[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, January 2, 2007

[Robert Naiman]

Just Foreign Policy News
January 2, 2007
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/newsroom/blog/

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Summary:
U.S./Top News
The US and its European allies, in an acknowledgment that recent UN
sanctions are too weak to force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions,
have embarked on a new strategy to increase the financial and
psychological pressure, the New York Times reports. The plan is to use
the language of the resolution to help persuade foreign governments
and financial institutions to cut ties with Iranian businesses,
individuals in its nuclear and missile programs and the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps. The recent arrests of four Iranian
diplomats by American troops in Iraq played into that strategy, says
the Times. The article notes that Iran "complained loudly" that the
arrests violated diplomatic rules, without explaining why this is
remarkable. Presumably, if Iranian troops arrested U.S. diplomats, the
US would not complain quietly.

If President Bush were serious about pursuing a bipartisan foreign
policy, the basic elements already exist, based on recent polling, Jim
Lobe reports for Inter Press Service. A study by the Program on
International Policy Attitudes concludes most Republicans and
Democrats want to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and favor better
relations with Iran and a more even-handed approach to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Bipartisan majorities also oppose higher
military budgets and the imposition of regime change and democracy by
military force, favor laws that would limit the emission of greenhouse
gases, and want to strengthen the UN.

President Bush intends to reveal a new Iraq strategy within days in a
speech calling for sending more US troops to Iraq, BBC reports.
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel has called Bush's proposal to send more
troops "Alice in Wonderland."

Advocates for refugees, and some U.S. officials say there is an urgent
need to allow more Iraqi refugees into the US, the New York Times
reports. Some critics say the Bush administration has been reluctant
to create a significant refugee program because to do so would be
tantamount to conceding failure in Iraq.

CNN and the New York Times, reviewing the career of Saddam Hussein,
whitewash the U.S. role, writes John Collins on Electronic Iraq.

Iran
Iran's call for more self-reliance in the Gulf has some appeal among
ordinary Arabs, resentful of the US and frustrated by their
governments' over-dependence on US security, the Financial Times
reports. Some Iraqi officials say Arab states' best strategy to check
Iran's influence is to build bridges with Iraq's Shia majority. "The
Shia in Iraq are Arabs [not Persians] and they feel the Arabs have
rejected them," says an Iraqi official. "What the Arabs should do is
embrace the Shia government of Iraq and try to make it a
counterbalance to Iran." Officials in Baghdad say this message,
regularly relayed to Arab rulers, is only now starting to sink in.

A radio program on a government-run station has been conducting an
open debate for the past month about whether Iran should change its
tough stance on its nuclear program, the New York Times reports.
Guests on the radio program have expressed their criticisms
fearlessly, with some calling on the government to put the country's
other interests before its nuclear program.

Iraq
Many Shiites in Iraq express deep mistrust of the US and its
intentions, the Washington Post reports. Against this backdrop, Shiite
leaders have begun to push harder for more independence from their
American backers.

U.S. forces attacked the office of a Sunni Arab lawmaker in Baghdad
Monday, the Los Angeles Times reports. Saleh Mutlak was not in his
office. But he spoke with witnesses and said that the troops killed
six civilians: two of his bodyguards, a couple next door and their two
children. "This has got to stop," Mutlak said. "They didn't even call
to apologize." [JFP board member Tom Hayden, writing on Huffington
Post, notes Mutlak's meeting with an American peace delegation and his
call for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.]

Enraged crowds protested the hanging of Saddam Hussein across Iraq's
Sunni heartland on Monday, AP reports. A highly provocative
demonstration at the bombed Shiite Golden Dome shrine suggests that
many Sunni Arabs may now more actively support the Sunni militants
fighting the country's Shiite-dominated government, says AP.

Juan Cole, writing on Saturday, offered "Top Ten Ways the US Enabled
Saddam Hussein."

Somalia
After Somalia's Islamist forces abandoned their final outpost on
Monday, the transitional government moved aggressively to assert
control, the New York Times reports. Guns are so plentiful that the
price of a Kalashnikov assault rifle has dropped to $15.

U.S. troops attached to the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa
have been training Ethiopian soldiers in basic infantry tactics,
officer logistics and maintenance since 2003, Stars and Stripes
reports.

Israel/Palestine
Despite political turmoil, Israel's economy expanded 5% this year, the
New York Times reports. But the Palestinian economy has moved in the
opposite direction, contracting by an estimated 10 to 15%. The
Palestinian per capita gross domestic product, which was about $1,800
annually in 2000, plummeted to $1,200 last year and continues to fall.
Despite economic growth, the number of Israelis living below the
poverty level has increased, from 18 percent in 2002 to more than 20
percent last year. Many of the poor are Israeli Arabs and
ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have low participation rates in the work
force.

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Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org