The Middle East articles from May 2006

The Middle East archives from May 2006

Editorial comment.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)(Editorial)
May 1, 2006... The decision to withdraw funding from the democratically elected, Hamasled Palestinian Authority, is not one I would like to have on my conscience. But I can, as they say, see where the US and EU are coming from. Back in January, President...

Winners and losers: Lawrence Joffe looks at the results of the Israeli elections and what they might mean for the Palestinians of the Occupied Territories.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
May 1, 2006... A YEAR AGO, ARIEL SHARON WAS ISRAEL'S PRIME MINISTER, SAFELY ensconced having overwhelmingly won general elections in 2003 at the head of Likud. Shimon Peres, well into his 80s, headed Israel's second party, Labour, and Mahmoud Abbas had just...

Part of a global pattern? The debate that currently rages as to whether or not Iraq has descended into civil war is, of course, purely academic to the ordinary Iraqis who find themselves suffering under the weight of the conflict, whatever name the politicians choose to give it. But in the world of international diplomacy, such distinctions are important.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
May 1, 2006... THE ADMISSION THAT IRAQ IS IN THE grip of all-out civil war would also be an admission of failure for the American-led allies whose vision of a peaceful post-Saddam Hussein Iraq was key to the selling of the invasion to their respective people....

The empire digs in; amid all the talk of withdrawing troops from Iraq, Bush requests funds to build a network of super-bases across the country, pointing to a long-term deployment to last far beyond the insurgency.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
May 1, 2006... A MID GROWING PRESSURE IN THE United States to pull troops out of Iraq, President George W Bush has requested hundreds of millions of dollars to build heavily fortified bases there and says that future presidents will have to determine when US...

Doha hosts 6th Forum.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
May 1, 2006... IT WAS ENDLESSLY INFORMATIVE, AT times fiercely controversial and frequently volatile and loud--in essence just as a forum discussing the contentious issues of democracy, development and free trade might be expected to be. And, as a result,...

Iraq: ready to play its hidden hand? Western governments fear Tehran will unleash a wave of terror if its nuclear facilities are attacked.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
May 1, 2006... THE VOW MADE BY ONE OF IRAN'S TOP nuclear negotiators, Javad Vaeedi, in Vienna in March to inflict "harm and pain" on the United States for hauling the Islamic Republic before the United Nations Security Council over its nuclear programme, has...

A long time in politics ...(Kefaya, secular opposition group )
May 1, 2006... A YEAR HAS PASSED SINCE President Hosni Mubarak announced there would be multi-candidate presidential elections. May marks the one-year anniversary of the referendum to put in place that promise, but Egypt has seen a surge in activism....

Algeria the battle within; President Bouteflika clips the wings of Algeria's long-powerful military.(CURRENT AFFAIRS)
May 1, 2006... ALGERIA'S PRESIDENT, ABDELAZIZ Bouteflika, has emerged as the victor in a long battle with the military for control of the North African country after a calamitous civil war with Islamist insurgents. It may well be a landmark triumph that will...

Gold fever.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)(Cover story)
May 1, 2006... The world's oldest trusted asset and monetary hedge, gold--or the yellow ore--first discovered in southern Iraq some 5,000 years ago, is back in fashion due to buoyant demand in the Middle East and India, which together comprise half of annual...

Emaar takes the global challenge; award-winning Dubai estate agent Emaar Properties has set its sights on new markets locally and in neighbouring North African and Asia. But it won't stop there, writes Alexandra Dubsky in Dubai.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
May 1, 2006... DUBAI, THE CITY OF SUPERLATIVES, has clearly found its archetypal commercial organisation in Emaar Properties, the local property giant which last year turned into the number one real estate company worldwide in terms of market capitalisation....

The myths and hype of hydrogen.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
May 1, 2006... PRESIDENT BUSH HAS PROPOSED a federally-funded, five-year, $1.7bn plan to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cells, a hydrogen infrastructure and advanced automotive technologies. The European Commission (EC) has also said it plans to spend close to...

World Economic Forum: some of the most important leaders in the Arab world will be taking part in the World Economic Forum near the end of May in Sharm Al Sheikh.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
May 1, 2006... ONE OF THE biggest gatherings of important leaders in the Arab world will be taking place near the end of May at Sharm Al Sheikh. The WEF meetings have succeeded where many have failed in the somewhat volatile and often sensitive Arab region....

Riyadh look to asian trade; a series of multibillion dollar agreements between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, China and India, have given new impetus to the kingdom's economic strategy and helped it avoid opening up its economy to western domination.
May 1, 2006... THE RATE OF MULTIBILLION dollar investment by Indian and Chinese firms into the Middle East over the past two years has been impressive. Now, in an effort to improve energy security in their respective nations, state-owned oil and gas companies...

Saudi builds aluminium plant.(Ma'aden Ore Mining Co.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Saudi Arabian mining company Ma'aden is to build a multibillion dollar aluminium processing plant, based at Ras AI Zour on the south-east coast. The plant, which will begin exporting around 2008, will consist of a smelter producing 623,000t of...

$5bn renewal plans for Aqaba.(special economic zones)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... An urban regeneration project worth $5bn has been announced in Jordan, covering 13.5m square metres. It is one of the largest of its kind in the region and will be located at the upper side of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone. The purpose of the...

Qatar's ORYX GTL comes on stream; Qatar has pioneered gas-to-liquid hydrocarbon exploitation in the Middle East region, and the first stage of its ORYX plant at Ras Laffan will shortly become operational.
May 1, 2006... WITH THE IMMINENT START of gas-to-liquid (GTL) operations at Qatar's ORYX plant at Ras Laffan industrial city, as soon as the required commissioning and validation process is completed, Qatar Petroleum (QP) and its South African-US partner,...

Arab journalism comes of age; despite often crude censorship and frequent financial limitations, the Arab media has grown in size and sophistication. But relationships between publishers, reporters, governments and advertisers often remain ill-defined.(BUSINESS & FINANCE)
May 1, 2006... WHEN FOREIGN CONSUMER GOODS COMPANIES GO TO THE MIDDLE East, they look for media outlets in which to advertise. It is the logical thing to do. But any conventional search is often abandoned, amid consternation, because most Arab media lack the...

Ice cold in Aqaba: author and travel writer Amanda Hemingway recalls her Christmas visit to Jordan on a riding holiday which purported to follow "in the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia.".(MOSAIC)
May 1, 2006... IT WAS CHRISTMAS DAY ON THE ROAD from Amman to Petra, and sleet spattered against the windscreen of the bus. Somewhere beyond the sleet, a spectacular landscape showed itself intermittently: vistas of yellow-grey rock, plunging valleys, a...

Visit Palestine.(Movie review)
May 1, 2006... THE IMAGE OF A LONE MAN standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square was one of the defining images of the last century. For many it represented one man's stand against tyranny and yet the same image, transported to the Occupied Territories...

A question of sport? It is a well known fact that when a nation's soccer team goes on a winning run in a major tournament, crime figures fall and productivity in industry goes up. There is not a politician in the world who would not want to bottle such a thing if it were possible.(MOSAIC)
May 1, 2006... DURING THE COLD WAR, THE ideologies of capitalism and communism clashed on many different fronts. Parades of soldiers, tanks and missiles through the broad streets of Moscow were a formidable display of Russian military might, while taller...

Saudi Arabia: Power, Legitimacy and Survival.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... SAUDI ARABIA POWER, LEGITIMACY AND SURVIVAL By Tim Niblock published by Routledge ISBN 0 415 30310 9 price 17.99 [pounds sterling] paperback Saudi Arabia provides a clear, concise yet analytical account of the development of the Saudi...

Wilfred Thesiger: The Life of the Great Explorer.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... WILFRED THESIGER THE LIFE OF THE GREAT EXPLORER By Alexander Maitland published by HarperCollins ISBN 0 00 255608 1 price 25.00 [pounds sterling] hardback While Wilfred Thesiger's own classic writings cover his journeys (including The...

Oman: The Islamic Democratic Tradition.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... OMAN THE ISLAMIC DEMOCRATIC TRADITION By Hussein Ghubash published by Routledge ISBN 0 415 37568 1 price 60.00 [pounds sterling] hardback Oman is the inheritor of a unique political tradition, the imama (imamate), and has a special place in...

Heart of Beirut: Reclaiming the Bourj.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... HEART OF BEIRUT RECLAIMING THE BOURJ Samir Khalaf published by Saqi Books ISBN 0 8635 6542 5 price 12.99 [pounds sterling] paperback At the centre of Beirut lies the Bourj, one of the world's oldest, most vibrant and durable great public...

Meetings with Remarkable Muslims: A Collection of Travel Writing.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE MUSLIMS A COLLECTION OF TRAVEL WRITING Edited by Barnaby Rogerson & Rose Baring published by Eland ISBN 0 907871 64 X price 18.99 [pounds sterling] hardback Throwing a bridge across the cultural divide, Meetings...

Osama: The Making of a Terrorist.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2006... OSAMA THE MAKING OF A TERRORIST By John Randal published by IB TAURIS ISBN 1 84511 117 6 price 9.99 [pounds sterling] paperback How is it possible for one middle-aged Saudi millionaire to threaten the world's only superpower? This is the...

Death of a giant.(Mohamed Al Maghout)(Obituary)
May 1, 2006... I THOUGHT OF HIS ONE-LINER: "THE ONLY WAY TO stay free in the Arab world is to remain silent", when I heard of Mohamed Al Maghout's death of a stroke on 3 April. The 73-year-old Syrian poet and playwright, with his flat cap and a cigarette...