Foreign :: Stories from The New York Sun


Foreign :: The New York SunUN Default on Korea Spells Trouble in Lebanon
UNITED NATIONS — Responding to combative provocations with meek diplomacy, the West is allowing North Korea and Iran to further arm themselves and their proxy armies, risking a much more serious military confrontation in the next rounds. Meeting the American-led United Nation command today at a village in the Korean demilitarized zone, mid-level Pyongyang military officials began negotiating a return to diplomacy that would eventually lead to a renewal of the Six Party talks. Those talks, a...
Stage Is Set For a New Clash Between America, Israel
UNITED NATIONS — The next crisis between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyah — one from Venus, the other from Mars — is only a matter of time, though the vibes will be discernibly positive when the two meet at the White House tomorrow. The two hold diametrically opposed political philosophies: the “realist” Mr. Obama – Venus – is all about nurturing regional hopes and dreams: think Palestinian state. The “ideological” Mr. Netanyahu – Mars – is keenly attuned to the region’s real and...
Obama Administration Irked At Israel Over Pace of Flotilla Investigation
UNITED NATIONS -- The Obama administration has been complaining to Israel about the pressure Washington is coming under to agree to an international probe of Israel’s raid on the Turkish “peace flotilla,” sources in both Washington and Jerusalem are telling The New York Sun. Mostly, the sources say, Washington is complaining that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cabinet has taken too long to set up its own investigation. Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, told The New York Sun Wednesday...
Iran Will Use U.N. Sanctions To Seek To Expand Its Sphere of Influence
UNITED NATIONS – Iran is hoping to turn the sanctions resolution that the Security Council approved today into the next platform on which it is building its ever widening sphere of international influence. One of the Islamic republic’s first objectives on its way to becoming a regional power and a world leader is to create the impression that Iran and America are playing on a leveled field. If the impression sticks, the world will increasingly see two sides to every issue: in the blue corner...
Last Ditch Effort to Block Sanctions on Iran Is Pressed By Turkey, Brazil at United Nations
UNITED NATIONS – The Security Council is expected to vote on an American-backed resolution to impose the next round of sanctions on Iran as early as Wednesday, but two countries bent on enabling Iran, Brazil and Turkey, are making a last-ditch effort to delay the vote. Ambassadors of the two countries called for a hasty Security Council consultation earlier today to try to schedule a public debate — a procedure that remotely resembles the Congressional filibuster — before any vote could takes...
Turkey’s Next Move Will Be To Marshal Sentiment Against Israel at United Nations
UNITED NATIONS – After initiating and aiding a provocation that resulted in the deaths of at least ten of its citizens, Turkey will next move to marshal world opinion and attempt to harness it to promote Prime Minister Erdogan’s regional goals, which increasingly resemble those of Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran. The Turkish government supported, guided, and aided the so-called “humanitarian” flotilla, condemned Israeli “piracy” after Monday morning’s violent clashes, and is now planning to...
Turkey Emerges in a Sinister New Role As ‘Aid Flotilla’ Seeks To Run Blockade
The emergence of Turkey in a leading position against Israel is developing as the most significant aspect of the efforts of an “aid flotilla” to run the blockade of Gaza that is maintained by both Egypt and Israel. Turkey, which is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and aspires to join the European Union, ranks as chief instigator, leader, and organizer of the so-called Gaza aid flotilla of boats arrested overnight by Israeli commandoes. Inevitably the clash resulted in several...
High Seas Drama Looms Off Gaza As Turkish-Backed Flotilla Prepares To Run An Israeli Embargo
UNITED NATIONS — A drama on the high seas is brewing in the Mediterranean as a Turkish government-backed flotilla, laden with various goods and carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists, is attempting to reach Gaza’s shores in the next few days to deliver what its members say is much needed humanitarian aid to the Hamas-controlled strip. Israel’s Navy said it would prevent the flotilla from entering Gaza and, if necessary, board the eight boats and arrest the activists. Nevertheless...
Crunch Time Near on A-Bomb Treaty As Egypt Maneuvers To Isolate Israel
UNITED NATIONS — It is crunch time for members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and if their month-long parley here collapses in the next few days it might well be the fault of Egypt, which earlier in the month of May emerged as the darling of advocates for a nuclear-free world. The Arab countries, led by Egypt and Syria, are agitating to convene a Middle Eastern regional parley within the next two years with the aim of forcing Israel to join the NPT and open its nuclear facilities to...
Coptic Christians Voicing Frustration With White House As Persecution Widens in Egypt
The leaders of Coptic Christians, whose community is facing growing persecution in Egypt, say they have been unsuccessful in efforts to gain a hearing from the White House or other parts of the Obama administration. Heightened persecution of Egypt’s 12 million Christians coupled with growing power and prestige of their Coptic Diaspora in America and Australia is leading to new political efforts here. Educated and skilled Egyptian Copts who migrated in large numbers in recent decades are talking...
Obama Setting Up a Clash With the Hague Over Darfur
UNITED NATIONS — President Obama is setting up the next big clash between America and the International Criminal Court, according to human rights activists who say Washington’s Sudan envoy undermines the Hague-based world judicial body’s prosecution of President Bashir. In stark contrast to the Bush administration, which has eyed the ICC’s concept of “international jurisdiction” with much healthy skepticism and declined to join the court, Mr. Obama’s team has sent observers to ICC gatherings...
Killings of Egypt’s Christians Escalate In Ghastly Slaughter Nearly Ignored in the West
At 11:30 p.m. on January 6, the Orthodox Christmas for millions of Egyptian Christians, gunshots rang from a drive-by car, killing 7 parishioners exiting evening mass. The Nagaa Hamadi Church Massacre, as it became known, left 26 seriously injured in the small southern town. During the funerals, greater mayhem erupted. In surrounding towns and villages some 3,000 Muslims broke into Coptic properties, agricultural plots, and businesses, looting and setting fires to shops. Across the country...
United Nations Stymied Over Sinking of Free Korean Warship by North Korean Torpedo
UNITED NATIONS — The next test of the United Nations will come tomorrow, when South Korea, with Washington’s backing, plans to ask the Security Council to take up the sinking in March of its ship, which according to Seoul investigators was attacked by a North Korean torpedo. The council is not expected to officially convene on the matter before next week. Even then, the world body may be out of whatever is the diplomatic equivalent of ammo. Envoys and aides here say they’re stymied as to what...
Obama’s Iran Strategy in Limbo As Brazil, Turkey Fracture Consensus at United Nations
UNITED NATIONS — Brazil and Turkey managed to fracture the Security Council today, throwing President Obama’s Iran strategy into limbo. Even if the Turtle Bay top body ends up eking out a resolution that would impose a new round of sanctions on Iran this spring, the deal that Brazil, Turkey, and Iran announced today will surely sow enough discord among the members of the Security Council that Tehran could justifiably declare that such sanctions lack the full backing of the so-called...
U.S. Envoy Praises U.N. Council on Human Rights as Libya is Seated
UNITED NATIONS — There was little the American ambassador here, Susan Rice, could do today to stop the General Assembly from voting Libya and other known rights abusers for a seat on the Human Rights Council, but instead of expressing outrage, she chose to praise the United Nations’s least praiseworthy body. Ms. Rice couldn’t even bring herself to condemn Libya’s specific human rights record or even tell reporters how America voted in the General Assembly, where 155 of the 192 members deemed...
Verbal Clash Over Hezbollah Erupts at U.N. Between Envoys of Lebanon and Israel
UNITED NATIONS — The pitfalls of Lebanon’s position as president of the United Nations Security Council were visible today, as the Beirut representative, who presided over a periodic council debate on international terrorism, clashed with Israel’s ambassador over Hezbollah’s definition as a terrorist group. At Turtle Bay, where Iran recently joined the committee to defend the rights of women and where Libya is a shoo-in for membership in the top body dealing with human rights, little stir is...
Ghost of Edward Teller Haunts United Nations Nuclear Parley
Are there no Edward Tellers left among nuclear policy wonks? As world diplomats gathered in Turtle Bay this week to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, I was thinking about two men whom I met in the early 1980s and who represent the opposite ends of American thinking on all things atomic: Father George Zabelka and Edward Teller. At the United Nations, President Obama’s America is claiming leadership in the race toward a nuclear-free world. Along with our newest partner — Russia — we’re...
Iran Set to Out-Maneuver Obama in A-Bomb Parley at United Nations
UNITED NATIONS — President Ahmadinejad, in a political masterstroke, appears set to throw President Obama’s disarmament strategy into turmoil – and all the Iranian flame thrower has to do is show up. The Iranian is set to do this Monday, when he will seek to sway world opinion and turn the attention from his world-threatening nuclear program to Israel. In past administrations, such bait and switch tricks would have been laughed at, but the current administration’s Turtle Bay-based foreign...
Obama Faces Trap at U.N. In Demarche by Egypt On Nuclear Arms
UNITED NATIONS — President Obama’s “nuclear spring,” celebrated by his fans across the world, is about to be turned into a trap here, as Third World countries, led by Egypt, are set to push back against America and Russia — and to try to force Israel to drop its long-held nuclear policy. Egypt’s envoy to the world body, Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, circulated this week to key United Nations members a proposal to push Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty “as soon as possible as a...
Egypt Circulates Paper Seeking To Isolate Israel on A-Bomb
Following is the text of a working paper — an unofficial document — being circulated by Egypt to several ambassadors to the United Nations and obtained by The New York Sun: * * * 1. The third session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, held in New York, recommended by consensus that agenda item 16 of the Conference would be “Review of the operation of the Treaty as provided for in article VIII...
‘False Religion’ Is How Long-Time U.S. Aide Now Describes Middle East Peace Process
An architect of the America’s Middle East peace process, who over the past 30 years served both Republican and Democratic administrations, is describing the continued pursuit of mediation among Palestinians and Israelis as “a false religion,” a pointless effort that will only meet with failure. “I am no longer a believer,’’ Aaron Miller asserted in an article published in Foreign Policy and in an interview aired last night on CNN prime time news program with John King. Mr. Miller, who since...
American Credibility at Stake In Showdown Over East Jerusalem Construction
If there is any comfort in Israeli Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren’s remark this week that the current U.S.-Israeli diplomatic crisis is the worst between the two countries “in 35 years,” it's that no one had the slightest idea of what event 35 years ago Mr. Oren was talking about. It was, it turns out, a dispute over an Israeli military withdrawal from part of Sinai as part of the post-Yom Kippur War disengagement process. Hopefully, 35 years from now no one will remember this awful week...
5th U.S. Fleet Seeks Action Over Piracy
WASHINGTON — America's 5th Fleet is appealing to the world's navies and law enforcement agencies to step up their response to a spike in incidents of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. The call comes as the 5th Fleet is closely monitoring a pirated ship off the coast of Somalia carrying a cargo of 33 advanced Russian-made T-72 tanks, spare parts, and ammunition. The arms aboard the Faina, a Ukrainian vessel flying the flag of Belize, were reported to be bound for Kenya, though an...
Egypt Press Union To Appeal Journalist's Arrest
CAIRO, Egypt — The Egyptian Press Union said it will appeal the sentencing of opposition newspaper editor Ibrahim Eissa, who was convicted of publishing rumors about the health of President Mubarak. "We disapprove of sending journalists to prison and therefore are taking all measures to suspend this order," the deputy manager of the press union, Ahmed Anany, said by telephone yesterday from Cairo. The group represents more than 5,000 journalists. Mr. Eissa, editor of the independent daily...
11 Europeans Freed After Being Kidnapped in Egypt
Eleven European tourists and their eight Egyptian guides have been released and are being flown to Cairo after being taken hostage a week ago in a remote desert region of Egypt. The group, including five Germans, five Italians, and a Romanian, were reported to be in good health although there were conflicting reports that rescuers had exchanged gunfire with their captors. The group was kidnapped at Gilf al-Kebir, a mountainous, cave-riddled plateau used as the setting for the 1996 film "The...
ANC Split Widens as Leader of S. African Province Resigns
Johannesburg — The leader of South Africa's richest province resigned yesterday, heightening speculation about a split in the ruling African National Congress. Mbhazima Shilowa, a supporter of the ousted President Mbeki, had been provincial premier of Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, for almost 10 years. He said he had quit in protest at the ousting of Mr. Mbeki by the party executive. "I am resigning due to my convictions that while the ANC has the right to recall any of its...
China Marks Olympics, Spacewalk for National Day
BEIJING — China kicked off its National Day celebrations yesterday by highlighting its hosting of the Beijing Olympics and the country's first spacewalk, two hard-won successes in a tumultuous year marked by natural disasters, ethnic unrest, and another food safety scandal. The spacewalk on Saturday boosted a wave of Chinese pride and patriotism stemming from the Olympics, which is still a big news story in the domestic press one month after it ended. China's Olympic heroes were honored in a...
12 Bodies Found Near Mexican School
TIJUANA, Mexico — The bodies of 11 men and one woman were found dumped in an empty lot next to a Tijuana elementary school yesterday morning, an hour before children were scheduled to arrive. City officials suspended classes after finding the victims, most of whom had been bound and tortured. Some were only partially clothed, a state police spokeswoman in Tijuana, Prisna Perez, said. Minutes after the grisly discovery, four other bodies were found in another empty lot in Tijuana, and two other...
Russia Accuses U.N. Agency of Funding Georgian President
UNITED NATIONS — Russia's confrontation with the West is escalating, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accusing the U.N. Development Program of collaborating with the financier George Soros to fund Mikheil Saakashvili's rise to the Georgian presidency. Russia has long accused Mr. Soros of financing the 2003 Rose Revolution, and Mr. Saakashvili in particular. Yesterday, Mr. Lavrov called for an examination of the ties between Mr. Soros and the UNDP. "At the time, George Soros was sponsoring...
Al-Maliki: Security Pact Is in U.S., Iraqi Interest
BAGHDAD — Prime Minister al-Maliki said yesterday that the government is ready to compromise to reach a security accord with America because Iraq still needs American troops despite the drop in violence. In an interview with the Associated Press, Mr. Maliki said neither he nor Iraq's parliament will accept any pact that fails to serve the country's national interests. A poorly constructed plan would provoke so much discord in Iraq that it could threaten his government's survival, he said. Mr...
Afghan Policeman Fires on U.S. Troops, Killing One
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan policeman opened fire on American troops at a police station, killing an American soldier and wounding three, officials said yesterday. An American commander said American forces in the station in eastern Afghanistan then killed the policeman. "Initial reports suggest that a rogue ANP [Afghan police] official turned on our forces and shot and killed one of our soldiers, the commander of Task Force Currahee in eastern Afghanistan, Colonel John "Pete" Johnson, said...
IAEA Head Calls for Iran To End Its Nuclear Secrecy
VIENNA, Austria — A six-year probe has not ruled out the possibility that Iran may be running clandestine nuclear programs, the chief U.N. nuclear inspector said yesterday, urging Iran to reassure the world by ending its secretive ways. At the opening session of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 145-nation conference, the European Union also urged Tehran to cooperate fully with a U.N. probe that is trying to assess all of its past and present nuclear activities. "The international...
20,000 Flee Pakistan Clashes With Taliban
Islamabad, Pakistan — Fighting between the Pakistani military and pro-Taliban militants has forced 20,000 people to flee from Pakistan to war-torn Afghanistan. The United Nations said that an intensive military operation in the border tribal area of Bajaur had led to thousands of refugees crossing into the Afghan province of Kunar. "More than 3,900 families, or around 20,000 individuals, have fled fighting in Bajaur into Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan," the U.N. High Commission for...
Egypt: Kidnapped European Tourists Released
CAIRO, Egypt — A kidnapped 19-member European tour group was freed today and the 11 tourists and eight Egyptian guides and drivers are in good health and on their way to Cairo, Egypt's state news agency and television reported. The group, which includes five Germans, five Italians, and a Romanian, disappeared Sept. 19 while on a desert safari trip in a remote corner of southwestern Egypt. Their abductors took them to Sudan, then to Libya, but their final whereabouts were unclear. Italian news...
Bin Laden's Son Makes Return to Pakistan
WASHINGTON — Al Qaeda is consolidating its leadership in the territory under its control in Pakistan. Osama bin Laden's son and heir apparent, Sa'ad bin Laden, has returned to Pakistan from his safe haven in Iran, according to messages posted on a Qaeda jihad Web forum known as al-Hesbah. An organization that tracks and translates discussions on such forums, the SITE Institute, provided its subscribers with a summary of messages describing what it said was an escape by Sa'ad bin Laden from an...
Olmert Says Attack on Settlement Critic Threatens Democracy
Jerusalem — Prime Minister Olmert blamed an attack on an outspoken critic of Jewish settlement in the West Bank on what may be a newly formed Jewish underground and said the violence threatened the country's democracy. "An evil wind of extremism, hatred, violence, malice, of unlawfulness, of lack of restraint, of disregard for the state has swept through certain sectors of the Israeli society and is threatening Israeli democracy," Mr. Olmert told his Cabinet yesterday. Police have not yet found...
Obama's Man on the Middle East
Senator Obama's leading voice on Middle East policy, Dennis Ross, is one of America's most talented, creative, and clear-eyed diplomats, tirelessly seeking paradigm-shifting ideas, breakthroughs, and new openings to achieve his goals. And as he told a small group of pro-Israeli Obama donors, activists, and reporters at the United Nations, the goal is peace. Mr. Ross, who climbed the ladder at Foggy Bottom from the days of President Reagan until the end of the Clinton administration and is most...
Ex-CIA Man Casts Doubt on Hmong Trial
A former CIA operative who advised a venerable Hmong leader, General Vang Pao, on a plan to put military pressure on Laos is expressing doubts that the aging general played a role in a plot against the Laotian regime, as American prosecutors alleged in an indictment last year. "My assessment is he's an old man. There's just no way. He's not full of piss and vinegar," the ex-CIA officer, Michael Spak, told The New York Sun yesterday. "The younger people surrounding him might be a different story...
As U.N. Nuclear Watchdog Convenes, Iran, Israel Collisions Loom
VIENNA, Austria — A meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's 145 member nations this week could turn into a showdown between the West and the developing world, as Iran and Syria bid for more influence within the agency, and Islamic nations express anger over Israel's nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency's general conference, starting tomorrow, has traditionally been an annual chance for member countries to plan general nuclear policies that range from strengthening...
Belarus Claims Rout of Opposition in National Polls
MINSK, Belarus — No opposition candidate won a seat in the Belarusian parliament with nearly all the districts counted, the head of the elections commission said early Monday. Although there is the possibility that some opposition members could still make it in, the major opposition candidates ran in districts where the vote has already been counted and thus were shut out. None of the opposition candidates running in the remaining districts is well known. "The voter is afraid of losing what he...
Bomb Threat Clears U.S. Embassy in Brussels
BRUSSELS, Belgium — Belgian police have evacuated the American embassy in Brussels after a caller told them there was a bomb in the building. Police on the scene said no bomb had gone off by 2245 GMT deadline tonight the caller gave them but that they would check the embassy for any explosives before giving the all-clear. The American complex in the Belgian capital houses both the American embassy to Belgium and the American diplomatic mission to the European Union, which has its headquarters...
Car Bomb Kills 17, Wounds 14 in Syrian Capital
DAMASCUS, Syria — A car packed with explosives detonated on a crowded residential street Saturday, killing 17 people and wounding more than a dozen others, state-run television reported. The car was packed with 440 pounds of explosives when it blew up on Mahlak Street, shattering apartment building and car windows and twisting the roof of one car, according to footage aired on Syrian TV. Syrian Interior Minister Bassam Abdul-Majid called the bombing a "terrorist act" and said all of the victims...
Explosion in India's Capital Kills 1, Injures 18
NEW DELHI — An explosion in a crowded flower market in India's capital Saturday killed a 13-year-old boy and injured 18 others, police and hospital officials said. Seven of the wounded were in critical condition, said Sanjeev, a spokesman for the state-run All India Institute for Medical Sciences who uses only one name. "The boy was brought dead to the hospital," Mr. Sanjeev told reporters. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said police were...
Germany Arrests 2 Terror Suspects on KLM Flight
COLOGNE, Germany — German police boarded a plane at Cologne-Bonn Airport and arrested two terrorist suspects today just before the plane took off for Amsterdam. Police said they decided to act after finding a suicide note that claimed the men wanted to die in a terror attack. A 23-year-old Somali man and a 24-year-old German man born in Somalia were arrested before the KLM flight left the airport, a spokeswoman for North Rhine-Westphalia state police said. The police spokeswoman, Katharina...
China Mission To Include First Spacewalk
JIUQUAN, China — China successfully launched a three-man crew into space yesterday, including an astronaut who will make the country's first spacewalk. The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft, China's third manned mission, blasted off atop a Long March 2F rocket shortly at 9:10 p.m. under clear night skies in northwestern China. The spacewalk is expected to take place either on Friday or Saturday. Underscoring the mission's weighty political overtones, the Chinese president and Communist Party head, Hu...
Diplomats: America Asks IAEA for Full Syria Report
VIENNA, Austria — America has asked the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency for a fuller accounting of its investigation of Syria's alleged efforts to secretly develop a plutonium-producing facility at a site bombed by Israel. A senior Syrian envoy in turn accused Washington of using "twisted logic" in pressuring his country instead of condemning the Israeli attack. "When you shield the aggressor and when you accuse the victim it is ... being not only an accessory to the crimes committed...
Bush, Indian PM Hope Nuclear Agreement Will Pass
WASHINGTON — President Bush and Prime Minister Singh of India expressed hope yesterday that Congress will approve a landmark agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation whose passage is in doubt. In remarks to reporters at the start of an Oval Office meeting, Mr. Bush said the deal is an example of how the American-India relationship has changed for the better during his administration. "It has taken a lot of work on both our parts, a lot of courage on your part," Mr. Bush said, looking toward Mr...
Air Travel to Pakistan Suspended Before Muslim Festival
Islamabad — Air travel in Pakistan was on the brink of total shutdown on yesterday as terrorists declared the country's airports a target, dashing hopes for an early resumption of British Airways flights before next week's Eid festival. The holiday plans of thousands of Britons have been put in jeopardy by the British carrier's decision to halt flights on security grounds in the run up to the biggest Muslim holiday of the year. The airline cancelled the six flights it operated a week to...
Pirates Seize Ukrainian Ship Off Somalia
KIEV, Ukraine — The Foreign Ministry says pirates have seized a Ukrainian-operated ship off Somalia. The ministry says the Faina was sailing with 21 people on board under the Belize flag, though it is operated by Ukrainian managing company Tomax Team Inc. The ministry says in a statement that the ship's captain reported being surrounded by three boats of armed men yesterday afternoon. The ship's passengers include 17 Ukrainian citizens including the captain, as well as three Russians and one...
Kidnappers Move European Hostages into Libya
CAIRO, Egypt — A group of kidnappers who abducted a 19-member European tour group during a desert safari moved their captives from Sudan to Libya yesterday in a new complication to the week-old hostage ordeal, the Sudanese government said. Sudanese troops "monitored" the kidnappers as they drove in three 4x4 vehicles from the Oweinat Mountain area in northwest Sudan and crossed the border into Libya, a Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ali Youssef, told the Associated Press. The kidnappers...



Back to index
Home page