Excerpts: Syrianair to start 4 flights weekly to Iran. Egypt travel-ban on
U.S. NGO workers continues. Iran - IAEA meeting 'constructive' February 01,
2012

+++SOURCE: Syria Report 1 Feb.’12:”Syrianair to Begin Flights to Bagdad and
Najaf”

SUBJECT: Syrianair: to start. 4 weekly flights to Iraq

TEXT :Starting February 16 Syrianair will operate four weekly flights to
Iraq on the back of the growing economic ties and religious tourism between
the two countries, according to Ghaidaa AbdulLatif, its General Manager

+++SOURCE: Chicago Tribune via Egypt Daily News 1 Feb.’12:” News Egypt sent
back U.S. request to lift travel ban”,Reuters

SUBJECT:Egypt’s travel ban on US NGO workers continues

QUOTE: “The case has highlighted strains between Washington and its
long-standing Arab ally”

FULL TEXT:CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's justice minister said on Tuesday he had
sent back a letter from the U.S. ambassador that asked for an end to a
travel ban on Americans being investigated for alleged illegal funding of
pro-democracy groups.

Justice Minister Adel Abdelhamid Abdallah said he had urged the U.S. embassy
to redirect the letter to investigating judges.

The case has highlighted strains between Washington and its long-standing
Arab ally since the overthrow last year of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
in a popular uprising.

Washington said several U.S. citizens working for civil society groups were
banned from leaving Egypt and took refuge at its embassy in Cairo after the
non-governmental organizations were raided by the military-led Egyptian
authorities.

Abdallah said the request from Ambassador Anne Patterson was sent to his
home and he returned it to the U.S. embassy because it should have been sent
to the investigating judges.

"In it were the names of the people banned from travel and it was asking for
a cancellation of this decision to be considered, as their constitutional
right," he said.

"I spoke to the embassy and I returned this letter and told them that this
letter should be sent to the investigating judges and not to the minister of
justice," he said.

Abdallah said only those concerned by the travel ban or their
representatives were entitled to send such a letter.

In Washington, the State Department confirmed that Patterson sent the
letter, describing it as one of a number of attempts to raise the travel ban
issue with Egyptian authorities.

"It was the justice minister's prerogative to send this letter back. We're
going to continue to engage on this," State Department spokesman Mark Toner
told a news briefing.

Toner said Washington would continue to press Egypt to allow the NGO
staffers to leave.

"We believe that it's important that they be allowed to travel freely and
that the conditions that have been placed on them are unfair," Toner said.

Parliament speaker Mohamed Saad al-Katatni, a leading figure in Egypt's
Muslim Brotherhood which now dominates the assembly's lower house, said
Patterson's request was "interference by the American embassy that we do not
accept".

The U.S. embassy in Cairo had no comment.

In a weekend call to the head of Egypt's ruling military council, Field
Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta urged
the Egyptians to lift the travel ban and expressed concern over restrictions
placed on NGOs.

Egypt's government says the number of NGOs violating the law on funding
political activities had grown since the uprising against Mubarak.

Groups including the U.S.-funded National Democratic Institute and
International Republican Institute were raided in late December by judicial
police, who took documents and equipment before sealing their offices shut.

Civil society groups said the military council had ordered the raids to
defame and stigmatize activists, rights groups and others who were at the
forefront of the anti-Mubarak revolt and are now demanding the army hand
power immediately to civilians.

Among those prevented from leaving Egypt was the IRI's Egypt country
director Sam LaHood, who is the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood.

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 1 Feb.’12:”Iran, UN end ‘constructive’ nuclear
talks — Fars “, Reuters

SUBJECT Iran / IAEA meeting ‘constructive’

QUOTE:” ‘Talks between Iran and . . . International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) were constructive and … the two sides agreed to continue the talks
‘ ”

EXCERPTS:TEHRAN — Iran completed a "constructive" round of talks with the
United Nations' nuclear watchdog on Tuesday[31 Jan.] and further meetings
are planned, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported.

"Talks between Iran and the visiting team of inspectors from the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were constructive and ... the two
sides agreed to continue the talks," Fars quoted an unnamed source as
saying.

The senior United Nations nuclear inspectors went to Tehran on Saturday[28
Jan] for talks with Iranian officials on suspicions that the Islamic state
is seeking atomic weapons, and to try to advance efforts to resolve the
nuclear row.

. . . ..

EU leaders agreed to implement their own embargo on Iranian oil by July and
to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank, joining the United States in a
new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development
programme.

Iran rejected EU sanctions on its oil as "psychological warfare" and
threatened to cut off oil exports to European countries before July 1 when
the EU sanctions would be fully enforced.

Iranian officials have also repeatedly shrugged off the impact of sanctions,
saying the Islamic state has responded by becoming more self-reliant.

The EU accounted for 25 per cent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third
quarter of 2011. But analysts say the global oil market will not be overly
disrupted if Iran's parliament votes to turn off the oil tap for Europe.

Potentially more disruptive to the oil market and global security is the
risk of Iran's standoff with the West escalating into military conflict.

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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA