TEARLINE
Secretary Clinton met Monday with President Mohammed el-Megaref of Libya — the first high-level meeting between the two nations since the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed in a Sept. 11 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi. Secretary Clinton thanked el-Megaref for his government’s help in the aftermath of the attack and praised the Libyan people for overthrowing Muammar Qaddafi last year. She also offered Libya’s central government more support as it tries to assert control over cities where hardline Islamic militias had become the de facto security forces, and to secure vast stockpiles of weapons left by Qaddafi’s regime.
Meanwhile, President Obama is expected to condemn the recent attack in Libya, saying the violence at the U.S. Consulate earlier this month was “not simply an assault on America” but also “an assault on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded.” Addressing the United Nations General Assembly here, Obama will tell the gathered leaders that “violence and intolerance” like that laid bare by the recent events in Libya, which killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, “has no place among our United Nations.”
Masked gunmen shot dead a senior intelligence official in Sanaa in just the latest in a series of assassinations in Yemen as the U.S.-allied government battles al Qaeda militants. Abdulilah Al-Ashwal, a colonel in the Political Security Office, the domestic intelligence service, was leaving a mosque in the Safiya district of Sanaa when gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on him, the source said. There have been a number of assassinations and assassination attempts on security officials and politicians following the ejection of Islamist militants from towns in Abyan province in south Yemen after they took control during the turmoil of the uprising that forced former president Ali Abdullah Saleh from office in February. Saleh’s successor Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has cooperated with Washington in an effort to crush the militants, including stepped up air strikes using U.S. unmanned planes or drones.
AROUND THE WORLD
The ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council has recommended the immediate imposition of punitive and targeted sanctions on individuals and groups found to be obstructing the political transition in Mali or keeping the north of the country under siege and despicable human rights and humanitarian conditions. This is one of the recommendations made to the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State Government by the just-concluded one-day meeting of the council which was attended by Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. The council also called for a review of the ECOWAS sanctions regime, including the modalities and sequencing of targeted and general sanctions, in order to achieve an effective, graduated and incremental regime. Council equally recommended a re-examination of the terms and conditions required for a member state under sanctions to regain full membership of ECOWAS. The ministers reiterated their preference for dialogue in resolving the dual- faceted crisis in Mali with a regional force to be deployed only as a last resort. To this end, the Council urged the Transitional Authorities to institute the National Committee for Negotiations to facilitate direct dialogue between the Government of Mali and rebels in the north of the country.
The civil war in Syria is testing Iraq’s fragile society and fledgling democracy, worsening sectarian tensions, pushing Iraq closer to Iran and highlighting security shortcomings just nine months after American forces ended their long and costly occupation here. Fearing that Iraq’s insurgents will unite with extremists in Syria to wage a two-front battle for Sunni dominance, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki recently ordered guards at the western border to block adult men, even husbands and fathers with families in tow, from crossing into Iraq along with thousands of refugees seeking to escape the grinding war next door.
Oil rose above $110 a barrel;as escalating tensions over Iran offset plentiful supplies and concern over the health of the global economy. Washington cleared the way on Monday for tighter sanctions against Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions, while Tehran increased its rhetoric against Israel, heightening concerns about a potential conflict between the two. Investors have been taking stock after a series of stimulus measures from central banks in the United States, Europe and Japan, and are coming to the view that the measures may not do much to boost growth in the economy. “The oil market remains caught between supply risks and the prospect of fresh liquidity from the central banks on the one hand, and plentiful supply and growing economic concerns on the other,” said a Commerzbank research note. “Until it decides which direction to take, the oil price is likely to continue to fluctuate with a sideways tendency that will depend on which factors happen to be more in focus.” Brent futures rose 67 cents to $110.48 per barrel at 0924 GMT, after climbing to a high of $110.79 earlier in the session. U.S. crude was up 71 cents to $92.64 a barrel.
Iran denied a claim by the U.S. Treasury that its state oil company is linked to the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The designation, made in a Treasury report to Congress, enables the United States to apply new sanctions on foreign banks dealing with the National Iranian Oil Company, one of the world’s largest oil exporters. The move is part of a wider net of oil-related sanctions by Washington aimed at forcing Iran to curb the nuclear program which the West says is aimed at developing weapons. Tehran says its nuclear work is purely for peaceful purposes. “We strongly deny these false allegations,” said Alireza Nikzad-Rahbar, a spokesman for Iran’s Oil Ministry.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reassured Egypt’s new Islamist president on Monday that the United States would forge ahead with plans to expand economic assistance despite anti-American protests that cast new shadows over U.S. engagement with the region. Secretary Clinton also met Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi yesterday in New York, and reinforced the Obama administration’s continued commitment to provide both military and economic aid for Cairo. U.S. officials said earlier this month they were close to a deal with Egypt’s new government for $1 billion in debt relief to help Cairo shore up its ailing economy in the aftermath of its pro-democracy uprising, which ousted autocratic President Hosni Mubarak. The aid package had languished during Egypt’s 18 months of political turmoil and progress appeared to reflect a cautious easing of U.S. suspicions about Mursi, who was elected in June.
The Japanese Coast Guard used water cannons to disperse fishing boats from Taiwan in waters claimed by Tokyo, widening a territorial dispute that has already pitted Japan against China and threatened vital trade relations in the region. Though the islands are uninhabited, they lie near coveted fishing grounds and potentially large gas reserves, and their status touches on historical grievances in East Asia dating to Japan’s behavior during and before World War II. Taiwan’s government generally maintains friendly relations with Japan but activists there, as in mainland China and Hong Kong, have made their voices heard in the brewing dispute over the islands. The Japanese public broadcaster, NHK, aired footage that showed a Japanese Coast Guard vessel blasting water at a Taiwanese fishing boat. Another Taiwanese boat attempted to spray water back. The Coast Guard said more than 40 Taiwanese fishing boats and eight patrol craft briefly approached the disputed islands. The boats had since left the waters, the coast guard said.
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
The attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans has dealt the Central Intelligence Agency a major setback in its intelligence-gathering efforts at a time of increasing instability in the North African nation.
CONTRACT WATCH
The Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is in the market for a Strategic Communications Adviser.
