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Egypt: Treaty with Israel 'not at all' in jeopardy
By Mick Krever, CNN
Amid concerns about its decades-long peace treaty with Israel, a top Egyptian cabinet official said on Thursday that the pact was “not at all” in jeopardy.
Egypt yesterday recalled its ambassador to Israel in response to Israel’s targeted killing of a Hamas military commander in Gaza – an attack that President Mohamed Morsy called an “unacceptable” aggression.
“We are abiding by our legal obligations but we are active to help establishing real peace in the area,” Mohamed Refa'a al-Tahtawi, the chief of the Egyptian presidential cabinet, told CNN’s Hala Gorani. FULL POST
Israel: ‘All options on the table in Gaza’
Israel's Deputy P.M. on Gaza strikes
Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, Dan Meridor, discusses the strikes on Gaza with CNN's Hola Gorani.
Senior Hamas member on strikes in Gaza
Osama Hamdan, a senior member of Hamas, speaks to CNN's Hala Gorani about the strikes in Gaza.
For complete coverage and the latest updates on the airstrikes in Gaza click here.
Israel is leaving “all options on the table,” including a ground offensive into Gaza, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said Wednesday.
“Hamas needs to accept the rules of behavior in the world and not launch any rockets or shoot any of our people in our territory,” Meridor told CNN’s Hala Gorani. “We don’t want to do this any further, but if we have to, we’ll do it.”
Osama Hamdan, a senior member of Hamas, also spoke with Gorani about the strikes and called for an end to the Israeli occupation. “[Dan Meridor] is ignoring the fact that the one who started the bombing in Gaza was the Israeli side… they occupy the Palestinian land and they are blaming the Palestinians for resisting.”
Meridor maintains Israeli strikes against Gaza are in response to rocket fire from Hamas.
Meridor also told Gorani that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, spoke with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden Wednesday, regarding the attacks.
“We explained what we have been doing,” Meridor said. “I think people understand it. And we need to see calm restored and people need to obey the rules of the game and not attack us.”
MORE: The former of head of Mossad talks about military activity near the Israel-Syria border
Syria’s new opposition leader expects more from the U.S.
By Samuel Burke, CNN
The newly elected leader of the Syrian opposition, cleric Sheikh Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, is optimistic after President Barack Obama’s statements about Syria on Wednesday.
The popular Sunni cleric, known for his moderate views, was elected head of Syria’s new opposition group this weekend in Doha. Khatib was jailed four times during the uprising for criticizing the Syrian regime.
In a press conference Wednesday, President Obama said he was encouraged to see the Syrian opposition organizing under an umbrella group and considers them a “legitimate representative of the aspirations of the Syrian people,” but said he is not prepared to recognize the group as “some sort of government in exile.”
Despite the fact President Obama stopped short of full recognition of the new opposition coalition Khatib told CNN’s Hala Gorani, “It is a good step initially and really I appreciate it. This decision and all the people wait for more because the international society for about two years didn’t do anything for Syria’s [people] while the regime killed and slaughtered them.” FULL POST
France's long and complicated history with Syria
The Syrian opposition have united under a new leader: cleric Sheikh Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib.
France has given the group its support - betting that this new coalition will help bring down the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Just a dozen years ago, then-French President Jacques Chirac was the only Western leader to attend the funeral of Bashar al-Assad's father. The Assad family belongs to the sect known as the Alawites, a group that was actually empowered in Syria by French colonialists.
CNN's Hala Gorani looks at France's long and complicated history with Syria.
Israel in communication with Assad
By Samuel Burke, CNN
The former head of Israel’s intelligence agency, Efraim Halevy, has refused to characterize Syrian shelling on the Israel-Syria border as neither deliberate nor as just an accidental spillover from the ongoing civil war.
Initially Israel did not respond to shells falling in its territory. But on Sunday Israel returned fire for the first time since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
In an interview CNN’s Hala Gorani on Tuesday, Halevy said that at first, Israel purposely avoided hitting a military target; but after the second shelling, Israeli forces hit an artillery battery.
While Israel did this on the ground, it “also sent a message, an oral message through certain channels to the presidency in Damascus that this would not be tolerated," Halvey said. “It would not be to his interest or the interests of anybody in Syria to involve Israel in any possible way in the current fighting.” FULL POST
CIA v. FBI in Petraeus scandal
By Samuel Burke, CNN
The real scandal playing out in the United States right now is how the most important agencies in American government are handling the ongoing investigations, Tim Weiner says.
The former New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist knows America's top institutions inside and out, having written acclaimed books about the FBI and CIA.
“The scandal is that one FBI agent took the raw reporting in this investigation and delivered it without authorization to a member of Congress,” he told CNN’s Hala Gorani on Tuesday. “That is not how the game is played. That is dirty pool.”
There has been long-standing rivalry between the FBI and the CIA and a turbulent history of a lack of communication and cooperation. Weiner says the lack of information sharing was all too evident after the September 11, 2001, attacks and believes the current scandal does nothing to help the longtime unease. FULL POST
Sen. Simpson: “Don’t bet the ranch” on fiscal deal happening
By Samuel Burke, CNN
One of the two former senators behind the Simpson-Bowles Commission says he has “no idea” whether President Obama and the U.S. Congress will strike a deal before automatic spending cuts and tax hikes take effect on New Year’s Day.
“These guys dug their own pit when they made their deal,” former Republican Senator Alan Simpson told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday. “They thought no one will be stupid enough to let this happen. Well, don't bet the ranch.” FULL POST
Petraeus’ adviser and confidant says this was the only affair
By Samuel Burke, CNN
Sadi Othman, the senior adviser to General David Petraeus throughout the U.S. campaign in Iraq, says that his affair with biographer Paula Broadwell was “uncharacteristic of the general, and was the only time he was unfaithful to his wife.
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday, Othman said he is still in close contact with Petraeus and spoke with him earlier in the day.
“He’s very sad,” Othman said. “Very remorseful about what happened – about what he did. His focus now is on his family and to repair the damage that has been done because of this mistake that he made.” FULL POST
Will there be more freedom and reforms in China's future?
A discussion about what President Hu Jintao's speech signals to the world about changes in China's future.
Did the Israeli military defy PM Netanyahu?
By Samuel Burke, CNN
A sensational story is rocking Israel this week – alleging that the Israeli military defied orders from its commander in chief, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Leading Israeli journalist Ilana Dayan is reporting that Netanyahu ordered his military to prepare for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities nearly two years ago. Dayan's story documents that both the army chief and the head of Mossad (Israeli intelligence) refused to comply with Netanyahu’s order.
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Thursday, Dayan said the information came from officials who were in the room with Netanyahu when the conversations took place, during a meeting of Israeli ministers. FULL POST
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