This Sunday, The Guardian published a series of materials, entitled 'US embassy cables'. These materials follow the release of more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables from the Wikileaks website, the US Embassy in UK, being one of their main sources. The documents touch upon US policy in the Near East, including its interaction with Iran.
The same media agency informed its readers that Iranian officials withheld from international atomic energy inspectors the original design documents for a secret nuclear reactor suspected of being part of Tehran's plan to build an atomic bomb. This information also originates from the secret US embassy cables. Another piece of information, taken from US secret documents and published by the Guardian, is that the king Abdullah of Saudi Arabia urged Iran's foreign minister to "spare us your evil" in a meeting that reflected profound Arab hostility to the Islamic Republic - a recurrent theme of high-level private conversations in the Middle East in recent times.
According to The Guardian, the US insisted that China act "urgently" to halt a transshipment of ballistic missile components from North Korea to Iran via Beijing and complained that at least 10 similar missile-related deliveries had been allowed to proceed unhindered. However, With American frustration barely concealed, the non-paper notes the US has raised its concerns with Chinese officials on numerous occasions and lists at least 10 instances in which it claims North Korean shipments of ballistic missiles parts to Iran passed unimpeded through Beijing.
Another article, published by The Guardian, is entitled 'Israel primed to attack a nuclear Iran'. According to it, Israel regarded 2010 as a "critical year" for tackling Iran's alleged quest for nuclear weapons and has warned the United States that time is running out to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. By the end of 2009 the view from Israeli military intelligence was that by 2012 Iran would be able to build one nuclear weapon within weeks and an arsenal in six months. Amos Gilad, the influential political-military director of Israel's defence ministry, concludes that there is no reason to believe Iran will do anything but use negotiations to stall for time so that by 2010-2011, Iran will have the technological capability to build a nuclear weapon. Another article on the same subject states that, sitting in the Rome office of Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, in February this year, Robert Gates, the veteran US defence secretary and former CIA chief, issued a chilling warning of war in our time."Without progress in the next few months, we risk nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, war prompted by an Israeli strike, or both," Gates said. If Iran were allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, he added, the US and its allies would face "a different world" in four to five years.
However, the same agency presented another point of view on the subject. In the article headlined 'Time for US and Iran to reset relations' the author suggests that President Obama should ignore the hawks at home and only constructive engagement with the Iranian regime can succeed. He concludes that In these circumstances, if Iran is offered a diplomatic ladder that it can climb down with its dignity intact - above all, a credible promise of an historic reconciliation with the US that includes specific economic benefits, not Obama's current vague offers - a tired revolution's troubled leadership might
take it. That, not western bluster and sanctions, is the way ahead.
Hurriyet published an article concerning the results of NATO Lisbon summit on November, 28. According to it, expectations were slightly different before the NATO Lisbon Summit that not only the Missile Defense Systems, or MDS, would become a NATO project but also that some details would be announced about its deployment and how it is going to work. In the end, the author says that, eventually, the U.S. once again showed its support to Turkey indirectly by NATO and directly by the EU-U.S. Summit.
The same agency published an article entitled 'Turkey's energy future', touching upon the future development of Turkey's energy sector in co-operation with the International Energy Agency.
Another article published by Hurriyet is headlined 'Turkish exceptionalness?' It covers the subject of Turkey's exceptional position in the Muslim world. According to the author, Turkey has functioned as an exceptional Western Muslim country because they have lived in a system which has taught them that they share values with the West.
The Los Angeles Times published an article entitled 'Do it for Dmitry' doesn't wash'. The author states that Obama's attempts to sell the New START treaty to Republicans are becoming increasingly desperate. He concludes that the White House's real problem isn't Medvedev; it's Obama. Obama's the one, battered by sagging popularity and his party's midterm election shellacking, who can't get the Senate to ratify a treaty that almost every living Republican statesman has endorsed.
