Middle East Today: Bahrain --- Amid Raids & Detentions, Opposition Suspends Participation in "National Dialogue"

Bahrain leading opposition society Al Wefaq has suspended its participation in the Kingdom's "national dialogue" after a wave of raids and detentions by security forces.

The Dialogue began in February, with the involvement of pro-regime and opposition groups, as well as Government ministers and MPs, in an attempt to resolve the issues of reform and justice highlighted by mass protests from February 2011.

However, other opposition factions have denounced the Dialogue as little more than a token gesture, and the discussions have made little progress.

Click to read more ...

Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Activist Zainab AlKhawaja Given 3-Month Sentence

See also Syria Live Coverage: Foreign Governments Pledge Support for Opposition --- But How Much?
Thursday's Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Two Detainees in Israel Prisons End Long-Term Hunger Strikes

---

Zainab AlKhawaja1720 GMT: Egypt. Employees of nongovernmental organizations say the Government is refusing to approve most of their outside grants, forcing some to lay off staff or cut salaries while preventing them from completing projects.

“It's worse, and it gets worse and worse and worse,” said Magdy Abdel Hamid, head of the Egyptian Association for Community Participation and Enhancement. “Under [former President Hosni] Mubarak there were problems, and sometimes they refused [to approve foreign-funded grants], but in general, under the Mubarak regime we were in better condition.”

Click to read more ...

Bahrain Opinion: A Nobel Peace Prize for the AlKhawaja Family? (Weschler)

Maryam & Abdulhadi AlKhawajaFor all its seeming intractability, the situation in Bahrain is not entirely without hope. The regime is hardly monolithic in its hard line, there are reformist elements who could themselves be heartened, their own positions strengthened, by the award of the Peace Prize to a family of nonviolent oppositionist activists. In this context, the situation in Bahrain is not unlike that in Myanmar/Burma a few years back, and the introduction of a Nobel into the Bahraini environment might prove as salutary.

Click to read more ...

Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: An Activist Tries to Re-Enter the Kingdom

See also Syria Live Coverage: The End of the Brahimi Mission?
Thursday's Turkey (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Three Kurdish Officials Killed in Paris Attack

---

1748 GMT:Tunisia. Hundreds of protesters demanding jobs and the reopening of a border crossing with Libya set fire to a police station and cars, as security forces used tear gas and fired shots into the air to disperse them.

Demonstrators in Ben Guerdane want the Ras Jedir crossing reopened so that trade with Libya, on which most of the population depend, can resume.

Tunisian and Libyan authorities opened the crossing briefly on Thursday but shut it when four days of protests in Ben Guerdane turned violent.

1818 GMT: Bahrain. Zainab AlKhawaja's reaction:

MY SISTER IS HOOOME!!!! #bahrain

— angry arabiya (@angryarabiya) January 11, 2013

Maryam and Zainab Alkhawaja:

Click to read more ...

Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Regime Shuts Away Its Political Prisoners

See also Syria Live Coverage: Has the Insurgent Advance Stalled?

---

1900 GMT: Bahrain. The European Union has reacted to the regime's re-assertion of long prison sentences on 13 political prisoners with a call for their release. Spokesman Michael Mann said, "The EU has repeatedly asked the Bahraini authorities to consider an amnesty for all those arrested last year and tried on charges relating to the expression of their political opinion."

Mann said the European Union "fully respects the independence of the Bahraini judiciary" but "remains concerned about the lack of advancement of national reconciliation". He continued, "All sides should engage in a peaceful, inclusive and constructive dialogue, abstaining from all forms of violence and intimidation."

Click to read more ...

Iraq (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Security Forces Raid Minister of Finance's Home and Offices

See also Sudan Feature: Explaining Last Month's Coup Attempt...And What's Next
Libya Feature: Optimism Gives Way to Jitters in Benghazi
Syria Live Coverage: Russia Gives Up on Assad
Thursday's Israel, Palestine (and Beyond) Live Coverage: UN Criticises West Jerusalem's Settlement Expansion

---

1439 GMT: Yemen. Thousands of marchers rally on Thursday to support the Government's restructuring of armed forces, which included the abolition of the Republican Guards, commanded by the son of former President Saleh:

1307 GMT: Egypt. Clashes erupted shortly after thousands of demonstrators gathered at Alexandria's Qaed Ibrahim Mosque to "defend [Islamic] scholars and mosques," and to call for Sharia law.

The rally after Friday noon prayers was initially peaceful, but reports indicate opposition protesters picked a fight with Islamist demonstrators.

Central Security Forces fired tear gas into the crowd, forcing people onto the Corniche near the mosque.

Injuries are reported.

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Death Toll Rises Again

2136 GMT: Syria. The situation in Aleppo may feel like a stalemate to the residents of the city, but there is plenty of efforts being made by both sides to lift that stalemate. For the last week or so the FSA has been sieging the Air Force Intelligence building in Aleppo. Snipers have pinned down the building periodically, and the FSA has hit it with all sorts of RPGs, small arms fire, and recoilless rifles. Videos have even showed the FSA conducting improvised rocket attacks against the building.

But this video is interesting. It shows insurgents using some sort of small field artillery piece to target the building. An activist translates the talking, and suggests that the insurgents are using a radio to make sure that the shell hits the target, and also to make sure that they are not being targeted by snipers:

2120 GMT: Syria. The FSA is sacking bases around Aleppo, and has the city nearly completely cut off from the outside world. However, while the FSA is advancing in the east, sieging the last vestiges of the Assad regime in Idlib province, making inroads in Daraa, and turning up the heat on Damascus, Aleppo is in much the same position it was a month ago, and the conflict has seen little change in even longer than that. With some of the regime's strongest units still operating in Aleppo, it's clear that while the co0nflict is dynamic, and the the momentum clearly on the insurgents' side outside Aleppo, city itself could remain in this state for some time.

Click to read more ...

Bahrain Live Coverage: Will High-Profile Activists Receive Court Verdicts Today?

Sunday night's rally in Bilad AlQadeem in support of political prisoners

See also Bahrain Opinion: You Can Imprison the 13 Activists. You Cannot Imprison Their Ideas.
Tuesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: At Least 250 Civilians Die on Monday

---

1606 GMT: Zainab AlKhawaja's mother reports that her trial was adjourned again today, with a resumption on 10 September. Zainab is also in court tomorrow on separate charges.

The case of Ammar Ali Mansoor AlSawad (see 0535 GMT), along with 16 other boys accused of rioting and burning a police jeep, has been adjourned until 1 October.

1509 GMT: The BBC's Frank Gardner quotes a British minister as saying that the UK is "very disappointed" at today's verdict on the 13 political prisoners and has called for an urgent appeals process. This is a strong --- and rare --- public response from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, signaling a recognition that "reforms" in Bahrain are not going as its allies had planned.

UK Foreign Office Min says 'v disappointd at #Bahrain court upholding sentences vs 13 pol activists', calls for urgent appeals process. #FCO

— Frank Gardner (@FrankRGardner) September 4, 2012

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond): A Downed Jet Grabs the Headlines

---

1940 GMT: Turkey. Insurgents of the PKK have released Hüseyin Aygün, an MP of the opposition Republican People's Party, whom they abducted on Sunday.

1900 GMT: Syria. The National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria has released a statement suggesting that the UN should facilitate another ceasefire in order to achieve peace and preserve what is left of the country:

The great sacrifices that the Syrian people has been able to balance out the power of the regime, but it is still far from achieving a victory because of the international balance of powers that refuses to see the victory of one side over the other. The stalemate makes the continuation of the violence merely a path to the destruction of the Syrian state, society and being.

In order to minimize the painful cost of the desired change, and to protect what can be protected from our country’s infrastructure and our national unity, we at the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, which is an active part of the Syrian popular movement against oppression and one of the main forces against violence and foreign intervention, propose the following:

First- That all armed parties, the regime at the forefront of them, have to agree to a temporary ceasefire to be implemented as soon as possible, hopefully before the beginning of the Eid al-Fitr holiday. All parties are to agree not to conduct any military operations and not to attempt any changes to the current situation on the ground.

Second- During the first week of the truce, both parties are to release their detainees, captives, prisoners, hostages and the kidnapped, and to cease all such actions from then on. All such actions from then be treated as a criminal offence, their perpetrators are to be punished by law.

Third- The two parties are to allow relief agencies to deliver food and medical aid, and they are also to facilitate the treatment of the wounded in public and private hospitals under the auspices of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

Fourth- If the parties concerned implement the earlier points, then the atmosphere for a political solution will be present. Negotiations are then to take place between members of the opposition and a delegation from the regime, the delegation is to have full negotiating authority and has to consist of members that have not been responsible for any bloodshed. The negotiators are to agree on a state of political transition with a definite period -one year- that is to prepare the country for a democratic, pluralistic parliamentary system.

Click to read more ...

Bahrain Opinion: US Needs More Than Words About the Regime

US Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner after a visit to Bahrain, 14 June 2012

---

The only leverage the White House has is a real threat to withdraw support --- the support of arms sales and other political and military links --- from their regime. Its alternative is no more than persisting in "suggestions"...and hoping Bahrain's police runs out of tear gas.

Click to read more ...