Trouble in Syria and sex ed in Saudi Arabia

Damascus and Aleppo, Syria’s two largest cities, are the focus of reporting in most Arab dailies Monday. The army of Bashar Assad is attempting to regain control of sections of the cities lost to the opposition’s Free Syrian Army, media outlets report.

“Attacks to retake Damascus and Aleppo,” reads the headline of London-based daily Al-Hayat, featuring a photo of a crowd lining up outside a bakery.

Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat, anticipating a fight, defines the battles taking place in both cities as “crucial” and notes in its headline that Washington is preparing an intervention plan outside the framework of the UN Security Council. The daily portrays a photo of Free Syrian Army soldiers trampling a portrait of Bashar Assad underfoot at the Karama border crossing with Turkey, which they managed to capture.

An unnamed State Department official tells the daily that the assassination of the Syrian officials in Damascus last week has surprised the United States and caused it to reconsider its involvement in Syria, making it more inclined to intervene militarily.

In a separate interview with A-Sharq Al-Awsat, the governor of the Neinawah province of Iraq Athil Najeifi says that Iraq’s decision to shut the border to incoming refugees is “inhumane” and was carried out under Iranian duress. Najeifi is a member of the Iraqiya bloc which contests the leadership of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.

London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, always slightly more sympathetic to the Damascus regime, reports in its headline that Turkey has deployed ground to air missiles on its border with Syria. The daily claims that Israel has hinted at the possibility of a military operation in Syria to secure chemical weapons there.

“Is Syria a failed state?” wonders the daily’s lead editorial. The editorial claims that Jihadist elements affiliated with Al-Qaeda have penetrated Syria and may have even taken control of the Bab Al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey.

‘It is truly baffling that members of [Allawite] villages who took part in shaping Syria’s first independence and removing the foreign occupation are refraining from sharing the hope and pain of the Syrian people at the time of the second independence’

“Syria is entering a different stage, where most of its periphery and not only its borders our outside its control. It is therefore open to anyone wishing to carry arms and fight the regime… the situation is out of control, both for the government and the opposition. We must therefore expect a long civil war and high human losses,” writes the editor.

Meanwhile, Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera reports that Arab foreign ministers meeting in Doha Sunday have offered Assad immunity in return for stepping down as Syrian president. The offer was voiced by Qatari foreign minister Hamed bin Jassem Al-Thani.

Kamel Abbas, an Allawite Communist from Syria, bemoans in an Al-Hayat editorial his sect’s betrayal of the greater Syrian cause.

“It is truly baffling that members of [Allawite] villages who took part in shaping Syria’s first independence and removing the foreign occupation are refraining from sharing the hope and pain of the Syrian people at the time of the second independence. This second, internal occupation is marked by dictatorship, with events proving that it is more dangerous and worse than the foreign occupation,” writes Abbas.

Army and Brotherhood clash over memorial day

July 23 marks the 60th anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, also known as the Free Officers Movement, when a young army officer — Gamal Abdul Nasser — overthrew the monarch, King Farouk, and took control of the country.

While Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) wishes to preserve the day, a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman wrote that “there is no time for celebrations,” and the newer revolution, that of January 25, 2011, must be safeguarded, A-Sharq Al-Awsat reports.

Morsi told Egyptians that the revolution of 1952 succeeded in achieving some of its goals but failed in achieving others, ‘especially democracy and freedom’

But establishment daily Al-Ahram leads its news with President Morsi’s speech to the nation on July 23, calling the historic event “a decisive moment in the history of modern Egypt.”

Morsi told Egyptians that the revolution of 1952 succeeded in achieving some of its goals but failed in achieving others, “especially democracy and freedom.”

And what better day than to reveal that Gamal Abdul Nasser’s wife Tahiyah was an Iranian Shiite who renounced her former religion in order to marry the Egyptian leader?

Dubai news channel Al-Arabiya tries to track Tahiyah’s lineage, reporting that her grandfather was an eminent Shiite scholar in Iran.

91% of Saudis support sex ed in schools

Despite their country’s ultra-conservative character, a vast majority of Saudis would like to see sexual education introduced into the school curriculum, a new survey finds.

The survey, which questioned 500 parents and 63 teachers, found that a majority of Saudi fathers (87%) found it difficult to answer their children’s questions concerning sex

Saudi-owned daily Elaph reports that female Saudi researcher Amal Banouna from the Um Al-Qura University for Education in Mecca conducted the study concerning children aged 8-13, which will soon be presented in a scientific conference in Portugal.

The survey, which questioned 500 parents and 63 teachers, found that a majority of Saudi fathers (87%) found it difficult to answer their children’s questions concerning sex.