APS Diplomat Recorder articles from September 2003

APS Diplomat Recorder archives from September 2003

ARABS-ISRAEL - Aug. 31 - Mofaz Threatens Gaza Invasion.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz tells reporters: "We always have the option of a ground operation in Gaza. We will exercise it when we decide it is right to do so, at the appropriate time". (He speaks to reporters hours after a Palestinian...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 1 - 'Targeted Killings' Claim Another Victim.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... Hamas member Khader Al Husari is killed when three Israeli missiles hit his car in the Gaza Strip. A fourth missile hits another car. 25 Palestinians are wounded in the attacks. (This is the 6th helicopter attack in the past two weeks, which...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 2 - Mofaz Calls For Arafat's Expulsion.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz calls for the expulsion of PA Pres. Yassir Arafat perhaps by end-2003. He tells Army Radio: "I think Israel made a historic mistake by not expelling him about two years ago. As for the future, I believe that we will...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 3 - Israeli Warplanes Attack Lebanon Village.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... Lebanese police say Israeli fighter-bombers have fired three air-to-ground missiles at positions in the Bayyarda hills near the border town of Naqura. There were no immediate reports of casualties. (The Israeli strike, the second in less than a...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 5 - Hamas Commander Killed In Raid.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... Israeli commandos kill Mohammad Al Hanbali, a 27-year-old Hamas commander in the West Bank, in a raid on Nablus. An Israeli soldier is also killed and four wounded in the operation. Al Hanbali is killed when Israeli soldiers blow up an...

ARABS-OPEC - Sept. 3 - Al Naimi Says No Need To Lift Output Ceiling.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... Visiting Moscow, Saudi Oil Minister Al Naimi says there is probably no need to lift the cartel's output ceiling at the Sept. 24 meeting of OPEC ministers in Vienna, where they are to decide 4th-quarter production policy. Al Naimi says world oil...

IRAN - Aug. 30 - Solana Presses Tehran On Nuclear Issue.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... Visiting Tehran to meet FM Kamal Kharazi and Pres. Khatami, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana presses Tehran to sign a protocol that would allow more aggressive inspections of its nuclear sites. Solana tells news conference: "We will have...

IRAN - Sept. 3 - Embassy Shooting Fuels Tehran-London Tensions.
September 6, 2003... The UK temporarily closes its embassy in Tehran after several shots are fired at the building. The shooting - in which the embassy's offices were hit but no one wounded - came two days after a protest outside the building against the UK role in...

IRAQ - Sept. 1 - Cabinet Appointed.
September 6, 2003... The Governing Council names the first post-Saddam Hussein cabinet, dividing 25 ministries among the country's ethnic and religious groups and giving the Shiite majority the largest share of ministerial posts. Below is the cabinet list: ...

IRAQ Sept. 1 - US Extends Its Watch On Najaf.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... A report in The FT says: "US Marines guarding the Iraqi city of Najaf will delay handing over the city to Polish-led multinational peacekeeping troops in the wake of Friday's [Aug. 29] deadly car bomb attack... With many Shiites calling for...

IRAQ - Sept. 2 - Car Bomb Hits Baghdad Police HQ.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... A car bomb explodes outside the police academy in central Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding 15, close to the offices of the acting Baghdad police chief, Hassan Al Obeidi. The attack comes as Paul Bremmer, head of the US civilian...

IRAQ - Sept. 4 - Rumsfeld Visits.
September 6, 2003... US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrives in Baghdad and says that his highest priority will be to accelerate the recruitment, training and deployment of former Iraqi officers to work with the US to combat the deteriorating security...

IRAQ - Sept. 4 - Blix Says 'Spin' Was Used To Justify War.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... Visiting London for the creation of the World Nuclear University, former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix says the US and the UK had employed "spin" in their justification for war against the Saddam Hussein regime. (This is one of his...

IRAQ - Sept. 5 - Annan Calls For Overhaul Of Global Security.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... UN Sec-Gen. Kofi Annan calls for a fundamental overhaul of the international security system, as nations embark on a fraught effort to find consensus and legitimacy in the rebuilding of Iraq. Annan tells The FT: "We need to look at the way the...

IRAQ - Sept. 5 - Gunmen Attack Mosque.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... Gunmen attack the Sunni Quiba mosque in Baghdad in morning prayers, injuring 3 people with automatic rifle fire. The attack comes as armed militia assemble during Friday prayers at Shiite mosques across the country following violence against...

LIBYA - Sept. 1 - Tripoli & French Families Reach Agreement.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... French FM Dominique de Villepin says Tripoli and the families of 170 people killed in a 1989 terrorist attack on a French airliner have reached a tentative compensation agreement following a pledge by Muammar Qadhafi to increase the payments....

OMAN - Sept. 1 - Petroleum Development Oman To Invest $2 Bn In Gas Infrastructure.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... The Managing Director of Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) John Malcolm says the company will invest around $2 bn to expand its gas production operation over the next five years. (PDO produces almost 90% of Oman's total crude output. It is 60%...

PALESTINE - Aug. 31 - Vote Of Confidence On Abbas Dropped.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... The Legislative Council abandons a planned vote of confidence on the government of PM Mahmoud Abbas. (Israel and the US have warned that if the vote brought down the Abbas government, as has appeared increasingly likely in recent days, it would...

PALESTINE - Sept. 4 - Abbas Calls On Parliament To Grant Him Powers Or Remove From Office.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... PM Mahmoud Abbas calls on the Legislative Council in Ramallah to grant him powers to pursue the peace process with Israel or remove him from office. Locked in a power struggle with Arafat and confronted with a stalemate in the US-backed "road...

RUSSIA - Sept. 2 - Saudi CP Abdullah In Moscow.
September 6, 2003... The Saudi delegation headed by Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud arrives in Moscow for a 3-day visit. (Abdullah's visit is the first by a Saudi leader in more than 70 years. Although the Soviet Union was the first nation to recognise...

SAUDI ARABIA - Aug. 31 - EU Deal To Smooth WTO Entry.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... Riyadh and the EU sign a trade agreement that will ease the kingdom's long-awaited entry into the World Trade Organisation and increase the flow of trade and investment between the two. The deal with the EU, one of the most important...

TURKEY - Sept. 1 - Kurds End Truce.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2003... The Kurdish rebel group PKK announces that it is ending a 5-year ceasefire with Ankara, saying in a statement: "It is announced that the unilateral ceasefire has come to an end as of September 1 and that the ceasefire can only continue...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Sept. 8 - World Bank Points To Poor Governance.
September 13, 2003... The World Bank presents a report in Beirut warning that accelerating the Arab world's disappointing economic growth will require more transparent and accountable regimes that allow greater participation in decision-making. In its first study to...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Sept. 10 - League Accepts Iraq Govt.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... Ending a 2-day meeting in Cairo, the Arab League's foreign ministers have accepted the participation of Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari (of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, a member of the US-appointed Iraq Governing Council that has...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Sept. 10 - Qadhafi Hits League Rulers; Wants Out.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... Libyan leader Col. Qadhafi has boycotted the Cairo meeting for having accepted the participation of a US-occupied Iraq and calls on the Libyans to approve pulling out from the Arab League. He said on Sept. 9 the Arab rulers were not committed...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Sept. 10 - Iraqis Hit League.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... The local media highlight reports that many Iraqis have attacked the League for having supported Saddam's regime. (Saddam, whose government was a key member of the League, had seized power in a coup - as have many other rulers of the 22 League...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sept. 6 - French Terms On Iraq & UK Sends More Troops.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... French FM De Villepin demands that Iraq have an interim government within a month and sovereignty far more quickly than the US' evolutionary approach (see Arab-US Relations). He wants "electrifying action" by the US and "an immediate move to...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sept. 6 - EU Classifies Hamas As Terrorist.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... The EU foreign ministers decide to classify the political wing on Hamas as a terrorist organisation, a move long urged by the US. This means Hamas'

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 9 - Two Suicide Bombings Kill 15.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... A suicide bomber in front of a military hospital near Tel Aviv, and another in Jerusalem 6 hours later kill 15 Israelis and wound many. PM Sharon cuts short a state visit to India and rushes back to head an emergency cabinet meeting.

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 11 - Sharon Govt. To Expel Arafat.
September 13, 2003... The Israeli security cabinet decides "in principle" to expel Arafat but leaves the timing undecided. A government statement says Arafat is an "obstacle to any process of reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians". Israel will "work to...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 12 - Israeli Govt. In Turmoil.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... Local media reports tell of a stormy Israeli cabinet session that led to the decision to expel Arafat and shows the government in disarray. The security cabinet, which groups the 11 most senior ministers, took the Sept. 11 decision at night...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 7 - Bush Asks For $87 Bn & Urges UN Help.
September 13, 2003... In a TV address from the White House, Pres. Bush says the US will remain engaged in Iraq and will need to spend another $87 bn in fiscal 2004 in Iraq, with a small part of this to be spent in Afghanistan. He says the US will "do whatever is...

ARAB-U.S. RELATIONS - Sept. 10 - Qaida's Zawahri Vows Anti-US Attacks.
September 13, 2003... In an audio recording broadcast by Aljazeera, Al Qaida's No. 2 Ayman Al Zawahri urges Iraqis to "devour" their American occupiers and vowes the real battle with the US is yet to begin. He says: "Rely on God and devour the Americans, like lions...

AFGHANISTAN - Sept.13 - US Troops Under Fire.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... Taliban guerrillas open fire with mortars and machine guns on troops from the US 10th Mountain Division patrolling near a US base at Shkin in Paktika province, a few kilometers from the border with Pakistan. The US troops respond with small...

AZERBAIJAN - Sept 13 - Aliyev In Socar Bribery Probe.
September 13, 2003... The Financial Times (FT) reports that Pres. Haydar Aliyev and his son Ilham have been implicated in a bribery investigation focusing on the halted privatisation of the state-owned oil company Socar. It says their alleged role in the scandal was...

IRAN - Sept. 8 - Rift Grows On nuclear treaty.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... Disagreement among political groups is intensifying over whether Tehran will allow more aggressive inspections of its nuclear sites, as the IAEA meets on the issue in Vienna. Pres. Khatami favours signing a protocol allowing more intrusive...

IRAN - Sept. 12 - IAEA Gives Tehran Till End-Oct.
September 13, 2003... The IAEA's Governing Board gives Tehran until end-October to provide the information and access necessary to prove that it is not diverting nuclear material to weapons production. The board's resolution draws an angry protest from Iran, whose...

IRAN - Sept. 13 - Rafsanjani's Son Involved In Statoil Scandal.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... Mehdi Hashemi, a son of former president Rafsanjani, is mentioned in Oslo in a $15.2m contract to advise the Norwegian state-controlled petroleum company Statoil on its Iranian operations. Reportedly the contract was between Statoil and...

IRAQ - Sept. 9 - Shiite Leaders Defy Ban On Militias.
September 13, 2003... Shiite leaders defy coalition demands that they withdraw militias from the streets of Najaf, Karbala and Baghdad, citing recent attacks against Shiite theologians and arguing that US-led coalition troops have lost control of much of the...

IRAQ - Sept. 9 - Sunni Shaikhs Complain.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... The Council of Sunni Ulema [religious scholars] accuses Shiite groups of using the Hakim killing to take control of more than a dozen Sunni mosques. Council spokesman Shaikh Abdel Salam Al Qubeissi says: "Emptying Najaf and Karbala of the Sunni...

IRAQ - Sept. 12 - US Forces Kill 8 Iraqi Security Personnel.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... American troops kill 8 US-backed Iraqi securitymen and three thieves in an ambush at Falluja, west of Baghdad, after mistaking them for guerrillas. Later police officer Assem Mohammed told Reuters a joint force of the Iraqi police and the...

KAZAKHSTAN - Sept 10 - President Unhappy With Law Enforcement.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev tells meeting on fighting crime and corruption he has ordered to take active measures to clean up the country's law-enforcement agencies. He criticises these agencies for their low efficiency, insufficient protection...

KUWAIT -Sept. 12 - KUPEC To Raise Overseas Investments.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. (KUFPEC), the overseas upstream arm of the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC) says it plans to invest in oil and gas fields in India and Russia.

LIBYA - Sept. 12 - UN Lifts Sanctions.
September 13, 2003... The UN Security Council lifts the 11-year-old sanctions imposed on Tripoli for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 that killed 270 people at Lockerbie in Scotland. (The decision, which could lead to Tripoli paying as much as $2.7 bn to the...

MOROCCO - Sept.12 - Islamists Fail To Make Gains.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... Local elections are held and support for moderate Islamists shows they retain some support in the wake of May's bombings in Casablanca, but do not have a sufficient power base to threaten the status quo. The Party of Justice and Development...

PALESTINE - Sept. 6 - Abbas Quits.
September 13, 2003... PM Abbas resigns as Arafat has refused to give him control over security forces. On Sept. 7 Palestinian leaders held emergency talks to choose a successor, while Arafat nominated Speaker Ahmad Qurei for PM. The PLO Executive Committee and the...

PALESTINE - Sept. 6 - Qurei Sets His Terms.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... Qurei on Sept. 8 demanded international guarantees of support for the peace process before he accepted the post of PM, saying: "I'm not ready to go for a failure". But later he accepted the post without obtaining such guarantees from the US,...

RUSSIA - Sept 12 - Berezovsky Alleges Kremlin Murder Plot.
September 13, 2003... Allegations of a "murder plot" against billionaire businessman Boris Berezovsky and Kremlin opponents surfaces at Bow Street magistrates court in a London as his extradition case is formally halted. (But there is deep scepticism in Moscow over...

SUDAN - Sept. 10 - Talks Get Serious.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... Defence Minister Maj. Gen. Bakri Hassan Saleh and other military chiefs arrive in the Kenyan town of Naivasha to bolster a government delegation holding talks with SPLA to end the country's civil war. (This is seen as a sign the talks have...

SUDAN - Sept. 10 - Plane Kills Many By Mistake.
September 13, 2003... A Khartoum official says a government warplane killed 26 civilians in the Habeela area of western Sudan last month after it mistakenly identified them as rebel forces. The governor of West Darfur State, Maj. Gen. Suleiman Abdullah, told the...

TURKEY - Sept. 12 - US Talks On Kurdish Rebels In Iraq.(Brief Article)
September 13, 2003... A visiting US delegation and Ankara agree on "a joint plan of action" regarding about 5,000 Turkish Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. A new US delegation is expected in the coming days to discuss the co-operation in detail. (Ankara wants the US...

ARAB AFFAIRS - Sept. 14 - Palestinians Lament Arab Impotence.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... Palestinian officials are quoted by the regional media as lamenting the Arab silence and impotence in the face of Israeli threats against Arafat and continued Israeli military attacks and targeted assassinations.

ARAB AFFAIRS - Sept. 19 - UN Assembly Move.
September 20, 2003... Arab League member-states get the 191-nation UN General Assembly to vote a resolution against Israel removing Arafat, after a Sept. 16 US veto of a similar resolution at the Security Council. The vetoed resolution, drafted by Palestinian UN...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sept. 17 - Spanish Judge Indicts Bin Laden.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzon issues international arrest orders for Osama Bin Laden and 7 others suspected in the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings in the US. He indicts Bin Laden and 34 others on charges of terrorism, including the 9/11 attacks...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sept. 20 - Iraq Summit.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... French Pres. Chirac, British PM Blair and German Chancellor Schroder meet in Berlin for common ground on Iraq. This is the first three-way summit in several years. But the talks ended later on Sept. 20 with Chirac saying he will only back a...

ARAB-EUROPEAN RELATIONS - Sept. 20 - Chirac Plan For Iraqi Sovereignty.
September 20, 2003... In an hour-long interview at the Elysee Palace in a Paris with the New York Times (NYT) to be published on Sept. 21, Chirac lays out a two-phase plan for Iraqi self-rule involving first a symbolic transfer of sovereignty from US hands to the...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 14 - Olmert On Killing Arafat.
September 20, 2003... Deputy PM Ehud Olmert tells Israel Ratio: "Arafat can no longer be a factor in what happens here. The question is: How are we going to do it? Expulsion is certainly one of the options, and killing is also one of the options. In my eyes, from a...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 15 - Plans To Kill Arafat Denied; Qurei Works On Govt.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... FM Shalom says: "It is not the official policy of the Israeli government" to kill Arafat. "We don't speak about any killing. We didn't speak about it before, and we don't speak about it today". (While various states sought to pressure Israel to...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 16 - Sharon Shuns PA Truce Offer.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... Arafat's security adviser Jibril Rajoub calls for a ceasefire, but Israel dismisses this as inadequate without Palestinian action to break up the violent groups. (Arafat appeared to refer to the proposal when speaking to supporters gathering at...

ARABS-ISRAEL - Sept. 18 - Hamas Militant Killed.
September 20, 2003... In the Israeli Army's largest incursion into the Gaza Strip since its partial withdrawal in June, troops sweep into a central Gaza refugee camp kill Hamas militant Jihad Abu Shwairah in a fire fight. Israel has now killed 13 Hamas members and...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 14 - Iraq Mistakes.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... National security adviser Rice says in an FT interview: "I'll be perfectly honest, I think we had in the first phase and maybe even a few weeks after the end of major military operations, some problems of co-ordination...We learned that we had...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 14 - Powell Rejects Fast Transfer Of Iraq Power.
September 20, 2003... Secretary Powell (pressed by France and by some Iraqis to agree to a speedier timetable towards self-government in Iraq) says the process of restoring sovereignty has to be carried out in stages and might not be seen as legitimate if the pace...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 14 - Zebari Sees 2H '04 Elections.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... Iraqi FM Hoshyar Zebari says after a meeting Powell it would be possible to hold elections and restore sovereignty by the second half of 2004. Powell says the positive things happening in Iraq "really don't get out widely enough into the...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 16 - Bush To Withhold Funds Over Israeli Actions.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... US officials are quoted as saying Washington would withhold part of a $9 bn loan guarantee for Israel because of its actions in the occupied Palestinian territories. (If the amount is significant then the Bush administration, faced with a...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 16 - Powell In Halabja.
September 20, 2003... Winding up a 2-day tour in Iraq, Powell visits the site of northern Iraq's Kurdish town of Halabja and goes to mass graves and a museum dedicated to the 5,000 people who lost their lives in a 1988 chemical attack, a reminder, he says, of why...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 17 - Iraqi Scientists Offered Immunity.
September 20, 2003... Washington officials are reported as saying the US is stepping up efforts to find evidence of Iraqi WMD by offering former mid-level scientists immunity from prosecution (The move comes as the US and UK are preparing for a long-awaited report...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 18 - Rise In Iraqi Hostility.
September 20, 2003... New intelligence assessments are warning that the most formidable foe in Iraq in the months ahead may be the resentment of ordinary Iraqis increasingly hostile to US military occupation. (This picture, shared with US military commanders in...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 18 - Israel Shrugs Off Loan Action.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... Israeli FM spokesman Jonathan Peled says his government would not be swayed by Washington's warning that it would trim the $9 bn loan guarantee if money raised was spent for the benefit of Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank and Gaza...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 18 - 3 US Soldiers Killed In Iraq.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... Iraqi guerrillas kill 3 US soldiers and wound 2 others in an ambush near Tikrit. They were inspecting a weapons site. An attack on a US convoy destroyed 3 vehicles and injured 2 soldiers in Khaldiya, west of Baghdad. The attacks came shortly...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 18 - Anti-French Sentiment.
September 20, 2003... NYT's Thomas Friedman captures the anti-French sentiment in his column: "It's time we as Americans came to terms with something: France is not just our annoying ally. It is not just our jealous rival. France is becoming our enemy". (While...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 19 - Bush Hits Arafat.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... At Camp David hosting Jordanian King Abdullah, Bush tells a press conference: "Arafat has failed as a leader...(Outgoing Palestinian PM Mahmoud) Abbas was undermined at all turns by the old order - that meant Arafat... I believed PM Abbas when...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 20 - Israel Will Confer On Wall.
September 20, 2003... Israeli leaders have resolved to send top-ranking aides to Washington to test how strongly the Bush administration will resist construction of contentious stretches of a West Bank wall which Pres. Bush has called a "problem". The aim is to...

ARAB-US RELATIONS - Sept. 20 - More Killed In Iraq.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... A 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment soldier is killed in an improvised explosive device attack against a military in the town of Ramadi, 100 km west of Baghdad. Two US soldiers are killed and 13 wounded in a separate mortar attack on a US-run...

AFGHANISTAN - Sept. 13 - Taliban Attack US Troops.
September 20, 2003... Taliban guerrillas attack 10th Mountain Div. troops patrolling near the Bagram US base at Shkin in Paktika province, a few km from the Pakistan border. Unhurt, the US troops respond with small arms and artillery, trading fire for an hour before...

AFGHANISTAN - Sept. 17 - Larger Peace Force Call.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... German Lt Gen Gotz Gliemeroth, head of the NATO-led ISAF peacekeeping force, urges NATO to expand the force. He says the debate about what mandate ISAF should work under is "an ideological consideration" and the peacekeeping operations must be...

AFGHANISTAN - Sept. 18 - More US Aid.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... Briefly visiting US Treasury Secretary John Snow promises Pres. Karzai $1.2 bn in new aid to Kabul and says he would urge allies to donate at least $1 bn for reconstruction at a Dubai World Bank/IMF conference. Snow has been touring the Middle...

AFGHANISTAN - Sept. 18 - Foreign Banks Allowed.
September 20, 2003... Getting operating licences on Sept. 18 are Standard Chartered (UK), the National Bank of Pakistan and a micro credit bank backed by the Agha Khan Foundation. Karzai said after signing the law on Sept. 16: "Afghans are rich people, but their...

AFGHANISTAN - Sept. 18 - NATO To Expand.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... NATO orders its military experts to draw up plans to expand the alliance's mission (for peacekeepers to fan out into provincial cities and lessen the burden on US-led forces fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The NATO-led force of 5,500...

ALGERIA - Sept. 16 - Amnesty Condemns Record.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... Amnesty International condemns Algiers' human rights record, saying the rhetoric of Pres. Bouteflika's government has raised expectations but fallen short in delivery". It says the human rights situation, although improved since the mid- to...

AZERBAIJAN - Sept. 13 - Bribery Case.
September 20, 2003... A US bribery investigation has implicated Pres. Aliyev (which is likely to intensify a succession drama with profound consequences for the West). A New York court has unsealed an indictment against a Swiss banker who was accused of paying...

IRAN - Sept. 15 - N-Chief Committed To Pact.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... The VP and head of the Atomic Energy Org. Aghazadeh tells a meeting of IAEA member-states: "We shall proceed with our negotiations with the agency (IAEA) about the Additional Protocol" (that permits snap short-notice inspections of Iran's...

IRAN - Sept. 17 - Montazeri Speech.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, 81, addresses about 300 student followers in central Qom (after five years of house arrest and several months of illness). He criticised the ruling establishment, saying it should submit to elections and...

IRAN - Sept. 19 - Jannati Against N-Probe & NPT.(Brief Article)
September 20, 2003... The Guardians' Council head Ayat. Ahmad Jannati, addressing Friday prayers at Tehran University, calls on the government to defy international demands for enhanced nuclear inspections and consider withdrawing from the NPT. (The comments by a...

IRAQ - Sept. 14 - Scientists Say N-Programme Ended.
September 20, 2003... The FT quotes an Iraqi scientist "who formerly headed a department in 'Bomb Design Group Four' and who asked not to be named" as saying that, throughout 12 years of UN sanctions and weapons inspections, Iraqi nuclear scientists who denied the...