International Relations // Current

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7 days ago

Obama's critics should be bowing their heads

To most reasonable people, it was a well-intentioned show of respect to a head of state who greeted his guest on the steps of his... more

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1 in 6 japanese living in poverty

is confirmed to be "among the worst" hit by economic hardships , of OECD members ( Organization for Economic Cooperation... more

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In China, Obama Pushes Need for ‘Strong Dialogue’

BEIJING — President Obama and President Hu Jintao of China met in private off Tiananmen Square here on a frigid Tuesday... more

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Nuclear Report on Iran Arouses New Suspicions

WASHINGTON — International inspectors who gained access to Iran’s newly revealed underground nuclear enrichment plant raised questions in a report released on Monday about whether the country may have also concealed other nuclear factories.

So far Iran has denied that there are other hidden sites in addition to the one built deep underground on a military base north of the holy city of Qum. The inspectors were given access to the half-built plant late last month and reported that they had found it in “an advanced state” of construction, but that no centrifuges — the fast-spinning machines needed to make nuclear fuel – had yet been installed.

They confirmed American and European intelligence reports that the site was built to house about 3,000 centrifuges, enough to produce enough material for one or two nuclear weapons a year. But that is too small to be useful in the production of fuel for civilian nuclear power, which is what Iran insists was the intended purpose of the site.

The plant’s existence was revealed in September, as many as seven years after construction had begun.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors came just two days after President Obama, expressing increasing impatience with Iran’s responses in nuclear negotiations, indicated that he would begin to plan for far more stringent economic sanctions against Tehran. He was joined during that announcement by President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, but Mr. Medvedev was vague about whether Russia was now prepared to join in those sanctions. Mr. Obama was expected to take up the issue on Tuesday with President Hu Jintao of China, where Mr. Obama is on a state visit. China, like Russia, has historically resisted sanctions on Iran.

In its report, the agency said that Iran’s belated “declaration of the new facility reduces the level of confidence in the absence of other nuclear facilities under construction, and gives rise to questions about whether there were any other nuclear facilities in Iran which had not been declared to the agency.”

Both I.A.E.A. officials and American and European diplomats and nuclear experts have argued that the existence of the hidden facility at Qum would make little sense unless there was a network of related facilities to feed it with raw nuclear fuel.

Iran denied that it had any other facilities that it had failed to report to the agency. But in a letter to the nuclear inspectors, parts of which were quoted in the report to the board of the I.A.E.A., Iranian officials said they were motivated to build the underground plant because of “the threats of military attacks against Iran,” a reference to the assumption that Israel, the United States or other Western powers might take military action against its main plant for uranium enrichment, located at Natanz.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/world/middleeast/17nuke.html?_r=1&hpWASHINGTON — International inspectors who gained access to Iran’s newly revealed underground nuclear enrichment plant... more

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10 days ago

Obama Pushes Rights With China’s Students

HONG KONG — President Barack Obama held a town hall meeting with university students in Shanghai on Monday afternoon, but unlike previous such gatherings with other American presidents, Mr. Obama’s question-and-answer session was not broadcast live on China’s official state network.

Instead, according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, the live broadcast inside China was to be on the agency’s Web site, Xinhuanet. Edited portions were expected to be available later on Central China Television, or CCTV, the state network.

Mr. Obama greeted the crowd in Chinese, and apologized to the audience that his ability with the language was not as good as their English. He then recounted the last three decades’ of warming ties between the two nations.

“Look how far we have come,” Mr. Obama said, highlighting growing trade and political ties between the superpowers. “ We do not seek to contain China’s rise,” he added. “More is to be gained when great powers cooperate than when they collide.”

And, in pointed remarks, Mr. Obama repeatedly stressed certain sensitive themes, saying the United States would push for freedom of expression, political participation, respect for ethnic minorities - a particularly touchy topic now in China - and empowering women in society.

The White House offered live streaming of the event on its Web site, which is not blocked or censored in China, and a simultaneous Chinese translation was offered. The feed also was available through the White House page on Facebook.

Previous town hall gatherings with visiting American leaders were shown live on CCTV: Bill Clinton spoke at Beijing University and took questions during a visit in 1998, and George W. Bush met with students at Tsinghua University in Beijing in 2002.

Xinhua said Monday that it had received 3,200 questions over the Internet for Mr. Obama’s session, held at the sprawling Museum of Science and Technology in Shanghai.

Some questions were about sober policy issues: bilateral cooperation in combating the global financial crisis, U.S. import duties on Chinese products and the sale of weapons to Taiwan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/world/asia/17shanghai.html?hpHONG KONG — President Barack Obama held a town hall meeting with university students in Shanghai on Monday afternoon, but... more

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10 days ago

Obama Says Russia ‘Reset Button’ Has Worked

SINGAPORE — President Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia expressed dissatisfaction Sunday with Iran’s response to a nuclear offer made by world powers, raising the prospect that sanctions may be the next step in the West’s ongoing efforts to rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

The two men, meeting during an Asia-Pacific summit conference in Singapore before Mr. Obama traveled to Shanghai, also made progress in efforts to negotiate a replacement for a key arms control treaty between the United States and Russia that is set to expire in December, American administration officials said.

While White House officials acknowledged on Sunday that a new pact to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, will not be ratified soon, they said they expect to reach a “bridge” agreement that will preserve the status quo until a new treaty is approved.

The Sunday afternoon discussion with Mr. Medvedev was the fifth such meeting for Mr. Obama since he took office vowing to repair America’s relationship with Russia, and American officials expressed satisfaction Sunday with their progress so far. “I have found, as always, President Medvedev frank, constructive and thoughtful,” Mr. Obama said after the meeting. “The reset button has worked,” he added, alluding to the administration’s early promise to “reset” the bilateral relationship after several years of bickering over a variety of issues from missile defense to Kosovo.

With the START treaty set to expire soon, the Obama administration is searching for ways to have weapons inspectors remain in Russia to keep American eyes on the world’s second most formidable nuclear arsenal. In the absence of a treaty or a legally binding “bridge” authority, American inspectors would be forced to leave Russia when the treaty expires. Likewise, Russian inspectors would have to leave the United States.

Under START provisions, both nations are allowed a maximum of 30 inspectors to monitor each other’s compliance with the treaty.

On Iran, administration officials said, Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev discussed a timetable for imposing sanctions if Tehran and the West do not soon agree on a proposal in which Iran would send its enriched uranium out of the country, either for either temporary safekeeping or reprocessing into fuel rods.

“Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran appears to have been unable to say yes to what everyone acknowledges is a creative and constructive approach,” said Mr. Obama, sitting next to Mr. Medvedev. “We are running out of time with respect to that approach.” Mr. Medvedev also alluded to running out of patience. He said that while a dialogue with Iran was continuing, “we are not completely happy about its pace. If something does not work there are other means to move the process further.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/world/asia/16prexy.htmlSINGAPORE — President Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia expressed dissatisfaction Sunday with Iran’s... more

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11 days ago

Japanese Obama fans try and fail to meet Barack

A group of Barack Obama fans from Obama City in Fukui Prefecture attempted to meet the U.S. president as he entered his hotel on... more

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11 days ago

Obama, Medvedev to work on weapons treaty

SINGAPORE - A major pact within tantalizing reach, President Barack Obama aims to nudge forward an arms-control deal in talks with... more

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12 days ago

Obama: China Can Be Source of Shared Strength

TOKYO — The United States is not threatened by a rising China, President Obama said Saturday, but will seek to strengthen... more

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12 days ago

Obama Arrives in Tokyo to Mend Fences

TOKYO — President Obama, seeking to mend fences with America’s most important Asian ally, announced that he would establish a high-level working group on the contentious issue of the continuing presence of a Marine base in Okinawa.

The decision, announced at a news conference just a few hours after he touched down in Tokyo to begin his first presidential trip to Asia,appears to represent a concession by the Obama administration to at least consider Japan’s concerns. It comes less than a month after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates seemed to shut the door on renegotiating a deal reached in 2006 to relocate the United States Marine airbase in Futenma to a less populated part of the island.

Mr. Obama’s visit comes at a time when the two allies are grappling with recent shifts in their overall relationship, and Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, searches for a more “equal partnership.” On Friday, both leaders emphasized the importance of the relationship, and stressed that the two sides were seeing eye-to-eye. Standing beside Mr. Obama at the Japanese equivalent of the White House, the Kantei, Mr. Hatoyama said, “We’ve come to call each other Barack and Yukio, and gotten quite accustomed to calling each other by our names.

But White House officials said that the United States has only agreed to talks “on the implementation” of the Okinawa agreement, and said that they don’t expect to the larger shape of the agreement, which also calls for relocating some 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam. Japan policy experts indicated that the establishment of the working group is likely only a face-saving way for Mr. Hatoyama to tell the Japanese public that he is keeping his campaign promise...

The United States also appeared to give ground on the other contentious security alliance issue, accepting Mr. Hatoyama’s pledge of $5 billion in aid to Afghanistan, which Mr. Hatoyama linked to his government’s decision to end the Japanese Navy’s refueling mission near Afghanistan. Mr. Obama said the promise “underscores Japan ’s prominent role” in the broad international effort in Afghanistan .

Still, there have been ample signs that the half-century alliance may be entering a new phase. In the past, squabbles between the United States and Japan have focused mostly on trade disputes over luxury cars and semiconductors, while the security alliance between the two was more stable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/world/asia/14prexy.html?_r=1&hp

end of excerptTOKYO — President Obama, seeking to mend fences with America’s most important Asian ally, announced that he would... more

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14 days ago

France and Germany Mark Armistice Day

PARIS — For the first time since the armistice that ended World War I with Germany’s defeat in 1918, a German leader joined French officials here to mark the moment the guns fell silent on the Western Front after a war that killed millions.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France laid a floral wreath on Wednesday at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the soaring arches of the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris, erected in 1835 to honor the army of Napoleon.

The moment came two days after Mr. Sarkozy traveled to Berlin for ceremonies marking the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago on Nov. 9, 1989. Mr. Sarkozy said Wednesday that remembrance of the past “is also to consolidate the present and prepare the future.”

Across Europe and other parts of the world, people gathered Wednesday to commemorate the end of four years of fighting between 1914 and 1918 in which millions of lives were lost in what are now depicted as strategically ineffective battles of the trenches in which neither side gained significant territory as each lashed the other with artillery fire and often futile infantry charges.

The precise number of dead from both sides in what is known as the Great War — or “the war to end all wars” — has never been precisely known, partly because of poor record-keeping. But most accounts put the number of military deaths at more than 8 million — including 1.4 million French and 2 million from Imperial Germany. Additionally, more than six million civilians were killed, and two million soldiers from all sides were reported missing in action.

France and Germany have reached out to each other to heal the wounds before.
In September 1984, the leaders of France and Germany, President François Mitterrand and Chancellor Helmut Kohl, chose the site of the 1916 battle of Verdun for a symbolic day of reconciliation. But the ceremony in Paris on Wednesday marked the first time a German leader had attended the annual ceremony in Paris.

“I know that what has gone before cannot be erased,” Mrs. Merkel said. “But there is a power, a power which helps us and which can help us bear what has passed: reconciliation.”

In silence, the two leaders stood side by side before the flame that marks the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier after inspecting troops ringing the Arc de Triomphe. Mr. Sarkozy said later that the commemoration was not of one people’s victory over another but of an ordeal that was “equally terrible on both sides.”

“German orphans wept for their slain fathers in the same way as French orphans,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “German mothers felt the same pain as French mothers as they stood before the coffins of their fallen sons.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/world/europe/12france.html?hpPARIS — For the first time since the armistice that ended World War I with Germany’s defeat in 1918, a German leader... more

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16 days ago

Iran Charges 3 Americans With Spying

Three American hikers who were arrested in Iran this summer after straying across its border with Iraq have been accused of spying, an Iranian state news agency reported on Monday.

The Tehran prosecutor told Iran’s official IRNA news agency that Iranian officials were pursuing espionage charges against the Americans, who were detained in late July after trekking through the Kurdistan region of Iraq and toward the Iranian border. News of the spying accusations drew a quick rebuke from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who reiterated calls for the Iranians to release the hikers, Shane M. Bauer of Emeryville, Calif.; Joshua F. Fattal of Cottage Grove, Ore.; and Sarah E. Shourd of Oakland, Calif.

“We believe strongly that there is no evidence to support any charge whatsoever,” she told reporters in Berlin, according to The Associated Press. “And we would renew our request on behalf of these three young people and their families that the Iranian government exercise compassion and release them so they can return home.”

It was unclear whether Iran had formally filed legal action against the hikers, or whether prosecutors were merely leveling accusations for public consumption. The Persian word used by the chief prosecutor who discussed the case can mean either “charged” or “accused” in English.

Nevertheless, the specter of three American tourists on trial in Iran could add more strain to relations between Iran the United States at a time when the countries are engaged in fraught negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, and it raises questions about whether Iran will try to use the captured Americans as a bargaining chip in those talks. Earlier this year, the case of Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist arrested in Tehran, drew international attention and sparked accusations that the Iranian government was trying to use one woman’s arrest to gain leverage with the United States.

Ms. Saberi, a freelance journalist who had lived in Iran since 2003, was arrested in January and sentenced to eight years prison on charges of espionage and working without press credentials. But the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wrote a letter urging an appeals court to be fair as it reviewed her case, and she was released in May, a month before Iran’s disputed presidential elections.

The United States has been pursuing the release of the American hikers through Swiss diplomats who represent American interests in Tehran. The United States severed diplomatic ties with Iran after the 1979 takeover of its embassy in Tehran.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/world/middleeast/10hikers.htmlThree American hikers who were arrested in Iran this summer after straying across its border with Iraq have been accused of... more

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21 days ago

Iranians clash with police on hostage crisis anniversary

"Protesters clashed with police at a central Tehran square on Wednesday while government supporters nearby marked the 30th... more

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24 days ago

Abdullah drops Afghan Presidential bid

KABUL, Afghanistan — Abdullah Abdullah, the chief rival to President Hamid Karzai, announced on Sunday that he would... more

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27 days ago

Iran Hints at Cooperation on U.N. Nuclear Deal

BEIRUT, Lebanon — After days of uncertain signals, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, hinted Thursday that Iran would accept a United Nations-sponsored plan to send the country’s uranium abroad for processing, saying “we welcome cooperation on nuclear fuel, power plants, and technology, and we are ready to cooperate.”

But it remained unclear whether Iran would insist on shipping the material in installments, which would undercut the intent of the plan: to leave Iran without enough nuclear material to build a weapon for at least a year, time in which the West would work toward an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments, broadcast on state television, came as Iran prepared to deliver a formal response to the plan, which was designed to bridge the gap between Iran’s insistence that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes and the West’s suspicion that it is building a bomb.

Iran’s state-run Al Alam Arabic-language television station reported Thursday that Tehran had delivered its formal response to the proposal to the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. But officials there said they could not immediately confirm the report. Earlier this week, Iran said it would respond to the plan by Friday.

Speaking in the northeastern city of Mashad, Mr. Ahmadinejad did not address the possibility that Iran might seek changes to the agreement, which was crafted by Iranian and Western negotiators last week during talks in Vienna. His remarks seemed to extend Iran’s two-track public position on the nuclear dispute, offering a degree of compliance with one hand while insisting on the other that there were limits to its readiness for cooperation.

“Fortunately, the conditions for international nuclear cooperation have been met,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said. "We are currently moving in the right direction and we have no fear of legal cooperation, under which all of Iran’s national rights will be preserved, and we will continue our work."

He also insisted, as he often has, that Iran would not retreat from its rights to nuclear power. “As long as this government is in power, it will not retreat one iota on the undeniable rights of the Iranian nation.”

end of excerpt

Source: NYTimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/world/middleeast/30nuke.htmlBEIRUT, Lebanon — After days of uncertain signals, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, hinted Thursday that Iran... more

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29 days ago

Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll

KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.

The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Mr. Karzai raise significant questions about America’s war strategy, which is currently under review at the White House.

The ties to Mr. Karzai have created deep divisions within the Obama administration. The critics say the ties complicate America’s increasingly tense relationship with President Hamid Karzai, who has struggled to build sustained popularity among Afghans and has long been portrayed by the Taliban as an American puppet. The C.I.A.’s practices also suggest that the United States is not doing everything in its power to stamp out the lucrative Afghan drug trade, a major source of revenue for the Taliban.

More broadly, some American officials argue that the reliance on Ahmed Wali Karzai, the most powerful figure in a large swath of southern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, undermines the American push to develop an effective central government that can maintain law and order and eventually allow the United States to withdraw.

“If we are going to conduct a population-centric strategy in Afghanistan, and we are perceived as backing thugs, then we are just undermining ourselves,” said Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the senior American military intelligence official in Afghanistan.

Ahmed Wali Karzai said in an interview that he cooperates with American civilian and military officials, but does not engage in the drug trade and does not receive payments from the C.I.A.KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s... more