[KhaamaPress] The Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... group will likely demand the release of a senior Haqqani network leader, Anas Haqqani, and scores of other Taliban inmates for the revival of peace talks, it has been reported.
Sources within the Taliban ranks have told NBC News that the youngest son of the feared Haqqani terror network’s founder is among hundreds of prisoners whom the Taliban is demanding be released as part of an upcoming round of talks with the United States.
"This meeting with the U.S. authorities would either help pave the way for more meaningful talks or stop them forever," a Taliban Überstürmbannführer in Afghanistan’s Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... Province said on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. "If they are sincere in talks in the future, they would accept our proposal for a prisoners’ exchange."
This comes as sources privy of the development within the Taliban ranks had earlier told Rooters that the leaders of the group were meeting to discuss the makeup of the three- or four-person delegation and the subjects to be discussed.
The sources had said the Taliban would like to discuss an exchange of prisoners and could hold another meeting soon if the United States showed seriousness in talks by releasing prisoners.
"This meeting will determine the future talks and we would see if the U.S. is serious and sincere in negotiation," one of the officials involved had said.
"We would hand over a list of prisoners languishing in jails across Afghanistan. If they set free our prisoners then we would meet again for another great cause," the sources added.
The four Taliban officials, speaking from Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... , said that the next round of discussions will be held very soon and deal with a possible prisoner exchange, NBC said.
But despite the Taliban’s tough talk, it is unlikely the US-backed Afghan government will agree to releasing such a senior figure in the insurgency without major concessions from the other side, experts said.
In Washington, the State Department said no talks were scheduled and declined to comment on whether a potential prisoner swap was on the table, NBC reported. On Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told news hounds, "We’re ready to work with the people of Afghanistan, the government of Afghanistan, and to talk to the Taliban all together to bring an end to the conflict."
In recent months, the US has stepped up attempts to broker peace talks between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban, the Death Eater group ousted after sheltering the late Osama bin Laden ... who doesn't live anywhere anymore... as he plotted the 9/11 attacks. Since the 2001 US-led invasion, more than 2,400 American personnel and tens of thousands of Afghans have died.
President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... ’s impatience with the 17-year-old war has prompted US diplomats and commanders to gamble on a bid to kick-start peace negotiations, including holding direct talks with the Taliban, current and former US officials have told NBC News.
A former US official with extensive experience in Afghanistan said that the administration sees a potential window of opportunity to advance peace talks, but the effort was still at an early stage.
"There are serious indications that there are internal discussions inside the Taliban," he said of their response to the offer for reconciliation, despite the group’s position that the Afghan government is illegitimate. The former official spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions.
NBC reported Anas Haqqani, son of Jalaluddin Haqqani ...founder and still titular head of the Haqqani Network. Jalaluddin is old and tough and very crafty, one of the few Pashtun warlords who was worth spit... who founded the Death Eater group under his name in the 1970s, tops the list of those the Taliban is saying must be released, according to the Taliban officials.
Anas Haqqani has been in Afghan custody since October 2014 when US security forces nabbed him while en route to Qatar from Bahrain.
Taliban leaders are demanding closure of US bases in Afghanistan and release of hundreds of their prisoners for continuing peace talks with the United States, the US media reported on Saturday.
Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US ambassador recently named as a special adviser for Afghanistan peace talks, arrived in the United Arab Emirates this week for the next round of US-Taliban talks, NBC News reported.
“This meeting with the US authorities would either help pave the way for more meaningful talks or stop them forever,” said one of the four senior Taliban officials who spoke to NBC News.
Other US media outlets, however, reported that the Afghan government was unlikely to concede to the request without a commensurate concession from the Taliban.
“The number of US bases maintained…is also a point of contention; the US wants two, but the Taliban want zero. The Taliban’s main `reason for war, their casus belli, if you will, is the occupation,” retired Col Christopher Kolenda, a former Pentagon adviser who has negotiated with the Taliban, explained in an interview with VOA.
[AsiaTimes] Germany, UK, France spearhead effort to preserve nuclear deal.
In commentary published last month, German Foreign Minister Meiko Haas made the case for greater European independence from US foreign-policy initiatives. In order to strengthen European autonomy, he said, countries will need to set up new payment channels and create an independent SWIFT system.
Despite German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s efforts to play down the comments at the time, it seems the process to realize such a vision has already begun.
German news magazine Der Spiegel reported this week that talks were under way between German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and his British and French counterparts.
The three parties’ discussions center on establishing a financial institution by November – the deadline for compliance with some of the US administration’s sanctions on Iran. The sole purpose of the project will be to process payments for transactions with Iranian entities, in an effort to maintain incentives that motivated Tehran to sign on to the 2015 nuclear deal.
What is being considered will not be a bank, the outlet reported, but a “special purpose vehicle,” similar to a clearinghouse, that will be open to companies from all European Union members.
The three countries have already met several times, including on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in mid-July.
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09/17/2018 00:00 ||
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#1
How about considering your own self financed NATO Equivalent? You want to hang out with mad mullahs? Sell your own souls on your own nickel. We came over twice plus an airlift to save your bacon. No more.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/17/2018 0:56 Comments ||
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#2
Too bad Russia in to condition to invade you at present.
[Rudaw] Iran on Saturday accused French police of being too slow to respond to an assault on its embassy in Gay Paree on Friday by Kurdish activists outraged by Tehran’s missile attack on Koya last week.
According to Fars News Agency, a group of around 15 Kurds affiliated with Komala, a Kurdish opposition party, arrived at the Iranian Embassy ...You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy!... in Gay Paree on Friday and proceeded to and smash its windows with stones, fire extinguishers, and computer parts and burn the Iranian flag. The activists did not breech the building itself.
"The French government should take all necessary measures to protect Iranian diplomatic missions in that country," Iranian foreign ministry front man Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA on Saturday.
"Unfortunately, the French police did not arrive as expected on the scene on time, although the assailants were members of a terrorist organization," he added.
Qasemi claimed a number of the protesters were jugged You have the right to remain silent... and called for them to face trial and punishment.
French police were not immediately available for comment, according to Rooters.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) fired seven surface-to-surface missiles on September 8 striking the Kurdistan Region refugee camps and headquarters of two Iranian-Kurdish parties, the PDKI and the KDP-I, while they were holding leadership meetings.
Seventeen people were killed, including several party leaders, and 46 were maimed in the attack.
Iran’s missile attack on Kurdish parties in Koya was a message to its enemies, the commander of the IRGC said Friday.
"The IRGC’s recent Dire Revenge against holy warriors had a very meaningful message for the enemies, particularly for the superpowers who assume that they can impose their dirty objectives and bullying on us," Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said at a funeral in Tehran, Tasnim news reported.
He touted their stockpile of missiles with an accuracy and range that give Iran "unmatched capabilities."
The strike on the PDKI and KDP-I was a demonstration of their precision, he explained.
PDKI and KDP-I seek greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Iran. They resumed their armed struggle against the Iranian regime a couple of years ago.
Tehran frequently accuses the US and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... of backing the parties that are based in the Kurdistan Region.
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09/17/2018 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Two recent US documents ‐ the 2019 budget proposals and the Pentagon’s 2018 report to Congress on China ‐ indicate that differences between the United States and Pakistain go beyond Afghanistan as Washington feels Islamabad is gradually slipping out of its orbit.
The budget proposals underline China and Russia as "the central threat to America’s prosperity and security" and highlight the strategy to meet this challenge.
The Defence Department’s report warns Congress that "China will seek to establish additional military bases in countries with which it has a long-standing friendly relationship and similar strategic interests, such as Pakistain, and in which there is a precedent for hosting foreign militaries".
The US media also noticed Washington’s growing concern as Wall Street Journal reported this week that "in Pakistain, China and the US are clashing over China’s One Belt, One Road initiative".
While Washington is concerned that China is trying to gain global influence through "debt trap diplomacy" by lending countries money for projects they can’t afford, "Beijing calls this Western propaganda," the report added.
The budget proposals, released in Washington last week, stressed that "the central challenge to US prosperity and security is the re-emergence of long-term, strategic competition (with) ... revisionist powers" China and Russia.
A quote from the US National Security Strategy warns that "China and Russia want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model ‐ gaining veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions".
The budget proposals then describe how the Trump administration plans to deal with the threat by building "a more lethal, resilient, and rapidly innovating joint force, combined with a robust constellation of allies and partners".
This alliance and the new force "will sustain American influence and ensure favourable balances of power that safeguard the free and open international order", the document adds.
It points out that in alignment with the National Defence Strategy, the air force’s budget for 2019 prioritises long-term competition with China and Russia by "investing in key capabilities to increase the lethality of the force through cost-effective modernisation.
The strategy prioritises major power competition and vows to "reverse the erosion of US military advantage in relation to China and Russia".
The document informs Congress that the defence budget request fulfills the Pentagon’s objectives by increasing "lethality; resilience (and) agility" of the defence forces. The objective behind this approach is to "build a flexible and dynamic force; and work by, with, and through allies and partners".
The document also informs Congress that the Pentagon has taken specific decisions about the budget that support "a more capable, ready, and efficient force that can project power globally for full-spectrum operations against a range of threats".
The document explains the US decision to partner with India to reverse China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Pentagon’s report to Congress on China argues that Beijing’s growing arms exports are geared to promote China’s "broader foreign policy goals", which is particularly evident in its "arms sales to Pakistain and demand for Chinese armed UAVs".
From 2012 through 2016, China was the fifth largest arms supplier in the world, completing more than $20 billion in sales. Of these sales, military equipment worth $8 billion went to Indo-Pacific countries, primarily Pakistain.
The Pentagon report claims that China’s ability to remain among the world’s top five global arms suppliers largely hinges on continued strong sales to Pakistain and demand for its armed UAVs.
In 2015, China signed an agreement with Pakistain for the sale of eight YUAN-class submarines; the first four submarines will be built in China and the remaining four in Pakistain, the report added.
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09/17/2018 00:06 ||
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[Dawn] Pakistain approached Afghanistan earlier this year, indicating its willingness to discuss the resumption of trade between Afghanistan and India through the Pak land route, says a senior US diplomat.
In an interview to India’s Economic Times newspaper, Ambassador John Bass said that reopening land routes between South and Central Asia will benefit all countries in the region.
Pakistain does not allow India to use the land route for trading with Afghanistan, arguing that technical and strategic issues connected to transit trade should be resolved first.
"A couple of months ago, for the first time the Pak government expressed a willingness to start talks with its Afghan counterparts for parameters to enabling trade between India and Afghanistan through Pakistain," Mr Bass said.
The US ambassador to Afghanistan also said that Indian firms were gradually increasing their investments in Afghanistan. Last year’s trade show in Delhi led to $27 million of investments at the event itself, and another $200 million of "prospective" investments from Indian companies, much of which had materialised, he added.
Ambassador Bass told the Indian newspaper that a political settlement in Afghanistan was in Pakistain’s long-term interest. "Increased trade in both directions, increased connectivity through central and south Asia through Afghanistan ‐ those are all missed opportunities if Pakistain has its sole focus on perpetuating the status quo," he said.
The US envoy said that India raised the issue of US sanctions on Iran when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis visited New Delhi earlier this month for Two-plus-Two talks.
The Indians were particularly interested in knowing how the sanctions would impact Chabahar port, which was built in Iran with Indian assistance for connecting India with Central Asia through Afghanistan.
The Indian government conveyed its perspectives "on the importance of Chabahar as a means to expand bilateral trade and help improve Afghanistan’s connectivity with South Asia," he said.
"We are processing and evaluating how best to reimpose sanctions on Iran, with the Iranian regime’s malevolent behaviour and its activities in destabilising its neighbours," Ambassador Bass said.
"My government is still thinking through how Chabahar factors in the reimposition of the toughest sanctions that we believe need to be put in place to hold the Iranian government accountable for its action."
He said the US administration was reviewing the sanctions to see how to deal with such issues, without hurting the US objective of persuading Iran to change its policies.
Ambassador Bass said the US realised that the conflict in Afghanistan could not be resolved through military means alone. "No one in the US government is saying at this point that we expect this conflict to end with a military victory. We believe that this conflict will end with a political settlement," he said.
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09/17/2018 00:05 ||
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[KhaamaPress] Pakistain’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Wormtongue Qureshi met with the Chief Executive of the Unity Government of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... during his visit to Kabul, delivering the message of the new government of Pakistain in support of regional security.
Qureshi, quoted in a statement released by the Office of the Chief Executive, said the Pak delegation has visited Kabul with a message to strengthen bilateral relations between Kabul and Islamabad.
He said the new government in Pakistain is prepared to cooperate with Afghanistan in improving the regional security.
The Pak Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi arrived in Kabul accompanying a delegation of high level Pak officials.
The Office of the President, ARG Palace, in a statement had earlier said that President Ghani met with the Pak delegation led by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Gul Khana Palace.
The statement further added that the two sides discussed security, regional peace and stability, joint fight against terrorism, and other issues related to Afghanistan Pakistain Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity.
Pointing towards the importance of Afghanistan Pakistain Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity, President Ghani said it is a comprehensive plan and its effective would only be noted once practical steps have been taken.
According to ARG Palace, the two sides also held talks regarding the practical steps to be taken as part of the Afghanistan Pakistain Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity and Pakistain’s support to an Afghan-led grinding of the peace processor.
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[AlMasdar] Hundreds of demonstrators gathered to show support of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in Basra on Saturday.
Protesters carried banners depicting political figures as they marched down the streets of Southern Iraqi city, claiming there have been attempts to attack a number of PMF headquarters.
[Rudaw] As the fight against ISIS on the Syria-Iraq border by the US-led coalition wraps up, Germany is considering a continued military presence in the Middle East.
"First we must bring this deployment to a successful end. I don’t want to rule the idea out, let me put it this way," Rooters quoted Germany Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen as telling news hounds on Saturday in Jordan.
Leyen was inspecting forces at Azraq air base that has around 300 German troops. Germany pulled its forces from Incirlik in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... in 2017 after a diplomatic fallout and German MPs complaining they were unable to inspect forces there.
Ah.
Germany contributes to coalition refueling and has Tornado jets conducting reconnaissance missions.
Leyen and other top decision-makers in Berlin, including Chancellor Angela Merkel ...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslems .. , called last week for efforts to be undertaken to prevent a chemical weapons' attack from being carried out in Syria's Idlib ahead of an expected regime assault on the governorate.
The issue of German military support in the Middle East is highly politicized with many leftists being pacifists or non-interventionists, and Social Democrats not supporting military action without a direct mandate from the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad...
Go on...
Germany has been a strong supporter of the Kurdistan Region's Peshmerga, providing arms, training, and advising since the Kurdish forces first fought back against the Lion of Islam group in 2014.
Well done, Germany.
Pockets of ISIS remnants remain in Iraq, despite incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's declaration of victory over the Lion of Islam group in December 2017.
NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and structure.... will take on a larger role training Iraqi forces through Baghdad at the end of this year.
[ASHARQ] A “protective” wall that Israel has been building for months along the border with the Gaza Strip will become “the world’s longest concrete wall” and will extend over 65 kilometers to reach the Strip’s land and maritime border, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
Israel decided to build the wall after the 2014 war, but its implementation began after three years of internal debate.
The wall is the third line Israel has constructed along the border to confront the Palestinians and prevent them from carrying out attacks.
Following the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s and after the disengagement from Gaza in 2005, Israel established buffer zones around Gaza and set up barbed wire, but these measures did not stop underground attacks.
The wall aims to provide underground and off-the-ground protection from infiltration through the coastal strip. It will also include physical barriers and sophisticated technological detection systems, according to the Israeli newspaper.
To date, Israel has used two million concrete blocks in the construction of the wall through five concrete factories that have been built along the border. The region employs 1,200 workers from different countries, including Romania and Brazil.
According to the newspaper, the land wall will include an underground barrier at a depth of tens of meters, equipped with sensors that can detect any drilling of tunnels by land or any movement of divers across the sea. The maritime wall includes intelligent waves for early warning.
The cost of building the concrete wall is 3 billion shekels, ($1=3.60 shekels).
Hamas uses military tunnels for various purposes, including carrying out operations and infiltrating into Israeli settlements.
When the presumed becomes the said.
[Jpost] On the eve of the 45th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet Sunday that Israel will never repeat the mistake it made in 1973 by not preempting an enemy attack.
“Forty-five years ago, our intelligence misjudged the war intentions of Egypt and Syria,” Netanyahu said, referring to the intelligence assessments at the time that discounted an Egyptian and Syrian surprise attack.
“When these intentions became clear beyond any doubt, and when the danger was already at hand, the political echelon committed a grave error in that it did not approve a preemptive strike. We will never repeat this error,” he said.
According to minutes from the cabinet meeting six hours before war broke out on Yom Kippur in 1973, then-prime minister Golda Meir and defense minister Moshe Dayan opposed a preemptive strike, even though by that time Israel had clear intelligence information of an imminent Egyptian and Syrian attack.
According to minutes of that meeting that were released for publication eight years ago, then chief of staff Lt.-Gen. David “Dado” Elazar raised the idea of a preemptive strike and said it would give Israel a “huge advantage and save many lives.”
“We can wipe out the entire Syrian air force at noon,” he said. “We need another 30 hours to destroy the missiles. If they plan to attack at 5 p.m., the air force will operate freely against the Syrian army. This is what we are capable of.”
Meir said that she was “tempted,” but that a decision could wait for a number of hours until there is a dialogue with the Americans. Dayan was adamantly opposed to a preemptive strike, even “by five minutes.”
He also opposed, as Elazar suggested, calling up the reserves, saying that it was important that the world does not blame Israel for starting the war.
Netanyahu, in an apparent reference to reported Israeli preemptive military actions in Syria to prevent Iranian entrenchment there or weapon transfers to Hezbollah in Lebanon, said that today “Israel is constantly working to prevent our enemies from arming themselves with advanced weapons.”
The country’s red lines are clearer than ever, and its resolve to enforce them are stronger than ever, he said.
[AlMasdar] (7:30 P.M.) ‐ The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is set to launch their long-awaited offensive in northern Latakia in the next few days, a military source told al-Masdar News this evening.
According to the military source, the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Division and Elite Republican Guard have been given the green light to begin this offensive in Latakia’s Jabal al-Akrad and Jabal Turkmen regions.
The source said the offensive will be launched from at least three axes, with the primary focus being the key town of Kabbani, which overlooks the northern part of the al-Ghaab Plain.
Also participating in this upcoming offensive will be the National Defense Forces (NDF), the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), and the Local Defense Forces (LDF).
The Syrian Army and their allies will be facing off against a large number of jihadist rebels from groups like Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP).
In addition to these groups, the Syrian Army may come across the Ottoman Turkish military, as they currently have a non-agreed upon observation post along the northern slope of Jabal al-Akrad.
[AlMasdar] Syrian citizens voted in the country’s first local elections in seven years on Sunday, when polling stations opened for the election of the Local Administration Councils.
Footage from Damascus shows citizens casting their vote in the country’s first local elections since 2011. Polling stations opened at 07:00 local time (04:00 GMT) on Sunday and will close at 19:00 local time (16:00 GMT).
More than 40,000 candidates are competing for 18,478 seats across all of the country’s provinces, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported.
[AlMasdar] The US-backed Syrian Democratic Council has refused to participate in the municipal elections taking place across Syria.
The Syrian Democratic Council said it would not participate in an election under the rule of the Arab nationalist Ba’ath Party.
“The regime wants us to remain under its rule and under the rule of the Baath,” the spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Council, Ibrahim Ibrahim, said on Sunday.
Prior to election day, several Syrian candidates in the northwestern province of Al-Hasakah were detained by the Kurdish-led Asayish forces, causing outrage among many locals.
While Damascus and the SDC are currently engaged in peace talks, both sides have yet to reach any agreement on the fate of the areas controlled by the latter.
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09/17/2018 02:33 ||
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[LI] India, the second biggest oil customer for Iran, has begun cutting Iranian crude oil imports ahead of the November deadline set by the Trump administration, Indian newspapers report. The United States is expected to impose a fresh round of crippling sanction on Tehran in early November, targeting the country’s oil industry ‐ Islamic Republic’s main source of revenue.
The news comes a week after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told India to bring its ’oil imports from Iran to zero,’ during a official visit to New Delhi. "We have told the Indians consistently, as we have told every nation, that on November 4th the sanctions with respect to Iranian crude oil will be enforced," he told Indian reporters earlier this month. "We will consider waivers where appropriate, but that it is our expectation that the purchases of Iranian crude oil will go to zero from every country, or sanctions will be imposed."
Despite Secretary Pompeo’s clear stance, New Delhi still hopes to get Obama-era waivers on oil imports from Iran. "India is one of the countries which is likely to get some waiver, given the strategic nature of [India]-US ties," the CNN-affiliated Indian TV network reported.
However, there are signs that New Delhi might be getting ready to halt all oil imports from Iran. India’s Petroleum Ministry has told refiners to brace themselves for a "drastic reduction or zero" Iranian imports, media reports disclosed.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/17/2018 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
...founder and still titular head of the Haqqani Network. Jalaluddin is old and tough and very crafty, one of the few Pashtun warlords who was worth spit...
[Rudaw] Iran on Saturday accused French police of being too slow to respond to an assault on its embassy in 
Mehmood 
... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun...
...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as 
