

A senior Iranian official declared on Monday that international nuclear inspectors would only be permitted into the country once they receive approval from the Islamic Republic’s Intelligence Ministry, putting another roadblock between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran’s contested nuclear sites.Iran Threatened ‘Harm’ to Top Nuke Inspector to Prevent Disclosure of Secret Deal
Sayyed Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and one of the top negotiators in talks that led to the recently inked nuclear deal, told the country’s state-controlled press that Iran’s intelligence apparatus must approve of any inspector who is issued a visa to enter Iran.
This requirement could complicate efforts to prove to the world that Iran is being fully transparent and that nuclear inspectors inside the country are neutral.
Iran has already stated that no American inspector would be permitted into the country under the deal. The accord also grants Iran a 24-day notice period before inspectors enter any site suspected of being used for nuclear weapons work.
“Any individual, out of IAEA’s Inspection group, who is not approved by the Islamic Republic of Iran cannot enter the country as the agency’s inspector,” Araqchi was quoted as telling the Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA), a government news outlet, according to a translation performed by the CIA’s Open Source Center (OSC).
This type of screening is fully permitted under the nuclear accord, Araqchi said.
Iranian leaders prevented a top International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) official from disclosing to U.S. officials the nature of secret side deals with the Islamic Republic by threatening harm to him, according to regional reports.PMW: Fatah`s military wing asks Iran for money for terror war against Israel
Yukiya Amano, IAEA director general, purportedly remained silent about the nature of certain side deals during briefings with top U.S. officials because he feared such disclosures would lead to retaliation by Iran, according to the spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI).
Amano was in Washington recently to brief members of Congress and others about the recently inked nuclear accord. However, he did not discuss the nature of side deals with Iran that the United States is not permitted to know about.
Iran apparently threatened Amano in a letter meant to ensure he did not reveal specific information about the nature of nuclear inspections going forward, according to Iranian AEOI spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi.
This disclosure has only boosted suspicions among some that the Iranians are willing and able to intimidate the top nuclear watchdog and potentially undermine the verification regime that Obama administration officials have dubbed a key component of the nuclear accord.
Iranian TV (Al-Alam) interviewed fighters from the Gaza branch of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, while standing inside an attack tunnel claimed to be 3.5 km long, and opening inside Israel. The purpose of the tunnel is to facilitate larger scale terror attacks from Gaza into Israel.
The announcement that Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, internationally recognized as a terror organization, is asking for money from Iran comes at the same time that the PA has announced that Mahmoud Abbas will be vising Iran. As Palestinian Media Watch reported yesterday, senior PLO official Abbas Zaki, said that strengthening ties with Iran is "an inevitable step if we [the Palestinians] want to confront the Israeli occupation."
The following is the transcript of the interview from Fatah's attack- tunnel in the Gaza Strip, that was broadcast on Iranian Al-Alam TV:
Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fighter: "There will now be a qualitative change in the unit named after Martyrdom-seeker Nabil Mas'oud in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, by using attack tunnels against the Zionist entity. We will now go through one of those tunnels to see what the [Al-Aqsa] Martyrs' Brigades is preparing for this occupation (i.e., Israel)..."
Iranian Al-Alam TV narrator: "Here is the first tunnel... When we met the Ribat [Islamic] fighters in this tunnel, they said that the weapons in their hands and their preparations for confrontation with the Israeli enemy are what give them reason to live."
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fighter: "This tunnel is approximately 3.5 km long and crosses the border between the Gaza Strip and the Zionist enemy. There are tunnels inside [Gaza] through which Jihad fighters pass during war... We spend all our time trying to get money to fulfill our duty concerning our occupied lands and liberate them from the Zionist entity. This is why we are asking [for money]... especially [from] Iran, which is a known long-time supporter of the resistance and the Palestinian cause..."
Iranian Al-Alam TV reporter: "The book of resistance is still open... and its last line will not be written until Palestine is liberated."
[Al-Alam TV (Iran) news report, posted on Wattan TV (independent Palestinian channel), June 29, 2015]
A newly revealed video produced under the auspices of the Iranian regime in early August threatens and visualizes the destruction of Israel at the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iranian Middle East proxies, The Investigative Project on Terrorism reported on Monday.
The animated video, produced by the Islamic Revolution Design House, depicts soldiers preparing for battle. One dons the IRGC insignia on his left arm, another the emblem of the Iran-backed Iraqi Shia Badr Organization. Yet a third dons a headband bearing the Lebanese Hezbollah logo, and a fourth is seen clad in Hamas’ characteristic balaclava and the Qassam Brigades green headband.
Each brandishes a weapon, a helmet and a keffiyeh. They are shown poised on a hill overlooking the Israeli capital of Jerusalem, prepared for battle.
The video then pans out showing an ever-growing number of soldiers, presumably all members of Iran’s loyal proxies, like the fighters portrayed at the beginning of the footage.
The clip then transitions to a black screen with Persian script that says “Israel must be obliterated,” or literally, “erased from the annals of history,” a command first issued by Iran’s late Ayatollah Khomeini and famously repeated by former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as leaders of Iran’s proxies such as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Before any statement, publication or report is issued, its text is closely reviewed to ensure it is factually accurate, politically impartial and consistent with Amnesty International's mission. When Amnesty International deals with allegations rather than undisputed facts, it makes this clear in its findings and may call for an investigation. If Amnesty International makes a mistake, it issues a correction.Every single phrase here has been proven a lie, and you can follow the links to see the proof. It is indisputable. Amnesty's literature and its Gaza Platform tool is filled with lies and bias, they know it, and they have chosen to let the lies stand rather than correct them and apologize.
The Israeli military is preparing for a possible ground operation on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights in the event of sustained rocket strikes or coordinated terror attacks against Israel either by Sunni jihadists or Hezbollah operatives.
The number of Islamists flooding into the area close to the border with Israel has the IDF on high alert, Channel 2 reported Sunday, adding that the military held a large-scale drill last week simulating a possible advance into Syria and the evacuation of Israeli civilians from border communities.
According to a Channel 10 report Sunday, the drill included preparation for a scenario in which Islamist forces launch a sophisticated, multi-pronged attack on Israeli troops, similar to attacks against Egyptian security forces in Sinai in recent months.
The IDF is also planning for a possible Hezbollah offensive directed by Iran, with an IDF source saying that hundreds of Hezbollah members are present in the Golan, and that Tehran has been behind several recent attacks against Israel. Israeli officials have routinely raised concerns over the presence of Iranian and Hezbollah fighters using positions in the Syrian Golan, partially held by rebel forces, to attack Israel.
“It’s clear that Iran is behind all of the terror attacks here [in the Golan] in the past two years,” the IDF officer said Sunday during a briefing with reporters. “The Iranians are using the border – they establish units – whether it’s [Jihad] Mughniyeh, [Samir] Kuntar, and more – to carry out [the attacks].”
On Sunday the IDF gave Israeli military reporters a tour in the area of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights and later there was a briefing with senior commanders in the Northern Command. As is usually the case with such briefings, facts and assessments were presented. They were rather routine. There certainly was not anything dramatic in the IDF's comments that suggested a change, an increased state of preparedness or higher level of alert.Video: IDF Kills Iran-Sponsored Golan Terrorists
But to drive 200 km. from Tel Aviv in each direction and to go a whole day without filing news? No way. So after the tour and the briefings, journalists were filmed in a fighting stance with the northern Golan Heights border fence in the background, delivering reports on an IDF plan for a ground attack in Syria.
Indeed, this possibility was also brought up, but it was a marginal piece in a presentation of a number of hypothetical scenarios.
Imagine the response from media, politicians or the public if the chief of staff or another senior army official would say that the IDF has no plan and is not prepared for the worst case scenario. Of course the IDF prepares for every possibility, even the most difficult. This is the role of the commanders: to prepare the IDF for every situation, scenario or eventuality.
However, the few sentences uttered by the officers giving the briefing about the possibility of the IDF taking control of territory in Syria, and even conquering a village or two on the border, were on the margins of what was said. These sentences were intended to explain that this is only one scenario that was practiced in a wide-ranging exercise that was carried out recently by the IDF's 210th Regional Bashan Division to prepare for a situation in which one of the terror groups, like the Nusra Front or Islamic State would try to break through the Golan border to attack IDF soldiers in the way that the Sinai Province of the Islamic State (formerly known as Ansar Bayit al-Maqdes) are doing against the Egyptian army.
The IDF published video Sunday of an incident from last month in which it eliminated terrorists who infiltrated the northern Israeli Golan Heights from Syria. The terrorists, who set off on their mission from the village of Hadr in Syria, intended to plant powerful bombs and set them off against the IDF.
A senior military source in the Northern Command said that Iran was involved in all the recent terror attacks in the Golan. “The Iranians are behind all of the attacks and attempted attacks,” he said. “In the internecine fighting between them, [the battling forces in Syria] are also using chemical weapons, and we take this into account.”
“When one gazes deep into Syria from the peak of the Hermon,” the officer added, “one does not see a Syrian state anymore. Assad's grip on the ground is gradually weakening, and yet, there are still many forces loyal to the regime, including 180,000 in the regular army, and another 60,000 defending communities, 15,000 militiamen and about 5,000 Hezbollah men.”
"All these have turned Syria into a terror arena and the IDF treats it as such. The IDF understands that any small terror attack can cause the relatively quiet situation to deteriorate into war, and that is why scenarios are constantly being drilled.”
Egypt has opened its border with the Gaza Strip for the first time in two months.Here is a graph, from the Gisha NGO, showing how many people have been able to cross Rafah in recent months:
The Rafah border crossing opened Monday for four days, allowing Palestinians to travel in both directions. Crossing director Khaled al-Shaer says some 20,000 people have applied to exit. Gazans seeking medical care and students are among those expected to cross.
Rafah is Gaza's only gateway to the outside world with no Israeli control. Egypt has kept it mostly closed since the militant Hamas group seized control of the coastal strip in 2007. The closure worsened after Egypt's military ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member, in 2013. Hamas is an offshoot of the Brotherhood.
The crossing has been opened for a total of just 15 days this year.
Israeli authorities intercepted a shipment of fiberglass incoming from Egypt earlier this month they say was intended for use by terror groups in the Gaza Strip to build rockets, officials said Monday.
Tax workers at the Nitzana crossing between Egypt and Israel became suspicious of the shipment, which was ordered by a Gaza-based importer and labeled as containing clothes and materials.
After opening the shipment for a closer look, tax officials discovered the rolls of fiberglass hidden inside.
“Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are taking advantage of every means possible in their attempts to rebuild,” the Shin Bet said in the statement. “Even smuggling basic materials for the terror industry by hiding them in humanitarian equipment.”
The tax authority said that last week it also stopped a shipment of fiberglass at the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into Gaza that was labeled as containing school equipment.
If you had thought that the only qualification needed is to excel at your chosen art form and then see if you can gather audiences, you were wrong. That is not enough anymore -- certainly not if you are Jewish.Foreign Ministry: Spanish festival's boycott of US Jew Matisyahu proves BDS is anti-Semitic
The treatment of the reggae star Matisyahu is something new. For Matisyahu is not an Israeli -- he is an American. For a while, only Israeli Jews were made pariahs among the nations because of an unresolved border dispute involving their country. Now it is Jews born anywhere else in the world who can be targeted in the same way. They are singling out Jews -- Jews and only Jews.
Habima performers were insulted and vilified while on stage at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, trying to perform "The Merchant of Venice." None of the protesters seemed to see the irony of vilifying Jews on stage during that of all plays.
Spain has its own border issues. Perhaps Spanish performers should henceforth be quizzed about their political attitudes before they are allowed to perform abroad? Maybe the rest of the world should demand that all artists from Spain sign a statement or make a video supporting Catalan independence if they are to be allowed to perform in public?
Only one country and one geopolitical question is addressed in this way. Turkish artists are nowhere in the world asked to condemn their country's illegal occupation of Northern Cyprus -- an occupation, lasting more than four decades, of half an EU member state.
Their singling out of Jews, wherever they are from, makes their racist motivation abundantly clear. If the Rototom Sunsplash festival wants to take part in this racist BDS fever then it is them -- and not Jews -- whom the world must make into pariahs.
If you plan on going to the Sunsplash Rototom Reggae Festival in Spain this week, you better not speak the language of the Hebrewman. If you do, they might kick you out.WJC President Condemns Cancellation of Matisyahu Concert
The festival’s cancellation of a scheduled August 22 appearance by Jewish-American reggae artist Matisyahu – under pressure from Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists – unmasks the anti-Semitic nature of that movement, a Foreign Ministry representative said Sunday.
“We always said that BDS was not connected to the Palestinian issue or the settlements but was nothing more than Jew hatred,” spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said.
“And this demonstrates that.”
Matisyahu, Nahshon stressed, is not Israeli.
World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder on Sunday expressed “outrage” and “utter bewilderment” at news that a music festival in Spain had disinvited American Jewish musician Matisyahu for failing to sign a pro-Palestinian declaration.
“This is a clear instance of anti-Semitism, and nothing else,” Lauder said in a statement, urging Spanish authorities “to condemn this sad incident and to take appropriate action those responsible for it.”
“Matisyahu is an American Jew. More importantly, like everybody else in a free and democratic society, he not only has a right to express his views – whether you agree with them or not — but he also has every right not to have the repugnant views of the festival organizers imposed on him. He is a musician who has been denied the opportunity to play his planned gig at a European reggae festival purely because he is Jewish and because he refuses to side with the vicious and bigoted BDS movement,” Lauder said.
“And to the people of Spain, I say this: Being a ‘Zionist’ and supporting Israel has nothing to do with supporting apartheid. Rather, it is about supporting democracy, the rule of law, freedom, openness and diversity,” he continued.
“The Rototom Sunsplash festival benefits from financial support from public authorities. I very much hope that they will convey a clear message to the organizers that either they re-invite Matisyahu and apologize for their outrageous behavior, or they pay back that financial aid, because anti-Semitism and racism must not be rewarded by public support – not in Spain, and not anywhere else,” added Lauder.
NABLUS (Ma’an) -- An Israeli settler on Sunday reportedly ran over a Palestinian teen in Yatma village in southern Nablus, a local monitor of settlement activity told Ma'an.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activities in the northern West Bank, said that an Israeli settler ran over Muhammad Mustafa Najjar, 19, and then fled the scene.
Daghlas added that the teen, who was moderately injured, was taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus.
The report is a bit strange. The main road has not been through Yitma in years. Would be odd to see Jewish drivers driving on the roads in Yitma.Clearly an Arab ran over the teen and an opportunity was seized to blame the eternal bogeymen, the "settlers."
A senior employee of Amnesty International has undeclared private links to men alleged to be key players in a secretive network of global Islamists, The Times can reveal.That last part is hilarious. Amnesty's employees in the Middle East are hired because of their bias against Israel, not in spite of it.
The charity was unaware that the husband of its director of faith and human rights featured in documents released after a criminal trial at which connections were revealed between British supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and Arab Islamists accused of plotting to overthrow a Gulf state.
Yasmin Hussein was also linked to a Yorkshire-based aid agency that was banned by Israel for its alleged funding of Hamas terrorism; and criticised by colleagues for holding a private meeting with a Muslim Brotherhood government official during an Amnesty mission to Egypt, and staying overnight at his family’s home.
Ms Hussein, 51, was until recently the charity’s head of international advocacy and among its leading voices at the UN, where the organisation seeks to operate a strict policy of not siding with any government or political party.
Amnesty staff are asked to declare any links that may generate a real or perceived conflict of interest with its independence and impartiality.
The Brotherhood is banned as a terrorist organisation in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but not in Britain. An inquiry into its role and influence in this country was ordered by David Cameron last year. The findings have yet to be published.
Ms Hussein, who is understood to receive a salary of more than £90,000, told The Times that she had “never had any association whatsoever with . . . the Muslim Brotherhood”.
Her husband, Wael Musabbeh, was one of several alleged British Islamists, none of them defendants, named in documents released after a 2013 trial in the UAE that led to the jailing of more than 60 Emirati citizens who were tried for conspiracy and sedition.
Mr Musabbeh, 54, and a Bradford community trust of which both he and Ms Hussein were directors, were said by the authorities to be part of a complex financial and ideological network in which the UK and Ireland served as important hubs, linking the Brotherhood to its group in UAE.
Amnesty, which challenged the fairness of the trial, said it knew in 2013 of documents alleging links between the defendants and British individuals and organisations, including Mr Musabbeh and the Bradford trust, but did not realise there was any connection to Ms Hussein, to whom he has been married for 20 years, because it did not know until recently that he was her husband.
Mr Musabbeh said he had no connection to the Brotherhood, was not an Islamist and was unaware of having played any role in the UAE case.
In a separate incident in 2012, Amnesty staff alerted senior management after Ms Hussein held a private meeting in Egypt with a member of the Muslim Brotherhood government, shared an evening meal with his family and stayed overnight in their home.
Ms Hussein said she was not aware that any concerns were raised about her unofficial meeting with Adly al-Qazzaz, a ministerial education adviser who was blamed by a teachers’ union for instigating the “Brotherhoodisation” of Egypt’s education system.
The charity said it “examined and robustly interrogated concerns raised by colleagues”. Ms Hussein was subsequently told that her overnight stay with the al-Qazzaz family was inappropriate. She accepted that and promised that it would not happen again.
A long-serving employee said the charity had strict rules on overseas trips, adding: “For an Amnesty delegate to accept an invitation to stay at the residence of a government official is a serious breach of protocol.”
Mr al-Qazzaz’s son, Khaled al-Qazzaz, was the Brotherhood’s presidential secretary for foreign affairs. His daughter, Mona al-Qazzaz, was the official spokeswoman for the movement in the UK. Father and son were arrested in a crackdown that followed the toppling of the Islamist government in July 2013.
Ms Hussein said she had no knowledge of the senior Brotherhood positions held by members of the al-Qazzaz family. She was “a committed human rights activist”, was not an Islamist and was “vehemently opposed” to the raising of funds “by any organisation that supports terrorism”.
She said that her meeting with Mr al-Qazzaz had been a private one. She was studying for a doctorate and wanted to speak with a government education official “to encourage the synergies between human rights and educational planning”. Difficulties in booking a hotel led her to accept the room.
Amnesty said that, with the exception of the overnight stay, it “found no evidence to suggest any inappropriate links between Ms Hussein and the al-Qazzaz family”.
The charity said that Ms Hussein denied being a supporter of the Brotherhood and has told Amnesty that “any connections are purely circumstantial”. It said it did not believe that any of her alleged connections with Islamists represented a conflict of interest.
It added: “Amnesty International does, however, take very seriously any allegations that would call into question our impartiality and is therefore investigating the issues raised.”
The idea that Amnesty takes the appearance of bias seriously, at least in the Middle East region, is a joke.
In 2001, Hyams volunteered as a “human shield” in Beit Jala (near Bethlehem), to deter Israeli military responses to recurrent gunfire and mortars targeting Jewish civilians in Jerusalem.
Hyams employs demonizing language regarding Israel: In 2008, she was signatory to a letterclaiming Israel is “a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land.” Hyams also statedin 2002 that “[some] of Israel’s actions, all the way back to 1948, could be called ‘ethnic cleansing’.”
In a 2002 Washington Jewish Week article, "Hyams said that while she does not condone suicide bombings, she personally believes they 'are in response to the occupation.'" In another instance she defended violence stating "occupation is violence...and the consequence of this action must result in violence [against Israelis]."
Hyams has worked for some of the most radical political advocacy NGOs in the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Alternative Information Center (AIC),Jews for Justice in Palestine and Israel (JPPI), Rachel Corrie Foundation, and Ma’an Network. Any of these affiliations should have been a red flag for Amnesty.
So @ChrisGunness' opinion of Palestinians is that they cannot stop themselves from being violent if they are idle. Sounds vaguely bigoted.— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) August 16, 2015
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