APS Diplomat News Service articles from September 2006

APS Diplomat News Service archives from September 2006

Israel Faces Major Changes, But Not In The Near Future; The Syrian Front May Heat Up.
September 4, 2006... *** PM Siniora Says Lebanon Can Control Its Border With Syria & Prevent Iranian Arms From Reaching Hizbullah; Speaker Berri Urged Lebanon's 128 MPs To Hold A Parliament Sit-in From Sept. 2 Till Israel Lifts Its Air & Sea Blockade Of The Country...

The Background: Ehud Barak.
September 4, 2006... History has been no kinder to former PM Ehud Barak than the Israeli voters who ran him out of office in February 2001. Not two years earlier, Barak - running on a platform of peace - narrowly defeated hawkish Likud PM Netanyahu. Barak's victory...

Halutz Admits Failings.
September 4, 2006... In a letter to his troops, Gen. Halutz on Aug. 24 acknowledged publicly for the first time that there were shortcomings in the military's performance during the recent fighting with Hizbullah. (Israel went into war on July 12 as a united front...

Katsav In Sex Case.(Moshe Katsav)
September 4, 2006... Israeli President Moshe Katsav was on Aug. 23 being grilled by police on allegations of sexual harassment in the latest scandal to hit a leadership already reeling over failures in the Lebanon fighting. Together with allegations that his office...

The Syrian Factor.
September 4, 2006... From Syria's point of view, the UN is siding with Israel, which refuses to lift its blockade of Lebanese ports and airports unless an international force is deployed along the Lebanese side of its border. The UN suspects that arms and Iranian...

Prisoner Exchange.
September 4, 2006... The New York Times on Sept. 1 quoted Israeli officials as saying Annan had found in Jerusalem a new willingness to discuss a prisoner exchange as a way of gaining the return of the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbullah on July 12 - the...

UNSC Rule Vs National Sovereignty.(United Nations Security Council)(Brief article)
September 4, 2006... Because of events in former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda and 9/11, there has been a shift in international understanding of the meaning of sovereignty. The UN is having legal authority to override the territorial integrity of a country. The UNSC on...

Donors Pledge $940M To Beirut.
September 4, 2006... Meeting in Stockholm, international donors on Aug. 31 pledged $940m to finance the near-term relief efforts for Lebanon, nearly double the sum originally targeted by organisers. However, at night it emerged that only $765m was new money, as...

Berri Drive To End Israeli Siege.(Nabih Berri )
September 4, 2006... Addressing over 100,000 supporters in the southern city of Tyre marking the 28th anniversary of the disappearance of Imam Musa Sadr and two of his companions, Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri on Aug. 31 cited four ways to fight "Israeli arrogance"...

Syria's Ba'thist Regime Is Navigating Through Tough Times To Survive.
September 11, 2006... *** Olmert Warned On Sept. 4 That Israel Will Use All Its Force In The Event Of War With Syria, As Damascus Was Mulling Over A 'Limited Operation' On The Golan Front, Which Has Been Peaceful Since Hafez Al-Assad Signed The 1974 Disengagement...

US-Iran War.
September 11, 2006... Palestinian-born US analyst Khaled Safouri on Sept. 4 told the US government-financed al-Hurra TV he expected a US-Iraq war within six months. He said Israel would attack Iran if the US decided not to confront the Shi'ite theocracy of Iran...

Implications Of Hizbullah's Rise.
September 11, 2006... The following commentary by Joseph Bahout, a Lebanese professor and research associate at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris, was published on Sept. 4: "It might well be true, as many frightened politicians in Lebanon are saying today,...

US War On Terror Gets More Complicated - It's A World War On An Ill-Defined Enemy.
September 18, 2006... *** The Two Regional Bombs Of Radical Islam Being Held Simultaneously By Assad Could At Any Time Explode In His Hands; And He Has No Friends Left To Save Him *** His Sept. 12 CNN Scene Was To Show The World That His Regime, Too, Was A Victim...

Who Is A Terrorist.
September 18, 2006... Five years on with the US-led war on terror, there is still no universally agreed definition of the terrorist and no agreed UN distinction for the post-World War II freedom fighters. Those who are fighting foreign occupation are being called...

The Other View.(terrorism)(Brief article)
September 18, 2006... But for most of the rest of humanity, which on that day and for some weeks expressed unprecedented solidarity with America, 9/11 now stands for all the terrible agonies the Bush administration has inflicted on the world, not just on Muslims....

How To Fix Iran, Syria & US-Led Moves.
September 18, 2006... The Financial Times on Sept. 12 quoted UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as urging Iran and Syria, regarded as pariah states by the US, to work with the international community to stabilise peace in Lebanon and settle the crisis in the wider...

Zawahiri's Promise.(Ayman al Zawahiri)
September 18, 2006... In a video aired on Sept. 11 by al-Jazeera TV, al-Qaeda's No. 2 man Dr. Zawahiri warned that the six Arab Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states, Israel and US allies will be next in line for attack. Dressed in white and sitting in front of a...

Bush On The Caliphate.(George W. Bush)
September 18, 2006... President Bush on Sept. 5 warned that bin Laden was still pursuing his [Neo-Salafi] vision of "a unified totalitarian Islamic state [in Iraq] that can confront and eventually destroy the free world". He said that, while al-Qaeda had been...

NATO Faces Mounting Taliban Challenge.
September 18, 2006... The NATO command needs up to 2,500 extra soldiers to be sent to Afghanistan, where the alliance faces an increasingly strengthened Taliban movement trying to re-take power in Kabul. General James Jones, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe,...

Syrian Opposition Expands; Ba'thist Regime Is Split & Another Iraq Is In The Making.
September 25, 2006... *** Hizbullah Chief Nasrallah, On Sept. 22 Marking The Group's 'Divine Victory' Over Israel & US, Said No Army In The World Could Disarm His Force Which He Claimed Now Had More Than 20,000 Missiles & Was More Strong Than It Ever Was; ***...

Islamic Militancy In Syria.
September 25, 2006... The growing weakness of Assad's regime since it was forced to withdraw Syrian troops from Lebanon in late April 2005 has encouraged Islamic militants in Syria to spread. These are Neo-Salafis inspired by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. (Bin Laden's...

Iran Defies UNSC.(United Nations Security Council)
September 25, 2006... Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad on Sept. 19 took his battle with the US right to the heart of the UN, challenging the legitimacy of the UNSC where some of its veto-wielding members - namely the US and UK - "commit aggression, occupation...

Iran-Venezuela Alliance.
September 25, 2006... Venezuela's Energy and Petroleum Minister and PDVSA President Rafael Ramirez on Sept. 18 said Venezuela and Iran planned to help build a 150,000 b/d refinery in Syria. This came during an official visit to Caracas by President Ahmadi-Nejad....

Ahmadi-Nejad & Jewish Lobby.(Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)
September 25, 2006... The NYT on Sept. 22 noted that, when Bush and advisers decided to allow Ahmadi-Nejad into the US to address the UN, their strategy was containment - no visits to other cities where he could denounce Washington or question Israel's legitimacy....

Hizbullah's 'Divine Victory'.
September 25, 2006... Addressing a mass rally in a southern Beirut suburb to mark Hizbullah's "divine victory" in its recent 34-war with Israel, the Shi'ite group's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 22 delivered a defiant speech, passionately...

War Preparations?
September 25, 2006... Bush's warnings to Iran were accompanied by reports that the US Navy had ordered a task force to "prepare to deploy" to the Gulf by Oct. 1, including a submarine, destroyer and minesweepers. US military sources were quoted as saying the...

Lebanese Dialogue.
September 25, 2006... Amid squabbling between the Beirut government and its critics - Hizbullah and Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) - attempts to revive the national dialogue have emerged. However, given the security restraints dictating Nasrallah's movements,...