[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, December 11, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
December 11, 2006
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/

MoveOn.org calls for talks with Iran and Syria, letters to the editor:
Following the release of the Iraq Study Group report, which calls for
the US to talk with Iran and Syria, MoveOn.org sent an action alert
asking for letters to newspapers in support of the ISG's call for
talks. The alert says:
"The Iraq Study Group has opened up the opportunity for a new
diplomatic effort in the Middle East. Now we need to show broad public
support for diplomacy. Can you write a letter to the editor?"
http://pol.moveon.org/lte/index.html?lte_campaign_id=69
We encourage everyone to respond to this appeal. It is a very worthy
task in its own right; moreover, some at MoveOn have suggested in the
past that they would do more on these issues if they received greater
response to such appeals. Responding to this appeal will encourage
MoveOn to do more to get the US out of Iraq and prevent war with Iran:
http://pol.moveon.org/lte/index.html?lte_campaign_id=69

No War with Iran: Petition
More than 26,500 people have signed the Peace Action/Just Foreign
Policy petition. Please sign/circulate if you have yet to do so:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/iranpetition.html

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Summary:
U.S./Top News
Four years after invading Iraq, the US still does not understand the
enemy American troops are fighting, according to the Iraq Study Group.
Al Qaeda in Iraq is small and is not the main enemy confronting
American troops, notes the New York Times. The far bigger Sunni
insurgency and Shiite militias are still largely mysteries to American
intelligence, according to the report.

Iraq is failing to spend billions of oil revenues set aside to rebuild
and repair roads, schools, power stations, refineries and pipelines,
James Glanz reports for the New York Times.

Arab leaders said they intended to start a joint nuclear energy
development program, the New York Times reports. At the same time,
they called for a peaceful settlement of the crisis over Iran's
nuclear program. Some analysts and officials said the announcement was
a warning to the US not to acquiesce to Iran's nuclear ambitions,
although the Saudi foreign minister denied it was a threat.

Secret talks in which senior American officials met with bitter
enemies in the Iraqi insurgency broke down after two months of
meetings, the London Sunday Times reports. The article seems to
suggest that the proposal of the Iraq Study group to negotiate with
insurgents has already been tried and has failed, so there is no point
in discussing it. But this ignores that fact that whether negotiations
are successful depends on what's on the table. For example, in past
negotiations insurgent groups have demanded that the US set a
timetable for the withdrawal of its forces from Iraq. Such a
timetable, while opposed by the Bush Administration, is supported by a
majority of Americans.

Among the 1,000 people who work in the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, only 33
are Arabic speakers and only six speak the language fluently,
according to the Iraq Study Group.

Republican Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon said he could no longer
support the status quo in Iraq. "I, for one, am at the end of my rope
when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling
the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day
after day," Smith said. "That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I
cannot support that anymore."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his farewell address, criticized
the Bush administration, warning that America must not sacrifice its
democratic ideals while waging war against terrorism.

Iran
Britain and France plan to introduce a revised U.N. Security Council
resolution imposing sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium
enrichment and hope to put the measure to a vote in the next two
weeks, Reuters reports. In an effort to get Russian support, the two
nations, circulated to the council members Friday a new draft that
narrowed bans to the most dangerous bomb-building materials and
technology.

When the State Department asked the CIA for names of Iranians who
could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear
weapons program, the agency refused, citing a large workload and a
desire to protect its sources and tradecraft, the Washington Post
reports. The State Department then assigned a Foreign Service officer
to find the names by using Google. Those with the most hits under
search terms such as "Iran and nuclear," became targets for
international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at
the UN.

The report issued by the Iraq Study Group provides fresh proof of
Iran's strengthened hand in the Middle East since the U.S. invasion of
Iraq, writes Alissa Rubin in the Los Angeles Times. The report makes
clear that Iran has substantial leverage in any negotiation, said
George Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,
because of Iran's importance in helping to quell the civil war in
Iraq. "We have to deal with reality," Perkovich said.

Iraq
Major partners in Iraq's governing coalition are in behind-the-scenes
talks to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki amid discontent over his
failure to quell raging violence, AP reports.

Lebanon
Most analysts and politicians in Lebanon say American policy may bear
much of the blame for the threat to the Lebanese government from
Hizbollah, writes Tom Lasseter for McClatchy Newspapers. Many say U.S.
failure to stop Israel's onslaught this summer crippled the Lebanese
government while strengthening Hezbollah.

Hezbollah and its allies turned out the biggest crowds yet in downtown
Beirut, the Washington Post reports, sending hundreds of thousands of
followers to the gates of the government headquarters Sunday.
Hezbollah refused to confirm or deny it planned to cut roads in the
capital in a mounting campaign of civil disobedience, and Michel Aoun,
a Christian ally, suggested a more forceful march on the government
itself.

Afghanistan
Popular support for the Afghan government is faltering, and Western
military allies are deeply divided over how best to combat the
insurgency, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Taliban have regained
the strength to dominate large swaths of Afghanistan; government
control is tenuous at best in at least 20% of the country.

President Hamid Karzai on Sunday lamented that Afghan children are
being killed by NATO and U.S. bombs and by terrorists from Pakistan,
AP reports. Karzai said the cruelty imposed on his people "is too
much" and that Afghanistan cannot stop "the coalition from killing our
children."

Pakistan
Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to
consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, the New York Times
reports. The result, say officials, is virtually a Taliban mini-state.

IMF
Talks on rebalancing voting power in the International Monetary Fund
start Monday with some major emerging economies already complaining
that an opening proposal fails to clearly spell out changes needed to
give them more say in the institution, Reuters reports.

Contents:
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/

-
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org

Just Foreign Policy is a membership organization devoted to reforming
U.S. foreign policy so it reflects the values and interests of the
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