Islands issue: Arab Parliament reiterates UAE’s sovereignty

(Wam) / 16 May 2012

The Arab Parliament has reaffirmed the UAE’s full sovereignty over the three Islands: The Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Mousa, calling on Iran to settle the issue amicably through direct negotiations or the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

It called for speeding up holding of first round of Arab-Iranian talks, which will address the issue of islands on the top of agenda.

Ahmed Mohammed Al Jarwan, Head of the UAE Parliament Bureau delegation to the Arab Parliament meetings, said in a statement that the issue of occupation of three UAE Islands by Iran has been included in the agenda of the Arab Parliament to settle it, adding that the UAE is keen to participate in all regional, international and special parliamentary sessions.

He called for parties to comply with the Palestinian Reconciliation Charter, speed up its implementation and set up a national reconciliatory government and complement work of committee to develop the Palestinian Liberation Movement. Al Jarwan also called on the Arab Parliament to seriously support the Palestinian struggle, especially over Jerusalem, through assertion of the right of Palestinian people to resist the occupation in all forms.

On the Syrian issue, Al Jarwan said the Parliament supports the mission of Kofi Annan, Joint Special Envoy of the UN, and the Arab League to settle the Syrian standoff peacefully.

The al-Nusra Front says it tries to avoid civilian casualties

15 May 2012

The al-Nusra Front has said it was behind many of the bombings that have rocked Syria since the uprising began in March 2011. The BBC News website here profiles the shadowy jihadist group.

The al-Nusra Front first appeared in January 2012 in its own initially sporadic media output, which has developed considerably with regular and increasing statements claiming attacks, and well-produced videos.

The first attack it claimed was against a military target in the north-western city of Idlib, not far from the Turkish border.

Since then, the group has said it was behind the vast majority of bombings in Syria, which are occurring with increasing frequency.

On Saturday, a video posted online claimed the group had carried out two bombings in the capital, Damascus, which left 55 people dead.

"We promised the regime in our last declaration to respond to its killing of families, women, children and old men in a number of Syrian provinces, and here we kept our promise," a distorted voice said in the message.

But on Tuesday, a statement purportedly published by al-Nusra's media group on jihadist forums said: "This video as well as the statement appearing in it are fabricated and... full of errors."

"We did not receive from the front's military department any affirmation or denial or information regarding the operation," it added. "Any further information arriving will be published on official jihadist forums."

Retribution claim

Al-Nusra's statements and videos are usually issued by its media group, al-Manara al-Baida (The White Minaret), and are regularly posted to jihadist, social media and video-sharing websites. There is even a Facebook page dedicated to the group.

 The group's secretive approach extends to concealing of the identities of those in its videos

Its videos are often filmed in the documentary style that major jihadist groups tend to employ, and include the wills of its alleged suicide bombers, whose names all suggest they are Syrian.

The group's leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani - a name suggesting links with the south-western Golan region - has not appeared in person in any of its videos, preferring to feature only on audio tracks.

This secretive approach extends to concealing of the identities of fighters and civilians appearing in the videos.

Al-Nusra's propaganda often appears designed to appeal to ordinary Muslims.

It emphasises purported efforts to avoid civilian casualties and has pictured group members speaking to attentive crowds in Syrian towns.

Al-Nusra, which means "support" in Arabic, frames its attacks as retribution for alleged atrocities committed by government forces.

There has been online criticism of the group, including suspicions that it could be an elaborate Syrian government plot to justify its crackdown on "armed terrorist groups".

One such argument pointed to the fact that the group sometimes used Israeli- and Russian-made weapons in its videos.

If it were such an elaborate deception, however, it appears unlikely that such details would be overlooked.

'House built upon blood'

The bombings and al-Nusra's statements have also caused many to believe the group is linked to al-Qaeda.

Evidence to support this include the fact that al-Nusra claimed in its first video that its members included Syrian jihadists who had returned from fighting on other battlefronts.

This might have been a reference to Iraq, given suspicions by Western officials during the height of the insurgency there that militants were being armed by Syria and allowed to pass through its territory.

The Iraqi interior minister said in February that he believed militants were now travelling from Iraq to Syria.

That same month, the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, encouraged Syrians and militants based in neighbouring countries to take up arms for the Syrian cause.

Additionally, al-Nusra's media output has been distributed via online media outlets used by al-Qaeda.

However, neither al-Qaeda nor al-Nusra have mentioned one another in their propaganda, suggesting that if there are any links they are deliberately being played down.

Regardless of whether or not there is an al-Qaeda connection, al-Nusra's ideology is clearly jihadist.

Although its primary target remains Syrian security forces and pro-government militia, it has referred to the US and Israel as enemies of Islam, and has attacked the beliefs of other religious groups in Syria, including the Alawites.

In a recent video that was filmed in a mosque, a cleric brandished an assault rifle and told his audience that jihad was a "house built upon blood, body parts and skulls".

Similarly, smaller armed groups that purportedly joined al-Nusra in its first video all displayed the black flag that is associated with global jihadist groups, particularly al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Berri Confirms Terrorist Group Entered Lebanon to Carry Out Political Assassinations

16 May 2012,

Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed during Wednesday’s parliamentary meeting a list of politicians and figures targeted by extremist groups, describing the threat as serious and dangerous.

According to NBN, Berri called on security agencies to follow up the issue.

Local newspapers reported on Wednesday that international countries warned Lebanese officials that a terrorist group - linked to an extremist organization, has infiltrated the country recently to carry out “sabotage” operations.

According to As Safir newspaper, the information coincided with similar data obtained by Lebanese security agencies.

Speaker Nabih Berri and several other senior Lebanese officials might be the target of a security threat by the terrorist group.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea escaped an assassination attempt on April 4.

In January, security agencies urged Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat to take precautions as they might be the target of an assassination plot.

On Tuesday, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported that the security agencies succeeded in the past few days in uncovering a terrorist network with local, Arab, and European links.

It said that the confessions of one of the detainees led to the arrest of Sunni Islamist Shadi al-Mawlawi, a development which sparked armed clashes in the northern city of Tripoli over the weekend.

The General Security detained in Tripoli last week Hamza Mahmoud Tarbey whose confessions led to al-Mawlawi’s arrest, according to the daily.

The six-member network includes three Lebanese individuals and a national from each of Qatar, Palestine, and Jordan.

Military Tribunal Judge Saqr Saqr had charged on Monday al-Mawlawi and the five other network members with forming an armed terrorist group and undermining the authority of the state, as well as having links to the al-Qaida.

He later issued an arrest warrant against al-Mawlawi.

One Dead, 10 Hurt as Clashes Renew in Bab al-Tabbaneh, Jabal Mohsen

16 May 2012,

A person was killed and at least 10 others were wounded on Wednesday as clashes renewed in Tripoli despite the presence of Interior Minister Marwan Charbel in the northern city, the scene of three days of deadly clashes which ended by a ceasefire on Tuesday.

A security official speaking on condition of anonymity told Agence France Presse the shooting broke out after soldiers tried to remove barricades in the city's Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood.

For its part, Radio Voice of Lebanon (93.3) reported that a soldier was wounded as a dispute between the army and young men in Bab al-Tabbaneh over the removal of barricades erupted into an armed clash.

The security official said residents opened fire on the soldiers, one of whom was wounded, and the troops responded.

The clashes then escalated with residents of Jabal Mohsen, which sits opposite Bab al-Tabbaneh, also opening fire.

The radio station later reported that clashes had abated after a person was killed and more than 10 were wounded.

It also said that a soldier was wounded as an army patrol came under gunfire from Jabal Mohsen. But Jabal Mohsen sources denied to al-Manar television any link to the incident, saying the army was the side that opened fire at Bab al-Tabbaneh gunmen.

State-run National News Agency said gunfire targeted all the hotspots in Tripoli: Bab al-Tabbaneh, Jabal Mohsen, al-Omari uphill, Starco, al-Mallouleh and al-Mankoubin.

NNA said the army closed roads leading to Bab al-Tabbaneh from al-Beddawi, al-Qobbeh, al-Mallouleh and al-Ayrouniyeh, amid a severe traffic jam caused by the fleeing of residents.

For its part, al-Jadeed television said clashes spread to the districts of al-Baqqar, the vegetable market, al-Zahriyeh, Starco and Baal al-Darawish.

And as MTV reported that the army had pulled out of Bab al-Tabbaneh, sources denied to Radio Voice of Lebanon (100.3-100.5) the withdrawal of any soldier from any Tripoli area the army had deployed at since yesterday morning.

Meanwhile, Radio Voice of Lebanon (93.3) said gunmen transporting a number of wounded people fired gunshots in al-Mitein Street in a bid to make their way through traffic.

Army troops deployed Tuesday morning in Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen and other sectors of Tripoli in a bid to calm the northern city after three days of sectarian fighting that killed nine people and wounded more than 90.

Troops deployed in Syria Street, the frontline of fighting between the majority Sunni Muslim district of Bab al-Tabbaneh, and Jabal Mohsen, whose residents are mostly Alawite.

Battles first erupted on Saturday between residents of the rival neighborhoods when General Security agents arrested Shadi al-Mawlawi, a Salafist, on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization. Mawlawi's supporters say he was targeted because of his help for Syrian refugees fleeing to Lebanon.

Also on Tuesday, a separate incident shook the fragile truce when a fierce armed clash erupted between the families of al-Nashar, Hrash and al-Naanai in al-Rifaiyeh in central Tripoli, leaving three people wounded and raising tensions in the city.

The army quickly managed to contain the clash, which involved the use of machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Kuwait voices desire to boost ties with China 

5/15/2012

KUALA LUMPUR-)  Kuwaiti Consul General in Hong Kong Bader Al-Tunaib met on Tuesday with the Commissioner-General of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Sung-Joo, voicing desire to elevate further the close ties between Kuwait and the Asian nation.

Al-Tunaib, in a phone call with KUNA, hailed the distinguished bilateral relations between Kuwait and China, expressing desire of enhancing and bolstering those ties, especially that Kuwait is working on diversifying its income sources and turning into an international financial center.

The diplomat, during the meeting with the new Commissioner-General, congratulated him on assuming his duties.

Kuwait signed lately a number of Important agreements with China, related to encouragement and protection of investments, double taxation avoidance, and economic cooperation -- indications of strengthening the cooperation between the two nations, he affirmed.

Sung-Joo expressed thanks for the Kuwaiti diplomat's congratulations, praising the remarkable deep-rooted ties between his country and Kuwait, besides the active Kuwaiti presence in Hong Kong, he said.

He wished to see further development of those ties, expressing readiness for a sustainable cooperation to facilitate tasks of all heads of accredited diplomatic missions.

France Unveils Hollande's New Government

16 May 2012,

France unveiled President Francois Hollande's new government on Wednesday, with former prime minister Laurent Fabius, 65, named foreign minister and Pierre Moscovici, 54, finance minister.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, a 64-year-old local politician from Brittany, was named defense minister, while Manuel Valls, a free-market modernizer seen as on the right of the Socialist Party, was named interior minister.

Not counting Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who was named by the Socialist Hollande on Tuesday, the cabinet consists of 34 members, two more than the outgoing cabinet that served under right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy.

Though most of the top-level posts were held by men, it was also the first French cabinet to reach gender parity, meeting a promise made by Hollande during the election campaign.

Hollande also chose close ally Michel Sapin, 60, as labor minister and put Arnaud Montebourg, a 49-year-old from the left wing of the Socialist party, in charge of reindustrialization.

Moscovici, a former European affairs minister, was Hollande's campaign manager and transition chief.

Jerome Cahuzac, 59 and the head of parliament's budget committee, was named budget minister, while Christiane Taubira, a 60-year-old lawmaker from French Guiana, was named justice minister.

The first cabinet session was take place on Thursday at 1300 GMT.

Notably absent from the line-up was Socialist leader and former labor minister Martine Aubry, a key figure in the party's old-guard left wing, who said she would not join cabinet after being passed up for the premiership.

SourceAgence France Presse

Palestinians mark Nakba Day

BEITUNIA CHECKPOINT: Israeli forces faced off with Palestinian stone-throwers in the West Bank yesterday during the annual Nakba Day protests over the “catastrophe” that befell the Palestinians in 1948. At Beitunia checkpoint near Ramallah, youths hurled stones at troops, who fired tear gas, metal pellets and rubber bullets in a bid to break up the demonstration, an AFP correspondent said. Many protesters could be seen with blood on their faces as they waved black flags and roared angry slogans.

Clashes also broke out at Qalandiya checkpoint south of Ramallah, where youths threw stones at Israeli troops, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them, AFP correspondents said. A source at Ramallah’s government hospital told AFP that 17 people had been injured by rubber bullets, 15 at Beitunia and another two at Qalandia. There were also reports of clashes in Hebron and at Rachel’s Tomb on the edge of Bethlehem, where the Israeli military said 200 protesters confronted troops. Two soldiers were lightly injured, a spokesman said.

The protesters were commemorating the “Nakba”, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in the war that accompanied Israel’s declaration of independence. But this year’s confrontations were largely low-level, in stark contrast with last year, when thousands tried to breach Israel’s northern frontiers, prompting troops to open fire, killing 10 people and injuring hundreds. In the West bank city of Ramallah, where president Mahmud Abbas has his headquarters, sirens wailed and hundreds of people at a rally in the central Clock Square stood in silence for 64 seconds – one for each year of Israeli statehood.

Cars flew black flags carrying a picture of a house key and the word “return” in English and Arabic to remember homes they left or were forced from which are now inside Israel, an AFP correspondent said. Further north, several thousand people gathered in Nablus city centre waving flags and calling for the right of return, with a similar number showing up in the southern city of Hebron. They also hailed the successful end of a mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, which was resolved late on Monday.

This year’s Nakba anniversary was to have been a protest over the ongoing mass hunger strike by 1,550 prisoners, most of whom refused food for between four and 11 weeks. But in a last-minute development, the dispute was resolved late on Monday when prisoner leaders signed a deal with Israel, agreeing to end their fast in exchange for an easing of their conditions. In Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, clashes broke out in Issawiya between police and stone-throwers, with four people arrested, police and an AFP correspondent said.

And in downtown Gaza City, thousands joined a march organised by the ruling Hamas movement. On a lighter note, Gaza’s Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya joined dozens of other men, several sporting middle-age spread, in a 500-m Nakba Day jog from the central Al-Jalaa Street to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Haniya and his companions wore track-suit bottoms and t-shirts with numbers, with others carrying Palestinian flags for the brief run, which was organised by the ministry of youth and sport.

Arab Israelis also held a march near the northern town of Umm al-Fahm with around thousand people joining in, some carrying Palestinian flags, participants said. More than 760,000 Palestinians – estimated today to number 4.8 million with their descendants – fled or were driven out of their homes. Around 160,000 Palestinians stayed behind and are now known as Arab Israelis. They now number about 1.3 million people, or some 20 percent of the population. – AFP

Bahrain condemns Iranian MPs’ statements

MANAMA – The Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Tuesday the Iranian chargé d’affaires to protest against the statements made by Ali Larijani, Chairman of the Iranian Shoura Council, and lawmaker from Zahedan Hossein Ali Shahriari.

The Undersecretary of the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed over a protest memo in this connection to Ambassador Abdullah Abdullatif Abdullah.

“These statements represent a flagrant interference in internal affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and a gross violation of its sovereignty and independence, which constitute a completely unacceptable conduct,” the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

“Such statements are in obvious violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law that govern the relations among states. Such statements also contravene the objectives and principles of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). We urge the Islamic Republic of Iran to promptly comply with international norms and laws that oblige it to respect the principles of good neighborliness and to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of other states,” the ministry said.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the Islamic Republic of Iran to desist from making such damaging statements and take immediate steps to prevent its recurrence.

“Such statements are detrimental to the principles of good neighborliness, and eventually undermine the security and stability of the region as a whole,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added.

The Bahraini Shoura Council also condemned the statements made against Bahrain by Larijani and Ali Shahriari.

The Shoura Council expressed its strong objection to such irresponsible statements that instigate division and sectarianism.

Such acts are contradictory to bilateral relations existing between GCC countries and Iran, the Council said in a statement.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said Monday that “Iran has nothing to do with what happens between the two countries, even if it develops into a unity.”

He was speaking at the end of a Gulf Cooperation Council summit at which leaders discussed plans to turn the bloc into a union, starting with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Prince Saud said that “the Iranian threat is not accepted. Iran has nothing to do with what happens between the two countries, even if it develops into a unity.”

The top issues at the NATO summit

(AFP) / 16 May 2012

The war in Afghanistan, a missile shield for Europe and the pooling of military resources in times of austerity top the agenda of the NATO summit in Chicago on Sunday and Monday.

Afghanistan

US President Barack Obama and fellow NATO leaders will fine-tune plans to hand security control to Afghan troops and withdraw 130,000 combat troops from Afghanistan by late 2014.

The 28-nation alliance will also debate post-2014 support, which is expected to focus on continuing to provide training to Afghan security forces.

NATO will debate the size of the Afghan force and the funding it will need after 2014. The military and police force will grow to 352,000 this year but a US proposal foresees a reduction to 228,000.

The future cost to support the Afghan troops is estimated at $4.1 billion per year. The United States is expected to foot half the bill and Washington wants the international community to provide the rest.

Missile Shield

NATO will declare the start of an “interim capability” of a US-led missile shield to protect Europeans from the threat of ballistic missiles from foes such as Iran.

The announcement will mean that US warships armed with missile interceptors and an early-warning radar system in Turkey will come under command and control of a NATO base in Ramstein, Germany.

The missile defence system is being deployed over several years. Poland and Romania have agreed to host US land-based SM-3 missiles while the US Aegis ships are based in a Spanish port.

Scheduled to become fully operational in 2018, the system has irked Russia, which fears it will undermine its nuclear deterrent and has threatened to deploy weapons to EU borders in response.

To ease Russian concerns, NATO has urged Moscow to cooperate in the system but the two sides have struggled to find a compromise.

Smart Defence

The summit will be the launching pad for NATO’s “Smart Defence” initiative, a push to encourage joint military projects in order to make up for dwindling budgets at a time of austerity across the alliance.

Between 20 and 25 projects will be announced in Chicago, ranging from training helicopter pilots to the joint management of munitions.

The United States, which accounts for 75 percent of NATO’s military spending, has pressed European allies for years to pull their own weight, but the debt crisis is making it even more difficult for them to invest in new weapons.

The NATO-led air war in Libya last year drove home the transatlantic disparity and the stark realities for Europe’s armed forces: a serious shortage of aerial refueling tankers, surveillance drones and precision-guided bombs.

Partnerships

NATO wants to strengthen its partnerships around the world, drawing from the success of its cooperation with Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan in the air campaign in Libya last year.

The leaders of the 22 nations participating in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan were invited to the summit.

NATO wants to deepen relations with traditional partners such as Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

But three military powers not involved in NATO operations, China, India and Israel, were not invited to the summit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to attend.