Author: issandr

Qadhafi never disappoints

gadhafi.JPG.jpeg

Saudi’s King Abdullah walks out of opening session of Arab Summit:

“Doha: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz walked out of the opening session of the Arab Summit in Doha on Monday, following remarks made by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. 

Tempers flared shortly after the summit host Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, ended his opening address, in which he said King Abdullah will represent the Arab nation at Thursday’s G20 economic summit in London.

‘He is in fact the best representative any one could have,’ said Shaikh Hamad. The Arabs should be part of the restructuring of the global financial system, he said. ‘We should not sit on the sidelines watching.’

Following the speech, the Libyan leader took over the microphone without requesting a permission to speak, a Gulf News correspondent inside the meeting hall said.

‘I don’t know why we should be happy that King Abdullah is representing us at the G20. He is a British-made monarch and an American agent,’ Gaddafi said, and went on despite the repeated attempts by Shaikh Hamad to stop him.

Frustrated over the attempts by the Emir of Qatar to stop his from talking, Gaddafi looked at the rest of the Arab leaders and said: ‘I am the King of African Kings, I am the prince of the faithful and I don’t think my international prestige would allow me to sit with people like you.’

The remark and the subsequent apology by the Emir of Qatar led to an angry walkout by King Abdullah, who few years earlier had a similar spat with Gaddafi. “

Bonus pics [Thanks Diana]:

2654_80767015357_536400357_2766361_3699018_n.jpg.jpeg

And to think once he was handsome:

ly04_04b.jpg.jpeg

Bibi vs. Ajami, back in the days

Update: VIDEO FOUND OK, a little Googling enabled me to find a copy of the Netanyahu tape on the Israeli site MahNishMah!?, since the original YouTube version was removed and its account shut down.

It turns out that the tape has made quite a stir in Israel, as Netanyahu is about to become PM for the second time. Right-wingers saw in Young Bibi (who then called himself Ben Nitay) a better version of his current self, seen as too accommodating (!) to Obama.

In the video, Bibi says he is 28-years-old and describes himself as an “economic consultant” — indeed according to Wikipedia he worked at Boston Consulting Group immediately after graduating from Harvard at that time. He was as smarmy then as he is now.

But actually if you listen carefully to what he says, he is arguing that Palestinian should not have self-determination (which would be “unfair” because there are already 21 Arab states) but instead integrate Jordan or Israel. He argues forcefully that Israel is a democracy and West Bankers and Gazans would be given the right to vote in Israel. Obviously this must predate the current Israeli concern about Palestinian demographics, although Fouad Ajami does raise this issue. So, once again, is Bibi Netanyahu advocating a one-state solution?

Here is the video on YouTube. (It will take a little while for YouTube to process the video, so it might not be immediately available.)

I will soon add a link to a MP4 format file for downloading in case YouTube removes the video again. Download in MP4 format (Quicktime, 31.6MB).

Originally found through: Angry Arab.

Update 2: Now also on Vimeo, better quality.

Pettiness

Today’s main state-owned Egyptian dailies are headlining President Mubarak’s visit to… an agricultural project owned by the army in Sharq al-Owaynat. Because that’s such a more important story than the Doha summit, which he’s not attending.

Pettiness is one of the defining characteristics of authoritarian political systems: you see it everywhere, from the arbitrary treatment of political opponents like Ayman Nour to the veiled and actual threats made against rebellious parts of the establishment (such as judges, who had their bonuses and benefits cut when they were rebelling in 2006).

The Prince of Hyperbole

Qatar’s Emir Hamid al-Thani interviewed in Spiegel:

Al-Bashir Arrest Warrant: Qatari Emir Warns of ‘Chaos’ in Sudan:

“The emir of Qatar has warned that the international warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir could destablize the entire region. ‘If anything happened to Omar al-Bashir and Sudan ended up in chaos, the whole of Africa will sink into chaos,’ Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani said in an interview with SPIEGEL to be published on Monday.”

Incidentally the emir also says he wouldn’t let the US attack Iran from the base on his territory, and that the global financial crisis is an “opportunity that will not be repeated for the next 20 years.” It certainly is if you’re full of gas, ya brince. Happy shopping spree.

Saudi royals feuding for succession

Very interesting overview of the inner rivalries among the al-Saud family:

Keys to the kingdom: Inside Saudi Arabia’s royal family – The Independent

One theory in political circles in Riyadh is that Prince Bandar was seeking to oust King Abdullah before Prince Sultan dies, thus placing his father on the throne. Other rumours claim that Prince Bandar is ill, or that he angered King Abdullah by dabbling in Syrian politics without authorisation. The Saudi embassy in London could not be contacted for comment last week, but this weekend political tensions in the kingdom came dramatically to the surface.

On Friday night King Abdullah unexpectedly announced the appointment of one of his half-brothers, Prince Nayef, the 76-year-old interior minister, to the post of second deputy prime minister, which had been left vacant. This was immediately taken as an indication that he would become crown prince when Prince Sultan dies or becomes king. But yesterday Prince Talal, another senior figure, publicly demanded that the king confirm that the appointment did not mean Prince Nayef would automatically become the next crown prince. Such public disagreement among senior Saudi royals is highly unusual.

Another indication of friction among the many descendants of the founder of Saudi Arabia, King Ibn Saud, who had 22 wives and more than 50 children, was the publication of a report last week by the Saudi National Society for Human Rights, one of the country’s two human rights organisations. It was highly critical of Prince Nayef’s draconian interior ministry, and is unlikely to have been released without the express say-so of another powerful member of the royal family.

Both Crown Prince Sultan and

Prince Nayef are members of the “Sudairi Six”, the powerful surviving sons of Ibn Saud and his favourite wife, Hassa bint Ahmad Al-Sudairi. The seventh and eldest brother was King Fahd, who died in 2005; when he nominated his successor, in line with tradition, he bypassed his full brothers and chose Abdullah as crown prince.

The vying for position is intensified by Crown Prince Sultan’s poor health. Aged about 85, he was first diagnosed with colon cancer in Jeddah in 2004. He has received treatment in Geneva and the US, and spent time convalescing in Morocco. Throughout his illness, Prince Nayef and another of the six brothers – Prince Salman, 73, the governor of Riyadh and another potential candidate for the succession – have stayed close to the crown prince’s side. Three weeks ago Prince Nayef surprised viewers of prime-time Saudi TV by telephoning in during the news hour to tell viewers that Prince Sultan was recovering well, and would be returning home soon.

More independent information about the prince’s condition has been suppressed, however. Last year, the long-serving Reuters bureau chief in Riyadh, Andrew Hammond, was told to leave the kingdom after reporting that Prince Sultan had cancer.

Do read the whole thing. It does bring to mind how this region is constantly in the midst of some succession crisis, currently Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Yemen and I’m sure I’m missing some.

Links for March 28th

Links from my del.icio.us account for March 28th: