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America launches the economic side of the Middle East peace plan amid skepticism


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President Rouhani warns Trump that conflict with Iran would be 'mother of all wars'

 

'Mr Trump, don’t play with the lion’s tail'

 

Iran’s president has issued a stark warning to Donald Trump, telling him that if the US was to engage in military conflict it would be the “mother of all wars”.

Two months after Mr Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal that had been crafted to try and limit Tehran’s nuclear weapons ambitions in exchange for the lifting of many sanctions, Hassan Rouhani said America could seek the path of peace with Iran.

But speaking to Iranian diplomats on Sunday, Mr Rouhani said: “America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.”

 

Quoting Iran’s state-owned  news agency IRNA, Reuters said Mr Rouhani told the envoys: “Mr Trump, don’t play with the lion’s tail, this would only lead to regret.

“You are not in a position to incite the Iranian nation against Iran’s security and interests.”

Iran faces increased US pressure and looming sanctions after Mr Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from a 2015 international deal over Iran’s nuclear programme. While Mr Trump had campaigned for the White House vowing to pull the US from the deal, in the months and weeks before he made the decision, diplomats from Europe and Britain urged him to stay with it.

French President Emmanuel Macron travelled to Washington to speak with Mr Trump, saying that while the deal might not be perfect, it was the best way of ensuring Iran did develop a nuclear weapon. Before leaving Washington during that April visit, Mr Macron had predicted that the US president would likely pull out of the deal “for domestic reasons”.

In Washington, US officials told Reuters that the Trump administration has launched an offensive of speeches and online communications meant to foment unrest and help pressure Iran to end its nuclear programme and its support of militant groups.

It said that current and former US officials said the campaign painted Iranian leaders in a harsh light, at times using information that was exaggerated or contradicted other official pronouncements, including comments by previous administrations. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is among those who has been involved in the propaganda, repeatedly criticising the state of women’s rights in Iran, while remaining silent on the situation in America’s ally, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf nations.

Mr Rouhani scoffed at Mr Trump's threat to halt Iranian oil exports and said Iran has a dominant position in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping waterway.

 

#Iran’s corrupt regime has enriched
#IRGC, #Hizballah and #Hamas, and plundered the country’s wealth on proxy wars abroad while Iranian families struggle.

 

“Anyone who understands the rudiments of politics doesn’t say ‘we will stop Iran’s oil exports’...we have been the guarantor of the regional waterway's security throughout history,” Mr Rouhani said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Saturday backed Mr Rouhani's suggestion that Iran may block Gulf oil exports if its own exports are halted.

Mr Rouhani's apparent threat earlier this month to disrupt oil shipments from neighbouring countries came in reaction to efforts by Washington to force all countries to stop buying Iranian oil.

Iranian officials have in the past threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for any hostile US action. Separately, a top Iranian military commander warned that the Trump government might be preparing to invade Iran.

 

“The enemy’s behaviour is unpredictable,” military chief of staff General Mohammad Baqeri said, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

“Although the current American government does not seem to speak of a military threat, according to precise information it has been trying to persuade the US military to launch a military invasion [of Iran],” Mr Baqeri said.

Experts have said Iran's oil exports could fall by as much as two-thirds by the end of the year because of new US sanctions, putting oil markets under huge strain amid supply outages elsewhere.

Washington initially planned to totally shut Iran out of global oil markets after Mr Trump withdrew Washington from the nuclear deal, demanding all other countries to stop buying its crude by November. 

It has somewhat eased its stance since, saying that it may grant sanction waivers to some allies that are particularly reliant on Iranian supplies.

Among those countries is likely to be India, which imports a large amount of oil from Iran and has said it does not intend to comply with the US sanctions. Iran is India’s third-largest oil supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia,

“India does not recognise unilateral sanctions, but only sanctions by the United Nations,” Sunjay Sudhir, joint secretary for international cooperation at India's petroleum ministry, told CNN last month.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/us-iran-war-warning-rouhani-trump-latest-a8458866.html

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Iraq's policy declares its rejection of Israeli law

Iraq declares its rejection of Israeli law
 
 Twilight News    
 
 5 hours ago
 

 

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry on Monday strongly condemned the "national state" law of Israel, usually a law that enshrines "racism and undermines the remaining hopes of the peace process and the solution of the Palestinian cause."

The ministry said in a statement today that "this law by turning the construction of settlements and Judaizing Al-Quds Al-Sharif into a constitutional principle flagrantly violates international law and UN resolutions, including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which prohibits the transfer and displacement of people in occupied places during war, The character of the occupied territories and UN resolution 2334 of 2016 adopted by the Security Council, which directly criminalizes Israeli settlement and calls for a cessation of violence against Palestinian civilians. "

The statement added that the ministry "affirms the non-recognition of the Zionist entity and the illegitimate Knesset, which resulted from this law, it calls on the international community to activate its decisions and oblige the Israeli entity to abandon this unjust law and stop its violations of international law and repeated attacks on the Palestinian people."

JERUSALEM - Israel on Thursday passed a law granting only Jews the right to self-determination in the country, something the Arab minority has described as racist and racist.

After months of political debate, the 120-member parliament approved the "National State" law with the approval of 62 deputies and 55 abstentions, with two abstentions. Some Arab lawmakers shouted and ripped papers after the vote.

"This is a defining moment in the history of Zionism and the history of the State of Israel," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset after the vote.

The law is largely symbolic and was issued shortly after the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. The law states that "Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people" and that the right to self-determination "belongs only to the Jewish people."

The law also distinguishes Arabic from official language alongside Hebrew and makes it a language of "special status" which means that it can be continued to be used in Israeli institutions.

The number of Arabs in Israel to about 1.8 million people, or about 20 percent of the population of nine million people.

Previous drafts of the law went beyond what critics at home and abroad saw as discrimination against Israeli Arabs who have long said they are treated as second-class citizens.

Last minute items were dropped amid political controversy and after objections from the President of Israel and the Attorney-General, which would stipulate the establishment of Jewish communities only and obligate the judiciary to resort to Jewish law when there is no relevant legal precedent.

On the other hand, it adopted a more ambiguous formulation that states that "the state considers the development of Jewish settlement to be a national value and will encourage and support its establishment."

Critics said the new law would deepen the Arab minority's sense of alienation even after these changes.

Arab MP Ahmad Tibi told reporters that he was shocked and saddened by the "death of democracy."

Netanyahu defended the law. "We will continue to guarantee civil rights in Israel's democracy, but the majority also has rights and the majority decides," he said last week.

"An absolute majority wants to guarantee the Jewish character of our state for generations to come."

The Arabs of Israel are primarily the children of the Palestinians who remained on their land during the 1948 war and the establishment of Israel and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands.

Those who remain on the ground have the same rights under the law but say they are discriminated against and complain of receiving worse services and lower quotas in education, health and housing.

In the municipality of Ma'alot-Tarshiha in northern Israel, the anger among the Arab population has been enraged.

"I see it as a racist law for an extreme right-wing government that creates extremist laws and sows seeds for a racist apartheid state," said Bassam Bishara, a 71-year-old doctor.

"The purpose of this law is to discriminate," said Youssef Farraj, 53, from the nearby Druze village of Yanouh. They want to get rid of the Arabs completely. The Israelis want to destroy all the religions of the Arabs. "

The Legal Center for the Rights of the Arab Minority in Israel (Adalah) described the law as "reinforcing the ethnic superiority that is reflected in the establishment of racist policies."

 

 
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Trump vows against Rouhani: Our response to "the mother of wars" has been tested only by a few in history

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump reacted to Iranian President Hassan Rowhani's remarks in which the United States warned against playing with fire and the danger of tampering with Assad's lead because the conflict with Iran would be the "mother of wars" "Our response to you has been tested only by a few in history," Trump said on his Twitter page.

 

"There is no country that can be silent on your muted remarks about violence and killing, be careful," Trump said in a big headline.

The  Iranian President Hassan Rowhani, attacked his US counterpart , Donald Trump, in front of the heads of Iran 's missions abroad on Sunday, saying , "You declare war on the Iranian people and then paying lip service by saying that you want to support and protect it, " he said in his speech broadcast on Iranian television, said that "Trump helpless And the United States should know that the war with Iran will be (or wars) and that the White House was not at this level in the fight against international laws and the anti-Islamic world And the Palestinian people. "

"Those who understand little about politics do not agree to stop the export of Iranian oil and Iran has a lot of straits, and the Strait of Hormuz is one of them," Rowhani said, referring to the ban on Iranian oil exports. Finished

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Donald Trump has threatened Iran with “consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before” in a late-night, all capital-letter tweet.

 

The post, sent at 11.24 pm ET on Sunday night, came after the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, warned the US about pursuing a hostile policy against his government, suggesting that “war with Iran is the mother of all wars”. Rouhani did not rule out peace, however, according to comments reported by the Iranian state news agency, IRNA.

The US president, who returned to the White House on Sunday evening after spending the weekend at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, addressed his tweet directly to Rouhani, warning the president to “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN”.

The message continued: “WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”

 

To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!

 
 

Trump, who is still reeling from domestic criticism over his handling of a summit with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the continued fallout of the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this year. The move unravelled a signature foreign policy achievement of the Obama administration and threatened to destabilize Iran’s denuclearisation program.

On Sunday, Rouhani addressed Trump directly during his reported remarks, saying: “Mr Trump, don’t play with the lion’s tail, this would only lead to regret.”

He continued: “America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.”

 

Earlier, Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, called Iran’s ruling elite a “mafia” who have amassed vast sums of wealth while allowing their people to suffer.

As the US prepares to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran after withdrawing from the Iran deal, Pompeo said the country’s religious leaders were “hypocritical holy men”.

“Sometimes it seems the world has become desensitised to the regime’s authoritarianism at home and its campaigns of violence abroad, but the proud Iranian people are not staying silent about their government’s many abuses,” Pompeo said in prepared remarks for a speech at the Ronald Reagan presidential library and museum in California.

“And the United States under President Trump will not stay silent either. In light of these protests and 40 years of regime tyranny, I have a message for the people of Iran: the United States hears you. The United States supports you. The United States is with you,” he said.

Pompeo castigated Iran’s political, judicial and military leaders, too, accusing several by name of participating in widespread corruption. He also said the government has “heartlessly repressed its own people’s human rights, dignity and fundamental freedoms”.

America’s top diplomat was particularly barbed in his remarks about “the ayatollahs,” saying they “are in on the act, too”. He said Nasser Makarem Shirazi, the grand ayatollah, had generated more than $100m for himself in the illicit trade of sugar; that ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani is worth millions after the government transferred several lucrative mines to his foundation; and that the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, has an off-the-books hedge fund, Setad, worth $95bn.

“The level of corruption and wealth among regime leaders shows that Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government,” he said.

Pompeo’s remarks were aimed in part at Iranian-Americans and Iranians living in the US. He assured them that the Trump administration shared their dreams for the people of Iran. He also expressed support for those Iranians who have protested their government’s actions and called its response “brutal”.

Pompeo said the US was undertaking a diplomatic and financial campaign to cut off funds, focusing on reimposing sanctions on its banking and energy sectors. The US president, Donald Trump, withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal in May and the first sanctions to be reimposed were expected to hit on 4 August.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/23/irans-mafia-elite-amass-fortunes-while-people-suffer-says-mike-pompeo

 

 

 

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US seeks to ‘build momentum’ for Gulf crisis summit

July 25, 2018
 
GCC-summit.jpg
 

The United States is looking to “build some momentum” towards resolving the Gulf crisis ahead of a possible summit in the autumn, a US diplomat said on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Doha in June last year, accusing Qatar of funding terrorism and cosying up to Iran.

 

“We want to build to a point where there will be a meeting of all of the heads of state … it might be September or it might be October”, Ryan Gliha, US charge d’affaires to Qatar, told journalists.

The US will “try to build some momentum” ahead of the summit to make it a “big success” when President Donald Trump calls Gulf leaders together, the charge d’affaires added.

Mr Gliha did not specify a venue for the proposed initiative.

In late May, Kuwait’s deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al Jarallah told AFP a summit between the US and Gulf nations would be “an opportunity to put an end to the crisis”.

Kuwait has attempted to mediate the spat between Doha and its Gulf peers.

http://www.gulf-insider.com/us-seeks-build-momentum-gulf-crisis-summit/

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2018/07/26 21:46

Number of readings  612

Section:  Arab and World

 

Trump threatens Erdogan with major sanctions

 

 

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with imposing heavy sanctions on his country if he did not order the release of US priest Andrew Bronson.

A Tunisian court sentenced Pronson, 50, to house arrest in the city of Izmir, where he lived for about 20 years, while continuing his trial on charges of cooperating with the organizations of Fathallah Gulin and the Kurdistan Workers' Party banned in Turkey.

"The United States will impose heavy sanctions on Turkey because of the continued detention of Rev. Andrew Branson for a long time, he is a Christian man, a wonderful man, and a lover of his family," Trump said.

Follow the obelisk - agencies

 

lmasalah.com/ar/news/145257/ترامب-يهدد-أردوغان-بفرض-عقوبات-كبير

 

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Hezbollah Brigades: We will not stand idly by in the face of American crimes and the Saudi alliance against Yemen

23:55 - 26/07/2018
0
    
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Information / Baghdad

On Thursday, Hezbollah guerrillas announced their support for the Ansar Allah movement and the Yemeni people, who refuse to attack the US-backed Saudi alliance on their soil, to defend their land and target them by land and sea.

A statement issued by the Brigades said that "the Hezbollah Brigades blessed the movement of Ansar Allah in Yemen, the great achievement achieved by targeting one of the Saudi coalition battalions, in addition to targeting one of the airports belonging to that alliance."

"The Phalangists are very praising the efforts of the Ansar Allah movement to defend the Yemeni resistance people, and it also declares its full and comprehensive support to defend the land and people of Yemen," he said.

"The Hezbollah Brigades will not stand idly by in the face of the American-Saudi crime aimed at starving the peoples of the region," he said.

The naval force in the movement of Ansar Allah in Yemen was able, yesterday, to destroy the barge of the US-backed alliance in the West Coast, and also targeted a gunboat near the coast of Hodeidah, causing direct casualties within the coalition. End 25 n

 

http://www.almaalomah.com/2018/07/26/329577/

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of Iran wants compensation and threatening to sue Iraq: Baghdad conjures fires

Iran wants compensation and threatens to sue Iraq: Baghdad fires
 
 Twilight News    
 
 4 minutes ago
 

 

(Reuters) - A representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry in the province of Khuzestan, Wahid Haji, threatened Monday to sue the Iraqi government if it is proven to have caused a fire in Hor al-Azim, in Maysan province bordering Iran. 
"If the fires in Hor al-Azim were deliberate by Baghdad, and we got documents, the Iranian Foreign Ministry could sue Iraq and demand financial compensation," Haji was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. 
"The burning of Hor al-Azim in Iraq today for the second time has caused environmental problems for Iranian areas bordering the border," Haji said at a crisis management meeting in Khuzestan. 
The Iranian official said that he "demanded from the Iraqi ambassador in Tehran, Rajih al-Moussawi, to send a letter of protest to the officials in Baghdad," pointing out that "Iran is considering the issue of renewed fires in Hor al-Azim."
A spokesman for the Iranian Air Force Rida Jafar Zad, reported that "two Iranian helicopters participated in extinguishing the Great Hur Fire in Missan," but the Iraqi government did not comment on the subject.

 
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An Iranian official responds to Trump's offer: These are our terms to negotiate with you

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8 hours ago

 

NRT

Vice President of the Presidential Administration in Iran, Hamid Abu Talibi, responded Tuesday to the statements made by US President Donald Trump, in which he announced his readiness to meet with the Iranian president without preconditions, where he offered conditions for dialogue with Washington .

Abu Talibi said in a tweet on Twitter on July 31 that "it requires the return of America to abide by the nuclear agreement with his country and respect the state of Iran, before any talks between Tehran and Washington . "

"Those who believe in dialogue as a way of resolving conflicts in civilized societies should also do the following: respect the great state of Iran, reduce hostile military actions, and return to the nuclear agreement." The return to the Comprehensive Joint Action Plan ( SVPA ) An indispensable condition for dialogue, the nuclear agreement must be concluded ".

US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he had no objection to holding a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rowhani but without preconditions, adding that the desire should come from Iran as well .

Last May, Trump announced Washington's withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran and ordered the resumption of all sanctions against it, as well as sanctions against countries dealing with Iran .

R.

http://www.nrttv.com/AR/News.aspx?id=2877&MapID=3

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Israel Threatens Military Response If 'Iran-backed' Houthis Block Red Sea Strait

Profile picture for user Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/02/2018 - 08:16

Will the war in Yemen become the next battleground in the ongoing Iran-Israel proxy war for the Middle East?

The past year has witnessed a more out in the open proxy war between the two grow in Syria, but the role of both in Yemen has been more obscured: Israel has echoed US charges that Iran supplies Yemen's Shia Houthi rebels with ballistic missiles capable of hitting Riyadh, while the Shia rebels have accused the "Zionist" Saudis of massacring the civilian population as the kingdom's covert intelligence sharing alliance with Israel has become public knowledge of late

While the two have waged what is largely up to this point a war of words in Yemen, trading accusations of operating in the shadows, Israel has now openly threatened to intervene off the coast of Yemen if Houthi forces block the vital waterway through which cargo ships bound for Israel pass from Asia

Bab%20el%20Mandeb%20map.jpgBab%20el%20Mandeb%20map.jpg

According to a breaking Reuters story"Israel would deploy its military if Iran were to try to block the Bab al-Mandeb strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday."

This is the first significant threat of deploying military force issued from Tel Aviv in the Yemeni theater, and comes after the temporary halt in shipments through the strategic Bab el Mandeb strait which began a week ago. The halt followed a Saudi accusation that Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen had attacked two Saudi oil tankers traversing the waterway, driving home the threat that the conflict poses to a key chokepoint in international trade and the flow of Gulf oil to world markets. The Houthis for their part claimed they had actually attacked a Saudi warship rather than oil tankers.

Saudis have in previous months accused the Houthis of attacking Saudi commercial ships passing through the strait with surface-to-surface missiles supplied by Iran. In early April, for example, the coalition said a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea was hit in a Houthi attack off Yemen’s main port city of Hodeidah, and escaped with minor damage after another coalition ship intervened. 

An estimated 4.8 million barrels of oil are shipped daily through Bab al Mandeb that connects the Red Sea with the Arabian Sea off the coast of Yemen, Djibouti, and Eritrea.

oil%20production%20red%20sea%20passage.joil%20production%20red%20sea%20passage.jpg

Meanwhile major Western media have largely ignored the devastating Saudi military intervention in Yemen, now in its third year, which has resulted in possibly up to 70,000 deaths, according to some humanitarian and activists group accounts. 

Yemen's Houthis have on several occasions threatened to block the vital Bab al-Mandeb strait along with last week announcing naval capabilities of striking Saudi ports. 

Simultaneously, there's a growing standoff in another major oil transit point, the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, where Iranian military leadership (specifically the elite IRGC) and the Pentagon have exchanged threats over oil tankers' safe passage. Though Iran has issued veiled threats of blocking the Hormuz strait, it's not directly addressed fighting near Bab al-Mandeb, possibly playing a much more behind the scenes and reserved role in Yemen. 

On Wednesday, Netanyahu announced the following at a military parade in Haifa“If Iran will try to block the straits of Bab al-Mandeb, I am certain that it will find itself confronting an international coalition that will be determined to prevent this, and this coalition will also include all of Israel’s military branches.”

Netanyahu further called recent alleged incidents of Houthi attacks on Saudi ships "a sharp clash with Iran's satellites who tried to sabotage international shipping" at the mouth of the Red Sea.

Israel's defence minister, Avigdor Lieberman, in a separate speech echoed the prime minister's charge at the same event, saying he had "recently heard of threats to harm Israeli ships in the Red Sea" while giving no further specifics to back the claim.

The halt of oil shipments could provoke an escalation of the conflict with external powers intervening in a bid to assist Saudi Arabia and the UAE in defeating the Houthis and dealing a blow to Iran’s alleged regional presence.

By the same token, the halt potentially offers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates an opportunity to focus international attention on resolving a civil war aggravated and turned into a regional conflict by the two Gulf states’ military intervention in March 2015.

Rather than proving to be a swift campaign that would have subdued the Houthis, the intervention has turned into a quagmire and a public relations fiasco for Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

International criticism of their conduct of the war is mounting as a result of its devastating human cost. Voices in the US Congress, the British parliament and other Western legislatures as well as human rights groups calling for a halt of arms sales to Saudi Arabia are growing ever louder.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-02/israel-threatens-military-response-if-iran-backed-houthis-close-red-sea-strait

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"The Five Eyes" - a military strike by four countries to Iran's nuclear facilities next month

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Arabic and International  Saturday, July 28, 2018 at 12:45 pm (8245 views)

"The Five Eyes" - a military strike by four countries to Iran's nuclear facilities next month

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Baghdad / Sky Press

The United States will next month strike Iran's nuclear facilities in a process called the Five Eyes, including Britain, America, Australia and Canada, the Australian government's Abc  said on Tuesday.

The air strike by the four countries is aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear activity and destroying nuclear facilities completely, the station said.

It is noteworthy that the wave of threats and statements between the United States and Iran is helping recently, where Iranian President Hassan Rowhani threatened his US counterpart to play "the tail of Assad," saying any war between the two countries will be the mother of wars.

On the other hand, the commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, threatened the consequences of this war, stressing that the war that will begin the United States will be controlled by Iran in its end and in the form it wants.

http://www.skypressiq.net/2018/7/28/العيون-الخمسة-ضربة-عسكرية-ستوجهها-اربع-دول-لمنشأت-ايران-النووية-الشهر-القادم

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Washington slaps Ankara 3 days to release Branson .. Otherwise!

Washington slaps Ankara 3 days to release Branson .. Otherwise!

 12/08/2018 - 23:45

Middle east

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that the United States had given him a three-day deadline for the release of a US priest held in Turkey, threatening to impose further sanctions if his release was refused.

Erdogan said during a speech to a crowd in the Black Sea city of Trabzon that Washington had granted him until 6 pm on Wednesday evening to release the priest Andrew Branson, who has been held by Ankara for two years.

He added that the Americans told their Turkish counterparts during the meeting in Washington last week.

The Turkish president said Donald Trump's administration threatened to impose further sanctions on Ankara if Branson was not released, without giving details of the sanctions.

Ankara has been holding the pastor for nearly two years on charges of association with terrorist groups and was turned into house arrest in late July while his trial continues.

Washington announced on August 1, imposing sanctions on Turkey targeting the ministers of Justice and Interior, against the backdrop of the continued detention of the priest.

A new standard collapse of the currency

The Turkish lira, on Sunday, hit its lowest level against the dollar since 2001, in the latest episode of the currency collapse, which experts attribute mainly to the policies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Turkish currency recorded 7.24 liras per dollar, due to investors' concerns about Erdogan's attempt to intervene in economic affairs and the aggravation of the crisis between Ankara and Washington.

The decline follows a "catastrophic collapse" of the Turkish currency against the dollar on Friday, losing 20 percent of its value against the dollar on that day.

On Friday, the pound fell to 6 against the US currency, following comments by the Turkish president asking his compatriots to support the national currency by selling the dollar and buying the pound, and also by the announcement by US President Donald Trump to raise tariffs on imports of aluminum and steel from Ankara.

The Turkish currency has lost 70 percent of its value since the beginning of the year, boosting the cost of goods for Turkish citizens, and shaken investor confidence in the country.

http://www.basnews.com/index.php/ar/news/middle-east/458732

 

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They want to be ready after the 10 year Agreement is over.  It was a very bad deal and Iran has zero intentions of not building nuclear weapons. France Germany and Britain are fools to stay in this agreement. If Israel believes they are getting close to achieving a bomb they will flatten that factory. Just my opinion  Just my opinion for whatever it is worth. About .03 worth. 

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'Trump could seize Arab funds at any moment'

Specialists evaluated the situation and stated that Trump, who has waged an economic war against many countries, including China, Turkey and Iran, is now planning to seize the petrodollars of Gulf countries

File photo

 

Editor / Internet13:21 August 24, 2018Yeni Şafak

 

 

As U.S. President Donald Trump searches for new schemes to reduce the country’s foreign trade deficit and national debt by waging an economic war on countries by imposing unfair tariffs under the pretext of his “America First” campaign, reports have surfaced that his next target is the funds of Arab countries.

Arab countries, primarily Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Bahrain, currently have $4 trillion in U.S. and U.K. banks.

A large amount of these funds belongs to Saudi and the UAE, with the revenues of petrol and natural gas directly transferring into U.S. banks.

Specialists evaluated the situation and stated that Trump, who has waged an economic war against many countries, including China, Turkey and Iran, is now planning to seize the petrodollars of Gulf countries.

Cevahir Holding Chairman of the Board of Directors Yusuf Cevahir

Cevahir Holding Chairman of the Board of Directors Yusuf Cevahir

Deposits not questioned

Speaking to Yeni Safak daily, Cevahir Holding Chairman of the Board of Directors Yusuf Cevahir stressed, “The U.S. does not question the source of the money that comes from Gulf countries deposited into U.S. banks. However, when companies in Gulf countries want to withdraw money from U.S. banks, they are immediately faced with the questions regarding the "money source." This situation has been like this since the September 11 attacks. As long as oil revenues stay in the U.S., there is no problem. They only allow cash flow in the case of purchases of supplies and equipment from the U.S. Many Saudi companies have had mortgages currently because the U.S. does not allow cash withdrawals. Therefore, many projects in Saudi Arabia have come to a standstill because of the troubles these companies face. He also stressed that the companies in Saudi’s $500 billion mega-city NEOM project face the same difficulties.

“This situation shows that countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain work together with the U.S. in a chain of command.”

Director of Istanbul Universityâs Banking Research Center Kadir Tuna

Director of Istanbul University’s Banking Research Center Kadir Tuna

Trump could declare seizure at any moment

Director of Istanbul University’s Banking Research Center Kadir Tuna in his turn stated that the possibility of seizing Arab funds has never been so strong.

“Economic ties between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and the UAE is far beyond than a usual investor and banker relationship. In terms of international banking, the fact that such large amounts of money are being held in U.S. banks for years is an unusual situation.

“This situation cannot be defined with international law. Saudi Arabia has an extraordinary tie to the U.S. Trump, at any moment, can officially declare that he has seized the money,” he said.

9/11 compensation

According to reports, a number of Saudi assets and foundations will face large compensation lawsuits by the insurance companies of the families of victims of the 9/11 attacks under the pretext of supporting al-Qaeda.

Washington is said to be leveraging the 9/11 court decision in an attempt to seize Saudi assets in the U.S. which will put the oil-rich kingdom’s investments there at risk.

Aramco public offering ‘called off’

Saudi Arabia also called off plans for the domestic and international listing of state oil giant Aramco, billed as the biggest stock flotation in history, four senior industry sources said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

This was interpreted as a bid to protect Saudi stocks from being seized by the U.S.

However, the Saudi government early Thursday issued a statement denying the reports.

“The government remains committed to the initial public offering of Saudi Aramco, in accordance with the appropriate circumstances and appropriate time chosen by the Government,” Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement released on Saudi Press Agency.

Trump says the Gulf has nothing but money

Trump had planned to target Arab funds since before his election. In a speech in Florida during his election campaign in 2016, he stated that the Gulf “has nothing but money.”

“We want to do safe zones in Syria. I will get the Gulf states, who are not doing much, believe me. The Gulf states have nothing but money. I’m going to get them to pay. We owe 19 trillion, we’re not paying for it. Don’t forget, without us, the Gulf states won’t exist,” he said.

 

https://www.yenisafak.com/en/news/trump-eyes-trillions-of-dollars-of-arab-funds-in-us-banks-3439432

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Trump to "confiscate" the funds of the Gulf States deposited in the "US banks" !!

The political scene  Friday, August 31 2018 at 15: 09 pm (278 views)

20180831_030956-477.jpg

 

Trump to "confiscate" the funds of the Gulf States deposited in the "US banks" !!

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Follow-up / Sky Press

According to information leaked, US President Trump will confiscate the Saudi, UAE, Kuwaiti and Bahraini funds of $ 4 trillion deposited in US banks and is now creating arguments for that. It is known that the US financial laws are not reluctant to bring money into the United States but they oppose it. Equipment or materials, which created this economic confusion experienced by the Gulf states surrendered to US orders at all levels.

Trump said earlier that his country had to take oil "in Iraq since 2003, arguing that if the United States took such a step, the organization of the" Islamic state "would not have come out.

This came in a televised speech to 400 CIA staff, where he and his deputy, Michael Pence, were present on the second day of their posts.

Keywords:

http://www.skypressiq.net/2018/8/31/ترامب-بصدد-مصادرة-اموال-دول-الخليج-المودعة-في-البنوك-الامريكية

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Trump’s Middle East ‘Deal of the Century’ Creeping Into View

The administration is trying to wish Palestinian refugees away in order to serve hardline Israel interests.

By GEOFFREY ARONSON • August 31, 2018

 

palestinian-refugee-554x350.jpg

 

Palestianans in the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut ,Lebanon in February 2018 By catay /Shutterstock

President Donald Trump’s much-delayed “deal of the century” is creeping into view.

The latest insight is provided by the U.S. decision to defund UNRWA—the UN organization responsible for feeding and educating Palestinians denied a homeland, residing for generations in refugee camps throughout the Middle East, almost everywhere but Israel.

The decision to dramatically reduce U.S. funding for UN programs for refugees, not only those in the Gaza Strip, but also in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, comes in the wake of Washington’s earlier decisions to reduce aid to the Palestinian Authority and sets the stage for U.S. efforts at the UN to reduce the number of formally recognized refugees.

The fog enveloping Trump’s deal of the century is clearing, revealing a U.S.-led effort to simply remove Palestinians from the diplomatic and humanitarian equation. This policy is far more ambitious than Obama’s ill-famed preference to “lead from behind.” But rather than solve the issue, Trump is implementing a destructive and destabilizing plan to simply wish the Palestine problem away.

UNRWA was one of the central institutions created by the international community to accommodate the almost one million Palestinians who lost the battle against Israel for the creation of a sovereign state in what was British Mandatory Palestine. More than one half century later, the organization’s staying power is a testament to the failure of all parties to resolve the sovereign status of these refugees and their descendants.

Within a few years of their “Nakba,” it was clear that Palestinians would not soon—if ever—return to their ancestral lands. Diplomats for decades have found it preferable to kick the can down the road. Arab states, weak and untested, offer heartfelt but limited sanctuary. Against these considerable odds, Palestinians dealt a short deck by history, have, no thanks to UNRWA, managed to feed and educate themselves without the considerable advantages of a state to represent and defend them.

UNRWA bears a burden far bigger than itself. It assumes responsibility that no one else is prepared to shoulder—for those orphans of international diplomacy—five million Palestinians without a passport in a world of nation-states.

Palestinians are of two minds about the organization. No one can deny the health and educational benefits it provides, but the price paid for being wards of the international community is considerable, indeed for many unbearable.

The Death of the Nation-State Was Greatly Exaggerated

Obama’s Failure Set Stage for Trump’s Unilateral Israel Policy

 

Many years ago I sat on the veranda of the Marna House, a gentile guest house on the outskirts of Gaza city run by Alia Shawwa, daughter to one of Gaza’s richest families. She was a woman who knew her own mind and was not shy about telling anyone, including the perfect stranger sipping tea opposite her. UNRWA was an abomination, she declared, responsible for breeding complacency and fatalism among Palestinians and offering an excuse and a means for powers great and small to let the Palestinian problem fester.

Palestinian refugees now numbering in the millions must today compete against new cohorts of unfortunates—Syrians and Rohingya to name but two. Lacking for the first time in decades even the hint of a diplomatic process, they are in so many ways yesterday’s news. For those who want to bury even the idea of Palestine, Trump’s advisors among them, the time to strike is now.

Israel is one of UNRWA’s most significant beneficiaries and the more sober Israelis are well aware of the unrequited service the organization offers. Their cash keeps the lid on—it keeps kids in school and off the streets and pays for things that remain Israel’s responsibility as an occupying power to provide, and would have to be paid by Israel if only as a matter of self-interest if the organization is made to disappear. That’s why Israel’s long-serving prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu loves to hate the UN and its mandate while in public. But through a far colder calculation he understands the value UNRWA—despite its many problems—provides Israel to maintain an unsustainable status quo.  

If simply taking issues such as Jerusalem and refugees “off the table” were so simple, Trump’s road would have been taken long ago. That it has not is for Trump not a sign of their complexity but of the weakness of his predecessors and their failure of imagination. So he is stepping over the wreckage of generations of failed efforts to make peace, forging ahead where they feared to tread.  

Ending funding for UNRWA is one leg of his diplomatic trifecta—the others being his decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and a yet to be mooted decision to purge most Palestinians of their refugee status, and banish their “Right of Return” from the international diplomatic lexicon.

Even advocates of UNRWA’s demise who believe that refugees can be stripped of their status by the simple stroke of a pen stop short at simply cutting them off without a shekel.

“Responsibility for the Palestinians and the UNRWA budgets could be transferred to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which looks after the rest of the world’s refugees and, unlike UNRWA, works toward solving the refugee problem instead of perpetuating it,” suggests former Israeli diplomat Ron Prosor.

“Alternatively, U.N. agencies that already operate in the region, such as the United Nations Development Program, could be tasked with the job,” he added. “Another option is to transfer the budgets directly to the Palestinian Authority.”

It takes a special kind of chutzpa for an administration—whose record on welcoming Arab immigrants in these last years can be counted on the fingers of two hands—to declare to countries like Lebanon and Jordan, groaning under the weight of hosting Palestinian and now Syrian diasporas, that the responsibility for the care and integration of millions of Palestinians is now theirs.

Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin welcomed the U.S. administration’s “justified decision,” on UNRWA, saying it “finally speaks the truth to the Arab lie that has been marketed all over the world for decades.”

“The solutions for the challenges facing those [Palestinians] currently living in various Arab countries can be found in those countries. There is no reason for them to dream of returning [to Israel],” Elkin said.

Strange words indeed from a man who every year at Passover reaffirms the Jewish peoples’ perenial yearning to live “next year in Jerusalem.”

On the other hand, he explains that “the State of Israel was, is and will always be the national homeland of the Jewish people, on the grounds of 2,000 years of history as well as its official status since the days of the Balfour Declaration.”

With absolutely no sense of irony, Elkin invokes for himself and his people the very sense of historical entitlement he denies to his enemies.

There’s the rub. Trump is not going to all this trouble in order to move pennies from one UN column into another. He indeed wants to take the refugee issue off the table, not by solving it but simply by redefining it out of existence, and if boosters like Elkin have their way, to deny Palestinians the right to even dream about an end to their exile.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/trumps-middle-east-deal-of-the-century-creeping-into-view/

Geoffrey Aronson is chairman and co-founder of The Mortons Group and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute

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Thanks Butifldrm....Not since the Reagan area has the United States showed any signs of a backbone....The past administrations couldn't call a spade a spade....The people that put the big eared homosexual with his crossdressing boytoy...into office are the real problems our country face....people with a shab mentality need to be addressed and silenced...America was awakened by the demographics of the bozo era...but rallied to put DJT into a position to reverse the past 8 years of a weak culture mentality that has been allowed to fester...America will still have to deal with blacks that can't get over their history...and want the world to support them because of their color...America will still have to deal with ill-legal immagrants that just can't grasp the idea of a legal process that has allowed millions to enter our country legally...America will hopefully be the first country to inform the Muslim community's that that Mohamed jerk was nothing but a pedophile...and that we here in the United States could give a rats azz about him or his koran.... and they need to get with the program and fine a local clothes shop and start showing some skin...There's not only a new sheriff in town...This new sheriff will not only give the citizens their weapons back...President Donald J Trump will..."Give me back my bullets...."....jmho

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Exclusive: Iran moves missiles to Iraq in warning to enemies

John Irish and Ahmed Rasheed
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FILE PHOTO: A display featuring missiles and a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seen at Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran September 27, 2017. Nazanin Tabatabaee Yazdi/TIMA via 
REUTERS

(Reuters) - Iran has given ballistic missiles to Shi'ite proxies in Iraq and is developing the capacity to build more there to deter attacks on its interests in the Middle East and to give it the means to hit regional foes, Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources said.

 

Any sign that Iran is preparing a more aggressive missile policy in Iraq will exacerbate tensions between Tehran and Washington, already heightened by U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

It would also embarrass France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the three European signatories to the nuclear deal, as they have been trying to salvage the agreement despite new U.S. sanctions against Tehran.

According to three Iranian officials, two Iraqi intelligence sources and two Western intelligence sources, Iran has transferred short-range ballistic missiles to allies in Iraq over the last few months. Five of the officials said it was helping those groups to start making their own.

"The logic was to have a backup plan if Iran was attacked," one senior Iranian official told Reuters. "The number of missiles is not high, just a couple of dozen, but it can be increased if necessary."

Iran has previously said its ballistic missile activities are purely defensive in nature. Iranian officials declined to comment when asked about the latest moves.

The Iraqi government and military both declined to comment.

The Zelzal, Fateh-110 and Zolfaqar missiles in question have ranges of about 200 km to 700 km, putting Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh or the Israeli city of Tel Aviv within striking distance if the weapons were deployed in southern or western Iraq.

The Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has bases in both those areas. Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani is overseeing the program, three of the sources said

Western countries have already accused Iran of transferring missiles and technology to Syria and other allies of Tehran, such as Houthi rebels in Yemen and Lebanon's Hezbollah. 

Iran's Sunni Muslim Gulf neighbors and its arch-enemy Israel have expressed concerns about Tehran's regional activities, seeing it as a threat to their security.

Israeli officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the missile transfers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that anybody that threatened to wipe Israel out "would put themselves in a similar danger".

 

 

MISSILE PRODUCTION LINE

The Western source said the number of missiles was in the 10s and that the transfers were designed to send a warning to the United States and Israel, especially after air raids on Iranian troops in Syria. The United States has a significant military presence in Iraq.

"It seems Iran has been turning Iraq into its forward missile base," the Western source said. 

The Iranian sources and one Iraqi intelligence source said a decision was made some 18 months ago to use militias to produce missiles in Iraq, but activity had ramped up in the last few months, including with the arrival of missile launchers. 

"We have bases like that in many places and Iraq is one of them. If America attacks us, our friends will attack America's interests and its allies in the region," said a senior IRGC commander who served during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. 

The Western source and the Iraqi source said the factories being used to develop missiles in Iraq were in al-Zafaraniya, east of Baghdad, and Jurf al-Sakhar, north of Kerbala. One Iranian source said there was also a factory in Iraqi Kurdistan. 

The areas are controlled by Shi'ite militias, including Kata'ib Hezbollah, one of the closest to Iran. Three sources said Iraqis had been trained in Iran as missile operators.

The Iraqi intelligence source said the al-Zafaraniya factory produced warheads and the ceramic of missile moulds under former President Saddam Hussein. It was reactivated by local Shi'ite groups in 2016 with Iranian assistance, the source said.

A team of Shi'ite engineers who used to work at the facility under Saddam were brought in, after being screened, to make it operational, the source said. He also said missiles had been tested near Jurf al-Sakhar.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon declined to comment.

One U.S official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Tehran over the last few months has transferred missiles to groups in Iraq but could not confirm that those missiles had any launch capability from their current positions.

Washington has been pushing its allies to adopt a tough anti-Iran policy since it reimposed sanctions this month.

While the European signatories to the nuclear deal have so far balked at U.S. pressure, they have grown increasingly impatient over Iran's ballistic missile program. 

France in particular has bemoaned Iranian "frenzy" in developing and propagating missiles and wants Tehran to open negotiations over its ballistic weapons.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday that Iran was arming regional allies with rockets and allowing ballistic proliferation. "Iran needs to avoid the temptation to be the (regional) hegemon," he said. 

In March, the three nations proposed fresh EU sanctions on Iran over its missile activity, although they failed to push them through after opposition from some member states.

"Such a proliferation of Iranian missile capabilities throughout the region is an additional and serious source of concern," a document from the three European countries said at the time. 

 

MESSAGE TO FOES

A regional intelligence source also said Iran was storing a number of ballistic missiles in areas of Iraq that were under effective Shi'ite control and had the capacity to launch them.

The source could not confirm that Iran has a missile production capacity in Iraq.

A second Iraqi intelligence official said Baghdad had been aware of the flow of Iranian missiles to Shi'ite militias to help fight Islamic State militants, but that shipments had continued after the hardline Sunni militant group was defeated.

"It was clear to Iraqi intelligence that such a missile arsenal sent by Iran was not meant to fight Daesh (Islamic State) militants but as a pressure card Iran can use once involved in regional conflict," the official said. 

The Iraqi source said it was difficult for the Iraqi government to stop or persuade the groups to go against Tehran.

"We can't restrain militias from firing Iranian rockets because simply the firing button is not in our hands, it's with Iranians who control the push button," he said. 

"Iran will definitely use the missiles it handed over to Iraqi militia it supports to send a strong message to its foes in the region and the United States that it has the ability to use Iraqi territories as a launch pad for its missiles to strike anywhere and anytime it decides," the Iraqi official said.

Iraq's parliament passed a law in 2016 to bring an assortment of Shi'ite militia groups known collectively as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) into the state apparatus. The militias report to Iraq's prime minister, who is a Shi'ite under the country's unofficial governance system.

However, Iran still has a clear hand in coordinating the PMF leadership, which frequently meets and consults with Soleimani. 

 

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and Jonathan Landay in Washington; editing by David Clarke)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN1LG0WB

 
 
 

 

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Thanks Butifldrm....Yea, yea...that's all well and fine....Let these simple minded people run around in the heat with their turbines raped tight...Thanks for the warning...wouldn't want to b3 anywhere close when "Mad-Dawg" replies...jhmo

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