*Regional and International Affairs
Political Headlines:
1. No interim peace deal with Israel, Saudi says. (The Washington Times)
Arab nations will totally reject any partial or interim solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because historically such arrangements have become permanent, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Saturday.
While supporting current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to reach "a comprehensive final solution," Prince Saud Al Faisal said "the least that we expect from Israel during these negotiations is that it should halt all settlement operations."
"The continuation of settlement activity in the occupied Arab territories renders the negotiations meaningless and makes it difficult for us to convince our peoples of the feasibility and benefits of achieving peace," he said.
At a Security Council meeting Friday on Israeli settlements, held at Saudi Arabia's request, Saud said the settlement problem is the "one issue that threatens to bring down the whole peace process."
He said that addressing it was the only way to save the peace deal brokered in Annapolis, Maryland, early this year by President Bush's administration, which set the goal of achieving a substantive peace accord by January 2009 when he leaves office.
Saud took up the issue again in a speech he was scheduled to give to the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting. He did not deliver the speech and it was distributed to all U.N. members, said Brenda Vongova, the assembly president's assistant spokeswoman.
The foreign minister said Arabs have affirmed their commitment to "a just and comprehensive peace based on international law" and have not yet received the same commitment from Israel.
http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/sep/27/no-interim-peace-deal-with-israel-saudi-says/
2. Iraq election law marks progress, opens political season. (The Christian Science Monitor)
Now that Iraq's parliament passed a provincial elections law Wednesday, overcoming months of political gridlock, many politicians and Iraqis are looking ahead to what the elections early next year will mean for Iraq.
This new legislation “showed that on a broader political level, they [Iraqi political leaders] can find solutions to really tough problems,” says Ambassador Robert Ford, head of the political section in the US Embassy in Baghdad.
Scheduled to take place by Jan. 31, 2009, the vote has the potential to create major change. One of the central issues stemming from the elections may be the question of who controls political appointments, says Glen Rangwala, a lecturer in Middle Eastern politics at Cambridge University in England. As new local leaders take the helm, new questions will arise about who controls everything from the police to exports.
Debate over these issues "will lead to a period of particular instability as different groups within Iraq national government, local government, mayors – each stake their claim to being the legitimate authority for who should be in charge of the reappointment or the renewal of the positions of government officials," says Dr. Rangwala.
Additionally, the elections will stir debate over the of lack of central services, such as electricity and water. Many suspect that incumbents will have a hard time getting voter support because of an ongoing lack of basic utilities.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0926/p04s01-wome.html
3. Diplomats: America Asks IAEA for Full Syria Report. (The New York Sun)
America has asked the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency for a fuller accounting of its investigation of Syria's alleged efforts to secretly develop a plutonium-producing facility at a site bombed by Israel.
A senior Syrian envoy in turn accused Washington of using "twisted logic" in pressuring his country instead of condemning the Israeli attack.
"When you shield the aggressor and when you accuse the victim it is ... being not only an accessory to the crimes committed, but also encouraging more crimes," Syrian Ambassador Mohammed Badi Khattab told the Associated Press yesterday.
He also urged the new American administration taking office next year to play a more active role in Turkish-mediated Syrian-Israeli efforts to reach a peace agreement.
"Without the U.S. being in the negotiations, there is no guarantee that what you agree upon will be implemented," he said. Because America is "the only country that has this unique relationship with Israel, ... [it] has the duty to influence its position in moving forward," Mr. Khattab said.
America has hung back from directly engaging Syria, insisting it must stop support for Lebanon's Hezbollah and other groups labeled by Washington as terrorists as part of any move into the mainstream fold.
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/diplomats-america-asks-iaea-for-full-syria-report/86673/
4. US, Russia announce breakthrough on new Iran resolution. (The Christian Science Monitor)
Concerns about deteriorating US-Russia relations are apparently behind the two powers' surprise agreement Friday to seek a fourth Security Council resolution on Iran a prospect that seemed all but dead only hours earlier.
The United States and Russia had been sniping at each for weeks following Russia's August invasion of Georgia. The sour tone continued this week as world leaders gathered in New York for the annual opening of the United Nations General Assembly.
But indications that other international players including Iran and North Korea were responding to the two powers' spat with unwelcome turns of their own appear to have refocused Washington and Moscow on common interests.
It was not clear midday Friday when the new resolution, reported by European diplomats, might be submitted for a vote. But the new resolution is not expected to include any new sanctions something Russia has said it is reluctant to accept. Rather, it would simply be a restatement of the Security Council's determination to see Iran comply with the council's demands to cease uranium enrichment.
As such, the resolution would be an effort by the Security Council, and the US and Russia in particular, that their differences are not undermining work on other issues.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0927/p25s21-usfp.html
5. Russia blasts US dominant role in world affairs. (The Huston Chronicle)
Russia called Saturday for a revival of the global anti-terrorism coalition that formed after Sept. 11, 2001 but started to unravel with what it called the subsequent domination by a single power a veiled reference to the United States.
"The solidarity of the international community fostered on the wave of struggle against terrorism turned out to be somehow `privatized'," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting.
Lavrov cited the U.S. invasion of Iraq "under the false pretext of fight on terror and nuclear arms proliferation" and questions of excessive use of force against civilians in counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan.
And he said the recent crisis over Georgia's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia proved again that "it is impossible or even disastrous to try to resolve the existing problems in the blindfolds of the unipolar world."
"Today, it is necessary to analyze the crisis in the Caucuses from the viewpoint of its impact on the region and the international community on the whole," Lavrov said.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/6027064.html
6. Security Council Pressed On Iran. (The Washington Post)
The United States, Russia, China and key European powers agreed Friday to press for a U.N. Security Council resolution that renews previous demands for Iran to halt its enrichment of uranium but includes no new punitive measures to compel Tehran to do so.
The pact does little to break a deadlock between Washington and Moscow over whether to pursue new U.N. sanctions against Iran. But it reflected a desire by both sides to show that they can work together on the issue even amid sharp differences over Russia's incursion into Georgia last month.
The deal was brokered by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany following a breakfast with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The three-paragraph draft calls on Iran "to fully comply, without delay," with Security Council resolutions that demand a halt to some of its most controversial nuclear activities. It also calls on Iran to cooperate with U.N. inspectors.
Iran maintains that it has no intention of developing a nuclear weapon and that it needs to enrich uranium which potentially could be diverted to a nuclear weapons program -- in order to ensure its ability to run a civilian nuclear energy program.
This resolution demonstrates a "show of unity" by key Security Council powers on Iran, said Alejandro Wolff, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations. And British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the accord underscores "our determination to ensure" that Iran lives up to its international obligations. "We look forward to that resolution being passed."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603575.html
7. Russia Offers Venezuela's Chavez Weapons, Nuclear Cooperation. (The New York Sun)
Russia offered visiting President Chavez of Venezuela $1 billion in credit to buy weapons and nuclear cooperation amid worsening relations between both nations and America.
"We are ready to implement all our accords in the military sphere," Prime Minister Putin of Russia said as he met Mr. Chavez at his residence outside Moscow late yesterday. He told him that Russia was also ready to consider cooperation with Venezuela in atomic power in addition to high-technology and energy.
Mr. Chavez, in Russia for the second time in two months, announced before the talks that OAO Gazprom, OAO Lukoil and TNK- BP, three of Russia's biggest energy companies, may join with Petroleos de Venezuela SA to work on projects around the world.
His visit comes as Russian warships sail to the Caribbean Sea for joint exercises with the Venezuelan navy, and shortly after two Russian Tupolev-160 strategic bombers returned to Russia from a brief training visit to the South American nation. Russian relations with America have soured over Russia's war with American ally Georgia last month. Venezuela is leading a drive to push back historic American influence in Latin America.
http://www.nysun.com/foreign/russia-offers-venezuelas-chavez-weapons-nuclear/86628/
8. U.S. envoy Hill set to visit North Korea: official. (The Washington Post)
The U.S. nuclear envoy for North Korea, Chris Hill, is set to visit Pyongyang in coming days for talks with North Korean officials in a bid to salvage crumbling six-party denuclearization talks, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday.
The official, who declined to be identified, said Hill had consultations in New York with other nations involved in nuclear talks with North Korea and they decided it would be a good idea for him to go to Pyongyang.
The State Department refused to confirm Hill was going to Pyongyang but said he was traveling to Seoul, the South Korean capital, on Monday.
The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency said earlier this week that Pyongyang was expelling agency monitors from its Soviet-era nuclear plant that produces plutonium and planned to start reactivating it next week, rolling back a disarmament-for-aid deal it struck with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/28/AR2008092800337.html
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US:
1. McCain, Obama square off in first debate. (The San Francisco Chronicle)
In a spirited and sometimes contentious debate, John McCain repeatedly cast Barack Obama as naive and inexperienced - and Obama countered by suggesting his opponent stubbornly supports failed administration policies on the economy and Iraq.
There were no major gaffes - and some clear contrasts in style - in the 90-minute debate at the University of Mississippi, where plenty of fireworks erupted over issues ranging from terrorism and the budget to potential meetings with foreign leaders.
Though the Arizona senator repeatedly - and at times sarcastically - jabbed Obama as failing to grasp key policies and issues, the Illinois senator never lost his cool and went toe-to-toe with his competitor on foreign policy issues, which were presumed to be McCain's strength.
Both a CBS News poll of undecided voters and a CNN poll after the debate gave the win to Obama by double digits though many analysts said the match was surprisingly even.
The debate was intended to explore national security and foreign policy issues. But with the political arm-wrestling over the $700 billion bailout package still raging in Washington, this week's extraordinary financial crisis caused moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS to spend nearly half of the time on economic issues.
That allowed both candidates to deliver their views on the crisis, though neither was ready to commit to supporting a plan still being hammered out in Congress.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/26/MNFI136BAT.DTL
2. US presidential debate: Early polls give Barack Obama slender victory. (The Daily Telegraph)
Two instant television polls and a focus group conducted by top consultant Frank Luntz gave the Democratic senator a lead over his Republican rival among the all-important undecided voters.
His apparent victory was not clear cut, however, with some pundits declaring Sen McCain the winner on points just five weeks before Americans cast their ballots.
Although the party nomination battles began 20 months ago and the election has already cost more than $1 billion, this was the first time that many Americans will have focused closely on the performance of the two candidates to replace President George W Bush.
With two more debates due before the Nov 4 voting, neither candidate landed a knock-out punch or committed the sort of disastrous gaffe that can determine an election.
Instead, they both tried to impress on viewers a negative image of the other candidate: Mr McCain kept insinuating that his younger rival lacked the experience for high office.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/presidentialdebates/3092194/US-presidential-debate-Early-polls-give-Barack-Obama-slender-victory.html
3. Deal Reached on Financial Markets Bailout. (The New York Sun)
Congressional leaders and the Bush administration reached a tentative deal early Sunday on a landmark bailout of imperiled financial markets whose collapse could plunge the nation into a deep recession.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the $700 billion accord just after midnight but said it still has to be put on paper.
"We've still got more to do to finalize it, but I think we're there," said Treasury Secretary Paulson, who also participated in the negotiations in the Capitol.
"We worked out everything," said Senator Gregg of New Hampshire, the chief Senate Republican in the talks. He said the House should be able to vote on it Sunday, and the Senate could take it up Monday.
The plan calls for the Treasury Department to buy deeply distressed mortgage-backed securities and other bad debts held by banks and other investors. The money should help troubled lenders make new loans and keep credit lines open. The government would later try to sell the discounted loan packages at the best possible price.
At the insistence of House Republicans, some money would be devoted to a program that would encourage holders of distressed mortgage-backed securities to keep them and buy government insurance to cover defaults.
http://www.nysun.com/national/deal-reached-on-financial-markets-bailout/86725/