GCC pledges $20 billion in aid for Oman, Bahrain By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer – Thu Mar 10, 3:59 pm ET
CAIRO – Gulf Arab foreign ministers pledged $20 billion in financial aid Thursday to Bahrain and Oman, and warned against any foreign interference as the oil-rich region struggles to rein in the unrest that has ravaged the Arab world and sent global oil prices spiking.The growing protests in Bahrain and Oman — the poorer brothers in the oil-rich region — have rattled the other members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, raising concerns that the unrest tearing through the Middle East will affect the key OPEC members.The GCC pledged $20 billion in aid over 10 years to be split between the two nations, said the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. A committee representing the donor nations will meet in two weeks to discuss the program.Foreign ministers from the GCC announced the measures after a meeting in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The bloc also issued a statement warning that it would not allow any foreign interference in their affairs.
The pro-Western Saudi monarchy — the de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries — is concerned protests could open footholds for Shiite powerhouse Iran and it has accused Shiites from outside the country of spurring the protests in Saudi Arabia.Bahrain and Oman have tried to allay the discontent in their countries through a variety of economic measures. But neither country has the economic firepower or oil wealth of the other GCC members: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait.This is a very important message sent to markets inside the region, and globally, that the GCC countries will be unified and will stick together to support those in need, said John Sfakianakis, chief economist with the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Banque Saudi Fransi.They have the commitment and the willingness to do so, and of course, the money.The combined economies of Bahrain and Oman are less than a fifth of that of Saudi Arabia and the sheer size of the financial aid package will be a major boost for their budgets.The money will likely not be enough to tamp down the unrest completely, but the aid does allow Oman and Bahrain to press ahead more aggressively with social initiatives. Oman has been looking at some form of unemployment aid and would now have the funds to move forward with that plan and others. Youth unemployment is a major problem for the nation.Saudi Arabia also has been working to get ahead of unrest that has swept the region in recent months. Demonstrations could seriously unsettle oil markets that have already been shaken by the violence in Libya that has cut that OPEC nation's oil output by at least two-thirds.On Thursday, Saudi police opened fire to disperse a protest in the mainly Shiite east, leaving at least one man injured, as the government struggled to prevent a wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world from reaching the kingdom.The other Gulf states already have launched economic measures of their own to ease the potential for unrest.Saudi Arabia's king ordered roughly $37 billion to be pumped into various programs targeting the oil kingdom's lower income population. That amount was more than Bahrain's GDP.Separately, the United Arab Emirates' federal government ordered a 5.7 billion dirham ($1.55 billion) cash infusion to upgrade the electrical grid and water connections in the seven-state federation's less-developed emirates north of Dubai.AP Business Writer Adam Schreck contributed to this report from Dubai.
Gaza Strip's Hamas leader reshuffles Cabinet
– Thu Mar 10, 8:52 am ET
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip reshuffled his Cabinet on Thursday, naming the first foreign minister for the isolated militant-run Palestinian territory.Hamas said Ismail Haniyeh's move was unrelated to the unrest rocking the Arab region, but it is likely to be seen as an effort by the hard-line movement to convey a more open image to the outside world.For the first time since the group's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, there is a Hamas foreign minister. Haniyeh appointed Mohammed Awad to the post. Awad will also keep his job as planning minister.Thursday's reshuffle added five ministers, including one woman. Most ministers kept their current portfolios.Hamas fighters ousted its more moderate rival, Fatah, from control of Gaza four years ago. Fatah, which supports negotiations with Israel for creation of a Palestinian state, still controls the West Bank.Hamas openly calls for Israel's destruction, and its militants have targeted Israel with rocket attacks.
Syria can't be allowed to block nuclear probe: U.S.
By Fredrik Dahl – Wed Mar 9, 4:38 pm ET
VIENNA (Reuters) – The United States warned Syria Wednesday it can't be allowed" to stonewall a U.N. watchdog investigation into a desert site where covert atomic activity may have taken place before it was destroyed by Israel in 2007.For more than two years Syria has refused the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) follow-up access to the Dair Alzour site that U.S. intelligence reports said was a nascent North Korean-designed nuclear reactor, intended to produce bomb fuel.The complex was bombed to rubble by Israel in 2007. Syria, an ally of Iran, denies ever having an atom bomb program.The United States position on this is that we are not going to let this matter simply fade away or go away, U.S. Ambassador Glyn Davies told reporters on the sidelines of a week-long meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation governing board.He suggested the Arab state may still be pursuing secret atomic work, accusing it of deliberate efforts to conceal the full extent and scope of what we strongly believe were, and may still be, clandestine nuclear activities.
Syria denies ever concealing work on nuclear weapons and says the Vienna-based agency should focus on Israel instead because of its undeclared nuclear arsenal.
Damascus has suggested the uranium traces came with Israeli munitions used in the attack, an assertion the U.N. agency has dismissed as unlikely.President Bashar al-Assad said in a Wall Street Journal interview in January that Syria would not grant IAEA inspectors unrestricted access to possible nuclear sites because it would amount to a violation of sovereignty.
SPECIAL INSPECTION?
Davies said the Syrian case represented a challenge to the IAEA's nuclear safeguards regime.They can't be allowed to simply stonewall and block the investigation.IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said Monday he saw possible movement in the Syrian probe, referring to a statement from Damascus it would work with the U.N. body to resolve all outstanding technical questions.Syria last week agreed to allow U.N. inspectors to visit an acid purification facility where uranium concentrates, or yellowcake, were a by-product.But letting inspectors only go to the Homs plant would not satisfy Western concerns about Syria, which are focused on Dair Alzour and sites linked to it.The United States has suggested the IAEA may need to consider invoking its special inspection mechanism to give it authority to look anywhere necessary in Syria at short notice, if Syria does not agree to inspectors visiting Dair Alzour.
The agency last resorted to such inspection powers in 1993 in North Korea, which still withheld access and later developed a nuclear bomb capacity in secret.I think it is still the case that this is a situation that could be addressed by a special inspection, Davies said.But nuclear expert Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said he did not believe Amano would do this.Were the IAEA to go to these sites and find nothing, Syria would be vindicated and the political credibility of the IAEA could be damaged,Hibbs said.
Israel worried Mideast turmoil will hit tourism
-Wed Mar 9, 2:35 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel launched a campaign on Wednesday to limit damage to its tourism industry caused by recent Middle East turmoil and to lure visitors now reluctant to travel to troubled North Africa.The regional crisis represents a challenge and an opportunity for tourism to Israel, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said at the Israeli stand at ITB Berlin, the world's biggest tourism fair.Misezhnikov said the nine million euro ($12.7 million) advertising campaign would position Israel as an alternative destination for those tourists who, until now, would take their vacations in other countries in the region, a statement from his office said.Israel saw a two percent dip in tourist numbers in February from a year earlier. Crucially, though, there was an 83 percent drop in day trippers across its land borders, mostly from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula with its popular Red Sea resorts.On Wednesday, Italy's leading Costa Cruises announced it was halting all stops in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and Israel.
Costa officials said Israel was included even though it was stable, because customers were hesitant to go anywhere in the region.The tourism ministry said its campaign would target tourists from the United States, Russia, Germany, Britain and Scandinavia to try to show them Israel was not the same as other counties in the region.Its campaign would also be targeted to the Jewish audience in France, who normally vacation during the summer in North Africa ... to position Israel as an alternative destination to these countries.Activities that have already taken place over the last few weeks in Russia and the Ukraine have proven that Israel is seen as an alternative for tourists wishing to travel to the Middle East region, Misezhnikov said.It is not the first time Israel's tourism industry has had to battle unrest.
Some 3.45 million tourists visited Israel in 2010, surpassing the levels achieved at the turn of the millennium.They had dipped sharply after the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 2000, but began climbing again as violence ebbed.
Europe in policy U-turn to Mediterranean partners
by Claire Rosemberg – Tue Mar 8, 3:30 pm ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Commission on Tuesday unveiled new policy guidelines towards Arab neighbours on its southern flank aimed at avoiding errors of the past by linking aid to political and economic reform.The Commission, the European Union's executive arm, will submit its so-called Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity with the Southern Mediterranean to EU leaders gathering in Brussels on Friday for a crisis summit on Libya and the Arab world.The crux of the new thinking is to link the four billion euros of aid to be distributed over 2011-2013 across the region, to progress in judicial reform, corruption, human rights, and to place special emphasis on civil society and small businesses.The Commission proposes following a clearly incentive-based approach, said Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.Partners who move faster on political and economic reforms should be able to count on greater support from the EU, he added in a speech.Slammed for propping up despots and turning a blind eye to rights abuses, Europe's leaders have pledged a top to toe revamp of Mediterranean policy.
Events in the Arab world caught the EU napping despite billions in aid and a slew of trade deals struck during 15 years of a Euro-Mediterranean partnership.Critics slammed the 27-nation bloc for regarding despots as bulwarks against extremism, and failing to enforce the very values founding the union.Europe bowed before these dictators, it paid no heed to repression, said Alain Deletroz, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. Europe is bidding to open a new chapter carrying a heavy burden from the past.Barroso on Tuesday said the EU sought to make a qualitative leap with its neighbours who are willing and able to embark on the path of political and economic reforms.Fears of tomorrow's unknown shall not prevent us from supporting today's changes, he said.This is a rendezvous with history that we must not miss.Across Europe, contrite capitals have been rattled by skeletons in cupboards, leftovers from ties with the regimes of former allies Hosni Mubarak and Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.France has fired its foreign minister for fraternising with Ben Ali, and Britain, France and Italy have been chided for fawning to Moamer Kadhafi as he unleashes war against his own people -- using arms sold by Belgium, Germany and others.In a much-noted statement of repentance, Stefan Fuele, the Commissioner in charge of the bloc's relations with its neighbours, this month said: We must show humility about the past.
Too many of us fell prey to the assumption that authoritarian regimes were a guarantee of stability.Two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the new proposals suggest a change of mandate for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) originally set up to help eastern Europe, enabling it to extend a billion euros a year to the Mediterranean regime.Likewise the European Investment Bank could see a massive boost in its capital, pending EU approval, allowing it to offer loans worth almost six billion euros to the region over three years.
UK: Middle East peace process is too vital to fail
By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press – Tue Mar 8, 3:20 pm ET
LONDON – Britain warned on Tuesday of a risk that the Middle East peace process could fall victim to the unrest sweeping the region if Israel and the Palestinians don't return quickly to stalled talks.Foreign Secretary William Hague met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in London and demanded both sides resume discussions and seek a breakthrough on a permanent peace deal before the end of the year.Hague said turmoil shaking the region had heightened the risk of conflict and could embolden those who favored violence. At the same time, continued Israeli settlement building and the ongoing isolation of Gaza would continue to reduce prospects for peace, he said.The British government's message today is that the peace process cannot become a casualty of uncertainty in the region, Hague told a news conference. It is too important to be allowed to fail or falter.He said uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa called for extraordinary efforts from the international community, for radically different thinking about the region, and for bold leadership from governments within it.We call on Israel and Palestinian leaders to seize the moment for a historic peace agreement, to match the historic changes in the region,Hague said.
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron echoed that message in separate talks with Abbas.This is a moment when we should be trying to seize the opportunity and recognize that the peace process lies at the heart of so many of the issues in your region and we very strongly support those talks going ahead, Cameron said.Abbas told Hague he was committed to achieving peace, but stressed Israeli settlement activity must be frozen. He also declined to specifically address a question on a deal expected to be put forward by Israel, which will propose establishing a Palestinian state in interim borders.Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak confirmed that plan was taking shape in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday.Abbas also demanded that Palestinians are free to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for September.We are ready to have legislative and presidential elections and we will leave the ballot boxes to speak for themselves, Abbas told reporters, speaking through a translator.Abbas' West Bank-based government called the long-delayed elections, but rival Islamic Hamas has said Gaza will not take part in the vote.Hamas should not be allowed to stifle the democratic expression of Palestinian opinion, Hague said.
Hundreds rally in West Bank, Gaza for Women's Day
– Tue Mar 8, 2:17 pm ET
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian women took to the streets on Tuesday to call for unity and an end to the Israeli occupation in a series of rallies called to mark International Women's Day.In Gaza City, around 500 women waving Palestinian flags marched through the city centre demanding an end to the political division between the rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, an AFP correspondent said.Holding banners calling for equality and justice for Palestinian women, they marched from the Square of the Unknown Soldier past the parliament building and on to the headquarters of the United Nations in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.No to division, yes to national unity, they chanted in a rally which passed off peacefully.Several different demonstrations were also taking place in the occupied West Bank to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, with Israeli groups also planning a big rally in Tel Aviv on Tuesday afternoon.In the south, around 150 women rallied in Hebron calling for an end to the divisions within the Palestinian national movement, in an echo of the youth-led unity protests which have recently cropped up across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.In Beit Ummar, dozens of women blocked the road leading south to Hebron for half an hour in a protest against the network of Israeli roadblocks littered across the territory.
The demonstration ended when Israeli troops herded the women off the road, an AFP correspondent said.Near Ramallah, around 150 women demonstrators including two female cabinet members in the outgoing government of prime minister Salam Fayyad tried to march through the Qalandiya checkpoint to Jerusalem in protest against the Israeli occupation, an AFP correspondent said.But troops blocked their way, and the rally broke up.In east Jerusalem, around 15 demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and handed out roses to women coming in and out of the Old City via Damascus Gate.
Shouting slogans and greetings to the women of Libya and Tunisia, which have both been shaken by mass popular uprisings, they called for an end to the Israeli occupation.Today is a celebration of International Women's Day and the Palestinian women of Jerusalem are raising our voices and calling on the world to show solidarity with us and help us get rid of the Israeli occupation, said activist Fadwa Khader, a member of the left-leaning Palestinian People's Party.Part of the women's rights issue is the harm caused by the Israeli occupation. Can you imagine women being woken up and kicked out of their homes in the early morning so their homes can be demolished to make way for settlements? she said, referring to the evictions of east Jerusalem families to make way for new settler homes.
We are talking about human rights and women's rights.she said.Other rallies took place in the northern town of Jenin, in the village of Burin near the West Bank barrier, and outside the hardline Jewish settlement of Yitzhar near Nablus, AFP correspondents said.Later on Tuesday, Israeli demonstrators were to gather in Tel Aviv for a demonstration organised by 14 women's groups to call for an end to rape and sexual violence against women.
