.
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Aid flotilla sets sail for Gaza
gaza flotilla
May 28, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said in reference to the Gaza flotilla that his country is “still concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and calls for a complete implementation of Security Council Resolution 1860.”
The resolution, adopted after Operation Cast Lead, calls for the transfer of humanitarian aid – including food, fuel and medical equipment – to the Strip. Organisers say eight ships with 10,000 
tonnes of supplies and hundreds of activists are heading for blockaded Gaza and a likely showdown with Israel’s navy.
Israel says it will block the vessels and has reportedly set up a detention centre for the activists. The flotilla marks the most ambitious attempt yet to break Gaza’s blockade by sea.
Organisers said on Tuesday that the vessels are sailing toward the southern Mediterranean from various ports and plan to meet near Cyprus on Friday. From there, they’ll sail together toward Gaza.
gaza
May 28, 2010 by Trend PK
Filed under World News
Two cargo ships and five smaller boats loaded with thousands of tonnes of supplies and hundreds of passengers steamed towards a rendezvous point off the Cyprus coast where they planned to regroup before setting out for the Palestinian territory.
Organisers said an eighth ship, the Rachel Corrie that had left from Ireland, was lagging behind and would travel towards Gaza separately.
The ships will meet in international waters, they said. “The Cypriot government does not want us to leave from Cyprus. I can only assume pressure was put on them,” said Audrey Bomse, one of the coordinators.
A Cyprus government official said of the flotilla that Cyprus had not received any formal request from the Palestinian Authority for humanitarian aid.
Israel earlier told the ambassadors of Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, and Ireland — the countries from which the ships set sail — it “issued warrants that prohibit the entrance of the vessels to Gaza” and that the flotilla would be breaking international law.
Israel made it clear it intends to halt the vessels and detain the hundreds of people aboard in the port of Ashdod before deporting them.
Bomse suggested this may just be “sabre rattling.”
“We are planning on getting there and staying in Gaza for two days,” she said.
But Israel has stepped up its warnings in recent days and readied naval forces.
Organisers dismissed the claim that their blockade-busting bid is illegal.
“Most despicably of all, Israel claims that we are violating international law by sailing unarmed ships carrying humanitarian aid to a people desperately in need,” the Free Gaza Movement said in a statement.
“These claims only demonstrate how degenerate the political discourse in Israel has become.”
Israel imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza in 2007 after Hamas — an Islamist movement committed to the destruction of Israel — violently seized power in the impoverished, overcrowded Palestinian territory.
