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[21 July 2012] Rising protests in Saudi Arabia - English Saudi protesters have taken to the streets in the Qatif region of Eastern Province to demand the release of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nemr al-Nemr. The demonstrators on Sunday chanted slogans against the repressive regime of Al Saud. Sheikh Nemr was attacked, injured and arrested by Saudi security forces while driving from a farm to his house in Qatif on July 8. He is currently in a military hospital in the city of Dhahran. According to Human Rights Watch, the Saudi regime "routinely represses expression critical of the government."

[05 Aug 2012] Is Saudi Arabia on the edge of revolution - News Analysis - English As revolutions have taken place in the region, the rumblings have been felt in many places and it appears that the next epicenter could be Saudi Arabia. As more demonstrations have taken place in the kingdom, another protester has been killed in the Eastern Province. Also reports say that a Saudi policeman has also been killed. As the violence continues and claims of abuse and illegal incarceration rise, many question what lies ahead in this repressive kingdom as its people continue to seek equality. Are we on the edge of a revolution in Saudi Arabia?

The terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) has reportedly played a major role in intensifying the recent wave of street violence in Iran. Iranian security officials reported Saturday that they have identified and arrested a large number of MKO members who were involved in recent riots in Iran's capital. According to the security officials, the arrested members had confessed that they were extensively trained in Iraq's camp Ashraf to create post-election mayhem in the country. They had also revealed that they have been given directions by the MKO command post in Britain. Street protests broke out after defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi rejected President Ahmadinejad's decisive win in the June 12 election. His supporters have staged a series of illegal rallies ever since. Iran's deputy police commander, on Saturday, warned against the mass gatherings, asserting that those who engage in any such actions would be severely reprimanded. Earlier on Saturday, MKO leader Maryam Rajavi had supported the recent wave of street violence in Iran during a Saturday address to supporters in Paris. Rajavi had reportedly described the MKO terrorists as the real winners of the Iranian election. The Mujahedin Khalq Organization is a Marxist guerilla group, which was founded in the 1960s.In the past two decades, MKO leaders have been resettled in the northern outskirts of Paris. The terrorists are especially notorious for taking sides with former dictator Saddam Hussein during the war Iraq imposed on Iran (1980-1988). The group masterminded a slew of terrorist operations in Iran and Iraq -- one of which was the 1981 bombing of the offices of the Islamic Republic Party, in which more than 72 Iranian officials were killed. A 2007 German intelligence report from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has identified the MKO as a "repressive, sect-like and Stalinist authoritarian organization which centers around the personality cult of [MKO leaders] Maryam and Masoud Rajavi". Anne Singleton, an expert on the MKO and author of 'Saddam's Private Army' explains that the West aims to keep the group afloat in order to use it in efforts to stage a regime change in Iran. "With a new Administration in the White House a pre-emptive strike on Iran looks unlikely. Instead the MKO's backers have put together a coalition of small irritant groups, the known minority and separatist groups, along with the MKO. These groups will be garrisoned around the border with Iran and their task is to launch terrorist attacks into Iran over the next few years to keep the fire hot," she explains. "The role of the MKO is to train and manage these groups using the expertise they acquired from Saddam's Republican Guard," Singleton added. A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report also condemns the MKO for running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations. According to report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.

The topic of this edition of News Analysis is Saudi interference in the Middle East. Editor of Pan-African Newswire, Abayamoi Azikiwe criticizes the U.S. foreign policy for supporting the repressive, undemocratic Saudi regime while at the same time putting the Iran, which has elections and political participation under all kinds of pressure. Director of IGA, Ali al-Ahmad says the main fear of the Saudis is of a democratic state in their neighborhood and he states that it is because of this fear that the Saudis are meddling in the affairs of other regional countries. Professor of Law at Georgetown University Daoud Khairallah says Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf countries are against the Arab Spring because they are against democracy and self-rule.

Switzerland has decided to suspend arms shipments to the United Arab Emirates following a report that Swiss-made hand grenades are being used by armed gangs in Syria. The measure was taken on Wednesday after the Sonntagszeitung newspaper published a photograph taken of one such device in possession of anti-Damascus forces in the town of Marea, north of Aleppo, at the end of June, AFP reported. Preliminary inquiries into the photo showed the grenade in question was made by the Bern-based arms manufacturer RUAG, and was part of a shipment made by the company to the UAE in 2003. The Federal Department of Economic Affairs (FDEA) says 225,162 hand grenades were exported to the UAE, who signed an agreement not to re-export the munitions. "As far as the FDEA is aware, the hand grenade ... originates from a RUAG shipment to the United Arab Emirates in 2003. At present there is no evidence that Swiss hand grenades have found their way to Syria; inquiries are ongoing, however," the government statement said. The FDEA statement also said arms shipments from Switzerland to Syria stopped in April 1998, and raised doubt whether the photograph was taken in Syria after all. Antje Baertschi, a spokeswoman for the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said as a “provisional" measure, Switzerland immediately moved to "freeze all arms export permits to the UAE." Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Webster Griffin Tarpley, author & historian, to hear his opinion on this issue. The following is a transcription of the interview. Press TV: The Swiss claim that they are surprised about this entire issue because they have a “neutral stance” when it comes to issues like Syria. Are they as innocent as they claim considering they have been providing weapons in the first place to repressive states such as the UAE? Tarpley: I think everybody in the world with an effective intelligence service and that would emphatically include Switzerland through their banking system; they are as well informed really as anybody in the world, they know very well that the [Persian] Gulf states, these reactionary feudal absolute monarchies like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait but above all Saudi Arabia, all of them have been massively shipping weapons to the death squads that are working for NATO in Syria and this has been known now for months. There is really no news except that Switzerland, to cover themselves, to cover themselves maybe on liability suits, have decided to cut off the air shipments to these feudal monarchies in the [Persian] Gulf. But other than that, we have known, even the New York Times always the last to know, has confirmed that there were CIA officers who are directing traffic in southern Turkey sending these weapons to the groups that they want to receive them. I think that we could see a larger context; tomorrow there would be another one of these Orwellian ‘Friends of Syria’ conferences in Turkey, I believe, tomorrow, or is it Paris? Anyway, the Russians and the Chinese have said that they will not go. I think Hilary Clinton, however, will be there. I believe it is in Paris. So that entire exercise will continue. One of the things that NATO is doing is simply lying. Whenever they have a diplomatic meeting with Russia, in particular, then they come out and lie about it and the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov was asked today, are you going to call Assad and offer him asylum in Russia? And Lavrov said that is a bad joke; why don’t you ask the same question to the German Foreign Minister [Guido] Westerwelle we were standing with? Why don’t you see if Assad is going to go to Germany? It is all really absurd. The big development of today though that I would urgently point to is NATO is now rolling up its heavy artillery and that means WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Sophisticated knowledgeable observers all over the world have long known since the very beginning in 2010 that WikiLeaks is a NATO-CIA conduit for various kinds of fake or real documents that are released with political aims in mind and Assange in that sense is a tool of NATO. We are now told that there are 2.4 million cables; 400 thousand in Arabic, 70 thousand in Russia that are all embarrassing to Syria, embarrassing to the Syrian government but also embarrassing to companies that are still selling various things to Syria. The example given is Finmeccanica, an Italian firm that has been selling radios to Assad. Also notable is that Assange and WikiLeaks have got a consortium of international press organs; they have got the Associate Press of the United States, the biggest indeed.

[06 Aug 2012] Saudi Sunnis Shias seek democracy Hisham Jaber - English Protesters have held a demonstration against the repressive regime of Al Saud in Tarout Island of Saudi Arabia. The demonstrators on Sunday condemned the recent killing of a teenager by the Saudi police. The protesters in Tarout also expressed solidarity with prominent detained Shia cleric Sheikh Nemr al-Nemr, who was attacked, injured and arrested by the security forces of the Al Saud regime while driving from a farm to his house in Qatif on July 8. However, the demonstrations have turned into protests against the Al Saud regime, especially since November 2011, when Saudi security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the Eastern Province. According to Human Rights Watch, the Saudi regime "routinely represses expression critical of the government." Press TV has conducted an interview with Hisham Jaber, director of the Middle East Studies Center, from Beirut, to further discuss the issue.

Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Shia activist to 13 years in jail and a 15-year travel ban. Human Rights Watch says a judge convicted Adel al-Labbad in the Eastern Province on Thursday. Labbad faced a total of five charges, including disobedience to the ruler and disturbing public order. Media across the kingdom has not yet reported on the sentence. Meanwhile, the Saudi public prosecutor has demanded the death penalty for a 20-year-old man accused of participating in anti-regime protests. Saudi Arabia is one of the most repressive countries in the world where there\'s zero tolerance for dissent.

Several anti-government rallies took place on Tuesday as Egyptians from all walks marked the third anniversary of the ouster of long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak.Rallies took place in the costal city of Alexandria, Sharqiya as well as in the capital Cairo.The aim of the demonstrations is to protest against the army which ousted the country\'s first democratically elected leader back in July. The protesters also denounced what they describe as a return of the Mubarak era repressive practices which Egyptians revolted against three years ago.3 years on, protesters are saying that Mubarak and Sisi are two faces of the same coin, and that the defense minster Sisi is an enemy to the 25th of Jan revolution.