FalconsForPeace
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Syria-Saudi Arabia: Two western news services reported this week that Saudi Arabia is preparing to finance the training and arming of a new Syrian non-jihadi rebel force. The force is to be built around the Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) which was created in September 2013 by a merger of 43 fighting groups.
According to the news services, Saudi Arabia reportedly has hired Pakistan to help train the re-purposed force. It supposedly would start as two brigades and would be supplied through Jordan. It would not be jihadist, but also would not be a secular force.
Comment: If this information is accurate, it implies that the Saudis judge the fighting will go one for two more years because that is about how long it would take to develop an effective fighting force. By that time, the Syrian government is likely to have stabilized the security situation or, less likely, to have fallen to the jihadists.
The amount of time, energy and multi-national coordination required in this effort, with highly uncertain prospects for a return on the investment, plus the direct involvement of Jordan as pivotal to the logistics raise suspicions that this is not a serious initiative. Rather it looks like a perception management stratagem to prompt more US assistance, if not intervention.
Egypt: For the record. Egypt will be holding presidential elections early in summer next year, Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said on Friday. Parliamentary elections are due in February or March, two months after a vote on a new constitution currently being drafted by a 50-member panel. The referendum on the constitution is scheduled for December 2013.
On 8 November a spokesman said the 50-person constitution drafting panel voted to add an amendment that would eliminate the upper house of parliament, the Shura Council, so that Egypt would have a unicameral legislature.
Comment: The interim government is making steady progress towards restoring the forms of elected government, though the Army will remain the ultimate guardian of the state. The elimination of the Shura Council removes one irritant to the groups that removed Mursi. He used the Shura Council as an ersatz legislature to rubber stamp his executive orders. The Council was stacked with Brotherhood members or supporters.
Saudi Arabia Hires Pakistan to Train Insurrgents - Night Watch - Townhall Finance Conservative Columnists and Financial Commentary - Page 1
According to the news services, Saudi Arabia reportedly has hired Pakistan to help train the re-purposed force. It supposedly would start as two brigades and would be supplied through Jordan. It would not be jihadist, but also would not be a secular force.
Comment: If this information is accurate, it implies that the Saudis judge the fighting will go one for two more years because that is about how long it would take to develop an effective fighting force. By that time, the Syrian government is likely to have stabilized the security situation or, less likely, to have fallen to the jihadists.
The amount of time, energy and multi-national coordination required in this effort, with highly uncertain prospects for a return on the investment, plus the direct involvement of Jordan as pivotal to the logistics raise suspicions that this is not a serious initiative. Rather it looks like a perception management stratagem to prompt more US assistance, if not intervention.
Egypt: For the record. Egypt will be holding presidential elections early in summer next year, Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy said on Friday. Parliamentary elections are due in February or March, two months after a vote on a new constitution currently being drafted by a 50-member panel. The referendum on the constitution is scheduled for December 2013.
On 8 November a spokesman said the 50-person constitution drafting panel voted to add an amendment that would eliminate the upper house of parliament, the Shura Council, so that Egypt would have a unicameral legislature.
Comment: The interim government is making steady progress towards restoring the forms of elected government, though the Army will remain the ultimate guardian of the state. The elimination of the Shura Council removes one irritant to the groups that removed Mursi. He used the Shura Council as an ersatz legislature to rubber stamp his executive orders. The Council was stacked with Brotherhood members or supporters.
Saudi Arabia Hires Pakistan to Train Insurrgents - Night Watch - Townhall Finance Conservative Columnists and Financial Commentary - Page 1
