ISRAEL
Plans for 1,100 new homes raise tensions in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM — Israel gave the go-ahead Tuesday for construction of 1,100 new Jewish housing units in East Jerusalem, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any freeze in settlement construction.
The moves raise already heightened tensions after last week’s Palestinian move to seek U.N. membership.
Israel’s Interior Ministry said the homes would be built in Gilo, a sprawling Jewish enclave in southeast Jerusalem. It said construction could begin after a mandatory 60-day period for public comment, a process that spokesman Roi Lachmanovich called a formality.
The announcement drew swift condemnation from the Palestinians, who claim East Jerusalem as their future capital. The European Union’s foreign policy chief in Brussels, Catherine Ashton, also said the decision “should be reversed.”
The Palestinians have demanded that Israel halt all settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the adjacent West Bank - territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war - as a condition for resuming peace talks.
Since capturing East Jerusalem, Israel has annexed the area and ringed it with about 10 Jewish enclaves that are meant to solidify its control.
Gilo, which is close to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, is among the largest, with about 50,000 residents. Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem has not been internationally recognized.
LIBYA
Fighters punch into outskirts of Gadhafi hometown
SIRTE — Libyan revolutionary forces on Tuesday battled their way into the eastern outskirts of Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, commanders said, in a bid to link up with anti-Gadhafi fighters besieging the city from the west and seize control of the loyalist stronghold.
More than a month after sweeping into Tripoli and ending Col. Gadhafi’s nearly 42-year rule, Libyan forces still face fierce resistance from the fugitive leader’s supporters on three fronts in Sirte, the town of Bani Walid southeast of the capital and in pockets in the country’s vast desert south.
Some of the heaviest fighting has taken place in Sirte, which anti-Gadhafi forces first attacked nearly two weeks ago, but they have pulled back in the face of fierce resistance from loyalists holed up inside.
Revolutionary forces have staked out positions to the west and south of the city.
IRAQ
Purchase of U.S. fighter jets ’game-changing’ for Iraq
BAGHDAD — Iraq has signed an estimated $3 billion deal to buy 18 fighter jets from the United States, officials said Tuesday, in a measure aimed at protecting its air space alone after years of relying on help from American pilots.
The F-16s aren’t expected to arrive in Iraq until next fall at the earliest and more likely not until 2013 - meaning U.S. troops may still be asked to patrol the country’s skies and train its air force for months, if not years, to come.
But Army Lt. Gen. Michael Ferriter called the F-16 deal “a game-changing capability.” “It provides the basis for their air sovereignty,” he told reporters in his Baghdad office.
There currently are 44,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, with all scheduled to leave by the end of this year.
But concerns about Iraq’s stability and continued attacks have spurred Washington and Baghdad to reconsider the deadline in a drawn-out political process that may not be decided until the eleventh hour.
YEMEN
Official blames opposition for ongoing violence
UNITED NATIONS — Yemen’s foreign minister said Tuesday that the opposition’s refusal to accept the results of the 2006 presidential election is to blame for the unrest in the country and warned that, unchecked, the tension could escalate into a civil war.
Abu Bakr al-Qidri also told the U.N. General Assembly that President Ali Abdullah Saleh remains committed to a U.S.-backed Gulf Cooperation Council initiative as a means to resolving a crisis that has left hundreds dead in the past seven months in the Arab world’s poorest nation.
The foreign minister’s remarks came a day after the U.N. Security Council urged all sides in Yemen to reject violence and take urgent steps toward a political transition, offering its support for the GCC plan that calls on Mr. Saleh to resign and hand over power to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
Mr. Saleh - who returned recently from Saudi Arabia, where he was recovering from injuries sustained months earlier during a rocket attack on a mosque in which he was praying - previously had said he intends to sign the deal, only to back away from the move at the last minute.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.