Middle East Matters

Significant Developments Israel-Palestine. Israel entered its third day of Operation Protective Edge today as rockets rained down on many parts of Israel. More than fifteen rockets were fired into Tel Aviv today in what is believed to be the largest bombardment there since the 1948 Israeli war of independence. However, the Iron Dome system has successfully intercepted most rockets fired at population centers to date. Meanwhile, Israel has launched its most aggressive air campaign into Gaza since the last round of Israel-Hamas fighting ended in a U.S. brokered—cease-fire in November 2012. So far, Israel has attacked over five hundred targets in Gaza, with at least eighty Palestinians killed. Israelis and Palestinians are bracing for widespread demonstrations across Israel and in the occupied territories on Friday. Speaking before an emergency meeting at the United Nation Security Council this afternoon, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appealed for an immediate cease-fire, saying “Gaza, and the region as a whole, cannot afford another full-blown war." Iraq. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused the country’s Kurdish population of exploiting the country’s current crisis to push for statehood and for allowing Kurdish-controlled Irbil to become an operations base for ISIS militants. The Kurdish regional government responded today, calling on Maliki to apologize to the Iraqi people and to step down and announcing that its ministers would boycott future cabinet meetings. Kurdish president Masoud Barzani issued a statement in which he said that Maliki “has become hysterical and has lost his balance.” On Tuesday, the Iraqi parliament reversed its earlier decision to adjourn until August following last week’s failed first meeting. Parliament is now scheduled to meet Sunday to form a new government. Meanwhile, Gill Tudor, spokesperson for the International Atomic Energy Agency, announced in a statement today that nuclear material seized by ISIS militants last month is likely low-grade uranium that “would not present a significant safety, security, or nuclear proliferation risk.” Yesterday, Iraqi officials discovered fifty-three blindfolded and handcuffed corpses in a Shia village south of Baghdad. U.S. Foreign Policy Bahrain. Bahrain’s government ordered Tom Malinowski, U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor to leave the country on Monday after he met with officials from al-Wefaq, the country’s main Shiite opposition group. The following day, the interior ministry called the group’s secretary general, Sheikh Ali Salman, and his political assistant Khalil al-Marzooq, for interrogation. State department spokesperson Jen Psaki said in a press statement Monday that the United States is “deeply concerned” over the Bahraini government’s decision to declare Malinowski, the State Department’s top human rights official, persona non grata. Israel-Palestine.White House officials confirmed that its top Middle East official, Philip Gordon, met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas today and is also meeting with Israeli leaders. Earlier in the week, Gordon gave the keynote address at the Haaretz newspaper’s Israel Conference on Peace in which he urged Israel to “not take for granted the opportunity to negotiate” peace with Abbas. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters today that both sides must de-escalate the conflict, while reiterating Israel’s right to self-defense. On Monday, President Barack Obama published an op-ed in Haaretz, reiterating strong U.S. support for Israel but noting the need for peace to bring stability and justice to the region. Jordan. King Abdullah II of Jordan visited Washington this week for meetings with U.S. officials. Abdullah met with Vice President Joe Biden during his visit. It was the first visit since ISIS militants captured northern Iraq. While We Were Looking Elsewhere Syria. The Syrian National Coalition—the main opposition group working in exile to oust President Bashar al-Assad—elected Hadi al-Bahra, its chief negotiator from the Geneva II conference, as its new president yesterday. Many hope Bahra will be able to unite the opposition, whose work has been impeded by disputes between its two main sponsors, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Meanwhile, diplomats announced yesterday that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has selected Italian-Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura to replace Lakhdar Brahimi—who resigned in May—as the UN envoy to Syria. Meanwhile, U.S. container ship Cape Ray began destroying Syrian chemical weapons Monday. The UK announced yesterday that it would destroy 50 more tons of the material. Saudi Arabia. A spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said that six Saudi men affiliated with al-Qaeda conducted an attack in Yemen on Friday, killing five soldiers as well as five of the militants. The sixth has been arrested. Meanwhile, a court sentenced prominent human rights lawyer Walid Abu al-Khair, founder of the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, to fifteen years in prison on Sunday on six charges including “publicly slandering the judiciary, distorting the kingdom’s reputation, making international organizations hostile to the kingdom, and issuing unverified statements that harm the kingdom’s reputation and incite against it and alienate it.” Egypt. Acknowledging the “negative consequences” that Egypt has faced following last month’s sentencing of three Al-Jazeera journalists, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said on Monday he would have preferred that the journalists have been deported rather than put on trial. Speculations have arisen as to whether Sisi will pardon them. Of the three,Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy are Egyptian citizens and live in Cairo, though Fahmy also has Canadian citizenship. Peter Greste is an Australian. Iran. Amid continuing P5+1 nuclear talks in Vienna, officials announced yesterday that foreign ministers from the six countries will join the talks later this week as little progress has been made in advance of the July 20 deadline. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement published on his website Monday that Iran will continue to seek to increase its number of centrifuges, to 190,000. The P5+1 countries are calling for Tehran to accept a capacity of 10,000 centrifuges. Yemen. After weeks of protracted fighting, Houthi rebels took control of the northern city of Omran yesterday. According to Mutahhar Yahya Abu Sheeha, head of a government refugee agency, over 35,000 people have been displaced as a result of the violence that killed over two hundred people this week. According to Al-Jazeera, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, a spokesperson for the Houthis said the rebels were only fighting what he called an “extremist group” and did not intend to replace the government in the city.

Significant Developments Iraq. Saudi state news agency SPA announced today the deployment of 30,000 Saudi Arabian troops to the country’s border with Iraq. The move followed the reported removal of Iraqi troops from their shared border; officials in Baghdad denied their troops had withdrawn. On Sunday, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) announced the establishment of an Islamic caliphate in their newly conquered territory.  ISIS then changed its name to “The Islamic State” and proclaimed its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as caliph—the head of the new state. In a video posted online Tuesday, Baghdadi called upon Muslims worldwide to take up arms and join the caliphate. In Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced in a television address that fighting the Iraq’s insurgency took precedence over reconciling differences amongst the country’s political factions. Parliament was adjourned Tuesday when Sunnis and Kurds did not return to the session after a recess, citing Shiite members’ failure to select a new prime minister. The Shiite bloc has not agreed to endorse Maliki for a third term or to nominate an alternative. Meanwhile, Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq’s Kurdish region, asked the region’s parliament to prepare for a referendum on Kurdish independence. Barzani did not offer a timetable for the proposed referendum. Israel-Palestine. Israeli forces conducted 15 air strikes on Gaza last night after Palestinian militants fired over 30 rockets into Israel over the past 24 hours. The Israeli army today initiated a limited deployment of troops to the border with Gaza. The latest escalation of violence follows the abduction and killing of a Palestinian teenager in East Jerusalem yesterday and the discovery on Monday of the bodies of the three kidnapped Israeli Yeshiva students missing since June 12. Israeli Authorities have yet to confirm the details behind the death of the Palestinian teenager, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, which is suspected of being a revenge killing. Residents of Khdeir’s Jerusalem neighborhood took to the streets following the discovery of his body, throwing stones and firebombs at police. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Netanyahu convened the Security Cabinet for a third evening yesterday, and urged police to “swiftly investigate who was behind the loathsome murder” of Khdeir while calling on citizens to refrain from taking the law “into their own hands.” Hamas’ leader Khaled Meshaal yesterday denied that his organization was responsible for the killing of the three Israeli youth and appealed to Turkey to intervene and deescalate the crisis with Israel. U.S. Foreign Policy Iran. In an op-ed article published in the Washington Post Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the July 20 deadline on P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran is fast approaching, and accused the Iranians of demonstrating no clear willingness to make concessions necessary to reach an agreement with the United States. Kerry said the choice rests with the Iranians, should they agree to the West’s demands, or “squander a historic opportunity” to end the tough sanctions that have inhibited the country’s economy for years. The final round in the months-long negotiations opened  yesterday in Vienna, where Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif met with Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Talks are expected to continue non-stop for the next three weeks. While We Were Looking Elsewhere Turkey. Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Tuesday his candidacy for the country’s presidential race next month. The vote, on August 10, will be Turkey’s first direct presidential election; previously, parliament chose the country’s leader. Erdogan, who has been prime minister since 2003, is running against Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, former Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party, the People’s Democratic Party. If no candidate wins at least 50 percent of the vote, there will be a second round of elections on August 24. Lebanon. Parliament speaker Nabih Berri postponed presidential elections for the eighth time yesterday when parliament failed to reach a quorum for the vote. Both Berri and Prime Minister Tammam Salam were not in parliament at the time. The vote is now scheduled for July 23. Parliament member and presidential hopeful Michel Aoun told a news conference on Monday that the constitution should be amended to allow for a two-round popular presidential election. Aoun’s proposal reportedly aims to prevent further political gridlock by having only Christian citizens vote in the first round, to be followed by a national election of that round’s top two vote winners. The Lebanese army conducted a series of raids yesterday following a string of terrorist attacks in Tripoli this week. Four men were wounded in a grenade attack on a Tripoli café yesterday and a roadside charge exploded near an army patrol on Tuesday. Egypt. Egyptian police arrested four members of the Sinai-based Ansar Beit al-Maqdis yesterday in connection to bomb blasts that killed two police officers Monday and wounded ten others outside the presidential palace in Cairo. The arrests came after another group, Ajnad Misr, warned civilians days before to stay away from certain areas where it had planted bombs to target security forces.  Meanwhile, a criminal court sentenced Abdullah Morsi, son of ousted President Mohamed Morsi, to a year in prison on drug possession and consumption charges yesterday on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the military’s removal of his father from office. Kuwait. Thousands of protestors took to the streets in Kuwait last night following a court decision  to hold prominent opposition leader and former parliament member Musallam al-Barrak, for 10 days after questioning him for insulting the judiciary. Police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd, which had marched from Barrak’s house to the jail where he is being detained, demanding his release. Barrak, who was the longest serving member of parliament, has been active in calling for political reform and an end to corruption in Kuwait. Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia announced Tuesday $500 million in humanitarian aid that will be delivered through the United Nations to address the growing Iraqi refugee crisis caused by the country’s recent insurgency and violence. Tunisia. Four soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion in Tunisia’s Kef region yesterday while destroying the hideaway of a terrorist group. The explosion came a day after a roadside bomb wounded six Tunisian security officers on the Algerian border Tuesday.  Meanwhile, two employees of the Tunisian embassy in Tripoli, Libya were released Sunday after having been kidnapped in March and April of this year.