Mideast Conflict

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Germany's foreign minister said he was hopeful of a "fresh start" in the Middle East peace process thanks to new US engagement in the region as he arrived in Israel.

BERLIN (AFP) - Germany's foreign minister left for Israel Sunday at the start of a two-day tour that will also take in Syria and Lebanon and is aimed at lending support to the new US engagement in the region.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - The Palestinian national football team will travel to Iraq this week for a friendly, the first international match staged in the war-torn country since 2003, officials said on Sunday.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel has arrested a Palestinian who it claims infiltrated the country from Gaza with the aim of setting up armed cells in the occupied West Bank, the government said on Sunday.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli President Shimon Peres will head to Cairo on Tuesday for talks with Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak, his office said on Sunday.

JERUSALEM - Israel's defense minister said Sunday he hopes to reach a "wider understanding" on regional peace when he meets Washington's Mideast envoy this week, but gave no indication the sides have resolved a dispute over settlement construction in the West Bank.

LONDON (AFP) - Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli warplanes flying over the kingdom in any raid on Iran's nuclear sites, The Sunday Times said in a report denied by Israel.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel will not bow to pressure from Washington to halt settlement activity in the West Bank even for a temporary period, a minister from the governing Likud party said on Sunday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he would discuss with a U.S. envoy Monday a compromise over a peace plan calling for an Israeli settlement freeze and seek ways to promote regional peace.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli submarine used the Suez Canal for the first time recently to get to military exercises in the Red Sea, a paper said, adding the move was aimed as a message to arch-foe Iran.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli police arrested three people as they restored order in annexed Arab east Jerusalem where a brawl killed one person and wounded three, a spokesman said.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas have seized large cash sums and West Bank homes from men they accuse of plotting to kill government officials, a security source said on Saturday.

JERUSALEM - An Israeli defense official says Defense Minister Ehud Barak is to hold a second round of talks with U.S. special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell next week in an effort to resolve differences between the two sides on Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

BEIRUT - Syria's leader sent a July 4 message full of praise to President Barack Obama on Friday and invited him to visit Syria — the latest signs Damascus is hedging its bets in Mideast politics, warming up to its rival the United States at a time when its longtime ally Iran is in turmoil.

ROME (AFP) - US President Barack Obama said in an interview published Friday he thought Pope Benedict XVI would "share my approach" on policy in the Middle East.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States and its Western allies are sounding out Arab governments to see if they might ease sanctions on Israel if it stopped building Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory, diplomats said on Friday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will fly to London on Sunday for a meeting with U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, an Israeli official said on Friday.

MANAMA (AFP) - An official Bahrain delegation travelled to Israel on an unprecedented trip to recover a group of nationals held by the Jewish state, the state news agency reported on Friday.