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Summary: U.S./Top News The US and its European allies, in an acknowledgment that recent UN sanctions are too weak to force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, have embarked on a new strategy to increase the financial and psychological pressure, the New York Times reports. The plan is to use the language of the resolution to help persuade foreign governments and financial institutions to cut ties with Iranian businesses, individuals in its nuclear and missile programs and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The recent arrests of four Iranian diplomats by American troops in Iraq played into that strategy, says the Times. The article notes that Iran "complained loudly" that the arrests violated diplomatic rules, without explaining why this is remarkable. Presumably, if Iranian troops arrested U.S. diplomats, the US would not complain quietly.
If President Bush were serious about pursuing a bipartisan foreign policy, the basic elements already exist, based on recent polling, Jim Lobe reports for Inter Press Service. A study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes concludes most Republicans and Democrats want to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and favor better relations with Iran and a more even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Bipartisan majorities also oppose higher military budgets and the imposition of regime change and democracy by military force, favor laws that would limit the emission of greenhouse gases, and want to strengthen the UN.
President Bush intends to reveal a new Iraq strategy within days in a speech calling for sending more US troops to Iraq, BBC reports. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has called Bush's proposal to send more troops "Alice in Wonderland."
Advocates for refugees, and some U.S. officials say there is an urgent need to allow more Iraqi refugees into the US, the New York Times reports. Some critics say the Bush administration has been reluctant to create a significant refugee program because to do so would be tantamount to conceding failure in Iraq.
CNN and the New York Times, reviewing the career of Saddam Hussein, whitewash the U.S. role, writes John Collins on Electronic Iraq.
Iran Iran's call for more self-reliance in the Gulf has some appeal among ordinary Arabs, resentful of the US and frustrated by their governments' over-dependence on US security, the Financial Times reports. Some Iraqi officials say Arab states' best strategy to check Iran's influence is to build bridges with Iraq's Shia majority. "The Shia in Iraq are Arabs [not Persians] and they feel the Arabs have rejected them," says an Iraqi official. "What the Arabs should do is embrace the Shia government of Iraq and try to make it a counterbalance to Iran." Officials in Baghdad say this message, regularly relayed to Arab rulers, is only now starting to sink in.
A radio program on a government-run station has been conducting an open debate for the past month about whether Iran should change its tough stance on its nuclear program, the New York Times reports. Guests on the radio program have expressed their criticisms fearlessly, with some calling on the government to put the country's other interests before its nuclear program.
Iraq Many Shiites in Iraq express deep mistrust of the US and its intentions, the Washington Post reports. Against this backdrop, Shiite leaders have begun to push harder for more independence from their American backers.
U.S. forces attacked the office of a Sunni Arab lawmaker in Baghdad Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports. Saleh Mutlak was not in his office. But he spoke with witnesses and said that the troops killed six civilians: two of his bodyguards, a couple next door and their two children. "This has got to stop," Mutlak said. "They didn't even call to apologize." [JFP board member Tom Hayden, writing on Huffington Post, notes Mutlak's meeting with an American peace delegation and his call for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.]
Enraged crowds protested the hanging of Saddam Hussein across Iraq's Sunni heartland on Monday, AP reports. A highly provocative demonstration at the bombed Shiite Golden Dome shrine suggests that many Sunni Arabs may now more actively support the Sunni militants fighting the country's Shiite-dominated government, says AP.
Juan Cole, writing on Saturday, offered "Top Ten Ways the US Enabled Saddam Hussein."
Somalia After Somalia's Islamist forces abandoned their final outpost on Monday, the transitional government moved aggressively to assert control, the New York Times reports. Guns are so plentiful that the price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle has dropped to $15.
U.S. troops attached to the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa have been training Ethiopian soldiers in basic infantry tactics, officer logistics and maintenance since 2003, Stars and Stripes reports.
Israel/Palestine Despite political turmoil, Israel's economy expanded 5% this year, the New York Times reports. But the Palestinian economy has moved in the opposite direction, contracting by an estimated 10 to 15%. The Palestinian per capita gross domestic product, which was about $1,800 annually in 2000, plummeted to $1,200 last year and continues to fall. Despite economic growth, the number of Israelis living below the poverty level has increased, from 18 percent in 2002 to more than 20 percent last year. Many of the poor are Israeli Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have low participation rates in the work force.
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- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org