It’s charity, not a loan. Loans get repaid out of positive cash flow.
[IsraelTimes] The International Monetary Fund says it has reached a deal with Egyptian authorities allowing the country access to about $1.2 billion.
The funding access is subject to executive board approval.
“The Egyptian authorities have continued to implement key policies to preserve macroeconomic stability, despite ongoing regional tensions that are causing a sharp decline in Suez Canal receipts,” says Ivanna Vladkova Hollar, who led the IMF mission involved in discussions with Egyptian authorities.
She adds that “continued implementation of fiscal consolidation efforts will be necessary to preserve debt sustainability, and reduce large interest costs and gross domestic financing requirements.”
The deal comes as both sides reached staff-level agreement on the fourth review under the Extended Fund Facility arrangement, the fund says.
"Over the past three decades, Washington has provided Egypt with over $40 billion in military assistance, a program that today accounts for 80 percent of the country's total annual military procurement budget. "
… UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) has launched a surprise offensive in the southern Taiz region. Heavy clashes have been reported in al-Janad, southwestern Yemen, intensifying the already volatile situation in the country.
[IsraelTimes] No known concrete dangers for American Jews during Hanukkah, but calls for attacks by extremist groups raise concerns.
US Jewish community security officials warned of threats during the holiday season, including lone-wolf attackers inspired by terror groups, disruptive anti-Israel protests and cybercrime.
"The holidays are a time when our adversaries generally have historically called for increased targeting and attacks," said Michael Masters, the head of the Secure Community Network, which coordinates security for US Jewish groups. "That is playing out again this year."
Jewish security officials urged Jewish communities to celebrate the holidays, but to practice vigilance and employ security measures. There are no known specific, concrete threats.
This year, Hanukkah coincides with Christmas and New Year’s. Large public gatherings related to the holidays present targets to attackers, SCN said in a security bulletin distributed to its staff and partner groups earlier this month. That threat was made evident by a ramming attack against a holiday market in Germany this week.
The gatherings, both Jewish and Christian, could become targets due to tensions surrounding the Israel-Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... war, the bulletin said. Terror groups including ISIS have encouraged attacks during the holidays in messages that could inspire lone-wolf assailants.
"When people are calling for violence, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda, all it takes is one individual to listen," Masters told The Times of Israel in a Monday interview.
Last month, media affiliated with ISIS published a graphic showing a Christmas tree adorned with an ornament resembling a hand grenade and the words "Make it miserable." Last week, the FBI arrested an ISIS and Hamas supporter for plotting an attack on the Israeli consulate in New York City, and in September, a suspect was arrested in Canada while attempting to enter the US to attack a Jewish site in Brooklyn in support of ISIS.
Hanukkah events have been targeted in the past — in 2019, a man attacked a Hanukkah gathering in Monsey, New York, stabbing five people and causing one fatality.
"We’ve seen a whole history of holiday-type events being attacked, more so in Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
than the US, although we have had a few plots," said Mitch Silber, the head of the Community Security Initiative, a Jewish security group in the New York region. Those plots often target New York due to the city’s high profile, he said.
"When there’s a terrorist, or a wannabe terrorist, invariably the target is here in New York, Jewish or otherwise," Silber said.
Silber’s group has concerns about the holidays, but did not find it necessary to put out a bulletin because the community’s alert level is high already and there were no outstanding threats.
"When you’re at a nine out of 10 of security readiness it’s tough to justify going up even further," Silber said. "We’ve all become normalized to this higher threat environment that we live in every day."
The NYPD will secure public Jewish events in and around New York City during the holidays, as is standard, said Silber, a former head of NYPD intelligence.
Anti-Israel protesters have also released plans for the holidays. The activist group US Campaign for Paleostinian Rights published a "Holiday Season Boycott Action Kit" urging protests against companies it says are affiliated with Israel, and demonstrations at malls, public markets, at stores and online. Anti-Israel protesters have also targeted Jewish holiday events and are expected to continue to do so during the holiday season, SCN said.
Last year, anti-Israel protesters disrupted holiday events, including by brandishing a swastika at the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting in Manhattan.
Cybercriminals will also likely target Jews and the general public during the holiday season amid increased online shopping, travel and donations to charity, SCN said in a bulletin released on Monday.
Some of those threats originate in Iran, Masters said, highlighting a reported campaign targeting Israeli officials with fake event invitations in New York last month.
"It appears that the Iranians are very interested in gathering as much information as they can about Jewish individuals and organizations, how our community functions and is structured," Masters said.
SCN urged Jewish community members to be wary online by avoiding public wi-fi, updating software on personal devices, and checking emails for markers of "malicious intent" such as suspicious email addresses and requests for donations or unusual financial transactions.
Dov Ben-Shimon, the head of the Community Security Service, a group that trains Jewish volunteers in security, urged the community to "refresh and recommit to their security protocols" for the Hanukkah holiday.
"Hanukkah is a very public celebration of Jewish life and it’s important for our rabbis and Jewish leaders to be mindful of security," Ben-Shimon told The Times of Israel. He stressed the importance of Jewish community coordination with law enforcement partners for the holiday.
American Jews have become more focused on protecting themselves since the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel and the subsequent surge in antisemitism in the US, said Ben-Shimon, who took the reins of CSS last month.
[IsraelTimes] Israel still has not received from Hamas a list of living and dead hostages to be released in the first phase of a potential ceasefire-hostage deal, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
The outlet additionally says that Hamas is resisting pressure from mediators.
Meanwhile, the Israel Hayom daily says that the terror group is backtracking after initially appearing to soften its position.
“Hamas is effectively backing down from the softening that led to the renewal of the talks, and is once again demanding an Israeli commitment to end the war at the end of the comprehensive deal as a condition for implementing its first phase,” an unnamed senior official tells the newspaper.
The reports come as a mid-level Israeli negotiating team that has been in Qatar for several days working on a potential hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas, returned to Israel for “internal deliberations in Israel regarding the continuation of negotiations.”
The proposed ceasefire is reported to envision a three-phase implementation. The first stage would see Hamas release “humanitarian” captives — female hostages, children, older captives and the sick.
[IsraelTimes] UN and US officials say gang violence has spiraled out of control, crippling supply lines on which most of Gaza’s 2.1 million civilians rely for survival.
In October, $9.5 million worth of food and other goods – nearly a quarter of all the humanitarian aid sent to Gaza that month – was lost because of attacks and looting, according to a previously unreported tally of incidents compiled by UN relief agencies with charity organizations.
The assessment of looting in November is still underway, but preliminary data shows that it was far worse, two people familiar with the matter said.
In mid-November, a 109-truck convoy chartered by UN agencies came under attack minutes after it was ordered by the IDF to leave a border crossing in southern Gaza during the night, several hours ahead of the agreed-upon schedule, according to five people familiar with the incident, including two who were present.
Stationed nearby, the IDF did not intervene, the five people said. The IDF spokesperson declined to comment on the incident.
Georgios Petropoulos, a coordinator at the UN’s emergency-response arm, OCHA, said that aid agencies were unable to resolve the problem of lawlessness there by themselves.
“It’s just gotten too big for humanitarians to solve,” he told reporters upon returning from Gaza on Thursday.
The US Department of State declined to comment on Israel’s October commitment but said that looting remained the primary obstacle to aid delivery.
“We continue to press Israel on the need for bolstered security to ensure convoys with critical humanitarian assistance reach Palestinian civilians throughout Gaza,” a spokesperson said.
HUMANITARIAN NADIR
Fourteen months into Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group, the international relief machine is in disarray: UN agencies and charities say the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached one of its worst points because they cannot deliver and distribute enough food and medical supplies to Gaza’s population.
A new round of ceasefire talks this month has rekindled hope that Hamas would release Israeli hostages it has held captive since its October 7 attack on Israel last year in which Hamas terrorists stormed across the border, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 captives, and that solutions can be found to boost humanitarian aid.
For now, however, relief operations are hobbled by a disagreement between Israel and much of the international community over who is responsible for feeding civilians in Gaza and maintaining order in the territory.
The UN and the United States have repeatedly called on Israel to comply with international humanitarian laws and provide security and assistance to Gaza civilians. But Israeli authorities say their only duty is to facilitate the transfer of food and medical supplies, and that they regularly do much more out of goodwill.
The stalemate has made organizing and coordinating relief operations immensely difficult, said Jamie McGoldrick, who was the UN Humanitarian chief for the Palestinian territory from December to April.
To gauge the depth of the situation, US officials said they watch the percentage of Gaza’s population to whom UN relief agencies could provide food assistance each month.
In November, it was 29%, up from 24% in October, but a sharp fall from a wartime peak of more than 70% in April, according to UN data.
Mohammad Abdel-Dayem, owner of the Zadna 2 bakery in central Gaza, said he and his 60 employees have been out of business for a month, unable to provide bread to the 50,000 people they normally serve.
“We’re not receiving any flour because of looting,” he told Reuters by phone last week.
The IDF spokesperson challenged the claim that some bakeries are not receiving flour, but a daily World Food Program review of bakery operations seen by Reuters showed that 15 of the 19 bread factories the UN agency supports in Gaza were out of operation as of December 21 and that Zadna 2 has been closed since November 23 due to a lack of flour.
#2
With the UN out of Gaza, there’s no one to control Hamas. Of course they’re out of control.
Posted by: Difar Dave ||
12/25/2024 17:09 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Before the Gaza gangs were being violent, it was Hamas and smaller jihadi groups who were violent. The UN was subordinate to Hamas via the many Hamasniks embedded at all levels of the UN organizations in the Strip.
[IsraelTimes] Multi-billon shekel deal is to provide more of the interceptors that have proven successful at knocking down incoming ballistic missiles amid spike in attacks from Yemen.
Israel’s air defense array, which is comprised of the short-range Iron Dome, medium-range David’s Sling, and long-range Arrow, is entirely home-produced though was developed with the US that also helped finance the projects.
[IsraelTimes] Israel says path cutting through urban areas is temporary, aimed at providing supplies and cutting area off from Gaza City terror operatives
The Washington Post published footage Tuesday showing progress on a road Israel has been carving out through urban parts of northern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ’s Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, dividing Gaza City from the cities to its north, in what the military has said is a temporary logistics and separation road.
The outlet cited a researcher who argued that the pattern of construction and the destruction of buildings near the new east-west road resemble the process of establishing the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza and the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border in the south.
It cited William Goodhind, an analyst at the Contested Ground military research project, as speculating that Israel may be establishing a third corridor that bisects Gaza from the Israeli border in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, as part of a plan to create a buffer zone in Gaza’s far north that will stay under Israeli military rule.
The road "effectively segments Gaza so that more systematic clearance operations can begin while a de facto border locks down movement to the south," he claimed.
Rejecting that notion, former IDF Gaza division deputy commander Brig. Gen. (Res.) Amir Avivi told the Post that the pathway is aimed at providing "logistics channels" and doesn’t represent a "long-term policy."
Similarly, the IDF said in early November that northern Gaza’s towns had been disconnected from Gaza City amid the ongoing operation, whose goal the army said was to prevent Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... operatives from escaping or, alternatively, from bringing in reinforcements from Gaza City, where thousands of terror operatives were thought to be.
The BBC has also previously reported on the road under construction.
The Post story also focused on testimonies of residents of northern Gaza who have been evacuated from the area amid the renewed operation, which has demolished most of the buildings there and prompted an outcry from international bodies and groups.
Israel says much of the destruction in Gaza is a result of Hamas using the Strip’s infrastructure for terror purposes, but the widespread destruction has fueled accusations of excessive force and collective punishment.
The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been staying in an Israel-designated humanitarian zone near the coast in southern Gaza. The IDF estimates that only thousands of people remain in the northern areas where it is currently operating. Israel denies the displacement is permanent or that it is planning to establish an open-ended military rule, though some in the far-right flank of the government have been calling for this.
On Monday, Channel 12 aired satellite footage from Hebrew University GIS specialist Adi Ben Nun that it said showed 100 percent of the 19,000 buildings in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia had been destroyed.
Similar footage from July — before the IDF launched its third counter-terrorism operation in the city since the start of the war — showed 54% of Jabalia’s buildings destroyed, the network said.
The satellite footage also indicated that the IDF has completed demolishing all 4,000 buildings in Gaza that were within one kilometer of the border with Israel. Channel 12 said the military believes it has completed its goal of creating a buffer zone in that border area.
#1
Tens of thousands of US military personnel today remain in Germany and in Japan for 80 years “after WWII ended.”
Turkey today controls much of northern and central Syria.
Russia controls much of Ukraine.
The UN occupies many places in the world — in many places today where they are not welcome.
If people of good will can live with the above, in particular thousands of US soldiers and sailors in Germany and Japan far, far, far away from the USA, for 80+ years, then people of good will certainly will support the maintenance of IDF safety measures in this troubled region of the world. Israelis would be unique-in-history-suicidal to do otherwise.
2024-12-18
[BenarNews] The families of Mohammed Nazir bin Lep and Mohammed Farik bin Amin celebrated news of their return home.
Two Malaysians who pleaded guilty for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings were in their government’s custody after the United States announced their repatriation from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, where they were locked up for 18 years.
The duo, Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, were turned over to Malaysian authorities, according to a statement from the home ministry in Kuala Lumpur.
"The unity government has received from the United States government the two Malaysian nationals, Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep, who were in prison since 2006 at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp on the principle of human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. and support for universal justice," the ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
However,
if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... it did not mention whether the two would be sent to a Malaysian prison upon being repatriated from the U.S. naval base in Cuba.
In January, a U.S. military judge at Guantanamo Bay sentenced bin Amin and bin Lep to five more years in prison after they pleaded guilty to five charges connected to their supporting roles in twin bombings that killed 202 people in October 2002 — Indonesia’s deadliest-ever terror attack.
Their repatriation this week was made in secret and information was released to their lawyers at the last minute.
Lawyer Brian Bouffard said his client, bin Lep, was a changed man and ready to be reunited with his family. Their repatriation this week was made in secret and information was released to their lawyers at the last minute.
"It is now more than two decades since Nazir was taken. He has grown in that time, and is today a man of peace who will live the remainder of his life in peace. We are grateful to everyone, in Malaysia and in the U.S., who understood that it was time to bring Nazir home," Bouffard said in a text message to BenarNews.
In its own statement, the U.S. Defense Department said both men had provided testimony before their departure against Indonesian Encep Nurjaman (Hambali ...real name Riduan Isamuddin, close personal friend of Osama bin Laden, one of the founders of Jemaah Islamiyah and the planner of the 2002 Bali bombings. He was captured with the help of a mid-Eastern intel service, shipped to Guantanamo to rot but he'll likely be released eventually because that was a long time ago and we were all so much younger then... ) the alleged criminal mastermind of "al-Qaeda-affiliated attacks on nightclubs in Bali, Indonesia, in 2002, and the attack on the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2003."
Hambali is expected to stand trial before a military court at Guantanamo Bay on similar charges against him. As part of their plea agreements, bin Amin and bin Lep could not return to the United States for any reason, making it necessary for them to testify before leaving, Bouffard said.
Arrested in Thailand in 2003, bin Amin and bin Lep were held at a CIA black site before being transferred to Cuba in 2006. They pleaded guilty in January to murder, conspiracy and three other charges linked to the Bali bombing that killed over 200 people.
Previously, a source who requested anonymity for privacy concerns, told BenarNews that both were likely to be sent home before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States... ’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
"There has been concern following Trump’s victory in the U.S. election. But we leave it to the government and the authority to work on it. Our hope is for him to be released soon," the source said.
WE LOVE HIM
Relatives of bin Lep were elated that he is back in Malaysia.
Professing his love for his younger brother, Najib Lep, 60, said he had already made plans to reintegrate him back into the society.
"We love him. We will take care of him and his welfare when he returns to us," Najib told BenarNews.
"For now, we have yet to receive any information from the Malaysian authorities. What we’ve got so far is just details from the media. Nevertheless, we cannot be more happy and grateful to Allah."
A source, who requested anonymity to ensure the safety of bin Amin’s family, said they were ready to welcome him home.
"Mohammed Farik has expressed his desire to care for his ailing parents upon return. His siblings have prepared a place for him to stay and will provide other necessary assistance for him. It will take time to readjust as he has been away from home for more than 20 years.
"The family is not ready to speak to the press and is waiting for clearance to meet Mohammed Farik," the source told BenarNews.
Bin Amin’s parents, ages 82 and 88, had been made aware of his return.
Lawyer Christine Funk said she and other members of bin Amin’s legal team were overjoyed by the prospect of their client being back in Malaysia.
"Mr. bin Amin said it best at his sentencing, when he told the Commission, the prosecution, the victim family members, and the observers, ’Instead of trying to change the world, I can only change myself. And over the past 20 years, I have changed. I am not an angry young man anymore. I am a reformed man,’" Funk said in a statement to BenarNews, adding he planned to "go forward as a good and peaceful Moslem."
Funk said the other members are confident that bin Amin will succeed.
Malaysian National Police Chief Razarudin Husain said the pair were to be evaluated and rehabilitated before being reintegrated into society, adding "everyone deserves a second chance."
"Both individuals are in good and healthy condition and feel blessed that they are able to return home and finally reunite with their family," he said in a statement about bin Amin and bin Lep.
"Both showed a positive attitude and openness toward the evaluation process and rehabilitation and have expressed their high commitment to become progressive members of society."
CONGRESS NOTIFIED LAST MONTH
Leading up to their release, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin notified Congress on Nov. 14 "of his intent to repatriate" the Malaysians "and, in consultation with our partners in Malaysia, we completed the requirements for responsible transfer," the statement from the Pentagon said. A 30-day notice must be filed before such transfers can occur.
The Malaysians had been linked to Hambali until their cases were separated from his in 2023 ahead of their plea deal.
Court documents state that beginning at the end of 2001, "including the periods before, during, and after the October 12, 2002, Bali bombings," bin Lep and bin Amin helped Hambali "transfer money for operations, and obtain and store items such as fraudulent identification documents, weapons and instructions on how to make bombs."
With the transfer, the number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay has been reduced to 27, the Pentagon said.
[IsraelTimes] Ahmed al-Sharaa says no weapons to be allowed in Syria outside of state control, including among Kurdish groups in north; US said encouraging Israel to develop ties with new leaders
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa reached an agreement on Tuesday with former rebel faction chiefs to dissolve all groups and consolidate them under the defense ministry, according to a statement from the new administration.
Photos published by the state-run SANA news agency showed Sharaa, also known by nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, surrounded by the heads of several armed factions — but not representatives of the Kurdish-led forces in Syria’s northeast.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir had said last week that the ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... ’s army.
Sharaa will face the daunting task of trying to avoid festivities between the myriad groups.
On Sunday, Sharaa had said the new authorities would "absolutely not allow there to be weapons in the country outside state control."
That also applied to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, he said.
The military chief of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) that led the insurgency told AFP last week that Kurdish-held areas would be integrated under the new leadership, and that "Syria will not be divided."
The country’s new rulers appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency that toppled Assad, as defense minister in the interim government.
Syria’s historic ethnic and religious minorities include Moslem Kurds and Shiites — who feared during the civil war that any future Sunni Islamist rule would imperil their way of life — as well as Syriac, Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians, and the Druze community.
Sharaa has told Western officials visiting him that HTS, which he heads, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, will neither seek Dire Revenge against the former regime nor repress any religious minority.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on December 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The Islamic Eight (D8) summit, an international organization that brings together Turkey, Iran, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, was held in Cairo recently. The current meeting took place amid unprecedented tensions in the Middle East and growing escalation between Iran and Israel.
Over the past year and a half, Tehran has firmly established its reputation as a “regional bully” and one of the architects of the Middle East crisis. It is not surprising that the Iranian authorities have tried to use the D8 platform to strengthen their regional positions and eliminate past tactical miscalculations.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's speeches on the sidelines of the D8 were expectedly focused on the topic of maintaining stability in the Middle East. Pezeshkian repeatedly emphasized that Tehran is not a "regional bully" and advocates maintaining good-neighborly relations with the Middle Eastern powers.
True, Israel was expectedly deleted from the list of “candidates for good neighborliness” – the Iranian president blamed it not only for the destabilization of individual countries in the Middle East, but also for the worsening economic situation in the Islamic world.
Pezeschkian's speech was generally well received, with the D8 leaders thanking Iran for "taking responsibility for its actions" and reaffirming their commitment to stabilizing the situation in the region.
However, Pezeshkian was unable to completely take over the anti-Israeli agenda.
The Turks were the first to call for the "immediate international isolation" of Tel Aviv from the D8 rostrum. However, they were very disingenuous: despite criticism of Israeli operations in Gaza and Lebanon, Ankara still remains one of Israel's key trading partners, including providing for the needs of the IDF.
AS THE OWNER
The Cairo summit was significant in many ways because it was the first time in a decade that an Iranian president had traveled to Egypt in person, a clear sign of improved dialogue between Tehran and Cairo. Pezeshkian also met with Egyptian leader Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, discussing the current contours of the conflict in the Middle East.
On the other hand, despite the face-to-face meeting, the conversation took place in the most neutral tones possible - the leaders of the two countries did not touch on the issues of combating terrorism, and spoke about key regional conflicts with restraint and almost without judgment.
The issue of shipping safety in the Mediterranean and Red Seas was also ignored – this is a sore subject for Cairo, since the country suffered more than others from attacks by the pro-Iranian Houthis; Egypt’s total losses from the naval blockade in the Red Sea amounted to tens of billions of dollars.
Cairo and Tehran continue to keep an eye on each other, including because in the current conflict in the Middle East they are de facto on opposite sides of the barricades.
Egypt, although it seeks to play the role of mediator on Gaza, remains a strategic partner of the United States and Israel, and one of the opponents of Iranian interference in Arab affairs.
For the same reason, the interlocutors avoided the topic of establishing contacts with the “new Syria” — largely because both had previously “bet” on Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the conflict. However, Cairo still has an additional trump card up its sleeve — support for the “new Syria” at the level of the League of Arab States, but the Egyptian authorities do not plan to share it with the Iranians.
The D8 summit only confirmed that suspicions between the two powers remain and that a major breakthrough in dialogue between them should not be expected in the near future.
At the Islamic Eight platform, Iran attempted to simultaneously resolve the ambiguities in the Syrian direction.
During a meeting with Turkish President Recep Erdogan, the issue of post-war reconstruction of Syria became one of the main ones. Despite the fact that the meeting was rather short, the Turkish leader hinted to his Iranian counterpart about the existence of some “loopholes” in the dialogue with the “new Damascus”, noting that the restoration of Syria is a “collective matter”.
In addition, Ankara and Tehran criticized the illegal Israeli presence on Syrian territory, as well as the “extended occupation” of the Golan Heights.
KEYS TO SYRIA
Erdogan's public position on Syria does not oblige his protégés in Damascus to anything.
Representatives of the "Syrian Salvation Government" (SSG) continue to criticize "destructive Iranian influence" and demand the "cleansing" of Iranian creatures from all state institutions.
Considering that nothing changed in the rhetoric of the PSS either during the summit or after its completion, Tehran, apparently, failed to reach the new Syrian authorities through Turkey.
Another important result of the Cairo D8 summit was the expansion of the participants: Azerbaijan joined the G8 (not without the support of the Iranian authorities). For Tehran, Baku's participation in the D8 opens up significant prospects for further deepening of contacts. Moreover, both sides are interested in developing joint infrastructure projects, in particular the Southern Cargo Terminal.
There are, however, more specific tasks.
It is important for Tehran to prevent Azerbaijan from being drawn into the "anti-Iranian club" at all costs. Especially since the activity of Israeli special services in the Transcaucasus has increased significantly over the past two years, and official Tel Aviv is increasingly positioning Baku as its strategic partner, which causes some concern among the Iranians.
Also, due to its political proximity to Turkey, Azerbaijan is considered by Ankara as one of the economic donors of the “new Syria”, and Tehran hopes to reach out to the new Syrian government, including through them.
Overall, the Cairo summit brought certain dividends to Tehran.
The Iranian authorities have demonstrated their willingness to continue cooperation with all D8 countries regardless of disagreements “on the ground,” and have also partly absolved themselves of responsibility for further escalation.
On the other hand, the Iranians have still not been able to solve the main regional task at the moment – to establish a dialogue with the “new Syria” through other players (both regional and external).
Posted by: badanov ||
12/25/2024 00:00 ||
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[11130 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#2
Still slightly surprised over the facts that the USA cancelled its $10 million bounty on the former HTS leader and got so little coverage on the MSM (aka Garbage Media).
#4
The far too strident braying of Allahuh Ackbar by devotees of the Religion of Peace has a counterpoint buried in history, but interestingly, quite imprinted (literally) on the incoming Secretary of Defense...Deus Vult!
Consider what you bargain for on this most Holy Day for the West and remember this other piece of ancient wisdon, Caveat Emptor!
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.
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
...real name Riduan Isamuddin, close personal friend of Osama bin Laden, one of the founders of Jemaah Islamiyah and the planner of the 2002 Bali bombings. He was captured with the help of a mid-Eastern intel service, shipped to Guantanamo to rot but he'll likely be released eventually because that was a long time ago and we were all so much younger then...
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
[REGNUM] The Islamic Eight (D8) summit, an international organization that brings together Turkey, Iran, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, was held in Cairo recently. The current meeting took place amid unprecedented tensions in the Middle East and growing escalation between Iran and Israel.
