Today in Foreign Policy

The top story is still Iraq,where political jostling andcarnagecontinues. Iran negotiations approach a critical point this week in Vienna. Some reverberations are still being felt in South Asia in the wake of President Bush’s visit last week.

Iraq

President Jalal Talabani called parliament to convene next Sunday, the first time since the January elections. Ibrahim Jafaari was selected last week to continue as prime minister by his winning Shiite coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, but Kurds and Sunnis are hoping to block him from being appointed to a new term.Peter Pace, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday that the talk of civil war is overblown: Id say theyre going well. I wouldnt put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say theyre going very, very well from everything you look at, whether it be on the political side where theyve had three elections, theyve written their own constitution, theyre forming their government.Mutahana Hareth Al-Dari, spokesman of the (Sunni) Iraqi Association of Muslim Scholars, ominously tells Al Ahram that the time has come for everyone, including Sunnis, to arm themselvesA WaPo report depicts an Iraqi crisis in mental health after years of repression and war. Only 75 psychiatrists remain in Iraq.

Iran

As the IAEA prepares to take up Iran issue this week, there’s more back-and-forth threatening on the UN Security Council vote. Iran says it’ll withold oil and/or enrich uranium on a massive scale. John Bolton warns of painful consequences. Reuters reports that Iranian officials have started hinting that they could leave the NPT altogether. Iran’s top negotiator, Ali Larijani said We would not like to use our oil as a weapon. We would not like to make other countries suffer. But in reality the oil weapon could easily backfire on Iran because it is a net importer of refined oil products, as this WaPo op-ed made clear last month.The London Times reports on rifts in Iran policy within the Bush administration. The Daily Telegraph notes that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has cut down all the trees in a park near a nuclear facility, so that inspectors won’t be able to detect traces of enriched uranium in the leaves and branches, as they had done before.

Asia

Sebastian Mallaby previews Hu Jintao’sstate visit to Washington next month: For a fear monger with a club, next month’s Chinese state visit is a self-teeing golf ball.Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao announced Sunday a major initiative to shrink the rural/urban income divide. Time Asia looks at China’s rural rage in its cover story this week. President Bush just visited Afghanistan and Pakistan, but Musharraf and Karzai continue to slam each other through media interviews. As the Pakistani army took back a town taken over by tribesman in western Pakistan, Musharraf escalated the war of words between Islamabad and Kabul, slamming Afghan president Hamid Karzai for being oblivious to what’s happening in his own country. Musharraf also said that he feared a conspiracy going on against Pakistan in [Karzai’s] ministry of defence and his intelligence set up. and that He better set that right.

Tidbits: France and Libya have agreed on a civilian nuclear deal. Musharraf says his recent trip to China was to keep his strategic options open. Brazil’s Lula talks to the Economist. Washington asks Taipei to un-abolish its unification commission. British scientists say nuclear power is a pretty lousy way out of climate change.