Top of the Agenda: Paris Hosts Friends of Syria

Top of the Agenda: Paris Hosts Friends of Syria

Fifty-seven representatives of the so-called Friends of Syria--countries that have imposed sanctions on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad--met in Paris yesterday to discuss ways to maintain financial pressure on the embattled Syrian regime (NYT). The conference comes amid a fragile UN-Arab League-engineered cease-fire between the Syrian military and opposition forces, which both sides claim has been undermined by the other. At the same time, a small team of UN observers is in Syria "setting up operating headquarters" before a total of 250 peacekeepers are deployed to monitor the cease-fire.

Analysis

"And while Syrian troops did stop shooting, they did not pull heavy armor out of cities, as the Annan plan demands. But some whisper that the point of the plan is simply to make it more difficult, once it inevitably fails, for Mr Assad's friends to protect him," notes the Economist.

"What's often lost in the account of crisis given by po-faced humanitarians, with their pictures of dead bodies and tales of indecipherable evil, is how inspiring the revolt originally was for many ordinary Syrians. Virtually all the people I know in Syria have changed their opinions radically in the last year, and their demands have grown bolder and more ambitious," writes James Harkin for ForeignPolicy.com.

"As the violence endures, more men are heading back to Syria to smuggle in medicine and arms, and join the Free Syrian Army. This push to join the rebel cause has created an almost frantic need to get married and bear children among young men who fear they may die in combat," write Sophia Jones and Erin Banco for the Daily Beast.

PACIFIC RIM

Suu Kyi to Travel to Europe

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader and recently elected parliamentary member, Aung San Suu Kyi, is set to travel to the UK and Norway in June (al-Jazeera). The trip will be her first outside Myanmar in twenty-four years.

Myanmar's rapid reforms still must be viewed as small steps in a country where military forces retain considerable power, writes CFR's Joshua Kurlantzick in this Expert Brief.

NORTH KOREA: The Foreign Ministry yesterday rejected a recent agreement with the United States (NYT) to suspend its nuclear weapons program in exchange for food aid. The United States had already suspended the aid following a failed North Korean rocket launch last week, which was condemned by the international community.

SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA

NATO Ministers Meet over Afghan Funding

The foreign and defense ministers of NATO member states are meeting in Brussels today to discuss a strategy for funding Afghan security forces after NATO troops fully withdraw (BBC) from Afghanistan at the end of 2014. Washington is expected to provide around $3 billion per year, while calling on other countries to contribute up to $1 billion.

This CFR Timeline examines the events that precipitated the U.S. war in Afghanistan as well as the history of the war.

MALDIVES: Former president Mohamed Nasheed, who was ousted by police and military officers in February, called on the international community to support early elections (Guardian), during a visit to Delhi. Both the United States and India have recognized the new administration of Nasheed's successor, President Mohammed Waheed Hassan, while calling for a government of national unity.

MIDDLE EAST

Egypt Panel Upholds Ban on Three Candidates

Egypt's presidential election commission upheld the disqualification of ten presidential candidates (LAT) yesterday, including Omar Suleiman, the spy chief under former president Hosni Mubarak; Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, an ultraconservative Islamist; and Khairat al-Shater of the Muslim Brotherhood.

AFRICA

Sudan, South Sudan in Border Clashes

Sudanese and South Sudanese officials accused each other of escalating an armed conflict along the contested oil-rich border area that divides the countries, while the UN Security Council discussed imposing sanctions (Reuters) to alleviate the mounting crisis.

MALI: Interim President Dioncounda Traore--put in power last week by military coup leaders who overthrew the democratically elected government last month--appointed Cheick Modibo Diarra as Mali's new prime minister (Telegraph). Diarra, a former astrophysicist, was Microsoft's chairman for Africa.

EUROPE

IMF Warns on Euro Crisis

The European economy could suffer an extended downturn if leaders fail to take stronger action to combat the eurozone debt crisis and facilitate growth (WSJ), the International Monetary Fund said yesterday. The world's finance ministers and central bankers are set to convene in Washington this week for semi-annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

SPAIN: The Spanish government and those of other eurozone states are calling for the temporary European Financial Stability Facility to be amended so it can provide direct loans to ailing financial institutions (DerSpiegel), rather than just to governments. Germany has opposed such a move.

The eurozone, once seen as a crowning achievement in the decades-long path of European integration, is buffeted by a sovereign debt crisis of nations whose membership in the currency union has been poorly policed, explains this CFR Backgrounder.

AMERICAS

Secret Service Prostitution Scandal Widens

U.S. investigators indicated that up to twenty-one alleged prostitutes (WaPo) may have been brought by U.S. Secret Service and military personnel back to a hotel in Cartagena, Colombia, ahead of President Barack Obama's visit for an economic summit last week. Eleven Secret Service agents and ten military officers are suspected of misconduct.

ARGENTINA: The Spanish government threatened retaliation (BBC) against Argentina after President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner moved to nationalize Argentina's largest oil firm, YPF, which is majority-owned by a Spanish company. At the same time, credit rating agency Moody's downgraded YPF's debt.

CAMPAIGN 2012

Obama Takes On Oil Speculators

President Barack Obama proposed new measures Tuesday to reduce oil market manipulation, with hopes that stiffer penalties will stave off false price fluctuations. The New York Times notes that the "nationwide average for gas prices is hovering near $4 per gallon--not far from the $5 per gallon that Mr. Obama's political advisers believe could cripple his re-election chances."

GOP front-runner Mitt Romney defended speculators (CNBC), and blamed the Obama administration for cutting back on licenses for drilling for oil on federal lands, offshore drilling, and fracking, as factors in driving up prices.

Economic confidence inched back up last week, according to Gallup, just two points below its four-year high three weeks ago. But confidence is heavily split along party lines, with 63 percent of Democrats saying the economy is getting better, compared with 24 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of independents saying the same thing.

Editor's Note: For more information on the presidential election and foreign policy check out CFR's campaign blog, The Candidates and the World.

France follows Britain and US in shutting Yemen embassy

France has become the third Western nation to shut its Yemen embassy, after threats from an al-Qaeda offshoot, the foreign ministry in Paris announced.

The US and UK missions, which closed on Sunday, remain shut.

Reports that the closures were prompted by Yemeni security forces losing track of six trucks full of arms were denied by British officials.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula last week said it was behind an alleged plot to bomb a US airliner.

It urged attacks on "crusaders" in embassies.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Yemen was a threat both regionally and globally.

Threats to US interests in Yemen pre-dated the Christmas holiday period, and the embassy would be re-opened only when circumstances permitted, she said in Washington.

From Monday all travellers flying to America are being subjected to new security measures, introduced by the US government.

Airport staff will now carry out extra screening of people from 14 countries, including those the US considers to be state-sponsors of terrorism - Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria.

Yemen and Nigeria - through which the alleged bomber travelled - also face the new restrictions.

Passengers flying from other countries will be checked at random.

On Monday in Paris, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters their Yemen ambassador had decided the previous day to suspend public access to the embassy.

French citizens in the country had been warned to be vigilant and limit their movements, he added.

The US was the first to announce the closure of its embassy on Sunday, citing "ongoing threats" by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and the UK followed suit.

A US diplomat told the Reuters news agency on Monday: "The embassy is still closed again today... We are continuing to make the security review."

The Japanese foreign ministry said consular services had been suspended at its embassy in Yemen but other business was continuing, AFP news agency reported.

The German foreign ministry confirmed security had been tightened at its mission but that the embassy remained open

Spain restricted public access to its embassy.

The Yemeni authorities have tightened security measures at Sanaa's airport, as well as around several other embassies.

Yemeni security forces, meanwhile, shot dead two militants north of the capital, Sanaa, said officials.

The US embassy was the target of an attack in September 2008 in which 19 people died, including a young American woman. The attack was blamed on AQAP.

On Sunday, the US deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counter-terrorism said there were "indications that al-Qaeda is planning to carry out an attack against a target inside of Sanaa, possibly our embassy".

John Brennan told ABC the group had "several hundred members" in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and was posing an increasing threat.

Last week, AQAP urged Muslims to help in "killing every crusader who works at their embassies or other places".

The group also said it was behind an alleged failed attempt to destroy an Amsterdam-Detroit flight with nearly 300 people aboard on Christmas Day.

Mr Brennan told CNN there were "indications" a radical US cleric of Yemeni origin had links both to the Nigerian charged with the bomb plot, and the man accused of November's shootings at a Texas military base.

He said the preacher, Anwar al-Awlaki, had had contact with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, while he was allegedly being trained by AQAP operatives last year.

It was clear, he said, that Mr Awlaki had also been in touch with Nidal Malik Hasan, the US Army major charged with shooting dead 13 people at Fort Hood.

On Saturday, the head of US Central Command, Gen David Petraeus, visited Yemen's President Ali Abdallah Saleh to pledge support for its fight with al-Qaeda, after Washington doubled its counter-terrorism aid.

Yemeni officials last week said they had sent more troops to hunt down al-Qaeda militants in the provinces of Abyan, Baida and Shabwa.

Correspondents say the security situation in Yemen is complicated by an abundance of firearms, an insurgency in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.

But the prospects of re-asserting central government authority over the lawless areas where al-Qaeda is based look, in the opinion of some analysts, remote - even with beefed-up American support.