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| Syria: Kofi Annan alarmed at surges in violence - live updates | Syria: Kofi Annan alarmed at surges in violence - live updates |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| 9.49am: Syria: Russia and China have have called for a speedier deployment of more UN monitors, according to the diplomatic blog Inner City Press. | |
| It quotes China's ambassador to the UN Li Baodong as saying: "I think we should deploy observers as soon as possible. Kofi needs that, the people in Syria need that. Let people go to Syria to monitor the situation." | |
| Asked about the current timetable of deploying of 100 monitors within a month he said: "We believe too slow, ridiculous ... undermines the mission." | |
| And Russia's ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin was quoted as saying: "We need to try to see what can be done in order to deploy the monitors quicker than currently anticipated... So far there are just twelve monitors and I think a number of colleagues including myself simply urged them to look for some unorthodox ways to expedite the process." | |
| 9.13am: Jordan: Attempts to reform are being undermined by the repeated curtailing of free speech, according to Human Rights Watch. It highlights charges of "subverting the system of government" by military prosecutors on Monday against a journalist and publisher for an article concerning the king's supposed intervention in a corruption investigation. | |
| Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: | |
| Jordan cannot claim to be making democratic reforms while prosecutors hunt down journalists doing their job. Jordan's parliament should eliminate penal code articles that punish nonviolent speech offenses, and in the meantime, authorities should instruct prosecutors to stop bringing charges under those articles. | |
| 8.59am: Arab gender wars: Today has brought a flood of new ripostes to Mona Eltahawy's recent polemic against misogyny in Arab society. Her article about the "war on women", which we noted in Middle East Live yesterday seems to have provoked far more criticism than the announcement from Saudi Arabia's grand mufti that girls are "ready to marry" by the age of 10 or 12. | 8.59am: Arab gender wars: Today has brought a flood of new ripostes to Mona Eltahawy's recent polemic against misogyny in Arab society. Her article about the "war on women", which we noted in Middle East Live yesterday seems to have provoked far more criticism than the announcement from Saudi Arabia's grand mufti that girls are "ready to marry" by the age of 10 or 12. |
| Yesterday we mentioned the replies to Eltahawy from Samia Errazzouki and Mona Kareem, plus a critique on Twitter from Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. | Yesterday we mentioned the replies to Eltahawy from Samia Errazzouki and Mona Kareem, plus a critique on Twitter from Hossam Bahgat of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. |
| Here are the latest responses: | Here are the latest responses: |
| Omid Safi, a specialist in contemporary Islamic thought, describes the article as "reminiscent of the worst writings of Islamophobes" and says: | Omid Safi, a specialist in contemporary Islamic thought, describes the article as "reminiscent of the worst writings of Islamophobes" and says: |
| Thirty years of scholarship on Islam and women suggests that the actual problem is often much more complicated, dealing with a variety of factors such as economics, tribal structures, nationalism, colonial legacy, changing family models, and authoritative discourses that attempt to regulate the body. Hate, it turns out, is simply not a sufficient explanatory category. | Thirty years of scholarship on Islam and women suggests that the actual problem is often much more complicated, dealing with a variety of factors such as economics, tribal structures, nationalism, colonial legacy, changing family models, and authoritative discourses that attempt to regulate the body. Hate, it turns out, is simply not a sufficient explanatory category. |
| Writing for Open Democracy, Tom Dale says many of the criticisms of Elthahawy have been unfair or downright abusive, but there are real questions which ought to be raised about the article: | Writing for Open Democracy, Tom Dale says many of the criticisms of Elthahawy have been unfair or downright abusive, but there are real questions which ought to be raised about the article: |
| No doubt, many men do hate and fear the women who they oppress. But there's far more too it than that. | No doubt, many men do hate and fear the women who they oppress. But there's far more too it than that. |
| And unless we have coherent explanations of why these things happen, of why they're contingent, but not essential to "Arab societies", we'll be in a much worse place to bring them to a final end. | And unless we have coherent explanations of why these things happen, of why they're contingent, but not essential to "Arab societies", we'll be in a much worse place to bring them to a final end. |
| Al-Jazeeera journalist Dima Khatib writes: | Al-Jazeeera journalist Dima Khatib writes: |
| It is true that women's issues are among our most thorny problems, and I believe that the liberation and progress of our societies will only take place through solving these problems, but I also believe that the other problems must be solved too. And the other problems are suffered by both men and women, social degradation, oppression, subordination, illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, exploitation, ignorance and many of the injustices, among other things ... | It is true that women's issues are among our most thorny problems, and I believe that the liberation and progress of our societies will only take place through solving these problems, but I also believe that the other problems must be solved too. And the other problems are suffered by both men and women, social degradation, oppression, subordination, illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, exploitation, ignorance and many of the injustices, among other things ... |
| You have reduced the problem of the Arab woman to the feelings of men; while the image of the Arab woman was reduced to the image that the west has of her. What you have tackled is true, and we have a long road ahead, and the revolutions have not achieved anything for women or for any one else when it comes to societal demands, and we have not yet been granted our basic rights, as women or as men. | You have reduced the problem of the Arab woman to the feelings of men; while the image of the Arab woman was reduced to the image that the west has of her. What you have tackled is true, and we have a long road ahead, and the revolutions have not achieved anything for women or for any one else when it comes to societal demands, and we have not yet been granted our basic rights, as women or as men. |
| There are also articles from The Angry Egyptian and The Frustrated Arab, and Foreign Policy (where Eltahawy's article originally appeared) has reactions from "five smart observers". Al-Jazeera, meanwhile, looks at more online reactions. | There are also articles from The Angry Egyptian and The Frustrated Arab, and Foreign Policy (where Eltahawy's article originally appeared) has reactions from "five smart observers". Al-Jazeera, meanwhile, looks at more online reactions. |
| 8.29am: (all times BST). Welcome to Middle East Live. More UN monitors are to be deployed, but they will take weeks to arrive, as Syria rejects observers from countries in the 'Friends of Syria' group. | 8.29am: (all times BST). Welcome to Middle East Live. More UN monitors are to be deployed, but they will take weeks to arrive, as Syria rejects observers from countries in the 'Friends of Syria' group. |
| Here's a roundup of the main developments: | Here's a roundup of the main developments: |
| Syria | Syria |
| • The Arab League-UN envoy, Kofi Annan, has told the security council that he is concerned about surges in violence in Syrian cities after visits by UN monitors, the BBC reports. He told a closed-door meeting that he was "particularly alarmed" by reports of government forces firing on protesters in Hama on Monday, after observers left. | • The Arab League-UN envoy, Kofi Annan, has told the security council that he is concerned about surges in violence in Syrian cities after visits by UN monitors, the BBC reports. He told a closed-door meeting that he was "particularly alarmed" by reports of government forces firing on protesters in Hama on Monday, after observers left. |
| • The UN is under pressure to move more quickly to send more observers to Syria, amid fears that a tenuous ceasefire could collapse before the next stages of a peace plan can be implemented. Ten days after a UN resolution authorising the despatch of 30-strong "rapid response team", only 11 military observers are operating in Syria, where opposition sources said on Tuesday that 21 people had been killed by the security forces, and the government blamed a car bombing in central Damascus on "terrorists". | • The UN is under pressure to move more quickly to send more observers to Syria, amid fears that a tenuous ceasefire could collapse before the next stages of a peace plan can be implemented. Ten days after a UN resolution authorising the despatch of 30-strong "rapid response team", only 11 military observers are operating in Syria, where opposition sources said on Tuesday that 21 people had been killed by the security forces, and the government blamed a car bombing in central Damascus on "terrorists". |
| • Syria has refused to accept monitors from countries belonging to the Friends of Syria coalition, according to Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN. Two Chinese monitors have joined the UN's team, according to the state news agency Xinhua, but it will take a month before 100 more monitors are deployed. | • Syria has refused to accept monitors from countries belonging to the Friends of Syria coalition, according to Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN. Two Chinese monitors have joined the UN's team, according to the state news agency Xinhua, but it will take a month before 100 more monitors are deployed. |
| • Observers are to be stationed in opposition strongholds of Homs and Hama after pleas from activists for the monitoring teams to stay longer, Rice also revealed. She said: | • Observers are to be stationed in opposition strongholds of Homs and Hama after pleas from activists for the monitoring teams to stay longer, Rice also revealed. She said: |
| The problem is, obviously there are not sufficient observers deployed at present to leave in every place that the observer team might visit after which there may be, if the pattern holds, an intensification of violence. Hence, the Council's very unanimous and strong view, that having made the decision to deploy these monitors, let's get them out as swiftly as possible ... | The problem is, obviously there are not sufficient observers deployed at present to leave in every place that the observer team might visit after which there may be, if the pattern holds, an intensification of violence. Hence, the Council's very unanimous and strong view, that having made the decision to deploy these monitors, let's get them out as swiftly as possible ... |
| The problem is, and this is what joint special envoy [Annan] in part was referring to, is that, once they have left, their violence and number of instances has resumed. Now, the way they have tried to deal with that is to leave observers in Homs now and again now in Hama. | The problem is, and this is what joint special envoy [Annan] in part was referring to, is that, once they have left, their violence and number of instances has resumed. Now, the way they have tried to deal with that is to leave observers in Homs now and again now in Hama. |
| We need to get the beginnings of a critical mass of observers on the ground to be able to test the proposition as to whether they can in fact have, if not a perfect impact, then a beneficial impact that we decide is worth maintaining. | We need to get the beginnings of a critical mass of observers on the ground to be able to test the proposition as to whether they can in fact have, if not a perfect impact, then a beneficial impact that we decide is worth maintaining. |
| • An activist in Homs begged monitors to stay to help stop the violence in the beleaguered city during a visit over the weekend. | • An activist in Homs begged monitors to stay to help stop the violence in the beleaguered city during a visit over the weekend. |
| "When you come shelling stops. When you come killing stops. Please stay. Just three monitors, maybe two monitors as you arranged. It is very important to stay," he told them in English. He claimed the arrival of the monitors had coincided with the first pause in the shelling for two months. | "When you come shelling stops. When you come killing stops. Please stay. Just three monitors, maybe two monitors as you arranged. It is very important to stay," he told them in English. He claimed the arrival of the monitors had coincided with the first pause in the shelling for two months. |
| • Activists from Zabadani, a opposition stronghold north-west of Damascus, have complained that a monitoring mission to the town lasted only ten minutes. An open letter to the mission complained of an encounter with the head of the monitors, the Moroccan colonel Ahmad Hamishi. It said: | • Activists from Zabadani, a opposition stronghold north-west of Damascus, have complained that a monitoring mission to the town lasted only ten minutes. An open letter to the mission complained of an encounter with the head of the monitors, the Moroccan colonel Ahmad Hamishi. It said: |
| When we informed him that we had risked our lives to meet him, and were ready to accompany him so that he could see with his own eyes the widespread military checkpoints, he refused, saying he did not have the time. | When we informed him that we had risked our lives to meet him, and were ready to accompany him so that he could see with his own eyes the widespread military checkpoints, he refused, saying he did not have the time. |
| • The US risks repeating mistakes of Afghanistan in the 1980s by helping an increasingly radical and Islamic opposition in Syria, argues veteran Syria hand Joshua Landis. | • The US risks repeating mistakes of Afghanistan in the 1980s by helping an increasingly radical and Islamic opposition in Syria, argues veteran Syria hand Joshua Landis. |
| The model the US is now pursuing in Syria resembles the policy it pursued in Afghanistan of the 1980s: arm the insurgency to take down an enemy regime. Everyone in the Obama administration is acutely aware that the outcome of supporting the mujaheddin in Afghanistan was al-Qaida. No one wants to replicate that so Clinton in insisting that all aid go to Burhan Ghalioun for whom the ideal revolution is the French revolution and not the Islamic revolution. Clinton even got the Saudis to publicly sign on to this strategy at Istanbul where the last "Friends of Syria" meeting was assembled. | The model the US is now pursuing in Syria resembles the policy it pursued in Afghanistan of the 1980s: arm the insurgency to take down an enemy regime. Everyone in the Obama administration is acutely aware that the outcome of supporting the mujaheddin in Afghanistan was al-Qaida. No one wants to replicate that so Clinton in insisting that all aid go to Burhan Ghalioun for whom the ideal revolution is the French revolution and not the Islamic revolution. Clinton even got the Saudis to publicly sign on to this strategy at Istanbul where the last "Friends of Syria" meeting was assembled. |
| But the reports on the opposition that are now beginning to come out, and which suggest that it is beginning to score some military successes, paint a picture of regular pious youth who are beginning to embrace the expertise of the Jihadists who fought in Iraq and elsewhere and to discover the motivational power of radical Islamism, something they are going to need to exploit if they hope to defeat the Syrian Army. | But the reports on the opposition that are now beginning to come out, and which suggest that it is beginning to score some military successes, paint a picture of regular pious youth who are beginning to embrace the expertise of the Jihadists who fought in Iraq and elsewhere and to discover the motivational power of radical Islamism, something they are going to need to exploit if they hope to defeat the Syrian Army. |
| Bahrain | Bahrain |
| • The authorities say an explosion has wounded four policemen during clashes in Diraz, one of the anti-government strongholds, AP reports. An activist claimed the explosion was caused by a gas cylinder. | • The authorities say an explosion has wounded four policemen during clashes in Diraz, one of the anti-government strongholds, AP reports. An activist claimed the explosion was caused by a gas cylinder. |
| • Bahrain has remanded in custody for seven days the daughter of a jailed hunger striker for protesting during last week's Formula One grand prix. Zainab al-Khawaja was arrested on Saturday after she sat on the main road running past Bahrain's financial district during days of Shia protests held to embarrass the kingdom's rulers at a time when the race was drawing international media attention. | • Bahrain has remanded in custody for seven days the daughter of a jailed hunger striker for protesting during last week's Formula One grand prix. Zainab al-Khawaja was arrested on Saturday after she sat on the main road running past Bahrain's financial district during days of Shia protests held to embarrass the kingdom's rulers at a time when the race was drawing international media attention. |
| Egypt | Egypt |
| • A court found Egypt's most popular comic actor guilty of insulting Islam in roles in films mocking religious hypocrisy, alarming liberal-minded artists and intellectuals already anxious about the growing power of Islamists in the new Egypt, the New York Times reports. The court fined the actor Adel Imam, who starred in the film the Yacoubian Building, about £105 ($170) and gave him a suspended sentence. | • A court found Egypt's most popular comic actor guilty of insulting Islam in roles in films mocking religious hypocrisy, alarming liberal-minded artists and intellectuals already anxious about the growing power of Islamists in the new Egypt, the New York Times reports. The court fined the actor Adel Imam, who starred in the film the Yacoubian Building, about £105 ($170) and gave him a suspended sentence. |
| • The authorities have refused licenses for eight US civil society organisations, including the Carter Centre, ahead of next month presidential elections, Foreign Policy magazine reports. The requests were denied on the grounds that their work would violate Egyptian sovereignty, it says citing state media. | • The authorities have refused licenses for eight US civil society organisations, including the Carter Centre, ahead of next month presidential elections, Foreign Policy magazine reports. The requests were denied on the grounds that their work would violate Egyptian sovereignty, it says citing state media. |