The German press is closely following the case of the British sailors detained by Iran, allegedly for straying into Iranian territorial waters: “The latest conflict between Great Britain and Iran is potentially explosive”, comments the FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG (29/03). “Today London, just like the whole Western world and the rest of the world, is having to come to terms with an Iran that is not too far removed from enjoying a pre-eminent position in the Persian Gulf. The dispute over the arrested marines must be resolved with the aid of international diplomacy, before it has consequences no one wants. In spite of the antagonisms, Germany, which currently has good relations with Teheran, could perhaps provide political aid”. “In Teheran we are dealing with a ‘rogue state’ that seems intent on sabotaging all the possibilities for peace in the Gulf and throughout the Middle East”, writes DIE WELT . “President Ahmadinejad is capable of anything, especially of open contempt for the international community… But the fact that he is willing to play with fire even with a certain dose of stupidity is new to us. The illegal attack on the British surveillance group last Friday must also be attributed to stupidity”. […] “A crisis is taking shape over Iran that can only be averted by solidarity. To fail to show such solidarity, just because the Germans are of a different view on the Iraqi question than Washington and London, would be equally stupid”. Max Hastings , writing in the British daily THE GUARDIAN (27/03), observes that “the global reaction to the seizure of British marines on the Shatt-al-Arab is a measure of our loss of moral authority”. “The European nations – he continues – have always believed that engagement with Iran is the most plausible policy”. “The objective is to persuade the Iranians, or anyway their least violent leaders, that in return for some moderation of their behaviour, the west will offer generous rewards” whereas “the seizure of the British personnel suggests that the Iranians are confident that intransigence is more effective than negotiation”. According to the analyst, “the likelihood is that, after extracting every ounce of perceived propaganda advantage from their humiliation, Ahmadinejad will release the marines. It would be premature to regard this episode as a major crisis”. “The fundamental issues – Hastings insists – are Iran’s commitments to terrorism, to the destruction of Israel, and to the acquisition of nuclear weapons”. “So long as its only claim” to international respect and influence “rests upon its capacity for violence and destruction, much more grief lies ahead for its own people and for the rest of the world”. “Prisoners of the Iraqi trap. Can we describe otherwise the bloody and politically lethal impasse in which the American administration and its troops find themselves?” asks Giorgio Ferrari in an editorial in the Italian Catholic daily AVVENIRE (29/03), referring to the massacres being perpetrated on a daily basis in the country. According to the editorialist “nothing leaves us to think that the situation can change. So it is not surprising that the American Congress has rejected the law on the refinancing of American military missions” fixing “a deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by 31 March 2008. President Bush will use his veto, so the refinancing package will pass in the end, but the Iraqi trap remains unchanged: to quit is strategically and politically unthinkable for Washington, to remain would be to confront every day the horror of an endless succession of massacres”. Perhaps, Ferrari concludes, the analysis of Washington “needs finally to be revised”. The French daily LA CROIX (28/03) dedicates wide coverage to the historic agreement signed in Northern Ireland between Ian Paisley, leader of the more hard-line Protestant party, and Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein (political arm of the Irish Republican movement), in Belfast on 26 March. Interviewed by the paper, Cardinal Cahal Brendan Dali , former Primate of Ireland, commented: “The two signatories have been considered extremists. Today there is no longer anyone who can break this agreement” whereas, “if it had been the moderates who had signed it, the extremists would have felt themselves isolated”. “I think of all those, throughout the world, who have prayed for this day, Catholics and Protestants, separate or together, of all those who have worked and made sacrifices for peace” added the cardinal, convinced that “this new situation requires a change of attitude and of mind” to overcome “the difficulties” that lie ahead. The cardinal is convinced of the importance of dialogue, “not to be forced into an agreement, but at least to understand each another”. “Polish youth consider the gravest sin… the theft of a car” and “in the confessional, remain silent about their sex life”, writes the monthly of the Dominican Fathers LIST (March 2007). “These youths are believers, members of the Catholic Church, but consider Christianity a private matter. Sociologists say that man today tends to consider religion on a par with shopping at the supermarket: he picks and chooses, accepting what seems to him most attractive, and rejecting what he considers superfluous… Encouraged from birth to make his own choices”, he finds it “difficult to accept behaving any differently in the field of religion”.
