Syria: Iraq and U.S. uncooperative on border control
by BEIRUT DAILY STAR STAFF

Syria has said that Iraq, the United States and Britain are not cooperating with its drive to prevent insurgent infiltrations to Iraq. The Foreign Ministry told the heads of diplomatic missions in Damascus in a letter that it is doing its utmost to seal its border with Iraq in the face of foreign and Syrian insurgents…

The United States and Britain have failed to respond to Syrian requests for night vision and radar-based monitoring systems to prevent night infiltrations, said the letter, delivered to envoys by the Deputy Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem. (source)

Sunni Arabs suspend role on Iraq constitution
By REUTERS

Several Sunni Arab members of the team drafting Iraq’s new constitution have suspended their membership following the assassination of two of their colleagues, a spokesman said on Wednesday. The suspension could complicate the task of drafting the charter by a mid-August deadline.

Salih al-Mutlaq, spokesman for the Iraqi National Dialogue, a Sunni Arab umbrella group, said four of its members on the drafting committee had suspended their membership. Two National Dialogue representatives were killed on Tuesday.

“The environment in Iraq isn’t right for anyone to get work done,” Mutlaq told Reuters when asked why the action had been taken. Another official on the committee said all 15 Sunni Arab members of the 71-member body had suspended their membership, but that could not immediately be confirmed. (source)

Egypt vote boycott gathers momentum
By AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

A growing number of major opposition parties and figures who had vowed to challenge President Hosni Mubarak in a September election are pulling out of a race that they charge is a parody of democracy.

“We had asked for radical changes to the Constitution allowing for anyone to take part in the election, but the changes made do not allow for real competition,” Rifaat al-Said, the leader of the left-wing Tagammu Party, said at a news conference earlier in the week. (source)

1,300 terrorists caught in Syria
By IBRAHEM AWED

According to a high level Syrian source security forces in Syria have apprehended over 1,300 terrorist, from different Arab nationalities, mostly from the gulf, Tunisia, and Algeria, and that they have been handed over to security forces in their respected countries.

The source that spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity, also stated that these terrorists entered Syria legally, because citizens belonging to Arab countries do not require a visa to enter Syria. (source)

Iraqi hospital doctors on strike against soldiers
By AL-JAZEERA

More than two dozen doctors walked out of the Yarmouk Hospital, one of Baghdad’s busiest, on Tuesday in protest of abuse by Iraqi soldiers, leaving some 100 patients behind in the chaotic wards.

According to the doctors the troubles started when soldiers barged into a woman’s wing at the hospital, opened curtains and conducted searches as patients lay in their beds on Monday. (source)

Saddam’s fall leads to an economic renaissance [in Kuwait]
by WILL RASMUSSEN

In the words of one Kuwaiti banker, it was as if the sword of Damocles had been lifted suddenly. The ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003 has led to an economic renaissance in the tiny constitutional emirate ruled by the Al-Sabah family…

Conservative elements still resist foreign investment, such as the $7 billion “Project Kuwait” plan to develop oil fields in the northern desert. The government is moving forward anyway, signing a deal last month with a group of U.S. based investors to build a petrochemical complex south of Kuwait City…

By all accounts, Kuwait’s future looks strong. For now, the state has enough money to keep unemployment at only 2.5 percent. The rebuilding of Iraq will take years and will continue to profit Kuwait’s export industry enormously. (source)

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