Word: standoffs
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...spot anytime soon. While the U.S. earned the world's antipathy for refusing to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol, China, as a developing nation, had no requirements under that pact - and rarely seemed interested in stepping up to its responsibilities within the U.N. climate-change process. While the standoff between the U.S. and China - over who needed to cut carbon emissions and who needed to pay for it - has been the main reason for the deadlock in global climate negotiations over the past few years, both countries deserved blame for failing to take the lead internationally...
...whereas Obama has largely refrained from attacking the Iranian leadership as he tries to create an atmosphere conducive to resolving the nuclear standoff, Sarkozy pulls no punches. In his Wednesday interview, the French President referred to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "monstrosity" when he asked whether "we can accept a President from a great country - which Iran is - who says Israel should be wiped from...
...Although representatives of six world powers - the U.S. Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China - are to meet with their Iranian counterparts in Turkey on Oct. 1 in pursuit of a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff, there's little optimism over the prospects for a compromise. The U.S. and European powers are demanding that Iran forgo its right to enrich uranium even for energy purposes in exchange for a series of economic and diplomatic rewards, but Tehran has ruled out renouncing that right. And Israel has repeatedly warned that if the diplomatic outreach fails, it is prepared to resort...
...southern tip of Sri Lanka, has in particular riled Indian analysts. With a $1 billion facility also under construction in Gwadar, in Pakistan, China will eventually possess key naval choke points around the subcontinent that could disrupt Indian lines of communication and shipping. Reports of a tense standoff earlier this year between Indian and Chinese warships on anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden - though dismissed by both governments - did little to subdue the sense of distrust brewing between policymakers on both sides...
...President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated this week that Iran has no intention of ending uranium enrichment or of negotiating away its nuclear rights. That doesn't necessarily preclude a diplomatic solution to the standoff, but it underscores the likelihood that the Western powers might have to compromise on their own demands in order to achieve one. In some previous rounds of negotiation, Iran has been more open to discussing strengthening the IAEA monitoring regime and other safeguards against weaponization. Right now, however, it's far from clear that Iran is in an accommodating mood, given its fierce and ongoing domestic power...