Excerpts: Continuing ISIS disasters in Iraq. Pledged Gaza funds stay
undelivered. Israel-Lebanon war oil spill. Jordan re UN Palestinian
resolution December 20, 2014

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 20 Dec.’14:”Iraqi Diyala residents face ISIS
‘water war’”.Staff Writer with Associated Press

SUBJECT: Continuing ISIS disasters in Iraq

FULL TEXT:An Iraqi official warned on Saturday[20 Dec.] of a “humanitarian
disaster” after Islamist militants diverted Al-Roz River away from Bildoz
district in the eastern province of Diyala, affecting thousands of people in
what he described as a “water war,” in an interview with a local news
outlet.

“ISIS, for the fourth consecutive day, diverted Al-Roz River, considered to
be an essential water source to Bildoz, and supplying drinking water to 150
thousand people as well as irrigating vast areas of land,” Diyala MP Furat
al-Timimi told Al Sumaria News, adding “thousands of people in Bildoz and
other adjacent areas will be affected if water is not returned to its
previous course into the river.”Timimi described Al-Roz as the “main river”
seeping into Bildoz, which his located 30 kilometers east of Diyala’s
capital Baquba.

He said diverting the river took place following ISIS militants taking
control of the strategic Nadhim Al-Sudour Al-Arwaai dam, 45 kilometers
northeast Baquba since July.

On Dec. 12, Bildoz’s municipal committee warned that winter crops and
produce would be highly affected if ISIS continue to control the dam, which
regulates how much water flows into Al-Roz and the Bildoz district.

While the U.S.-led coalition tried last month to use its airforce to open
the gates of the damn, “ISIS closed it again to hurt people by waging a
water war,” said al-Timimi ,urging for the need to liberate the area.

So far, about one third of Iraq including parts of Diyala are still under
ISIS’s control.

Delay in evacuating Yazidis

Elsewhere in Iraq, others continue to suffer as a result of ISIS military
control. Thousands of Yazidis continue to be trapped in Mt. Sinjar in the
northern province of Mosul in Iraq, the Associated Press reported an Iraqi
MP as saying on Friday.[19 Dec.]

Mahma Khalil, himself a member of Iraq’s minority Yazidis, said sporadic
clashes between Iraqi Kurdish fighters and ISIS extremists, as well as other
logistic problems, were delaying the evacuation of the last Yazidis.Fighting
was still underway near the mountain, said Khalil.He called for the need to
plan and prepare for logistics and transportation which contributed to the
delay.However, Khalil said Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters were able to
ease the plight of the thousands of Yazidis still trapped on Mt. Sinjar and
delivered food and supplies to them.

The evacuation of many Yazidis in Sinjar followed the Peshmerga’s advances
on Thursday[18 Dec.], when they managed to retake some ground lost last
summer to ISIS militants and opened up a corridor to the mountain.
The development was an incremental step in the battle to retake the town of
Sinjar, at the foothills of the mountain by the same name, which fell to the
ISIS group in early August.

Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for the powerful Kurdish Democratic Union Party,
said that Syrian Kurds militiamen also were able to open up another corridor
between their region of northeastern Syria and Mt. Sinjar in neighboring
Iraq.

Speaking in Syria, Khalil said that the Syrian Kurdish fighters also
captured nine villages from IS militants.

Bombings kill 10 in Baghdad

Security concerns also remain in the capital Baghdad,where bombs targeting
commercial streets and an army patrol killed 10 people in and around the
capital, Iraqi authorities said.

Police officials said a bomb exploded in a commercial street in the town of
Madain, about 20 kilometers (14 miles) southeast of the capital, killing
four people and wounding nine others.

In the northern Baghdad suburb of Taji a bomb blast near shops killed three
people and wounded 11 others. A roadside bomb struck an army patrol in the
western suburbs, killing three soldiers and wounding six others, police
officials said.

Medics confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

(With the Associated Press

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 20 Dec.’14:”Pledged Gaza funds stay undelivered”,
Reuters

SUBJECT: Pledged Gaza funds stay undelivered

QUOTE:”Two months after donors pledged $5.4 billion . . .barely 2 percent of
the money has been transferred”

FULL TEXT:GAZA — Two months after donors pledged $5.4 billion to help
rebuild Gaza after the war between Israel and Hamas, Palestinian, UN and
other officials say barely 2 percent of the money has been transferred.

The conference in Cairo had been hailed as a success, with Qatar promising
$1 billion, Saudi Arabia $500 million and the United States and the European
Union a combined $780 million in various forms of assistance.

Half was expected to go to rebuilding houses and infrastructure in Gaza
destroyed during seven weeks of fighting, and the rest to support the
Palestinian budget.

But of the total, only $100 million or so has been received, according to UN
and other officials.

While the EU and the United States have accelerated some funding that was
already in the pipeline, very few new pledges have come to fruition.

"We have received funding and pledges of approximately $100 million for
shelter and repair," said Robert Turner, director of operations for the UN's
Relief and Works Agency in Gaza. — Reuters


+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 20 Dex.’14:”U.N. Asks Israel to Pay Lebanon
$850M for Oil Spill”.Associated Press, Naharnet, Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: Israel-Lebanon war ‘oil spill’

QUOTE:”U.N. …approved a resolution on Friday[19 Dec.]asking Israel to pay
Lebanon over $850M in danages for an oil spill caused by an Israeli air
force attackon oil storage tanks during. . .in July 2006” its war

FULL TEXT:The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution
Friday[19 Dec.] asking Israel to pay Lebanon over $850 million in damages
for an oil spill caused by an Israeli air force attack on oil storage tanks
during its war with Hizbullah in July 2006.

The assembly voted 170-6 in favor of the resolution, with three abstentions.
Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia, Micronesia and Marshall
Islands voted "no."

General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect
world opinion.

The resolution says "the environmental disaster" caused by the destruction
of the tanks resulted in an oil slick that covered the entire Lebanese
coastline and extended to the Syrian coastline, causing extensive pollution.

Israel's U.N. Mission said in a statement late Friday[19 Dec.] that the
resolution is biased against Israel.

"Israel Immediately responded to the oil slick incident by cooperating
closely with the United Nations Environment Program, as well as other U.N.
agencies and NGOs, addressing the environmental situation along the coast of
Lebanon," the statement reads. "This resolution has long outlived the
effects of the oil slick, and serves no purpose other than to contribute to
institutionalizing an anti-Israel agenda at the U.N.."

The assembly acknowledged the conclusions in an August report by
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that studies show the value of damage to
Lebanon amounted to $856.4 million in 2014. It asked Israel to provide
"prompt and adequate compensation."

The assembly also asked Ban to urge U.N. bodies and other organizations
involved in the initial assessment to conduct a further study, building on
the work conducted by the World Bank, to measure and quantify the
environmental damage sustained by neighboring countries.

The resolution notes that "the secretary-general expressed grave concern at
the lack of any acknowledgment on the part of the government of Israel of
its responsibilities vis-a-vis reparations and compensation" to Lebanon and
Syria for the oil spill.

It notes that Ban concluded that the spill is not covered by any
international oil spill compensation funds and therefore recognizes "that
further consideration needs to be given to the option of security the
relevant compensation from the government of Israel."

Lebanon's U.N. Ambassador Nawaf Salam said his country considers the
resolution to be "major progress" because it puts forward a figure for
compensation, acknowledges the conclusions of the secretary-general's
report, and reaffirms the General Assembly's commitment to justice.

"We affirm that Lebanon will continue to mobilize all resources and resort
to all legal means to see that this resolution is fully implemented, and
that the specified compensation is paid promptly."


+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 20 Dec.’14:”U.N.will ‘take time’ to decide on
Palestinian resplution –Jordan”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Jordan re U.N. Palestinian resolution
QUOTE:”Negotiations on a draft UN resolution that sets terms for a final
Israeli-Palestinian peace deal will take time, Jordan said Thursday[18
Dec.]”
FULL TEXT: UNITED NATIONS — Negotiations on a draft UN resolution that sets
terms for a final Israeli-Palestinian peace deal will take time, Jordan said
Thursday[18 Dec.], indicating that a Security Council vote was not imminent.

Jordan presented the measure on Wednesday[17 Dec.] to the UN Security
Council on behalf of the Palestinians, who said they were open to
negotiations on the text.

"It will take time," Jordan's UN Ambassador Dina Kawar told reporters.

Jordan along with Britain and France were hoping to achieve a draft
resolution that could be adopted by consensus at the Security Council and
will not be vetoed by the United States.

But the United States said Thursday[18 Dec.] it did not support the current
resolution."It is not something that we would support," State Department
Spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters.Washington has repeatedly vetoed
Security Council resolutions seen as undermining its close ally Israel.

The Palestinian draft resolution sets a 12-month deadline for wrapping up
negotiations on a final settlement and the end of 2017 as the time frame for
completing an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories.

A final peace deal would pave the way to the creation of a Palestinian state
with Jerusalem as a shared capital, according to the text.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday[18 Dec.] that Israel would
never accept "unilateral diktats" while his Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman dismissed the draft as a "Palestinian gimmick”.The US
administration opposes moves to bind negotiators' hands through a UN
resolution — particularly any attempt to set a deadline for the withdrawal
of Israeli troops from the West Bank.

Looking for consensus

"There is not the basis for consensus on the text as drafted and that is why
we need to do some work," said a Security Council diplomat.

"The issue now is how do we get something that really does command
consensus. The objective that we have is to achieve consensus, which means
we want to have a text that everybody can agree," said the diplomat, who
asked not to be named.

France, working with Britain and Germany, was pressing on with a separate
text on reviving the peace process, but it was unclear when that effort
would yield results.

"We are continuing our work on a consensus text. We are working on the
European text and we will see if we can make progress," said a European
diplomat.

Adoption of a Security Council resolution on reviving Israeli-Palestinian
peace talks would mark a key step after the United States failed in a
high-profile bid to restart the process in April.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that without a return to peace,
violence will continue on the ground and war could be reignited following
the 50 days of bloodshed in Gaza this summer.

With Israel deep in an election campaign for March polls, there is concern
that the resolution could play into the hands of hardliners and that
delaying UN action would be wise.

"Palestinians are now feeling they want to rush ahead, the rest of us quite
frankly are not sure that is a good idea…" said a Western diplomat.

Diplomatic sources suggested the Palestinians may be willing to hold off on
a Security Council vote if they get assurances that Israel will freeze
settlement construction until a way forward can be decided



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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA