Excerpts: Refugees and NGO's to interconnect.Syria/Israel exchange.Is
Ahmadinejad serious? Syria's Assad's political analysis.Pakistan/Afghan
reality re the Taliban February 05, 2010

+++SOURCE:JORDAN TIMES 5 Feb'10:"New information systems to link refugees,
NGOs".By Taylor Luck

SUBJECT: Refugees and NGOs to interconnect.

QUOTE:"options for durable solutions(repatriation or resettlement)
AMMAN - Refugees and organisations working in the field of humanitarian
assistance will be brought closer together under new web-based information
systems launched on Thursday.
With the launch of the Refugee Assistance Information System (RAIS) and the
revamped UNHCR Jordan Arabic website, officials hope increased information
sharing will lead to maximising the use of limited funding.
"Having far fewer resources calls for far more coordination to address gaps
in services," UNHCR Jordan Representative Imran Riza said in a press
conference yesterday to launch the system.
"We are not seeing the movement we were hoping would happen, and we do not
have the funding we did 2-3 years ago. This requires greater cooperation,"
he said.
As part of the RAIS, organisations which work with refugees can refer them
to other organisations for various services. Previously, UNHCR and its
partners were connected through a non-web network, Imran told The Jordan
Times.
The Arabic UNHCR website aims to increase outreach to refugees in the
Kingdom, many of whom are dispersed in urban centres such as Amman and
Zarqa.
Studies by the UN refugee agency have showed that the Internet has become
the second most common source of news for displaced populations in Jordan.
According to the agency, young refugees use Internet at least once a week;
adults once a month.
The Arabic website introduces UNHCR and its services in Jordan, providing
information on how to register with the agency, partners active in the
Kingdom and options for durable solutions (repatriation or resettlement).
The UNHCR website also includes a Google Earth map detailing centres and
organisations active in refugee services and outreach across the country.
Also as part of the revamped website, refugees in the Kingdom will be able
to vote in online polls in order for the agency to gauge their needs and
opinions.
In addition, UNHCR and its partners will be able to search and retrieve
beneficiaries' case files, and follow up on whether they are receiving the
services they need, according to the agency.
The RAIS will also allow NGOs to refer beneficiaries to other organisations
active in the field and follow up on their status.
The system also aims to increase coordination between UNHCR Jordan and its
operations in Iraq, Imran noted.
In addition to sharing information, the system will allow organisations to
carry out surveys on refugees across the country, such as whether Iraqis are
willing to be repatriated if the security situation in their home country
improves.
The UNHCR website also allows refugees to search for NGOs active in their
neighbourhood, with the ability to search by services provided and location.
Currently 25 organisations are part of the network, representing over 100
centres across the Kingdom. Imran urged other organisations to join the
network in order to avoid duplication in work.
He expressed hope that government health and education centres, which
provide services for Iraqis residing in the Kingdom, will join the network.
Jordan is home to roughly 500,000 Iraqis, according to various official and
unofficial statistics. Classified as "guests", Iraqis are afforded essential
services such as free education and access to healthcare. A select group are
recognised as refugees and registered with the UN agency.
Repatriation remains the most durable solution for most, according to the
UNHCR, while resettlement to third-party countries is reserved for the most
vulnerable.

+++SOURCE: EGYPTIAN GAZETTE 5 Feb'10:"Netanyahu assures Syria after FM's
threat
",by: Hany Salahuldien
QUOTE:"no signs that military tensions have risen between Syria and Israel
FULL TEXT:JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reassured Syria on
Thursday(4 Feb) that Israel sought peace after his fiery foreign minister
threatened to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in any future war.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) greeting US Mideast envoy George
Mitchell ahead of a meeting in Damascus on January 20.
Avigdor Lieberman's remarks clashed with Netanyahu's often-repeated call
for Assad to negotiate peace with Israel and prompted the Israeli leader to
discuss what a spokesman termed "the Syrian issue" with the ultranationalist
cabinet member.
"Both men clarified that government policy is clear: Israel seeks peace
and negotiations with Syria, without preconditions," a Netanyahu spokesman
said. "At the same time, Israel will continue to act with determination and
decisiveness."
Assad accused Israel on Wednesday(3 Feb) of pushing for war, drawing an
angry response from Lieberman. "Our message must be clear to Assad. You will
not just lose the next war, you and your family will lose power. Neither you
nor the Assad family will remain in power," Lieberman said.
Lieberman, known for his tough rhetoric, said that Assad had "crossed a
red line". Some lawmakers urged Netanyahu to dismiss him for threatening
Syria, a northern enemy that has talked peace with Israel in the past.
Despite a spike in war talk in recent days, there have been no signs that
military tensions have risen between Israel and Syria.
But in a bid to minimise the fallout from Lieberman's remarks, the prime
minister's office issued a statement saying Netanyahu told his cabinet
secretary to phone ministers and "ask them to avoid speaking in the media
about Syria".
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told members of his Labour party that
instead of "exchanging verbal blows", Israel and Syria should "sit together
and talk through our envoys."
Assad had spoken out after Barak, sounding a cautionary note, said earlier
this week that "the absence of an agreement with Syria could lead to armed
conflict that could develop into all-out war".
Indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel, mediated by Turkey, broke
down during the Israeli invasion of Gaza in December 2008.
Barak, as prime minister, held peace talks with Syria in 2000 that
faltered over the future of the Golan Heights, a strategic Syrian plateau
captured by Israel in a 1967 war. As defence chief, he has been pushing for
new negotiations.

+++SOURCE: EGYPTIAN GAZETTE 5 Feb.'10:"Iran move shows bid to close atom
deal"Reuters

SUBJECT: Is Ahmadinejad serious?

VIENNA - The Iranian president's announced readiness to send enriched
uranium abroad signals a wish to cooperate for a deal with big powers to
ease nuclear tension, Tehran's envoy to the UN atomic agency said on
Thursday(4 Feb).
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad waits before an official meeting in
Tehran on Thursday.

Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told Reuters he had not notified the
International Atomic Energy Agency of any new Iranian position on the
IAEA-brokered proposal, stalled for months by disputes over where and how to
carry it out.
Russia, France and the United States, the other parties to the plan under
which Iran would swap potential atom bomb material for fuel for nuclear
medicine, want Tehran to inform the IAEA of Ahmadinejad's gesture to prove
he is serious.

+++SOURCE:NAHARNET (Lebanon) 5 Feb.'10:""Assad: Civil War in Lebanon Could
Start in Days unless They Change the Whole System"

SUBJECT: Syria's Assad's political analysis.
QUOTE:"'Assad: The vision does not seem to be clear on the U.S. side as to
what they really want to happen in the Middle Easr' "

FULL TEXT:Syrian President Bashar Assad said that "the civil war in Lebanon
could start in days," adding that "one cannot feel assured about anything in
Lebanon unless they change the whole system."
"It does not take weeks or months; (civil war) could start just like this,"
Assad said in interview with The New Yorker weekly.

Assad described the current Israeli officials as "children fighting each
other, messing with the country," adding "you need a special dictionary for
their terms . They do not have any of the old generation who used to know
what politics means, like Rabin and the others."

"I have half a million Palestinians and they have been living here for three
generations now. So, if you do not find a solution for them, then what peace
you are talking about?"

As to the stalled negotiations with Israel, Assad said: "If they say you can
have the entire Golan back, we will have a peace treaty. But they cannot
expect me to give them the peace they expect. You start with the land; you
do not start with peace."

Assad described the U.S. role as "biased" and siding "with the Israelis."

"The vision does not seem to be clear on the U.S. side as to what they
really want to happen in the Middle East."

Assad's interviewer, Seymour Hersh, said that a Syrian official had told him
last year that Syria agreed last year to renew sharing of intelligence on
terrorism with the C.I.A. and with Britain's MI6, after a request from U.S.
President Barack Obama that was relayed by his Middle East envoy George
Mitchell.

He added that the Syrian president confirmed he had agreed to do so.

According to Hersh, Assad also warned Mitchell "that if nothing happens from
the other side -- in terms of political progress -- we will stop."

However, Hersh added that the transcript of his interview with Assad,
provided by Syrian president's office, was "generally accurate" but it did
not include an exchange they had about intelligence.

+++SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES 5 Feb.'10:"Even Where Pakistani Law Exists,
Taliban
Find a Porous Border
By SOUAD MEKHENNET and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr."
QUOTE: "Taliban fighers and smugglers control much of the rugged 1,500- mile
frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan" [IMRA: Signicant supplies to US
troops come thru the Pakistani port and then crossed into Afghanistan"

EXCERPTS:CHAMAN, Pakistan - The thick brown sack that a man named Abdulmalek
carried over his shoulder on a recent afternoon might have contained
anything: weapons, drugs or explosives. But crossing back and forth between
Afghanistan and Pakistan was no problem, he said.. . . "There is no
searching." Other Afghans say they can easily enter Pakistan by bribing
guards on either side of the border with the equivalent of less than a
dollar, or by paying taxi drivers a similarly token amount to drive them
across. . . . The way the Taliban use Pakistan's tribal areas to launch
cross-border attacks inside Afghanistan is perhaps the most contentious
issue between Pakistan and the United States. But the problem is hardly
contained to Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.
Gaping holes in security checks along the border also remain at heavily
trafficked crossings, like this one, in Baluchistan Province, where,
American officials say, the Taliban's leaders have taken refuge, out of
reach of American and NATO forces.
The Chaman crossing - marked on the Pakistani side by the three-story
Friendship Gate - should presumably be among the most secure in the country:
it is the sole crossing between Kandahar, the birthplace of the Afghan
Taliban, and Baluchistan, which is, according to American officials, home to
Taliban commanders who control many Afghan fighters.
But Taliban fighters - anyone, really - can cross and smuggle weapons and
drugs, underscoring the challenge to the American war effort in Afghanistan,
for which the border presents a much firmer barrier, as Pakistan does not
allow NATO or American military forces to cross.
The result is that Taliban fighters and smugglers control much of the rugged
1,500-mile frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan, creating a fluid
battle space for the insurgents as the Taliban conduct an increasingly
coordinated fight in both countries.
Pakistani and Afghan officials blame one another for the lack of border
security and the threats it poses, typical of the distrust and lack of
coordination between the governments.
American and NATO forces are faulted as well. "The Afghans are indeed of no
real help there, but neither are the NATO or U.S. troops," a senior Western
intelligence official said.
Pakistani commanders complain that the United States and other NATO
governments have given them almost none of the equipment needed to improve
security or prevent Taliban fighters from crossing easily.
"They may be crossing through Chaman, all right," said Maj. Gen. Salim
Nawaz, the commander of the Pakistani Frontier Corps, the paramilitary force
responsible for securing the border here, referring to the Taliban. He said
Pakistani forces had arrested militants elsewhere in the province, but he
added, "They don't cross with weapons, so how will you separate them from
ordinary people?"
A senior American military official who tracks border issues did not dispute
the Pakistanis' impression of border problems and said more equipment would
be sent. But the official added that there were shortcomings on the
Pakistani side as well.
"There are probably enough problems to go around on both sides," the
official said.
The situation is even more stark along more rural stretches of the 700-mile
border between Afghanistan and Baluchistan, which has 276 posts on the
Pakistani side. At one post near the city of Nushki, a Pakistani border
commander, Col. Javed Nasir, admitted that trucks full of hashish, opium and
heroin regularly eluded border security officials and entered Pakistan. Many
shipments are later sold for millions of dollars that end up paying for
Taliban weapons and salaries.
"There is a lot of narcotics smuggling going on," Colonel Nasir said. "But
our biggest concern are the weapons that are coming in from Afghanistan."
During his yearlong assignment at the border, Colonel Nasir said, he has
never seen an American or NATO soldier on the other side. Peering across the
border at an Afghan outpost - one of only two Afghan posts, he said, for one
120-mile stretch of border - he said that the handful of Afghan soldiers on
the other side showed little interest in patrolling.
Meanwhile, for the Americans, the border crossing poses another problem:
with the pending arrival of 30,000 more troops in southern Afghanistan as
part of President Obama's military buildup, American commanders want to
increase the traffic of supplies through Chaman by 30 percent. On a typical
day, 60 to 100 NATO and American supply trucks pass through the crossing.
But that effort has been seriously hampered by a detour that has shifted
vehicle traffic to a one-lane dirt road across the border that can handle
only one truck at a time, in either direction. The main gate has been closed
to vehicles - but not pedestrians - because of problems with the
infrastructure.
American officials want to improve the bypass, but those efforts have
suffered delays. Military officials also fear having supply trucks backed up
at the crossing, leaving them vulnerable to an attack.
"My worry is that we have a four-lane highway that ends up leading to a dirt
road," the senior American military official said, noting that the crossing
needed improvements on both sides.
The problems are further complicated by the commander on the Afghan side,
Col. Abdul Raziq, according to Pakistani and Western officials. They say
that Colonel Raziq, who is politically close to the government of President
Hamid Karzai, uses his control of the border region around the city of
Spinbaldak to reap millions of dollars from smuggling.
In exchange for securing the road from Spinbaldak to Kandahar and keeping
the Taliban at bay, Pakistani officials say, Colonel Raziq is allowed to
operate with impunity and can manipulate the border to benefit his smuggling
interests. He sometimes shuts the border, they say, charging smugglers to
cross.
Colonel Raziq sharply disputed the allegations, saying that his men
vigorously searched people coming through the border. He also blamed a land
dispute with Pakistan for the delay in improving the border crossing.
"I have never closed the border, nor will I," he said. "I am very strict
with smugglers."
Souad Mekhennet reported from Chaman, and Richard A. Oppel Jr. from
Islamabad, Pakistan.

=========
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA