China Confidential
Foreign Reporting and Analysis Since April 2005
Friday, August 01, 2008
Iran Plays for Still More Time
Foreign Confidential....
As predicted by this reporter, Iran will not give a definitive yes-or-no answer to Western demands that it stop enriching uranium.
Instead, Iran will play with words in order to play for still more time to develop nuclear weapons.
On Wednesday evening, just days ahead of a two-week deadline set by the United States, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters: "Iran does not recognize the deadline for the nuclear issue. We answer to the incentives package whenever it fits us."
# posted by Confidential Reporter @ 3:27 AM
China Trying to Clear the Air for Olympics
China has unveiled a new set of emergency measures meant to clear the polluted air in the capital, Beijing, before the Olympic Games start on August 8.
State media said Thursday that if air quality is poor, Chinese authorities will bring a halt to all construction projects and close more than 200 more factories in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei province.
The Xinhua news agency says the emergency measures would also restrict more vehicles from the roads.
At the beginning of July, Beijing banned 300,000 heavy-polluting trucks from the roads. Last week, China banned more than a million cars from the streets of Beijing.
The International Olympic Committee has said it may postpone long-distance endurance events if air pollution is too severe.
# posted by Confidential Reporter @ 3:19 AM
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