A three-year operation to smuggle official documents out of Syria has produced enough evidence to indict President Bashar al-Assad and twenty-four senior members of his regime, according to the findings of an international investigative commission. The cases against the Syrian leaders focus on their role in the suppression of the protests that triggered the conflict in 2011. The evidence has been compiled for the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), made up of investigators and legal experts who worked on war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and for the international criminal court (ICC). They worked with a team of fifty Syrian investigators who have carried out the dangerous task of smuggling regime documents out of the country. The evidence has been collected and prosecution cases have been prepared in anticipation of a war crimes tribunal being established in the future. The CIJA is currently investigating the conduct of the war by both the regime and extreme opposition groups, but it has already completed the preparation of three prosecution cases. The commission is funded by Western states including the UK, US, the EU, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, and Denmark. [AFP, The Guardian, 5/13/2015]
EGYPT | LIBYA & THE MAGHREB | SYRIA & ITS NEIGHBORS | YEMEN & THE GULF | ECONOMICS
President Sisi delivers comprehensive speech on governance, security, and development
During what was announced as a monthly speech to the nation on Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi addressed a number of the country’s issues. Sisi refrained from going into detail on many of the government’s current projects, “because evil forces are trying to put a stop to the march of development.” In his speech, Sisi admitted that corruption is a significant problem in Egypt, noting that 334 corruption cases have been filed involving bribery, misuse of power, causing harm to public money, profiteering, and seizure of state lands. He also said that 600 terrorists were arrested during the past month alone and that the arrests were within the framework of the law. Sisi announced that the Suez Canal megaproject would be inaugurated on August 6. He also announced that an emergency plan is being implemented to avoid power cuts in the summer, and provide more energy. He reassured the public on price hikes in Ramadan, saying the government is working on providing basic food commodities at reasonable prices. On development, Sisi discussed infrastructure improvements, the development of Egypt’s poorest towns, and the schedule for the completion of affordable housing. He said the national projects would employ one million workers. [DNE, Mada Masr, Aswat Masriya, Ahram Online, Cairo Post, 5/12/2015]
Al-Jama’a al-Islamiya chairman arrested
Security authorities in Qena arrested Chairman of Jama’aIslamiyya Essam Derbala, the ministry of interior announced on its Facebook page on Wednesday. Derbala was arrested late Tuesday in Upper Egypt’s Qena, and Derbala’s defense team said that the prosecution is questioning him on his membership in the banned Muslim Brotherhood-led National Alliance to Support Legitimacy (NASL). The Islamist group has played a key role in the founding of the NASL in June 2013 to rally around then besieged Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. [Ahram Online, Cairo Post, Aswat Masriya (Arabic), 5/13/2015]
Sinai State releases video threatening security forces and collaborators
The Sinai State (formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis), released a video Tuesday threatening security personnel and army collaborators. The video arrived two days after North Sinai tribes gathered Sunday at a conference and announced their stance against the armed group and their support of the Egyptian state and the armed forces. On Wednesday, militants in Sinai set off a roadside bomb killing three civilians, witness said. Two army officers and two conscripts also died on Wednesday afternoon while trying to defuse a bomb planted by unidentified assailants on the road to Rafah. Egypt’s Defense and Interior Ministers spoke of improving common strategies to fighting “criminal operations” in Sinai, during their visit to the peninsula. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi addressed the issue in his monthly speech, praising the role of Sinai residents’ role in fighting terrorism. Four militants, reportedly belonging to the Sinai State were killed by the Egyptian army on Tuesday, security forces said. The militants were killed after the army forces surrounded them for more than four hours in a farm near the Rafah border crossing, the source said. Egypt has created a buffer zone on the eastern border of North Sinai as part of its fight against militants in the area. [Ahram Online, Aswat Masriya, DNE, Cairo Post, Egypt Independent, 5/13/2015]
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ICC prosecutor says could investigate ISIS in Libya
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the International Criminal Court (ICC) can investigate alleged crimes by Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) militants in Libya, but it is first up to individual states to prosecute their citizens accused of offenses. Bensouda said the UN Security Council resolution approved unanimously in March 2011 referring the situation in Libya to the ICC gives her office jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity up to the present day and this includes alleged crimes by groups aligned to ISIS. She also called on all parties fighting in Libya to stop targeting civilians and civilian institutions. Bensouda said that the ICC’s ability to investigate has been greatly hampered by the insecurity in Libya and a lack of funds. [Reuters, AP, 5/12/2015]
Three children killed in Benghazi random rocket attack
Three children, two brothers and a sister, were killed Tuesday when a rocket smashed into their home in Benghazi’s Belawn district. Another brother was seriously injured and is now in intensive care at Benghazi Medical Centre. A man was killed and twelve others injured in a series of missile attacks on Benina airport late this afternoon. Random missile attacks continue to plague the city, including the downtown area. [Libya Herald, 5/12/2015]
Rising social tensions test Tunisia’s new democracy
Official unemployment has risen from 11 percent before the revolution to around 15 percent now and most Tunisians rank the high cost of living among their greatest concerns. Scores of protests ranging from protests and hunger strikes to riots have erupted this month in southern Tunisia. The protesters hold signs saying “Dignity” and “Work” as people in this region are desperate for jobs and economic opportunity. Already the unrest is taking an economic toll. The state-run Gafsa Phosphate Company, Tunisia’s main exporter of the chemical, suspended operations in Metlaoui last week after the protests shut down its shipments by rail. The tensions and frustration with the new government are high as one protester warned Tunisia’s democratically elected leaders that they risked suffering the same fate as autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali if things do not turn around. [Reuters, 5/12/2015]
United States will support Tunisia in its fight against terrorism
The United States of America will keep on supporting Tunisia in its fight against terrorism, US Ambassador Jacob Walles said during a meeting with Tunisian Defense Minister Farhat Horchani. He added that the United States is willing to back up the Tunisian military institution in several fields, notably, in matters of training, technical assistance, and provision of adequate equipment to respond to terrorist threats. Horchani commended the American support to Tunisia as it fosters bilateral relations and strengthens friendship ties through the intensification and diversification of cooperation. [All Africa, 5/12/2015]
Investigators have war crimes case on Bashar al-Assad
A three-year operation to smuggle official documents out of Syria has produced enough evidence to indict President Bashar al-Assad and twenty-four senior members of his regime, according to the findings of an international investigative commission. The cases against the Syrian leaders focus on their role in the suppression of the protests that triggered the conflict in 2011. The evidence has been compiled for the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), made up of investigators and legal experts who worked on war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and for the international criminal court (ICC). They worked with a team of fifty Syrian investigators who have carried out the dangerous task of smuggling regime documents out of the country. The evidence has been collected and prosecution cases have been prepared in anticipation of a war crimes tribunal being established in the future. The CIJA is currently investigating the conduct of the war by both the regime and extreme opposition groups, but it has already completed the preparation of three prosecution cases. The commission is funded by Western states including the UK, US, the EU, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, and Denmark. [AFP, The Guardian, 5/13/2015]
Iraqi President in Tehran for talks
Iraq’s President Fuad Masum arrived on Tuesday in Tehran for a two-day visit expected to focus on the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) and also on economic ties. Masum arrived with the Baghdad government’s ministers for trade, tourism and the environment. Iran has been pivotal in efforts to push back ISIS since the jihadists overran large parts of Iraq last June, sending weapons and military advisers who have coordinated fighting on the ground. Iran-backed Shia militias have taken back Sunni cities such as Tikrit. Masum will be greeted by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani at a ceremony in Tehran early on Wednesday, and is also expected to meet supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during his visit. [AFP, 5/12/2015]
Turkey probes alleged links in military with US-based cleric
Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz said on Wednesday that a military prosecutor has opened an investigation into allegations a US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen has sympathizers in the armed forces. It is the latest move against followers of Gulen, who have been pushed out of key posts in the judiciary and police force, amid a long-running feud with President Tayyip Erdogan, once Gulen’s close ally. Yilmaz also said that seventy-three officers, whose convictions for plotting Erdogan’s overthrow were overturned, had returned to their posts in the Turkish Armed Forces. [Reuters, 5/13/2015]
Regime barrel bomb attack kills at least twenty-eight in Syria’s Aleppo
Syrian government helicopters dropped a barrel bomb Tuesday in the neighborhood of Jisr al-Haj in Aleppo, hitting a busy bus depot and killing at least twenty-eight people and wounding thirty, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Local Coordination Committees said some fifty people were believed killed in the attack. It provided the names of only thirteen, saying the bodies were hard to identify. In Homs, ISIS has seized large parts of the strategically located town of al-Sukhnah in central Syria in clashes that killed forty-eight soldiers and jihadists. The town lies on the highway that leads from eastern Deir Ezzor province to the ancient town of Palmyra. [AFP, AP, The Daily Star, 5/13/2015]
Yemen ceasefire in effect but fighting persists
A precarious ceasefire took effect in parts of Yemen on Tuesday night, in the first negotiated halt to hostilities since Saudi Arabia started a bombing campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in late March. There were reports of clashes and at least one air strike in the southern city of Aden after 11 pm, the starting time for the ceasefire. Vicious fighting in the hours leading up to the truce, including airstrikes that were reported to have killed at least seventy people, cast doubt on the willingness of the combatants to abide by terms of the ceasefire, which is supposed to last for five days. [Reuters, New York Times, Yemen Times, 5/13/2015]
Iran says its navy will escort humanitarian aid ships
Iran’s navy said Tuesday it will protect an aid ship traveling to Yemen where a five-day humanitarian ceasefire is set to begin between a Saudi-led coalition and Shiite rebels and their allies. The US quickly warned against the move, which comes amid heightened tensions after the Islamic Republic seized a cargo ship in recent weeks. US officials demanded Tuesday that the Iranian ship, purportedly carrying aid to Yemen, should change course and head to Djibouti where the United Nations is overseeing humanitarian deliveries. When asked if the US military would try to search the ship or prevent it from docking in Yemen, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren declined to comment. [AP, AFP, 5/13/2015]
Scores killed in arms depot blasts in Sana’a
At least sixty-nine people have been killed and 250 others wounded by explosions after Arab coalition fighter jets hit an arms depot near the Yemeni capital Sanaa, according to medical officials. Residents said that explosions at a military base at Mount Noqum, on the city’s eastern outskirts, lasted until midday on Tuesday after coalition jets struck the depot late on Monday. The air strikes set off huge explosions that sent debris crashing into a residential area at the foot of the mountain. Most of the people killed and wounded were civilians. [Al Jazeera, Yemen Times, 5/12/2015]
Closer US and Gulf defense ties critical to fight terrorism, says Kerry
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with NATO foreign ministers in Antalya, Turkey, Secretary of State John Kerry said, “Defining … a clearer defense arrangement between the GCC and other friendly countries and the United States is going to be critical to helping to push back against the terrorism, as well as some of the other activities that take place in that region that are unsettling to all of those countries.” President Barack Obama will meet with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Washington’s Oval Office later, before the summit with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). [Reuters, 5/13/2015]
Gulf petrochemical producers to push for EU trade deal
The main trade body representing petrochemicals producers in the Gulf, the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA), plans to put pressure on European Union (EU) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) negotiators to reach a trade deal. GCC producers have been suffering since EU tariffs more than doubled at the start of last year when the two parties failed to reach a deal. The GPCA plans to send a letter to chief EU and GCC negotiators, the latest effort in a process that has dragged on for nearly three decades. [The National, 5/12/2015]
Tobruk government presents LD44 billion draft budget
The Tobruk government has presented the total figure for its draft budget for the 2015 financial year. The budget total is LD44 billion ($35 billion). The budget was presented to the cabinet on Tuesday for review and then it will go to the House of Representatives to formally approve. However, any approved funding decisions agreed by the Tobruk government are set to remain on paper until the political standoff in the country is settled. The internationally recognized government has no access to Libyan Central Bank funds and is thought to be operating on a bank loan. [Libya Monitor (subscription), 5/13/2015]
Egypt sees growth at 3 percent in second half of fiscal year
Egypt’s Planning Minister Ashraf al-Araby said on Wednesday the country’s average economic growth was expected to be 3 percent in the second half of the 2014/2015 fiscal year, compared with 5.6 percent in the first half of the year. Araby told reporters at a news conference that average economic growth for the current fiscal year would be 4 percent, or slightly above 4 percent. [Ahram Online, Reuters, 5/13/2015]
Iraq aims for record Basra oil exports in June with new grade
Iraq plans to export a record volume of crude oil from its southern ports in June, as it splits its production for the first time into two grades to resolve quality issues, trade sources have said. This is Iraq’s second attempt this year to increase Basra crude exports to a record high. Iraq has allocated over 3.1 million barrels per day (bpd) of Basra crude to buyers in a preliminary June loading program, up from the usual monthly total of between 2.6 million and 2.7 million bpd, the sources said. The allocation includes 1.22 million bpd of the new Basra Heavy grade, nearly double the expected volume. The unexpected large supply of the new grade could pressure the market, especially as Asian buyers assess whether the oil is suitable for their refineries. [Reuters, 5/12/2015]