Excerpts: Assad hoarding WMDs? Netanyahu re ISIS, Iran. Israel's Mossad
recruiting. Turkey refugee crisis deepens. Iran promises military help to
Lebanon September 30, 2014
+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 30 Sept.’14:”Is Assad hoarding WMDs in Alawite
heartland?”, Staff
Writerhttp://english.alarabiya.net/docroot/aa-templating/en/gfx/print-logo.png
SUBJECT:Is Assad hording Weapons of Mass Destruction ?
QUOTE: “The weapons have been upgraded with the help of North Korean and
Iranian experts”
FULL TEXT:The Pentagon is suggesting the world's chemical weapons watchdog
use a U.S.-made mobile destruction unit in Syria to neutralise the country's
toxic stockpile. As the removal of Syria’s chemical stockpile drags on,
President Bashar al-Assad has been accused of stockpiling advanced
weaponry – including chemical and biological arms – in the heartland of his
Alawite sect, according to The Sunday Times this week.
The British newspaper cited Israeli and Russian sources as saying that the
weapons have been “upgraded with the help of North Korean and Iranian
experts.”
The news comes as fears grow after the Syrian regime missed a deadline to
hand over all his chemical weapons for destruction. A second deadline may
also be missed, a source speaking to the newspaper said.
“Syria has given up only about 4% of its chemical weapons arsenal, will miss
this week’s deadline to send all toxic agents abroad for destruction, and
probably will miss the June 30 deadline when the entire 1,300 tons of lethal
chemical weapons were due to be destroyed,” said one source.
According to the newspaper, Israelis believe that chemical warheads are
being hidden in the Alawite enclave — in western Syria and along the coast
around Latakia up to the Turkish border. Analysts believe Assad will
eventually retreat to the enclave.
“Down the line, Assad is doomed,” an unnamed Russian expert told the paper.
“His plan B, C, and D is to retreat to the Alawite enclave and try to
protect the Alawite community.”
An Israeli military intelligence source told the newspaper that Assad has
recently stepped up efforts to guard the enclave.
“This region is now totally fortified and isolated from the rest of Syria …
The most advanced weapons manufactured in Syria and imported from Russia are
kept there,” the source was quoted as saying.
The Alawites represent about 12% of the Syrian population of about 22
million
+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 30 Sept.’14:”Netanyahu:Iran poses greate is to
win the battle and lose the war”r threat than ISIS”
By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols | Reuters
SUBJECT: Netanyahu re ISIS, Iran
QUOTE: “Netanyahu: to defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear
power is to lose the war
FULL TEXT:Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday[29 Sept.]
tried to shift the spotlight away from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) and back to Iran, warning the United Nations that a nuclear-armed
Tehran would pose a far greater threat than “militant Islamists on pickup
trucks.”
ISIS’s seizure of large swaths of Syria and Iraq and its killings of
civilians and soldiers have dominated discussions during five days of
speeches at the United Nations General Assembly podium and on the sidelines.
But Netanyahu described Iran, ISIS and the militant group Hamas that
controls the Gaza Strip as part of a single team, comparing them all to
Germany’s Nazis, who killed six million Jews in World War Two.
“The Nazis believed in a master race, the militant Islamists believe in a
master faith,” Netanyahu said in his speech at the annual gathering of the
193-nation assembly in New York. “They just disagree who among them will be
the master of the master faith.”
“Make no mistake, ISIS must be defeated,” Netanyahu added. “But to defeat
ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and
lose the war.”
“It’s one thing to co to defeat ISSnfront militant Islamists on pickup
trucks armed with Kalashnikov rifles, it’s another thing to confront
militant Islamists armed with weapons of mass destruction,” Netanyahu said.
Iran rejects allegations by Western powers and their allies that it is
developing the capability to produce atomic weapons and wants economic
sanctions lifted as part of any nuclear deal with six countries negotiating
with Tehran.
By describing Iran, ISIS and Hamas as part of the same team, Netanyahu
appeared to play on doubts among U.S. lawmakers about the wisdom of
President Barack Obama’s decision to engage with Tehran after the 2013
election of President Hassan Rowhani, a soft-spoken pragmatist, to resolve
the 12-year-old nuclear standoff between the Iran and the West.
“You know, to say that Iran doesn’t practice terrorism, is like saying Derek
Jeter never played shortstop for the New York Yankees,” he said.
Asked if Washington agreed with Netanyahu that Iran, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah
are all part of a joint Muslim effort to seize control of the world, State
Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “We would not agree with that
characterization, no.”
These issues will undoubtedly come up during Obama’s meeting with Netanyahu
in Washington on Wednesday.
“Iran’s nuclear military capabilities must be fully dismantled,” Netanyahu
said. He added that the goal of a charm offensive by Iran’s “smooth talking
president and foreign minister” was to get international sanctions lifted
“and remove the obstacles to Iran’s path to the bomb.”
“The question before us is whether militant Islam will have the power to
realize its unbridled ambitions. There is one place where that could soon
happen – the ISIS of Iran.”
He twice referred to the “ISIS of Iran,” which would appear to be a
deliberate play on the country’s official name - the Islamic Republic of
Iran - and ISIS, which is often referred to as ISIS.
‘Crocodile tears’
Netanyahu referred mockingly to Rowhani’s speech to the assembly last week,
in which he accused the West and its allies of nurturing the group.
“Iran’s President Rowhani stood here last week and shed crocodile tears over
what he called the globalization of terrorism. Maybe he should spare us
these phoney tears and have a word instead with Iran’s Revolutionary
Guards,” he said.
Rowhani said he supported efforts to combat ISIS, a Sunni militant group
that views the predominantly Shi’ite Iran as heretical, though he said it
should be handled by the region, not countries outside the Middle East.
Iran and six world powers held 10 days of talks on the sidelines of the
annual gathering of world leaders at U.N. headquarters in New York City but
made little progress in overcoming deep disagreements on issues such as the
future scope of Tehran’s nuclear program and the speed of lifting sanctions.
The talks involve Iran, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia
and China. They are aimed at getting a long-term agreement that would
gradually lift sanctions against Tehran in exchange for curbs on its atomic
program.
The two sides are expected to meet again in Europe in the next two weeks,
Iranian and Western officials say. Speaking about the talks, U.S. Deputy
Secretary of State Bill Burns told reporters in Washington: “It’s no secret
that the gaps that remain in the negotiations are quite significant right
now.”
Netanyahu’s strident critique of Iran may be a preview of the hard line he
will take in Washington. He has repeatedly warned Obama not to make
concessions in the nuclear talks.
On the topic of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, he
expressed his support for a “historic compromise” with the Palestinians that
would bring peace and stability for the Israeli people and the region. But
he offered no new details of what such a compromise would envisage.
An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire in late August ended a 50-day war in the Gaza
Strip between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas that controls
Gaza. Israel began an offensive on July 8 with the aim of halting
cross-border rocket salvoes by Hamas and other militants.
The conflict devastated some Gaza districts and killed more than 2,100
Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were also killed.
+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 30 Sept.’14:”Israel’s shadowy Mossad looks to
recruit online”, Associated Press
SUBJECT: Israel’s Mossad
FULL TEXT:TEL AVIV — It used to be that if you wanted to join one of the
world’s most secretive espionage organizations you had to sneak into a
foreign embassy, answer a cryptic newspaper ad or show up in a nondescript
building in Tel Aviv to meet a shadowy recruiter. Now all it takes to apply
for a job at Israel’s Mossad spy agency is a click of the mouse.
The typically shadowy Mossad revamped its website last week to include a
snazzy recruiting video and an online application option for those seeking
employment. With versions in Hebrew, English, French, Russian, Arabic and
Persian, the sleek site looks to revolutionize the way Israel’s legendary
agency seeks out potential agents after generations of backdoor,
cloak-and-dagger antics.
“We must continue to recruit the best people into our ranks so that the
Mossad might continue to lead, defend and allow for the continued existence
of the state of Israel,” Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo said in a statement
announcing the launch. “The Mossad’s qualitative human capital is the secret
of our success.” The Mossad, Hebrew for “The Institute,” is short for the
“Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations.”
It is the global arm of Israel’s vaunted intelligence community and believed
to be behind some of the most covert operations of the past century. — AP
+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 30 Sept.’14:”Turkey refugee crisis deepens”,
Reuters
SUBJECT: Turkey refugee crisis deepens
FULL TEXT:KARACA, Turkey — All that separates Mohammed Muslim from his
village in Syria is a barbed wire fence running along the Turkish border,
but the dull thud of artillery and the rattle of machinegun fire suggest he
will not be going home anytime soon.
Muslim, dressed in a battered suit, his moustache flecked with grey, is
among more than 150,000 Syrian Kurds who have fled to Turkey over the past
week to escape the advance of the militants linked to the self-proclaimed
Islamic State group, who have seized villages and beheaded residents as they
push towards the strategic border town Kobani.
“I don’t want to be in Turkey, I want to be in my village, I want to die in
Kobani,” Muslim said, running prayer beads through his hands as he watched
Kurdish and IS militants exchange fire in the valley below. “If the war goes
our way, then of course we’ll go home, but it looks like it will be
difficult.”
Turkey, already home to an estimated 1.5 million refugees from Syria’s civil
war, is pushing the United States and its allies to create a safe haven for
refugees inside Syrian territory. A safe haven along the border would
require a no-fly zone policed by foreign jets.
President Tayyip Erdogan, until now reluctant to commit to a frontline
military role in the US-led campaign against IS, has said Turkish troops
could be used to help set up such a zone. “You’ve seen it in other places
along the border. There’s no fighting anymore but people stay in Turkey,”
said Umit Algan, who runs the relief effort in the border town of Suruc for
IMPR, a Turkish aid organisation.
“I think it’ll be the same here, they never know when (Islamic State) might
come back,” he said, adding that his group’s initial relief effort aimed to
help refugees camping out in mosques, schools and parks for a month only.
Crowds of mostly Syrian Kurds cheered from the Turkish hillside as Kurdish
shells kick up plumes of dust near IS positions just across the border, but
the next day the militants seized new ground.
The advance towards Kobani is the latest in a series of lightning campaigns
by the Islamist group which have seen them seize swathes of territory in
both Syria and Iraq. – Reuters
+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon)30 Sept.’14:”Tehran Promises Military
Assistance to Lebanon”
SUBJECT: Iran promises military help to Lebanon
FULL TEXT:The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, who is in
Beirut on a one-day official visit, said Tuesday[30 Sept.] that Tehran will
provide military assistance to Lebanon.
Ali Shamkhani made the announcement following talks with Prime Minister
Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail.
He said the assistance includes military equipment to help its battle
against militants.
As Safir newspaper said that Shamkhani arrived in Beirut on Monday night.
His trip comes as an Iranian military commander reportedly claimed that
Hizbullah's missile and drone capabilities have widely improved since the
2006 war with Israel.
Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who is the commander of the Iranian
army's aerospace force, said he was aware of Hizbullah's capabilities in
Lebanon.
According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, Hajizadeh claimed that the Shiite
party was at a certain period linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards but
it developed to the extent that the country's army began benefiting from
Hizbullah's capabilities.
On Monday[29 Sept.], Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran
of mounting terrorist attacks all around the world.
Netanyahu told the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting that
the Islamic State and Hamas, as well as other movements, from al-Qaida and
Nigeria's Boko Haram to Somalia's al-Shabab and Hizbullah, share the goal of
imposing militant Islam on the world.
He likened them to "another fanatic ideology that swept into power eight
decades ago" — Nazism.
======
Sue Lerner -Associate, IMRA
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