The Mediterranean Sea comprises nearly 1 million square miles of pristine blue waters. Whether you’re sitting on a beach in Tel Aviv or lounging on a coastal Greek balcony, the view is of a magnificent, awe-inspiring expanse, – unless of course you’re Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Edorgan. All he sees is a battlefield. In this week’s Action Update we’re going to go around the Med, starting with the ravings of Turkey’s strongman President and then turning our attention to the latest out of Lebanon.
A Pariah Rising
Last week, the US lifted elements of a longstanding arms embargo that had been imposed on Cyprus. The northeastern portion of the island is controlled by Turkey, and its occupation is part of a decades long dispute which pits the will of the majority of the Cypriot people against an increasingly belligerent and
expansionist Turkey. As regular readers of the Update know, the CUFI Action Fund strongly backed the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act, among whose provisions was the removal of this embargo. As such, we welcome the Trump administration’s move.
Greece, Israel, Cyprus and the US form the basis of the anti-Turkish alliance that has emerged in the Eastern Mediterranean. Just this week, defense delegations from Israel, Greece and Cyprus met to sign a tripartite military agreement for the coming year which will enhance cooperation. This has also been recently bolstered by French and Gulf Arab allies who are tired of Erdogan’s Muslim Brotherhood oriented philosophy, imperialist ambitions and gunboat diplomacy
Erdogan’s response to growing alliance against his ambitions has been to engage in saber rattling that exemplifies his status as little more than a tin-pot dictator. Recently he was quoted as saying, “we are not a society that has an army – we are a nation that is itself an army.”
He went onto note:
Now, with a more booming voice, with a more sincere faith, and with more trust in ourselves than yesterday, we say to our enemies: 'Bring it on.' Everyone who would stand against us on land, at sea, and in the air has seen Turkey's legitimacy and its determination in protecting its rights, interests, and capabilities based on international law… We do not run away from a fight. We will not hesitate to sacrifice martyrs and wounded people in this fight. For our independence and our future, we will not hold back from roaring all together as 83 million people, and running over the dams that get in our way, like a flood.
Successive American administrations have been seduced by Erdogan’s slick gamesmanship. We at the Action Fund are not fooled. Under Erdogan, Turkey is becoming the new Iran. And we cannot sit idly by as that takes place. As we mentioned in last week’s Action Update, there is bipartisan legislation sanctioning Ankara (S. 2641) that has advanced through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Failure to swiftly send that common sense and much needed legislation to the President’s desk, will make the world a worse and more challenging place in the months and years to come.
A Country Falling
Earlier this week, the Trump administration sanctioned two former Lebanese government ministers. Yusuf Finyanus, the former minister of transportation and public works, and Ali Hassan Khalil, the former finance minister, were
blacklisted for providing “material support to Hezbollah” and corruption. And the State Department has indicated that more sanctions against corrupt, terror-allied Lebanese officials will be coming down the pike.
In a similar vein, according to the Wall Street Journal, “The International Monetary Fund is withholding billions of dollars in requested emergency bailout funds over what IMF officials say is Lebanon’s failure over the years to commit to comprehensive overhauls.” Likewise, the European Union is also considering sanctioning Beirut for its corruption and
cooperation with Hezbollah.
All of this begs the question: what is our policy in Lebanon? On the one hand, we are aware of and are reacting to the fact that senior Lebanese officials directed, and are likely continuing to direct, funding to Hezbollah and projects that bolster the terrorist organization. On the other hand, the same State Department imposing these sanctions is a key force in maintaining aid for the Lebanese Armed Forces – which answers to the Hezbollah-backed government in Beirut.
One might be forgiven for seeing a problem with sending money to a government whose ministers we later sanction after they’ve lined their pockets and doled out millions to terrorists and their allies.
To read more about the Action Fund’s up-to-date (and consistent) policy on Lebanon, checkout this recent op-ed in
The National Interest from our Chairwoman Sandra Parker. And to stay on top of all of these issues, as well as new developments from the Middle East, please keep an eye out for next week’s Action Update.
Sincerely,
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