Old foes closer than close
Representing the federal Republic of Germany at this week's European Union summit will be -- President Jacques Chirac of France.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, have to fly back early to Berlin for a crucial Bundestag vote on Friday. So Schroeder has asked Chirac to stand in for Germany, casting a proxy vote where required -- but with an open telephone line to Berlin, just in case.
This will be presented -- with justification -- as a striking and unprecedented symbol of Franco-German closeness, and the continuing determination of the Paris-Bonn axis to run EU affairs.
The deal was agreed between the two men on Sunday, but since they also agreed grumpily to go along with America's new U.N. Security Council Resolution on Iraq, the Bush administration may conclude the Paris-Bonn intimacy is not all bad.
Blair had hand in Geneva Accords
Arab sources say the new Geneva Accords between the Palestinians and the Israeli opposition were in fact dreamed up in London, in Downing Street no less.
The three key figures who signed the controversial accord in a Jordan hotel over the weekend -- former Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and former army Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak from Israel, and former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, first convened in Downing Street six months ago. Their meeting, where the Geneva Accord principles were thrashed out, was chaired by Blair's personal envoy to the Middle East, Michael Levy.
For Blair, getting a Middle East peace plan back on track was always an essential parallel track to the Iraq war.
Arafat to name new premier
The word from the West Bank is that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is preparing for his third prime minister in four months, likely diplomat Nabil Shaath.
The current incumbent Ahmed Qureia seems determined to serve only for three more weeks, the life of the current emergency cabinet -- unless Arafat backs down and lets Qureia have the interior minister he wants.
But the reins controlling the security networks will have to be taken from his cold, dead grip. So Arafat's aides are whispering that the old man has already chosen the next premier. Shaath is a veteran diplomatic negotiator, and former teacher at the Wharton Business School. He's a smooth talker with a vast range of Israeli contacts but suffers from the reputation of being Arafat's yes-man. His appointment would do nothing to ease the widening Palestinian impatience with Arafat's corrupt and indecisive leadership.
Ambassador's recall stirs anger
British expatriates in Uzbekistan are accusing Tony Blair's Foreign Office of bowing to U.S. pressure and recalling outspoken British Ambassador Craig Murray.
At 45, one of British diplomacy's youngest and fastest-rising ambassadors, Murray is now undergoing treatment for "depression" in a London hospital.
Murray, who may have taken too seriously Blair's grandiose speeches on human rights, infuriated his Uzbek hosts with a public attack on Uzbekistan's woeful human rights record at a meeting at Freedom House in Tashkent last October.
"We believe there to be between 7 and 10,000 people in detention whom we would consider as political and/or religious prisoners. In many cases, they have been falsely convicted of crimes with which there appears to be no credible evidence they had any connection," Murray said, angering the U.S. Embassy, which sees Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov as a useful ally in the war on terrorism.
The Foreign Office says his illness is a personal matter.
Bush amends with nosh nearness
The White House had to do a little rejiggering to avoid offending New Zealand, a key Iraq ally at the upcoming summit in Bangkok.
In the curious world of White House mathematics, 60 combat engineers in Iraq are worth 10 minutes of presidential time. That's the length of the bilateral session that Bush is scheduled to bestow on New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference next week in Bangkok.
The New Zealanders protested that this amounted to a parsimonious 10 seconds per soldier, which was not much of a thank you for one of the few countries to come forward with any contribution. OK, said the Americans, and agreed that she could also sit next to Bush at a lunch.
