Transcripts For WHUT Worldfocus 20091121 : vimarsana.com

tonight on worldfocus world powers meet in brussels to put new pressure on iran to come clean about its nuclear program. will the iranians budge? this day, marking children s rights around the world. we will take you to bangladesh where there s a growing movement to protect young girls from becoming child brides. and from costa rica, the sea turtles fight for survival. can these boys help save these creatures? from the world s leading reporters and analysts, here s what s happening from around the world. this is worldfocus. major support has been provided by rosalind p. walter and the peter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility and addressing key economic challenges facing america s future. and additional funding is provided by the followg supporters hello and good evening. i m daljit dhaliwal. in the international chess game of iran s nuclear program, it was six world powers that made a move today. delegates from the united states, britain, france, germany, russia and china met in brussels, belgium, and turned up the heat on iran. they didn t discuss the sanctions, not yet anyway, but that possibility served as a backdrop for today s meetings. the issue is iran s nuclear ambitions. tehran says its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes only, but other countries worry it gives iran the capability of making an atomic bomb. despite some optimism in recent weeks, iran now seems to be rejecting a plan to have its uranium enriched outside the country. the delegates in brussels urged iran to reconsider, and hence the talk by president obama and others this week about the possibility of new sanctions. what kind of measures and when, that is our lead focus tonight. weeks after iran disclosed the existence of this once-secret nuclear facility near the holy city of qom, in brussels today representatives of the world s major powers pressed iran to accept a plan to curb its nuclear ambitions. the six countries released this statement we urge iran to reconsider the opportunity offered by this agreement and to engage with us in dialogue and negotiations. on wednesday, iran appeared to reject an international proposal that would require it to ship uranium overseas. the idea is to ensure that iran is using uranium for peaceful purposes. yesterday, president obama issued this warning we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences that the dual track approach requires iran to get a clear message, that when it fails to take advantage of these opportunities, that in fact, it is not making itself more secure, it s making itself less secure. unsaid was the threat of sanctions. a step that many believe would be ineffective without the support of russia and china. william dowell covers the nuclear talks for global post from geneva, switzerld. it really is brinksmanship. its military is very, very difficult. the sanctions, once you use that, what do you do afterwards? the sanctions actually may play into the hands of the hardliners in iran. speaking in berlin today, the head of the international atomic energy agency indicated that an agreement could still be reached. i would hope definitely that we will get an agreement before the end of the year. and that is what i think a number of partners have indicated, that, you know, they would like to give iran an opportunity to you know, to engage until the end of the year. i would hate to see that we are moving back to sanctions. for more on iran and the possibility of new sanctions, re joined by trita parsi, a specialist on u.s./iran relations and a co-founder of the national iranian/american council, a nonpartisan organization. trita, thank you very much for joining us from washington. thank you for having me. so after all of this time, where exactly does the west stand in talks with iran over its nuclear program? it s at a very odd impasse. because we had very constructive negotiations in geneva about four weeks ago. the u.s. was the working very, very closely with its partners, a unified security council, but now it seems like when the deal went back to tehran, even though they had agreed to it in principle, the iranians now are fighting amongst each other internally. it seems like the entire diplomatic strategy of the obama administration has been taken hostage by internal turmoil and political infighting in iran. well, nevertheless, this issue has been around for a long time. how do western negotiators know that this is not being used as an excuse? well, first, i think the deal actually was quite positive for the iranians as well. part of the reason why it was a good deal is because everyone could essentially say that this was a win/win. but when they went back to tehran, the dynamics of the internal politics came into play. you could see that because the fraud elections in iran this past summer is not over. the opposition is still challenging president ahmadinejad. they do not view him as a legitimate president of iran. that fight is not over. it s continuing. the nuclear deal is becoming a target of that infighting. explain what you mean by when you say it was a win/win because hasn t iran to some extent already done away withhe idea of sending its enriched uranium overseas? well, i think part of the reason why the iranians view it as a success is because they had negotiations with the united states without preconditions, and there wasn t a demand for a suspension of enrichment. and they probably read the agreement to be an implicit acceptance of iran enriching on its own soil, it s just a higher level enrichment that would take place on foreign soil. in that sense, that was something the irians had been looking for. so then, is there any real reason to believe that iran will ever accept western demands to curb its nuclear development, its nuclear ambitions? i think that s a good question right now. because if the problem right now is not with the deal itself but with internal fighting in iran in which the iranian leaders are at each otr s throats, to the extent that they re not capable of making decisions of this magnitude, then that puts the united states in a very tough position. because it means there s little they can do to affect the equation because the equation is not inside of the negotiations, it s inside of iran. very briefly, president obama came to office pledging to talk to our foes. is there any evidence that his approach is paying off with iran? well, it s too early to tell. remember, when it comes to iran, there s only been active negotiations for eight weeks. you can t make a judgment after eight short weeks. you certainly can t say that diplomacy has been exhausted in such a short time period. we ve had sanctions on iran, for instance, for more than 20 years and we re still inclined to pursue sanctions. after 20 years those sanctions have not produced anything in particular. so we need to give diplomacy a little bit more time to be able to make an assessment as to whether it s produced any results or not. trita parsi, thank you very much for your insights. thank you. we would also like to get your feedback on this story. so our question tonight, do you think iran can ever be trusted to come clean about its nuclear program? drop us a line by going to the how you see it page of our website, and you can find that at worldfocus.org. in afghanistan today a suicide bomber killed at least 16 people and wounded two doze more. it happened in farah province in western afghanistan, where coalition forces have been conducting operations against insurgents. in the attack, a bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up in a crowded square. two children and a police officer were among the dead. and across the border in northwest pakistan, officials say a suspected american missile strike killed at least eight militants today. intelligence officials said that a u.s. unmanned drone fired two missiles at a compound near a town in north waziristan used by suspected taliban militants. it was the second attack in the area this week against insurgents who have fled from an army offensive in neighboring south waziristan. there has been more than 40 missile strikes against insurgent targets over the past year in pakistan. in india today, political rivalries turned violent and the target was a local television station in mumbai. this is how it looked on closed circuit television as attackers ransacked the station and beat employees with sticks. the station broadcasts in the local marathi language, rather than hindi, which is the national language. a hindu nationalist party said its supporters were behind the attack because the station was critical of its leader. seven people were arrested. and a quick follow-up to that huge world cup dispute we told you about yesterday. soccer s governing body today rejected ireland s appeal for a rematch against france. france captured a world cup spot after one of its players illegally touched the ball with his hand, leading within seconds to the winning goal. this is the 20th anniversary of the united nations treaty guaranteeing children s rights. and there is still a long way to go for many children around the world. unicef says that 2.5 billion children lack access to adequate sanitation facilities. 1 billion lack access to quality health care, shelter or education. and 115 million are child laborers. while that united nations treaty prohibits the sale of children, child prostitution and pornography, child marriage is still a widespread problem as we hear from nicolas haque of al jazeera english, reporting from bangladesh. reporter: 11-year-old shirin aktar was shocked when her parents asked her to marry a 32-year-old man. with the help of her friend tanya and using techniques developed by plan international, an ngo that works to promote children s rights, she produced a birth certificate, proving that she was under the legal age of marriage of 18. the wedding was called off. my parents owed some money, so people in the neighborhood were telling them that i should get married. a wedding date was set. but thanks to my friends, we convinced them that it was not okay for me to marry a 32-year-old man. in the end, my mother didn t want me to go through with it. reporter: shirin was lucky as child marriage is extremely common in in bangladesh. according to u.n. reports, 62% of all women below the age of 25 were married before their 18th birthday. very, very, very few parents want to see their daughters married prematurely. but sometimes because of poverty, they have no choice. reporter: with the help of plan, shirin and tanya escaped premature marriages and are now in school. the two girls are now passing on the benefits of birth registration to others. in their spare time they help the ngo to register children with the government in order to defend the rights of minors. most of the children they encounter in the streets of dhaka cannot read and write. nor are they aware that they have rights. 52% of the population is under the age of 18. the vast majority of them are birth registration here is to ensure that these children are protected and that their rights are insured. so far, 6 million of them have been registered. 64% of births are not registered in bangladesh, and that figure rises in the poorer communities. street children, a quarter of a million in dhaka alone, are largely unaccounted for. many of the children don t have an address or parents. by taking their personal history, we are able to give them a birth certificate and keep in touch with them to make sure that they are treated appropriately. reporter: bangladesh is a signatory to the u.nconvention for children s rights. the more children registered by girls like shirin and tanya, the greater the pressure will be on the government to keep its promises to bangladeshi children, bringing them one step closer to a real childhood. nicolas haque, al jazeera, dhaka. one more story that caught our attention today. we have told you about how cuban blogger yoani sanchez has been harassed for her criticism of the cuban government. well, this week she scored somethg of an exclusive by getting president obama to respond to seven questions about u.s./cuban relations. not only that, but the president praised sanchez, saying, the internet has provided you and our courageous cuban bloggers with an outlet to express yourselves so freely. time now for our review of the week s top stories. and tonight we re going to focus on president obama s trip to asia. as the washington post put it, he found himself in a rising china and in a willful japan where a new prime minister is asserting himself in a way that the united states has not seen before. we invited two of our regulars for a conversation about all of this. they are gidian rose, managing editor of foreign affairs magazine and james rubin, an adjunct professor at columbia university school of international and public affairs and a former assistant secretary of state in the clinton administration. they began on the question of whether anything substantive came out of the president s stop in china. i think what came out of the trip by and large was that the chinese and the americans agreed that these global issues, climate change, nonproliferation, economic recovery, are going to be the centerpiece of u.s./china relations rather than the kind of issues that used to be difficult between america and china, human rights, taiwan, other sort of tensions between the two sides. now it s let s talk about these global issues and balance china s interests with america s interests and see whether we can come to agreement on either how to deal with economic recovery, either how to deal with china s role both as an emitter of greenhouse gases but also claiming they want to be a developing country rather than a developed country. and i think that s going to be the focus of u.s./china relations. yeah, i think this trip was really less about issues although maybe that s what made the media stories, than about relationship maintenance. even long-established couples need a date night now and again. i think that getting to know the chinese leaders, meeting them directly, reassuring them and other players in asia of american seriousness, commitment and concern, exchanging stuff back and forth, that was the more significant and lasting contribution here rather than any kind of major progress on any specific issue which didn t, in fact, occur. we have to step back and take a look at this in perspective. china was a horrible major threat to the united states and the world for many years. then there was a breaking and opening of relations, and they became an ally strategically against the soviet union in the later stages of the cold war, but their regime was quite difficult and at odds. they ve now liberalized and increasingly liberalized their economy and gradually somewhat their political system and domestic politics. they re now one of the key players in the world. this trip, their significance they can t be lectured to any more. they re increasingly both cooperative players with the united states in global management and leadership but also strategic competitor of a certain kind. i think the frustration for american officials and americans in general is that things go very slowly with china. if you look back at take one global issue nonproliferation, it s apparent that in the 80s, china was a terrible proliferator. they delivered actual nuclear weapons to pakistan. they were selling missiles to syria and iran. but gradually over these ten-year periods, they ve improved their policies, not to a point where they would be part of the western consensus on proliferation, but to a place that you can see that all this slow, grueling diplomacy has an effect, but the key point is that it s slow. so for americans who want to see an instant result for the west that sees these things in very dealing with the chinese is extremely frustrating because they are opaque, let s face it, in the way they answer questions at these public events. there s a certain riddle quality to many of their statements. but they do make slow progress on the things we care about. i agree entirely. i think that the media sets expectations so high and everyone expects that there will be dramatic change or dramatic progress. that rarely happens. frankly, it doesn t have to happen all the time. not much was accomplished but not much needed to be accomplished in the sense of what was really important was the united states and china have to have a constructive relationship going forward to handle everything from economics to strategic issues to environmental issues, and this trip helped accomplish that. i think the american tone towards the world of the last couple of administrations has been really hectoring and somewhat bullying, and to have a little bit of pragmatic concern for what other people think and, in effect, treating them more as peers rather than as subordinates who need to be told what to do, it doesn t sit well with american audiences, but it s not a bad way to approach the world. japan reassurance is pretty much job one of every new administration. the japanese will always feel that somehow, despite our alliance, despite our defense treaty, despite our close relationship, that somehow they are not given their proper due. sort of like europe. and in a way, this is something that can be solved through these kinds of trips, by saying the kinds of things president obama said, by going there first. this becomes a talking point for the rest of the at least the first term of the administration. so you can check that box. on the other hand, there s clearly some new leadership in japan that has never really we ve never really faced before, where there s a reformist japanese prime minister who has some new ideas about the relative importance of american troops in japan and where they ll be based and how the decisions will be made. i don t think it s a zero sum game. i know that a lot of players think of it that way, but i really don t think it is. frankly, as with europe, japan is in some respects a great success story of past american foreign policy even more so than it is a key part of future american policy. we pacified the region. our troops are still there. we need to keep it going safe and calm and encourage them to play a major role in the world, but china is the next story. and new relations with the emerging powers of asia are part and parcel. so the trick is how do you keep your old relationships up and running and keep all those things smoothly functioning while at the same time reaching out and dealing with the new challenges? i think on that front, the administration did a pretty good job. i think the japanese are satisfied, the chinese are satisfied in terms of the relative importance. and now the rest of the administration s asia policy is going to be about issues. it s going to be about burma, it s going to be about north korea, it s going to be about iran, it s going to be about global warming, it s going to be about economics. i think the contours have been set successfully. i d reverse that priority list and put economics first, second and maybe even third in the sense that burma and even global warming and iran, these are less important than the establishing of not just improved trade relations whin the region and across the regions and more globally, but also keeping the rise of china within bounds so that china emerges into a well-established international community and minimizing the disruptive consequences of that. finally tonight, we take you to central ameri for a hopeful story about efforts to save an endangered species. pacific sea turtles are threatened in more than one way by humans. elisabeth rosenthal of the new york times shows us what s at stake. reporter: since the age of the dinosaurs, sea turtles have inhabited the world s oceans. but in recent years, commercial fishing, poaching and warmer seas have placed them on the brink of extinction. more than ever, the survival of baby turtles is critical. but when females emerge from the ocean to nest on beaches, like this one in playa junqillal in costa rica, their century old breeding rituals fail in a quickly changing world. besides a curious dog or hungry poacher, turtle nests are extremely vulnerable to the effects of global warming. rising sea levels have eaten away at nesting beaches and turtle eggs are sensitive to minute changes in sand temperature. really, global warming can have an amazing impact on these afilmals. as reptiles they fully depend on the sun for the incubation of the egg in the sand. if the temperature rises above 34, all the eggs boil essentially and the embryos die. reporter: 34 degrees celsius, roughly 93 degrees fahrenheit is a common sand temperature here. buin junquillal, a makeshift solution may be giving these slow-to-adapt creatures a last chance at survival. one night, under the cover of darkness, this endangered olive ridley turtle lays 100 eggs in e sand. she buries them and leaves the eggs to hatch on their own. soon after the turtle leaves, a local youth in junquillal digs up the eggs. turtle eggs were once a popular delicacy in this small coastal town, but this boy is no poacher, at least not any more. he is a paid employee of a group of young conservationists called the baula boys. baula is the spanish word for leatherback turtle. a marine biologist started this innovative program in 2005. his goal is to save the turtles from extinction one nest at a time. every night, the baula boys patrol the beaches to make sure that poachers don t illegally steal eggs. and when they do find a turtle nest, they move the eggs to a hatchery. the fenced-in and shaded hatcheries will protect them during the vulnerable incubation period. through their small efforts, the baula boys are doing their part to help the sea turtle. while the sun sets, they make their way down to the beach to release the baby turtles they have nurtured. against all the odds, the turtles make their way into the sea. and that s it for this week. there s a lot more news and perspective on our website at worldfocus.org. i m daljit dhaliwal in new york. thank you so much for joining us. have a great weekend, and we ll see you back here on monday. until then, good-bye. captions by vitac www.vitac.com major support for worldfocus has been provided by rosalind p. walter and the peter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility and addressing key economic challenges facing america s future. and additional funding is provided by the following supporters