Category: Middle East

  • Syria-Turkey launch 18 new development projects

    Syria-Turkey launch 18 new development projects

    The Syria-Turkey Inter-Regional Cooperation Program (STICP) approved 18 services, cultural and economic projects on July 1.

    During a STICP meeting in Aleppo, the program’s committee for selecting projects chose the 18 projects out of 54 nominated for implementation on the basis of their priority and contribution to bilateral cooperation, economic development and employment, as well as the likelihood of long term success.

    The approved projects include a border safety center, renovating the Gaziantep highway, establishing a tourism police station and renovating the al-Soda border checkpoint. They will be implemented over three years.

    Governor of Aleppo Tamer al-Hajjeih said the STICP was an important tool in enhancing Syrian-Turkish ties. “Through such projects, the program is helping to foster the exchange of expertise between Syria and Turkey,” Hajjeih said.

    Turkish State Planning Commission representative Farouq Delk said Turkey is presently implementing 42 projects at a value of USD 7.4m.

    STICP was launched in 2005 between the Syrian governorate of Aleppo and the Turkish governorates of Killes, Onkobinar Gate and Gaziantep at a budget of USD 20m split equally between the two countries.

    Source: Syria Today, 16 July 2008

  • Paradise Lost

    Paradise Lost

    by Amy Waldman — Publishers Weekly, 7/14/2008

    Ariel Sabar’s father, Yona, was from an Armenian-speaking Jewish community in remote Kurdistan. Yona immigrated to California and had a son who felt alienated from Yona’s antiquated ways. In My Father’s Paradise (Reviews, June 23), Sabar journeys to Kurdistan to bridge the barrier.

    What is the most surprising thing you learned?

    How central Iraq was to the history of the Jewish Diaspora. This was Babylon, where most Jews were exiled when they were booted out of ancient Israel. This is where synagogue Judaism got its start and where the Babylonian Talmud was written. Iraq allowed Judaism to succeed and flourish in exile. In Kurdistan, it mattered more what your contributions were to the community than whether or not you were Muslim, Jewish or Christian. The terrain itself, the towering mountains that bred this community, kept out the ideologies and intolerance that have led to so much bloodshed in recent history.

    What was your father’s reaction when you told him you wanted to write about him, and did your relationship change as a result?

    Initially, I think he humored me. He was supportive, but thought I was a little crazy when I told him I wanted us to go to Iraq together. We talk more now and a lot of the old tensions that were there when I was younger have faded. I now see and appreciate the cultural inheritance he’s passed on to me.

    The book is about your father, but what did your mother think?

    She thought I captured him fairly well, but wondered, a little jealously I think, why I wasn’t also writing about her family. I told her that the story of the Ashkenazi Jews had been written many times, but my father’s story hadn’t. I wanted to bring the story of the Kurdish Jews to a wider audience.

    Is there a message you hope people will take away from the book?

    For much of its history, Iraq looked nothing like the place we read about in the headlines today. It was a country where Jews and Christians lived harmoniously with their Muslim neighbors. There were occasional rough times for religious minorities, but nothing on the scale of the Holocaust. What’s happening now is not representative of Iraq’s larger history. I hope people can come away thinking of Iraq in a more hopeful time, that some of the values that sustained that multicultural worldview are still there somewhere and can perhaps be recovered.

    Source: Publishers Weekly, 14/7/2008

  • Envoy Blair cancels visit to Gaza

    Envoy Blair cancels visit to Gaza

    From: Tolga Cakir <tolga@tolgacakir.co.uk>

    To: Haluk Demirbag

    Tony Blair is focusing on economic
    issues as Middle East envoy

    The international Middle East envoy, Tony Blair, has cancelled a planned visit to the Gaza Strip.

    A spokesman said that the visit had to be postponed because of a specific security threat.

    He would have been the most highly ranked international diplomat to visit the strip since the militant movement Hamas took control there in 2007.

    He was due to meet UN officials to discuss humanitarian work in the strip and visit a water treatment plant.

    He had not been expected to meet any representatives from Hamas.

    The international community does not recognise the Hamas government in Gaza.

    The European Union, the United States and Israel consider Hamas to be a terrorist organisation.

    The movement seized control of Gaza in June 2007 from Fatah forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

    The former British prime minister was appointed as Middle East envoy in the same month by the Quartet – the US, the EU, the UN and Russia.

    Mr Blair was asked to focus on economic issues with the aim of bolstering the chances of a peace deal this year.

    Source: BBC, 15 July 2008

  • Karzai Opposes US Use of Afghan Soil Against Iran

    Karzai Opposes US Use of Afghan Soil Against Iran

    News

    Karzai Opposes US Use of Afghan Soil Against Iran

    »

    by: Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters UK

    According to Afghan president Hamid Karzai, his government wants to maintain peaceful relations with Iran and would be against the US stationing troops in Afghanistan to attack that country.
    (Photo: AFP / Getty Images)

        Kabul – Afghanistan opposes U.S. use of its territory for launching a possible attack against neighbouring Iran, President Hamid Karzai said in an interview broadcast on Monday.

        Iran has threatened to target Israel and U.S. interests in the region in the event of an attack against the Islamic Republic which is locked in a dispute with the West over its nuclear programme.

        Karzai said his government, which came to power after U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001, had always tried to “keep the balance between the powers”.

        “We are attentive to the dangers,” Karzai told Radio Liberty when asked about the possible repercussions of a conflict between Iran and the United States.

        “Afghanistan should not become the battleground of differences of any country,” he said in a wide-ranging interview. “Afghanistan does not want its soil to be used against any country and Afghanistan wants to be a friend of Iran as a neighbour which shares the same language and religion.”

        Karzai said his government had facilitated talks between Tehran and Washington, and had also served as a messenger between both in the past.

        Washington, which has some 32,000 troops in Afghanistan and is the biggest aid donor to Kabul, has not ruled out military force against Iran.

        Meanwhile, Karzai said foreign troops had ignored his repeated calls to coordinate operations with Afghan forces to avoid civilian casualties.

        Nearly 700 Afghan civilians have been killed in the first six months of 2008, the United Nations says, 255 of them by Afghan and international forces.

        “This in reality is a disaster … many innocent people have been killed in the bombardment. For five years, routinely, I have been trying to prevent foreign forces from possibly harming our nation. Unfortunately, this effort has not had outcome I wanted, and as the nation expects,” Karzai said.

        Karzai brushed aside reports about a possible postponement of next year’s presidential election due to rising violence.

        He said Afghanistan favoured good ties with its other large neighbour, Pakistan, but said there were “elements in Pakistan’s intelligence and Pakistan’s army” who did not want a stable Afghanistan.

        ——–

        Editing by Jeremy Laurence.

  • Iran vs. the West

    Iran vs. the West

    Iran vs. the West

    Source: Aljazeera.net