Profile
QATAR, ITS EMIR AND AL JAZEERA
"You are listening to Al Jazerra, broadcasting from Qatar”. This sentence, repeated every hour on an old TV Set, has spread to the whole Arab world from Tangier to Baghdad. But street humour has quickly changed it to “Here Qatar, broadcasted by Al Jazerra!” This inversion illustrates the enigmatic relation that unites the Arabic equivalent of CNN, with the country hosting it. By diffusing live the first aerial strikes on Kabul, Al Jazeera did not know its renown would spread beyond the frontiers it then had. And when Osama Ben Laden, the most wanted man on earth, chose Al Jazeera to respond to G.W. Bush, the channel ignored it would become a target of the American retaliation...
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim : a heavy heritage
On December 4, 2006, the President of the United States, George Bush, invited Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), to Washington, although he had previously publicly showed his trust in the current Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, M. al-Hakim's rival. The American administration is looking for new alliances in Iraq and its region because the Iraqi government has proven to be powerless in the face of the intensification of the denominational conflict. Coupled together with failings in security, this explains the prolonged stay of the Coalition forces.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, charismatic fighting Shiite leader
Born in 1960 in a very poor neighbourhood of Beirut, the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is setting the Muslim world on fire. Whether they be Sunnis or Shiites the admirers of the man, whose last name signifies «victory of God», are to be found in all the countries where Islam is a communitarian religion, i.e. in the Near-East, South-East-Asia, Indian subcontinent or even Africa. Fawned upon by the people, he has been accused of adventurism by the Saudi, Egyptian and Jordanian governments. The sheikh has found the way to challenge an enemy whose arsenal and allies are dissuasive.
Close Up
Youth, The Web and Cyber Activism in the Middle East : An Opinion from within
Esra’a Al-Shafei (Bahrain) is the Founder and Executive Director of mideastyouth.com, an independent interfaith network, where a vast and diverse cyber-community tackles and discusses controversial issues like human, minority and religious rights in the Middle East. She is a recent recipient of a TED Fellowship, an Echoing Green Fellowship and the Berkman Award from Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Here she talks about her experience and expresses her views on the challenges of cyber-activism in the Arab world.
The Italy-Libya Treaty on Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation
Interview with Natalino Ronzitti
Professor, International Law (LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome); Scientific Advisor, IAI (Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome)
On 2nd March, 2009 the Treaty on Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation between Italy and Libya initially signed by PM Berlusconi and Col. Gheddafi on August 30th, 2008 was finally enforced. In June, the Libyan leader was invited for his first official state visit to Italy.
1. The Treaty on Friendship, Partnership and Cooperation is supposed to usher in a new era in bilateral relations. How significant is it for Italy and Libya respectively?
A. The Treaty paves the way for increasing and strengthening co-operation between the two countries, which never ended even at the height of major political tensions or during the period in which Libya was subjected to UN sanctions due to suspicions that it was supporting international terrorism. The Treaty should boost economic and trade relations between the two nations.
The EU in Egypt: human rights or politics?
On January 17th, the European Parliament passed a resolution by 52 votes and 7 abstentions, condemning the human rights situation in Egypt. This deeply offended Cairo, who saw it as an interference in its sovereignty. Egypt’s Foreign Minister declared that “Egypt rejects all attempts by those who believe themselves authorised to investigate on human rights in our country”. Egypt counteracted by informing the EU member’s Ambassadors there, that it would not attend a Euro-Mediterranean meeting the next week in Brussels, and that is was annulling another meeting in Cairo on the recent Neighbourhood Policy agreement.