Middle East Inside Line: Sarkozy on Palestine State, Barak in US for Iran Talks, Son of Hamas Founder Spied for Israel

Sarkozy Steps Back from Palestinian State: On Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas discussed the future of negotiations and a Palestinian state. Sarkozy made two points: there should be no unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state before borders are defined with Israel, and there was no time to be waste in starting negotiations since "if there are no talks....we take the risk, the international community, of a third intifada".

Abbas supported Sarkozy's line, "Negotiations first, proclamation of a state later."

Israel Pushes Washington for Harsher Sanctions on Iran: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak left for the US on Tuesday, for five days of talks with senior American officials, including US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that will focus on Iran.

PA Security Prevents Attacks into Israel: According to Haaretz, the Palestinian Authority prevented a suicide attack about six weeks ago that a young woman (from Islamic Jihad) from Nablus had planned to carry out in Israel. Palestinian security sources said that it was not the first success to thwart such terrorist activities.
Shimon Peres Advocates Extension of Heritage Sites in West Bank: Israeli President Shimon Peres, during his meeting with Robert Serry, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said Wednesday that Hamas is trying to create an artificial conflict over the extension of Israeli national heritage sites in the West Bank. On Tuesday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya urging Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up against Israeli forces after the Israeli cabinet added the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's tomb in Bethlehem to the list of sites.

Top Hamas Official's Son Worked for Israel's Shin Bet: Haaretz says that Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of leading Hamas figure Sheikh Hassan Yousef, served for over a decade as the most valuable source for Israel's Shin Bet domestic security service. During the second Intifada, Haaretz says,information Yousef gathered led to the arrests of a number of high-ranking Palestinian figures responsible for planning deadly suicide bombings.

Europe Inside Line: A New Co-operation for France and Germany

New EA correspondent Aysegül Er offers this report on events in Europe:

On Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meeting in Paris, put forth a ten-year blueprint for political and economical cooperation. The blueprint complements and extends a security cooperation which has been marked for 20 years by regular meetings of the Franco-German Defense and Security Council and an economic relationship in which bilateral trade reached €137.3 billion ($187 billion) in 2008.

The new cooperation covers diplomatic policy, security, defense coordination, economic and fiscal initiatives, environment protection, and biological diversity. Technological concerns also have emerged in initiatives such as a cross-border electro-mobility program for electric cars, joint bureaus dedicated to renewable energy, and aeronautic co-operation.



Sarkozy offered this explanation for the measures, "The financial crisis forced us to understand each other better ... Now we have decided to take it to another level." Sarkozy  added that France and Germany will contribute to the European Union’s common policy for improvement of economical conditions through this cooperation. A French official added that the two countries would extend their the cooperation to exchanges between companies as well as between employers and unions.

Merkel argued that developed countries should promote this type of co-operation by taking responsibility for sustainable growth, "We do everything to implement sustainable development and to include the principle of sustainability as a guideline of our common shares.”

Merkel and Sarkozy went beyond their countries to talk about budget stability of in the Euro-zone, mentioning debt crises in locations like Greece and Portugal. They argued that these countries should avoid such problems, both for the stability of their domestic situation and for the progress of the European economy.

The French and German leaders also announced a military step with the production of the A400M "transformed plane". The A400M is the first truly new military transport aircraft in more than 30 years, with twice the capacity and twice the payload of current models. It will be Europe’s biggest defense programme.