Late last month, Israel launched air strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza in response to Hamas rocket attacks in Israel. For the past nine days, Israel and the Islamic group have traded fire. Israel commenced ground attacks last week, which were criticized by Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit, among others.
The U.S. State Department called for a ceasefire this week between Israel and Hamas.
“We would like an immediate ceasefire, absolutely,” said spokesman Sean McCormack. “An immediate ceasefire that is durable, sustainable and not time-limited.”
The State Department has sent Secretary Condoleezza Rice to the United Nations to discuss the ceasefire. The U.N. and “Arab diplomats” have also called for an end to the fighting between the two forces. The U.N. estimates over 500 Palestinians have been killed, as well as a “handful” of Israelis. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose party was ousted from Gaza in 2007, visited the U.N. this week.
According to Newsday, the U.S. blocked the U.N. Security Council from issuing a ceasefire statement.
President-elect Barack Obama has finally spoken out on the conflict. He said “the loss of civilian life in Gaza and in Israel is a source of deep concern for me…After Jan. 20 I’m going to have plenty to say about the issue, and I am not backing away at all from what I said during the campaign, that starting at the beginning of our administration, we are going to be engaged effectively and consistently in trying to resolve the conflict in the Middle East. That’s something I am committed to.”
On Monday, we told you that the upper chamber of the Czech Republic’s parliament approved the deal for the U.S. to install a missile defense radar base. According to UPI, doubts linger about whether the lower chamber will approve the agreement.
Opposition party member and speaker of the lower chamber Miloslav Vlcek said plainly, “I am certain that the radar will not be deployed.”
Although U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg signed the agreement a few months ago, approval is not forthcoming. President-Elect Barack Obama is not enthusiastic about the bases in the Czech Republic or Poland, and the Czech Republic may be caving in to Russia out of fear. Russia has already said it will install missiles near Poland should the U.S. continue with its plans to build a base in that country.
On Saturday, Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, discussed our country’s missile defense plans in Europe.
Russia says it will deploy short-range ballistic missiles on its western border around Kaliningrad if the U.S. installs missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Despite Secretary Rice’s attempts to ease Russia’s concerns about the bases, the Kremlin has rejected the proposals, but may revisit them once President-Elect Barack Obama takes office, according to Reuters. This rejection comes even after the U.S. offered to allow Russia to inspect the bases.
Russia believes the bases are a threat but “is ready to cooperate with the United States on European security but considers the proposals that were sent are insufficient.”
So all it not lost, it appears.
During the campaign, Obama said he would make sure the missile defense systems worked before deployment, and Congress held off on funding the projects until both countries’ parliaments ratified the agreements.
If the Czech Republic doesn’t allow its planned base, Poland may not get its base. Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said, “Without a radar in the Czech Republic, the base in Poland will be useless…So the date for starting work on the base is not determined by the speed of our negotiations or by our ratification. The Czech ratification is its necessary condition.” (AP)
Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Obama met to discuss Poland’s missile defense shield. While Kaczynski believes the project will move forward, Obama has not committed to it. (AP)
This weekend the U.S. Navy announced that it shot down one of two short-range ballistic missiles test-fired from a navy ship, the first time the Navy supervised a Standard Missile-3 interceptor fired against a ballistic missile target.
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Last week, the Czech Republic’s parliament began debating the deal reached between the U.S. and the Czech Republic to install a radar missile defense base to protect against missile attacks. The agreement is supported by the center-right coalition government, but parties that oppose parliament and Czech citizens are concerned about Russia’s disapproval of the plan.
One opposition party, the Social Democratic Party, has asked the Constitutional Court to review the agreements for legality. Signed last summer by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, the deal must be ratified by both houses of parliament. A majority of Czech citizens oppose the missile defense deal, according to polls.
The U.S. is attempting to protect Central Europe from countries like Iran. The U.S. plans to build a missile defense base in Poland, which also has to ratify the agreement. As expected, Russia opposes both bases.
Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman, announced this weekend that North Korea has agreed to all nuclear inspection demands. As a result, the U.S. has removed North Korea from a terrorist sponsors list. Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, signed the declaration.
According to Bloomberg, North Korea will allow inspections of areas suspected of nuclear activity. As part of the deal, North Korea will disable a source of weapons-grade plutonium, the Yongbyon reactor. The agreement comes after a two-month impasse in a discussion among six countries.
“Every element of verification that we sought is included in this package,” McCormack said. “Every single thing we sought going in is part of this package.”
Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan’s Finance Minister, expressed his discontent over the decision. “It’s very regrettable. Setting aside the nuclear proliferation problem, the [abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s] issue is a matter of terrorism.”
Iran and the U.S. are currently in talks about allowing inspections. The U.S. says it won’t remove Iran from the state terrorist sponsors list until it allows United Nations inspectors inside nuclear facilities.
The U.S. and Poland sealed a deal to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski signed the agreement today. The U.S. also agreed to give Poland Patriot missiles as part of the deal to host the base.
According to the Associated Press, Rice said the agreement “will establish a missile defense site…that will help us to deal with the new threats of the 21st century of a long-range missile threats from countries like Iran or from North Korea.”
As we blogged before, Russia is not pleased with these developments and considers the future missile defense base a threat. Even before Russia’s invasion of Georgia, the situation was tense in the region. Poland and the U.S. insist the base is a defense, not an attack or threat.
The U.S. and the Czech Republic signed an agreement for the U.S. to install a missile radar tracking system.
The conflict began earlier this month when Georgia attacked a small province called South Ossetia. Russia responded by counter-attacking in South Ossetia and advancing into Georgia. The countries involved agreed to a cease-fire last week.
According to ITN, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that “most” of his country’s forces will withdraw at the end of the week, with some troops left in a buffer zone. Some sources are reporting that there have been no large-scale pullouts. At a NATO meeting in Brussels, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Russia is “becoming more and more the outlaw in this conflict. They intend and probably still do intend to strangle Georgia and its economy.”
William D. Zeranski, writing for The American Thinker, also notes Russia’s withdrawal has been slow. He adds that Poland’s missile defense agreement and Ukraine’s reported offer to integrate its early warning missile with Europe “may have been fortuitous” in light of Russia’s actions.
There’s nothing fortuitous about it, actually. Russia is a military powerhouse, relatively speaking, and lesser equipped countries know they need to be prepared for possible attacks.
Despite Russia’s displeasure with the missile defense deal between the U.S. and Poland, Poland’s citizens have a favorable opinion of the agreement, particularly in light of Russia’s invasion of Georgia.
According to the Associated Press, 58 percent of survey participants support the deal, while 37 percent said the deal is bad for Poland.
It’s no surprise that Russia considers the move a hostile one. The country “fiercely opposes the missile defense deal” and claims, rather unconvincingly, that the U.S. will use the system to target Russia. Last month, the U.S. agreed to install a missile radar system in the Czech Republic.
According to the AP, Radek Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, said NATO should take a stand on Russia’s reponse to the agreement. Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State, will sign the agreement in a ceremony on Wednesday.
(Source: AP - Photo: Condoleezza Rice with Czech Republic Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda)
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg signed an agreement today in Prague establishing a missile defense radar station, a major victory for the Bush administration’s foreign policy agenda.
News of the deal immediately provoked Russia, which threatened to military action against the former Soviet satellite country. “We will be forced to react not with diplomatic, but with military-technical methods,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, according to London’s Times Online.
Rice didn’t let Russia’s tough talk distract her from the threat posed by Iran. “We’ve made the point to our Russian colleagues that we all face the threat from states like Iran that continue to pursue missiles of ever-longer range, and we must be in a position to respond,” she said.
The agreement came after long negotiations with Czech officials to install a tracking radar in the country. Rice will now turn her attention to Poland, which is in slatted to have 10 interceptor missiles. Those discussions have stalled over Poland’s demands for billions of dollars in U.S. military aid.
The U.S.-Czech agreement now moves to the Czech Parliament, which will vote on the deal. Schwarzenberg expressed optimism it would be approved despite opposition from some citizens. “I believe there will be enough members of the parliament who are aware of the responsibility and vote for the agreement,” Schwarzenberg said. The deal has already been approved by NATO.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s decision to finalize an agreement with Prague in early July to station part of the “third site” anti-missile system there arrives at a critical point in the proliferation debate.
The news comes at the same time a former U.N. arms inspector is set to report that plans to build a nuclear weapon — compatible with Iran’s ballistic missile technology — could have fallen into the hand of the rogue regime and other dangerous actors.
The radar in the Czech Republic, together with the possible stationing of 10 interceptor missiles in Poland (negotiations are ongoing), will strengthen transatlantic security against the evolving Middle Eastern ballistic missile threat, allowing the United States to extend its own security umbrella to that of its European allies.
This is surely one reason why NATO vigorously endorsed the third site missile defense negotiations at its Bucharest Summit in April.
On Monday, we told you that the upper chamber of the Czech Republic’s parliament approved the deal for the U.S. to install a missile defense radar base. According to 
On Saturday, Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, discussed our country’s missile defense plans in Europe.
Last week, the Czech Republic’s parliament began debating the deal reached between the U.S. and the Czech Republic to install a radar missile defense base to protect against missile attacks. The agreement is supported by the center-right coalition government, but parties that oppose parliament and Czech citizens are concerned about Russia’s disapproval of the plan.
Despite Russia’s displeasure with the missile defense deal between the U.S. and Poland, Poland’s citizens have a favorable opinion of the agreement, particularly in light of Russia’s invasion of Georgia.
