Excerpts: Hamas threat, Demand for US withdrawal 1 December 2006

+++AHRAM WEEKLY 30 Nov-6 Dec,'06:"Hamas's Cairo message"
HEADING:"Amira Howeidy reports on the outcome of Hamas leader Khaled
Meshaal's Cairo visit"
QUOTE FROM TEXT:"translates as a 'third intifada' "
.... According to the Hamas leader the meeting brought the two sides closer.
With Egypt and Hamas now seeing eye to eye on the three main issues
pending -- a prisoners swap, the coalition government and ending the siege
on the Palestinians -- Suleiman flew to Tel Aviv on Wednesday to relay
Meshaal's terms.
According to Hamas sources, Meshaal is demanding that Gilad Shalit, the
Israeli soldier captured last June, be released in exchange for 1,400
Palestinian prisonersOnce these issues are out of the way," said Meshaal,
"we will focus on our wider aims."
. . .the would-be government is expected to issue a "general" statement
once final details have been agreed, denouncing violence and outlining a
"positive" approach to agreements previously signed between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority.
Hamas may have made concessions, but so far neither the US nor Israel has
responded with the necessary guarantees. Yet during his Cairo visit Meshaal
was optimistic.. . .
(failure) "will mean "more deterioration and destruction".. That" Meshaal
told Egyptian reporters, translates as a "third Intifada".

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 1 Dec.'06:"Sadr Seeks Anti-US Bloc in Iraqi Parliament"
Agence France Presse -
QUOTE FROM TEXT:"Radical leader Moqtada Sadr is building an anti-US
parliamentary alliance to demand the withdrawal of American troops from
Iraq"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------EXCERPTS:BAGHDAD, 1 December 2006 - Radical leader Moqtada Sadr is building ananti-US parliamentary alliance to demand the withdrawal of American troopsfrom Iraq, some of his party's lawmakers said yesterday.The 30-strong Sadrist bloc has suspended its support of Prime Minister NuriAl-Maliki's ruling coalition and withdrawn six ministers from Cabinet inprotest at the premier's meeting with US President George W. Bush.the bloc now hoped to persuade more lawmakers to follow suit, adding thatsome have "started contacting us to take a similar position. We are holdingtalks with them." .... "We are endeavoring to form a national front insideParliament to oppose the occupation," Agaili said.He stressed that the minimum condition for Sadrist deputies to rejoin thegovernment would be "a timetable for the withdrawal of US
forces." US forcesare deployed in Iraq at the invitation of the national government..... .. . .Bush said yesterday after holding talks with the Iraqi leader inJordan that troops would remain in Iraq "until the job is complete."The UN Security Council had earlier renewed the US-led coalition's mandateuntil the end of 2007 at the request of Maliki's government. . . .The government and US commanders hope that better-trained Iraqistate forces will one day be able to win the trust of the population, butobservers fear that a too rapid US withdrawal could see the country tumbleinto civil war.==================================================================================Sue Lerner - Associate - IMRA