America will no longer wage wars to enforce regime change in Middle East: US official

America will no longer wage wars to enforce regime change in Middle East: US official
Mara Karlin said that the new US National Defense Strategy would prioritize “partnerships, integration and interoperability” when dealing with regional threats in the ME. (@DOD_Policy)
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Updated 25 May 2023
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America will no longer wage wars to enforce regime change in Middle East: US official

America will no longer wage wars to enforce regime change in Middle East: US official

WASHINGTON: The new US National Defense Strategy in the Middle East is moving away from waging unilateral wars to change regimes through military means and instead will invest in building coalitions and partnerships with allied regional states, according to Mara Karlin, US assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and capabilities.

Karlin said during a keynote address at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C on Wednesday and attended by Arab News that the new US National Defense Strategy would prioritize “partnerships, integration and interoperability” when dealing with regional threats in the Middle East.

She said that the Middle East region fell under the US National Security Strategy, which included “partnerships, deterrence diplomacy, integration and values.”

Karlin described the new NDS strategy for the Middle East as a “paradigm shift” that was moving away from basing hundreds of thousands of static US troops in the region. Instead, the new paradigm would depend on working with regional partners through partnerships, complex military exercises, and interoperability of weapons systems.

“This is a paradigm shift in our approach to the region, one that is de-emphasizing the unrealistic aims of transformation that are often pursed through unilateral military means,” she said.

“Instead, this paradigm is focused on our competitive advantages and partnerships and the fundamentals of sound policy,” Karlin said.

She said that the new NDS described the basing of hundreds of thousands of troops in the region as “ineffective deterrence.”

However, Karlin said that the shift did not mean that the US was less committed to the Middle East.

“The NDS is very clear. The US will remain engaged in the Middle East,” she said.

Karlin said that the Middle East region was part of US global strategy and considered an integral part of it.

“Frankly, our national security interests are interwoven in this region,” she said.

Karlin said that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had articulated the US strategy in the region during a recent trip to the Middle East as that of supporting “diplomacy” and “conflict deterrence.”

However, Austin had added: “But if we were forced to turn back aggression, we will win and win decisively.”

Karlin said: “Let’s be clear, America’s commitment to security in the Middle East is strong and sure.”

She said that the strength of the new strategy stemmed from its working in multilateral formations and partnerships, and the US military agility that enabled it to direct forces where they were needed swiftly and effectively.

Karlin said that Iran’s “reckless behavior” in the region would be addressed through a multilateral approach of military integration and the interoperability of arms and forces in the region.

“Integration and interoperability are key to address Iran’s reckless activities across all domains,” she said.

Karlin pointed out as an example of this strategy the US Central Command’s work to establish “the combined maritime forces,” a 34-member security and military maritime force to address drug smuggling and piracy on the high seas and deter “state-sponsored maligned activities and ensure commercial shipping.”

She also mentioned the ongoing military exercise “Eagle Resolve,” in which the US Central Command and the Saudi Armed Forces were conducting a multilateral exercise in combination with armed forces of the Arab nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Karlin said that the new US strategy in the Middle East was already paying dividends, citing Yemen and Iraq as examples.

She said that Yemen was now witnessing the longest truce between the warring sides, while Iraq was currently being accepted and integrated back into the region. She also mentioned the defeat of extremist groups such as “Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria through coalition with Arab states.

Globally, Karlin said that the NDS highlighted China as the single biggest threat the US was facing in the future. She said that the main US national defense strategy was to sustain and strengthen the deterrent against China.

China was currently the only country in the world that had the intent and the increasing capability to systematically challenge the US across the board, diplomatically economically and technologically, she said.

The NDS also describes Russia as an “acute” threat. It also mentions a range of other threats including Iran, North Korea, and terrorist organizations.

Released last year, the National Defense Strategy was issued for the first time in an integrated way by including the national nuclear posture review and the missile defense review simultaneously.


UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives

UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives
Updated 18 sec ago
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UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives

UN experts name Houthi official who tortured captives
  • Abdulkader Al-Murtada is the head of the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs and the Iran-backed militia’s negotiator in UN-brokered prisoner swap talks
  • Experts’ judgment has confirmed previous claims made against Al-Murtada by former captives

AL-MUKALLA: A UN panel of experts has named top official Abdulkader Al-Murtada as an abuser of inmates in Houthi detention.

Al-Murtada is the head of the Houthi National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs and the Iran-backed militia’s negotiator in UN-brokered prisoner swap talks.

The experts’ judgment has confirmed previous claims made against Al-Murtada by former captives.

In its 305-page report on Yemen, the panel accused Al-Murtada and other unnamed Houthis of severely abusing captives within the Central Security Camp prison in Sanaa, which is controlled by Al-Murtada. The treatment had resulted in the death of some detainees, and lasting injuries.

The experts said: “Prisoners are systematically subjected to torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, or punishment perpetrated by the prison’s staff.

“Based on the multiple reports received by the panel, various members of the prison’s management were and still are torturing the prisoners, including Abdulkader Al-Murtada.”

They added that prisoners were subjected to systematic psychological and physical torture inside the Al-Murtada-operated detention facility. Measures included forcing captives to stand for long periods, hitting their heads against the wall, dragging them, beating them with metal or electric wires, and banning doctors from performing lifesaving surgeries on tortured prisoners.

If the detainees asked for medicines, their Houthi captors sold them at exorbitant rates, although these had been received free from relief groups.

The panel also gathered evidence of extortion. Prisoners and their families were forced to pay high amounts to make brief phone calls or to meet, the report said, adding that the phone calls were often allowed “for the sole purpose of requesting families to transfer additional money, which will be administered by the prison’s management on behalf of each prisoner.”

Many former Houthi captives freed as part of prisoner exchange deals between the Yemeni government and the militia have said that Al-Murtada personally tortured them, or that they saw him and his colleagues mistreat inmates.

Citing the case of the kidnapped young Yemeni model and actor Entesar Al-Hammadi, along with other women, the experts said they were subjected to harsh mistreatment by their Houthi captors, with some of the women sexually assaulted and others put on trial.

The report added: “Women in detention are also sexually assaulted, in some cases subjected to virginity tests, and are often prevented from gaining access to essential goods, including feminine hygiene products.”

The report stated that the Houthis had also subjected more than 1 million Yemeni children to indoctrination and brainwashing. The youngsters had joined Houthi summer camps in 2023.

It added: “The panel documented that children as young as 10 years old are exposed to military training. The Houthis are also giving monetary incentives to promote a higher attendance rate in the summer camps by waiving the registration fees for the next school year.”

Hamzah Al-Jubaihi, a Yemeni journalist who suffered at the hands of Al-Murtada before his release in late 2021, thanked UN experts for naming and shaming the Houthi figure and urged the international community to sanction him.

Al-Jubaihi told Arab News: “This person personally tortures the detainees, both physically and psychologically, and he has a terrorist and sadistic mindset, as well as an inferiority problem.

“He was tormenting the inmates in front of me and stamping on their faces with his shoe.”


UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza

UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza
Updated 05 December 2023
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UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza

UN says ‘not possible’ to create ‘safe zones’ in Gaza
  • ‘The so-called safe zones... are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this’

GENEVA: The United Nations warned Tuesday that it was impossible to create so-called safe zones for civilians to flee to inside the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s bombing campaign.
Israel had initially focused its offensive on the north of the territory, but the army has now also dropped leaflets on parts of the south, telling Palestinian civilians there to flee to other areas.
“The so-called safe zones... are not scientific, they are not rational, they are not possible, and I think the authorities are aware of this,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Cairo.
His comments came as Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in the southern Gaza Strip after expanding their offensive deeper into the besieged area.
Israel said it was at war with Hamas after the militant group’s October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and which saw around 240 hostages taken, according to Israeli authorities.
In retaliation for the worst attack in its history, Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas and secure the release of all the hostages held in Gaza.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says the war has killed nearly 15,900 people in the territory, around 70 percent of them women and children.
As Israel’s offensive pushes deeper into Gaza, international aid organizations have warned that civilians in the densely-populated territory are running out of places to flee to.
Elder insisted that the safe zones declared by Israel “cannot be safe nor humanitarian when unilaterally declared.”
The pretense that there is somewhere safe for people to flee to is “callous,” he said.
He stressed that in a proper safe zone, “you can guarantee the conditions of food, water, medicine and shelter.”
Elder, who spent the past week or so in Gaza, stressed that none of that is assured in the areas designated as safe zones.
“These are entirely, entirely absent. You cannot overstate this. These are tiny patches of barren land, or they are street corners, they are sidewalks,” he said.
“There is no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold and the rain (and) there’s no sanitation.”
Elder pointed out that in the overcrowded shelters that most of the displaced in Gaza have flocked to there had been around one toilet for every 400 people.
“Now remove those people and put them in... the so called safe places. It’s tens of thousands of people without a single toilet — not one — no clean water, nothing to drink,” he said.
“Without water, without sanitation, without shelter the so called safe zones risks becoming zones of disease.”


WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’

WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’
Updated 05 December 2023
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WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’

WHO: Situation in Gaza ‘getting worse by the hour’
  • WHO representative in Gaza: Humanitarian aid reaching Gaza ‘way too little’
  • WHO deeply concerned about the vulnerability of the health system in the enclave

GENEVA: A World Health Organization official in Gaza said on Tuesday the situation was deteriorating by the hour as Israeli bombing has intensified in the south of the Palestinian enclave around the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.
“The situation is getting worse by the hour,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza, told reporters via video link. “There’s intensified bombing going on all around, including here in the southern areas, Khan Younis and even in Rafah.”
Peeperkorn said the humanitarian aid reaching Gaza was “way too little” and said the WHO was deeply concerned about the vulnerability of the health system in the densely populated enclave as more people move further south to escape the bombing.
“I want to make this point very clear that we are looking at an increasing humanitarian disaster,” he said.
Peeperkorn said WHO had complied with an Israeli order to remove supplies from warehouses in Khan Younis. He said WHO had been told the area would “most likely become an area of active combat in the coming days.”
“We want to make sure that we can actually deliver essential medical supplies,” he said.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday appealed to Israel to withdraw the order. Israel denied asking for the evacuation of warehouses.


France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar

France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar
Updated 05 December 2023
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France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar

France imposes sanctions on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar
  • France is working with partners to impose sanctions on Hamas individuals

PARIS: France on Tuesday imposed asset freezes on Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, the latest leader from the Islamist group to be added to its national sanctions list, according to a decree published in the country’s official journal.
France on Nov. 13 imposed sanctions at a national level on Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif and his deputy, Marwan Issa.
It is working with partners to impose sanctions on Hamas individuals and its financing network at European Union level, diplomats have said.


Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border

Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border
Updated 05 December 2023
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Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border

Jordan army say three killed in drug bust at Syria border
  • About 233,000 Captagon pills – a mix of amphetamines – and quantities of hashish were found during the operation

AMMAN: The Jordanian army said on Tuesday it killed three drug dealers during an operation that foiled the smuggling of large quantities of drugs across the border from Syria.
About 233,000 Captagon pills — a mix of amphetamines — and quantities of hashish were found during the bust, it said.
The army said it had monitored a group of smugglers who had sought to cross the border and applied strict rules of engagement to shoot at first sight.
“We continue to deal with resolve and force any threat to our borders and any attempt to undermine and destabilize the country’s security,” the army said in a statement.
War-torn Syria has become the region’s main site for a multi-billion-dollar drug trade, with Jordan being a main transit route to the oil-rich Gulf states for a Syrian-made amphetamine known as Captagon, Western anti-narcotics officials and Washington say.
Jordan has blamed pro-Iranian militias, who it says are protected by units within the Syrian army, for smuggling drugs across its borders toward Gulf markets.
Damascus says it is doing its best to curb smuggling and continues to bust smuggler rings in the south. It denies complicity with Iranian-backed militias linked to its army and security forces.