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Deal in the Pipeline II

© lawhawk

As my colleague Jeffrey Deutsch mentioned in a previous discussionWith regard to the Iraqi government's claims about the effects of sanctions confirming your views about their being too harsh: was that tongue in cheek? Any government in Iraq's position would make such a case to a humanitarian world. Not to mention that Saddam Hussein will win an Academy Award as soon as they have one for Best Brazen Liar.

The sanctions have a definite and measurable impact on the population while the government continues to find ways to avoid the effects of UN 687. The Iraqi government is acting as any government under the circumstances should act in a power politics setting - preserving as much of its military power and hold on domestic power through the use of demonizing the UN and the US to keep morale high among the Iraqi citizens.

UN Chief Inspector Richard Butler accuses the Iraqis of continuing to deny the UN inspectors of access to information and materials relating to the Iraqi weapons programs.

In other news, we have news reports that King Hussein of Jordan is seeking medical treatment in the United States for an undisclosed ailment. King Hussein is the closest friend of Israel in the Arab world for over 20 years and news that the King might be having serious medical problems is enough to shake confidences in long standing relationships between Israel and Jordan.

CNN reports that the Palestinians and Israelis have resumed their negotiations. However, the crucial issues of Israel giving land to the Palestinians remains unresolved.

Iran has recently conducted a test of a long range missile that has enough range to hit targets in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey. Although there are some questions as to the success of the tests, the firing of the missile indicates that Iran is continuing to pursue long range deterrence and nuclear weapons as a country wouldn't invest in a long range missile to fire conventional explosives.

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