LEBANON

LEBANON
The Daily Star, Beirut, Jan. 6: There is much diplomatic activity taking place throughout the Middle East these days, centered on Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Iran, Sudan, Somalia and a few less turbulent places. Perhaps the most fascinating meeting that took place Friday was in Beijing, where Chinese President Hu Jintao urged Iran to "respond seriously" to a U.N. Security Council resolution which imposes sanctions on Tehran's trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology. In reply, visiting Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani repeated his country's claim to a peaceful nuclear industry, adding that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was a "good framework" to which Iran remained committed.
The Iranian and Chinese comments follow last month's vote by the Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran to try to stop uranium-enrichment work that Western powers fear could lead to making bombs. Beijing is a veto-wielding permanent member of the council, holds high-level talks with Iran, depends on it for about 12 percent of its crude imports and is strongly committed to a resumption of talks to break the nuclear stalemate. The combination of Chinese diplomatic power and friendly persuasion should be something of a reality check for the Iranians, who are likely to use their ongoing contacts with Russia and China to probe for a reasonable compromise.
Diplomatic transitions
This suggests that rigid positions are in fact slightly more flexible than they might appear at first sight, and it takes place at a moment when other diplomatic transitions may be percolating in the region. Iran has just stated that it wishes to mend its ties with Egypt, while there are diplomatic noises about the Islamic Republic and Saudi Arabia also coming to a meeting of minds on key issues of regional concern. When major regional players like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt start to review their positions and relations, smaller countries like Lebanon and others should make sure they are positioned to avoid being crushed, but also to take advantage of the evolving neighborhood.
JAPAN
Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, Jan. 10: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's tour of four European nations may mark an epochal turn of events in Japan's political and security dialogue with the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Abe's European tour offers an opportunity to beef up Japan's relationship with the EU and NATO, both of which have boosted their membership while also undergoing significant changes in their structures.
The prime minister should urge European leaders to cooperate in preventing North Korea from becoming a nuclear power, and also to make efforts to resolve the abduction dispute and strictly implement sanctions against the reclusive state.
BRITAIN
The Times, London, Jan. 10: When a Christian hotel owner refuses a bed to a gay couple on the basis that sodomy is a sin, it is difficult not to feel that prejudice is simply masquerading as conscience. For a commercial enterprise to put up a sign saying "no gays" should be as unthinkable as one saying "no blacks." That is an indication of just how far the majority view has shifted in the past 20 years.
The question is how quickly the law should move in formalizing this change in our culture. The Government's sexual orientation regulations (Sors), the subject of heated debate in the Lords yesterday, are designed to outlaw discrimination against homosexuals and transsexuals in Northern Ireland and eventually, it is assumed, throughout Britain. Rarely have Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups been so stridently united as they were yesterday, in arguing that the law has already gone far enough. They fear that further attempts to appease a gay minority will discriminate against religious ones.
Reinterpreting sacred texts
Religious beliefs should be respected. But it does not follow that those who hold them should always be free to discriminate. Sacred texts cannot be rewritten, but they can be reinterpreted. Reformist leaders of all faiths are working hard to build a cultural tolerance inside their institutions that reflects that in the outside society.
The real danger is that excessive regulation, or vague wording, could make their task more difficult. It should be no more acceptable to refuse a product to a homosexual than it should be to mock people because of their religion. But the Sors apply widely, into education as well as goods, facilities and services. Education could prove particularly tricky.