Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Amaunet]

Coal have you had time to look at this?

Rumsfeld held top-level talks Wednesday in Azerbaijan, part of a Caucasus region which holds strategic importance for the United States but where regional superpowers Russia and Iran are also jealously guarding their own interests.

Secular Azerbaijan is Muslim but some Azeri officials suspect Iran of trying to export its Islamic revolution into Azerbaijan.

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defense secretary, is expected in Tbilisi, Georgia, today.

Analysts say the real decision on Georgia's territorial future will be made in Russia. " Russia will have to decide whether it wants to calm the situation, or whether it wants to use the Muslim enclave of Adzharia as leverage to pressure the new Georgian government," says Ghia Nodia, head of the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development.

What we have is the United States an occupying force in Muslim Afghanistan and Muslim Iraq courting regions in the Caspian area some of which are predominantly Muslim. It is very convenient that at the very time Rumsfeld is whoring around the Caucasus region that we seem to be involved in a crisis with or are at odds with long time ally Israel.

In an opportune stroke of luck a row between Washington and Israel, dreaded enemy of the Muslims, over Middle East peace proposals ratchets up a level on Friday when Secretary of State Colin Powell meets maverick peacemakers condemned by Israel's right-wing government.

It is important to show the Muslims that we do not always ‘spread em’ for Israel. I am not sure I am buying all this. -Am

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Georgia leaders worried by stability threat
By Tom Warner in Tbilisi
Published: December 4 2003 23:51 / Last Updated: December 4 2003 23:51


Georgia's new leaders warned that they were facing a wave of attacks aimed at destabilising the country after a large bomb exploded outside the state television building late on Wednesday night.


There were no casualties, but the fact that it was the third apparently politically-motivated attack in Tbilisi in a week has jangled the nerves of the transition administration.

The bomb exploded while the Russian ambassador was inside the building taking part in a live broadcast and just ahead of a visit by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, who is expected in Tbilisi today.

It comes only two weeks after the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister, who was forced from office after thousands of protesters gathered outside parliament.

On Tuesday a bullet was fired into the apartment of a prominent politician and on Monday there was a smaller explosion near the office of Georgia's Labour party.

Another US delegation in Tbilisi on Thursday announced it had approved an urgent $5m (?4.2m, £2.9m) of supplemental aid to help the new government pay salaries plus $2m to cover winter heating costs and an unspecified amount of food aid.

A US official said the payroll package was partly aimed at ensuring the loyalty of police, whose salaries have often been delayed because of chronic revenue shortfalls.

Georgia's security ministry said on Thursday it had found a cache of arms stolen from an evacuated Russian army base and was investigating whether a man taken into custody in connection with the find was involved in the Wednesday night bombing.

Georgia's security minister, Valeri Khaburdzania, said the cache included 77 bombs made of plastic explosives, equivalent to 200 kg of TNT.

Mikheil Saakashvili, who led the protests to oust Mr Shevardnadze and was expected to win a snap presidential election next month, said the explosion was an attempt to "trigger chaos" and promised that the perpetrators would be found and punished.

But in a country where law enforcement has traditionally been weak and crime syndicates have frequently interfered in politics, there were worries that the country's new leadership could be facing a well-organised campaign that it was ill-equipped to deal with.

Washington's greatest worry is that Russia could use the apparent instability to increase the activity of its military forces based in four different regions of Georgia - the breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the autonomous Adjara region and Javakheti, the largely ethnic Armenian region. Russia's ambassador said after Wednesday night's bombing that it "proved Georgia is unstable".

Georgian officials said Mr Rumsfeld's visit would have great symbolic impact. But discussions on how the US could actively assist Georgia in maintaining security are just beginning, they and US officials said.

Mr Rumsfeld is to meet Georgia's defence minister and visit a team of US special forces involved in a $64m train-and-equip programme, aimed mainly at helping the country deal with international terrorists and Chechen rebels who are sheltering in Georgia's mountains.