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

MIDEAST: Security Council Urged to Take Up Gaza War
By Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON (IPS) – Pressure has been building on the U.N. Security Council to address the impact of the Gaza war on civilians in advance of its meeting Wednesday to discuss the Middle East.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48848

*****
MIDEAST: Unrest Rising Over Goldstone Report
Analysis by Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – The Palestinian Authority (PA) is trying desperately to contain the political fallout following its decision to withdraw support for a UN report into war crimes committed in Gaza in December and January.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48793

*****
ECONOMY: Recovery Will Be Jobless
Analysis by Jacques N. Couvas
ISTANBUL (IPS) – The annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ended Wednesday in Istanbul in a climate of cautious hope for the economy and with a mixed bag of opportunities and challenges for the two institutions.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48771

*****
MIDEAST: Turkey-Israel Rift Good for Palestine
Analysis by Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – Turkey’s cooling relationship with Israel comes in tandem with its improving relations with the Arab and Muslim world, and this development is expected to impact positively on Palestinian politics.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48859

*****
MIDEAST: Cold Turkey Could Change Political Balance
Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM (IPS) – It’s long been among the most durable, strategic relationships in the Near East – perhaps because it was the most unlikely. For decades, the two regional superpowers, Turkey and Israel, have quietly stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the common strategic challenges facing them.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48830

*****
MIDEAST: Gaza Gets Ambitious With Mud
By Eva Bartlett
SHEIKH ZAYED, Gaza (IPS) – On a searing summer morning, workers are adding layers to the mud-brick police station being constructed in Sheikh Zayed, northern Gaza.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48828

*****
YEMEN: Children Flee Fighting
By Phoebe Greenwood*
AMRAN, Yemen (IPS/AJ) – As the conflict between government forces and Houthi fighters grinds on in the mountains of Saada in northern Yemen, thousands of Yemeni civilians, many of them children, are being forced from their homes by the fighting.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48819

*****
MIDEAST: Rift Developing Between PA and Fatah
By Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – An increasingly isolated and unpopular Palestinian Authority (PA) has again made a 180-degree turn in the Goldstone report fiasco as it tries to fend off mounting criticism from all and sundry, including its own organisation.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48812

*****
MIDEAST: Another Nobel Message for Peace
Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM (IPS) – In the week of Nobel Prize announcements, the most intriguing comment from the Middle East came not, as one might have expected, as a straight reaction to the shock of U.S. President Barack Obama being awarded this year’s Peace Prize.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48805

*****
MIDEAST: U.S. Strategy in Doubt as Abbas Loses Popular Support
Analysis by Helena Cobban*
WASHINGTON (IPS) – Just two months ago, many western commentators were jubilant that Mahmoud Abbas, the U.S.-supported head of both the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the interim Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA), was making a comeback and reducing the influence in Palestinian society of the Islamist movement Hamas.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48795

*****
MIDEAST: Muslims See Victory at Al-Aqsa
By Mel Frykberg
EAST JERUSALEM (IPS) – Clashes between Israeli security forces and protesting Palestinians have subsided as several hundred Muslims agreed to evacuate Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque following a deal brokered by the Jordanian Embassy in Tel Aviv Saturday.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48804

**********
SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THE NEW IPS GenderWire:

Only about 22 percent of the voices you hear and read in the news are women?s. You can change your perspective – Read the new IPS Gender Wire.
ipsnews.net/_newsletter/genderwire.asp

**********
DON’T MISS IPS EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.

U.S. President Barack Obama has inherited wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a tanking economy, and global crises like climate change. IPS reports on the implications of the new administration not just for U.S. citizens, but for the world.
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/us_elections2008/index.asp

For more IPS reporting on the Middle East – www.ipsnews.net/middle.asp

Iraq: Beyond the Green Zone – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iraq/

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

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

Afghan Divide – www.ipsnews.net/afghanistan/

Bush?s Legacy – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/warII/

IPS coverage of terrorism – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/terrorism/

Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS), the world’s leading provider of information on global issues, is backed by a network of journalists in more than 150 countries. Its clients include more than 3,000 media organisations and tens of thousands of civil society groups, academics, and other users.

IPS focuses its news coverage on the events and global processes affecting the economic, social and political development of peoples and nations.

Visit Inter Press Service at www.ipsnews.net