March 17, 2006

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 MARCH 17, 2006

1//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy-- U.N. CREATES NEW WATCHDOG OVER U.S. OPPOSITION (A running gag at the United Nations is that whenever the United States takes a defiant stand against an overwhelming majority of the 191 member states, there are only three countries that predictably vote with Washington most of the time -- whether it is right or dead wrong. As expected, this incongruous voting pattern was repeated Wednesday when the three loyal U.S. allies -- Israel and the two tiny Pacific Island nations of Palau and the Marshall Islands -- were the only member states to stand in unison with the United States when it rejected a resolution calling for the creation of a new Human Rights Council. The vote in the General Assembly was 170 in favour and four against (United States, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau), with three abstentions (Venezuela, Iran and Belarus). … "With the exception of the usual additions of two tiny dependent island-states, the United States and Israel stand alone in defying virtually the entire world's support for the new Human Rights Council," says Phyllis Bennis, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies. … "The United States, despite its opposition to the Council, has claimed it will 'work with' the Council, and we can anticipate it will expect to win a seat in the first term," Bennis told IPS. But such an effort should be rejected, she said, as countries evaluating human rights records keep in mind the continuing patterns of U.S. human rights violations both within the United States itself and internationally, where U.S. military or political officials are in power.)

2//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--IN THE HEART OF PIPELINEISTAN (… The heart of Pipelineistan itself has been transposed to Tehran for the International Conference on Energy and Security: Asian Vision, organized by the Institute of International Energy Studies and the Institute for Political and International Studies. There could not be a better place to meet and discuss oil-and-gas geopolitics with an array of scholars and executives from Iran, China, Pakistan, India, Russia, Egypt, Indonesia, Georgia, Venezuela and Germany. And their overall message is unmistakable: the interdependence of Asia and "Persian Gulf geo-ecopolitics", as an Iranian analyst put it, is now total; the nuclear row should be solved diplomatically in the next few months; and Asian integration has everything to gain from Pipelineistan linking the Persian Gulf, Central Asia, South Asia and China. … Pipelineistan actors are actively discussing the possibility of limited US strikes against, for instance, the Bushehr plant, as was implied by a recent belligerent statement of the US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton. But the general consensus is that an agreement of sorts will be reached in the next few months - with no UN sanctions against Iran. Asia does not want an Iran battered by the West; Iran, after all, is part of West Asia.)

3//The News International, Pakistan--ISLAMABAD MUM ON PROPOSED US LEGISLATION (Pakistan for the time being is reserving its comments on possible US legislation, which would see an end to US economic aid to any country that helped Iran by investing in its energy sector or permitting a private entity to carry out such investment. The legislation, if becomes law, is of significance to Pakistan and would indeed be a setback, given its interest in a gas pipeline from Iran. The US House International Relations Committee by a majority vote on Wednesday passed this legislation with strong possibility that President George Bush could not necessarily support this legislation.)

4//The Jordan Times, Jordan--TENSE DEBATES IN SAUDI ARABIA AS ISLAMISTS FEAR REFORMS (When Saudi intellectuals got together this month to discuss reforming the education system, they needed armed security officers to protect them. "Some people said they were going to teach me a lesson here," Abdullah Al Ghodami declared defiantly, challenging the Islamists attending a seminar in Riyadh. … Ghodami is famed for promoting the use of the word "modernity" in Arabic, to the disapproval of Saudi conservatives who believe the word implies Western values, which they oppose. The soft-spoken writer is typical of the oil producing kindgom's small but increasingly prominent liberal elite, who appear to have the ear of top Saudi royals. At the seminar, he addressed the sensitive subject of reforming the religion-heavy education syllabus — a topic that goes to the heart of the acrimonious divide between Islamists and those who label themselves reformers. … Education is just one area where Islamists see Western influence creeping in, with the help of a fifth column of Saudis whom they attack regularly as "Bani Alman" — the secular tribe. Washington has pressed Saudi Arabia to change the school syllabus which, with its demonisation of non-Muslim Westerners as "infidels," helped create a social mindset that produced 15 of the 19 militants who attacked US cities on September 11.)

5//The Moscow Times, Russia--PUTIN REASSURES G8 ON GLOBAL ENERGY SECURITY (President Vladimir Putin promised Russia would continue to boost global supplies of energy by bringing major new projects on line and called for nuclear energy to be more accessible as he hosted talks for Group of Eight energy ministers Thursday. As he received ministers from the world's biggest economies in the Kremlin, Putin sought to cement Russia's credibility as the world's biggest energy exporter in times of tightening supply. "Russian companies are already realizing projects that have strategic importance for a real strengthening of global energy security," Putin told the ministers in televised remarks at the end of a day of talks on shoring up energy markets. Russia has put energy security at the top of its agenda as G8 president this year as consumer nations feel the pinch of soaring oil prices amid growing fears of a supply crunch.)

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1//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy Mar 15, 2006

U.N. CREATES NEW WATCHDOG OVER U.S. OPPOSITION
Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 15 (IPS) - A running gag at the United Nations is that whenever the United States takes a defiant stand against an overwhelming majority of the 191 member states, there are only three countries that predictably vote with Washington most of the time -- whether it is right or dead wrong.

As expected, this incongruous voting pattern was repeated Wednesday when the three loyal U.S. allies -- Israel and the two tiny Pacific Island nations of Palau and the Marshall Islands -- were the only member states to stand in unison with the United States when it rejected a resolution calling for the creation of a new Human Rights Council.

The vote in the General Assembly was 170 in favour and four against (United States, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau), with three abstentions (Venezuela, Iran and Belarus).

Seven member states -- Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Papua New Guinea and Seychelles --were deprived of their votes because they had not paid their dues to the world body.

Since the United States has no veto in the General Assembly, the resolution was adopted by an overwhelming majority. The U.S. opposition couldn't block the establishment of the new Human Rights Council.

"With the exception of the usual additions of two tiny dependent island-states, the United States and Israel stand alone in defying virtually the entire world's support for the new Human Rights Council," says Phyllis Bennis, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies.

As the work of selecting the first group of members for the new Council begins, each candidate state must agree to being vetted before membership as well as being examined fully at some point during its three-year term, she said.

"The United States, despite its opposition to the Council, has claimed it will 'work with' the Council, and we can anticipate it will expect to win a seat in the first term," Bennis told IPS.

But such an effort should be rejected, she said, as countries evaluating human rights records keep in mind the continuing patterns of U.S. human rights violations both within the United States itself and internationally, where U.S. military or political officials are in power.

"No country with such a record of torture, secret detentions, 'extraordinary renditions,' rejection of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), denial of due process and generations of capital punishment, even for minors and the mentally disabled -- all as a matter of official policy -- should be allowed to serve on the new Human Rights Council," said Bennis, author of "Challenging Empire: How People, Governments and the U.N. Defy U.S."

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2//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Mar 17, 2006

IN THE HEART OF PIPELINEISTAN
By Pepe Escobar

TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki may have captured all the headlines when he announced that Iran would not use the oil weapon in the event it was slapped with sanctions by the UN Security Council. But in the world of Pipelineistan, the nuclear row waged by the US, the EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany), the United Nations and Iran is just a detail.

The heart of Pipelineistan itself has been transposed to Tehran for the International Conference on Energy and Security: Asian Vision, organized by the Institute of International Energy Studies and the Institute for Political and International Studies. There could not be a better place to meet and discuss oil-and-gas geopolitics with an array of scholars and executives from Iran, China, Pakistan, India, Russia, Egypt, Indonesia, Georgia, Venezuela and Germany.

And their overall message is unmistakable: the interdependence of Asia and "Persian Gulf geo-ecopolitics", as an Iranian analyst put it, is now total; the nuclear row should be solved diplomatically in the next few months; and Asian integration has everything to gain from Pipelineistan linking the Persian Gulf, Central Asia, South Asia and China.

It's a gas, gas, gas
The heart of Iran's gas strategy lies in the gigantic South Pars field, responsible in itself for 50% of Iran's and 8% of the world's natural-gas reserves. South Pars is strategically located between Bushehr to the west (where Russia is helping Iran to build its first civilian nuclear power station) and the Persian Gulf port of Bandar Abbas to the east.

According to Gholamreza Manouchehrie, chief executive officer of PetroPars Co, South Pars at its full capacity could deliver 28 billion cubic feet of gas a day. But not all of its 19 blocks have been negotiated for exploration. Iranian participation stands at 60%. Join ventures are common; for instance, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) operation is shared at 50% each by the state-owned National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) and TotalFinaElf.

But much more foreign investment is needed. "We are 10 years behind Qatar," said Manouchehrie, referring to the neighboring gas emirate. "There is cooperation between our experts, but it's still not enough. But we will catch up with them in production by 2012."

South Pars' enormous strategic importance is that its production will be exported to Asian countries - after the construction of a pipeline to the Pakistani border and then to India, pumping 150 million cubic meters of gas a day. As for North Pars, it's an independent field, 100 kilometers to the north, and geared for domestic consumption.

Manouchehrie said that "this pipeline controversy has been going on for 10 years. Now it's a compelling geo-economic reality. China also wants to be a beneficiary." Most agree that the pipeline should be finished as soon as possible. For Asia, it's the most feasible and the most cost-effective.

Welcome to IPIL
High-level negotiations between India and Iran started on Tuesday in Tehran. According to Seyyed Alavi, an Iranian oil executive, a final agreement between the three countries (Iran, Pakistan and India) will be reached "by June or July".

(SNIP)

Pipelineistan actors are actively discussing the possibility of limited US strikes against, for instance, the Bushehr plant, as was implied by a recent belligerent statement of the US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton.

But the general consensus is that an agreement of sorts will be reached in the next few months - with no UN sanctions against Iran. Asia does not want an Iran battered by the West; Iran, after all, is part of West Asia.

Manochehr Mohammadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, may have spoken for all of Asia when he said, "Any sanctions will badly reflect more on our immediate neighbors than on ourselves."

3//The News International, Pakistan Friday March 17, 2006-- Safar 16, 1427 A.H.

ISLAMABAD MUM ON PROPOSED US LEGISLATION
By our correspondent

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan for the time being is reserving its comments on possible US legislation, which would see an end to US economic aid to any country that helped Iran by investing in its energy sector or permitting a private entity to carry out such investment.

The legislation, if becomes law, is of significance to Pakistan and would indeed be a setback, given its interest in a gas pipeline from Iran. The US House International Relations Committee by a majority vote on Wednesday passed this legislation with strong possibility that President George Bush could not necessarily support this legislation. "Yes, we have see the legislation and there is a move in this direction. But as yet, it is a long way from taking final shape. It would not be proper to comment right now on this," spokesperson at the foreign office told The News.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri on Thursday said Pakistan would decide on Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline issue in accordance with its energy requirements and would not falter to pressure from any side in this regard.

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4//The Jordan Times, Jordan Friday-Saturday, March 17-18, 2006

TENSE DEBATES IN SAUDI ARABIA AS ISLAMISTS FEAR REFORMS
By Andrew Hammond
Reuters

RIYADH — When Saudi intellectuals got together this month to discuss reforming the education system, they needed armed security officers to protect them.

"Some people said they were going to teach me a lesson here," Abdullah Al Ghodami declared defiantly, challenging the Islamists attending a seminar in Riyadh.

"I want a lesson now then — I'm a pupil waiting for this lesson," he told the hall where police officers lined the walls, keeping an eye on the roomful of hardline sheikhs and their supporters, sporting beards and loose-fitting headdresses.

The Islamists were on the lookout for liberals who they fear are advancing in a plan to compromise the integrity of what they consider to be Saudi Arabia's Islamic utopia — a country which lives by uncompromising rules of public morality.

Mobilising their troops through the Internet to attend Ghodami's speech, they had promised to "teach him a lesson."

Ghodami is famed for promoting the use of the word "modernity" in Arabic, to the disapproval of Saudi conservatives who believe the word implies Western values, which they oppose.

The soft-spoken writer is typical of the oil producing kindgom's small but increasingly prominent liberal elite, who appear to have the ear of top Saudi royals. At the seminar, he addressed the sensitive subject of reforming the religion-heavy education syllabus — a topic that goes to the heart of the acrimonious divide between Islamists and those who label themselves reformers.

"We don't have to take the question of changing education syllabuses so sensitively and use charged terms [to attack each other]," Ghodami told the gathering. "The syllabus right now is not good enough, so please don't defend it," he beseeched.

When the seminar was over, the security officers clustered in front of the podium to prevent any trouble, and the speakers made a quick exit, speeding away in their cars.
Tense atmosphere

Although reforms appear to be moving at a snail's pace, the tone of debate between the Islamists and liberals has sharpened since King Abdullah, a supporter of cautious political and economic reform, took power in the US ally last year.

Overruling clerical fears of corrupting foreign influence, Saudi Arabia has joined the World Trade Organisation, women were allowed to vote in elections to professional organisations, and state television is now packed with women presenters.

"Our preachers were able to follow the secularists and block them... but now the secularists are marching on their path to Westernise the country," lamented Abu Lujain Ibrahim, a prominent hardline Islamist writing in an Islamist chatroom.

Education is just one area where Islamists see Western influence creeping in, with the help of a fifth column of Saudis whom they attack regularly as "Bani Alman" — the secular tribe.

Washington has pressed Saudi Arabia to change the school syllabus which, with its demonisation of non-Muslim Westerners as "infidels," helped create a social mindset that produced 15 of the 19 militants who attacked US cities on September 11.

Western diplomats say religion still accounts for a third of daily education Saudi teenagers receive, and Saudi officials say it will take years to completely revamp the system.

Many Islamists, like Sheikh Mohammed Al Farraj, say the reformists are in cahoots with the West. They argue that a country that implements Sharia and lives by the Sunna, or "Way of the Prophet" — the essence of Sunni Islam — needs no lessons from foreigners.

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5//The Moscow Times, Russia Friday, March 17, 2006. Issue 3373. Page 1

PUTIN REASSURES G8 ON GLOBAL ENERGY SECURITY
By Catherine Belton and Stephen Boykewich, Staff Writers

President Vladimir Putin promised Russia would continue to boost global supplies of energy by bringing major new projects on line and called for nuclear energy to be more accessible as he hosted talks for Group of Eight energy ministers Thursday.

As he received ministers from the world's biggest economies in the Kremlin, Putin sought to cement Russia's credibility as the world's biggest energy exporter in times of tightening supply.

"Russian companies are already realizing projects that have strategic importance for a real strengthening of global energy security," Putin told the ministers in televised remarks at the end of a day of talks on shoring up energy markets. Russia has put energy security at the top of its agenda as G8 president this year as consumer nations feel the pinch of soaring oil prices amid growing fears of a supply crunch.

Putin highlighted projects such as the development of the vast Shtokman field, which contains more than 3 trillion cubic meters of gas, the construction of the North European gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea and an oil pipeline from eastern Siberia to the Pacific Rim as being just "the first in a series that world markets would benefit from soon."

He also sought to ease fears about the rules of the game changing by saying that the State Duma would soon pass laws, such as the subsoil law, that would clear up the role of foreign investors in future projects.

Russia has more than doubled exports of oil and oil products from just under 3 million barrels per day to 7 million bpd, becoming the world's biggest energy exporter, including of gas, as global demand soars. But amid growing bottlenecks in pipeline capacity, a growing state role in the energy sector and a slowdown in investment over the last year, fears have grown that Russia will not be able to keep pace with demand.

(SNIP)

"Russia is president of the G8 today because it more than doubled oil exports under Putin," Weafer said. "Its credibility for staying in that elite company is the prospect it might be able to double exports again over the next 15 years.

"Other G8 ministers want assurances that is going to happen. The G8 is trying to make sure Russia lifts the obstacles to future investment."

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