News of the week

News of the week

Israel has completed the task of making a list of prisoners to offer in exchange for Shalit. Early next week the list of some 450 will be passed on to Egypt.

Hamas has already rejected the list, because it falls nearly 1,000 names short, it does not include the names that Hamas has asked for and because Israel has not opened it's borders as per the ceasefire agreement. At today's Friday prayers Hamas has announced the rejection of the coming offer, saying that their position must be agreed to and that they will not accept any Israeli offer.

Israel has warned that if the Shalit talks remain deadlocked they will resort to other means.

Hamas has attacked the Islamic Jihad group and is moving to destroy them, since they are the largest remaining opposition group in Gaza.

To take the pressure off, Islamic Jihad has indicated that they will launch a missile offensive against Israel, to end the ceasefire.

Israel has gone to a missile alert and has massed it's forces on the Gaza border, ready to invade.

The NATO Air Force exercise has ended, the aircraft are remaining in Turkey.

Iran has completed it's air defence drill and feels confident enough to declare that they will support Hamas as long as Israel exists.

Hezbollah has announced that they will respond furiously to any move against Gaza by Israel.

Russia has announced that they will not support any further sanctions against Iran and they will not support any military action.

The United States is now accusing Iran of secretly enriching uranium at undeclared sites.

Work begins on upgrading the Syrian port of Tartus into a permanent Russian Naval base.

Michael

lwoe@gmx.at