Excerpts: U.S. Coast Guard fires on Iranian boat in Gulf. Sinai militants
behead 4 Egyptians. Gulf States -Qatar relation. President Obama's position
on ISIS. U.S. re ISIS August 28, 2014


+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 28 Aug.’14:”U.S. Coast Guard fires on Iranian
boat in Gulf”, by Associated Press
SUBJECT: U.S. Coast Guard fires on Iranian boat in Gulf
QUOTE:”A U.S. Coast Guard vessel fired in self defense”

A U.S. Coast Guard vessel fired in self-defense on an Iranian boat in the
Persian Gulf, the Navy said Wednesday[27 Aug.], an encounter that could
exacerbate tensions between the two countries as they work to hammer out a
lasting deal over Iran’s nuclear program.

Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th
Fleet, said personnel on a small boat dispatched from the U.S. Coast Guard
patrol boat Monomoy fired a single shot when it saw crew on a nearby Iranian
dhow training one of its two .50-caliber machine guns on them and preparing
to fire.

“This action by the dhow’s crew demonstrated hostile intent which resulted
in the defensive fire by the Coast Guardsmen,” he said.

Dhows are traditional wooden boats common to the region that are typically
used for trade.

No Americans were wounded in the encounter, which happened in international
waters around 11:30 a.m. local time Tuesday, Stephens said.

The Monomoy was operating on “a routine maritime security operation” when it
contacted the dhow’s bridge. After initial contact, the Iranian vessel
stopped communicating and the Coast Guard ship deployed small boat to
investigate, Stephens said.

It was not clear if the shot hit the Iranian vessel or if anyone onboard was
injured. Iranian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

American, Iranian and other countries’ military vessels routinely patrol the
Gulf, a key route for international oil shipments, usually without incident.

Speed boats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, however, have passed close to
U.S. ships in incidents that have raised alarm in Washington.

In early 2008, then-President George W. Bush accused Iran of a “provocative
act” after five small Iranian craft buzzed around the destroyer USS Hopper.

Tuesday’s[26 Aug.] encounter happened as the U.S. and other world powers
negotiate with Iran over its controversial nuclear program, and just days
after Iran claimed it shot down a purported Israeli drone near a nuclear
facility.

Israeli officials have not commented on that incident.

The West and Israel believe the program is aimed at building a nuclear
weapon. Iran denies the charge, saying its nuclear activities are for
peaceful purposes only, such as power generation and medical research.


+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 28 Aug.’14:”Sinai militants claim beheading of 4
Egyptians”, Reuters
SUBJECT: Sinai militants behead 4 Egyptians
QUOTE:”Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis accuse the four of providing Israel with
intelligence for an airstrike that killed three of its fighters”.

FULL TEXT:A Sinai-based militant group is claiming it has beheaded four
Egyptians, saying the four had provided Israel with intelligence for an
airstrike that killed three of its fighters, Reuters reported.

Four headless corpses were found in the Sinai Peninsula earlier this month,
Reuters quoted security sources said as saying – the first time that any
decapitations had been made public in Egypt.

The men had been abducted by gunmen two days earlier while driving in the
town of Sheikh Zuwaid, which is just a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip.

In a video released on Twitter, Egypt's most dangerous militant group, Ansar
Bayt al-Maqdis, said the four men had been spying for Israel's Mossad spy
agency.

Armed men in black masks stood over the kneeling captives as one of the
militants read out a statement. Minutes later, the four men had their heads
cuts off.

The filmed killings was reminiscent of images posted on the Internet by
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which has seized large parts of Iraq and
Syria, suggesting Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis might have been inspired by the
group, notorious for beheadings and executions.

The Sinai militants are not believed to be officially linked to ISIS
insurgents. However, Egyptian intelligence officials say the group has
influenced Egyptian militants who are based just over the border with Libya.

The officials say the Libya-based fighters have also established contacts
with Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.

Though the four dead men were civilians, security sources had said initially
that they might have been targeted for their perceived allegiance to the
police and army.

In the video, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis presented what it said were confessions
by the men. Two of them said they had spent time in Israeli jails for
smuggling. The other two said Mossad had paid them for information.

The group said the men provided intelligence used in an airstrike on July 23
in northern Sinai that killed three of its fighters. At the time, the
Egyptian army said no Israeli aircraft or drones had crossed into Egyptian
airspace.

Militants in the Sinai have stepped up attacks on policemen and soldiers
since then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled President Mohammad Mursi
of the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013.

The attacks initially targeted security forces in Sinai - a remote but
strategic part of Egypt located between Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez
Canal - but they have since extended their reach, with bombings on the
mainland.

(With Reuters)

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 28 Aug.’14:”Top Saudi Officials head to Qaatar in an
effort to heal breach”, Reuters
SUBJECT: Gulf States –Qatar relations
QUOTE:”Qatar failing to abide by an agreement not to interfere in one
another’s internal affairs.So far. efforts to resolve the dispute have
failed.”
FULL TEXT:DUBAI — Three Saudi princes, including Foreign Minister Prince
Saud Al Faisal, flew to Qatar on Wednesday[27 Aug.], state media reported,
amid efforts to repair a rift in the US-allied Gulf Cooperation Council.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates recalled their
ambassadors to Qatar in March, accusing Doha of failing to abide by an
agreement not to interfere in one another's internal affairs. So far,
efforts to resolve the dispute have failed.

The meeting comes amid growing concern in the Gulf over an increasing threat
from the Islamic State, a splinter group of Al Qaeda. The IS has captured
swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq in recent months, next door to some
Gulf states.

Saudi Arabia's SPA news agency said Prince Saud and the head of general
intelligence, Prince Khaled Bin Bandar, and Interior Minister Prince
Mohammed Bin Nayef arrived in Doha on a "short brotherly visit". Qatar's QNA
news agency carried a similar report, giving no details on the purpose of
the trip.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE fell out with Qatar over the role of
Islamists, including the Muslim Brotherhood, in the region. Gulf officials
have said the three want Qatar to end any financial or political support for
the Brotherhood, which has been declared a terrorist organisation by Saudi
Arabia.

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and
Oman met last week to review efforts to heal the rift, but Gulf media have
said no breakthrough occurred.

Kuwait's Al Watan newspaper quoted Gulf diplomatic sources as saying that
resolving the dispute was "facing difficulties". They said Saudi Arabia in
particular had compiled a long list of notes on what it called Qatar's
failure to abide by an agreement that bars countries from interfering in
each other's affairs.

GCC officials are due to hold another meeting on Saturday930 Aug.], which
has been described as having "special importance". The meeting, announced
this week, is expected to discuss "a number of issues related to the path of
GCC joint action".

In April, the body agreed on ways to implement a security agreement they
reached last year, which Riyadh, Manama and Abu Dhabi, had accused Doha of
not abiding by.

+++The Opinion Pages | Editorial |??New York Times Now
“Questions on Airstrikes in Syria”
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDAUG. 27, 2014 (Printed in 28 Aug. edition)

SUBJECT:President Obama’s position on ISIS

QUOTE:” But no comprehensive strategy has been worked out. And without that
it would be unwise to expand a mission that Pres.Obama has acknowledged ‘won’t
be easy and it won’t be quick.’ “

With American airstrikes slowing the march of extremists in Iraq, President
Obama is considering expanding that action across the Iraqi border into
parts of Syria, where fighters for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or
ISIS, move unimpeded. But there are too many unanswered questions to make
that decision now and there has been far too little public discussion for
Mr. Obama to expect Americans to rally behind what could be another costly
military commitment.

Over the weekend, President Obama authorized the Pentagon to send
surveillance planes over Syria to gather intelligence on ISIS. This week,
news reports have suggested the process is moving so quickly that Mr. Obama
could soon authorize airstrikes, although officials told The Times on
Wednesday[27 Aug.] that such a decision is not expected until later in
September, after next week’s NATO summit meeting and other consultations.

If Mr. Obama seeks any further escalation of military action, he will have
to explain how airstrikes against ISIS in Syria fit into a broader strategy,
how they could be successful, what success means and how they might be done
without benefiting Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, who is under attack by
ISIS and other Sunni opposition forces.

One problem is the administration’s incomplete knowledge about ISIS, its
numbers and organization. This is alarming given the billions of dollars
spent since Sept. 11, 2001, in developing technologies and strategies for
detecting and assessing terrorist threats.

Although ISIS began as an Al Qaeda-affiliated group fighting Americans in
Iraq in the mid-2000s, American and Iraqi officials were stunned when it
rapidly shifted earlier this year from trying to topple Mr. Assad and began
also seizing territory in northern Iraq.

The group clearly poses a danger to Kurdistan, the semiautonomous region in
northern Iraq; to Yazidis and other minorities who were being persecuted;
and, potentially, to the Iraqi government. It proved its savagery this month
in murdering the American journalist James Foley.

Beyond that, officials and experts are divided on the threat ISIS poses to
the United States. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week described ISIS as
an “imminent threat to every interest we have” and “beyond anything that we’ve
seen.” But the Pentagon press secretary said the Defense Department does not
believe ISIS has “the capability right now to conduct a major attack on the
U.S. homeland.” Other senior officials and experts are not convinced that
ISIS, for now, extends beyond a regional problem, albeit a serious one.

Without an accurate assessment of that threat, it is impossible to define
what the goal should be. To weaken the extremists, as the United State did
to Al Qaeda is one thing; to defeat them is quite another. Secretary of
State John Kerry has said ISIS “must be destroyed.” If that is the goal,
what will that take?

So far, the Obama administration has been careful about its campaign in
Iraq, which Baghdad requested. It is striking ISIS targets while Iraqi
security forces and Kurdistan’s pesh merga militia carry out ground
operations. And American advisers are in the country to help identify
targets and advise Iraqi commanders.

The United States, however, has not been invited into Syria, and the Obama
administration has not articulated a legal justification for crossing the
border. Nor has Mr. Obama explained how Syria’s anti-Assad opposition could
be strengthened in time to fight against ISIS.

As in Iraq, military action alone is not enough to defeat the extremists who
gain followers by exploiting repression against the Sunnis. American
officials are organizing a coalition of allies to take on ISIS. For
instance, Turkey and some Persian Gulf states are permitting the use of
their military bases for airstrikes, and European countries are arming the
Kurds.

But no comprehensive strategy has been worked out. And, without that, it
would be unwise to expand a mission that President Obama has acknowledged
“won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick.”


+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 28 Aug.’14:”U.S. builds alliance for war on ISIS
in Syria”, Staff Writer,Reuters
SUBJECT: U.S. re ISIS

QUOTE:”U.S. officials said Washington could act alone if necessary against
ISIS militants, who have seized a third each of Iraq and Syria.”

While the United States is intensifying its push to build an international
campaign against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants, Britain and
Australia are considered as potential candidates, Reuters reported U.S.
officials as saying on Wednesday [27 Aug.].

Obama administration officials also said that Washington is recruiting
partners for potential joint military action against the al-Qaeda breakaway
group ISIS.

“We are working with our partners and asking how they might be able to
contribute. There are a range of ways to contribute: humanitarian, military,
intelligence, diplomatic,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told
reporters.

On Thursday, French President Francois Hollande warned that Syria’s Bashar
al-Assad is not the West’s partner in the fight against terrorism but an
ally of Islamic extremists wreaking havoc in Syria and Iraq.

“Assad cannot be a partner in the fight against terrorism, he is the de
facto ally of jihadists,” he told a Paris gathering of ambassadors from
around the world.

Instead, Hollande urged for the arming of opposition to defeat ISIS.

“France asks the United Nations... to organize exceptional support for
Libyan authorities to restore their state,” he added.

Meanwhile, Germany said on Wednesday[27 Aug.] it was in talks with the
United States and other international partners about possible military
action against ISIS but made clear it would not participate.

It’s unclear how many nations will sign up. Some such as trusted allies
Britain and France harbor bitter memories of joining the U.S.-led “coalition
of the willing” in the 2003 invasion of Iraq that included troops from 38
nations. The claims of the existence of weapons of mass destruction which
spurred the coalition to act were found to be false.

The United States, the officials said, could act alone if necessary against
the militants, who have seized a third each of Iraq and Syria, declared open
war against the West and want to establish a hub of radicalism in the heart
of the Arab world.

Senior White House aides met this week to discuss a strategy for expanding
its assault on ISIS, including the possibility of air strikes on the
militants’ stronghold in eastern Syria -- an escalation that would almost
certainly be riskier than the current U.S. campaign in Iraq.

While Iraq’s government welcomed the role of U.S. war planes to attack the
militants, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned that any strikes
conducted without its permission would be considered an act of aggression,
potentially plunging any U.S.-led coalition into a broader conflict with
Syria.

(With Reuters

====
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA