APS Diplomat Strategic Balance in the Middle East articles from March 2009

APS Diplomat Strategic Balance in the Middle East archives from March 2009

The Challenges Of Terrorism - Iraq, Part 42 - Syria Is Not Changing Behaviour.
March 2, 2009... Syria's Ambassador to Washington 'Imad Mustafa on Feb. 25 had talks at the State Department with acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, a former ambassador to Beirut where he learned a great deal about the...

Kuwaiti FM Visits.(foreign minister Shaikh Muhammad al-Sabah)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... Visiting Baghdad, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister and Deputy PM Shaikh Muhammad al-Sabah on Feb. 26 had talks with PM Nuri al-Maleki and other leaders. This was the highest-level Kuwaiti visit since Saddam's Aug. 2, 1990, invasion of the Sunni Arab...

The Hariri Case.(Rafiq Hariri)
March 2, 2009... Another link to the long chain of events from the 1974 Golan deal is the case of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri, who was assassinated on Feb. 14, 2005, and both the Obama administration and Sarkozy have made it clear they were backing a UN...

Obama's Withdrawal Plan.(Barack Obama's Iraqi troop withdrawal strategy)
March 2, 2009... Addressing Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, President Obama on Feb. 27 said the US had now "begun the work of ending this war" in Iraq, as he announced the withdrawal of most American combat forces by end-August 2010 while leaving...

The Challenges Of Terrorism - Iraq, Part 43 - The Kurdish Question.
March 23, 2009... A new issue is adding to the numerous problems of Iraq: whether or not the next head of the Iraqi Republic will be a Kurd, as President Jalal Talabani does not want to have a second term when the current one ends. This makes the Kurdish...

Kurds Warns On Oil Contracts, But See Exports Soon.
March 23, 2009... The KRG's Minister of Natural Resources, Dr Ashti Hawrami, on March 16 warned international oil companies (IOCs) against signing deals with Baghdad on fields in territory the Kurds claim. He said the KRG would start exporting crude oil in the...

Obama Visiting Turkey.(Barack Obama)
March 23, 2009... President Obama has chosen to make his first state visit abroad to be to Turkey, a Sunni democracy which he sees as a good model for the Muslim world. He is due to arrive in Ankara on April 6. It is not clear yet whether he would also visit...

Maleki Forging Alliance With Secular Leaders.
March 23, 2009... PM Maleki has allied himself with Saleh al-Mutlaq, an outspoken secular Sunni leader in several provinces and broached a coalition with former PM Iyad 'Allawi - a secular Shi'ite opposed to Iranian influences on Iraq. Maleki is also courting...