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The uprisings in the Tunisia and Egypt ousting the sit tight presidents have sparked a revolution across the Middle East.

In Algeria

Protesters defied a
police ban and protested in Algiers, but thousands of riot police
blocked a planned march through the city. Opposition groups said on
Sunday they would follow up the protest they held this weekend by
calling a demonstration in the capital every Saturday until the
government is changed.

Foreign minister
Mourad Medelci said that the 19-year-old state of emergency in Algeria
will end within days, he brushed off concerns that the recent protests
in the country could escalate as it did in Tunisia and Egypt, suggesting
that though the government may be willing to make concessions, the
decision to change the government lies with the president who will
assess the possibility and make adjustments as he had done in the past.

In Palestine

The cabinet
resigned on Monday, in an apparent attempt by President Mahmoud Abbas to
demonstrate political reform in the wake of the popular uprising in
Egypt. The shake-up could bolster the standing of President Mahmoud
Abbas among Palestinians who are currently dissatisfied with the
workings of the cabinet as many regard them as dysfunctional. The
reshuffle had been demanded by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who has
spearheaded efforts to create institutions for a Palestinian state.

Fayyad will retain
his post and select new ministers, officials said. Although several
anti-Abbas protests erupted in the West Bank after the upheaval began in
Egypt on January 25, he has not faced large-scale demonstrations in the
territory, whose economy has strengthened in recent years.

In Bahrain

Protesters clashed
with police on Monday as the government tightened security in the Gulf
island state for an opposition “Day of Rage”. Helicopters circled over
the capital Manama, where protesters were due to gather later in the
day, and security forces tightened their grip on Shi’ite communities.

Police broke up one
protest with teargas and rubber bullets. Shi’te protesters revealed that
,they don’t want to overthrow the ruling family; they just want to have
their say.

Bahrain is a small
oil-producing country whose Shi’ite population has long complained of
discrimination by the ruling Sunni al-Khalifa family, well before
popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt emboldened activists throughout
the region.

Protest organisers
said they want the dissolution of Bahrain’s constitution, and replaced
with a new version penned by a committee that includes both Sunnis and
Shi’ites. They want the country’s prime minister to be directly elected
by the people, and demand the release of “all political prisoners,” and
an investigation of torture allegations.

In Iran

Security forces fired tear gas to scatter thousands of people marching on a Tehran square in a banned rally on Monday.

The march was a test
of strength for the reformist opposition, which had not taken to the
streets since December 2009,when eight people were killed. Iranian
security forces are still unlikely to hesitate to use any means to stop
protests.

Large numbers of
police and security forces wearing riot gear were stationed around the
main squares of the capital and travelling in pairs on motorbikes around
the city.

The opposition
nevertheless renewed the call for the rally. Iranian authorities have
warned the opposition to avoid creating a “security crisis” by reviving
protests that erupted after the last election, the biggest unrest in
Iran since the 1979 revolution. The opposition see the unrest as being
more similar to their own protests following the June 2009 election
which they say was rigged in favour of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iranian authorities
deny doctoring the 2009 election results and accuse opposition leaders
of being part of a Western plot to overthrow the Islamic system.

“They are incapable
of doing a damn thing,” the hardline Kayhan newspaper quoted
Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi as saying. The opposition is
“guided by Iran’s enemies abroad,” Moslehi said.

In Yemen

Hundreds of
anti-government demonstrators clashed with supporters of Yemen’s
president on Monday. With both sides hurling rocks as protests escalated
in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state.

Witnesses said police fired shots into the air but were unable to
control the crowd in the industrial town of Taiz, while in Sanaa,
protesters inspired by an uprising in Egypt vowed to march to police
intelligence headquarters. Analysts say Yemen is not yet at the point of
an Egypt-style revolt, and any upheaval would likely unfold more slowly
and perhaps with more bloodshed, in a heavily armed country where
tribal allegiances run strong.