Turkey pulls out of deal to buy Iranian gas ‘under pressure from US’.
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At the end of 2007, Radio 4’s Robin Lustig predicted that we would hear a lot more about Pakistan in 2008. So far he has been right. And it may not just be the US which puts the pressure on Pakistan; China may have something to say too.
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Russia wants “regime change” in Georgia, says US.
Steve LeVine puts this conflict into context — it is all part of the ongoing ‘pipeline wars’.
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Iran invites Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning, to open a branch in Tehran.
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Talking of Egypt: Authorities in Cairo have shut down the office of an Iranian TV network, in response to a film that justifies the killing of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by Islamic militants.
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Gordon Brown threatened Iran with tougher sanctions as he became the first British prime minister to address the Israeli parliament. Brown vowed that Britain would stand by Israel’s side as it faced threats to its existence.
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Al Azhar, regarded as Sunnism’s leading scholarly and religious institution, has condemned a documentary by Iranian filmmakers on Anwar Sadat. Al Azhar has said the film should be burnt.
As the FaithWorld blogger, Aziz El-Kaissouni, notes, this is a good example how Muslim states enlist “Islamic scholars into echoing the government’s grievances with an added Islamic flavour”. No Orientalism here, I am afraid. The more uncomfortable truth may be that a major Muslim institution is acting in the service of an autocratic regime (with the added phenomenon that it is ‘nationalising’ itself further).
Iran has responded by saying the film does no represent the official view of the state and has been made by a “private organisation”. On this point, El-Kaissouni notes:
[Iran's official stance regarding the documentary] is one of the cultural issues that pops up every time something like this happens. During the Danish cartoons controversy, various figures in the religious or political establishments of Muslim countries demanded the offending paper and artists be prosecuted. They seemed to operate on the assumption that all states can control media output in their countries, as many Muslim and Arab governments do.
I don’t know if this response by Arab religious and political establishment figures can be necessarily called a ‘cultural issue’. I suggest it is more likely these establishment figures are interested in shoring up their political power. I do agree, however, that culture may play a part in what can or cannot be subjected to media scrutiny and intensity in different countries.
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US plans to station diplomats in Iran for first time since 1979*.
*An important year for another reason too.
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Seymour Hersh reports on the Bush administration’s “secret moves against Iran”.
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Re-writing the idea of Europe: The Financial Times expresses scepticism over France’s proposals for a ‘Mediterranean union’, which may end up involving the Maghreb, Egypt, the Balkans, Turkey, Israel and Syria.
The Economist seems more upbeat about these proposals.
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Pakistan’s military has condemned an air strike by Afghanistan-based US forces that killed 11 of its troops as a “cowardly attack”.
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In an uncharacteristic move, the GCC issued a statement condemning the US over a State Department report which accused some of the Gulf countries of “not doing enough to combat human trafficking”. The report praised efforts made by the Bahrain and the UAE, but criticised Kuwait, Saudi Arabiam Oman and Qatar.
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The Chinese authorities are telling tour operators in the country to stop selling holidays to France.
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razib
i’m reading the post-american world. i will amend my earlier complaint about fareed talking about how chinese and indians don’t believe in god; he cites a 2007 pew survey which shows that the majority of chinese & japanese don’t believe that one needs to believe in god to be moral, and that the majority of americans do. that’s his one quantitative point. he has some later qualitiative arguments and points which i think are more subtle than come across in his exposition in interviews, even if they need further teasing apart than is possible in a book of this nature….
