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Lawmakers split over the reversal of a Clinton-era deal, and Texas farmers lose a big customer WASHINGTON - With some Republican lawmakers from Texas taking opposite sides, a clause that could have revived sales of Texas rice to Cuba was abruptly removed from a spending bill Tuesday.President Bush, whose administration is steadfastly opposed to expanding trade with the communist country and dictator Fidel Castro, had threatened to veto the measure if House and Senate negotiators let the clause remain.U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, whose district includes most of the 41,500 acres of rice farms in Southeast Texas, said the removal...

Chairman of the Shell companies in Iran, Yves Merer, said here Sunday the Anglo-Dutch oil giant would make an investment worth billions of dollars in the Islamic Republic's industry. Merer, who talked to Fars News Agency, added the demand for energy, including oil, would soar in the future but oil prices would keep fluctuating. He reiterated, The Shell will inject billions of dollars into Iran's industry if the country pays more heed to investment. The Shell Companies Group has allotted some 15 billion dollars for development of complicated oilfields across the world. The task is faced with two main problems...

One permanently ends its ban on Iranian authors, another installs a new one for students Two American academic societies have reversed their policies toward Iranian scientists. One, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), has decided to no longer prohibit Iranian authors from publishing in its journals, while the American Concrete Institute (ACI) has decided to install a new ban barring Iranian students from taking part in an annual engineering competition they routinely enter each year. Last month, the AIAA board of directors decided to permanently rescind the ban on publishing Iranian authors it had enacted in May. The...

The European Union announced yesterday the embargo for the sale of weapons to Uzbekistan and said it will prohibit high ranking Uzbek officials from enter EU countries. The sanctions were imposed for "indiscriminate use of force" during the suppression of the uprising in Andijan and prevention of independent investigation of the events. In fact, it is a beginning of international process to isolate Islam Karimov regime. Russia intends to use this situation to its advantage and turn Uzbekistan in Moscow's main geopolitical partner in the region.Regime Non GrataYesterday the countries of European Union lost the right to supply Uzbekistan weapons,...

A Pakistani, convicted of exporting missile parts to Iran almost 20 years ago, is being accused in a San Diego court of conspiring to smuggle jet engine components from the United States to Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Belgium (and IRAN). Arif Ali Durrani, 55, was initially accused of illegally exporting through his defunct California-based company called Lonestar Aerospace, 110 compressor blades for the General Electric J-85 military aircraft engine to Jordan. Those charges were dropped on Sept 23 after the US Attorney?s Office determined that the Jordan government had a license to receive the goods. The same day,...

President George W. Bush on Wednesday waived some defense export restrictions on Libya to allow U.S. companies to participate in destroying Tripoli's chemical weapons and to refurbish eight transport planes. It was another step in improving ties after Libya decided in December 2003 to abandon its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs. In a memorandum to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bush said he was waiving some restrictions under the U.S. Arms Export Control Act because it was in the national security interest of the United States. The law restricts defense exports to Libya because the State Department has designated...

HAVANA Sep 28, 2005 — The number of Americans traveling to Cuba has fallen dramatically since 2003, and those who do visit the island without their government's permission are more likely to be fined, Cuba said as it lashed out against a decades-old U.S. embargo. Vice Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla lamented the effects of the embargo, which has been steadily strengthened under President Bush and prohibits virtually all trade between the two countries except for the sale of some U.S. food and medicine to the communist-run island. "We are talking about an economic war against our country," Rodriguez said...

The US placed an embargo on selling helicopter parts to Israel from the start of the Oslo War until the 9/11 attacks according to the former Shabak (General Security Services) head Avi Dichter. Dichter revealed the existence of the embargo in a speech delivered last Thursday at the Saban Center for Middle East Studies at the Brookings Institution, where Dichter is now a fellow. He said that the embargo was imposed because the of the Israeli policy of "targeted killings" by the Israeli air-force using US-made helicopters. "The embargo was lifted after the 9/11 attacks", Dichter said in his speech,...

The best way to confront the US and EU3 dictatorship is to "impose an embargo on oil sales to those countries, said an English-language paper here Sunday commenting on last Thursday "unfair" resolution of the UN nuclear watchdog against Iran. The 'Tehran Times' suggested in its editorial that the world oil-rich states should form a united front in order to confront "Western neocolonialist countries." Criticizing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution against Iran, the paper said that it was ratified "to meet the objectives of the Zionist regime and the United States." It added that the resolution, issued under...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2005 – The European Union lifting its arms embargo against China would bring "serious and numerous" consequences, according to a Defense Department report released this week. The European Union has embargoed arms sales to China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. In the past year China has run an intense lobbying effort to have the ban lifted, a move strongly opposed by U.S. officials. "We think the Chinese would be able to obtain in Europe a lot of military or dual-use technologies that would be of great qualitative benefit to them," a senior DoD official said July...

In an unusual move, Sen. Clinton's staff immediately and publicly condemned the book. Quietly, they also have been contacting television programs to keep Klein off major shows. So far, the TV censorship effort has worked, with major networks such as Fox, MSNBC, NBC and others canceling scheduled appearances with Klein. For example, after Fox News canceled three scheduled appearances with Klein on its top-rated shows, Fox spokeswoman Irena Briganti claimed to the New York Times that interest in Klein's book at her network had "been tepid at best." She also said that after Klein's interview on "Hannity & Colmes," the...

LONDON (BBC) -- The EU has agreed to lift its embargo on the sale of arms to Libya, after pressure from the Italian government. Italy wants Libya to patrol its coastline more effectively and catch the hundreds of illegal migrants who try to reach Europe by sea each month. The United States lifted its trade embargo on Libya earlier this week. EU officials say a formal decision to lift the embargo, which was imposed 18 years ago, would be taken by the union's ministers next month. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini "has expressed his great satisfaction with the agreement reached...

The French government is pressing on with its campaign to end the European Union arms embargo on China, despite opposition from the U.S., Japan, European lawmakers, and human rights campaigners. The E.U. recently began to back away from a plan to lift the 16-year-old ban by the middle of this year, prompted in part by unhappiness over a new Chinese law permitting the use of force to prevent Taiwan's breakaway. An informal meeting of E.U. foreign ministers last Friday ended with representatives expressing doubts that the embargo could be lifted soon. Shortly beforehand, the European Parliament voted 431 to 85...

BEIJING (AFP) - France threw its support behind a law that allows China to attack Taiwan while vowing to keep pushing for an end to an EU arms embargo that could open the door for Paris to sell Beijing weapons. On a three-day visit to China, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said Paris had no objections to the anti-secession law, appearing to put it at odds with the European Union. "The anti-secession law is completely compatible with the position of France," he said in a joint press conference with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao. At the same time, he vowed that...

France continues to require the lifting of the embargo on the weapons PEIJING - continuous France "to require" the lifting of the embargo on the weapons of China and does not think that the European Council will change its position, declared Thursday in Peijing French the Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. "France continues to require the lifting of the embargo and does not see what could lead the European Council to change its position on the subject", Mr. Raffarin during a press conference declared. The European embargo on the weapons in China was imposed after the massacre of Tiananmen in...

EU shelves plan to lift arms ban on China after US pressure By David Rennie in Brussels (Filed: 16/04/2005) European Union foreign ministers yesterday shelved plans to lift an arms embargo on China. This was seen as a victory for Washington, which had expressed outrage at the possible flow of European weapons to Beijing. Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, emerged from an informal summit in Luxembourg to announce "there was no consensus" on lifting the arms ban. He made clear that anger from the US Congress and the Bush administration had played its part in the about-turn. He said...

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Plans to drop a European embargo on arms sales to China by June appear to be losing momentum amid concerns over recent developments in Beijing even if the EU is maintaining the timetable in the face of opposition from the US and Japan. If a decision is not taken by the end of Luxembourg's presidency of the European Union in June -- an increasingly likely scenario -- the issue could be left in limbo until 2006 after the end of Britain's six-month presidency of the EU starting on July 1. The future of relations with China is...

Imagine the following "European rockets sink U.S. aircraft carrier in Taiwan Straits." Such a headline is unlikely, of course. If such an event were ever to happen, it would mean a massive crisis had erupted both in Asia and across the Atlantic. Very likely, it would indicate the end of the Atlantic alliance -- and perhaps a new cold war between the United States and a new Euro-Chinese axis. But such a headline is far from impossible if two current political trends continue uninterrupted. The first such trend was seen in the streets of Taipei last weekend. Demonstrators favoring full...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Expecting no more than light chit-chat about ballroom dancing, reporters in Tokyo were startled when actor Richard Gere launched into a condemnation of Europe's plans to lift an arms embargo against China. After promoting his new film "Shall We Dance?," in which he co-stars with Jennifer Lopez, Gere grabbed a microphone to denounce plans by the European Union to lift the embargo imposed after China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1989. "I so agree with your prime minister that the European Union should not remove the ban against selling arms to China," he said. "I agree...

While visiting Japan, French President Jacques Chirac has defended his push to lift a European Union arms embargo on China, disagreeing with his hosts on an issue that has contributed to diplomatic tensions between Japan and China. France and Germany are spearheading a campaign to end the E.U.'s 16-year-old ban on arms sales to Beijing by June, a drive that has been complicated by China's recent passage of a law permitting the use of force against Taiwan. Like the United States, Japan is concerned that lifting the embargo will upset the military balance in East Asia by enabling China to...