Excerpts: Shiite/Sunni tensions continue in Lebanon.Jordan/Russian weapons
production.US gives $10.1 million to Lebanon educational institutions,Gulf
States are Iranian "Mecca",Hamas/Fateh 29 July 2008

+++JORDAN TIMES 28 July '08:"Hundreds homeless after battles in Lebanon"
EXCERPTS:TRIPOLI (AFP) - Hundreds of people were still homeless on 27 July
after the latest bout of deadly sectarian fighting in the northern Lebanese
port city of Tripoli.
"The army has barred residents from returning to some areas because there
are unexploded grenades from the fighting and the troops are defusing them
one by one," a security official told AFP.
Army reinforcements were sent to Tripoli on Saturday after fighters from the
rival Sunni Muslim and Alawite (Shiite) communities agreed to halt clashes
that erupted early 25 July, killing nine people and wounding dozens more.
Fighters battled with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons
causing massive damage to property and sending hundreds of people fleeing
for cover from the neighbouring districts of Bab Al Tebbaneh and Jabal
Mohsen.. . .
Tensions between the two communities date back to Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil
war. Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

+++JORDAN TIMES 29 July '08:"Russian RPGs to be built in Kingdom" Mohammad
Ghazal, Reuters
SUBJECT:Jordan to produce Russian anti-tank portable grenade launchers.

EXCERPTS:AMMAN/MOSCOW - A new generation of portable Russian grenade
launchers that can fire multisized rounds and punch through tank armour will
be built in Jordan starting next year.
King Abdullah Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) Chairman and CEO
Muayyad Samman said 28 July the project is a venture with a joint
Jordanian-Russian company that was established last year.. . ."The factory
will be a strategic project that seeks to transfer the technology to Jordan,
provide the Jordan Armed Forces with its needs of this weapon, export to
other markets, create jobs and bring in hard currency into the Kingdom,"
Samman said.
Reuters reported Monday that talks to produce the Hashim RPG-32, a
shoulder-fired grenade launcher, had been going on since 2007 when the
company demonstrated the weapon for His Majesty King Abdullah.
A joint operation created by Russia and Jordan is planning to start RPG-32
production in Jordan effective next year. After that, Jordan will be able to
sell its production independently," Vladimir Korenkov, director of Russian
defence contractor Bazalt, told the agency.
The Hashim, which can fire both large armour-piercing and smaller
people-killing projectiles, was listed by the US army this year as part of
its intelligence brief on "Asymmetrical Threats to Current and Future US
Forces", according to the news agency.
Bazalt representatives said the Hashim can destroy any armoured vehicle at
up to 700 metres, Reuters indicated.
During the 2006 Lebanese-Israeli war, Israel said its high armour losses
were in part connected to Lebanese resistance using Russian anti-tank RPG-29
grenade launchers manufactured by Bazalt and supplied by Iran, the agency
said.
The Kingdom has financed development of the Hashim launcher since 2005,
although development and manufacturing has been overseen entirely by Bazalt
specialists, a company representative said according to Reuters.
The Jordanian factory will assemble the Hashims from parts delivered from
Russia. Partial production will take place in Jordan, Reuters reported.

+++THE DAILY STAR (Jebanon)29 July '08:"USAID hands LAU over $1.6 million in
scholarship aid"
QUOTE:"Through USAID, the United States has provided a total of $10.1
million to five educational institutions in Lebanon in 2008
FULL TEXT:BEIRUT: The United States Agency for International Development
(USAID) presented last week scholarship assistance checks totaling
$1,652,434 to the Lebanese American University (LAU), a statement by the
university said Monday. LAU assistant vice president for financial affairs,
Emile Lamah, received the aid from USAID/Lebanon acting director Thomas
Staal Friday. This assistance is part of a $3.7 million grant to LAU in the
year 2008 and will aid over 410 qualified students. Through USAID, the US
has provided a total of $10.1 million to five educational institutions in
Lebanon in 2008, namely the American University of Beirut, LAU, Haigazian
University, the American Community School and International College

+++THE DAILY STAR (Lebanon)29 July '08:"For Iran and the Gulf states, a
pretty
good deal"
By Sadegh Zibakalam
QUOTE:"US trade embargo, has gradually turned (Dubai) ... into the main
trade center for Iran"

There are no official records of the number of Iranians who have immigrated,
settled permanently, work or simply are living on and off in the Gulf
Cooperation Council states since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. We do know
however that there are about 40 weekly flights to Dubai alone from Tehran
and other major Iranian cities .... There are in addition daily flights to
Bahrain and Doha. ... more Iranians fly to Dubai than to the holy city of
Mashhad.
Who are the nearly 5,000 Iranians who fly weekly to the Gulf states ...
most important of all, they go to Dubai for business purposes.
The United States' trade embargo against Iran, recently compounded by United
Nations sanctions, has gradually turned this United Arab Emirates city into
the main trade center for Iran. Every commodity whose import to Iran falls
under the sanctions gets an official destination of Dubai, from where it is
shipped directly to an Iranian port or airport. The recent bank embargo
imposed by the European Union due to the nuclear dispute with Iran simply
means that Iranian companies and individuals maintain their financial
transactions through a third party that operates in Dubai.
It is estimated that the UAE economy is earning $2-5 billion annually
through the trade sanctions imposed by the West on Iran. Most of that is
actually earned by Iranians themselves who have made the UAE their second
homes....
Nor are there any difficulties in establishing a company or financial
establishment in Dubai or any other part of the GCC. It is estimated that
there are no fewer than 5,000 companies registered in Dubai alone that are
either partly or exclusively owned by Iranians. In fact, some of the large
Iranian companies operating in the Gulf States belong to Iranian government
departments.
It is also estimated that the Iranian private sector alone has transferred
more than $10 billion of its assets to the Gulf states, particularly Dubai.
The inclination on the part of wealthy Iranians to transfer part of their
capital to Dubai has intensified since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president
three years ago. Every time there are reports of a possible US or Israeli
military strike against Iran, additional affluent Iranians decide to
transfer funds to the Gulf states.. . .

The Gulf leaders for their part have implicitly welcomed the flow of Iranian
capital to their flourishing economies. They have also encouraged the
employment of thousands of Iranian professionals in their countries.
Hundreds of Iranian pilots, nurses, computer experts, engineers,
technicians, medical doctors, accountants and teachers are employed by
companies working in the Gulf states or even by those states' governments. .
. .

Sadegh Zibakalam is a professor of Iranian studies at Tehran University.
This commentary first appeared at bitterlemons-international.org, an online
newsletter.

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 29 July '08 :"Palestinian forces arrest 50 Hamas men in
WB",AFP
EXCERPTS:NABLUS, West Bank: Palestinian security forces arrested more than
50 Hamas members in the West Bank yesterday ...after the Islamist movement
rounded up hundreds of its rivals in the Gaza Strip.
Security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas carried out the
arrests ... against "those suspected of inciting civil strife," a
Palestinian security official told AFP.
...The wave of arrests came amid a widening Hamas crackdown in the Gaza
Strip in which more than 300 members of Abbas' Fatah party ...have been
detained in the past three days.
A senior security official...said 150 people, most of them Hamas members,
had been arrested in the past week ...In Gaza, meanwhile, Hamas continued to
raid homes, offices, sporting clubs and charities, most of them linked to
Fatah, and arrested dozens more people, a senior Fatah official told AFP on
condition of anonymity.
Hamas also halted distribution in Gaza of the three main Palestinian
newspapers . . .
=========================================================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA