By Mick Krever

(CNN) - Seven years after the IRA lay down its arms, its former commander has shaken hands with the British Queen.

And Gerry Adams, longtime leader of the IRA’s former political wing, Sinn Fein, was concise in describing the meeting.

“The only way you can build peace is actually to show leadership, and Martin did that,” Gerry Adams told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

He was referring to Martin McGuinness, who met in private with the Queen before a historic public photo-op. FULL POST

By Mick Krever

(CNN) - A Turkish diplomat on Tuesday gave a stark warning to his embattled neighbor, Syria. The threat came in the wake of the downing of a Turkish jet by the Syrian military.

“This type of action in the future will not go unanswered,” Namik Tan told CNN’s Ali Velshi.

In the wake of the Syrian military shooting down a Turkish jet, the Turkish ambassador to the U.S. put out a stark warning to his embattled neighbor.

Syria’s actions were “a grave violation of international norms,” he said. FULL POST

By Samuel Burke

There’s been a dramatic change of fate in Egypt: Mohamed Morsi was once a prisoner under President Hosni Mubarak. Now Morsi is president-elect of Egypt, at the very same time Mubarak is serving his sentence in the notorious Tora Prison. Now Egypt’s minorities wait to see how their fates will change – among them, Coptic Christians and women.

Monday, Morsi’s policy adviser, Ahmed Deif, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that to allay minority fears, Morsi will execute a strategy of “inclusiveness, inclusiveness, inclusiveness.”

Deif said one of Morsi’s first steps will be to appoint a vice president who is Christian and another Vice President who is a woman. FULL POST

By Lucky Gold

As Egypt waits for the delayed results of its presidential election, one of the revolutionary voices of the Arab Spring had a message for another president – Barack Obama.

“The U.S. administration should back off,” said Mahmoud Salem, aka “Sandmonkey,” the pseudonym under which he has authored a blog since the early days of the uprising.

“It was the message of Barack Obama’s administration to keep Mubarak,” he said Thursday on Amanpour. “Obama did not want this revolution and right now they (the American government) have made a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood to have (Mohamed) Morsi as the president. They have been meeting them (the Muslim Brotherhood) for the past year. They need to stop pressuring us.” FULL POST

By Lucky Gold

Is China, the world’s second largest economy after the U.S., slowing down and heading for a crash landing? Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group, has looked at China’s latest economic indicators and concludes, “The United States and Europe would kill for numbers like that, but of course the reality is they won’t. And the Chinese will and can.”

Appearing Wednesday on Amanpour, Bremmer, the author of “Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World,” admitted, “I’m being a bit flippant but I also mean that somewhat literally. Because the Chinese…don’t have a banking system, so you can’t have a run on Chinese banks. They can move people around, they can extract labor, they can do things that are utterly implausible for a democratically-elected state that will allow them to maintain the kind of growth that they know they have to have if they want to ensure their own political sustainability as leaders.” FULL POST

By Lucky Gold

We don’t need more time to hang ourselves

(CNN) - In the aftermath of its most recent election, will Greece remain in the eurozone, and will a pro-bailout government begin a recovery?

Yannis Varoufakis, Professor of Economics at the University of Athens doesn’t think so:

“Even if God, his angels and every good man and woman on this planet were to descend on Greece and form a government with a purpose and commitment to implement this bailout agreement, it would simply not be possible.”

Appearing Tuesday on Amanpour, Varoufakis went even further: “We don’t need more time to hang ourselves. We don’t need different dosages of the same poison. We need another approach.”

Varoufakis warned that “what Greece has done is to prolong a very agonizing death. It is bringing down with it, yet again, spreading contagion to the rest of Europe…What is happening here in Greece is the template which is being imposed upon Spain.”

Calling it a “death embrace between insolvent banks and insolvent states,” Varoufakis cautioned that “Greece is quite small and insignificant, but Spain is too large to ignore and it is bringing down with it the whole of the eurozone.” FULL POST

By Lucky Gold

We are much more liberal than everyone else thinks we are

The results of Egypt’s historic presidential election are not yet official, but with Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, claiming victory, while the military apparently retains power, the voting has created more questions than answers.

To address some of those questions Jihad Haddad, a spokesman for Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, appeared Monday on Amanpour. He was asked if women and Christians, among others, should be frightened if Mohamed Morsi becomes president.

On the contrary, said Haddad, “Their rights will be safeguarded much more than it was during Mubarak’s time. All personal freedoms will be safeguarded. They will have complete freedom in every one of their choices, even religion.”

Speaking to Christiane Amanpour in Cairo, Haddad addressed the perception of the Muslim Brotherhood: “Everything that has been echoed about the Muslim Brotherhood is probably much more lies than truth,” he said. “In reality, we are much more liberal than everyone else thinks we are.”

Haddad is unfazed by the military’s assertion of power over the parliament and over the presidency. “Everything is running smoothly,” he said. According to Haddad, parliament will meet as planned this week, potentially forcing a confrontation with military rulers and Egypt’s high court. FULL POST

By Lucky Gold

(CNN) - Why doesn’t the United States apply more pressure to Russia to end its support of the Assad regime? The answer, according to a former US. Assistant Secretary of State, can be found, not in Damascus but in Tehran.

“Ultimately, I think we’re going to have to decide which one is more important to us,” said Martin Indyk, appearing Wednesday on Amanpour. “And I suspect that at the end of the day, it will be the Iranian issue and the nuclear weapons program of Iran that trumps concern about what’s happening in Syria.”

Indyk, the author of “Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy,” talked about the effect U.S. actions have had on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: “We are in the process of putting the monkey on Lavrov’s back,” he said

“On the one hand,” said Indyk, “we’re expecting Lavrov to go off to Tehran…and deliver a more flexible position on the part of the Iranians toward the offer that’s on the table in the nuclear talks…in which we are heavily dependent on the Russians to cooperate with us and pressure the Iranians.”

“And at the same time,” said Indyk, “we’re beating them (the Russians) over the head for being too supportive of the Assad regime, particularly by providing these attack helicopters. And it’s a very hard balancing game.”

Seeing the Russia’s point of view, Indyk added: “I think the most important thing that they’re concerned about, Christiane, is that at the end of the day, Syria not be taken out from the Russian column and put in the American column. And we don’t have a very good track record on reassuring them of that.” FULL POST

By Lucky Gold

So many wounded kids

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Robert King, a photojournalist who spent a month filming in Syria. “It’s the Butcher of Syria. He’s targeting civilians.”

Speaking Tuesday from Beirut to Christiane Amanpour, King said: “In twenty years I’ve not photographed so many wounded kids. And it seems like a lot of the world is indifferent about these horrific crimes.”

Asked why children were often the targets, he offered several reasons: “They (the survivors) assumed it was collective punishment. Then they believed it was because of their religious beliefs, that they were Sunni… and also because they were supporting the revolution. So you have this regime that’s trying to kill the revolutionaries; then they’re trying to kill the offspring of the revolutionaries – it’s ethnic genocide.” FULL POST

By Mick Krever, CNN

Action to save the euro is needed in “more shortly than three months,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview.

Lagarde’s tight deadline was a response to billionaire investor George Soros’ prediction that Europe has three months to save the euro.

“The construction of the eurozone has taken time,” Lagarde said. “And it’s a work in construction at the moment.”

Lagarde declined to predict whether Greece would exit the eurozone.

“It’s going to be a question of political determination and drive,” she said.

Lagarde came under fire recently for highlighting Greek tax evasion. She apologized that her comments were taken “in a very inflammatory way and created offence.”

“But equally,” she said, “I think that tax compliance is a necessary tool to restore any country’s situation – Greece, like others.” FULL POST