Middle East Update - May 25-31, 2011
[{"sender": "Middle East Update [middle.east.update@hotmail.com]", "recipients": ["Middle East Update [middle.east.update@hotmail.com]"], "timestamp": "6/1/2011 10:47:23 PM", "subject": "Middle East Update - May 25-31, 2011", "body": "Middle East Update\n\nMay 25-31, 2011\n\nSyria\nInternational pressure on Damascus is mounting. After the US imposed sanctions on the Syrian leadership earlier in May,\n\nthe EU foreign ministers agreed to impose travel bans and to freeze the assets of President Assad and nine other Syrian\nsenior officials. Within days of the EU announcement, Canada invoked similar travel and economic sanctions.\n\nWhile Russia blocked any reference in the G8 communiqué to the possibility of deferring the issue of Syria to the UN\nSecurity Council, the communiqué’s compromise language illustrates the international community's increased pressure on\nthe regime. The G8 leaders stated that they were “appalled” by the death of peaceful protesters and called on the Syrian\nleadership to immediately stop using force against its people or the G-8 countries would “consider taking further measures’.\n\nAt the same time, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallan—the leader of the Lebanese party Hizbullah—called on the Syrian people to\ngive the government time to effectuate reforms, arguing that President Assad believes in reforming the system and is\ndetermined to implement change. The Hizbullah leader denied that his party has dispatched fighters to assist the Syrian\nregime in quelling the protest movement. Anti-lran and -Hizbullah slogans were chanted in a number of Syrian cities in\nresponse to Nasrallah’s defense of the regime and his pictures were burned in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria.\n\nSyrian protesters declared Friday “the day of the Guardians of the Homeland’—a reference to the Syrian armed forces—in\nan effort to encourage the army to join the uprising. Security and military forces appear, however, to be stepping up their\ncampaign in an attempt to end the protests. Tens of people were killed or wounded over the weekend and tanks have\nentered two suburbs of the city of Homs, Rastan, and Talbiseh. The heavy-handed repression by police and military officials\nmay lead demonstrators to consider a recourse to arms.\n\nThe government is cracking down on protesters’ use of social media, but, in contrast to what occurred in Egypt, it has\nrefrained from a general shut down of the internet. Security officials are forcing dissidents to turn over their Facebook\n\npasswords and have switched off 3G mobile networks in order to prevent the uploading of protestor videos to YouTube.\nThe electricity and phone service has been cut off in neighborhoods where discontent is mounting.\n\nFacebook and, in particular, its “Syrian Revolution 2011” page, has been a vital platform for activists to mobilize protests\nand to disseminate information. Syria has over 580,000 Facebook users. In response to government measures, protesters\nhave created multiple Facebook pages under different names and have given their Facebook passwords to friends in case\nthey are arrested or disappear and their comments opposing the Assad regime need to be quickly removed from personal\nwebpages.\n\nSyrian activists acknowledge their debt to the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, further improvising and improving on their\ntactics on a daily basis in an effort to avoid retribution by the regime and to sustain the protest movement. Daytime\ndemonstrations have moved to the evening in order to make it more difficult for security forces to identify individual protesters\nand to single them out for arrest. After dark, protesters can disperse to unlit alleyways to escape arrest—a tactic Syrian\nactivists call “tayyara” or flying.\n\nYemen\n\nThe authority of President Saleh’s government continues to erode rapidly and Yemen appears to be edging closer towards\na civil war. Tribal fighters in the capital of Sanaa, have gained control of key ministries, including the Interior Ministry.\n\nBrigades from the Republican Guard—the President’s main forces—have surrendered to tribal fighters east and west of the\ncapital who have succeeded in blocking their deployment to Sanaa.\n\nAccording to well-informed sources, the Vice President, the Prime Minister, and the Speaker of the Yemeni Consultative\nCouncil have tried to convince President Saleh to sign the agreement mediated by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in"}]