Middle East News Analysis
Iraq’s political deadlock was finally ‘broken’ with the nomination of Jawad al-Malki, an ally of Dr. al-Ja’afari, to replace him as prime minister. The next step will be the jockeying for important cabinet posts, especially the Ministry of Defense which seems the only one that is open. It looks like the presidency will remain from now on with the Kurds- that might be one way of keeping the Kurds within Iraq and putting off a struggle over Kirkuk. Iraq’s Parliament meets tomorrow to decide on the PM position.
Rumors abound of a US-Iranian deal. A Salafi (as in Taliban-esque and Qaida-esque) writer in the Kuwaiti daily al-Watan (4/21/06) hinted that there might be a deal whereby Iran gets to keep her nuclear program without retaliation and will be awarded a free hand in a chunk of Iraq, perhaps the south. In return, the US gets to have permanent and uncontested control over the rest of the Persian Gulf region. Presumably, the implication here is that, in line with the new Husni Mubarak Doctrine, the Shi’as of the Gulf Arab states will promise to be good boys and not object. It is not clear yet who will guarantee the good behavior of the Salafi/Qaida neo-hippie squads. In the Arab world, one rumor is as good as another, and our region is the birthplace of many conspiracy theories as well as a few religions.
I think the term paranoia could play well to the infidel tunes of Hallelujah in this case. But alas, I doubt that there are many takers.
In Kuwait, there are apparent plans to train police women. That is because the Salafi Fundamentalists want their women to remain behind the burqa, where their faces cannot be seen by other men. Police and passport control agents have been too intimidated to ask these women to show their faces- tribal men would not allow it. Nobody knows who is driving a car, or who is entering the country behind a burqa!! It could be Paris Hilton or Britney or even Jacko or al-Zarqawi in disguise. Hence the idea of police women who can be allowed to see the visages behind the burqa without having to worry about them being overtaken by passion and lust. It is an idea the Fundies hate, but it is probably something they cannot stop.
There are reports in some Middle East media of a continuing rivalry between President AhmadiNejad and Mr Rafsanjani whom he defeated for President. The reports claim that elements of the Iranian leadership tried to steal some of the nuclear thunder away form Mr. Nejad by having Rafsanjani make announcements to the press about their Nuclear (no, not Nukular) Program.
Jordan has used news reports of a Hamas attempt to smuggle arms into Jordan as an excuse to cancel a visit by a Palestinian ministerial delegation. Hamas leaders protest that the whole thing was cooked up by Jordanian Intelligence in order to avoid the embarrassment of having to receive a Hamas minister. Now Jordanian reports also claim that Syria is somehow implicated. Interesting, I thought there was a direct land route from the West Bank to Jordan, a.k.a the former Palestinian Sharq al-Urdun, that is TransJordan to most of you.
This week in Algeria, President AbdelAziz Bouteflika (Father of Teflika, whoever she might be) delivered a blistering attack on the legacy of French colonialism in his country which ended in 1962 (the colonlialism ended, not the country). He did not mention the terrible legacy of the National Liberation Front, the FLN, his own party, over 40 years of independence. The FLN, one of whose leaders was Mr. Bouteflika, took a prosperous French colony and turned it into a basket case plagued by dictatorship and violent Islamic insurrections. Any able bodied man, or young woman, who could, has immigrated to Europe, especially to France, often illegally, in order to be able to feed their families and to be free.
PS: Today the news said that Mr. Bouteflika is swallowing his pride and heading to France for medical exams and treatment. (I wish him well, but how many Algerians get to fly legally to France for treatment.)?
Cheers
Mohammed
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