Excerpts: Abbas,Hamas leader, Qatar's Emir meet.Egypt sentences 2 for
spying. German minister accuses Qatar financing ISIS. Saudi Grand Mufti
blasts IS.Maronite Patriarch urges protection of Christians. Islamic State
recruiting at record pace August 20, 2014

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 20 Aug.’14:”Palestinian president due in Doha to
meet Emir and Hamas leader”,Reuters

SUBJECT: Abbas , Hamas leader, Qatar’s Emir meet

QUOTE:”Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will meet the emir of Qatar and
exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Doha,.Qatar”.

FULL TEXT:Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will meet the emir of Qatar,
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in
Doha on Wednesday[20 Aug.] to discuss the conflict in Gaza and more aid for
Palestinians, diplomatic sources told Reuters.

A ceasefire in the Gaza Strip collapsed on Tuesday[19 Aug.], with
Palestinian militants firing dozens of rockets at Israel and Israel
launching air strikes.

Abbas's visit to Qatar, a close ally of Hamas, will be his second since the
hostilities in Gaza began on July 8.

"The President will be in Doha to meet with the Emir and talks will be on
how to lift the siege of Gaza, the political scene that will follow that and
then the urgent needs of the Palestinian people given the catastrophic
losses," Palestinian ambassador in Doha Monir Ghannam told Reuters.

Qatar, which has been acting as a communication channel between the West and
Hamas, has donated more than $500 million in humanitarian aid to
Palestinians in addition to grants of $1,000 for every Palestinian who lost
their home.

The Palestinian Health Ministry says some 2,026 people, mostly civilians,
have been killed in the current conflict that began last month. Sixty-four
Israeli soldiers and three civilians in Israel have also been killed during
the offensive.

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 20 Aug.’14:”Egypt sentences Jordanian,Israeli for
spying”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Egypt sentences 2 for spying
QUOTE:”Bashar Ibrahim Abu Zeid from Jordan was arrested in April 2011 and
accused of trying to recruit Egyptian engineers to help Israel intercept
telephone calls in Egypt.”

FULL TEXT:A Cairo court on Wednesday[20 Aug.] sentenced an Israeli tried in
absentia to life imprisonment and a Jordanian telecoms engineer to 10 years
in jail for espionage on behalf of Israel.

Bashar Ibrahim Abu Zeid from Jordan was arrested in April 2011 and accused
of trying to recruit Egyptian engineers to help Israel intercept telephone
calls in Egypt.

The Israeli, who is on the run, stands accused of working for the Jewish
state’s spy agency Mossad.

Abu Zeid pleaded not guilty when the trial opened in October 2011 and
charged the prosecution had tampered with the answers he gave during
interrogation.

Egypt, where life terms are commuted to a maximum 25 years in jail, and
Jordan are the only Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel.

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 20 Aug.’14:”German minister accuses Qatar of
financing ISIS”, Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: German minister accuses Qatar financing ISIS

QUOTE:”Germany’s development aid minister, Gerd Mueller, on Wednesday[20
Aug.’ accused Qatar of financing the militant group the Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria (ISIS)”

FULL TEXT:Germany’s development aid minister, Gerd Mueller, on Wednesday[20
Aug.] accused Qatar of financing the militant group the Islamic State of
Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“A story like this always has a history,” he said in an interview with
public broadcaster ZDF.

“Who is financing these troops? Hint: Qatar,” he added.

Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel this week urged a
“debate” about who has been and is financing ISIS, but without naming any
countries.

Meanwhile, Germany said it is ready to send weapons to support Iraqi Kurds
in their battle against ISIS, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

It is a controversial issue for Germany which, burdened by its history of
aggression in two world wars, has often been reluctant to send troops into
foreign conflicts and which as a rule does not send weapons into war zones.


+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 20 Aug.’13:”Grand Mufti: IS is Islam’s ‘enemy No.1’
“, Saudi Gazette Report
SUBJECT: Saudi Grand Mufti blasts IS
QUOTE:”Saudi Grand Mufti. . .blasted Al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants as
‘enemy number one’ of Islam”. “The statement comes at a time when hundreds
of young Saudis are believed to have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join
rebel and militant groups”
FULL TEXT:RIYADH — Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Aal Alsheikh on Tuesday[19
Aug.] blasted Al-Qaeda and Islamic State militants as “enemy number one” of
Islam.

“The ideas of extremism, radicalism and terrorism... have nothing to do with
Islam and (their proponents) are the enemy number one of Islam,” the Kingdom’s
top scholar said in a statement issued here on Tuesday[19 Aug.].

He cited militants from the Islamic State, which has declared a “caliphate”
straddling large parts of Iraq and Syria, and the international Al-Qaeda
terror network.

“Muslims are the main victims of this extremism, as shown by crimes
committed by the so-called Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and groups linked to
them,” the grand mufti said, quoting a verse from the Holy Qur’an urging the
“killing” of people who do deeds harmful to Islam, the official Saudi Press
Agency (SPA) said.

Alsheikh’s stance reflects the growing international hostility toward
Islamic State militants, known for their brutality.

IS militants, already well established in Syria, launched an offensive in
Iraq on June 9 and rapidly seized control of vast swathes of Sunni territory
there.

“In the circumstances the Islamic nation is living through, several
countries have been destabilized” by extremists, who “divide Muslims” in the
name of religion, Alsheikh said.

He warned: “In Islam, after heresy, dividing Muslims is the greatest crime.”

The mufti urged “tolerance, which was at the origin of Islam’s growth and
longevity.”

The statement comes at a time when hundreds of young Saudis are believed to
have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join rebel and militant groups.

Authorities have sternly warned Saudis against traveling outside for the
purpose of fighting along side militants.

Saudi Arabia labeled Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Syria’s Al-Nusra Front and
other groups as “terrorist” in March and imposed long prison terms for
offering them public support or giving them moral or material aid.

Recently, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah vowed “not to
allow a handful of terrorists, using Islam for personal aims, to terrify
Muslims or undermine our country and its inhabitants.”

The King urged Muslim scholars and leaders to fight against militant groups
bent on creating havoc in society.


+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 20 Aug.’14:”Al-Rahi Urges from Erbil
International Community to Mobilize to Defend Iraq’s Christians”
SUBJECT:Maronite Patriarch urges protection of Christians
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi rejected on Wednesday[20 Aug.] “the
fragmentation of peoples' security by terrorist organizations.”

He urged during a visit to the Iraqi Kurdish region of Erbil “the
international community to mobilize” to thwart the threat of the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant and other terrorist groups.

Al-Rahi traveled to Kurdistan in Wednesday[20 Aug.] at the head of a
delegation of patriarchs, in a show of support to the persecuted Christians.

“We should work on liberating the Christians who should remain in Iraq and
the rest of the Arab world,” he added.

“We must remain in these countries because the world is in need of the light
of the Bible,” he declared.

“We demand that the displaced be allowed to return to their land with
dignity. We will not accept anything less than that,” stressed al-Rahi.

The patriarch was accompanied on his trip by Gregorios III Laham, Patriarch
of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Syriac Catholic Patriarch Youssef III
Younan and Ignatius Aphrem II, the Patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church.

“We are heading to Erbil as a first step in the implementation of the
statement issued by the patriarchs in their last meeting,” stated al-Rahi
ahead of his departure from Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport . .
.

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 20 Aug.’14:”Islamic State recruits at record pace in
Syria—monitor”, Reuters
SUBJECT: Islamic State recruiting at record pace

QUOTES: “Thousands of new fighters joined Islamic State in Syria last month
in its fastest expansion to date in Syria”; “Islamic State recruited at
least 6,300 men in July”; “Around a thousand of the new fighters were
foreign and the rest Syrian”

FULL TEXT”BEIRUT — Thousands of new fighters joined Islamic State in Syria
last month in its fastest expansion to date, a body monitoring the war said
on Tuesday [19 Aug.].

Now in control of roughly a third of Syria and large areas of Iraq, Islamic
State has been seizing territory from rival Islamist groups in a belt of
territory north of Aleppo, threatening rebel supply lines into the city
where President Bashar al-Assad's forces are seeking to encircle the
insurgents.

Islamic State recruited at least 6,300 men in July, Rami Abdelrahman,
founder of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters — a big
expansion from early estimates suggesting the group numbered around 15,000.
Around a thousand of the new fighters were foreign and the rest Syrian, he
said.

The surge followed Islamic State's rapid advance in northern Iraq in June,
where its capture of the city of Mosul furnished it with new weaponry and
resources, some of which were diverted to Syria. The group, now the target
of US air strikes in Iraq, has declared an Islamic caliphate in areas under
its control.

Much of the recruitment has taken place in Islamic State's stronghold of
Raqqa. The city on the Euphrates River in northeast Syria has been the
target of dozens of air raids by government war planes in recent days.

Anecdotal accounts have also suggested a rapid increase in the group's
numbers.

"I can tell it's not far fetched that Islamic State gained thousands of new
supporters recently with its operations in Deir Al Zor," one Raqqa resident,
an activist opposed to both the Syrian government and the Islamic State,
told Reuters by Skype.

Deir Al Zor province is southeast of Raqqa and another area of Islamic
State control on the Euphrates river.

Islamic State last week staged an advance westwards in an area of territory
it is seeking to control alongside the Turkish border. It seized several
villages and towns north of Aleppo from rival Islamist groups in what
observers believe is a push towards the border town of Azaz.

The observatory said Syrian war planes mounted air strikes on Islamic State
positions in the town of Akhtarin on Tuesday[19 Aug.], one of the areas its
fighters seized in last week's advance. There were no reports of further air
strikes on Raqqa.

Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA