Secretary of State John Kerry: If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state

Secretary of State John Kerry: If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state

    Monday, April 28, 2014   No comments

Senior American officials have rarely, if ever, used the term “apartheid” in reference to Israel, and President Obama has previously rejected the idea that the word should apply to the Jewish state. Kerry's use of the loaded term is already rankling Jewish leaders in America—and it could attract unwanted attention in Israel, as well.

It wasn't the only controversial comment on the Middle East that Kerry made during his remarks to the Trilateral Commission, a recording of which was obtained by The Daily Beast. Kerry also repeated his warning that a failure of Middle East peace talks could lead to a resumption of Palestinian violence against Israeli citizens. He suggested that a change in either the Israeli or Palestinian leadership could make achieving a peace deal more feasible. He lashed out against Israeli settlement-building. And Kerry said that both Israeli and Palestinian leaders share the blame for the current impasse in the talks.
Kerry also said that at some point, he might unveil his own peace deal and tell both sides to “take it or leave it.”

read more >>

Hemmed in by hate, last Muslims in Central Africa capital pray for escape

Hemmed in by hate, last Muslims in Central Africa capital pray for escape

    Friday, April 25, 2014   No comments

Hundreds of Muslims, among the last remaining in the Central African Republic’s capital after months of brutal sectarian violence, are trapped in a slum desperately hoping to be saved from militia attacks.
Some 1,300 refugees are thought to be holed up in the PK-12 neighbourhood — an area 12 kilometres outside the capital Bangui — having fled from all corners of the conflict-ravaged country. Many have been here for months. Almost 100 were evacuated under international protection on Monday, but the rest are stuck, hemmed in by the mostly Christian “anti-balaka” militias that have launched fierce attacks against the Muslim community.

Once, Muslims and Christians and a variety of ethnic groups lived comfortably together in Bangui. But the cycle of sectarian violence that broke out last year has caused almost the entire Muslim population of the city to flee, leaving their houses abandoned.
The anti-balaka have taken a merciless vengeance on the community after the Seleka, a mostly Muslim rebel group, temporarily seized power in a coup in March 2013. Anti-balaka means “anti-machete” in the local Sango language and refers to the weapon of choice wielded by the Seleka — but also taken up by the vigilantes.
Those stranded in PK-12 have only one wish: to slip quietly into a protected convoy of vehicles headed across the border to Chad.  “We came for two days, but we’ve been here for five months,” said Yaya Yougoudou, one of the community’s elders.
When the Chadian government decided to stop evacuation operations earlier this month — having already brought tens of thousands over the border — it left the families in PK-12 stranded and surrounded by anti-balaka. Their days are a relentless agony. Emaciated faces betray the hunger and disease that run rampant in this slum, now reduced to just two or three rows of houses, where food is increasingly scarce.
“Look over there! The people waiting are anti-balaka. That little bridge is our limit,” said Abacar Hassan, one of the few original inhabitants of the area.
“Over there” is just 100 metres away on the road out of town, which marks a frontier between life and death. Any Muslim crossing that line would be lucky to survive more than 20 seconds.
To the south, on the other side of the road towards Bangui, a French armoured vehicle is the only thing protecting them. Beyond that is nothing but destruction. A few walls are still standing, but all the roofs have collapsed. A small suitcase lies on the ground, ripped apart amid a few discarded plastic objects.

read more >>

U.N.: Hundreds of civilians killed in South Sudan ethnic massacre

U.N.: Hundreds of civilians killed in South Sudan ethnic massacre

    Wednesday, April 23, 2014   No comments

U.N.: Hundreds of civilians killed in South Sudan ethnic massacre

Rebels slaughtered hundreds of civilians when they seized the South Sudan oil hub of Bentiu, hunting down men, women and children who had sought refuge in a hospital, mosque and Catholic church, the United Nations said on Monday.

Rebel troops overran Bentiu, the capital of the oil producing Unity State, on Tuesday. More than 1 million people have fled their homes since fighting erupted in the world's youngest country in December between troops backing President Salva Kiir and soldiers loyal to his sacked vice president, Riek Machar.

The fighting has exacerbated ethnic tensions between Kiir's Dinka people and Machar's Nuer.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan said that its human rights investigators confirmed that rebels "searched a number of places where hundreds of South Sudanese and foreign civilians had taken refuge and killed hundreds of the civilians after determining their ethnicity or nationality."

read more >>

Syrian rebels in Homs: "We are killing them, those rotting carcasses"

Syrian rebels in Homs: "We are killing them, those rotting carcasses"

    Tuesday, April 22, 2014   No comments

Weakened Syrian rebels are making their last desperate stand in Homs, as forces loyal to President Bashar Assad launch their harshest assault yet to expel them from the central city, once known as the capital of the revolution.
...     
 

Some rebels have escalated suicide car bombings in government-controlled areas dominated by Alawites, the minority Shiite offshoot sect that Assad belongs to. At least five such bombings in April killed more than 60 people, one of the bloodiest months for residents in government-controlled areas, a local reporter there estimated. The most recent, on Friday, killed 14.

     

"We are killing them, those rotting carcasses," said Abu Bilal, the fighter.

     

The bombings have another aim, sparking fighting that prevents any truce that would allow rebels to desert, Abu Bilal said.

     

"Some of us are against those deserting. We are fighting so they can die in it," said Abu Bilal.

     

Homs' saga traces the arc of Syria's uprising.

     

It quickly embraced the uprising against Assad's rule after it began in southern Daraa province in March 2011. Tens of thousands joined anti-Assad protests in Homs, winning it the nickname of "the revolution's capital."

     

"We carried the spark of the revolution and made it a flame," Abu Rami said.

     

After pro-Assad forces violently cracked down on demonstrations, some protesters took up arms, transforming the uprising into an armed rebellion.

    

Homs has also seen the ever-increasing religious dimension of the conflict, with tit-for-tat sectarian killings in the city where majority Sunni Muslims live alongside Christians and Alawites.

read more >>

Jordanian ambassador seized in Libya, kidnappers demand prisoner release

Jordanian ambassador seized in Libya, kidnappers demand prisoner release

    Wednesday, April 16, 2014   No comments

Jordan's ambassador to Libya was kidnapped on Tuesday by gunmen who demanded an Islamist militant be released from a Jordanian jail in exchange for the diplomat's freedom.

The masked gunmen shot and wounded the driver of Ambassador Fawaz al-Itan's car as they snatched the diplomat from a street in the capital Tripoli, Libya's Foreign Ministry said.

Essam Baitelmel, a member of the Libyan team investigating the abduction, said the kidnappers had demanded the release of Mohamed Dersi, a Libyan Islamist militant jailed for life in 2007 for plotting to blow up the main airport in Jordan.

The kidnappers made their demands in a call to the ambassador's own cellphone, which was left behind in the car after the abduction, Baitelmel said. They said the diplomat was unharmed.

Libya's foreign minister Mohamed Abdelaziz could not officially confirm that the government had received demands from the kidnappers.

Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour told parliament the government would take "all necessary measures to protect his life and release him".

read more >>

Erdoğan threatens judges, prosecutors in party group speech

Erdoğan threatens judges, prosecutors in party group speech

    Wednesday, April 16, 2014   No comments

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who claims that there are “gangs” inside the Turkish judiciary, has vowed to “purge those gangs and networks from courthouse hallways.”
Speaking at his Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, Prime Minister Erdoğan reiterated his earlier allegation that there are centers, both foreign and domestic, that are trying to undermine his government. “There have been some very aggressive attacks seeking to wear out our government ahead of the elections, both from the outside and inside. At home, there was a campaign against peace, stability, democracy, the settlement process and the economy, while outside there was a planned and ill-meaning campaign against Turkey's image.”

He said gangs inside the judiciary and the police force attacked trucks owned by the National Intelligence Organization (MİT). In January, prosecutors ordered trucks en route to Syria and escorted by Turkish intelligence officers to be stopped and searched on suspicion that they were transporting weapons to Syria. Erdoğan said the search was illegal and it had been carried out in an effort to smear Turkey's image, label it a terrorist country. He continued the same theme on Tuesday. “Believe me, even an enemy wouldn't have stooped this low,” he said. He claimed that the same “operation” against his government was under way. Referring to recent claims by US journalist Seymour Hersh that Turkey had masterminded a chemical attack in Syria, Erdoğan said: “Completely false allegations stating that there is a link between the chemical attack in Syria and Turkey have been put forth. There was an attempt to create the perception that there is a link between Turkey and the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, as if Turkey supports terrorism.”

read more >>

Turkey 'aided Islamist fighters' in attack on Syrian town: Rebels and eye-witnesses claim that Turkish authorities allowed fighters to enter Syria through a strategic border post to carry out assault on Armenian town of Kasab

Turkey 'aided Islamist fighters' in attack on Syrian town: Rebels and eye-witnesses claim that Turkish authorities allowed fighters to enter Syria through a strategic border post to carry out assault on Armenian town of Kasab

    Tuesday, April 15, 2014   No comments

Turkey facilitated an attack carried out by Islamist fighters against the Armenian town of Kasab inside Syria, eyewitnesses have told the Telegraph.

In an operation that was months in the planning, Turkish authorities gave rebel groups the mandate they needed to attack, allowing them access through a heavily militarised Turkish border post, whose location was strategically vital to the success of the assault.

"Turkey did us a big favour," said a Syrian activist with the rebel group, whose name the Telegraph knows but has been asked not to reveal. "They allowed our guys to enter from their border post.

"We needed to hit the regime from different sides and this was the only way from near the coast, so it was a big help."

Kasab, the ancestral home of the Armenian ethnic minority in Syria, which had remained relatively sheltered from the conflict in Syria.

read more >>

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and other "moderate" Arabs meeting Israeli officials

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and other "moderate" Arabs meeting Israeli officials

    Monday, April 14, 2014   No comments

Saudi foreign minister

Israel is holding secret talks with some Arab states that do not recognise it, looking to establish diplomatic ties based on a common fear of Iran, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday.

   

Amongst the countries he was in contact with were Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Lieberman told newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth - the first such disclosure by a senior Israeli official.

   

Saudi Arabia denied having any talks with Israel. Kuwait was not immediately available for comment.

   

Both these states, along with most other Arab nations, have traditionally been highly hostile towards Israel, which has only signed peace deals with two neighbours - Egypt and Jordan.

   

However, anti-Israeli sentiment was being superseded by a growing concern over Iran's nuclear programme, Tehran's regional allies, and the menace of Islamist militancy, Lieberman said.

   

"For the first time there is an understanding there that the real threat is not Israel, the Jews or Zionism. It is Iran, global jihad, (Lebanese Shi'ite guerrilla group) Hezbollah and al Qaeda," the foreign minister said.

   

"There are contacts, there are talks, but we are very close to the stage in which within a year or 18 months it will no longer be secret, it will be conducted openly," added Lieberman, who is a far rightist in the coalition government.

   

Lieberman said he was in touch with "moderate" Arabs - a term Israelis often use for Sunni states in the Gulf and elsewhere in the Middle East that align with U.S. interests. He also said he would have no problem visiting Saudi Arabia or Kuwait.

   

"I have spent more than a few years of meetings and talks with them. As far as they are concerned, there is only one red rag and that is Iran," he said.

read more >>

Gül-Erdoğan meeting inconclusive on top leaders' presidential plans

Gül-Erdoğan meeting inconclusive on top leaders' presidential plans

    Saturday, April 12, 2014   No comments

A meeting on Thursday between Turkey's two top public officials, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül, did not yield a decision on who will run in the nation's first popular election for president.
Turkish media reported after the meeting that the president and prime minister will sit down once again in late April or early May to come to an agreement on who will run for the presidency in elections to be held in August.

Earlier, both Erdoğan and Gül had said they would reach a joint decision on the presidency; both are considered likely contenders for the spot. Gül, answering a question on Tuesday from a journalist at a reception for Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, said: “I will sit down and talk with my colleagues, together with the prime minister. I have said that we will draw our roadmap according to our talks. Of course, what I think and will say about issues that concern me is important.”

read more >>

Inside the FBI’s secret relationship with the military’s special operations

Inside the FBI’s secret relationship with the military’s special operations

    Friday, April 11, 2014   No comments

When U.S. Special Operations forces raided several houses in the Iraqi city of Ramadi in March 2006, two Army Rangers were killed when gunfire erupted on the ground floor of one home. A third member of the team was knocked unconscious and shredded by ball bearings when a teenage insurgent detonated a suicide vest.

In a review of the nighttime strike for a relative of one of the dead Rangers, military officials sketched out the sequence of events using small dots to chart the soldiers’ movements. Who, the relative asked, was this man — the one represented by a blue dot and nearly killed by the suicide bomber?

 read more >>

 

Despite a New Constitution, the Fight for Gender Equality in Tunisia Continues

Despite a New Constitution, the Fight for Gender Equality in Tunisia Continues

    Friday, April 11, 2014   No comments

After more than two years of arguments and concessions between Islamic and secular parties, on January 26, the Tunisian National Constituent Assembly ratified the country’s new Constitution.

When it was signed, assembly members spontaneously started to chant the national anthem and congratulated each other for the achievement. Indeed, there was cause for celebration. Tunisians signed one of the most progressive Constitutions in the Arab world, one that includes a commitment to gender equality. Yet, the celebratory media coverage failed to mention that other Arab countries, such as Algeria and Morocco, have also committed to gender equality in their Constitution.

Article 45 of the Tunisian Constitution guarantees “equality of opportunities between women and men to have access to all levels of responsibility and in all domains” and Article 46 seeks parity “between men and women in elected assemblies.” In an interview for UN Women, Sana Ben Achour, law student and women’s rights activist, explained that the Tunisian Constitution is the first one in the Arab world to ensure equal access to the presidency. Additionally, Article 20 states: “All male and female citizens have the same rights and duties. They are equal before the law without discrimination.” This accomplishment would not have been possible without the work of feminist activists and women’s organizations that have advocated for gender equality.

read more >>

Accepting the Other: Faith in Oman

Accepting the Other: Faith in Oman

    Wednesday, April 09, 2014   No comments

Accepting the Other: Faith in 

 Oman Episode 1 of 2
Duration: 29 minutes
First broadcast: Saturday 05 April 2014

 In the Islamically conservative Gulf region, Oman stands out for its religious tolerance. Members of other faiths – Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and others – enjoy freedom of worship. Interfaith dialogue is a government priority. All this puts the country in sharp contrast to its neighbour Saudi Arabia, where the public practise of any religion other than Islam is banned.

And, while the Arab Spring brought a deterioration of relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in countries like Egypt, Oman appears almost untouched by either political upheaval or inter-religious tension.

In the first of this two-part series Mounira Chaieb, a journalist from Tunisia, examines what is at the root of Oman’s unusual attitude to other faiths, and questions whether the country’s tolerant attitude to religious minorities a matter of true religious conviction, or merely a way of keeping powerful allies like the United States on side?

Listen to the program

Seymour M. Hersh on Obama, Erdoğan and the Syrian rebels: Erdoğan's men behind the chemical attack in Syria

Seymour M. Hersh on Obama, Erdoğan and the Syrian rebels: Erdoğan's men behind the chemical attack in Syria

    Monday, April 07, 2014   No comments

In 2011 Barack Obama led an allied military intervention in Libya without consulting the US Congress. Last August, after the sarin attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, he was ready to launch an allied air strike, this time to punish the Syrian government for allegedly crossing the ‘red line’ he had set in 2012 on the use of chemical weapons.​ Then with less than two days to go before the planned strike, he announced that he would seek congressional approval for the intervention. The strike was postponed as Congress prepared for hearings, and subsequently cancelled when Obama accepted Assad’s offer to relinquish his chemical arsenal in a deal brokered by Russia. Why did Obama delay and then relent on Syria when he was not shy about rushing into Libya? The answer lies in a clash between those in the administration who were committed to enforcing the red line, and military leaders who thought that going to war was both unjustified and potentially disastrous.

Obama’s change of mind had its origins at Porton Down, the defence laboratory in Wiltshire. British intelligence had obtained a sample of the sarin used in the 21 August attack and analysis demonstrated that the gas used didn’t match the batches known to exist in the Syrian army’s chemical weapons arsenal. The message that the case against Syria wouldn’t hold up was quickly relayed to the US joint chiefs of staff. The British report heightened doubts inside the Pentagon; the joint chiefs were already preparing to warn Obama that his plans for a far-reaching bomb and missile attack on Syria’s infrastructure could lead to a wider war in the Middle East. As a consequence the American officers delivered a last-minute caution to the president, which, in their view, eventually led to his cancelling the attack.

For months there had been acute concern among senior military leaders and the intelligence community about the role in the war of Syria’s neighbours, especially Turkey. Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan was known to be supporting the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist faction among the rebel opposition, as well as other Islamist rebel groups. ‘We knew there were some in the Turkish government,’ a former senior US intelligence official, who has access to current intelligence, told me, ‘who believed they could get Assad’s nuts in a vice by dabbling with a sarin attack inside Syria – and forcing Obama to make good on his red line threat.’

read more >>

Le Pen: "Let them eat pork!"Jewish and Muslim schoolchildren will not be offered alternatives to pork dishes in towns run by National Front

Le Pen: "Let them eat pork!"Jewish and Muslim schoolchildren will not be offered alternatives to pork dishes in towns run by National Front

    Saturday, April 05, 2014   No comments

France’s far-right National Front party will prevent schools from offering Muslim and Jewish pupils pork-free lunches in the towns where it won in recent local elections, its leader Marine Le Pen announced on Friday.

She said that arrangements catering to Muslim and Jewish, pupils who cannot eat pork according to religious restrictions, contradict the country’s secular values.

“We will not accept any religious demands in school menus,” Le Pen told RTL radio. “There is no reason for religion to enter the public sphere, that's the law.”

read more >>

Iran, Russia working to seal $20 billion oil-for-goods deal: sources

Iran, Russia working to seal $20 billion oil-for-goods deal: sources

    Thursday, April 03, 2014   No comments

Iran and Russia have made progress toward an oil-for-goods deal that sources said could be worth up to $20 billion and enable Tehran to boost vital energy exports in defiance of Western sanctions, people familiar with the negotiations told Reuters.

In January, Reuters reported that Moscow and Tehran were discussing a barter deal that would see Moscow buy up to 500,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian equipment and goods.

The United States has said such a deal would raise "serious concerns" and be inconsistent with the nuclear talks between world powers and Iran.


A Russian source said Moscow had "prepared all documents from its side", adding that completion of a deal was awaiting agreement on what oil price to lock in.

The source said the two sides were looking at a barter arrangement that would see Iranian oil exchanged for industrial goods including metals and food, but no military equipment was involved. The source added that the deal was expected to reach $15 to $20 billion in total and would be done in stages with an initial $6 billion to $8 billion tranche.

read more >>

Tunisian PM, Mehdi Jomaa, to visit the United States and meet Obama first week of April

Tunisian PM, Mehdi Jomaa, to visit the United States and meet Obama first week of April

    Tuesday, April 01, 2014   No comments

Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa started, Tuesday, a four-day official visit to the United States, at the invitation of President Barack Obama.

Jomaa will be received at the White House by President Obama, April 4.

"Mehdi Jomaa's visit to U.S.A. testifies to the solid friendship relations binding the American and Tunisian peoples and the Government's commitment towards the democratic transition," a White House statement pointed out.

The PM will have talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

He will also have a set of meetings with officials in the U.S. administration and the Congress, businessmen and heads of enterprises.

In the first stage of his visit in New York, Jomaa will notably meet with Google technology and Microsoft technology officials.

read more >>