Middle East Analysis: Scott Lucas on the BBC "Assessing Obama's Speech"

UPDATE 0620 GMT: Ahh, the perils of speaking too soon in a fast-changing media world: I have been "stood down" from Today, so my 15 seconds of fame will have to come through a chat on London's LBC radio (about 0645 GMT) and an analysis on EA later today.

I will be on BBC Radio 4's Today programme at 0750 GMT (8:50 a.m. local time) to discuss the significance of President Obama's speech on the Middle East, Libya, and Iran. The two central questions will be "Is this a new US approach to the region?" (No.) and "Is this, first and foremost, an assertation of American values?" (No.)

The audio will be available later on the Today website.

Syria, Libya, Palestine (and Beyond) LiveBlog: While Obama Speaks....

2100 GMT: Claimed video of a demonstration in Homs tonight, "The people want to topple the regime":

2040 GMT: A day after balking at an agreement to transfer power, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said --- through a spokesman --- that he will sign the arrangement.

Spokesman Ahmed al-Sufi said Saleh will accept Sunday during the celebration of Yemen National Day at the Presidential Palace in Sanaa. Al-Sufi said Abdul-Latif al-Zayyani, the head of the Gulf Co-operation Council, would return to Yemen for the event.

The GCC, which brokered the agreement, said in a statement that its foreign ministers would meet in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday and al-Zayyani would attend.

The Yemeni opposition dismissed Saleh’s promise to sign.

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Middle East Video and Transcript: The Obama Speech

See also Middle East Special: Live Analysis of Obama Speech as It is Delivered

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  Please, have a seat.  Thank you very much.  I want to begin by thanking Hillary Clinton, who has traveled so much these last six months that she is approaching a new landmark -- one million frequent flyer miles.  (Laughter.)  I count on Hillary every single day, and I believe that she will go down as one of the finest Secretaries of State in our nation’s history.

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Middle East Special: Live Analysis of Obama Speech as It is Delivered

1906 GMT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wastes no time in responding to Obama's speech. 

"Palestinian state cannot come at the expense of the viability of the one and only Jewish state."

See also Middle East Video and Transcript: The Obama Speech

Netanyahu then goes on to condemn the plan for Israel to withdraw to borders established in 1967, borders which "are both indefensible and which would leave major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria beyond those lines."

"Without a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem outside the borders of Israel, no territorial concession will bring peace."

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The Latest from Iran (19 May): An Ahmadinejad Albatross Named Rahim-Mashai

1540 GMT: The President's Right-Hand Man. Another shot at Presidential Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai....

The weekly Ya Lesarat Al-Hossein quotes a student of Ahmadinejad’s mentor, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi: “Mashai is a freemason and should be arrested.”

Qasem Ravanbakhsh added that the contents of the president’s public speeches prove he has been heavily influenced by Mashai’s ideas.

The head of the conservative Society of Islamic Republic Martyrs, Hossein Fadai, accused the “deviant current” in the government of trying to foster relations with the US and foreign intelligence services (see 0500 GMT).

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Afghanistan: 12 Die in Protest over NATO Raid (King)

Protest in Taloqan on Wednesday (Reuters)Furious anti-American protesters poured into the streets of a city in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, shouting out objections to an overnight U.S.-led military raid that killed four people, including two women. Subsequent clashes with security forces trying to quell the demonstration killed 12 people, provincial officials said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a strongly worded statement condemning the raid on the outskirts of Taloqan, the capital of Takhar province, and dismissing NATO's contention that the four people killed in it were armed insurgents.

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Israel-Palestine-Syria Video: More Footage from the Nakba Day Marches

On Monday, we posted two videos of hundreds of Palestinians and their supporters marching from the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights, despite land mines and Israeli forces, into the Israel-controlled area. The marchers were seeking to reach the village of Majdal Shams, held by the Israelis since 1967.

Two more clips have now emerged. In the first, Palestinian refugees prepare for the march and moves toward the border fence with Israeli military on the other side. In the second, Israeli soldiers fire tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets into the crowd, as people fight back by throwing stones.

Syria 1st-Hand: "Daraa Changed Everything" (Streets, Inc.)

Protest in Daraa, SyriaFadi went to visit his family over the weekend but did not show up to work on Monday as he typically does. He did not come back until Friday. He was stuck in Daraa as the army laid siege to it and had to sneak his way back via Damascus. Fadi was suddenly talking about toppling the regime. This simple man who had never bothered with politics before started talking about regime change.

Fadi returned to Daraa just in time for the burial of a relative of his. It was a mass burial of fifteen people who were gunned down the previous night by security forces and the army. The funeral quickly turned into a protest against the regime, the first protest Fadi had ever participated in. As the march proceeded over a narrow bridge, the security forces opened fire again, killing a further four. He escaped unscathed, but the event changed him. Later that day he joined a group that marched on a police barracks and torched it.

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Syria & Iran Video: Freed Journalist Parvaz "The Beatings in Syria Were Savage"

Al Jazeera English journalist Dorothy Parvaz describes her detentions and interrogations in Syria and Iran over the last three weeks. 

Parvaz offers contrasting stories of the two countries. She was treated "fairly and in accordance with the law in Iran" but her experience of the Syrian prison before that was one of hearing savage beatings "around the clock".

Syria and Yemen Video Special: The Protests of Defiance

Wednesday night's protest in Homs in Syria:

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