Middle East thread

Protests in north-west Syria mark 13 years since start of fight for democracy
Rallies take place in Idlib region, held by rebels against Bashar al-Assad, whose repression sparked civil war in 2011


Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Syria’s rebel-held north-west to mark 13 years since pro-democracy protests swept the country, chanting against President Bashar al-Assad and the region’s jihadist rulers.

The government’s brutal suppression of the 2011 uprising triggered a civil war that has killed more than half a million people, drawn in foreign armies and jihadists, and divided the country.

The former al-Qaida affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) now controls a significant swathe of the north-west, where hundreds have protested in recent weeks against its leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Anger is still simmering over the death of a man in the group’s custody.


Syria: rallies in Idlib province mark 13 years since uprising – video
Hundreds of protesters paraded through the city of Idlib, many of them brandishing placards that read “Down with Jolani … Assad.”

Mohammed Harnoush, 35, who attended the protest, said the anniversary was a reminder that “our revolution is against everyone … whether it is Bashar al-Assad or Jolani”.
“This people shall not be ruled by iron and fire,” he said, speaking in the city’s main square.
The rebel-held region around Idlib hosts about three million people, many of whom have fled other parts of the country held or recaptured by Assad’s Russian and Iranian-backed government.

View image in fullscreen
A refugee camp on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey, near the town of Atma in Idlib province. Photograph: Ghaith Alsayed/AP

Khalidia Agha, 72, was also among the protesters. She said government forces had killed one of her sons, and that two others had disappeared into HTS prisons six years ago. She has not heard from them since.

“I am protesting today because my children are jailed … All I ask for is to see them and know where they are,” she said.
In the southern, government-held city of Sweida, hundreds took to the streets to mark the anniversary, footage from the Suwayda24 media outlet showed.
It followed about seven months of anti-government demonstrations in the wider Sweida region, the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority, which has largely been spared from the war.
Protests against deteriorating economic conditions have erupted sporadically in Sweida since 2020. The latest wave started after the government cut fuel subsidies in August.
In a joint statement to mark the anniversary, Britain, France, Germany and the US said the Sweida protests “show that the demands for peace, freedom and dignity that led to protests 13 years ago endure”.
“The war in Syria is not over,” the quartet said, pointing to government bombardments of rebel-held areas and Islamic State attacks.


The epic failure of our age: how the west let down Syria
Read more
They rejected any normalisation of relations with the Assad government, which was readmitted to the Arab League last year, until “there is authentic, meaningful and enduring progress towards a political solution”.

The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said on Friday that after 13 years of war, the country was “without a political solution in sight”.
“We must prioritise peace. If we do not do so, the grim downward trends across nearly all indicators in Syria will only continue in the year ahead,” Pedersen said.
About 7.2 million people have sought refuge from the fighting inside Syria while millions more have fled the country.
The UN has said that 16.7 million people in Syria will require some type of humanitarian assistance or protection this year, the largest number since the start of the conflict.
About 90% of Syrians live in poverty, according to UN figures.
Almost 7.5 million children in Syria will need humanitarian assistance in 2024, more than at any other time during the conflict, according to Unicef.
 
www.theguardian.com

‘Every day I cry’: 50 women talk about life as a domestic worker under the Gulf’s kafala system

Denounced as giving a ‘veneer of legality to slaveholding’, the kafala labour code persists, allowing employers to abuse women, who vanish from society. This is the testimony of some of those workers, gathered over two years in a Guardian investigation
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Women spoke of being dehumanised and treated like “animals”. Perlah*, 33, from the Philippines, worked in Jordan for two years, for a family of six in a flat in Amman until 2022. She was given one meal a day of bread and instant noodles, and had no bed.

“I slept on the outside balcony of the apartment,” she says. “It was too cold. The neighbours could see me sleep.”

Beatrice* was 21 when a recruiter – a man from her community in Liberia – told her she had been awarded a scholarship to study in Oman. When she arrived in 2021, she was put to work. “The job is tough. You clean, wash the car, wash clothes. We don’t have any vacation.

“They beat you; they starve you,” she says. “We are dying – we need help.”
Click to expand...
 
in the Time or Newsweek of 1980s or 90s it would be very much the same but the top story once was some guy pressing a hot iron onto the face of a domestic servant . Seems time improves things , like slowly .
 

Neom: Forces 'told to kill’ to clear land for eco-city​

Saudi authorities have permitted the use of lethal force to clear land for a futuristic desert city being built by dozens of Western companies, an ex-intelligence officer has told the BBC.
Col Rabih Alenezi says he was ordered to evict villagers from a tribe in the Gulf state to make way for The Line, part of the Neom eco-project.
One of them was subsequently shot and killed for protesting against eviction.
The Saudi government and Neom management refused to comment.
Neom, Saudi Arabia's $500bn (£399bn) eco-region, is part of its Saudi Vision 2030 strategy which aims to diversify the kingdom's economy away from oil.

Its flagship project, The Line, has been pitched as a car-free city, just 200m (656ft) wide and 170km (106 miles) long - though only 2.4km of the project is reportedly expected to be completed by 2030.

Dozens of global companies, several of them British, are involved in Neom's construction.
The area where Neom is being built has been described as the perfect "blank canvas" by Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. But more than 6,000 people have been moved for the project according to his government - and UK-based human rights group ALQST estimates the figure to be higher.
The BBC has analysed satellite images of three of the villages demolished - al-Khuraybah, Sharma and Gayal. Homes, schools, and hospitals have been wiped off the map.

Col Alenezi, who went into exile in the UK last year, says the clearance order he was asked to enact was for al-Khuraybah, 4.5km south of The Line. The villages were mostly populated by the Huwaitat tribe, who have inhabited the Tabuk region in the country's north-west for generations.
He said the April 2020 order stated the Huwaitat was made up of "many rebels" and "whoever continues to resist [eviction] should be killed, so it licensed the use of lethal force against whoever stayed in their home".
He dodged the mission on invented medical grounds, he told the BBC, but it nevertheless went ahead.
Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti refused to allow a land registry committee to value his property, and was shot dead by Saudi authorities a day later, during the clearance mission. He had previously posted multiple videos on social media protesting against the evictions.

A statement issued by Saudi state security at the time alleged al-Huwaiti had opened fire on security forces and they had been forced to retaliate. Human rights organisations and the UN have said he was killed simply for resisting eviction.
The BBC was not able to independently verify Col Alenezi's comments about lethal force.
But a source familiar with the workings of the Saudi intelligence directorate told us the colonel's testimony - regarding both how the clearance order was communicated and what it said - was in line with what they knew about such missions more generally. They also said the colonel's level of seniority would have been appropriate to lead the assignment.
At least 47 other villagers were detained after resisting evictions, many of whom were prosecuted on terror-related charges, according to the UN and ALQST. Of those, 40 remain in detention, five of whom are on death row, ALQST says.
Several were arrested for simply publicly mourning al-Huwaiti's death on social media, the group said.

Saudi authorities say those required to move for The Line have been offered compensation. But the figures paid out have been much lower than the amount promised, according to AlQst.
According to Col Alenezi, "[Neom] is the centrepiece of Mohamed Bin Salman's ideas. That's why he was so brutal in dealing with the Huwaitat."

A former senior executive of Neom's ski project told the BBC he had heard about the killing of Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti a few weeks before leaving his native US for the role in 2020. Andy Wirth says he repeatedly asked his employers about the evictions, but was not satisfied with the answers.
"It just reeked of something terrible [that] had been exacted upon these people… You don't step on their throats with your boot heels so you can advance," he said.

He left the project less than a year after joining it, disenchanted with its management.
A chief executive of a British desalination company who pulled out of a $100m (£80m) project for The Line in 2022 is also extremely critical.
"It might be good for some high-tech people living in that area, but what about the rest?" said Malcolm Aw, the CEO of Solar Water PLC.
The local population should be seen as valuable assets, he added, given how well they understand the area.
"You should seek that advice to improve, to create, recreate, without removing them."

Displaced villagers were extremely reluctant to comment, fearing that speaking to foreign media could further endanger their detained relatives.
But we spoke to those evicted elsewhere for another Saudi Vision 2030 scheme. More than a million people have been displaced for the Jeddah Central project in the western Saudi Arabian city - set to include an opera house, sporting district, and high-end retail and residential units.
Nader Hijazi [not his real name] grew up in Aziziyah - one of approximately 63 neighbourhoods affected by those demolitions. His father's home was razed in 2021, for which he received less than a month's warning.
Hijazi says the photos he had seen of his former neighbourhood were shocking, saying they evoked a warzone.
"They're waging a war on people, a war on our identities."

Saudi activists told the BBC of two individuals arrested last year in connection with the Jeddah demolitions - one for physically resisting eviction, the other for posting photos of anti-demolition graffiti on his social media.
And a relative of a detainee in Jeddah's Dhahban Central Prison said they had heard accounts of a further 15 people being held there - reportedly for staging a farewell gathering in one of the neighbourhoods marked for demolition. The difficulty of contacting those inside Saudi prisons means we have not been able to verify this.
ALQST surveyed 35 evicted people from Jeddah neighbourhoods. Of those, none say they had received compensation, or sufficient warning, in accordance with local law, and more than half said they had been forced out of their homes under threat of arrest.

Col Alenezi is now based in the UK but still fears for his security. He says an intelligence officer told him that he would be offered $5m (£4m) if he attended a meeting at London's Saudi embassy with the Saudi interior minister. He refused. We put this allegation to the Saudi government but they did not respond.

Attacks on critics of the Saudi government living abroad are not without precedent - the most high-profile being that on US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, murdered by Saudi agents inside the country's Istanbul consulate in 2018. A damning US intelligence report concluded Mohamed Bin Salman approved the operation. The crown prince has denied any role.
But Col Alenezi has no regrets about his decision to disobey orders regarding Saudi's futuristic city.
"Mohamed Bin Salman will let nothing stand in the way of the building of Neom…I started to become more worried about what I might be asked to do to my own people."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68945445
 
Broken_Erika said:

Neom: Forces 'told to kill’ to clear land for eco-city​

Saudi authorities have permitted the use of lethal force to clear land for a futuristic desert city being built by dozens of Western companies, an ex-intelligence officer has told the BBC.
Col Rabih Alenezi says he was ordered to evict villagers from a tribe in the Gulf state to make way for The Line, part of the Neom eco-project.
One of them was subsequently shot and killed for protesting against eviction.
The Saudi government and Neom management refused to comment.
Neom, Saudi Arabia's $500bn (£399bn) eco-region, is part of its Saudi Vision 2030 strategy which aims to diversify the kingdom's economy away from oil.

Its flagship project, The Line, has been pitched as a car-free city, just 200m (656ft) wide and 170km (106 miles) long - though only 2.4km of the project is reportedly expected to be completed by 2030.

Dozens of global companies, several of them British, are involved in Neom's construction.
The area where Neom is being built has been described as the perfect "blank canvas" by Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. But more than 6,000 people have been moved for the project according to his government - and UK-based human rights group ALQST estimates the figure to be higher.
The BBC has analysed satellite images of three of the villages demolished - al-Khuraybah, Sharma and Gayal. Homes, schools, and hospitals have been wiped off the map.

Col Alenezi, who went into exile in the UK last year, says the clearance order he was asked to enact was for al-Khuraybah, 4.5km south of The Line. The villages were mostly populated by the Huwaitat tribe, who have inhabited the Tabuk region in the country's north-west for generations.
He said the April 2020 order stated the Huwaitat was made up of "many rebels" and "whoever continues to resist [eviction] should be killed, so it licensed the use of lethal force against whoever stayed in their home".
He dodged the mission on invented medical grounds, he told the BBC, but it nevertheless went ahead.
Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti refused to allow a land registry committee to value his property, and was shot dead by Saudi authorities a day later, during the clearance mission. He had previously posted multiple videos on social media protesting against the evictions.

A statement issued by Saudi state security at the time alleged al-Huwaiti had opened fire on security forces and they had been forced to retaliate. Human rights organisations and the UN have said he was killed simply for resisting eviction.
The BBC was not able to independently verify Col Alenezi's comments about lethal force.
But a source familiar with the workings of the Saudi intelligence directorate told us the colonel's testimony - regarding both how the clearance order was communicated and what it said - was in line with what they knew about such missions more generally. They also said the colonel's level of seniority would have been appropriate to lead the assignment.
At least 47 other villagers were detained after resisting evictions, many of whom were prosecuted on terror-related charges, according to the UN and ALQST. Of those, 40 remain in detention, five of whom are on death row, ALQST says.
Several were arrested for simply publicly mourning al-Huwaiti's death on social media, the group said.

Saudi authorities say those required to move for The Line have been offered compensation. But the figures paid out have been much lower than the amount promised, according to AlQst.
According to Col Alenezi, "[Neom] is the centrepiece of Mohamed Bin Salman's ideas. That's why he was so brutal in dealing with the Huwaitat."

A former senior executive of Neom's ski project told the BBC he had heard about the killing of Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti a few weeks before leaving his native US for the role in 2020. Andy Wirth says he repeatedly asked his employers about the evictions, but was not satisfied with the answers.
"It just reeked of something terrible [that] had been exacted upon these people… You don't step on their throats with your boot heels so you can advance," he said.

He left the project less than a year after joining it, disenchanted with its management.
A chief executive of a British desalination company who pulled out of a $100m (£80m) project for The Line in 2022 is also extremely critical.
"It might be good for some high-tech people living in that area, but what about the rest?" said Malcolm Aw, the CEO of Solar Water PLC.
The local population should be seen as valuable assets, he added, given how well they understand the area.
"You should seek that advice to improve, to create, recreate, without removing them."

Displaced villagers were extremely reluctant to comment, fearing that speaking to foreign media could further endanger their detained relatives.
But we spoke to those evicted elsewhere for another Saudi Vision 2030 scheme. More than a million people have been displaced for the Jeddah Central project in the western Saudi Arabian city - set to include an opera house, sporting district, and high-end retail and residential units.
Nader Hijazi [not his real name] grew up in Aziziyah - one of approximately 63 neighbourhoods affected by those demolitions. His father's home was razed in 2021, for which he received less than a month's warning.
Hijazi says the photos he had seen of his former neighbourhood were shocking, saying they evoked a warzone.
"They're waging a war on people, a war on our identities."

Saudi activists told the BBC of two individuals arrested last year in connection with the Jeddah demolitions - one for physically resisting eviction, the other for posting photos of anti-demolition graffiti on his social media.
And a relative of a detainee in Jeddah's Dhahban Central Prison said they had heard accounts of a further 15 people being held there - reportedly for staging a farewell gathering in one of the neighbourhoods marked for demolition. The difficulty of contacting those inside Saudi prisons means we have not been able to verify this.
ALQST surveyed 35 evicted people from Jeddah neighbourhoods. Of those, none say they had received compensation, or sufficient warning, in accordance with local law, and more than half said they had been forced out of their homes under threat of arrest.

Col Alenezi is now based in the UK but still fears for his security. He says an intelligence officer told him that he would be offered $5m (£4m) if he attended a meeting at London's Saudi embassy with the Saudi interior minister. He refused. We put this allegation to the Saudi government but they did not respond.

Attacks on critics of the Saudi government living abroad are not without precedent - the most high-profile being that on US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, murdered by Saudi agents inside the country's Istanbul consulate in 2018. A damning US intelligence report concluded Mohamed Bin Salman approved the operation. The crown prince has denied any role.
But Col Alenezi has no regrets about his decision to disobey orders regarding Saudi's futuristic city.
"Mohamed Bin Salman will let nothing stand in the way of the building of Neom…I started to become more worried about what I might be asked to do to my own people."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68945445
Click to expand...
Eh it's against the law to get in the way of people trying to go about their day simply working. If they don't like being shot they should try obeying the law instead
 
will not comment , will not comment ...

but hey it has been called fake news that two of guards were killed in an attack on his convoy or whatever it is called .
 
If you think about it? Those tribespeople are pro global warming because they prevent eco cities. Kinda cringe
 
There was no petrodollar. That has been ancient history for a long time. What the press is ventilating about the the political defections by Saudi Arabia from the US vassal's stable. They finally woke up to it? SOmeone in Washington did and spread the word for those pieces?

If MBS could be assassinated for regime change he'd have fed the worms already. The Saud family are not dumb. They are aligning with the winners and any replacement for MBS would carry on the shift. The caues for realignment are structural.

Did anyone notice Turkey moving to join the BRICS? The world has changed. Already. It's done.

@Bonyduck Campersang "revolution against everyone" so a piece that depicts a protest of nihilists? That's a plant for sure, whomever wrote that piece was doing fantasy writing, not reporting. To be expected in the City's propaganda rag.
 
as one who has "supported" the Saudi complicity as proven by some number of Saudi Princes found dead of thirst in the middle of the desert in September or October 2001in their luxury SUVs , ı will say it has got nothing to do with 9/11 itself . But might be one that there would be a ground operation where the Saudi "informants" would have guided the FBI to make arrests . Of enemies of Saudi Arabia and what not . You know Dabya reading Billy the Goat to kids for an hour or whatever , confused by unexplained things . As such ı will say there is nothing in this , in the way described or claimed . Did this Saudi guy also filmed Queens New York where an Airbus crashed within a month , during the UN session where the then Turkish Foreign Minister was talking anc offering no particular resistance to the coming American rape of the Middle East ?
 
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