Is secretive regime getting closer to being able to launch a warhead?
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea's second underground nuclear test has shown the world that it's only a matter of time before the secretive regime develops the ability to mount an atomic weapon on a missile, analysts say.
Monday's blast — by all accounts larger than its first one in 2006 — indicates the impoverished country will keep using nuclear development in efforts to bolster its regime and raise its stature against its main perceived adversary, the United States. The test has also raised fears of increased proliferation.
North Korea's defiance in carrying out the explosion, which followed its first test in October 2006 that resulted in censure and sanctions by the United Nations, has met widespread condemnation and cast more doubt over prospects for stalled talks aimed at the country's denuclearization.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came out swinging at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday night and specifically rejected his policy for allowing building for “natural growth" in Judea and Samaria.
Her statement came on the eve of Thursday’s visit of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to the White House, which two weeks ago told Israel to stop all building for Jews in Judea and Samaria.
"The president was very clear when Prime Minister Netanyahu was here. He wants to see a stop to settlements -- not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions," Secretary Clinton said at a news conference with visiting Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. She also dined with Abbas Wednesday night.
Mark Regev, spokesman for the Netanyahu government, immediately responded and said that life will continue as usual for residents in towns and cities in Judea and Samaria. He said that the future of the areas will be settled in negotiations. The PA, with support from the Obama government, has implicitly said that negotiation are only possible once its demands are met.
After returning from Washington, Netanyahu took steps to please the American government and announced that his administration will remove 26 hilltop communities and outposts. They are termed illegal because they were established after the Sharon government agreed to a U.S. demand not to establish more communities in Judea and Samaria.
However, Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear he would not capitulate to all of the PA demands that are backed by the Obama government. Both he and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have said they cannot “tell families not to have babies” in Judea and Samaria, where growth outstrips the population increase in the rest of the country.
The Obama administration has not declared whether its demand includes Jerusalem neighborhoods over which the PA also wants sovereignty for its proposed new Arab country, which would give it control of all of the land restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last year reversed American policy and defined as a “settlement” the neighborhood of Har Homa, which has the same legal status as French Hill, Talpiot, Ramot and Gilo. All of the neighborhoods were annexed to Jerusalem nearly 30 years ago but are not recognized by the international community as part of the capital.
TEHRAN, Iran — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran has boosted its capacity to enrich uranium, another sign of anti-Western defiance by the leader seeking re-election in a vote next month.
Ahmadinejad said last month that Iran had 7,000 centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz in central Iran. The figure marked a significant boost from the 6,000 centrifuges announced in February. In his latest comments, reported by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency on Thursday, he did not give a specific new figure. "Now we have more than 7,000 centrifuges and the West dare not threaten us," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on a small radio station late Wednesday.
Ahmadinejad has made Iran's expanding nuclear program one of the centerpieces of his campaign for the June 12 elections and has struck an increasingly harsh tone against the United States and other countries calling for Iran to halt it uranium enrichment.
Iran's leaders say they will never give up nuclear technology and insist they seek only energy-producing reactors. The United States, Israel and other nations worry that Iran's enrichment facilities could eventually produce material for nuclear warheads.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas plans to pitch a pan-Arab peace when he meets Thursday with President Obama, who has hopes that a “Land for Peace” agreement will end the 100-year-old Zionist-Arab conflict.
Abbas, who has been completely dependent on the United States to remain in power, tried to smooth the path to the White House Wednesday night by saying he will not insist that “five million foreign Arabs flood Israel.” The Saudi 2002 Peace Plan provides for the immigration of foreign Arabs who claim ancestry in Israel.
However, Abbas did not say how many Arabs he would insist be allowed into Israel. He added that he is not trying to “destroy Israel,” which would cease to have a Jewish majority if it allowed a large influx of non-Jews.
Earlier this month, Abbas rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s demand that the PA recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He also turned down Netanyahu’s offer for an immediate resumption of direct talks between the PA and Israel because the Israeli leader refuses to immediately accept the principle of creating a PA state on the land of Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
Faced with the growing unlikelihood that the PA and Israel will find common ground between them, and forced to prove to the Western world that he is sincere for peace, Abbas will adopt President Obama’s idea of a regional peace, the Associated Press reported. An overall agreement would also include the Golan Heights, which according to the Saudi plan would fall under Syrian sovereignty.
Jordanian King Abdullah II, who a month ago was the first Arab leader to visit President Obama, said Israel’s acceptance of the Saudi 2002 Plan offer would be met by recognition of the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which includes Iran.
The Saudi Peace plan offered recognition only by the 22-member Arab League, but Amr Mussa, secretary of the League, declared that the monarch’s remarks were “misunderstood.” He added that the OIC is not prepared to wave the Israeli flag over their capitals as President Obama has suggested.
Most major media have pointed to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s position on Judea and Samaria and his insistence that the PA recognize Israel as a “Jewish state” as stumbling blocks to the Obama push for peace. Neither the Obama administration nor the mass media have mentioned the failure of the PA to meet previous American demands, such as halting incitement against Israel.
Most of the PA demands, including Israeli surrender of the Old City, have been accepted by the Obama administration. Abbas, in an effort to show that he is not the reason for lack of progress towards creating a new PA state, may have to back down on his refusal to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Abbas will have the support of U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, the president’s personal representative to monitor talks between Israel and the PA. Mitchell met with officials of the Israeli government in Britain this week, but no details of the talks were revealed except that Iran was on the agenda.
President Obama has included the threat of a nuclear Iran in his push for regional peace and will discuss it during his visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt next week. The Arab nations, like Israel and the Western world, fear that Iran might use nuclear capability to dominate the Muslim world.