UNIPATH STAFF The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) have activated a cross-country surveillance system to plug security gaps along the country’s border with Syria. Smuggling and infiltration have been sufficiently serious that Lebanon has maintained four regiments on its northern and eastern borders since 2009. To shut down smuggling routes, LAF also established a network of electronic monitoring towers linked to the Joint Operations and Information Center at the Lebanese Army Command. The system allows permanent day and night monitoring, while providing early warning to mobile units dispatched to confront violators, said Gen. Joseph Haddad, the head of Lebanon’s Joint Border…
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Kyrgyzstan will benefit from donations from the European Union to support governmental reform, human rights initiatives and water security. In December 2021, the European Union approved financing worth 62 million euros as part of a four-year effort to aid Kyrgyzstan. In terms of governance and digitalization, the focus of the money will be on promoting and improving the rule of law and digital transformation. Human development, including improving the quality of education and promoting gender equality and human rights, is also part of the EU’s assistance for Bishkek. The EU also stressed Kyrgyzstan’s need to integrate and share water resources…
UNIPATH STAFF Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov committed his country to the pursuit of peace, security and diplomacy during an address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 21, 2021. President Berdymukhammedov announced that his country would host an international conference in Ashgabat in December 2021 titled “The Politics of Peace and Trust — the Basis of International Security, Stability, and Development.” His U.N. speech also proposed the creation of a zone of peace, trust and cooperation called “Central Asia — Caspian region.” He emphasized that Turkmenistan is interested in helping bring peace, harmony and unity to Afghanistan. In…
UNIPATH STAFF Yemen’s legitimate government protested the illegal execution of nine people, including a 17-year-old, that the Houthis blamed for killing one of their leaders. The nine had been held in arbitrary detention and were subjected to torture and other abuse after they were accused of involvement in the 2018 death of Saleh al-Samad. Warning that the Houthi militia will carry out more mass killings against innocent civilians, Yemeni Minister of Information Muammar Al-Eryani dismissed the extrajudicial executions as premeditated murder on fabricated charges. Al-Samad was killed along with six others in an airstrike conducted by the Coalition to…
UNIPATH STAFF Uzbekistan hosted the first meeting in December 2021 of the Strategic Partnership Dialogue with the United States, highlighting the two countries’ commitment to improving security in Central Asia. The engagement in Tashkent was hosted by Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu. Both parties stressed continued cooperation to counter the threats of terrorism and extremism and reduce insecurity in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan’s loan of the Termez cargo terminal to help deliver international humanitarian aid to Afghanistan earned praise from the U.S. side. The United Nations Office of High…
UNIPATH STAFF United Arab Emirates company Majid Al Futtaim Retail, among the top supermarket retailers in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa, earned top honors for following best practices in cybersecurity. During Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX), a consumer trade show in Dubai in October 2021, Majid Al Futtaim was singled out by Trend Micro Inc. for its efforts at securing its chain of hundreds of grocery stores. Majid is franchisee and operator for the French-based Carrefour chain. Trend Micro said Majid is responsible for protecting more than 10,000 computers, laptops and mobile devices and 2,500 servers from…
Unipath Staff The Pakistani government has reported record seizures of illegal drugs at one of the country’s main border crossings with Afghanistan. In just a few weeks in December 2021 and January 2022, Pakistani officials at the Torkham border post disrupted the smuggling of 524 kilograms of hashish, 255 kilograms of heroin, 280 kilograms of opium, and almost 22 kilograms of methamphetamine. On January 6, 2022, Pakistan discovered two separate caches of heroin, one amounting to 100 kilograms, the other 130 kilograms. The latter seizure represented a record at Torkham. Acting on a tip, the Pakistanis discovered the heroin at…
UNIPATH STAFF Preemptive action by the Sultan’s Armed Forces saved the lives of potentially hundreds of Omanis residing in the path of Cyclone Shaheen in October 2021. Omani authorities rescued more than 600 people as the storm hit the country with winds of up to 150 kilometers per hour and waves approaching heights of 10 meters. To diminish casualties from the approaching cyclone, Omani Internal Security Service halted traffic in the governorates of Al Batinah North and Al Batinah South, restricting movement to emergency cases and deliveries of vital goods. Power was cut as well in al-Qurm, east of Muscat,…
UNIPATH STAFF As part of an expanding diplomatic and security partnership, high-ranking diplomats from Kazakhstan and the United States committed their countries to further cooperation on counterterrorism, nuclear nonproliferation and border security. The December 2021 meeting in the Kazakh capital of Astana occurred between Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Akan Rakhmetullin and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu. Lu expressed gratitude to Kazakhstan on behalf of the U.S. for its strong cooperation in addressing challenges such as border security, counterterrorism, peacekeeping, nuclear nonproliferation, climate change and regional security. He commended Kazakhstan for its leadership…
BY GEN. MICHAEL KURILLA, COMMANDER OF UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND Somewhere in the Arabian Gulf, a dhow makes its way along the surface of the water, almost 50 kilometers off the coast. From the outside, this dhow appears just like the thousands of other vessels that make a trip over those seas every day. But there’s a difference — this dhow is moving thousands of kilos of explosives into the region. Those explosives are undetectable by any external observation. Suddenly, two vessels punch through the ocean at 70 knots. The men on the dhow are encircled before they can even…