Middle East Experience

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said after his meeting with Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides that Israel is concerned over what it considers a Turkish provocative move in northern Cyprus.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Israel sides against Turkey in Cyprus dispute

Saudi Arabia has reported 1,379 new COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths over the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday.Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section. Of the new cases, 273 were detected in the capital Riyadh, 242 in Mecca and 224 in the Eastern Region.Health authorities also confirmed 1,021 recoveries, raising the total to 501,449 while the total number of infections reached 520,774.Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 8,189 as of July 27.The health ministry said 1,419 are in critical condition while 11,136 cases remain active in the Kingdom.Read more: Saudi Arabia to ban citizens who break COVID travel rules from traveling for 3 yearsSaudi Arabia to again extend residency permits, visas for expats stranded abroad
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Saudi Arabia reports 1,379 new COVID-19 cases, 10 deaths

Saudi Arabia will ban its citizens from traveling abroad for 3 years if they break COVID-19 travel rules, the Ministry of Interior announced on Tuesday.Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.There have been reports of citizens traveling to prohibited countries, according to the Saudi Press Agency, which led authorities to impose a travel ban for 3 years in addition to hefty fines.The ministry also clarified that the travel ban remains in place for countries with uncontrolled COVID-19 outbreaks and includes direct travel or transits via other countries.Authorities also warned all travelers to be cautious while traveling, regardless of their destination. People are urged to take extra precautions against the spread of the virus and to avoid unstable areas.Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia announced it was barring its citizens from direct or indirect travel to the UAE, Ethiopia, and Vietnam without obtaining prior permission, according to a statement from the Kingdom’s interior ministry.Travel is also banned to or transit at a number of other countries including Afghanistan, Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.Authorities had also announced that starting on August 9, citizens will need two COVID-19 vaccine doses before they can travel outside the Saudi Arabia.The decision was made based on new waves of infection globally, new mutations, and the “low efficacy of one vaccination dose against these mutations,” a ministry statement said.As of July 27, a total of 520,774 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Saudi Arabia while 501,449 people recovered. The death toll has reached 8,189.Read more: Saudi bans citizens from travel to Ethiopia, UAE, Vietnam without prior permissionSaudi Arabia bans citizens from travel to Indonesia amid COVID-19Saudi Arabia to again extend residency permits, visas for expats stranded abroad
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Saudi Arabia to ban citizens who break COVID travel rules from traveling for 3 years

The US and NATO have promised to pay $4 billion a year until 2024 to finance Afghanistan’s military and security forces, which are struggling to contain an advancing Taliban. Already, the US has spent nearly $89 billion over the past 20 years to build, equip and train Afghan forces.Yet America’s own government watchdog says oversight of the money has been poor, hundreds of millions of dollars have been misspent and corruption is rife in the security apparatus.Monitoring where the future funding goes will become virtually impossible after Aug. 31, when the last coalition troops leave.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Here is a look at some of the issues:US spending since 2001Nearly $83 billion has been spent to build, equip, train and sustain Afghanistan’s National Defense and Security Forces, which include the military, national police and the elite special forces.That figure covers a wide range of items. For example, the US spent nearly $10 billion for vehicles and aircraft. It spent $3.75 billion on fuel for the Afghan military between 2010-2020.Separately, another $5.8 billion went into economic and government development and infrastructure since 2001, with the expressed goal of winning public support and blunting the Taliban insurgency. The figures are from reports by John Sopko, the Special Inspector General on Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, tasked with monitoring how US taxpayer dollars are spent.The US allocation for 2022 is $3.3 billion. It will include $1 billion to support the Afghan Air Force and Special Mission Wing, $1 billion for fuel, ammunition and spare parts, and $700 million to pay salaries for Afghan soldiers.It is difficult to see how the Afghan government will be able to pay to keep its military running after 2024.More than 80 percent of the Afghan government budget is paid by the US and its allies, according to SIGAR. Economic projections suggesting Kabul could carry more of the financial burden have been either wrong or vastly exaggerated, Sopko reported. Afghanistan’s growth rate was to be 3.4 percent in 2021 but instead shrunk by 2 percent. In the last 4 of 7 years, Afghanistan has missed its economic growth targets.Waste and corruptionMuch of the billions injected into Afghanistan the past two decades has gone largely unmonitored, leading to runaway corruption by both Afghans and foreign contractors.Sopko has issued dozens of reports identifying waste, mismanagement and outright corruption.In one instance, the US spent $547 million to buy and refurbish 20 G222 military transport aircraft for the Afghan Air Force.Sixteen of them were later sold as junk to Afghan scrap dealers for $40,257 because the American refurbishers delivered flawed and unsafe aircraft.A retired US air force general, contrary to retirement rules, had links to the firm that refurbished the planes, according to a report by Sopko earlier this year. The report said the Justice Department informed the watchdog agency in May 2020 that it would not prosecute any criminal or civil cases connected to the G222 program.Of $7.8 billion provided since 2008 to Afghan civilian authorities for buildings and vehicles, only $1.2 billion went to buildings and vehicles that were used as intended. Only $343.2 million worth of what was acquired was maintained in good condition, Sopko said earlier this year.The Afghan army and police force officially have around 320,000 members, but SIGAR says the number is closer to 280,000.The discrepancy is attributed to the presence of so-called ghost soldiers, where corrupt officials pad the personnel numbers to collect money, reported SIGAR.Sopko said in one of his reports that lack of oversight allowed bribery, fraud, extortion and nepotism, “as well as the empowerment of abusive warlords and their militias.”“Corruption significantly undermined the US mission in Afghanistan by damaging the legitimacy of the Afghan government, strengthening popular support for the insurgency, and channeling material resources to insurgent groups.”What kind of military is left?For all the time, training and money funneled by the US into the Afghan military as a whole, the small, elite commando forces appear to be the only units capable of standing as a bulwark against the Taliban.As Taliban swept through districts in recent weeks, regular army and police have in many instances either negotiated their surrender to Taliban or simply walked off their bases. Often, their superiors left them without resupplies of ammunition, troops and sometimes even food as they faced the advancing insurgents.Throughout the war, US air support has been a crucial edge for Afghan forces on the battlefield. So building Afghan capabilities to carry out the role was vital, and the US spent more than $8.5 billion to support and develop the Afghan Air Force and the Special Mission Wing.However, the Afghan air force risks being largely grounded once the coalition leaves. The Afghans’ fleet of fighter jets is serviced by US contractors, who are leaving along with the troops. Afghan officials say the coalition never gave them the training or infrastructure to carry out maintenance themselves.The same holds for much of the arsenal of armored vehicles and heavy weapons the Americans have left for the Afghan military.Several Afghan officials who spoke to The Associated Press were deeply critical of the US and NATO failure to invest in factories to make spare parts, manufacturing plants to produce ammunition and training to produce skilled Afghan mechanics.“Every bullet had to come from America,” said Gen. Dawlat Waziri a former Afghan Defense Ministry official. “Why weren’t we making them here?”Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said the coalition failed the Afghan government and military by making them overdependent on Western support.More broadly, “the US trained the wrong kind of army — a Western-styled army — when it needed to train an army capable of fighting the Taliban,” said Roggio, who is also senior editor of The Long War Journal.“The commandos, Special Forces and Air Force have performed well, but the regular Afghan Army, which make up a bulk of the fighting force, is not up to task,” he said.Monitoring billions of dollarsIt’s been several years since US officials have been able to physically monitor US-funded projects, because deteriorating security countrywide drastically restricted US Embassy personnel’s movements.By 2016, US advisers couldn’t even meet Afghan security officials at their Kabul offices without heavily armored convoys, and later they could only go by helicopter, said Sopko’s July report.Staff at the US Embassy in Kabul has been reduced to mostly essential personnel since mid-April. An embassy official told the AP that 1,400 Americans remain at the embassy, mostly restricted to the compound.Roggio said the US and NATO had a hard enough time monitoring aid when they were in Afghanistan; it will be virtually impossible once they leave.“And with the Taliban rampaging across the country,” he added, “the incentive for Afghan officials to plunder the cash only increases.”Read more:NATO chief Stoltenberg urges ‘negotiated settlement’ with Taliban in AfghanistanPakistan reopens major Afghanistan border crossing held by TalibanHalf of all Afghanistan district centers under Taliban control: Top US general
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Explainer: US pays bln to Afghan forces; Who is watching?

Tunisian President Kais Saied on Sunday announced the suspension of the country’s Parliament and immunity of all deputies and sacked Prime Minister Hicham Mechichi following a series of mass protests across Tunisia.Saied said, in a speech broadcast after calling on military and security officers for an emergency meeting at Carthage Palace, that he planned to take over the executive authority with the help of a new prime minister to replace the deposed Mechichi.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The President then based his actions on Article 80 of the country’s constitution, stating that it allowed him to take such measures in specific situations, the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported.“We took these decisions so that social peace returns to Tunisia and that we save the country,” Saied said.What is Article 80? Article 80 of the Tunisian constitution states that “The President of the Republic, in a state of imminent danger threatening the integrity of the country and the country’s security and independence, is entitled to take the measures necessitated by this exceptional situation, after consulting the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Cabinet.”However, the article does not explicitly authorize the president to dissolve the country’s Parliament. It stipulated that measure imposed based on the article should be aimed at restoring stability and normalcy within the country, ensuring that it functions normally, safely and properly as quickly as possible.“The measures shall guarantee, as soon as possible, a return to the normal functioning of state institutions and services,” the article read. “The Assembly of the Representatives of the People shall be deemed to be in a state of continuous session throughout such a period. In this situation, the President of the Republic cannot dissolve the Assembly of the Representatives of the People and a motion of censure against the government cannot be presented.”It also stipulated that “Thirty days after the entry into force of these measures, and at any time thereafter, the Speaker of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People or thirty of the members thereof shall be entitled to apply to the Constitutional Court with a view to verifying whether or not the circumstances remain exceptional. The Court shall rule upon and publicly issue its decision within a period not exceeding fifteen days.”“These measures cease to be in force as soon as the circumstances justifying their implementation no longer apply. The President of the Republic shall address a message to the people to this effect.”Many political figures in Tunisia have opposed Saied’s move and have accused him of staging a coup. The country’s Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi accused the president of launching “a coup against the revolution and constitution” on Sunday following his decision.“We consider the institutions to be still standing and supporters of Ennahda and the Tunisian people will defend the revolution,” Ghannouchi, who heads the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, told Reuters by phone.Saied has since rejected coup accusations. “I call on the Tunisian people to remain calm and not to respond to any provocations. I also call upon the Tunisian people not to take to streets as the most danger a nation can face is internal explosion,” Saied said in a video released on Monday.Read more:Tunisian president removes prime minister, suspends parliament after protestsTunisian Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi accuses president of coupWatch: Here are the 3 presidential decisions as announced by Tunisia’s Kais Saied
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: What is Article 80 and how did Tunisia’s president use it to back his decisions?

Egypt slams the Turkish plan to reopen the town of Varosha in the eastern part of the island of Cyprus, at a time when talks to normalize ties between the two countries have stalled.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Turkish plan to reopen Cyprus ghost town strains rapprochement with Egypt

Justices sounded highly critical of the police for the slow pace of fixing errors they were making in improperly invading the privacy of suspects regarding cell phones and other electronic devices.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Expanded High Court likely to let police probe Netanyahu's PR people

The video, first posted on the TikTok account of Ben Wager, one of the Israeli baseball Olympic players, concludes that it takes nine Olympic athletes to break the bed.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Israeli athletes break Olympic bed in Tiktok video - watch

This is the second group of experts from Israel to travel to the area to assist in the management of the pandemic. A previous delegation spent time in the country in June.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Israel health team assists Philippines in COVID-19 response

The Moroccan authorities must not deport Idris Hasan, an ethnic Uyghur who has been detained in the country, to China where he is at risk of torture, Amnesty International said today..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Morocco: Authorities must not deport detained Uyghur to China