Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April/May 1999, pages 38-41

Issues In The News

Compiled by Delinda C. Hanley

ARABIAN PENINSULA

Fast Food Changing Arabs’ Diet:

Recent studies reported in the Khaleej Times of Dubai have concluded that a high proportion of adults in the UAE and other Gulf states are not getting their daily fresh fruit, vegetable and milk requirements, and urban adolescents especially are consuming more and more fast foods and junk snacks. Meanwhile nutritious foods have become more expensive and even out of reach for some low-income families.

Saudi Assets Abroad $420 Billion:

Saudi Arabian assets abroad are now $420 billion, while two years ago they were $450 billion, Saudi economist Taher Al-Dabbagh, adviser to the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry, announced Feb. 21. The Arab News reports that Al-Dabbagh attributes the fall in assets to either repatriation of some funds or losses incurred in the world markets.

Quintuplets Born in Saudi Arabia:

Quintuplets were born to a 24-year-old woman from eastern Saudi Arabia Feb. 13. Weighing between 2.42 and 3.52 pounds, the five boys are in stable condition. The mother, married for 8 years, has no other children. Last year one of the world’s two surviving sets of septuplets was born to another Saudi woman.

Oman Borrows $350 Million:

Oman signed a $350 million loan deal with 16 local and international banks to finance development projects, Gulf News reports. Facing a sharp drop in oil revenues due to the crude oil price slump, Oman has forecast a budget deficit of 631 million rials ($1.6 billion) against revenues of 1.525 billion rials for 1999. Omani Economic Minister Ahmed bin Abdulnabi Macki said that the banking consortium’s loan reflects the confidence lending banks have in Oman’s developing economy. He also said that overall government expenditures have been reduced, but development projects to expand the infrastructure and economic base will continue.

Arabs Call for End to Embargo:

Representatives from 85 Arab trade unions and business organizations called for Arab states to break the U.N. embargo on Iraq, at a meeting in Baghdad March 1. The 200 unionists from Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian territories also condemned American aggression against Iraq and supported Iraq’s right to oppose the no-fly zones in the north and south of Iraq.

Yemen-Saudi Border Talks:

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel Kader Bajammal attended talks in Riyadh Feb. 16 to discuss demarcation of the border between the two countries with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdallah bin Abdel Aziz and Foreign Minister Prince Saud bin al-Faisal bin Abdel Aziz. The two countries have been negotiating land and sea borders since 1995.

Yemen Accuses Foreign Powers:

Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdel Kader Bajammal said foreign powers are behind the kidnapping of dozens of tourists in recent years in Yemen. He accused regional countries of giving money, weapons and training to anti-government Yemeni groups. He also said tourists were safe to travel if security forces know where they are. Yemen is trying five men charged with the kidnapping and subsequent death of tourists during a botched rescue operation in December.

Qatar Holds First Elections:

Qatari men and women cast their first ballots in elections held March 8 for the 29-member council that will advise the Ministry of Local Governments. This election was important because Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who came to power in 1995 after deposing his father, has indicated they are a dry run for parliamentary elections within three years. Although six women ran for office, all were defeated.

FERTILE CRESCENT

Jordanian Media Ban Lifted:

Jordan will allow Palestinian newspapers and magazines to go on sale in the kingdom for the first time since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Qatar’s Gulf Times reported on Feb.18. Director general Iyad Qattan of Jordan’s press and publications department also announced that Jordan has agreed to broadcast a monthly program produced by the Palestine Television Corporation.

Israel Detains 21 Lebanese Hostages as “Bargaining Chips”:

Over the past 12 years Israeli troops have seized 21 Lebanese hostages, whom Israeli courts acknowledge have committed no crime, as “bargaining chips” for information regarding four Israeli soldiers missing in action in Lebanon. Many of the detainees, two of whom were only 16 at the time of their abduction, have been held in almost complete isolation since 1996. Israel’s Supreme Court heard a Jan. 27 appeal by Israeli human rights groups who say the continued detention of the men is “legitimizing hostage-taking methods characteristic of a terrorist organization but not permissible by a state.”

Syria Needs $6 Billion to Modernize:

To upgrade its industries in preparation for the signing of an association deal with the European Union (EU), Syria needs $6.16 billion, according to Industry Minister Ahmed Nezamuldin, who said rehabilitation of both private and public sectors was necessary. The EU has pledged billions of dollars in aid to Mediterranean countries that sign association agreements which call for the creation of free trade zones and closer cooperation in economic, political, cultural and scientific fields. Without assistance, Nezamuldin said, the Syrians will have stiff competition in the resulting open market, and Syria will need to make its industry more competitive. The EU association program allows participating countries to bid for tenders, create joint ventures, implement strategic alliances and have access to almost $17 billion in research and development grants. Israel was tentatively excluded from the program in December for failing to implement the Wye agreement.

Syrian Condemns Embassy Attack:

Syrian Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Mustafa Tlas denied praising demonstrators who attacked the U.S. Embassy in Damascus Dec. 19 to protest U.S. and British air strikes on Iraq. When Tlas was quoted Feb. 9 in Syria’s official daily newspaper Tishreen as saying a student who tore down the American flag was “courageous,” the U.S. administration threatened to review its ties with Syria unless there was a retraction and an apology. Tlas said the published quotes were not accurate and were not in line with the country’s official position, Gulf News reported Feb. 16. He also said Syria regrets damage to U.S. and British missions and that he didn’t mean to encourage attacks on embassies or diplomats because this contradicts Arab values and morals.

IRAN /IRAQ

Iraq Conference on Depleted Uranium:

Carol Picou, a 1991 Gulf war American veteran, attended an Iraqi government conference Dec. 2-3 to compare her sickness and neurological damage to the mysterious rise (five times the pre-war level) in certain forms of cancer reported in Iraq. Of the 750,000 U.S. soldiers who served in the war, 100,000 have complained of health problems and 20,000 have unexplained symptoms. Iraqi scientists have discovered depleted uranium in 36 percent of plant samples taken in southern Iraq. The report from the conference can be found on the Internet at <http://*.phys. unm.edu:8000>

Counting Casualties in Iraq:

The U.N. has confirmed more than 80 civilian casualties and as many as 20 deaths due to the recent U.S.-British bombings of Iraq. The routine attacks have inflicted more damage than the pre-Christmas bombardment. Simon Jenkins of The Times of London points out “blast and fragmentation weapons are designed to attack the body with shrapnel pellets, like hundreds of stab wounds.” The new deaths add to the total of more than a million victims of the ongoing sanctions from malnutrition, disease and contaminated water.

German Murdered in Iran:

The German representative in Iran of Deutsche Bank, Heinrich Heimes, was murdered Feb. 13, when a diplomatic vehicle he was driving was hijacked. The official account declared that a lone fugitive stopped the car, allowed Heimes’ German passengers to escape, but abducted and later killed Heimes. An editorial in the English-language newspaper Iran News cast doubt on the official version, saying that it might have been the latest in a mysterious killing campaign that the Iranian intelligence ministry said involved “rogue agents.”

Iran-UK Ties to be Restored:

Iran and Britain are settling remaining protocol issues before the exchange of ambassadors signals complete normalization of relations, the Arab News reports. The Iranian government will not seek to carry out the fatwa condemning British author Salman Rushdie to death, said Iranian Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani in a Feb. 17 article in Qatar’s The Peninsula. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed after the late Ayatollah Khomenei condemned Rushdie to death in his 1988 ruling for alleged blasphemy against Islam in his book The Satanic Verses.

Iran Strikes Oil Deal:

Iran has agreed to a $200 million deal with an Anglo-Canadian consortium (Bow Valley Energy in Canada and Premier Oil in Britain) to develop oil fields in Iran’s Balal region.

Iran Blames Israel for Deaths:

Senior Iranian official Mohsen Rezaei blames Israel for a spate of dissident murders, a November attack on a bus carrying U.S. businessmen, and other recent violence seeking to destabilize Iran, Qatar’s The Peninsula reports. Rezaei, secretary of the Expediency Council and a former chief of the Revolutionary Guard, said that Israeli agents told an Intelligence Ministry employee that dissident Dariush Forouhar, one of the four liberal Iranians murdered late last year, could be leading a political coup. Officials have announced the arrest of 10 people, including Intelligence Ministry agents, in connection with the murders. Rezaei said a strong pro-Israel lobby in the U.S. was making any improvement in Iran-U.S. relations impossible.

Israel Shelved Assassination Plans for Saddam Hussain:

Israel’s Mossad reportedly planned to assassinate Saddam Hussain on the eve of U.S.-British air strikes, according to New York’s Queen’s Jewish Week. The report said an elite unit was trained to use a guided missile to assassinate Saddam Hussain as he left the home of his mistress, following a predictable route. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided against authorizing the plan when military intelligence officers gave it only a 1-in-5 chance of succeeding.

ISRAEL/PALESTINE

Israel-U.S. Hold Air Exercises:

Military officials announced that two squadrons of U.S. F-16 and F-14 warplanes arrived in Israel March 11 for the first joint training by the countries’ air forces. U.S. and Israeli navies and ground forces have held joint maneuvers in the past, but Israel has always been reticent to hold air exercises for fear of revealing tactical secrets.

Israel Holds Smallpox Virus:

Israel’s health ministry is holding stocks of the smallpox virus in an unsecured laboratory inside a major city, Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported Jan. 28. Smallpox killed millions before the World Health Organization declared the disease eradicated in 1980. All countries, including Israel, agreed to destroy their stocks of the virus to prevent possible re-infection. WHO has permitted the U.S. and Russia to continue holding the virus under strict security until May of this year, when they, too, are to be destroyed.

East Jerusalem Diplomas Denied:

Israeli universities have been refusing to accept diplomas issued to Israeli Arab students by secondary schools in East Jerusalem since the diplomas began to include the Palestinian Authority’s official stamp. To avoid penalizing their students, East Jerusalem school officials have begun sending their students’ diplomas to Jordan, which puts its own stamp of authentication on each one.

Thai Workers Pay to Work in Israel:

In recent years Israel has brought in thousands of foreign workers from Thailand, Rumania and the Philippines to replace Palestinians who formerly provided the manpower for agriculture and construction, but now are prevented from reaching their jobs by Israeli border closures. These foreign workers now make up more than 10 percent of the workforce in Israel. According to Ha’aretz newspaper the Israeli Moshav (cooperative farms) movement has a monopoly on bringing Thai laborers into Israel. Since 1994, the Moshavim have recruited 50,000 Thai workers, charging each Thai between $2,000 and $3,700 for permission to work in Israel for two years, as well as paying return flight expenses and other assistance for Thais who complete their contracts.

PA Executes Convicted Sex Offender:

A special Palestinian military court sentenced Major Ahmad Attieh Abu Mustafa to death on Feb. 25. He was executed by firing squad within hours for incitement against the PA after his conviction for the kidnap and sexual assault of a six-year-old child from Khan Younis. After Attieh’s arrest, residents of Khan Younis demanded his execution, prompting the PA to hastily carry out this irreversible sentence.

Clinton and Arafat Discuss May 4 Declaration:

President Clinton cautioned Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat against declaring a Palestinian state on May 4 after the Feb. 4 prayer breakfast Arafat attended in Washington, DC. Mr. Clinton counseled the Palestinian leader against doing anything that would heighten Israeli security concerns in advance of Israel’s May 17 national election.

Health Worker Arrested and Beaten:

Joan Jubran, a Palestinian program coordinator for the Health Development Information and Policy Institute, was arrested for no apparent reason as she and her co-workers completed a peaceful march at the A-Ram checkpoint near Jerusalem to mark International Women’s Day March 6. Jubran was dragged to an Israeli police van, despite attempts for a peaceful discussion and resolution with the arresting officers by Palestinian Legislative Council member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi and HDIP director Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. En route to the police station, and again at the station, Jubran was brutally beaten before her release on bail.

Israeli Minister Attacks Arab Party:

Michael Eitan, a minister in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party government, has demanded the banning from Israel’s May 17 elections of The National Democratic Alliance, an Arab-Israeli party, known by its Arabic acronym, Balad. At a Feb. 20 Balad convention in Nazareth to define its platform and pick its candidates, Balad leader Azmi Bishara said his party would strive to “eradicate the Jewish-Zionist nature of the state and its racist laws,” Arab News reports. Bishara also said, “It’s time for Israel to become a normal country for all of its citizens and not be defined as a homeland for all the world’s Jews,” and called for the abrogation of the Law of Return, which gives all Jews automatic Israeli citizenship. In the 1996 elections, Balad won five seats in the 120-member Knesset.

EU Supports International Jerusalem:

In response to an Israeli Foreign Ministry demand that foreign ambassadors stop visiting the Orient House in East Jerusalem, German Ambassador Theodor Wallau reconfirmed the EU’s support for the internationalization of Jerusalem. He rejected any Israeli limitations on diplomatic visits to Faisal Husseini’s offices in what has unofficially become the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry. In his letter, quoted in Ha’aretz. Wallau said, “We reaffirm our stated position regarding the specific status of Jerusalem as a corpus separatum [a separate body]...This position is in accordance with international law.” Therefore, stated the ambassador, “We have no intention of changing our custom regarding meetings in Jerusalem.”

Arab Israeli Crowned Miss Israel:

The first Arab Israeli to be chosen Miss Israel, 21-year-old aspiring kindergarten teacher Rana Raslan of Haifa, dismissed the political significance of her selection, saying, “They wanted a beauty queen, not a political queen. I am totally Israeli and I do not think about whether I am an Arab or a Jew.” Israel has over one million Arab citizens out of a claimed population of six million.

Retired Mossad Agent Convicted:

Former Israeli spy Yehuda Gil was found guilty March 11 of embezzlement and fabricating intelligence in a case that nearly started a war between Israel and Syria. Though no details were released by the Tel Aviv District Court, Israeli media reports said Gil falsified intelligence reports to give the impression that Syrian President Hafez Assad was planning to recapture the Golan Heights. His false information almost led Israel to attack Syria in 1997. Gil, who had retired from Israel’s Mossad, remained on contract to the agency to continue his liaison with a non-existent “highly-placed Syrian government informant.” Money that the Mossad gave Gil to pay his nonexistent Syrian informer was found in the former agent’s home.

American Fugitives in Israel:

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish American Haim Berger, who is wanted in New York for alleged involvement in a scam that defrauded the New York state government of $20 million in education and other subsidies to fund ultra-Orthodox activities, was released March 5 on $10 million bond in Jerusalem, pending extradition hearings. The case further strains Israeli-U.S. relations already made tense by a high court decision to bar the extradition of Samuel Sheinbein, an American Jewish youth wanted for a murder in Maryland. Another Jewish suspect in a fatal February stabbing death in Texas, American-born Dror Goldberg, has also fled to Israel to avoid prosecution.

Ambassador to Israel Discusses $1.2 Billion Wye Aid:

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Zalman Shoval told the Israeli publication Globes March 7 that the U.S. will not release $1.2 billion in special aid promised to Israel under the Wye accord unless Israel makes the agreed territorial withdrawal. He said Israel did not need the special aid since the relevant expenses of the redeployment are not taking place.

NORTH AFRICA

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Visit North Africa:

U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that she and her daughter Chelsea will visit Tunisia, Egypt, and Morocco. “I am delighted that in a few weeks I will…see first hand the progress that women are making in that region of the world and better understand the challenges they continue to face,” she said at a March 4 United Nations speech.

Egyptian POW Released by Israel:

Israel released the longest-serving Egyptian prisoner of war in a “goodwill gesture” Feb. 10. Mahmoud Soliman Sallam, now 74 and in bad health, was tried for booby-trapping a vehicle with explosives that killed one Israeli soldier and injured another in 1978. He was sentenced a year before Israel and Egypt signed their 1979 peace agreement.

SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

Peace Talks Continue Amid Fighting:

According to U.N. reports, at least 4,000 more Kosovo Albanians were displaced by fighting in the hills west of Vucitm while peace talks took place at Rambouillet, France. A first round of talks ended inconclusively Feb. 23, with another postponement of NATO air strikes against Serbia. Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic refused to allow NATO troops into Kosovo to enforce a peace plan, and Kosovars were initially concerned that the agreement does not allow them a referendum vote on independence after three years of autonomy. Kosovars later accepted the agreement. The U.S. Defense Department announced Yugoslavia had deployed 4,500 additional troops to the border of Kosovo either in response to the possibility of NATO airstrikes, or as preparation for a Serb attack on Kosovo.

TURKEY

Turkish Islamists on Trial:

The trial of former Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, along with other former ministers Sevket Kazan and Ahmet Tekdal from the banned Welfare Party and 76 other Turkish Islamists began on Feb. 8 in Ankara. The defendants are charged with falsifying documents and violating laws on political parties and failure to properly account for the use of $2.9 million paid by the government treasury to the former Welfare Party.

Muslim Businesses Meet in Turkey:

Businesspeople from 47 Muslim countries and communities gathered for the International Business Forum (IBF) at its annual conference in November 1998 in Istanbul. Delegates were introduced to some major international projects like the IBF Internet project. All IBF member organizations can place their business information on the net for other businesses around the world to access. For example, German Muslims have developed a chain of halal fast food kebab restaurants. Their franchising and retailing ideas were shared with Australian Muslims and Muslims from other interested nations. The biggest ever MUSIAD International Trade Fair was held in conjunction with the IBF. Ministers from Palestine, who were guests of honor at the trade fair, encouraged fellow Muslims to invest in various projects in Palestine. Another IBF conference will be held in Cairo from June 22-24, 1999 in conjunction with a major Egyptian construction industry fair.

THE SUBCONTINENT

Social Worker Killed in Karachi:

Naheed Farzana, 50, was shot dead in her Karachi, Pakistan home Feb. 9 after she refused to open her gate to unidentified assailants. Family sources said Farzani had no political affiliation, though her late brother-in-law, Naeem Hasni, was a local leader of former Premier Benazir Bhutto’s party. Hasni and his son were also killed by gunmen last year. In the past three years, 3,500 persons have been killed in Karachi.

Lahore Love Marriage Pair Freed:

Mahmood and Humaira Butt defied her parents to marry secretly in May 1997. Humaira’s influential father, a provincial lawmaker, claimed she was already married to her cousin and filed charges of adultery and kidnapping. When the couple tried to flee in January to the United States, where Mahmood works, they were arrested and held. They were released by a court in Lahore Feb. 11 and now are free to leave the country.