April 22, 2005

World Media Watch

by Gloria R. Lalumia

BuzzFlash Note: WMW provides BuzzFlash readers foreign views and perspectives that are not usually available from the media here in the U.S. The presentation of these articles from these international publications is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR APRIL 22, 2005

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--A TROUBLED TRIANGLE: IRAN, INDIA AND PAKISTAN (The formation of a critical triangular relationship among regional powers Iran, India and Pakistan - both cooperative and adversarial - has accelerated in the past months. Iran is trying to shore up alliances with its neighbors in the face of escalating tension with the United States, even as Pakistan and India seek to disengage from the increasingly tight control that Washington exerts over the region by engaging in fence-mending. At the same time, Pakistan and India are attempting to extract further benefits from US patronage, namely advanced weapons systems. After the relative policy success of a Shi'ite-majority government coming to power in Iran's Arab neighbor Iraq, Tehran is now looking east, keen to normalize relations with its neighbors in the hope that their support will blunt the edge of the US military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the same time, Iran is strengthening its relations with regional superpowers China and Russia.)

2//PakTribune, Pakistan--PAKISTAN WILL NEVER ALLOW IAEA TO INSPECT NUCLEAR FACILITIES: MUSHARRAF (Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said on Wednesday he would never allow foreign inspectors into the country to examine its nuclear facilities. "That is tantamount to admitting that we cannot be trusted in our own house," he told a breakfast meeting of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, reports AFP news agency. Asked whether he would allow inspectors from the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the country's nuclear facilities, Musharraf said: "Why?". "Our nuclear programme is for the protection of the people of Pakistan," he said. "You have to understand that this is a very sensitive issue for us. "And our people are sensitive to outsiders coming into our country asking questions. It's as though we cannot be trusted," he said.)

3//Keralanext.com, India--SAUDI NUCLEAR INTEREST IS HEIGHTENING WORRIES (Saudi Arabia has quietly begun talks on a UN-sanctioned agreement that could curtail any outside probe of its atomic intentions —a move that heightens concerns in a region already edgy about rival Iran’s nuclear programme. The Saudis deny any plans to develop nuclear weapons, and diplomats close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told AP that the UN nuclear monitor has no firm evidence that would cast doubt on the Saudi assertions. But the diplomats say that past Saudi nuclear interest is heightening worries, as is the timing of the efforts to sign on to the IAEA’s small quantities protocol that would exempt the country from most of the agency’s control authority.)

Related: SAUDI ARABIA TO EXPAND MILITARY COOPERATION WITH IRAN

4//Xinhua News Agency, China--CHINA, FRANCE SEAL 3-BLN-EURO CONTRACTS (China and France reached a three-billion-euro deal Thursday morning during French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's three-day official visit to Beijing. Raffarin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao witnessed the signing ceremony of the 20 cooperative agreements, which deal with aviation, nuclear energy and agriculture. . …. Wen also said he was delighted with the fast growth of bilateral trade exchanges, close consultation in key international and regional issues and vibrant cultural exchanges. He said China and France, which are both permanent members of the UN Security Council, should develop the comprehensive strategic partnership with a highly responsible attitude to world peace and development.)

5//The Toronto Star, Canada--HARPER WON’T RULE OUT PUSH FOR EARLY VOTE (Paul Martin is a "sad spectacle" who can't be trusted to clean up the sponsorship mess, says Conservative Leader Stephen Harper. In a cool rebuttal to the prime minister's national address tonight, Harper made no guarantee that he won't move to bring down the minority Liberals in the next few weeks. Martin's offer to call an election within 30 days of a final report on the sponsorship scandal doesn't cut it, Harper said. "We have all just witnessed a sad spectacle - a leader so burdened with corruption in his own party that he is unable to do his job and lead the country, a leader playing for time, begging for yet another chance." As finance minister, Martin was second in command at the height of the program that was supposed to stem Quebec separatism, Harper said.)

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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Apr 22, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GD22Ak02.html

A TROUBLED TRIANGLE: IRAN, INDIA AND PAKISTAN

By Iason Athanasiadis

TEHRAN - The formation of a critical triangular relationship among regional powers Iran, India and Pakistan - both cooperative and adversarial - has accelerated in the past months. Iran is trying to shore up alliances with its neighbors in the face of escalating tension with the United States, even as Pakistan and India seek to disengage from the increasingly tight control that Washington exerts over the region by engaging in fence-mending. At the same time, Pakistan and India are attempting to extract further benefits from US patronage, namely advanced weapons systems.

After the relative policy success of a Shi'ite-majority government coming to power in Iran's Arab neighbor Iraq, Tehran is now looking east, keen to normalize relations with its neighbors in the hope that their support will blunt the edge of the US military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the same time, Iran is strengthening its relations with regional superpowers China and Russia.

This month Washington justified its growing involvement in the region when it identified Iran, India and Pakistan as a "troubled triangle": "Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran are a troubled triangle and the US strategy is to involve the US government in the region to reduce the troubled nature," said the US Army War College's Larry Goodson. "The US faces ... a real conundrum in that we have to stay in order to achieve [our] strategic interest of stabilizing and transforming these troubled regions but our very presence there is going to continue to attract some of the more militant jihadists who want to challenge their conception of the US project for the world. Anti-American attitudes are at an all-time high in some areas. We really can't stay and yet we dare not go."

Washington, meanwhile, is utilizing a carrots-and-sticks policy as it tries to disrupt the rapprochement between Iran and its neighbors that would end Tehran's international isolation. The Bush administration's carrot is an offer to sell India and Pakistan advanced F-16 fighter jets capable of dispatching nuclear payloads. India has yet to accept the offer and is making noises that it might approach Russia and the European Union as alternative arms suppliers. As for Pakistan, given Iran's close cooperation with arch-foe India, it has steered a more ambivalent course, welcoming a permanent US presence in Afghanistan even as it offers to act as an intermediary between Washington and Tehran on the nuclear dispute.

The governing circles in Tehran know that their Sunni Muslim nuclear neighbor could well use its US-supplied weapons against them one day, a fear that Washington is implicitly encouraging in its bid to further contain Iran. But the Bush administration's strategy could well backfire by hastening Tehran's scramble toward a nuclear safeguard.

(SNIP)

As things stand, future trends may include Iran gravitating toward China, Russia and India, even as a pro-Western Pakistani government continues to build close ties to Washington. In an intelligence estimate published in February, the National Intelligence Council - on which the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies are represented - warned that India and China would emerge as major global players by 2020.

It is certain that "Asia is particularly important as an engine for change over the next 15 years", the estimate said, noting that "one could envisage a range of possibilities from the US enhancing its role as a regional balancer between contending forces to Washington being seen as increasingly irrelevant".

Seemingly worried over such a scenario, the US has moved to maintain its relevance in the region through seeking to spark off a regional arms race and heighten tensions between India and Pakistan. Concurrently, Washington has asked Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty in an unprecedented move that could go some way toward ironing out the perceived tilt in US foreign policy toward Tel Aviv.

As Afghanistan is increasingly pacified, Pakistan may become more and more irrelevant. Iran's stock is likely to rise, both in South Asia and in the Arab world. As an energy-rich country, Iran is certain to figure in great power calculations and alliances - whether these powers be the US, China or India - to a greater extent than Pakistan. Tehran's fate depends on several factors, not least how quickly Central Asia's energy resources come on tap and what policy the EU and Russia decide to follow in the region.

At the moment, the view from Tehran is ever more agreeable. To the west, the US remains bogged down in Iraq, where a friendly Shi'ite government is governing. To the east, a solidifying network of alliances promises greater security for Tehran. For the time being, Iran appears to be well on top of the waves sweeping over the region.

2//PakTribune, Pakistan Wednesday April 20, 2005 (1545 PST)
http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=102445

PAKISTAN WILL NEVER ALLOW IAEA TO INSPECT NUCLEAR FACILITIES: MUSHARRAF

MANILA, April 21 (Online): Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said on Wednesday he would never allow foreign inspectors into the country to examine its nuclear facilities.

"That is tantamount to admitting that we cannot be trusted in our own house," he told a breakfast meeting of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, reports AFP news agency.

Asked whether he would allow inspectors from the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect the country's nuclear facilities, Musharraf said: "Why?".

"Our nuclear programme is for the protection of the people of Pakistan," he said.

"You have to understand that this is a very sensitive issue for us.

"And our people are sensitive to outsiders coming into our country asking questions. It's as though we cannot be trusted," he said.

"If the IAEA has questions about our nuclear programme then let them ask us. We have nothing to hide.

"We will give them all the information they want but we will not allow their inspectors into our country to question our officials or inspect our facilities.

"If we did that it would be admitting that we couldn't be trusted."

He said the same also applies to the country's chief nuclear scientist Adbul Qadeer Khan.

Pakistan admitted recently that Khan, often described as the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, had supplied Iran with centrifuges, used to enrich uranium for atomic warheads, but it said the government was not involved and has refused to give him up for questioning by other countries.

"You have to understand that Khan is a national hero in our country.

"We will question him. No one should doubt our intention to give all the facts on this matter," Musharraf said.

(MORE)

3//Keralanext.com, India 21-April-2005
http://www.keralanext.com/news/?id=186031

SAUDI NUCLEAR INTEREST IS HEIGHTENING WORRIES

Middle East News, VIENNA —Saudi Arabia has quietly begun talks on a UN-sanctioned agreement that could curtail any outside probe of its atomic intentions —a move that heightens concerns in a region already edgy about rival Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Saudis deny any plans to develop nuclear weapons, and diplomats close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told AP that the UN nuclear monitor has no firm evidence that would cast doubt on the Saudi assertions.

But the diplomats say that past Saudi nuclear interest is heightening worries, as is the timing of the efforts to sign on to the IAEA’s small quantities protocol that would exempt the country from most of the agency’s control authority.

Born of more trusting days, the agreement has been joined by dozens of countries, most of which have never experimented with nuclear weapons. But the protocol is now viewed with suspicion within the agency, after revelations of other loopholes that have allowed prewar Iraq, Iran, Libya and other countries to work secretly on known or suspected nuclear weapons programmes.

The protocol frees countries from reporting the possession of up to 10 tons of natural uranium —or up to 20 tons of depleted uranium, depending on the degree of enrichment —and 1 kilogram of plutonium. It also allows them to keep silent about work on nuclear facilities secret until six months before they are ready for operation. And once a protocol is signed, the country’s word is normally not questioned.

Experts say 10 tons of natural uranium can be processed into the material for up to two nuclear warheads. And Iran and South Korea both used substantially smaller amounts of uranium or plutonium in laboratory-scale experiments with suspected links to arms programmes.

Saudi Arabia has never negotiated an agreement that would define IAEA controls, even though it is obligated to do so as a signer of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Such foot dragging, and now the move to sign on to a small quantities protocol, have contributed to concerns about the protocol within top IAEA echelons.

“As has become clear over the last several years, states can conduct nuclear activities of proliferation concern with quantities of nuclear material much smaller”than allowed under the protocol, Pierre Goldschmidt, a deputy IAEA director general, said in a report in February.

Goldschmidt’s comments —and similar statements from IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei —reflect an agency drive to close loopholes to the inspections system.

The Saudi push comes amid increased nuclear-generated tensions in the region, fed by suspicions that Iran might want to develop the bomb. And it highlights important gaps in nuclear controls just before a high-level international nonproliferation conference is to convene next month in New York.

While the Saudi government insists it has no interest in going nuclear beyond a small research reactor built in the 1970s, in the past two decades it has been linked to prewar Iraq’s nuclear programme, to Pakistan and to the Pakistani nuclear black marketeer A.Q. Khan. It has expressed interest in Pakistani missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and credible reports say Saudi officials have discussed taking the nuclear option as a deterrent in the volatile Middle East.

(MORE)

RELATED:

Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-17/0504190181095800.htm

SAUDI ARABIA TO EXPAND MILITARY COOPERATION WITH IRAN

Riyadh, April 19, IRNA--Saudi Arabia's Chief of Staff General Salih bin Ali Al-Muhayya said here Monday that his country is determined to expand military cooperation with Iran.

He made the remarks during an interview with IRNA reporter on the sidelines of a special ceremony held in the Saudi capital on the occasion of Iran's Army Day.

He added that he is scheduled to pay a visit to Iran to hold talks with Iranian officials on expansion of bilateral military ties.

Al-Muhayya was optimistic that due to the religious affinities between the two nations, Tehran-Riyadh cooperation would be further enhanced in different fields.

Several Saudi senior military officials and a number of foreign diplomats residing in the country attended the ceremony commemorating Iran's Army Day in Riyadh yesterday.

End Item

4//Xinhua News Agency, China 2005-04-21 20:43:18
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/21/content_2861136.htm

CHINA, FRANCE SEAL 3-BLN-EURO CONTRACTS

BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhuanet) -- China and France reached a three-billion-euro deal Thursday morning during French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's three-day official visit to Beijing.

Raffarin and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao witnessed the signing ceremony of the 20 cooperative agreements, which deal with aviation, nuclear energy and agriculture.

As part of the agreements, China promised to buy 30 Airbus planes, including five Airbus A380 and 25 A320 planes.

Prior to the signing ceremony, Wen and Raffarin held hour-long talks, agreeing to further political and economic ties.

Wen said both China and France are putting the bilateral ties in an prominent position in their foreign relations and making efforts to improve mutual political trust and strategic dialogue.

"China appreciates France's understanding and support to China on the Taiwan issue and EU's lift of arms embargo," he said.

Wen also said he was delighted with the fast growth of bilateral trade exchanges, close consultation in key international and regional issues and vibrant cultural exchanges.

He said China and France, which are both permanent members of the UN Security Council, should develop the comprehensive strategic partnership with a highly responsible attitude to world peace and development.

Wen suggested the two countries further bilateral friendship by focusing on four aspects: maintaining high-level visits and improving consultation and cooperation in the United Nations and other international organizations; expanding economic and trade cooperation by enforcing cooperation on energy, transportation, aviation, agriculture and environmental protection; maintaining bilateral cultural exchanges and improving judicature cooperation on the basis of mutual respect.

Raffarin, who visited China in 2003 amid SARS outbreak, highlighted the frequent high-level visits between the two sides, saying that different from the irregular contact between the two sides in the past, France and China now has realized continuous and regular contact between the leaders of the two sides.

Chinese President Hun Junta and French President Jacques Chirac exchanged visits in 2004. Raffarin said after his visit to China, Wen is scheduled to visit France later this year.

He said France is very optimistic about bilateral economic and trade relations and ready to improve cooperation with China on trade, energy, medium- and small-sized enterprises, culture and education.

(MORE)

5//The Toronto Star, Canada Apr. 21, 2005. 08:54 PM
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?...

HARPER WON’T RULE OUT PUSH FOR EARLY VOTE

From Canadian Press

OTTAWA - Paul Martin is a "sad spectacle" who can't be trusted to clean up the sponsorship mess, says Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.

In a cool rebuttal to the prime minister's national address tonight, Harper made no guarantee that he won't move to bring down the minority Liberals in the next few weeks.

Martin's offer to call an election within 30 days of a final report on the sponsorship scandal doesn't cut it, Harper said.

"We have all just witnessed a sad spectacle - a leader so burdened with corruption in his own party that he is unable to do his job and lead the country, a leader playing for time, begging for yet another chance."

As finance minister, Martin was second in command at the height of the program that was supposed to stem Quebec separatism, Harper said.

"Do Canadians really believe that the Number Two man in a government now under a cloud of corruption is the person to clean up that mess?" he asked in a six-minute nationally broadcast response to Martin's address.

"Do Canadians really believe that the Liberals will ultimately hold their own to account, that they'll prosecute themselves?

"I don't believe that," Harper said in calm, measured tones without consulting his notes. "I don't think you believe that."

The Liberals don't get to choose an election date that best suits them, he added.

"We'll listen to what Canadians have to say and make our own decision."

NDP Leader Jack Layton seemed more willing to prop up a minority Liberal government that's punch-drunk from attacks over allegations of cronyism, misspending and political kickbacks.

New Democrats want to see more federal cash for the environment, social programs and other issues that matter to Canadians, Layton said.

"So I say to Paul Martin: Bring the budget to a vote, take out the surprise corporate tax cuts and invest that money in things people want.

"The NDP is in no rush to judge on the scandal. But we are in a rush to get something done through getting a better budget passed."

(MORE)