National Security | News-Opinion
TOP NEWS: Nat’l Security / Foreign Affairs: June 19, 2012
- Egypt’s generals vow to transfer authority, but U.S. officials concerned about power grab
- G20 leaders scramble to boost global growth
- Rival Powers Hit Wall on Syria Plan
- Tense Iran Nuclear Talks Resume in Moscow
- Face to Face with Syria’s Apocalypse
More news and excerpts below
Egypt’s generals vow to transfer authority, but U.S. officials concerned about power grab
Ernesto Londoño and Leila Fadel,Washington Post - Egypt’s military leaders on Monday sought to play down the significance of their move to sharply curtail the powers of the president, as U.S. officials said they were “deeply concerned” about the apparent power grab.
G20 leaders scramble to boost global growth
Al Jazeera - The leaders of the world’s major economies embarked on the final day of the G20 summit determined to kickstart growth and pull the eurozone back from the brink of disaster.
Rival Powers Hit Wall on Syria Plan
Carol E. Lee and Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal - President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in their first meeting as leaders, each called for an end to the escalating violence in Syria, but offered little evidence the rival powers had forged a workable plan.
Tense Iran Nuclear Talks Resume in Moscow
Ellen Barry, NY Times - Talks between Iran and six world powers went into a second day on Tuesday morning, as negotiators sought a compromise that would head off the danger of military confrontation over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The outcome of Monday’s talks made it clear that the room for agreement is vanishingly small.
Face to Face with Syria’s Apocalypse
Christoph Reuter, Der Spiegel - The Syrian conflict is becoming increasingly brutal, with eyewitnesses describing horrific scenes of rape and massacres. Both sides have the sense that the end game is approaching, but no one knows how it will play out. The opposition is starting to discuss what kind of Syria they want for the future, but some are uneasy about the growing power of the Free Syrian Army.
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Political Instability Rises as Pakistani Court Ousts Premier
Declan Walsh, NY Times - The Supreme Court dismissed Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday, drastically escalating a confrontation between the government and the judiciary and plunging the political system into turmoil.
Time to act: euro collapse would define our era
Lawrence Summers, Financial Times - Once again good news has had a half-life in the markets of less than 24 hours. Just as news of Spain’s bank bailout rallied markets and sentiment for only a few hours, a Greek election outcome as good as could have been hoped did not buoy markets for even a day. There could be no clearer evidence that the strategy of vowing that the European system will hold together, doing the minimum to address each crisis as it comes and promising to build a system that is sound in the long run has run its course.
Efforts to Form a Government in Greece Set to Resume
Rachel Donadio and Liz Alderman, NY Times - Antonis Samaras, the leader of conservative New Democracy, the party that placed first in elections on Sunday, was preparing on Tuesday to continue talks with his Socialist rival and the head of a smaller leftist party aimed at keeping Greece in the euro zone and renegotiating its loan agreement with foreign creditors keeping the country afloat.
Morsi’s Win in Egypt Sparks Fear in Israel
Dan Ephron, The Daily Beast - He won’t attack Israel and he’s unlikely to tear up the peace treaty, at least initially. But Israelis are worried that Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader and newly elected president of Egypt, will lead an isolation campaign against the Jewish state, shore up Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and bring relations between the two countries to their lowest point in more than 30 years.
Nobody Is Listening to Putin Anymore
Alexander Golts, The Moscow Times - Putin’s authoritarianism no longer resembles an autocratic monarchy in which the king alone makes decisions that are faithfully carried out by his subjects. Now the regime looks more like a chaotic feudal system that has been weakened by overly independent and obstinate local chiefs.
Faith is wavering in Mario Monti’s ability to fix Italy’s finances
Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post – Seven months after the well-regarded economist Monti was tapped to replace billionaire playboy Silvio Berlusconi, faith in the Italian government is again plummeting — inside and outside the country.
