OMAN: Clinton visits to thank sultan for help in freeing hikers.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Oman today to personally thank the Persian Gulf nation’s leader for his help in securing the release of three American hikers detained in Iran. U.S. officials with Clinton say she also will discuss Iran with Oman’s sultan, including an alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador.
BAHRAIN: U.S. may probe rights abuses before approving arms sale.
The U.S. State Department says it will consider a special investigation of human-rights abuses in Bahrain before moving ahead with $53 million in arms sales to the violence-wracked country.
In a letter Tuesday to Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the department said it shared congressional concerns about Bah rain’s actions against protesters. At least 35 people have died since Bahrain’s Shiite-led majority began protests in February seeking greater rights from the ruling Sunni monarchy.
A block on the arms sale also was urged by Amnesty International, which said in a report Tuesday that the United States, Russia and many European countries that have supported the swell of protests across the Middle East and North Africa this year also supplied some of the weapons used against demonstrators.
SYRIA: Security forces push crackdown as opposition tries to unite.
Syrian security forces launched raids on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, on Tuesday to crush a 7-month-old uprising as neighboring Turkey held its first formal talks with Syrian opposition leaders, activists and officials. Other bloodshed was reported in the central city of Homs, a hotbed of opposition to the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Syria’s fragmented opposition has been trying to join forces under the umbrella of a Syrian National Council to form a united front against Assad. On Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he had met members of the council in Ankara late Monday and advised the group to work toward democratic change in Syria “in a peaceful manner.”
Denver Post wire services
