Sunday analysis 300907

This week confirmed the U.S. willingness to develop its implantation in nuclear energy business. After Jordan, a U.S. company won a deal to establish the first nuclear power plant in Yemen. So maybe now, every time a country will ask for help in this sector, Washington will be willing to help. Israel is said also to be searching a nuclear agreement with U.S. like the one that was signed with India.

Latest developments in Syria are quite relevant as well. Israel has been revealing that a commando could have been in Syria to steal some uranium in last month air raid target, in order to prove U.S. allies that Syria was really developing nukes, or nuclear knowledge at least. Nevertheless, some others analysis in the region, more specifically in Jordan’s press, acknowledged allegations about Northern Korea presence in Syria, but analyzed this presence through another angle than nuclear cooperation. And I think this is more accurate. To them, North Korea is known for their specialty: middle range and long range missiles. And Syria would have more interest in developing their missiles than their nuclear knowledge, they could add to the missile heads some chemicals or bacteriological devices, which they do already have. And even if what Israel has been hitting was not nukes but missiles, we still can understand why they did it; in this case, their territory would have been threatened as well. And to a certain extent, we can understand as well Bolton’s reaction in the media this week, asking for an attack on Syria, here seen as a proxy for Iran. It would be a good way of using Israel’s security interests for another purpose, attacking the enemy of those days, Iran. And as Bolton is not really known for being discreet, he could have been using this occasion, spreading rumors and allegations to justify a war on Syria, and indirectly on Iran.

Meanwhile, the war of words is spreading in the region, with Gulf countries press and Iran’s press attacking at each others, and rhetoric becoming more and more aggressive between Iran and U.S. Saud al Faysal, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, met with other GCC’s foreign ministers and Rice to speak about Iran, and they reached an outcome according to which a confrontation is coming in the region. So maybe soon, words will not be enough anymore for this confrontation.