NEw SARS-likE viRUS EMERGES iN MidEASt - Kuwait Times

Obama ignores Israel ‘noise’ on Iran nukes
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purposes, but the West fears it is for building nuclear
weapons. Israel is seen as pushing a much more hardline
approach that would include military action, while
Washington instead prefers to let diplomacy and sanctions
dissuade Iran from building the bomb.
Obama, interviewed for Sunday’s edition of “60
Minutes” on broadcaster CBS, said he understands and
agrees with Netanyahu’s insistence that Iran not be
allowed to obtain nuclear weapons as this would threaten
both countries, the world in general, and kick off an
arms race. But Obama added: “When it comes to our
national security decisions - any pressure that I feel is simply
to do what’s right for the American people. And I am
going to block out - any noise that’s out there.”
Tensions have been running high between the United
States and Israeli leader, and they will not hold a face-toface
meeting this week at the UN General Assembly in
New York. The White House has cited scheduling problems.
Obama’s contender for the presidency, Republican
Mitt Romney, said this was no way to treat an ally. The
decision not to meet with Netanyahu, he said, also in an
interview with “60 Minutes”, “is a mistake and sends a
message throughout the Middle East that somehow we
distance ourselves from our friends and I think the exact
opposite approach is what’s necessary.”
Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul argued
that Obama’s reference to Israel as “one of our closest
allies in the region” was unacceptable. “This is just the latest
evidence of his chronic disregard for the security of
our closest ally in the Middle East,” she said. “Romney
strongly believes that Israel is our most important ally in
the Middle East and ...as president, Governor Romney will
restore and protect the close alliance between our nation
and the state of Israel.”
Separately, a UN report published yesterday said Israel
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spokesman said those accused of “terrorism-related”
crimes were undergoing fair judicial process. “As for the
gathering of a limited number of relatives of the
detained people at a prison, they have been stopped
according to legal procedures and will be dealt with if
they are found in violation of the laws,” the spokesman
said.
Activists said police with shields and batons persuaded
the protesters at the prison to go home, telling them
their message had been heard and their demands
would be looked into.“When we left the ‘Emergency
Forces’ followed our cars. They chased us and stopped
us to detain the men,” said Reema Al-Juraish, an activist
whose husband, a nurse, is in the prison. “I saw them
grab five and when I tried to intervene they pushed me
and hit me with a baton.” She said up to 60 men were
arrested and taken to an unknown location. “The kingdom
is celebrating national day even as our husbands
are being held without charges and without trial,”
Juraish told AFP by telephone. She said her husband
“has been detained for more than nine years without
charge,” adding that she has not seen him in “eight
months”.
Another protester who asked not to be named said
her brother was sentenced to three years in prison and
“has served his sentence but remains in jail”. Her other
brother, who was also detained by authorities, “died in
custody due to lack of care”, she said, adding that both
her brothers were arrested for their “religious beliefs”.
Rights activists told AFP that most of the detainees in
question were “political prisoners with radical religious
beliefs”. More than 100 people, including women and
children, had staged a two-day protest in the desert
around Tarfiya prison in the Qassim province but were
Free speech ‘red lines’ feed Muslim film...
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Beyond the rage, bloodshed and death threats -
churning now for two weeks is a quandary for American
policymakers that will linger long after the latest mayhem
fades: How to explain the US embrace of free
expression to an Islamic world that increasingly sees
only double standards? Although there are many
nuances - including strict US laws when hate speech
crossed the line into threats or intimidation - they are
mostly lost in the current outrage that included a
peaceful march in Nigeria yesterday and Iran threatening
to boycott the 2013 Academy Awards after the
country’s first Oscar-winning film this year.
With each protest, many clerics and Islamist hardliners
hammer home the narrow view that America is
more concerned with political correctness or safeguarding
children from sexual content than the religious sensibilities
of Muslims. In Gaza, preacher Sheikh Hisham
Akram said tolerance is the goal, but the “red line” is
crossed with “anyone who insults our religion.” Iran’s
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - now in New York
for the UN’s annual General Assembly - denounced last
week the “deception” of US laws protecting rights while
allowing the clip from the film “Innocence of Muslims”.
“In some extent, it’s not an issue of condemning
America’s freedom of speech. It’s become an issue, in
the eyes of many Muslims, over where the lines are and
why they are not protecting the feelings of Muslims,”
said John Voll, associate director of the Center for
Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown
University in Washington. It also turns the $70,000 US
ad initiative in Pakistan - one of the hotbeds of the
protests - into a major challenge to gain any ground.
Besides Obama, the spots include Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton repeating that US authorities
had no connection to the video.
It’s part of wider US strategies to use social media
and other forums to reach out to moderates in the
Islamic world - including what the State Department
has described as a “virtual embassy” for Iranian web
surfers. But the fallout from the film has so far drowned
out appeals for calmer dialogue in places such as
Pakistan, where at least 23 people have died in unrest
linked to the film. “The fact that (the Obama administration)
is trying to step up to the plate and trying to
engage where the debate is really happening should be
commended,” said Daniel Markey, a senior fellow in
South Asian affairs at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“But what credibility do they have to deliver this message?
That’s a different story. ... It’s unlikely to make the
sale on the Pakistani street.”
At the UN, a separate effort is being spearheaded by
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation. He said the film
will be at the top of the agenda of a meeting of the 57-
must do more to halt a string of serious violations of
Palestinian human rights documented by a 2009 factfinding
mission. There is a “need to more earnestly pursue
accountability for the serious violations of human
rights and international humanitarian law that were documented
by the fact-finding mission,” Deputy High
Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang told
the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Speaking on
behalf of UN rights chief Navi Pillay, she presented a
report on progress made in implementing recommendations
in the UN Goldstone report, which detailed violations
of international rights and humanitarian laws in
connection with the 2008/09 Gaza conflict.
“It has been nearly three years since this council
endorsed the fact-finding mission’s recommendations.
Yet, not one person has been indicted for any of the incidents
documented,” she said. “Respecting human rights
and international humanitarian law obligations means
that perpetrators of violations are brought to justice.”
Penalties must also correspond to the crimes, she said,
decrying the case of an Israeli soldier sentenced last
month to just 45 days in prison for killing two unarmed
Palestinian women waving a white flag during the Gaza
conflict.
Israel’s Operation Cast Lead offensive in Gaza claimed
the lives of some 1,400 Palestinians -more than half of
them civilians - and 13 Israelis, including three civilians
and 10 soldiers. Yesterday’s report by UN chief Ban Kimoon
also highlighted border closures and restrictions
on Gaza, and obstacles to movement in the West Bank,
exacerbating a deep economic crisis in the Palestinian
territories. It also spoke out against the detention of
4,500 Palestinians in Israeli jails, noting that 250 were also
being held in so-called administrative detention, without
trial. The report also criticised Palestinian armed groups
for firing rockets at Israel, and Palestinian authorities for
among other things arbitrary arrests. — Agencies
Dozens held after Saudi jail protest
surrounded by police. They said they had been kept
without food or water for almost a full day. Police set up
checkpoints on the two roads leading to the area and
deployed patrols in the desert around it, they said.
The kingdom, which has almost no elected bodies,
avoided the kind of unrest that toppled leaders across
the Arab world last year after it introduced generous
social spending packages and issued a religious edict
banning public demonstrations. King Abdullah has
pushed through some economic and social reforms,
including cautious moves to improve the position of
women and religious minorities, but he has left the
political system untouched.
The world’s top oil exporter is an important ally of
Western countries in battling Al-Qaeda, which carried
out a campaign of attacks in the kingdom from 2003-06.
Last year the Interior Ministry said it had put on trial
5,080 of nearly 5,700 people it had detained on security
grounds. In April, a court in Riyadh sentenced rights
campaigner Mohammed Al-Bajadi to four years in
prison after he was accused of forming a human rights
association, tarnishing Saudi Arabia’s reputation, questioning
the independence of the judiciary, and owning
illegal books, activists said. He had been held for a year
without charges after voicing support for prisoners’
families.
In a separate gathering yesterday, dozens of protesters
rallied in front of the government-linked Saudi
Human Rights Commission also calling for the release of
jailed relatives. “There are some prisoners who have
been tortured, some who have completed their sentences,
others who have not been charged and even
some who have been found innocent but are still
imprisoned. We will stay here until we are heard,” said
one protester who declined to be named. Saudi Arabia
denies torturing prisoners. — Agencies
member group on the sidelines of the General
Assembly. Among the proposals is a call to impose an
international law against promoting religious hatred.
Such appeals could get widespread support, but are
nearly certain to collide with Western free speech codes
and be rendered difficult to enforce in the borderless
world of the web.
Already, many moderate Muslim scholars and leaders
have urged the UN or other international bodies to step
in to help define possible global standards on religious
expression. Paul Bhatti, an adviser to the Pakistani prime
minister, told a multi-faith crowd of Muslims, Christians
and others outside the country’s parliament Sunday
that international laws should be imposed to limit the
most hateful fringes of Western free speech. But just a
day earlier, a Pakistan government minister offered a
$100,000 bounty for the death of the filmmaker.
The two responses - one appealing for a higher law
and the other taking justice into his own hands - frame
another divide pried wider by the latest chaos: How
much leeway can Muslim countries allow for expressions
of anger against their faith? While many Muslims
believe American protections for open expression were
abused by the film, there are also moderate voices in
the Islamic world questioning whether the defense of
their religion is warped by death threats and violence
that has left dozens dead, including the US ambassador
to Libya. “This is the flip side to the criticism against
American free speech,” Voll said. “This is another major
learning opportunity inside Muslim societies to look at
themselves and interactions with the world. We have
been here before.”
But the latest upheavals appear to resonate even
deeper because of the widening reach of the web and
social media, which also have played a central role in
the Arab Spring uprisings that have opened new political
space for hardline Islamists. “Sadly, the voices of reason
and logic in this part of the world are few,” said
Ebtehal Al-Khateeb, a Kuwait University professor and
human rights activist. “Even those who strongly oppose
the violence prefer not to speak.”
Kuwait is a particularly instructive proving ground in
the struggle to clarify an Islamic version of free speech.
After Islamist-led opposition groups gained control of
parliament in February, they tried to push through
measures that included the death penalty for blasphemy
against Islam. Kuwait’s Western-leaning rulers signaled
they would reject the move and later suspended
the parliament over election law technicalities. “The
truth is that as amateurish movie production is, it still
falls in the category of freedom of speech,” Khateeb
said. “If you say that to people here, they will read your
response as: ‘You accept this. You are a blasphemer.’
They still don’t understand that they don’t have to
accept it. They can oppose it, but in a civil manner that
is more constructive.” — AP
NEWS
Ahmadinejad blasts Israel
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted
Israel could strike Iran’s nuclear sites and has criticized
US President Barack Obama’s position that sanctions
and diplomacy should be given more time to stop
Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran denies that it
is seeking nuclear arms and says its atomic work is
peaceful, aimed at generating electricity.
“Fundamentally we do not take seriously the threats of
the Zionists. ... We have all the defensive means at our
disposal and we are ready to defend ourselves,”
Ahmadinejad said. He is in New York to attend the UN
General Assembly. His speech is scheduled for tomorrow.
On Sunday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met
with Ahmadinejad and warned him of the dangers of
incendiary rhetoric in the Middle East. Ahmadinejad
did not heed the warning. Ahmadinejad alluded to his
previous rejection of Israel’s right to exist. “Iran has
been around for the last seven, 10 thousand years. They
(the Israelis) have been occupying those territories for
the last 60 to 70 years, with the support and force of
the Westerners. They have no roots there in history,” he
said, speaking to reporters through an interpreter. The
modern state of Israel was founded in 1948.
“We do believe that they have found themselves at a
dead end and they are seeking new adventures in
order to escape this dead end. Iran will not be damaged
with foreign bombs,” Ahmadinejad said, referring
to Israel. “We don’t even count them as any part of any
equation for Iran. During a historical phase, they represent
minimal disturbances that come into the picture
and are then eliminated,” Ahmadinejad added. In 2005,
Ahmadinejad called Israel a “tumor” and echoed the
words of the former Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, by saying that Israel should be
wiped off the map. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, a brigadier general
in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was
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The announcement comes ahead of next month’s
annual haj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia’s holy city of
Makkah which will attract nearly three million believers,
although the WHO said it did not recommend any travel
restrictions. Saudi officials said the pilgrimage next
month could provide more opportunities for the virus to
spread. They advised pilgrims to keep their hands clean
and wear masks in crowded places.
In Britain, the HPA, an organisation set up by the government
to manage infectious diseases, meanwhile,
stressed no-one else in Britain, including those who had
come into contact with the man, were reporting symptoms.
The HPA said the new virus was “different from any
that have previously been identified in humans”. It said
there were encouraging signs that it was not as infectious
as SARS as there had been no evidence of illness in
people who had been in contact with the Qatari or the
Saudi, including in health workers. “Based on what we
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2012
quoted on Sunday as saying that Iran could launch a
pre-emptive strike on Israel if it was sure the Jewish
state was preparing to attack it.
Ahmadinejad said the nuclear issue was one ultimately
between the United States and Iran, and must
be resolved with negotiations. He added, “The nuclear
issue is not a problem. But the approach of the United
States on Iran is important. We are ready for dialogue,
for a fundamental resolution of the problems, but
under conditions that are based on fairness and mutual
respect.” “We are not expecting a 33-year-old problem
between the United States and Iran to be resolved in a
speedy fashion. But there is no other way besides dialogue,”
Ahmadinejad said. US President Barack Obama
will underscore his commitment to preventing Iran
from acquiring a nuclear weapon and address Muslim
unrest related to an anti-Islamic video in his speech to
General Assembly today, the White House said.
Ahmadinejad also addressed a high-level meeting
on the rule of law at the United Nations yesterday, saying
states should not yield to international law as
imposed “by bullying countries”. In the past,
Ahmadinejad has used his UN speeches to defend
Iran’s nuclear program and to attack Israel, the United
States and Europe. He has questioned the Holocaust
and cast doubt on whether 19 hijackers were really
responsible for the Sept 11 attacks on the United States
in 2001. Western envoys typically walk out of
Ahmadinejad’s speeches in protest.
Ahmadinejad said yesterday that Iran - under UN,
U.S. and European Union sanctions over its nuclear program
- is used to economic restrictions and is not
severely affected by them. “The conditions in Iran are
not as bad as they are portrayed by some,”
Ahmadinejad said, adding that his country can survive
without oil revenues. Ahmadinejad added that Iran’s
economy is in much better shape than that of the EU,
which he said was “on the verge of disintegration and
collapse”. — Reuters
New SARS-like virus emerges in Mideast
know about other coronaviruses, many of these contacts
will already have passed the period when they could
have caught the virus from the infected person,” it said.
John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases at the
HPA, said: “Immediate steps have been taken to ensure
that people who have been in contact with the UK case
have not been infected, and there is no evidence to suggest
they have.” Peter Openshaw, director of the Centre
for Respiratory Infection at Imperial College London,
urged caution, saying any evidence of human-to-human
transmission causing severe disease “would be very worrying”.
But fellow expert John Oxford, professor at the
University of London, said he was “somewhat relaxed”
because he believed the illness was more likely to
behave “like a nasty infection rather than join the ‘exception’
group like SARS”. “This new virus does not to me
appear to be in the same ‘big bang’ group,” he added. “I
am very pleased that it does not!”
SARS, which mainly affected Asia, was recognised at
the end of Feb 2003. — Agencies