Tensions rise between Iran and the west and Nigeria tries to end a costly fuel subsidy
James Blitz, diplomatic editor, Javier Blas, commodities editor, and Roula Khalaf, Middle East editor, join Shawn Donnan to discuss the growing tensions between Iran and the west as the EU prepares an oil embargo.
Also, William Wallis, Africa editor, and Xan Rice, west Africa correspondent, join the podcast to examine the Nigerian government’s climbdown from an attempt to end a costly fuel subsidy
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad’s “Hate America Tour” continues. First stop was the obligatory visit to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the Iranian president’s usual window onto the region. Then Nicaragua, to attend the inauguration of newly re-elected president Daniel Ortega. Today it’s the turn of the Castro brothers in Cuba. Tomorrow it is Ecuador.
Egyptian elections, pressure on Iran and demonstrations in Moscow
This week, Gideon Rachman talks to Roula Khalaf, Middle East editor, about the results of the Egyptian elections, where Islamist parties have won almost two-thirds of the vote and discusses the growing international pressure on Iran with James Blitz, defence and diplomatic editor. Also this week, David Crouch, Europe news editor, talks to Charles Clover, Moscow bureau chief, about the demonstrations in Moscow against Vladimir Putin.
Produced by Amie Tsang and Serena Tarling
In recent years Iran has reacted to most UN inspectors’ reports with relief. Even critical assessments and condemnations of its lack of cooperation were met with delusional statements insisting that so long as the International Atomic Energy Association found no evidence of a weapons dimension to the nuclear programme Tehran was in the clear.
By David Gardner, international affairs editor
The US accusations that Iran is behind a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US – possibly by blowing up a Washington restaurant he frequents – are, frankly, weird.
There is presumably some substance to it; it is the US attorney general and head of the FBI announcing the charges, and the Obama administration is clearly taking the plot very seriously.
But there are obvious objections. Why would Iran so up the ante in its three decades-long cold war with the US, by carrying out an outrage on American soil? While what we are accustomed to thinking of as the Tehran theocracy is no monolith, and a rogue operation is possible, what urgent motive could there be to strike the US and the Saudis now?
Audio Iran, Opec, US
In this week’s podcast: Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad’s role as Iran’s president is looking uncertain; Oil cartel Opec meeting descends into acrimony; And, we end the show in the US with the fiscal debate over raising the country’s debt ceiling. Presented by Gideon Rachman with Clive Crook and David Blair in the studio in London and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran
The “revelations” in the latest download from WikiLeaks strike me as surprisingly dull. You would have thought that, in 250,000 pages of diplomatic cables, there would be insights that were a bit more startling than the suggestions that Angela Merkel is cautious, Silvio Berlusconi is vain, Nicolas Sarkozy is thin-skinned and David Cameron is a bit of a lightweight. Tell me something, I didn’t know.
It may be that, as people trawl through the data, they come across something genuinely interesting. For the moment, however, the only thing that made me raise even half an eyebrow was the suggestion that the Saudis and the other Gulf Arabs are pushing the Americans to bomb Iran. The Israelis have been saying that this is the Saudi position for ages – but, hitherto, I’ve always taken that with a pinch of salt, since it is obviously in Israel’s interests to make that case. So it is a bit surprising to find out that the Saudis really do seem to want a strike on Iran.
Other than that, I’m distinctly underwhelmed by WikiLeaks. But perhaps I’ve missed something fascinating. All comments and pointers welcome.
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In recent months, senior western officials have become discernibly more relaxed about the Iranian nuclear programme. It is not that they suddenly welcome the prospect of an Iranian bomb. It is just that, as one official put it recently: “We’re having quite a lot of success, disrupting what they are doing.”
Somalia, Iran sanctions, China-US
In this week’s podcast: We turn our attention to the violence which erupted at the weekend in Somalia; we look at what impact the US imposed sanctions on Iran are having; we discuss why American business seems to have gone sour on China.
In the studio: Richard McGregor, David Blair and William Wallis
From Dubai: Simeon Kerr
Presented by Gideon Rachman
Produced by LJ Filotrani
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