Lebanon parliament soon to elect new president

2014-04-16

BEIRUT - Lebanon's parliament is to convene on April 23 to elect a new president to succeed Michel Sleiman, whose term ends on May 25, the National News Agency reported Wednesday.

"Parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri has called for a session on Wednesday April 23 to elect a new president of the republic," the official news agency said.

Lebanon's president, who must come from the country's Maronite Christian community, is elected by a vote in the parliament.

Michel Moussa, a member of Berri's parliamentary bloc, said he hoped there would be a quorum for the session.

"In period between now and the end of the president's mandate we need to hold a session and there is near-total agreement that the best time in is the second half of April," he said.

"I hope that the parliamentary blocs will keep their word and there will be a quorum," he added.

Moussa is one of three MPs tasked by Berri with meeting the parliamentary blocs to secure agreement on a date for the presidential vote.

Berri is hoping to avoid a repeat of the situation in 2007, when MPs refused on multiple occasions to attend sessions he called for the presidential vote because of political differences.

Even with a date set for the session, there are no guarantees that a president will be chosen on April 23.

So far just one political figure, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, has announced his candidacy.

But he is not expected to run unopposed, and other candidates are likely to announce their own campaigns in coming days.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=65441.

Syria war deepens fears for Lebanon's missing

April 11, 2014

BEIRUT (AP) — For 22 years, Mary Mansourati has been waiting for her son, Dani, to come home. His shirts are ironed and hanging in his closet. His trousers, neatly folded, are stacked on the shelves next to his bed in the family's Beirut apartment.

Dani was 30 when he was detained by Syrian intelligence and has not been heard from since. He is among an estimated 17,000 Lebanese still missing from Lebanon's civil war or the years of Syrian domination that followed.

The war in Syria has added new urgency to the plight of their families. Hundreds of Lebanese were detained by the Syrians, and their relatives are convinced they are still alive. Now they fear they will be lost in Syria's labyrinth of overcrowded jails and detention facilities or be killed in the ongoing mayhem.

The war in Syria has also added a new generation of names to the already long rolls of the missing. There are no exact figures, but human rights organizations say tens of thousands of Syrians have vanished in the three years since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began.

Elsewhere in the region, nearly 70,000 Iraqis are still missing from three wars over the past three decades, including sectarian bloodletting that was unleashed by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to government figures.

There's never been any truth or reconciliation process that might uncover the fates of these missing. In both Lebanon and Iraq, few efforts have been made to examine what happened during the countries' wars, mainly because many of those involved in killings and kidnappings have become politicians, some even serving in government.

The 82-year-old Mansourati believes her son is alive in a Syrian prison, despite having no concrete evidence or word that anyone has seen him. A fighter with an anti-Syrian Christian militia, he was arrested in 1992, two years after the civil war ended.

"We need our sons back," she told The Associated Press in an interview at her home in east Beirut, where she cares for her gravely ill husband. Friday marked the ninth anniversary of a permanent protest tent Mansourati and other families of the missing have erected in downtown Beirut. Every day, relatives sit at the tent, sometimes spending the night. Photos of the missing and slogans calling on Assad to explain their fate line the sides of the tent.

"We are tired of going back and forth to the tent. We are getting old," Mansourati said. Like many relatives of the missing, she believes Lebanese officials, some of whom led militias during the civil war and fought on behest of the Syrians, are complicit in covering up their loved ones' fates.

Rights groups speak of a "conspiracy of silence," with officials withholding information out of concern they could be implicated in wartime atrocities. The Taif Accord ended the war in 1990 by enshrining a sectarian-based political system that leaves all major decisions in the hands of a small group of people, many of whom gained political power by commanding a powerful militia during the conflict.

There has been no serious state-led documentation that would produce an official record with the numbers of dead, injured, missing and forcibly displaced. Lebanon went into "collective amnesia" after the war, the International Center for Transitional Justice said in a recent report documenting the country's failure to examine and deal with its complex past.

A year after the Lebanese civil war ended, the government declared there were no detainees being held by rival militias. Four years later, in 1995, the government passed a law declaring any person missing for more than four years legally dead, advising families looking for their vanished loved ones to move on.

Most of the thousands missing likely are dead. They disappeared after being kidnapped by rival Lebanese militias during the war, which saw multiple sectarian massacres, and there's little chance any Lebanese faction could keep someone secretly detained for nearly a quarter century. Still, even uncovering suspected locations of mass graves where the missing might be is considered too politically explosive.

When the families persisted in demanding the truth, the government said it couldn't help because digging too deep into the past could inflame old hostilities and unleash another war. "The official discourse was, if peace is to prevail we need to forget the past and move on into the future," said Lebanese lawyer Nizar Saghieh, who has represented hundreds of families seeking to discover the fate of their missing relatives.

But the families of those who disappeared after being detained by Syria are far less convinced by the government's death declaration. Rights groups estimate they number between 300 and 600 Lebanese. Majida Hassan Bashasha's brother, Ahmed, was picked up by Syrian troops at a checkpoint near Beirut in 1976, the year Syrian forces entered Lebanon to help quell the sectarian fighting. Ahmed was 18 when he vanished, and his sister says he was not a militant.

Like Mary Mansourati, 59-year-old Bashasha believes her brother is alive, languishing in a Syrian prison. She has been campaigning relentlessly to bring him home, attending annual rallies of the families of the disappeared in front of the local U.N. headquarters in Beirut. A few years ago, several former detainees came to the protest tent and recognized her brother from a picture she was holding. They said they shared a cell with him in a Damascus prison.

"I am his big sister and my heart tells me he is still alive," Bashasha said, holding a black-and-white photo of a young man she said was Ahmed. Initially, when the conflict started in Syria she feared that her brother and other Lebanese detainees would be forgotten. But now, as she watches Assad's agents fill Syria's prisons with a new generation of government opponents, she holds out some hope that any Lebanese being held in Syria will be released.

"They don't need them in prison anymore," Bashasha said.

Lebanon registers 1 million Syrian refugees

April 03, 2014

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) — Yahya was trapped in his hometown for two years by Syria's civil war, moving from house to house to avoid shells and bullets. His father was killed by a sniper. His family then fled to another town that came under a fierce government offensive.

When the teenager finally made it out of the country with his mother and two sisters, he became the latest sad statistic of the sectarian conflict: the one-millionth refugee to register in Lebanon. The United Nations' refugee agency, which invited reporters to witness Yahya's registration and allowed them to interview the 19-year-old, described the 1 million figure as a "devastating milestone" for Lebanon.

There are many more Syrians inside Lebanon than those officially registered, with the Lebanese government itself estimating that at least a half-million are unregistered. The UNHCR says it is registering an average of more than one refugee a minute in Lebanon, a country of 4.5 million that is seeing its resources strained by the new arrivals.

"I feel sad because this means that 1 million fled here before me to suffer together," Yahya said as he waited to register with the UNHCR in the northern city of Tripoli. "A million is a big number for Syria and a big number for Lebanon," he added. Yahya asked to be identified only by his first name because he feared that Syrian authorities would retaliate against his relatives who are still there.

Yahya told a harrowing story of how his family became caught up in the violence between troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and rebels seeking his ouster. Their house in the central city of Homs was on the front line of the conflict that began in March 2011, forcing them out.

They moved frequently for their safety, Yahya said, but his father was shot to death by a sniper in September of that year. They were finally evacuated from Homs earlier this year by the U.N., and traveled to Yabroud, a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border that soon came under government attack.

On March 8, the family crossed into Lebanon, first looking for shelter for a few days in the overcrowded border town of Arsal. They moved farther west to an informal settlement outside Tripoli. "We didn't know where to go. We just wanted to get away from all the shelling and fighting," Yahya said.

The conflict in Syria, which had a population of 23 million before the civil war, has killed more than 150,000 people. The U.N. estimates there are more than 2.5 million Syrians registered in neighboring countries — nearly 670,000 in Turkey, nearly 590,000 in Jordan and about 220,000 in Iraq. More than 47,700 are awaiting registration.

Lebanon has the highest per-capita concentration of refugees recorded anywhere in the world in recent history, the UNHCR said. "For us, the one-millionth refugee is a devastating marker," said Ninette Kelley, UNHCR representative in Lebanon. She said that in publicizing Thursday's milestone, the U.N. agency wants "the world to see what it means to individuals, being torn apart by the Syrian conflict," but also to "show what a tremendous burden the Lebanese people are bearing."

The Lebanese government provides none of the facilities and land that Turkey, Jordan and Iraq have allocated for the refugees. Many Syrians in Lebanon live in appalling conditions, finding shelter in slums, tents and tin shacks strung with laundry lines and wedged between farms.

On a casual walk in Beirut, Syrians can be seen sheltering in underground parking garages, under bridges and in old construction sites with no running water, sanitation, electricity or protection from the weather. Nearly half of the refugees are children.

The World Bank estimates that the Syria crisis cost Lebanon $2.5 billion in lost economic activity in 2013 and threatens to push 170,000 Lebanese into poverty by the end of this year, the UNHCR said. Along with the social and economic strain, Syria's sectarian war has also frequently spilled into Lebanon with deadly clashes between factions supporting opposing sides in the fighting.

Militants from Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah are fighting alongside Assad's forces in Syria, while many among Lebanon's Sunni population support the rebels. The U.N. and its partner agencies have mounted an unprecedented appeal to raise funds for both refugees and Lebanese host communities. The U.N. has asked for $1.89 billion in 2014, but only $242 million has been received so far, Kelley said.

For Yahya and his family, there was no place to go but Lebanon. "We were looking around to go somewhere else in Syria, but no place is safe," he said. While he is relieved his family made it out of Syria, the prospect of being dependent on U.N. food aid to survive is daunting for Yahya. After his father's death, he became the sole provider for the family, and jobs are hard to find.

He and his relatives get $30 a month each, which is barely half the $250 rent he has to pay for a shack in an informal settlement in nearby Dinniyeh. "Every day in Lebanon it's going from bad to worse," Yahya said. "We can't even hope that tomorrow will be better."

Lebanon sends army to Syria border as rebels flee

March 17, 2014

NABI OTHMAN, Lebanon (AP) — The Lebanese army sent commandos to the tense border area with Syria on Monday, bracing for another spillover of the conflict next door as Syrian rebels continued to flee into Lebanon after the fall of their stronghold to President Bashar Assad's forces.

Since Yabroud fell on Sunday, Lebanon has been on edge. Syrian rebels have been fleeing into the Lebanese Sunni-dominated town of Arsal, which is surrounded by Shiite villages that are guarded by Hezbollah militants.

Lebanese troops, including commandos in beige, desert-style army uniforms, were seen patrolling the rugged, hilly border area on foot on Monday, fingers on the trigger of their automatic rifles. On one patrol, near the northeastern village of Fakiha, Lebanese troops came across an abandoned vehicle and blew it up as a precaution, firing a rocket-propelled grenade that turned the SUV into a fireball and left a four-meter (yard) crater on the ground.

"We took the decision to blow is up immediately, without searching it," an officer told The Associated Press at the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations. The fall of Yabroud — a frontier town and a strategic smuggling hub for the rebels trying to overthrow Assad — was a major gain for Syrian government troops and their Hezbollah allies. It was also the Syrian opposition fighters' last stronghold in the vital border area. Assad's forces have now consolidated authority in Syria's major cities, including the capital, Damascus.

Yabroud fell into Syrian government hands after months of fighting in the mountainous Qalamoun region between Assad's forces and Hezbollah fighters on one side and rebel groups, mostly Islamist militant groups, on the other.

The Hezbollah fighters have been instrumental to Assad's success on the battlefield, and support from the Iranian-backed fighters appears to have tipped the balance into the government's favor in Yabroud.

However, with opposition fighters fleeing into Lebanon, where Hezbollah is a major force, the conflict is likely further to spill into Syria's smaller neighbor. The civil war already has ignited polarizing sectarian tensions between Lebanon's Sunnis and Shiites.

In the past weeks, Sunni militants have carried out several suicide bombings and car bomb attacks in Shiite dominated towns and suburbs of Beirut that are Hezbollah strongholds, claiming they were revenge for the Iran-backed group's role inside Syria.

On Monday, a militant Sunni group claimed responsibility for a car bombing the previous night in Nabi Othman, a predominantly Shiite town in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley that also has a significant Christian community.

The Nusra Front in Lebanon said in a statement posted on its Twitter account that the attack, in which two people were killed and 14 were wounded, was in revenge for Hezbollah's support for Assad and "a quick response" for the fall of Yabroud into Syrian government hands.

The statement also said the Nabi Othman bombing was in retaliation for Yabroud and because of Hezbollah's "bragging about it." In footage broadcast live on state television in Damascus, Syrian army officers raised the national flag in Yabroud's main town square on Monday and covered rebel flag with posters praising Assad's troops.

Surk reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

Shoes thrown at Jordan PM for 'raising prices'

2014-04-15

AMMAN - A Jordanian was arrested Monday after throwing his shoes at Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur and five cabinet ministers during a ceremony in the northern city of Jerash, an official said.

"The prime minister was talking about the economy, when Mefleh Mahasneh, 65, head of the Jerash countryside society that was attending the event, stood up and told the prime minister: 'You raised the prices'," the municipality official said.

"The mayor told Mahasneh to stop because it was not his turn to talk. Mahasneh, an army retiree, got angry and took off his shoe and threw it towards the stage on which the prime minister and the ministers were sitting."

He said Mahasneh then took off his other shoe and threw it in the same direction.

"The pair of shoes landed on a table on the stage. Police arrested Mahasneh," the official said, adding that he did not think he would be charged.

"I think he was detained for his own protection because some attendees threatened to take action against him," he said without elaborating.

In November 2012, Nsur's government raised fuel prices, including household gas, by up to 53 percent to help reduce a massive government deficit of 3.5 billion dinars (around $5 billion dollars), sparking a wave of violent nationwide protests as well as strikes.

Amid growing unemployment and poverty, Jordanians have held street protests to demand sweeping political and economic reforms as well as tougher anti-corruption efforts.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=65403.

Jordan court sentences Syrian smugglers to five years in prison

2014-04-15

AMMAN - A Jordanian court on Tuesday sentenced three Syrians to five years in prison each for trying to smuggle 36 remote control detonators into their country to help anti-government rebels.

Civilian judges at the military state security court found the three men guilty of carrying out acts "that would harm Jordan's relations with another country, exposing the kingdom to the danger of reprisal acts," a judicial official said.

They were also found guilty of entering Jordan illegally.

"They were sentenced to five years in jail," the official said.

According to the charges sheet, after crossing into Jordan from Syria last July two of the men settled in the northern city of Irbid while the third sought shelter in the Zaatari refugee camp near Syria's border, which is home to more than 100,000 Syrian refugees.

They started to communicate with some members of the Free Syrian Army in order to smuggle 36 detonators across the border, before their arrest in "an ambush" in September.

Jordan, which is hosting more than 500,000 Syrian refugees, has tightened border security and jailed dozens of men convicted of trying to enter war-torn Syria to fight alongside rebel forces.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=65409.

Jordan 'destroyed' combat vehicles entering from Syria

2014-04-16

AMMAN - Jordanian air force fighter jets destroyed a number of combat vehicles Wednesday as they tried to enter the kingdom from war-hit Syria by crossing the border, the army said.

"Royal air force jets fighters today at 10:30 am (0730 GMT) destroyed a number of vehicles that attempted to cross into Jordan from Syria," the Jordanian army said in a statement.

"The camouflaged vehicles tried to enter from an area with rugged terrain.

"The fighter jets fired warning shots, but they were ignored, promoting them to destroy the vehicles. The army will not tolerate such actions," said the statement.

A military official said that "they were three-wheeled vehicles which tried to enter the kingdom" near Ruwaished in northern Jordan.

Jordan's border guards in recent weeks clashed with and arrested several people as they attempted to cross into the kingdom from Syria, where a devastating conflict has been raging for more than three years.

The government in Damascus has regularly accused Jordan of assisting rebels fighting its forces.

But Amman denies this, saying it has tightened control of the border and jailed dozens convicted of trying to cross the frontier illegally.

The kingdom, home to more than 500,000 Syrian refugees, says arms smuggling across the border with Syria has risen by 300 percent in the past year.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://middle-east-online.com/english/?id=65443.

Jordanian envoy to Libya kidnapped

Tue Apr 15, 2014

Jordan’s ambassador to Tripoli has been kidnapped by unknown assailants.

Said Lassoued, the spokesperson for Libya’s Foreign Ministry, said that Jordanian ambassador to Libya Fawaz Aitan was kidnapped on Tuesday after masked gunmen attacked his car.

“The Jordanian ambassador was kidnapped this morning. His convoy was attacked by a group of hooded men on board two civilian cars,” he told AFP.

A security official said the ambassador's driver suffered gunshot wounds during the kidnapping.

The Jordanian government also confirmed the kidnapping, saying that they launched investigating into the incident.

“Jordan has initial information that the Jordanian ambassador in Libya, Fawaz Aitan, was kidnapped,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Sabah Rafi.

The kidnapping comes only two days after Libya’s interim Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni resigned unexpectedly from his post following an armed attack on his family in a residential neighborhood in the Libyan capital Tripoli.

Abductions have been rife in Libya since the 2011 uprising that resulted in the toppling of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Officials are most often targeted, but diplomats and journalists have also been the target of kidnappings, threats and attacks in the African country.

Earlier in January, gunmen kidnapped five Egyptian diplomats in Tripoli and held them for several hours.

Nearly three years after the fall of Gaddafi, the country is still grappling with rising insecurity as former rebels refuse to lay down arms despite efforts by the central government to impose law and order.

The Libyan government said that the abduction was in retaliation for the arrest of a Libyan militia commander by Egyptian authorities.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/15/358640/jordanian-envoy-to-libya-kidnapped/.

Jordan Faces Looming and Complex Cancer Burden

By Elizabeth Whitman

AMMAN, Apr 10 2014 (IPS) - The concrete skeleton of a twin 13-storey complex towers over surrounding buildings on one of Amman’s busiest streets. The ongoing expansion of the King Hussein Cancer Center symbolizes progress as much as it portends a crisis.

After its completion, expected in 2015, the new buildings will more than double the KHCC‘s current capacity, increasing space for new cancer cases from 3,500 per year to 9,000. Yet even this 186-million-dollar project may be insufficient to shoulder Jordan’s growing cancer burden.

In Jordan, cancer is the leading cause of death after heart disease. Over 5,000 Jordanians annually are diagnosed with cancer, a figure projected to reach 7,281 by 2020, statistics that reflect global trends.

Cancer was once viewed as a first-world scourge. But in 2008, 56 percent of new cancer cases were in the developing world. And by 2030, the proportion will have climbed to 70 percent.

If Jordan fails to actively prepare for a continuing wave of cancer cases, “we won’t be able to cope with the increased number of patients and the increased cost of treatment,” leading to “less treatment and more mortalities,” Dr. Sami Khatib, a clinical oncologist who is president of the Arab Medical Association Against Cancer and former president of the Jordan Oncology Society, told IPS.

Jordan is fortunate to have the KHCC, a non-governmental organization run by the King Hussein Cancer Foundation that is the country’s only comprehensive cancer treatment center and the only cancer treatment facility in the Arab world to receive Joint Commission accreditation.

The KHCC has been a pioneer in cancer treatment in Jordan, transforming the process from disjointed visits with various specialists to comprehensive care with a treatment protocol.

But it is merely one center. About 60 percent of Jordan’s cancer cases are in Amman, according to the latest national statistics in cancer incidence, which are from 2010. Yet according to Khatib, around 80 percent of cancer treatment facilities in Jordan are in Amman.

For the half of Jordan’s population residing in Amman or its outskirts, this location is ideal. For residents of remote areas, reaching these facilities can be a major problem.

“Inequality of access is the major obstacle” in providing cancer treatment in a country where “the whole spectrum of cancer treatment is available,” concluded Dr. Omar Nimri, director of the Jordanian Cancer Registry at the Ministry of Health, in the 2014 World Cancer Report.

An island of care

Sitting on a plain bench in a waiting room at the KHCC one morning were Nisreen Harabi and Sana’ Iskafee, two wives of the same husband. Harabi rocked back and forth as if to distract herself from pain while Iskafee spoke.

To reach Amman from their home in the village of Luban one hour away, Iskafee said, the women had to take one or two affordable public buses or spend 15 dinars (21 dollars) on a taxi ride.

Nisreen has cancer in her lymph nodes, according to Sana’, and must go to the KHCC four times a week for radiation therapy.

“We started coming two months ago,” Sana said. “The hardest part for us is the transportation. We live so far away.”

That morning, they had left their home at 6:30 am for a noon appointment, as a variety of factors can often cause delays on public transportation in Jordan.

“The distribution [of cancer treatment facilities] is not fair, as a whole, for Jordan,” Dr. Jamal Khader, a radiation oncologist at the KHCC and president of the Jordan Oncology Society, told IPS.

Like Nisreen, about 60 percent of cancer patients will at some point go through radiology treatment, he pointed out. But they have to be in Amman daily for a 10 to 15-minute session, making for a lot of extra suffering for those living outside the capital.

“We don’t have a single medical oncologist or radio oncologist in the south” or other remote areas, Khader added. “The ideal scenario for a cancer patient is to be treated in a comprehensive center,” of which the KHCC is the only one. And specialized doctors and technology are primarily available in Amman.

Although all patients across Jordan receive “almost” the same quality treatment, no matter the health care facility they visit, Nimri told IPS in an interview, poorer patients or those who live far from Amman face extra difficulties.

“They have to rent a place, or stay in a hotel, or stay with relatives if they have any,” he said.

In that sense, Harabi is lucky to live one hour away.

Travel and accommodations require time and money, the latter of which is in especially short supply in a country where average annual per capita income is 5,980 dollars. Although societies and charities may help to cover costs, the system that remains in place is a centralized one that does not cater to impoverished patients living far from the capital.

“We need to build facilities…in the north and in the south of Jordan to better cover all the population,” Khatib said. He said the government had “a plan to start building facilities for the treatment of cancer in the different governorates of Jordan” and that “maybe they will start implementing it… soon.”

The situation is changing, albeit gradually. King Abdullah University Hospital in the northern city of Irbid has plans to get radio therapy machines, so that cancer patients residing in northern Jordan would not have to go to Amman for radiation therapy.

A national control plan for cancer is currently being developed as well, with the goal of outlining guidelines for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and beyond. Khader, the KHCC oncologist, hoped the plan would be finalized within a year and that it could help identify “what facilities are missing here and there.”

Cancer treatment is divided into several sectors, besides the KHCC. Members of the military and security services, and their families, are treated at military facilities; private hospitals are available for those who can afford them; and those who do not qualify or cannot afford to go elsewhere have public facilities run by the Ministry of Health.

Yet their capacity does not match that of the KHCC, with “variable cancer care across facilities,” a 2011 report by the Harvard Global Equity Initiative noted. Of 29 public hospitals, only one offers chemotherapy, it said.

Furthermore, a difference in quality in treatment does exist between public and private facilities, Khatib allowed. As is generally true in most countries, “I think it’s much better in the NGO and private sectors than in the public sector,” he said.

Most cancer patients have their treatment covered by the Ministry of Health or the royal court, Khader noted, since by law, every Jordanian can apply for free treatment. While this policy eases individual suffering, for the government, it will become a financial “crisis to cope with all the commitments,” he added.

Nimri calculated roughly that with 25,000 – 30,000 cancer patients and the average cost of cancer treatment at 20,000 dollars per patient per year, Jordan is spending annually at least half a billion dollars on cancer treatment.

A multi-factor disease

Forty-eight percent of men over the age of 15 in Jordan smoked cigarettes (compared to 5.7 percent of women), according to WHO statistics from 2009, while 63.3 and 70.4 percent of men and women, respectively, had a body mass index (BMI) over 25, or in other words were overweight.

Tobacco is the biggest risk factor for cancer, and the WHO estimates that its use causes 22 percent of cancer deaths and 71 percent of lung cancer deaths globally.

Another 30 percent of cancer deaths are due to behavioral and dietary risks overall, such as having a high body mass index, poor diet, or lack of exercise.

“Our population is growing and aging… without having embraced healthy lifestyles that may help prevent many non-communicable diseases such as cancer,” wrote Dr. Abdallatif Woriekat, then minister of health, in Jordan’s 2010 national report on cancer incidence.

“The unhealthy diet and potentially lethal habit of tobacco use in particular, unfortunately, remains highly common and acceptable among Jordanians, and will undoubtedly leave a large unwanted print with its strong contribution to the increasing incidence of cancer,” he concluded.

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/04/jordan-faces-looming-complex-cancer-burden/.

Jordan steers middle course in Saudi-Qatar dispute

April 2, 2014
Osama Al Sharif

Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani's sudden, short March 30 visit to Amman took Jordanians by surprise. It was announced only a day in advance, first by the Qataris and then by the Jordanian royal court. Its significance, for both sides, could not be ignored. This was the first trip to Jordan by the young emir since his father, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, abdicated last June. Relations between Amman and Doha have been tepid at best, and had seen many bad days since King Abdullah was crowned in 1999 following the death of his father King Hussein.

There have been attempts by King Abdullah to mend relations with Sheikh Hamad. But few are aware of the real reasons behind the tense relationship. One major diplomatic confrontation took place a few months after Abdullah assumed the throne. A face-off between the government and Hamas leaders based in Amman ended in their expulsion. Qatar stepped in to convince the Jordanian government to change its position. It failed to do so, and the expelled Hamas leaders were put on a Qatari plane headed for Doha.

That incident triggered what became known as the Jordan-Qatar dispute. There were additional reasons for it, but unlike the Qatar government, the Jordanian royal court avoided being dragged into a war of words. More often than not, the Doha-based Al Jazeera would launch attacks on the Jordanian leadership through documentaries and political talk shows hosting anti-government figures. The local media in Amman usually responded, but the palace would show tolerance and patience.

The Hamas file has resurfaced in the past few years. In 2012, then-Crown Prince Tamim came to Amman accompanied by expelled Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal, who is also a Jordanian national. The mission succeeded and Meshaal was allowed to visit Jordan on a number of occasions. But Jordan refused to reopen Hamas’ office in Amman or allow the expelled leaders to relocate there. Again, relations between Qatar and Jordan remained on edge.

Sunday’s visit by the Qatari emir may change that. It came as Doha was feeling increasingly isolated by its Gulf neighbors following the outbreak of a dispute with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. The three countries had pulled their ambassadors from the Qatari capital last month and rejected any mediation until Doha accedes to their demands. They want Qatar to adhere to commitments not to interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbors and stop its criticism of the new regime in Egypt. Qatar had become a hub for Muslim Brotherhood leaders, who often appear on Al Jazeera criticizing Egypt’s new leadership and the countries that support it, like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Qatar has so far rejected these demands.

By visiting Jordan — he will later visit Sudan and Tunisia — the young emir is looking for ways to demonstrate that Doha is not isolated and that it still has friends in the Arab world. But this is not the message that Jordanians want their Saudi and other Gulf allies to receive.

Jordan had expressed its displeasure with the recent Gulf dispute while insisting on neutrality, and unconfirmed reports spoke of a possible Jordanian mediation to resolve the matter. But Jordanian officials would not confirm whether Jordan was still ready to intervene. Former chief of the royal court and veteran Jordanian politician Adnan Abu Odeh told Al-Monitor, “Jordan can play a positive [role] in Gulf reconciliation, and its role is appreciated by all parties.” He added that the visit will enhance bilateral relations and open the door to receiving more Jordanian workers in Qatar.

Information about what the two leaders discussed is scarce. The official statement by the royal palace said bilateral relations and current regional and international issues were reviewed. But Asharq Al Awsat quoted informed Jordanian sources as saying the results of the visit would become clearer in the coming few days. Doha is expected to renew its commitment to the five-year Gulf Cooperation Council's $5 billion grant to Jordan, of which Qatar will pay $1.25 billion. The grant was approved in 2011, but Qatar had failed to pay its share until now. The newspaper reported that Jordan will send envoys to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain soon to “improve relations with Qatar.”

But a journalist covering the visit told Al-Monitor that the issue of Hamas was also discussed. He pointed to the fact that the high-level meeting was attended by Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, the king’s half-brother, who is said to be handling the Hamas file on the Jordanian side. A March 31 Al-Monitor report spoke of attempts by Hamas to end its political isolation by opening up to Jordan. The report said that Hamas wants to relocate its political bureau to the Jordanian capital, while the Middle East Monitor reported that Sheikh Tamim had tried to persuade Amman to reopen Hamas offices.

Jordanian news site El Maqar reported that the talks addressed the Syrian issue as well. Jordan has denied facilitating the passage of weapons from Gulf countries into Syria. Qatar is one of the main backers of the Syrian opposition and has called for arming the rebels.

Whatever the Qatari motives were behind this visit, Jordan could not have prevented it. Amman has always relied on Gulf financial support and job markets for its citizens. Historically, relations between Amman and Doha were close. Many Jordanians assumed senior administrative posts in the Qatari government in the early 1960s through the mid-1990s. There are about 27,000 Jordanians working in Qatar today.

Jordanian Minister of Political Affairs Khaled al-Kalaldeh told Al-Monitor that the visit had been planned for some time, before the eruption of the Gulf dispute. He added that Jordan’s “transparent position on issues qualifies it to play a positive role with its Arab brethren.”

But King Abdullah also knows that he cannot compromise the strong relations between Jordan and other Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia. This is why few details were released about the short visit, and the royal court’s description of talks was carefully worded. One political researcher who did not want to be named said that Jordan, which belongs to a moderate political axis led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, sees things differently from Qatar and Turkey, which support political Islam. He told Al-Monitor, “Jordan should be careful not to sacrifice its vital relations with Saudi Arabia and the UAE in light of this recent visit.”

For now, Jordan will be content to see a thaw in relations with Qatar as long as that does not come at the expense of its special ties with other Gulf countries.

Source: al-Monitor.
Link: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/04/jordan-qatar-abdullah-tamim-gulf-hamas.html.

Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood maintains grassroots support

March 31, 2014

Osama Al Sharif

In the first true test of its influence and popularity following last year’s dramatic events in Egypt, Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood celebrated with its March 27 electoral victory the kingdom’s largest professional union in what observers described as a free and fair election. Islamist candidates and their allies won more than 70% of the seats in the 100,000-strong teachers union across the nation. Their opponents — nationalists and leftists — were unable to snatch this important association from the Islamists for the second time in three years.

The results stunned both the government and delighted supporters. Since Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi was toppled by the army, the Jordanian government had worked to undermine the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. Although no punitive measures were taken against the movement, which has been active in Jordan since the 1950s, the Islamists were exposed to harsh and arguably sometimes unwarranted attacks by pro-government columnists, who accused the Brotherhood of foreign allegiance and of harboring an authoritarian agenda. The Islamists, in turn, accused the government of waging a campaign to demonize them.

But the movement was shaken by recent regional events, including Saudi Arabia’s decision to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Its fall in Egypt and banning by a number of Gulf countries, along with the Islamist-led opposition in Syria's failure to defeat the Damascus regime, have increased the Brotherhood’s isolation in Jordan. While there are no indications that Jordan was about to follow Saudi Arabia in banning the movement, the general perception by the public was that the Brotherhood’s popularity and ability to mobilize the street had been undercut. But last week’s teachers union election shattered that view.

Minister of Political Development Khaled al-Kalaldeh admitted in press interviews that there is now no “parallel to the Islamists” in the political arena. His statements underlined what many observers have always believed: that the Muslim Brotherhood remains the only organized group in Jordan that has genuine influence over the public.

But those who believed that the Islamist movement was weakening had a good argument, too. The Muslim Brotherhood had led public protests when the Arab Spring erupted in 2011. It organized weekly demonstrations and allied itself with nationalist and leftist groups and parties. But its ability to mobilize tens of thousands of Jordanians was tested many times.

In spite of the major political events that swept through Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria, Jordanians remained wary of destabilizing their country. The youth movement was unable to rally Jordanians and today is politically dead. The alliances between the Islamists and others had collapsed almost a year ago, leaving the Muslim Brotherhood the only opposition in the public domain. Although hard-liners were now in control of the movement, it became apparent in the past few months that they chose to reduce their public activities and tone down their anti-government rhetoric.

The Brotherhood’s leadership did not want to antagonize the regime or give it reason to take action against the Islamist movement. When a Jordanian judge was gunned down last month by an Israeli soldier at the Allenby Bridge, thousands of angry Jordanians protested near the Israeli Embassy in west Amman. Islamist participation in that event was deliberately low profile.

It could be that the government had miscalculated in choosing not to interfere, believing that the Islamists had lost their public base and that the teachers union elections could go either way.

But a few days after the polls, the Islamists contested another important election: the contest for the council of the University of Jordan Students Union. Here, the reaction was different. The Islamists complained that their candidates had been subjected to a wave of terror and intimidation and accused "outlaws" of interfering in the voting process.

There were clashes on election day, but the Islamists prevailed there as well, winning over 45% of the votes. In a rare conciliatory message to the government, the Consultative Council of the Muslim Brotherhood issued a March 28 communique praising the state’s position in regard to the free elections of the teachers union.

Such messages between the Islamist movement and the government appear to underline the tense but steady relationship between the two sides. King Abdullah, who has been critical of the Muslim Brotherhood, has also resisted pressure from within the royal court to take action against the movement. He understands the unique historical rapport between the regime and the Brotherhood, one that has survived for decades.

The question now is whether the Islamist movement ends its boycott of legislative and municipal elections in light of its recent gains. A former moderate overseer of the movement, Abdel Majid Thneibat, had called on the Islamists to end their self-imposed political isolation. There are no upcoming parliamentary elections, but the government has promised to amend a contentious election law this year.

When it participated in past legislative elections, especially between 1990 and 1993, the Muslim Brotherhood emerged as the largest bloc in the Lower House. One of its moderate leaders, Abdel Latiff Arabiyyat, became the speaker for three consecutive terms. He told Al-Monitor in a recent interview that this feat is proof of the popularity of the Islamist movement in Jordan and its moderate course. He added that throughout its history, the movement has allied itself with the Jordanian state, which gave it a “special status” in society.

As the Islamist movement celebrates its recent victories, it is also sending conciliatory messages to the regime. Knowing that it still enjoys popular support might encourage it to contest future legislative elections. The regime, on the other hand, will be thinking hard about its next step. Fear of the Islamist movement has not gone away, but Jordan’s assessment of its role and contribution to the political process is different from that of its neighbors.

Source: al-Monitor.
Link: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/03/jordan-muslim-brotherhood-union-elections.html.

Jordanians urge Israel ambassador out

Sat Mar 29, 2014

Jordanian protesters have taken to the streets to demand closure of the Israeli embassy in Amman following the killing of a Jordanian judge by Israeli soldiers.

During a protest in the Jordanian capital after Friday Prayers, demonstrators called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from the country.

They also called on the Jordanian parliament to annul the 1994 peace deal with  Israel.

The 38-year-old Jordanian judge, Raed Zaytar, was shot dead on March 10 by Israeli soldiers at the border with the occupied West Bank.

Jordan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour called the shooting a hideous crime, for which Israel was “completely responsible.”

“Jordan has pressured Israel to formally apologize. Jordan is now part of the probe into the shooting,” Ensour said a day after the shooting.

Israeli authorities claim that the judge was shot for trying to grab an Israeli soldier’s weapon after crossing into the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed regret over the death of the judge.

The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has also condemned the killing saying it was a “shooting at close range” by Israeli troops.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/356411.html.

Jordanian parliament gives the government a week to expel the Israeli ambassador

Thursday, 13 March 2014

The majority of the Jordanian House of Representatives voted yesterday to seek the release of soldier Ahmad Adakkamsh, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment, the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Amman and recalling his Jordanian counterpart from Tel Aviv.

The majority of attendees agreed on the demands that were raised during the discussion of the members of the House of Representatives who were discussing the issue of the death of Judge Raed Zeiter, but other members of parliament protested against these demands.

The parliament approved, with a majority, the request of the Jordanian Attorney General to file a case against the commander of the Israeli army, which was done on Tuesday.

The parliament has decided twice to expel the Israeli ambassador from Amman and recall his Jordanian counterpart from Tel Aviv, as well as two requests that were previously made for the release of Adakkamsh.

The House of Representatives rejected the proposal of MP Musa Abu Sweilem to reopen the offices of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas in Jordan.

The MPs have given the government until next Tuesday to implement the parliamentary recommendations, threatening to topple it if it does not comply with the MPs' decisions.

The parliament demanded the release of Jordanian and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, informing the MPs about developments concerning the issue of martyr Zeiter, holding a thorough investigation and bringing killers before the International Criminal Court, imposing a Jordanian-Palestinian control over the Palestinian side of the border crossings, and taking the initiative to achieve reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.

Israel expressed regret for the killing of the Jordanian judge, who is of Palestinian origin, by its soldiers on Monday. Zeiter was killed on Allenby Bridge crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.

Following this incident, Jordan witnessed many demonstrations and events condemning the execution of Zeiter, where participants and protesters demanded cutting ties with Israel.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/10291-jordanian-parliament-gives-the-government-a-week-to-expel-the-israeli-ambassador.

Tunisia scholars launch anti-Israel campaign

Wed Apr 2, 2014

Scholars from Tunisian universities have launched a campaign against any normalization of cultural and academic ties with Israel, Press TV reports.

The campaign started in the capital, Tunis, as university scholars, public figures and intellectuals signed a charter to prohibit ties with Israelis.

Fawzi Aloui, a scholar from the University of Tunis, said that there should be a ban on “any attempt to create official or unofficial channels of communication with Zionists under the pretext of scientific research, cultural studies or academic coordination.”

The campaign has been hailed by students and ordinary citizens who call for the criminalization of ties with Tel Aviv.

“We are teaching important values to our students. There is a Zionist enemy that would be never recognized. The isolation of this regime is possible,” Mohamed Naceur from the University of Jendouba told Press TV.

Tunisians have frequently condemned the passive attitude of some countries in the region towards the Palestinian tragedy in the occupied territories.

Last month, Tunisians held a demonstration in the capital against Israeli crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The protesters torch Israeli flags and chanted anti-Zionist slogans, calling for a national protest against Zionism.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/02/356877/tunisians-launch-antiisrael-campaign/.

Diplomacy doesn't move insurgents in Ukraine

April 18, 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Pro-Russian insurgents defiantly refused Friday to surrender their weapons or give up government buildings in eastern Ukraine, despite a diplomatic accord reached in Geneva and overtures from the government in Kiev.

Denis Pushilin of the self-appointed Donetsk People's Republic told reporters the insurgents in more than 10 cities do not recognize Ukraine's interim government as legitimate and will not leave the buildings until the government resigns. He demanded that Ukrainian leaders abandon their own public buildings.

Talks between Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the European Union produced an agreement Thursday in Geneva to take tentative steps toward calming tensions in Ukraine. The country's former leader fled to Russia in February and Russia annexed Crimea in March. The Geneva agreement calls for disarming all paramilitary groups and immediately returning all government buildings seized across the country.

Pushilin, speaking at the insurgent-occupied regional headquarters in the eastern city of Donetsk, said the agreement was "reasonable" but insisted "everyone should vacate the buildings," including Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Oleksandr Turchynov, the acting Ukrainian prime minister and president.

Ukraine has scheduled a presidential election for May 25, but Pushilin reiterated a call to hold a referendum on self-determination for the Donetsk region by May 11. The same kind of referendum in Crimea led to its annexation by Russia.

Ukraine has faced months of turmoil, first in Kiev by protesters angry that former President Viktor Yanukovych wanted closer ties with Russia instead of Europe, then in eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian supporters. Now many of the buildings in the east occupied by the tacitly Moscow-supported insurgents are in the hands of highly trained gunmen — a situation that has complicated authorities' plans to retake them.

Pushilin said the insurgents would not hand over their weapons until the government halts efforts to reclaim the occupied buildings. "As far disarmament goes, the Kiev junta has already begun violating its agreements since yesterday, by announcing that it will not pull its troops out of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk," Pushilin said, referring to two cities occupied by the insurgency.

In a sign that Ukraine's fledging government is ready to meet some of the protesters' demands, the acting president and prime minister issued a joint statement Friday saying the Ukrainian government is "ready to conduct a comprehensive constitutional reform that will secure powers of the regions," giving them a greater say in local governance.

They also pledged "a special status to the Russian language" and vowed to protect the rights of all citizens whatever language they spoke. Yatsenyuk also told parliament Friday the government has drafted a law to offer amnesty to all those willing to lay down their arms and leave the occupied government buildings.

Russia says Ukraine's interim government is illegitimate but has not said its leaders should vacate their offices. Kiev-based political analyst Vadim Karasyov said Ukraine's fledgling government does not have the resources to resolve the standoff in eastern Ukraine militarily, so it's going to have to negotiate with the pro-Russian protesters.

Kiev "should finally listen to the demands of those people," he said. "They don't even know what their demands are. Maybe they are reasonable. The government in Kiev is pretending that there are no problems in the east."

In Washington, President Barack Obama conveyed skepticism about Russian promises to de-escalate the volatile situation in Ukraine, and said the United States and its allies were ready to impose more sanctions if Moscow doesn't make good on its commitments.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, complained on state television about possible further sanctions against Russia. "You must not act toward Russia as if it were a naughty schoolgirl, to whom you thrust some kind of paper where it's necessary to mark off that she did her homework," Peskov said.

Meanwhile, former Ukrainian prime minister and presidential hopeful Yulia Tymoshenko arrived Friday in Donetsk in a bid to defuse the tensions and hear "the demands of Ukrainians who live in Donetsk."

"I'd like to listen to these demands by myself and find out how serious they are, so that one could find the necessary compromise between the east and the west that will allow us to unite the country," she told The Associated Press.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has emphasized that the requirement to abandon occupied buildings applied to all parties — an apparent reference to the ultranationalist Right Sector, whose activists are occupying Kiev city hall and a Kiev cultural center.

Russia's Foreign Ministry repeated that notion Friday, saying in a statement "it's obvious that when we talk about disarmament, we have in sight first of all the removal of weapons from the fighters of Right Sector and other pro-fascist groups participating in the February overthrow in Kiev."

In Donetsk, the barricade-lined space in front of the regional administration building, a mustering point for pro-Russian supporters, was nearly empty Friday despite warm weather. Patriotic Soviet-era music blared over loudspeakers.

One man in the square, 56-year-old militia member Igor Samoilov, said he would not support pulling back from any seized buildings. "Russia can play these games with the West, but we will not," Samoilov said.

Sitting nearby, 86-year-old Yuri Kovalchuk said Moscow needed to intervene directly to settle matters. "Peace will only prevail when the Kremlin will bring in its troops. As it did in Crimea," he said.

Vasilyeva reported from Kiev.

Associated Press writers Yuras Karmanau in Donetsk and Laura Mills and Jim Heintz in Moscow also contributed to this report.