IISS 2007 Regional Security Summit Press Coverage
- December 12th - - Middle East Times - India's spy agency blunders draw ire
Chaturvedi has been at loggerheads with several members of the Congress-led coalition, including the National Security Adviser MK Narayanan. At a recent conference in Bahrain, Narayanan warned about the intention of trans-national terrorism to hit economic targets in the Middle East and South Asia. But Chaturvedi and Tripathi take a completely opposing view and plan to downgrade their agency's focus on the terrorism threat.
- December 12th - - Guardian - Iraq progress feeds a new nationalism
Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, typifies Baghdad's brash boosters. Speaking on the sidelines of a weekend security conference in Bahrain, he warned Saudi Arabia's princely rulers and other Gulf potentates to watch out. "We are out of the woods ... We are building a new Iraq under a democratic parliamentary system. There is a new sense of belonging in Iraq," he said. "These people should understand the new Iraq is going to lead the region in a new way, with...
- December 11th - - Financial Times - The myth of a grand bargain with Tehran
So what is going on? Fortuitously, I spent the weekend at a conference on security in the Gulf, organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Soldiers, diplomats, spooks and academics had flown into Bahrain from all over the world. But the wisdom of the security crowd failed to come up with a single convincing explanation for recent events. Several theories were doing the rounds. Among the Americans and Europeans, the most popular explanation was that the US intelligence...
- December 11th - - Hindustan Times - Trial and terror
India's stark warning to Western and Gulf Arab countries to brace for a new wave of terrorist attacks on economic targets is not surprising. National Security Advisor (NSA) M.K. Narayanan issued the caution while addressing a security conference in Bahrain recently. This seems to be based on new intelligence about al-Qaeda training schools along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, which are "breeding a new generation of terrorists".
- December 11th - - Washington Post - New U.N. Iran Resolution Considered
Although European officials and Middle East experts agree that the new NIE effectively takes military options off the table, tensions remain high between Washington and Tehran. Iran lashed out at the Bush administration Sunday after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in Bahrain that Iran is trying "everywhere you turn . . . to foment instability and chaos," charging that its "destabilizing" policies are a threat to every Middle East country. Iranian Foreign Ministry...
- December 11th - - Inter Press Service - IRAQ: Iran Eases Support to Radical Group – For Now
Washington has long accused Tehran of training, arming and funding Shia extremist groups in Iraq such as the Mehdi Army militia run by cleric Muqtada al Sadr. U.S. defence secretary Robert Gates repeated claims of Iranian interference on Saturday, and called Tehran's foreign policies a threat to the United States and to the Middle East. But his comments followed those of some U.S. officials who said in recent weeks that Iran appears to have halted the flow of arms across its border with its...
