Middle East

Iran’s regional influence stepped up a notch this week with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visiting Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka. In the process, Iran increased its political, economic and cultural ties with the United States’ most important allies in the region. The biggest item on the agenda was the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, upon which a final agreement is expected to be signed soon. The trip shows just how little influence the U.S. has on its “allies.” They have no problem welcoming one of America’s worst enemies as a close partner and strengthening Iran’s clout in the area. The U.S. certainly cannot count on Pakistan, India or Sri Lanka to help contain Iran.

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said April 26 on Al Jazeera television that the terrorist organization’s willingness to accept a cease-fire is “a tactic in conducting the struggle.” Mashaal explained that “it is normal for any resistance … to sometimes escalate, other times retreat a bit.” “Hamas is known for that,” he said. “In 2003, there was a cease-fire and then the operations were resumed.” Quite an admission: Terrorists’ cease-fires aren’t an honest pursuit of peace, but rather strategies to increase violence at a later date.

In the midst of talks about peace deals, rumblings about an upcoming war in the Middle East continue. Stratfor reported April 25 that Hezbollah has reshuffled its organization in order to streamline its operations in readiness for war with Israel. Stratfor also reported, “Hezbollah military officials reportedly are meeting on a regular basis with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers in the Iranian Embassy complex in Bir Hassan, near Beirut. These meetings are aimed at beefing up Hezbollah defenses and putting the finishing touches on plans for Hezbollah special forces to launch raids behind Israeli lines if and when the Israel Defense Forces cross the Litani River.”

Also in Mideast news, terrorists launched one of the heaviest strikes in weeks inside Baghdad’s Green Zone on April 27; the U.S. met more resistance in Afghanistan with President Hamid Karzai saying U.S. forces should stop arresting Taliban members in order to avoid discouraging them from disarming; conservative lawmakers won more seats in Iran’s parliament following a second-round runoff, bringing their majority to 69 percent; the U.S. Congress is threatening to block military equipment sales to Saudi Arabia if it doesn’t increase its oil production; and Iran has announced it has stopped trading oil in U.S. dollars.

Europe

Italy edged further right this week with Gianni Alemanno becoming Rome’s first right-wing mayor in 15 years. Alemanno has pledged to take a tough stance against immigration and crime. In the celebrations after the election, Alemanno supporters gave their hero a stiff-armed salute, while shouting “Duce, Duce.” Alemanno’s politics did at one time have similarities with Mussolini’s: He was once the youth leader of the Italian Social Movement, a neofascist group.

Serbia, which holds elections next year, and the European Union signed a pre-membership deal this week. By agreeing to sign this deal with Serbia, Europe is trying to give the country’s pro-European party a boost. The EU has aimed to control the Balkans for years. After sparking the dissolution of Yugoslavia, it is trying to absorb the smaller states bit by bit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was awarded the Charlemagne Prize this week. The prize is awarded for “the most valuable contribution in the services of Western European understanding and work for the community, and in the services of humanity and world peace.” She was chosen for the award due to her efforts to unite Europe. Charlemagne waded through blood to achieve that goal. Many in Europe want to unite, but history shows it will take more than words for that to happen.

Next Monday, Swiss energy giant egl is set to sign a contract with Iran agreeing to purchase €18 billion in gas starting 2011. The potential deal comes quick after last month’s revelation that Austrian energy company omv signed letters of intent to buy €22 billion of gas from Tehran. While the EU, led by its representatives on the UN Security Council, has agreed to stop economic dealings with Iran when it comes to the banking and the nuclear and missiles sectors, the crucial energy field is off-limits for sanctions. These latest proposals by Austria and Switzerland show that the Continent’s concern lies more with its own energy supplies than the wishes of the superpower across the Atlantic. For further information, read “Which Is the Isolated State: Iran—or America?”

Asia

Residents of the Georgian breakaway province Abkhazia welcomed the arrival of additional Russian troops into the region on Thursday. These troops will bolster the approximately 2,000 Russian “peacekeeping” troops in the province. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced on Tuesday that the troops were being deployed in response to a supposed threat to the Abkhazian people from the Georgian central government. “If Georgia puts in place the threat it has made on a number of occasions about the use of force in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, we would be forced to take retaliatory measures to protect the lives of our citizens,” Lavrov told the press. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and NATO spokesman James Appathurai have both warned Russia against boosting its troops in Georgian breakaway regions, but Russian officials are still intent on expanding their nation’s presence into the Caucasus. By supporting the Abkhazian breakaway movement with peacekeeping troops, Russia seems to be duplicating with Georgia what the EU did with Serbia and Kosovo. This is bound to increase the tension between these two powers.

Abkhazia and Kosovo are not the only pieces of disputed territory the Kremlin covets. Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda last Saturday to discuss the status of the Kuril Islands. The dispute between Russia and Japan over who has legal sovereignty over these islands is the last obstacle to the formation of a treaty between the two nations that would officially end World War ii. At their Saturday meeting, Putin and Fukuda agreed to accelerate negotiations over these islands. These efforts, on the part of both Russia and Japan, are another step toward Japanese solidarity with the rest of Asia.

As the global food crisis escalates, India is enacting protectionist measures in order to keep rice reserves inside the country. On Tuesday, the Indian government imposed a $200-per-ton export duty on basmati rice. This export duty is in addition to the complete ban of non-basmati rice exports already in force. Considering that India is the world’s third-largest rice exporter, these protectionist measures are bound to have a negative impact on rice supplies around the world.

Africa

Zimbabwe has still not verified results from its March 29 election. The opposition is threatening to refuse a runoff election, claiming that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has already won and that any results of a runoff would be fraudulent. This strategy is likely to leave President Robert Mugabe in power ad infinitum.

On April 22, German President Horst Köhler received Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Berlin with military honors. Kagame’s trip, his fourth official visit to Germany, came only two months after Köhler visited Rwanda. President Kagme had two main objectives: first, to woo German businesses to invest in Rwanda; second, to meet with German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung and other officials to discuss establishing military relations. Germany is seeking closer ties with Rwanda as part of a strategy to secure African resources. In addition to fighting the Sudanese government in Darfur, Rwandan troops have also invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo twice in the past decade. Most significantly, both of these enemies of Rwanda are allies of China. Beijing has a strong interest in Africa’s natural resources. Berlin is looking to counter that. By increasing its investment and military support for Rwanda, Berlin is empowering a traditional enemy of a China-aligned nation and is looking to stake its own claim in the region.

Anglo-America

The European Union may not allow the Bank of England to lend money to Britain’s banking sector, the Times reported. “The centerpiece of the government’s plan to unclog Britain’s money markets could be disrupted by European regulators because it falls foul of state-aid rules, competition lawyers said yesterday. The Bank of England’s scheme to free up Britain’s home loan market by injecting £50 billion into the banking sector risks contravening the rules because it gives unfair advantage to British banks over rivals, experts say” (April 26). The news has troubling implications for British sovereignty, which may already be further gone than most Britons realize.

In the United States, federal agencies including the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center are countering terrorism by attacking jargon that infers a link between terrorism and the religion of Islam. According to a National Counterterrorism Center report, terms such as “jihadist” and “Islamo-fascism” may offend moderate Muslims or confer legitimacy upon extremist Muslims and should therefore be abandoned in favor of euphemisms like “violent extremist” and “terrorist.” The Middle East Times opines, “The Bush administration has decided that calling the enemy by his name is too risky, too politically incorrect, or oddly, somehow too laudatory” (April 28).

Elsewhere in the capital, Congress is admitting it “overreached” in its ethanol enthusiasm. The Washington Times reports, “Members of Congress say they overreached by pushing ethanol on consumers and will move to roll back federal supports for it—the latest sure signal that Congress’s appetite for corn-based ethanol has collapsed as food and gas prices have shot up. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Democrats will use the pending farm bill to reduce the subsidy, while Republicans are looking to go further, rolling back government rules passed just four months ago that require blending ethanol into gasoline” (May 1).