June 13, 2003
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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 Daily Star, Lebanon--US DIKTAT DRIVES FACTIONS INTO UNLIKELY ALLIANCES (The coalition decision to appoint rather than elect members of a transitional Iraqi government has soured ties with local allies and prompted disparate factions to paper over their differences and expand their alliance... According to the journalist, the Americans had to look for replacement allies, and they opted for tribal leaders. However, the tribal heads whom the Americans recently invited for a meeting with Bremer expressed dissatisfaction with coalition policies. Bremer has in the past described holding elections in Iraq as premature. From the US point of view, elections held under the current circumstances would give landslide victories to Islamists.)
2//Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran--SUPREME LEADER SAYS US BEHIND UNREST IN IRAN (-- Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday that Washington was behind riots in the Islamic Republic and urged the nation and state officials to remain vigilant... Ayatollah Khamenei's statements came as press reported on "illegal gatherings" held at a Tehran university hostel - the hotbed of 1999 riots - Tuesday and Wednesday nights. According to the press, Tuesday unrest followed a peaceful gathering of students in protest to proposed privatization of universities. The gathering turned ugly after a group of "non-students" joined the rally and started chanting political slogans, the press said, adding anti-riot police had to intervene to put an end to the mayhem.)
3//The Times of India, India--ADVANI TURNS HEAT, PAK FUMES (Fresh from having forged a more secure relationship with the US during his visit earlier this week to Washington, Deputy PM L K Advani has once again turned the heat on Pakistan, describing it as the ''epicentre of terrorism'' that needs to shed its compulsive hostility towards India. The charge is a familiar one from the Indian side, but coming on US soil just ahead of Gen Musharraf's visit to Washington later this month, the tough words cast a shadow on the rapproachment Washington is trying to bring between the two sides.)
4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--CANBERRA PICKS THE US OVER ASIA (- Prime Minister John Howard has sent shock waves across the Australian political landscape by scuttling rumors of his imminent retirement. And the outcome could be an early poll that will test Canberra's strained relationship with Asia... The preoccupation with US ties, and especially Washington's forays into Afghanistan and Iraq, has weakened Canberra's diplomatic standing with predominantly Muslim Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as such traditional allies as the Philippines. At an economic level, the government has backed away from Labor's long-standing goal of securing ASEAN membership in favor of preferential trade accords: the US is the first target. "By continuing to identify the United States as its preferred trading partner, the Howard government is relegating Australia's trade with Asia - the region that buys 55 percent of our exports," contended Craig Emerson, Labor's trade spokesman.)
5//Interfax, Russia--RUSSIA INVITES U.S. TO PARTICIPATE IN EXERCISES IN PACIFIC IN AUGUST (Russia has invited the United States to take part in its exercises in the Pacific at the end of August, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said..."I invited American armed forces to the exercises as participants, not just observers," he told reporters in Brussels after his Thursday meeting with Rumsfeld.)
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1//The
Daily Star Beirut, Thursday June 12, 2003. Updated 08:30
AM +3GMT
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/12_06_03/art21.asp
US DIKTAT DRIVES FACTIONS INTO UNLIKELY ALLIANCES
Americans 'want allies who take orders'
Hussain Abdul-Hussain
Daily Star staff
BEIRUT: The coalition decision to appoint rather than elect members of a transitional Iraqi government has soured ties with local allies and prompted disparate factions to paper over their differences and expand their alliance.
Iraq's seven main factions which led the resistance against Saddam Hussein from exile expanded their number to 17 earlier this week following US overseer Paul Bremer's plan to scrap a promised national conference.
"The Americans are looking for allies who take orders," Salem Mashkour, a Beirut-based Iraqi journalist, told The Daily Star.
(SNIP)
According to the journalist, the Americans had to look for replacement allies, and they opted for tribal leaders. However, the tribal heads whom the Americans recently invited for a meeting with Bremer expressed dissatisfaction with coalition policies. Bremer has in the past described holding elections in Iraq as premature. From the US point of view, elections held under the current circumstances would give landslide victories to Islamists.
He had also said that direct US rule would be established instead. This would only consult Iraqi leaders, and not involve them in decision-making.
Groups from opposite ends of the political spectrum have warned that they might not be able to take part in an interim body which is not chosen solely by Iraqis as it would be seen as a puppet government.
"Bremer's announcement ... led to a schism with the various Iraqi factions that demanded a greater role," said Jabbar Riyad, a member of the Iraqi Communist Party's leadership. Riyad told The Daily Star in a phone interview from Baghdad that Bremer's talk of appointing officials has turned the main political groups against him.
"Even Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC), America's closest ally, expressed its opposition," said Riyad.
Majed Samerai, a London-based journalist close to former Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi's Gathering of Iraqi Independents, wrote in Baghdad's Az-Zaman daily on Wednesday that factions have been busy "dividing the spoils among them" and "strengthening ties with the Americans which they thought would give them a greater share in the post-Saddam era." Samerai also faulted the Iraqi political groups for failing to form their own interim government and for blaming the Americans for the lack of security and order in the country.
"Consequently, Bremer called for direct rule," said Riyad, adding that this call "prompted the Iraqi parties to forget about their differences, unify their stances and demand that they be given more than the advisory role that Bremer had promised them."
(MORE)
2//Islamic
Republic News Agency (IRNA) Last Update Thursday, 12-Jun-2003
19:21:29 PDT
http://www.irna.ir/en/hphoto/0306110000-0.ehp.shtml
SUPREME LEADER SAYS US BEHIND UNREST IN IRAN
Tehran, June 12, IRNA -- Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday that Washington was behind riots in the Islamic Republic and urged the nation and state officials to remain vigilant.
"The enemies bluntly support those adventurers who can become their mercenaries by perturbing people's security. Thus, the whole nation, the youth and and officials in particular, must remain vigilant," the supreme leader told a gathering of jubilant people in Varamin, south of Tehran.
(SNIP)
The supreme leader also advised the country's "faithful and Hezbollahi youth to avoid the scenes which the troublemakers have prepared".
"It must not be allowed that the atmosphere becomes tense and a handful of individuals contaminate the society and universities by creating insecurity.
"However, if the Iranian nation decides to deal with rioters, they will act like in July 2, 1999," he said in reference to a mass show of support for the establishment following days of violent unrest, in which police, students and vigilantes clashed at the Tehran university campus and neighboring streets.
Ayatollah Khamenei's statements came as press reported on "illegal gatherings" held at a Tehran university hostel - the hotbed of 1999 riots - Tuesday and Wednesday nights. According to the press, Tuesday unrest followed a peaceful gathering of students in protest to proposed privatization of universities.
The gathering turned ugly after a group of "non-students" joined the rally and started chanting political slogans, the press said, adding anti-riot police had to intervene to put an end to the mayhem.
(SNIP)
Tehran is wary of certain voices in the US administration to provoke unrest in Iran, including through supporting opposition.
The Islamic Republic condemned a reportedly ceasefire agreement
between the US military in Iraq and the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq
Organization (MKO) following the ouster of Saddam Hussein.
3//The
Times of India Friday, June 13, 2003 | Updated at 02:53 hrs
IST
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=19883
ADVANI TURNS HEAT, PAK FUMES
Chidanand Rajghatta
Times News Network [Thursday, June 12, 2003 10:59:35 PM]
WASHINGTON: Fresh from having forged a more secure relationship
with the US during his visit earlier this week to Washington, Deputy
PM L K Advani has once again turned the heat on Pakistan, describing
it as the ''epicentre of terrorism'' that needs to shed its compulsive
hostility towards India.
The charge is a familiar one from the Indian side, but coming on
US soil just ahead of Gen Musharraf's visit to Washington later
this month, the tough words cast a shadow on the rapproachment
Washington is trying to bring between the two sides.
Advani's remarks came at a meeting of the World Affairs Council
in Los Angeles, the third US city he is visiting after stops in
New York and Washington.
''The epicentre of international terrorism lies in India's immediate
neighbourhood,'' he told the council. ''It gives me no joy in pointing
fingers, but the involvement of Pakistan can no longer be ignored.''
Pakistan reacted strongly to the comment, saying it went against
the spirit of the peace moves in recent times.
But Indian officials said Advani had not said anything that isn't
already known to and recognised by the US and the international
community.
(MORE)
4//Asia Times Online June 13, 2003
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EF13Ae02.html
CANBERRA PICKS THE US OVER ASIA
By Alan Boyd
SYDNEY - Prime Minister John Howard has sent shock waves across the Australian political landscape by scuttling rumors of his imminent retirement. And the outcome could be an early poll that will test Canberra's strained relationship with Asia.
After four years at the helm of the ruling Liberal-National Party coalition, Howard had been expected to step down as premier before the next election, which is scheduled to be called by November 2004. Instead, he will lead the conservative alliance into a torrid campaign that will be marred by internal leadership challenges and factional strains on both sides of the political divide.
In Howard's own Liberal Party, supporters of jilted deputy leader Peter Costello are fuming over what they see as a betrayal by the prime minister, after numerous hints that he was preparing a graceful exit.
(SNIP)
Easily the most visible national politician, Howard is riding a wave of popular support after Australia's participation in the Iraq conflict and a recent record of economic growth that is almost unmatched in the developed world. Opinion polls give him a clear lead over his anointed successor, Costello, and a handy 20-point edge over the dour Crean, with most surveys suggesting that Labor would be decimated if an election were held now.
(SNIP)
Almost any change in the political leadership would be good for Australia's on-again, off-again relationship with Asia, which has almost dropped off the agenda since Howard took over. A 2001 policy shift in effect downgraded the importance of regional ties by restoring the US-dominated Western security alliance as the core of Australia's diplomatic strategy.
Nurtured by a succession of Labor governments since the early 1970s, the Asia-first policy was also endorsed by the two Liberal coalitions that preceded Howard, and by Beazley when he was opposition leader. It led to the establishment of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) caucus, closer trade links with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and active participation in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
The preoccupation with US ties, and especially Washington's forays into Afghanistan and Iraq, has weakened Canberra's diplomatic standing with predominantly Muslim Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as such traditional allies as the Philippines. At an economic level, the government has backed away from Labor's long-standing goal of securing ASEAN membership in favor of preferential trade accords: the US is the first target.
"By continuing to identify the United States as its preferred trading partner, the Howard government is relegating Australia's trade with Asia - the region that buys 55 percent of our exports," contended Craig Emerson, Labor's trade spokesman.
In fact, free-trade agreements or other bilateral accords are also being negotiated with China, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and South Korea, which together contribute five times as much export income as the United States. But leadership aspirants Costello, Crean and Beazley have nonetheless expressed concern over Australia's deteriorating share of Asian markets at a time when consumer demand is climbing.
(MORE)
5//Interfax Updated: Jun 12 2003 10:32PM (MSK)
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=5642910
RUSSIA INVITES U.S. TO PARTICIPATE IN EXERCISES IN PACIFIC IN AUGUST
(Full dispatch)
BRUSSELS. June 12 (Interfax) - Russia has invited the United States to take part in its exercises in the Pacific at the end of August, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has said.
He said he had notified U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the plans.
"I invited American armed forces to the exercises as participants, not just observers," he told reporters in Brussels after his Thursday meeting with Rumsfeld. Ivanov said that an official invitation will be sent to the Pentagon shortly.
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©2003, Gloria R. Lalumia, insight@zianet.com
Radio for the Left at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/radio.htm
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