IRAN
Obama to issue challenge to Iran
Kevin Bohn, WDSU News – March 8, 2013
Obama said at a White House meeting with Jewish American leaders that he will still work toward a diplomatic resolution with Iran over its nuclear program, but repeated that no options are off the table, including military ones, one of the sources said. The comments do not represent a change in the Obama administration’s thinking, but come as the president prepares to travel in two weeks to the region where he is expected to be pressed over Iran by the Israeli government.
China Renews Support for Iran’s Nuclear Rights
Fars News Agency – March 8, 2013
“We (Chinese) believe that Iran, as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, possesses the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes while following relevant international obligations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters on Thursday. She added that blind sanctions will not help to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue and the use of force is even more unacceptable.
Opinion: Seal the Deal With Iran
Ray Takeyh, The New York Times – March 8, 2013
After nearly a decade of diplomacy, there is a faint and perhaps fleeting light at the end of one of the world’s most durable tunnels. The challenge for the next round of talks, in April, is to cement the progress that has been made and finally transact a resilient arms control agreement.
NORTH KOREA
After Sanctions Vote, 2 Koreas Ratchet Up Attack Threats
Choe Sang-hun and Rick Gladstone, The New York Times – March 8, 2013
Angrily responding to the United Nations Security Council’s unanimous decision to impose tightened sanctions, North Korea said on Friday that it was nullifying all nonaggression agreements with South Korea, with one of its top generals claiming that his country had nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles ready to blast off. Matching the harsh warning with a toughened stance, South Korea said on Friday that if Pyongyang attacks the South with a nuclear weapon, the regime of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, “will be erased from the earth.”
U.N. Sanctions May Play Into North Korean Propaganda
David Guttenfelder and Foster Klug, Associated Press – March 8, 2013
With the outside world clamoring to punish North Korea, Kim can build the same image his late father, Kim Jong Il, looked to create — that of a strong leader developing nuclear weapons despite outrage from the U.S. superpower, said Ahn Chan-il, a political scientist who heads the World Institute for North Korea Studies in Seoul.
White House confident of countering possible N. Korean attacks
Lee Chi-dong, Yonhap News Agency – March 7, 2013
The White House said Thursday that the U.S. remains undaunted by North Korea’s growing military threats, including a missile attack. “Let’s be clear: We are fully capable of dealing with that threat,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said at a press briefing.
MISSILE DEFENSE
The Geopolitical Significance, Or Lack Thereof, Of Turkey’s NATO Radar
Joshua Kucera, Eurasianet – March 07, 2013
Turkey’s decision in 2011 to host a radar for NATO’s missile defense system has been widely interpreted as a reaffirmation of Turkey’s commitment to NATO, and more generally to a western geopolitical orientation, at a time when a number of analysts and policymakers have worried that Turkey is “drifting eastward. “But that may not be a correct interpretation of Ankara’s decisionmaking,” notes Aaron Stein, an Istanbul-based researcher at the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies who studies Turkish defense issues.
