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Egypt’s military ruler will hold talks with political leaders on Sunday after next month’s presidential election was thrown into further turmoil with the disqualification of key candidates. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi will meet the heads of political parties and groups to discuss major developments five weeks ahead of the first presidential election since a popular uprising ousted long-time leader Hosni Mubarak last year, the state-owned Al-Akhbar reported.
Heavy explosions, rockets and gunfire rattled Kabul Sunday as Afghanistan’s Taliban launched their largest co-ordinated attack in 11 years with multiple strikes targeting Western embassies, the NATO force’s headquarters and the parliament building.
Pakistan’s Taliban movement, which is close to al Qaeda, said it was behind the brazen assault by militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles.
U.N. peace monitors are due to start their mission in Syria on Monday to oversee a shaky ceasefire undermined by persistent violence and the shelling of the opposition stronghold of Homs by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. The ceasefire is part of a broader peace plan brokered by international mediator Kofi Annan, but it looked increasingly under threat throughout the weekend as the government vowed a crackdown on a wave of “terrorist attacks” in Syria.
The U.N. Security Council authorized the deployment of up to 30 unarmed observers on Saturday in the first resolution on Syria the 15-nation council managed to approve unanimously since the uprising erupted in March 2011.
(Reuters) – Gulf Arab states will meet in Qatar on Tuesday to discuss a territorial dispute between the United Arab Emirates and Iran over a small island in the Strait of Hormuz that both claim, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said on Sunday. The UAE recalled its ambassador from Tehran on Wednesday after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Abu Musa island, 60 km (40 miles) off the UAE, as part of a tour of Iran’s Gulf coast, a visit described by the UAE foreign minister as “a flagrant violation of the UAE’s sovereignty.”
(AP) — The Afghan capital awoke Monday to a second day of explosions and heavy gunfire as Afghan-led forces worked to defeat insurgents holed up in one building in the heart of the city and another near parliament.As darkness turned to dawn, Afghan-led forces fired one rocket-propelled grenade after another into a building in the center of the city where insurgents began their attack on Sunday in the capital and three eastern cities. The Taliban’s boldest and most complex assault in years lasted more than 17 hours.
Tunisia’s government is marking the 10th anniversary of the al-Qaida bombing attack that killed 21 people at the synagogue on the island of Djerba.
Israeli President Shimon Peres is awaiting a reply from the White House on his plea for clemency for Jonathan Pollard. Peres’ letter, sent Monday, cited Pollard’s reportedly severe health situation in requesting that he be released.
Denmark’s prime minister has urged Bahrain to release a jailed activist with dual citizenship, saying he’s in “very critical” condition after a two-month hunger strike.
Bahrain plans clamp on hiring expats. ‘The majority of our workforce is expatriate and they are increasing, especially with the suspension of the LMRA fees due to losses suffered by businesses in Bahrain during the unrest,’ said Humaidan.
Syria’s 4-day-old cease-fire appeared to be quickly eroding Sunday, with regime forces firing dozens of tank shells and mortar rounds at neighborhoods in the opposition stronghold of Homs, hours before the arrival of a first team of U.N. truce monitors. Assad accepted the truce deal at the prodding of his main ally, Russia, but his compliance has been limited. He has halted shelling of rebel-held neighborhoods, with the exception of Homs, but ignored calls to pull troops out of urban centers, apparently for fear of losing control over a country his family has ruled for four decades. Rebel fighters have also kept up attacks, including shooting ambushes.
A top Afghan official says one of the militants arrested during the latest attacks on Kabul and three other cities has told authorities the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network was behind the assaults. Interior Minister Besmillah Mohammadi told reporters on Monday that a total of 36 insurgents were killed during the attacks in Kabul and three other cities in eastern Afghanistan. He says one other insurgent, who was arrested in Nangarhar province, confessed to the police that Haqqani network, based in Pakistan, launched the attacks.
Taliban militants armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades battled their way into a prison in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, freeing 380 prisoners, including at least 20 described by police as very dangerous insurgents, authorities and the militants said. The raid by more than 100 fighters was a dramatic display of the strength of the insurgency gripping the nuclear-armed country.
(Reuters) – Key ship insurer the China P&I Club will halt indemnity coverage for tankers carrying Iranian oil from July amid tightening Western sanctions against Iran.
An Iranian Energy Ministry official says the country will increase electricity exports to neighboring Turkey by twofold in the next two months.
The three most prominent and divisive front-runners in Egypt’s presidential elections indicated Sunday they were appealing their exclusions from presidential elections scheduled for next month—demanding a reversal of decisions that are likely to stoke popular outrage across Egypt’s political spectrum.
Farouq Sultan, a judge who leads the commission, said Saturday night that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Khairat al-Shater, former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and hard-line Islamist preacher Hazem Abu Ismail were among 10 candidates barred from running.
Yemeni military officials say an unmanned U.S. drone targeted a vehicle carrying seven al-Qaeda members south of the capital of Sanaa, killing all of them. Two officials say the drone fired a missile at the vehicle on Saturday in the town of al-Zahar south of Sanaa. It was heading to the southern province of Abyan where al-Qaeda militants and government forces are fighting. Witnesses said the vehicle turned into a charred skeleton along with its passengers.
The Muslim Brotherhood said Sunday that it will fight the banning of its candidate for president that has thrown Egypt’s move toward elected civilian rule into disarray and threatens a return to massive street protests. Brotherhood’s lawyer, Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maksoud, said Sunday that the exclusion does not comply with applicable laws. Shater was disqualified because of a previous criminal conviction. The group is continuing with Shater’s campaign until the election judge issues a final verdict.
A senior Iranian commander on Sunday warned Arab rulers to avoid joining a US-Israeli project for deploying a missile shield in the Persian Gulf.
Members of the Toronto-area Iranian community are demanding that a former head of their homeland’s national bank be sent back to Tehran to face questioning in a $2.6 billion fraud.
An Iranian official accused of involvement in the torture of protesters while in custody has resigned from his post after parliament threatened the government with impeachment, Iranian media reported.
Iran’s Central Bank has announced that the electronic information of 3 million customers of 10 Iranian banks have been compromised. These banks now require their customers to change their ATM pin numbers before they can access their account. This has caused a rush to the ATM machines by the worried customers.
Tehran and six world powers finally resumed talks and found at least enough common ground to agree to meet again next month.
Israel is banning entry to hundreds of protesters planning to demonstrate in the West Bank next week. Aside from turning back newly arrived activists at Israeli airports, the country is also ordering foreign airlines to eject passengers from flights.
The ship, which had been chartered by a Ukrainian shipping company, was delivering weapons to Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has been coping with 11-month-long mass protests against his rule.
The decision to go ahead with the Grand Prix on April 22, 2012, givesBahrain’s rulers the opportunity they are seeking to obscure the seriousness of the country’s human rights situation. The decision was announced on April 13 by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the Formula One Teams Association.
Registration for presidential candidates closed Sunday amid a flurry of last-minute additions and possible eliminations that laid bare persistent doubts that Egypt’s ruling military regime intends to oversee free and fair elections.
A group claiming affiliation with activist hacker collective Anonymous says it has hacked 2,725 emails belonging to Tunisia’s ruling Ennahda party, including those of the prime minister, in the latest challenge to the Islamist-led government.
“Stop the killing. We want to build a Syria for all Syrians.” These were the words on the banner that Rima Dali held in front of the Syrian Parliament in Damascus on Sunday, April 8. Activists say she was arrested right after that.
(UPI) – The U.S. government plans to use massive surveillance before making the call on striking Iran, an intelligence source told The Washington Post.
American diplomats say the U.S. and its Western allies will call for the immediate closure of Fordo, Iran’s underground nuclear facility.
Iran on Sunday rejected demands the West is reportedly to submit at talks due to take place in days, saying it will neither close its Fordo nuclear bunker nor give up higher-level uranium enrichment.
Iran must immediately close a large nuclear facility built underneath a mountain if it is to take what President Obama has called a “last chance” to resolve its escalating dispute with the West via diplomacy.
Hosni Mubarak’s former vice president and spy chief Omar Suleiman will have the behind-the-scenes backing of Egypt’s ruling generals and the state media’s endorsement bid to succeed his longtime mentor for the nation’s highest office, according to officials with firsthand knowledge.
“Iran strongly rejects any U.S. plan in respect to Syria” the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced.
The deadline for registering as a presidential candidate has passed in Egypt, ahead of the country’s first post-revolutionary polls.
(Bloomberg) – The United Nations effort to end the violence in Syria unraveled as the regime differed with envoy Kofi Annan over terms of a cease-fire and opposition groups reported 59 more people killed.
Kuwait’s real gross domestic product (GDP) is predicted to grow by 4.5 percent in 2012 on increase in oil production and increased government spending, according to a report by Global Investment House (Global).
Bahrain has urged all Bahrainis who hold another nationality to inform the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence (GDNPR) about their dual citizenship.
(Reuters) – Syria on Sunday demanded written guarantees insurgents will stop fighting before it pulls back troops under the terms of a U.N. peace plan, and a rebel leader said the initiative was doomed. “The regime will not implement this plan. This plan will fail,” Free Syrian Army (FSA) chief Riad al-Asaad told Reuters.
FSA leader Asaad said his group had not been asked to deliver written guarantees to end violence. “We have given our word that if the regime commits to the plan then we will too,” he said. “We are honest.” “Nobody has asked us for anything written. Nobody has discussed with us handing over our weapons. We will never hand over our weapons.”
Nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers, including the United States, are slated to begin Friday in Istanbul, Iranian state media said Sunday.
Nigeria has been producing between 2.0 and 2.4 million barrels per day, and any significant boost beyond that appears out of the question for now. “So we are not going to be able to, in the immediate, fill up such gaps,” Ajuonuma said, referring to any sudden cut in output from Iran.
The International Energy Agency estimates that exports from Iran could plunge by about 800,000 barrels per day to one million barrels per day in the second half of the year after the tighter Western sanctions go into force.
(AP) — Iran is promoting a conservative cleric close to its supreme leader as a possible successor for the aging spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shiites, a move that would give Tehran a powerful platform to influence its neighbor, according to figures close to Iraq’s religious leadership. The 81-year-old spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is one of the most influential figures in Iraq, revered by its Shiite majority as well as by Shiites around the world. In the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and fall of Saddam Hussein, he was strong enough to shape the new Iraq, forcing American leaders and Iraqi politicians to revise parts of their transition plans he objected to.
In his first public comments since being nominated by the Brotherhood on March 31, Khairat al-Shater played down fears of a clash between the powerful Islamist movement and the army generals who have ruled Egypt since Mubarak was ousted last year.
In an interview with Reuters on Sunday, the 61-year-old millionaire businessman denounced former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman’s eleventh-hour decision to seek his former boss’s job. Mubarak made Suleiman vice president just before losing power.
(Reuters) – Hosni Mubarak’s former intelligence chief said his bid for the presidency does not have the support of Egypt’s military rulers and accused Islamists of sending him death threats, an Egyptian newspaper reported on Monday. Omar Suleiman, 74, announced his candidacy on Friday and showed he still wields political clout by collecting around 72,000 signatures of eligible voters in one day, more than twice the 30,000 required. The deadline for submitting signatures was Sunday.
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has warned the government it will not support an IMF loan unless the terms are changed or it moves aside and allows a new administration to oversee how the funds are spent, its candidate for president said on Sunday. The government has been negotiating a $3.2 billion loan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help it avert a balance of payments crisis caused by the political and economic turmoil of the last year, and an IMF technical team is now in Cairo.
An explosion hit the Egyptian pipeline carrying gas to Israel and Jordan on Monday for 14th time since the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak began last year, security sources said. The blast took place in the northern Sinai at the entrance of the Mediterranean coastal town of Al-Arish. Residents in the city told Reuters they had heard the sound of the explosion.
The Libyan general prosecutor’s office is investigating foreign and domestic oil companies over their past operations in the country, which is recovering from a civil war that ended with the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, the Wall Street Journal reported. The office is probing Libyan and foreign operators in the country for possible financial irregularities, the body’s deputy head, Abdelmajeed Saad, told the newspaper.
Yemen’s main airport reopened on Sunday, a day after gunmen loyal to the nation’s ousted president seized the facility in the capital Sanaa in a brazen challenge to the new government’s authority, officials said. Supporters of former Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh attacked the airport on Saturday, shooting up a surveillance tower and sending tanks and armored vehicles to occupy the tarmac. Their action followed a military shake-up in which key commanders loyal to Saleh were fired.
(Reuters) – Saudi Crown Prince Nayef is expected to return to Saudi Arabia next week, a month after travelling to the United States for medical tests, a Saudi official told Reuters on Saturday. Prince Nayef, who is about 78 years old, went to Cleveland in March for “scheduled medical tests”, Saudi state television said at the time. He left a clinic there after a few days.
Afghanistan and the United States reached a deal on Sunday to curb night raids on Afghan homes, giving Kabul a veto over the operations despised by most local people and clearing the way for a wider pact securing a U.S. presence. Night raids on suspected militants have helped fan rising anti-Western sentiment ahead of a withdrawal by most Western combat troops to be completed by 2014, but are backed by NATO commanders as a key anti-insurgent tactic.
The United States released satellite images on Friday that it said showed Syria has artillery poised to hit residential areas and has moved some forces from one town to another despite calls for a withdrawal. Robert Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, posted the commercial satellite images on Facebook in what seemed an effort to pressure Syrian President Bashar Assad to pull back forces as called for in a peace plan devised by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Former Iraqi member of parliament Mishan al-Juburi, 54, is accused along with his son Yazen, whose company allegedly failed to fulfil a contract to provide food for Iraqi forces guarding oil installations.
A new ranking puts Dubai among the top 5 financial centers for new office openings this year, among the likes of Singapore, Hong Kong, London and Shanghai.
In Egypt, 23 candidates have filed their nominations for the upcoming Presidential elections as the nomination process ended yesterday. The candidates include former Arab League chief Amr Moussa, Muslim Brotherhood’s Khairat el-Shater, Salafist Abu Ismail, former Brotherhood member Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq and former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Lebanon record the highest number of billionaires, while 2012 welcomes newcomer Morocco to the billionaires club, Forbes Middle East said Sunday in its report on the Arab billionaires ranking.
Syrian security forces summarily executed over 100 – and possibly many more –civilians and wounded or captured opposition fighters during recent attacks on cities and towns, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The top US diplomat for the Middle East said Wednesday that Iran and Al-Qaeda are exploiting political uncertainty in Yemen and the region as a whole to expand their influence. “Iran operations are similar to those (of) Al-Qaeda,” Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman told reporters in Sanaa, a day after talks with Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.
An Iranian oil official said Tehran had proposed to set up a joint operating company with Iraq, which could have been registered in the British Virgin Islands. But he said that following Washington’s pressure, Baghdad offered to bring in a private Iraqi contractor rather than a state concern, fearing the latter could breach U.S. sanctions. Iran maintained that no existing private Iraqi contractor was large enough to handle such project, making the proposal unviable.
(Reuters) – A widely expected ban on European insurance cover for Iranian oil exports from July 1 is threatening to curtail shipments and raise costs for major buyers such as Japan and South Korea, insurance industry sources say.
(Reuters) – Japan’s imports of oil from Iran fell 27.3 percent in February from a month earlier, customs-cleared data showed on Thursday, as the third-biggest buyer of Iranian crude complied with U.S. demands to curb purchases.
(Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Saudi Arabia on Friday for talks to weigh limited options available to end the violence in Syria and launch a “strategic forum” with Gulf allies against a backdrop of growing tensions with Iran.
Three rockets exploded around Baghdad on Thursday despite a massive security operation as Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hosted the country’s first Arab League summit in two decades. “The blast happened close to the Iranian embassy. The windows of the embassy have been shattered, but there are no casualties,” a senior Iraqi security source said.
The only high-ranking Gulf Arab leader at the talks was the emir of Kuwait, but his presence was a sign of progress in Iraq’s often tense relations with Sunni neighbors. The summit was twice delayed because of clashes between Baghdad and Gulf governments over a crackdown on Shi’ite protesters by Bahrain’s Sunni leadership, with the aid of fellow Sunni monarchies Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
(Reuters) – Iran backs a U.N.-sponsored peace plan for Syria that calls for the withdrawal of troops that are crushing an uprising but does not demand the removal of Tehran ally President Bashar al-Assad, its foreign minister said on Wednesday. Iran backed popular uprisings that removed leaders in Egypt, Libya and Yemen but has steadfastly supported Syria, a rare ally in the Arab world which is largely suspicious of Tehran’s ambitions for greater regional influence.
Turkey hosted a conference of Syrian dissidents on Tuesday and will host a “Friends of Syria” meeting of mostly Western and Arab countries on Sunday.
(UPI) – Turkey’s prime minister was expected to tell Iran’s president the Syrian government will change, so backing the Assad regime is futile, a Turkish official said. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visiting Tehran, was expected to urge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Thursday to reverse his steadfast support of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, arguing that regime change in Syria was inevitable and inescapable, a senior Turkish official told Israel’s English-language Ynetnews Web site.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has praised the Syrian leadership’s handling of the year-long uprising in which over eight thousand have died, saying Tehran would do everything it could to support its closest Arab ally.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday that arming anyone in Syria could lead to a “proxy war.” Maliki made his comments during a speech at an Arab League summit in Baghdad, adding that diplomacy and a “serious national dialogue” are the only ways to stop the year-long violence in Syria. “Based on our experience in Iraq, the option to arm either side of the conflict will lead to a regional and international proxy war in Syria,” Maliki said.
Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tami, Chief of Dubai Police, has spoken out against the use of Twitter to criticize the UAE government, calling for legal action to be taken against offenders, Gulf News reports.
(AP) – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials are expected to discuss Tehrans disputed nuclear program and the crisis in Syria with visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan arrived in Tehran on Wednesday from South Korea, where he attended a nuclear security summit and also held talks with President Barack Obama.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have formed an unexpected bond on the matter of Iran’s threat and in considering what must be done about it.
India could yet be exempted from tighter US sanctions on buyers of Iranian crude, and New Delhi would like to be judged on the size of term deals with Tehran which begin in April, the International Energy Agency’s executive director told Reuters last week.
Former defense chief Shaul Mofaz has unseated former diplomat Tsipi Livni as head of Kadima, Israel’s largest opposition party, results of a leadership vote showed on Wednesday.
All but one of Syria’s opposition groups agree at a meeting in Istanbul to unite behind the Syrian National Council reports BBC world.
Hosting an Arab summit that demands Assad stop violence places Iraq in a delicate position, because of the Baghdad government’s close ties to Iran. The preliminary meetings began Tuesday, and the leaders arrive for their summit Thursday.
(Reuters) – Iran expects to reopen talks with world powers over its disputed nuclear program on April 13, state news agency IRNA quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying.
The Obama administration sanctioned an Iranian airline for allegedly ferrying machine guns and munitions into Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad put down a rebellion against his rule.
Some 100 businessmen from Turkey have frozen their businesses in Syria and returned home following Ankaras call for Turkish nationals to leave the violence-hit country, said the head of a regional business association.
Syrian National Council President Burhan Ghalioun has said he would meet with all opposition blocs to discuss reform of his party.
Turkey is in negotiations with several nations to build a nuclear power plant announced at a summit Tuesday.
American diplomat stresses the need for free and fair elections, details some of the changes introduced in the electoral code, and urges the government, opposition and civil society to ensure the proper conduct of the May vote in Armenia.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that Moscow will do everything in its power to persuade Iran and North Korea to return to talks on their nuclear programs.
Total Jordan opened four new service-stations located on the Airport Road , as well as in Hay Nazzal, Russyfeh, and Bayader in Amman, bringing the number of Total service-stations up to 17 across Jordan.
The US has responded cautiously to Syria’s sudden acceptance of a United Nations peace plan, wary that president Bashar Assad’s regime may use its apparent willingness to compromise as cover to press on with a year-longpolitical crackdown.
Syria accepted a cease-fire drawn up by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan on Tuesday, but the diplomatic breakthrough was swiftly overshadowed by intense clashes between government soldiers and rebels that sent bullets flying into Lebanon.
A Yemeni security official says a Saudi diplomat has been kidnapped in the country’s south.
(Daily Star Lebanon) – Three Syrian soldiers died in clashes with rebels in the central province of Homs on Wednesday, an activist group said, just a day after President Bashar Assad said he has accepted a U.N. plan to resolve the country’s crisis.
(UPI) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Syrian President Bashar Assad must prove he is committed to U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.
The international motor racing body, the FIA, is emphatically denying that the controversial Bahrain Grand Prix, scheduled for next month, will be cancelled because of continuing disturbances in the Gulf kingdom reported the Guardian UK.
In a bid to save the CIA’s drone campaign against al Qaeda in Pakistan, US officials offered key concessions to Pakistan’s spy chief that included advance notice and limits on the types of targets but the offers were flatly rejected reported Pakistan news service.
Pakistan opposition parties are moving to block the reopening of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supply routes into neighboring Afghanistan ahead of crucial deliberations to set new terms of engagement with the United States.
Ahmad Wali Siddiqui, a German-Afghani who is alleged to have been a member of al-Qaeda, said on both Monday and Tuesday during his trial that Iran harbored al-Qaeda terrorists.
(IPS/Al Jazeera) – Ilker Basbug, Turkey’s former army chief, has gone on trial on charges of leading a terrorist group accused of plotting to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The number of Syrian citizens taking shelter in Turkey on Wednesday stood at 17,655, Turkish semi-official Anatolia news agency quoted the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) as saying.
(UPI) — Clashes between Turkish police and members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in southeastern Turkey left five officers dead, officials said. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement Wednesday Turkey will continue fighting terrorism, which he called a threat to the country’s unity and its citizens’ security.
The United States added an Iranian cargo airline, three officials from Irans Revolutionary Guards and a Nigerian trading agent to its Iran sanctions blacklist on Tuesday, on evidence they had conspired to funnel illicit weapons shipments to Syria.
A standoff between Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and the country’s military rulers deepened Tuesday as dozens of non-Islamist politicians said they would boycott the writing of a new constitution because Islamists dominate the panel selected to draft the document.
Leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood met Tuesday to decide whether the group should field its own candidate for president, a proposition that would require the Islamist group to abandon a pledge to back an outside candidate. But the meeting broke up late Tuesday without reaching a consensus, said Mahmoud Hussein, the Brotherhood’s secretary general reported NY Times.
Turkish media has emphasized the declaration by the PKK’s de facto leader Murat Karayilan that “If Turkey intervenes against our people in western Kurdistan, the area will turn into a battlezone.” Western Kurdistan is the name the Kurds call eastern Syria, inhabited by more than two million Kurds. Turkey now blames Syria for using the PKK as an additional arm, allowing members of the organization to roam freely in its territory with weapons and permitting them to carry out terror acts in Turkish territory reports Haartz.
US President Barack Obama has departed for Seoul, South Korea, for an international summit on keeping nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists.
The United States defended the record of the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, saying that the international organization had taken “robust action” against human rights abuses. The US State Department statement came amid increased controversy over the Council after it established a fact-finding mission to probe the effects of settlements on Palestinian human rights. The move drew condemnation from Israeli political authorities, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Friday announcing that he was considering withdrawing the Israeli ambassador to the UNHRC and severing ties with the body.
Investigators have found no signs the suspected gunman behind a deadly string of attacks in southern France was under orders from al-Qaeda or any militant group, a top French official said Friday.
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday adopted a resolution demanding that the Syrian Government cease all violence, protect its people, and put an end to widespread and systematic abuses such as the killing and persecution.
Dozens of Libyans were arrested on Friday for attacking Libyas Istanbul consulate, demanding financial aid to pay for treatment they received in Turkey after being injured in the Libyan unrest. Police arrested nearly 70 Libyan protesters.
(Agencies) – Syrian forces bombed towns and clashed with rebels in several regions Friday as activists said thousands staged anti-regime protests and the European Union slapped sanctions on the country’s First Lady.
As activists are planning to lead a Global March to Jerusalem next Friday, Israel has warned neighboring countries that it would forcefully respond to attempted breaches of its borders. The Global March to Jerusalem initiative aims at getting over one million participants.
(UPI) – Israel is to send diesel fuel to the Gaza Strip Friday in response to a critical fuel shortage, sources told Ynetnews. The Palestinian Authority is to pay for about 118,877 gallons of fuel.
Republican Lawmaker, Representative Kay Granger, stated Friday that she will be releasing $147 Million to the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank after she withheld the money since August of last year in protest to the Palestinian National Unity deal. It remains unclear if the funds will be released due to another hold put by a different lawmaker.
The United States and Turkey have announced plans to provide “non-lethal” aid such as communications equipment and medical supplies to Syrian rebels, and will urge other key allies to do the same.
Tunisians are likely to vote for their first full post-revolutionary parliament in just under a year’s time, a government official told Reuters on Saturday.
US envoy to Sanaa tells ‘al-Hayat’ that Washington believes Tehran working with Shi’ite Muslim rebels in northern Yemen to build its influence at expense of Yemen’s Gulf neighbors. Washington believes that Hezbollah and Hamas are helping their backers in north Yemen.
(Reuters) – Turkey could still get a waiver over sanctions which the United States plans to implement on countries buying oil from Iran despite not being named on a list of exempted nations released by Washington.
The Syrian army has used civilians as human shields during arrest and combat operations in rebel- held towns and villages, Human Rights Watch said.
International peace envoy Kofi Annan was expected to head to China on Monday after asking Russia to back his mission to end fighting in Syria despite Moscow’s differences with Western and Arab states over who is to blame for the conflict, as a rights group accused the Syrian regime of using human shields as reported by Al Arabiya.
Iraq relies on oil exports for 95 percent of its revenues, and the uncertainty in the market stemming from the conflict between the West and Iran over its controversial nuclear program has helped support global crude prices but past year has seen 4% decline of output.
(AP) – The commander of a powerful Libyan militia said Sunday he has withdrawn from the country’s main airport, while some of his men remained behind to give the government another chance to either hire them or take over security.
(ANTARA News/AFP) – Baghdad will host an Arab summit from March 27-29, the first time such a gathering has been held in Iraq in more than 20 years. Here are key issues facing the Arab world:
- The Syria crisis
Monitors say that more than 9,100 people have been killed in Syria`s brutal attempt to repress an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad and his regime.
The uprising began as protests but has now shifted to armed conflict between rebel and pro-regime forces. Despite international efforts to curb the violence, it shows no sign of abating.
The Arab League voted on November 12 to suspend Syria, one of its founding members, over its crackdown on dissent, and has attempted to broker a solution to the unrest.
The small, wealthy emirate of Qatar sits at the head of an Arab League committee dealing with events in Syria, and is leading calls for armed intervention in the conflict there.
- Consequences of the Arab Spring
The December 2010 self-immolation of a Tunisian street vendor sparked protests that forced Tunisia`s long-time dictator from power and inspired uprisings across the Arab world that toppled autocratic rulers in Egypt, Libya and Yemen, and others that are still ongoing such as in Syria and regular protests in Bahrain.
The Arab world is still struggling with the fallout.
- Iran`s nuclear program
Tensions are high over Iran`s controversial nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for civilian purposes, while much of the West accuses Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.
Iran has warned that it will strike back in the event of an attack by the US or Israel, and has threatened to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a Gulf choke point for global oil shipments.
- Arab League reforms
Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi has proposed a series of structural reforms aimed at strengthening the League and improving mechanisms for the implementation of its decisions.
- The economy in the Arab world
Oil-producing states continue to benefit from high oil prices, but others suffer from economic crises including from the collapse of tourism because of Arab Spring protests. Countries in the region also face problems related to water and food shortages.
Two “terrorist explosions” struck security targets in Syrian capital Saturday morning, killing a number of civilians and security forces, the state news agency said.
The trial over those accused of a big financial crime is being held in Iran. About 18 people are accused of misappropriating bank funds to the amount of $ 2.8 billion, Trend reported with reference to “Fars” agency on Saturday.
The United States has threatened to impose sanctions on India if it fails to reduce its purchases of Iranian oil, according to a media report citing unnamed Obama administration officials. “If India fails to cut Iranian imports sufficiently, Obama may be compelled to bar access to the US banking system for any Indian bank processing oil payments through Iran’s central bank,” the unnamed US officials were quoted as saying.
Not even a month after Azerbaijani counterintelligence services arrested Iranian agents planning terrorist attacks against Israeli diplomats and prominent members of the Jewish community, a network of 22 more Iranian agents were arrested.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki confirmed that his country won’t be a passage for arms from Iran to Syria, Maliki’s office said.”Iraq does not allow its land and airspace to be a passage for arms in any direction.”
Syrian rebels ignited a new front Friday outside the capital, Damascus, in the first significant fighting there since regime forces swept over the suburbs weeks ago. The clashes highlight the shifting nature of Syria’s conflict, with rebels lying in wait.
UN / Arab League Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan briefed the UN Security Council from Geneva on Friday about his upcoming humanitarian fact-finding mission to Syria.
Afghanistan’s president called for U.S. and other foreign forces in Afghanistan to leave villages in the country and move to larger bases instead, according to Hamid Karzai’s office.
U.S. funding for Egyptian military to resume, senior administration officials say The Obama administration intends to resume funding for Egypt’s military, despite congressional restrictions and objections from human rights groups.
The Egyptian Football Association (EFA), acting on instructions of the interior ministry, has cancelled the rest of this season’s league matches.
Iran has stepped up its efforts to monitor, filter and block content on the Internet by forming a separate legal body to deal with online censorship.
Israel on Friday took its concern about Iran’s nuclear programme to one of Iran’s main partners, China, and hinted it could launch a preemptive attack on the Islamic Republic despite repeated calls by China to allow diplomacy.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is booking the most tankers in years to supply the U.S., a sign the kingdom is fulfilling a pledge to compensate for a decline in Iranian sales, according to Dahlman Rose & Co.
Syria’s Kurds appear divided and unsure whether to join the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad as they marked the anniversary of bloody clashes between the Kurdish minority and security forces in 2004. Syria’s Kurds live mostly in the north-eastern border region with Iraq and Turkey, and make up 10-15% of the population.
Protesters demonstrating outside of the Yemeni capital of Sana’a are demanding that outgoing president Ali Abdullah Saleh, as well as many of his compatriots, face trial.
Political campaigns and international issues have a way of garnering human interest across the social networks. March 15th, 2011, anti government protests started in Syria and thus ensued constant violence between the government of Syria and protestors.
With financial sanctions against it getting tighter and tighter and the drums of war beating louder and louder, Iran appears to be getting proactive — at least on the food front. As Reuters reports, Tehran is busy stockpiling grain in anticipation of the sanctions’ effect on daily life. Food shipments are not targeted under western sanctions aimed at Iran’s disputed nuclear program, but financial measures have frozen Iranian firms out of much of the global banking system.
US imports of Saudi oil hit 1.5 million bpd in the first 10 weeks of 2012, up 300,000 bpd from the fourth quarter of 2011 (FILE).
Thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Bahrain on Friday to mark the one-year anniversary of the military raid on the capital’s Pearl Square, the epicenter of last year’s Shiite uprising in the Gulf kingdom.
Muslim Brotherhood says Turkey should lead in Syria. Mohammad Riad Shakfa, leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhoo, has said he would give priority to any initiative led by Turkey, a country that he described as the region’s most powerful player, in finding a way out of the “chaos” in Syria.
A source in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has claimed that the Emirates’ judiciary is still refusing to accept legal cases on behalf of the seven political reformists who were stripped of their citizenship last month.
Egypt’s Islamist-dominated parliament unanimously voted in support of expelling Israel’s ambassador in Cairo and halting gas exports to the Jewish state. The motion is largely symbolic, because only the ruling military council can make such decisions.
Hundreds of Egyptians rallied in Cairo today to protest the recent acquittal of a military doctor charged with forcing “virginity tests” on female activists. Protesters carried pictures of Samira Ibrahim, the young female activist who went public about the tests.
While participating in a panel on freedom of expression, Muslim Brother and MP Helmy al-Gazzar said that all citizens should be guaranteed the right to practice their own faiths.“Islam provides freedom of Religion,” he said.
(UPI) – Both parties to the conflict in Syria should lay down their arms in an effort to find a political solution to the conflict, the leader of Hezbollah said.
A member of the Muslim Brotherhood announced a decision to formally back a presidential candidate in Egypt, a decision that goes against the movement’s pledges.
Khairat el-Shater, a leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and an alleged advocate for moderation and modernization, says that recent elections have proved that Egyptians want an explicitly Islamic state.
The International Monetary Fund on Saturday urged donors to meet their aid pledges to the Palestinian Authority, warning that unless funding was forthcoming it would be forced to cut public wages and social benefits to address a deepening fiscal crisis.
Gaza militant group Islamic Jihad seeks to create a balance of terror with Israel, a senior member of its military wing has told AFP in an exclusive interview.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s suggested humanitarian buffer zone for refugees in Syria could prove a turning point in the conflict.
Egypt denied Friday a U.S. arms shipment headed to the Suez Canal would be unloaded in the country.
Witnesses say thousands of Libyans at a rally in an eastern city to press for an autonomous region came under attack by armed men wielding rifles and knives.
Officials marked the anniversary of the 1988 gassing of thousands of Kurds by handing local authorities the rope used to hang Saddam Hussein’s henchman who ordered the attack.
The foreign ministers of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya say their countries plan to increase border controls and boost cooperation to fight terrorism, drug running and organized crime.
The US said it is concerned about Iranian cargo flights over Iraq to Syria, saying it has warned Iraq they might contain arms that could be used by Damascus to crush protests.
Lebanon’s Druze chief Walid Jumblatt openly sided with the anti-regime camp in Syria on Friday as he marked the 35th anniversary of his father’s assassination, which he has blamed on Damascus.
The French military experience in Algeria 50 years ago has left an indelible mark on a new generation of US officers, who have tried to apply the lessons of the conflict to the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Fifty years after losing the Algerian war, France is still suffering fallout from a conflict that shamed its armed forces and fuels bitter political rows even in its latest election battle.
Algerias opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy elected its spokesman Mohcine Belabbas as its new leader at a conference in the capital.
Rumors of a papal trip to Lebanon have been confirmed by the head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, which will welcome Pope Benedict XVI at the start of his Sept. 14-16 visit.
In latest video, Ayman al-Zawahiri asks Pakistanis to follow example of Muslims in Egypt and Tunisia.
The UN and Arab League envoy on Syria, Kofi Annan, says he is sending a team to Damascus to discuss setting up a new international monitoring mission. After briefing the Security Council about his peace efforts, Annan renewed calls for an end to fighting.
An official report said Bahrain businesses incurred about USD800 million in losses due to the civil unrest Bahrain saw over the past 12 months, local media reported.
(AP) During a sermon last week at Bahrain’s Grand Mosque, the pro-government prayer leader offered sweeping praise for one of the Arab Spring’s counter-revolutions: Gulf rulers bonding together against dissent with powerful Saudi Arabia as their main guardian.
The five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Morocco met behind closed doors on Tuesday to discuss a U.S.-drafted resolution urging an end to the Syrian government’s crackdown on demonstrators.
The Bangladesh government launched a large-scale investigation into the killing of a Saudi diplomat who was shot in Dhaka early yesterday morning.
A very debated issue in the era of social connectivity concerns the impact that new communication tools have on younger generations. The nature of this impact particularly interests the Arab world where an immense and growing number of the many young citizens of the region use social medias (1 million Facebook users only in Jeddah) to connect with others, share knowledge and be heard.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday offered a rare $1 million reward for information leading to the safe return of its former agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 and is believed to be held hostage in the area.
Senior Hamas official says if Israel strikes Iran, Hamas will not take part in fighting, the Guardian reports.
Turkey’s prime minister on Tuesday promised to protect the country’s largest religious minority after 25 houses mostly belonging to Alevi Muslims were vandalized, raising fears for their safety.
A top US general said Tuesday he plans to visit Pakistan in 10 days for talks that he hopes will reopen the border to supply convoys for NATO troops in Afghanistan.
(Reuters) – The Yemeni branch of al Qaeda said Tuesday it attacked a U.S. intelligence officer after U.S. soldiers were sent to the country, whose new leader has vowed to fight the militant Islamist group. In a statement posted on an Islamist website.
Al-Qaeda gunmen have killed a soldier on the edge of Yemen’s southwestern city of Bayda, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday, two days after a massive assault by the extremists in Abyan killed 185 troops, according to the latest death toll.
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Tuesday it was only a matter of time before Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad left office, but added it was a mistake to think the U.S. could take unilateral action there.
The Turkish prime minister called Tuesday for the immediate opening of paths to provide humanitarian aid in neighboring Syria and condemned the regime for its heavy-handed treatment of dissidents, according to news reports.
Syrian troops shelled a southern village and clashed with army defectors holed up inside in violence that killed a 15-year-old boy and five government soldiers, activists said Tuesday. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad faces growing pressure for blocking humanitarian aid and human rights abuses, with the UN humanitarian chief set to visit the country this week and the broadcast of harrowing pictures said to show torture.
Syria’s two most powerful backers, Russia and China, have started to edge away from their defense of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while U.S. Senator John McCain called for U.S.-led airstrikes to stop his “savagery.” Russia and China reported Bloomberg.
The head of a group that has government permission to seek to promote religious teachings in Tunisia says he will use persuasion and protest but not violence to encourage Islamic behaviour in one of the Arab world’s most secular countries.
Tourism in Egypt and Tunisia plunged more than 30 percent last year amid the popular upheavals sweeping the Arab world, said Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
As the debate on the Tunisian constitution kicked off, Constituent Assembly deputies ventured into one of the most divisive issues of the national debate – Tunisia’s identity and the place of religion reports Euroasia.
(Reuters) – The most senior Algerian official to visit Libya since its revolution promised on Monday that members of Muammar Gaddafi’s family given refuge on Algerian soil will not be allowed to meddle in Libyan affairs.
Libyan Muslim Brotherhood to field legitimate political party in June elections set for post-Gaddafi Libya.
(Jordan Times) – An Egyptian pipeline carrying gas to Jordan and Israel was bombed on Monday, the 13th such attack since president Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011, witnesses said.
Egypt is trying jumpstart its economically vital tourism industry by attracting western vacationers again. But the security situation and talk of alcohol and bikini bans are complicating the effort.
The United States is “fully supportive” of the efforts exerted by the Egyptian people to build a democratic system and is looking forward to continue the “strategic partnership” with the incoming government, a top U.S. official told Al Arabiya.
American democracy workers who face charges in Egypt of stoking unrest are meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called Monday for eliminating the government of Iran if it blocks passage through a key oil route in the Middle East.
The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council said Tuesday that they have accepted an offer to resume negotiations with officials in Tehran.
Iran says it will allow U.N. inspectors access to a secret military complex where the U.N. nuclear agency suspects secret atomic work has been carried out.
Bahrain is in talks to import an average of 400 million cubic feet per day (cfd) gas from Russia’s Gazprom through a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal expected to open by 2015.
Trade Arabia cited Dr Abdulhussain Mirza energy minister of Bahrain as saying that 21 power stations will be built across Bahrain this year at a cost of BHD 165.5 million. Mr Mirza said that the projects directorate has started operating two 220V stations.
France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy promised on Tuesday that if re-elected his second foreign visit would be to Israel and the Palestinian territories to push a European peace initiative.”I hope that France, and behind France all of Europe, take the initiative so that 2012 can be the year of peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” Sarkozy said, in a television interview on his re-election campaign as reported by France 24.
Moscow denies its refusal to condemn the Assad regime more forcefully was driven by election politics requiring Putin to appear tough.
Former Egyptian vice president Omar Suleiman is likely to declare his candidacy for president before nominations officially begin on March 10, his media coordinator told Al Arabiya on Monday. Marwa Munir said a campaign supporting the former intelligence chief – who was named vice president.
Libyans in east seek federalism. Libya’s political leaders oppose idea, fearing it could lead to a break-up of the country.
Tough new US sanctions against Iran are raising concern that the OPEC member’s insurers may not be able to pay Western claims in the event of an accident, but Iran’s main ship insurer said it is confident it would be able to.
(AP) – The German government says it has summoned Iran’s ambassador to press for the release of a pastor sentenced to death for converting to Christianity.
(AP) – A Russian bank has closed the accounts of employees at the Iranian Embassy in Moscow, prompting an angry reaction from them.
Gravestones were smashed and overturned at Benghazi Military Cemetery where soldiers who died during the second world war are buried.
(AP) – China is offering a proposal to end the violence in Syria, calling for an immediate end to all violence and talks by all the parties but standing fast against any intervention by outside forces.
(UPI) – Iran and Russia’s only choice is to join the international opposition to President Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, Turkish President Abdullah Gul says.
The Red Cross pressed efforts on Saturday to deliver desperately needed aid to the vanquished Syrian rebel stronghold of Baba Amr in Homs after a blocked first attempt sparked an international outcry.
A senior Hamas official in Gaza said on Saturday the Palestinian Islamist movement is not taking sides in the conflict between the regime and the insurgency in Syria. “Our position on Syria is the same as on other Arab revolutions,” said Mahmud Zahar.
The bodies of two Western journalists killed in the bombardment of Syria’s Homs were handed over to diplomats in Damascus on Saturday. Meanwhile a suicide car bomb exploded Saturday in a southern Syrian city known as the birthplace of the country’s uprising, and casualties were reported, the state-run news agency said.
Iran is increasing its level of support to Syrias forces as they continue their brutal crackdown against opposition strongholds, The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing three unnamed US officials.Citing intelligence reports.
Turkey said Saturday that the international failure to agree on action over Syria is emboldening the government crackdown that has killed thousands, calling the violence a crime against humanity on the scale of Balkans.
(Reuters) – Suicide bombers linked to al Qaeda detonated two vehicles laden with explosives at two military outposts outside the southern Yemeni city of Zinjibar on Sunday, killing at least six soldiers, local officials and residents said.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said that the government was determined to solve the rest of the problems of religious minorities in Turkey.
A Turkish human-rights group has accused authorities of trying to block an investigation into suspected extrajudicial killings by security forces in the Kurdish region of the country.
Ex-CIA Chief admits the US created stuxnet virus to attack Irans nuclear programs.
Libyan Islamists and independents have formed a new political party and elected a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood on Saturday as its leader after a three-day conference.
(Jordan Times) – His Majesty King Abdullah said the Arab Spring is a call for dignity, justice and freedom, and that there is no going back on the legitimate aspirations of the people.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says the inability of international leaders and aid workers to alleviate “systematic murder of innocent civilians” in Syria “challenges all the promises of the international community that they are responsible .
Tajikistan blocked local access to Facebook and two Russian-language sites that published an article critical of its long-serving president on Saturday, representatives of two Internet providers said.
(Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on opponents bears the hallmarks of war crimes and his violent repression is damaging the chances of a negotiated peace, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday.
A suicide attack has killed a police officer and wounded eight others, including a local politician, in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.
Reporters Without Borders condemns the many direct physical attacks by police on journalists that took place when the media were filming their use of violence and tear-gas to disperse a demonstration organized by the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) in Tunis.
(Reuters) – Libya’s leadership has apologised after armed men smashed the graves of British and Italian soldiers killed during World War Two, in an act of vandalism that bore the hallmarks of radical Islamists.
The GCC today voiced deep concerns over incessant Iranian interference in the internal affairs of the Gulf states. Convened in Riyadh, 122nd session of the GCC ministerial council .
Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, a major reformist figure, has announced that he will soon make a public explanation for his decision to cast a vote in Friday’s parliamentary elections.
An Al-Qaeda splinter group wants 30 million euros ($39 million) to free three European aid workers kidnapped in Algeria in October, a Malian source close to the mediators said on Saturday.
(Reuters) – The United States on Saturday reaffirmed its backing for Egypt’s efforts to get a $3.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, despite the recent diplomatic standoff between Washington and Cairo over American pro-democracy activists.
Egypt’s parliament and senate will appoint a panel to draft a new constitution on March 24, the speaker said on Saturday, in what will likely be a tug of war between the dominant Islamists and liberals.
The United States remains committed to strong ties with Egypt, a US official said Saturday, after tensions over the treatment of US activists who had been barred from leaving Cairo.
Algeria’s prime minister vowed on Sunday to eradicate terrorism, a day after a suicide bomber crashed an explosives-laden car into a police station in the remote Algerian desert.
A Tehran court has reportedly sentenced a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer to 18 years in prison for spreading anti-government propaganda.
Commander of a Libyan militia that has detained two British journalists working for Iran’s English-language Press TV said Sunday.
Iran’s influential supervisory Guardians Council has confirmed that no international observers will be permitted to monitor Friday’s parliamentary elections. Iran held farce elections vetted by an unelected Guardian Council handpicked by the unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei put on a mass propaganda circus show. Guardian Council reported 67% of Iranians voted it appears the regime failed to win the 90+ percent in neighboring pre Arab Spring nations. Reporters were bused in, confined and were under immense pressure.
Iran has made a rare purchase of U.S. wheat as it tries to build its food stockpiles amid tougher sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe. The U.S. Agriculture Department reported on Thursday that Iran bought 120,000 tons of U.S. wheat.
(Reuters) – India’s exporters have begun receiving the first rupee payments from Iran, Indian government and trade sources said on Thursday, kicking off a mechanism to skirt Western sanctions which have made doing business with Tehran.
Syria’s opposition has formed a military council to oversee and organize armed rebels within the country under a unified leadership, Syrian National Council (SNC) leader Burhan Ghalioun said Thursday.“
Libyan forces who battled Moamer Kadhafi’s troops in 2011 committed war crimes and are still targeting alleged backers of the dead dictator and minority groups, a draft United report published on Friday said.
Libya`s Muslim Brotherhood teamed up with other Islamists to establish a new political party that is set to be a leading player in the country`s first elections.
Egypt’s parliament is to probe and “hold accountable” anyone who intervened to allow foreign activists on trial to leave the country, the house speaker said on Saturday.
Egypt’s parliament and senate began a joint session on Saturday to appoint a panel to draft a new constitution in what will likely turn into a tug of war between the dominant Islamists and liberals. The constitution will replace the one suspended by the ruling generals when they assumed as reported by Al Arabiya.
Algerian oppossition will not boycott elections. The decision ended a 15-year boycott and lends credibility to government promises that the a parliamentary vote on May 10 will be more democratic than in the past.
(AP) – President Barack Obama delivered his most explicit threat yet that the United States will attack Iran if that’s what it takes to prevent it from developing a nuclear bomb. At the same time, he warned Israelis they would only make a bad situation worse if they moved pre-emptively against Iranian nuclear facilities.
(AP) – The younger sister of Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday failed to win a parliamentary seat in Ahmadinejad’s hometown as the president’s conservative rivals won a big portion of the seats in early returns.
A provocative resolution by an American congressman calling for the secession of Pakistan’s largest province has gone virtually unnoticed by much of the international media, but it has caused an uproar in Pakistan.
Egyptian lawmakers are meeting in Cairo to decide who will write the country’s new constitution, a debate focusing on the role of Islamists in constructing the document.
Yemeni official: Suspected al-Qaida suicide bombers target army camp, kill 1 soldier,
Qatar’s stance towards the Arab uprising has stemmed from the belief that deep and comprehensive reforms are vital, HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani has said.
The Arab Spring uprisings last year brought no increase in the number of women in the region’s parliaments, a UN report said Friday.
The MB rejects comments by Sen. John McCain about their “constructive role” in securing exit of indicted US NGO workers from Egypt; Brotherhood leaders insist judicial decisions be made without political interference. Egypt’s ruling military comes under fire for failing to stick by what initially seemed a resolute stance in the case of illegal funding of foreign NGOs operating in Egypt.
Barry Rubin writes The new Middle East strategic battle is heating up and this is only the start. It has nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with two more serious lines of battle: Arabs versus Persians and Sunni versus Shia Muslims.
(A.A) – The head of Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Riyad Sukfa, said Friday that the position taken by Turkey against the Syrian regime was “an ethical” one which would benefit the Syrian people.
The Associated Press reported on Thursday that two more American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by an Afghan soldier. This increases to six the number of American soldiers killed by our supposed Afghan allies in the past two weeks alone.
The Syrian government blocked a Red Cross convoy Friday from delivering badly needed food, medical supplies and blankets to a rebellious neighborhood of Homs cut off by a monthlong siege.
Sudanese opposition parties condemned pressures by Islamlists parties and groups to adopt an Islamic constitution in Sudan after the secession of South Sudan last July.Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood, Salafi Ansar Al-Suna, the far-right.
Concern about cyberterrorism was evident this week among security experts at the RSA security conference, who find that some people with extremist views have the technical knowledge that could be used to hack into systems
After decades of producing sharply worded critiques of the former regime, Om Zied isn’t quieting down in the new Tunisia, or even dulling her verbal blade. ‘Cavemen’ is the word she used on the radio a couple of months ago to describe the ultra-conservative.
(AP) – Turkey says a lack of international consensus over Syria is emboldening the government there to proceed with a crackdown that has killed thousands of people.
A gunman opened fire on an American security team that was training Yemeni soldiers, the Pentagon said Friday, but denied claims by a militant Islamist group that a C.I.A. officer had been killed.
The National Court announced Friday that it had ordered Hussein Salem, a former Egyptian army and intelligence officer, to be extradited to Egypt along with his son.
Thai police is seeking a fifth suspect and New Delhi is scrutinizing the telephone calls made to the Middle East around the time of the attacks.
At least 26 civilians were killed in Syria on Friday as tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to demand President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, a watchdog said.”The toll of martyrs from Popular Resistance Friday has reached 26 civilians,”
In an article he wrote before his death on Thursday, Mr. Shadid examined how a party shaped by repression hopes to act as a regional model after being voted into power in Tunisia as reported by NYTimes.com
(UPI) – Egyptian political activists said they have formed a “revolutionary council” focused on achieving and realizing the 2011 revolution’s goals and aspirations.
An international human-rights organization said Saudi Arabia has reversed its decision to allow women to participate in the London 2012 Olympics.
Iran’s nuclear ambitions could plunge the world into “a new Cold War” with the Middle East, Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned. He predicted a nuclear arms race among rival Middle Eastern states that would carry the dangers without the safety.
SWIFT to ban Iran after pressure from United States on Belgium-based international financial transactions firm to block Iranian banks from network; SWIFT waiting for “clarity” on EU legislation.
Two Iranian warships sailed from the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean the first such trip in at least three decades, eliciting Israeli charges that Tehran is seeking to dominate the Middle East.
Israel has reached a $1 billion preliminary deal to buy 30 Italian military training jets, Israeli defense said.
Syrian troops intensively shelled rebel-held neighborhoods in the restive central city of Homs Friday and killed at least five people, activists said.
An international banking clearinghouse crucial to Iran’s oil sales said Friday that it is preparing to discontinue services to Iranian financial institutions, an unprecedented and potentially devastating blow to Tehran as the West ramps up a campaign to stop its nuclear program.
An American antiwar activist and another Westerner who were leading a women’s protest were detained by the police in the capital, Manama, on Friday.
After winning elections, members of Tunisia’s Ennahda Party have a chance to apply their belief that faith and democracy are compatible, a concept shaped by decades of struggle, theoretical debates and exile.
The Obama administration is trying to shrink market for Iranian oil to deprive Tehran of funds for its nuclear program.
Saudi Arabia mosques called for an end to the bloodbath in Syria, where innocent people are being killed mercilessly.
A senior Israeli official accused Iran’s shadowy Quds Force on Friday of masterminding a string of attacks on Israeli diplomats abroad this week, fleshing out allegations denied by Tehran.
Turkey’s Parliament voted late to stop prosecutors questioning spies without the prime minister’s permission, after a row which analysts said revealed divisions inside the state on ending the war with Kurdish militants.
Upheaval in Egypt hit Jordan’s trade deficit last year, helping it widen by 21 percent to 7.3 billion dinars ($10.3 billion) by cutting off cheap gas supplies, official data showed.
Iran’s top oil buyers in Europe are making substantial cuts in supply months in advance of European Union sanctions, reducing flows to the continent in March by more than a third — or more than 300,000 barrels daily, industry sources said.
European Union lawmakers approved a new trade deal with Morocco that will significantly extend duty-free sales of agricultural, food and fisheries products between the North African kingdom and the 27-nation bloc.
A sharp rise in trading turnover shows money is pouring back into Middle Eastern stock markets, after a year in which the global financial crisis and political turmoil in the Arab world kept most markets depressed.
After years of attacking the West, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is now courting Western businesses to help revive the country’s sick economy.
Bahrain announced the deportation of four foreign activists for “taking part in illegal demonstrations,” bringing to 12 the number expelled over the past week.
US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon will travel to Israel on Saturday for talks with senior Israeli officials on a range of issues, including Iran and Syria, the White House announced.
Qatar pressed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Thursday to sign a power transfer deal “without delay” after prolonged protests against his rule, and a U.N. envoy on a mission to resolve the crisis met opposition leaders in Sanaa.
Saleh has repeatedly backed out of signing the accord first proposed by the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council in April to help defuse an uprising that has brought the impoverished Arab country to the verge of civil war.
Ten months of unrest has weakened central government control in Yemen and allowed Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda to seize control of swathes of territory.
“We call on the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to immediately sign the Gulf initiative without delay,” Qatar’s QNA news agency quoted Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani as saying in the Moroccan capital Rabat on Wednesday.
Qatar, a Gulf Arab state with huge gas reserves and home to the influential Al Jazeera satellite channel, has played a key role in diplomatic efforts to end the crisis in Syria. It also participated in a NATO-led mission to protect civilians in Libya that helped topple strongman Muammar Gaddafi in August.
Saleh has recently chided Qatar, without mentioning it by name, as a small country of little importance.
U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar met opposition leader Mohammed Salem Basandwa in Sanaa in an effort to end the 10-month crisis. Officials said Benomar was expected to meet representatives of Saleh later in the day to try to bridge the gap between the two sides.
Ahmed Obaid bin Dagher, a senior leader of Saleh’s ruling People’s Congress party, was quoted as saying that Yemen was close to a resolution of the crisis.
The 26 September newspaper of the Yemeni armed forces quoted bin Dagher as saying he was convinced that “we are reaching an end to the crisis, and there is no way out except through an agreement between the concerned parties.”
Saleh has said he is ready to sign the accord once an agreement is reached on what he called an operational mechanism for implementing the Arab deal. It calls for the president to hand over powers to his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who will set up a unity government and prepare for early elections.
But Saleh has also said he wants to stay on as president until an election for a new head of state is held, a demand rejected by the opposition.
Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, a prominent anti-Saleh tribal leader whose followers have fought pitched battles with Yemeni government forces, said he opposed giving Saleh or any of his aides immunity from prosecution under the Gulf peace initiative.
“We want a solution for Yemen, not for Saleh,” his website quoted him as saying during a meeting with the U.S. ambassador in Sanaa on Wednesday.
A local newspaper reported on Thursday that three armed men, including one Syrian and one Egyptian, were killed in a clash with Yemeni troops in Abyan province on Wednesday.
VIA Reuters
The Arab League has moved a step closer to imposing economic sanctions on Syria while army defectors took the armed struggle against President Bashar al-Assad to a new level by attacking an intelligence complex on the edge of Damascus.
Further intensifying the international pressure on Assad to end his repression of eight months of protests, France withdrew its ambassador from Syria and Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Paris was working with the Arab League on a draft U.N. resolution.
Western countries have tightened sanctions on Syria and on Monday Jordan’s King Abdullah became the first Arab head of state to urge Assad to quit.
The Syrian army defectors attacked an intelligence complex on the edge of Damascus in a high-profile assault early on Wednesday that showed how close the popular uprising against Assad’s rule now is to sliding into armed conflict.
Last month Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Damascus, but the Arab League’s decision last weekend to suspend Syria has given international moves new momentum.
On the day the suspension came into force, the League’s foreign ministers met in the Moroccan capital with a Syrian flag next to an empty chair where the Syrian minister, who boycotted the meeting, would have sat.
The League — which normally shies away from decisive action against its members — decided to ask its experts to draft recommendations on economic sanctions on Syria.
The decision brought a plan announced at the weekend one step closer to implementation.
The Arab foreign ministers also gave Damascus three days to implement a road map agreed this month to end the bloodshed and allow in observers, though they did not say what would happen if Syria failed to comply.
Asked if the ultimatum was a last attempt at diplomacy, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim al-Thani told reporters: “We do not want to talk about a last-ditch attempt because I do not want this to sound like a warning.
“What I can say is that we are close to the end of the road as far as the (League’s) efforts on this front are concerned.”
The Arab League has stopped short of calling for Assad’s departure or proposing any Libya-style military intervention, but its ostracism of Syria is a blow to a country whose ruling Baath party puts Arab nationalism at the center of its credo.
In Damascus, Assad supporters threw stones at the embassy of the United Arab Emirates, in one of the most secure districts of the city, and smeared its walls with graffiti, witnesses said.
VIA Reuters