LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
December 07/15

Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins05/english.december07.15.htm 

Bible Quotations For Today

John's father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy: ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 01/67-80: "John's father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy: ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty saviour for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel."

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people
Letter to the Romans 09/01-05: "I am speaking the truth in Christ I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen."

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on December 06-07/15
Has Iran offered Assad asylum/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/Decemver 07/15
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the ‘shield of the Gulf’/Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor/Al Arabiya/Decemver 07/15
Amid war on ISIS, don’t overlook need to oust Assad/Brooklyn Middleton/Al Arabiya/Decemver 07/15
Muslim Reform Movement/by M. Zuhdi Jasser and Raheel Raza et al/Gatestone Institute/December 07/15
In rare Oval Office address, Obama warns of terrorism succeeding/Agencies/J.Post/December 07/15

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin for Lebanese Related News published on December 06-07/15
Rahi: Initiative Must be Taken Seriously
Report: Stances Rejecting Franjieh's Nomination Delay Hariri's Return
Report: Grand Serail Meeting for Final Touch on Exporting Trash
Al-Rahi Begins Pastoral Visit to Syria's Tartus
Qaouq Says Hizbullah Won't Tolerate Presence of 'Takfiri Bastions' in Arsal Area
Zahra Says LF Prefers Aoun over Franjieh
Qazzi Congratulates Hizbullah on 'Loyalty to Aoun', Urges 'New Candidate' if Franjieh Rejected
Gunmen Rob a Syrian, Injure a Policeman in a Car Chase
Report: Geagea Mulling Possibility of Nominating Aoun, Rejects a Telephone Call from Hariri

Titles For Latest LCCC Bulletin For Miscellaneous Reports And News published on December 06-07/15
French Far Right Sees Record Score in First Poll since Attacks
Police Probe 'Terrorist' London Tube Stabbings
Ban Ki-moon Pays Tribute at Paris Attack Sites
Arab Attacker Shot Dead after Jerusalem Attacks
Turkey to halt transfers of troops to north Iraq
Iraq Gives Turkish Forces 48 Hours to Leave Country
Gadhafi Son in Libya Court over Murder, Repression
Assad Says Britain's Syria Strikes 'Illegal', Will only Encourage Terror
Khamenei advisor: Assad’s fate a ‘red line’ for Iran
Syria's Divided Opposition Seeks to Unify Stance
Egypt to Pay Israel $1.76 Billion after Halting Gas Supplies
ISIS claims killing of Aden governor in Yemen
Agreement Reached on Political Solution to Libya Conflict
Is Trudeau’s new Foreign Minister Secretary a Hamas backer?

Links From Jihad Watch Site for December 06-07/15
Cruz: “If you wage jihad against us you’re signing your death warrant”
Obama: We can’t let “this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam”

Rahi: Initiative Must be Taken Seriously
Naharnet/December 07/15/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged the political factions on Sunday to come together and to “seriously” take into consideration the new initiative aiming at ending the presidential vacuum. “We reiterate the call on all political blocs to converge and study seriously the initiative, and to hold talks in order to elect a president,” said al-Rahi during Sunday mass. “The country can no more tolerate the obstruction in the work of constitutional institutions. The state is facing the threat of collapse at the economic, monetary, social and security levels,” he added. “Today, after a year and seven months, the political and parliamentary blocs have failed so far to carry out their national duty and elect a president with an internal decision. Today a serious initiative from abroad is at hand,” he stressed. Rahi's comments come amid a flurry of political talks in the country that followed a Paris meeting between Franjieh and al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri. The meeting sparked intense speculation that the two leaders agreed to the nomination of the Marada chief for the presidency. There are however voices of dissent among the Kataeb Party, Lebanese Forces, and Change and Reform bloc over the nomination of Franjieh. LF leader Samir Geagea is the March 14 camp's presidential candidate, while Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun is the March 8 alliance's current candidate. Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor. Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a compromise candidate have thwarted the polls.

Report: Stances Rejecting Franjieh's Nomination Delay Hariri's Return
Naharnet/December 07/15/Head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri was expected to return to Lebanon to follow up on the presidential developments but the step could be delayed, al-Mustaqbal daily reported on Sunday. Hariri was expected to make a return to Lebanon, either on Tuesday or Wednesday, to follow up on the political settlement that could see Marada leader MP Suleiman Franjieh officially nominated for the top state post, the daily added. However, the stances of Christian parties rejecting the nomination of Franjieh have pushed Hariri to delay the visit, said the daily. The Marada chief has emerged as a potential presidential candidate as part of a greater settlement aimed at ending the political deadlock in Lebanon. There are however voices of dissent among the Kataeb Party, Lebanese Forces, and Change and Reform bloc over the nomination of Franjieh.
Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014 when the term of Michel Suleiman ended without the election of a successor. Ongoing disputes between the rival March 8 and 14 camps over a compromise candidate have thwarted the polls.
Hariri had last paid a visit to Beirut in February to mark the tenth anniversary of his father's assassination.

Report: Grand Serail Meeting for Final Touch on Exporting Trash
Naharnet/December 07/15/Awaiting a decision to export Lebanon's accumulating trash, efforts to solve the waste management crisis will kick off at the Grand Serail on Sunday and the final preparations to export the waste are expected to be made, al-Mustaqbal daily reported. “Political circles at the Grand Serail are mobilized to complete the preparations that allow exporting the trash, awaiting an official decision that could emerge in the few coming days to that end,” sources following up closely on the file told the daily. The sources pointed that a meeting will be held at the Grand Serail and will be chaired by Prime Minister Tammam Salam in the presence of the ministerial committee tasked with studying the waste management crisis and the consortiums that offered bids to export the waste. The meeting will pursue the technical and administrative aspects and the completion of the necessary infrastructure in Lebanon to start the export, the added on condition of anonymity. Salam will call for a cabinet session in light of the progress made in order to take the exportation decision . Lebanon has been suffering from a trash disposal crisis since July with the closure of the Naameh landfill. Politicians have failed to find an alternative to the landfill, resulting in the pile up of garbage on the streets of the country. In November, Lebanon kicked off negotiations with four European companies to export the garbage. The export will take place over an 18-month period.

Al-Rahi Begins Pastoral Visit to Syria's Tartus
Naharnet/December 07/15/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi began a pastoral visit Sunday to the coastal Syrian city of Tartus, one of the bastions of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. In addition to the pastoral activities, the patriarch will take part there in an enthronement ceremony for the new archbishop of the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, LBCI television said. This is not al-Rahi's first wartime visit to the neighboring country. In June, the patriarch visited the capital Damascus to attend an inter-Christian summit at the Mariamite Cathedral of Damascus. The meeting was hosted by Greek Orthodox leader Youhanna X Yazigi. Al-Rahi had first visited Syria as patriarch in 2013 to take part in Yazigi's enthronement, a trip that sparked controversy in Lebanon and was criticized by the Syrian regime's opponents. It was the first visit to Syria by a Maronite patriarch since Lebanon's independence in 1943, after the one that was carried out by the late Patriarch Antoun Arida during the French mandate.

Qaouq Says Hizbullah Won't Tolerate Presence of 'Takfiri Bastions' in Arsal Area
Naharnet/December 07/15/Hizbullah will not tolerate the presence of any “terrorist takfiri bastions on both sides of the Lebanese-Syrian border” after the prisoner swap deal between Lebanon and al-Nusra Front, a top party official announced on Sunday. “This deal will not change the fact that the terrorist, takfiri al-Nusra Front is still occupying Lebanese territory,” Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hizbullah's Executive Council, said. The swap has “exposed headquarters, friendships and extensions for the takfiri al-Nusra Front inside Lebanon,” Qaouq warned. “The deal that freed the servicemen does not at all mean that the score has been settled with the terrorist killers. The battlefields know that we are the heroes of war and the achievers of victory and Arsal's outskirts, Qalamoun, Rankous and Yabroud are witnesses that we have defeated them wherever we have encountered them,” the cleric added. “We will not tolerate the presence of any terrorist takfiri bastions on both sides of the Lebanese-Syrian border, because remaining silent over these posts would represent a direct and permanent threat to Lebanon,” he warned. Qaouq, however, noted that “the duty of liberating the takiri-occupied Lebanese land falls on the State.”He cautioned that “these takfiris are awaiting the chance to pounce on Lebanon once again through sending car bombs, carrying out abductions or shelling certain regions.”Sixteen Lebanese troops and policemen were freed last week in a swap deal with al-Nusra that also saw the release of over two dozen inmates from Lebanese and Syrian prisons. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah played a role in the mediations that preceded the agreement, according to General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim. The servicemen were kidnapped in August 2014 during deadly battles between the Lebanese army and jihadists from al-Nusra and the Islamic State in and around Arsal. Nine other servicemen remain in the captivity of the IS group. The two groups are still entrenched in mountainous areas along the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Zahra Says LF Prefers Aoun over Franjieh
Naharnet/December 07/15/Lebanese Forces bloc MP Antoine Zahra has noted that the LF would rather vote for Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun and not for Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh if it was obliged to choose between the two in the presidential race. “When they were telling us, 'let Christians agree over the presidential issue,' we were responding that it is a national and not a Christian juncture, but we were not suggesting that it is an Islamic affair and that the Christian parties should only be informed of it,” Zahra said in an interview with OTV. “Something is in the making and former premier Saad Hariri has not consulted with us or with anyone else in this regard,” he added. The MP was referring to a Paris meeting between Franjieh and Hariri that was behind launching the current momentum in the country regarding the presidential elections. The talks sparked intense speculation about a possible settlement that might open the doors of the Baabda Palace for Franjieh. Hariri has also met in Paris with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel. “LF leader Dr. Samir Geagea does not intend to go anywhere to meet anyone,” Zahra added, noting that “the presidency is a Lebanese issue and it must be discussed in Lebanon.”“We are not trying to prevent Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh from being elected president,” Zahra said. “But when we reach a moment in which we would have to choose, Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun would have the priority,” the MP announced.

Qazzi Congratulates Hizbullah on 'Loyalty to Aoun', Urges 'New Candidate' if Franjieh Rejected
Naharnet/December 07/15/Labor Minister Sejaan Qazzi of the Kataeb Party noted Sunday that “Hizbullah must be congratulated over its loyalty to Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun,” urging Christian leaders to seek an agreement on a “new candidate” if the presidential nomination of Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh was rejected. “Anyone who wants to discuss the issue of the presidency with us must start from acknowledging the fact that former president Amin Gemayel is our candidate,” Qazzi said in an interview on MTV. “We have grown accustomed to stabs throughout our political history and we won't be affected by new stabs,” Qazzi added, referring to his party. As for the Paris talks between Kataeb chief MP Sami Gemayel and al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, the minister revealed that Gemayel told the former premier that Kataeb does not have a “veto” on Franjieh's possible nomination. “He is one of the top four (Maronite) leaders and we do not question his patriotism, but we must sit together in order to know how Franjieh thinks, his stance on the war in Syria, and his new vision if he wants to be a candidate for all Lebanese, not only for March 8,” Qazzi quoted Gemayel as telling Hariri. Qazzi added: “The selection of the president must not only be a Christian choice, as he would be a president for all Lebanese and Muslims must also feel that this person is their president, but we have not meanwhile agreed that Muslims choose the president.”He noted that the coming days will carry a “new approach” and there will be “negotiations to shift the issue of the presidency from personal complexes to broad consultations.”“Should we reject Suleiman Franjieh's nomination, we would have to propose a new candidate, that's why I call on Christian leaders to meet and suggest several names,” Qazzi added. Wondering how Hariri has quickly endorsed the nomination of Franjieh, a prominent March 8 figure, after having supported Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea's candidacy for a long time, Qazzi said “Hariri believes that he can make a breakthrough with the Syrian-Iranian axis and the March 8 forces.” He noted, however, that the manner in which Hariri has nominated Franjieh, although unofficially, has “created bitterness between him (Hariri) and his allies.”Qazzi also pointed out that “there is no Russian or Iranian support for the presidential initiative,” calling on Franjieh to “declare his vision and try to boost his chances.”

Gunmen Rob a Syrian, Injure a Policeman in a Car Chase
Naharnet/December 07/15/Three armed men robbed a Syrian national at gunpoint after stopping his car in the neighborhood of Bar Elias in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa valley, and slightly injured a policeman in the chase, the state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday . The assailants were driving a silver Grand Cherokee when they intercepted on the Bar Elias road the vehicle of Haitham Mohammed al-Nowaylati who had two other passengers in his car, and forced them to the ground. The gunmen stole $5400 in cash in addition to the 4WD Audi that Nowaylati was driving and fled to an unknown destination. Meanwhile, a patrol of the Intelligence Branch happened to pass by the scene of the incident where the victims relayed the story. The police kicked off a chase behind the two cars that started on the Zahle highway all the way to the Ablah road. An exchange of fire compelled the suspects to leave the stolen Audi, broken from the shooting, in the town of Ablah near an army checkpoint to continue their escape using the other vehicle. But the police continued the gunned chase to later find the Cherokee deserted on a subsidiary road before the al-Litani bridge showing traces of blood inside. The shooting slightly injured a member of the police.

Report: Geagea Mulling Possibility of Nominating Aoun, Rejects a Telephone Call from Hariri
Naharnet/December 07/15/Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea may be forced to endorse the nomination of MP Michel Aoun for the top state post if the nomination of Marada leader MP Suleiman Franjieh continues, Ad Diyar daily reported on Sunday. “If there are chances for Franjieh, Geagea does not intend to accept that nomination and he will therefore be compelled to support the nomination of (his other rival) Aoun,” said the daily. Moreover, reports have also said that Geagea received a telephone call from Mustaqbal movement ex-PM Saad Hariri which he refused to answer. His stances come amid a flurry of political talks in the country that followed a Paris meeting between Franjieh and Hariri. The meeting sparked intense speculation that the two leaders agreed to the nomination of the Marada chief for the presidency. Geagea is the March 14 camp's presidential candidate, while media reports have spoken that Franjieh may be endorsed by the rival March 8 camp with the support of Mustaqbal Movement head MP Saad Hariri. Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun is the March 8 alliance's current candidate.

French Far Right Sees Record Score in First Poll since Attacks
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 07/15/France's far-right National Front saw record-high results in regional polls on Sunday, held under a state of emergency just three weeks after Islamic extremists killed 130 people in Paris.
The National Front (FN) came first with between 27.2 and 30.8 percent of the vote nationwide, and found itself topping the list in at least six of 13 regions, according to early estimates. FN leader Marine Le Pen and her 25-year-old niece Marion Marechal-Le Pen broke the 40-percent mark in their respective regions, shattering previous records for the party after tapping into voter anger over a stagnant economy and security fears linked to Europe's refugee crisis. Marine Le Pen, a lawyer by training, welcomed the "magnificent result", saying it proved the FN was "without contest the first party of France." A grouping of right-wing parties took between 27 and 27.4 percent, the estimates showed, while the ruling Socialist party and its allies took 22.7-23.5 percent. The polls were held under tight security following the country's worst-ever terror attacks, which have thrust the FN's anti-immigration and often Islamophobic message to the fore. Around half the 45 million registered voters took part in the polls, which will see the top two parties in each region go to a run-off next Sunday. The early estimates showed 47-year-old Marine Le Pen taking a whopping 40.3-42.1 percent of the vote in the economically depressed northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, once a bastion of the left. Marion Marechal-Le Pen did equally well in the vast southeastern Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, known for its glamorous beaches and stunning countryside, on 41.2-41.9 percent. "42 percent! Thank you!" she wrote on Twitter. France's regions have recently been consolidated and given more power over areas such as schools, transport and support for local businesses.
Hollande's Socialists languish
President Francois Hollande, who cast his vote in Tulle in central France, has seen his personal ratings surge as a result of his hardline approach since the November 13 attacks in Paris. But his Socialist Party has languished behind the FN and the center-right Republicans led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy. Speaking after the estimates, Sarkozy again refused to consider any tie-up with the Socialists in order to beat the FN in the second round on December 13. "We must hear and understand the profound exasperation of the French people," said Sarkozy.
Victories next week would not only hand control of a regional government to the FN for the first time, but would also give Marine Le Pen a springboard for her presidential bid in 2017. The electoral system has tended to keep the far-right from power, as mainstream voters gang up against the FN in second rounds. But the party has been on a roll, taking first place in European and local polls over the past two years. Ahead of the vote, Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged party activists to "appeal to patriotism" to ensure a massive turnout, while Le Pen accused him of waging "total war" against her. In her campaign, she focused repeatedly on the migrant camp in Calais known as "The Jungle" where thousands of migrants and refugees are camped trying to reach Britain and northern Europe. The FN -- whose leaders have repeatedly linked immigration with terrorism -- has been climbing in the polls since the gun and suicide bombing attacks in Paris.When it emerged that at least two of the attackers had entered Europe posing as migrants, the FN went to town with a message of "we told you so."

Police Probe 'Terrorist' London Tube Stabbings
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 07/15/British counter-terror police on Sunday questioned a 29-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder after a stabbing attack in a London Underground train station that is being treated as a "terrorist incident."Detectives from Britain's Counter Terrorism Command (CTC) searched a home in east London in connection with Saturday's attack at Leytonstone station, which left a 56-year-old man with serious knife injuries. Amateur video footage of the incident showed one passer-by shouting "You're no Muslim" at the suspect as he was pinned down by officers in the ticket hall, where a pool of blood could be seen on the ground. Sky News television reported that the man "apparently shouted 'this is for Syria'," although it did not quote anyone and the phrase is not evident from footage circulating online. "As a result of information received at the time from people who were at the scene and subsequent investigations carried out by the CTC, I am treating this as a terrorist incident," said Richard Walton, the head of the police unit. "I would continue to urge the public to remain calm, but alert and vigilant." Saturday evening's attack came at the end of a week in which the British parliament voted to extend air strikes on the Islamic State jihadist group from Iraq into Syria. The attack also came less than a month after the November 13 terror attacks in Paris, claimed by IS, that killed 130 people.
Police said the stabbing victim was in a stable condition in an east London hospital and his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.
'You ain't no Muslim'
The attacker may have arrived at the station by train, said a passenger who arrived at Leytonstone shortly before the attack and had seen a man fitting the suspect's description. "I don't know if it was the same gentleman that they caught, but he was very aggressive, he was a bit angry, shouting, abusing... he was on the train," a woman who gave her name only as Christina told AFP. Amateur video shows a pool of blood and bloody footprints at the ticket gates of the suburban station. Shouts are heard as the suspect is seen remonstrating with people before swinging at one of them. Officers shout "Drop the knife!" and fire Taser electric stun guns."Who is this idiot?" one onlooker says of the suspect, adding: "Yes! Stupid idiot," after the man is Tasered. Officers shout "Put the knife down!" and "Drop it now!" at the stunned man, who drops the short-bladed knife as he quivers on the ground.
One man then shouts at the suspect: "You ain't no Muslim, bruv! You're no Muslim, bruv! You ain't no Muslim!"The hashtag #YouAintNoMuslimBruv was trending on Twitter on Sunday as people reacted to the news. Salim Patel, 59, who runs the station shop, said: "I saw the guy attacking the victim, punching him so hard. The victim was screaming 'please, somebody help me. Help'. "The attacker started kicking him on the floor. I think the victim was unconscious, he passed out. Then the attacker took a knife out and started stabbing him as he lay on the floor."
'Lone wolf' attack? Terrorism expert Raffaello Pantucci said that although it was too early to say anything definitive about the incident, it was more than likely the suspect was a so-called "lone actor", or "lone wolf" attacker. "At this point it looks like it might end up as that's what we're looking at," said Pantucci, of the Royal United Services Institute defense think tank in London. "Because of the random targeting that we've seen happen, because we've seen no claim from any particular groups, because we haven't seen any evidence of him being part of being part of some bigger network."
Pantucci also said the speed with which police had labeled the attack a terrorist incident made it likely the attacker had tried to link his actions to Syria. Britain's national terror threat level was raised in August 2014 to severe, the second highest of five levels, meaning an attack is considered highly likely. London's transport system was hit in July 2005 by a series of suicide bomb attacks that killed 52 people. A spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street office said: "We are monitoring the situation closely as further details emerge."
Leytonstone station was open again Sunday, with a police officer standing guard outside.

Ban Ki-moon Pays Tribute at Paris Attack Sites
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 07/15/U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon paid homage to the victims of the Paris attacks on Sunday with a visit to the concert hall and one of the bars targeted by the jihadists. "I'm a Parisian and sitting on the cafe terrace," said Ban in French, evoking the "Je Suis En Terrasse" slogan of defiance used after the November 13 attacks. He visited the Bataclan theater where 90 people were killed and then had a coffee at La Bonne Biere bistro, where several customers were gunned down. Ban described Paris as a "symbol of resistance" and was joined by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who said the U.N. secretary general had asked to make the visit. He is in Paris for climate talks that began last Monday. The attacks, which left 130 dead, struck several bars and restaurants in eastern Paris, as well as the national stadium. Around 350 were wounded, many of them critically.

Arab Attacker Shot Dead after Jerusalem Attacks
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 07/15/An Israeli soldier shot dead a knife-wielding attacker who lightly wounded three people in Jerusalem on Sunday, police said. "An Arab terrorist tried to run over a pedestrian in his car, lightly injuring him, and then got out of the vehicle with a knife and stabbed a volunteer police officer in the hand," said a police statement. A soldier who was passing by at the time shot the attacker, police said. "The terrorist, apparently a 21-year-old resident of east Jerusalem, was killed by the gunfire," the statement said. Emergency services evacuated two of the injured to hospital for treatment. The third did not require medical attention. Sunday's attack was the latest in more than two months of "lone wolf" assaults by Palestinians challenging Israel's control over the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.Since October 1, almost daily attacks and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers and violence between Palestinians and Jewish settlers have killed 110 Palestinians (including an Israeli Arab), 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean, according to an AFP count.While the violence has focused mainly on the West Bank, Israeli-occupied Arab east Jerusalem and the Palestinian coastal enclave of the Gaza Strip have also seen deadly clashes. Palestinians are frustrated by the failure of decades of peace talks and the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and many have also lost faith in their political leadership.

Turkey to halt transfers of troops to north Iraq
By Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Sunday, 6 December 2015/Turkey said on Sunday it would halt further transfers of troops to an area near the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul in Iraq after Baghdad threatened to appeal to the United Nations to force Turkey to withdraw its soldiers. Turkey deployed hundreds of forces to a camp near Mosul in the north on Thursday, calling it a routine rotation in a training program but angering Baghdad, which said it had been done without consultation. In response, Iraq on Sunday gave Turkey 48 hours to withdraw forces it said entered the country illegally or face “all available options,” including recourse to the U.N. Security Council. Baghdad, which is struggling to assert its sovereignty while receiving foreign assistance against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group, said Turkish forces with tanks and artillery entered Iraq without its permission. “In the absence of the withdrawal of these forces within 48 hours, Iraq has the right to use all available options,” including recourse to the Security Council, a statement from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s office said. The Turkish forces entered “without the approval or knowledge of the Iraqi government,” it said. In practical terms, Iraq’s options are primarily diplomatic, as its forces are tied down battling IS jihadists and Ankara has a far more powerful military. Turkey has troops at a base in Nineveh province to train Iraqi Sunni volunteers hoping to retake the nearby city of Mosul from IS, which seized it and swathes of other territory in June 2014. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu downplayed the deployment as “routine rotation activity” associated with that effort, and as “reinforcement against security risks.” This is not a new camp,” Davutoglu said. Rather, it is a pre-existing “training facility established to support local volunteer forces’ fight against terrorism”, set up in coordination with the Iraqi defence ministry, he said. But Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, which has forces in the area, said that Turkey had sent military experts and supplies to expand the base. Earlier, Iraq’s defence minister said on Sunday he had told his Turkish counterpart that hundreds of Turkish forceshad been sent without informing or coordinating with Baghdad, and should be withdrawn. Khaled al-Obeidi said in a statement the Turkish defence minister had explained the deployment as necessary to protect Turkish military advisers training Iraqi forces in preparation for a campaign to retake Mosul.But Obeidi said the Turkish force was too large for such a purpose. “No matter the size of the force entering Iraq, it is rejected,” the statement said. “It was possible to undertake this sort of prior coordination without creating circumstances which contributed to a crisis between the two countries.” Iraq’s president, prime minister and foreign ministry have all objected to the Turkish deployment in recent days, calling it a hostile act and a violation of international law. Baghdad also summoned the Turkish ambassador to issue a formal protest. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday it was a routine troop rotation and Turkish forces had set up a camp some 30 km northeast of Mosul at the Mosul governor’s request, and in coordination with the Iraqi Defence Ministry. A small number of Turkish trainers were already at the camp before the latest deployment to train the Hashid Watani (national mobilization), a force made up of mainly Sunni Arab former Iraqi police and volunteers from Mosul, which ISIS militants seized in June 2014.(With AFP and Reuters)

Iraq Gives Turkish Forces 48 Hours to Leave Country
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 07/15/Iraq on Sunday gave Turkey 48 hours to withdraw forces it said entered the country illegally or face "all available options," including recourse to the U.N. Security Council. Baghdad, which is struggling to assert its sovereignty while receiving foreign assistance against the Islamic State jihadist group, said Turkish forces with tanks and artillery entered Iraq without its permission. "In the absence of the withdrawal of these forces within 48 hours, Iraq has the right to use all available options," including recourse to the Security Council, a statement from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office said. The Turkish forces entered "without the approval or knowledge of the Iraqi government," it said. In practical terms, Iraq's options are primarily diplomatic, as its forces are tied down battling IS jihadists and Ankara has a far more powerful military. Turkey has troops at a base in Nineveh province to train Iraqi Sunni volunteers hoping to retake the nearby city of Mosul from IS, which seized it and swathes of other territory in June 2014. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu downplayed the deployment as "routine rotation activity" associated with that effort, and as "reinforcement against security risks." "This is not a new camp," Davutoglu said. Rather, it is a pre-existing "training facility established to support local volunteer forces' fight against terrorism," set up in coordination with the Iraqi defense ministry, he said. But Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, which has forces in the area, said that Turkey had sent military experts and supplies to expand the base. Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi also asked for the forces to be withdrawn in a telephone call with his Turkish counterpart Ismet Yilmaz, the ministry said on Sunday. According to the statement, Yilmaz said the forces were sent to protect Turkish trainers, but Obeidi said they were more than the numbers required for that task. Turkish media reported that 600 Turkish soldiers backed by 25 tanks had been sent to the Bashiqa area near the city of Mosul. Baghdad's relations with Turkey have improved recently but remained strained by Ankara's relationship with Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region and differences over the Syrian civil war. Abadi has repeatedly said Iraq needs all the help it can get to fight IS, but he is also walking a fine line between receiving that support and projecting sovereignty.

Gadhafi Son in Libya Court over Murder, Repression
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 07/15/A son of late strongman Moammar Gadhafi appeared in a Libyan court Sunday over the murder of a football coach in 2005 and alleged repression in the uprising that toppled his father. Saadi Gadhafi, 42, sat alone in a caged dock of the courtroom located in the same complex as the al-Hadba prison where he is being held in Tripoli. Dressed in a prison-issued blue uniform, the one-time playboy looked straight ahead and showed no emotions as the hearing got underway. The judge said more time was needed to complete the investigation into the charges leveled against Saadi, and adjourned the trial until February 1.Saadi was best known as the head of Libya's football federation and a player who paid his way into Italy's top division. Gadhafi's third oldest son, he is accused of murdering a former trainer at Tripoli's al-Ittihad football club in 2005 and repressing during the 2011 armed uprising. His trial opened in May but has been adjourned several times, the last time on November 1. In September, he told Human Rights Watch that he had been held in solitary confinement and that his rights had been violated during pretrial detention. Three of Gadhafi's seven sons were killed in the 2011 NATO-backed uprising while he himself was captured and killed by rebels in October of that year. In July, a court sentenced another Gadhafi son and one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam to death for crimes during the uprising. HRW also quoted Al-Siddiq al-Sur, head of investigations at the general prosecutor's office, as saying Kadhafi had been charged with "first-degree murder, illegal consumption of alcohol, and illegal deprivation of liberty." Saadi's meeting with HRW at al-Hadba prison came a month after Arabic news website clearnews.com published a video appearing to show prison guards abusing him along with other detainees.

Assad Says Britain's Syria Strikes 'Illegal', Will only Encourage Terror
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 07/15/Britain's bombing campaign against Islamic State extremists in Syria is "illegal" and will only cause "terrorism" to spread, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published Sunday. "It will be harmful and illegal and it will support terrorism as happened after the coalition started its operation a year or so (ago)," he told The Sunday Times after British MPs voted on December 2 to join the U.S.-led bombing campaign over Syria. Terror, he said, was like a cancer which needed to be tackled with a "comprehensive" strategy which would involve working with troops on the ground. "You cannot cut out part of the cancer. You have to extract it. This kind of operation is like cutting out part of the cancer. That will make it spread in the body faster. "You cannot defeat (IS) through air strikes alone. You cannot defeat them without cooperation with forces on the ground. You cannot defeat them if you do not have buy-in from the general public and the government," he said. "They are going to fail again."
Cameron's 'classical farce
Britain began its bombing campaign early on Thursday, hitting an oil field held by IS just hours after a decisive parliamentary vote authorized air strikes. Momentum to join the air campaign grew after IS militants claimed a deadly series of attacks on Paris last month which killed 130 people and wounded more than 350. In arguing in favor of the strikes, Prime Minister David Cameron's claimed there were 70,000 moderate Syrian forces on the ground who could help secure territory cleared by air strikes, prompting ridicule from Assad, who denounced it as "classical farce." "Where are the 70,000 moderates he is talking about? There is no 70,000. There is no 7,000," he said. In late September, Russia began its own bombing campaign in Syria in support of Assad over a year after a U.S.-led coalition began its strikes targeting the IS group. Russia is coordinating its air strikes with Damascus, unlike the U.S.-led coalition, whose action has been criticized by Assad and his government as ineffectual. Assad said the Russians had entered the conflict in a "legal way" -- with Syria's permission. While the western bombing campaign has fueled extremism, Assad believes that two months of Russian air strikes with ground support from the Syrian army has actually damaged the Islamists' capabilities. More than 250,000 people have been killed since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests against Assad's regime.

Khamenei advisor: Assad’s fate a ‘red line’ for Iran
Reuters, Dubai Sunday, 6 December 2015/A top advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader on Sunday said the future of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad could only be determined by the Syrian people and this was a “red line” for Tehran. Assad’s fate is a sticking point in talks between world powers aimed at finding a political solution to the crisis in Syria. Iran and Russia want him to stay in power until elections are held, while Western and Arab powers say he must go. “Bashar al-Assad is the Islamic Republic of Iran’s red line because he was elected president by the Syrian people,” said Ali Akbar Velayati, the top foreign policy advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “The Syrian people must decide their own fate, and nobody outside Syria’s borders can choose for the Syrian people,” he added. Velayati also said Iran would try to ease tensions between Turkey and Russia. Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet last month that it said had violated Turkish airspace while flying a mission in Syria. “There is no benefit to tensions mounting up in the region. We must not take the side of either party, and have a duty to reduce tensions between these two countries,” he said.

Syria's Divided Opposition Seeks to Unify Stance
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 07/15/Syrian opposition groups gather in Saudi Arabia Tuesday to unify their stance ahead of potential talks with the regime of President Bashar Assad whose fate remains a point of contention. It will be the first time representatives of the political opposition and military factions fighting the regime have come together since the conflict began in 2011. Saudi Arabia is hoping to unite the opposition ahead of talks between parties to the conflict which world powers hope to hold before January 1. Some 100 representatives are likely to attend the meetings, including Saudi-backed Jaish al-Islam (The Army of Islam), an amalgam of factions that include hardline Islamists, which is not listed as a terrorist group. The invitees do not include those considered to be "terrorist," such as the Islamic State group and al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Kurdish factions are also not invited. However, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry late Sunday said all ethnic groups were invited to the talks which it confirmed are to take place from Tuesday to Thursday. It said the invitation was extended to "all factions of the moderate Syrian opposition, from all parties, currents, ethnic groups, sects and political factions inside and outside Syria." Samir Nashar, a member of the Istanbul-based National Coalition, the main Syrian opposition grouping, called it a "difficult and risky" mission. He said the aim was to "agree on a common and clear position concerning the future of Syria, the transition and the stance on (the fate of) Bashar Assad."Last month, top diplomats from 17 countries -- including key international backers and opponents of Assad -- met in Vienna in search of a political solution to Syria's war, which has seen 250,000 people killed since March 2011.
'Core differences' over Assad
Those nations included the United States and Saudi Arabia which back the opposition, and Russia and Iran, Assad's main supporters.They agreed on a fixed calendar for Syria that would see a transition government set up in six months and elections within 18 months. Speaking of "core differences" over Assad's fate, Nashar said he feared that "some groups close to states supporting the regime, could demand that Assad stays during the transition period.""This risks causing the failure of the meeting," he said. Groups supported by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar demand Assad's rapid departure, a condition that Iran and Russia continue to oppose. "The opposition still demands the departure of Assad at the beginning of the transition period," insisted Ahmed Ramadan, another National Coalition member. "We cannot negotiate before agreeing in principle and having a date for the departure of Assad," he said.Nashar said that although a ceasefire is a must, that "could not mean that we accept that Bashar Assad could stay during the transition (only) because he will stop killing". Meanwhile, the Syria-based opposition which is tolerated by the regime argues that Assad's fate should be decided by the Syrian people. "There is an international agreement that this issue should be decided by the Syrians," said Hassan Abdel Azim, who heads the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change.
Push for a ceasefire
The recent deadly attacks by IS, mainly those in Paris last month, appear to have softened the positions of Western countries on Assad, especially France. "A united Syria implies a political transition. That does not mean that Bashar Assad must leave even before the transition, but there must be assurances for the future," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in an interview published on Saturday. His American counterpart John Kerry also urged Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to convince Syrian rebel groups to negotiate a ceasefire with Damascus, in an effort to isolate jihadists. A U.S.-led coalition, including several Gulf and other Arab countries, in September 2014 launched an air campaign against IS. Moscow mounted its own campaign in September this year, but the National Coalition accuses Russia of bombing rebels battling Assad's regime. Haytham Manna, co-founder of the opposition coalition Cairo Conference, said 20 members of his group would join next week's talks. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, hopes to come out of the meeting with a "unified Syrian opposition, and to stop the Russians and others from claiming there is no Syrian opposition that is unified", according to veteran Saudi journalist and analyst Jamal Khashoggi. This will ease the process of getting rid of Assad, he said. egional rival Iran, however, has warned that the Saudi conference would breach declarations made by both sides in Vienna seeking a list of mutually approved opposition groups.

Egypt to Pay Israel $1.76 Billion after Halting Gas Supplies
Associated Press/Naharnet/December 07/15/Israel's state-owned electric utility says Egyptian natural gas companies will pay it compensation of $1.76 billion for halting gas supplies. Egypt stopped selling natural gas to Israel in 2012 after months of attacks on a pipeline by militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The Israeli electric company sued the Egyptian providers EGPC and EGAS for $4 billion in damages. The company said it suffered heavy damages after gas supplies were halted and that it was forced to buy more expensive fuel to generate electricity, raising its costs
The company said Sunday that an international arbitrator awarded it $1.76 billion plus interest. The company said it will act in coordination with the Egyptian companies to implement the arbitrator's ruling.

ISIS claims killing of Aden governor in Yemen
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Sunday, 6 December 2015/Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for an explosion which killed the governor of Yemen’s southern Aden province on Sunday. In a statement posted on a messaging service, the local ISIS affiliate said it detonated an explosives-laden car as Jaafar Mohammed Saad’s convoy was traveling to his office in a western district of Aden. The statement by the militant group said that the bomb was concealed in a parked car along the convoy’s route. The group referred to Saad as a “tyrant” and warned the “heads of the infidels” in Yemen that it would carry out “operations to chop off their rotten heads.”Residents and security sources said the huge explosion killed six of his bodyguards in Tawahi district of the city. Authorities are investigating the exact cause of the explosion. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media. Bystanders present at the scene postede videos on soical media of the distroyed vehicle.  Saad had been a general in the army of the former southern Yemen before the Marxist state merged with northern Yemen in 1990. He was appointed governor in October. Local officials said Saad, who fought in the 1994 civil war for southern forces against the northerners, had lived in exile in Egypt and Britain before he returned earlier this year at Hadi’s request.
ISIS in Yemen
In October, the government of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah was forced to relocate to Saudi Arabia after four coordinated suicide bombings by ISIS killed at least 15 people, including four Emirati soldiers. ISIS has claimed a series of bombings that killed 159 people and wounded 345 this year in Yemen, according to an AP count. The extremists have been able to expand their reach in the chaos of Yemen’s larger conflict, between a loose array of pro-government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition and Shiite Houthi rebels, who control the capital, Sanaa, and large parts of northern Yemen. Pro-government forces drove the Houthis out of Aden earlier this year. A local al-Qaeda affiliate has exploited the chaos to seize territory in Yemen’s south and east, and has a growing presence in Aden. On Saturday, masked gunmen in Aden killed a military intelligence official and a judge known for sentencing al-Qaeda militants. No one claimed those attacks.With Agencies.

Agreement Reached on Political Solution to Libya Conflict
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/December 07/15/Libya's warring factions said Sunday they had reached an agreement on how to move forward on ending the country's political deadlock but it faces significant hurdles including approval by rival parliaments. Delegates from the internationally recognized House of Representatives and the Tripoli-based General National Congress had been holding secret talks, without the United Nations, in the suburbs of Tunis since Friday. Officials said they reached a deal late on Saturday on a joint "declaration of principles" aimed at resolving a crisis that has endured since the 2011 overthrow of strongman Moammar Gadhafi. "This is a historic moment the Libyans were waiting for, the Arabs were waiting for and the world was waiting for," Awad Mohammed Abdul-Sadiq, the GNC's first deputy head, said at a press conference on Sunday. Abdul-Sadiq called on Libyans to support what he called "a historic opportunity." "If this solution receives real Libyan support -- from the people and institutions -- we will surely arrive in no more than two weeks or a month to a solution to solve the political crisis," he said. Amna Emtair from the GNC delegation told AFP the agreement would set up a new representative body that would choose a committee to nominate a prime minister within 15 days, while another committee would conduct a review of Libya's constitution. "It is a major breakthrough," Emtair said. The agreed document, a copy of which AFP obtained, states that the prime minister is to have two deputies -- one from each rival authority. The proposal is likely to face difficulty being approved by the rival parliaments, with some lawmakers saying they were not even aware it was being negotiated. Essam Al-Jihani, a lawmaker with the internationally recognized parliament, told AFP there had been no discussion during its sessions about sending a delegation to Tunis. "What happened does not represent the House of Representatives," he said.
'Train has left station'
Libya descended into chaos after the October 2011 ouster and killing of longtime strongman Gadhafi, with two governments vying for power and armed groups battling for control of its vast energy resources. A militia alliance including Islamists overran Tripoli in August 2014, establishing a rival government and a parliament that forced the internationally recognized administration to flee to the country's remote east.Veteran German diplomat Martin Kobler last month became U.N. special envoy for Libya, taking on his predecessor Bernardino Leon's task of brokering an agreement between Libya's rival authorities to form a national unity government. Kobler on Sunday stressed that the U.N.-brokered Libyan Political Agreement was the only way towards peace in Libya. "The country needs peace in unity, it is divided now," he was quoted by his office as telling Al-Jazeera. "It is now time for a rapid endorsement of the Libyan Political Agreement, the train has left the station." After almost a year of arduous negotiations, Leon in early October proposed a power-sharing deal under which Libya would be governed by a nine-member presidential council made up of a prime minister, five deputy premiers and three senior ministers. But lawmakers from the internationally recognized parliament and its Tripoli-based rival balked at the deal and the names put forward. The latest announcement comes as experts and sources in Libya say that the Islamic State jihadist group has strengthened its grip in its Libyan stronghold Sirte. IS first appeared in Libya in 2014 when a group of Libyan IS fighters returned from Syria and reorganized in the port city of Derna, declaring eastern Libya to be a province of the caliphate. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Wednesday that Rome would host an international conference on Libya on December 13 aimed at stopping the country from falling apart and containing IS. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview published just hours before the announcement out of Tunisia Sunday that the alliance was ready to help a future national unity government in Libya. But NATO, which backed the anti-Gadhafi uprising with air strikes, is "not discussing a major new military operation in Libya, and I will not be recommending it," Stoltenberg told Italy's Repubblica and several other European newspapers.

Is Trudeau’s new Foreign Minister Secretary a Hamas backer?
Omar Alghabra headed radical group that ran afoul of state for Hamas support; he slammed ‘brutal occupation’ and lauded Arafat.
By Ari Yashar/Arutz Sheva
First Publish: 12/4/2015
Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised eyebrows Wednesday, when he appointed Omar Alghabra as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Alghabra, a Liberal party MP representing Mississauga Centre, will get a $16,600 raise to his normal MP salary of $167,400 in his new role, according to CBC News.
Born in Saudi Arabia, Alghabra is the son of Syrian parents and arrived in Canada back in 1989, with at least some of his nuclear family still living in the Middle East.
The appointment of the new Parliamentary Secretary is particularly concerning to some, given that Alghabra previously was the head of the radical Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) between 2004 and 2005.
Backing Hamas, comparing Israelis to Nazis
CAF just this August lost an appeal to have its government funding reinstated, after then-Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney back in 2009 cut $1 million in annual funding to the group.
Kenney proved that the group’s leadership repeatedly expressed support for the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. In cutting the funding Kenney’s office noted a CAF executive took part in a Cairo conference together with Hamas and Hezbollah delegates, and likewise that the Hezbollah flag was flown at a CAF rally.
The 2014 Federal Court ruling to uphold the suspension of funding included evidence showing CAF rallies compared Israelis to Nazis and included a sign threatening to murder a Jewish child, reports the Canadian Jewish News. The group also sponsored an essay contest on the topic of “ethnic cleansing” in Israel.
“I have been on public record disagreeing with the approach taken by the current administration of the Canadian Arab Federation,” Alghabra claimed in August amid the decision to continue cutting funding.
But Kenney told the National Post that while Alghabra didn’t lead the group in 2009 when he cut funding from it, the MP “criticized my decision to defund CAF.”
“Key to the pro-Hamas vote”
Canadian journalist Ezra Levant warned in a Toronto Sun op-ed back in August 2014 that Alghabra’s close ties with Trudeau should be a warning sign regarding the Liberal party head.
“Omar Alghabra, the Saudi-born extremist who used to run the anti-Semitic Canadian Arab Federation,” wrote Levant. “That lobby group claims that Hamas and Hezbollah are not terrorists.”
“Normally, in politics, Alghabra is someone you keep far away from you. But Trudeau keeps Alghabra very close – he’s been the key to unlocking the anti-Israel vote, the anti-Semitic vote, the pro-Hamas vote, and the pro-sharia vote.”
“Alghabra has extreme views,” wrote Levant in another op-ed in April 2013. “When he was president of the Canadian Arab Federation in 2004, he denounced Canada’s largest newspaper chain for using the term ‘terrorist’ to describe Muslim terrorist groups like the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (of Fatah – ed.). He said that was a mere opinion, not a fact.”
Israel’s “brutal occupation”
Back in June 2005 during his term as CAF president, Alghabra wrote to Toronto police chief Bill Blair, protesting the latter’s decision to lead the “Walk for Israel.”
In the letter, which was posted on CAF’s website, Alghabra called Israel “a country that is conducting a brutal and the longest contemporary military occupation in the world.”
“This event coupled with your recent participation in a delegation of police chiefs that went on a six-day trip to Israel on March 1, has begun to create a feeling of genuine distrust and confusion for what appears to be your public endorsement of the practices of the state of Israel,” wrote Alghabra at the time.
Then in November 2004 when arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat died, Alghabra’s CAF put out a press release mourning the terrorist’s death with “sorrow and regret.”
“This is a time of reflection and reaffirmation of commitment to the Palestinian just cause of struggle for freedom and self-determination,” Alghabra was quoted as saying in his organization’s press release.
Alghabra also has reportedly said he was disappointed Ontario’s decision not to adopt Sharia Islamic law for Muslim divorces during a 2003-2006 debate, calling the move not to take on Muslim law in Canada “unfortunate.”
A sign of the true Trudeau?
Given Alghabra’s past, many are raising concerns that his appointment to an office deciding foreign policy may indicate the line Trudeau intends to follow.
Some said the concerns over Trudeau’s position vis-a-vis Israel were unwarranted after he voted against six anti-Israel resolutions at the UN late last month shortly after taking office, but his record leaves room for doubt.
In April 2014, he condemned then Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a Farsi-language local paper of supporting Israel to gain Jewish votes - even as he called for rapprochement and a nuclear deal with Iran in the Canadian-Iranian paper.
And one of Trudeau’s top advisers, Gen. (ret.) Andrew Leslie, in August 2014 accused Israel of firing “indiscriminately onto Palestinian women and children” during Operation Protective Edge.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/204406#.VmO8UF7zj9K

Has Iran offered Assad asylum?
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/Decemver 07/15
Some media reports said that Iran recently offered to “host” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – that is, to grant him asylum, and receive him in Tehran as a hero. This was based on a statement attributed to Ali Akbar Velayati, a foreign policy advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran, during his visit a few days ago to Syria and Lebanon.It seems the “positive” atmosphere, rare amidst this destruction, is the reason behind such wishes. The positive news includes the release of the abducted Lebanese soldiers by the terrorist organization al-Nusra Front, following a deal organized by Hezbollah and Qatar. Iran’s connection to the Assad regime is very strong and deep, and about more than just common interests. There has also been positive news on an agreement to bring in Suleiman Franjieh as president of Lebanon, following a long dispute and a presidential vacuum of more than two years. All this suggests that we've begun to witness breakthroughs! So has the time for Assad's exit come?
Big story, little coverage
If a high-ranking Iranian official like Velayati announces that Tehran will grant Assad asylum, it would be a very significant development that governments and media outlets would certainly not miss. However, I only read about this in Syrian opposition media outlets, which of course are not a reference regarding news about the regime and rival Iran. But following a long search, I found the complete video of Velayati's interview with the Al-Mayadeen television channel. Towards the end of the interview, the presenter asked her Iranian guest whether Tehran will receive Assad soon, especially given that Assad “visited Moscow a month ago”. The question hinted that Iran is abstaining from receiving Assad. Velayati said: “Assad’s presence in Damascus is important. We, in Iran, will receive him when it’s a duty. We don’t impose our opinions on Mr. Assad. We do not want him to leave his country. When he decides to visit Iran, we are ready to warmly receive him, and we’d receive him like a hero. He has defended his people for five years, and we don't want his post to be vacant.”
Mysterious message
He who listens to the last part of Velayati's answer will think that Iran welcomes the idea of granting asylum to Assad. However the original question made it clear that Assad, who visited Russia in October, has not yet been received by Tehran as a visiting president. Velayati’s answer has nothing to do with granting Assad asylum, and is rather mysterious. Velayati did not welcome Assad’s visit directly, but said he did not want Assad to leave his country amid such circumstances. But this is not a convincing excuse, given that we’ve seen Assad depart Damascus and head to Russia. This latter journey takes four hours while the trip from Damascus to Tehran only takes two! I think Iran’s connection to the Assad regime is very strong and deep, and about more than just common interests. Tehran has been behind Assad’s extremist policy ever since the beginning of the revolution. And those who analyze the situation before the revolution think that the Iranians were managing Syria’s policy since Assad took power in 2000. This explains the Syrian regime’s violent approach in Lebanon and the series of assassinations in which it turned out Iran had an active role in. Iran also played a role, alongside the Syrian regime, in managing the so-called Iraqi resistance and al-Qaeda from inside Syria following the American invasion of Iraq. The Iranian-Syrian axis lives on until this day, and Tehran will hold on to Assad until the last hour when it loses Damascus.
Final hour?
So are we close to Assad's final hour? It's difficult to estimate the moment of defeat, as many regional and international troops are now involved. However what we do know is that Assad will not emerge victorious no matter how much the Iranians and the Russians succeed at supporting him and at prolonging the duration of war. As long as the Russians and Iranians agree on Syria, we cannot expect the easy solution of excluding Assad, such as granting him asylum in Iran, to materialize. If Russia and Iran end up having two different stances, the situation of the Syrian regime will be difficult with the presence of Iranian and Russian military forces fighting in Syria – in support of the Assad regime – via ground and air operations. The Russians and Iranians may currently have different points of view, however not so significantly that you can bet on it – especially after the Turks downed the Russian bomber, something that has brought Moscow and Tehran closer together. We may see disagreements between Russia and Iran during the Vienna negotiations on Syria’s future and political solutions. The Russian president has said before that Assad remaining in power is not important and that what matters is to maintain Syrian state institutions. This is very different from the Iranian proposal, which states that Assad himself represents legitimacy. This is what Velayati reiterated during his interview with Al-Mayadeen: he said that Assad will stay until the end of his presidential term, and that he must also participate in the upcoming elections, adding that Iran is confident Assad will win the elections again! Iran’s stance is to insist on Assad’s presence, even if they have to resort to a power of arms and to forging election results. If however the Russians lean towards a political solution that excludes Assad, or makes the latter like Iraq’s president – a figure who holds a mere honorary position – the dispute may erupt between the two allies.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the ‘shield of the Gulf’
Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor/Al Arabiya/Decemver 07/15
Our region is war-torn and fractured. We are facing multiple threats of multiple kinds. This is the most dangerous era I have ever lived through, surpassing the 1991 Gulf War when we came together to defeat a single enemy. While almost the entire world is shining a spotlight on the so-called Islamic State, GCC States must not take their eyes off our neighborhood’s greatest threat – the Islamic Republic of Iran and its militias in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. It saddens me to observe that some Arab countries are claiming to stand with us, whereas in reality they are either straddling the fence or are covertly in the ayatollahs’ pockets. Putin is calling the shots in Syria as though he is that country’s leader while ingratiating himself with the world’s greatest terrorist funder, Iran. It is imperative that transparent Gulf states stick together and be very wary of fair-weather friends, especially at a moment in time when there are those doing their utmost to split us apart, scatter us in different directions to render us vulnerable. Unfortunately, those enemies are using slick propaganda for the purposes of making us doubt one another. They speak of rifts between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates when there are none.
Unbreakable ties
The relationship between the kingdom and the Emirates is based on a shared history, culture and bloodlines. It is unbreakable. The threats to Saudi Arabia are the same that threaten the UAE. Iran’s ultimate goal is to seize our territories, strip us of our natural resources and take control of the Holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Rest assured that nothing will come between these two brotherly nations – Saudi Arabia and the UAE – which have always worked as one to hoist the standards of the Muslim and Arab worlds high. Thanks to the Saudi-led Arab coalition, which has successfully stemmed the march of Shiite Houthis across Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia, that route has been blocked. But recent news reports suggest that Iran may now be pursuing its ‘plan B’ from a different direction. As I write, highly-trained, battle hardened pro-Iranian Shiite fighters from Lebanon and Syria are heading to Iraq to further destabilise Iraq in support of their Iranian masters.
Mass relocation
And according to a report published in Al-Quds Al-Arabi, hundreds of thousands of Iranians are crossing into Iraq via its ports without passports stamped with entry visas, ostensibly to visit Shiite holy sites. Is this mass relocation being carried out in preparation for Iran to launch a surprise? The fear is the Iranians (perhaps with a green light from Moscow) are positioning Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces, Iranian foot soldiers and Shiite militias in preparation of a terrorist attack. Russia’s goal is to become the dominant regional power, and to further his endgame President Vladimir Putin is throwing his country’s weight behind Iran. During his meeting last month with Iran’s Supreme Leader, he presented Ali Khamenei with a replica of Russia’s oldest handwritten Quran. The commentator Jamal Khashoggi rightly notes the irony of Putin’s gesture of respect to Islam when in Iran – even as he slams the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for Islamicizing Turkey. Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian plane has provided Russia with a pretext to go on the warpath against parties within the U.S.-led coalition, accusing several of cooperating with ISIS and other terrorists. Russia’s semi-official Pravda newspaper is being used by Moscow as a propaganda tool. Its columns are filled with direct threats against Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for “their involvement in terrorism”! Khashoggi highlights a report in the Echo of Moscow quoting a former adviser to President Putin calling for attacks on military and oil installations in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Growing threat in Iraq
Putin, who has never recovered from the disbanding of the mighty Soviet Union, is on a roll following his illegal annexation of Crimea, a move met with little more than a slap on the wrist from the U.S. and its allies. Emboldened, Putin is calling the shots in Syria as though he is that country’s leader while ingratiating himself with the world’s greatest terrorist funder, Iran, which due to its murky affiliations has escaped becoming a target of terrorism. Of course, even terrorists do not bite the hand that feeds them! Far from providing geopolitical balance in the area, President Barack Obama’s policy of leading from behind has left a void, permitting Russia to fill in as a dangerous aggressor that is not only hand-in-glove with Iran but one with knives out for Sunni Arab states. As I have warned again and again in my columns, we must remain alert and prepared for anything. That does not mean we should merely wait and watch. No, the snakes’ heads must be cut before they slither to nest on our own soil. We were burned by the overthrow of the elected government in Yemen by the emissaries of Tehran, and if we do not stem the growing threat in Iraq, we will have only ourselves to blame.
Strengthen the coalition
In order to defend our borders, our coalition must be strengthened and enlarged. If we imagine we can place our trust in global powers, which strove to empower and enrich Iran via a nuclear deal, we are mistaken because they are driven solely by self-interest. And neither can we rely on other Arab countries to defend us for two reasons. Firstly, those far away from Iran’s reach by reasons of geography have different priorities; theirs is to eviscerate ISIS. Secondly, there are countries suspected of harboring Iranian or Russian sympathies (or both) which must be weeded out or, at the very least, told to come clean on their loyalties. Our destiny cannot rest with fence-sitters or pretend friends. It is time for all to be open about their allegiances and interests. The only significant forces in the GCC are those of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. We are the shield and the sword of all Gulf states and we are ready to partner with Arab countries proven to be on the same page. It is time for all regional leaderships to be transparent, and those suspected of playing both sides or of hiding their true intentions should be banished behind a virtual Trump-style wall.

Amid war on ISIS, don’t overlook need to oust Assad
Brooklyn Middleton/Al Arabiya/Decemver 07/15
As more states escalate their fight against the barbaric ISIS militant group in Syria, there should also be a renewed, collective effort to push for the final ousting of the disgraced regime of Bashar al-Assad. The world continues to grieve over the staggering loss of lives claimed by ISIS recently, from Beirut to Sinai to Paris. But on Syrian soil, the massacres carried out by the Assad regime have continued unabated. On Dec. 4 alone, at least 56 civilians were killed, including many children, in regime airstrikes targeting rebel-held territories. Meanwhile, since beginning its aerial offensive to secure Assad’s rule, Russia has added to the carnage, killing at least several hundred civilians and bombarding a number of hospitals. As the West strategizes how to prevent ISIS attacks, the long-term consequences of Assad’s rule can also not be ignored.
As the death toll in Syria continues to skyrocket and as the security implications of a Russia-Iran alliance on Israel’s doorstep become further evident, the time to step up efforts to end the Assad regime’s rule, while continuing to defeat ISIS, is now.
A shared effort
Destroying ISIS – a group which has now been found guilty of carrying out genocide against the Yazidi people – is an effort increasingly shared by the international community. The United Kingdom is the latest nation to stage direct military intervention in Syria against ISIS, with RAF Tornado jets carrying out a number of airstrikes just hours after MPs voted in favour of deeper involvement. The development is positive; the U.S.-led coalition should continue leading the fight but the time has come for European nations to conduct aerial operations alongside the United States. All involved parties should also publicly call on Arab states to recommit themselves to the anti-ISIS coalition. At the moment, the current level of military cooperation between the U.S., France and the UK represents an opportunity for cooperation on the status of the Assad regime as well. All three countries should be preparing to help facilitate the end of Bashar al-Assad’s rule while supporting the opposition militarily and diplomatically.
France’s role
In the wake of the bloodiest attacks on French soil since World War II, President Francois Hollande publicly confirmed his country would resettle 30,000 Syrian refugees over the course of the next two years. Meanwhile, the French military escalated its aerial offensive against ISIS in Syria, conducting a series of intense raids against the militant group. The entire response has been admirable and intelligent. As France broadens its own involvement in Syria, it should lead on the fight against the Assad regime, too. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has remained a consistent voice of reason on the future of the Assad regime and just over a year ago wrote an especially powerful op-ed about the need to fight ISIS but not ignore Assad’s own barbarity. Fabius wrote, “Assad and Daesh are two sides of the same barbaric coin. Assad largely created this monster by deliberately setting free the jihadists who fueled this terrorist movement. This was part of his underhanded effort to appear, in the eyes of the world, as the sole bulwark against terrorism in Syria.” His point here is as true now as it was then; efforts to defeat ISIS will ultimately be stymied by Assad’s continued rule in Syria.
In the recent term, ISIS has increasingly demonstrated both its capability and intent to carry out deadly mass-casualty terrorist attacks in the West, underscoring their degraded status in their own strongholds. Yet, as the West strategizes how to prevent ISIS attacks in our own countries, by a group that has revolutionized the concept of lone-wolf terrorism, the long-term consequences of Assad’s rule can also not be ignored.

Muslim Reform Movement
by M. Zuhdi Jasser and Raheel Raza et al/Gatestone Institute/December 06/15
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7009/muslim-reform-movement
We reject interpretations of Islam that call for any violence, social injustice and politicized Islam. We invite our fellow Muslims and neighbors to join us.
We reject bigotry, oppression and violence against all people based on any prejudice, including ethnicity, gender, language, belief, religion, sexual orientation and gender expression.
We are for secular governance, democracy and liberty.
Every individual has the right to publicly express criticism of Islam. Ideas do not have rights. Human beings have rights.
We stand for peace, human rights and secular governance. Please stand with us!
Preamble
We are Muslims who live in the 21st century. We stand for a respectful, merciful and inclusive interpretation of Islam. We are in a battle for the soul of Islam, and an Islamic renewal must defeat the ideology of Islamism, or politicized Islam, which seeks to create Islamic states, as well as an Islamic caliphate. We seek to reclaim the progressive spirit with which Islam was born in the 7th century to fast forward it into the 21st century. We support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by United Nations member states in 1948.
We reject interpretations of Islam that call for any violence, social injustice and politicized Islam. Facing the threat of terrorism, intolerance, and social injustice in the name of Islam, we have reflected on how we can transform our communities based on three principles: peace, human rights and secular governance. We are announcing today the formation of an international initiative: the Muslim Reform Movement.
We have courageous reformers from around the world who will outline our Declaration for Muslim Reform, a living document that we will continue to enhance as our journey continues. We invite our fellow Muslims and neighbors to join us.
DECLARATION
A. Peace: National Security, Counterterrorism and Foreign Policy
1. We stand for universal peace, love and compassion. We reject violent jihad. We believe we must target the ideology of violent Islamist extremism in order to liberate individuals from the scourge of oppression and terrorism both in Muslim-majority societies and the West.
2. We stand for the protection of all people of all faiths and non-faith who seek freedom from dictatorships, theocracies and Islamist extremists.
3. We reject bigotry, oppression and violence against all people based on any prejudice, including ethnicity, gender, language, belief, religion, sexual orientation and gender expression.
B. Human Rights: Women's Rights and Minority Rights
1. We stand for human rights and justice. We support equal rights and dignity for all people, including minorities. We support the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
2. We reject tribalism, castes, monarchies and patriarchies and consider all people equal with no birth rights other than human rights. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Muslims don't have an exclusive right to "heaven."
3. We support equal rights for women, including equal rights to inheritance, witness, work, mobility, personal law, education, and employment. Men and women have equal rights in mosques, boards, leadership and all spheres of society. We reject sexism and misogyny.
C. Secular Governance: Freedom of Speech and Religion
1. We are for secular governance, democracy and liberty. We are against political movements in the name of religion. We separate mosque and state. We are loyal to the nations in which we live. We reject the idea of the Islamic state. There is no need for an Islamic caliphate. We oppose institutionalized sharia. Sharia is manmade.
2. We believe in life, joy, free speech and the beauty all around us. Every individual has the right to publicly express criticism of Islam. Ideas do not have rights. Human beings have rights. We reject blasphemy laws. They are a cover for the restriction of freedom of speech and religion. We affirm every individual's right to participate equally in ijtihad, or critical thinking, and we seek a revival of ijtihad.
3. We believe in freedom of religion and the right of all people to express and practice their faith, or non-faith, without threat of intimidation, persecution, discrimination or violence. Apostasy is not a crime. Our ummah--our community--is not just Muslims, but all of humanity.
We stand for peace, human rights and secular governance. Please stand with us!
Affirmed this Fourth Day of December, Two-Thousand and Fifteen By the founding authors who are signatories below
#MuslimReform
Twitter: @TheMuslimReform
Facebook: Muslim Reform Movement
Email: MuslimReformMovement@gmail.com Website: www.MuslimReformMovement.org
Please sign our declaration on Change.org!
Founding Signatories
Tahir Gora,
Author, Journalist, Activist, Toronto, Canada
Tawfik Hamid
Islamic Thinker and Reformer, Oakton, VA, USA
Usama Hasan
Imam, Quilliam Foundation, London, UK
Arif Humayun
Senior Fellow, American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Portland, OR, USA
Farahnaz Ispahani
Author, Former Member of Parliament, Pakistan, Washington, D.C., USA
M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D.
President, American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Phoenix, AZ USA
Mohamad Jebara
Imam, Cordova Center, Ottawa, Canada
Naser Khader
Member, Danish Parliament, Muslim democracy activist
Copenhagen, Denmark
Courtney Lonergan
Community Outreach Director, American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Professional facilitator
Hasan Mahmud
Resident expert in sharia, Muslims Facing Tomorrow, Toronto, Canada
Asra Nomani
Journalist, Author, Morgantown, WV, USA
Raheel Raza
Founder, Muslims Facing Tomorrow, Toronto, Canada
Sohail Raza
Vice President, Coalition of Progressive Canadian Muslim Organizations
Salma Siddiqui
President, Coalition of Progressive Canadian Muslim Organizations, Toronto, Canada
Follow M. Zuhdi Jasser on Twitter
Follow Raheel Raza on Twitter and Facebook
© 2015 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

In rare Oval Office address, Obama warns of terrorism succeeding
Agencies/J.Post/07.12.15
WASHINGTON - Terrorism has evolved since the events on September 11th into a less complex form of killing innocents, US President Barack Obama said on Sunday night in an address to the American people, warning that successful lone wolf attacks could tear at the country's historic commitment to tolerance and equality.
The speech, short on new policy proposals, did include a call on Congress to pass legislation that would prevent those on the country's no-fly list from buying guns. He also asked for a new assault weapons ban, noting that a new brand of terrorism relies on inspiring homegrown recruits who can easily acquire military arms.
"What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon?," Obama said. "This is a matter of national security."
"We also need to make it harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons like the ones that were used in San Bernardino," he continued. "I know there are some who reject any gun safety measures. But the fact is that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies – no matter how effective they are – cannot identify every would-be mass shooter, whether that individual is motivated by ISIL or some other hateful ideology. What we can do – and must do – is make it harder for them to kill."
Republicans have condemned the president for linking national security with the issue of gun control, and argue that the White House seeks to take advantage of crisis and fear to push unrelated legislation. But the president says that this new kind of extremism, stoked on social media, forces the country to restrict access to the deadly weapons.
Half of the president's remarks were devoted to his fear that successful attacks could erode the character of the nation, as Republican presidential candidates debate whether to single out the Muslim American community for surveillance and ban all refugees from Muslim nations.
"We cannot turn against each other by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam," the president said.
Standing at a lectern set up in the Oval Office – a first for a primetime address to the nation, only his third speech from the room and his first since the end of US combat operations in Iraq in 2010 – Obama began his speech updating the country on an attack in San Bernardino, California, that took the lives of 14 people at a disability clinic. The perpetrators of the attack pledged support for the terror group Islamic State on social media.
They walked down "the dark path of radicalization," Obama said. But he noted there is no evidence the attack was orchestrated overseas.
Nevertheless, "they had stockpiled assault weapons, ammunition and pipe bombs," he added.
A White House official said the president was backing up his speech with action. The president seeks to deny Islamic State any safe havens, Obama said in the speech, noting the increased tempo of US-led coalition airstrikes against targets in Syria and Iraq.
"As we intensify our counter-ISIL [Islamic State] military efforts, we are also pressing forward on a reinvigorated political track in Syria," the official noted. "On November 14, participants in the International Support Group on Syria, including Russia and Iran, announced a path towards a Syrian-led political transition process."
While the president rarely uses the term "war on terror" – a phrase coined by former President George W. Bush after the attacks in 2011 – Obama said on Sunday night that the US has been "at war with terrorists since Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on 9/11."
"I am confident we will succeed in this mission because we are on the right side of history," the president said. "We were founded upon a belief in human dignity – that no matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you look like, or what religion you practice, you are equal in the eyes of God and equal in the eyes of the law."
"Even in this political season, even as we properly debate what steps I and future Presidents must take to keep our country safe, let’s make sure we never forget what makes us exceptional," he continued. "Let’s not forget that freedom is more powerful than fear; that we have always met challenges – whether war or depression, natural disasters or terrorist attacks – by coming together around our common ideals as one nation, as one people. So long as we stay true to that tradition, I have no doubt America will prevail."
Obama has also asked Homeland Security and the State Department to review how the visa program for fiances of US citizens is operated, according to a White House official.
Tashfeen Malik, one of the perpetrators of last week's attack, was born in Pakistan and lived in Saudi Arabia. She moved to the US having met her husband and terror partner to be, Chicago-born Syed Rizwan Farook, on a dating site.