Risk of military strike on Iran

by Orkhan Sattarov, head of the European Bureau of VK

Israel: risk of strike on Iran

Israel has split into supporters of a military strike on Iran under leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Home Front Defense Minister Avi Dichter. But the majority of the population and President Shimon Peres warned that Israel cannot contain Iran alone. Israel needs to cooperate with the US on the issue. Some demanded resignation of Peres, because he exceeded authority as a president. The prime minister’s supporters reminded that the president made mistakes before, for example, supporting the peace process in Oslo.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren believes that the military strike will be worth it and will slow the Iranian nuclear program by several years. Israeli media made Washington feel as though Israel was planning a strike on Iran before the US presidential polls. US Defense Minister Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said that sanctions and other non-military actions have not run dry yet. Amon Yadlin, former Intelligence Chief of Israel, says that Barack Obama should visit Jerusalem before the elections to assure the Israeli parliament that the US would not tolerate nuclear Iran.

Elliot Abrams, former Presidential Advisor of Bush for the Middle East, believes that such step would not be enough for Obama. In order to make the US more convincing, the president will need to urge the congress to authorize him to strike Iran that way it was done before the Gulf War and after the tragedy of September 11.

Merkel visits Moldova

Spiegel has described the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Moldova. French President Francois Hollande plans to visit Germany, followed by a visit of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and then Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti next week. Merkel will help with the Transnistria peace process. It is a historic visit, because a German leader has never visited Moldova.

Prime Minister of Moldova Vladimir Filat is trying to integrate in the EU. Merkel has praised reforms Moldova has had in the last years. Moldova shows the most positive progress among six members of the Eastern Partnership of the EU. What is uncertain is the behavior of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is not as easy with European integration of Moldova as his predecessor Dmitry Medvedev was.

Turkey’s risky game

Die Welt has published an article on the economic policy of Turkey and possible repercussions many European states face today. Turkey has been taking numerous loans since 2002, when leader of the Justice and Development Party Recep Tayyip Erdogan became the Prime Minister. Income of the Turkish population has doubled since 2002. But the Turkish foreign debt has increased 10-fold. It totaled only 5.5% of the state budget in 2003 and has reached over 50% since then. The Turkish debt is indeed smaller than that of some other European states. The population finances expenses into loans and try to cover debts by new loans, because real income drops, as stated by Sinan Aygun, a radical opponent of Erdogan. Aygun blames the government of the Justice and Development Party for the approaching financial crisis of Turkey.

The Pussy Riot case

Two years of conviction for the Pussy Riot punk group accused of hooliganism was taken with criticism in western states. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called it way too harsh, while western tabloids published articles on the issue on front pages. Focus cited Mikhail Fedotov, head of the presidential council for human rights, calling the sentence a “historic mistake of the court”. The paper adds that the majority of the Russian population approves the sentence. Focus believes that it is because the Russian population is conservative.