APS Diplomat Fate of the Arabian Peninsula articles from October 2006

APS Diplomat Fate of the Arabian Peninsula archives from October 2006

IRAQ - Pax Americana In Iraq Is Changing - Part 4 - Federalism.
October 2, 2006... Shi'ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish leaders on Sept. 24 broke a two-week deadlock and agreed on a compromise which would allow the House of Representatives (parliament) to take up a Shi'ite-proposed bill on federalism providing for creation of...

IRAQ - Kurdistan Warns Of Secession.
October 2, 2006... A war of words between Iraq's central government and authorities of the autonomous Kurdistan region over control of petroleum resources last week took a sharp turn, with Kurdish officials threatening secession over Baghdad's failure to...

IRAQ - Regional Implications Of Federalism.
October 2, 2006... The issue of federalism has polarised parliament in Baghdad since it reconvened earlier in September. Some Shi'ite groups, such as the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), favour adoption of a law which would allow them to...

IRAQ - Strong US Stay To Continue.
October 2, 2006... US officials on Sept. 25 said American troop levels in Iraq were likely to remain well above 140,000 for the next few months, although they would not confirm reports that the 3,500-strong First Armoured Division had been ordered to remain in...

IRAQ - Disarming Militias.
October 2, 2006... Sunnis are holding talks with the government over disarming Jaysh al-Mahdi militia belonging to Muqtada al-Sadr. Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) who leads the talks with the government, has called for the government...

IRAQ - Sunni Tribes To Combat Neo-Salafi Groups.
October 2, 2006... Sunni tribal leaders who have vowed to drive al-Qaeda out of Anbar - Iraq's most restive province - on Sept. 27 met Shi'ite PM Maliki, marking what Washington hoped was to be a breakthrough alliance against Neo-Salafi militants. Shaikh Sattar...

IRAQ - OIC Eyes Sunni-Shi'ite Meet In Makkah.(Organization of the Islamic Conference)
October 2, 2006... The Jeddah-based Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is making contacts to hold a meeting of Sunni and Shi'ite scholars in Makkah to discuss ways to end the sectarian conflict in Iraq. According to a report carried by al-Jazirah Arabic...

IRAQ - Bush Ignored Advice On Insurgency.
October 2, 2006... The New York Times on Sept. 30 highlighted a new book in which the White House ignored an urgent warning in September 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said thousands of additional US troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there....

IRAQ - Qaeda Leader For Kidnapping Foreigners.
October 2, 2006... An audiotape posted on a Website on Sept. 28 and attributed to the new leader of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia called for an escalation of attacks and the kidnapping of foreigners in Iraq to try to force the release of a high-profile Neo-Salafi...

IRAQ - The Costs To USA.
October 2, 2006... The course in Iraq has so far cost over 2,700 US lives, 100 Iraqi lives a day, and about $300 bn spent since 2003. It a course, which, according to the leaked consensus estimate of the US intelligence community, has made Iraq a primary...

IRAQ - The Terror Threat.
October 2, 2006... The stark assessment of terrorism trends by the 16 US spy agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of the Neo-Salafi movement which is the most radical in Sunni Islam - and that the...

IRAQ - Saudis To Fence Off Border.
October 2, 2006... Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead with plans to build a fence along its entire border with Iraq to prevent terrorists from entering the kingdom from the chaotic north. The 900-km barrier is part of a $12 bn package of measures including electronic...

IRAQ - Talabani.
October 2, 2006... On Sept. 20, Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth interviewed President Talabani in New York. Q. What happened in your meeting with President Bush? "We told him our progress in trade, the economy, training the army...and we asked him to...

IRAQ - No Way Out?(Reprint)
October 2, 2006... Here are extracts from an article by David Ignatius published on Sept. 28 by The Daily Star of Beirut: "...Some extreme [US] war critics are so angry at Bush they seem almost eager for America to lose, to prove a political point. Even among...