Craig Murray writes.

I am delighted today that Teresa May has called in the McKinnon case for consideration - something New Labour refused to do. It does appear that Conservatives and Lib Dems are going to keep their promises and stop the McKinnon extradition.

This is great news. Even better news is that page 14 of the full coalition agreement promises to change Blair's vassal state extradition treaty in the UK.

Craig Murray writes.

We have the first fake terror scare since the election - and Theresa May has jumped in on the authoritarian side.

From Stratfor.

Rumors, hints, threats, suggestions and information "from well-placed sources" all seem to point to the hot topic in Europe at the moment, namely, the reconstitution of the eurozone whether by a German exit or a Greek expulsion. We turn to this topic with the question of whether such an option even exists.

[...]

The resulting conundrum is one in which reconstitution of the eurozone may make sense at some point down the line. But the interlinked web of economic, political, legal and institutional relationships makes this nearly impossible. The cost of exit is prohibitively high, regardless of whether it makes sense.

Dmitry Orlov writes.

The drawing of parallels between industrial accidents is a dubious armchair sport, but here the parallels are just piling up and are becoming too hard to ignore:

- An explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 spewed radioactive waste across Europe

- A recent explosion and sinking of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform is spewing heavy oil into the Gulf of Mexico

BBC report.

Plans for a fourth set of UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme are being circulated among all 15 members of the Security Council.

[...]

Brazil's UN envoy said his country was not "engaging in any discussion on a draft at this point because we feel that there is a new situation".

[...]

Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the world to support Monday's deal with Iran.

Craig Murray writes.

The failure to welcome this step by US and UK governments indicates that their actual agenda does not relate to Iran's nuclear programme at all. And I still wait for a British minister to say something about Israel's very real and very large stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Telegraph report.

Foreign holders of Greek and Portuguese debt have seized on emergency intervention by the European Central Bank to exit their positions, leaving eurozone taxpayers exposed to the credit risk.

Telegraph report.

Clotilde Reiss, 24, who was held for ten months in Iran on spying charges, had worked "very well" for France, according to Pierre Siramy, a former high-ranking member of France's external intelligence service, the DGSE.

The claims sparked instant consternation and denials from the French intelligence community, as the official foreign ministry line has always been that she was an innocent academic with no links to spying.

Gary Sick writes.

Although angst is high among the sanctions-at-all-costs crowd, this path to a nuclear swap deal was fully endorsed by the United States and was the centerpiece of the justification for sanctions. One way to respond at this point may just be to declare that our threat of sanctions worked: Iran has capitulated and we accept yes as an answer.

Hmmm... are we that smart?

David Rothkopf in Foreign Policy on the new nuclear agreement.

[...] the effort is significant on another level. It represents the return of Plan B both to Middle Eastern and global relations. During the Cold War, international actors typically had a binary choice. They could seek the favor and advocacy of the East or the West, the Soviets or the Americans. Then, almost twenty years ago that all ended. And for a while it appeared, the choice was America or an international community that couldn't get its act together terribly effectively.

But Turkey and Brazil working closely with Russia, India, and China, have effectively sent a message that Plan B has returned to the global equation. They have essentially said they didn't want to go along with the American approach to solving the problem (sanctions) and were vehemently against the Israeli approach (bombs away).

Telegraph report.

Britain, America and France said they would continue to press for new sanctions until Iran addressed wider concerns about its intentions.

The White House said the United States and its allies continued to have "serious concerns", while stopping short of categorically rejecting the agreement.

Guardian report.

The general in charge of British operations in Iraq has said he was "absolutely horrified" by the number of injuries sustained by Baha Mousa, the Basra hotel worker who died in the custody of British soldiers in September 2003.

Patrick Cockburn in the Independent.

The US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, who was boasting of military progress only three months ago, confessed last week that "nobody is winning". His only claim now is that the Taliban have lost momentum compared with last year.

[...]

The semi-official Pakistani view is that the US, Britain and Nato forces have become entangled in a civil war in Afghanistan between the Pashtun community, represented by the Taliban, and their Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara opponents who dominate the Kabul government. They expect the Pashtun to go on fighting until they get a real share in power. One Pashtun, a former colonel in the Pakistani army, said: "It will be difficult for the Americans and British to win the hearts and minds of the people in southern Afghanistan since at the centre of Pashtun culture is a hatred of all foreigners."

Robert Fisk in the Independent.

Within 48 hours of becoming Foreign Secretary, William Hague faces a political crisis over the Middle East. The emirate of Dubai has named a British citizen as a 19th suspect of the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas official murdered in the emirate four months ago, apparently by a group that included holders of forged British passports. According to a source in the United Arab Emirates, the suspect arrived in Dubai under his own name and carrying a genuine British passport.

Reuters report.

Russia has signed deals to sell Syria warplanes, anti-tank weapons and air defense systems, a senior Russian arms trader said on Friday, prompting an outcry from Syria's foe Israel.

IMEMC report.

Turkey has installed Anti-Aircraft Hawk Missiles at a village close to the Syrian border in an attempt to prevent Israeli war jets from violating Turkish Airspace in case of an attack against Iran or Syria.