Excerpts: UN, not France, is mediating on Shebaa Farms.Hamas threat to take
over West Bank.Dubai slowdown predicted.Kuwaiti national food plan 6 August
2008

+++THE DAILY STAR (Lebanon) 6 Aug.'08:"Parent says France not mediating over
Shebaa"
FULL TEXT:BEIRUT: French Ambassador to Lebanon Andre Parent dismissed on
Tuesday(5 Aug.) speculation that the French are mediating over the fate of
the occupied Shebaa Farms. "This dossier is being handled by the UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon," he said following a meeting with former
President Amine Gemayel, "and France encourages the efforts he is making
with all parties to achieve progress on this issue." He added in a statement
on Tuesday that UN experts have finished their work drawing the northern
border of Lebanon, saying: "Results have been handed over to all concerned
parties." The ambassador added that he "thinks" Lebanon has replied to a
letter from the UN secretary general about the work of the UN experts

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 6 Aug.'08:"Hamas warns of uprising against
Fatah",Mohammed
Mar'i
RAMALLAH/GAZA CITY: A senior Hamas official in Gaza City warned yesterday(5
Aug.) that his Islamic group could overrun the West Bank, just as it took
over Gaza, if provoked by its rivals in Fatah. The official, Sami Abu Zuhri,
spoke as tensions between the two groups remained high following a bombing
that killed five Hamas members in Gaza and a Hamas sweep that ended with 11
dead and dozens wounded, most of them from Fatah.
Abu Zuhri told reporters that Fatah should expect "an uprising" against them
if they continued a crackdown against Hamas there. A West Bank Fatah
official responded that Hamas was issuing empty threats. After Hamas
expelled Fatah forces from Gaza in June 2007, President Mahmoud Abbas set up
a government in the West Bank. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but
maintains a large military presence and overall security control in the West
Bank. Abu Zuhri's remarks reflected Hamas' increasingly tough stance toward
Fatah, after it routed the Fatah-linked Hilles clan in Gaza over the
weekend. . . .

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 6 Aug.'08:"Dubai property prices face 10 percent
drop",Reuters-
DUBAI: Dubai property prices, which have surged 79 percent since the start
of 2007, are likely to fall 10 percent by 2010 as supply of real estate
units outpaces demand in the Gulf emirate, Morgan Stanley said yesterday(5
Aug.).
A sharper correction in Dubai's real estate sector could have a ripple
effect on its neighbors in the Middle East, with shares of 12 regional
property firms dropping an average 35 percent, Morgan Stanley said in a
research note.. . .

+++ARAB NEWS (Saudi) 6 Aug.'08:"Economy Briefs: Kuwait rents rice farms in
Cambodia"
EXCERPTS:KUWAIT: Kuwait has leased rice fields in Cambodia and plans to
import food from the Asian country, a government official said (Aug. 5)
Soaring food prices are a key driver of inflation in Kuwait, hitting 11
percent in April and May. Kuwait imports most of its food and has said it
wants to invest in chicken and other farms as part of a national food plan.
... the rice fields would meet the Gulf Arab state's food demand.. . .
====================================================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA