Excerpts: Saudi: 154 terror suspects on the run.Russia continues to bomb
Syria terrorist organizations.King Abdullah BBC interview. February 03,
2016
+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 3 Feb.’16:”154 wanted terror suspects on the run”by
Mishal al-Otaibi
SUBJECT: Saudi:154 terror suspects on the run:QUOTE:”Ministrry of the
Interior asked those who have any information . . .to tip off the security
agencies”[IMRA: Monitary reward follows]
FULL TEXT:
RIYADH — The security authorities are on the lookout for 154 wanted terror
suspects named in nine lists published by the Ministry of Interior earlier,
according to sources.
The ministry asked those who have any information about these wanted men to
tip off the security agencies by calling 990 or by visiting the nearest
security post.
The informer will get SR1 million for information about one wanted person.
The reward will be increased to SR5 million in the event of providing
information about more than one wanted suspect.
If the information helps in foiling a terrorist attack, the reward amount
will be increased to SR7 million.
The security agencies also updated the list of suspects arrested during the
past eight days from various regions of the Kingdom, according to sources.
The arrested suspects include 15 Saudis, 12 Egyptians, one Syrian, a
Pakistani and a Jordanian. This is in addition to the earlier arrests about
which Saudi Gazette was the first to report on Sunday.
Eight of the nine Americans were detained in the past three months,
according to a website belonging to the Interior Ministry. The detainee list
shows four Americans were arrested in November and December of 2015 and
another four Americans were detained on Jan. 25.
One US citizen was arrested in March 2007 and was convicted and has the
right to appeal.
The latest update to the official list, which includes 5,158 detainees who
are mostly Saudi nationals, was made on Monday[1 Feb]. The list of detainees
is posted on the Interior Ministry’s Nafethah website, which helps relatives
communicate with detainees.
SOURCESaudi Gazette
+++SOURCE:Naharnet (Lebanon) 3 Feb.’16:”Russia to Bomb Syria until
‘Terrorist Organizations’Defeated, says Lavrov”,by Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:Russia continues to bomb Syria terrorist organizations
FULL TEXT:Russia said Wednesday[3 Feb] it would press ahead with its bombing
campaign in Syria until "terrorist organizations" such as the Islamic State
group are defeated amid the latest international push to end the conflict.
"Russian air strikes will not cease until we truly defeat the terrorist
organizations ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov told reporters in Oman, referring to the IS and Al-Nusra Front
jihadist groups, Interfax news agency reported.
"And I don't see why these air strikes should stop."
Lavrov also named as a condition for halting Russia's bombing campaign in
Syria "shutting down smuggling across the Turkish-Syrian border."
Russia has accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family of
helping IS through illegal oil trading, claims Ankara has strongly denied.
Russia's intensive bombing in support of regime forces in Syria has
threatened to derail high-profile peace negotiations that began in
Switzerland this week.
The Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee has voiced outrage at an
ongoing government offensive backed by Russian air power and called for a
halt to air strikes against civilians, among other demands.
Lavrov slammed "capricious people" in the Syrian opposition delegation,
saying they were "starting to put forward preconditions" that had not been
previously agreed, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The opposition delegation's demands "have nothing to do with the main
principles of the Geneva Communique, Vienna documents and a United Nations
Security Council resolution," Lavrov said, referring to key documents in the
Syrian peace process.
"I think that expecting preconditions in the form of ultimatums will help
solve problems is a short-sighted and futile policy," Lavrov said, quoted by
Interfax.
He also criticized Turkey's role, saying it "single-handedly prevented" the
powerful Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party from joining the talks.
In a message apparently aimed at Western powers, Lavrov said he hoped "those
with decisive influence" on the Syrian opposition would work to "ensure the
start of the intra-Syrian dialogue without preconditions."
+++SOURCE:Jordan Times 3 Feb.’16:Jordanians nearing ‘boiling point’ as
refugee burden grows heavier”, By JT
SUBJECT: King Abdullah, BBC's Lyse Doucet interview2 Feb.
QUOTE:”Jordanians nearing ‘boiling point’ as refugee burden grows heavier”
FULL TEXT:AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah has said that the impact of the
Syrian refugee crisis has pushed Jordanians to a “boiling point”, and urged
the international community to adopt a different approach to the complicated
and protracted crisis.
In an interview with the BBC’s Lyse Doucet, aired Tuesday[2Feb], two days
ahead of a donor conference in London, His Majesty said the “psyche of the
Jordanian people, I think, has gotten to a boiling point. Jordanians are
suffering from trying to find jobs; the pressure on the infrastructure for
the government; it has hurt us when it comes to the educational system, our
healthcare; … Jordanians [are] trying to get along with their lives”
Meanwhile, a Royal Court statement said that His Majesty, accompanied by Her
Majesty Queen Rania, left Tuesday to London.
He will deliver a speech at the meeting and is also scheduled to meet with
international leaders and officials taking part in the conference as well as
parliamentarians and ideological and political UK leaders.
From London, His Majesty is to head to Dublin, Ireland, to hold talks with
the President of Ireland Michael Higgins and senior officials to discuss
regional and international issues as well as bilateral cooperation,
according to the Royal Court.
HRH Prince Feisal was sworn in as Regent.
King Abdullah told the BBC that Jordan’s message to Europe “is that this is
a donors conference for Syrian refugees, but for God’s sake, from our point
of view, this is also, I hope, a conference on how we make lives better for
Jordanians because if that is not achieved, then we will all fail Jordan”.
The King said that it wasn’t until a trickle of refugees hit European shores
that “eyebrows were raised and they began to realize the reality of the
challenges that Jordanians have faced”.
Asked if the West let Jordan down, the King highlighted the fact that 25 per
cent of the state budget over the past several years has gone to address the
challenges of refugees, while the donor support reached only 35 per cent of
the amount required last year, which was the best year in terms of the ratio
of international support. “The difference means that there is a tremendous
shortfall,” he said.
For Jordan, the right and proper type of global assistance is “a red line”,
the Monarch said, asking how Jordan can sustain itself and continue as a
country of stability and a contributor to stability beyond its borders if
the international community says no to its plan for sustainable assistance
that would also improve the life of Jordanians.
With all that Jordan has been doing, the world cannot say “no”.
“We are part of a coalition against extremism, not only in Syria and Iraq,
but throughout the world. Whenever the international community has asked for
Jordan to fight the good fight, alongside of our colleagues all over the
international community, we have never said no. What we are asking now for
the first time is, the international community, we have always stood
shoulder to shoulder by your side; we are now asking for your help, you can’t
say no this time around to us.”
If donors turn the request down, His Majesty told Ducet, “then we are going
to have to look at things in a different way… And, by the way, they realise
that if they don’t help Jordan, it is going to make it more difficult for
them to be able to deal with the refugee crisis. And, to be honest, all the
leaders that we talk to know that by helping Jordan, they are actually
helping themselves more. So it is in their vested interests”.
On how to give Syrians a life as the crisis is likely to continue for years,
the King referred to a “sensible approach”.
“There is a teamwork approach on doing three elements of this. One is
creating more opportunities to create work for Syrians and Jordanians…
whether we like it or not Syrian refugees are going to be part of our
country for some period of time to come. So they have to be integrated into
the labour force, everybody knows that. But as we go to this conference, if
you are going to create a job for Syrians, you have got to create more jobs
for Jordanians”.
On the issue of some 16,000 Syrian refugees in the no man’s land on the
border with Syria, the King insisted that a screening process must continue,
albeit at a slow pace, to make sure that only decent people come across the
border, and not Daesh, or any other terrorists.
“This is for us a red line. We are trying to process them as quickly as
possible; but again we throw back to the international community, and to
those countries that have been very difficult to us; saying that at the end
of the day, you’re saying there are only 16,000, we’ve already taken 1.4
million people.”
To critics, he said: “If you are going to take the higher moral ground on
this issue, we’ll get them all to an air base and we’re more than happy to
relocate them to your country, if what you are saying is there are only
16,000. Considering the amount of people we have taken into our country; if
you want to help the refugee problem, 16,000 refugees to your country, I don’t
think is that much of a problem.”
The King reiterated that “what keeps me up at night… is not the political
situation, it is not the military security, because we are all strong and
united, we know where the enemy is. But young Jordanians looking for jobs
are so frustrated that if we can’t give them an opportunity, that’s the
problem. And so going to the UK for this conference, it is Syrian
refugees/opportunities for the future of young Jordanians”.
On the Russian interference in Syria, His Majesty said it shook up the tree
and “galvanized everybody to get to the peace talks because if we don’t, it
is going to unravel into a very messy, a messier situation in Syria”.
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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA
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