Ain-Al-Yaqeen - November 19, 2004

		November 19, 2004

THE SAUDI LEADERSHIP CONGRATULATE THE SULTAN OF OMAN AND THE KING OF MOROCCO ON THE OCCASION OF THEIR NATIONAL DAYS.
SAUDI SECURITY FORCES DETAIN FIVE WANTED AND DESTROY A TERRORIST CELL IN ONAIDHA.
AL-JUBEIR TALKS ABOUT THE SAUDI STANCES IN A TOUR IN THE USA.
THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN IRAQ AND THE PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES.

The Custodian of the two Holy Mosques King Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz has sent a cable of congratulations to Sultan Qaboos of Oman on the occasion of his country's national day. Similar cables of congratulations were sent to Sultan Qaboos by Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, and Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General.

The Custodian of the two Holy Mosques King Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz has sent a cable of congratulations to King Mohammed VI of Morocco on the occasion of his country's independence day. Similar cables of congratulations were sent to Sultan Qaboos by Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, and Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General.

Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, visited the family of Shakir Ibn Haza Al-Abdali to offer condolences on the death of Shakir Ibn Haza Al-Abdali.

He was received by the sons of the deceased. Crown Prince Abdullah was accompanied by Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Interior Minister, Prince Abdul Majeed Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Governor of Makkah region, as well as other princes and officials.

Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Aviation and Inspector General, visited the family of Shakir Ibn Haza Al-Abdali to offer condolences on the death of Shakir Ibn Haza Al-Abdali.

On the other hand a statement released by the Saudi Embassy in Washington said that Adel Al-Jubeir, one of the Crown Prince advisors would meet with the press to discuss issues of international terrorism, the Middle East, oil supplies and world energy, in meetings with journalist in the US.

Adel Al-Jubeir tour comes within the framework of improving Saudi-American relations and will include southern states and several American cities such as Qansas City and Louisville.

The tour follows accusations by American media that Saudi Arabia collects charity to help attacks against the American occupation which lead to the Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar Ibn Sultan's reply in which he said: The Saudi people pray for the end of bloodshed in Iraq, and the restoration of peace, security and stability in Iraq for the benefit of the Iraqi people and the region.

In Jeddah security forces arrested some of the suspects outside the urban region in Oneidha on Tuesday evening while the suspects were trying to flee aboard a car, said an official source at the Interior Ministry.

Meanwhile, when the security men started to evacuate the house, where the suspects were hiding, from the women who were inside it at Al-Kadisiyya Neighborhood in Oneiza, one of their supporting forces, stationing outside the scene, was attacked by fire. The security men returned the fire and captured five persons, two of them were members of the deviant group who were wanted by the security authorities, and the remaining there were suspects.

Exchange of fire between the security men and the suspects led to the martyrdom of one of the security men and the injury of eight of his colleagues.

When the house was searched, machine guns, pistols, pipe bombs and various ammunitions in addition to computer sets, various documents and a sum of SR 38,000 were found.

On the other hand Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said he hoped the administration would show the "concern needed to achieve President Bush's vision for the creation of an active and sustainable Palestinian state in 2005."

League spokesman Hossam Zaki quoted Mussa as saying that unless serious efforts are made to create a Palestinian state, "tensions and instability will continue."

Amr Moussa, told the BBC that if both Palestinians and Israelis adhered to the "Road Map" peace plan, a Palestinian state would be possible within the plan's original time table.

"If there is a political will and determination and the Israeli government accepts the `Road Map' and goes ahead in implementing their obligations, and also the Palestinians, I believe by the end of 2005 we will be in a position to declare the state," he said.

On Iraq Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said he hoped the violence "ends fast," adding that he was in touch with Iraqi officials.

"No one can ever accept the way civilians are struck in Fallujah," he told reporters.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is "very concerned" about the fatal shooting by a U.S. Marine of a wounded and apparently unarmed man in a Fallujah mosque, his office said Wednesday. The U.S. military said its investigation would look into whether other wounded men in the mosque were similarly killed.

American and Iraqi authorities have been trying to stem outrage over the shootings among Iraqis, particularly the Sunni Arab minority, and Arabs across the region. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte expressed regret over the shooting but said Wednesday it should not undermine U.S. efforts to remove guerrillas there.

The U.S. military said it was investigating after pool video footage by NBC showed a Marine shooting a wounded man lying in a Fallujah mosque during an operation Saturday of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

Military investigators also are looking into whether more than one wounded insurgent was shot in the mosque, said Maj. Francis Piccoli, a spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

Two other men visible on the NBC video appear to be suffering from what the network described as fresh and fatal gunshot wounds.

"The prime minister is very concerned by allegations of an illegal killing by multinational forces in Fallujah," the statement from Allawi's office said. "He has discussed the matter with the commander of the multinational force in Iraq," Gen. George Casey.

The chilling video dominated the Arab world's media the shooting was played and replayed in Arab media, debated and portrayed as "evidence" of what many Arabs believe: that the United States is destroying Iraq and Iraqis.

Negroponte said "no one can be happy" about the incident, "but the important point is that the individual in question will be dealt with."

"I think the liberation of Fallujah is extremely important," he said. "Former regime elements and foreign fighters have been deprived of a sanctuary and a base they were using as a platform for conducting terrorist activities throughout the rest of the country, especially here in Baghdad."

Arabs voiced outrage at the shooting of an unarmed Iraqi by a US Marine in Fallujah, calling for an immediate investigation of this war crime.

The Arab League called for "an immediate enquiry into this incident and for the soldier who committed this act, considered a war crime, to be severely punished," if he is found guilty, said spokesman Hossam Zaki.

In a statement Qasim Daoud, Iraq's interim minister of state for national security, told a news conference at the weekend: "Mission accomplished ... Fallujah has been liberated". He proudly recited the list of the dead 1,400 terrorists, foreigners and Saddamists. And what about civilians, the women and children trapped in the fighting zone. Any casualties? He avoided the question.

Qasim Daoud, Iraq's interim minister of state for national security, recited the list of the dead - 1,400 terrorists, foreigners and Saddamists.

At the same time, thousands of Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad, Basra and Heet in support of the people of Fallujah.

Around Falluja, camps have been erected to receive displaced women and children. Men aged 15-50 were not allowed to leave the city, so 150,000 wait in anguish for news of fathers, husbands and sons.

U.S.-led forces have killed at least 1,600 insurgents and detained over 1,000 in its offensive on Fallujah, Iraq's minister of state for national security says.

Qassim Daoud told Reuters the Iraqi government was fingerprinting and photographing the dead, most of whom were not carrying identification papers.

"We can say the number of dead exceeds 1,600," Daoud said after meeting the mayor of Fallujah.

"The number of detainees last night was 1,052. There are detainees of different nationalities taken in the city of Fallujah," he said.

U.S.-led forces launched an offensive against Fallujah eight days ago to root out foreign Islamists and Saddam Hussein loyalists entrenched there.

The U.S. military says it has taken control of Fallujah, 50 km (32 miles) west of the capital, but scattered resistance remains.

Residents say they are short of food as power cuts have spoiled frozen supplies and shops were closed. They say taps are running dry and the wounded have been unable to seek medical assistance because of the fighting.

Iraq's government has dismissed reports that civilians in Fallujah are desperately short of supplies.

The government has also dismissed reports that the city was devastated by the attack, saying only 200 out of a total 1,700 buildings were damaged.

Most civilians are believed to have fled Fallujah ahead of the offensive, some of them to nearby villages. Daoud said more than 90 percent had left.

The Iraqi government would compensate residents for damage to their property and was giving food and medical aid to refugees, he said.

It was also working to get a civilian administration back in place and return police to the streets of Fallujah, which U.S.-led troops had not entered for six months.

"We will pay compensation to the Fallujans so they can begin building and repairing immediately," he said.

"There is a fair and immediate financial compensation programme for all those whose properties were damaged."

On the other hand the leader of a militant group involved in beheading hostages and other attacks has been arrested and the group was broken up, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Monday.

Allawi identified the group as Jaish Muhammad, Arabic for Muhammad's Army. The group "has been arrested ... We arrested their leader," Allawi said, identifying him as Moayad Ahmed Yasseen, also known as Abu Ahmed.

Muhammad's Army was known to have cooperated with Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and al-Qaida and Saddam loyalists and was responsible for killing and beheading a number of Iraqis, Arabs and foreigners in Iraq (news - web sites), Allawi said.

"They were planning to destroy Fallujah...by blowing up important positions," he said. "They have extensions abroad that I cannot talk about now." Allawi did not say how many members of the group were captured or what kidnappings the group has been involved in.

The militant group was arrested during U.S.-led military operations in Fallujah, the television station said.

Allawi also said officials had arrested members of another group, whom he did not name. He said they have been detained and will be interrogated.

The U.S. military has said in the past that Jaish Mohammed appears to be an umbrella group for former intelligence agents, army, security officials, and Baath Party members.

In Cairo President Hosni Mubarak received a telephone call from his Syrian counterpart Bashar El-Assad.

The two leaders addressed the latest developments in the Middle East, especially in the Palestinian territories, and highlighted the importance of providing every support to the Palestinian leadership in this critical stage and help it carry on with preparations for the presidential election in the due date and re-launch the peace process on all tracks.

Mubarak and Assad also probed the situation in Iraq and stressed the necessity that Sharm El-Sheikh conference on Iraq, due on November 22-23, should come out with a clear vision that would help end the violence as soon as possible and maintain the unity and integration of the Iraqi territories.

In Paris French President Jacques Chirac said he is "not at all sure" the world has become safer with the removal from power of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

In a BBC interview, Mr Chirac suggested the situation in Iraq had helped to prompt an increase in terrorism.

The interview, aired on BBC Two's Newsnight programme on Wednesday, came ahead of his visit to the UK this week.

President Chirac also maintained that any intervention in Iraq should have been through the United Nations.

"To a certain extent, Saddam Hussein's departure was a positive thing," Mr Chirac said when asked if the world was safer now, as US President George W Bush has repeatedly stated.

"But it also provoked reactions, such as the mobilisation in a number of countries, of men and women of Islam, which has made the world more dangerous," he added.

"There's no doubt that there has been an increase in terrorism and one of the origins of that has been the situation in Iraq.

"I'm not at all sure that one can say that the world is safer."

When asked if his position on troops in Iraq remained the same, he said: "The way things are now I can't imagine that there will be French troops in Iraq."

He defended the use of French troops in Ivory Coast, whose attack on the Ivorian air force sparked mass anti-French protests in the West African nation.

The situation there is altogether different. The French in Cote d'Ivoire act under the mandate of the UN and also under a unanimous mandate of the African Union."

He said he understood that Mr Bush would not change his mind on Iraq - but, he added, nor would France.

"This is not disrespect towards each other," he said. "We have two distinct analyses and we draw two different conclusions. History will tell who is wrong and who is right."

When asked his views on American culture, Mr Chirac said: "We can't have a world where there's only one culture."

He said the loss of any language, civilisation or culture was a "great loss for humanity, because humanity should preserve its rich diversity, it must not allow it to perish".

But he dismissed as "an absurd idea" that Europe would build itself against the US.

He described China, India, Asia, Europe and North America as the "great poles of tomorrow's world and their requirements must be compatible with peace and, I hope, democracy".

"America and Europe have to take it upon themselves to understand each other, not turning against the other great poles of tomorrow's worlds, but side by side.

"So that when tensions mount and problems arise, there will be strong ties between these two powers and one of these ties should be the transatlantic one."

Meanwhile the Iraqi husband of Margaret Hassan was said to be deeply distressed after a video emerged showing the apparent murder of the Irish-born aid worker by her kidnappers.

Locals who knew the head of the relief agency CARE International in Iraq were also devastated, protesting that the apparent killing of the woman known as "Mama Margaret" was against Islam.

Tahseen Hassan, who has pleaded with his wife's kidnappers to return her to him, was unwilling to leave his home in a modest Baghdad district.

"We are sorry, he is very depressed and is in a very bad situation," said one relative who came to the gate of the family's stone house in the Palestine neighborhood of the Iraqi capital.

Qatar-based Arabic television station Al-Jazeera said Tuesday it had received a video that showed an armed man shooting at a blindfolded woman who appeared to be Hassan, who had Irish, British and Iraqi nationalities.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the executed woman was believed to be Hassan and Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed his "abhorrence at the cruel treatment of someone who devoted so many years of their life to helping the people of Iraq."

Hassan, who has lived in Iraq for 30 years and spent most of her career helping Iraqis, was abducted by unknown attackers on Oct. 19 as she drove to her offices in Baghdad, which have since been closed because of the kidnapping.

She is one of the highest profile victims of a scourge of kidnappings that has plagued Iraq in recent months.

The shuttered CARE headquarters in the west of the capital were as quiet as Hassan's home, with just a security guard sitting in a booth outside the front gate.

But people living nearby remembered the generous aid worker who spoke fluent Arabic and brought so much to their community, such as a water well and tanks of drinking water during last year's US-led invasion, which she vociferously opposed.

"She was peaceful and polite, she always did her shopping alone without security even after the war," said teacher Basim Fawzi Al-Jaffari, 35.

"This is a crime that cannot be forgiven and Islam is against kidnapping and murder."

The French foreign minister Michael Barnier said that the driver of the two French journalists who are held in Iraq, who is of the Syrian nationality, contacted the French authorities and that Paris is still making all contacts possible, direct or indirect, to release Christian Shino George Malbrunno.

On the Palestinian front New Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Mahmud Abbas was on Wednesday wrapping up a mission to Gaza after failing to persuade the radical Islamist group Hamas to join the political mainstream. Abbas was concluding a series of face-to-face talks with faction leaders by meeting local heads of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) before heading back to his base in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

In talks with Abbas late Tuesday, the Hamas leader in its Gaza stronghold, Mahmud Zahar, refused to contest January's election to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestinian Authority or to halt attacks against Israeli targets. While a Hamas boycott should clear the path for Abbas' victory, it has once again exposed divisions over the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority (PA). "The presidential election is illegal," Zahar said. "This election is a continuation of the Oslo process which has already failed and is finished." The smaller Islamic Jihad movement has also confirmed it will not contest the election slated for January 9, in keeping with its own rejection of the 1993 Oslo autonomy accords which paved the way for the creation of the PA.

To date the only man to declare his candidacy is former Hamas official Sheikh Talal Sidr who quit the radical movement in 1997 to become a junior minister.

Sidr told AFP that he would campaign on a programme of "continuing the policies of Yasser Arafat" who died on November 11.

Abbas, thought to have won the backing of the mainstream Fatah movement as its candidate, is seen as a leading moderate who has long argued against a military solution to the Middle East conflict.

In a brief stint as prime minister last year, he managed to persuade armed groups such as Hamas to call a truce, known as the hudna, which collapsed seven weeks later amid mutual recriminations.

Seeing the upcoming election and Israel's scheduled withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as an "opportunity", British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday reiterated his commitment to relaunching the peace process.

"I hope it will be possible to use the opportunities both of an election of a new Palestinian leader and the disengagement of Gaza and parts of the West Bank," he told MPs.

Nevertheless, Hamas and Jihad played down the prospects of a new ceasefire in the current situation.

Zahar said that a change of tactics could only be considered if Israel met a raft of conditions that Hamas knows is unrealistic.

Separately, Palestinian officials are expected to head to Paris to ask the French authorities for the medical report into Arafat's death amid rampant speculation across the Arab world that he was poisoned.

Prime minister Ahmed Qorei's office also announced that a special ministerial commission had been established to investigate the cause of death. France's Le Monde newspaper said Wednesday that his doctors believe the Palestinian leader died of a blood condition called disseminated intravascular coagulation.

France's foreign minister said on Tuesday that his country has refused to release the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's medical records.

Michel Barnier's remarks came shortly after Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia has formally demanded that France should publish Arafat's medical records.

The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died Thursday, November 11, 2004 at 3:30 a.m. in a military hospital outside Paris, France. Arafat was struggling for life during his last days, and witnessed dramatic deterioration in his health.

Neither Palestinian officials nor Arafat's French medical team have announced the real cause of death.

"The medical file of Yasser Arafat will be transmitted, conforming to the law and to rules, to members of the immediate family who ask for it," Barnier told Europe-1 radio.

The 75-year-old Palestinian leader flew to France earlier this month, to get the needed medical treatment at a French Army teaching hospital southwest of Paris, specialized in blood disorders and trauma care.

At first, low blood platelet count raised fears of leukemia, but doctors have ruled out all forms of cancer. When asked if France would ask Arafat's widow, Suha, to publish the medical reports, Barnier replied: "The family of Yasser Arafat has the right to do as it wishes."

In an interview Tuesday, Qureia said that the Palestinians have sent a letter to the French hospital urging it to release all Arafat's health records. "We sent an official letter, asking for all the details and all the reports," Qureia said from his office outside Jerusalem. "He is one of the region's main leaders and therefore I think we should know what happened."

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said that he has formally requested that France publish the medical records of Yasser Arafat following his death last week.

However, the French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said that France is going to "examine fully" any request from the Palestinian leadership asking for details on Arafat's death.

The intense secrecy that surrounded Arafat's sudden health deterioration and death has aroused frustration and skepticism in various parts of the Arab world.

In Lebanon Lebanese Minister of Information Eli Ferzli stressed the strong and solid Syrian-Lebanese relations in all domains, expressing support to turn those relations into an example to be followed by other Arab states.

In an interview published by Kuwaiti newspaper "al-Siyasa", Ferzli asserted the importance of closing ranks and unifying the word in the interest of both states within the accelerating developments in the region, pointing out that the UN Security Council resolution No. 1559 is a clear intervention in Lebanon's internal affairs and its bilateral relations with Syria. He expressed hope that the American new direction will concentrate on solving the Arab-Israeli conflict to establish a just and comprehensive peace in the region.