Excerpts: ISIS steals Iraq state-stored wheat. Saudi,Qatar UAE, Bahrain
friends again.EU re Israeli settlement plans November 17, 2014

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 17 Nov.’14:”ISIS militants seize wheat from state
silos”,Reuters
SUBJECT: ISIS steals Iraq state-stored wheat
QUOTE:”Militants seized a further 700 tonnes from storage sites in the
western province of Anbar in the past three weeks and took it across the
border into Islamic State-held areas in Syria for milling.”

FULL TEXT:A top Iraqi government grains official said on Wednesday[12 Nov.]
that Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants are taking wheat from
state silos in northern and western Iraq, in order to mill it there and in
neighboring Syria.

Hassan Ibrahim, Director General of the Grain Board of Iraq, the Trade
Ministry body responsible for procuring Iraq’s wheat internationally and
from local farmers, told Reuters the militants had seized wheat in recent
weeks from government silos in the provinces of Nineveh and Anbar.

Between 40,000 and 50,000 tonnes of the crop was taken from government silos
in Tal Afar and Sinjar in Nineveh Province, where hundreds of thousands of
residents, many of them ethnic and religious minorities, have fled the
militant onslaught.

Militants seized a further 700 tonnes from storage sites in the western
province of Anbar in the past three weeks and took it across the border into
Islamic State-held areas in Syria for milling, he said.

Ibrahim said militants tried to sell wheat stolen from Nineveh back to the
government in other provinces.

“For this reason I stopped purchasing wheat from farmers last Thursday[13
Nov.],” he added.

Iraq’s grain board normally stops farmer purchases from the annual harvest
at the end of August.



+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 17 Nov,’14:”Saudi, UAE.and Bahraini envoys to
reurn to Qatar”by Staff Writer
SUBJECT: Saudi,Qatar UAE,Bahrain friends again
QUOTE:”ambassadors to Qatar will return to their post in Doha following
eight months of tense relations”

FULL TEXT:An unannounced meeting between Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
leaders ended Monday[17 Nov.] evening after resolving a long-standing schism
with fellow member-state Qatar, Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent
reported.

A result of the meeting, the Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini ambassadors to
Qatar will return to their posts in Doha following eight months of tense
relations.

The assembly reached an agreement that “promises the opening of a new page
that will present a strong base, especially in light of the sensitive
circumstances the region is undergoing,” the GCC said in a joint statement.

“Based on this, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have decided to return
their ambassadors to Doha,” it said.

Additionally, the annual GCC summit was also confirmed to take place on Dec.
9 to Dec. 10 in Doha, the correspondent reported.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain all withdrew their ambassadors to Doha in
March, sparking one of the GCC’s worst diplomatic rows since its creation in
1981.

The leaders, who travelled with their foreign ministers and other cabinet
members or senior officials, were greeted by Crown Prince Mugran bin
Abdulaziz al-Saud and GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif al-Zayani, according
to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

Kuwait’s Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah has been leading efforts to bridge
the gap between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and
Bahrain.

The spat was instigated by Qatar’s support of certain movements and groups
that stirred unrest in some states, said Khaled al-Matrafi, regional manager
of Al Arabiya News Channel in Riyadh.

These groups, which adopted “orientations and policies that opposed those of
the GCC, posed the most major points of conflict and led to the withdrawal
of the ambassadors,” he said.

Renewed cooperation?

The agreement marks an end to the crisis between Qatar and the other GCC
members, Jamal Kashoggi, a Saudi writer and commentator based in Riyadh,
told Al Arabiya News.

“The Qataris showed good will, his majesty the king accepted that, so I
think it is over,” he said, provided that the states recognize “that our
unity is more important than our differences,” which was reiterated in the
joint statement.

In another statement on the official Kuwait news agency, Kuwait Parliament
Speaker Marzouk al-Ghanem voiced “optimism” on the “efforts” by Sheikh Sabah
to end the differences.


“We hope the Riyadh meeting today comes to a happy ending that strengthens
the GCC,” he said.

Kashoggi also noted that the meeting signaled the beginning of a new
approach adopted by GCC members when working together, which is “based on
respecting the independence of each country, as long as no other country
could hurt the security of the other.”

“What happened last night with the agreement is that GCC unity is way more
important than any difference between GCC countries,” he said.

As to the change in policy to abide by the agreement, he predicted that the
media wars between the UAE and Qatar would come to an end.

“Each side began to cool it and calm down with the inflammatory rhetoric and
that is good that is very positive because it was very much wrong for both
countries to do this exchange,” he said, adding that how Qatar would
continue its policy with Egypt is another thing to monitor.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE accused Qatar of meddling in their
internal affairs by supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been
designated a “terrorist” group by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

Doha asked Brotherhood leaders to leave Qatar earlier this year following
diplomatic pressure from Saudi Arabia.


+++SOURCE:Naharnet (Lebanon)17 Nov.’14:”EU ‘Deplores’ Israeli settlement
Plans but Says No Sanctions”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: EU re Israeli settlement plans
QUOTE:” ‘we will never accept the definition of building in Jewish areas of
Jerusalem as settlement activity’ “

FULL TEXT:The European Union said Monday[17 Nov.] it deplored Israeli plans
to build new settlements on occupied Palestinian territory but denied
outright that it planned sanctions against Israel as a result.

There was "no plan of this type," new EU foreign affairs head Federica
Mogherini said when asked about an Israeli press report on the issue.

"I saw an article in Haaretz which apparently referred to an internal
working document requested by some member states some time ago," Mogherini
told a press conference after chairing her first regular EU foreign
ministers meeting.

"They were only a working hypothesis, did not go to ministers and today they
were absolutely not part of our discussion," she said.

She added: "Our discussions today were all about getting a positive
engagement with Israel and the Palestinians so as to restart the peace
process; they were not about isolating or sanctioning anyone."

A statement issued after the foreign ministers meeting said the 28-member
bloc "deeply deplores and strongly opposes the recent expropriation of land
near Bethlehem, recent announcements of plans for new settlement
construction... as well as plans to displace Bedouins in the West Bank and
the continued demolitions, including of EU and member states funded
projects."

Israel should reverse these decisions which "run counter to international
law and directly threaten the two state (peace) solution," it said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has regularly dismissed such EU
statements and on Sunday, his foreign minister was even blunter.

"One thing should be clear: we will never accept the definition of building
in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem as settlement activity," Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

"We won't accept any limitation on building in Jewish areas of (east)
Jerusalem," he said.

The status of Jerusalem is a flashpoint issue, with Palestinians wanting the
eastern half as their future capital and Israel claiming it as their
undivided and eternal capital city.

The EU foreign ministers said they were "gravely concerned" at growing
tensions on the ground and called on both sides to avoid provocative
actions, especially over holy sites.

They also voiced concerned at the "dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza
Strip" after the latest conflict earlier this year left a trail of
destruction.

"The EU calls for a fundamental change of the political, security and
economic situation in the Gaza Strip, including the end of the closure," the
statement said.

"A return to the status quo prior to the latest conflict is not an option,"
it said, adding that the 28-member bloc, a key aid donor, was ready to do
all it could.

Ministers agreed that future relations with both Israel and the Palestinians
would depend on their "engagement towards a lasting peace," the statement
concluded.

SourceAgence France Presse

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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA