U.S. Should Promote Diplomacy, Not War, in Somalia Ask Congress to push the Bush Administration to support diplomacy in Somalia, not war. http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/somalia.html
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Summary: U.S./Top News The State Department "came out of the closet" and openly declared its support for the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, writes Robert Naiman on Huffington Post. The State Department instructed officials to play down the Ethiopian invasion, and divert the press from talking about it. Press criticism does seems to be waning as the Bush Administration supports the invasion more openly and many members of Congress remain silent.
The US on Tuesday signaled its support for the Ethiopian offensive in Somalia, the New York Times reports. The State Department instructed officials to play down the Ethiopian invasion in public statements. "Should the press focus on the role of Ethiopia inside Somalia," the State Department memo said, "emphasize that this is a distraction from the issue of dialogue between the [transitional government] and Islamic courts and shift the focus back to the need for dialogue." "The press must not be allowed to make this about Ethiopia, or Ethiopia violating the territorial integrity of Somalia," the guidance said.
The American military said Tuesday it had credible evidence linking Iranians and their Iraqi associates, detained in raids last week, to attacks against American forces, the New York Times reports. Some Iraqis questioned the timing of the arrests, suggesting that the Bush administration had political motives. Some political leaders speculated that the arrests had been intended to derail efforts by Iraqis to deal with Iran on their own by making Iraqis look weak.
Iran has distributed more than $200 million in aid in Afghanistan in a bid to increase its influence, the New York Times reports. Iran's ambassador, Muhammad Reza Bahrami, portrayed his government's activities as neighborly good works, with a certain self-interest. Iran, he said, is eager to avoid repeating the calamities of the last 20 years, when two million Afghan refugees streamed over the border.
Joseph Biden, incoming chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that he would oppose any plan by President Bush to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, the Washington Post reports. He said he plans to hold hearings for his panel next month in a bid to influence the president's decision.
The African Union, supported by the Arab League and the east African grouping IGAD, has called on Ethiopia to withdraw thousands of troops from Somalia immediately, BBC reports.
The Bush administration has opened another battlefront in the Muslim world, writes former UN official Salim Lone in the International Herald Tribune. With full U.S. backing and military training, at least 15,000 Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia in an illegal war of aggression. The U.S. instigation of war between Ethiopia and Somalia, two of world's poorest countries already struggling with massive humanitarian disasters, is reckless in the extreme. Independent experts were united in warning that this war could destabilize the whole region even if America succeeds in its goal of toppling the Islamic Courts. As in other Muslim-Western conflicts, the world needs to engage with the Islamists to secure peace, he writes.
As leaders in Washington debate Iraq war strategies, nearly everyone appears to agree on one thing: the military advisor program needs to be expanded, the Los Angeles Times reports. But the actual experience of those now doing the training suggests that optimism may be misplaced.
Iran Iran's parliament passed a bill Wednesday obliging the government to "revise" the level of its cooperation with the IAEA nuclear watchdog after the UN Security Council approved sanctions on Tehran over its atomic program, Reuters reports. The bill stopped short of approving demands by some conservative parliamentarians who wanted a tougher line against the IAEA and an end to inspections of atomic facilities.
Israel/Palestine The Israeli government's approval of a new Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank is fueling tension in the region, the New York Times reports. The government decision was denounced by Peace Now, which called the action a "scandal."
Chile Foreign mining companies are purchasing land in Chile for a pittance, the Washington Post reports.
Ecuador Ecuador will not break diplomatic relations with Colombia despite mounting tensions over that Colombia's refusal to halt U.S.-backed aerial fumigation of coca crops along the shared border, the Los Angeles Times reports. Ecuador is demanding Colombia respect a 6-mile buffer zone established in January, arguing the herbicide glyphosate drifts across the border, killing legal crops and causing health problems.
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- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org