Wednesday, December 04, 2019
U.S. pushing Arab states on non-belligerence pacts with Israel
The White House approached several Arab states to encourage them to reach non-belligerence agreements with Israel, according to Israeli, Arab and U.S. sources.Will donors demand change in UNRWA policies?
Why it matters: One of the Trump administration’s main goals in the Middle East has been to promote the normalization of ties between Israel and the Gulf states. Non-belligerence agreements are an interim step between the secret relations Israel has with those countries now and full diplomatic relations.
The Israeli, Arab and U.S. sources tell me President Trump’s deputy national security adviser, Victoria Coates, met last week with the ambassadors of the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Morocco in Washington. All four countries have secret contacts and cooperation with Israel but no diplomatic relations.
- Coates raised the initiative for non-belligerence agreements, told them the Trump administration supports such a move and asked what their positions were.
- The Arab ambassadors said they would report back to their capitals and return soon with an answer.
That White House request builds off of an initiative led by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, Israeli officials say.
- Katz raised the idea in a September meeting at the UN with Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi and Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash.
The US State Department concurred with Rabbi Cooper: “The fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years – tied to UNRWA’s endlessly and exponentially expanding the community of beneficiaries – are simply unsustainable and the organization has been in crisis mode for many years. The United States will not commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation. We are very mindful of, and deeply concerned with, the impact upon innocent Palestinians, especially school children, resulting from the failure of UNRWA and key members of the regional and international donor community to reset the way UNRWA does business.”
Former Israeli Communications Minister Ayoob Kara added: “If UNRWA’s money went to building homes for the refugees, all of the cities in Gaza and the West Bank would look different. They would have nice Palestinian cities, just as Israel which absorbed all of the Jewish refugees from the Arab world managed to build nice cities. But instead, all of their money goes to supporting terror indoctrination. Because of that, I am very happy that there is increased international support for stopping this, which is necessary for the free world.”
In conclusion, Yaakov Hagoel, Head of the Department for Countering Anti-Semitism of the World Zionist Organization, liked the idea of calling upon the donor nations to make their continued contributions to UNRWA dependent upon reforms that will lead to an end of the anti-Semitic war indoctrination that is presently occurring in their schools: "UNRWA is one-sided against Israel. Everyone who harms the Jewish people and the State of Israel and does anti-Semitism, we must do everything against this."
We will check into the option of applying pressure onto the donor countries.” The time has come for UNRWA donor nations to wake up and smell the coffee, and recognize that there is a true problem that must be dealt with. The time has come for UNRWA to be comprehensively reformed and to stop indoctrinating Palestinian children to support terrorism.
ICC Prosecutor Recognizes IDF Legal Probe in Marmara Case
On Tuesday, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda closed the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla case for a third time. In her past two decisions to close the case, she merely said that 10 dead activists who clashed with the IDF was not a high enough volume of casualties to warrant her office's attention, which deals mostly with genocide or mass killings.
This time Bensouda said that one reason that she would not open a criminal probe was that the case had been probed by the IDF legal division. Her explanation noted that if a country's legal division's probe were viewed as a sham, that they would not have provided any protection from the ICC, meaning that the IDF probe here was not a sham.
Along the same lines, Bensouda pointed out that Spain, England, Sweden and Germany had all dismissed any war crimes allegations against the IDF for the incident, with some recognizing Israel's justice system as legitimate and as having properly probed the issue.
JPost Editorial: The nefarious Irish bill
It is hard to look at the Control of Economic Activity Bill 2018, known as the Occupied Territories Bill, now working its way through the Irish parliament without coming to the inescapable conclusion that it is a flat-out piece of biased legislation.Refuting US Rep. Levin’s letter against settlements
The bill – which already passed in the upper house of Ireland’s parliament and is now moving through the lower house – would impose fines of up to €250,000 or five years in jail on Irish merchants selling dates from settlements in the Jordan Valley, wine from the Golan Heights, or any goods or services coming from east Jerusalem.
The Occupied Territories Bill is part of the global anti-Israeli BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign whose ultimate objective is not the creation of an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace with binational relations. Its real objective is the destruction of Israel, and this bill helps it along as viable legislation that will only further delegitimize and demonize the Jewish state.
Even if one subscribes to the prevailing international perspective that Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria is a form of occupation, what is one to make of the Irish parliament? If it was serious, it would broaden the bill to include other so-called occupied territories.
But it didn’t. No mention of Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian Crimea and parts of Georgia and Moldova or Turkey’s occupation of Northern Cyprus. Morocco’s occupation of the Western Sahara goes ignored as well as do the recent killings on the street of Iran and Iraq. Just Israel is the bad guy.
Dear Congressman Andy Levin,David Singer: Trump Ends Arab Preoccupation with Occupation in Judea and Samaria
You recently recruited 105 congressional Democrats to sign your letter protesting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s reversing “decades of bipartisan US policy on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank by repudiating the 1978 State Department legal opinion that civilian settlements in the occupied territories are ‘inconsistent with international law.’” You claimed this decision “discredited the United States as an honest broker” and “severely damaged prospects for peace.” You charged that the decision “blatantly disregards Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which affirms that any occupying power shall not ‘report or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.’”
In fact, your categorical, ahistorical accusations damage peace prospects. Such demonization enrages Israel’s Right, discourages Israel’s pro-peace Center and encourages the biggest obstacles to peace: the Palestinians who still reject Israel’s existence.
Moreover, I’m guessing you dismissed Pompeo’s statement as mere grandstanding by a flailing administration. Beware. Similar arguments impeach the 1978 legal opinion against Israeli settlements, which some Democrats now revere like the Magna Carta itself.
President Trump’s decision to recognise the right of Jews to live in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) ends a long-running Arab political campaign accompanied by murderous terrorist attacks to drive the Jews out under the Arab mantra – “End the Occupation”.
This mantra had become the Arabs’ rallying cry over the last 53 years as they sought to assert sovereignty over every square meter of this hotly-disputed territory.
These three little words managed to turn Israel’s miraculous victory in the 1967 Six Day War in Judea and Samaria – that saw the Jewish People’s triumphal return to the heart of the biblical and ancestral land of its forefathers - as something to be reviled and reversed.
Those mouthing the mantra did not seek to have the “occupation”ended in favour of Jordan - the previous Arab occupier between1948 and 1967.
Rather they were insisting it all be given to another group – the “Palestinians” – who did not exist:
• In1922 – when the League of Nations created the Mandate for Palestine•In1937 -when the Peel Commission issued its Report
• In 1947 -when the United Nations recommended the partition of western Palestine into an Arab State and a Jewish State
• Between 1948-1964 – when Judea and Samaria had been ethnically cleansed of every single Jew who had been living there prior to 1948
The “Palestinians”only first saw the light of day in 1964 when the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Charter was promulgated and Article 1 declared:
Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rejects Economic Projects in Gaza
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced that the government considers the recent developments that have taken place in the Gaza Strip to be an implementation of the “deal of the century” US peace proposal, adding that they correspond to the plans announced by the US president’s advisor, Jared Kushner, at the Manama workshop in June.What the Arab World Could Accomplish if It Made Peace With Israel
Speaking at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah Monday, Shtayyeh said the US hospital that will be built near the Gaza border, as well as the industrial cities, ports and floating islands, all embody the US plan that refuses to acknowledge the political demands and national rights of the Palestinian people.
These projects and schemes aim at eliminating the Palestinian national project, he said, stressing that the government rejects all Israeli settlement plans, especially in the cities of Jerusalem and Hebron.
The PM called on the international community to take immediate measures against such plans.
“The new settlement project in Hebron’s wholesale market confirms Israel’s insistence on waging a direct confrontation as it implements a destructive scheme with broad political objectives,” he was quoted by the Wafa news agency as saying.
The premier asserted that these plans have come to light as settlers are escalating their violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank under Israeli army protection and command.
He pointed out that the timing of these projects is “deliberate” because they coincide with the discussion on Palestinian elections, restoring national unity, and while Gaza is under siege.
Fortunately, with so many countries sending delegations to learn form Israel’s agricultural experts, some of that hi-tech brainpower is being directed towards this critical field. Much of the world, from India to Mongolia to the West Coast and Horn of Africa, looks to the Jewish state to provide the solutions they so desperately need.'Israel is what the Arab world can be but is unable to be'
Since the 1950s, Israel has succeeded in reclaiming most of its ancient lands from the deserts and swamps, and turning them into green areas suitable for cultivation and grazing. At the same time, primarily through MASHAV — the Israel Foreign Ministry’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, the Jewish state has advanced agricultural methods and standards throughout the world.
And what of the neighboring Arab states?
In my home country of Jordan, the agricultural sector suffers from many complex and sometimes fatal problems. Israel and Jordan are officially at peace, and the Jewish state has the ability to green the deserts of Jordan, if only that peace were warmer.
Just look at what Israel did with the leased enclaves of Naharayim and Tzofar (which Jordan this year reclaimed rather than renew the leases to Israeli farmers). Both of these enclaves are filled with lush green farmlands, while the surrounding Jordanian-controlled areas remain arid and yellow. If we could only truly cooperate, Jordan would reap the benefits of Israeli technology and agricultural know-how.
The same is, of course, true for the other Arab states. If only they would make peace with Israel, so many of their problems related to hunger and lack of water could be solved — just as Israel is doing for so many countries in Africa and other parts of Asia.
Hussein Aboubakr loves Israel. This is always a welcome sentiment, of course, but it is twice as moving when it comes from an Egyptian-born Muslim, and even more so when you consider that Aboubakr is one of the most outspoken activists fighting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement in Los Angeles.Is Anti-Zionism a Form of Antisemitism?
Aboubakr, 30, defines himself as a Zionist. His sympathy for Israel forced him out of Egypt and in the last seven years he has been living in the United States. He moved to Los Angeles after getting a job with Stand With Us – a non-profit pro-Israel education and advocacy organization, seeking to bolster Israel's image among the American public.
Our interview is conducted in Hebrew, which Aboubakr speaks fluently and with a barely detectable accent.
"There's a new generation today of Western Arabs who grew up in the US, speak English and understand how to take advantage of the system," he said. "They were brought up to honor the edicts of Islam even though they are completely secular. People like that are, in fact, the driving force behind BDS. They run an anti-Israel campaign in American academia, but they also have an anti-US campaign.
"They think I'm a traitor. They come to my lectures to heckle me. They won't hear of anti-Semitism in the Arab world and they accuse me of racism."
Touching on current affairs and the recent flare-up in southern Israel during which Islamic Jihad terrorists fired over 450 rockets at Israel in retaliation over the elimination of top Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu al-Ata in his Gaza home, Aboubakr said, "It's hard for me to see Israelis undergo this annual rocket event. Usually, there is [security] escalation, then Hamas receives more money from Qatar, and uses most of it to increase its arsenal. Israel eliminated a terrorist, not a social worker."
'We were told Jews are evil'
Yariv Oppenheimer from Peace Now and Vice President of the NGO Monitor Olga I Deutsch discuss the French parliament's decision to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.
127 Israeli, Jewish Academics Want France to Kill ‘Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitism’ Resolution
On Tuesday, the French National Assembly voted to approve a resolution equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. On the same day, Le Monde, which during the cold war was known to be the KGB’s key outlet for spreading anti-American and pro-Soviet disinformation to the French media, published an open letter from a group of 127 Israeli and Jewish intellectuals who claimed that “cette résolution est hautement problématique,” this resolution is highly problematic.France creates anti-hate crime office as anti-Semitic wave shakes nation
“We, Jewish scholars and intellectuals from Israel and elsewhere, including many scholars of anti-Semitism and the history of Judaism and the Holocaust, raise our voices against this motion for a resolution,” the letter authors argued.
“The rise of anti-Semitism in the world, including France, is of great concern to us. We regard anti-Semitism and all other forms of racism and xenophobia as a real threat against which we must fight with the utmost firmness, and urge the government and the French Parliament to do so,” they went on, and conceded that “there is no doubt that there are anti-Semites among people who oppose Zionism. But there are also many anti-Semites who support Zionism. It is therefore inappropriate and totally inaccurate to generally identify anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.”
It should be noted at this point, that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) committee on anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial in 2015 adopted a universal working definition of anti-Semitism which includes 11 points, one of which says that anti-Semitism is “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” and “applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation,” and “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
You can criticize any and all act of the Israeli government, but when you ignore the above three rules you are, in effect, an anti-Semite.
The French government is creating a national anti-hate crime office following a wave of anti-Semitic incidents in eastern France.U.S. Opposes Five New Anti-Israel Resolutions at UN General Assembly
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner made the announcement Wednesday in the town of Westhoffen, where vandals scrawled swastikas and other anti-Semitic inscriptions on 107 tombs in a Jewish cemetery the day before.
Speaking alongside Jewish leaders, Castaner condemned the graffiti as a sign that “hate is on our national territory.”
“We must respect the right to believe,” he said.
A special police unit has begun investigating the incident, Castaner said, and the new national office will seek to fight hate crimes.
The graffiti marked the latest in a string of anti-Semitic acts in the Bas-Rhin region. Anti-Semitic graffiti was also discovered Tuesday in the eastern French village of Schaffhouse-sur-Zorn, authorities said.
French president Emmanuel Macron condemned the vandalism Tuesday, saying Jews were an integral part of France. “Those who attack them, until their graves, are unworthy of our idea of France. Anti-Semitism is a crime and we will fight, in Westhoffen and anywhere else, until our dead can rest in peace,” he tweeted.
A recent surge in anti-Semitic violence and hate speech has prompted soul-searching for many in France, which has long wrestled with its history of discrimination and prejudice against Jews.
The United States once again, opposed the five resolutions voted upon today, which are entirely biased against Israel. These are in addition to the ten other resolutions in the General Assembly this year, that criticize Israel.Marking a first, 11 EU countries vote against anti-Israel UN resolution
Let me reiterate, this one-sided approach only undermines trust among the Israelis, Palestinians, and the international community, and fails to create the kind of positive environment critical to achieving peace.
We are deeply disappointed that, despite support for reform, member states continue to disproportionally single out Israel year after year through these types of resolutions. It is regrettable that the United Nations – an institution founded upon the idea that all nations should be treated equally – should be so often used by member states to treat one state in particular, Israel, unequally.
Furthermore, several of the resolutions presented here today support UN bodies whose primary purpose unbelievably is to target Israel, such as the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. These bodies cost the UN $6 million annually, but bring us no closer to a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Rather, they promote a culture of bias against Israel, as demonstrated by the anti-Israeli tone in the events, publications, and rhetoric produced by the bodies, and even more concerning consume scarce UN resources that could be better devoted to other priorities.
On September 22, 2016, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood before the UN General Assembly and said that he had a message that would shock the audience: “Israel has a bright future at the UN.”
“So when it comes to Israel at the UN, you'd probably think nothing will ever change, right?” he told the delegates. “ Well think again. You see, everything will change and a lot sooner than you think. The change will happen in this hall, because back home, your governments are rapidly changing their attitudes towards Israel. And sooner or later, that's going to change the way you vote on Israel at the UN.”
On Tuesday, the beginnings of that change – according to Israeli officials – could be felt. Eleven EU countries, plus Latin American powers Brazil and Colombia, voted for the first time against a resolution that has passed every year since 1977 mandating a special “Division for Palestinian Rights” inside the UN Secretariat devoted to promoting the Palestinian narrative against Israel.
The resolution still passed by a whopping 87-23, with 54 abstentions. But what was significant is that 11 EU countries which abstained in the past, this year joined Hungary – which broke ranks with the EU last year – and voted against the resolution.
The countries that voted against the resolution were: Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania , the Netherlands, Romania and Slovakia. Two EU countries voted for the resolution – Malta, and surprisingly, Cyprus – and the remaining 14 abstained, among them France, the UK, and Italy.
GOOD NEWS: Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria change votes to oppose UN resolution funding a 16-member anti-Israeli propaganda agency within the UN. I can’t remember the last time the EU split on any UNGA vote, nor when these countries voted No. UN Watch pressure is working. https://t.co/JzdwSwZoeO
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 3, 2019
In the final vote of the day, the UN demands that Israel withdraw from the Golan in a 91 - 9 - 65 vote.
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) December 3, 2019
🇧🇷 Brazil switched its vote from Yes last year to No this year.
🇬🇧 The UK broke from EU consensus, as it did last year, to vote No.
See text here: https://t.co/52KBehJWAl pic.twitter.com/csqY5wDelt
The UN just passed 5 resolutions against Israel. Did your country join the jackals?
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) December 3, 2019
No Yes Abstain
🇺🇸 5
🇨🇦 5
🇦🇺 5
🇧🇷 3 1 1
🇩🇪 1 2 2
🇳🇱 1 2 2
🇬🇧 1 2 2
🇫🇷 0 2 3
🇨🇭 0 2 3
🇸🇪 0 2 3
🇦🇷 0 4 1
🇮🇳 0 5 0 https://t.co/tgfSWr2wH0
Police thwarted ISIS terror attack in Jerusalem
The Israeli Police released footage on Wednesday of the arrest of two east Jerusalem resident who have been indicted on terrorism charges after they allegedly planned terrorist attacks on military and civilian targets on behalf of the Islamic State terrorist group in Jerusalem on Independence Day.Egypt proposes 5-year ceasefire between Hamas and Israel - report
The two east Jerusalem residents from the neighborhood of Jebel Mukaber, 21-year-old Ahmed Jabbis and 19-year-old Basel Abidat, were arrested based on concrete intelligence as part of a planned raid.
“On the night of October 28, 2019, dozens of Border Police officers raided two houses simultaneously in the village of Jebel Mukaber,” said an undercover border police officer who oversaw the operation. "This was a planned operation, we had information about the location of the accused and as soon as conditions allowed, we detained them.”
The two were indicted in a Jerusalem court on Sunday.
According to the indictment, the two were active on ISIS-affiliated websites beginning in 2016, which spread the group’s religious and political messages as well as provide instructions on how to assemble bombs to carry out attacks.
In July, Abidat attempted to enter the Sinai Peninsula via Jordan in order to join with ISIS operatives, but was prevented from crossing the border by Jordanian security officials. Jabbis is said to have raised some NIS 2,000 that he transferred to a second party in order for it to be given to ISIS.
Senior officials from the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, and the Islamic Jihad, are taking part in Egypt's strategic talks, which included offers of a five-year ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds reported on Wednesday.Israel Asks U.S. to Withhold Anti-Tank Missiles, Drones from Lebanese Military Aid
Sources in the Arabic media said that military officials were part of a Hamas and Islamic Jihad delegation that took part in a meeting in Cairo yesterday to discuss new coordination plans following the latest round of fighting.
According to those same sources, efforts are being made to persuade the parties to accept a long-term ceasefire proposal that will last for five years. The sources pointed to international pressure exerted on the heads of the organizations to restore stability and reach a deal.
A source close to Hamas noted that the organization had not been updated on the "artificial island" project by mediators. However, he did not deny that proposals were made regarding infrastructure-related projects in the Strip.
Don’t give Lebanon weapons that can be used against us, Israel is asking Washington, adding a new wrinkle to the $105 million in Foreign Military Financing that had been withheld without notice by the Trump administration.Hezbollah operative in New York sentenced to 40 years in prison
The Office of Management and Budget director failed to answer questions from the House Foreign Affairs Committee about why the Trump administration froze the aid. It may have come at the behest of Israeli sources, who media have reported have been lobbying the US to withhold the aid since summer.
A senior Israeli defense source who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “Washington has not realized that the Hezbollah is Iran’s very strong proxy and that supplying weapons to such an organization that actually is calling the shots in Lebanon is sheer stupidity.”
In particular, the Israeli sources say anti-tank missiles and drones should be barred from any military aid.
The drumbeat of criticism was consistent among close observers of Israeli military policy. Amos Gilad, former director of policy and political-military affairs at the Ministry of Defense, told Breaking Defense that the military aid to Lebanon has been a dilemma in recent years “Since the Hezbollah terror organization actually controls the country , the military assistance should be limited to weapons systems that cannot be used against Israel”
A New Yorker convicted of providing material support to Hezbollah by seeking targets in New York City for terrorist attacks was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years in prison.
Ali Kourani, 35, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein after the Lebanon-born Kourani was convicted at a May trial. He could have faced life in prison.
US Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a release that Kourani spent years conducting surveillance for the terror group at federal buildings, airports including Kennedy International Airport and even daycare centers after he was recruited, trained and deployed by Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization.
The prosecutor said Kourani was the first operative of the group to be convicted and sentenced for his crimes against the US.
Authorities said Kourani came to the US legally in 2003, earning a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering in 2009 and a master’s degree in business administration in 2013. He became a naturalized US citizen in April 2009 and was issued a US passport.
Probably only the @nytimes could write a headline about a guy that plotted to murder Americans on behalf of Hezbollah and evoke sympathy for him. https://t.co/FCUGQD7f2s
— Jonathan Conricus (@LTCJonathan) December 4, 2019
Venezuela Envoy to U.K.: 'Nicolás Maduro Has Direct Relations with Hezbollah'
The ambassador of the legitimate government of Venezuela to the United Kingdom and Ireland, Vanessa Neumann, told the Saudi outlet al-Arabiya on Sunday that the Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah directly participates in the repression of the Venezuelan people.MEMRI: Celebrating Turkey-Libya Agreement, Editor Of AKP Mouthpiece Pens Historical Blueprint For Return Of Ottoman Empire Through Territorial Expansion: 'Barbaros Is Back In The Mediterranean After 473 Years – From Now On, We Are Everywhere From North Africa To The East Mediterranean'
Neumann is an international affairs expert who had previously identified the man in charge of Venezuela’s vast natural resources under Maduro, Tareck El Aissami, as “one of Hezbollah’s great bagmen.” The American government has sanctioned El Aissami as a known “drug kingpin” and associate of Shiite terrorist organizations.
Neumann told al-Arabiya that not just El Aissami, but Maduro himself has close ties to Hezbollah, a terrorist group directly funded by the Islamist regime in Iran and active in Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria, among other places.
“The Hezbollah presence in Venezuela has been part of the death and suffering of my people. [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah is interfering in our politics and giving training to murder, starve, and oppress us,” Neumann told al-Arabiya. “We have hundreds of thousands of children starving and every morning a mother has to decide which of her children she is going to feed because she can’t feed all of them. And Hezbollah is intricately involved in this.”
Neumann said Maduro, who ceased being the legitimate leader of the country in January, “has direct relations with Hezbollah” through his foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, son-in-law to the late dictator Hugo Chávez. She also described El Aissami, the nation’s minister of “industries and natural production,” as “Hezbollah’s main point of contact” in the country. She specifically accused Hezbollah of trafficking in illegal gold mining, which under Maduro has become both an environmental and humanitarian disaster as competing Marxist gangs fight over gold-rich turf.
In Turkey's Yeni Şafak daily, which is a mouthpiece of Turkey's ruling AKP, in a December 2, 2019 column,[1] titled "Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha Returns After 473 Years... The Real Ruler Of The Mediterranean Is Back, Turkey-Libya Deal Changed The Nautical Map, Sevres Plan [Which Divided The Ottoman Empire In 1920] Blew Up In Their Face... Turkey's Surface Area Is Much Greater Than We Know," the paper's editor-in-chief İbrahim Karagül wrote: "The deal between Turkey and Libya not only ruined all plans over the Mediterranean but it also showed the world that Turkey has a Mediterranean map." Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha (1478-1546) was a pirate who later became an Ottoman naval commander who secured Ottoman control of the Mediterranean Sea from the Battle of Preveza in 1538 to the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.Seth Frantzman: Iran wants to challenge western navies in Gulf with China and Russia
On November 27, 2019, the government of Turkey signed an agreement with Libya's Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), which is headed by Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj and is pro-Islamist. Turkish journalist Mehmet Kancı, also writing in Yeni Şafak, explained the significance of the agreement: "Turkey's Marmaris-Fethiye-Kaş shoreline and Libya's Derna-Tobruk and Bardia shorelines were made neighbors. The western-most line that connects this line passes within a few nautical miles of Crete. This means that Turkey will have the right to confront developments that threaten its interests in the Eastern Mediterranean beginning from the waters near Crete. At the same time this is the line drawn for the drilling and research ships that are trying to come near Cyprus and that ignore the rights of Cypriot Turks and Turkey to the hydrocarbon beds in the Eastern Mediterranean." [2] Tension over natural gas drilling in the waters around Cyprus has been building over the past several years.[3]
"The Seljuks Are Back; The Ottomans Are Back... The Claims Of Past Centuries Are Back"
Referring to Turkey's land area, which is now "783,562 square kilometers only," Karagül calls it "a mindset that restricts our perception of Turkey and its map, associating it with land alone. Yet when we include our seas, territorial waters, continental shelf as well, Turkey's surface area grows to an extraordinary scale. This leads to radical changes when we look at the map... This massive country grows greater in our eyes... If we take into account Turkey's ethnic area, we see a spectacular power from Europe to Asia, the Middle East to the depths of Africa."
Iran thinks it is entering the big league in naval powers as its Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi announced a joint naval drill with Russia and China. It came as a deputy chief of the Chinese Joint Staff was in a meeting with Khanzadi, according to Iran’s Press TV.New IAEA head seeking answers from Iran over site flagged by Israel
What’s really behind the scenes of this is that Iran wants to show off after the US and France have both announced maritime security initiatives in the Gulf.
Iran is pushing a “Hormuz peace” plan called HOPE. Now Iran says its Maritime Security Belt drill will go ahead on December 27. Iran wants to work more closely with China. Having Russia on board is a win as well for Tehran. The problem for Tehran is that while China is an emerging naval behemoth and Russia is a historic naval power, Iran has a weak navy. Iran’s great naval “achievement” of the last years has been using fast boats to harass real navies. One US official said at a conference in February that the US could destroy Iran’s navy easily. In fact, Iran’s navy is bifurcated between the IRGC and the actual navy. The IRGC is the one that harasses Western governments. The actual navy doesn’t do much. But Iran has been showcasing new drones and other technology for its ships.
So Iran’s message is that it can play in the big league with the Russians and Chinese. That would be a big win for Iran as it faces the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign from the US. The US National Defense Strategy, conceived between 2015 and 2018, is seeking to shift toward confronting big or threatening countries like Iran, Russia, China and North Korea. This is supposed to get away from the counter-terror obsession of 2001-2015. Go big or go home is the name of the game in this strategy.
The US is going big at sea with a new $20 billion deal for submarines. China is looking to build its fourth aircraft carrier and recently ended US military port calls in Hong Kong as a message for the US to stop interfering. The US is spending $650 billion on defense while China is spending $250 billion. Russia has a new warship named the Gromky while it sent its advanced Admiral Gorshkov to Cuba this year.
The United Nations’ atomic watchdog agency is still waiting for information from Iran on the discovery of uranium particles at a site near Tehran, the agency’s new director general told The Associated Press on Tuesday in an interview.Media Coverage Is Wrong about Medical Impact of Sanctions in Iran
In his first day as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi said that the organization has been “in conversation” with Iran about the discovery and that it is “not a closed matter.”
“The process continues,” he said. “We have so far not received an entirely satisfactory reply from them, but the exchanges continue.”
The US and Israel had been pressing the IAEA for some time to look into the Turquzabad facility, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described to the UN in 2018 as a “secret atomic warehouse.”
In November, the agency confirmed that its inspectors had found uranium of man-made origin “at a location in Iran not declared to the agency.”
U.S. media have widely reported that U.S. sanctions are responsible for dangerous pharmaceutical shortages in Iran, even though humanitarian goods, including food and medicine, are clearly exempt under U.S. law. The evidence tells a different story, however. EU data show that pharmaceutical exports from the EU to Iran actually rose slightly during the first half of 2019 compared to the same period last year, after the U.S. reinstated most sanctions in November 2018. Chinese customs data likewise show that Iranian pharmaceutical imports increased.
The question to ask is why Iran does not spend more on such imports if consumers are complaining about shortages, instead of bankrolling Hizbullah, Hamas, and Bashar al-Assad. President Hassan Rouhani's first health minister, Ghazizadeh Hashemi, commented, "The problems that we have in the field of pharmaceutical products have been created by ourselves inside the country and the medicine problem has nothing to do with the sanctions."
This is not the first time that superficial press coverage has lent credibility to Iranian talking points about the negative impact of sanctions. Iranian leaders understand that Americans have sincere humanitarian concerns that Tehran can manipulate.
Houthi Militants Display Downed Chinese-Made UAV, Say Its Still-Intact Hardware Will Be Reactivated, Warn Yemen's Enemies, Curse America and the Jews pic.twitter.com/20laaGKeZh
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) December 4, 2019
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