{"id":5608,"date":"2010-03-06T08:34:45","date_gmt":"2010-03-06T08:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=5608"},"modified":"2010-03-06T14:43:12","modified_gmt":"2010-03-06T14:43:12","slug":"news-round-up-6-march-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/news-round-up-6-march-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"News Round Up (6 March 2010)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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EFG-Hermes Expands Into Syria, Starts Syrian Private Equity Fund<\/a>
\n2010-03-03
\nBy Mahmoud Kassem<\/p>\n

March 3 (Bloomberg) — EFG-Hermes Holding SAE, the biggest publicly traded Arab investment bank, will open an office in Damascus with a local partner and start a Syrian private equity fund at the same time. EFG-Hermes has a 70 percent stake in EFG-Hermes Syria, while Syrian businessman Firas Tlass has a 30 percent stake, the Cairo-based company said in an e-mailed statement today.<\/p>\n

EFG-Hermes gains most in 7 months<\/strong>
\n3 March 2010, Daily News Egypt<\/p>\n

CAIRO: Egypt’s EFG-Hermes jumped 7 percent, its sharpest gain in more than seven months, after it said it was opening an office in Syria, boosting the stock further after market talk of a hefty dividend payment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

4 March, EFG-Hermes<\/a> said Thursday its full-year 2009 net profit tumbled 41% due to a steep drop in fee and commission income. The bank said 2009 net profit fell to to 551.8 million Egyptian pounds ($100.6 million) from 933.5 million pounds a the year earlier. Revenues fell to 1.47 billion pounds …<\/p>\n

Realestate in Hama<\/strong> is higher priced that similar property in Switzerland\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ???????? ?? ???? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ??????.<\/a><\/p>\n

Turkey Thumbs its Nose at US Sanctions on Iran as Senate Approves Genocide Bill<\/a>
\nXinhua
\nIran and Turkey signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish joint industrial estate on the border of the two countries, the state IRIB TV reported on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Establishment of the joint industrial estate on Iran-Turkey border would strengthen security of the region as well as welfare of those who are residing in the two countries’ border region, Ahmadi said…..<\/p>\n

For his part, Turkey’s Yildirim expressed hope that the two countries’ economic ties would be expanded. ….Speaking at the opening of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) meeting, Turkish State Minister Cevdet Yilmaz was quoted as saying that Turkey aimed at opening a “golden age” in Turkish-Iranian relations with projects such as carrying Turkmen and Iranian energy resources to Europe over Turkey.<\/p>\n

Iraq election: In Syria, disillusioned refugees trudge to the polls<\/a>
\nBy Sarah Birke Contributor \/ March 5, 2010<\/p>\n

Candidates in the Iraq election have focused attention on Syria, which has the largest number of Iraqi expatriates. Sunni candidates in particular are seeking out extra support, given Iraq’s Shiite-dominated politics. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Leveretts in the RFI<\/a>\/ via FLC<\/p>\n

“…. The \u201cTripartite Alliance Stands Firm\u201d, opens by noting the rather alarmist commentary in the West about the recent \u201cresistance\u201d summit in Damascus, involving President Assad, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Hizballah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah. (HAMAS\u2019s Khalid Mishal also met with Ahmadinejad while the Iranian President was in Damascus.) Sami also notes a tone of perplexity in Western commentary on these meetings, which came on the heels of a visit to Damascus by U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns and Washington\u2019s announcement that it would be posting a U.S. ambassador to Syria for the first time in five years.<\/p>\n

Sami insightfully explains Bashar al-Assad\u2019s approach to foreign affairs as an adroit exercise in what, from a European historical perspective, could well be described as \u201cclassical diplomacy\u201d, based on a nuanced reading of the regional and global balance of power and a flexible approach to individual bilateral relationships. He also relates the \u201cresistance\u201d summit to the question of a possible war in the region later this year, a question that we took up a few days ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cSyria wants to keep all doors to Damascus open, much like it did in the 1990s, when Syria enjoyed excellent relations with the US, France, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and both HAMAS and Hezbollah. Many in the West claim this is no longer possible, echoing words spoken by George W. Bush after 9\/11, when he said: \u2018Either you are with us or with the terrorists.\u2019 Syria thinks otherwise, however, arguing that Syrian-Iranian relations are in the best interest of the international community, and should be seen as a blessing in disguise for the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cKing Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia shares this view, believing that Syria can indeed walk the tightrope between the so-called moderate and radical camps in the Middle East, helping influence and moderate the behavior of HAMAS, Hezbollah, and Iran. Syria has repeatedly used its influence with these players in meetings like the ones that just took place in Damascus (which perhaps were not as high profile) to get HAMAS to accept the Arab Peace Initiative, for example, or to get Hezbollah more involved in the political process in Lebanon….<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Damascus Summit\u2026is a reminder of how helpful Syria can be [to the United States and others] in dealing with these non-state players. Nevertheless, it sends another strong message: Think twice before waging another war on Lebanon, because neither Syria nor Iran will allow it. Rather than escalate the conflict, the tripartite meeting in Damascus actually force Israel to recalculate, thereby minimizing the chances of war next summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along the lines of Sami\u2019s analysis, in our meeting with President Assad in Damascus two weeks ago,the Syrian leader underscored that his ties to Iran and to resistance groups like HAMAS and Hizballah should be seen by the United States as an asset\u2014as something that could help open doors that would otherwise remain shut. It was at a press conference in Damascus in 2006, after all, that Khalid Mishal began talking publicly about the 1967 lines as a potential basis for settling the Arab-Israeli conflict; during 2009, Mishal spoke openly about the prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Indeed, in our first meeting with Mishal last summer, he pointed out that HAMAS has offered Israel \u201ca two-state solution on the 1967 lines\u201d, and noted that \u201cno Arab state has gone farther than that\u201d.)<\/p>\n

President Assad presents himself as someone focused on solving problems. He is clearly thinking in comprehensive terms about the Middle East\u2019s core conflicts\u2014as we discussed in our post yesterday, he believes a comprehensive settlement of the unresolved tracks of the Arab-Israeli conflict is necessary, and that such a settlement will necessarily involve groups like HAMAS and Hizballah. He also says that the challenge of U.S.-Iranian relations is, in some ways, a relatively simple problem, but could become the region\u2019s \u201cworst\u201d problem if it is not solved. In our view, President Assad is likely to be an important player in \u201cthe race for Iran\u201d, and in Middle Eastern diplomacy more generally, for many years to come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Peace not wanted<\/a>
\n04\/03\/2010 – Haaretz
\nBy Gideon Levy<\/p>\n

Israel does not want peace with Syria. Let’s take off all the masks we’ve been hiding behind and tell the truth for a change. Let’s admit that there’s no formula that suits us, except the ludicrous “peace for peace.” Let’s admit it to ourselves, at least, that we do not want to leave the Golan Heights, no matter what. Forget about all the palaver, all the mediations, all the efforts.<\/p>\n

Let’s face it, we don’t want peace, we want to run wild, to paraphrase an Israeli pop song from the ’70s. Don’t bother us with new Syrian proposals, like the one published in Haaretz this week that calls for a phased withdrawal and peace in stages; don’t pester us with talk about peace as a way to break up the dangerous link between Syria and Iran; don’t tell us peace with Syria is the key to forging peace with Lebanon and weakening Hezbollah. Turkey isn’t an “honest” broker, the Syrians are part of the axis of evil, all is quiet on the Golan – you know how much we love the place, its mineral waters, its wines – so who needs all the commotion of demonstrations and evacuating settlements, just for peace?<\/p>\n

It’s not only the current extreme right-wing government that doesn’t want this whole headache, and it wasn’t only all of its predecessors – some of which were on the very brink of withdrawing from the Golan and only at the last moment, the very last moment, changed their minds. It’s all the Israelis – the minority that is really against it and the majority that doesn’t give a damn. They’d rather pretend not to hear the encouraging sounds coming out of Damascus in recent months and not even try to put them to the test.<\/p>\n

Everyone would rather wave the menacing picture of Bashar Assad alongside Hassan Nasrallah and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his partners in the axis of evil, with the hummus and the bulgur…….<\/p>\n

ut we are not the only ones who don’t want peace. The United States has turned out to be a true friend that extricates us from every briar patch. It doesn’t want peace enough either, praise the Lord. It’s a fact: Washington is applying no pressure. Here’s another marvelous pretext for doing nothing – America isn’t pressing us and the redeemer will come to Zion, in the words of the prophet Isaiah. Yet we are the ones who have to stay in the dangerous and menacing Middle East, not the Americans; we should be more interested than anyone in preventing another war in the north, in creating a new relationship with Syria and then with Lebanon, and in weakening Iranian influence; in trying to integrate, at last. An Israeli interest, no? And what do we do to advance it? Half of nothing.<\/p>\n

So what is there left to do? At least admit the truth: We do not want peace with Syria. That’s all there is to it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Syria suggests Israel might have planted suspect uranium<\/a>
\nPosted on : 2010-03-04 | Author : dpa
\nNews Category : Middle East<\/p>\n

Vienna – Syria suggested Thursday that nuclear material might have been planted on its territory by Israel – offering a new explanation for uranium traces found by the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to participants at an IAEA meeting. Syria had claimed that a site bombed by Israel in 2007 was not a secret nuclear reactor and that the uranium traces found by IAEA inspectors stemmed from Israeli ammunition.<\/p>\n

Addressing the IAEA Board of Governors, Syrian Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh spoke of “Israeli airplanes that have overflown that site and dropped things, and material,” according to one of the participants recounting the remarks to the German Press Agency dpa.<\/p>\n

“It’s a slightly desperate charge, isn’t it?” US Ambassador Glyn Davies told reporters after the meeting.<\/p>\n

The IAEA has analysed samples taken at the bombed al-Kibar site in the Syrian desert, also known as Dair Alzour.<\/p>\n

It judged in its latest report in February that “there is a low probability that the source of these particles was the use of missiles” and that the presence of the material pointed to possible nuclear activities.<\/p>\n

Syria is currently not granting the IAEA access to locations, officials and documents that may shed more light on possible clandestine nuclear activities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Syria\u2019s \u2018Festering\u2019 IAEA File May Deter Investors, U.S. Says<\/strong>
\nBy Jonathan Tirone, 2010-03-04<\/p>\n

March 4 (Bloomberg) — Syria\u2019s failure to cooperate with United Nations atomic inspectors seeking answers about a suspected nuclear reactor bombed by Israel in 2007 should cause companies to re-consider investment decisions, the U.S. said. \u201cCompanies who have to worry about their bottom line have to look at how Syria stands in the international community,\u201d U.S. International Atomic Energy Agency ambassador Glyn Davies said in an interview in Vienna today. \u201cCompanies will look at Syria\u2019s festering failure to comply.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Idaf writes: “Check these titles in Israeli media:”<\/strong><\/p>\n