Current Events Summery

Middle East Foreign Relations

In recent news in the middle east, Australia is to offer a permanent home for hundreds of Iraqi employees because later on this year Canberra, the capital of the commonwealth of Australia, will pull its combat forces out of the Gulf. Immigration officials have been brought in to help speed up the process of visa applications. Israel holds Hamas, a Palestinian militant and political party, responsible for the deaths two Israeli citizens and seven Palestinians in a raid in Israel. The suspicion of Hamas was rooted in the fact that the raid took place near a Gaza crossing which has been under Hamas control since last June. The raid began as an attempt to seize Israeli soldiers and escalated into gun fire. Israel has stated that they will respond to this attack in their own time. Talks between China, the US, the UK, and France met with a German negotiator to talk about Iran's nuclear goals. The talks evolved ways to keep Iran's nuclear program a peaceful one. These talks though have turn out to not be fruitful as no agreement seemed to be reached and many problems still remain. Iran has been expanding its work in the nuclear field despite concerns from the security council that Iran will soon posses uranium that can be used for weapons. Iran has countered that they wish to only further civilian nuclear energy. In not necessarily surprising news, polls conducted by the university of Maryland and Zogby international and surveys by the BBC have reached the conclusion the eight out of 10 Arabs hold strong dislike for the American government. Recently the positive perspective of other counties on the united states has grown some 4 percent but have continued to stay negative in Arab countries. After this poll though another one was produced that delivered more promising results. A poll by the ABC/BBC showed that in Iraq there has been a 20 percent increase in positive views on the security accomplishments of the American government in Iraq. Pakistan has reached a lucrative deal with Iran to clear the way for the building of 7.2 billion dollar pipeline straight through to India. This 1,620 mile long pipe will most likely earn millions of dollars for Pakistan because of transit fees. This deal will not only have positive effects on the economy but promote peace between the two countries as well as the benefits that will be given to India and its ever growing economy. This pipeline was not great news for the united states which feels that this pipeline will only weaken the united states plan to cut off the city of Tehran in Iran. The death toll continues to rise as tension and retaliation continue between Israel and Palestine around the Gaza strip. Despites this rising tension Leaders on both sides insist that progress can be made and that talks are moving in a positive direction.