LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
June 27/15

http://www.eliasbejjaninews.com/newsbulletins05/english.june27.15.htm

Bible Quotation For Today/whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’
Matthew 10/40-42/11,01: "‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’ Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities."

Bible Quotation For Today/The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord.
Act of the Apostles 11/19-30: "Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they associated with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians’. At that time prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world; and this took place during the reign of Claudius. The disciples determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea; this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

Latest analysis, editorials from miscellaneous sources published on June 26-27/15
EU: Abuses Against Children Fuel Migration/Human Rights Watch/June 26-27/15
Behind the French "Peace Initiative"/Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute/June 26/15
Khamenei tries to force generals back into line/ Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat/June 26/15
International Christian Concern/A Milestone Passes as Saeed Abedini Still Awaits Release in Iranian Prison/June 26/15
International Christian Concern/Hindu Radicals Threaten to Wipe Out Local Christians Following Church Attack
Where’s the Pope’s Encyclical on Christian Persecution/Raymond Ibrahim/June 26/15
The deadlock in Yemen/Abdulrahman al-Rashed/AlArabiya/June 26/15
Lebanon’s Baabda Declaration, a national necessity/Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/26 June/15
The Taliban’s ‘Talk and Fight’ policy, part 2/Baker Atyani/Al Arabiya/June 26/15
Will the six world powers and Iran clinch a deal/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya/June 26/15

Lebanese Related News published on  June 26-27/15
Salam Avoiding Confrontation between Hizbullah, Rifi over Prison Torture
Lebanese Army kills 2 militants on northeast border 
Hezbollah attack kills 9 militants in Qalamoun
Lebanon’s Syrian refugees to face aid cuts 
Moody’s: Cheap oil will benefit Lebanon finances 
Official Brevet Results of Beirut, North, South, Nabatiyeh
U.S. Says Lebanese State Agencies Carrying Out Human Rights Abuses
HRW Says Beirut Should Monitor Detention to Combat Torture
Report: Obama to Nominate Elizabeth Richard as Ambassador to Lebanon
Lebanese Officials Warn of Huge Pro-Assad Refugee Influx
3 Lebanese Charged in Germany with Backing Syrian Rebel Organization

Miscellaneous Reports And News published on  June 26-27/15
SIS commits major massacre in Kobani, 146 dead
37 Dead, 36 Hurt in Tunisia Beach Resort Massacre
Muslim Clerics Denounce Attacks on Tunisia, Kuwait, France
IS Suicide Bomber Kills 27, Wounds 222 at Kuwait Shiite Mosque
Suicide bombing an attempt to threaten Kuwaiti national unity: PM
One Decapitated, Several Hurt in Suspected Islamist Attack in France
Attack claimed by ISIS kills 25 at Kuwait mosque
Canada's FM, Regrets The Honourable Rob Nicholson Palestinian Politicization of the ICC
ICRC assists in homecoming of Lebanese  
Severed head found in suspected French Salafist attack
US Supreme Court rules in favor of gay marriage
Saudi-led jets bomb Yemen as Hadi government rejects new talks
Vatican signs first treaty with Palestine, Israel angered
Kurdish fighters battle ISIS militants in Kobani
Turkish army dismisses soldier 'abducted by ISIS': report
Greek PM accuses lenders of blackmail
Syrian rebel fighters launch bid to take Deraa 
History’s hypocrites
Bou Saab announces grade 9 official exam results 
More than 100’ Tajiks killed fighting for ISIS
Activists sail for Gaza aboard ‘freedom flotilla’
Iraq F-16 pilot killed in crash on U.S. training mission
Palestinian fires on Israeli troops before being shot

Jehad Watch Latest Reports And News
Tunisia: Islamic State jihadis murder at least 27 at resort hotels
Kuwait mosque bomber screamed “Allahu akbar” before detonating his explosives
UK’s Cameron: Today’s jihad attacks are “not in the name of Islam. Islam is a religion of peace.”
France: Loud explosion as Muslims with Islamic State flags storm factory, behead man
Muslim MP: “British Muslims have nothing to apologise for when it comes to Islamic terrorism”
Wife of France jihad killer: “We are normal Muslims. We do Ramadan.”
France: President of gas factory targeted in Islamic State attack is Shi’ite Iranian
Raymond Ibrahim: Where’s the Pope’s Encyclical on Christian Persecution?
Author of “counter terrorism curriculum” advocates murder for blasphemy
Obama offers Iran high-tech nuclear reactors after Iranians chant “Death to America”

Salam Avoiding Confrontation between Hizbullah, Rifi over Prison Torture
Naharnet 26/15/Prime Minister Tammam Salam is allegedly procrastinating on calling for a cabinet session to avoid a confrontation between the Hizbullah ministers and Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi against the backdrop of the video of the Roumieh prison torture.
Salam has expressed fears that the dispute between them would grow after Rifi, who represents al-Mustaqbal Movement in the cabinet, accused Hizbullah of leaking the video clips showing several prison guards beating Islamist inmates, al-Joumhouria newspaper said Friday. Cabinet ministers, who visited Salam at the Grand Serail, quoted him as saying that he cannot wait for long to invite for a session. “It is not my mistake and the mistake of the country for its affairs to be paralyzed if some political parties are bickering over an issue,” Salam told his visitors, according to As Safir daily. Salam suspended cabinet sessions earlier this month when Free Patriotic Movement ministers warned they will not attend any session that does not have the appointment of high-ranking military and security officials on the top of its agenda. “What are the political parties waiting for to make up their mind?” he reportedly asked. The PM is set to meet with Speaker Nabih Berri in the coming days to discuss the deadlock. Al-Liwaa daily quoted a parliamentary source as saying that Hizbullah Minister Mohammed Fneish told Salam that it would be better for him not to invite for a session before the end of Ramadan. But Salam's sources denied the claim. Meanwhile, Berri reiterated to officials who visited him at his residence in Ain el-Tineh that the government crisis has not witnessed any positive developments. “We can't say that the cabinet will not meet before Eid al-Fitr,” he was quoted as saying by several local newspapers on Friday. “There are ongoing efforts” to resolve the deadlock and “it's up to Salam to invite for a session but I don't know when,” Berri said. “He has the authority to call for a session and he will not give up on his powers. And I will not interfere in that issue,” he added.

HRW Says Beirut Should Monitor Detention to Combat Torture
Naharnet 26/15/Lebanese authorities should adopt wide-ranging measures to combat torture, including creating a national monitoring body for detention facilities, Human Rights Watch said Friday. The Lebanese government should further bring national laws and practices in compliance with its international obligations to prevent and combat torture, the New York-based rights group said on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. A group of local organizations also issued a joint statement calling on the government to adopt such measures. Their appeal came after leaked video clips showed Roumieh prison guards beating Islamist inmates. “The torture captured on video is only the tip of the iceberg, since local and international organizations have been documenting torture and abuse of detainees in Lebanon for years,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “The government’s announced investigations are encouraging but the real test will be whether it will enact long-awaited reforms to address the problem beyond the current scandal,” he added. Lebanon has failed in the past to properly investigate security abuse cases, Human Rights Watch said. No proper investigations were opened into serious allegations of military abuses against detainees, said the group. Judicial authorities should investigate all allegations of torture regardless of the identity of the person accused, including state and non-state actors, it added.

U.S. Says Lebanese State Agencies Carrying Out Human Rights Abuses
Naharnet 26/15/The U.S. State Department has shed light on abuses carried out by official agencies in Lebanon last year as it unveiled its annual assessment of the state of human rights around the world. It said in its 2014 report on Thursday that “the most significant human rights abuses during the year were torture and abuse by security forces, harsh prison and detention center conditions, and limitations on freedom of movement for Palestinian and Syrian refugees.”“As of November 11, there were 6,012 prisoners and detainees, including pretrial detainees and remand prisoners, in facilities built to hold 3,500 inmates. The central prison in Roumieh, with a capacity of 1,500, held approximately 2,722 persons,” it said. Other abuses “included arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy pretrial detention, a judiciary subject to political pressure and long delays in trials, violation of citizens’ privacy rights,some restrictions on freedoms of speech and press, including intimidation of journalists.”According to the report, there have also been some restrictions on freedom of assembly, widespread violence against women, trafficking in persons, restricted labor rights for and abuse of migrant domestic workers, and child labor. “Although the legal structure provides for prosecution and punishment, government officials enjoyed a measure of impunity for human rights abuses,” said the State Department. It also stressed that despite the presence of the Lebanese army and U.N. troops, “Hizbullah retained significant influence over parts of the country.”The report said the Lebanese “government made no tangible progress toward disbanding and disarming armed militia groups, including Hizbullah.” It added that “Palestinian refugee camps continued to act as self-governed entities and maintained security and militia forces not under the direction of government officials.”The State Department's annual country-by-country index gives a stark assessment of the state of human rights in every country around the world -- except back home in the United States. "We do not include our own record in this report because we cannot be objective observers of our own behavior," the State Department said, adding that it welcomed "scrutiny by human rights groups."

Report: Obama to Nominate Elizabeth Richard as Ambassador to Lebanon
Naharnet 26/15/The Obama administration is set to nominate Elizabeth Richard, a deputy assistant secretary of state in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, as Ambassador to Lebanon, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Friday. The daily quoted U.S. and diplomatic sources as saying that if Richard is confirmed by Congress, then she will replace David Hale. Richard is the coordinator for foreign assistance to the Near East. A career foreign service officer, she served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, from 2010 to 2013. Previously, she was the border coordinator at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. She is a graduate of the National War College in Washington D.C,. and of the NATO Defense College in Rome, Italy. She has undergraduate and law degrees from Southern Methodist University and before joining the Foreign Service practiced admiralty law in Texas. Meanwhile, al-Joumhouria daily quoted diplomatic sources as saying that French Ambassador Patrice Paoli is gearing up to leave Beirut at the end of his mission. He is expected to head the crisis confrontation unit at the French Foreign Ministry, they said.

Lebanese Officials Warn of Huge Pro-Assad Refugee Influx
Naharnet 26/15/Lebanese officials have warned of a huge Syrian refugee influx to Lebanon if the so-called Damascus battle erupts, An Nahar daily reported on Friday. The ministerial sources told the newspaper that if such an influx takes place, the displaced Syrians will include supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad from different sects. If the rebels launch an attack on Damascus and Assad's regime falls, then thousands of people could escape the Syrian capital and head to Lebanon. The flow of Syrian refugees into Lebanon dropped sharply earlier this year due to restrictions imposed by Lebanese authorities. Although Lebanese border officials began informally restricting the entry of Syrians last October, Beirut officially imposed visa regulations in January on their neighbors. The move was the first such in decades. An estimated 4 million people have fled Syria, with more than half of the country's population displaced. Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said last week that the number of refugees registered with the U.N. refugee agency, the UNHCR, has reached approximately 1.2 million. More Syrians have entered the country illegally and are not registered. An Nahar said that Derbas is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Tammam Salam next Monday to brief him on the result of the consultations he has held with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi and the Foreign Ministers of Egypt and Tunisia. Derbas had asked the officials for Arab countries to share the burden of the Syrian refugees, said the daily.

3 Lebanese Charged in Germany with Backing Syrian Rebel Organization
Naharnet 26/15/German federal prosecutors have said they have filed terrorism charges against four men, among them three Lebanese, on allegations they supported an ultraconservative Syrian rebel organization, Ahrar al-Sham. Prosecutors said Thursday that Lebanese nationals Kassem El R., 32 and Hassan A.S., 29, German Nuran B., 49, and Ali F., 30, who has dual Lebanese-German citizenship, have been charged with supporting a foreign terrorist organization. Last names weren't given in line with German regulations. Three of the men are accused of organizing 130,000 euros ($145,000) worth of military parkas, boots and shirts in 2013 for the group. Ali F. is accused of helping Kassem El R. deliver the goods to Syria through Turkey, and of providing the group with two radio scanners. Kassem El R. also allegedly provided five used ambulances.Associated Press

Hezbollah attack kills 9 militants outside east Lebanon border town
The Daily Star/Jun. 26, 2015/BEIRUT: Hezbollah-planted land mines and mortar attacks left at least nine Nusra Front militants dead outside an east Lebanon border village Friday, a source close to Hezbollah told The Daily Star. The incident occurred on Syrian territory on the eastern outskirts of Maaraboun, which is southwest of the border enclave of Tfail, in southern Qalamoun. Media reports said militants from Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate were attempting to carry out an attack on Hezbollah positions in Maaraboun when they passed through a minefield. The mines managed to kill and wound a number of militants. The sound of the blasts alerted nearby Hezbollah fighters of the ambush attempt. Hezbollah then shelled the area of the militants, killing and wounding several other militants. Hezbollah and the Syrian army have been battling militants from ISIS and the Nusra Front in the Qalamoun region since they launched a full-fledged offensive on May 4.

Lebanese Army kills 2 militants on northeast border
The Daily Star/June 26, 2015 /BAALBEK, Lebanon: The Lebanese Army Friday killed two militants on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, including the son of a Free Syrian Army commander, security sources said. The Army confirmed the incident in a statement issued later in the day. “The Army targeted a terrorist group infiltrating the town of Arsal, killing two and seizing weapons, ammunition, military equipment, two cellphones and four hand grenades in their possession,” the military said. A source told The Daily Star that soldiers ambushed a group of militants who tried to attack military positions in Aqabat al-Jord in an attempt to infiltrate Arsal, forcing them to withdraw. A separate security source originally identified the slain militants as Nusra Front members, saying their bodies were transferred to Hermel Hospital. But the source later identified one of the bodies as the son of FSA commander Abdullah al-Rifai, who was arrested in December 2014 after trying to cross into Lebanon disguised in women's clothing. The Army said his name was Hussein Abdullah al-Rifai, while the second body remained unidentified. The military recently deployed in some eastern border villages in a bid to repulse new possible attacks or infiltration attempts by armed groups. It also regularly shells militant positions on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Ras Baalbek where ISIS is present.

Lebanon’s Baabda Declaration, a national necessity
Friday, 26 June 2015/Nayla Tueni/Al Arabiya/Former Lebanese President Emile Lahoud’s recent statements that the 2012 Baabda Declaration, which had underscored Lebanon’s neutrality with regard to the events in the Middle East region, is “tantamount to surrender and treachery against the people, army and Resistance and a denial of victories and achievements all under the slogan of [the policy] of dissociation” do not matter much and are, in my view, political maliciousness. If we take a look at the Baabda Declaration, we would realize that its controversial clauses constitute a solution to the ever-plaguing crises which Lebanon is currently suffering
The Baabda Declaration constitutes an important document that remains a national requirement. Domestic parties must liberate themselves from their commitment to foreign parties and must work on the basis of national motivations and thus not link their activity and fate to foreign parties who only seek to achieve their aims and use Lebanese parties as mere chess pieces. If we take a look at the Baabda Declaration, which was approved in June 2012, we’d realize that its controversial clauses - or rather the items which later became a topic of controversy - constitute a solution to the ever-plaguing crises which Lebanon is currently suffering.
Harboring Lebanon
Item 12 of the declaration stipulated ridding Lebanon of the policy of axes and regional and international struggles and harboring it from the negative repercussions of regional crises and disturbances out of concern for (Lebanon’s) higher interest, national unity and civil peace and (for the sake of) keeping up the duty of commitment to international legitimacy, Arab consensus and the rightful Palestinian cause, including the Palestinian refugees’ right of return to their land and not naturalizing them. Item 13 of the document stipulates keenness to control the situation along the Syrian-Lebanese borders, to prohibit the establishment of a buffer zone inside Lebanon and the usage of Lebanon as a headquarters or a passage to smuggle weapons and fighters and to maintain the right of (voicing) humanitarian solidarity and the right of political and media expression as guaranteed by the constitution and law.
Surrender and submission?
Why object to these items and how are they tantamount to surrender and submission? The right of resistance is legitimate to all Lebanese people inside any of their occupied lands but not inside Syrian cities and towns. Not allowing the establishing of a buffer zone is an urgent demand that aims to prevent having a border strip like what happened in south Lebanon during the era of Israeli and Palestinian occupation of it. As for neutralizing Lebanon, whenever possible, then that’s the cure for a relatively close country that lives on via the combination of different worlds in order to survive. Lebanon has suffered several times particularly whenever it tried to take sides or engage in political games. Lebanon’s higher interest calls for returning to the Baabda Declaration regardless of whether political parties agree or disagree with former President Michel Suleiman as the declaration is not his property but the property of the Lebanese people who had hoped that decisions made at national dialogue sessions would constitute a common ground that decreases tensions and prevents the worsening of the situation.

US Supreme Court says same-sex couples have right to marry in all 50 states.
Agence France Presse/June 26, 2015/WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court has declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the United States. Gay and lesbian couples already can marry in 36 states and the District of Columbia. President Obama said over Twitter the ruling is a major step towards equality. The court's ruling on Friday means the remaining 14 states, in the South and Midwest, will have to stop enforcing their bans on same-sex marriage.

Vatican signs first treaty with Palestine, Israel angered
Philip Pullella/Reuters/June 26, 2015/VATICAN CITY: The Vatican signed its first treaty with the state of Palestine Friday, calling for "courageous decisions" to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and backing a two-state solution. The treaty, which made official the Vatican's de facto recognition of Palestine since 2012, angered Israel, which called it "a hasty step (that) damages the prospects for advancing a peace agreement." Israel also said it could have implications on its future diplomatic relations with the Vatican. The accord, which concerns the Catholic Church's activities in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, also confirmed the Vatican's increasingly proactive role in foreign policy under Pope Francis. Last year, it brokered the historic resumption of ties between the United States and Cuba.
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican's foreign minister, said at the signing that he hoped it could be a "stimulus to bringing a definitive end to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which continues to cause suffering for both parties." He called for peace negotiations held directly between Israelis and Palestinians to resume and lead to a two-state solution. "This certainly requires courageous decisions, but it will also offer a major contribution to peace and stability in the region," he said. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Al-Malki said he hoped it would help "recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, freedom and dignity in an independent state of their own, free from the shackles of occupation." The Vatican is particularly keen to have a greater diplomatic role in the Middle East, from where many Christians have fled because of conflicts in Syria, Iraq and other countries. There are about 100,000 Catholics of the Roman and Greek Melkite rites in Israel and Palestine, most of them Palestinians.
Gallagher said the agreement "may serve as a model for other Arab and Muslim majority countries" with regard to freedom of religion and conscience. The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2012 recognizing Palestine as an observer non-member state. This was welcomed at the time by the Vatican, which has the same observer non-member status at the United Nations. Since then the Vatican has de facto recognised a "state of Palestine" and the pope referred to it by that name when he visited the Holy Land last year. Some 135 members of the United Nations recognize Palestine, nearly 70 percent of the total. By comparison, 160 of the UN's 193 members recognize Israel. Last October, Sweden became the first major European country to acknowledge Palestine, a decision that drew condemnation from Israel and has since led to tense relations between the two. The European Union as a whole does not recognize Palestine, taking the same view as the United States that an independent country can emerge only via negotiations with Israel, not through a process of unilateral recognition.

History’s hypocrites
The Daily Star/ June. 26, 2015
European countries have been busy creating a policy on migration – and a military force to back it up – to confront the wave of desperate people risking their lives in the Mediterranean region. In some places border fences are being contemplated, while Italy is worried that the arrivals threaten to “change” the identity of Europe. A timeout to recall a bit of history is in order, however. Over the last several centuries, Europe has experienced the following: revolutions, wars, famines and crushing economic conditions. Millions of people didn’t wait around for their governments to enact reforms – they set out first by boat and then by plane for the new world, where they contributed to changing the identity of many places. The English and Dutch were among the first to leave, meaning that nearly every other group – especially those from southern European countries – were seen as a threat to the existing communities. Few of them were affluent, and many of them left with just their possessions to try and make a new life in the New World, because they couldn’t tolerate the situation in their homelands. In recent decades, European officials have spent huge amounts of time and money on convening conferences, meetings and other events to celebrate their partnership with the countries of the Mediterranean. The recent migration crisis has merely shown how hollow these efforts were. Day after day, the global public is hearing complaints and warnings from countries that, not so long ago, saw millions of people leave in despair, in search of a better life.

Canada's FM, Regrets The Honourable Rob Nicholson Palestinian Politicization of the ICC
June 26, 2015 - Ottawa, Ontario - Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada
The Honourable Rob Nicholson, P.C., Q.C., M.P. for Niagara Falls, Minister of Foreign Affairs, today issued the following statement:
“Canada is disappointed by Palestinian attempts to politicize the International Criminal Court [ICC]. Yesterday’s submission by Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki of evidence of alleged Israeli war crimes was a publicity stunt unnecessary for the ICC to conduct its preliminary examination, and does nothing to further the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Canada regrets this stunt and continues to believe that the Palestinian Authority does not meet the criteria of a state under international law. Statehood can only be achieved through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.”

International Christian Concern/A Milestone Passes as Saeed Abedini Still Awaits Release in Iranian Prison
American citizen and Iranian pastor, Saeed Abedini, has been in prison for over 1,000 days now for his faith in Jesus and activities as a Christian
06/25/2015 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) - International Christian Concern (ICC) continues to call for the release of Iranian American pastor Saeed Abedini. He has been imprisoned in Iran since September 2012 where he has suffered intense physical and psychological torture. As the United States and other Western countries are negotiating with Iran regarding its nuclear program, the continued confinement of Saeed, along with three other Americans, raises serious concerns about the trustworthiness of Iran's negotiations.
Saeed Abedini was imprisoned on September 26, 2012. On the morning of January 27, 2013, Pastor Saeed stood before Judge Pir-Abassi in Tehran to receive his verdict from a show trial. He was convicted of "undermining national security" for his work among house churches in Iran from 2000 to 2005 "Mr. Abedini's attorney had only one day (January 21) to present his defense, so we remain deeply concerned about the fairness and transparency of Mr. Abedini's trial," State Department representative Darby Holladay reported shortly after the trial.
Naghmeh Abedini, Saeed's wife, appeared before the House of Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this month and pleaded for a greater effort to be made on behalf of her husband. That same day, House Resolution 233, sponsored by Rep. Daniel Kildee (D-MI), was passed with a vote of 391-0. The resolution calls for the immediate release of imprisoned U.S. citizens and the disclosure of any information regarding U.S. citizens that have disappeared within the borders of Iran.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) has been advocating on behalf of Saeed for some time and recently collected over 1 million unique signatures for Saeed in a social media campaign entitled #SaveSaeed. The global campaign on behalf of Pastor Saeed has brought his case before Congress, the White House, the United Nations and other world leaders.
Saeed's father was able to visit his son in prison on Wednesday, June 24 and carried out a message of hope. Having just spent his 1,000th day in prison, Saeed gave his father a message to share. "He wanted us to know that for 1000 days he has experienced utter darkness and has died, yet for 1,001, he has been resurrected with Christ," Naghmeh said. "For 1,001 days he has learned to forgive over and over and over again. That for 1001 days he has chosen Christ over what they have tried to force on him and he has stood on His faith in Jesus Christ despite the pressures, tortures and threats."
Saeed has faced intense abuse these past 1,001 days. "He has been tortured, especially the first few months he was beaten badly when internal bleeding started," Naghmeh testified at the hearing on June 2nd. Time is of the essence, despite Saeed's resolute endurance. Saeed has experienced both physical and psychological abuse in prison. He has been put in and out of solitary confinement repeatedly and has suffered beatings at the hands of prison guards and even fellow inmates for his faith.
The release of Saeed and other U.S. citizens imprisoned in Iran is of upmost importance as the June 30th deadline for Iranian nuclear deal approaches. If President Rouhani wishes to have constructive interaction with the international community, he must take into account the demands of Resolution 233 and the unjust imprisonment of American citizens for nothing more than exercising their fundamental rights. International pressure should continue and expand on behalf of these U.S. citizens.
Organizations and governments have advocated on behalf of Pastor Saeed, though more remains to be done. Secretary of State John Kerry first called for his release on March 22, 2013 and again on July 28, 2014 in addition to citing Saeed's case in the U.S. State Department's most recent report on international religious freedom. President Obama mentioned the case in his first phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani but additional steps have not been taken, despite international pressure.
ICC's Regional Manager for the Middle East, Todd Daniels, said, "The continued imprisonment of Saeed Abedini on charges of threatening Iran's national security for meeting together with those who share his faith demonstrates the fragility of the Iranian regimes hold on society and the lack of a true commitment to basic rights and freedoms. The ability to hold a religious belief, to meet together with others who share that belief, and to live publicly in accordance with it is among the most fundamental of freedoms.
Iran continues to regularly violate that, not only in the case of Saeed Abedini but for the dozens of other Iranian Christians who are also suffering in Iran's prisons. As a citizen of the United States, President Obama and his administration should exert the utmost effort to see him returned to his family. As a country that claims to promote religious freedom as a core value of our foreign policy, the United States must boldly condemn those who would imprison its citizens simply for their religious beliefs."

International Christian Concern/Hindu Radicals Threaten to Wipe Out Local Christians Following Church Attack
By ICC’s India Correspondent,
6/26/2015 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) - Christians in India continue to face the brunt of Hindu extremism. A fresh outburst of violence against Christians was unleashed when a group of worshippers was brutally attacked at a church service on Sunday, June 14 in India’s Kerala state. Kerala, one of India’s southern states, boasts the densest populations of Christians in India who represent over 40% the state’s population. This fact led many Christians in Kerala to believe they were insulated from the growing religious intolerance India has witnessed over the past year.
“I was literally terrified,” said Pastor Shiju, the senior pastor of Reaching the World with Love Ministries Church. “I did not know what was going on as a mob of 30 people advanced towards me while I was preaching the message. They hit me in the face and then kicked me all over the body. They first targeted me and then the congregation. I had to flee and ran away from the church as I could make out that I was their prime target.”
Over 400 Christians, the majority of whom are converts to Christianity, gather at a community hall in Attingal, Kerala every Sunday for worship for Reaching the World with Love Ministries. Around 12:30 pm on June 14, more than 200 people from radical Hindu organizations came to the community hall shouting loud slogans including, ‘Bharat Mathaki Jai’ (Hail mother India).
Radicals then forced themselves into the hall and started beating the pastor, causing severe internal injuries. Later, the assailants turned on the congregation. 40-year-old Girija, narrowly escaped with a broken finger when she dodged a blow that would have smashed in her head when a radical attempted to beat her with a motorbike helmet.
The radicals went onto desecrate the communion elements and broke the wooden table that was used to display them during worship services. The radicals also damaged the pulpit, microphones, and cables used by the worshipers to conduct their services. The Christian worshippers fled in different directions but were further assaulted outside of the community hall many of the 200 radicals were waiting for them.
Upon witnessing the attack, Mr. Deepu, one of the Christian worshipers, immediately ran to the police station and reported the ongoing assault. Even though the police station was only yards away, police took 30 minutes to arrive on the scene.
Quickly, news of the attack spread and the state home minister visited the pastor and the community where the attack took place. The minister, in charge of the state’s law and order, promised that the attackers would be booked and brought to justice.
The next day, Christians in Attingal organized a peaceful protest march in the town. More than 500 people participated in a march to protest the attack on the Reaching the World with Love Ministries Church. Local MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) and other community leaders also took part in the protest, condemning the acts of the radical Hindu groups.
At the same time, the ‘Hindu Ikya Vedi,’ (Hindu United Front) a local Hindu radical group, led a counter protest against the Christians brandishing placards carrying anti-Christian slogans. The anti-Christian protestors threatened the Christians of Reaching the World with Love Ministries Church with dire consequences if they met again, particularly on that following Sunday. They said they would wipe out Christians in Attingal and burn Pastor Shiju alive if they continue to hold prayers in Attingal.
An eye-witness told ICC that, “The Hindu radicals are gathering almost every day since the attack in Attingal took place. The slogans on the placards that read wiping the Christians away from the town was a huge threat to the Christians of that area. The Hindu radicals vowed to burn pastor Shiju if he continued the church in Attingal.”
As Christians in Attingal continue to recover from this latest incident of persecution, Christians across India remain vulnerable. No matter where they are in India, the real potential of physical violence being metered out by the Hindu hardline groups seems inevitable. Unless the BJP led government of India starts confronting the issue of Christian persecution, religiously motivated violence, like that endured by the Christians of Reaching the World with Love Ministries, will continue to spread and multiply.

EU: Abuses Against Children Fuel Migration
Child Recruitment and Marriage; Attacks on Education
June 23, 2015/Human Rights Watch
(Brussels) – Large numbers of children from war-torn countries, often traveling alone, are fleeing abuses in their home countries to seek safety in the European Union, Human Rights Watch said today. Many are fleeing recruitment as soldiers, child marriage, and attacks on schools, or escaping other effects of war in Syria and Afghanistan or discrimination against Afghan refugees in Iran.
In 2014, over 6,100 asylum-seeking or migrant children were recorded as reaching Greece, the vast majority by sea, according to figures provided to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) by the Greek police and coast guard. Of these, about 1,100 were registered as unaccompanied or traveling without family members. Actual numbers are almost certainly higher, as many children traveling alone claim to be 18 or over to avoid prolonged detention while authorities find space in shelters for unaccompanied children.
“Thousands of children risk perilous journeys on their own because they believe they have no choice,” said Jo Becker, children’s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The least that neighboring countries and the EU should do is to make sure they aren’t abused or denied their rights when they arrive.”
In May 2015, Human Rights Watch interviewed over 100 newly arrived asylum seekers and migrants, on the Greek islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Leros, and Kos. All had arrived by boat from Turkey within the previous month. Most of the 41 children interviewed were from Syria and Afghanistan. Twenty-four of them, overwhelmingly boys between 15 and 17, were traveling without family members.
According to UNHCR, 42,160 migrants and asylum seekers were recorded as entering Greece by sea during the first five months of the year, close to the total number for all of 2014. According to official Greek government data, Syrians have been by far the largest national group in 2015, followed by Afghans. Child casualties in Afghanistan increased by nearly 50 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year, according to a new UN report.
Some children and parents interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they had fled to avoid recruitment by the Taliban in Afghanistan, or conscription by the Syrian army, or recruitment by insurgent groups. Hani, a 17-year-old who traveled on his own from Idlib in northwestern Syria, told Human Rights Watch that he fled to escape serving in the army. “Maybe you’ll stay till death or until the war is finished,” he said.
Many children and their families said they fled because of attacks on schools or other barriers to education. According to Save the Children, at least 3,465 schools in Syria have been partially or completely destroyed since the war began in 2011.
Fourteen of the children interviewed were Afghans who had fled Iran, which systematically denies newly arriving Afghans the opportunity to lodge asylum claims or to register as refugees. Many had been barred from school or were unable to afford fees and had become trapped in exploitative labor situations.
Two families interviewed said they fled Afghanistan to avoid child marriage. An Afghan couple who fled Herat in April 2015 told Human Rights Watch that a 65-year-old man connected to the Taliban had proposed to marry their 10-year-old daughter. “If we didn’t accept, they would kill us,” said the mother. “We escaped in the night.”
Some children said they had left their homes on their own initiative, but with their families’ support. The children or their families typically pay smugglers with money that they have saved or borrowed. Some said their families had sold their house to finance their journey.
Children undertake perilous journeys to reach Greece. Some Afghans described walking 12 to 14 hours through the mountains in waist-deep snow to cross the Iran-Turkey border, and being fired upon by Iranian border police. Many said the most difficult part of their journey was crossing the Aegean Sea in overcrowded inflatable boats, arranged by smugglers who charged US$800 to $2,000 per person.
Upon arrival in Greece, unaccompanied children may be detained much longer than adults while authorities search for space in children’s shelters across Greece. Although shelters are meant to protect children, many children perceive the prolonged detention as punitive. As a result, many claim to be 18 or 19 so that they can be released to continue their journey to Athens and other countries of the EU.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child has found that detention of children based on their migration status is always a violation of child rights and has called on countries to “expeditiously and completely cease” detaining children on the basis of their immigration status.
Greece should ensure adequate reception conditions on the islands, with special attention to the needs and best interests of children, including those traveling alone. Greek authorities should expedite processing of families with children and unaccompanied children, and avoid detaining children, in line with recommendations from the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The Greek government should ensure sufficient capacity in shelters for unaccompanied migrant and asylum-seeking children to minimize as much as possible detention pending transfer to shelters. The EU should provide financial assistance to the Greek government to achieve these goals.
EU countries should support proposals to help alleviate the burden on Greece by relocating people in need of international protection, and ensure that such a program takes into account the best interests of children traveling with their families and unaccompanied children. Measures to increase safe and legal channels into the EU should include attention to the particular needs of asylum-seeking and migrant children.
The governments of Syria and Afghanistan should protect children from violations in armed conflict, and from other abuses such as child marriage. Iran should ensure Afghan children’s right to education, and take measures to end exploitative child labor and police violence. Donors should support stronger child protection systems in countries of origin for asylum-seeking and migrant children and in countries hosting refugee populations.
“Children forced to flee abuse or life-threatening danger and who encounter even more danger along the way shouldn’t find more abuse and neglect when they arrive,” Becker said. “Their own countries, the countries where they land, and other countries should be doing a lot more to protect and help them.”
Denial of Education
Mohammad left Deir ez-Zor in Syria in May 2015 with his wife and two sons, ages 3 and 10. He described an attack on his son’s school in 2012 in which 22 people died, mostly children. He believed that the Syrian government targeted schools for attack:
Assad sends airplanes to attack, and chooses specific places to attack like schools and mosques, because there are a lot of people there. All the people [whose homes have been attacked] go to the school, because it should be a safe place. But he does the opposite and attacks it.
His 10-year-old son, Hussein, said that when his school was demolished, “I felt that my future was destroyed.”
Adnan, 16, from Damascus, said:
I cannot live in Syria. I cannot continue my studies. We can’t walk safely on the street. We can’t guarantee our lives. They attack the schools, they attack the mosques. My school was bombed. A plane attacked it at night. One month later, we moved to Quneitra. A year after we arrived, that school was destroyed too.
Firas, 16, from Aleppo, who was traveling with his older brother and sister, said that his parents were killed in 2012 when their house was bombed. He said that he went to school for eight years, but stopped because authorities closed the school. “In Aleppo, some schools are destroyed and others shut down because they can’t guarantee our safety,” he said.
Tarek, a 16-year-old Afghan from Helmand Province, where there was a heavy foreign military presence until 2014, said:
There are schools, but not so many students because people are afraid to send their children because of the Taliban. One school is only open one day a week. Children do not go. The Taliban doesn’t allow children to go to school. If families let children go, the Taliban will kill them because in the future they may work for foreigners.
Afghan refugees in Iran have to pay school fees and show residency documents to be admitted to school. Ali, 16, whose family went to Iran when he was very young, said he went to school through eighth grade, but steep fees put further education out of reach: “Just the Afghans had to pay, not Iranians,” he said. He said he would have stayed in Iran if he could have continued his education.
Ahmad, a 16-year-old Afghan who was raised in Iran, said:
I went to school, but my parents had to pay for me and my brother and sister because we were not Iranian. Iranian children do not have to pay. Two or three times I did well enough in exams to qualify for a special education program, but could not go, because I was Afghan. Refugees are also not allowed to study in university in Iran, so I decided for my future to go somewhere else. I didn’t want to go back to Afghanistan. Every day we heard about suicide bombings and someone or some group of people losing their life, even in Kabul. Every day there is a bomb blast. If I went back there, I imagine a dark future. I just want to have a chance to continue my education, nothing more.
An Afghan woman in her twenties fled to Iran with her husband because of the war. They had no residency papers and, when their son reached school age, they were unable to enroll him in Iranian government schools. They decided to return to Afghanistan, but found the situation had not improved: “We saw that there were suicide bombings every day. I didn’t have the courage to send the children to school and had to keep them in the house. That’s the reason we left again. Mostly because of my children.”
Military Recruitment
In Afghanistan, the Taliban and other armed groups recruit children as young as 8 to serve as combatants and suicide bombers, and to manufacture and plant explosive devices. Some children or parents said possible recruitment by the Taliban was a reason they left Afghanistan.
Akbar, a 17-year-old Afghan interviewed on Lesbos said, “I fled the Taliban, because many children who are my age are taken by the Taliban to use as suicide bombers.”
Mubarak, an Afghan with three sons, ages 5, 9, and 12, who left Parwan in Afghanistan in March, was interviewed in the detention center on Lesbos:
Every day the Taliban would take people.... For me, I was worried about my children, my sons, and that they would be forced to become suicide bombers.… I left Afghanistan because of my children and my family.
In Syria, men must complete mandatory military service for 18 months, beginning at age 18 and, since the war began, the government has increasingly recalled those who have finished their military service. Syrians who refused to serve said that if they were apprehended, they could be sent to the front lines, or imprisoned and tortured. Hani, 17, from Idlib, said that the prospect of military service was the reason he left:
I don’t want to carry a weapon. I’ve never held a weapon and I won’t do it. Not for the government, not for an armed group…. I saw what was happening and I saw it would happen to me and decided to leave. [If they take you,] maybe you’ll stay till death or until the war is finished.
Although government forces generally do not recruit children under 18, many armed groups do. Firas, 16, from Aleppo, said that if he had stayed in Syria, “Maybe they would take me to the army, maybe I would be dead, or maybe armed groups would take me to fight with them and hold a weapon.”
Child Labor
Many Afghans who have fled their country seek refuge in Iran, which hosts an estimated three million Afghans. One million are recognized refugees. The rest are treated as migrant workers who hold temporary visas or are completely undocumented. Children who hope to continue their studies often find the fees for education and residency permits prohibitively high, and end up in exploitative child labor instead, working long hours for little pay on construction sites or in agriculture or garment factories.
Nasr, 16, began working on a construction site in Iran when he was 14, building walls with stone and cement. He worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week. He said, “If you took a day off, you would lose all your money.” His salary was not enough to support him and allow him to renew his residency permit. “In the end, I had no money,” he said.
Bakir, 16, began working in a garment factory in Tehran at 14 with seven other Afghans. For his first year, he worked without a salary, from 8 a.m. to midnight every day, and during busy periods, even longer. The owner of the company told him, “If you won’t work like this, you won’t get paid.”
Walid started working in Iran at age 9, when his aunt stopped paying his school fees. He said he worked to enable his brother to stay in school. He first worked in a small garment shop, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with only one day off each month. Later, he worked in a restaurant, but found that his paltry wages were not enough to support him and his brother. “It wasn’t a life,” he said. “I was just alive.” He left Iran for Greece in May.
Other children tried to work in Turkey. Sayid, 18, fled violence in Aleppo at 16 and found a job in a Turkish factory. “It was long hours and little money,” he said. “I worked from 8 in the morning to 7:30 at night. Sometimes they made us work until 11 p.m. We had no choice.”
Firas, a 16-year-old from Aleppo, left Syria in early 2015 after authorities closed his school. He initially went to Turkey where he worked 12 hours a day in a garment factory: “I tried to save money, but other times I had to eat. I left Turkey a month ago. I couldn’t handle much more work.”
Police Abuse in Iran
Afghan children in Iran also experienced arbitrary arrest, extortion, and forced labor by the Iranian police, under the constant threat of deportation. Several said they lived at their work sites to avoid encounters with the police.
Bakir, 16, left Afghanistan at 14 because he was not able to continue his education. In Iran, he found a job but had no documents: “Two or three times, the police captured me, and I had to give them all my money to get them to release me. It was very difficult, so I left.”
Ali, 16, said the police in Tehran had arrested him more than 20 times: “In Iran, the police hate us. They arrest us and take our money. Once, it happened twice in one week. They take everything.”
Several boys said they had been picked up by police and forced to clean police stations. Zaher said he was picked up on his way to a store. He showed the police his resident permit, but they took him to the police station, where they forced him to work until late at night, washing dishes and cleaning the station.
Another 16-year-old Afghan boy reported that on four occasions, the police had forced him to spend a full day cleaning a police station. Akram said the police had picked him up more than 10 times and forced him to clean the station five or six times: “They have no regular cleaner, they just use Afghan refugees.”
Child Marriage
An Afghan couple from Herat told Human Rights Watch that they fled Afghanistan to avoid child marriage. A 65-year-old man connected to the Taliban had proposed to marry their 10-year-old daughter. “If we didn’t accept, they would kill us,” said the mother. “He was connected to powerful people. I accepted the proposal because I had no choice, but I had a plan and we escaped in the night.”
Prolonged Detention of Unaccompanied Children in Greece
Treatment of children varies from one Greek island to another. Unaccompanied children who arrive on Lesbos, Chios, or Samos are generally detained until a shelter is found for them or a court determines that they can be released to the custody of a relative. People who arrive on Leros, including unaccompanied children, are often released within a day or two. Local volunteers help coordinate housing, food, clothing, and medical care.
On Kos, one of the larger islands, processing can take three weeks or more. Few services are offered, and children and adults alike sleep outdoors in an abandoned hotel with makeshift beds, without electricity and limited running water, or in tents provided by Doctors without Borders. Many said that authorities provided little food and some said they had not eaten for days.
Asylum-seeking and migrant children who are registered as unaccompanied in Greece are often detained much longer than adults or children traveling with their families, while authorities search for shelter facilities for them. Although placement in shelters is designed as a protection measure, many children view the prolonged detention as punitive. While adults may be released in just a few days, children may be held for three weeks or more.
Lesbos, Chios, and Samos have locked detention centers surrounded with razor wire, where children are frequently held with adults in spaces that are often overcrowded and dirty. On Samos, detainees said they only had access to water for 30 minutes a day; and on Chios, Human Rights Watch found adults and children taking shelter from the sun under makeshift shelters made from clothing and blankets.
Akbar, a 17-year-old Afghan, had been detained on Lesbos for 10 days and was distraught that his three traveling companions, who each gave their age as 18 or older, had already been released and gone to Athens. “If they leave Athens,” he said, “I will be alone here. I don’t know anybody.”
Asif, another 17-year old Afghan detained on Lesbos, said he had been told he would stay in the detention center for three weeks. “It feels like I’m in jail,” he said. Unaccompanied children in the center were not segregated from adults. “Last night, people entered my room and took everything,” he said. “They say children should be protected, but it means nothing.”
Ismael, a 16-year-old Syrian who traveled alone from Aleppo, said he hoped to reach Europe to get medical treatment for his father, who was very ill. He also said that friends who said they were older had been released. “It was my mistake that I told them my age,” he said.
Leylo, a 16-year-old Somali girl who traveled for three months to reach Greece, had been in Chios’ overcrowded detention center for nearly two weeks. She said that other detainees controlled access to the toilets, so that there were times she was unable to relieve herself. “They keep treating us like kids and saying you will go tomorrow, you will go tomorrow, but I don’t see us going anywhere.”
Zahar, from Afghanistan, was interviewed just after his release from detention on Chios. He said he was 16, but had told the police that he was 19: “If I told them, they would keep me and I didn’t want to stay.” He said that many children who traveled alone knew about the prospect of prolonged detention and gave their age as 18 or 19.

Behind the French "Peace Initiative"
Bassam Tawil/Gatestone Institute
June 26, 2015
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6029/french-peace-initiative
It is a desperate attempt by the French government to buy a few more days of quiet from its Muslim community, especially from the members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the terrorist organizations to which it gave birth -- all waiting for the order to run riot through the streets of France. If it succeeds, may Allah prevent it, it will lead to an ISIS and Hamas takeover of every inch of Palestinian soil from which Israel withdraws if coerced by the initiative. It is evidently too frustrating and unrewarding just to sit in the U.N. and not think of some project supposedly to spread beneficence that could make your country look important to the other 190 members -- even if this beneficence is lethal to its recipient. When the Byzantium fell to the Ottoman Empire, the churches, including the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, were turned into mosques; that is the dream of the Islamists today, to turn the Vatican into a mosque. Currently, Qatar is currently investing millions to overthrow the Egyptian regime. It is investing millions to finance incitement among Muslims around the globe by means of its Islamist network and da'wah, the cunning preaching of the Muslim Brotherhood's variety of Islam.
The Arabs always secretly believed that anyone who hated their mutual enemies, the Jews, as deeply as the Europeans did, and who actually tried to achieve their total physical destruction during the Second World War, would be their ally and help to expel them from occupied Palestine.Apparently, the commonly-held hatred between the Europeans and the Arabs was not enough to halt the Jews, so now the Arabs pay huge sums to bribe the leaders of Europe to help them get rid of the Jews now.
The latest missile to split the skies over the Middle East is not a rocket; it is the French "peace" initiative. No one in the Middle East has the slightest doubt that whatever its objective may be, it will not promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It is a desperate attempt by the French government to buy a few more days of quiet from its Muslim community, especially from the members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the terrorist organizations to which it gave birth -- all waiting for the order to run riot through the streets of France.
We, the Palestinians, have suffered, and continue to suffer, from the creation of the Islamist terrorist organizations within the Palestinian Authority territory; it is they who keep us from reaching a peace agreement with the Jews. One has to be deaf, dumb and blind -- or genuinely desperate, which is more likely -- to present a unilateral peace agreement like the French one. If it succeeds, may Allah prevent it, it will lead to an ISIS and Hamas takeover of every inch of Palestinian soil from which Israel withdraws if coerced by the initiative.
One also has to be simply ignorant not to understand that the Middle East is going up in flames and that the Arab states are disintegrating. There is no logical reason, therefore, to construct a new state, which will be both unstable and prey to local and regional subversion. It will also be subject to a quick takeover, and the first people who will suffer will be the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The Israelis know how to look out for themselves, but we will be left to the tender mercies of Hamas and ISIS mujahedeen. Just as they have done in Iraq and Syria, they will slaughter us without thinking twice, on the grounds that as we did not all become shaheeds ["martyrs" for Islam] trying to kill the Zionists, and even tried to reach a peace agreement with them, we are not sufficiently Muslim.
The French initiative is not a benevolent gesture meant to help the Palestinians. Without a doubt, the French government and its intelligence services know full well that the secret of the Palestinian Authority's existence today -- and its ability to function as a sovereign entity, demilitarized and de facto recognizing the State of Israel -- is its security collaboration with the Israelis. It serves the interests of both sides. When, therefore, a Palestinian state is declared unilaterally, as the French propose, Israel will stop collaborating with it and the state, not even fully formed, will almost instantly fall prey to Islamist extremists. That is obvious to us: even our institutions of higher learning are ruled by Hamas today, as can be seen by Hamas's landslide victory in the recent student elections in Bir Zeit University.
The recent visit of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham to Israel helped the Palestinians understand even more thoroughly that behind the French initiative is an attempt, as with many members of the U.N., to "be a player." It is evidently too frustrating and unrewarding just to sit in the U.N. and not think of some project supposedly to spread beneficence that could make your country look important to the other 190 members -- even if this beneficence is lethal to its recipient. One way of doing spreading such beneficence is to take over the peace process through the Security Council, force both sides into a unilateral solution, and not even to feign dismay when its first victims are the Palestinians. Senator Graham referred to the drastic nature of the initiative and stressed that the United States supported the solution of two states for two peoples, according to the vision of Israel's current Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. It favors a demilitarized Palestinian state that would recognize Israel as a Jewish state and make it possible for everyone, both Jews and Palestinians, to live with self-respect and independence. Graham threatened the UN, saying that if promotes the French initiative, he would bid to halt American funding for the UN -- nearly a quarter of its budget.
Today, the UN's funds are twisted into sending peacekeepers, who have diplomatic immunity and therefore cannot be sued, out to Africa to demand sex, often from children, in exchange for food or other necessities; and to passing resolutions aimed at harming Israel, while the organization callously ignores floggings in Saudi Arabia, slavery in Mauritania; escalating executions, calls for genocide and violations of nuclear treaties in Iran, just for a start. The situation is grotesque. They are basically accusing Israel of "terrorism" for defending itself against by rockets fired from Hamas, in a confrontation where Gazan children were hurt because Hamas used them as human shields -- while ignoring the real terrorism against the children of Africa committed by the U.N.'s own peacekeepers, Boko Haram, Iran and Sudan. When they so twist logic as to accuse Israel of "terrorism," while turning their back on the horrendous abuses by other states, they are essentially giving paedophile UN "peacekeepers," Iran's torturers, executioners, and nuclear weapons factories a green light.
Graham was very clear about the American point of view. He said that any country that tried to bring Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague would have sanctions imposed on it by the United States. The parade of the grotesque is the direct result of the Western surrender to Islamic terrorism. Now, sadly, the Vatican has also joined France. The assumption that the Islamists can be pandered to and propitiated by harming the Jews is yet another prevalent misconception. Every gesture to the Islamists, even if it is aimed at "helping" the Palestinians, sends a message of weakness and vulnerability, and increases the Islamists' aggression against Christians and other non-Muslim minorities. In the Middle East, anyone who "turns the other cheek," such as the Pope saying that the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, could be "an angel of peace," will find his neck under the sword. When Byzantium fell to the Ottoman Empire, its churches, including the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, were turned into mosques; that is the dream of the Islamists today, to turn the Vatican into a mosque. The dangerous European surrender to radical Islam is not only an attempt to hold off its threat to the free society of Europe just a little longer. It is also the result of the economic distress of the Western world, which is seeking to keep afloat by selling itself, literally, for petro-dollars. The Vatican is in desperate financial straits -- there are fewer practicing Catholics and therefore fewer donating Catholics. It is hard not to feel that the anti-Israel manipulations of the Vatican administration are motivated not by a genuine desire to help the Palestinians or to save Christians in the Middle East, but by a genuine desire to extricate itself from its financial straits.
Judas sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver; Boko Haram sells girls for the price of a pack of cigarettes, and Europe is selling itself and the Israelis to Qatar. Europe is in the same situation as the Vatican; and so are many American universities, which are selling radical Islamist education for petro-dollars from the Persian Gulf. This enables the Islamists to rewrite history and endanger the open way of life in the gullible West. There is already a Muslim Brotherhood lobby in the United States, a syndicate trying to force the administration to undermine the current Egyptian president, who is an enemy of the murderous Muslim Brotherhood. Their aim is to restore to power the Islamist dictator Mohamed Morsi (who is also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood), and to sabotage the measures Egypt is currently taking to rehabilitate itself. The ease with which Qatar, the petro-dollar heavyweight, manipulates terrorist organizations in the Middle East is unnerving. The country both hosts and finances senior Muslim Brotherhood figures such as Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi and others responsible for spreading the doctrine of radical Islamism and terrorism around the world.
Qatar finances a wide range of subversive Islamist terrorist organizations, among them ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and various other global jihad organizations operating under the aegis of the Arab-Muslim regimes. Qatar also seeks to carve out enclaves in Africa and the West, and to turn the West's pluralistic melting pot into a seething cauldron of terrorist operatives who will, when given the signal, bludgeon Europe and America to the ground. The petro-dollars of the Qatari feudal lords, totalitarians who dictate their whims to a population with no rights, direct a global network of propaganda and incitement, through vehicles such as Al-Jazeera TV in Arabic, light years more toxic than Al Jazeera in English. It crowns kings and topples regimes throughout the Middle East, as it did by endlessly replaying the self-immolation of the young Tunisian fruit vendor who could not get a license, until it whipped up the Tunisians and Egyptians to start the "Arab Spring." Currently, Qatar is investing millions to overthrow the Egyptian regime. It is investing millions to finance incitement among Muslims around the globe by means of its Islamist network and da'wah, the cunning preaching of the Muslim Brotherhood's variety of Islam.
The Arabs always felt that the Europeans had a soft spot in their hearts for them. They always secretly believed that anyone who hated their mutual enemies, the Jews, as deeply as the Europeans did, and who actually tried to achieve their total physical destruction during the Second World War, would be their ally and help to expel them from occupied Palestine. Apparently, the commonly-held hatred between the Europeans and the Arabs was not enough to halt the Jews, so now the Arabs pay huge sums to bribe the leaders of Europe to help them get rid of the Jews now. Just look at the extensive corruption of the heads of FIFA, bought and paid-for by Qatar. All it took was $100 million, and Qatar could host the World Cup. It makes one wonder what Qatar would be willing to pay for other projects, doesn't it? Now where did that envelope of cash go...?
**Bassam Tawil is a scholar based in the Middle East.

Where’s the Pope’s Encyclical on Christian Persecution?
Raymond Ibrahim on June 25, 2015
http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/wheres-the-popes-encyclical-on-christian-persecution/
Pope Francis recently released a new encyclical. Portions of it deal with environmentalism, global warming, and climate change. Naturally, this has prompted controversy.
It’s noteworthy that Francis didn’t merely make a passing comment on global warming during this or that sermon, but that he issued a papal encyclical on the matter. Encyclicals are much more formal and significant than remarks made during mass. They are letters written by a pope and sent to bishops all around the world. In turn, the bishops are meant to disseminate the encyclical’s ideas to all the priests and churches in their jurisdiction, so that the pope’s teaching reaches every church-attending Catholic.
All this leads to the following question: Where is Pope Francis’ encyclical concerning the rampant persecution that Christians—including many Catholics—are experiencing around the world in general, the Islamic world in particular?
To be sure, the pope has acknowledged it. On April 21, during mass held at Casa Santa Marta, Francis said that today’s church is a “church of martyrs.” He even referenced several of the recent attacks on Christians by Muslims (without of course mentioned the latter’s religious identity).
Said Pope Francis:
In these days how many Stephens [early Christian martyred in Book of Acts] there are in the world! Let us think of our brothers whose throats were slit on the beach in Libya [by the Islamic State]; let’s think of the young boy who was burnt alive by his [Pakistani Muslim] companions because he was a Christian; let us think of those migrants thrown from their boat into the open sea by other [African Muslim] migrants because they were Christians; let us think – just the day before yesterday – of those Ethiopians assassinated because they were Christians… and of many others. Many others of whom we do not even know and who are suffering in jails because they are Christians… The Church today is a Church of martyrs: they suffer, they give their lives and we receive the blessing of God for their witness.
The pope is acquainted with the reality of Christian persecution around the world. So why isn’t he issuing an encyclical about it? Such an encyclical would be very useful.
The pope could instruct bishops to acknowledge the truth about Christian persecution and to have this news spread to every Catholic church. Perhaps a weekly prayer for the persecuted church could be institutionalized—keeping the plight of those hapless Christians in the spotlight, so Western Catholics and others always remember them, talk about them, and, perhaps most importantly, understand why they are being persecuted.
Once enough people are familiar with the reality of Christian persecution, they could influence U.S. policymakers—for starters, to drop those policies that directly exacerbate the sufferings of Christian minorities in the Middle East.
Whatever the effects of such an encyclical—and one can only surmise positive ones—at the very least, the pope would be addressing a topic entrusted to his care and requiring his attention.
As recent as 1958, Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical that addressed the persecution of Christians. A portion follows:
We are aware—to the great sorrow of Our fatherly heart—that the Catholic Church, in both its Latin and Oriental rites, is beset in many lands by such persecutions that the clergy and faithful … are confronted with this dilemma: to give up public profession and propagation of their faith, or to suffer penalties, even very serious ones.
Missionaries who have left their homes and dear native lands and suffered many serious discomforts in order to bring the light and the strength of the gospel to others, have been driven from many regions as menaces and evil-doers…
Note that Pius does not mention the burning and bombing of churches, or the abduction, rape, enslavement, and slaughter of Christians. The reason is that Christians living outside the West in 1958 rarely experienced such persecution. In other words, today’s global persecution of Christians is exponentially worse than in 1958. Pius complained about how Christianity was being contained, not allowed to spread and win over converts.
Today, indigenous Christians who’ve been in the Middle East before Islam was conceived are being slaughtered, their churches burned to the ground, their women and children, enslaved, raped, and forced to convert. “ISIS” is the tip of the iceberg.
Even in the West, statistics indicate that Islam is set to supersede Christianity, at least in numbers.
Yet no encyclical from Pope Francis on any of this. Instead, Francis deems it more fit to issue a proclamation addressing the environment and climate change.
Whatever position one holds concerning these topics, it is telling that the pope—the one man in the world best placed and most expected to speak up for millions of persecuted Christians around the world—is more interested in speaking up for “the world” itself.
Bear in mind, the Christian worldview is not about “saving the earth”—“where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal”—but in saving souls, both in the now and hereafter. The Lord questioned Saul of Tarsus as to why he was persecuting his flock, not about the environment.
Yet here we are: if even the Catholic Pope does not deem the ongoing, systematic assault on Christianity and Christians a priority issue in need of its own encyclical, what can be expected from the average secular/atheistic politician in the West?
The answer is before us: brutal persecution and slaughter of Christians on the one hand, and absolute indifference from the West on the other.

Khamenei tries to force generals back into line
 Amir Taheri/Asharq Al Awsat
Friday, 26 Jun, 2015
Is Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei worried that the forthcoming elections for Majlis (Parliament) and the Assembly of Experts might cause a split within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)?
The question is not academic.
Over the past year, various IRGC active or retired commanders have been making almost daily media appearances to promote diverse positions on a range of political issues, notably President Hassan Rouhani’s efforts for rapprochement with the United States. Theoretically, the IRGC should not intervene in politics, a position stressed by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.
However, the IRGC has always been a political rather than military arm of the regime. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic defines the IRGC’s role in defending the political system while “exporting” the Khomeinist revolution whenever possible. The regime has always used the IRGC to crush dissent, recruit terrorists abroad, and, when needed, “arrange” elections to produce results desired by the “Supreme Guide”.
For the first time, the IRGC is speaking in different and, at times, discordant voices. One reason may be Khamenei’s ambiguous position on some key issues. On the nuclear talks, for example, Khamenei has been clearly hedging his bets. He has set pale “red-lines” but refused to pull the rug from under Rouhani’s feet when those are crossed.
In the Khomeinist system, politics has never proceeded in the chiaroscuro of nuances. This is an “either/or” system, a win-or-lose game, with a black-and-white vision of existence. For Khomeinist rulers nurtured on a sick ideology, the so-called “win-win” game marketed by Rouhani and his “New York Group” is hard to understand let alone adopt. Thus the IRGC commanders are confused.
Some hope that Iran will close the chapter of revolution and become a normal state in which the military could focus on their essential role as guardians of the nation’s safety and security while gaining access to the latest weapons systems.
Others fear that normalization might lead to demands for the abolition of the IRGC or, at least, its merger with the regular armed forces. After all, if the revolution is absorbed into the machinery of state, there would be no need for a separate force to guard it. (Plans to merge the IRGC into the regular armed forces have been on and off the table since the 1980s.)
The IRGC has a vested interest in Iran remaining in a state of revolutionary hysteria. In such a state, the IRGC is able to claim special treatment, for example in the form of the recent 30 per cent increase in its budget. It is also allowed to dabble in all sorts of businesses through over 400 companies with a combined turnover estimated at 10 per cent of the gross domestic product.
Membership of the IRGC provides a fast-track to upward mobility. Once an IRGC officer has retired, he could claim plum jobs in the civil and diplomatic service, become member of the ersatz parliament or a Cabinet minister, or secure positions as provincial governors and major city mayors, or seats on the board of directors of public corporations. IRGC commanders also have their eyes on one day capturing the presidency. (So far eight have been candidates without success.)
Another reason for the current cacophony is linked to persistent but often inexact reports regarding Khamenei’s declining health. If Khamenei lives as long as Khomeini, he would have another 14 years to go. Right now, there is no prospect of him being removed with a vote from the Assembly of Experts. Nevertheless, the rival factions are already looking for successors. The IRGC hopes to have a big say in choosing a successor or a collective leadership formula as some suggest.
The faction led by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and including Rouhani and his “New York Group,” is anxious to script the IRGC out of the equation before the next elections in March 2016.
“Intervention by government, the IRGC, the state-owned radio and television network, or the governor in favor of this or that candidate is poison for elections,” Rouhani said in a recent speech.
His critics, however, claim Rouhani himself was an IRGC member of long standing, and director of its principal business empire, and that his election was engineered by the force on Khamenei’s orders.
Clearly, Khamenei regards the IRGC as his chief instrument of power, and is determined to reaffirm his control over it. Last week, Ayatollah Ali Saeedi, Khamenei’s Special Representative in the IRGC, a kind of religious-political commissar, warned the generals not to “speak out of turn.”
“In the IRGC everyone must act within the framework fixed by the high command,” he said. “If they don’t, they would lack legitimacy as members of the corps.”
The threat of cashiering disobedient officers or forcing them into early retirement is timely because it comes just months before annual promotions in October. To hammer in the point, Saeedi declared that from now on promotion from full colonel to the rank of general would need the approval of the “Supreme Guide”. Hitherto, the “Supreme Guide” has intervened in promotions above the rank of brigadier-general (one star).
According to Saeedi, the religious commissars of the IRGC will now act like the Guardian Council that decides who could stand for election and whose election victory is accepted. In other words, it is not up to the military alone to decide promotions. Through his Special Representative, the “Supreme Guide” could promote anybody to any rank within the IRGC.
The ayatollah also announced an expansion of the role of religious commissars within the IRGC, including “supervision of security and para-security matters.”
Khamenei’s move to re-impose discipline on the IRGC has a political dimension. In an oblique warning against backing “questionable candidates” in next March elections, Saeedi called for “supporting genuine believers.”
“We do not want to intervene in elections,” he said. “All we say is: vote for genuine believers. This does not mean intervening in elections. The others [factions] have a secret agenda to vote for those who are as far from the system as possible.”
The ayatollah went to accuse rival factions of seeking to undermine Khamenei’s position. “There are numerous efforts to transform our fundamentalist Majlis into something else,” he said. “And that would be a threat to the Imam’s ideals, to the Supreme Leader and the [vital] interests of the regime.”
Khamenei is worried. He has reason to be. Islamic history is full of instances of guardians of the caliph ending up seizing power for themselves.

The deadlock in Yemen
Friday, 26 June 2015
Abdulrahman al-Rashed/AlArabiya
Since its start, not much was expected from the U.N.-sponsored peace conference on Yemen which was held in Geneva at the behest of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Talks focused exclusively on negotiations between the Yemeni forces fighting for power while representatives of concerned countries were sidelined. The opposition, more specifically Houthi militias and ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh, considered it an opportunity to become an internationally-recognized legitimate party. Meanwhile, the legitimate Yemeni government found itself compelled to remain on good terms with the United Nations as it will need the latter’s help later on.
It would be a falsehood to mislead Yemenis into thinking that the world desires a peaceful solution for them
However, the outcome of the Geneva talks will have no repercussions in Sanaa and will not halt the collapse of the Yemeni government. This fragmentation comes as the result of the multiplicity of forces and conflicts, the political vacuum and the absence of a central government. Yemen is heading toward a civil war complemented by an additional conflict between external powers, similar to the Somali conflict. In fact, the Somali civil war broke out in 1991 and continues to rage until now. Neighboring countries intervened and the United States sent forces but failed to secure an end to the fighting. In the end, all parties abandoned Somalia and few cared about its people who were left to fight the flames of conflict alone.
From bad to worse
Yemen’s situation is going from bad to worse and will not improve if the fighting parties do not accept a political solution that will unite them in one system with similar rights. It is the same GCC-EU proposal that the Houthis accepted three years ago then decided to forgo at Iranian instigation. There is in Yemen now, despite the apparent infighting, many forces whose majority did not engage completely in the ongoing conflict.
Alongside the three main forces, Houthis, Saleh and the legitimate government, there are southern separatist forces faced by other forces, northern tribal forces and of course lurking al-Qaeda elements who will try to seize territories in much the same way ISIS in Syria and Iraq has done.
The Houthis and Saleh will not govern Yemen because of the ongoing fighting. Each party initially felt it was winning by spoiling the chances of the other, especially the Houthis. They had many advantages in the former government, before the coup, as well as influence exceeding their political clout. However, their involvement in the power play and their desire to take over the country spoiled the whole plan. No one will make any gains in an atmosphere of chaos. Over time, if the Yemeni parties fail to reach an agreement, Yemen’s war will be forgotten like Somalia.
Crises and raging fires
The region is full of crises and raging fires. It would be a falsehood to mislead Yemenis into thinking that the world desires a peaceful solution for them. In parallel, whoever thinks that Iran, Russia and Western nations will remain permanently supportive is also at a height of self-delusion. If the crisis extends for one or two more years, Yemenis will realize that everyone walked away to deal with other issues and that even the U.N. secretary-general and his envoy will no longer answer their calls, in a situation similar to what Somalia faced.
We urge the various Yemeni leaderships, whether legitimate or militia, to think of the future. Fearing a permanent state of collapse, we urge them to seek a political solution that will unite all parties in a viable and sustainable system. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to repair broken glass.

The Taliban’s ‘Talk and Fight’ policy, part 2
Friday, 26 June 2015
Baker Atyani/Al Arabiya
The first section of this two part article is available here.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2015/06/14/The-Taliban-s-Talk-and-Fight-policy.html
In a private conversation with myself in May 2015, a political leader of the Afghan Taliban, who is very close to the Political office of the Taliban, commented on media reports that talked of dialogue with the Afghan Government saying, “the Taliban are ready to talk to those who have their own free will and we do not see the Afghan president as having so.”
He added, “the United States is the real power and an occupation; we can negotiate with the Americans but we do not trust them.” He further said: “The Chinese and the Iranians contacted us but we told them clearly that they have to recognize the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan if they want to play the mediatory role. They should realize that Afghanistan is under occupation and that there is a legitimate resistance against this occupation. Only then can they be nonpartisan mediators.”
It seems that the Taliban’s refusal to talk to the Afghan Government signifies the continuation of their armed activities
Talking about Pakistan and its relation with the Taliban, he said, “the Taliban are not under anyone’s control. We make our own independent decisions.”
The Taliban’s stance
Looking at various statements both on official forums and by senior Taliban members, it can be deduced that the Taliban’s stance regarding any future talks will be based on the following:
1. The Taliban still consider themselves as the legitimate government of Afghanistan and choose to call themselves the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan, the official name given by Taliban to Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
2. The Taliban believe that formal talks can be held with what they describe as occupation forces only with the condition of complete withdrawal. They reject the notion of talking to the Afghan Government. In this regard, Taliban perceive China, and not Pakistan, as a potential foreign guarantor for future talks.
3. The Taliban firmly believe Islamic law to be the only source of legislation and would not negotiate on this principle. Despite the fact that the Afghan constitution claims Islam as the prime source of legislation, the Taliban’s vision of implementing Islamic law is different from the Afghan Government’s interpretation.
4. The Taliban’s stand over its armed status is a principled one and is not up for negotiation. After surviving the last 13 years of war, they feel themselves victorious and not in a hurry to talk, if at all, with high set standards.
5. The Taliban’s stand vis-à-vis minorities and other ethnicities joining the political process has also evolved supporting the idea of sharing power with others. They are also convinced to allow women to acquire education and be part of the public life within the bounds laid down by the religion.
6. The Taliban’s standpoint toward the foreign and local militant groups vividly states that they are not allowed to use the Afghan soil against other countries. It is a clearly developed stand within the Taliban and endorsed by Mullah Omar himself which means that al-Qaeda or any other militant group would not be allowed to work against any country from inside Afghanistan.
The Taliban political figure said: “Foreign fighters are our guests. We cannot expel them from Afghanistan but as long as they are there they need to respect the laws of the land and the host country.”
The developing landscape
It seems that the Taliban’s refusal to talk to the Afghan Government signifies the continuation of their armed activities targeting international forces and the Afghan National Security Force. At the same time, Taliban are ready to unofficially explore other options and hold informal talks.
Reading varied standpoints leads to infer that any direct and formal dialogue with the Taliban would not be possible before the complete withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan by 2016. Taliban have adopted a stiff standpoint over NATO’s decision to maintain military presence inside Afghanistan after 2016 as announced on May 13, 2015 in the Turkish city of Antalya. The Taliban responded by saying, “as long as they have military presence inside our country, their civilian efforts, irrespective of their name and title, will not find security.”
In this regard, there are certain factors to be taken into account over the course of next two years that might affect any future talks:
The weak condition of the Afghan Government: its ability to become stronger, attain reconciliation from within, and to effectively fight corruption. According to Transparency International, Afghanistan is fourth on the list of most corrupt countries in the world. Recent U.N. reports state that $1.2 billion went in bribes in Afghanistan during the year 2014 alone.
The ability of the Afghan security forces to fight the Taliban in the next two years: field performance of the Afghan National Army is comparatively no match to the Taliban might on ground at this stage. According to a report presented by the U.S. special forces, the Green Berets, to the U.S. CENTCOM in October 2014: “The Afghan National Army cannot stand in front of Taliban,” which again raises questions about the future of Afghanistan post 2016. The police, in addition to incapacity and weakness, have also been accused of corruption and abuse of power according to a recent report by International Crisis Group published in June 2015.
Another important point is the regional efforts to support the Afghan Government and the seriousness of regional powers not to pursue proxy wars inside the Afghan territory.
Also worrying are the visible signs of threat by the new group of “Khorasan state” of ISIS: so far all the efforts of this new group are directed at competing with and confronting the Taliban.
Additionally, the ability of Taliban to stay intact, unified, and coup up with post withdrawal changes: Taliban leadership and its affiliate groups like the Haqqani Network still obey Mullah Omar and follow the orders of the Taliban central shura council.
Depending on Islamabad to help bring Taliban to talks sounds unrealistic: the relation between Islamabad and Taliban stands altered to quite an extent since 2001 and is now built on mutual interests rather than Islamabad’s one-sided control over the views and agendas of the Taliban. Islamabad’s reaction over the arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhond, deputy leader of the Taliban, in 2010 after the news of Taliban’s covert contact with the United States broke out, and later arresting of the relatives of Mullah Tayyab Agha, head of Taliban political office, in a mere attempt to bring Agha under pressure after the Taliban opened Doha office are perceived as hostile by the Taliban. In another instance, Taliban accused Pakistan of torturing Mullah Obaidullah Akhond, former Taliban defense minister, who was arrested in 2007 and died in Pakistani jails in 2010. In a recent press conference held in Kabul on May 12, 2015, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the surge in attacks by the Afghan Taliban under their summer offensive calling it an act of terror. “Pakistan cannot exercise pressure anymore”, a member of the Taliban media cell told me: “We can work with Pakistan on matters of common interests, but we cannot trust Pakistan anymore,” he said.
The Afghan Government appears to be a strong purveyor of dialogue process. The incumbent Afghan President is clearly very serious and active in trying to bring the Taliban to the talking table. On the other hand, the Taliban have evolved from a group that adopted armed activities as their signature, since the ousting of their government in 2001, into a political movement using armed activities as a way to come back to power.
This is the starting line for any future talks between both the parties. Nevertheless, disparity in vision and stands is likely to make the reconciliatory process close to impossible at this stage as well as making it costly for all the parties, especially the Afghan Government that will face a severe military resistance from the Taliban. The Taliban might affirm their previously adopted stands through this resistance while simultaneously trying to improve their stand for any future negotiations.

Will the six world powers and Iran clinch a deal?
Friday, 26 June 2015
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Al Arabiya
After years of negotiations, the Islamic Republic and the six world powers, known as the P5+1; China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States plus Germany, are only a few days away from the June 30 deadline to seal a final nuclear deal.
The critical question to address is whether the six world powers and the Islamic Republic will reach a so-called historic deal. Since the time that the nuclear issue emerged, and since Iran’s clandestine nuclear sites in Arak and Natanz were disclosed, the result of the nuclear talks between the P5+1 and Iran have always been one of the most unpredictable landscapes in geopolitics.
This is due to the fact that a crucial underlying characteristic of the Iranian political system is unpredictability. There exists an unprecedented level of tactical convergence and shared interest between the Obama administration and Iran
Nevertheless, I would argue that these rounds of nuclear talks appear to be different from the former negotiations between the P5+1 and the Islamic Republic. In other words, the odds of reaching a final nuclear agreement are high. Although both parties will most likely miss the June 30 deadline, nevertheless, they can still seal a deal by extending the talks. This is similar to other several extensions that were made and then resulted in deals, such as the recent interim one, or agreed frameworks in the past two years.
Why are the odds of sealing a final nuclear deal high?
While extending the talks is very likely, there are several other key factors that suggest why it is likely that the six world powers and the Islamic Republic will ultimately reach a final nuclear deal.
First of all, it is crucial to point out that reaching a final nuclear is more of a political decision (not merely a technical nuclear decision), which has to be made in the White House and in the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The two key players in the nuclear talks are the United States and the Islamic Republic.
There exists an unprecedented level of tactical convergence and shared interest between the Obama administration and Iran which suggests rapprochement. Both sides have found each other on the same side, fighting ISIS. Both sides share the same geopolitical, national, security, economic and strategic interests in preserving the power of the Iraqi government. In addition, Washington and Tehran are on the same page when it comes to fighting extremist groups in Syria.
This tactical convergence between Tehran and Washington is critical in pushing both governments towards reaching a nuclear deal.
Secondly, as U.S. Presidential campaigns have began, and as President Obama will be leaving office in less than two years having spent a significant amount of political capital in nuclear talks, he needs this deal for his legacy. From, his perspective, reaching a deal will distinguish him from other U.S. presidents significantly. In other words, he does not desire to leave the office with a legacy of failing to reach a nuclear deal.
The deal is a no-brainer for Ayatollah Khamenei
From Ayatollah Khamenei’s perspective, sealing a final nuclear deal is a no-brainer, economically speaking. A decade ago, Khamenei’s calculations were different from the ones he currently holds. The Islamic Republic has been spending billions of dollars in ensuring Assad’s hold-on-power, securing the power of the Shiite ruling coalition in Iraq, and funding and arming Shiite groups across the region. With the economic sanctions that Tehran is enduring and with the fall of oil process, the supreme leader is in need of the nuclear deal more than ever before.
In other words, for the supreme leader, economic gains justify political actions to reaching a nuclear deal. In addition, although he appears to give incendiary speeches with regards to the nuclear talks and although he seems to be inflexible and strict, the latest leaked information from the Iranian parliament suggest that Khamenei is indeed in favor of the final nuclear deal and he seems to be instructing Rowhani’s nuclear negotiating team to be flexible in order to seal a deal. A recent piece of legislation in Iran’s parliament also eliminated the power of Iranian lawmakers to supervise the nuclear deal. The right of supervision formally goes into the hands of the country's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).
In addition, for Khamenei, the deal will only subject Iran to a short period of restrictions, but will provide Iran with a significant economic boost and legitimacy. Also, Iran will not dismantle its nuclear sites and will be capable of working on its nuclear program with full speed after the nuclear deal expires.
Finally, Iranian hardliners, particularly the high officials of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, have witnessed that the nuclear talks and the possibility of a nuclear deal have already made President Obama more lenient with Iran, and ignoring Iran’s military (IRGC and Quds Force) intervention and aggressiveness in the region. Although a recent annual terrorism report by the State Department shows the aggressive foreign policy of the Islamic Republic and although it found that even under the presidency of Hassan Rowhani, “Iran continued to provide arms, financing, training, and the facilitation of primary Iraq Shiite and Afghan fighters to support the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown… Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qaeda members it continued to detain and refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody.” President Obama has still been unwilling to criticize or pressure Iran due to the possibility that a nuclear deal can be reached.
These factors - including the significant tactical convergence between Tehran and Washington, Obama’s search for legacy, and Ayatollah Khamenei’s tactical shift for economic gains - suggest that the odds for sealing a final nuclear is very high this time around.