Middle East Matters

Significant Developments Egypt. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met senior pro-Morsi figures during her visit to Cairo yesterday. Ashton’s meetings included former premier Hisham Qandil and representatives from the Freedom and Justice Party. Ashton also met with leaders of the new government as well as members of the Tamarod campaign. She said the EU wanted Egypt to move “swiftly” towards an inclusive democratic process and called for deposed Egyptian president Mohammad Morsi to be released from military detention. Thousands of pro-Morsi supporters demonstrated outside the prime minister’s office yesterday in a "day of steadfastness" against the formation of a new interim cabinet. On Tuesday, Egypt’s interim president, Adly Mansour, swore in a thirty-four-member cabinet dominated by liberals and technocrats. General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, already general commander of the army and defense minister, also became deputy prime minister. Hazem al-Beblawi and Mansour remain as prime minister and president, respectively. Mohammad Ibrahim, a rare holdover from the Morsi government, remains as interior minister. Nabil Fahmy, former ambassador to Washington, was appointed foreign minister. There are three women ministers and three Coptic Christians in this new government, with no figures from Islamist parties. The Muslim Brotherhood, which refused to participate, denounced the interim government as “illegitimate.” Syria. An estimated five thousand Syrians are dying every month in the country’s civil war, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said Tuesday. Nearly 1.8 million Syrian refugees have fled, and the numbers are escalating at a rate not seen since the 1994 Rwanda genocide. “We are not only watching the destruction of a country but also of its people,” UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said. Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters yesterday seized control of Ras al-Ain, a Syrian border town, following days of clashes with Islamist fighters. The Democratic Union Party has links to Kurdish militants in Turkey, heightening Ankara’s fears that a more autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could emerge and escalate Kurdish tensions in Turkey. Pro-government militants killed six Syrian mediators from the National Reconciliation Committee in Hajar al-Abyad on Monday evening. The men were reportedly attempting to broker talks between Sunni Muslims and members of the minority Alawite sect. U.S. Foreign Policy Egypt. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns visited Cairo for two days earlier this week—the first visit by a senior U.S. official since the coup that ousted Egyptian president Mohammad Morsi on July 3. Burns appealed for an end to violence, called for an end to politically motivated arrests, referred to Morsi’s ouster as a “second chance” for Egyptian democracy, and reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to Egypt’s success. He met with members of the new interim government on Monday, but was rebuffed by representatives of the Tamarod campaign and by Islamists. “The United States is firmly committed to helping Egypt succeed in this second chance to realize the promise of the revolution,” Burns said. “I am not naive. I know that many Egyptians have doubts about the United States, and I know that there will be nothing neat or easy about the road ahead.” Jordan. Secretary of State John Kerry continued intensive talks today in Jordan as part of his ongoing effort to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said today that despite earlier signs of progress there were no plans for an announcement on resuming peace talks. The Fatah Central Committee met this evening, following two rounds of intensive talks between Kerry and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, and called for talks to be based on the 1967 lines. This current three day trip marks Kerry’s sixth peace process visit to the region since taking office. Earlier today, Kerry visited Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp which hosts roughly 115,000 Syrian refugees. “They are frustrated and angry at the world for not stepping in and helping,” Kerry told reporters. “I explained to them I don’t think it’s as cut and dry and as simple as some of them look at it. But if I were in their shoes I would be looking for help from wherever I could find it,” he said. Syria. In confirmation hearings today for a second term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Obama administration is deliberating whether to use military force in Syria. Dempsey said that he had provided the president with options for the use of force but declined to elaborate. “I am in favor of building a moderate opposition and supporting it," Dempsey said. “The question whether to support it with direct kinetic strikes...is a decision for our elected officials, not for the senior military leader of the nation.” Senator John McCain said he would block Dempsey’s nomination over frustration with Dempsey’s comments on Syria. “If it is your position that you do not provide personal views to the committee when asked – only under certain circumstances – then you have just contradicted what I have known this committee to operate under for the last 30 years,” McCain said at the end of his questioning. While We Were Looking Elsewhere Lebanon. Unidentified men shot and killed a prominent pro-Assad Syrian official, Mohammad Darrar Jammo, outside his home in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. The attack came one day after a roadside bomb struck a Hezbollah convoy near the Syrian border, killing one member and wounding two others, security officials said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the targets suggest continued spillover from the conflict in Syria. Turkey. A man and a fifteen-year-old boy were killed by stray bullets shot from Syria into a Turkish border town on Tuesday, officials said yesterday. Turkish troops reportedly returned fire. The incident was the most serious spillover of Syrian violence into Turkey in weeks. Iraq. More than 160 Iraqis have been killed in suicide attacks, car bombings, and other violence in the first seven days of Ramadan, marking the highest death toll since 2007 for the start of the Islamic holy month. Israel. President Shimon Peres today urged the EU to delay adopting settlement funding bans while Palestinians and Israelis discuss possible peace talks. The EU announced new measures yesterday that ban cooperation with and financial assistance to Israeli institutions operating in the occupied territories. The embargo on central EU funding would not take effect until next year and would distinguish between the state of Israel and land captured after the 1967 war. This Week in History This week marks the thirty-fourth anniversary of Saddam Hussein’s assumption to the presidency of Iraq. On July 16, 1979, Saddam Hussein became president after forcing President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr to resign. Bakr had been working with Syrian president Hafez al-Assad to bring Iraq and Syria together under one leadership, a move that would have made Assad the deputy of the unified countries, effectively marginalizing Saddam. Six days after deposing al-Bakr, Saddam convened a Ba’ath party meeting of top officials and read a list of dozens of names of his rivals who he claimed were involved in a Syrian plot to take over Iraq. Twenty-one people, including five cabinet ministers, were then gunned down by a death squad; hundreds more reportedly died in the purge that consolidated Saddam’s power.

Significant Developments Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood vowed today to continue resisting the army’s July 3 ouster of President Mohammad Morsi. The Brotherhood issued its call one day after the military-appointed government ordered the arrest of several members of the Brotherhood’s senior leadership--including its spiritual guide Mohammed Badie--for allegedly inciting violent clashes with the military outside the Republican Guard headquarters on Monday. At least fifty-one protestors were killed and hundreds more wounded when Egyptian soldiers opened fire on Morsi supporters on Monday. Interim president Adly Mansour on Tuesday named Hazem el-Beblawi prime minister and Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, vice president. Mansour also issued a declaration establishing a committee of ten jurists to propose a package of constitutional amendments in one month. These amendments would then be reviewed for two months by a group of fifty representatives before going to a popular referendum a month later. Under the announced timetable, Parliamentary elections would then take place within the next month, with a new parliament then able to issue a call for new presidential elections. The Muslim Brotherhood immediately rejected Mansour’s timetable, while the National Salvation Front and Tamarod campaign have both voiced disapproval. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait pledged a combined total of $12 billion in assistance to Egypt’s new government on Tuesday. Syria. President Bashar al-Assad, in an interview earlier today, accused Baath party leaders that were removed in a reshuffle this week of making major  mistakes while in office. It was the party’s first reshuffle since 2005. The Baath party announced sixteen new leaders on Tuesday, with Assad remaining secretary general. Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa, the only top official willing to compromise with the opposition, was removed from the party leadership. The Syrian National Coalition elected Ahmad Assi Jarba as its new president in a tight run-off on Saturday. However its prime minister Ghassan Hitto resigned from his post Monday, citing his inability to form an interim government. The Syrian National Coalition yesterday denied Russian allegations of sarin gas use in Aleppo as the United Nations accepted the Syrian government’s invitation for senior officials to visit Syria to discuss chemical weapons’ use, a UN spokesperson said yesterday. Activists on Tuesday alleged that the Syrian army’s continuous bombardment of Homs had created a “critical humanitarian situation” with an acute shortage of medical supplies.  Syrian rebels meanwhile tightened their siege on government-controlled districts of Aleppo,  curtailing supply lines and drawing criticism from both rebel supporters and opponents for disrupting preparations for Ramadan. U.S. Foreign Policy Egypt. President Obama directed the Pentagon to review U.S. aid to Egypt today after  leading members of Congress urged him to reconsider the $1.3 billion aid package following the military ouster of Egypt’s president, Mohammad Morsi. Administration lawyers are working to determine whether the takeover should be considered a coup, which would trigger automatic suspension of most American funding to Egypt. “I’ll be blunt — this is an incredibly complex and difficult situation,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Monday. “There are significant consequences that go along with this determination, and it is a highly charged issue for millions of Egyptians who have different views about what happened. It would not be in the best interests of the United States to immediately change our assistance program to Egypt.” Syria. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry urged members of Congress to support for White House plans to send arms to Syrian rebels, officials said Tuesday. Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees reportedly remain divided on the month-old Administration proposal to send light weapons and ammunition to anti-Assad insurgents. So far, U.S. arms shipments have not been sent. While We Were Looking Elsewhere Lebanon. A bomb detonated in a mostly Shiite suburb of Beirut on Tuesday injured over fifty people, fueling concerns that Syria’s sectarian strife was further spilling over into Lebanon’s capital. The explosion occurred in the Bir al-Abed area, a stronghold of the Shiite Hezbollah group that has increasingly been intervening in the Syrian war on the side of President Bashar al-Assad. Sunni militants were widely suspected of the attack. Turkey. Gezi Park, the site of protests last month, reopened on Tuesday after a night of clashes between police and protestors. "We are continuing the 20-year-old tradition of Gezi Park Iftar dinners," local mayor Ahmet Misbah Demircan said. "All the people of Istanbul are invited." Police fired teargas and water cannon at protestors in an attempt to prevent them from entering the park on Monday night. Iraq. Insurgents launched two days of deadly assaults in Anbar province, killing at least sixteen people. Militants attacked a police station in Anbar’s provincial capital Ramadi today, leaving two policemen dead. Gunmen overran an Iraqi army checkpoint and police trailer in Anbar province yesterday and killed fourteen security personnel. Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday named his close adviser, Ron Dermer, to be Israel’s next ambassador to the United States. “Ron Dermer has all the qualities necessary to successfully fill this important post,” Netanyahu said in a statement announcing the appointment. “I have known him for many years, and I know that Ron will faithfully represent the State of Israel in the capital of our greatest ally – the U.S.” Dermer, like Israel’s current ambassador, Michel Oren, was born and raised in the United States. Morocco. Five of six ministers from the minority conservative Istiqlal party resigned on Tuesday, purportedly due to a dispute over subsidy cuts and economy policy. If King Mohamed accepts their resignations, then the leading Islamist Justice and Development party will either have to find a new coalition partner or hold early elections. This Week in History This week marks the fifty-first anniversary of Algeria’s independence from France. On July 5, 1962, the Algerian Provisional Government proclaimed the country’s national Independence, 132 years to the day following France’s original invasion and occupation. In November 1954, the National Liberation Front (FLN) launched what would be a bitter eight-year conflict pitting the French army against Algerian guerilla fighters and rebels. Algeria was considered a vital part of France and contained over a million European settlers—pieds noirs—further intensifying the conflict. The war ended in March 1962 in a peace agreement, with French control of Algeria ended roughly four months later when French president Charles de Gaulle officially recognized Algerian independence.

“It was more honorable for us to die than to have the people of Egypt terrorized or threatened.” –Gen. Abdul Fattah el-Sisi on a military-affiliated Facebook page early on Wednesday in a posting titled “Final hours.” “No coup against legitimacy of any kind will pass except over our dead bodies.” –Senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed el-Beltagy said at a rally in Egypt “God willing, there will be no Muslim Brother left in the country today. Let them get exiled or find rocks to hide underneath like they used to do, or go to prisons, it doesn’t matter. No such a thing as ‘an Islamist party’ shall exist after today.” –Mohamed Saleh, 52, an Egyptian laborer armed with long shaft of timber labeled “martyr in the making.” “If the opposition really has the ability to bring out millions of protesters and collect millions of signatures, why can’t they get all of those people to vote in elections?” –Tamer Abdel-Maqsoud, a Muslim Brotherhood protester in Egypt in reaction to the tamarrod campaign "How long has Mohamed Morsi ruled? One year. Is one year enough to solve the problems of 60 years? That’s impossible." –Qatar-based Muslim cleric Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi said while visiting Cairo "The price of preserving legitimacy is my life. Legitimacy is the only guarantee to preserve the country." –Egyptian president Mohammad Morsi just prior to his ouster “There is so much tension between people over what is going on. It is like seeing gas next to a fire, but you’re not sure who will set it alight.” –Mohammed Ali, a film director who has accelerated his production schedule because of the protests in Egypt “Under Mubarak, we knew that people were stealing, but we never had crises like this. It is all because the guy driving the country now doesn’t know how to drive.” –Khalid Shaaban, 35, in reaction to fuel shortages in Egypt just prior to the coup “We swear to God that we will sacrifice even our blood for Egypt and its people, to defend them against any terrorist, radical or fool.” –Egyptian armed forces said on a military-affiliated Facebook page early on Wednesday in a posting titled “Final hours.” “Everyone was telling us that we don’t trust this party or that party. We trust only you.” –Mahmoud Badr, one of the five organizers of the tamarrod campaign