AL QAEDA MOVING INTO THE SINAI?
A senior Egyptian security official has told Al Hayyat, an Arab satellite television station, that over 400 al-Qaeda members have infiltrated the Sinai, the triangular peninsula that forms Egypt’s eastern border with Israel and the Gaza Strip. Egypt has been thrown into disarray by the revolution that swept over the country earlier this year, overthrowing longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and sending the national economy into a tailspin. Israeli officials are concerned global jihadist groups like al-Qaeda will use the unrest to gain a foothold in a region over which Egypt has had trouble exerting sovereignty in the past. Last February and April, a gas pipeline into Israel and Jordan was blown up in the Sinai, and in August 2010 rockets were fired into Israel from the area. Under the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, the Egyptian military is barred from deploying in the Sinai. After the pipeline bombing last year, however, Israel allowed two Egyptian battalions to enter the peninsula to combat Islamists and Bedouins, but has since denied Egyptian requests to deploy more forces, given the uncertainty surrounding the future composition of the Egyptian government. (Jerusalem Post, June 3, 2011)
MOROCCAN KING PRESENTS NEW CONSTITUTION
One of the few countries to avoid a violent upheaval during the Arab Spring has been the north African state of Morocco, long considered one of the most liberal and progressive of the Arab states. However, despite the lack of violence, Morocco has seen its share of mass demonstrations by a protest youth movement seeking reform. The country's ruler, King Mohammed VI, has responded not with violent repression, but with the introduction of a new constitution which would, protesters hope, turn Morocco into the region’s first constitutional monarchy. The document was drafted by a commission of experts appointed by the king, in consultation with a separate body comprising political parties, labor unions, human rights organizations and other civil society groups.
Released on June 16th, the new constitution, which Moroccans will vote on in a referendum set for July 1st, defines Morocco as a Muslim state and establishes that Islam is the state religion, but also guarantees freedom of religious practice to all faiths. The new power structure would see the king remain supreme arbiter of political forces and retain exclusive domain over religion, security issues, and major strategic policy choices. However, the constitution imposes new limits to the king’s power, including forcing him to name a prime minister from the party that received the most votes, and ending the practice of the king participating in cabinet meetings. It also broadens the powers of the parliament and judiciary and raises the number of independent commissions. All major political parties, including the Islamist Justice and Development Party, have said they will campaign for a “yes” vote. (Arab Reform Monitor, June 20, 2011)
TURKEY AND ISRAEL QUIETLY SEEK TO MEND TIES Amid their worst diplomatic crisis in decades, Israeli and Turkish officials are working behind the scenes to mend ties, with support from the U.S.government. A representative from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held negotiations with Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu, a “firm supporter” of improving Turkish-Israeli relations, while parallel talks are underway between Turkish and Israeli representatives to a UN inquiry committee investigating an incident last year involving a confrontation between the Israeli military and a Turkish-flagged flotilla attempting to reach the Gaza Strip. Turkey and Israel have been at an impasse since that incident, in which nine activists were killed when armed passengers of the flotilla clashed with Israeli commandos boarding the ships. Turkey has demanded an Israeli apology as a precondition to normalizing relations and the Israeli government has grappled with internal divisions over whether to meet that demand. However, in a sign the two sides are moving to put the flotilla incident behind them, Turkish and Israeli diplomats have agreed on the language of a UN report investigating the incident, due to be released in July. (Tel Aviv Ha’aretz, June 21, 2011)
U.S. TO USE DRONES IN YEMEN
Washington is hoping to replicate the success of the CIA drone campaign in Pakistan’s tribal areas in another violent and poorly-governed Muslim country with a growing al-Qaeda presence: Yemen. Terrorism experts have long warned that this chronically unstable Gulf country was fast becoming the “next Afghanistan,” host to what many consider al Qaeda’s most potent and deadly affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Those fears have only been heightened by Yemen’s own traumatic experience with the Arab Spring, with the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh under siege from nationwide street protests, military defections to the opposition, and Islamist militants that have seized towns and cities in the country’s south. Washington, already concerned about the growing strength of AQAP before the Arab Spring, has decided to take a more active role targeting AQAP while the government in Sana’a grapples with its own domestic problems.
The CIA predator drone campaign will complement U.S. special operations forces that are already operating clandestinely in Yemen to target al Qaeda militants. The expanded effort was authorized by President Obama in part as a hedge against the emergence of a new government in Yemen that may be less interested in anti-terrorism cooperation. The U.S. is also said to be building an air base at an undisclosed location in the Persian Gulf from which to launch the predator drones. (Los Angeles Times, June 14, 2011)