If ever a region encapsulated the phrase “never a dull moment it would be the Middle East and 2008 was no different in that respect.
The year kicked off with Egyptian anger at conditions attached to the annual US aid package enforced by the American congress, namely requirements to improve human rights and secure the border with Gaza. The partial aid freeze instituted by Congress was rescinded by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in March.
Anger was also directed at the European parliament for passing a resolution criticizing the human rights situation in Egypt and the continued incarceration of Ayman Nour. Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit branded them “ignorant.
The border with Gaza was the issue du jour in January when Hamas blew up parts of the border wall and 60,000 Palestinians went on what can only be described as a shopping spree for those under siege.
Also in January the Iraqi parliament passed legislation to allow former Baath officials to return to the civil service.
A special Arab summit was convened at the end of March to solely discuss the Lebanese crisis, as the majority government and Hezbollah – plus their various backers – failed to reach an agreement on the successor to Maronite President Emile Lahoud.
An indication of fraught Arab tensions was highlighted by comments from President Hosni Mubarak when he said at the time, “The summit will be held in Syria and Syria is linked to the Lebanese problem. Therefore I hope that Syria would solve the problem. We should not be (in Damascus) resolving a problem that Syria is a party to.
Two months on and after a 17-month standoff, things took a turn to the worse, when in May Hezbollah seized West Beirut after three days of intense fighting in the city with pro-government Sunni militias which resulted in 11 deaths including a woman and her child.
The reason for the fighting was a government announcement that it would shut down a telecommunications network belonging to Hezbollah which was spread throughout Lebanon and linked to a Syrian network as well. They also shut down Hezbollah’s surveillance cameras at Rafik Al Hariri Airport in Beirut.
Hezbollah highly prizes its telecommunications networks which are central to their military. Leader Hassan Nasrallah had said that it was vital to the group’s victory in the 2006 war Israel launched on Lebanon. Thus, Nasrallah declared that the government’s decision was an act of war against the group.
Eventually things calmed down and an agreement was reached in Qatar between the government and Hezbollah – now given veto power in a new Lebanese unity cabinet – which led to the appointment of Michel Suleiman as president.
In June tensions were exacerbated over Iran’s proposed nuclear program, prompting widespread condemnation led by Israel and the United States. Iran insisted that its program was for peaceful purposes only, but that did not allay Israeli and US concern.
Also in June, Egypt managed to arbitrate a truce between Israel and Hamas. The truce would hold for the most part of the year despite sporadic attacks from both sides. Unlike in Lebanon and Iraq, Egypt’s regional role was predominant in the Palestinian situation, due to the shared border as well as Egypt’s diplomatic relations with Israel.
A month later, attention turned to Sudan when the International Criminal Court indicted Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur, the first time in history an incumbent ruler was taken to task for human rights violations committed during his reign.
The conflict in Darfur has witnessed the death of 300,000 and the displacement of 2.5 million since 2003 according to UN figures.
The court implicated Sudan’s “entire state apparatus in the war crimes taking place at Darfur, while rebel groups in the region welcomed the news of Al-Bashir’s possible indictment, with some even stating they would offer their own leaders to the court in case of indictment.
Al-Bashir himself seemed nonplussed with the whole affair, filmed dancing after the announcement. He remains the president of Sudan and counts on the undivided support of his neighbor to the north, the Egyptian government.
On the other hand, Syria fared a bit better in the latter part of the year, when in July President Bashar Al Assad visited France, to usher in a new era where Syria was reaching out to Western countries as well as its neighbors to come out of the cold. More goodwill surrounded Syria when in October it established diplomatic relations with Lebanon.
Iran’s nuclear ambitions remained a concern for the Middle East and its Western allies and in August Iran ignored an informal deadline by Western officials to halt uranium enrichment in exchange for an incentives package.
In September, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program, but no new sanctions were imposed after pressure from Russia.
Meanwhile, November saw the signing of a security pact between the United States and Iraq, which stipulated the withdrawal of all American troops from the oil-rich nation by 2011.
In conclusion, it bears mentioning that the vaunted Annapolis summit that was hosted a year ago did not bring about any change in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nor did it lead to a Palestinian state as outgoing President George W. Bush had promised would happen before he left office.
