Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 8:05 | Jonathan Singerton in EA Global, Europe and Russia, UK and Ireland 
Given all the tensions between Russia and Britain, how can there be a thaw in the frozen diplomatic relations?
The answer is simple.
Gas --- and the company BP.
Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 7:24 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran David Sanger and Eric Schmitt write for The New York Times:
The Obama administration, hoping that the conflict in Syria has reached a turning point, is considering deeper intervention to help push President Bashar al-Assad from power, according to government officials involved in the discussions.
While no decisions have been made, the administration is considering several alternatives, including directly providing arms to some opposition fighters.
The most urgent decision, likely to come next week, is whether NATO should deploy surface-to-air missiles in Turkey, ostensibly to protect that country from Syrian missiles that could carry chemical weapons. The State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said Wednesday that the Patriot missile system would not be “for use beyond the Turkish border.”
But some strategists and administration officials believe that Syrian Air Force pilots might fear how else the missile batteries could be used. If so, they could be intimidated from bombing the northern Syrian border towns where the rebels control considerable territory. A NATO survey team is in Turkey, examining possible sites for the batteries.
Claimed footage of police beating protester after funeral of a political prisoner, 3 October 2012
Consider this press release from the Bahrain News Agency on a statement on Friday by Hague's deputy, Minister of State Alistair Burt:
"He hailed the formation of the ombudsman at the Interior Ministry to probe complaints and grievances and supervising inquiries, pointing out that the issues revealed in the BICI report would require a long time to address."
Now consider what Burt actually wrote:
"We are concerned by some of the recent decisions taken by the Bahraini Government, particularly on human rights, and we’re clear that there are areas where progress on implementation has been too slow and others where it is lacking."
In a series of interviews with the BBC on Wednesday, I tried to look beyond the immediate outcome of President Obama's re-election to assess both the short-term challenge of the dispute over the Federal budget and other economic issues and the long-term prospects for the Democrats, the Republicans, and a changing American society.
Some of the comments may be familiar to listeners, but I think others --- such as the rising significance of ethnic groups in American politics, countering the narrative of recent years about the influence of conservative Republicans --- may be surprising.
BBC Radio 5 Live: What next for the US and Britain? (with former British Ambassador to the US, Sir Nigel Sheinwald) --- Start just before the 1:50.00 mark
BBC WM: A wide-ranging talk about the challenges for Obama over economic issues and foreign policy and about the state of the Republicans --- Start at the 4:19 mark
BBC Scotland: The immediate fight over economic and social issues --- The item starts at the 1:07:24 mark; my comments come just after 1:11.00
BBC WM: What do the Republicans do now? --- Start just before the 15:00 mark
Britain has rebuffed US pleas to use military bases in the UK to support the build-up of forces in the Gulf, citing secret legal advice which states that any pre-emptive strike on Iran could be in breach of international law.
US diplomats have also lobbied for the use of British bases in Cyprus, and for permission to fly from US bases on Ascension Island in the Atlantic and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, both of which are British territories.
Rizwaan Sabir with University of Nottingham Security, May 2011Four years ago, University of Nottingham postgraduate candidate Rizwaan Sabir was held for seven days without charge. The reason for suspicion? As part of his dissertation research on tactics and discourse of "terrorism", he had downloaded a publicly-available training manual from Al Qa'eda.
Sabir was never charged and eventually moved to Ph.D. study at the University of Bath, with the police paying him $20,000 compensation in September 2011. However, his friend Hicham Yezza, an administrator at Nottingham, was also interrogated and then held for months, under threat of deportation, on an immigration charge.
Now the results of the internal investigation over the police's handling of the case indicates officers "created" details of an interview with Dr Rod Thornton, the University of Nottingham's speciaist on terrorism.
John SawersA curious, clumsy, and perhaps dangerous intervention by the head of Britain's foreign intelligence service....
Speaking at a public event in London, MI6 chief John Sawers declared that Iran is “two years away” from becoming a “nuclear weapons state” and that, “when that moment came”, Israel and/or the US would have to decide whether to launch a military strike.
Bahrain's Commander-in-Chief Hosts US CENTCOM CommandersWhilst meetings are part of every government's day, a series of encounters in the past week suggest that security and Saudi union is again very much on the mind of Bahrain --- and its allies.
The backdrop to this activity took place on Sunday, when the Bahrain Interior Minister, Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, visited his Saudi counterpart, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The Saudi Gazette reported, "The talks focused on the recent raids by the Bahraini security forces that resulted in the uncovering of 'terrorist hideouts' and seizure of materials used for manufacturing explosive devices." The Prince "lauded the cooperation between the two countries in security aspects".
Sunday, July 8, 2012 at 11:08 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran Claimed video of protests in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province tonight (see 2050 and 2105 GMT)
See also Syria Propaganda 101: How PR Firm Brown Lloyd James Polished the Regime's Image
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 89 Deaths, 672 Protests, and a "Liberated" Regime Convoy
2050 GMT: Saudi Arabia. The Minister of Interior has confirmed that prominent Shi’a Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was arrested in Eastern Province late Sunday after he was shot in the leg by police.
Reports of the Sheikh's arrest brought demonstrations in the mostly Shi’a Qatif region of the Eastern Province, which has been the focal point of protests alleging discrimination.
The Ministry claimed, “When the aforementioned person [al-Nimr] and those with him tried to resist the security men and initiated shooting and crashed into one of the security patrols while trying to escape, he was dealt with in accordance with the situation and responded to in kind and arrested after he was wounded in his thigh."
Al-Nimr was taken to hospital and accused of sedition. He was previously detained for several days in 2004 and 2006
“They (police) took him from his car and blood can be seen near his car,” said his brother Mohammed al-Nimr. “He had been wanted by the interior ministry for a couple of months because of his political views. In the past couple of months he has adopted a lot of Shi’ite issues and expressed his views on them, demanding their rights."
British Prime Minister David Cameron welcomes Bahrain's King Hamad in London, 12 December 2011
Bahrain, along with Syria, has become a symbol of the failure of the Arab Spring to deliver real democracy and freedom across the Arab world. The media in Britain portray a rigid, oppressive almost feudal elite who are stubbornly holding out against the inevitable wave of modern freedoms and political justice.
But what is hardly ever mentioned in the press and TV reports is that this very system of oppression, the rock against which the dreams of democracy are being dashed, was largely created by the British. That, throughout most of the twentieth century, British advisers to the Bahraini royal family, backed up by British military might, were central figures in the creation of a ruthless system that imprisoned and sometimes tortured any Bahraini citizen who even dared to suggest the idea of democracy.
The same British advisers also worked with the rulers of Bahrain to exercise a cynical technique of divide and rule --- setting Shia against Sunni in a very successful attempt to keep Bahrain locked in an old, decaying and corrupt system of tribal and religious rivalries. The deliberate aim was to stop democracy ever emerging.
The Bahrainis know this, practically everyone else in the Arab world knows this --- the only people who seem to have forgotten are the British themselves.
So I thought I would tell the story of Britain's involvement in the government and the security of Bahrain over the past 90 years. Especially as the present King of Bahrain is coming to have lunch with the Queen on May 18th.
