Syrian president Bashar al-Assad arrived in Iran to congratulate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his re-election and attempt to win the release of a French woman accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government. The woman, Clotilde Reiss, is a French university teaching assistant accused of trying to destabilize the Islamic regime following the disputed Iranian elections this summer. She was released last week on bail but has been barred from leaving the country. While Assad visits Iran, President Ahmadinejad is expected to present a formal list of his cabinet nominees to the Parliament on Wednesday. Ahmadinejad has said he plans to have at least three women in his 21-person cabinet. They would be the first to serve in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic. However, some of his choices have already run into opposition from members of parliament, with one MP saying a number of Ahmadinejad’s picks have no executive experience.
Georgia officially withdrew from the Commonwealth of Independent States, the alliance of former Soviet countries. In the wake of last summer’s five-day war with Russia, in which Georgia claimed Russia invaded the separatist region of South Ossetia aiming to regain control of Georgia, the parliament in Tbilisi unanimously voted to secede from the alliance. The withdrawal came into effect Tuesday. Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister David Dzhalaganiya said that his government would continue to cooperate with CIS nations through bilateral diplomacy, though Georgia and Russia broke diplomatic relations after last year’s war. Russian MP Konstantin Zatulin said Georgia’s withdrawal “cannot cause any tragedy,” claiming Georgia’s Western-leaning leadership had “prevented the CIS from developing effectively.”
After a major offensive against Shiite rebels that has lasted more than a week, Yemen’s president has vowed to crush the rebellion in the northern province of Saada. Yemen’s armed forces launched an operation against the rebellion nine days ago after off-and-on conflict in the region since 2004. “We will uproot his cancer that exists in the Saada province,” said Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemeni forces are attacking Zaidi rebels, also known as Huthis, in the mountainous region of Saada, and has implicitly accused Iran, which is Shia, of backing them. “The manner in which (Iranian) media, such as Al-Alam and Al-Kawthar televisions and Tehran Radio report the events (in northern Yemen) reveal the party which is backing the acts of sabotage,” Lawzi told reporters. “The designs of these media are those of the state to which they belong,” he said. The government also released a list of 55 rebel leaders wanted on charges of “armed rebellion, abduction and execution of civilians, destruction of property and attacks on government forces.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated Tuesday that the United States is “committed to supporting the government of Colombia in its efforts to provide security to all its citizens” after talks with Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez. The two met in Washington to discuss a recently completed military cooperation deal allowing U.S. troops access to Colombian bases to help combat drug traffickers and rebels. Many South American nations, particularly Venezuela and Ecuador, have raised concerns about increased U.S. military presence in the region, but Clinton emphasized that the agreement would respect Colombian sovereignty and would not affect any other nations. “It does provide the United States access to Colombian bases but command and control, administration and security will be Colombia’s responsibility,” Clinton explained. “This is about the bilateral co-operation between the United States and Colombia regarding security matters within Colombia.”
Even after concluding a four-decade war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Sri Lankan government announced that it plans to maintain its record level of defense spending. The government raised its defense budget to a record $1.6 billion this year, in part to crush the Tamil rebels. Defense secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said that level of spending needs to continue to modernize its military and to make payments on hardware bought on credit. The defense secretary is also warning that attacks against the government could recommence if Tamil rebels living in government-run welfare camps were released. More than 9,000 of the 288,000 internally displaced people in the camps have been linked to the Tamil Tigers. Sri Lanka plans to recruit tens of thousands of new troops to patrol areas previously controlled by rebel forces.