Handbook of Terrorism in the Middle East

The following sections are included:

• DEDICATION
• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INTRODUCTION

With a total landmass of 438,320 square metres, Iraq is situated at the heart of the Middle East and is bordered by Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and the Persian Gulf. Historically, the region in which Iraq is located is known as Mesopotamia, which means the land between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. Since the 6th millennium BC, Iraq has been home to several ancient civilisations including the Akkadians, Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians. For this reason, Iraq is commonly known as the cradle of civilisation…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• The Israeli LIC Experience
• Israeli–Palestinian LIC: Characteristics and Evolution
• A Decade of Hope
• Recommendations: A Strategic Approach
• Conclusion

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Terror Attacks in Jordan
• Recent Developments and the Cycle of Terrorism in Jordan
• The Imminent Danger and the Threat of Terrorism
• Counterterrorism Efforts
• Future Threats
• Jordanian Fighters in Iraq and Syria
• Conclusion

Since the creation of the modern Middle East, perhaps no state has been as impacted by sectarianism, conflict and indeed the influence of terrorism as a political instrument as Lebanon. The country remains an example of the complexity of power-sharing in deeply divided societies and the extent to which sectarian identity should form the basis for political identification. Between 1975 and 1990, Lebanon experienced a brutal civil war that pitted the country’s religious groups in a complex and variable contestation. And before the civil war, Lebanon endured decades of destabilisation resulting from the mass influx of Palestinian refugees and the influence of the PLO, which used the country as a base of operation. In the early 1990s, Lebanon emerged from a brutal 20-year civil war and experienced an economic and cultural renaissance in the decades that followed, even though the structural challenges remained, including the sectarianism in politics, the influence of Hezbollah and governance issues such as persistently high rates of unemployment. The assassination of the country’s popular post-war Prime Minister, Rafiq Hariri, in 2005 and the ensuing ‘Cedar Revolution’ set off debates about state capture by forces connected to external state actors, notably Syria and Iran…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Key Conflicts between Palestine and Israel
• Terrorist Groups in Palestine
• Conclusion

Situated on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the Syrian Arab Republic was home to some of the oldest civilisations in the world. With a land mass of 185,180 square kilometres, the country borders Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Syria is home to a wide range of ethnicities including Arabs, Druze, Kurds, Turkomans, Assyrians, Circassians, Armenians and Greeks. Syria is also a religiously diverse society — nearly 70 percent of Syrians are Sunni Muslims while a minority of 12 percent adhere to Alawism (a division within Shi’a Islam). Christians make up about 10 percent of the population followed by 3 percent Druze (an offshoot of Shiism). The 2019 statistics estimate the population of Syria to be 18.5 million…

Located in the northeast corner on the African continent with the Sinai Peninsula and within the Asian continent, the Arab Republic of Egypt is a transcontinental country. Its population was estimated at 104 million, ranked thirteenth among the countries of the world in terms of the number of inhabitants. It is also the most populated Arab country. Egypt has a total area of about 1,002,000 square kilometres of which 78,990 square kilometres, or 7.8 percent of the total area, is populated. Egypt shares its borders with seven other countries and entities — the northeast area with occupied Palestine (a 254-kilometre border with Israel and a 11-kilometre border with the Gaza Strip), a 1,115-kilometre border with Libya, and its longest land border of 1,280 kilometres with Sudan. Additionally, Egypt shares maritime borders with Saudi Arabia to the east, and Cyprus and Greece to the north. Egypt is divided administratively into 27 governorates, and each governorate is divided into smaller administrative divisions, which are known as centres or departments…

As a zone of transition in terms of geography, culture, economics and sociology, Turkey is sometimes considered a prototypical torn country standing on the threshold between two sides. As the world’s 37th largest country with approximately 800,000 square kilometres and a territory extending between Asia and Europe, it is possible to see Turkey having a distinguished attribute as either a bridge or a buffer zone. At the crossroads of the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East, the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey, which has a functional identity that takes different forms throughout history, has a strategic importance in all of the global political processes that are shaped over dichotomies such as East–West, socialist–capitalist, core–periphery, modern–traditional and Islamic– Christian. However, this importance also makes Turkey an area of risk and competition while economic and political development is constantly interrupted due to security problems and instability caused by the internal and external environments. Terrorism, as one of the most notable sources of tension and security threat since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, is one of the factors that are detrimental to the country’s economy as well as its sociocultural and political dynamism…

The Kingdom of Bahrain is an Arabian Gulf archipelago consisting of 33 islands of which five are inhabited, and it is slightly larger than Singapore. The largest of these islands are Bahrain, Muharraq, Umm an Nasan and Sitra. Bahrain is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with a total landmass of 760 square kilometres. To the southeast of Bahrain is the State of Qatar, and to its west lies the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with which it is connected by a 25-kilometre causeway. To the north and east of Bahrain lies the Islamic Republic of Iran…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Terrorism in Iran Prior to the 1979 Revolution
• Terrorism in Iran after the 1979 Revolution
• Iran as a State Sponsor of Terrorism
• International Terrorist Operations
• Political Assassinations
• Conclusion

Within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, unlike elsewhere in the wider Middle East, terrorism has not had a disproportionate effect on shaping political outcomes, at least not at the domestic level. States within the GCC are mostly stable, cohesive, enjoy a monopoly of the use of force within borders and engender loyalty, at least amongst citizen populations. In this sense, the GCC-specific context for terror and political violence is limited to the extent that no terror organisation poses deep operational capacity or an existential threat to GCC states. Paradoxically, the main ideological challenge to states within the GCC region and the force responsible for the most aggressive anti-state activism within the region is Sunni-inspired Islamism, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, or the Ikhwan and segments of the Salafi ulama. Thus, in practical terms, most counterterrorism (CT) ‘bandwidth’ is devoted to countering violent Islamist activism and curbing the appeal of its ideology…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Culture of Tolerance
• Omani Foreign Policy
• Security as a Priority
• Regional and International Cooperation
• Terror Incidences
• Conclusion

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Qatar’s Foreign Policy: The Role of Interlocutor
• Omni-Balancing as an Interpretive Tool
• Terrorism in Qatar
• Counterterrorism
• Conclusion

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Terror Attacks and the Kingdom’s Response
• Holistic Approach to Counter-Extremism
• Government Initiatives Addressing Factors that Lead to Extremism
• National Outreach and Dialogue
• Counternarratives
• Legal Approaches to Counter Terror Financing
• Promoting Gulf and Arab Cooperation
• Promoting International Cooperation
• Conclusion

Terrorism is definitionally ambiguous, yet one of the most vexing and important security issues faced by modern states. Regardless of the definition used to explain what terrorism is and what terrorists want to achieve, devising policy and kinetic responses to terrorism remains a central preoccupation of governments all over the world. Even states that do not have significant problems with terrorism engage in policymaking and planning to understand the threats and challenges posed by groups that might use violence against the state. Using orthodox definitional parameters, terrorism is understood as a tool of asymmetry, employed by groups that are looking to ‘opt out’ of politics, express grievances or change existing political orders through the idiom of violence. Put simply, terrorism is a tactic used by non-state actors against state and civilian targets to achieve some version of political change…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Terrorism in Yemen
• Conclusion

The following sections are included:

• ABOUT THE EDITOR
• ABOUT THE AUTHORS
• INDEX