Did anyone see the Syrian Foriegn Minister on the TV last night. I thought he looked very genuine staring into the camera vowing and declaring that he would join in signing a treaty removing all WOMD (Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear)from the Middle East. It all sounded so very genuine and sincere and great for world peace. I was moved by this show of integrity.

Then I got to work this morning and one of my workmates reminded me that the only nuclear nation in that neck of the woods is Isreal ;)

Yes - I saw it as well. (Although I cought the underlying message immidiatly ;) )

Very naughty of them to propose something so reasonable - which they know can't be accepted by the other side ;) (yes - I know I'm lumping USA and Isreal toghether)

<font color='white'> ??

Israel the only one with WOMD? Iran? Pakistan?

Those are questions BTW, not statements.

Not sure about Iran, but I am pretty positive Pakistan has Nuclear weapons. </font>

You must have missed the words "Middle East" when reading my post there buddy. Syria was most specific about the Middle East ;)

<font color='white'> Iran and Pakistan arent considered the middle east? I have always heard that present day 'middle east' ranged from North Africa to Pakistan. </font>

No - they are NOT the Middle East - try the term "the subcontinent" - it works better :D

And what is this "present day" middle east - is it like Rummy's Old Europe - has someone over there been redrawing the worlds regional boundaries while I wasn't looking?

Edit - Putting in half a retraction to prove that IR is not the only one that was not reading what the other posted ;) . My bad in that I thought you had said India and Pakistan - not Iran and Pakistan. Just goes to show that I should not have assumed that you had named both o the nuclear powers in the vicinity.

India and Pakistan are both nuclear countries but neither is in the Middle East.

Iran is not a nuclear country but (and this is where my lack of reading is evidenced) is in the middle east.

My orginal contention reamins that Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East.

[ 04-17-2003, 11:11 AM: Message edited by: Davros ]

<font color='white'> If I recall corecttly (its 5 am, so you might want to wait for some clarification before you quote me on it) when the eroupeans dubbed the regions Middle East and Far east, Middle East was ranged from like SE Eroupe (Greece, Serbia ect.) to Persia, and the Far East China and such. As time went on the range changed.

Or wait, maybe Middle east was SE Eroupe and Turkey and Far East was Persia to China, seemed like there was a near east as well. Bah, I need sleep.

Edit- Ok just looked it up- <font color='purple'>

From 'The Handy Geography Answer Book' (cheesy title I know) by Matthew T. Rosenberg

At one time, ti was common to refer to the Near,Middle, and Far East. Though two of the terms have fallen into disuse, the Middle East is still commonly used. The Near east, at its greatest extent in the 16th century, once refered to the Ottoman Empire , which included Eastern Eroupe, Western Asia and Northern Africa. The Middle East refered to as the area from Iran to India to Myanmar (formerly Burma). The Far East used to refer to as SE Asia, China, Japan and Korea.

Where is the middle east today?

It is generally agreed (apparently not ;) ) that the middle east includes Eygpt, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the countrys around the Arbian Penisula (Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar) Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey and Iran. Most Regional specialist also include the countries of northern Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya). The newer countrys of of Azerbaijan, Georiga, and Armenia (former Soviet republics) are also often included in the region. </font>

*shrugs* Anyway, I am off to sleep.

[ 04-17-2003, 06:12 AM: Message edited by: Iron_Ranger ]

Is Pakistan considered to be part of the middle-east ? I don't think so. It's considered as a "pure" asian country like India and China for example.

And Iran is at the limit of middle-east and the rest of asia.

The Syrian Foreign Minister speech was well aimed don't worry : even if you consider Iran to be part of middle-east, Syria will still accept to sign such a treaty and disarm if WOMD are removed from all other countries including Israel.

That will unfortunately never happen, and Syria knows that. It was just a little "message". So prepare yourself for more wars.

Don`t you think its about time something was done about the country which has ignored more UN resolutions than any other in the world?

Pakistan is not middle east, but Iran definitely is.