Just Foreign Policy News
June 1, 2010
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Rachel Corrie Continues Towards Gaza: Will Obama Let Israel Attack?
The Irish-flagged Rachel Corrie is ploughing ahead with its attempt to deliver aid to Gaza despite yesterday’s attack by the Israeli navy on Gaza-bound ship the Mavi Marmara, the Irish Times reports. The government of Ireland is calling on the government of Israel to let the Rachel Corrie pass. What will the government of the US say?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/rachel-corrie-continues-t_b_596014.html
18 Senators Back Timetable for Afghanistan Withdrawal
Eighteen Senators voted for Senator Feingold’s amendment to the war supplemental requiring the President to establish a timetable for the redeployment of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan. This will spur efforts for a timetable in the House.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/eighteen-senators-back-ti_b_592148.html
President Obama’s letter to President Lula
President Obama’s April 20 letter to President Lula shows that the deal Lula got was the deal that Obama told him to get: 1200 kgs of LEU out of Iran.
http://www.politicaexterna.com/archives/11023
Support a Timetable for Military Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Currently the McGovern bill has 92 cosponsors in the House.
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern
Beverly Bell: UN Attacks Haiti Refugee Camp, Protests Mount
Last week, the United Nations "peacekeeping mission" fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a crowded refugee camp, leaving at least six hospitalized and others suffering respiratory problems. Citizen organizations plan demonstrations for today, the sixth anniversary of the U.N. armed presence in Haiti. The march is part of growing protests against the military forces which have amassed in Haiti since the January 12 earthquake and the lack of attention to displaced people’s needs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beverly-bell/united-nations-attacks-re_b_596365.html
Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) The Rachel Corrie is pressing ahead with its attempt to deliver aid to Gaza despite yesterday’s deadly attack by the Israeli navy on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, the Irish Times reports. Irish officials called on Israel to allow the Irish-flagged ship to pass through its military blockade, warning of "most serious consequences" should any harm come to Irish citizens involved with the aid flotilla.
2) Turkey’s Foreign Minister lashed out at Israel’s attack on the Gaza aid flotilla and the Obama administration’s reluctance to condemn the assault, the Washington Post reports. "Psychologically, this attack is like 9/11 for Turkey," Foreign Minister Davutoglu said. Davutoglu said in Turkey’s view, U.N. Secretary General Ban has full authority under the Security Council’s resolution to order an international investigation of the attack. Davutoglu said Israel must make a "clear and formal apology," accept an independent investigation, release all passengers immediately, and lift the siege of Gaza. If these demands are not quickly met, he said Turkey will demand further action from the Security Council.
3) Survivors of the Israeli assault the aid flotilla said Israeli troops opened fire before boarding the Mavi Marmara, the Guardian reports. Israeli officials have said that the use of armed force began when its boarding party was attacked.
4) The worldwide condemnation of the Israeli assault will complicate the Obama administration’s efforts to improve its tense relations with Jerusalem and probably distract from the push to sanction Iran, Glenn Kessler writes in the Washington Post. The UN was set to begin final deliberations on Iran in the weeks ahead. Robert Malley, Middle East director for the International Crisis Group, said Monday’s deaths were a consequence of ignoring the "unhealed wound that is Gaza." Malley said U.S. officials have told him that the situation in Gaza "is very high on Obama’s agenda." In his Cairo speech, Obama appeared to appeal to Palestinians to undertake acts of civil disobedience rather than violence, saying that it was "not violence that won full and equal rights" for African Americans but "a peaceful and determined insistence," Kessler notes.
5) More than 100 nations meeting in Uganda are considering giving the International Criminal Court the power to prosecute the crime of aggression, the New York Times reports. The US, Russian and China, which cannot vote because they have not joined the court, are strongly against expanding the court’s purview and are expected to work hard behind the scenes to postpone any action on the issue. Diplomats said those three countries do not want to see a court with powers that could weaken the Security Council’s influence. Washington would insist on having the Security Council decide if aggression took place before any court action. But many delegates want to bypass the Council because, as one delegate put it, "giving the Security Council the on-and-off switch would undercut the independence of the court."
6) The US military released a report on the deaths of 23 Afghan civilians, saying "inaccurate and unprofessional" reporting by Predator drone operators helped lead to an airstrike in February on a group of innocent men, women and children, the New York Times reports. Officials say drone operators ignored warnings from intelligence analysts that a convoy they attacked included children. General McChrystal’s is concerned that NATO forces in Afghanistan are rapidly wearing out their welcome, and opinion polls appear to reflect that, the Times says.
Iran
7) Although the Obama administration continued to dismiss the Iranian fuel swap agreement Friday, there were indications that the deal has shaken the agreement among Security Council members on sanctions, and was bringing Russian pressure on the US to participate in new talks with Iran on the swap arrangement, writes Gareth Porter for Inter Press Service.
Israel/Palestine
8) The action plan agreed to by the US and 188 other countries proposed a conference in 2012 to discuss ridding the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction and stressed the "importance" of Israel joining the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Washington Post reports. Many diplomats had expected U.S. officials to withhold approval of the final document because of the mention of Israel. But the U.S. government was apparently reluctant to be viewed as the spoiler at a conference that focused on one of Obama’s priorities, the Post said.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Israel to release activists detained after flotilla raids
Irish Times, Tuesday, June 1, 2010, 21:09
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0601/breaking33.html
Israel has tonight decided to free hundreds of foreign activists detained aboard a Turkish-backed aid flotilla to Gaza, including some it had threatened to put on trial.
Sources in Israel told Reuters that cabinet ministers had made the decision amid rising world protests against Israel’s raid of the flotilla yesterday. The raid resulted in the deaths of at least nine people. Tonight it emerged that some 680 activists seized on the boats would be released.
[…] Earlier today, Taoiseach [Prime Minister – JFP] Brian Cowen warned there would be "most serious consequences" should any harm come to Irish citizens involved with an aid flotilla destined for Gaza.
Both Mr Cowen and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin called on Israel to allow Irish humanitarian ship, the MV Rachel Corrie, pass through its military blockade of Gaza.
The cargo vessel is ploughing ahead with its attempt to deliver aid to Gaza despite yesterday’s deadly attack by the Israeli navy on a Gaza-bound flotilla.
Mr Cowen called today called for the immediate establishment of "a full, independent international inquiry into yesterday’s events, preferably under UN auspices".
He called on Israel to release "unconditionally" Irish citizens who he said had been taken to Gaza by the Israeli authorities and asked to sign papers allowing for their deportation.
Speaking in the Dáil during Leaders’ Questions, the Taoiseach said said the presence of Irish diplomatic personnel in Israel provided "better prospects" that the citizens would be released "sooner rather than later"
"But I will make this point. If any harm comes to any of our citizens, it will have the most serious consequences."
Mr Cowen said Ireland’s longstanding position was that the Israeli blockade of Gaza was "immoral and counterproductive" and should be ended.
[…] The Rachel Corrie, which has five Irish nationals and five Malaysians aboard, is due to arrive in Gazan waters over the coming days, a spokeswoman for the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign said. It became separated from the main aid flotilla after being delayed for 48 hours in Malta due to logistical reasons, and is currently off the coast of Libya.
Mr Martin, who called Israeli Ambassador Dr Zion Evrony to a meeting yesterday, said the boat should be allowed through peacefully.
[…] Nobel laureate Maireád Corrigan-Maguire, former UN assistant secretary general Denis Halliday, film maker Fiona Thompson and husband and wife Derek and Jenny Graham are the Irish nationals on board the Rachel Corrie.
Speaking from the ship today, Mr Graham said the vessel was carrying educational materials, construction materials, medical equipment and some toys. "Everything aboard has been inspected in Ireland," he said. "We would hope to have safe passage through."
However, an Israeli marine lieutenant, who was not identified, told Israel’s army radio his unit was prepared to block the Rachel Corrie. "We as a unit are studying, and we will carry out professional investigations to reach conclusions," the lieutenant said, referring to yesterday’s confrontation. "And we will also be ready for the Rachel Corrie ," he added.
2) Turkish foreign minister: Israeli raid on Gaza aid flotilla ‘like 9/11’ for his country
Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Tuesday, June 1, 2010; 4:42 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2010060101506.html
With anger and sarcasm, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu lashed out Tuesday at Israel’s attack on a Gaza aid flotilla and by extension the Obama administration’s reluctance to immediately condemn the assault that left at least nine civilians dead.
"Psychologically, this attack is like 9/11 for Turkey," Davutoglu told reporters over breakfast in Washington before going to the State Department to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. He referred to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in which al-Qaeda hijackers used commandeered U.S. airliners to kill nearly 3,000 people.
Davutoglu displayed a map showing that the attack took place 72 nautical miles off the coast of Israel, far beyond the 12-mile sovereign border. He said that the "Israelis believe they are above any law" but that they would be held to account by Turkey and the international community. He likened the actions of the Israeli government to "pirates off the coast of Somalia," not a civilized nation, and ridiculed Israeli claims that some in the flotilla were linked to al-Qaeda.
Members of the European Parliament were on board, he noted, adding archly that he didn’t know that "al-Qaeda had infiltrated the European Parliament."
Davutoglu had a previously scheduled meeting with Clinton to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, but he said he diverted his plane Monday to New York once he heard of the attack so he could join discussions at the United Nations. He expressed dismay that it took 11 hours, well into the night, to reach an agreement on a U.N. statement, largely because of U.S. efforts to water it down to avoid pinning full blame on Israel and any direct call for an international investigation.
But he said that in Turkey’s view, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has full authority under the statement to order an international probe. He noted that the incident took place in international waters so Israel has no right to declare it can conduct its own inquiry. "We will not be silent about this," he said. "We expect the United States to show solidarity with us. . . . I am not very happy with the statements from the United States yesterday."
[…] To resolve the crisis in the relations between Ankara and Jerusalem, Davutoglu said Israel must make a "clear and formal apology," accept an independent investigation, release all passengers immediately, return the bodies of all dead passengers and lift what he called the "siege of Gaza." If these demands are not quickly met, he said that Turkey will demand further action from the U.N. Security Council.
He added that Turkey will also bring the matter before NATO. "Citizens of member states were attacked by a country that was not a member of NATO," he said. "We think that should be discussed in NATO."
The deadly incident off the coast of Gaza has also complicated the administration’s push to win final U.N. approval of new sanctions against Iran. Davutoglu made it clear that Turkey, a member of the council, is in no mood to entertain any discussion of fresh sanctions. "Diplomacy, diplomacy, more diplomacy" is needed, he said.
3) Israelis opened fire before boarding Gaza flotilla, say released activists
First eyewitness accounts of raid contradict version put out by Israeli officials
Dorian Jones and Helena Smith, Guardian, Tuesday 1 June 2010 14.12 BST http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/01/gaza-flotilla-eyewitness-accounts-gunfire
Survivors of the Israeli assault on a flotilla carrying relief supplies to Gaza returned to Greece and Turkey today, giving the first eyewitness accounts of the raid in which at least 10 people died.
Arriving at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport with her one-year-old baby, Turkish activist Nilufer Cetin said Israeli troops opened fire before boarding the Turkish-flagged ferry Mavi Marmara, which was the scene of the worst clashes and all the fatalities. Israeli officials have said that the use of armed force began when its boarding party was attacked.
"It was extremely bad and very tough clashes took place. The Mavi Marmara is filled with blood," said Cetin, whose husband is the Mavi Marmara’s chief engineer.
She told reporters that she and her child hid in the bathroom of their cabin during the confrontation. "The operation started immediately with firing. First it was warning shots, but when the Mavi Marmara wouldn’t stop these warnings turned into an attack," she said.
"There were sound and smoke bombs and later they used gas bombs. Following the bombings they started to come on board from helicopters."
[…] Kutlu Tiryaki was a captain of another vessel in the flotilla. "We continuously told them we did not have weapons, we came here to bring humanitarian help and not to fight," he said.
"The attack on the Mavi Marmara came in an instant: they attacked it with 12 or 13 attack boats and also with commandos from helicopters. We heard the gunshots over our portable radio handsets, which we used to communicate with the Mavi Marmara, because our ship communication system was disrupted. There were three or four helicopters also used in the attack. We were told by Mavi Marmara their crew and civilians were being shot at and windows and doors were being broken by Israelis."
Six Greek activists who returned to Athens accused Israeli commandos of using electric shocks during the raid.
Dimitris Gielalis, who had been aboard the Sfendoni, told reporters: "Suddenly from everywhere we saw inflatables coming at us, and within seconds fully equipped commandos came up on the boat. They came up and used plastic bullets, we had beatings, we had electric shocks, any method we can think of, they used."
Michalis Grigoropoulos, who was at the wheel of the Free Mediterranean, said: "We were in international waters. The Israelis acted like pirates, completely out of the normal way that they conduct nautical exercises, and seized our ship. They took us hostage, pointing guns at our heads; they descended from helicopters and fired tear gas and bullets. There was absolutely nothing we could do … Those who tried to resist forming a human ring on the bridge were given electric shocks."
Grigoropoulos, who insisted the ship was full of humanitarian aid bound for Gaza "and nothing more", said that, once detained, the human rights activists were not allowed to contact a lawyer or the Greek embassy in Tel Aviv. "They didn’t let us go to the toilet, eat or drink water and throughout they videoed us. They confiscated everything, mobile phones, laptops, cameras and personal effects. They only allowed us to keep our papers."
[…]
4) Condemnation of Israeli assault complicates relations with U.S.
Glenn Kessler, Washington Post, Tuesday, June 1, 2010; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/31/AR2010053102500.html
The worldwide condemnation of the deadly Israeli assault on the Gaza aid flotilla will complicate the Obama administration’s efforts to improve its tense relations with Jerusalem and will probably distract from the push to sanction Iran over its nuclear program.
The timing of the incident is remarkably bad for Israel and the United States. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Obama were scheduled to meet Tuesday in Washington as part of a "kiss and make up" session. The United Nations, meanwhile, was set to begin final deliberations on Iran in the weeks ahead.
Now the White House talks have been scrubbed, Israel’s actions were the subject of an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Monday and the administration increasingly faces a difficult balancing act as Israel’s diplomatic isolation deepens.
In contrast with forceful statements from European, Arab and U.N. officials – and impromptu demonstrations from Athens to Baghdad – the White House responded to the assault Monday by saying only that Obama had held a phone conversation with Netanyahu in which the prime minister expressed "deep regret at the loss of life" and "the importance of learning all the facts and circumstances around this morning’s tragic events."
Hours later, the State Department issued a statement saying that the United States remains "deeply concerned by the suffering of civilians in Gaza" and "will continue to engage the Israelis on a daily basis to expand the scope and type of goods allowed into Gaza."
Even before Monday’s incident, Israel was on shaky diplomatic ground. After the government was accused of using forged foreign passports in the assassination of a Palestinian militant in Dubai, Britain expelled an Israeli diplomat in March. Australia did the same last week.
The latest furor may have caused irreparable harm to Israel’s relations with Turkey – a Muslim state with which Israel has long had close ties – because so many of those onboard were Turkish. At the United Nations, Turkey’s foreign minister urged the Security Council to condemn Israel’s raid and set up a formal inquiry to hold those responsible for it accountable.
"This is terrible for Israel-Turkey relations," Namik Tan, the Turkish ambassador to the United States, said in an interview. "I am really saddened by it."
Tan, who served as ambassador to Israel from 2007 through 2009, said Israel’s actions demand condemnation from every country because the flotilla incident took place in international waters and involved civilians on a humanitarian mission. But he said the Obama administration’s initial statement was wanting. "We would have expected a much stronger reaction than this," he said.
[…] Apart from the raid, attention is likely to fall on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, which has faced an Israeli blockade since the Hamas militant group seized power three years ago. Although the Obama administration has pressed quietly for less onerous restrictions on trade, it has not questioned Israeli policies. Special envoy George J. Mitchell has never visited Gaza in about a dozen trips to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Without high-level attention, the situation in Gaza – a narrow coastal area with 1.5 million people – has faded from view. Now that might change.
Robert Malley, Middle East director for the International Crisis Group, said Monday’s deaths were a consequence of ignoring the "unhealed wound that is Gaza."
In condemning Israel’s actions Monday, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton signaled that the European Union would press anew for a shift in policy. "The E.U. does not accept the continued policy of closure," she said in a statement. "It is unacceptable and politically counterproductive. We need to urgently achieve a durable solution to the situation in Gaza."
Malley said U.S. officials have told him that the situation in Gaza "is very high on Obama’s agenda." Obama highlighted Gaza in his Cairo speech a year ago, saying, "Just as it devastates Palestinian families, the continuing humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel’s security."
In that speech, Obama appeared to appeal to Palestinians to undertake acts of civil disobedience rather than violence, saying that it was "not violence that won full and equal rights" for African Americans but "a peaceful and determined insistence."
[…]
5) International Court May Define Aggression As Crime
Marlise Simons, New York Times, May 30, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/world/31icc.html
Paris – More than 100 nations, contingents of human-rights groups and lawyers from around the globe, will begin a meeting on Monday in Kampala, Uganda, tackling issues that could fundamentally expand the power of international law.
The thorniest question on the agenda, one certain to dominate the conference, is a proposal to give the International Criminal Court in The Hague the power to prosecute the crime of aggression.
If approved, it could open the door to criminal accusations against powerful political and military leaders for attacks the court deems unlawful. Those could range from full-scale invasions to pre-emptive strikes.
The court, the world’s first permanent criminal court, already has a mandate to prosecute three groups of grave crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Adding aggression to this list "would be a game-changer in international diplomacy," said Noah Weisbord, a member of the expert group that has drafted a definition of the crime for the meeting.
Another proposal on the agenda would allow the court to prosecute leaders who use weapons with poison, gases, liquids or bullets that cause unnecessary suffering during domestic conflicts and crowd control by the army or police. These weapons are already forbidden in international conflicts.
Many of the court’s 111 member countries have said that they favor adding the crime of aggression to its mandate. They include Germany and numerous small countries that see the change as a form of legal protection. But others, including Britain and France are opposed, arguing that it would overwhelm the court and trap it in political disputes.
The United States, Russian and China, which cannot vote because they have not joined the court and are in Kampala only as observers, are strongly against expanding the court’s purview and are expected to work hard behind the scenes to postpone any action on the issue. Several diplomats said that those three countries, which along with France and Britain hold United Nations Security Council veto power, do not want to see a court with powers that could weaken the Council’s influence.
The momentum appears to favor adopting some sort of change, but the outcome is far from certain. Adoption would require a majority to agree on a definition of the crime of aggression and the terms under which it could be prosecuted.
Proposals still face many hurdles, with delegates and rights groups lobbying hard on all sides of the issue before the meeting. This is the first conference at which amendments are allowed to the Rome statute that created the court in 1998.
"Many people figure the stakes are very high here from different perspectives," Richard Dicker, a director of Human Rights Watch, said in a telephone interview from Kampala, where many more delegates and lobbyists than expected had already arrived. "I don’t recall such large and high-level attention ever focused on international justice."
[…] Washington, among others, would insist on having the Security Council decide if aggression took place before any court action. But many delegates want to bypass the Council because, as one delegate, who was not authorized to speak publicly, put it, "giving the Security Council the on-and-off switch would undercut the independence of the court."
[…]
6) Operators Of Drones Are Faulted In Afghan Deaths
Dexter Filkins, New York Times, May 29, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/world/asia/30drone.html
Kabul, Afghanistan – The American military on Saturday released a scathing report on the deaths of 23 Afghan civilians, saying that "inaccurate and unprofessional" reporting by Predator drone operators helped lead to an airstrike in February on a group of innocent men, women and children.
The report said that four American officers, including a brigade and battalion commander, had been reprimanded, and that two junior officers had also been disciplined. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who apologized to President Hamid Karzai after the attack, announced a series of training measures intended to reduce the chances of similar events.
[…] General McChrystal’s concern is that NATO forces, in their ninth year of operations in Afghanistan, are rapidly wearing out their welcome. Opinion polls here appear to reflect that.
[…] The civilian deaths highlighted the hazards in relying on remotely piloted aircraft to track people suspected of being insurgents. In this case, as in many others where drones are employed by the military, the people steering and spotting the targets sat at a console in Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.
The attack occurred on the morning of Feb. 21, near the village of Shahidi Hassas in Oruzgan Province, a Taliban-dominated area in southern Afghanistan. An American Special Operations team was tracking a group of insurgents when a pickup truck and two sport utility vehicles began heading their way.
The Predator operators reported seeing only military-age men in the truck, the report said. The ground commander concurred, the report said, and the Special Operations team asked for an airstrike. An OH-58D Kiowa helicopter fired Hellfire missiles and rockets, destroying the vehicles and killing 23 civilians. Twelve others were wounded.
The report, signed by Maj. Gen. Timothy P. McHale, found that the Predator operators in Nevada and "poorly functioning command posts" in the area failed to provide the ground commander with evidence that there were civilians in the trucks. Because of that, General McHale wrote, the commander wrongly believed that the vehicles, then seven miles away, contained insurgents who were moving to reinforce the fighters he and his men were tracking.
"The strike occurred because the ground force commander lacked a clear understanding of who was in the vehicles, the location, direction of travel, and the likely course of action of the vehicles," General McHale wrote.
The "tragic loss of life," General McHale found, was compounded by the failure of the ground commander and others to report in a timely manner that they might have killed civilians.
Predator drones and similar aircraft carry powerful cameras that beam real-time images to their operators, and some are armed with missiles, as well. The C.I.A. operates its own drone operation, mostly focused on Pakistan and separate from the military’s.
In this case, the military Predator operators in Nevada tracked the convoy for three and a half hours, but failed to notice any of the women who were riding along, the report said.
According to military officials in Washington and Afghanistan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters on the case, intelligence analysts who were monitoring the drone’s video feed sent computer messages twice, warning the drone operators and ground command posts that children were visible.
The report said that drone operators reported that the convoy contained only military-age men. "Information that the convoy was anything other than an attacking force was ignored or downplayed by the Predator crew," General McHale wrote.
Immediately after the initial attack, the Kiowa helicopter’s crew spotted brightly colored clothing at the scene, and, suspecting that civilians might have been in the trucks, stopped firing.
After the attack, the Special Operations team turned over the bodies to local Afghans. Even so, General McHale said, officers on the ground failed to report the possibility of civilian casualties in a timely way.
[…]
Iran
7) Fuel Swap Shakes Sanctions Draft, Prods U.S. on New Iran Talks
Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service, May 29
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51636
Washington – Although the Barack Obama administration continued to dismiss the May 17 Iranian fuel swap agreement Friday, there are indications that Iran’s move has shaken the agreement among U.N. Security Council members on sanctions, and is bringing Russian diplomatic pressure on the United States to participate in new talks with Iran on the swap arrangement – something the administration clearly wished to avoid.
In a hastily arranged conference call with reporters Friday afternoon, three "senior administration officials" assailed the new swap agreement, brokered by Brazil and Turkey, for failing to address what was described as Iran’s decision to continue enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, the increase in Iran’s low-enriched uranium (LEU) stocks since last October, or U.N. Security resolutions demanding a suspension of all enrichment.
In a telltale sign that the Iranian move has shaken the previous unity among the permanent Security Council members on sanctions, however, one of the officials sidestepped a question about the present stance of Russia and China on sanctions. Far from expressing confidence that the agreement still held, the official would only say, "We’ve been working with the full Council to resolve any outstanding issues."
[…] An article published on Xinhua News Agency Saturday by Zhai Dequan, the deputy secretary-general of China’s Arms Control and Disarmament Association, appears to signal that China is backing out of the previous agreement on sanctions against Iran.
Citing Iran’s agreement to the specifics of the swap deal, the article concluded, "Since the situation has changed, pre-planned punitive actions, too, should be altered accordingly, meaning there is no longer any rationality in imposing further sanctions on Iran."
The views expressed by the association have often reflected the policies of the Chinese foreign ministry, which had already issued a statement welcoming Iran’s agreement on the swap proposal.
In remarks to reporters Thursday reported by RTT News, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow "welcomes" the fuel swap deal. "The arrangement serves the interests of settling the Iranian nuclear problem," Lavrov said, "and, therefore, we believe everything should be done to implement it." Lavrov said Russia was talking with Brazil and Turkey, as well as with the U.S. and France, on how to implement the swap deal.
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement Friday, also reported by RTT News, confirming that Lavrov had a phone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Thursday. Summarising the conversation, it said, "Russia expressed its readiness to actively support the advancement of the process of negotiation aimed at resolving the situation surrounding the Iranian nuclear programme."
Mottaki was meanwhile expressing confidence Friday that the "Vienna Group" (the United States, Russia, France and the International Atomic Energy Agency) would reconvene to work out the details of the swap proposal Iran had communicated to the IAEA.
Speaking to reporters at an economic forum in Bulgaria, Mottaki said he had spoken to Lavrov by phone Thursday about the fuel swap plan. "[T]to my understanding, I think the Vienna Group are considering [it] positively," said Mottaki.
[…] A website associated with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Raja News, claimed Friday that Obama had ordered Clinton to send a representative to Vienna for another meeting with Iran on the details of the swap proposal within three weeks. The site said the U.S. aim at the meeting would be to ask Iran to halt the enrichment of uranium to 20 percent that had begun in February.
In the conference call Friday, one official emphasized the U.S. complaint that Iran is enriching uranium to 20 percent to provide fuel for its Tehran Research Reactor, which is used to make medical isotopes. The official alleged that, after the May 17 agreement, "the head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said that even if the deal… materialises, Iran will continue to enrich at the 20-percent level…"
But that allegation was based on the interpretation of Ali Akbar Salehi’s remarks to Reuters in the lead of the May 17 story. A careful reading of the actual statements quoted in the story support a very different interpretation.
What Salehi said was, "There is no relationship between the swap deal and our enrichment activities," by which he appears to have meant that Iran was not obliged under the swap deal to change its enrichment activities in general.
Salehi also said, "We will continue our 20 percent enrichment." He did not specify that the enrichment would continue even after an agreement was reached to provide fuel rods for the Tehran Research Reactor.
In another case of apparent misinterpretation, the Washington Post quoted Ramin Mehmanparast, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, as saying on May 17, "Of course, enrichment of uranium to 20 percent will continue inside Iran."
But the IRNA English language story says, "Talking to reporters, Mehmanparast said that of course, Iran will continue 20 percent enrichment in the duration." The context of the remark was the announcement by Mehmanparast that Iran would "ship fuel to Turkey in a month in case of the Vienna group readiness and conclusion of a deal between Iran and the group". The phrase "in the duration" thus appeared to refer to the period up to such a deal.
In February, when the enrichment to 20 percent began, Salehi and other Iranian officials clearly stated that the enrichment would stop if and when the fuel rods were supplied.
The more ambiguous statements by Salehi and Mehmanparast after Iran’s agreement to the original U.S.-IAEA swap proposal suggest a desire to force the Obama administration to negotiate with Iran over the issue of when that enrichment would end.
The State Department’s spokesman P. J. Crowley asserted on May 20 that the United States would not negotiate further with Iran unless Iran first agreed to discuss suspension of all enrichment activities.
The diplomatic maneuvering of the past week suggests, however, that the Obama administration may be forced to meet with Iran without any promise to talk about a general suspension of enrichment.
Israel
8) Israel Angry Over Being Singled Out In Nuclear Plan
Janine Zacharia and Mary Beth Sheridan, Washington Post, Sunday, May 30, 2010; A07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/29/AR2010052902304.html
Jerusalem – Israel on Saturday sharply criticized an action plan on nuclear weapons agreed to by the United States and 188 other countries, rebuffing its most novel proposal – a conference in 2012 to discuss ridding the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction.
The action plan stressed the "importance" of Israel joining the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but did not mention Iran’s expanding atomic program, the Israeli government noted.
The agreement, reached a day earlier, had put U.S. officials in an awkward position: Rejecting it would have spelled failure for a month-long conference on the NPT, which has curbed the spread of nuclear weapons for 40 years. But accepting it created a new source of tension between the allies, just days before a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
[…] The U.S. delegation at the NPT review in New York had fought to excise all mentions of Israel in the final document. But on Thursday evening, as delegations prepared for a last round of talks, the conference president informed them that the latest draft of the text was a take-it-or-leave-it document, officials said. Final NPT documents require a consensus.
Many diplomats had expected U.S. officials to withhold approval of the final document because of the mention of Israel. But the U.S. government was apparently reluctant to be viewed as the spoiler at a conference that focused on one of Obama’s priorities.
[…]
–
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
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