Excerpts:Italy naval exercises in Mediterranean. Israel West Bank Drill.
Yemen president calls Sanaa a coup. US to train Syria rebels in Turkey. US
bottom line' for Iran deal. PEGIDA anti-Islamization movement. US re
Netanyahu speech March 01, 2015


+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 1 Mar.’15:”I taly to begin naval exercises off
Libya”,by Reuters

SUBJECT: Italy naval exercises in Mediterranian

QUOTE: “increased fears of attacks by Islamist militants

FULL TEXT:Italy will begin annual naval exercises this week near the coast
of Libya, where a breakdown in order has allowed tens of thousands of
migrants to try to reach Europe by boat and increased fears of attacks by
Islamist militants.

The navy said in a statement that the exercises, known as Mare Aperto (Open
Sea), would begin on Monday[2Mar.].

The exercises were suspended last year because of the search-and-rescue
mission dubbed Mare Nostrum, which was set up after hundreds of migrants
were drowned off the southern island of Lampedusa. Mare Nostrum has now
ended and been replaced by a more limited European Union mission known as
Triton.

Admiral Pierpaolo Ribuffo, the officer in command of exercises, said the
operation was not directly connected with the crisis in Libya, where Italian
energy group Eni has significant offshore oil platforms and other assets.

But he said the presence of naval vessels in the area could help improve
security.

"We're training our ships and our men, that's all. Our activity has nothing
to do with other scenarios," he told Italian news agency ANSA in comments
that were subsequently released by the navy.

"Obviously the presence of ships at sea also means security, deterrence and
dissuasion," he said. "But that's normal, it's like police patrolling the
streets."

Italy, whose southern islands are only around 300 kilometres from the Libyan
coast, has led calls for a global diplomatic push to stabilise Libya, where
two rival governments are fighting for control and where Islamist militants
have gained a growing foothold.

It has also offered help in training a regular Libyan army but has ruled out
any peacekeeping mission for the moment.

Concern over attacks on targets in Italy has been heightened by video
messages from groups associating themselves with the Islamic State movement,
stating that Rome was a target and by press reports that militants could
reach Italy on migrant boats.

Officials have said that Italy, like other Western countries, faces a
general risk but there has been no indication of any concrete threat and no
evidence of violent militants among migrants, most of whom are from Africa
or Syria.

Worries over a domestic threat were underlined by a report of a 64-page
document in Italian, inviting Muslims to help "the Caliphate that will
conquer Constantinople and Rome", the two centres of Medieval Christianity.

The document, was first reported on an Italian news website called Wikilao,
which said it had been circulating on jihadist websites. The report was
picked up by several Italian newspapers and television stations on Sunday[1
Mar.] but there was no immediate confirmation by Italian officials.



+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 1 Mar.’15:”Israel holds 1st drill in West Bank in
3 years”, Reuters

SUBJECT: Israel West Bank drill

QUOTE:”Israeli media said Eisenkot, who took the helm of the military last
month, had called a two-day drill to test the army's level of readiness.”
(AFP)

The Israeli military said it had mobilized some 13,000 soldiers for an
unannounced drill on Sunday[1 Mar. in the occupied West Bank, in the first
such exercise in three years.

A terse statement said army chief Gadi Eisenkot had called a "surprise
exercise in Central Command" -- the military front that controls land
captured in a 1967 war which is sought by Palestinians as part of a future
state.

Footage of the exercise filmed by an Israeli television station showed
soldiers in armored vehicles practicing how to handle casualties at the
scene of a confrontation.

The drill came on the day that Palestinians said they would consider
dissolving security cooperation with Israel over Israel's recent suspension
of tax revenue transfers.

Asked about the timing of the drill, a military spokeswoman said it was "not
necessarily linked to anything specific". Israel's last such exercise in the
West Bank was in 2012, and drills "are held from time to time," the
spokeswoman said.

The Palestine Liberation Organization's 110-member decision-making body was
expected to meet later this week to weigh proposals to suspend about a
decade of security cooperation with Israel in the West Bank, Palestinian
officials said.

"Decisions will be taken regarding all forms of relations with Israel,"
Mahmoud Al-Aloul, a senior official of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah
movement, told reporters.

Tensions have risen since the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks last
April, and a rise in violence between the sides since the eve of a
July-August Gaza war, with political analysts often questioning whether a
new uprising was in the offing.

Israel last month suspended transfer of vital tax funds to protest against
the Palestinians joining world bodies such as the International Criminal
Court.

Under security cooperation renewed since shortly after a Palestinian
uprising of a decade ago, the Palestinians have conducted police duties in
their territory, including arrests of suspected criminals and anti-Israel
militants.

Israeli media said Eisenkot, who took the helm of the military last month,
had called a two-day drill to test the army's level of readiness.

Israel Radio quoted an unidentified senior military source as saying the
drill had been unexpected, would be "unusual in size" and would also involve
aerial and intelligence units.



+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 1 Mar.’15:”Yemen’s Hadi declares Sanaa an
‘occupied capital’ “, by Staff Writer

SUBJECT:Yemen president calls Sanaa a coup

QUOTE:”the first Iranian flight landed in Sanaa … Senior Iranian diplomats
were on hand to welcome the flight”

FULL TEXT:Yemeni President Hadi declared the city of Sanaa an occupied
capital on Sunday and accused Houthi militants of turning against political
dialogue, the Al Arabiya News Channel reported.

What has happened in Sanaa is a coup, the president, who now operates in the
southern city of Aden, said. Hadi arrived in Aden earlier this week after
fleeting the Houthi-run capital where he was put under house arrest by the
Shiite militants.

In related news, the first Iranian flight landed in Sanaa, a day after
officials from the militia-controlled city signed an aviation agreement with
Tehran, Agence France-Presse reported.

The Mahan Air plane arrived in Sanaa carrying a team from the Iranian Red
Crescent and medical aid, an aviation official told AFP.

Senior Iranian diplomats were on hand to welcome the flight -- the first
between the two countries in many years.

Yemen’s official Saba news agency, which is controlled by the Shiite
militiamen who overran Sanaa in September, said that under the deal Iran
Mahan Air and Yemenia would operate 14 flights each a week.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait have relocate their diplomatic missions to
the southern Yemeni city of Aden.

Western-backed Hadi, who rescinded a resignation he offered last month and
has declared all actions by the Houthis to be illegitimate.

Aden was the capital of an independent south Yemen before the two Yemens
were united in 1990



+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 1 Mar.’15:”Training of Syrian rebels in Turkey in
4-6 weeks:US”,Agence France Presse

SUBJECT:US to train Syria rebels in Turkey

WASHINGTON — The US military has said the training of moderate Syrian rebels
will likely begin within four to six weeks in Turkey after the two NATO
allies clinched an agreement last week.

Potential recruits still needed to be vetted for the training sessions,
Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told a news conference.

About 1,500 Syrian rebels had been identified to take part and of those 100
had been screened and approved, Kirby said.

“I won’t put a date certain on when the training will begin, but our
assessment is that we could be ready sometime within the next four to six
weeks to begin actual training,” Kirby said.

There will be roughly 200 to 300 people in each course as part of a plan to
train about 5,000 over a year, he said.

About 1,000 US troops will be heading to the region to oversee the training
and to provide logistical support, and an advance team of 100 is already on
the ground making final preparations, he said.

“Things are moving in the right direction” but there is a “long way to go,”
Kirby said. “Nobody’s underestimating the challenges here.”

A spokesman for Turkey’s foreign ministry said earlier that the
train-and-equip program for the Syrian opposition fighters would begin on
Sunday. But it was unclear if his comments meant the training courses would
be launched on March 1 or other preliminary steps.

Following months of negotiations, Ankara and Washington signed an agreement
on Feb. 19 to train and arm “moderate” Syrian rebels.

Turkey, an outspoken critic of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, hopes rebel
factions to be trained will battle the regime in Damascus as well as
insurgents from the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group, who have
seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, right up to the Turkish
border.

But Washington has said the fighters it trains will be focused only on the
IS militants initially, with any campaign against the Assad regime to come
at some point in the future.

Turkey’s hesitation to take decisive action against IS militants has led to
friction with the United States.

US intelligence chief James Clapper said on Thursday[26 Feb.] that Turkey
did not place a high priority on fighting IS militants and as a result
foreign fighters had been able to travel through the country into Syria.

Ankara argues it has bolstered border security and that Western governments
should provide Turkey with more intelligence and a full list of suspects to
be monitored. — AFP






+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 1 Mar,15:”US sets out ‘bottom lines’ for Iran deal”,
Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: US ‘bottom line” for Iran deal

WASHINGTON — The United States on Friday[27 Feb.] set out what it called its
“bottom lines” to reach a deal with Iran to rein in its nuclear program,
ahead of new talks next week.

Washington had stuck to its guns that it wanted a “good deal” and had agreed
to several extensions of the negotiations “because we have held firm to
certain bottom lines,” a senior US administration official said. “We will
only accept an agreement that cuts off the different pathways to the fissile
material that Iran needs for a nuclear weapon,” the official stressed.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will leave at the weekend for Switzerland,
where he will meet once again with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad
Zarif.

The pace and intensity of the talks have sped up as global powers gathered
under the P5+1 group have been seeking a deal with Iran to stop it acquiring
a nuclear weapon — something Tehran denies trying to do. A March 31 deadline
for a political framework for the deal is looming with negotiators saying
they will aim to pin down the final technical details by June 30.

While US officials cautioned that there were no guarantees a deal would be
reached, they said “the negotiations have advanced substantially, gaps have
narrowed.”

“When we have an agreement it has to be measured against the alternatives,”
the US administration official said. The lack of an agreement could present
the US with the question of whether or not to use “military force” to halt a
resumed Iranian nuclear program.

Staking out the broad outlines of a deal — without going into specifics —
the US official spelled out where Washington was standing firm:

• Iran should not be allowed to develop weapons-grade plutonium at its Arak
reactor. “We’re discussing how Iran can convert that Arak reactor to serve a
different purpose,” the official said.

• Iran should not use its Fordo nuclear plant to enrich uranium.

• That would leave only Iran’s Natanz plant capable of enriching uranium,
which at high grades can be used in nuclear weapons.

• Any deal must ensure that it would take Iran a year to gather enough
fissile material to make a bomb.

• Iran would “reduce significantly” its current number of operating
centrifuges and its domestic stockpile.

• Iran must agree to unprecedented inspections of both nuclear and
production facilities as well as uranium mines and mills, and suspect sites.

• The US is pursuing a deal in which relief from international sanctions
demanded by Iran “is phased in over a period of time.”

“We are insisting on the principle that sanctions can snap back into place
if Iran were to violate the agreement,” the US official said. — AFP



+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 1 Mar.’15:”First PEGIDA ‘anti-Islamization’ rally
staged in Britian, Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: PEGIDA anti-Islamization movement

QUOTE:German based PEGIDA movement,which opposes what it calls the
‘Islamization’ of Europe… first demonstration on British

FULL TEXT: NEWCASTLE, United Kingdom — The German-based PEGIDA movement,
which opposes what it calls the “Islamization” of Europe, was staging its
first demonstration on British soil on Saturday[28 Feb’].

On Facebook, more than 800 people indicated they would attend the rally in
Newcastle, northeast England.

“It’s about integration. We are not anti-Islam. We are not here to split up
any communities,” PEGIDA’s spokeswoman in Britain Marion Rogers said,
according to the BBC.

“We’ve invited Muslims to join us against extremism, extremism of any kind.
I don’t think it’s wrong to stand up to terrorism. Is that hate?“

The Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West movement drew
up to 25,000 people in German street rallies last month.

PEGIDA-inspired protests have also taken place in Austria and Sweden, though
the small crowds were dwarfed by counter-demonstrations.

A counter-rally is planned for the Newcastle march, with prominent left-wing
firebrand lawmaker George Galloway pledging to attend.

“It is absolutely extraordinary that a German organization sets up in the
UK — it’s not as if there is a lack of right-wing nutter organizations
here,” he said.“They have got to be opposed, wherever they are.”

The English Defense League, a homegrown British group that protested against
the perceived threat from Islamic extremism, held a number of protests
throughout 2013, which often ended in clashes with anti-fascist
demonstrators.

But the group has lost momentum since its leader Tommy Robinson quit in
October that year, saying he could no longer keep “extremist elements” in
the group at bay.

In Newcastle, football fans are also heading to the city as Newcastle United
host Aston Villa in an English Premier League match at their 52,000-capacity
St James’ Park stadium. The rally goes close to the venue.

The local Northumbria Police force said the demonstration should not disrupt
normal activity in the city center.

“The force respects the right to peaceful protest and takes a neutral
standpoint, not supporting or endorsing any groups or individuals,” said
Newcastle Chief Superintendent Laura Young. — AFP




+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 1 Mar.’15:”Kerry says U.S. Wants to Avoid
‘Political Football over Netanyahu Speech”,Agence France Presse

SUBJECT:US re Netanyahu speech

QUOTE:” Israel PM Netanyahu is ‘welcome’ to deliver his US speech. Kerry “

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is "welcome" to deliver his US
speech, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday[1 Mar.’15:”, insisting
that Washington is eager to avoid a "political football" over the
controversial visit.

"The Prime Minister of Israel is welcome to speak in the United States
obviously and we have a closer relationship with Israel right now in terms
of security than in any time in history," Kerry told ABC television's "This
Week" program.

"We don't want to see this turned into some great political football," he
said, just hours before Netanyahu was due to arrive in Washington.

Netanyahu was on his way to the United States on what he has called a
"historic" 48-hour mission to try to stop a nuclear deal with Iran --
including, controversially, his speech Tuesday before a joint session of the
US Congress.

The Israeli leader -- who also this week will address the annual AIPAC
pro-Israel lobby group -- is making the address to Congress to garner
last-minute support to halt a possible world deal with Iran over its nuclear
program.

The move however has infuriated the White House because the speech was set
up by congressional Republicans without the knowledge of the president.

Kerry suggested however, that the breach of protocol at this point is water
under the bridge.

"Obviously, it was odd if not unique that we learned of it from the Speaker
of the House (John Boehner) and that the administration was not included in
the process, but the administration is not seeking to politicize this,"
Kerry said.

"We want to recognize the main goal here is to prevent Iran from getting a
nuclear weapon and on that Israel and the United States agree," the top US
diplomat said.

He added that the two allies "have an unparalleled close security
relationship with Israel and we will continue to."

Netanyahu's trip comes just four weeks before a March 31 target for a Iran
nuclear framework deal, with negotiators intending to pin down the technical
details of a comprehensive agreement by a June 30 deadline.

It also comes just two weeks before a March 17 general election in Israel in
which Netanyahu is hoping to win a third consecutive term in office.

Israel believes Iran and world powers are likely to reach a deal that eases
international sanctions on Tehran without applying sufficiently stringent
safeguards to stop it developing nuclear weapons.

SourceAgence France Presse

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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA