APS Diplomat News Service articles from March 2007

APS Diplomat News Service archives from March 2007

Iran's Nuclear Issue - The US Heightens The Pressures With 'War Or Diplomacy' Signals.
March 5, 2007... *** Michael Klare See 3 Reasons For The US To Attack Iran 'Some Time This Spring Or Summer, Barring An Unexpected Turnaround By Tehran' - Proof Of This Lies 'Half-Hidden' In Bush's Recent Statements Which, If Pieced Together, Provide A Casus...

Sunni Strategy Talks In Islamabad.
March 5, 2007... Foreign ministers from six Sunni states - Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey - as well as the secretary-general of the 57-state Organisation of the Islamic Conference on Feb. 25 met in Islamabad and discussed...

US Reasons To Attack Iran.
March 5, 2007... The following are extracts from an article by Michael T Klare, a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, published on Feb. 27: "Some time this spring or summer, barring an unexpected turnaround by Tehran, US...

'West Skirting Israeli Nuke Issue'.(Brief article)
March 5, 2007... In a tense debate on Feb. 25 at the Jeddah Economic Forum on the issues of security in the Middle East, Prince Turki al-Faisal accused the US and its European allies of always avoiding the issue of Israel's possession of nuclear weapons. He...

Saudis Lead Pan-Arab Diplomatic Offensive To Stabilise The Middle East.
March 12, 2007... *** Prince Bandar Ibn Sultan, 'The Man Of Missions Impossible', Is The Co-ordinator Of The Saudi Offensive; He Was Behind The Hamas-Fatah Deal Of Feb. 8 And The Ahmadi-Nejad Deal With King Abdullah On A Peaceful Solution To End The Lebanon...

Focus On Iran.
March 12, 2007... In Tehran, reformists and pragmatic conservatives are hoping gradually to erode Ahmadi-Nejad's authority so their more moderate voices regain influence on policy-making. Ahmadi-Nejad's standing has been shaken: his allies were defeated in the...

Who's Behind The Saudi Move.(Prince Bandar ibn Sultan's diplomatic efforts)
March 12, 2007... The co-ordinator of the Saudi offensive is a person once described as "a man of missions impossible", Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, for many years the kingdom's ambassador to Washington. Prince Bandar began his diplomatic career in the early 1980s...

Jordan's Plea.
March 12, 2007... Jordan's Hashemite monarchy is among the key Sunni Arab regimes aligned to the US and opposed to an Iran-led axis trying to derail a US-sponsored Middle East peace process. In a rare appearance before a joint session of Congress, King Abdullah...

US House To tighten Iran Sanctions.
March 12, 2007... Key members of the US Congress on March 6 backed a legislative effort to force the Bush administration to sanction oil firms and states which sign deals with Iran. The move came as new multi-billion-dollar oil and gas deal with Tehran were...

Missing Iranian Talking To Western Agents On Hizbullah.(Ali Reza Asgari)(Brief article)
March 12, 2007... The Washington Post on March 8 reported that former Iranian deputy defence minister Ali Reza Asgari was giving Western intelligence agencies information on Lebanon's Hizbullah and Iran's ties to the group. Citing a senior US official, the Post...

US-Iran Economic War Is Raging & Some OECD/Arab Allies Are Caught In The Middle.
March 19, 2007... *** Ahmadi-Nejad Says He Does Not Recognise The Legitimacy Of The UNSC, Yet He Wants To Address The Council To Defend Iran's Right To Nuclear Power; His Reformist And Conservative Opponents Say The President Has Caused The West To Unite Against...

Tougher UNSC Resolution.(United Nations Security Council )
March 19, 2007... The UK on March 15 proposed a UNSC resolution tightening sanctions on Iran's nuclear programme. Agreed by all permanent UNSC members and Germany, the draft would ban arms exports from Iran and widen travel curbs on the IRGC and other regime...

Israel Lobby Joins US Economic War On Iran.(American Israel Public Affairs Committee )
March 19, 2007... The most influential pro-Israel lobby group in the US, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), on March 12 warned state pension funds that they would face a campaign to sell billions of dollars invested in companies with ties to...

Moscow Pressure On Tehran.
March 19, 2007... Russian diplomats and academics last week indicated that Moscow will not allow Tehran to produce nuclear weapons. At the same time, Moscow is refusing to deliver nuclear fuel as planned in March to Iran's Bushehr nuclear power station, which...

Tehran's Anti-Israel Stance.
March 19, 2007... Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on March 13 accused Israel and the US of posing the main threats to the security of the Middle East, prompting the US and Israeli delegations to walk out during the speech. Mottaki told the world's...

Israel Tilting For Arab Peace Plan.
March 19, 2007... Israeli officials, pressed by Washington, are suddenly finding much to praise in a Saudi peace proposal dismissed when it was offered in 2002 at the height of a series of Palestinian suicide bombings. On March 11-12 PM Olmert and Foreign...

The Riyadh Arab Summit Is To Present A Peace Plan, Which Could Be Divisive.
March 26, 2007... *** Moscow Has Hardened Its Stand On Iran's Nuclear Plan And Warned It It Might Be Increasingly Difficult To Complete The Bushehr Atomic Power Station Unless Tehran Suspended Its U. Enrichment; The Kremlin's Dpty Spokesman Peskov Stated: "We...

The Iran-Led Axis Vs US-Led Alliance.
March 26, 2007... The Iran-led axis consists of the Shi'ite theocracy, Assad's dictatorship, Iran's Shi'ite offshoot Hizbullah, the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood's Gaza offshoot Hamas, its Sunni rival in Palestine Islamic Jihad, and a score of Syria-sponsored...

Towards Arab Nuclear Bloc.(Brief article)
March 26, 2007... From Egypt and the Saudi-led Arab Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states to fuel-strapped Jordan, governments have signalled a desire to develop atomic power, even amid a concerted attempt by the US to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons....

Assad's Lebanon Scenarios.(Bashar al-Assad)(Brief article)
March 26, 2007... President Assad on March 19 told the Saudi daily al-Jazeera the US was the main obstacle to Middle East peace, saying he did not expect movement in the next two years. He said any Syrian citizen implicated in the Hariri assassination would be...

Mubarak For Lebanon Compromise.(Hosni Mubarak)
March 26, 2007... The Kuwaiti daily al-Ra'i al-Aam on March 18 quoted Mubarak as warning of "threats" to Arab and regional security, as hopes of a solution to the Beirut crisis were dashed after five meetings between Speaker Nabih Berri and parliamentary...

Israeli Defence Drill.(Brief article)
March 26, 2007... Air raid sirens in Israel on March 20 blared and thousands of security and emergency personnel simulated an array of unconventional and rocket attacks to demonstrate lessons learned from last summer's much-criticised war with Hizbullah. In the...

US, EU To End Palestine Boycott.(Brief article)
March 26, 2007... The year-long boycott of the PA is coming to an end, with the US and EU contacting independent members of the new Palestinian government of national unity. Western officials rule out meetings with ministers from Hamas, which the EU and US...

Palestinian Aid Flow Never Stopped.
March 26, 2007... Citing figures from the UN, US, EU and IMF, The New York Times on March 20 reported that, despite the international embargo on aid to the PA since early 2006, significantly more aid was delivered to the Palestinians last year than in 2005....

Israel In Disarray.
March 26, 2007... A confrontation with public sector workers on March 21 added to the Israeli government's mounting woes as the powerful Histadrut labour federation staged a short-lived general strike which grounded flights, disrupted domestic transport and...

Jordan's Mu'asher To Join World Bank.(Marwan Mu'asher)(Brief article)
March 26, 2007... World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz on March 19 announced that former deputy prime minister of Jordan Marwan Mu'asher was joining the bank as a senior vice-president for external affairs. This came amid growing recognition of the need to foster...

US Financial Squeeze On Iran To Affect Petroleum Sector.
March 26, 2007... The New York Times on March 20 reported that the US had quietly been warning energy companies, including Shell, Repsol/YPF of Spain and SKS of Malaysia, as well as the governments of China, India, Pakistan and Malaysia, that "sanctions are...

Russia Hardens Line With Iran.
March 26, 2007... Moscow has warned it might be increasingly difficult to complete the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant unless Tehran suspends uranium enrichment. Igor Ivanov, secretary of Russia's National Security Council, has met Ali Hosseini Tash,...

Khamenei Is Defiant.(Ayatullah Ali Khamenei)(Brief article)
March 26, 2007... As Iranians on March 21 marked Noruz, the first day of the Iranian new year, Supreme Leader Ayat. Ali Khamenei said Tehran will pursue its nuclear programme outside the UN framework in the event of harsher UNSC sanctions. He said the new year,...