IPS correspondents bring you independent perspectives on what is happening in Iran, Iraq and across the Middle East.

U.S.-SYRIA: Washington Ends Its Diplomatic Embargo
By Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON (IPS) – Ending a four-year diplomatic embargo on Damascus, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday confirmed that it is sending two high-level officials to Syria this week for “preliminary conversations”, presumably on improving relations.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45966

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ISRAEL: Slowly Beating Back the Persecution Psyche
Analysis by Daan Bauwens
TEL AVIV (IPS) – A new study shows that Israelis are moving towards an understanding of the Palestinian position on the conflict, even though a vast number still hold on to simplistic notions about good Israelis and bad Arabs.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45970

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EGYPT: Solidarity With Gaza Brings Jail
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO (IPS) – Magdi Hussein, secretary-general of Egypt’s suspended Socialist Labour Party, has been sentenced to two years in prison by a military tribunal. Hussein, along with two others, was charged with “infiltrating” into the Gaza Strip following Israel’s recent campaign against the coastal enclave…
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45950

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MIDEAST: How to Aid Gaza and Not Hamas
Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM (IPS) – “There’s no doubt there’s been a huge amount of damage done, including whole sectors of private sector buildings which have been razed to the ground and, in any event, given the numbers of people that have died, I find the conversation about proportionality not really a sensible conversation to have. What we’ve got to do is to find a way of ensuring this doesn’t happen again.” The pointed comment came from former British prime minister Tony Blair, special international envoy to the Middle East, during his first visit to Gaza after Israel’s offensive against Hamas.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45938

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IRAQ: Stumbling From One Conflict to Another?
Analysis by Mohammed A. Salih
COLUMBIA, Missouri, U.S. (IPS) – When U.S. President Barack Obama announced his plan last week to pull out all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by September 2010, the news did not generate much enthusiasm among Iraqi Kurd
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45962

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MIDEAST: Rice Is Aid, Pasta Not
By Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – Red-faced and unusually tongue-tied Israeli officials were forced to try and explain to U.S. Senator John Kerry during his visit to Israel last week why truckloads of pasta waiting to enter the besieged Gaza strip were not considered humanitarian aid while rice was.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45913

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MIDEAST: Early Jitters for Netanyahu
Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM (IPS) – He’s yet to be installed as Israel’s prime minister, let alone starting to govern through the customary 100 days of grace, and already Benjamin Netanyahu is being allowed no respite: neither by those whom he envisages as his potential coalition partners nor by the international community, most pertinently the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45909

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MIDEAST: Israel Boycott Movement Gains Momentum
By Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – “Standing United with the People of Gaza” is the theme of this week’s Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), which kicked off in Toronto and another 39 cities across the globe Sunday.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45951

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POLITICS-US: Drawdown Plan May Leave Combat Brigades in Iraq
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON (IPS) – President Barack Obama has given military commanders a free hand to determine the size and composition of a residual force in Iraq up to 50,000 troops, apparently including the option of leaving one or more combat brigades or bringing them from the United States, after the August 2010 deadline for the ostensible withdrawal of all combat brigades now in Iraq.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45923

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MIDEAST: Israel’s Lurch to the Right Could Be Far Indeed
Analysis by Helena Cobban*
EAST JERUSALEM (IPS) – The continuing efforts by Israel?s presumptive next prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to assemble a rightwing-dominated government have sparked serious concern about the effects such a government might have on peace efforts with the Palestinians.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45916

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MIDEAST: Fatah and Hamas on an Uphill Road to Rapprochement
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO (IPS) – Representatives of rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas met in Cairo this week for talks aimed at national reconciliation and the formation of a unity government.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45912

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MIDEAST: Under the Bombing, A Girl Child Called Hope
By Erin Cunningham
GAZA CITY (IPS) – Ghalia Hussein’s husband refused to evacuate their Rafah home near the Israeli border amid heavy bombardment during the recent 22-day siege. Struck by a missile at the top of their stairs, he bled to death while ambulances attempted to reach him. He left Ghalia three children, a destroyed home, and no income to speak of.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45897

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Iran: The Parthian Shot – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iran/

Holy Land/Unholy War – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/israel_palestina/

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