Keep an Eye On
News coverage naturally tends to focus on the biggest parts of the biggest stories – Iran, North Korea, China, etc. It is important at times to watch the smaller parts of those same stories.
News coverage naturally tends to focus on the biggest parts of the biggest stories – Iran, North Korea, China, etc. It is important at times to watch the smaller parts of those same stories.
1) Iran has announced plans to reopen its embassies in Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Uruguay. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister said political ties in Latin American countries are “necessary to fulfill Iran’s foreign policy objectives.” Uruguay and Colombia were on President Bush’s itinerary – both have pro-U.S. foreign and economic policies and both have come under increasing political pressure from Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Iran, Cuba and Venezuela have created an active South American network in opposition to free market economics and pro-Western politics.
2) Russia has delayed the shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran’s Bushehr reactor again as it has for the past five years. MENL reports apparent U.S.-Russian coordination on the delay. “Sources said President Putin has pledged to delay until Iran accedes to the demands of the UN Security Council for an end to Teheran’s uranium enrichment program. ‘The Americans and Russians will never admit to this, but Putin does not want a crisis with the United States,’ the defense source said. ‘The Russians are using the economic issue to cause problems with Iran.'” The positive spin is the one MENL reports; the negative would be Russian plans to maintain itself as an important player in the region. Either delivering the fuel or canceling the agreement would be the end of Russian leverage – “neither/nor” leaves Russia in a position of influence with both Iran and the U.S.
3) South Korea’s Foreign Minister said North Korea has shown no signs of shutting down its nuclear reactor. According to Japan’s Kyodo news agency, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei was in Pyongyang for talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, but was unable to meet with head nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan, who was “too busy” preparing for the next round of six-party talks. Earlier in the week, a U.S. official said North Korea was preparing to shut down the Yongbyon complex. In the meantime, the U.S. has removed sanctions from the bank that had been used by North Korea to pass counterfeit $50 and $100 bills – putting North Korea’s frozen assets back in play. It appears that the U.S. is paying up front for future changes in North Korean policy. Clinton/Carter redux?
4) The Wall Street Journal reports that Hong Kong’s “privacy commission” has cleared Yahoo Hong Kong of liability for sharing a journalist’s e-mail account with China’s State Security Bureau. Although there was “insufficient evidence” to hold Yahoo liable, it became clear in the proceedings that Yahoo China (a wholly owned subsidiary of Yahoo Hong Kong) was passing the details of the account to mainland authorities. Yahoo and Google have been criticized for cooperating with the Communist government’s demand for private information about their users (and for not permitting their search engines to link to certain “forbidden” topics), but the companies have called such cooperation essential to doing business in China.