Archive for February 25, 2013

Iran sanctions may be lifted – Russian Deputy FM — RT Russian politics

February 25, 2013

Iran sanctions may be lifted – Russian Deputy FM

February 25, 2013 14:30

A general view of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.(Reuters / Mohammad Babaie)

A general view of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.(Reuters / Mohammad Babaie)

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Iran tension

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Europe, France, Germany, Iran, Meeting, Nuclear, Robert Bridge, Russia, USA

As diplomats arrive in the Kazakh capital for the start of P5+1 negotiations with Iran, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said a breakthrough is possible if Tehran proves its nuclear program is peaceful.

Ryabkov is leading the Russian delegation in Almaty and said the success of the negotiations require “the political will” and the commitment necessary for the negotiations to “enter this stage.”

The Russian diplomat expressed Moscow’s growing frustration over the progress of the talks, which have produced few breakthroughs in a series of fits and starts.

“We are calling upon all participants to stop wasting any more time,” the Deputy Foreign Minister told reporters as negotiators prepare for their latest attempt at resolving the Iranian nuclear standoff.

“It is simply uncivilized when we make pauses of eight or 15 months,” Ryabkov added.

Iran has been subject to international sanctions over Tehran’s refusal to fully cooperate with officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The UN nuclear watchdog wants full access to Iran’s suspected nuclear sites in order to prove it is not conducting nuclear weapons research.

Tehran says its nuclear program is restricted to a civilian energy program.

The Russian diplomat also had some tough words for the Iranians.

“We count upon Iran to arrive in Almaty better prepared from the point of…finding a real common platform, not the repetition of what everyone already knows,” he emphasized.

Ryabkov admitted the negotiations will require a lot of give and take on both sides of the table.

“The hard part is how to agree on the balance of interests,” he acknowledged. “It is obvious that no one wants to disclose one’s internal affairs for nothing.”

They need to get something in exchange, Ryabkov said.

Although the Russian diplomat predicted there would be “no breakthrough, no joint decisions or sensational results as far as the settlement as a whole is concerned,” he said the negotiators may make enough progress to say that the Almaty round of talks was not “held in vain.”

The negotiations in Almaty, scheduled for February 26-27, will include Iranian National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili, who attended the June meeting in Moscow, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, French Foreign Ministry Director-General for Political and Security Affairs Jacques Audibert, British Foreign Office Political Director Simon Gass and German Foreign Ministry Envoy Hans-Dieter Lucas.

The latest round of negotiations between P5+1 (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) was held in Moscow on June 18-19.

Robert Bridge, RT

via Iran sanctions may be lifted – Russian Deputy FM — RT Russian politics.

Iran becoming a cyber superpower – US general | Information Age

February 25, 2013

Iran becoming a cyber superpower – US general

Iran has boosted its online defences since US-Israeli cyber attack Stuxnet was revealed, Air Force general claims

Posted by Information Age

on 18 January 2013

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Iran becoming a cyber superpower – US general

Iran is becoming “a force to be reckoned with” in cyberspace, a US general has claimed, having boosted its online defences since the Stuxnet attack in 2010.

The Stuxnet worm was discovered on computer systems at an Iranian uranium enrinchment facility in Natanz in June 2010. The malware infection was specifically designed to interfere with the facility’s centrifuges.

In June last year, The New York Times reported that Stuxnet had been developed by the US and Israel.

“It’s clear that the Natanz situation generated reaction by them,” Air Force General William Shelton told reporters yesterday. “They are going to be a force to be reckoned with, with the potential capabilities that they will develop over the years and the potential threat that will represent to the United States.”

Shelton expects the Air Force to expand its 6,000-strong workforce by 1,000 people, the report said, and is repelling almost all of the millions of cyber attacks launched against Pentagon networks every day.

The US recently accused Iran of being behind denial of service attacks on several of its major banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Capital One and HSBC, between September and December last year.

“There is no doubt within the US government that Iran is behind these attacks,” James Lewis, a former US state official and computer expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the New York Times last week.

Iran’s government denied the attacks in its mission to the United Nations, as reported by the country’s semi-official news agency PressTV last week.

“Unlike the United States, which has, per reports in the media, given itself the license to engage in illegal cyber-warfare against Iran, Iran respects the international law and refrains from targeting other nations’ economic or financial institutions,” it said.

In March last year, then-director general Mark Thomson revealed the BBC’s Persian service was hit by a “sophisticated cyber-attack” from Iran which attempted to block its television services going into the country.

via Iran becoming a cyber superpower – US general | Information Age.

Kerry: Iran diplomatic window cannot stay open forever – Israel News, Ynetnews

February 25, 2013

Kerry: Iran diplomatic window cannot stay open foreverPublished: 02.25.13, 16:24 / Israel News Iran still has time to find a diplomatic solution to the international standoff over its nuclear programme but the Islamic Republic must negotiate with world powers in good faith, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday.”The window for a diplomatic solution simply cannot by definition remain open forever. But it is open today. It is open now,” Kerry told reporters in London. Reuters

via Kerry: Iran diplomatic window cannot stay open forever – Israel News, Ynetnews.

The Region: Hand over your property!

February 25, 2013

The Region: Hand over your proper… JPost – Opinion – Columnists.

02/24/2013 22:19
The world is constantly held up by terrorists and nowadays it tends to give in to the narrative being imposed on it.

French soldiers in UNIFIL

French soldiers in UNIFIL Photo: REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
Here’s the perfect parable for understanding not just the contemporary Middle East but the wider world today. So far, it’s only being covered in the Finnish media which, I assume, means nobody outside that country knows about it.

Two unarmed Finnish soldiers assigned to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) were observing along the Israel-Syria border from the Syrian side.

Armed men stopped their car.

While the two Finns didn’t speak Arabic they were quickly made to understand that the men wanted their UN vehicle and their other possessions.

Similar things have happened to Belgian and Italian soldiers in the UNIFIL force in southern Lebanon.

In short, the supposed representatives of the world’s community were being mugged and they could do nothing about it, or at least nothing but to give in.

A Finnish officer explained that the men weren’t in fear of their lives; the gunmen just wanted their property.

Now let me make it clear that I’m not criticizing the two soldiers. What are you going to do when you are unarmed and terrorists with guns hold you up? Yet this little story struck me as incredibly symbolic on several levels.

The world is constantly held up by terrorists and nowadays it tends to give in, if not to the specific operations, than to the narrative being imposed on it. We do see rescue operations sometimes – as in the Algerian army’s disastrous “rescue” in which all the technicians being held hostage at a gas field were killed – and sometimes we don’t, as in Benghazi, while the US government stood by as men it had sent into a dangerous situation were murdered.

Yet what happens is that even if the terrorists don’t always win in their military operations, they succeed in intimidating the West to hand over its intellectual property – by suppressing its own debate – and sometimes to pay tribute money as well.

AS A reward for failing to fulfill its commitments and cheering on terrorist attacks, the UN’s General Assembly assigned non-member state status to the Palestinian Authority. Billions of dollars of US aid go to Pakistan, which helps the Taliban and shields al-Qaida.

Arms are handed over to Syrian Salafists and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Turkish government backs a terrorist group to create a violent confrontation with Israel (the IHH in the Gaza flotilla) and US President Barack Obama declares that regime to be his soul mate.

Even after an official report that Hezbollah carried out a terrorist attack in Bulgaria, the European Union won’t put it on the terrorism list. There is a long list of such items.

Terrorism mugs the West and gets paid off as long as it doesn’t over-reach too much. Not attacking the World Trade Center is enough to make some group America’s “friend.”

One reason the West tends to yield is that it is “unarmed.” Not literally, of course, but unarmed in terms of its ideas, analysis, and understanding.

As for a good case study, take Lebanon, a few miles from where the two Finns were mugged. In 2006 the UN and the US government promised Israel, as a condition for ending its war with Hezbollah, that a muchenlarged UN force would keep Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and help stop arms’ smuggling from Syria to Lebanese terrorists.

Hezbollah has walked all over the UN (UN Resolution 1701) and the US commitments without any cost. UN observers have been regularly intimidated by Hezbollah, which has moved back into southern Lebanon and built new fortifications. See here and here.

THE UN and the White House have not only done nothing but they haven’t even criticized Hezbollah for this behavior.

General Alberto Asarta, the Spanish general who commands UNFIL forces in southern Lebanon, cannot praise Hezbollah enough. The area, he explains, is “the best and most stable in the whole of the Middle East” thanks to Hezbollah’s cooperation. It is “the most successful model when compared to the experiences of other UN peacekeeping missions around the world.”

And Hezbollah has actually helped combat terrorist groups that sought to attack UNIFIL. Indeed, the cooperation with Hezbollah is called – I kid you not – “The Partnership Against Radical Islamic Terrorism.”

Memo to police forces: This could be a model for The Partnership against Crime to be formed in alliance with the mafia.

Did I mention that having won the last Lebanese elections – with a little help from violent intimidation and assassination of opponents – Hezbollah now runs Lebanon? And did I mention that the new CIA Director, John Brennan, is an apologist for Hezbollah and has advocated normalizing relations between the United States and that terrorist group? And, of course, unless hit with an Israeli air attack, Syria and Iran smuggle any weapons into Lebanon they wish without US or UN objection or blockage. The effect of this smuggling is not only to set the stage for future Hezbollah terrorism against Israel and a possible war, but helps to guarantee that Lebanon will continue to be in the hands of a terrorist group that is closely aligned with Tehran and advocates genocide against Jews.

Oh, and Israel is supposed to be the bad guy because it defends itself against muggers.

It’s bad enough to be mugged repeatedly but it’s even worse to provide the weapons and money for the assailants, while also praising them. But that’s precisely the moral of the story as far as Obama Administration policy is concerned: Except for a few exceptions who won’t play nice (ie, al-Qaida) if you’re nice to the terrorists and they’ll be nice to you.

Oh, by the way, this is how most of the “international community” advises Israel to behave.

The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center http://www.gloria-center.org.

Will Iran, Hezbollah go all out to boost Assad?

February 25, 2013

Will Iran, Hezbollah go all out to boost A… JPost – Middle East.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
02/25/2013 01:12

Syria's Assad speaks in Damascus, January 6, 2013

Syria’s Assad speaks in Damascus, January 6, 2013 Photo: Sana Sana/Reuters
Clashes have intensified in the Syrian capital this month as the opposition continues to demonstrate its ability to penetrate the regime’s defenses in the city. The suicide bombing linked to the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front last week, which killed 90, could be a sign of things to come for Damascus.

Residents of Damascus had previously thought they were safe, but now the fighting that had been raging in the suburbs has penetrated the capital, the editor of the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi wrote. He adds that Syria is heading “deeper towards a bloody future.”

In addition, cross-border fighting between the Islamist-dominated Syrian opposition and the Shi’ite Hezbollah organization in Lebanon has increased this month.

On Sunday, the Lebanese Daily Star reported that heavy shelling and gunfire from the Syrian side of the border killed three people in Lebanon. The Future Movement in Lebanon, affiliated with the Sunnis, complained that the firing is coming from the Syrian regime and called on the Lebanese army to come to their protection.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman also urged Syria to stop shooting into his country.

However, the Lebanese army in unlikely to get involved, because Hezbollah and its allies dominate the Lebanese government and such a move could lead to a civil war.

Meanwhile, last week, the opposition Free Syrian Army threatened to launch an attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon after giving the movement 48 hours to stop firing at its positions in Homs province. Attacks by Hezbollah into Syria and retaliation by the Syrian opposition may lead to a larger conflagration if the Shi’te organization decides to increase the scale of its intervention.

The West realizes that the conflict is set for escalation and has come up with contingency plans to capture or destroy Syria’s chemical weapons. Such worries multiplied on Sunday after news came out that rebels captured the site of the suspected nuclear reactor at al-Kibar that Israel bombed in 2007.

The al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front leads the opposition forces on the ground. Salman Shaikh, the director of the Brookings Doha Center, told AFP that “the al-Nusra Front could well be controlling de facto three provinces in the next stage,” adding, “They are doing the clever thing, establishing local agreements with tribal elders, administering some of the aid required and getting revenues by controlling some of the oil fields.”

The Washington Post revealed on Sunday that outside powers have begun sending more powerful weaponry to the Syrian opposition to boost those fighters not from al- Nusra. One Arab official was quoted as calling them “the good guys.”

Just how outside powers differentiate between “bad” al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra fighters and other “good” Islamists or other groups is not clear.

These advances have the Iranian-Hezbollah axis worried and the cross-border skirmishes in the past weeks could lead to something bigger.

“Hezbollah is fighting inside Syria with orders from Iran,” Lebanese Druse leader MP Walid Jumblatt told Al Jazeera in an interview to be aired Monday, according to the Daily Star.

The circumstances are ripe for a bloodier ethnic conflict in Syria that will have many outside forces supporting various sides.

Lebanon is split; Iraq is controlled by a Shi’ite government that is friendly with Iran; and Jordan and Turkey are seen as supporting their Sunni brothers in the Syrian opposition, with funding from the Gulf and the West.

Joel Parker, a PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University who closely follows events in Syria, points out that Reuters reported a week ago that Bashar Assad’s troops had posted signs on the gates of Damascus saying “Either Assad [will win] or we will set the country ablaze.”

In addition, he notes, the Syrian regime has been setting up more checkpoints around Damascus as people start to lose faith in the regime to maintain security.

“This is a sign that even with Hezbollah and Iran’s help, the regime is not capable of preventing the worst kind of massacre in Damascus.

It basically discredits everybody who is working to prop up the Assad regime because they are not able to protect Syrian civilians,” he says.

Iran and Hezbollah surely calculate that Israel and the West will not interfere if Hezbollah ups its involvement a notch, and unleashes its fury on the Syrian opposition, but keeps the conflict within the Syrian and Lebanese domain.

However, such a move to escalate would inflame Sunni regimes and ruin Iran’s efforts at befriending the up-and-coming Sunni Islamists in the region. That is why it is more likely that Hezbollah and Iran refrain from an all-out war in Syria, though increasing covert support with more direct Hezbollah involvement if the end looks near for Assad. The increasing Hezbollah involvement in the past week seems to be a sign of those worries.

Radiation leaking from Iran’s nuke plant

February 25, 2013

Radiation leaking from Iran’s nuke plant.

Radiation is leaking from Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordow, which suffered devastating explosions on Jan. 21, WND has learned, and the regime has ordered millions of antidote iodine pills from Russia and Ukraine amid fears the radioactivity will spread.

Many of the personnel, who arrived after the explosion to assist with the cleanup at the site, have been taken to a military hospital suffering from headache, nausea and vomiting, according to a source in the security forces protecting Fordow.

A special team of nuclear experts was ordered to the site days ago, the source said, and detected high levels of radiation.

Fordow fuel enrichment plant – DigitalGlobe image on day of reported explosion, Jan. 21, 2013

The number of confirmed dead from the explosions has risen to 76, said the source, who provided exclusively to WND the names of 14 Iranian scientists and one North Korean who died in the blasts.

Security forces have arrested 17 high-ranking officers, including majors and colonels, over the incident and summarily executed Maj. Ali Montazernia, a member of the security forces in charge at Fordow.

The Islamic regime has put up a wall of silence surrounding the explosions, but with the possibility of radioactive fallout creating grave health and environmental disasters in the nearby holy city of Qom and other surrounding cities, it may not be able to maintain the secret, the source suggested.

WND reported exclusively on Jan. 24 that explosions rocked Iran’s nuclear facility at Fordow on Jan. 21, with updates on Jan. 27, 29, 30, 31, and Feb. 3, 6, 13 and 23. The blasts at first trapped 219 workers, including 16 North Koreans: 14 technicians and two military attaches.

Iran denied the incident, and its official news agency, IRNA, in a report, called WND a “mouthpiece of the CIA” and Reza Kahlili a CIA agent whose reporting was mere propaganda by the West. Regime media have also attacked Hamidreza Zakeri, a former officer of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence, now living in Europe, who has provided information on the Fordow explosion and other valuable insights into the regime’s illicit nuclear activities.

In an unusual move on Jan. 29, the spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency, Gill Tudor, emailed reporters a brief statement: “We understand that Iran has denied that there has been an incident at Fordow. This is consistent with our observations.”

When pushed by WND, however, Tudor could neither confirm nor deny the incident had taken place and would not say whether IAEA inspectors had visited the site after the explosions, despite some media reports that they had.

The IAEA’s latest report, released on Feb. 21, states that a physical inspection of Fordow was done between Nov. 26 and Dec. 3, well before the reported explosions. The report said that as of Feb. 17, Iran continued to feed hexafluoride gas into all four cascades of centrifuges at Fordow to enrich uranium, but this information was solely based on what Iranian officials told the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Even the regime’s Fars News Agency, in covering the recent IAEA report, confessed to that by running this headline: “Fordow site is active, according to information provided by Iran to the IAEA.”

The Fars story reported, “The IAEA in part of its report verifies that the Fordow site, based on the Design Information Questioner filed by Iran, is active.”

The Fars story shows a high level of uncertainty even within Iran about whether Fordow suffered the explosions, WND’s source said, and the regime is trying to keep morale high for its forces and allies, because the Fordow explosions would show the regime’s deep vulnerability.

Iranian officials have repeatedly lied about previous acts of sabotage, including the effect of the Stuxnet virus and the status of the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The BBC, in a Feb. 22 report, said the Bushehr plant has again been shut down and that Russia has confirmed it, despite the Iranian regime’s earlier denial.

IAEA officials were denied access to Fordow during their last inspection trip. IAEA requests to inspect the Parchin military site and four other suspect sites were also denied. The regime also failed to respond to IAEA inquiries on its activity involving laser technology for uranium enrichment.

An exclusive WND report on Jan. 22 revealed that Russians are helping to enrich uranium using lasers at the secret Bonab site. The IAEA has revealed that Iran’s heavy-water plant in Arak could likely become operational in the first quarter of 2014. The plant, once live, could provide enough plutonium for several bombs just in its first year of operation.

The latest IAEA report also indicated that the regime has started the process of installing its advanced centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear facility, which the U.S. State Department called “yet another provocative step.”

Furthermore, 252 parliamentarians of the Islamic regime issued a statement today asserting, “There is no stopping in the Iran’s nuclear train,” and that despite the psychological war by America and all the sanctions in place, the country’s nuclear program will continue.

The statement advises America and “its western allies” to accept the reality of the Islamic regime’s nuclear program and change their policies.

DigitalGlobe image Jan. 21, 2013 – Across from Fordow Plant, written on the mountain in Farsi: “Fadayat Rahbar,” to be sacrificed for the leader – and in smaller print: “Sar Allah,” shedding blood for Allah, or blood for the path of Allah

Iran and the 5-plus-1 countries (the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, plus Germany) are to hold another round of nuclear talks on Feb. 26 in Kazakhstan, though expectations are low for any meaningful process.

Although the West has demanded Fordow be shut down as a precondition to easing sanctions, and though Iran has responded that it won’t comply, this is merely a political game, WND’s source said, in which the West knows what has happened at Fordow and is leaving a face-saving way out for Iran to still engage in dialogue to avoid further pressure. Despite this, the regime is actively trying to develop nuclear weapons at several secret sites.

The source provide these names of those killed at Fordow:

  • Five from a research team of the Center for Defensive Studies of the Jame Imam Hossein University of Tehran: Mohammad Rosham Entezar, Samad Doorbash, Jalal Namdar, Abdolreza Samadi and Mehdi Sufiaei.
  • Three from the Center for Research and Nuclear Support of Imam Hossein University in Tehran: Ali Ebadi, Majid Fakhri and Mehdi Jasoor.
  • Two from Physics University of Isfahan: Ahmad Abdolahipour and Alireza Parhizkar.
  • One from the University of Tabriz, Faculty of Physics: Hassan Soltan Nejad.
  • Three from Sharif University of Technology – The Center for Research of Physics: Faramarz Naghsh Ara, Hamid Boroostani and Saeid Fazeli.
  • One North Korean from the Atomic Research Center of Yongbyon: Chin-Hae Kang-Jun

WND will attempt to contact the families of the named deceased to further verify the report, although initial feedback verifies that the immediate families of the deceased are being monitored by Iranian regime security forces.

Hetz-3 missile sees successful live test

February 25, 2013

Hetz-3 missile sees successful live test – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Defense Ministry says newest addition to surface-to-air missile defense system has successful first test fire; system to enable Israel to better counter future threats alongside Iron Dome, David’s Sling

Yoav Zitun

Latest Update: 02.25.13, 09:52 / Israel News

The Defense Ministry announced Monday that it has successfully tested the Hetz-3 missile interceptor.

The test was conducted by the ministry’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and the Technological Industry from a location in central Israel.

The Hetz (“Arrow”) is part of Israel’s surface-to-air missile defense lineup. Its development is a joint effort by the Defense Ministry and the American Missile Defense Agency.

The test began at 8 am, when the missile was launched from the Palmachim Air Base. It held altitude for six minutes and preformed various maneuvers, as programmed.

Past Hetz-3 test

The live test reviewed the system’s capabilities and performance. The projectile’s interceptor system is considered to be one of the most advanced in the world.

A senior defense source said that the test was conducted as part of the IDF’s perennial operational plan, stressing that “This was a systems test, not a ballistic intercepting test and the objectives set for this test were reached in full.”

The new surface-to-air missile defense system will enable Israel to better counter future threats, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Hetz-3 joins Israel’s layered aerial defenses, alongside the Hetz-2, Iron Dome and David’s Sling, better known as “Magic Wand,” defense systems.

Together, the systems aim to provide Israel with a protective umbrella that will counter the threats posed by short and mid-ranged missiles used by Gaza-based terror groups in the south and Hezbollah in the north; as well as the possible threat of Iranian missiles.

“This successful test is a milestone in Israel’s operational and defensive capabilities vis-à-vis threats in the regional arena,” the Defense Ministry said.

“This was the first test of a system that has been years in development. The system still has to undergo further tests before it becomes fully operational.”

IDF: Despite Riots, No Third Intifada – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News

February 25, 2013

IDF: Despite Riots, No Third Intifada – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Despite the ongoing Arab riots in Judea and Samaria, the IDF is not expecting a third intifada, officials say.

By Elad Benari

First Publish: 2/25/2013, 6:16 AM

 

Protester throws a rock during clashes with Israeli soldiers in Hevron

Protester throws a rock during clashes with Israeli soldiers in Hevron
Reuters

Despite the ongoing Arab riots in Judea and Samaria, the IDF is not expecting a third intifada (violent Arab uprising), Channel 10 News reported on Sunday.

The report came as Israel’s security forces faced another day of rioting throughout Judea and Samaria. The rioting has been going on for quite some time, but Arabs have used the death of a terrorist prisoner in an Israeli jail over the weekend as an excuse to initiate the latest violence.

While the clashes and riots are expected to continue on Monday during the funeral of the prisoner, Arafat Jaradat, Israeli security officials believe that a third intifada is not in the works, according to Channel 10.

The report cited senior IDF officials as having predicted that a third intifada is not a likely scenario because the Palestinian Authority is not interested in such a move at this time.

According to these officials, the PA is not interested in escalating the situation in the region in the days prior to the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama.

At the same time, noted Channel 10, the IDF’s Central Command has formulated a number of recommendations to prevent a further deterioration of the situation. Among the recommendations discussed are gestures to the PA, reinforcing points of friction with additional forces, equipping forces with additional means to disperse demonstrations, increasing training to strengthen the competence of soldiers during disturbances, and conducting briefings and refinement of the rules of engagement.

One such gesture to the PA was already carried out on Sunday, as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu instructed Israeli authorities to transfer the PA its tax revenues for January, “so that they won’t have an excuse not to enforce calm on the ground.”

Israel froze the transfer of the tax revenues it collects for the PA after its Chairman Mahmoud Abbas unilaterally went to the United Nations and achieved the status of a non-member observer state. The money that was transferred on Sunday came with a message to the PA, that it should calm tensions on the ground and work to quell the riots.

Meanwhile, an autopsy conducted on Sunday on the body of Jaradat found that it is impossible to determine the exact cause of his death.

The autopsy, which was performed by the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir in the presence of a PA Arab doctor, found that no external signs of trauma were found on Jaradat’s body, and that no evidence of any disease was discovered. The Ministry of Health stated that it is impossible, therefore, to link the findings with a cause of death.

Despite the inconclusive findings, the PA’s minister of prisoner affairs, Issa Qaraqaa, accused Israel of torturing Jaradat to death.