Middle East Policy

These are the Amnesty International's 2007 reports on the state of human rights in Iran and its ally Syria, the Middle East's totalitarian states. SYRIA Freedom of expression and association continued to be severely restricted. Scores of people were arrested and hundreds remained imprisoned for political reasons, including prisoners of conscience and others sentenced after unfair trials. Discriminatory legislation and practices remained in force against women and the Kurdish minority. Torture and ill-treatment in detention continued to be reported and carried out with impunity. Human rights defenders continued to face arrest, harassment and restrictions on their freedom of movement. Background The state of emergency imposed in 1962 remained in force. A UN investigation continued to indicate high-level Syrian involvement in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, which Syria denied. Syria hosted more than 200,000 Lebanese refugees who ...

Iran’s Assault on Civil Society cfr.org May 31, 2007 The good news is that Iranian civil society is booming. Women’s groups and labor unions, environmental organizations and students groups—even anti-land mine nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—all ply their trade in abundance, in striking contrast to many of Iran’s Arab neighbors. As this new Backgrounder explains, the bulk of these groups took root during the reformist years of former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami. But the hard-line regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has brought with it bad news for such groups: a new era of repressiveness, shuttering NGOs and arresting activists. The basij, the Iranian regime’s enforcers of Islamic religious codes, routinely stop women for failing to wear proper headdress, and they and other agents of the regime harass ethnic minorities, bloggers, political activists, and homosexuals, too. Iranian author Nasrin Alavi, writing in PostGlobal, likens it to a “ second cultural revolution ,”...

This is the news section of the latest issue of Arab Reform Bulletin (June 2007) Published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Headlines: Egypt: Shura Council Elections and Other Political Developments Jordan: IAF Members Arrested Ahead of Municipal Elections Algeria: Election Results Morocco: Crackdown on Activists Kuwait: Ministers Questioned about Corruption Saudi Arabia: Morality Police under Pressure Qatar: Second Doha Conference on Democracy and Reform Bahrain: Activists Arrested Yemen: Press Censorship Press Freedom: Journalists Criticize Limited Access Upcoming Political Events Contents: Egypt: Shura Council Elections and Other Political Developments In June 11 elections for Egypt's upper house of parliament, 587 candidates competed for eighty-eight seats in twenty-four provinces. According to preliminary results, the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won the majority of the seats, the leftistTagammu party won one seat in Alexandria, and the Muslim Bro...

Syria’s Alliance with Iran usip.org May 2007 By Mona Yacoubian Against a backdrop of growing instability in the Middle East, and despite continued pressure from the West, Syria’s alliance with Iran appears to be holding strong and perhaps even deepening. The United States has strongly criticized both Syria and Iran for contributing to the region’s volatility and, in particular, for playing a destabilizing role in each of three regional conflicts: Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. Recent U.S. overtures to both Syria and Iran raise the question of whether either country can be persuaded to forsake their longstanding alliance and adopt a more constructive role in the region. Main Points: Spanning more than a quarter century, Syria’s alliance with Iran has proven to be quite durable. The alliance’s breadth has insured that the bilateral relationship is not merely a tactical "marriage of convenience." Rather, deepening ties in a variety of realms—strategic, political, economic, and c...

Syrian Oppositionists Call for International Action MEMRI.org June 6, 2007 Recently, the Syrian regime has been escalating its persecution of political dissidents. This escalation is reflected in the large number of prison sentences being issued by the High State Security Court to prominent oppositionists, among whom are Dr. Kamal Al-Labwani, a human rights activist, who received a 12-year prison sentence for harming state security; Anwar Al-Bouni, human rights activists and attorney, who was sentenced to five years in prison for "harming national morale"; and Michel Kilo, activist for the Committees for the Revival of Civil Society and director of the Hurriyat Center for Freedom of the Press and Journalists in Syria, and Mahmoud 'Issa, political activist, who had been imprisoned from 1992 to 2000 for membership in the Communist Labor Party, both of whom received a three-year prison sentence for "harming national sentiment." Also sent to prison for "harming...

Here are the recent news and developments concerning the political life, reform and democratic movement in Egypt gathered from the Egypt Monitor . Previous " Egypt Democracy Watch " on Middle East Policy : April 2007 December 2006 October 2006 July 2006 Egypt's Constitutional Amendments Egypt Democracy Watch: (Covers the latest two months) Source: The Egypt Monitor The Egyptian Union of Liberal Youth Elects its First Board The newly created Egyptian Union of Liberal Youth (EULY) elected its first board of directors on June 1st, 2007. Thirteen candidates run for the ten board seats. EULY is an initiative to unite the efforts of Liberal Youth in Egypt regardless of their party or non-party affiliations. Attempts at Imploding the Judges Club Presidents of two Judges Clubs from the provinces made an attempt to split from the main Judge's Club headquartered in Cairo. The plan aimed at making creating a federation of Judges Clubs nation wide, hence diminishing the role o...