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Focus Point: Regional Security– Middle East
US is sending more troops to the Middle East as violence rises between Israel and Hezbollah| AP News
By Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor | 24.09. 2024
The U.S. is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East in response to a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon said Monday.
Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, would not say how many more forces would be deployed or what they would be tasked to do.
The U.S. now has about 40,000 troops in the region.
On Monday, the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, two Navy destroyers and a cruiser set sail from Norfolk, Virginia, headed to the Sixth Fleet area in Europe on a regularly scheduled deployment. The ships’ departure opens up the possibility that the U.S. could keep both the Truman and the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is in the Arabian Gulf, in the region in case more violence breaks out. Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security- Africa
Somalia and Ethiopia feud over arms influx | Reuters
By Reuters |24.09.2024
Somalia accused Ethiopia of smuggling weapons on Tuesday amid fears that arms going into the conflict-riven Horn of Africa nation could end up in the hands of Islamist militants.
The neighbours traded barbs a day after an Egyptian warship unloaded heavy weaponry in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, the second shipment since a security pact in August.
Landlocked Ethiopia, which has thousands of troops in Somalia to fight al Qaeda-linked insurgents, has fallen out with the Mogadishu government over its plans to build a port in the breakaway region of Somaliland in exchange for possible recognition of its sovereignty. Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security / Indo-Pacific
China test-fires ICBM for first time in decades | BBC
By Kelly Ng | 25.09.2024
China has said it successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) carrying a dummy warhead into the Pacific Ocean.
“routine” and part of its “annual training”
The ICMB was launched at 08:44 local time (04:44 GMT) on Wednesday and “fell into expected sea areas”, Beijing’s defence ministry said, adding that the test launch was “routine” and part of its “annual training”.
The type of missile and its flight path remained unclear, but Chinese state media said Beijing had “informed the countries concerned in advance”.
Analysts said Beijing’s description of the test as “routine” was surprising because the last such test happened in 1980.
China’s nuclear weapon tests usually take place domestically and it previously test-fired ICBMs west into the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang region.
So this is believed to be the first time since 1980 that it launched an ICBM into international waters. Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security- Middle East
Leave Lebanon now, Starmer tells Britons| BBC
By Chris Mason and Isabella Allen | 25.09.2024
The prime minister has told British nationals in Lebanon to “leave immediately” after fighting intensified between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group which dominates the country.
Sir Keir Starmer: We are potentially at a brink” of all-out war.
Sir Keir Starmer said “we are ramping up the contingency plans, I think you’d expect that in light of the escalation” and warned that “we are potentially at a brink” of all-out war.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is sending 700 troops to nearby Cyprus to prepare for the possible evacuation of British nationals from Lebanon and the government “continues to advise against all travel to Lebanon”.
The situation in the country, where Israeli strikes reportedly killed more than 560 people this week, is described as deteriorating “rapidly, with devastating. Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security- Middle East
Israeli foreign minister rejects Lebanon ceasefire proposal | Reuters
By Reuters | 26.09.2024
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Thursday rejected proposals from the United States and France calling for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had not responded but told the army to keep up its operation.
“There will be no ceasefire in the north,” Katz said on the social media platform X. “We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes.” Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security- Middle East
Hezbollah confirms leader Hassan Nasrallah killed in Israeli strike | CNN
By By Chris Lau, Catherine Nicholls, Sophie Tanno, Adrienne Vogt, Tori B. Powell, Matt Meyer, Kaanita Iyer, and Andrew Raine | 29.09.2024
Hezbollah has confirmed the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, after Israel said he was killed in its airstrikes on the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Friday. The killing marks a major escalation in the long-running conflict and deepens fears of a wider regional war.
US officials see the possibility of a limited Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon, but they stress Israel does not appear to have made a decision yet whether to send troops across the border.
The strikes that killed Nasrallah targeted a densely populated area and destroyed residential buildings. Israel has carried out more strikes Saturday on what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, killing at least 33 people and wounding 195, according to the country’s health ministry.
An estimated 1 million people have been displaced by recent fighting in southern Lebanon, a government minister told CNN. One of Israel’s stated war aims is to return tens of thousands of its own civilians displaced by the cross-border fighting. Read more…
Thank you very much for reading.
As a graduate of the U.S. Army War College and a former senior civil servant, Mr. Umit Kurt is dedicated to advancing the field of international relations as a Ph.D. researcher at UCLouvain in international relations in Belgium.
His research delves into the dynamics of International Institutions with their diverse members, the ethics of reconciliation, the complexities of migration, and the overarching governance of digital ecosystems.
With a career that spans over two decades, he has been at the forefront of leading and contributing to task forces in various capacities, including NATO Peace Operations and strategic NATO Headquarters.
Mr Kurt’s professional journey has been enriched by a Master of Business Administration. His expertise in Global Governance for Digital Ecosystems was honed through a consultancy role at PA Europe-Belgium, a prominent multinational public affairs firm.
The NAVI Research Institute is the research division of NATO Veterans Initiative - NAVI that provides a unique perspective to transatlantic leaders and societies on peace and security through the lens of NATO's founding principles of rule of law, democracy, human rights, and individual liberties. The NAVI Research Institute was officially established by the NAVI Board on July 16th, 2023.
