West Asia News and Discussions

[Philip]

Turkish PM's spat with Peres at Davos.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 617169.ece

Turkey hails PM as 'Conquerer of Davos' after walkout

[asprinzl]

Beautiful aint it? Turkish army actually rampages through Kurdish areas with impunity like drunken animals without regards to women, children, invalid nor old. They pour gasoline on Kurdish huts and burn down entire villages. Hundreds of Kurdish women have babies as a result of rape by Turkish soldiers. Turkish warplanes drop napalm and destroy Kurdish settlements wholesale. Yet, yet yet how dare this Erdogan donkey point his accusing finger at Israel?

Its the same with Spain too. They have not treated the Basque ETA with kid gloves either. Hipocrites all of them.
Avram.

[Philip]

What about the Armenian genocide too?
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocide.html

Armenian Genocide

[Philip]

Here is a report on how the Gaza War is helping some Israeli parties in the forthcoming elections,especially former PM Netanhyahu.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... 0262.story

[Philip]

This is being posted here because of its bearings upon Israel and the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere.

The recent discovery of the experiments on twins of the Nazi doctor of death,Dr.Josef Mengele in S.America,whose graphic experiments in the concentration camps horrified the world,is evidence enough for doubters about the scale and inhumanity of the Nazis during WW2,especially against the Jews.Mengele after his escape to S.America,continued to work in secret on his devilish experiments perfected in the concentration camps.Yet many individuals,states,terror groups continue to deny these horrors which have been documented in extreme detail and thanks to the ultra effificient Nazi administration,recorded these horrors for posterity in full measure.Prominent amongst those denying the "Holocaust",as it has universally become known are the Hamas,the Iranian president,a motley crowd of anti-Israeli Arab states and leaders,but surprisingly some in the west and shockingly even within the Vatican,where the Pope was readmitting into the Catholic Church expelled clerics,some even denying the Holocaust.

This was a spectacular own goal by the Pope and the Vatican, bringing upon it universal condemnation.Despite its pleas of ignorance about the cleric's views,the Vatican is under seige from both without the Catholic Church and now sensationally by one of its leading cardinals who has condemned the Pope.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... enier.html

Cardinal condemns Pope over lifting of excommunication on Holocaust denier

Excerpt:
The leader of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales has taken the unprecedented step of condemning the Pope over his decision to lift the excommunication of a British bishop who denied the Holocaust.

The intervention of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor will intensify the worldwide uproar triggered by the Pope's decision to lift the ban on Bishop Richard Williamson who has questioned the killing of six millions Jews by the Nazis.

The Cardinal, in a letter to Dr Jonathan Sacks the Chief Rabbi, a copy of which has been released to The Daily Telegraph, expressed his deep regret at the effect of the Vatican decree which has already been criticised by Angela Merkel the German Chancellor.

Dr Sacks, in his reply to the Cardinal, has warned that the episode has done "great damage" to relationships between the Jewish and Catholic faith. The Winchester and Cambridge educated Bishop Williamson, who runs a church in Argentina, has said that the Nazis did not use gas chambers to kill and that a maximum 300,000 Jews lost their lives. Last week he apologised for the "distress and problems" he had caused the Pope by his "imprudent" remarks but pointedly declined to withdraw them.

[Arun_S]

I commend scientific progress of Iran. No doubt it will cause lot of heartburn in Sunni muslim biradiri/ummah.

Iran insists satellite launch has no military aim
Iran's first satellite: "Ummeed" (Faarsi/Urdu/Hindi: Hope)

Tehran (AFP) Feb 4, 2009
Iran insisted on Wednesday that the launch of its first home-built satellite has no military aims, despite deep concerns in arch-foe Israel and the West about the development.

"This is a scientific and technical achievement and has no military aims," foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi told reporters.

Iran's launch of the Omid (Hope) satellite carried by the home-built Safir-2 rocket on Monday has set alarm bells ringing among Western powers already at loggerheads with Tehran over its nuclear programme.

But hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the move signalled Tehran's technological achievement and was an attempt to break the Western world's monopoly on science.

"We should try to break this scientific monopoly," he said at a seminar on science in Tehran.

"Today science and other technologies are monopolised. We should try to get science out of the control of the arrogant and the selfish," he said, adding the satellite launch had raised Iran's global status "one hundred steps". .. . . . . . .

[IndraD]

can some one pls tell me reason behind hide and seek of chinese warship and Indian submarine.

[shyamd]

Qatari diplomat to attend India’s defence college

A QATARI woman diplomat will undergo a two-month refresher programme at India’s National Defence College, New Delhi starting in April, minister at the Indian embassy Sanjiv Kohli informed the monthly open house yesterday.
The course has diplomats from several countries, including some of the developed ones, said the embassy official. “Usually, diplomats having three to 10 years of experience are given invitation for the course,” he said.
Thanking Qatar for deputing one of its diplomats for the course, the embassy official said it demonstrated the enormous interest this country has in the programmes offered by India.
Kohli said the recent visit of Qatari Deputy PM and Minister of Energy and Industry HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah to India was a major success.
The official said that a senior Qatari defence official also recently attended a professional enhancement course at India’s National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, near Pune.
Qatar’s participation at the recent Arab Cultural Festival in New Delhi was considered as a major boost to the Indo-Qatar relations, he pointed out.
The official said a 25-member team from the country attended the New Delhi event.
The embassy official said India had already extended an invitation to a high ranking legal official from Qatar to visit the country.
The next meeting of the Indo-Qatar joint committee for labour affairs is scheduled for February, according to the embassy official. India has already indicated its preference for New Delhi as the venue for the meeting, he said.
The official termed as a “major success” the embassy’s participation in association with the Indian Business Promotion Network (IBPN) at the recent “Made in Qatar” exhibition.
“Now we are looking forward to hosting an exhibition of major Indian brands in Qatar,” said Kohli.

[pgbhat]

A QATARI woman diplomat

[Dilbu]

A QATARI woman diplomat

Why the surprise? Qatar is one of the most liberal states in ME. They have women working in almost all sectors.

[Philip]

A close *** and Indian,is in charge of an important and sensitive post in Qatar.The Qataris do seem to value the expertise of Indian expats and I'm sure want closer ties with us.

[JE Menon]

Absolutely right, and that must be seen in parallel with their EXTREMELY close ties with the US. Qatar is also pretty much everything proof at the moment...

Sharp ruler, and equally sharp wife. Only concern is his health. Needs badly to lose weight.

[Johann]

The current Qatari Emir's policy has been 'whatever Saudi Arabia does, do the opposite'

So when Saudi Arabia was cracking down on dissidents, (both liberals and Islamist revolutionaries) in the mid 1990s, by expelling them and blocking their media access wherever they might be, Qatar not only welcomed them but created a new satellite channel Al-Jazeera to give all of them a voice.

When Saudi Arabia was increasing support to Hamas in the 1990s to compete with Iran's influence, and taking a harder line on Israel, the Qataris told the Israelis to open a trade office in Doha.

When Saudi Arabia began scaling down the American military presence in the early 2000s, Qatar massively expanded it.

When Saudi Arabia turned on Hamas in the last couple of years, and actually restrained Arab states from reacting more strongly against Israel, Qatar has closed the Israeli trade office, and sided with Syria in praising and promoting Hamas, while criticising Fatah/Abbas.

Essentially the current Emir wants Qatar to be at the centre of the Gulf's economic and political processes - that means first and foremost competing with Saudi Arabia for status and power, and that can only be done by reaching out to the wider world, whether its the US, Iran, the EU, India, China, whatever. The goal is the same, to put Doha on the map ahead of Dubai, Riyadh, Jeddah, etc.

In some ways its reminicent of Mahatir in Malaysia, and his strategies to compete with Singapore, or vice versa.

[Hitesh]

Johann,

Then Qatar's leader must be delusional. Qatar already missed the boat of being the financial capital when Dubai took the lead and sprinted to have a very large lead. Qatar does not have any substantial oil or the necessary people base or intellectual capital to compete with Saudi Arabia and its vastly larger natural resources and bigger population. Whether Qatar likes it or not, Saudi Arabia is the big dog in the Middle East. Although Israel has a much more powerful military than Saudi Arabia, its influence does not compare to Saudi Arabia.

[Johann]

Hitesh,

Qatar has one of the world's largest gas reserves, behind Russia and Iran. That gives the Emir enormous confidance since peak gas will come later than peak oil.

His aggressive promotion of Qatar, coupled with very adept balancing act has given it far more influence than it ever had before. Where has the WTO been holding its current round? Where is one of the biggest news media centres in the ME? Qatar's boldness in identifying and exploiting opportunities has benefited it greatly even if the Saudis are still the big dogs in the GCC, and Dubai and UAE still the glitziest, most business savvy.

So far all those U-turns and contradictory alliances that Qatar has engaged in have had no internal repercussions - most Qataris are pretty happy with things, and so long as that remains the case the Emir can be as acrobatic as he cares to be. Of course the real test will be whether Qatar will be as economically prepared for the future of declining oil revenues as Bahrain and Dubai. The even bigger challenge will be containing the unrest that will come spiralling out of Saudi, Iran, Iraq as well as rentier states like Yemen and Pakistan as populations continue to grow while revenue shrinks.

[shyamd]

In addition to the above, the Qatari govt is trying to develop their name in the sports field as well.

Qatar invests a lot in human capital, they pay for qatari nationals who do well in school to pursue their education in foreign institutes. Not to mention their recent investments in education.

[JE Menon]

In many ways, actually, Qatar is trying to emulate the Dubai model - the difference is that it does not need to depend on an Abu Dhabi for a fall-back position. It has a ridiculous amount of gas, especially if you take it relative to the local population... If they get a viable protector - and the US comes in quite handy - there's not much to hold them back, except internal issues (like the Emir's health and or/succession), and that is likely to be temporary as well... Unless of course the Saudis decide enough is enough and try some stunt. They may not have the appetite for that for the time being...

Check out the Qatar Airways thingie, the sports centre, Al Jazeera (which is unique), and so on...

But it will have to get a little less conservative if that's going to succeed in any viable manner.

[Johann]

But it will have to get a little less conservative if that's going to succeed in any viable manner.

A process that can only be gradual since the ruling family and most of the local population have a Wahhabi background.

They're already well ahead of the other Wahhabi states, Saudi Arabia and Sharjah, but they are never going to get ahead of Dubai or Kuwait in that respect.

[shyamd]

x post:

IOL reports:
Israeli failure's during war:
Israel still hasn't located where Shalit is after going into Gaza.
- IDF special forces Couldn't kill and locate the head of the Al Qassam brigades

Unit 8200 Signals division along with Fatah/palestinian spies helped Aman locate 3 mosques where rockets/ammunition were stored.

Possibly lost a lot of assets. Most of the time, pali agents were using mobile phones at sites where israeli's had attacked and Hamas executed them on the spot(My comment: Israeli propaganda was saying that Hamas was using this conflict as a chance to kill Fatah adversaries, now you know why). Joint Shin Bet and military investigation into whether it was done due to hasty, careless or unsafe use of information they had provided.

-----------------------
Gulf countries are worried about the muslim brotherhood spread in the Egyptian army. Some intelligence agencies of gulf nations have voiced concern. Senior officers are now being watched by Egyptian mili intel and 2 other intel org's.

[shyamd]

Bahrain court sentences Al-Qaeda suspects to prison

A Bahraini court sentenced three men to up to five years in prison for belonging to and funding a "terrorist" group abroad, a Bahraini lawyer said on Thursday.
In Bahrain, the phrase "a terrorist group abroad" is a reference to Al-Quaeda.

The court imposed a one year prison sentence on a Bahraini man who had already been in detention for eight months after being stopped at the airport, Abdullah Hashem, the defence lawyer, told AFP.

The two other suspects, a Bahraini and a Syrian, were sentenced to five years in absentia, Hashem said.

The Bahraini man in the dock, who was arrested on his way to India, was accused of having links to and funding a "terrorist" group abroad that planned attacks against foreign countries.

Bahrain, a financial and banking hub, is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

On December 17, Bahrain's state security authority said it had detained members of a group planning a terrorist attack to coincide with Bahrain's national day celebrations.

In 2003, Bahraini security arrested six young men and accused them of planning bombings and of ties with Al-Qaeda but they were later acquitted by a Bahraini court.

Jailed Al Qaeda cash courier free next month

By NOOR TOORANI

A MAN who acted as a cash courier for Al Qaeda was jailed for a year yesterday by Bahrain's High Criminal Court.

However, the Bahraini will be released next month because he has already spent 11 months in police custody, said his lawyer.

Two other men - a Bahraini and a Syrian - were jailed for five years on terrorism charges.

However, they are still at large and were convicted in their absence.

The 27-year-old who appeared in court yesterday was allegedly a member of the Lebanon-based Al Ansar terrorist movement, who had dreams of fighting alongside insurgents in Afghanistan, according to court documents.

"My client has spent 11 months in police custody since his arrest and because he has been sentenced to one year, it means he will be released next month," said defence lawyer Abdulla Hashim.

"We will not appeal his conviction because it is a long process and he will be remanded in custody during the appeal process. Since he is going to be released next month, it just doesn't make sense.

"However, if the other two are arrested or happen to return to Bahrain, we will object to their conviction because they were tried in absentia."

The defendant, a civilian employee at the General Directorate of Traffic, allegedly received combat training from the Al Ansar group and travelled to Iran three times to deliver money to Al Qaeda, according to Bahrain's National Security Agency (NSA).

Initial reports suggested he channelled 150,000 euros (BD84, 900) to suspected terrorists in Afghanistan through Iran, say prosecutors.

However, the NSA told the court at an earlier hearing that during his visits to Iran, he handed over at least 50,500 euros to Al Qaeda operatives.

He denied all charges at a previous hearing.

He was arrested on arrival at Bahrain International Airport from Iran in June.

The other Bahraini allegedly travelled to Afghanistan to fight last January and has not been heard of since, the court was informed earlier.

[anjali]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indi ... 101489.cms

So are Indians justified in dragging their feet on this or is it just their inertia?

[Virupaksha]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Indi ... 101489.cms

So are Indians justified in dragging their feet on this or is it just their inertia?

The problem is we dont know whether we want it or not

[Sanjay M]

If it runs through Pakistan, then we don't want it. We have other options. Nuclear is greener anyway.

[Philip]

Astonishing! Are British laws that severe with regard to racism?If so,then a lot more need to be arrested,especially those inciting hatred from the pulpits of the mosques.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1062752.html
Senior U.K. diplomat said arrested over anti-Semitic tirade

By Haaretz Service

Tags: Anti Semitism, Jewish World

A senior diplomat in the British Foreign Office has been arrested for inciting religious hatred after he launched into an anti-Semitic tirade at a London gym, the Daily Mail reported on Monday.

Witnesses told the British newspaper they heard diplomat Rowan Laxton shouting "f**king Israelis, f**king Jews" while watching a TV report of Israel Defense Forces operations in Gaza from the seat of an exercise bike.

e also reportedly shouted that IDF soldiers should be "wiped off the face of the Earth."

The Daily Mail said Laxton continued the tirade even after he was approached by other gym users.

A complaint was later filed to police and Laxton was arrested and charged with inciting religious hatred, which carries a maximum seven-year prison term. He has since been released on bail.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said in response to a query by Haaretz that, "We are aware that a complaint has been made to the Police about an alleged incident involving a member of our staff.

"The alleged incident was not in the course of his official duties. It is not appropriate to comment further until the Police have finished their enquiries."

Laxton is in charge of the South Asia Group at the Foreign office, where he is in charge of United Kingdom diplomacy for the region, according to the Daily Mail. His boss, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, is Jewish.

Laxton, who married a Muslim woman in 2000 and has lived in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, is considered an expert on the Middle East.

The British newspaper quotes Mark Gardner, deputy director of the Community Security Trust, a group that monitors anti-Semitism, as saying: "This alleged case is particularly shocking, given the position held by the civil servant in question."

The Daily Mail said that in response to a query on Monday, Laxton denied that his comments were anti-Semitic, but dodged answering whether they were anti-Israel.
————

[Arya Sumantra]

Basically Qatar and Iran tap into the same pool of gas that extends from below the sea floor into both the countries. That pool is very very huge, it is second largest source of gas after Russia. But Iran needs money to develop it before Qatar depletes it. Already on Qatar side, US companies are tapping the gas. They would obviously not like some one reducing their spoils by tapping from other side.

[shyamd]

New dynamism in Qatar ties: Indian envoy

By Arvind Nair

Sanjeev Kohli
BILATERAL relations between Qatar and India have acquired a new dynamism, with half a dozen major proposals on the table right now.
Many of these proposals would be discussed at Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs HE Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Mahmoud’s India visit on February 24.
“This visit is part of the high-level mechanism to see what is happening to the various proposals that were discussed during the Indian prime minister’s visit to Doha last November,” charge d’affaires at the Indian embassy Sanjeev Kohli told Gulf Times.
The visit is very significant because of the added momentum it would give to the various proposals, he said.
Since November there had been at least three internal meetings in India to monitor the progress of various proposals. “This shows the kind of strategic importance we give to Qatar, the diplomat said.
India will organise a counselling cum presentation seminar on higher education facilities in India in April. There is already a joint committee in the field of human resource development and education, set up after the visit by HH Sheikha Mozah Nasser al-Misnad in 2007.
India had been helping other countries in curriculum development and setting standards. Probably experts from both sides could sit together and see how things could be improved. Faculties could be exchanged. “Strength of Indian education system is well-known,” he pointed out.
Besides, the joint committee on labour was likely to meet in Delhi soon. Qatar wants India to review its restrictions on maids going abroad “because Qatari households prefer to get maids from India”.
Household employees like maids and drivers do not get the protection of Qatar’s labour laws.
The joint committee will also discuss issues on how the living and working conditions of workers could be improved. There have been some cases of harassment, under-payment, or non-payment of salaries.
One of the proposals on the table relates to India’s request for additional quantities of LNG. Qatar has agreed to make spot cargo available to India as it did last year. “This is a positive sign,” the official said.
Kohli noted that both sides had also agreed to look at the possibility of setting up joint ventures in the field of hydrocarbons. Discussions on this too would take place during the minister’s visit.
Enhanced co-operation in the fertiliser sector is envisioned. A joint working group, set up after the PM’s visit, would look at the possibility of long-term supply arrangements. A delegation was likely to visit India soon to move things forward, he said.
Qatar had requested amendment on the existing treaty on avoidance of double taxation. The current treaty does not cover dividends arising out of investments. This too will be discussed.
Besides, a Qatar Airways delegation is currently holding talks in India to get more seats allocation and more destinations. “We have always responded positively to such requests, and India has been generally following an open air policy, “ he said.

[shyamd]

Washington, Moscow at Cross-purposes on Nuclear Iran

DEBKAfile Special Report

February 10, 2009

While US president Barack Obama told the media early Tuesday, Feb. 10, that the US would pursue direct talks with Iran, an official Russian spokesman said his government would complete Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr within three months. DEBKAfile's sources report that Obama is planning on the dialogue with Tehran beginning in late June.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad replied by welcoming talks based on mutual respect provided the changes in Washington were "fundamental and not just tactical."

The three statements hung over Israel's general election Tuesday, as 5.2 million eligible voters turned out to choose a prime minister capable of military action to halt Iran race toward a nuclear bomb.

Despite the talk in Washington and Moscow of eased strains in their relations, the Kremlin has clearly come down on the side of giving the Iranian leaders a strong hand in their coming dialogue with the Obama administration. They will come to the table without giving up uranium enrichment in the face of UN sanctions, with long-range ballistic missiles capable of placing a satellite in orbit and having acquired a key element for its nuclear program, a functioning reactor at Bushehr capable of producing processed plutonium.

Talking to reporters, early Tuesday, President Obama said: "In the coming months, we will be looking for openings… to start sitting across the table face to face" with Iran. He stressed that the administration has deep concerns about Iranian policy, citing Iran's support for Hizballah and Hamas, its "bellicose" language to Israel and its pursuit of a nuclear weapon.

The US must use all the tools at its disposal in dealing with Iran and that "includes diplomacy," he said.

Iran must understand that the U.S. finds Iranian actions such as funding of terrorist groups unacceptable, said Obama. But he added that "there's a possibility, at least, of a relationship of mutual respect and progress."

DEBKAfile's exclusive Washington sources add: Following internal White House deliberations, Obama decided that his talks with Iranian leaders would not begin before late June, by which time the results of Iran's presidential election earlier that month would be known. The incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be running for a second term against the reformist leader Muhammed Khatami.

(The tactics the US president has charted for these talks were laid out in detail for the first time in the latest DEBKA-Net-Weekly issue #383 on Feb. 6.)

A few hours before Obama spoke, Alexander Maryasov, director of one of the Russian foreign ministry's Asia departments, said: "I want to stress once again the readiness of the Russian side to complete the construction of the Bushehr nuclear plant within the set timeframe. I believe that after the shipment of nuclear fuel for the electric power plant took place last month, the Iranian side should have no doubts on this score."

DEBKAfile's military sources disclose that Russia delivered 82 metric tons of nuclear fuel to power the plant in the second half of January. This is enough both to fuel the manufacture of electricity and of plutonium.

Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said earlier that the Bushehr plant was 94.8% complete. Foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said it was due to be operational in the first half of 2009.

Syria poised to transfer Iranian mobile anti-air missiles to Lebanese Hizballah

Israel's government changeover catches its armed forces on a high war alert on two fronts – its southern border with the Gaza Strip and its northern borders with Lebanon and Syria, DEBKA-Net-Weekly reported Feb. 6. Iran is deeply involved in both. The northern borders may be the more flammable, our military sources report, after Israel warned Damascus, through US, Egyptian and Turkish channels, that its delivery of scores of mobile anti-air missile systems to Hizballah in Lebanon would cross a red line.

Their possession would make Hizballah the first terrorist group in the world to be armed with an independent air defense weapon system.

In Hizballah's hands, this air defense system would seriously endanger Israeli air movements over Galilee and the Mediterranean, impede US Sixth Fleet flights and endow the Lebanese Shiite group with total military superiority over the Lebanese army and the UNIFIL peacekeepers in the south.

According to DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources, scores of missile carriers painted in Hizballah's colors stand ready at four Syrian military depots ready to cross the Lebanese border. In the last six months, hundreds of operatives trained in their operation in Iran and Syria. Iranian and Syrian missile officers have picked Lebanese sites for their deployment. Hizballah has placed them off-limits to civilians.

The highly-mobile, low-altitude, single-stage surface-to-air missile has a radar system that can detect, track and engage aircraft independently, picking up targets at 30 km and begin tracking them at 20-25 km.

Two separate missile guidance radars are used (with offset frequencies to reduce the effectiveness of Electronic Counter Measures (ECM), so that if one is jammed or shut down, the new missiles can track targets optically. It is armed with a 19-kilo fragmentation warhead with contact and proximity detonation capability.

A battery consists of two launch vehicles, each armed with 6 missiles and two transload vehicles with 18 missile reloads. The lethal radius at low altitude is 5 meters.

It is highly mobile, fully amphibious, air transportable and can be relocated to a new site within four minutes from system shutdown.

The integration of the newbatteries with the C-802 shore-to-ship missiles (of which Hizballah has taken delivery of more than 1,000), when deployed along the Lebanese Mediterranean coast would sharply inhibit the movements of the US Sixth Fleet.

[shyamd]

Sarko on his Middle East tour starting of in the Sultanate of Oman:Rafale offered to Sultan Qaboos of Oman from Sarko over the table. Oman loooking to replace their 20 or 30 aging Jaguars.
He tries everywhere he goes doesn't he??

Apparently Eurofighter was showcased "secretly" recently to the Royal Air Force of Oman.

[SSridhar]

KSA rejects Omar Abdullah's Umrah visa request because his wife is non-Muslim

[ramana]

On the other hand they have no problem in awarding a contract to PRC to build a railway line from Mecca to jahnum !

[Prem]

This provide him excuse to convert her to religion of peace, secularism and enlightenment.

[Chinmayanand]

KSA rejects Omar Abdullah's Umrah visa request because his wife is non-Muslim

This is a classic example of religious tolerance from the guards of Islam.These scoundrels should not be allowed to donate money/services to any secular country for their wahabi promotion.

[shyamd]

The funny thing is, is that these "guards" are doing this to their "brothers" in Oman as well. Omani's hate the Saudi's and are fighting the wahhabi influences off. This goes way back, when the Saudi's were trying to overthrow the Sultan by supporting a rebellion. The british and omani's (bought in loads of Baluchi's from paki baluchistan which oman had control over until 1958 or something) fought off the rebellion. British intelligence got info about Saudi air force dropping and supplying the rebellion. The saudi's were doing what paki's were doing, training them in saudi and sending them back into oman.

Then there were border issues between 2 countries. That got resolved. Then the famous saudi fatwa that all Ibadhi's(the sect of islam in Oman and some parts of Yemen) are kaafir.

Even recently, the saudi's were imposing on the muslims that they pray eid prayers on 8th December 2008. Omani govt official issued a letter to all the mosque's stating that anyone who is found offering to prayers on 8th will be arrested and face legal action because the official day in Oman was the 9th. So some people were travelling accross to the UAE to offer prayers where eid was on the 8th.. The decision by the Sultan was taken very carefully and is a very serious matter for them, it takes a lot for them to say they will arrest people for doing eid prayers on a particular day.

As you can see the Omani's themselves are fighting off Saudi/wahabbi influence in their mosques to this day.

Added later: Apparently KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) was actively seeking to annex part of Western Oman. The Shah's forces across the strait in Iran, sent 30,000 troops also to fight of the rebellion. India also lent 100 naval officers.

[RajeshA]

The british and omani's (bought in loads of Baluchi's from paki baluchistan which oman had control over until 1958 or something) fought off the rebellion.

Per Wikipedia, the Sultan of Oman had suzerainty over Gwadar, now a part of Baluchistan, between 1783 and 1958.

[shyamd]

US-Syrian talks: Precursor for Obama's dialogue with Iran?

[shyamd]

Radar monitoring post in Oman.

[Johann]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/world ... ?ref=world

The beginning of a major shift in Saudi Arabia's *political* landscape.

The decision to reduce Wahabbi representation on the ulema council is clever, but it is the dilution of the 250 year old core alliance between the Al-Saud family and the the Wahhabis.

9-11, the Iraq war, jihadi attacks in Saudi Arabia, the friction between Saudi Arabia's massive youth bulge and the mutawwa/religious police all strained the Saudi-Wahhabi alliance. We will see a shift towards Al-Azhar, the centre of orthodox Hanafi thought.

In sectarian terms we may well see Al-Saud exploring a redefinition of Saudi society as a Hanafi instead of Hanbali/Wahabbi as Saudi Arabian - lthough this would reduce international friction, more importantly for Al Saud it would ease frictions as society grows more urban and materialistic, especially in big cities. However, that also means much more scope for Muslim Brotherhood Islamism which tried and failed to seize power in Egypt, Syria and Algeria.

[shyamd]

Saudi intelligence chief in Damascus for all-out bid to rescue Gaza truce

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

February 15, 2009, 9:46 PM (GMT+02:00)
Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
The Saudi and Egyptian intelligence chiefs launched a dramatic bid Sunday night, Feb. 15, to maneuver Hamas into accepting Egyptian-Israel terms for an extended ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, DEBKAfile's Middle East sources disclose. In an unannounced visit to Damascus, Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the head of Saudi intelligence service, told Syrian president Bashar Assad that Riyadh and Cairo would shelve their quarrel with him if he coerced Hamas into accepting a truce.

Egyptian intelligence Gen. Omar Suleiman, who led the negotiations with Hamas, flew to Riyadh Sunday night to call on King Abdullah.

The two spymasters set out after preparing the ground with their Syrian colleague Gen. Muhammad Nasif, Assad's special intelligence adviser. President Hosni Mubarak decided to have Gen. Suleiman waiting in the Saudi capital to see what comes out of the Damascus talks and be on hand to keep the king advised of Cairo's position on the next developments, including a possible conversation between Abdullah and Assad.

As a further incentive for Assad to rescue the Cairo truce initiative, the Egyptian and Saudi governments offered him their backing in the dialogue he will soon be holding with the Obama administration.

[Sanjay M]

London Telegraph

Israel launches covert war against Iran

Israel has launched a covert war against Iran as an alternative to direct military strikes against Tehran's nuclear programme, US intelligence sources have revealed.

By Philip Sherwell in New York
Last Updated: 10:38PM GMT 16 Feb 2009

[shyamd]

Russian Foreign minister is in Oman today. Sources say Omani foreign ministry is super keen to give him VVVVIP treatment. Guess will wait for the news tomorrow of a Russian port of some sort or some investment.