Middle East:: Qatar envoy hails Turkish role ahead of Erdoğan’s visit

Erdogan,stabilizing force in Middle East

Qatar’s envoy to Turkey has underlined the importance of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Qatar on Tuesday.

“We believe that high-level diplomatic visits between Qatar and Turkey are very important and necessary,” ambassador Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi told Anadolu Agency in an interview.

“Such visits maintain the momentum in bilateral relations and help better consult and coordinate on swift changes and regional and international issues,” he added.

Erdoğan is scheduled to arrive in Qatar on Tuesday as part of a regional tour that already took him to Kuwait.

“We are satisfied with the level of our relations, especially that relations have overcome very difficult tests during the past two days,” the Qatari envoy said.

He said talks between Erdoğan and Qatari leaders are expected to tackle all important issues.

“The visit will undoubtedly dwell on the Gulf crisis and ongoing mediation efforts,” Al Shafi said.

In June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain all abruptly cut diplomatic and commercial ties with Qatar, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups in the region.

The four states have also threatened Qatar with additional sanctions if Doha failed to meet a long list of demands, including one for the closure of Qatari news broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Qatar, however, has so far refused to comply, vociferously denying the accusations against it and describing Saudi-led attempts to isolate it as a breach of international law and its own national sovereignty.

Note EU-Digest: regardless of our often expressed critical comments in relation to a variety of disturbing developments in Turkey under the present leadership of President Erdogan re: Freedom of the Press, and Human Rights violations, one must also give credit where credit is due.

Not only has Mr. Erdogan lived up to the agreement he made with the EU on controlling the stream of Syrian refugees into the EU, he also has been a stabilizing force in the Middle East, trying to cool down the looming conflict between, on one side Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, and on the other side Qatar.

Contrary to our own EU, he has also had the courage to speak out against the US  Trump Administration's nebulous Middle East policies, and the role of NATO in this equation. 

Mr. Erdogan might not be everyone's favorite "Poster Boy" but he certainly is a leader in his own right.

 Read more: Qatar envoy hails Turkish role ahead of Erdoğan’s visit

Censorship Internet: Online surveillance threatens Internet freedom

Iran and China are both - once again - among the "State Enemies of the Internet" by Reporters Without Borders. Bloggers from the two countries tell DW about online filtering and censorship in their home countries.

Authoritarian regimes continue to engage in a variety of surveillance and censorship activities against the media and rights activists. The human rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) named Bahrain, China, Iran, Syria and Vietnam "State Enemies of the Internet," on Tuesday (12.03.2013), the World Day Against Cyber-Censorship.

RSF said the five countries’ governments "are involved in active, intrusive surveillance of news providers, resulting in grave violations of freedom of information and human rights."

"Increasingly widespread cyber-censorship and cyber-surveillance are endangering the Internet model that the Net’s founders envisaged: the Internet as place of freedom, a place for exchanging information, content and opinions, a place that transcended frontiers," the Paris-based NGO said in a statement.

Read more: Online surveillance threatens Internet freedom | World | DW.DE | 12.03.2013

Bahrain detains human rights activist

Bahraini officials have ordered the arrest of a prominent human rights activist on charges of participations in a demonstration against the ruling Al Khalifa regime.

Yousef al-Mahafdha, a member of the board of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was detained late on Friday in the village of Darraz, where a protest took place, AFP reported. 

Mahafdha said on social network Twitter that he had gone into Darraz "at the end of the protest" and saw people carrying away an injured person. 

Dozens of protesters took to the streets of villages around Manama on November 2, chanting anti-regime slogans in defiance of an official ban on protests. 

On October 30, Bahraini authorities banned all demonstrations and public gatherings amid rising protests against the Al Khalifa regime across the Persian Gulf kingdom.

Read more: Bahrain detains human rights activist - Tehran Times

Arab Spring Part Two: Unrest in Bahrain getting worse

Even though Bahrain has been in turmoil since the Arab uprisings began a year ago, with thousands taking to the streets to demand democratic reform. The events there have been overshadowed by those in Syria, but are probably just as bad or even worse than in Syria say some observers.

The leading opposition party Wefaq was involved in backroom talks during a pro-democracy uprising last year on reforms offered by Crown Prince Salman, but the they were cut short when Saudi troops entered Bahrain and martial law was imposed.

Unrest in the Saudi Eastern Province has also flared again in recent months, with Shia activists taking heart from the predominantly Shia protests in Bahrain.  Earlier this month, an estimated 100,000 civilians filled the streets in what, according to observers, has been the largest demonstrations the gulf nation has experienced since protests began last year.

The continued crackdown of the near-daily protests since then prompted a U.N. condemnation on Tuesday of the Bahraini security officials' "disproportionate use of force" to suppress protesters.

On the same day, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, one of the few human rights advocacy groups operating in the country, released evidence of the deaths of two civilians last week from tear gas asphyxiation.

Mattar Ebrahim, a senior figure in Wefaq, said he could not confirm any meetings had taken place but said the Saudis were keen to see stability in Bahrain to improve their own situation. 

EU-Digest

Bahrain suspends opposition newspaper - by Kristen Chick

Bahrain’s government suspended the country’s only opposition newspaper Sunday, accusing it of printing false information about the ongoing democratic protest movement and of plagiarizing. The newspaper’s closure comes amid a campaign of intimidation by the government to suppress the protests that began in February demanding democratic reform and an end to discrimination against the kingdom’s majority Shiite population. Al Wasat is the only newspaper in Bahrain without connections to the ruling family, and was one of few domestic news sources for information on the protest movement.

For more: Bahrain suspends opposition newspaper - CSMonitor.com

Bahrain: Saudi deployment in Bahrain risks sectarian conflict - by DAVID ROSENBERG

The Saudi Arabian decision to deploy security forces in embattled Bahrain threatens to escalate a domestic political dispute in the island state into a sectarian confrontation with Iran, whose reverberations may be felt as far afield as Iraq and Lebanon, analysts said.

Saudi Arabia, together with security personnel from the United Arab Emirates operating under a mandate from the Gulf Cooperation Council, has placed 2,000 soldiers and police in Bahrain. At the cost of four lives, scores of injured and the imposition of martial law, calm has been restored. A week after the March 14 deployment, businesses, the stock market and schools were re-opening.

But analysts said the Saudi move – the first ever by one Arab state intervening militarily in another since the onset of the so-called Jasmine Revolution three months ago – has crossed a red line for Iran and may prompt it to intervene as a counterweight.

A tiny country with no oil of its own, Bahrain nevertheless holds a strategic place in the Gulf. It is home to the US Fifth Fleet and is adjacent to Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil fields. Its Sunni Islamic monarchy is close to the Saudi ruling house as well as the US, but some 70% of its population shares the Shi'ite faith of Iran, Riyadh’s rival for regional supremacy.

For more: Saudi deployment in Bahrain risks sectarian conflict

Bahrain: Curfew follows deadly Bahrain crackdown

At least six people are reported dead and hundreds injured after security forces in Bahrain drove out pro-democracy protesters from the Pearl Roundabout in the capital, Manama.

A 12-hour curfew came into force at 4pm in areas of the city including the Pearl Roundabout, the Bahrain Financial Harbour, and several other buildings which have recently been targets of protests. By then, most of the area had been cleared after troops backed by tanks and helicopters stormed the site - the focal point of weeks-long anti-government protests in the tiny kingdom - early on Wednesday, an Al Jazeera correspondent said.

Multiple explosions were heard and smoke was seen billowing over central Manama.

For more: Curfew follows deadly Bahrain crackdown - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Middle East Popular Revolt: Saudi Arabia’s Action in Bahrain Strains Ties With United States - by David Sanger and Eric Schmitt

Even before Saudi Arabia sent troops into Bahrain on Monday to quell an uprising it fears might spill across its own borders, American officials were increasingly concerned that the kingdom’s stability could ultimately be threatened by regional unrest, succession politics and its resistance to reform.

So far, oil-rich Saudi Arabia has successfully stifled public protests with a combination of billions of dollars in new jobs programs and an overwhelming police presence, backed by warnings last week from the foreign minister to “cut any finger that crosses into the kingdom.”

Monday’s action, in which more than 2,000 Saudi-led troops from gulf states crossed the narrow causeway into Bahrain, demonstrated that the Saudis were willing to back their threats with firepower.

Saudi officials have made no secret of their deep displeasure with how President Obama handled the ouster of the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, charging Washington with abandoning a longtime ally. They show little patience with American messages about embracing what Mr. Obama calls “universal values,” including peaceful protests.

When Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton were forced to cancel visits to the kingdom in recent days, American officials were left wondering whether the cause was King Abdullah’s frail health — or his pique at the United States.

Note EU-Digest: the freedom fighters in Bahrain and everywhere around the Middle East hope they will see a strong signal coming from the EU and the US to Saudi Arabia, like a ban on all weapon sales to the Saudi's and their Gulf States allies which are part of the Bahrain "invasion"force. Unfortunately given the economic entanglement these "two Western economic blocs" have with Saudi Arabia and other oil producing nations this probably is very unlikely?

For more: Saudi Arabia’s Action in Bahrain Strains Ties With United States - NYTimes.com

Middle East Popular Revolt: Saudi security forces enter Bahrain as protests escalate

A military force from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations moved into Bahrain on Monday to shore up the nation’s Sunni rulers in the face of escalating Shia-led protests seeking to break the monarchy’s hold on power.

The Crown Prince of Bahrain formally invite security forces from Saudi Arabia into his country, as part of a request for support from other members of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council. A Saudi security official said the Gulf units dispatched to Bahrain come from a special force within the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. He did not give details on the size or national breakdown of the force — estimated in some reports at about 1,000 strong — but said they were deployed by air and road and will help protect key buildings in the strategic nation, which hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet. The GCC members are Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

The strife in Bahrain escalated dramatically over the weekend just as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived to urge its leaders — key Washington allies — to heed at least some of the demands for change. The Gulf Sunni dynasties are fearful for their own fate as the Arab push for change rumbles through the oil-rich region. They also see any gains by Bahrain’s Shias as a potential foothold for Shia heavyweight Iran to increase influence. Thousands of demonstrators on Sunday cut off Bahrain's financial centre and drove back police trying to eject them from the capital's central roundabout, while protesters also clashed with government supporters on the campus of the main university.

EU-Digeat

Middle East:: Demanding equal rights in Bahrain

Abdul Amir Al-Basri looks sullen and defeated, with a deep black bruise below his right eye, a large bump on the top of his head, and further evidence of police mistreatment on his right hip and ankle.

A driver for the Almoayyed Group, one of Bahrain's biggest conglomerates, Al-Basri missed at least one week of work, as he was detained in Hod Al-Jaf prison on the island of Muharraq near the airport. He says he spent four days there, along with two other detainees who were also picked up on the morning of February 17, when Manama police raided peaceful protesters camped out at Pearl Roundabout. Authorities accused Al-Basri, 37, of monitoring the security services on behalf of the protesters. He admits to being an informal organiser for the anti-government demonstrators who occupy the symbolic heart of the city. But he denies that he was spying on the police. His case is illustrative of tensions that were significantly inflamed by last week's clashes.

Al-Basri has suffered worse brutality than most Bahrainis who side with the opposition. But his case is representative of the gripes that predominantly Shia anti-government protesters harbor against Bahrain's ruling clique.

For more: Demanding equal rights in Bahrain - Features - Al Jazeera English

Bahrain protests - advice for British nationals

Demonstrations and sporadic outbreaks of violence are continuing across Bahrain and may continue in the coming days.


Travel on the highways is severely restricted, and for the time being we are advising UK residents and UK travellers to Bahrain to avoid traveling around the island unless essential; to maintain a high level of security awareness particularly in public places and on major highways; and to avoid large gatherings, crowds and demonstrations.

For more: Bahrain protests - advice for British nationals

Clashes spread in Bahraini capital

Armored vehicles are seen on the streets of Manama after police storm protest site in roundabout early this morning, killing at least three.

For more: Clashes spread in Bahraini capital - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Middle East unrest as it happens

Libya, Bahrain, Iraq,Yemen, Algeria, Jordan and Iran are the latest countries to be hit by popular protests inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Follow the BBC minute-by-minute coverage of all the latest events from across the Middle East and North Africa, where several regimes are facing huge challenges from their people.

For more: BBC News - Middle East unrest as it happened

RNW: Most Western leaders stay away from UN aid summit except EU

For the complete report from Radio Netherlands Worldwide click on this link

Most Western leaders stay away from UN aid summit except EU

A four-day United Nations conference is getting under way in Qatar's capital Doha to seek ways to limit the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the world's poor countries had been especially hard hit by the widening crisis.Few Western leaders are attending the summit. The heads of the World Bank and the IMF are also absent. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is the only leader of a rich country to be there as well as EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso. Developed countries have so far committed to pay less than 20 billion dollars per year, far short of the 130 million per year set for 2010 by the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

Note EU-Digest: EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso called in Doha on Friday for a "human rescue" plan alongside financial rescue packages, as aid agencies rapped most other major world leaders for staying away from a UN summit on aid. Barroso, who unveiled on Wednesday a 200-billion-euro ($254 billion) stimulus package to revive Europe's ailing economy, said it would be "obscene" to discuss responses to the global financial crisis without also discussing the "human crisis." Speaking on the eve of a UN Conference on Financing for Development, he said it is important to keep on schedule toward achieving the UN's Millennium goals for aid to developing countries.