UN chief holds talks with Netanyahu

‘Iran building missile sites in Syria’

JERUSALEM, Aug 28, (Agencies): UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres held talks with Israeli leaders Monday on his first visit since taking office, making a forceful argument for a two-state solution with the Palestinians and speaking of his “dream” for peace.

Guterres also spoke of what he called obstacles to peace when meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including Israeli settlement building and the need for Palestinian leaders to condemn “terrorism”.

“I dream that I will have the chance to see in the Holy Land two states able to live together in mutual recognition, but also in peace and security,” Guterres said in remarks at Netanyahu’s office.

He recalled past secret talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders at his office when he was prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, saying it had exposed him to the difficulties of the peace process.

Guterres spoke of improving economic and social conditions for Palestinians to provide them with a “dividend” and incentive for peace.

The UN chief’s meeting with Netanyahu was part of his three-day visit that ends Wednesday and came with the two-state solution, long the focus of international diplomacy, under threat.

Earlier in the day he met Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, and is due in Ramallah on Tuesday for talks with Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is visiting Turkey and is not expected to meet Guterres during the trip.

Guterres will then travel to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

After arriving on Sunday evening, the UN chief met Jason Greenblatt, a top aide to US President Donald Trump charged with pursuing IsraeliPalestinian peace efforts.

Greenblatt was part of a US delegation

He was reported missing after news of the suicide bombing -- blamed on five suspected members of the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah, became known. (AFP)

2 Americans lose appeal:

A Washington-based lawyer says an Iranian-American businessman and his father, who are serving 10-year prison sentences in Iran, have lost their appeal.

Jared Genser said Monday that Baquer and Siamak Namazi learned the day before that the Tehran Appeals Court denied their request. Iranian officials and state media did not immediately report the failed appeal.

Siamak Namazi, a businessman, was last week including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner that held talks with Netanyahu and Abbas. He remained in the region for further discussions.

Peace efforts have been at a standstill since April 2014 and Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank has continued.

Trump has said he wants to reach the “ultimate deal”, but he himself has cast doubt on the two-state solution, saying he could support a single state if it meant peace.

Such statements deeply concern Palestinians, while delighting right-wing Israelis who want their country to annex most of the West Bank.

The two-state solution envisions an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel and has been the focus of international diplomacy since at least the early 1990s.

Position

At the same time, many analysts say both Netanyahu and Abbas are not in position to make any major concessions for now.

Netanyahu faces pressure from his right-wing base not to do so and to continue settlement building, and there is little incentive at the moment for him to change course, some analysts say.

The 82-year-old Palestinian leader is unpopular and his Fatah party, based in the West Bank, continues to be divided from Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip.

While Guterres spoke at length in his public comments on Monday on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli leaders’ interests lie elsewhere for now.

Netanyahu pressed Guterres on the UN peacekeeping force in neighbouring Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, with Israeli officials having accused it of “blindness” to what they call an arms buildup by Hezbollah.

The trip comes as the UN Security

arrested in October 2015.

His 81-year-old father Baquer is a former UNICEF representative who served as governor of Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan province under the U.S.-backed shah. He was arrested in February 2016, apparently drawn to Iran over fears about his incarcerated son.

The Namazis are among a number of dual nationals held in Iran after the 2015 nuclear deal. Analysts believe hard-liners use such detainees to undermine moderates. (AP)

Hamas leader says relations restored:

The new Gaza leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas says it has restored relations

An Egyptian farmer carries a box of mangoes at a field in Wadi Al-Natroun area

in Al-Beheira Governorate, on Aug 26. (AFP)

Council debates renewing the force’s mandate for a year, with a vote expected on Wednesday.

Guterres told Netanyahu: “I will do everything in my capacity to make sure that UNIFIL fully meets its mandate.”

United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric has expressed “full confidence” in the force’s commander.

Netanyahu also spoke of what he sees as Israel’s arch-rival Iran seeking to expand its presence in the Middle East, particularly in neighbouring Syria.

He accused Iran of building sites to produce “precision-guided missiles” in both Syria and Lebanon.

“Iran is busy turning Syria into a base of military entrenchment and it wants to use Syria and Lebanon as war fronts (for) its declared goal to eradicate Israel,” Netanyahu said in English.

Beyond that, Netanyahu again accused UN bodies of bias against his country, saying they had “an absurd obsession with Israel”, and called on Guterres to address it.

Guterres, meanwhile, said: “To express that the right of existence of the state of Israel doesn’t exist or the wish to destroy the state of Israel is an unacceptable form of modern antiSemitism.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted visiting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday with blistering criticism of the international body's treatment of Israel and accusing it of failing to prevent arms from being smuggled to Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah militants.

Netanyahu also claimed that Iran is building sites in Syria and Lebanon for the manufacture of "precision-guided missiles," with the aim of deploying them against Israel.

Both Hezbollah fighters and Iran have backed President Bashar Assad's government forces in the civil war that has ravaged Syria.

with Iran and is gearing up for renewed hostilities with Israel.

Yehiyeh Sinwar told reporters Monday that Iran is now "the largest backer financially and militarily" to Hamas' armed wing. It was his first meeting with journalists since taking up his post in February.

Iran was once Hamas' largest backer. But relations cooled after Hamas refused to back Iran's close ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad, in his country's civil war.

Sinwar says that with Iran's help, Hamas is "accumulating" its military powers in preparation for a battle meant for "the liberation of Palestine."

Hamas, a militant group that seeks Israel's destruction, has fought three wars with Israel since seizing control of Gaza in 2007. (AP)

Israel jails 5 relatives of attacker:

Israel has jailed five relatives of a Palestinian who stabbed three people to death claiming they knew about his plan and did not try to stop him, the army said Monday.

A military court ruled Sunday that the father, mother, uncle and two brothers of Omar al-Abed "knew he intended to commit a terrorist attack and did nothing to warn the security services to prevent it".

Abed's brothers and uncle were sentenced to eight months in prison, while his father and mother received two and one months respectively, according to court documents seen Monday by AFP.

The mother was also found guilty of inciting violence after defending his actions in Palestinian media, a military source said.

On August 16 the Israeli army destroyed the family home in the village of Kobar near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. (AFP)