War (of Words) with Syria
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Wednesday, May 28, 2003
Blair in Kuwait Before Iraq Trip; Warns Iran, Syria
Reuters -- May 28
By Mike Peacock
KUWAIT CITY - British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Kuwait on Wednesday before he was due to make the first trip to neighboring Iraq by a Western leader since the war that toppled Saddam Hussein.
He also delivered a warning to neighbors Iran and Syria not to meddle in Iraq's future or support militants who could upset hopes of progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace moves
"It's particularly important that Iran and Syria cease to support any terrorist groups," he said.
Britain has taken a more measured approach than Washington to Damascus and Syria, favoring dialogue with both.
On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped up charges that Iran was harboring wanted leaders of the Islamic militant network al Qaeda. Insiders say he is pressing for a U.S. policy shift to support "regime change" in Tehran.
The UK premier stopped well short of that.
[One of the recurring themes of today's sampling of articles is the tremendous variation in tone from different media outlets carrying the same basic stories.
Earlier today a couple of articles about the third anniversary of the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon were posted to this page. The Daily Star article focuses on Hizbullah's defiant stand against Israel, which invaded as deep as Beirut, and occupied parts of Lebanon for 22 years. The Ha'aretz article mentions a desire by the Sharon government to strike at Hizbullah during the recent US invasion of Iraq -- a desire that was thwarted by the US govenment. (Of course, we know from an earlier UPI article that Sharon government officials were helping Rumsfeld lobby within the Bush cabinet for "hot pursuit" forays by US forces into Syria.)
Here's another view, from the US Christian right, with an interesting choice of headline.]
Lebanon Abandoned: Broken Promises Three Years Later
CBN -- May 27
By Chris Mitchell
Middle East Bureau Chief
Several hundred Israeli soldiers died over the years protecting Israel's northern border. The pullout created major changes in both people and places.
CBN.com – on the ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER — Three years ago this month, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak pulled Israeli troops out of the south Lebanon security zone. While Barak made good on a campaign promise, the pullout had a devastating impact on thousands of south Lebanese, many of them Christians.
[Detailed article about the neocons' war of words with Iraq. Reporter Jim Lobe names names.]
Neo-cons move quickly on Iran
Asia Times -- May 28
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Reports that top officials in the administration of President George W Bush will meet this week to discuss US policy toward Iran, including possible efforts to overthrow its government, mark a major advance in what has been an 18-month campaign by neo-conservatives in and out of the administration.
Overshadowed until last month by their much louder drum-beating for war against Iraq, the neo-cons' efforts to now focus US attention on "regime change" in Iran have become much more intense since early May, and have already borne substantial fruit.
A high-level, albeit unofficial, dialogue between both countries over Iraq, Afghanistan and other issues of mutual interest was abruptly broken off by Washington 10 days ago amid charges by senior Pentagon officials that al-Qaeda agents based in Iran had been involved in terrorist attacks against US and foreign targets in Saudi Arabia on May 12. Tehran strongly denied the charge.
Now, according to reports in the Washington Post and the New York Times, the administration is considering permanently cutting off the dialogue - which included its senior envoy for both Iraq and Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad - and adopting a far more confrontational stance vis-a-vis Tehran that could include covert efforts to destabilize the government.
Pentagon hawks, particularly Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith, who have long been closely associated with neo-conservatives outside the administration centered at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), reportedly favor using the heavily armed, Iraq-based Iranian rebel group, the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization, which surrendered to US forces in April, as the core of a possible opposition military force.
They are also pursuing links with the Iranian exile community centered in southern California, which has rallied increasingly around Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former Shah of Iran who was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
According to a recent story in the US Jewish newspaper The Forward, Pahlavi has cultivated senior officials in Israel's Likud government with which the neo-conservatives in Washington - both in the administration and outside it - are closely allied.
Besides charges - considered questionable by the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - that Iran may be sheltering al-Qaeda operatives allegedly involved in the May 12 attacks in Riyadh - the administration has voiced several major concerns about the country's recent behavior.
Senior officials have accused Tehran of accelerating a major nuclear program that they say is designed to produce weapons and of infiltrating "agents" into Iraq in order to create problems for the US-dominated occupation there. They have also continued to call Iran a major supporter of international terrorism, primarily due to its backing for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
It was Tehran's backing for Hezbollah that earned it a prominent place on the target list produced by the Project for the New American Century in an open letter to Bush on September 20, 2001, just nine days after al-Qaeda's attack on New York and the Pentagon.
The letter's 41 mainly neo-conservative signers urged Bush to retaliate directly against Iran if it failed to cut off Hezbollah. The same letter anticipated virtually every other step so far taken by the administration in its "war on terror", including invading Afghanistan, severing ties to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.
In October, 2001, influential figures at the AEI and like-minded think tanks launched a new line of attack on Iran by publishing articles in sympathetic media, most notably on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, arguing that the Iranian people were so disillusioned by the ruling mullahs in Tehran, including the "reformists" around President Mohamed Khatami, that they were ready to rise up against the government in a pro-US revolution.
"Iran is ready to blow sky-high," wrote AEI scholar Michael Ledeen back in November 2001. "The Iranian people need only a bright spark of courage from the United States to ignite the flames of democratic revolution."
When, much to the State Department's dismay, Bush named Iran as part of the "axis of evil" in late January, 2002, both Israel and the neo-conservatives pressed their advantage, arguing repeatedly that dialogue even with Khatami was a waste of time and that Washington should cast its lot instead with "the people" against the regime.
Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA officer and Ledeen's AEI colleague, argued last August in the neo-conservative Weekly Standard that the mere presence of US troops in Iraq would bring about revolution next door.
"Popular discontent in Iran tends to heat up when US soldiers get close to the Islamic Republic," he wrote. "An American invasion could possibly provoke riots in Iran - simultaneous uprisings in major cities that would simply be beyond the scope of regime-loyal specialized riot-control units."
But the intensity and frequency of the campaign against Tehran picked up dramatically earlier this month. On May 5, Standard Editor William Kristol, whose office is six floors below the AEI, wrote that the United States was "already in a death struggle with Iran over the future of Iraq" and that "the next great battle - not, we hope, a military battle - will be for Iran".
The very next day, the AEI hosted an all-day conference entitled "The Future of Iran: Mullahcracy, Democracy and the War on Terror", whose speakers included Ledeen, Sobhani, Gerecht, Morris Amitay of the neo-conservative Jewish Institute for National Security Studies and Uri Lubrani from the Israeli Defense Ministry.
The convenor, Hudson Institute Middle East specialist Meyrav Wurmser (whose husband David worked as her AEI counterpart until joining the administration), set the tone: "Our fight against Iraq was only one battle in a long war," she said. "It would be ill-conceived to think that we can deal with Iraq alone ... We must move on, and faster."
"It was a grave error to send [Khalilzad] to secret meetings with representatives of the Iranian government in recent weeks," Israeli-born Wurmser said, complaining that, "rather than coming as victors who should be feared and respected rather than loved, we are still engaged in old diplomacy, in the kind of politics that led to the attacks of September 11."
Just days later, the Khalilzad channel was abruptly closed, and a Christian Right ally of the neo-conservatives, Senator Sam Brownback, introduced the "Iran Democracy Act" that sets as US policy the goal of "an internationally monitored referendum to allow the Iranian people to peacefully change their system of government".
"Now is not the time to coddle this terrorist regime," he said. "Now is the time to stand firm and support the people of Iran - who are the only ones that can win this important battle."
Russia presses Iran over nuclear fuel
Financial Times -- May 27
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Russia has responded to US pressure by telling Iran it will not supply nuclear fuel for the reactor it is constructing unless the Islamic republic agrees to intrusive inspections of all its nuclear facilities, say US and European officials.
Moscow's move was seen in Washington as a big step in the Bush administration's efforts to hinder Iran's development of nuclear weapons. Russia had resisted US pressure to stop construction of the Bushehr plant.
The policy change was also seen in the context of President Vladimir Putin's efforts to ensure a harmonious summit with George W. Bush in St Petersburg on Sunday, following their differences over the Iraq war.
Moscow Says Will Not Back out of Iran Nuke Plans
Riyadh Daily -- May 28
Moscow will not drop plans to build Iran’s first nuclear plant despite growing US pressure over fears Tehran is seeking to develop nuclear arms, Russia’s atomic energy minister was quoted on Tuesday as saying. Russia’s technology sales to Iran and the construction of the Bushehr power station have been a major irritant in relations with Washington, adding to unease over Moscow’s refusal to back US military action in Iraq. "Russia does not see any reason now to review its stance and its role regarding construction of the first nuclear reactor," Prime Tass news agency quoted Alexander Rumyantsev as saying after talks with visiting Iranian nuclear officials on Monday.
[To hedge bets on which is the next country to be liberated, this page follows news about Iran from time to time.]
U.S. dismisses Iran's claim that it arrested suspected al-Qaida members
Knight Ridder Newspapers -- May 27
By Jonathan S. Landay
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Tuesday dismissed Iran's claim that it had arrested suspected al-Qaida members but said the United States would use diplomacy to pressure the Islamic regime to stop harboring terrorists.
"It's a diplomatic course that the president is pursuing and it's a course that trusts the Iranian people, at its core, that the future of Iran will be determined by the people of Iran," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
Fleischer reiterated U.S. charges that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, rejecting Tehran's assertions that its nuclear program is for civilian energy production.
"They don't need nuclear energy for their electric grid," he said. "They have sufficient energy from . . . gas and from oil."
[One shouldn't debate a topic as important as national security.]
Hezbollah threats alarmist: Lebanese community
Australian Broadcast Company, The World Today -- May 27
Reporter: Tanya Nolan
HAMISH ROBERTSON: Claims made by the Federal Government that the Lebanese-based Hezbollah group poses a terrorist threat to Australia have been met with confusion and alarm amongst some members of the Arab-Australian community.
Federal Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, is seeking to ban the terrorist-wing of the Hezbollah organisation on the basis of what he says is ASIO intelligence suggesting the group has a capacity to carry out an attacks here in Australia.
Members of the Lebanese community say Hezbollah sympathisers are resident here in Australia and spokespeople for Australia's Jewish community say Hezbollah does pose a serious threat, as demonstrated by its past attacks around the world.
But Lebanese community leaders also say that they're committed to the war on terrorism, and are concerned that the Government's claims are alarmist and may generate a backlash.
Tanya Nolan reports.
TANYA NOLAN: Attorney-General Daryl Williams has bipartisan political support for the threat he perceives to come from the Lebanese-based and Iranian and Syrian sponsored group Hezbollah, but asked on our sister program, AM, today what that specific threat is, the Attorney-General wouldn't elaborate
DARYL WILLIAMS: The question you're asking is one that successive governments would have declined to answer on the basis that you're asking questions relating to national security
[Ashcroft's Australian counterpart: Although your perfectly reasonable compromise meets our immediate goal to ban Hezbollah, you oppose a change in law that will increase the power of the Attorney-General. Why do you hate Australia?]
We're in reach of Mid-East terrorists: A-G
news.com.au -- May 28
By John Kerin and Cameron Stewart
The militant Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah, which maintains an open threat to kill Australians in the Middle East over the Iraq war, has the global reach to mount an attack in Australia, the Federal Government has warned.
Pumping up pressure on the Federal Opposition and the Labor states to support a ban on the terrorist wing of Hezbollah in Australia, Attorney-General Daryl Williams said yesterday the group was one of the few with the resources to harm Australians at home.
But Mr Williams did not produce evidence of active terrorist cells in Australia.
It is understood that although there are people with links to the organisation in Australia, the Government believes there are no active terrorist cells here.
A high-level US government report states that Hezbollah is active in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East and has terrorist cells in Europe, North and South America and Asia, but does not mention Australia.
Hezbollah may be trafficking drugs in South America
San Jose Mercury News -- May 23
By TIM JOHNSON
WASHINGTON - A recent arrest in Paraguay is raising concern on Capitol Hill about links between the radical Hezbollah group and drug trafficking in South America.
Police in Asuncion arrested a relative of Assad Ahmad Barakat, the chief of Hezbollah in South America, with about five pounds of cocaine hidden in an electric piano that he allegedly intended to smuggle into Syria.
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, brought up the arrest in a hearing this week that examined links between drug trafficking and international terrorism. The arrest of Barakat's relative, Hatch said, demonstrated "the narco-terrorist financing operations needed to support Barakat and Hezbollah."
Hezbollah condemns bombings in Riyadh, Casablanca: Newspaper
Zee News (India) -- May 25
Cairo -- The leader of Lebanon's Shiite Muslim fundamentalist movement, Hezbollah, condemned this month's suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco for having targetted "innocent people," an Egyptian newspaper reported today.
"In principle, we do not approve of this kind of operation," Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with the government daily al-Ahram.