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Why did Saudi Arabia save Yemen’s ex-president again ?
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/10/saudi-arabia-yemen-save-ali-abdullah-saleh-russia.html

The Saudis are increasingly desperate to find a way out of the Yemeni quagmire. They apparently believe Yemen’s ex-dictator, their longtime enemy Ali Abdullah Saleh, can help.

A Russian medical team flew into Sanaa on Oct. 11 with the approval of the Saudis, who control Yemeni airspace. The Russian surgeons then performed a life-saving procedure on the 75-year-old Saleh. Some reports say the surgery took place at the Russian Embassy in the capital. Saleh’s exact health issue is unclear, but it apparently is a result of the severe burns and other injuries he suffered during an assassination attempt in 2011. At the time, the Saudis rushed him to a hospital in the kingdom, where his life was saved. He formally gave up the presidency the next year.

(...) After the Russian doctors saved Saleh, the Saudi press reported: “Saudi-led coalition intervenes to save seriously ill Saleh’s life!” The reports noted that this is the second time Riyadh saved Saleh from his injuries. No explanation for why Riyadh wanted Saleh to live was offered. Nor was the permission to fly into Sanaa, breaking the Saudi blockade of Yemen, put into a larger context.

Most likely the Saudis are hoping to break the rebel alliance between Saleh and the Houthis, which has been fraying this year. The Saudi war effort is costly and contributing to the flatlining of the Saudi economy. It is unpopular in the West. The battlefield is a brutal stalemate that has produced the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world. If the rebels split, perhaps the Saudis and their partners can prevail against the Houthis.

#yémen

“Nile Hilton Incident” tops box offices everywhere but Egypt

▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/10/egyptian-director-talks-on-censorship-of-nile-hilton.html

“I’m not a martyr. I’m not a victim. I don’t feel brave,” Tarik Saleh, the award-winning Egyptian/Swedish director of one of the year’s most controversial films, “The Nile Hilton Incident,” told Al-Monitor in a Skype interview.

“I never went to prison in Egypt; I feel very privileged. Filmmakers and writers who are still working there … they are the ones paying a high price,” he said.

An expertly crafted film noir about a corrupt police officer that unveils an even larger web of corruption that involves the police, the justice system and the highest echelons of Egyptian society, Saleh’s movie made headlines in the international press. Although the film was initially approved, several scenes that painted an unflattering portrait of the Egyptian police caused filming to be blocked by Egypt’s state security, forcing the production to move to Morocco.

Several months after winning the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance film festival, this Swedish production has become one of the biggest art-house hits of the year, drawing an attendance of nearly 400,000 in France alone.

#Egypte #cinéma

Hamas invites Russia to play role in Palestinian affairs
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/10/palestine-hamas-russia-interference-reconciliation.html

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas describes its recent visit to Russia as productive, and it certainly covered a lot of ground. A delegation of the movement’s leaders went to Russia to keep Moscow in the loop on Palestinian-Israeli problems and the Palestinian quest for statehood, to discuss the Palestinian reconciliation and to enlist Russia to pressure the international Quartet to lift the siege imposed on Gaza and provide humanitarian aid.

The delegation’s Sept. 18 trip to Russia “tackled the movement’s decision to dissolve its administrative committee [in Gaza] and called on the consensus government [in the West Bank] to come to the Gaza Strip and immediately perform its functions and duties amid the movement’s approval to hold general elections,” Hamas said in a Sept. 21 statement.

#russie #palestine #autorité_palestinienne #hamas #fatah