General Middle East & North Africa Thread

Okay, every topic that has even remotely to do with the middle east keeps getting more general news put into it which removes focus from the original topic.

As such, I'm creating this thread as a general middle east and north africa topic. That means anything to do with the Arab Spring or Israel and Palestine should be kept to those threads and anything to do with more generic news (for example, new Saudi regulations on the number of foreign workers or the Lebanese elections next year, etc.) should be posted here.

I hope the mods will find this a clear enough statement of intent to open the thread.

So to start this of. Do people remember how Saudi Arabia gave up its UN security council seat in protest when it got elected for one? Well I just checked and after a fresh vote Jordan now has the seat.

Huh, that's news to me (maybe they deliberately glossed over it in domestic newspapers?). How much time passed between the Saudi refusal and Jordan's nomination?

I only found out because I checked The Other Wiki. Which lists the first election as being on the 17th of October and the second on the 6th of December, though considering how rarely the General Assembly meet this may be the first time they met since October.

Here's the UN website bit on the relevant part of the General Assembly meeting. [1]

Jordan didn't run in the first round, only declaring their candidacy after Saudi Arabia declined. So I'm wondering who had the idea of Jordan going for it.

Edit: I just checked, and Saudi Arabia is the only Arab member of the Asia-Pacific group to never sit on the council. Jordan has sat twice before (same as Lebanon and Iraq and 1 and a half less than Syria). Interesting.

edited 4th Jan '14 7:11:29 AM by Silasw

As soon as KSA refused, I knew it'd go to Jordan. They're an ally of both the Saudis and the Americans, and thus act as an acceptable compromise by both sides. Allows Saudia to say they defied the US and the US to get an Arab member in good standing with the US onto the council.

And Jordan is a long-term and respected ally of the UK as well, up to the point of them receiving our old Challenger 1 tanks and tank transporters.

Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Saturday blamed the Obama administration for reports that the Iraqi city of Fallujah had fallen to al Qaeda forces.

The top al Qaeda commander in Lebanon has died in custody, a Lebanese army general told the Associated Press.

Apparently, one of our "esteemed" Shura Council members has proposed that all Friday sermons by the imams of both the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina should both be pre-written and be presented for government approval well in advance. Note that this is nothing more than hearsay at this point, which is actually par for the course in Saudi Arabia^note For all the government's secretiveness about the actual workings of the ruling dynasty's politics, they're rather bad at keeping everything secret, so more than a few times an inkling or two of the truth slips between the cracks and reaches the ears of someone outside the system, who then surreptiously spreads the word to a friend or relative, who themselves speak about it to another friend/relative, rinse and repeat with all the potential for embellishment that happens in such occasions.

"Outrageous" would be putting it mildly; if anything could ignite the spark of persistent Arab Spring-style unrest in Saudi Arabia, it would be this government move actually passing into law and the public catching wind of it.

Politics interfering with Islam. That will go over so well.

It doens't help that a lot of people here are stewing over the fact that the government immediately gave asylum to former Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, infamous for his extremely anti-religious domestic policies, when European neighbours refused to let the plane carrying him and his family into their borders. The cradle of Islam harboring an unambiguous enemy of Islam after he was overthrown by the people for, among other reasons, his tryannical anti-Islamism? That's a very big black stain on the nation's honour.

edited 4th Jan '14 6:53:10 PM by MarqFJA

Isn't the Yemany dictator also hold up in Saudi Arabia after they brokered a deal where he stood down?

What justification is being given for messing with the mosque messaging?

I'm guessing the same as it's always been regardless of religion.

"The Divine Right of Kings" bullfuckery.

By the sounds of it, no reason will be given or expected.

Even in explicitly non-religious republics, like the USSR or Maoist China?

edited 5th Jan '14 2:10:18 AM by Greenmantle

Wait, you're telling me the cult of Mao and Stalin/Lenin was a farce?

No, I'm asking if you regard the Cult of Personality that happened there as a form of "The Divine Right of Kings".

And my reply was just another way of saying "Yes it is"

Maybe I should have used the Not So Different pothole to get across that much more clear.

edited 5th Jan '14 6:50:58 PM by PippingFool

It's pretty much the same, just replace "divine" and "king" with "inviolable"/"inalienable"/"absolute" and "dictator"/"tyrant"/"autocrat". Or in other words, it's the same difference between hereditary dictatorships purporting themselves to be republics and actual hereditary monarchies — i.e. effectively just a cosmetic one, rather than a difference of substance.

edited 5th Jan '14 4:45:40 AM by MarqFJA

John Kerry is open to Iran's involvement in the Syria peace talks.

In addition, America and Iran both thing the interim deal will be implemented within a month.

Hezbollah moving scud missiles from Syria into Lebanon.

Infighting intensifies among militants in Syria.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said the U.S. would support the government of Iraq against al Qaeda-linked fighters, but would not send troops, saying “this is a fight that belongs to the Iraqis.”

edited 5th Jan '14 9:36:48 PM by DeviantBraeburn

The situation in Iraq also doubles as Arab Spring stuff, since the Sunnis are protesting en masse as well.

It appears Lebanon is heading close to its own war.

Again.

This potential civil war, at least, is easier to understand: Shia vs Sunni due to neighboring Syria stoking sectarian violence.

...but what will the Christian minorities do, along with the Druze? Remember Syria occupied part of Lebanon last time...

edited 6th Jan '14 1:34:29 AM by Greenmantle

They'll probably fight as well.