JITTERS IN SAUDI
In a sign of growing concern over Iranian influence within its borders, Saudi Arabia has stepped up its monitoring of visitors from the Islamic Republic. Sources say that Saudi authorities have taken the unprecedented move of requiring fingerprints of Iranian pilgrims in the western port city of Jeddah. At the same time, Saudi police are said to have commenced scanning passports and other documents held by Iranian visitors to the Kingdom in various urban centers. The Iranian government has formally protested the measures, which it has termed "maltreatment." (Tehran Fars, August 28, 2007)
TURKEY'S MILITARY PREPARES TO PUSH BACK
Fresh from its resounding parliamentary victory on July 22nd, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has scored another political coup, selecting controversial Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as the country's next president over the strenuous objections of secularist forces. Gul's ascendancy marks a new era of confrontation between the Islamist AKP and its chief political rival: the Turkish military. Already, the Turkish General Staff has warned publicly about "the behaviour of centres of evil who systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic." "Nefarious plans to ruin Turkey's secular and democratic nature emerge in different forms every day," the Chief-of-Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces, General Yasar Buyukanit said on August 28th, in a speech commemorating the country's annual Victory Day. And, according to the General, the Turkish military remains prepared to intervene in national politics. "The military will, just as it has so far, keep its determination to guard social, democratic and secular Turkey," Buyukanit has said. (London Independent, August 28, 2007)
AND THE WINNER IS... HIZB UT-TAHRIR
Local disenchantment over the ongoing political infighting between Hamas and Fatah in the Palestinian Territories has had an unexpected beneficiary. Observers say that Hizb ut-Tahrir, a secretive radical movement that openly preaches for a return of the Islamic caliphate, is making new inroads in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The group’s network of mosques, which may number in the “hundreds or thousands,” is helping to convince Palestinians to abandon democracy and a “two-state solution” with Israel, while leeching members from both Fatah and Hamas. Although officially opposed to political violence, the group has been banned in numerous countries over fears that it “can lead eager followers into involvement with violent offshoots,” experts say. According to Eitan Azani, deputy director of Israel’s Institute of Counter-Terrorism, Hizb ut-Tahrir is “a major threat... the factory that produces, at the end of the day, the jihadis that operate in global terrorism.” (London Telegraph, August 27, 2007)
ENERGY SECURITY, SAUDI STYLE
Saudi Arabia has announced plans to constitute a 35,000-strong security force to protect the Kingdom’s massive oilfields – a repeated target of terrorist attacks. So important is the new Facilities Security Force (FSF) that the Saudi regime is said to have enlisted the help of American defense giant Lockheed Martin to help train the 5,000 members already recruited. The FSF, which is drawing from recruits outside of the country’s military, will be “equipped and trained by Lockheed in the use of state-of-the-art defence technology including laser security and satellite imaging” to protect oil and gas facilities, according to one economic trade paper. (Agence France Presse August 25, 2007)
THE KRG COMES INTO ITS OWN
With Iraq’s national parliament paralyzed by sporadic resignations and factional infighting, the semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) has decided to pass it own oil laws, opening the door to exploration contracts and beginning “one of the key steps required to create [a new] petroleum legal regime.” As currently written, the Iraqi constitution is intentionally vague on the question of oil contracts, national production, and revenue-sharing. Kurdish officials assert that the document grants power to the federal government over “present [oil and gas] fields” only, with each region retaining authority over new production – a loophole that regional officials are ready to exploit. But the KRG’s moves undermine prospects for a “national strategy” for the oil sector and threaten to “fragment the country,” industry experts say. (United Press International, August 22, 2007)
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