Abbas will find Obama puts Syrian peace track ahead of the Palestinians
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
May 27, 2009, 11:12 PM (GMT+02:00)
PA chairmman Mahmoud Abbas
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas will produce a thick sheaf of pre-conditions for talks with Israel when he meets US president Barack Obama at the White House Thursday, May 28, primarily heavy US pressure to force the Netanyahu government to stop all construction activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem and remove 200 West Bank roadblocks. But he will find Obama more interested in advancing the Syrian than the Palestinian peace track.
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North Korea warns South of military strike, no longer bound by 1953 Truce
DEBKAfile Special Report
May 27, 2009, 10:42 PM (GMT+02:00)
Pyongyang announced early Wednesday, May 27, that its withdrawal from the truce that ended the Korean War in 1953 means that "the Korean peninsulas will go back to a state of war." Thousands of US troops are deployed in the buffer zone since the war ended.
US spy planes reported that the plutonium separation plant at Yongbyon had been reactivated.
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Egyptian Culture Minister racing for UNESCO post apologizes for anti-Israel slur
DEBKAfile Special Report
May 27, 2009, 8:56 PM (GMT+02:00)
Tuesday, May 26, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu lifted Israel's objection to the appointment of Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosni to the top job at UNESCO, the UN Culture and Education agency, thus disarming an international campaign to scuttle his candidacy over his anti-Israel comments.
Wednesday, Hosni apologized for such comments as calling for Israeli books in Egypt's libraries to be burnt and calling Israeli culture "inhuman."
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Russia's first Persian Gulf naval presence coordinated with Tehran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
May 26, 2009, 6:47 PM (GMT+02:00)
Russian "Admiral Panteleyev" steams toward Bahrain
Russian warships are due to call Wednesday, May 27, at the Bahrain port of Manama, seat of the US Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf, DEBKAfile's military sources reveal. They will be following in the wake of the Russian vessels already docked at the Omani port of Salalah, the first to avail themselves of facilities at Gulf ports.
Their arrival is fully coordinated between the Russian and Iranian naval commands.
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