Mideast Daily

A stable Iraq: Is it a dream?

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:59:00 +0000

The completion of a rare reconciliation agreement between Shias and Sunnis for the cessation of violence in the south-western part of Baghdad may have rekindled faint hopes of a broader act of restraint, but the ultimate road to peace in Iraq is a long one with immense blockades. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Having said that, this one particular act might spur other Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish groups to follow suit but at this particular moment, it will be interesting to see, how other insurgent groups react to the recent deal. In many previous occasions, prominent Iraqi insurgent leaders had to pay with their lives for striking any sort of deal with the American forces in order to reduce violence. Iraqis are termed as ‘traitors’ by their fellow people for doing negotiations with the Americans. The main concern for the coalition forces is the daily rise in sectarian violence in and around Baghdad and of course, Iraq as a whole. Sheer number of troops and force would not solve the problem alone. There should be a direct interaction between the Iraqi government, US troops, and the civilians including insurgent leaders from various ethnic societies. It is the duty of the Iraqi government to unite Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds while making a sincere effort to reach out to every single Iraqi citizen and make them believe that inter-ethnic killings will not solve their problems rather increase their political, social, and financial misery. Many analysts believe that the current situation can be blamed to Iraq’s past under Saddam Hussein, when the minority Sunni clan had undue advantage over the majority Shias and in some cases the latter remained an oppressed society under Sunni Saddam’s iron fist. With the fall of Saddam Hussein and Shias making political gains, the act of revenge is at work against the Sunnis. The hopeless situation is hijacked by Al-Qaeda, a Sunni extremist organization, which, in order to hurt American interests in the country is arming young Sunni men and boys to go on a killing rampage against the Shias while increasing the violence and in turn taking Iraq towards a full fledged civil war. Another important factor that is contributing to the increased lawlessness in the country is the apparent alleged involvement of Iran and Syria to fuel an anti-American rhetoric among ordinary Iraqi people. The Americans have always blamed Iran and Syria of harboring and supplying radical insurgents to fuel the situation in order put a foothold into Iraq’s internal matters. As days pass by, it remains to be seen how the insurgency is tackled and more importantly what the future has in store for Iraq. Will we see a divided Iraq on ethnic lines or will the conflicting parties be able to forge some sort of united front in the face of hopelessness. Link:washington post Image

Israel reveal reason for attack on Syria!

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:47:00 +0000

This could be the coup of the year. Syria might be one of the sensitive spots in the Middle Eastern region but one would have hardly expected this somewhat small nation to possess nuclear power. But in a world where all nations are vying for more power and control, the emergence of the fact that Syria does possess nuclear facilities inside their own territories shouldn’t really come as a shock. When Israel launched a sudden raid on Syria last month, the world was surprised and bemused at the outrageousness. The fact that there was US support for the bombing of the then mysterious targets didn’t help Israel’s cause to endear itself to the major fraction of the international community. At the time, no one was sure what the target was but now it’s been revealed that the target was in fact a nuclear facility center built with North Korean human resources. The suspected nuclear plant was about 100 miles from the Israeli border and in the middle of the desert along the Euphrates River. Photographs of this nuclear reactor center was first taken by Israelis, thanks to a spy inside the Syrian set-up and the US picked up the investigation thread from there. US satellite pictures with a high degree of resolution confirmed the images and also facilitated the Israeli raids on the area. The role of the US played in the entire phenomenon is not direct but that ought not to undermine their contribution to the raids. The Bush administration, headed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, urged the Israeli army not to carry out the attacks but failed to stop the bombed attacks. The key point in this entire scenario is that even small Syria is going nuke. Moreover, its nuclear facilities would never have been exposed had Israel not stumbled across the images. Another crucial point in the messy affair is that the US and Israel decided to bomb the reactor center without proper United Nations permission. It makes one wonder whether the UN really has a major role to play in military matters in the world. Source: ABC News

US military kills more civilians during Iraq raid

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 07:05:00 +0000

The US military strategy in Iraq has once more been put to the sword. The fiction between the US officials and the Iraqi authorities is going to increase even more in the wake of another US raid all gone wrong. The center of the controversy this time is Sadr City, which is yet to be purified of militants and terrorists. In an effort to capture an Iran-linked militant in the city, the US embarked on a raid that appears to have gone horribly wrong. As much as the US military may deny the death of innocent civilians, the stark, naked truth is that there were a number of causalities. 13 civilian deaths have been reported by the Iraqi police with the number expected to rise. Two toddlers have been discerned killed too. No fewer than 69 people have been reported injured in the incident although on the positive side, 49 gunmen have been confirmed dead in the ferocious fighting. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has never eclipsed his frustration and resentment at the excessive force used by the US forces in Iraq to counter the rising insurgency. Although the PM knows that without the US presence in Iraq his nation would crumble in the wake of escalating sectarian violence, he has never backed down from demonstrating his disenchantment at the rampant way that the US soldiers appear to use their weapons in public places. The war in Iraq goes on. But since the end of last year, civilian causalities have been increasing consistently and most of the deaths have been due to fighting between the US troops and the insurgents. The Iraqi people have already paid much in the last 4 years since the US invasion of Iraq and they are still paying. Image Source: Timeinc Source: Yahoo News

Hezbollah unfazed by US-Lebanon partnership

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:46:00 +0000

Last year’s war between Israel and the Lebanese militant outfit Hezbollah had strategic consequences. Both Israel and Hezbollah declared victory but the truth is that the Lebanese armed group had lost much of their ammunition stock and was severely depleted. That they have somehow managed to rebuild themselves is a different story but their decimation in credential is hard to ignore. In the wake of last summer’s war, the US bolstered the military presence in Lebanon and in the surrounding region. Hezbollah observes this act as essentially a threat to its own security and rebuilding process. No surprise then that the militants have denounced the talk of a US-Lebanon strategic partnership and a stepping up of the US forces inside Lebanon, especially in the south where Hezbollah is at its strongest. Hezbollah has been branded as a terrorist organization by the US but that still hasn’t managed to reduce a considerable public support that it possesses in Lebanon. Hezbollah is pretty much pro-Syrian and wants the government to be so too. The Fuad Saniora-led government is firmly against any Syrian influence in the nation and this disagreement is at the heart of all the fuss and agony. Lebanon is firmly an ally of the US and Hezbollah that of Syria and Iran, which is currently the United States’ number one enemy. In all likelihood, friction on a considerably big scale is brewing in the air. Should the US indeed strengthen its military presence in Lebanon soon, Hezbollah could get even more furious and the probability of another military confrontation in Lebanon would be dreadfully increased. Image Source: Hirhome Source: USA Today

Iran will harden stance on its nuclear ambitions

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:45:00 +0000

There is bad news on the Iran nuke issue. Iran’s chief negotiator with the West over Tehran’s nuclear programme, Ali Larijani, has resigned. What’s the bad news one may ask? Well, the bad news is that Larijami, though a conservative, was all for negotiations with the US and the west over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In the US eyes he was a “good guy”; at least when compared to some of the more hardliner figures in the Iranian establishment. The west can now expect a stiffer Iranian stance when they get talking again. European Union’s foreign policy head Javier Solana is going to get a taste of the new flavor on Tuesday when he sits across the table with Larijani’s successor, Saeed Jalili, who’s one of the deputy foreign ministers now and considered to be close to Iranian president Ahmadinejad. And everybody knows that Ahmadinejad is one of the hardest of hardliners in Iran today. It is an indication that the country’s top cleric and power-holder, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has given his blessings to Ahmadinejad to go ahead and do as he pleases over the issue. One can expect more sparks to fly as US and Iran’s war-of-words intensifies or worse. But what encouraged Iran to firm up its position on the nuclear issue? The culprit is, if one may call him so, is Russian president Vladimir Putin. During his recent Iran visit he has forged a military alliance with the country. Anyone attacking Iran will have to face Russia too. No wonder Iran’s spine has stiffened. Putin has also expressed qualified support for Iran’s right to a peaceful nuclear programme. Image credits 1 , 2 Via: BBC

Iraqis getting anxious of US military tactics

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:04:00 +0000

With the situation in Iraq hardly improving, a strong disagreement has occured between the coalition government and the US forces over some of the miltary operations aimed at the insurgents. The Iraqi government and the US forces firmly disagree over the civilian casualty figures during various anti-insurgency raids. Although it is a fact that ordinary Iraqis often get caught in the crossfires but the Americans have blamed the government of quoting absurdly high casualty figures compared to official military estimates. The coalition government in Baghdad fears that a rising civilian casualty would definitely make the situation more complex and dire. Powerful extremist groups will regroup and take the advantage of the people’s miseries by recruiting young Iraqis to fight coalition forces and the Iraqi government. With a crumbling economy and unemployment at an all-time high, the lives of ordinary people across the devastated country are unbearable and such a situation gives terrorist organisation of Al-Qaeda’s nature a perfect excuse to carry out more attacks in the country and make the security situation beyond any repair. Last week a rare deal between a Shia and a Sunni group in Baghdad to stop violence and start negotiations has given the government and the US army a flicker of hope of a broader ceasefire. But the latest US attack on an insurgent hideout, in which 15 civilians were killed, has made the Iraqi government nervous about the consequences. Many government analysts and politicians believe that the continuous killings of innocent civilians, especially women and children, would give rise to popular anger against the country’s government and all hopes of a possible reconciliation among the conflicting parties would vanish in the air. Al-Qaeda has already launched a veiled attack on those tribal and insurgent groups that have shown their intent to take the path of negotiations rather than meaningless conflicts. The feared terrorist organisation has called on the Shias, Sunnis and Kurds to unite and launch attacks on the US-led government. Political and military strategists believe that this is a clear sign of a possible rift among various ethnic groups in the country. A long-drawn bloody conflict since the fall of Saddam Hussein might have taken the toll on some of the influential Shia, Sunni and Kurdish groups. As a result the Iraqi government believes that this is the high time to win the hearts of the people of Iraq in general and calls on the Americans to reduce the air and ground assault in order to improve the situation. link:guardian image link:stockphototalk

Could Annapolis peace conference be the ultimate decider?

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:44:00 +0000

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is at a crossroad. The bitter Israeli-Palestinian dispute has for long been dragging on endlessly. One after another peace talks have been held, but everything appears to be stagnated at square one. It is so much so that the embattled Palestinian leader has threatened to resign should the upcoming peace negotiations in Annapolis in the United States fail to deliver any fruitful solution to the age-old problem. After a string of failed peace efforts by the US, President Abbas’s frustration is understandable. The US leans towards Israel in the controversial matter although it tries to project itself as neutral. It is this dual character of the Bush administration that Mr. Abbas doesn’t like. The Annapolis peace conference is expected by many to be a failure. Palestine is in a mess with neither Fatah nor Hamas ready to concede. Palestine depends on the international community for food and other relief aid and the continuing dispute with Israel is proving one scar too many. A few days ago, Israeli leader Mr. Ehud Olmert hinted at the division of the holy city of Jerusalem between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This is perceived by many observers as a closer step towards the creation of a Palestinian, which the US believes is the ultimate solution to the problem. Mr. Abbas is also concerned about the suspected infiltration of the Gaza Strip by al Qaeda and other militant organizations. Although he is quite proud of the fact that his Fatah security forces have been able to stop the infiltration of militants into Israeli cities, he is worried that his own region could pay the price. Although it would be hard to hard no to be pessimistic about one more peace effort to secure a solution to the Middle East crisis, at least one can hope that at least the Israeli and Palestinian authorities can agree on certain points. Image Source: MSNBC Source: Ipost

US military kills more civilians during Iraq raid

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:44:00 +0000

Iraqi Forces close down Sunni office

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:01:00 +0000

During Saddam Hussein’s reign in Iraq, Sunni community has enjoyed a lot at the political and social levels. But now the time has changed, Iraq has governed by Shiite leaders who have support of US government. In their recent move, Iraqi authorities have shut down the country’s most influential Sunni clerical group. That is supposed to support the extremist group like al-Qa’ida. This group has been vocal in its disdain for the government led by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shiite Muslim. The association has always justified killing and assassinations carried out by Al-Qaida. Earlier Sunni Muslims in Iraq had also boycotted of the January 2005 and opposed the U.S. military presence in Iraq. It seems that US led is trying to build army and police units in Sunni-dominated parts of Iraq. Mast of the time US soldiers were attacked in Sunni-dominated parts of Iraq. However, Sunni and Shia Arabs mostly stem from similar tribal backgrounds, but on some issues they have different outlooks and because of brutal sectarianism and political violence in Iraq, we hear news of Shia- Sunni conflicts time to time. For both the communities the Islamist movements operate as independent and separate vehicles for the interests of each community. Closing down the association could start fresh battle against Shiite-backed government and US troops by the extremist Sunni groups. However some Sunni groups have started supporting the Americans too.

Kurdish rebels kill 12 Turkish soldiers in ambush

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:43:00 +0000

Kurdish guerrillas killed 17 Turkish soldiers in an ambush yesterday, which resulted in crisis talks in Ankara to weigh a military strike against rebel bases in Iraq. If my memory is right, this attack is the worst in more than a decade by rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The pivotal factor here is that this attack has came four days after Turkey’s parliament overwhelmingly approved a motion to allow troops to enter northern Iraq to fight guerrillas hiding there. In my opinion, United States should take drastic measures against the PKK. On the other hand, Abdul Rahman al-Chaderchi, a PKK spokesman, said Kurdish fighters did the attack because Turkish troops were implementing war games near the border. President George W. Bush has expectedly condemned the attacks and said that there is no place for these attacks in today’s world and it should be stopped immediately. But Mr. Bush this will only happen if the United States, Turkey and Iraq will continue to stand together to defeat the PKK terrorists. Washington Post