|
|
|
THE ROVING EYE
Rouhani surfs the new WAVE
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came to the United Nations, listened "carefully" to US President Barack Obama officially recognize the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's fatwa against nuclear weapons - and then called for a global coalition for peace to replace coalitions for war - in effect a call for a World Against Violence and Extremism. Now for the heavy lifting ... - Pepe Escobar
(Sep 25, '13)
|
US, Iran trade cautious overtures at UN
Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani both put diplomatic cards on the table at the United Nations. The real action begins on Thursday in the nuclear arena, when US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif meet for the highest-level formal encounter of the two countries since 1979.
- Kitty Stapp
(Sep 25, '13)
Why Obama needs a pen pal in Tehran
US media say Hassan Rouhani offers a chance to break a cycle of successive US administrations trying their best to pull obstinate Iranian leaders towards democracy. The reality is that past approaches from Tehran were blocked because the Middle East balance of power was skewed in Washington's favor. Deft Russian diplomatic maneuvers have brought an end to that. - Ramzy Baroud
(Sep 25, '13)
The day Kim Il-sung died his first death
On a winter's day in 1986, loudspeakers on the North Korean side of the no-man's land that divides the Korean Peninsula began broadcasting news that Great Leader Kim Il-sung had been shot dead. The news died its death two days later when Kim appeared alive and well (he was to die eight years later). The mystery of the morbid propaganda lives on.
- Fyodor Tertitskiy
(Sep 25, '13)
Delusional reality of Pakistani peace
Pakistani political parties who blame the US's war on terror and drones attacks for the rise in militancy appear blind to factors such as the state's past support for sectarian outfits, the incapacity of law enforcement agencies to tackle terrorism and the impact of Islamization programs. Unless these root causes are recognized, militants will retain the strategic upper hand and peace talks will fail.
- Sameera Rashid
(Sep 25, '13)
Afghan women face growing threats
A series of abductions and assassinations of high-profile women in Afghanistan highlights dangers that limited rights gains will be reversed once international forces pull out of the country in 2014. Taliban kidnappers this month freed a female politician in exchange for the release of insurgent prisoners. - Mina Habib
(Sep 25, '13)
SPEAKING FREELY
Modi and minority rights
Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate for prime minister in 2014, strikes a competent figure for those wishing to entrust the Indian economy to his hands. But the controversial record of the Gujarat chief minister shows he is the wrong man for minority rights, the unbiased rule of law, and secularism.
- Liam Anderson
(Sep 24, '13)
 To submit to
Speaking Freely click
here |
RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY
Moscow issues Eurasia ultimatum
Russian President Vladimir Putin is drawing new battle lines to protect his Eurasian Union project, which aims at integrating the former Soviet republics under Moscow's leadership. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's "all or nothing" threat to Ukraine to cease flirtations with Europe and revert its eyes eastward is telling: Russia is concerned that the "defection" of its biggest neighbor will undermine ambitions to build more strategic depth.
- M K Bhadrakumar
(Sep 24, '13)
Putin wins the war on terror
Vladimir Putin's policy of combating jihadists wherever possible and his will to put Russia's full diplomatic and military weight behind his fight against terror are in stark contrast to the Obama administration's focus on dialogue and humanitarian actions. Russia's international prestige is growing as it outplays the US in a fight it started but seems unable to finish.
- Riccardo Dugulin
(Sep 24, '13)
Optimists to fore before Iran-US encounter
Behind the historical brush between two presidents being lined up as an "accidental" encounter at the UN are deliberate signs of detente between the United States and Iran. Against a background of grumblings of appeasement, old hands are remarkably optimistic that some breakthrough in relations is possible after 34 years of hostility.
- Jim Lobe
(Sep 24, '13)
SINOGRAPH
Parochial limits to
China's world view
China's responses to the political crisis in Taiwan and to the Syrian malaise reflect distinctly different approaches; Taiwan prompting rumblings over the limits of democracy, and events in Damascus bringing stoic, non-interventionist silence. The common thread through both is a parochial approach to politics that suggests nationalism keeps Beijing out of touch with international destiny. - Francesco Sisci
(Sep 24, '13)
Christians protest Pakistan church killings
The deaths of more than 80 Christians in a suicide-bomb attack on a Peshawar church brought protest rallies in cities across Pakistan. With a string of attacks against the Christian minority, the response adds to past criticism that the government in the troubled northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is failing to protect a community regarded as a soft target by Islamist militants. - Syed Fazl-e-Haider
(Sep 24, '13)
THE ROVING EYE
Welcome to the Hotel Bo Xilai
When rising tiger turned crouching criminal Bo Xilai checks into his prison cell in the hills north of Beijing, courtesy of the Chinese Communist Party, he'll have all the trappings of a corrupt Mob boss in a California jail. Many powerful friends in the party would be bang to rights with him if his conviction was all about corruption. Instead, Bo waits for his key ally in Beijing to join him. - Pepe Escobar
(Sep 23, '13)
No next act for shamed princeling
Many of Bo Xilai's supporters still hope for his exoneration and rehabilitation, even as the shamed former senior Communist Party member starts a life sentence in jail. His famed father showed what can be done in the political Lazarus stakes by surviving a decade-long purge to rise once more to the top. But this is one Bo who will not bounce back. - Kent Ewing
(Sep 23, '13)
INTERVIEW
Zarif turbocharges Iran's diplomacy
New Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad  Javad Zarif has a diplomatic marathon to run in New York this week, where the eyes of the world are on his country at the UN General Assembly. Zarif brings turbocharged energy to a portfolio that includes nuclear negotiations and the belief that it is time to tell the US that "the free lunch is over" on sanctions.
- Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Sep 23, '13)
Soviet lessons for China in Xinjiang
While China's presence in the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region resembles Russia's colonization of Central Asia countries in the Soviet era, the fact that segregation and revolts were less common in the latter suggests nationalities like the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz found it easier to relate to their northern neighbors. Nonetheless, Beijing's combination of huge monetary investment and a carrot-and-stick policy for its restive Uyghur people is having results. - Igor Rotar
(Sep 23, '13)
Syria diplomacy helps shuffle global order
The United States has lost the respect and the belief of the international community as power gradually diffuses on a global scale. That is one lesson to be learned from US President Barack Obama's failure to gain followers to attack Syria. Another is the striking influence of grassroots opinion on international policy, not seen since the Vietnam War. - George Gao
(Sep 20, '13) |
|
 |
Airlines edge nearer greenhouse gas deal
Efforts to reach global agreement on curbing airline gas greenhouse gas emissions may bear some fruit over the next two weeks. Failure to reach even a weak deal could result in an international trade war. - Carey L Biron
Laos looks for more workers
Laos says it needs to triple the number of foreign workers in the country to counter a shortage of skilled labor, even as locals suffer from a lack of job opportunities in projects such as hydropower dams and mines.
CREDIT BUBBLE BULLETIN
The Fed goes too far
The Federal Reserve's decision to furlough QE "tapering" means that this time it has pushed the envelope too far. It is yet another blunder by chairman Ben Bernanke's team, and the likely price will be only greater market instability.
Doug Noland looks at the previous week's events each Monday.
|
|
Long road for
Sri Lankan Tamils
There is great poignancy that the Sri Lankan Tamil liberated himself from anger’s grip. The Bible commanded him “to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self…” Despite the intimidating presence of the military there was heavy voter turnout in Saturday’s Northern Provincial Council elections in Sri Lanka held after a bloody interlude of a quarter century.
- M K Bhadrakumar
|
|
[Re Soviet lessons for China in Xinjiang, Sep 23, '13] The Soviets never tried to overwhelm through massive implantations of Russians. China does, to the point of overwhelming the Uyghurs so much that they feel strangers in their own land.
Abraham Bin Yiju
Messina, Italy
|
|
Go to Letters to the Editor |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All material on this website is
copyright and may not be republished in any form without written permission.
Copyright 1999 - 2013 Asia Times Online (Holdings),
Ltd. Plesk.
|
|
Head Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li
Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East, Central, Hong Kong
Thailand Bureau: 11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua
Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
|
|
|
