IRON DOME READY IN NOVEMBER
The first two batteries of Israel’s long-awaited Iron Dome missile defense system are set for deployment along Israel’s border with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in November, according to Israel’s defense ministry. More batteries of the Iron Dome, which is “designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells,” will later be deployed to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where the Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah has amassed some 40,000 rockets. The U.S. has assisted Israel in the development of the Iron Dome and the longer-range Arrow ballistic missile defense system and President Barack Obama asked Congress for an additional $205 million to develop the Iron Dome in May. (Defense News, July 19, 2010)
SAUDI LEGAL REFORM TAKES A STEP FORWARD
The glacially-paced reform of Saudi Arabia’s legal system just received a major boost, with Saudi Arabia’s highest religious authority approving the establishment of a codified legal system to supersede the makeshift labyrinth of clerical rulings that persists today. The current legal system is under tremendous strain, with a “severe shortage” of judges, the lack of due process, the lack of computerized records, the inability to give live testimony, and the absence of a penal code with “clear definitions of crimes and appropriate sentences.” The trial of suspected terrorists is currently done in secret in a new court attached to the Riyadh General Court. “There are no lawyers, no family, no audience, no journalists, so it is broken trials,” says Abdelaziz al Gasim, a former Saudi judge. King Abdullah, the primary driver behind the three-year-old reform effort, has allocated $2 billion to the effort and last year removed the head of the Supreme Judicial Council over his opposition to the plan. The actual codification process, just one component of the broader push, was approved in March by the Council of Senior Ulema and will cover “penal, civil and family laws, and take years to complete.” (Dubai The National, July 21, 2010)
IRAN’S HAND IN IRAQ HIGHLIGHTED BY U.S. GENERAL
“The Iranians… continue to fund, train and provide weapons and ammunition to Shiite extremist groups,” says the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno. This is not the first time Gen. Odierno has weighed in on what has at times been a contentious debate about the level of Iranian involvement in Iraq. The U.S. has long asserted that Tehran supports Shi’ite militias in Iraq, but Gen. Odierno outlined in unusual detail the three specific groups Iran provides the bulk of its support to: the League of the Righteous (Asaib al Haq), the Promised Day Brigade (a spinoff of the Mahdi Army), and the Hezbollah Brigades (Kataib Hezbollah). Gen. Odierno wouldn’t go on record that the groups were backed by the highest levels of the Iranian government, but he asserted that “we do know that many of them live in Iran, many of them get trained in Iran, and many of them get weapons from Iran.” The three groups regularly target U.S. and Iraqi forces, as well as Iraqi politicians critical of Iran. (Long War Journal, July 22, 2010)
FRANCE “AT WAR” WITH AQIM
France is “at war with al Qaeda” in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), according to France’s Prime Minister, Francois Fillon. A day after a 78-year-old French hostage kidnapped by AQIM on April 20 was confirmed dead, Fillon told Europe 1 radio that “the fight against terrorism will continue and will be reinforced.” French military forces, working with Mauritanian forces, launched a raid into Mali in late July to rescue the imprisoned French engineer, Michel Germaneau. France has been supporting Mauritanian forces battling AQIM, which Fillon estimates consists of about 400 fighters operating in a desert as large as the European continent. Mali, meanwhile, appeared perturbed France would conduct a joint operation with Mauritania across its border. “We do not understand why… France leaves us to one side and launches a military operation with Mauritania, which ended up being a failure… Everyone knows that the failure of the operation guaranteed the death of the hostage,” a senior Malian defense official told Reuters. (Reuters, July 27, 2010)
TURKEY GIVES BOOST TO AZERI ENCLAVE
After Turkey’s latest attempt at reconciliation with Armenia came to an abrupt halt this spring, Ankara has begun strengthening its ties to the isolated Azeri enclave of Nakhchivan. The territory is not geographically contiguous with the rest of Azerbaijan, a largely Shi’ite, ethnically Turkic country with strong ties to Istanbul, but Nakhchivan does share a small, 7 mile border with Turkey (it borders Iran to the South and Armenia to the north). Turkey has long sustained the Azeri enclave of 40,000, but recently has begun to ramp up strategic cooperation in the fields of energy, trade and travel. Many see it as a sign to Armenia of the costs of freezing the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process in April. Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has since noted that “Nakhchivan is exposed to various threats from the Armenian state.”
A contract signed July 17 will see Turkey transport 500 mcm of Azeri natural gas to the enclave each year at no transit cost through a new pipeline Azerbaijan’s state oil company is set to build linking Turkey to Nakhchivan. The enclave currently gets its natural gas from Iran, to whom it must pay a 15 percent transit fee. Moreover, a Turkish airline has begun conducting weekly flights between Istanbul and Nakhchivan and there are discussions underway about connecting the enclave to a railroad linking Turkey to Azerbaijan. (Eurasianet.org, July 26, 2010)