Excerpts: Iran nuclear deal deadline.U.S. calls for online battle against
ISIS. Turkey O.K.'s Iraqi Kurds crossing into Syria October 28, 2014

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 28 Oct.’14:”’Slim chances’ of Iran nuclear deal
by deadline”,Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Iran nuclear deal deadline
QUOTE:”The aim is to close avenues towards Tehran ever developing an atomic
bomb, by cutting back its enrichment program.”

FULL TEXT:A deal on Iran's contested nuclear program before a November 24
deadline is highly unlikely, a Western diplomat close to negotiations said
on Monday[27 Oct.].

"There are four-and-a-half weeks left to conclude a definitive pact. We are
hoping for that but the chances are very slim," the diplomat said.
"The ball is in Iran's court" and Tehran would have to make "significant
gestures," the diplomat added.
The six powers in the talks with Iran -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the
United States plus Germany, known as the P5+1 -- have set November 24 as the
deadline for a comprehensive deal.

The aim is to close avenues towards Tehran ever developing an atomic bomb,
by cutting back its enrichment program, shutting down suspect facilities and
imposing tough international inspections.
In return, the global community would suspend and then gradually lift
crippling economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic.

But the two sides, despite long-running talks, remain far apart on how to
reconcile their objectives.
The diplomat said the divisions between two sides remained great.
US Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman has spoken of "a forest of
distrust" between the West and Iran.
But in months of discussions since an interim agreement struck last November
took effect in January, some progress has been made.
This includes possible changes in the design of an unfinished reactor at
Arak so that it produces less weapons-grade plutonium, enhanced U.N.
inspections, and alterations to Iran's fortified Fordo facility.


+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 28 Oct.’14:”U.S. urges coalition to wage online
battle against ISIS”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: U.S. calls for online battle against ISIS

QUOTE:”ISIS and its supporters also have a strong presence on social media,
which has become an important recruitment tool to attract foreign fighters
to their cause

FULL TEXT:Washington called Monday[27 Oct.] for the battle against the
Islamic State group to be taken to the Internet, as coalition partners vowed
to step up efforts to counter the jihadists’ online propaganda.

Retired U.S. general John Allen told participants at the talks in Kuwait
City that ISIS was promoting its “horrendous brand of warfare” online, where
it “recruits and perverts the innocent”.

“It is only when we contest ISIL’s presence online, deny the legitimacy of
the message it sends to vulnerable young people... it is only then that ISIL
will truly be defeated,” Allen said, using an alternative name for the
extremist group.

Allen, who is coordinating the US-led campaign against IS, met with
representatives of coalition countries including Bahrain, Britain, Egypt,
France, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates.

After the talks the coalition partners promised to take steps to boost
efforts to prevent the recruitment of foreign fighters for IS, including
online.

“This involves intensifying our engagement... enhancing exchanges, training
and other cooperative programmes ... actively opposing the recruitment of
foreign fighters,” they said in a statement.

Richard Stengel, the US undersecretary of state for diplomacy and public
affairs, told reporters the goal of the meeting was to create “an
information coalition that is parallel to the military coalition” fighting
IS.

Stengel said the number of recruits joining IS has dropped, but provided no
evidence or figures.

“We think that the attraction of IS is decreasing,” Stengel said.

IS, which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared an Islamic
“caliphate”, operates a sophisticated online presence, posting frequent
propaganda videos and publishing its own expertly designed magazine.

Some of the videos have featured brutal atrocities, including the on-camera
beheadings of two US journalists and two British aid workers.

ISIS and its supporters also have a strong presence on social media, which
has become an important recruitment tool to attract foreign fighters to
their cause.

Western governments have been increasingly alarmed by the numbers of
Europeans and Americans making their way to Syria to fight with IS.

Concern is also growing over the group’s online influence among disaffected
young Muslims living in the West and its calls for them to carry out attacks
on Western targets.

Allen said the talks in Kuwait were focused on “how to degrade and defeat
ISIL’s messaging and how we can all confront and contest its presence in the
information space and online.”

This would require a “holistic, coordinated approach at the international,
regional and local levels, combining military, law enforcement,
intelligence, economic and diplomatic tools.”

Washington has built up a coalition of Western and Arab nations to combat
IS, launching a series of air strikes against it in Iraq and Syria and
backing local ground forces including the Iraqi army, Syrian rebels and
Kurdish militia forces.


+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 28 Oct.’14:Turkey Says Peshmerga can
Cross(Turkey) into Syeia ‘at any moment’ “,Agence France Presse

SUBJECT:Turkey O.K.’s’Iraqi Kurds crossing into Syria

FULL TEXT:Turkey on Tuesday[28 Oct.] said there was no problem for Iraqi
Kurdish fighters to cross its territory into Syria and the peshmerga could
now make the much-awaited move at "any moment".

"There is now no political problem. There is no problem in the way of them
crossing. They can cross at any moment," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu
was quoted as saying by the official Anatolia news agency.

His comments came amid reports that the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters
would later Tuesday[28 Oct.] move into Syria, via Turkey, to reinforce
Kurdish fighters battling jihadists for the Syrian town of Kobane.

There had been speculation this week their deployment was being held up by a
dispute between Turkey and the Syrian Kurdish fighters on the ground about
the reinforcement


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Sue Lerner - Associate. IMRA