ISRAEL: Soldier's suicide sparks security fears for departing French president

An Israeli policeman reportedly shot and killed himself during a farewell ceremony Israeli leaders were holding for French President Nicholas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.

Sarkozy was in Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel Radio said that after the shooting, security forces quickly pushed Olmert and Israeli President Shimon Perez into cars. Local reports said the shooting sent Bruni running up the stairs into their airplane, while security forces surrounded Sarkozy and whisked him on board as well.

Sarkozy was there to bolster France's ties with Israel and pledge support in confronting Iran over its nuclear program. During the visit, Sarkozy pledged greater European Union support for Palestinians and urged Israel to stop the spread of settlements in the West Bank.

A police spokesman said the policeman died in an apparent suicide. Police say there was no assassination attempt on Sarkozy and that he was not in danger.

— Nicole Gaouette

IRAN: Package detailed for Tehran to stop nuclear enrichment

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Tehran today presented the Iranians with a sweetened package of economic, political and security incentives for Iran to give up its controversial program to enrich uranium.

The E.U., the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany made Iran a similar offer two years ago. Iranian officials denounced the offer as "insulting" and not worthy of a response, characterizing it as offering Iran little in exchange for halting its coveted enrichment program.

Many of those who crafted the package feel Iranians characterized it unjustly. This time around, Solana took no chances.

Appearing slightly tense and worn, he staged a showy press conference at the residence of the German ambassador to Tehran. Before the assembled reporters, he delivered an impassioned speech (DOC) urging Iranian cooperation, which was simultaneously translated into Farsi.

He said the international community was ready to stop treating Iran like a pariah and recognize Iran's right to have nuclear power, if Tehran halts its enrichment activities:

We are ready to cooperate with Iran in the development of a modern nuclear energy program based on the most modern generation of light-water reactors. We offer legally binding fuel supply guarantees, or to work together in designing a system to provide these fuel guarantees. We can help Iran with the management of nuclear waste. We can support Iranian research and development, including in the nuclear field once confidence is being restored. If we can settle the core issue, the nuclear program, the door would be open to cooperation in many other areas.

So there could be little misinterpretation, Solana handed out English and Farsi copies of both the latest package of incentives (PDF) and a letter urging cooperation (PDF) to Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki. It was signed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and by the foreign ministers of Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany, as well as Solana.

Immediately, analysts began comparing the 2006 package of incentives (PDF) rejected by Iran to the 2008 package (PDF) submitted today.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana holds a news conference at the residence of the German ambassador to Iran Saturday in Tehran.

Photo credit: Hasan Sarbakhshian / Associated Press

IRAN: Nuclear talks kick off in Tehran

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived this morning in Tehran as the head of a delegation trying to defuse the international crisis over Iran's nuclear program.

The United States, Israel and Europe are alarmed by Iran's increasing mastery of the technically complicated process of teasing out isotopes from uranium ore to create enriched fissile material that can be used to either fuel an electricity plant or build a nuclear bomb.

There's been a lot of talk of war or increased sanctions if Iran doesn't halt the program, which arms control experts view as a potential cornerstone of an eventual nuclear weapons arsenal.

Prospects for a solution don't look so hot. Solana handed Iran a proposed package of incentives to halt its program similar to the one rejected by Tehran in 2006. Christina Golash, Solana's spokeswoman, was quoted on Iranian television as saying that Europe and Iran are "ready to establish a new energy relations," a possible hint of an offer to increase investment in the country's oil and gas fields.

But that's not likely to to get Iran to halt enrichment.

SYRIA: France's Nicolas Sarkozy knocks at Damascus' gate

Washington may be turning its nose away, but France appears to be reconsidering its standoffish attitude toward Syria, long considered an associate member of George Bush's axis of evil.

France is offering turn over a new leaf with Syria and change its policy of isolating Damascus, as it has along with other European countries and the U.S.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy recently invited his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad to visit Paris July 13 to attend the French leader's Mediterranean Sea cooperation project.

On Tuesday Syrian culture minister Riad Naasam Agha began a visit to Paris, the first by a Syrian Cabinet member in the last three years.

Washington, for its part, gave no indication it was following the French lead.

IRAN: Former German official says war imminent

An opinion piece by the former German foreign minister published today in a leading Middle East paper says that Israel is planning to attack Iran over its nuclear program.

Joschka Fischer, German's top diplomat from 1998 to 2005, is a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

[UPDATE, June 2, 3 p.m. PST: Fischer was actually a fellow at Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, not at WWICS]

He wrote a piece that appeared in today's Daily Star, an English-language  Lebanese newspaper, arguing that President Bush's recent visit to the Middle East was a precursor to a war on Iran's nuclear program:

The Middle East is drifting toward a new great confrontation in 2008. Iran must understand that without a diplomatic solution in the coming months, a dangerous military conflict is very likely to erupt. It is high time for serious negotiations to begin.

Fischer said Bush's speech during his address to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, this month indicated a coming Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear program:

He seemed to be planning, together with Israel, to end the Iranian nuclear program -- and to do so by military, rather than by diplomatic, means.... Although it is acknowledged in Israel that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would involve grave and hard-to-assess risks, the choice between acceptance of an Iranian bomb and an attempt at its military destruction, with all the attendant consequences, is clear. Israel won't stand by and wait for matters to take their course.

Fischer, former leader of Germany's Green Party, was one of the key diplomats involved in assessing Iran's nuclear facilities and pressuring Tehran for a temporary halt of its uranium enrichment program from 2003 to 2005, when he left office.

His piece was the talk of the town in Beirut. It stunned some abroad, as well. Conservative blogger Don Surber writes:

I had hoped that reasonable minds would by now have resolved this situation amicably and without violence. When a lefty like Fischer doubts that can happen, I worry.

—Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: Joschka Fischer. Credit: Andrzej Barabasz / Wikimedia Commons

IRAN: Hillary's threat to "obliterate" in war reverberates

 

Better be careful what you say in the heat of a political campaign. It could have global repercussions.

Presidential contender Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's vow to "obliterate" Iran, presumably with nuclear weapons, if it attacked Israel on her watch was duly noted in the U.S.

[UPDATE: To see a video and full transcript of the comment, click here.]

Jaded American insiders shrugged off the remark as typical campaign season bluster, filed away with myriad other exaggerations and gaffes.

But it prompted shock overseas as well as headlines from Bulgaria to New Zealand.

MIDDLE EAST: Danish cartoon controversy continues to ripple

The anger unleashed in the Muslim world by the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad more than two years ago is apparently far from simmering down.

In the latest of the drawings' consequences, the Danish government decided to close its embassies in Algeria and Afghanistan after threats of terrorist attacks against their premises in these two countries. According to a report in a Danish newspaper, the Danes have evacuated their staff from embassies in Kabul and Algiers to an unidentified "safe location," where they continue to work.

The newspaper said that the Danish intelligence linked the threats to the reprinting of the cartoons in February by international newspapers.

IRAN: Protest against Dutch film 'Fitna' draws tepid crowd

The protest in front of the Dutch Embassy today in Tehran was supposed to show the Muslim rage against right-wing politician Geert Wilders' film, "Fitna," which criticizes the Koran.

Instead, the demonstration showed mostly apathy. Only about 40 students, 25 guys and 15 women, showed up for the outing. They brought a couple of loudspeakers and called for the sacking of Wilders, who has likened the Koran to Hitler's "Mein Kampf."

They chanted against America and Israel, but also denounced liberal Iranian political factions as traitors.

Wilders had said that his intention was to provoke. Many criticized him for trying to stir up a hornet's nest between the West and Islam. Some feared riots and bloodshed once the movie was released, like those that erupted amid the 2006 Danish cartoon controversy.

But today, the police outnumbered the protesters, and a 15-foot fence surrounded the embassy wall, preventing anyone from hurling projectiles at the building.

At the end of the rally, a couple of demonstrators pelted the embassy with eggs, but most were polite and calm. One protester went out of his way to say he had no problem with the Dutch or the West.

"We are against the emerging anti-Islamic trend in the West," said Hanif Hussain Satarizadeh, a student at  Amir Kabir university in Tehran. "The Netherlands as a country is not our target."

— Ramin Mostaghim In Tehran

Photo: Iranians attended  a protest outside the Dutch Embassy against the production and broadcast of the film "Fitna" by right-wing Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders in Tehran today. Credit: Hasan Sarbakhshian / Associated Press

IRAN: Foreign policy ain't no popularity contest

An annual poll commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corp. ranked Iran as the country with the most negative influence on the world.

But its arch-rival Israel shouldn't gloat too much: the Jewish state ranked as the country with the second most negative influence.

The poll results, released this week, show that while Israel's negatives slipped from 57% to 52%, negative views of Iran’s influence have held steady at 54%, making it the most negatively rated of the countries tested for the second year in a row.

“The poll suggests that Iran continues to pay a price for its nuclear stand-off with the United Nations," said Doug Miller or GlobeScan, who was among the pollsters.

Pakistan followed Israel as the third most unpopular country.

The pollsters asked 17,457 people across 34 countries between Oct. 31, 2007, and Jan. 25, 2008, to rate whether Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the U.S.A. and the European Union had a mostly positive or negative impact on the world.  In addition to GlobeScan, the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland oversaw the survey.

Among the countries that fared well in the study were Japan, Germany and the European Union who scored the highest marks, while America's standing improved slightly after years of deterioration.

Those who say the U.S. has a negative influence declined from 52% to 47%, while those who give Uncle Sam the big thumbs up increased from 31% to 35%.

Pollster Steven Kull suggests the worldwide hoopla over the prospect of a President Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton may have bolstered America's image abroad:

It may be that as the US approaches a new presidential election, views of the US are being mitigated by hope that a new administration will move away from the foreign policies that have been so unpopular in the world.

Russia's image showed the greatest improvement. Its positives jumped from 29% to 37% this year and negatives dropped from 40% to 33%.

Tell us below which countries you think have the best and worst influence on the world.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Graphic: Changing attitudes toward the U.S. Credit: BBC World Service

IRAN: A distress signal via Facebook

Amid the notifications prodding me to become a vampire or a zombie and one-line shout-outs from friends around the world, the plea for help on the social networking website Facebook stood out starkly.

The message, written in all capitals to underscore its urgency, came from Pooya Dayanim, an Iranian American living in the Los Angeles area:

TURKISH AUTHORITIES HAVE ARRESTED AMIR-FARSHAD EBRAHIMI, A PROMINENT GERMAN-BASED IRANIAN JOURNALIST ON CHARGES THAT HE COLLABORATED WITH THE FBI IN THE FLIGHT OF A PROMINENT IRANIAN OFFICIAL LAST YEAR. TURKISH AUTHORITIES HAVE ADVISED MR. EBRAHIMI THAT IN ORDER TO AVOID ANOTHER SIMILAR INCIDENT THEY ARE DEPORTING HIM IN THE NEXT FEW HOURS BACK TO IRAN WHERE HE WILL SURELY BE TORTURED AND EXECUTED.

MIDDLE EAST: Jitters as Dutch movie 'Fitna' is released

Will the world witness soon another wave of angry Muslim protests?

The release on the Internet Thursday evening of a highly controversial Dutch film asserting links between Islam and terrorism raised fears of renewed riots, similar to those sparked in 2006 by the publication of derisive Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

So far, according to Los Angeles Times correspondent Geraldine Baum in Paris, no violence was recorded related to the film, at least not in Holland:

"They were all disgusted by the film, but so far there isn't a big explosion," said [Dutch] police spokesman Arnold Aben. "In fact, it's quieter than usual here today. Sort of like a holiday."

The 15-minute film "Fitna," which in Arabic means strife, was made by an extreme right-wing Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders. The movie intersperses verses from Islam's holy book, the Koran, and inflammatory sermons by Muslim clerics, along with sensational images of terrorist attacks, including the 2001 attack against the World Trade Center in New York.

IRAQ: What money can buy, and can't

Baghdad correspondent Alexandra Zavis has a front-page story in today's Los Angeles Times about one of the most successful programs ever devised by the U.S. military to quell violence in Iraq, and the potential consequences of what would happen if it comes to an end:

After five years of trial and error, the strategy of recruiting tribesmen to help defend their neighborhoods against Islamic extremists has proved one of the most effective weapons in the U.S. counterinsurgency arsenal. But restoring a measure of calm to what were some of the most violent places in Iraq has in turn presented the U.S. military with one of its biggest headaches: what to do with the more than 80,000 armed men whose loyalty has been bought with a paycheck that cannot go on forever.

ISRAEL: Merkel vows to stand against Iran

In an emotional tribute to victims and survivors of the Holocaust, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that the Nazi genocide "fills us Germans with shame" and pledged to stand by Israel's side against any threat, particularly from Iran.

"This historic responsibility is part of my country's fundamental policy," Merkel declared in a speech delivered in German to a special session of the Israeli parliament. "It means that for me, as a German chancellor, Israel's security is nonnegotiable."

The address capped a three-day state visit during which the German leader, a staunch ally, marked the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding by formally upgrading an already warm relationship between the countries.

Click here to read the rest of story.

— Richard Boudreaux in Jerusalem

Photo: Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the Knesset, Israel's parliament, during a special session in Jerusalem, Tuesday, March 18, 2008. Germany's chancellor has told Israel's parliament that Germans are filled with shame over the Nazi Holocaust and that she bows before the victims.  Merkel delivered the speech in German on the last day of an Israel visit that was marked by extraordinary warmth. Credit: AP Photo/Jim Hollander

MIDDLE EAST: Another cartoon controversy in the making

A satirical painting of Islam's holiest shrine, the Kaaba, in an art exhibition in Germany, has angered Muslims around the world. Threats of violence forced Galerie Nord in central Berlin last week to temporarily close down the show of works by Danish artists.

In February, the reprinting of Danish cartoons depicting derisively Islam's prophet Muhammad sparked protests in Denmark and other countries, a reminder of the massive deadly demonstrations of angry bearded men protesting the same caricatures across the Muslim world in 2006.
 
This time protesters objected to a poster showing Muslim devotees walking around the Muslim holy shrine with speech bubbles saying, "Zionist occupied government."

The poster, one out of 22, is titled "Stupid Stone."

MIDDLE EAST: Dutch film about Koran could spark new clash

Uh-oh... The clash of civilizations may fire up again with the possible release of a short film by an ultra-rightwing member of Holland's parliament who has likened the Koran to Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf."

Geert Wilders, a Dutch lawmaker, has made a movie that has raised alarm bells across Europe even before it's been screened. Political leaders worry about another flare-up of cross-cultural conflict like the one that erupted in 2006 after the Danish publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. 

The film purports to show the dangers of the Koran and Wilders has threatened to air his movie during a segment on Dutch television alloted to his Freedom Party. Wilders has a less-than-stellar record when it comes to cultural sensitivity on the issue of Islam. He has demanded an outright ban on Islam's holiest book, which he calls a "fascist" text. And he means it when he says ban, according to his website:

Not only the sale, but also the use in mosques and ownership in a household context should be punishable. If the current legislation does not allow that, then a new law on banning the book should be introduced. This book incites hate and murder, and therefore does not fit in with our rule of law. If Muslims want to participate, they must distance themselves from the Koran. I know that is asking a great deal, but we have to stop making concessions.