[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News - July 6, 2006

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News - Abridged
July 6, 2006

[For full text of the articles, contact naiman at justforeignpolicy.org]

In this issue:
1) Iran Says It Will Give No Early Nuclear Reply
2) EU Set for Rescheduled Talks with Iran
3) No Formal Iran - EU Talks 'Til Tuesday
4) Exiled Iranian Opponent Says West Appeasing Iran
5) A Summary of Illinois News (legal battle over Persian artifacts)
6) Excerpts of letters regarding ancient Persian tablets
7) Iraqi PM Demands Rape Probe, Slams US Immunity
8) Calderon Has Slim Lead in Mexico's Final Vote Count
9) Mexican leftist vows to challenge results

Summary:
Iran continued to reject calls for an early reply to an offer of
incentives aimed at curtailing its nuclear program, insisting on
Thursday it would use a key July 11 meeting with the European Union
merely to raise questions on the package. The EU is due to hold
preliminary talks with Iran on Thursday and more detailed discussions
next Tuesday in which it has said it expects a formal response to a
package of incentives to halt uranium enrichment. "The Tuesday meeting
is just for removing ambiguities. Iran will not give its definitive
answer at this meeting,'' an Iranian official told Reuters. Major
powers have said they want a reply from Iran by a July 15 G8 summit in
Russia at the latest, suggesting that otherwise would face the threat
of sanctions from the UN Security Council. Possible sanctions are said
to include a visa ban on government officials, freezing assets,
blocking financial transactions by government figures and those
involved in the country's nuclear program, an arms embargo and a
blockade on the shipping of refined oil products. Iran insists it will
not give its answer before August 22. Some diplomats say that as
Russia and China are unlikely to back any U.N. sanctions against Iran
at this stage, there is little pressure on Tehran to respond either at
the Brussels talks or before the G8 summit in Russia.

Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran,
an exiled Iranian opposition group, accused Western nations on
Wednesday of appeasing Tehran with incentives to halt uranium
enrichment that she compared to moves to placate Hitler before World
War II. She said Iran would not give up its enrichment activities and
that diplomatic efforts by the European Union and the United States to
avert a crisis were only rewarding the Iranian government's
strategies. "The solution to this crisis is neither appeasement nor
war. It is to be found in democratic change in Iran," she said. The
NCRI is the political wing of the outlawed People's Mujahideen armed
group, which figures on the EU's list of banned terrorist
organizations. It has followers among Iranian exiles living in Europe
and the United States but diplomats and Iranian analysts say it has
little public support in Iran.

Iraq's prime minister called on Wednesday for an independent inquiry
into the alleged rape and murder of a teenager and killing of her
family by U.S. soldiers and a review of foreign troops' immunity from
Iraqi law. "We will demand an independent Iraqi inquiry, or a joint
investigation with Multinational Forces," Nuri al-Maliki told
reporters in his first public comments since the case came to light.
"We do not accept the violation of Iraqi people's honor as happened in
this case. We believe that the immunity granted to international
forces has emboldened them to commit such crimes and ... there must be
a review of this immunity," he said. Lawmakers had demanded Maliki
brief parliament on the case. Under a 3-year-old mandate from the U.N.
Security Council, the 140,000 or so U.S. and foreign troops are immune
from Iraqi law. Maliki has urged U.S. commanders to hold their
soldiers to account under military law, which many Iraqis say has not
happened. The rape and murder case is the fifth in a high-profile
series of U.S. inquiries into killings of Iraqi civilians in recent
months, and comes at time when Maliki and Washington face delicate
negotiations over a treaty to regulate the presence of the U.S.-led
force once the U.N. mandate expires in December. The addition of rape
to the premeditated murder of civilians in an Islamic society could
make the case especially damaging for the U.S. military. Baghdad's
central morgue said on Wednesday it had received 1,595 bodies last
month, the highest monthly total since the February bombing of a
Shiite shrine in Samarra sparked a wave of sectarian killings. The
figures for June show the pace of killings has increased, even after a
U.S. military strike killed al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi on June 7.

Early this morning Felipe Calderon passed Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
by a razor-thin margin in the official count of polling place tallies
in Mexico's presidential election. With 99.2 percent of the vote
tallies counted, Calderon had 35.77 percent of the vote, while Lopez
Obrador had 35.42 percent. These percentages translated into an
estimated difference between the candidates of about 142,000 votes.
Lopez Obrador had led the count since the tallying began early
Wednesday. Leonel Cota, president of the Democratic Revolution Party
[PRD], accused election officials of deliberately mishandling the
preliminary vote count Sunday to confirm a win for Calderon. He said
Lopez Obrador won the election. His party has claimed that more than
18,000 polling places had more votes cast than there were ballots and
nearly 800 had more votes than there were registered voters. Cota said
Democratic Revolution would not recognize the results without a
ballot-by-ballot recount. Once the count is complete, the seven-judge
Federal Electoral Tribunal will hear any complaints and can overturn
elections. By law, it must certify a winner by Sept. 6, and its
decision is final. Lopez Obrador said this morning he would not accept
the official result and would take the case to the Federal Electoral
Tribunal demanding that "the votes be counted." The count that took
place yesterday largely re-added existing polling place totals. It is
interesting to note that much of the U.S. press coverage, such as
yesterday's stories by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and NPR,
refers to Obrador as a "leftist," while describing Calderon as a
"conservative," without explaining the asymmetry of the
characterizations. [This morning's Washington Post article refers to
Obrador as a "populist."] It is also worth noting that Calderon is
described as a supporter of "free trade," although as a supporter of
NAFTA and the World Trade Organization he supports government
restraints on trade such as patents and copyrights. It would be more
accurate to describe him as an advocate of US-supported trade
agreements.

A legal battle over Persian artifacts has the University of Chicago
defending the Iranian government in court.  At issue is a collection
of ancient Persian tablets that victims of a terror bombing want to
seize and auction as compensation. The clay tablets have been kept in
the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute since the 1930s.
Lawyers for Americans wounded in a 1997 bombing in Jerusalem won a
court ruling last month that takes them a step closer to seizing the
collection as part of Iranian assets in the United States. The
university plans to appeal the ruling. The Institute's director, Gil
Stein, said the Institute would do "everything in its power to protect
cultural patrimony and the character of the tablets as an
irreplaceable scholarly data set." Stein noted that the tablets have
never been bought or sold nor been a source of profit.

Articles:
1) Iran Says It Will Give No Early Nuclear Reply
Reuters
July 6, 2006
Filed at 7:30 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-nuclear-iran.html

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran defied international calls for an early
reply to an offer of incentives aimed at ending a nuclear stand-off,
insisting on Thursday it would use a key July 11 meeting merely to
raise questions on the package.

The European Union is due to hold preliminary talks with Iran on
Thursday and more detailed discussions next Tuesday in which it
expects a formal response to a package of technology, trade and other
incentives to halt uranium enrichment.

``The Tuesday meeting is just for removing ambiguities. Iran will not
give its definitive answer at this meeting,'' an Iranian official, who
requested anonymity, told Reuters.

2) EU Set for Rescheduled Talks with Iran
Reuters
July 6, 2006
Filed at 5:18 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-nuclear-iran.html

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union holds rescheduled talks with
Iran about its nuclear program on Thursday amid rising Western concern
at Tehran's failure to respond to a package of incentives designed to
end a standoff.

Iran postponed talks with the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana
in Brussels on Wednesday in apparent anger at an exiled opposition
leader's visit to the European parliament.

But Iran said its chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani would meet
Solana for a private dinner on Thursday.

Solana said he had agreed to a second meeting with Larijani on July
11, keeping up Western pressure for a clear answer from Iran on the
package before leaders of the Group of Eightleading industrialized
nations meet in St Petersburg on July 15.


3) No Formal Iran - EU Talks 'Til Tuesday
Associated Press
July 6, 2006
Filed at 6:41 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The top Iranian and EU negotiators agreed to
meet Thursday night for informal discussions but postponed until next
week formal talks crucial to diffusing the standoff over Iran's
nuclear program, officials said.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear
negotiator, Ali Larijani, scheduled a dinner for Thursday night, said
EU spokeswoman Cristina Gallach. Solana and Larijani were to discuss a
package of incentives put forward by the United States, Russia, China,
Britain, France and Germany and presented to Tehran by Solana in June.

Larijani had been scheduled to meet with Solana on Wednesday, but Iran
canceled at the last minute, citing anger over intensified activities
of exiled Iranian opposition groups in EU-member countries.


4) Exiled Iranian Opponent Says West Appeasing Iran
Reuters
July 5, 2006
Filed at 10:00 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-nuclear-iran-rajavi.html

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The head of an exiled Iranian
opposition group accused Western nations on Wednesday of appeasing
Tehran with incentives to halt uranium enrichment that she compared to
moves to placate Hitler before World War Two.

Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran,
said she had clear indications that Tehran would not give up its
enrichment activities and that diplomatic efforts by the European
Union and the United States to avert a crisis were only rewarding the
Tehran government's strategies.

5) A Summary of Illinois News (legal battle over Persian artifacts)
Associated Press
July 6, 2006, 2:20 AM CDT
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/wisconsin/chi-ap-il-illinoistoday,1,1435399.story

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- A legal battle over ancient Persian artifacts has
the Iranian government asking for Washington to intervene and the
University of Chicago defending the Islamic regime in court.

At issue is an extremely valuable collection of ancient Persian
tablets, written in cuneiform, that victims of a terror bombing want
to seize and auction as compensation.

The clay tablets have been kept in the University of Chicago's
Oriental Institute since the 1930s. But lawyers for Americans wounded
in a 1997 bombing in Jerusalem won a court ruling last month that
takes them a step closer to seizing the collection as part of Iranian
assets in the United States.

6) Excerpts of letters regarding ancient Persian tablets
Associated Press

July 5, 2006, 2:37 PM CDT
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/illinois/chi-ap-il-iran-ancienttable,1,2381600.story

The following is an excerpt from a letter Gil Stein, director of the
University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, sent to Esfandiar Rahim
Mashaii, director of the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism
Organization, regarding a legal battle concerning ancient Persian
tablets on a long-term loan from Iran:

"The Oriental Institute will do everything in its power to protect
cultural patrimony and the character of the tablets as an
irreplaceable scholarly data set. We remain absolutely committed to
safeguarding the Persepolis tablets. The protection of cultural
patrimony and of scholarly research are fundamental matters of
principle for us, as they should be for every civilized person and
nation," Stein wrote.

7) Iraqi PM Demands Rape Probe, Slams US Immunity
Ibon Villelabeitia
Reuters
Wednesday, July 5, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0705-05.htm


BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister called on Wednesday for an independent
inquiry into the alleged rape and murder of a teenager and killing of
her family by U.S. soldiers and a review of foreign troops' immunity
from Iraqi law.

8) Calderon Has Slim Lead in Mexico's Final Vote Count
Associated Press
July 6, 2006
Filed at 9:32 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mexico-Elections.html

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon caught up
to his leftist rival and passed him by a razor-thin margin early
Thursday in a grueling, round-the-clock vote tally to decide Mexico's
closest presidential race in history.


9) Mexican leftist vows to challenge results
Lisa J. Adams
Associated Press
July 6, 2006
Filed at 9:42 a.m. ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060706/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_elections_77

Conservative candidate Felipe Calderon was winning an official vote
count by a razor-thin margin Thursday, but his leftist rival said he
won't accept the results and will take his demands to court.

"We are going to the Federal Electoral Tribunal with the same demand —
that the votes be counted — because we cannot accept these results,"
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said.

--
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy