UNIPATH STAFF Turkmenistan is promoting its role as a potential guarantor of regional energy security by highlighting its abundance of accessible natural gas. In late March 2022, Ashgabat hosted the International Investment Forum for Attracting Foreign Investments to the Oil and Gas Sector of Turkmenistan. President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov provided opening remarks to entice petroleum-exporting countries like the United Arab Emirates to provide more capital and expertise to develop the country’s hydrocarbon industry. Attendees at the conference stressed the need for reliable energy uninterrupted by conflict and embargoes. Turkmenistan possesses one of the world’s largest reserves of natural gas…
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UNIPATH STAFF Dubbed “My blood is for Kuwait,” the Kuwaiti military launched a five-day campaign encouraging its affiliates to donate blood at the headquarters of the Directorate of Moral Guidance and Public Relations in January 2022. The campaign was coordinated with the Kuwait Blood Bank during which a large number of Kuwaiti military officers and enlisted personnel donated blood to increase the strategic supply of the blood bank and fill a shortage of rare blood types. The blood bank provided the necessary medical equipment for the campaign, and donors gathered at Mubarekiya Camps at a pace of more than…
UNIPATH STAFF Jordan’s Eastern Command, in conjunction with the Directorate of Military Security and Drug Enforcement Administration, foiled several attempts to breach the Syria-Jordan border in December 2021. Criminals from Syria tried to smuggle large quantities of narcotics and firearms into Jordan. After exchanging fire with Soldiers from the Eastern Command, several smugglers were injured and the rest fled back to Syria, leaving behind 770,000 Captagon tablets, 969 hashish pouches, four Kalashnikov rifles, and 9 mm pistols and their ammunition, a Jordanian military source noted. Captagon tablets, which contain amphetamines and caffeine, are used as a stimulant by militant…
UNIPATH STAFF Adeteriorating massive oil tanker moored off Yemen’s coast loaded with more than 1 million barrels of crude oil is at risk of leaking into waters teeming with marine life. The Japanese-built floating oil storage vessel Safer, which has a capacity of 3.1 million barrels, has been permanently anchored about 4 miles from the Yemeni Red Sea port of Ras Isa since 1988, according to U.N. News. The International Maritime Organization says it has not been inspected or maintained since 2015. Loaded with oil pumped from the fields of the Yemeni governorate of Marib, the vessel fell into the…
UNIPATH STAFF Bahrain and Saudi Arabia finalized several initiatives targeting security and defense, cybersecurity, procedures for trade and transport across borders. They include transit of travelers through airports, land border crossings and seaports, networking, and electronically connecting the ministries of interior in the two countries. Signing ceremonies took place during a meeting of the Saudi-Bahraini Coordination Council at Sakhir Palace in Manama, Bahrain, in December 2021. The meeting was co-chaired by His Royal Highness Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz and His Royal Highness Bahraini Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. The two parties agreed to vote for…
UNIPATH STAFF To improve military preparedness in the face of emerging threats, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has instructed the Kazakh Ministry of Defense to overhaul the country’s Soviet-era command structure. Tokayev made the announcement at a Defense Ministry meeting on March 2, 2022, a week after Russian forces invaded Ukraine. Kazakhstan shares a long border with Russia, which controlled Kazakhstan in the czarist and Soviet eras. During the meeting, defense officials addressed the need to provide troops with up-to-date military equipment and better training. The president stressed the need to raise the performance of the military command system, enlisting the…
Kyrgyzstan reaffirmed its support for a counterterrorism strategy that would encompass the entire Central Asian region under the auspices of the United Nations. Kyrgyz Deputy Foreign Minister Azizbek Madmarov made the commitment in a meeting with U.N. Undersecretary-General of Counter-Terrorism Vladimir Voronkov on March 4 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The high-level meeting occurred during a global conference called “Regional cooperation of Central Asian countries within the framework of the Joint Action Plan for the implementation of the U.N. Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.” The origins of the strategy lay with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who helped launched the regional initiative at the 75th…
UNIPATH STAFF Despite Iraq’s victory over Daesh declared by then-Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in December 2017, the terrorist group’s brutality and barbarism continue to leave scars in the memory of the Iraqi people. With the attendance of Iraqi government officials, political figures from the Kurdistan region, and representatives of international organizations, the Iraqi Yazidi community in December 2021 commemorated the remains of 41 victims exhumed from a mass grave discovered in the village of Kocho, Sinjar district, Nineveh governorate. “Today, the remains of 41 victims are being [re]buried in the village of Kocho,” said the emir of the Iraqi…
UNIPATH STAFF Setting its sights on achieving Oman’s Vision 2040 and meeting its people’s demands, the government of the Sultanate of Oman adopted a comprehensive plan to improve good governance, legislation and laws, review audit procedures, and increase professional accountability and transparency. To this end, the Omani Cabinet approved in December 2021 a proposal to amend the Law on Protection of Public Funds and Avoiding Conflict of Interests to increase transparency, protect public funds and combat corruption. When the law was first approved in 2011, Oman dismissed some senior government employees on charges related to financial corruption, mismanagement or abuse…
IRAQI ARMY STAFF GEN. Abdul Ameer Al-Shammari, THEN-DEPUTY COMMANDER, JOINT OPERATIONS COMMAND-IRAQ, AND U.S. ARMY MAJ. GEN. JOHN BRENNAN, then-COMMANDER, COMBINED JOINT TASK FORCE-OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE In December 2021 Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) transitioned to a non-combat role of advising, assisting and enabling partnered forces in Iraq and Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of Daesh. We would like to elaborate further on the respective roles Iraqi forces and Coalition forces play in our continuing counter-Daesh mission. The new campaign phase of Operation Inherent Resolve focuses on advising, assisting and enabling partnered forces at the operational level and is…