Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams is to travel to Israel on a self-styled “peace mission” on Tuesday at the invitation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyam. Adams’ itinerary includes meetings with the Palestinian Legislative Council and its ruling group Hamas — a move that has angered a White House determined to isolate a group it designates as terrorists. However, it is not yet clear whether Adams will even be allowed through security at Tel Aviv airport. President Bush’s special envoy to Northern Ireland is reported to be “livid” about the proposed visit. It may also threaten [...]
It was no more than coincidence that former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami arrived in the United States Friday, one day after the U.N.-imposed deadline on his country to halt its uranium enrichment program, according to U.S. officials. The United States granted Khatami an entry visa despite rising tension between Washington and Tehran over what the Bush administration considers Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons because — a State Department spokesman said Thursday — there is “no political substance to his visit.” But observers said it was possible to read too little into the former president’s trip as well as too [...]
Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of the World Politics Review Commentary Week in Review, in which we look back at the week’s opinion pages. The column will be posted every Saturday by noon. We bet on the obvious last week by predicting Iran would dominate this week’s international commentary and indeed, by week’s end, we’d taken our gambler’s share. The U.N.’s Aug. 31 deadline for Iran to stop uranium-enrichment or face sanctions unleashed a flood of ink onto the world’s English-language opinion pages. One of the more lucid assessments was made by Claudia Rosett, who observed in the [...]
