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Ed Webb

IDF general: Goldstone 'nothing' compared to next Lebanon clash - 0 views

972mag.com/...50189

Israel Egypt Lebanon Iran diplomacy rhetoric military

shared by Ed Webb on 06 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Ed Webb on 06 Jul 12
     
    What is the effect of such rhetoric? Is it simply a deterrent, responding to the political realities, as one comment suggests? Does it have the desired deterrent effect?
Ed Webb

US senate bill conditions Egypt aid on disclosure of security budget - Economy - Busine... - 0 views

english.ahram.org.eg/...-Egypt-aid-on-disclosure-.aspx

US USA Egypt aid military SCAF budget economy transparency

shared by Ed Webb on 05 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • The bill, however, gives the Secretary of State the right to waive any of the aforementioned requirements, if doing so was deemed "important to the national security interest of the United States."
Ed Webb

For Putin, Principle vs. Practicality on Syria - www.nytimes.com - Readability - 0 views

www.readability.com/...padwkdnf

Russia Syria Putin

shared by Ed Webb on 05 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • It is impossible to fully disentangle these reactions from what has been going on inside Russia over the last year, as a decade-long contract between Mr. Putin and his citizens began to fray. Though there is little comparison on the ground between the Arab uprisings and Russia’s unrest — the Russian opposition movement remains small, Moscow-centered and moderate in its tactics — the sudden change has left the government wary of legitimizing any popular dissent. State-controlled news media paint a bleak picture of Arab countries that have seen uprisings, and Russian diplomats have approached new authorities in the Arab world slowly and awkwardly. Meanwhile, Russian leaders fear that rising Islamism in the Arab world will breathe new life into the armed insurgency in the northern Caucasus, which is mostly Sunni.
  • Syria4 has provided Russia with an opportunity to say no — to Western intervention and to the specter of revolution
  • As the body count rises, one of Moscow’s real concerns may be the hardening of Arab public opinion against Russia, said a senior Arab diplomat
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Russia’s officials have been forced to accept that “unlike the last four decades, now the Arab street has a voice,”
Ed Webb

The Growing Iran-Turkey Rivalry | FrontPage Magazine - 0 views

frontpagemag.com/...he-growing-iran-turkey-rivalry

Syria Turkey Iran sectarianism sunni shia opinion

shared by Ed Webb on 05 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • The Turkish-Persian rivalry is, in fact, the oldest power game in the Middle East.  It now appears that this historical conflict (with relatively same-sized populations of 80 million) has taken on an added dimension: a clash between the Sunnis and Shias
  • By becoming a Middle Eastern player once again, a resurgent Ankara has emerged as the natural challenger to the other key Middle Eastern actor: nuclear-power and hegemony-seeking Iran
  • What we’re seeing is an attempt by both Erdogan and Ahmadinejad to win over the Arab world
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • In Syria, a proxy war is being conducted between Iran and Turkey, with Iran arming its Alawite client state headed up by Bashar Assad of Syria, and Turkey aiding the opposition Syrian Free Army, comprised largely of Sunni-Muslim defectors from the Syrian army
  • Ed Webb on 05 Jul 12
     
    A little simplistic in places
Ed Webb

World Bank Announces A New Strategy For Tunisia : Tunisia Live - 0 views

www.tunisia-live.net/...ces-a-new-strategy-for-tunisia

Tunisia economy constitution worldbank IBRD

shared by Ed Webb on 05 Jul 12 - Cached
  • a program which will focus on three areas of engagement: sustainable economic growth through job creation, promotion of  social and economic inclusion with a focus on Tunisia’s minorities and gender equality, and finally an effort to strengthen governmental transparency.
  • The plan referred specifically to the Constituent Assembly’s drafting of the country’s new constitution and Tunisia’s upcoming elections as areas where the World Bank Group hopes to offer guidance.
Ed Webb

Analysis: West struggles to understand Russia's Syria stance - Yahoo! News - 0 views

news.yahoo.com/as-syria-stance-121126030.html

Russia Syria diplomacy analysis

shared by Ed Webb on 03 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • They say Moscow's opposition to foreign-backed "regime change" reflects a fundamental disagreement with the West over sovereignty and the rights of states to deal with domestic instability by whatever means necessary. "The Russian position can be explained by their hostility to any interference in the internal affairs of a country, especially in the current climate, because at home they have things to be worried about,"
  • Time and time again, Western officials have confidently briefed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was on the brink of dumping his long-term ally, only to be disappointed
  • A death toll in Syria of well over 10,000 seems unlikely on its own to change Putin's mind. Estimates vary widely of the number of dead in Chechnya - a conflict in which he was involved as prime minister and president - but often exceed 100,000.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • "Putin has spent the last decade obsessing about 'color revolutions'," says Stephen Sestanovich, principal State Department officer for the former Soviet Union between 1997 and 2001 and now senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "He hates the idea that the international community has anything to say about who holds power in a country whose leaders have done something awful. He tends to sympathize with those leaders."
  • In Alawite-run Syria, and perhaps to a lesser extent in Shi'ite Iran, Russia also has a regional counterweight to an increasingly vocal bloc of Sunni Muslim-led countries allied with Washington, primarily Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.
  • "In the West we often exaggerate Putin's dictatorial side," says former U.S. official Sestanovich. "In Russia, many criticize him for indecisiveness. It may be that in Syria he's actually confused about what to do, and is slowly concluding that Assad has had it. That's the hopeful interpretation: Putin the conflicted ditherer."
Ed Webb

The Great Caspian Arms Race - By Joshua Kucera | Foreign Policy - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...the_great_caspian_arms_race

Caspian Iran Russia Azerbaijan Kazakhstan Turkmenistan military IR energy borders

shared by Ed Webb on 02 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • the real scenario of the exercise: the defense of Kazakhstan's oil fields from several squadrons of F-4, F-5, and Su-25 fighters and bombers. The map didn't name which country the jets came from, but the trajectory and the types of planes gave it away: Iran.
  • something that has never before been seen on the Caspian: an arms race
  • While the Caspian may still be marginal to Iran or Russia, it is of crucial strategic importance to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • The issue of who controls what, however, is a tricky one. While certain pairs of states have worked out bilateral treaties dividing the sea between themselves, some boundaries -- most notably those involving Iran -- remain vague. In addition, the legality of building a "Trans-Caspian Pipeline" under the sea (as Turkmenistan would like to do, to ship natural gas through Azerbaijan and onward to Europe) is unclear, and both Russia and Iran oppose the project
  • "The military-political situation in the region is extremely unpredictable. This is explained on one side by the unregulated status of the sea, and from the other, the aspirations of several non-Caspian states to infiltrate the region and its oil and gas," the Russian magazine National Defense, in a not-so-oblique reference to the United States and Europe, wrote in a special report this year on the Caspian naval buildup. "In these conditions Russia is compelled to look after the security of its citizens and the defense of the interests of the Caspian countries."
  • Iran has built up its navy on the Caspian from nearly nothing during the Soviet era to a force of close to 100 missile boats, two of which are equipped with Chinese C-802 anti-ship missiles. And Tehran has announced that it's building a "destroyer," which will become the largest ship in its Caspian fleet (though probably closer to a corvette by international standards).
  • "If someone is too safe, no one is safe."
  • a classic case of the security dilemma
  • the firepower and the geopolitical tension on the sea are still low enough that the Caspian is far from "flashpoint" status. But the trend is moving in a dangerous direction. The five countries on the Caspian are all so opaque about their intentions that there is plenty of room for miscalculation, leading to a disastrous conflict that no state truly wants. It is also particularly ironic because  all the governments officially call for demilitarization of the Caspian. Most of the countries justify their Caspian naval buildups in light of this rhetoric by citing a threat from terrorists or piracy -- though there has been nearly no indication of either the intent or ability of terrorists to attack
  • All of the post-Soviet states mistrust Iran, especially Azerbaijan.
  • "Iranians think they are a besieged fortress," said a Baku naval analyst who asked not to be named. "The U.S. cooperation here is nothing special but they build conspiracy theories about it." Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's strong military relationship with Israel only adds to Iran's suspicions
  • Iran recently announced a huge new oil discovery in the Caspian, which Tehran says contains 10 billion barrels of oil. While Iran hasn't yet announced the exact location of the find, the information it has put out suggests that the discovery, according to regional analyst Alex Jackson, is in "what would reasonably be considered Azerbaijan's waters."
Ed Webb

Syrian rebels to boycott Cairo opposition talks | Egypt Independent - 0 views

www.egyptindependent.com/...boycott-cairo-opposition-talks

Syria revolution UN ArabLeague Cairo

shared by Ed Webb on 02 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • “We refuse all kinds of dialogue and negotiation with the killer gangs ... and we will not allow anyone to impose on Syria and its people the Russian and Iranian agendas,” said a statement signed by the rebel Free Syrian Army and “independent” activists. The signatories criticized the agenda of the Cairo talks for “rejecting the idea of a foreign military intervention to save the people ... and ignoring the question of buffer zones protected by the international community, humanitarian corridors, an air embargo and the arming of rebel fighters.”
  • “We refuse all kinds of dialogue and negotiation with the killer gangs ... and we will not allow anyone to impose on Syria and its people the Russian and Iranian agendas,” said a statement signed by the rebel Free Syrian Army and “independent” activists. The signatories criticized the agenda of the Cairo talks for “rejecting the idea of a foreign military intervention to save the people ... and ignoring the question of buffer zones protected by the international community, humanitarian corridors, an air embargo and the arming of rebel fighters.”
  • “We refuse all kinds of dialogue and negotiation with the killer gangs ... and we will not allow anyone to impose on Syria and its people the Russian and Iranian agendas,” said a statement signed by the rebel Free Syrian Army and “independent” activists. The signatories criticized the agenda of the Cairo talks for “rejecting the idea of a foreign military intervention to save the people ... and ignoring the question of buffer zones protected by the international community, humanitarian corridors, an air embargo and the arming of rebel fighters.”
Ed Webb

Tensions rise between Turkey and Syria with Ankara scrambling jets - 2 views

english.alarabiya.net/...223874.html

Turkey Syria military diplomacy

shared by Ed Webb on 01 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Ankara scrambled fighter jets after Syrian helicopters flew close to the border, underlining the mistrust between the neighbors after the downing of a Turkish plane last month
  • there had been no violation of Turkish airspace
  • Syrian troops were reportedly massing near the Turkish border a day after the Turkish mobilization
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