Just Foreign Policy News
June 24, 2010
Stone’s "Border" Shows Fall of South America’s Berlin Wall
In April 2002, a U.S.-backed coup against the democratically-elected government of Venezuela collapsed. The failure of the Bush Administration’s effort to overthrow President Chavez was world-historical for South America because it sent a powerful new signal about the limits of the ability of the U.S. to thwart popular democracy in the region. Following the reversal of the coup, presidents were elected across South America promising to reverse the disastrous economic policies promoted by Washington. The story of this dramatic transformation has been largely untold in the U.S.. But on Friday, Oliver Stone’s new documentary, "South of the Border," opens in New York.
http://www.truth-out.org/stones-border-shows-fall-south-americas-berlin-wall60732
Media Matters mp3: Bob McChesney talks with co-writer and JFP President Mark Weisbrot about "South of the Border"
http://will.uiuc.edu/media/mediamatters100620.mp3
Is "South of the Border" coming to your town?
http://southoftheborderdoc.com/in-theatres/
98 House Members are on the McGovern bill
98 Reps. have co-sponsored the McGovern bill, calling for a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan, 3 short of our goal of 101. Is your Representative among them?
http://noescalation.org/2010/05/05/withdrawal-timetable/
If not, ask your Rep. to co-sponsor:
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) Obama’s switch to Petreaeus could open up new opportunities for political compromise in Afghanistan to end the war, argues Gareth Porter, writing for Inter Press Service. Petraeus’s political skills and ability to sell a strategy involving a negotiated settlement offers Obama more flexibility than he has had with McChrystal in command, Porter notes. Contrary to the generally accepted view that Petraeus mounted a successful counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq, his main accomplishment was to make the first formal accommodation with Sunni insurgents.
2) Israeli President Shimon Peres urged the U.S. and other world powers to engage with Hamas, the Washington Post reports.
3) A new poll indicated that the majority of Palestinians support a peace agreement with Israel and believe that the Palestinian Authority should use non-violent means to achieve their political goals, Haaretz reports. 73 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were in favor of peace negotiations with Israel, but stressed that a settlement freeze should be a precondition to talks. The poll revealed a rise in Palestinian support for halting rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel, rising from 53 percent in favor of a halt in 2009 to 61 percent in 2010.
4) A delegation of residents of Guam is urging the UN to pay closer attention to Guam’s political status and how the U.S. military buildup could affect that status, the Pacific Daily News reports. The delegation spoke before the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization. A delegate asked the Decolonization Committee to send delegates to Guam to investigate the consequences of militarization. "You will see with your own eyes, the substandard of living of many of the Chamorros and other residents of Guam who live across the fences, resembling the racial and economic disparity found in the segregated city neighborhoods throughout the globe," the delegation said.
5) At least 79 NATO troops have died in Afghanistan so far this month, surpassing the previous record reached last August, when 76 troops were killed, the Washington Post reports.
6) Republican leaders warned their House members will withhold support by voting "present" on the war funds if Democrats attempt to add new domestic spending, including $10 billion to help local school boards avert teacher layoffs in the fall, the Politico reports. Republican leader John Boehner has told Obama he will support a relatively clean war supplemental. But by telling their members to vote "present," Boehner and other leaders are also tossing an election year challenge back to Democrats, telling the majority to carry the war costs alone if it also insists on the teachers funds.
7) U.S. casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan now exceed 500,000, if you count injuries and diseases including mental illness that the Department of Defense doesn’t include in its official combat-related casualty toll, the Los Angeles Times reports. Cases of traumatic brain injury and PTSD as a result of serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are excluded from the official list of casualties.
Afghanistan
8) For many Afghans, Gen. McChrystal’s dismissal has served mainly to underscore their own weariness with a conflict that has dragged on for nearly nine years with no end in sight, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Iran
9) Brazil’s Foreign Minister says it is now up to Iran to respond to concerns expressed by the US, France and Russia over the fuel swap deal between Iran, Brazil and Turkey, AFP reports. Celso Amorim said he was encouraged by the fact that Iran has had a flexible response so far. He noted French President Sarkozy’s willingness to continue negotiations with Iran, based on the Brazil and Turkey proposal, and desire that Turkey and Brazil remain engaged, AFP says. And if Iran, Russia, and US want Brazil to be engaged, Brazil is happy to help, he said.
Brazil
10) Brazil plans to tighten restrictions on foreign ownership of farm lands, AP reports. The Agrarian Development Ministry said under current law, large rural properties can only be purchased by Brazilian citizens or residents, but foreigners bypass that rule by setting up companies in Brazil, which are controlled abroad, to purchase land. The ministry said the restriction was necessary to ensure that Brazilians had secure access to food.
Argentina
11) Argentina’s UN ambassador expressed confidence that the US would eventually play a "dialogue-facilitating" role with Britain in resolving the sovereignty dispute over the Malvinas/Falklands, Mercopress reports. He said Secretary of State Clinton’s remarks in support of dialogue had had a big impact in Britain. He said Argentina wanted Britain to abide by UN resolution 2065, which calls on Britain and Argentina to negotiate the issue, but which Britain, a member of the Security Council, has so far refused to accept.
Venezuela
12) Venezuela has said that it will nationalize 11 oil rigs owned by US multinational Helmerich and Payne, Al Jazeera reports. The Venezuelan oil minister said the facilities were being taken over to bring them back into production. Helmerich and Payne has refused to work at the site due to a dispute over payments.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Switch to Petraeus Betrays Afghan Policy Crisis
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service, 23 Jun http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=3150
Washington – Despite President Barack Obama’s denial that his decision to fire Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal as commander in Afghanistan and replace him with Gen. David Petraeus signified any differences with McChrystal over war strategy, the decision obviously reflects a desire by Obama to find a way out of a deepening policy crisis in Afghanistan.
Although the ostensible reason was indiscreet comments by McChrystal and his aides reported in Rolling Stone, the switch from McChrystal to Petraeus was clearly the result of White House unhappiness with McChrystal’s handling of the war.
It had become evident in recent weeks that McChrystal’s strategy is not working as he had promised, and Congress and the U.S. political elite had already become very uneasy about whether the war was on the wrong track.
In calling on Petraeus, the Obama administration appears to be taking a page from the George W. Bush administration’s late 2006 decision to rescue a war in Iraq which was generally perceived in Washington as having become an embarrassing failure. But both Obama and Petraeus are acutely aware of the differences between the situation in Iraq at that moment and the situation in Afghanistan today.
In taking command in Iraq in 2007, Petraeus was being called upon to implement a dramatically new counterinsurgency strategy based on a major "surge" in U.S. troops.
Obama will certainly be put under pressure by the Republican Party, led by Sen. John McCain, to agree to eliminate the mid-2011 deadline for the beginning of a U.S. withdrawal and perhaps even for yet another troop surge in Afghanistan.
But accounts of Obama administration policymaking on the war last year make it clear that Obama caved into military pressure in 2009 for the troop surge of 2010 only as part of a compromise under which McChrystal and Petraeus agreed to a surge of 18 months duration. It was clearly understood by both civilian and military officials, moreover, that after the surge was completed, the administration would enter into negotiations on a settlement of the war.
Petraeus’s political skills and ability to sell a strategy involving a negotiated settlement offers Obama more flexibility than he has had with McChrystal in command.
Contrary to the generally accepted view that Petraeus mounted a successful counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq, his main accomplishment was to make the first formal accommodation with Sunni insurgents.
Petraeus demonstrated in his command in Iraq a willingness to adjust strategic objectives in light of realities he could not control. He had it made it clear to his staff at the outset that they would make one last effort to show progress, but that he would tell Congress that it was time to withdraw if he found that it was not working.
As commander in Iraq, Petraeus chose staff officers who were sceptics and realists rather than true believers, according to accounts from members of his staff in Iraq. When one aide proposed in a memorandum in the first weeks of his command coming to terms with the Shia insurgents led by Moqtada al Sadr, for example, Petraeus did not dismiss the idea.
[…]
2) Israeli President Shimon Peres: U.S. and other powers must engage Hamas on peace
Janine Zacharia, Washington Post, Thursday, June 24, 2010; 12:40 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/24/AR2010062403284.html
Jerusalem – Israel’s president and elder statesman, Shimon Peres, urged the United States and other world powers this week to engage with Hamas in order to persuade the Islamist group to renounce violence and prepare for peace with Israel.
Peres, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating the 1993 land-for-peace Oslo accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the international community could do with Hamas what European leaders did when they persuaded the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to embrace negotiations.
[…] Israel has sought to isolate Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and has encouraged allies to do the same. But the question of how to deal with Hamas as a political reality has largely eluded the international community since the Islamist organization chose to participate in Palestinian elections, and won, in 2006. A year later, Hamas fought a bloody battle with its rival Fatah and seized exclusive control of Gaza.
Since then, Hamas leaders have expressed some openness to a two-state solution while maintaining the group’s founding charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel.
U.S. diplomats are prohibited under international law from talking directly to Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and others. Instead, the United States engages with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his government, based in the West Bank.
Israel in the past has, through intermediaries, arranged ceasefires with Hamas and tried to negotiate a prisoner swap in order to win the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held by Hamas for four years. Those negotiations have stalled over the list of Palestinian prisoners who would be released and the question of whether they would be allowed to return to Palestinian territories or be deported abroad, sources familiar with the talks say.
Peres, whose position is largely ceremonial, has suggested responsibility for engaging with Hamas to try to stop it from amassing rockets should fall to the Quartet – the Middle East peacemaking body that is made up of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
The Quartet has repeatedly urged Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist, accept existing Middle East peace agreements and commit to nonviolence. Hamas officials say they have largely clamped down on rocket attacks but have not abandoned the right to arm themselves. Before last year’s war in Gaza, Hamas militants launched thousands of rockets into Israel.
Peres, who has tended to be less hard-line in his approach to the Palestinians than others in the Israeli leadership, has raised the idea of engaging with Hamas in conversations with world leaders.
[…]
3) Poll: Most Palestinians want peace with Israel
Fafo poll conducted in West Bank and Gaza finds that 89% Palestinians support PA legislative elections this year, 84 % believe Fatah will win.
Haaretz, 20.06.10
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/poll-most-palestinians-want-peace-with-israel-1.297196
The majority of Palestinians support a peace agreement with Israel and believe that the Palestinian Authority should use non-violent means to achieve their political goals, a new Fafo poll revealed.
Fafo, a Norwegian based international multidisciplinary research foundation, found that 73 percent of Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza were in favor of peace negotiations with Israel, but stressed that a settlement freeze should be a precondition to talks.
The poll also revealed a rise in Palestinian support for halting rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel, rising from 53 percent in favor of a halt in 2009 to 61 percent in 2010.
[…]
4) UN asked to help on political status issue
Dionesis Tamondong, Pacific Daily News, June 24, 2010
http://www.guampdn.com/article/20100624/NEWS01/6240310/UN-asked-to-help-on-political-status-issue
A delegation of Chamorros is urging the United Nations to pay closer attention to Guam’s political status and how the military buildup could affect that status.
The delegation, including Hope A. Cristobal and members of We are Guahån and Fuetsan Famalao’an, spoke before the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization in New York this past week.
Guam Sen. Ben Pangelinan also submitted testimony, in which he states: "This body must advance the self-determination process for the native inhabitants of Guam now, for the recent decisions by our administering authority dilutes our right to self-determination."
The 23rd Guam Legislature, of which Pangelinan was a member, created the Commission on Decolonization and set a date for a plebiscite to be held so that Chamorros could vote on a preference for political status – statehood, independence or free association.
The commission is charged with collecting a registry of people who meet the definition of Chamorro – those who were made U.S. citizens by the Organic Act of Guam in 1950 and their descendants.
In 2008, there were more than 10,000 people registered, according to Pacific Daily News files. But the registry requires at least 75 percent of all registered voters.
On June 17, the Guam Election Commission said there were more than 46,500 voters registered for the 2010 election. That means the registry would need almost 35,000 people.
The buildup plan includes relocating 8,000 Marines and their 9,000 dependents from Okinawa to Guam by 2014. When personnel and dependents from other military services are counted, as well as off-island contractors and temporary workers, Guam’s population of about 170,000 is estimated to increase by about 79,000, according to Pacific Daily News files.
Fuetsan Famalao’an asked the U.N. Decolonization Committee to send delegates to Guam to investigate the consequences of militarization. "You will see with your own eyes, the substandard of living of many of the Chamorros and other residents of Guam who live across the fences, resembling the racial and economic disparity found in the segregated city neighborhoods throughout the globe," the delegation said in its news release.
5) June deadliest month for NATO troops since Afghan war began
Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post, Thursday, June 24, 2010; 10:17 AM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/24/AR2010062401446.html
Kabul – Four British troops were killed in a vehicle accident Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, making June the deadliest month for the U.S.-led NATO force since it began deploying in Afghanistan in 2002.
At least 79 NATO troops have died in Afghanistan so far this month, surpassing the previous record reached last August, when 76 troops were killed, according to a tally by icasualties.org. At least 46 of the service members killed this month were American.
Last October was the deadliest month for U.S. troops, with 59 casualties.
[…]
6) Spending fight freezes war bill
David Rogers, Politico, June 23, 2010 08:46 PM EDT http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38950.html
Stuck in neutral, Democrats are watching their summer economic agenda whittle away each day, with Republicans driving the debate through Senate filibuster rules and their political lock in the House over new war funding sought by President Barack Obama.
Republican leaders warned Wednesday that their House members will withhold support by voting "present" on the war funds if Democrats attempt to add new domestic spending, including $10 billion to help local school boards avert teacher layoffs in the fall.
Across the Capitol, the Senate ground to a halt for most of the day as Democrats met behind closed doors in a make-or-break effort to find the swing Republican votes for an already much-reduced jobs and economic relief bill.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced the latest version which scales back state assistance by an estimated $8 billion and introduces more than $11 billion in new spending offsets, impacting future food stamp benefits as well as unexpended funds from the Recovery Act last year.
The Nevada Democrat moved quickly to file cloture on the new package but he appears to have made the concessions more to test the Republicans’ hand-than with any certainty of getting the last votes.
[…] Most affected is a $24 billion package of assistance to help cash-strapped states like his own pay Medicaid bills through June 2011 and thereby avoid more layoffs of state and local employees. Based on prior votes in Congress, an estimated 30 governors already assume the money will be available in their 2011 budgets, though it’s almost certain the full sum won’t be forthcoming.
The Senate revisions last night would cut the $24 billion by about a third, and ramp down the funding in the first two quarters of calendar year 2011. In the first quarter the added federal assistance, now about 6.2% of each state’s Medicaid costs, would fall to 3.2%. In the second quarter, it drops again to 1.2%.
[…] House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) had hoped to navigate through these waters by allowing Republicans an up-or-down vote on the most direct war-related funds: about $33 billion for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In turn, Democrats would get a vote on items such as Haiti relief and the teachers assistance. But Republicans fear that this arrangement effectively puts them in the position of enabling new domestic spending their voters oppose.
Republican leader John Boehner has told Obama he will support a relatively clean war supplemental, and the Ohio conservative issued a statement Wednesday respectful of the president’s decision to replace Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the commander in Afghanistan. But by telling their members to vote "present," Boehner and other leaders are also tossing an election year challenge back to Democrats, telling the majority to carry the war costs alone if it also insists on the teachers funds.
This sets up what is sure to be a painful vote for liberal Democrats, torn between their opposition to the war and loyalty to Obama. Much as the president won a similar skirmish last year, it will be harder for him to repeat now as the costs and casualties continue to mount.
[…]
7) American casualties total 500,000, counting injury and disease, writer claims
Alexandra Sandels, Los Angeles Times, June 24, 2010
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/06/iraqafghanistan-.html
Beirut – Here’s an eye-popping number: A blogger and writer claims American military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan now exceed 500,000.
That’s if you count certain injuries and diseases including mental illness that he alleges the Department of Defense doesn’t include in its official combat-related casualty toll in an effort to soften U.S. military losses in the wars and win funding for them from the Congress.
For example, cases of traumatic brain injury and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, as a result of serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are excluded from the official list of casualties.
"Under this scheme, chronic injuries and many acute internal injuries such as hearing impairment, back injuries, mild traumatic brain injuries, mental health problems and a host of diseases suffered by personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan are usually not counted as being war-related regardless of how debilitating they are," writes Matthew Nasuti in an article published on the Afghan news site and media organization Kabul Press. "They are either generally lumped into the category of ‘non-hostile wounded’ or simply not counted at all."
Masuti is a former Air Force captain and Los Angeles deputy city attorney who worked for the State Department in Iraq for a spell. He’s now a critic of the U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The writer claims that 95% of injured soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen were not reported as casualties due to what he refers to as the Pentagon’s "fudging the numbers" in a bid to win funding from American lawmakers to finance the wars.
"Wounded in action is narrowly defined to essentially be an injury directly caused by an adversary," he writes. "So called ‘friendly fire’ injuries and deaths would apparently not be counted. The emphasis is on acute injuries caused by enemy munitions which pierce or penetrate."
He cites sources such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, the New England Journal of Medicine and the Navy to conclude that the more than 170,000 U.S. soldiers suffer from hearing damage, the 130,000 or more cases of milder brain injuries, and the 200,000 troops suffering from mental problems are left out of the casualty count.
If they were to be included in the Pentagon’s official numbers of 5,500 troop deaths and 38,000 injuries, the total American military casualty toll in Iraq and Afghanistan would amount to well over 500,000.
[…] Not only do the aforementioned injuries deserve to be formally recognized as casualties as a sign of respect for the soldiers serving in the battlefield, but leaving them out of the count distorts the overall toll, the writer concludes.
"These casualties are real and are a direct result of fighting two wars," he writes. "The soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who have suffered these combat injuries deserve to be recognized and the American people deserve a proper accounting of the mounting costs of their two seemingly endless wars. That accounting begins with an honest casualty count."
Afghanistan
8) In Afghanistan, Doubts Grow, Weariness Deepens
McChrystal’s dismissal underscores fatigue from a nearly nine-year conflict with no end in sight.
Laura King, Los Angeles Times, June 24, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-doubts-20100624,0,4602576.story
Kabul – Long before he’d ever heard of Rolling Stone magazine, Abdul Baqi harbored deep doubts about the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan. "The Americans are here for their own reasons, for their own benefit," the cleanshaven 23-year-old university student said, shaking his head. "If they really wanted to bring peace to Afghanistan, they could have done so already, whoever was in charge."
For many Afghans, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s dismissal over intemperate remarks in a magazine profile has served mainly to underscore their own weariness with a conflict that has dragged on for nearly nine years with no end in sight.
[…]
Iran
9) Iran must respond to nuclear concerns: Brazil
AFP, June 23, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gk9nsaYJNrKuocywqgr3-4ETTl3Q
Sofia – Sanctions may not have closed the door for talks over Iran’s nuclear programme, but the ball is now in Tehran’s court to allay international fears, Brazil’s foreign minister said here Wednesday.
During a two-day visit to Sofia, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said he was aware that "there were concerns expressed by the Vienna Group" – the United States, France and Russia – over a May 17 fuel swap deal between Iran, Brazil and Turkey. "I think now it is up to Iran to react to these," he told journalists.
Iran’s tripartite deal to exchange 1,200 kilogrammes (2,640 pounds) of its low-enriched uranium for higher grade fuel was cold-shouldered by world powers with the UN, EU and US slapping new sets of sanctions on Tehran. "My frank opinion is that sanctions do not help. But I am encouraged by the fact that Iran has had so far a rather flexible response," Amorim added.
In Tehran, a foreign ministry statement said that the three parties had decided to meet soon for talks. Following a telephone call on Wednesday from Amorim to his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki, it was "decided to examine at a meeting soon… the follow-up to the Tehran agreement," the statement said.
[…] "I agree that maybe the sanctions do not close the door (to talks), I hope that this is the case. But I think that the rush to sanctions was a bit disappointing from our point of view," Amorim said.
He appeared encouraged that French President Nicolas Sarkozy was willing to continue negotiations with Iran, based on the Brazil and Turkey proposal, and he praised the "positive mood" in Iran’s general response to that proposal. I think this is a good development."
Amorim added: "We have felt especially on the part of one of the members of the so-called Vienna Group, the willingness and the desire to have a continued engagement by Turkey and Brazil."
"And if this is also the desire of Iran, which I think it is, but also of the other two (Vienna Group members) we will be more than glad to help," he said.
Brazil
10) Brazil govt plans to limit foreign land purchases
Stan Lehman, Associated Press, Tue Jun 22, 3:05 pm ET http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100622/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_brazil_land_ownership
Sao Paulo – Brazil’s government wants to tighten restrictions on foreign ownership of farm lands in Latin America’s biggest country, the Agrarian Development Ministry said Tuesday.
Ministry spokeswoman Denise Mantovani confirmed published remarks by Minister Guilherme Cassel, who said that the government does not want foreigners to buy agricultural land in Brazil. "We do not need foreigners to produce food in Brazil," Cassel told the business newspaper Valor Economico. "This is the policy of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva."
"Because of food security, Brazilian lands must remain in Brazilian hands," the minister said.
Mantovani said that 10 million acres (4 million hectares) of land had been registered by foreigners as of 2008 and that between 2002 and 2008, foreigners invested $2.43 billion to purchase land.
According to Valor Economico, the decision to put a lid on foreign ownership of land is due to rising world demand for food, water and natural resources.
Mantovani said that current law says large rural properties can only be purchased by Brazilian citizens or residents. "But foreigners often bypass that rule by setting up companies in Brazil, which are controlled abroad, to purchase land. This is a foreign company and this is what we want to control."
"I am not a xenophobe but our land is finite. The population grows and demands food," the minister said.
[…] Most foreigners purchase land to raise cattle and grow soybeans and other crops in the states of Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Sao Paulo, Bahia and Minas Gerais.
[…]
Argentina
11) Argentine UN ambassador confident US will eventually play a part in Falklands’ dispute
Mercopress, Wednesday, June 23rd 2010
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/06/23/argentine-un-ambassador-confident-us-will-eventually-play-a-part-in-falklands-dispute
Argentine ambassador [to the] United Nations Jorge Agüello said it "is only a matter of time" before the country recovers Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty and anticipated that Washington would play a "dialogue-facilitating" role with the UK in the long standing dispute.
Speaking just hours before the Decolonization Committee meeting that will address the Falklands/Malvinas issue, Argüello reiterated that "Malvinas is the main issue of Argentina’s foreign policy".
"It’s a mater of time, the Malvinas will return as legal part of Argentine territory. We need to generate the appropriate conditions to force the British counterpart to accept what United Nations has indicated, diplomatic negotiations", said Argüello.
He added that the US "could play a dialogue facilitating role favouring Argentina" and recalled Secretary of State Hillary Clinton statements when her April visit to Buenos Aires to meet with President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
"Mrs. Clinton’s statements had great impact in Britain when she said the US remains neutral in the issue but suggested the possibility that come the time, it could play some facilitating role for Argentina", pointed out ambassador Argüello.
[…] "We want UK to abide by Resolution 2065, from 1965 which calls on both sides the UK and Argentina to sit round a table and negotiate the Malvinas sovereignty", said Argüello. "In this case the UK as a permanent member of the Security Council refuses to accept the terms of the resolution but their position is not supported by law, consensus or the majority of the United Nations".
Venezuela
12) Caracas to take over US-owned rigs
Aljazeera, Thursday, June 24, 2010
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/06/201062444433322782.html
Venezuela has said that it will nationalise 11 oil rigs owned by a US company.
The takeover of the rigs, owned by the Helmerich and Payne oil firm, is the most recent move in a programme of nationalisation as part of the socialist ‘Bolivarian revolution’ of Hugo Chavez, the president.
The rigs have been out of use for months due to a dispute over payments by PDVSA, the state oil company.
Helmerich and Payne, which owns other rigs in the country, had said that it would not work at the sites until they were paid the $49 million it was owed. It did not immediately comment on the planned nationalisation.
Rafael Ramirez, the Venezuelan oil minister, said on Thursday that the facilities were being taken over to bring them back into production.
Ramirez said that firms like Helmerich and Payne who had refused to put their rigs into production were aiming to weaken the government. "There is a group of drill owners that has refused to discuss tariffs and services with PDVSA and have preferred to keep this equipment stored for a year," he said. "That is the specific case with US multinational Helmerich and Payne."
[…] –
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
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