The Middle East articles from January 2005

The Middle East archives from January 2005

Comment.
January 1, 2005... THE ISRAELI ARMY HAS CLEARED AN OFFICER WHO REPEATEDLY fired into the lifeless body of a young Palestinian girl of a five-count indictment, including illegal use of a weapon and inappropriate behaviour. But even with the trial over, the tragic...

Iraq: into the unknown.(Current Affairs)
January 1, 2005... President George Bush is insistent that the situation in Iraq is improving and the freedom promised to Iraqi citizens will finally be delivered with the holding of democratic elections later this month. All the evidence however, is to the...

The democratic deficit: the steps taken towards representative government by countries like Qatar and pressure from Washington itself have all given prominence to the issue of Middle Eastern democracy in recent months.(Current Affairs)
January 1, 2005... THE HIGH DEGREE OF CENTRALISED control in most countries in the region means change is generally being introduced from above, via royal or presidential decree, government appointment or state regulation, rather than through popular protest or...

Mossad's misery: Israel's trouble-plagued intelligence service, back in the assassination game, is wracked by crisis once again.(Current Affairs)
January 1, 2005... OSAMA BIN LADEN AND HIS FRIENDS must be chuckling to themselves at the disarray that is plaguing its major adversaries, the US and Israeli intelligence services. While the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is trying to sort out just who was...

Hijacking the Intifada? Ed Blanche reports from Beirut on what appears to be Al Qaeda's widening infiltration of Lebanon and the prospects of the Palestinian Intifada being hijacked to promote terror.(Current Affairs)
January 1, 2005... THE DEMISE OF YASSER ARAFAT, WHO for four decades embodied the struggle for Palestinian statehood, may well ignite a potentially catastrophic power struggle that could forever wreck any prospect of an independent homeland, or it could break the...

Are the Salafists finally running out of steam? Algeria's 12-year old conflict may be approaching its end as diehard Salafists are weakened.(Algeria)
January 1, 2005... ALGERIA'S DWINDLING BAND OF ISLAMIC insurgents appear to be fighting a losing battle against the government of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and also in their efforts to spearhead a drive to establish a new operational base for Al Qaeda in the...

Celtel wins International Finance Corporation Client Leadership Award.
January 1, 2005... Leading Pan African mobile telecommunications group Celtel International is the recipient of the inaugural International Finance Corporation Client Leadership Award. The award, which was presented to the group last month, seeks to recognize...

US & Israel turn up the heat on Iran's nuclear programme.(Iran)
January 1, 2005... Nuclear inspectors have found no evidence of an Iranian weapons programme during their visits to the Islamic Republic. But President Bush will be taking little comfort from the words of the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),...

A Kurdish awakening: the Kurds of Iran, encouraged and invigorated by the progress of Kurds across the border in Iraq are moving to consolidate their own position. Chris Kutschera reports from Sanandaj.(Current Affairs)
January 1, 2005... SANANDAJ, ONE OF THE FOUR IRAnian Kurdish provinces, is a city of 350,000 people and far more prosperous and modern than the other capitals of Kurdistan--Suleimania or Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan, or Diyarbekir in Turkish Kurdistan. From...

Managing the oil windfalls: as 2005 dawned, pressure for a cut in oil output was mounting among OPEC states concerned about falling prices and a weakened dollar. But what a year 2004 proved to be for the Gulf producers.(Business & Finance)
January 1, 2005... THE EXTERNAL PAYMENTS position of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is the healthiest for more than two decades. Official coffers have been overwhelmed with vast inflows of 'petrodollars' over the past five years. Businesses are...

EBG to raise debt financing to $3.5bn.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... * Emirates Bank Group (EBG) has approved the proposal to raise its existing debt financing through the Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) programme to $3.Sbn. "The bank and the local economy are going through a phenomenal growth phase. We need to be...

DUBAL to invest more than $30m in new expansion plan.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... * DUBAL, the largest single site smelter in the western world and a leading producer of aluminium is investing in excess of Dh110m ($30m) in the second phase of its casthouse expansions, as part of a comprehensive initiative to add additional...

Waiting for privatisation: Saudi Arabia's electricity generation and distribution programmes offer tremendous scope for investment but only after the promised privatisation measures have been put in place.(Saudi Arabia)
January 1, 2005... WHEN SAUDI ARABIA'S SUPREME ECONOMIC Council ordered the formation of the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) at the end of November 2001, it seemed as if competition in the Saudi electricity sector could not be far behind. Why set up a...

First islamic acquires UK-based water company.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... * First Islamic Investment Bank EC, the Bahrain-based investment bank, has announced its offer to acquire South Staffordshire Plc, a UK-based publicly-traded water supply company, has been declared unconditional. To date, shareholders...

Tensions & challenges: with the resignation of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, Lebanon's economic future hangs in the balance.(Lebanon)
January 1, 2005... TENSIONS WITHIN LEBANON'S POLITICAL establishment finally snapped when the country's prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, and his cabinet, resigned following weeks of recriminations over the highly controversial constitutional change that allowed...

FedEx opens new facility in Bahrain.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... * A brand new FedEx facility, purpose built to further expand and enhance customer service and Bahrain's connectivity with the FedEx worldwide network has been officially opened at Bahrain. The inauguration of this facility is the latest in a...

Technip wins first EPC contract with Dolphin Energy.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... * Technip, in a consortium with Al Jaber Energy Services, has been awarded a lump sum turnkey contract worth $62m by Dolphin Energy Limited for a new terminal to receive and distribute natural gas from Qatar to the UAE.

GCC: B2C e-commerce expected to cross $1bn mark by 2008.(Gulf Cooperation Council)(business to consumer electronic commerce)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... * B2C e-commerce (business to consumer electronic commerce), particularly the e-shopping segment, in the GCC is set to witness a boom over the next few years, crossing the $1bn mark by the year 2008, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE leading the...

Bechtel awarded $1.5bn contract by Abu Dhabi Gas Industries.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... * Abu Dhabi Gas Industries (Gasco) has awarded American company Bechtel a $1.458bn contract to build and put in commission a giant gas plant in the UAE.

Asian powers look to Iran and beyond: Asian investors--both private and public--are increasingly looking towards Middle Eastern energy markets. Their reasons are two-fold: to make a healthy return on their capital and to ensure a stable flow of oil and gas imports.(Business & Finance)
January 1, 2005... THE VAST BULK OF COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT in the Middle East has come from one of two sources: Domestic, mainly state owned enterprises and private sector companies from North America and Western Europe. Now, however, there appears to be a growing...

EIB signs 27.5m [euro] agreement to develop Mauritanian mining sector.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... * The European Investment Bank (EIB) and SNIM (Societe Nationale Industrielle et Miniere) have signed a 22.5m [euro] financing agreement for the renovation of the Guelbs power station. SNIM, a limited company established in 1978, is the only...

Quenching the thirst of the Maghreb: the countries of the Maghreb continue along the path of economic liberalisation and restructuring, partly to put their finances in order but also to enable them to make the most of a series of trade agreements with the European Union.(Business & Finance)
January 1, 2005... ALTHOUGH SOME FACTORS ARE BEING OPENED up more rapidly than others, there is little doubt the governments of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia see their economic futures closely tied to making the most of their geographical location on the edge of...

Investcorp realises significant returns on US real estate investments.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2005... * Global investment group, Investcorp, has produced consistent returns for its Gulf-based investors on investments it has made in US real estate. $3.3bn has been invested in more than 120 transactions over the last ten years and currently...

Building on success.(Qatar)
January 1, 2005... It's official, Qatar's economic reform and restructuring programme has been a massive success; GDP has risen rapidly, the private sector is playing a much larger role in economic life, one of the world's most successful gas industries has...

Syria: cradle of civilisations.(Mosaic)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... SYRIA'S ARCHAEOLOGICAL RICHES MAKE its claim to be the cradle of civilisations a serious one. Contemporary excavations of the towns in the middle Euphrates show society flourishing in Syria at the time of the earliest great civilisations of...

Seeking a new perspective: Americans are frequently accused of being insular, too preoccupied with what is going on within their own borders to give much credence to world affairs. Milan Vesely reports from the United States on an interesting new shift.(Mosaic)
January 1, 2005... AMERICAN STUDENTS ARE FLOCKING to Arab universities to gain a broader perspective on the Middle East and to further their employment prospects. Four hundred and eighty American students are currently studying Arabic at the prestigious...

The lizard.(Mosaic)(Movie Review)
January 1, 2005... AN IRANIAN COMEDY, FOR INTERnational film goers, would seem a contradiction in terms, since the country has a long established reputation for producing mainly art house dramas. But the latest Iranian box office sensation entitled The Lizard may...

Made in Palestine.(Mosaic)
January 1, 2005... IN WHAT THE NEW YORK TIMES described as "an international cause celebre," a group of Palestinian artists scored an impressive victory--for both art and Palestinian culture--in the US last year. Now there are hopes that an even larger exhibition...

Wahhabi Islam: From Revival I Reform to Global Jihad.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... WAHHABI ISLAM From Revival I Reform to Global Jihad By Natana J DeLong-Bas Published by IB TAURIS ISBN 1 85043 679 7 price 19.95 [pounds sterling] hardback Before the tragic events of 9/11, few westerners had heard of Wahhabism. Today, it...

Banking on Baghdad: inside Iraq's 7,000 year history of war, profit & conflict.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... BANKING ON BAGHDAD Inside Iraq's 7,000 year history of war, profit & conflict. By Edwin Black published by Wiley ISBN 0 471 67186 x price 19.99 [pounds sterling] hardback The continuing instability in Iraq, the debates about the efficacy...

Women & Media in the Middle East: Power through Self-Expression.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... WOMEN & MEDIA IN THE MIDDLE EAST Power through Self-Expression Edited by Naomi Sakr published by IB TAURIS ISBN 1 85043 545 6 price 15.95 [pounds sterling] paperback Are women benefiting from current changes in the media of the Middle...

The Myths of Zionism.(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... THE MYTHS OF ZIONISM By John Rose published by Pluto Press ISBN 0 7453 2055 4 price 14.99 [pounds sterling] paperback This is a controversial book. It is a critical account of the historical, political and cultural roots of Zionism. The...

The Arab World: an Illustrated History.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... THE ARAB WORLD An Illustrated History By Kirk H Sowell Published by Hippocrene Books ISBN 07818 0990 8 price 12.99 [pounds sterling] This book presents the panoramic experience of the Arab peoples, whose world has expanded from the Arabian...

From the Lands of Figs & Olives: over 300 delicious & unusual recipes from the Middle East and North Africa.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2005... FROM THE LANDS 0F FIGS & 0LIVES Over 300 delicious & unusual recipes from the Middle East and North Africa By Habeeb Salloum and James Peters Published by Interlink Books ISBN 1 55656 414 price 12.50 [pounds sterling] paperback Tunisian...

Gadaffi's promised land.(The Last Word)(Colonel Gadaffi)
January 1, 2005... SPEAKING IN LIBYAN ARABIC RAPHAEL LUZON insisted that his guests get a second helping of the couscous and lamb stew that his wife cooked for his guests from Libya, Italy, Egypt, Iraq and Tunisia. Except for the menorah on the mantelpiece and...