Dubai assassination: UAE demands justice but with what leverage?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Carol Huang - February 22, 2010 - 1:00am

Diplomatic tensions are heating up over the forged European passports used by a hit squad that came to Dubai to murder of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. But there's not a lot that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) can do beyond complaining to European ambassadors. The focus now is mostly on European countries calling in Israeli diplomats, and the European Union, which today issued a public condemnation of the use of forged passports.

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France's Sarkozy backs 'viable' Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
February 22, 2010 - 1:00am

French President Nicolas Sarkozy backed the creation of a "viable" Palestinian state on Monday but was cautious about repeating his foreign minister's support for possible recognition of a state before its borders were set. Speaking at a news conference in Paris with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Sarkozy repeated France's support for statehood for Palestinians but added: "We have always said a viable Palestinian state."

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Dubai and Hamas and the “Real Killer”
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) February 22, 2010 - 1:00am

The assassination of Mahmoud al Mabhouh in Dubai has entered a new, dramatic chapter. After the Dubai Police Chief accused Israel’s Mossad of being responsible for the elimination of al Mabhouh, and following the disclosure of important details taken from images and passports used in the assassination, the story has taken on international dimensions involving Britain, France and Germany.

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Israel's arrogance has boomeranged
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Linda Heard - (Opinion) February 22, 2010 - 1:00am

A British columnist writing in The Telegraph referred to it as “the Keystone Spooks”, while ordinary Israelis who, initially, were gleefully patting one another on the back aren’t grinning any longer.

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The truth about the Mossad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ian Black - (Analysis) February 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Last November, a sharp-eyed Israeli woman named Niva Ben-Harush was alarmed to notice a young man attaching something that looked suspiciously like a bomb to the underside of a car in a quiet street near Tel Aviv port. When police arrested him, he claimed to be an agent of the Mossad secret service taking part in a training exercise: his story turned out to be true – though the bomb was a fake.

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Profile: Victim's brother tells of 'shadowy and secretive life'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Said Ghazali, Donald MacIntyre - February 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Unsurprisingly, the family of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh are convinced that his death was the work of Israel. His older brother, Hussein, said the assassinated Hamas commander had owned a sewing factory in Damascus, but lived a "shadowy and secretive life" in Syria. "Each time he called us he talked from a different phone." Hussein – a Hamas activist and head of a Gaza charity – said this was the fourth attempt on his brother's life. "Regardless of the evidence, it is in the interests of the Mossad to assassinate him," he told The Independent.

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A bumbling Mossad hand suspected in Dubai assassination
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Borzou Daragahi - February 19, 2010 - 1:00am

To its planners, the assassination of senior Hamas figure Mahmoud Mabhouh must have first seemed like the perfect spy operation. They slipped into Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, on fraudulent travel papers. They quietly killed the militant leader long wanted by Israel, reportedly smothering him with a pillow, and discreetly left the country.

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Deibes: PA will include Area C in plans
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 19, 2010 - 1:00am

The Palestinian Authority plans to include Area C in it strategic planning in an effort to lay the groundwork for a future state, Tourism Minister Khouloud Deibes said on Thursday. Deibes made this remark following a meeting in Jericho with a visiting delegation from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She also said her ministry is committed to attracting private sector investment to tourism-related projects in the West bank, particularly north of the Dead Sea, and also attract more tourists to the area.

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UN envoy: Quartet to back PA autonomy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Robert Serry, the UN special envoy to the Middle East peace process, hinted on Thursday that the international community would pressure Israel to cede parts of the occupied West Bank to Palestinian Authority control. Serry said the International Quartet, made up of the UN, EU, US and Russia, will express support for PA demands on the Israeli government to transfer Areas B and of the West Bank C into A, under full Palestinian control, on the road to establishing statehood.

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Abbas to renew talks with Israel next week
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - February 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are to be renewed next week, a senior government official in Jerusalem said on Thurdsay. Israeli government officials were told by Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger that the Palestinians were ready to resume indirect talks, the senior government official said. Spindelegger, who visited Israel and the Palestinian territories last week, said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had told him he would consent to the United States' request to renew talks with Israel.

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