Orientul Mijlociu

Libya conference: Russia, Turkey to start removing their foreign mercenaries

Libya’s transitional government renewed its commitment to holding elections in December at a UN-sponsored conference in Berlin, where Russia and Turkey reached a tentative plan to start withdrawing their foreign mercenaries from Libya.

At the Berlin conference on Wednesday, Libya’s transitional government underlined its commitment to holding elections on 24 December, and Germany said it would continue keep up pressure until all foreign forces have been withdrawn from Libya.

Libya’s transitional leadership was joined at the conference by foreign ministers from France and Germany, as well Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria and Italy, along with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and senior officials from Russia, the United Arab Emirates and others.

Though a final communique specified no concrete new measures, Libyan Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush said the transitional government came “with a vision of how best to re-establish stability in our country and pave the way for free, inclusive and safe elections on 24 December”.

She was hopeful that there would finally be progress on a key pledge from a previous conference, held in January 2020, for foreign fighters to pull out of the country.

“We have a progress in terms of mercenaries, so you know hopefully within coming days, mercenaries from both sides [are] going to be withdrawing and I think this is going to be encouraging,” she told reporters in Berlin.

Russia and Turkey back opposing sides in Libya, which has been split between two rival administrations backed by foreign forces and countless militias.

The internationally-recognised Government of National Accord in Tripoli is supported by Turkey, which in October helped it repel an offensive from Khalifa Haftar, who rules large parts of the east of Libya, and is backed by Rusisa, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

In October the two sides agreed a ceasefire in Geneva. The agreement involved the withdrawal of all foreign mercenaries by January.

Mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner company, along with fighters from Sudan, Chad and Syria, support Haftar in the east of Libya. Turkey has advisers in Tripoli, supported by allied Syrian fighters.

None have left, as both sides argue over which group should leave first.

Two diplomats said France had prepared proposals for a sequenced withdrawal of foreign forces from Libya that was discussed with both Turkey and the US, and a senior US State Department official said Wednesday that Turkey and Russia had reached an initial understanding to each pull out 300 of their Syrian mercenaries.

It is not a large number of the estimated 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya, but it would signal the start of a process in which all armed groups would eventually be brought under a joint military command.

Bennett appears to hint at Israeli involvement in attack on Iran nuclear site

In one of his first speeches as PM, leader says that while Israel will defend itself, it will also work with allies to block an Iranian bomb, breaking from Netanyahu’s policy

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett appeared to hint at Israel’s role in a recent attack on an Iranian nuclear site during a speech at a graduation ceremony for Israeli Air Force pilots on Thursday.

Forging a future with rather than against Iran

The rise of hardline President-elect Ebrahim Raisi has prompted someanalysts to counterintuitively suggest that it could pave the way for reduced regional tensions and potential talks on a rejiggered Middle Eastern security architecture but getting from A to B is likely to prove easier said than done.

Games without Frontiers: Renegotiating the Boundaries of Power in Iraqi Kurdistan

Summary

Over the past year, intensifying political and economic conflicts between the Kurdistan Region’s two hegemonic parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, have challenged the legal and institutional order in which the Kurdistan Regional Government operates. A new generation of leadership within the parties, a fraught relationship with the federal government, and a prolonged economic crisis have strained the relationship between the two parties to its breaking point.

The Economics of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham

Introduction

Over the past four years, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has tried to transform itself from a faction of the Global Jihad movement into the de facto local military and governing power in north-west (NW) Syria. This shift requires the group to seek sources of funding other than al-Qaeda and its donors; consequently, HTS has undertaken a slow but steady takeover of the economy in NW Syria, from financial services and oil and gas to internet and telecommunications. This paper lays out how that process has taken place and provides a detailed look at the economics of HTS.

Israel Previously Set Eyes on Targeted Iranian Site

The factory producing centrifuges for Iran’s nuclear project, which was reportedly targeted by a mysterious drone attack on Wednesday, was among a handful of facilities presented by Israeli intelligence to the previous White House administration as potential targets for sabotage attacks, The New York Times revealed Thursday.

How Biden Helped Hardliner Raisi Win Iran Election

It was common knowledge that a U.S. failure to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal (known as the JCPOA) before Iran’s June presidential election would help conservative hard-liners to win the election. Indeed, on Saturday, June 19, the conservative Ebrahim Raisi was elected as the new President of Iran.

The Palestinian Jihad Summer Camps

As the international community seeks ways to help the residents of the Gaza Strip after the recent war between Israel and Hamas… and PIJ are diverting their budgets to training children to become soldiers in the war to destroy Israel.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad confirms that… the Palestinians “are preparing the liberation generation for the ‘great liberation’ battle for this blessed land.”

Saudi Killers Trained in US Prior to Khashoggi Murder

Four Saudi agents who took part in the gruesome 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in an Istanbul consulate received military training on American soil the previous year, by a private security company and under a contract approved by the United States State Department, The New York Times revealed Tuesday.

Secret Iranian Satellite Launch Unsuccessful: Pentagon

Iran last week performed yet another failed attempt to launch a satellite into outer space, reported to be the fourth consecutive misfire by Tehran in its efforts to place an unmanned spacecraft into orbit.

According to Pentagon officials who spoke with CNN, the unsuccessful try was held on June 12 at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport facility in northern Iran, 150 miles east of the capital. Private sector satellite imagery, however, has shown that the Islamic republic is gearing up for another shot soon.