New clashes in eastern Saudi kill one

RIYADH: Saudi police exchanged fire with “masked gunmen” at a protest in the Shiite-populated east, killing one of them, state reported early Saturday, in the second fatal clashes in the oil-rich region in 24 hours.

“Security forces following an unauthorised gathering in the (Shiite) town of Al-Awamiya in Qatif district came under fire from masked gunmen,” the official SPA news agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.

Police “responded, sparking an exchange of fire that resulted in the wounding of one of them, who died later.”

An activist told AFP that Said was “shot dead by security forces as they dispersed a protest against the killing of another man” on Thursday.

“Eight armoured vehicles belonging to Saudi security forces intervened to disperse the protest,” the activist said.

Munir al-Medani, also 21, died of his wounds on Thursday after being shot by security forces in the Al-Shwaika neighbourhood of Qatif during a Shiite demonstration for reform in the ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom, activists said.

Saudi authorities said that Medani too died in an exchange of fire between security forces and “masked men.”

Demonstrators also took to the streets of another Qatif town — Al-Rabieya — on Friday to protest against Medani’s death, activists said.

“Hundreds of demonstrators waved pictures of those killed and detained as they condemned the shooting (by Saudi security forces) on peaceful protests,” one activist told AFP.

Activists and witnesses said that Medani’s death came when security forces opened fire on a Shiite procession marking the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed — a celebration forbidden in Saudi Arabia — which turned into a demonstration for reform and the release of Shiite detainees.

Said’s death raises to seven the number of protesters killed since demonstrations erupted in the Eastern Province last March.

Prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Hasan al-Saffar criticised the use of force against protesters saying: “This will not solve the problem but will only further complicate it,” in a speech published on a Shiite websites.

“Blood in Muslim states has become cheap and human rights are violated as blood runs in several countries. Prisons are filled with detainees and torture is still practised against prisoners in most Islamic states,” Saffar said.

The region has been rocked by a series of uprisings that unseated autocracts in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya in 2011.

Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh is due to quit on February 21 under a transfer of power deal while pressure is mounting on the Syrian regime to end its deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protest.

The immediate trigger for the protest movement among Saudi Shiites was a Saudi-led military intervention in neighbouring Bahrain to help its Sunni rulers crush Shiite-led pro-democracy demonstrations last March.

Activists say that Saudi authorities have arrested nearly 500 people since the protests started. Many have been released but dozens remain in custody, among them human rights activist Fadel al-Munasif and writer Nazir al-Majid.

In January, Saudi authorities published a list of 23 men wanted on suspicion of involvement in the disturbances.

Later the same month, the interior ministry announced that security forces had arrested nine people suspected of involvement in the wounding of three policemen in the Eastern Province.

Most of Saudi Arabia’s estimated two million Shiites live in the province, where the vast majority of the OPEC kingpin’s huge oil reserves lie. They complain of marginalisation in the Sunni-dominated kingdom. AGENCIES

Saudi Arabia takes Iran to UN over alleged plot

DUBAI / TEHRAN: Saudi Arabia has taken a first step to have Iran reported to the United Nations Security Council, a move that could lead to new sanctions, but Tehran dismissed allegations it plotted to kill a top Saudi envoy as a ploy to isolate it.     

“Saudi Arabia’s permanent mission to the United Nations formally requested the United Nations Secretary General notify the Security Council of the heinous conspiracy,” the Asharq alAwsat newspaper reported, citing a statement from the kingdom’s UN mission.

The United States on Tuesday said it had uncovered a plot by two men with links to Iran’s security forces to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel alJubeir, by planting a bomb in a Washington restaurant.

One of the men, who allegedly paid a US undercover agent posing as a Mexican drug cartel hitman to carry out the assassination, has been arrested while. The United States says the other is in Iran.

Iran’s leadership says the allegation has been cynically engineered to further isolate Tehran, whose disputed nuclear programme has triggered several rounds of international sanctions against it. AGENCIES

Yemen PM to return from Riyadh after attack on Saleh

RIYADH: Yemen’s prime minister will return home later on Tuesday from Saudi Arabia, where he has been recovering from injuries suffered in a June assassination attempt on President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a government source said.

Syria recalls envoys from Saudi Arabia, Behrain, Kuwait

Syrian Foreign Ministry said the envoys have been recalled for consultations.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain earlier recalled their envoys to Damascus after the Arab League condemned the brutal crackdown on civilian protesters in Syria amid growing criticism for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

“We decided to summon our ambassador to Syria for consultation and we stress the importance of acting wisely,” Bahrain’s Sheikh Khaled Al Khalifa had said in a message on Twitter.

Saudi Arabia withdraws ambassador from Syria

Saudi Arabia s King Abdullah demanded an end to the bloodshed in Syria on Monday and said he was withdrawing his country s ambassador from Damascus.

“What is happening in Syria is not acceptable for Saudi Arabia,” he said in a written statement read out on Al Arabiya satellite television.

“The Syrian authority is capable of implementing comprehensive reforms and fast. Syria s future lies between two choices not three, either it chooses wisdom on its own or it will be pulled down into the depths of turmoil and loss,” he said.

Syrian tanks on Sunday stormed the eastern city of of Deir al-Zor for second day, defying a UN appeal. Tanks pounded Syria s tribal heartland for second day in escalating campaign to crush demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad.

Yemen’s Saleh comes out of surgery, future unclear

SANAA: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was recovering from an operation in Saudi Arabia to remove shrapnel from his chest while a truce between his troops and a tribal federation appeared to be holding.

Protesters, interpreting Saleh’s absence as a sign that his grip on power was weakening, celebrated on the streets of Sanaa where they have been staging anti-government demonstrations since January.

“Who is next?,” asked one banner held up by a protesters in a sea of red, white and black Yemeni flags, referring to the wave of uprisings in Arab world that has seen the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt toppled and inspired uprisings elsewhere.

Saleh was wounded on Friday when a rocket was fired into his presidential palace in Sanaa, killing seven others and injuring his closest advisers. He is being treated in a Riyadh hospital.

He left as acting president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the vice president who is seen by many as having little power. Leaving Yemen at a time of such instability, even for medical care, could make it hard for Saleh to retain power.

Early on Monday, a truce between troops loyal to Saleh and the Ahmar group, leader of Yemen’s Hashed tribal federation, appeared to be holding, offering some respite after two weeks of fighting in the capital in which more than 200 people have been killed.

Key in the coming days will be any news of Saleh’s condition and any signals from Saudi Arabia on whether he will be able to return to Yemen – or whether Riyadh will apply pressure on Saleh to step down.

Saleh, a political survivor who has ruled the impoverished country at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula for nearly 33 years, had so far managed to remain despite the defection of his top generals and ambassadors.

Saleh has exasperated his former U.S. and Saudi allies, who once saw him as a key partner in efforts to combat Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, by repeatedly reneging on a Gulf-brokered deal for him to quit in return for immunity.

“The kingdom (Saudi Arabia) will convince Saleh to agree to the Gulf-brokered exit so that the situation can be resolved peacefully and without bloodshed,” said Saudi analyst Abdulaziz Kasem.

Saleh’s fall could also give renewed impetus to protest movements around the region.

“The departure of Saleh is a turning point not just for the Yemeni revolution but also is a huge push for the current changes in the Arab region and is the start of the real victory,” said Zaki Bani Rusheid, a leading figure in Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptian political scientist Hassan Nafaa agreed: “The ‘Arab Spring’ will continue, Arab people are in a state of total rejection of their current ruling systems.”

Saudi Arabia, UAE funded jihadi networks in Pakistan: WikiLeaks

KARACHI: Islamic charities from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates financed a network in U.S. ally Pakistan that recruited children as young as eight to wage holy war, a local newspaper reported on Sunday, citing Wikileaks.

Osama bin Laden: end of an era

Osama was one of more than 50 children of Muhammad bin Laden, a construction tycoon in Saudi Arabia. Osama attended King Abdul Aziz University, where he received a degree in civil engineering.

Shortly after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, bin Laden, like thousands of other Muslims from throughout the world, joined the Afghan resistance, viewing it as his duty to repel the occupation.

After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, bin Laden returned to home as a hero, but he was quickly disappointed with what he perceived as the corruption of the Saudi government and of his own family.

His objection to the presence of the US troops in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War led to a growing rift with his country s leaders.
By 1993, he had purportedly formed a network known as al Qaeda, which consisted of militants whom Osama had met in Afghanistan.

The group funded and organised several attacks worldwide, including detonating truck bombs against American targets in Saudi Arabia (1996), killing tourists in Egypt (1997), and simultaneously bombing the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (1998), which altogether killed nearly 300 people.

In 1994 the Saudi government confiscated his passport after accusing him of subversion, and he fled to Sudan, where he organised camps that trained militants in terrorist methods, and from where he was eventually expelled in 1996. He later returned to Afghanistan, where he received protection from its ruling Taliban.

During 1996–98, Osama issued a series of decrees, declaring a holy war against the United States, which he accused, among other things, of looting the natural resources of the Muslim world and aiding and abetting the enemies of Islam, especially Israel.

Bin Laden s apparent goal was to draw the United States into a large-scale war in the Muslim world that would overthrow dictatorial Muslim governments and re-establish the Caliphate. To this end, al Qaeda, aided by Osama s considerable wealth, trained militants and funded militant attacks.

It had thousands of followers worldwide, in places as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, Bosnia, Chechnya, and the Philippines.
Following the September 11 attacks, the United States led a coalition in late 2001 that overthrew the Taliban and sent bin Laden into hiding.

Nearly three years passed, during which time the US forces hunted for Osama along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. He emerged in a videotaped message in October 2004, less than a week before that year s US presidential election, in which he claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks.

Saudi Arabia Bans Protest, Oman Replaces 3 High-Level Ministers

Saudi Arabia Protest: Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry said that demonstrations would not be tolerated following a protest by about 100 members of the Shiite minority in the eastern region of the kingdom. The Impossible Game new levels is a super-addictive and very, very hard platform game, synced to an awesome soundtrack, the Saudi Interior Ministry said in statement on Saturday.

The kingdom has banned all demonstrations because they contradicted Islamic laws and society s values. The ministry said that some people had tried to go around the law to “achieve illegitimate aims,” and it warned that security forces were authorized to act against violators.

The ban follows a series of protests by Saudi Shias in the kingdom’s east in the past weeks mainly to demand the release of prisoners they say are long held without trial. The demonstration came after Friday prayers in the town of al-Hufouf when the Shiites demanded the release of detainees, including a Shiite cleric who was arrested last week for calling for a constitutional monarchy.

Saudi Shias say they complain they struggle to get senior government jobs and other benefits like other citizens. Sultan Qaboos bin Said ordered the second top-level shake-up in a week Saturday in the tightly controlled Arabian peninsula nation.

Syria, Iran seek local fixes to region

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran”s interim Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi agreed on Monday that the troubles of the Middle East should be solved internally by the region”s countries, a local news agency reported.

Salehi arrived in Damascus on Sunday to discuss the Lebanese political crisis with Syrian officials.

The two men discussed “the latest regional developments” and international efforts to “find solutions to challenges facing countries of the region,” the news agency said after the meeting.

The news agency reported Assad and Salehi emphasised “the importance that solutions come from inside these countries according to their peoples” interests to help maintain their security and stability”.

External efforts to mediate Lebanon”s political quagmire have yielded little, with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar all failing.

A national unity government led by Western-backed caretaker prime minister Saad Hariri collapsed on January 12 when 11 ministers from the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies resigned.

The walkout capped a long-running dispute over a UN-backed investigation into the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri, the incumbent”s father.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has said he expects the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon to implicate high-ranking members of his militant movement in the Hariri murder and has warned of grave repercussions.

Nasrallah has vowed to include all parties in a Hezbollah-led government, but both he and Hariri refuse to serve under each other.

Former prime minister Najib Mikati has put himself forward as a compromise candidate to try to form a government.

Assad and Salehi said they were “satisfied” with the formation of a unity government in Iraq, “stressing the importance of expanding the dialogue to all Iraqi” parties, the news agency reported.

The meeting also addressed “ways to strengthen scientific and technological cooperation between Syria and Iran”.

On Sunday night, Salehi held talks with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem.

He then met the exiled leader of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, Palestinian sources said.

The secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), Ahmed Jibril, and a representative of Islamic Jihad, Ziad Nakhal, also attended the meeting, the sources said.

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