Committee: Your committee Issue: The question of preventing the armament of extremist and fundamentalist groups in the Middle East. Student Officer: Guus Huurman Position: President I- Introduction. The Middle East has faced many problems for the last few decades. Some of these problems stem from the rising extremism and fundamentalism in the region. Numerous extremist and fundamentalist groups have taken up arms against the governments and the population. These arms should not have been available to these group, yet they were able to acquire them anyway. This has happened in numerous ways, such as foreign governments providing the weaponry, purchase on the black market, or by use of guerrilla warfare. It is now up to the international community to further prevent the proliferation of these arms in the Middle East. II- Parties Involved Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia is also allegedly supplies Salafist organisations in the Middle East. The proxy war with Iran has resulted in the Saudi government sponsoring different rebel groups within Iran s sphere of influence. Iran: Iran has been involved in a proxy war with Saudi Arabia since the 1980s. It is known that the Iranian government has supplied different Shiite rebel groups and regimes. This makes it an important player in the debate of how to prevent fundamentalist and extremist groups of acquiring arms Qatar: Qatar is allegedly one of the largest contributors to Islamist organisations throughout the Middle East. Their public support for Hamas and other organisations has spurred controversy amongst the international community.
Syria: After the Arab spring in 2011 Syria became entangled in a bloody civil war. Since then many different armed militias have been fighting the government and each other. These militias are sponsored by private individuals and governments alike. The United Nations Security council has placed a mandatory arms embargo on the country, however the government as well as different rebel groups are still able to acquire more and more weaponry. Iraq: Iraq is also entangled in the war against ISIS and other Islamist groups. After being invaded by the US the US government donated lots of heavy weaponry and small arms to the Iraqi army. Much of this equipment has been conquered by Islamist groups. The weakened Iraqi government would benefit greatly if the extremist and fundamentalist groups would lose their supply chain. III- Definition of Key Terms.. Arms embargo: a prohibition or sanction against the export of weaponry and dual-use items/goods which have both a civil and military use Artillery: large-calibre guns used in warfare on land. Conventional weapons: The terms conventional weapons or conventional arms generally refer to weapons that are in relatively wide use that are not weapons of mass destruction, e.g. nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. Guerrilla warfare: engagement in or the activities involved in a war fought by small groups of irregular soldiers against typically larger regular forces. Military surplus: goods that are sold or otherwise disposed of when no longer needed by the military. Sectarianism: excessive attachment to a particular sect or party, especially in religion. Small arms: portable firearms, especially rifles, pistols, and light machine guns.
Coornhert Model United Nations 2017 IV- General Overview. Figure 1: A map of the Middle East. In order to be able to prevent the armament of fundamentalist and extremist groups one first needs to know how these groups acquire their weapons in the first place. They either receive them from governments who support them, they purchase them on the black market, or the weaponry is seized during combat. The CIA has allegedly supplied rebel groups in Syria to fight against Bashar Al-Assad s regime. Along with its coalition it has been supplying and aiding some rebel groups in the fight against Assad and ISIS. The Russian government has called the US aid to the rebels a hostile act. It must be noted that the US government is not the only government that may have supplied these rebel groups.
Another large cause of the armament of fundamentalist and extremist groups in the Middle East is the proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Since the invasion of Iraq both countries have been trying to increase their influence in the region by using Sunni-Shiite sectarianism. For example in Yemen, a rebel group with loose ties to Iran was able to overthrow the Saudi-backed Yemeni president. The Arab League, led by Saudi Arabia responded with air strikes, further escalating the conflict. Another example is the situation in Syria. The largely Shiite government was aided by Hezbollah and the Iranian army, to fight the Sunni rebels. Both countries seem to have supplied arms to either side in the Syrian conflict. These are only a few examples of the way that the proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia has helped destabilise the region. Since the escalation of the conflict in 2012 an estimated 1.2bn worth of small arms have been exported from Balkan countries to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. However, up until 2012 these states did not have a track record of buying from the region. As most of this states use Western small arms rather than Eastern European, especially not Cold War-era Eastern European weaponry. Especially the latter two have faced allegations from different organisations that they could be arming the Syrian and Iraqi conflict. According to some intelligence agencies the Riyadh has air dropped these arms to Syria as well as its allies in Yemen. Pictures and videos shared on social media showed that weaponry as well as ammunition from Balkan origin has been found in the hands of different factions in Syria and Libya. Markings have shown that equipment manufactured as late as 2015 has been shipped to these conflict zones on which the United Nations Security Council has placed an arms embargo. If these states sold these arms knowing that they would be used by extremists this would not only be a breach of EU law but also of the Arms Trade Treaty. During the Iraq war the United States imported huge amounts of military materiel to the conflict area. During the war this was meant for use by US forces, however at the end of the conflict the United States was left with the costs of returning the materiel. For many pieces of equipment the cost of returning it was higher than the cost paid for the pieces in the first place. As a result a lot of equipment was destroyed, donated to the Iraqi government, or simply abandoned. Using standard guerrilla tactics ISIL was able to seize the equipment from the Iraqi army and now uses it to arm its own combatants, who now are able to fight with US military materiel. Yet this is not the only case of this happening. The Soviet-Afghan war is another example, at the end of the occupation the Afghan Mujahedeen were able to acquire much Soviet equipment. Some Mujahedeen factions decided to continue fighting
jihad in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and abroad, most notably Al-Qaida under leadership of Osama Bin Laden. Another pressing issue is deciding which organisations can be labelled fundamentalist or extremist. There is a fine line between terrorist and freedom fighter and it is necessary to make these distinctions in the debate. The following few paragraphs will be short introductions on several Middle Eastern groups, all of which have been called terrorists by at least one government. Al-Qaida is a Salafist organisation that is mainly based in Pakistan, but the organisation has direct affiliates all over the world, the largest of these being Jabhat Fateh al-sham (JN), also known as Al-Nusra, the Al- Qaida affiliate in Syria. According to US intelligence agencies the Qatari government as well as wealthy Saudi Arabians gave hefty donations to the Al-Qaida to purchase new arms, however both the Saudi government and the Qatari government denied these claims. According to the Consortium Against Terror Finance (CATF), Qatar has been able to get away with funding JN by paying substantial amounts of ransom for hostages from all over the globe. Fellow Gulf countries Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain have publicly rebuked Qatar for its support of JN. The People s Protection Units (YPG) is the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). The organisation holds territory in the North of Syria, along the Turkish border. Even though the organisation is largely Kurdish, it describes itself as a multi-ethnic and multi-nationality military institution. The YPG is called an extremist group by the Syrian and Turkish governments, however the US has supported it with the use of air strikes on ISIS. Islamic state in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a Salafist unrecognized state in the region of Syria and Iraq. It is infamous for its horrifying filmed executions, human rights abuses, and for their attacks in the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, and Europe. The Qatari government allegedly supported IS by means of sponsoring weaponry, however it has been denying these allegations. Wealthy private individuals from Gulf States have donated large amounts of money to be spent by IS. The organisation has been able to acquire pieces of artillery, armoured vehicles, tanks and even a few helicopters from the Iraqi army, many of which were donated by the US. Hamas, short for Islamic Resistance Movement is an organisation situated in the Palestinian Territories. It has an armed wing called the Izzedine al-qassam Brigades. It also involved in the political process in the Palestinian territories, even having taken control in Gaza. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, the
EU, Canada and Japan. However, by its supporters it is seen as a legitimate resistance movement. The organisation has close ties with Qatar and Turkey. Both of which have given public and financial support to the organisation. The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, is an organisation recognized as a terrorist organisation by NATO, the USA, Turkey, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Syria, Iran, and others. It was founded in 1978 and is thought to be active in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. Regarding armament, Turkey believes that its allies who support Kurdish forces fighting against ISIL are also indirectly supplying arms to the PKK. Turkey has also uncovered German-made anti-tank missiles, fuses, and other weapons on the possession of the PKK, as well as Chinese-, Russian-, Austrian-, and American made weapons. President Erdogan has also previously accused Russia of supplying the PKK. Hezbollah (Party of God) is a Shia jihadi group based in Lebanon. The according to the organisation it receives most of its funding from individuals in Lebanon. However Western intelligence agencies have claimed that it receives most of its funding from Iran and Syria. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) is a rebel group active in Syria. It is rather a collection of millitias and other local forces than a structured organisation. Nonetheless the FSA has received military support from several foreign governments including the USA, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The Syrian and Russian governments have labelled the group as extremists while many Western governments designated the FSA as moderates. V- Timeline Make sure that the timeline is detailed and includes all of the essential dates. Date Event 1989 The fall of the Berlin Wall marks the end of the Cold war. From 1945 up to 1989 both blocs had been engaged in an arms race of weapons of mass destruction as well as conventional arms. This left many governments with stockpiles of weaponry. 2003-2011 In 2003 a US led coalition toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and occupied the country for nearly a decade. During the occupation the coalition brought in tonnes of military materiel
2011 The beginning of 2011 is what is known as the Arab Spring. During this time many demonstrations were held in the Middle East. Some of which have resulted in rebellions against the ruling regimes. These include 2011-present As a result of the Arab Spring some forces rebelled against the Syrian president Assad. The conflict resulted in a brutal civil war in which numerous factions are fighting each other. It has led to a major humanitarian crisis. 2014 The Arms Trade Treaty came into force. 2015-present Afghan invasion, Gulf War, Syrian Civil war, Yemen Crisis, Arab Spring VI- Previous Solutions The United Nations Security Council has placed mandatory arms embargoes on several Middle Eastern countries and organisations, these include: Iran, Iraqi non-governmental forces, ISIS, Al Qaida and associated individuals and entities, Lebanese non-governmental forces, and the Taliban. The European Union (EU) and the League of Arab States (LAS) have also placed arms embargoes on Syria. However, this has not completely ended the flow of arms to these countries. On the 24 th of December the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) entered into force, this treaty was meant to regulate trade of conventional weapons. This means that if a country knows that the arms sold by said country will be used for genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes the transfer must immediately be stopped. As of now 88 states have ratified the treaty and VII- Possible Solutions. One way to prevent extremist and fundamentalist groups from getting arms is reducing the existing stock pile. The arms race caused by the Cold War has left many governments with an abundance of weaponry. Especially these dated weapons for which governments cannot find use in their own military end up in the hands of extremist groups. The reducing of stockpile could be the destruction of existing weapons or the purchase of weapons held by civilians. Another way is reducing the supply of new weaponry. If countries limit the production of
weaponry the supply would drop and the price would rise, making it more expensive for extremist and fundamentalist groups to purchase weapons. However this was met with resistance by arms exporting countries as they would not want to miss out on their lucrative business ventures. VIII- Useful documents and links. The Arms Trade Treaty: https://unoda-web.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/english7.pdf A list of arms embargoes: https://www.sipri.org/databases/embargoes IX- Bibliography. "How US and Russian Arms Fell into ISIS' Hands." CNBC. CNBC, 23 Nov. 2015. Web. 12 Jan. 2017. <http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/23/us-and-russian-weapons-held-by-islamicstate.html>. "Revealed: The 1bn of Weapons Flowing from Europe to Middle East." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 27 July 2016. Web. 14 Jan. 2017. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/27/weapons-flowing-eastern-europe-middleeast-revealed-arms-trade-syria>. "SIPRI Arms Embargo Archive." SIPRI. SIPRI, n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2017. <https://www.sipri.org/databases/embargoes>. Reports, Tribune Wire. "Iraqi Forces Routinely Leave U.S.-supplied Weapons on Battlefield for Islamic State." Chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune, 25 May 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2017. <http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-iraqi-army-islamic-state-20150525- story.html>. Pike, John. "Kurdish People s Protection Unit YPG." Globalsecurity.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2017. <http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/ypg.htm>. MAX FISHER. "How the Iranian-Saudi Proxy Struggle Tore Apart the Middle East." The New York Times. The New Yrok Times, 19 Nov. 2016. Web. 11 Jan. 2017.
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