Excerpts: Obama and team in Saudi. Israel Arab parties 'historic union'.
King Salman continues existing energy policy. Qatar continues to buy-up
British. Hizbullah missile attack. Gas to Jordan from Cyprus January 28,
2015

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 28 Jan.’16:”Obama leads heavyweight team to offer
condolences” ,The Saudi Report
SUBJECT: Obama and team in Saudi
QUOTE:”General Martin Dempsey: announced an essay competition at the U.S.
National Defense University (NDU) in honor of the late King Abdullah”, “Gen.
Dempsey:’The essay contest is an occasion to pay tribute to the leadership
of the late King Abdullah and an important opportunity to honor the memory
of the Late King and also to encourage scientific research on the Arab and
Islamic world.The contest will focus on issues related to the Arab and
Islamic world and is designed to encourage strategic thinking and
research.It will be held in the next academic year atNDU’. “


RIYADH — US President Barack Obama arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday[27 Jan.]
for a four-hour stop leading a 30-member bipartisan delegation of lawmakers,
senior US officials and two former secretaries of state to Saudi Arabia to
pay respect to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz
and the royal family following King Abdullah’s death.

King Salman received the US president at King Khalid International Airport.
Secretary of State John Kerry joined Obama, along with former secretaries of
state Condoleezza Rice and James Baker, both of whom served Republican
presidents. Former White House national security advisers Brent Scowcroft,
Sandy Berger and Stephen Hadley also arrived.

Several lawmakers who traveled with Obama to India, including House Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also joined him in Saudi Arabia so did
Republican Sen. John McCain who leads the Senate Armed Services committee,
and several other Republican foreign policy leaders from past
administrations.

Later in the evening King Salman and President Obama discussed Syria, Yemen
and other regional issues.

The visit by the president and the high-level delegation underscores the key
role Saudi Arabia plays in US foreign policy in the Middle East. Most
recently, Saudi Arabia became one of a handful of Arab nations that have
joined the US in launching air strikes against the self-proclaimed Islamic
State group in Iraq and Syria.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey
announced an essay competition at the US National Defense University (NDU)
in honor of the late King Abdullah.

In a press release, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said, “The essay contest is an
occasion to pay tribute to the life and leadership of the late King Abdullah
and an important opportunity to honor the memory of the late King, and also
to encourage scientific research on the Arab and Islamic world.”

The contest will focus on issues related to the Arab and Islamic world and
is designed to encourage strategic thinking and research. It will be held at
the NDU in its next academic year.

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 28 Jan.’15:”Arab lawmakers shake up Israeli
politics with historic union”,Associated Press
Subject:Israel Arab parties ‘historic union’
QUOTE:” ’Arabs in Israel do not all share the same ideology’ “
FULL TEXT:HAIFA — Israel’s Arab political parties are banding together under
one ticket for the first time ever ahead of national elections in March,
hoping to boost turnout and help unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The result is a political marriage of communists, Palestinian nationalists,
religious Muslims, feminists and even one Jew. But Arab politicians say it
will improve chronically low Arab voter turnout and help block Netanyahu
from forming the next government.

“We will be a central player in politics like never before,” said Ayman
Odeh, a first-time parliamentary candidate and the leader of the combined
Arab list.

The four parties agreed to unify last week because of a new law passed last
year that raised the percentage of votes that a party must win to land a
seat in parliament from 2 to 3.25 percent — a law advanced by Israel’s
ultranationalist foreign minister that Arab lawmakers believe was intended
to reduce Arab representation in parliament.

Arab politicians say they have come under mounting pressure from their
constituents to cooperate in order to tackle the challenges facing the Arab
community, including what many see as increased hostility from the Israeli
public and Israeli leaders — particularly since the summer war in Gaza.
“People said to us, ‘Your answer should be unity,’” said Masoud Ganaim, the
number two on the list and a representative of an Islamic movement.

The unified list is campaigning on promises to prevent Netanyahu from
winning again by serving as an opposition bloc that would complicate his
coalition-building efforts and help give rise to a center-left government
headed by Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog and former peace negotiator Tzipi
Livni.

Arab citizens of Israel make up about a fifth of the population of some 8
million, but their participation in Israel’s democracy has long been a
complicated matter.

Though they enjoy full citizenship in the Jewish state, Israel’s Arabs say
they have suffered from decades of discrimination, with unemployment and
poverty often higher than the national average in their communities. Israel’s
Arabs also largely identify with the Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank and
Gaza, leading many of Israel’s Jewish citizens to view them with mistrust.
Israel’s Arab population mainly consists of Palestinian families who
remained in Israel following the 1948 war that attended its creation.

Arab politicians seem to manifest a split identity. They champion
Palestinian rights and have long had ties with politicians in the
Palestinian territories, but they often speak eloquent Hebrew and are firm
believers in participating in Israel’s democratic government. At Odeh’s home
in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Haifa, he displayed both a trophy of
appreciation from the Palestinian Fatah faction as well as leading Hebrew
novelist Amos Oz’s autobiographical novel. Ganaim, the Islamist
representative, has a book penned by Netanyahu on his office bookshelf.

Still, many Israeli Arabs have felt disenfranchised, and previous elections
have seen low Arab turnout, with many boycotting the process.

But the union could change that. A recent poll conducted on behalf of the
Abraham Fund, which promotes Arab-Jewish equality in Israel, suggests that
the unified list would boost Arab turnout to 56 percent — 10 percentage
points higher than the last election in 2013. The poll questioned 514 Arab
citizens and had a margin of error of 4.5 percent. By comparison, Jewish
voter turnout in 2013 was nearly 68 percent.

With that anticipated surge in votes, Arab politicians estimate that their
joint list could garner up to 15 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, large enough
to help block a hard-line coalition headed by Netanyahu and paving the way
for his dovish challengers to form a government.

Arab parties traditionally do not join coalitions, saying they do not want
to bear responsibility for Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza, but
Arab politicians say they would serve as a “security net” by voting with the
dovish government even while sitting in the opposition.

The four parties involved in the unified list collectively hold 11 seats in
the current parliament. In a poll aired Monday [26 Jan.]on Channel 2 TV, the
union garnered 12 seats, making it parliament’s fourth largest list. The
poll had a margin of error of 4.5 percent and surveyed 575 people.

Beyond its potential political might, the union is promising Arab voters a
shift in priorities.

Odeh, the fresh-faced 40-year-old head of the joint list, said he wants to
strengthen efforts to address the domestic concerns of Arabs in Israel
alongside veteran Arab lawmakers’ longtime focus on the rights of
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Odeh hopes to land a leading position on parliament’s internal affairs
committee, giving his list the power to increase budgets to Arab towns that
lag behind in development compared to the country’s Jewish towns.

But the united parties, which have yet to choose a name, face hurdles in
convincing voters that their varied interests can be fairly represented
under one banner.

Osama Masri, 55, an Arab actor, said he would vote for the unified Arab
list, but begrudgingly so. He said that as an atheist, he is uncomfortable
voting for a party that includes Islamists. Arabs in Israel do not all share
the same ideology, he said.

“We’re not a matchbox, with the red part of the matches all lined up in the
same direction,” Masri said. — AP




+++SOURCE:Saudi Gazette 28 Jan,’15:”King Salman pledges continuity on energy
in Obama talks ---U.S. official”, Reuters
SUBJECT: King Salman continues existing energy policy

FULL TEXT:ON BOARD AIR FORCE ONE — Saudi King Salman and US President Barack
Obama discussed stability in the oil market, and the king expressed a
message of continuity on Saudi energy policy in their talks, a senior Obama
administration official said on Tuesday[27 Jan.].

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One after Obama departed Saudi Arabia,
the official said the two men did not discuss current oil prices.

He said the king suggested Saudi Arabia would continue to play its role
within the global energy market and that one should not expect a change in
the country's position.

Obama went to Saudi Arabia to pay his respects after the death of King
Abdullah. — Reuters

+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 29 Jan.’15:”Qatar Set to Buy Lonon’s Canary
Wharf District”, Aggence France Presse
SUBJECT: Qatar continues to buy-up British
FULL TEXT:Qatar looked to have won a drawn-out bid to buy London's Canary
Wharf on Wednesday [28 Jan.]after the owner of the landmark office quarter
said its main shareholders favored a sale.

The board of Songbird, which controls 69 percent of Canary Wharf Group,
appeared to concede defeat despite stressing that the offer worth £2.6
billion ($4.0 billion, 3.5 billion euros) remained undervalued.

"It is now the board's understanding that each of the major shareholders
intends to accept the offer," Songbird said in a statement.

It added however that "the board... continues to believe that the offer does
not reflect the full value of the business, its unique operating platform
and its prospects".

Sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), in partnership with
U.S. group Brookfield Property Partners, had in December proposed an
improved "final offer" for Songbird.

The cash bid, pitched at 350 pence per share, compared with a previous
295-pence-per-share or £2.2-billion offer that was rejected last November.

QIA, which owns Harrods department store and the Shard skyscraper in London,
already has a 28.6-percent stake in Songbird.

Brookfield owns 22 percent of Canary Wharf Group.

The former Docklands area of London where Canary Wharf is located was
re-developed in the 1980s after having fallen into disrepair when the city's
status as a trading hub declined. The area is now a magnet for huge building
projects.

QIA owns also significant stakes in British supermarket chain Sainsbury's
and the London Stock Exchange, as well as half of the Olympic Village
apartments in the capital's Stratford district.


+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 28 Jan.’15:”Israeli Soldiers Wounded in
Hizbullah Missile Attack”
SUBJECT: Hizbullah missile attack
QUOTE:”Netanyahu:’The IDF is ready to react with force on any front’ ”
FULL TEXT:The Jewish State shelled on Wednesday[28 Jan.] areas in southern
Lebanon after a missile targeted an Israeli military vehicle, in an attack
claimed by Hizbullah.

The Israeli army said an anti-tank missile targeted the vehicle near Shebaa
Farms, a disputed tract of land where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and
Syria meet, leaving at least six soldiers injured.

The Israeli military said the residents of the area were being ordered to
remain in their homes.

Images broadcast from the scene showed large plumes of white smoke billowing
across the area and police sealed off several roads close to the border in
northern Israel.

The Israeli army's chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz convened an emergency
meeting to evaluate the situation.

Following the missile attack, Lebanese security officials said Israel fired
25 artillery shells into Lebanon.

The officials said the shelling targeted the border villages of Majidiyeh,
Abbasiyeh and Kfarshouba near the Shebaa Farms area.

The incident came amid heightened tension after the January 18 Israeli
strike against a Hizbullah convoy in Quneitra on the Syrian side of the
Golan Heights.

The strike killed six Hizbullah members and an Iranian general.

Hizbullah said in its claim of responsibility that it targeted several
vehicles transporting officers and soldiers with missiles to avenge the
Israeli raid on Quneitra.

The party's fighters from a group calling itself the "heroic martyrs of
Quneitra” destroyed a number of Israeli vehicles and caused casualties among
"enemy ranks,” it said in a statement.

Following the Hizbullah operation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said the Jewish State is ready to react forcibly wherever it comes under
attack.

"The IDF is ready to act with force on any front," Netanyahu said, warning
that Israel's response to any attack would be harsh.

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 28 Jan.’15:”Jordan plans to buy gas from Cyprus”,by
Mohammad Ghazal

SUBJECT: Gas to Jordan from Cyprus

FULL TEXT:AMMAN — Jordan will sign an agreement to purchase natural gas from
Cyprus before the end of June this year, according to a senior government
official.

A technical team from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources will soon
travel to Cyprus to meet with their counterparts and start working on the
agreement, specify quantities and other technical issues, Energy Minister
Mohammad Hamed said in recent remarks to The Jordan Times.

Jordan seeks to buy 150 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from
Cyprus, he said, adding that prices will be announced later.

The natural gas will be supplied to the LNG terminal being built in Aqaba,
the official said. The facility is expected to be ready to receive gas
shipments in July, it was announced.

“The agreement with Cyprus is a very important one because it will ensure
that Jordan receives a continuous supply and is part of government’s efforts
to diversify resources,” Hamed said.

He added that importing natural gas from Cyprus will significantly help
reduce the burden on the Kingdom, which was forced to switch to the more
expensive heavy fuel and diesel for power generation after cuts in natural
gas supplies from Egypt.

Last year, Jordan and Cyprus signed a memorandum of understanding that
includes cooperation in the areas of tourism, trade and industry.

On energy, it seeks to exchange expertise in the field, cooperate in
infrastructure projects, conduct joint projects and train experts, as well
as exchange skills on installing renewable energy systems, especially solar
energy.

Jordan, which imports about 96 per cent of its energy needs annually, seeks
to diversify energy resources to meet rising energy needs.
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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA