peacefare.net

Things are not going well

Things are not going well in many parts of the world:

1. The Syrian peace talks ended at an impasse over the agenda.  The regime wants to talk terrorism.  The opposition wants to talk transition.  The US is looking for options.
2. Ukraine’s peaceful protests are ending in an explosion of violence.  Russia is financing and encouraging the government.  The US is ineffectually urging restraint.
3. The UN has documented crimes against humanity in North Korea.  No one has the foggiest notion what to do about a regime that has now starved, tortured and murdered its citizens for more than six decades.
4. Egypt is heading back to military rule.  The popular General Sisi is jailing both his Muslim Brotherhood and secularist oppositions.  Terrorism is on an upswing.
5. Libya’s parliament has decided to overstay its mandate.  A new constitution-writing assembly will be chosen in elections tomorrow, but in the meanwhile violence is on the increase and oil production down.
6. Yemen’s president has short-circuited the constitutional process altogether.  He announced a Federal structure that divides the South, whose secessionists reject the idea.
7. Afghanistan’s President Karzai is putting at risk relations with the US, because he is trying despite the odds to negotiate a political settlement with the Taliban.
8. Nationalism is heating up in Japan, South Korea and China.  Decades of peace in Asia are at risk as various countries spar over ocean expanse and the resources thought to lie underneath.
9. Nuclear talks with Iran are facing an uphill slog.  The interim agreement is being implemented, but prospects for a comprehensive and permanent solution are dim.
10. Israel/Palestine negotiations on a framework agreement seem to be going nowhere.  Israel is expanding settlements and increasing its demands.  Palestine is still divided (between Gaza and the West Bank) and unable to deliver even if an agreement can be reached.

For the benefit of my Balkans readers, I’ll add: Read more