MESOPOTAMIA NEWS INDEPTH : The Other Regional Counter-Revolution
Iran’s Role in the Shifting Political Landscape of the Middle East
By: Danny PostelJuly 7, 2021 NEW POLITICS
The last decade has seen historic political upheavals across the Middle East and North Africa: a tsunami of popular uprisings that have brought down several dictators and led to momentous transformations in political consciousness, if not always to democratic outcomes. But the last decade has also seen a concomitant counter-revolutionary roll-back across the region: authoritarian regimes, entrenched elites, ruling classes, deep states, and reactionary forces have marshalled considerable resources to torpedo these movements from below.[1]
Saudi Arabia’s role as a counter-revolutionary force in the Middle East is widely understood and thoroughly documented. Historian Rosie Bsheer calls the Saudi kingdom “a counter-revolutionary state par excellence,” indeed one that was “consolidated as such.”[2] The Saudi monarchy has gone into counter-revolutionary overdrive since the onset of the Arab uprisings, scrambling to thwart popular movements and keep the region’s dictators in power — from Egypt and Bahrain to Yemen and Sudan (and beyond).[3]
What is less understood is the counter-revolutionary role that Iran plays in the region’s politics.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : The Mossad is behind every attack against Iran,’ says former hardline lawmaker
Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the former chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, laments that “no one has given a serious thought to the problem.”
By Neta Bar ISRAEL HAYOM – Published on 07-12-2021 08:43 – The former chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, claimed on Sunday that Israel’s Mossad spy agency is behind the attacks against his country and criticized the Islamic republic’s security forces for not doing enough to stop the Israeli attacks.
“All the security attacks against Iran are perpetrated by the Mossad. Although these attacks take place in our country, no one has given a serious thought to the problem,” said Falahatpisheh, who is affiliated with the conservative political camp in Iran.
He also said called Israel “the Islamic republic’s rival in security and intelligence.”
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : Confrontation between US, pro-Iranian groups in Syria and Iraq poses challenges for Russia (THE FUTURE OF KURDISH PKK/PYD)
While Moscow does not yet have the resources to eliminate Iranian influence in Syria, it would be in its interests to at least prevent the expansion of the activities of pro-Iranian paramilitary structures.
Kirill Semenov July 12, 2021 AL MONITOR – On the evening of June 27, the United States launched airstrikes in Iraq and Syria on targets of armed groups supported by Iran. Targets belonging to the Iraqi radical Shiite formations Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyed al-Shuhada were hit. The Pentagon reported that these measures were taken by order of US President Joe Biden in response to attacks by militants on American bases in Iraq.
In turn, a day later militants supported by Iran and part of the pro-government forces in Syria fired missiles at US military positions in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, and US troops returned fire. Attacks by pro-Iran groups in Iraq continued against US targets in Iraq this week. In Deir ez-Zor, American servicemen supporting the activities of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are actually on the line of contact with pro-Iranian groups, including ones designated as terrorist groups by the United States, which are allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and control a large area of the country comprising the territory between the cities of Al-Bukamal and Al-Mayadin on the right bank of the Euphrates River.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS PKK/PYD STATEMENT : Syria Kurds slam UN aid crossing vote as unfair
Kurdish authorities and international aid groups had lobbied for it be reopened but their appeal failed, sparking a backlash.
AFP 10 Juli 2021 – Aid workers formed a human chain to advocate for keeping open a border crossing through which aid is delivered to northeast Syria. Kurdish authorities in Syria on Saturday slammed the UN Security Council for failing to reopen an aid crossing to the northeast despite approving deliveries through the frontier with Turkey.
“We are not opposed to aid deliveries to the Syrian people… but we are opposed to double standards,” the Kurdish administration said in a statement. “This decision deepens our humanitarian tragedy by continuing the seige imposed on us from all sides,” it added in a statement.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS COMMENTARIES ON AFGHANISTAN / SETH FRANTZMAN & DIMTRI SHUFUTINSKY (ISRAEL)
Seth J. Frantzman 11. Juli 2021 – JERUSALEM POST
Question about the Afghan war.
For twenty years the US fought in Afghanistan. Now the US is leaving and the government is quickly losing ground to the Taliban. For many who supported the US involvement there and also in Iraq, there are a lot of concerns about what comes next. Opposition to the US withdrawal combines people who were critics of the Trump administration among the so-called “neo-cons” and also others. It appears those who most want to leave would be considered more the isolations Right and the Left, while centrists want to stay.
However the reality is that regardless of where you stand it’s worth asking some key questions.
How come after 19 years of the US working with the Afghan government, and a dozen other NATO allies, that the security forces are so weak?
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS ANALYSIS – The War at Home: The Need for Internal Security / KURDISTAN – IRAQ
July 6, 2021 Mera Jasm Bakr – MEI – The Middle East Institute
Summary
The forces and agencies of Kurdistan’s Ministry of Interior and the Kurdistan Region Security Council, collectively referred to the Kurdistan Region Interior Forces, are now the region’s main security actors, but their role as instruments of partisan rivalry and enforcers of public loyalty to the political bureaus threatens the Kurdistan Region’s stability. This report makes the case that coalition security sector reform efforts should be refocused on them. Although Peshmerga reform is necessary to improve the Kurdistan Region’s ability to combat external threats, it is equally, if not more important to start the same reform within these internal forces and agencies to achieve durable stability.
Contents
- Introduction
- Structure of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Internal
Security Forces - The Ministry of the Interior
- Kurdistan Region Security Council
- The Need to Reform the Internal Security Forces
- The Partisan Security Dilemma: Protecting the
Territorial and Economic Balance of Power - Patronage
- Coercion and Surveillance
- The Internal Security Forces in a Changing Political
and Security Landscape - Conclusion and Policy Implications
Abstract
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : Biden’s airstrikes fail to halt cycle of militia violence in Iraq
The Pentagon says it is taking a recent spate of drone and rocket attacks “deadly seriously.”
A member of the Iraqi security forces walks past a destroyed vehicle that had been carrying rockets amid sacks of flour in the al-Baghdadi district of Anbar province on July 8, 2021. Fourteen rockets were fired on July 7 at an air base hosting US troops in Anbar, causing minor injuries to two personnel, the coalition said. The rockets “landed on the base & perimeter” of al-Assad base, the coalition spokesman tweeted, adding that local homes and a mosque were also damaged. Iraqi security forces said the rocket launcher had been hidden inside a truck carrying bags of flour.
Jared Szuba July 9, 2021 – AL MONITOR – Pentagon officials are monitoring the situations in Iraq and Syria with “great concern” after at least five rocket and drone attacks targeted sites used by US personnel in the two countries this week.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : THE POINT OF NO RETURN? CROSS-BORDER AID IN SYRIA UNDER THREAT – by THE SOUFAN CENTER REPORT
Bottom Line Up Front: 9 July 2021 – Nearly 3.4 million Syrians are at risk of losing access to humanitarian aid facilitated through UN Security Council Resolution 2533, expiring on July 10.
The Security Council will vote today on two resolutions to extend Syria’s cross-border aid, after deliberations over the number of approved border crossings, time frames, and potential vetoes.This negotiation will pose a test following the Biden-Putin summit, as Russia has consistently used its veto power to support Syrian President Assad.
This pressure point comes amidst economic crisis, water crisis, and escalating COVID-19 concerns, as well as a massive increase in humanitarian needs.
Nearly 3.4 million Syrians are at risk of imminently losing access to humanitarian aid currently delivered through multiple border crossings and facilitated through United Nations Security Council Resolution 2533 (2020), which is set to expire on July 10.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : Israeli singer Noga Erez hits jarring note with BDS support
Israeli singer Noga Erez is facing backlash after an interview she gave to a UK magazine in which she voiced support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement has come to light.
Asked by the London-based Huck magazine in March for her opinion on artists such as former Pink Floyd founding member Roger Waters’ support for the BDS movement, Erez replied: “I have a complex answer to this question. I was very happy when Radiohead came to Israel. Even if something terrible happens in the country, it does not mean that people who live in it are part of it or they want it – and that is the case in Israel.”
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS RASCIST LAWS – A flood of Palestinians into Israel? Citizenship law fails to pass, despite security issues
| DAVID ISAAC / JNS JEWISH NEWS SYNDICATE 7. Uly 2021 |
| The law essentially prevents Palestinians living in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip from “marrying into Israel”—that is, from taking an Arab-Israeli spouse and gaining citizenship through wedlock. Since 1963, an estimated quarter-million Palestinians have become Israeli citizens in this way. |
In a blow to Israel’s coalition, Knesset fails to pass citizenship bill
Vote to extend “family unification law” ties 59:59, after opposition rejects last-minute compromise including a six-month extension and residency visas for 1,600 Palestinian families.
BY YEHUDA SHLEZINGER AND LILACH SHOVAL – (July 6, 2021 / Israel Hayom) A bill seeking to extend a law regulating the status and residency of Palestinian spouses of Arab Israelis failed to pass a Knesset vote early Tuesday morning.
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