Mark Fitzpatrick: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the Nuclear Rumour Mill. One of the arguments most often raised against the emerging Iran nuclear deal is that it will prompt a proliferation cascade in the region.
For years I have worried that if Iran got too close to being able to produce nuclear weapons it would stimulate a similar effort by Saudi Arabia, which in turn might encourage Egypt and others to follow suit. Seven years ago I put out a strategic dossier addressing this issue: Nuclear Programmes in the Middle East: In the Shadow of Iran. Concern about the cascade effect is also one of the reasons I support the comprehensive agreement now on the table. Without limitations on Iran’s enrichment programme and the intrusive verification designed to detect, and therefore deter, clandestine enrichment, the proliferation stimulus would be sharper and quicker. True, the Saudis have gone beyond what they said in 2006 about interest in nuclear energy. Wanting enrichment is a far cry from possessing it, however. CTBTO sur Twitter : "#OTD in 1998: #Pakistan conducts a series of #nuclear tests.
28 May 1998 - Pakistan nuclear tests: CTBTO Preparatory Commission. Arms Control Assoc sur Twitter : "RT @ISISNuclear: Pakistan's fourth reactor at Khushab may now be emitting steam. See the brief here: US-Embassy-Pakistan-first-to-pass-1-million-Facebook-fans. The US Embassy in Pakistan has just cracked a diplomatic milestone, becoming the first mission in the world to pass 1 million fans on Facebook.
Its rise to top spot has been swift. The Embassy only decided to make social media a priority in late 2011. Following a request to Washington for technical assistance from a social media expert, Tim Receveur was sent to Islamabad, moving the page from 20,000 fans to more than 500,000 when he left in the summer of 2012. Its closest competitors are also all majority Muslim states led by US Embassy Cairo, which has around 800,000 fans, Jakarta (just under 600,000), Dhaka (around 530,000) and the Consulate General in Lahore (383,000).
Pakistan & the army. Politique pakistanaise - Politics in Pakistan. Facebook and revolutions. Chagatai Khan. Musharraf vows never to visit India again. New Delhi says it was ‘not convinced’ by the reason for the visit.
Former president Pervez Musharraf said he does not plan on visiting India ever again, while speaking to The Indian Expressvia phone from Dubai. Musharraf, who was denied a visa by the Indian government, said he does not think it was because New Delhi believes he was the main person behind the Kargil crisis. Musharraf said he had been reassured that he would get the visa, before the denial came. “I have no words to explain my disappointment,” Musharraf said. “My hopes have been washed away by your govt … I think it shows India lacks confidence to face me,” he said. Pakistan floods: Worse to come? Peter McCawley, a specialist on Asian economic issues at the ANU, is completing a book with Sisira Jayasuriya of LaTrobe University about the delivery of assistance following the Asian tsunami.
For those of us who study responses to megadisasters, events in Pakistan are distressing and all too predictable. SpyTalk - The audacity of Hamid Gul. Everything that is terrifying about Washington’s relationship with Pakistan can be summed up in the Wikileaks documents on Hamid Gul, a former chief of the ISI, Islamabad's intelligence service.
The documents portray Gul as the public face of an underground Pakistani military network that appears to be working to destroy the U.S. effort to create a pro-West Afghanistan. A hawk-like man with laser black eyes, Gul's animosity toward the United States is well known. But the audacity of his plotting with the Taliban and even al-Qaeda, as represented in the documents, has the ability to shock.
If the documents are to be believed -- and the uncorroborated U.S. intelligence reports must be read with caution -- Gul has taken a direct hand in quarterbacking attacks against U.S.
'Al-Qaeda members' in Pakistan killed in drone attack. 5 October 2010Last updated at 17:00 US drone attacks have increased in the past month The Taliban have removed the bodies of eight militants killed in a US drone attack in Pakistan, the BBC has been told.
Pakistani security officials say that four of the dead were German nationals. Commentateurs sur le Pakistan. Assassinat de Benazir Bhutto. Et Pâques qui se tend !
Opaque-istan. Lundi dernier, un certain homme des casernes a quitté ses fonctions de président du Pakistan.
Ce n’est pas pour jaboter, mais j’aurais cru qu’en ces temps d’olympisme où le principal est paraît-il de participer que Pervez Musharraf aurait mérité la première page ce jour-là, car il était tout aussi sur le départ que n’importe quel athlète dans les starting blocks. O pakistan 2. Au Pakistan les arrhes d'Harry sont loin d'etre perdues. Sans prophétiser ou m’inspirer de l’imam Ali, je dirai que si les Zardari sont loin d’être perdus au Pakistan, c’est parce qu’Asif va gagner la présidence de la république islamique du Pakistan … sans lézard bien sûr.
Ce n’est pas pour jaboter, mais comme disait un jeune trentenaire qui n’aimait pas rester les bras croisés : «Il faut rendre à ces arrhes, ce qui appartient…» . Mmh, non, il n’a pas dit ça, ceci dit il faut rendre à ces arrhes la monnaie de leur pièce, et arrêter d’en faire tout un cinéma. Le PPP a dû faire des petites concessions pour obtenir l’appui de partis à base régionale et sait qu’il obtiendra aussi le soutien de certains membres de la PML-Q , et comme rien n’est jamais désintéressé en ce bas monde, il faudra bien rendre des comptes même sans passer par le jugement dernier. Bref, ce n’est donc plus un secret pour personne, puisque ses adversaires s’apprêtent déjà à le reconnaître. How Pakistan elects a president (BBC news) The president of Pakistan is elected in a secret ballot by the two chambers of the national parliament (the National Assembly and Senate) and the four provincial assemblies.
In total, 1,170 people are eligible to vote. But not all votes are of equal weight. Each of the four provincial assemblies has a total of 65 votes even though only one of them, Balochistan, actually has 65 deputies. The Godfather as president. Asif Ali Zardari – singled out by fate to become Benazir Bhutto's husband and who, subsequently, did everything he could to prevent himself from being returned to obscurity – is about to become the new President of Pakistan. Oily-mouthed hangers-on, never in short supply in Pakistan, will orchestrate a few celebratory shows and the ready tongues of old cronies (some now appointed ambassadors to western capitals) will speak of how democracy has been enhanced.
Zardari's close circle of friends, with whom he shared the spoils of power the last time around and who have remained loyal, refusing all inducements to turn state's evidence in the corrruption cases against him, will also be delighted. Les talibans recrutent des "enfants kamikazes" - Namaste ! Salam. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy: 'Children are tools to achieve God's will. Taliban running school for suicide bombers - Asia, World - The I.
RI pakistanaises - Pakistan international relations.