Political front:
Several Egyptian opposition groups called for political reforms and more freedoms in a statement on Monday at the end of a three-day conference, the official news agency MENA reported. The groups, which include established opposition parties such as the leftist Tagammu and the liberal Al-Wafd, demanded an end to the concentration of power in the president's hands and reforms to laws that place restrictions on parties. They also called for peaceful protests ahead of parliamentary polls due in October.
The National Democratic Party (NDP) has denied accusations of a secret deal struck with certain opposition parties to divide the Muslim Brotherhood’s current parliamentary seats amongst them and to ignore the presidential ambitions of former IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei. Al-Shorouk newspaper quoted an unnamed senior NDP source as refuting claims that a deal had been struck with Al-Wafd party to coordinate efforts during the parliamentary elections set for October, saying the NDP “does not fear anyone and does not make deals for individuals.”
Geo strategic front:
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said that Israel's decision to build new settler homes in east Jerusalem "endangers" indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians. "Recent Israeli decisions to build new housing units in east Jerusalem have endangered and undermined the tentative agreement to begin proximity talks," she said in Cairo where she addressed members of the Arab League. "The EU position on settlements is clear. Settlements are illegal, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two state-solution impossible," Ashton said.
Arabs across the Middle East are unconvinced the United States will stand up to Israel despite Washington's rare public outrage over plans to build new Jewish homes in a traditionally Arab part of Jerusalem. The skepticism is eroding Arab hopes that President Barack Obama will push hard for a long-sought peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians to end a conflict that has fueled anti-US sentiment in the region. America's dwindling credibility could also jeopardize another major Mideast goal — uniting the Arab world against Iran. Paul Salem, director of theCarnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said Arab countries will be less likely to engage with theUS on issues such as Iran if they get nothing in return.
Economic front:
Private equity firms in the Middle East are looking at development financial institutions (DFIs) as an alternative to elusive bank lending, executives said. “The change in mix of funding providers — more (reliant) on development financial institutions as opposed to Western commercial banks — is going to be the theme for private equity in 2010,” said Ahmed El Houssieny, managing director at Cairo-based Citadel Capital, at a conference in Dubai.
With the advent of the global financial crisis, most countries saw their construction activities grind to a halt as banks tightened lending. In this respect, Egypt is proving resilient; indeed, its cement producers are trying to keep pace with an energetic construction industry. As an anti-crisis measure, the government has aimed stimulus money at large infrastructure development projects, including water treatment plants, railways, highways and housing. Around LE 23 billion (€3.1 billion) has been issued since October 2008 to stimulate the economy, and the People’s Assembly is currently pushing through another LE 10 billion (€1.35 billion) in stimulus cash, which will be financed by the sale of land plots. This construction surge should help push the GDP growth rate above 5 percent in the 2009/10 fiscal year, after registering 4.7 percent in 2008/09.
Social front
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak appointed a new head of Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious institution, after the death of its top cleric last week, the official MENA agency reported. Mubarak, who is recovering from surgery in Germany, "has issued a presidential decree appointing Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Al-Tayeb to head Al-Azhar," MENA reported.
International donors are to gather in Egypt's capital with a $2 billion target for the reconstruction of Darfur, Sudan's western region devastated by a seven-year war. The one-day conference has been organized by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which groups 57 members to form the world's largest Islamic assembly, and is to be co-chaired by hostEgypt and Turkey. Around 25 non-OIC member states and 50 international organizations and NGOs have also been invited to take part. The $2 billion which the conference aims to raise is to finance in cooperation with Khartoum a long list of development projects in agriculture, water supply, health and education. "The conference aims to send a clear message to the international community that development is a key factor in achieving peace and stability in Darfur," the host nation said in a statement. Aid to Darfur has so far concentrated on humanitarian and relief efforts. But organizers are trying to shift gear by working on a more long-term vision for Darfurthrough development and reconstruction projects.
Employees of the Islam Online (IOL) website continued their sit-in for the third day running at their Sixth of October offices, demanding their settlement packages after the majority of them submitted their resignation. A source from IOL who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “Qatar has reneged on the deal for the severance packages. A lawyer is currently present to discuss legal rights.” IOL employees started a strike after warnings of mass layoffs and employee investigations by the funder of the site, Qatar’s Al-Balagh Foundation. It was also announced that their contracts, which expire at the end of March, would not be renewed. A total of 300 employees submitted their resignations Tuesday after being told it was the only way to ensure they receive severance packages.
Egypt was listed as an “enemy of the internet” by Reporters Without Borders as a US State Department 2009 report on human rights highlighted Egypt’s ill-treatment of bloggers and internet activists in 2009. The internet has become a “battlefield for supporters and opponents of fundamental human rights,” the US State Department report said.
The majority of Islam Online (IOL) Egypt’s 330 staff submitted their resignation following a two-day sit-in spurred by warnings of mass lay-offs and employee investigations by the website’s Qatari owner.
The dispute between the Egyptian office of Islam Online (IOL) and the board of its funding foundation in Qatar continued even after two members of the board were suspended and a general meeting was called for to resolve the issue. Though it seemed that it was the end of the line for the 330 employees of IOL in Egypt, matters took a turn Wednesday night when the board of the Qatari Al Balagh Foundation, headed by Sheikh Yousef El-Qaradawi, voted to suspend the membership of two members who were allegedly behind the plans to relocate the office to Qatar.
Iraq
Political front: Elections
A list led by Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had a wide lead in early results from the southern oil hub of Basra a week after Iraq's parliamentary election, the country's electoral commission said on March 14.
With nearly 80 percent of the votes counted from Iraq's March 7 parliamentary elections, the main winners appear to be Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and challenger Iyad Allawi. But the two front-runners are neck and neck. The vote count so far shows Allawi's Al-Iraqiyah coalition narrowly ahead of Maliki's State of Law alliance by less than 9,000 votes. The Iraqi National Alliance, a coalition of Shi'ite religious groups, looks set to come in third, followed by the Kurdistan Alliance, composed of the two main factions in the autonomous Kurdish region. With 20 percent of the vote remaining to be counted, the balance between the two front-runners still could easily tip either way. Coalition Talk But what appears almost certain is that neither will be able to amass enough seats in parliament to rule alone. Already in Baghdad the talk is all about coalition building, and which party will partner with others. One senior candidate with the Al-Iraqiyah list, Intisar Allawi, a relative of Allawi, said on March 16 that the group held "very good and positive talks" with the Iraqi National Alliance and with the Kurdistan Alliance. At the same time, Prime Minister Maliki has invited all parties in Iraq to join negotiations with his State of Law alliance.
Iran has congratulated Iraqis over an election that is likely to keep a bloc led by its Shi'ite ally, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in power after a campaign in which Tehran's influence was a divisive issue. Maliki's main challenger, former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who headed a secular list mixing Shi'ite and Sunni Arabs, made a high-profile visit to Saudi Arabia during the campaign to improve ties with Iran's biggest Sunni rival in the Persian Gulf region. "All international supervision has confirmed the soundness of the Iraqi elections. This is a success and we congratulate Iraqis," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at a weekly press briefing on English-language state television. "We hope we'll be able to see the formation of the new government as soon as possible...the whole region will benefit from security in Iraq." Early results from the March 7 parliamentary vote show Maliki's State of Law bloc ahead in seven of 18 provinces, while strong Sunni Arab support has propelled Allawi's secularist Al-Iraqiyah list into second.
The results from the general elections indicate that the sectarian equation brought about in the aftermath of the occupation of Baghdad may no longer hold. We have seen Iraqis rallying behind groups which puts national interests above sectarianism. Some even go on saying that the equation has lost its balance. The evidence they cite are the results in provinces such as Nineveh, Salahuddeen, Anbar and Diyala where the electorate chose a secular coalition at the expense of an Islamist party. On the other hand, there are many who say that some other political blocs have preserved their standing by relying on sectarian support. These people add that the coalition of the State of the Law headed by outgoing Prime Minister Noor al-Maliki and the National Coalition are none but sectarian formations. This is evident in the overwhelming support they obtained in certain provinces. In the meantime, even those entertaining hopes for the emergence of a secular state, have their doubts.
Partial results from the Iraqi parliamentary election indicate that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s ruling State of Law bloc is leading in Baghdad and the provinces to the south. The big surprise has been the victories of al-Maliki’s main rival, former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, whose al-Iraqiya list seems to be sweeping the Sunni regions along Baghdad’s northern rim. The rise of al-Iraqiya, along with the fact that al-Maliki hasn’t completely dominated the Shiite south, suggests that he will have a hard time cobbling together a coalition government that is Shiite-dominated and has a reasonable degree of Sunni representation.
Regardless of whether it is Nuri al Maliki’s or Iyad Allawi’s bloc that will emerge victorious in the Iraqi elections, initial indications up until the publication of this article show that Allawi has won Arab Sunni governorates and al Maliki has won Arab Shia governorates. In geographical terms, Allawi has won western Iraq and some of its northern parts, whereas al Maliki has won southernIraq and most of the central areas of the country. So the fight for Baghdad, the jewel of the Iraqi crown, continues. Either al Maliki or Allawi will win the majority of votes but whoever wins would have done so by the skin of his teeth. What’s striking is that in the electoral programs of competing lists they all praise national unity and reject sectarianism.
The Governor of the Province of Nineveh has asked the United Nations and the European Union to undertake an international investigation into attacks targeting Iraqi minorities in his province. Atheel al-Nujaifi said violence against minorities in Nineveh, of which the northern city of Mosulis the capital, has surged recently. He said Christians were being forced to flee and some of them have been killed. Other minorities like the Shebek and Yazidis are under immense pressure and targets of mounting violence, he said.
Social front
The U.S. State Department's annual human rights report says more than 30 wars and armed conflicts around the world are fueling human rights abuses, including what it calls "an alarming number of reports of torture, extrajudicial killings, and other violations of universal human rights."The annual report, which is mandated by U.S. Congress, is actually 194 individual country reports on human rights practices, which are researched and written to provide what the State Department says is "the most comprehensive record available of the condition of human rights around the world." The reports criticize or praise the human rights records of U.S.friends and foes alike.
Lebanon
Political front
Protecting Lebanon was the focus of the March 14 alliance meeting at the Bristol Hotel on Sunday. March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soueid briefed the press after the gathering, which he said was aimed at guaranteeing the well-being of all Lebanese, despite their political and sectarian differences. “Protecting Lebanon is a national, Arab and international responsibility,” he said. Regionally, Lebanon is threatened by Israel, according to Soueid. It refuses to work towards peace and continues to build settlements, he added. He also cited Iran’s nuclear program as a danger to the country and region. “We want to see the country united and free, fully Lebanese and fully Arab,” Soueid added. Despite any mistakes that were made, the Cedar Revolution will continue until its goals are achieved, the March 14 General Secretariat coordinator said. With that, Soueid introduced a seven-point plan to “preserve the safety of the Lebanese people,” and called on the Lebanese to develop and elaborate on it.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is ready to to turn a page on the past by meeting Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, Hezbollah, which is mediating between the former arch-foes, said on Monday. The Lebanese Shiite group's leader Hassan Nasrallah "has advised Jumblatt that given recent developments, the Syrian authorities will forget the past and open a new page," it said in a statement. "President Assad will receive him in Damascus during a visit on a date to be announced in the coming days," Hezbollah added. The announcement came two days after the Druze leader admitted he had made "inappropriate and unreasonable remarks about President Assad at a time of internal tensions and extreme division within Lebanon.
Economic front
Lebanon is yet to receive an official invite to the Arab Summit that will be held in Libya at the end of this month. It has been confirmed that Lebanese President Michel Sleiman will not attend the summit. The Lebanese President previously told Asharq Al-Awsat that this subject is “problematic” and denied the option of taking part.
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