Excerpts: V.P.Biden's joke. Lebanese new 'radical' groupito aid Syria.

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:02:19 EST

Excerpts: V.P.Biden's joke.Lebanese new 'radical' groupito aid
Syria.U.S.State Dept. positions re Egypt.Jordan's reporting ban on public
disclosure.Brazil's Lula follows protocol for visiting leaders.Yemen unrest
remains unresolved 18 March 2010

+++SOURCE: WASHINGTON POST 18 Mar.'10: V.P. Joe Biden subs for Obama with
some executive humor At Radio & TV Correspondents dinner:
EXCERPT:Vice President Biden took the stage in place of his boss at
Wednesday's(17 Mar) Radio and Television Correspondents' Dinner.. . .
More veepish humor from the night::"I just got back from five days in the
Middle East. It's great to be back to a place where a boom in housing
construction is a good thing.". . .
[IMRA: As the late, great Judy Holiday once said:"It would be humorous if it
weren't so funny.]

+++SOURCE:NAHARNET(Lebanon) `18 Mar.'10:"Campaign against Suleiman Reflects
Syria's Resentment over National Dialogue Timing, Outline"

SUBJECT: Lebanese new 'radical' group to aid Syria

QUOTE: "(Lebanese) political allies of Syria who intend to form a new
'radical' group . . . .that would help it (Syria) to hold, once again, the
upper hand over Lebanon"

FULL TEXT:The campaign against President Michel Suleiman was seen as a drive
orchestrated by Syria's allies in Lebanon that could well pave the way for
the launch of a new group of Damascus allies made up of non-parliamentary
members.
An-Nahar newspaper on Thursday(18 Mar), citing well-informed political
sources, said the campaign against Suleiman and several government
institutions is organized by a number of political allies of Syria who
intend to form a new "radical" group made up of figures who do not belong to
parliamentary blocs.
The sources said the new group aims to "impose fresh conditions" on
Lebanon's pro-government leaders in light of regional developments that
would provide Damascus with a "higher margin" that would help it hold, once
again, the upper hand over Lebanon.
Criticism reached its peak Wednesday(17 Mar) when former Cabinet Minister
Wiam Wahab called on Suleiman to resign.
The political sources pointed out that while Wahab's call for Suleiman's
resignation does not necessarily mean that all of Syria's allies should
adopt this demand, they said one cannot, at the same time, turn a blind eye
to political realities.
They said these realities led to the "distribution of roles" in an organized
campaign through which messages of resentment by Syria and its allies in
Lebanon were launched in protest of the timing of dialogue which came
immediately after the Syrian-Iranian summit, in addition to a dispute that
arose during the dialogue session over the deletion of the word "resistance"
from a clause from the final statement.
The campaign began with Suleiman's visit to the U.S. It mounted when the
President announced the establishment of a National Dialogue Committee and
called for the resumption of all-party talks to discuss the defense
strategy.
The anti-President protests also coincided with a similar campaign against
Prime Minister Saad Hariri over the issue of the so-called "security
agreement" with the United States.

+++SOURCE: ALMASRYALYOUM (Egypt) via Egypt Daily News 18 Mar.'10:"US State
Department declines to support ElBaradei run",Ahmed el-sadani

SUBJECT U.S.State Dept. positions re Egypt.
QUOTE:" country(U.S.) would not support Mohamed ElBaradei if he decided to
run"

FULL TEXT:Washington--Nicole Chapman, the US State Department official
responsible for Egypt and the Middle East, said her country would not
support Mohamed ElBaradei if he decided to run in Egyptian presidential
elections slated for next year.
Chapman told reporters that the US was not concerned with specific
personalities but rather supported reform and free elections, whether in
Egyptian parliamentary elections this year or next year's presidential race.
"The next Egyptian president will be chosen by the people," she asserted.
In answer to a question as to whether the US was interfering in Egypt's
internal affairs on behalf of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, Chapman
said, "What happens to the Copts is intimidating." She added that those
guilty of attacking Copts in Egypt--as happened in Naga Hammadi in
January--should face the full brunt of the country's penal code.
She went on to say that, even if the Egyptian government considered the Naga
Hammadi incident an "individual act" rather than an example of rising
anti-Christian sentiment, the perpetrators should nevertheless face
punishment so as to deter such attacks from recurring in the future.
Chapman also announced that the US State Department had informed Egyptian
officials of its concern over the arrest of local bloggers, which represents
a violation of the latter's human rights.
On US financial aid to Egypt, Chapman said: "This will continue, in addition
to military aid in the amount of US$1.3 billion." She went on to note that
economic aid should be directed towards educational and human resource
development, after having largely been allocated to infrastructure
development for the past three decades.
Chapman concluded by noting that economic reform was "progressing well" in
Egypt, according to recent World Bank reports. "As for political reform, the
Obama administration has made it clear that it supports democratization and
wider participation by the people in political life," she said.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.

+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES 18 Mar.'10:"Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
calls on court to lift reporting ban on Jordan Petroleum Refinery Co.
scandal"
SUBJECT:Jordan's reporting ban on public disclosure.

FULL TEXT:AMMAN (JT) - The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
has urged the State Security Court to reconsider its decision to ban the
media from covering corruption allegations involving the Jordan Petroleum
Refinery Company and several leading national figures. The court issued an
order last week banning the press from reporting or commenting on the case
without the approval of its attorney general. "We condemn this gag order,
which deprives Jordanian citizens of important news on allegations of
high-level wrongdoing," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ Middle East and North
Africa programme coordinator in a statement which was made available to The
Jordan Times Wednesday. "The media uncovered these reports of corruption and
must be allowed to pursue them," the statement added.

+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES 18 Mar.'10:" Brazil's Lula places wreath on Arafat's
tomb" ,Associated Press
SUBJECT: Brazil's Lula follows 'protocol for visiting leaders.
FULL TEXT:RAMALLAH (AP) - Brazil's president placed a wreath on the tomb of
the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday(17 Mar) and sharply
criticized Israeli policies, leading Israeli officials to suggest he was not
being evenhanded. Making the first visit by any sitting Brazilian president
to Israel and the Palestinian territories, President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva has termed the trip amission of peace. The visit appears aimed at
helping Brazil emerge as a bigger player in foreign affairs. Brazil could
play a bridging role: the country is Israel's largest trading partner in
Latin America, but also has close ties to Iran, Israel's archenemy. Silva
has been a defender of Iran's nuclear ambitions, which Israel sees as a
potentially grave threat. Silva laid a yellow and green wreath on Arafat's
mausoleum on Wednesday, following protocol for visiting leaders.

+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES 18 Mar.'10:"Yemen rebels free scores of prisoners",
Reuters

SUBJECT: Yemen unrest remains unresolved

QUOTE:" Western countries and neighbouring Saudi Arabia ... fear Al Qaeda
is exploiting the instability in Yemen to launch attacks in the region and
beyond"

FULL TEXT: SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni Shiite rebels freed at least 170
government soldiers and tribal fighters on Wednesday after Sanaa accused
them of dragging their feet on implementing a truce deal to end a northern
war, both sides said.
The move came a day after a top Yemeni security body said the rebels were
not fully complying with a deal struck in February to end a conflict that
has raged on and off since 2004 and last year drew in neighbouring oil
exporter Saudi Arabia.
Wednesday's (17 Mar)release of prisoners highlighted differences that remain
between the two sides. A military official said many government prisoners
were still being held and the rebels demanded the state free imprisoned
insurgents.
"The truce committee received 170 detainees, some military and others
tribesmen," the military official told Reuters. Sanaa, struggling to
stabilise a fractious country, came under heavy international pressure to
end the northern war and focus on fighting Al Qaeda, whose Yemen-based arm
claimed responsibility for a December attack on a US-bound plane.
Western countries and neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil
exporter, fear Al Qaeda is exploiting instability in Yemen to launch attacks
in the region and beyond.
Analysts say the truce deal between the government and rebels, called
Houthis after the clan name of their leaders, was unlikely to last as it
does not address the insurgents' complaints of discrimination by Sanaa.
The prisoners were handed over in northern Saada province, scene of most of
the fighting, Al Arabiya television reported.
"We closed the prisoner file by freeing 180 captive soldiers, and we hope
the authorities will live up to their obligations and free [rebel]
prisoners," said rebel spokesman Mohammad Abdul-Salam, whose account of the
number freed was higher than Sanaa's figure.
Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh accused regional countries of using the
insurgency to destabilise Saudi Arabia, in an apparent reference to Iran.
Tehran rejects the accusation.
"Foreign interference aims...to settle accounts and to send a message to
Saudi Arabia through Houthi elements," he told Al Arabiya.
Fighting, blasts in south
Sanaa had accused the rebels on Tuesday of delaying implementing the
ceasefire deal, saying the rebels had returned to some positions from which
they had withdrawn.
The rebels were also refusing to hand over landmines removed from the
conflict zone, it said. A rebel spokesman has denied that the insurgents
were using delay tactics.
Separately, violence broke out in the south, where clashes between
separatist protesters, often armed, and security forces have killed and
wounded people on both sides in recent weeks.
Residents in the city of Dalea, where forces have boosted their presence,
reported clashes overnight between gunmen and security forces, the
independent News Yemen website reported.
Residents reported hearing blasts and heavy exchanges of automatic weapons
fire. But there was no word on casualties.
North and South Yemen united in 1990, but many in the south - home to most
of Yemen's oil industry - complain northerners have seized resources and
discriminate against them.
Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera television said last week that authorities had
seized equipment from their Sanaa bureaux because of their coverage of the
growing unrest in the south.
On Wednesday, Saleh ordered the broadcasting equipment to be returned, a
Yemeni official told Reuters.
Yemen, which stepped up security at oil and coastal facilities on Tuesday,
said it had forced Al Qaeda into isolation in the south, also the site of
rising secessionist unrest.
"Harsh strikes on Al Qaeda and its leadership forced the terrorist elements
to hide in holes and find refuge in remote areas nearly empty of people,"
the interior ministry said.
Yemeni state media said that one of three militants killed in Sunday air
strikes on Al Qaeda targets was a Saudi militant, Samir Al Sanaani, who had
been living in Abyan province.
The strikes, followed by hits a day later, also killed two other militants
including a local Al Qaeda leader, Yemen said.
===
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA

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Excerpts: V.P.Biden's joke. Lebanese new 'radical' groupito aid Syria.