Netanyahu Says Broader Coalition Enhances Peace Prospects

Israel’s new national unity government is creating an opportunity to advance the peace process, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wrote to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. In a letter delivered to PA headquarters in Ramallah by his special envoy Isaac Molho, Netanyahu said negotiations should resume as soon as possible. Molho and Abbas met for 90 minutes and afterwards the two sides also issued a joint statement acknowledging their obligation to achieve peace. Netanyahu recruited the centrist Kadima Party to his coalition last week, expanding his parliamentary majority and diluting the power of coalition partners skeptical of peace talks. A source who saw the letter that Netanyahu sent to Abbas said it included an official pledge by Netanyahu, for the first time in an official state document, to establish a demilitarized Palestinian state in keeping with the principle of a two-state solution.

GCC Countries Weigh Closer Union

Leaders of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are weighing a plan to strengthen their political ties as they begin meeting on Monday. Details remain unclear, but Bahrain's State Minister for Information, Samira Rajab, suggested that it could follow the “European Union model.” As a precursor, there are reports that Saudi Arabia and Bahrain may fully merge, arousing strong opposition in Bahrain, which has been wracked by months of unrest. “Al-Khalifa has no right to decide a union or confederation with any country,” Sheikh Ali Salman, the leader of Bahrain's main opposition movement, Al-Wefaq, said, referring to the ruling family. A committee made up of three representatives from each of the six member states - the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman - will submit its findings on the proposed union to Monday's summit.

Egypt’s Abdul Fotouh: Israel Treaty Is Security ‘Threat’

Israel is a “racist state” and Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with it is “a national security threat” that must be “revised,” declared Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a front runner in the Egyptian presidential elections the next week.  In an interview with the private Egyptian television channel CBC, Aboul Fotouh said he had opposed the 1979 Camp David peace treaty from the start. In a televised debate with his main contender, former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, Aboul Fotouh described Israel as an “enemy.” Moussa has also argued for the revision of the treaty with Israel and describes its policies towards Palestinians as an Egyptian “national security issue.” The U.S. regards the bilateral treaty as a lynchpin of its Middle East strategy and has urged the candidates to respect it, but for now the State Department is taking it in stride. “People say things in a campaign and then when they get elected they actually have to govern,” spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

IAEA Quizzes Iran on Nuclear Suspicions

Is Iran serious about coming clean on its nuclear ambitions? That is what the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be asking when it meets with Tehran officials on Monday for the first time in three months. The United Nations atomic watchdog will press for access to an Iranian military site in talks whose outcome could provide impetus for a broader diplomatic push to reach an agreement with Iran on its nuclear program. The permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany (P5+1 powers) “would certainly take it as an encouraging sign” if Iran provided a credible response to IAEA suspicions about the nature of Tehran's nuclear work, a Western diplomat told the Reuters news agency. Iran and the P5+1 powers will meet for a second round of negotiations on May 23. IAEA officials want Iran to explain intelligence pointing to past and possibly ongoing research in developing technologies needed to build nuclear arms.