Kabul—Most Afghans see not Taliban militants but
poverty, unemployment and government corruption
as the main causes of war in their country,
according to a report by a leading aid group
released on Wednesday. After three decades of
war, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest and
least developed countries in the world. It is
also one of the most corrupt. Unemployment
stands at 40 percent and more than half the
country live below the poverty line. On top of
that, violence is at its highest levels since
U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in
late 2001.
Washington—The United
States delivered an unusually strong rebuke of
Israel, voicing dismay at the approval of new
Jewish housing in annexed east Jerusalem as
peace efforts hit a new low. The biting response
from President Barack Obama’s administration
came after the Israeli interior ministry gave
the green light for the construction of 900 new
units in Gilo, one of a dozen Jewish settlements
in east Jerusalem.
Baghdad—Iraq’s general
election planned for January, only the second
since the fall of Saddam Hussein, was thrown
into jeopardy on Wednesday after Vice President
Tareq al-Hashemi vetoed the polling law. “On
November 15, I sent a letter to parliament
asking for the law to be amended. Parliament
said I could veto the contested first article
(of the law), which is what I have done today,”
Hashemi said. Parliament must now reopen debate
on the proposed law, leading to a likely delay
of the mid-January polling date.
Tehran—Iranian Foreign
Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday
Tehran had ruled out sending any low-enriched
uranium abroad but would consider a simultaneous
fuel swap inside the country, a report said.
ISNA news agency quoted Mottaki as saying that a
UN-backed proposal which would have seen
Tehran’s stocks of low-enriched uranium sent out
the country for further enrichment was not
feasible.
ALTHOUGH the peace process is at an impasse, two
recent debates about the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict have started to redefine some of the
most fundamental issues of the conflict: the
first started in the US and focuses on the
nature and appropriateness of the uncondi-tional
American support for Israel; the second is
taking place in Israel itself and addresses such
fundamental issues as the very nature of being a
Jewish state, and, crucially, the wrongs the
Palestinian people have suffered.
