Rather than asking for explicit his explicit removal, the MDC is now requesting that another mediator in addition to Thabo Mbeki be included in MDC-ZANU-PF talks.
Interestingly enough, it appears that Mbeki’s pathetic performance as mediator is getting some visibility, as you can see in this Washington Post articlediscussing how the South African president’s legacy has been harmed by his embrace of Mugabe.
Bush has reportedly authorized the State Department to set up a US interests section in Tehran.
Canoodling with the axis of evil, I see.
More seriously, it is a mark of how weak Bush has become on the foreign stage.
So the MDC nd ZANU-PF have agreed to start negotiations, but the MDC is asking the AU to appoint a second mediator, because they think that Thabo Mbeki is completely in the tank for Mugabe.
The depressing thing is that they are completely right.
A spokesman for the so called “Union State” alliance, is saying that Transdnestr, Abkhazia and South Ossetia might be granted some sort of observer status, possibly followed by full membership.
Needless to say, this would lead to secession from Georgia, and very likely a some sort of hostilities.
This kind of crap is going on because first Bill Clinton, and then George W. Bush ignored commitments to limit the westward expansion of NATO to the reunification of Germany, and so have created what is legitimately viewed by the Russians as a ring of steel around them, complete with a ballistic missile defense system that is better positioned against them than it is against the Iranians.
I don’t think it’s going to happen, but the expansion of NATO really needs to be stopped.
They were polite about it, they called Sarkozy’s order that they conduct a revote “premature”, though the Irish Times reported “quiet fury” in the government when presented with his ultimatum.
Good for them. Maybe some people in France should tell Sarkozy to go pound sand now and then.
Well, after years of saying no contact with the Iranians until they capitulate on uranium enrichment, the Bush Administration is sending Williams Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, to a meeting with the Iranians nuclear negotiator.
My guess is that this is just making nice before a military strike in October driven by the desire for partisan political gain..
And his new wife is not hot enough to make up for that.
As proof of this, he is now demanding that the Irish rerun their referendum on the new EU treaty.
I hate to tell you this dude, but you are not Irish, and right now, a lot of Frenchmen wish you weren’t French either.
I will tell you that part of the reason for this is that after repeated rejections of an update to the EU governance structures in a number of countries, including France, the response, which is to game the system to ensure passage, makes people distrust you.
I do know that if you attempt to keep passing a document that is hundreds of pages long, and too complex for anyone to understand as a whole, you will keep being rejected.
The supporters of EU reform have been opaque in their behavior and tactics, so it’s no surprise that people think that they have something to hide.
This is a remarkable statement from a member of the Kuwaiti government.
They are concerned that the US will take unilateral military action against Iran, which would destabilize the region.
This is of particular note because Kuwait is the strongest Arab ally in the region, and firmly Sunni and hostile to Iran.
When you’ve lots Kuwait, you’ve lost everyone.
There are now reports that the negotiators have given up on a long term status of forces agreement in Iraq.
It appears that the Iraqis want a time table, and Bush and His Evil Minions™ are unwilling to do that, so they will patch something together short term, and the next president will handle what happens next.
Well, the Czechs have signed a deal with the US to install an ABM radar which is clearly directed at least as much at the Russia as at Iran, and they are shocked to discover that there are problems with oil deliveries:
Shipments to Czech oil refineries through the Druzhba pipeline, which ties Siberian fields to the Czech Republic, are declining, the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade said. It did not say by how much.
You sign off on a policy that is pretty explicitly threaten Russia, and you are surprised when they retaliate?
What planet are you on?
The US and Czech Republic have signed a deal over the ABM radar, and the Russians are suggesting that they, “will be forced to react not in a diplomatic fashion but with military-technical means.”
This is a polite way of saying that nuclear weapons will be targeted at the Czech Republic, likely in a launch on warning stature.
The Czech people overwhelmingly oppose this, so one wonders if this will last past the Bush regime, particularly if the Russians bring natural gas shipments into the mix.
In a related note, Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski talked with both McCain and Obama, and the sick old man is gave assurances that the program would progress under him, but Obama refused to say anything.
The fact is that the Russians are right. This missile base is being located in a place spectacularly ill suited to defend against Iran.
The only way that the sites could be located any further from Iran is if they were in the Baltic states.
Were the missile sights located in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, or Turkey, it would provide better protection from an Iranian strike.
What this is about is the desire by Bush and His Evil Minions™ to recreate the evil Russian empire for electoral benefit, and, for Condi Rice specifically, to recreate relevance in her area of expertise.
It turns out that some soon-to-be-unemployed Bush staffer handed out a press info pack on Silvio Berlusconi, and used accurate information from the Encyclopedia of World Biography.
Among other things, it described him as, “one of the most controversial leaders” of a country “known for governmental corruption and vice,” and “regarded by many as a political dilettante (amateur) who gained his high office only through use of his considerable influence on the national media.”
Excuse me, I have to clean off my screen now.
World leaders enjoy 18-course banquet… then discuss how to solve global food crisis.
I got nothing to add here.
The arrangement is odd, the Communists are not formally a part of the government, but they have supported the government on confidence votes, but they are now withdrawing their support because of the US-India nuclear deal, which they feel violated Indian sovereignty.
They don’t object to the nuclear cooperation. They object to signing the NNPT and negotiating with the IAEA.
It looks like both the Bush and His Evil Minions™ and the Indian Congress party are rushing to get this deal signed before January 21, 2009.
If John Sidney McCain, III is president, we’ll just ignore them.
Well it appears that the Polish have rejected the Bush Administration’s missile defense deal, saying that they, “have not reached a satisfactory result on the issue of increasing the level of Polish security.”
Essentially, I think that they realize that the potential damage to their relationship is not worth what the US is offering, and they believe that any US good will from accepting will expire when Bush and His Evil Minions™ leave office.
When the Poles recognize Bush’s lame duckitude, it’s game over.
*I am not minimizing Polish intellect. It’s merely that they are currently the most vociferous knee jerk supporters of the US in Europe right now.
As is expected, the African Union studiously avoided any criticism of Mugabe, though it did call for a unity government.
This is to be expected. After all many of these leaders are in place through electoral processes that are similar to what happened in Zimbabwe, though obviously less extreme.
The AU is hoping for something similar to what happened in Kenya, where the person who stole the election remained in power but had to throw some patronage positions to the oppositions.
Meanwile, Tsvangirai has declined to negotiate a junior position in a unity government. He is saying that conditions are not right for talks.
This is not surprising, considering that violence and murder are still going on.
Additionally, I believe that Tsvangirai is explicitly rejecting any involvement in the negotiations by Thabo Mbeki, which is not surprising, since Mbeki is Mugabe’s butt boy.
The EU is calling Mugabe’s government illegitimate, and demanding that » Tsvangirai lead any unity government, though, unsurprisingly South Africa is rejecting both.
An indication that the instability may spread is the fact that Botswana has sealed off its border with Zimbabwe.
It’s unclear whether this is because it intends to sever relations, or if it is worried about refugee flows, or both.
The rumor is that the US is yielding on contractor immunity in its negociations for a status of forces agreement in Iraq.
If so, this is the first smart thing done in Iraq since 2002.
I think that his assesment may be closer to reality than most of us would like to think:
Russia’s new president, Dmitri Medvedev, less swaggering than his predecessor but as touchy about criticism from abroad, said in an interview that an America in “essentially a depression” was in no position to lecture other countries on how to conduct their affairs.
With soaring oil revenues bolstering the Russian economy and Kremlin confidence, Medvedev brushed aside American criticism of his country’s record on democracy and human rights. He also said that a revived Russia had a right to assume a larger role in a world economic system that he suggested should no longer be dominated by the United States.
If, in 2001, he had said this, most of the world would have been stunned and appalled at the concept that US hegemony is failing.
Today, I think that there are a lot of silent nods and smiles, because the Europeans understand what it means in a monopolar world if the single hyper-power is run by a group of madmen.
It turns out that when Hunt Oil, run by a Bush political ally, cut a deal with the Kurds over oil last year, pissing off the Iraqi central government, and throwing a monkey wrench into the works of a comprehensive oil law, Bush and the state department not only knew about it, but they tacitly approved it.
Oh, well…Only 6 months and 20 days left for him and his to rape US interests for personal profits.