Tag Archives: Middle East

U.S. Keeping Close Watch on Saudi Arabia-Iran Situation

The fallout from Saudi Arabia’s controversial execution of a prominent religious leader continued to draw the attention of United States officials on Tuesday, according to CNN.

A senior official within the State Department told the network that Secretary of State John Kerry was “very concerned with the direction this thing is going,” adding the fact that several Islamic nations had cut diplomatic ties with each other in recent days was “very unsettling” to Kerry.

The situation has devolved rapidly since Saudi Arabia’s state-run media agency announced Saturday that it had executed Nimr al-Nimr, who the U.S. State Department characterized as a Shia religious leader, and 46 others for what it called “terrorist crimes.” Most of Saudi Arabia follows Sunni Islam, a different branch than the one Nimr practiced, and human rights group Amnesty International said Nimr was convicted following a “political and grossly unfair trial.”

In Iran, where most people follow the branch of Islam that Nimr practiced, the news wasn’t received well. CNN reported that protesters responded by attacking the Saudi Arabian embassy, and the situation has only worsened from there as Islamic nations took sides in the dispute and began imposing sanctions and scaled back or altogether eliminated diplomatic conversations.

According to CNN, Kerry was urging Saudi Arabia and Iran to resolve the situation, which was threatening efforts to combat the Islamic State and could potentially have broader impacts.

Christianity Facing Extinction in Many Middle Eastern Countries

Aid groups told Fox News on Tuesday that Christianity could vanish in the Middle East within the next decade as many Christians are being killed, ran out of their homes, or forced to renounce their faith in order to live.

As Islamic State radicals plague Syria and Iraq and continuously kill Christians and others with different religious views than their own, other areas are continuing to put pressure on Christians including Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf nations.

A report done by the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need states that the Christian population in Iraq was 1.5 million in 2003, and now in 2015, there is estimated to about 275,000. The numbers continue to dwindle as Christians are killed, living in secret, or flee. In Iraq alone, a dozen Christian families flee each and every day according to 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, a Falls Church, Va., nonprofit dedicated to promoting religious freedom worldwide.

“Unless the global community gets involved, we will witness the loss of Christian witnesses in a land that is biblically significant,” Elijah Brown, executive vice president for 21st Century Wilberforce, told FoxNews.com.

He told Fox News that Iraq’s second largest city has been purged of Christians after ISIS took over.

“Last Christmas was the first time that bells did not ring out in the city of Mosul in 2,000 years,” Brown said. “I think that speaks to the reality that hundreds of thousands of Christian families are living on the edge of extinction.”

And while Christians in Syria and Iraq continue to flee in fear of ISIS, one Middle Eastern country was mentioned in the report as being tolerant and protective of their Christian community: Egypt. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has vowed numerous times to protect the Coptic Christians and even attended Christmas church services with them as a sign of tolerance and solidarity.

“Such a development holds out a potential beacon of hope for Christians and others in the Middle East against a backdrop of growing Islamism,” the report stated.

While the Middle East is the most well-known area for Christian persecution, Christianity in Africa and Asia is in danger too. Boko Haram, an Islamist terror group, has killed several Christians in Nigeria and has sparked other extremists to do so in Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, and other parts of the continent. Christians located in Asia face persecution from nationalist religious movements such as Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist in countries such as Pakistan, Hindu, and Myanmar. In most of these countries, Christianity is viewed as a foreign, Western practice, according to Fox News.

ISIS Attacks Jump 42% over the Past 3 Months, According to Latest Study

A recent study published by the IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center stated that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has increased the amount of attacks by 42% within the last 3 months.

The consulting and analysis firm said that between July and September of 2015, ISIS claimed a total of 1,086 attacks. The new daily average of their attacks increased from 8.3 to 11.8, according to NBC News.

IHS estimates that the numbers are even higher, but their study only includes attacks that have been officially claimed by the Islamic State or were definitively linked to the group by government officials.

The study conducted by the IHS also reports an increase on the average daily death toll. The results showing that there is an average of 32.4 non-militant deaths per day, which is a 65.3% increase from the past 3 months.

“The group’s capacity to wage a territorial-focused insurgency in conjunction with a punitive campaign of terrorist attacks remains undiminished despite an increasingly broad spectrum of armed opposition,” IHS told NBC News.

The report concentrates on the Islamic State’s activity based in areas where it has claimed the territory including: Egypt, Yemen, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Libya, the North Caucasus, Algeria, and parts of Iraq and Syria.

President Obama Changes Plan, Troops to Stay in Afghanistan into 2017

Senior administration officials announced that President Barack Obama has decided to keep 5,500 U.S. troops across Afghanistan into 2017, ending his original plans of bringing home most American forces from the Middle Eastern country before the end of his term.

A senior administration official stated the president’s decision came after an “extensive months-long review” along with regular discussions between U.S. commanders in the field, the national security team, and Afghanistan’s leaders.

The new plan slows the pace of the reduction of American forces in the war-torn country. An anonymous official reported that the current U.S. force 9,800 will be staying in Afghanistan through “most of 2016.” After 2016, the remaining troops will focus on training and advising the Afghan army. The U.S. will also continue to using drones and Special Operations forces to strike al-Qaeda and other forces who may be plotting attacks against the United States.

The decision comes after Taliban forces took control of the northern city of Kunduz approximately two weeks ago, causing a major battle with Afghan forces on the ground and U.S. airstrikes supporting them.

Russia, Syria Coordinate Attacks

Moscow stated on Wednesday that its warships fired 26 missiles into Syria, hitting 11 targets and Syrian ground troops hit at least four insurgent positions.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that ISIS was the primary target.

Coordinated attacks by Russia and Syria were launched on Islamist factions in numerous towns in Hama and Idlib provinces in western Syria. If the reports are correct, this could be proof that Russia’s primary goal is to support President Bashar al-Assad instead of fighting ISIS.

The UK based Syrian Observatory for Human rights reported that there were no ISIS positions in the targeted areas. Instead, the areas are home to fierce clashes between regime forces and the armed Islamist rebel factions.

Turkey’s Prime Minister reported that only 3.5% of Russia’s airstrikes in Syria have targeted ISIS.

Despite the recent strikes, Russia said it was still willing to cooperate with the U.S. in Syria. U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter responded by saying that the U.S. was not ready to cooperate with Russia on operations in Syria. However, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov indicated that cooperation was in the works.

Iran Asks China to Help in Middle East Crisis

Iran is asking China to come in and help resolve the unrest in the Middle East along with offering more opportunities for Chinese businesses once the sanctions against the nation are lifted under the agreement with the United States and six other world powers.

China has been pushing the United States to complete the deal with Iran and lift the sanctions that have been economically hampering Iran.

“China and Iran find mutual benefits in many areas,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said.  “I agreed with [Chinese Foreign] Minister Wang Yi that we share similar views on regional issues, which should be solved in a political way. We would like to cooperate with China on issues in Yemen, Syria and the Middle East, seeking a political solution.”

China has long been opposed to the sanctions placed on Iran by the United States and European nations.  Wang told reporters he looks forward to the deal’s implementation because of the benefit to Chinese businesses and added he believes the two nations can work together for peace in their regions.

“We both agree that the unrest in West Asia and North Africa regions is not sustainable, it should be solved in a political way and we should seek a solution that can address the concerns of different parties,” Wang said.

Governments Claim National Security to Silence Journalists

Governments in the Middle East are using accusations of national security to try and silence western journalists from reporting on government corruption and other abuses of power.

Three journalists for Vice News were detained in Turkey on charges of terrorism for their reports that allegedly promoted Kurdish militants.  A Dutch journalist was also detained on the same charges after being caught covering a Kurdish protest group.

“I’m in custody in Yuksekova,” Frederike Geerdink tweeted.

The Turkish government denied she was arrested for her reporting but for being in an area where fighting was taking place.

“Frederike has not been arrested for journalism. She was in a security zone where there was fighting. Because of that, we could not guarantee her safety, so she has been detained and investigations are continuing,” a government representative told Reuters.

Journalism watchdog groups dismissed the explanation, noting that Geerdink was arrested in January on similar charges of “illegal propaganda” for which she was acquitted in April.

“The Netherlands has been concerned about freedom of the press and freedom of speech in Turkey for some time,” Dutch embassy spokesman Roel van der Meij said. “This remains an important point in our relations with Turkey.”

In Egypt, three Al-Jazeera reporters are being tried on charges they filed false news reports to “promote terrorism.”

“What we see in terms of worrying trends that’s been picking up for a while is the use of overbroad anti-terror laws to prevent coverage and detain journalists,” said Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, to the New York Times.

Mahoney cited many examples of abuse of journalists taking place around the world that largely go unreported in American media.

In Azerbaijan, an investigative journalist who contributed to the US funded Radio Free Europe was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for reporting on alleged corruption by the nation’s president.

“I don’t think anything will ever really improve unless there is real pressure from the West,” Gulnara Akhundova, who works for International Media Support told the Times. “What we need is real sanctions.”

Massive Sandstorm Strikes Middle East

An out-of-season sandstorm has struck the Middle East causing thousands to have medical issues and reducing visibility in region.

The Times of Israel called the storm “a brownish-yellow fog throughout the country.”  The storm has been working across Israel and into Lebanon, Iraq and Syria.  Meteorologists say the storm will be followed by an intense heat wave that will last through the weekend.

Health officials through the region are telling residents to stay inside to avoid breathing problems.  Schools were either closed to keep children inside to avoid the fine particulates in the air.

The head of a major hospital in Damascus told reporters that over 1,200 people had been treated for breathing problems.  At least 100 of the victims were children.

“It is unbelievable. This must be some test,” said Mansour, a Damascus resident, who gave only his first name told the Associated Press. “It’s hot. Temperatures are high and above that we have this dusty weather! It is something beyond reasonable. Enough please!”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that some villages such as al-Mayadeen were so short of medical supplies that they ran out of oxygen canisters and had to turn away victims of the storm.

Hungary Sending Troops to Stop Migrants at Border

Hungarian officials are rushing military troops to their border to try and stop a massive wave of migrants attempting to escape the violence of the Middle East and Asia.

Hungarian officials said that a record 2,533 migrants were arrested attempting to enter the country on Tuesday.  Most of them were from Syria, Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Officials are calling the situation the worst migrant crisis since the second World War and Hungary is attempting to quickly build a 110 mile border fence with razor wire to stop the illegal immigration.

“Hungary’s government and national security cabinet … has discussed the question of how the army could be used to help protect Hungary’s border and the EU’s border,” government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told reporters.

The move by Hungary is coming under criticism from Germany and France.  The German and French governments are working to put together a comprehensive plan for all nations across Europe to accept migrants, but Hungary’s actions are countering the proposed actions.

Other nations are also overwhelmed.  Greece, which is in the midst of financial crisis unlike any other in the nation’s history, has been burdened with 50,000 migrants in just the month of July.

Heat Wave Sets Records in Germany; More Deaths in Egypt

The death toll in the Middle East heat wave continues to climb.

Egyptian officials say that 76 people are now confirmed dead because of the extreme heat which reached 116 degrees in some parts of the country.  State media said that 21 people died from heatstroke on Tuesday.

Over 1,200 people are hospitalized with heat related illnesses.

The heat outside is also causing the heat to rise in the arena of socio-political problems within the Middle Eastern nation.

“It is highlighting the huge gap that exists between classes in the region in general and specifically in countries that are not as rich as the Gulf countries. So in Egypt, for example, it is dividing the classes further,” Ziad Akl, a senior researcher at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told VOA.  He said that the rich remain inside with air conditioners while the poor have no choice but to use locations like public fountains.

In Iraq, the heat is causing people to short out electrical systems in attempts to keep cool.

“Last week most Iraqi areas were left without electricity for almost three days,” Suadad al-Salhy, a freelance journalist who covers Iraq for Middle East Eye said to VOA.

The heat wave is moving north from the Middle East into Europe causing electrical grid disruptions.

Poland’s national electric supplier cut power to factories for several hours Monday to try and keep the grid from total failure.  The heat combined with extended dry weather has reduced water levels to rivers that cool the nation’s power plants.

Wroclaw, Poland saw an all-time record high of 102 degrees.  The average high for that area is 72 degrees.

Germany tied its all time record high with a mark of 104.5 in Kitzingen.  It was the second time in a month the city had hit the 104.5 mark.

At least 19 cities in the Czech Republic have also tied or topped all-time heat records.