Round five of Fatah-Hamas talks to be held in Cairo May 16-17

Next round of Palestinian dialogue on May 16 — official source

Politics    4/28/2009 11:11:00 PM

CAIRO, April 28 (KUNA) — The fifth round of dialogue between the two major Palestianian organizations will be held in Cairo on May 16-17 to thrash out some of the remaining pending issues, an official source said on Tuesday. The source told the official Egyptian news agency, the Middle East News Agency (MENA), that the the fourth round of dialogue that involved officials of Fatah and Hamas, held under Egyptian sponsorship, ended with a consensus on a number of topics. Further talks are needed to reach agreements on some matters, the source added. Officials indicated that the two sides discussed mechanisms of elections for membership in leading authorities. (end) rg.rk KUNA 282311 Apr 09NNNN

Al Bashir vows to travel abroad in spite of ICC arrest warrant

UNITED NATIONS, March 4 (KUNA) — Sudanese UN envoy Abdelmahmoud Mohamed on Wednesday said President Omar Al-Bashir will continue to travel abroad and may even attend the Arab Summit in Qatar later this month, when invited, and despite the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s decision earlier today to issue an arrest warrant against the Sudanese leader for warms crimes committed in Darfur.
“His international schedule will be done in the same routine manner … when the invitation comes, he will go definitely. There is no change whatsoever. Of course he will travel, because many countris are saying the ICC ruling is politically motivated,” Mohamed told a press conference in answer to a question.
Only states parties to the ICC Rome Statute are obliged to abide by the ICC ruling. The only Arab states parties are Jordan and Djibouti.
Mohamed also said his government will no longer seek a Security Council action to defer for twelve months the implementation of the ICC decision, as stipulated by article 16 of the ICC Rome Statute.
Article 16 states that no prosecution may begin under this Statute for a period of twelve months, renewable, after the Security Council has requested the court to that effect.
“Indeed, we are not at all going to demand article 16, because our demand now is to dismiss this whole criminal plot against our country … Our objective will continue to be the peace process and reaching a final and lasting solution for the problem of Darfur whatever the cost might be,” he said.
He reiterated his government’s position that it will not abide by the ICC decision which is an “insult to justice.” He described the conflict in Darfur as a “traditional conflict blown out of proportions” by the US, UK and France which want to fragment Sudan. “We will not fall in their trap,” he said.
He even accused these contries of targeting “our oil, our wealth and political importance in the continent, … and our Sudanese-Chinese relations, ” accusing France of having re-colonisation ambitions in the continent.

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Closing of U.S. base in Manas, Kyrgyzstan final

Kyrgyzstan says closing US base final

Politics    2/6/2009 8:48:00 PM

MOSCOW, Feb 6 (KUNA) — The government of Kyrgyzstan said Friday its decision to close the US air base was final. The Kyrgyz leadership will not reverse its decision to close the air base in Manas, Adakhan Madumarov, secretary of the Kyrgyz Security Council, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. He said an agreement with the US which allowed the opening and using of the air space would be scrapped. Washington has 180 days to evacuate the air base once officially notified by Bishkek. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regretted the Kyrgyz decision, announced by Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev last Tursday. Madumarov, however, said Kyrgyzstan would continue its cooperation with the international coalition in Afghanistan despite the closure of the Manas air base. (end) as.bs KUNA 062048 Feb 09NNNN