Archive for September 25, 2014

« WarSclerotic home page
« Older Entries

Rouhani ties Iran cooperation on Mideast violence to nuke deal

September 25, 2014

Rouhani ties Iran cooperation on Mideast violence to nuke deal, Fox News, September 25, 2014

UN General Assembly_Rouhani_AP_660In this Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014 photo, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran walks in before addressing the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters. (AP)

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday sought to leverage the crisis in the Middle East to ease sanctions on his country as part of nuclear talks, suggesting during a United Nations address that security cooperation between Iran and other nations could only occur if they struck a favorable nuclear deal.

The Iranian president, meanwhile, sought to lay the blame for raging violence in the Middle East at the feet of western nations. He strongly condemned terrorism and described it as a serious threat, but also said the West’s “blunders” in the region have created a “haven for terrorists and extremists.” He alleged that attempts to “export” democracy have created “weak and vulnerable governments.”

While focusing in large part on violent extremists in the region, Rouhani made clear Iran’s cooperation in addressing these threats hinges on the outcome of ongoing nuclear talks – as he once again urged other nations to drop what he described as “excessive demands.”

Rouhani said a deal could mark the “beginning of multilateral cooperation” and allow for “greater focus on some very important regional issues such as combating violence and extremism.”

But, he said: “The people of Iran who have been subjected to pressures … as a result of continued sanctions cannot place trust in any security cooperation between their governments with those who have imposed sanctions.”

Whether Iran’s cooperation in addressing Middle East unrest will serve as an effective bargaining chip remains to be seen.

The U.S. publicly has said it will not cooperate militarily or share intelligence with Iran to address the Islamic State threat.

Yet Secretary of State John Kerry said this week he was “open to have a conversation at some point in time if there’s a way to find something constructive.” And the U.S. reportedly notified Iran in advance of plans to strike inside Syria.

In his address to world leaders late Wednesday, British Prime Minister David Cameron also said Iran could help in defeating the terror group’s threat. Cameron spoke hours after meeting in person with Rouhani, the first meeting between the British and Iranian leaders since the Iranian revolution in 1979.

The world leaders spoke as the U.S., Iran and other nations resume nuclear talks after a two-month hiatus.

They are running up against a Nov. 24 deadline to reach a comprehensive agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for easing sanctions.

Tehran, though, is resisting U.S. calls that it gut a nuclear program that enriches uranium, a process that can make both reactor fuel and the fissile core of a nuclear warhead. GOP lawmakers have also warned that the Obama administration may be willing to give too much ground to Iran in pursuit of an agreement.

Failure to seal a deal could see a return to confrontation, including U.S. and Israeli threats of military means as a last resort to slow Iran’s nuclear program.

“My message to Iran’s leaders and people is simple: Do not let this opportunity pass,” President Obama said Wednesday in his own address to world leaders.

The disagreement has complicated efforts to regarding the Islamic State menace.

In comments on the eve of his own General Assembly speech, Rouhani suggested his country was ready to join Washington and others in opposing the Islamic State. But he said the U.S. needed to move beyond “insignificant” fears that his country seeks nuclear arms.

At the same time, he was critical of the U.S. bombing campaign of Islamic State group strongholds and the growing coalition of countries seeking to stop the extremists by military means. “Bombing and airstrikes are not the appropriate way,” Rouhani said, warning that “extraterritorial interference … in fact only feeds and strengthens terrorism.”

There are other issues. American officials are furious with Iran for detaining Jason Rezarian, a Washington Post journalist who has both American and Iranian citizenship, as well as his wife.

Iranian officials have not specifically said why the couple is being held, and Rouhani has dodged questions about their fate. Asked again Wednesday about Rezarian, he said he would be freed if he is innocent of any crime.

Categories: Iranian nukes, Iraq war, Syria war
Tags: , , , , ,

Comments: 4 Comments

Syrian Brotherhood Stands Nearer to ISIS Than to U.S. :: The Investigative Project on Terrorism

September 25, 2014

Syrian Brotherhood Stands Nearer to ISIS Than to U.S.

by Ravi Kumar

IPT News  September 16, 2014

via Syrian Brotherhood Stands Nearer to ISIS Than to U.S. :: The Investigative Project on Terrorism.

While the United States tries to build a coalition of Arab allies to join the fight against the terrorist group ISIS, now known as the Islamic State, one group which stands to benefit directly is coming out against Western intervention and expressing unity with other radical jihadists.

A Syrian Muslim Brotherhood spokesman says attacks on the Islamic State by the United States and its allies are not the answer.

“Our battle with ISIS is an intellectual battle,” Omar Mushaweh said in a statement published Sept. 9 on the Syrian Brotherhood’s official website, “and we wish that some of its members get back to their sanity, we really distinguish between those in ISIS who are lured and brainwashed and they might go back to the path of righteous, and between those who has foreign agendas and try to pervert the way of the [Syrian] revolution.”

Rather, the first target for any Western intervention should be dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Mushaweh asserts, according to a translation of his comments by the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Such comments should reinforce Western concerns about the Syrian Brotherhood, whose members are prominent among the Free Syrian Army (FSA), one of the supposedly moderate factions in the Syrian civil war which receive U.S. training and weapons. And it shows the challenge of finding truly moderate allies on the ground in Syria. Compared to ISIS, the FSA might be considered moderate. Then again, ISIS was so ruthlessly violent that al-Qaida disavowed the group in February.

In addition, the Syrian Brotherhood openly mourned the death last week of a commander in Ahrar Al Asham, a Syrian faction with ties to al-Qaida.

Mushaweh’s views about the U.S. intervention are shared by other Brotherhood members. Another Brotherhood leader, Zuher Salem, minimized the ISIS threat by comparing current American rhetoric to that which preceded the 2003 Iraq invasion.

“All of these tales that are being told by America about the primitive, terrorist and threatening nature of the Islamic State are similar to the tales that have been told in regard to the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, and about the crimes against humanity,” Salem wrote in an article published Sept. 13 by the Arab East Center, a think tank associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. “It is trifling to race with others to condemn terrorism and the killing of the American journalist, because we should be aware the aim of this anti ISIS coalition is to pave the way for an Iranian hegemony over the region.”

Yusuf Al Qaradawi, an influential Brotherhood cleric living in Qatar, joined in criticizing the American military campaign against ISIS. “I totally disagree with [ISIS] ideology and means,” he wrote on Twitter, “but I don’t at all accept that the one to fight it is America, which does not act in the name of Islam but rather in its own interests, even if blood is shed.”

While both are Sunni Muslim movements, each seeking to establish a global Islamic Caliphate, ISIS views the Brotherhood as too passive, while the Brotherhood sees ISIS as being unnecessarily violent in pursuing its aims.

The two have common enemies, however, including the ruling regimes of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, which have worked to cripple the Brotherhood, and which ISIS considers infidel regimes which should be toppled in pursuit of a broader Islamic Caliphate.

In another indication the Syrian Brotherhood is no moderating force, it issued a statement on its website Sept. 10 mourning the killing of Ahrar Al Asham leader Hassan Aboud in a suicide bombing.

“Syria has given a  constellation of the best of its sons, and the bravest leaders of the Islamic front and Ahrar Al Sham,” the head of the Brotherhood’s political bureau, Hassan Al Hashimi, said in the statement translated by the IPT. “We consider them Martyrs.”

Ahrar Al Sham is a radical group co-founded by Abu Khaled al-Suri, who was al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri’s designated representative in Syria. Al-Suri was killed in February in a suicide bombing believed to be carried out by ISIS.

Aboud made clear his ideological links to al-Qaida clear in a July 2013 Twitter post. “May God have mercy on the Mujahid Sheikh Abdullah Azzam. He was a scholar of Jihad and the morality.” Azzam was considered a mentor to Osama bin Laden, and pushed conspiracy theories involving Jewish and Christian plots against Islam.

The Brotherhood official mourning Aboud, Al Hashimi, has visited the United States a couple of times since the Syrian civil war started.

 

He spoke at the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in northern Virginia on Nov. 17, 2013, as part of a program organized by the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF). The SETF has worked closely with Muslim Brotherhood members and some of its officials have expressed anti-Semitic statements and solidarity with Hamas.

Still, the SETF has partnered with the State Department to implement training projects in Syria. Last December, the SETF’s executive director endorsed working with a coalition of Syrian opposition groups called the Islamic Front, even though several entities involved, including Ahrar Al-Sham, had fought with ISIS and the radical Jabhat al-Nusra, or al-Nusra Front. Four Islamic Front affiliates also endorsed a declaration calling for “the rule of sharia and making it the sole source of legislation” in a post-Assad Syria.

The announcement of the event was distributed to the Dar Al Hijrah mailing list, but without mentioning that Al Hashimi is the head of the political bureau of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

ISIS Fight: Mariam Al Mansouri Is First Woman Fighter Pilot for U.A.E.Pic of The Day

September 25, 2014

ISIS Fight: Mariam Al Mansouri Is First Woman Fighter Pilot for U.A.E.
BY ERIN MCCLAM September 25, 2014 Via NBC


(Silly me…and I thought women were not allowed to drive cars-LS)

The first female fighter pilot for the United Arab Emirates led the mission when that country joined the United States and other allies in airstrikes against ISIS over Syria earlier this week.

Maj. Mariam Al Mansouri graduated flight school in 2007 and was one of the first three to join the Emirati air force when it admitted women. She flew an F-16 Desert Falcon on Monday night.

“She is a fully qualified, highly trained, combat-ready pilot, and she led the mission,” Yousef Al Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador to the United States, said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“Actually, funny story is, the U.S. tanker pilots called in for air refueling and asked for the UAE mission, and when they heard a female voice on the other side, they actually paused for about 20 seconds, radio silence,” he said.

Mansouri, 35, was born in Abu Dhabi and graduated college with a degree in English literature. She told the magazine Deraa Al Watan earlier this year that her love of country and a passion for challenge and competition drew her to aviation.

But she said that she never focused on competing with male pilots: “Competing with oneself,” she told the magazine, “is conducive to continued learning.”

Mansouri served in the Army before enrolling in flight training. She told The National, an English-language Emirati news outlet, in 2008: “A woman’s passion about something will lead her to achieving what she aspires, and that’s why she should pursue her interests.”

“Being in the air force is a responsibility,” she said. “I feel proud, especially that I am part of the first batch. And that encourages me to continue in this field.”

Earlier this year, the Emirati government presented Mansouri the Pride of the Emirates medal for excellence in her field.

The Emirates were among five Arab allies that joined the United States in the first round of airstrikes in Syria to beat back ISIS forces. They were the first to confirm their participation.

Otaiba, the ambassador, told MSNBC that it was imperative for moderate Arab and Muslim countries to step up and say: “This is a threat against us.”

He said the fight comes down to: “Do you want a model or a society that allows women to become ministers in government, female fighter pilots, business executives, artists — or do you want a society where, if a woman doesn’t cover up in public, she’s beaten or she’s lashed or she’s raped. I mean this is ultimately what this breaks down to.”

Categories: Uncategorized

Comments: 1 Comment

General Assembly 2014: Obama U.N. Speech

September 25, 2014

General Assembly 2014: Obama U.N. Speech [FULL] Today | The New York Times – YouTube.

I say we give his change of attitude, as evinced by his UN speech the benefit of the doubt.

We all know he allowed this situation to develop.

It would appear he now recognizes that himself.

As late and as hesitant as it is, his stand against Islamic extremism is the ONLY one in this cowardly and self -interested world “community.”

Three cheers for Obama !

Thank God for the United States of America !

– JW

Categories: Uncategorized

Comments: 12 Comments

Who Are Khorasan? The Al-Qaeda Leaders Who May Tie Iran To 9/11, that’s who!

September 25, 2014

WHO ARE KHORASAN? THE AL-QAEDA LEADERS WHO MAY TIE IRAN TO 9/11
by JORDAN SCHACHTEL 24 Sep 2014 Via Breitbart


(Iran…the snake in the woodpile.-LS)

Is Muhsin al-Fadhli, the Khorasan leader with a $7 million dollar price tag on his head, ultimately responsible for successfully soliciting Iran’s alleged cooperation in the al-Qaeda attacks against the United States on 9/11/01?

Prior to the United States’ Tuesday strike on al-Qaeda sub group Khorasan, American officials warned that the terror outfit, which has been given safe haven in Syria by the AQ-affiliated Nusra Front, has become as severe a threat to U.S. interests as the Islamic State.

Last week, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said bluntly, “In terms of threat to the homeland, Khorasan may pose as much of a danger as the Islamic State.”

In 2012, the U.S. State Department announced a reward of $7 million dollars for information leading to the location of Muhsin al-Fadhli, who is recognized as the leader of the al-Qaeda sub group Khorasan. At the time, Fadhli was believed to be a chief operative of al-Qaeda in Iran, a terror entity largely given a free pass by Tehran to operate in their country.

Khorasan, however, is a relatively unconventional Sunni terror group because they have reportedly sought cooperation with the Iranian regime. The Islamic State, on the other hand, describes Shia Muslims as Rafida, or apostates, who reject true Islam.

In 2013, an intelligence assessment stated that Khorasan leader al-Fadhli “now plays a key role in advancing plans for attacks by al-Qaeda from Syria, in accordance with Iran’s interests.” Fadhli, who was once a trusted associate of deceased AQ leader Osama bin Laden, and is now reportedly a close confidant of AQ leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, was one of the few AQ members who was given advance notice of the 9/11 attacks, according to the State Department.

Many, including former U.S. President George W. Bush have noted the substantial ties between AQ and the Ayatollah’s regime in Tehran. Additionally, multiple members of President Bush’s 9/11 Commission filed affidavits determining that Iran’s direct cooperation with the AQ hijackers “constituted … direct support for al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks.”

Middle East expert Kenneth Timmerman documented the substantial connections between al-Qaeda’s 9/11 jihadis and the government of Iran. He wrote, “Secret intelligence reports detailed the travels of about 10 of the hijackers into Iran and back and forth into Afghanistan from October 2000 through February 2001, where they were whisked through border controls without ever getting their passports stamped.”

In May, The Long War Journal’s Thomas Joscelyn described al-Fadhli as a member of al-Qaeda’s “core,” the group directly responsible for the September 11 attacks. Additionally, in January, Joscelyn documented how Iran continues to let senior AQ operatives, including al-Fadhli, roam their country free of worry.

Will Khorasan and Muhsin al-Fadhli, as al-Qaeda’s premier bridge to Iran, end up refocusing the international spotlight on the atrocities committed by the Ayatollah’s regime in Tehran?

Categories: Uncategorized

Comments: Be the first to comment

Israel: Iran tested nuclear tech at Parchin

September 25, 2014

Israel: Iran tested nuclear tech at Parchin – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Statement from Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz says Israel holds ‘highly reliable information’ that Iran tested technology that can only be used in WMDs.

Reuters

Published:

09.24.14, 21:39 / Israel News

Israel said on Wednesday that Iran has used its Parchin military base as the site for secret tests of technology that could be used only for detonating a nuclear weapon.

The Jewish state has been a severe critic of six big powers’ negotiations with Iran on restraining its nuclear program, suspecting Tehran is only trying to buy time to master sensitive nuclear know-how and would evade the terms of any final deal.

Iranian leader Rouhani to address the UN. (Photo: AP)
Iranian leader Rouhani to address the UN. (Photo: AP)

The Islamic Republic says allegations that it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability are false and baseless. Tehran says it is Israel’s assumed atomic arsenal that is a destabilizing threat to the Middle East.

A statement from Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, issued a day before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani – the architect of Tehran’s diplomacy with the big powers – was to address the UN General Assembly, said internal neutron sources such as uranium were used in nuclear implosion tests at Parchin.

  • Israel, his statement said, based its information on “highly reliable information”, without elaborating.

    It gave no specific dates for such testing, saying only that it occurred during what it called the 2000-2001 construction of a nuclear weaponization test site in Parchin.

    An annex to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report in 2011, which included information received from member states, indicated that Iran may have conducted such alleged experiments but did not specify where they had taken place.

    “It is important to emphasize that these kinds of tests can have no ‘dual use’ explanation, since the only possible purpose of such internal neutron sources is to ignite the nuclear chain reaction in nuclear weapons,” the Israeli statement said.

    MK Yuval Steinitz. (Photo: Gil Yochanon)
    MK Yuval Steinitz. (Photo: Gil Yochanon)

    “Dual use” technology, materials or know-how can be applied to producing either civilian nuclear energy or nuclear bombs.

    Iran has long denied UN nuclear inspectors access to the Parchin base outside Tehran where the IAEA has said it has observed, via satellite imagery, ongoing construction and revamping activity.

    Western officials believe Iran once conducted explosive tests at Parchin of relevance in developing a nuclear weapon and has sought to “cleanse” the compound of evidence since then.

    Iran says Parchin is a conventional military facility, and that the country’s nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes only.

    The landslide election of the relatively moderate Rouhani last year raised hopes of a solution to Iran’s nuclear stand-off with the world powers after years of rising tension and fears of a new Middle East war.

    Israel critical of dialogue with Iran

    An interim accord was reached between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany in Geneva last November. But the two sides did not meet a self-imposed July target date for a long-term agreement and now face a new deadline of Nov. 24.

    Steinitz’s intervention on the alleged Parchin tests issue came against a backdrop of sharp Israeli criticism of the powers’ strategy of seeking to remove the risks posed by Iran’s nuclear program through negotiations.

    An alleged Iranian nuclear facility. (Photo: AFP)
    An alleged Iranian nuclear facility. (Photo: AFP)

    In an interview published on Wednesday in the Israel Hayom newspaper, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “worried … (by) signs that the powers will agree to accept Iran as a nuclear threshold state”.

    Israel has said it would better to tighten isolating international sanctions against Iran, rather than loosen some of them as has been done as part of the interim deal. The Jewish state has also threatened to bomb the nuclear installations of its arch-enemy if it deems the negotiations ultimately futile.

    The IAEA report in 2011 cited intelligence indicating Iran had a nuclear weapons research program that was halted in 2003 when it came under increased international pressure. The intelligence suggested some activities may have resumed later.

    The report identified about 12 specific areas that it said needed clarification, including alleged work on a neutron initiator that could be used to trigger an atomic explosion, and explosive tests at Parchin.

    The information was in part based on information received from IAEA member states. The Vienna-based UN agency did not name them but experts and diplomats say much of it is believed to come from Israel and Western powers.

    Iran has dismissed the allegations as fabricated.

    While the six powers seek to limit the size of Iran’s future nuclear program – and thereby extend the time it would need for any bid to amass fissile material for a weapon – the IAEA is investigating alleged research and experiments in the past that could have been applied to constructing the bomb itself.

    Categories: Uncategorized

    Comments: 1 Comment

    UN Security Council unifies behind anti-IS measures

    September 25, 2014

    UN Security Council unifies behind anti-IS measures

    Special UN Security Council meeting chaired by Obama sees international support rise for anti-Islamic State airstrikes in Syria;

    EU warns against possible attacks by al-Qaeda in bid to regain spotlight

    Yitzhak Benhorin

    Published: 09.25.14, 09:12 / Israel News

    via UN Security Council unifies behind anti-IS measures – Israel News, Ynetnews.

     

    The UN Security Council unified behind the international attempt to fight the Islamic State group and demanded on Wednesday that all states make it a serious criminal offense for their citizens to travel abroad to fight with militant groups, or to recruit and fund others to do so.

    UHHHHH, hamas , qatar and so on ??? who can believe this ? what about arming terrorist, sory freedom fighters, oposition forces so you want, by who ??

     

    At a meeting chaired by US President Barack Obama, the 15-member council unanimously adopted a US-drafted resolution that compels countries to “prevent and suppress” the recruitment and travel of militant fighters to foreign conflicts.

    The resolution will be penned by over 100 nations and de facto removed legal hurdles for US airstrikes in Syria, which unlike Iraq, did not invite the US’ intervention.

    Not for Isareli aistrikes on the hamas terorist ??

    “The United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,” Obama told the General Assembly of the United Nations. “Today I ask the world to join in this effort.”

    So now can Israel dismantle hams ?

    “We will use our military might in a campaign of airstrikes to roll back ISIL,” he declared, using an alternative acronym for the group.

     

    UN Security Council (Photo: AFP)

    After his address, Obama chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council which unanimously approved a binding resolution on stemming the flow of foreign jihadists to Iraq and Syria.

    The resolution requires all countries to adopt laws that would make it a serious crime for their nationals to join jihadist groups such as ISIS and the Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria.

    And what about hamas ?

    Obama described the resolution as “historic” at the special session of the Council, only the sixth time in UN history that the council was convening at the level of heads of state.

     

    US President Barack Obama (Photo: AFP)

    The UN action reflects mounting international concern over rising numbers of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State militant group and the threat they pose when returning home. Some 12,000 fighters from more than 70 nations have joined extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, experts say.

    British Prime Minister David Cameron told the Security Council that the beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker by a fighter with an apparent British accent “underlines the sinister, direct nature of this threat.”

    The council resolution is under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which makes it legally binding for the 193 UN member states and gives the Security Council authority to enforce decisions with economic sanctions or force.

    It targets fighters traveling to conflicts anywhere in the world, but does not mandate military force.

    Obama is building a global coalition against Islamic State, which has captured swaths of Syria and Iraq and urged its followers to attack citizens of various countries. The United States has led air strikes against the group in Iraq and Syria.

    “The words spoken here today must be matched and translated into action,” Obama told the Security Council after the adoption of the resolution. “For if there was ever a challenge in our interconnected world that cannot be met by one nation alone, it is this – terrorists crossing borders and threatening to unleash unspeakable violence.”

    Obama chaired the Security Council because the United States is president of the body for September.

    The UN resolution expresses concern that “foreign terrorist fighters increase the intensity, duration and intractability of conflicts, and also may pose a serious threat to their states of origin, the states they transit and the states to which they travel.”

    Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott told the council that the passports of more than 60 Australians had been suspended to stop them from joining extremist groups in the Middle East. Both Abbott and Cameron outlined their efforts to strengthen laws.

    Terror target: Israel

    The European Union’s counterterrorism coordinator, Gilles de Kerchove said al-Qaeda may try to show its relevance by carrying out attacks in Europe, the United States or Israel, the European Union’s counterterrorism coordinator said on Wednesday.

    De Kerchove warned of the risk of competition between Islamic State and al-Qaeda, which has renounced its offshoot as too brutal.

    “It is possible that Al-Qaida may want to mount attacks to show that the organization is still relevant, they are still in the game,” De Kerchove told a European Parliament committee.

    He said some militants had moved from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Syria, where they formed part of the al-Qaeda-linked Khorasan Group.

    He added that it appeared they planned to recruit Europeans who had travelled to Syria to fight and persuade them to use their passports to return and mount attacks in Europe, Israel and the United States.

    While Islamic State was the main target of a US-led air assault in Syria this week, American officials said they also targeted the Khorasan Group, with the aim of disrupting a plot against US or European targets that the Pentagon said was “nearing the execution phase.”

    De Kerchove estimated that more than 3,000 Europeans were in Syria, had been there or planned to go there to fight, and that there was a real risk some of them could return and bring violence back to Europe.

    “We have seen that in Brussels with the killing of four persons at the Jewish Museum. It raises their level of tolerance of violence to such a level that there is a risk when they come back that killing is something normal,” he said.

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Comments: Be the first to comment

    Arab states risk backlash by joining Syria strikes

    September 25, 2014

    Arab states risk backlash by joining Syria strikes

    As Gulf nations flex their military muscles, they are also treading dangerous, and complicated, political waters

    By Adam Schreck September 25, 2014, 9:07 am

    via Arab states risk backlash by joining Syria strikes | The Times of Israel.

     

    Hamas backed by Qatar and building rockets again  and the USA is in coalition with Qatar an use Qatar air bases .

    And obama blame Israel for the turmoil in the middle east  , and abu mazen smellls his change in the UN.

    The President called out to the Israeli leadership and public to not give up peace. “This conflict is the main source of problems in the region; for far too long, it has been used in part as a way to distract people from problems at home. And the violence engulfing the region today has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace”.

     

    Saudi Arabian air force pilots sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet at an undisclosed location on September 23, 2014, after taking part in a mission to strike Islamic State targets in Syria (Photo credit: AFP photo/Handout — Saudi Press Agency)

     

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Arab nations that joined the United States in striking the Islamic State group in Syria were unusually open about it, throwing aside their usual secrecy and wariness about appearing too close to Washington. Saudi Arabia even released heroic-looking photos of its pilots who flew the warplanes.

    Their boasting reflects the depth of Gulf nations’ concern over the threat of the extremist group sweeping over Iraq and Syria. It also shows their desire to flex some military muscle toward regional rival Iran, a key supporter of the Syrian and Iraqi governments.

    But the Sunni monarchies run the risk of a backlash by hard-line Islamists angered by the attacks against the Sunni fighters, whom many see as battling a Shiite-led government in Baghdad. Militant websites sympathetic to the Islamic State group lit up on Wednesday with the photos of the Saudi pilots, alongside calls for them to be killed.

    Even beyond the ranks of hard-liners, many around the region are suspicious of US motives in yet again launching military action in an Arab nation. Many among the Syrian rebels grumble that the United States and Arab nations ignored their pleas for action against Syrian President Bashar Assad for years and are intervening now against the radicals only because it is in their interest.

    Moreover, the US expanded the strikes beyond the Islamic State, hitting al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the al-Nusra Front, in a bid to take out a cell called the Khorasan Group that is believed to be plotting attacks against the United States. That has other Syrian rebel factions with Islamic ideologies — and there are many of them — worried they, too, could be hit by the Americans.

    “For four years, we called on the West to help us topple the regime, but it’s clear the target is the Islamic factions,” said a Damascus-based opposition activist, Abu Akram al-Shami, speaking via Skype.

    The countries whose air forces carried out strikes were all Sunni-led states run by hereditary monarchs with longstanding ties to the American military: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain. Another Gulf monarchy, Qatar, played a supporting role, according to the Pentagon. US President Barack Obama — who had been eager for Arab backing in the campaign — praised them for their willingness to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with the US.

    Perhaps most vulnerable to a backlash is Jordan, which borders Syria and has a strong community of Islamists and ultraconservative Salafis who have sympathies with the Islamic State group. Jordan was the homeland of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man who founded al-Qaeda’s branch in Iraq, which eventually evolved into the Islamic State group. He was killed eight years ago in a US airstrike in Iraq.

    Mohammed al-Shalabi, a prominent figure in the jihadi-Salafi movement in Jordan, told The Associated Press that while the Islamic State group has “made mistakes” — killing journalists, for example — it is still part of the Muslim nation and US strikes against it will only build support for it.

    “The US is hated in the region because of its support for Israel. People will now feel sympathy with (the Islamic State group) against the US,” he said.

    “This war is not in Jordan’s interests,” the deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, Zaki Bani Rsheid, told the Al-Ghad newspaper. He warned that the war would only boost the power of Iran across the region and that Jordan’s participation could bring “responses targeting its internal security and stability.”

    In a move some saw as an attempt to soothe Salafi anger, a Jordanian court on Wednesday acquitted and freed a radical Muslim preacher known for his pro-al-Qaeda sermons, Abu Qatada. Analysts said the preacher could help give legitimacy to the campaign against the Islamic State group — or at least help keep Salafis quiet over it.

    The action in Syria makes for the largest grouping of Arab military forces against a common target since the broad-based coalition formed to evict Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991, according to analysts at the Austin, Texas-based geopolitical intelligence company Stratfor.

    Their participation reflects the growing concern among Gulf countries — particularly Saudi Arabia and the Emirates — about the rise of Islamist groups in the wake of the Arab Spring, such as the Muslim Brotherhood movement and various al-Qaeda affiliates.

    “The Islamic State represents a direct threat to the national security of these countries,” said Hossam Mohamed, a political analyst at the Regional Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo.

    Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, the two richest of the group, boast some of the region’s best-equipped militaries, including Western-made fighter jets and Apache attack helicopters.

    The Emirates in particular has been playing a more active military role. It has deployed troops as part of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan and, along with Qatar, contributed warplanes to the alliance’s aerial campaign over Libya in 2011 that helped lead to the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi. American officials have also said the Emirates carried out airstrikes against Islamist rebels in Libya last month, but the country has not confirmed that.

    American and French sorties targeting the extremists have flown from air bases in Qatar and the Emirates, and from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which is assigned to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain. Saudi Arabia has agreed to host training facilities for Syrian rebels on its territory.

    It remains unclear how much of a military role the countries will play from here on. Their participation may turn out to be token, the Stratfor analysts said — or “these airstrikes could develop into a small but growing assertiveness among the region’s Arab monarchies.”

    However, Saudi Arabia and its allies are looking beyond just striking the extremists. They want to pressure Iran and eventually turn the campaign against Assad, whose ouster they seek, said Mustafa Alani, an expert on security and terrorism at the Geneva-based Gulf Research Center.

    “They are not hoping to topple the regime by military strikes. Military strikes are only a means to generate pressure on the regime to accept a diplomatic political solution,” Alani said. “The idea is to weaken the regime to send a clear message.”

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Comments: 4 Comments

    Gazans Speak Out: Hamas War Crimes

    September 25, 2014

    Gazans Speak Out: Hamas War Crimes

    by Mudar Zahran

    September 19, 2014 at 5:00 am

    via Gazans Speak Out: Hamas War Crimes.

    If Hamas does not like you for any reason all they have to do now is say you are a Mossad agent and kill you.” — A., a Fatah member in Gaza.

    “Hamas wanted us butchered so it could win the media war against Israel showing our dead children on TV and then get money from Qatar.” — T., former Hamas Ministry officer.

    “They would fire rockets and then run away quickly, leaving us to face Israeli bombs for what they did.” — D., Gazan journalist.

    “Hamas imposed a curfew: anyone walking out in the street was shot. That way people had to stay in their homes, even if they were about to get bombed. Hamas held the whole Gazan population as a human shield.” — K., graduate student

    “The Israeli army allows supplies to come in and Hamas steals them. It seems even the Israelis care for us more than Hamas.” — E., first-aid volunteer.

    “We are under Hamas occupation, and if you ask most of us, we would rather be under Israeli occupation… We miss the days when we were able to work inside Israel and make good money. We miss the security and calm Israel provided when it was here.” — S., graduate of an American university, former Hamas sympathizer.

    While the world’s media has been blaming Israel for the death of Gazan civilians during Operation Protective Edge, this correspondent decided to speak with Gazans themselves to hear what they had to say.

    They spoke of Hamas atrocities and war crimes implicating Hamas in the civilian deaths of its own people.

    Although Gazans, fearful of Hamas’s revenge against them, were afraid to speak to the media, friends in the West Bank offered introductions to relatives in Gaza. One, a renowned Gazan academic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that as soon as someone talked to a Western journalist, he was immediately questioned by Hamas and accused of “communicating with the Mossad”. “Hamas makes sure that the average Gazan will not talk to Western journalists — or actually any journalists at all,” he said, continuing:

    “Hamas does not want the truth about Gaza to come out. Hamas terrorizes and kills us just like Daesh [ISIS] terrorizes kills Iraqis. Hamas is a dictatorship that kills us. The Gazans you see praising Hamas on TV are either Hamas members or too afraid to speak against Hamas. Few foreign [Western] journalists were probably able to report what Gazans think of Hamas.”

    When asked what Gazans did think of Hamas, he said:

    “The same as Iraqis thought of Saddam before he was toppled. He still won by 90-something percent in the presidential elections. If Hamas falls today in Gaza, people here will do what Iraqis did to Saddam’s statue after he fell. But even though Western journalists may not have been able to speak freely with Gazans, they still need a story to send to their editor by the end of the day. So it is just easier and safer for them to stick to the official line.”

    “What was that,” I asked: “‘Blame Israel’?”

    “I don’t know about that,” he said. “More like, ‘Never blame Hamas!’. Hamas was making a ‘statement’: Opposing Hamas Means Death. Hamas is a dictatorship that kills us.”

    M., a journalist, confirmed his view. “I do not believe any of the people Hamas killed in the last weeks were Israeli spies,” he said. “Hamas has killed many people for criticizing it, and claimed they were traitors working for Israel during the war.”

    That conversation took place four weeks before Hamas killed 21 alleged “Israeli Mossad agents.”

    D, a store owner, said:

    “There were two major protests against Hamas during the third week of the war. When Hamas fighters opened fire at the protesters in the Bait Hanoun area and the Shijaiya, five were killed instantly. I saw that with my own eyes. Many were injured. A doctor at Shifa hospital told me that 35 were killed at both protests. He went and saw their bodies at the morgue.”

    To verify those reports, I spoke to a second Gazan academic, who holds a PhD. from a Western university, who stated:

    “Hamas did kill protesters, no doubt about that. But we could not confirm how many were actually killed. If I have to guess, the number was more than reported. I am confident that not all of the 21 men Hamas killed on August 22 were collaborating with Israel. Hamas killed those men because it was weakened by Israel’s attacks and felt endangered. So it went on a ‘Salem Witch-Hunt.’ They arrested everyone who opposed them and had to make a few examples to scare people from standing against Hamas. Hamas’s tactic worked. Now Gazans are afraid to talk against Hamas even in front of their own family members. Gazans are probably afraid to criticize Hamas even in their sleep!”

    As already reported by the award-winning journalist, Khaled Abu Toameh, Hamas killed one of its leaders, Ayman Taha, and blamed Israel for it.

    Asked about Abu Toameh’s report, S., a Gazan political activist said:

    “Taha was already in Hamas’s jail before Israeli operations started. Hamas imprisoned him and tortured him because he was critical of its radical policies. He had warned Hamas not to cooperate with Qatar and Iran. Eye-witnesses said they saw Hamas militants bring him alive into the yard of Shifa hospital in Gaza and shoot him dead. They kept mutilating his body in front of viewers and little children and left it on the hospital’s yard for a few hours before allowing the staff to take it to the morgue.”

    A., a Fatah member in Gaza, spoke over Skype — fearful that Hamas was intercepting phone lines:

    “Even before the Israeli operation began, Hamas rounded up 400 of our members and other political-opposition figures. I would not be surprised if Hamas kills them all and then claims they were killed in an Israeli bombing. Hamas already beheaded a man known for opposing its views on the 22nd day of the war, then reported on its Facebook page that he was caught sending intelligence information to Israel. If Hamas does not like you for any reason, all they have to do now is claim you are a Mossad agent and kill you.”

    S. a medical worker, said:

    “The Israeli army sends warnings to people [Gazans] to evacuate buildings before an attack. The Israelis either call or send a text message. Sometimes they call several times to make sure everyone has been evacuated. Hamas’s strict policy, though, was not to allow us to evacuate. Many people got killed, locked inside their homes by Hamas militants. Hamas’s official Al-Quds TV regularly issued warnings to Gazans not to evacuate their homes. Hamas militants would block the exits to the places residents were asked to evacuate. In the Shijaiya area, people received warnings from the Israelis and tried to evacuate the area, but Hamas militants blocked the exits and ordered people to return to their homes. Some of the people had no choice but to run towards the Israelis and ask for protection for their families. Hamas shot some of those people as they were running; the rest were forced to return to their homes and get bombed. This is how the Shijaiya massacre happened. More than 100 people were killed.”

    Another Gazan journalist, D., said:

    “Hamas fired rockets from next to homes. Hamas was running from one home to another. Hamas lied when it claimed it was shooting from non-populated areas. To make things even worse for us, Hamas would fire from the balconies of homes and try to drag the Israelis into door-to-door battles and street-to-street fights — a death sentence for all the civilians here. They would fire rockets and then run away quickly, leaving us to face Israeli bombs for what they did. They are cowards. If Hamas militants are not afraid of dying, why do they run after they fire rockets from our homes? Why don’t they stay and die with us? Are they afraid to die and go to heaven? Isn’t that what they claim they wish?”

     

    Hamas boasted that Palestinian civilians were killed while Hamas’s terrorists remained alive, hiding in their underground bunkers and tunnels. (Image source: Hamas video screenshot)
     

    K, another graduate student at an Egyptian university who had gone to Gaza to see his family but was unable to leave after the war started, said on July 22:

    “When people stopped listening to Hamas orders not to evacuate and began leaving their homes anyway, Hamas imposed a curfew: anyone walking out in the street was shot without being asked any questions. That way Hamas made sure people had to stay in their homes even if they were about to get bombed. God will ask Hamas on judgment day for those killers’ blood.”

    I asked him if Hamas used people as “human shields.” He said: “Hamas held the entire Gazan population as a human shield. My answer to you is yes.”

    Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the press on September 6 that Hamas had killed 120 Fatah members who broke the curfew.

    T., a former Hamas Ministry officer, said: “Hamas fires from civilian areas for a good reason: The Israelis call the civilians and give them ten minutes to evacuate. This gives Hamas time to fire another rocket and run away.”

    Why, I asked, did Hamas not allow people to evacuate?

    “Some people say Hamas wants civilians killed in order to gain global sympathy, but I believe this is not the main reason. I think the reason is that if all the people were allowed to evacuate their homes, they all would have ended up in a certain area in Gaza. If that happened, it would have made the rest of Gaza empty of civilians, and the Israelis would have been able to hit Hamas without worrying about civilians in all those empty areas. Hamas wanted civilians all over the place to confuse the Israelis and make their operations more difficult.”

    S., a Gazan businessman, said:

    “The cease-fire Hamas agreed to carried the same conditions the Egyptians and the Israelis offered during the second week of the war — after only 160 Gazans had been killed. Why did Hamas have to wait until 2,200 were killed, and then accept the very same offer? Hamas has blackmailed the world with the killed Gazan civilians to make itself look like a freedom fighter against an evil Israel. Hamas showed Gazans that it could not care less for their blood and their children. And why should Hamas care? Its leaders are either in mansions in Qatar or villas in Jordan. Mashaal [Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas] is in Qatar, Mohammad Nazzal is in Jordan and Abu Marzouk is in Cairo: why should they want a ceasefire? Everyone here in Gaza is wondering why Hamas rejected so many ceasefires. Hamas knows it will not defeat Israel’s army, so why did it continue fighting? The answer is simple: Hamas wanted us butchered so it could win the media war against Israel by showing our dead children on TV and then get money from Qatar.”

    I asked S. if other Gazans shared his view. He said,

    “Gazans are not stupid. We are now telling Hamas: Either you bring victory and liberate Palestine as you claim, or simply leave Gaza and maybe give it back to the Palestinian Authority or even Israel — or even Egypt! We have had enough of Hamas’s hallucinations and promises that never come true.”

    O., a researcher who lives in Gaza Strip’s second largest city, Khan Younis, said:

    “Most of us see Hamas as too radical and too stubborn, especially the way it was refusing ceasefires offered from Israel. They even refused a 24-hour ceasefire during the third week of the war. They denied us even 24 hours of quiet to bury the dead. Even some Hamas loyalists here are asking why Hamas refused several ceasefires and made us suffer. Hamas did this on purpose because Hamas is a slave to Qatar. Qatar wants the war to go on because it is a terrorist Islamist country, and Hamas wants more of us dead to appease its masters in Qatar. Let’s be realistic, Hamas is in a bad shape now. Israel destroyed most tunnels; that is why Hamas had to join the ceasefire talks in Cairo. Were the Israelis’ hits to Hamas not so painful, Hamas would not be negotiating in the first place. At the same time, Hamas is asking Israel for the impossible, like an open seaport and an airport. Israel would never allow that, and Hamas knows this, but Hamas might just be buying time by throwing out these demands. You have to keep in mind that Hamas is not concerned with our conditions as Gazans. After all it is our children who are dying, not the children of Hamas’s leaders. Hamas is weak now, and I believe it lost most of its tunnels. Israel’s Iron Dome destroyed so many of their rockets before they landed in Israel; that is why Hamas is being ruthless with Gazans. When Hamas locks people inside homes about to be bombed, when it kills people protesting against it and when it executes alleged traitors without even a trail, these are war crimes.”

    A report by the Washington Institute, released in July, also reports that most Gazans are not happy with Hamas’s governance.

    “It is true,” said A., a teacher. “I do not know a single Gazan who is pro-Hamas at the moment, except for those on its payroll. Hamas maintains its control here through a military dictatorship, just like North Korea. People will be killed if they protest. Even Gazans living abroad fear to criticize Hamas because Hamas will take revenge on their relatives who are here.”

    M., a Gazan television producer, stated:

    “Of course I am against Israel and I want it out of Gaza and out of the West Bank, but I still believe Hamas is more of a threat to the Palestinian people. Hamas took over Gaza by killing us [Palestinians] and throwing our young men from high buildings. That is what Hamas is about: murder and power. Hamas is also delusional. Its leaders refused the Egyptian cease-fire proposal, they got hit hard by the Israelis, and then when the war stopped, they declared victory. Even the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, admitted it when he lost Ohoud war [A war in which pagan Arabs defeated Muhammad’s army and in which Muhammad was almost killed]. Hamas lives in its own fantasy world. Hamas wanted the dead bodies to make Israel look ugly. The media has exerted a huge pressure on Israel for every dead Gazan. In that sense, Hamas’s tactic has worked, and we have seen more Western tolerance of Hamas, especially in Europe. Of course Hamas doesn’t care if we all die so long as it achieves its goals. We are not going to accept living under Hamas any longer. Even if there is calm, and the firing stops, we are going to still be under Hamas’s mercy, where all basic living standards are considered luxuries. Hamas is just buying time by going to the ceasefire talks. Hamas does not want a ceasefire.”

    When asked why that was, he said, “Ask Qatar’s Sheikh, not me. He is Hamas’s god who gives them billions and tells them what to do. May God curse Qatar!”

    A first-aid volunteer, E., said that Hamas militants had confiscated 150 truckloads of humanitarian supplies the day before. He said the supplies were donated by charities in the West Bank and that their delivery was facilitated by the IDF. He commented: “This theft angers all of us [Gazans]. The Israeli army allows supplies to come in, and Hamas steals them. It seems even the Israelis care for us more than Hamas.”

    Another aid worker, A., confirmed that Hamas steals the humanitarian supplies given to Gaza. “They [Hamas] take most of it, sell it to us, and just give us the stuff they do not want.”

    A Gazan mosque’s imam said that the most precious aid item Hamas stole was water. “Gazans are thirsty and Hamas is stealing the water bottles provided to us for free and selling them at 20 Israeli shekels [approximately $5] for the big bottle and 10 Israeli shekels for the small one.”

    H., who did not want his profession to be mentioned, lost one of his legs in an Israeli raid. I asked him who he thought was responsible for his injury. He stated:

    “Hamas was. My father received a text-message from the Israeli army warning him that our area was going to be bombed, and Hamas prevented us from leaving. They said there was a curfew. A curfew, can you believe that? I swear to God, we will take revenge on Hamas. I swear to God I will stand on my other foot and fight against Hamas. Even if Israel leaves them alone, we will not. What had my two-year-old nephew done to be killed under the rubble of our home so Khaled Mashaal [Hamas leader based in Qatar] could be happy? We want change at any cost. I am not claiming the Israelis are innocent, but I know Hamas has fired rockets from every residential spot in Gaza. If that was not hiding behind civilians, then it was stupidity and recklessness. Nobody who is normal, in his right mind, in Gaza supports Hamas. People have lost parents, children and friends, and have nothing more to lose. I believe if given the chance and the weapons, they will stand against Hamas.”

    K., a Gazan school teacher agreed:

    “When Hamas starts caring for our children we will start caring for Hamas. Hamas has one policy, to attack Israel; so Israel attacks back, and gets us killed and Hamas then gets more money from Arabs and Erdogan [Turkey’s president]. My son has autism; he cannot handle the sounds of rockets and bombs landing. Why would I support Hamas, which causes this suffering to him? Gazans have had enough of Hamas, any claims that we love Hamas is just propaganda. A recent poll indicates that most of us support Hamas; this is not true, except maybe in the West Bank where they have not yet lived under Hamas rule. I cannot accuse the polling center of fabricating the poll, but my safest explanation for the result is that Gazans polled are too afraid to give their true opinions of Hamas. Hamas watches everything here. Most Gazans now have to deal with the aftermath of the war. Almost 300,000 Gazans are now homeless and Hamas is not providing them with anything. So why would they or their extended families have any love for Hamas? Would there be any common sense to that? Most Gazans are angry at Hamas, and most of us would love to see them replaced by any other force.”

    Despite all Hamas has done to Gazans, they do not seem to hold much love — or less hatred — for Israel.

    S., a graduate of an American university and a former Hamas sympathizer, warned:

    “Don’t get fooled. Gazans are not in love with Israel yet, but they do not want to fight Israel anymore. We do not want to embrace Israel; we just want to live normally without wars. We want to live and work in Israel like we used to. We are under Hamas occupation, and if you ask most of us, we would rather be under Israeli occupation, instead. I would welcome Netanyahu to rule Gaza so long as Hamas leaves, and I think most Gazans feel the same way. We miss the days when we were able to work inside Israel and make good money, we miss the security and calm Israel provided when it was here, but politically speaking, we just think of it as the better of two evils: Israel and Hamas.”

    M., who lost his 11 year old daughter in an Israeli bombing said: “I will not forgive either Hamas or Israel for losing my daughter. If you ask me if I hate Israelis, my answer would be no, but do I love them? Of course not. There is too much blood between us, but I can only hope someday we both will move on and heal our wounds.”

    When asked what he would do if he were in Israel’s place, being attacked non-stop by Hamas, he responded: “I do not care if both Israel and Gaza burn in hell.”

    F., a Gazan physician, said:

    “I wish Israel never existed, but as it does not seem to be going away, I would rather be working in Israel like I used to before the first Intifada, not fighting it. Hamas sympathizers, apologists and appeasers should be ashamed of themselves for supporting a terrorist organization that has butchered civilians, Israeli and Palestinian. Apparently a group of Israelis is working on bringing Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal to trial in the International Criminal Court. But perhaps the world should consider putting all the Hamas leaders on trial for crimes against the Gazan people.”

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Comments: 2 Comments

    Iranian leader: US should focus on terror, not nukes

    September 25, 2014

    Iranian leader: US should focus on terror, not nukesAhead of UN address, Rouhani says Tehran and Washington can work together to curb Islamic extremismBy George Jahn September 25, 2014, 12:23 pm

    via Iranian leader: US should focus on terror, not nukes | The Times of Israel.

     

    Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during his keynote address at New America,
    a public policy institute and think tank,
    on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014 in New York (Photo credit: Bebeto Matthews/AP)

     

    NEW YORK (AP) — Iranian President Hasan Rouhani urged the United States on Wednesday to move beyond “insignificant” fears that his country seeks nuclear arms and challenged it to join his country in battling what he described as the global threat of Islamic extremism.

    During a speech and question-and-answer session hosted by the New America think tank, Rouhani urged the US government to “let go of pressure politics toward Iran” — a reference to Iranian complaints that Washington’s demands at the nuclear talks are unrealistic. Repeating that Iran is not interested in nuclear arms, he urged the US to “leave behind (this) insignificant issue.”

    Instead, he said, the two countries must focus on the fight against the Islamic State group and other extremist groups, the “real and serious common challenges which … threaten the entirety of the world.”

    At the same time, he was critical of the US bombing campaign of Islamic State strongholds in Iraq and Syria and the growing coalition of countries seeking to stop the terrorists by military means. “Bombing and airstrikes are not the appropriate way,” he said, warning that “extraterritorial interference…in fact only feeds and strengthens terrorism.”

    Blaming “the misunderstandings of the realities of the region by…outsiders,” Rouhani said wrong US policies, including the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, likely led to the birth of the Islamic State group by creating power vacuums exploited by extremists.

    Rouhani also suggested it was in the West’s interest to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran, freeing Tehran to play a more active role in creating and maintaining stability in the Islamic world.

    The nuclear talks appear stuck two months before their extended November 24 deadline. While the US is formally joined by five other powers at the negotiating table with Iran, it is clear that the Americans are the lead negotiators, and Rouhani directed most of his comments at Washington.

    Even if a nuclear deal is sealed, it could face harsh opposition by Iranian hardliners and US congressional critics united in one fear — that their side has given away too much. But Rouhani shrugged off opposition from inside his country and said it was up to US President Barack Obama to deal with Congress.

    Iran-US tensions have eased since the election last year of the moderate Rouhani. A year ago, he and Obama spoke by telephone for 15 minutes, the first time the presidents of the United States and Iran had talked directly since the 1979 Iranian revolution and siege of the American embassy. The conversation was hailed as an historic breakthrough.

    Tensions have risen recently, with American officials furious over the arrest of Jason Rezarian, an American-Iranian journalist for the Washington Post detained on unspecified charges in Iran.

    But Rouhani made clear he was not prepared to interfere in the case of Rezarian, whose wife was also arrested.

    Iranian officials have not specifically said why the couple is being held, and Rouhani has dodged questions about their fate. Asked Wednesday about Rezarian, he said he would be freed if he is innocent of any crime.

    “We must not prematurely express opinions about a case that hasn’t reached the court yet,” he said.

    Categories: Uncategorized
    Tags: , , , , , , , ,

    Comments: Be the first to comment

    « Older Entries