MENA Week in Review - June 20, 2014 Share This /

This week, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) continues to consolidate its power in Iraq as the Obama administration lays out its policies in the escalating regional crisis. Meanwhile, Congress is continuing to mark up the Fiscal Year 2015 defense bill, in addition to the Department of State and foreign operations appropriations bill, where Senators proposed a decrease in military aid to Egypt.

• As the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) continues to consolidate power in northern Iraq, the U.S. relocated embassy staff to other Iraqi consulates and the neighboring embassy in Amman, Jordan, and deployed 275 U.S. military personnel to help secure the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad.
  • Since President Obama spoke last week, various news outlets discussed the possible actions the U.S. might take including:
    • Conducting airstrikes, with support from the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush and the amphibious dock ship USS Mesa Verde, both of which were recently moved to the Persian Gulf. While there are conflicting reports as to whether or not the administration has chosen to use airstrikes, there is concern over the ambiguity of who to target.
    • Sending a team of U.S. special forces to Iraq to act as trainers for the Iraqi Security Forces
    • Working with regional allies--including Iran--to stabilize the Iraqi government and coordinate tighter border security measures.
  • However, on Thursday, President Obama announced that the United States would:
    • Continue to enhance security around its embassy personnel.
    • Increase intelligence capabilities in Iraq in order to better monitor ISIS.
    • Continue to work with Iraqi forces including, opening joint operation centers, providing more equipment through the Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund, and send 300 military advisors to assess how to train, advise, and support the Iraq security forces.
    • Shift U.S. assets to the region and be “prepared to take targeted and precise military action if and when we determine the situation on the ground requires it.”
    • Lead a diplomatic effort to help mediate Iraq’s political and sectarian challenges.
• In a critical rebuke of the U.S.’s counterterrorism strategy, Diana Ohlbaum, Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, suggested that the recent developments in Iraq are a perfect example of why the proposed Counterterrorism Partnerships Funds is a bad idea, highlighting how ineffective U.S. training of Iraqi security forces has been over the last decade.
• The Senate Appropriations Committee is marking up the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Fiscal Year 2015 Appropriations Bill this week. The bill would include a 26% cut to Egypt’s current aid package: $300 million in military aid and $100 million in economic aid.
  • According to a statement from the committee, Egypt’s aid package is “subject to democracy and human rights conditions, with exceptions for counter-terrorism and border security.”
• Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey testified on the Fiscal Year 2015 defense budget request before Senators on Wednesday.
• As the situation in Iraq continues to destabilize, the White House is looking to transfer funds from the Overseas Contingency Operations budget, which has largely supported war-fighting operations in Afghanistan.
• Reports of U.S. tanks and humvees, seized in ISIS operations in Iraq, are being transferred to al-Qaeda affiliated rebels in Syria.
• The strengthening of ISIS’s territorial hold in Iraq could open the door for Hezbollah to play a larger role in Syria. The extent of Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria raises fears within Lebanon that an unstable political environment—caused by the current presidential void and a history of sectarian divisions—will ignite a much larger regional conflict.
• During a recent operation, the U.S. captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, suspected leader of the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.  The Libyan government was not informed of the operation before it took place, stating that it was a “regrettable infringement on Libya’s sovereignty.” The raid demonstrates weaknesses within the Libyan government to maintain internal security, where a new round of clashes began this week between Islamists and former General Khalifa Haftar.
• The hunt for three missing Israeli teenagers—one of whom also possess U.S. citizenship—resulted in the arrests of over 150 Palestinians, including 51 individuals who were released in a 2011 prisoner swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.  There are growing concerns that the search for the missing teens is emerging into a long-term military operation to “cleanse” Hamas elements present in the West Bank.
• Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi (whose real name is Isam Mohammad Tahir al Barqawi), he former spiritual mentor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi--the deceased leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, now ISIS—was released from a Jordanian prison this week.