This weeks headlines - Views on the News
October 21, 2007

News that Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, has resigned just before crucial talks with Europe this week (over Iran's nuclear program), has been seen as a sign of "the door closing" on any possible negotiated settlement.

Ali Larijani's replacement, Saeed Jalili, is likely to be an even tougher proposition and a person who "expresses strongly held convictions and sticks firmly to his position in discussions"

Unfortunately, a new "negotiator" is not going to make much difference to Iran's fate, which depends entirely on how much support the Bush administration can muster for a military strike on the country. Sarkozy (the new French President) has already made it clear where he stands on the matter, right behind George Bush, but that was no surprise in view of his background. Britain and Israel haven't changed their views and Angela Merkel of Germany seems to be drifting that direction.

Talking of Nicolas Sarkozy, news that his marriage has officially ended, confirmed the reports being splashed all over the papers. He has been criticized for concealing the true state of his relationship with Cecilia Sarkozy, in order to avoid any problems during the presidential elections.

Sarkozy's divorce will certainly affect his popularity, but then so will his support for President Bush on Iran. France has a fairly large Islamic community and anyone who backs a US administration that gives the impression that all Muslims are "potential" terrorists, must be a serious worry to them and their future.

Some have said that the French people would prefer to have a divorced President, rather than a "first lady" who fails to attend meetings with her husband. She did cut short her visit to the G8 summit in Berlin, but she also failed to turn up for lunch with George Bush, so she can't be all bad. Maybe France should consider Cecilia as a future President?

Another world leader, President Putin, has had a busy week, and is one of the few leaders on this planet who most definitely does not have his nose stuck up the lower regions of George Bush's lower body parts, and is not afraid to say so.

Putin met Bush's new boy, Nicolas Sarkozy, suffered another visit from Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates, had talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and made a visit to Iran to see President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (despite talk of an "assassination" plot waiting for him).

President Putin has clearly tired of using his more diplomatic approach with members of the Bush administration and his comments are much more direct of late. His message, in short is, mess with Russia and you will pay a price! Unfortunately, the current US government foolishly believes that Russia can be pushed around as it was in Boris Yeltsin's days, and imagine there is some chance of creating a regime change. As the Russian President said in his recent 3 hour "question time", when commenting on a question saying that the US felt it was "unjust" for Russia to have exclusive control of the region's oil reserves, "I know that such ideas occupy the minds of certain politicians. This is a kind of political erotica, which perhaps can give some people pleasure but is unlikely to yield any results. The best example of that are events in Iraq - a small country that can hardly defend itself and which possesses huge oil reserves. And we see what's going on there. Thank God, Russia is not Iraq. It is strong enough to protect its interests within its national territory and, by the way, in other regions of the world"

The Russian President offers a very powerful reminder to the US, if they can't sort out a country like Iraq after 4 long bloody years, they should not be considering an attack on Iran, and should forget any plans of interfering with a country like Russia.

Thankfully, the Russian President is keen to avoid any military conflict with the US or anyone else, but America will need a "regime change" of its own to be sure of this. Ron Paul is perhaps the best hope of ensuring a more peaceful world and returning the US to its former glory, but the American people must decide who is best themselves, and not be influenced by the Media again and the people who control them.