Arab Spring Affects Middle Eastern Countries

Yemen

Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down after thirty-three years of being president of Yemen and keeping that small and poor country running all around the clock. He ended up giving up his position after months and monthes of protesting by the southern part of Yemen that are also known as the Seperatists. Though the body count(on both sides police and separatists) as I researched, for the southern part of the country was into the hundreds. With each protest there would be a few casualties on the protesting side and the deffending side. So around the total death toll was 2000. This is a high price for the seperatists, but they ended up getting what they worked hard for.But also before he stepped down he was taking heat in more than one country. When the president went to America( New York) There were more than 24 people lined up on the streets to protest the Yemen president( Yemeni-american citizens). Even after the country resolved their presidential issues they still continued the hunt for al-Qaida members. The CIA then approved bombing and leaded to “an unmanned U.S. aircraft Killing the fourth most wanted al-Qaida member”, said the Yemen government. His name was Mohammed Saeed al-Umda and he was hiding when the U.S. bombed a northeastern part of Yemen which killed him. Also when he died he was beside to of his aides. In this incident the Yemen government said that the terrorism in Yemen will start to slow down much faster with this man gone and they want terrorism to slow down to a complete hault.

 Syria

Three people were injured in a blast on Wednesday in   the province of Aleppo in northern Syria. According to SANA news, the  explosive device was detonated by members of an  “armed terrorist”  group, which was accused by the authorities of the  “systematic  escalation … that aims to foil the mission of the UN  special envoy  Kofi Annan.”On Tuesday, a bomb placed under a military car exploded in  the center of the Syrian capital, injuring three people.More than 9,000  people have been killed in Syria since the start of a  popular uprising  against President Bashar al-Assad last March.The Syrian opposition welcomes the UN observer mission as a guarantee  of peaceful revolution – the key to resolving the year-long  political  crisis, the leader of a major opposition group said.“It is not Annan’s  plan that will end the Syrian conflict but further  peaceful  revolution,” Ghalioun said.The UN Security Council authorized on  Saturday the dispatch of 300  military observers to Syria to supervise  on the ceasefire between the  government and opposition forces.Ghalioun  said arms supplies to the opposition were still on the  agenda, but  “only for rebuffing the attacks of government troops and  defending  Syrians who attend peaceful demonstrations.”Western nations and Israel  have accused the Syrian authorities of  violently suppressing the  protests. Al-Assad in turn has accused the  West of supporting the  protesters, who he says are al-Qaeda linked  militants and defectors for  the army.Russia     previously said that it sold arms to Syria in  accordance with  existing contracts but these deliveries were not in contravention of any  international agreements. Moscow also said the  weapons were not being  used against civilians. Russia supplies Syria  with a variety of weapons  including anti-ship and air-defense missiles, armored vehicles and aircraft.

 Morocco

On Sunday February 20th, 2011 thousands of Morocco people went on the streets of Rabat,  Casablanca, Tangier and Marrakech. The so called revolts are not really revolts, but peaceful protests. The people of Morocco led a peaceful  revolt in saying that they want a new constitution and a visible change  in their governments corrupt atmosphere. The attacks that are happening  are those of labors unions, which at one time, were government run. The  protesters are not only labor unions, but young people, and professional  associations. These labor unions, young people, and professional  associations are voicing their strong opinions on high prices,  unemployment, and poor labor standards that go on every day in their  area. The revolts, were under King Mohamed VI’s control, so this shows  that the specific area is more liberal and more easy going than other  countries surrounding the specific area. The people of Morocco are  mostly promoting to receive a new constitution and to know where all of their money is going. The Morocco people say that the king has way to  much power for one person and does not know how to correctly distribute  money to the whole area of Morocco. Recently, the protesting has  subsided. The king has also been accused of giving family members  government posts.{” Imane Safi, 18, demonstrating in Casablanca, said,  “The Arab world is changing and the Moroccan people need a change in the Constitution for  more democracy. We want a country like Britain, with a constitutional  monarchy and a strong Parliament that is not corrupt.”}

 Egypt

Arab Spring is defined as the pro-democracy uprisings currently sweeing the Middle-East and North Africa. The Araab Spring was a year ago. It left Egypt in rubble. According to Significance, in an article titled, “The Arab Spring: Where is Egypt now?, written by Khaled Khatab says”In Egypt, poverty still remains a challenge and was one of the underlying causes of the recent uprising that eventually turned into a revolution.”  Khaled Khatab supported his article with some unbelievable statistics. “There are other ways of measuring poverty. According to the report of the Inter- national Fund for Agricultural Development, out of a population of 83 million there are at least 48 million poor living in slum areas. ” The article concludes by saying,”The main grievances of Egyptian protesters during the revolution which began on January 25th, 2011 were focused on legal and political issues, including police brutality, the state of emergency laws, lack of free elections and freedom of speech, and uncontrollable corruption, as well as economic issues, including high unemployment, food price inflation and low minimum wages.” As you can tell, this is a lot of issues. In other articles writers have saidthinks spray the revolution is  this is merely step one in Egypt’s revolution, and there is much more to come. Some think that Egypt revolution activists will have to get violent due to the fact the government is now responding with violence. There wasn’t much violence in the first part of the revolution and what violenwast here was, was  kept silent.

Time World interviewed former president Jimmy Carter who was in Egypt in early January when Egypt was having it’s parliamentary elections. Abigail Hauslohner, the interviewer, asked, “We saw you out at a polling station yesterday. You said that the elections had been very successful so far.” Carter responded,”So far, but you know.” The thing is, we don”t know. Egyptians are preparing for the second phase of there revolution, and what will come of it. We can only hope will not have much violence.

You can read more on how the Arab Spring is effecting places all over the world by clicking on the following link:  http://www.news.va/en/news/europe-christians-in-the-middle-east-a-year-after-

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2104228,00.html#ixzz1tNirq

The following link is to a great interview with Matt Hardy, who answers questions about the next phase of the revolution: