Media Say US-Israeli Military Drills Harmful to Region
The pro-government newspaper Al-Watan criticised the recent military manoeuvres carried by Israel and the United States and said the exercises were directed against “resistant countries” in the region.

The Israel Defense Forces, IDF, and the US military began joint three-week exercises on October 22. Israel said the exercises were unrelated to any developments in the region.

In an October 25 op-ed article, author Malek Nator said that the military exercises proved that the presumed changes in Washington’s policy towards Israel were “senseless”.

He said the coalition between Israel and the US is getting stronger as a reaction to the fact that their shared enemies, Iran as well as Arab resistance forces spearheaded by Syria, were becoming “more potent and more active”.

The columnist blamed some Arab countries without naming them because, he said, they refrained from criticising or even commenting about the exercises.

He said that if Iran and Syria were to carry such manoeuvres, it would be frowned upon by the whole international community and Arab armies would be placed on alert.
(27-Oct-09)

Reforms Hurt Citizens and Economy - Official Report
An official report said that recent economic reforms in Syria led to a fall in people’s incomes, according to the official daily Al-Thawra in an October 25 article.

The report, which was drafted by the state’s planning commission to evaluate the first half of Syria’s latest five-year economic plan, said that the implementation of economic reforms had a “negative effect on incomes and expenditures”.

As an illustration, it said that the percentage of Syrians living under the line of “extreme poverty” has risen to more than 12 per cent and that the number of individuals living under the line of “general poverty” has also increased to around 34 per cent.

The report also criticised recent economic plans, arguing that the national economy today suffered from a poor environment for investments, the low productivity of the industrial sector and the low competitiveness of Syrian products on international markets.

The report said that public manufacturing facilities were facing difficulties because of the use of worn-out machines, high production costs, unskilled workers and the lack of investments. It added that on the other hand, the private industrial sector was developing.

The report also revealed that the problem of tap water pollution was increasing and no solution had been found. It added that the yearly share of every citizen of potable water has fallen under 747 cubic metres, which is way under the 1,000 cubic metres set as the standard water poverty line.

The agricultural sector was also facing challenges because of the reduction of cultivated area and the deterioration of the quality of land caused partly by climate change, it said.
(27-Oct-09)

Magazine Protests Against Intimidation by Authorities
A youth magazine decided to stop publishing in protest against what it said was harassment by the authorities, the pro-government website Day Press reported in an October 25 article.

Eyad Shurbaji, the editor-in-chief of Shabablek magazine, made the announcement at a recent event, according to the website.

In the past few months, several issues of the magazine were banned from being distributed on oral orders from the ministry of information.

The last banned issue included a report on media in Syria which criticised the ministry of information for the way it dealt with local publications.

The series of reports called “Print Media is Dying in Syria” covered censorship, information blackouts and the journalists’ union.

The private media have been subjected to restrictions by officials in the past few months, with editions of many newspapers and magazines forbidden from being distributed on the Syrian market.
(27-Oct-09)

US Not Committed to Peace - Papers
The United States is not only avoiding its promises regarding peace in the Middle East but also laying obstacles in the way of the peace process, said an October 25 op-ed article in the state-run newspaper Tishreen.

Ezeldin al-Darwish wrote that Washington had failed to create a “proper atmosphere for peace” in the region, adding that the commitment of the US towards peace remained only on paper and was not yet translated into “actions” by the Israeli side.

He added that Israel was working against peace.

The columnist criticised Washington for asking Arab nations to show more goodwill towards Israel and normalise their relations with the Jewish state, while the Arabs were the side that was respecting international resolutions and responding to peace efforts.

Meanwhile, an October 21 editorial on the opposition website Arraee.net said nothing was moving on all the regional issues, from the Arab Israeli conflict to the Iranian nuclear programme and the Islamic Republic’s role in the Middle East.

The website said that the region was still in a “transitional phase”. It said that the Syrian attitude during this phase consisted of “swinging” between its strong ties with Iran and the desire to open up to the international community.

The article complimented Saudi Arabia’s efforts to mend its relations with Damascus in order, it said, to weaken the Syrian Iranian alliance.
(27-Oct-09)

Authorities Arrest Prominent Muslim Cleric
The Syrian security apparatus arrested a prominent cleric after he returned from Qatar where he was featured on an Arab satellite TV station, said the London-based Syrian Human Rights Committee in an October 25 in a statement posted on its website.

The organisation said that Abdulrahman al-Kuki was a guest on the October 20 episode of a programme called the “Opposite Direction” and broadcast by Al-Jazeera.

The show was about a recent controversy regarding the way the Islamic veil should be worn.

The committee said that security forces had searched the home of the cleric and confiscated his laptop.

It demanded his immediate release, asserting that the arrest was solely on the basis of his opinions and beliefs.

The website all4Syria said the same day that the reason behind the arrest of Kuki was that he criticised the Sheikh of the Azhar, considered to be one of the most prominent figures in Sunni Islam, during the programme.

The website quoted a source as saying that the Syrian minister for religious affairs, Muhammad Abdulsattar al-Sayed, had recently ordered clerics not to give interviews without his permission. It added that the minister was “not satisfied” with Kuki’s repeated appearances on Al-Jazeera TV.

It was not the first time that the authorities had arrested religious figures in Syria. In June, Dr Salah Keftaro, a leading cleric who heads the religious institution Abu al-Nour, was arrested and accused of having illegal relations with foreign parties in addition to practicing a profession without a licence and misappropriating public funds.

A month earlier, the prominent Syrian cleric, Sheikh Mahmoud Keftaro, was detained for 13 days by Syrian intelligence for allegedly establishing contacts with western embassies in Damascus.
(27-Oct-09)