APS Diplomat News Service articles from June 2008

APS Diplomat News Service archives from June 2008

Lebanon May Benefit From A Neo-0ttoman Role In Competing With The Turko-Persian Plan.
June 2, 2008... *** Assad Now Is Ready To Switch Back To The Sunni Arab Camp, Having Begun Talking With The Israelis, Leaving Iran Almost Alone In Dealing With Its Problems In Iraq And Palestine *** Syria Is Not Betting On A Peace Deal With The Jewish...

The Syria-Israel Peace Talks.
June 2, 2008... Erdogan is still stressing the importance of the peace talks between Israel and Syria, despite the fact that Olmert's government may not survive a corruption scandal implicating the Israeli PM. Both Erdogan and Assad know the chances of a peace...

Chronology Of Syrian, Israeli & Lebanese Events.(Chronology)
June 2, 2008... June 1967: Israel takes the Golan Heights - a strategic 1,800 sq km plateau - from Syria during a six-day Arab-Israeli war, when Gen. Hafez al-Assad was in control of Syria's armed forces and the military wing of the ruling Ba'th Party. ...

Suleiman Profile.(Michel Suleiman)(Biography)
June 2, 2008... Military commanders often ride to power atop a tank. But in Lebanon, the key to LAF Commander Michel Suleiman's rise to the Lebanon's top job has been keeping his men out of the fight. Suleiman has not taken sides in the long struggle for power...

Syria Is Seeking To Rejoin The Arab Fold, With Iran Boosting Saudi Ties.
June 9, 2008... *** Sarkozy Is Offering Assad The Chance Of Syria Being A Key Part Of A Planned Euro-Med Dialogue Which Will Help His Regime To Get Out Of Its Arab And Int'l Isolation *** But In Tehran, Strategists Say They Are Not Worried By Pres....

Middle East Partitioning Is A Real Threat & Lebanon Could Be A Key Factor.
June 16, 2008... *** The Doha Accord Is Looking Increasingly Like A Truce Which Can Be Broken At Any Time After A Summer Reprieve *** The Insistence Of Hizbullah On Remaining The Only Armed Group Among The Lebanese Is Forcing All The Others To Think More...

The Way Shi'ites Regard The WuF System.(World Urban Forum)
June 16, 2008... The Shi'ite communities in the Muslim world are deeply divided on the WuF concept, in which a chosen jurisprudent assumes the role of deputy for al-Mahdi - the missing 12th Imam in Ja'fari Shi'ism - and thus rules with divine powers over a...

Israel Is Beginning To Change, Anticipating A Multi-Polar World:.
June 23, 2008... *** Assad Has Told Visiting French Mediators Israel Must Provide A Timetable For Withdrawal From Golan Before End-August '08 *** Olmert Is Thus Thinking He Can Survive By Giving Both His People & Bush An End-08 Peace Coup In Golan,...

The Israel Lobbies In USA & Implications.
June 23, 2008... What strikes the reader of "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy", a controversial book published in the autumn of 2007, is the determination of its authors, Professors Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of...

Israeli-Syrian Peace Talks & New French Role.
June 23, 2008... Another round of indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria on June 16 ended in Ankara with an agreement they will pursue them further in July. There were indications that direct talks would be possible, this time with France joining...

Rice In Beirut With Sheb'a Offer.(Condoleezza Rice)
June 23, 2008... Ms Rice on June 16 flew to Beirut on an unexpected visit with an offer from Olmert that Sheb'a Farms would be given to UN trusteeship as a first step towards Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights. She explained the offer to new President...

EU Backs Offer To Iran With Threat Of New Sanctions.(European Union)
June 23, 2008... The EU will impose new sanctions on Iran if Tehran fails to respond positively to a fresh offer from the big powers regarding its nuclear plan. After a visit to Iran on June 14-15 by EU foreign policy chief by Javier Solana, Tehran is...

Israeli Attack?(Brief article)
June 23, 2008... On June 20, Pentagon officials confirmed that over 100 Israeli war jets had conducted exercises over the Mediterranean and Greece in early June with the aim of attacking Iran's nuclear sites. Israeli Deputy PM Shaul Mofaz recently said an...

The Afghan & Iraq Fronts.
June 23, 2008... PM Brown's strong support for Bush on Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq came as the US president was ending a week's EU tour which featured confrontations but produced progress in several areas. Brown's announcement of additional troops to Afghanistan...

Sadr's Twin Strategy.(Muqtada al-Sadr)
June 23, 2008... Maliki began his offensive of JaM in March, when he sent the Iraqi army, with US support, into Sadrist bastions in Baghdad and the southern oil city of Basra. At the same time, Maliki launched a campaign against the Sunni/Neo-Salafi Qaeda in...

Turkey From Kemalism To Neo-Ottoman Democracy Or Vice-Versa; Azerbaijan Is Regressing.
June 30, 2008... *** Afghans, China, Egypt, France, Iran, Iraq, Israel & Its Lobbies, The Lebanese, The Pakistanis, The Palestinians, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey And The US Under Bush Are All Playing Tactical Games, Pending The American...

Focus On Turkey.
June 30, 2008... The power-struggle between the Kemalists and the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) is reaching a climax. Turkey is a nation of nuances, Muslim but not Islamist where the Kamalists are conserned. The AKP says Turkey is...

The Background.(politics in Turkey)
June 30, 2008... With its control of the presidency, parliament and the government, the AKP has come further than any other in modern Turkey to breaking the grip of the Kemalist establishment on power. The indictment at the Constitutional Court accuses the AKP...

Azerbaijan - Torn Between Iran-Guided Shi'ism & The Kemalist Model.
June 30, 2008... Azerbaijan has the distinction of having been the first Muslim democracy in the world in 1919-20 when it was, fleetingly, independent. That past is unlikely to come to life again in the foreseeable future. Opposition activists note that the...

Iran-Western Confrontation.
June 30, 2008... Iran, meanwhile, is confronting the Western powers over its nuclear and regional ambitions. Gulf News on June 25 quoted veteran Iranian analyst and former government official Sa'id Laylaz as saying: "Iran is likely to respond next week or in...

EU Warned Not To Provoke Tehran.(European Union)
June 30, 2008... Parliament Speaker 'Ali Larijani on June 25 warned the EU that imposing tighter sanctions immediately after offering incentives might only provoke Iran. He urged world powers to send more positive signals. He warned that EU's decision to impose...