Tony Hayward, CEO of British Petroleum (BP), told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos that within a decade, Iraqi oil production could quadruple to 10 million barrels a day, from its current 2.5 million barrels – and could rival Saudi Arabia by 2020.

BP is engaged in a partnership with China National Petroleum Company to co-develop the Rumaila oilfield near Basra, one of the biggest in the world. Hayward said that BP planned to boost production from Rumaila from 1 million to 3 million barrels a day.

Source: Times Online (London), January 28, 2010

In response to the statement by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michele Sison that Hizbullah is a terror organization and its weapons are a threat to Lebanon's security and stability, Hizbullah inter-Arab relations officer Sheikh Hassan 'Izz Al-Din accused Sison of interfering bluntly in Lebanon's domestic affairs and of inciting the Lebanese against one another. He said that Sison condemned Hizbullah's arms smuggling but ignored the illegal bombs that her country provided to Israel so that the latter could murder the Lebanese.

Source: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), January 28, 2010; Al-Mustaqbal (Lebanon), January 30, 2010

Iranian military sources told a Lebanese website that about 180,000 U.S. troops were within the range of Iran's fire, and that the resistance forces in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan were ready to confront the U.S. and Israel.

In response to America's deployment of anti-missile defense systems in the Gulf states, Tehran IRGC commander Hossein Hamedani said that the message of the Revolution Day celebrations to the "Global Arrogance" (i.e., the West headed by the U.S.) is that the revolution's fourth generation would fight even more fiercely that the first.

Source: Mehr (Iran), Nowlebanon.com (Lebanon), January 30, 2010

International Union of Muslim Scholars head Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi announced that the union would hold a conference in India on February 20-21, sponsored by Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari. The conference, he said, would promote dialogue between Islam and the Eastern religions, in light of the presence of a large Muslim diaspora in the east, in light of China's and India's growing influence in the world arena, and in light of Islam's weakening ties with the U.S. and Europe.

Source: Al-Arab (Qatar), January 31, 2010

Five years after it recalled its ambassador from Damascus following the assassination of former Lebanese prime-minister Rafiq Al-Hariri, Washington has announced the appointment of Robert Ford, currently the deputy U.S. ambassador to Iraq, as its new ambassador to Syria.

According to American sources, Ford's first task will be to renew the Syria-Israel peace negotiations within the next ten months, in order to fend off accusations about a U.S. failure to promote the peace process. Other tasks on his agenda concern Syria's relations with Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas, as well as Syria's role in Iraq – areas of controversy between Syria and the U.S.

Source: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), January 31, 2010

Cartoonist: 'Abdallah Mahraqi

Source: Al-Khaleej (Bahrain), January 31, 2010

A Saudi court has ruled that Mansour and Fatima Al-Taimani, who three years ago were forced to divorce on the grounds that her family's tribal status is superior to his, may remarry.

On the subject of forced divorce in Saudi Arabia due to "status incompatibility," see MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 349.

Source: Al-Watan (Saudi Arabia), January 31, 2010

Cartoonist: Eley Saliba

Source: Al-Watan (Qatar), January 31, 2010

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi called on the Iranian public to participate in the Revolution Day marches on February 11, and complained that, even though most of the Iranian people support the regime, they are not granted the right to hold free elections.

Mousavi and Karroubi also condemned the statements of Ayatollah Jannati who called in a January 29 sermon to execute protesters. They stated that two individuals who were recently executed for their role in the protests were actually arrested months before the elections and sentenced to death in an expedited procedure in order to terrorize the public.

Tehran IRGC commander Hossein Hamedani said that the Green Movement supporters would not be allowed to demonstrate during the Revolution Day celebrations, and Hashemi Rafsanjani called on the Iranians to take part in the marches and refrain from violence.

Sources: Mehr, Saham News, Aftab (Iran), January 30, 2010

Hizbullah denied on Wednesday claims that the Ethiopian plane crash was a "deliberate" attack based on the hypothesis that a high-ranking Hizbullah delegation was supposed to be on the plane.

In a statement released by its media relations, the group said that Lebanese daily Al-Liwaa had made use of the circumstances surrounding the expected travel of MP Nawwar Sahili on the plane in order make a claim that has no relation with the truth.

"What the daily said about a high-ranking delegation of Hizbullah supposed to be on the plane is not true and has no actual basis," the statement read

Source: Almanar.com.leb, January 27, 2010