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FPI Afternoon Roundup

FPI Afternoon Roundup

Foreign Policy Initiative

December 14, 2009

Iran

“Western officials said the Iranian foreign minister's weekend comments that Tehran would be willing to make a uranium trade in small batches, and on Iranian soil, fell well short of their demands. A proposed deal hammered out in October between U.S., French, Russian and International Atomic Energy Agency negotiators and their Iranian counterparts had called for Iran to ship the bulk of its low-enriched uranium outside the country to be further enriched, and then shipped back to Iran for use in a medical-research reactor.” – Wall Street Journal

“Iran’s six-month-old political crisis flared up again on Sunday as the hard-line leadership admonished protesters for damaging pictures of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and as the opposition countered that the charges were fabricated to justify another aggressive crackdown. As hundreds of students protested Sunday within the walled compound of Tehran University, riot police officers surrounded the campus, raising the prospect of yet another violent confrontation between the authorities and protesters in this increasingly intractable conflict.” – New York Times

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Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen writes: “For more than 10 years, Tehran has succeeded in deceiving foreign governments, thwarting nuclear inspectors and keeping sanctions weak and feckless.…Tehran's greatest feat has been its success in lulling global leaders -- including many in the U.S. administration and Congress -- into complacency, based on the belief that the threat posed by Iran's nuclear weapons program can be negotiated away through engagement and concessions by the West.…That is why the United States must be prepared to act alone, if necessary, and with every weapon in its political and economic arsenal.” – LA Times

“German authorities are currently considering the initiation of legal proceedings against engineering giant Siemens for violating export controls laws with two controversial deliveries of parts to Iran. Customs officials at the port of Hamburg discovered a load of turbo compressors that investigators believe could potentially be used in Iran's missile program. The high-tech goods are valued at €16 million ($23 million) and are part of an €80 million shipment. The delivery had apparently been sent from a Siemens branch in Sweden and was destined for an Iranian company.” – Der Spiegel

Amir Taheri writes: “By month's end, America and its European allies are expected to develop a joint response to Iran's latest "cheat-and-retreat" maneuvers on its disputed nuclear program. Interviews in recent days in several European capitals have disclosed deep divisions between the two sides of the Atlantic on the Iran issue. Yes, European-American bickering over Iran goes back 30 years. But this time it's Europe that's pressing for ‘resolute action’ -- while America, abandoning its traditionally tougher stance, is advising a conciliatory approach…” – New York Post

Afghanistan

Editorial: “Afghanistan is not and should not be just the United States’ fight. Al Qaeda has used its sanctuaries in Afghanistan and Pakistan to plot and launch attacks on European cities. We welcome the news that some of America’s 42 military partners in Afghanistan plan to send more troops…. NATO’s announcement that an additional 7,000 troops will be going falls short of what is needed, and has too many casualty-limiting caveats attached. That isn’t good for Afghanistan or NATO, which has never fully shouldered the burden of this mission. And it is unfair to the American people, who are being asked to make disproportionate sacrifices for what is, emphatically, a common fight.” – New York Times

“Frustration is growing in NATO at what it regards as Russia’s lukewarm support for its mission in Afghanistan…. Russia says it shares Western concerns about Islamist militancy and narcotics in Afghanistan, and backs NATO’s campaign against the Taliban…But some senior alliance diplomats, speaking before NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen arrives in Russia on Tuesday, are hoping for a stronger contribution. “There’s a lot more they could do,” one envoy said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They could send AK-47s. There’s oil, and there’s gas. And they could be giving these things, not selling them [to NATO].” – Reuters

“The American military’s top officer arrived Monday in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit to confer with military commanders and Afghan officials as the first of thousands of reinforcements bound for Taliban-controlled southern Afghanistan arrive this week. The visit by the officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is his first to Afghanistan since President Obama this month ordered an additional 30,000 troops by next fall, raising the American total to about 100,000 forces.” – New York Times

Pakistan

“Demands by the United States for Pakistan to crack down on the strongest Taliban warrior in Afghanistan, Siraj Haqqani, whose fighters pose the biggest threat to American forces, have been rebuffed by the Pakistani military, according to Pakistani military officials and diplomats.” – New York Times

Dubai

“The leaders of Dubai have been accustomed to an easy ride when it comes to raising money, with bank and bond investors around the world willing to pump tens of billions of dollars into increasingly grandiose projects on the premise that, if anything went bad, the emirate and its oil-rich neighbor, Abu Dhabi, would stand behind the debt. That era of easy money -- and a presumed government guarantee -- has been grinding to a halt for months now and officially ends on Monday, when the government of Dubai has said that one of its main government-owned companies will skip a scheduled $4 billion bond payment.” – Washington Post

Turkey

Suat Kiniklioglu writes: “Contrary to the recent charges, Turkey’s foreign policymakers are not seeking to revive the Ottoman Empire. Instead, we seek Turkey’s historical reintegration into its immediate surroundings, thereby correcting an anomaly created during the Cold War years. Such re-integration could only benefit the European Union and our other Western and NATO allies. None of them, therefore, has any reason to express discomfort with Turkey’s approach.” – Daily Star

“Members of Turkey's main Kurdish party have said that they will resign from parliament after the the Democratic Society Party (DTP), was banned by the country's constitutional court. The party's MPs made their decision on Monday at a meeting in the eastern city of Diyarbakir, which had earlier seen violent clashes between Turkish police and Kurds angry at the ban.” – Al Jazeera

Obama Administration

Jackson Diehl argues: “President Obama's appearance in Oslo last week gave cause for his critics to remind the world, again, of everything his peace-prize-winning diplomacy hasn't accomplished so far. There's been no tangible result from his attempts to engage Iran, North Korea, Syria and other rogues; no clear progress toward Middle East peace; no new steps toward global disarmament. The war in Afghanistan -- something the Nobel judges no doubt look on with disfavor -- just got a lot bigger. Still, the verdict on Obama's policy of multilateralism, engagement and circumscribed American ambitions is very much still out.” – Washington Post

Leslie Gelb argues: “But going to war does not a foreign policy make. If Americans are searching for a new Obama foreign policy, they need to look back to the closing words of Obama’s two week-old West Point speech. Those paragraphs zeroed in on the overriding imperative of restoring America’s economic strength—the very heart of America’s military and diplomatic power, and economic competitiveness. Without that economic power, there will be no military and economic power, no military victories, not much of anything. This truth, one of the few truths in the foreign-policy business, is the only basis for a realistic and effective national-security policy.” – Daily Beast

War on Terror

“Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant has repeatedly criticized the U.S. president, playing on Arab disillusionment over the stalled peace process and trying to undermine Obama's outreach to Muslims.’Obama's plan, though wrapped in smiles and calls for respect and understanding, aims only to support Israel,’ al-Zawahri said. ‘Obama's policy is nothing but another cycle in the Crusader and Zionist campaign to enslave and humiliate us, and to occupy our land and steal our wealth.’” – Wall Street Journal

North Korea

“Thai authorities will spend the next several days sifting through a massive cache of explosives, missiles and other weapons seized from a plane from North Korea in a case that could offer new details about the secretive country's involvement in the international illicit-weapons trade….The detention of the plane and cargo is among the first executions of new rules created by the United Nations Security Council in June to try to halt Pyongyang's ability to sell and transport arms.” – Wall Street Journal

Stephen Hayes argues: “The very fact that the high-level face-to-face meetings took place is a blow to human rights in North Korea, as any such discussions necessarily lend legitimacy to the repressive regime in Pyongyang, particularly when such bilateral talks came after repeated demands for them from the North Koreans. And the fact that the Obama administration seems unwilling not only to "call attention to" human rights abuses in North Korea but even to mention them suggests that Obama's "unwavering commitment" to human rights around the world is mere Oslo rhetoric.” – Weekly Standard

Zimbabwe

“President Mugabe has warned Zimbabwe that he expects elections soon, raising fears among the Opposition that he will again mount a campaign of terror and violence to stay in power. He was speaking at his Zanu-PF party’s five-yearly congress… there was no suggestion at the congress that he should retire. If he is re-elected next year, he would be 92 at the end of his new term in office.” – Times Of London

Georgia

“European Union monitors in Georgia called on Russian forces on Saturday to pull back from a disputed village and warned that detentions on both sides of the de facto border with South Ossetia were raising tension. The 225-member mission deployed just over a year ago after a five-day war in which Russia crushed a Georgian assault on breakaway South Ossetia after months of rising tension. Mission head Hansjoerg Haber said access to satellite imagery had improved surveillance over South Ossetia, which the unarmed EU monitors are not allowed to enter.” – Reuters

China

Barry Eichengreen: “China is making a big push to encourage greater international use of its currency, the renminbi. It has an agreement with Brazil to facilitate use of the two countries’ currencies in bilateral trade transactions….All of these initiatives are aimed at reducing dependence on the dollar both at home and abroad by encouraging importers, exporters, and investors to make more use of China’s currency. The ultimate goal is to ensure that China eventually gains the flexibility and financial prerogatives that come with being a reserve-currency country.” – Jordan Times
Editorial: “Two questions arise immediately upon watching the news that Thai authorities have seized a cargo aircraft carrying North Korean weapons: How could the North prepare to smuggle missiles and grenade launchers abroad while a U.S. presidential envoy was in Pyongyang for talks; and why did it choose U.S.-friendly Bangkok instead of an anti-American capital, like Yangon, for a refueling stop?” – Korea Times

Copenhagen

“Tensions flared Monday at the United Nations climate summit, as representatives from a group of poor nations briefly walked out of the conference to protest the slow pace of negotiations, and European Union officials expressed exasperation with the U.S. and China.” – Wall Street Journal

Burma

“The United Nations warned on Monday that drug-control measures were ‘unraveling’ in Myanmar, with opium farming in the country expanding for the third consecutive year.” – New York Times

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Events

Starting with START: A New Era in Arms Control or the Beginning of Unilateral Disarmament? American Enterprise Institute
December 15
What is at Stake for the U.S. in Afghanistan?
The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University
December 15

Implementing the Lisbon Treaty: An Update on Europe's Transformation
Heinrich Böll Foundation North America
December 16

18 Months and Beyond: Implications of U.S. Policy in Afghanistan
Middle East Policy Council
January 7

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Afternoon Roundup is a daily product of the Foreign Policy Initiative, which seeks to promote an active U.S. foreign policy committed to robust support for democratic allies, human rights, a strong American military equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century, and strengthening America's global economic competitiveness. To submit comments or suggestions, email info@foreignpolicyi.org.

ENDS

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