Excerpts: Iran's Supreme Leader's confident. Hamas executes 3 men for
'shocking murders'. Fallujah 'human catastrophe' unfolding. Jordan re Russia
increasing fruit,vegetable import. Jordan unemployment major concern May 31,
2016
+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya News 31 May ’16:”Who is Iran’s Ali Larijani ? Profiling
the Supreme Leader’s confidante”, by Dr.Majid Rafizadeh
SUBJECT:Iran’s Supreme Leader’s confidant
QUOTE:”Larijani’s continuing success on Iran’s political stage is due to his
unique closeness to the Supreme Leader”
FULL TEXT:Long-standing parliament speaker and veteran politician Ali
Larijani preserved his post on Sunday[29 May] after he defeated reformist
Mohammed Reza Aref.
He was re-elected for his third term to lead Iran’s legislative branch, the
parliament, by winning 173 out of 281 votes cast in the tenth round of
parliamentary elections since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Within Iran’s political spectrum, Larijani can be characterized as a
moderate conservative or conservative pragmatist.
The mainstream media depicts Larijani's re-election as a boost for Rowhani’s
administration. But this analysis is perceived as simplistic due to Larijani’s
background, and for being long-term Confidantee, loyalist and top advisor of
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Projecting Larijani as a close ally of Rowhani, the moderates or the
reformists fails to highlight the complexity of Iran’s political
establishment.
The most influential political family in Iran?
The second son of Ayatollah Haj Mirza Hashem Amoli and the son-in-law of
Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, Ali Larijani was born on June 3, 1957 in Najaf,
Iraq. His parents are Iranians from the northern province of Mazandaran in
Behshahr county. Born into a religious family, Larijani has been involved in
Iran’s security and political establishment from the outset of the Islamic
Republic. He studied mathematics, computer engineering in Sharif University,
obtained a PhD in Western philosophy from Tehran University, and graduated
from the Haqqani school, the Shiite school of thought in Qom.
Later, Larijani joined the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), eventually
becoming a commander. After serving, he held several critical posts,
including secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the
head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, parliament speaker, deputy
minister of Information and Communications Technology, deputy minister of
labor, and minister of culture and Islamic guidance
He was Iran’s lead nuclear negotiator between 2005 and 2007, under Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad’s presidency. He then resigned from his post at the SNSC, and
ran for the parliamentary elections. The eighth parliament unanimously voted
for him.
Larijani’s family can be viewed as the most influential political family in
Iran; Ali and his four brothers hold five critical posts in Iran’s political
establishment, including the heads of two of the three crucial political
branches: judiciary and legislation.
His younger brother, Sadegh Amoli Larijani, a hardline cleric, is the head
of Iran’s powerful judiciary. He was appointed directly by the Supreme
Leader. Larijani’s older brother, Mohammad Javad Larijani, is also top
advisor to Khamanei and head of the judiciary’s human rights council.
The supreme leader’s confidante, not the president’s
Larijani has been a robust loyal and confidante of Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, marking him one of the most important politicians. A
long-standing national security adviser to Khamenei, and major political
strategist, Larijani has been on diplomatic stage for decades.
Although some argue that Larijani has shifted his position from being a
principalist, a hardliner, to becoming a moderate, he is believed to have
only pursued the policies favored by the supreme leader.
For example, Larijani was believed to have been capable of getting the
parliament to aprove a nuclear agreement between Tehran and Western powers
in little more than half an hour, not because he supported the moderate or
reformist camps, but because the Supreme Leader is understood to have
requested him to push it through parliament.
Larijani may also be the supreme leader and the IRGC’s top choice to run in
the next presidential election against Rowhani.
When it comes to expansion of social and political freedoms, Larijani
pursues the supreme leader’s hardline agenda. He has been speaker for the
last eight years but this is the first time that he presides over a
parliament predominantly controlled by the moderate-reformist camps.
Larijani’s re-election is not likely to lead to fundamental shifts in Iran’s
foreign or domestic policies. Even if Iran’s parliament is controlled by the
moderates and reformists, its power is limited. Its decisions are subject to
review by the hardline political institution, the Guardian Council, chaired
by the cleric, Ahmad Jannati. The major decision-makers in the country
remain to be the supreme leader and the IRGC.
+++SOURCE:Naharnet(Lebanon)31 May’16:”Hamas Authorities Execute Three Men in
Gaza Strip”,by Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:Hamas in Gaza Strip executes 3 men for ‘shocking murders’
Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip executed three men for murder on
Tuesday[31 May], the attorney general said, signaling more could follow
despite appeals from the United Nations for a halt.
They were shot dead behind closed doors, security sources said.
"To achieve public deterrence and curb crime, the competent authorities
carried out at dawn on Tuesday, May 31, 2016 execution rulings against three
of those convicted of shocking murders," a statement from the attorney
general said.
In theory all execution orders in the Palestinian territories must be
approved by president Mahmud Abbas, who is based in the occupied West Bank.
But Hamas, the militant Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, no longer
recognizes his legitimacy, and Gaza attorney general Ismail Jaber recently
announced that the authorities there would carry out the executions without
Abbas's backing.
Xavier Abu Eid, a spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation,
immediately condemned the executions on Twitter.
Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said Hamas
authorities had been under pressure to act due to perceptions of increased
crime in Gaza, including a number of grisly murders of civilians.
"This is an attempt by the government to show they are doing something," she
told Agence France Presse, "but killing criminals is not going to decrease
crime."
She urged Israel to ease the 10-year blockade on Gaza and called for rival
Palestinian factions to come together.
"These people were convicted in a judicial system where torture and coercion
are common," she added.
The attorney general's statement announcing the executions said the three
men had all been given a fair trial.
The UN envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, had called on Hamas to
abandon the planned executions.
Jaber had initially said that he wanted executions to be carried out in
public. It was unclear if that would happen in the future.
At the time of the attorney general's announcement last week, 13 men, most
convicted of murder connected to robberies, were awaiting execution.
The last public executions in Gaza were during the 2014 war with Israel when
a firing squad from Hamas's armed wing shot dead six alleged collaborators
with Israel in front of Gaza City's main mosque following prayers.
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), nine death
sentences were handed down in the Gaza Strip in 2015 and two in the occupied
West Bank, run by the Palestinian Authority.
So far this year, around 10 more people have been sentenced to death in
Gaza.
Palestinian law allows the death penalty for collaborators, murderers and
drug traffickers.
Of the more than 170 Palestinians sentenced to death since the creation of
the Palestinian Authority in 1994, around 30 have been executed, mostly in
Gaza, according to the PCHR.
+++SOURCE:Naharnet (Lebanon)31 May’16: “’ Human Catastrophe’ Unfolding in
Iraq’s Fallujah”,by Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:Fallujah ‘human catastrophe’ unfolding
FULL TEXT:The siege of the jihadist-held Iraqi city of Fallujah and the
50,000 civilians believed trapped inside it is a catastrophe in the making,
the Norwegian Refugee Council warned on Tuesday[31 May].
Its secretary general Jan Egeland renewed a call for safe corridors to be
opened to prevent massive civilian loss of life.
"A human catastrophe is unfolding in Fallujah. Families are caught in the
crossfire with no safe way out," he said in a statement.
"For nine days we have heard of only one single family managing to escape
from inside the town. Warring parties must guarantee civilians safe exit
now, before it's too late and more lives are lost," he said.
Iraqi forces launched an operation on May 22-23 to retake the Islamic State
group bastion, which lies only 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad.
Since then, only one of the more than 550 families who have managed to flee
IS rule in the area were from the centre of Fallujah.
Besieged by pro-government forces numbering in the tens of thousands, the
jihadists are preparing for a bloody last stand and are suspected of using
civilians as human shields to slow the government advance.
NRC runs camps in Amriyat al-Fallujah, a government-controlled town south of
Fallujah, where fleeing civilians are given shelter and assistance.
With elite Iraqi forces now attempting to push towards the city centre, the
fighting is expected to intensify.
The aid effort across Iraq and Syria is massively underfunded but Egeland
appealed for emergency funding to meet the immediate needs of the most
vulnerable people from Fallujah.
"There isn't enough safe drinking water and the situation will quickly
worsen with summer around the corner, and temperatures likely to hit over 50
degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit)," he said.
"The international community must urgently provide funding so that we can
help the most vulnerable people."
+++SOURCE:Jordan Times 31 May ’16:”Jordan seeks preferential treatment from
Russia to export fruit, vegetables” ,by Hana Namrouqa
SUBJECT:Jordan re Russia increasing fruit,vegetable import
AMMAN — Gaining favorable treatment in terms of customs duties and other
fees is a key to increasing Jordan's agricultural exports to the Russian
market, a government official said on Monday[30 May].
"Efforts are still under way to secure preferential treatment from Russia in
terms of custom duties and taxes when exporting fruit and vegetables,"
Ministry of Agriculture Spokesperson Nimer Haddadin told The Jordan Times.
Haddadin underscored that limited amounts of fruit and vegetables are being
imported to the Russia, highlighting that negotiations are still ongoing to
open the market to local produce.
The government has been negotiating to open the Russian market to
agricultural produce for two years now. Several official visits have taken
place to address challenges, mainly the transport of the goods and the
customs duties imposed by Russia.
+++SOURCE:Jordan Times 31 May’16:” Unemployment major concern for new gov’ —
experts”,by Omar Obeidat
SUBJECT: Jordan unemployment major concern
QUOTE:” Unemployment is described by economists as the biggest challenge to
the new government “
AMMAN – Experts on Monday[30 May] named unemployment as the biggest
challenge the new government of Hani Mulki has to address.
In separate interviews with The Jordan Times, they said that given the
current state of the economy and regional instability, the new government
has to rise up and take immediate and medium-term “out-of-the-box measures”
in crucial areas such as investment, exports and partnership with the
private sector, which they said must be “genuine”.
According to official data, unemployment rate reached 14.6 per cent in the
first quarter of this year, which is the highest in eight years.
Economist Omar Razzaz said joblessness is the biggest problem facing the
Kingdom, adding that it can be solved only by attracting large investments
by Jordanian, Arab and foreign investors.
To stimulate investment, Razzaz said, the government has to address
bureaucratic measures as regulations and laws cannot alone boost investors’
confidence if red tape remains untouched.
“We need to target Chinese investors interested in the African market to
make Jordan as their launch pad. There are also Jordanian and Syrian
investors eyeing the reconstruction of Syria and Iraq,” said the economist,
who is currently the chairman of Ahli Bank.
Razzaz said that the unemployment is becoming worse and needs immediate
remedy, indicating that the Kingdom needs a national programme to employ and
provide training to jobseekers and students who are still at college.
“There should be youth camps for employment with the objective of building
the culture of work among young people, who can be trained on the skills
needed in the labour market,” he said, adding there are certain sectors that
could be developed to offer more job opportunities such as dry-land farming,
trash recycling and crèches or pre-school kindergartens.
Only 3 per cent of children in Jordan go to pre-school educational
facilities, he said, adding the sector is large enough to generate thousands
of jobs to female jobseekers and encourage more women to join the labour
market as many of them refrain from accepting jobs just to stay with
children at home.
“There should be a national programme to buy such services,” the economist
said.
Razzaz said a better transportation system can also create more jobs.
Abdul Rahim Biqaai, a former deputy and municipal planner, agreed with
Razzaz that unemployment is the main concern for Jordan.
“The way the Labor Ministry has managed the employment issue was completely
a failure,” he said, calling on the government to deal with investments as
the solution to bring down the joblessness rate by encouraging foreign
companies to settle in Jordan and forge partnerships with local
businesspeople.
We need automobile, fertiliser and mineral companies to open businesses in
the Kingdom, he said, indicating that he even believes that unemployment
rates are higher than those announced by the government, particularly
outside Amman.
Biqaai, who headed the outgoing House’s financial and economic committee,
said unemployment is a bigger problem than the widening indebtedness of the
country. Public debt is currently around JD25 billion, nearly 92 per cent of
the gross domestic product.
He also stressed the need to find alternative markets for Jordanian products
as regional turmoil had a great toll on national exports to Iraq and Syria
which used to be their major markets.
Economist Adli Kandah, director general of the Association of Banks in
Jordan, said the government has to target four categories of investors to
reduce unemployment: local, Jordanian expatriates, Arabs and foreigners,
particularly Chinese.
The drop in foreign direct investments over the past two years has had a
heavy impact on employment chances, he said, adding that the government
should also work on resuming pending projects.
Kandah said as the Jordan Investment Fund Law has been approved recently,
the government has to attract investments in the fields of infrastructure,
transport and renewable energy.
He also urged the new premier to follow up on the outcome of the London
donor conference to support Syrian refugees and host countries, held in
February, adding that donors who pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to
help Jordan deal with the Syrian refugee crisis should honor their
commitments.
“Europeans who pledged to help Jordan should have investments here. We need
to see the French example in the Kingdom copied by more countries like
Italy, the UK and Germany.”
France is the largest non-Arab investor in Jordan with around 20 blue-chip
companies operating in various fields and employing over 4,000 Jordanians.
Fathi Jaghbir, vice chairman of the Amman Chamber of Industry, said the new
government should embrace a “real” partnership with the private sector.
“It is time to implement real public-private partnership. We are optimistic
about Mulki who had served as industry and trade minister and who is aware
of the concerns of the sector,” Jaghbir said.
The government has to assist local manufacturers in finding alternative
markets in Africa and help promote domestic industries in the local market.
=====================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA
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