Like many others, I’ve always believed that peace in the Greater Middle East begins with resolving the Israel-Palestine issue.  I have changed my mind. I now believe that the key to peace begins with the Iran-US axis, not on the Israel-Palestine dispute.  And agreement with Iran is becomng a real possibility.  Barack Obama’s approach is [...]

In a 2006 Gallup poll, 9% of the Muslim world thought that the Q’ran should be the only source of national law; 46% that it should be a source. Unsurprising? And what if I tell you that this is not true but is the transposition of the results of a poll of Americans, 9% of [...]

The media (in this case one paper) have recently exposed the activities of dozens of members of the UK Parliament in claiming expenses, in some cases fraudulently, and in other cases against the spirit of rules set by themselves. The exposure of the British parliamentary malpractices is an excellent example of what the media can [...]

The postponed 2008 EU-China summit took place in Prague on 20 May. The Beijing 2007 summit was followed by a joint declaration of over 47 paragraphs. The post of 23 December 2007 questions why such a statement has to be issued when very little of its contents were discussed at the summit. However, after the [...]

I am taking 10 day’s break in the Cypriot sun and will not be blogging until my return on 31 May

The post of 15 May on US ambassadorial appointments drew attention to the failure of President Obama to appoint ambassadors in Brussels and Beijing. Today, however, Utah’s Governor Jon Huntsman has been nominated ambassador to China. The appointment is very interesting for a number of reasons, not least of which is that he is a [...]

I have as yet not even heard serious gossip as to who President Obama will nominate as Ambassador to the European Union.  and was wondering whether this was a reflection of the relevance of Europe to the new president.  However, Beijing too is still without a nomination; although possible names have been mentioned.  From 1 July, [...]

The High Level Economic & Trade Dialogue (HED) took place in Brussels on 7-8 May. The atmosphere was very good. But what was achieved? The annual Dialogue was established in November 2007 by Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in order to address the imbalance in trade flows between the EU [...]

Like many others, I’ve always believed that peace in the Greater Middle East begins with resolving the Israel-Palestine issue.  I have changed my mind.   I now believe that the key to peace begins with the Iran-US axis, not on the Israel-Palestine dispute.  And agreement with Iran is becomng a real possibility.  Barack Obama’s approach [...]

We have a surfeit of leaders in the European Union (to borrow a phrase from The Economist’s Charlemagne) but a deficit of leadership. Barack Obama had recently to share the press briefing, following an uninspiring EU-US Summit in Prague on 5 April, with no less than the President of the Commission and the Prime Ministers [...]