U.N. envoy warns of possible Syria spillover to Iraq

U.N. envoy warns of possible Syria spillover to Iraq

Martin Kobler, the U.N. special representative in Iraq, addressed the Security Council on Thursday, a day after the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. (AFP)

A U.N. envoy warned that there is a "very real potential" for a spillover of violence from Syria to Iraq which would fuel that country's political and security challenges that threaten its achievements over the last decade.

Martin Kobler, the U.N. special representative in Iraq, addressed the Security Council on Thursday, a day after the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war that toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein.

The Iraq war sparked years of bloodshed as Sunni and Shiite militants battled U.S. forces and each other, leaving nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqis dead. While violence has ebbed sharply, insurgents are still able to stage high-profile attacks, and sectarian and ethnic rivalries remain threats to the country's long-term stability.

Kobler said members of every ethnic and social group continue to be targets of acts of terrorism, assassination and kidnapping. He also said that between November and the end of February, acts of terrorism claimed the lives of almost 1,300 civilians and wounded nearly 3,100 others. The terrorist acts also killed 591 members of the Iraqi security forces and injured more than 1,000.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in western provinces since late December because they feel unprotected and excluded, Kobler said. Over time, "they have spoken "more harshly and proposed more radical solutions."

Kobler said the volatility on the streets is reflected at the political level, where ministers from the Sunni bloc al-Iraqiya have boycotted cabinet meetings for almost four months, political coalitions are weakening and "the political fabric is fraying."

The government has taken a number of initiatives to address the demands of the demonstrators, including facilitating the release of about 3,400 prisoners, transferring all female prisoners to their home region and reinstating pension payments for 11,000 public sector retirees who were members of the formerly ruling Ba'ath Party, he said.

The U.N. special representative also said the "very real potential" of a spillover of violence from Syria would add to existing challenges in Iraq.

Iraq hosts nearly 120,000 Syrians, mainly in the Kurdistan region, and an average of 8,000 Syrians are arriving every day, he said.

In addition, approximately 80,000 Iraqis living in Syria returned to Iraq in the last few months, joining the ranks of the 1.2 million internally displaced Iraqis, Kobler said.

He said the returnees and the internally displaced need urgent humanitarian assistance, explaining that the majority live in "informal settlements" that are in appalling condition and lack basic services.

22 Mar, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2013/03/22/U-N-envoy-warns-of-possible-Syria-spillover-to-Iraq.html
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Qaddafi family members left Algeria long ago: envoy

Qaddafi's wife Safia and daughter Aisha sought refuge in Algeria after the fall of Tripoli in August 2011 to rebels battling the now dead dictator's loyalists. (AFP)

Relatives of Libyan former strongman Muammar Qaddafi who took refuge in Algeria in August 2011 left the country a long time ago, the Algerian envoy to Libya said on Thursday.

"The family of Qaddafi left Algeria a long time ago and there is nobody [from the family] on Algerian soil," Abdelhamid Bouzaher was quoted as saying by Libya's official news agency LANA.

He did not offer any information on the current whereabouts of Qaddafi's relatives, the agency said.

Contacted by AFP, Bouzaher refused to comment, as did the office of Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.

Qaddafi's wife Safia and two sons, Hannibal and Mohammed, along with daughter Aisha sought refuge in Algeria after the fall of Tripoli in August 2011 to rebels battling the now dead dictator's loyalists.

Another son, Saadi, fled to Niger in September that year.

Three of Qaddafi's sons, Mutassim, Seif al-Arab and Khamis, were killed during the conflict in separate incidents.

The dictator's most prominent son Seif al-Islam, who was once touted as a potential successor, was arrested in November 2011 and is awaiting trial.

Qaddafi himself was killed in his hometown of Sirte in October 2011.

22 Mar, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2013/03/22/Qaddafi-family-members-left-Algeria-long-ago-envoy-.html
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Sheikh al-Bouti, the Syrian Sunni cleric who stood by Assad

Sheikh Mohammed Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti was killed at the age of 84 in a suicide bombing that targeted a mosque in Damascus. (AFP)

While most of the Muslim Sunnis in Syria have risen up against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a prominent Sunni Muslim scholar took a different route by supporting the Syrian regime.

On Thursday, that man -- Sheikh Mohammed Saeed Ramadan al-Bouti -- was killed at the age of 84 in a suicide bombing that targeted a mosque in Damascus.

Al- Bouti held weekly sermons at the historic Ummayyad Mosque and in recent months, Syrian TV has carried his weekly addresses live. Bouti also had a regular religious TV program.

The sheikh belongs to a Kurdish tribe that is spread across Syria, Iraq and Turkey. He was born on the Boutan Island of Turkey in 1929 and headed to Syria with his father at the age of four. Once a little older he went on to study religion in Damascus

Al-Bouti started his career teaching at a secondary school in Homs in 1958 and 1961, he was appointed as part of the Shariah faculty at Damascus University.

In 1965, Bouti moved to Egypt where he received a doctorate in Sharia law at al-Azhar University. He headed back to Syria, and where he was once a faculty member, he progressed into the respected position of vice dean at the College of Islamic Law at Damascus University in 1975 and in 1977 became dean.

Bouti then retired but continued to lecture and write about Islamic affairs. He has authored more than 60 books and was a prominent religious reference in the Muslim world, holding the presidency of the Scholars Union for the Levant region.

Bouti was a vocal supporter of the Syrian regime since the early days of Assad's father and predecessor, the late President Hafez Assad.

Following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, Bouti criticized anti-regime protests and urged demonstrators not to follow "calls of unknown sources that want to exploit mosques to incite seditions and chaos in Syria."

He said "most of the protesters do not pray" and criticized prominent Egyptian scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi for playing "demagoguery that opens the door of sedition." Qaradawi has supported revolutions in several Arab Spring countries. But despite his open support for Assad, al-Bouti was reported to have issued a Fatwa, or a religious edict prohibiting the killing of protesters.

In a recent study of the top 500 influential Muslim scholars in the Islamic world by the Jordan-based Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, al-Bouti, came in 27th place.

A Facebook page that claims to represent Bouti has 46,387 "likes."

22 Mar, 2013

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Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2013/03/22/-Sheikh-al-Bouti-the-Syrian-Sunni-cleric-who-stood-by-Assad.html
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