Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet Wins Noble Peace Prize

The 2015 Noble Peace Prize was awarded to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for its “decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in the country in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.”

“The Quartet was formed in summer of 2013 when the democratization process was in danger of collapsing as a result of political assassinations and widespread social unrest,” the Noble Committee said. “It established an alternative, peaceful political process at a time when the country was on the brink of civil war. It was instrumental in enabling Tunisia, in the space of a few years, to establish a constitutional system of government guaranteeing fundamental rights for the entire population, irrespective of gender, political conviction or religious belief.”

The Quartet includes a labor union, a trade confederation, a human rights organization, and a lawyers group.

The prize bolsters the ideals of the Arab Spring, which indeed started in Tunisia in December 2010, with hope and idealism, and spread across parts of the Middle East and North Africa, mostly coming under attack by entrenched political order in the region.

Photo: Noble Peace Prize medal (Getty Images)

Bahrainis March for Democracy

The opposition is holding “I Love Bahrain/I Love Democracy” marches across Bahrain today. The anti-government protests enter its second anniversary this month. Earlier this week, government forces used tear gas to disperse large protests touched off by the death of an 8-year boy during an earlier protest march. There are no reports of violence in today’s peaceful march.

Photo credit: “I Love Bahrain/I Love Democracy” march. Bahrain, 1 February 2013. (EA)

Iran Voices Concerns over Western Support of Arab Revolutions

By Nader Uskowi

Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in Tehran the West is attempting to “seize” the Arab revolutions.

“While the West backed the former rulers of some regional regimes, following the people’s victory, it has started an attempt to seize the revolutions and push them toward its own interests,” Salehi said. (Press TV, 13 December)

Salehi warned the region’s revolutionaries that the West is only “pretending to support” their movements only “to rub them of their revolution.”

Salehi’s comments came days after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei warned the same revolutionaries that the U.S. is doing every efforts to eliminate “Islam and Islamists” in the region and warned them to beware of the ever-present (phony) smiles on American faces.

“Wherever Islam and Islamists (‘Islam-gara’) are present, the U.S. will make every effort to eliminate them; notwithstanding the smile they always wear on their face,” Khamenei said. (leader.ir, 11 December)

Using the label of “Islamic Awakening” instead of “Arab Spring,” Iran had hoped to gain great influence with the popular movements throughout the Arab World after the fall of pro-Western dictatorships. The comments by the supreme leader and the foreign minister show, however, that Iran is becoming increasingly apprehensive of normal relations established between the newly formed governments in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya and the West. Making matters worse for the Iranians is the inevitable victory of the Syrian opposition with the support of the West. The new Middle East is not the dream they had hoped for, it’s more becoming a nightmare!

Photo credit: Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi (IRNA)

Morsi: Respect for Arab Values, Commitment to Palestine

Egyptian President On Policies U.S. Needs to Follow

In an Exclusive Interview with New York Times

On the eve of his first trip to the United States to attend the U.N. General Assembly on Sunday, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in an interview with The New York Times said the U.S. needed to show greater respect for the values in the Arab World and help build a Palestinian state, if it hoped to overcome decades of pent-up anger.

Following are the highlights of the interview. To read it in its entirety, please click here.

“If you want to judge the performance of the Egyptian people by the standards of German or Chinese or American culture, then there is no room for judgment."  

“If Washington is asking Egypt to honor its treaty with Israel, Washington should also live up to its own Camp David commitment to Palestinian self-rule.”

“Successive American administrations essentially purchased with American taxpayer money the dislike, if not the hatred, of the peoples of the region,” by backing dictatorial governments over popular opposition and supporting Israel over the Palestinians.

“Go, Trojans!” President Morsi said reminiscing about his days as a graduate student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. This blogger shares the president’s enthusiasm on this issue!

Photo credit: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Cairo. 22 Septermber 2012. (The New York Times/Tara Todras-Whitehill)