Nabil Mohsen

In a telephone conversation earlier today, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the latest developments in the Syrian conflict. According to Iranian and Turkish media outlets, the two leaders agreed to continue to cooperate to tackle regional security and terrorism problems.

A senior official of Harakat al-Nujaba, an Iranian-supported militia group fighting in Iraq and Syria, issued a threat against the US military in Iraq and called on Washington to pull out its troops from the country, the Iranian media reported. “We will never forget the atrocities of the United States in our country and we still have not settled a score with America,” Nasr al-Shamri, an executive director of the group said in a live interview with Al-Furat TV in Iraq.

With ISIS militarily defeated, Iran’s militia allies in Iraq are increasingly threatening violence against American troops and calling for the US withdrawal from the country. On February 7, Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iranian-supported unit within Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Force (PMF), issued a statement, warning that its fighters will begin to militarily confront American troops “at any moment” if Washington decides to keep a long-term military footprint in Iraq.

The below testimony was delivered to the House Foreign Affairs Committee by Charles Lister on February 6, 2018. See also testimony by Amb. Robert S. Ford, delivered at the same hearing, or the video webcast of the proceedings.

Mrs. Chairman, Mr. Ranking Member, Members of the Committee:

The below testimony was delivered before the House Foreign Affairs Committee by Amb. (ret.) Robert S. Ford on February 6, 2018. See also testimony by Charles Lister, delivered at the same hearing, or the video webcast of the proceedings.

Over the last decade, many in the international community have asked how, as a country with the largest population of Muslims — 255 million in 2016 — Indonesia has successfully dealt with terrorism relative to other countries in the Muslim world. As the international community struggles to solve the problem of religion-inspired terrorism, experts, academics, and senior government officials alike have identified Indonesia as a country from which the world can learn lessons about how to defeat terrorists and build democracy. However, analysis of counterterrorism in Indonesia since Reformasi in 1998 suggests it may premature to draw conclusions about success and failure. Where lessons can be learned, many lie in the actions of the Indonesian government, the societal factors that have enabled it, and the precarious state of “success” against terrorism.

Summary

Russia’s military intervention and political maneuvering in Syria has garnered a large amount of media coverage. However, Moscow is also conducting a concerted outreach campaign to Syrian citizens and society through a unique resource: its Sunni Muslim North Caucasian regions. In particular, Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov and Grand Mufti of Chechnya Salah-haji Mezhiev have emerged as a key conduit of Russian soft power with regard to Syrian civilian and Islamic figures.

Iran will not negotiate with America and European countries over its ballistic missile program, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said at a press conference in Tehran today. “We will not negotiate about our defense and missiles,” he emphasized, adding that Tehran will continue to boost its defense power by producing more planes, missiles and submarines. Rouhani also ruled out renegotiation of the 2015 nuclear agreement with the West. “Nothing will be added or subtracted from the JCPOA.

Iran’s Defense Ministry today unveiled a new propulsion system for military speedboats, Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, reported. “The maritime propulsion system, which allows military speedboats to reach higher velocities, leads to lower fuel consumption, and increases maneuverability in shallow waters, is also equipped with automatic running systems,” Brigadier General Qassem Taqizadeh, the deputy minister, pointed out. The system has a mobile shaft for transmission of power as high as 1,800 horsepower.

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Charles Lister, Bilal Y. Saab, Marvin G. Weinbaum, and Gonul Tol provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the unrelenting violence in Syria, President Trump’s “Buy American” plan, the Taliban’s anti-U.S. propaganda, and Erdogan’s meeting with the Vatican.

The head of Afghanistan National Directorate of Security (NDS) has said that Iran and Russia are in contact with the Taliban and are supporting the militant group in Afghanistan. In an interview with the BBC Persian, Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai pointed out that Tehran and Moscow provide assistance to the Taliban under the pretext of fighting the Islamic State, which has gained a foothold in South Asia in recent years.

The Houthi rebels, Iran’s allies in Yemen, today launched another missile attack into Saudi Arabia, targeting an air defense operations center in the kingdom’s border province of Najran, Iranian and Lebanese media outlets reported.

Iran’s minister of communication and information technology has said that the country is making the final preparations for the launch of four satellites into space, Mehr News Agency reported.