MENA Week in Review - April 18, 2014 Share This /

United States lawmakers and administration officials continue to debate the scope of aid to Syrian rebels and refugees as the Syrian government proceeds to strengthen its military position relative to the rebels. Iran is keeping its commitment to downgrade its uranium enrichment while refusing to negotiate over its ballistic missiles. Below is a roundup of these stories and some of the top articles and news highlights from around the Middle East and North Africa over the last week:

United States Policy:

• Syria completed another shipment of its chemical weapons arsenal, bringing the total amount of material removed from the country to around 65 percent, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Meanwhile, the U.S. is looking into new claims of chemical weapons use in Syria. The chemical used in the supposed attack was Chlorine gas, which the government pledged to destroy in its agreement with the U.S. and Russia.
• Ahmad Jarba, head of the Syrian National Coalition, the main Syrian political opposition group, wrote Secretary of State John Kerry and asked the U.S. to respond to what Jarba called a genocidal campaign by President Assad’s forces in Aleppo. Meanwhile, Syrian rebels have obtained U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles, though it remains unclear who supplied the rebels with these weapons.
• Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) sent a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee leaders asking them to support and fully fund President Obama’s budget request for aid to Syrian refugees in Jordan.
• Al-Monitor reports that U.S. lawmakers are growing impatient with the redirection of Overseas Contingency Operation (OCO) funds from supporting wartime activities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to funding rebels and refugees in Syria.
• Iranian General Hossein Deghan said that Iran will not discuss its ballistic missiles capabilities as part of the comprehensive nuclear negotiations. The U.S. has argued that since the missiles can carry nuclear warheads, they should be on the negotiating table. Over the span of the last few years, Iran has developed a series of ballistic missiles with a range of up to 1,250 miles.
• Sources close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that an upcoming report would reveal that Iran has fulfilled its commitment to dilute half of its 20-percent enriched uranium to agreed-upon, low-enriched uranium levels.

Other top security stories:

• The Iranian and Pakistani navies engaged in a four-day naval exercise near the Strait of Hormuz. The exercise follows a similar naval exercise between Iran and Oman and an announcement that Iran will build a new naval base in the Gwatr Gulf, near the border with Pakistan.
• The German government might reject a reported armaments deal, one of the largest in the German arms industry’s history, to sell up to 800 Leopard-2 battle tanks to Saudi Arabia for approximately $25 billion. The objection reportedly revolves around human rights concerns and Israel’s security.
• Fawaz al-Itan, Jordan’s Ambassador to Libya, was kidnapped on Tuesday by gunmen who attacked his driver and car on a street in Tripoli. The gunmen demanded the release of Mohamed Dersi, a Libyan militant jailed in Jordan for plotting to blow up the main airport in Jordan.
• In an attempt to bind together the remaining monarchies of the Middle East, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) invited Morocco and Jordan, and possibly Egypt, to form a military alliance with the Gulf monarchies. The goal of bringing Morocco and Jordan into the alliance includes adding hundreds of thousands of men to the joint military command.
• According to a Turkish government decree, the Turkish government has appointed an aviation expert, Ismail Demir, as new chief official for defense procurement, also called the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries. The appointment follows the removal of the previous chief, who oversaw a controversial deal to purchase Chinese air defense systems that may be incompatible with NATO equipment, upsetting Turkey’s American and European allies.
• Turkey’s Science, Industry and Technology Minister Fikri Isik said the Turkey will build its own armaments factory in order to decrease its dependence on foreign entities. The factory will reportedly produce warheads, airplane bombs, and plastic explosives.
• A recently discovered video on a militant website shows a large gathering of al-Qaeda fighters, including Nasir al-Wuhayshi, the Yemen al-Qaeda affiliate’s second-in-command, training together and listening to speeches in open defiance of the U.S. drone program. In the video, Wuhayshi reiterates his groups’ commitment to fighting the U.S.