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Bible Quotation For Today/You cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves
Matthew 23/13-15: "‘But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."

Bible Quotation For Today/Paul: What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
Acts of the Apostles 21/01-14: "When we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. When we found a ship bound for Phoenicia, we went on board and set sail. We came in sight of Cyprus; and leaving it on our left, we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, because the ship was to unload its cargo there. We looked up the disciples and stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. When our days there were ended, we left and proceeded on our journey; and all of them, with wives and children, escorted us outside the city. There we knelt down on the beach and prayed and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.
When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais; and we greeted the believers and stayed with them for one day. The next day we left and came to Caesarea; and we went into the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, and stayed with him.
He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophecy. While we were staying there for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. He came to us and took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, ‘Thus says the Holy Spirit, "This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles." ’ When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, ‘What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’ Since he would not be persuaded, we remained silent except to say, ‘The Lord’s will be done.’"

LCCC Latest analysis, editorials from miscellaneous sources published on July 27-28/15
Guiding Iran on the path to democracy/Jamal Khashoggi/Al Arabiya/27 July/15
Is the Gulf relationship with Washington a historical mistake/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/27 July/15
Post deal, Iran is facing a new era/Camelia Entekhabi-Fard/Al Arabiya/27 July/15
Turkey wakes up to ISIS encirclement/Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al Arabiya/27 July/15
Analysis: In post-nuclear agreement Middle East, 'It’s Syria, stupid/By ELIE PODEH /J.Post/27 July/15
Assad in a position of strength after Vienna deal with Iran. Tehran revitalizes his depleted army/DEBKAfile/July 27/15
Nuclear Iran: Is the U.S. Really Suicidal/Bassam Tawil/Gateston Institute/July 27/15
How Turkey Fights the Islamic State/Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/July 27/15
Will There Be a Future for Iraq's Christians/Todd Daniels and Sandra Eliott/27 July/15
Egyptian Writer ‘Ali Salem: Israel Has No Intention Of Occupying Sinai; Cooperation Between Egyptian And Israeli Peoples Will Benefit The Region/MEMRI/July 27/15

LCCC Bulletin titles for the Lebanese Related News published on July 27-28/15
Fletcher: Waste Crisis Similar to Lebanon's Would have Toppled the British Cabinet
Trash Collection Resumes in Beirut as Ministerial Panel Reaches 'Solution'
Bomb Goes off in Lebanese Soldier's Vehicle in Tripoli
Moqbel Meets Aoun, Says They Back Naming New Security Chiefs
Jumblat Does Not Rule out Another Naameh Landfill Extension
Cars Go Up in Flames as Protesters Continue Burning Waste in Beirut
Hollande Voices Support for Salam during Phone Talks
Geagea Slams Govt. over Waste 'Scandal', Urges Election of President to End 'Marginalization'
Man Shot in Baalbek over Real Estate Dispute
Beirut-South Highway Reopened, 7 People Injured in Anti-Trash Clash
LBCI's Syrian Reporter Killed by Rebel Fire Near Damascus
Abou Faour Urges People against Burning Piling Garbage, Calls for Patience
Salam Warns of Severe Circumstances if 'Disaster' Spirals out of Control

LCCC Bulletin Miscellaneous Reports And News published on July 27-28/15
Turkey Could 'Tip Syria balance' as Kurdish Villages Shelled
US, Turkey to create ISIS-free buffer zone in Syria
900 arrested in Turkey in sweep against ISIS, Kurdish militants
Syrian Kurdish militia reclaims town from ISIS
Turkey denies bombing of Syrian Kurdish village
NATO: Turkey has not asked for help against ISIS
Palestinian shot dead in West Bank arrest attempt
Saudi strikes suspended in Yemen to allow aid
EU Foreign Chief Due in Saudi for Talks on Iran, Yemen
s al-Shabab
Australian 'ISIS nurse' remanded in custody
Afghan official: 21 dead, 10 wounded in wedding gunfight
Seven killed as rebels attack bus, police station in India

Trash Collection Resumes in Beirut as Ministerial Panel Reaches 'Solution'
Naharnet/27 July/15/Trash collection resumed in Beirut on Monday evening after the waste management ministerial committee managed to agree on a preliminary solution to the garbage crisis. The solution involves the “immediate resumption” of waste collection in Beirut, a “balanced distribution” of Beirut and Mount Lebanon's garbage to new locations and financial “incentives” to municipalities, Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq announced after an emergency meeting at the Grand Serail. Authorities would also continue to evaluate the tenders submitted by contractors and the Council for Reconstruction and Development will establish an “operations room” to follow up on the plan's implementation, Mashnouq added. He said thermal decomposition centers will be set up for waste management. LBCI television meanwhile said the agreement involves finding locations for three new landfills. Earlier, Industry Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan announced that a “non-temporary solution” was reached for the crisis. “We reached a solution and it's not temporary,” Hajj Hassan told reporters prior to the Grand Serail talks. “It will be discussed today and agreed on and will be followed up through recommendations,” he added. Education Minister Elias Bou Saab had noted that a “vision” for a possible solution was discussed during the committee's morning meeting. The panel's agreement comes on the eve of a cabinet session that will be held Tuesday morning at the Grand Serail. The crisis that erupted on July 17 has seen streets overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage. The problem erupted after the central Naameh landfill was closed in accordance with a government decision taken earlier this year. The landfill opened in 1997. It was meant to receive trash from the capital and Mount Lebanon for only a few years until a comprehensive solution was devised. But the government kept extending the deadlines for its closure. The current crisis has prompted citizens to stage angry road-blocking protests in several regions and civil society activists have called for a sit-in outside the Grand Serail that will coincide with Tuesday's cabinet session..

Bomb Goes off in Lebanese Soldier's Vehicle in Tripoli
Naharnet/27 July/15/A bomb has targeted the vehicle of a Lebanese army chief warrant officer in the northern city of Tripoli, the state-run National News Agency reported on Monday. NNA said 200 grams of explosives went off in the gray Mercedes that was parked in a parking lot in al-Wadih street of Tripoli's al-Qobbeh area at 3:00 am. The assailants used a fuse to set off the bomb, it said. The explosion caused material damage only, stated the agency. The military expert inspected the scene of the blast and opened an investigation into the attack, NNA added.

Moqbel Meets Aoun, Says They Back Naming New Security Chiefs
Naharnet/27 July/15/Defense Minister Samir Moqbel held talks Monday with Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun in Rabieh.“I came here today to explore General Aoun's demands and we held a thorough discussion on the current situations in the country,” said Moqbel after the meeting. “The General fully supports the appointment (of new security chiefs) and I personally support this option,” the minister noted. “In the event of failure to reach consensus and appoint new officials, we will see what to do, as General Aoun said” during the meeting, Moqbel added. Aoun and Moqbel had been at loggerheads after the FPM chief accused the minister of extending the terms of several military officials in an "illegal" manner. The cabinet sessions were recently suspended for more than three weeks due to the dispute over the appointments. The bickering later escalated into a thorny debate over the cabinet's decision-making mechanism in the absence of a president, with the FPM accusing Prime Minister Tammam Salam of infringing on the powers of the Christian head of state. Aoun has been lobbying for political consensus on the appointment of Commando Regiment chief Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz, his son-in-law, as army chief as part of a package for the appointment of other top security officers. The cabinet will convene Tuesday at the Grand Serail and the issues of the decision-making mechanism and the growing garbage crisis are expected to be the focus of the session.

Jumblat Does Not Rule out Another Naameh Landfill Extension
Naharnet/27 July/15/Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat did not rule out another extension for the landfill that lies in Naameh south of Beirut to find a temporary solution for Lebanon's waste management crisis. In remarks to al-Akhbar daily published on Monday, Jumblat said that he hasn't so far seen a serious initiative to resolve the crisis which erupted when the landfill was closed on July 17 in accordance with a government decision taken earlier this year. The landfill opened in 1997. It was meant to receive trash from the capital and Mount Lebanon for only a few years until a comprehensive solution was devised. But the government kept extending the deadlines for its closure. Sukleen, which is the main company in charge of collecting trash in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, stopped its work last week after it was no longer able to store waste at its facilities. Mountains of trash have collected in the capital and suburbs meanwhile. Last week, the government postponed further discussions on the issue until Tuesday. In his remarks to the newspaper, Jumblat did not rule out a possible extension but warned that if the authorities failed to find alternative landfills, then the road to Naameh would remain blocked.
The PSP chief said that he had approved a decision to transport the capital's waste to Iqlim al-Kharroub based upon an initiative from Prime Minister Tammam Salam. But the solution should be temporary, he stressed. However, sources close to Sukleen said that the PSP leader has negotiated the company's Chairman Maysarah Sukkar to own 50% of the shares in exchange for keeping the Naameh landfill open. But Sukkar issued a statement afterward praising Jumblat and slamming media reports claiming that negotiations between the two men were underway to reach a deal. “Jumblat wins all the credit for the cleanliness that Beirut, its suburbs and Mount Lebanon -the zone that Sukleen was responsible to collect trash from- have enjoyed over the past years,” said Sukkar. “None of the company’s officials have touched or even hinted on any of the subjects circulated today in media outlets,” he added. Iqlim al-Kharroub's residents have since Sunday been blocking the highway that links Beirut with the South in the town of Jiyeh to protest such a decision. Their demonstration has caused bumper-to-bumper traffic. Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan, who like Jumblat is an MP in the Chouf district, expressed his party's “absolute rejection to reopen the Naameh landfill under any excuse.”Arslan said in a press conference he held Monday that “the Environment Ministry should have pushed for the adoption of a draft-law in parliament on waste management rather than becoming a bystander.”

Cars Go Up in Flames as Protesters Continue Burning Waste in Beirut
Naharnet/27 July/15/Two cars went ablaze Monday evening in the Beirut area of Karakol al-Druze and several citizens suffered suffocation after young men set fire to trash dumpsters to protest the accumulation of garbage on the streets, state-run National News Agency reported. A vehicle from the Beirut Fire Brigade has since arrived at the scene to put out the flames, NNA said. Angry protesters also blocked roads with burning trash dumpsters in the Salim Salam, Beshara al-Khoury and Mar Elias districts. Outside Beirut, a number of young men tried to block the eastern lane of the vital Damour highway with burning tires before being dispersed several times by security forces, NNA said. The key highway connects the capital Beirut to the South governorate.
Earlier in the day, protesters reopened the coastal highway in the Jiyeh area after receiving pledges from officials that no garbage trucks would be sent to the Iqlim al-Kharroub region.Several demonstrators and policemen were wounded in the morning during an attempt by security forces to reopen the highway by force. Health Minister Wael Abou Faour had urged citizens earlier on Monday not to burn the accumulating garbage, citing several health hazards. Trash collection had partially resumed in Beirut on Sunday but several streets are still overflowing with waste and the air is filled with the smell of rotting garbage. The collection restarted after a temporary deal was found to begin taking trash to several landfills in undisclosed locations. The crisis started after residents living near the Naameh landfill, the country's largest dumpsite, shut it down. The government pledged last year that Naameh landfill would be closed on July 17 and an alternative site be found. But the date came and went with no solution found and residents began blocking the route to the site in the mountains outside Beirut. Initially, Beirut's trash collector, the Sukleen firm, stored waste at its facilities, but by July 20 they were at capacity and garbage began piling up in the streets. Experts have urged Lebanon's government to devise a comprehensive waste management solution that would include more recycling and composting to reduce the amount of trash going into landfills.

Hollande Voices Support for Salam during Phone Talks
Naharnet/27 July/15/French President Francois Hollande has telephoned Prime Minister Tammam Salam and expressed to him France's support for Lebanon and its state institutions, state-run National News Agency said Monday. The talks tackled the current cabinet crisis in Lebanon and its repercussions on the country, NNA said. The French president expressed his regret over “the continued presidential vacuum and the Lebanese political forces' failure to agree on the election of a new president,” the agency added. Hollande lauded Salam's “wisdom,” stressing “his full support for him in the efforts aimed at preventing the spread of paralysis to the council of ministers institution,” NNA said.The French leader also emphasized that France “will continue the plan of equipping the army and security forces in Lebanon that was endorsed as part of the Saudi grant.” On Sunday, Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas, who is close to Salam, announced that the embattled premier will “announce his decision at the right time,” amid reports that the PM is on the brink of resignation over the growing cabinet crisis. “What we're seeing on the streets is an inevitable result of the cabinet paralysis,” the minister added, referring to the accumulation of garbage on the streets and street protests over the government's failure to address the waste management crisis.

Geagea Slams Govt. over Waste 'Scandal', Urges Election of President to End 'Marginalization'
Naharnet/27 July/15/Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea blasted the government on Monday over its failure to address the growing waste management crisis, describing the latest developments as a “major scandal.”“What we're witnessing today regarding the issue of waste management is a major scandal that has dangerous repercussions on the environmental, health and social security of the Lebanese,” said Geagea at an LF ceremony in Maarab.“But what's more significant is its impact on confidence in the state,” he warned. “Didn't the government take a decision four months ago to address the garbage crisis according to a specific plan? How did we reach this situation today? Who is to blame for the failure to implement the government's plan?” Geagea asked. The crisis that erupted on July 17 has seen streets overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting and burning garbage. The problem erupted after the central Naameh landfill was closed in accordance with a government decision taken earlier this year. The landfill opened in 1997. It was meant to receive trash from the capital and Mount Lebanon for only a few years until a comprehensive solution was devised. But the government kept extending the deadlines for its closure. “The issue of garbage and other problems highlight our viewpoint that a government of contradictions cannot build a country … We have our principled stances in political action and you have your bargains,” added Geagea, slamming the parties of the coalition government. Turning to the issue of the stalled presidential vote, Geagea noted that “the obstruction of the elections cannot bring us a president, neither strong nor weak.”“The road to Palestine does not go through the Baabda Palace, but the road to ending marginalization goes exactly through the Baabda Palace,” the LF added. Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun, Geagea's electoral rival in the presidential race, has repeatedly called for the election of a so-called “strong Christian president.” Aoun has also called for ending the “marginalization” of Christians in state institutions.

Man Shot in Baalbek over Real Estate Dispute
Naharnet/27 July/15/A man was shot and wounded Sunday in the Bekaa city of Baalbek over a real estate dispute, state-run National News Agency reported. “H. M. Hlaihel fired a pistol at Nader Ahmed Hlaihel, 41, in the Baalbek district of al-Qalaa over a dispute on the ownership of a real estate property,” NNA said. The victim received gunshot wounds to the foot and neck, the agency added. The shooter fled to an unknown destination as the injured man was rushed to the Dar al-Amal Hospital for treatment, the agency added. Later on Sunday, the gunman turned himself in to the Baalbek police station, NNA reported.

Beirut-South Highway Reopened, 7 People Injured in Anti-Trash Clash
Naharnet/27 July/15/Protesters reopened on Monday a vital highway that links Beirut with the South following a pledge made by Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq not to transfer waste to Iqlim al-Kharroub region without a deal with municipalities. Earlier Monday, three demonstrators and four policemen were injured during a clash when police tried to force protesters to open the Jiyeh highway. According to the state-run National News Agency, anti-riot police used water hoses to disperse the crowd that hurled security forces with rocks, resulting in the injury of three demonstrators. Four other Internal Security Forces members were wounded, NNA said. Thousands of commuters were stranded over the weekend because of the highway's closure, forcing security forces to divert traffic to internal roads. The same scene was repeated during the morning rush hour on Monday. But the ISF issued a communique saying the highway was reopened around noon Monday following efforts by al-Mashnouq to appease the protesters. The waste will not be transferred and a landfill will not be established in Iqlim al-Kharroub if no such agreement was reached with municipal chiefs and the representatives of civil society, said al-Mashnouq in a statement. He added that such a decision was reached following consultations between Prime Minister Tammam Salam, al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri and the head of the Progressive Socialist Party, MP Walid Jumblat. Other roads were also blocked on Monday in Iqlim al-Kharroub and Jadra to protest the alleged transfer of the waste to their regions. Protesters also blocked roads in several Beirut neighborhoods to pressure the authorities into finding a solution to the waste that has been piling up the streets since last week. Beirut and Mount Lebanon plunged in a waste crisis following the July 17 closure of the Naameh landfill. The government pledged last year that the landfill would be closed and an alternative site be found. But the date came and went with no solution found. Initially, trash collector Sukleen stored waste at its facilities, but by July 20 they were at capacity and garbage began piling up.

LBCI's Syrian Reporter Killed by Rebel Fire Near Damascus
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/27 July/15/A Syrian journalist working for pro-government media and Lebanon's LBCI television was killed early on Monday as he was reporting on clashes east of Damascus, state media and a monitoring group said. In a breaking news alert, Syrian state television reported the "death of National Defense Forces journalist Thaer al-Ajlani as he was covering the clashes in the Jobar area". Jobar is still mostly controlled by rebel groups including al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front. Pro-government militia, including the National Defense Forces (NDF) and Hizbullah, have surrounded the town in an attempt to recapture it. State news agency SANA also reported Ajlani's death, saying that he was covering government clashes "with takfiri (extremist Sunni) terrorist organizations" for radio station Sham FM. Ajlani was also a correspondent for the al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the government. Ajlani's last public post appeared early Monday on both Facebook and Twitter: "The Syrian army is firing barrages of rockets now towards the positions of (rebel group) Faylaq al-Rahman, (in the) east of Damascus."According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, Ajlani "was regularly embedded with the regime, NDF and Hizbullah in their battles." It said heavy fighting had erupted in Jobar on Monday morning, and that regime aircraft had conducted at least 20 strikes on the area. Rebel groups seized control of Jobar in summer 2013, and regime loyalists began their counteroffensive in September last year.

Abou Faour Urges People against Burning Piling Garbage, Calls for Patience
Naharnet/27 July/15/Health Minister Wael Abou Faour urged the people on Monday to adopt a number of precautions when tackling the ongoing trash disposal crisis.He called on them against burning waste that has overflowed in dumpsters, warning of cancer hazards it presents. People have resorted to burning dumpsters after they could no longer contain the piling waste. Abou Faour also denied during a press conference claims that the trash is conducive to the spread of malaria. In addition, he called against spraying the garbage with chemicals “in a haphazard manner,” saying instead that the Sukleen waste collection company has been sprinkling a calcium powder over the garbage to help its decomposition. The powder is not hazardous to the environment and helps prevent the spread of pests, Abou Faour explained. The minister acknowledged the “grave shortcomings” of officials in handling the waste disposal issue, saying that Prime Minister Tammam Salam, Speaker Nabih Berri, Mustaqbal Movement chief MP Saad Hariri, and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat have been carrying out contacts to reach a solution to the crisis. Abou Faour said a memo on his precautions has been sent to Sukleen and the concerned ministries. “These are temporary solutions until permanent ones are reached,” he stressed, while urging the people to exercise patience in approaching the crisis. Beirut and Mount Lebanon plunged in a waste crisis following the July 17 closure of the Naameh landfill. The government pledged last year that the landfill would be closed and an alternative site be found. But the date came and went with no solution found. Initially, Sukleen stored waste at its facilities, but by July 20 they were at capacity and garbage began piling up on the streets.

Salam Warns of Severe Circumstances if 'Disaster' Spirals out of Control
Naharnet/27 July/15/Prime Minister Tammam Salam has described the country's waste crisis as a “national disaster,” warning that street protests could spiral out of control and lead to detrimental effects. “We are facing a national disaster that is much more dangerous than some (people) imagine,” Salam told As Safir daily in remarks published on Monday. He warned that intensified street protests “would have very harmful circumstances.”Salam said that the country can no longer tolerate “intense crises because the situation in the region is different and the status-quo has changed.”The PM told As Safir, however, that a solution to the crisis was looming in the horizon. Salam headed on Sunday night a meeting that was attended by Ministers Nouhad al-Mashnouq, Mohammed al-Mashnouq, Akram Shehayyeb and Wael Abou Faour and MP Alaeddine Terro at the Grand Serail. The emergency meeting came when protesters blocked the highway that links Beirut with the South in the coastal town of Jiyeh after news broke out that the authorities were mulling to send the capital's waste to Iqlim al-Kharroub. The protesters stopped several trucks carrying trash and prevented them from entering the region. A day earlier activists held a protest near the Grand Serail in downtown Beirut calling on Salam and the environment minister to resign. The waste management crisis erupted on July 17 following the closure of the Naameh landfill south of Beirut which since 1997 has been receiving trash from the capital and Mount Lebanon. The landfill was meant to operate for only a few years until a comprehensive solution was devised. But the government has so far failed to resolve the issue. It is set to discuss the matter during a session on Tuesday.

Turkey Could 'Tip Syria balance' as Kurdish Villages Shelled
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/27 July/15/
Turkish tanks shelled Kurdish-held villages in northern Syria, rebels and activists said Monday, as Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned that a military campaign by Ankara could "change the balance" in the region.
With its warplanes also hitting Kurdish targets in neighboring northern Iraq again on Sunday, Turkey called an extraordinary NATO meeting for Tuesday over its cross-border "anti-terror" offensive against Kurdish separatists and Islamic State jihadists. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey was poised to join coalition air strikes against the Islamic State group having agreed to open its airbases to the U.S. forces. "Turkey is going to actively join the air attacks," he said on a visit to Portugal, with officials hinting the first U.S. bombing raids on IS from Turkish air bases could start in early August. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg defended Turkey's right to defend itself but told the BBC "of course self-defense has to be proportionate."But he cautioned Turkey about burning bridges with the Kurds. "For years there has been progress to try to find a peaceful political solution," he told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK. "It is important not to renounce that... because force will never solve the conflict in the long term."However, a Turkish official said on condition of anonymity that "operations will, if needed, continue until the PKK terror command centers... and all depots to store arms to be used against Turkey are destroyed."The Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) -- which pushed IS out of the Syrian flashpoint of Kobane early this year with the help of Western air strikes -- said Turkish tanks hit its positions overnight and those of allied Arab rebels in the village of Zur Maghar in Aleppo province. The "heavy tank fire" wounded four members of the allied rebel force and several villagers, the YPG -- which Turkey accuses of being allied to its outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- said in a statement. But Turkish officials denied deliberately targeting Syrian Kurds and said it was responding to fire from the Syrian side of the border. "The bombing of the village is out of the question," a foreign ministry official told AFP. "Turkey has its rules of engagement. If there's fire from the Syrian side, it will be retaliated in kind."As the bombardments were going on, Davutoglu told a group of Turkish newspaper editors that Ankara's intervention would "change the balance" in the region, but ruled out sending ground troops into Syria.
Deal with U.S
He denied Turkey was worried by Kurdish gains against jihadists in northern Syria, pointing to Ankara's good relations with the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq. Turkey has given a green light to the United States to use its Incirlik air base to attack IS targets after months of tough negotiations. Davutoglu said the agreement met the concerns of Ankara, which had been pressing for a no-fly zone, "to a certain extent," according to the Hurriyet daily. "Air cover is important, the air protection for the Free Syrian Army and other moderate elements fighting Daesh," he said, referring to IS by an Arabic acronym. "If we will not send ground forces -- and that we will not do -- then certain elements that cooperate with us on the ground must be protected," Davutoglu added. Ankara sources hinted that the first U.S. bombing missions out of Incirlik could start in early August with "elements of the Turkish Air Forces... deployed with the same objective in these operations."
Clashes on the streets
Tensions are running high in Turkey, with police dispersing nightly protests in Istanbul and other major cities denouncing IS and the government's policies on Syria.Davutoglu ordered the air strikes and artillery barrages after IS violence spilled over into Turkey last Monday with a suicide bombing in a town close to the Syrian border that killed 32 people. This incensed Turkey's Kurds, who have long accused the government of colluding with IS, allegations it denies.Protests raged over the weekend in a Kurdish and leftist district of Istanbul, leaving one policeman dead, as 900 people with alleged links to IS, the PKK and other leftist organizations were rounded up, officials said. Ankara started its campaign Friday by shelling IS targets in Syria but then expanded it to air strikes on PKK rebels in northern Iraq who are bitterly opposed to the jihadists. The strikes seemed to torpedo long-running peace talks, with the separatists saying conditions were no longer in place to observe its ceasefire. The PKK's military wing, the People's Defense Forces (HPG), claimed a car bomb attack that killed two Turkish soldiers on Sunday in Diyarbakir province. It said three of its own fighters had been killed in Turkish air strikes Saturday, after one was killed in the first wave.Two Turkish policemen were shot dead Wednesday while sleeping in their homes in the southeast, in murders also claimed by the PKK. Meanwhile Turkey, NATO's only majority Muslim member, called an extraordinary meeting of NATO ambassadors Tuesday for talks on its military operations. The White House backs its right to bomb the PKK which the U.S. also categorizes as a terror group. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Davutoglu "not to give up the peace process with the Kurds."

US, Turkey to create ISIS-free buffer zone in Syria
News Agencies/Ynetnews/Published: 07.27.15 / Israel News
Kurds in Syria advance against Islamic State positions with help of US airstrikes; Turkey rides fine line, striking ISIS and Kurdish forces simultaneously. The United States and Turkey are finalizing plans for a military campaign to push the Islamic State out of a strip of land along the Turkey-Syria border, deepening efforts to halt the extremists' advances. A US official says the "Islamic State-free zone" aims to ensure greater security and stability along the border. However, the official says any joint military efforts with Turkey would not include the imposition of a no-fly zone. Turkey has been pushing the US to set up a no-fly zone, though Washington has long denied those requests. Turkey did agree last week to let the US launch strikes against the Islamic State from one of its bases. The official insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the talks with Turkey. Meanwhile, the Kurdish YPG militia on Monday captured a town from Islamic State fighters in northern Syria after a month-long offensive against the ultra hard-line militants in the area to cut their supply lines, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Observatory said the town near the Euphrates River was a launch pad for Islamic State to wage raids on the Kurdish-held town of Kobani further north at the border with Turkey.US-led air strikes assisted the Kurds in the assault, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory.
Conflicting Strategy
Turkish troops however, shelled positions held the Kurdish fighters who were battling the Islamic State group with the aid of the US, Syria's main Kurdish militia and an activist group said Monday. The Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, said the Sunday night shelling on the border village of Til Findire targeted one of their vehicles. It said Til Findire is east of the border town of Kobani, where the Kurds handed a major defeat to the Islamic State group earlier this year. In cross-border strikes since Friday, Turkey has targeted both Kurdish fighters as well as ISIS, stepping up its involvement in Syria's increasingly complex civil war. The Syrian Kurds are among the most effective ground forces battling ISIS group, but Turkey fears they could revive an insurgency against Ankara in pursuit of an independent state.A Turkish official said Turkish forces are only targeting Islamic State forces in Syria and the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in neighboring Iraq. The official said the "ongoing military operation seeks to neutralize imminent threats to Turkey's national security and continues to target ISIS in Syria and the PKK in Iraq.""The PYD, along with others, remains outside the scope of the current military effort," the official said, referring to the political arm of the YPG. The official added that authorities were "investigating claims that the Turkish military engaged positions held by forces other than ISIS." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of rules that bar officials from speaking to journalists without authorization. The YPG did not say in its Monday statement whether there were casualties in the shelling.

900 arrested in Turkey in sweep against ISIS, Kurdish militants
By Ayla Jean Yackley | Reuters, Istanbul/Monday, 27 July 2015/Turkish police detained dozens more suspected Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Kurdish militants in early morning raids on Monday, local media said, amid a crackdown on the armed groups and air strikes in Syria and Iraq. Long a reluctant member of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, Turkey last week made a dramatic turnaround by granting the alliance access to its air bases and bombarding targets in Syria linked to the jihadist movement as well as detaining suspected members in Turkish cities. Turkish jets also attacked Kurdish insurgent camps in Iraq for a second night on Sunday, in a campaign that could end Ankara's peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Broadcaster CNN Turk said more than 900 suspected ISIS and PKK members had been arrested in the past week in a domestic crackdown carried out alongside the air strikes. Some 500 police swept through the Haci Bayram district of the capital Ankara and detained 15 ISIS suspects, 11 of them foreign, the pro-government Yeni Safak daily said. Operations also took place in the southeastern city of Adiyaman, where 19 people with alleged links to the PKK were detained, it reported. Turkey's air strikes on PKK camps in northern Iraq come despite negotiations with the rebels that were launched in 2012 to end a 30-year insurgency. The PKK has said the action has rendered the peace process meaningless. The Syrian Kurdish YPG, which has links to the PKK but which has coordinated with the United States in the fight against Islamic ISIS its positions on the outskirts of the ISIS-held town of Jarablus.

Syrian Kurdish militia reclaims town from ISIS
By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News/Monday, 27 July 2015/Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militias, aided by U.S.-led airstrikes, reclaimed the town of Sarrin held by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. The Observatory said the town near the Euphrates River was a launchpad for ISIS to wage raids on the Kurdish-held town of Kobane further north at the border with Turkey. U.S.-led air strikes assisted the Kurds in the assault, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory. Also on Monday, two bombs hit the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria, wounding at least three people, Reuters news agency reported citing the Observatory. The first blast hit a patrol of Kurdish fighters from the YPG and wounded three people, the Britain-based monitoring group said. The second bomb appeared to have targeted Kurdish local security forces, it said, reporting injuries but no precise toll. State television also reported the two bomb attacks. Kurdish activist Arin Shekhmos said the first blast had targeted a YPG car on patrol but that the wounded were civilians. He said the second blast hit a market area and that three civilians had been wounded. Qamishli is Syria's biggest Kurdish-majority city, and considered by the Kurds to be the capital of Hasakeh province. The city has been targeted by bombings before, with the Islamic State group believed to be behind the attacks. [With reuters]

Turkey denies bombing of Syrian Kurdish village
AFP, Beirut/Monday, 27 July 2015/Turkey did not bomb Kurdish YPG positions in a village in northern Syria, a Turkish foreign ministry official said on Monday, denying a claim by the militia group that its positions had been shelled. The YPG earlier said the Turkish army shelled its positions in a village on the outskirts of the ISIS-held border town of Jarablus and urged Ankara to halt attacks on its forces. A Turkish government official told AFP earlier on Monday that the Turkish military are not targeting Syrian Kurds.
“The ongoing military operation seeks to neutralize imminent threats to Turkey's national security and continues to target ISIS in Syria and the PKK in Iraq,” the official told AFP, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.He said the Syrian Kurdish “PYG, along with others, remains outside the scope of the current military effort.”In a statement, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said Turkish tanks hit its positions and those of allied Arab rebels in the village of Zur Maghar in Aleppo province.“It is an aggression that should be stopped,” it said. The “heavy tank fire” wounded four members of the allied rebel force and several villagers, the YPG said.
It said there was a second, later round of shelling against Zur Maghar and another village in the same area. The Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said: “We are investigating claims that the Turkish military engaged positions held by forces other than ISIS.” Turkey has launched a two-pronged “anti-terror” cross-border offensive against jihadists and the PKK militants after a wave of violence in the country, pounding their positions with air strikes and artillery. Early on Monday, Turkish police detained 15 people with suspected links to the ISIS in the Hacibayram district of the capital Ankara, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. Eleven of the 15 detainees were foreigners, Anatolia said, adding that the operation was backed by around 500 police officers who raided several addresses. The Turkish official told AFP the operations against IS and PKK were continuing, adding that a total of 900 people had been detained so far with links to the IS, PKK and other leftist organizations. “We are fighting against all terrorist organizations,” said the official. In a separate development, the Turkish lira fell below 2.76 to the dollar on Monday, its lowest since June 9, with traders citing security concerns.
‘Situation in the Mideast’
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iraq, and better cooperation in fighting ISIS, the Kremlin said late on Sunday. During a telephone conversation, both sides stressed that all interested states should boost efforts to successfully combat the spread of terrorism and extremism, the Kremlin said in a statement.NATO called an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss security at the request of Turkey after a recent suicide bombing there and to discuss Turkish operations against ISIS and PKK Kurdish militants.

NATO: Turkey has not asked for help against ISIS
By AFP | Oslo/Monday, 27 July 2015/Turkey has not asked for substantial military help from NATO in its campaign against ISIS and Kurdish militants, the alliance’s chief said on Monday, a day before it meets to discuss the fighting. Jens Stoltenberg also warned Turkey that its bombing campaign could endanger the progress that has been made in recent years toward reaching a peace deal with Kurdish militants. NATO ambassadors are due to meet on Tuesday at Ankara’s request to discuss the spike of violence between Turkey, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants and Kurdish militants.“Turkey has a very strong army and very strong security forces. So there has been no request for any substantial NATO military support,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with the BBC. Turkey bombed ISIS positions in Syria for the first time last week, after a suicide bombing blamed on the militants killed 32 people on the border with the war-torn nation. It has also bombed positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq for the first time in four years, after the militants, who accuse Ankara of colluding with the Islamists, claimed the killing of two police officers. While applauding Ankara for joining the fight against the ISIS, the NATO chief cautioned that “self-defense has to be proportionate.”And in an interview with Norwegian television late Sunday, he warned that Turkey’s strikes on Kurdish militants risked undermining years of tortuous peace talks. “For years there has been progress to try to find a peaceful political solution. It is important not to renounce that... because force will never solve the conflict in the long term.” Turkey regards the PKK, which has waged a deadly insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984, as a terror group and the main Syrian Kurdish group fighting IS -- the Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- as the PKK’s Syrian branch.

Palestinian shot dead in West Bank arrest attempt
ReutersMonday, 27 July 2015/A Palestinian wanted on suspicion of planning a militant attack fell to his death from a rooftop on Monday as he fled from police in the occupied West Bank, Israeli police said, an account disputed by a witness. Israeli forces have killed three Palestinians in the West Bank in the past week in raids that they say foil attacks. A police spokeswoman said the man, identified by Qalandiya residents as 19-year-old Mohammed Abu Latifa, ignored paramilitary police officers' orders to halt and climbed onto a rooftop where police shot him in the lower body to stop him. “Nonetheless, the wanted man continued fleeing, and when he tried to move to another roof, he tripped and fell, and was fatally injured as a result,” she said. However, Shahdi Awad, who lives in a neighbouring building and who said he saw the incident, told Reuters Abu Latifa was shot dead and had not fallen off the roof. “He was shot repeatedly on the rooftop, and that's where he stayed until the soldiers came and took down the body,” he said. Palestinians who saw Abu Latifa said he had gunshot wounds in his legs but no clear sign of damage elsewhere. Palestinian doctors said his family's had refused permission for an autopsy. The police spokeswoman, Luba Samri, said, “He (Awad) can say whatever he wants. Our account is what happened.”
She said that Abu Latifa, and a second man arrested without incident in Qalandiya, were “suspected of planning a terrorist attack within Israel.” Qalandiya residents said Abu Latifa was a member of the Fatah political party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but that they had no knowledge of him having any affiliation with armed factions within the party.

Saudi strikes suspended in Yemen to allow aid
AFP, Sanaa/Monday, 27 July 2015/The Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed militiamen in Yemen suspended its air war Monday to allow desperately needed aid deliveries, but clashes persisted in several areas on the ground, witnesses said. The Houthi militia, who control swathes of the country, including the capital Sanaa, said they had not been consulted about the unilateral coalition ceasefire that began at midnight (Sunday 2100 GMT). The Houthis rejected the ceasefire on Monday, according to a message posted on Twitter Sunday. The truce proposed by the “Saudi aggressor" is aimed at enabling pro-government fighters to regroup, rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi was quoted as saying on a Twitter account believed to be managed by his group. The Arab regional coalition, which has waged four months of air strikes in support of exiled President Abedrabbu Mansour Hadi, announced the five-day truce to allow emergency supplies to flow into the impoverished nation. It reserved the right to respond to “military activity or movement” but there were no reports of new air raids by dawn despite several new attacks by the rebels. The Houthis bombarded areas overnight in the southern provinces of Taez, Lahj and Dhaleh, according to witnesses and military sources. Rebel tanks fired on residential areas in Jebel Sabr in Taez, witnesses said, sparking clashes with loyalist troops that caused an unknown number of deaths on both sides, witnesses said. In Marib to the east of the capital Sanaa, fighting broke out before dawn when rebels launched an offensive against loyalist positions, residents said.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon earlier made a plea for all sides to “agree to and maintain the humanitarian pause for the sake of all the Yemeni people.” But Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the self-described “president of the High Committee of the Revolution,” a body formed by Houthi militants, said in comments published by the rebel-controlled Saba news agency Sunday that his group had not been consulted by the U.N. about the ceasefire. The group could therefore not give a “negative or positive” answer about the truce, he said. The United Nations says the conflict has killed more than 3,640 people, around half of them civilians, since late March. Relief supplies, however, have recently begun to trickle into Aden after loyalist fighters secured the southern port city, which had been Hadi’s last refuge before he fled to Saudi Arabia in March. Several ships have docked in Aden since Tuesday carrying thousands of tons of aid supplies sent by the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) and Gulf nations but distributing the aid, particularly outside the city, presents a major challenge.

EU Foreign Chief Due in Saudi for Talks on Iran, Yemen
Agence France Presse/Naharnet /27 July/15/EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini was due in Saudi Arabia on Monday to explain the agreement she helped broker on Iran's nuclear program, and to push for an end to Yemen's war. Mogherini is to hold talks with Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in the latest visit by a top Western official aimed at easing Saudi concerns over the deal with its regional rival. On Tuesday she flies to Iran to discuss implementation of the July 14 Vienna agreement that seeks to curb any Iranian attempt to get an atomic bomb. The European Union played a leading role in years of talks between Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, Germany and Iran. U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter visited Saudi Arabia to discuss the deal last week. Mogherini has hailed the agreement as a "sign of hope for the entire world.""She believes it's a good deal and should be welcomed," a European diplomatic source told AFP ahead of her Riyadh visit. The accord requires Iran to curb its nuclear capabilities including the number of uranium centrifuges. International monitors will supervise the process, and in exchange an embargo that has crippled Iran's economy will be eased. The deal would see Iran's oil exports gradually resume and billions of dollars in frozen assets unblocked. Last week, Jubeir said the agreement appeared to have effective safeguards, including an inspection mechanism as well as a provision to reinstate sanctions if world powers feel Iran has not met its commitments. But he said Tehran's support for regional "terrorism" remained a concern. Riyadh and its fellow Sunni-dominated neighbors accuse their Shiite regional rival of meddling in Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. The diplomatic source said there was "a need for a political solution" in Yemen, another subject to be raised during Mogherini's visit. "Maybe the latest developments on the ground will make this easier," the source said. Iran-backed Huthi rebels, aided by forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, advanced from their traditional northern stronghold in Yemen last year. They seized territory and moved on the southern city of Aden where internationally supported President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi took refuge. He fled to Saudi Arabia, which assembled an Arab coalition that began bombing the Huthis. Anti-rebel fighters on the ground last week regained control of much of Aden. The coalition unilaterally announced a five-day truce that began at midnight (Sunday 2100 GMT) so aid can reach a country facing what the United Nations has described as an "unfolding humanitarian catastrophe." The diplomatic source said Mogherini would also discuss Syria and Iraq, where Islamic State group jihadists have seized territory and carried out widespread atrocities. European nations, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states are part of a U.S.-led military coalition against IS, a group which has inspired attacks in Europe as well as in the kingdom.

Obama vows to keep up pressure on Somalia’s al-Shabab
Associated Press, Mogadishu/Sunday, 26 July 2015/U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday praised recent advances by Somali and African Union troops against al-Shabab militants, but said it was important to keep up the pressure. Speaking in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Obama said the al-Qaeda-affiliated militants offer nothing but “death and destruction”. “Ethiopia faces serious threats,” Obama said. “We’ve got more work to do.”U.S. President Barack Obama (L) takes part in a welcome ceremony with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn (R) at the National Palace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia July 27, 2015. (AP) The comments followed an bloody attack on one of Mogadishu's most secure hotels, which severely damaged the building killing 15 people including a Kenya diplomat, a Chinese embassy guard and three journalists. The scale of the truck bomb used against the Jazeera Hotel has stunned Mogadishu, a capital long used to conflict and raises fears of an escalation of force by the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab group battling the government. Somalia's foreign minister Abdisalam Omer told The Associated Press by phone from Djibouti that a Kenyan diplomat was also wounded in the attack. The attack was claimed by the al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabab group and also wounded some 20 people. The walled, luxury Jazeera Hotel is considered the most secure in Somalia’s capital and is frequented by diplomats, foreigners and visiting heads of state. “This is really scary - destroying the Jazeera hotel like this means no blast walls can make anyone safe,” said bystander Yusuf Mohammed. The use of huge truck bombs is a relatively new phenomenon and throws into doubt whether any place in the capital is now adequately protected. While blast destroyed at least eight rooms and stunned the residents of the Somali capital, it wasn’t as bad as it might have been because the truck, which contained a ton of explosives, was stopped at the blast walls outside the hotel. “The damage is big but a lot less because the truck bomb couldn’t go beyond the walls that lay a few meters from the hotel’s perimeter walls,” said Mohammed Abdi, a police officer. Nervous soldiers fired in the air to disperse a crowd who surged toward the hotel after the blast as medical workers transported wounded victims into awaiting ambulances. The attack comes as Somali forces backed by troops from the African Union have launched an offensive, dubbed Operation Jubba Corridor, to push al-Shabab out of its last strongholds. The coalition already has driven the group out of the capital. In a statement, Al-Shabab said the attack was in retaliation for the deaths of dozens of civilians at the hands of Ethiopian forces, which are part of the AU force, and that the hotel was targeted because it hosts “Western” embassies coordinating the offensive. The attack came as President Barack Obama was leaving neighboring Kenya for Ethiopia. The president’s visit has included discussions about how to deal with the threat of al-Shabab. On Sunday, the White House Press Office issued a statement condemning the attack and extending condolences to the families of the victims. “Despite the very real progress Somalia has achieved in recent years, this attack is yet another reminder of the unconscionable atrocities that terrorist groups continue to perpetrate against the people of Somalia,” the statement read, adding that the United States remains steadfast in its commitment to work with Somalia to bring an end to such acts of terrorism.

Australian 'ISIS nurse' remanded in custody
By AFP | Melbourne/Monday, 27 July 2015/An Australian nurse who allegedly joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria was Monday remanded in custody on terror charges relating to carrying out guard duty and reconnaissance for the militants. Adam Brookman, a 39-year-old father-of-five, is accused of knowingly providing support to ISIS between April 2010 and August 2014 to help "prepare or foster" a terrorist act. No bail was applied for and he was remanded until November 16. Brookman voluntarily returned home from the war-torn country late Friday after surrendering to officials in Turkey last week. Ahead of his arrival back in Australia, he claimed to Fairfax Media that he carried out humanitarian work in Syria and was forced to join IS after being injured and sent to territory it controlled.
Knowingly providing support to a terrorist organisation carries a maximum jail term of 25 years. Brookman also faces up to 10 years in prison for a second charge of performing services with the intention of supporting a person, or persons, to engage in a hostile activity in a foreign state. Prosecutors asked the Melbourne Magistrates Court for extra time to gather evidence from overseas while defence lawyer Rob Stary argued that his client was not a risk to the public. The Australian government has been vocal on insisting that anyone found to be engaged in terrorist activities would face the full force of the law with Canberra's rhetoric stepped up in recent months. It comes as fears grow about the number of Australians fighting with militant groups and concern about the threat at home from radicalized individuals. The government says some 120 Australians have left to fight in Iraq or Syria with 160 actively supporting extremist organizations at home through financing and recruitment. Brookman's case coincided with a teenager accused of supplying weapons for a foiled terrorist attack in Melbourne pleading guilty a host of charges Monday. Mehran Azami, 19, admitted 19 charges of importing more than 200 weapons, including knives, knuckle-dusters and tasers, linked to an alleged ISIS-inspired plot to target Anzac Day commemorations in April.
A court previously heard that he allegedly passed some of the weapons to two 18-year-olds, Sevdet Besim and Harun Causevic, who were also arrested over the plot. They both face terrorism-related charges and remain in custody. Canberra raised the national terror threat level to high in September, and has conducted several counter-terrorism raids in various cities since then, foiling six attacks.

Afghan official: 21 dead, 10 wounded in wedding gunfight
Afghanistan, Kabul/Monday, 27 July 2015/A shootout at a wedding party in northern Afghanistan has left 21 people dead and another 10 wounded, an official said Monday. Jaweed Basharat, the governor of Baghlan province, said a gunfight broke out between two groups attending the wedding in Andarab district late Sunday. Most of the dead were wedding guests aged 14 to 60 years old, he said. Baghlan and other provinces of the north have been plagued by insurgent attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the Taliban. However, the war is often used as a cover for criminal activity and personal feuds. The police chief of Andarab, Col. Gulistan Qasani, said hostility between the two groups involved in the gunfight had been simmering for many years. “The clash broke out after a relative of a provincial police official was assassinated during the wedding party,” Qasani said. He said some 400 people had gathered at a private house for the wedding of a local mullah’s son. “When we collected the bodies it was difficult to determine who were the shooters and who were not, because I could not find any weapons,” Qasani said.

Seven killed as rebels attack bus, police station in India
AFP, New Delhi/Monday, 27 July 2015/Indian army commandos and police were in a gunfight Monday with militants who attacked a bus station and stormed into police barracks in a northern town bordering Pakistan, with at least seven people dead.
Harchanran Singh Bains, a Punjab state government spokesman, said two of the dead were militants. It was not immediately known if all of the other five were police. Senior police officer Dinkar Gupta said the attackers, believed to have come from the Indian portion of Kashmir, hijacked a car and then fired at a bus station and entered a nearby police station near Gurdaspur, a border town in Punjab state. Army and police reinforcements poured into the area and were exchanging gunfire with the rebels holed up in the barracks, he said.Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar said army commandos had joined the police operations. New Delhi Television news channel said three to four rebels carried out the attack near Gurdaspur, which is 450 kilometers (280 miles) north of New Delhi. State-run All India Radio said that separately police had discovered five bombs on a railway track in the area, causing train services to be suspended. Rebels have been fighting for an independent Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan since 1989. However, Monday’s attack came in the neighboring Punjab state, which witnessed militancy by Sikhs in the 1980s.

Guiding Iran on the path to democracy
Jamal Khashoggi/Al Arabiya/Monday, 27 July 2015
After closing the Iranian nuclear deal, European and U.S. politicians started to promote the idea of a dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Iran to solve the region’s problems. This proposition seems logical. If the two countries come to terms, most of the region’s problems would be dealt with regardless of Iran’s discouraging statements filled with expressions such as “supporting the axis of resistance” and “the militants in the region” which only mean that it will pursue the same policy that leads to confrontation with the kingdom. But let’s suppose that Riyadh responded to the call of its allies in the West and opened the door of dialogue with Tehran, how will it be implemented? Iranians love debates and marathon negotiations as well as shirking their obligations. In case Saudi Arabia agrees to enter a direct dialogue with Iran, the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Javad Zarif, will rush to Riyadh accompanied by historians, theorists and professors in political science and economy. The reunion will eventually involve lots of smiles and expressions of affection, an unending conversation about “Islamic unity,” and even prayers and tears. Meanwhile, shipments of Iranian-made barrel-bombs will continue to be sent to Bashar al-Assad and Haider al-Abadi and, if possible, they will be sent to the Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh too. The solution resides in establishing a well-defined proposition they will have to either accept or refuse and leading them on the path of democracy in Syria and Yemen. A historical reconciliation would then be achieved between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Either they accept negotiations in such a context or all ends there, a historical confrontation being the only option left. Iranians will most probably go back to their old ways. However, we can counteract that through adopting international resolutions
If the head of the Saudi Negotiating Delegation and Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir asks them to stop their interventions in the region, they will object and say that they are supporting a revolution in Yemen and a legitimate political regime in Syria. If he accepts pursuing the negotiations according to their reasoning and considers that the Houthis are no revolutionary movement but the perpetrators of a coup that abolished other Yemeni forces, and that Assad is rejected by his people and his regime is no longer legitimate, Iranians will argue saying that the Houthis held a legitimate revolution and will prove this by showing photos of massive crowds taken weeks ago in Sanaa at the Quds Day celebrations which were only celebrated by themselves and their partisans. Zarif will then ask with a smile on his face: “What do you call this my friend? Can a rejected coup gather all these millions?” Another member of the Iranian delegation will then step in and ask: “What is your definition of a legitimate regime?” Here, in case the Saudi delegation is swept along by their logic and presents a detailed study about the right definition of a legitimate regime and evidence of the Houthi coup, the Iranian will, in turn, produce a refutation and set the pace for a series of endless futile negotiations. Meanwhile, a second or third shipment of barrel-bombs will be sent to Assad to be dropped on children and women in Aleppo and Daraa. On the other hand, the assistant of the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs would have arrived to Moscow in order to urge the Russians to submit a resolution to the U.N. Security Council requiring that the Saudi-led military coalition blockade be lifted on Yemeni airports and ports so as to “alleviate the suffering of civilians there” which, in reality, is a mere attempt to recover from military setbacks they have been suffering from.
Real reconciliation
Above was a model of Saudi-Iranian negotiations; however, the two countries are still in need of a real reconciliation. They are getting into a confrontation that will inevitably harm them both if the Iranian “rioting,” as Adel al-Jubeir called it, continues. How can the positive climate of the historical reconciliation between Iran and Washington be exploited? The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is on his way to Jeddah. Perhaps, he will urge Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Iran as the American government would like to wash their hands of the negative aspects of the deal that didn’t address Tehran’s expansionist policy in the region. They have indeed surrendered to Iran’s insistence on concluding a nuclear agreement only.
But, as I have already said, negotiating with Tehran is fruitless and useless if concerned matters are addressed generally. It would be better to push it onto an undisputable path of democracy to resolve the conflict between the two countries in Yemen and Syria and postpone the case of Iraq given that the latter has already taken that particular path. Even though Abadi’s government is flawed and sectarian, it was at least elected by Iraq’s people. Saudi Arabia will say: “We accept that the majority in both countries governs just as we approved that the pro-Iranian Shiite majority takes control in Iraq.” As usual, Iran will try to evade its responsibilities by saying: “What do you know about democracy? If you do not practice it in your own country, how will you be able to implement it in Syria and Yemen?” The answer to this question is: War, sedition, state collapses and disputes over governance are not happening in Saudi Arabia or Iran. We are a stable Islamic country governed by a royal family and you are a stable Islamic Republic. Let’s maintain the stability of our countries and commit ourselves to not interfering in each other’s affairs. We won’t discuss the flaws of your democratic system nor the events of 2009 nor the detained candidate Mir Hossein Mosavi and his reformist supporters. These are your internal affairs. However, Syria and Yemen are republics with their constitution stating that the people are the source of all power. Therefore, let us stop interfering in those countries and abide by the resolution of the U.N. Security Council under chapter VII penalizing any country that sends weapons or militias there. Hezbollah will be asked to withdraw from Syria along with all the Shiite factions sent there whereas, in Yemen, let us prepare the way for free elections through withdrawing rebels from cities and military barracks. Let the detainees be released and the legitimate president get back to power. Let us all support the deployment of peacekeeping forces in both countries along with all the countries that signed the Vienna agreement. Elections need preparation that will take one year or more in Syria and less in Yemen. This will enable us to help millions of Syrians to come back home and whoever cannot do so, may vote from where he is. This is a logical peace proposition compatible with the spirit of reconciliation between our Great Satan (Iran) and yours (the U.S.). Iranians will most probably go back to their old ways. However, we can counteract that through adopting international resolutions, maintaining a decisive policy, raising the level of support to the Syrian revolution, and backing up the Turks while urging them to fulfill their pledges of intervention in the North. We will not back down before getting a favorable answer from Iran. Any other alternative will fuel a major confrontation that takes no half-solutions. It is either us, with our inclusive democratic project and the reconstruction of our pluralistic Syria and Yemen, or them, with their sectarian project.

Is the Gulf relationship with Washington a historical mistake?
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/Al Arabiya/Monday, 27 July 2015
The U.S. administration’s deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program, which ends sanctions and paves way for openness with Iran, was viewed by some as a mean move by Washington against its old allies who were loyal for over five decades, while others considered that the deal requires a reconsideration of relations with Washington.The relationship between Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf countries with the U.S. is not an ordinary one and is a prime example of what diplomacy can achieve in our region. Those who don’t know what it has achieved do not value it and do not have a deep understanding of politics. Relations are usually established within the context of mutual interests and based on the respect of charters, and they must not be viewed on the basis of mythical conspiracy theories nor endowed with more interpretation than can be tolerated or supported in terms of prior commitments. Relations are thus based on mutual interests and on respecting agreements, including non-written ones. The relationship with Washington is not based on nationalistic, religious or emotional ties. Its pillars are oil, commerce and political consensus over several issues, though not all affairs. There are differences between the two parties,the Gulf countries and Washington, and those differences will continue to exist. This relationship is not akin to that between Washington and Britain though it is still more solid than that of the U.S. with some other Arab and Islamic countries.
Stable and respectful
The Americans have found Arab Gulf countries to be stable and respectful of their agreements, unlike others like Libya and Iran which are unsettled and hostile. They’ve agreed with the Arab Gulf states on most affairs and there’s a long list of examples of such occasions. Even when the Saudis disagreed with them over strategic issues, like ending the authority of American companies over the oil company Aramco, the dispute was resolved in a friendly manner that suited both parties. This is unlike the case with Iranian, Libyan and Iraqi oil-related affairs which remained controversial for decades due to the mismanagement of the dispute. Now, there is a dispute between the Gulf countries and the U.S. in regards to the Western agreement with Iran. This represents the worst disagreement in the history of both sides If we put the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Washington within context, formulated by leaders King Abdulaziz al-Saud and Dwight Eisenhower in 1945 aboard cruiser Quincy, we’d realize its benefits in regards to all the crises we’ve faced since then. Note, however, that the relationship with Washington dates back to World War I. However, at that time, the Americans refrained from getting involved in political and military endeavors outside their continent and left the arena open for European powers. Gulf countries, in cooperation with the U.S., overcame dangerous ordeals since the 1950’s, confronting the Nasserite tide in the 1960’s, the Iraqi Baathists and the southern Yemeni communists in the 1970’s, the Iranian developments in the 1980’s and the Iraqi invasion in the 1990’s, and they have also addressed Iranian threats since 2000. Without major alliances, it’s difficult for countries to overcome such threats, which were also linked to major international alliances during the Cold War. It’s no coincidence that countries which are still standing on their feet actually have similar policies and alliances –this includes Gulf countries, Jordan and Morocco. Except for Algeria, all other regimes collapsed or totally morphed.
Economic situation
The economic situation is similar to the political one. It’s no coincidence that Gulf countries produce 15 million barrels of oil per day while Iran has been incapable of producing more than 3 million barrels per day despite all its attempts and the help it received from the Russians and Chinese for the last thirty years. Iran failed because the U.S. refused to grant it the technology and expertise to develop its production, and it failed even though Iranian topography is similar to its Gulf neighbors. Iran owns the second largest oil reserve in the Middle East, right after Saudi Arabia. Iraq comes in third, some even say first, but due to its struggles with the West and its alliances in the region, it has failed to develop a domestic oil industry. This is the result of political relations and not of specific business deals.
Of course, there have always been disagreements between the two parties (the Gulf and Washington) in regards to several cases, most notably Palestine. Palestine was highly problematic but it was not allowed to sabotage the entire relation because the Arab Gulf states were aware that Arabs who allied themselves with the Soviet Union did not achieve any gains, rights or victories nor retrieve any land for the Palestinian people. There were other disputes but most of them were temporary. For example, there was an occasion when Saudi Arabia refused to grant Washington the right to use its territory to attack Afghanistan in 2001, while Iran accepted. At the same time, Saudi Arabia provided the Americans with information in their hunt for al-Qaeda over the past decade.
Now, there is a dispute between the Gulf countries and the U.S., in regards to the Western agreement with Iran. This represents the worst disagreement in the history of both sides. However, it will most likely not lead to the rupture or alteration of alliances – at least this is what I think. Those who wrote articles gloating about what happened or condemning the relationship altogether do not see beyond this crisis which will certainly require huge diplomatic efforts to be fixed. This is not the first time the U.S. government has taken decisions in the region which contradict Riyadh’s opinion, however, this is normal considering each country has its own interests.

Post deal, Iran is facing a new era
Camelia Entekhabi-Fard/Al Arabiya/Monday, 27 July 2015
The world can breathe a collective sigh now that a nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 has been reached. Even at this stage, however, there is still opposition to the deal in both Iran and the U.S.. It should be said, however, that is highly unlikely that the U.S. Congress will reject the deal after it has been endorsed by the United Nations. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed Vienna agreement on July 20, said that all the sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program be lifted upon the implementation.
The outcome of the negotiations were also spurred on by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, much to the chagrin of hardliners A very promising future, especially in the economic sector, awaits Iran if diplomacy can remain open at this juncture.
For the first time since the revolution in 1979, diplomacy played a great role to solve this nation’s disputed nuclear file with the Western powers and to prevent another war in the region. A testament to change. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, with his skills and ability, is testament to the changes in Iran’s foreign policy which now sees engaging the world as important. The Vienna agreement was a direct result of this diplomacy which has been endangered over the years. The outcome of the negotiations were also spurred on by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, much to the chagrin of hardliners in the Revolutionary Guards and those among the clerical elite. A sustainable diplomacy and its continuation is exactly what is expected of Iran’s hierarchy in the near future. As much as fixing the economy is important for Iran as the direct result of this nuclear agreement, for the Western powers it is also important to engage with Tehran on regional issues.
Raising expectations
Furthermore, the nuclear negotiations highlighted the skill of Iran’s Foreign Ministry which raises expectations for the future. The “trade diplomacy” with both the West and the Gulf and getting engaged with them in order to find partners that will help bring in foreign direct investment and smooth Iran’s reintegration into the global economy is expected if the diplomacy continued. The nuclear deal affirms President Rowhani’s vision that Iran is stronger through diplomacy and engagement, not threats and endless conflicts. Iran’s Arab neighbors cautiously welcomed the nuclear deal and have been waiting to see when they will be affected. It may be that the next strategy is to increase engagement with other countries, especially Iran’s neighbors. With the end to Iran’s nuclear negotiations, now is the time for solving regional matters and the coming months will tell us how this conflict is to play out.

Turkey wakes up to ISIS encirclement
Dr. Theodore Karasik/Al Arabiya
Monday, 27 July 2015
Ankara’s double game is now over. Turkey is launching air strikes against Islamic State (ISIS) from Incirlik Air Base and other locations as well as inserting special operators in northern Syria and conducting mass roundups of ISIS supporters, numbering well over 500 people, in Istanbul and other major cities. Larger Firefights are breaking out on the Turkish-Syrian border. Now Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his allies are recognizing that ISIS is a much bigger threat. A key question is why now go after Islamic State of Iraq and Syria? What is ISIS up to near Turkish borders, both south and to the northwest in the Balkans? The answer may surprise you. Gone are the heady days of the Turkish government looking the other way on ISIS activities across the Turkish-Syrian border
Last year, the Turkish-ISIS relationship featured a warped cooperation. A year ago, one needs to recall ISIS’ kidnapping of 24 staff members and their families working at the Turkish consulate in Mosul. Their return, in crisp clean clothes, and the circumstances surrounding the negotiations still feed regional lore of double-cross behavior. Moreover, the negotiations regarding the safety and security of the Suleiman Shah Tomb, relocated twice within Syria, is also a signal of possible Turkish-ISIS coordination. Watching what happens next in this saga may signal a future problem given that ISIS enjoys erasing history: Ottoman features are likely next on ISIS’ destruction of history tour.
Gone are the days
To be sure, gone are the heady days of the Turkish government looking the other way on ISIS activities across the Turkish-Syrian border including the import of ISIS recruits as well as illicit activity such as oil trade exports through Turkish territory to sex slaves to Anatolian land holders. First, the July 20 ISIS attack that killed 32 people and injured 104 others in Turkey’s southeastern Suruc province serves as a major wake-up call to Ankara. In the past year, ISIS targeted several border crossing as a show of strength but also to register displeasure with their so-called Turkish allies.
Second, Turkey, owner of NATO’s second largest army, is now going to fight ISIS while also manipulating the “People’s Protection Units” (YPG), who are the main Kurdish force in Syria and are linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The ebb and flow of battles surrounding Kobane by ISIS and the YPG are exacerbating the festering wounds on the Turkish-Syrian border, especially the PKK. The point is that ISIS is now crossing the rubicon for maximum impact. The terrorist army is now a clear and present danger to the Turkish state. Third, let us not be surprised that Turkey is now in ISIS’ crosshairs. Last year, ISIS members threatened to “liberate” Istanbul, while accusing Turkey of cutting off the flow of the Euphrates River, drying up northern Syria, including Raqqa, “the capital of the Islamic State.” ISIS promised to seize the Atatürk Dam. One should take such threats seriously, since Islamic State strategists target river systems and dams as a means of controlling water ways for political and economic gain for their fledgling state. Perhaps Ankara is cognizant that ISIS can fill important ungovernable gaps in southeastern Turkey. Unrecognized by analysts, however, is the ISIS campaign to Turkey’s northwest, primarily in the Balkans. From the Turkish point of view, and based on Ottoman history, the Balkans represent the Turkish backyard. Without going into the long history of the tragedies in the Balkans, it is clear that ISIS supporters are gaining a foothold.
ISIS is roosting
ISIS is now roosting in key areas of the Balkans— Kumanovo, Macedonia; Gornya Maocha in Bosnia; the Serbian region Sandjak bordering Eastern Bosnia; and the Serbian Northern Kosovo border area of Presevo, Bujanovac, Medvedja. There are also reports of ISIS cells operating in Belgrade suburbs. In order to drive the point home, ISIS released a video this month named “Put Hilafa,” which in Bosniak means “Way of caliphate,” that calls for the establishment of a caliphate in the Balkans, especially in Serbia.
But the ISIS campaign to surround Turkey is not limited to the Balkans themselves. ISIS is also building a node from Milan, Italy where its illicit networks are egged on by Albanian criminal networks. The Albanians connected with ISIS are former members of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The “back office” if you will, for surrounding Turkey stretches all the way to Austrian cities such as Graz and Vienna. To be sure, we need to be cognizant that some Balkan analysts see Turkey’s hand behind ISIS in the Balkans. If that is true, it is the same purported model Ankara used in Syria. Consequently, this purported Turkish policy approach will backfire in the future just as it did in the Levant this month. Overall, Turkey is to be surrounded by the terrorist army which is creating nodes and networks within the country and building transit zones that go up into the Balkans. By surrounding Turkey, and its historical Ottoman core, ISIS plans are becoming clearer. This fact explains why Turkey is acting now to its south. The real question is whether Ankara will do anything about ISIS to the northwest. Or if that view is blinded by policy failure too.

Analysis: In post-nuclear agreement Middle East, 'It’s Syria, stupid!'
By ELIE PODEH /J.Post/07/27/2015
Informed commentaries have stressed, somewhat justifiably, Iran’s benefits from the nuclear agreement with the P5+1 powers. Yet the agreement is, in many ways, formal confirmation of regional developments that have occurred since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Arab Spring. These changes have not only transformed Iran into a legitimate player in the regional system, but also into a potential partner in the international campaign against Islamic State (IS) and other jihadist Sunni organizations such as al-Qaida, Jabhat al-Nusra and others. Also, concerns over the emergence of a Shi’ite Crescent in the Middle East extending from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon, including the Shi’ites in Iraq and the Alawites in Syria, are not new: King Abdullah of Jordan voiced such concerns as early as 2004.
The issue of Iranian influence involves two elements, one unknown and one hidden. The real extent of Iran’s influence on Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sana’a is not known. We can only speculate that intelligence circles have much more credible information than do social networks or the media. What is important to remember is that many players on both sides of this field are invested in portraying an image of Iran’s role in the region that accords with their own interests. Israel and Saudi Arabia have strategic, geographic and ideological interests in magnifying the threat of a nuclear Iran, while the United States (undoubtedly joined in this by Russia and China, and possibly by the Gulf States bordering on Iran, such as Oman) has the opposite interest of downplaying this threat.
History is familiar with the analogy of the 1938 Munich Agreement, in which Chamberlain and the West capitulated to Hitler but failed to prevent World War II. Yet history is also familiar with efforts to demonize the enemy that were subsequently understood to be exaggerated, if not outright baseless. For example, Israel and the West turned Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s and 1960s into the Hitler of the Arab world, and according to Israeli intelligence and media sources of the period, the influence of Egypt and Nasser’s pan-Arabism pervaded the entire Arab world, including Iraq, Syria and distant Yemen. Subsequent historiography of the period shows that Nasser’s capabilities were much more limited than the grandiose powers ascribed to him. An assessment of Iran’s true power and regional influence must surely be sober rather than demagogic.
The latent dimension of Iran’s regional influence involves the future of Syria. The keystone of Iran’s strategy in the Arab Middle East is its capacity to support Bashar Assad’s regime. The Iranian-Syrian alliance, which has been in place for over three decades (with a brief interruption during the Gulf War), has become a major axis of regional politics. This is not a “natural” alliance in the respect that it is based on Iran’s cooperation with an Alawite minority regime rather than a broad Shi’ite social foundation. Syria’s significance stems from its geo-strategic location in the heart of the regional system, rather than from any economic resources that it offers. “Whoever would lead the Middle East must control Syria,” wrote esteemed journalist and historian Patrick Seale in the 1960s.
Indeed, harking back to 1950s when Syria became the focus of global and Arab Cold War struggles, at least five powers have competed for control over Syria since the outbreak of the civil war there in 2011: Iran and Russia (through the Alawite regime), the West (through the Free Syria Army), and two jihadi Sunni organizations – IS and Jabhat al-Nusra.
In view of the highly unreliable information from the field, it is difficult to predict what will happen in Syria, or whether it will maintain its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Clearly, Iran’s success in preserving Syria’s Alawite government would be a significant accomplishment and reinforcement of the radical Shi’ite alliance in the region. Assad’s fall, on the other hand, would be a fatal blow to Iran’s regional influence by creating a vacuum in the Shi’ite Crescent, and would also weaken Hezbollah as well as Iran’s influence in Iraq. We can borrow from then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s famous 1992 phrase “It’s the economy, stupid,” and state with equal gusto that in post-nuclear-agreement Middle East, “It’s Syria, stupid!”
Since the Western alternative in Syria now appears to be less probable, the West, including Israel, faces a dilemma regarding whether to support Syria – backed by the demonized Iran – or to bet on an alternative regime, with the risk of chaos, anarchy and even territorial changes. Turkey and Saudi Arabia would prefer to get rid of Assad at all costs, while Egypt has decided to prop up the Assad regime. Indeed, one may wonder whether the potential rise of IS or another radical Islamic entity in Syria might be an even more destructive scenario than the Iranian “threat.”
**The author is a professor in the Department of Islam and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a board member of Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies.

Assad in a position of strength after Vienna deal with Iran. Tehran revitalizes his depleted army
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis July 27, 2015
Syrian President Bashar Assad, in his first public speech in a year, could afford Sunday, July 26, to admit that his overstretched army had been forced to give up “critical areas” in a civil war that was dragging into its fifth year at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, because he was confident that he is on a winning streak. This confidence he gained from three recent developments:
1. The nuclear accord Iran signed with the six world powers led by the Unite States on July 14 has granted him and extra lease of life. The Syrian dictator, Tehran’s senior ally, can now count himself safe from US efforts to depose him - never mind if he cheated on his chemical weapons stocks and continues to use them in battle - after the Obama administration effectively anointing Iran leading Middle East power and strategic partner.
In his speech, Assad congratulated his best friend in Tehran for pulling off this feat in Vienna and commended the “positive changes in western attitudes to the {Syrian] conflict.” He noted that the “US and its allies now understood they shared an interest” with his regime “in defeating ISIS-style jihad terrorism.”
From the early days of the Syrian war, Assad claimed he was fighting Islamic terrorism and, if the world failed to understand this point, they too would be attacked.
2. He now feels vindicated by Turkey’s entry to the civil war over the weekend in cooperation with the US. The two powers have declared war on the Islamic State and the Kurdish military amalgam of the Syrian YPG and outlawed Turkish PKK. Since these are the two most powerful fighting forces imperiling his regime in Damascus, this outside intervention in the Syrian war is welcome for taking some of the heavy lifting off the shoulders of the Syrian army.
Furthermore, Washington has promised Tehran to withhold from the third element fighting the Assad regime, the Syrian rebel movements, weapons powerful enough to tilt the scales of the civil war in their favor
Sunday night, July 26, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu informed Turkish media editors: “Turkey has no plans to send ground troops into Syria, but has agreed with the United States that air cover should be provided for moderate rebels fighting Islamic State forces there.”
The Syrian ruler and Tehran can therefore stop worrying. The Syrian insurgents, some of which were backed by the US for years in their fight against Assad, will now have to be satisfied with air cover alone – and even then, only if they stop fighting Assad and turn their guns on the Islamists.
3. With the new lease of life given his regime by these radical shifts in the strategic landscape of the long Syrian war, Assad could afford to talk down his regime’s surrender of territory, “as a question of priorities. It was necessary to specify critical areas for our armed forces to hang onto,” while voicing gratitude for the “important and effective assistance” rendered by Iran and Hizballah for enabling him to adopt this tactic.
As to his most acute problem, the flagging powers of his armed forces: “The problem facing the military,” he explained coolly, “is not related to planning but to fatigue. It is normal than an army gets tired, but there’s a difference between fatigue and defeat.”
But he dodged any mention of the mass desertions and defections to the enemy which have shrunk his army. Neither did he reveal how he proposes to remedy this problem.
However, debkafile’s military and intelligence source are able to fill this gap: Shortly before the speech he delivered in Damascus, Assad was presented by Tehran with a new rehabilitation plan for his army, updated to the latest events. Instead divisions and brigades, it would reorganized with the assistance of Iranian and Hizballah officers into three armored commando super-divisions, one each for the northern, southern and Damascus fronts.
The 4th Division, which is the Republican Guard, would continue to defend Damascus. The 14th Division, which is made up of Special Forces, would have its “tired” officers replaced by younger, fresher commanders fighting under superior Iranian officers.
The immediate consequence of the Vienna nuclear accord on the ground has therefore been to revitalize the Assad regime in Damascus, rejuvenate his army and bring Iranian military forces closer than ever before to the borders of Israel and Jordan.

Nuclear Iran: Is the U.S. Really Suicidal?
Bassam Tawil/Gateston Institute/July 27, 2015/
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6234/nuclear-iran-suicide
No wonder Iran's Supreme Leader sent around a tweet of Obama pointing a pistol at his own head. Iran's forcing itself on the rest of the world is a central part of Khomeini's Islamic Revolution.
The Ayatollahs' wish has long been finally to defeat the divided Arabs, and then to move on to defeat Israel, and then the grandest prize of all -- the "Great Satan," the United States.
Worse, apparently a "side deal" -- classified for the Americans but not for Iran -- enables Iran to provide its own soil samples to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to which it has been lying for decades. Even still worse, the parties to the agreement are required to help Iran protect its nuclear facilities should anyone try to attack them or sabotage them -- including, presumably, any disenchanted signatories.
Iran will have been rewarded for having violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and been given a red carpeted fast track to complete its nuclear bomb.
If Obama and the others who signed the catastrophic nuclear agreement with Iran on the eve of Laylat al-Qadr, the Eve of Destiny, a few days before the end of the Ramadan fast, had studied a little history, they would know that the Battle of Qadisiyyah in 636, in which the Persians suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Arabs, has not yet ended. They would know that Islam had, in fact, been imposed on the Sassanid Empire by force, and that, in protest, the Persians adopted Shi'a Islam, a form of the religion that deviated from and changed the Islam of the Arabs, as a way of rebelling and continuing the fight.
If the West had studied that important event in Islamic history, they would understand they were enabling Iran to achieve a nuclear bomb and accelerate the national religious war between us, the Arabs, and the Shi'ite Iranians. For Iran's mullahs, the showdown is meant to be apocalyptic.
In that respect, the agreement signed by the American-led powers with Iran's rulers is a milestone along the path they have been praying for. The Ayatollahs' wish has long been finally to defeat the divided Arabs, currently at their weakest point since the beginning of the so-called Arab Spring, and then to move on to defeat Israel, and then grandest prize of all: the "Great Satan," the United States.
The Shi'ite regime of the Ayatollahs in Iran and their proxies are united. And, since the fall of the Shah, they are, sadly, also radical. Between their terrorist wings and influence in the Middle East and abroad, the Ayatollahs are refreshingly open about their determination to defeat the Arabs and achieve religious and national hegemony. Iran's forcing itself on the rest of the world is a central part of Khomeini's Islamic Revolution.
U.S. President Barack Obama has harmed us Arabs by abandoning his own red lines -- against the emphatic advice of his own military advisors -- to accept an agreement that in reality gives the Shi'ites open permission to build nuclear weapons at our expense and, more insanely, to allow Iran intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could reach America.
Worse, apparently a "side deal" -- classified for Americans but not for Iran -- allows Iran to provide its own soil samples to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to which it has been lying for decades. In other words, having the cat guard the milk.
Still worse, the parties to the agreement are required to help Iran protect its nuclear facilities should anyone try to attack them or sabotage them -- including, presumably, any disenchanted signatories. No wonder Iran's Supreme Leader sent a tweet of Obama pointing a pistol at his own head.
On July 25, 2015, Iran's Supreme Leader (right) sent a tweet of Obama pointing a pistol at his own head.
If we try to look at the positive side of the agreement, it is just possible that Obama looked at the Sunni Islamic states, fractured and at each other's throats, and at the ruthless terrorist groups and all the other battle zones gaining ground, and decided that we were too fractious for the U.S. to protect.
Now, one minute before the Iranians would have collapsed under the weight of the economic sanctions, the U.S. has given them a new lease on life, and, supported by the arrival of billions of dollars, is enabling them to return to their broad international terrorist activities and continue developing their nuclear weapons and the ICBMs on which to mount them.
Not only Iran will profit, but also the Turks, the Chinese and the Russians, who have already jumped at the chance to shore up Iran and themselves, both economically and militarily.
America will be now marginalized, as will its allies. What is in store for America is obvious to anyone listening to the hate speech of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He keeps promising that he will continue fighting against America and Israel, and that Iran will neither stop its nuclear development nor surrender.
Instead of lifting the sanctions, the United States should be increasing them.
When Iran joins the global energy market and strengthens its control of the Gulf maritime route, we, the Arabs, will quickly collapse. The recent visits of the Saudi Arabia foreign minister to American and the American Secretary of Defense to Israel did not help. As the arms embargo and sanctions are lifted, money will begin pouring into Iran. Missiles will be developed that will be capable of reaching first Israel and the Sunni Arab states, then Europe and then the United States. Global terrorism will mushroom. Iran will secretly complete its nuclear project ahead of schedule.
Since the agreement forbids agencies affiliated with America, and now apparently "foreigners," from visiting Iran's nuclear installations, the arms industry of Islamic Republic will flourish, and Iran will have been rewarded for having violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and will be given a red carpeted fast track to build a nuclear bomb.
**Bassam Tawil is based in the Middle East.

How Turkey Fights the Islamic State
Burak Bekdil/Gatestone Institute/July 27, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6205/turkey-fights-islamic-state
"Turkey says it fights IS. Maybe it does. But just randomly and reluctantly." — EU ambassador, Ankara.
Meanwhile, Turkey keeps on telling the world how it fights the Islamic State terrorists in Syria. Even more ridiculous than this claim is that some people apparently buy the Turkish fairy tales. In April, US Secretary of State John Kerry underlined that Turkey was an essential partner of the US in the fight against IS, and praised Turkey's contributions.
So it is natural that the Turks think they can always fool their allies: they help jihadist terrorists and in return get pats on the shoulder.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (the Islamic State, or IS) has been the number one target for the world's democratic nations, since it captured large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq last summer and declared caliphate under sharia law in the lands it controls. The United States and its allies have been waging a war against IS at a distance. So is NATO ally Turkey, at least theoretically, and not at a distance.
In reality, things are a bit different. Especially since the beginning of this year, several press reports in local and international media outlets told chilling stories about how jihadists move freely and recruit fighters in some of Turkey's biggest cities. "It is no secret that Turkey has become a fertile ground for jihadist activity. Turkey says it fights IS. Maybe it does. But just randomly and reluctantly," said one EU ambassador in Ankara.
Last month a news report detailed stunning revelations of Huseyin Mustafa Peri, a Turkish citizen who joined IS in September but, after being shot and wounded, was captured in early June by Syrian Kurds. He explained the recruiting process with chilling clarity in a video.
As if to confirm Peri's revelations, the chronology of how a youth in southeastern Turkey was recruited by IS to detonate a bomb at a pro-Kurdish rally in Diyarbakir in early June either exposes a huge security vulnerability within Turkish law enforcement, or malice. (The twin blasts killed four people and injured over 100, two days before Turkey's June 7 parliamentary elections.)
The father of the suspect said he had contacted the police when his son disappeared in October 2014. He said that he suspected that his son, who expressed strong jihadist opinions, could have gone to join IS. The family even pleaded with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu for help. Later, officials told him the young man had joined IS. Strangely, shortly before he detonated the bombs, the young man -- known only by his initials, O.G. -- was briefly detained at the rally due to some conscription irregularity. The police released him, even though their records should have listed his name as a "lost person in connection with terrorism." Officials later explained that there was some procedural error that caused the bomber to be released. Not many people were convinced.
Turkey's fiercely pro-government media went a bit too far in revealing where Ankara stands in Syria's civil war. "Turkish Pravdas" ran the stories and headlines praising IS and condemning pro-Kurdish fighters in northern Syria who fought the Islamic State with the help of US-led air strikes. One daily, Sabah, which openly supports President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ran the headline, "YPG (a Kurdish militia) is more dangerous than ISIS." Other notoriously pro-government newspapers such as Star, Yeni Akit and Aksam ran similar stories. That is no doubt "good journalism" for Turkish officials. But not every Turkish journalist is necessarily a good political scientist.
Last month, three journalists at the border with Syria were briefly detained for angering the local governor by asking questions about possible infiltrators from IS. The three journalists, from the Turkish dailies Cumhuriyet and Evrensel and Germany's Die Welt, were taken to a police station for interrogation on orders from the governor.
The Turkish state helps IS. Not just with its police force and local governors and other officials in Ankara. Recently, two Chechens, who were accused of beheading three priests in Syria two years ago, avoided sentencing on murder charges, although an Istanbul court sentenced them to 7.5 years in prison for being members of a terrorist group.
The jihadist Chechens, Magomet Abdurakmanov and Ahmad Ramzanov, were captured in Istanbul in early July. The court refused to hand down a murder sentence on the ground that "the crime was not committed against Turkey and the lack of an agreement on extraditions." Now the Chechens will serve only two years in prison, due to the Turkish penal code, which automatically lowers prison sentences. A police report said Abdurakmanov might be one of the militants seen in a video that was uploaded on YouTube, which allegedly shows the beheading of the priests.
Revealingly, Abdurakmanov told the court that he had received support from Turkish intelligence when he was in Syria. "Turkish intelligence would not help me if I were a member of al-Qaeda," he said. "We were in contact with Turkish intelligence all the time. Turkey sent us arms, cars and money when we were fighting in Syria. Turkey was helping us because we were fighting against [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad."
More recently, an interview with a discontented nurse was published. The nurse, an Alawite (an offshoot of Shiite Islam), claims to work clandestinely for a covert medical corps in Sanliurfa, a southeastern Turkish city bordering Syria. The nurse divulged information about the alleged role that Sumeyye Erdogan, President Erdogan's daughter, played in providing extended medical care for IS's wounded militants who were brought to Turkish hospitals. "No sooner did they become cognizant of my faith," she said, "then the wave of intimidation began. I knew many things... who was running the corps. I saw Sumeyye Erdogan frequently at our headquarters in Sanliurfa ... I am indeed terrified."
Meanwhile, Turkey keeps on telling the world how it fights the IS terrorists in Syria. Even more ridiculous than this claim is that some people apparently buy the Turkish fairy tales. In April, US Secretary of State John Kerry underlined that Turkey was an essential partner of the US in the fight against IS and praised Turkey's contributions. "I want to emphasize this afternoon the importance of the ties between the United States and Turkey, particularly the security relationship at this particular moment," Kerry said after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart.
So it is natural that the Turks think they can always fool their allies: they help jihadist terrorists and in return get pats on the shoulder.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me...U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, before a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Newport, Wales, Sept. 4, 2014. (Image source: U.S. State Dept.)

Will There Be a Future for Iraq's Christians?
By Todd Daniels and Sandra Eliott
07/27/15 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) - "There is horrible and uncontrolled violence and chaos [that is] leaving non-Muslim minorities like the Christians [in] fear for their lives..."
Joseph Kassab, President of Iraqi Christians Advocacy And Empowerment Institute (ICAE), explains that only two options remain for Christian in the region: either submit to the violence or flee to Kurdistan and neighboring countries.
The current generation has grown up in a world where Iraqi land is bloodstained and war-torn. Nevertheless, Iraq was once the home to some of the most tolerant and ethno-religiously diverse cultures in the world. The fabric of coexistence stitched together both monotheists and polytheists in an ancient land held dear by all living upon it. Yazidi shrines neighbored Christian sites and Mosques shared a land marked with tombs of Jewish prophets.
Sadly, we now face a new reality of sectarian hatred and radical jihadists that are intent on erasing all cultures other than their own.
Dim-Lit Future
Many forget that the Middle East was the birthplace of Christianity and, until recently, a large number still lived there. In 1947 Iraq was home to approximately 4.5 million Christians; in 2003 the figure stood close to 1.5 million. Today, however, the number of Christians in Iraq has tragically fallen to less than 200,000, with perhaps another 150,000 in the Kurdistan region.
Still more tragic are the conditions in which these 200,000 live. The majority of remaining Christians live in Baghdad, where recently, four Christian men were kidnapped by Islamic extremists.
Dr. Bashar Ghanem Al Akrawi, Saad Galyana Shaba, Qais Abd Shaya and Saher Hanna Sony were all kidnapped within two weeks of each other in early July. The former two were rescued and are well, while the latter two were both killed by their captors, despite their families having paid ransoms for their lives.
These types of abductions among other forms of criminality are sectarian based and carried out by powerful and armed militias. Christians have likewise had their homes and household goods stolen from them by means of falsified documents and government corruption.
These people face a dim lit future.
A Chaldean Patriarch in Iraq recently told Asia News that Christians are "fully fledged citizens of the state, and for hundreds and hundreds of years they have contributed to its civilization and its culture." He appealed to the government authorities to protect the lives and property of these citizens in Baghdad.
Joseph Kassab contrastingly explained to ICC that this is not a problem that the Iraqi government will be able to easily resolve as the government itself is fragile and corrupt.
"There is no hope in this country"
Iraqi Christians, among other minorities, are suffering under dire circumstances with little to no help. Soon enough, their ancient presence in Iraq will no longer be. Bernan Petros, a Christian originally from Bartella, Iraq, told Rudaw News, "There is no hope in this country. We have no hope here. We are so tired of this situation, and now we are thinking of leaving--all Christians together--to seek another place in Europe."
This is exactly what will happen unless the Western church acknowledges the reality of what is happening in the Middle East and acts to change it. There is an urgent need for security and aid, but even more important are the tools to restart life. If families are to choose to stay in Iraq they will require sources of income and opportunities for their children. These will be the building blocks for a new future.
We must realize that this is a war being waged against religious freedom, not just Iraqis. It is a war to drive out those who don't adhere to the radical beliefs of ISIS or other extremists.
How many more fathers, sons, husbands and brothers need to be kidnapped and murdered before we stop turning a fearful blind eye to atrocity?

Egyptian Writer ‘Ali Salem: Israel Has No Intention Of Occupying Sinai; Cooperation Between Egyptian And Israeli Peoples Will Benefit The Region
MEMRI/July 27, 2015 Special Dispatch No.6115
On July 8, 2015, following the series of brutal attacks carried out in the Sinai by terrorist organizations, especially Ansar Bait Al-Maqdis, which is affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS), the Egyptian daily Al-Masri Al-Yawm published an article by Egyptian playwright, author and political commentator ‘Ali Salem in which he criticized the Egyptian government’s neglect of the peninsula. According to Salem, the Egyptians did not develop the Sinai due to fears by the country’s elite that Israel would occupy the territory, which would leave any development projects in the peninsula in Israeli hands. Salem decisively argued that Israel would not undertake such a foolish act.
Salem also criticized Egypt’s reluctance to normalize cultural relations with Israel out of fear that Israeli cultural influence would endanger the Egyptian regime. He argued that it was actually the Arab Spring revolutions that toppled Arab regimes, as opposed to cultural ties with Israel, which he argued would benefit the region.
Salem further said that Egypt would defeat the terrorism in the Sinai and that Israel does not exploit Egyptian violations of the peace treaty to create tension between the countries because it looks forward to improving relations in the long term. Salem concluded that the regional situation would improve once the Egyptian and Israeli peoples cooperated with each other.
Following are excerpts from the article:
‘Ali Salem (image: Alarabiya.net)
Israel Will Not Reoccupy The Sinai
“After Egyptian President Sadat recovered the Sinai by way of war and peace, there was peace in Egypt. However, Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai to the international Egyptian border as a result of the peace treaty between the two countries did not alleviate fears by intellectuals and regime officials regarding the fate of the Sinai…
“Some thought of many ideas on how to restore and develop the Sinai Peninsula, but many members of the elites believed that Israel would reoccupy the Sinai, reiterating that Israelis are the enemies, are evil, and hate us.
“Additionally, some declared honestly that when Israel seeks to reoccupy the Sinai, it would be hard to defend, which is why any construction in the Sinai actually meant handing over territory rich in agricultural, industrial, and tourism projects to the enemy. This real fear resulted in all the restrictions we have placed on the Sinai…
“By all estimates, Egypt will win its campaign against terrorism and the terrorists… I digress in my thoughts to the post-war phase and say: Sinai is Egyptian territory, and Egyptian law applies there. The residents there enjoy the same rights as residents of Egypt [proper], so everyone should avoid fearing for the fate of the Sinai, since this fear turned [the Sinai] into an environment that fosters terrorism. I wager that Israeli leaders are not so gullible as to try and launch a campaign against Egypt and occupy the Sinai.
“It is clear that [the Israelis] have decided to make do with the fact that the peace treaty would end the cycle of fighting between them and us, and that they do not hold normalization in high regard. But they make sure not to cause difficulties in the relations. They can obviously cause a ruckus due to what can be seen as an [Egyptian] media violation of the peace treaty; meaning that it is enough for a TV host to mention the term ‘the Israeli enemy’ [to anger them], but they ignore it. They look to the long term, and the moment when the Egyptians can shed their fears and relinquish their negative ideas.
“Sinai is Egyptian land and home to Egyptians. All Egyptian laws apply there. The notion that Israel would attack Sinai some day is nothing but a nonsensical fairy tale. The people in Israel know full well that they have good neighborly relations with the Egyptian people. The situation in this poor region will improve when these two most ancient peoples in history – the Hebrews and the Egyptians – cooperate with each other…
No Reason To Fear Cultural Normalization Between Egypt And Israel
“Immediately after our defeat in 1967, a new saying emerged claiming that the conflict between us and Israel was a culture war – meaning that it would not be won on the battlefield alone. However, up to this moment I do not know what they meant when they said ‘victory’ and how we wish to achieve it… Generally speaking, there was fear of peace.
“It is amazing that the regime of President Mubarak agreed to minimal normal commercial and industrial relations with Israel, such as the QIZ project,[1] but sternly opposed any cultural normalization. They probably believed that [cultural] relations could infect Egypt with ideological and cultural viruses that could endanger the regime. Oddly, this affliction eventually came from Al-Tahrir Square as opposed to normal cultural relations between Israel and Egypt.”[2]
Endnotes:
[1] The Qualified Industrial Zones project was a free trade agreement signed between Egypt, Israel, and the U.S. in 2004.
[2] Al-Masri Al-Yawm (Egypt), July 8, 2015.

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