Arab press celebrates women

Syria still tops the Arab news on Friday, including coverage of the international efforts to stop the violence as well as developments on the ground.

Liberal daily Al-Hayat, published in London, leads with the headline “Annan calls for ‘realism’ and insists on a ‘political solution.’ The daily dedicates the bulk of its coverage to the international diplomatic maneuvers, switching to the developments within Syria, including the resignation of Oil Undersecretary Abdo Hussam A-Din, only towards the bottom of the article.

Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat, as is its habit in past weeks, focuses on domestic developments in Syria. “Damascus and Aleppo boil, and the tribes set up military brigades,” reads its headline. The daily claims that Damascus and Aleppo, the country’s two largest cities which have largely been left out of the violence, are now beginning to rise up against Assad. Assad is losing control of Aleppo, the daily claims, and the country’s tribes are constructing 24 fighting battalions to “resist the war machine of the Syrian regime and protect civilians on all Syrian land.” The daily tends to base its coverage largely on local opposition groups, making the neutrality of the reports somewhat questionable.

Meanwhile, Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya reports that Lebanon has bluntly rejected a request by US ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly  to harbor Syrian oppositionists, including members of the Free Syrian Army. Connelly reportedly asked Lebanese interior minister Marwan Sherbel to protect Syrians who had fled to Lebanon, expressing American concern about reported kidnappings of Syrians in Lebanon. Foreign minister Adnan Mansour, a member of the Shiite group Amal, reportedly answered the ambassador “Lebanon is not asked. It acts based on its interests, its security situation and its capabilities.”

Al-Hayat columnist Raghda Dargham writes on Friday that American diplomatic attention has turned from Syria to Iran following Israeli pressure on the administration.

“Now, the priority of American institutions … has moved to Iran, after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succeeded in turning the American orientation from the Syrian option to the Iranian one.”

International women’s day fills Arab media

Arab media are filled with articles dealing with women’s issues to mark international women’s day on Thursday.

Saudi-owned news website Elaph celebrates the achievements of Saudi women in winning important rights, such as the right to vote for the Shura council, the country’s advisory body that substitutes a parliament. NASA has also included a Saudi woman in its scientific team, Elaph reports. The site attributes these advances to efforts by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Elaph devotes a separate story to an initiative by Iranian women living in Europe, who undressed in a YouTube clip to protest women’s rights in Iran. The women also produced a calender displaying their nude bodies.

A-Sharq Al-Awsat runs an article about Palestinian woman demonstrating in support of Hana Shalabi who has been on a hunger strike for over three weeks, protesting her administrative arrest by Israel. Women in the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Hebron and Jenin marched towards Israeli roadblocks carrying posters with Hana’s image, A-Sharq Al-Awsat reports.

Dennis Ross speaks to Al-Quds on peace with Israel

In an interview with Jerusalem-based Palestinian daily Al-Quds, former US middle East envoy Dennis Ross reiterates his position on an array of issues pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The points the daily wishes to emphasize are Ross’s belief that the two state solution is the only possible one and his assertion that Palestinian refugees will return to the Palestinian state only and not to Israel. Ross also mentions the fact that the Arab Spring has drawn much of the attention away from the Arab-Israeli conflict.

‘Name and shame’ of Iraqi terrorists on Al-Arabiya

Perhaps trying to curtail terrorism in Iraq, Al-Arabiya broadcasts close-up photos of four suspects arrested by police in the province of Salah A-Din for involvement in recent terror activities.

The province’s military police chief told the channel that the police had monitored the movement of four terrorists in the area, but one had managed to detonate himself before being arrested.

Editorial pokes fun at Pakistan on bin Laden’s wives

An editorial published in hard-line daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi pokes fun at Pakistan’s authorities for trying and convicting Osama bin Laden’s widows for illegally entering the country. The daily claims the decision is both “embarrassing and funny.”

Since when has the Pakistani government controlled those illegally entering its borders? asks the daily rhetorically.

“If we were to apply this standard literally, i.e. to try those entering the country illegally, Pakistan would need tens of thousands of courts and hundreds of thousands of prisons,” writes the editor.

The continued arrest of bin Laden’s widows proves, the editor opines, “that Pakistan is no more than a dummy in the hands of the United States and has no independent sovereign decision. It fulfills the dictations from Washington without any debate.”