Saudi Arabia recruits Sunni allies in row with Iran

Saudi Arabia rallied Sunni allies to its side in a growing diplomatic row with Iran on Monday, deepening a sectarian split across the Middle East following the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric.

Bahrain and Sudan cut all ties with Iran, following Riyadh's example the previous day. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Reuters Riyadh would also halt air traffic and commercial relations between the rival powers.

He blamed Iran's "aggressive policies" for the diplomatic action, alluding to years of tension that spilled over on Saturday night when Iranian protesters stormed the kingdom's embassy in Tehran.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), home to hundreds of thousands of Iranians, partially downgraded its relations but the other Gulf Arab countries - Kuwait, Qatar and Oman - stayed above the fray.

Shi'ite Iran accused Saudi Arabia of using the attack on the embassy as an "excuse" to sever ties and further increase sectarian tensions, as protesters in Iran and Iraq marched for a third day to denounce Saudi Arabia's execution of Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

The UAE said Iran needed to stay out of Arab affairs and not act like a protector of Arab Shi'ites. "The Arab world isn't a venue for its blatant interference ... Iran does not have guardianship or jurisdiction over a large number of Arabs for some sectarian reason," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV.

A man was shot dead in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province late on Sunday, and two Sunni mosques in Iraq's Shi'ite-majority Hilla province were bombed in the fallout from the dispute between the Middle East's top Sunni and Shi'ite powers.

Oil prices spiked during European trading as the two big petroleum exporters traded insults and after violence hit other crude producers such as Iraq. But prices then eased back on evidence of economic weakness in Asia.

Stock markets across the Gulf dropped sharply, led by Qatar which fell more than 2.5 percent, with geopolitical jitters outweighing any benefit from stronger oil.

Crude importer China declared itself "highly concerned" with the developments, in a rare foray into Middle East diplomacy. The United States and Germany called for restraint, while Russia offered to mediate an end to the dispute.

SYRIA, YEMEN
The row threatened to derail efforts to end Syria's five-year-old civil war, where Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab powers support rebel groups against Iran-backed President Bashar al-Assad.

In neighboring Lebanon, newspapers said the spat had clouded the hopes of filling the vacant presidency that had been raised last month after Iran and Saudi Arabia both voiced support for a power-sharing deal.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Saudi foreign minister on Monday that Riyadh's decision to break off diplomatic ties with Iran was extremely troubling. A spokesman said Ban wanted to help ensure both countries continued their commitment to ending the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.


The U.N. chief urged Saudi Arabia to renew a ceasefire it ended this weekend with the Iran-allied Shi'ite Houthi group in Yemen that it has been bombing for nine months.

But analysts said fears of a sectarian rupture across the Middle East were premature, and the break in Saudi-Iran relations could be more a symptom of existing strains than evidence of new ones.

"The fact that the UAE was unwilling to cut off ties with Iran completely, despite the closeness of its relations with Saudi Arabia, shows the difficulty that the Saudis will have in trying to isolate Iran," said Julien Barnes-Dacey, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"The downgrading of ties is not fundamentally a question of responding to executions and the storming of an embassy... (but rather) a function of a much deeper conflict between the two states," he added.

Trade between Saudi Arabia and Iran is small compared with the size of their economies, but some business is routed through the United Arab Emirates; comprehensive figures are not available. Investment ties are also minimal, though Saudi food conglomerate Savola has major manufacturing operations in Iran.

"DIVINE REVENGE"
After a furious response in Shi'ite communities worldwide to the Sunni kingdom's execution of Shi'ite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Iran was creating "terrorist cells" among the kingdom's Shi'ite minority.

Saudi Arabia executed Nimr and three other Shi'ites on terrorism charges on Saturday, alongside dozens of Sunni jihadists. Shi'ite Iran hailed him as a "martyr" and warned Saudi Arabia's ruling Al Saud family of "divine revenge".

Shi'ite groups united in condemnation of Saudi Arabia while Sunni powers rallied behind the kingdom, hardening a sectarian split that has torn apart communities across the Middle East and nourished the jihadist ideology of Islamic State.

Al-Azhar, the Cairo-based seat of Sunni Muslim learning, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Saudi Arabia, condemned the attacks on Riyadh's missions and stressed Tehran's obligation to respect the internal affairs of the kingdom.

Bahrain, a Sunni-ruled island kingdom with a restive Shi'ite majority, accused Iran of "blatant and dangerous interference" in the affairs of the Gulf Arab countries, in a statement announcing the severing of diplomatic ties.

Western powers, many of which supply billions of dollars worth of weaponry to Gulf Arab powers, tried to tamp down the tensions with Iran but also deplored the executions, as human rights groups strongly criticized Saudi Arabia's judicial process and protesters gathered outside Saudi embassies. 

REUTERS

Exclusive: Saudi Arabia to halt flights, trade with Iran

Saudi Arabia widened its rift with Iran on Monday, saying it would end air traffic and trade links with the Islamic republic and demanding that Tehran must "act like a normal country" before it would restore severed diplomatic relations.

Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Reuters in an interview that Tehran was responsible for rising tensions after the kingdom executed Shi'ite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday, describing him as a terrorist.
Insisting Riyadh would react to "Iranian aggression", he accused Tehran of dispatching fighters to Arab countries and plotting attacks inside the kingdom and its Gulf neighbors.

"There is no escalation on the part of Saudi Arabia. Our moves are all reactive. It is the Iranians who went into Lebanon. It is the Iranians who sent their Qods Force and their Revolutionary Guards into Syria," Jubeir said.

Tehran says it has sent only military advisers to Syria and Iraq at their governments' requests, and denies plots in Gulf states.

The execution of Nimr provoked protests among Shi'ites across the region and Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran, setting fires and causing damage, prompting Riyadh to cut ties and inflaming an already heated rivalry.

"We will also be cutting off all air traffic to and from Iran. We will be cutting off all commercial relations with Iran. And we will have a travel ban against people traveling to Iran," Jubeir said.


Iranian pilgrims would still be welcome to visit Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina in western Saudi Arabia, either for the annual haj or at other times of year on the umrah pilgrimage, he said.

However, Jubeir said Saudi Arabia had been right to execute Nimr, whom he accused of "agitating, organizing cells, providing them with weapons and money" - allegations that the cleric's family have denied.
After listing the crimes of 43 al Qaeda members also put to death on Saturday alongside four Shi'ites, Jubeir said of the executions: "We should be applauded for this, not criticized."

'AGGRESSIVE POLICIES'
Jubeir, a former ambassador to Washington where the FBI in 2011 said he had been the target of an Iranian assassination plot, said the break in ties was a response to older problems as well as the embassy storming.
"[It] is a reaction to Iran's aggressive policies over the years, and in particular over the past few months. The Iranian regime has been a sponsor of terrorism, they have set up terrorist cells in Saudi Arabia and a number of other countries," he said.

Tehran has consistently denied those charges and itself has accused Riyadh of supporting militancy through its backing of Islamist rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Jubeir also accused Iran's authorities of complicity in the attack on the embassy at the weekend, saying Saudi diplomats had seen security forces enter the building and take part in looting and that the police did not respond to more than one request for help.

Iran has defended its measures to protect the Saudi embassy, saying it is investigating the matter and has made arrests.

Asked what steps Iran needed to take before Riyadh would consider restoring diplomatic ties, Jubeir said Tehran must "respect international norms and treaties and conventions" and "act like a normal country [that] respects the territorial integrity of its neighbors".

REUTERS

JUST IN!!! We Have Used all Channels to Warn Buhari Over Shi’ite Leader… – Iran

Iran says it is using all diplomatic channels to pursue the release of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky who was arrested by the Nigerian army last month.

“We have used all those channels to warn them [Nigeria] regarding this issue. So hopefully the government… would adopt wise action given the sensitive situation,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hoseyn Jaberi-Ansari told reporters in the capital, Tehran.

Sheikh al-Zakzaky after members of his Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) clashed with the army in the northern city of Zaria.

Campaign group Human Rights Watch said at least 300 IMN members were killed and quickly buried in a mass graves during the incident. The Nigerian military denied the claim.

The military accuses the pro-Iranian sect of trying to assassinate army chief Gen Tukur Buratai, which it denies.

Iran is currently embroiled in a diplomatic row with Saudi Arabia over the execution of a prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Shia in Nigeria;
▪ Shia are minority in Nigeria but their numbers are increasing
▪ The IMN, formed in the 1980s, is the main Shia group led by Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky
▪ They operate their own schools and hospitals in some northern states
▪ They have a history of clashes with the security forces
▪ The IMN is backed by Shia-dominated Iran and its members often go there to study
▪ Sunni jihadist group Boko Haram condemns Shias as heretics who should be killed

IG Bans Police From Searching Phones Of Civilians Without Warrant

The Inspector General of Police has banned the rank and file of the Nigerian Police Force from illegally accessing the phones of Nigerians.

The ban was contained in a circular to Police Commands across the country.

The instruction form the Inspector General of Police became necessary

due to some police men who would flout privacy rights of law abiding citizens by stopping and searching their phones without recourse to legal processes.

Officer in Charge of Complaint Response Unit (CRU) of the Nigeria Police, Abayomi Shogunle tweeted:
With this order, the Police are unable to search phones of civilians under any pretext without first obtaining a search warrant from a competent court with jurisdiction.

IKPEAZU FILES APPEAL AT THE SUPREME COURT AGAINST THE APPELATE COURTS’ JUDGMENT

IKPEAZU FILES APPEAL AGAINST THE APPELATE COURTS’ JUDGMENT

EZIUCHE UBANI, ABARIBE AND WABARA ALLEGEDLY BOUGHT GUNS FOR ABIA APPEAL COURT PROTESTERS

Information just reaching us from an informant has it that some aggrieved elements want to turn the peaceful atmosphere in Abia State to that of war. This is coming shortly after the Appellate court in owerri declared Dr Alex Otti the winner of the last guber elections. Read the excerpt below.

Dear Sir, My name is xxx xxx, I am one of the people paid for protesting against Dr. Alex Otti appeal court victory. I was also one of those protesting during the IPOB Biafra protest. I was brought in by Chief Eziuche Ubani for a special assignment. They called me for an assignment to help mobilize guys from Abala Ngwa, Port Harcourt and Akwaibom to cause problems in the Abia State. They have bought more than 150 guns from Abala Ngwa and the guns are in the House of Chief Eziuche Ubani. To be précised the guns are stockpiled in a covered pit near his water system septic tank. I couldn’t snap the guns for more proof because they asked that we should switch off our phones. Sir, help me give alert to the police because I do not want my state to turn to Book Haram state because of political ambition. Yes I am a member of IPOB but Nnamdi Kanu is against killing of any Igbo son or daughter and I do not support evil. Again I am also afraid of losing my life during this operation because I have children and wife. They want to use us the way they used Osisi Ka Nkwu and later abandoned him to be killed. Though Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe promised us that If Ikpeazu wins because of our protest that they will contribute 200 Million Naira for IPO Biafra but the task is very deadly because they asked us to kidnap some people in the state. This night they want to share these guns to three local governments, Obingwa/Osisioma/Ugwumagbo for their deadly missions and give out 5 Million to each local government to motivate us. Please sir, call on police, or Alex Otti or Army to go and search the House of Eziuche Ubani before 11 PM today. Please sir do not waste time, act fast, please act very fast. Do not disclose my face or identity for my own security.

 

Nigeria is too small for Igbo — Adamu Ciroma

Mallam Adamu Ciroma, journalist, administrator, politician, former minister of different portfolios and erstwhile governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is one of Nigeria’s leading statesmen. Ciroma, who was third in the 1978 presidential primaries of the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN, subsequently turned out to become a

close confidant of President Shehu Shagari and served as minister in the Second Republic. He was also a close confidant of President Olusegun Obasanjo in the Fourth Republic and a rallying figure in the northern opposition to the 2011 presidential bid of President Goodluck Jonathan. Ciroma has largely kept out of the public eye despite the active participation of his wife, Hayiya Maryam Ciroma in the affairs of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
In this interview with Vanguard, he speaks on issues in his party, the PDP, the polity and among others. Excerpts:

By Henry Umoru
You have been quiet for long on issues. Why?
There is no issue and I don’t have to talk to the media or anybody.

As a founding father of the PDP, a lot of things went wrong and the party lost after 16 years in government. What do you think really happened?
You are a reporter and you have been following events more than me. Some of the things which caused the downfall of the party, have already been reported by you, and some of them were the cause of controversy in the party, for example about the presidential candidate where he comes from.

Do you also agree that there were also issues of lack of respect, lack of internal democracy in the party?
Everything about Nigerian politics and the formation of PDP and the management of affairs during the PDP period are known by you and indeed by everybody and everyone is even tired of them.

Now even the new government that has not been formed yet properly has not settled yet, has not done anything yet, why do you want to confuse us again about the PDP period? You know everything about PDP period; you know everything they are doing even now. I don’t want to be in the press because you have come to ask me questions.

How can we get to the end of the Boko Haram insurgency?
The President has asked the military to bring the insurgency to an end by the end of December, this is official, everybody has heard of it and everybody is praying for the success of the president and everybody wants to help. So we pray that what the President said comes true and we hope that this nation will be able to have peace.

Was setting a time line for it really feasible?
I am not a military personnel, I am not a member of the police force.

Worries about foreign exchange
I am not a member of any of the security agencies; so I am not the one to answer that question.

How would you assess the government of President Muhammadu Buhari?
I have just told you that the government that was elected after the elections has not yet been properly established; ministers have just been named and approved by the Senate, the ministers are still familiarizing themselves with their ministries; so it is too early to ask what they have done or how they are doing it.

In fact, a lot of the worries people have now, is about the economy and the foreign exchange and things of that nature. It is now for the president to look at what the people are saying and deal with the problems of which they are throwing up and it is his duty to do that.

How will you assess  the present economic team of Mr President and his economic blueprint? And if you are to proffer an economic advice, what would you recommend?
You go and ask Udo Udoma and the Minister of Finance to explain to you their positions on things as they have outlined their programme to the President.I am not governor of the CBN now; I have not been the governor of the CBN for a long time.

Even, I was the minister of finance a long time ago. So all I know is that people are worried about foreign exchange, about financial transactions, about banking and I know that the government knows about these problems; though I expect the government to deal with them.

Nigerians will want to share in your experience on how you succeeded as finance minister and as CBN governor.
I did not have the same problem with the present government. I am old fashioned. Our view was that finance must deal with funding government activities, paying government workers, paying for economic development and once you put an item in the budget, you may consider it already done because government must find the resources to do them; in fact they will not put anything in the budget if they cannot find the resources to do them.

So our own way of doing things was old fashioned and when we say things you know, they will be done. But the present government is just settling in. I don’t know their plans.

Part of their plans is to deregulate the price of petroleum which could see the price go up in future. Is there hope?
Udo Udoma laid out his views of what is likely going to happen to the economy. The Minister of Finance has said she expected there should be a lot of hard times next year.

Alleged arms deals
But I am sure that from now on, they are trying to ensure that only good things happen, that the problems they are afraid of will be avoided and I am sure that they are going to do their best.

Are you worried by the revelations on the alleged misuse of the security funds raised against the former National Security Adviser, Col. Samo Dasuki?
The issue of the alleged arms deals involving the former National Security Adviser is just something which is unfolding and you know that the matter is in court, the EFCC is trying to prosecute some of those involved and you can see the complication in public affairs where something begins with security adviser and ends up with the distribution of money at party level for the campaign.

So we are still in the middle of these things, we don’t know how it is going to end. You just for the time being take note that people are being arrested, some are being tried and some denying receiving money from the security adviser. So the issues are going to clarify themselves in due course when EFCC has finished trying those who are accused.

Col. Sambo Dasuki mentioned that some party leaders were involved and they used it as campaign funds for the party, was it right and during your time did it happen that money maybe from the NSA or so, will be directed to the party?
Anything in politics, no matter how you deal with it secretly, eventually becomes public, eventually people will get to know about it. What didn’t get exposed didn’t happen.

So the issues they are having now are issues that have happened. It didn’t happen before and that was why it was not exposed. And I don’t know the details of what they did.

The PDP recently organized a national conference supposedly to heal wounds? Did they get it right?
You know it more than myself, you were there, you reported the thing. I was not there, they said I would be there, but I was not there. Did they not say I would be there?

Why didn’t you attend?
I was not there because I wasn’t clear in my own mind what they were trying to do.

Meaning they didn’t come to explain, they didn’t visit you.
They visited me, they explained, but I was not convinced.

Immediately after the election, two prominent PDP leaders resigned their positions in the party Adamu Muazu and the next day the chairman BoT, Chief Tony Anenih, what is your take on this?
I will not. Adamu Muazu is alive and well, the former chairman of BoT is alive and well.

Winning and losing
It is more interesting to get them to talk than to ask me a retired person to talk about things which happened when I was not there.

Some people are still saying that PDP will bounce back. Do you think so?
Politics is a continuous event, whether you like or you don’t like it, there will always be politics. Even if the Army is there, there will still be politics, so politics will continue.

And parties in government will eventually lose; every party in government will have to lose, so there is nothing new really about the party losing election, it is nothing new. So losing elections, people get worried about this, what is there in losing election; what is new about losing election. If you are talking about democracy you are talking of winning and losing and anybody can lose, anybody can win; events of today can change tomorrow.

One of the problems of the party now is after Adamu Mu’azu resigned, stakeholders from the Northeast claimed that he should have been succeeded by someone from the region. What is your take on this?
I don’t know what you are talking about, I don’t know about it. I cannot comment on what I don’t know. Is it a new thing for PDP to change their position? In 2011 when Yar‘adua died, wasn’t it still the time of the north to continue with the presidency? Was it not changed?

So there is nothing new about these things. But everything you do have consequences and you must remember that you are going to pay for the consequences of your action.

In other words PDP paid the price for not allowing the north to continue
This is your own saying; we have already done the political side in 2011.

So, do you think the NWC did a good thing now by zoning the presidency in 2019 to the north? Where exactly in the north do you think it should go now because at least the North West has had its own share?
If you do the right thing you will reap good result; if you don’t do the right thing you pay.

What is your take on the intrigues that threw up an opposition party senator as Deputy President of the Senate and an APC Senate President that was opposed by his party?
All these things are happening in front of your eyes and the people who are doing it are still there, what is the need for a retired person like me to answer.

Nigerians will be happy to hear your views on this
No, it doesn’t follow that way. Just because I say I am right or just because I say something they are doing is wrong, it doesn’t follow that way.

Deal with the current events and the current event is that the National Assembly; they are just settling in; they have just finished appointing the chairmen of their committees and they have disputes between themselves. There is nothing new about that, it is normal.

How do you react to raging issues in the polity such as the agitation for Biafra, the faceoff with followers of Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky to the call for separation by the Afenifere following the kidnap of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae?
The education process up to University enables you appreciate how life unfolds and especially with your literature. You will read about how people think, how they create plays and things like that; a lot of it is drawn from real life.

Prescribed way of living
So you are talking about Nigeria, you are talking about people, living people, you are talking about people who are Muslims; you are talking about people who are Christians, you are talking about people who are pagans; you are talking about people who speak different languages, about Kanuris, about Fulanis in the Northeast; so life is dealing with all these complicated things, of people who are actually living.

There is no single prescribed way of how they are going to live. We are just Nigerians, we are not even called Nigerians, we are just black people living in this part. The British came and put us together and said we are Nigerians and eventually we all agreed with the British that we are Nigerians. And when we are unhappy, we say we are Biafrans or when we are not happy we will say we are Yorubas, but we say we are Nigerians.

So we are learning to live with one another, we accorded each other, so the way things will unfold, you cannot predict and you have to learn how to live with other people. Sometimes I wonder you Nigerians, are you real people? Don’t you know that we are coming together only a hundred years ago and we are still learning how to live with one another.

Economic development
By the time the Europeans came, even the Yoruba people, did not even learn how to live with each other, they were fighting and all over the north, they were fighting everywhere, there were tribal wars.

Now we are at peace because of economic development, social contacts and things like that are happening, they are changing our ways of thinking, they are changing our ways of life, education is changing us. And sometimes when you ask questions you seem to be unaware that Nigeria is a complicated place, but not only Nigeria, Britain is a complicated place.

Look at how a lot of people from all over the world now are going to Europe, they want to go and live and enjoy, the Europeans are resisting. So you Nigerians,    you must learn how to live with one another in such a way that you will understand that you have life that is you relate with each other in a friendly way, in a stable way, in an understanding way.

Biafra, this Biafra, I tell my Igbo friends, Biafra, for what? This Nigeria is too small for you Igbos. All over Nigeria you will see Igbos everywhere. If you go to Ghana, Igbos everywhere. If you go to Niger, Igbos everywhere. If you go to South Africa, Igbo everywhere; this Nigeria is too small for you. But now you want something smaller, what does it mean?

It means that people sometimes do things without thinking very deeply. But education is to enable you to think and to solve problems.

What the Igbos are saying is that they want Biafra; I just remember only recently the Yoruba leaders said they want to break, break from where. The Yoruba are probably the people who economically enjoy Nigeria more than anybody, economically. So why are they going? So my own problem with Nigeria is that many people say things without thinking.