AN ARAB ANTI-PIRACY FRONT
The members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are considering expanding defense cooperation to the high seas in an attempt to jointly crack down on maritime piracy. Somali-based pirates operating off the Horn of Africa have ramped up their campaign of terror against merchant ships, hijacking more than 70 vessels in the past two years. These developments are a particular concern for the GCC, since much of the Gulf states' trade and commercial traffic passes though the Gulf of Aden, right off the Somali coast, and a "fully-laden Saudi oil supertanker" was among the dozens of ships hijacked last year. A June 29th meeting in Riyadh between GCC members provided a forum for "joint Arab coordination with multinational forces operating in the region to combat piracy and to agree on the mechanisms of the Arab contribution," said Lieutenant General Prince Gahd bin Abdullah, commander of the Royal Saudi Navy. (Agence France Presse June 29, 2009)
IRAN'S ELECTIONS AND THE ARAB WORLD
The Iranian regime has drawn international condemnation for hosting what is believed to have been a rigged presidential election in early June, and for violently suppressing civilian protests in its aftermath. One region that has watched the episode with intense interest is the Arab Middle East, where three distinct responses to Iran's election have emerged, says a new report by the Washington Institute. The first, led by Saudi Arabia and its media empire and Iran's adversaries in the region, has used the opportunity to decry the election as a farce. Headlines and editorials in Al-Hayat, Al-Arabiya, and Al-Sharq al-Awsat have mocked Iran's "fake democracy" and drawn attention to the victims of Iran's violent repression. The second, from the region's various Islamist movements and many of the Middle East's autocratic regimes, has been one of silence or indifference, driven by fear that criticizing Iranian politics would draw attention to their own authoritarian practices. However, Iran's allies in the Arab world - a group that includes Syria, Qatar and Hezbollah - have focused on U.S. interference in Iran and openly supported the re-election of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, June 29, 2009)
ANOTHER OLIVE BRANCH TO SYRIA
After four years without formal diplomatic relations, Washington will again send an ambassador to Damascus as part of a broader effort to improve ties with the isolated regime of Bashar al-Asad. Washington first withdrew its ambassador to Syria back in 2005, after the country was implicated in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Though an ambassador has not yet been named, the Obama administration is now "prepared to move forward with Syria to advance [America's] interests though direct and continuing dialogue," a State Department spokesman has confirmed. The announcement is the latest in a series of carrots the Obama administration has offered to the Asad regime, following on several visits by high-level military delegations and diplomatic visits by members of congress and the Executive Branch. Sanctions now in place, in part a reaction to Syria's complicity in the Iraqi insurgency, will be unaffected by the new announcement, however. (Washington Post, June 24, 2009)
A U-TURN IN BISHKEK
The on-again,-off-again negotiations over U.S. access to the Kyrgyz airbase at Manas have finally come to a close. After the U.S. was officially ordered to vacate Manas back in February (suspiciously coinciding with the announcement of a multi-billion dollar loan from Russia), conflicting reports about future of U.S. access to the Kyrgyz base have surfaced almost weekly. Now, despite a string of official denials from top-level Kyrgyz officials, Bishkek appears to have come full circle. Under a deal reached between Washington and Bishkek, the U.S. role at Manas will be scaled back (though only "cosmetically") to lessen the U.S. footprint in the former Soviet Republic, while allowing American forces to continue transporting 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo each month to and from Afghanistan.
Manas is also used to refuel tanker planes, which themselves provide in-flight refueling to allied jets, and serves as a key medical evacuation point. In return, Kyrgyzstan will receive more than triple the rent under the previous agreement - up from $17.4 million to $60 million - and the U.S. has agreed to upgrade Manas with new aircraft parking slots, storage areas, and navigation systems (at an estimated cost of $67 million) as well as provide aid to combat drug trafficking and terrorism (worth $51.5 million). Nevertheless, efforts to find alternative logistic routes to Afghanistan begun at the announcement of Manas' closure will continue. (Associated Press, June 26, 2009)
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