Kazakh gas transport firm KazTransGas and Uzbek national oil and gas firm Uzbekneftegaz agreed in November 2012 to supply natural gas to southern Kazakhstan, KazTransGas said in a statement. Kazakhstan sits atop enormous gas reserves, but due to the size of the massive country — the ninth largest in the world — areas farthest from the oil and gas deposits are unable to benefit from the country’s natural resource wealth. Kazakhstan’s oil and gas fields are in the far west of the country, leaving the southeastern part of the territory dependent on Kyrgyz electricity exports and Uzbek gas exports to…
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A military court in Tajikistan’s southern region of Khatlon sentenced five border guards to prison terms ranging from three to 21 years for smuggling drugs. The harshest sentence was given to Nizomiddin Yakubov, the former chief at the Vakhsh checkpoint on the Tajik-Afghan border. After a court session in November 2012, a judge told journalists that investigators found 20 kilograms (45 pounds) of hashish in Yakubov’s office earlier that year. The same month, a spokestman for Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that a top police official in Khatlon was arrested after investigators found 12…
LT. J.G. MELISSA MARTINELLI/U.S. COAST GUARD The Iraqi Navy, Kuwaiti Coast Guard and U.S. Coast Guard conducted their first trilateral theater security exercise in more than seven years. The September 2012 exercise consisted primarily of search and rescue and defensive maneuvers. Ultimately the exercise displayed the interoperability of forces within the Arabian Gulf. This is important since the area is the primary shipping lane for vital resources into and out of the Gulf states. “It was great working with Iraq and Kuwait members during the exercise. I look forward to future opportunities to build partnerships with them.”
Turkmenistan will begin construction of a pipeline to stream natural gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in 2017, announced Kakageldi Abdyllayew, acting minister of Turkmenistan’s oil and gas industry. Named for each of the four participating countries, the TAPI pipeline is expected to provide critical energy resources and fuel economic growth for each participant. The project, backed by the Asian Development Bank, has been in development since the mid-1990s. But security concerns over its route through Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan stalled the pipeline. When the Taliban crumbled in 2001, however, leaders began to revive the $7.6-billion project. In 2008, the…
UNIPATH STAFF The United Arab Emirates is creating a National Defense College to train the country’s next generation of military and civilian leaders. The institution is slated to open in August 2013 in Abu Dhabi. Under the command of the U.A.E. Armed Forces, the college will grant master’s and doctoral degrees in state resource management and strategic and security studies. Other fields of study may be added in the future. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, deputy supreme commander of the Armed Forces and crown prince of Abu Dhabi, will chair the school’s supreme council. Lt. Gen. Obaid Mohammed al-Ka’abi, undersecretary of…
Kyrgyz security forces uncovered a clandestine printing office that supplied forged documents to international terrorists and extremists. Agents of the Kyrgyz Republic’s State Committee for National Security (GKNB) snatched printing equipment and 94 counterfeit documents from a house in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh in November 2012. The haul also included passports, driving licenses, university diplomas, marriage certificates and other official documents. A Kyrgyz national from Jalal-Abad province was arrested in the raid. “It has been determined that the detainee manufactured fake documents and supplied them to members of international terrorist and extremist organizations,” according to a GKNB statement.…
UNIPATH STAFF Iraq and Oman are upgrading their Air Forces with C-130J Super Hercules aircraft from Lockheed Martin, a security and aerospace company. Iraq is slated to receive six, which will complement the country’s fleet of three C-130Es. Oman will receive three, adding to its three C-130H models. The aircraft will support troops within both countries, as well as other operations such as humanitarian relief. “The aircraft’s multi-role, multi-mission capability is demonstrated daily by meeting the airlift needs of 72 countries. Be it combat delivery, special missions, aerial refueling, search and rescue, firefighting, weather reconnaissance, armed ISR [intelligence, search and…
UNIPATH STAFF The girls are just teenagers — but their stories are harrowing. Having left Syria for asylum in neighboring Jordan, they’re trying to cope with what they’ve experienced. “We fled death. It was horrible — there was shelling, and we were lucky to escape,” one girl said. “Because of bad phone connections, we haven’t been able to talk to family who stayed in Homs.” Now living in a refugee camp, the girls worry about their families and an uncertain future. They battle boredom and survivor’s guilt. “I’m not comfortable being here while people are dying in Syria,” said 19-year-old…
Pakistani leaders are working to establish a new counterterrorism agency that will coordinate efforts to defeat Taliban- and al-Qaida-linked violence. Pakistan says 35,000 people have been killed worldwide as a result of terrorism since the 9/11 attacks. In Pakistan, particularly near the Afghan border, suicide attacks, roadside bombings and shootings are a near day-to-day reality. Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira announced the proposal after a cabinet meeting in November 2012. “The cabinet today approved the National Counter-Terrorism Authority Bill, the need for which has been felt for a long time.” he told reporters. The next step is for the bill…
UNIPATH STAFF The National Dialogue Conference (NDC) sessions began March 18, 2013, in Sanaa, Yemen. The six-month-long process brought together 565 delegates representing 16 different political factions to discuss a range of complex and important issues. These include drafting a new constitution and the restructuring of state and political systems. Elections are planned for February 2014. To ensure security for the participants during the first plenary session, the government stationed 60,000 troops in the capital, with checkpoints on nearly every street. Local television stations ran live coverage of conference sessions. Opening the conference at Sanaa’s presidential palace, President Abd Rabuh…