Category: North Africa

  • Al-Jazeera Beirut bureau chief resigns

    Al-Jazeera Beirut bureau chief resigns

    ghassan ben jeddoAl-Jazeera’s Beirut Bureau Chief Ghassan Ben Jeddo has resigned over what he described “biased” coverage of Middle East revolutions by the Qatari-based satellite channel.

    The renowned Tunisian-born journalist and television presenter tendered his resignation earlier this month for a number of reasons, most importantly Al-Jazeera’s “lack of professionalism and objectivity” in covering the ongoing revolutions in Middle Eastern countries, including Yemen and Bahrain, As-Safir reported Friday.

    There has been no official confirmation from Al-Jazeera management as to whether Ghassan’s resignation has been accepted.

    “Ghassan Ben Jeddo believes Al-Jazeera TV news channel no longer pursues an independent and unbiased policies, and quite conversely, is in pursuit of a certain type of policies regarding the brewing uprisings in the region,” As-Safir reported.

    The Tunisian journalist said the Qatari-based satellite channel has launched a smear campaign against the Syrian government and has turned into “a propaganda outlet,” the report added.

    The report added that while the station covered the events in Libya, Syria and Yemen, it barely mentioned the bloodshed in Bahrain.

    People in Bahrain have been holding anti-government protests since February 14, demanding constitutional reforms as well as an end to the Al Khalifa monarchy.

    Demonstrators maintain that they will continue to protest until their demands for freedom, constitutional monarchy, and a proportional voice in the government are met.

    The peaceful popular movement in Bahrain has been violently repressed, leaving scores of anti-regime protesters killed and many others missing.

    Prior to joining Al-Jazeera in 1997, Ben Jeddo worked for the BBC network, the London-based Al-Hayat daily and in a number of other Arab newspapers.

    He is the only journalist to have interviewed the Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, during the Israel-Lebanon conflict. Ben Jeddo has also interviewed Leader of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblat and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

    (Source: Press TV)

    April 24, 2011

    Al-Jazeera journalist resigns over ‘incitement’

    Al JazeeraGhassan Bin Jeddo director of al-Jazeera’s office in Beirut protested against lack of objectivity in reporting of Arab world uprising

    Roee Nahmias

    Ghassan Bin Jeddo a prominent journalist and presenter in Qatar’s satellite TV channel al-Jazeera has resigned, citing the channel’s abandonment of its neutrality in the present unrest in the region.

    The statement could not be independently corroborated despite reports that Bin Jeddo himself confirmed the news, published in the Arabic language Lebanese daily al-Safir.

    Al-Safir had quoted “reliable sources” as saying that Bin Jeddo’s resignation was attributed to al-Jazeera’s alleged abandonment of professional and objective reporting, as it became “an operation room for incitement and mobilization.”

    Another reason noted was its “provocative policy, which is “unacceptable, particularly in light of the historical stage the region is passing through,” it added. It stressed that Bin Jeddo’s resignation was morally motivated as al-Jazeera highlighted the developments in Libya, Yemen, and Syria but not Bahrain.

    Asked if the resignation was related to the policy the channel has adopted in covering Syrian developments, the paper quoted a source as saying: “It’s an issue of principle and morality for him.”

    About face

    Al-Safir noted that after the 2005 assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, Bin Jeddo was banned from entering Syria for a year and a half because “he is an advocate of reform and freedom in that country.”

    During the first weeks of the riots in Syria the al-Jazeera network completely ignored the protests and incured a great deal of criticism from government opposition in Damascus.

    Following the criticism the Qatari network did an about face and now has the Syrian riots as its main story even going so far as to publish harsh images of protestors being killed by the regime supporters.

    I t also offers Syrian human rights activists and resigning parliament members a platform to present their views.

    Roee Nahmias contributed to this report

    https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4060180,00.html, 24.04.2011

  • CIA director Leon Panetta made top-secret trip to Turkey

    CIA director Leon Panetta made top-secret trip to Turkey

    By JPOST.COM STAFF

    04/26/2011 16:38

     

    Leon Panetta, director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, made a highly confidential visit to Ankara in late March to discuss the unfolding situation in the Arab world.

    During classified conversations with Turkish officials, Panetta and his staff called the riots in Libya a “crisis,” and the rising sentiment against Syrian President Bashar Assad was referred to as being at “a critical threshold.”

    via CIA director Leon Panetta made top-secret trip to Turkey.

  • Treasury Official To Discuss Libya Sanctions In France, Turkey

    Treasury Official To Discuss Libya Sanctions In France, Turkey

    By Joe Palazzolo

    A senior U.S. Treasury official will travel to Turkey and France next week to discuss how to apply “maximum pressure” on Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, the Treasury Department said Friday.

    Bloomberg News  Pedestrians walk past the U.S. Treasury Department.
    Bloomberg News Pedestrians walk past the U.S. Treasury Department.

    The talks come amid an escalation of military support for rebel forces fighting troops loyal to the Libyan leader.

    David S. Cohen, acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, is also expected to push senior government officials in Turkey and France to aggressively implement financial sanctions on Iran during his trip, the department said in a statement.

    In Ankara and Istanbul, Cohen will meet with private sector leaders to discuss the Iran sanctions law passed last July and its ramifications for foreign financial institutions, the department said.

    The Comprehensive Iran Sanctions Accountability and Divestment Act threatens foreign banks that do business with sanctioned entities with banishment from the U.S. financial system.

    via Treasury Official To Discuss Libya Sanctions In France, Turkey – Corruption Currents – WSJ.

  • Turkey eases visa requirements for African businessmen

    Turkey eases visa requirements for African businessmen

    Turkey has said it will grant visas at border gates for businessmen from African countries for stays up to 30 days if certain conditions are met as part of its ongoing efforts to facilitate visa requirements for African businessmen.

     

    The Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Tuesday that Turkey has decided to issue visas at the entry point in İstanbul’s Atatürk International Airport starting today for businessmen and citizens from 46 African countries who travel with Turkish Airlines (THY) and for businessmen who hold a valid 6-month Schengen, British or American visa. This will be applicable to the citizens of 46 sub-Saharan African countries, including Angola, Chad, Somali, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria.

    The statement also said Turkish authorities will consider those who enter Turkey for tourism purposes or on business to be eligible to obtain a visa at Atatürk International Airport if they also have the necessary documents in line with their travel purpose such as a hotel reservation, sufficient financial funds for the duration of their stay ($50 per day) and a roundtrip ticket from THY. They will also be required to pay 15 euros, or $20, as a visa fee.

    The statement also added that citizens of the African nations included on the list should have entered the US, the UK or a Schengen-area country at least once prior to their arrival in Turkey and that they should not have been denied entry or deported from these countries in order for their visa, of at least six months, for these three areas to also be applicable for entry into Turkey.

     

  • Joint article on Libya: The pathway to peace

    Joint article on Libya: The pathway to peace

    Friday 15 April 2011

    number10logo

    Prime Minister David Cameron, President Barack Obama and President Nicolas Sarkozy have written a joint article on Libya underlining their determination that Qadhafi must “go and go for good”.

     

    Read the article

    Together with our NATO allies and coalition partners, the United States, France and Britain have been united at the UN Security Council, as well as the following Paris Conference, in building a broad-based coalition to respond to  the crisis in Libya. We are equally united on what needs to happen in order to end it.

    Even as we continue military operations today to protect civilians in Libya, we are determined to look to the future. We are convinced that better times lie ahead for the people of Libya, and a pathway can be forged to achieve just that.

    We must never forget the reasons why the international community was obliged to act in the first place. As Libya descended into chaos with Colonel Qadhafi attacking his own people, the Arab League called for action. The Libyan opposition called for help. And the people of Libya looked to the world in their hour of need. In an historic Resolution, the United Nations Security Council authorised all necessary measures to protect the people of Libya from the attacks upon them.  By responding immediately, our countries  halted the advance of Qadhafi’s forces. The bloodbath that he had promised to inflict upon the citizens of the besieged city of Benghazi has been prevented.

    Tens of thousands of lives have been protected.  But the people of Libya are suffering terrible horrors at Qadhafi’s hands each and every day. His rockets and his shells rained down on defenceless civilians in Ajdabiya. The city of Misrata is enduring a mediaeval siege, as Qadhafi tries to strangle its population into submission.   The evidence of disappearances and abuses grows daily.

    Our duty and our mandate under UN Security Council Resolution 1973 is to protect civilians, and we are doing that. It is not to remove Qadhafi by force.  But it is impossible to imagine a future for Libya with Qadhafi in power.  The International Criminal Court is rightly investigating the crimes committed against civilians and the grievous violations of international law.  It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government. The brave citizens of those towns that have held out against forces that have been mercilessly targeting them would face a fearful vengeance if the world accepted such an arrangement.  It would be an unconscionable betrayal.

    Furthermore, it would condemn Libya to being not only a pariah state, but a failed state too.  Qadhafi has promised to carry out terrorist attacks against civilian ships and airliners.  And because he has lost the consent of his people any deal that leaves him in power would lead to further chaos and lawlessness.  We know from bitter experience what that would mean.  Neither Europe, the region, or the world can afford a new safe haven for extremists.

    There is a pathway to peace that promises new hope for the people of Libya.  A future without Qadhafi that preserves Libya’s integrity and sovereignty, and restores her economy and the prosperity and security of her people.  This needs to begin with a genuine end to violence, marked by deeds not words.  The regime has to pull back from the cities it is besieging, including Ajdabiya, Misrata and Zintan, and their forces return to their barracks. However, so long as Qadhafi is in power, NATO and its coalition partners must maintain their operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds.  Then a genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process can really begin, led by a new generation of leaders.  In order for that transition to succeed, Colonel Qadhafi must go and go for good.  At that point, the United Nations and its members should help the Libyan people as they rebuild where Qadhafi has destroyed – to repair homes and hospitals, to restore basic utilities, and to assist Libyans as they develop the institutions to underpin a prosperous and open society.

    This vision for the future of Libya has the support of a broad coalition of countries, including many from the Arab world.  These countries came together in London on 29 March and founded a Contact Group which met this week in Doha to support a solution to the crisis that respects the will of the Libyan people.

    Today, NATO and its coalition partners are acting in the name of the United Nations with an unprecedented international legal mandate.  But it will be the people of Libya, not the UN, that choose their new constitution, elect their new leaders, and write the next chapter in their history.

    Britain, France and the United States will not rest until the United Nations Security Council resolutions have been implemented and the Libyan people can choose their own future.

    The Prime Ministers Office

    Number 10

  • Libya crisis raises Turkey, France tensions

    Libya crisis raises Turkey, France tensions

    By Justin Vela and Alina Lehtinen for Southeast European Times in Istanbul — 13/04/11

    Reuters  A ship passes through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea in Istanbul.
    Reuters A ship passes through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea in Istanbul.

    photo

    France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy (left) and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in February. [Reuters]

    Ankara has long been at odds with Paris over its view that Turkey should not join the EU. Now, the conflict in Libya has only heightened tensions. The French were one of the first to say there should be a military no-fly zone over Libya.

    According to French foreign policy expert Ulla Holm, from the Danish Institute for International Studies, France wanted to act fast in Libya because it had been criticised over its slow reactions in Tunisia and Egypt.

    “France wants to represent itself as the country that knows about the south. Sarkozy wanted to act as quickly as possible in relation to Libya in order to forget what happened in Tunisia,” Holm told SETimes.

    During a speech in Istanbul earlier this month, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused France of thinking more about the oil resources in Libya than humanitarian aspects. “I wish that those who only see oil, gold mines and underground treasures when they look in that direction would see the region through their conscience from now on,” said Erdogan.

    Experts have said that Erdogan’s rhetoric surrounding the Western intervention in Libya is aimed at both bolstering Turkey’s influence as a global player and appealing to his party’s domestic base ahead of June 12th elections.

    Just before the Libya operation begun, France chose not to invite Turkey to a summit in Paris. After the summit, Turkish leaders accused France of trying to strong-arm the Libya operations.

    “France was handling the whole situation and monopolising it. It was against that attitude that Turkey has taken an opposition to,” explained Bogazici University Professor Gun Kut.

    Both Turkey and France hope to be regional powers in North Africa. Turkey wants to appear among the powerful and influential globally, and France wants to be seen as a major player in the Mediterranean region.

    After World War I, Britain, France and Italy replaced the Ottomans as colonial powers in North Africa. Holm explained that because of its colonial past, France considers the area as a part of its sphere of influence. Even though Libya was never a French colony, France wants to play a role in the entire region.

    “France has a very close relationship with North Africa because of its colonial past. France has close ties with the Europeanised elite, especially in Morocco and Tunisia. Many people from these countries received their higher education in France,” Holm said.

    Kut does not think that Turkish and French interests in North Africa are colliding and said that Turkey is only reacting to Sarkozy’s decision to exclude the country from the decision-making process.

    “All of a sudden Turkey found itself in a position to be sidelined and marginalised by France,” he said. “Otherwise, Turkey does not have disagreements with France [over Libya].”

    This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.

    via Libya crisis raises Turkey, France tensions (SETimes.com).