Netanyahu defends Israeli offensive in Gaza on U.S. television

(GNN) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed international calls for a ceasefire while defending his country's offensive in Gaza during appearances on U.S. television on Sunday.

Netanyahu appealed for sympathy for Israelis under siege from militant rockets as a warning siren followed by an all-clear signal punctuated his interview on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"When we began this interview we were under bomb alert and as the minutes passed now we're told people can go out into the open air again," he said.

"This is the kind of reality we're living in. And we'll do whatever is necessary to put an end to it," he said, referring to the escalating violence between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza.

Netanyahu urged Americans to imagine that U.S. cities from the East Coast to Colorado, or 80 percent of the population, were under threat of rocket attack, with only 60 to 90 seconds to reach a bomb shelter. "That's what we're experiencing right now, as we speak," he said.

Netanyahu's television appearances came as thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in a Gaza town after Israel warned them to leave before threatened attacks on rocket-launching sites.

Sunday marked the sixth day of an offensive that Palestinian officials said has killed at least 160 people.

Militants in the Gaza Strip kept up rockets salvoes deep into the Jewish state and the worst bout of Israel-Palestinian bloodshed in two years showed no signs of abating as Western foreign ministers meeting in Vienna said a ceasefire was an urgent priority.

Netanyahu refused to discuss a ceasefire or give a timeline for Israel's operation in Gaza.

CALLS FOR RESTRAINT

Asked if a ground invasion was imminent, he said Israel would use any means necessary to accomplish its goal of degrading Hamas's rocket-launching capability to restore security for Israeli civilians.

"Whether we're at the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning I'm not going to tell you that right now - because we face a very, very brutal terrorist enemy," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

As international pressure built for restraint, Netanyahu said he had spoken with U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders who understood Israel's need to defend itself.

"We'll do what is necessary," he said. "What any country would do: What the United States would do, what Britain would do, what France would do, and many, many other countries."

Former U.S. Middle East peace envoy Martin Indyk said he did not think Netanyahu wanted a ground war in Gaza. "What he wants is an end to the rocket fire, and he's looking for ways to pressure Hamas to do that," Indyk said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"But he's a very cautious man when it comes to using force and I think he's very reluctant to go in. And in a sense Hamas knows that," said Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. "So the bluff of mobilizing all of these tanks is not working in terms of getting Hamas to stop the firing."

Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Netanyahu by telephone, telling him the United States was prepared to broker a ceasefire, a senior State Department official said.

U.S.-led peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in April. Indyk, who stepped down shortly afterward, said Washington should continue to press for a ceasefire.

"The problem is how do you get Hamas to agree to a ceasefire," he said.

(Reuters)(AIP)(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Vienna; Editing by Jim Loney and Lynne O'Donnell)

An embrace and a handshake: how John Kerry brokered peace between Afghan rivals

(GNN) - It was late on Saturday evening in a fourth-floor room of the U.S. ambassador's residence in Kabul that the election crisis in Afghanistan that had threatened to divide the nation was staved off.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in the room with former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, one of the two warring presidential candidates.

The door was opened to Abdullah's rival and bitter foe Ashraf Ghani.

Ending months of bitter squabbling, Ghani walked arms wide open toward Abdullah, embracing him warmly and shaking his hand, according to a U.S. official who was present.

A few hours later the two candidates announced they had agreed to a full recount of the disputed June 14 vote, meaning there would be a delay in the Aug 2 inauguration of a new president to replace Hamid Karzai, who was installed in office by the United States after the ouster of the hardline Islamic Taliban regime in 2002.

It took Kerry a marathon 44 hours of "intensive" and "emotional" talks to broker a deal between the two candidates, whose rupture had threatened to divide Afghanistan along ethnic lines, said several U.S. and Afghan officials who were involved in the process.

With the bulk of U.S. forces scheduled to withdraw from the war-torn nation this year, the row over the election and the possibility of violence has rekindled fears of a civil war and the prospect that the Taliban would take control again.

Preliminary results from the run-off vote in June put Ghani, a former World Bank official, well ahead but Abdullah rejected the result, claiming widespread fraud and calling the outcome a "coup" against the Afghan people.

Abdullah's support is mainly in the north, among the Tajik minority, while Ghani is supported by Pashtun tribes in the east and south. Tensions had soared earlier in the week when Abdullah's supporters threatened to form a parallel government after preliminary results from the vote were announced.

In a hurriedly arranged trip after visiting China, Kerry flew into Kabul late on Thursday night. He spoke with the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, James Cunningham, until 3:30 a.m. to map out a strategy on how to resolve the dispute, said U.S. officials who were aware of what transpired.

Four hours later, after a short nap, Kerry’s first meeting was with U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan Jan Kubic, followed by separate talks with Ghani and Abdullah.

He was to meet with both candidates separately again and then finally bring them together after the ritual breaking of the Islamic Ramadan fast on Saturday evening, the officials said.

ONE-ON-ONE

Kerry started his meetings with the two candidates one-on-one, said the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He already knew both men well, which allowed him to go directly into serious conversations that might have otherwise taken longer. A lot of "heavy lifting" was in the one-on-one sessions, according to the officials.

For weeks, the approach to ending the crisis had been two-track: a technical one in which talks focused on how to set up an audit of the votes that would restore the credibility of the election process; and a second, more difficult aspect - how to build an inclusive and broad-based government.

President Karzai had already been in talks with the two sides about the formation of a new government, but tensions over the election made the conversations difficult.

It was clear to the Americans that to resolve the crisis, questions over the recount, in particular the scope and implementation of it, had to be dealt with first to clear the way for a political dialogue.

Gradually the discussion moved to a full recount of the votes, which to the Americans was simpler but would also cost more in both time and money.

A complete audit would significantly improve the credibility of the outcome, officials said. Details of the implementation of the audit were left to U.N. experts, who drew on their expertise from a global array of recounts and audits.

The breakthrough moment in the talks came when the candidates began talking about doing a full audit of the votes, according to U.S. officials.

Discussions on how an audit could possibly look had already been studied by the United Nations. "We picked up where they left off and continued that dialogue," said an official.

Afghan sources say that Ghani agreed to a total recount because he is firmly convinced of his victory. Under the preliminary results, he is leading by more than a million votes.

On the other hand for Abdullah, it is a face saving solution. He has said he would accept defeat as long as the vote is completely clean, and the complete revision of the ballot boxes would give him a chance to exit gracefully, if he loses.

WIDESPREAD FRAUD

A source in Abdullah's camp said Abdullah managed to convince Kerry there was widespread fraud in the vote and that a recount was necessary.

"Kerry and Abdullah met twice and those meetings lasted for hours. The temperature was friendly but sometimes very serious. (Abdullah) expressed his concerns repeatedly during those meetings," the source said.

"(Kerry) accepted all our demands and promised to give us what was in our right. (Abdullah's camp) warned that if we don't compromise and reach a peaceful conclusion, Afghanistan will turns to its bad days again, America will withdraw all its forces and all their sacrifices and money they spent in the past 13 years will be wasted."

U.S. officials said there was nothing in the agreement that pre-judges the outcome of the audit or the election. Both candidates supported the approach, both of them agreed upfront to abide by the results of an audit.

Most of the progress was on Saturday, according to U.S. officials, with final agreement reached late in the evening.

When Abdullah and Ghani met in Kerry's presence, it was the first time they had talked to each other in months.

The men then sat down in armchairs on either side of Kerry, one U.S. official said. Ghani was dressed in traditional Pashtun clothes, a shalwar kameez or a loose tunic and trousers, and rolled prayer beads in his hands, which he says also helps his arthritis.

Abdullah was in a grey suit, seated opposite Ghani with Kerry in the middle.

After the final details were agreed, the three men held a joint news conference at the United Nations compound in Kabul just before midnight on Saturday.

All agreed that the best way out of the acrimonious and protracted deadlock was to delay the inauguration and recount all the ballots from scratch.

And in a show of unity after months of bitter bickering, Ghani kissed Abdullah on the cheek. Then they embraced.

(Reuters)(AIP)(Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)