Archives for April 2009

The US will join Germany and United Nations Security Council partners in face to face negotiations with Iran on its nuclear enrichment program. The Bush administration generally stayed away from the talks, on the somewhat bizarre theory that talking directly to the Iranians somehow legitimized them. Note that the Bush administration talked to lots of […]

President Barack Obama made an unscheduled stop in Baghdad on Tuesday, meeting with US troops and also with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Obama told US troops there, ‘ this is going to be a critical period, these next 18 months. I was just discussing this with your commander, but I think it’s something that all […]

The USG Open Source Center translates an interview in a Qatari newspaper with the incoming Sunni Arab governor of the northern Ninevah (Ninawa, Mosul) Province, one of the more violent places in Iraq. He focuses on steps that need to be taken by the Kurdistan leaders to improve relations with Sunni Arabs in the north. […]

President Barack Obama conducted a state visit of the Turkish capital of Ankara on Monday, visiting the mausoleum of the Republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Attaturk and addressing parliament. The Turkish officer corps, which had been declining to attend parliament sessions because of the presence of a pro-Kurdish party, put aside its reservations and attended to […]

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that guerrillas set off six coordinated bombs in Shiite areas of Baghdad on Monday, killing 34 and wounding over 100, and raising fears that Iraq was slipping back into major violence. The pan-Arab daily summarizes the explanations being proffered for the resurgence of violence in the Iraqi capital. These include: 1) […]

Barack Obama continues to shake up the world with his new ideas, demonstrating himself again among the more creative and bold leaders the world has seen in the past half-century. In Prague on Sunday, he called for the US to lead a drive to abolish nuclear weapons: ‘ The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons […]

My talk at the New America Foundation on the need for a new Western relationship with the Muslim world, in connection with my new book, “Engaging the Muslim World,” was shown on C-Span 2 this weekend and is now also available at YouTube. Engaging the Muslim World End/ (Not Continued)

Turkey relented on Saturday and agreed to allow Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark, to become head of NATO if a Turkish assistant was appointed for him. Milliyet reports: ‘Erdogan said Turkey had received “guarantees” from Obama that one of Rasmussen’s deputies would be a Turk and that Turkish commanders would be present at […]

Adam L. Silverman writes in a guest editorial for IC: On 1 April 2009 Juan Cole briefly wrote about the events surrounding the arrest of the Fadl District Sons of Iraq (SOI) leader. Cole, in commenting on remarks reported in al Sharq al Awsat [“The Middle East”] correctly indicated that by siding with the Coalition […]