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Category: Middle East

  • Turkey Condemns Terrorist Attack In Syria

    Turkey Condemns Terrorist Attack In Syria

    Published: 9/28/2008

    ANKARA – Turkey condemned the terrorist attack staged near the Syrian capital of Damascus on Saturday.

    Turkey, which saw terrorism a crime against humanity, harshly condemned the heinous attack in Syria, a Foreign Ministry statement said.

    In the statement, the Ministry expressed Turkey’s wish that the assailants of the terrorist attack would be found as soon as possible.

    Turkey also reaffirmed its support and contributions to maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East.

    A car packed with explosives blew up near Damascus, killing 17 and wounding 14.

    Also, Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a condolence message to Syrian President Bashar al-Asad and condemned the terrorist attack.

    In his message, Erdogan reiterated Turkey’s solidarity in the fight against terrorism.

    Source: www.turkishpress.com, 28/9/2008

  • Iraq Passes Provincial Elections Law

    Iraq Passes Provincial Elections Law

     

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    The struggle over Kirkuk, where Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Christians
    and other groups have all staked claims, has been among the central
    obstacles to unifying Iraq. Government officials in the Kurdish
    region in the north insist that Kirkuk rightfully belongs to them.
    Sunni Arab and Turkmen lawmakers have proposed a power-sharing
    agreement to govern the city.

    Under the new bill, passed unanimously by the 190 members of
    Parliament present, a committee made up of representatives from the
    major groups involved in the Kirkuk dispute will take up the question
    and present recommendations by March 31. The election in Kirkuk is to
    be postponed, and the current provincial council would remain in
    place until a separate election law for the province could be passed.

    Elections in the three provinces of the Kurdish region, an autonomous
    territory, will be held in 2009.

    Sa’adaldin Arkij, head of the Turkmen Front political party, called
    the passage of the election law “a historical victory for Iraqis.”

    “Today there was no winner and no loser, but Iraq won” he said.
    “Kirkuk is not an easy issue, and the agreement is a confirmation of
    Iraqis’ awareness and responsibility for unity in their country.”

    The new law eliminates an article that, in an earlier version, had
    provided 13 seats in six provinces for Iraqi Christians, Yazidis and
    other minorities — a move that Younadim Kanna, head of the Assyrian
    Democratic Movement and the only Christian member of Parliament said
    was “a very, very bad sign.”

  • KRG confirms South Korea oil deals

    KRG confirms South Korea oil deals

    By United Press International

    South Korea was granted the lead role in two northern Iraq oil projects and increased interest in six others, United Press International has confirmed.

    The Korean National Oil Corp. has also pledged $2.1 billion in infrastructure projects in Iraq’s Kurdish region as part of the deal, but $1.5 billion will be withheld until oil exports begin.

    Iraq’s central government has called most of the 20-plus oil deals signed by the Kurdistan Regional Government illegal and is pledging to confiscate any oil produced.

    The KRG and KNOC have confirmed leaders signed a massive Implementation Agreement for Oil & Gas Infrastructure Projects Thursday in Seoul.

    In exchange for the investment in electricity, water, road and other infrastructure — the remaining $1.5 billion will come from KNOC’s earnings from oil exports — KNOC was granted two production-sharing contracts.

    The state-owned firm will have an 80-percent ownership of the Qush Tappa block PSC and 60-percent ownership of Sangaw South.

    KNOC was also granted interest in existing production contracts: a 15-percent stake in each of Norbest Limited’s K15, K16 and K17 blocks; a 15-percent interest in block K21; and a 20-percent stake in Sterling Energy Ltd.’s Sangaw North block. It also was given 20 percent more of the Bazian block, of which KNOC is the lead company in a consortium that was granted a 60-percent stake last November.

    The agreement was seven months in the making, when a memorandum of understanding was reached between the two sides. In June, contracts for oil stakes were agreed to, as well as an investment project. All of the details were negotiated since then and the deals made official Thursday.

    Iraq Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, in a June interview in his Baghdad office, told United Press International all but the four KRG contracts signed before February 2007 would be regarded as illegal.

    “That oil will be confiscated; they have no right to work in that part of the country,” he said. “We’ll use a number of measures to stop any violation of Iraqi law. Those contracts have no standing with us, we don’t recognize them and they have no right to do that.”

    A draft version of a new oil law for Iraq was approved in February 2007 by the Iraqi Cabinet but was scuttled after changes were made and interpretations varied.

    KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani urged Baghdad to concentrate on passing the law instead of condemning the regional government’s contracts.

    —

    Ben Lando, UPI Energy Editor

  • Gazprom ups gas price for Armenia

    Gazprom ups gas price for Armenia

    MOSCOW, Sept. 25 (UPI) — Russian energy giant Gazprom will increase the price of gas exported to Armenia by 40 percent beginning in April 2009, officials said Thursday.

    Karen Karapetian with the joint Russian-Armenian natural gas pipeline project ArmRosGazprom said starting April 1 the price for gas would increase from $110 per 1,000 cubic meters to $154.

    Another price increase, to $200 per 1,000 cubic meters, is scheduled to go into effect in 2010, and in 2011, Gazprom will peg the price to conditions in Europe, the Azeri Press Agency said.

    Earlier, Azerbaijan denied reports there were plans to alter the route of the Western-backed Nabucco pipeline through Armenian territory, citing a territorial dispute between the two countries.

    On Tuesday, however, Iran pledged to meet Armenian winter energy demands through a $220 million, 87-mile natural gas pipeline.

    “Iran will pump 3 million cubic meters of gas to Armenia during this winter,” said Reza Kasaei Zadeh, director of the Iranian Gas Export Co.

  • Syria’s love affair with Livni

    Syria’s love affair with Livni

    By DION NISSENBAUM

    Jerusalem- As expected, Israeli President Shimon Peres has tapped Tzipi Livni to take on the daunting task of trying to form a new coalition government and, thus, head off unpredictable national elections that could put the country back in the hands of a more conservative government.

    Over the next 42 days, Livni will have a tough time wooing rivals on the left and on the right who want to extract as many concessions as they can before they agree to join any Livni-led coalition.

    But the foreign minister who is a few steps away from becoming the second woman to ever lead Israel is getting some support from an unlikely place: Syria.

    In an editorial titled, “Tzipi – Israel’s new bird” (a reference to the fact that her full name – Tzipora – means “bird” in Hebrew), Syria’s state Tishrin newspaper praised Livni as a “Mossad beauty,” according to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

    (Livni spent two years in her early career working for the Mossad in Paris. While the nature of her work during her short duration with the Israeli spy agency is unknown, The Times of London wrote a questionable story in July that suggested that Livni was a young “terrorist hunter.” The story, which probably helped boost her thin security credentials and credibility among some Israelis, received a lot of attention, especially in the Arab world.)

    “International commentators describe Livni as a dove among hawks,” the editorial states. “If this ‘Mossad dove’ wishes to repent for her crimes and the crimes of her family, and if she truly wishes to secure peace, she will get peace. If she doesn’t want that, the region will remain in a state that is neither peace nor war, while facing a tense and unstable atmosphere.”

    Ok, it might not be a genuine love letter, but it does show a level of intrigue in the Arab world in Livni’s rise to power.

    Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel’s ultra-Orthodox newspapers won’t even publish Livni’s photograph so as not to violate cultural sensitivities.

    “For us, the newspaper is an educational device that not only informs but also teaches people how to behave,” an anonymous editor at the Haredi newspaper Hamodia told The Jerusalem Post. “If it detracts from yiddishkeit (Jewishness), it won’t be in our paper.”

    The editor did concede that papers published Golda Meir’s photos when she was Israel’s prime minister.

    But.

    “Golda was an institution,” the editor said. “She was a respected figure with decades of political experience before she became prime minister. But in recent years there has been depreciation in the level of politicians.”

    But, don’t take it personally, Tzipi!

    Welcome to the highest echelon of Israeli politics!

    You’ve got 42 days before the carriage turns into a pumpkin.

    Dion Nissenbaum covers the Middle East as Jerusalem bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers. E-mail him at dnissenbaum@mcclatchydc.com.

    To read more of this writer’s blog – as well as those of other McClatchy foreign correspondents – go to

    Source: www.kentucky.com

  • Russia, China, Germany reject US evidence of Iran’s covert nuke program

    Russia, China, Germany reject US evidence of Iran’s covert nuke program

     

    DEBKAfile Special Analysis

    September 20, 2008, 1:30 PM (GMT+02:00)

     

    Euphrates pipes for destroyed Syrian reactor designed to be part of Iran’s military program

    Russia, China and Germany refuse to countenance tougher sanctions against Iran notwithstanding the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report from Vienna that its inspections of suspect activities and covert projects were stalled by Tehran’s non-cooperation. Diplomats for the five permanent Security Council members and Germany, meeting at the State Department Friday, Sept 19, therefore failed to agree on a new round of sanctions ahead of their foreign ministers’ meeting at UN Center next week.

    The meeting avoided discussing the timing and content of a fourth round of sanctions, only broadly calling on Iran – for the umpteenth time after numerous rejections – to accept the incentives on offer for halting uranium enrichment and cooperating with UN inspections.

    The nuclear watchdog reported that Tehran had stalled its efforts to establish whether or not Iran was developing nuclear warheads, enriching uranium for military purposes, testing nuclear explosives or building nuclear-capable missiles.

    Tuesday, Sept 16, the UN watchdog gave a closed meeting of the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency photos and documents proving Iran had tried to refit a long-distance Shehab missile to carry a nuclear payload. The also produced calculations and diagrams from Iranian missile and nuclear experts’ computers on nuclear detonations and how to build nuclear-capable missiles.

    The next day, Wednesday, CIA chief Michael Hayden disclosed that the destruction of the Syrian reactor – as a result of intelligence collaboration with a “foreign partner” who first identified the facility’s purpose – spoiled a project “that could have provided Syria with plutonium for nuclear weapons.”

    He did not name the foreign partner, but the reference to Israel was obvious. He also said the reactor was similar to the North Korean model.

    “We were able last year to spoil a big secret, a project that could have provided Syria with plutonium for nuclear weapons,” Hayden said, adding: “When pipes for a massive cooling system were laid out to the Euphrates River in the spring of 2007, there would have been little doubt this was a nuclear reactor.”

    The Bush administration released all this data in order to back up the IAEA report and tell the international community that the US and Israel were furnished with more intelligence confirming Iran’s covert nuclear projects and the clandestine partnershipn between Tehran, Damascus and Pyongyang. North Korea was also made aware that Washington had not missed its preparations for re-activating its nuclear reactor.

    Nuclear watchdog officials asked Tehran to explain why its experts were busy making calculations for military projects, claimed to be non-existent. No answer has been forthcoming as yet. The Iranian representative only said the materials had been forged by certain parties as a provocation.

    Nonetheless, Russian, Chinese and German diplomats attending the IAEA board meeting last Tuesday insisted that the evidence they saw did not prove Iran was engaged in developing nuclear weapons.

    Despite the fact that leading world powers have tied themselves in knots to avoid keeping nuclear weapons out of Iran’s hands, Israel’s prime minister Shimon Peres plans to deliver a speech at the UN General Assembly next week announcing that Israel is against resorting to military action against Iran and relies on sanctions.

    DEBKAfile’s political circles stress that the Israeli government has never confirmed the position embodied in his address.

    Ahead of his address to the General Assembly, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, grandstanding as always, challenged the American presidential candidates to a public debate “over global issues, in the presence of the media at the UN. He also said that while “some say the idea of Greater Israel has expired, I say the idea of lesser Israel has expired, too.”