World Court orders US to lift some sanctions imposed on Iran 

Posted October 3, 2018 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: World Court orders US to lift some sanctions imposed on Iran – Israel Hayom

( F_CK ’em… – JW )

U.S. must ensure sanctions do not affect the humanitarian aid and civil aviation safety services delivered to Iran, says International Court of Justice • Tehran boasts of court “victory” • U.S. expected to challenge court’s jurisdiction in future hearing.

News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

The United Nations’ highest court on Wednesday ordered the United States to lift sanctions on Iran that affect imports of humanitarian goods and products and services linked to the safety of civil aviation.

The judges at the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, handed a victory to Tehran, which had argued that the sanctions imposed since May by the  U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration violate the terms of a 1955 Treaty of Amity between the two countries.

The ICJ’s ruling is legally binding, but it remains to be seen if the Trump administration will comply with it.

The ruling is likely to have, at most, a limited practical impact on the implementation of sanctions, which Washington is reimposing and tightening after pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran signed with world powers.

In a preliminary ruling, the court said the U.S. must “remove, by means of its choosing, any impediments arising from” the reimposition of sanctions to the export to Iran of medicine and medical devices, food and agricultural commodities and spare parts and equipment necessary to ensure the safety of civil aviation.

While imposing the so-called “provisional measures,” the court’s president, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, stressed that the ruling does not prejudge the ultimate outcome of the case or establish that the court has jurisdiction.

Iranian state television trumpeted the court’s decision in a scrolling graphic at the bottom of TV screens: “The victory of Tehran over Washington by The Hague court.”

The U.S. is expected to challenge the court’s jurisdiction in a future hearing.

At hearings in August, Tehran sought the suspension of the sanctions while the case challenging their legality is being heard – a process that can take years. U.S. lawyers responded that the sanctions are a legal and justified national security measure that cannot be challenged by Iran at the World Court.

In its decision, the court said the U.S. sanctions “have the potential to endanger civil aviation safety” in Iran and that sanctions limiting sales of goods required for humanitarian needs such as food, medicines and medical devices “may have a serious detrimental impact on the health and lives of individuals on the territory of Iran.”

The court said the Trump administration must “ensure that licenses and necessary authorizations are granted” and payments not restricted if they are linked to humanitarian and aviation goods.

The court also told both the United States and Iran to “refrain from any action which might aggravate or extend the dispute.”

Wednesday’s ruling could set up another clash between the Trump administration and international courts.

Last month, Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, denounced the International Criminal Court, a separate and unrelated institution based a few miles from the International Court of Justice.

The ICC prosecutes people accused of war atrocities while the ICJ settles disputes between nations.

Bolton said last month that “for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us.”

 

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Netanyahu urges IAEA to send inspectors to Iran immediately

Posted October 3, 2018 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: Netanyahu urges IAEA to send inspectors to Iran immediately – Israel Hayom

After International Atomic Energy Agency issues laconic statement on secret Iranian nuclear site near capital, PM Netanyahu fires back, warning time may be running out • PM’s office: No reason to wait, radiation levels at site will prove Israel is right.

Ariel Kahana and Eldad Beck

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lambasted the International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday, hours after it issued a laconic statement dismissing his claim of a secret nuclear installation in Iran.

Netanyahu said the agency, which has been tasked by the United Nations with verifying Iran’s nuclear compliance, “must inspect the site immediately,” before it is too late.

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly last week, Netanyahu presented world leaders with evidence that Iran ‎was storing ‎nuclear-‎related material in violation of the 2015 deal with ‎world powers. The undeclared site is located in Turouzabad, just outside the capital Tehran, and could potentially store up to 300 tons of material and equipment. ‎

Netanyahu even held up a prop with the coordinates and an image of the installation, and later tweeted what appeared to be a satellite image of the site.

“The IAEA relates to inspections that it has carried out in various places in Iran but it does not relate to the specific site in Turouzabad which Prime Minister Netanyahu referred to in his U.N. speech,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.

“There is no reason to wait. The IAEA must inspect the site and immediately dispatch monitors with Geiger counters and the prime minister’s words will be seen as verifiably true.”

In its statement on Tuesday, the IAEA insisted it had visited “all the ‎sites and locations in Iran which it needed to visit,” but did not give a specific time or date when the site in Turouzabad may have been inspected.

“The agency sends inspectors to sites and locations only when needed. The agency uses all safeguards relevant to information available to it but it does not take any information at face value,” the statement quoted IAEA chief Yukiya Amano as saying.

“In order to maintain credibility, the agency’s independence in relation to the implementation of verification activities is of paramount importance,” he said.

A senior Western diplomat told Israel Hayom that the European Union would fail to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, despite efforts to bypass U.S. sanctions.

In recent weeks, senior European officials, including EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, have introduced measures aimed at enabling companies in the 28-member bloc to trade with Iran without being blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury. This includes various banking schemes and legal maneuvers.

But the Western diplomat told Israel Hayom that “there is zero chance that EU companies will continue trading with Iran, as the EU has virtually no viable option to protect companies from the U.S.”

He said it was “hard to believe that a company would want to take the risk of being targeted by U.S. authorities just for the sake of trading with a small and fragile economy such as Iran’s. In the cost-benefit analysis, it is just not worth it. Prime Minister Netanyahu is right and the nuclear deal is essentially dead.”

 

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Russia completes delivery of S-300 defense systems to Syria – Israel Hayom

Posted October 3, 2018 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: Russia completes delivery of S-300 defense systems to Syria – Israel Hayom

Four S-300 launchers, as well as radars and support vehicles, have been delivered to Assad’s army, says Russian defense minister • Training Syrian forces on system will take three months, he says • U.S. warns of “serious escalation” over Russian move.

Daniel Siryoti, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Tuesday that the ‎delivery of S-300 air defense systems to Syria has ‎been completed.‎

Shoigu said Russia had delivered four S-‎‎300 launchers along with radars and support vehicles ‎to the Syrian military, and said it would take ‎three months to train Syrian personnel in how to operate ‎the system.‎

The move followed the Sept. 17 incident in ‎which Syrian air defenses trying to counter an ‎Israeli strike downed a Russian reconnaissance plane ‎over Latakia, and has sparked concerns in both Israel ‎and the United States.‎

Jerusalem and Washington both contend that giving ‎Syria S-300 surface-to-air missiles will embolden ‎Iran and escalate the Syrian civil war.‎

Shoigu insisted Tuesday that the S-300s would ‎improve the security of Russian military personnel in ‎Syria.‎

Israel expressed regret at the deaths of 15 Russian ‎‎crewmen in the incident, but said the Syrian ‎‎forces’ incompetence was at fault ‎‎and that Israel is compelled to continue taking action ‎‎against suspected deployments of Iranian-backed ‎‎forces across its northern border.‎

The Kremlin has rejected the Israeli Air Force’s ‎findings on the incident, saying the Russian plane was ‎shot down because of the presence of Israeli fighter jets ‎in Syrian airspace.‎

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to ‎continue the close security coordination between the ‎IDF and Russian forces in Syria, carried out via a ‎designated deconfliction channel.‎

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heather ‎Nauert could not confirm reports that the S-300 missiles had ‎been delivered.‎

‎”I cannot confirm that that is accurate. I hope that ‎they did not,” she told a press briefing. “That ‎would be, I think, sort of a serious escalation in ‎concerns and issues going on in Syria.” ‎

A senior Israeli official said Sunday that Syria’s ‎possession of the S-300 posed a “complex challenge” ‎and that Israel was working on ways to prevent ‎this from becoming a major threat to the ‎country’s security.‎

‎”We are dealing with the [decision] in different ‎ways, not necessarily by preventing shipments of the ‎air defense system,” he told local media. ‎

He said he believed that Russian President ‎Vladimir Putin “understands that the Middle East ‎playing field is very large,” and indicated that Israel ‎reserves the right to protect itself and that it has ‎the support of the United States.‎

Also on Tuesday, the U.S. envoy to NATO said ‎Russia must halt its covert development of a banned ‎cruise missile system or the United States would seek ‎to destroy it before it becomes operational. ‎

The United States believes Russia is developing a ‎ground-launched system in breach of a Cold War ‎treaty that could allow Russia to launch a nuclear ‎strike on Europe at short notice, but Moscow has ‎consistently denied any such violation.‎

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison said ‎Washington remains committed to a diplomatic ‎solution but is prepared to consider a military ‎strike if the development of the medium-range system ‎continues.‎

‎”At that point, we would be looking at the ‎capability to take out a [Russian] missile that ‎could hit any of our countries,” Hutchison said. ‎

‎”Countermeasures [by the United States] would be to ‎take out the missiles that are in development by ‎Russia in violation of the treaty. They ‎are on notice.”‎

She later clarified in a tweet that she was not ‎talking about a pre-emptive strike against Russia. ‎

‎”My point: Russia needs to return to INF Treaty ‎compliance or we will need to match its capabilities ‎to protect U.S. and NATO interests. The current ‎situation, with Russia in blatant violation, is ‎untenable.”‎

In Washington, Nauert said the United States had for ‎some time argued that Moscow was not in compliance ‎with the treaty.‎

‎”What Ambassador Hutchison was talking about was ‎improving overall defense and deterrence posture. ‎The United States is committed to upholding its arms ‎control obligations and expects Russia to do the ‎very same thing,” she said, adding that the U.S. was ‎discussing the issue with its allies.‎

The Russian Foreign Ministry said such ‎statements are dangerous and that it would provide ‎detailed answers to Washington.‎

‎”It seems that people who make such statements do ‎not realize the level of their responsibility and ‎the danger of aggressive rhetoric,” TASS news agency ‎quoted spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.

 

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France accuses Iran over bomb plot near Paris

Posted October 3, 2018 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: France accuses Iran over bomb plot near Paris

Adam PLOWRIGHT and Valerie LEROUX

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AFP•
France has announced it is freezing assets belonging to two suspected Iranian intelligence operatives over the alleged plot
France has announced it is freezing assets belonging to two suspected Iranian intelligence operatives over the alleged plot (AFP Photo/ludovic MARIN)

Paris (AFP) – France has accused Iran’s intelligence ministry of being behind a foiled plot to bomb an exiled opposition group near the French capital in a move that risks straining already complicated ties between Paris and Tehran.

The French government announced Tuesday it was freezing assets belonging to two suspected Iranian intelligence operatives, as well as others belonging to Iran’s ministry of intelligence and security.

France’s decision to take retaliatory measures and go public with the accusations was taken three months after the alleged plot to bomb a meeting of the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK) in a suburb of Paris.

“This extremely serious act envisaged on our territory could not go without a response,” France’s interior, foreign and economy ministers said in a rare joint statement.

“In taking this decision, France underlines its determination to fight against terrorism in all its forms, particularly on its own territory.”

A French diplomatic source told AFP that the security forces had concluded that “the head of operations at the (Iranian) intelligence ministry ordered it”.

Iran immediately denied any involvement, as it did in July when the MEK accused it of being responsible.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told AFP in an interview that Tehran rejected the French complaint “completely and forcefully”, but said the door for discussion was open.

“If there is a misunderstanding… about a thing that does not exist, be it a conspiracy by others or a mistake, we can sit down and talk about it,” he said Tuesday.

The US, which has been intensifying pressure on Iran, warned that “this outrageous behaviour will not be tolerated” in a tweet from the White House’s National Security Council.

– Raids across Europe –

The alleged bomb plot came to light two days after thousands of Iranian opposition supporters gathered at an exhibition centre outside Paris on June 30.

The meeting was attended by two allies of US President Donald Trump, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The People’s Mujahedeen was formed in the 1960s to overthrow the Shah of Iran and it continues to organise opposition to the current leaders of the Islamic republic who took power following the 1979 revolution.

Belgium announced in July that it had arrested a couple in a Brussels suburb who were suspected of preparing to drive a car packed with explosives to the French rally.

A total of six people were then detained in coordinated raids by European police, including an Iranian diplomat based in Vienna.

The diplomat, Assadollah Asadi, was targeted by the asset freezes announced by French authorities Tuesday, along with Saeid Hashemi Moghadam, who the French diplomatic source said was head of operations at the intelligence ministry.

Asadi is set to be extradited to Belgium to face trial, German authorities announced on Monday.

“We deny the accusations and forcefully condemn the Iranian diplomat’s arrest, and call for his immediate release,” a statement from the Iranian foreign ministry said earlier Tuesday.

– Diplomatic strains –

The measures announced Tuesday come as French President Emmanuel Macron and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani are at odds over a host of issues.

Macron, who hoped to improve ties with Tehran at the start of his presidency last year, has allied with Iran over the 2015 nuclear deal which limits the Islamic Republic’s atomic programme.

While Trump has pulled out of the agreement and denounced it, Macron has been a vocal supporter and has worked to keep the accord alive despite US sanctions.

But Macron is at loggerheads with Rouhani over the wars in Syria and Yemen, in which Iran is a major player, and has raised concerns about the country’s ballistic missile programme.

The US considers Iran to be the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism because of its links with a host of armed groups, particularly the powerful Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories, as well as other networks in Iraq and Yemen.

Iran has been blamed in the past for carrying out attacks in countries as far afield as Argentina, India and Thailand.

The French diplomatic source said Iran was suspected of carrying out “several” assassinations of opposition figures in the European Union since 2015.

Also Tuesday, around 200 French police launched a dawn anti-terror raid on one of the biggest Shiite Muslim centres in France, the Zahra Centre France, as well as on the homes of its directors.

Two of three people arrested were released, according to sources close to the inquiry, while the centre’s treasurer will face a hearing on Wednesday for the illegal possession of firearms.

The Zahra Centre France was founded in 2009 by Yahia Gouasmi, a pro-regime activist and religious figure who has spoken in support of Hezbollah.

 

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Israelis at Columbia University blast administration for ignoring anti-Semitism 

Posted October 2, 2018 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: Israelis at Columbia University blast administration for ignoring anti-Semitism – Israel Hayom

( I cut all ties with my Alma Mater years ago when they invited Ahmadinijad to speak.  It has become a leftist indoctrination institution much like Berkley in California. – JW )

Columbia chapter of Zionist advocacy group Students Supporting Israel claims university has ignored six months’ worth of complaints about harassment targeting Israeli and pro-Israel students • Israeli consul’s daughter: People are afraid to be pro-Israel.

Ariel Kahana

Israeli students at Columbia University in New York City are outraged at the university administration for failing to respond to reports of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist incidents by pro-Palestinian students and groups on campus.

The Columbia chapter of the Students Supporting Israel group issued a statement earlier this week alleging that for six months, university institutions have been ignoring complaints about attacks perpetrated by Palestinian students and their supporters.

The group said in the statement that representatives of Columbia informed them that as long as the incidents in question did not comprise physical violence, they could not take action.

In one incident, dozens of pro-Palestinian activists surrounded and harassed five Israeli students. Palestinians or supporters of the Palestinian cause also defaced the Israeli students’ promotional material, such as one poster of Albert Einstein that reads: “This is what a Zionist looks like.” The word Zionist was scratched out and replaced with the word “scientist,” a rejection of Einstein’s commitment to the Zionist cause.

The appeal to the university leadership was spearheaded by Dalia Zahger, vice president of SSI at Columbia and Ofir Dayan, the daughter of Israeli Consul in New York Dani Dayan.

Zahger wrote in an open letter that after campaigning for six months, the Israeli students realized that they were on their own.

Students and their parents have the basic expectation that the university will do its best to meet the laws and standards it dictates, but in this case [of Israelis being harassed], the university has failed to do so, Zahger wrote.

Dayan told Israel Hayom that “because of the verbal aggression, which sometimes approaches physical violence, we have people who are afraid to be pro-Israel. They just know that the university won’t defend them. It’s bizarre and shows contempt for the lives of students.”

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Iranian FM: Holocaust does not excuse Israeli apartheid policy

Posted October 2, 2018 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: Iranian FM: Holocaust does not excuse Israeli apartheid policy – Israel Hayom

In CBS interview, Mohammad Zarif says “of course” Holocaust happened, but it “does not justify building settlements or violating the rights of Palestinians” • Iran rejects “killing of innocent people no matter the numbers, no matter by who,” he says.

Yoni Hersch

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Israel of using the Holocaust as justification for “an apartheid policy in Palestine” in an interview with CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that aired Sunday.

Questioned about Iran’s Holocaust denial, Zarif said that “of course” the Holocaust happened.

“Iran has stated very clearly, we reject the killing of innocent people no matter what the numbers, no matter by who,” he said.

But the Holocaust “does not justify depriving others of their homeland. It does not justify building settlements in the territory of other people. It does not justify violating en mass the rights of Palestinians. The Holocaust cannot be used as a justification for an apartheid policy in Palestine,” Zarif said.

The Islamic republic holds an annual exhibition on Holocaust denial. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad frequently denied the Holocaust and incumbent President Hassan Rouhani has said the question of whether the Holocaust happened and the extent of the slaughter was “a matter for historians and researchers to illuminate.”

In the interview, Zarif was asked to clarify Rouhani’s remarks alleging U.S. President Donald Trump had Nazi tendencies. “He didn’t call him such. He said these are behavior exhibiting the same type of approach,” Zarif responded.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted Rouhani over his comments at the time.

“For a Holocaust-denying country that is threatening Israel to compare the United States or its leader to Nazis is among the most outrageous things I have ever heard,” Pompeo had said.

 

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IAEA dismisses Israeli claim, says all Iran atom sites were checked 

Posted October 2, 2018 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: IAEA dismisses Israeli claim, says all Iran atom sites were checked – Israel Hayom

U.N.’s nuclear watchdog says it cannot take Israeli intelligence on Iran’s secret nuclear activities at face value • IAEA says it “sends inspectors to sites and locations only when needed,” conducting independent reviews is of “paramount importance.”

Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said its independence is paramount and it does not take intelligence presented to it at face value, in an apparent response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s description of a “secret atomic warehouse” in Iran.

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly last week, Netanyahu presented world leaders with evidence that Iran ‎was storing ‎nuclear-‎related material, in violation of the 2015 deal with ‎world powers. ‎

He said Israel plans to share the recently obtained intelligence ‎on covert Iranian nuclear activity, as well as on ‎its efforts to arm its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, ‎with several countries worldwide in an effort to ‎drive them to act against the Islamic republic.‎

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that it has”conducted ‎inspections under the additional protocol to all the ‎sites and locations in Iran which it needed to visit.

“The agency sends inspectors to sites and locations only when needed. The agency uses all safeguards relevant to information available to it but it does not take any information at face value,” International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano said in a statement on Tuesday.

“In order to maintain credibility, the agency’s independence in relation to the implementation of verification activities is of paramount importance,” he said.

“All information obtained, including from third parties, is subject to rigorous review and assessed together with other available information.”

 

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Dealing with Iran must come first

Posted October 2, 2018 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: Dealing with Iran must come first – Israel Hayom

Prof. Eyal Zisser

For a moment, it seemed that the Israeli-Palestinian ‎conflict would dominate the U.N. General Assembly as ‎well as the international agenda for the coming ‎year, but then came the addresses of U.S. President ‎Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‎to focused world leaders’ attention on the Iranian ‎issue. ‎

Trump made it clear that his administration plans to ‎focus on the Iranian issue, just like last year, he ‎made it clear that he planned to focus on North ‎Korea. ‎

Meeting with Netanyahu on the sidelines of the U.N. ‎General Assembly, Trump surprised many by officially ‎endorsing the two-state solution – then again ‎qualifying that he would support whichever solution ‎the parties agree to – and by saying his ‎administration plans to roll out the much-‎anticipated “deal of the century” within a few ‎months. ‎

The Americans may still strive to pitch the deal ‎meant to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as ‎a real estate transaction, as Trump himself has ‎said, but chances of that are slim, for several ‎reasons. ‎

First, in reality, we are no longer dealing with a ‎two-state solution but rather with a three-state ‎solution, namely Israel, a Palestinian state in the ‎West Bank and a Hamas state in the Gaza Strip. The ‎latter is not going anywhere and it is doubtful its ‎rulers would agree to reconcile with the Fatah-led ‎Palestinian Authority just to facilitate Trump’s ‎‎”deal of the century.”‎

Second, despite rhetoric to the contrary, Arab ‎leaders have no real intention of going over ‎Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ head ‎and accepting a deal on the Palestinians’ behalf. ‎This leads to the third reason – the Palestinian ‎leadership simply cannot make the necessary historic ‎decisions. ‎

Abbas can definitely protest that “Jerusalem is not ‎for sale” as much as he wants, but the bottom line ‎is that Trump is right – there is no reason why the ‎U.S. should give the Palestinian Authority hundreds ‎of millions of dollars in aid only to be ‎disrespected on the world stage – at least as much ‎as Abbas respects Russian President Vladimir Putin, ‎who has never given the Palestinians a dime. ‎

Moreover, one must remember that international ‎treaties rarely reflect “justice,” let alone the ‎Palestinian and their supporters’ version of ‎‎”absolute justice.” The Jewish community understood ‎that in 1948, which is why it ‎succeeded in forming a state. ‎

This is why Trump and Netanyahu both chose to focus ‎on Iran at the U.N. General Assembly. ‎

Netanyahu’s speech again showcased Israel’s ‎intelligence and operational prowess, which time and ‎again make Iran and Hezbollah, its regional proxy, ‎vulnerable. ‎

Trump’s speech reiterated the U.S. pledged to ‎prevent Iran from going nuclear and continue ‎disseminating terrorism and chaos in the Persian ‎Gulf and Middle East.‎

The American president’s words were binding and no ‎one knows better than him that his success and ‎international standing in the coming year will be ‎determined, to a large extent, by how he deals with ‎Tehran.‎

Failing to come up with a good answer to the ‎allegations made against them at the U.N. General ‎Assembly, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad ‎Zarif resorted to familiar rhetoric, saying that ‎the Holocaust did not justify the establishment of the ‎State of Israel on Palestinian land. ‎

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, for his part, ‎opted for a more “elegant” suggestion, saying, “We ‎do not wish to fight or destroy or throw anyone into ‎the ocean. We call on the Israelis, in the most ‎civilized way possible, to board planes or ships and ‎return to the countries from where they came. ‎

‎”Only the Jews who lived in Palestine before [the ‎Balfour Declaration] will be able to stay here. The ‎rest, those who came from all over the world, have ‎to leave.”‎

These statements are another good reason why Iran and ‎its allies must be stopped. European leaders would ‎be wise to pay attention before rushing to appease ‎Iran.‎

Eyal Zisser is a lecturer in the Middle East History Department at Tel Aviv University

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Top German paper calls for end of Iran trade to protect Israel

Posted October 2, 2018 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: Top German paper calls for end of Iran trade to protect Israel – International news – Jerusalem Post

“It is high time to ask oneself where the money that Iran is earning by this trade is going,” Dr. Schuster said.

BY BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
 OCTOBER 2, 2018 02:10
Germany's best-selling paper calls for end of Iran trade to protect Israel

Supporters of Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), attend a rally in Villepinte, near Paris, France, June 30, 2018.. (photo credit: REUTERS/REGIS DUVIGNAU)

In an eye-popping commentary on Monday, Germany’s top-selling paper Bild urged businesses to stop trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran because of its terrorism and the mullah regime’s goal to obliterate the Jewish state.

“This Iran cannot at this time be an ally,” Bild‘s foreign policy editor Julian Röpcke wrote. “Neither in the fight against terrorism, nor as as oil supplier or trade partner.”  Röpcke, who reports on the Syrian war, termed Iran’s missile launches into Syria as a “message of terror. Because they carry the meter-long inscriptions ‘Death to Israel and ‘Death to the USA’ — and that is deadly serious for the mullahs.”

“Iran’s rockets were not fired against the Islamic State, rather against those who stand in the way of the corrupt regime in Tehran,” Röpcke wrote. “Against those who do not want to stand inactively by when Iran’s leader again and again propagates the ‘extermination’ of Israel.” Bild has a daily circulation of 1,580,977.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday that it launched six missiles at paramilitary groups located close to the Euphrates River in Syria.

Iran’s clerical regime claims the missile attack was in response to a terrorism attack on a military parade in the Iranian city of Ahvaz last month. The attack killed 25 people in Ahvaz and injured an additional 60 people. Bild‘s commentary is believed to be first instance in the best-selling paper of a call for the complete end of business deals with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her foreign minister Heiko Maas are supportive of the European Union’s “special purpose vehicle (SPV)” to permit financial transactions with Iran. The SPV is designed to bust robust US sanctions on Iran’s energy and financial system. Germany’s federal government provides credit insurance guarantees to companies who wish to conduct business with Iran.

On Saturday, the US embassy to Berlin tweeted a quote from the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dr. Josef Schuster, who said: “I endorse an immediate end to any economic relations with Iran. Any trade with Iran means a benefit for radical and terrorist forces, and a hazard and destabilization for the region.” Merkel and Maas, who said he entered politics “because of Auschwitz,” have ignored Schuster’s plea.

“Courageous honest leadership by Dr. Schuster,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Post. “Chancellor Merkel continues business with a Jew-hating Ayatollah who bankrolls terrorism around the world and threatens 6 million plus Jews in Israel.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in Israel this week for a joint-cabinet consultation with Israel’s government. She has defended the Iran nuclear deal that Israel vehemently rejects because it allows Tehran a patient pathway to a nuclear weapon.

Schuster, who represents nearly 100,000 Jews in Germay, told the Post in August: “The Central Council of Jews in Germany has been criticizing German-Iranian trade relations for a long time. It seems paradoxical that Germany – as a country that is said to have learned from its horrendous past and which has a strong commitment to fight antisemitism –  is one of the strongest economic partners of a regime that is blatantly denying the Holocaust and abusing human rights on a daily basis. Besides, Germany has included Israel’s security as a part of its raison d’etre. As a matter of course this should exclude doing business with a fanatic dictatorship that is calling for Israel’s destruction, pursuing nuclear weapons and financing terror organizations around the world.

“It is high time to ask oneself where the money that Iran is earning by this trade is going,” Schuster said. “Furthermore, we witness demonstrations in Iran of people that are yearning for freedom and equality. We should stand up for these people who are risking their lives because they are asking for rights that we here can fortunately take for granted.”

 

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Strategic breakthrough for Iran in unimpeded drone-missile attack on E. Syria – DEBKAfile

Posted October 2, 2018 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: Strategic breakthrough for Iran in unimpeded drone-missile attack on E. Syria – DEBKAfile

  , , , , , 
Neither Israel nor the US intervened when Iran broke new strategic ground on Monday, Oct. 1 by sending a squadron of 11 stealth UAVs to attack ISIS in E. Syria.
DEBKAfile: The attack drones were greater cause for concern than the six surface missiles the Revolutionary Guards launched from their base in Kermanshah in western Iran. Like the missiles, the assault drones cut through Iraqi air space to their targets in Syria, without asking Baghdad for permission; but, unlike the missiles, they also returned to home base by the same route unhindered. Not a single Israeli or American aircraft took to the air stop them.

Therefore, not only is Iran continuing to establish a military presence in Syria in defiance of Israel’s vow to pre-empt their effort – even in Iraq, its Revolutionary Guards have taken a step further and activated a stealth air force from their home base across two frontiers.

DEBKAfile’s military sources identified the UAVs as “Saeqehs” (Thunderbolts), a replica of the US RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone which the Iranians downed seven years ago and reconstructed with the help of Chinese engineers. Nine months ago, Israeli Air Force jets brought down an armed drone of this type over the Jordan Valley after it entered Jordanian airspace from Syria.

Monday saw Iran deploying a full squadron of these super drones for their first operation. By this action, Tehran has demonstrated its capacity to launch missiles and attack drones from bases in Iran for air strikes against US targets in Syria, as well as Israel’s homeland. They are therefore a major menace to US interests in Syria and Iraq.

 

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