In an interview with the Argentine daily Clarin, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has prodded President Obama through criticism: “For now he is doing nothing, but he has invited us to revive the peace process. I hope that in the future he can play a more important role.”

And, within weeks of Israeli President Shimon Peres’ tour of Latin America (and the same day that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in Brasilia), Abbas called upon Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to take a more active role as mediator in the Middle East, “He can do it, because he has good relations with the two parties in the conflict and I think he can help.”

Israel: UN Official Calls for “Immediate Actions on the Ground” to Save Peace Process

Abbas also explained that there will be no more concessions from the Palestinian side:

We accepted to have only 22 per cent of Palestine, and that is the biggest concession. And we also accepted that Israel had 78 per cent. So, what kind of concessions are they expecting from us?

Now we are ready to announce our independence if the Israelis will allow us to.

The Latest from Iran (22 August): A Pause for Ramadan?

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There has been a lot of Internet chatter, now out in the mainstream media such as The New York Times CNN, about President Ahmadinejad’s nomination of Ahmad Vahidi as Minister of Defense. The discussion is not as much about Vahidi’s command of the Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a background we think is of significance in the evolving battle within Iran’s establishment (see Thursday’s updates), but about specific allegations of his involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Argentina.

A lot of the chatter has been unsupported, so an EA correspondent offers the visual proof that the proposed Defense Minister is indeed the suspect sought by Interpol. In the group photo of the proposed Iran Cabinet, Vahidi is in the second row, fourth from right:

And here’s the photo accompanying the Interpol warrant for “Ahmad Vahidi” for “CRIMES AGAINST LIFE AND HEALTH, HOOLIGANISM/VANDALISM/DAMAGE”: