WarSclerotic

Egypt Air Force Jets in Northern Sinai – Middle East – News – Israel National News.

Egyptian F-16

Reuters

Egyptian Air Force jets were seen circling Tuesday in the skies of northern Sinai, over the area of Sheikh Zwaid, according to Voice of Israel public radio. Sounds of explosions were heard as the Egyptian military continued its anti-terrorist operations against Islamist militias.

Egyptian military jets are not allowed in Sinai according to the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979. However, Israel has allowed the Egyptian military to operate in northern Sinai recently, in order to root out the terrorist infrastructure that had formed there.

In Rafah, an Egyptian soldier was reported wounded by terrorist fire on a position held by the Egyptian security forces.

The spokesman for Egypt’s presidency said that the Egyptian army is operating against illegal smuggling of people, drugs and weapons along the border between Gaza and Sinai. The spokesman, Ahmed Muslimani, told BBC Arabic service that the Egyptian army’s action along the border between Gaza and Sinai “is meant to protect human lives and not hurt them.”

He called upon people whose homes were damaged in the military action to turn to Egyptian authorities for compensation.

On Monday, the Egyptian army stormed the town of Dalga in central Egypt, 190 miles south of the capital Cairo, which has been controlled by Islamist radicals for more than two months.

Islamists seized the town as part of a backlash against the military-backed ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi. Twice the army attempted to retake the town, but the heavily-armed Islamists managed to repel their advance on both occasions.

However, following repeated appeals for help by the town’s residents – in particular its Coptic Christian population – the army successfully retook the town on Monday. This time, according to eye-witnesses, there was little to no resistance from local Islamists, as a sizable force of soldiers and police moved in, backed by military helicopters.

Obama to meet Netanyahu, but not Rohani – Israel News, Ynetnews.

US president won’t be meeting Iran’s leader at sidelines of General Assembly later this month. Bibi-Obama meeting set to September 30. Netanyahu presents four terms he says must be set for Tehran

Attila Somfalvi

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US President Barack Obama in Washington on Sept 30, it has been confirmed Tuesday.

The meeting would be incorporated in the Israeli leader’s scheduled attendance at the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The Syrian crisis and Iran’s nuclear programme are expected to top the agenda of the planned meeting.

Netanyahu would likely address the General Assembly the day after his talks with Obama. The two leaders last met in March when Obama visited Israel.

However, Obama will not be meeting Iran’s President Hassan Rohani. Nevertheless, Rohani, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, may be the main attraction of the event.

In the backdrop of a potential rapprochement between Washington and Tehran, Netanyahu presented the terms he felt should be set for Iran in regards to its nuclear program.

“There are four steps,” Netanyahu said. “The first is the cessation of all uranium enrichment activity, the second is the removal of uranium from Iran, the third is the closure of the Qom facility and the fourth is the halting of plutonium enrichment.”

Netanyahu stressed that “only all four steps will constitute an actual halt of the nuclear endeavor. Pressure on Iran must be intensified, not withdrawn, until all four goals are achieved.”

The prime minister further added, “Events in recent weeks have strengthened the assumptions under which we operate: A rogue state that develops or obtains weapons of mass destruction may use it, or better yet will eventually use it. Only a credible military threat can allow diplomacy to stop armament. Israel must maintain force so as to be able to defend itself at all times, against any threat. If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?”

 UN sources said that many are “standing in line” to meet the new Iranian president and foreign minister. Rohani will meet with foreign ministers from the UN Security Council’s member states and from Germany, though there is no indication on whether US Secretary of State John Kerry will attend the meeting.

FM Zarif will meet with ministers from the European Union and other European ministers who wish to meet him.

Despite efforts by Obama and Rohani to ease relations between the two countries, and although they’ll both speak at the General Assembly, no meeting has been set.

Hassan Rohani (Photo: EPA)

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney carefully worded his statement, saying, “As of now, the president is not expected to meet his Iranian counterpart at the UN Assembly.”

Speculations about a meeting began circulating after Obama said in an interview with ABC that he and Rohani were corresponding. The US is very interested in promoting talks with the Iranians directly or through the UN‘s Security Council, but knows that it will be a difficult negotiation.

Barack Obama (Photo: AFP)

Intelligence sources told the German newspaper Der Spiegel that Rohani was willing to shut down the nuclear facility in Fordo, if the West agreed to remove all sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic.

In an indirect reply to the publication, Carney said, “Acts speak louder than words. We are willing to negotiate through the Security Council or through a direct dialogue, but we are clearly saying that Iran failed its commitment to the international community, and it must abandon its nuclear plan completely.

“We’re willing to talk with the Rohani government with mutual respect to reach a peaceful solution,” Carney said.

President Obama has said that Iran mustn’t think that because the US didn’t intervene in Syria, it won’t operate a military intervention in Iran. Obama clarified that the nuclear issue is much more pivotal than the chemical issue.

State Department Deputy Spokeswoman Marie Harf was quotes as saying, “We believe crippling sanctions are a key part of the pressure we put on Iran.”

AP, Yitzhak Benhorin and Omri Efraim contributed to this report

Ex-IDF intel chief: Iran is caving because of sanctions, not Syria | The Times of Israel.

Amos Yadlin says Rouhani’s reported readiness to close Fordo is due to economic interests, calls Iran-Syria link ‘weaker than we think’

By Michal Shmulovich and Raphael Ahren September 17, 2013, 10:21 am

Amos Yadlin, former director of military intelligence. (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/FLASH90)

The IDF’s former head of military intelligence said Tuesday that Iran’s apparent interest in possibly closing its controversial Fordo nuclear reactor is a result of crippling sanctions against the Islamic Republic, not because the recent crisis in Syria.

“Iranian President [Hasan] Rouhani’s alleged willingness to work to close the nuclear reactor near the city of Qom isn’t because of what’s happening in Syria, but a result of the damage sanctions have brought to the citizens of his country,” Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said during an interview on Army Radio.

Yadlin was referring to a Monday report in the German news magazine Der Spiegel that claimed Iran was willing to close its uranium enrichment facility at Fordo in exchange for an easing of Western sanctions.

He said the “enormous” sanctions levied against Iran and which increased in 2012 had a “catastrophic effect” on the Iranian economy and that the new Iranian leader was backed into reconsidering the international community’s demands vis-à-vis his country’s nuclear program.

Yadlin contended that the connection between Syria and Iran is weaker than the world thinks, and that the recent overture is likely Rouhani trying to change direction and to “end sanctions with the minimum amount of compromise,” after having come to the negotiating table with the West with “absurd” demands. He described the move as Iran’s “first step” in testing the waters before a new round of negotiations, calling the Iranians very skilled negotiators with a lot of experience.

Quoting an intelligence source, the Der Spiegel magazine reported Monday that Rouhani might consider closing down the heavily fortified Fordo facility and allow international observers to supervise the destruction of the centrifuges if the West were to lift the sanctions it has placed on Iran’s oil industry and central bank. Rouhani could make the offer later this month at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the report said.

Iran’s reported willingness to compromise comes on the heels of a US-Russian deal to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, signed after Washington threatened military action against the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the German report, but — based on its record — would likely reject such an Iranian overture as a ploy to blind the West and buy time while inching toward the bomb. In fact, a top minister in Jerusalem predicted a few weeks ago that Rouhani’s first move on the nuclear issue would entail an offer to halt enrichment in return for an easing of sanctions.

Israel’s long-standing demands have been that Iran halt all enrichment activity and remove all enriched nuclear material from its territory, as well as shut down Fordo and end plutonium production.

“We are determined to insist on our demands, which must be the demands of the international community,” Netanyahu said in July. “One, to stop all enrichment. Two, to remove all enriched material. Three, to close the illegal nuclear facility in Qom. We believe that now, more than ever, in light of Iran’s progress, it is important to intensify the economic sanctions and place a credible military option before Iran.”

Fordo, an underground fortified nuclear facility carved into a mountain south of Iran’s capital, was built in secret and only revealed by Western intelligence in 2009. Currently, Iranian scientists are enriching uranium there using 696 centrifuges.

Referring to the potential Russia-US compromise with Syria, Yadlin, who currently heads Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, called it a good agreement — “if it’ll be implemented as it’s written” — during a Monday conference call with journalists.

Israel shouldn’t rush to oppose the Syria deal, he said. “It could be good for us,” he said, and said the government should examine its parameters.” A deal could stop a US strike and also stop a rebel assault on Damascus, Yadlin added Tuesday.

He said the the weapons stockpiles were very important to Syrian President Bashar Assad, and that they were his “insurance policy” against foreign intervention. He also noted that Assad’s dependence on Russia was paramount at this moment, and that the US-Russian deal didn’t even involve Syria’s consent because they had taken Syria’s acceptance as a fait accompli.

“The deal could be a win-win-win-win situation,” he said, referring to the positive outcome a deal could have for Russia, the US, Syria, and Israel.

Yet, he added: “Unfortunately, I think the chances [of an agreement] are low.” He also noted that Syria would be required to grant inspectors full access to its chemical weapons sites by November. “But we’ll know quite soon whether they Syrians intend to cooperate or are just buying time.” Yadlin said.

The View from the Other Side.

Optimistic assessments in Israel hold that the dismantling of Syria’s unconventional weapons is a great accomplishment, if it will indeed occur. The less optimistic assess that the entire US behavior displays weakness that will only encourage Iran to continue its nuclear program

Amir Rapaport

15/9/2013

It is difficult in Israel to comprehend the process in which the US intention to attack in Syria became a negotiation for an agreement that will apparently ensure the continued survival of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Discussions with Israeli decision-makers and officials held in the past two weeks in Washington and in London illuminate the situation in a clearer manner.

This is how it looks at the bottom line: US President Barack Obama genuinely intended to attack in Syria. All of the preparations and the coordination efforts with officials in Israel and in the UK were done towards such a strike. It seemed like a simple military measure, even easier than the NATO air strike that brought down Muammar Gaddafi in Libya just two years ago. However, it seems that something changed on the way from the discussions at the White House to the implementation of the aircraft carriers.

The first thing that changed was the Russian position. Russia felt deceived by the NATO alliance’s effort against Gaddafi, and decided a while back that there should be no more unilateral measures by the Western world that will change the world order. Furthermore, Russian President Vladimir Putin has considerable interest in demonstrating that he stands by protégés such as Assad – contrasting Obama, who tossed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to the dogs and who, even today, is not completely behind the Egyptian regime which is trying to rely on him.

In the two years since Gaddafi’s fall, Russia has been in the midst of a process of economic ascension and has witnessed the increase of its political influence around the world. In contrast, the US and the UK have been in a decline. US officials are not ashamed to admit that the traditional US isolationist trend has been increasing considerably – according to which events happening beyond the ocean should not be viewed as “our business.” The trauma of Iraq and Afghanistan still singes, and the political argument is paralyzing.

In the UK, last week’s headlines dealt with investigations as to the failure that dragged the British army into Iraq and Afghanistan far more than with any passion for combat against the Assad regime. The claims in favor of an operation in Syria are met with distrust.
The relations between the Israeli defense establishment and colleagues in the UK and the US are better than ever, and a certain measure of envy is noted in off-the-record discussions towards Israel, which allegedly knows how to stand behind its red lines. The US and the UK view the global media reports that Israel attacked in Syria at least four times since the start of 2013  – in order to destroy deliveries of weapons with strategic significance – as an absolute fact.

In this reality, the debate on the Syrian attack has been held thus far among the public opinion, primarily in the US. Obama repeatedly attacked again and again, but so did Putin, who even wrote a special article for the New York Times in the last weekend, as well as Assad, who provided a rare televised appearance.

In light of all this, the agreement being discussed in the recent days is the best way out for all of the involved parties.

It is greatly beneficial for Russia: it establishes its status as a superpower that almost equals the US. From now on, it is assured that no international effort in Syria will take place without Russia’s approval. The arrangement also prevents the possibility that the US will nevertheless attack in Syria, thus making fun of the defense systems that Russia already provided to Syria – systems that Israel allegedly bypassed without any difficulty, according to reports.

Barack Obama can also be satisfied with the agreement. On one hand, he avoided a complication and refrained from going against public opinion. On the other hand, he has already claimed that the tangible threat of an attack will bring about the dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons, in the agreement.

The assessments in Israel, on the eve of Yom Kippur, were that the dismantling of Syria’s unconventional weapons is a great accomplishment, if it actually occurs. The optimistic view is that the genuine threat of an attack can provide results, and may yield results in the future with regards to Iran.

The less optimistic are assessing that the US behavior projects weakness that will only encourage Iran in continuing its nuclear program, out of an assumption that the US will always find the reason not to attack. The assessments are also fairly pessimistic with regards to Syria’s future. Bashar al-Assad only controls 40% of Syria today, and the assessments are that the animosity between various factions in Syria is vast. Therefore, the civil war will continue to be waged there in one form or another, even if the agreement to dismantle the chemical weapons will enter into effect.

Key Iranian official says new leadership more ready to compromise to reach nuclear deal | Fox News.

Published September 16, 2013

| Associated Press

VIENNA –  A senior Iranian official suggested Monday that Iran’s old government was not committed enough to reaching an agreement with the world powers who are seeking curbs on its nuclear program.

Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Monday that both sides had to approach nuclear talks in good faith to create a “win-win” result.

But he said the chances of progress were improved by the unity among Iran’s new political leadership over what it sought in the next round of talks and what it was prepared to give the world powers.

He did not go into detail but Iran wants an end to the economic and political sanctions it faces over fears it is progressing to nuclear weapons ability. Tehran denies wanting such arms, saying its nuclear program is peaceful.

The world powers want curbs on Iran’s uranium enrichment, which can create both energy and the core of nuclear warheads, as well as for Iran to scrap a reactor that will produce plutonium — another pathway to nuclear arms.

Salehi spoke outside of a 159-nation conference of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency that is expected to touch on fears over Tehran’s nuclear aims.

Iranian President Hasan Rouhani is expected to affirm his commitment to trying to ease tensions in comments to the U.N. General Assembly this week.

Years of nuclear talks have been inconclusive and western negotiators seeking to curb programs that Tehran could turn from peaceful to military purposes have partially blamed disunity among top Iranian government figures.

Even with the recent installment of Rouhani and his relatively moderate aides, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remains the top decision maker on the nuclear and other issues as the country’s supreme leader.

But Salehi asserted the talks now had a better chance of succeeding because the new political leaders have a “more full-fledged … desire” than their predecessors to reach agreement with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

He described the new government as a “like-minded group … that would facilitate the resolution of this issue if the other side comes with good intentions.”

The United States, one of Iran’s toughest critics, has welcomed Iran’s more moderate tone under Rouhani and has urged Iranian officials to seize the moment in reducing nuclear tensions.

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who heads his country’s delegation to the Vienna conference, said Monday that Salehi’s “words have to be followed by concrete actions.”

A date and venue for the next round of talks is expected to be announced within the next few weeks.

In Tehran on Monday, state TV quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham as warning that “threatening language against Iran” will backfire, adding: “Interaction with Iran will be possible only through respect.”

Iran said ready to dismantle underground nuclear facility | The Times of Israel.

Rouhani might offer to close Fordo if West eases sanctions, Der Spiegel reports, based on intelligence sources; Israel has yet to respond

A satellite image of Iran’s Fordo uranium enrichment facility (photo credit: AP/DigitalGlobe)

In a potentially dramatic development, Iran is willing to close its uranium enrichment facility at Fordo in return for an easing of Western sanctions, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Monday.

Quoting intelligence source, the magazine reported that Iran’s new president, Hasan Rouhani, might consider closing down the heavily fortified Fordo facility, near the holy city of Qom, and allow international observers to supervise the destruction of the centrifuges, if the West were to lift the sanctions regime it has placed on Iran’s oil industry and central bank. Rouhani could make the offer later this month at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the report said.

Iran’s reported willingness to compromise comes on the heels of a US-Russian deal to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, signed after Washington threatened military action against the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the German report, but — based on its record — would likely reject such an Iranian overture as a ploy to blind the West and buy time while inching toward the bomb. In fact, a top minister in Jerusalem predicted a few weeks ago that Rouhani’s first move on the nuclear issue would entail an offer to halt enrichment in return for an easing of sanctions.

Israel’s long-standing demands have been that Iran halt all enrichment activity and remove all enriched nuclear material from its territory, as well as shut down Fordo and end plutonium production.

“We are determined to insist on our demands, which must be the demands of the international community,” Netanyahu said in July. “One, to stop all enrichment. Two, to remove all enriched material. Three, to close the illegal nuclear facility in Qom. We believe that now, more than ever, in light of Iran’s progress, it is important to intensify the economic sanctions and place a credible military option before Iran.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is scheduled to meet the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton next Sunday in New York and will explain to her Tehran’s plan in greater detail, according to Der Spiegel. Rouhani’s expected move could set in motion a process of negotiations that would culminate in the resumption of diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States, the magazine wrote.

A willingness to compromise on the part of the new Iranian president would likely stem from the catastrophic state of Iran’s economy. Citing intelligence sources, Der Spiegel’s Erich Follath wrote that Iran could only avert national bankruptcy if the sanctions imposed by the international community were lifted and new money flowed into the country.

However, Follath also wrote, a possible deal with Iran could be tricky for the West, as it remains unclear who would monitor the dismantling of Fordo and whether Tehran’s 185 kilograms of already enriched uranium would also be subject to international control. It also remains to be seen what Iran intends to do about the reactor in Arak, which is expected to enrich plutonium that could be used in a nuclear weapon as early as 2014. “The Iranians, friend and foe will agree, are masters of tactical maneuvering,” Follath wrote.

Fordo, an underground fortified nuclear facility carved into a mountain south of Iran’s capital, was built in secret and only revealed by Western intelligence in 2009. Currently, Iranian scientists are enriching uranium there using 696 centrifuges.

On Sunday, US President Barack Obama warned Tehran that the Russian-brokered agreement to defer a planned Western strike in Syria should not be interpreted as a lack of willingness in Washington to pursue a military solution to the ongoing Iranian nuclear standoff.

“I think what the Iranians understand is that the nuclear issue is a far larger issue for us than the chemical weapons issue; that the threat… against Israel that a nuclear Iran poses is much closer to our core interests,” Obama said in an interview with ABC. “My suspicion is that the Iranians recognize they shouldn’t draw a lesson — that we haven’t struck [the Bashar Assad regime] — to think we won’t strike Iran.”

The president said that he had exchanged letters with Rouhani, but that the two had not spoken directly. He further said he believed Rouhani understood the potential for a diplomatic solution to his country’s disputed nuclear program, but would not “suddenly make it easy.”

“If you have both a credible threat of force, combined with a rigorous diplomatic effort,” Obama said, “you can strike a deal.”

The White House on Monday denied that Obama would be meeting Rouhani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Obama’s statements about Iran’s nuclear program were echoed by Netanyahu Sunday after a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Jerusalem.

“The world needs to ensure that radical regimes don’t have weapons of mass destruction because, as we’ve learned once again in Syria, if rogue regimes have weapons of mass destruction, they will use them,” Netanyahu said. “The determination the international community shows regarding Syria will have a direct impact on the Syrian regime’s patron, Iran. Iran must understand the consequences of its continual defiance of the international community, by its pursuit toward nuclear weapons…. If diplomacy has any chance of working, it must be coupled with a credible military threat.”

Israel’s Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz in August predicted that Rouhani would try to woo the West by offering to halt enrichment in return for a reduction of sanctions.

“He will come to the West, just like he did in 2003 [when Rouhani was Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator], and say: ‘Let’s make an interim deal. I’ll make a few concessions here… you’ll make some concessions there,” Steinitz told The Times of Israel. “But after that, [Rouhani] will request reciprocity… it is extremely important not to give him this room to maneuver.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Iran’s atomic chief pledges better cooperation with UN | The Times of Israel.

Ali Akbar Salehi tells IAEA annual conference that Tehran intends to ‘enhance and expand’ ties with agency

Iran’s nuclear head Ali Akbar Salehi (photo credit: CC-BY Parmida76, Flickr)

Iran promised  on Monday to increase its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog body.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the new head of the Islamic Republic’s Atomic Energy Organization, made the pledge at the IAEA’s annual meeting in Vienna, Reuters reported.

“I have come here with a message of my newly elected president to further enhance and expand our ongoing cooperation with the agency,” Salehi said. He added that he intended to “put an end to the so-called Iranian nuclear file.”

Salehi previously served as Iran’s minister of foreign affairs.

Ten rounds of talks have been held between Iran and the IAEA in the past two years, but to this date, they have not managed to resolve disagreements over Tehran’s nuclear program. The two sides last met in Vienna in May.

Salehi’s remarks follow similar statements by Reza Najafi, the new Iranian envoy to the IAEA. Last Thursday, Najafi said in Vienna that “Iran is ready to engage and remove any ambiguity” about its disputed nuclear program. However, he stressed, Iran would never give up its “inalienable right to develop a nuclear program,” the official IRNA news agency reported.

Since President Hasan Rouhani took office in August, Iran has shown a desire to pursue better relations with the West.

Rouhani appears to be using his upcoming visit to the UN General Assembly as an opportunity to resume nuclear talks with world powers. US President Barack Obama may meet later this month with Rouhani on the sidelines of the assembly.

The possibility of the meeting was reported Sunday night by Israel’s Channel 10 news, as well as by various international news sources including Britain’s Guardian newspaper. There was no official confirmation of the reports.

Britain has confirmed that its foreign secretary, William Hague, will meet at the UN next week with his new Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif. Britain severed ties with Iran in 2011.

The West suspects Iran’s nuclear program has military dimensions. Iran denies the charge and says its program is for peaceful applications like power generation and cancer treatment. The US and its allies demand Iran halt all enrichment, a demand Tehran rejects.

UN report: ‘Clear’ evidence sarin used in attack | The Times of Israel.

Ban Ki-moon to present findings, which diplomats say could place blame on Assad regime for devastating August 21 strike

UN inspectors being escorted by Syrian rebels in Damascus in August, 2013. (photo credit: AP/United media office of Arbeen)

UN inspectors said Monday there is “clear and convincing evidence” that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in an attack last month in Syria that killed hundreds of people.

The inspectors said “the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used… in the Ghouta area of Damascus” on August 21. The report mentioned the areas of Ein Tarma, Moadamiyeh and Zamalka.

“The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic… against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale,” the inspectors said on the first page of their report to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Ban was scheduled to present the report to the UN Security Council later Monday. The Associated Press saw the first page of the report.

The report, which was handed to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday, may also finger the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad for launching the attack.

Ban said Friday that he believed there would be “an overwhelming report” that chemical weapons were used in the attack.

Meanwhile, the US, France, and Britain will seek a “strong” UN resolution threatening “serious consequences” if Assad fails to cooperate with an agreement signed Saturday between Russia and the United States requiring him to dismantle his chemical weapons program. Russia warned that such threats could “wreck” the deal, the BBC reported.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said the secretary-general would brief a closed session of the UN Security Council on the report’s contents Monday morning. He will also brief the 193-member General Assembly later in the day.

The inspection team, led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, was mandated to report on whether chemical weapons were used in the August 21 attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta and, if so, which chemical agents were used — but not on who was responsible.

However, two UN diplomats said the report could point to the perpetrators, saying that the inspectors collected many samples from the attack and also interviewed doctors and witnesses.

The two diplomats said the inspectors had soil, blood and urine samples and may also have collected remnants of the rockets or other weapons used in the attack, which could point to those responsible. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions on the issue have been confidential.

The diplomats believe Sellstrom’s team can figure out what happened from what one called “the wealth of evidence” they collected.

A determination of the delivery system used in the attack — surface to surface rockets — and the composition of the chemical agent could point to the perpetrator, they said.

Ban’s spokesman Farhan Haq said the UN has made some efforts to speed up the analysis, noting that instead of two laboratories, the samples are being tested at four laboratories in Europe. The testing could have taken three to four weeks, but the secretary-general has been pressing for a speedier report.

One diplomat said Russia, a strong ally of Syria, was putting heavy pressure on Sellstrom to restrict his findings, but whether he does so remains to be seen. Ban could possibly go beyond the inspectors’ findings and characterize who did it, the diplomat said.

If Sellstrom’s report points to a perpetrator, there is certain to be demands for proof from the other side.

Russia still maintains that the attack was carried out by rebels to frame the Assad regime.

Damascus, considered to have one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical arms, is expected to report on all of its chemical arms by the end of the week and hand them over for destruction by mid-2014, as part of joining an international chemical weapons ban treaty. Syria touted the deal as a “victory.”

Israeli and American officials have expressed cautious optimism over the deal, though on Saturday US President Barack Obama warned that military action was still on the table should diplomacy fail.

The US, Britain, France and a number of NGOs have already said they believe sarin gas or another chemical was used in the attack, which was carried out by regime soldiers. The US says over 1,400 people were killed, while others cite lower death tolls.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Police search for active shooter on grounds of Washington Navy Yard in Southeast D.C. – The Washington Post.

( Latest: At least 12 casualties.  At least 3 gunman.  Reagan Airport closed. My read?  Alahu Akbar…  JW )

WATCH LIVE: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Confirmed-Shooter-at-Navy-Yard-One-Person-Shot-223897891.html

By Peter Hermann and Maggie Fazeli Fard, Updated: Monday, September 16, 5:15 PM

Police say three shooters, including at least one in fatigues, have shot at least 10 people at the Washington Navy Yard.

Police said at least one of the shooters is “down,” but it was unclear whether that means the suspect has been arrested or shot. Two remain at large, and police believe they have pinned down one between the third and fourth floors of one of the buildings on the installation in Southeast Washington.

As hundreds of police officers from various agencies converged on the scene, officials at Reagan National Airport ordered all outgoing flights held.

Police on the scene said at least eight civilians were shot, along with the two police officers. One is a D.C. Metro Police officer who was shot two times in the leg and was evacuated on a helicopter that took off from a rooftop, police said. The other officer worked at the base. Except for the officer who was taken away by helicopter, all the other injured were being treated on the ground, police said.

A Navy Yard employee reached by telephone shortly before 10 a.m. said employees are still being told to shelter in place. She did not hear the shots, but described sirens, SWAT teams, Marines and a helicopter responding.

The U.S. Navy said that three shots were fired around 8:20 a.m. at the Naval Sea Systems Command Headquarters building, where about 3,000 people work.

Police closed the 11th St Bridge as well as M St SE between 2nd and 4th streets SE due to the shooting. Entrances to the Navy Yard Metro station remain open.

U.S. Capitol Police confirmed enhanced security at the Capitol, but no immediate threat.

Tyler Elementary School at 10th and G streets in Southeast is on lockdown.

As helicopters circled overhead and emergency vehicles continued to rush to the scene, crowds of onlookers gathered on sidewalks and at a construction site near the Navy Yard, but police pushed them back, yelling at them to keep a distance from the grounds.

One employee who declined to give his name said he heard “blam, blam” inside one of the buildings, then someone pulled the fire alarm.

“We aren’t going back on base today,” he said. “[But] there are still people inside.”

Reports began circulating around 9:30 a.m. that the suspect was “down,” but D.C. police said the suspect is still on the loose and “hiding between floors.”

© The Washington Post Company

Israel Hayom | From Damascus to Dimona.

Dan Margalit