DENUCLEARIZING SYRIA
For weeks, the covert raid carried out by Israel in Syria in early September has remained shrouded in secrecy. But now, details of the clandestine operation have begun to trickle out. According to a number of media reports, the aerial and special forces assault carried out by Israel was aimed at a suspected clandestine Syrian nuclear facility, and is said to have resulted in the seizure of nuclear materiel of North Korean origin. Sources also say that the Israeli raid employed sophisticated electronic jamming technology that successfully blinded the new Tor-M1 air defense systems Damascus recently acquired from Russia. (London Sunday Times, September 23, 2007; Aviation Week, October 8, 2007)
THE GULF'S SECURITY CONUNDRUM
In a sign of deepening unease in the Persian Gulf over Iran's nuclear ambitions, a top regional diplomat has warned of disastrous consequences if Tehran is not contained. "The question now is the choice between an Iranian nuclear bomb and a strike on Iran," Khalifah Bin-Abdallah Al Khalifah, the Bahraini ambassador to Great Britain, told the audience at a recent nonproliferation conference in London. And while the countries of the region oppose a military strike on Iran, they cannot "accept an Iranian nuclear bomb," Khalifah has said. "The two sides [the U.S. and Iran] are talking two different languages" on the issue of Iran's nuclearization, the envoy warned, and the likely results will be some form of military conflict. (London Al-Sharq al-Awsat, September 18, 2007)
THE IAF ENTERS THE POLITICAL FRAY
After months of speculation, Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood has announced that it plans to participate in upcoming parliamentary elections in the Hashemite Kingdom. The November 20th legislative poll had been in limbo for weeks, pending a decision by the Islamist party, which currently holds more than ten percent of the seats in the country’s 110-member parliament. “[I]n view of the difficult national and regional situation and to spare our youth from pessimism and depression, which could lead to violence and destruction... the Front's leadership has to participate in the elections," the Brotherhood’s political wing, the Islamic Action Front, said in a press statement explaining its decision. (Doha Al Jazeera, September 25, 2007; Associated Press, September 25, 2007)
HUNTING FOR HEZBOLLAH'S ARSENAL
The offensive capabilities of Iran's chief terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, are emerging as a topic of growing concern throughout the Middle East. Regional sources reveal that Jordan's intelligence service dispatched a delegation to Beirut back in August to consult with officials from Lebanon's homeland security ministry. The reason for the meeting? A discussion of the Lebanese terrorist powerhouse’s military potential, including the location and scope of its arms depots, missiles and rockets. (Tehran Fars, October 2, 2007)
A LEGAL RESHUFFLE IN RIYADH
The House of Saud has launched an overhaul of Saudi Arabia's judicial system. The price tag for the massive reform and modernization plan, unveiled by King Abdullah in early October, is estimated at some $2 billion. It entails the replacement of the nation's current Supreme Judicial Council with a new supreme court and general courts, as well as standardized training for Saudi judges.
Saudi reformers have expressed high hopes for the measures, which they expect to improve human rights standards in the Kingdom. Western observers, however, are taking a dimmer view. "The reform failed to tackle the reason for all the current problems; namely, that Saudi judges are not lawyers nor even students of civil law, but religious priests who must be graduates of Islamic theological schools," writes commentator Yousef Ibrahim in the New York Sun. "In other words, the same folks who gave you broken justice can now expand it into new areas such as business and women's rights." (London BBC, October 5, 2007; New York Sun, October 5, 2007)