Iran ‘most destabilizing force’ in Middle East, says Centcom chief

Iran ‘most destabilizing force’ in Middle East, says Centcom chief
Centcom chief Gen. Erik Kurilla told Al Arabiya Tuesday that countering the threat posed by the Islamic republic remained a top priority but said it would be reliant on regional cooperation. (AP)
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Updated 13 May 2022

Iran ‘most destabilizing force’ in Middle East, says Centcom chief

Iran ‘most destabilizing force’ in Middle East, says Centcom chief
  • “The US’s position is that we will not allow a nuclear Iran, however, our concerns about Iran go beyond its nuclear capability,” said Kurilla.
  • He stressed the importance of the US-Saudi partnership, describing it as a relationship “underpinning our strategy in the Middle East”

LONDON: Iran is the “most destabilizing force in the Middle East,” according to the US’s top military general in the region as he called on partners in the region to address mounting concerns.
US Central Command (Centcom) chief Gen. Erik Kurilla told Al Arabiya on Tuesday that countering the threat posed by the Islamic republic remained a top priority but said it would be reliant on regional cooperation.
“The US’s position is that we will not allow a nuclear Iran, however, our concerns about Iran go beyond its nuclear capability,” said Kurilla.
The Centcom chief noted Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for Iran-backed militias and proxies as other concerns requiring “a firm effort from us and our security partners in the region.”
He was in Saudi Arabia as part of a “listening tour” having been in Egypt before and said he would be making several more trips to the Kingdom.
“This visit to the Centcom region… is largely an opportunity to glean insights from our partners here and in so doing, I’m looking for gaps, risks, and opportunities in security for our partners and for the region,” Kurilla added.
“I’ll return to the kingdom many times in the coming months and years. In so doing, I will demonstrate American commitment to Saudi Arabia and the region.”
Kurilla, who replaced Gen. Frank McKenzie earlier this year as the top US military representative in the Middle East, stressed the importance of the US-Saudi partnership, describing it as a relationship “underpinning our strategy in the Middle East.”
As part of its ongoing commitment to the region, it created a new naval task force comprised of international military personnel and 15 US recruits from the combined maritime forces.
The new force’s focus will be on smuggling and piracy amid concerns over a rise in the level of weapons flowing into Yemen and other parts of the Gulf, which are believed to have been used against civilian areas in Saudi and the UAE.
“We are concerned about the smuggling of advanced conventional munitions by sea to support Houthi operations,” said Kurilla.
“Therefore, anti-smuggling operations with the Royal Saudi Naval Forces will serve as an area of focus for me (as will) maintaining safe and secure waterways, a critical responsibility for us and our partners.”


US, UK sanction 6 Syria-linked Captagon traffickers

US, UK sanction 6 Syria-linked Captagon traffickers
Updated 28 March 2023

US, UK sanction 6 Syria-linked Captagon traffickers

US, UK sanction 6 Syria-linked Captagon traffickers
  • 6 include cousins of Syrian President Bashar Assad and notorious Lebanese drug lynchpins
  • Washington and London also sanctioned two trading companies based in Lebanon

BEIRUT: The US and UK on Tuesday slapped sanctions on four Syrians and two Lebanese involved in manufacturing and trafficking the amphetamine drug Captagon, the two governments said. The six include cousins of Syrian President Bashar Assad and notorious Lebanese drug lynchpins.
Experts say Captagon is primarily produced in Syria and Lebanon, where packages containing millions of pills are smuggled into Gulf countries, Europe and elsewhere. The trade allegedly has strong ties to Assad and his associates, as well as key ally, the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in neighboring Lebanon.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office statement announcing the sanctions said the Captagon industry is worth $57 billion to Assad, and has been a key source of revenue as Syria’ uprising turned-conflict continues for a 13th year. Assad’s brutal crackdown on protests in 2011 led to his global isolation, and his forces were accused of rampant torture, bombing civilian infrastructure, and using chemical weapons with support of key allies Russia and Iran.
“Syria has become a global leader in the production of highly addictive Captagon, much of which is trafficked through Lebanon,” said the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control director Andrea M. Gacki in the statement.
Gacki added that the trade’s revenues enable the government’s “continued repression on the Syrian people.”
Among the four Syrians sanctioned are two cousins of Assad, Samer and Wassim. According to the US Treasury’s statement, Samer oversees Captagon production in the northern coastal city of Lattakia in coordination with Hezbollah and the Syrian army’s elite Fourth Division. Meanwhile, Wassim has been described as a “key figure in the regional drug trafficking network,” while also leading a paramilitary group backing the Syrian army in the conflict.
Meanwhile, Syrian businessman Khalid Qaddour was also sanctioned for his alleged involvement in managing smuggling revenues and allegedly has close ties to President Assad’s brother Maher, who leads the Fourth Division and has allegedly profited off smuggling illicit drugs, mobile phones and cigarettes. Syrian militiaman Imad Abu Zureik was also sanctioned for running a militia group with ties to Syrian military intelligence in the south of the country that the US Treasury said controls the Nassib border crossing with Jordan. Abu Zureik was a former commander with Free Syria Army opposition forces.
In Lebanon, Washington and London sanctioned notorious weapons and drug smuggler Noah Zeiter, who for years has been on the run from Lebanese authorities. Zeiter prior to the conflict in Syria was known for producing and smuggling large amounts of cannabis and made occasional bombastic media appearances. Zeiter is close with Hezbollah and Syria’s Fourth Division.
Hassan Daqqou, a Lebanese-Syrian who the media frequently dubs “The King of Captagon,” was also sanctioned due to his links with Hezbollah and drug trafficking operations by the Syrian army’s Fourth Division. Daqqou was arrested in Lebanon in 2021 and in 2022 was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for producing and smuggling Captagon.
Washington and London also sanctioned two trading companies based in eastern Lebanon that Daqqou owns.

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US officials, Syria experts urge Biden administration to resist any Assad normalization process

The letter came amid a growing sense among many that Assad is slowly being welcomed back into the fold by other leaders
The letter came amid a growing sense among many that Assad is slowly being welcomed back into the fold by other leaders
Updated 28 March 2023

US officials, Syria experts urge Biden administration to resist any Assad normalization process

The letter came amid a growing sense among many that Assad is slowly being welcomed back into the fold by other leaders
  • Charles Lister, coordinator of the joint letter, said the official US message is ‘We will never normalize and we discourage normalization,’ but this is not the same as ‘Don’t you dare normalize’
  • The letter also highlighted the need for a formal ceasefire in Syria, which the signatories said would allow for a more efficient and coordinated aid effort and could ignite a political process

LONDON: A group of American former officials and experts on Syria have written to US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging their administration to push back against any efforts to normalize the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The signatories to the letter include former US special envoys to Syria Frederic Hof, James Jeffrey and Joel Rayburn; Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the former chief of US Central Command; John McLaughlin, a former acting director of the CIA; and William Roebuck, the former US deputy special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh.

The missive outlines their concerns about Biden’s strategy for Syria, where a brutal civil war raging since 2011 has left half a million people dead and millions displaced in one of the world’s worst refugee crises.

“Unconditional regime normalization is not inevitable,” according to the authors of the letter. “Opposing regime normalization in word only is not enough, as tacitly allowing it is short-sighted and damaging to any hope for regional security and stability.”

Biden has previously indicated that the US will not normalize the Syrian regime and will not encourage its partners or other nations to do so. It comes amid a growing sense among many that Assad is slowly being welcomed back into the fold by other leaders, regionally and globally.

“(The US) message is, ‘We will never normalize and we discourage normalization,’” said Charles Lister, a senior fellow at Middle East Institute and coordinator of the letter. “None of that is, ‘Don’t you dare normalize with the regime.’”

The letter also highlighted the need for a formal ceasefire in Syria, which the authors said would allow for a more efficient and coordinated aid effort and could ignite a political process. Any normalization of the Assad regime, they added, would erode the “international community’s capacity to shape a political process aimed at meaningfully resolving the crisis.”

They continued: “None of the issues that caused the Syria conflict have been resolved, most notably Assad regime atrocities, and inability or refusal to reform.

“Many of the conflict’s symptoms are worsening, from human suffering, industrial-scale drug trafficking, refugee flows, terrorism, geopolitical conflict and ethnic and sectarian hostilities.

“The Biden administration’s foreign-policy priorities of great-power competition, international and Middle East stability, human rights, humanitarianism, or combating food insecurity are insufficiently advanced through the current Syria policy.”

Lister said that regional moves to normalize relations with the Assad regime are inevitable because the US and its allies have been lackluster and are “nowhere to be seen” when it comes to the Syria crisis. If the West is not willing to push for accountability and justice over Assad’s atrocities, he asked, “why should regional states?”

The letter also includes a number of recommendations, including an alternative strategy for humanitarian aid to the Syrian people in the aftermath of the Feb. 6 earthquakes that hit the north of the country and neighboring Turkiye, and increased pressure on the governments of other countries to repatriate the thousands of their citizens who fought alongside Daesh and are now detained, with their families, in Syrian camps.

Prominent Emirati professor Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said he believes the regional approach to Syria, while differing from the US and European policy, will ultimately win out through a process of re-engagement with Damascus.

He said a rapprochement could benefit the region because “more Arab presence probably will translate into less Iranian presence” in the corridors of power in Damascus, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported.


Caution in crisis-hit Israel as talks set to start

Caution in crisis-hit Israel as talks set to start
Updated 28 March 2023

Caution in crisis-hit Israel as talks set to start

Caution in crisis-hit Israel as talks set to start
  • Embattled leader acknowledges divisions roiling the nation, announces delay for the legislation
  • Critics say the legislative package would hobble the country’s system of checks and balances

TEL AVIV: Caution prevailed in Israel Tuesday ahead of the first talks between the government and opposition after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paused controversial judicial reforms which sparked a general strike and mass protests.
With the crisis far from over, President Isaac Herzog’s office said he had invited representatives of the ruling coalition and the two main opposition parties “for a first dialogue meeting” at his residence from 7:30 p.m. (1630 GMT).
After three months of increasing tensions that split the nation, Netanyahu bowed to pressure in the face of a nationwide walkout Monday which hit airports, hospitals and more, while tens of thousands of reform opponents rallied outside parliament in Jerusalem.
“Out of a will to prevent a rupture among our people, I have decided to pause the second and third readings of the bill” to allow time for dialogue, the prime minister said in a broadcast.
The decision to halt the legislative process marked a dramatic U-turn for the premier, who just a day earlier announced he was sacking his defense minister who had called for the very same step.
The move was greeted with skepticism in Israel, with the president of the Israel Democracy Institute think-tank remarking it does not amount to a peace deal.
“Rather, it’s a cease-fire perhaps for regrouping, reorganizing, reorienting and then charging — potentially — charging ahead,” Yohanan Plesner told journalists.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid reacted warily, saying Monday he wanted to be sure “that there is no ruse or bluff.”
A joint statement Tuesday from Lapid’s party and that of Benny Gantz, the former defense minister, said such talks will stop immediately “if the law is put on the Knesset’s (parliament’s) agenda.”
The opposition had previously refused to negotiate over the reforms — which would hand politicians more power over the judiciary — until the legislative process was stopped.
“The goal is to reach an agreement,” Netanyahu said in a statement Tuesday.
Activists who have led nearly three months of protests against the reform package vowed to continue their rallies.
“This is another attempt of Netanyahu trying to gaslight the Israeli public in order to weaken the protest and then enact a dictatorship,” the Umbrella Movement of demonstrators said.
“We will not stop the protest until the judicial coup is completely stopped,” it added in a statement.
The crisis has revealed deep rifts within Netanyahu’s fledgling coalition, an alliance with far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich asserted “there will be no turning back” on the judicial overhaul, in a tweet Monday.
Fellow far-right cabinet member, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, had pressed his supporters to rally in favor of the reforms.
Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party revealed on Monday that the decision to delay the legislation involved an agreement to expand the minister’s portfolio after he threatened to quit if the overhaul was put on hold.
Writing in the left-wing daily Haaretz, political correspondent Yossi Verter said the pause was “a victory for the protesters, but the one who really bent Netanyahu and trampled on him is Itamar Ben-Gvir.”
The affair has hit the coalition’s standing among the Israeli public, just three months after it took office.
Netanyahu’s Likud party has dipped seven points, according to a poll by Israel’s Channel 12 which predicted the government would lose its majority in the 120-seat parliament if elections were held.
The fate of the ousted defense minister, Yoav Gallant, was unknown on Tuesday with speculation in Israeli media that he could be reinstated.
Gallant, who had warned the crisis threatened national security, on Monday welcomed “the decision to stop the legislative process in order to conduct dialogue,” his team said.


Photographer Platon and UN produce film to humanize refugees and shed light on their plight

Photographer Platon and UN produce film to humanize refugees and shed light on their plight
Updated 28 March 2023

Photographer Platon and UN produce film to humanize refugees and shed light on their plight

Photographer Platon and UN produce film to humanize refugees and shed light on their plight
  • The 18-minute movie, ‘Portrait of a Stranger,’ features interviews with more than 20 refugees who fled conflicts and persecution in various parts of the world
  • It premiered at the Movies That Matter International Human Rights Film Festival, which is taking place this week in The Hague

THE HAGUE: British photographer and storyteller Platon and the UN Refugee Agency have unveiled a collaborative film and multimedia project that explores the plight of refugees.

“Portrait of a Stranger,” an 18-minute film that features interviews with more than 20 refugees who fled conflicts and persecution around the world, premiered at the Movies That Matter International Human Rights Film Festival, which is taking place this week in The Hague, the Emirates News Agency reported.

Its creators said it seeks to reframe the narratives surrounding people who are forced to flee their homes, while also examining the universal desire to be free, safe, respected and valued, and to belong.

The refugees who appear in the film represent a diverse range of ages, nationalities, ethnicities and personal circumstances. Audiences are asked to look beyond the differences between people and instead focus on what we have in common.

“Living in exile may be their life circumstance but it is not what defines them,” said Platon. “I hope the images and voices of the refugees in this film will help audiences focus on the shared humanity that unites us, rather than the barriers that divide us — not only for these particular refugees but for all people forced to flee around the world.”

In 2022, more than 100 million people were displaced, globally.

“This film and these images are powerful reminders of who refugees really are,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “They are people like your neighbor, your friend, your colleague, like you and me, each with our own personality, our hopes, our dreams.

“By amplifying the voices of refugees, the film offers an important reality check to counter the negative public discourse we often hear about people forced to flee.”


US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks – White House

US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks – White House
Updated 28 March 2023

US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks – White House

US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks – White House
  • Syria’s foreign ministry on Sunday condemned the US air strikes
  • ‘There’s been no change in the US footprint in Syria as a result of what happened the last few days’

WASHINGTON: The United States will not back away from its nearly eight-year-old deployment to Syria, where it is battling the remnants of Daesh, despite attacks on US forces there last week by Iran-backed militia, the White House said on Monday.
A one-way attack drone struck a US base in Syria on March 23, killing an American contractor, injuring another and wounding five US troops.
That triggered US retaliatory air strikes and exchanges of fire that a Syrian war monitoring group said killed three Syrian troops, 11 Syrian fighters in pro-government militias and five non-Syrian fighters who were aligned with the government.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said he was not aware of any additional attacks over the past 36 hours but cautioned, “We’re going to stay vigilant.”
Kirby also referred to President Joe Biden’s remarks on Friday, in which Biden warned Iran that the United States would act forcefully to protect Americans.
“There’s been no change in the US footprint in Syria as a result of what happened the last few days,” Kirby said, adding the mission against Daesh would continue.
“We’re not going to be deterred ... by these attacks from these militant groups.”
Syria’s foreign ministry on Sunday condemned US strikes, saying Washington had lied about what was targeted and pledging to “end the American occupation” of its territory.
Iran’s foreign ministry also condemned the strikes, accusing US forces of targeting “civilian sites.”
US forces first deployed into Syria during the Obama administration’s campaign against Daesh, partnering with a Kurdish-led group called the Syrian Democratic Forces. There are about 900 US troops in Syria, most of them in the east.
Prior to the latest spate of attacks, US troops in Syria had been attacked by Iranian-backed groups about 78 times since the beginning of 2021, according to the US military.
Iran has been a major backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad during Syria’s 12-year conflict.
Iran’s proxy militias, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah and pro-Tehran Iraqi groups, hold sway in swathes of eastern, southern and northern Syria and in suburbs around the capital, Damascus.