Police are tightening security in Bahrain's capital,
Manama, as protests escalate after activists called for "days of rage" during Bahrain's Formula One
Grand Prix weekend. Clashes between security forces and protesters in villages
surrounding the capital began on Thursday night and continued through Friday
morning. Police fired tear gas, stun grenades, and buckshot at the
demonstrators who retaliated by throwing petrol bombs at police and lighting
tires on fire. Bahrain's government has been determined to hold the race, which in the past
has been a major source of revenue for the country. The government maintains that
Bahrain is secure, and they believe that the race, scheduled for Sunday, will
demonstrate to the world that life is back to normal. The Grand Prix was
canceled in 2011 after dozens of people were killed and thousands detained
during unrest. According to an al Jazeera correspondent, "Most tourists
and Formula One spectators are choosing to stay away from this race because it
is just too controversial for them, I think people feel their security and
personal wellbeing, cannot be guaranteed enough to make the trip
worthwhile."
Syria
Syrian activists called
for anti-government protests on Friday after the international community met to
discuss Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan and further options to end the
conflict. The ceasefire continues to falter, as violence persists throughout the country.
According to the BBC's Ian Pannell reporting from northern
Syria, helicopters have been firing at villages in Jabel al-Zawiya, and the Syrian
government continues to shell the city of Homs. The British based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights claimed there were explosions and gunfire in the
town of Qusair, about seven miles from the border with Lebanon. Diplomats accused Syria of failing to
implement Annan's peace plan. At a "Friends of Security" meeting, French
President Nicolas Sarkozy accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of lying,
while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for "stronger measures" to bolster the ceasefire,
such as an arms embargo and the Chapter 7 Security Council Resolution allowing
for the use of military force. Meanwhile the U.N. Security Council negotiated terms for the U.N. observer mission
with Syria. The mission is permitted to travel to any location
in the country by foot or car, but is not allowed control over a private
aircraft. While there are currently seven monitors in Syria, the United Nations
hopes to have 30 by Monday, and wishes to expand the mission to 300, which must
be approved by the U.N. Security Council and Syria.
Headlines
Arguments & Analysis
'The
Coming Tests of the Syrian Opposition' (Yezid Sayigh, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
"The opposition must also overcome deep-seated
class divisions within Syrian society. Organized opposition groups-from the
Syrian National Council and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood to the National
Coordination Body and others inside Syria-are made up of members of the
country's large urban middle class. These Syrians are neither recent, rural
arrivistes nor wholly dependent on the state for their livelihood. In contrast,
and with only a few exceptions, all the violence to date has taken place among
communities hardest hit by a decade of neoliberal and predatory government
policies-disinvestment in infrastructure, deteriorating public services, and
severe subsidy cuts. They are found in provincial cities such as Dar'a, Idlib,
and Deir el-Zor, as well as their rural hinterlands, "inner city" neighborhoods
of Homs and Hama in which smuggling networks flourished. They come from the
so-called rif (countryside) of Damascus and Aleppo, consisting of large urban
poverty belts fueled by rural migration, interspersed with more settled,
relatively affluent municipalities that are less openly hostile to the regime. This
is the "other" Syria, which has become most alienated from the regime, taken to
arms, and turned most visibly pious and Salafist."
'Unraveling
the Kurdish Conundrum' (Morton Abramowitz and Jessica Sims, The National Interest)
"Given the
close relationship between President Obama and Turkish prime minister Erdogan
on Middle East issues, U.S. and Turkish policies toward Syrian and Iraqi Kurds
are being carefully coordinated. But as turbulence continues to shake the
region, Turkey's policy toward its own Kurds now has serious implications for
the regional Kurdish issue. The Obama administration has stayed quiet on
Turkey's domestic Kurdish policy because of long-standing, lingering Turkish
fears that the United States is intent on dismembering Turkey for the Kurds. It
supports Turkey's efforts against the PKK and provides important intelligence
support for fighting the PKK in northern Iraq. It is time, however, for
Washington to remind Ankara, at least privately, that failure to address its
domestic Kurdish situation harms Turkey's ability to help shape broader Middle
East outcomes. In the near term, both Washington and Ankara want to see Syrian
Kurds become part of the government-in-exile Syrian National Council (SNC).
This would make the opposition more representative of the Syrian population,
deliver a blow to the Syrian regime, and isolate the PYD and PKK, who still
support Assad. The United States and Turkey would need to convince the SNC and
other opposition that minority rights are in the long-term interest of a future
Syrian state and that international support will depend on whether they keep
these promises. Turkey will want to be reassured that U.S. support for the
Syrian Kurds will not result in a de facto Syrian version of the KRG-a second
autonomous area would be a strong inducement to many Turkish Kurds."
'Hunger in Yemen: Disaster
Approaching' (The Economist)
"In March,
the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) reported that levels of food insecurity in
Yemen had doubled since 2009. Today 5m people go hungry so often that it
affects their long-term health. According to Unicef, the WFP's counterpart for
children, some 30% of kids in Hodeida are "acutely" malnourished, threatened
with stunted growth and cognitive impairment. The 30% figure is twice the level
the UN uses as a benchmark for crisis. And hunger is rising, says Lydia Tinka,
a veteran of multiple African crises who works in Hodeida for Oxfam, a British
charity. The big aid agencies are gearing up for an appeal, but fear it will be
hard to raise money until there is evidence that people are starving to death.
Yemenis like to keep things behind closed doors; failure to care for children
is seen as shameful and meetings with people like Anisa remain a rarity. Until
poorer Yemenis open up or start dying, their plight risks being ignored."
--Mary Casey & Jennifer Parker
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