APS Diplomat News Service articles from October 2008

APS Diplomat News Service archives from October 2008

Afghan & Pakistani Challenges To USA Occasion Saudi/Turk Mediation; Iran Affected:.
October 6, 2008... *** PA Negotiator 'Eraqat Has Conveyed Bush's Pledge To Abbas: If A Palestinian State Does Not Come About By Early '09, It'll Happen In...Not More Than A Year; So His Deadline Is Abandoned As Unrealistic; But Can A Truly Viable Peace Deal Be...

US Attacks In Pakistan Continue.(Brief article)
October 6, 2008... Despite Islamabad warnings, two US drones and a helicopter on Oct. 3 attacking insurgents on the Pakistani side of the border killed 21, mostly Qaeda Arabs. Such US hits in that area now are frequent, with Washington constantly telling...

Kabul For Talks With Taliban & Joint Afghan-Pak-US Offensive On Extremists.
October 6, 2008... On Sept. 30 Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun, confirmed he had asked Saudi King 'Abdullah to help broker peace talks with Pashtun tribal leaders and a moderate faction of the Taliban. He told a news conference his envoys had travelled...

Kabul Wins IAEA Board Seas.(International Atomic Energy Agency )
October 6, 2008... Afghanistan on Oct. 3 won a place on the 35-member board of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which had become vacant for the Middle East and South Asia (MESA) group after Pakistan's one-year term expired. With Kabul's envoy...

Petraeus Is Applying A New Version Of Iraq's AC Experience For CentCom Area.(David H. Petraeus)
October 6, 2008... From Oct. 31 taking over as head of the US General Command (CentCom), which is in charge of the GME (including Afghanistan and Pakistan) and the Horn of Africa, Army Lt Gen. David H. Petraeus is preparing a new version of his Iraq tribal-based...

NATO Offensive On Afghan Drug-Lords.(North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
October 6, 2008... The top US commander in Afghanistan, Lt Gen David McKiernan, on Oct. 1 said NATO forces will step up attacks on drug-lords and narcotics traffickers backing the insurgency. But he said they would not eradicate crops which make Afghanistan the...

Rice In India For Nuke & Strategic Alliance Pact; Islamabad Wants The Same.
October 6, 2008... Secretary of State Rice arrived in New Delhi on Oct. 4 to finalise details of a land-mark nuclear trade agreement and a long-term strategic alliance between the US and India. The US Congress approved the deal on Oct. 1, ending a three-decade...

Iran Says It May Reconsider N-Plan If Guarantees Are Obtained.
October 6, 2008... Iran's envoy to the IAEA Ali Ashgar Soltanieh on Oct. 2 suggested that Tehran could reconsider its uranium enrichment programme if it got cast-iron guarantees of regular international fuel supplies for its nuclear power plants. US and other...

US Refused Israel Permission To Bomb Iran Nuke Sites.
October 6, 2008... The Guardian on Sept. 26 reported senior European diplomatic sources as saying Israel had given serious thought in May to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President Bush he would not support it and did not...

Lebanon - 2009 Will Decide If It's A State Or Just A Place For Global Power Games.
October 13, 2008... *** With Egypt Set To Host 'Final' Reconciliation Talks Between Fatah & Hamas By End-October, Iran Is Said To Have Created A Hizbullah In The Hamas-Ruled Gaza Strip, A Place Where Al-Qaeda Now Has A Base As Well As A 'Higher Shi'ite Council'...

Focus On Lebanon.
October 13, 2008... With March 8 and March 14 politicians are preparing for the 2009, it was reported on Oct. 11 that more than 300 Iranian IRGC forces had just been deployed to south Lebanon to bolster Hizbullah forces there in anticipation of war. On Oct. 9,...

Focus On Syrian Moves.
October 13, 2008... Like most other rulers in the GME, President Assad has fallen into the trip of "hiding behind his finger". As a result of frequently repeating what he says which proves to be untrue, his critics call him a "pathological liar" or a "man never to...

Olmert's New Zeal.(Ehud Olmert)
October 13, 2008... Despite being charged with corruption, meanwhile, PM Olmert is trying to add lustre to his poor legacy. A week after he resigned his post in September, he took an unexpected position in Israeli foreign policy which shocked his countrymen and...

GCC-Iran Entente Follows Riyadh-Tehran Dialogue As The US Presidential Election Nears:.(Gulf Cooperation Council, United States)
October 20, 2008... *** The Arabs And The Moderates Of Iran Consider The Supremacist Ja'faris To Be As Dangerous As The Nazis Of Germany Were In The Wake Of & During World War Two; The Arabs & Moderates Are Accusing These Extremists Of Having Split The Muslim...

The Inter-Faith Dialogue.(Gulf Cooperation Council and Iran)
October 20, 2008... Below the surface of these conflicts, however, Saudi Arabia and its GCC allies are working with moderate Iranians in getting the Riyadh-proposed inter-faith dialogue to succeed. Within the Iranian theocracy, the pragmatic wing is deeply opposed...

OIC For Women Empowerment.(Organisation of the Islamic Conference )
October 20, 2008... A reformer at home and peace-seeker in the Muslim world, King 'Abdullah is behind various initiatives. Among these is a plan to empower women in the Muslim world. This is pursued by his Foreign Ministry and the Saudi-based Secretariat of the...

Qatar Becoming The Region's Peace-Broker.
October 20, 2008... After successful diplomatic efforts, Qatar is carving out a role as mediator for the Arab world, now with the blessings of Saudi King 'Abdullah. For a tiny GCC state, Qatar has taken up a diplomatic mould-breaking role which Kuwait used to have...

Lebanon & Syria Establish Diplomatic Ties.
October 20, 2008... Lebanon and Syria on Oct. 15 announced the establishment of formal diplomatic relations, for the first time since their independence in the 1940s, in a joint statement signed by both countries' foreign ministers in Damascus. The announcement in...

GCC's Ranking Rises In Plans For A New Multi-Polar World Financial Order.(Gulf Cooperation Council)
October 27, 2008... *** It Is Difficult For Any Group Of Powers To Set A New World Order For Money And Trade Before A New US President Has Begun To Make An 'Awaited Difference' After Jan. '09 *** The Middle East Will Begin To Change Course In 2009, With...

Brown Back-Tracks On Oil Summit.(British Prime Minister Gordon Brown)
October 27, 2008... PM Brown is down-grading plans for an international oil summit in December and withdrawing invitations to Presidents George W. Bush and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Libyan ruler Mu'ammar Qadhafi after a collapse in oil prices sapped the...

Nationalisms In The OECD World & Ees.(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)
October 27, 2008... "Amid the rubble of the world's financial markets", prominent analyst Philip Stephens wrote in the FT of Oct. 24, "we can catch sight of the foundations of a new international order". Below are extracts from his article (with underlining by...

The Recession Threat.
October 27, 2008... Giants of the auto, airline and technology industries on Oct. 24 ordered emergency action against the global financial crisis as shares took a new hammering amid mounting gloom. Even a 1.5m b/d crude oil production cut by OPEC announced on Oct....

GCC Defies Global Crisis.(Gulf Cooperation Council)
October 27, 2008... The GCC region will remain strong in 2009 despite a fall in oil revenues. The IMF has forecast economic growth for the Persian Gulf - mainly in the GCC - would slip to 6.6% in 2009 from a forecast of 7.1% in 2008. Gulf News on Oct. 21 quoted...

Kuwaiti Traders In Bourse Protest.
October 27, 2008... Dozens of traders and investors on Oct. 23 protested outside Kuwait's Stock Exchange (KSE), demanding greater government intervention to shore up the bourse. The protests were the first of their kind in the GCC as the region's markets followed...

GCC Moves To Ease Inter-Bank Lending Rates.(Gulf Cooperation Council)
October 27, 2008... Saudi Arabia and the UAE last week led moves to cut soaring inter-bank lending rates. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi deposited $24 bn with local banks in a bid to improve on previous measures. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) on Oct. 20...