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World Media Watch
by Gloria R. Lalumia
BUZZFLASH NOTE: Once again, these are the views and perspectives of the individual papers, not of BuzzFlash or Gloria. They offer BuzzFlash readers a way of reading what other nations are saying about the crisis, whether we like it or not. We repeat: This is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.
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1//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--LEGALITY OF WAR NO LONGER AN ISSUE: PM (The Prime Minister has said questions of the international legitimacy of the invasion of Iraq should be dropped now that the conflict phase of the war has ended...The debate over post-war arrangements, such as the role of the UN in Iraq, should not become "an arena to debate again old arguments", he said. "As long as there is not an attempt to redebate the whole issue and the rights and wrongs of it, I think everyone can move forward in a very practical and sensible way.")
2//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--'SMOOTH TRANSITION IN SAUDI-US TIES' (Saudi-US relations, strained over the Sept. 11 terror attacks and war in Iraq, have "gone through the transition smoothly," Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said yesterday..."I think the process of discussions and the systematic approach we are undertaking will undoubtedly see relations come out as strong as they were in the past," he added. "There have been consultations and discussions. There have been tremendous efforts to coordinate," he added in reference to last week's visit by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and US Secretary of State Colin Powell's planned visit next week.)
3//The Daily Star, Lebanon--TEHRAN SHRUGS OFF WASHINGTON'S VOW TO ISOLATE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC ("The United States' plan to isolate Iran and even to create divisions between Iranians and their leader has been a failure," Hamid-Reza Asefi told reporters. Asefi was reacting to comments Sunday by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said Washington's policy was to isolate Iran while at the same time staying in touch with Tehran on events in southern Iraq and on the Al-Qaeda network... Asefi also repeated widespread condemnation here of a US cease-fire deal with the Iraq-based People's Mujahideen armed opposition group, a group hosted by Saddam Hussein. He urged the United States not to allow the Iranian opposition group to attack the country from Iraq, and said that permitting it to be based in Iraq was an insult to the local people.)
4//The Toronto Star, Canada-- NO CABINET DECISION ON MISSILE-DEFENCE PROPOSAL (Canada has to talk to the United States about a joint missile defence system, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said today, even though the federal cabinet hasn't decided whether to go ahead with discussions yet...Even discussing the idea of opening talks with Washington is an abrupt policy switch after years when ministers brushed off the whole concept as hypothetical. Chrétien said in the Commons, however, that a missile defence debate has been going on within the government for several months.)
5//The Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates--INDIAN PARLIAMENT ADJOURNS IN BEDLAM OVER QUOTA FOR WOMEN IN POLITICS (The Indian parliament adjourned in bedlam on Tuesday during debate of a thorny bill that would reserve a third of all seats in national and state legislatures for women. Speaker Manohar Joshi adjourned the 545-seat lower house as pandemonium erupted over an opposition party demand to replace the Women's Reservation Bill with a draft seeking to block seats for women belonging to deprived castes.
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1//The
Sydney Morning Herald May 7 2003
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/06/1051987706989.html
LEGALITY OF WAR NO LONGER AN ISSUE: PM
By Mark Riley Political Correspondent in New York
The Prime Minister has said questions of the international legitimacy
of the invasion of Iraq should be dropped now that the conflict phase
of the war has ended.
Speaking at the United Nations in New York on Monday, John Howard said there was no value in continuing to argue whether the United States, Britain and Australia had a legal right to launch the war.
Mr Howard also rejected suggestions that Australia supported the war to position itself as a key member of a new "Anglosphere" of power in world politics.
The debate over post-war arrangements, such as the role of the UN in Iraq, should not become "an arena to debate again old arguments", he said.
"As long as there is not an attempt to redebate the whole issue and the rights and wrongs of it, I think everyone can move forward in a very practical and sensible way."
Key nations at the UN, including Security Council members Russia and France, strongly disagree with that view. Those countries that opposed the war have indicated they will not support the removal of UN sanctions on Iraq unless the issue of whether the action was supported under international law is resolved.
(MORE)
2//Arab News Wednesday, May 07, 2003 / 6 Rabi` al-Awwal 1424
http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=25935
'SMOOTH TRANSITION IN SAUDI-US TIES'
Essam Al-Ghalib, Arab News Staff
Saudi-US relations, strained over the Sept. 11 terror attacks and war in Iraq, have "gone through the transition smoothly," Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said yesterday.
"As regards the relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States, I think they have gone through the transition smoothly," Prince Saud said.
"I think the process of discussions and the systematic approach we are undertaking will undoubtedly see relations come out as strong as they were in the past," he added. "There have been consultations and discussions. There have been tremendous efforts to coordinate," he added in reference to last week's visit by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and US Secretary of State Colin Powell's planned visit next week.
(SNIP)
Following a brief visit by Rumsfeld to Riyadh last week, the two countries agreed on the pullout of US troops from the Kingdom, where they have been stationed since 1990.
Prince Saud said the Kingdom and the United States agreed on the withdrawal of troops after "its mission had been completed", in reference to the end of enforcing a no-fly zone over southern Iraq.
"The region is a different place" after the Iraq war, the prince said.
"All relations were affected, including inter-Arab ties. Such repercussions are not strange," he added.
3//The Daily Star Beirut, Tuesday May 06, 2003. Updated 08:30 AM
+3GMT
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/06_05_03/art20.asp
TEHRAN SHRUGS OFF WASHINGTON'S VOW TO ISOLATE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Plan to create divisions between people and leadership 'has been a failure'
TEHRAN: A vow by the United States to isolate Iran was greeted in Tehran Monday with little concern, with a Foreign Ministry spokesman asserting the policy had consistently failed.
"The United States' plan to isolate Iran and even to create divisions between Iranians and their leader has been a failure," Hamid-Reza Asefi told reporters.
Asefi was reacting to comments Sunday by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said Washington's policy was to isolate Iran while at the same time staying in touch with Tehran on events in southern Iraq and on the Al-Qaeda network.
"These comments are nothing new," Asefi said, describing any bid to isolate the Islamic Republic as "unworkable and irresponsible." "Iran has very good relations with countries in the region as well as other countries," he said.
On
Sunday, Powell told NBC television that he believed there were "ways
to communicate with the people of Iran to convince them that the
policies their leaders have been following have been inappropriate."
(SNIP)
Asefi also repeated widespread condemnation here of a US cease-fire deal with the Iraq-based People's Mujahideen armed opposition group, a group hosted by Saddam Hussein.
He urged the United States not to allow the Iranian opposition group to attack the country from Iraq, and said that permitting it to be based in Iraq was an insult to the local people.
"It is unacceptable that the United States uses the terrorist hypocrites as a partner," Asefi said.
The United States signed a truce on April 15 with the Mujahideen, which is on American terrorist lists, allowing it to keep weapons to defend itself against Iranian-backed attacks.
Asefi cited reports that the group was operating in Iraq close to the Iranian border and planning armed attacks against Iran.
(SNIP)
Asefi said the United States should fulfill its obligations to fight terror. "Categorizing terrorists into good and bad is a violation of international conventions. If the US is sincere about fighting terrorism, it would fight all forms of terror and avoid fighting selected terrorism," he said.
(SNIP)
The cease-fire appears to be a way for Washington to increase pressure on Iran, which it has accused of meddling in Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.
But it represents a dilemma for the United States, which went to war in part to dismantle what it said were terrorist networks in Iraq. Agencies
4//The Toronto Star May. 6, 2003. 07:22 PM
Article
Link
NO CABINET DECISION ON MISSILE-DEFENCE PROPOSAL
OTTAWA (CP) - Canada has to talk to the United States about a joint missile defence system, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said today, even though the federal cabinet hasn't decided whether to go ahead with discussions yet.
Chrétien later met Lord George Robertson, the NATO secretary general, who said missile defence is no big deal and NATO is already talking about it with Russia.
Cabinet discussed the idea of opening missile defence talks with the United States, but ministers said no decision was reached in a meeting today which was twice interrupted by votes in the House of Commons.
Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said cabinet will make a decision next week on how to proceed.
"There's a long list of ministers that wish to speak on it, we didn't get it completed," he said. "We'll make a decision and announce it next week."
But in answering questions in the Commons, Chrétien seemed to have made up his mind already.
He said this isn't the futuristic, space-based "Star Wars" system proposed by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan.
"It's a different project that involves the protection of North American territory and geographically it is necessary for us to participate in talks on this," he said.
Graham and Defence Minister John McCallum made a join presentation to cabinet of the pros and cons of joining the American plan to defend the continent against accidental missile launches or an attack by a rogue state.
Gen. Ray Henault, the chief of the defence staff and the country's ranking military leader, was at the meeting.
Even discussing the idea of opening talks with Washington is an abrupt policy switch after years when ministers brushed off the whole concept as hypothetical.
Chrétien said in the Commons, however, that a missile defence debate has been going on within the government for several months.
(MORE)
5//The Khaleej Times 6 May 2003
http://www.khaleejtimes.co.ae/
INDIAN PARLIAMENT ADJOURNS IN BEDLAM OVER QUOTA FOR WOMEN IN POLITICS
NEW DELHI (AFP) - The Indian parliament adjourned in bedlam on Tuesday during debate of a thorny bill that would reserve a third of all seats in national and state legislatures for women.
Speaker Manohar Joshi adjourned the 545-seat lower house as pandemonium erupted over an opposition party demand to replace the Women's Reservation Bill with a draft seeking to block seats for women belonging to deprived castes.
"It seems the bill is becoming more and more controversial but a debate can lead to a solution, and that is my belief," Joshi pleaded with unruly MPs belonging to former Indian defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's opposition Samajwadi (Socialist) Party.
Women legislators had jettisoned their political loyalties for Tuesday's debate to press for the legislation of the bill.
But Yadav's MPs appeared to be in no mood to relent and they squatted on the floor before the house speaker and screamed slogans against the draft paper, first tabled in the federal house in 1996.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, a bachelor who staunchly supports the bill, is determined to endorse it into law in the current session, but it is unclear whether the long-pending measure will be brought in its original or diluted form.
(MORE)
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©2003, Gloria R. Lalumia, insight@zianet.com
Radio for the Left at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/radio.htm
