Turkey and the United States have started training moderate Syrian rebels on Turkish territory to prepare them to fight the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL), the Turkish Foreign Minister said Tuesday. The US-led program to equip and train Syrian rebels on Turkish territory has started “with small groups” after months of delays, FM Mevlut Cavusoglu said. “We can say that the train-and-equip [mission] has started with small groups. All infrastructure has been completed and the necessary equipment has been supplied… Both the Turkish and the American personnel who will carry out the mission have been dispatched,” he said, adding that the rebels were selected jointly by Turkey and the United States. On Monday, Cavusoglu said that Turkey and the United States had also agreed “in principle” to provide some rebels preparing to fight ISIS with “air protection.” Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said air support provided by any country to rebels fighting against ISIS would be considered an “aggression.” [AFP, 5/26/2015]
EGYPT | LIBYA & THE MAGHREB | SYRIA & ITS NEIGHBORS | YEMEN & THE GULF | ECONOMICS
Egyptian court issues second death sentence for Sinai militant Habara
A terrorism department at Egypt’s Criminal Court sentenced late Tuesday Sinai-based militant Adel Habara and eight others to death on charges related to the killing of seven soldiers in an attack in the Nile Delta in early 2014. Judicial sources said the charges also included association with a “terrorist” organization and weapons possession. Among the defendants, four were present including Habara, while five others were tried in absentia. On February 24, the court sent its preliminary death sentence against all the defendants in the case to the country’s Grand Mufti, the most senior Muslim cleric in the country, for a consultative review as required by Egyptian law, and the cleric approved the death sentence. Meanwhile, the defendants have the right to appeal at the Court of Cassation against the death sentence. Habara had already been sentenced to death in December for an attack in August 2013 near the border with Israel that killed twenty-five policemen. [Ahram Online, Reuters, Cairo Post, 5/26/2015]
FGM on the decline in Egypt shows 2014 Survey
The support and practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is declining in Egypt, according to the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2014. The survey shows the total percentage of married females who have experienced FGM aged between 15 and 49 reaches 90 percent, but the percentage aged 15 to 17 is 61 percent, a decline of 13 percent compared with similar surveys conducted in 2008. Other indicators show a decline in women’s support for FGM since 2000. At the time, support stood at 75 percent, and now, according to the 2014 survey, it has dropped to 58 percent. Additionally, governorates like Damietta and Port Said will witness an expected decline in the number of FGM cases to 10 to 11 percent of girls in the age bracket of 0-19. A considerable decline has also been noticed in some governorates in Upper Egypt. [Ahram Online, 5/27/2015]
Alaa Abd El Fattah interrogated for ‘insulting the judiciary’
Leftist activist Alaa Abd El Fattah was questioned in prison on Sunday about a report filed in April 2014 by the former head of the Supreme Judicial Council, who accused him of “insulting the judiciary,” the Free Alaa Facebook page reported. The report was based on a collection of tweets and Facebook posts showcased by former judge and current head of the Zamalek Club Mortada Mansour on Lamees al-Hadidy’s talk show in April. Head of the Cairo Appeals Prosecution Wael Gamal questioned Abd El Fattah at Mazra’ Prison facility, where he is currently serving a five-year sentence. [DNE, Mada Masr, 5/26/2015]
GUC students detained for four days pending investigations
Three students at the German University in Cairo were ordered to be detained for four days pending investigations, after being accused of assaulting the university’s president and security in events that ensued following the death of a student who was fatally crushed by university buses last March. GUC students staged a sit-in after a student Yara Negm, was crushed between two student buses and bled to death before the university ambulance arrived at the scene. The prosecution had originally summoned ten students, but only Hazem Abdel Khalek, student union head, Karim Naguib, deputy student head, and Alaa al-Attar had turned themselves in, according to Ahmed Bayea, student union member. Bayea told Mada Masr that Abdel Khalek was not even at the scene when students confronted the president in his car and that Naguib was the one who instructed students to form a cordon around the car and told them not to touch it. According to the student, the university is demanding that the students issue an apology for them to drop the charges against them. [Mada Masr, 5/26/2015]
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Libyan parliament halts session as car burns outside; PM reportedly target of assassination attempt
Libya’s House of Representatives (House) parliament halted a session attended by Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni after protesters set fire to a car outside its building and demonstrated calling for al-Thinni’s removal. Later in the day gunmen tried to assassinate al-Thinni on his way to the Tobruk airport. His vehicle was leaving the current administrative home of the House when the attackers struck. Bullets hit the car and at least one of his bodyguards was wounded, but the Prime Minister escaped injury. [Reuters, AP, Libya Herald, 5/26/2015]
Pay strikes halt flights at Libya’s main airports
Libya’s three main airports canceled flights on Tuesday morning because of strikes by ground staff complaining they have not been paid for two months. The airports affected were Tripoli’s Mitiga and Misrata airports, as well as at Labraq in the east. The walkouts highlight a public finance crisis in the oil-producing North African country where two rival governments are competing for power. Authorities are struggling to pay salaries because oil revenues, the country’s lifeline, have slumped due to chaos and instability. [Reuters, Libya Herald, 5/26/2015]
GNC issues warning against dealing with Tobruk
The Tripoli-based General National Congress (GNC) says it cannot be held responsible for any agreements reached with the Tobruk parliament. In a statement, the GNC said the House of Representatives could no longer be considered legitimate after the Supreme Court ruling last November, which declared the Tobruk-based body unconstitutional. The GNC also said that Libya’s state bureaucracy could not be held responsible for any agreements or contracts made with the Tobruk government. The statement echoes previous ones issued by the Tobruk authorities, posing a dilemma for local and foreign companies seeking to do business. [Libya Monitor (subscription), 5/26/2015]
Tunisian parliamentary committee to conduct hearing on shooting
The parliamentary security and defense committee will conduct a hearing with the defense minister on the shooting that took place in the military barracks of Bouchoucha, Tunis. It will also discuss the joint Tunisian-US military commission scheduled for this week in Washington. A national army officer was also killed and three others injured Wednesday when a grenade went off at a live-fire exercise of Engineer Brigade 61 in the Ras Enjla range. [TAP/All Africa, 5/26/2015]
Structural reforms lag in Tunisia
The report on the African Economic Outlook said that Tunisia’s economic growth should increase slightly to 2.4 percent in 2014 from 2.3 percent in 2013, noting that 2014 ended four years of political transition in the country. The report estimates that urgent reforms to boost investment are slow, despite their importance to support the structural transformation of the economy and get the country out of crisis. It also shows that the disparities in regional development continue to be an issue affecting many Tunisians. [L’Economiste Maghrebin (French), 5/27/2015]
Turkey begins training of moderate Syrian rebels with United States
Turkey and the United States have started training moderate Syrian rebels on Turkish territory to prepare them to fight the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL), the Turkish Foreign Minister said Tuesday. The US-led program to equip and train Syrian rebels on Turkish territory has started “with small groups” after months of delays, FM Mevlut Cavusoglu said. “We can say that the train-and-equip [mission] has started with small groups. All infrastructure has been completed and the necessary equipment has been supplied… Both the Turkish and the American personnel who will carry out the mission have been dispatched,” he said, adding that the rebels were selected jointly by Turkey and the United States. On Monday, Cavusoglu said that Turkey and the United States had also agreed “in principle” to provide some rebels preparing to fight ISIS with “air protection.” Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said air support provided by any country to rebels fighting against ISIS would be considered an “aggression.” [AFP, 5/26/2015]
French Foreign Minister says Iraq, Syria risk division if anti-ISIS force not bolstered
Iraq and Syria risk further division if international efforts to tackle ISIS militants there are not stepped up quickly, France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned Tuesday. Fabius, speaking ahead of a June 2 meeting in Paris of nations fighting ISIS, also said Iraq’s government had not honored commitments to its partners to represent the interests of all sectors of its society. He further said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had lost control of his country and that a political solution between elements of his government and the opposition needed to be found quickly to “save Syria.” The meeting in Paris, where more than twenty foreign ministers, including Secretary of State John Kerry, are due to attend, aims to plot strategy including how to reverse recent losses. [The Daily Star, 5/27/2015]
Palmyra’s ancient ruins unharmed for now according to Syria’s antiquities chief
Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim said on Tuesday the historic city of Palmyra had been unharmed since ISIS insurgents seized it from state control last week. Abdulkarim said he was still afraid the militant group would blow up Palmyra’s 2,000-year-old Roman ruins at Palmyra including tombs and the Temple of Bel.[Reuters, 5/26/2015]
Regime air force carry out airstrikes near Taqba airbase
The Syrian air force hit an ISIS-controlled air base in Raqqa province on Tuesday, killing more than 140 militants, state media said, striking the jihadist group in its Syrian stronghold a week after it seized Palmyra from the government. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the US-led coalition had targeted the same area on Monday. [Reuters, 5/26/2015]
UN chief confirms delay in Yemen peace talks
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has asked his Special Envoy to Yemen to postpone Geneva peace talks planned for May 28, though he hopes to convene negotiations aimed at ending the war as soon as possible, the United Nations said on Tuesday. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the decision to postpone the talks was in response to a request from the government of Yemen and other parties to the conflict to have “more time to prepare.” An aide to Yemen’s president had previously said the negotiations were postponed indefinitely. [Reuters, 5/27/2015]
Saudi-led strikes target Yemen naval base
Saudi-led strikes targeted a naval base in Yemen’s Red Sea city of Hodeida on Wednesday. Iranian-backed Houthi militiamen had held the port. Meanwhile, residents of the Houthi-controlled capital Sana’a reported air strikes on military camps loyal to the group on Wednesday. The strikes hit a sprawling police commando camp in Sana’a sending black smoke billowing into the air in the early hours of the morning. Meanwhile, Houthi forces continued shelling the southern city of Aden. [Al Arabiya, 5/27/2015]
Two-thirds of Yemen without access to clean drinking water
Ongoing airstrikes, ground fighting and fuel shortages mean that an additional 3 million Yemenis are now without drinking water – raising the total number of Yemenis without a clean water supply and sanitation to at least 16 million – almost two-thirds of the population, Oxfam warned yesterday. In addition to this, local authorities in eleven cities (including Aden, Hodeidah, and Sana’a) have appealed to humanitarian organizations to provide them with more than 2 million liters of fuel needed to continue pumping water to the millions that rely on their water supply systems. Local authorities have also warned that they do not have enough fuel to maintain the pumping and treatment of raw sewage, posing yet another serious threat to public health. [Oxfam, 5/26/2015]
Volunteer forces retake southern province from Houthis, Saleh loyalists
After two months of intense fighting, Popular Resistance forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognized President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi have recaptured the southern al-Dalea province from Houthi militias and forces loyal to ousted former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The volunteer forces have also made progress against the Houthis and Saleh loyalists in the nearby Shabwa province, according to sources there. [Asharq al-Awsat, 5/27/2015]
Iraq about to flood oil market in new front of OPEC price war
Iraq plans to boost crude oil exports by about 26 percent to a record 3.75 million barrels per day (bpd) next month, according to shipping programs, signaling an escalation of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) strategy to undercut US shale drillers in the current market rout. The additional Iraqi oil is equal to about 800,000 bpd, which is more than comes from OPEC member Qatar. It is possible that Iraq will not meet the shipment target, but it is likely to see continuing and robust increases in its production capacity. OPEC is expected to support a plan to maintain output levels at a meeting on June 5. [Bloomberg, Forbes, 5/26/2015]
Egypt picks banks for first international bond issue in five years
Egypt has chosen five banks to handle its return to the international bond market after a gap of five years. BNP Paribas, Citigroup, JPM Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Natixis were hired as joint lead managers for the sale. The government will meet with investors in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States starting on Thursday. Egypt’s Finance Minister Ashraf Salman has said that the government intends to raise as much as $1.5 billion in the first sale of the bond issue. The bond issue is expected to draw heavy demand from investors seeking involvement in Egypt’s economic recovery. [Reuters, Businessweek, 5/26/2015]
Libya’s General National Congress to review public sector salaries
Libya’s General National Congress (GNC) has set up a committee to review salaries in the public sector and the distribution of public spending. The committee will have three months to put forward proposals linking salaries with job performance and health and safety risks. The review appears to be an attempt by the Tripoli-based government to cut costs. The GNC also handed over its approved 2015 budget to the speaker of parliament. It is unclear what control the GNC has over spending, with the Central Bank of Libya responsible for maintaining salaries and subsidies spending. [Libya Monitor (subscription), 5/27/2015]
Chevron says output from Saudi-Kuwait joint oilfield remains shut
A jointly operated onshore oilfield between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will remain shut until difficulties to operate there are resolved. The Wafra field was shut for maintenance on May 11 for two weeks in a move aimed at giving the two countries time to solve a longstanding dispute related to the right to operate. Chevron, which operates Wafra on behalf of Saudi Arabia, said it has faced problems obtaining supplies and work permits for its expatriate staff. This could hurt production in the Neutral Zone, the only place in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait where foreign oil firms have equity in oil fields, otherwise owned and operated by state oil companies. [Reuters, 5/27/2015]