UNIPATH STAFF The United Nations has established the Yemeni port of Hudeidah as the focus of its latest efforts to mediate between the warring parties in that country’s civil war. To implement U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at ensuring a cease-fire, U.N. negotiators, the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels have established a Redeployment Coordination Committee that dispatches monitoring teams to help keep the peace in Hudeidah. The committee held its sixth meeting in September 2019 aboard a U.N. chartered ship in the Red Sea waters near the city. It led to the establishment of a Joint Operations Center at the…
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UNIPATH STAFF Hosted by the Kyrgyzstani government in Bishkek in July 2019, the five Central Asian nations approved a historic agreement with the European Union to improve regional stability. Foreign ministers from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan voiced support for the new EU Strategy on Central Asia. The strategy aims not only to improve cooperation on economics and trade, but also focuses on freedom of speech, democratization education and security in Afghanistan. Bilateral relations between Kyrgyzstan and the EU were an important part of the Bishkek meeting. Both sides signed a historic bilateral agreement substantially different from the previous…
UNIPATH STAFF As a result of its government’s continuous efforts to promote food security, Qatar was ranked best among Arabic-speaking countries for protecting its citizens from potential shortages. Qatar’s Food Security Department in the Ministry of Municipality and the Environment is charged with identifying gaps among in the nation’s food supply. In addition, the department determines the economic feasibility of producing food domestically and providing land, irrigation, transportation and processing to accomplish that. Qatar’s National Food Security Strategy focuses on four main concerns: Exploring the types of food that can be produced or grown domestically without many inefficiencies. Stockpiling and…
UNIPATH STAFF The Kuwait National Guard has joined a multinational police organization that will allow it to learn from security forces around the world. At a meeting in the Netherlands in October 2019, Kuwait achieved membership in the International Association of Gendarmeries and Police Forces With Military Status, known by the acronym FIEP. Kuwait’s membership will allow its National Guard to exchange experiences with 19 countries, including France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Morocco, Qatar and Jordan. Founded in 1994, FIEP is an association of gendarmeries and police forces with military status originally from European countries on the Mediterranean seaboard. Its…
UNIPATH STAFF A military delegation from Uzbekistan visited U.S. defense colleges in September 2019 with the intention of improving how the country trains its officers. Led by Uzbek Deputy Minister of Defense Azizbek Ikramov, the delegation explored the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania, and the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies. The Uzbek Defense Ministry noted that the National Defense University provided the delegation with valuable information about “infrastructure, the general approach to training military personnel, and about basic principles of curriculum development for professional military education courses.” Two months…
UNIPATH STAFF Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications has announced plans to establish a cyber security authority to combat increasing threats to computer systems on which the country relies. Information Minister Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui noted that the authority would operate under a comprehensive cyber security policy the country is devising to defend against cyber crime. According to the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, more than 50 million Pakistanis have access to mobile phones with high-speed internet access. Despite the risk associated with increased computerization, Pakistan’s economy will benefit from the spread of information technology, Siddiqui said. The ministry also intends…
UNIPATH STAFF Although military service for female Emiratis remains voluntary, many female recruits have taken military training classes to demonstrate their love and loyalty to their homeland. In the summer of 2019, more than 200 Emirati school-age girls took basic and advanced courses to learn military skills such as weapons assembly and disassembly, close quarters combat, marksmanship, first aid, staging and order of movement, logistics, physical fitness and martial arts. The courses were organized by the Active and Reserve Service Department at Khawla Bint Al-Azwar Military School. The graduation ceremony was attended by several dignitaries headed by His Highness Sheikh…
To raise combat readiness to preempt potential terrorist attacks, the Saudi and Bahraini forces jointly launched two naval exercises: Bridge-20 and Waves-4. The drills occurred at King Abdulaziz Naval Base, southeast of Jubail, Saudi Arabia, in October 2019. Bridge-20 and Waves-4 came at a time of tension in the region due to attacks on Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and ships in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. In each case, Iran was a prime suspect. The two combined exercises aimed to increase the readiness of the two countries’ forces to counter terrorist attacks that target oil…
Every year, Saudi Arabia hosts millions of religious pilgrims arriving from all over the world to perform the rituals of the Hajj. In the Hajj season of 2019, His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef, the Saudi minister of the interior, chaired the Higher Hajj Committee to ensure the safety and security of an estimated 2.5 million visitors. The World Health Organization (WHO) commended the government of Saudi Arabia for hosting the pilgrimage to Mecca without any health crisis or disease outbreaks, despite the discomforts of the August heat. Before the Hajj season, a WHO team visited health…
UNIPATH STAFF In response to popular calls to remove Daesh fighters from villages near the city of Baquba in Diyala governorate, Iraqi security forces conducted a preemptive attack in August 2019 on terrorist remnants in the region. Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the commander in chief, personally oversaw the launch of Operation Will of Victory III to eliminate Daesh pockets not just in Diyala but also in sections of Nineveh governorate. Ground forces included the Iraqi Army’s 5th and 20th divisions, the Commando Brigade, the Joint Operations Command, the Diyala Police Department, federal police and tribal mobilization forces. In addition to…