Arab Spring Winter
• Israeli intelligence says media reports of a major Syrian chemical weapons attack are credible. Details at Haaretz.
• Russia, China torpedo strong UN statement on Syria. Does this really surprise you?
• Turkey’s new foreign policy went from “zero problems with neighbors” to “precious loneliness.”
- Support for Muslim Brotherhood Isolates Turkey
- ‘Precious loneliness’ of Turkey or sublimation of a failure
The precious loneliness is extending to Prime Minister Erdogan as the AKP party splits over Gezi Park fallout.
What does all this mean for Israel? Hard to say, but Bloomberg News is already talking about implications and opportunities for the energy sector.
• For more commentary/analysis, see Amir Mizroch, Avi Issacharoff, Max Boot, Robert Satloff, Time, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Wall St. Journal, Robert Reilly, the Wall St. Journal (via Google News),
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• A Thai court convicted two Iranians for a botched suicide bombing targeting Israeli diplomats in Bangkok. The attack, along with car bombings at the Israeli embassies in New Delhi (injuring one) and Tbilisi, Georgia (foiled) in a two-day period, all had Iranian fingerprints.
• Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency, is due to leave his post. Read the tea leaves at Reuters.
(Image of Turkish flag via Flickr/KLMircea)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.