Middle East and North Africa

Israel

Are Israel and Iran Headed for All-Out War?
The killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and targeted assassination of a Hezbollah military official in Beirut bring Israel and Iran, through its proxies, closer to war.

Expert Brief by Steven A. Cook Jul 31, 2024

What Is Hamas?
The Palestinian militant group struggled to govern the Gaza Strip before launching a surprise attack on Israel in 2023. Now facing Israel’s military campaign to destroy it, Hamas’s future is in doubt, as is Gaza’s.

Backgrounder by Kali Robinson Oct 17, 2024

How Much of a Threat Does Hamas Still Pose to Israel?
Israel has made eliminating the threat from the Gaza-based militant group a central war aim, but it’s not entirely clear at what point that condition will be met.  

Expert Brief by Bruce Hoffman Jun 14, 2024

Why Israel Wants to Draft the Ultra-Orthodox Into the Military
As Israel fights its war in the Gaza Strip, changes to a decades-old draft exemption for its fastest-growing demographic group threaten to fracture Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and exacerbate the country’s internal rifts.

In Brief by Simone Lipkind Jul 31, 2024

U.S. Aid to Israel in Four Charts
Israel has long been the leading recipient of U.S. foreign aid, including military assistance. That aid has come under heightened scrutiny amid Israel’s conflicts with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.

Article by Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow Nov 13, 2024

  • Iraq
    Weekend Reading: Kurds in ISIS, Houthis in Sanaa, and Netanyahu in Washington
    Rebecca Collard reports on Kurdish men who have joined ISIS and attacked their own people. Nabeel Khoury looks at who the Houthis are, their ambitions, and the options before them. Michael Koplow reflects on U.S.-Israeli relations in light of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to Congress.
    Blog Post by Steven A. Cook February 6, 2015 From the Potomac to the Euphrates
  • United States
    This Week: Jordan’s ISIS Battle and Egypt’s Crackdown
    Significant Developments Jordan-ISIS. King Abdullah returned to a warm welcome in Jordan today after cutting short his visit to Washington yesterday. Abdullah’s move followed the release by ISIS of a video yesterday depicting captured Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned to death in a cage. Crowds gathered to express support for the Jordanian king’s decision to swiftly execute Sajida al-Rishawi, a failed suicide bomber on death row, and Ziad al-Karbouli, a former top lieutenant of Al Qaeda in Iraq, in retaliation for al-Kasasbeh’s death. Meanwhile, the New York Times reported today that the United Arab Emirates, a crucial regional ally in the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS, suspended airstrikes in December after news of al-Kasasbeh’s capture broke, over concerns for the safety of its own pilots. The United Arab Emirates reportedly demanded that the Pentagon improve its search-and-rescue efforts and base its missions in northern Iraq instead of Kuawit to be closer to the field of battle The UAE, one of the first counties to join the coalition, will not resume operations until these changes are implemented. See my take on the implications of ISIS’ brutal killing of al-Kasasbeh in my blog post from yesterday. Egypt. An Egyptian court sentenced a prominent activist, Ahmed Douma, and 229 other Egyptians to life in prison today. Meanwhile, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird announced yesterday that imprisoned Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy would be released “imminently” after the dual national agreed to renounce his Egyptian citizenship to speed up proceedings. Baird’s announcement follows the Sunday release of Australian Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste. Al-Jazeera promised on Monday “not to leave” behind producer Baher Mohammed, the third incarcerated Al-Jazeera journalist. The three were arrested in December 2013 for illegally aiding the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt’s ousted president Mohammad Morsi will be tried on February 15 on new charges of espionage. He is accused of “handing over to Qatari intelligence documents linked to national security in exchange for one million dollars,” according to a statement from the prosecution. Morsi could face the death penalty if found guilty. An Egyptian court upheld death sentences against 183 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood on Monday for killing eleven police officers and two civilians during protests in 2013. The United Nations called the verdict “unprecedented in recent history” and said that the expedited trials failed to follow due process. U.S. Foreign Policy Diplomatic budget for 2016. President Obama is seeking $50.3 billion in spending for the State Department and USAID to spend in 2016. This figure represents a 9 percent increase in funds compared with the 2015 fiscal year. Of the $50.3 billion, Obama plans to allocate $3.5 billion to support regional partners in the U.S.-led international coalition against ISIS, to provide humanitarian assistance, and to strengthen the moderate Syrian opposition. $1.1 billion of the requested budget is to be allocated to support diplomatic engagements in Iraq. An extra $4.8 billion has been requested to increase the protection for diplomats worldwide. The Benghazi Accountability Board, established in the wake of the 2012 killing of U.S. officials in Libya, recommended these security upgrades. While We Were Looking Elsewhere Palestine. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called for an “immediate investigation” on Monday into a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad published on Sunday by the West Bank-based newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadida. According to one of the newspaper’s editors, the cartoonist, Muhammad Sabaaneh, and the editor in chief of the paper were suspended yesterday. Sabaaneh denied that the cartoon was meant to represent the prophet, arguing that it aimed to depict a “symbolic figure for Islam and the Muslim’s role in spreading light and love for all humanity.” Abbas joined world leaders to march in favor of freedom of expression in Paris last month during a mass rally commemorating the attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Yemen. UN-mediated peace talks appear likely to fail after Yemen’s main political parties withdrew from the negotiations on Monday. This comes after Houthi rebels issued a three day ultimatum on Sunday stipulating that if the rival political parties failed to reach an agreement by Wednesday, the Houthis would completely take over the government. The Houthi rebels also demanded that fighters from their militia be integrated into the Yemeni army and police force as a precondition for talks. Tunisia. Tunisia’s prime minister-designate, Habib Essid, announced a new coalition cabinet yesterday after the first government he nominated was rejected for being all-secular by Ennahda, the main Islamist party and the second largest party in Parliament. The new cabinet includes a minister and three state secretaries from Ennahda. The proposed government will be put before parliament for a vote of confidence today. Iran. The Iranian parliament is examining a bill aiming “to protect the nuclear rights and achievements of Iranian people.” The bill would oblige the Iranian government to immediately stop implementing the November 2013 Joint Plan of Action if the U.S. Congress approves new sanctions against Iran. The Iranian bill also calls for an increase in Iran’s enrichment program and building of a heavy water reactor at Arak, two actions limited under the current deal. President Barack Obama has pledged to veto Congress’ proposed legislation for new sanctions, which would in theory keep the Iranian bill from being passed. It is unclear when the Iranian parliament will vote on the proposed legislation. UN- Israel. The United Nations Human Rights Council announced yesterday that New York Supreme Court justice Mary McGowan Davis will replace William Schabas as chairperson of the panel commissioned last August to investigate whether war crimes were committed in the latest Gaza conflict. Schabas resigned from the commission on Monday to avoid becoming “an obstacle and distraction” to the work of the panel after Israel accused him of “a blatant conflict of interest.” Israel had formally complained to the UN Human Rights Council last week over paid consulting work Schabas had done for the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 2012. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called yesterday for the Gaza inquiry to be terminated once news of Schabas’ resignation broke. Jordan-Israel. Jordan announced on Monday the return to Israel of its ambassador, Walid Obeidat, three months after he was recalled in protest of clashes at the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif. A Jordanian government spokesman said that Jordan had seen “significant improvements” in the access to the mosque that Muslim worshippers were granted on Fridays, and that there had been better coordination on tourist visits between the Israeli authorities and the Islamic authorities who administer the site under Jordanian supervision. Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Jordan’s decision.
    Blog Post by Robert Danin February 4, 2015 Middle East Matters
  • Middle East and North Africa
    Schabas Resigns....A Bit Late
    How does this seem, for basic fairness: A judge presides over a trial. The defendant complains about his bias, but the judge does not recuse himself. He runs the trial, and at its end he writes his verdict and decides on the sentence. Then, because he does not want his own biases to become a matter of controversy again, he decides to step aside at the last minute so that another judge can read out what he has written. Same trial, same verdict, same sentence, different voice. No one could possibly claim that such a procedure is fair, or indeed anything more than an effort to rescue a tainted procedure by an underhanded final act. No one, that is, except the United Nations Human Rights Council. This week William Schabas, the head of the Council’s “investigation” of Israel’s conduct in the Gaza fighting with Hamas, resigned. He did so because it has emerged that he was a paid consultant to the PLO. But his investigation is finished, so he has done all the damage that he can—except for his additional potshots at Israeli officials this week. Israel refused to cooperate with this UN Human Rights Council "investigation," because of its obvious built-in bias against Israel--and Schabas’s own. In 2009, he asked why the International Criminal Court was "going after the president of Sudan for Darfur and not the president of Israel for Gaza.” That was the notorious war criminal Shimon Peres, of course, and only in the United Nations is such a remark considered irrelevant when selecting someone to lead an "impartial" inquiry. Schabas will be applauded inside the UN system for resigning so as to avoid compromising the integrity of the investigation. Impossible: the inquiry was stacked from the outset. Israel was right to refuse cooperation.The report will be issued in March, and its findings are entirely predictable: it will attack Israel and pretty much ignore Hamas. This entire episode is a reminder of why Israelis do not trust the United Nations, and an example of how the UN continues to exacerbate rather than help solve problems in the Middle East.
    Blog Post by Elliott Abrams February 3, 2015 Pressure Points
  • United States
    This Week: Hezbollah Attack, ISIS Rollback, and Jordan Hostage Standoff
    Israel-Lebanon. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said today that Israel had received reports via the UN indicating Hezbollah does not plan further military strikes following its attack yesterday that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded seven others. The IDF struck Hezbollah operational positions in Lebanon in retaliation. Spain’s ambassador to the UN blamed Israel for the death of a Spanish soldier, on detail to UNIFIL, who was killed in the crossfire. An IDF spokesperson described the events yesterday as “a severe escalation on our northern border” while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for the attack. Hezbollah officials hinted that yesterday’s attack came in retaliation for a suspected Israeli airstrike ten days ago that killed an Iranian general and a top Hezbollah official, Jihad Mughniyeh, in the Syrian part of the Golan Heights. ISIS. Syrian Kurdish forces backed by Iraqi Kurdish “peshmerga” and U.S.-led coalition airstrikes successfully regained control of the northern Syrian town of Kobani from ISIS on Monday. The victory follows a four month long battle for the town that left over 1,300 dead. Syrian Kurdish forces reported that they were now moving “to liberate villages to the east and the south.” The United States Central Command confirmed on Monday that around ninety percent of Kobani was now controlled by anti-ISIS forces. Jordan. Jordan yesterday called upon ISIS to release its downed air force pilot, Muath al-Kasaesbeh, along with Kenji Goto, a Japanese journalist held hostage by ISIS. Jordan offered to release Sajida al-Rishawi, who is on death row in Jordan for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack that killed 60 people, in exchange. Protests erupted al-Kasaesbeh’s hometown of Karak, some of them critical of Jordan for participating in the anti-ISIS coalition. Al-Kasaesbeh’s father appealed to King Abdullah to facilitate his son’s release. Al-Kasaesbeh has been held by ISIS since December when his jet crashed in Syria during a bombing mission against the group. The Japanese government, a major Jordanian donor, has pressed the Jordanian government to help bring about the early release of the Japanese hostage. U.S. Foreign Policy Saudi Arabia. President Barack Obama cut short his state visit to India on Tuesday and traveled to Saudi Arabia to offer condolences following the death of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. The president led a large bipartisan delegation representing former and current officials, including two former secretaries of state and four former national security advisors. Obama was received by the new Saudi monarch, King Salman, in his first official meeting with a visiting foreign dignitary as the custodian of the holy places. Iran. Senator Robert Menendez announced on Tuesday that he and other Senate Democrats would postpone their support for the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2015 in the Senate until March 24, 2015. The bill, which was introduced this week and is co-authored by Senators Robert Menendez and Mark Kirk, would impose new sanctions on Iran if the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 countries fail to establish a comprehensive political framework by June 30, 2015. The proposed bill would provide the president with the power to waive the sanctions on a monthly basis after June 30. President Obama had previously threatened to veto the bill, saying it would risk severely jeopardizing the ongoing nuclear negotiation talks with Iran. Yemen. The first drone strike launched by the CIA on Monday since the resignation of Yemeni President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi killed three suspected al-Qaeda fighters. The strike was a clear message from the United States that it would continue its counterterrorism efforts there, despite last week’s resignation of the U.S.-backed president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi. At a news conference in New Delhi on Sunday, President Obama said his administration would “continue to go after high-value targets inside of Yemen … and maintain the pressure that’s required to keep the American people safe.” While We Were Looking Elsewhere Eighteen demonstrators were killed, and hundreds more arrested, last weekend by security forces in protests marking the fourth anniversary of the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Hundreds of protestors attended the subsequent funeral of one of those killed, Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, a noted poet and activist who was a supporter of President Sisi. Egypt’s interior minister declared today that an investigation into Sabbagh’s death has been opened, and promised to prosecute any members of the security forces who are found responsible. Meanwhile, Gamal and Alaa Mubarak, the sons of ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, were released Monday after 18 months in prison. The two sons await retrial on corruption charges. Libya.The United Nations Mission for Libya (UNSMIL) announced today that the country’s two rival governments, backed by armed militias, have “agreed in principle” to move the peace negotiations to Libya, after another round of talks were held in Geneva on Monday. Meanwhile, a group calling itself Islamic State-Tripoli Province claimed responsibility Tuesday for the attack on the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli. The suicide attack killed nine people, including an American security contractor, David Berry. Bahrain. The trial for Sheikh Ali Salman, the leader of the Bahraini opposition group, Al Wefaq, started yesterday at Bahrain’s Higher Criminal Court. Salman, was arrested by the Bahraini authorities on December 28, 2014, for “promoting the overthrow and change of the political regime by force” and for inciting disobedience and hatred in public statements. Salman denied all charges. His arrest sparked almost daily protests amongst the Shiite community in Bahrain, and was condemned by the United States, Iran, and international human rights groups. Yemen. Houthi leader Abdel Malik al-Houthi blamed southern separatists for the current political impasse in a televised national address on Tuesday. An emergency session of Parliament, meant to address President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s resignation last Friday, failed to convene. Al-Houthi claimed that “this country is for all of us and can fit all of us,” and proposed new talks. On Tuesday the southern parliamentary bloc called on the the United Nations and the Gulf Cooperation Council to allow the south to exercise self-determination through an UN supervised referendum.
    Blog Post by Robert Danin January 29, 2015 Middle East Matters
  • Middle East and North Africa
    "We Stand with UNIFIL"
    The recent violence between Hezbollah and Israel elicited a statement from the State Department yesterday. It’s a marvel of moral equivalency and confusion. Here it is, in full: The United States strongly condemns Hezbollah’s attack today from Lebanon on Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in blatant violation of the cease fire between Lebanon and Israel and UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which called for the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks. We support Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense and continue to urge all parties to respect the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon. We urge all parties to refrain from any action that could escalate the situation. We are deeply concerned by reports of injuries and casualties on both sides of the Blue Line, including the reported deaths of IDF soldiers and the death of a Spanish UN peacekeeper from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). We extend our sincere condolences to the victims’ families. We also stand with UNIFIL as it fulfills its important mandate to maintain peace and security along the Blue Line. Hezbollah continues to incite violence and instability inside Lebanon by attacking Israel and by its presence and fighting inside Syria, which violates Lebanese leaders’ agreed policy of dissociating Lebanon from foreign conflicts. First, why does the United States "stand with UNIFIL" instead of saying "We stand with Israel?"  Then there’s  the "all parties" language: we urge all parties to do this and that, despite the fact that one party is America’s closest ally in the Middle East and the other is a murderous terrorist group that has a great deal of American blood on its hands. Then, the confusion: State "strongly condemns" Hezbollah and blames it for this incident and for generally inciting violence and instability. So what is to be done about all those actions by Hezbollah? Is Israel supposed to strike back or "refrain from any action that could escalate the situation?" Israel has a "legitimate right to self-defense" but it must "respect the Blue Line." Given that Hezbollah is just across the Blue Line, that’s impossible; Israeli self-defense must include hitting Hezbollah, or "self-defense" means sitting in bunkers. It would be better if the United States stood with its allies and condemned its enemies, without the confused advice and the lectures to "all parties."
    Blog Post by Elliott Abrams January 29, 2015 Pressure Points
  • Israel
    Human Rights Watch and the Destruction of Rafah
    Rafah is a town in Egypt, on the border of Gaza, that will soon cease to exist. The government of Egypt is destroying it, leaving thousands of Egyptians homeless, in an effort to create a buffer zone along the border.   Smoke rises after a house is blown up during a military operation by Egyptian security forces in the Egyptian city of Rafah, near the border with southern Gaza Strip October 29, 2014. (Suhaib Salem/Courtesy: Reuters)   Here’s a Jerusalem Post story from late last year story noting the facts and the Amnesty International reaction to them:   Egypt has forcibly evicted an estimated 1,165 families in Rafah so that it can clear a buffer zone by the Gaza Strip border, charged the human-rights group Amnesty International, which is concerned that additional homes will be demolished in the coming weeks.   “The scale of the forced evictions has been astonishing; the Egyptian authorities have thrown more than 1,000 families out of their homes in just a matter of days, flouting international and national law,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said….“Shocking scenes have emerged of homes in Rafah being bulldozed, bombed, with entire buildings reduced to piles of rubble and families forcibly evicted,” Sahraoui said.   That was November 20, 2014; since then there have been more evictions. On January 8, 2015 The New York Times reported that:   Egypt began evacuating hundreds of families from a town bordering the Gaza Strip on Thursday after a senior official acknowledged that the military was eradicating the town in order to complete a security zone abutting the Palestinian territory.   Ten or twenty thousand people will be moved out forcibly. The government claims that they will all be getting fair compensation, but anyone with knowledge of the incompetence and corruption of the  Egyptian bureaucracy will doubt that. As noted, this has been criticized by Amnesty International. It published a lengthy analysis in November, entitled “Egypt: End wave of home demolitions, forced evictions in Sinai amid media blackout.” All of this is interesting for many reasons, but one that isn’t immediately apparent ought to be noted: Human Rights Watch, which has put out report after report criticizing Israel for its conduct along the same border and near Rafah, and which never misses a chance to smack Israel, appears to be dead silent about the same conduct when Egypt undertakes it.  A search of the HRW web site produces no criticism, no report, on Egypt’s destruction of homes in an apparent effort to stop terrorism and defeat smuggling tunnels. Consider HRW’s 20-page report in 2004 about Israeli conduct in Gaza and entitled Razing Rafah. The title alone shows the bias. In actual fact, Egypt is indeed razing and destroying Egyptian Rafah—a city that exists on both sides of the Sinai-Gaza border. By contrast, Israel never planned to destroy the entire Gaza city of Rafah, nor of course did it do so. HRW has once in a while demanded that Egypt—which is keeping the Rafah border crossing between Sinai and Gaza closed except for a few days once in a blue moon—open the crossing. But where’s the 20-page report? Where are the statements of the sort Amnesty (which, by the way, has also been unfairly critical of Israel in many of its own statements) has made? HRW’s pattern of bias toward Israel is seen in what it says, and here in what it does not say. Destruction of homes by Israel for security reasons: a violation of international law that must be denounced at length and repeatedly. Destruction of homes by Egypt in essentially the same location for essentially the same reasons: silence. Maybe a new 20-page HRW report on Egyptian Rafah is in the works. Maybe there are dozens of statements by HRW about “Razing Rafah” on the Egyptian side of the border and I just haven’t been able to find them. Maybe there really is no bias in HRW’s coverage of Israel. But it doesn’t look that way.
    Blog Post by Elliott Abrams January 20, 2015 Pressure Points
  • United States
    The Omnibus Appropriations Bill and Payments for Terrorists
    The Omnibus Appropriations bill recently passed by Congress contains an interesting provision regarding the support for terrorists and their families by the Palestinian Authority: The Secretary of State shall reduce the amount of assistance made available by this Act under the heading “Economic Support Fund” for the West Bank and Gaza by an amount the Secretary determines is equivalent to that expended by the Palestinian Authority in payments to individuals and the families of such individuals that are imprisoned for acts of terrorism or who died committing such acts during the previous calendar year. The intent is clear: Congress was aware of the PA’s practice of rewarding individuals who had committed acts of terrorism with direct financial support or financial support for their families while they remain in prison. And Congress wants to be sure that aid from the United States isn’t paying for this, so for every dollar the PA spends we will reduce aid to the PA by the same amount. Good idea, long overdue-- but the language quoted above won’t achieve that goal. First of all, why only acts committed "during the previous calendar year?" Does that mean that payments to someone who committed an act of terrorism two or five or ten years ago is exempt? Does that clause about "the previous calendar year" modify "imprisoned for acts of terrorism," or "who died committing such acts," or both? Or does it modify all "payments," which would be the logical meaning: the amount of U.S. aid is to be reduced by the amount of all payments made in the prior year? Sloppy, last minute drafting of this provision is the culprit. The United States reduces the amounts of loan guarantees available to Israel by the amounts Israel spends on settlement construction in the West Bank. There is a procedure in place, whereby Israel tells the United States how much has been spent, State Department or USAID officials verify the amount, and then Israel is informed about the deduction. There’s no procedure in place, as far as I can see, to implement this new provision. The new Republican-led Congress should rewrite the above provision to clarify its meaning and establish some procedures. For example, the State Department should keep a running tally of all PA expenditures on behalf of all convicted terrorists and their families, and report it to Congress twice a year. As a condition of receiving any aid, the PA should pledge to keep a tally itself and report it to the United States. Once a year, State should report to Congress the amount it has actually deducted from aid to the PA, and announce this publicly. But meanwhile, American officials dealing with the PA--in the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem--should tell the PA the intent of Congress is clear. For every dollar they spend rewarding terrorists, their aid will be cut by the same amount--starting now.
    Blog Post by Elliott Abrams December 24, 2014 Pressure Points
  • Middle East and North Africa
    Gaza at Year End
    At the end of last summer’s war between Israel and Hamas, all sorts of pledges were made about rebuilding Gaza. Hamas in particular claimed victory because it had broken the "siege of Gaza" and now all Gazans would benefit. This was nonsense, and clearly so back then. It was obvious from previous experience that goods would not flow easily into Hamas-controlled territory, especially with Egypt smashing the network of smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Sinai. What is the reality at year end? This is from the Saudi Gazette: Two months after donors pledged $5.4 billion to help rebuild Gaza after the war between Israel and Hamas, Palestinian, UN and other officials say barely 2 percent of the money has been transferred. The conference in Cairo had been hailed as a success, with Qatar promising $1 billion, Saudi Arabia $500 million and the United States and the European Union a combined $780 million in various forms of assistance. Half was expected to go to rebuilding houses and infrastructure in Gaza destroyed during seven weeks of fighting, and the rest to support the Palestinian budget. But of the total, only $100 million or so has been received, according to UN and other officials. While the EU and the United States have accelerated some funding that was already in the pipeline, very few new pledges have come to fruition. Who is to blame? Donors who have not met their pledges, to start. Then add the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, fighting over power and uninterested in the actual welfare of the people of Gaza. This is from Politico: The Gazan population is growing increasingly agitated as conditions in the territory worsen, and all because of the continued standoff between Hamas and Fatah over Palestinian reconciliation. This was the deal that ended the fighting in late August —reconciliation as a precondition to reconstruction— and the deal that all the relevant parties – Hamas, Israel, the PA, Egypt, as well as the United Nations – ostensibly agreed to. Seven years of Hamas control over Gaza would be gradually replaced by the Fatah-dominated PA, billions of dollars in donor aid would flow in, and the Gazan people would be liberated from the continued rule of an internationally-designated terrorist organization (and the continued need for an Israeli and Egyptian blockade around the territory). Or at least that was the idea. But all these plans are on hold as Hamas and the PA engage in a game of political chicken, staring each other down.... Who is not to blame? Israel, it seems. More from Politico: Perhaps even more surprising is that Israel, of all the parties involved, has shown the greatest degree of flexibility towards a Gaza Strip still ruled by Hamas. In addition to acquiescing to the salary payments, Israel has begun easing restrictions on construction materials and other goods entering the territory, and on certain products (fish, cucumbers) and people exiting. Israel has given its consent to an elaborate UN-led inspection mechanism for reconstruction, which as mentioned has not yet begun in earnest due to the lack of a PA presence on the ground. “I can’t say that it’s because of Israel that there has been no movement [on reconstruction] at present,” the senior UN official said, a sentiment shared by several other foreign diplomats I spoke to in Jerusalem. Actually this should not be "surprising" to anyone. Israel has no interest in immiserating the people of Gaza, but solely in protecting its own security. A final note: how much credit has Israel gotten for this? None, as was predictable. There are many newspaper stories about the awful situation in Gaza, but very few point out what Politico did: that Israel is playing a positive and humane role in Gaza reconstruction, while the top Palestinian "leaders" in both the PA and Hamas jockey for money, power, and advantage and don’t seem to care much about the people they claim to represent. And as the Europeans debate BDS resolutions and recognition of a Palestinian state, the actual facts about Gaza never even cross their minds. For all too many politicians in Europe, Palestine and Palestinians aren’t a real cause anyway: their real motivation is to attack Israel. Facts that get in the way are easily ignored.  
    Blog Post by Elliott Abrams December 23, 2014 Pressure Points
  • Middle East and North Africa
    Israel and India
    The Times of Israel reports that India’s new prime minister has reached out to wish Jews a happy Hanukkah. In a post on Twitter, Modi wished his “Jewish friends a happy Hanukkah! May this Festival of Lights and the festive season ring in peace, hope and well-being for all.” The post was then sent out in English as well. Here’s the tweet: Narendra Modi        ✔ @narendramodi אני מאחל לחבריי בני הדת היהודית חג חנוכה שמח! מי יתן שחג אורים זה, ותקופה זו של חגיגות תבשר שלום, תקווה ורווחה לכל. This is a reminder of the newly warm relationship between the two nations: no previous Indian head of government did something like this. And as I’ve written before, those who write about "Israel’s increasing isolation" need to keep this growing relationship in mind.
    Blog Post by Elliott Abrams December 22, 2014 Pressure Points
  • Israel
    UN Shouldn’t Force Israel’s Hand
    A UN Security Council vote pushing Israel to leave the Palestinian territories by 2017 would likely undermine the peace process, says expert David Makovsky.  
    Interview with David Makovsky and Bernard Gwertzman December 19, 2014
  • Israel
    The Scholars Who Ban Disagreement
    Here’s a thought: when American scholars disagree with foreign officials, they should join together to try and ban those officials from entering the United States or any country in the European Union. Moreover, they should seek a freeze on any assets those officials may have--a bank account in the United States, for example. Of course, those scholars would likely start with Iranian officials--right? They would seek to bar entry to Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers complicit in murder, torture, and terrorism, and responsible for the lack of free speech or academic freedom in Iran. They would seek to bar officials from China who crush the Tibetans, and the Uyghur Muslims of Xinjiang, and who run the gigantic system of Chinese prisons. They would try to act against officials of the Assad regime in Syria, of course, barring any of them from coming to the United States or Western Europe. They would certainly want to move against the Russian officials responsible for the invasion of the Ukraine. They would seek out repressive regimes all around the world, and apply their new approach. Right? Wrong, of course. This new idea is to be applied only to Israel. Here’s part of the account in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz: A nascent group of well-known academics is calling on the U.S. government and European Union to impose personal sanctions on four prominent Israelis “who lead efforts to insure permanent Israeli occupation of the West Bank and to annex all or parts of it unilaterally in violation of international law...." “We chose four Israeli leaders and public figures to start with because they stand out by working to make the occupation permanent and irreversible,” said Gershon Shafir, a professor of sociology at University of California San Diego, who came up with the concept. These four “were particularly dismissive of Secretary of State Kerry’s peace-making efforts....The call’s 20 signatories include several well-known academics from UCLA to Boston College and Columbia University, including renowned political theorist Michael Walzer, professor emeritus of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. All the signatories to SIP’s call are Zionists, Walzer said in an interview, and are deeply opposed to academic boycotts. They are opposed to academic boycotts, but surely we can all agree that those who commit the crime of being dismissive of the Kerry efforts must be barred from setting foot in America. Who could disagree with that? This embarrassing episode is yet another that brings to mind Orwell’s comment about some ideas being so stupid that only an intellectual could believe them. Three of the four Israeli individuals in question are members of the Knesset, duly elected in a democracy. So the brilliant idea of these intellectuals is to ban from the United States democratically elected parliamentarians with whom they don’t agree. Or with whom they really, really don’t agree, seriously, a lot! How international relations could be conducted if this principle of "personal sanctions" were to be implemented widely is not of great interest to these scholars. The point apparently is that they are right, certainly right, obviously entirely correct, in their political views, so people who think they are wrong can’t be allowed to travel. The "Kerry test" is an interesting one, and applied more broadly would mean that those who are dismissive of any American secretary of state cannot be allowed into our country. Presumably the French would bar those who are dismissive of M. Fabius, the Germans would not allow in people dismissive of Herr Steinmeier, and so on. Perhaps no EU country would allow in people dismissive of the efforts of EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. But so many people have over time been dismissive of one or another High Representative that this might interfere with tourism, and perhaps we should not go this far. In any event these scholars do not dream of applying their new rules to any other country on the face of the earth but Israel. The scholars defend themselves from criticism. They are moderates, you see: The...call for personal sanctions very specifically opposes wide boycott efforts and its backers are not worried about being lumped together with the BDS proponents who are widely regarded as working toward Israel’s destruction. It is “utterly different than anathematizing an entire category of persons like the academic boycott efforts,” Gitlin said. “In this case there is a proper target, people whose activity is toxic and we think they need to be named.” “This would provide a way of mobilizing votes against blanket boycotts but equally against the attempts to make the occupation irreversible,” Shafir said. “It would allow us to find a place in the middle and remain distinguished from but remain part of the ongoing dialogue in a productive way that is protective of Israel’s ties with the U.S., the world and liberal intellectuals.” They have a place in the middle, you see. "Liberal intellectuals" from Israel can travel, and this group of scholars will protect Israel’s connection to liberal intellectuals around the  world. Elected officials who do not share their liberal views (and actually may not even be liberal intellectuals at all!) have no such right to travel. Nothing will come of this ludicrous idea, but it worth noting and thinking through. Here is a group of intellectuals who wish to apply this test to one single country on the face of the earth, Israel, a democracy-- but think themselves are in the "middle" and are "protective" of Israel. As the saying goes, with friends like these....  
    Blog Post by Elliott Abrams December 14, 2014 Pressure Points
  • United States
    This Week: Torture Report Reactions, Failed Yemen Rescue, and a Deadly Palestinian Protest
    Significant Developments CIA Torture Report. Official reaction in the Middle East to the release yesterday of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on torture has been muted so far, with protests concentrated primarily on social media. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday said that the report revealed the United States to be a “symbol of tyranny against humanity.” ISIS and al-Qaeda eagerly decreed that the report showed the United States’ hypocrisy, with Dutch jihadist Israfil Yilmaz writing: “They call us monsters? Slap yourself, read some of the @CIA torture reports and wake up.” Yemen’s legal advisor Nazeeh Alemad said the publication of the report “makes no difference” as “people here [in Yemen] are not looking for more proof of torture [...] they deal with it as a fact.” He added, “what makes a difference is what happens here, not some report published over there.” Secretary of State John Kerry had urged Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein to delay the publication of the report, Kerry warning that its release would have adverse foreign policy implications for the United States’ “ongoing efforts aginst ISIL and the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world.” Yemen. U.S. hostage Luke Somers was killed on Saturday night by militants affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) during a rescue attempt by an American Special Operations team. A South African hostage, Pierre Korkie, was also killed. Nasr bin Ali Al-Ansi, a top AQAP commander in Yemen, blamed President Obama today for the death of the two hostages, describing the rescue attempt as an “execution order” and warning the president that al-Qaeda would “continue to put the lives of all Americans in danger inside and outside of America […].” Earlier in the week, Al-Ansi denounced the act and promotion of beheading prisoners as “barbaric” and “not acceptable whatever the justifications are” in response to a reporter questioning whether al-Qaida was mirroring ISIS’ tactics. Israel-Palestine. Thousands of Palestinians marched to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s headquarters in Ramallah today as part of the funeral procession of senior Fatah official Ziad Abu Ein. He died yesterday after inhaling tear gas and a violent altercation with Israeli security forces during a protest in the West Bank to mark International Human Rights Day. Abbas called Abu Ein’s death “an intolerable crime in every sense of the word.” However, the autopsy report on the cause of death was interpreted differently by Israeli and Palestinian forensic experts today. According to the Israeli forensic expert today, the cause of death was a stress related heart attack. The Palestinian expert, Dr. Saber al-Aloul, determined that Abu Ein died of violence and not natural causes, due to wounds and bruises on his teeth, neck, tongue and windpipe. A spokesperson for the Palestinian government, Ehab Bessio, stated earlier: “Today, based on the autopsy results, we hold the Israeli government accountable for the murder of Ziad Abu Ein.” Israel. Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni announced yesterday that they intend to run on a joint ticket in the upcoming March 17 Israeli elections in an effort to deny Benjamin Netanyahu a fourth term as prime minister. Herzog leads Israel’s center-left Labor Party, which currently has 15 seats in the 120-member parliament. Livni, who was dismissed as justice minister by Netanyahu last week, leads the centrist Hatnua party, which has six seats in parliament. Livni and Herzog are proposing to rotate in the role of prime minister, with Herzog serving the first two years of the term and Livni taking over for the second two. U.S. Foreign Policy ISIS. Secretary of State John Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, where he requested that Congress refrain from banning the use of ground forces to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Kerry stated that “the president has been crystal clear that his policy is that U.S. military forces will not be deployed to conduct ground combat operations […], [but] it doesn’t mean that we should pre-emptively bind the hands of […] our commanders in the field in responding to scenarios […] that are impossible to foresee.” Iraq. Unspecified allies in the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS pledged on Monday to send 1,500 military troops to support American military advisors in Iraq. American officials declined to identify the countries contributing the additional forces. The United States has already guaranteed to send 3,000 soldiers to train and advise Iraqi and Kurdish troops. The new pledge would bring the total number of military advisors to 4,500. Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi requested that the United States provide additional air power and heavy weaponry during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on Tuesday. Hagel was visiting Baghdad to discuss the military progress against ISIS. While We Were Looking Elsewhere Israel-Syria. Syria’s Armed Forces General Command confirmed Sunday that Israeli warplanes earlier in the day struck at least two areas near Damascus, including the international airport. The Syrian Army stated that the attack “proves Israel’s direct involvement in supporting terrorists in Syria,” while Syrian and Iranian foreign ministers called it an act of “aggression.” Israeli officials neither confirmed nor denied reports of the attacks, though Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday that Israel “will not allow red lines to be crossed that endanger Israel’s security.” Syria did not retaliate, but called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to impose sanctions on Israel. Iran. A UN Panel of Experts report on Iran alleges that Qassem Soleimani, leader of the military Quds force, has been photographed in Iraq where he is allegedly providing assistance to militants fighting ISIS. The Quds force is the international branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Soleimani’s presence in Iraq is a violation of an international travel ban and asset freeze imposed upon him by the UN Security Council since 2007. Under this resolution, UN member states must prevent blacklisted individuals from entering their state. Iraqi diplomats have not respondent to questions. Syria. António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, announced on Tuesday that the number of Syrian refugees to be resettled in third countries outside the region will double. The pledge comes after twenty-eight countries pledged to accept over 60,000 refugees and eleven more states agreed to investigate the possibility of expanding their current resettlement programs. Meanwhile, the UN World Food Program announced on Monday that it will resume its food voucher program for Syrian refugees after its online campaign raised $80 million. The funds raised will enable the UN to sustain the program from mid-December until January. However, UN emergency aid coordinator Valerie Amos warned on Monday that without further large contributions from donors, the World Food Program would be “lurching from month to month.” Bahrain. Two deadly bombs exploded in Bahrain in less than twenty-four hours earlier this week. The first explosion killed a policeman in Damistan, a village southwest of Manama, the Bahraini capital on Monday. The second explosion detonated on Tuesday in Karzakan, southwest of Mananma, killing a Bahraini national and injuring another civilian. Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid al-Khalifa held Hezbollah responsible for making the bombs used in the attack on Monday, and called the explosions a “terrorist act.” Bahrain’s main Shia opposition group Al-Wefaq publicly distanced itself from the attack. Libya. UN Special Envoy to Libya Bernardino Leon announced on Monday that the UN would postpone talks to end the political crisis in Libya until next week. The talks, which were scheduled to begin on Tuesday, have been deferred to give the two rival political factions a longer opportunity to construct a compromise. The internationally recognized government exiled in Tobruq, and Libya Dawn, the armed groups allied with the self-declared Islamist-affiliated authority in Tripoli led by Omar Hassi, refused on Sunday to include the other party in discussions with the UN. Palestine. The 122 members of the Assembly of State Parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) awarded the Palestinian delegation “observer status at their annual meeting on Monday. The move is mostly symbolic and gives Palestine the same status as the United States which is not a signatory. Palestinian ambassador Riyad H. Mansour said that the Palestinians “want to strengthen [their] presence in international fora, […] not only in the General Assembly.” Qatar. High-level officials from the Gulf states arrived in Doha on Tuesday for the start of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) meeting in Qatar. The diplomats included Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. This meeting was scheduled after Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates reinstated their ambassadors in Qatar last month. U.A.E. A court sentenced eleven people to prison terms between three years and life for attempting to establish an al-Qaeda affiliate group in the United Arab Emirates. They were also charged for joining al-Qaeda affiliate groups al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham in Syria. Four defendants were acquitted, and the accused denied all charges brought against them.  
    Blog Post by Robert Danin December 11, 2014 Middle East Matters
  • Israel
    Weekend Reading: Syrian Deals, Tunisia’s Libya, and Israeli Elections
    Yezid Sayegh, in an interview with Syria Deeply, argues that a deteriorating situation in Syria may incentivize some rebels to strike a deal with the Assad regime. Ismail Dbara looks at how Tunisia is responding to the growing crisis in Libya. Mazal Mualem sees the upcoming Israeli elections as more focused on removing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than security issues or the economy.
    Blog Post by Steven A. Cook December 5, 2014 From the Potomac to the Euphrates
  • Middle East and North Africa
    The Pivot to Asia is a Success
    The pivot to Asia is a great success. Trade with China and India has risen rapidly and relations keep improving. No, not the U.S. pivot, which is imaginary. Israel’s. Consider this report in The Diplomat: A convergence of commercial interests have led the People’s Republic of China and the State of Israel to develop an increasingly integrated bilateral economic partnership that is poised to flourish over the next decade. Bilateral trade has experienced a 200-fold increase since diplomatic ties were formally established in 1992, surging from $50 million to $10 billion in 2013, with plans to double that figure in the next few years.... Increasingly, China has turned to Israel to acquire the technology necessary to maximize agricultural output and efficiency, as well as to develop a proficient water purification and reclamation apparatus that can sustain the Middle Kingdom’s urbanization and economic expansion throughout the 21st century. As a nation that boasts 22 percent of the global population, but just seven percent of the world’s arable land, developing a sustainable agriculture sector to efficiently maximize output remains a pressing concern for China.... To address this growing concern, China and Israel signed a deal worth $300 million in 2012 to export Israeli water technology that will improve agricultural efficiency in China. A year after Mr. Netanyahu’s [2013] visit, Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong made a similar trip to Jerusalem in May 2014 with nearly 400 Chinese government and business officials to forge new avenues of economic collaboration. One of the hallmarks of the trip was the signing of a bilateral agreement between Tel Aviv University (TAU) and Tsinghua University in Beijing to jointly invest $300 million to establish the XIN Center for scientific exchange and collaboration. According to officials from TAU, the center will “pursue strategic cooperation in research and teaching and serve as an international hub for scientific and technical innovation” while focusing on research and development projects in a variety of sectors including sustainable agriculture, solar power, water reclamation, and biotechnology. First thing to notice is the numbers. But the second thing is that this isn’t a weapons sales relationship; it is more broadly based, with a special focus on agriculture. Israel is also building its economic ties to India. Trade is now over $4 billion, and mostly weaponry: India is now the largest purchaser of Israeli arms. But that may change: Reuters reports that "Israel Ports Co. is partnering India’s Cargo Motors to build a deepwater port in Gujarat, and Israel’s TowerJazz is teaming up with India’s Jaiprakash Associates and IBM with plans to build a $5.6 billion chip plant near Delhi." Prime Minister Netanyahu met with Prime Minister Modi at the UN in September. Modi visited Israel when he was chief minister of Gujarat and appears to harbor none of the traditional Indian hostility towards that country. And as the Jerusalem Post reported, "Modi’s appointment of Sushma Swaraj as foreign minister was a welcome sign, since she served from 2006 to 2009 as chairwoman of the Indo-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group, and visited the country in 2008." The two countries are negotiating a free trade agreement. It’s fashionable to say that Israel is increasingly isolated in the world, and people point to resolutions like the one in Sweden "recognizing a Palestinian state" that are passing European parliaments. The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner and it would be a serious problem for Israel if the larger economies--Germany, France, the UK--began to cut commercial ties. But that is not happening yet, and these resolutions are either less than meets the eye (the Spanish resolution calls for recognizing a Palestinian state only when it emerges from bilateral negotiations) or in countries of much less economic significance. In any event, a country whose trade with India and China is growing by leaps and bounds is hard to call "isolated."  
    Blog Post by Elliott Abrams December 5, 2014 Pressure Points
  • United States
    This Week: Mubarak’s Acquittal Challenged and Israel’s Government Dissolves
    Significant Developments Egypt. Egypt’s top prosecutor announced Tuesday that he plans to appeal an Egyptian court’s dismissal of all remaining charges against former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak, his security chief, and six high level police commanders were acquitted last week of killing protestors in the 2011 uprisings after the court ruled the case “inadmissible” on a technicality. Corruption charges were also dismissed against the former Egyptian leader, his two sons Alaa and Gamal, and his exiled friend Hussein Salem. Hundreds of protestors took to Tahrir Square after the verdict’s announcement, prompting the closure of the square over the weekend and again on Monday afternoon. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International strongly criticized Egypt yesterday over its decision to sentence 188 former president Morsi supporters to death for killing 13 policemen in August 2013. Human Right’s Watch’s Sarah Lea Whitson stated that “mass death sentences are fast losing Egypt’s judiciary whatever reputation for independence it once had.” Israel. The Knesset voted yesterday to dissolve itself, setting new elections for March 17, 2015. The move followed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s firing of Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni on Tuesday. Netanyahu accused Lapid and Livni of undermining him and forcing the coalition to break up. The current coalition government lasted a mere 20 months. Should Netanyahu win the next election, as is currently expected, he would become the first Israeli prime minister to serve four terms. U.S. Foreign Policy Bahrain. The State Department announced that Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, Tom Malinowski, will visit Bahrain after being expelled last July for violating “conventional diplomatic norms,” by meeting with Al Wefaq, Bahrain’s main opposition party. The United States had responded to the Bahraini decision by partially suspending the sale of weapons to Bahrain’s defense ministry until Malinowski is authorized to return, and by indefinitely terminating assistance to Bahrain’s interior ministry. Malinowski will travel to Bahrain with Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, Anne Patterson. Anti-ISIS Conference. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hosted the first ministerial conference of the international coalition fighting ISIS at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels. The meeting, which was attended by over sixty ministers, focused on evaluating the coalition’s strategy against ISIS. Kerry told the conference that the United States would “engage in this campaign for as long as it takes to prevail.” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg yesterday on the sidelines of the conference that the Baghdad government will request NATO’s assistance in defense capacity building support. Secretary General Stoltenberg used the meeting to stress NATO’s “continued support to Iraq in its efforts to restore stability and security, and its commitment to help Iraq build more effective security forces.” While We Were Looking Elsewhere Qatar. Matthew and Grace Huang, the American couple that was detained and tried in Qatar for their alleged involvement in the death of their daughter, left the country for the United States yesterday. The couple was prevented from leaving for several days despite an appellate court ruling on Sunday that they were not responsible for their daughter’s death in January 2013. On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry called on the Qatari government “to immediately implement the court’s decision and permit their return to the United States without further delay.” The Huangs were escorted to the airport by U.S. ambassador to Qatar Dana Shell Smith. ISIS. Iranian and Pentagon officials confirmed on Tuesday that Iran fighter jets bombed Sunni extremist targets in Iraq last week in a buffer zone twenty five miles from the Iranian border. According to Rear Admiral John F. Kirby, spokesperson for the Pentagon, the United States is not coordinating military activity with Iran, and it is the responsibility of the Iraqi government to “de-conflict [the Iraqi] airspace.” The United States has expressed concern that Iran’s increasingly active military involvement in Iraq could further stoke sectarian tensions in the region. According to Admiral Kirby, “our message to Iran is […] that we want nothing to be done that further inflames sectarian tensions in the country.” Syria. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) suspended its food voucher program on Monday, after running out of funds to pay for vouchers for the month of December. The donation cuts affect 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt after donors failed to honor their pledges. Yesterday, WFP launched a social media campaign to raise the $64million it requires to reinstate the voucher program. Iran. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano requested an extra $5.7 million from member states to finance its monitoring of the extended interim nuclear deal with Iran. The nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 countries were extended until the end of June after the parties failed to reach a decision by the November 24 deadline. Under the extended interim agreement, Iran will convert higher-grade enriched uranium into reactor fuel, which will make it more difficult to develop the uranium into an atomic weapon. Tunisia. Tunisia’s new parliament appointed Mohammed Nacer, vice president of the secular Nida Tounes party, as its speaker today. The new parliament opened its first session on Tuesday and will be tasked with naming the new prime minister after the final presidential vote later this month. Lebanon. Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil signaled yesterday that Lebanon is considering participating in the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. One day earlier, American officials reported that Lebanese authorities had allegedly detained the daughter of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi over a week ago at a checkpoint in northern Lebanon. The child’s mother was also detained, but it is unclear whether she is legally the ISIS leader’s wife. Yesterday, a spokesperson for the Iraqi interior ministry rejected allegations that the woman detained was Abu Bakr’s wife; instead, they identified the detainee as Saja Abdul Hamid al-Dulaimi, the sister of Omar Abdul Hamid al-Dulaimi, who is being held as a terror suspect in Iraq. Yemen. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility for yesterday’s terrorist attack targeting the Iranian embassy in the Yemeni capital Sana’a. Iranian Ambassador Hossein Niknam escaped the explosion unharmed, but the blast killed a security guard and five civilians, and injured eleven more civilians. AQAP previously promised to destabilize the Houthis after they took control of Sana’a in September. Ambassador Niknam is seen as a close ally of the Houthi rebels.
    Blog Post by Robert Danin December 4, 2014 Middle East Matters