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Friday, Jul 3, 2009
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Strategic Context
EU May Pull Envoys from Iran
The European Union was preparing Wednesday to debate a British request to pull ambassadors of all 27 EU nations from Iran in protest over the detention of Iranian staff at the British Embassy in Tehran.
The detentions last week cranked up Iran’s standoff with the West over its bloody crackdown on opposition protesters who disputed the results of last month’s presidential election. In a further sign of deteriorating ties, Iran said Wednesday the EU had disqualified itself from talks over Tehran’s nuclear program because of its “interference” in the post-election unrest. Iran accuses the EU of supporting the anti-government rallies.
(Arab Times)
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Iran Government Not Legitimate: Mousavi
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has said that most Iranians will not consider the new government to be formed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as legitimate, his website reported yesterday. “The majority of the society to which I belong will not recognise the legitimacy of the (future) government,” Mousavi said, according to a statement posted on his website.
(Qatar Peninsular)
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Iranian Majlis Member Ghodratollah Alikhani in Majlis: The People's Trust in This Country's Regime and Leaders Has Been Fractured
Following are excerpts from an address to the Iranian Majlis by Majlis member Ghodratollah Alikhani, on June 16, 2009. Part of the address, in which Alikhani distances himself from the riots and issues anti-West declarations, was aired on Iranian Channel 1 on June 18, 2009. The rest of the address, in which he expresses his pro-Mousavi stance, was posted on the Internet.
(MEMRI)
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Regional Affairs
Ahmadinejad Unwelcome in Egypt: Lawyer
Farrag Ismail
An Egyptian Islamist lawyer has filed a complaint with the prosecutor general calling for banning Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from entering the country or his arrest, in advance of a meeting he is expected to attend in Egypt later this month. In the filing, the embattled president, whose re-election last month has been rocked by street protests throughout the Islamic Republic, was accused of fraudulently winning the elections and insulting two of the Prophet Muhammad’s companions in a campaign speech.
(Al Arabiya)
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Hamas Tells Fatah Detainees Told to Bring Own Food
Khaled Abu Toameh
Hamas's security forces in the Gaza Strip have asked Fatah detainees to bring their own food and drink with them, Fatah officials said on Wednesday. The officials said that at least 500 Fatah supporters have been detained by Hamas security forces over the past few days in one of the biggest security crackdowns in recent years. Some of the Fatah activists who were summoned for questioning by phone before they were detained said Hamas security officers told them to bring their own food and drink.
(Jerusalem Post)
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Egypt Police Kill Two Somalis at Israel Border
Egyptian police shot dead two Somali migrants Thursday who tried to slip across the Sinai desert border into Israel, security sources said, as violence against migrants picked up at the sensitive frontier. The killings bring to at least six the number of African migrants killed since mid-May at the border.
(Reuters)
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Commentary
Iran and the World: A War of Words and Images
Tariq Alhomayed
Iran – which never got used to respecting the sovereignty of others but rather mastered interfering in the Arabian Gulf, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq where Iranians do what they want without any supervision or accountability – is having a taste of its own medicine today but only with regards to the media.
(Asharq Alawsat)
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Turkey Balances on Shaky Ground
Reza Akhlaghi
The revival of Turkey's relations with the Muslim world is taking place at a crucial time in the Middle East, where forces of change are making themselves increasingly felt with the potential to impact Turkey's emerging relationship with Arabs and Iranians alike.
(Asia Times)
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Reports Emerge of Syrian-Saudi Summit
Nicholas Kimbrell
Days after officials in Washington announced that a US ambassador would soon be sent to Syria, reports have emerged of an upcoming Syrian-Saudi Arabian summit to be held in Damascus that could include Lebanon. Conventional wisdom holds that any improvement in Syrian-Saudi ties generally contributes to increased stability in Lebanon, and according to experts on Levantine politics, Lebanon may already be benefiting from those nations' thawing ties and a revamped US policy in the region.
(Daily Star - Lebanon)
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MESI Issue of the Week
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Are Settlements Ilegal and an Obstacle to Peace?
Dore Gold
11/06/2009
The Obama administration's tough, confrontational rhetoric on Israeli settlements raises a number of specific questions: Were Israeli settlements a violation of international law? Were Israeli settlements a violation of agreements and an obstacle to further progress in any future peace talks? Did the administration envision Israel withdrawing completely to the 1967 lines or did it accept the idea that Israel would retain part of the territories for defensible borders?
Many observers are surprised to learn that settlement activity was not defined as a violation of the 1993 Oslo Accords or their subsequent implementation agreements. If the U.S. is now seeking to constrain Israeli settlement activity, it is essentially trying to obtain additional Israeli concessions that were not formally required according to Israel's legal obligations under the Oslo Accords. Given the fact that the amount of territory taken up by the built-up areas of all the settlements in the West Bank is estimated to be 1.7 percent of the territory, the marginal increase in territory that might be affected by natural growth is infinitesimal. Moreover, since Israel unilaterally withdrew 9,000 Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, the argument that a settler presence will undermine a future territorial compromise has lost much of its previous force.
More...
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Key Articles
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Fundamental Documents
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UK Policy Statements
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MESI Map
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In Quotes
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New Publications
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