Excerpts: Syria exports target $1 billion to Iran; $10 million currently.
Estimated 40,000 NGOs in Egypt threatened. Taliban/Al=Qaeda tensions in
Afghanistan. Azerbaijan arrests 'Iran-linked attack plotters, February 22,
2012

+++ SOURCE: Syria Report 22 Feb.’12:”Syria Targets Exports of USD 1 billion
to Iran…from USD 10 million currently “

SUBJECT: Syria exports target $1 billion to Iran; $10 million currently

QUOTE:” Syria and Iran will start applying on March 21 a bilateral
preferential trade agreement”

TEXT:Syria and Iran will start applying on March 21 a bilateral preferential
trade agreement, a deal the Syrian Government hopes will increase exports
and partly reverse the impact of the steep decline in foreign currency
earnings it is facing.

+++SOURCE: Egypt Daily News 22 Feb.’12:”Egypt: Govt-U.S. Standoff Could Hit
40,000 NGOs”By Cam Mcgrath,

SUBJECT: Estimated 40,000 NGOs in Egypt threatened

QUOTE: “a row that threatens longstanding relationship with the U.S.

FULL TEXT:Cairo — The ongoing crackdown by Egypt's military rulers on a
handful of civil society groups accused of receiving illegal foreign funds
has far-reaching implications for the estimated 40,000 non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) operating in the Arab world's most populous country.

Thousands of NGOs - engaged in everything from nature conservation to
eradicating illiteracy and sheltering women from domestic abuse - are
collateral damage in a row that threatens Egypt's longstanding relationship
with the U.S.

"This dispute is affecting all NGOs in Egypt that rely on foreign donors for
grants," the director of a Cairo- based non-profit organisation told IPS.
"Unless it is resolved soon, hundreds if not thousands of NGOs will be
forced to shut down."

Egyptian security forces stormed the offices of 10 local and foreign NGOs in
late December, including the U.S.-based International Republican Institute
(IRI), the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and Freedom House. Since
then, authorities have referred 43 employees of non-profit pro-democracy
groups - including 16 Americans - to trial before a criminal court on
charges of receiving unauthorised foreign funds and using them to incite
anarchy in Egypt.

The tension has been building since March 2011, when Washington announced
plans to distribute 65 million dollars in grants directly to pro-democracy
groups in Egypt. Hundreds of local NGOs applied for the grants, angering
Egypt's military rulers, who claimed the direct funding bypassed proper
government channels.

State prosecutors have accused 300 non-profit groups with offices in Egypt,
including the April 6 Youth Movement that played a leading role in the
uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last year, of accepting
unauthorised funds. A source close to the investigation said civil society
organisations and prominent activists received over 300 million dollars in
illicit funds between June 2010 and December 2011.

International cooperation minister Fayza Aboul Naga, the Mubarak-era
holdover seen as the driving force behind the NGO crackdown, has blamed
foreign hands for the continuous unrest that has rocked the country since
Mubarak's ouster last February. In October she told a judicial panel that
Washington had funded unregistered non-profits operating in Egypt as part of
a scheme to destabilise the country and hijack its revolution for its own
interests.

"The United States and Israel could not directly create a state of chaos and
work to maintain it in Egypt, so they used direct funding to organisations,
especially American NGOs, as a means of implementing these goals," state-run
Middle East News Agency (MENA) quoted Aboul Naga as saying.

Rights activists contend that the military has targeted human rights and
democracy-building organisations to divert attention away from its
mismanagement of Egypt's transition and exhaustive list of rights
violations.

"The military is using civil society as a scapegoat for its failures," said
Negad El-Borai, a prominent rights lawyer and activist. The ruling generals
are using the same repressive tactics employed by the former regime, he
added.

Under Mubarak, stringent conditions for NGO registration and funding forced
many groups to operate in a grey area, leaving them vulnerable to crackdowns
whenever authorities felt it politically expedient. The non-profit groups at
the centre of the current controversy are accused of failing to register
with the Ministry of Social Solidarity as required by Egyptian law.

"In reality, the (registration) process is rarely straightforward," said the
director of a developmental NGO, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of
retribution. "Typically, the ministry doesn't respond in any way to
applications, so you just go ahead and operate assuming you've been
approved."

He said it took over five years for the ministry to approve his non-profit
group's licencing.

Approximately 30,000 NGOs were operating in Egypt at the start of the
uprising that ended Mubarak's 30- year rule. An estimated 10,000 more were
established in the year since, most engaged in human rights and democracy
building - areas the country's military rulers view with deep suspicion.

"Some of the new groups were able to register, but with the Ministry of
Social Solidarity in a state of paralysis since the revolution, most just
started without any permits," said the NGO director.

Analysts see the raids that catapulted a handful of NGOs into the spotlight
as part of a broader campaign against civil society involving intimidation
tactics, media vilification, and a probe into the bank accounts of prominent
activists. Several non-profit groups that IPS spoke to claim government
agents arrived unannounced at their offices demanding to see bank records
and interrogating staff.

Many groups feel cornered. Egyptian authorities have allegedly refused all
requests for foreign funding since the uprising, leaving civil society
groups to cancel or scale back activities - or risk accepting unauthorised
direct funding.

"About 20 percent of the NGOs in Egypt receive foreign funding, either
direct through a donor, or through an intermediary organisation that
receives funding and distributes it to grassroots NGOs," the director
explained. "Grants have been approved (by Western donors), but the
government has not allowed any foreign funding since the revolution, so the
NGOs can't implement their projects."

Egyptian civil society relies heavily on foreign funding because domestic
resources are limited. Individuals and companies readily donate to charity,
but local donors have small purses and are generally reluctant to support
any group that engages in controversial areas such as reproductive health,
drug abuse counselling, or political participation.

"The government will chip in, but only if your project is in line with its
policies," said the employee of an NGO whose project to educate citizens on
their basic rights was cancelled due to a funding shortfall.

Even protecting the environment can be a sensitive issue if it involves a
foreign donor.

Environmentalist Mindy Baha El-Din said the government flatly rejected her
application to establish a non- profit association to manage sport hunting
as a sustainable way of generating revenue and retooling the police force.
The issue: the small grant needed to seed the conservation project was to
come from a U.S. government agency.

"We sought money from USAID, not because it was American, but because they
weren't dictating the terms of how it could be used," said Baha El-Din.
"They were telling us, you come up with a good idea and we'll fund it. But
the Egyptian government refused to allow the funding so we couldn't take the
project forward."

Activists say the government's witch-hunt of foreign-funded non-profit
groups has altered the way ordinary Egyptians view civil society. Many NGO
workers claim they no longer feel welcome in the neighbourhoods where they
serve the poor, and some have been forced out by angry mobs accusing them of
being foreign agents.

"Everything has come to a standstill until this dispute is resolved," said
the administrator of a small NGO.

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 22 Feb.’12:”Talk of peace stirs up tensions between
Qaeda and Taliban”

SUBJECT: Taliban/Al-Qaeda tensions in Afghanistan

QUOTE:” Taliban decision to talk to the United States is stirring up
tensions with al-Qaeda”

FULL TEXT:PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Taliban’s decision to talk to the United
States is stirring up tensions with Al-Qaeda as the Afghan militia comes
under pressure to dump its terror allies in the name of peace.

Times are hard for Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The network has
been weakened significantly by US drone strikes on its hideouts, last May’s
killing of founder Osama Bin Laden and by finances drying up.

And since the Afghan Taliban declared themselves in favor of talks with the
United States in Qatar that could help end a decade of war in Afghanistan,
Al-Qaeda has felt increasingly abandoned in its fight against the West.

As far as it’s concerned, talking to the Americans is treason.

“Al-Qaeda blames us. They tell us ‘why are you letting us down, as we helped
you when you were down?’” an Afghan Taliban official told AFP.

“We’re not happy with the Doha process,” a source close to Al-Qaeda
confirmed to AFP. “We want the war to continue in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

After taking power in 1996, the Taliban regime allowed Al-Qaeda to base
itself in Afghanistan, taking advantage of fierce codes of hospitality and
alliances made during the 1980s jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

But the alliance cost the Taliban dear. They refused to hand over Bin Laden
to the Americans after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States
invaded and their regime collapsed within weeks.

The Americans ruled out any negotiations and the Taliban fled across the
border into Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt, where they found support among
Al-Qaeda fighters, giving birth to a new stage in their relationship.

Al-Qaeda strengthened its links with Pakistani extremist groups, including
the umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which pledged allegiance and
in 2007 launched a bloody insurgency against the US-allied government in
Islamabad.

In Afghanistan, the conflict only worsened, making it increasingly evident
that there could be no military victory for anyone.

US President Barack Obama’s announcement that NATO combat troops would
withdraw in 2014 opened the door to a possible return to power for the
Taliban.

But Washington has conditioned peace on the Taliban cutting all ties with
Al-Qaeda. Saudi Arabia has also made its involvement in peace efforts
conditional on the Taliban renouncing Al-Qaeda.

By approving talks with the United States, the elusive one-eyed Taliban
leader Mullah Omar has dissociated himself from Al-Qaeda.

Considerably weakened, foreign fighters in Al-Qaeda number no more than a
few hundred in Pakistan and only dozens in Afghanistan, observers say. –
Agencies __

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 22 Feb.’12: “Azerbaijan arrests ‘Iran-linked’ attack
plotters — report “, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Azerbaijan arrests ‘Irab-Linked’ attack plotters

QUOTE: Hizbollah suspected of planning attack in country”

FUULL TEXT:BAKU — Police in Azerbaijan have arrested an unspecified number
of people linked to Iran and to Lebanese group Hizbollah suspected of
planning attacks in the country, state television said Tuesday.

State broadcaster AzTV, quoting the National Security Ministry, said police
had detained people linked to Iranian intelligence services and Hizbollah
who intended to stage attacks on foreign citizens in the country.

The report said the suspects had gathered intelligence on targets and bought
explosives, guns and ammunition, but gave no further details.

The reported arrests come after a car bomb last week critically injured an
Israeli diplomat in New Delhi while Georgian officials defused a second
device in Tbilisi.

A suspected Iranian bomber had his legs blown off as he hurled a grenade at
Thai police. Israel blamed Iran for the attacks which came at a time of
heightened tensions over Tehran's nuclear programme.

A senior Israeli official involved in counterterrorism warned on Friday[17
Feb.] that Iran and Hizbollah were planning to carry out new anti-Israeli
attacks around the world after the incidents in India, Thailand and Georgia.

Police in mainly Muslim but officially secular Azerbaijan last month also
arrested two men with alleged links to Iranian intelligence on suspicion of
plotting to kill prominent Israelis in Azerbaijan.

The allegations infuriated Tehran, which sent a diplomatic note of protest
accusing Baku of collaborating with Israel's spy services and helping
assassins who have killed Iranian nuclear scientists.

Baku responded with a letter to Tehran calling the claim "absurd,
unsubstantiated and false", according to Azerbaijani media reports on
Tuesday.

Tehran has been angered by Baku's friendly links with Israel, while
Azerbaijan has accused Iran of sponsoring Islamic radicals on its territory.

Relations between the ex-Soviet state and the Islamic republic are
complicated by the presence of a huge ethnic Azeri minority in Iran, which
far outnumbers Azerbaijan's own population of 9.2 million.

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