Report: Iran Pushing Deal With Assad Regime To Build Naval Base In Syria

Posted March 12, 2017 by Peter Hofman
Categories: Uncategorized
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Report: Iran Pushing For Deal With Assad Regime To Build Naval Base In Syria

by Deborah Danan

12 Mar 2017

Source: Report: Iran Pushing Deal With Assad Regime To Build Naval Base In Syria

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images

TEL AVIV – Iran is closing a deal with Syrian President Bashar Assad to build a military base at the port of Latakia in Syria, an Israeli diplomatic official told the Hebrew news site Walla on Friday.

The naval base would act as payment for Iran’s support of Assad over the past six years of civil war, the unnamed official said.

According to the report, establishing an Iranian military presence on the Mediterranean Sea would be viewed by Israel as a “radical step” that would “heighten the instability in the region and advance terror” against the Jewish state. Such a measure would also increase the threat to the Israeli home front since it would strengthen the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, which is currently fighting in Syria.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relayed his concerns about Iran’s intentions to build a naval base in his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

“I spoke with President Putin at length about the strategic significance of Iran’s creating a permanent presence in Syria, or its attempt to do so,” he said in a press briefing following their meeting, adding that an Iranian presence in Syria would be against the “long-term interests of everyone except the Iranians.”

“I said that it would undermine the stability, and actually hurt the possibility of a diplomatic arrangement [for Syria]. I made it clear that it is something that will be unacceptable to the State of Israel.”

Netanyahu said he believed Putin was receptive to his concerns.

“I made it clear to President Putin our resolute opposition to the consolidation of Iran and its proxies in Syria,” the prime minister said. “We see Iran trying to build a military force, military infrastructure, with the intention to be based in Syria, including the attempt by Iran to build a seaport. All this has serious implications in terms of Israel’s security.”

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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards now opposite Israeli troops on 1967 ceasefire line in Golan Heights

Posted March 12, 2017 by danmillerinpanama
Categories: Golan Heights, Iran and Israel, Iran and Syria, Iranian proxies, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Israel, Israel and Russia, Israeli security, Syrian war
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards now opposite Israeli troops on 1967 ceasefire line in Golan Heights, Jihad Watch, , March 12, 2017

(Please see also, Iranians at the gate. — DM)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated:

The threat of Shia Islamic terror is directed not only against us, but against the region and the entire world.

Perhaps Israel, more than any other nation, fully understands what “radical Islamic terrorism” is, and its primary goal of obliterating Israel.

“We do not want to see Shia Islamic terrorism led by Iran step in to replace Sunni Islamic terrorism,” Mr Netanyahu told the Russian President.

Iran continues attempts to destroy the Jewish state. They speak of this openly and write this in black and white in their newspapers.

Iran is now in a strategic position to try to destroy Israel directly (instead of through its proxies) as it expands its Shia base into Iraq and Syria.

Netanyahu could also not be clearer in his message that replacing Sunni terrorism with Shia terrorism is counterintuitive. Netanyahu is right about the global danger of mainstream Shia and Sunni terrorism, which is normalized in all too many Islamic states, not just in the Islamic State.

Netanyahu also once stated:

Islamic terrorism is inundating the world and inciting millions in many countries, from Jakarta to Africa to California.

“Iranian Revolutionary Guards opposite Israeli troops on 1967 ceasefire line in Golan Heights as tensions mount,” by Lizzie Dearden, Independent, March 10, 2017:

Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of using the Syrian civil war to “gain a foothold to fight Israel” amid fears over Iranian troops stationed along the border with the occupied Golan Heights.

Tehran is supporting Bashar al-Assad with deployments of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Basij militia and funding to allied militias including Hezbollah.

The IRGC are now reported to be present in Syrian-government controlled territory along the 1967 ceasefire line in the Golan Heights, which has seen months of Israeli air strikes met with rockets fired towards the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi, a commander in Iran’s Basij force, was pictured surveying the border, while a Shia paramilitary group has formed a “Golan Liberation Brigade”.

Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi force backed by Iran, is “ready to take action to liberate Golan” from Israeli occupation, according to spokesman quoted by Iranian state media this week.

The deployments have made the Iranian government a major power broker in the Syrian civil war, meeting with Russian and Turkish representatives at ceasefire talks in Astana, Kazakhstan.

In a meeting with Vladimir Putin on Thursday, the Israeli Prime Minister said that any truce must not allow the continued presence of Iranian forces in Syria.

“We do not want to see Shia Islamic terrorism led by Iran step in to replace Sunni Islamic terrorism,” Mr Netanyahu told the Russian President.

“Iran continues attempts to destroy the Jewish state. They speak of this openly and write this in black and white in their newspapers.

“Today, we have our own country and our army, and we can defend ourselves. But I want to say that the threat of Shia Islamic terror is directed not only against us, but against the region and the entire world.”

He told reporters Iran was “arming itself and its forces against Israel including from Syria territory and is, in fact, gaining a foothold to continue the fight against Israel”.

After the meeting, the Israeli Prime Minister said the removal of Iranian forces from Syria were vital to “prevent misunderstandings”.

“I made it clear that regarding Syria, while Israel is not opposed that there should be an agreement there, we strongly oppose the possibility that Iran and its proxies will be left with a military presence in Syria under such an agreement,” Mr Netanyahu added.

A statement released by the Kremlin said he and Mr Putin discussed “joint efforts to combat international terrorism” and examined areas of bilateral cooperation.

Two years ago, Israel and Russia agreed to coordinate military actions over Syria in order to avoid accidentally trading fire but the risk of skirmishes is increasing as pro-Assad forces fight for more territory in the Golan Heights….

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Memo to Jeff Sessions: It’s Time to Clean House

Posted March 12, 2017 by danmillerinpanama
Categories: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Democrat holdovers, Democrats and Trump, Department of Justice, Obama and Department of Justice, Washington swamp
Tags: , , , , ,

Memo to Jeff Sessions: It’s Time to Clean House,  Power Line, John Hinderaker, March 11, 2017

(Please see also, Fire Me: U.S. Attorney In Manhattan Refuses To Resign — “The demand to be fired is astonishingly unprofessional and frankly juvenile for a high-ranking prosecutor.”  Is there any federal agency or department that doesn’t need a thorough house cleaning? How about the State Department? — DM)

President Trump won the election with a promise to drain the Washington swamp. No swamp is more in need of draining than the Department of Justice, horribly corrupted by eight years of misrule. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has his work cut out for him. Bureaucrats and lawyers at DOJ will fight him every step of the way as he tries to reform the department.

The press will fight him, too–especially when it comes to efforts to restore professionalism to the Civil Rights Division. That division is now a cesspool of bias and incompetence, but reporters will imply that every effort Sessions makes to reform it is “racist.”

**************************

Of all the Obama administration scandals, what Barack Obama, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch did to the Department of Justice is one of the worst. Two manifestations of the depths to which DOJ has fallen emerged today. First, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, the highly partisan Democrat who selectively prosecuted Dinesh D’Souza for a felony and tried to send him to jail because he contributed too much to a Senate campaign, loudly announced that he refused to resign his position as requested by the Attorney General, his boss. Instead, Bharara insisted that he be fired. This was silly grandstanding, but it got Bharara what he wanted–headlines beneficial to a future political career–and it gave reporters what they wanted–an opportunity to pretend, for one more day, that there is something sinister in the routine replacement of political appointees.

Bharara typifies the highly partisan nature of Barack Obama’s Department of Justice, but his publicity stunt was mostly just annoying. Far more serious is the deep corruption that Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch introduced into DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. Via InstaPundit, Chris Adams reports on yet another case in which federal judges have blasted unethical or illegal conduct on the part of Civil Rights Division lawyers. See the original for links:

Here we go again. Another federal judge has scalded the unprofessional conduct of Justice Department lawyers inside the Civil Rights Division. The first time it was perjury. After that, it was unethical conduct in a trial against New Orleans police officers. Now it’s unprofessional behavior and bigotry toward the South in a federal court trial challenging Texas legislative districts.

In the course of a dissenting opinion on the Texas redistricting case about which you likely have seen headlines, Fifth Circuit Judge Jerry Smith praised the professionalism of the lawyers for both the plaintiffs and the State of Texas. Then he got to the lawyers for the U.S., which intervened in the case. They came from Loretta Lynch’s Civil Rights Division:

And then there is the United States, appearing through attorneys from the Department of Justice. I have no criticism of their knowledge of the law, and their zeal is, to say the least, more than adequate. But they entered these proceedings with arrogance and condescension. One of the Department’s lawyers even exhibited her contempt for Texas and its representatives and her disdain for these proceedings by regularly rolling her eyes at State witnesses’ answers that she did not like, and she amused herself by chewing gum while court was in session.

It was obvious, from the start, that the DoJ attorneys viewed state officials and the legislative majority and their staffs as a bunch of backwoods hayseed bigots who bemoan the abolition of the poll tax and pine for the days of literacy tests and lynchings. And the DoJ lawyers saw themselves as an expeditionary landing party arriving here, just in time, to rescue the state from oppression, obviously presuming that plaintiffs’ counsel were not up to the task. The Department of Justice moreover views Texas redistricting litigation as the potential grand prize and lusts for the day when it can reimpose preclearance via Section 3(c).

Of course, these are just personal impressions based on demeanor and attitude. More objectively verifiable are the witch hunts and fishing expeditions that the DoJ conducted in pursuit of its goals. I give two examples.
First is the DoJ’s vicious attack on Clare Dyer, a dedicated career employee of the Texas Legislative Council who has served both Democratic and Republican legislatures. …

Another example of a Department of Justice witch hunt, in its frustrated attempt to find evidence of intentional discrimination to support an ultimate claim for Section 3(c) opt-in relief, was its unsuccessful fishing expedition to uncover a smoking gun regarding what occurred on Monday and early Tuesday, June 13 and 14, 2011. …

The DoJ was determined to uncover racially-tinged communications (perhaps shopping for firehoses on the Internet?) to prove that the ultimate maps were based on “race for its own sake.” Because it was inadequately prepared, the DoJ called witness after witness, and presented document after document, to try to confect a paper trail from which the court could infer bigotry.
***
The Department of Justice has overplayed its hand and, in the process, has lost credibility. The wound is self-inflicted. The grand theory on which its intervention was mainly based—that invidious racial motives infect and predominate in the drawing of the 2011 district lines—has crashed and burned.

Judge Smith is one of a growing list of federal judges who have blown the whistle on Barack Obama’s Department of Justice. Adams explains what happened:

An ideological hiring campaign took place during the Obama years where Every Single One of the lawyers hired into the Civil Rights Division was a committed leftist. When the DOJ Inspector General recommended that hiring criteria be changed to eliminate this perceived bias, then Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez rejected the recommendation.

That’s the same Tom Perez who is now Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

President Trump won the election with a promise to drain the Washington swamp. No swamp is more in need of draining than the Department of Justice, horribly corrupted by eight years of misrule. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has his work cut out for him. Bureaucrats and lawyers at DOJ will fight him every step of the way as he tries to reform the department.

The press will fight him, too–especially when it comes to efforts to restore professionalism to the Civil Rights Division. That division is now a cesspool of bias and incompetence, but reporters will imply that every effort Sessions makes to reform it is “racist.”

Sessions faces a daunting task, but he is the right man for the job. Conservatives need to be prepared to support him, aggressively, as he begins to clean the Augean stables of the Department of Justice.

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Protesters take down Dutch flag & put up Turkey’s at Istanbul consulate (VIDEOS, PHOTO)

Posted March 12, 2017 by Peter Hofman
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

Turkish protesters outside the consulate general of the Netherlands in Istanbul pulled down the Dutch flag and replaced it with Turkey’s as a diplomatic row escalates between the two countries.

Published time: 12 Mar, 2017 09:50 Edited time: 12 Mar, 2017 12:10

Source: Protesters take down Dutch flag & put up Turkey’s at Istanbul consulate (VIDEOS, PHOTO) — RT News

A Turkish flag flies over the Dutch Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, March 12, 2017. ©Huseyin Aldemir / Reuters

Turkish protesters outside the consulate general of the Netherlands in Istanbul pulled down the Dutch flag and replaced it with Turkey’s as a diplomatic row escalates between the two countries.
Trends Turkey-EU row

NTV reports that the Dutch flag was taken down at midday for about an hour on Sunday before being restored above the consulate.

One member of a small group of protesters that gathered outside the consulate’s gates early on Sunday managed to climb onto the building’s roof despite police barricades. He then lowered the Dutch flag and raised the Turkish one in its place.

Turkish media are reporting that protests are continuing outside the building.

This incident follows a mass rally that took place outside the building on Saturday night, which led the consulate to be closed for security reasons.

The protests come amid a major diplomatic row between the Dutch and Turkish governments over efforts by the latter to marshal support for a constitutional referendum next month among Turkish citizens in the Netherlands.

On Saturday, Dutch authorities refused permission for Turkey’s foreign minister to land, and the Turkish family affairs minister was later deported after entering the Netherlands by land to attend a political rally.

READ MORE: Dutch police deport Turkish minister to Germany after barring her from consulate in Rotterdam

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan branded the Dutch authorities “Nazi remnants, fascists” after permission for Mevlut Cavusoglu’s flight to land was revoked. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte fired back, saying the comments were “way out of line.”

Saturday night saw skirmishes in the streets of Rotterdam as Turkish demonstrators protested the Dutch government. The gathering turned violent as protesters hurled missiles and clashed with riot police, who unleashed water cannon to disperse the crowd.

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Ever unpredictable, Trump throws Mahmoud Abbas a lifeline

Posted March 12, 2017 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: Ever unpredictable, Trump throws Mahmoud Abbas a lifeline | The Times of Israel

Friday’s first presidential phone call, in which the PA chief was invited to the White House, has the Palestinians extremely upbeat

By Avi Issacharoff March 11, 2017, 9:05 pm
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas greets his supporters following a trip to Washington DC, on March 20, 2014, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas greets his supporters following a trip to Washington DC, on March 20, 2014, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

US President Donald Trump’s phone conversation Friday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, during which the PA chief was invited to visit to the White House in the near future, has produced considerable optimism in Ramallah.

The American president, whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu anticipated would be far more supportive of Israel than his predecessor Barak Obama, went out of his way in the call to leave Abbas feeling upbeat, PA officials said Saturday.

Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh reported soon after the call on Friday that Trump stressed his “commitment to a peace process that would lead to a real peace between Palestinians and Israelis,” and he hailed the new president as “a very honest man, very courageous man, looking for a deal, a just deal.”

The White House invite was not just extended as “a formal invitation,” one Palestinian official elaborated on Saturday. Rather, Trump made plain “that he wants to host the rais (chairman) as his personal guest.”

The call left the PA leadership with the clear sense that Trump wants to see an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, and intends to work for one.

Palestinian officials have held lower-level talks with officials in the new administration in recent weeks, sources in Ramallah said at the weekend, and concluded that Trump neither wants to impose terms of his own nor to have either one of the sides seek to impose terms. In other words, he will oppose any Palestinian efforts at unilateral action, and, similarly, will oppose dramatic Israeli settlement growth and/or annexation of parts of the West Bank.

Adnan Mjalli (screen capture: YouTube)

Adnan Mjalli (screen capture: YouTube)

The new administration, these officials said, is taking a particular interest in the Palestinian economy, and has been meeting with prominent Palestinian businessmen, including pharma billionaire Adnan Mjalli. Mjalli has apparently operated a back-channel between the White House and Abbas’s Muqata’a headquarters, and is seen as a possible new PA prime minister.

If the Palestinians are correct, then Trump is plainly living up to his unpredictable reputation — defying expectations, this time, when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, February 15, 2017. (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, February 15, 2017. (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

Trump was certainly the gracious host to Netanyahu at the White House last month. Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer is in close, ongoing contact with presidential son-in-law and potential peace broker Jared Kushner. And Trump’s phone call to Netanyahu on Monday, when the prime minister was in the midst of an uncomfortable session of questioning by police over corruption allegations, was nicely timed to enable a break, coincidentally or not.

Nonetheless, unlike Candidate Trump, President Trump is not talking of quickly relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And far from giving a carte blanche for settlement expansion, he publicly urged Netanyahu to “hold back” a little on settlements and said in an interview that settlements are “not a good thing for peace.” He may have declared lightly that he would be happy with a one-state, two-state or any other solution acceptable to both sides, but he hasn’t rushed to negate the two-state solution, and his administration has recommitted to it. And Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said last week that the administration had made plain its opposition to the annexation of Ma’aleh Adumim or any other parts of the West Bank, and that defying this position would be harmful to US-Israel ties.

These, to put it mildly, are not the positions some on the Israeli right had been expecting the Trump Administration to take.

And now, at least in the Palestinian telling, Trump has begun to revive Abbas — drawing the endlessly embattled PA chief back to center-stage. Abbas, whom Israel’s leadership routinely brands “irrelevant,” “not a partner,” and “not genuinely seeking peace,” will soon be on his way to Washington.

It’s not only Israel that has been criticizing Abbas. Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has been undermining the PA president, boosting his rival Mahmoud Dahlan, and cozying up to Hamas, at every opportunity for months.

Trump’s invitation thus constitutes a political lifeline for Abbas. The PA president can hardly be derided as irrelevant if he’s being hosted by the president in Washington, DC.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner arrive for a joint press conference by US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House on February 15, 2017 in Washington, DC. (AFP/Mandel Ngan)

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner arrive for a joint press conference by US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House on February 15, 2017 in Washington, DC. (AFP/Mandel Ngan)

Trump’s special Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, once a student at Har Etzion yeshiva, will be visiting Jerusalem and Ramallah on Tuesday. CIA chief Mike Pompeo met with Abbas in Ramallah last month. There are even some indications, emphatically unconfirmed at this stage, that Kushner and Ivanka Trump will soon visit the area, and will call in on Abbas.

If Egypt has been working against him, Jordan’s King Abdullah has been energetically championing Abbas’s cause in Washington. It was not by coincidence that Abbas spoke with the king shortly before Trump called, to coordinate, and updated him soon afterwards on the conversation.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis greets Jordan's King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein during an honor cordon at the Pentagon, Monday, Jan. 30, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis greets Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein during an honor cordon at the Pentagon, Monday, Jan. 30, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

All of this adds up to more than the faint indication that the Trump administration may be about to plunge into the quicksand of attempted Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. On the campaign trail, Trump acknowledged that this would be hardest of all deals, and maybe its purported impossibility is what he relishes.

The bar right now is so low that even bringing Abbas and Netanyahu together for a photo opportunity on the White House lawn would constitute quite an achievement. Both men would pay a price back home for such an appearance, but if Donald Trump were to invite them, it might be an offer they could not refuse.

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Off Topic: For Purim, Ivanka bakes hamantaschen with her kids

Posted March 12, 2017 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: For Purim, Ivanka bakes hamantaschen with her kids | The Times of Israel

Daughter of US president and her family celebrate Jewish festival with traditional cookies

By Times of Israel staff March 11, 2017, 5:10 pm
Ivanka Trump and children bake for Purim, March 9, 2017 (Twitter)

Ivanka Trump and children bake for Purim, March 9, 2017 (Twitter)

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of US President Donald Trump, marked the Jewish holiday of Purim over the weekend by posting a picture of her and her children making the traditional hamantaschen cookies.

“After-school fun making hamantaschen for Purim with Arabella and Joseph,” Trump posted to her Instagram account on Friday.

Purim, which starts Saturday night, commemorates the Biblical tale of an averted genocide of the Jews in the Persian empire some 2,500 years ago, and is a festive occasion celebrated with costumes, parades and street parties in cities around Israel.

One of the most iconic symbol of the holiday are hamantaschen — called oznai haman, or “Haman’s ears,” in Hebrew — named after the villain of the story.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BReZzz0lZFr/embed/

The dough triangles are usually filled with poppy seeds, chocolate or dates.

In the weeks before Purim, they pop up in bakeries, cafes and kitchens around the country, and the treats are included in the ‘mishloah manot,’ or Purim gift baskets, Israelis traditionally exchange for the holiday.

Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism in 2009 in order to marry her husband Jared Kushner. The couple have three children, Arabella, 5, Joseph, 3 and Theodore, 1.

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump step off Air Force One with their children Arabella (L), Joseph (C) and Theodore at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, on March 5, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / NICHOLAS KAMM)

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump step off Air Force One with their children Arabella (L), Joseph (C) and Theodore at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, on March 5, 2017. (AFP/Nicholas Kamm)

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Iran admits canceling missile test following White House warning

Posted March 12, 2017 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: Israel Hayom | Iran admits canceling missile test following White House warning

Head of Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh says Iran prepared ballistic missile for purpose of launching satellite “for civilian purposes” • Hajizadeh calls decision to cancel missile test “humiliating behavior.”

Erez Linn
A ballistic missile test in an undisclosed location in Iran in 2016

A high-ranking Iranian official admitted last week that Iran canceled a planned ballistic missile test over warnings from the United States.

According to a report Thursday by Iranian news agency Tasnim, Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Aerospace Force, publicly acknowledged that a ballistic missile test scheduled to take place in February was nixed after the White House warned the Islamic republic not to repeat the provocative missile test it performed in late January.

According to the report, Hajizadeh said: “We prepared a ballistic missile for the purpose of launching a satellite for civilian purposes, but there were people who sent it back to the storage facility after a threat was received from the Americans.”

He criticized the move, calling it “humiliating behavior.”

In late January, Iran tested [tested > http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=39983%5D a medium-range ballistic missile in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions barring it from testing missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

The test annoyed Washington, with then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn saying the White House had officially put Iran “on notice” and the U.S. was placing additional sanctions on Iran.

Days after Flynn’s warning, Fox News reported that Iran had been frenziedly preparing to launch a missile with the same components as an intercontinental ballistic missile and with properties very similar to that of its Shahab-3 missile. According to the report, which was based on satellite imagery of the launching pad, the missile was, for reasons unknown at the time, removed from the launching pad.

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Iranians at the gate

Posted March 12, 2017 by Joseph Wouk
Categories: Uncategorized

Source: Israel Hayom | Iranians at the gate

Prof. Eyal Zisser

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Russia last week was dedicated to the Iranian issue, or, more precisely, to Israel’s red lines on any Iranian presence in Syria if and when the six-year civil war there comes to an end.

The possibility that Russia may be able to do the seemingly impossible and strike a peace deal between the warring parties in Syria in the foreseeable future has Israel wary of the regional gains this may spell for Iran.

Iran could have significant influence in Syria and potentially even physical control of the country, thanks to tens of thousands of operatives on the ground in the form of Hezbollah members, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ soldiers, or Shiite militia fighters “imported” by Iran into Syria from across the Middle East.

What the world can expect from post-war Syria is reflected in recent reports of Iran’s plans to build a naval base in Tartus, the second largest port city in Syria after Latakia, as well as in reports that Revolutionary Guard units and Hezbollah forces are planning to overrun the Syrian Golan Heights, to liberate it from the rebels and re-establish Syrian control over the area — a move that would effectively place Iranian forces on the Syria-Israel border.

Iran, most likely, has no interest in a direct conflict with Israel, but history has proved it will use its proxies in Syria — Hezbollah, Damascus-based Palestinian terrorist groups, and various Shiite militias — to do its bidding. This means the immediate issue Israel must deal with is the Iranian and Hezbollah presence in southern Syria, while the long-term issue is the question of Iran’s status in Syria in any deal in which Syrian President Bashar Assad remains in power.

The campaign to liberate the northeastern Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State, which is scheduled to begin in the next few days, stands to significantly impact the Iranian presence in the country as well: If the Turks and the Sunni Syrian rebels at their command take the city, or if the Kurds, who have American assistance, do so, that will lead to the creation of a buffer zone between Shiite Iraq and the rest of Assad-controlled Syria. But if Assad’s forces, with the help of Iranian troops, are the ones to take Raqqa, Iran will be able to establish control over a land axis spanning from Tehran through Iraq and eastern Syria to Damascus and Beirut.

Russian President Vladimir Putin most likely listened carefully to Netanyahu’s warnings. But for now, Russia is standing by its cynical alliance with Iran. Tehran and Moscow desire first and foremost to cement Assad’s control in Syria, and the presence of Iranian and Shiite operatives in the country is imperative to that end.

Netanyahu was wise to make it clear to Putin that Israel is determined to maintain its regional interests and will not allow anyone to cross its red lines, even if Russia sees things differently.

Incidentally, this dynamic was present in recent strikes against Syrian weapon shipments to Hezbollah, which foreign media attributed to Israel. The Russians did nothing to prevent these shipments, nor did they hide their disapproval of the alleged Israeli efforts to thwart them, but the dialogue between Jerusalem and Moscow over the past year resulted in Russia’s acceptance of Israel’s position on the matter.

It is safe to assume that Netanyahu’s meeting with Putin sought to reach similar understandings with regard to Israel’s red lines over Iran and Hezbollah’s presence in the Golan Heights, and perhaps in other areas in Syria as well.

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Turkish minister blocked by Dutch police from entering Rotterdam Consulate

Posted March 12, 2017 by Peter Hofman
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

Turkey’s family affairs minister has said her convoy was blocked by Dutch police from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Published time: 11 Mar, 2017 19:57 Edited time: 11 Mar, 2017 23:58

Source: Turkish minister blocked by Dutch police from entering Rotterdam Consulate — RT News

Turkey’s family affairs minister has said her convoy was blocked by Dutch police from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Kaya has been reportedly detained by the Dutch police and is being held at the consulate before being further escorted to Germany, RTL News reported.

“We were stopped at the Consulate General of Rotterdam 30 meters away and were not allowed to enter,” Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya wrote earlier on Twitter, adding that by denying her access to the building “Netherlands is violating all international laws, conventions and human rights.”

 With mass rallies still ongoing at the consulate, the Dutch police asked Kaya to promptly leave the country for Germany, accompanied by a police convoy.
“You must go back to the German border,” the police told the minister, as reported by NOS correspondent Robert Bas.However, the minister reportedly rejected the request, after police refused to let her address the protesters, NOS reported.https://twitter.com/robertpbas/status/840682320969498624?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwLet me have five minutes to talk to my people,” she asked.Police are reportedly preparing to disperse the demonstration at the consulate. Units of the Dutch Special Intervention Service (DSI) have been spotted arriving at the site.

Anadolu reports that the Dutch police also blocked its correspondents along with reporters from Turkey’s TRT channel, who were with the minister to cover her visit.

Pro-Turkish demonstrators have gathered outside the Turkish Consulate in Rotterdam to protest the actions of the Dutch authorities. According to AP, some 100 people took to the streets to join the demonstration, while some eyewitnesses put their number at 500.

The demonstrators were waving Turkish national flags and standing near the consulate entrance. As the crowd grew, the Dutch police took additional security measures at the scene. The police officers put up railings to keep anyone from getting too close and deployed additional forces to the consulate, according to AP.

Channels CNN Turk and NTV earlier reported that the convoy of Turkey’s family minister was stopped at the Netherlands border.

The incident involving the Turkish family minister comes just hours after Dutch authorities revoked authorization for the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s flight, hours after he had warned that Turkey would retaliate if his visit was canceled.

Earlier, Cavusoglu insisted that he would go ahead with his visit to Rotterdam even if local Dutch authorities did not agree to his taking part in a rally promoting a change in Turkey’s constitution.

Cavusoglu intended to campaign at the rally to drum up votes in favor of an April referendum that would give the Turkish president new powers, but Rotterdam’s mayor, Ahmed Aboutaleb, banned the Turkish official from speaking in public in the city late Friday.

Read more

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (L), Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte (R) © Reuters

Turkish FM threatens Dutch with sanctions if they cancel his landing permit – and they do

Meanwhile, the deputy chairman of Turkey’s ultranationalist MHP party, Semih Yalçın, has claimed the Turks were ready to stage a protest at the airport the Turkish Foreign Minister was supposed to land at.

“Our friends have now started a sit-in at the airport where the Foreign Ministry was planning to land,” Yalçın said, adding that the aim is to demonstrate a “reaction to Europe.”

Yalçın has also accused the European country of a “medieval mentality.”

MHP’s chairman Devlet Bahceli has discussed the sit-in with Head of Confederation of Turks in Europe, Cemal Cetin, Anadolu Agency reports. They decided the protest would be “in line with laws in the European country.”

Meanwhile, Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders has also been adding fuel to the fire, tweeting that the Turkish minister should “go away and never come back” and “take all her Turkish fans” as she leaves.

Comments: 2 Comments

Humor 2: My dog is a Republican

Posted March 12, 2017 by Peter Hofman
Categories: Uncategorized

tiffanyshepherd

H/T Peter

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