Wikileaks’ Latest Release

By all measures, this is a spectacular story with dramatic worldwide implications. Der Spiegl wrote that this is “nothing short of a political meltdown for US foreign policy”. This is why you shouldn’t be fooled by the fact that some Lebanese and Arab newspapers decided to completely ignore it. They did so because they were embarrassed by some of the items that came out from that leak.

In a nutshell, this is about thousands of classified “cables” between American embassies and the American state department that have been released. Some of this stuff is so sensitive it’s hard for me to imagine anyone telling American diplomats any secrets in the future. To learn more about the story, check out Memeorandum which is doing a great job rounding up the key stories. Also keep your eyes on realclearworld for opinions.

Here are some of the regional highlights I found interesting: I will add other ones as I find them. If you do find interesting stuff about our region that I’m missing, please add them in the comments.

Arab Leader duplicity. The Saudi King wants the US to bomb Iran, but he never said that in public:

[What is striking] is the extent to which those rulers — just as we say about them — say one thing in private to the US and another thing in public to their people. In public, all those rulers say that they are opposed to war or to a military strike on Iran.

More Arab Leader Duplicity: The Yemeni president likes good Whiskey:

The authoritarian ruler of a conservative Muslim country, Mr. Saleh complains of smuggling from nearby Djibouti, but tells General Petraeus that his concerns are drugs and weapons, not whiskey, “provided it’s good whiskey.”

Details about how Israel and America want to subvert Iran:

Dagan urged more attention on regime change, asserting that more could be done to develop the identities of ethnic minorities in Iran. He said he was sure that Israel and the U.S. could “change the ruling regime in Iran, and its attitude towards backing terror regimes.” He added, “We could also get them to delay their nuclear project. Iran could become a normal state.

Iran used the Red Crescent to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah. If that is true, it would really be a shame for a body that lives off its neutrality.

Deadline for a military strike on Iran: December 2010

A 2009 American government cable released Sunday by the WikiLeaks website quotes Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling visiting American officials that a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities was viable until the end of 2010, but after that “any military solution would result in unacceptable collateral damage.

Nothing yet of Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

There’s a lot more coming out in the next few months. If I were to give you one advice: Don’t count on the local papers to tell you the details.