Excerpts: Obama re:Daesh. U.S.Senate bill re Hizbullah. Putin in Iran. 2
Palestinian teenaged stabbers-Assad thanks Russia for air strikes. No clear
path re Assad's departure November 23, 2015

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 23 Nov.’15:”US ‘will not relent’in Daesh
campaign”---Obama …:SUBJECT:Obama re Daesh QUOTE:’They’re a bunch of
killers with good social media”
FULL TEXT:KUALA LUMPUR — President Barack Obama vowed on Sunday[22 Nov] that
the United States and its international partners “will not relent” in the
fight against Daesh, insisting the world would not accept the extremists’
attacks on civilians in Paris and elsewhere as the “new normal.”

Wrapping up a nine-day trip to Turkey and Asia, Obama also pressed Russian
President Vladimir Putin to align himself with the US-led coalition, noting
that the Islamic State has been accused of bringing down a Russian passenger
jet last month, killing 224 people.

“He needs to go after the people who killed Russia’s citizens,” Obama said
of Putin.

The president spoke in Malaysia shortly before departing for Washington. His
trip also took him to the Philippines and Turkey, where he met with Putin on
the sidelines of an international summit.

While Russia has stepped up its air campaign in Syria, Obama said Moscow has
focused its attention on moderate rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar
Assad, a Russian ally. He called on Russia to make a “strategic adjustment”
and drop its support for Assad, insisting the violence in Syria cannot be
stopped as long as Assad is in office.

“It will not work to keep him in power,” Obama said. “We can’t stop the
fighting.”

Nearly five years of fighting between the Assad government and rebels has
created a vacuum that allowed the Islamic State to thrive in both Syria and
Iraq. The militant group is now setting its sights on targets outside its
stronghold, including the attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and
wounded hundreds more.

French President Francois Hollande is due to meet with Obama at the White
House on Tuesday[24 Nov] to discuss ways to bolster the international
coalition fighting Daesh. Hollande then heads to Russia for talks with
Putin.
The discussions about a military coalition to defeat Daesh come amid
parallel talks about a diplomatic solution to end Syria’s civil war. The
violence has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced millions,
sparking a refugee crisis in Europe.

Foreign ministers from about 20 nations agreed last week to an ambitious yet
incomplete plan that sets a Jan. 1 deadline for the start of negotiations
between Assad’s government and opposition groups. Within six months, the
negotiations are to establish a “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian”
transitional government that would set a schedule for drafting a new
constitution and holding a free and fair UN-supervised election within 18
months.

The Paris attacks have heightened fears of terrorism in the West and also
sparked a debate in the US about accepting refugees from Syria. It’s unclear
whether any of the terrorists in the Paris attacks exploited the refugee
system to enter Europe, though Obama has insisted that’s not a legitimate
security threat in the United States.

“Refugees who end up in the United States are the most vetted, scrutinized,
thoroughly investigated individuals that ever arrive on American shores,”
Obama said.

Still, the House passed legislation last week essentially blocking Syrian
and Iraqi refugees from the US Democrats in large numbers abandoned the
president, with 47 voting for the legislation. Having secured a veto-proof
majority in the House, supporters are now hoping for a repeat in the Senate,
while Obama works to shift the conversation to milder visa waiver changes
that wouldn’t affect Syrian refugees.

Obama has focused his ire on Republicans throughout the trip, harshly
criticizing GOP lawmakers and presidential candidates for acting contrary to
American values. He took a softer tone on Sunday[22 Nov], saying he
understands Americans’ concerns but urging them not to give into fear.

He said Daesh “can’t beat us on the battlefield so they try to terrorize us
into being afraid.”

Speaking dismissively of the Islamic State’s global prowess, Obama said,
“They’re a bunch of killers with good social media.”


+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon)23 Nov.’15:”Report: U.S.Senate Approves
Proposal Targeting Hizbullah Funding”, by Naharnet Newsdesk
SUBJECT:U.S.Senate approves bill that targets Hizbullah finances

QUOTE:”The bill won the majority of votes of the Senate”

FUL L TEXT:The United States Senate approved over the weekend a bill that
targets Hizbullah's finances, which includes institutions and people funding
the party, reported the daily An Nahar on Monday[23 Nov]The bill won the
majority of votes of the Senate.

It calls for the U.S. Department of State to identify the media outlets that
back and fund Hizbullah, such as al-Manar television.

It demanded the U.S. Treasury to impose “harsh conditions” against any
foreign side that facilitates operations or launders money or conspires to
send funds to people or organizations linked to the party.

In addition, the bill called for listing Hizbullah as a party that smuggles
foreign drugs and that it be labeled as an international criminal
organization.

It urged the U.S. president and secretary of state to send reports to
Congress on Hizbullah's financial activity and its drug smuggling
operations, said An Nahar.

This also includes sending reports on countries that support Hizbullah,
whereby the party has formed logistic, donation, and money-laundering
networks, continued the daily.

The report should stipulate whether these countries are taking the
sufficient measures to target Hizbullah's financial network.

In March, Hizbullah and Iran were no longer enrolled on a U.S. list of
terror threats, according to an annual report by the U.S. National
Intelligence that was delivered to the Senate.

The report noted that Hizbullah and Tehran, which comprise along with Syria
and other organizations the “axis of resistance” that oppose Israel and
Western policies in the Middle East, have exerted efforts to combat the
Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

+++SOURCE:Naharnet (Lebanon)23 Nov.’15:”Putin in Tehran on First Visit in
Eight Years”, by Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Putin in Tehran

QUOTE:”Putin in Tehran for talks with Iran about the devastating conflict in
Syria where the two nations in support of the Damascus regime”

FULL TEXT:Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived Monday[23 Nov] in Tehran
for talks with Iran about the devastating conflict in Syria where the two
nations are allied in support of the Damascus regime.

On his first trip to Iran in eight years, Putin met supreme leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, the country's ultimate authority, who has backed Syrian
President Bashar Assad since an uprising broke out in 2011.

What began as a conflict between Assad's forces and Western- and Gulf-backed
rebels has since spiraled into a civil war and multi-faceted fighting that
has killed more than 250,000 people.

Attention is currently focused on stopping Islamic State group jihadists,
who last year took control of large parts of Syria and surged into Iraq,
from breaching Assad's defenses and taking Damascus.

The threat from IS has taken on new potency and spread into Europe since the
jihadists committed coordinated gun and bomb attacks in Paris 10 days ago,
killing 130 people.

For Russia, protecting Assad and confronting IS has become more important
since the militants blew up a Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula
on October 31, killing all 224 on board.

Russia had one month earlier launched a wave of airstrikes in support of
Assad, whose Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, has close ties to
Iran, the Middle East's main Shiite power.

Both Iran and Russia, which has a major sea port base in Syria, are seeking
to limit U.S. leverage in the Middle East.

Their shared goals have seen Iran send commanders from its elite
Revolutionary Guards to support and advise Assad's forces, with Tehran
coordinating a collection of Shiite militias on the ground.

Putin's trip coincides with a major summit in Tehran of gas exporting
countries but his talks with Khamenei are likely to dominate.

Russia is emerging as a long-term arms partner for Iran, despite the
countries having a complicated history over territory, oil, business and
communism.

The former Soviet Union was the first state to recognize Iran as an Islamic
republic after the 1979 revolution, though Moscow later provided Saddam
Hussein with weapons during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

A long-delayed delivery of an advanced missile defense system, the S-300, is
due from Russia by the end of 2015.

Putin's visit was planned before the U.N. Security Council on Friday[20 Nov]
authorized countries to "take all necessary measures" to fight IS in a
France-sponsored resolution one week after the Paris attacks.

Moscow's aim of an international coalition made up of Iran, Jordan and other
regional and Western countries against IS is coming up against a deadlock
over Assad's future, which recent peace talks in Vienna failed to break.

The United States and Sunni Arab countries, most vocally Saudi Arabia, plus
Turkey, all want Assad to go, and have said the Russian air strikes were
aimed at destroying "moderate rebels" fighting the Syrian president since
2011.

Iran, however, says only the Syrian people, not outside powers, can choose
to dump Assad in elections following a ceasefire.

Russian companies are eyeing business opportunities in Iran after sanctions
are lifted, a step expected in the next two months as Tehran's July 14
nuclear deal with world powers reaches its "implementation" stage.

Moscow has announced opening a $5 billion credit line for Iran and help for
Tehran's struggling banking sector is also expected.

Several leaders from a dozen gas producing countries -- who together hold 67
percent of proven reserves -- will be at Monday's[23 Nov] summit.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, with whom Putin will also hold talks, is
hosting seven presidents, including Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Muhammadu
Buhari of Nigeria and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

+++SOURCE:Naharnet (Lebanon) 23 Nov.’15:”Palestinian Teens Stab Man near
Jerusalem Market,One /shot Dead”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT 2 Palestinian teen-aged stabbers

QUOTE:” police opened fire,killing one…wounding the other

FULL TEXT:Two teenage Palestinian girls stabbed and lightly wounded an
elderly man near a Jerusalem market on Monday[23Nov] before police opened
fire, killing one of them and seriously wounding the other.

Police said the 70-year-old victim too was Palestinian, apparently from the
occupied West Bank. It was not immediately clear whether he had been
targeted because he had been mistaken for an Israeli.

"Two female terrorists armed with scissors stabbed a man next to the (Mahane
Yehuda) market," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.

"An officer who observed the event approached, fired accurately and
neutralized the terrorists," she added.

Police said the assailants were from the Jerusalem area and aged 14 and 16.

The victim was taken to the Hadassah Hospital with light injuries after
being stabbed in the back and head, a hospital spokeswoman said.

A 27-year-old Israeli security guard was taken to hospital with a wound to
the hand after apparently being accidentally shot by security forces.

Mahane Yehuda is Jerusalem's best known market and is a popular tourist
attraction.

The stabbings were the latest in a wave of attacks by Palestinians since
October 1 that have left 90 Palestinians dead, including one Arab Israeli,
as well as 16 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean.

Around half of the Palestinians killed have been alleged attackers.

The attacks were originally focused in and around Jerusalem but had shifted
to the occupied West Bank, particularly in and around the flashpoint city of
Hebron.

Monday's stabbing was the first attack in Jerusalem in nearly two weeks.

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 23 Nov.’15:”Syrian troops advancing thanks to
Russian air strikes ---Assad”,by Associated Press

SUBJECT: Assad thanks Russia for air strikes

FULL TEXT:DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian President Bashar Assad says his forces
are advancing on "almost" all fronts thanks to Russian air strikes that
began nearly two months ago and have tipped the balance in his favour in
some parts of the country.

In remarks published Sunday[22 Nov], Assad told China's Phoenix Television
that the Russians depend on Syrian ground forces and "cooperate with us". He
added that Syrian troops had achieved victories in some areas before the
strikes began but "could not be present everywhere in Syria".

Russia, which has conducted an air campaign in Syria since September 30,
sharply raised its intensity in recent days on President Vladimir Putin's
orders after Moscow said it had confirmed that a bomb brought down a Russian
plane over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board.

The Daesh terror group claimed responsibility for the attack.

"Following the participation of Russian air force in fighting terrorism, the
situation improved well. I can say that the army now is advancing almost on
every front," Assad said in the interview, which was also carried by Syrian
state media.

Assad said the Russian air strikes are more effective than those of the
US-led coalition because Moscow is coordinating with his government, saying
"you cannot fight terrorism with air strikes alone".

Syrian troops have captured dozens of villages in northern and western Syria
since the Russian air strikes began. Their biggest victory so far has been
lifting a three-year siege imposed on the military air base of Kweiras by
extremist groups in the northern province of Aleppo.

The Russian strikes have not only targeted Daesh but also Syrian insurgents
battling to overthrow Assad, including some Western-backed groups.

Asked if he is going to run for president again if early elections are held,
Assad said: "It is my right but it is early to say whether I will run or
not." He added that "I will not say that I will not run if I see that this
is needed".

A peace plan agreed to last weekend by 17 nations meeting in Vienna says
nothing about Assad's future, but states that "free and fair elections would
be held pursuant to the new constitution within 18 months".

To clarify the timeline, the US State Department said last week that the
clock starts once Assad’s representatives and opposition figures begin talks
on a constitution. The vote would determine a new parliament, though not
necessarily a new president.

More than 250,000 people have been killed since the start of Syria’s 2011
uprising, which began as a series of mostly peaceful protests but escalated
into an armed revolt against Assad after a harsh government crackdown.
Syrian rebels have demanded that Assad step down as part of any agreement to
end the fighting.

On Sunday[22Nov], a motorcycle rigged with explosives blew up in the
northern Syrian town of Tal Abyad near the Turkish border, killing at least
two people and wounding more than 20, according to the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees. The two
groups track Syria’s civil war based on reports from activists inside the
country.

Kurdish fighters captured Tal Abyad from Daesh militants in July.

The observatory said Sunday[22 Nov] that air strikes believed to be carried
out by Russian warplanes have struck near oil fields in the eastern province
of Deir El Zour. Moscow last week announced the targeting of oil facilities
and tanker trucks to try and deprive Daesh of one of its main sources of
income.

In the central province of Hama, meanwhile, the militant Jund Al Aqsa group
handed over the bodies of 30 Syrian soldiers in exchange for six female
prisoners held by Syrian authorities, according to the observatory and
opposition activist Hadi Abdallah.

Abdallah posted a video on his Facebook page showing the exchange, which was
carried out by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.


+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 23 Nov’15:”Told he must go, Syria's Assad may
outlast Obama in office”, by Associated Press

SUBJECT:’No clear path re Assad’ departure

QUOY \U TE: Assad considers anyone fighting him,including moderate rebels,
to be terrorists”



FULL TEXT:WASHINGTON — Bashar Assad's presidency looks likely to outlast
Barack Obama's.

FULL TEXT:As the United States has turned its attention to defeating the
Daesh terror group, it has softened its stance on the Syrian leader. More
than four years ago, Obama demanded that Assad leave power. Administration
officials later said Assad did not have to step down on "Day One" of a
political transition. Now, they are going further.

A peace plan agreed to last weekend by 17 nations meeting in Vienna says
nothing about Assad's future, but states that "free and fair elections would
be held pursuant to the new constitution within 18 months". To clarify the
timeline, the State Department said this past week that the clock starts
once Assad's representatives and opposition figures begin talks on a
constitution. The vote would determine a new parliament, though not
necessarily a new president.

Getting to constitutional talks will be difficult. It implies that Syria's
warring parties first reach a cease-fire and establish a transition
government — something unattainable so far. Neither Syria's government nor
its fractured opposition has endorsed the strategy yet or done much to
advance it.

"Nothing can start before defeating the terrorists who occupy parts of
Syria," Assad recently told Italian state television. Assad considers anyone
fighting him, including moderate rebels, to be terrorists.

Obama countered: "I do not foresee a situation in which we can end the civil
war in Syria while Assad remains in power. ... Even if I said that was OK, I
still don't think it would actually work. You could not get the Syrian
people, the majority of them, to agree to that kind of outcome. And you
couldn't get a number of their neighbors to agree to that outcome, as well."

Syria was the focus for Secretary of State John Kerry as he headed to the
United Arab Emirates on Sunday for talks with government leaders. Many more
discussions with Arab officials are planned over the next months.

The uncertainty of the new peace process, particularly as it pertains to
Assad, points to Washington's evolution from early in the civil war, when
Obama and other officials boldly stated the Syrian president's days were
"numbered" and sought his immediate departure.

The focus of Washington — and much of the world — has shifted now to Daesh
which claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks that killed at
least 130 people in Paris on November 13. As a result, the US is cooperating
with Russia and Iran, countries it once tried to ostracize because of their
support for Assad.

The hope is peace between Assad's forces and moderate rebels will allow
everyone to work together to defeat Daesh.

The US and its allies say Assad remains responsible for far more Syrian
deaths than Daesh. His military has used chemical weapons and continues to
drop barrel bombs that indiscriminately hit combatants and civilians alike.

But for all their brutality, Assad's forces are not directing attacks in
European capitals, beheading Western journalists and aid workers, or downing
Russian passenger jets. Unlike Daesh, Assad has powerful patrons in Moscow
and Tehran. Russian airstrikes since September have helped stiffen the
Syrian government's defenses, while Iranian forces and proxy Hezbollah
militia fighters from Lebanon have added muscle to its ground operations.

The US is trying to take all these considerations into account as it refines
a common strategy with partners in Europe and the Arab world that see
Syria's conflict differently. The Europeans are mostly concerned about the
refugee crisis across their continent, and they fear more deadly attacks.
Saudi Arabia and others backing the rebels want foremost to defeat Iran,
which they would see in Assad's downfall.

The US says both sets of goals are connected. To defeat Daesh, the president
said last month there has "got to be a change a government", rejecting any
approach that returns Syria to the "status quo ante". The war has killed
more than 300,000 people and uprooted some 12 million.

The November 14 statement from the Vienna talks, involving the US, Russia,
Saudi Arabia, Iran and more than a dozen other governments, avoids the most
critical questions to achieve that. It does not outline which opposition
groups can negotiate with Assad and which are considered terrorist groups.
Assad isn't even mentioned.

In one way, vagueness is the statement's strength, allowing Iran and Russia
to make common cause in the search for peace. But it may not satisfy
everyone's idea of a "transition".

By itself, the plan offers no clear path for Assad's departure, raising the
prospect of the embattled Syrian leader still in office when Obama's
presidency ends on January 20, 2017.

Western diplomats described a poker game being played between the US and its
own allies. US officials said that while they accept the idea that Assad
won't leave office immediately, the plan for his exit will have to be
clarified as part of the diplomatic process.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are being counted on to persuade the Syrian
opposition to support the plan, but will only do so if they get a guarantee
on Assad. The US and its European partners cannot offer that guarantee,
according to the diplomats, who were not authorised to discuss the talks
publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

If the opposition rejects talking, Assad will not resign as a result. The
rebels would not gain sufficient strength to defeat him on the battlefield,
and Russia and Iran would not stop supporting him.

Even if the plan is accepted by all and works to the best of expectations,
Assad would appear to be locked in for a transition process that could
extend deep into 2017 or longer. Obama leaves office in January 2017.

If after 18 months or two years, Daesh is defeated and calm is restored,
opposition groups would risk reigniting Syria's conflict by reasserting
demands for Assad's ouster. World and regional powers would face the same
quandary.

For these reasons, some Western diplomats have begun talking about the
possibility of Assad staying on indefinitely as a ceremonial president,
though stripped of his control over the nation's security and intelligence
apparatuses.

It's unclear whether any of the sides in the fighting would see that as an
acceptable compromise.
==================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA