Excerpts: Saudi finances PA. Iran's 'partial nod' to nuclear deal. Limited
options for West in Syria. Iraqi security claims major attack on IS October
11, 2015
+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 11 Oct.,’15:Saudi Arabia Grants PA $60M to Support
Budget
SUBJECT: Saudi finances PA
QUOTE:”Saudi Arabia will continue to support the PA on all levels”
CAIRO, October 11, 2015 (WAFA) – Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Egypt and
permanent Representative at the Arab League, Ahmad Qattan Monday said the
Saudi Fund for Development has provided the Palestinian Authority with a
total of $60 million to cover support its budget for three months in 2015.
In a press conference, Qattan said this grant was made possible following a
decision to increase Saudi Arabia’s monthly contribution toward PA’s budget
from $14 million to $20 million.
He reiterated that Saudi Arabia will continue to support the Palestinian
cause on all levels. The grant will cover PA’s expenses for July, August and
September of 2015.
M.H
+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 11 Oct.’15:”Fiery Scenes as Iran MPs Give
Partial Nod to Nuclear Deal”, Agence France Press
SUBJECT: Iran’s ‘partial nod’ to nuclear deal
FULL TEXT:Iran's parliament gave a partial nod to a nuclear deal with world
powers Sunday but only after fiery clashes and allegations from a top
negotiator that a lawmaker had threatened to kill him.
Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, went on the attack
for the government at the end of a boisterous debate where he and other
officials were accused of having capitulated.
Ultraconservative lawmakers repeatedly warned of holes in the text of the
agreement and criticized President Hassan Rouhani for suggesting MPs were
deliberately delaying the deal.
Red with anger, Alireza Zakani, who headed a panel reviewing the accord,
known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, for two months, demanded
"fundamental changes" to the text.
"This deal serves Wendy Sherman" and not Iran's interests, Zakani said,
referring to America's senior negotiator in talks which resulted in the
agreement in Vienna on July 14.
Hardliners in Tehran often railed against two years of diplomacy that led to
the deal. Iran's government says the accord will protect the country's
nuclear program while seeing sanctions lifted.
Despite Sunday's[11 Oct] disagreements, the outlines of a motion titled
"Iran's Plan for Reciprocal and Proper Action in Implementing JCPOA" were
approved by 139 of 253 lawmakers present.
One-hundred lawmakers voted against and 12 abstained. Iran has 290 MPs in
total. They stopped short of endorsing the nuclear accord on Sunday and said
specific details of the text are to be discussed and voted on Tuesday.
Members of the U.S. Congress failed in September to torpedo the White
House's historic deal with Iran.
Salehi, an atomic scientist by training and a former foreign minister, hit
out at what he said was the "immoral" behavior of some MPs in the way they
had responded to talks and the deal.
Having to raise his voice, Salehi said: "Truth might be bitter for some...
Listen. Listen. Hear me once and for all. Hear it from someone who is going
be buried under cement."
The latter remark was in reference to a lawmaker who Salehi said took a vow
to kill him because the government agreed to remove and disable the core of
a reactor at Arak, one of Iran's nuclear sites.
"We negotiated within a framework and principles. Who set that framework?
Me? A minimum and maximum was set for us," Salehi said.
So-called red lines for the talks were also laid down by Iran's supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the Supreme National Security Council
that he oversees.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who led Iran's diplomacy with the six
powers, attended Sunday's parliament session but he did not speak publicly.
State television broadcast only live audio of the session over stills of the
parliament, citing "opposition from Majlis authorities."
However, pictures posted on social media sites showed the fierce exchanges.
From: Sue
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2015 7:06 PM
To: imra@netvision.net.il
Subject:
+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 11 Oct’15:
Home » Region »” Limited options for West after Russia escalation in Syria”
PARIS — Blind-sided by Russia's sudden escalation in Syria, Western powers
must abandon hopes of toppling the regime and instead make do with steering
Moscow away from actions that deepen the conflict, analysts say.
The strategy of the United States and its allies looked uncertain long
before Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to dramatically increase his
military involvement in Syria in recent weeks.
The West's strategic shortcomings were demonstrated by the disastrous
$500-million (440-million-euro) US programme to train and arm moderate
rebels, which generated only a handful of fighters, many of whom surrendered
or were captured almost immediately. The scheme was finally scrapped on
Friday.
The confusion has looked all the greater since the start of Russia's far
more clear-eyed engagement in support of its old ally, President Bashar
Assad.
"The Russian mission is tight and focused around the aim of preserving Assad
while the West has had a muddled approach, trying to remove Assad, prevent
the rise of extremists and preserve state institutions at the same time,"
said Julien Barnes-Dacey, Middle East fellow at the European Council on
Foreign Relations.
Russia has flexed its muscles with repeated air strikes and the launching
this week of 26 cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea.
"The Russians have shown a naval capacity that was not expected," said
Thomas Gomart, head of the French Institute for Foreign Relations.
"They are in the process of creating a bubble over Syria and challenging the
West's aerial supremacy."
The message goes beyond the immediate concerns of the Syrian conflict, he
said.
Since the Gulf War in 1991, the West has prioritised control of the skies —
a fact that Russia is trying to challenge.
Long-shot hopes
Russia's moves have severely limited the West's options about what to do
next in the war-torn country.
With Russia's planes in Syrian airspace and its advisors surrounding Assad,
any remaining Western hopes of toppling his regime are effectively over for
the time being.
"There's no desire in the West to go to war with Russia over Syria, and
there is a legitimate fear that counter-escalation will only lead to more
violence, state breakdown, extremism and refugees," Barnes-Dacey said.
"There is no win to be had from making things more difficult for the
Russians, when Europe will pay the cost as well."
At the same time, many are worried that Russia's dramatic intervention will
boost the strength of the Daesh terror group by fuelling jihadist
recruitment and decimating other rebel groups that compete with it for
dominance.
The West's primary task, then, could be to steer Moscow towards a more
constructive involvement in the conflict.
"The West must convince the Russians of the complexity of the crisis, the
risks of their moves," said Camille Grand, head of the Strategic Research
Foundation in Paris.
She counts herself among the analysts who feel Putin has bitten off more
than he can chew in Syria, and may soon realise that the best move is to
rein in Assad's excesses and make an accommodation with the West.
De facto partition
"The long-shot hope is that having secured Assad's position and recognising
that total victory is impossible, Moscow will put pressure on the regime to
end its barrel bombing of civilians and open up a governance and
humanitarian space in outlying areas that can act as an alternative to the
jihadist groups," said Barnes-Dacey.
Another scenario is that the different powers end up dividing Syria between
themselves, with Russia responsible for Assad's "core Syria", while Western
countries focus on disrupting the Daesh terror group in outlying areas.
"Russia has shown no meaningful desire to take on IS [Daesh] and the West
will feel compelled to continue its military action against the group, which
in many circles is still seen as the main threat to the wider region and
world," said Barnes-Dacey.
"In a sense Moscow's action may end up clarifying the de facto soft
partition of the country that had already been emerging," he added.
With no obvious solution in sight, the West may have to resort to the
international grouping that helped seal the deal over Iran's nuclear
programme, said Eugene Rumer, head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at
Carnegie.
"The P5+1 — the US, Russia, France, Great Britain, China, all UN Security
Council permanent members joined by Germany — is a unique forum where the
key parties can come together to seek a way to solve the Syrian crisis.
"For the US, the P5+1 format would bring some advantages as well as a
measure of compromise. It would insulate the US from the charge of
unilateralism and create a real coalition to deal with the crisis whose
legitimacy under the UN umbrella would be unassailable."
+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon)11 Oct.’15:”Iraq Claims to Have Hit IS
ChiefBaghdadi’s Convoy in Air Raid”.By AgenceFrancePresse
SUBJECT:Iraqi security claims major attack on IS
QUOTE:”many of those leaders were killed and wounded”
FULL TEXT:Iraqi security forces claimed Sunday[11 Oct] to have struck the
convoy of Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an air raid
near the country's border with Syria.
"The Iraqi air force carried out a heroic operation targeting the convoy of
the criminal terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," Iraq's security forces said in
a joint statement.
"His health status is unknown," it said, adding that the leader of the IS
jihadist group was "transported in a vehicle" after the strike.
Iraqi security sources have previously said Baghdadi had been injured or
killed in past strikes, but such claims were either never verified or later
denied.
The statement was released by the "war media cell", a structure which
provides updates on the war against IS on behalf of the interior and defense
ministries as well as the paramilitary Popular Mobilization forces.
Iraqi aircraft struck Baghdadi's convoy as it was "moving towards Karabla to
attend a meeting of the Daesh terrorist leaders", the statement said.
"The meeting place was also bombed and many of those leaders were killed and
wounded," it said, adding that it would later release names.
Daesh is an Arabic acronym for IS, which last year proclaimed a "caliphate"
straddling Iraq and Syria.
Karabla is located on the Euphrates river barely five kilometers (three
miles) from the border with Syria.
- Saturday strike -
Interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan told AFP that "the strike was
yesterday (Saturday) at noon."
It said the operation was conducted in coordination with Iraq's interior
ministry intelligence services and the joint operation command center that
includes military advisers from the U.S.-led coalition.
The health and whereabouts of Baghdadi, who has a $10 million U.S. bounty on
his head, are the subject of constant speculation.
He was reported wounded multiple times over the past year and his apparent
survival has only added to mystery surrounding the IS chief.
According to an official Iraqi government document, Baghdadi was born in
Samarra in 1971 and has four children with his first wife -- two boys and
two girls born between 2000 and 2008.
An Iraqi intelligence report indicates Baghdadi, who it says has a PhD in
Islamic studies and was a professor at Tikrit University, also married a
second woman, with whom he had another son.
Baghdadi apparently joined the insurgency that erupted after the 2003 US-led
invasion of Iraq, at one point spending time in an American military prison
in the country's south.
The IS group, considered the most violent in modern jihad, has developed a
formidable propaganda machine to support its operations and recruitment.
But Baghdadi has only appeared once in public since taking the helm of the
movement, in June 2014 at a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
In his sermon, he asked all Muslims to obey him and join the caliphate.
SourceAgence France Presse
Middle East
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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA
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