051708f - FOREIGN PRESS REVIEW (FPR) - ‘Relevant news, views, comments and analyses for informed debate’ Compiled by Şanlı Bahadır Koç U.S. / Britain / Turkey / Magazines / Think-tanks / Blogs / Misc /Books / Quickread / Numbers / Reports - Subscribe to FPR FPR Table - H4 NYT WP GU H7 ME Isr H10 CSM IHT Eur FSU Asia H13 Times WSJ FT LAT H16 USP DT Ind H19 Mil Int Ter Wonk H21 Misc

H1 NYT Saudis Rebuff Bush, Politely, on Pumping More Oil

Financial Times Saudis to boost oil output after US pressure

The announcement of an increase production by about 300,000 barrels a day came after a plea by US president George W. Bush to King Abdullah at a meeting in Riyadh

Washington Post Oil Efforts Are Best Possible, Saudis Say Push on Prices by Bush Is Gently Turned Aside

Bush Won't Strike OilSteven Mufson | The President's Saudi visit probably won't mean more oil for the U.S.

Wall Street Journal Editorial Beseeching the Saudis
An American President should not go begging.

DT Axis faces moment of truth...

Stratfor The Geopolitics Of Israel: Biblical and Modern By George Friedman

Charlie Rose A conversation with Robert Kagan

New York Times Sunni Insurgents in Mosul Offered Amnesty and Cash

Audio Message From bin Laden Condemns Israel

Bush Administration Middle East Policy: What Went Wrong? By: Jon B. Alterman | World Politics Review
It has become impossible to credibly argue that the Bush Administration's Middle East policies have advanced U.S. national interests

Guardian Beirut, seen from Tehran M Cist Iranians are unsure what to make of recent events in Lebanon. Are they the result of Bush's incompetence, or part of his plan?

Weak dollar and supply worries push oil to fresh high of $128

Crude oil price increased sixfold in past eight years, fuelling debate about dwindling resources

Solving the food crisis Muhammad Yunus A comprehensive global plan is needed to tackle the high cost of food that threatens the lives of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people

Foreign Policy In an era of globalization, no country is immune when the US falls onto hard times; here’s a look at how economies elsewhere will fare.

Los Angeles Times Quake gives a big jolt to China's old ways Beijing responds with flexibility and openness, and individual initiative surges, signaling a new dynamic

Negotiating isn't appeasement

By J. Peter Scoblic

Newsweek An Unnatural Disaster | Print Article m America bears much of the blame for its waning global clout Michael Hirsh.

The Iraq War: Key Trends and Developments Source: Center for Strategic & International Studies Full Report (PDF; 4.7 MB)

McClatchy Bush Revives Talk of a Strike on Iran

Who'd pick up more swing states — Obama or Clinton?

Ha’aretz – PMO: U.S., Israel see need for 'tangible action' on Iran nukes

Jerusalem PostUS agrees to help Saudi Arabia develop civilian nuclear program

Decision comes after Saudis reject Bush appeal to increase oil production; leaders share concern that Lebanon violence emboldens Iran.

Column One: Hizbullah's power play [ CAROLINE GLICK ,

A Complicated Alliance By: Lee Hudson Teslik | Council on Foreign Relations Today, oil still dominates U.S.-Saudi ties. But the fairly straightforward buy-sell dynamic between the world’s leading importer and leading exporter of crude is increasingly complicated by a host of other issues, from security cooperation to currency concerns.

Asia Times Tehran ponders the spoils of victory
Hezbollah's display of strength in Lebanon leaves its backer, Iran, emboldened. Tehran is now in a stronger position to negotiate a deal with the United States pertaining to its nuclear file. Or it could do something radical, such as trade off Hezbollah in exchange for a greater piece of the Iraqi cake. All options are on the table. - Sami Moubayed

Saudis, US grapple with Iran challenge The reaction to the flareup in Lebanon has left Saudi Arabia (and its United States ally) with no doubt that there are not many takers in the Arab world for anti-Iran, anti-Hezbollah ploys. This leaves the George W Bush administration with little choice other than to resort to back-channel diplomacy to engage Tehran, while the Saudis, too, will have to re-asses their stance on Iran. - M K Bhadrakumar

Bush, McCain dream on in war landBush and the man who hopes to replace him, Senator John McCain, have divulged to the world their beautiful dreams, in which Middle East weapons have become ploughshares, bitter enemies lie down together as lambs and evil powers abandon nuclear weapons. This stuff keeps the neo-cons happy, even though the politics that will make it reality are absent. - Jim Lobe

TIME Welcome to Hizballahstan The militants' easy victory in the battle for Beirut leaves the U.S. yet again on the losing side of an Arab conflict, with little leverage and few options

A Gulf Apart By MICHAEL ELLIOTT

Lebanon is inflamed once more by old hatreds. Yet elsewhere in the Middle East a new Arab world is emerging, with powerhouses like Qatar and Dubai leading the way

Joe Klein Hamas Hysteria Smeared by McCain, Obama says he won't talk to the bad guys. They're both failing the leadership test

Al Hayat Lebanon's Battles in Light of the Struggle for Regional Domination Raghida Dergham - Hezbollah's coup in Lebanon is one of the episodes of a new regional order in the Middle East, one that is imposed by the Islamic Republic of Iran through the language of weapons pointed towards the interior to insure local domination.

Bashir Gemayel and Hassan Nasrallah Abdullah Iskandar -

Questions for the Opposition Ghassan Charbel - If the Lebanese government was said, in light of the two decisions it took, to have erred in assessing the sensitiveness of the issue and the gravity of the timing, then can't it be said that the opposition, with the first shot it fired in the streets of Beirut, has poorly assessed Lebanon's sensitive structure, a mistake tantamount to a fatal sin?

Sadr Movement at a Crossroads By: Kamal Nazer Yasin | ISN Security Watch The Sadr Movement has been strong in post-Saddam Iraq, but its future is now uncertain with the Iraqi government taking the movement on head first

A New Course for Pakistan
Source: Center for Strategic & International Studies Full Report (PDF; 1.6 MB)

The Afghan-Pakistan War: A Status Report
Source: Center for Strategic & International Studies Full Report (PDF; 6.2 MB)

NYT U.S. Planning Big New Prison in Afghanistan Officials are scaling back plans to shift prisoners into Afghan custody in a stark acknowledgment that the U.S. is likely to hold prisoners overseas for years.

"Text" of Joint Communique of China, Russia, India Foreign Ministers' Meeting

EDM U.S.-AZERBAIJAN RELATIONS GO THROUGH TENSION, YET MAINTAIN STRATEGIC ALLIANCE

RFERL Analysis: Does Azerbaijan Face A New Irredentist Threat?

Analysis: Armenian Opposition Issues New Ultimatum

IHT German industry seeks role in modernizing Russia The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia that German industry was prepared to help the Russian economy reduce its dependence on energy and commodities.

WSJ NOONAN: Republicans 'falling apart... dying'...

The Times Mass graves for China's dead, 5 million homeless Authorities tell soldiers to bury dead quickly but photographs and hair are taken first for DNA identification later

H 2 WSJ Turkey's Courts Should Respect the Will of the People
By Mark R. Parris The legal case for shutting down the governing AK Party is preposterous.

EDM RISING UNEMPLOYMENT RINGING SOCIAL ALARM BELLS IN TURKEY

The Divisions of Cyprus (letters)
London Review of Books

Media mergers may help Turkey's struggling govt

The Generals and Islam in Turkey
Khaleej Times

Rapporteur Favors Rejecting Turk Headscarf Case: TV

IHT Police arrest 10 men in three countries in Europe in terror investigation Ten men of Turkish origin were arrested Friday in three European countries as part of a French investigation into what a judge said was a financial-support network tied to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a terrorist group with links to Al Qaeda.

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