Mea culpa Europe prepares policy U-turn

Europe is bidding to open new chapter with Arab street carrying heavy burden from past.

Middle East Online

By Claire Rosemberg - BRUSSELS

It was financial gains before everything else After embracing the east European remnants of the crumbling Soviet empire two decades ago, Europe faces a fresh Herculean task: how to bond with the Arab street after an era of dubious diplomacy. Slammed for propping up despots and turning a blind eye to rights abuses, Europe's leaders this week hold an extraordinary summit amid Libya's turmoil to mull a "top to toe" revamp of Mediterranean policy -- as Britain's deputy premier Nick Clegg put it. "We are witnessing potentially the biggest geopolitical events of the last decade. ... Ordinary people taking to the streets to demand greater freedom," Clegg said in Brussels last week. "They are creating a new world. We need a new response. This is happening in our backyard." Yet events in the Arab world caught the European Union napping, despite billions of aid funnelled into north African states and a slew of trade deals struck during 15 years of a Euro-Mediterranean partnership. As the stunned 27-nation EU watched former allies Hosni Mubarak and Zine el Abidine Ben Ali swept from office by pro-democracy protests in Egypt and Tunisia, critics poked leaders into facing up to an era of failed policy on the bloc's southern flank. "Europe bowed before these dictators, it paid no heed to repression," said Alain Deletroz, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. "Europe is bidding to open a new chapter carrying a heavy burden from the past." Across Europe, contrite capitals are rattled by skeletons in the cupboard. France has fired its foreign minister for fraternising with Ben Ali, and Britain, France and Italy have been chided for fawning to Moamer Kadhafi as he unleashes war against his own people -- using arms sold by Belgium, Germany and others. "First, we must show humility about the past," said Stefan Fuele, the European Commissioner in charge of the bloc's relations with its neighbours. "Too many of us fell prey to the assumption that authoritarian regimes were a guarantee of stability." The awakening has sent the EU into a frenzied quest for a fresh Mediterranean road map. After this week's summit, the bloc plans new guidelines for the southern Mediterranean by mid-March, with a new look at aid scheduled for April. A key future step will be to condition aid and trade on the respect of basic democratic rights and rules. "We will apply stricter conditionality to reward those who live up to democratic values," Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, pledged last week. But while the usually sluggish EU-27 seem to be moving with rare speed and cohesion to address events across the Mediterranean, there has been little of the giant enthusiasm that 20 years ago greeted eastern Europe's liberation. "The initial response was to mobilise due to the fear of seeing hordes of refugees land at our borders," Deletroz told AFP. "It was pathetic and hasn't gone un-noticed. There was none of the exuberance of the fall of the Berlin wall." In recent days, the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, has acknowledged Europe needs to change tack, albeit slightly, on migration, which given mounting xenophobia "is not an easy issue", Fuele said. The EU must ask "partner countries in north Africa to prevent irregular migration" but Brussels for its part must "develop more ambitious approaches in the field of legal migration," he said. Barroso too last week called for "mobility partnerships" and more visas for students, researchers and entrepreneurs. Italy, which sees itself as being in the frontline for would-be migrants from north Africa, has warned of a potential exodus of "biblical proportions" from Libya's unrest, but at talks this month won no sympathy from northern EU nations already sheltering refugees from the east of Europe. Migration is sure to pop up at this week's summit as heads of state and leaders look at ways of helping the pro-democracy wave while shoring up economies with the help of Europe's banks -- the European Investment Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development set up for eastern Europe. Along with its southern partners, Spain, France, Malta, Greece, Cyprus and Slovenia, Italy hopes to revive a long-stalled Union of Mediterranean Nations. But "first and foremost", said Deletroz, "Europe must pronounce a mea culpa".

'Al-Qaeda' attack raises tensions in Yemen

Republican Guard soldiers ambushed as they deliver food near Marib, a day after Abdullah Saleh refuses to step down.

Middle East Online

Anti-regime protests continue SANAA - Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen killed four soldiers in Yemen on Sunday, a day after President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to yield to protesters demanding his immediate resignation. The new violence came as both London and Washington called on their citizens to consider leaving the impoverished Arabian peninsula country and warned against all but essential travel. The elite Republican Guard soldiers were ambushed as they delivered food near Marib about 170 kilometres (110 miles) east of Sanaa, a local official said. "The attack was similar to others by Al-Qaeda," the official added. A military attack helicopter and ground troops pursued the assailants into a nearby valley, a security source said. Yemen is a key US ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda's branch in the Arabian Peninsula, which a State Department official last month described as the "most significant" threat to the US homeland. Sunday's attack was not believed to be connected to the anti-government unrest which has killed at least 19 people in Yemen since February 16, according to an AFP toll. Security forces arrested 16 protesters in the main southern city Aden on Saturday, as thousands continued to demonstrate demanding Saleh's resignation over corruption, poverty and high unemployment in one of the poorest countries in the world. But the veteran leader who has ruled since 1978 dismissed an opposition proposal for a quick transition of power, saying he would serve out his current term which expires in 2013. In a statement carried late Saturday on the state-run Saba news agency, an official close to the president said the opposition's proposal, envisaging Saleh's departure before the end of the year, was "vague and contradictory". "A peaceful transition of power cannot be done with chaos, but by having recourse to the people through elections, so that they can decide who they want to lead without acts of violence and trouble," the statement said. Yemen's opposition and clerics last week offered Saleh a smooth exit from power this year, even as protests calling for his immediate removal spread from the south to the east of the country. The five-point proposal calls for a "peaceful transition of power" from Saleh, insists demonstrations against his regime will go on and demands a probe into a deadly crackdown on the protests. Once Saleh replied, it would ultimately be up to Yemen's people to "decide whether to accept or reject this proposal," said the Common Forum, an alliance of parliamentary opposition groups. Witnesses said police used tear gas and fired warning shots on Saturday to disperse the protesters and that two demonstrators were wounded after being beaten with batons. Meanwhile, thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets in the city of Ataq, in the eastern province of Shabwa, on the third consecutive day of protests, witnesses said. "People want to topple the regime," demonstrators chanted, echoing a slogan that has gripped many Arab capitals and that has already forced the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt to quit and thrown Libya into civil war. An MP from neighbouring Al-Bayda province announced Friday his resignation from the ruling party of Saleh in protest against the use of force against demonstrators. Ali al-Umrani announced his decision to quit the General People's Congress and join anti-government protests at an anti-Saleh demonstration in the capital, Sanaa. Another member of the GPC, prominent businessman Nabil al-Khameri, also announced his resignation to protest the violence. Eleven MPs who quit the GPC last week have since announced the formation of a new parliamentary bloc, named as the "Free Deputies", headed by Abdo Bisher. The US government warned Americans Sunday against travelling to Yemen and authorized the voluntary departure of family members and non-essential embassy staff. Britain on Saturday advised its nationals against all travel to Yemen.

Libya regime claims counter-offensive

Members of Libyan opposition deny Ras Lanuf or Tobruk have been recaptured by forces loyal to Gathafi.

Middle East Online

TRIPOLI - Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gathafi have recaptured a string of key towns, state television said in claims quickly denied by rebels as heavy gunfire rocked the capital Tripoli. With battles raging east and west of Tripoli and thousands fleeing the violence, loyalist forces on Sunday were accused of a massacre during an assault on a key city and The Sunday Times said a British special forces unit was being held by rebels in Benghazi. "Libyan armed forces have taken control of the cities of Misrata (Libya's third city) and Ras Lanuf," a key oil town captured by rebels on Friday, the Allibiya channel said. Troops also recaptured Tobruk, the television said, adding that there had been celebrations of the counter-offensive in the loyalist strongholds of Sirte - Gathafi's hometown on the central coast - and Sebha in the south, as well as Tripoli. AFP correspondents and members of the Libyan opposition denied that Ras Lanuf, a key oil pipeline hub, or Tobruk, in the far east of the country on the main artery to Egypt, had been recaptured. "It's not true. The region is under control from Ajdabiya to the Egyptian border," Fateh Faraj, a member of the rebel-appointed council in Tobruk said by phone from the town. He said the situation was calm and that "absolutely nothing" was happening. Al-Jazeera television interviewed an opposition official, Mohammed Ali, in Misrata who said there had been no fighting at all in the city and that it remained fully under rebel control. "Gathafi says they took back Ras Lanuf, but we are still here in Ras Lanuf and not only here, but further (west)," Colonel Bashir al-Moghrabi, one of the rebel leaders in the town, told reporters outside its only hotel. AFP correspondents are among a number of foreign journalists staying in a hotel on the western outskirts of Ras Lanuf and there were no sounds of any fighting around the town during the night, although there was an air strike after dawn on a rebel checkpoint outside the town. "There were no clashes during the night, the town is under our control," another rebel fighter said. The rebels have vowed to march on Sirte, Gathafi's home town about 150km from Bin Jawad, which was the furthest point AFP saw them deployed along the Mediterranean coast on Saturday. Asked when they would move on Sirte, Moghrabi said: "We don't know. All the soldiers are coming from Benghazi. We are more than 8,000 men." An AFP correspondent in Tripoli said sustained automatic gunfire erupted early Sunday in the centre of the capital, an area that has so far been relatively free of violence. It was not immediately clear where the shots were coming from. They were heard at a hotel not far from the capital's Green Square area. State television showed images of crowds of people in Green Square celebrating the success of the counter-offensive and fireworks being fired into the sky at dawn but the AFP correspondent said the relentless gunfire appeared to be heavy fighting under way rather than celebratory. The rebels on Saturday declared themselves Libya's sole representative on the world stage. The national council - the embryonic provisional government - made its proclamation at a meeting in Benghazi, the rebel stronghold in the east of the North African country. "The council declares it is the sole representative all over Libya," former justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil said. Libya's neighbours Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, as well as France and Italy mobilised Saturday to receive and repatriate a tide of migrants fleeing the unrest. The United States donated $US3 million ($A2.96 million) to the effort. An estimated 100,000 migrants have crossed the Tunisian border with Libya since February 20, Tunisian officials said. In comments to British newspaper The Sunday Times, Gathafi repeated that he had no intention of going into exile. "Does anybody leave his own homeland? Why should I leave Libya?" he said, laughing. He also denied that his forces had bombed civilian areas.

China state media slams calls for protests

Police keep watch along the Wanfujing shopping street in Beijing after protesters gathered on February 20, 2011. China's state media stepped up its criticism of recent calls for anti-government rallies Sunday, saying stability was key amid concern unrest sweeping the Middle East could spread to the Asian nation.

AFP - China's state media stepped up its criticism of recent calls for anti-government rallies Sunday, saying stability was key amid concern unrest sweeping the Middle East could spread to the Asian nation.

The reports come a day after a similar comment piece was published for the first time in a state-run newspaper, amid renewed online calls for citizens to gather in dozens of cities to participate in "strolling" demonstrations Sunday.

"Firstly we must recognise that some people with ulterior motives at home and abroad are using various means to incite 'street politics'," a report on the front page of the Beijing Youth Daily said.

"They are using the Internet to create and disseminate false information, incite illegal gatherings in a bid to bring the chaos in the Middle East and North Africa to China, to mess up China."

A report in the Jiefang Daily, the official Communist Party mouthpiece in Shanghai, also carried a similar comment piece, urging people to "maintain social harmony and stability."

"People must... highly cherish and consciously maintain hard-won stability like they take care of their own eyes," it said.

The anonymous calls for the weekend rallies, inspired by popular uprisings in the Arab world, have heightened official concern about unrest in China amid growing resentment at issues such as a yawning wealth gap and corruption.

Reflecting this unease, an official budget report unveiled at the nation's annual parliament session on Saturday revealed plans to allocate 624.4 billion yuan ($95.1 billion) for law and order in 2011.

This represents a 13.8% jump from last year, and compares to a planned hike of 12.7% for national defence spending to 601.1 billion yuan.

On Sunday, campaigners behind the so-called "Jasmine rallies" again called for people to gather in cities across China, despite a heavy security presence at the designated rally sites in Beijing and Shanghai last weekend.

Several foreign journalists who turned up at the site in a Beijing shopping street on February 27 were roughed up, and police have told reporters they could lose their permission to work in China unless they follow the new rules.

Activists also say more than 100 known dissidents and rights advocates have been rounded up since the protest calls.

Saudi Arabia bans all marches as mass protest is planned for Friday

Extra troops are sent to north-east to quash any Shia protest as King Abdullah's regime gets jittery and oil prices soar in response to the region's continued unrest

By David Randall

Sunday, 6 March 2011

AFP/Getty Images

The ruling House of Saud had drafted security forces, possibly numbering up to 10,000

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer and the regional domino whose fall the West fears most, yesterday announced that it would ban all protests and marches. The move – the stick to match the carrot of benefits worth $37bn (£23bn) recently offered citizens in an effort to stave off the unrest that has overtaken nearby states – comes before a "day of rage" threatened for this Friday by opponents of the regime.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said the kingdom has banned all demonstrations because they contradict Islamic laws and social values. The ministry said some people have tried to get around the law to "achieve illegitimate aims" and it warned that security forces were authorised to act against violators. By way of emphasis, a statement broadcast on Saudi television said the authorities would "use all measures" to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order.

Already, as The Independent reported yesterday, the ruling House of Saud had drafted security forces, possibly numbering up to 10,000, into the north-eastern provinces. These areas, home to most of the country's Shia Muslim minority, have been the scenes of small demonstrations in recent weeks by protesters calling for the release of prisoners who they say are being held without trial. Saudi Shias also complain that they find it much harder to get senior government jobs and benefits than other citizens.

Not only are the Shia areas close to Bahrain, scene of some potent unrest in recent weeks, but they are also where most of the Saudi oil fields lie. More than two million Shias are thought to live there, and in recent years they have increasingly practised their own religious rites thanks to the Saudi king's reforms.

But the day of protest called for this Friday was – perhaps still is – likely to attract more than restive Shias in the east. There have been growing murmurs of discontent in recent weeks; protesters have not only been much emboldened by the success of popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, but online channels of communication by those contemplating rebellion have been established. Some estimates indicate that as many as 20,000 were planning to protest in Riyadh, as well as in the east, on Friday.

The jitters of the Saudi regime will be at least equalled in many parts of the world where sympathy for democracy movements is tempered by a reliance on petrol, which most people – for all the special pleading of the haulage industry – can just about afford. Saudi Arabia sits on a fifth of the world's oil reserves.

The past week, with conflict disrupting all but a trickle of Libya's oil production, has seen the Brent barrel price climb to $103, with UK pump prices swiftly going up to £1.30 a litre. The rise in the price per barrel was caused not just by the Libyan strife – the country produces only 2 per cent of the planet's oil needs – but also by the prospect of further unrest in the region, although not the threat of full-scale breakdown in Saudi Arabia.

Yesterday, alarmist voices were not slow to exploit fears. Alan Duncan, an international aid minister and a former oil trader, raised the prospect in an interview with The Times of the price of crude rising well beyond 2008's record of $140 a barrel, to $200 or more.

"Do you want to be paying £4 a litre for petrol?" he asked. "I've been saying in government for two months that if this does go wrong, £1.30 at the pump could look like luxury." He outlined a "worst-case scenario" in which serious regional upheaval could propel the price to $250 a barrel, and thence to British drivers paying £2.03 a litre. London is now considering not imposing the planned 1p rise in fuel duty.

Portraits of courage: Meet Egypt's revolutionaries

The world was gripped as youthful crowds stormed Tahrir Square – but who were the Egyptian revolutionaries? The award-winning photographer Kim Badawi endured beatings, bullets and tear gas to find out

By Jonathan Owen

Sunday, 6 March 2011

These are the faces of a generation that changed history, their grim expressions of defiance testament to surviving weeks of violent protest that were to result in the overthrow of one of the Middle East's most powerful dictators.

The individuals in these pictures, taken by the award-winning American photographer Kim Badawi, come from all walks of life, from interpreters and students to café workers and the unemployed. And in the breadth of their backgrounds, they symbolise a wider movement challenging decades of authoritarian regimes across the Middle East.

Change, however, comes at a price. Hundreds died and many more were injured during the violent clashes in Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square, which became the centre for a protest that refused to buckle under an onslaught of tear gas, beatings, water cannon and bullets.

The popular demands for an end to President Hosni Mubarak's rule began on Tuesday 25 January – Egypt's Police Day, a national holiday made official by the president in 2009 to recognise the efforts of the police in maintaining a secure state. The protests were prompted by a Facebook group set up in the name of Khaled Said, a 28-year-old Egyptian man beaten to death in Alexandria last year by two undercover policemen.

Events were given momentum by the example set in Tunisia, where widespread demonstrations forced the country's president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, to flee to Saudi Arabia in January. He was ousted after public anger was sparked by the death earlier that month of a 26-year-old who had set himself on fire outside the governor's palace in central Tunisia when his only means of income, a fruit and vegetable stand, was confiscated by the authorities.

The victory of the people in Tunisia inspired the Egyptians to overcome a deep-seated fear of police and security forces. A campaign spread through word of k mouth was accelerated via Facebook and Twitter, galvanising hundreds of thousands into action, and resulting in scenes of chaos. It was at this moment of turmoil that Badawi, a 30-year-old documentary photographer of French-Egyptian descent, arrived on the scene in downtown Cairo. "Shots would be randomly fired, sometimes followed by screaming and waves of frightened masses," he explains. "No one knew who had been shot nor by whom. In the days and nights that followed, the number of demonstrators grew.

"People from all professions, factions and religious backgrounds were gathering in the square day and night, and started to engage in peaceful debate and conversation in public spaces and transport. This was the first sign of change. There was no more guarded speech. And this, in Egyptian society, was unheard of."

Badawi followed various youth activists over the course of the protests; one such, Mood Salem (top row, second from left, page 17), recalls: "Against all odds, we succeeded in gathering hundreds of thousands of people and getting them into Tahrir Square, despite being attacked by anti-riot police using sticks, tear gas and rubber bullets against us. We were being collectively punished for daring to say that we deserve democracy and rights, and to keep it up, they withdrew the police, and then sent them out dressed as civilians to terrorise our neighbourhoods."

In a single day alone, Salem was shot at twice, "one time with a semi-automatic by a dude in a car that we, the people, took joy in pummelling". The protests, he adds, involved "people from all social classes and religious backgrounds... choosing hope instead of fear and braving death on an hourly basis to keep their dream of freedom alive".

It was not just the protesters who were caught up in violence. Badawi himself was lucky to escape with just a beating when a mob of pro-Mubarak protesters turned k on him. "The intensity of the strikes grew until I put my elbows out to put my hands to my head, and then I was down. It was as if I had invited the mob to turn me into a human pinball... people were coming at me from everywhere, hitting me everywhere."

Yet, some time later, he witnessed a moment when the barriers between protesters and police were broken: "A young 'street' boy standing right next to me among the line of protesters, obviously recognising a relative among the riot police, threw himself around the policeman's neck and they embraced. For a second, their faces illuminated as they both turned toward the sky and smiled."

After 18 days of what had become a stand-off between the Egyptian people and the regime that had maintained a stranglehold on democratic protest, their world changed: on 11 February, Mubarak stepped down as president – an event that could yet result in Egypt becoming a democracy.

There is still a long way to go. Tens of thousands returned to Tahrir Square last Friday, calling on the military-led transitional government to scrap the long-standing Emergency Law allowing detentions without trial, and for the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force general appointed to the role by Mubarak on 29 January. The demonstrators were met with force, as soldiers and plain-clothes security officers beat them and tore down their tents.

But that will not slow the wave of popular protests taking place throughout the region. In neighbouring Libya – at the time of writing – these have tipped over into near-civil war, with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi on the brink of being defeated by a popular movement united in its hatred of the repressive dictator. Time yet, then, for many more faces like those pictured here to make themselves (and their rights) known.

Saudi security forces to crack down on any unlawful protesters

From Mohammed Jamjoom, CNN

March 5, 2011 -- Updated 1838 GMT (0238 HKT)

Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry warns it will crack down on protesters who take their grievances to the streets.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Security forces can take "all measures" against lawbreakers
• NEW: Demonstrations are illegal under Saudi and Sharia law
• The focus of Friday's protest is a Shiite prayer leader arrested last week

RELATED TOPICS

• Saudi Arabia
• Sharia Law

(CNN) -- Coming off two days of demonstrations, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry warned Saturday that it would crack down on protesters who continue to take their grievances to the streets.

Saudi security forces will be "authorized to take all measures against anyone who tries to break the law and cause disorder," the ministry said, according to the country's state-run news agency.

The government cited how some were trying "to get around the systems" and "achieve illegitimate goals."

The Interior Ministry spokesman said that kingdom law prevents all kinds of demonstrations, protests, strikes and even a call for them because they're against Sharia law and Saudi values and traditions.

In response, Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, president of the Human Rights First Society, told CNN that the Interior Ministry is "not at all sensitive" to the massive unrest sweeping the Arab world.

"I'm hoping that the Ministry of the Interior and the government of Saudi Arabia will not choose to take the security solution road because that was already tested in other Arab countries and, by God, it did not work," said al-Mugaiteeb, who's in Saudi Arabia.

On Saturday, the Saudi government downplayed Friday's protests in the Eastern Province, saying the people weren't calling for a regime change.

"The protests that took place in the Eastern Province were small and were not political in nature," a Saudi government official told CNN. "The protesters weren't calling for regime change, they were asking for more jobs and calling for release of prisoners they feel were imprisoned unjustly."

The official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said Friday's protest was not worrisome. "We don't feel they will spread throughout the kingdom or become bigger in nature," he said.

Demonstrators who protested in Eastern Province were demanding the release of Shiite prisoners they feel are being held without cause.

An outspoken Shiite prayer leader who demonstrators say was arrested more than a week ago was a focal point of the "day of rage" protest, said Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb, president of the Human Rights First Society.

Sheikh Tawfeeq Al-Amer was arrested Sunday after he gave a sermon two days earlier, on February 25, stating that Saudi Arabia should become a constitutional monarchy, human rights activists said.

Friday's protest comes on the heels of two similar demonstrations held in the province Thursday, al-Mugaiteeb said, when about 200 protesters in the city of Qatif and 100 protesters in the city of Awamiyya called for the release of Shiite prisoners.

Al-Mugaiteeb said authorities arrested 22 people who participated in Thursday's protest in Qatif.

"We deplore this action by the Saudi security forces," he said.

Another protest took place in Riyadh after Friday prayer, according to two Saudi activists. The sources asked not to be identified because of concerns for their safety.

According to the activists, as many as 40 anti-government demonstrators gathered outside Al-Rajhi Mosque for a short protest. At least one man involved in organizing the protest was arrested by Saudi police, the activists said.

The activists said the protesters attracted a crowd of worshipers leaving the mosque. Some of the protesters carried signs showing a map of Saudi Arabia that did not contain the words "Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," a clear affront to the Saudi royal family.

The government official told CNN that he was not aware of any protests or arrests in Riyadh.

When asked about the various rights groups in the kingdom who have been calling for the creation of a constitutional monarchy over the course of the past 2 weeks, the government official on Saturday stated, "Yes, there are groups here asking for more rights, calling for constitutional reforms, and that is their right to do so. King Abdullah has always encouraged a national dialogue and continues to do so."

The official insisted that the king "is doing all he can to improve things for Saudis."

"But in Saudi Arabia -- it's not like other countries -- we don't have or allow protests here. If people have a grievance, they can go and address it with the governors of their provinces or they can go to the Royal Court and address grievances directly there," the official said.

Saudi Arabia has cracked down on protests in the past.

Shiites are a minority in Saudi Arabia. They live primarily in the Eastern Province, where many major oil companies operate.

The protests come as sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis flares in neighboring Bahrain.

Analysts believe protests in Bahrain could spill over into Saudi Arabia's oil fields, located mostly in Shiite provinces.

After three months abroad for medical treatment, Saudi King Abdullah returned home late last month to a Middle East shaken by unrest, and announced a series of sweeping measures aimed at relieving economic hardship and meeting with Bahrain's beleaguered monarch.

The Saudi government released three Shiite political prisoners ahead of the king's return.