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Afghanistan’s minister of mines reportedly accepted a $30 million bribe from a Chinese mining firm, highlighting the corruption woes plaguing President Hamid Karzai’s administration as he prepares for his inauguration. An undisclosed U.S. official told The Washington Post that there is a “high degree of certainty” that Mohammad Ibrahim Adel accepted the payment from China’s state-run mining firm, Metallurgical Group Corp., in Dubai around December 2007. In exchange, the firm received a $2.9 billion contract for Afghanistan’s largest development project—to extract copper from the Aynak deposit in Logar province, thought to be one of the largest unexploited copper deposits in the world. Adel vigorously denied receiving any bribes or illicit payments during his tenure, saying, “I am responsible for the revenue and benefit of our people. All the time I’m following the law and the legislation for the benefit of the people.” But this is not the first time allegations of Adel’s misconduct have been raised. “There is a pattern of improprieties that have gone on. We do know that the World Bank procedures, and the government of Afghanistan procedures, were badly breached repeatedly,” a former American adviser to the ministry told the Post. “There is every reason to believe there were probably gratuities exchanged.” The announcement comes just in advance of President Hamid Karzai’s inauguration on Thursday, three months after an election marred by widespread fraud. Whether Karzai can effectively address the corruption that appears to pervade his government is the subject of much international scrutiny and is at the heart of Obama’s deliberations over the United States’ Afghan war strategy. In an effort to salvage his reputation, Karzai unveiled a new anti-corruption unit earlier this week, but a recent poll by The Washington Post and ABC News found that just 26 percent of Americans see Karzai as a “reliable partner” for the U.S. mission.

Iraqi vice president Tariq al-Hashemi has temporarily halted plans for a general election in January after he vetoed part of the recently passed election law. Iraq’s electoral commission stopped preparations for the election after al-Hashemi, a Sunni, sent the law back to parliament, saying he wants to see more representation for Iraqis living abroad, many of whom are Sunni Arabs. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the veto a threat to democracy and the Iraqi political process. Iraqi electoral officials are all but conceding that sending the law back to parliament will delay the vote. The general election also has ramifications for the U.S.-led coalition, which is pushing for an election as soon as possible so the United States can being drawing down troops. Gen. Ray Odierno, the commanding general of U.S. forces, said the military was “flexible” and could adapt to a possible delay. Significant reductions of troops are not scheduled until the spring of next year.

The European Union plans to send 100 troops to Uganda to train up to 2,000 Somali government troops currently fighting Islamist insurgents. The EU plans to aid the fledgling transitional government, which only controls a small part of the capital, Mogadishu, after Somali pirates have stepped up attacks against Western vessels off the coast of Somalia. The mission is likely to be led by Spain, which will take over the EU presidency for six months next year. The EU training would bring the number of trained Somali soldiers to 6,000. EU leaders have said that a stronger Somali security force on the ground is the only way to successfully combat Somali piracy. “We clearly see that if we don’t help Somalia, then we could have the Atalanta operation for 20 or 30 years,” said French Defense Minister Herve Morin, referring to the EU naval operation currently underway.

Iran’s foreign minister said his country would not send enriched uranium abroad for further reprocessing, dismissing a deal pushed by the United States and its allies regarding Iran’s nuclear program. But Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki did say Iran would consider swapping the uranium for nuclear fuel and keeping it under supervision within the Islamic nation. The original deal, brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, calls for Iran to send 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, which will turn it into fuel for a medical research reactor in Tehran. With the deal between the West and Iran looking uncertain, the IAEA denied a report in the Times of London that it was holding clandestine talks with Iran on its nuclear program. According to the report, nuclear watchdog officials have been attempting to persuade the West to lift sanctions against Iran and would allow Tehran to keep most of its nuclear program in exchange for cooperation with UN inspectors. A draft document of the deal was leaked to the Times as the IAEA warned that Iran could be hiding multiple secret nuclear sites. In a statement, the IAEA called the report “entirely baseless.”

At negotiations in Geneva between the P5+1 and Iran, Iran agreed to allow IAEA inspectors into its declared nuclear facilities at Natanz and Qom. It also accepted in principal an offer from Russia and France, with U.S. support, to process most of Iran’s low-enriched uranium into nuclear isotopes for medical use in cancer treatment. Still, Friday morning, it appeared that the Iranian government had displayed little interest in abandoning any facet of its nuclear enrichment program that it continues to insist is designed purely for peaceful purposes. After the Geneva meeting, President Obama demanded that Iran allow Mohamed El-Baradei, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities in the next two weeks and to cooperate by making available all relevant personnel and documents. The New York Times reports that “many diplomats and analysts believe that the plant near Qom is only one of a series of hidden installations that Iran has constructed, in addition to its publicly acknowledged ones, for what is considered to be a military program.” The medical nuclear isotope proposal exploits Iran’s demand for developing cancer treatments for some of its ailing senior leaders. Iran had previously imported relatively low-enriched uranium from Argentina but, in revealing the program to the IAEA earlier this year, admitted its stockpile was quickly depleting. Under the proposal, which Iran has agreed to in principal and is to be discussed in a subsequent meeting in Vienna on October 18, Iran will ship “most” of its nuclear material to Russia for enrichment and to France for conversion to fuel rods before being shipped back to Iran for medical and civilian power use under IAEA supervision. President Obama called the talks a “constructive beginning” but cautioned, “If Iran does not take steps in the near future to live up to its obligations, then the United States will not continue to negotiate indefinitely.” At an afternoon meeting of the first U.S.-Iran bilateral meetings in nearly 30 years, U.S. Under Secretary of State William J. Burns (the senior U.S. Foreign Service Officer) met with chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who later reiterated Iran’s commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons but insisted upon Iran’s right to a peaceful nuclear energy program. “We are committed to our commitment in the framework of the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty), and at the same time we will go ahead and stick to our nuclear rights in the framework of the NPT.”

For more on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, see Kayhan Barzegar’s “The Paradox of Iran’s Nuclear Consensus” in the new Fall issue of World Policy Journal.

In an impassioned appeal at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, Somalian President Sheikh Sarif Sheikh Ahmed implored the international community for increased security and humanitarian assistance in his country. Sharif, who leads Somalia’s Western-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG), called on Washington and other nations to live up to their promises of aid. “We received many promises and pledges, but, unfortunately, the government hasn’t received the fulfillment of these pledges which has slowed down progress,” he said. “The international community seems not be ready to do anything for Somalia.” His remarks, delivered at CSIS to a standing-room only audience, followed meetings with U.S. officials and a visit to the United Nations in New York. Back at home, though, fierce clashes between Islamist rebel groups broke out in the southern city of Kismayo. Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, Somalia’s two most powerful rebel groups, engaged in fighting on Thursday in the strategic port city, which they had jointly controlled before declaring war on each other earlier this week. As of Friday morning, at least 29 had been killed and more than 80 wounded in the clashes, and Al-Shabaab had taken control of the city. But fears that the fighting could spread are still quite real, and militants have imposed a daytime curfew on the citizens that have not yet fled Kismayo.

General Stanley A. McChrystal, the senior military commander in Afghanistan, made his first public statement since his Initial Commander’s Assessment was leaked to the public last month. In it, he grounded the mission in Afghanistan firmly within the principles of counterinsurgency and called for an increased U.S.-NATO coalition commitment to the mission. “At the end of the day,” he said, “we don’t win by destroying the Taliban, we don’t win by body counts, we don’t win by number of successful military raids or attacks. We win when the people decide we win.” He warned that “a strategy that does not leave Afghanistan in a stable position is probably a short-sighted strategy,” though he did not elaborate. McChrystal’s statement comes as the Obama administration is reconsidering the United States’ fundamental strategic interests in Afghanistan and South Asia, while determining whether those interests effectively fulfill McChrystal’s recent, classified request for forces, or treat the mission as purely a counterterrorist operation. McChrystal left no doubt on Thursday that he strongly believes U.S. strategic interests in Afghanistan are important, are threatened by the prospect of mission failure, and can be addressed through a counterinsurgency strategy that is bolstered by more resources. McChrystal did admit, however, “if that debate is necessary for a strong decision that is backed by resolve, then I think we have to take that time.” In public statements, the administration has insisted the mission is not nation-building, but designed to destroy terrorist organizations. Still, the administration’s metrics for mission success suggest more ambitious goals, especially metric “3b.” The goal, he continued, is to “promote a more capable, accountable, and effective government in Afghanistan that serves the Afghan people and can eventually function, especially regarding internal security, with limited international support.” Highlighting the debate, initial reports Friday morning claim that a NATO air strike killed several Afghans after NATO soldiers began taking fire. NATO air strikes have proven a remarkably effective counterterrorism tactic–killing Taliban fighters and senior leadership–but have been counterproductive in winning Afghan hearts and minds as part of the counterinsurgency effort.

For more on the situation in Afghanistan, see this week’s “Big Question” on the World Policy Blog.

Irish voters head to the polls today for a second referendum on the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty after rejecting it in June 2008. The purpose of the Treaty of Lisbon is to streamline EU decision-making. It has been in negotiations for nearly a decade and must be ratified by every EU country before it can take effect, and includes provisions to redistribute voting power within the EU, make its human rights charter legally binding, and reduce the number of commissioners in the European Commission. It also establishes a two-and-a-half year term for the European Council president—currently, presidents rotate on a six-month cycle—and condenses the existing offices of foreign affairs and external affairs chiefs into a High Representative on Foreign Affairs. Such reforms would presumably increase the EU’s clout on the world stage, but many argue that it would centralize EU power at the expense of national sovereignty. This was the main issue at stake when Ireland rejected the treaty in its first referendum last June. But the EU has made certain conciliatory gestures toward Ireland in the meantime, like assuring it that it would not lose its commissioner or be forced to change its anti-abortion laws. At the same time, the tumultuous economic climate has left many Irish voters seeking a closer embrace with their government’s partnership with its European neighbors. Brian Cowen, Ireland’s Taoiseach or prime minister, pleaded with his constituents for a “yes” vote in the referendum, but insists that if it fails, no more will be held. “There will not be a Lisbon Three—that’s for sure,” he said to reporters on Thursday. As of Friday afternoon, turnout was reported to be “low and slow,” though voting in Dublin was up substantially from last year’s count. “Friday is an important day for Ireland, and for the whole of the European Union,” said European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek on Thursday. “I hope the Irish people do come out and vote in large numbers, and I strongly encourage them to do so.”

One in three votes cast for Afghanistan’s incumbent President Hamid Karzai in last month’s election was fraudulent, say EU election observers. According to EU Election Monitoring Commission, about 1.1 million votes in favor of Karzai, as well as 300,000 cast for his main rival Abdullah Abdullah, met Afghanistan’s criteria for electoral fraud. The findings were released as official election results now show Karzai winning with 54.6 percent of the vote. But if the suspect ballots to be excluded, Karzai’s share would fall to 47.2 percent–short of the 50 percent needed for a win and triggering a run-off election. Karzai furiously condemned the Commission’s claims as “partial, irresponsible and in contradiction with Afghanistan’s constitution.” Instead of publicizing their findings, Karzai continued, the monitors should be referring them to Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC). The EU team accused the IEC, which is chaired by a pro-Karzai appointee, of abetting the fraud, saying that it has ignored its own rules on identifying and eliminating suspect votes. The ECC ordered a recount of about 10 percent of the votes, as well as an audit of election staff.

A long-awaited UN probe found both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in last year’s Gaza conflict. The four-person investigative team, led by South African war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, reported that both sides violated international human rights and humanitarian law during the three-week operation in the Gaza Strip last December and January. The report condemned Palestinian militant groups for their repeated mortar attacks targeting Israeli citizens. But the focus was primarily on Israel’s use of “disproportionate force” against densely populated Gaza in Operation Cast Lead. In addition, the report said that Israel’s blockade of Gaza amounted to a collective punishment of civilians, and suggested that Palestinians had been deprive of substinence, employment, and movement–which could constitute a crime against humanity. The group recommended that the Security Council refer the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if independent, “good-faith” proceedings do not occur within six months. Israel denounced the report, rejecting it as one-sided and anti-Israeli. President Shimon Peres said that in practice, the report’s findings “[grant] legitimacy to terrorism, premeditated shooting and killing while ignoring the duty and the right of a state to defend itself.”

Somali rebels have called for all Muslims to join the fight against the U.N.-backed government after a U.S. helicopter raid killed one of the region’s most wanted al Qaeda suspects. The raid on Monday was an unusual one for the United States, which had previously targeted militants using long-range missiles rather than helicopter-borne troops. The operation killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was wanted for a 2002 truck bombing that killed 15 people at an Israeli-owned beach hotel in Mombasa, Kenya and was suspected of trying to shoot down an Israeli airliner the same year. Following the attack, a commander for al Shabab insurgents in Somalia called for Muslims to fight the weak transitional government as well as the African Union, which has troops there. The last American strike in Somalia was in May 2008, when an al-Shabab military leader and at least 10 others were killed. There were also reports quoting witnesses as saying that the troops involved in the Monday operation were wearing uniforms with French insignia, but the French military has strongly denied any involvement.

Yukio Hatoyama, the newly elected Japanese prime minister, took office Wednesday alongside a defense minister who, some reports are suggesting, will pull Japanese troops from the NATO-led military campaign in Afghanistan. An article in the Times of London suggests that the appointment of Toshimi Kitazawa, who is a strong opponent of the country’s military support for the United States, makes it increasingly likely that the Hatoyama-led government will withdraw forces from Afghanistan early next year. Japan’s Maritime Defense Forces only deployed a supply ship and a destroyer to assist in providing fuel and water to American and British naval ships in the Indian Ocean. The minimal Japanese assistance is one of only a handful of overseas military operations where the country has been engaged since World War II, largely due to its pacifist constitution. The new government is taking power after pledging to make domestic demand the engine of growth (rather than exports) and promising to pull Japan from the worst recession since World War II.

Following its submission of a brief proposal on Wednesday, Iran scheduled a meeting with the P5+1 for negotiations October 1. A spokesman to EU policy chief Javier Solana confirms that the P5+1—which includes the U.S., U.K., China, Russia, France, and Germany—requested the meeting, which was then arranged with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili. Iran wants to discuss stabilization efforts in Afghanistan, ways to combat illicit drug trafficking, and “alleviating concerns over the nuclear issue,” said a spokesman for Iran’s ministry of foreign affairs, though it defends its right to maintain a civilian nuclear program. The United States has expressed cautious optimism about the potential of the discussions, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asserted that talks with Iran must address the nuclear issue “head-on.” Earlier this week, the U.S. distributed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution barring any nation in violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (such as Iran) from enriching uranium for any purpose, either energy or weapons.

The United Arab Emirates is lobbying the U.S. Congress to approve a transfer of nuclear materials to Abu Dhabi.  Indeed, an opinion piece in the U.A.E. newspaper Al-Ittihad suggests that a bilateral agreement between the two countries on peaceful nuclear cooperation will be approved. Last week the crown prince, Sheik Mohammaed bin Zayed al-Nayhan visited President Barack Obama to discuss cooperation on energy and security, among other topics. Last year, both countries signed a preliminary agreement paving the way for nuclear exports. The U.A.E. has pledged to maintain transparency in any nuclear program. But there are fears that a nuclear program in the U.A.E., while peaceful, could set in motion proliferation throughout the Middle East. Many states are uneasy over Iran’s continued defiance toward the West regarding its nuclear program. However, the United States, Britain, France and Russia—all nuclear powers—it could win some trade opportunities and big business. France has also been talking with the U.A.E. on a nuclear energy cooperation agreement, and Saudi Arabia has signed a preliminary agreement with the United States on nuclear technology.

I arrived in Yemen yesterday ruminating on somewhat contradictory mental snapshots of the country. It’s the place where Noah’s Ark was launched and Osama bin Laden’s father was born. It is a country where Westerners are kidnapped by tribesmen (but rarely harmed), where suicide bombers struck the USS Cole in 2000, where young women lower the blinds and cast off their abayas to dance and chew qat [a mild stimulant derived from a shrub] with their friends.

Inhabited almost since the dawn of humanity, Yemen is, in many ways, the birthplace of all our lives. The sons of Noah knew it as the land of milk and honey, Gilgamesh came here to search for the secret of eternal life, wise men gathered frankincense and myrrh from its mountains and, most famously, a woman known simply as the Queen of Sheba said Yemen was her home.

I have come to Yemen to report on many things, but the overarching, pressing story is food security. Though the global food crisis dropped from the front pages of newspapers a year ago, the reality of food shortages and alarming malnutrition rates has not subsided—in fact, it has worsened.

I hope to shed light back on this urgent issue and potentially return some media attention to this topic while traveling as a photojournalist with the World Food Programme (WFP) as they begin a $30 million emergency food operation to assist 600,000 people here.

Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East and trouble is brewing for this Gulf nation. The oil sector provides 90 percent of export earnings but what little oil they have is running out. Meanwhile, Yemen seems headed for a multifaceted crisis; it is grappling with high levels of poverty, rising unemployment, catastrophic nationwide water shortages, and the fertility rate is booming. As to the link between poverty and food security, the following statistic highlights the depth of the problem:in Yemen, the average family spends 65 percent of their yearly income on food. In the United States, it’s less than 9.5 percent.

Read the rest of this entry »

In our article, “Fighting Pirates: The Pen and the Sword,” which appeared in the winter “Dear Mr. President” issue of World Policy Journal, we asserted that greater collaboration, increased prosecutorial capacity, and the creation of a network among concerned states were the most promising approaches to address the spike in piracy off the Somali coast. In the past two months, all three have occurred, and there has been an accompanying sharp drop in the number of successful attacks. While ships are still vulnerable, the political environment has improved.

In December 2008, the United Nations Security Council adopted two resolutions, numbers 1846 and 1851, to encourage prosecutions, support enhanced partnering, and authorize land-based military operations. In quick order, a “Contact Group” was established to address maritime piracy, meeting for the first time in January 2009 with representatives from 24 nations.

To increase accountability and the rule of law, Kenya has signed a bilateral accord with the United Kingdom to prosecute suspected pirates, and Kenya and the United States could sign a similar deal by the end of January, 2009. Two coalition military commands, the European Union’s Operation Atalanta and U.S. Fifth Fleet’s Combined Task Force 151, were launched to expand capacity and focus anti-piracy efforts. Moreover, Japan, Spain, and South Korea are poised to deploy naval forces to the region.

This collective action is having a positive effect: in January 2009, only 2 of 16 attacks by Somali pirates resulted in a successful boarding. In 2008, about a third (or 42 of the 111 attacks) were successful, with 815 mariners taken hostage. The threat of attack so concerned the shipping community that some companies altered their routes; others avoided the area completely.

As a result, the Suez Canal experienced a $35 million drop in revenues for 2008 and tuna catches in the Indian Ocean, a $6 billion industry, fell by 30 percent. One other factor has played in favor of fewer attacks—it is monsoon season in the Indian Ocean. High seas are restricting the pirates to the shores, reducing the number roving throughout the Arabian Sea.

Collaboration is ongoing and it is working. The European Commission hosted a piracy seminar in Brussels in January 2009 which included representatives from the maritime sector, governments, and military officials. Even more partnerships are in development: a piracy and drug trafficking conference, hosted by Yemen in collaboration with the United Kingdom, is slated for February.

The legal component of repression has been turned in the right direction over the past two months. Holding pirates accountable has been a tremendous challenge in anti-piracy operations. Many states either don’t have laws on their books enabling prosecutions or don’t desire to assert jurisdiction, convene a trial, and detain pirates. Thus, even though piracy is a universal crime allowing any state to prosecute, as a practical matter, piracy trials infrequently occur.

Several times in 2008, after hijackings were thwarted by warships, pirates were simply released, losing only their weapons. Read the rest of this entry »