Headlines--World Media Watch for June 24, 2005 (Iran, Muslim group, etc.)

[Gloria]

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR JUNE 24, 2005

1//IranMania, UK--IRAN’S NUCLEAR DIPLOMACY SEEN AT STAKE IN RUN-OFF (A victory in Iran's presidential run-off by hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad would remove a moderating influence from within the regime and could put the Islamic republic on a collision course with the West, diplomats and analysts said. Seen as being most at stake is Iran's relatively pragmatic approach in diplomacy over its nuclear programme, which Iran maintains is for peaceful purposes but is seen by many as the cover for weapons development. . … . "It is extremely important to understand that what is at stake is this process concerning dangerous nuclear materials," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy cautioned after Ahmadinejad was thrust into a shock run-off against Rafsanjani. … . According to Ahmadinejad, currently Tehran's mayor, "those who are handling the talks are terrified, and before they even sit down at the negotiating table they retreat 500 kilometres." "A popular and fundamentalist government," he added, "will quickly change that." An Ahmadinejad win would also place every Iranian elected and non-elected institution under the control of Iran's anti-Western religious right, ending what has up to now been a delicate equilibrium in decision making between moderates and hardliners.)



2//The Daily Star, Lebanon--BLIX CLAIMS IRAN YEARS AWAY FROM NUCLEAR BOMB (STOCKHOLM: Iran is years away from achieving a nuclear capacity sufficient to create a bomb, former chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq Hans Blix said. Speaking in an interview with a Swedish public radio, Blix said: "They are many years away from being able to convert enriched uranium into a bomb." . … . News on Wednesday that Iran could within months take delivery of Russian nuclear fuel to fire up its first nuclear power station has exacerbated international concerns that the new Bushehr plant in southern Iran could be a cover for weapons development. Blix told Ekot news program the concerns over that plant were exaggerated, pointing out that while the shell of the plant was built with German group Siemens before the Iran-Iraq war, Russia had stepped in after the war with only low-grade nuclear technology. "It's like putting the motor of a Lada in a Mercedes car," he joked, adding that the light-water reactors being used are also not ideal for creating plutonium.)



3//Institute for War & Peace Reporting, UK--THOUSANDS OF PESHMERGA DRAFTED INTO ARMY (Iraqi Kurdistan is to bolster Iraqi army and interior ministry units by providing the beleaguered security forces 32,000 of its peshmerga fighters - a little more than half the elite militia, according to Kurd officials. The remaining thirty thousand Kurdish troops will come under the control of a planned peshmerga ministry in the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan, said Mustafa Sayyed Qadir, deputy chief of units belonging to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK. … . The continued presence of a peshmerga force has alarmed some Iraqis, especially Sunnis, who are concerned that it might be deployed by the Kurds in a future independence struggle. Plans to halve the militia have failed to allay these worries. . … . The former Coalition Provision Authority had issued orders for militias to be disbanded but the decision has not been followed through. … . While the rest of Iraq might not like it, Kurds believe it is paramount that they retain substantial numbers of pershmerga fighters.)



4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--REVOLUTION WITHOUT BULLETS OR BALLOTS (From the shores of the Caspian Sea to the Bay of Bengal, there are violent reactionaries in the Muslim world who will kill and get killed, but beyond these fanatics there exists a real hardcore silently swaying the hearts and minds of many in the Muslim world. Their religion is not obvious from their demeanor or the cut of their clothes, yet it is embedded in the very core of their hearts, and is the driving force behind all their actions. They are an overwhelming emerging force, and even though they have been widely banned, they don't believe in retaliation. They have made a hub in Pakistan, where they outnumber many large religious parties, yet they remain difficult to pinpoint as they are political, but have been forced underground. They are the largest single movement in the Islamic world, the Liberation Party - Hizb ut-Tahrir .)



5//The Independent, UK--ANALYSIS: HOW ‘PRESIDENT’ BLAIR PLANS TO CAPITALISE ON EU CRISIS (Until recently, Foreign Office officials were saying that Britain's six-month spell in the European Union's rotating presidency would be a workmanlike but deliberately low-key event. There is now little prospect of that. The blood on the Brussels carpet from the acrimonious summit of EU leaders a week ago is still not dry, and Tony Blair is being blamed for spilling it by refusing to sign a deal on the EU budget. Whatever happens, the British presidency is unlikely to be dull. … . In theory, holding the presidency should allow Britain to set the EU's agenda. "Europe needs strong leadership and that's what we will offer," said a Blair ally. In practice, the country chairing EU meetings must be conciliatory and seek compromises. So it must be trusted as an honest broker. Mr Blair has work to do, as shown by the sceptical reaction by some MEPs yesterday to his declaration that he was a "passionate pro-European".)