France opens up murder inquiry into Yasir Arafat’s death

A French court has opened up a murder inquiry into the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. The move comes after his widow, Suha Arafat, and an Al Jazeera investigation have raised new questions about his death, which has largely been surrounded by rumors he was poisoned. The Swiss Institute of Radiation Physics found heightened levels of polonium-210, a highly lethal radioactive substance, on some of Arafat’s clothing. However, the lab said the test results were inconclusive, and they could only be verified by exhuming Arafat’s body. Arafat died in a French military hospital where the cause of death was cited as a massive stroke resulting from a blood disorder. After the new findings were released, Suha Arafat filed a complaint in a French court to open a murder investigation. Experts from the Swiss lab are scheduled to travel to Ramallah to examine Arafat’s remains, but the question of his exhumation has not yet been settled.

Syria

Turkey is calling for the establishment of humanitarian "safe zones" as refugee flows from Syria escalate, and the United Nations has warned about increased refugee movement into Jordan and Turkey. About 80,000 people from Syria have settled in Turkey since the start of the uprising in 2011, and the United Nations said it could reach 200,000. As fighting has recently increased, Turkey has started to see larger flows, with an estimated 5,000 refugees a day, a drastic jump from the average 500 per day earlier in the month. Turkey warned it only has space for around 100,000 people, however has built new camps which could bring the number up to 120,000. Western diplomats have expressed interest in establishing a safe zone in Syria, however said it would need to backed by a "no-fly zone," concerning those who hesitate to participate in a military intervention. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made a rare appearance on a television interview on the pro-government Dunya TV. He denounced the premise of establishing humanitarian safe zones in Syria, calling it an "unrealistic idea by hostile countries and the enemies of Syria." He maintained his soldiers are "doing a heroic job" but said they need more time to end the conflict. Fierce fighting has been reported in Damascus, Aleppo, and in Idlib province.

Headlines  

• Additional Egyptian forces will be deployed to Sinai in efforts to step up an offensive against Shiite militants in the region.
• Iranian gamers have been blocked from World of Warcraft, the massively popular online role-playing game, with the publisher Activision Blizzard saying it is complying with U.S. trade sanctions.
• Hundreds of Jordanian websites have gone black today protesting proposed government censorship initiatives.
• Arab countries are undecided if they will single out Israel for its believed possession of nuclear weapons at the United Nations annual International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference. 

Arguments & Analysis

‘The Day After Project’ (United States Institute of Peace)

"Right now, Syrians are struggling to overthrow an authoritarian regime and secure the opportunity to live in a stable, peaceful democracy. But history (and recent experiences elsewhere in the Arab world) tell us that transitioning to democracy is difficult. Transitions that occur in the wake of armed conflict face daunting challenges. They must contend with the legacies of dictatorship, as well as the immediate consequences of violence-human, social, institutional, and economic-which vastly complicate, and often overwhelm, efforts to build and consolidate democratic institutions and norms in a post-conflict society. 

Even under the most difficult circumstances, however, prospects for a successful transition improve when the effort is anchored in shared principles and a shared commitment to clearly defined goals. Transitions that are guided by an understanding of the pathway to be followed, agreed-upon principles, and a sense of common purpose are much better equipped to meet and overcome the inevitable challenges. In addition, transitions are more likely to succeed when they take into account the specific historical experiences of a country, including its social structure, cultures, and traditions. The odds of success increase when risks and challenges that may disrupt a transition are identified, strategies for mitigating them are developed, and sufficient flexibility is built into a transition plan to ensure that it remains relevant even under volatile and unpredictable conditions."

‘Morsi’s Wrong Turn’ (Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times)

"If Morsi needs a primer on the democracy movement in Iran (whose Islamic regime broke relations with Egypt in 1979 to protest the peace treaty with Israel) he can read the one offered by Stanford’s Iran expert, Abbas Milani, on the United States Institute of Peace Web site: "The Green Movement reached its height when up to 3 million peaceful demonstrators turned out on Tehran streets to protest official claims that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won the 2009 presidential election in a landslide. Their simple slogan was: ‘Where is my vote?’ … Over the next six months, the Green Movement evolved from a mass group of angry voters to a nationwide force demanding the democratic rights originally sought in the 1979 revolution, rights that were hijacked by radical clerics. … As momentum grew behind the Green Movement, the government response was increasingly tough. In the fall of 2009, more than 100 of the Green Movement’s most important leaders, activists and theorists appeared in show trials reminiscent of Joseph Stalin’s infamous trials in the 1930s." By early 2010, the regime had quashed all public opposition.

That is the regime that Morsi will be helping to sanitize. One at least hopes he read the letter sent to him by an Iranian democracy group, Green Messengers of Hope, urging Morsi to remind his Iranian hosts "of the fates of the leaders who kept turning their backs on the votes of their people, and to urge them to govern their country relying on the support of the Iranian people rather than military forces." Morsi might want to even remind himself of that."

— By Mary Casey