Excerpts: US airstrikes continue in Tikrit. Obama 'substantive' dispute with
Netanyahu 25 March 2015

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 25 March ’15:”Iraq expects U.S. air strikes
against ISIS in Tikrit”, Reuters and Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:US airstrikes expected in Tikrit

QUOTE:”Washington is moving toward greater indirect cooperation with Iran:

FULL TEXT:Iraq’s President Fouad Massoum said on Wednesday[25 March] that
the U.S.-led coalition is expected to carry out air strikes soon against
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group in the Sunni city of Tikrit,
after starting aerial reconnaissance flights this week.

“Since yesterday, aerial support and reconnaissance flights started in
Tikrit. They first begin with reconnaissance missions; then they compile the
aerial reports; and afterwards the aerial(strike) operations start,” Massoum
told Reuters at the presidential palace in Baghdad.

Before Massoum’s announcement, U.S. officials said on Tuesday[24 Mar.] that
Washington is considering launching air strikes and could do so within days
to back up Iraqi and Shiite forces battling to recapture Tikrit from ISIS.
Top officials were weighing the move after the bid to retake Tikrit, the
hometown of late-strongman Saddam Hussein, lost momentum in recent days.
The U.S.-led coalition has pounded ISIS with bombing raids in northern and
western Iraq but has not taken part in the Tikrit operation, in which Iran
has played a prominent role.
Possible air strikes near Tikrit are “being discussed at a high level” and
could be days or weeks away, a U.S. official told AFP.
The delicate diplomatic and military aspects of such an option are still
being worked out, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

In a shift, the coalition as of March 21 began providing intelligence from
surveillance flights for the Tikrit assault, a senior coalition military
official said earlier in Baghdad.
U.S. officials in Washington confirmed the account of “an eye in the sky”
for the Iraqi troops and Iranian-backed Shiite militia.
President Barack Obama’s administration has insisted it does not coordinate
military operations directly with Iran.

But the surveillance flights and discussions on possible U.S. air raids in
Tikrit illustrate how Washington is moving towards greater indirect
collaboration with Tehran, despite the intense distrust between the two
arch-foes.

Obama’s deputies have said the military effort against the ISIS is
coordinated through the Iraqi government, which works closely with both Iran
and the United States.

Iraqi Army Staff Lieutenant General Abdulwahab al-Saadi, a top commander in
Salaheddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital, told AFP on March 15
that coalition air support was needed there and that he had requested that
the Iraqi defense minister ask for it.

The Pentagon said Tuesday it had not yet received a request from Baghdad for
air power around Tikrit.

“If the Iraqis formally request US assistance, we would take a look at
that,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters.

Nothing was being “ruled in or out,” he said.

Warren acknowledged that the Iraqi offensive on Tikrit had “stalled” even
though ISIS militants were outnumbered and outgunned.

“The Tikrit operation frankly has not moved forward recently,” he said.

The difficulties of waging war in an urban setting was the main factor
hampering the operation, he added.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, has
said it is only a matter of time before ISIS is forced out of Tikrit, which
is north of Baghdad.

The operation to take back Tikrit, which involves thousands of Iraqi
soldiers, police and Shiite fighters, began on March 2.

Last Update: Wednesday, KSA 12:57 - GMT



+++SOURCE:Naharnet (Lebanon)25 March ’15:”Obama Sys has ‘Substantive’Dispute
with Israeli PM”, Agence France Presse

SUBJECT:Obama says ‘substantive’dispute with Netanyahu

QUOTE:”sour grapes from a U.S. administration would liked to have seen
Netanyahu’s coaltion fall.”

U.S. President Barack Obama insisted Tuesday[24 Mar.] that his disagreement
with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu represents a substantial
policy difference and not a personal vendetta.As the Israeli premier works
to build a new coalition government at home, he faces one of the worst
confrontations in his stormy relationship with the White House.He has tried
to play down declarations he made during his recent victorious election
campaign in which he ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state and
stigmatized Arab voters.But Obama has not let him off the hook and, after
White House leaks accused Israel of spying on U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, he
insisted the allies have more tough talking ahead."The issue is a very
clear, substantive challenge," Obama told reporters at a joint White House
news conference with Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani."We believe that
two states is the best path forward for Israel's security, for Palestinian
aspirations and for regional stability. "That's our view and that continues
to be our view. And Prime Minister Netanyahu has a different approach."

Obama denied it was a matter of personal animosity between himself and
Netanyahu, describing their notoriously cold relations as "business
like."But he said the United States still backs the creation of a
Palestinian state alongside Israel, and that he would take the issue up with
Netanyahu's government once it is formed."This is a matter of figuring out
how we get through a knotty policy difference that has great consequences
for both countries and the region," he said.

Since Netanyahu's party won Israel's March 17 election, not a day has passed
without a U.S. comment -- official or otherwise -- on the implications of
his hardline rhetoric.During campaigning he said he would block a
Palestinian state and on polling day raised the specter of an Israeli Arab
rush to the polls to drum up right-wing votes.Although Netanyahu has since
tried to back-track -- denying he reneged on the idea of a two-state
solution and apologizing for giving offense -- the damage has been done.

In addition to Obama's stern reminder, U.S. officials have been feeding
criticism of Israel's tactics to the American media.

- 'Unprecedented' hostility - :In the latest headline, The Wall Street
Journal reported U.S. officials accusing Israel of spying on nuclear
negotiations with Iran with the aim of thwarting an Obama foreign policy
priority.

"It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other. It is another
thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S.
legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy," a senior official told the
paper.Current and former U.S. officials quoted in the report said they
believed Israel had passed on the information to U.S. lawmakers in a bid to
undermine support for the emerging deal. In a sign of jitters in Israel --
used to unquestioned close ties to its senior ally -- Israeli officials
rushed to deny the report, which caused little fuss in Washington, where
Israeli espionage is accepted as a given.

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman flatly denounced the report as
"incorrect and inaccurate."

And Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said: "We categorically deny these
allegations. Israel does not spy on the United States, period."

Jonathan Rynhold, an expert on US-Israel relations at Bar Ilan University,
called the level of mutual animosity "unprecedented."

"I don't think we've ever had as bad a relationship between a president and
a prime minister, and of course that has policy consequences -- will the US
always use its veto for Israel?," he told AFP.

Last week, the White House said it may withdraw crucial diplomatic cover for
Israel at the UN Security Council as part of a policy re-evaluation.

The United States has traditionally used its veto to block UN resolutions
seen as unfairly anti-Israeli, such as those condemning its security tactics
on occupied Palestinian land.A withdrawal of US cover could prove tricky for
Israel, especially if the Palestinians resubmit once again a resolution
setting an end date for the Israeli occupation.

- Destabilizing democracy? - Netanyahu angered the Obama administration this
month, breaking diplomatic protocol to address the U.S. Congress in a bid to
scupper the White House-backed nuclear deal with Iran.Then his
electioneering comments only added fuel to the fire, putting Netanyahu
firmly in the way of a decades-old U.S. policy by placing Israel in open
opposition to a two-state deal.

During the vote, Netanyahu attempted to mobilize support by saying: "The
rule of the right wing is in danger: Arab voters are going to the polls in
droves."This was widely seen as a racially divisive tactic and was roundly
condemned by U.S. officials, forcing Netanyahu into a partial climbdown --
he apologized for any offense caused.

Some in Israel, however, see the accusations and criticism coming from
Washington as sour grapes from a U.S. administration who would like to have
seen Netanyahu's coalition fall.
===========
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA