King Abdullah

In a policy address sponsored by the Washington's Brookings Institution, King Abdullah said the "incremental" peace process spawned by the 1991 Madrid conference failed because it did not provide a vision of what an ultimate Israeli-Arab peace would look like or a time-line for achieving it.

 He appealed for rapidly-paced new negotiations that would begin with a statement of their final objectives. This he said should be based on the land-for-peace initiative of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah and provide for Palestinian statehood, and a collective Arab peace treaty with Israel that gives the Jewish state the security guarantees it needs.

 Without these terms of reference, King Abdullah said, neither side can be expected to take the steps needed to reach a reasonable compromise:

 "If we don't articulate a hope, how do you expect a Palestinian or an Arab to stick his neck out and try and curb terrorism? Because there's such a level of frustration, I have to be honest about the feeling on the ground, that nobody is willing take the risk for peace because peace has not been identified clearly," he said. "And the same goes for the Israeli people. If they don't believe that the Arabs are going to embrace them in the neighborhood, why should they try to accommodate the Palestinians?"

 King Abdullah said the current lull in Israeli-Palestinian violence will not hold, and will lapse back into even more serious fighting, unless there is tangible action on the peace-making front in the next several weeks starting with the international conference proposed earlier this month by Secretary of State Colin Powell. 

He reiterated his call, made at the White House last week, for a U.S. led "peace alliance" of European countries, moderate Arab states and others that would use their collective political to broker a comprehensive, fair and lasting deal between Israel and the Palestinians. 

In the meantime, he said, the parties should be told "in no uncertain terms" that while suicide bombings will not be rewarded, neither will occupation.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah met late into the night Saturday to discuss a peace deal being offered to Israel.

 For the first time since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict began in September 2000, the presidents of Egypt and Syria and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah held a formal meeting to discuss the Mideast crisis.
 
 

 Following the meeting, the three men issued a joint statement stressing, among other points, their commitment to the Arab peace initiative adopted during the Arab summit last March in Beirut.

 The initiative guarantees Israel a normalization of Arab-Israeli relations in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East War, the establishment of a Palestinian state, and a resolution of the Palestinian refugee problem.

 Some political analysts in Egypt say the meeting did not produce anything substantive regarding the Mideast crisis but, they say, it was still a significant event.

 The meeting affirms to both the United States and Israel that the Arab world holds a unified position, said Hassan Nafae, head of the political science department at Cairo University. "The meeting in itself is very important," he points out, "because every time Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria come together and coordinate their position, this is generally perceived as a very positive step. It means the Arab system is not about to collapse, the coordination is going ahead, and you do not have to expect a fragmentation of the Arab position."

 While the three leaders indicated their support for the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, they also rejected violence of any kind.

 Mohammad Kamal, who teaches political science at two Cairo universities, says that statement is very important. "I think it is a response to President Bush's statement that the Arab countries should do more to denounce terrorism," he observed. "This is a statement coming from three important leaders in the region stating that they are in favor of peace, they denounce violence, so they are responding to what George Bush asked them to do."

 Mr. Kamal said the meeting was significant because it shows Arab unity regarding Syrian participation in the peace process. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had insisted that a peace agreement must include the return of the Golan Heights, seized by Israel in 1967.

 Mr. al-Assad returned to Syria late Saturday. Crown Prince Abdullah remained in Egypt for further consultations with President Mubarak.

 Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi rejects Beijing's claims that police acted out of concern for the consulate's security. 

At a news conference Monday, she says the consulate is protected by both consular officials and Chinese police. But, she says, the Chinese guards entered the consulate without consent, violating the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Japan has formally protested to China. Tokyo demands that Beijing apologize, release the asylum seekers, and promise that there will be no more intrusions.
 
 

Chinese police remove North Korean asylum seeker from Japanese embassy

 Ms. Kawaguchi also acknowledged that there are problems with how Japanese diplomats handled the incident. They have been criticized by officials for doing nothing to help the asylum seekers.
 
 

AP
Japan's Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi

 The asylum bid was one of a series that has taken place recently. Chinese officials and diplomats from the United States and Canada on Monday discussed the fate of five other North Korean asylum seekers who are asking for refuge in a third country. Three are men who scaled the wall of the U.S. consulate last week in Shenyang. A man and a woman climbed a wall into the Canadian Embassy in Beijing on Saturday. 

At least 28 North Koreans have gone from China to South Korea in the past two months following asylum bids at foreign embassies or United Nations offices in Beijing.

 Thousands of North Koreans have fled repression and famine in the past few years, most through China. They present Beijing with a diplomatic problem because it regards them as economic migrants and has agreed to repatriate them. The United States and other nations say the North Koreans face persecution once they are home and they should be given asylum.

 Chinese authorities are tightening security at embassies and consulates throughout the country, adding layers of barbed wire and armed guards to discourage asylum-seekers.

AP
Police and bomb disposal squad members examine the bomb site in Karachi

Many of the workers come from the seaside town, which is also the home of France's naval construction department. The crew died when their bus exploded in Karachi last week. The suicide bombing killed a total of 14 people, including the bomber. Twenty-three other wounded French workers were flown back to France last Thursday.
 
 

AP
President Chirac places Legion of Honour on each coffin of victims of Karachi bomb

The French president said the battle is also about protecting democracy and liberty. Neither France, nor the United States and its allies, he vowed, will give up.
 
 

AP
People pay their respects to victims of Karachi bomb

About 400 Islamic militants have been arrested since the bombing, and on Saturday, Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, created an anti-terrorism task force.

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