These are the archives for the week ending 2nd May 2008
Iran drops US dollar
Iran, OPEC's second-largest producer, has completely stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran's nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq.
Iran has dramatically reduced dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of increasing U.S. pressure on its financial system and the fall in the value of the American currency.
Iran has also put pressure on other OPEC countries to price oil in a basket of currencies, but it has not been able to generate support from fellow members - many of whom, including Saudi Arabia, are staunch U.S. allies.
CBS News, 30/4/08
Pentagon makes small cut in Iraq budget
The Pentagon has agreed to cut from its budget $171 million to build police stations in Iraq after demands from Congress that the Iraqi government spend its recent oil windfall on reconstruction projects.
In a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee released Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote that he had heard senators' concerns "loud and clear" during hearings earlier this month. As a result, he wrote, "We will seek full funding from the government of Iraq for this purpose."
The amount is a fraction of the roughly $47 billion Congress has approved to rebuild Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. But Democrats and Republicans have complained that American taxpayers are continuing to pay for reconstruction work in Iraq when crude oil prices, now nearing $120 a barrel, have left the country's U.S.-backed government reaping a budget surplus in the tens of billions of dollars.
CNN, 29/4/08
New US fleet to pressure South America
The US Navy said Thursday it has re-established the US Fourth Fleet to direct an increasing American naval presence in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The move comes as popularly elected leftist regimes, including that of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, pose a growing challenge to US influence in Latin America.
Admiral Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, said the decision to establish a separate fleet for the region "recognizes the immense importance of maritime security in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere."
The new fleet joins five other numbered fleets. The US Second Fleet is responsible for the Atlantic; the Third Fleet for the eastern and northern Pacific; the Fifth Fleet for the Gulf; the Sixth Fleet for the Mediterannean; and the Seventh Fleet for the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean.
AFP, 24/4/08
US carrier a 'reminder' to Iran
The U.S. Navy has temporarily added a second aircraft carrier in the Gulf as a "reminder" to Iran, but this was not an escalation of American forces in the region, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday.
Gates flatly denied a suggestion that the presence of two U.S. carriers in the Gulf could be a precursor to military action against Tehran. "This deployment has been planned for a long time," Gates said.
"I don't think we'll have two carriers there for a protracted period of time. So I don't see it as an escalation. I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder."
Reuters, 29/4/08
Iraq government must avoid isolating Al-Sadr followers
Iraq's government will pursue its war on militias but must avoid isolating the movement of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr or pushing his followers into the arms of groups bent on chaos, the deputy prime minister says.
Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched an offensive against militias a month ago, sparking fighting with Sadr's Mehdi Army that has led to hundreds of deaths.
Some analysts say if the government pushes too hard -- including carrying out a threat to bar the Sadr movement from October elections unless the Mehdi Army is disbanded -- the cleric could launch a full-scale uprising.
Reuters, 29/4/08
Surge in violence kills more US troops
Four US soldiers have been killed along with scores of militants following two days of fighting in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City and rocket fire elsewhere in the capital.
The latest casualties, announced yesterday, make April the deadliest month in Iraq for the US military since last September, with at least 44 soldiers dying.
Casualties had declined in recent months in line with a sharp drop in violence. But attack levels have rebounded slightly in the past few weeks as Iraqi and US forces push into the Shia militia strongholds of Sadr City in Baghdad and Basra in the south of the country.
The Times, 29/4/08
British forces will use cluster bombs
Cluster bombs are to remain part of the armoury available to British forces despite renewed calls for a ban, government officials made clear yesterday.
Campaigners presented David Milliband, the foreign secretary, with more than 30,000 signatures yesterday demanding a ban on all cluster bombs ahead of an international treaty conference outlawing the weapons in Dublin next month.
Cluster munitions scatter 'bomblets' over a wide area. Many do not immediately explode, killing and maiming civilians long after the conflict has ended.
Officials at the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence made clear that the government had no intention of giving up two kinds of modern cluster weapons in its possession.
They are the M85, an Israeli-designed artillery weapon and the CRV7 weapon system on British Apache helicopters. British forces used the M85 in Basra during the invasion of Iraq.
The MoD said that the British M85 had made a 'direct contribution to saving the lives of UK service personnel'.
Guardian 29/4/0
US increases use of RoboWarriors
U.S. commanders in Iraq have ordered an unprecedented number of airstrikes by unmanned airplanes in April to kill insurgents in urban combat and to limit their ability to launch rockets at American forces, military records show.
The 11 attacks by Predators - nearly double the previous high for one month - were conducted as the Pentagon has intensified efforts to increase the use of drones, which play an increasingly vital role for gathering intelligence and launching attacks in Iraq.
Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates prodded the Air Force to do more to rush drones to the war zone.
Commanders are expected to rely more on unmanned systems as 30,000 U.S. troops sent last year are withdrawn. The military has dozens of Predators in Iraq and Afghanistan. In all it operates 5,000 drones, 25 times more than it had in 2001.
USA Today, 29/4/08
UN should investigate Iraqi detentions
The UN Security Council should address serious concerns about the detention policies of the US-led forces in Iraq, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.
The New York-based group says thousands of Iraqis are being held indefinitely and without judicial review. It claims that many inmates are subject to judicial review processes that do not meet international standards. HRW says the US improperly uses Council resolutions which permit internment for "imperative reasons of security".
Separately, the group adds that there are also concerns about what is describes as widespread torture of detainees by the Iraqi authorities.
BBC News, 28/4/08
Competition for gas forces firms to Iraq
Saudi Basic Industries Corp, the world's largest petrochemical firm by market value, may invest $5bn in war-torn Iraq as competition for energy at home forces it to search for cheap gas in riskier Mideast locations.
Sabic joins companies like Royal Dutch Shell, Dow Chemical Co and Total as the latest to flirt with a major investment in Iraq amid ongoing political uncertainty and violence in the country.
Rising gas consumption in Saudi Arabia is putting Sabic increasingly under pressure to invest outside the kingdom, which is home to the world's fourth-largest natural gas stocks.
Tehran Times, 28/4/08
900 Iraqi reconstruction projects unfinished
A review of US-funded reconstruction projects in Iraq has found that millions of dollars have been wasted because almost 900 separate projects have never been completed.
The reconstruction of Iraq has cost American taxpayers more than $107 billion.An audit by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction shows that at least 855 contracts to help build schools, hospitals and transport systems have never been completed because of excessive cost or delays, poor performance or violent conditions.
The audit also says that many reconstruction projects were being described as complete or successful when they were not.
ABC News, Australia, 28/4/08
Politics and war in Sadr City
The latest episode in the struggle between the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government unfolded Sunday on the streets of Sadr City, where members of Parliament demonstrated peacefully while clashes occurred a few blocks away.
Several hours later, Shiite militiamen in the Sadr City district took advantage of a huge dust storm that enveloped Baghdad, and kept American aircraft grounded, to fire at least a dozen mortar rounds at the Green Zone, the home of the American Embassy and of many Iraqi government officials.
The mix of peaceful protest and armed attacks is characteristic of the many levels on which the Sadr movement and the government are locked in an all-out fight for political advantage.
At stake is the outcome of October provincial elections in which other Shiite parties in the government stand to lose seats to Mr. Sadr's supporters.
New York Times, 28/4/08
Tensions rise in the Gulf
The United States navy fired warning shots at two Iranian boats in the Gulf yesterday in the worst confrontation yet in the world's busiest oil shipping lanes.
A US forces security team on a chartered transport ship used loudhailers, radios and flares to warn off two small Iranian boats acting in an "unclear" manner.
But the boats ignored the warning and the Americans opened fire, unleashing several bursts of live ammunition. The incident took place in the early morning near the international boundary in an area designated by the US navy as the Central Arabian Gulf.
The boats turned away but the US vessel, the Westward Venture, was asked to identify itself by the Iranian coastguard minutes later.
The incident heightened fears over the stability of a key energy artery, helping propel the price of Brent crude to a record high in late afternoon trading.
Daily Telegraph, 26/4/08
Cheyney camp behind Syria claim
US Government allegations that North Korea helped Syria build a nuclear reactor have been greeted with scepticism because of their timing.
Israeli jets bombed the alleged site in Syria's eastern desert last September. Today, after months of whispers, the White House publicly claimed that the target of the strike was a nuclear reactor. It said the reactor was being built with North Korean help and was not intended for peaceful purposes.
But Mike Chinoy, from the Pacific Council on International Policy, says the claim needs to be taken in its political context, as North Korea's denuclearisation reaches a critical stage.
"Everything I'm hearing from my own sources in Washington is that what you have now is a kind of push back by Vice-President [Dick] Cheney and his office and other hardliners who are opposed to diplomatic dealings with North Korea," he said.
"[They are] hoping that by making public these allegations of nuclear cooperation it will torpedo the diplomatic process."
ABC News, Australia, 25/4/08
US figures on Iraqi forces are unreliable
The U.S. public and lawmakers should be skeptical of the Pentagon's quarterly reports on Iraq's progress toward building a viable military and police force, according to a new audit.
The reports from the Defense Department are based on data supplied by the Iraqi government that hasn't been fully vetted by the U.S. military and is unreliable, according to the Special Inspector General For Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart Bowen.
There are "uncertainties,'' for example, "about the true number'' of Iraqi military and police personnel on active duty or in training, Bowen wrote. "A substantial number of personnel still on the payroll are not available for duty for various reasons, such as being on leave, absent without leave, injured or killed,'' he said.
Army Colonel Michael Fuller, a top aide to the commander in charge of training Iraq's forces, said in written comments in the report that the command didn't disagree with most of the audit findings.
Bloomberg.com, 26/4/08
US weighing military options against Iran
The nation's top military officer said yesterday that the Pentagon is planning for "potential military courses of action" as one of several options against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq.
Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a conflict with Iran would be "extremely stressing" but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force.
"It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," he said at a Pentagon news conference.
Mullen made clear that he prefers a diplomatic solution and does not expect imminent action. "I have no expectations that we're going to get into a conflict with Iran in the immediate future," he said.
Mullen's statements and others by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates recently signal new rhetorical pressure on Iran by the Bush administration amid what officials say is increased Iranian provision of weapons, training and financing to Iraqi groups that are attacking and killing Americans.
Washington Post, 26/4/08
No British withdrawal from Iraq for some time
Defence Secretary Des Browne said Thursday it would be some time before the number of British troops in Iraq was reduced. Britain said last October it hoped to cut numbers from around 4,000 to 2,500 in the first few months of this year.
But at the start of this month, Browne confirmed that any reduction was being delayed amid recent unrest around Basra, southern Iraq, where most British troops are stationed.
AFP, 24/4/08
Bush's secret letter undermines middle east peace deal
A letter that President Bush personally delivered to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon four years ago has emerged as a significant obstacle to the president's efforts to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians during his last year in office.
Ehud Olmert, the current Israeli prime minister, said this week that Bush's letter gave the Jewish state permission to expand the West Bank settlements that it hopes to retain in a final peace deal, even though Bush's peace plan officially calls for a freeze of Israeli settlements across Palestinian territories on the West Bank.
Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Weissglas, said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed this understanding in a secret agreement reached between Israel and the United States in the spring of 2005, just before Israel withdrew from Gaza.
U.S. officials say no such agreement exists, and in recent months Rice has publicly criticized even settlement expansion on the outskirts of Jerusalem, which Israel does not officially count as settlements.
But as peace negotiations have stepped up in recent months, so has the pace of settlement construction, infuriating Palestinian officials, and Washington has taken no punitive action against Israel for its settlement efforts.
Washington Post, 24/4/08