Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from March 23, 2015

Jordan says it will help train Syrian rebels to fight ISIS

AMMAN: Jordan says it will help train Syrian rebels as part of its fight against the extremist ISIS, which controls parts of neighboring Syria and Iraq. The training is part of a regional effort also involving Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as hosts of training sites. The U.S. Congress has passed legislation providing $500 million for training about 5,000 rebels over the next year. Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said Monday that Jordan will train Syrians to "defeat the terrorism that has been killing their sons and daughters." He would not say if training has already begun or where it would take place. Jordan is part of a U.S.-led military coalition against ISIS. It stepped up its involvement after the extremists burned a captured Jordanian fighter pilot.

Rising China arms exports threaten US influence worldwide – report

Chinese-made advanced weapons systems flooding the international market over the next 10 years will cause instability, and make it a lot harder for the US to intervene in other countries, Foreign Policy magazine warned. FP analyzed the impact of Beijing’s rapidly increasing role in the global arms market in an article titled: ‘ China’s Weapons of Mass Consumption .’ China’s shift from small arms to advanced weapons systems is proven by the sale of drones to Africa and the Middle East in 2011, a contract to supply three frigates to Algeria in 2012 and Turkey’s surprise choice of a Chinese air and missile defense system over US, Russian, and EU offerings a year later. In recent years, Beijing has been trying to achieve self-sufficiency in defense supplies by investing heavily in mimicking foreign weapon technologies and domestic arms research and development programs. The approach turned out to be effective as, according to an independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’