The administration of US President George W. Bush has a lot riding on the outcome of two deadlines that loom in the volatile Middle East: the historic withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from the occupied Gaza Strip and the drafting of a constitution for an independent Iraq.
In both cases, the US has invested time and a great deal of money to promote democracy and peace -- often elusive commodities in the Middle East.
In the case of Iraq, the US has also spent blood. In both cases, success might mean a reduction in terrorist violence while failure could damage both Middle East stability and US credibility.
For the Bush administration, each situation presents an opportunity to demonstrate to the Middle East that political participation can pay off, said retired Colonel P.J. Crowley, a National Security Council staff member in the Clinton administration and now a foreign policy analyst at the liberal Center for American Progress.
"In the battle for hearts and minds, you've got to be able to point to something positive," Crowley said.
A draft Iraqi constitution is due Aug. 15. The document, meant to represent the interests of all Iraq's squabbling factions, is the first step in a six-month political process that the US sees as crucial to its own exit from the country after more than two years of war.
Framers of the constitution said Sunday, however, they needed more time to finish the document. That uncertainly could upset the political momentum on which Washington has staked its plan to reduce troop levels next year.
The US has more short-term political capital invested in getting the constitution done on time than it has in seeing Israel's Gaza pullout come off without delay or major bloodshed, analysts said.
US officials are especially eager to maintain political momentum in Iraq, hoping that a broad-based government can lure Sunni Arab guerrillas away from the insurgency.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Baghdad to urge the Iraqis to finish the draft charter on time.
"People are simply going to have to recognize that [in] any constitutional drafting process, compromise is necessary. It's important. It's understandable. It's the way democratic systems work," he said.
Progress toward the constitution has come intermittently, but minority Sunni Arabs have not boycotted.
On Friday, key members of the committee writing the charter said they had almost finished the draft and expected to submit it to parliament by Sunday.
But with no sign of compromise on outstanding issues, committee chairman Humam Hammoudi said before a meeting Sunday that he would recommend the group ask for a 30-day extension. After the meeting, one framer, Bahaa al-Araji, said the recommendation had been accepted.
Al-Araji said Kurdish delegates wanted a six-month delay -- the maximum amount under the interim constitution -- but that Shiites and Sunni Arabs would accept no more than 30 days.
As word of a possible extension spread, however, US officials began pressuring the Iraqis to stand fast by the timetable, Iraqi officials said.
If parliament ratifies the charter, it will be submitted to a public referendum two months later.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a week-long diplomatic blitz of South America on Thursday by inaugurating a massive deep-water port in Peru, a US$1.3 billion investment by Beijing as it seeks to expand trade and influence on the continent. With China’s demand for agricultural goods and metals from Latin America growing, Xi will participate in the APEC summit in Lima then head to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, where he will also make a state visit to Brazil. Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
HOPEFUL FOR PEACE: Zelenskiy said that the war would ‘end sooner’ with Trump and that Ukraine must do all it can to ensure the fighting ends next year Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom early yesterday suspended gas deliveries via Ukraine, Vienna-based utility OMV said, in a development that signals a fast-approaching end of Moscow’s last gas flows to Europe. Russia’s oldest gas-export route to Europe, a pipeline dating back to Soviet days via Ukraine, is set to shut at the end of this year. Ukraine has said it would not extend the transit agreement with Russian state-owned Gazprom to deprive Russia of profits that Kyiv says help to finance the war against it. Moscow’s suspension of gas for Austria, the main receiver of gas via Ukraine, means Russia now only
‘HUGS NOT WORKING’: Ken Salazar said that the bodies of people killed by violence ‘can be seen everywhere’ and that the nation’s leaders were downplaying the issue Mexico failed to accept aid in its fight against drug cartels and “closed the doors” on security cooperation with Washington, US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar told a news conference in Mexico City on Wednesday. Salazar said there was rampant violence, police corruption and that the Mexican government had the mistaken attitude that “there is no problem.” “When they just say: ‘There is no problem, we have these statistics to show people there is no problem,’ that is not based on reality,” Salazar said. “There is a very big problem.” Mexico sent a diplomatic note to the US embassy “expressing its surprise” at
RSS