Friday, May 2, 2008
Iran to be offered new incentives
Major world powers are to offer Iran updated incentives to stop enriching uranium and end fears it is seeking a nuclear arsenal.
The agreement on a new package was announced by UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband after talks between foreign ministers in London.
He said no details would be made public before the offer was made to Tehran.
Iran, which says it is seeking civilian nuclear energy, is under UN sanctions for continuing to enrich uranium.
Friday's deal was agreed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, the UK and France - plus Germany.
All were represented by their foreign ministers except for China, which sent a deputy minister.
"We are united in our belief that the threat posed by this enrichment programme to stability is very serious and it's one that we want to address directly," Mr Miliband said. (BBC)
Labels: China, France, Iran, Nuclear Power, Russia, U.K., U.N.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
CIA to describe North Korea-Syria nuclear ties
CIA officials will tell Congress on Thursday that North Korea had been helping Syria build a plutonium-based nuclear reactor, a U.S. official said, a disclosure that could touch off new resistance to the administration's plan to ease sanctions on Pyongyang.
The CIA officials will tell lawmakers that they believe the reactor would have been capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons but was destroyed before it could do so, the U.S. official said, apparently referring to a suspicious installation in Syria that was bombed last year by Israeli warplanes.
The CIA officials also will say that though U.S. officials have had concerns for years about ties between North Korea and Syria, it was not until last year that new intelligence convinced them that the suspicious facility under construction in a remote area of Syria was a nuclear reactor, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing plans for the briefing. (LA Times)
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Nuclear Watchdog Gets China's Iran Intel
China has recently given the International Atomic Energy Agency intelligence about Iran's nuclear program despite Beijing's opposition to harsh U.N. Security Council sanctions on Tehran, according to diplomats familiar with the matter.
China and Russia have acted as a brake within the Security Council, consistently watering down a U.S.-led push to impose severe penalties on Tehran for its nuclear defiance since the first set of sanctions was passed in late 2006.
A Chinese decision to provide information for use in the agency's attempts to probe Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program would appear to reflect growing international unease about how honest the Islamic republic has been in denying it ever tried to make such arms.
The new development was revealed to The Associated Press by two senior diplomats who closely follow the IAEA probe of Iran's nuclear program.
The IAEA declined comment and no one answered the phone Wednesday at either the Chinese or Iranian missions to the IAEA.
The diplomats said Beijing was the most surprising entry in a substantial list of nations that have recently forwarded information that could be relevant in attempts to probe past or present nuclear weapons research by Iran. (AP)
Amid Israeli siege, Palestinian businesses look east to China
Faced with Israeli trade and travel restrictions, a stagnant economy and a flood of cheap imports from Asia, Palestinian businessmen are increasingly seeking their fortunes in China.
Demand for Chinese visas among Palestinian business owners in the West Bank is so high that the Chinese consul regularly visits the city of Hebron to stamp their passports and circumvent an Israeli ban that prevents them from traveling to the embassy in Tel Aviv.
"Everybody is doing business in China," Khaled Oseily, businessman and mayor of Hebron, told Reuters. "The Chinese consul comes to Hebron and on one day issued some 600 to 700 visas to Hebronite businessmen."
China began to open up its economy around 30 years ago, using cheap labour to produce and export huge volumes of inexpensive goods that have undercut local industries in many developing countries.
In Hebron, the largest Palestinian city famous for its leather and handmade ceramics, the wave of cheap Chinese goods was the last straw for businessmen already battling Israeli travel restrictions that inflate costs and hurt economic growth. (Haaretz)
Labels: China, Israel, Palestine
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Those who control oil and water will control the world
History may not repeat itself, but, as Mark Twain observed, it can sometimes rhyme. The crises and conflicts of the past recur, recognisably similar even when altered by new conditions. At present, a race for the world's resources is underway that resembles the Great Game that was played in the decades leading up to the First World War. Now, as then, the most coveted prize is oil and the risk is that as the contest heats up it will not always be peaceful. But this is no simple rerun of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, there are powerful new players and it is not only oil that is at stake.
It was Rudyard Kipling who brought the idea of the Great Game into the public mind in Kim, his cloak-and-dagger novel of espionage and imperial geopolitics in the time of the Raj. Then, the main players were Britain and Russia and the object of the game was control of central Asia's oil. Now, Britain hardly matters and India and China, which were subjugated countries during the last round of the game, have emerged as key players. The struggle is no longer focused mainly on central Asian oil. It stretches from the Persian Gulf to Africa, Latin America, even the polar caps, and it is also a struggle for water and depleting supplies of vital minerals. Above all, global warming is increasing the scarcity of natural resources. The Great Game that is afoot today is more intractable and more dangerous than the last. (Guardian)
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Dubai-China trade jumps to 19.4 bln dlrs (AFP)
Trade between China and the Gulf emirate of Dubai jumped to 19.4 billion dollars in 2007, almost all of it in imports from Beijing, according to figures released in Dubai Saturday.
The figures compiled by government conglomerate Dubai World showed that exchanges rose from 13.18 billion dollars in 2006 to 19.4 billion dollars last year, a statement said.
China topped the list of countries from which Dubai imports goods, with imports valued at 19 billion dollars. Trade in the other direction, including re-exports, amounted to 0.4 billion.
Dubai, a member of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, is a regional trade and tourism hub. UAE Prime Minister and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum will visit China starting March 31 to boost economic links. (Link)
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