July 15, 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 JULY 15, 2005

1//The Daily Star, Lebanon--IRAN'S OIL DIPLOMACY FRUSTRATES U.S. POLICY (With yesterday's announcement of a landmark oil and power agreement with Iraq, Iran is on the move diplomatically. Under the deal with Iraq, the two countries will swap refined oil for crude oil and connect their electricity grids. Also this week, Iran secured "serious commitment" from India and Pakistan for a $4.5 billion pipeline deal carrying Iranian oil eastward. The United States is wary of Iran's oil diplomacy. While reluctant to speak out against the Iraq deal, it has made no secret of its displeasure with the India-Pakistan pipeline. … The Iraq agreement stemmed perhaps more from the fledgling government's desperation to solve its energy crisis, and the U.S. offered tepid support. The deal with Iraq comprises a 40 kilometer oil pipeline between the Iraqi oil center of Basra and Iran's Abadan port, using Iran's Caspian ports to import refined fuels into Iraq from Central Asia. A senior Iraqi official said it will be signed next week. … Yesterday's announcement of a "serious commitment" on the part of Pakistan and India suggests that U.S. influence hasn't succeeded in foiling, or even slowing, the project. A joint statement issued at the end of talks in New Delhi between Indian and Pakistani oil officials this week said technical, financial, commercial, and legal aspects were discussed about the pipeline. The project is expected to be operational by 2010, the year an energy shortage is expected in Pakistan.)

RELATED: IRAQI PM TO VISIT IRAN ON SATURDAY: EMBASSY (Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari is scheduled to travel to Iran on Saturday, making him the first Iraqi premier to visit the country since the toppling of Saddam Hussein, an embassy official said. "The three-day visit ... will mostly evolve around bilateral ties during which [Jaafari] will have discussions with the Islamic republic's high-ranking officials,” the source said on Thursday. He added that seven ministers are already in Iran, and that more will accompany Jaafari.)

2//BBC News, UK--NO MPs IN NEXT LEBANESE CABINET (Lebanon's prime minister-designate says he will exclude members of parliament from his cabinet after the failure of talks to form a governing coalition. Fouad Siniora said it would comprise "people who have political know-how but are not members of political parties." His anti-Syrian bloc has been trying to agree a cabinet with pro-Syrian Shia Muslim parties and a group headed by Christian leader Michel Aoun. … It was not immediately clear if politicians would attempt to block Mr Siniora's plans. The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Beirut says religious and political considerations may again scupper his plans for a government of technocrats.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--SEOUL'S WARNING TO THE US ON PYONGYANG (The South Korean government has withdrawn its financial support for an influential Washington DC-based policy institute to show its displeasure over a series of articles about the North Korean nuclear weapons situation that the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) published in the summer issue of its magazine, The American Enterprise. "Nip it Now," reads the cover line of the July-August issue, with a picture of a huge nuclear explosion. The sub-heading reads, "Averting a Nightmare in North Korea." Inside, the authors lay out the case for dissolving the alliance with South Korea, stifling China if it doesn't pressure the North into giving up its nuclear weapons program, and waging a preemptive war. The American Enterprise is a publication of the AEI, which has provided many of the senior figures of the current Republican administration. Part of its US$30 million annual budget has been underwritten for years by the Korea Foundation, a government institution under the Foreign Ministry in Seoul. … It would seem obvious that breaking the alliance would accomplish nothing except to push South Korea firmly into China's orbit. Beijing wants to see North Korea gradually reform its economy, following its own example, leading to its eventual reunification as a neutral state. What it fears is a sudden collapse and North Korea's incorporation into a South Korean state that is still an ally of the US. At the moment, things are moving Beijing's way.)

4//Xinhua Online, China--JAPAN FLOUTS WARNINGS NOT TO GRANT DRILLING (Relations with Japan took another downturn yesterday when the Japanese Government awarded test-drilling rights in a disputed area of the East China Sea. The move comes at a time when relations are already strained over Japan's adoption of right-wing history textbooks. The Japanese Government yesterday awarded local firm Teikoku Oil Co rights to test-drill in a gas field in the East China Sea area disputed by the two countries. China has consistently advised Japan against granting drilling rights in the area, and shortly after Japan's official announcement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao again warned Japan not to take any actions that would be "unfavourable" to stability in the East China Sea and the overall situation of Sino-Japanese ties.)

5//The Independent, UK--CHIRAC LAUNCHES BASTILLE DAY ATTACK ON ‘POOR' BRITAIN (President Jacques Chirac has made a stinging attack on Tony Blair's social record, suggesting that Britain was an "unenviable" country with widespread poverty and low spending on health and education. After weeks of criticism from Britain - and within France - on the high-spending French "social model," President Chirac used his traditional 14 July television appearance to launch a tit-for-tat attack on the UK. … President Chirac's remarks were a direct response to suggestions by Mr Blair and Gordon Brown that high unemployment in France (10 per cent) and other Continental countries was the result of a failed social model of high state spending and rigid labour laws. Mr Blair has suggested that this largely explained the disenchantment with the European Union which led to the recent rejection of the proposed EU constitution in France and the Netherlands. The Blair theme has been taken up, sympathetically, by the French press and, provocatively, by Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister. M. Sarkozy - who sees himself as M. Chirac's successor after 2007 - said last weekend that French politicians should show the courage displayed by Margaret Thatcher and Mr Blair and take unpopular decisions for the long-term good of the country.)

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1//The Daily Star, Lebanon Friday, July 15, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition...

IRAN'S OIL DIPLOMACY FRUSTRATES U.S. POLICY
Washington's goal of isolating the Islamic Republic stands in conflict with its aims in Iraq, Pakistan and India

By Will Rasmussen and Nora Salim
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: With yesterday's announcement of a landmark oil and power agreement with Iraq, Iran is on the move diplomatically. Under the deal with Iraq, the two countries will swap refined oil for crude oil and connect their electricity grids. Also this week, Iran secured "serious commitment" from India and Pakistan for a $4.5 billion pipeline deal carrying Iranian oil eastward.

The United States is wary of Iran's oil diplomacy. While reluctant to speak out against the Iraq deal, it has made no secret of its displeasure with the India-Pakistan pipeline.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said tersely: "We have communicated to the Indian government our concerns about gas pipeline cooperation between Iran and India."

The Iraq agreement stemmed perhaps more from the fledgling government's desperation to solve its energy crisis, and the U.S. offered tepid support.

The deal with Iraq comprises a 40 kilometer oil pipeline between the Iraqi oil center of Basra and Iran's Abadan port, using Iran's Caspian ports to import refined fuels into Iraq from Central Asia. A senior Iraqi official said it will be signed next week.

Mismanagement and sabotage against power facilities have turned Iraq into an importer of refined fuels, mostly from Turkey and the Gulf, after the U.S. invasion in 2003 created severe energy shortages.

Iraq will export 150,000 barrels per day of crude oil to Abadan and receive the equivalent in return in refined oil, helping to ease shortages in the country.

A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Star: "While we have serious concerns about Iranian policies - including its support for international terrorism - decisions regarding Iraq's oil and power generation sectors are purely for the Iraqi government to make. It is in Iraq's interests to have solid, cooperative relationships with all its neighbors, and we support the Iraqi government in these efforts."

Building its regional sphere of economic influence isn't Iran's only goal in the recent agreements.

The Islamic state is depending on increased revenue from oil, which amounts to almost 90 percent of its total exports, to bridge the growing divide between rich and poor.

The U.S. is worried that Iran will use the money to advance a nuclear arms program, and has threatened sanctions. Pakistan has said it is aware it faces sanctions if it goes ahead with the Iran-India gas pipeline but cannot abandon the project due to the economic benefits it will bring.

Yesterday's announcement of a "serious commitment" on the part of Pakistan and India suggests that U.S. influence hasn't succeeded in foiling, or even slowing, the project. A joint statement issued at the end of talks in New Delhi between Indian and Pakistani oil officials this week said technical, financial, commercial, and legal aspects were discussed about the pipeline. The project is expected to be operational by 2010, the year an energy shortage is expected in Pakistan.

(MORE)

RELATED:

Gulf News Online, UAE Published: 14/7/2005, 00:00
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF...

IRAQI PM TO VISIT IRAN ON SATURDAY: EMBASSY

Tehran: Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari is scheduled to travel to Iran on Saturday, making him the first Iraqi premier to visit the country since the toppling of Saddam Hussein, an embassy official said.

"The three-day visit ... will mostly evolve around bilateral ties during which [Jaafari] will have discussions with the Islamic republic's high-ranking officials,” the source said on Thursday.

He added that seven ministers are already in Iran, and that more will accompany Jaafari.

(MORE)

2//BBC News, UK Last Updated: Thursday, 14 July, 2005, 12:54 GMT 13:54 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4682517.stm

NO MPs IN NEXT LEBANESE CABINET

Lebanon's prime minister-designate says he will exclude members of parliament from his cabinet after the failure of talks to form a governing coalition.

Fouad Siniora said it would comprise "people who have political know-how but are not members of political parties."

His anti-Syrian bloc has been trying to agree a cabinet with pro-Syrian Shia Muslim parties and a group headed by Christian leader Michel Aoun.

(SNIP)

Elections in June saw a bloc led by Mr Hariri's son, Saad Hariri, win a majority by campaigning for an end to Syrian influence in Lebanon.

Pro-Syrian Shia parties and Mr Aoun's alliance also fared well.

The country's political system - which reflects its sectarian divisions - demands the leading bloc has the backing of other parliamentary groups and the President, the pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud.

Religious considerations

Mr Siniora announced he would seek a cabinet of non-politicians - or technocrats - after talks with Mr Lahoud.

"In a meeting with President Emile Lahoud, I proposed forming a government of non-party figures who come from outside parliament but who enjoy the confidence of the legislature's main blocs," he told the AFP news agency.

Mr Siniora said the cabinet would comprise 24 ministers.

Earlier proposals for a 30-member government have been rejected.

It was not immediately clear if politicians would attempt to block Mr Siniora's plans.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Beirut says religious and political considerations may again scupper his plans for a government of technocrats.

Tasks facing Lebanon's next government include curbing debt, and restoring stability after a recent series of assassinations.

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Jul 15, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/GG15Dg01.html

SEOUL'S WARNING TO THE US ON PYONGYANG
By Todd Crowell

The South Korean government has withdrawn its financial support for an influential Washington DC-based policy institute to show its displeasure over a series of articles about the North Korean nuclear weapons situation that the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) published in the summer issue of its magazine, The American Enterprise.

"Nip it Now," reads the cover line of the July-August issue, with a picture of a huge nuclear explosion. The sub-heading reads, "Averting a Nightmare in North Korea." Inside, the authors lay out the case for dissolving the alliance with South Korea, stifling China if it doesn't pressure the North into giving up its nuclear weapons program, and waging a preemptive war.

The American Enterprise is a publication of the AEI, which has provided many of the senior figures of the current Republican administration. Part of its US$30 million annual budget has been underwritten for years by the Korea Foundation, a government institution under the Foreign Ministry in Seoul.

Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon recently told a committee of the National Assembly that the Korea Foundation had ended is support for the AEI because of the articles. He said that South Korea had contributed about $1.4 million to the institute's activities since 1992. President Roh Moo-hyun fired back himself: under no circumstances will South Korea allow the US to attack North Korea.

The authors of the controversial articles are Daniel Kennelly, managing editor of The American Interest, conservative writers Gordon Cucullu and Victor Davis Hanson, James Lilley, a former ambassador to South Korea and China, and Nicholas Eberstadt, author of The End of North Korea.

That a major publication aimed at conservatives should raise the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons program, and advocate preemptive war and regime change, is fairly standard neo-conservative fare. What is unusual is the amount of venom that was directed at America's presumed ally in any such endeavor, South Korea.

"The current government in Seoul is the most anti-American in the short history of the Republic of Korea. It is a left wing administration that has fanned public sentiment against US troops," writes Kennelly in a provocative essay, "Time for an Amicable Divorce with South Korea." He writes that the alliance has become a "straight-jacket" that inhibits any military action against Pyongyang.

The articles urge Washington to adopt a new policy as an alternative to the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program. It includes ending the alliance with South Korea, withdrawing American troops and a pre-emptive strike and blockade against North Korea. "With some luck and determination, we could have a long-awaited moment of another liberation looming over the horizon as we have had in Afghanistan and Iraq," writes Cucullu.

(SNIP)

For the moment, however, the Bush administration seems to be taking just the opposite tack from the course the writers advocate. Last weekend, North Korea agreed to return to the six-party talks, now scheduled to reconvene in Beijing on July 25. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says that Washington offered no special inducements, but it seems that, in fact, quite a few carrots are being offered to Pyongyang.

The Bush administration has toned down its rhetoric - no more references to "outposts of tyranny" - and agreed to contribute some food aid. At the same time, South Korea has announced that it will offer a big carrot in the form of a promise to supply the North with reliable electric power from its own power grid if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear program.

"The AEI-North Korea issue is a retread of past positions by all of its authors. Nicholas Eberstadt's call for the US to 'work around' the Roh Moo-hyun government was first made in The Weekly Standard [another neo-con publication] nine months ago and contained an implicit call for CIA support of Roh's rivals that is softened in this article," said Selig Harrison, author of Korean Endgame.

(SNIP)

It would seem obvious that breaking the alliance would accomplish nothing except to push South Korea firmly into China's orbit. Beijing wants to see North Korea gradually reform its economy, following its own example, leading to its eventual reunification as a neutral state. What it fears is a sudden collapse and North Korea's incorporation into a South Korean state that is still an ally of the US. At the moment, things are moving Beijing's way.

4//Xinhua Online, China 2005-07-15 08:10:57
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005...

JAPAN FLOUTS WARNINGS NOT TO GRANT DRILLING

BEIJING, July 15 -- Relations with Japan took another downturn yesterday when the Japanese Government awarded test- drilling rights in a disputed area of the East China Sea.

The move comes at a time when relations are already strained over Japan's adoption of right-wing history textbooks.

The Japanese Government yesterday awarded local firm Teikoku Oil Co rights to test-drill in a gas field in the East China Sea area disputed by the two countries.

China has consistently advised Japan against granting drilling rights in the area, and shortly after Japan's official announcement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao again warned Japan not to take any actions that would be "unfavourable" to stability in the East China Sea and the overall situation of Sino-Japanese ties.

"If Japan is bent on doing such things, it will constitute grave damage to China's rights of sovereignty and make the situation in the East China Sea more complicated," Liu told a regular news briefing.

"It is an objective reality that China and Japan have disputes over the demarcation of the East China Sea, but this issue should be solved properly by negotiation," Liu said.

Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa pledged yesterday that the government would provide full support to Teikoku's test drilling. "Since we gave drilling rights, I expect (Teikoku) to conduct test drilling," Nakagawa told a news conference, according to Kyodo news.

Relations between the two countries have soured recently due to a range of disputes, including Japan's education ministry's approval of textbooks which whitewash its wartime atrocities, and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine where 14 Class A war criminals are honoured.

Liu said yesterday that the textbooks gloss over Japan's brutal wartime past and could worsen relations with its Asian neighbours.

(SNIP)

5//The Independent, UK 15 July 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article299265.ece

CHIRAC LAUNCHES BASTILLE DAY ATTACK ON ‘POOR' BRITAIN
By John Lichfield in Paris

President Jacques Chirac has made a stinging attack on Tony Blair's social record, suggesting that Britain was an "unenviable" country with widespread poverty and low spending on health and education.

After weeks of criticism from Britain - and within France - on the high-spending French "social model." President Chirac used his traditional 14 July television appearance to launch a tit-for-tat attack on the UK.

"I don't think that the British model is a model that we should copy or envy," he said. "Certainly unemployment [in Britain] is less than our own, substantially less. But if you look at the important elements in society, from health policy to the struggle against poverty, we are much better placed than the British."

Reeling off a string of pre-prepared figures, M. Chirac said that France spent 5.6 per cent of its GDP on education, compared to 4 or 4.2 per cent in Britain. On scientific research, he said, France spends 2.2 per cent of its GDP and Britain only 1.8 per cent.

The number of children living below the poverty line in Britain had been officially counted as 17 per cent, M. Chirac said. The equivalent figure in France was 7 per cent. "So I do not envy [Britain]," M. Chirac said, during a one-hour live television interview to mark France's national day.

(SNIP)

President Chirac's remarks were a direct response to suggestions by Mr Blair and Gordon Brown that high unemployment in France (10 per cent) and other Continental countries was the result of a failed social model of high state spending and rigid labour laws. Mr Blair has suggested that this largely explained the disenchantment with the European Union which led to the recent rejection of the proposed EU constitution in France and the Netherlands.

The Blair theme has been taken up, sympathetically, by the French press and, provocatively, by Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister. M. Sarkozy - who sees himself as M. Chirac's successor after 2007 - said last weekend that French politicians should show the courage displayed by Margaret Thatcher and Mr Blair and take unpopular decisions for the long-term good of the country.

M. Chirac was therefore settling two scores yesterday. He was responding to a string of what the French press has called "victories" by Mr Blair - over the EU budget and the unsuccessful Paris Olympics bid. The areas of attack chosen by M. Chirac - education, health, research, poverty - are all pet Blairite issues.

(SNIP)

M. Chirac, who is on the political centre-right, was also, in effect, siding with most of the political establishment of the left and centre in France in rejecting M. Sarkozy's flirtation with the British social model.

By doing so he hoped to contradict opinion polls and critics - including M. Sarkozy - who suggest that the referendum defeat has left him with two years as a humiliated, lame-duck president.

Asked by his interviewers if he would contemplate running for a third term. M. Chirac said it was "up to the French people to decide" how long presidents should stay in office. He said he would make his own decision "when the time comes."