Excerpts: Saudi re Iran's 'aggressive' statements. Khamenei tweets appear
threat to Obama. Saudi supports Turkey re Syria. Jordan rival Muslim
Brotherhood groups in conflict. Future of Palestinian leadership July 28,
2015

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 28 July ’15:”Al-Jubair slams Iran’s ‘aggressive’
statements”,by SPA/Al Arabiya News

SUBJECT: Saudi re Iran’s ‘aggressive’ statements

Riyadh — Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel Bin Ahmed Al-Jubair received here
on Monday[27 July] EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security
Policy Federica Mogherini.

Later, at a joint news conference with visiting EU foreign policy chief
Mogherini, Al-Jubair denounced “aggressive statements” by Iran, after Tehran
accused Bahrain of stoking Gulf tensions by making unfounded allegations
against it.

“This is unacceptable to us,” Al-Jubair said. On Sunday[26 July], Iranian
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham accused Bahrain of making
“unfounded allegations” aimed at creating “tension in the region”, after the
Interior Ministry in Manama said it had detained two men accused of trying
to smuggle weapons from Iran.

“This does not represent the intentions of a country seeking good
relations,” Al-Jubair said of the Iranian statements.

“These statements are escalating and they are many.” Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denied, during a visit Sunday to Kuwait, as
“baseless” Bahrain's claims that it had detained two men for trying to
smuggle weapons from Iran. “I openly say the claims are totally wrong,” he
said.

“The timing of the announcement is an attempt to prevent any progress in
cooperation between Iran and other Gulf states,” Zarif said. —
SPA/Al-Arabiya Newssaudi re Iran’s ‘aggres

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 28 July ’15:”Subtweeting the president?Khamenei
posts ‘Obama suicide’ image”,Al Arabiya

SUBJECT:Khamenei tweets appear threat to Obama

FULL TEXT:The message has been retweeted more than 1,000 times and has
sparked an array of responses.

Courtesy: TwitterIran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei enjoys a heavy
presence and a wide following on Twitter where he tweets on a range of
topics, from reading preferences to anti-US sentiment.

The latest tweet to grab attention is one with a silhouette of a man,
believed to be US President Barack Obama, holding a gun to his head with a
caption reading: “We welcome no war nor do we initiate war but if any war
happens, the one who will emerge loser will be the aggressive and criminal
US.”

The message has been retweeted more than 1,000 times and has sparked an
array of responses. While the account is not verified, it is widely believed
to host tweets from the supreme leader. — Al Arabiya News

+++SOURCE:Naharnet (Lebanon) 28 July ’15:”Saudi King BacksTurkish Military
Action”,Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: Saudi supports Turkey re Syria

QUOTE:”the two leaders’ emphasized their excellent relations’ “

FULL TEXT:Saudi King Salman has expressed support for Turkey after it
launched air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria and Kurdish
militants in Iraq, state media reported on Tuesday[28 July].

The king told President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday[27 July] that he
backed Turkey's right to self-defense, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

Erdogan had telephoned Salman to brief him on the air strikes it launched
last week after a deadly bombing inside Turkey blamed on IS and a reprisal
killing of police by Kurdish militants.

The king condemned the attacks and said he "supports Turkey's right to
defend itself and protect its citizens from terrorist acts" which pose a
threat to the security of the region and the world, SPA said.

Saudi Arabia is part of a U.S.-led coalition that has been carrying out air
strikes against IS in Syria since last September.

But Turkey had previously stood aloof, prompting accusations -- strongly
denied by Ankara -- of complicity with the jihadists.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia have had strained relations since 2013 when Riyadh
supported the overthrow by the Egyptian army of Ankara-backed Islamist
president Mohamed Morsi.

But SPA said the two leaders "emphasized the excellent relations" between
their countries in their telephone call.

SourceAgence France Presse

+++SOURCE:Jordan Times 28 July’15:”Rival Muslim Brotherhood groups suing
each other over assets”, byKhetam Malkawi

SUBJECT: Jordan rival Muslim Brotherhood groups in conflict

AMMAN — The dispute between the new Muslim Brotherhood and the unlicensed
group is moving to a new level of complication, with both taking the assets
issue to court.In a statement sent to The Jordan Times, the old guard said
they will file a lawsuit to regain their assets that were transferred to the
new registered society and have already started with the required procedures
for that purpose.

All assets were officially transferred to the new society registered in
March this year after the Legislation and Opinion Bureau issued a legal
ruling in May allowing the process. But the unregistered group said it has
“documents” proving its ownership of the properties.

Abdul Majeed Thneibat, the overall leader of the licensed group, however,
said that if the old guard want to file a lawsuit they should be represented
by a registered entity, which is not the case.“How will they go to court if
they are not licensed?” Thneibat asked in a phone interview with The Jordan
Times.

He added that his society has also started procedures to file a lawsuit
against the unlicensed Brotherhood after the latter’s failure to comply with
a request to vacate the group’s offices and hand over its belongings to the
registered entity.

Last month, the new society sent a “legal notification” to the old group
asking it to hand over all belongings to the “legitimate” society, but no
response has yet been received.

The crisis of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan started when a group of
reformists led by Thneibat re-registered the movement as a Jordanian
society, severing its affiliation with its mother group in Egypt.

The unlicensed movement has repeatedly charged that the establishment of the
new Brotherhood society is a “government conspiracy” against the Islamists,
but authorities have said it is merely an “organisational” issue.

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 28 July ’15:”Power shifts fuel talk of change in
Palestinian politics”, by Reuters

SUBJECT:Future of Palestinian leadership

QUOTE:”Abbas,in power for more than a decade,facing mounting challenge to
his leadership”

FULL TEXT:RAMALLAH — Rumblings in Ramallah in recent weeks have raised
expectations that Palestinian politics is in play, with 80-year-old
President Mahmoud Abbas, in power for more than a decade, facing a mounting
challenge to his leadership.

There is frequent speculation that Abbas, who was elected to a four-year
term in 2005 and has not had to face a vote since then, is about to step
down. He has confounded those predictions in the past and may well do so
again.

But the degree of rumour-mongering and alliance-shifting over the past two
months suggests change is in the air, or at least that agitation against his
presidency is growing.Earlier this month, Abbas unexpectedly dismissed the
secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and his effective
number two, Yasser Abed Rabbo, who had been critical of his decision making
for some time.In his place, the president appointed Saeb Erekat, a long-time
adviser and occasional confidant who has been the chief negotiator with the
Israelis for the past two decades.

Then, in a separate but related development, a Palestinian appeals court
ruled that Mohammed Dahlan, a former official in the Fateh Party who is now
a rival to Abbas, was entitled to parliamentary immunity in a case brought
against him by an anti-corruption body set up by the president.That
increases the likelihood that Dahlan, who fell from favour in 2011 and now
lives in exile in the Gulf, could return to Ramallah to fight the charges, a
move that would bolster his credentials as the main challenger to Abbas.

As if those moves and feints were not enough, Israel’s Channel 1 reported on
Sunday [26 July]that Abbas had told confidants he would step down within two
months, just before a Fateh party congress pencilled in for November 29.The
report was quickly dismissed by Palestinian officials, with Abbas’s
spokesman telling Reuters it was “typical Israeli rumours” designed to
destabilise Palestinian affairs.

It is not clear who Channel 1’s sources were, but Israel’s interior
minister, Silvan Shalom, who is responsible for the Palestinian file, held
unannounced talks with Erekat in Jordan on Friday[24 July], a Palestinian
official confirmed to Reuters.

November congress

The upshot is that various pieces of the Palestinian puzzle are moving at
once, fuelling the impression of impending change.“This has been in the
making for some time now,” said Mattia Toaldo, a Middle East analyst at the
European Council on Foreign Relations in London, referring to Abed Rabbo’s
dismissal.“It’s part of the struggle for Abbas’s succession as well as a
consequence of the paranoia about Dahlan.”

To all intents and purposes, Dahlan, 53, is the critical piece in the
puzzle, even if he remains at one remove from the daily thrust of
Palestinian politics — at least for now.

A former minister of security and a powerful figure in Gaza, where he was
born, Dahlan is based in the United Arab Emirates, although he also holds
Serbian citizenship.He has been successful at raising support from the
Emirates and Qatar, funds that he has deployed to help communities in Gaza
and the West Bank, although critics say the money has also helped finance
political opposition to Abbas.

Part of the reason for Abed Rabbo’s dismissal were his links to Dahlan,
Palestinian media have reported, and the same goes for legal moves made
against former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, another Abbas rival.

Whether the tectonic shifts lead to an eruption will become clearer as the
Fateh congress approaches. Such gatherings have been promised in the past,
only to be delayed.

But if the November 29 gathering goes ahead, it should better set out the
allegiances in Palestinian politics and indicate who might emerge after
Abbas, who has said he will not stand for another term as president whenever
elections are next held.

“I don’t see elections anytime soon, but I do see some intrigue at the Fateh
conference in November,” said Grant Rumley, an expert in Palestinian affairs
at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies in Washington, DC.

“Erekat’s tapping as the next PLO secretary-general might be a hint that he’ll
be appointed vice-president,” he said, adding that the success of the
Palestinian leadership ultimately depended on its ability to negotiate with
Israel.

Yet Palestinian sources say Erekat is not a viable successor, saying he is
not deep enough in Fateh or security issues. Instead, Abbas may be setting
him up as a custodian, while others fight it out for the top job.
====================================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA