The Washington Post reported Saturday that Iran’s supreme leader assailed a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, saying the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations is doomed to fail. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Palestinians should not limit themselves to seeking a country within the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — which would implicitly recognize Israel — because “all land belongs to Palestinians.” “Our claim is freedom of Palestine, not part of Palestine. Any plan that partitions Palestine is totally rejected,” Khamenei told the gathering. “Palestine spans from the river (Jordan) to the (Mediterranean) sea, nothing less.” Khamenei claimed that a two state solution would mean “giving in to the demand of the Zionists” and that it would “trample the rights of the Palestinian people” to live on their land.
“Iran's growing bluster spells danger” is an article published by The Los Angeles Times Sunday. It says that the world has grown accustomed to Iranian bluster. But even by the standards of the Islamic Republic, Adm. Habibollah Sayari's call last week to deploy the Iranian navy near the U.S. coast is stunning. The Pentagon knows, of course, that Iranian war vessels won't come near America's shores any time soon. Iran is a country that has lost its regional momentum. Tehran cleverly utilized America's many mistakes in the Middle East during the George W. Bush administration to expand its sphere of influence and fill the power vacuum left by a declining United States. The enemies Iran could not defeat were crushed by the U.S. military, and the standing it could not achieve on its own fell into Tehran's lap through the plummeting of America's regional status.
Monday the same agency published the article headlined “Watch out for Putin, and Russia.” It says that in the last 12 years, first under Putin and then under the Putin-Medvedev duo, Russia's dependence on oil exports has grown enormously, and with it the economy's vulnerability to swings in the world hydrocarbon market. In the early years of this century, oil exports accounted for one-third of the state budget; today they constitute one-half. At this point, the country's budget could be balanced only if the price of oil were to rise above $125 a barrel. Already the ruble is at a two-year low against the dollar, and the stock market is down 20% this year. If it continues on its current path, Russia is headed toward becoming a petro-state, with all the problems such systems spawn: pervasive corruption, sharp income differentiation, a lack of social mobility. Over the last few years, the U.S. goal with regard to Russia has been to try to reset relations. To the extent that success requires at least some confluence of values between the two political systems, that objective now seems almost impossibly distant. Russia is entering rough waters, and the world will feel the turbulence, the author concludes.
The New York Times reported that NATO’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, expressed disquiet about tensions over natural gas exploration in the Mediterranean between a newly assertive Turkey and Cyprus, as well as Turkey’s strained relations with Israel, saying that they were both “a matter of concern.” Mr. Rasmussen said he did not foresee the tension turning into conflict in the Mediterranean, and he praised Turkey as an indispensable member of NATO that could be “a bridge” between the West and the Arab countries now engaged in revolts.
“PKK attacks despite peace efforts: NATO” is an article published by the Hurriyet Daily News Monday. It says that the NATO chief urges Turkey to continue working for a peaceful resolution of the conflict with the PKK, even as the outlawed group continues to carry out attacks. NATO will not interfere with Turkey’s fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, because it is a national issue, but welcomes the share of intelligence and information between the member states, according to NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He denied claims that NATO’s radar system to be deployed in Turkey would share intelligence with Israel. “NATO does not interfere with bilateral agreements in individual allies and partners outside the alliance and as such does not have a security agreement with Israel.”
