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Daybreak: Iran Talks Commence

Plus fire fought, the new Turkey, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
December 06, 2010
Iran’s atomic energy chief Sunday outside a manufacturing plant.(Hmidreza Nikomaram/AFP/Getty Images)
Iran’s atomic energy chief Sunday outside a manufacturing plant.(Hmidreza Nikomaram/AFP/Getty Images)

• Multinational talks concerning peace and stability in the Mideast commence today with none of the parties confident they will actually go anywhere. Nope, not those talks. Iran and several world powers will discuss its nuclear weapons program in Geneva. [WP]

• Right before the talks, Iran made the dramatic if largely symbolic announcement that it produced enriched uranium from ore mined within the country. [NYT]

• The Israeli fire has been brought under control. But first it took its 42nd life—nearby Haifa’s police chief, Ahuva Tomer, 52, who had been the country’s highest-ranked policewoman. [NYT]

• Columnist Jackson Diehl reports that the Turkey that emerges in the WikiLeaks is imperialist, anti-Israel, self-righteous … and not changing anytime soon. [WP]

• Chas Freeman—the former diplomat whose appointment was famously kiboshed due to, among other factors, his feelings toward Israel—argues that the WikiLeaks show Israel and the Arab countries more at odds than in sync on the Iranian question. [NYT]

• Said former White House reporter Helen Thomas at a workshop on anti-Arab bias outside Detroit, “We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs. There’s no question about that. Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion. They put their money where there mouth is.” [Detroit Free Press]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.