London—Hostility between US and British military
leaders in Iraq ran deep, with one describing
his US counterparts as ‘group of Martians’, a
newspaper reported on Monday, citing leaked
government documents. The top British commander
in the country, Major General Andrew Stewart,
said “our ability to influence US policy in Iraq
seemed to be minimal” in the first year of the
conflict, according to documents published by
the Daily Telegraph.
London—British
ambassadors to Muslim countries are travelling
back to Britain to help to counter the
propaganda of radical Islamic clerics, said a
report in “The Sunday Times.” The paper said so
far 25 senior diplomats have met Muslims in
radical hotspots such as Luton, north of London
where, earlier this year, British troops
returning from Iraq were jeered on the streets
by extremists.
Kabul—Two Afghan
cabinet ministers are being investigated under
suspicion of embezzlement, a deputy attorney
general said on Monday, at a time when President
Hamid Karzai faces tough Western pressure to
clean up his government. Fazel Ahmad Faqiryar
declined to name the two ministers, but told
Reuters that other officials were also being
targeted by the inquiry.
Brussels—The UN’s
top climate negotiator voiced optimism Monday
that a deal can be salvaged next month at world
talks on global warming, but said US President
Barack Obama must first get on board. “I think
we will have a very specific agreement,” UN
climate chief Yvo de Boer said ahead of a
meeting with EU environment ministers in
Brussels. He has already ruled out the
possibility that a comprehensive climate treaty
can be reached at the UN-sponsored talks opening
in Copenhagen on December 7.
I recall my last conversation with Yasser Arafat
in his Ramallah compound a few weeks before his
death. It was he who brought up the idea of a
threefold federation — Israel, Palestine and
Jordan. “And perhaps Lebanon, too. Why not?”
Lately, the term “federation” has come into
fashion again. Some people believe that it can
serve as a kind of compromise between the
“two-state solution”, now a worldwide consensus,
and the “one-state solution” that is popular in
some radical circles.
