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LARA SETRAKIAN
ABC News Reporter
Lara Setrakian is an ABC News reporter based in Dubai, UAE. Prior to this assignment, Setrakian was a reporter with ABC News’ Law & Justice Unit. In 2006, she conducted an exclusive interview with five Chinese men released from Guantanamo Bay after a wrongful detention. A native of Englewood, New Jersey, she speaks French, Spanish, Arabic, and Armenian.
As Obama Travels Turkey, Tough Call Awaits in Washington on Armenian Genocide
April 06, 2009 10:04 AM
By Lara Setrakian, ABC News, Dubai
As President Obama spends his day in Turkey a perennial storm is brewing in Washington. Every year, around this time, a foreign policy debate emerges around the Armenian Genocide, the systematic massacre and deportation of Armenians by Ottoman Turks roughly 100 years ago. It’s a history recounted in New York Times coverage of the day, by then-US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, and by Samantha Power in “A Problem from Hell,” her seminal book on genocide.
The history remains current through lobbying efforts by Armenians-Americans and their supporters on Capitol Hill, who push each year for US Government recognition of the Armenian Genocide. And each year, Turkey and its allies in Washington push back.
It's a tug of war over truth, and for years our strategic ties to Turkey have been the heavier weight.
Obama’s visit to Ankara highlights why: the strategic value of the US-Turkish alliance, one that suffered as Turkey opposed the war on Iraq and saw Turkish public opinion swing sharply against the United States. Turkey is America’s strongest Muslim ally, an economic and demographic force sitting between Europe and the Middle East.
Increasingly, Turkey is a vital energy corridor and diplomatic player, an active yet neutral middleman in regional rivalries (Iran vs. Israel, Israel vs. Arab, Arab vs. Iran). America needs Turkey's help on Afghanistan, on Iran, and on our way out of Iraq. At a time when America seeks Turkey’s help on foreign policy goals, it would anger that ally by recognizing Turkey’s crimes of the past. As proof of Turkish sensitivities, any discussion of the Armenian Genocide can be criminal in Turkey under a law banning insult to the Turkish nation.
Even so, today in Turkey Obama nudged Turkey toward recognizing its past actions, but without explicitly using the word "Genocide."
"History is often tragic, but unresolved, can be a heavy weight," said Obama. "Each country must work through its past."
In full disclosure, I am a grandchild of Genocide survivors, Armenians who fled Turkey and eventually made it to the Americas. A part of me would be deeply fulfilled to see the passage of H.Res.252, now pending in Congress, and a move on candidate Obama’s promise to recognize the Armenian Genocide, forwarded through YouTube and weblinks to so many Armenian-American voters' inboxes. But Obama will clearly face a tough call once he’s back in Washington: will he back his election pledge and face the repercussions with Turkey?
Turkey has offered conciliatory steps toward Armenia, melting frosty relations with its neighbor, but without a word on the past. Turkey is offering trade and security ties, but no apology and no budging from genocide denial. Armenia, fairly desperate for economic development and peace with its neighbors, could take the deal. But for the genocide issue to disappear from Washington politics Turkey would have to make peace not only with Armenia but with the descendents of the Armenians it expelled – in this case Armenian-Americans scattered around the US. And they’re waiting on their President to come home.
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April 6, 2009 in Lara Setrakian | Permalink | User Comments (17) | TrackBack (3)
Arab League Embraces Sudanese President Wanted for War Crimes
March 31, 2009 3:14 AM
By Lara Setrakian, ABC News, Doha
When the 22-nation Arab League gave Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir a warm, red-carpet welcome, it came off as a broad stroke of defiance.
Bashir’s controversial trip to the Doha Summit defied an arrest warrant indictment from the International Criminal Court over war crimes in Darfur. Though not party to the ICC the U.S. State Department voiced its disapproval, saying the Doha Summit should have been a forum to condemn what is happening in Darfur, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon spoke on the summit floor denouncing Sudan’s expulsion of foreign aid workers.
Bashir himself spoke to the summit, accusing the expelled aid groups of working with the ICC and accusing Israel of supporting insurgent groups in Sudan. Tensions have been high since Israel launched an operation striking alleged weapons convoys passing through Sudan that Israeli officials said were destined for the Gaza Strip.
In rejecting the arrest warrant, the Arab League argued that it violates national sovereignty and complicates ongoing peace negotiations in the Sudan. An alternate rationale, advanced by Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, cast Bashir’s case in neo-colonial terms.
"The warrant issued by the ICC against an Arab president, under false pretexts, is the first step towards dividing Sudan in order to weaken it, then control its resources and divide them," Assad said in his opening remarks. With that, the summit invoked early on the two themes -- anti-colonial and anti-Israel -- that are staples of Arab political rhetoric. For more insight, the Christian Science Monitor ran an analysis piece headlined "Why Arab Leaders Embrace Sudan’s Indicted President."
Bashir’s arrival in Doha was dramatic: Arab and Sudanese journalists applauded as he stepped off the plane. It came after weeks of speculation about whether he would make it to the summit, some predicting his plane might be intercepted or that he’d be arrested in Doha or Cairo, where he visited Egyptian leaders days before.
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March 31, 2009 in Lara Setrakian | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (3)
A Saudi Princely Promotion Twists Talk of Succession
March 29, 2009 5:35 PM
ABC News' Lara Setrakian reports:
Middle East analysts watch Saudi Arabia much as Kremlinologists once studied the power plays of the Soviet Union -- looking for signs of who's moving up and who's keeping in the good graces of the top man. Perhaps justifiably, since the Saudi Kingdom, a U.S. ally with the world's largest proven oil reserves, might be on the verge of a royal succession essential to America's strategic interests.
With the reigning King Abdullah well into his 80s and his named successor, Crown Prince Sultan, seriously ill, the wide field of outcomes invites speculation.
When King Abdullah tapped one contender, Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, for a serious promotion last Friday, it was taken as the first major signal of whose hands would rule the kingdom next. The country's interior minister for more than thirty years, Prince Nayef was named second deputy prime minister - one notch below the ailing Crown Prince Sultan.
"This places him in direct line to the throne," wrote Ted Karasik of INEGMA, a think tank based in Dubai that is tracking the Saudi succession.
"Prince Nayef has been helping oversee the government since Crown Prince Sultan had his relapse five months ago," Karasik wrote. "This appointment makes his supervisory role official."
Prince Nayef's ascension is not automatic -- he needs the support of the 35-member Allegiance Council, the body of royals meant to choose the future king through consensus. But King Abdullah's vote of nconfidence carries weight, and says a lot about where he sees the kingdom going.
Prince Nayef, like all Saudi rulers of modern time, is a son of the country's founder, King Abdulziz ibn Saud. There was talk of the next king coming from the next generation, young blood from among the dozens of grandsons of Abdulaziz. That generational jump now seems unlikely, says Karasik.
Prince Nayef is a traditionalist, close to the Wahhabi establishment and controversial for some of his positions -- among them on on statement that Jews and Zionists were behind 9/11. He has a mixed record on rights for women and the kingdom's Shiite minority. His strong suits, on the other hand, include being credited with keeping stability and fighting al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia.
"Despite being a controversial figure, Prince Nayef is nonetheless credited with the improvement of security conditions in the kingdom, and no one disputes his effort in the field of counterterrorism," wrote Rochdi A. Younsi, Middle East & Africa Director for the Eurasia Group. Younsi sees a tribal-political battle ahead before the naming of a future king.
"Only ultraconservatives would welcome [Prince Nayef's] candidacy to the throne. He has repeatedly reassured the powerful Wahhabi establishment whenever it felt threatened by King Abdullah's push for social change."
Even after Friday's promotion, interested parties are waiting to see how high Prince Nayef can go.
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March 29, 2009 in Lara Setrakian | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Saudi Women Boycott Lingerie Shops in the Fight for Their Right to Work
March 26, 2009 3:07 PM
By Lara Setrakian, ABC News, Dubai
In Saudi Arabia women are boycotting stores that sell their most intimate apparel. In an ironic twist, lingerie shops in the ultra-conservative Saudi Kingdom are mostly staffed by men – ironic because Saudi law strictly divides men and women in daily life and can render snap criminal judgments on unmarried men and women interacting in public.
The practice of men staffing lingerie shops violates social sensibilities in Saudi Arabia. The Associated Press ran a piece this week on women feeling humiliated as they discuss their private wardrobe with male sales clerks.
The lingerie boycott is about more than slips and giggles. It's about combatting an insult to women in the workplace. In 2006, the Saudi Kingdom passed a law stating that only women could work in lingerie stores, creating one in a handful of protected spaces through which women could join the labor force.
But Saudi Arabia's religious establishment opposed the measure, with clerical hardliners preferring to keep women at home and out of the businesses. In theory, their opposition shouldn't carry more weight than the law. But hardliners in the form of the Mutawa, or religious police, enforce the law as they see fit in daily life.
"Legally, the government has decreed that women are allowed to work in lingerie shops. But the fact that Mutawa could harass them, threaten them or close down the shop ... They don't want to take that risk," said Samar Fatany, a Saudi writer and lecturer on women's rights.
The boycott in some ways reflects an economic battle of the sexes, a competition for jobs in a country where unemployment is rampant. But it’s also a microcosm of the Saudi Kingdom’s struggle to balance itself between two poles: strict Wahhabi Islam and slow moves toward modernity. Wahhabi purists want to keep women at home, while economic realities and a reformer king are helping women enter the workplace.
Fatany and others note that households in Saudi Arabia, as in the United States, increasingly need two incomes to get by. As more wives and mothers go to work they will speak with louder voices about the change they want to see in Saudi. This week they want to see it in the underwear aisle.
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March 26, 2009 in Lara Setrakian | Permalink | User Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Ayatollah Khamenei’s Response to Obama Echoes Online
March 24, 2009 12:57 PM
By Lara Setrakian, ABC News, Dubai
As Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s responded to President Obama’s Persian New Year message over the weekend, most news reports (including ours) focused on his dismissive wait-and-see reaction: we’ll wait for real change in U.S. policy then see if we can warm to your overtures. We now have the full translated text of Khamenei’s Saturday morning speech (seen here via Juan Cole), and with it a chance to take a closer look at the weekend’s unprecedented exchange of words and public diplomacy.
Iran expert Farideh Farhi at the University of Hawaii ran an online analysis that hints at the complexity of what the Khamenei said.
“The translations of the bits and pieces of the speech in the news do not do justice to this carefully crafted response intended to set the parameters of U.S.-Iran talks if they are to happen,” she wrote. “Clearly from [Khamenei’s] view, engagement in talks must be accompanied with some concrete steps that show Iran that the United States is interested in a process and give and take.”
Over the course of Khamenei’s twenty minutes spent talking to Obama’s overture he brought out a list of complaints on American foreign policy. To give you a sense of scope, they include: support for Israel, the war in Gaza, support for dissident groups in Iran, freezing of Iranian assets after the Revolution, supporting Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq War, the accidental shooting of an Iranian passenger plane by the USS Vincennes over the Persian Gulf in 1988, and thirty years of economic sanctions. Beyond proving the endurance of the Persian memory, this laundry list was part of the message to Barack Obama. Thirty years of grievance don’t melt quickly for the new American president, even one who promises change and quotes Persian poetry.
Yet there is, per Khamenei’s speech and Farhi’s analysis, room for an opening.
Even with the litany of issues, “[Khamenei] makes no calls for U.S. apology for past actions. His focus is today,” she wrote. “As such the speech should really be seen as a carefully calibrated attempt to shape the debate in Washington on how to go about talking to Iran.”
Building confidence in a dialogue where there has been none (between the U.S. and Iran there’s been little confidence and practically no dialogue) is a long road. This weekend was a major step.
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March 24, 2009 in Lara Setrakian | Permalink | User Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
$5.5 Million Carpet, a Pearl-Studded Masterpiece, Sets World Record in Qatar
March 20, 2009 2:35 AM
By Lara Setrakian, ABC News, Dubai
You don’t wipe your feet on this rug.
The Pearl Carpet of Baroda, a diamond-and-pearl-encrusted masterpiece of 19th century India, sold at auction today for “only” $5.5 million to an undisclosed client – though less than predicted, even at that steep price.
The carpet is believed to have been commissioned in the 1860s by the Majaraja of Baroda, a Mughal Indian ruler. To get a sense of why the piece is so remarkable, aside from its precious parts, I reached out to the New York-based expert David Dilmaghani of RugRag.com, an online resource on fine carpets.
“Its historical importance, provenance and material make the Pearl Carpet the epitome of everything a serious collector, government or museum would want -- timeless motif and colors, wide horizontal interest in the market, mystique, exclusivity, manageable size, documentation and, above all, completeness,” Dilmaghani said.
“What is spectacular to us is the very construction, and the clear respect for the unique shape of each of the millions of pearls, stones, sapphires and rubies … to attain such a regular and symmetrical rug from varying-gauge pearls takes both unbelievable workmanship and complex mathematical understanding.”
The carpet was sold at Sotheby’s first-ever auctions in Doha, Qatar -- a major step toward that city’s rise as a culture capital.
In November, the city opened a landmark Islamic Art Museum, designed by star-chitect I.M. Pei.
With oil and gas money from the most recent price boom, Gulf states, particularly Qatar and the UAE, have become billion-dollar patrons of the arts. Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan is building outposts of the Louvre and Guggenheim.
Last year, Dubai hosted the record-breaking sale of “Oh Persepolis,” a sculpture by Iranian Parviz Tanavoli. The $2.8 million sale made it the most expensive piece of modern Middle Eastern art ever sold at auction.
Even so, the Gulf market does show signs of slowing. The Pearl Carpet sold for $5.5 million, but experts with the art house had predicted it would go for as much as $20 million. Low oil prices and a slow global economy may be flattening demand and cutting disposable income. Still, it’s a fair chunk of change for a rug.
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March 20, 2009 in Lara Setrakian | Permalink | User Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Rafik Hariri Assassination Tribunal Opens
March 02, 2009 10:59 AM
loBy LARA SETRAKIAN, ABC News, Dubai
This week the United Nations opened its tribunal on the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, an anti-Syrian statesman whose death was followed by a succession of bomb attacks that killed more than a dozen politicians and public figures, mostly liberal democrats opposed to Syrian influence in Lebanon.
Hariri's death on Valentine’s Day 2005 was a seminal moment in Lebanese politics, leading to a public backlash known as the Cedar Revolution, which forced the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanese territory. The sitting government resigned in the face of public protests and a new government was elected and helmed by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora – it was an extraordinary event in the Middle East where regimes don't generally change through the bloodless exercise of "people power."
On one hand, it was a win for the anti-Syrian movement; on the other, the series of assassinations starting with Hariri left the anti-Syrian camp without its most powerful leaders. By killing off the opposition, the assassins redefined the Lebanese political spectrum in Syria’s and its ally Hezbollah’s favor.
Clearly, the Hariri tribunal is about more than a murdered man. Back in 2005 and 2006, when U.S. relations with Syria were arguably at their recent worst, the Hariri case was seen as a crack in the wall of the Syrian regime. Then-U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis named high-ranking members of the Syrian regime, including the president's brother-in-law, for their involvement in the killing and implied in a report that the murder could not have happened without the consent or direct involvement of President Bashar Al Assad. The case was seen as a way for Washington to pressure, if not bring down, the Assad government -- a potent tool in the era and rhetoric of "regime change."
Four years after the murder the political state of play is far different. Syria's military is out of Lebanon, but Syria holds considerable influence over Lebanese politicians, including the president (especially now that its main opponents like Hariri, Gibran Tueini and journalist Samir Kassir are dead). Washington and Europe are courting Damascus, hoping to pull it away from an alliance with Iran and patronage role toward Hezbollah. Major companies like Airbus are pushing to do business with Syria, a large and underdeveloped economic market looking to open to the world.
As the Arab world's first U.N. tribunal on the assassination of a political leader begins, the macro hope is that this region will witness, perhaps for the first time, something approaching justice.
Meanwhile, I watch with a deeply personal interest. On Feb. 14, 2005 the day Hariri was killed, I was staying in Beirut next door to the bomb site. My room at the Palm Beach Hotel was trashed and it was clear that I had narrowly missed being in the wrong place at the time of the blast. At the time I was traveling through the Middle East as a consultant with McKinsey & Co., but the close encounter with Hariri’s death shook me profoundly -- enough for me to change careers and look for any job I could get at ABC News.
Today I am reporting from the Middle East, watching Hariri’s case go to trial. Prosecutors say it will take three to five years for the tribunal to do its work. If all goes well, after much time and expense, there will be more answers than questions as to who killed Rafik Hariri.
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March 2, 2009 in Lara Setrakian | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Israeli Men's Tennis Pro Allowed in Dubai, but Too Late for Shahar Peer
February 19, 2009 3:24 PM
By Lara Setrakian, ABC News, Dubai
United Arab Emirates authorities confirmed that Israeli tennis player Andy Ram will be granted a visa to play in the Barclay’s Dubai Tennis Championship, just days after it rejected a similar request from a female Israeli tennis player, Shahar Peer, evoking criticism from the global sports community.
Ram will be admitted on a special entry permit, granted for international sporting or conference events. In the past, Israelis have been granted visas on similar grounds to attend the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Dubai.
A government source said Peer's visa was rejected by low-level decision makers. As a matter of routine, Israelis are denied visas. The official described the move as an oopsie -- "sorry, we made a mistake,' he said, but noted that it's now too late to reverse the decision on Peer. The women's tournament is well under way -- tennis star siblings Venus and Serena Williams are slated to play each other in a match on Friday.
But the government source said Peer's status would not affect Ram's ability to play in the tournament.
"Of course [Ram] should come and play," he said.
Peer's rejection provoked international protest and led to the withdrawal of at least one major sponsor, The Wall Street Journal European edition. The Women’s Tennis Association decided not to cancel the event in protest but said it would consider dropping the Dubai tournament from next year’s calendar.
“The fact that the tournament is going ahead, that should not be taken to mean that we accept or condone the fact that Peer has been denied a visa. We don't," WTA chief Larry Scott told the Guardian
"I spoke to Peer on the phone, and she said she didn't want the tournament to be canceled. She said she was the one with the Israeli passport, and she was being punished for that, but she didn't want all her fellow players to be punished as well,” he said.
Though the U.A.E. has no diplomatic relations with Israel, the country has taken a relatively moderate approach to Israel compared with other Arab states. Travelers can enter the country with an Israeli stamp in their passports (doing so in some Arab states warrants jail time). Because of the timing of the visa controversy, it’s being tied to ongoing sensitivities over Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, which was hotly unpopular on Arab streets.
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February 19, 2009 in Lara Setrakian | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Taking Down Pirates by Air and Sea ... and Land?
February 13, 2009 8:35 PM
By Lara Setrakian, ABC News, USS Vella Gulf:
Today was my ride-along with the U.S. Navy’s three counter-piracy ships. I spent the morning on the USS Mahan, a destroyer patrolling the Gulf of Aden since October, now with the Navy’s month-old anti-piracy task force. The Mahan plays a key role in building the Navy’s “maritime picture” -- to the best extent, mapping out what’s where in the 1.1 million square miles of water. One of the Coast Guard members we met, a law enforcement specialist working with the Navy, likened the mission to one police officer patrolling the entire United States.
With that ratio, the Navy is using its gadgets and gizmos to extend its reach. Perhaps foremost in gadgetry aboard the Mahan: the UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles that fly up to 2,000 feet and still manage to take incredibly detailed photos of what’s at sea. During this week’s missions, when the Navy caught 16 suspected pirates, the UAVs were used to get visual confirmation of the pirate boats. From a distance, they could see the ladders and fuel canisters -- ladders to climb aboard and hijack ships, fuel canisters to supply their long days waiting for prey. The UAVs, along with the Task Force helicopter patrols, are watching the waters and responding to distress calls.
From the Mahan we took a helicopter to the USS Vella Gulf, the flagship of the Navy’s counter-piracy task force. The ship was abuzz with the pride of a job well done. They have been training for months for their mission, and this week was proof of their effort's impact. The pirates had launched a bold set of attacks this week, made bolder by the moonlit nights and calm weather, and in two cases, the Navy stopped them short.
Yet, in talking with Navy officials, the consensus has always been that the solution to piracy lies not on sea, but on land. The violent unrest and humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia gave rise to the pirate problem -- Somali fishermen who once attacked encroaching vessels in defense of their turf decided it was more lucrative to hold the ships and ask for ransom. Somalia’s new president, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has vowed to bring peace and law to his country. He told me in an interview this week that he’ll deploy Somali forces on land and along the coast, shutting down the pirate ops.
We’ll see if he can do it. Meanwhile, the Navy will keep trying to deter and deconflict -- in other words, nip piracy in the bud.
February 13, 2009 in Lara Setrakian | Permalink | User Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Sleeping With Pirates on the High Seas
February 12, 2009 8:07 PM
ABC News' Lara Setrakian reports: I’ll be sleeping with 16 Somali pirates tonight. They’re seven floors below my cabin on the USNS Lewis and Clark, held in a cargo hold converted into a detention facility (I call it “the county jail of the high seas”). It is bare-bones accommodations, mats and blankets surrounded by concertina wire. But as I watched the defeated and disheveled suspects in Marine detention, I could sense their fear. Where they come from, what happens to you in detention isn’t pretty.
On the first day aboard the USNS Lewis and Clark, the Navy’s staging base for counter-piracy in the Gulf of Aden, the Navy made its first catch: seven Somali pirates who had apparently tried to hijack the M/V Polaris, one of many commercial vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden. To escape the attack, the astute crew pushed the pirates’ ladder overboard before they could jump onto the deck. Then the ship sped up, pulling away from the pirate skiff.
With my second day aboard the Navy ship came a similar story: nine pirates attacking an Indian commercial vessel, this time the ship escaped through evasive maneuvering. One of the oddest and saddest facts of modern day piracy is that most pirate ships don’t stand a chance against their targets, if only those targets would speed up when approached or use their fire hoses to push the invaders away. I say “saddest fact” because, as we sail on, roughly 60 miles off the coast of Somalia, seven ships and more than 100 hostage crew members remain in pirate captivity.
What’s next for the captured pirates? A few weeks on board the Lewis and Clark before they’re transferred on shore to face trial, most likely in Kenya. As for us, we’re moving tomorrow to the USS Vella Gulf, the flagship of the Navy’s counter-piracy task force and the ship that picked up the Somali pirates. From there, we’ll get a closer look at America’s operations on the high seas.
February 12, 2009 in Lara Setrakian | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
