APS Diplomat News Service articles from September 2005

APS Diplomat News Service archives from September 2005

Iran Needs To Develop Peaceful Nuclear Energy For The Post-Oil Period.
September 5, 2005... *** Some Say Iran Is After The N-Bomb As The Theocracy Feels Threatened By The Americans *** The Spectacle Of Four Top Generals In Lebanon Being Hauled In For Questioning Is Unique In An Arab World Long Held By Dictators & Monarchies; That...

EU3 Action.
September 5, 2005... Britain, France and Germany (the EU3) are seeking international support to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for a reprimand, the first step before possible sanctions, after months of failed negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear...

The French Warning.
September 5, 2005... President Chirac on Aug. 29 demanded Iran's objective guarantees of the civilian nature of its nuclear programme and threatened to seek sanctions at the UN Security Council. In his annual address to his ambassadors, Chirac said the EU3 were...

Would Iran Use The Oil Weapon?
September 5, 2005... With WTI at $70/barrel or above and US retail gasoline at $6/gallon, Iran could use its oil as a weapon in the event of UN sanctions or US attack. Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group and a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute...

The Kurds Begin To Revolt In Iran, Turkey & Syria - Encouraged By Iraqi Kurdistan.
September 12, 2005... *** Mubarak Got 88.6% Of The Votes In Sept. 7 Presidential Elections - The First In Egypt To Be Contested By 10 Candidates With Most Of Them Little Known To The Public & Less Than A Month Of Campaigning Under Tight Govt Control; Yet It Was...

The Kurdish Gains In Iraq.
September 12, 2005... Iraq's new permanent constitution, which will go before voters in a referendum on Oct. 15, grants the Kurds of the country in the north vast lawmaking powers under a federal system. They will have control over their 60,000-man militia. They...

Arabs Attacked.
September 12, 2005... President Talabani on Sept. 5 issued a bitter rhetorical broadside against other Arab states, saying they had insulted Iraq by not sending diplomats to Baghdad and by not sending condolence letters about the Aug. 31 stampede in which nearly...

The PKK-US Puzzle In Turkey.
September 12, 2005... In Turkey, meanwhile, hardline Kemalists still wonder why it was the US which in 1999 delivered the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan to the Turkish authorities in Kenya. But last month Aytac Yalman, a newly...

The Iraqi Constitution.
September 12, 2005... Despite its many flaws, Iraq's draft charter is a novelty which, from the stand point of liberals, will have positive implications for the Arab world. Prominent Iranian journalist Amir Taheri, who still lives in exile, on Sept. 3 wrote: "this...

Egypt Under Mubarak's 6th Term Is Heading Towards Democracy Or Chaos.
September 19, 2005... *** Faith-Based Parties Calling For Peaceful Democratic Reforms Are Emerging Across The Muslim World As The Main Opposition; They Are The Needed Counterweight To Central Govts. And Without Them Autocratic Rule And Salafi Jihad It Breeds Will...

Iraq: Shari'ah Vs Democracy.
September 19, 2005... Writing in the International Herald Tribune of Sept. 16, Bassam Tibi, a professor at the University of Gottingen, Germany, warned that, in its present form, Shari'ah was "not eligible as a model for constitutional law". He said its inclusion in...

Afghans Emerge In A Grey Democracy, With Warlords Having Graduated As Civic Chiefs.
September 26, 2005... *** Like The Baath Analysts Of Saddam In Iraq Before March 2003, Assad's Regime In Syria Is Surrounded By Wishful Thinkers Who Have Never Told Him That He Lacked A Chapeau Of Legitimacy Which Should Have Been Put On His Head When He Took Over...

AFGHANISTAN - Old Faces Re-appear.
September 26, 2005... On the face of it, the elections marked a major step forward for Afghanistan as they brought to an end the "Bonn process" instituted to fill the political vacuum left by the Taliban, and they are giving the country a democratically elected...

AFGHANISTAN - Karzai On US Raids.
September 26, 2005... On Sept. 20 Karzai questioned the need for major military operations in Afghanistan, saying air strikes were no longer effective and the US-led coalition should focus more on shutting off the flow of militants. He said the fight against terror...

AFGHANISTAN - Anti-West Views.
September 26, 2005... Asia Times Online on Sept. 24 published an interview with Ahmed Shah Ahmed Zai, a former acting premier before the Taliban came to power in 1996 and who was a candidate in the Sept. 18 elections. With wide influence in Kabul and southern...