Middle East

Japan Funds UNIDO Project to Boost Employment in Lebanon

By Reinhardt Jacobsen

VIENNA | BEIRUT (IDN) – The Government of Japan has announced that it will fund a project to create jobs in the carpentry and construction sectors in northern Lebanon. This is one of eight new projects implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in Ethiopia, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Liberia, Nigeria, Somalia and Syrian, with Japanese funding totalling US$5.2 million.

The project will build upon previous projects to create economic opportunities, particularly among host and refugee communities, in the northern areas of the country. The technical assistance will focus on the design of new training modules for construction skills training and the delivery of marketable vocational skills training to vulnerable individuals.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; THE WORLD; Middle East; 19 April 2018

Photo: Rocket artillery of the Lions of the East Army, a Free Syrian Army unit in southern Syria. CC BY 3.0

An End to Outside Intervention Will Help End War in Syria

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – 500,000 dead and counting. President Bashar al-Assad is going full blast at reducing the parts of his country still standing, but not under his control, to rubble.

Russia hangs on his tail, providing both planes and soldiers but seemingly unable to wag the dog. The US launches, along with Britain and France, a brief rocket attack. (Should we now after two such attacks call President Donald Trump “Rocket Man 2”?)

The attack is supposedly to draw the line on Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Perhaps he did do it, or possibly one of his local commanders took the initiative, but it is small beer compared with the horrors inflicted by conventional weapons day in day out.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 17 April 2018

Photo: A family flees an active conflict neighbourhood in eastern Ghouta, Syria, using a cart to carry their belongings. Credit: UNICEF/Amer Al Shami.

Experts Slam Syria, Slate Trump and Favour a UN Mechanism

By J C Suresh

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – The Trump administration's latest missile strikes in response to Syrian chemical weapons use is not embedded within a broader U.S. strategy to deter further chemical weapons use, protect Syrian civilians caught in the horrible Syrian civil war, and bring a political resolution to the seven-year misery of the people of Syria, according to Tom Countryman and Daryl G. Kimball, Chair and Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA).

They are "deeply concerned" that the U.S., UK, and French military operation was taken without specific authorization by the U.S. Congress, and with (apparently) little consultation with Congress.

: J C Suresh; THE WORLD; Middle East; 14 April 2018

Photo: Refugees and migrants held captive by smugglers in deplorable conditions in Libya. Credit: UNHCR

Embattled Netanyahu Aids Trafficking Refugee Route to Slavery in Libya

By Mirjam van Reisen and Gilad Liberman

BRUSSELS (IDN) – The previous two days have been rather turbulent in Israel's policy towards African refugees seeking asylum. On April 2, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a halt to deportations to Rwanda, believed to be the "third-country" he had mentioned for the first time, while announcing a new agreement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to resettle half of Israel's refugees in western countries and absorb the other half.

Within 24 hours, on April 3, he “froze” the deal. The EU office in Israel tweeted: “Guess it's just one of those days. At 20:57 you congratulate #Israel & @refugees on their agreement, at 21:46 you like @IsraelMFA announcement on the deal, at 22:50 the PM suspends it and blames, among others, #EU (where #UNHCR hoped to resettle significant number of refugees).”

: Mirjam van Reisen; THE WORLD; Middle East; 04 April 2018

Photo: African Asylum seekers protesting against Israel's decision. Credit: chikaoduahblog

Surprise at Netanyahu's Rejection of Asylum for Africans

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Thousands of African asylum seekers who reached Israel after dangerous voyages may have lost their last best hope to be released and sent to western countries or resettled in Israel after members of the Israeli coalition government trashed a negotiated asylum plan.

A landmark agreement negotiated with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had been announced only hours before it was pulled off the table. According to The Jerusalem Post, the plan was rejected by the Israeli cabinet, members of the governing coalition, the culture minister and the education minister who said “granting legal status to 16,000 infiltrators will turn Israel into a paradise for infiltrators”.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 03 April 2018

Photo: Egypt Center, Ismailia, Egypt. Credit: Sophia Aalkova | Transparency

Corruption and Crackdowns on Civil Society Continue in Arab States

By Sean Buchanan

This is the fourth in a series of reports highlighting salient aspects of Transparency International's latest analysis on challenges posed by corruption around the world as well as successes and failures of efforts targeting a scourge that eats into the vitals of human rights. – The Editor.

LONDON (IDN) – In a region stricken by violent conflicts and dictatorships, corruption remains endemic in the Arab states while assaults on freedom of expression, press freedoms and civil society continue to escalate, reports Transparency International, the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption.

In its Corruption Perceptions Index 2017 released on February 21, the organisation notes that while there are signs of some small strides being taken to combat corruption, the overall picture is one of stagnation.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Middle East; 01 March 2018

Photo: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 20, 2016 declares a state of emergency for three months with the goal of eliminating his internal enemies. Credit: Turkish government photo.

Erdoğan's Neo-Ottomanism at a Dangerous Turning Point

By Pier Francesco Zarcone*

ROME (IDN) – It is not being dealt with by major media, but there appear to be new and dangerous winds of war about to blow in the eastern Mediterranean.

On October 15, 2016, in a speech at the university that (modestly) bears his name, Turkish President Recep Erdoğan outlined some lines of his new foreign policy, announcing the intention to regain territories lost by the Ottoman Empire following defeat in the First World War, with specific reference to Western Thrace and the Dodecanese, all areas belonging to Greece, in theory an ally of Turkey in NATO.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 28 February 2018

Photo: UN Secretary-General António Guterres (second from right) at the 2018 opening session of the General Assembly's Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on 5 February 2018. Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs (left at the table) attended the meeting. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Palestine President to Address Security Council Amid 'Eroding' Consensus on Two-State Solution

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – In the run-up to Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, addressing the Security Council on February 20, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that global consensus on the question of Palestine "could be eroding, making effective concerted action more difficult to achieve, at a time when it is more important than ever."

In remarks at the opening of the 2018 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in New York on February 5, Guterres said: "Negative trends on the ground have the potential to create an irreversible one-State reality that is incompatible with realizing the legitimate national, historic and democratic aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians."

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 18 February 2018

UN Agency in Talks with Israel on African Asylum Seekers

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | TEL AVIV (IDN) – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is negotiating with Israel to resettle a portion of African asylum seekers in third countries deemed by the UN to be "safe," perhaps including Western countries, in exchange for some of the refugees to be given permanent residency in Israel, according to The Times of Israel.

The aim is to halt Israel's plans to deport thousands of asylum seekers to African countries, widely believed to be Rwanda and Uganda. "Such an arrangement could be realized, though the necessary details need to be worked out," Sharon Harel, the external relations officer at the UNHCR office in Israel, told the newspaper.

: Jaya Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Middle East; 11 February 2018

Photo: Mansour Al-Otaibi (centre), Permanent Representative of the State of Kuwait to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of February, briefs journalists on the Council’s programme of work for the month. 01 February 2018. United Nations, New York. UN Photo/Evan Schneider.

Kuwait Presidency Keen on Enhancing Security Council Working

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – While the Middle East, counter-terrorism and Africa will draw the Security Council's focus in February, the Kuwait Presidency has chosen as its centrepiece a ministerial-level briefing on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter in the maintenance of international peace and security, with the Secretary-General as the main speaker.

Council President Mansour Ayyad Sh. A. Al-Otaibi, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Kuwait to the UN in New York, told journalists on February 1 that It has also planned an open debate on working methods. Kuwait is the chair of the Working Group on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions.