Iran’s atomic chief announces launch of new nuclear centre
http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=7622
Russia’s Nuclear Weapons Pose Major Threat to U.S. Security — Report
http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/15/nukethreat2us.shtml
Race is on for next generation of nuclear weapons
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003062323_bomb15.html
Poll: Muslim world supports Iran nukes
http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060615-120122-2519r
Iran mullahs’ nukes and veils
http://www.stopfundamentalism.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=441&Itemid=71
Ayatollah won't yield on nukes
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19481804-23109,00.html
Russia, Iran call for ‘energy club’ of Asian states
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=130747
UAE is becoming more interesting as time goes by. It is also located in a good location for a New Roman Empire!?!
Life in the fast lane in sizzling Dubai
Dan Simpson, a retired diplomat, is a member of the editorial boards of The Blade and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Dubai is probably as good a place as any to try to get a fix on what is going on in the Middle East at this time.
Through an old friend, a businessman based here, I had privileged entry to days and evenings of unending discussion of the play of forces that make things happen in finance and politics in this overheated region. Life in Dubai - in the Persian Gulf - takes place at high speed and in a humid desert coastal climate that makes coming out of the air conditioning into the midday sun physically punishing.
Conversation is in Arabic, Farsi (the Persian language), English (the lingua franca), and a mass of the South Asian and Asian languages spoken by the guest workers, the in-principle temporary immigrants who outnumber the natives of the United Arab Emirates by four to one.
The seven member states of the United Arab Emirates are, of course, predominantly Sunni Muslim, like Saudi Arabia, and started their upward financial trajectory with oil, like the Saudi kingdom. The Emirates are ruled by families, in the case of Dubai by the relatively enlightened and benign al-Maktoum family, warriors of the region by tradition.
But the real power over the Emirates can be spotted in a nano-second glance at the map. It is Iran, and it is what happens next in that regional superpower that is of overpowering interest to the Emirates' political and business leaders, native and foreign.
I found it fascinating to probe what they think will happen next, both in Iran and in what they see as the basically light sparring going on between the United States and Iran.
America's next move in the multicornered dance that comprises the Iran nuclear question is of concern in the Persian Gulf primarily in terms of whom an attack would benefit in internal Iranian political sparring. Possible beneficiaries include the ayatollahs, the ubiquitous, provocative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the big businessmen of Iran, and, lying behind the scenes to a degree, the so-called bazaaris, the smaller businessmen who are also fairly religious.
The Emiratis believe, as far as I can tell, that any Iranian counterstrikes against an American air attack would not be directed primarily at Israel. It is generally believed in the gulf that Iran and Israel have - and have had - an understanding, a remnant, in part, of a loose Persian-Jewish bond in the face of the more numerous Arabs of the area.
The more likely target for Iranian revenge, the Emiratis believe, are the American forces in the area. They don't mean the ones in Iraq. They mean the ones strewn across the Persian Gulf at bases in neighboring Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. U.S. forces have been stationed there since the early 1990s, before 9/11 and the Iraq invasion, presumably protecting oil and prepositioned to do something somewhere in the region.
Dubai itself is simply incredible. The whole concept can be grasped by comprehending that with 100-degree heat outside, it has a 250-foot indoor ski slope.
The people of Dubai, the 1-million-plus natives, I would describe as nonstop, shrewd businessmen and sophisticated analysts and players. They have taken a strip of sand about the size of Rhode Island along a hot coast and turned it in 40 years into an economic dynamo, still definitely on the way up.
They started with offshore oil, discovered in the 1960s, but now Dubai is a heavily leveraged economic powerhouse based on its port, financial services, real estate management and manipulation, and now tourism. Oil now provides only about 6 percent of Dubai's earnings.
It is said that it has no taxes, although it is expensive, and its economic environment is welcoming and encouraging to domestic and foreign investors. Dubai spends a whopping one-third of its budget on education. Its facilities, universally available to young Emirati women and men, are a source of pride that everyone mentions, although a disturbing number of them still seem to want to go to California universities.
Dubai is a family monarchy. No elections. It seems to be run largely by males. Outside-the-family male-female contacts among Emiratis do not seem easy, although evening cell-phone conversations seemed to me to include much such contact.
At least the wealthy of Dubai, despite a propensity to drive SUVs very fast and kill themselves on the highway, seem to still be very attached to some of the pre-globalization traditions.
One of these is camels. At the drop of a dime - or a dirham, the local currency - they will tell you the many virtues of the beast. In particular they consider camel milk, as well as honey from desert flowers, to be essential to good health. They also remain true to Dubai's and the Emirates' seafaring past. They go out in boats and catch and eat fish, somewhat un-Arab behavior.
The other traditional Dubai sport that I encountered with fascination this trip was falconry. Birds are bred or bought, trained, and exercised by the wealthy here. A falcon can cost $150,000 to $200,000.
They perch on a leather glove on your hand, their head and sharp beak covered partially by a leather helmet, restrained by a cord which you hold, while they perhaps are flapping their wings vigorously. The trainer or owner calls the bird, you pull the helmet off, let go of the cord, and the falcon takes off.
If it goes wrong you get clawed or beaked, a messy business. But Dubai's elite and their foolish American friends have to do something to break the tedium of making money and arguing politics.
Dan Simpson, a retired diplomat, is a member of the editorial boards of The Blade and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060614/OPINION04/606140313/0/OPINION02
Russia Has Lost Its Partial Freedom
http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?idr=530&id=682267
Emergency plan for Gulf portsPublished: Thursday, 15 June, 2006, 12:37 PM Doha Time
ABU DHABI: Gulf states yesterday adopted a contingency plan in case of a blockage of shipping through the mouths of the Gulf and the Red Sea, the United Arab Emirates’ official news agency Wam reported.
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=92115&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56
HHuummmmmm...
Emirates denies plotting take-over bid for British Airways after share price spike
Emirates Airline has denied it is investigating a take-over deal for UK carrier British Airways in a bid to widen its portfolio and geographical reach.
BA shares jumped in early trading on the London stock exchange today after overnight speculation of a bid for the carrier by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government-owned concern.
http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2006/06/15/Navigation/177/207240/Emirates+denies+plotting+take-over+bid+for+British+Airways+after+share+price.html