Excerpts:Iran to hang 9 more protesters/Jordan rejects Human Rights Watch
report.Yemen rebels seek Saudi deal. Yemen rebels seek Saudi deal.Gaza-born
Fatah official visiting Gaza.Egyptian editor supports journalist
communicating with Israel. Afghan President seeks Saudi help. Britain
re-addresses response to terror.France says Lebanon situation back to normal
February 03, 2010
+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES 3 Feb.'10:"Iran to hang nine more over election
unrest", Reuters
QUOTE:
"the repression showed the 1979 Islamic revolution ...'had not achieved its
goals' "
FULL TEXT: TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday(2 Feb) it would soon hang
nine more rioters over the unrest that erupted after the June presidential
vote, and the leader of the opposition said such repression showed the 1979
Islamic revolution had failed.
"Nine others will be hanged soon. The nine, and the two who were hanged on
Thursday(28 Jan), were surely arrested in the recent riots and had links to
anti-revolutionary groups," said senior judiciary official Ebrahim Raisi,
the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The two men hanged last week were among a group of 11 people sentenced to
death on charges including "waging war against God" and being members of
armed groups.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, former prime minister, said on
Tuesday(2 Feb) the repression showed the 1979 Islamic revolution that
overthrew the US-backed Shah "had not achieved its goals".
"Filling the prisons and brutally killing protesters show that the root
of... dictatorship remain from the monarchist era," he said on his Kalemeh
website.
Influential cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati praised the hangings and urged
the judiciary on Friday to execute more.
"The cruel cleric praises the judiciary for the hangings despite serious
concerns over the methods used for getting confessions from detainees,"
Mousavi said.
Eight people, including a nephew of Mousavi, were killed in demonstrations
during the Shiite ritual of Ashura on December 27 and officials said over
1,000 were arrested.
"The 'green movement' will not abandon its peaceful fight... until people's
rights are preserved," Mousavi told the Kalemeh website. "Peaceful protests
are Iranians' right."
+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES 3 Feb.'10Gov't rejects HRW report as part of 'scheme
targeting Kingdom'"Hani Hazaimeh
FULL TEXT:AMMAN - The government on Tuesday(2 Feb) charged that a report
issued this week by Human Rights Watch (HRW) is "100 per cent politically
oriented".
The US-based watchdog has criticised Jordan for what it called revocation of
citizenship that has affected thousands of Jordanians of West Bank torigin.
"The report comes at a time when Jordan's political efforts are at their
peak to seek a fair and just solution to the Palestinian cause. Such a
report should focus on the reason behind Palestinian suffering instead of
attacking the victim [Jordan]," Minister of State for Media Affairs and
Communications and Government Spokesperson Nabil Sharif told reporters
following the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday.
In a 60-page report, titled "Stateless Again: Palestinian-Origin Jordanians
Deprived of their Nationality", HRW urged Amman to stop the practice and
give priority to human rights over politics.
The watchdog claimed that the authorities stripped more than 2,700 of these
Jordanians of their nationality between 2004 and 2008, and that the
practice continued in 2009.
The minister criticised Christoph Wilcke of the HRW's Middle East and North
Africa Division, who held a press conference to announce the findings of the
report Monday(1 Feb), for "inappropriate behaviour" during the conference.
Sharif said that the HRW official asked one of the attendants during the
press conference about his affiliation to Faisali or Wihdat.
The activist was referring to the two major football clubs that are
perceived to represent, respectively, Jordanians of East Bank origin and
those of Palestinian origin. The topic is considered a political taboo and
has legal consequences as bringing it up jeopardises national unity.
"This is completely rejected and it raises several question marks on the
organisation's actual objectives," the minister said, adding that Jordan
will not be deterred by "this campaign and will continue with its efforts
to support the Palestinians by all means available".
"Jordan has been calling and will continue to call for a just and peaceful
solution to the Palestinian issue based on a two-state solution, and the
rights of return and compensation for Palestinian refugees who were forced
to leave their homes and lands due to the Israeli occupation," Sharif said.
He added that Jordan will also demand its right to compensation for hosting
Palestinian refugees on its soil and the return of hundreds of thousand of
other Palestinians following the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.
Jordan is the largest host of Palestinian refugees, with at least 1.8
million registered with the UN.
Sharif said Jordan believes that the solution to all problems facing the
Palestinians, whether inside the occupied territories or outside, can only
be realised through the establishment of an independent and viable
Palestinian state.
He pointed out that His Majesty King Abdullah has "made clear on several
occasions that any solution to the Palestinian cause at the expense of
Jordan is rejected".
In a conversation during the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday, the
Monarch rejected talk of Jordan playing a role in the occupied West Bank,
stressing that the Kingdom does not even accept discussing such an idea.
His Majesty added that the only role Jordan will continue to play is to
support the Palestinians to establish their independent state on their
national soil.
He emphasised that the Kingdom will not accept to replace the Israeli army
in the West Bank with Jordanian troops, noting that what the Palestinians
want is their right to enjoy their independent state.
With regards to the HRW claims, Sharif said the Interior Ministry does not
have the legal authority to withdraw the nationality from any Jordanian
citizen, pointing out that the measures taken fall under a "status
rectification" that became necessary following the disengagement decision,
which, he said, came in response to demands by the Palestinians.
"All measures taken within the framework of the rectification status are
consistent with the 1988 decision to sever administrative and legal ties
with the West Bank and are done in coordination with the Palestinian
Authority and aim to protect the Palestinian identity," the minister
reiterated.
He underlined that there are currently around 280,000 yellow card holders
who are considered Jordanians (allowed to reside in the Kingdom and the
occupied territories) and "will remain as such, provided that they maintain
their Palestinian identity".
He added that Jordan is a free and open country that "runs its affairs with
utmost transparency". The Kingdom, he said, responds to such reports "with
facts and figures", stressing that "Jordanians and all Arabs have a high
sense of alertness and realise the actual reason behind such reports, which
target national unity".
+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES (3 Feb)"Yemen rebels say open to Saudi deal",
Reuters
QUOTE: Yemen-based regional wing of Al Qaeda could ...use it(Yemen) as a
base for more international attacks"
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's northern Shiite rebels said on Tuesday(2 Feb) they
were open to a prisoner swap with neighbouring Saudi Arabia if Riyadh was
committed to peace, but said the kingdom had carried out more air strikes
against them.Saudi Arabia declared victory over the rebels last week.
. . .."The issue of the Saudi prisoners is not an obstacle if there is a
will for peace. Perhaps the matter can be solved through a prisoner swap,"
the rebels said on their website.
Yemen, which is also pursuing a crackdown on Al Qaeda and struggling to
contain a southern secessionist movement, rejected on Sunday(31 Jan) a
ceasefire offer from the rebels, saying it did not include a promise to end
hostilities against Saudi Arabia, with which it shares a 1,500-kilometre
border.
Saudi Arabia had said rebel snipers were still entering Saudi territory. The
insurgents denied this and said the Saudi military was attacking them.
Saudi fighter jets carried out 24 strikes on 10 northern districts on
Monday(1 Feb) and fired more than 200 rockets and rounds of heavy artillery,
the rebels said on their website.
Yemen will next week start the trial of 35 Shiite rebels on terrorism and
sabotage charges, a defence ministry website said.
Growing instability in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is a serious
worry for Western powers and neighbouring countries. They fear the
Yemen-based regional wing of Al Qaeda, which claimed a failed December 25
bomb attack on a US-bound plane, could strengthen its operations there and
use it as a base for more international attacks.
The government also faces separatists in the south who complain of economic
and social marginalisation, a charge Sanaa denies.
Reforms needed
Diplomats say President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 31-year rule is tainted by
corruption and doubts about its democratic credentials.
Last week, Yemen promised Western and Arab donors gathered at a London
meeting to work on reforms and to start talks with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) on a programme to revamp the economy and fight poverty.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Abubakr Al Qirbi said the government's decision
to reduce fuel subsidies that were weighing on the economy was part of such
reforms.
Yemen's partners would support Sanaa but the government would have to make
economic and political changes, Ivan Lewis, Britain's minister of state in
the Foreign Office, said after meeting Qirbi and the president in Sanaa.
"In the long term, security and stability depend on getting the economy
moving, giving people decent services and having a political dialogue where
people of different political persuasion can at least agree on working
together in the interest of the country," Lewis told a news conference.
He also said Britain was helping Yemen to upgrade airport security to
eventually allow the lifting of a suspension of direct flights by state
carrier Yemenia to Britain, suspended last month on security grounds after
the failed December 25 attack.
+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES (3 Feb)"Yemen rebels say open to Saudi deal",
Reuters
QUOTE: Yemen-based regional wing of Al Qaeda could ...use it(Yemen) as a
base for more international attacks"
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's northern Shiite rebels said on Tuesday(2 Feb) they
were open to a prisoner swap with neighbouring Saudi Arabia if Riyadh was
committed to peace, but said the kingdom had carried out more air strikes
against them.Saudi Arabia declared victory over the rebels last week.
. . .."The issue of the Saudi prisoners is not an obstacle if there is a
will for peace. Perhaps the matter can be solved through a prisoner swap,"
the rebels said on their website.
Yemen, which is also pursuing a crackdown on Al Qaeda and struggling to
contain a southern secessionist movement, rejected on Sunday(31 Jan) a
ceasefire offer from the rebels, saying it did not include a promise to end
hostilities against Saudi Arabia, with which it shares a 1,500-kilometre
border.
Saudi Arabia had said rebel snipers were still entering Saudi territory. The
insurgents denied this and said the Saudi military was attacking them.
Saudi fighter jets carried out 24 strikes on 10 northern districts on
Monday(1 Feb) and fired more than 200 rockets and rounds of heavy artillery,
the rebels said on their website.
Yemen will next week start the trial of 35 Shiite rebels on terrorism and
sabotage charges, a defence ministry website said.
Growing instability in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, is a serious
worry for Western powers and neighbouring countries. They fear the
Yemen-based regional wing of Al Qaeda, which claimed a failed December 25
bomb attack on a US-bound plane, could strengthen its operations there and
use it as a base for more international attacks.
The government also faces separatists in the south who complain of economic
and social marginalisation, a charge Sanaa denies.
Reforms needed
Diplomats say President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 31-year rule is tainted by
corruption and doubts about its democratic credentials.
Last week, Yemen promised Western and Arab donors gathered at a London
meeting to work on reforms and to start talks with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) on a programme to revamp the economy and fight poverty.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Abubakr Al Qirbi said the government's decision
to reduce fuel subsidies that were weighing on the economy was part of such
reforms.
Yemen's partners would support Sanaa but the government would have to make
economic and political changes, Ivan Lewis, Britain's minister of state in
the Foreign Office, said after meeting Qirbi and the president in Sanaa.
"In the long term, security and stability depend on getting the economy
moving, giving people decent services and having a political dialogue where
people of different political persuasion can at least agree on working
together in the interest of the country," Lewis told a news conference.
He also said Britain was helping Yemen to upgrade airport security to
eventually allow the lifting of a suspension of direct flights by state
carrier Yemenia to Britain, suspended last month on security grounds after
the failed December 25 attack.
+++SOURCE: EGYPTIAN GAZETTE 3 Feb.'09:" Senior Fatah official visits
Hamas-run
Gaza", Associated Press
QUOTE:"member of [Fatah ]group . . . met with Gaza's Hamas P.M."
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A senior Fatah leader is visiting Gaza for the first
time since the territory was seized by Fatah's Islamic militant Hamas rivals
in 2007. Nabil Shaath, a Gaza native, said Wednesday(3 Feb) that his
three-day trip is meant to improve the atmosphere between the two factions.
Repeated attempts at reconciliation have failed.
Shaath handed his passport to Hamas border guards for registration, in a
symbolic recognition of Hamas authority. Shaath says the trip has the
blessing of Fatah's leader, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Shaath plans to meet Hamas leaders, but says he won't begin
reconciliation talks while in the territory. A member of Shaath's group,
West Bank businessman Munib al-Masri, met with Gaza's Hamas prime minister.
+++SOURCE: EGYPTIAN GAZETTE 3 Feb.'09:" Egyptian editor to defy union over
Israel ",Satff report
QUOTE:" 'Israeli jounalists can come here and meet with Egyptian officials .
. . .Why shouldn't Egyptian journalists do the same?' "
FULL TEXT:The editor of an Egyptian semi-official magazine Wednesday (3
Feb)vowed not to comply with a decision by the Egyptian Press Syndicate to
suspend a journalist at his magazine for communicating with Israel.
"I cannot prevent any journalist from writing because this punishment would
be tantamount to jailing for any journalist," said Magdi el-Daqaq, the
Editor-in-Chief of the weekly magazine October.
Egypt's Press Syndicate on Tuesday(2 Feb) decided to suspend Hussein
Seragfrom work for three months for dealing with Israel.
At a heated disciplinary meeting, board members of the independent union
said by visiting Israel and meeting with Israelis Serage, the deputy chief
editor of October had violated the codes of the union and that was why he
deserved to be suspended from work.
"These journalists should have been given harsher punishments," said
Gamal Abdel Reheem, a Press Syndicate board member.
"They've violated the rules of the General Assembly of the syndicate and
this isn't an easy matter," he told The Gazette in an interview.
The Press Syndicate decided years ago to bar the normalisation of
relations with Israel, a country that is still being viewed as an enemy to
many in this country even after it signed a peace treaty ," the first with
an Arab country ," with Egypt almost 30 years ago.
Serag was stunned by the decision and said he would sue the union for
preventing Egyptian journalists from communicating with Israeli people.
"Israeli journalists can come here and meet with Egyptian officials," he
said. "Why shouldn't Egypt's journalists do the same? The Syndicate must
reconsider its decisions," he told this newspaper in an interview.
Members of the union's board also warned Hala Moustafa, the editor of the
monthly magazine Democracy, for meeting with the Israeli Ambassador in Cairo
in her office months ago.
Moustafa's meeting with the Israeli diplomat made local headlines and was
treated as a disgracing affair to her.
+++SOURCE: SAUDI GAZETTE 3 Feb.'10:" [Afghan President]Karzai seeks Saudi
help
in peace bid"
QUOTE: " 'we hope... King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia will kindly play a role
to guide peace and assist the process' "
FULL TEXT:JEDDAH - Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has called for the
Kingdom's help in restoring peace to his country, arrived Tuesday(2 Feb) for
talks in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.. . .
He is to hold talks with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu before heading to Riyadh.
On Wednesday(3 Feb) Karzai is expected to meet King Abdullah, Custodian of
the Two Holy Mosques.
Karzai is believed to be seeking Saudi help in negotiating a peace with the
Taliban rebels as well development aid for Afghanistan.
"To make our program a success we hope that His Majesty King Abdullah of
Saudi Arabia will kindly play a role to guide peace and assist the process,"
he told an international conference on war-torn Afghanistan in London last
week.
Karzai won backing for a new peace and reconciliation program with the
Taliban at the London conference.
Saudi Arabia pledged an additional $150 million in aid to Afghanistan at
last week's London conference.
The Kingdom has urged Karzai to find a political solution to the Taliban
insurgency.
But Riyadh has also said repeatedly they will not deal with the Taliban as
long as the group helps protect Al-Qaeda.
Karzai, whose uncle Azizullah Karzai is the Afghan Ambassador to Riyadh, is
expected to stay in Saudi Arabia for three days. -
+++SOURCE: SAUDI GAZETTE 3 Feb./10:"MPs warn of 'inertia' in terrorism
fight",Reuters
QUOTES:"A report by the Home Affairs Committee called for all existing
counter-terrorism committees be merged into a singlr National Security
committe"; "Home Secretary...'I totally refute the unsubstantiated and
wholly inaccuate claims in this inadequate report' "
LONDON - MPs called Tuesday(2 Feb) for the creation of a National Security
Committee to deal with counterterrorism issues, citing concerns about
"institutional inertia" in the present set-up.
A report by the Home Affairs Committee also said control orders - a type of
house arrest which have formed a central plank of Britain's security
measures in recent years - were no longer effective and should be scrapped.
Instead, it said, the government should immediately legislate to allow
intercept evidence to be used in court to make it easier to convict suspects
of terrorism offenses.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson rejected the report's conclusions. Committee
chairman Keith Vaz said: "Too often in this inquiry we saw suggestions for
reforms to the counter-terrorism structure rebuffed because 'it works well
at the moment', or 'the benefits are not yet proven.'"
"We are very concerned that a degree of inertia has set in to the government's
counter-terrorism planning and operations."
Last month, Britain raised its terrorism threat level to severe, the
second-highest level, meaning an attack was highly likely but not imminent..
. .
.
[Home Affairs Committee] called for all existing counter-terrorism
committees to be merged into a single National Security Committee chaired by
the Home Secretary or Prime Minister and assisted by a "Condoleezza
Rice-style" National Security Advisor.
The committee rejected the formation of a separate agency, akin to the US
Department of Homeland Security, saying it would not simplify command
structures.
Home Secretary Johnson vigorously denied the committee's accusations."I
totally refute the unsubstantiated and wholly inaccurate claims in this
inadequate report," he said in a statement. "The government fully
understands the threat this country faces from international terrorism and
has extremely effective systems and processes in place to deal with it."
The committee also said the legality of the control order regime was in
serious doubt and it should be dropped. The MPs said it was "ridiculous"
that prosecutors were not allowed to use intercept evidence which could help
make the orders redundant. . . .
+++SOURCE: NAHARNET (Leban0n 3 Feb.'10:"French Presidential Envoy: Lebanon
Situation Back to Normal
FULL TEXT:"French President Nicolas Sarkozy's envoy to Syria Philippe Marini
said Tuesday(2 Feb) that the situation in Lebanon has gone back to normal.
"The situation in Lebanon was among the topics that we have discussed,"
Marini said following talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"We can say that the situation in Lebanon has gone back to normal," said
Marini, who is a senate member and head of the French-Syrian parliamentary
friendship group.
The French envoy told reporters in Damascus that he had conveyed to Assad a
message from Sarkozy on bilateral relations.
================================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA
|
