On June 7, the Algerian owned Echourouk el-Youmi reported: "Five ministers and 91 senators, parliamentarians and senior state officials have been exposed to extortion, threat, defamation and infringement on their personal freedom on social network sites, particularly Facebook and Twitter, during the first four months of this year with a view to getting a job or money. Figures in the possession of Echourouk revealed that the cyber crime services had recorded that former Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and four ministers in his government, including Abdelmadjid Tebboune who is a minister in the new government, were victims. The services said that seven members of the Council of the Nation, 11 deputies in the National People's Assembly, 14 heads of municipality, fiver health and other directors in many state institutions were exposed to extortion, defamation and threatened to expose their personal secrets. Professionals in electronic crimes exploit photographs of victims, as well as video recordings, documents and letters and use them as a means to put pressure and threaten their victims in order to get jobs or money. The investigations carried out by the competent services led to the involvement of 13 minors, 102 youths aged between 19 and 30 years, 78 people over the age of 30 years and nine people over the age of 59 years in threatening, extortion and publishing personal secrets concerning their victims on social networking sites - particularly Facebook, which accounts for more than 85 per cent of the crimes perpetrated. Regarding the perpetrators of electronic crimes, a report by the security services said that they were not ordinary people and they were distinct from other perpetrators of crimes in general by their intelligence and lack of inclination to use force. Furthermore, those crimes were not confined to men. The involvement of 23 women in this kind of cases, attempts to defame victims and then threaten them in order to get what they coveted, has been proven."… (Read More)

On June 14, the Rai al-Youm daily carried the following piece by Abdul Bari Atwan: “The fact that the Egyptian parliament has endorsed the borders demarcation agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia thus confirming Egypt’s full waiver of its sovereignty on the Tiran and Sanafir islands at the Aqaba port confirms the idea that the Arab governments can now impose all the decisions and positions that they want on the people using all kinds of legal and illegal means… (Read More)

On June 14, the pro-government Al-Ahram newspaper carried the following opinion piece by Morsi Atallah: “No public issue is above criticism and reviewing when it comes to writing and expressing one’s opinion. And what I convincingly say is right might be deemed wrong by someone else, which is understandable and accepted. However, issuing accusations against an opposite opinion and using the worst terms to describe it is low to the point where it not only deserves to be ignored, but also to be thrown in the trash bin… The mission of the honest pen and the free voice is to find the dream and seek its achievement, not drown in the swamps of pessimism and search in waste. And just like those who carry a rifle must immunize themselves against emotional outbursts, those who carry a pen and who have an opinion must do the same, regardless of the difficulties and threats… (Read More)

On June 15, the Qatari-owned Al-Quds al-Arabi daily carried the following lead editorial: “Unlike the judiciary, which showed courage and confirmed its relative autonomy from the executive estate by issuing a final ruling regarding the Egyptian affiliation of Tiran and Sanafir islands, Parliament looked pliant yesterday and ready to enact the political (and financial) agreement signed by Cairo with Riyadh on April 8, 2016, in clear disregard to the Egyptian constitution which the “representatives of the people” ought to be preserving. In that sense, the approval was more of an insult to Parliament than a confirmation of its importance, seeing how the Egyptian authorities, and particularly the presidential institution, did not consult this Parliament when they bombed Libya and contributed to the fighting in Yemen… (Read More)

On June 15, the independent Al-Mada newspaper carried the following report by its correspondent in Baghdad Muhammad Sabah: “The Sunni powers have held their second conference in the Turkish capital Ankara to establish an Arab alliance that would run in the upcoming elections with the support of regional sides. The meeting was attended by Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri, Vice President Osama an-Nujaifi, Rafeh Issawi, Khamis Khanjar and Tarek al-Hashimi. And Sunni sides assured that the Ankara 2 conference was organized with the knowledge of the Iraqi government and the blessing of the American side, indicating that it should have been held in Baghdad, but that certain complications prevented that from happening. In parallel to the Ankara 2 conference, Brussels hosted a similar one attended by Shi’i sides, including representatives from the Sadrist and the civic movements… (Read More)

On June 15, the Omani Al-Watan daily carried the following piece by Zuhair Majed: “It is now understood that ISIL is being expelled from the Arab region in order to move to another, alternative place. Those who brought it to life have decided that the life of this creature that did them so many favors should not end. They decided to keep it away from the region even if this has to take some extra time. However, the group still has bases and pockets and a powerful presence mainly in Libya… (Read More)

On June 14, the Moroccan Hespress news site carried the following opinion piece by attorney and member of the General Secretariat of the Islamic Party of Renaissance and Virtue Abdallah Laamari: “The homeland is a ship for us all. So, if the ship drowns, we all drown, and if the ship survives, we all survive. This is why the call for salvation had to emerge and be echoed across the country, wherever wise people and live consciences are found... However, the approach adopted by the authority to handle the tense situation in Hoceima City and the remaining towns of the Rif, with campaigns of arrest, kidnappings, pursuits, the storming of safe homes, the terrorization of the families and the torturing of the detainees and wanted, is a very dangerous approach that could leave deep scars, and bring back to mind the historical wounds that are still bleeding, hurting and burning… (Read More)

On June 14, the pro-Syrian regime Al-Watan daily carried the following piece by Qahtan al-Syoufi: “In June 2014, I published a piece in Al-Watan under the title: “When shall the bloated government of Qatar return to its normal size?” Qatar, the tiny peninsula located at the shoulder of the Arabian Gulf possesses large gas reserves. On its lands, the largest American military base in the Gulf has been established. I believe that its former ruler, Hamad al-Thani was under the illusion that the size of his princedom can be expanded on the Arab and international political level by distributing his money on the chaotic Arab world. He also appointed himself as the supporter of the global takfiri terrorist powers starting with Al-Qa’idah all the way to the Muslim Brothers. He also adopted the so-called Arab spring project by supporting the terrorist armed groups… (Read More)

On June 14, the electronic Rai al-Youm daily newspaper carried the following editorial: “When the state of Qatar reverts to Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr al-Thani, and when it pushes him to the front after four years of marginalization during which he was busy building and enhancing his massive commercial empire away from the limelight, this means that the crisis is much bigger than expected by many, that the crisis is quite different from the ambassadors’ pullout crisis of 2014, that the “present generation” is unable to confront the crisis alone, and that Qatar needs to mobilize all the energies and expertise in this context… (Read More)

On June 14, the pro-monarchy Al-Arabiya.net news website carried the following report by its correspondent in Cairo Ashraf Abdul Hamid: “Yusuf Abdullah Qaradawi, who is originally Egyptian and carries the Qatari nationality, is the strongman whose word is never opposed and whose order is never turned down in Qatar, which had previously fought to prevent his name from being included in the American terrorism lists, and is now refusing to surrender him to Egypt although his name was included in the terrorism lists issued by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Emirates and Bahrain… Many may not believe that Qaradawi, who was detained in Gamal Abdel Nasser’s prisons where he was tortured for having joined the Muslim Brotherhood, which tried to assassinate Abdel Nasser several times, was allowed to work in the State of Qatar in 1961 by the Egyptian government and the regime of Abdel Nasser himself… (Read More)

On June 15, the El-Nashra Lebanese website carried the following report: “The war has ended in Syria. This is a practical, logical conclusion that can be reached just by making simple military calculations and by monitoring the regional and international political indications. A comparison between the present months’ developments and the developments of the past years further highlights this conclusion. In the earlier years, the armed groups progressed to the extent of threatening the heart of the Syrian capital… (Read More)

On June 14, the Qatari-owned Al-Quds al-Arabi daily carried the following report by its correspondent in Damascus Kamel Sakr: “Local sources in Raqqa City said to Al-Quds al-Arabi that the Kurdish Protection Forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces had retaken around 30% of Raqqa City, which has been under ISIL’s control since 2014. And they assured that the most prominent field progress by the Kurdish militias in several neighbourhoods was seen at dawn on Tuesday… The sources then continued that Raqqa’s inhabitants woke up to traditional Kurdish songs being echoed in a number of neighbourhoods in the city, which pushed some to think that the Kurdish troops had seized the entire city. But it later turned out they had only retaken neighbourhoods that do not constitute one third of Raqqa. The same sources added that four large and key ISIL brigades were still present in Raqqa… (Read More)

On June 15, the Al-Akhbar daily newspaper carried the following report: “The “official Tunisia” is standing on the neutral side when it comes to the Gulf developments. The influential parties are committing to the same position. However, under the surface of the different parties’ call for dialogue and a calm discussion, there are partisan positions divided into two main axes, one of which is led by the En-Nahda movement and the other is led by President Beji Caid Essebsi… (Read More)