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Friday, November 05, 2021

11/05 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: From Glasgow to the War to Destroy the West; Einat Wilf: Let’s lay the myth to rest: Rabin wouldn’t have brought peace

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Bennett's diplomatic tsunami
Naftali Bennett's government's diplomatic policies came into full view in recent weeks and were put to the test at the UN climate conference in Glasgow this week. The results are unmistakable.

Under Bennett's government, Israel's foreign policy is predicated on making far-reaching concessions – first and foremost to the Palestinians, and second to the international Left. Four such concessions stand out.

The first concession is Zionism. Last week, Defense Minister Benny Gantz abandoned the central tenet of Zionism – redemption of the land of Israel through land purchases for Jewish settlement. After it liberated Judea and Samaria from Jordanian occupation in 1967, the Eshkol government chose to administer these areas through the military while maintaining Jordanian law as the governing law of the areas. The military government issued orders that updated the laws from time to time to align the legal regime in the areas with basic principles of civil rights.

Jordanian law contains several racist provisions. One of the most prominent racial laws is Jordan's land law, which bars non-Muslims from purchasing land. In 1971, Israel's military government amended the law to permit non-Muslim owned companies – but not private non-Muslim citizens – to purchase privately owned land in Judea and Samaria. The amendment required these companies to register the deals with the Civil Administration.

After the Palestinian Authority murdered a number of Palestinian land owners following the registration of their land sales at the Civil Administration, the Defense Ministry and IDF legal advisers recommended amending the law again to permit private citizens who are not Muslims to buy land from private owners.

Gantz refused to enact the recommendation. His refusal caused two Israeli NGOs to petition the Supreme Court to require Gantz to enact the recommendations, which are geared toward ensuring the property rights and the lives of Palestinians Muslims and Israeli Jews.

Gantz told the justices that he chose to bar Jews from purchasing land from Palestinians to avoid angering the Palestinian Authority, which is engaging in the wholesale murder of Palestinian land sellers. He also doesn't want to tick off the international community which, in an expression of unbridled antisemitism, rejects Jewish property rights in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.


The Caroline Glick Show: Ep25 : From Glasgow to the War to Destroy the West | Guest: David Wurmser
In the latest episode, Caroline was joined again by David Wursmer. They discussed Tuesday’s off-year elections and what they tell us about the future of the Biden presidency. They then moved to the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow and what it tells us about America’s shrinking posture on the world stage.

Caroline and David then moved to Israel and its government’s wholesale abandonment of core principles of Zionism. The discussed the central role Israel plays in the left’s war on Western civilization and what Israel must do to save itself – and the free world as a whole.


Einat Wilf: Let’s lay the myth to rest: Rabin wouldn’t have brought peace.
There is a reigning myth that when Yigal Amir assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995, he also assassinated peace. It is, like many myths, at once comforting and entirely wrong.

This myth is comforting because it reinforces the kind of foundational story that Western civilization is based on, from Christ to the modern superhero. In these stories, a savior figure or leader shapes history through sheer force of will and against all odds. Transplanted to the Middle East, this foundational myth sets the stage by casting peace between Israelis and Palestinians as requiring an end-of-times salvation. And Yitzhak Rabin is the savior who could have brought about salvation and peace on earth had he not been martyred.

But this myth also reinforces another foundational Western trope, in which Jews are always cast as having an outsized role in shaping human affairs. This is why Jewish agency is always elevated over Palestinian agency in the context of the Middle East. Had Rabin been alive there would have been peace, the myth goes, and since Rabin was assassinated by a Jew, there is no peace. Thanks to the addition of the Jewish trope, the actions, goals and world view of Palestinians have no bearing on the possibility or impossibility of the attainment of peace. Rabin's contribution was recognizing us as partners. Don't erase his. by the Forward

Rabin’s contribution was recognizing us as partners. Don’t erase it.

But the reason to be suspicious of the myth of the Rabin assassination killing peace is not just because of how neatly it fits into the wishful thinking of Western storytelling. The myth has persisted for another reason, too: because it rests on the belief that we cannot know what would have happened had he lived.

But we actually do: When he died, Rabin was already on his way to being trounced in direct elections by the up and coming Benjamin Netanyahu. Rabin was going to lose because there was a cavernous gulf between the handshakes on manicured lawns following elevated speeches about peace on the one hand, and the bloody massacres carried out by Palestinian suicide bombers against Israeli civilians on the other. And this gulf did not endear Israelis to the cause of peace. In the highly unlikely case that Rabin would have won the elections, the Israeli public would have pressured him to put the breaks on the so-called peace process, and there is evidence that he was already planning to do so.

Moreover, the shock of the assassination actually swung Israelis to the left, nearly preventing what was a secure Netanyahu victory. Israelis swung so much to the left that a few short years later, Ehud Barak was elected on a platform for peace more far reaching than anything imagined by Rabin. Ehud Barak said yes to the Clinton Parameters that would have created an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with its capital in east Jerusalem, including the Old City. It was Arafat who walked away from this opportunity with no criticism from his people.
PreOccupiedTerritory: We Must Blame Religious Zionists For Rabin’s Assassination To Prevent Division And Hate By Ofir Tzfonbon (satire)
Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination that Saturday twenty-six years ago drove home a point that I and my like-minded colleagues had been arguing – and continue to assert: extremism will be the death of the Zionist enterprise, which is why we must adopt the extreme tactic of assuming the worst about anyone whose background, at a cursory glance, resembles that of Yigal Amir. We must ostracize, shame, and shun them from civic life, and make them regret being born into, or joining, the religious Zionist community, the overwhelming majority of which would never in their worst nightmares consider such a heinous act to prevent undesirable political developments, or to further favored policies, but that’s not important: we see the same thing in them because they dress the same way. So out of civic life they must go. In the name of tolerance and reconciliation, to prevent extremism.

Too many of us have let this important lesson fade as the years pass. But with the passage of the decades the responsibility to ensure a tolerant, open society devoid of fascist crocheted-yarmulke-wearers grows, not lessens. Those of us who lived through the trauma bear responsibility to convey this existential principle to the younger generation, who will never know the religious Zionists cannot be trusted, let alone allowed to engage in leadership roles or public life, unless we inform them in the starkest, uncompromising terms. They will never know what can happen unless we impress upon them the dangers inherent in such people participating in our democracy, which, I need not remind you, is perpetually at death’s door unless we ACT NOW to save it, much like the planet, which we have destroyed how many times now? The younger generation will never realize how dangerous those religious Zionists are even if they examine religious Zionist behavior and policy goals, which we must depict as monolithic and destructive if we take this threat with the seriousness it deserves.

Otherwise we will become intolerant, which is what they are.


At Capitol Hill Grilling, Biden Official Confirms Plans to Reopen Consulate for Palestinians
Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Matt McKeon confirmed on Wednesday that the Biden administration is seeking to reopen the US Consulate for Palestinians in its original location in Jerusalem.

McKeon was grilled by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus, during his testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and asked whether he was involved in planning the reopening of the consulate.

McKeon confirmed that he was, telling Zeldin that the administration was contemplating opening the consulate at a facility already owned by the United States on Agron Road in Jerusalem in the western half of the city.

“Already having a site that the United States owned is an important factor in this because having to go find a different site could be a challenge,” he said. “The main purpose of this consulate—and the main reason we want to use the one on Agron Road—is that [it] is the mechanism through which we have engaged the Palestinians in the past and for well over a century before it was closed. That’s what’s driving our decision-making on that.”

Zeldin asked whether the administration believes that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

McKeon confirmed that it was the administration’s position, though he did not want to weigh in on Zeldin’s follow-up question as to whether officials also believe the city should remain undivided.

McKeon said that he does not deal with such policy issues every day.

“I believe we still regard Jerusalem as a final-status question,” he said. “But I want to get you a more precise answer for the record.”


Blinken adviser hints at military drawdown from Middle East that could get Biden 'criticized for being weak'
President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to draw U.S. military forces out of the Middle East as part of a strategic reorientation toward threats from China fraught with political risk.

“More of everything is not a strategy,” State Department Counsellor Derek Chollet told the Center for New American Security. “We can do more than any other country in the world, particularly militarily. But that doesn't mean that we live in a world without limits. We also have limits in what we can do, and the challenge we have is how do we strike that right balance."

Chollet’s remarks amounted to an exercise in expectations management. He endorsed a new report that identified three core U.S. national security interests in the Middle East — counterterrorism, nuclear nonproliferation, and the maintenance of major shipping lanes. A proper emphasis on those objectives could free up military assets to counter China, at risk of alarming Middle East allies and aggravating the political injuries sustained during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“The view of this administration is that military force is not the sole means by which the U.S. is going to be able to achieve its objectives,” Chollet said. "And given the challenges we face all around the world, and the finite resources we have, that our goal is to right-size that military presence, do so in a way that we have enough capability in a theater that we're able to protect our interests and achieve our overall aims.”

Chollet spoke as if the extent of the military withdrawal from the Middle East would not be too substantial, in an apparent effort to preempt any anxious outcry from regional allies.
The Israel Guys: The PA Called It Tragic, and Lowered Their Flag to Half-Mast | Israel News
Israel just celebrated their 104th anniversary commemorating the Balfour Declaration, which was the beginning of the creation of the state of Israel. In response, the PA lowered their flags to half-mast and called for the destruction of Israel.

A Palestinian who aided his terrorist relative in escaping from the IDF earned so much respect in his town that he was elected mayor.

Lastly, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz decided to block Jews from purchasing land in Judea. Find out why on today’s episode of The Israel Guys.


Jewish-American delegation visits Saudi Arabia to advance normalization with Israel
A delegation of some 20 American Jewish leaders visited Saudi Arabia recently, and met with senior officials in the kingdom, including at least six government ministers and senior representatives of the Saudi royal house.

The group visited Riyadh at the invitation of the Saudis and with the blessing of the Biden administration, following a visit to the United Arab Emirates aimed at strengthen ties after it signed a deal to normalize ties with Israel last year.

"The Saudis are preparing their citizens for normalization with Israel," claimed Jewish-American businessman Phil Rosen, a member of the delegation. "They see Israel as a regional power and admire its ability defend itself," against Iran, a common foe.

"I would not be surprised if we see normalization between Saudi Arabi and Israel in the coming months or year," he added.

Rosen, a personal friend of Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu, said the kingdom is taking various "small steps" towards normalization, among them allowing Israeli flights to use Saudi airspace.

He also claims Riyadh has been holding covert talks with Washington about joining the Abraham Accords, and that without the kingdom's blessings, the UAE and Bahrain would have not signed the agreement.


European lawmakers taken to Hezbollah tunnel on northern border
Senior members of the European Parliament viewed a Hezbollah tunnel at the Israel town of Zarit on the Lebanon border on Thursday.

The delegation, organized by ELNET-European Leadership Network, flew by helicopter from Jerusalem to the border, where they were briefed by the Israel Defense Forces on the security situation in Lebanon.

The cross-border tunnel, plunging more than 80 meters (260 feet) below ground, was the largest and deepest of six passageways that Israel said members of the Hezbollah terror group had dug as part of a plan to carry out attacks against soldiers and civilians.

They were sealed off in a highly-publicized 2019 operation, though Israeli military officials regularly give visiting dignitaries tours of tunnels on its borders with Gaza and Hamas to demonstrate the threats it faces.

The 12 lawmakers on the delegation — which includes a former prime minister and several former ministers — are in Israel on a five-day visit.

On Tuesday, they met with Knesset members, and on Wednesday, they had an audience with President Isaac Herzog.

They also visited Jerusalem’s Old City and Yad Vashem, where they discussed antisemitism in Europe.
JPost Editorial: Mansour Abbas: Israel's most unpredictable politician
One tedious aspect of Israeli politics is that the politicians are so predictable.

You know that when Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks he is going to ignore the Palestinians; that when opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu gets in front of a microphone he is going to skewer Bennett; that the haredi politicians are going to blast the kashrut reform; that Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman is going to slam the haredi politicians; and that Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg will wiggle out of condemning Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh’s libelous comments about Israel at the Glasgow Climate Change conference that the Meretz politician attended.

It’s as if everyone is reading from a well-worn script.

Except for Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas. You never quite know what he is going to do, whom he is going to join forces with, or what he is going to say – which makes him among the most refreshing figures on the Israeli political scene today.

Abbas, who scrambled the political deck earlier this year by bolting from the Arab Joint List and ran Ra’am as an independent party, surprised everyone by displaying a willingness to be a part of any government in order to have an impact and get badly needed funds for the country’s Arab sector.

Following the elections in March, he delivered a watershed speech in Nazareth declaring a willingness to work with all parts of the Israeli political spectrum.

What made that speech so different and noteworthy was that he did not stick to the predictable script. He didn’t slam Israel – as other Arab MKs do reflexively – for racism, oppression, “apartheid” and the “occupation.” Instead, his message was one of conciliation, of working together so everyone benefits.

And he surprised even more when he signed the coalition agreement in June, marking the first time that an Arab party would be a part of the Jewish state’s governing coalition. And not just any Arab party, but an Islamist party at that.
The New Yorker: The Arab-Israeli Power Broker in the Knesset
There’s a saying in Arabic about learning from hard experience: “Burn your tongue on soup and you’ll blow on yogurt.” Mansour Abbas, an Arab-Israeli legislator, has had his share of tongue burns, and he has learned to be cautious. In public appearances, he makes sure to keep the Israeli flag in view; last year, he spoke stirringly on Holocaust Remembrance Day. But, as the head of an Islamist party with connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, he remains an object of suspicion for many Jewish Israelis. At least four of his colleagues in the Knesset, the country’s parliament, have called him a “supporter of terror.” When Ayelet Shaked, a member of his coalition, recently saw him in a narrow corridor there, she walked right past, as he stood by, offering a soft “Shalom.”

Things are nearly as bad on the opposing side. The Palestinian press regularly describes Abbas as a traitor. One veteran negotiator suggested that his ascent in the Knesset had created a “Vichy government.” His offense, in their view, is an insufficient commitment to the long fight for Palestinian statehood. In the West Bank, 2.3 million people live under Israeli occupation; another two million are blockaded in Gaza. But Abbas focusses instead on improving conditions for the Palestinian citizens of Israel proper, a population of nearly two million that has sustained decades of discrimination and neglect. (The traditional term for this group, Arab Israelis, is increasingly controversial, but it’s the one that Abbas prefers.) In March, when Abbas attended a protest against the Israeli police in the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm, two of his fellow-protesters punched him in the head. Although he is deeply devout, he has stopped attending sermons at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, for fear of his safety. “For him, that’s like not going home,” his brother told me.
Report: Egypt to Propose Prisoner Swap to Bennett Which Hamas Green Lit
Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel will present Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett with a proposal for an outline for a prisoner swap agreement, which Hamas agreed to, according to Egyptian sources.

Sources told the newspaper al-Arabi al-Jadid that Kamel will present the details of his expected visit to Israel at the end of the month, after which the deal will need the green light from Israel.

Kamel will also present the Egyptian view of the necessary relief for the Gaza Strip, Kan reported, which the Palestinian factions that recently visited Egypt agreed to.

“Egypt thinks there are simple steps Israel can take to help calm the situation and help promote a long-term agreement,” the sources said, according to Kan.

Kamel and Bennett will also discuss topics such as tensions with Iran and security in Syria. The report also stated that Egypt and Israel have discussed weapons supplied by Iran to its allies in the region, according to The Jerusalem Post.

The sources told al-Arabi al-Jadid that “these weapons represent a direct threat to the security situation in the entire region, not just Israel.”

The head of Egyptian intelligence is also expected to talk about the military coup in Sudan and on “Israeli movement in Sudan.”
Christian charity cuts ties with Palestinian NGO blacklisted by Israel
A Finnish Christian missionary group has cut ties with a Palestinian children's rights NGO which Israel labeled a terrorist organization, the charity's executive director said, citing concerns about possible banking sanctions.

Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) is one of six Palestinian groups Israel accused of funneling donor aid to militants. It rejects the charge and says it has asked the missionary society Felm to reconsider cutting funds.

Israel says the six accused groups have close ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which has carried out deadly attacks on Israelis and is on US and EU terrorism blacklists.

Felm executive director Rolf Steffansson said his organization had seen no evidence its funding had been misused.

"We have actively monitored the use of the money and it has been used for work advancing children's rights," Steffansson, whose organization provided DCIP with 30,000 euros annually from 2015 to 2021, told Reuters.

But the Israeli designation had made it impossible to maintain ties with the group, Steffansson added.

"It could have impacted the work we do in 30 countries through banking services for example," he said.
The Washington Post and Foreign Policy Magazine Provide Cover for Terror-Linked NGOs
The Washington Post and Foreign Policy Magazine are providing cover for non-profit organizations that have been linked to terrorist groups.

On Oct. 22, 2021, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced that Jerusalem was designating six Palestinian nongovernmental organizations as terrorist organizations. Gantz asserted that the NGOs in question — Al-Haq, Addameer, Defense for Children International-Palestine, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees — have been “active under the cover of civil-society organizations, but in practice belong to and constitute an arm of ‘the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).'” The United States, the European Union, and Israel, among others, have designated the PFLP as a terrorist organization.

The organizations designated comprise less than two percent of the NGOs operating in Israel. And their ties to terrorist groups are a matter of public record. But the Washington Post and Foreign Policy Magazine portrayed the announcement as a blanket assault by Israel on “human rights organizations.”

Take, for example, the Post’s Oct. 23, 2021 dispatch.

Editorializing, reporter Amy Cheng said that “Israel designated six leading Palestinian rights organizations as terrorist groups…in the latest blow to activists who say space for dissent in the occupied territories has steadily shrunk amid intimidation by Israeli and Palestinian authorities alike.” Later, she stated: “Israel’s Defense Ministry accused the groups of being controlled by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist-Leninist movement with an armed wing that has carried out deadly attacks on civilians.”

But the PFLP is not merely a “Marxist-Leninist movement with an armed wing.” Rather, as CAMERA noted in an Oct. 29, 2021 Washington Examiner op-ed, the PFLP is—indisputably—a terrorist organization. It is widely regarded as such by numerous governments. The idea that there is a separate “armed wing” is a fiction. The U.S. State Department, for example, makes no such distinction.


Gaza woman’s plans to study abroad foiled by Hamas ‘guardian’ law
Afaf al-Najar had found a way out of Gaza.

The 19-year-old won a scholarship to study communications in Turkey, secured all the necessary travel documents and even paid $500 to skip the long lines at the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

But when she arrived at the border on Sept. 21 she was turned back — not by Israel or Egypt, which have imposed a 14-year blockade on the Gaza Strip — but because of a male guardianship law enacted by the Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules the territory.

“I honestly broke down,” she said, describing the moment border officials removed her luggage from the bus. “My eyes started pouring, I could not even stand up. They had to bring a chair for me… I felt my dream is being robbed.”

Travel in and out of Gaza, a coastal territory that is home to more than 2 million Palestinians, has been severely restricted since 2007, when Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces. Israel, which has fought four wars with Hamas, most recently in May, says the blockade is needed to keep the terrorist groups from rearming. Critics view it as a form of collective punishment.

Hamas has repeatedly demanded the lifting of the blockade. But in February, an Islamic court run by Hamas issued a notice saying that unaccompanied women must get permission from a male “guardian” — a husband, relative, or even a son — to travel outside the territory.
JPost Editorial: Iran acts with impunity ahead of nuclear talks - editorial
Iran has announced that it will resume talks with the world superpowers in Vienna on November 29. The talks are aimed at either reviving or recreating elements of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Tehran signed with the P5+1.

Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Baqeri Kani said the talks will be attended by officials from the US, Russia, China, UK, France and Germany. US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said that a deal could be reached if Iran’s representatives were “serious.”

This comes amid Iranian claims this week that it had stopped the US from “piracy” involving a tanker. Iran’s regime media broadcast images of its IRGC forces boarding a ship using a helicopter. Although the US has disputed Tehran’s claims, American Navy destroyers were sent to monitor an incident in which a Vietnam-flagged vessel was apparently seized by the Islamic Republic.

Iran has continued to act like it is the one that will decide on the nuclear deal timeline, regularly transmitting a message that it has the upper hand in any dealings with the West.

“The White House calls for negotiations with Iran... Yet it simultaneously imposes new sanctions on Iranian individuals & entities,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted on Tuesday, adding that Iran is “closely examining Mr. Biden’s behavior.”

It is not entirely clear if Iran will return to the 2015 deal, but it appears it will want to set new standards and squeeze new concessions out of the P5+1, rejoining only if its terms are met.

This leaves the prospect of giving a green light to an Iran that will feel even more empowered than in the past. Tehran has continued its lawless and illegal behavior in the region despite signing the 2015 JCPOA. No other country in the world behaves with the impunity that Iran appears to have.
Republicans Press Biden To Abandon Nuclear Talks After Iran Strikes US Military Outpost
Republicans in Congress are renewing pressure on the Biden administration to abandon its diplomacy with Iran following Tehran's recent drone strike on a U.S. military outpost in Syria, according to a letter sent Thursday to the White House.

Seventeen Republican members of Congress, led by Rep. Bryan Steil (Wis.), accused the Biden administration of ignoring Iran's increasingly aggressive attacks on the United States and its allies in the Middle East to secure a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear accord. As negotiations between Iran and U.S. diplomats stall amid Tehran's demands for full-scale relief from economic sanctions, the Islamic Republic has stepped up its regional terrorist enterprise.

"During a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East, it sends a dangerous message to our friends and adversaries that we continue to lift sanctions and negotiate with the largest state sponsor of terrorism as they attack us," the lawmakers wrote in the letter, which was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. "This attack is yet another reminder that your administration is setting the wrong priorities by working to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal. If Iran is willing to engage in this kind of behavior while negotiations are still ongoing, imagine the respect they will have for any agreement once the ink is dry."

U.S. military officials say Iran was behind a "complex, coordinated and deliberate attack" late last month on an American military outpost in Syria, where U.S. troops are stationed. Several drones carrying explosives struck the military site, though no casualties were reported. Iran has been behind a string of drone strikes on American, Israeli, and other allied positions in the region.

The Biden administration did not publicly respond to the strike or announce any operations aimed at countering Iranian aggression. The administration's decision to avoid agitating Iran in the wake of the strike has prompted accusations that the United States is looking the other way as it scrambles to ink a nuclear deal with Tehran. As Biden's diplomats promise to waive crippling economic sanctions on the country—including those that target Iran's support for terrorist proxy groups—Republicans are increasingly concerned the Islamic Republic will become more emboldened.
Iran says stockpile of 60% enriched uranium now at 25 kilograms
Iran has increased its stockpile of 60% enriched uranium to 25 kilograms (55 pounds), state media reported on Friday, potentially adding to complications dogging efforts to revive Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Negotiations are due to resume on Nov. 29 in Vienna. But Western powers have said Iran's accelerating enrichment of uranium closer to weapons-grade, breaching limits set by the pact after Washington under then-President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact in 2018, is dimming chances of salvaging it.

"So far we have produced 25 kilograms of 60% uranium, which, except for countries with nuclear weapons, no other country is able to produce," Iranian media quoted Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as saying.

Iran has in the past denied seeking nuclear weapons, saying it is refining uranium only for civilian energy uses, and has said its breaches are reversible if the United States lifts sanctions and rejoins the agreement.

In April, the UN nuclear watchdog said Tehran had begun the process of enriching uranium to 60% fissile purity at an above-ground nuclear plant at Natanz, confirming earlier statements by Iranian officials.
France Leaves Door Open for IAEA Action on Iran
France said on Thursday it could still act with its partners against Iran at an upcoming meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog’s board after Tehran said it would return to nuclear talks with world powers at the end of November.

Western powers scrapped plans in September for a resolution criticizing Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency after Tehran agreed to prolong monitoring of some nuclear activities and invited IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi to Tehran for talks on key outstanding issues.

The decision by the United States, France, Britain and Germany not to push for a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors avoided an escalation with Iran that could have killed hopes of resuming wider talks in Vienna on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran and the European Union, which coordinates those negotiations, said on Wednesday that all sides had agreed to return to the Austrian capital on Nov. 29.

Western states have increasingly become frustrated that Iran has failed to fully honor a monitoring agreement with the IAEA, continues to breach its 2015 accord, and has yet to allow Grossi to come to Tehran for high-level talks that had been promised in September. It has also not properly addressed outstanding questions on past nuclear activities.
Pakistan: The Anti-American "Ally"
In an interview aired in the US in June 2021, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Pakistan will deny US use of its territory for "over-the-horizon" surveillance of possible terrorist activity in Afghanistan. Now, there are negotiations for the US to use Pakistan's airspace for military operations in Afghanistan, but is this really an ally on which the United States can count?

Pakistan helped bankroll and arm the largely Pashtun Taliban terrorist movement, and Pakistani anti-personnel and anti-vehicle landmines were prevalent in Afghanistan. Often, Taliban fighters were extended refuge in sites established by the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agents. Islamabad's pro-Taliban stance could also be seen in ISI's construction of logistical re-supply depots and training camps for Taliban fighters. Moreover, on occasion. Pakistani military officers, provided direct military support to the Taliban.

At times, it seemed as if Musharraf was Pakistan's face for the Americans, while other generals continued supporting

In the months before 9/11, it became clear that US counterterrorist policy was focused on the eventual takedown of the Taliban's and Al Qaeda's ever-widening support for jihadi terrorists. It was then that the ISI cold-shouldered Washington by sponsoring huge pro-Taliban rallies in Pakistan's main cities of Peshawar and Lahore. Even then, it proved difficult for CIA field officers and Station Chiefs to fully shut down their ties to their old ISI counterparts. Reportedly, the CIA Station Chief in Islamabad caustically objected to the US decision to assist anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces in Afghanistan, because, the officer stated, it would infuriate the ISI.

Pakistan ultimately may pay dearly for enabling Afghanistan's Taliban. The group consists of diverse movements, such as the so-called Pakistani Taliban (Tehrek-e-Taliban) , a coalition of at least ten terrorist organizations dedicated to overthrowing Pakistan's regime. Its recruits include former Taliban members from Afghanistan who had assessed that their former organization was too indulgent of infidels.

Pakistan has not really been an ally of the West for decades. It was Islamabad that gave Osama bin Laden asylum until he was brought to justice by US Special Operations forces in 2011. Now, the Pakistan's government seems to have positioned the country into China's sphere of influence.
MEMRI: Afghan Taliban Executive Orders: 'Having English, American, And French Hairstyles Is In Violation Of Shari'a', Women Cannot Carry Cellphones Or Take Selfies, Shaving Beards And Having Music In Mobile Phones Are Outlawed
Following is the translation of the statement issued in Dari, one of the two major languages spoken in Afghanistan:[1]

"The Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan
"Recruitment and Invitation Commission, Nijrab District of Kapisa province
"All the respected and religious people of Nijrab District are advised to take the below points seriously and implement them in their true sprit for the protection of their own and their families' honor.
"1. Having English, American, and French hairstyles is in violation of shari'a and the youth must stop these practices. The barbers should also stop shaving beards as shaving the beard is a great sin in Islam.
"2. [Males] must wear a cap on their heads, especially when offering prayers.
"3. The sitting of women and girls on roadsides without covering their heads is strictly prohibited. They should stop doing so. Otherwise, legal action will be taken against their guardians such as their fathers, brothers, or maternal or paternal uncles.
"4. Women and girls should not carry mobile phones with cameras.
"5. Women and girls cannot go out or on a trip without a mehram, and they must observe Islamic hijab.
"6. All drivers and car owners are asked not to allow women without observing Islamic hijab to ride in their vehicles.
"7. Prayer leaders in mosques are seriously requested to explain [the importance of] Islamic hijab to the people in light of the Koran and Hadith [the sayings and deeds of Muhammad, founder of Islam].
"8. Prayer leaders in mosques are seriously urged to explain the obligation of jihad to people in light of Koran and Sunnah [traditions] of Prophet Muhammad.
"9. The presence of songs and immoral films on youths' mobile phones is prohibited.
"10. The prayer leaders of mosques must identify those who do not offer prayer or do not come to the mosque.
"11. Sending fruit or winter [clothes] to the house of one's fiancé on the occasion of Eid and Nowroz is prohibited.
The Taliban order bans selfies by Afghan girls
"12. [Celebratory] firing of weapons at wedding ceremonies is prohibited. Expenses like rice, ghee [a kind of butter], and vegetables taken from the son-in-law [to be] in a wedding or engagement ceremony is now prohibited. Only 20 men and 14 women [from the groom's side] must go [to the bridegroom's house] at the time of the engagement. Beverages and cakes are not permissible in a marriage ceremony.
"13. In a marriage ceremony only rice, qurma [a meat dish], and bread must be served.
"14. Bringing special food and other things to engagement ceremonies is prohibited.
"15. The groom must not be compelled to buy gold on demand [by the bridegroom's family]. If he can [afford it], then there no is problem.
"16. The dowry [amount] will be announced later.







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