Excerpts: Gaza aid conoys banned. Regional coalition superior to foreign
military intervention. Iran protest continue January 10, 2010

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 10 Jan,'10:"Egypt bars aid convoys bound for Gaza"
SUBJECT: Gaza aid convoys banned
EXCERPTS:CAIRO – Aid convoys bound for the Gaza Strip will now be banned
from traveling across Egypt after activists this week clashed with police,
the foreign minister said in remarks published Saturday.
Ahmed Abul Gheit told government newspaper Al-Ahram that members of one
convoy led by British MP George Galloway committed “criminal” acts on
Egyptian soil on their way to the blockaded Palestinian coastal enclave.
“Egypt will no longer allow convoys, regardless of their origin or who is
organizing them, from crossing its territory,” Abul Gheit said.
“Members of the (Viva Palestina) convoy committed hostile acts, even
criminal ones, on Egyptian territory,” the foreign minister added without
elaborating. . . . .The comments come a day after a foreign ministry
official told Galloway he was no longer welcome in Egypt as he flew out of
the country.

Activists leave
A group of several hundred international activists from an aid convoy to the
blockaded Gaza Strip have been allowed to leave Egypt Saturday(9 Jan),
despite earlier threats to have some arrested because they scuffled with
police, an airport official said. The official said six of the activists,
who were wanted by the prosecutor general for their role in violence at
El-Arish port where the convoy was delayed, were allowed to leave along with
the rest.
The official did not give names of the six activists, but he said two of
them were Turkish, two Britons, a Kuwaiti and a Malaysian. – Agencies

+++SOURCE:JORDAN TIMES 10 Jan '10:"Yemen alone cannot tackle Al Qaeda",By
Taieb
Mahjoub,Agence France-Presse
QUOTE: " 'Al Qaeda is present in Yemen, but a regional coaltion would be
enough to confront it' "

EXCERPTS:DUBAI - Yemen insists it can win the war against Al Qaeda
insurgents without US military intervention, but analysts fear Osama Ben
Laden's ancestral homeland cannot tackle the jihadists on its own.
US-led assistance must be accompanied by reform to appease tribes who hold
sway in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country, which is already
fighting Shiite rebels in the north and worried by secessionists in the
south, they say.. . .
Dhiya Rashwan, an expert on radical Islamist groups, also believes that "a
direct foreign military intervention in Yemen will have a negative impact on
public opinion, which already does not trust the government". "Al Qaeda is
present in Yemen, but a regional coalition would be enough to confront it,"
he said, dismissing the need for an international military force to tackle
the jihadists.
Kahwaji agreed that intervention in Yemen by a foreign force could backfire
because "the armed forces are largely influenced by the tribal structure
inherent to Yemen" and that is why reform is needed.
London has called an international conference on Yemen for later this month,
and that forum "must adopt a strategy for development and involve tribes in
political reform" as a tool to fight the jihadists, he said.. . .

+++SOURCE: JORDAN TIMES 10 Jan.'10:"Khamenei urges firm action over
riots",Reuters

SUBJECT: Iran protests continue

FULL TEXT:TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
told the security forces on Saturday(9 Jan) to take firm action against
anti-government protesters.
“The officials of the three forces saw for themselves what the nation is
asking for, therefore, they must perform their duties well towards the
corrupt and the rioters,” Khamenei told visitors from the Shiite holy city
of Qom south of Tehran.
Eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and supporters
of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi on Ashoura, a day of ritual Shiite
mourning that fell on December 27.
It was the worst violence since protests in the immediate aftermath of a
disputed presidential election in June.
Opposition protesters say the vote was rigged in favour of President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, which the government denies.
The protests have crossed red lines, attacking the person of Iran’s supreme
leader, a Shiite cleric who is the ultimate authority in Iran’s system of
Islamic government.
“The US and Britain and other arrogant powers, as well as their domestic
misguided [allies], acted under the banner of struggle against the Imam
[Ayatollah Khomeini] and the revolution since the very beginning of the
victory of the Islamic Revolution. The situation is the same now,” Khamenei
said in the speech aired live on state television.
Khomeini, Khamenei’s predecessor, came to power during the 1979 revolution
and instituted the idea of clerical rule.
The opposition website Rahesabz said on Wednesday(6 Jan) that more than 180
people, including 17 journalists, 10 Mousavi aides and some members of the
outlawed Baha’i faith, were arrested in the aftermath of the protests.
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Sue Lerner - Associate IMRA