The Middle East articles from June 2006

The Middle East archives from June 2006

Editorial comment: an overture towards the cessation of hostilities or an opportunistic ploy to delay the inevitable showdown? Either way Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad managed to put the cat among the pigeons last month with his letter to US President George W. Bush.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Editorial)
June 1, 2006... The letter from Ahmadinejad was the first formal communication between the leaders of the two nations for more than two and a half decades and interpreted by optimistic observers as Tehran 'reaching out' to the United States, offering, perhaps,...

Stamping down on corruption: bolstered by the victory of Hamas at the polls, Palestinians are getting serious about stamping out the corruption that has been allowed to run rampant in their official departments for years, imperiling all attempts to establish a modern state.
June 1, 2006... EVEN IN THOSE parts of the Middle East where the culture of corruption has become part of the established social and political fabric, Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA) was a model of venality. In a land that dates from antiquity,...

Yemen elections: better the president you know? Presidential elections are due to take place in Yemen this September. While President Ali Abdullah Saleh has declared that he will not be running for re-election, and his party is threatening to boycott the process if he does not, is there any viable alternative currently available? Eamon Gearon reports from Sana'a.
June 1, 2006... ON 17 JULY 2005, President Saleh, a man many believed would like to reign until the end of his days, declared that he would not be standing for re-election in the September 2006 presidential election. Later that same month, the government...

Yemen talks the talk; Sana'a is under growing western scrutiny after a mass prison breakout by Al Qaeda veterans who may have had official help.
June 1, 2006... YEMEN'S GOVERNMENT AND more especially its intelligence services, are falling over themselves these days to demonstrate their commitment to the US-led war against terrorism and Sana'a's reliability as an ally in fighting Al Qaeda. More than 170...

The carve-up continues; Sally FitzHarris traveled to the Occupied Territories to see how construction of the Separation Wall is progressing, and spoke to some of the people most directly affected.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
June 1, 2006... A FOUR-METRE-SQUARE concrete shack clings to a hillside. Behind it, a Palestinian flag flutters among olive trees. In front landscape is newly-created: stones, rubble, coils of razor wire and empty swathes of dirt track. This is the...

Ankara steps up military action; recent weeks have seen an escalation of violence as Ankara anticipates a major new offensive by separatist guerillas of the PKK.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Kurdistan Workers Party)
June 1, 2006... WITH TURKISH TROOPS massing and shelling, and the US top foreign policy official in Ankara, last month threatened to be one of the cruellest months in the recent multi-sided power game over Northern Iraq. Yet the military and political...

Out of the shadows? Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, often described as Iraq's most notorious insurgent, was assumed by many usually well-informed observers to be dead. However, recent video evidence shows him--or somebody closely resembling him--to be very much alive.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
June 1, 2006... THE CIA DOES not know how many legs he has. The BBC news service refers to him as 'shadowy'. And until very recently, it was thought he was probably dead. Yet Abu Musab Al Zarqawi is presented as fact: a three-dimensional character the rest of...

All change at Westminster but who benefits? Only weeks after British Prime Minister Tony Blair set out his strategy to confront threats from Islamic extremism, he faced the most difficult period of his nine-year premiership, following a battering by English voters in local councils elections on 4 May.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
June 1, 2006... AS THE ANTI-BLAIR CAMPAIGN GOES on--a paltry 26% vote in mid May showing him to be the most unpopular labour prime minister ever--it is hard to imagine how he can carry on with his foreign policy, roughly translated as a pre-emptive...

Tunisia: high hopes for the World Cup.
June 1, 2006... WITH THE CURTAIN BEING raised on 9 June in Munich, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Iran have all qualified to represent the region on the big stage. Of the three, the Tunisians can be expected to put in a solid challenge under former France coach...

Arab markets beckon foreign player; Arab stock markets are hoping their past record of rapid growth, plus more transparent trading regimes will attract major western institutional investors. Are pensions and insurance companies ready?(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
June 1, 2006... THIS HAS BEEN a spring of discontent for investors in the stock markets of the Arab Gulf. Record triple-digit growth posted in the past three years has vanished. Instead, recent press headlines talk of "plunge", "panic" and "slump"--correcting...

Dubai drinks more dairy.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The Dubai dairy trade grew 33% last year from $258m to $327m, (AED 950m to AED 1.2bn) according to the Dubai Ports, Customs and Free Zone. Total imports increased 32.2% from $218m to $272m last year, while exports rose 168% to $20.7m, from...

Iran oil: on the up and up: a big boost to Iranian oil production will come from the development of the Azadegan field and, according to Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, everything is in place for development to begin.
June 1, 2006... MUCH HAS BEEN SAID and written about the unattractive nature of the Iranian investment environment. The restrictions inherent in the buy-back contract system and the government's ambivalent attitude towards foreign investment in the oil and gas...

Syria boosts tourism.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Syria hopes to double annual tourism revenue to five billion dollars by 2010 and attract more than seven million tourists, up from three million in 2004 when tourist revenue was $2.2bn. Arabs account for 74% of the total number of tourists....

$11.2bn community planned for Jeddah.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... An $11.2bn, 2,286-hectare community is to be built in Saudi Arabia's port city of Jeddah, with nearly 20,000 residential units, commercial and retail facilities. The development will be built by a joint venture between UAE-based Emaar...

Match of the day? In the not too distant past a catchy jingle on a crackling radio ad and some good old-fashioned word of mouth was the best way to promote a company. Today however, exposure, brand awareness and marketability are the corporate watchwords of the moment as firms from Argentina to Zambia and everywhere in between attempt to pass their key on to potential message customers worldwide.(BUSINESS&FINANCE)
June 1, 2006... TRADITIONALLY, RADIO, PRINT and billboard advertising were the most effective ways to reel in new customers. But these days sport, and football in particular, is the marketing tool of choice for the companies with their eyes on the really big...

Emirates links with Marriott for World Cup promo.(Emirates Airline, Marriott International)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Emirates Airline is teaming up with hotel chain Marriott International on promotional activities for the 2006 football World Cup which starts on 9 June. The airline has made 230 match tickets available to support the various activities, which...

Gulf money capitals take off; the race to become the Middle East's leading financial capital is on.(Standard Chartered)
June 1, 2006... DUBAI AND QATAR compete on many fronts. Emirates Airline and Qatar Airways would happily slug it out for the title of the world's fastest growing carrier, while Qatar's reclaimed island project The Pearl will go head to head with Dubai's Palm...

In Salah paves the way; a gas project in a remote district of Algeria's Sahara desert is pioneering technology that can be applied to radically cut the world's CO2 emissions.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
June 1, 2006... WHEN MORE THAN two doze world energy ministers joined industry leaders, financiers, diplomats and dignitaries to attend the 10th Unctad Oil & Gas Trade and Finance conference in Algiers in April, it was a perfect opportunity for the host...

Saudi Arabia records strongest economic growth in decades; burgeoning money and credit growth gave fuelled the asset markets.
June 1, 2006... SAUDI ARABIA, the OPEC lynchpin and the world's top oil exporter, is enjoying its strongest growth in decades. More importantly, the kingdom's robust expansion is being led by the private sector. This contrasts with previous oil-fuelled...

A Yemeni woman's fight for freedom; nothing at first sight betrays the strong will and bravery that lie behind the smile and gentle manners of Khadija Al Salami, the softly-spoken cultural counsellor at the Yemeni Embassy in Paris. But Ms Al Salami's story is an unusual and inspiring one.(MOSAIC)
June 1, 2006... FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS in Sanaa, Khadija Al Salami achieved diplomatic status as a representative of her country in one of Europe's most vibrant capital cities, but it was not an easy struggle and she needs the 400 pages of her book, The Tears...

25th Istanbul Film Festival: after a quarter century of bringing the finest of world cinema to Turkey, the Istanbul Film Festival in April was in both reflective and celebratory mood.
June 1, 2006... THE MUSLIM WORLD'S largest and most successful movie festival also marked its 25th year by hosting some of the western world's leading actors--such as Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve, who were honoured at the closing gala with awards...

My name is Rachel Corrie. (THE LAST WORD).(death of American peace activist)
June 1, 2006... IN LONDON, IN MAY, a play opened in London's West End. My Name is Rachel Corrie tells the story of the 23-year-old American peace activist crushed to death three years ago by an Israeli soldier driving a bulldozer in Gaza. Rachel was trying to...

Veil: the veil has long been the subject of much controversy, seen as a symbol of subservience in some quarters, while a sign of autonomy in others. The academic and author of the revolutionary book Veil, now in its third printing, Egyptian-born Fadwa El Guindi talked to Pat McDonnell Twair.(Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance)(Interview)
June 1, 2006... WHEN HER BOOK, Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance was published in 1999, anthropologist Fadwa El Guindi shook the foundations of western academic assumptions that Muslim women occupy secondary status and that the veil is a tangible symbol of...

Regional Politics in the Gulf: Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... By Elham Manea published by Saqi Books ISBN 0 86356 583 2 price 35.00 [pounds sterling] hardback The three major neighbouring states of the Arabian Peninsula--Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen--make for strange bedfellows. They are governed by...

Mandated Landscape British Imperial Rule in Palestine 1929-1948.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... By Roza I.M. El Eini published by Routledge ISBN 07146 54264 price 80.00 [pounds sterling] In this authoritative study, a highly documented and incisive analysis is made of the galvanising changes wrought to the people and landscape of...

We Are Iran.(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... By Nasrin Alavi published by Portobello Books ISBN 1 84627 001 4 price 12.99 [pounds sterling] paperback We Are Iran is a multi-voiced portrait of contemporary Iran; a glimpse of the obsessions and frustrations that exist behind the imposed...