World of opinion
On pending U.S.-Saudi arms deal: The Kingdom’s plans to purchase $60 billion of U.S. defense equipment are an important and necessary step in its defense. It can, of course, be expected that the Zionist lobby in Washington will seek to block the deal in Congress, claiming it threatens Israel. But legislators will probably be in little mood to listen, not least because this deal, which is one of the largest-ever arms orders, is likely to guarantee up to 75,000 jobs in recession-hit U.S. factories.
Besides which, Israel simply cannot make a convincing case that by seeing to its own defenses, Saudi Arabia is in some way menacing the Israelis.
At its most fundamental, the Saudi government has a duty to defend the Kingdom and its oil reserves from regional threats, by upgrading its weaponry with the most up-to-date and effective equipment. That is precisely what the new F-15 fighters and advanced helicopters, which make up the bulk of this new armaments purchase, will enable the Saudi armed forces to do.
Given the continuing regional instability, it is a highly prudent and responsible reaction. Not least among the causes of concern to all regional states is the deplorable reality that, to the shame of its politicians and the fury of its electorate, Iraq still lacks a government.
It is Saudi Arabia’s good fortune that even with the substantial investments in the extraordinary new infrastructure development taking place throughout the Kingdom, the government is able to fund this huge order for U.S. weapons over the coming five years. …
So barring a Zionist-inspired upset in Congress, this important deal is going to go through. The reality is that the upgraded weaponry the Kingdom has ordered will give it awesome firepower in defense of its interests.
Arab News, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
On possible resumption of Six-Party Talks:
There are positive signs of a thaw in tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which will be instrumental for gathering international momentum to restart the long-stalled Six-Party Talks.
On Sept. 13, South Korea announced it would offer 5,000 tons of rice and 250,000 bags of cement for flood victims in North Korea.
Seoul’s Red Cross, a main channel for humanitarian cooperation between the two sides, also accepted the Sept. 10 proposal of the North Korea Red Cross to hold talks over reunions for separated families around the Mid-Autumn Festival.
This is the first time the two sides resumed exchanges since a South Korea-led international probe in May claimed that North Korea was responsible for the sinking of a South Korean warship. North Korea has repeatedly denied its role in the sinking.
The aid and the upcoming talks on the reunions of separated families are clearly conciliatory gestures that show the two sides’ willingness to resume contacts.
An easing of tensions on the peninsula is one of the preconditions for the resumption of the Six-Party Talks, a China-initiated mechanism launched in 2003 for the denuclearization of the peninsula. …
China will continue its diplomatic efforts until conditions for restarting the Six-Party Talks ripen.
China Daily, Beijing
On BP’s Gulf oil spill report:
Deep-sea oil drilling is an inherently dangerous business but a necessary one. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April is proof of its hazards.
BP’s internal report into the spill draws attention to the errors and omissions which led to the tragedy, though the investigation on which it was based could not be conclusive. It also highlights the problems for the entire industry in maintaining a culture of safety for its workers, especially now that oil companies devolve so much of their construction work to outside contractors.
BP has got its report in first, before the U.S. government’s own investigation is published. It appears comprehensive insofar as it can be, without being able to test some of the defective parts of the structure. Its catalog of fatal flaws lays some of the blame at its own door, without actually identifying its well design as a source of the problem.
Naturally, that conclusion is vigorously disputed by the contractors on whom a share of the blame does fall in the report, including Transocean and Halliburton. Yet the point remains that BP was ultimately responsible for its contractors as well as its own operations. And there is also the question of whether cost-cutting at BP, not just under the hapless Tony Hayward, but under his predecessor, compromised safety. That needs more soul-searching.
This is not the last word, let alone the last report, on this terrible accident but it sets the scene for those that follow.
Meanwhile, the whole oil industry should be taking its lessons to heart.
London Evening Standard