The Middle East articles from December 2006

The Middle East archives from December 2006

Editorial comment.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
December 1, 2006... It is the policy of The Middle East magazine not to publish excessively gory photographs. On the whole, readers do not want to see the remains of decaying bodies, or the vast pools of blood that testify to the site of yet another massacre of...

US dirty tricks: the meddling 'midwives of democracy', the Bush administration is on the regime-change trail again, and this time the target is the beleaguered Hamas-led government in Palestine.(George W. Bush)
December 1, 2006... US dirty tricks: the meddling 'midwives of democracy', the Bush administration is on the regime-change trail again, and this time the target is the beleaguered Hamas-led government in Palestine. Currently, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is on...

Siege of Gaza: Mel Frykberg reports from Bein Hanun, where nearly 60 Palestinians were killed in the first of two raids on Beit Hanun in early November, and a further 18 died days later when Israel launched its biggest military incursion into Gaza since the abduction of an Israeli soldier by Hamas militants earlier this year.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
December 1, 2006... THE DEAD CIVILIANS included two ambulance personnel in fluorescent jackets, clearly marked with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society emblem, a 12-year-old girl shot in the head by an Israeli sniper, two unarmed women, who had tried to act as...

The worst case scenario: Iraqi Kurds are increasingly restless about the future of the region, the promised referendum and the debate over withdrawal of western troops.
December 1, 2006... THE FATE OF Kirkuk, Khanakin and Sinjar and their eventual reintegration into the Kurdish region continues to hound Baghdad. Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi created a 'normalisation commission' with a view to addressing the Kurdish...

It's a mad mad world: Iran and Israel are not the only Middle East countries chasing a nuclear capability. Thomas Land analyses the atomic race taking place throughout the region.
December 1, 2006... IRAN HAS JUST inaugurated facilities for the production of plutonium. Israel has announced the purchase of nuclear-capable submarines from Germany dedicated to a 'second strike' role hitherto untried in the Middle East. Egypt and Turkey have...

From small acorns: intelligence failures that allowed the 11 September and subsequent terrorist attacks to take place created a great deal of insecurity for security agencies. In declaring that the next big threat will come from the Sahara, are these agencies seeing threats that do not exist?
December 1, 2006... SINCE 11 SEPTEMBER 2001 and subsequent acts of terrorism around the world, governments in the Middle East and the West have been working tirelessly to uncover plans and the names and locations of individuals who are planning future acts of mass...

Musharraf's game.(Pervez Musharraf)
December 1, 2006... UNLIKE SADDAM HUSSEIN, who was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court last month for 'crimes against humanity', Pakistan's strong leader President Pervez Musharraf prefers not to bomb his own citizens. Sounds simple? Not quite when you...

Wanted: the iceman: the last of Saddam's inner circle still at liberty continues to taunt his would-be captors with frequent sightings and leads a ruthless band of Ba'athist insurgents.(Saddam Hussain, Izzat Ibrahim Al Douri)
December 1, 2006... THE MOST WANTED man in Iraq these days is a frail 64-year-old former schoolteacher who suffers from leukaemia and diabetes. He is often called 'the iceman' because as a young man he sold blocks of ice from a donkey cart in his hometown, Dour,...

Judging Saddam: The death sentence passed on former tyrant Saddam Hussein could worsen Iraq's bloodletting--and bury embarrassing questions about how the US armed Saddam and kept him in power.
December 1, 2006... THE SENTENCE OF death passed on Saddam Hussein on 5 November for crimes against humanity was something of an anti-climax three-and-a-half years after US-led forces toppled the Iraqi dictator and his grotesque regime. Saddam was pretty much a...

Towards enlightenment: Tunisia 18th Symposium of the Democratic Constitutional Rally.
December 1, 2006... THE 18TH SYMPOSIUM of the Democratic Constitutional Rally held in Tunis in November was, according to most of the delegates present, the most successful ever staged in the country. The number and calibre of speakers, as well as the lively and...

Gulf cooperation council goes for growth: high-growth Gulf economies are poised for continued robust expansion in 2007 and beyond. The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could develop into the world's 10th largest economic power within a decade.
December 1, 2006... BETWEEN 2001 AND 2006, the GCC economy has more than doubled in size in nominal dollar terms to about $723bn, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF), a Washington based association of private banks, making it the world's 17th...

Marubeni powers up in the Gulf: Japanese firm Marubeni is steaming through the Gulf, securing a chunk of multibillion dollar power sector deals. Its latest contract is to develop a $2.3bn plant in Qatar.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
December 1, 2006... WITHIN TWO YEARS of securing multibillion dollar power sector contracts in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Marubeni has been awarded another jumbo deal in Qatar. Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has awarded Marubeni a...

SGC cruises to success.(Goulette Shipping Cruise)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Mohamed Sakhr El Materi, the head of Goulette Shipping Cruise (SGC), a subsidiary of the group "Princesse El Materi", gave a welcome boost to cruise tourism in Tunisia by gaining the concession to carry out an ambitious development plan at...

Dubai hosts telecoms show.(4th Middle East Mobility and Broadband Summit )(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Over 1,000 people from 25 countries attended the 4th Middle East Mobility & Broadband Summit in September at the Dubai Emirates Towers Hotel. Mobility tools and access technologies were among the topics discussed. A highlight of the event was a...

Dolphin ready for take-off: the $10bn Dolphin gas project to pipe gas from offshore Qatar to the UAE, Oman and beyond, is due to yield its first supply.(Dolphin Energy Ltd.)
December 1, 2006... AFTER YEARS OF planning and preparation, the first phase of the Dolphin Project to transport gas from Qatar to the UAE and beyond is finally approaching completion. The core pipeline was in place in October and contracts to develop the UAE gas...

An Italian alliance: Italian financial services group Sanpaolo IMI's takeover of Bank of Alexandria has kick-started Egypt's stalled banking privatisation programme.(EGYPT)
December 1, 2006... THE ECONOMIC REFORMS that were promised when Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak asked Ahmed Nazif to form a new government in 2004 are finally beginning to bear fruit. Near the top of Prime Minister Nazif's list of priorities was to reinject some...

Oil leaders predict growth.(Third Opec International Seminar)(Brief article)
December 1, 2006... Oil will keep its leading position as the world's primary energy mix into 2025, according to Saudi Arabia's minister of petroleum and mineral resources, Ali AI Naimi. Speaking at the Third Opec International Seminar, he said that oil would...

Bridging two worlds: The Aksum-Arabia Axis: The importance and influence of Aksum, an ancient empire that once held sway over both sides of the Red Sea.
December 1, 2006... SEPARATED AT THE closest point by just the 50km width of the Bab Al Mandeb straits, southern Arabia and Africa have historic ties that date back to the rise of one of Africa's greatest ancient civilisations. Aksum (or Axum in modern spelling)...

Regrets too few to mention: Pat McDonnell Twair visits Huguette Caland, the woman behind LA's historic Sovereign Threads exhibition of Palestinian embroidery (see TME October 2006) at her unique Venice, California home.(MOSAIC)(Interview)
December 1, 2006... IF ARTIST HUGUETTE Caland had a theme song, it would have to be 'My Way'. The daughter of the first president of Lebanon, Bechara El Khoury, inaugurated in 1945 when she was 13, she broke family conventions in 1952 when she married Paul Caland,...

The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation, and the Anatomy of Terrorism.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... THE WAR ON TRUTH 9/11, DISINFORMATION, AND THE ANATOMY OF TERRORISM. By Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed published by Arris Books ISBN 1 84437 059 3 price 12.99 [pounds sterling] paperback This book is a controversial critique of the US government's...

Aid, Diplomacy and Facts on the Ground: The Case of Palestine.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... AID, DIPLOMACY AND FACTS ON THE GROUND THE CASE OF PALESTINE Edited by Michael Keating, Anne Le More and Robert Lowe Published by Chatham House ISBN 1 86203 163 0 price 16.95 [pounds sterling] paperback International aid has played a major...

Law and Power in the Islamic World.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... LAW AND POWER IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD By Sami Zubaida published by IB TAURIS ISBN 1 85043 934 6 price 14.95 [pounds sterling] paperback Islamic law (the Shari'ah) and its application is a central issue in contemporary Islamic politics and...

Syria: A Historical and Architectural Guide.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... SYRIA A HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL GUIDE By Warwick Ball published by Melisende ISBN 1 901764 46 X price 14.95 [pounds sterling] paperback Syria is a land of immense antiquity with a wealth of historical splendors, boasting cities and...

Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... LOSING IRAQ INSIDE THE POSTWAR RECONSTRUCTION FIASCO BY David L Phillips published by Basic Books ISBN 0 465 05681 4 price 9.99 [pounds sterling] Things didn't go wrong in post-war Iraq because the US lacked a plan. Things went wrong...

An Enduring Friendship: 400 Years of Anglo-Gulf Relations.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 1, 2006... AN ENDURING FRIENDSHIP 400 YEARS OF ANGLO-GULF RELATIONS Edited by Paul Tempest published by Stacey International ISBN 1 905299 18 4 price 19.95 [pounds sterling] hardback The affinity which draws together the British and the Arabs, above...

The last word.(Lebanon, civil unrest)
December 1, 2006... FOR LEBANON, THE abyss beckons once more. Soon after the end of Lebanon's 15-year civil war in October 1990, I stood with Marwan Hamade, a prominent Druze who was then minister of health, in his office overlooking the devastation of central...