Abdulrahman al-Masri, Tom Regan, Elissa Miller, Hashem Osseiran, Oumayma Omar, Yavuz Baydar, Ahmad Abou Douh, Gregory Aftandilian, Thomas Seibert, Marwa al-A’sar

Issue 93, Year 2 www.thearabweekly.com UK £2/ EU €2.50 February 12, 2017 Sisi at Interview Iran’s odds with Arab League’s missile al-Azhar assistant threats secretary-general P9P4 P13 P15 Economics key to stability in Libya Mustafa Salheen el-Huni P12 Waterway stand-off revives - border dispute More of the same in Iraq Nazli Tarzi Tallha Abdulrazaq P2 London

long-dormant dispute over the narrow water- way that separates Iraq Jordan’s troubled and Kuwait has resur- faced, reviving a disa- greementA that dates to before Iraq’s relationship with its 1990 invasion of its neighbour. mosques Political tensions over the Khor Mamoon Alabbasi P8 Abdullah estuary came to a head during an Iraqi parliamentary ses- sion, in which lawmakers assailed the state over territory ceded to Kuwait. Two years after Iraq accepted a Playing with fire UN-sponsored ceasefire, a com- mission was appointed by the UN Salem el-Kotobi P6 Security Council to demarcate the border between the warring coun- tries. Describing the commission’s re- sponsibility, Iraq’s former Trans- port minister Amer Abd al-Jabbar, Will Yemen’s Saleh in a leaked interview, said “this was the first time in Security Coun- drop Houthis? cil history that borders were re- Saleh Baidhani P5 drawn”. Protesters wave national flags as they chant slogans against the demarcation of the border agreement He questioned why Kuwait, be- with Kuwait in Basra, on January 31st. (AP) Etihad Museum tween the time the commission was set up in 1993 and the US-led not have jurisdiction to decide the “The people of Iraq’s principal from Kuwait, the deal cannot be N. P. Krishna P22 invasion of Iraq in 2003, “sat back fate of the waterway. Jabbar called port town of Basra will be most af- overturned. Kumar without implementing the terms for either the postponement of the fected,” Iraqi activist Durgham The stand-off is similar to dis- stipulated under Resolution 833”. implementation of any deal grant- Zaidi said in a telephone interview. putes in 2011 that involved the con- The frontier the document sets ing Kuwait rights over what he said Large demonstrations took place struction of dams in the surround- out is yet to be enforced. was Iraq’s side of the waterway or in Basra where protesters held plac- ing waters of Khor Abdullah by The handover of the waterway its outright abrogation. ards reading “Khor Abdullah is and both countries. Iraq said Kuwait’s has been upheld by Iraq as a de- Unusually, Iraqis of all political will remain part of Iraq’s territory”. Mubarak dam would result in the layed implementation of the terms and sectarian stripes united in op- Online videos show local tribes in slow strangulation of Iraq’s waters. of Resolution 833 and the 2013 position to the government deci- Basra mobilising on the border. The dispute is unlikely to be re- maritime navigation deal signed sion. Activists in Basra have been lob- solved soon and poses risks for both by Hadi al-Ameri, Iraq’s minister bying local council members to countries. It threatens to unstitch

of Transport at the time and Salem postpone or abrogate the agreement progress made in Iraqi-Kuwaiti re- Mthieb al-Uthaina, Kuwait’s minis- Iraq reached under Maliki’s tenure. lations since the fall of Iraqi leader ter of Communication. Khor Abdullah estuary Kuwaiti officials said they were Saddam Hussein following the 2003 Warbah Island Although the deal was struck to meet to discuss the “usual Iraqi US-led invasion. under former prime minister Nuri provocations”, the Kuwait Times al-Maliki, it is the current govern- Kuwait reported. Kuwaiti MP Saleh Ashour Nazli Tarzi is an independent ment that has to deal with the con- called for “an operation to track journalist whose writings and films

Bubiyan Island sequences. Arabian Gulf anti-Kuwait developments in Iraq”. focus on Iraq’s ancient history and Questioning the reliability of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al- contemporary political scene. the resolution, Jabbar and others Abadi has made the position of his argued the United Nations does government clear: Without consent P2 Maghrebis faced with Quebec terror attack aftermath

Lamine Ghanmi It is not the first time that year, they were among the victims people from the region have been and intellectuals, who are especially Maghreb migrants have died in ter- of massacres in Paris and Nice. killed in a terror attack in Canada. in high demand in parts of Canada rorist attacks in recent years. Last This, however, was the first time The Quebec City attack ham- because of their fluency in French. Tunis mered home the message that ter- “It is not easy to die in a place rorism extends to all parts of the where one came to seek peace,” bdelkrim Hassane left world. Canada’s reputation as a Louisa Hassane, Abdelkrim’s wife, the warmth and comfort peaceful, tolerant society made said before his burial. of his Berber village in it a top destination for migrants Asked about her feelings towards northern Algeria to mi- from the Maghreb who want their her husband’s suspected killer, she grate to Canada in 2009 children to grow up outside the in- said: “I harbour no hatred towards inA the hope of securing a better fu- fluence of radical Islam and away him. I have pity for this boy.” ture for his children. from the increasingly tense climate Hassane and Belkacemi were Hassane was one of six Muslim caused by far-right populists in Eu- from the same Berber region of worshippers killed January 29th in ropean societies. Bejaia. They often crossed paths at a Quebec City mosque allegedly by a Unlike those who migrate to Eu- Bab Ezzouar University in the out- 27-year-old Canadian Islamophobe. rope, Maghrebi migrants to Canada skirts of Algiers. His body, alongside that of fellow have mainly been ambitious stu- They — along with the other vic- Algerian Khaled Belkacemi, a chem- dents, highly skilled professionals tims — will be missed. istry expert who was also killed in “I told my daughters that their the attack, was flown to Algeria for father is gone to the paradise,” said burial on February 4th. It was the first time Louisa Hassane, “but I need my The bodies of Tunisian expatri- husband. I have three girls who are ate Boubaker Thabti and Moroccan people from the very young and need their father.” Azzeddine Soufiane, also victims of Maghreb have been the attack, were returned to their killed in a terror Lamine Ghanmi is an Arab Weekly home countries the same day. Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed (C) consoles the wife correspondent in Tunis. The six victims left behind 17 chil- and son of Boubaker Thabti who was killed in an attack on a attack in Canada. dren in total. mosque in Quebec City. (AFP) P3