July 9, 2004

ADDRESSING THE AFRICAN UNION ARAFAT CRITICIZES SHARON'S WITHDRAWAL PLAN FROM GAZA. QUREI: THE ROAD MAP IS THE BASIS FOR ANY SOLUTION. SADDAM HUSSEIN DID NOT PROVIDE THE TRIBUNAL WITH ANY USEFUL INFORMATION. SYRIA AND JORDAN DENY ACCUSATIONS OF SUPPORTING SADDAM'S FAMILY. The Palestinian Leadership reiterated that peace is a strategical choice, stressing the necessity of the implementation of the Road Map peace plan. In a meeting headed, in Ramallah by President Arafat, the PLO Executive Committee, and various Palestinian organizations, the Leadership confirmed its commitment to peace as a strategic choice. The Leadership stressed that international community, especially the Quartet and the US administration, should exercise pressure on Israeli to implement the Road Map and move back to the negotiation table. Regarding the planned Israeli pulling out from Gaza, the leadership said that any such step should be accompanied with a similar withdrawal from the West Bank as well as with dispatching international observers. It also stressed that the alleged Israeli pulling out must be in coordination with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), as a part of the implementing of the Road Map. "The legal and elected leadership (PNA) is the only authorized power and the competent authority in any expected solution of the Palestinian question," the Leadership said. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee asserted its strong rejection to forming an administration in the Gaza Strip after the expected Israeli military evacuation. The move would enhance the idea of dividing the Palestinian territories, according to the committee. During the meeting, the PLO executive committee chaired by President Yasser Arafat also stressed the necessity of holding presidential, legislative and municipal elections both in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, Palestinian sources said. The meeting also tackled the latest developments in the Palestinian territories in light of the continuous Israeli military escalation as well as contacts with the Quartet Committee in this regard. The Leadership confirmed that such "criminal escalation" against the Palestinian people; proves that the Israeli Government has no choice but aggressions and violation of the international law as well as destroying all hopes of reviving peace. During the meeting, the Leadership hailed the International and Arab efforts aiming at reviving the peace process and supporting the legitimate rights of Palestinian people. In a meeting, the confreres appreciated the visit of the French Foreign Minister, Michel Barnier, to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as the UN Secretary General Kuffi Annan's efforts in supporting the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. President Yasser Arafat affirmed last Tuesday that despite all obstacles, Palestinians are working with every self-sacrifice and devotion to make this peace a real fact in Palestine for the sake of their children and our children; and in a way that will guarantee security and stability for all in the region, including the Israelis. Addressing the African Union at its Third Summit in Addis Ababa, Arafat called, in his message, for an honest and accurate implementation of the Quartet Roadmap under an international monitoring and according to a definite timetable that will lead to the withdrawal of the Israeli Occupation Army and settlers to the borders of 4/6/1967, in order to achieve the just, comprehensive and lasting peace the peace of the brave that 'we believe in and which we signed with our late partner Yitzhak Rabin'. Arafat stressed his condemnation to all kinds of terrorism against the Israeli civilians, no matter where they come from. "Despite our condemnation to all kinds of terrorism against the Israeli civilians, Israel the occupation power is still launching the defamation campaign and false propaganda against us in Africa and other countries worldwide", Arafat said. He added "Israel is trying by that to throw ashes in the eyes and deceive the international public opinion regarding the true nature of its practices and its military escalations against our people, territories, economy and even against our Islamic and Christian shrines as well as its ugly crimes". In his address, Arafat affirmed that Israel and its occupation army and settlers are until this moment launching their escalating aggression, continuous daily incursions, and oppressive bloody war, describing these as acts as kind of war of eradication and ethnic cleansing against our Palestinian people in all our cities, villages and camps from Rafah Grad in the South to Khanyounis, Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, Beit-Hanoon and Hebron. "These Israeli practices are war crimes against humanity. They represent a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention concerning the protection of civilians during war, the International Declaration of Human Rights, the International Law, the International Human Law an the International Legality Resolutions" he affirmed. Addressing the conferees, Arafat said that Israel wants to consolidate and legitimize its odious occupation namely by building more occupational settlements, enlarging the old ones and the confiscation of large areas of our territories for military purposes and to dismember them through building the Apartheid and Separation wall. Arafat said the "The wall confiscates (58%) of the area of West Bank. It also besieges and separates Al-Quds Ash-Shareef from Bethlehem and from the rest of our territories. Moreover, the apartheid separation wall reinforces the Israeli power over the underground water in Palestine and transforms our areas and territories into besieged and closed ghettos and jails". Arafat called on the African Union, before the United Nations, the Security Council and the effective and impressive international powers to force and carry Israel to respect and implement the legality resolutions. Prime minister Ahmed Qurei reiterated once again that the Palestinian people will not accept any thing at the expense of Jerusalem and the West Bank. Qurei said during his meeting with head of Chilean socialist party Gonzalez Martiner, that " while the Israelis talk about a pullout from Gaza Strip as well as dismantling its colonies, they conduct a wild campaign of expanding the West Bank colonies as well as furthering the construction of the Apartheid Wall. The Palestinian people are not accepting any thing on the expense of Jerusalem and the West Bank". The prime minister stated, briefing Martiner on the latest Israeli actions conducted in the Apartheid Wall, mostly in Abu Dees town of Jerusalem, that "the Israeli government constructs a wall of "hatred and hostility" between the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples. On his part, Martiner confirmed that he desired, through such a visit, to convey the Chilean friendship and solidarity with the Palestinian people and their Leadership. Prime Minister, Ahmed Qurei, called on the US administration to end the Israeli construction of the Apartheid Wall and colonization in the Occupied Palestinian territories. "We demand the US to practice pressure on Israel to end the construction of the racial Annexation and Expansion Wall as well as to protect the project of establishing the viable Palestinian state," Qurei told reporters after two separate meetings, in Ramallah, with US delegation headed by the US deputy assistant secretary of state, David Satterfield, and Quartet envoy delegation, last Wednesday. He also called on the US administration not to wait until the Israeli government imposes the borders of the Palestinian state in the frame of the colonization and the Apartheid Wall. Qurei told reporters that he briefed the two delegations about the danger of colonization and the Wall, stressing that these two issues lead the region but to more violence and the destruction of the peace process. The daily Israeli aggressions, including assassination of Palestinian citizens, and the implementation of the Road Map peace plan were also discussed in the meetings, Qurei added. The PM stated that the Palestinian national Authority (PNA) is ready to control and territory (in Gaza) Israel will draw its troops from, reiterating that any such step should be in the framework of the Road Map. A Palestinian official spokesperson stated Thursday that Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) still go on, depending on a political decision, its military escalation Against the Palestinian people, committing more pogroms against them, killing ten civilians and wounding scores others in Beit Hanoun town, north of Gaza. The spokesperson said that this Israeli escalation coincides with the visit of the Quartet to the region, which proves Israel's intention to carry on its escalation, unmindful of the Quartet and the region countries efforts to come back to the path of peace, which Israel neglects. "Hence, the Palestinian people appeal to the international community and peace-loving powers to immediately intercede to stop Israel's carnages committed against them, and to hold Israel responsible for this escalation", said the spokesperson. Meantime Fateh Movement condemned Thursday the Israeli escalation against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In a press release, Fateh Movement condemned Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people in Nablus, Ramallah, Jenin, Beit Hanoun and all Palestinian cities and villages. It harshly denounced the latest Israeli carnage in Beit Hanoon, which brought about the murder of ten civilians and the injury of scores others, mostly critical. Fateh considered the Israeli crimes an overriding evidence of its cruelty which never aimed at calming down the situation or making room for any political solution to end the conflict peacefully through the good offices of the Quartet and Egypt. The movement called on the Arab League, Islamic Conference Organization, UN Security Council, the Quartet and the effective and impressive international powers to exercise pressure Israel to stop its ongoing aggressions and military escalation against the unarmed Palestinian people and lift the unjust siege imposed on the Palestinian President Arafat. On the other hand Dozens of Residents of east Jerusalem as well as officials and notables erected last Monday a tent and went on an open hunger strike against the Israeli construction of the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank and around Jerusalem. Members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Hatem Abdel Qader told reporters that all the Palestinian people, in east Jerusalem, or in the West Bank and Gaza are expressing sympathy with the hunger strikers and expressing their support against the construction of the Apartheid Wall," Abdel Qader, said. He slammed the Israeli media that "always ignores covering the Palestinian activities against the occupation's actions especially the construction of this racist Wall around Jerusalem. "Abdel Qader concluded that the hunger strike into the tent is expected to expand and it will continue until the decision of the Israeli Supreme Court is passed whether to continue constructing the Wall or stop it. Palestinian prisoners in Ofer and Asqallan prisons announced that they will go on with a hunger strike for one day to protest Israeli construction of Apartheid Wall in the West Bank. In a message published Thursday, prisoners said that this step comes in solidarity with other national characters who are staging a sit-in and hunger strike in Jerusalem for the same reason. They added that this Wall is stealing thousands of Donums of Palestinian lands. Ahead of an advisory ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on July 9 on the legality of the Apartheid Wall Israel is building on Palestinian West Bank land, Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom asked the US administration to veto any action by the Security Council to help the Jewish state keep honest to its history by challenging the United Nations once more and defying international law. Shalom announced that Israel will not abide by an upcoming ruling by the ICJ, also known as the World Court. The World Court on Friday will render an "advisory opinion" on the legality of Israel's 440-mile network of fences and walls, upon the request of the UN General Assembly, in one of the most high-profile rulings in the court's 58-year history. Such a ruling is not binding, but Israel fears the UN General Assembly could use it to lobby for sanctions against it. Silvan Shalom said that Israel would not accept "external involvement" by the ICJ. "We believe that Israel can deal with this issue by itself," Shalom said in the White House driveway after a meeting with US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. "We can't accept any external involvement from the International Court of Justice," he added. After his 30-minute visit with Rice, Shalom said that if the matter goes before the UN Security Council, "we hope there will be a (US) veto." Shalom said he has asked the United States to do "everything it can" to block passage of any Palestinian-backed UN resolution on the Wall. "There is an expectation that this will happen," he added in an interview with Israeli television. However, Shalom declined to specify whether that meant he had secured a commitment from Rice for Washington to use its veto in the Security Council. "The subject (of the Wall) and the upcoming ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague next Friday was central to the talks (with US officials)," Shalom told Israel's privately run Channel Two television in a live link-up from the United States. The White House is known to object to intervention on the matter from the ICJ. In a January filing with the World Court, the Bush administration said the top UN court does not have jurisdiction to mediate the dispute. "The fact that Israel is changing the route (of the Wall) through an internal decision shows we don't need any external involvement. It shows we are a democratic country that has courts which can act," he said. Last Wednesday, Israel's Supreme Court issued a ruling which was played down by the PNA - Saying a planned 20-mile section of the Wall snaking into densely-populated Palestinian communities north and east of Jerusalem must be rerouted because the current path locks in thousands of Palestinians and violates international law. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with top security and military officials late Thursday, a day after the Supreme Court told the government it must pay more attention to the hardships the Wall could cause Palestinians. Hassan Abu Libdeh, the Palestinian Cabinet secretary, said any route cutting into the West Bank is unacceptable. "We will not accept the Wall as long as it takes even a few centimeters of Palestinian territory," he said. Meanwhile Israel's attorney general met with the head of the Shin Bet security service to discuss a rise in violent threats by Jewish extremists resulting from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, a Justice Ministry official said. Attorney General Meni Mazuz was to hold an urgent meeting with Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter to see what kind of concrete threats exist at the moment and how the justice system can deal with the situation, Justice Ministry spokesman Yaakov Galanti said. Mazuz called the meeting because "he wants to hear, he wants to know, he wants to examine the things," Galanti said. Dichter sparked a political storm earlier in the week when he told Sharon's Cabinet he was concerned about growing militancy among hardline settlers. The Mazuz-Dichter meeting follows a stark warning by Police Minister Tsahi Hanegbi that political violence could accompany a Gaza pullback, and an acknowledgment by Sharon that he could be at risk. "They [extremists] will assassinate the prime minister, a minister, an army official or a police official," Hanegbi told Israel TV's Channel Two last Tuesday. "They don't always succeed and they don't always have the means to carry out the acts. But we are not lacking extremists," Hanegbi said. The threat of violence strikes a deep chord in Israel. Many politicians and security officials still blame themselves for ignoring the warning signs ahead of the 1995 assassination of then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by an ultranationalist Jew. Carmi Gillon, who headed the Shin Bet when Rabin was assassinated, said Israeli officials need to deal "night and day" with the threats. "The police minister is right. The next murder is at the door," Gillon told Israel's Army Radio. Jewish extremists have recently made harsh statements against Sharon and his plan to withdraw from Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements by September next year. A rabbi said that anyone who gives up "Jewish land" should be condemned to death under Jewish law. Gaza Strip settlers have held meetings with members of the outlawed Kach group -- which appears on the US State Department's list of terror groups -- to study ways to oppose Sharon's withdrawal plan. Kach members instructed them to use violence. Other settlers have made clear that they could resort to violence in the case of an evacuation, and fears have risen that the planned pullout could become bloody. "We are dealing with a number of complaints by a few people who said and wrote things that could be interpreted as incitement to violence but have not yet decided to press charges," Galanti said. He refused to elaborate on the people or statements that were being investigated. On the other hand the first visit to Israel in six years by a UN nuclear agency chief has prompted a smattering of public discussion of what is usually a taboo issue, including debate on a suggestion that Israel seek legitimacy for its alleged atomic weapons arsenal in exchange for opening its nuclear facilities to international inspections. Mohamed El-last Baradei, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been talking to Israeli officials since his arrival Tuesday about the idea of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East. In meetings, Israelis told him they were worried Iran was determined to become a nuclear power and might attack the Jewish state if unchecked. El-Baradei said in response that his agency was still investigating whether Iran was developing nuclear weapons. ''The majority of the countries in the Middle East feel that there is this security imbalance . . . this double standard," El-Baradei told reporters after meeting in Tel Aviv with Gideon Frank, who heads the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, and other officials. ''Here the Israelis are saying you cannot even discuss that because 'we cannot lower our security threshold before we have a comprehensive peace where we are fully accepted as part and parcel of the region,' " he said. Israeli officials flew El-Baradei over the country so that he could view how narrow and susceptible it is to attack. Officials said he also glimpsed the Dimona facility, Israel's main nuclear reactor, though he was not allowed to visit inside. Israel is believed to have built its first atomic bomb at Dimona more than 40 years ago and, according to various estimates, has an arsenal of 100 to 300 warheads. But officials here have never admitted or denied that Israel is a nuclear power. And nothing about Israel's arsenal -- where missiles are stored or the waste is buried, for instance -- is ever discussed publicly. To most Israelis, the advantages of maintaining a posture of ambiguity over the years were abundantly clear: By admitting it has the nuclear weapons, Israel would have faced international sanctions and stoked the regional arms race. By denying it, Israel would have lost the deterrence value of having a bomb. ''Nuclear ambiguity worked brilliantly for a long time," said Reuven Pedatzur, a political scientist who teaches at Tel Aviv University. ''We didn't have to pay anything for the deterrence we got from having nuclear weapons." But in an opinion piece he published in the Haaretz newspaper this week, Pedatzur called for ''new ideas" to be examined regarding Israel's posture. He said in an interview that if Iran became a nuclear power, Israel could no longer rely on ambiguity. ''In a situation like that, you have to be very specific about what you have in order to discourage the other side from attacking you," Pedatzur said. ''Eventually, Israel will have to spell it out. And it's better to take the initiative than to wait for something to happen and react to it." The field developments in Iraq coincided with the signature of the defending national security law by the prime minister of the Iraqi Interim government Eyad Allawi. The said law gives the government several authorizations including announcing emergency in certain areas of Iraq. While the Iraqis received the new law with welcome and others with caution, the Iraqi minister of justice Malik Douhan al-Hassan said that the turbulent security conditions in Iraq was the reason behind issuing the law, noting it contains enough guarantees to ensure the rights of citizens. The law offers Allawi special authorization ranging between imposing curfew to issuing warrant of arrests, desolving federations and societies and imposing restrictions on the moves of citizens and listening and spying on telephones. The law also avails detaining suspected persons and breaking into their houses and work places. Amid the deteriorated security conditions, Allawi said in a statement to the Spanish al-Paes daily that his government decided to reactivate death penalty for an interim time. He explained that death penalty will be confined to special cases " limited and tangible causes " like assassinations. Both the UN and the European Union announced their objection of reactivating the death penalty law in Iraq after the detention of the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier confirmed that his country will restore diplomatic relations with Iraq soon, adding that the French attache is already in Baghdad. "I announced the day after the transfer of sovereignty took effect in Baghdad (on June 28) that we were ready to re-establish diplomatic relations," Barnier told reporters after meeting his Greek counterpart Petros Molyviatis. "Our head of diplomatic mission (in Iraq) was received by (Iraqi interim Prime Minister) Iyad Allawi and things will unfold very quickly," Barnier said. The French minister reaffirmed that his government would provide technical assistance but would not send any French soldiers to Iraq. France will be "present in the process of Iraq's political and economic reconstruction alongside our other European partners," he said. US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Friday former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein should be assumed to be innocent in his trial. "The people of the world should watch carefully, listen carefully," Powell said in his first comments on the judicial process against Saddam and 11 former aides that began on Thursday in Baghdad. "Assume he's innocent if you will, and let's assume that, and let the Iraqi people through their courts decide," Powell said in an interview with Indonesian television channel RCTI on the sidelines of an Asian security meeting in Jakarta. "You will see a new kind of justice in Iraq and I hope the people of the world and all Indonesians will measure it that way," he said. He contrasted the trial of Saddam with someone facing the justice system during Saddam's rule. More than a year after he was toppled from power, Saddam Hussein was hauled before an Iraqi court yesterday to hear charges of war crimes and genocide. Looking emaciated, the former president rejected the accusations and said "the real criminal" was US President George W. Bush. Saddam was handcuffed when brought to the court but the shackles were removed for the 30-minute arraignment at Camp Victory, one of his former palaces on the outskirts of Baghdad. "I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq," Saddam said unprompted, sitting down in a chair facing the judge on the other side of a wooden railing. When asked his name, he repeated it in full: "Saddam Hussein Al-Majid, president of Iraq." Saddam refused to sign a list of charges against him unless he had legal counsel, and he questioned the court's jurisdiction. "Please allow me not to sign until the lawyers are present. ... Anyhow, when you take a procedure to bring me here again, present me with all these papers with the presence of lawyers. Why would you behave in a manner that we might call hasty later on?" he said. Saddam also accused the White House of orchestrating the hearing. "You know that this is all a theater by Bush, the criminal, to help him with his campaign," he said. Saddam, 67, refused to recognize that he was guilty of a crime in invading Kuwait in 1990, jabbing his finger toward the judge and saying: "I'm surprised you're charging me with that as an Iraqi when everyone knows that Kuwait is part of Iraq." The judge told him these were legal procedures, but Saddam interrupted him. "Law, what law?" he asked. "You are putting Saddam on trial when the Kuwaitis said they could buy Iraqi women for 10 dinars on the street. The Iraqi soldiers went to defend the honor of Iraq, so what right do these dogs have?" he said. At this point, the judge admonished him and said he would not tolerate such language in the courtroom. The seven broad charges against Saddam are the killing of religious figures in 1974; gassing of Kurds in Halabja in 1988; killing the Kurdish Barzani clan in 1983; killing members of political parties in the last 30 years; the 1986-88 "Anfal" campaign of displacing Kurds; the suppression of the 1991 uprisings by Kurds and Shiites; and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Similar hearings were held later for 11 of his former aides, including former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and Ali Hassan Al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged role in using poison gas against Kurds and Iranians. After the 30-minute session, the jailed dictator's trusted secretary Abed Hamid Mahmoud was the second hauled before the court. The fallen president was transported to the courtroom in an armored bus flanked by four Humvees and an ambulance after being flown in by helicopter from his undisclosed place of detention. Upon arrival, he was led in chains and handcuffs into a building by two Iraqi prison guards, while six more guards stood to attention at the door. Arab and Western lawyers claiming to represent Saddam were outraged that they were denied the right to represent him at the arraignment. In Amman, the lawyers dubbed the trial illegal, but said they were "determined" to go to Iraq to defend him despite security perils and threats they had received from Iraqi Justice Minister Malek Dohan. "This court is illegal because it has been appointed by an illegal government, which is appointed by the occupation forces," head of Saddam's defense team Mohammad Rashdan told a press conference. "Under the Iraqi constitution, which is still in force, the Iraqi president enjoys immunity against judicial proceedings," he said. "This is tyranny and absolute cruelty," said Ziad Al-Khasawneh, who said he was hired by Saddam's wife, Sajidah. "How can this be called a fair trial if President Saddam Hussein was denied his basic right to a lawyer?" Told by the judge in Baghdad that legal counsel would be provided later if he could not pay for his own lawyers, Saddam said: "But everyone says, the Americans say, I have millions of dollars stashed away in Geneva. Why shouldn't I afford a lawyer?" Kuwait slammed Saddam for defending Iraq's invasion of his country. "The criminal still believes he is the president of Iraq," Mohammed Abul Hassan said. "Just imagine if he was still ruling Iraq." Abul Hassan reacted angrily to Saddam's remarks about Kuwaitis and said his punishment should "certainly be execution." On Saddam's remarks about invading Kuwait, the minister said: "He wants to prove to Iraqis that he is still defending an important issue. He showed the deep hatred he still has, but the judge was firm and he stopped him." President Bush welcomed Saddam's appearance in court. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said it was an "important step" for the war-torn country. "The president is pleased that Saddam Hussein and his regime leaders are going to be brought to justice by the Iraqi people in an Iraqi court for the atrocities his regime committed," McClellan told reporters in Washington. "This is an important step that will help the Iraqi people bring closure to the dark past of Saddam Hussein's brutal dictatorship," he added, noting that Saddam is "going to face justice he denied Iraqi people." On the other hand President Bush nominated Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. to take over as the highest-ranking military commander in Iraq, which would make Casey the first four-star general stationed there since the U.S.-led invasion. Casey -- whose appointment must be confirmed by the Senate -- would take the place of Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez amid an overhaul of the command structure there and questions about Sanchez's oversight of the military's treatment of prisoners. Last week, Sanchez removed himself as overseer of an investigation into abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison and asked that a higher-ranking officer take responsibility for the probe. That cleared the way for investigators to question Sanchez, who has said he did not sanction maltreatment and did not know about abuse of Abu Ghraib prisoners until January, when a soldier turned in photographs showing it. The decision to place a four-star general in Iraq as the head of multinational forces means that a single commander will have clear-cut authority over 160,000 U.S. and allied troops who will stay on in Iraq to provide security and confront an insurgency even after an interim Iraqi government assumes authority June 30. Unlike Sanchez, who works alongside four other three-star generals, Casey would outrank all officers and command all U.S. military units there. Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, who heads the U.S. Central Command and supervises operations in the Persian Gulf region, has been pushing for appointment of a four-star general. Casey, the Army's second-ranking officer as the vice chief of staff, has commanded the Army's 1st Armored Division and was the chief of staff of the V Corps in Europe in the aftermath of the conflict in Bosnia. Several who have worked with Casey said they considered him particularly well suited for the position because of that experience in Bosnia, where he displayed a knack for merging diplomatic and military leadership after fighting ended. Meantime Iraqi and US forces are cooperating in tightening the loose over Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the purported number three figure in the terrorist network known as the Al-Qaida. The US military used Iraqi intelligence in the latest air strikes on the western Iraqi city of Fallujah suspected to be a militant safehouse for Zarqawi who carries a 25 million US dollar reward for information leading to his capture or killing. Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said that the airstrikes carried out late on Monday, in which at least 10 people were killed and a targeted building was turned into a 30-foot-deepp, it was based on intelligence provided by the Iraqi security forces. He said the airstrikes destroyed a house used by the network of Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi. "Iraqi security forces provided clear and compelling intelligence to conduct a precision strike this evening on a known Zarqawi safehouse in southeastern Fallujah," Allawi said in a statement. "The people of Iraq will not tolerate terrorist groups or those who collaborate with any other foreign fighters such as the Zarqawi network to continue their wicked ways," he said. The US military said its planes dropped six bombs to destroy the house used by "mujahideen" insurgents in Fallujah in a joint operation with Iraqi forces. US and Iraqi officials label Zarqawi as an al Qaida ally who has allegedly masterminded many suicide bombings in Iraq. In a new development, gunmen identifying themselves as the members of the previously unknown Salvation Movement group have vowed to hunt down or kill al-Zarqawi unless he leaves the country immediately. The statement says that "the criminal Abu Musab al-Zarqawi must immediately leave Iraq and everyone who supports or shelters him...must stop what they are doing, especially after his heinous acts which killed innocents... all over Iraq." "We have prepared ourselves. We swear we will track him down wherever he is and arrest him and his followers or kill them. This is the last warning for those who shelter him," it added. In another development, three US marines were killed in security and stability operations in the Anbar province west of Baghdad. A US military statement said Tuesday that two of the marines were killed on Monday while the third died of his wounds later. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) is expected to send instructors to Iraq within weeks to start training the country's security forces, US Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns said. "Our expectation is that NATO will see its way to do that this summer, a mission in Iraq," the US envoy to the alliance told reporters. "We very much hope so," he added. A NATO military delegation is now visiting Iraq and is expectedto report back to the NATO headquarters next week with a range of possible options for carrying out the training. The 25-nation alliance agreed at a summit last month in Istanbul, Turkey, to offer training to the Iraqi forces. The alliance decision came hours after the United States transferred power two days ahead of schedule to the Iraqi interim government. It was unclear how many NATO instructors would be sent to Iraq. The United States had hoped that NATO would assume a major military role in Iraq, perhaps by taking over the multinational division currently run by Poland. Despite their speed in agreeing to the training, the allies remain divided over how to go ahead with the plan. France and Germany both said they would not send military instructors to Iraq, preferring to train officers outside the country. Sixteen NATO nations have sent troops to join coalition forces in Iraq, but opposition led by France and Germany has prevented the alliance from taking a collective role there. Diplomats said two meetings of NATO envoys in Brussels since the Istanbul summit had done little to narrow the gap between the French and the Americans. "There's no question that our leaders have already made the decision, that there's going to be a NATO mission in Iraq," Burns said. An Iraqi delegation will visit Brussels next week to discuss the issue with NATO officials and meet foreign ministers from the European Union to see how that organization can help with its reconstruction. On the other hand Jordanian State Minister and Government Spokesperson Asma Khader said the cabinet has taken a series of measures including contacts with the Iraqi interim government to secure smooth and safe movement of passengers and trucks between Jordan and Iraq, Khader said in reply to a question. In response to journalists' questions Khader said that the Jordanian Government contacted the Iraqi Interim Government to provide the commercial conveys heading to Iraq with security. In her comments on a question related to King's statement on sending Jordanian troops in Iraq she clarified that the King's responds in answering a question on Jordan's stand in condition that the Iraqi Interim Government asked for Jordanian contribution in security and stability in Iraq, His Majesty's comments about sending troops to Iraq were a massage of support for Baghdad rather than an announcement of future deployment. Commenting on King Abdullah's press remarks about sending Jordanian troops to Iraq, Khader said the King's response was clear that Jordan would be ready to offer every possible assistance to rebuild Iraq and enable the Iraqis to restore sovereignty and hold elections to choose their government. Jordan's stand is clear and it is inconvenient to deploy troops from the neighboring countries in Iraq to preserve security and stability in the country, Khader told reporters. " Our message to the (Iraqi) president and to the prime minister is tell us what you want, tell us how we can help and you have 110 per cent from us," said His Majesty King Abdullah in an interview with the BBC last Thursday. Jordan provides security to its citizens on its land but the government is unable to provide protection to Jordanian lawyers if they leave for Iraq under the present circumstances, Khader said in reply to a question on threats received by Jordanian lawyers who plan to defend Iraqi overthrown president Saddam Hussein. Members of the defense team say they have received anonymous death threats. The government had little information on "the source and the extent of the threats," Khader told reporters. However, she said the government can not accept any threat against any Jordanian citizen, be he is a lawyer or anything else, Khader said. She said the daughter of Saddam Hussein , Raghad, is living in Jordan for humanitarian and not political reasons and she has the right to do any business as long as it is according to Jordan law to meet needs of her family. On some Iraqi groups in Jordan that call for the return of the Hashemite rule to Iraq, Khader said Jordan has nothing to do with this which is part of some other demands by different Iraqi sects. The government can not prevent anyone from thinking in the way he/she likes as long as it is not against law and does not go beyond thinking, Khader said. Also Syrian Information Minister Ahmed al-Hassan said his country's borders were "100 percent under control," defying anyone to prove militants were infiltrating the demarcation lines to fight in Iraq. "Nobody has any proof Syria is encouraging people going to Iraq, as our borders are 100 percent under control," Hassan told Wednesday's Saudi newspaper Al-Hayat. He also said Syria is studying the "idea" of inviting Iraqi Premier Iyad Allawi to Damascus, which has been accused along with Iran of supporting insurgents inside Iraq. Allawi called on Syria and Iran to support the US-led multinational forces in his country. The Syrian and Iranian presidents, Bashar Assad and Mohammad Khatami, held a summit this week in Tehran to denounce the presence of US troops in Iraq. "The two parties seek the return of complete sovereignty to Iraq and the end of the occupation," said Hassan. "The Iraqi people have the right to resist occupation forces." Last Sunday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was quoted as saying by a British daily that his country's intelligence services had gathered information about the support of neighboring countries for insurgents. Zebari did not name the foreign powers, but the Sunday Telegraph quoted "senior Iraqi officials" as saying "Iran and Syria were the worst offenders." Hassan called Zebari's accusations "unjust and false." He also expressed concern about the alleged presence of Israeli forces inside Iraq, which he said "is dangerous because ... they are playing a role in stirring internal strife. Some (reports) showed there is an Israeli presence under different banners, as some (Jews) returned to Iraq under the pretext that their parents had been there or saying they are businessmen. "Even Turkey is ... concerned about the presence" of Israelis in mostly-Kurdish northern Iraq, he said. "As long as occupation forces are present (in Iraq), Israel will exploit their presence for its own interests and influence in Iraq." Syria's Vice-President Abdul Halim Khaddam had received an Iraqi delegation representing heads of the tribes at Salah Eddin Governorate headed by Mishaan al-Jabori. Khaddam in his meeting reiterated Syria's keenness on Iraq's national unity, as well as support to the Iraqi people to get out of their plight. He stressed Syria's readiness to develop relations with Iraq in various fields for interests of the Iraqi people's, particularly to restore sovereignty and independence. SANA reported that "Khaddam was briefed by the Iraqi delegation on the suffering of the Iraqi people due to the American occupation. The Iraqi delegation expressed relief over Syria's support to the Iraqi people." Meantime the New York Times reported last Monday that a network of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's cousins, operating in Syria and Jordan, is actively involved in the smuggling of guns, people and money into Iraq to support the anti-US insurgency.