On Wednesday Russia, fulfilling an agreement in principle reached four weeks ago, announced that it plans to buy four Mistral-class warships from France.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that, with the first deal between a NATO member and a former Soviet state, he wanted to turn the page on the Cold War; Russia must be a partner, not a threat. Sarkozy added that the deal will build trust at a time when West is seeking Russian support on issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme:
Sarkozy Steps Back from Palestinian State: On Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas discussed the future of negotiations and a Palestinian state. Sarkozy made two points: there should be no unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state before borders are defined with Israel, and there was no time to be waste in starting negotiations since “if there are no talks….we take the risk, the international community, of a third intifada”.
Abbas supported Sarkozy’s line, “Negotiations first, proclamation of a state later.”
Israel Pushes Washington for Harsher Sanctions on Iran: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak left for the US on Tuesday, for five days of talks with senior American officials, including US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that will focus on Iran.
PA Security Prevents Attacks into Israel: According to Haaretz, the Palestinian Authority prevented a suicide attack about six weeks ago that a young woman (from Islamic Jihad) from Nablus had planned to carry out in Israel. Palestinian security sources said that it was not the first success to thwart such terrorist activities. Read the rest of this entry »
New EA correspondent Aysegül Er offers this report on events in Europe:
On Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meeting in Paris, put forth a ten-year blueprint for political and economical cooperation. The blueprint complements and extends a security cooperation which has been marked for 20 years by regular meetings of the Franco-German Defense and Security Council and an economic relationship in which bilateral trade reached €137.3 billion ($187 billion) in 2008.
The new cooperation covers diplomatic policy, security, defense coordination, economic and fiscal initiatives, environment protection, and biological diversity. Technological concerns also have emerged in initiatives such as a cross-border electro-mobility program for electric cars, joint bureaus dedicated to renewable energy, and aeronautic co-operation.
JOHN KING: Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us.
We learned as the week came to an end about a new underground secret Iranian nuclear bunker, and the president described it this way. “The size and configuration of this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program.”
Tell us more about what we know, and do you have any doubt Iran was using this facility or planned to use this facility to develop nuclear weapons?
GATES: We’ve been watching the construction of this facility for quite some time, and one of the reasons that we waited to make it public was to ensure that our conclusions about its purpose were right. Read the rest of this entry »
Following the Obama-Sarkozy-Brown statements on Iran’s second enrichment facility, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and State Department spokesman Ian Kelly spoke about the issue.
Clinton stated that the US was now awaiting Iran’s response at the 1 October meeting with the “5+1″ powers. Asked whether Washington was willing to engage in further conversations if the Iranians did not offer a “serious” response, she said: “We’re going to take it one day at a time.”
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. We are here to announce that yesterday in Vienna, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France presented detailed evidence to the International Atomic Energy Agency demonstrating that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years.
Earlier this week, the Iranian government presented a letter to the IAEA that made reference to a new enrichment facility, years after they had started its construction. The existence of this facility underscores Iran’s continuing unwillingness to meet its obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions and IAEA requirements. We expect the IAEA to immediately investigate this disturbing information, and to report to the IAEA Board of Governors. Read the rest of this entry »
Chris Emery reads behind and beyond the media fury and President Obama’s statement on the Iran nuclear programme:
What must be emphasised is that the entire Obama policy in Iran, including the New Years message and the broad engagement strategy, was conceived with the full knowledge that the US could always bring out the “secret nuclear plant”. This was the ace in the hole, which Obama always had, if he needed to inject a sense of urgency into the process of engagement. Read the rest of this entry »
On Wednesday Russia, fulfilling an agreement in principle reached four weeks ago, announced that it plans to buy four Mistral-class warships from France.
Robert Gates on CNN’s “State of the Union”
Following the Obama-Sarkozy-Brown statements on Iran’s second enrichment facility, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and State Department spokesman Ian Kelly spoke about the issue.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning. We are here to announce that yesterday in Vienna, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France presented detailed evidence to the International Atomic Energy Agency demonstrating that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a covert uranium enrichment facility near Qom for several years.
Chris Emery reads behind and beyond the media fury and President Obama’s statement on the Iran nuclear programme:
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