Leadership window dressing at G8 and NATO summits
On the return flight to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov filled in the space left by his Prime Minister Dmitri Medvadev’s silence at Camp David Saturday, May 20 with a large dose of skepticism on Iran.
Contradicting President Barack Obama’s statement that diplomacy was preferable to military action, Ryabkov said that the G8 leaders’ readiness to tap into emergency oil stockpiles quickly this summer “is one of the many various signals coming from various sources that the military option (on Iran) is considered as realistic and possible.”
He added: “We are receiving signals, both through public and intelligence channels, that this option is now being reviewed in some capitals as more applicable in this situation,’ said the Russian official.
debkafile: His words to reporters were in fact a Russian signal to Tehran not to trust American diplomacy and concessions because the US and its allies were at the same time preparing for war.
As for the NATO weekend summit in Chicago, the decisions taken under Barack Obama’s leadership appear even less feasible. NATO issued a strong statement of support for the Eurozone. However, none of the leaders present came with remedies for pulling the continent out of its existential economic crisis.
Sunday, May 20, a former Greek finance minister warned that kicking Greece out would “open the gates of hell for Europe,” while British economists warned the UK economy “would never recover” if the euro collapsed.
The decision to withdraw all alliance troops from Afghanistan by the year 2014 is technically unfeasible so long as Pakistan refuses to allow them to cross through its territory and depart from its Indian Ocean and Arab Sea ports.