IPS correspondents bring you independent perspective on what is happening in Iran, Iraq and across the Middle East.

How the “Gang of Four” Lost Iraq

Khody Akhavi
WASHINGTON – Iraq, a quagmire? “No, that’s someone else’s business,” former U.S. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld brusquely told the White House press corps in the summer of 2003. “I don’t do quagmires.”
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39415

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PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN: Conflict, Shortages Push Food Prices Up

Ashfaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – An acute shortage of food items in Afghanistan and Pakistan have sent prices shooting upwards in both countries.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39408

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U.S. Doors Cracked to Iraqi Refugees

Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON – A full-blown humanitarian disaster looms in Iraq, warns a new report on the refugee crisis there by Amnesty International, and the international community is responding with little more than “global apathy”.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39378

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MIDEAST: Border Impasse Arises Again

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
CAIRO – The border crisis that had appeared to subside last month is back, with an estimated 2,000 Palestinians marooned on Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39375

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Bush Peace Confab a Swan Dive or Belly Flop?

Analysis by Khody Akhavi
WASHINGTON – This past summer, President Bush extended a hand where he never has before, calling for a Middle East conference to find a solution to the long-moribund Palestinian-Israeli peace process. This time, says U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her boss expects results.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39364

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U.S.: Far Right Sells Iraq War to “Values Voters”

Bill Berkowitz
OAKLAND – In the late 1960s and early 70s, then U.S. President Richard Nixon appealed to the country’s “Silent Majority” to oppose growing anti-Vietnam War sentiment in the United States.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39360

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IRAQ: Border Shelling Hits Villagers

Mohammed A. Salih
HAJI OMARAN – Sixty-year-old Khadijah Hama Khan has had to flee home again. Nothing new. “All our life we have been on the run,” she says.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39349

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MIDEAST-US: The Long Propaganda War

Ali Gharib
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration is badly losing the so-called “war of ideas” in the Middle East, a group of foreign policy experts suggested here Wednesday, by failing to grasp that persuasion is just as important as the more heavy-handed tactics of its “war on terror”.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39339

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IRAN: Petrol Rationing – Bumpy Ride

Kimia Sanati
TEHRAN – Two months after the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began rationing petrol to “vaccinate” itself against possible sanctions, critics say the plan has failed to cut down gasoline consumption. Instead it has hurt the agriculture, tourism, transportation and other sectors of the economy.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39334

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AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Ready for Talks – Agenda Unknown

Analysis by Lal Aqa Shirin*
KABUL – Taliban spokesperson, Qari Yusof Ahmadi, has confirmed to the press that the Taliban are ready to directly negotiate with the Afghan government.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39329

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Republicans Block Habeas for Gitmo Detainees

Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON – Despite the support of a solid majority of the U.S. Senate, a measure designed to restore the right of foreign terrorist suspects to challenge their detention in federal court was blocked here Wednesday on a procedural manoeuvre.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39326

For more IPS reporting on the Middle East – www.ipsnews.net/middle.asp

Iraq: Beyond the Green Zone – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iraq/index.asp

Iran: The Parthian Shot – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/iran/index.asp

Holy Land/Unholy War – www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/israel_palestina/index.asp

Afghan Divide – www.ipsnews.net/afghanistan/index.asp

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