I Never MENA Hurt You; I Never MENA Make You Cry 2017 (Middle East, North Africa, and Other Geopolitical Hotspots)

There was this recently as well-

American officials expressed indignation at the Turkish bombing, which killed as many as 20 Kurdish fighters in Syria and, according to the U.S. military, five Kurdish peshmerga troops in a coordinated attack across the border in northern Iraq. According to the Turkish government, both attacks targeted members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which both Ankara and Washington consider a terrorist group.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/04/26/pentagon-expands-rebuke-of-turkey-over-iraq-syria-strikes/

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas will drop its longstanding call for Israel's destruction as well as its association with the Muslim Brotherhood, in a policy document to be issued on Monday, Gulf Arab sources said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-hamas-document-idUSKBN17X1N8

(raises eyebrows)

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas will drop its longstanding call for Israel's destruction as well as its association with the Muslim Brotherhood, in a policy document to be issued on Monday, Gulf Arab sources said.

But the document, to be announced later on Monday, will still reject Israel's right to exist and back "armed struggle" against it, the Gulf Arab sources told Reuters.

obviously i'm missing some finer distinction here

But the document, to be announced later on Monday, will still reject Israel's right to exist and back "armed struggle" against it, the Gulf Arab sources told Reuters.

oh, the first point is more of an obstacle than the second. armed struggle is contingent and negotiable, while a right to exist is absolute.

'We don't think it should not exist, we just don't think it should not not exist...'

I wonder, also, if there's some nuance to the Arabic that we're not getting.

it sounds to me like they want to have their cake (the appearance of reasonableness and moderation) and eat it too (still get to pursue same policies without making any real conciliatory gestures)

It seems pretty unambiguous: "But, he said, "unlike Fatah, Hamas does not accept Israel's right to exist on the rest of the land. Hamas's constant position is not to cede any of our historical rights and not to recognize the (Israeli) occupation.""

I kinda thought they were getting weapons from Hezbollah/Syria/Iran, though, or am I completely messing things up?

Well, Hamas is Sunni, Hezbollah is Shia. Why the fuck didn't I fact-check that before I posted... Sorry.

Iran has funded Hamas recently, especially as they've become alienated from the Sunni world (esp in light of Muslim Brotherhood losing their position in Egypt - there seemed like a brief moment that Hamas was going to be able to renew their historical funding from Egypt), but it's unclear to me how extensive that funding is. You'd think it would be less successful than their funding of Hezbollah since it's easier to pass weapons through Syria than through the Sinai but idk exactly what those numbers are. Hezbollah wouldn't fund Hamas directly bc they're both client states.

Also there was a period recently when the Iran funding had dried up - after Hamas had criticized Assad and taken the side of the rebels - but I think that has since been mended.

U.S. to arm Kurds
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/trump-kurds-syria-army.html

trump is good now

stopped clock etc

presumably he's just more malleable than bho & ppl have wanted this for a while

It is the first sensible thing he has done since in office (but yeah, stopped clock etc)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-accuses-syria-of-mass-executions-and-burning-bodies/2017/05/15/b7b66c86-3986-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html

I'm sure 45 also told the Russian ambassador to get Syria to stop doing that. I wonder what he'll say in his meeting with Erdogan today.

#Erdogan’s guards fight with #Kurdish protesters in front of Turkish Embassy in Washington DC pic.twitter.com/w3Q0BLzJUK

— Turkey Observed (@TurkeyObserved) May 17, 2017

Erdogans henchmen were having some good old fun again this morning kicking Kurdish protestors. In DC.

Land of the Free to Kick Some Kurds in the Head

I read that this is not the first time they've done that.

kinda awesome news from iran today

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/05/strikes-kill-106-civilians-mayadeen-170526132541011.html

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington DC, said the latest air strikes may relate to the so-called 'December Directive' - a memo sent by former US President Barack Obama changing the command structure enabling commanders on the ground to bypass the Pentagon and order air strikes, while also easing the restrictions on when they could fire. US President Donald Trump has maintained this directive.

"They used to have to have 'near certainty' that no civilians would be killed - it's a much looser rule now," she said.

"And that's why you're seeing many human rights groups coming out and saying that those changes need to go back to how they were before the 'December Directive'."

US military admits killing more than 100 civilians in Mosul air strike

The latest strike came as the UN urged all countries bombing ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, in Syria to better distinguish between civilian and military targets.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/gunmen-kill-23-christians-in-central-egypt/2017/05/26/3d2693dc-41fc-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_egypt-635a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.66f4e99bb70d

Christians have been generally supportive of Sissi’s military-backed government, but have become increasingly critical of the inability of the country’s security forces to protect their places of worship.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/31/sensitive-uk-terror-funding-inquiry-findings-may-never-be-published-saudi-arabia

whats the fucking point of 'fighting' terrorism when you can't even level with your own people about the causes of it?

What a different world had Britain supported the sherif of Mecca Hussein bin Ali (and then his son Faisal) as suzerain of Arabia in the early 20s, rather than Ibn Saud. Wahabism would be a minor sect in Najd (rather than exported globally), Arabia would have been ruled by a moderate with deep ties to Britain (T.E. Laurence fought with Faisal), and Iraq would have gotten leadership with local roots (Faisal was installed in the midst of the post-Ottoman sectarian conflict there). One of those great "what ifs" of the 20th century.

This is pretty big:

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN18W0DQ

KSA, UAE and Egypt are cutting ties with Qatar, accusing it of promoting terrorism among other things.

The Qatari news agency apparently broadcast claims that the ruling family support Iran and Israel - which seems to have been the catalyst for this. Qatar says they were hacked.

Lots of speculation that Qatar will aim to get back into their good books by shutting al Jazeera - which wasn't the network hacked but has apparently annoyed Saudi in the past.

It's been a long time coming. Qatar supported Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Islamists in Libya (UAE supports former Tripoli elites), and permits open funding for Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra) by wealthy individuals, though that accusation is a bit rich, considering sheikh al-Ajmi is based in Kuwait and draws from Kuwaiti and Saudi individuals, too.

From what I've read, it seems unlikely Qatar has supported ISIS or Sh'ia militants in eastern Arabia.

FT has a good summary on the proximate cause.

https://www.ft.com/content/dd033082-49e9-11e7-a3f4-c742b9791d43

CNN: US suspects Russian hackers planted fake news behind Qatar crisis

Intelligence gathered by the US security agencies indicates that Russian hackers were behind the intrusion first reported by the Qatari government two weeks ago, US officials say.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/world/middleeast/adnan-khashoggi-dead-saudi-arms-trader.html?smid=tw-share

"In his later years, Mr. Khashoggi lived well but in much-reduced circumstances. He flew on commercial jets, fended off creditors and dismissed his bodyguard, a Korean martial arts expert known as Mr. Kill."

“What did I do wrong? Nothing,” he said toward the end of his life. “I behaved unethically, for ethical reasons.”

same

converse. I behave ethically, but in regretable cases for non-ethical reasons. The first time I became a vegetarian it was to get into a vegetarian's pants, etc.

Saif Gaddafi has just been released from prison!

http://news.sky.com/story/gaddafis-son-saif-al-islam-is-released-from-prison-in-libya-10911577

A thoughtful read, I felt:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/06/05/the-arab-world-has-never-recovered-from-the-loss-of-1967/

learned a lot from that. I liked this piece about how Israel never recovered from the victory: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/04/i-fought-for-a-better-israel-than-this-215222

As an addendum, I don't think the western view of the Arab world has ever recovered from the Yom Kippur War in 73. Them catching Israel unaware, then failing to win anyway, then punishing the west for their own failure through the oil embargo. I don't mean to say anti-arab racism is due to that, but geopolitically, I don't they've been treated seriously since.

Pinch of salt etc but Islamic State leader Baghdadi 'may have been killed by Russia'.

The MOD statement is less definitive in Russian than in English. It says they are still checking, while the Sputnik report suggests it has been checked.

Syria also claims they killed him last week fwiw so at least one of them is wrong.

any next manager odds yet? I heard Sherwood hasn't ruled himself out.

The US has just released a statement confirming it shot down a Syrian MiG in Syrian airspace - the first time this has ever been done, iirc. The Americans say it was attacking pro-US rebels, the Syrians seem to be claiming it was taking part in an operation to recapture a town from ISIS.

Syrian MiGs should trail banners identifying whether they are attacking ISIS, Syrian civilians, US-friendly Kurds or someone else. They could be color coded for easy deciphering by pilots of US fighter jets.

Also of interest: because of the Tehran attacks, Iran's RG supposedly launched into an attack on IS in Syria. link. If the Tehran attack leads to Iran entering the fight against ISIS proper, that's an interesting development, though for now I'd say it's just hardmanning, "the response the people demand", and doubt they will keep it up. But if Iran would choose to do so, to keep fighting IS, in Syria, it would probably make it harder on TrumpUSA to denounce them. They'd be on the same side in this.

Why do you think IS attacked Tehran? Iran funds the Kata'ib Hezbollah ("Hezbollah Brigades") and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq ("League of the Righteous") that are fighting against IS in both Iraq and Syria.