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DHAKA TRIBUNE
World
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
An EU agenda: Keeping British in, Russians out, Germans down German dominance spot of bother for rest of European elite n Reuters, Rome
hood is a common European interest, but where and how to draw red lines will be a major challenge for the bloc.
The first secretary-general of Nato, Lord Ismay, once said the Western defence alliance was created “to keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down.” The task facing the European Union now might be described as to keep the British in, the Russians out and the Germans down.
Germans down?
British in
Prime Minister David Cameron’s demand to redraw Britain’s relationship with the EU and put the result to a referendum in 2017 means the next few years are bound to be dogged by haggling over Brussels’ powers and about opt-outs for London. If Britain, Europe’s third largest economy, main financial centre and joint biggest military and diplomatic power, were to become the first country ever to leave the bloc, it would deal a severe blow to itself but also to the EU’s global standing. Last month’s confrontation over the nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president against adamant British opposition was a foretaste of the fraught negotiations ahead if Cameron is re-elected next year. Under fierce pressure from Eurosceptics at home, the British leader risks overplaying his hand, misreading and alienating his main allies, as he did with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over Juncker, and demanding too high a price. Some continental politicians, exasperated by 40 years of British efforts
A partial view of EU parliament to block a federal Europe and secure favourable terms by hardball negotiating tactics, are tempted to let the UK go in a belief that their life would be easier afterwards. Yet keeping Britain in, provided it undertakes not to obstruct closer economic and political integration of the euro single currency area, must surely be a priority for the EU.
Russians out
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s seizure and annexation of Crimea, cut-off of gas supplies to Ukraine and destabilisation of eastern Ukraine have put Moscow’s geopolitical challenge to Europe – and reducing the EU’s dependency on Russian gas – high on the policy agenda. Brussels officials fear Moscow may do more to punish Ukraine and fellow ex-Soviet republics Georgia and Moldova
WIKI
economically for signing trade and cooperation pacts with the EU. Member states differ on how far to go in sanctioning Russia for its behaviour, whether to give Ukraine a long-term prospect of membership and what incentives to offer Moscow if it changes course. The Germans are reluctant to jeopardise their energy and trade interests, the French to cancel the sale of helicopter carriers and the British to endanger London’s role as an offshore banking centre and playground for Russia’s rich. While former Soviet bloc states such as Poland and Estonia favour a tougher line with Moscow, others such as Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria are wary of putting energy supplies and business ties at risk. Preventing Russia from destabilising the EU’s eastern neighbour-
Yes, but why the desire to keep the Germans down? Germany is in many ways a beacon of economic success and stable democracy, anchored in the bosom of Europe and Nato. But its growing political ascendancy over the EU in the wake of the eurozone crisis has stirred unease in many European capitals, ensuring that a tug-of-war with Berlin over economic and fiscal policy is likely to escalate. French weakness, British detachment, the enfeeblement of the European Commission and the muscle-flexing of the German constitutional court have all contributed to tilting the balance in the EU, thrusting Germany uncomfortably into the spotlight. So too have impending changes in voting rules among EU states that give more weight to population size, and the growing power of the European Parliament, where Germans make up the largest contingent. Long under-represented, Germans have secured an unprecedented grip on the reins of the main EU institutions that is raising concern in London and Paris. The dominance of German economic thinking, with an emphasis on austerity and a deep-seated culture of saving rather than spending or investing, needs to be tempered if Europe is to avoid a lost decade of stagnation and high unemployment. l
Inside Obama’s secret schedule n Agencies On May 29, US President Barack Obama had lunch at the White House with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The likely 2016 presidential contender has been to hundreds of West Wing meetings, first as first lady, then as senator, and finally as the top American diplomat. But this face–to–face was unusual. Unlike dozens of presidential meetings every week — and a similar Obama–Clinton meeting in July 2013 — it was not announced in advance. Instead, reporters who cover Obama learned about the secret visit from a People magazine tweet, and ultimately managed to wring a terse sentence from an anonymous White House official grudgingly confirming that the world’s most powerful person had met with the woman who is arguably the front–runner to succeed him. The topic of their discussion was not revealed. This is how the White House works. A week before the secret lunch, the schedule failed to mention that the US president was hosting a bipartisan delegation of senators for what one Republican attendee later described as a “bizarre” foreign policy meeting. A month before that, there was no advance word that Obama would welcome a group of Japanese-American World War II veterans in the Oval Office — on the eve of the anniversary of FDR signing the infamous order to put Japanese-Americans in concentration camps, no less. All of those meetings fall well within the president’s duties. But not one appeared on the public presidential schedule posted online the night before and distributed to the press. Instead, all were on the only White House schedule that really matters: the
Hamas vows revenge after 7 members killed n AP, Jerusalem
An Israeli soldier salutes atop an armoured personnel carrier (APC) near the border with the southern Gaza Strip
Sisi: Egypt should have deported Al Jazeera journalists n Reuters, Cairo Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he wished the imprisoned Al Jazeera journalists, convicted of aiding “a terrorist group”, had been deported and not put on trial, a newspaper reported yesterday. Sisi’s comments sparked hope for the family of Australian reporter Peter Greste who, along with colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, was jailed last month for 10 years. Sisi was quoted by Egypt’s Al-Masry Al-Youm private newspaper as saying the verdict “had very negative effects”. “I wished they were deported right after they were arrested instead of getting put on trial,” Sisi added during a meeting with local journalists on Sunday. Sisi’s initial reaction to the ruling was that he would not interfere in court verdicts. Monday’s comments could be a hint he might use his presidential power to pardon the journalists, who still have a chance to appeal against the verdict in a higher court. Peter Greste’s brother, Andrew, said he was heartened by the comments. “I’m sure images of Peter in the cage in the court are not images Egypt really wants distributed around the world,” Andrew Greste told reporters in Brisbane. “And the publicity they’re getting out of this I’m sure is not the publicity any country would want.” Peter Greste, Al Jazeera English Cairo bureau chief Fahmy, a dual Canadian-Egyptian citizen, and Egyptian network producer Mohamed were detained in December. l
REUTERS
The Islamic militant group Hamas that rules Gaza vowed revenge on Israel for the death of seven of its members killed in an airstrike early yesterday morning in the deadliest exchange of fire since the latest round of attacks began weeks ago. Hamas’ said “the enemy will pay a tremendous price,” referring to Israel. The group said its men were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a tunnel used by the militants. Two militants from a different group were also killed in a separate strike. The men were involved in rocket attacks on southern Israeli communities, the Israeli military said. Israel said it carried out airstrikes on at least “14 terror sites” including “concealed rocket launchers” in Gaza overnight in retaliation to a recent spike in attacks from Gaza. About a dozen rockets were fired at
Israel from Gaza overnight the military said. One injured a soldier. Gaza militants fired 25 rockets at Israel on Sunday the military said. The military says Palestinian militants have fired more than 200 rockets at southern Israel in recent weeks, and it has responded with scores of airstrikes targets in Gaza. Lt Col Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the rocket attacks are “unbearable and unacceptable.” “We will continue to act in order to debilitate and incapacitate the Hamas terror infrastructure striking its warehouses, rocket manufacturing capabilities and those that endanger the well–being of the Israelis in the south of the country.” Gaza militants have been bombarding Israel with daily rocket fire for weeks, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation. The nine militants killed overnight Monday made it the deadliest day of fighting so far. l
Iraq chaos fuels Kurds’ independence dream n Reuters, Kele Bi, Iraq
A grave, freshly dug and adorned with pebbles, is the modest tribute to one more sacrifice in the long history of struggle for an independent Kurdish state. Hogir Fathi was looking forward to home leave in his village in autonomous Kurdistan when the 24-year-old, a fighter in the Iraqi region’s peshmerga forces, was killed by a bomb while on the frontline against Islamist militants who last month drove the Iraqi army from most of the north outside the Kurdish zone. “I am proud my son was martyred,” said his father, Mehdi, himself a peshmerga, who fought the army of Saddam Hussein. “There is no sacrifice too great for an independent Kurdistan.” A century after the Kurds lost out
in the carve-up of the Ottoman empire after World War One, denied a state of their own and left scattered across four others, that dream is suddenly closer as fighting among Iraq’s Arabs – minority Sunnis and the Shi’ites in power – fuels talk of the country being partitioned. The Kurds of Iraq, who have governed themselves since US air power pinned back the Sunni dictator Saddam after the 1991 Gulf War, have already exploited the chaos to expand their territory by as much as 40%, including the oilfields and city of Kirkuk, which they claim as their national capital. Their president last week called for a referendum on secession. And there is little doubt it would overwhelmingly back independence, as an unofficial plebiscite did in 2005. But economics and external pressures, from Baghdad
but also from rival allies in Turkey, Iran and Washington, may well hold Kurdish leaders back from risking a final break any time soon. “All the Kurdish people support it, but the leadership must consider whether the time is appropriate or not,” said Kurdistan Vice President Kosrat Rasul Ali, a veteran peshmerga commander. “If the political climate is not ripe, perhaps we will have to wait years. Otherwise it will be a misadventure.” As it has for a decade, the threat alone of secession may offer greater benefits to the Kurds in the three-way bargaining with Shi’ites and Sunnis that has defined post-Saddam politics. Hostility from Turkey, which fought its own Kurdish revolt for decades, may no longer be the obstacle it once was to full independence for Iraqi Kurdistan.
Though wary of the impact that might have on its own Kurdish minority and officially committed the unity of Iraq, Ankara has worked with Iraq’s Kurds to buffer Turkey against the chaos to the south and become a buyer of their oil. Many Kurdish leaders are quietly confident Ankara would not block their sovereignty. More problematic may be Iran, a sponsor of the Shi’ite parties which now hold power in Baghdad and which view Kurdish secession as a bid to grab an unfair share of Iraq’s wealth. Tehran and Ankara have long supported competing factions within Iraqi Kurdistan, factions which fought a bitter civil war almost as soon as they were free of Saddam’s control in 1991. Divergent interests between Iran and Turkey make for tensions within Kurdish politics that affect attitudes to independence. l
Merkel: US spying allegations serious n Reuters, Beijing
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday allegations that a German man worked as a double agent for US intelligence were serious and, if true, were a clear contradiction of what cooperation between partners is supposed to be about. The case risks further straining ties with Washington, which have been sorely tested by revelations last year of large-scale snooping on Germany by the US National Security Agency (NSA). “If the reports are correct it would be a serious case,” Merkel told a news conference in Beijing, standing next to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
“If the allegations are true, it would be for me a clear contradiction as to what I consider to be trusting cooperation between agencies and partners.” The White House and State Department have so far declined to comment on the arrest of a 31-year-old employee of Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency. According to intelligence and political sources, the man admits passing documents to a US contact. Those include information about a parliamentary committee looking into allegations by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden that Washington carried out major surveillance in Germany, including monitoring Merkel’s phone.
Suspicions
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was on a trip to Mongolia while Merkel was in China, said the spying case would have consequences if the circumstances are confirmed. “We haven’t finished clearing this up yet. But if suspicions are confirmed that American secret services were involved, it will become a political issue and we can’t just get back to business as usual,” he told reporters in Ulan Bator. Surveillance is a sensitive issue in a country where memories of the Nazi’s Gestapo secret police and communist East Germany’s Stasi ensure the right to privacy is treasured.
As Merkel visited China, where she oversaw the signing of agreements involving Airbus Group NV’s helicopter division selling 100 aircraft to Chinese companies, a German intelligence chief warned that some firms in China faced a growing threat from industrial espionage by Chinese government agencies with huge resources. “Germany is against that – regardless of where it comes from,” Merkel said, in reference to industrial espionage. “We have a duty as the state to protect our economy ... We are for the protection of intellectual property.” China’s premier repeated his government’s denial that it was involved in such activities. l
president’s private schedule. It’s a document so closely held that Obama aides, like their counterparts under George W Bush, are expected to dispose of it at day’s end in “burn bags” typically reserved for documents so sensitive they cannot be consigned to mere shredding. Where the public schedule blares “for immediate release,” every page of the private schedule warns: “This schedule contains sensitive information and is provided for your information only. It may not be distributed, forwarded, or printed without the express written permission of the Director of Scheduling.” Yahoo News spoke to current and former aides to Obama, George W Bush, and Bill Clinton to try to find out how the White House puts together the most important document you’ve probably never thought twice about. None wanted to be quoted by name as sharing details from the behind-the-scenes process. The private schedule embodies a president’s political and public-policy priorities, the full range of challenges or crises he faces at home and abroad. It blends the White House’s needs and wants as the president balances foreign threats against dinner with the kids and meetings with friends. The public schedule is what the White House wants people to know about the president’s day. The private schedule is what he actually does with one of his most scarce resources. “The most valuable asset in any White House is not money, it’s the president’s time,” explains Josh Bolten, who served as George W Bush’s chief of staff from 2006 to 2009. Here’s how that time is blocked out: Every night, around Obama’s 6:30 p.m. target time for dinner with his family, senior aides get a fairly complete schedule for the next day. l
NEWS BITES
Netanyahu phones father of murdered Palestinian teen
n Reuters, Jerusalem
Israel’s prime minister phoned the father of a murdered Palestinian teenager yesterday to promise that the attackers would be prosecuted, the government said, as anger over the killing fuelled Arab street protests. The burnt body of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair was discovered in a Jerusalem forest last week. Six Jews have been arrested in what police suspect was a revenge attack for the abduction and killing of three Jewish youths. “I wish to express my shock and the shock of Israel’s citizens over the despicable murder of your son,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the father, Hussein Abu Khudair, according to the statement. “The murderers will be brought to trial and prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” the right-wing leader added, according to the statement, a day after Israel announced that six Jewish suspects were in custody. l
Girl killed, eight people hurt in Iraqi airstrike
n Reuters, Baghdad
A 12-year-old girl has been killed and eight other civilians wounded in an Iraqi airstrike on a Kurdish-held town in Iraq’s northern province of Salahuddin, a Kurdish security forces official said. Jabbar Yawar, secretary general of the Kurdish peshmerga fighters, told Reuters the strike occurred on Sunday when military planes and helicopters targeted “a group of civilian residential buildings in the heart” of the town of Tuz Khurmato. Iraqi government forces are battling Sunni Islamist insurgents led by an ultra-radical group called the Islamic State in the area. The insurgents’ rapid seizure of large swathes of northern and western Iraq over the past month has stirred international alarm over the possible disintegration of Iraq. l
Nasa to send 3D Google smartphones for robots
n Reuters, Mountain View, Calif Google smartphones with next-generation 3D sensing technology are about to blast into orbit, where they will become the brains and eyes of ball-shaped hovering robots on the International Space Station. Nasa plans to use the handsets to beef up its Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, which could eventually take over daily chores for astronauts or even handle risky duties outside of the vessel. The phones, part of Google’s Project Tango augmented reality initiative, will be aboard a cargo spacecraft scheduled to launch on July 11. l