Syrian residents fear the ‘curse of the observers’

Residents of the Syrian city of Duma have requested that a number of UN monitors remain in their midst, fearing acts of reprisal by Bashar Assad forces, the London-based daily Al-Hayat reports Thursday. In an article titled “The curse of the monitors” hits Duma following Hama, the daily reports that Assad forces vandalized shops and cars in the city of Duma, near Damascus, following the monitors’ exit.

Now, civilians across Syria fear the arrival of monitors in their cities. The article’s photo displays a number of burnt-out cars in the city of Duma.

Meanwhile, Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat reports that Syrian forces continued to kill civilians in Hama Wednesday, with the death toll at 12. “A massacre in Hama in the presence of observers, and France: the crucial date is May 5,” reads its headline. According to the daily, France has given Kofi Annan until May 5 to announce the success or failure of his initiative. The photo displays civilians in Hama rummaging through the debris of a bombarded house searching for survivors.

The daily also reports the regime forces have isolated the city of Damascus from its surrounding using military roadblocks, sending troops into the city for reinforcement.

Meanwhile, a defecting Syrian general, Mustafa Ahmad Al-Sheikh, tells A-Sharq Al-Awsat that defections of high-ranking officers from the Syrian army are continuing, adding that if “safe zones” were to be created inside Syria, “everyone would defect.” He tells A-Sharq Al-Awsat that 9 defecting Syrian generals and 225 officers of other ranks are currently taking refuge in Turkey.

Saudi-owned news site Elaph reports that the Assad regime is engaged in a hacker attack against Qatar, spreading fictitious news blasts defaming the Qatari royal family. According to the report:

“The electronic war against Qatar is part of an escalating attempt by Syrian President Bashar Assad to paint the Intifada against his regime as a geo-political battle waged by rich Gulf kingdoms bent on destroying Syria, rather than a violent campaign to silence a popular revolution.”

Arab military maneuver in the Gulf in light of escalation with Iran

The Peninsula Shield Force, the military branch of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — an alliance which includes six Arab Gulf states — will conduct a military maneuver in the Persian Gulf at the end of April, A-Sharq Al-Awsat reports. The maneuver, which the daily dubs “the first of its kind in terms of size and mission,” will test cooperation on the command level between the navies, air forces and ground forces of the participating armies.

The exercise, which will take place on April 29-30, is titled “Islands of loyalty”, a reference to the three Emirate islands occupied by Iran in the early 1970s.

Meanwhile, Dubai-based news station Al-Arabiya reported Wednesday that Iran is planning to turn the occupied Island of Abu-Moussa — which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provocatively visited earlier this month —  into the capital of a newly created province, changing the island’s name from Abu-Moussa to Bumoussa. The new province is said to be called the Persian Gulf Province in defiance of Arab insistence on calling it “the Arab Gulf.”

Trouble in the Palestinian Authority

A number of different reports Thursday in Arab media indicate deep political turbulence in the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Bethlehem-based news agency Maan reports, quoting Fatah sources, that no contact has been made between Fatah and Hamas for two months. Fatah official Azzam Ahmad naturally blames Hamas for this, noting that the Islamic movement has banned the Palestinian election committee from entering the Gaza Strip to prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections there.

Ahmad tells the news agency that no meetings are planned between Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas’s Khaled Mashaal in the near future.

Meanwhile, Arab-nationalist daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reports in its top headline that Mahmoud Abbas has sacked PA official Yasser Abed Arabbo from his position as head of the PA’s media department. According to the daily, Fatah is demanding that Abed Rabbo also be dismissed from his position of secretary of the PLO.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi reports that Abbas became furious with Abed Rabbo after the latter refused to convey the president’s famous letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month. Sources tell the daily that while Abbas expected Abed Rabbo to evade going to Netanyahu, he did not expect his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to do so.

According to the report, Abbas has another reason to be angry with Abed Rabbo. The PA official opposed his plan to turn to the UN for recognition last September, telling visitors he received that Abbas’s plan was merely a maneuver meant to place pressure on Israel.