By: Leigh Phillips – EUObserver

The UK and Germany believe that a new international system regulating the financial sector must be constructed to prevent a repeat of global banking crisis in the future.

Peter Steinbrueck, Germany’s Social-Democrat finance minister, raised on Sunday (21 September) the idea of “an international authority that will make the traffic rules for financial markets,” while speaking to German radio, Reuters reports.

One government alone cannot deal with the consequences of globalisation (Photo: wikipedia)

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to outline proposals for just such a body, run under the authority of the International Monetary fund, in a speech to the Labour Party conference on Monday, as well as domestic plans to crack down on “irresponsible” bonuses handed out in the City, London’s financial quarter.

“I think what people haven’t appreciated is we’ve now got global financial systems but we’ve only got national regulators to cover them,” Mr Brown told the BBC ahead of the speech, adding that he had been trying to convince his international counterparts for years of the need for “a global system of financial regulation.”

His finance minister, Alistair Darling, according to the country’s Guardian newspaper, is also set to tell his fellow Labour Party members: “Just as one government alone cannot combat global terrorism, just as one government alone cannot combat climate change, so one government alone cannot deal with the consequences of globalisation.”

Mr Brown will be pressing world leaders to sign up to such a plan when he visits New York on Thursday for a meeting of the UN General Assembly.

Meanwhile, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, has publicly chastised the US and UK for historical opposition to stronger financial regulation.

Speaking to an election rally in Austria over the weekend, Ms Merkel said: “Today we have come further because now America and Great Britain are also saying ‘Yes, we need more transparency, we need better standards for rating agencies’.”

The chancellor was referring to US and UK opposition to Berlin plans for greater oversight of hedge funds proposed last June at a G8 meeting.

“We played ball, we adopted a nice EU directive into national law, we had to cope with a lot of complaints from medium sized enterprises, and at the end of the day, the Americans said: we won’t,” the chancellor said.

In related news, the European Commission is to propose stricter conditions for banks offering credit to other financial institutions, according to draft documents first seen by the Financial Times Deutschland. Banks would now have to say if they maintain part of the risk in their own accounts when offering credit, according to proposals set to be approved by the commission on Wednesday.

Elsewhere, European banks have been lobbying hard to win support under the framework of the $700 billion bail-out of Wall Street announced on Friday by US treasury secretary Henry Paulson.

Banks such as UBS and Credit Suisse, which have significant operations in the US are likely to be eligible for part of the US Treasury’s planned buy-out of bad debt held by American financial institutions.

“It’s a distinction without a difference whether it’s a foreign or a US one,” Mr Paulson told the Fox News channel.

However, to participate in the scheme, he suggested that European taxpayers would also have to take part in bankrolling the biggest bail-out of private firms in world history: “Our system’s a global one, and I also am going to be pressing colleagues around the world to design similar systems for their banks,” he said.

“We are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world, and encouraging them to do similar things, and I believe a number of them will,” Mr Paulson said.

* EU assessment: IDF can’t stop Iran alone EU diplomatic sources who specialize in the Middle East believe that Israel cannot stop the Iranian nuclear program on its own using military means.

* Russia offers Chavez $1 billion for weapons The Kremlin has decided to offer a $1 billion loan for arms purchases to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

* As UN Debates Jewish Growth, Samaria Head Says ‘Leave Us Alone’ Samaria Regional Council head Geshon Mesika said: “Our rights to live and build in Yehuda and Shomron [Judea and Samaria] are historical and biblical.

* Bush, Abbas try to keep peace talks moving US President George W. Bush on Thursday met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to try to keep Middle East negotiations alive.

* UN to hold session on settlements The UN Security Council has agreed to hold a high-level open debate Friday on the ongoing Israeli settlement building in disputed territory.

* PA Blindly Bashes Jews’ ‘Imaginary Temple’ The Palestinian Authority, run by PLO Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas, is again making efforts to popularize Muslim denial of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

* The Arabs and the U.S. Financial Crunch When a financial earthquake hits the United States, its tremors are bound to be felt across the world.

* Azerbaijan diverts EU oil to Russia and Iran Azerbaijan is sticking to plans to reduce oil exports to the EU and increase shipments to Russia and Iran.

* ‘US against Israeli strike on Iran’ The US refused to give Israel a green light for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities when Jerusalem requested Washington’s support for such a move this past spring.

* Wall Street rescue deal stalemate Talks to agree a huge $700bn (£380bn) bail-out of the US financial industry have ended in a “shouting match”.

By: Claude Salhani – Middle East Times

In the words of Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, we are all aware of the painful trajectory Iraq has gone through over the course of the last five years. Indeed, the people of Iraq had to go through a devastating war; a near civil war; daily terrorist attacks that have claimed thousands of lives; the second-largest refugee crisis in the Arab world, after the Palestinians; and the list goes on, and on.

Iraq has come a long way, yet the road ahead is still long and tortuous, and very perilous. Iraqi police cadets march during a graduation ceremony at a U.S. military camp in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, on Sept. 18. (UPI Photo)

But “the Iraqi people fought back against crisis after crisis,” the foreign minister told a small group of journalists, including the Middle East Times, during a meeting in Geneva last weekend on the sidelines of a conference organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Perhaps they fought back because they simply had no other choice.

However, in spite of the 80 percent reduction in violence Iraq has registered over the last several weeks, and the fact that 11 of the country’s 18 provinces are now under Iraqi control, including Anbar Province, one of the most rebellious and possibly the deadliest for U.S. forces in Iraq, it is of paramount importance that neither the Iraqi government, nor the U.S. military (and civilian) command in Iraq believe they can rest on their laurels.

To quote the country’s foreign minister once again, there is little doubt that Iraqis “have turned a potentially huge corner.” As Zebari told the small group in Geneva, “We have managed to pull ourselves from the brink.”

Truer words have rarely been spoken. Iraq has come a long way. Yet the road ahead is still long and tortuous, and very perilous.

“What we have now is fragile. What we do next is crucial,” Zebari said.

He pointed out four “major challenges” the country still faces, saying that Iraq “must progress on all four fronts.”

1. Achieving national reconciliation: If Iraq is to overcome the odds and surmount the risk of being fragmented into several states along sectarian lines, efforts by the country’s different communities, primarily the Sunnis, Shiites and the Kurds, but also the Turkmen and Assyrians (who are Christians), will have to learn to live together. That includes having the foresight to see beyond the current crisis and project into the future and imagine where a peaceful and unified Iraq could be down the road. As a major oil producer and sitting on the region’s second-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia, Iraq has all the chances of becoming once again a successful country. The difference this time around is that it should be a free, successful country. Iraq and its people have paid a very hefty price for this freedom. It would be criminal to waste this opportunity. However, in order to succeed the people of Iraq will need to start thinking of themselves as belonging to a nation, Iraq; and not think of themselves as belonging to a religion, a tribe, a clan or a party serving the interests of its neighbors, which no matter how you spin it, can never serve the cause of Iraq.

2. The status of U.S. forces in Iraq: the quicker the Iraqis succeed in putting their differences behind them and focusing on the future, rather than dwell on the past, the sooner foreign forces are likely to leave Iraq. Though the foreign minister cautioned: “There is, however, need for a continuous presence of the multinational force.” He insisted that “there is no timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Their withdrawal must be condition-driven. A premature withdrawal will create chaos.”

3. Iraq needs greater cooperation with its neighbors: During the disastrous years that Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq, he took the country to war with three of its six neighbors, Iran and Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, the latter becoming the staging ground for the U.S.-led coalition put together by President George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States and father of the incumbent, which eventually ousted Saddam from Kuwait. Relations with Syria were tense with the opposing Baath parties forever plotting against each other. But if Iraq learns how to live with its neighbors, the difficult task remains getting its neighbors to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs.

4. And finally, the challenges posed by the government to demonstrate good governance and undertake the monumental task of reconstruction of the country’s institutions and learning how to serve its people, rather than expecting the people to serve the government.

Zebari recognizes that the road ahead will be hard. “It would be naïve not to recognize that some groups are positioning themselves for a change of administration in the United States,” he said. But he stressed: “A winners-take-all approach in a democratic Iraq will not work.”

The major development is that, as Zebari pointed out, “Iraq is no longer a threat to its own people, to the region or to the world.”

The threat today comes from its own people and the region.

By: –

ROME: Is the Roman Catholic Church a beleaguered underdog, fighting for a voice in secular Europe, or a still-mighty power, wielding its influence on European law through friendly center-right governments?

That question, which has been building throughout Pope Benedict XVI’s three-year-old papacy, came to the fore in his recent trip to France.

Yet even as the pope called for more animated discussion of church and state and more interreligious dialogue, no one, probably not even at the Vatican, expects Europe to become newly devout anytime soon. Mass attendance is at record lows, as is the number of priests.

And no one expects France to overturn its dearly held tenet of laïcité, or strict separation of church and state, despite the pope’s admonition that secularism leads to nihilism and President Nicolas Sarkozy’s calls for a more “positive laïcité.”

But Benedict’s insistence that religion and politics be “open” to each other – coupled with his strong renewal while in Lourdes of the church’s opposition to same-sex couples, communion for the divorced and euthanasia – sends a direct message: The church doesn’t want European law to be at odds with church teaching, and he wants Roman Catholics to make some noise about it.

This pope is looking to reconquer Europe, if not in numbers, then at the political table.

“Let’s not make mistakes, there are laws in Europe that the Vatican would like to change,” said John Allen Jr., a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter in the United States. Benedict’s remarks in France were “not an apolitical reflection,” he said.

The Vatican, Allen added, is concerned about “a progressive secularization of European institutions” that is “heavily influenced by the French model.”

For one, European Union legislation forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. In a continuing clash in Britain, Roman Catholic orphanages have said they will have to shut down or break ties with the church if they are required to place orphans with same-sex couples. Spain legalized same-sex marriage in 2005, following the Netherlands and Belgium.

Some say the pope’s visit might encourage Roman Catholics to speak up in opposition.

The pope’s reception in France was “encouraging,” the Reverend Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said in an interview in the past week. The climate in France, he said, indicated that “the church has a contribution to make and it’s accepted and respected as a cultural and moral force, a force of moral commitment.”

Benedict ostensibly traveled to France for the 150th anniversary of the year a 14-year-old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, said she had visions of the Virgin Mary in a Lourdes grotto that this year is expected to draw a record eight million pilgrims.

Lourdes always has epitomized “a kind of Catholic counterculture” and “the power of faith over science,” said Ruth Harris, a professor of modern history at Oxford who is the author of “Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age.” Over the years, she said, the city’s popularity “gets strengthened in these periods where the republic is seen as persecuting the church.”

That may be the case today, when some devout Roman Catholics in Europe see themselves as a persecuted minority facing a secular hegemony.

Sociologically, “I think papal trips perform the same function as gay pride parades,” Allen said. “It’s about a group that perceives itself as a minority that has been in their view closeted for too long and wants to take it to the streets and proclaim that ‘We’re here.”‘

In Paris, an estimated quarter-million people turned out to hear the pope celebrate Mass at the Esplanade des Invalides, about the same or slightly more than greeted Barack Obama in his visit to Berlin in July before he became the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, though half the number at the Paris gay pride parade in June. Thousands of young people waited for hours to hear the pope’s address in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.

In today’s Europe, many Roman Catholics “feel the need for public manifestations of who they are because they can’t rely on the institutions of the culture to transmit it,” Allen said.

That strategy has not convinced critics. Claiming victim status “is a classic move, a deft rhetorical move,” said Paolo Flores d’Arcais, editor of a left-wing Italian journal, MicroMega, who argued for atheism in a public debate against Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in 2000.

Some see the church as not unlike American conservatives, who continue to depict themselves as outsiders fighting a dominant liberal culture even after eight years of a Republican executive.

France, Germany and Italy are governed by church-friendly center-right coalitions. Last spring, the right made unprecedented challenges to Italy’s 30-year-old law legalizing abortion. In 2005, Italy passed a law restricting artificial insemination.

“So how can you say that you’re an oppressed minority?” Flores asked. “That’s madness.”

Today, Europe is defined largely in economic, not cultural, terms. It is uncertain about its identity, its shared values, its future. Will the pope’s visit change the conversation?

“I don’t think it’ll change because the pope spoke,” said Mario Marazziti, a spokesman for the Community of Sant’Egidio, a lay Roman Catholic group based in Rome. But Benedict clearly has his sights on Europe. “It’s interesting,” Marazziti said. “The two don’t understand each other, but they talk to one another.”

* Rice says Russia more authoritarian U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has reiterated her sharp criticism of a resurgent and emboldened Russia and accused the Kremlin of becoming increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive on the world stage.

* UN envoy: Russia’s move spells end of sanctions Objections from Moscow, angered by Washington’s criticism of its invasion of Georgia, have forced the cancellation of high-level talks on Iran.

* Mid-East Quartet ‘has lost grip’ The Quartet of international powers has “lost its grip” on the Middle East peace process which it is meant to foster, a group of aid agencies says.

* World Jewish population grows by 70,000 The world’s Jewish population is on the rise, up 70,000 in the past year, and currently stands at 13.3 million people.

* When Economy Gets Terrible Anti-Semitism Gets Violent Can a Holocaust happen in the United States of America? “Yes,” say Rabbi Lazer Brody of the award wining blog Lazer Beams and Shifra Hoffman, Executive Director of Shuva.

* Peres at UN: Ahmadinejad a ‘disgrace to Islam’ Iran presents “a danger to the entire world,” President Shimon Peres warned the United Nations’ General Assembly.

* Peres: U.S. has no choice but to save world from Ahmadinejad The United States has no choice but to save the world by stopping Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

* Rise in violence against Messianic Jews and Christians Violence against Christian evangelical and Messianic Jewish communities in Israel increased significantly during the period between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008.

* Lift-off for China space mission China has launched its third manned space mission – which is to feature the country’s first spacewalk.

* Global jihad forum to be established The government has decided to establish a special forum that will deal with threats to Israelis posed by global jihad organizations, both locally and abroad.

* Iran defends nuclear plans at UN Iran will resist “bullying powers” trying to thwart its peaceful nuclear ambitions, its leader has told the UN.

* EU: Evidence of past Iran nuke program The European Union said on Wednesday it appears Iran had a nuclear arms program in the past, despite denials from Teheran.

* Syria sees worse prospects for peace with Israel under Livni Syrian officials believe Tzipi Livni will stall the ongoing indirect negotiations between Jerusalem and Damascus over a possible peace treaty.

* Ahmadinejad: Blame the Zionists for World Problems The man that Israeli leaders consider to be the Number One threat to the existence of the State of Israel told the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday that ‘Zionists” are the cause of the current financial disaster sweeping the world.

* Livni: Ahmadinejad speech makes mockery of UN vow of ‘never again’ The head of the ruling Kadima party, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, blasted the United Nations on Wednesday for granting Iran’s president a platform to deliver an address against “Zionist murderers”.

* Iraq deal over province elections The Iraqi parliament has passed a law which paves the way for provincial elections.

* Israel’s population on eve of Rosh Hashanah: 7.3 million, 76% Jewish On the eve of Rosh Hashanah 5769, Israel’s population stands at 7,337,000 people, including 5,542,000 Jewish Israelis (75.5 percent) and 1,477,000 Israeli Arabs (20.1 percent).

* Immigration lowest since 1980s Immigration is at its lowest since the 1980s, with 18,129 olim arriving in Israel since last Rosh Hashana, according to a Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) report released Wednesday.

By: Khaled Abu Toameh – The Jerusalem Post

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to appoint a new PA governor in Jerusalem, in a move, his aides say, aimed at demonstrating the significance he attaches to the city.

Adnan Ghaleb Husseini, former director of the Wakf Islamic Trust in Jerusalem, will replace Jamil Othman Nasser, who was appointed about 10 years ago by Yasser Arafat.

Unlike Nasser, Husseini is a resident of Jerusalem and holds an Israeli identification card that enables him to move freely inside Israel.

Husseini, who until recently was Abbas’s special adviser on Jerusalem, belongs to one of Jerusalem’s oldest and most respected families.

His cousin, the late Faisal Husseini, was the top PLO representative in Jerusalem until he died seven years ago. Another relative, Rafik Husseini, is currently director of Abbas’s bureau.

The new Jerusalem governor is considered a moderate who supports dialogue between Jews and Arabs.

A senior PA official said the appointment of Husseini as governor was aimed at “preparing for the next phase” of the talks with Israel over Jerusalem.

He said Adnan Ghaleb Husseini would be entrusted with following Israeli “settlement” construction in the city and finding ways of consolidating the PA’s presence in the Arab neighborhoods.

The outgoing governor was barred by Israel from conducting any activities within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem on behalf of the PA. On several occasions, he was also banned from entering Arab neighborhoods under Israeli sovereignty in the city.

In a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post, Husseini said he was trying to persuade Israel to reopen Palestinian institutions in the city that were closed down by Israel over the past seven years.

One of these institutions, Orient House, served as the unofficial headquarters of the PLO in Jerusalem. Orient House enjoyed the status of an unofficial diplomatic mission – a fact that angered many in Israel, especially as some foreign ministers insisted on holding talks there with leading Palestinian figures.

“Jerusalem is living without a soul in the absence of Palestinian institutions,” Husseini said. “The people of Jerusalem have been suffering because of the closure of their institutions. Today, everyone realizes that Jerusalem can’t exist without these institutions, which used to provide essential services to the public.”

Husseini said he was prepared to meet with Israeli government officials to discuss the issue of the institutions and other matters related to the day-to-day affairs of the Arab residents.

“We are prepared to open even small windows with Israel,” he said. “We are prepared to do anything to serve the interests of our people in Jerusalem and end their suffering.”

Husseini appealed to Israel not to waste time with regards to discussing the issue of Jerusalem.

“We believe that we can reach a solution to the issue of Jerusalem,” he said. “We hope the Israelis will wake up and realize the importance of the city to the Palestinians. Israel must accept the fact that we will never give up our claim to Jerusalem.”

Husseini said Israel must also realize that peace can’t be achieved without a solution to the issue of Jerusalem.

“There will be no Palestinian state without Jerusalem as its capital,” he said. “This is a holy city and we want Israel to acknowledge this fact. Israel is mistaken if it thinks that the policy of driving the Palestinians out of the city can lead to peace. Peace can’t be achieved by denying the rights of others. Disrespect for others is a sign of weakness, not strength.”

An official in the Prime Minister’s Office downplayed the significance of Husseini’s appointment, saying it did not represent a change of policy, just a change of personalities.

“It’s a non-issue,” the official said. “There is no change in the status quo.”

By: Phippa Runner – The EUObserver

BRUSSELS – Europeans remain strongly religious but like to keep faith out of politics while cultivating an open mind to various forms of spirituality, according to a new survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation.

Seventy four percent of people in Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Austria, Poland and Switzerland said they were “religious.” Italy (89%) and Poland (87%) topped the German NGO’s “Religion Monitor” chart, with France at the lower end on 54 percent.

Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe (Photo: EUobserver.com)

More than half of Europeans regularly practice their faith and 61 percent pray, with church attendance higher in Poland than in Italy and with Roman Catholics describing themselves as more highly religious than Protestants.

“The Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe,” the survey said. “The role which [religion] plays in tying together the countries of the European Union should not be underestimated.”

“Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the premier of EU-aspirant Turkey, says that Europe is not a Christian club. But reality suggests something else. Europe is still based on Christian values,” the NGO’s Philipp Hildmann told Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

The survey also found that religion plays a small role in Europeans’ political outlook and the most intimate aspects of their personal lives, however.

Just 27 percent said religion influences their political choices and 35 percent said it affects their sex lives, with Roman Catholic Poland also keeping to the trend on 29 percent and 49 percent, respectively.

Europeans described themselves as open-minded, with 92 percent agreeing with the statement that there is probably a “kernel of truth” in every faith.

More and more people are also turning to non-institutional forms of worship, such as private meditation, while 11 percent believe in pantheism – identifying God with Nature – and 31 percent are “open” to the idea.

Looking further afield, the US is more religious than Europe with 89 percent of people holding some type of faith. Nigeria and India are the most religious worldwide on 99 percent.

Russia – which the Bertelsmann Foundation did not include in its definition of Europe – is the most secular, with 51 percent of Russians saying they are religious and just 7 percent calling themselves “very religious.”

By: Claude Salhani – Middle East Times

GENEVA — Nuclear power and the Middle East is not all that much of a novelty; in fact long before Iraq, Iran and lately Syria toyed with the notion of acquiring nuclear technology for civilian use (if you believe the Syrians and the Iranians), or for military purposes (if you believe the cynics). Long before them, Egypt hoped to join the exclusive club of which to date, Pakistan remains the only Muslim country to have nuclear weapons.

Yet, as early as in the mid-1960s Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser displayed a keen interest in obtaining nuclear technology. And the Egyptians under Nasser probably would have acquired the know-how and the facilities, and possibly the bomb; had it not been for the Six-Day War.

GOING NUCLEAR: Arab states show growing interest in acquiring nuclear technology, thanks to Iran’s nuclear development. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks in a 2007 ceremony at Natanz uranium enrichment facility outside the city of Kashan, south of Tehran. (UPI Photo)

The June 5, 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict changed the map of the Middle East, literally, as the State of Israel, at that time still in its teens, more than doubled its size. Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from the Egyptians; the West Bank and East Jerusalem from the Jordanians; and the Golan Plateau from the Syrians. The war also put a damper on any sales of nuclear technology to the Arabs — be it for civilian or military use, lest they be tempted to use those weapons against Israel in the next conflict, which there certainly was going to be more than one.

However, since the 1960s there has been a re-nouveau, a renewal, in the Arab World as to how nuclear energy — and with it nuclear weapons — are perceived. Some analysts called it a “renaissance,” though that is probably the wrong word. Re-naissance indicates a re-birth, whereas nuclear technology is new to the region. Except for Israel that remains the only nuclear power in the Levant to this day. But that’s another story.

Since President Nasser’s attempts in the 1960s there has been no real desire on the part of Arab countries to go nuclear. Arab leaders seemed quite content leaving that responsibility, cost and headache to the super powers and anyone else who wanted to venture into that field. And it stayed pretty much that way until recently.

The Arabs’ desire for nuclear parity rests more on the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran is engaged to develop its program, than on trying to counter-balance Israel’s nuclear strike force. Realistically, the Arab leadership is cognizant of the fact that they would never get away with deploying nuclear weapons against Israel, at least not as long as the United States continues to stand by its side. And nothing in the foreseeable future would indicate otherwise.

Rather, one would imagine that proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East would be more to counter Iran’s nuclear capability than to challenge Israel. Indeed the rise in Arab interests in the nuclear field began to emerge only after word leaked out that Iran was developing its nuclear program despite strong objections from the international community.

It is certainly interesting to note that until February 2006, according to a comprehensive study carried out by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies titled “Nuclear Programs in the Middle East — In the Shadow of Iran,” there was practically no interest in nuclear technology in the Arab world. However, “… within the last 11 months, between February 2006 and January 2007, no fewer than 13 Arab countries announced plans to revive, pursue or explore civilian nuclear energy.

What makes this sudden interest in nuclear technology by more than half the member countries of the Arab League intriguing is the abundance of traditional energy, mainly oil and natural gas.” One could therefore conclude that the only reason the Arabs show any interest in nuclear energy is because of Iran.

Much has been said about Iran’s quest for nuclear technology, and the desire of the ruling mullahs to develop a thermonuclear weapon. Despite repeated denials from the ayatollahs and the maverick president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there is still great worry over Iran’s projects and what Israel might do about it.

“…there is reason for concern that it (Iran’s nuclear program) could in time prompt a regional cascade of proliferation among Iran’s neighbors,” states the IISS article. For Saudi Arabia, a nuclear-armed Iran represents “a direct and dire threat,” the article goes on to state.

As the IISS article stipulates that from Morocco to Iran and form Turkey to Yemen, there is not a single nuclear power plant in operation today.

Therefore, the question: Why the sudden urge from the Arab world in nuclear energy? Ask Iran. For countries like Turkey (not an Arab country), Saudi Arabia, Yemen and others, it would be unacceptable to have Iran become a nuclear power while they sat on their hands.

* Peres entrusts Livni with forming gov’t Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will begin efforts to form a new government on Tuesday via direct and indirect negotiations with potential coalition partners.

* Iranian president blames US for market collapse Iran’s president blamed U.S. military interventions around the world in part for the collapse of global financial markets.

* Abdullah, Mubarak to discuss Livni’s new role The election of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as head of the Kadima Party is expected to be at the core of talks Tuesday between Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

* China paper urges new currency order after “financial tsunami” Threatened by a “financial tsunami,” the world must consider building a financial order no longer dependent on the United States.

* The speech Palin never gave: Ahmadinejad dreams of Final Solution Her appearance in the rally in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza was cancelled in a flap between protest organizers and Hillary Clinton.

* Arctic ‘no sanctuary’ from drilling, says EU As the Arctic ice melts, Europe would be foolish to regard the region as a sanctuary that must be protected from resource extraction.

* Russia engages in ‘gangland’ diplomacy as it sends warship to the Caribbean Russia flexed its muscles in America’s backyard yesterday as it sent one of its largest warships to join military exercises in the Caribbean.

* Germany and UK want global financial regulator The UK and Germany believe that a new international system regulating the financial sector must be constructed.

* 30 years of peace, but no one wants to be Israel’s ambassador to Egypt Thirty years after prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat signed their historic peace agreement, few are interested in representing Israel in Cairo.

* PA Threatens Military Attack on Hamas Palestinian General Dhiab al-Ali, who heads the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) military forces in the West Bank, has threatened to use force against Hamas in Gaza.