US-UAE 'nuclear pact'?

"Proposed Cooperation With Middle Eastern Nation Would Face Hurdles in Congress on Proliferation Fears", in the WSJ, here

"The move could place President-elect Barack Obama in a political tight spot with a Middle East ally by forcing him to decide whether to push Congress to ratify the agreement. He hasn't taken an official position on the deal. An Obama spokesman declined to comment. The Bush administration has championed the nuclear agreement with the U.A.E. as a model for promoting peaceful nuclear energy while guarding against weapons proliferation."

Iran cuts support for Iraq groups, ..as Iraq asks Obama to urgently hold US-Iran talks..

BBC, here and Reuters, here

"...Iraqi government spokesman Ali Dabagh, speaking in Washington, said that there had been an apparent change in Tehran's posture toward the insurgency. "The assurances that were being given by [Iraqi PM Nouri] Maliki that the Status of Forces Agreement is not going to be against them… helped reducing the temperature with Iran," he added."

"...Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh also called for dialogue to improve relations between Iran and Arab countries."The time has come for a new, serious, and calm policy with an open-minded vision," Dabbagh said in a statement after he had given a speech in Washington.."

"Lebanon's pivotal role..." as the world crumbles ...

NATO pays the Taliban "safe passage fees", Somalia relapses into "anarchy", ... Iraqis continue to die in scores .... and all the while, in Washington, the Aspen Institute cosponsors with the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation a conference on "Lebanon: The Swing State of a New Levant" to discuss "Lebanon’s pivotal role in the region, and the upcoming Lebanese parliamentary elections"

Grosso Modo: These are some ingredients of Bush's agenda & successes.... (Apparently) Bush due to visit Lebanon early 2009'...

"'Iran wants to devour the Arab world'"

In the JPOst, here and in AlJarida, here

Livni to 48' Arabs: "... the national solution for you is elsewhere"

In Haaretz, here

"Once a Palestinian state is established, I can come to the Palestinian citizens, whom we call Israeli Arabs, and say to them 'you are citizens with equal rights, but the national solution for you is elsewhere,'"..... Livni was quoted by Army Radio as saying to students at a Tel Aviv high school. ......that the national demands of Israeli Arabs should end the moment a Palestinian state is established ..... It must be clear to everyone that the State of Israel is a national homeland for the Jewish people."

Taliban control over 72 % Of Afghanistan?

In the HuffingtonPost, here

"...The increase In Taliban popularity, argues ICOS, is in part because NATO are the "failed occupying force" and the Taliban are the dominant opponent. The suffering of the Afghan people makes them wary of the true intentions of the international community and powerless against the Taliban's proselytizing or coercion...."

With oil in retreat, Iran's good times are almost over

McClatchy's, here

"...Buoyed by a vast pool of oil income as prices soared to near $150 a barrel, Iran has until now been able to blunt the sanctions' pain. And, all but cut off from the world financial system thanks to the U.S. Treasury Department, it's watched the global economic crisis from splendid isolation.......

With oil now hovering around $40 a barrel (and Iran's lower-quality crude selling even cheaper), bad news is just over the horizon, they say. Foreign imports will be throttled, incomes will drop, Iran's currency will weaken and inflation will grow even worse. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's populist spending programs, which have bloated the government budget but bolstered his popularity with poor Iranians, could sputter to a halt......

No matter how tough conditions get, few observers here expect Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in such matters, to surrender on the nuclear issue..."

US Taxpayer's money also buys this!

JPOst, here

"..At $100,000 in housing compensation for each of 75,000 men, women and children, the cost would come to $7.5 billion. Adding in business compensation and miscellaneous expenses, let's say you double it - that's $15 billion. Then, just to be extra safe, double it again - that's $30 billion. Coincidentally, $30 billion is how much the US has pledged to give us over the next 10 years; $30 billion in free money. ..In short, we can afford to get out of the West Bank..."

WINEP: "Damascus scores "cost-free" diplomatic gains in Europe

WINEP's Shencker is quite unhappy with European overtures towards Damascus. He recommends that Washington "...work with the EU to ensure that the agreement is not a diplomatic and economic gift to Syria, but rather a verifiable bilateral deal in which Damascus only receives benefits in exchange for meeting its obligations." He tries, yet again, to salvage what he can .... Someone should point out to him: The Train Has Left The Station! WINEP, here

"...Modest Syrian Steps Prompt Dramatic EU Shift

What prompted the EU's recent reassessment is not entirely clear; the Hariri investigation is months away from conclusion, and the international tribunal will not be operational before spring 2009. To be sure, Europe was impressed this past May by the announcement of Israeli-Syrian (indirect) negotiations in Turkey and by Damascus's adoption of a seemingly more productive stance vis-a-vis Lebanon, symbolized by the election later that month of Michel Suleiman as president.
More recently, Paris expressed delight with Syria's pledge in July 2008 to open an embassy in Beirut. In the aftermath of these developments, senior-level diplomatic exchanges between Europe and Syria -- largely frozen since 2005 -- resumed full force. Despite the fanfare with which these developments were received, Syria's steps were rather modest. Although Damascus deferred a political crisis in Beirut by allowing the election of a Lebanese chief executive, President Suleiman, who was appointed chief of staff of the Lebanese Armed Forces by Syria in 1998, is widely viewed as sympathetic toward Syria. Likewise, Syrian president Bashar al-Asad's commitment to open an embassy in Beirut remains only a pledge -- and a symbolic gesture at best. Damascus is already hedging on follow-through; in early December, Syrian foreign minister Walid Mouallem said the appointment of an ambassador "would take place gradually."

Few in Europe are likely to believe that the embassy's establishment will constitute recognition of Lebanese sovereignty. And many in Lebanon fear a new embassy would represent the reestablishment of Anjar, the notorious former home of Syria's viceroy in Lebanon..."

Lashkar-e-Taiba also operating in & through Saudi Arabia...

In McClatchy's here

"A United Nations Security Council committee put three Pakistani leaders of the group Lashkar-e-Taiba and a Saudi operative on a terrorist watch list A U.N. document obtained by McClatchy said that LeT has sent operatives to attack U.S. troops in Iraq, established a branch in Saudi Arabia and been raising funds in Europe

"In 2005, (LeT founder) Saeed determined where graduatesof an LeT camp in Pakistan should be sent to fight, and personally organized the infiltration of LeT militants into Iraq during a trip to Saudi Arabia,"..."

US Ambassador 'opens firing range' in Lebanon

I did not say it, ...you did! It just sounded funny: US Ambassadors & Firing Ranges in Lebanon ... Embassy's website, here

A Syrian 'view' of Lebanon, Egypt & Saudi Arabia...

Jean Aziz, in Al Akhbar, here

"I, Barack Hussein Obama ..."

Via FP, here

“I think the tradition is that they use all three names, and I will follow the tradition, not trying to make a statement one way or the other. I'll do what everybody else does.”

Riedel: "Pakistan is the eye of the storm.."

In DerSpiegel, here

"...It would be a nightmare if the Indians do find evidence of Pakistani government participation either through the army or the intelligence services. So far both sides are being careful: India says that the terrorists came from Pakistan but they have not said that they were assisted by the government. And Pakistan is saying it will cooperate with the investigation..."

'New era of Syrian influence in Lebanon...'

Haaretz, here

"..Aoun holds no official post, but he is an influential figure in Lebanon's sectarian politics and an ally of the powerful Hezbollah guerrilla group. New Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Jean Kahwaji also visited Damascus last week, in what may be a prelude to increasing Syrian influence in Lebanon."

"...the Pentagon "should assume that the Iraqi government will eventually ask us to stay beyond 2011..."

A new CFR.org Daily Analysis looks at new security agreements between the United States and Iraq, saying Washington appears to be preparing its own exit, but that it remains unclear just how such a withdrawal would unfold ..... whereas, Brookings' Ken Pollack argues that Washington "must not be hasty" because (apparently) "Iraq remains a very troubled country".

"....the U.S. exit strategy may not be any clearer today (TNR) than it was before the SOFA's passage. "The challenge, of course, is that with the new Status of Forces Agreement ... we're going to have fewer resources devoted to Iraq and less authority there,"........

......the Pentagon "should assume that the Iraqi government will eventually ask us to stay beyond 2011.."

Mubarak dismayed at Tehran, as demonstration gets "too personal"

Al Jazeera, here

Tehran demonstrators against the siege of Gaza

"The Taliban are ...back"

ICOS-Group Report, here, via WIC

"...The Taliban are now dictating terms in Afghanistan, both politically and militarily. At the national level, talk of reconciliation and power sharing between undefined moderate elements of the movement and elected government officials is commonplace. At a local level, the Taliban are manoeuvring skilfully to fill the governance void, frequently offering a mellower version of localised leadership than characterised their last stint in power..."

Rice: "...In some places in the Middle East, our steadfast support for Israel is not popular..."

QUESTION: Now, that sounds like a part – a big part of what President Bush has advocated, which is promoting democracy around the world, that that should help fight terrorism, that should help establish peace. But also, with that comes promoting America’s image. How has that gone? Because there’s a general perception that what some people, say Karen Hughes, who you know so well, an old friend of the President, tried to do didn’t work.

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it’s shortsighted to worry about changing some negative perceptions about the United States in a matter of a couple of years. It’s just shortsighted. Sometimes people don’t like our policies. In some places in the Middle East, our steadfast support for Israel is not popular. But if you marry that with the President’s advocacy for a Palestinian state, people understand that the United States is really trying to bring peace. Sometimes, it’s not popular to tell the truth about the roots of terrorism and what needs to be done to make certain that terrorists can’t attack again.
But I’m always a little puzzled to find the two most populous countries in the world -- China and India – even if you want to take the test of popularity, which by the way, I don’t think is the issue, but even if you wanted to take the test of popularity, the United States is very well regarded. And so yes, there are some places where our policies are not popular, where the fact that we’ve had to do hard things and tell people that we’re going to do hard things, that perhaps the United States is not popular.
But the United States should never seek popularity. It should seek respect. It should seek a
reputation for standing for the right values. And sometimes – and by the way, it’s often been the case, not just with the Bush Administration – that will lead people to criticize us.

Read on, here at STATE.gov

"Saudi charities linked to Mumbai attacks?"

... and the trail of Arafat's shady cash leads to Soha in Paris , in the DailyBeast, here and Arnaud De Borchgrave, on the "culture" the United States & Saudi Arabia .. helped create during the Cold War, in the WashingtonTimes, here

"...The same source says that the school is bankrolled by donations from Saudi Arabia, a disclosure that could complicate the U.S. relationship with one of its few allies in the region. The CIA has known for two years that the school—which teaches Wahhabism, the ultra-conservative strain of Islam practiced by the Saudi royal family--was “funded by the Saudis and protected by the Pakistanis.”

......It is little surprise that most of the cash has ended up in France, where Arafat’s 45-year old widow, Suha, has lived with their daughter, since 2000. Suha – who married Arafat in 1990 when she was only 28 -- lives in a sprawling villa on one of Paris’ s most exclusive streets, Rue Fauborg St. Honore, and also keeps a decadent private suite at the five-star Hotel Le Bristol. ....The Palestinian Authority is aware of the DCRI report and has demanded that the French government seize the funds and return them. But to the consternation of Mahmoud Abbas, President Nicholas Sarkozy has refused to take any action..."