Latin America's economic rebels

Ecuador and Bolivia are achieving remarkable growth because they reject conventional economic wisdom

By Mark Weisbrot - The Guardian - October 27, 2009

Among the conventional wisdom that we hear everyday in the business press is that developing countries should bend over backwards to create a friendly climate for foreign corporations, follow orthodox (neoliberal) macroeconomic policy advice, and strive to achieve an investment-grade sovereign credit rating so as to attract more foreign capital.

Guess which country is expected to have the fastest economic growth in the Americas this year? Bolivia. The country’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, was elected in 2005 and took office in January 2006. Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, had been operating under IMF agreements for 20 consecutive years, and had a per capita income lower than it had been 27 years earlier. Evo sent the IMF packing just three months after he took office, and then moved to re-nationalize the hydrocarbons industry (mostly natural gas). Needless to say this did not sit well with the international corporate community. Nor did Bolivia’s decision in May 2007 to withdraw from the World Bank’s international arbitration panel (ICSID), which had a tendency to settle disputes in favor of international corporations and against governments.

But Bolivia’s re-nationalization and increased royalties on hydrocarbons has given the government billions of dollars of additional revenue (Bolivia’s entire GDP is only about $16.6 billion, with a population of 10 million people). These revenues have been useful for a government that wants to promote development, and especially to maintain growth during the downturn. Public investment increased from 6.3 percent of GDP in 2005 to 10.5 percent for 2009. Bolivia’s growth through the current world downturn is even more remarkable in that it was hit hard by falling prices for its most important exports – natural gas and minerals, and also by a loss of important export preferences in the U.S. market. The Bush administration cut off Bolivia’s trade preferences that were granted under the ATPDEA (Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act), allegedly to punish Bolivia for insufficient co-operation in the “war on drugs.” In reality, it was more complicated: Bolivia expelled the U.S. Ambassador because of evidence that the U.S. government was supporting the opposition to the Morales government, and the ATPDA revocation followed soon thereafter. In any case, the Obama administration has so far not changed the Bush administration’s policies toward Bolivia; but Bolivia has proven that it can do quite well with or without Washington’s cooperation.

Ecuador’s leftist president, Rafael Correa, is an economist who, well before he was elected in December 2006, had understood and written about the limitations of neoliberal economic dogma. He took office in 2007, and established an international tribunal to examine the legitimacy of the country’s debt. In November 2008 the commission found that part of the debt was not legally contracted, and in December Correa announced that the government would default on roughly $3.2 billion of its international debt. He was vilified in the business press, but the default was successful. Ecuador cleared a third of its foreign debt off its books by defaulting and then buying the debt back at about 35 cents on the dollar. The country’s international credit rating remains low, but no lower than it was before Correa’s election - and it was even raised a notch after buyback was completed.

The Correa government also incurred foreign investors’ wrath by renegotiating its deals with foreign oil companies to capture a larger share of revenue as oil prices rose. And Correa has bucked pressure from Chevron and its powerful allies in Washington to drop his support of a lawsuit against the company for massive pollution of ground waters, with damages that could exceed $27 billion.

How has Ecuador done? Growth has averaged a healthy 4.5 percent over Correa’s first two years. And the government has made sure that it has trickled down: health care spending as a percent of GDP has doubled, and social spending in general has expanded considerably from 5.4 percent to 8.3 percent of GDP in two years. This includes a doubling of the cash transfer program to poor households, a $474 million increase in spending for housing, and other programs for low-income families.

Ecuador was hit hard by a 77 percent drop in the price of its oil exports from June 2008 to February 2009, as well as a decline in remittances from abroad. Nonetheless it has weathered the storm pretty well. Other unorthodox policies, in addition to the debt default, have helped Ecuador to stimulate its economy without running too low on reserves. Ecuador’s currency is the U.S. dollar, so that rules out using exchange rate policy and most monetary policy for counter-cyclical efforts in a recession – a significant handicap. Instead Ecuador was able to cut deals with China for a billion-dollar advance payment for oil and another one billion dollar loan. The government also has begun requiring Ecuadorian banks to repatriate some of their reserves held abroad, expected to bring back another $1.2 billion, and has started repatriating $2.5 billion in Central Bank reserves held abroad in order to finance another large stimulus package. Ecuador’s growth will probably come in at about 1 percent this year, which is pretty good relative to most of the hemisphere – e.g. Mexico, at the other end of the spectrum, is projected to have a 7.5 percent decline in GDP for 2009.

The standard reporting and even quasi-academic analysis of Bolivia and Ecuador are that they are victims of populist, socialist, “anti-American” governments – aligned with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Cuba, of course – and on the road to ruin. To be sure, both countries have many challenges ahead, the most important of which will be to implement economic strategies that can diversify and develop their economies over the long run. But they have made a good start so far, by giving the conventional wisdom of the economic and foreign policy establishment – in Washington and Europe -- the respect that it has earned.

Mark Weisbrot is an economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan. He is co-author, with Dean Baker, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2000), and has written numerous research papers on economic policy. He is also president of Just Foreign Policy.

Video: Palestinians homeless again after eviction

Al-Jazeera English

October 29, 2009



The United Nations is calling on Israel to immediately stop demolishing Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem.

The UN says 60,000 Palestinians may be at risk of being forcibly evicted.

Israel says the houses are built without construction permits, which Palestinians say are almost impossible to obtain.

Our correspondent Jacky Rowland is in Sheikh Jarrah where Israeli police dismantled a tent set up by a Palestinian family already evicted by Israeli orders in August.

UK: Over 60 face charges from anti-Israel protests

London - IRNA - 10/28/09 - A total of 63 people are due to appear in court later this week on charges arising out of demonstrations in London against Israel’s slaughter of over 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza at the turn of the year.

Most are charged under the country’s Public Order Act with using or threatening violence during two mass protest marches in January that culminated at the Israeli Embassy.

According to the Jewish Chronicle, all the cases will be heard at West London Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and Friday. Police were said to be still seeking another 17 people in connection with incidents that occurred.

The protests were parts of nationwide demonstrations, marches and rallies held around the UK at the height of Israel’s latest blitzkrieg attacks on Gaza.

Violence occurred at the embassy during clashes with anti-riot police. Several protesters complained to the Muslim News about the intimidation provoked by police charging the protest march in a tunnel on the way to the embassy.

Israel denies illegal diamond trade

Press TV - October 29, 2009 06:32:37 GMT

A UN report accuses Israel of involvement in trade of blood diamonds, used to re-arm rebels in Ivory Coast.

Israel has criticized a UN report which accuses Tel Aviv of involvement in illegal diamond trade from the Ivory Coast that could be helping re-arm rebels there.

Israel's Diamond Controller Shmuel Morderchai dismissed the accusations in a Wednesday statement, insisting Israel has never dealt in diamond trade with the Ivory Coast.

"We are shocked by these false accusations and completely refute them," he said.

The experts report was presented to the UN Security Council on international compliance with sanctions imposed by the international body on the Ivory Coast

The UN sanctions on the African nation's diamond trade came four years ago, after rebels took control of the country's north in a deadly civil war.

The world body's investigation team on Tuesday urged Israel to 'investigate fully the possible involvement of Israeli nationals and companies in the illegal export of Ivorian rough diamonds'.

The panel also named the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Guinea and Liberia as some of the countries that needed to step up efforts to enforce the embargo on buying rough diamonds mined in the Ivory Coast.

But Israel insisted it had never imported conflict diamonds from the Ivory Coast or any other countries that are not members of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS).

The watchdog was set up in 2003 in a bid to stem the trade in 'blood diamonds' in the wake of civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, which were largely financed by illegal diamond trade.

Israel has threatened to lodge an official complaint about its inclusion in the UN report at the upcoming meeting of Kimberley Process members scheduled for November 2-5 in Namibia.

More speech silencing: Michigan Student Assembly votes gag rule

October 29th, 2009

From Blaine in Michigan: Last night, the Michigan Student Assembly (MSA), a University of Michigan body, violated the Open Meetings Act, the First Amendment, and the university's Standard Practice Guide.

Look at today's Michigan Daily article, and judge for yourself:

Shocked by recent comments seeking to boycott Israel, the MSA voted for a Gag Rule.

That Gag Rule outlaws all public comments, uttered by any community member, unless they are pre-certified by an executive board to be "relevant to students".

The MSA also moved its meeting, for this vote, to a building up on North Campus, to ensure no one would even show up to complain.

The Michigan Daily editors had campaigned loudly for this Gag Rule, so great was their outrage that Gaza had been discussed at past MSA meetings, as Israel carried out massacres in the Gaza Strip.

Now Israel is free to massacre Gaza again without worrying about back-talk from anyone in the MSA meetings.

Here is the Boycott-Israel resolution that pained MSA so much that they shut down the First Amendment:

MSA Resolution to Boycott Apartheid Israel, and to Stop Apartheid on Campus

Resolution Summary:

1. Boycott all Israeli products.
2. Take that $1 trillion you’re spending to kill Muslims, and spend it instead on re-building Detroit.
3. Stop 400 years of White Privilege—the University should admit every Black high school graduate.

Boycott all Israeli products

WHEREAS, White Supremacism, including Zionism, is the most genocidal force on Earth,

WHEREAS, Congress has paid $300 billion to Israel, according to Congressman John Dingell,

WHEREAS, Israel spent that money on a genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinian people, which has culminated in the Israeli siege against Gaza,

WHEREAS, Israel has forced 1.5 million Palestinians into a concentration-camp existence in Gaza, where childhood malnutrition and anemia are rampant,

WHEREAS, Israel is threatening to unleash a “Holocaust” on Gaza,

WHEREAS, Malcolm X was right— the Zionists had no “legal or moral right to invade Arab Palestine, uproot its Arab citizens from their homes and seize all Arab property for themselves”

WHEREAS, Israel’s alliance with Apartheid South Africa was "more intimate and more extensive than anything similar in Israel’s history", according to Professor Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi,

WHEREAS, Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons, which it tried to share with Apartheid South Africa,

WHEREAS, Israel is training its pilots to nuke Iran, a land of 76 million people who have never invaded anyone,

WHEREAS, Israel trained and oversaw SAVAK, the brutal force of torturers who kept the Shah of Iran in power,

WHEREAS, the United States has been bleeding Iran with economic sanctions, then with U.S.-imposed dictatorship, then with U.S.-fueled invasions, almost continuously since 1952,

WHEREAS, those economic sanctions still make it impossible for Iranians to get spare parts for any airplane, from anywhere in the world,

WHEREAS, Israel is demanding even crueler economic sanctions against Iran,

THEREFORE, the Michigan Student Assembly demands that Congress impose a total boycott against all Israeli products,

THEREFORE, we demand that Congress cut off all aid to the racist state of Israel, the last Apartheid State on Earth.

THEREFORE, we demand that the University of Michigan Board of Regents declare a boycott against all products imported from the racist state of Israel.

Take that $1 trillion you’re spending to kill Muslims, and spend it instead on re-building Detroit.

WHEREAS, Congress has spent $1 trillion to kill millions of Iraqis since 1991,

WHEREAS, Congress has killed over a million Afghans since the 1980’s, using a series of unbelievable excuses,

WHEREAS, the U.S. repeatedly bombs Somalia, using more unbelievable excuses,

WHEREAS, Senator Clinton threatens to “obliterate Iran”, and Senator McCain sings “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”,

WHEREAS, Senator Obama threatens to invade Pakistan, then President Bush launches military strikes directly on Pakistan,

WHEREAS, Congress’s trillion-dollar genocide against Muslim lands is conducted at the direct expense of Black America,

WHEREAS, Congress’s trillion-dollar occupation of Muslim lands is conducted at the direct expense of Black America, the Michigan Student Assembly demands that Congress immediately remove its trillion-dollar army of occupation from every nation on Earth, because that army only brings coups, torture, racism, and death to the planet;

THEREFORE, we demand that Congress immediately spend that trillion dollars, which was stolen from Black America, on the immediate rebuilding of Detroit, including mass transit that every Detroiter can walk to, including the best elementary, secondary, and university education in the nation, including the best neighborhood clinics, the best neighborhood libraries, and the best housing infrastructure in the nation, and including the necessary industrial facilities to build all of those things, and to employ every Detroiter of working age, with full union wages and benefits,

THEREFORE, we demand that Congress similarly rebuild every U.S. inner city, and that this rebuilding be directed by Black engineers, architects, professors, physicians, educators, and managers, and that this rebuilding be staffed by Black union labor, nationwide, until Black unemployment ceases to exist,

Stop 400 Years of White Privilege—

–the University should Admit every Black high school graduate.

WHEREAS, centuries of government policy, backed up by organized white violence at every level, has attempted to beat down African political power, financial power, industrial power, and landholding power, from the Congo to Chicago,

WHEREAS, Martin Luther King Jr. was right— the U.S. government is “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today”,

WHEREAS, the U.S. has murdered and imprisoned African and African-American leadership on a mind-boggling scale, from Lumumba in the Congo, to Mandela in South Africa, to Fred Hampton in Chicago, to Marcus Garvey, to the Orangeburg Massacre, to the Jackson State Massacre, to the U.S.-Israeli-South-African invasion of Angola in the 1970’s, to the U.S.-Israeli-South-African creation of death squads across the African continent which have murdered millions and stripped Africa of unimaginable wealth,

WHEREAS, today’s white suburban power structure was built with a trillion-dollar federal highway subsidy, and with massive governmental subsidies to build all-white suburban settlements, which have sucked the wealth and political power of Black America into virtually all-white enclaves, while barring the bulk of Black America from entry,

WHEREAS, white political, economic, employment, and educational power has always been built on massive federal subsidies, from the railroads in the 19^th century, to the government-backed white academies created to suck away resources from any public educational system that might benefit Black students,

THEREFORE, the Michigan Student Assembly finds it obscene that a violent, 400-year steamroller of white privilege– where whites use the riches of Black labor to perpetuate a closed circle of privileged white university admissions, a closed circle of white business connections, a closed circle of white jobs, perpetuated by a heavily subsidized white suburban political machine,– is called a “meritocracy”, while the slightest effort to get Black students into the University is called “reverse racism”;

THEREFORE, the Michigan Student Assembly demands that the University of Michigan Board of Regents immediately guarantee admission, tuition-free, to every Black student who graduates from every Michigan high school, together with year-round tutoring for every new student who needs it;

THERFORE, we declare, in advance, a highly visible picket line and a 3-day student strike, if any state authority attempts to “stand in the schoolhouse door” to block the open admission of Black students to this University.

This Resolution was proposed for an immediate vote by the Michigan Student Assembly, at the University of Michigan.

This Resolution then was torn up by the Assembly's General Counsel, as the Michigan Daily reporter watched.

But the Resolution was again presented to the Assembly for a vote. This Resolution has also been proposed for a vote by the University's LSA Student Government.

Source

Iran, Turkey seek to triple trade by 2014

Press TV - October 28, 2009 01:02:51 GMT

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi says Iran and Turkey have agreed to increase the level of their annual trade exchanges to $30 billion.

"Following a proposal from Iran, the level of trade between Iran and Turkey will increase to $30 billion within the coming 4 to 5 years," IRNA quoted Rahimi as saying on Tuesday.

"The level of trade ties between Iran and Turkey stands at about $11 billion, which is not satisfactory," he added.

"We should conduct some of our trade in Iran's rial and the Turkish lira through establishing joint banks," Iran's vice president stated.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Tehran on Monday and was officially welcomed by Rahimi in a ceremony on Tuesday.

Palestinian villager stands up to Israeli settlement, repairs damaged trees, continues olive harvest

By Amin Abu Wardeh and Rana Khmus - October 27, 2009

Nablus / PNN – Palestinian farmer Abdel Asaus has become a model of steadfastness standing in front of Bracha Settlement.

His home is in the southern Nablus village of Burin, nearby the confiscated West Bank land on which the Israeli settlement of Bracha was built.

Repeated attacks by the settlers darken the area, but Asaus is continuing to grow his crops in spite of the ever present threat.

He seemed tired while talking to PNN, saying, "What happened is a massacre; 97 olive trees have been cut and the bark stripped. This is not the first attack on our soil. During every olive harvest they target our land and our trees, burning them, uprooting, and cutting."

Asaus says that he remains undeterred. "Every year I work on the trees on land near the settlements. The main objective is to emphasize that this is our land and our right. The occupation seeks to control it all, but after they burn and cut the trees to pieces I am working on plowing."

His efforts at rehabilitation have Asaus remaining on the Burin land where some 100 olive trees were just targeted.

"I went out with my friend to land adjacent to the settlement, 300 meters away. The season is that of fruitful olive trees, and I regularly remove weeds for fear the settlers will use them to start the trees on fire."

He continues, "On the 27th of last month the settlers watched me from their place of surveillance. I did not pay much attention to them and kept working. They saw how we care for the trees and reap the harvest. The next morning we found that 97 out of 130 olive trees had been cut with a manual chainsaw. The bark was stripped to cause the most damage possible."

Asaus adds, "We will not leave the ground. I never have during all of these years of difficulty. Even as access becomes more problematic, this is our land and I will not coordinate with them in order to reach it. Even if I die between the olive trees, I will welcome it. We are not afraid of their weapons. This land has been burned three times, and every time I take care of it, giving medicine and surgery to the trees as best as possible."

He says, however, that every year is a tough loss. "Last year they cut down 200 trees and the village lost much of its territory and fruit trees. Three thousand trees belonging to the village of Burin were destroyed; this has an impact on our lives. I produce about 370 cans of oil each year and this is the livelihood for my family and extended family."

The Israeli administration is attempting to impose control on the ground by all means available, notes Asaus. "They are hunting farmers and are working to abort the olive picking season because they know of its importance to the Palestinians. The olive tree is part of our heritage and a major source of our livelihoods with which we are able to live with dignity, steadfastness and stability. It will remain one of the most important parts of our lives as long as we are alive."

As a result of practices of the settlers, says Ali Eid, President of the Village Council of Burin, the olive harvest has shrunk. "Settlers attack the land and the farmers," he says, "and actively work to prevent farmers from reaching their land."

He told PNN, "Year after year the situation is bad. Since the direct targeting of the lands, trees, and people by Israeal’s occupation at the beginning of the first Intifada, some 14-17 thousand olive, fig and almond trees have been destroyed. Since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada [in 2000] more than 9,000 olive trees have been uprooted here."

Burin Village residents note the growing frequency of attacks during the olive harvest. "With the decline in the date season, the olive harvest is even more important for their livelihoods. It really is the backbone and families depend on it directly. It impacts the education of their children. College enrollment for students from Burin is down," Eid said.

"The attacks are not only on the land and trees. The settlers are trying hard to displace residents of the village and are preventing construction. Herds of animals are not safe, and the settlers are also attacking homes and citizens along the roads.

"All of this land falls within the control of the Palestinian Authority ['Area A’ under Oslo], but the settlers are not prosecuted for attacks on families, homes or crops, let alone for killing cattle and sheep and other livestock, or for burning barns," the President of the Village Council added.

There are two major Israeli settlements built on southern Nablus land; Bracha and Yitzhar that undergo continued expansion, in addition to six outposts. This renders more than two-thirds of the land of Burin Village confiscated or with prohibited access.

Eid noted, "The total land area of the village of Burin is 32,000 acres with a population of 3,500 people who have been subjected to constant attacks by the settlers."

The President of the Council of the village of Burin added that "Israel's settlement policy is one of displacement; all indicators confirm it."

Asous confirmed in his comments to PNN that he would continue to repair and replant, and that he would not be driven from his land.

Richard Goldstone confuses International Law

Written by M.Idrees - Pulse Media - October 28, 200

While Richard Goldstone deserves credit for publishing a fair report about Israel’s war crime during its assault on Gaza — especially in light of the storm of vilification that he has had to endure — one need not be so swayed as to exempt him claims from scrutiny. There are serious problems with his interpretation of International law, and far from being too critical of Israel, he is too generous.

In this interview Goldstone makes the tendentious claim that jus in bello, that is conduct during war, is unrelated to jus ad bellum, the justness of the war. He in fact goes so far as to claim that ‘it was a given’ that Israel had a right to attack Gaza. He makes this claim despite stating before hand that it wasn’t his remit to investigate jus ad bellum. This is therefore an astonishing statement to make for someone even remotely familiar with international law. Before one can consider jus in bello, the conditions for jus ad bello need to be satisfied. That is to say that before you investigate conduct you have to make sure that the war was just. And if this wasn’t the case — and it wasn’t — then Israel is responsible for launching a war of aggression, the ’supreme crime’ in international law. This also means that Israel bears the responsibility even for the violations of human rights carried out by Hamas because the supreme crime carries within it the accumulated evil of all that follows. For more on this, see my detailed argument in this earlier article.

Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi talks to Judge Richard Goldstone about the investigation into the Gaza war. He travelled to the United Nations in New York to find out if the war on Gaza has transformed Richard Goldstone from a sober jurist into a man on a mission to discredit Israel on an international stage.

Bahrain Parliament Votes to Penalize Contacts with Israel

Al-Manar












28/10/2009 Bahrain's parliament on Tuesday approved legislation penalizing contacts with the Zionist entity. "Whoever holds any communication or official talks with Israeli officials or travels to Israel will face a fine...and/or a jail sentence of three to five years," member of parliament Jalal Fairooz from Al-Wefaq bloc, an opposition group that was the driving force behind the move.

"The motivation is that steps are being taken by certain countries to allow certain talks to be held with Israeli officials. Israeli delegates have managed to participate in events in Arab countries with no treaties with Israel."

Diplomats and analysts say Arab governments have been pressured by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to make steps towards normalizing ties in order to help encourage Israel to enter “peace talks” with Palestinians.

But popular sentiment has been opposed to such moves. An Egyptian writer is facing disciplinary action by the journalists union for meeting the Israeli ambassador in Cairo.

Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa wrote in the Washington Post in July that Arabs had not done enough to communicate directly with Israelis. Bahraini officials visited the occupied Palestinian territories in July in an official capacity for the first time to collect five of their nationals Israel was deporting after seizing them on a ship bound for the Palestinian territory of Gaza, blockaded by Israel.

Bahrain's parliament has limited powers and bills must pass through an upper house whose members are chosen by the king. Ultimate power lies with the ruling family. Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania are the only Arab League states with formal ties with Israel.

Kouchner acting 'against interest of French people'

Press TV - October 28, 2009 19:19:03 GMT

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner

Iran reacts to cynical comments by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner regarding the Tehran government's response to an IAEA-brokered deal for overseas treatment of the country's low-enriched uranium.

In a series of interviews with a number of media outlets, Kouchner had accused Iran of "wasting time" and showing "negative indications" about its nuclear intentions.

His comments came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) drafted a deal, according to which Iran will ship out 80 percent of its low-enriched uranium in exchange for highly-enriched uranium converted into metal fuel rods for a Tehran research reactor that produces isotopes for cancer care.

"I cannot say that the situation regarding Iran is very positive. Now, meetings are being held in Vienna. But via the indications we are receiving, matters are not very positive," Kouchner had said during an official visit to Lebanon on Friday.

An informed source in the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on condition of anonymity that such remarks are "counter-productive" at a time, when Tehran and the West are working to find common ground on the nuclear issue.

"These baseless and unreasonable accusations against Tehran are clearly in line with the [Israeli government's] frame of mind. We believe these statements to be against the interests of the French people," he said on Wednesday.

Iranian officials had welcomed foreign cooperation on the Tehran research reactor from the very beginning, but their efforts were constantly undermined by the French government, he added.

"The idea of cooperation on the Tehran research reactor was first floated by the Iranian government," he said.

"The debate now is on a few technical issues, which relate to the Iranian nation's basic rights and have remained ambiguous so far," he added.

The Foreign Ministry source noted that Kouchner's cynical remarks show that Paris has absolutely no intention of cooperating with Tehran on its enrichment program.