Having suffered setbacks in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Al Qaeda has turned its attention towards an impoverished Yemen to relaunch the Islamic Jihad against Western targets both in the Arabian peninsula and abroad. Since the september eleventh bombings in the United States, Yemen reluctantly took the side of Washington and now it is bearing the brunt of an Al Qaeda backlash.
Syria has suddenly become the centre of attention amongst the US and European nations. The IAEA team is now in the country to inspect the alleged damaged nuclear plant bombed by Israel. The US says the Syrians have cleared the site and rebuilt it, so one doubts if anything concrete will come out of the inspection.
But the west has understood that Syria can do much nuclear mischief if it keeps co-operating with Iran and North Korea. Another important factor is that it has influence over Hamas in Gaza and the Hezbollah in Lebanon. So the Europeans have changed tactics. Now instead of treating Syria as a rogue, efforts are on to woo it. The belief is if Syria is drawn away from Iran, the latter country will be considerably weakened.
When the U.S.A led NATO forces invaded Iraq, they promised the Iraqis better life and more liberty than what they enjoyed under Saddam Hussein’s regime. However, situation in Iraq became worse jeopardizing the secularism of the country. Basra, in fact had been badly hit with the Shiite Islamic militia, the al-Mahdi Army, proliferating in the once prosperous city. The militia imposed strict Islamic laws in Basra that included atrocities on women. Women were forced to wear headscarves, they were not allowed to attend university, wear jeans or bright coloured clothes and were forbidden to sit beside male colleagues. There was restriction on using mobile phones and listening to music. The militia clad in black had terrorized Basra since 2003 when the British army marched into the city.
There might be a war going on in Iraq, but the daily humdrum lives of millions of Iraqis goes on. And what is bothering the common people of the war torn country the most is the lack of electricity. It does come, but the supply is erratic. What has led to these states of affairs in the country? There are no simple answers.
Iran test-fired nine missiles on Wednesday. It didn’t forget to add that Israel and U.S. assets were within missile reach. Iran has sent a strong and clear warning that it’ll retaliate if there is any military attack on its nuclear projects. Now US is left with no choice but to brainstorm on how to rein in this country. Iran’s nuclear ambitions can be reined-in only by long-term policies, recommends a study report by Rand Research Organisation. Any military action will only make things worse. It’ll create widespread ill-will against US and will not make Tehran change its mind about pursuing nuclear weapons programs.
Hamas, the political military organisation banned in several countries like Japan, United States, Canada, Jordan and Australia etc was reported making anti-Semitic remarks calling the Jews untrustworthy. Imam Yousif al-Zahar of Hamas, in a meeting with the faithful followers, said that the Jews were traitors; he said that the Jews have been traitors even back in history. He was holding this meeting at the Al Omari mosque and routed attacks on the Christians and the Danes as well. He condemned the Christians and the Danes for printing disputed cartoons that make a mockery of the muslim prophet Mohammed (S.A.W) and called them the brothers of pig and apes.
Hamas has always been in news for such inciting comments. Al Aksa, the television channel owned by them broadcasts videos of rocket launcher teams and insults for Israel and its leaders. Such inciting comments are banned but the Hamas does not feel any restraint while commenting on the Jews and making other kind of public statements. They openly condemn the Jew and wish to capture the land occupied by the Jews to build a Palestinian Islamic State where Israel stands now.
Well, the Israel-Palestine issue is too delicate to be burdened by the weight of any conclusions. So, the most a layman can do is to keep a tab on the situation and analyze the activities (physical as well as verbal) of both Israel and Hamas.
via: iht
President Bush seems to manage to find some ratioanle for his foreign policy actions. In 2003 he told us that the bad Saddam Hussain had nuclear weapons, chemical weapoms and what not. The world half believed it then. And we have the US army sitting in Iraq for more than five years now.
But recently things have not gone well in Iraq. The ’surge’ has contained the violence to an extent, but there is no progress on the benchmarks set for Iraq. So voices calling for a pull-out from the country are getting increasingly strident. So Bush has come up with a new reason for staying put in Iraq. He says it is imperative that Iran’s influence in Iraq is contained.
Iran, Iraq and America have long been involved in a series of battles since the Gulf war and I suffice it to say that hegemonic American attitude and opportunism made the atmosphere hostile, along with the already existing animosity between these two countries. Apart from the Russian threat, which even today United States is wary of, threat from Iran and Iraq always lurked in the background, because it was they who sponsored terrorism in both these countries in the 1980’s and it is also well known that no one else was as aware of this threat facing the world except for the Americans, which is evident from the proofs they made-up to claim that Iraq was trumping up chemical and biological warfare programs, which though was brought to light by media as a hoax.
Iraqi Prime minister Nuri al-Maliki has an unenvious job. He has to keep the Americans as well as his countrymen happy. Lately there have been increasing voices in the Iraqi parliament against any deal with the US to enable its forces to continue staying in Iraq after the UN mandate ends. That is why Maliki is hoping for a memorandum of understanding with the Americans rather than a deal. He need not have to take the MOU to the country’s parliament.
Moreover for the first time the PM has asked for a clause about a timetable for ending US military presence in Iraq. This clearly points to the increasing dislike to continued US presence amongst Iraqis. Maliki had to make the demand to safeguard his political interests.
Is Iran’s controversial nuclear program starting a nuclear arms race in the Middle East? If a report by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is to be believed, then at least 13 countries in the region are exploring plans to start nuclear energy programs or revive their pre-existing nuclear programs.
While it is too early to say with certainty the intention of these countries, but besides nuclear threat from Iran, soaring energy prices is seen as a major reason for these countries to explore possibilities of building nuclear reactors. For Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, it is the desire for acquiring energy independence, but for countries like Egypt and Turkey, besides the energy need it is a way of asserting their prominence in the region that is creating interest in developing nuclear programs. However, for the oil-rich Saudi Arabia nuclear projects would mean development of nuclear arsenals to act as a deterrent against archrival Iran. However, for most countries of the Middle East the huge cost of the nuclear projects, environmental concerns and the long time span required in developing nuclear reactors from the scratch means that none of these countries could develop their nuclear capabilities to rival that of Iran’s in the near future.
