WarSclerotic

Kerry: Muslim Brotherhood stole revolution – Israel News, Ynetnews.

US officials continue to prop up two-sided American Mideast policy as secretary of state divulges White House disagreement on Morsi’s overthrow. Administration protested against military coup, but Kerry says Muslim Brotherhood used democracy for its own benefit in first upheaval

Roi Kais

US Secretary of State John Kerry made an unusual statement Wednesday, taking into consideration the US’s cautious Mideast policy since the start of the Arab Spring.

“The Muslim Brotherhood stole the revolution in Egypt,” he said in a declaration that sounded like he was justifying the army forcing out the Islamist organization in a coup last July.

In the last few months Kerry specifically protested his discontentment with the ousted Mohamed Morsi, a step that brought the US administration to suspend its military financial support for Egypt.

Kerry in Egypt (Photo: Reuters)

Morsi was elected Egyptian president in 2012, a year and a half after the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, who was in power 29 years.

Since Morsi’s rise to power, the Muslim Brotherhood took over many authorities, and its adversaries claimed that after the Brotherhood took advantage of the democracy in Egypt to rise to power, it purposely impaired the democratic system in an effort to turn Egypt into a more religious and more conservative state.

A year after Morsi’s victory, the masses set out to protest in the streets against him, and as a result, the army – the shield of secularity in Egypt – drove him out.

Kerry said Wednesday that “Those kids in Tahrir Square, they were not motivated by any religion or ideology. They were motivated by what they saw through this interconnected world, and they wanted a piece of the opportunity and a chance to get an education and have a job and have a future, and not have a corrupt government that deprived them of all of that and more.”

It is not certain what caused these harsh words, but it seems that the daily Al Hayat found out. Diplomatic spokespeople in Washington told the newspaper that Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel are having a disagreement with the White House and Obama’s advisors in regards to Morsi’s ouster.

According to the sources, the disagreement deepened recently, specifically after the US administration announced it was suspending Egypt’s military aid in October, leading to Russia’s attempt to sign a military deal with Egypt.

The Russian delegation in Egypt (Photo: AFP)

  “Hagel and Kerry opposed this, as did Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Phil Gordon,” Al Hayat reported.

The newspaper also said that National Security Advisor Susan Rice was among the evident supporters to suspend Egypt’s military aid. Rice justified her support by saying she wanted a balanced Egypt policy, and that opposition to the military suppression and the non-democratic proceedings in Egypt need to be at the heart of American strategy.

“Credible” sources told Al Hayat that Kerry visited Egypt under his own initiative. American news site Daily Beast said Rice had asked Kerry directly before his visit to deliver uncompromising messages in regards to Morsi’s trial. Kerry ignored the request and turned the visit into a bridge-gap opportunity.

An Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson already commented on Kerry’s remarks in a Sky interview in Arabic. “Kerry’s statements take a positive stance for America’s relations with Egypt,” he said, adding that Washington and Cairo’s connection are strategically important for both sides.

Recently, Russia has been leaning closer to Egypt because of the potential weakening of its relations with the US. The climax of the relationship-building came when the Russian defense and foreign minister visited in Cairo. One of the issues discussed was a weapons deal, by which Egypt would receive MiG fighter planes, defense systems and anti-tank missiles. The deal is expected to be carried out in the beginning of 2014, but there hasn’t been an official announcement as of yet.

Israeli official: Iran’s Khamenei spitting on world powers and the West thinks it’s rain | JPost | Israel News.

By YUVAL BAGNO, SOF HASHAVUA

11/21/2013 19:10

Officials in Jerusalem upset that Western powers fail to condemn inflammatory comments by Iran’s supreme leader: “We knew the Americans were eager to reach a deal in Geneva, but we did not estimate to how great an extent.”

Israeli officials expressed shock Thursday that world powers negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program, and the US in particular, remained silent in regard to scathing comments against Israel made by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday.

Khamenei took swipes at Israel and France during a speech to tens of thousands of volunteer Basij militiamen in Tehran, broadcast live on Iran’s Press TV. “Zionist officials cannot be called humans, they are like animals, some of them,” said Khamenei. “The Israeli regime is doomed to failure and annihilation,” he said. The Iranian leader referred to the “Zionist regime” as the “rabid dog of the region.”

Jerusalem awaited condemnation of the comments from senior officials of the states taking part in nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva, but such a reaction was not forthcoming. The P5+1 group of world powers negotiating with Iran consists of the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.

“We knew the Americans were eager, even more so than the Iranians themselves, to reach an intermediate deal in Geneva, but we did not estimate to how great an extent,” a senior official in Jerusalem told The Jerusalem Post‘s Hebrew-language sister publication Sof Hashavua Magazine.

The official added that “the West is choosing not to direct its gaze at Khamenei, who is the true face of Iran and its de facto ruler, and to accept the “pretty face” of Iran’s new diplomacy instead. The comments by the supreme leader, who cursed America and France at the height of the talks, constitute spitting in the face of the enlightened world, not just Israel, but the world remains silent, thinking it is rain, and continues to talk with this leader’s emissaries, who are masters of deception. They then blame us for making comparisons to the 1930s.”

An official in the US delegation to the Geneva talks skirted questions Thursday from journalists on the issue, saying, “Naturally, there are still expressions of the deep lack of trust between us and the Iranians – which stem from more than three decades of severed relations. We are trying to reach an agreement whose goal is to peacefully prevent the Iranian regime from obtaining nuclear weapons, while dealing with this atmosphere, and it is not easy.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who flew to Russia on Wednesday to appeal for tougher terms, said Khamenei’s comments showed Iran had not changed since so-called moderate Hassan Rouhani was elected as president in June.

“He called Jews ‘rabid dogs’ and said that they were not human. The public responded to him with calls of ‘Death to America! Death to Israel!’ Doesn’t this sound familiar to you? This is the real Iran! We are not confused. They must not have nuclear weapons. And I promise you that they will not have nuclear weapons,” the premier said.

Jpost.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

Israel ‘unpleasantly surprised’ by US silence on Khamenei’s vicious speech | The Times of Israel.

Iranian leader called Israel ‘rabid dog’ and Israelis ‘not human,’ yet Washington said nothing, officials in Jerusalem complain; dovish Labor MK demands Kerry, Ashton issue urgent condemnations

By Raphael Ahren November 21, 2013, 5:57 pm

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in June. (photo credit: AP/Office of the Supreme Leader)

Jerusalem is “unpleasantly surprised” that, as of Thursday afternoon, the Obama administration had not unequivocally condemned vicious anti-Israel statements made Wednesday morning by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, senior Israeli officials told The Times of Israel.

In an address to an assembly of tens of thousands of Basij militiamen, Khamenei declared that Israel was doomed to fail and characterized the “Zionist regime” as the “sinister, unclean rabid dog of the region.” He also said Israelis “cannot be called human beings.” Footage of the event showed the crowd shouting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

At a meeting Thursday morning with Jewish leaders in Moscow, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today’s Iran reminded him “of the dark regimes of the past that plotted against us first and then against all of humanity,” and thus had to prevented from attaining nuclear weapons. “The real Iran is what the leader of Iran, Khamenei, said yesterday,” said Netanyahu. “He called Jews ‘rabid dogs’ and said that they were not human. The public responded to him with calls of ‘Death to America! Death to Israel!’ Doesn’t this sound familiar to you? This is the real Iran! We are not confused,” said Netanyahu.

Khamenei delivered the speech hours before the resumption of talks in Geneva between the P5+1 countries and Iran on thwarting Iran’s rogue nuclear program.

To Israel’s dismay, the speech did not prompt an immediate condemnation by the United States, the officials said Thursday. By contrast, a French government spokesperson said soon after Khamenei had spoken that President Francois Hollande considered the comments to be “unacceptable” and that they would complicate the Geneva talks.

World leaders should take notice of the regime’s true, genocidal face, as reflected by Khamenei’s remarks, and beware of premature concessions in the current nuclear negotiations, the top officials urged.

Deputy Knesset Speaker Hilik Bar (Labor) on Thursday sent a strongly worded letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry and several senior international officials demanding they “issue condemnations in the strongest possible terms” — and “sooner rather than later.”

Labor MK Hilik Bar (photo credit: courtesy)

“Precisely during the course of those negotiations [in Geneva], Khamenei spoke out in the most extreme, inflammatory and disgraceful manner against the State of Israel,” Bar noted. “Khamenei’s remarks are clearly reminiscent of similarly brutal, racist statements made by racist, dictatorial regimes in the past, including that of the Nazis. ‘The Israelis cannot be called human beings because they are animals… A rabid dog… Israel is doomed to destruction.’ Exactly the same declarations were made against Jews, blacks, and others by the Nazis in the 1930s.”

And yet, protested Bar, “I was disappointed to hear no strong condemnation nor any official censure whatsoever by the United States, the European countries, nor the EU itself. These comments from Khamenei, in the middle of talks with the world’s powers, allow the world to understand with what kind of regime we are dealing, and with whose leaders the world has been trying to reach a reasonable compromise in recent days. But reasonable compromises are made with reasonable people, not with inciting, racist, bloodthirsty leaders who intend to annihilate a democratic state – a UN member – and who are not ashamed to say it out loud.”

Bar, a prominent advocate of intensified peace efforts with the Palestinians who recently led a solidarity visit of MKs to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, said he was demanding that recipients of his letter “issue condemnations in the strongest possible terms” and “stand up against the dark, racist statements and incitement” from Iran. “It is not easy to promote the idea of ​​peace among the Israeli public,” he noted, “when Israelis feel attacked and vulnerable, and when they do not have the verbal and moral support of our closest allies, countries that share with us the same moral values of peace, democracy and freedom.”

Bar sent the letter to Kerry, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is leading the talks in Geneva, EU parliament President Martin Schulz and other top officials.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, for his part, called on the six world powers currently negotiating with Iran — the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany — to “pay attention” to Khamenei’s words. They show “the true face of the Iranian regime, not the false representation that [Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani and his people are showing the world,” he wrote on his Facebook profile.

Khamenei, as someone “who uses the words of Goebbels and Hitler when talking about the Jews,” has shown that Iran “certainly does not aim to acquire nuclear power for peaceful purposes,” the foreign minister wrote.

Also on Thursday, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor called on Europe to increase pressure on Tehran because the country’s leaders continue to threaten Israel with annihilation.

“Only when the aggressive and belligerent Iranian rhetoric has stopped and the active pursuit of weapons of mass destruction has been reversed should there be any talk of concessions, not the reverse,” Kantor said.

“Khamenei is still the puppeteer, and while the puppet may have changed, the goals haven’t,” he added. “His hate speech should serve as a clarion call for the world powers to push back the Iranian pursuit of weapons of mass destruction further from reality.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Ex-defense minister: Israel can’t eliminate Iran threat | The Times of Israel.

Netanyahu’s strategy failed, says Mofaz; MK Hilik Bar lambastes Kerry for not condemning ayatollah’s vitriolic comments

By Lazar Berman November 21, 2013, 5:09 pm

Shaul Mofaz (photo credit: Uri Lenz/Flash90)

Israel’s military is not capable of eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat entirely, a former defense minister and chief of staff said Thursday.

Kadima party chairman MK Shaul Mofaz, a former IDF chief of staff, acknowledged during an event Thursday morning at the Gordon College of Education in Haifa that the IDF had the ability to delay the program, but would likely face a two-front war while doing so.

Israel should still prepare its forces in case a military strike became necessary, but warned that “Israel could spark a regional war, and therefore we must weigh this seriously.”

He criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strategy on Iran. “The Israeli strategy has failed and a different strategy could have been chosen. Netanyahu is fighting a losing battle, and it would have been better to work quietly to bring the Americans on board with our strategy and our red lines,” Mofaz said.

Also Thursday, a day after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told tens of thousands of Basij militiamen that “Israel is the sinister, unclean, rabid dog of the region,” Deputy Knesset Speaker Hilik Bar reprimanded the Americans and the EU for their failure to denounce Khamenei’s statement.

“Khamenei’s words clearly recalled the racist incitement against Jews, blacks, and others by the Nazis in the 1930s,” wrote Bar in a scathing letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. “It is sad and grave that we do not hear a firm condemnation from you.”

“A logical compromise is made with logical people and not with racist, bloodthirsty leaders who want to destroy a democratic UN member state…,” added the MK, who is also the head of the Lobby for the Promotion of a Solution for the Israeli-Arab Conflict. “It will not be easy to advance peace among the Israeli public when it feels attacked and vulnerable and does not merit the protection of its closest allies.”

A senior American official at the talks on Wednesday refrained from condemning the Iranian spiritual leader’s comments, but remarked that they were “uncomfortable” to hear and recalled “the decades of mistrust” between Tehran and Washington.

“I call upon and even demand from you to issue a condemnation and to stand up against these dark, inciting, and racist statements that came from Iran yesterday, and it would best be done sooner rather than later,” wrote Bar.

Iran is hoping to negotiate an easing of sanctions placed on the country by the West, which hopes to force it to roll back its nuclear program.

The latest round of international negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 powers (the permanent members of the US Security Council plus Germany) began on Wednesday, hours after Khamenei’s statements about Israel.

Khamenei said Europe felt pressed to make concessions to Zionists “because of their economic network,” but said the “Zionist entity” was doomed to collapse, and that its people “should not be called humans,” according to a Channel 2 translation of his comments.

Also Thursday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that Khamenei, “someone who uses the words of Goebbels and Hitler when talking about the Jews,” has shown that Iran “certainly does not aim to acquire nuclear power for peaceful purposes.”

Liberman called on the representatives of the P5+1 countries to “pay attention” to Khamenei’s words. ”The speech by Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, is the true face of the Iranian regime, not the false representation that [Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani and his people are showing the world,” Liberman said.

A round of meetings earlier in November nearly ended with the inking of an interim deal — under which Iran would have frozen part of its program in exchange for an easing of non-core sanctions — despite Israel’s strong objection to any agreement that leaves Iran with the ability to enrich uranium and produce plutonium. The deal on the table reportedly allows Iran to continue to enrich uranium to 3.5 percent during the six-month interim period during which a full deal would be sought.

French objections to the interim terms, under which Iran would also have been permitted to continue work on its Arak heavy water facility, apparently scuppered that agreement 10 days ago.

Ilan Ben-Zion contributed to this report.

Where did Obama go wrong with Iran? – Al Arabiya News.

The obvious protest in the region against the U.S. negotiations with Iran may have surprised the White House, which seeks to reach a historical agreement that ends the dispute with the Iranian regime.

American negotiators may find it strange why regional allies, like Gulf States and Israel, are quick to condemn the possible nuclear deal between major powers and Iran when the matter is still under discussion

The truth is that disarming Iran of its nuclear weapons without launching a war is not a matter of objection. On the contrary, we welcome that as long as it happens for a reasonable price. There was more fear of an expanded and destructive Iranian-international war that may erupt as a result of targeting the Iranian nuclear program as former president George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama had threatened.

This is why everyone has been involved for years in tightening economic sanctions against Iran. The aim of these sanctions was to push Iran to peacefully give up its nuclear military program.

After Hassan Rowhani was elected president, the Iranians voiced their desire to halt part of their nuclear program in exchange for lifting part of the sanctions and getting engaged in negotiations to reach some sort of solution. Obama’s administration seized this signal and rushed to negotiate. It seems the problem is that the American administration was not transparent with regional allies. It did not provide them with all the information on the initial deal.

These countries later found out that there was more to the American proposal than they were informed about. Obama appeared give Iran big financial incentives and yet still allows it to enrich some uranium. This is why everyone became suspicious thinking that Obama’s administration is in a rush to seal a deal at the expense of the region.

Deal scenarios?

The first scenario is that Iran may accept to be disarmed of its nuclear weapons and in exchange the United States would withdraw its force from Gulf waters and pledge not to engage in wars with Tehran in the Middle East as long as these wars are not directed towards the United States.

The second one is that the U.S. agrees to let Iran continue its military nuclear program in exchange for guarantees not to use it.

As we see, both options are very dangerous for the countries in the region. The first option will allow and encourage Iran to compensate its nuclear loss with committing more wars in the Middle East and thus turn the latter into a regional battlefield that’s wider than what we see in Syria.

The second one will make Iran a country that possesses an invincible weapon. This will increase its feeling of superiority and its desire to avenge and expand. It will push regional countries to also seek nuclear weapons in order for deterrence. Therefore, there will be a nuclear arms race in a region full of madmen.

In response to this concern and during a closed-door meeting few days ago, I heard an American official affirm that the United States will not allow Iran to commit any act of aggression in the region. The problem is that we are currently confronting an unprecedented Iranian act of aggression.

The Iranian regime thinks – and perhaps it’s right – that the Obama administration will not intervene no matter what crimes it and its allies commit. The regime has for the first time sent thousands of its troops to fight outside Iran – that is in Syria. Even Ahmadinejad, who was a very extremist president, did not do this as he settled with fighting through his proxies, like Hezbollah. Iran is violently fighting outside Iran under Rowhani’s term because it thinks that the current American government will not stop it.

Obama is flirting with Iran and he hasn’t done anything to reassure his allies and friends or at least deter the Iranian and Syrian regimes from committing terrifying crimes in Syria. He speaks of how he will not allow Iran to act om aggression while we witness his silence over the biggest tragedy in the region’s history as more than 130,000 people have been killed, more than 6 million have been displaced and heavy weapons and jets continue to target cities and towns in Syria.

And now, his current government wonders why there’s so much anger about this mysterious negotiations! Obama is negotiating with Iran to free its hand more in the region.

This article was first published in Asharq al-Awsat on Nov. 21, 2013.
_____________________________
Abdulrahman al-Rashed is the General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel. A veteran and internationally acclaimed journalist, he is a former editor-in-chief of the London-based leading Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, where he still regularly writes a political column. He has also served as the editor of Asharq al-Awsat’s sister publication, al-Majalla. Throughout his career, Rashed has interviewed several world leaders, with his articles garnering worldwide recognition, and he has successfully led Al Arabiya to the highly regarded, thriving and influential position it is in today.

CNN: Iran making ICBMs to attack US? – YouTube.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev says Iran is building intercontinental ballistic missiles, targeting the U.S.

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Exclusive: Inside America’s Plan to Kill Online Privacy Rights Everywhere | The Cable.

( As an American, I am coming more and more to regard the US, my birth country and the one superpower as the greatest threat to freedom in the world. 

As an Israeli, I am beginning to feel like the US is no longer an ally but an enemy. 

I feel literally sick to my stomach writing this.  God save us and the United States of America… JW )

Posted By Colum Lynch Wednesday, November 20, 2013 – 6:10 PM

The United States and its key intelligence allies are quietly working behind the scenes to kneecap a mounting movement in the United Nations to promote a universal human right to online privacy, according to diplomatic sources and an internal American government document obtained by The Cable.

The diplomatic battle is playing out in an obscure U.N. General Assembly committee that is considering a proposal by Brazil and Germany to place constraints on unchecked internet surveillance by the National Security Agency and other foreign intelligence services. American representatives have made it clear that they won’t tolerate such checks on their global surveillance network. The stakes are high, particularly in Washington — which is seeking to contain an international backlash against NSA spying — and in Brasilia, where Brazilian President Dilma Roussef is personally involved in monitoring the U.N. negotiations.

The Brazilian and German initiative seeks to apply the right to privacy, which is enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to online communications. Their proposal, first revealed by The Cable, affirms a “right to privacy that is not to be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with their privacy, family, home, or correspondence.” It notes that while public safety may “justify the gathering and protection of certain sensitive information,” nations “must ensure full compliance” with international human rights laws. A final version the text is scheduled to be presented to U.N. members on Wednesday evening and the resolution is expected to be adopted next week.

A draft of the resolution, which was obtained by The Cable, calls on states to “to respect and protect the right to privacy,” asserting that the “same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including the right to privacy.” It also requests the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, present the U.N. General Assembly next year with a report on the protection and promotion of the right to privacy, a provision that will ensure the issue remains on the front burner.

Publicly, U.S. representatives say they’re open to an affirmation of privacy rights. “The United States takes very seriously our international legal obligations, including those under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” Kurtis Cooper, a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said in an email. “We have been actively and constructively negotiating to ensure that the resolution promotes human rights and is consistent with those obligations.”

But privately, American diplomats are pushing hard to kill a provision of the Brazilian and German draft which states that “extraterritorial surveillance” and mass interception of communications, personal information, and metadata may constitute a violation of human rights. The United States and its allies, according to diplomats, outside observers, and documents, contend that the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights does not apply to foreign espionage.

In recent days, the United States circulated to its allies a confidential paper highlighting American objectives in the negotiations, “Right to Privacy in the Digital Age — U.S. Redlines.” It calls for changing the Brazilian and German text so “that references to privacy rights are referring explicitly to States’ obligations under ICCPR and remove suggestion that such obligations apply extraterritorially.” In other words: America wants to make sure it preserves the right to spy overseas.

The U.S. paper also calls on governments to promote amendments that would weaken Brazil’s and Germany’s contention that some “highly intrusive” acts of online espionage may constitute a violation of freedom of expression. Instead, the United States wants to limit the focus to illegal surveillance — which the American government claims it never, ever does. Collecting information on tens of millions of people around the world is perfectly acceptable, the Obama administration has repeatedly said. It’s authorized by U.S. statute, overseen by Congress, and approved by American courts.

“Recall that the USG’s [U.S. government’s] collection activities that have been disclosed are lawful collections done in a manner protective of privacy rights,” the paper states. “So a paragraph expressing concern about illegal surveillance is one with which we would agree.”

The privacy resolution, like most General Assembly decisions, is neither legally binding nor enforceable by any international court. But international lawyers say it is important because it creates the basis for an international consensus — referred to as “soft law” — that over time will make it harder and harder for the United States to argue that its mass collection of foreigners’ data is lawful and in conformity with human rights norms.

“They want to be able to say ‘we haven’t broken the law, we’re not breaking the law, and we won’t break the law,'” said Dinah PoKempner, the general counsel for Human Rights Watch, who has been tracking the negotiations. The United States, she added, wants to be able to maintain that “we have the freedom to scoop up anything we want through the massive surveillance of foreigners because we have no legal obligations.”

The United States negotiators have been pressing their case behind the scenes, raising concerns that the assertion of extraterritorial human rights could constrain America’s effort to go after international terrorists. But Washington has remained relatively muted about their concerns in the U.N. negotiating sessions. According to one diplomat, “the United States has been very much in the backseat,” leaving it to its allies, Australia, Britain, and Canada, to take the lead.

There is no extraterritorial obligation on states “to comply with human rights,” explained one diplomat who supports the U.S. position. “The obligation is on states to uphold the human rights of citizens within their territory and areas of their jurisdictions.”

The position, according to Jamil Dakwar, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Human Rights Program, has little international backing. The International Court of Justice, the U.N. Human Rights Committee, and the European Court have all asserted that states do have an obligation to comply with human rights laws beyond their own borders, he noted. “Governments do have obligation beyond their territories,” said Dakwar, particularly in situations, like the Guantanamo Bay detention center, where the United States exercises “effective control” over the lives of the detainees.

Both PoKempner and Dakwar suggested that courts may also judge that the U.S. dominance of the Internet places special legal obligations on it to ensure the protection of users’ human rights.

“It’s clear that when the United States is conducting surveillance, these decisions and operations start in the United States, the servers are at NSA headquarters, and the capabilities are mainly in the United States,” he said. “To argue that they have no human rights obligations overseas is dangerous because it sends a message that there is void in terms of human rights protection outside countries territory. It’s going back to the idea that you can create a legal black hole where there is no applicable law.” There were signs emerging on Wednesday that America may have been making ground in pressing the Brazilians and Germans to back on one of its toughest provisions. In an effort to address the concerns of the U.S. and its allies, Brazil and Germany agreed to soften the language suggesting that mass surveillance may constitute a violation of human rights. Instead, it simply deep “concern at the negative impact” that extraterritorial surveillance “may have on the exercise of and enjoyment of human rights.” The U.S., however, has not yet indicated it would support the revised proposal.

The concession “is regrettable. But it’s not the end of the battle by any means,” said Human Rights Watch’s PoKempner. She added that there will soon be another opportunity to corral America’s spies: a U.N. discussion on possible human rights violations as a result of extraterritorial surveillance will soon be taken up by the U.N. High commissioner.

U.S. optimistic about a nuclear deal with Iran.

By David Ignatius, Updated: November 20 at 6:56 pm

Amid furtive talks, Iran says negotiating a ‘difficult job’ | The Times of Israel.

France toughens up terms for an interim nuclear agreement; Iranian FM meets privately with EU top diplomat Catherine Ashton

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, left, sits next to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, right, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Wednesday, November 20, 2013. (photo credit: AP Photo/Keystone,Salvatore Di Nolfi)

GENEVA (AP) — Talks on a draft deal meant to start a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief were delayed Thursday, with a senior Iranian envoy suggesting that the momentum characterizing much of a previous round had been slowed.

Negotiators from Iran and six world powers parted on November 10 saying that an agreement was within reach, even after added complications posed by a toughened position from France.

But a negotiating round scheduled for Thursday morning was postponed in a favor of a meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the European Union’s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton.

That and comments from Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi indicated that the two sides were pausing to take stock.

“What we are trying now is to rebuild confidence that we lost in the previous round of negotiations,” Araghchi told The Associated Press.

Speaking of an unspecified “misunderstanding or … mismanagement in the previous round,” he said “serious negotiations” had not yet started on a draft text meant to outline the contours of any first-step deal.

While saying agreement was possible, Araghchi spoke of a “difficult job” ahead to bridge differences, which he described as “remarkable” in separate comments to Iranian state TV.

He also said talks have included possible ways to reduce sanctions on Iranian oil sales and banking. The U.S. and its partners have spoken of offering some financial concessions, such as unfreezing Iranian bank accounts from previous oil sales.

But they have insisted the tough sanctions would remain in place to see if Iran abides by a first-stage deal.

Warnings from Iran’s supreme leader that his country’s readiness for compromise has its limits added to the sense of some work ahead. The tough talk reflected the tensions from nearly a decade of negotiations that have begun to make headway only recently.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voiced support for the talks Wednesday but insisted there are limits to what Tehran will deal away at the negotiating table. He blasted Israel as “the rabid dog of the region” — comments rejected by French President Francois Hollande as “unacceptable.”

French spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told reporters in Paris that such statements complicate the talks, but France still hopes for a deal and its position has not changed. A previous round of talks earlier this month ended without agreement after France said it wanted tough conditions in any preliminary deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin, renewed his demand for a full stop to all Iranian nuclear programs that could be turned from peaceful uses to making weapons.

Israel wants a settlement that is “genuine and real,” he said.

“Israel believes that the international community must unequivocally ensure the fulfillment of the UN Security Council’s decisions so that uranium enrichment ends, centrifuges are dismantled, enriched material is taken out of Iran and the reactor in Arak is dismantled,” Netanyahu said, referring to Iran’s plutonium reactor under construction.

If the talks produce a deal to freeze Iran’s nuclear efforts, negotiators will pursue a more comprehensive agreement that would ensure that Tehran’s program is solely for civilian purposes. Iran would get some sanctions relief under such a first-step deal, without any easing of the harshest measures — those crippling its ability to sell oil, its main revenue maker.

Iran has suggested it could curb its highest-known level of enrichment — at 20 percent — in a possible deal that could ease the U.S.-led economic sanctions.

But Iranian leaders have made clear that their country will not consider giving up its ability to make nuclear fuel — the centerpiece of the talks since the same process used to make reactor stock can be used to make weapons-grade material.

Details of sanctions relief being discussed have not been revealed. But a member of the US Congress and legislative aides on Wednesday put the figure at $6 billion to $10 billion, based on what they said were estimates from the U.S. administration.

The aides and the member of Congress demanded anonymity because they weren’t authorized to divulge the estimate publicly.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Israel Hayom | Iran flexes muscles as Geneva talks renew.