Excerpts: Fateh Party conference planned for 1,500 delegates.Syria welcomes
foreign banks' representative offices".China to establish Industrial Zone in
Syria,Jordan reject's Netanyahu's speech, Yemeni Shiite Zaidi rebels
accused,Iran's supreme leader orders election investigation.Lebanon busts
key Al-Qaeda cell network June 16, 2009

+++JORDAN TIMES 16 June '09:"Fateh to hold summit in Palestinian territories
next month"
QUOTE:"(in Amman) rivals within Fateh exchange accusations about each
other's loyalty to the cause"

FULL TEXT:AMMAN (JT) - Leaders of the Palestinian faction Fateh agreed to
hold the long-awaited conference for the party next month in the Palestinian
territories, top officials said. If the meeting is held, it will be the
first to take place inside the Palestinian territories following years of
refusal by the group's leaders to meet in a place under occupation. The
decision was made following three days of meetings in Amman, which saw
rivals within Fateh exchange accusations about each others' loyalty to the
cause, according to sources familiar with the meetings. Meetings started
Friday12 June) and continued until Sunday(13 June) evening with leaders from
the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon participating,
including Abbas. More than 1,500 delegates are to attend the upcoming
conference, 40 per cent from the West Bank, 30 per cent from Gaza and 30 per
cent from the Palestinian diaspora

+++SYRIA REPORT 16 June '09:"Central Bank Allows Foreign Banks to Open
Representative Offices in Syria"
EXCERPT:The Credit and Monetary Council has allowed foreign banks to open
representative offices in Syria. . . .

+++SYRIA REPORT 16 June '09:"Hong-Kong Firm to establish 7m sqm Industrial
Zone in Syria"
EXCERPT:Gatoson Ltd, a Chinese Holding firm, is establishing an economic
zone dedicated to Chinese investments in the region of Hama. . . .

+++JORDAN TIMES 16 June '09:"Government rejects Israeli premier's remarks"
EXCERPTA:AMMAN (JT) -- The government on Monday(15 June ) said the peace
plan proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday(14
June) does not meet the internationally adopted conditions for a just and
comprehensive peace in the region.
Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and Government
Spokesperson Nabil Sharif said that the two-state solution, which guarantees
the establishment of an independent, viable Palestinian state with Jerusalem
as its capital, is the only . . .

+++EGYPTIAN GAZETTE 16 June '09:"7 hostages found dead in Yemen", Reuters
QUOTE"authorities had accused Shiite Zaidi rebels"
FULL TEXTSANAA - Seven out of nine foreign hostages including a child were
found murdered in northern Yemen yesterday, security officials told Reuters.
"We have found the corpses of seven people who were kidnapped," a local
security official said. "They were killed
."Two of the three children captured with the group were reportedly found
alive. The bodies were found by the son of a tribal leader in Noshour, east
of the volatile Saada mountainous area of northern Yemen where the nine were
abducted, the official said. The authorities had accused Shi'ite Zaidi
rebels in Saada of seizing seven Germans, a British engineer and a South
Korean woman teacher. The rebels denied the charge. The nine - among them
three German children and two women nurses - belong to an international
relief group that has been working at a hospital in Saada province bordering
Saudi Arabia for 35 years, a local official said on Sunday. There was no
immediate claim of responsibility for the kidnapping, the latest in a string
of abductions of foreigners in one of the poorest countries in the world.
Seoul confirmed that a South Korean, identified by her family name Eom, 34,
had been missing since Thursday (11 June) evening in Yemen when she joined
members of the relief group for a walk. Local sources said the group was a
Christian Baptist organisation that also has a medical team in the hospital
at Jebla, south of Sanaa, where an Islamist militant killed three American
doctors in December 2002.

+++SAUDI GAZETTE 16 June '09:"Probe result: Khamenei "
QUOTE: " 'Between 1.5 and 2 million people have gathered' (protesting
election) "
EXCERPTS: TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader ordered Monday(15 June) an
investigation into allegations of election fraud, marking a stunning
turnaround by the country's most powerful figure and offering hope to
opposition forces who have waged street clashes to protest the re-election
of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
State television quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei directing a high-level
clerical panel, the Guardian Council, to look into charges by pro-reform
candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has said he is the rightful winner of
Friday's(12 June) presidential election.
"Issues must be pursued through a legal channel," state TV quoted Khamenei
as saying.
The supreme leader said he has "insisted that the Guardian Council carefully
probe this letter."
Iran's Guardian Council - whose chairman, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, endorsed
Ahmadinejad before the vote - said it would rule within 10 days on two
official complaints it had received from Mousavi and another losing
candidate, Mohsen Rezaie.
The council vets election candidates and must formally approve results for
the outcome to stand.
Mousavi appeared in public Monday for the first time since the election,
joining thousands of supporters who defied a ban to stage a mass rally in
Tehran.
Addressing the crowds from atop a car, he said he was ready to take part in
a new election.
"The vote of the people is more important than Mousavi or any other person,"
the former prime minister told the massive rally.
Stick-wielding men on motorcycles scuffled with some of the marchers, who
wore Mousavi's green campaign colors. "Between 1.5 million to two million
people have gathered," one policeman involved in the security operation for
the protest told a news agency.

+++NAHARNET 16 June '09:"Qahwaji: Lebanon Busts Key Qaida Cell", Agence
France
Presse

QUOTE: "The (Al-Qaeda)network was plotting to 'destabilize Lebanon, Syria,
Iraq and Gulf countries including Kuwait' "

FULL TEXT:Lebanon has busted a key al-Qaida cell network that was plotting
attacks in a number of Arab countries, its army commander said in comments
published by Kuwaiti newspapers on Monday 15 June '09.
"We busted a huge network of al-Qaida," Lebanese Brigadier General Jean
Qahwaji was quoted as saying by Assiyasah newspaper.
The network was plotting to "destabilize Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Gulf
countries including Kuwait," Qahwaji said at a function held at the Lebanese
embassy in Kuwait City.
He provided no details about the date of the arrest, nor the number of those
arrested or their nationality.
"We have fought against terror in Lebanon and I can affirm that we have
broken its back and succeeded in uncovering people dealing with it," Qahwaji
said.(AFP)
====
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA