Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
be noted, had asked NATO (or training
help and equipment in a recent letter. "I
hope NATO responds in a positive way,"
Bushsaid. .
In Brussels on Saturday, the NATO
secretary generaL Jaap de Hoop Scheffel
confirmed that the alliance had
re~ched a deal to train Iraqi àrmed
forces. "NATO heads of state and gO!-
emment are expected to approve thIS
agreement at their summit meeting in
Istanbul on June 28," he said in a statement.
Bush has acknowledged that he is not
especially well-liked in Europe. .
When asked in Ireland by a White
House reporter how he could explain
his unpopularity in opinion polls here
and whether Americans should be concerned
about it, Bush replied that he
was most concerned about his re-elec-
Iran plans
to.resume
building
centrifuges
1be ABsodated
Press
TEHRAN: ltan will resume building
centrifuges for its nuclear progra~ on
Thesday despite international obJections
but will continue to hold off enrichi~
uz:anium, the Foreign Ministry
said Sunday.
The announcement, which marks a
major setback in international attempts
to resolve the standoffwitl1.Iranover its
tion campaign in the United States.
"I must confess, the first polls I worry
about are those that are going to. take
place in early November this year," he
said. "Listen, I care about the Image of
our country." He added that "as far as
my own personal standing goes, my job
is to do' my job" and that "I'm going to
set a vision, I'm going to lead, and we'll
just let the chips fall where ~ey may.~
Bush said Ahem had questioned him .
in a meeting on Saturday morning
about the Abu Ghtaib prison abuse and
the Anlerican treatment of other prisoners
held at Guantânamo Bay, as did
President Mary McAleese of Ireland in
her own meeting with Bush.
"I toldthem both I was sick with what.
happened inside that prison, ..~ush said.
"The actions of those troops did not reflect
what we think. And it did harm."
nuclear program,was met with disap-
..proval from the head of the International
Atomic Energy Agency and from the
United States.
Moham~ .E1Baradei, the director .of
the atomic energy organization, a UN
.agency, said, "I hope that this decision is
of a tempotary nature. I hope it will be
reversed."
ElBatadei reacted to the ltanian announcement
in Moscow, where he was
attending a conference on nuclear
power. "Iran needs todo the maximum
to build confidence after a period of
confidence deficit," he said. "I look at
this whole suspension of enrichment as
part of this confidence building."
The White House spokesman, Scott
McClellan, said Sunday, "Itan needs to
come clean and fully cooperate with its
international obligations."
Iran had suspended the building of
centrifuges, along with the enrichment
of utanium, amid international pressure
and attempts by ElBaradei's
Bush said he told both Ahem and
McAleese that the United States would
•deal with the investigations into the prison
abuse scandal "in a transparent way."
Ahem said: "These things happen. Of
course, we wish they didn't. and it's important
then on how they're dealt with."
Bush was in Ireland for an annual
EU-U.S. summit meeting, and both he
arid Ahem emphasized what they .cal~ed
the progressthey had made: Sl~lDg
joint agreements on counterterronsm,
counterprolifetation, HIV andAmS.
1be New York TImes
Elisabeth Bumiller reported from Ireland
and Christine Haùser reportedfrom
New York for this article.
agency to determine whether the program
was aimed at produ~ing weapons,
as the United States contends, or was
for peaceful purposes.
Iran reversed the suspension after
. the agency approved a European-drafted
resolution that rebuked Iran for past
cover-ups in its nuclear program.
A Foreign Ministry .spokesman,
Hamid Reza Asefi, invited the agency to
monitor the centrifuge construction.
He said, however, that I~n would remain
committed to the suspension of
. actual uranium enrichment - injecting
gas into centrifuges.
Utanium in its na~ral form contains
too low a concentration of fissionable
isotopes to be used as fuel for reactors
or weapons material and must be put
through an enrichment process.
The United States has accused Iran of
trying to build nuclear weapons. Ira.n
maintains that its nuclear program IS
entirely peacefuL geared toward production
of nuclear energy.
Turkeyandlsrael
A strategic
.friendship cools
ANKARA
The two old allies ~ getting on each
other's nerves. Why?
't'i THEN Tayyip Erdogan, a former Is-
VV lamist, swept to power alone in 2002
to become 1\1rkey'sprime minister, Isz:aelis
were worried that relations with their closest
friend in the region might cool. 'Ih1e,Mr
Erdogan had publicly disavowed his Islamist
past and insisted he would still look
to America, Europe and Israel for friendship.
But the Israelis wanted proof.
They are not getting it. On the contrll£Y,
a year ago Mr Erdogan snubbed a request
by Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, to
. visit 1\1rkey.Neither Mr Erdogan nor his
foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, have been
to Israel. Officials on both sides-.say the
"special relationship" is .secure. A pact
signed in 1996 still lets Israeli fighter pilots
train in 1\1rkishairspace, to the irritation of
many Arabs. nade still booms.
But the bad blood is still being stirred.
This week Silvan Shalom, Israel's foreign
minister, said that Israel could not "restrain
itself" for much longer in the face of
Mr Erdogan's scratchy remarks, which
were harming the very fabric of the two
countries' relationship. Mr Erdogan has accused
Israel of "state terrorism" against the
Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Last month
he asked an Israeli minister to explain the
•difference between "terrorists who kill Is-
. raeli civilians and Israel's killing of civil-
.ians too". Similar bluntness earlier this
month annoyed a group of Jewish Ameri-
.cans whom he met in the United States.
So why the change? Mr Erdogan's proclaimed
distaste for Mr Sharon's policies is
.probably genuine. It is certainly shared by
.many millions of lUrks who have been
.watching television pictures of Israeli
tanks demolishing Palestinian houses. Besides,
he has to appease conservatives in
hilrrulingJustice and Development party.
They are disgruntled by his failure, among
.other unIslamist things, to lift the ban on
the wearing of headscarves by women in
government offices and schools .
Some, however, say that the most compelling
reason for Mr Erdogan's new tone
of hostility is his belief that Israel has been
encouraging Iraq's Kurds to form their own
independent state that would not only become
Israel's new ally in the region but
might also rekindle separatism among 1\1rkey's
own restive Kurds. Such fears have
grown since the New Yorker magazine said
that Israeli agents now train Kurdish guerrillas
in Iraq. Israel denies it.
Mr Erdogan knows he must tread
warily. If he annoys Israel or the Jewish-
American lobby too much, it will be
harder for Congress to spike resolutions
calling for recognition of the massacres of
Armenians by the Ottoman lUrks in the
first world war as genocide. _ .
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