Monthly Archives: August 2008

GEORGIA: Saakashvili Asked To Step Down

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 (IPS) – A few hours after the 15 member U.N. Security Council discussed a draft resolution aimed to ask Russia to stop using massive force in Georgia Monday evening behind closed doors, Russia said it would stop military action. This came Tuesday, after five days of bombing and destruction of cities and military bases in Georgia and the deaths of more than 2,000 people.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that the military had punished Georgia enough for its attack on South Ossetia. Western-allied Georgia had launched an offensive late Thursday to regain control over the Georgian province with close ties to Russia. Continue reading GEORGIA: Saakashvili Asked To Step Down

Q&A: Hezbollah’s Triumph Is Blowback for Israeli Policy

Interview with journalist and author Deborah Campbell- NEW YORK, Aug 18 (IPS)– Since the Israel-Lebanon 34-day war two years ago, and particularly after the Doha accord in May which restored Hezbollah to the Lebanese government and essentially gave it the veto power it demanded, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been the most popular figure anywhere in the Arab world.

“For decades, the Shia were seen as the shoeshine boys and street-cleaners, and now not only have the Shia had their honour restored but also they are becoming educated and rising in social status,” Deborah Campbell, author of “This Heated Place”, a narrative exploration of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia, told IPS in an interview.

Over the past seven years, she has extensively chronicled the fault lines in the Middle East from Iran to Palestine, immersing herself for extended periods in the societies she writes about. Continue reading Q&A: Hezbollah’s Triumph Is Blowback for Israeli Policy