*National Affairs
Economic Headlines:
1. Economic integration vital to Arab national security, says FM. (The Daily Star Egypt)
Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has stated that the Arab Economic Summit due to take place in January 2009 must be a starting point for greater Arab economic integration if the region is to successfully counter the current global economic crisis.
The foreign minister added that it is vital for the interests of Arab national security.
A statement released by the ministry Monday stated, “The current economic challenges, under the circumstances of world economy such as deceleration of world growth rate in addition to energy and food crises, call for crystallizing a collective Arab strategy to deal with such challenges and resolve problems hindering the Arab economic cooperation.”
As such, Egypt will be seeking policies to emerge from the summit which will increase the flow of capital, commodities and labor between Arab countries. The ministry has been formulating a plan for this economic integration with other bodies in Egypt and has sent delegations to Arab countries to coordinate the plan.
The Arab Economic Summit emerged from a joint Egyptian-Kuwaiti initiative at the 2007 Arab Summit in Saudi Arabia. The world food crisis that has occurred since then has heightened the importance Aboul Gheit has placed on the summit.
http://www.dailystaregypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=15572
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*Regional and International Affairs
Political Headlines:
1. Israel considers military option for Iran nukes. (The Huston Chronicle)
Israel is building up its strike capabilities amid growing anxiety over Iran's nuclear ambitions and appears confident that a military attack would cripple Tehran's atomic program, even if it can't destroy it.
Such talk could be more threat than reality. However, Iran's refusal to accept Western conditions is worrying Israel as is the perception that Washington now prefers diplomacy over confrontation with Tehran.
The Jewish state has purchased 90 F-16I fighter planes that can carry enough fuel to reach Iran, and will receive 11 more by the end of next year. It has bought two new Dolphin submarines from Germany reportedly capable of firing nuclear-armed warheads in addition to the three it already has.
And this summer it carried out air maneuvers in the Mediterranean that touched off an international debate over whether they were a "dress rehearsal" for an imminent attack, a stern warning to Iran or a just a way to get allies to step up the pressure on Tehran to stop building nukes.
According to foreign media reports, Israeli intelligence is active inside Iranian territory. Israel's military censor, who can impose a range of legal sanctions against journalists operating in the country, does not permit publication of details of such information in news reports written from Israel.
The issue of Iran's nuclear program took on new urgency this week after U.S. officials rejected Tehran's response to an incentives package aimed at getting it to stop sensitive nuclear activity setting the stage for a fourth round of international sanctions against the country.
Israel, itself an undeclared nuclear power, sees an atomic bomb in Iranian hands as a direct threat to its existence.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/5929162.html
2. Petraeus Visit Highlights Growing Strategic Prominence of Lebanon. (The New York Sun)
With Israel increasingly concerned about Hezbollah's military buildup on its northern border and about the growing political influence of the Iranian-backed organization in the Lebanese capital, General David Petraeus made an unannounced visit to Lebanon yesterday to discuss American support for the country's national army.
The presence in Beirut of General Petraeus, confirmed recently as head of U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East, is an indication of the growing strategic prominence of Lebanon in the complex regional map. The general's discussions about increased military aid to the government of Prime Minister Siniora, however, come amid growing Israeli alarm at that government's deference to Hezbollah.
Israeli officials are pointing in particular to a little-noticed new policy statement from the Lebanese government this week asserting Hezbollah's right to arm itself and fight Israel. They also are noting a discernible weapons buildup by the Shiite group, especially of its missiles and antiaircraft systems.
General Petraeus yesterday met with President Suleiman, a former Lebanese army commander; the new army chief, Shawki al-Masri; Defense Minister Elias Murr, and Mr. Siniora to discuss how to "strengthen the army's defensive capabilities, training and logistics," according to an Army statement.
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/petraeus-visit-highlights-growing-strategic/83386/
3. Iraqis Fail to Agree on Provincial Election Law. (The New York Times)
Iraqi lawmakers adjourned for the summer yesterday without passing a crucial election law that many here hoped would solidify the recent, still fragile gains in security. The failure seemed likely to mean the postponement of provincial elections, originally set for October, until next year polling seen as vital to reconciling the deep-seated tensions among Iraq’s political and sectarian groups.
The decision to go on vacation rather than settle the issue underscored how little progress had been made on the most important recent political question to confront Iraqi leaders, in contrast to the military strides in making Iraq safer than it had been in years. The law was seen as so important to prevent new outbreaks of violence that President Bush, eager to leave office claiming lasting progress in Iraq, had called several Iraqi lawmakers urging them to pass it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/world/middleeast/07iraq.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
4. Britain Debates Army’s Delay at Basra. (The New York Times)
More than four months after American troops were moved hundreds of miles across Iraq to help save a faltering Iraqi Army offensive against Shiite militias in the southern oil city of Basra, a political controversy has erupted here over Britain’s failure to promptly deploy its own troops, stationed only a few miles from the fighting.
British newspapers have made much of the dismay that the delayed British entry into the Basra fighting caused among American commanders, who committed nearly 1,000 soldiers to the fighting. Many of the Americans were moved from bases in central Iraq, the first time United States troops had been committed to combat in the southernmost area of the country since British troops took control of the area after the 2003 invasion, leaving central and northern Iraq to the much larger American force.
The charges come as Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces a widening challenge to his leadership within the governing Labor Party, less than 14 months after he succeeded Tony Blair.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/world/middleeast/07basra.html?ref=middleeast
5. Russia Asks That Iran Be Given More Time. (The Washington Post)
Russia said Wednesday that Iran should be granted more time to respond to a package of incentives that the United States and five other powerful nations have offered Tehran to freeze its uranium enrichment efforts, a stance that may slow U.S. and European efforts to impose U.N. sanctions on Tehran.
Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin, said the six nations should continue negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program. He dismissed assertions by the United States, Britain and France that Tehran had missed a deadline this week to respond to the offer, which would make a push for U.N. sanctions inevitable.
"We haven't set any deadlines for their response," he said. "We have some negotiating opportunities, and rather than focus almost entirely on sanctions we should focus on what those opportunities should be."
Churkin's remarks raised the prospect of renewed strains between Washington and Moscow over Iran policy during the final months of President Bush's tenure. Administration officials say Iran is buying time to advance its capacity to enrich uranium, an effort they suspect is intended to fuel a nuclear weapon. They have made it clear they hope to secure a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Tehran before Bush leaves office in January, according to U.N. diplomats.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080601085.html
6. Russia mulls missiles in Belarus to offset U.S. (The Washington Times)
Russia could base bombers and missiles in neighboring Belarus in response to U.S. missile defense plans in Eastern Europe, Moscow's ambassador to Minsk said Wednesday, Russian news agencies reported.
"We could be talking about the possible basing of Iskander missiles, the possible basing of strategic bombers in Belarus, Kaliningrad and so on," Ambassador Alexander Surikov was quoted by Interfax as saying.
"When Poland signs the agreement with the American side about hosting elements of the missile defense system, then we can discuss some additional aspects of military-technical cooperation with Belarus," Mr. Surikov said.
"We will counter the deployment of [a] missile defense system in Poland. We have to judge the situation. We will counter the way we have to. But this excludes the return of nuclear weapons to Belarus," he added.
Russia has vowed a firm response to U.S. plans to base interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic as part of a defense system that Washington says is aimed at countering a missile threat from Iran.
Russian officials and military top brass say the U.S. missile system is based too close to its borders and is in fact aimed at undermining Russia's nuclear deterrent.
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/aug/07/russia-mulls-missiles-in-belarus-to-offset-us/
7. Bush says US firmly opposed to China's repression. (The San Francisco Chronicle)
With all eyes on Beijing, President Bush bluntly told China that America is strongly opposed to the way the communist government represses its people, a rebuke delivered from the heart of Asia on the cusp of the Olympic Games.
In perhaps his last major address in Asia, Bush said that America speaks out for a free press, free assembly and labor rights not to antagonize China's leaders, but because it's the only path the potent U.S. rival can take to reach its full potential.
"America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents and human rights advocates and religious activists," Bush said.
"We press for openness and justice not to impose our beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs."
Along with his chiding, Bush offered praise for China's market reforms and hope that it will embrace freedom, reflecting the delicate balance that the president seeks to strike with the potent U.S. rival.
"Change in China will arrive on its own terms and in keeping with its own history and its own traditions. Yet change will arrive," he said.
Bush's brought his message to Thailand, a turbulent democracy. The marquee speech of his three-country trip hailed deepening ties between the U.S. and Asia. He pledged that whoever follows him in the White House will inherit an alliance that is now stronger than ever.
The president planned to quickly pivot from his speech to a full day of outreach toward the people of Myanmar, also known as Burma, who live under military rule across the border.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/06/international/i001810D41.DTL
8. France rejects Rwanda's charge of links to '94 genocide. (The International Herald Tribune)
France dismissed as "unacceptable" on Wednesday a Rwandan report alleging the involvement of top-level French politicians, including former President François Mitterrand and former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, in the 1994 genocide that killed up to 800,000 people.
Mitterrand, who was president at the time of the genocide, and Villepin, then a senior adviser at the Foreign Ministry, are among 13 senior officials accused of "complicity" in the "preparation and execution of the genocide."
Rwanda has long accused France of providing training to the militias that led the mass slaughter of the Tutsi minority. But the latest report, a 500-page document issued by the Rwandan Justice Ministry on Tuesday, for the first time links specific - and very senior - officials to the allegations and hints at possible future indictments.
None of the officials responded individually. But Romain Nadal, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry, called the report biased.
"One can question the objectivity of the mandate" of the commission, Nadal said in an online news conference. He said its report "contains unacceptable accusations against French politicians and military officials."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/06/africa/france.php
9. Mauritania leader ousted after political feuding. (The Washington Times)
Army commanders ousted Mauritania's first freely elected president in two decades yesterday after an increasingly bitter political fight over his ties to allies of a reviled former dictator and his overtures to Islamic radicals.
In a bloodless coup, troops detained President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, seized control over state radio and television and announced the formation of a new "state council" led by the commander of the presidential guard, Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
The junta issued no further statements at the time, but early Thursday morning the coup leaders said that they plan to hold free and open elections as soon as possible, but did not set a date.
In a statement read on national television, the junta said the west African nation would be governed during the interim by the council, describing it as an 11-member group of military commanders.
The coup _ which drew widespread international condemnation _ reflected the internal struggle over how to manage this desperately poor desert nation that straddles the Arab and African worlds and is Africa's newest, if small-scale, oil producer.
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/aug/06/mauritania-leader-ousted-after-political-feudin-1/
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US:
1. GOP's Pawlenty praises Obama's positive message. (The San Francisco Chronicle)
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, often mentioned as a possible running mate for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said Wednesday GOP candidates would do well to adopt a positive tone like that of McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama.
"Say what you will about Barack Obama," the Minnesota Republican told a conservative group, "people gravitate when you have something positive to say." He added that McCain has been positive as well.
"People want to follow hopeful, optimistic, civil, decent leaders," Pawlenty said in a speech to GOPAC, which helps recruit Republican candidates. "They don't want to follow some negative, scornful person."
Ronald Reagan still offers important lessons for today's Republican Party, Pawlenty said, because the former president was civil, optimistic, pragmatic and a good communicator.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/06/politics/p090657D72.DTL
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