The New York Times reported this morning that Saudi Arabia and Iran are attempting to broker a peace or cease fire in Lebanon - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/world/middleeast/30lebanon.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast&oref=slogin
It just seems that we are ignoring ANY diplomatic efforts and wasting our effort in that region. I agree that we should include Syria in the discussions.

Iran's been repeatedly begging and letter-writing for direct talks with the US--where are THEY?

first, a nit: different from, NOT different than.

second, i have heard the syrian ambassador speak several times (on CSPAN and on John McLaughlin's interview program, not the screamfest). he seemed pretty reasonable. he was not originally a pol/dip, an engineer IIRC. he spoke simply and to the point and i could understand what he was saying. this is in contrast to al-Faisal, whose flowery speech obfuscates.

I find more ammbassadors missing: The lebanese, the Israeli and what about the palestinian representative to the US?

Gawd!....more talk...more like "plotting"..since the "other" side is missing.

We need a female with a raging case of PMS in charge of the ME quagmire to cut through this whole charade.

Mr. Clemons,

How do you get all of this interesting information? And how do you think about all this stuff?

I'm just a student but your blog and the way you do all of this is an education all by itself.

My friends and I read you frequently, and our teachers use your material to help us see alternatives in the political debates.

Many thanks from your fans. I didn't even know Syria had an Ambassador in Washington. That seems like something Americans ought to know.

LAS

Syria is hosting 1 million Iraqi refugees including many Iraqi Christians. More than enough reason to want a stable Iraq.

James Heaven

Cheney to visit Howard-Downer in two weeks, get ready, we are going to attack Iran. Armageddon? WW3?
When we have such visit, it is to pass confidential information personally to John Howard and Downer ONLY, and not to his staff or any other Australians.

Get ready for mandatory draft; we must ¡®protect¡¯ Israel and Iran/Iraq oil!

Did you forget GULF OF TONKIN? DON¡¯T!!!
We will have another one soon next to Iran, and then we will have an excuse to attack Iran.

¡®THEY¡¯ need another 911 to justify nuking Iran, As one Sydney psychic confidently speculated last week on TV, ¡®THEY¡¯ will nuke one American city this year (¡°dirty bomb¡±), no wonder Cheney is so urgent to visit Canberra this month, get ready!

The Rense website posted an article today revealing that the Russians could read all communications between Israel and the Americans regarding the coming attack on Iran, I hope that George Negus will read this article very carefully. If the Russians knew, the Chinese most likely also¡¦. No wonder the Chinese gave us a ¡®signal¡¯ last week by shooting down one satellite.

Most of the American Navy is now on the Iranian coast.
The Alex Jones website gives details about a new shoulder fired missile the Iranian got from the Russians, it can not be blocked, a single Iranian soldier on the beach can blow up an American aircraft carrier.

Nexus Magazine gives full details about the coming attack on Iran.

And finally, a paragraph from an article today on the Rense website:

Armageddon Imminent By Nuking Iran?
Only immediate protest by members of Congress
and all concerned Americans may prevent it

¡°¡¦Cleverly manipulating those self-deceived "Christian"-Zionist leaders, amoral Dick Cheney, the Neo-(phoney)"conservatives" and influential Jewish-Zionists here in America and in Israel (whose military reportedly has SIX HUNDRED thermonuclear and atomic warheads), do not believe in the "Book of Revelation." They have a different future in mind... They want Iran (as well as Syria) physically smashed and dismembered - to establish eventual Zionist Israeli domination of (whatever will be left of) the Middle East¡¦..¡±

¡¦.my prediction:
Israel, Iran, Europe and most of the Middle East will be wiped off the map soon, most likely much of the USA too. If WW3 breaks, two thirds of the earths human population will be gone.

GOD BLESS AUSTRALIA
GOD BLESS JOHN HOWARD

You know, I was just thinking that you could make this picture 5 to 10% more effective if we photoshopped some horns on his forehead, and some great big fangs, possibly dripping blood, from his mouth. And perhaps making the eyes glow yellow.

Nah, on second thought, with those bloodshot bulging eyes, satannically arched eyebrows, huge protruding wrinkled forehead, semitic nose, 5' O'Clock shadow and recessed chin, its just about perfect. Adding horns or fangs would be overkill.
My compliments to the photographer.

What is more interesting is the fact that Prince Turki appears to have come back to Washington and raises the question about the real significance of last month's Washington Note "scoop" about Al Jubeir taking his place. What's up Doc? Bandar and Turki bury the sword? Seeing eye to eye. Ah palace politics...

Seems to me this was a meeting of the Sunni Muslim ambassadors and therefore Syria should have been included. The Shia ambassadors from Iran, Bahrain and Iraq were not there.
In December the Iraq study group cautioned that if the sectarian strife spreads in Iraq neighbouring countries face instability as the two Muslim sects vie to protect their spheres of influence. "Ambassadors from neighbouring countries told us that they fear the distinct possibility of Sunni-Shia clashes across the Islamic world," the study group wrote.
Even the Pentagon's incoming chief Robert Gates is waring of the risk of "regional conflagration".
The Sunni-Shia split is also behind the worsening situation in both Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories.