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Subject of Tunisian COVID-19 Scandal Details Quarantine ‘Escape’

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No sooner had Tunisian Prime Minister Elyes Fakfakh said the country had beaten COVID-19, than a scandal broke involving one woman who “escaped” quarantine over the weekend and went on to attend a wedding.  

The woman has since come forward and told local radio she left the state-sanctioned quarantine hotel because of a name mix-up. The young lady, who asked to stay anonymous for fear of backlash, said she was in the center after finally being repatriated from what was meant to be a quick trip to Canada, but turned into a three month ordeal because of COVID-19. 

After petitioning the Tunisian Embassy in Canada, the woman who normally resides in Menzel Temime was finally able to secure a seat on a repatriation flight alongside her sister. Early on the morning of Sunday, June 7, the pair’s flight from Montreal touched down in Tunisia. They were temperature tested and sent to a quarantine center in Yasmine Hammamet, where they both spent seven days in confinement.  

“Anarchy” at Quarantine Hotel  

On the eighth day of quarantine, and still asymptomatic, the woman left the COVID-19 hotel believing she had been cleared by authorities.  

“At the reception, there was a lot of anarchy, no-one knew what to do — to stay or to go,” she told local radio station Sabra FM.

“A few hours earlier, they knocked on the doors of our rooms and told us to take our luggage downstairs to the reception, and that we could leave.  

“Confused, we spent a long time waiting in the reception, from 5pm to 11pm. During that entire time, no one told us anything. On the contrary, the tension was so high that fights began to break out,” she explained.   

After leaving she visited her parents and attended a family wedding in Menzel Temime — where 80 people who came into contact with her are now in mandatory isolation, according to TAP News.  

After the ceremony, the young lady received a phone call from the quarantine facility telling her to return. It now appears that it was her sister, who has the same family name, that was actually authorized to leave.   

“When they began to announce the names of those who could leave quarantine, I heard my surname. I thought they meant me, but in fact it was my sister. It was my fault for not checking the name properly,” she said.

“I still have no documentation to say that I have tested positive. I had been there for a whole week, and received not a single document to say that I was positive. No one said that there was a positive case either. Logically, if you have a positive case, you would think they would have left them in their room. That was not the case.” 

The young lady felt the need to come forward and tell her side of the story, given the abuse she has endured and the rumors flying about the incident. “Do you think I’m that reckless?” she told the radio host. 

Media reports said the woman ate at a restaurant with her fiancé after leaving the COVID-19 hotel and infected a number of police officers before returning to the facilities — allegations she denies. 

Tunisian Blunders 

On June 18, another story emerged that another young person — this time a 24-year-old man repatriated from Kuwait, had been wrongly given permission to leave quarantine despite testing positive for COVID-19. The man arrived back in Tunisia on June 9 and had been under mandatory quarantine in a hotel until he was released on Tuesday, before receiving his test results.  

The Ksour Essef resident’s test came back positive, and he has now been transferred to a COVID-19 treatment center in Monastir. Health authorities are now busily tracing and testing his family and friends.  

The poor handling of these two cases has raised serious doubts about the Tunisian government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and thrown into question its de-confinement strategy. 

On Sunday, June 14, the virus seemed to be under control. Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh made what now appears to be a premature declaration of victory against COVID-19. After the announcement, cases spiked on June 16 and 17.  

Nevertheless, Tunisia’s COVID-19 case load remains low compared with its neighbors. There are only 1,128 total confirmed cases and 50 deaths, and just 74 of those cases remain active.  

Despite warnings from Health Minister Abdellatif Mekki about a second wave of the virus, Tunisia is still on track to become the first North African country to reopen all borders on June 27.

Read also: Tunisia Eyes Economy After Declaring COVID-19 Victory

Rich Countries Seek Priority Access to COVID-19 Vaccine

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In order for an eventual COVID-19 vaccine to save as many lives as possible, it would require rapid distribution, and to those countries struggling with the highest infection rates. The chances that will happen are slim, say several experts who see an increasingly competitive race for first-access to a potential vaccine.

“We have this beautiful picture of everyone getting the vaccine, but there is no road map on how to do it,” the Associated Press was told by Yuan Qiong Hu, a senior legal and policy adviser at Doctors Without Borders in Geneva.

Hu predicts that the existing structure, in which companies establish patents at every step of vaccine development, will hamper the distribution and development of a vaccine that could be made available to all. “We can’t afford to face these multiple layers of private rights to create a ‘people’s vaccine,’” she told the AP.

Three phases

Several possible vaccines are under development across the world thanks to global efforts, with around a dozen in the early stages of testing. Vaccine development requires any potential remedy to go through a three-phase process that tests the efficacy of the drug while ensuring that side effects do not pose unforeseen risks.

In the first phase, small groups of people receive the trial vaccine. If the vaccine proves successful without any significant health risks among the participants, the process moves to the second phase.

In phase two, the clinical study expands to a group of people who are part of the risk group for whom the vaccine is intended, which in COVID-19 cases would be older people and those vulnerable because of pre-existing illnesses.

The third and final phase tests the vaccine on thousands of people to ensure safety and a proven efficacy to avoid false positives and detect possible allergic reactions or side effects.

Private investment

Several wealthy countries have spent millions to support the rapid development of possible vaccine candidates and ensure a potential vaccine could be manufactured on a large scale. In exchange for these investments, these countries are expected to receive vaccines before others.

The British government has declared that the first 30 million doses of a possible vaccine under development at Oxford University will be earmarked for British citizens. The US became entangled in a diplomatic row with France over the potential future distribution of a French vaccine candidate to which the US expected first access because of its investments.

AstraZeneca, a drug manufacturer that intends to produce Oxford University’s vaccine, has signed an agreement with the US that would guarantee 300 million doses for the US, to be delivered as soon as possible.

The same manufacturer struck a deal with four EU countries to also supply them with 300 million doses. Drug manufacturers appear to be actively goading governments into making early commitments to buy yet-unproven drugs, playing countries against each other as they stand to make giant profits.

While pharmaceutical companies have pledged to provide a not-for-profit version of their vaccines, it is becoming clear that the world’s richest will be the first to receive the vaccines, even if other countries need them much more. Another example of the perverse nature of privatized medicine, it will be the richest, not the sickest, who will receive priority in this global crisis.

Saudi Arabia Proposes Framework For Peace in Yemen

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Saudi Arabia is planning to introduce a proposal that aims to realize a power-sharing agreement to end the conflict in Yemen. Saudi officials have not made the framework available publicly, but the proposal has been shared with Reuters who released details of the plan on Thursday, May 18.

The framework aims to create conditions for a renewal of the Riyadh Agreement that was signed on November 5, 2019 after months of delay.

The two-month deadline for implementation of the agreement has long since passed, but Saudi Arabian diplomats are hoping to re-engage the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government to finally implement the power-sharing deal.

Developments

The Yemeni conflict continues to spiral out of control amid grave concerns over the impact of COVID-19 while its devastated healthcare facilities are unable to cope with an influx in infections.

NGOs like Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have called on combatants to cease hostilities amid an unfolding “catastrophe,” but fighting continues and a funding drive for Yemen failed to raise the $2.4 billion needed to avert disaster in the country.

Significant advances made by the Emirati-backed STC have further weakened chances of a successful implementation of the Riyadh Agreement. Since signing the agreement, the STC has declared self-rule over Aden and swaths of the country’s South in direct violation of the terms.

The STC’s actions have highlighted the fractured nature of Saudi-Emirati cooperation who now support opposing sides vying for control.

Saudi framework

The new Saudi proposal calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Abyan province where ongoing fighting continues to claim casualties on all sides. The STC rescinding their declaration of self-rule over the important port city of Aden would then follow the ceasefire, which could prove to be a hard sell for the Transitional Council who has now ruled the area for months.

If the STC does agree to rescind its emergency rule over the area, Saudi-backed Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi would proceed to appoint a governor and security chief in Aden and appoint a new prime minister.

The Hadi-appointed prime minister would then proceed to form a cabinet that would include politicians of the STC.

The formation of government would follow a full withdrawal of STC forces from Aden. The agreement would require STC’s military units to move to Abyan where they have been engaged in direct conflict with government forces.

Incentives

While the agreement demands significant concessions from the Emirati-backed STC, it is unclear what incentives it offers for compliance.

Two STC sources have already told Reuters they would want to see the government formed before they withdraw their forces from Aden, as it remains unclear if Saudi diplomats are offering the STC, or the UAE that backs them, a quid-pro-quo for abandoning hard-fought military gains.

Another sticking point of the agreement is that the implementation of the deal would return the country to a similar status quo that prompted the Shia Houthis, who are backed by Iran, to rebel against Hadi’s government in the first place.

Bilateral agreement

A June 18 Houthi communique made no reference to the Saudi proposal but instead brought attention to a decaying oil tanker off Yemen’s coast. The unaddressed threat could soon create a 1 million-barrel oil spill in the Red Sea.

The Saudi-backed coalition is continuing aerial raids against Houthi weapons depots as they advance towards Marib, a stronghold of the Saudi-led coalition. The Houthis in turn have launched drones against Saudi targets, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to threaten “rigorous measures.”

It appears that Saudi Arabia is hoping the framework will bring Emirati-backed forces back to its ranks in order to concentrate efforts against the Iran-backed Houthi forces.

While observers should see any reduction in violence as a positive development, true peace in Yemen can likely only be realized by addressing all fighting parties’ concerns.

UNHCR: Staggering 79.5 Million People Currently Displaced

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Based on the UN’s figures, nearly one percent of the global population was displaced at the end of 2019, a grim milestone that UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi laments. 

“This almost 80 million figure – the highest that UNHCR has recorded since these statistics have been systematically collected, is of course a reason for great concern,” Grandi said on June 18. 

According to the UNHCR, the majority of the world’s asylum seekers, refugees and internally displaced persons come from just five countries — Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar.  

“If crises in these countries were solved, 68 per cent of global forced displacement would be on its way to being solved,” the UN refugee chief said. 

Last year, an additional 11 million people were pushed out of their homes by violence, persecution, political unrest, famine, climate change, and other disasters. In the wake of COVID-19, the entrenched nature of conflicts in places like Syria and Afghanistan, and “insufficient political solutions,” Grandi warns, “we don’t see this trend diminishing.” 

“With the international community so divided, so unable, so incapable of making peace, unfortunately the situation won’t stop growing, and I am very worried that next year it will be even worse than this year,” he told the French Press Agency (AFP) on Thursday.

Poor Countries Bearing the Brunt of Global Problem 

Grandi criticised the rhetoric often used by rich countries that welcoming displaced people affects all countries equally, and shot-down the “politicised misconception” that they are most likely to seek refuge in wealthy countries far from home.   

“This continues to be a global issue, an issue for all States, but one that challenges most directly the poorer countries – not the richer countries – in spite of the rhetoric,” he said. 

The UNHCR data shows poor countries host 85% of the nearly 80 million displaced people worldwide, with 73% of those ‘on the move,’ seeking shelter in a neighbouring country. 

Burkina Faso, in the troubled Sahel region, has long welcomed those fleeing violence in neighbouring Mali and Niger, but since 2016, has itself become a worrying hotspot for violence and, as a result, displacement.  

“Nothing prepared me for what I saw in Burkina Faso… I was particularly struck by the plight of so many women who had suffered violence, whose husbands had been taken away from them or killed, whose children had been separated from them,” Grandi told France24 after visiting the country in February 2020. 

Armed groups, extremists and criminal gangs have taken advantage of weak governments, poverty, and local ethnic tensions to rain terror across Burkina Faso, and particularly in the lawless borderlands between the three countries home to refugee camps.  

As a result, some of the 25 000 Malian refugees seeking safety in Burkina Faso have returned home to areas so dangerous, humanitarian and defence forces can’t enter them. Meanwhile more than 800 000 Burkinabeè are now believed to be displaced in their own country. The government of Burkina Faso, also one of the world’s poorest, is grappling to deal with the scale of the humanitarian crisis and many displaced people are still sleeping outdoors, and going hungry while still living with the severe trauma of the violence inflicted upon them.

Read also: Mediterranean Claims 20 More Migrant Lives Off Tunisian Coast

MENA Region Faces Wave of Post-Lockdown Protests

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Citizens of several countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have taken to the streets following the easing of COVID-19 measures. Citizens are demanding action from their governments after having adhered to painful lockdowns and curfews that brought severe economic hardship.

In Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Tunisia, large protests have emerged over the last week as citizens call upon government officials to ease their suffering. While COVID-19 fears begin to wane, a new focus on structural poverty and inefficient government is emerging across the region as protesters express their discontent.

Lebanon

The Lebanese military arrested dozens of protesters on Monday, June 15, for alleged acts of vandalism. Protesters expressed their frustration with skyrocketing inflation amid a spiraling currency crisis, while the indebted nation struggles to balance its debt obligations with popular demands for a significant increase in living conditions.

After nearly two months of empty streets, economic deprivation, and fear of the coronavirus, the Lebanese people have returned to the streets to protest the lack of solutions offered by the government of Hassan Diab. Banks and shops were attacked as Lebanese people grow more desperate, even as new sanctions on neighboring country Syria are likely to further damage Lebanon’s economy.

Iraq

Newly inaugurated prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s “honeymoon phase” in government has ended quickly as increasing austerity measures are sparking furious protests. Monthly pensions were hit by a drop in oil-revenue that is forcing the government to take unpopular measures. Nearly one million Iraqis depend on their pension each month and this month the $920 pension was more than $100 short, according to France24.

The Iraqi government has introduced several ambitious reform plans, but a dramatic fall in government revenue as a result of cratered oil prices and production cuts has meant introducing painful cuts to public sector salaries and pensions. Public sector employment has served as a method to appease Iraqis since the 2003 US invasion, but falling state oil revenues have now undermined this strategy.

Syria

Syria has seen few large protests since the 2011 pro-democracy protests that started a civil war. But protests again emerged over the rise in prices of basic necessities, a doubling in food prices and continued corruption in government. The city of Druze saw four days of intense protests as the Syrian Pound continues to fall dramatically in value.

The protesters are unlikely to see a swift resolution to their concerns as the “Caesar Act,” a new round of US sanctions targeting Syria, is set to heavily impact the last remaining economic activity that has sustained the country’s flailing economy. With an apparent consolidation of power ongoing in Damascus that has gone public, Bashar al-Assad’s regime is facing renewed pressure from all sides.

Tunisia

Protests have emerged in at least seven Tunisian cities, Reuters reported on Thursday, June 18. Unemployed and economically deprived people across the country protested what they considered government inaction in the face of a continued economic crisis. University graduates shouted “we need jobs” in Gafsa and hundreds protested in Hajeb el Ayoun and Sidi Bouzid.

The Tunisian tourism sector has suffered an unprecedented crisis after COVID-19 measures closed borders and shut the industry that provides 10% of state revenue. After a decade of high inflation and unemployment, Tunisians now call for an increased focus on jobs by protesting and even halting the country’s phosphate production through sit-ins.

A new era

The current protests across the MENA-region are likely only the beginning of popular unrest in the region, with global institutes like the IMF predicting that local economies will suffer from post-lockdown economic woes for some time to come. Protests against corruption and ineffective government appear to be supported by data, and the World Bank has called for greater transparency from MENA-governments.

As global oil prices continue to be volatile, supported by painful production cuts, revenue will likely remain impacted in many oil-dependent MENA-countries. With structural economic issues in many countries, unemployment and poverty are likely to worsen in the months ahead, as the region braces itself for a new era of popular discontent.

UAE Diplomat: Israel Annexation Could Reverse Gains for Middle East Peace

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As ultranationalists within the Israeli government continue to push for annexation within the West Bank, the Middle East is confronted with the potential erasure of decades of peacebuilding. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s United States maintains its support for Israel’s expansionist agenda, breaking with previous administrations’ commitment to a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Since the Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first entertained the idea of expansion into the West Bank, there has been a widespread outpouring of sympathy towards the Palestinian struggle. 

One individual in particular has made international headlines in their effort to discourage Israel’s plans. On June 12, Yousef Al Otaiba—the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to the United States—wrote an op-ed in the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth calling on Israelis to oppose Netanyahu’s plans for annexation.

Trump And Netanyahu
US President Donald Trump with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiling the details of Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The op-ed, written in Hebrew in an attempt to speak directly to the Israeli people, appealing to the desire to end the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Otaiba, as a representative of the UAE, argued that annexation could shatter any opportunity for a peaceful solution to the conflict, and that it would throw regional stability into disarray.

Otaiba was not alone. Activists and politicians from around the world have condemned Netanyahu’s plans, placing increasing pressure on the prime minister to concede.

Whether or not Netanyahu will bow to this international pressure remains to be seen; however, with such high stakes, it is apparent that Israel’s response will greatly shape the future of the Middle East. 

With or without annexation, the questions remain as to what Netanyahu envisions for Israel and whether Israel is willing to sacrifice decades of dialogue for more land in the West Bank.

The future for the West Bank

Though the government of Netanyahu tends to use the euphemism “extending Israeli sovereignty,” the Israeli government’s agenda for the settlements of Judea, Samaria, and others in the West Bank is nothing short of annexation.

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PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu points to a map of the Jordan Valley
(photo credit: YOSSI ZELIGER)

The Israeli annexation proposal targets dozens of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as well as almost all of the Jordan Valley. Collectively, this would lead to the annexation of more than one-third of the West Bank. Moreover, the acquisition of the Jordan Valley would cut off Palestine from its border with Jordan, separating the two countries with a buffer zone of more than 1,000 kilometers.

However, annexation is no insignificant matter; rather, annexation is incredibly rare and is always met with backlash and widespread opposition.

As far in the past as 1917—amidst the bloodshed of the First World War—Lassa Oppenheim, a renowned scholar of international law, remarked that: “There is not an atom of sovereignty in the authority of the occupying power.”

International law continues to enshrine these sentiments over a century after they were first uttered. To this day, the United Nations strictly forbids annexation.

When Iraq under Saddam Hussein attempted to annex Kuwait in 1990, it was met with months of widespread international condemnation, coalescing in the US-led invasion of the country. 

When Russia under Vladimir Putin annexed the Crimea peninsula in 2014, there was a near-universal outpouring of criticism and demands that the territory be returned.

Now, Israel’s designs to annex large swaths of the West Bank have threatened to put an end to ongoing peacebuilding efforts between Israel and the Arab world. In response, Israel has been met with condemnation from around the world, most prominently from within the Middle East.

A different approach

Ambassador Otaiba’s op-ed posits that Israel’s next steps will decide the future for Israeli-Arab relations in the Middle East. He contends that whether or not Israel succumbs to ultranationalist pressure and continues with annexation plans will decide how the Arab world will proceed with peace efforts.

“In the UAE and across much of the Arab world, we would like to believe Israel is an opportunity, not an enemy. We face too many common dangers and see the great potential of warmer ties,” Otaiba wrote.

“Israel’s decision on annexation will be an unmistakable signal of whether it sees it the same way.”

Otaiba’s statement also appeals to the common enemies of both Israel and the Arab world. Climate change, terrorism, food security, and access to clean water, Otaiba contends, are shared interests between Israel and the Arab World, ones that must be addressed collectively rather than individually.

In particular, Otaiba argues that the UAE and Israel, as two of the most powerful and influential countries in the Middle East, have the combined ability to change the region for the better.

“As the two most advanced and diversified economies in the region, expanded business and financial ties could accelerate growth and stability across the Middle East,” Otaiba wrote.

“Our shared interests around climate change, water and food security, technology and advanced science could spur greater innovation and collaboration.”

Unlike previous attempts at voicing grievances with Israel’s agenda, Otaiba decided to speak not to the Palestinian people, but to the Israeli people. In Hebrew, Otaiba promotes the concept that Israel and the Arab world have the opportunity to work together, but that any annexation in the West Bank would shatter this opportunity.

Otaiba argues that the UAE, as well as other Arab nations, want to establish relations with Israel, but he also points out that the annexation plan would become an obstacle to this.

Although Otaiba has garnered much support through his writing, he has also attracted many critics, including several of the more militant factions vying for Palestinian liberation.

The militant mindset

Thus far, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization have been the most vocal critics of Otaiba’s approach. In particular, the groups accused Otaiba and the UAE of violating the Arab Peace Initiative and of conceding too much to Israel.

Some have also referenced Otaiba’s relationship with the Trump administration as an explanation for non-belligerence towards Israel. As ambassador, Otaiba has been a close ally to Jared Kusher, who drafted the Middle East Peace Plan that established US support for Israel’s intentions to annex territory in the West Bank.

Among other grievances, many critics feel as though Otaiba’s warnings were insufficient, especially due to Otaiba’s avoidance of hostile language against Israel.

However, this was ultimately the purpose of Otaiba’s letter. Rather than resort to condemnation, Otaiba wanted to convince the Israeli people that it is in their interests and in the interests of the Arab world to avoid annexation in the West Bank in order to preserve decades of peace talks and negotiation.

 

Read also: Israel’s Supreme Court Strikes Down Law to Legalize Settlements

Universal Music Group Expands MENA Operations

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Universal Music Group (UMG) announced on Tuesday that it has expanded its global network operating in over 60 countries to include two new offices in the MENA region, becoming the first major music label to establish offices in Morocco and Israel. 

UMG is the world’s leading music company and is home to some of the largest and most famous labels and brands in the world. Included in UMG’s repertoire are Abbey Road Studios, Capital Music Group, and EMI. 

Artists represented by UMG include The Rolling Stones, Kanye West, Queen, Nicki Minaj, Arianna Grande, Nirvana, and Bon Jovi. The depth of experience, marketing opportunities, and networks that the UMG brand will share with local artists could be transformative for the music scenes in Morocco and Israel. 

UMG in Morocco

The company’s Moroccan office is based in Casablanca and will work to ensure that North African artists have exposure to the global market. The office will also develop creative and commercial partnerships and work with Universal Music France (UMF) on key projects. 

UMF already represents a number of French-language artists from the region, including Algerian rapper Soolking and Moroccan rapper Issam. 

Announcing the new offices UMG’s MENA region CEO Patrick Boulos said, “within Morocco and their immediate neighbors, there is a wealth of untapped artist talent and we are excited to introduce these unique sounds to global audiences, platforms and partners.” 

UMG has identified traditional Arabic music and rap music front the Maghreb as core focus areas for the new office. 

UMG in Israel 

In Israel, UMG will be based in Tel Aviv. Incoming UMG Israel CEO Yokam Mokady has big plans for the new office, outlining that “UMG will look to identify, sign and develop the best domestic artist talent.” 

Both offices will work closely with UMG’s regional headquarters in Dubai.

France Finds Syria’s Rifaat al-Assad Guilty of Money Laundering

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On June 17, a French court found Rifaat al-Assad, the 82-year-old brother of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, guilty of money laundering. The judiciary  sentenced him to four years in prison and he will have all his French and London-based properties seized after he used Syrian state funds to purchase the real estate.

Court case

According to the court documents, between 1984 and 2016, al-Assad acquired property in some of France’s most prestigious neighborhoods and amassed a fortune of roughly $113 million. The French court established that much of al-Assad’s wealth came from Syria, even as he himself claims the Saudi king had offered the fortune as a gift.

Spanish authorities, in a 2017 anti-money laundering operation, seized 500 of his properties estimated to be worth roughly $785 million.

Al-Assad will appeal the sentencing and will not enter detention until his appeal has been processed. Bashar al-Assad’s uncle was also ordered to pay $33,680 to Sherpa and Transparency International France, the two anti-corruption NGOs that first brought al-Assad’s practices to the attention of the French court in 2013.

Sherpa’s lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, told Reuters that “this ruling shows that nobody escapes justice and there is no impunity.”

Rifaat’s past

Rifaat al-Assad was listed as Syria’s vice president until 1998, but lost most practical political power after being accused of a 1984 coup attempt when his brother, Hafez al-Assad, was suffering from heart problems. The Assad-aligned Alawites had been excluded from a council entrusted with ruling Syria, leading some high-ranking officers to throw their support behind the president’s brother, Rifaat.

Rifaat al-Assad led an army of 55,000 to take control of Damascus and disarm Syrian troops but Hafez used his seniority in the Assad family and his recovery to force Rifaat and his allies to abandon the coup attempt. According to News Arabia, Rifaat left for exile with $300 million of Syrian state funds, which he later claimed was a gift from the then-crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdullah.

Palace intrigue

Similar to the current palace intrigue over the Makhlouf family, Rifaat had access to state funds through the business empire of his son, Sumer. Like Rami Makhlouf, Sumer was part of the business elite that ensured the Assad family received a cut of all economic activity in the country.

When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000, Rifaat positioned himself as the logical successor to the Syrian presidency after having held the vice presidency for decades. But his claims while exiled in France produced no significant opposition to Bashar, who ascended to the presidency as their father had intended.

Rifaat became known as the “butcher of Hama” for his part in the bombardment of Hama, where thousands of civilians died. He had called for Bashar to step down during the Syrian civil war but his little remaining influence proved to be insufficient to achieve his objective.

Saudi Arabia’s MDL Beast Announces 2020 Online Event

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Following the success of the first MDL Beast music festival in December 2019, organizers announced on Monday that the 2020 edition will be an online event. Scheduled to coincide with World Music Day on June 20, the event, named Freqways, will feature an impressive international lineup. 

Confirmed performers include Steve Aoki, Afrojack, Maceo Plex, Claptone, Danny Tenaglia, Deep Dish, Sasha, Butch, Art Department, Laidback Luke, Delano Smith, Gui Boratto, Phil Weeks, Benny Benassi, and Dirty South. 

Regional artists including Led & Majid, Vinyl Mode, and SPCEBOI are also scheduled to perform. The multi-stage digital event will see virtual festival goers board online “flights” to locations around the world including Riyadh, Ibiza, and Las Vegas where they will be able to party to the pre-recorded sets. 

Last year, over 400,000 people participated in the three-day event which pushed Saudi Arabia’s ambition to host large-scale cultural events onto the global stage. Impossible to imagine in the conservative kingdom a few years ago, the event signified an awakening for the EDM community in Saudi Arabia. 

“Influencer-washing” Saudi Arabia’s image

The inaugural MDL Beast in 2019 was not without controversy. Many criticized the influencers and celebrities who were paid to attend the festival for failing to comment on the country’s abysmal human rights record. 

Among those who attended and posted extensively about the event on social media were models Irina Shayk, Winni Harlow, and Alessandra Ambrosio, actors Armie Hammer and Ed Westick, and social media personalities Sofia Richie and Negin Mirasheli. 

Whilst details of the stars’s compensation for their attendance were not made public, some of them are known to command six- or seven-figure sums for a single Instagram post. Among those to call out the celebrities was the Instagram account Diet Prada (@diet_prada), which regularly highlights problematic issues within the fashion industry, and model Emily Ratajkowski.  

Ratajkowski claimed she turned down the invitation to attend, issuing a statement in which she voiced her solidarity for the LGBTQ+ community and the rights of women stating, “I hope coming forward on this brings more attention to the injustices happening there.”

Commentators on social media called out many of the stars who attended the festival for posting “government propaganda” aimed at rehabilitating Saudi Arabia’s image. Issues raised by commentators included the murder or Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashogi in October 2018. 

Claims of mass sexual assault

In addition to the condemnation of the influencers who attended the festival, many women claimed on social media they were sexually assaulted at the festival. 

Using the hashtag #saudimenharassing in English and Arabic, women detailed their experiences at the festival. One woman described how she was surrounded by men who tore off her shirt and groped her. Others expressed concern that even young girls were victims of harassment, as were those who went with males in an attempt to avoid such problems. 

Conservative social media users were unsympathetic to the women’s claims, suggesting that sexual harassment was to be expected when attending a festival such as MDL Beast.

Iranian Prison Guards Allegedly Beat, Drugged Australian Academic

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In 2018 Iran arrested the Oxford-educated University of Melbourne lecturer at Tehran Airport after she attended a conference. A court tried her in secret on spying charges, which Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade rejected, and she has been detained in Iran’s Evin Prison ever since.  

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a dual UK-Australian citizen, has allegedly become a beacon of hope and target for guards after starting a jail-house choir and sending messages to new prisoners.  

Sources close to the academic told The Times that Moore-Gilbert’s makeshift choir, which sang and hummed as a form of protest and comradeship, enraged guards who beat her severely.  

The attack supposedly left the former-Islamic Studies lecturer with wounds to her arms and hands and severe bruising all over her body. The beating was so bad a source close to Moore-Gilbert says she needed medical treatment and was left so weak she appeared almost “comatose.” 

“She got huge respect from other prisoners for being so inventive in her defiance,” the close family friend revealed. 

In letters smuggled out of the prison, Moore-Gilbert told friends that Iranian security services tried to tempt her into becoming a spy in exchange for her release — a deal she resisted. Her attempts to reach out to other prisoners and warn them of this, and other intimidation tactics used at the prison, have also apparently wrought the ire of prison guards. 

Unable to turn Moore-Gilbert into an Iranian spy or beat her into submission, sources told the Times that guards turned to drugging the academic in order to keep her “compliant.” The orders apparently came directly from Evin Prison’s governor, and according to the husband of another Evin inmate, is a common practice. 

Richard Ratcliffe’s wife, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, is a dual British-Iranian citizen who was incarcerated in Evin Prison until being released on furlough due to COVID-19.  

Nazanin and Moore-Gilbert spent time in the same prison wing and in solitary confinement where Nazanin’s husband said he understands “most people” are “being drugged.” 

“[Moore-Gilbert] is being kept in solitary (confinement) at a level of abuse that’s egregious, and the fact that the Iranian authorities are getting away with it is something that has shocked all the Iranian activists we’ve worked with,” Ratcliffe said.  

The latest shocking allegations about Moore-Gilbert’s treatment at the hands of Iranian authorities come a month after her family denied reports she had attempted suicide.  

“We have had a number of conversations with Kylie in recent weeks. She has strongly denied reports that she has attempted suicide or that she is being tortured,” Moore-Gilbert’s family said in a statement on May 17. 

“She seems to be in good health considering her situation. We love her and miss her,” they added. 

The Australian Embassy in Tehran says it continues to make “diplomatic representations on Dr Moore-Gilbert’s case” and “to impress on Iranian authorities the importance of Dr Moore-Gilbert’s maintaining regular contact with her family and consular officials in Tehran.”

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