Target Centermass

Category: United Nations

  • Iranian Nuke Crisis: the Dance Continues

    The song remains the same, though the tempo seems to be taking a slight uptick. It is difficult to tell whether Iran or its multitude of dance partners is leading this tripping of the light mushroomic.

    Iran threatens to ramp up nuclear program

    Iran will immediately retaliate if referred to the UN Security Council next week by forging ahead with developing a full-scale uranium enrichment program, Tehran’s senior envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday.

    The comments by Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh reflected Iran’s unwillingness to bow to growing international pressure, especially in the West, to end all nuclear enrichment activities.

    Iran recently announced it was resuming limited nuclear enrichment. The process can be used to provide fuel for nuclear reactors or, if taken far enough, material for nuclear weapons.

    Step, and then the counter.

    Bush commits US to defence of Israel in face of Iran threat

    George Bush yesterday committed the US to the defence of Israel against threats from Iran, saying he would not allow the world to be “blackmailed” by an Iranian nuclear weapon.

    […]

    “I am deeply concerned about Iran, as should a lot of people be concerned about Iran. I am concerned when the country of Iran’s president announces his desire to see that Israel gets destroyed,” Mr Bush said, referring to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s threat to “wipe Israel off the map”.

    He added: “Israel’s our ally. We’re committed to the safety of Israel, and it’s a commitment we will keep.

    “Secondly, I’m concerned about a nontransparent society’s desire to develop a nuclear weapon. The world cannot be put in a position where we can be blackmailed by a nuclear weapon. I believe it is very important for the Iranian government to hear loud and clear from not only the United States, but also from other nations around the world.”

    Quite. Freakin’. Right.

    And the song continues. I can almost picture Dubya crooning to Iranian president/puppet/madman (pick your poison) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

    Strangers in the night exchanging veiled threats
    Wond’ring in the night
    What were the chances we’d be launching bombs
    Before the night was through.

    Something in your eyes burned so insanely,
    Something in the way you spoke so vainly (apocalyptic),
    Something in my heart,
    Told me I must stop you.

    Doobie doobie doo …

    [With mucho apologies to Frank. That, and the rhyme and rhythm suck]

  • Iran Moving Financial Assets

    Having learned a harsh lesson a quarter of a century ago, Iran is preparing itself financially for possible United Nations sanctions.

    Iran is moving its foreign assets to an undisclosed destination, apparently to shield them from any U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program, the central bank governor was quoted as saying on Friday.

    Iran, threatened with referral to the Security Council for possible punitive measures, has bitter memories of its U.S. assets being frozen shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

    “We transfer foreign reserves to wherever we see as expedient. On this issue, we have started transferring. We are doing that,” Ebrahim Sheibani told the ISNA students’ news agency when asked about the need to shift Iran’s holdings.

    There was no immediate confirmation of the Iranian action, but Sheibani’s remarks indicated how seriously the Islamic republic is taking the threat of U.N. sanctions.

    The West suspects Iran of seeking nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian atomic program. Tehran denies this.

    The United States and the European Union want the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer Iran to the Security Council when the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s governing board holds an emergency meeting on February 2.

    Russia and China, which both have major commercial interests at stake in Iran, have urged caution.

    China’s state-run press on Friday urged Iran to halt nuclear work and return to talks with Britain, France and Germany, but argued against taking Tehran to the Security Council.

    “Negotiations remain the best option, as sanctions will muddy the waters,” the China Daily said in an editorial. “The crux of the matter is encouraging Iran to come back to negotiations with the European Union.”

    The EU trio scrapped the talks last week after Iran removed IAEA seals on uranium enrichment equipment and resumed a suspended nuclear research program. U.S. and EU officials say there can be no more talks unless Tehran reverses these steps.

    “The international consensus is unmistakable and important,” said the China Daily, which generally echoes official thinking. “Iran should respond to the diplomatic efforts of the international community.”

    Europe cuts off donations and pushes for referral to the UNSC. China urges more, certainly pointless negotiations. Iran begins a financial three-card monte.

    Follow the money.

    ISNA asked Sheibani whether the money was being moved to Asian accounts, as reported in the London-based Asharq al-Awsat, which said on Thursday that Iran’s Supreme National Security Council had ordered foreign holdings to be sent to Asia.

    Sheibani did not say where the funds were going. He told reporters earlier this week that Iran stood ready to repatriate the money it held abroad should this prove necessary.

    It is far from clear how placing assets in Asia or anywhere abroad would protect them from being frozen as few governments or major banks would be willing to flout U.N. sanctions openly. [emphasis added]

    Sure, go ahead and get this matter to the UNSC. That is a mere formality already doomed to worthlessness in the matter. As I’ve stated in the past, this matter will almost certainly only end in flames.

  • West Sees No Point in More Nuclear Talks with Iran

    Next stop on the Iranian nuke journey: the United Nations Security Council.

    An emergency meeting over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme is to be held by the United Nations’ atomic weapons watchdog at the request of Britain, France and Germany, it was revealed yesterday.

    The so-called EU3 and the United States are expected to push at the session of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing board to have Tehran referred to the UN Security Council after it resumed research that could be used for generating electricity or making atomic bombs.

    The US and EU said yesterday they saw no point in holding further negotiations with Iran on its nuclear programmes and it was time for the Security Council to tackle the issue.

    Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said there was “not much to talk about” and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, agreed. Ms Rice said the international community was united in mistrusting the Islamic republic and its present leadership with nuclear technology.

    ‘Bout freakin’ time. It was obvious from the beginning that the Euro-led negotiations were a waste of valuable time, time Iran has used to its advantage. A week ago, I blogged the following:

    It is time, actually well past time, to admit that the Euro diplomacy path was a gambit doomed to fail. The U.S. was forced to allow it, as the Bush administration had been painted into a corner with all the false and politically-driven accusations of unilateral action and rush to war surrounding the Iraqi theater. From the beginning, there was a key fault with the negotiations — one side didn’t actually want them to succeed.

    So now we find the matter heading toward the UNSC. Make no mistake, however — that will not be the last stop on this hellish ride. It’s just another point on a journey that will likely end in flame. The true story ultimately lies in just who will decide the locations of said flame.

  • UN Retreats as Ivory Coast Faces New Civil War Threat

    Tumultuous Ivory Coast looks to be spinning its way back to internal strife and bloodshed.

    Ivory Coast, once one of the wealthiest countries in Africa, was close to its second civil war in five years yesterday as gangs of armed thugs loyal to President Gbagbo ran amok across the southern half of the country.

    A 300-strong contingent of Bangladeshi UN troops was forced to withdraw after an attack on their base at Guiglo, 300 miles west of Abidjan, the commercial capital. At least four people died when the peacekeepers opened fire to defend themselves.

    Another contingent of 70 international peacekeepers was evacuated from the town of Douéké. Peacekeepers at the UN headquarters in Abidjan fired in the air and used teargas to keep the thugs at bay. Businesses across the city closed as Mr Gbagbo’s supporters blocked roads with burning tyres and stopped vehicles.

    President Obasanjo of Nigeria will fly to Ivory Coast today to try to defuse the troubles. The UN and France, the former colonial power, called for calm.

    Late last night Mr Gbagbo responded by calling on his supporters to end the protests and return to work.

    The rebels, who control the northern half of the country, had given warning of renewed war if Mr Gbagbo reneges on a UN-brokered peace agreement negotiated last year. They have been fighting for real powersharing with the southern elite and equal distribution of the country’s wealth.

    The violence erupted on Monday when international mediators demanded that the mandate of the country’s parliament, a rubber-stamp body packed with Mr Gbagbo’s supporters, be wound up pending elections.

    The ruling party, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), said that it was quitting immediately the transitional Government and the UN-backed peace process.

    “If the FPI succeeds in making a putsch against the peace process, that means war,” Sidiki Konate, a spokesman for the northern New Forces rebel movement, said. Mr Gbagbo unleashed the ruling party’s Young Patriots, a favourite tactic of a man who has clung to power since the end of the 2002-03 civil war divided his country, and who has resisted all attempts to persuade him to share power.

    Gangs of Young Patriots have spread out across Abidjan and other main population centres controlled by government forces. The few foreigners left in Abidjan, once the jewel in France’s colonial crown, are hiding in the basements of their houses or in the homes and offices of Ivorian friends.

    The last time that machete-wielding gangs hit the streets, they beat and raped any white foreigners they found.

    “There are virtually no whites left. The only foreigners left in Abidjan who are not in the well-protected UN compounds are Lebanese who are busy picking up what business the expatriates left behind,” a regional analyst said.

    […]

    In France, which has 4,000 troops operating alongside the 7,000-strong UN peacekeeping force, General Henri Bentegeat, the chief of the Armed Forces, said that the time had come for the UN Security Council to make good its threat of imposing sanctions on Ivory Coast.

    […]

    The FPI has called for the departure of the UN peacekeepers and the French troops whom they accuse of supporting the rebels in order to take control of Ivory Coast’s cocoa industry — the world’s biggest.

    Despite the presence of the United Nations and the French, it seems that a true quagmire and civil war can be managed.

    If interested, check out the original story for a timeline of Ivory Coast’s spiral into madness.

  • Japan Alters Course in Quest for UNSC Seat

    Japan has split from its long-time allies in the campaign for expansion of the United Nations Security Council, deciding to direct efforts more toward its own case for a permanent seat.

    Japan has tactically split from its joint effort with India, Germany and Brazil to win a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, diplomats confirmed yesterday.

    Although Japan says it will continue to work closely with the three countries, in an alliance known as the G4, it decided not to join them in a new UN General Assembly resolution filed on Thursday.

    The three allies have reiterated their call for the 15-member Security Council to be expanded to 25, with six new permanent seats but no new vetoes yet. But Japan says it wants to pursue negotiations with the US first and has also initiated talks with its regional rival China.

    The US supports only two “or so” new permanent members, including Japan, the UN’s second largest financial contributor. Japanese diplomats also fear tabling another General Assembly resolution would further alienate African Union countries, who have tabled a separate proposal.

    The 53-member AU proposal is unlikely to succeed, but any final deal will need African support to win the necessary two-thirds ap-proval in the 191-member General Assembly.

    While this may scuttle current expansion plans and certainly will undermine them, I believe this increases the likelihood of some sort of expansion actually being enacted. Such expansion, however, will probably not be to the extent that had previously been proposed.

    Previous blogging on the expansion efforts:

  • U.S. Freezes Assets of Two Iran Nuclear Firms

    Bravo.

    The US government has frozen the assets of two Iranian companies linked to the Islamic republic’s nuclear drive, officials said.

    The Treasury Department said the duo — Novin Energy Co and Mesbah Energy Co — were guilty of fostering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

    Its action came a day after Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans on Jan 9 to resume research and development into its ‘peaceful nuclear energy programme’.

    The US and EU have demanded that Iran refrain from all nuclear enrichment activities.

    It’s just a start, but there’s no point in waiting for oft-teased progress from Euro-Iranian negotiations and certainly no need to wait for the United Nations Security Council to actually stir in further inaction.

    UPDATE: Iran Declares Its Nuclear Plan Nonnegotiable

    Iran vowed Wednesday to proceed with a plan to restart nuclear research next week, though the government has yet to explain to the United Nations’ nuclear monitoring agency what activities it intends to carry out.

    Ali Larijani, the senior official in charge of nuclear issues, was quoted on Iranian state television on Wednesday as saying the decision to resume nuclear research was “nonnegotiable.”

    Responding to criticism that the decision would violate Iran’s formal agreement with Europe to suspend all uranium conversion and enrichment activities, he said: “Research has its own definition. It is not related to industrial production. Hence, it was never part of the negotiations.”

    Late Tuesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a similar hard line. “We will not take a step back on our path,” he was quoted by state television as saying.

    If I were suddenly to find myself on the ground in Iran, I’d be keeping my head up and my eyes on the sky. Hey, I’m just pondering the possibilities.

  • U.N. Asks Belgian to Take Over Assassination Inquiry

    The U.N. investigation into the assassination of Lebanon’s anti-Syrian former prime minister Rafik Hariri will continue under new leadership.

    The United Nations has asked a Belgian prosecutor to take over its investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, according to a spokesman for the prosecutor and senior U.N. officials.

    U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan wants Serge Brammertz, the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, to succeed German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who will step down next month. Mehlis has led a six-month U.N. inquiry that has implicated members of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s inner circle in the Feb. 14 killing of Hariri.

    A U.N. spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said that an announcement of the appointment will not be made until Jan. 11 but “we can confirm the secretary general has completed the selection process.” She said Annan “is satisfied there will be continuity in the leadership of the inquiry.”

    Senior U.N. officials said that Annan is delaying a public announcement because Brammertz wants more time to assure governments that support the criminal court that his departure will not disrupt its war crimes investigations in Sudan, Congo and Uganda. They also expressed concern about Brammertz’s safety.

    And what a rewarding position it is, replete with radicals wanting blood.

    Mehlis has received frequent death threats since taking control of the U.N. probe in May. A Lebanese newspaper, An-Nahar, reported Wednesday that a pro-Syrian organization that claimed responsibility for killing the paper’s editor, Gibran Tueni, issued a new threat against Mehlis’s successor. The group said Mehlis is lucky it has not killed him.

    There is more on the death threat here, including this juicy little bit of Arab rationalization of violence.

    The statement described Mehlis, a German prosecutor, as a “filthy infidel” who had politicized the investigation to implicate Syria. It warned Mehlis’s successor, who has not been appointed, not to come to the same conclusions.

    The statement ended with an ominous Arabic saying: “He who has given advance warning is excused.”

    Good luck, Mr. Brammertz, as you try to both keep your head and nab the guilty.

  • Syria “Likely Involved” in Hariri Offing

    The U.N. report investigating the assassination of Lebanon’s anti-Syrian former prime minister Rafik Hariri paints the picture of systematic obstruction and likely involvement by top Syrian officials.

    [… ] details from a report submitted by UN investigator Detlev Mehlis reached the press, indicating that the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services were likely involved in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

    The 25-page report from the German prosecutor and his team again accused Syria of trying to obstruct his probe when it demanded that they revise their findings after a crucial witness recanted his testimony.

    “This was, at the least, an attempt to hinder the investigation internally and procedurally,” commented Mehlis.

    Syria denies involvement in the Hariri blast and has also waged a campaign to discredit the commission, citing a Syrian witness, Husam Taher Husam, who recanted his testimony to the commission and said he had been bribed to frame Syria.

    Mehlis said that recantation hadn’t affected his findings. In fact, he said, “the investigation has continued to develop multiple lines of inquiry which, if anything, reinforce this conclusion.”

    According to Channel 2, the report urges Syria to detain its senior officers, suspected of involvement in the assassination. Among those Mehlis wants to interrogate, according to the report, is Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara. The report names 19 Syrian and Lebanese officials who are suspected of involvement in the hit.

    In addition, the report accuses Syria of burning intelligence documents pertaining to the assassination and methodically intimidating witnesses. Mehlis also claims that there are new witnesses who had followed Hariri prior to his assassination.

    The latest claim of obstruction would be important because after Mehlis delivered his earlier report, the council had warned Syria that it would face further action – possibly including sanctions – if it didn’t cooperate fully.

    […]

    Lebanon has asked the Security Council to extend Mehlis’ commission for six months after its mandate expires on Thursday. The Security Council, whose approval would be required, is likely to agree to extend it until June 15

    There’s further reason to not disband the commision, as another anti-Syrian Lebanese official met his fiery end today.

    A car bomb killed Lebanese newspaper magnate and anti-Syrian legislator Gebran Tueni in Beirut on Monday, triggering an official call for a U.N. inquiry that split the government along sectarian lines.

    Five Shi’ite Muslim ministers close to Syria and an ally of the pro-Syrian president suspended participation in the cabinet after it voted to seek a U.N. investigation into a series of assassinations that have rocked Lebanon over the past 14 months.

    Tueni, publisher of the An-Nahar daily, was killed in a blast that destroyed his armoured car in mainly Christian east Beirut, the morning after he returned from Paris where he lived for several months because of assassination fears.

    Several politicians blamed Syria, but Damascus denied any role and said the killing was an attempt to smear it hours before the release of a U.N. report into the February 14 killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

    Syrian denials — yeah, those mean a damn thing.

  • Iran’s Leader Criticized at Home, Abroad

    The recent statements by the hard-line Iranian president that Israel should be moved to Europe and that the Holocaust is a myth have continued to cause an international tempest that even angered the Saudis and some Iranians.

    Saudis fumed Friday that Iran’s hard-line president marred a summit dedicated to showing Islam’s moderate face by calling for Israel to be moved to Europe, and the chief U.N. nuclear inspector said he was losing patience with the Tehran regime.

    Even some of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s conservative allies in Iran were growing disillusioned, fearing he has hurt the country with his wild rhetoric.

    “The president has to choose his words carefully. He can convey his message to the world in better language tone,” Hamid Reza Taraqi, a leader of a hard-line party, the Islamic Coalition Society, told the Associated Press.

    The U.S., Israel, Europe and Russia condemned Ahmadinejad over his remarks, made Thursday on the sidelines of the Mecca, Saudi Arabia, summit of more than 50 Islamic nations.

    Hours before the participants issued the summit’s centerpiece — the Mecca Declaration, promising to stamp out extremist thought — Ahmadinejad spoke at a news conference, casting doubt on whether the Holocaust took place and suggesting Europe give land for a Jewish state if it felt guilty.

    Privately, Saudi officials were furious Friday. Three senior Saudi officials complained that the comments contradicted and diverted attention from the message of tolerance the summit was trying to project.

    One Saudi official compared Ahmadinejad to Saddam Hussein and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, whose renegade statements frequently infuriated Arab leaders.

    The Saudi reaction is somewhat surprising, and there’s even more about their anger in this article, which takes pains to point out that the anti-Israeli comment were not carried in the Saudi written press. The best quote of the article is the following:

    “The Iranian president seems to have lost his direction,” said Gilan al-Ghamidi, a prominent commentator in Saudi media. “Iran should be logical if it wants to receive the support of the world. The president didn’t score any points. He lost points.”

    Lost points? Well, let’s run a little tally. Who, besides the Saudis, has come out against Ahmadinejad’s comments?

    Is anybody getting Ahmadinejad’s back on this matter? Well, of course there is, as the world is more chockful of crazies than Microsoft products are of bugs (theoretically, as it would be difficult to actually run the figures). Chief among the nutcases supporting Ahmadinejad’s statements is his nation’s supreme religious leader and de facto boss.

    Iran’s supreme leader has backed the country’s President, who said the state of Israel should be moved to Europe.

    In a TV interview last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cast doubt on whether the Holocaust happened, and then suggested that Israel should be moved to Europe.

    […]

    Iranian state radio is quoting the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, as describing the international criticism as weakness and fear, dismissing it as nothing more than the sensitivity of the Zionists and the American supporters.

    Ahmadinejad may or may not actually believe his own words, but it is quite certain that he knows where his Iranian bread is buttered.

  • UN Wants to Question More Syrians in Hariri Probe

    The investigation into a murder that spurred a series of surpising changes in Lebanon continued, as the U.N. sought to question even more Syrians.

    A U.N. inquiry into the murder of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri will summon more Syrian witnesses in the next few days, its chief investigator Detlev Mehlis was quoted on Saturday as saying.

    In an interview published in Lebanon’s al-Mustaqbal newspaper, which was owned by the murdered ex-premier, Mehlis said he would ask Syria in the next few days if U.N. investigators could question new Syrian witnesses in Vienna, but did not identify them.

    International investigators questioned five Syrian officials in the Austrian capital this week in connection with the Feb. 14 truck bomb that killed Hariri and 22 other people in Beirut.

    Neither Syria nor the United Nations has identified the five but diplomatic sources say they included senior Syrian security officials, including Lieutenant-General Rustom Ghazali, Syria’s former intelligence chief in Lebanon, and his aide Jamae Jamae.

    […]

    In an interim report in October, Mehlis implicated senior Syrian security officials and their Lebanese allies in the murder and requested more cooperation from Damascus.

    Syria has strongly denied any role in the murder but the report prompted a unanimous Security Council resolution threatening Damascus with unspecified action if it failed to cooperate with the investigation.

    That is the U.N. Security Council in a nutshell — it can unanimously agree to threaten, but it is rare that it can agree to act. Indeed, Russia has already hinted that it will veto any sanctions against Syria, despite the years of Lebanese blood on Syrian hands.