The fortified Green Zone came under fresh attack Monday, less than 24 hours after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces. Al-Sadr’s order stopped short of disarming his fighters and left the militia intact in a blow to the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who flew to the southern oil city of Basra a week ago to personally oversee a crackdown on militia violence.
Israel announced plans Monday for 1,400 new homes on land the Palestinians claim for a future state – just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended a peacekeeping mission to the region. Jerusalem’s city hall announced it would build 600 new apartments in Pisgat Zeev, a Jewish neighborhood in the eastern sector of the city. Soon after, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised to build 800 additional homes in one of Israel’s largest West Bank settlements, Betar Illit.
Pakistan’s deposed chief justice arrived in his hometown Monday to a hero’s welcome as he launched a drive to win back his old job and deal another blow to embattled President Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan’s new government freed Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry and other senior judges last week, more than four months after they were dismissed and put under house arrest by the U.S.-backed president. Hundreds of flag-waving political activists and black-suited lawyers gathered at the airport in Quetta to greet Chaudhry as he began the first in a series of trips across the country to build support for the judges’ reinstatement.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that Mideast peace talks are “moving in the right direction” although she warned Israel that it should stop new settlement activities that could upset progress. Rice’s comments came after she held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the end of a three-day Mideast mission with the goal of achieving an agreement before President Bush leaves office next January. Earlier Monday, Rice met separately with both the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Israel and said that she was impressed by the seriousness of their work.
The situation in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan where al-Qaida has established a safe haven presents a “clear and present danger” to the West, the CIA director said Sunday. Michael Hayden cited the belief by intelligence agencies that Osama bin Laden is hiding there in arguing that the U.S. has an interest in targeting the border region. If there were another terrorist attack against Americans, Hayden said, it would most certainly originate from that region.
