Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Libya, Syria and Middle East unrest - live updates

• Libya releases issued arrest warrants against Gaddafi
• Syria announces appointment of 'National Dialogue'
• New Gaza flotilla sailing by in the face of Israeli threats set
Read the latest summary

Foreign Secretary William Hague said that the UK works closely with Turkey to Syria and Libya. Hague tweeted this before a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.



Saudi Arabia is to withdraw most of its security forces from Bahrain from next Monday, Reuters reports.

The first option is Gaddafi's innner circle. They can implement the arrest warrants. They have a choice: be part of the problem and risk being prosecuted or they can be part of the solution work together with other Libyans and stop the crimes.

Rebel spokesman Guma el-Gamaty claims rebel fighters have taken a barracks in the Western Mountains today.


In Brega: 1 Command and Control Node.



In vicinity of Zuwarah: 3 Fire Control Radars.

1.38pm:

Yemen 's president Ali Abdullah Saleh appears to be preparing to make a TV address from Saudi Arabia, but reports differ on when the speech will be broadcast. A UN team has arrived in the capital Sana'a to investigate allegations human rights abuses.

• Pro-Palestinian activists claim that one of the boats in a new Gaza flotilla was sabotaged ahead of the planned launch of the convoy.

13:31:

The 10-day mission has the permission of Yemen's foreign ministry.

12.34pm:


But in an interview with Spiegel earlier this month, defence minister Thomas de Maiziere insisted Germany had been right to abstain.

He insisted that Germany is not the "good dig" category of the NATO members, Gates showed last month heard, as he said, there are two categories of NATO partners: those who fight and those wells to dig.

12.22: Yesterday 's meeting of opponents of the independent Syrian Regime suspect and irrelevant, a Syrian dissident, argues on Comment is free.


Why did the government whip Brooks Newmark meet Syria's president Assad yesterday? The Foreign Office has stressed that Newmark's trip does not have government backing.

If the Foreign Office did authorise this trip it should have been reported to Parliament when William Hague spoke on the region last week. If it was not authorised by the Foreign Office then who is in charge of government foreign policy and contacts with dictators with blood on their hands?

Egypt

10.16: As soon as a report emerges about Yemen 's President Saleh others would come to disagree.

Earlier today it was reported that Saleh's TV address could be aired today. Now an official told AFP that his appearance will be broadcast "after Thursday".

Believe it when you see him.

09:58:

The pro-Palestinian website Electronic Intifada quoted flotilla spokesman Mattias Gardell as saying:

State TV said Saleh would outline reforms, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Syria

• President Bashar al-Assad met with visiting two Westerners, the British Conservative MP Brooks Newmark and U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, the first such meeting since the uprising began. The Foreign Office issued a declaration that Newmark had traveled to Syria without government support.

• allowed to enter during a visit from Sky News, one of the few news organizations, under strong restrictions, to tell a town near Damascus, Assad trailer pushed by a man. "This is just a game for you sat" activists say he was later arrested.

• A Syrian army defector told the Guardian that the troops ordered to fire on unarmed demonstrators in the southern city of Deraa.

Wasid, a 20-year-old conscript, said the reality was very different claims as state TV that armed groups in the southern city of Deraa terrorized.

Once we got there, the officers told us not to the men with guns to shoot. They said they [the gunmen] were with us. I could 't believe what I was hearing. It was all a lie.


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