2008 Woodie Awards
News From Around the World
Jonathan Stone
Issue date: 3/23/05 Section: News
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a meeting concerning Syrian troops in Lebanon had "positive elements". The two parties at the meeting were the President of Syria and a United Nations representative. During the meeting, President Bashar Assad gave Terje Roed-Larsen a set amount of time to remove the troops.
"We've not had an opportunity to talk with Mr. Larsen... I do think there are some positive elements here," Rice said.
"The fact that this first phase would take Syrian forces out of Lebanon, not just to the border, is important. The key is that Syrian influence and interference need to be removed from Lebanon so that the Lebanese can engage in a Lebanese political process. The international community is going to stay focused on complete and total ... compliance with Resolution 1559," she continued.
Roed-Larsen, who on Saturday talked with Assad in Syria, said, "I think that the understanding we reached in Aleppo today, as I said, is historic. It means that Syria is leaving Lebanon, and this, I think, is now a reality, we have specific timelines... It is just a couple of weeks down the line, and I will say that based on my conversations today, this is now an irreversible fact."
According to Rice, "We have not changed our view of Hezbollah. We are concentrating on first things first. If you get the Syrian presence out, then you have new conditions."
Hezbollah is an official Lebanese political party that the United States considers to be a terrorist faction. Under Resolution 1559, the party was forced to disband.
"The international community now can concentrate on Lebanese people having free and fair elections. Elections sometimes change the balance of power dramatically," she continued.
ITALY DECIDES TO BRING TROOPS IN IRAQ HOME
Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister, said that Italy would pull their troops from Iraq gradually starting in September. He does not want the removal of troops to interfere with the progress made thus far.
"After the election of January 30... we can begin to talk of a mission accomplished without excluding for the future new, serious and solid commitments for the political, military and diplomatic sustainment of the newly born Iraqi democracy," he wrote.
In a letter, Berlusconi added, "Italy can start to discuss with the Baghdad authorities and with the coalition allies the possibility of gradual withdrawal of its military mission of peace in Nasariya starting next September."
However, he did say that it was "difficult ... with respect to public opinion, which was contrary to ours" to send 3,000 troops into Iraq.
U.S. President George W. Bush said at a news conference that when he had spoken to Berlusconi, "he wanted me to know there was no change in his policy, that in fact any withdrawals will be done in consultation with allies and will be done depending on the ability of the Iraqi forces to defend themselves."
"I think what you're going to find is that countries will be willing, anxious to get out when Iraqis have the capacity to defend themselves. And that's the position of the United States. Our troops will come home when Iraq is capable of defending itself," Bush continued.
NUCLEAR WEAPONS CAPABLE IN NORTH KOREA
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency believes that North Korea has the material that would go into a nuclear weapon, making them a bigger nuclear threat than Iran.
Mohammed ElBaradei said, "We know North Korea has the plutonium that can go into the bomb. We have not seen any such material in Iran."
He called North Korea an "imminent threat or an imminent danger," as compared to the suspicion surrounding Iran having nuclear weapons. "That is why, when people sometimes grumble about our slow pace in Iran, I would like them to compare that situation with North Korea."
"In Iran we are active, we are generating information and we know what's going on, more or less. In Korea, it is an absolute black hole," he continued.
Concerning the elements that would come into play in North Korea when making nuclear weapons, he said, "They have that plutonium ... they have the industrial infrastructure, but more yeah importantly, they said [in early February] they are doing it."
"A country that can have control of highly enriched uranium or plutonium is not far away from a nuclear weapon," he said, "We need to make sure that every country in the future has what we call assurance of supply, that they have access to nuclear technology for electricity, for other applications, but try to minimize the risk associated with that by having an international consortium, for example, producing the fuel and then take back the fuel again under international supervision... No one country should enrich its own uranium."
DUTCH MAN ON TRIAL FOR HELPING HUSSEIN
Hearings have started in the Netherlands for businessman Frans Van Anraat, who is accused of selling chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein. He faces changes of complicity in war crimes, and genocide.
Prosecutor Fred Teevan said, "It was known since the mid-1980s that the Iraqi government was using poison gas in the war against Iran and against its own population."
The United Nations said that Van Anraat is "one of the most important middlemen in Iraq's acquisition of chemical material." Van Anraat admitted to having sold chemicals to Saddam Hussein, but did not specify what type of chemicals they were.
"The images of the gas attack on the Kurdish city Halabja were a shock. But I did not give the order to do that. How many products, such as bullets do we make in the Netherlands?" Van Anraat said in 2003.
He also said, "This was not my main business, this was something I did in passing."
"Somewhere once back then, I got the request whether I could deliver certain products to them, which they needed. And because I had a very good relationship with the [Iraqi] Oil Ministry, and that's where the request came from, I tried to see if I could do it. And that was successful and we did deliver some materials," he continued.