Tidying Up Time.

While I was tearing about on Friday (22/3/13) two rather important things happened.

Firstly the Cypriot Parliament agreed a new plan to secure a European Union (EU) bailout. Basically rather then seizing 10% of all savings accounts in the country they will now seize 20% of all savings accounts worth more then E100,000. This is a transparent attempt to keep Cypriot voters happy while piling extra pressure on Russia over Syria. Cyprus will now have to go back to the EU to see if they approve of the plan. If I was making that decision I would be very tempted to refuse Cyprus a bailout. After all if Cyprus are still desperate to do the UK's bidding against the EU perhaps they should enquire as to how large a bailout the UK is offering. But then I have always been something of a hot-head.

Also on Friday apparently US President Barack Obama forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to telephone the Turkish Prime Minister Recap Tayyip Erdogan to apologise for the 2010 Israeli commando raid on the Mavi Marmara in which 8 Turkish nationals were killed. Coming just as Obama was leaving Israel for Jordan the US were keen for this to be seen as Obama getting tough with Netanyahu. However the call has a more worrying subtext. It appeared to be the US admitting to Israel that they have made such a mess in Syria the US is no longer able to guarantee Israel's safety so Israel had better improve relations with Turkey. Apart from trying to win friends in Jordan the news that the US will increase funding for Syrian refugees in Jordan seemed to be an attempt to reassure Israel that while the US is unable to provide diplomatic support they will continue to pay for everything.

Personally I think Obama was wasting his time on the Mavi Marmara issue. After all while Erdogan has to demand that Israel apologises and Netanyahu equally has to refuse to apologise I think both nations have really moved past the incident. That's because all involved understand that Israel would have been well within it's rights to sink the Mavi Marmara killing all on board. So while it was hardly the Israeli military's finest hour even with 9 dead the commando raid was still the least worst option.

Finally on Friday the rebel alliance (Seleka) formally launched a large military offensive against the government in the Central African Republic (CAR). Attacking on two fronts by Saturday they had arrived in the capital Bagui. According to some reports today Seleka have succeeded in capturing the Presidential palace although the status of the President Francois Bozize remains unknown. This massively increases the pressure on Chad who are currently trying to keep the peace in CAR while fighting the Islamists in Mali. It also increases the pressure on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). That's because if anything the surrender of Bosco Ntangda has only complicated the conflict between the DRC government and the March 23rd (M23) rebels while the links between M23 and Seleka means that the DRC could soon find itself under attack from both Rwanda in the east and CAR in the north.

Also I should point out I've not yet watched today's Formula 1 Grand Prix from Malaysia. However I gather the big story was Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel ignoring team orders to over take his team mate Mark Webber in order to win. So a bit argument about people trying to jump their place in the queue then.  


(Originally Posted) 12:25 on 24/3/13.