IPT IO N SC R SU B
SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 2012
RAJAB 19, 1433 AH
No: 15474
48Qaeda14 leader’s wife Bomb blast kills 19 in Pakistan
150 Fils
Greece hold co-hosts Poland to a 1-1 draw
eyes ‘Islamic Spring’ ‘Raise your kids in the cult of jihad’
DUBAI: The wife of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahri praised Muslim women for their role in the Arab Spring uprisings and said the unrest would soon lead to an “Islamic Spring”, according to a rare message posted online yesterday. The letter, signed by Omaima Hassan, singled out women beaten during Egypt’s unrest and lauded mothers for bringing up the revolutionaries who went on to topple four heads of state it described as “tyrant criminals”. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the undated message, posted on a website used by Islamist militants. Al-Qaeda was effectively sidelined by Arab Spring uprisings, launched mainly by middle class activists and intellectuals eager for economic and political reforms. But there have been signs that the militant network has since been trying to capitalize on the unrest. “I congratulate all females of the world for these blessed revolutions and I salute every mother who sacrificed her loved ones in the revolutions. It is really an Arab Spring and will soon become an Islamic Spring,” read the message. “These revolutions toppled the tyrant criminals, and thanks to your efforts, patience and raising your sons in dignity,” it added. The message urged Muslim women to keep wearing the veil. “The veil is the Muslim woman’s identity and the West wants to remove this identity so she will be without an identity.” It added: “I advise you to raise your children in the cult of jihad and martyrdom and to instill in them a love for religion and death,” she wrote. In doing so, “each woman would raise her child to be a new Saladin by telling him ‘it is you who will restore the grandeur of the Islamic nation and you will liberate Jerusalem.’” Saladin was a 12th century Kurdish general who became the first sultan of Egypt and whose forces defeated Crusader armies in a battle that led to the eventual fall of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem. The text also counseled women to continue to wear the veil and to encourage their husbands and sons to “free the prisoners wherever they are... such as the widows of our martyr Osama bin Laden, who are languishing with their children in a Pakistani prison.” A similar message was posted online in Omaima Hassan’s name in 2009. Yesterday’s posting came several months after an eight-minute video recording by Zawahri urging Syrians not to rely on Western or Arab governments to help their uprising to topple President Bashar Al-Assad. Zawahri took command of the Islamist militant network after the group’s founder and leader, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in May last year. Zawahri’s Libyan-born second-in-command, Abu Yahya Al Libi, was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan earlier this week. According to the message posted yesterday, Omaima Hassan said she hoped that the uprisings sparked by a Tunisian setting himself on fire would “liberate Jerusalem” and restore it to its days of glory. “We will have a new Islamic state based on sharia (Islamic law) arbitration, and we will free Palestine and build a state of succession to the prophecy,” the message added. Israel captured Jerusalem along with the rest of the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians want the city, annexed by Israel unilaterally, to be the capital of a future Palestinian state. — Agencies
Max 47º Min 33º
FUJAIRAH: A ship docks at the refueling station in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. (Inset) Mohammed Saif Al-Afkham, head of Fujairah municipality points to an aerial photo of the Fujairah Emirate. — AP
UAE seeks alternative oil route amid threats Emirates readies oil export detour to avoid Hormuz FUJAIRAH: By night, the lights of dozens of ships anchored off this eastern Emirati port create the mirage of a far-off city at sea. The crowded anchorage reflects Fujairah’s rise as one of the world’s busiest maritime refueling stations. Soon it will also become a vital new exit route for Arabian crude oil destined for world markets. The United Arab Emirates is nearing completion of a pipeline through the mountainous sheikdom that will allow it to reroute the bulk of its oil exports around the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, the path for a fifth of the world’s oil supply. Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the strategically sensitive waterway, which is patrolled by Iranian and US warships, in retaliation for ramped-up Western sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. That threat has raised worries among Gulf countries that conflicts could block the route to market for their most lucrative resource. But only the UAE and Oman have coastlines on Indian Ocean side of the strait that would enable them to go around the chokepoint by land. Saudi Arabia also can avoid Hormuz by shipping its Gulf fields’ oil production out of
its Red Sea ports, but it would have to increase the capacity of those ports and of pipelines running across the breadth of the country to handle its total output. With the Emirates’ new pipeline, oil from fields deep in the Abu Dhabi desert would travel 236 miles overland and across the barren Hajar mountains to this fast-growing port on edge of the Indian Ocean. At the moment, Emirati oil exports are loaded in the Gulf and must pass through Hormuz. Once it’s running at full volume, the pipeline will let the UAE get two-thirds of its peak oil production to market even if the strait is shut. That’s about 10 percent of the total 17 million barrels of oil a day that currently goes through Hormuz. The director general of Fujairah municipality, Mohammed Saif Al-Afkham said he expects the pipeline to be commissioned this month. “This will add a lot to the shipment of oil, and it will make it faster and easier instead of going to the Gulf,” he said. Officials have not announced a firm starting date. But Al-Afkham’s comments and those of other Emirati officials suggest exports could begin soon. Energy Minister
Mohammed bin Dhaen Al-Hamli told a Paris conference last month the four-foot-wide pipeline is finished and is being tested. It is designed to handle 1.5 million barrels of crude a day. Al-Hamli has said that figure could rise to 1.8 million barrels. AlHamli and the state-run International Petroleum Investment Co., which is building the pipeline, did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment about the project. Neither did the China National Petroleum Corp, a subsidiary of which was contracted to construct the pipeline. The project is immensely important for the UAE, an important American ally. The seven state federation is OPEC’s third largest exporter of oil, after neighboring Saudi Arabia and Iran. “If there are effective bypass routes, it makes it less likely that Iran would try to block it,” said Robin Mills, head of consulting at Manaar Energy Consulting & Project Management in Dubai. The Emirates’ Sunni leadership is wary of Tehran’s regional influence, especially in Shiite-led countries such as Iraq and Syria and Shiite-majority Bahrain in the Gulf. — AP