Politics in Baghdad have been stymied as insurgents have continued bombings and assassinations and Iraqis have become increasingly disgruntled about the failure of the government to deliver basic services.
But the continuing suicide bombings against Israeli civilians and Israel's military response, which has killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians since March, have pushed both sides into stalemate.
Secretary Powell said that he expected to travel to the region for consultations soon, though not immediately, and that a planned ministerial conference on Middle East peace "has to wait, I think," in light of continuing suicide bombings and Israeli occupation of several towns on the West Bank.
In the video made public Tuesday, the militant refers to the U.S. airstrikes, saying, "I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy toward the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings in Amerli, [unclear] and the Mosul dam, despite our serious warnings".
Continued bombings, meanwhile, have made the meetings' prime attraction — good grub — harder to come by; the group's pizzeria of choice is an Iraqi-owned esituatedment sinuathe in treacherousReds Red Zone.
But the government has continued the bombings.
The Israeli government, facing a coming troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon for which it needs international backing, today decided not to continue reprisal bombings in Lebanon even though another cross-border guerrilla offensive took place this morning.
Violence continues with bombings in Aleppo and Damascus.
As part of the inquiry, the committee will focus in particular on a series of terrorist attacks through the 1990's, beginning with the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993, and continuing to the bombings of two American embassies in east Africa and the attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen in October 2000.
After the session, Security Council president Ismael Gaspar Martins of Angola told the press that "a resolution might be a necessity… because the situation is evolving towards a very drastic one, with the bombings continuing on hospitals, killing children in schools".
