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Sunday
Nov012009

Turkey's Erdogan Defends Iran, Targets Israel's Nuclear Weapons

An Israeli Snub to “Very Valuable” Turkey?
Latest from Iran (1 November): Is This the Opposition’s Moment?

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erdogan_DW_Politik__194186gOn Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued his criticism of Israel, as he said that the world ,including the Middle East, should be free from the atomic threat:
We want to live in a region completely purged of nuclear weapons. We want to live in a world in which nuclear weapons no longer exist.

Those who criticize Iran's nuclear program continue to possess the same weapons...

I think that those who take this stance, who want these arrogant sanctions, need to first give these [weapons] up. We shared this opinion with our Iranian friends, our brothers.
Sunday
Nov012009

UPDATED Iran Breaking News: Ahmadinejad v. The Giant Flying Bug

The Latest from Iran (7 July): Sitting Out a Storm

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UPDATE 1 November: This tribute to the President was originally posted on 7 July, the day after his momentous battle on national television with a Giant Flying Bug. In view of Ahmadinejad's statement this morning that countries challenging Iran are like "mosquitoes" to be swatted, we are honoured to show again the President's insect-fighting ability.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have reasserted his possibly-legally-elected authority on Iranian national television on Tuesday night, but he lost out in his battle with a mysterious flying creature. (Ahmadinejad will probably not want to be reminded that one of the "foreign enemies" he castigated in the speech, President Barack Obama, successfully vanquished a fly only a few days ago.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOhSKGvt37Q[/youtube]
Sunday
Nov012009

Clinton's Trip: Desperately Seeking Israeli Concessions

Israel’s UN Ambassador: United Nations Hijacked by Anti-Semites
Goldstone Latest Comments on Israel & Hamas
Palestine: Goldstone Report Goes Back to UN General Assembly

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Hillary Clinton pointing2On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas in Abu Dhabi and with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem.

During their meeting, Abbas told Clinton that there would be no new negotiations unless Israel froze the building of settlements.

The chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said Clinton had proposed a formula based on final-status talks, to be launched in accordance with an understanding on settlement construction reached between US Mideast special envoy George Mitchell and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. However, for Erakat, there was no progress in the "frank and difficult" talks with Clinton:
This [proposal] is a non-starter. And that's why it's unlikely to restart negotiations. The gap between us was very deep and is widening even more.

This was a sharp contrast to Clinton's portrayal of her talks with Abbas as "very useful."

In Jerusalem, Clinton met Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to consider the future of the peace talks and the Iranian nuclear issue. Her strategy, despite the difficulties in Abu Dhabi, was to play up Israeli concessions regarding the settlement issue as "unprecedented":
What the Prime Minister has offered in specifics of a restraint on the policy of settlements which he has just described is unprecedented in the context of prior to negotiations.

It's also the fact that for forty years, Presidents of both parties have questioned the legitimacy of settlements, but I think that where we are right now is to try to get into the negotiations. The Prime Minister will be able to present his government's proposal about what they are doing regarding settlements which I think when fully explained will be seen as being not only unprecedented in response to many of the concerns that have been expressed.

Netanyahu blamed the Palestinian side by calling them as "the other side" and said that Israel is ready to enter into peace talks without preconditions but not "the other side." He continued: "We think we should sit around that negotiating table right away."

On the Iranian issue, Clinton warned Tehran that time is limited on nuclear discussions:
We are willing to work toward creative outcomes, like shipping out the low-enriched uranium to be reprocessed outside of Iran, but we are not going to wait forever.

Patience does have finally its limits and it is time for Iran to fulfill its obligations and responsibilities to the international community and accepting this deal would be a good beginning.

Clinton will return to Washington declared that the process for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement is still on track, but it is clear that Abbas is rejecting both the Obama Administration's rhetoric and the Israeli claim that it is "the one ready for negotiations without any preconditions". Abbas is under heavy criticisms, even from inside his Fatah Party, over his initial position on the Goldstone Report on Gaza and the increasing restrictions in East Jerusalem by Israeli authorities. There is no still reconciliation agreement with Hamas. On top of this, there is no progress in the status of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

So the Obama Administration's strategy, behind its public face, will be to use Abbas' position as leverage to get Israeli concessions. Yet, beyond the freeze on settlements, we still have no idea what these are.

To be blunt, how does Washington avoid a dead end in its Middle Eastern journey?
Sunday
Nov012009

Israel's UN Ambassador: United Nations Hijacked by Anti-Semites

Goldstone Latest Comments on Israel & Hamas
Palestine: Goldstone Report Goes Back to UN General Assembly

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gabriela_shalev3On Friday, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, criticized the UN Human Rights Council during its weekly session, following the recent endorsement of a resolution based on the Goldstone Report on the Gaza War. According to Shalev:

- There is a constant and exclusive discrimination against Israel.
- More than half of the council's meetings have dealt with condemning Israel for one reason or another.
- The council has approved more resolutions critical of Israel than resolutions criticizing any other UN member country.
- The UN rights council is dominated and used by countries obsessed with demonizing Israel and its democratic nature.
- The basic human rights of thousands of innocent people are violated throughout the world on a daily basis, but the council has and remains silent to their plight
Sunday
Nov012009

Latest Iran Video: The Mothers of Martyrs March (31 October)

Video: Tonight's “Allahu Akhbars” at Sharif University (30-31 October)
The Latest from Iran (31 October): Parliament’s Challenge to Ahmadinejad

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Throughout the post-election crisis, mothers of those killed and detained have gathered at Tehran's Laleh Park on Saturday to protest quietly.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnZxxeELrlQ[/youtube]
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