Arabian Peninsula /Persian Gulf update 9/09/2017..Saudi Arabia, Qatar in fresh row

Saudi Arabia, Qatar in fresh row after rulers’ contact

Persian Gulf: Saudis say any dialogue or communication with Qatar shall be suspended

Saudi Arabia Accepts, Then Rejects Olive Branch Offered by Qatar

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960618000608

Saudi Arabia suspended plans to hold talks with Qatar on how to resolve the ongoing crisis between Doha and four Arab states minutes after the Saudi crown prince and the Qatari ruler discussed the planned negotiations during a phone call. On Friday, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, expressing his willingness to hold dialogue over the demands of the four Arab states from Doha, Shafaqna reported. During the phone conversation, both leaders stressed the need to resolve the crisis through dialogue. “During the call, the emir of Qatar expressed his desire to sit at the dialogue table and discuss the demands of the four countries to ensure the interests of all,” Saudi state news agency SPA reported, adding that “the details will be announced later” after consulting with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt.

Qatar News Agency’s (QNA) reported that during the phone call both sides “stressed the need to resolve the crisis by sitting down to the dialogue table to ensure the unity and stability” of (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Sheikh Tamim welcomed the proposal of Prince Mohammed during the call “to assign two envoys to resolve controversial issues in a way that does not affect the sovereignty of the states,” the Qatari news agency added. The phone call is believed to be the first official contact between the two Arab kingdoms since the beginning of the crisis three months ago. Minutes later, however, Saudi Arabia’s state news agency cited a Saudi Foreign Ministry official as saying that Riyadh suspended plans for negotiations over QNA’s failure to mention that Doha had initiated the phone call.

QNA was not accessible at the time of this report, but according to Qatari news network Al Jazeera, QNA had said that the phone call was coordinated by US President Donald Trump. “What was published on the Qatar News Agency is a continuation of the distortion of the Qatari authority of the facts,” SPA reported, citing the Saudi official. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announces the suspension of any dialogue or communication with the authority in Qatar until a clear statement is issued clarifying its position in public,” it added.

Earlier on Friday, Trump held separate phone calls with the Qatari and Saudi rulers as well as UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. According to a White House statement, Trump told the three Persian Gulf Arab rulers that unity among Washington’s Arab partners to promote regional stability and counter “the threat of Iran.” Trump also stressed that all countries must remain committed to countering terrorism and extremist ideology and cut off funding for terrorist groups, the statement added. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates cut their diplomatic ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing Doha of sponsoring terrorism and destabilizing the region.

The Saudi-led bloc has imposed sanctions against the tiny Persian Gulf country, including restrictions on Qatari aircraft using their airspace. Qatar’s only land border with Saudi Arabia has also been blocked as a result. The boycotters later released a 13-point list of demands, including the closure of Al Jazeera news network and downgrade of relations with Iran, in return for the normalization of diplomatic relations with Doha. Qatar has rejected the demands as an attack on its sovereignty.

Experts have touted the Qatar crisis as the fallout of Trump’s visit to Riyadh in early June, when he signed the largest single arms deal in US history with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to sell Riyadh $110 billion in arms. In the early days of the crisis, Trump took to Twitter to praise the Saudi-led bloc’s decision to cut ties with Qatar, implying that it was the fruit of his first visit to the Middle East. However, on June 14, the US signed a $12-billion deal with Qatar to sell F-15 fighter jets to the country.

Saudi Arabia declares any dialogue with Qatar ‘shall be suspended

Is dialogue still possible to end Gulf dispute?

US selling $3.8-billion of weapons to Bahrain despite Manama’s crackdown

US arms sales to Bahrain

US Arms Sales: Giving Green Light to Atrocities and Abuses in Bahrain

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960618000966

The glaring absence of human rights from Washington’s new arms sales to Bahrain will only embolden further violations in Bahrain where the regime flouts the rights of its own people in the name of security, and violates International Humanitarian Law in the ongoing crackdown fuelled on large part by US arms transfers.

Here, the Al Khalifa regime has been using counter terrorism as an excuse to ruthlessly crush and persecute critics, peaceful dissidents and human rights defenders. Even as protesters are killed, detained and tortured, the Trump administration has approved a multi-billion-dollar arms deals with Bahrain. This brazen disregard for human rights and humanitarian law will only serve to further embolden the regime in Manama in its pursuit of “security” and “legitimacy” at the expense of people’s basic rights:

The US State Department has just approved $3.8 billion in weapons sales to Bahrain. The Pentagon confirmed the approval and the State Department has notified Congress, who held up a similar sale last year over Bahrain’s many human rights problems. The $3.8 billion sale is almost entirely going to Lockheed Martin, who will be providing 19 F-16V fighter jets, along with substantial upgrades to the nation’s existing fleet of F-16s. Raytheon will be selling 221 anti-tank missiles and weapons to go with it.

Sales to Bahrain were supposed to be suspended, “until they resolved tensions with Qatar.” In the end, however, Congress signed off through normal channels. Funny how State Department officials insist that the US is continuing to discuss human rights issues with Bahrain, and is encouraging reform. That historically has never really been the case, as the US has largely turned a blind eye to Bahrain’s abuse of its Shiite population, viewing it as a cost of getting to host a major naval base there.

This is a country where even the US government accepts that serious human rights abuses and atrocities are taking place, yet it is still pushing arms to the regime. It is not that hard to know what atrocities and abuses these arms may fuel, or who they will be used against. All the US needs to do is go through various reports by human rights organizations that openly condemn rights abuses in Bahrain. The US will no doubt tell the world how rigorous and robust its system supposedly is, but it is actively arming and supporting one of the most brutal dictatorships in the Persian Gulf.

Nor is that all. If the US government and its European allies want to promote human rights and democracy then they must stop selling arms to the Al Khalifa and other repressive regimes in the Persian Gulf. They also face particular criticism over their sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, which is leading a dirty war against Yemen in alliance with other Persian Gulf Araba states, excluding Qatar.

Worse still, the United Nations is yet to scrutinise arms exports, much less say it likely that American and European weapons have been used to violate International Law. The Bahraini regime, and to a greater extent, the Saudis stand accused of bombing civilian objects like international hospitals, as well as schools, wedding parties and food factories in Yemen. So far, over 14,000 people have been killed in Saudi air strikes backed by the US and the UK.

All in all, US arms trade provides the destructive hardware used in human rights abuses, atrocities and conflicts across the Middle East. It undermines democracy and development, contributing to the poverty and suffering of millions. A new report by War on Want, Banking on Bloodshed, has just exposed, for the first time, the extent to which the main American and European banks are also funding this violent trade. They are using money to fund companies that sell arms used against civilians in wars and pro-democracy protests across the region, including the conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. They are financing an industry that sells arms to regimes committing human rights abuses such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Money from Western banks is also being used to fund companies that produce pernicious weapons like depleted uranium and cluster bombs. Guess what? No one in the West even bothers to impose sanctions on these banks!

It is high time for the United Nations to call for regulation of arms sales and banking sector in the West. The world body should call on the US government and its European allies to ensure that all manufacturers and banks are made to publish the full details of their holdings and services to the global arms trade. The UN must introduce regulation which prevents Western governments and banks from supporting the arms trade to repressive allies in the Persian Gulf.

To this end, UN member states must work together to hammer out a binding international treaty to end unregulated conventional arms sales – a pact that a powerful US lobby is urging Washington to reject. Arms control campaigners and human rights advocates say one person every minute dies worldwide as a result of armed violence, and that a treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of weapons and ammunition that they argue helps fuel wars, atrocities and rights abuses.

The treaty should set standards for all transfers of any type of conventional weapon – light and heavy. It should set binding requirements for governments to review all arms contracts to ensure the munitions will not be used in human rights abuses, do not violate embargoes, and are not illegally diverted to terrorist groups. Syria, Iraq and Yemen are just a few recent examples where the world bore witness to the horrific human cost of a reckless US-led arms trade steeped in secrecy. Likewise, the treaty should leave no avenues for abusers of human rights to continue getting weapons from the West.

The UN Charter makes it clear: transferred weapons from the United States and Europe cannot and should not be used to fuel conflicts, arm terrorists or abet violations of international protocols. Without Western ammunition, the secterian guns will fall silent in the Muslim world.

HRW: Saudi-led coalition hides information about illegal airstrikes on Yemen

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