The U.S. keeps several MENA embassies closed over terrorist threat

According to the U.S. State Department, 19 U.S. embassies and consulates in the Middle East and North Africa will remain closed at least throughout the week after 22 were closed on Sunday. The State Department said the closures were "out of an abundance of caution" and that there is no new information about plans for a terrorist attack. Senior U.S. lawmakers appeared on Sunday political talk shows warning of the "most series threat" seen in the past several years and saying that intelligence agencies had picked up "chatter" reminiscent of what was seen prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001. While information was vague, U.S. officials did say that al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate (al Qaeda in the Arabia Peninsula) is behind the plot. The threat has come amid a debate in the United States over a controversial U.S. National Security Agency surveillance program. The embassies that will be closed include those in Yemen, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, and Kuwait. Diplomatic missions in Algeria, Afghanistan, and Iraq will open on Monday. Additionally, Britain and France closed their embassies in Yemen on Sunday, and Britain said its embassy would remain closed until Thursday, through the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. 

Syria

The Syrian government has banned the use of foreign currency in business transactions in Syria, in efforts to prop up the Syrian pound. Since March 2011, Syria’s currency has dropped from 47 pounds to the U.S. dollar to 200, briefly hitting 300 at its low. According to Syria’s state news agency, SANA, anyone providing goods and services in exchange for foreign currencies could be fined and imprisoned for up to 10 years. A Damascus banker said the move is "to prevent people from fleeing to the dollar." Meanwhile, Syrian opposition forces attacked several Alawite villages Sunday in the mountains east of Latakia province, making gains in one of the Assad regime’s strongholds. The Syrian army launched attacks on the remaining opposition controlled areas of Homs, a week after capturing the Khaldiyya district. Also, a Syrian warplane hit the town of Yabroud, near the border with Lebanon, killing at least six people. 

Headlines

• Police clashed with protesters outside a Turkish court Monday as it began sentencing nearly 300 defendants over a military coup plot, acquitting 20 people while issuing sentences up to 20 years for others.
• The Obama administration said Iran would find a "willing partner in the United States" if it moves toward meeting its "international obligations" as Iran inaugurated its new President Hasan Rowhani Sunday.
• U.S. Senators McCain and Graham will visit Egypt Monday for negotiations as diplomatic efforts to end the political crisis in Egypt intensify, however Egyptian authorities denied entry of Yemeni Nobel Peace laureate Tawakkol Karman.
• Israel has broadened its list of West Bank settlements eligible for subsidies in a move condemned by Palestinians just days after the resumption of peace talks. 

Arguments and Analysis

‘Democracy and Hypocrisy‘ (The Economist)

"Remember the opprobrium heaped on Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, in June for using tear gas and water-cannon against his people? Imagine the outrage if Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to fire live ammunition into demonstrators on the streets of Moscow. But over the weekend, when Egypt’s generals set about killing scores of protesters, the West responded with furrowed brows and pleas for all sides to refrain from violence. Such meekness betrays not only a lack of moral courage, but also a poor sense of where Egypt’s — and the West’s — real interests lie.

The shooting took place in Cairo early on July 27th near the parade ground where, three decades earlier, President Anwar Sadat had been assassinated. Supporters of Muhammad Morsi, ousted in a coup at the beginning of July, were marching to demand that the army should restore him to the presidency. Riot police (and their civilian supporters) opened fire. More than 80 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mr Morsi’s party, died; many more were injured.

After the killing, Barack Obama kept his counsel. It fell to John Kerry, the American secretary of state, to speak out — and then he merely called on Egypt’s leaders to ‘step back from the brink’. Likewise in Britain David Cameron, the prime minister, left it to William Hague, the foreign secretary, to rap the generals over the knuckles. America’s protest at the ousting of Mr Morsi had been to delay the supply of some F-16 fighter jets to Egypt. But that modest gesture was more than undone just before the shootings. In an unwise precedent, the administration declined to say Egypt had suffered a coup, because to do so could have triggered an automatic block on aid."

‘Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations Will Require Public Support‘ (James Zogby, Huffington Post Blog)

"There is an intimate relationship between Israeli and Palestinian public opinion and the successful outcome of any peace negotiations. In the end, no matter how clever or skillfully arranged the formula for compromise, it must pass the test of being accepted by both sides.

When we have polled both Israeli and Palestinian publics in order to see where compromise can be found, our efforts come up short. Too often what we find is that the most Israelis indicate a willingness to give in any peace agreement falls far short of the Palestinian minimum requirements for a just settlement. The negotiators, if they are worth their salt, know this. They, therefore, address each issue not merely as an abstract problem to be solved, but as a matter which must, in the end, be accepted by their respective publics. Concretizing this imperative, both Israeli and Palestinian leaderships have pledged to submit the product of the negotiations to a referendum. This makes it especially clear that both societies must be ready and willing to endorse any compromise arrangement for peace.

Ignoring the vital role that will be played by public opinion in this process, therefore, can doom the entire effort from the start.

Peace, like any political compromise, must be grounded in the possible. As I have noted, our polling establishes that, at this point, peace does not appear to be possible. Paralleling the negotiations, the real work that must be done is to expand the range of the possible by changing public attitudes on both sides."

‘The Regional Struggle for Syria‘ (Julien Barnes-Dacey and Daniel Levy, European Council on Foreign Relations)

"Two years after the outbreak of a largely peaceful uprising, Syria has fallen into a deep civil war that is increasingly drawing in regional actors. While the battle on the ground continues to be predominantly fought by Syrians, neighbouring powers have a growing stake in the conflict, providing important patronage to the warring parties as part of a broader regional struggle. This confrontation has drawn in Iran, Iraq, and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in support of the Assad regime, and Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey behind the rebels. Other players, including Jordan, the Kurds, and Israel, are active in pursuit of narrower interests. Violent tensions are now spreading out beyond Syria’s porous borders and the risk of a regional conflagration is growing.

While regional players have been active in Syria since the early months of the conflict in 2011, the intensity of their involvement has clearly escalated in recent months. In June, Hezbollah fighters played a key role in helping President Bashar al-Assad seize the strategic town of Qusair and, together with Iranian advisors, have now assumed a greater role in facilitating regime efforts. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey remain the key sponsors of the rebel movement, providing it with arms and finance. There is also a growing cohort of foreign militants — from across the region and beyond (including from the Central Asian-Caucasus region, the AfPak theatre, and Europe) — fighting on behalf of the rebels. According to one credible estimate, the number of these fighters now stands at five thousand. Recent calls by leading regional religious figures, including the influential Qatar-based cleric, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, for a Sunni jihad in Syria will fuel this flow."

–Mary Casey & Joshua Haber