Excerpts: US O.K.'s European banks to trade with Iran. NRA endorses Trump
for US president. US general re Iraq ISIS situation. Rabbi Glick 'team
player' May 21, 2016

+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya News 5/21/’16:”US tells European Banks trade with Iran
won’t be punished”,by Associated Press

SUBJECT:US o.k’s European banks to trade with Iran

FULL TEXT:The United States and its partners in the Iran nuclear talks are
trying anew to convince European banks and businesses that now-legal trade
with the Islamic Republic won’t be punished.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, the foreign ministers of Britain, France
and Germany and the European Union’s foreign policy chief said in a joint
statement Thursday that Iran deserves the sanctions relief it’s due under
last year’s landmark nuclear deal. “This includes the reengagement of
European banks and businesses in Iran,” they said after meeting in Brussels.

“We will not stand in the way of permitted business activity with Iran, and
we will not stand in the way of international firms or financial
institutions’ engaging with Iran, as long as they follow all applicable
laws,” the statement said.

Iran has complained that US sanctions that remain on the country are
preventing it from receiving the full benefits of the deal under which it
agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The US
maintains it has met its obligations, but has been trying to convince
foreign firms that some trade with Iran is now legal.

Thursday’s statement was the latest of several attempts by the US to
encourage European financial institutions and other firms to take advantage
of opportunities afforded by the easing of sanctions. Kerry and other top US
officials, including Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, have tried to assure
foreign banks that transactions with Iran that do not involve
still-sanctioned entities are not illegal under US rules.

But many European and Asian banks are still balking at doing business with
Iran due to non-nuclear US sanctions that remain. Those sanctions relate to
Iran’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, human rights record and
testing of ballistic missiles.

They are also concerned that the relief offered by the Obama administration
may be rescinded by the next US president. They want assurances in writing
that deals they may make or coordinate with Iran will not punished.

The US has been reluctant to offer this blanket assurance and officials have
pointed out that it cannot force private companies to do business with Iran,
particularly because of other concerns such as its antipathy toward Israel
and poor banking regulations. Nonetheless, some Iranian officials have
threatened to pull out of the nuclear deal for what they say are violations
by the US.

Thursday’s statement sought to ease those complaints, noting that the US and
European countries are “exploring possible areas of cooperation with Iran,
including the use of export credits to facilitate trade, project financing
and investment in Iran.”

“Our governments have provided extensive guidance on the scope of sanctions
lifted and those that remain in place and will continue to do so,” it said.
The statement added that foreign businesses maybe more assured by changes in
Iranian government behavior.


+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya News 5/21/’16:”Gun rights group NRA endorses Trump for
US president”.by Reuters

SUBJECT: NRA endorses Trump for US president

QUOTE:”The billionaire businessman has opposed gun-free zones and promised
to protect Americans’ rights to self-defense.” “The National Rifle
Association endorsed Republican Donald Trump for U.S. president on Friday
and he responded by promising to serve the country’s top gun lobby group
well”.

FULL TEXT:Trump, his party’s presumptive nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential
election, praised the NRA and took a swipe at Democratic front-runner
Hillary Clinton, saying she wants to abolish the U.S. Constitution’s Second
Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms.

The billionaire businessman has opposed gun-free zones and promised to
protect Americans’ rights to self-defense.

“I will not let you down,” Trump told the gathering in Louisville, Kentucky.

The NRA is the country’s leading gun-rights advocacy group.



+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya News 5/21/’16:”US general:Iraq ‘on course’ to crushing
ISIS, by Associated Press

SUBJECT:US general re Iraq ISIS situation

QUOTE:”his words were spare and cautious, his tone notably muted

The top American general for the Middle East said Friday[5/20] he is
confident that Iraq is on course to defeating ISIS, but his words were spare
and cautious, his tone notably muted.

Gen. Joseph Votel, the new head of US Central Command, spent the day
consulting with US and Iraqi military officials and visiting a base north of
Baghdad that is training Iraqi army combat units.

"They are getting better," he told reporters later, referring to his broad
assessment of Iraq's progress after the stunning collapses in 2014-15 that
ceded large swaths of territory to ISIS in the north and west. "That said,
there is still a lot left to do."

Noting the Iraqis' recent battlefield successes, including the recapture of
Ramadi late last year and their retaking this week of Rutba, a strategic
crossroads in western Iraq, Votel said he sees momentum developing and Iraqi
confidence rising.

"I think their readiness is improving," he said, adding, "I think they're
getting a better handle on the challenges that they face."

The backdrop to this assessment is a persistent question not voiced
explicitly by Votel but suggested by his careful description of progress in
rebuilding the Iraqi army. The question is: If, as US commanders expect,
Iraq eventually pushes ISIS off its territory, will a divided government in
Baghdad be capable of sustaining that success and warding off yet another
collapse?

The question recalls what happened after President Barack Obama pulled all
US forces out of Iraq in December 2011. In the view of many US officials,
the Iraqi forces who the US had trained for several years were allowed to
atrophy amid sectarian mismanagement in Baghdad. When ISIS fighters swept
into Mosul in June 2014, the Iraqi forces collapsed.

Votel, who has headed Central Command for about seven weeks, came to Iraq to
get an up-close look at the US-led international campaign against ISIS. At
its core, that campaign depends on the Iraqi security forces generating
enough skill, firepower and gumption to recapture and hold the vast
stretches of territory that ISIS still controls. That includes Mosul, the
northern stronghold that is considered key to collapsing IS in Iraq.

Votel said the Iraqis need to do what it takes to continue the momentum they
have gained lately.

"In general, we're moving forward," he said.

The next big move is supposed to be in Mosul, although US officials don't
believe the Iraqi security forces are ready for an all-out assault there
yet.

Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the Baghdad-based commander of the US-led
campaign in Iraq and Syria, said in an interview that the US does not want
to move to push the Iraqis too fast.
"We don't want to rush them out there and achieve fragile victories,"
MacFarland said. "We want to make sure that their victories are
irreversible."

Weighing on the Iraqi campaign is the political paralysis that has gripped
the government in Baghdad. The ISIS has also launched a series of deadly
attacks in the capital, including suicide car bombings, apparently with the
aim of sowing further discord within the government and causing the
government to pull some of its forces away from Mosul to help defend
Baghdad.

"It's important to make sure that we help keep Baghdad secure," MacFarland
said. "It's the center of gravity here. One of the ways we're trying to help
the Iraqi security forces is to do that in the most efficient way possible
so that it (Baghdad) doesn't become kind of a sinkhole for all of the Iraqi
security forces."

He said that "for the most part," Iraqi's political leaders are resisting
what he called the temptation to bring significant numbers of Iraqi forces
back into the Baghdad area. Already, about half of the Iraqi army is
deployed in or near Baghdad.

At Taji, Lt. Col. Jim Hammett, the Australian officer commanding the
training effort there, said in an interview that an infantry school for 250
Iraqi enlisted soldiers had to suspend operations because the trainees were
suddenly sent to Baghdad to perform security duties.

They returned to the training school after two weeks, he said. The Iraqi
staff of another school at Taji was likewise dispatched to a western suburb
of Baghdad to perform security, he said.

MacFarland described an Iraqi military leadership of vastly different levels
of competence.

"I've seen some pretty dang good leaders actually, surprisingly good, out
there in some of the units that I've talked to," he said. Some seem almost
as good as the officers in his own forces, he said.

He added: "Other times you look at them and say, 'Eh, this guy may not be
cutting it.'"



+++SOURCE:Naharnet(Lebanon)5/21/’16:”Hardline U.S.-Born Rabbi to Enter
Israel’s Parliament”,by Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: Rabbi Glick ‘team player’

QUOTE:”Rabbi Glick:’With my entrance to politics, I am a team player and not
an individual one’ “

FULL TEXT:The resignation of Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on
Friday[5/20] has opened the way for a hardliner who advocates Jewish prayer
at the al-Aqsa mosque compound to enter parliament.

American-born Yehuda Glick is the next in line on Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's Likud party list, meaning he is entitled to take the seat of any
party MP who dies or steps down.

The 50-year-old New Yorker may not have thought he would get this chance,
after being shot four times by a Palestinian from Israeli-annexed east
Jerusalem in late 2014. The attacker was shot dead by security forces a day
later.

The nationalist rabbi, who immigrated with his family to Israel as a child,
is loathed by Palestinians, who see as a provocation any Jewish presence at
the flashpoint mosque complex in Jerusalem's Old City which houses Islam's
third-holiest shrine,

Jews believe the site was home to the first and second Jewish temples before
being destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans, and thus revere it as the
holiest site in Judaism.

Current rules governing the site allow Jews to visit during set hours but
not to pray there, for fear of stoking tensions.

Glick has been an outspoken advocate of Jewish rights to the holy site and
has also guided visits there.

In March he returned to the al-Aqsa mosque compound for the first time since
the assassination attempt. Speaking to AFP at the time, he said it was like
"returning home."

However he will not be able to visit the al-Aqsa compound once he becomes a
member of parliament, as Netanyahu issued a directive in October banning all
lawmakers from going there, in a bid to ease tensions.

He told Israeli media Friday[5/20] he would abide by the ruling: "With my
entrance to politics, I am a team player and not an individual one."

A court recently exonerated Glick of a charge of assaulting a Palestinian
woman, and removed the police ban on him visiting the holy site.
==============
Sue Lerner -Associate, IMRA