ISTANBUL, June 8, (Agencies): Envoy of His Highness the Amir of the State of Kuwait, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, renewed Kuwait’s condemnation of the bloody Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla as he addressed the conferees at the Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA) conference.
Sheikh Nawaf said the attack, which left 39 people between dead and wounded, was a stark violation of international law and recalled the honorable stances of Turkey in support of the Palestinian cause, reflected anew in the fact that most of the flotilla victims were Turk nationals.
On the CICA conference which kicked off today, His Highness pointed out Kuwait strongly believes in an Asian bloc to cater to Asia’s issues and interests and so joined in, hoping this bloc would help boost cooperation among Asian leaders and people to promote peace and stability across the continent. His Highness also remarked that the state is strongly behind all initiatives for regional peace and development, and supports infrastructure and development projects.
Sheikh Nawaf said Asia suffers the burden of many dossiers which compromise the peace and stability of the world as a whole, topped by the Palestinian dossier. The international community has a duty to address this issue and see to establishment of a viable Palestinian State with Al-Quds as its capital and with full integrity and sovereignty.
Commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative, the Road Map, and other international initiatives and resolutions in this regard would help bring closure on this file, he stated. International cooperation is also needed to address poverty across Asia, warning that poverty often leads to many negative phenomena and social ailments including terrorism, extremism, organized crime, and instability. The head of the Kuwaiti delegation to the conference also urged more effort to declare the Middle East a region free of nuclear weapons and noted this should lead to a world free of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).
His Highness finally stressed the expression “confidence-building” and said the way to realize trust is for all parties involved to opt for dialogue and transparency while searching for common ground, and any Asian bloc needs this approach and needs mechanisms to realize this philosophy if it is to serve the people of the continent.
Turkey’s president says 21 Asian countries meeting at a security summit have denounced Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.
Abdullah Gul says 21 of the 22 nations in the grouping, which includes Israel, have also called on the Jewish state to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and place all of its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Israel managed to block a joint declaration by the group that would have condemned it, forcing Turkey to issue a separate statement.
Israel says its soldiers acted in self-defense in May 31 and began shooting only after a mob of activists attacked them after the commandos boarded the ship.
Raid
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday his country would raise the controversial issue of who should investigate Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza aid flotilla at the United Nations.
“Unfortunately, this act happened in international waters, which is another source for concern,” Putin said during a press conference on the sidelines of an Istanbul summit on security in Asia.
Nine Turks were killed in last week’s Israeli raid on a six-vessel international flotilla shipping relief supplies to the Gaza Strip which is under an Israeli embargo.
Putin stressed the need for calm and for a thorough and comprehensive investigation at the press conference also attended by Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“We can’t allow a new flame to flare up in the Middle East.” Putin added: “This is why (the incident) must be specifically investigated.”
“We will raise the issue at the United Nations, we’re working at it,” said Putin, who discussed the raid with Erdogan “in detail”.
Putin said the “tragic incident with the humanitarian flotilla for the Gaza strip, the loss of peaceful civilians has caused a new exacerbation of the situation.
Blockade
The UN humanitarian chief on Tuesday said Israel needs to be persuaded to ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip, calling it “inflammatory” in the wake of last week’s deadly commando raid on an aid flotilla.
“We cannot make Israel do that ... we have to persuade Israel that it’s in her interest,” John Holmes told the Australian Associated Press during a visit to the capital, Canberra, for a meeting of donors.
He said the 3-year-old blockade “is an extra inflammatory aspect of the Middle East crisis. The effects it’s having on the population of Gaza ... is devastating. There is a bit of a tinderbox there.”
Gaza has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since Hamas militants seized power in a violent takeover of the seaside strip in 2007. Egypt said Monday that it will leave its border with the Palestinian territory open indefinitely for humanitarian aid and restricted travel.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa affirmed in Cairo Tuesday that the Arab League is serious in its efforts to break Israeli blockade on Gaza Strip and that his planned visit within a few days to Gaza comes within these efforts.
Moussa said in press statements that the inter-Palestinian reconciliation file will be disscussed during his visit to Gaza. Moussa said that the Arab League contemplated sending aid to Gaza Strip, and that Arab convoys of relief existed and were ready for that purpose. On the timing of his visit, he said it fell within the framework of solidarity with the besieged Palestinians in Gaza.
Goods
An Israeli rights group on Tuesday said the military is still preventing basic goods like vinegar, coriander and toys from entering Gaza as part of a crippling embargo on the Hamas-run territory.
The report by the Gisha Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement marking three years since closures were tightened said Israel permits just 97 different items to enter, as compared to more than 4,000 that entered before June 2007.
A large Israeli supermarket, by comparison, would be stocked with 10,000 to 15,000 different items, the group said.
Israel has said the closures imposed in June 2006 and tightened after Hamas violently seized power a year later are needed to contain the Islamist group and that the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents are being met.
Probe
The international community must be given a “credible” role in Israel’s probe of its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, UN chief Ban Ki-moon insisted on Tuesday.
Ban’s view is that “credible international involvement is crucial to a prompt, credible, impartial and transparent investigation” of the deadly May 31 raid on an aid flotilla, UN spokesman Farhan Haq told journalists.
Asked about reports that Israel has rejected an international inquiry into the incident that left nine Turkish pro-Palestinian militants dead, Haq said: “We have not yet heard an official response.”
Earlier Tuesday, Israel outlined plans to hold its own limited probes into the raid launched to enforce the Jewish state’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The probes will look exclusively into the legality of Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and the raid on the aid flotilla, Israeli minister without portfolio Benny Begin told public radio.
Israel on Tuesday outlined plans to hold its own limited probes into its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, defying world pressure for an international inquiry into the widely condemned operation.
The probes will look exclusively into the legality of Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and the May 31 raid on an aid flotilla that sought to break it, minister without portfolio Benny Begin told public radio on Tuesday.
Killed
The bodies of two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in the seas off Gaza washed ashore on Tuesday, bringing to six the total number of alleged militants killed by the navy in a raid off the coast.
The bodies of two men in their 20s who had each been shot in the head washed ashore and were collected by local medics, the head of Gaza emergency services, Muawiya Hassanein, said.
On Monday, Israel attacked a boat carrying what it said was “a squad of terrorists wearing diving suits on their way to execute a terror attack.”
Trial
Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Monday on the Israelis who carried out last week’s deadly attack on the Gaza aid flotilla to be brought to justice.
“The attackers of the humanitarian convoy must be judged” for carrying out the “abject and inhuman act,” he said in an interview with French television TF1.
Israel sparked international outrage when its commandos attacked the fleet of aid ships bound for Gaza and killed nine people.
Brotherhood
Egypt allowed lawmakers from the Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups to enter the blockaded Gaza Strip on Tuesday, but barred construction material contained in an accompanying aid convoy.
Security sources said this week Egypt would keep its Rafah border open indefinitely, barring security threats, a move seen as an attempt to deflect criticism of its role in the blockade imposed by Israel in 2007.
Five pro-Palestinian activists arrested by Israeli forces after attempting to break the blockade of Gaza said Monday on their return to Dublin they were determined to try again.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire and her four fellow Irish passengers among 19 people on board the Rachel Corrie reacted peacefully when Israeli commandos seized the vessel on Saturday as it tried to reach the Gaza Strip.
Hamas
The Palestinian Hamas movement said Tuesday it was “not opposed” to European monitoring of Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt or Gaza-bound ships.
“We are not opposed to the presence of a European monitoring body at the Rafah crossing on the condition that there is no Israeli interference in this matter,” spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
“We are ready and prepared to study the idea of European inspections of ships coming to Gaza when the details are ready... We are not opposed to the idea.”
EU Checks
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Tuesday gave a cool response to a French call for the European Union to take charge of the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into the Gaza Strip.
Frattini, speaking in Berlin after talks with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle, noted that the Palastinian movement Hamas, which controls Gaza, had in the past ended EU checks carried out at the border.
“The EU has already assumed control of border checks for a time, for example at Rafah,” he said.
Protest
An Israeli businessman on Monday suffered slight injuries caused by students at a Spanish university protesting Israel’s use of force against a Gaza-bound aid ship.
Some 200 students prevented three Israelis who were due to take part at a conference on renewable energy at the Autonomous University of Madrid from entering the campus, Spanish media reported.
When the three sought refuge in a police patrol car, the protestors started banging on the windows of the vehicle while chanting “Murderers! Murderers! Murderers!”, images broadcast on private television Cuatro showed.

Also:
BEIRUT: Lebanese activists called Tuesday for a boycott of British rock band Placebo on the eve of its Lebanon gig for performing in Israel in the wake of the deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
“You are not welcome in Lebanon,” Lebanese writer and editor Samah Idriss said at a news conference jointly held by five non-governmental organisations on the eve of the concert in Beirut.
“The band must choose either to play in Lebanon or to play in a state that continuously violates rights,” Idriss said on behalf of the groups, which include the Campaign to Boycott Israeli Supporters in Lebanon and the Campaign for the Lebanese Boycott of Zionism.