15 February 2015
Urging global cooperation ‘to impair, isolate and incapacitate’ terrorist threats, the UN Security Council approved measures targeting sources of funding for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusrah Front (ANF), condemning those buying oil from the groups, banning all trade in looted antiquities from Iraq and Syria, and calling on states to end ransom payments. (more…)
Source: UN News Centre | Security Council approves resolution targeting sources of financing for ISIL
19 August 2013
An Op-ed published in The New York Times argues that General Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, the military ruler of Egypt, was ‘actively seeking the help of Western diplomats as well as the Persian Gulf sheikdoms that largely financed his coup’. It also critiques the idea that Washington’s influence is not that decisive with the Egyptian generals and notes that: ‘America had influence and still does. It was an American official, not an Egyptian one, who informed President Morsi’s staff of the finality of the coup decision.’
The opinion is written by Amr Darrag, a member of the executive board of the Freedom and Justice Party, which is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Mr. Darrag was Egypt’s minister of planning and international cooperation under President Morsi.
Source: The New York Times | Egypt’s Blood, America’s Complicity
28 February 2013
The New York Times reports that Saudi Arabia financed a large purchase of infantry weapons from Croatia, which were secretly moved through Jordan to antigovernment fighters in Syria, according to United States (US) and Western officials familiar with the purchases. It is suggested by a Croatian newspaper that the US were possibly the intermediary.
The weapons supposedly included ammunition and ‘thousands of rifles and hundreds of machine guns’. Swiss-made hand grenades (that were provided to the United Arab Emirates) and Ukrainian-made rifle cartridges (that were purchased by Saudi Arabia) have also been found in the possession of rebels in Syria.
Source: The New York Times | Saudis Step Up Help for Rebels in Syria With Croatian Arms