APS Diplomat News Service articles from October 2007

APS Diplomat News Service archives from October 2007

GCC States Get More Financial Muscle But Face Unprecedented Rise In Project Costs.(Gulf Co-operation Council )
October 1, 2007... *** Ahmadi-Nejad, Addressing The UN General Assembly On Sept. 25, Said Iran Relied On 'Divine Power' In Countering The US & Others; He Questioned The Legitimacy Of The UNSC In Leading The World - While The Media Have Pointed To The...

The Qatar-Dubai Competition.
October 1, 2007... Qatar has made a name for itself as an independent-minded state in the GCC. With vast ambition and the third-largest reserves of natural gas in the world, it has followed a maverick course in regional politics, often deliberately at odds with...

Thaw In Saudi-Qatari Ties.(Saudi Arabia and Qatar)
October 1, 2007... Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa on Sept. 24 visited Saudi Arabia and met with King Abdullah ibn Abdul-Aziz. It was later announced that relations between the two GCC states improved after a five-year hiatus due to a bilateral spat. Gulf News on Sept....

Qatar Is Least Corrupt Arab Country.(Survey)
October 1, 2007... In a survey for 2007, Qatar is the least corrupt Arab country, ranked 32nd out of a list of 180 countries. Transparency International (TI), a Germany-based worldwide anti-corruption coalition, says Qatar and two other GCC states - the UAE...

Iran May Face Attack As Its Theocrats Keep Misreading The Messages From UNSC Powers.(UN Security Council )
October 8, 2007... *** Marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day On Oct. 5, Hizbullah Chief Nasrallah Said Israel Was Behind All The Assassinations Of Lebanese VIPs Since The Hariri Murder; His Opponents Later Said He Was Not Only Defending The Syrian Regime But Was Also...

The Powers Of Elected Iranian Presidents.(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)
October 8, 2007... The elected president of the Iranian Republic has no authority over any of the autonomous states mentioned above. He is only head of the formal state and, as such, his powers are limited by the various arms of the theocracies which are headed...

Iran Falling Into An Arab-Persian Confrontation Trap.
October 22, 2007... ** The Flashpoint Now Is Lebanon, Where A New President Is Supposed To Be Elected Before Nov. 24 - Syria Has Its Own Candidate: No One Other Than Emile Lahoud; Iran, Wanting To Avoid A Sunni-Shi'ite War, May Or May Not Manage To Convince Assad...

Bush Says Iran Risks World War.(George Bush)
October 22, 2007... President Bush on Oct. 17 issued a stark warning on Iran, suggesting that if it obtained nuclear weapons, it could lead to "World War III". He told a White House news conference: "We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to...

The Syrian Nuke Story & The Iran/North Korea Questions.
October 22, 2007... It was President Bush who, a year after 9/11, rewrote America's national security strategy to warn any state which might be thinking of trying to develop atomic weapons that it could find itself the target of a pre-emptive military strike. But...

Iran's Supremacists Stage A Coup By Pushing Larijani Out & Defying The West.
October 29, 2007... *** Those Behind Ahmadi-Nejad Want A War With The US; The IRGC Missile Chief Gen. Mahmoud Chaharbaghi On Oct 20 Said Iran Could Fire 11,000 Rockets Within 'One Minute' Of An Attack; Israeli Military Expert Martin Van Creveld On Oct 24 Said:...

The Rome Negotiations.
October 29, 2007... The body language between Larijani and Jalili during their Oct. 23-24 meetings in Rome spoke volumes, with Larijani doing most of the talk. After the meeting, Jalili attended a news conference but did not speak. Larijani was upbeat, speaking of...

Ahmadi-Nejad Wants An Attack - Background.
October 29, 2007... Ahmadi-Nejad may be gaining support across the Muslim world for his persisting attacks of the US and UNSC; but inside Iran he is losing. His rivals are gaining more power, and the population is increasingly unhappy with the economy's decline....

More Banks Leaving Tehran.
October 29, 2007... The US has heralded a move by international regulators to censure Iran for inadequate money laundering and terrorist financing controls - a step Washington says means more foreign banks will pull out from or scale down business with Tehran. A...

Mixed US Signals.
October 29, 2007... There are two different messages concerning Iran from Washington: One is that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, of the hawkish camp, are try-ing to convince the world the US going through all means of pressure to avoid a...

Larijani Says Sanctions Will Harm Iran-IAEA Ties.(Brief article)
October 29, 2007... Larijani on Oct. 26 said the US sanctions could push Tehran to rethink its co-operation with the IAEA, adding: "Other states support and praise us regarding Iran's co-operation with the agency. But America's behaviour shows that it doesn't make...

Tehran Is Not Worried.
October 29, 2007... Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Oct. 22 wrote to his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner: "Iran will not let its right to nuclear technology be suppressed. Using tools like the [UN] Security Council, economic sanctions and other...

The Saudis Are Worried.(Brief article)
October 29, 2007... Visiting Kuwait, Saudi Crown Prince Sultan on Oct. 26 said the Arab kingdom was worried by the turn of event. He also told Iran making provocative statements against GCC states would not serve its interests. When asked about Tehran's plan to...

Cheney On Iran & Syria.
October 29, 2007... In an address to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), Vice President Cheney on Oct. 21 warned the theocracy: "Given the nature of Iran's rulers, the declarations of the Iranian president, and the trouble the regime is causing...

Olmert In Moscow & Putin's Position.
October 29, 2007... Israeli PM Ehud Olmert at night on Oct. 18 held talks in the Kremlin with President Putin, seeking to persuade him to back new UNSC sanctions against Tehran regarding its nuclear programme - after Putin's Oct. 16-17 visit to Tehran. The FT on...

North Korea-Syria Ties.(Brief article)
October 29, 2007... North Korean Parliament Speaker Choe Thae Bok on Oct. 23 ended a visit to Syria just weeks after allegations of nuclear co-operation between the two states emerged following a Sept. 6 Israeli air strike on Syrian territory. Choe was in Damascus...

Traces Of Syrian Nuclear Reactor Vanish.
October 29, 2007... The New York Times on Oct. 25 reported that new commercial satellite photographs showed a Syrian site believed to have been attacked by Israel on Sept. 6 no longer bore any obvious traces of what analysts said was a partly built nuclear...