[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The self-declared Republic of Somaliland is looking to the Gulf secure its borders within the horn of Africa due to the regional instability.
The autonomous state is also looking to deepen its economic and security ties with Arabian Gulf countries, Foreign Minister Saad Ali Shire told Al Arabiya English’s exclusive #TheUnrecognizedRepublic.
In February 2017 the Somaliland parliament voted to provide the United Arab Emirates a military and naval base in the port city of Berbera.
The vote followed an agreement between Dubai Ports World and the Government of Somaliland to acquire the port of Berbera over a 30-year period.
"More than 30 thousand ships pass through the red sea every year and into our seas and we see it important to keep that important maritime route open and free from piracy and we hope that the presence of the UAE military will add to the security of the region," the foreign minister said on #TheUnrecognizedRepublic.
Despite the country’s 800-kilometer-long shores on the Indian ocean they were able to free it from the threat of piracy.
"Piracy is a land base crime and we have managed to ensure that pirates do not have that base in Somaliland, we have a coasties that is efficient and is developing and we hope that it will be further developed with the United Arab Emirates which is taking care of the security of the seas"
Shire insisted that the presence of the UAE in Somaliland will strengthen the stability and security in the region.
"There is a lot of contention in this region at the present time and unfortunately we are being brought back to the bad cold war days and we believe that the presence of the United Arab Emirates will bring stability in the region," he said.
The country is facing a number of threats, the minister said, therefore making a security partnership with the UAE vital.
Threats include extremism, piracy, illegal immigration, human trafficking, as well as the unstable situation in Somalia and the war in Yemen.
"We have given a security facility to the United Arab Emirates and people have raised concerns regarding this being destabilizing to the region, however we view this as a stabilizing factor in the region," he said.
Deepening relations with the Gulf
Economically, the foreign minister Shire said that Somaliland would like to deepen its relations with the Gulf countries.
"We would like to get more investors from the gulf countries and we would like to see more trade flows from the region and I would like to see our economies more integrated," he said.
Currently Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... is the country’s main export destination.
The main exports are livestock as well as commercial ties and relations with Oman and Kuwait, he said.
"We have a lot of opportunities for investments in different areas, in agriculture in livestock, minerals, tourism, and services."
The Somaliland government is also planning to set up an investment company with in the Dubai International Financial Center to facilitate investment in Somaliland.
"Its role will be to create, joint venture companies with investors from different parts of the world and it will be a facilitating company basically where the companies would be working in Somaliland but the formation will take place here in Dubai," Shire said.
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03/02/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
They are doing better by the year and more secure too.
Such an elevated diplomatic term, entente — in French no less! — for a peace processer whose motor has ground to a halt. But Al Ahram will inform you of all the details nonetheless, dear Reader.
[AlAhram] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Cairo are trying to salvage the reconciliation agreement with extended talks and a roadmap.
[AlAhram] President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi inaugurated the East of the Canal Command Centre, on 25 February, days before the end of the three-month deadline he had given to eradicate terrorism from Sinai.
The new command centre is part of an ambitious drive to upgrade and modernise the Armed Forces, said Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi.
The new facility is a meeting and visitor centre constructed by military engineers 27 metres underground.
An interesting choice. Against whom do they seek protection by going that deep?
It is not an operations control headquarters, says General Nagi Shuhoud of the Higher Nasser Military Academy. "The operations control facility is situated in another area and it is reserved for military personnel and operations management."
The centre was first mooted two and a half years ago when the eastern commands ‐ the first and second field armies ‐ were unified and the site has been visited by leading officials.
During the inauguration al-Sissi listened to a presentation by General Hassan Abdel-Shafi, director of the military engineers’ corps, who explained the structure of the command centre’s military and administrative units.
The president lauded recent successes in eliminating terrorist operatives, lairs and arms depots and securing the borders of the peninsula, severing terrorist supply lines and smuggling routes for weapons, ammunition and terrorists.
Appearing in uniform for the fourth time since he was elected president, al-Sissi said: "The Egyptian people trust the ability of their Armed Forces to protect Egypt."
After concluding a presentation on the progress of COS 2018, General Mohammed Farid Hegazi requested an extension of the three-month deadline for the eradication of terrorism.
"We started to prepare for the comprehensive military operation from the moment we were assigned the mission. We have now begun to carry it out," he said.
"The Armed Forces have discovered that Death Eaters prepared installations and planted bombs throughout the areas in which they operate in Sinai, including some residential quarters."
"The original deadline was an expression of the desire to eliminate any threats as quickly as possible, especially after attacks on al-Rawda Mosque at Beir al-Abd and at Arish airport during the defence and interior ministers’ visit in November," says Brigadier General Khaled Okasha, a member of the National Counter-terrorism Council. But from a security standpoint the timetable has proved too short to execute all the required tasks.
In requesting an extension the chief of staff was being objective and honest, says Okasha.
"Goals are being accomplished and the way is being paved for development plans without any falsification of facts on the ground or precipitous haste.
Development is core to our long stern strategy, which is why we saw the president at the command centre not just with military leaders but also with ministers who oversee public services, utilities and investment. The development dimension of the operation could not be clearer."
Okasha’s words echoed those of the presidential front man who said: "A comprehensive development process in Sinai began in 2014 and will continue until 2022." Noting that the process will cost some LE275 billion, he urged Egyptians to work together to facilitate the financing.
The president appealed to citizens and the business community to contribute to the Long Live Egypt Fund, saying funding development in Sinai has become a national security question of the first order.
In a press briefing for military news hounds, army front man Colonel Tamer al-Rifaai said COS 2018 will continue until north and central Sinai are free of terrorism.
[Al Jazeera] Yemenis have launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #BringDevBack - or Bring Development Back to Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... - highlighting how years of war have destroyed the opportunity for development.
The campaign shows the people of Yemen are already thinking about rebuilding their country despite the ongoing conflict.
Wesam Qaid, executive director at Sanaa-based economic developmental organization SMEPS, told Al Jazeera the goal of the campaign is looking towards a hopeful future.
"I am so proud to be part of this campaign #BringDevback in Yemen, it's an important message. It means ending the war, it means thinking about the future, it means hope and jobs for young people," Qaid said.
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03/02/2018 00:00 ||
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations revealed that the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... militias in several cities and governorates have forced more than 3 million people to flee since the coup in 2014.
The head of the executive unit of the displaced, Najib Saadi, said that the Marib topped the list of provinces that received large numbers of displaced people, followed by the temporary capital Aden, Taiz, Mahara, Shabwa, Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... and Hadramout ...the formerly independent Qu'aiti state and sultanate, annexed by Communist South Yemen in 1968, encompassing a region along the Gulf of Aden, extending eastwards to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman. The people are called Hadhramis and speak Hadhrami Arabic. The city Tarimis is estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) anywhere in the world, approximately seven in every square yard... "The number of displaced people is 25 percent higher than in 2017 due to the recent events in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in December and the battles near Hodeidah," he said.
The Yemeni Coalition presented the report on the forcibly displaced by the Houthis in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... at the 37th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
According to the documented data from the monitoring coalition, the Houthi militias caused the forced displacement of 184 families from 8 rural villages in the second displacement operation witnessed by the Directorate of Jabal Habashi, in Taiz governorate, south-west of Yemen in 2017.
He explained that the number of these displaced families has gone up to 980 individuals, including 451 children and 262 women who were deported under the force of arms, leaving behind all their belongings and property and livelihoods to save their lives.
The Human Rights Coalition stressed that the "displacement" of the inhabitants of these areas has caused a real disaster that no one could imagine, especially in a rural society that depends entirely on its traditional agricultural work and on raising livestock.
He noted that the Houthi militias did not allow the displaced to take anything with them from their homes, which contributed to the aggravation of their poor living conditions.
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[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The United States mission in Saudi Arabia is primarily to fight terrorism and support Saudi Arabia, a statement from the Pentagon said on Thursday.
The statement also reiterated how Saudi Arabia has been attacked by Iranian-backed Houthi militias using ballistic missiles in the past.
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[Al Jazeera] French authorities have filed preliminary charges against far-right politician Marine Le Pen on Thursday for the "distribution of violent images" on social media website Twitter. Better if the public doesn't know, y'see...
If convicted, Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front party, could potentially face three years in jail and a 75,000 euro ($90,000) fine. Keep 'em entertained...
The tweets, written shortly after the 2015 Gay Paree attacks, showed executions carried out by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, also known as ISIS) members.
They included an image of the body of American journalist James Foley, who was decapitated in a widely circulated video by a member of ISIS. Another depicted a captured Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage.
Another image showed a man in an orange jumpsuit being crushed by a tank driven by an ISIS fighter. A caption read "ISIS is THIS".
Le Pen, who lost the 2017 presidential elections to Emmanuel Macron, later removed the image of Foley after his family condemned the tweet.
Authorities started an investigation into the social media posts in 2015, shortly after Le Pen wrote them.
However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... as a member of the French parliament, Le Pen had some immunity against prosecution.
But that immunity was stripped in November 2017 after an investigation by a cross-party committee, paving the way for Thursday's charges.
"I am being charged for having condemned the horrors of ISIS," Le Pen told AFP news agency. "In other countries, this would have earned me a medal."
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03/02/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
a farce
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/02/2018 6:49 Comments ||
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#2
Like the Democrats want to control the internet.
[Al Jazeera] US politicians have submitted a draft resolution calling for an end to US military support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen's war.
The draft resolution, unveiled on Wednesday, is being pushed forward by Senators Bernie Sanders ...The only openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords. He ran for the 2016 nomination for president, to be cheated by Hillary, then went back to being a socialist... , Mike Lee and Chris Murphy.
The bill intends to exploit a powerful but rarely activated provision in a 1973 law - the War Powers Act - that gives Congress the authority to overrule the president and withdraw troops if the former believes the conflict is not authorised.
"We believe that, as Congress has not declared war or authorised military force in this conflict, the US involvement in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... is unconstitutional and unauthorised and US military support of the Saudi coalition must end," Sanders said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Sanders stressed that under the Constitution, Congress is the only authority that can declare war, alluding to divisions in the US government between congressional power and the president's role as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
A similar bid to end US support for the war in Yemen was launched in November 2017 in a draft resolution sponsored by Congressman Ro Khanna. And while the resolution was passed, it was not implemented.
"Many Americans are unaware that the people of Yemen are suffering today from a devastating civil war with Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... and their allies on one side and Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... rebels on the other," said Sanders.
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03/02/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
"Many Americans are unaware that the people of Yemen are suffering today from a devastating civil war with Soddy Arabia and their allies on one side and Houthi rebels on the other," said Sanders.
Notice our red commie socialist doesn't mention the Iranian/Hezb'allah/Al Qaeda participation? Willfully ignorant or just obtuse? Why not both..
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/02/2018 5:43 Comments ||
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#2
How about this:
A nation totally addicted to a drug similar to crystal meth in its effects, has a multiparty civil war with external parties supporting various drug gangs.
How much of this war is really political & religious and how much is just khat addicts higher than a kite?
Should we care?
[DAWN] Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif on Thursday extended support to Kabul's proposed political process seeking to recognise the Taliban ...Arabic for students... as a legitimate political group, and said Pakistain is ready for one-on-one talks with the Afghan Taliban.
Asif's statements come a day after Afghanistan's Caped PresidentAshraf Ghani ...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .. at the second Kabul Process conference offered recognition of the Taliban as a political group and asked the group to take part in peace talks "to save the country".
The offer adds to a series of signals from both the Western-backed government and the Taliban suggesting a greater willingness to consider dialogue.
The Afghan president said the process would be accompanied by coordinated diplomatic support including a global effort to persuade Pakistain, which Kabul has regularly accused of aiding the Taliban, of the advantages of a stable Afghanistan. Ghani also renewed an offer of talks with Pakistain, which Islamabad welcomed.
"The talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government are actually discussions between two political forces, and Pakistain will support it," Asif told a group of China-Pakistain Economic Corridor investors today.
"Pakistain is also ready for one-on-one mediation with the Afghan Taliban," he added,
The foreign minister observed that "some institutions" portray their own interests as being in the greater national interest, and that "this habit will also be changed soon".
"The effects of the 80s and the Musharraf era still exist, Pakistain will not make the same mistakes now and keep American interests above its own," Asif asserted.
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[Al Jazeera] In late December 2017, General Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia's General Staff, told the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda that the "destruction of Jabhat al-Nusra ...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ... fighters" was a priority task in Syria for 2018.
About a week later, Syrian regime forces with Russian and Iranian support launched an offensive on rebel-held Idlib province. Syrian state media claimed they were fighting al-Qaeda.
Continued on Page 49
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[DAWN] Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on all state matters, on Thursday praised Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... for his "resistance" after seven years of war.
"Syria is on the front lines today; it is our duty to defend the Syrian resistance," Khamenei was quoted on his official website.
"Bashir al-Assad, the Syrian president, appeared as a great example of resistance and a fighting image; he never hesitated and stood strong: this is extremely important for a nation," he added.
Khamenei also hailed Iran's survival as it enters the 40th year since the revolution. "From day one, all major world powers united and acted against us: the United States, USSR, NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... , Arab and regional reactionaries ‐ they all united. But we survived and prospered."
Addressing Assad, he said, "If you and we, and other elements of resistance stay determined, the enemy cannot accomplish a single thing".
The resistance, according to Iran, is made up of Iran, Syria, the Lebanese hard boy group Hezbollah, Iraqi militias and Paleostinian groups. Iran is the main regional ally of the Syrian regime, which is also supported by Russia.
Khamenei's statement comes a day after the EU urged Iran, Russia and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... to do what they can to get the Syrian government to halt its offensive in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta to let aid enter and civilians evacuate.
On Saturday the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... Security Council passed a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire across Syria without delay, but it has yet to take effect. Russia and Syria set up a humanitarian corridor for the entry of aid and for civilians to leave Eastern Ghouta for five hours each day, but violence has continued with the regime and rebels blaming each other.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations revealed that the 
...The only openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords. He ran for the 2016 nomination for president, to be cheated by Hillary, then went back to being a socialist...
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
