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(CNN) -- Burning the Quran would be an "outrageous and grave gesture," the Vatican said Wednesday, joining a chorus of voices pleading with a small Florida church not to burn Islam's holy book on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The Vatican body responsible for dialogue with other religions expressed "great concern" about the plan by Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it would be a "disrespectful, disgraceful act." She was speaking Tuesday night at a State Department dinner in honor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Her statement came a day after the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, warned that the plan "could cause significant problems" for American troops overseas.
But despite the growing pressure, the pastor of the Florida church, Terry Jones, said Wednesday that "as of this time we have no intention of canceling."
Jones all week has rebuffed pleas to call off the event, saying radical Islamists are the target of his message.
"The general needs to point his finger to radical Islam and tell them to shut up, tell them to stop, tell them that we will not bow our knees to them," Jones said on CNN's "AC360."
"We are burning the book," Jones said. "We are not killing someone. We are not murdering people."
Jones announced Wednesday that the church's website provider has "canceled" Dove World Outreach Center's accounts, though its website, and another URL for a book written by Jones titled "Islam is of the Devil," were still accessible Wednesday evening.
"We feel that it's definitely an indirect attack on our freedom of speech," Jones said, adding that the provider, Rackspace, is "trying to shut us down."
But he said, "This is not going to affect the event going forward."
A spokesman for the provider, Rackspace, said the company decided to cancel the center's sites after investigating a complaint and reviewing both sites.
The center "violated the hate-speech provision of our acceptable-use policy," said Rackspace spokesman Dan Goodgame.
"This is not a constitutional issue. This is a contract issue," said Goodgame, adding that his company had given the center until midnight to find another host and move its content. Goodgame said Rackspace has about 100,000 customers and he did not know how long it had hosted those two specific sites.
On Tuesday, Jones said his flock was taking Petraeus' warning seriously but had not decided to cancel the event.
Jones told CNN that while his congregation still plans to burn Qurans to protest the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the church is "weighing" its intentions.
"We have firmly made up our mind, but at the same time, we are definitely praying about it," Jones said on CNN's "American Morning."
As reaction to the planned event grew Wednesday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took to social media outlets, using Twitter to call on Jones to "please stand down."
On Facebook, Palin wrote that Jones' planned Quran burning "will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don't feed that fire."
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is one of the few public officials who defended Jones' right to go ahead, even as he condemned the idea as "distasteful.
"I don't think he would like if somebody burned a book that in his religion he thinks is holy. ... But the First Amendment protects everybody, and you can't say that we are going to apply the First Amendment to only those cases where we are in agreement," Bloomberg said, citing the section of the Constitution that promises freedom of speech.
"If you want to be able to say what you want to say when the time comes that you want to say it, you have to defend others no matter how much you disagree with them," Bloomberg said.
The planned action has drawn sharp criticism from Muslims around the world and from U.S. officials.
The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan condemned it as "disrespectful, intolerant and divisive," in a statement on Wednesday.
"We are deeply concerned about all deliberate attempts to offend members of any religious or ethnic group," said Stephen Engelken, the second-ranking diplomat at the embassy.
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday issued a statement saying the U.S. government "in no way condones such acts of disrespect against the religion of Islam, and is deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups."
It emphasized that it strongly condemned "the offensive messages, which are contrary to U.S. government policy and deeply offensive to Muslims especially during the month of Ramadan."
"Americans from all religious and ethnic backgrounds reject the offensive initiative by this small group in Florida. A great number of American voices are protesting the hurtful statements made by this organization," the Afghanistan embassy said.
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, James Jeffrey, issued a joint statement with Lloyd Austin, the commanding general of U.S. forces in Iraq, to condemn the act.
"As this holy month of Ramadan comes to a close and Iraqis prepare to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, we join with the citizens of Iraq and of every nation to repudiate religious intolerance and to respect and defend the diversity of faiths of our fellow man," they wrote.
With about 120,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops still battling al Qaeda and its allies in the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement, Petraeus warned that burning Qurans "is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems -- not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman denounced the Quran burning as "contrary to the teachings of tolerant divine religions and totally incompatible with the logic of dialogue among civilizations, religions and cultures."
Suleiman noted that a United Nations conference on religious tolerance two years ago called on people "to renounce hatred and intolerance and terrorism," and "to reflect on the Christian teachings and concepts of humanity that emphasizes the love and respect for the other."
Thousands of Indonesians gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sunday to protest the planned Quran burning.
"The burning is not only an insult to the holy Quran, but an insult to Islam and Muslims around the world," said Muhammad Ismail, a spokesman for the hard-line Indonesian Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population.
Jones said his congregation is aware that the action is offensive.
"We realize that this action would indeed offend people, offend the Muslims. I am offended when they burn the flag. I am offended when they burn the Bible. But we feel that the message that we are trying to send is much more important than people being offended."
Jones said Muslims are welcomed in the United States, if they observe the Constitution and don't try to impose Sharia, or Muslim law.
The message, he said, is directed toward the "radical element of Islam."
"Our message is very clear," he said. "It is not to the moderate Muslim. Our message is not a message of hate. Our message is a message of warning to the radical element of Islam, and I think what we see right now around the globe provides exactly what we're talking about," he said.

Sarah Palin is speaking out against a plan put forth by a Florida-based church to burn Qurans on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The former Alaska governor outlined her position on the contentious issue in a message posted to her Facebook page Wednesday evening.
"Book burning is antithetical to American ideals," she wrote. "People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation -- much like building a mosque at Ground Zero."
Even in the wake of criticism, Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center -- who is organizing the demonstration -- signaled that he has no intention of backing down on his controversial plan earlier this week.
Palin directly addressed Jones in the statement she issued on the matter:

I would hope that Pastor Terry Jones and his supporters will consider the ramifications of their planned book-burning event. It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don't feed that fire. If your ultimate point is to prove that the Christian teachings of mercy, justice, freedom, and equality provide the foundation on which our country stands, then your tactic to prove this point is totally counter-productive.

In an unusual twist, Palin's stance aligns with that of many prominent figures in the Obama administration -- from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod and Attorney General Eric Holder.
Gen. David Petraeus sounded the alarm over the national security threat that Quran burning may pose earlier this week:

Petraeus took the rare step of a military leader taking a position on a domestic matter when he warned in an e-mail to The Associated Press that "images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan -- and around the world -- to inflame public opinion and incite violence."

 JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Thousands of Indonesian Muslims rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta on Saturday to denounce an American church's plan to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by burning copies of the Quran.
The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, said it will burn the Islamic holy book Wednesday, the ninth anniversary of the terror attacks. Local officials have denied a permit for the bonfire on the church's grounds, but the center - which made headlines last year by distributing T-shirts that said "Islam is of the Devil" - insists it will go ahead with the plan.
About 3,000 members of a hard-line Islamic group marched to the U.S. Embassy in downtown Jakarta waving banners and posters condemning the plan. The group organized similar rallies in five other cities across Indonesia, the world' largest Muslim nation.
Religious leaders in Indonesia have condemned the plan and called on the U.S. government to use its influence to get the fire canceled.

 KABUL, Afghanistan – The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warned Tuesday an American church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book could endanger U.S. troops in the country and Americans worldwide.
Meanwhile, NATO reported the death of an American service member in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday.
The comments from Gen. David Petraeus followed a protest Monday by hundreds of Afghans over the plans by Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center — a small, evangelical Christian church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy — to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to mark the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States that provoked the Afghan war.
"Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence," Petraeus said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen echoed those sentiments Tuesday, saying any burning "would be in a strong contradiction with the all the values we stand for and fight for."
Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive.
In 2005, 15 people died and scores were wounded in riots in Afghanistan sparked by a story in Newsweek magazine alleging interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay placed copies of the Quran in washrooms and flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk. Newsweek later retracted the story.
Responding to Petraeus' comments, Dove World Outreach Center's senior pastor Terry Jones acknowledged Petraeus' concerns as legitimate but said the church still planned to go ahead with the burning.
"We are at this time not going to cancel it. We're still considering it and praying about it," Jones told The Associated Press. "We are also just also concerned and wondering, when do we stop? How much do we back down? ... Instead of us backing down, maybe it's to time to stand up."
The church, which made headlines last year after distributing T-shirts that said "Islam is of the Devil," has been denied a permit to set a bonfire but has vowed to proceed with the burning. The congregation's website estimates it has about 50 members, but the church has leveraged the Internet with a Facebook page and blog devoted to its Quran-burning plans.
The American's death brings to at least six the number of U.S. forces killed in Afghanistan this month, along with at least four other non-American members of the international coalition.
Engagements with insurgents are rising along with the addition of another 30,000 U.S. troops, bringing the total number of international forces in the country to more than 140,000.
At least 322 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan so far this year, exceeding the previous annual record of 304 for all of 2009, according to an AP count.
Petraeus is asking for 2,000 more trainers and field troops for the international force, NATO officials said Monday. It was unclear how many would be Americans.
Also Tuesday, authorities confirmed the ambush killing of a district chief by suspected insurgents in the northern province of Baghlan on Monday afternoon. Nahrin district chief Rahmad Sror Joshan Pool was on his way home after a memorial service for slain anti-Soviet guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud when rocket-propelled grenades hit his vehicle, setting it on fire, said provincial spokesman Mahmood Haqmal.
Pool's bodyguard was also killed in the attack, and one militant died and two were wounded in the ensuing fire fight with police, Haqmal said.
Five children were killed and five wounded in Yaya Khil district in the southern province of Paktika when an insurgent rocket fired at an Afghan army base hit a home Monday evening, provincial government spokesman Mokhlais Afghan said.
Kidnappers also seized two electoral workers and their two drivers in the western province of Ghor, according to deputy provincial police chief Ahmad Khan Bashir.
Insurgents have waged a campaign of violence and intimidation to prevent Afghans from voting, especially in rural areas, while some pre-election violence has also been blamed on rivalries among the candidates.
___
Associated Press writers Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Travis Reed in Miami, Mitch Stacy in Tampa, Florida, and Amir Shah in Kabul contributed to this report.

Montgomery County polisi telah dikonfirmasi kantor pusat Discovery Komunikasi di Georgia Avenue di pusat kota Silver Spring telah dievakuasi setelah laporan seorang laki-laki mungkin dengan bahan peledak di dalam gedung.

Seorang pria memasuki lobi dan mungkin telah menembakkan senjata dan menyatakan, "Tidak ada yang akan berhasil," kata Montgomery County polisi.

Dalam sebuah wawancara telepon di ABC 7 News dan TBD TV, Discovery Komunikasi Lisa Lucas karyawan bangunan sedang lockdown, dengan jumlah karyawan tak dikenal yang berlindung di kantor. Polisi telah membentuk penjagaan di sekitar gedung.

Dia mengatakan sekitar 01:20, "mendengar kita, Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop."

Polisi belum mengkonfirmasi bahwa beberapa tembakan ditembakkan.

Montgomery County polisi mengatakan SWAT di TKP, dan Tim Tanggap Darurat perjalanan.

Tersangka adalah laki-laki Asia, kata polisi.


UPDATE: 01:50 Waktu Setempat: Menurut Kopral. Dan Friz, seorang jurubicara kepolisian Montgomery County, tim taktis mencoba menghubungi pria bersenjata, yang sedang dipantau di televisi sirkuit tertutup.

Tim "taktis telah mengumpulkan rencana untuk berurusan dengan orang ini," kata Friz ABC 7 News.

Friz tidak dapat mengkonfirmasi laporan bahwa beberapa tembakan telah ditembakkan, tapi dia bilang tidak tembakan telah ditembakkan oleh polisi pada 13:40 waktu setempat

Polisi awalnya dikirim ke gedung untuk laporan tembakan sekitar 13.00. Polisi yang melaporkan tersangka adalah laki-laki Asia.

"Beberapa jenis perangkat pada dia yang dapat sifatnya meledak ..." Friz kata.


UPDATE: 02:02 pm: The Discovery Channel Day care telah dievakuasi ke McDonald's terdekat. Day care itu merawat sekitar 100 anak-anak. Mereka dilaporkan aman.

UPDATE 02:15 Angela Gates, juru bicara Metro, mengatakan Silver Spring stasiun Metro tetap terbuka, meskipun pintu selatan ditutup. Bus bahwa layanan Silver Spring Pusat Transit sedang berbelok di sekitar jalan-jalan ditutup, katanya. Colesville Jalan diblokir.

UPDATE 02.21: Polisi mengatakan setidaknya ada satu sandera.

UPDATE 2:25 Semua pekerja di gedung dievakuasi. Banyak disuruh pulang meskipun mereka meninggalkan barang-barang pribadi di dalam bangunan.

UPDATE 14:33 ini e-mail yang dikirim kepada karyawan Discovery

Perihal: URGENT: Karyawan Harus Pulang - Jangan Sampai Kembali ke 1DP Karyawan Perhatikan lebih lanjut di 1DP harus pulang untuk sisa hari itu. Tidak ada karyawan harus kembali ke 1DP untuk alasan apapun. Karyawan dengan mobil di 1DP tidak harus kembali ke kantor, melainkan menggunakan modus alternatif transportasi.

Anak-anak dari Discovery Kids Place aman dan dengan para guru di McDonald's di persimpangan Colesville dan Kedua Aves. Orang tua harus bertemu anak-anak mereka di sana dan pulang ke rumah untuk sisa hari itu.

2:52 UPDATE: Departemen Kehakiman koresponden untuk NBC News, Pete Williams, menegaskan nama tersangka sebagai James Jay Lee, seorang demonstran lama dari Discovery.

Moco POLISI UPDATE 15:20: Kepala Kepolisian Montgomery County Tom Manager mengatakan, negosiasi dengan pria bersenjata sedang berlangsung, dan bahwa ada sejumlah "kecil sandera" tapi jumlah pasti belum ditetapkan. Palungan mengatakan tidak ada laporan tentang cedera seperti yang belum.

Dia juga menolak mengatakan apakah pria bersenjata itu membuat tuntutan apapun.

"Aku tidak akan membahas sifat konservasi kita dengan dia," kata Manger.

Adapun laporan bahwa pria bersenjata itu mungkin bom, Manger berkata, "Kami akan dengan asumsi mereka membawa alat peledak."

Palungan menolak untuk mengidentifikasi pria bersenjata itu terbuka, mengatakan polisi harus bertemu dengan dia muka dengan muka lebih dulu. Sumber telah mengidentifikasi dirinya sebagai James Jay Lee.

Kapten Starks Paulus mengatakan, polisi akan memperbarui lain sebelum 04:00

UPDATE 03:41: St Michael School di 824 Avenue Wayne telah ditempatkan pada lockdown, ABC 7 News telah dikonfirmasi.

UPDATE 04:03: moco polisi mengalami briefing, dan berkata kecil kecuali bahwa mereka akan memiliki update lagi oleh 5 Polisi pm kata beberapa rincian "dapat mempengaruhi bagaimana kita memperlakukan situasi ini."

UPDATE 17:00: Polisi menembak tersangka. Kondisinya tidak diketahui. Ketiga sandera aman.

Petugas menembak tersangka at 4:48, Chief Tom Manger kata. Kondisi penembak tidak segera diketahui. Dia belum dihapus dari gedung.

Palungan mengatakan pria bersenjata itu perangkat atau perangkat diikatkan ke tubuhnya, dan perangkat "muncul untuk pergi," kata Manger.

----

Polisi melakukan negosiasi dengan pria bersenjata yang diduga polisi memegang "sejumlah kecil sandera" di gedung markas Discovery Channel di pusat kota Silver Spring.

Mereka telah mengidentifikasi pria bersenjata itu sebagai demonstran lama Discovery Channel James Jay Lee, yang ditahan di tahun 2008.

Lee tampaknya melepaskan tembakan di lobi, mengatakan "Tidak ada yang ke mana-mana."


5:39 UPDATE: Sumber yang melaporkan bahwa polisi telah membunuh seorang pria bersenjata yang menyerbu ke markas Discovery Channel di pusat kota Silver Spring sore ini dan membawa tiga sandera.

UPDATE 06:06: Seorang pria yang ingin Discovery Channel untuk mencegah manusia dari mereproduksi masuk ke markas besar perusahaan Silver Spring pada hari Rabu, dilaporkan menembak, dan membawa tiga sandera orang, County Montgomery polisi dan sumber kata.

Empat jam kemudian, si penembak - yang diidentifikasi oleh sumber-sumber penegak hukum sebagai James Jay Lee - telah mati, ditembak oleh polisi seorang perwira taktis, menurut Montgomery County Kepala polisi Tom Manger.

Selama empat jam kebuntuan, sebagai negosiator dilatih berbicara dengan Lee, Montgomery County polisi taktis pindah ke posisi di sekitar gedung. Mereka mampu melihat pria bersenjata itu dan mendengarkan apa yang dikatakannya, Kata Manger .

"Pada satu titik, tersangka, dilaporkan bahwa dia mengeluarkan pistol bahwa ia datang dengan, dan mengarahkannya ke salah satu sandera," kata Manger. "Itu belum dikonfirmasi sekarang apakah dia benar-benar menembakkan senjata atau tidak, tapi pada saat itu, unit taktis kami pindah ke sini Mereka menembak tersangka tersangka sudah meninggal.."

Manger menambahkan bahwa, "Para sandera itu semua bisa aman keluar dari gedung."

Salah satu sandera adalah seorang penjaga keamanan; dua lainnya Karyawan Discovery , Kata Manger. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Chief Richie Bowers mengatakan ketiga sandera sedang dievaluasi, namun tampaknya tidak terluka.

Manger mengatakan tersangka telah diikat apa yang tampak seperti alat peledak di tubuhnya, dan juga membawa dua kotak dan dua ransel dengan dia. Polisi menduga objek mungkin berisi alat peledak, dan masih bekerja dengan aman memindahkan mereka.

sumber penegak hukum mengidentifikasi pria bersenjata sebagai James Jay Lee,, 43 seorang demonstran sering demo di Discovery Channel.

"Dia jelas memiliki sejumlah masalah dengan Discovery," kata Manger.

David Leavy, eksekutif wakil presiden Discovery untuk urusan korporat, menambahkan: "Kami akrab dengan pria ini Dia telah memprotes sini di masa lalu.."

Leavy berkata: "Seluruh karyawan dicatat" dan "kita dijalankan rencana darurat evakuasi kita lancar Kami sangat bersyukur untuk itu.."

Lee berpendapat bahwa Discovery Channel harus menghabiskan lebih banyak waktu mengecewakan dari reproduksi manusia, karena manusia telah menghancurkan bumi dan menyebabkan perang, dan bahwa Discovery harus mempersembahkan program untuk mengecilkan hati manusia .

UPDATE 18:44: Seorang wanita yang mengatakan dia bertindak sebagai juru bicara keluarga, tapi menolak untuk memberikan namanya mengkonfirmasi bahwa Jim McNulty, seorang karyawan Discovery, adalah di antara tiga sandera "Satu-satunya komentar yang bisa kuberikan Anda akan. Bahwa Jim , yang (sandera), mampu berbicara kepada istrinya sebentar dan pastikan bahwa dia adalah OK, "katanya.

TBD dan ABC 7 News yang bekerja untuk mendapatkan wawancara dengan McNulty.

SILVER SPRING, Md - Polisi menembak seorang pria bersenjata yang menahan tiga sandera selama beberapa jam hari Rabu di gedung Komunikasi Discovery di Silver Spring, Md, pihak berwenang mengatakan. Mereka mengatakan para sandera itu aman dan pria bersenjata itu telah ditahan.

Polisi mengatakan kondisi penembak tak dikenal. Setidaknya satu alat peledak meledak ketika ia ditembak, dan alat peledak lain yang masih bisa di gedung di Montgomery County di pinggiran kota Washington, DC, kata mereka.

Montgomery County Kepala polisi Thomas Manger mengatakan tidak seorang pun diyakini telah disandera pria bersenjata itu cedera.

Orang-orang di lantai kedelapan dan kesembilan bangunan di dekat pinggiran Washington dievakuasi dengan aman, seperti juga anak-anak di Kids Discovery Place pusat penitipan siang hari, kata polisi, menambahkan bahwa tidak ada yang diketahui telah terluka.

pihak penegak hukum mengatakan kepada NBC News mereka percaya orang itu James Jay Lee atau James Jae Lee, 43, seorang demonstran lama di gedung yang dijatuhi hukuman enam bulan masa percobaan diawasi perlakuannya pada Maret 2008.

"Hal yang baik adalah kita harus bagian luar bangunan aman, kita berbicara dengan dia, dan ia ingin berbicara dengan kami," kata Polisi Montgomery County Kapten Paulus Starks.

Brazil's president has criticised Israeli policies towards the Palestinians, warning that Israel's separation barrier, its blockade of Gaza and its continued settlement building was extinguishing "the candle of hope".

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made his comments while on a visit to the West Bank where, on Wednesday, he placed a wreath on the tomb Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader.

What Lula terms his "mission of peace" began in Israel on Tuesday, and is the first visit by a sitting Brazilian president to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Brazil is Israel's largest trading partner in Latin America, but it also has close ties to Iran and Lula has defended Iran's nuclear ambitions, which Tehran says are peaceful but which Israel sees as a potential threat.

Lula laid a yellow and green wreath on Arafat's mausoleum in Ramallah and told a crowd of Palestinian officials and several dozen people waving Brazil's flag that he had participated in pro-Palestinian protests in the past.

Later Lula said that Brazil was willing to talk to Hamas, which is listed by the European Union and the US as a "terrorist" organisation.

"Brazil is prepared to talk to everybody," he said. "All the parties involved must be listened to."

International player

Lula's comments are unlikely to have endeared him to Israel.

A day earlier, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister, said he had boycotted meetings with Lula because the Brazilian president did not pay a visit to the grave of Theodor Herzl, one of the founders of Zionism.

Colin Harding, London-based a Latin America analyst, told Al Jazeera that Lula's visit aimed at helping Brazil emerge as a bigger player on the world stage.

"Brazil, under Lula, has been pressing very hard for a permanent seat on the Security Council of the United Nations, and if Brazil can intervene in some effective way in the Middle East crisis, this would clearly do Brazil's chances no harm at all," he said.

"Their unique selling point in the Middle East is their engagement with Iran ... and I think they hope this policy of engagement will help to bring Iran in as part of the solution rather than part of the problem."

EU efforts

Also visiting Palestinian leaders on Wednesday was Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, on the first leg of a two-day visit to the region.

Like Lula, Ashton has criticised Israeli settlement building, telling Arab leaders in Cairo on Monday that the settlements threaten peace talks and are illegal.

During a joint news conference in occupied Jerusalem with Lieberman, Ashton also called for the immediate resumption of peace talks.

"I believe that it's in the long term interest of this country that this government, together with the Palestinians, determine that future and the sooner we get to the talks, the better," she said.

She also said the so-called Quartet of Middle East negotiators would be "reinvigorated" in their efforts.

Economic pressures

Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's Jerusalem correspondent, said: "I think plenty of people on the ground here have wondered what the Quartet is - it's this body that brings together the Russians, the Americans the EU and the UN - but actually it hasn't been seen to be having much impact here on the ground."

She continued: "It's difficult to say exactly how pressure on Israel might be exerted, it certainly wouldn't be exerted in public press conference, it's far more likely to go on behind the scenes.

"What Ashton did stress though was that the EU's role was much more an economic one than a political one ... she said the EU was there to provide the economic weight to support the process."

A Quartet meeting to be held in Moscow this week appears likely to be dominated by the issue of Israel's settlement construction.

Israel's continued settlement building has caused a crisis Israel relations with the US after Israel unveiled plans to construct 1,600 new homes on occupied Palestinian land during a visit by Joesph Biden, the US vice-president.

(http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/03/201031720103186677.html)

WASHINGTON – House Democrats triggered the countdown Monday for the climactic vote on President Barack Obama's fiercely contested remake of the health care system, even though the legislation remained incomplete and lacked the votes needed to pass.
Obama expressed optimism Congress would approve his call for affordable and nearly universal coverage as he pitched his plan on a trip to Ohio, and congressional leaders showed signs of progress in winning anti-abortion Democrats whose votes are pivotal.
At the same time, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., among the bill's sharpest opponents, said he was "less confident" than before that it could be stopped.
"They'd have to be remarkable people not to fall under the kind of pressure they'll be under," he said of rank-and-file Democrats.
Some of the pressure was aimed at Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who flew aboard Air Force One with President Barack Obama during the day, then walked into a senior citizen center with the chief executive in time to hear a voice from the audience yell out, "Vote yes."
A smiling Obama turned to the liberal lawmaker and said, "Did you hear that, Dennis?" Then, turning back to the audience, he added, "Go ahead, say that again."
"Vote yes!" came back the reply.
Kucinich, who said later he remains uncommitted, is one of 37 Democrats currently in the House who voted against Obama's legislation when it cleared the House last fall.
In addition, the White House is laboring to hold the support of several other Democrats who voted for the earlier bill, but only after first supporting strict anti-abortion limits that would be altered the second time around.
At least two have signaled they are open to supporting the president when the vote comes. One of them, Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota, is "in the leaning yes column," said a spokesman, John Schadl.
"When we bring the bill to the floor, then we will have the votes," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Obama sounded similarly confident in an interview with ABC News. "I believe we're going to get the votes, we're going to make this happen," said the president, who has traveled to three states and lobbied numerous lawmakers in recent days.
Outside interests on both sides sought to prevail on wavering lawmakers.
The National Right to Life Committee, which opposes abortions, wrote to lawmakers that support for the Senate bill would be a "career-defining pro-abortion vote."
Union groups and other supporters announced a $1.3 million advertising campaign urging 17 House Democrats to vote for the measure, and officials at the Service Employees International Union threatened to withdraw support from Democrats who vote against the bill if it loses.
The lobbying came as the House Budget Committee, on a 21-16 vote, took an essential first step toward the House vote, which could come by the weekend.
It was more than a year ago that Obama asked Congress to approve legislation extending health coverage to tens of millions who lack it, curbing industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions, and beginning to slow the growth of health care nationally. His plan would require most Americans to buy health insurance, fine most who fail to do so and provide government subsidies to help middle-income earners and the working poor afford it.
Sweeping legislation seemed to be on the brink of passage in January, after both houses approved bills and lawmakers began working out a final compromise in talks at the White House. But those efforts were sidetracked when Republicans won a special election in Massachusetts — and with it, the ability to block a vote on a final bill in the Senate.
Now, nearly two months later, lawmakers have embarked on a two-step approach that requires the House to approve the measure passed by the Senate, despite misgivings on key provisions. That would be followed by both houses quickly passing a second bill that makes numerous changes to the first. In the Senate, that second bill would come to a vote under rules that deny Republicans the ability to filibuster.
The details of the second, fix-it measure were closely guarded — and subject to last-minute changes. In general, officials have said they would provide more money for lower-income families unable to afford health care and states that already provide above average coverage for the poor under Medicaid, as well as improved prescription drug coverage under Medicare.
The legislation is expected to delete a provision in the Senate bill that singled out Nebraska for favorable treatment under a requirement to expand Medicaid coverage.
Instead, Democrats may provide as much as $15 billion to a dozen states and the District of Columbia, all of which already voluntarily provide at least some of the coverage that would be required.
Officials said one sticking point remained a Senate-passed provision establishing an independent commission with authority to force greater reductions in future Medicare payment to providers. House Democrats want to curtail the board's powers, but rules may forbid any changes under the complex rules covering the Senate's debate of the measure.
The cost of the overhaul is expected to total $950 billion or more over a decade. It would be covered by higher taxes on the wealthy as well as on some health care providers and high-cost insurance plans.
Several hundred billion dollars would also be cut from planned Medicare increases, much of the burden falling on companies that provide private coverage to seniors under Medicare Advantage.
Obama's trip to Ohio was his third foray outside Washington since he vowed two weeks ago to do everything in his power to pass health care. In recognition of his audience, he stressed improvements in Medicare.
"So let me just tell you directly: this proposal adds almost a decade of solvency" to the program," he said, although he made no mention of the planned reductions in provider payments that would take place.
He added it also would close a gap in prescription drug coverage know as a doughnut hole. "This proposal will over time help reduce the costs of Medicare that you pay every month. And this proposal would make preventive care free so you don't have to pay out-of-pocket for tests that keep you healthy."
Obama did not discuss details, and officials said final details of the prescription drug change remained unsettled. The White House has been seeking a $250 rebate in 2010 for seniors who experience the break in coverage. Beginning in 2011, two thirds of the higher costs they now pay when coverage is interrupted would be covered. The balance would be taken care of in installments over a decade.
Vice President Joseph Biden also traveled to Ohio, where he attended a fundraiser for first-term Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-Ohio.
Driehaus voted for the House version of a health care overhaul in November, and has not yet stated his position on the new measure. Biden made no mention of the legislation in his remarks.

(Eds: Associated Press reporters Ben Feller, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Erica Werner, Alan Fram, Chuck Babington, Ann Sanner and Sam Hananel contributed from Washington. Seanna Adcox contributed from South Carolina.)

WASHINGTON – US Gen. David Petraeus charged Tuesday that the Arab-Israeli conflict hurts America’s ability to advance its interests in the Middle East, fomenting anti-American sentiment and limiting America’s strategic partnerships with Arab governments.

Petraeus called the conflict one of the “root causes of instability” and “obstacles to security” in the region – which aids al-Qaida – and argued that serious progress in the peace process could weaken Iran’s reach, as it uses the conflict to fuel support for its terror group proxies.

Petraeus, commander of the US military’s Central Command, a zone that ranges from Egypt to Pakistan, but excludes Israel and the Palestinian Authority, offered the assessment in a prepared testimony for the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“The enduring hostilities between Israel and some of its neighbors present distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests,” he said in the written testimony. “Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the strength and depth of US partnerships with governments and peoples in the [Middle East] and weakens the legitimacy of moderate regimes in the Arab world.”

He continued that the conflict also helps al-Qaida and other terrorist groups “exploit that anger to mobilize support,” and gives Iran “influence” through its clients Hizbullah and Hamas.

“A credible US effort on Arab-Israeli issues that provides regional governments and populations a way to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the disputes would undercut Iran’s policy of militant ‘resistance,’” he said.

In the past, Israel has strongly pushed back against similar attempts to place the Palestinian issue at the center of America’s challenges with Arab countries and the wider Muslim world, particularly the notion that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the key to resolving the region’s woes.

To the extent that similar judgments have been rendered before, they have traditionally been voiced by American political leaders and policy-makers. Petraeus, in contrast, is a uniformed general who is particularly well-regarded in Washington for turning around the insurgency in Iraq.

The Israeli Embassy declined to comment Wednesday on his statements.
In other remarks on Iran, Petraeus indicated that the West had made progress in setting back the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Asked how much time remained before Iran would be able to build a nuclear weapon, Petraeus did not give a precise answer, but did say, “It has, thankfully, slid to the right a bit, and it is not this calendar year, I don’t think.”

n his written testimony, he assessed, “It appears that, at a minimum, Teheran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons. Iran continues to develop and improve its uranium enrichment infrastructure and is likely to use its gas centrifuges to produce fissile material for a weapon, should it make the political decision to do so.”

He also said that “the Iranian regime is the primary state-level threat to stability in the region,” and that the regime uses the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps to “execute covert aspects of its foreign policy using political influence, covert businesses, lethal and non-lethal aid, and training to militants supportive of the regime’s agenda,” particularly in Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

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While Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened his six senior ministers on Wednesday night to discuss the crisis with Washington, US President Barack Obama on Wednesday said the US-Israeli relationship is not in crisis over the approval of an east Jerusalem building plan during US vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel,.

Obama told Fox News Channel that the new housing units "weren't helpful" in carving out a peace between Israelis and Palestinians, but that Washington remains a committed ally for Israel.

The expansion of Ramat Shlomo was a poor choice for Israel, Obama said, but added that, "Friends are going to disagree sometimes."

In Jerusalem, Netanyahu convened the inner cabinet night to discuss the situation, amid reports the Obama administration is conditioning any high-level meetings with Netanyahu in Washington next week on receiving a response to its new demands.

The US, during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s conversation with Netanyahu on Friday, reportedly demanded that Israel stop the Ramat Shlomo projects in northern Jerusalem, make confidence-building gestures to the Palestinians, and agree that the proximity talks with the Palestinian Authority will deal with core issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem, and not just technical issues.

Channel 2 reported on Wednesday night that the administration told Netanyahu that until a response to these requests had been received, he would not be able to meet any high level US officials on his upcoming trip to Washington to address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference.

Prior to the explosion of the Ramat Shlomo issue last week, Netanyahu was expected to meet with both Clinton and Biden during his visit. Now neither meeting is confirmed.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke Wednesday night with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, and – according to a statement issued by Barak – discussed possible solutions to the crisis and ways to restart negotiations with the Palestinians.

The two also discussed the possibility of Mitchell coming to the region on Sunday.

The prime minister is expected to leave on Sunday evening, but his schedule – with the exception of a Monday evening speech to AIPAC and a Tuesday meeting with Jewish congressional members – has not been finalized. He is set to stop in Brussels on his way back for meetings with key European leaders.

Obama is scheduled to be in Indonesia when Netanyahu arrives, though the two were – prior to the recent events – expected to meet a few weeks later at Obama’s nuclear security conference, which is to be attended by some 40 world leaders, including Netanyahu.

Netanyahu spoke by phone with Biden on Tuesday evening, but no details of that conversation were provided either by Israel or the US.

One of the members of Netanyahu’s inner cabinet, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, made it clear on Wednesday that he felt demands on Israel to stop building in east Jerusalem were “unreasonable.”

Lieberman said the international community sees this as an opportunity to “pile on” Israel, pressure Israel and “make unreasonable demands.”

“The demand to forbid Jews to buy or build in east Jerusalem is simply unreasonable,” he said, adding that a similar Israeli policy to forbid Arabs from buying or building in west Jerusalem would be characterized as apartheid.

Lieberman’s comments came after a meeting with the EU’s visiting foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Ashton, who sharply criticized an Interior Ministry committee’s approval last week of plans to build 1,600 housing units in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, did not add to her comments on Wednesday, saying the EU’s position on the matter was known.

But President Shimon Peres alluded to a possible middle ground between Israel’s position on Jerusalem and the growing demands, now backed by Washington, to stop all Jewish building in the city over the Green Line.

Speaking to a group of high school students in Holon, Peres said that previous governments built in new Jewish neighborhoods beyond the Green Line, but avoided construction in Arab neighborhoods, hinting that this might be a formula that the US would accept.

Peres said that Israel and the Palestinians agreed on this formula in the past. He also said that he is speaking with both Netanyahu and American officials about the issue.

“Everyone is interested in reaching an understanding,” he said.

Before meeting with Lieberman, Ashton – who arrived on Wednesday for a one-day visit that will also take her to Gaza on Thursday morning – went to Ramallah for talks with PA President Mahmoud Abbas. There, PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told AFP, Abbas gave her a letter demanding that the EU intervene to pressure Israel to stop all settlement activity anywhere, including in east Jerusalem.

According to Erekat, the letter included maps and other documents about settlement construction carried out since September 2009.

The government does not consider any part of Jerusalem a “settlement.”

Lieberman, during his press conference with Ashton, said the two of them also discussed Iran, an issue that has been largely pushed off the agenda over the past week because of the Ramat Shlomo flap.

“Regarding the Iranian issue, it is a crucial time,” Lieberman said, adding that the Iranian policy of playing for time should not be accepted.

“It is time for tough decisions in the Security Council and in Europe,” he said. “It is time for a new Churchill policy, not a Chamberlain policy – and that is our expectation.”

Ashton said that while the EU preferred dialogue with Iran as the “best way to solve the problem,” if that proved fruitless then she advocated going forward in the UN Security Council.

She said that she has been in contact with both the permanent and temporary members of the 15-member council, and is currently waiting for a date when that body will take up the issue.

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