MENA Week in Review - July 7, 2014 Share This /

This week, ISIS continues to consolidate power in the Middle East, declaring itself a state; Iraq’s neighbors are bolstering security along their borders; and violent clashes erupted in Jerusalem over the revenge killing of an Arab teen.

Another 200 U.S. troops were authorized for deployment in Iraq, bringing total deployments in June to 775 U.S. personnel

• Manned and unmanned U.S. aircraft, currently providing aer

ial surveillance over Iraq, are now being armed in conjunction with the deployment of U.S. troops and advisors to Iraq

In a piece for Politico Magazine, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) argues: "The fight in Iraq has no military solution if Iraq’s political leaders fail to achieve a unity government. For the sake of a unified, stable Iraq, Maliki must step aside. Only then will it be possible to successfully confront ISIL."

• Despite calls to step down, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced he will seek a third term as prime minister
• On the option of U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) stated support for aerial military strikes on ISIS, citing that this “gives more space to create a new government” asserting also that “airstrikes, in coordination with a new government, would be enough”
  • Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) criticized calls for airstrikes, arguing “do we honestly believe that sending air strikes in is going to change a 14-century-old battle within the religion of the Muslim people?,” referring to the sectarian divide that has largely characterized the ISIS insurgency in Iraq
• On Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) commented that “in retrospect, probably both administrations put too much confidence in [al-Maliki]” going on to state that “we would hope, although we can’t dictate that, the Iraqi people would choose a new leader to lead them forward”
• The State Department continues to assert that “a united Iraq is a stronger Iraq, and the focus should be on the existential threat that all Iraqis face and that people in the region face, which is the threat of [ISIS]”

The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) declared itself a state, dropping “of Iraq and al-Sham” from its title.  A statement released by ISIS’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, notes “the State is a state for all Muslims” indicating ISIS’s intentions to establish a long-term Muslim homeland in the Middle East

• ISIS is continuing to expand into border regions, taking control of Tel Abyad in Syria this week, along the Syrian-Turkish border
• ISIS militants continue to consolidate control in Deir al-Zor, Syria by seizing control of oil fields in the province
  • Competing Islamist group, Jabhat al-Nusra withdrew forces from villages in Deir al-Zor last week
• Images of ISIS’s first passport circulated the internet, with reports that the passport was produced in a newly built Iraqi government identification center in the Mosul

The Washington Post published an editorial, encouraging members of Congress to “be supportive and...question the administration diligently” on U.S. strategy in the Middle East, which includes plans to expend $500 million to equip moderate elements of the Syrian opposition through the new Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund, announced by President Obama at West Point in May

• The Syrian National Coalition expressed disagreement this week over calls by their prime minister to disband and restructure the opposition’s military command

Lukman Faily, the current Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S., spoke at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where he stated that “if the U.S. can’t fill that void [referring to providing military equipment], whomever is available, including Russia, then they will come to fill that void”

• Russian experts arrived in Iraq earlier this week and are assisting the Iraqi military with 12 new Su-25 warplanes
• Imagery analysis of the Su-25 aircraft indicates Russian-made Su-25 fighter jets currently being used by the Iraqi air force were sent from Iran
• The Russian ambassador to Iraq denied allegations that Russian pilots will be engaging in combat operations in Iraq
• The Obama administration intends to sell 4,000 Hellfire missiles to the Iraqi government, in addition to 500 missiles that have already been purchased

ISIS insurgents fired mortars into the Askariya Shrine in Samarra this week.

• Attacks on Shi’a shrines in Samarra in 2006 ignited a sectarian civil war, prompting the ”surge” of U.S. military personnel in 2007

Congress is looking to halt U.S. economic and security assistance to the Palestinian Authority--the Fatah-led government out of the West Bank--in response to the Hamas-Fatah unity government that was formed last month

• The 2015 foreign operations bill appropriates $440 million in proposed funding to the Palestinian Authority

Protests in Jordan are raising fears that Jordan will be the next target of an ISIS offense

• A recent Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report suggested that Jordan would be the “crown jewel” in ISIS’s Islamic caliphate
• The Jordanian military continues to be on alert, with an increased presence along its eastern border
• Jordan’s uncanny stability through myriad Middle East conflicts gives international leaders a degree of confidence that the Hashemite Kingdom will not fall victim to ISIS advances

The discovery of the bodies of three kidnapped Israeli teens lead to increases in violence across Israel and Palestine this week

• Muhammad Abu Khdeir, a 16 year-old Palestinian living in East Jerusalem, is believed to have been a victim of a revenge killing, after witnesses saw him being forced into a vehicle and his body was found in a forest in Jerusalem shortly after
  • Clashes erupted in Jerusalem in response to the suspected revenge killing
  • Six Israelis have been arrested in connection to the killing
  • A relative of the deceased boy, Tariq Khdeir, an American citizen, was reportedly beaten and arrested by Israeli security forces, which resulted in strong criticism from the State Department over the U.S. citizens arrest
• Israeli aircraft attacked a dozen targets in Gaza, in retaliation for rocket fire emanating from the Gaza Strip
  • The Israeli military is deploying forces to the Gaza border, in response to reports of rockets landing in the border town of Sderot
  • One of the Israeli aerial attacks left nine dead in Gaza, as Israel continued to respond to rocket launches from the strip as tensions over the recent deaths of Israeli and Palestinian youths mounts

Saudi Arabia is becoming more involved in the crisis in Iraq

• 30,000 Saudi troops have deployed to the Iraq border
• The Government of Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million to the United Nations to assist with internally displaced Iraqis

A roadside bomb exploded along the Tunisian-Algerian border last week, wounding six members of the Tunisian security forces