What next for North Africa/Middle East?

sabretoothtigger

I thought he didnt go back till his Dad died, did not know he was not originally first in line. Its quite shocking his wife is British with everything they are doing to people

I often think these figure heads are puppets to the interested parties behind the scenes. It was my impression for example that Mugabe was ready to resign when losing his election but was talked out of it, lots of money is backing the system in place

vivatifosi

globalds wrote: »

Syria seems to be moving closer to breaking point with evidence now that there is fighting between different units in the military.

The whole Israel issue seems to be getting more politicised ...Perhaps to distract TV audiences from from their own regimes actions.

Bahrain has lost it's Formula one ...Nice that the world has seen a bit of sense.... Doctors and nurses being charged for treating injured protesters can surely not be acceptable behaviour for any country.

Thanks for resurrecting the thread with a great update globalds. I've pulled three points from it because they are the ones that I've heard the most on.

I find Tim Marshall's (Sky News's foreign editor) blogs on the subject quite interesting. Here are links to his latest entries:

on Syria:
http://blogs.news.sky.com/foreignmatters/Post:7e38344f-f711-4282-9609-9de7498f36ae

on Libya (how to win the peace and the possibility of partition):
http://blogs.news.sky.com/foreignmatters/Post:7e38344f-f711-4282-9609-9de7498f36ae

I enjoy his style and he doesn't toe the line.

In terms of Bahrain, being a rabid F1 fan I'm glad that racing isn't going there. I was pleased to see Webber against it from the get go and I'm glad people have seen sense. You can't have a global sporting event in the middle of a civil uprising. I'm also very disturbed to read of doctors being tortured for treating the rebels:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/blindfolded-beaten-and-tortured-grim-new-testimony-reveals-fate-of-bahrains-persecuted-doctors-2281616.html

It will also be interesting to see if things move on in Yemen now that the leader is being treated in Saudi.

ash28

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

I thought he didnt go back till his Dad died, did not know he was not originally first in line. Its quite shocking his wife is British with everything they are doing to people

I often think these figure heads are puppets to the interested parties behind the scenes. It was my impression for example that Mugabe was ready to resign when losing his election but was talked out of it, lots of money is backing the system in place

She is British but her parents are Syrian.

I agree sometimes I think the same about them being puppets to the interested parties behind the scenes - and I'm sure there are plenty.

I think the West's political interests have quite a bit to answer for, I agree with Ninky's post #175 - not only political interests but corporate interests too.

globalds

Here are a few links to some of the comments I made in the previous post.

Some news on Yemen that seems to be remaining under the radar.

http://www.newsroomamerica.com/story/137800/secret_u.s._airstrikes_picking_up_in_yemen.html

The report on the very high Egyptian unemployment was from the FT so people may not be able to see it.
A website has copied some of it on a post so the jist of the article can be seen here:

http://www.expatcairo.com/2011/06/time-to-stop-propping-up-egypt%E2%80%99s-currency/

original here:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4a5b6270-9074-11e0-9227-00144feab49a.

Latest update on the Stuxnet Virus and the Iranian centrifuges here :

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304392704576375951769762740.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

vivatifosi

Interesting analysis on the Sky News blogs re Syria. Dominic Waghorn suggests that the UK saying there is nothing the EU can do is wide of the mark. Syria making $8m per day in hard currency from oil sales, 96% of which goes to Germany, Italy, France and Netherlands, according to International Energy Agency data. Makes the case that its time for countries to do all they can to hit Assad in the pocket. It goes on to argue that the amount is big enough to matter, given that tourism has dropped off giving oil disproportionate importance:

http://blogs.news.sky.com/middleeastblog/Post:27732925-e4fa-4d47-9b32-58c9bff25001

sabretoothtigger

It is immoral to benefit from a regime that acts like that. Oil imports should have been stopped long ago

She is British but her parents are Syrian.

Im not bothered where her parents were born. My parents werent uk born, it makes no difference. If she is born and bred here she is British.

How does anyone go from benefiting all their lives from a peaceful country to profiting from and commanding the torture of children.

When Charles Taylors son went from Miami to commit torture in his fathers regime he was held responcible for it and arrested. He is currently serving a 97 year sentence in the USA

I hope the UK have made similar terms clear for anyone taking part in Syria

vivatifosi

A good and mostly positive article in the Economist re Tunisia:

http://www.economist.com/node/18958251?story_id=18958251&fsrc=rss

globalds

Hows about this for a regional destabilising factor:

http://www.onislam.net/english/news/middle-east/453052-israel-plans-to-strike-iran-in-september.html

"There is almost near certainty that Netanyahu is planning an attack (on Iran)…and it will probably be in September,"

Loopgames

globalds wrote: »

Maybe time to resurrect an old thread....it being Easter


It would be nice to get an update from Hamish and Vivatifosi.

For what it's worth I think Syria will be the next one to blow up into a civil war/revolution.

Having watched some of the videos coming out of their it seems the next obvious step for the demonstrators is to start fighting back.

The constant shouts of Allah Akbah from the demonstrators in almost every tape I see from all countries with demonstrations may not bode too well for western style democracies flourishing in the future.

I'm in Syria right now. I travel to and fro from London to Damascas a lot. We have family here and Iraq too. So far I watch the news and look outside and see nothing of consequence. I am seriously what the heck they're all playing at!!!!

We went into central Damascas the other day- there's a new business imported from Canada (apparently) opened up called Cinnibon...and nothing was happening there yet there are shots on TV from BBC world news and CNN that we watch about bloodshed.

I don't disagree about the oppressive regime - but syrians seem to love their president on the outset and my point is really about the fact that nothing of any consequence is actually taking place....in damascus anyway - not sure about the other areas. I presume there is some sort of unrest just not sure why it's reported to be in damascus when things are quiet!!

Getting annoyed actually as the British Embassy are telling us to leave based on these reports.

My concern is increasing about anti-assad regime actually. The people who want their to be problems happening in syria are the ones I'm concerned about. There was one guy pretending to be a lesbian oppressed syrian gal and turned out to be a guy studying in scotland or something!! Why are these 'good-for-nothing' individuals stirring up trouble. In the name of humanity?? When secretly they want the US and UK to target innocent people and kill them!!

Very concerned since we have family that we visit here often.

michaels

That was a party political broadcast on behalf of the Assad Dynasty Party...but then you already knew that as there are no other parties permitted.