A Yemeni human rights group condemned the Houthi militia for torturing more than 17,000 detainees since the militia took control of Sanaa in September 2014. In honor of the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance, held in Vienna in August 2022, the Yemeni Organization for Detainees and Abductees (YODA) reported that 178 people, including 10 children, have been tortured to death. Forty came from Hodeidah governorate, 37 from Sanaa, 20 from Taiz and the remainder from other Yemeni governorates. According to YODA, the Houthi militia runs 639 detention centers: 230 of them official, 298 unofficial, and 111 specially created in…
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UNIPATH STAFF Turkmenistan and the U.S. are poised to improve bilateral relations, particularly in the areas of border security, counterterrorism and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. On September 28, 2022, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov received in Ashgabat Maj. Gen. John P. Hronek, Adjutant General for the State of Montana, Commander of the Montana National Guard and the Director of the Montana Department of Military Affairs. They discussed resumption of a partnership program between U.S. Central Command, the U.S. National Guard Bureau and the Ministry of Defense of Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan previously partnered…
UNIPATH STAFF Soldiers from Kazakhstan traveled to Arizona in the United States in August 2022 to discuss expansion of military cooperation with the Arizona National Guard and U.S. Central Command. Maj. Gen. Kerry Muehlenbeck, Arizona’s Adjutant General, praised the joint benefits accruing from the 30-year partnership between Kazakh forces and the National Guard under the State Partnership Program. “The United States values Kazakhstan’s commitment to peace and security in Central Asia. We remain committed to the strong and growing partnership between our countries. We believe we can build on the successes in our relationship to support regional stability and sovereignty,”…
UNIPATH STAFF In the largest drug seizure of its kind in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, security forces intercepted about 47 million Captagon amphetamine pills in August 2022. The pills were hidden inside a shipment of flour heading from Riyadh Dry Port to a warehouse in Riyadh. The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority announced that security forces arrested eight men residing in Saudi Arabia for their involvement in the smuggling operation: six Syrians and two Pakistanis. “The quantity of narcotics seized in this operation is the largest of its kind smuggled into the kingdom in one operation,” said Maj. Muhammad…
UNIPATH STAFF Brig. Gen. Hassan Jouni, until recently the commander of Lebanon’s Fouad Chehab Command and Staff College, is characterized by a calmness and humility that won respect from students and professors. He likely acquired such commendable qualities from the many experiences he accumulated serving in the Lebanese Armed Forces and from his favorite hobby, chess, in which he fought many battles on the board before winning the title of Army chess champion. After serving many years as head of the command college, Brig. Gen. Hassan was promoted in 2023 to deputy chief of staff of operations in the Lebanese…
MUAMMAR AL ERYANI, YEMENI MINISTER OF INFORMATION, CULTURE AND TOURISM On November 8, 2022, a United States Navy ship and U.S. Coast Guard ship on their way to Yemen intercepted an Iranian ship carrying materials used to manufacture weapons. Investigators found 70 tons of ammonium chlorate used to make ballistic missile fuel and 100 tons of potentially explosive urea fertilizer. In a statement, the U.S. military announced that the ship posed a threat to commercial navigation and the security of the region. It disposed of the cargo, sank the ship and handed its crew to Yemeni Coast Guard forces. Threat…
Not long after the United States announced it would refocus its mission in Iraq to an advise, assist and enable function, an Iraqi delegation arrived in the U.S. to share its successful ideas and seek consultation on a topic critical to its ongoing struggle against violent extremism: How to conduct media campaigns against terrorists who wage online ideological warfare. The delegates came from a variety of ministries, but shared commitment to improving Iraqi messaging in the battle against these media-savvy terrorists united them. They included Maj. Gen. Yahya Rasool, director of Media and Moral Guidance in the Iraqi Ministry of…
NISREEN AL-HMOUD, PROJECT DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN BIOSAFETY, BIOSECURITY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY, ROYAL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY, JORDAN Ensuring that nonstate actors can’t acquire and weaponize viruses, bacteria and other biological material to threaten international peace and security has been the goal of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540 of 2004 and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) of 1972. Signatories of those two agreements include almost all of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) — including Jordan — yet progress has been uneven toward stiffening regulations to avoid disaster should hazardous biological materials fall into the…
UNIPATH STAFF In a display of military proficiency designed to deter adversaries and reassure partners, Saudi and U.S. troops offloaded an amphibious expeditionary force in the Red Sea port of Yanbu and moved it hundreds of kilometers inland. It was the latest iteration of the Native Fury military exercise, held in Saudi Arabia in August 2022. Native Fury 22 focused mostly on maritime logistics with the participation of the Royal Saudi Armed Forces and the United States Marine Corps. More than 1,000 military personnel, many ships, naval vessels, tactical operation centers, and cyber capabilities were involved in the exercise’s eighth…
Russia’s attack on Ukraine has sent destabilizing ripples not just through Europe but also through the Middle East and South and Central Asia. Whether these threats to security are direct — refugees fleeing war zones — or indirect — wheat shortages causing price rises in the Middle East — the Russian invasion has been deleterious. Experts in the security field, both military and civilian, addressed the harm caused by Russia’s war at the 6th Great Power Competition Conference at the University of South Florida in December 2022. A particular focus of the conference was the war’s implications for United States…