US can't do much to Iran

Despite Iran's long history of anti-US violence America can hardly respond, an Arabic-language pundit says. Other topics: the cost of the Arab Spring, the cost of obesity, and the possible arrest of George W. Bush.

US backlash threats to Iran are mere babble

From the president to cabinet secretaries, security officials and diplomats, the US has launched a verbal assault on Tehran after the revelation last week of an Iran-backed plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, columnist Abdul Rahman Al Rashed wrote in yesterday's edition of the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al Awsat.

"Yet despite the boisterous threats, I have to agree with the Iranians who think all these American threats are empty, won't scare them and won't stop their offensive politics."

There is a history of Iranian operations hitting US targets. In 1983, the US embassy in Beirut was bombed, killing 63 people. President Ronald Reagan announced that the attack was masterminded by Iran and Syria.

"Six months later, Iran struck again, killing more than 240 Americans in Beirut again," the writer said. "Then it killed five people at the US embassy in Kuwait and, later, Iranian operatives abducted and killed the CIA bureau chief in Lebanon." The list goes on.

"Americans knew that the Iranian regime - using the Syrians and Hizbollah - was behind most of the operations carried out against them in a 30-year period.

"For their part, the Iranians know that the harshest punishment the Americans have in store for them is a hotchpotch of denunciatory statements and limited-effect sanctions."

Will George W Bush be arrested in Canada?

George W Bush's plan to visit Canada on Thursday prompted a call from Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog, for the former US president to be arrested there on charges linked to the torture of detainees, columnist Amjad Arar wrote in the Sharjah-based newspaper Al Khaleej.

In its memo to the Canadian authorities, Amnesty brought up "the key question of Bush's legal responsibility in a series of human rights abuses", the writer said.

The human rights group cited violations committed between 2002 and 2009, during the implementation of a secret detention programme by the US Central Intelligence Agency.

Individuals suspected of having links to terrorism are said to have been subjected to torture, cruel and humiliating punishment, and forced disappearances on the Bush administration's watch.

"The administration had basically given itself the right to be judge and jury at the same time," the writer said. "It allowed - or actually legalised - these abuses, and emerging evidence brings further confirmation that torture and other crimes have indeed been perpetrated against detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantanamo."

It is the duty of human rights organisations and free men and women around the world to ensure that gross human rights violations do not go unpunished, the writer concluded.

Arab Spring cost some governments $1 billion

A recent report by the consultancy firm Geopolicity gained media coverage last week as it focused on the price that Arab governments have paid due to the Arab Spring, wrote Mansour Al Jamri, the editor of the Bahraini newspaper Al Wasat.

The first thing to note is that not all Arab countries suffered financially.

The Arab Spring turmoil benefited the economies of oil-producing countries, pushing the price of crude from $90 (Dh331) a barrel in early 2011 to $135 in May, before the price levelled out at about $113.

The oil revenue of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for instance, went up by 25 and 31 per cent respectively.

According to the report, the countries that witnessed the bloodiest events, like Libya and Syria, have suffered financially the most, followed by Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Yemen.

"Bahrain alone lost more than $1 billion (Dh3.67bn) because of the instability," the editor said. "But the high price of oil helped mitigate the financial effect."

The report also pointed to the fact that a number of Gulf states resorted to spending billions of dollars to prevent the tumult from crossing their borders.

But that is not the best option, the editor said. Unrelenting democratisation is the only viable choice.

UAE and Gulf paying a high price for obesity

Recent figures from the UAE Ministry of Health, published last month in celebration of the first Gulf Day for Young People's Health, sound the alarm on the state of health among minors in the country, said an article published yesterday by the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research in the Abu Dhabi-based daily Al Ittihad.

The ministry's figures say that 39.2 per cent of students aged between 10 and 19 are overweight, while 82.8 per cent of them do not practice any physical activity on a regular basis. "This is clearly worrisome," the article said.

There is a pressing need to readdress the issue of overweight and obesity in the UAE, not only because it is affecting the nation's younger generation, but also because it is the main cause for the proliferation of chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart conditions. "The many awareness campaigns launched by various authorities … seem to have a limited effect," the article said. "Counter campaigns" by fast-food restaurants are also to blame.

"The numbers of Emiratis suffering from obesity, diabetes and heart conditions are rising. And the UAE is ranked the 10th country in the world in terms of obesity, according to international estimates."

* Digest compiled by Achraf El Bahi