Excerpts: Iran nuclear talks extended past 30 June. Russia-Saudi
relationship. New Egypt Soap Opera on Jews.Kuwait Mosque bomber Saudi
national. Kurds force Daesh from Syria border town June 28, 2015

+++Source:AlArabiya News 28 June ’15:”Iran Nuclear Talks Deadline Extended
Past June 30”, Staff Writer

SUBJECT:Iran nuclear talks extended past 30 June

The Iran nuclear deal deadline has been extended past June 30, the Iranian
foreign ministry said on Sunday as the Islamic republic joined world powers
in Vienna this week for a fresh round of nuclear talks.

“Because there is still lots of work to do the delegations will remain
beyond... (July 1) to continue the negotiations and reach a good overall
deal,” a spokesman for the Iranian delegation in Vienna said.

Earlier on Sunday[28 June], Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will return to Tehran for one day to
consult with the country’s leadership over the ongoing nuclear talks with
major powers, according to Reuters news agency.

“Zarif will return to Tehran tonight and will come back to Vienna tomorrow,”
Tasnim said, citing an unnamed Iranian official.

Iran’s IRNA and ISNA news agencies said that “after a one-day stay in
Tehran,” Zarif would return to Vienna but “in case more time is needed to
work on the text of the agreement negotiations can continue after the June
30 deadline.”

The Iranian statement comes after British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond
said on Sunday[28 June] there were still major differences between the
powers and Iran and there would need to be concessions to reach an
agreement.

“There a number of different areas where we still have major differences of
interpretation in detailing what was agreed in (the) Lausanne (framework
agreement),” Hammond told reporters on arrival in Vienna. He was referring
to a framework deal agreed on April 2.

“There is going to have to be some give or take if we are to get this done
in the next few days,” he said, adding that there were red lines that could
not be crossed. “No deal is better than a bad deal.”

The main differences are on the pace and timing of sanctions relief for Iran
in return for its steps to restrain its nuclear program and on the nature of
monitoring mechanisms to ensure Tehran does not cheat on any agreement.

U.S. and European negotiators also want to ensure there is a mechanism for
restoring U.S., European Union and United Nations sanctions if Tehran fails
to meet its commitments under any future accord aimed at ending a 12-year
nuclear standoff between Iran and the West.

The United States, Israel and some Western states fear that Iran has been
trying to develop a nuclear weapons capability but Tehran says its program
is for peaceful purposes only.

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 28 June ’15:”Kingdom,Russia vie for global oil
market foothold”, by Sayed Rashid Husain

SUBJECT: Russia –Saudi Arabia relationship

QUOTE:”But while Russia and Saudi Arabia seem to be expanding their
relationship an interesting scenario seems to be emerging too. They continue
to compete rather fiercely in global crude markets, already faced with glut,
The battle for market share is very much on”

FULL TEXT:In the rapidly changing geopolitical environment, Saudi Arabia and
Russia are forging ahead - fostering a closer relationship - in major
sectors including the all important energy sector.

When the Saudi Deputy Crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, accompanied not only
by the Foreign Minister Adel bin Jubeir but also the Petroleum Minister Ali
Al-Naimi called on Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on
June 18, six major deals were signed between the world’s two top crude
producers.

The deals ranged from agreement in defense sector to enhanced cooperation in
energy development. It also covered greater cooperation on nuclear energy
development. Citing unnamed sources, Al-Arabiya reported the kingdom planned
to build 16 nuclear reactors and Russia has agreed to play a significant
role in operating them. The Saudi atomic and renewable energy body has
already signed nuclear cooperation deals with countries able to build
reactors, including the United States, France, Russia, South Korea, China
and Argentina.

Interestingly during the visit, the two sides, who otherwise seem competing,
rather intensely these days, for crude market share also announced forming a
working group for joint energy projects. “At the end of the year, in
October, we will summon a meeting of the (Russian and Saudi)
intergovernmental commission, which hasn’t operated for five years,” Russia’s
Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak said in St Petersburg. “There are no
specific projects in the energy field yet, we only have an agreement to
create a working group between our ministry and the Saudi Arabian oil
ministry, which, together our companies will work on specific projects,” the
energy minister told reporters. He further clarified that his country
(through the deal with Saudi Arabia) was not looking to replace its existing
oil and gas partners but wanted to create newer ones.

Given that US and EU sanctions limit the transfer of new oil and gas
technology to Russian state oil firms, reports indicate that Russia could be
seeking enhanced oil and gas recovery and advanced drilling technology from
Saudi Arabia, especially for use in the older fields in West Siberia. With a
growing list of global research centers in Beijing, Houston, Aberdeen,
Massachusetts and others, Saudi Aramco is today regarded as the biggest
global investor in new oil and gas technologies.

But while Saudi Arabia and Russia seem to be expanding their relationship,
an interesting scenario seems emerging too. They continue to compete, rather
fiercely, in global crude markets, already faced with glut. The battle for
market share is very much on.

In May, Russia’s oil output reached a record 10.78 million barrels a day,
pretty close to the Soviet era production of 1987. This was significantly up
from May last year, when Russian production stood at 10.08 million bpd. The
record crude oil output from Russia is certain to continue putting pressure
on the global crude oil markets. In near term too, Russia does not appear to
be considering any output cut.

And the world's leading crude exporter, Saudi Arabia's output is also in top
gear. As per OPEC statistics, Saudi output went up by 697,000 bpd between
February and May this year, rising to 10.3 million bpd in May 2015 as
against 9.69 million bpd a year earlier.

And there are indications this could go up further.

Al-Naimi said in St. Petersburg the country has about one and a half million
to two million bpd of spare capacity, and is ready to raise production if
demand calls for such an action. Goldman Sachs and Citi Group are also now
projecting that Riyadh will likely start to push production to 11 million
bpd in the second half of 2015.

“If you are Saudi Arabia and you’re looking at the new oil order we live in,
you would go to full capacity,” Jeff Currie, head of commodities research at
Goldman Sachs in New York, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

And the competition between the two is beginning to get brutal too. With the
world's largest consumer, the United States, now depending more and more on
its domestic output, the focus of major crude producers is on emerging Asia,
especially China - already in the process of overtaking the US as the world’s
biggest importer of crude.

From Moscow to Riyadh and Tehran to Baghdad, all major stakeholders seem to
be concentrating on Beijing to ensure a healthy pie of the Chinese cake. And
in race to grab a significant share in the Chinese crude market, at least
for the time being, Moscow seems to have pipped Riyadh too.

In May, China imported a record 3.92 million metric tons from Russia,
Bloomberg reported quoting data from the Beijing-based General
Administration of Customs. That’s equivalent to 927,000 barrels a day, a 20
percent increase from the previous month. “By our records, which started in
2007, this is the first time Russia is China’s top crude supplier,”
Financial Times quoted Amrita Sen, head of oil research at Energy Aspects in
London, as saying.

Russian exports to China have more than doubled since 2010. And a number of
reasons are also being cited for this upsurge in Russian crude exports to
China. As Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis started to bite, Moscow
has had to seek alternative markets. It has been, understandably, keen to
strengthen ties with Beijing, analysts are underlining all around.

A number of other factors too seem to be aiding Moscow in its bid to expand
it crude sales to China - at the expense of Saudi Arabia and others.
Moscow's decision to accept the proceeds from oil sales in Chinese currency
yuan seems to have helped significantly in the rise in exports to Beijing.
Further, in 2013, Russia’s largest oil producer, Rosneft, signed an $85bn
deal with China’s Sinopec to deliver 100m tons of crude over 10 years. And
then Rosneft also struck a 25-year contract, worth $270 billion, with
Chinese state-owned oil company CNPC for the delivery of 365 million tons of
oil.

The upsurge from Russia was apparently at the expense of Riyadh. Consequent
to the development, Saudi crude exports to China, slumped by 42 percent last
month from April, to 3.05 million tons - 722,000 bpd.

However, despite the intense media debate on the issue, one could not defer
underlining that last months' figure may not be truly representative of the
market undercurrents. With brute summer around and the Saudi domestic
consumption on the rise, crude exports could get compromised during the
months. Less export to China may also be a manifestation of that. In April
Saudi Arabia’s crude exports fell by 161,000 bpd, to 7.737million bpd from
7.898 million in March as domestic refiners processed more crude, official
data confirmed. Domestic refiners processed 2.224 million bpd, up 315,000
bpd from 1.909 million bpd in March, Joint Organizations Data Initiative
(JODI) figures showed. The country burnt 358,000 bpd in April versus 351,000
bpd in March.

Before reaching a conclusion on the Chinese market, one needs to wait for a
few more months. Yet the fact remains that despite growing cooperation,
Russia and Saudi Arabia also continue to fiercely compete in the global
crude markets.

And that is the dichotomy of this otherwise budding relationship


+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 28 June ’15:”Soap Opera Shines Posotive Light
on Egypt’s Jews”., Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: New Egypt Soap Opera on Jews

QUOTE:”the series showed ‘a positive image of the Jew who is no longer a
bastard’ “

FULL TEXT:With scenes of religious coexistence and vintage elegance in a
more cosmopolitan era, an Egyptian soap opera aims to dispel prejudice
towards the country's long-vilified and nearly extinct Jewish community.

"The Jewish Quarter" shows life inside Cairo's Haret al-Yahud district
during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, depicting an almost idyllic portrait of a
society where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived side by side.

"I wanted to present this cosmopolitanism bringing together all religions"
and to "show how Egypt used to be, and how it is today," said screenwriter
Medhat al-Adl.

He said he wanted "to break the taboo and prejudice" by presenting "normal
Jewish characters," in contrast to the derogatory representation of Jews in
recent decades in movies and television shows.

The series initially won praise from Israel whose embassy in Cairo said it
was pleased to see "for the first time, Jews represented according to their
true nature, as human beings".

The show is openly anti-Zionist, however, and the Israeli embassy later
criticised what it described as a "negative turning point" in the series and
"attacks against the state of Israel".

The soap is being aired during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan,
considered television peak season in Egypt.

More than 80,000 Jews lived in Egypt before the creation of the state of
Israel in 1948 marked the start of an exodus.

Today only a few dozen, mostly elderly women, remain in Cairo and
Alexandria.

With the many wars waged between Egypt and the Jewish state and the
anti-Semitism they generated, Jews were either expelled or pressured to
leave the Arab world's most populous country.

- A different era - The plot revolves around the love story of Aly, a Muslim
officer in the Egyptian army fighting in the 1948 war, and his Jewish
neighbour Leila, an elegant francophone saleswoman working in one of Cairo's
upscale department stores, which were owned by influential Jewish
businessmen.It stars Jordanian actor Eyad Nassar and Egyptian actress Menna
Shalabi.

"We discover Egypt at a different time," said Rana Khalil, 23, an
enthusiastic viewer of the series, sitting in a posh Cairo cafe.

"The characters are elegant and well-dressed. I am also learning a lot about
Judaism," she added.

The show highlights the political upheavals that shook the flourishing
Jewish community, particularly bombings targeting Jewish businesses which it
blames on the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Islamist movement has been the target of a sweeping crackdown since
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief who has since become president, ousted
Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

One scene shows Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna encouraging supporters
to stage attacks, saying: "The war is not only in Palestine. Jihad here is
no less important than it is there".

Sisi has pursued closer ties with Israel than Morsi, who had promised a
tougher stance towards its neighbour without calling into question peace
agreements.



- Fact or fiction? -The television series has however faced criticism from
Egyptian Jews.

Magda Haroun, the chief of Egypt's tiny remaining Jewish community, pointed
out historical errors including religious practices presented in the series.

She also denied that Egyptian communists supported Zionism as the show
suggested.

Albert Arie, 85, was also disappointed.

The Jewish former communist activist, who converted to Islam to marry his
Muslim wife, had taken part in a campaign against cholera in the Jewish
quarter back in 1947.

He explained that unlike the characters in the series, residents of the
district "were among the poorest Jews in the world".

"I asked myself: 'What is this crap?'" Arie said, speaking in French, and
suggested that the show would have been more credible if it had been shot in
one of the Cairo neighbourhoods inhabited by middle class Jews.

"The set makes no sense. It shows rich houses while Haret al-Yahud was a
jumble of alleys, with old houses and houses that collapsed," recalled Arie,
who was jailed for 11 years for his activism.

Despite the inaccuracies, however, he acknowledged the fact that the series
showed "a positive image of the Jew, who is no longer a bastard".

SourceAgence France Presse



+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 28 June ’15:”KuwaitMosque Bomber was Saudi
National” .Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Kuwait Mosque bomber Saudi national

QUOTE:”attack aimed to stir up sectarian strife in the emirate”

EXCERPTS:Kuwait on Sunday[28 June] identified the suicide bomber behind an
attack on a Shiite mosque as a Saudi national, after a series of arrests in
connection with the blast that left 26 dead.

Friday's attack also wounded 227 worshippers in the first bombing of a
mosque in the tiny Gulf state, and Kuwait's security services have vowed to
catch and punish those responsible.

The Islamic State group's Saudi affiliate, the so-called Najd Province,
claimed the bombing and identified the assailant as Abu Suleiman
al-Muwahhid.

Kuwait's interior ministry gave the real name of the attacker as Fahd
Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Qaba'a, in a statement carried by the official KUNA
news agency.

It said that he entered the country through Kuwait Airport at dawn on
Friday[26 June], the same day of the bombing.

Kuwait has also detained the owner of the house where the bomber was
staying. He was described by the interior ministry as a Kuwaiti national who
subscribes to "extremist and deviant ideology"…………………

"Illegal resident" is the official term used in Kuwait to describe stateless
people, locally known as bidoons, who number around 110,000 and claim the
right to Kuwaiti citizenship…………….

Local media said 18 of those killed were Kuwaitis, three Iranians, two
Indians, one each from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and one bidoon.

"This crowd is the proof that the objectives of the criminal act have
failed," parliament speaker Marzouk al-Ghanem told reporters.

……………………………..

- 'They cannot divide us' - ………."We want to deliver a message to Daesh (an
Arabic acronym for IS) that we are united brothers among the Sunnis and
Shiites, and they cannot divide us," said Abdulfatah al-Mutawwia, a Kuwaiti
living in Iraq who lost his brother in the bombing.

Tens of thousands of people headed by the emir offered condolences late
Saturday[27 June] to relatives of victims at Kuwait's Grand Mosque, the
largest place of worship for Sunni Muslims, in a show of solidarity.

The cabinet announced after an emergency meeting on Friday that all security
agencies and police had been put on alert to confront what it called "black
terror".

Justice and Islamic Affairs Minister Yacoub al-Sane said additional security
measures will be taken around mosques and places of worship.

The emir, government, parliamentary and political groups and clerics have
all said Friday'[26] June attack aimed to stir up sectarian strife in the
emirate.

The radical Sunni IS considers Shiites, which comprise a third of Kuwait's
1.3 million native population, to be heretics. ……………………

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 28 June:”Kurds oust Daesh from Syria’s Kobani as
civilian toll mounts”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:Kurds force Daesh from Syria border town

QUOTE:” ‘Daesh doesn’t want to take over the town. They just came to kill
the highest number of civilians in the ugliest way possible’ “

FULL TEXT:BEIRUT — Kurdish forces drove Daesh fighters from the flashpoint
Syrian border town of Kobani on Saturday[27 June], after a killing spree by
the militants left more than 200 civilians dead.

Forces of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) stormed IS' last
remaining position, taking full control of Kobani, a powerful symbol of
Kurdish resistance.

As they combed the streets for fugitive jihadists, the Kurds found more
bodies, taking the civilian death toll to 206, the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said.

Local journalist Rudi Mohammad Amin told AFP that more civilians were still
unaccounted for.The jihadists made their last stand in a boys' high
school."The YPG detonated explosives outside of the school, then stormed
it," Amin said, speaking via the Internet from near Kobani on the border
with Turkey."This military operation was carried out after ensuring that
there were no civilians left in the school."Amin said he believed all the
Daesh militants inside were killed.

The jihadists had entered Kobani at dawn on Thursday[25 June] disguised in
YPG uniforms and seized several buildings in the town's south and
southwest.The YPG quickly surrounded the jihadist positions, but it took two
days to re-establish control.Some civilians were killed in the streets by
rocket or sniper fire, and others were executed in their homes.

'Entire families killed' Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the
bodies found on Saturday[27 June] bore bullet marks and appeared to include
entire families."The bodies were found littered in homes and in the streets,
lying here and there," he said.The toll included at least 180 civilians
killed in Kobani itself, and another 26 executed in a nearby village.At
least 300 people were wounded.

The Daesh operation was widely seen as vengeance for a series of defeats at
the hands of Kurdish militia, particularly the jihadists’ loss of Tal Abyad,
another border town further east, on June 16.“IS [Daesh] doesn’t want to
take over the town. They just came to kill the highest number of civilians
in the ugliest ways possible,” local journalist Mostafa Ali told AFP on
Friday[36 June].A total of 16 Kurdish fighters and 54 jihadists were also
killed.The observatory chief said that Daesh had achieved its objective.ou
cannot call this last operation a real defeat for Daesh, because it did what
it wanted to in Kobani,” Abdel Rahman said.

In January, Kurdish forces backed by rebel groups and US-led air strikes
pushed Daesh out of Kobani after four months of fierce fighting in a hugely
symbolic defeat for the jihadists.

Further east, government forces launched a counter-attack Saturday[27 June]
against Daesh in the provincial capital of Hasakeh, on the third day of
intense clashes.

Hasakeh civilians flee According to the UN, at least 120,000 people have
been displaced by the fighting in the city, which had a pre-war population
of 300,000.The fighting largely took place in the southern Hasakeh, where
Daesh seized two neighbourhoods on Thursday[25 June]The UN estimated that
“90,000 people have been displaced, many pre-emptively, to the eastern and
northern neighbourhoods of the city... as well as to nearby villages”d
another 30,000 people had fled further north and northeast to other cities
and towns in Hasakeh province.

The Observatory said government reinforcements from further south in Deir
Ezzor, including Republican Guard units, had arrived.Kurdish units, who
share control of the city with government forces, joined the fighting late
on Frida[26 June]y and banned civilians from the streets.

Daesh also tried to seize Hasakeh last month, but was pushed back by
government forces.

On Friday[26 June], Information Minister Omran Zohbi called on “anyone who
is capable of carrying a gun” to join the fight against Daesh in Hasakeh.

“Protecting the city of Hasakeh from the terrorist takfiri [extremist Sunni]
attacks is a duty shared among all the sons of the city,” Zohbi said.

In the southern city of Daraa, fighting continued between government forces
and rebel groups including Syrian Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front. Since
Thursday, 60 rebels, 18 government loyalists and 11 civilians have been
killed in the fighting.

=================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA