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

POLITICS: U.N. Affirms Israeli-Hamas War Crimes Report
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – A 575-page blistering report by Justice Richard Goldstone detailing war crimes in Gaza last December is refusing to die despite an aggressive Israeli smear campaign to kill it.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49161

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MIDEAST: Peace Plan May Yet Survive New Twists
Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM (IPS) – U.S. President Obama's Middle East engagement policy reverses the unsuccessful policy of his predecessor, but the U.S. is again committing faux pas aplenty.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49144

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MIDEAST: Lessons from the Karine A -Déjà Vu All Over Again
Analysis by Marsha B. Cohen
WASHINGTON (IPS) – As Israeli Defence Forces munitions experts sorted through 300 tonnes of weapons found on a German-owned, Cypriot-operated cargo ship flying the Antiguan flag, Israeli politicians were sifting through the various talking points that could be offloaded from the vessel.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49175

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RIGHTS: Palestinian Women Suffer as Israel Violates CEDAW
By Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – Palestinian women continue to suffer abuse and denial of basic human rights at the hands of Israeli settlers and soldiers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49146

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U.S.: Congress Out of Step with Public on Intl Law?
By Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON (IPS) – The U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution Tuesday condemning the Goldstone Report on Israeli and Hamas actions taking during the Gaza War as “irredeemably biased” against Israel and calling on U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to oppose any consideration of the report in multilateral fora, such as the United Nations.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49139

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MIDEAST: Abbas Produces a Dubious Twist
Analysis by Mel Frykberg
RAMALLAH (IPS) – U.S. and Israeli failure to take either Palestinian rights or Israeli settlement expansion seriously has placed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA) in an untenable situation, which could seriously damage peace prospects.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49165

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MIDEAST: The 'Unknown' Fight the Illegal
By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM (IPS) – “Make sure your father gets this,” the municipal inspector tells a ten-year-old boy at the gate of the concrete house in an alleyway in the Al-Bustan quarter of Silwan, a Palestinian neighbourhood right under the shadow of the walled Old City.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49186

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US-SYRIA: Diplomatic Thaw Just Penetrating the Surface
Analysis by Ellen Massey
WASHINGTON (IPS) – Four months ago, the Barack Obama administration announced that it would appoint an ambassador to Syria, ending a four-year freeze on diplomatic relations between the two countries.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49158

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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/

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