News of the World, 2007
2007 news of the world from Iraq to Sudan
by Beth Rowen
Report Says Iran Has Halted Its
Nuclear Weapons Program | Palestinian and Israeli
Leaders Pledge to Work Toward Peace | North Korea
Makes Concessions on Nuclear Program | Political
Turmoil in Pakistan | Sudan Resists UN Efforts for
Peace
For the war in Iraq, please see News of the Nation.
Report Says Iran Has Halted Its Nuclear
Weapons Program
A National Intelligence Estimate, released in
December 2007 and compiled by the 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence
community, reported "with high confidence" that Iran had frozen its nuclear weapons program in
2003. The report contradicted one written in 2005 that stated Iran was
determined to continue developing such weapons. The 2007 report seemed to
immediately put the brakes on any plans by the Bush administration to
preemptively attack Iran's weapons facilities.
As recently as
October, President Bush said, “I've told people that if you're
interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be
interested in preventing them [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to
make a nuclear weapon.” He made the statement after meeting with
Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has said that he’s not convinced
that Iran is seeking to procure nuclear weapons.
The NIE report
suggested that Iran has bowed to international pressure to end its pursuit
of an atomic bomb. "Iran may be more vulnerable to influence on the issues
than we judged previously," it said. After the release of the intelligence
report, President Bush, however, said Iran remains a threat and can not be
trusted to pursue uranium enrichment for civilian use, such as nuclear
power. Bush also said he would continue to pursue another round of sanctions
against Iran.
"Look, Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, and Iran
will be dangerous, if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear
weapon," he said. "What’s to say they couldn’t start another
covert nuclear weapons program?"
Democrats immediately pounced on
Bush’s statement, saying he was following the same course he did in
the march to war against Iraq—ignoring intelligence to justify a
preemptive strike.
“President Bush continues to not let facts
get in the way of his ideology,” said Senator Barack Obama.
Presidential hopeful and former Democratic senator John Edwards said
Bush’s response was “eerily similar to what we saw with
Iraq.”
European Support of
Bush
French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela
Merkel said that Iran still posed a threat. “Notwithstanding the
latest elements, everyone is fully conscious of the fact that there is a
will among the Iranian leaders to obtain nuclear weapons,” Sarkozy
said. “I don’t see why we should renounce sanctions. What made
Iran budge so far has been sanctions and firmness.” Many observers
assumed that the NIE report would diminish international support of further
sanctions against Iran.
In March the UN Security Council voted in
favor of resolution that banned the sale or transfer of weapons to Iran and
froze the assets of 15 Iranians and 13 groups, many of which are associated
with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an elite military corps. Weeks after
the vote to impose the sanctions, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
announced that the country had acquired the ability to enrich uranium on an
industrial scale.
Palestinian
and Israeli Leaders Pledge to Work Toward Peace
At a Middle East
peace conference in November hosted by the United States in Annapolis, Md.,
Israeli prime minister Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas agreed to work
together to broker a peace treaty by the end of 2008. "We agree to
immediately launch good-faith bilateral negotiations in order to conclude a
peace treaty, resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues
without exception, as specified in previous agreements,” a joint
statement said. “We agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing and
continuous negotiations, and shall make every effort to conclude an
agreement before the end of 2008.” Officials from 49 countries,
including Syria and Saudi Arabia, who held out on attending until the last
minute, were present at the conference. Many observers speculated that the
Bush administration was pushing for a peace agreement before the end of his
term in 2008 to salvage his diminishing reputation and establish a legacy
that isn’t dominated by the war in Iraq.
Gaza Strip
Fighting between Hamas and Fatah
continued into 2007, with dozens of Palestinians dying in deadly street
fights. In March 2007, after months of fruitless attempts to form unity
government, the leaders of Hamas and Fatah finally agreed on a coalition
government, which Parliament later approved. Despite the breakthrough, Prime
Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah clearly
remained divided on important issues regarding Israel. Furthermore, the
platform of the government seemed to adopt Hamas’s ideology and
disregard Fatah’s concerns. The document stated that the government
does not recognize Israel, does not accept earlier Israeli-Palestinian
accords, and will not renounce violence. Western countries required that
Palestinians comply with each condition before they would resume aid to the
Palestinian government. Palestinians continued to suffer from the decision
in 2006 by Western donor countries to cut off hundreds of millions of
dollars in direct aid to the Hamas government.
Fighting between Hamas
and Fatah intensified in June 2007, with Hamas effectively taking control of
the Gaza Strip. In response, Palestinian president Abbas dissolved the
government, fired Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, and declared a state of
emergency. Salam Fayyad, an economist, took over as interim prime minister.
In an effort to boost Abbas, the United States and the European Union said
they would resume direct aid to the Palestinians.
Israel
A
commission that investigated 2006's war between Israel and Lebanon released
a scathing report in April 2007, saying Prime Minister Olmert was
responsible for "a severe failure in exercising judgment, responsibility,
and prudence." It also said that Olmert rushed to war without an adequate
plan. In addition, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and former army chief Dan
Halutz were rebuked in the report. Olmert resisted calls for his resignation
and survived a no-confidence vote in parliament.
In June 2007,
President Moshe Katsav reached a plea deal with the government, agreeing to
resign and plead guilty to committing indecent acts without consent, sexual
harassment, and harassing a witness. In exchange, the government dropped
rape charges against Katsav, who maintained his innocence and said he
pleaded guilty to avoid a long and embarrassing trial. He was accused of
raping and sexually assaulting several female coworkers. In June elections,
Shimon Peres, of the Kadima Party, was elected president at age
83.
Israeli jets fired on targets deep inside Syria in September 2007. American and Israeli
intelligence analysts later said that Israel had attacked a partially built
nuclear reactor. Several officials wondered aloud if North Korea had played
a role in the development of the nuclear plant. Syria denied that any such
facilities exist and protested to the United Nations, calling the attack a
"violation of sovereignty."
North Korea Makes Concessions on Nuclear
Program
Officials from North Korea, South Korea, China, Russia, the
United States, and Japan met several times beginning in 2003 to discuss ways
to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear program. Each round of
negotiations ended in failure. A breakthrough was finally reached in
February 2007, when North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear facilities
and allow international inspectors to enter the country in exchange for
about $400 million in oil and aid. In July, the country followed up on the
February agreement, shutting down its weapons-making nuclear reactor at
Yongbyon. North Korea went a step further in October, announcing it would
disable its nuclear facilities and disclose to international monitors an
accounting of all its nuclear programs by the end of 2007. While President
Bush was widely praised for using carrot and stick diplomacy, a few hawks in
his administration—and some former members of it—sharply
criticized the deal, saying it lacked a means to verify North Korea’s
claims about the status of its nuclear program.
“It is rewarding
bad behavior of the North Koreans by promising fuel oil,” said John
Bolton, once a Bush loyalist and the former ambassador to the UN.
“It's a bad signal to North Korea and it's a bad signal to Iran. It
will say to countries like Iran and other would-be proliferators, if you
just have enough patience, if you just have enough persistence, you’ll
wear the United States down.”
Political Turmoil in Pakistan
President Pervez
Musharraf’s reputation both domestically and internationally plummeted
during the course of 2007. In March, Musharraf suspended Chief Justice
Iftakar Mohammed Chaudhry, accusing him of abuse of power and nepotism.
Supporters of Chaudhry took the streets in protest, claiming the move was
politically motivated. Justice Chaudhry had agreed to hear cases involving
disappearances of people believed to have been detained by intelligence
agencies as well as constitutional challenges involving Musharraf’s
continued rule as president and head of the military. In July
Pakistan’s Supreme Court reinstated Chaudhry.
Musharraf's
political troubles intensified in the late summer. In August, the Supreme
Court ruled that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif could return to Pakistan
from exile in Saudi Arabia. Both Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, also a former
prime minister, have sought to challenge Musharraf’s leadership. Days
after the ruling, Bhutto revealed that Musharraf had agreed to a
power-sharing agreement, in which he would step down as army chief and run
for reelection as president. In exchange, Bhutto, who has been living in
self-imposed exile for eight years, would be allowed to return to Pakistan
and run for prime minister.
On Oct. 6, Musharraf was easily reelected
to a third term by the country's national and provincial assemblies.
Opposition parties boycotted the vote, however, and only representatives
from the governing party participated in the election. The Supreme Court
said the results would not be formalized until it determined whether
Musharraf was constitutionally eligible to run for president while still
head of the military.
State of
Emergency
On Nov. 3, Musharraf declared a state of emergency,
suspended Pakistan's constitution, and fired Chief Justice Iftakar Mohammed
Chaudhry and the other judges on the Supreme Court. Analysts suggested that
Musharraf was trying to preempt the upcoming ruling by the Supreme Court,
which was expected to declare he could not constitutionally run for
president while being head of the military. Musharraf, however, said he
acted to stem a rising Islamist insurgency and to "preserve the democratic
transition.” Thousands of lawyers took to the streets to protest the
emergency rule.
Later in November, the Supreme Court, stacked with
judges loyal to Musharraf, dismissed the case that challenged the
constitutionality of Musharraf’s election as president. Former prime
minister Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan on Nov. 25 after eight years in
exile.
Musharraf stepped down as military chief on November 28, the
day before being sworn in as a civilian president. Gen. Ashfaq Parvez
Kayani, the former head of Pakistan’s intelligence agency,
Inter-Services Intelligence, took over as army chief. Since he no longer
controls the military, Musharraf's power over Pakistan has been
significantly diminished.
Bhutto
Assassinated
Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack on Dec. 27
at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi. President Musharraf blamed al Qaeda for
the attack, which killed 23 other people. Bhutto's supporters, however,
accused Musharraf's government of orchestrating the combination bombing and
shooting. Rioting throughout the country followed the attack, and the
government shut down nearly all the country's services to thwart further
violence. Bhutto had criticized the government for failing to control
militants who have been unleashing terrorist attacks throughout Pakistan.
The assassination thurst the country deeper into chaos.
Sudan Resists UN Efforts for Peace
The
four-year-old conflict in Darfur continued in
2007, with the Janjaweed—the pro-government Arabic
militias—slaughtering black villagers and rebel groups with impunity.
More than 200,000 have been killed in Darfur and 2.5 million have become
refugees. In. January 2007, the government of Sudan and Darfur rebel groups
agreed to a 60-day cease-fire, which was intended to lead to peace talks
sponsored by the African Union. Libya hosted peace talks in October, but
several rebel groups boycotted the proceedings, and the summit ended shortly
after the opening ceremony.
In February 2007, the International
Criminal Court at the Hague named Ahmad Harun, Sudan's deputy minister for
humanitarian affairs, and Ali Abd-al-Rahman, a militia leader, as suspects
in the murder, rape, and displacement of thousands of civilians in the
Darfur region. In May, the Court issued arrest warrants for Haroun and Ali
Kosheib, a Janjaweed leader, charging them with mass murder, rape, and other
crimes. The Sudanese government refused to hand them over to the Court.
President Oman al-Bashir, continuing to show disregard and contempt for the
UN, placed Harun on a committee that supervises the deployment of UN
peacekeepers.
In July 2007, the UN Security Council voted unanimously
to deploy as many as 26,000 peacekeepers from the African Union and the
United Nations forces to help end the violence in Darfur. The Sudanese
government, however, has refused to allow some non-African peacekeepers into
the country.
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
