APS Diplomat News Service articles from January 2007

APS Diplomat News Service archives from January 2007

Iraq & Lebanon Are Battlefields For Iran-Led Axis Vs US-Led Alliance.
January 1, 2007... *** Assad Wants To Kill The Very Idea Of An International Court To Try The Hariri Killers; But In The Event Of Deadlock In Beirut, The UNSC Can Create The Tribunal Under Chapter 7 Which Will Make It Even More Threatening To The Ba'thist...

The Lebanon Crisis.
January 1, 2007... The current crisis in Lebanon began in August 2004, when President Assad summoned Rafiq Hariri to Damascus and threateningly ordered him to vote for an extension of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's term by another three years under an...

Iran Oil Income To Dry Up By 2015.
January 1, 2007... Iran is suffering a staggering decline in revenue from its oil exports, and if the trend continues income could virtually disappear by 2015, according to an analysis published in a journal of the National Academy of Sciences. Iran's...

Tehran Revises Co-operation With IAEA.(International Atomic Energy Agency)
January 1, 2007... Iran's parliament on Dec. 27 approved a bill obliging the government to revise its co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in response to a Dec. 23 UN Security Council (UNSC) vote imposing sanctions on Iran's trade in...

US Accuses Iran Military Of Plotting In Iraq.
January 1, 2007... The US military says it has evidence linking a group of Iranians and some Iraqi associates, detained in recent raids, to attacks against US forces. The military also said that some of those detained had been involved in shipments of weapons to...

The US Might Use MeK & Iraqi Sunnis To Destabilise Iran.(Mujahedeen e-Khalq)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... At a talk-show in the US government-funded al-Hurra TV network last week, one of the participants said American strategists might use the Iraq-based Iranian opposition organisation Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MeK) and its Sunni allies inside Iran to...

Somalia Begins to Return To US Orbit As Neo-Salafi Islamists Are On The Run.
January 8, 2007... *** A US Naval Task Force Off The Somali Coast Has Been Boarding Ships As Part Of Efforts To Prevent ICU And Neo-Salafi Allies From Fleeing The Country In The Horn Of Africa *** Jan. 4 In The US North-East Was Described As The Warmest Day...

Lack Of Security Threatens Hard-Won Gains.(Somalia)
January 8, 2007... A hand grenade on Jan. 4 was tossed into a government army compound in Mogadishu in a sign of a growing insurgency. Just days after Ethiopian-led troops helped rout Somalia's once-powerful Islamist forces and install a new government in...

Iran Is In A Costly Cold War, Having Crosses The West's Nuclear Red Line:.
January 15, 2007... *** Iran Is The Most Fuel Inefficient Zone Is The World, With Its 7M Cars Burning As Much As The 35M Vehicles On The UK Roads; Tehran Will Have To Spend $10 Bn To Import Its Gasoline Needs In Fiscal '06/07 *** Expert Exiles Say Tehran Is...

Iran Is Short Of Oil.
January 15, 2007... Johns Hopkins University geography Prof Roger Stern on Jan. 8 wrote that Iran had ensnared itself in a petroleum crisis that could drive its crude oil exports to zero by 2015. He said, while Iran had the third-largest oil reserves in the world,...

US Imposes Sanctions On Bank Sepah.
January 15, 2007... The US Treasury on Jan. 9 imposed sanctions against Iran's commercial Bank Sepah, accusing it of assisting Tehran's missile programme and having links with an alleged North Korean missile exporter. Bank Sepah International, a wholly owned...

Berlin Hits US Pressure.
January 15, 2007... The US on Jan. 11 was criticised for pressing German companies to cut business ties with Iran after Commerzbank decided to end dollar transactions with Tehran. Germany's second-largest bank confirmed it would cease to conduct dollar-denominated...

Israel May Hit Iran.
January 15, 2007... In recent weeks Israel's leaders have been bombarded with increasingly doom-laden scenarios about Iran's progress towards producing a nuclear bomb, a threat that might push them towards unilateral military action if diplomacy fails. Former...

The Iran-Syria Axis - Its Motivations & Mechanics - Vs The US-Led Alliance.
January 22, 2007... *** Israeli Defence Expert Says The US Can Put A Complete Stop To Iran's Nuke Programme By Military Means; But He Says It's Not Necessary To Destroy All The Targets In Iran In Order To Achieve This Outcome; The Challenge Is To Identify The...

Iran Leaders Speak Out Against US.(Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani)
January 22, 2007... Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the influential former Iranian president, on Jan. 15 accused the US of "seeking new adventurism" as Washington stepped up pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme and Iraq. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali...

US Won't Hit Iran.
January 22, 2007... In January 2005, while President Bush was propounding his project to transform the Middle East, the campaign to engineer consent for a strike against Iran was in full swing. Vice-President Dick Cheney stated that Washington's chief concern was...

Halutz Quits.(Dan Halutz)
January 22, 2007... The resignation of Israel's chief of staff over the conduct of last year's Lebanon war on Jan. 17 prompted calls for the political leadership to follow suit and fuelled speculation about how long the faltering government of Ehud Olmert could...

Iranian Politics - Ahmadi-Nejad's Popularity Is On A Decline.
January 29, 2007... *** Chaired By Pres. Chirac, A Paris Donor Meeting On Jan. 25 Gave Lebanon $7.66 Bn In Rebuilding Assistance - The Move By Rich Powers And Saudi Was A Sign Of Confidence In The Beirut Govt. Despite The Dangerous Unrest On Jan. 23 & 25;...

Is Bush Planning War Against Iran?(George W. Bush)
January 29, 2007... The following is an article by prominent British journalist Patrick Seale, published on Jan. 22 by Gulf News (with minor changes in the spelling of names and Sh'ism made by APS): "It is now clear that the US President George W. Bush has decided...