Germany Archives - Arab Digest

Arab embassies and consulates: business as usual

22 July 202022 July 2020William LawArab Digest EmailEgypt, Germany, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA

The day-to-day business in most Arab embassies and consulates is PR , diplomacy and serving regime members but they are also busy with surveillance and, at times, engage in other far more sinister activities.

Libya: no end in sight

4 February 2020William LawArab Digest EmailEgypt, Germany, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE

Libyan political activist Ashur Shamis writes that the renegade general Khalifa Haftar has no interest in peace and no strategy other than war as he bids to seize the country.

Syria – cards reshuffled

15 October 2019Oliver MilesArab Digest EmailFrance, Germany, IS, Italy, Kurds, Syria, Turkey, UK, USA

Syria – US permits and then opposes Turkish assault on the Kurdish north. Fears that IS may rise from the ashes.

Egypt – limited protests, more repression

11 October 2019Oliver MilesArab Digest EmailEgypt, Germany, USA

Egypt – peaceful protest continued in the second week but has been crushed. Government concessions on austerity and restoring subsidies though limited will alarm foreign investors and the IMF. No effective external support for the protests.

Saudi Arabia – no war fever

27 September 2019Oliver MilesArab Digest EmailGermany, Human rights, Iran, Jordan, oil, Saudi Arabia, UK, USA

The practical and political consequences of the Abqaiq raid still not worked out. Iran blamed.

BDS in the USA and Europe

26 September 2019Oliver MilesArab Digest EmailGermany, Israel, Palestine, UK, USA

Discussion of BDS in Congress stalled. Some action in England. For Germany BDS is anti-Semitic.

Syria: the tanker and the fuel crisis

15 July 2019Oliver MilesArab Digest EmailFrance, Germany, Iran, Syria, UK, USA

The seizure of an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar highlights the fuel crisis in Syria and EU policy.

Qatar – Afghanistan and elsewhere

8 July 2019Oliver MilesArab Digest EmailGermany, Hamas, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar

Qatar pursues an independent policy with discretion – Afghanistan and various Arab disputes.

BDS – Israel counters

25 June 201925 June 2019Oliver MilesArab Digest EmailGermany, Israel, Palestine

BDS suffers a setback in Germany. Controversy as usual mainly in the Israeli media. Nothing new from the UN.

Arms sales to Saudi Arabia questioned

7 June 2019Oliver MilesArab Digest EmailChina, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, UK, USA

Arms sales to Saudi Arabia by US, UK and France criticised, but governments undeterred. Missiles/nuclear.