Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is considering George Mitchell's offer for "proximity talks" with Israel, and plans to issue a final response on Thursday, according to an interview with The Guardian.
Uzi Arad - Tag Search
Like I said earlier, Uzi Arad asked Israeli officials to kindly shut up, so we won't hear an official Israeli government response for a few days.
But I am curious how this agreement is being perceived in Israel. I talked with a couple of Israeli friends, both of whom think Iran is just playing for time here -- dragging out the negotiations, not making any substantive concessions, using the extra time to conduct research.
Mohammad Reza Bahonar, Iran's deputy parliament speaker, told Iran's official IRNA news agency that Iran "doesn't accept" yesterday's draft deal with the IAEA.
Discouraging -- but Bahonar doesn't speak for the government, so we shouldn't read too much into a single statement from a single official.
As Joe Biden lands in Israel, the Israeli government -- obviously keen to demonstrate that it's serious about restarting peace talks -- announced Monday that it will violate its West Bank settlement freeze and build 112 new homes in Beitar Illit, a settlement west of Bethlehem.
A handful of insurgent attacks around the country killed two dozen people, but Iraqi security forces seemed generally confident; the vehicle ban in Baghdad, scheduled to last all day, was lifted before noon. Anecdotal reports suggest a strong turnout across the country.
Iraq's campaign season wrapped up today, 48 hours ahead of the election, as soldiers and medical personnel voted early. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and police will be on duty Sunday for the general election, when millions of Iraqis will vote at some 10,00 polling centers around the country (and abroad).
- Gregg Carlstrom commented on Premature enthusiasm and premature talks
- CTuttle commented on Premature enthusiasm and premature talks
- Zulqarnain Majid commented on Tantawi takes aim at the niqab
- Cairo International Airport commented on ElBaradei returns to Cairo; large crowd, no speech
- lubnani commented on GOP senators to Obama: No Syria ambassador
Bloggers
- Abu Muqawama
- All Things Counterterrorism
- Arab Media & Society
- Attackerman
- Baghdad Bureau
- Baghdad Observer
- Black Iris of Jordan
- Blogging the Casbah
- Boursa Exchange
- Checkpoint Jerusalem
- Foreign Policy Watch
- George Packer
- Inside Iraq
- Jihadica
- Institute for War & Peace Reporting
- Marc Lynch
- Middle East Strategy
- Musings on Iraq
- Newshoggers
- Nukes and Spooks
- Registan
- Syria News Wire
- Talking Points Memo
- Tehran Bureau
- The Arabist
- The Middle East Blog
- Waq al-Waq