Israeli officials have denied a report that the country spied on the United States’ handling of sensitive negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Israel said it hoped the United States would veto any moves at the United Nations to set a timeframe for its withdrawal from territory Palestinians seek for a state, but a senior US official said it was too early to say.

Sweden’s new government says it has recognised a Palestinian state, a move declared by the prime minister as a priority for the left-leaning minority coalition.

Syria has said it accepts Russia’s proposal to place its chemical weapons under international control for subsequent dismantling.

Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has announced he is resigning a day after an indictment for breach of trust was filed against him by the country’s attorney general.

Israel’s response to the Palestinians’ new UN status is to deprive and humiliate which may maintain the status quo but will sabotage chances of long-term peace, writes Ian Buruma

Blasphemous friends and thespians

A bomb exploded on a bus carrying Israeli youths in a Bulgarian resort today, killing at least six people and wounding 32, officials said.

The West’s stand-off with Iran over its nuclear programme will be the hot topic when Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Israeli leaders during a 24-hour visit.

The first splits have appeared in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s expanded coalition, just a day after the Israeli leader brought the main opposition party into his government.

Premier Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to declare that early elections will be held less than four months from now, a move that would give him a referendum on his leadership that would help him fend off both Israeli and international critics.

A Palestinian prisoner has agreed to end his 66-day hunger strike in protest over his imprisonment without charge after reaching a deal with Israel that will free him in April.

A Palestinian prisoner has agreed to end his 66-day hunger strike in protest over his imprisonment without charge after reaching a deal with Israel that will free him in April.

DEFYING US and Israeli opposition, Palestinians asked the United Nations yesterday to accept them as a member state, sidestepping nearly two decades of failed negotiations in the hope this dramatic move on the world stage would re-energise their quest for an independent homeland.

BACKERS of a bill calling for a parliamentary investigation of Israeli human rights groups said yesterday they would press forward with the initiative this week, despite growing public criticism and opposition from the prime minister.

ISRAELI foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said participants in an aid flotilla planning to challenge an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip were seeking “confrontation and blood”.

ISRAEL will not negotiate with a new Palestinian unity government that includes the Hamas militant group, according to Israel’s foreign minister.

Israel’s foreign minister said today his country would not negotiate with a new Palestinian government that included the Hamas militant group.

The Israeli military said a Palestinian has infiltrated a Jewish West Bank settlement and killed five people.

ISRAEL’S cabinet has approved a bill that would require new citizens to pledge a loyalty oath to a “Jewish and democratic” state, language that triggered charges of racism from Arab lawmakers who see it as undermining the rights of the country’s Arab minority.

Peace envoy George Mitchell was on his way to the Middle East today in an urgent bid to salvage stalled peace talks after the US criticised Israel’s refusal to extend its partial ban on settlement building.

Israel’s hard-line foreign minister said his party would try to block any extension of Israel’s settlement slowdown, a move that could derail the Middle East peace negotiations.

THE Government is to be congratulated on convincing the European Commission to delay Israel’s access to private data on European citizens.

Israel will not lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip unless Hamas allows the Red Cross to visit an Israeli soldier captured in 2006.

Israel today rejected calls from the United Nations and others for an international investigation of its deadly raid on the Gaza aid flotilla.

Israeli gunships were standing by today to stop a flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists from reaching the Gaza Strip, setting the stage for what could become a dramatic showdown on the high seas.

Britain announced the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat today after concluding Tel Aviv forged the UK passports used by the killers of a Hamas commander.

The rift in US-Israel relations deepened today after American envoy George Mitchell cancelled a visit and Jerusalem insisted it would not back down over building plans at the heart of the row.

THE column by Steven King (March 3) was a master class in the art of airbrushing Israel’s role in the Middle East conflict. His one-eyed analysis omitted several important points.

A town council’s decision to rip out a page from a guest book signed by the Israeli ambassador was criticised by the Foreign Minister Micheál Martin today.

A further forged Irish passport was used by a team of assassins who murdered a senior Hamas official in Dubai, it was revealed tonight.

THE five Irish citizens whose passport numbers were used on forged documents by the killers of a senior Hamas military commander are automatically named on a worldwide terror list, Foreign Minister Micheál Martin said.

Europe’s governments today joined in condemnation of the use of fake EU passports in an assassination plot – but stopped short of naming Israel as the prime suspect.

FOREIGN Minister Micheál Martin will tackle his Israeli counterpart in Brussels this morning over the fake Irish passports used by the hit squad who killed a senior Hamas commander in Dubai – but is unlikely to get any answers.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Micheál Martin will confront Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Brussels this morning over the use of fake Irish passports by the Mossad agents believed to have murdered Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

THE diplomatic rift between Ireland and Israel worsened yesterday when the Irish ambassador to Israel admitted the use of fake Irish passports in the assassination of a top Palestinian commander, has not helped relations between the two countries.

Foreign Affairs minister Micheál Martin has said the three Irish passports used by a group of operatives who allegedly assassinated a Hamas commander in Dubai had valid numbers, reversing his department's position of a day earlier.

THE Department of Foreign Affairs has managed to identify the three people whose Irish passports were unknowingly faked by the assassins of a Hamas commander.

ISRAEL’S defence minister, Ehud Barak, met Turkey’s foreign minister yesterday to try to repair ties between the allies that were further strained this week by a diplomatic row in which Israel was forced to apologise for its treatment of the Turkish ambassador.

Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak met Turkey’s foreign minister today to try to repair ties between the allies that were further strained this week by a diplomatic row in which Israel was forced to apologise for its treatment of the Turkish ambassador.

Israel could face calls by the United Nations Security Council to refer alleged war crimes to the International Criminal Court in The Hague after a UN council backed a controversial report.

THE UN Human Rights Council voted yesterday to endorse a Gaza war crimes report and send it to the Security Council, possibly setting up international prosecution of Israelis and Palestinians for war crimes.

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s special peace envoy yesterday sought an “early relaunch” of Israeli-Palestinian talks, but Israel said Washington’s goal of comprehensive peace was an illusion.

Israel’s foreign minister today said there was no chance of reaching a final accord with the Palestinians any time soon, casting doubts over the latest effort to get peace talks moving again.