Wednesday
Mar062013
Iran Caption Competition: The Supreme Leader Plants A Tree
For National Natural Resources Week, the Supreme Leader has planted a tree.
Over to you, reader, for the appropriate caption....
Wednesday
Mar062013
Syria Feature: The Conflict --- and Truce --- Between Insurgents and Kurds in Ras al-Ain
Fighters in Ras al-Ain (Photo: Reuters)
Kurdish and Arab militias waged a bitter battle for three months in the northern city of Ras Al Ayn, in Hassakeh province. Now, they’ve reached a truce that has managed to last into a third week, marking an early success for a nascent group of peacekeepers led by famed Christian dissident Michel Kilo....
The months of fighting in Ras Al Ain killed nearly 300 people. It took a diverse group of men and women, Kurds and Arabs, Alawites, Sunnis, Christians, tribal leaders and urbanites to broker Feb. 17’s tenuous peace.
Wednesday
Mar062013
Syria Live Coverage: More than 1 Million Refugees
Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 5:53 | James Miller in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2055 GMT: Death Toll Rises. According to the Local Coordination Committees, 127 people have died so far today across the nation:
34 in Damascus and its Suburbs, 27 martyrs in Homs, 18 in Raqqa, 19 in Idlib, 15 in Aleppo, 6 in Deir Ezzor, 4 in Lattakia , 2 in Hama and 1 in Daraa
See our note on the casualty figures published by the LCC.
It's worth noting that the numbers coming from Al Raqqah and Homs rival those in Damascus, Idlib, and Aleppo - the locations of the fiercest fighting on the front lines.
2036 GMT: Rebel Leadership Condemns Kidnapping. Now a statement of condemnation from the leader of the Supreme Military Council, Salim Idriss:
Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) - the main rebel fighting force - condemned the seizure of the UN observers.
FSA leader Gen Salim Idriss told the BBC's Newshour programme he would "do everything what I can to liberate them".
tagged Jordan, Refugees, Salim Idris, Syria
Jordan, Refugees, Salim Idris, Syria Tuesday
Mar052013
Iran Live Coverage: Ahmadinejad's All-Is-Well Economic Message
See also Monday's Iran Live Coverage: Engineering June's Presidential Election
1905 GMT: Labour Front. Workers of the Tehran Steel Company have protested for the second day over 2 1/2 pages of unpaid wages.
1805 GMT: Censorship Watch. Looks like some pictures of Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, have disappeared from the Fars website.
The site still has plenty of photographs of Jannati's visit to Iraq, but this is not one of them:
Could the problem be the royal implications of Jannati on a would-be throne?
Tuesday
Mar052013
Syria Live Coverage: Insurgents Capture City of al-Raqqa
Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 15:52 | James Miller in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Residents of al-Raqqa topple statue of late President Hafez al-Assad on Monday
See also Yesterday's Syria Live Coverage: The Regime's Shelling of Homs
Syria Feature: The Young Men from Ireland Who Fight --- and Die --- with the Insurgency (Fitzgerald)
Today's Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Authorities Release Body of Man Killed by Police...After 12 Days
2216 GMT: Destroying Highways to Isolate Assad. There's now a pattern that has been well established over the last few days. With the rebels under the impression that Assad is on the run, but with Assad convoys trying to regain momentum, the rebels have destroyed highways and bridges near major Assad bases, and have conducted many IED attacks on the roads to disrupt Assad's reinforcements. Keeping that in mind, this report comes from the LCC (see here on the map):
FSA fighters destroy al-Ghasoula checkpoint on Damascus Int'l Airport highwayand kill many soldiers and destroy 3 tanks and number of cars.
Tuesday
Mar052013
Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Authorities Release Body of Man Killed by Police...After 12 Days
Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 9:07 | Scott Lucas in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran The moment that Bahraini police hit Mahmood AlJazeeri in the head with a tear gas canister --- he later died from the injury
See also Kuwait Feature: Youth Take Up Battle Against Bureaucracy
Syria Live Coverage: Insurgents Capture City of al-Raqqa
Monday's UAE (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 94 Activists Go on Trial
2105 GMT: Egypt. Clashes broke out in Cairo today during a funeral march for activist Mohamed El-Shifae, with police firing tear gas.
El-Shifae was killed on 29 January after participating in protests. His family spent a month searching for him before they found his body in a morgue; officials had previously denied that the activist was there.
Tuesday
Mar052013
Kuwait Feature: Youth Take Up Battle Against Bureaucracy (Dickinson)
Photo:Stephanie McGehee/ReutersThe story spread like wildfire among young Kuwaiti friends because everyone could remember a similar experience. A young man, trying to renew his passport and tired of waiting, called his friend, who in turn knew someone who could help.
That wasta, or connection, wasn't a high-level official or even a bureaucrat. It was the expatriate server who poured tea for employees at the passport office. Sure enough, with the waiter on board, more wasta followed, and suddenly, the renewal was rushed through.
The story may have been told in jest, but one of the most common grievances among young Kuwaitis is not jobs, health care, or even politics. It is the bureaucracy.
Tuesday
Mar052013
Syria Feature: The Young Men from Ireland Who Fight --- and Die --- with the Insurgency (Fitzgerald)
Hudhaifa ElsayedThe family of 22-year-old Hudhaifa ElSayed, from Donacarney in Drogheda, who was shot dead by regime forces in northern Syria in December, knew exactly what he was doing.
ElSayed did not leave Drogheda with the aim of becoming a rebel fighter in Syria. After attending a conference in Turkey last April, he volunteered to work with Syrian refugees in the country. Several weeks later, he decided he wanted to do more.
“I see my life as being about three things: searching for the truth; defending the weak against injustice and the oppressors; and helping to build peace in the world,” he said, as we watched hundreds of anti-regime protesters gather after Friday prayers. “The battle here in Syria combines all three.”
Monday
Mar042013
Syria Live Coverage: The Regime's Shelling of Homs
Monday, March 4, 2013 at 10:25 | James Miller in EA Live, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2331 GMT: Governor of al Raqqah. A picture for comparison:
PHOTO: Governor of Al-Raqqa Hassan Jalili and head of Ba'ath Party branch Suleiman al-Suleiman in FSA custody. twitter.com/NMSyria/status…
— NMSyria (@NMSyria) March 4, 2013
Jalali with Assad, for reference:
2303 GMT: Governor of Al Raqqah in Rebel Custody. Hassan Saleh Jalali, governor of Al Raqqah, appears to be in custody of the rebels. A video has been sent to us over Twitter, but several others have also been posted online:
Monday
Mar042013
Iran Live Coverage: Engineering June's Presidential Election
The Supreme Leader's senior aide Ali Akbar Velayati announces plans for the Presidential election at a Sunday press conference
See also Sunday's Iran Live Coverage: Revolutionary Guards v. Ahmadinejad
1818 GMT: Economy Watch. The Financial Times picks up on one of the hot topics of conversation as Iranian New Year approaches --- the sharp rise in pistachio prices.
The nuts, a staple of the Nowruz celebrations, have soared in cost at home as farmers --- able to make three times as much as a year ago in foreign currency because of the falling Iranian Rial --- send their pistachios abroad.
One kilogrammes of pistachios cost 200,000 Rials last year. This March, the price is between IR540,000 and IR780,000.
In recent days, the Government has forced shops to sell pistachios at 300,000 Rial per kilo, but the intervention has had little effect so far.