Excerpts: Cheney slams Obama on Iran deal. Iran expansion. King renews
support for Palestinian rights.Jordanians 41%;30% Iran nuclear deal bad
August 31, 2015

+++SOURCE:Al Arabiya News 31 Aug.’15: “Cheney:Iran deal may lead to first
nuke since WWII“ ,by Staff Writer
SUBJECT; Former V.P, Cheney re Obama on Iran deal
QUOTE:”Cheney: nearly everything the President has told us about his Iranian
agreement is false”
FULL TEXT:Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has criticized President
Barack Obama and the nuclear deal with Iran in what has been deemed one of
the harshest statements made by Republican figures following the agreement.

In an op-ed recently published in the Wall Street Journal, an excerpt from
Cheney’s upcoming book “Exceptional: Why the world needs a powerful
America,” the former vice president compares the Iran nuclear deal to the
1938 Munich pact that led to World War II.

“The Obama agreement will lead to a nuclear-armed Iran, a nuclear-arms race
in the Middle East and, more than likely, the first use of a nuclear weapon
since Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” he wrote.

Cheney, who has written the book with his daughter Liz, has accused Obama
not being truthful about the facts surrounding the deal, saying that “nearly
everything the president has told us about his Iranian agreement is false.
He has said it will prevent the Iranians from acquiring nuclear weapons, but
it will actually facilitate and legitimize an Iranian nuclear arsenal.”

Apart from criticizing the deal, both Cheneys also blamed Obama for the rise
of ISIS after he “abandoned Iraq, leaving a vacuum that is being tragically
and ominously filled by our enemies. He is on course to forsake Afghanistan
as well.”

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest rejected Cheney’s criticism at a
press briefing on Friday[28 Aug.], saying that “the same people making the
same arguments against the Iran deal were the people who advocated for
getting us into the war of Iraq in 2002 and 2003

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 31 Aug.’15:”Fighting Houthis to stop Iran
expansion:Hadi”, by Agencies
SUBJECT:Iran expansion
QUOTE:Yemen’s President…has said that his forces were battling Shiite Houthi
rebels across the country to check ‘Iranian expansion’ in the region”
FULL TEXT:Khartoum — Yemen’s President Abdrabbu Mansur Hadi has said that
his forces were battling Shiite Houthi rebels across the country to check
“Iranian expansion” in the region.

Hadi was speaking as he made a short visit to Sudan, which joined a
Saudi-led coalition against the Yemeni rebels in April.

“We are currently leading a war based on stopping Iranian expansion in the
region,” Hadi said at a press conference with his Sudanese counterpart Omar
Al-Bashir.

“Iranian expansion is present now in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,” Hadi said. His
comments came as coalition warplanes launched strikes against the
Iranian-backed rebel positions in Yemen and reinforcements reached
pro-government troops preparing for an anticipated push towards the capital
Sanaa, military sources reported.

Hadi said rebel forces had been pushed back in recent weeks. “Now there are
few provinces where battles are still going on. There is fighting in Taiz,
and Ibb and Hodeida and Marib,” he said.

Last September, Sudan shut Iran’s cultural center in Khartoum and joined the
coalition against the Houthis in March.

With air support from their coalition allies and freshly trained troops,
supporters of Hadi had pushed the rebels from the second city of Aden and
four other southern provinces and are fighting to control the third city of
Taiz.

In March, Houthi rebels and troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah
Saleh advanced on Aden. At the press conference, Bashir also promised to
give assistance to Yemenis studying in the capital and that Sudanese doctors
were in Aden treating civilians wounded in the conflict. — Agencies



+++SOURCE:Jordan Times 31 Aug.’15: “King meets Abbas,renews support for
Palestinian rights”, by Jordan Times
SUBJECT:King renews support for Palestinian rights
FULL TEXT:AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Sunday[30 Aug] met with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over process in efforts to revive Middle
East peace negotiations, according to a Royal Court statement.

During the meeting at the Royal Court, His Majesty said Jordan would
continue exerting all possible efforts in coordination with regional and
international stakeholders to remove obstacles facing the relaunch of peace
negotiations.

He said Jordan will do its utmost to support Palestinians and help them
achieve national unity and solidarity.

In regard to the situation in Jerusalem, His Majesty renewed Jordan's
condemnation of Israeli policies and measures and the frequent violations
against the city's holy sites.

He said the Kingdom would continue its role in protecting Islamic and
Christian shrines to preserve Jerusalem's Arab identity.

For his part, Abbas briefed King Abdullah on the results of his meetings
with regional and world leaders with whom he has discussed endeavors to
revive peace negotiations and achieve the Palestinians' vision of
establishing their independent state.

The Palestinian president commended Jordan’s efforts in supporting
Palestinians.

The meeting was attended by Royal Court Chief Fayez Tarawneh, Deputy Prime
Minister and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, King’s National Security Adviser
and General Intelligence Department Director Gen. Faisal Shobaki, King’s
Office Director Jafar Hassan and the delegates accompanying Abbas.

In a statement to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, after the meeting, Abbas
said that meeting King Abdullah is part of continuous communication and
coordination to discuss Arab, regional and international causes, especially
after His Majesty’s visit to

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 31 Aug.’15:”Majority of Jordanians believe Iran key
beneficiary of nuclear deal with West –poll”, by Jordan Times

SUBJECT: Jordan re Iran nuclear deal

QUOTE: The majority of Jordanians see Iran as the number 1 beneficiary of
the deal”

FULL TEXT:AMMAN — The majority of Jordanians see Iran as the number one
beneficiary of the deal it has reached with the P5+1 group over its nuclear
programme, according to a survey by the University of Jordan's Centre for
Strategic Studies (CSS).

Forty-six per cent of the respondents believed that Iran has benefited the
most from the nuclear deal with the world powers while 25 per cent and 18
per cent believed that the US and Israel were the top beneficiaries from the
agreement, respectively, the poll revealed.

The survey was conducted between August 5 and 11 on 900 males and 900
females picked randomly from 150 areas across the Kingdom, the CSS said.

According to the pollsters, the survey was aimed to measure awareness of
Jordanians about the Iran nuclear deal in terms of who benefited the most
and the impact of this agreement on the regional conflicts in Syria, Iraq
and Yemen.

As stated in the poll’s report, a copy of which was made available to The
Jordan Times, 39 per cent of the respondents supported the agreement and 22
per cent opposed it, while 25 per cent of them lacked knowledge to support
or oppose this agreement.

Forty-one per cent of the interviewees believed that the agreement would
have a negative impact on the Kingdom while 29 per cent believed otherwise,
according to the poll.

For 30 per cent of the respondents, the signing of the agreement would help
alleviate Tehran's threat to the region compared with 15 per cent who
believed that the nuclear agreement would not ease the Iranian danger.



On the impact of the deal on the region's turmoil, 26 per cent believed that
the Iran nuclear agreement with the P5+1 group would lead to aggravating the
conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen while 20 per cent of the respondents
expressed hope that the deal would have a positive impact on settling the
region's conflicts.

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